Some words about things I’m doing, or have occurred to me recently.

The title of this piece is borrowed from a recent article in The New Yorker, in which a handful of American college professors talk about how AI has changed their work.  It’s worth a read, even if only to ponder those professors’ stories and then ask yourself: if I were a student again, and I…

“I could hear you saying those words” is a fabulous compliment on writing that helps other people get to know you.  It means a stranger reading your web copy (or blog post, or profile, say) will meet the same ‘you’ in person as they met on the screen. That’s a good thing because your words…

A producer from BBC Five Live called me last week, at precisely 8:36am.  She asked if I’d like to be a guest on Nicky Campbell’s morning show, airing at 9am.  “You’ve no doubt seen the news reports about UK deaths set to outnumber births,” she trilled (I hadn’t).  “So I’m sure you’ll have some strong…

In case you weren’t aware, we in England have local elections coming up on 7th May.  These are thrilling times indeed. I don’t do queues (or churches, or empty schools) unless I absolutely have to, so I vote by post.  My voting pack was delivered yesterday.  On opening it, I rolled up my mental sleeves…

Similar businesses say a lot of the same stuff.  You might think it’s because there’s only so much you can say about flooring, or socks, or career-coaching, so everybody ends up saying it. You’d be wrong, though. Similar businesses say a lot of the same stuff precisely because everybody else is saying it.  Those words…

I’m sick to death of AI chatter.  There’s so much of it, and it’s always delivered in the same four ways: shrieking, oft-exaggerated outbursts (“AI is stealing everyone’s jobs!”), doe-eyed wonder (“Wow, look what I asked ChatGPT to do!”), tight-jawed resignation (“We’ve all got to embrace AI”), or angry pushback (“AI is no good/can never…