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Doug Belshaw

@dougbelshaw.com
830 followers 789 following 2K posts

"Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it." (Epictetus) Notes: substrate.dougbelshaw.com Setting up FIELD STATION fieldstation.xyz

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 12h
Now this was *interesting*, and is pointing us on the path to RELAY
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 29/09/2026
I've built Watershed, a free five-minute check on how well your organisation works as a system. Rate 12 plain statements and see which loops keep your problems coming back. For charities, co-ops and public services. Nothing leaves your browser. substrate.dougbelshaw.com/watershed
Landing page inviting organisations to take a five-minute systems check — headline asks "How well does your organisation work as a system?", explanatory text and a "Start the check" button at left; Venn diagram at right shows Knowing, Structure, Change overlapping at "Order" with "Chaos" at the
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 29/09/2026
I'm in Toronto for a few days over the weekend for a Mozilla Alumni gathering. I return early evening on Monday so have most of the day free if there's anyone who fancies meeting up?
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 29/09/2026
Favourite music albums of 2026 so far: 1. Fink - The City Is Coming To Erase It All 2. Boards of Canada - Inferno 3. Beck - Ride Lonesome Not necessarily always in that order. Fight me.
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 28/09/2026
Montage of the same man in contemplative, puzzled, and childlike poses overlaid with the caption "i'm an adult in the same way a tomato is a fruit," humorously saying he’s technically an adult but doesn’t feel mature.
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 28/09/2026
Do it, carrot is great
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 28/09/2026
Trying a new thing, kind of a #weeknote but at the start of the week! Here's #Weekstarter 40/2026 substrate.dougbelshaw.com/weekstarter-...
Black and white photo of Bluebell Wood, Morpeth
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 27/09/2026
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 27/09/2026
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 27/09/2026
Do it!
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 27/09/2026
A European voice assistant for the Rabbit r1 substrate.dougbelshaw.com/carrot
Photo of Rabbit r1 running carrot
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Reposted by Doug Belshaw
Tom watson @tomcw.xyz · 27/09/2026
In a world of easy answers what we really need is space and time to work reflect, adapt evolve. Maybe we need friction. tomcw.xyz/finding-fric...
tomcw.xyz
Finding friction
In a world of easy answers what we really need is space and time to work reflect, adapt evolve. Maybe we need friction.
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 26/09/2026
Classroom scene: woman sitting next to a boy who has his head in his hands.

Woman: "Are there any classes you're struggling with?"

Boy: "The bourgeoisie"
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 26/09/2026
20% of any population are bootlickers
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Reposted by Doug Belshaw
Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
AI #slopaganda is not so much about fakes or disinformation. It's about aligning the world with your preformulated descriptions of it, making reality disappear behind its formulaic image, rendering visible all your fears at once in order to enjoy them more. It's a technology of fascist daydreaming
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 26/09/2026
💯 It's a complete lack of systemic thinking
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 26/09/2026
That woman is a menace. Hilariously, she once tried to crack onto a mate of mine 😅
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 25/09/2026
Total coincidence Pep leaving in the summer, obvs
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 25/09/2026
Definitely. I keep meaning to do a "how to work with me" page but I'm concerned it would actually put people off doing so 😅
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 25/09/2026
Your sessions were one of the reasons I decided, at short notice to go to Cranfield! I had a great time regardless, but glad I also get to attend your workshops, albeit virtually 🙂
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 24/09/2026
Kombucha Girl meme - two panels with a woman's reaction reaction flipping rom disgust to hesitant approval.

First panel: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)

