Weeknote 42/2025
I am indeed a day late with my weeknote. Ah well.
Last week I realised that none of <gestures> this is my fault. I wrote a blog post to that effect, noting that — for whatever reason — I just don’t have enough serotonin in my brain at this time of year. I’ve now got some medicinal help on that front and I feel so much better.
What also helped was a couple of other things. First, as is now traditional, I took a day off for my wife’s birthday. We went for brunch at ARLO and then for a walk in Jesmond Dene. And then on Friday I went for a walk along Hadrian’s Wall with my mate Aaron. Both were fantastic experiences.
On Wednesday afternoon I was in Newcastle for ‘Vibe Club’ where a few of us gathered to share ideas about vibe coding. That was fun and I think we’ll do it again. Pizza and haribo were consumed.
I did some work on the Amnesty International UK (AIUK) and Skills Development Scotland projects, although we’ve now run out of budget on the latter. I’m hoping that there will be another stage to it — especially as the Digital Badging Commission report came out last Monday.
Taking the week off social media, including LinkedIn, was great. As was spending time curating stuff on Are.na. I’ve also been listening to episodes of The Adventure Podcast which is so good.
I wrote some things over at Thought Shrapnel:
- A design philosophy that treats users as citizens of a shared digital system rather than cattle
- It is the opposite of a memory palace. Not at all a wunderkammer.
- But what a time to be alive, to be living though all of this, inside the churn.
- Some thoughts on the Digital Badging Commission’s report
- You’d have to be naive to be surprised
- Referencing an imaginary ‘social contract’ that is violated by AI
- Most decisions are like hats
- I will continue living the writing life, even if it doesn’t lead to fame or fortune
- Philosophy always begins in mood
- Put your things out in the world, let them help the people they can help
Next week, a.k.a. this week, Laura‘s back from holiday, I’m going to do some writing towards a proposal for CivTech Challenge 11.9, we’ve got our October co-op day, some co-working with AIUK, and then I’m probably going to take Friday off to go walking again.
Image: photo from Vibe Club at the offices of Bonded