Weeknote 03/2026

More generally, it’s not beginnings and ends that count, but middles. Things and thoughts advance or grow out from the middle, and that’s where you have to get to work, that’s where everything unfolds.

(Gilles Deleuze)

One thing that I can't usually be accused of is vagueposting, However, unusually, I'm going to share that this week has contained two momentous decisions – without sharing details about either.

I'll talk about one of these decisions in coming weeks, but the other involves the kind of epiphany that is either rendered banal or inscrutable by turning it into a form of words.

So why bother even starting this weeknote in such a way? What's the point of mentioning these things at all? Because, dear reader, my future self is as much a target audience for what I'm writing here as everyone else. IYKYK.

So yes, I'm fine. And you don't need to worry about me. Well, no more than usual, anyway.

Writing

This week proved correct the feeling I had last week that I might not be able to keep up the pace of publishing a long-ish post each day. I lasted until Wednesday, before getting sidetracked in vibecoding Scheduler, which provides privacy-respecting appointment scheduling for Proton Calendar.

You can ask AI to write the code, but the hard part is... everything after that

Code is becoming cheap. Care, it turns out, is not.

Open ThinkeringDoug Belshaw

You are here: mental models for 2026

Systems are tangled, feedback loops are everywhere, time delays mask cause and effect, and linear thinking fails constantly. The mental models that help you see that clearly are your compass to navigating the polycrisis.

Open ThinkeringDoug Belshaw

Cognitive Autonomous Zones: against “framework fundamentalism”

Anti-frameworks are temporary structures for thinking, tools tested by consequences rather than dogmas defended against experience.

Open ThinkeringDoug Belshaw

Over at Thought Shrapnel, I published:

If execution is no longer the differentiator, what is?​

In a post entitled Ideas are cheap, execution is cheaper, Dave Kiss talks about his changing role as a software developer in a world of AI. It’s something I wrote about here. The hard part isn’t coming up with ideas or even shipping them any more; it’s what happens after that. Iteration. Support. Maintenance. Care. Earlier this week, after switching from Google to Proton and needing an appointment scheduler, I got Perplexity to come up with a Product Reference Document (PRD) after a conversation discussing what I needed.

Thought Shrapnel

We experience the externalities of hte attention economy in little drips

I think this is from How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell. Source: Are.na

Thought Shrapnel

We will no longer have the conspiracy nonsense about state control

This climbdown was, perhaps, inevitable. Especially given what’s going on in the US, where the Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security has said that citizens need to be ready to show proof of citizenship. People will still need to prove they have the right to work in the UK, but using digital identification won’t be the only way. I’m pleased, as it will make my work in Scotland around Verifiable Credentials much easier.

Thought Shrapnel

LinkedIf

When I was a boy, I had a poster of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” on my wall. As a result, I’ve always had a soft spot for it, even though Kipling can be a controversial character. So I found this parody entitled “LinkedIf” by Jamie Hardesty hilarious. So, so good. Source: LinkedIn

Thought Shrapnel

Writing always interrupts being

Source: Are.na

Thought Shrapnel

The Cost of American Exceptionalism

We all know that what’s going on in the US is pretty terrible. But there remains an underlying assumption that the way that Americans organise their society is in some way better, or more valuable than how things are done in Europe and other OECD nations. Instead of taking American exceptionalism as our example in the UK, we should be looking to re-integrate with our European neighbours. America’s problems are solved problems.

Thought Shrapnel

Postal Arbitrage

I sent a parcel from Brexit Britain to my friend and colleague Laura Hilliger in Germany. The “2-3 day” DHL service cost as much as the contents and took from 18th December to 14th January to arrive. I could have just ordered something from Amazon.de for her with free postage and it would have arrived next day. This article takes things a step further: why send letters and postcards to friends and family when you can order actual products from Amazon to be delivered along with a gift note?

Thought Shrapnel

Somewhere I’d like to spend some time

I saw this and not only did it feel like somewhere I’d like to spend some time, but also reminded me of the cover of Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos, which was one of my favourite albums of 2025. Source: Are.na

Thought Shrapnel

Time appears in this 3D sort of calendar pattern

It was 18 years ago that I discovered that I’m a bit weird. Like 10-20% of the population, I have a form of synaesthesia, which is usually understood as a “mixing of the senses.” I do get that a bit, but I’m a less extreme of the example of the “spatial-sequence” synaesthesia discussed in this article. I should imagine the specific details are unique to each synesthete – which is why I debate what “colour” different days of the week and school subjects are with my daughter.

