Cultivated

My early career was in software testing – and a useful thing the craft gave me had nothing to do with testing software. On what your work leaves behind, and why writing things down is how you find the thread.

Collecting isn't learning. A personal knowledge system — Capture, Curate, Crunch, Contribute — for turning what you read into what you do.

A field note on the deck that becomes the point. And brioche.

What trade skills, commercial awareness and practical judgement can teach us about turning ideas into value.

Here's how to structure a talk with a two-pound stack of index cards - plus the full step-by-step method, free to read in a complimentary edition of The Department of Interesting Things.

Most organisations think they're managing projects, products or people. But what if the thing being managed is the idea — and everything else is infrastructure?

A hot Sunday, a stand full of tat, and my 12-year-old turning into a formidable negotiator.

A field note on exploration, uncertainty, and finding unexpected things.

I don't know where my father took this photograph or who the figures are. But it taught me something important about storytelling, memory and the way we make meaning.