Insights
Ideas for a life that remains your own.
Work, money, identity, relationships and the systems around us all shape the choices available to us. I write to examine what has more say over our lives than we intended, and what we can strengthen, build or change.
Thinking in public. Putting ideas to work.
The published work
Start with the question on your mind.
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View all insights →Why this exists
A useful idea changes what you can see.
Sometimes a piece of writing names something you have felt for years. It helps you see why a choice feels difficult, what you have been assuming or where there may be room to move.
That is what I am writing towards. I draw on teaching, building and the questions that come with both. I will be clear about what I have experienced, what the evidence supports and what I am still trying to understand.
Work in progress
Questions I keep coming back to.
These are questions I am exploring rather than finished articles. When the thinking is ready, some will become essays, tools, frameworks or experiments.
- 01
Purpose
Potential Needs Practice
What turns an ability into something useful? A closer look at practice, feedback, discipline and the courage to begin.
- 02
Wealth
Create Value Before You Chase Visibility
Understanding a real problem, serving a customer and building something worth paying for.
- 03
Wealth
Good Work and Greater Ownership
Employment can develop skills, relationships and savings. How might those foundations also support longer-term ownership?
- 04
Purpose
Making Room for What Matters
Our calendars reflect obligations as well as choices. Where is there room to act deliberately within the responsibilities we carry?
- 05
Relationships
Freedom Is Not a Solitary Project
Building greater agency while honouring commitments, receiving wise counsel and contributing to others.
- 06
Identity
Faith in the Work of Building
Exploring character, accountability and stewardship in everyday decisions about work, money and ambition.
- 07
Purpose
What Building Teaches You
A place for lessons from experiments and ventures: the assumptions, the outcomes and what needs to change.
What can you create? What can you build that someone needs? I am interested in useful contribution through employment, expertise, service, creative work, business and technology, and how it can create more room to choose.
One connected life
A decision about work is rarely just about work.
The job you want to leave may pay for the people you care about. The business you built for independence may now need every hour you have. A change that looks simple from the outside can reach into almost every part of your life.
Making a responsible move means looking at the whole picture: what you need to protect, what you can strengthen and what you need to learn before deciding what comes next.
Put the thinking to work
Start with the question in front of you.
You do not need to solve everything at once. Use a practical tool to look at your actual situation more closely, and see what you could do next.
Explore the tools