May 2020
The days seem to be flying by at the moment. I would have thought that lockdown and the routine would have stretched my perception of time, but it seems to have gone in the other way. The weeks seem to disappear. Perhaps it’s because there are fewer definining social events or trips that it’s difficult to get a retrospective handle on how spaced out things are.
Like last month, I’ve been working hard on my role with Shelter, migrating their website technology stack. It’s a good team to work with, and Shelter deliver on a worthy mission. I’ve also been continuing work with Mosaic Tasks on their personality insights tools.
I have a new project in the works, in partnership with one of my current clients. We’re focusing on building a platform to help with quick online learning. We’ve demoed an MVP of the product to a few people, receiving positive feedback and invitations for further work. I will hopefully have some public announcements to make over the next month, so keep an eye out on Twitter for news.
I joined in an Interintellect salon on Digital Tribes and online identity. It was interesting to hear from a range of backgrounds on how people interact online. For background read ”We’re a Niche, We Just Didn’t Know” on Medium.
The lockdown restrictions in Scotland eased somewhat on the last weekend of the month. We’re now able to travel ~5 miles from our homes for exercise. Fortunately, this means that we can now drive the few minutes to access the Pentlands, just south of Edinburgh. We took a walk across the hills on a very beautiful sunny day. It’s much appreicated after spending the last two months on the same couple of running and walking routes.
I also took a short video of the hike:
Reading
- Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights by Juno Mac and Molly Smith - a discussion of the way different legal and political “remedies” harm sex workers
- The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd - an exploration of the Cairngorms
And some links:
- Conjuring Scenius by Packy McCormick - scenes, community, ideas, mixing and practice
- Where Does Ron DeSantis Go to Get His Apology? by Rich Lowry - one of the key things that I noticed is that they had infrastructure in-place that they quickly adapted to the new needs for the pandemic. They had built competency to assess incoming information and quickly take decisions.
- The government’s “Stay Alert” slogan is working too hard by Stephen Bush. “It’s a good reminder of Tony Blair’s rule that good communications come from good policy – not the other way round.”