Thought Shrapnel

What’s strange is how little of that generosity we extend to each other

Last week, I discussed how our interactions with LLMs can provide some insights into ways we treat other humans. I’d recommend reading this article, which is based on The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz, as it shows how applying some of the ways we show patience and understanding with AI systems might help us in our interactions in general. I’ve been thinking about how quickly we’ve adapted to working with AI.

Thought Shrapnel

Reading

After finishing Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, I'm now reading Bothy by Kat Hill.

Bothy / Doug Belshaw | Literal

A bothy is a remote hut in the wilderness that you can’t reserve, with no electricity, mod-cons or running water. The doors are always unlocked, you just need to step inside. From the rugged cliffs at the northern tip of Scotland to the fairy-tale valleys of Wales, historian Kat Hill tours us across the UK exploring the history of these wild shelters and her fellow wanderers – past and present. Bothy is a stirring, beautiful book for anyone who longs to run away to the wilds.

LiteralKat Hill

Last week, I mentioned that I've started again with my feed reader, and shared the list of RSS feeds to which I'm subscribed. This week, I added:

• The Convivial Society
• Escaping Flatland
• Patterns in Becoming...

I subscribed to last of these after seeing the following incredible illustration by Brad Did. I don't know the guy, but it's like he peered into my soul.

I'm a bit conflicted about Substack, which is where all of the above-mentioned additions to my feed reader are published. While I wouldn't publish my blog/newsletter there, for well-documented reasons, recently I've found Substack Notes to be a treasure trove of useful information and links. It's kind of a social network for people who like words, so catnip for someone like me.

In keeping with my refreshed reading regime, I unsubscribed from a couple of email newsletters as well this week. Sometimes your interests change as a reader, sometimes the writer goes off in a different direction. Sometimes, both.

Working

WAO's collaboration with Amnesty International UK continues to be my main focus. Over the course of the week, I ran platform testing with five activists. Among other things, we used the System Usability Scale, the results of which were extremely encouraging.

Other than that, I had a chat with Nate Otto about responding to Skills Development Scotland's ITQ for a pilot badging system. Laura and I caught up with ex-Participate collaborators Julie Keane and Mark Otter from the newly formed Community Works Collective. I also had a chat with Aaron Hirtenstein, and had a virtual coffee with Erin Beattie (you can book one too!)

☕ Coffee with Doug - Doug Belshaw

As hinted at above with Scheduler, I also transitioned Dynamic Skillset from Google Workspace to Proton's suite of tools. I'll write up the how and the why soon.

Personal

I'm on day four of trying to rest and do no exercise. I'm aware that this flies in the face of what most people are trying to do at this time of year. Whether it's because I'm the son of a PE teacher, or just being very aware of the mental health benefits of regular exercise, I find it difficult to do nothing.

The reason for this is to give my autonomic system a rest. I've still no diagnosis for the medical issue that arrived suddenly in my life a year ago, but I do know that all of my major organs are fine. While I've given up running, I've still been going to the gym and supplementing with creatine. So I'm going to stop doing those things for a week or two and see what happens.

It was my daughter Grace's 15th birthday earlier this week. We're back into the swing of her football training, playing, and refereeing routine after the holidays so there's lots of ferrying her around. My son, Ben, is still home from uni, so he took her to one of her sessions this week. Her team lost yesterday against a very physical and aggressive York team.

Football Dashboard - Season Performance Tracker

Interactive football dashboard tracking match results, goals, assists, and season statistics

Football Dashboard

The only other thing to report is that I decided to replace the batteries of my UPS rather than buy a new one. It's been fine up to this point, and it was only because we plugged Ben's PlayStation 5 into it that the batteries degraded more quickly. I'm looking forward to the day when we have a whole house UPS.

Next week

It's Ben's 19th birthday in a few days' time. He hasn't decided when it goes back to uni, as his lectures and tutorials don't start until the 26th. I need to plan my year a bit better and get some business development now we're in the second half of January.

We only get one shot at this life, and so it's important to try and spend as much of it doing things we enjoy. That's not hedonistic, nor is it self-centred, it's just ensuring that I don't end up on my deathbed with regrets from an unfulfilled life.