March 2026: building, badges, and Borges

As I explained in a post a couple of months ago, I find the ideal structure of a year to be one in which I take blocks of three weeks off in April, August, and December. With the pending closure of WAO on May 1st, that didn't seem sensible.

I am tired after a busy month. This roundup post details what I've been up to in March. TL;DR: I have been sitting in front of my computer making shedloads of stuff.

The controversial question of AI

Looking back, it seems like ages ago that I completed a series of posts inspired by the work of Jorge Luis Borges. The trilogy used stories from Labyrinths to examine how AI can reshape decision-making in mission-driven organisations:

• When AI tools give you choices but take your agency is the second post in the series and focuses on the difference between choice (selecting from options presented to you) and agency (shaping which options exist in the first place).
• When AI remembers everything and organisations forget how to choose is the third and final post, and uses 'Funes the Memorious' to argue that more data doesn't produce better decisions – unless it's paired with judgement to determine what matters.

I'm unapologetically using AI on a daily basis, despite what other people may think of me as a result. If, like Steve Jobs famously said, a computer is a “bicycle for the mind” then LLMs are like e-bikes.

It is important, though, to work with these tools, rather than having them do everything for you. I explored this idea from different angles in a couple of posts:

• DOUG.md suggests that using some form of NAME.md is the equivalent of a CV to travel between tools and part of how we present ourselves in digital work.
• My 7-step approach for authentic AI-assisted blogging was probably my most controversial post this month; it's certainly the one that got the most attention. My friend Jess Klein challenged me to write up my AI-assisted workflow, so I did just that.

Making stuff

I have been prolific this month in building tools with Claude Code. Some of these are for my personal use, some for professional use, and some are for both. The following list isn't even everything I've built: for example, I haven't blogged about the macOS apps I've built for playing music or generating playlists on my Plex server, or the transcription app that I built.

It's pretty insane to have shipped this much stuff; It's probably why I'm so tired:

• ChronoTasker: turning my to-do list into a clockface – I needed a way of mapping my tasks onto the same interface as my meetings, etc. So I built ChronoTasker, which I have since renamed TaskDial because Laura said it sounded too much like “chronic”.
• Sightlines: small, practical systems thinking tools for mission-driven organisations – three interactive tools (boundary judgements, stakeholder mapping, feedback loops) based on work I've done around Systems Thinking for Dynamic Skillset clients. They still need a bit of work but the idea is solid.
• Badge Studio is back! – for years I've wanted to de-brand Andrew Hayward's Mozilla-era badge generator and add a fun 'randomise' button. Now I can, so I did.
• Blog posts in the Stream, that is what we are – Terry Godier made an app called Current but it was Apple-only. So I created Stream which is open source and cross-platform. It's a “velocity-based” RSS reader where articles arrive, linger, and fade like a stream, rather than piling up like another inbox to deal with.
• Stacktopolis: a SimCity 2000-inspired game about real-world tech sovereignty problems – this started as random post-it note during an in-person TechFreedom planning session with Tom. I had a lot of fun turning the TechFreedom risk framework into a game requiring players to balance jurisdiction, continuity, and surveillance risks across an organisation's tech stack.

Another post that received a lot of attention was Badges that change shape to show skills development. As the latest version of the Open Badges standard is essentially a visualisation layer on top of a data layer, I explored radar-plot polygons generated from data showing increasing skills. It's essentially turning badges into mini e-portfolios.

TechFreedom and sustaining the work

Tom and I launched TechFreedom properly this month. In TechFreedom and the risks hiding in your tech stack I set out what we're doing and then in Secure your place in the TechFreedom pilot cohort! we opened bookings for the first cohort of 10 organisations. Sessions run in late April and May.

With WAO closing, I've been thinking about sustainability. I'm happy to say that people have already responded to my post You can now support Open Thinkering – some by supporting me directly here, and others via Ko-fi or buying my e-book How to Be Less Wrong in a Polycrisis. My work has always been free to read, but if you see value in what I create, you can now contribute.

Weaknotes?

There were five weeknotes this month, as the Sundays just kept on coming:

• Weeknote 09 – returning from holiday, and getting straight back into building things.
• Weeknote 10 – the first full week back: client work and TechFreedom prep.
• Weeknote 11 – launching landing pages for CalAnywhere, TaskDial, and Groundwork. Divesting from Spotify in favour of Plex. Mother's Day and migraines.
• Weeknote 12 – meeting Tom in Newcastle, building a Plex coverflow app, starting work on the final WAO project.
• Weeknote 13 – the clocks changed, I felt old.

I need a break. I'm looking forward to slowing down during my week off next week, but with WAO closing on May 1st, “slowing down” in April might be more of an aspiration than a plan...