Second panel: PLAGIARIZED INFORMATION SYNTHESIS SYSTEM (PISS)
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 24/09/2026
Just registered for both! #SysPrac26
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 24/09/2026
Well they've blocked me now 😂
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 24/09/2026
This week, I had to tell someone (with a PhD!) who just fed my interview with them into AI and called the output "academic research" that I withdrew consent. Perhaps there needs to be an AI driving license?
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 24/09/2026
Those who went to private school, worked for the IDC, and advised Michael Gove don't get to criticise attempted education reforms. Or at least, at the same time as being taken seriously.
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 24/09/2026
"The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order." – A.N. Whitehead
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 23/09/2026
On November 25th, I'm running a practical tools-based introduction to Systems Thinking. It's free, experimental, and there's only 10 places + a waitlist: luma.com/zj3iw6ks
luma.com
Sightlines: a practical introduction to Systems Thinking · Zoom · Luma
Three simple, interactive tools for thinking more clearly about a complex situation. In this free, participatory one-hour Zoom session, you will use Sightlines…
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 23/09/2026
Some brief reflections on #SysPrac26 – Day 2 substrate.dougbelshaw.com/sysprac26-da...
Conference name badge for the SysPrac26 / SCiO event showing an attendee's printed name and the title "Director, Dynamic Skillset" on a woven straw background.
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 23/09/2026
Time to hibernate
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 23/09/2026
Unexpectedly got 2 copies of CW-PUB-001 / Field Notes on Productive Friction available for purchase (limited to 50 copies, UK addresses only, no digital version) cognitivewallpaper.com DM me or contact via hello [at] dynamicskillset [dot] com Comments off here to encourage direct contact only.
cognitivewallpaper.com
Cognitive Wallpaper — Register of Publications
A register of publications on the textures of attention, the architecture of thought, and the patterns we mistake for productivity. Issue 001 exhausted. Later entries withheld.
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 21/09/2026
#SysPrac26 – Day 1 substrate.dougbelshaw.com/sysprac26-da...
Sunlit branch laden with ripe blue-black sloe plums clustered among glossy green leaves, suggesting a late-summer harvest against a softly blurred woodland background.
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 19/09/2026
Debería tomar más fotos substrate.dougbelshaw.com/debera-tomar...
A poster listing 25 photographic prompts for a public '25 Photographs' project, numbered items in green (examples: 'An empty room,' 'Someone in motion,' 'A red car') with submission details and instructions in black text.
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 19/09/2026
Big Tech & AI: "Guilty until proven wealthy" substrate.dougbelshaw.com/big-tech-ai-...
A photographic rendering of a smiling face emoji seen through a refractive glass grid, overlaid with a diagram of a neural network.
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 19/09/2026
”Civilisation is a thin film across an ocean of chaos.” — Werner Herzog
Aerial view of a complex multi-level highway interchange with looping, ribbon-like overpasses and scattered vehicles weaving through layered lanes.
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 19/09/2026
Despite all our accomplishments we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact it rains
Partially excavated Easter Island moai statue standing upright in a deep pit, with archaeologists and ropes revealing its buried body and showing scale.Humorous framed sign from the Farm Equipment Association of Minnesota and South Dakota reading: 'Despite all our accomplishments we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact it rains.'
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 18/09/2026
Join us!
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 17/09/2026
You might also like swarm.fieldstation.xyz which @tomcw.xyz is developing further to add a redundancy layer and bittorrent style resilience
swarm.fieldstation.xyz
Shared AI · a FIELD STATION experiment
Shared AI — a FIELD STATION experiment in collective compute: can several ordinary devices become one AI computer?
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 17/09/2026
A red brick with white writing: WITH ALL DUE RESPECT
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 17/09/2026
Today I hath been in the Big Smoke at a #CoTech event, my first since @weareopen.coop closed its doors in May. Was great to see everyone! As someone said while I was in London, I am merely "between co-ops" 😉
Whiteboard with agendaPhoto of panel with text on screen
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 16/09/2026
A friend of *mine* that I totally didn't make up works in nuclear and has moved his family to the moon with a month's supply of oxygen.
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 15/09/2026
What happens when AI fades into the background (like gigabit fibre)? substrate.dougbelshaw.com/what-happens...
Bird's eye view photo of a small hut and a concrete path through a lush green forest. However, the image is slightly distorted by digital artefacts.
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 15/09/2026
Oh wow!
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 15/09/2026
It'll be my daughter's first gig, so a great place to start
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 15/09/2026
Oh fantastic! I've got tickets for February to go with my duaghter. New album is superb 🙌
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 14/09/2026
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 14/09/2026
Sure, we can use big data centres to run #AI, but what about sharing the compute power on our own machines? Curious? Come along: luma.com/ts8bmupn
luma.com
How might we run AI in a different way? · Zoom · Luma
We're changing direction on FIELD STATION experiment #001. Rather than using co/core to exchange AI inference between participants, we will use SwarmLLM to run…
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 14/09/2026
So good, thanks Jay!
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 14/09/2026
Quite excited by the potential behind what we'll be experimenting with tomorrow!
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 14/09/2026
Riffing on @danhon.com's latest and considering both sociotechnical systems and the legibility of conversations in the light of Apple's announcement of 'Live Rewind' substrate.dougbelshaw.com/the-legibili...
Live Rewind on an Apple Watch
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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 13/09/2026
I've read, and re-read @thejaymo.net's fantastic INTERNET OPERATOR zine and, in this note, share some of my favourite ideas from it: substrate.dougbelshaw.com/internet-ope...
Gif of a hand flicking through the INTERNET OPERATOR zine, showing highlighted sections
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