Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 16/01/2026ooh thanks Stru. Bass and Bateson, love it @ianbetteridge.com 010
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 08/12/2025Most pieces should be 3, or 2, or 1 thing only? www.holdfastprojects.com/3-2-1 (and not 6 things like that illustration)holdfastprojects.comMost pieces should be 3, 2 or 1 things - Rod McLaren: Words that workPresent 3 things. Or decide between 2 options. Or show 1 thing. And whichever you choose, the piece should have only 1 aim. OK, sometimes a piece 000
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 28/11/2025Guderian bosses Evri's hardest route, Patton remains loyal to Amazon 000
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 05/09/2025Is your system accountable to Newton, Darwin or Octavia Butler? www.holdfastprojects.com/accountable-...holdfastprojects.comIs your system accountable to Newton, Darwin or Octavia Butler? - Rod McLaren: Words that work1 September 2025 Woodrow Wilson, 1908: “government is not a machine, but a living thing. It falls, not under the theory of the universe, but under 000
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 25/07/2025and Giles has some ideas on building institutional confidence in working-in-open here gilest.org/notes/open-t...gilest.orggilest.org: How to be open while you test and learn 000
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 25/07/2025Great list of working in the open examples by @gilestur.bsky.social . Challenge for product and comms teams: in an quanty era of metrics, how do we *prove* the value to orgs of working in the open? 130
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 03/07/2025Todo: update the emissions numbers for 2025. As a customer though, the switch went well and happy with Starling. 010
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 17/06/2025Recommended: Estimating digital carbon emissions workshop www.holdfastprojects.com/greenweb - by @mrchrisadams.bsky.social and Katrin Fritsch of Green Web Foundation - helpful on measuring emissions of digital services, and energising!holdfastprojects.comRecommended: Estimating digital carbon emissions workshop - Rod McLaren: Words that work17 June 2025 I joined a really good workshop on Estimating digital carbon emissions by Chris Adams and Katrin Fritsch of the Green Web Foundation 030
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 12/05/2025the AIs don't know what their carbon emissions are www.holdfastprojects.com/chat-carbon-... , so does the first AI co to publish its emissions get a reputational boost?holdfastprojects.comDo the AIs know their carbon emissions? No. - Rod McLaren: Words that work8 May 2025 Can the big AIs tell you what their carbon emissions are? On the whole, not really because no-one discloses emissions, so while some AIs 012
Reposted by Rod McLarenRachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 26/04/2025If you're a UK-based technologist who's had enough of extractive platform capitalism and wants to act in solidarity to build something better, please fill in this survey and share with others www.careful.industries/blog/2025-4-...careful.industriesSurvey: Society for Hopeful Technologists — Careful IndustriesAre you a UK-based technologist interested in joining a body that acts in solidarity against the excesses of extractive platform capitalism? Complete this survey to help shape the Society for Hopef... 11520
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 25/04/2025find yourself a confident team like this and let it rip (I still chuckle too!) 010
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 25/04/2025You can put a carbon.txt file on your website so your org's sustainability disclosures are discoverable, says carbontxt.org. Er I think mine works www.holdfastprojects.com/carbon-textcarbontxt.orgcarbon.txt makes sustainability data easier to discover and use on the web. Carbon.txt is a single, discoverable location on any web domain for public, machine-readable, sustainability data relating to that company. 100
Reposted by Rod McLarenSarah Drummond @rufflemuffin.bsky.social · 23/04/2025This work from FF studio 👏 Any org who provides grants/gives away money, take a look Applicable EVERYWHERE Supportive for users, good for orgs www.ff.studio/projects/gra... Big up Debs Durojaiye @abscond.org who worked on it Supported by @annagoss.co @eliotf.bsky.social @rodm.bsky.socialff.studioFF Studio - Why public sector grantmaking needs better toolsFF Studio - Don’t take grants for granted: why public sector funding needs better tools 062
Reposted by Rod McLarenAnna Goss @annagoss.co · 22/04/2025we've written up some work exploring what grants might look like if power between grantseeker:grantmaker got slightly reshuffled, and if the technology UK gov used to give out £46bn of grants was an enabler rather than a constraint. grab a brew, enjoy www.ff.studio/projects/gra...ff.studioFF Studio - Why public sector grantmaking needs better toolsFF Studio - Don’t take grants for granted: why public sector funding needs better tools 172
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 04/04/2025last working day to top up ISAs and SIPPs this tax year, and several bonuses available for top ups and transfers 001
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 01/04/2025Enforcing standards, better coordination and some market shaping can break vendor lock-in and improve local gov case management (social care, fostering etc) - a hard problem but necessary 010
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 24/03/2025Last year a tv producer said to me that everyone's motto was "Stay alive til '25", in the hope that things improved this year. So anecdotally a clear slowdown in tv prodn? [Caveat: i don't work in tv, probably don't know what i'm talking about] 110
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 24/03/2025my guess, yes, plus: production slowed during covid and releases of new content slowed even more, so there was a backlog of unreleased content at the same time as interest rates made financing harder = less production happening 110
Reposted by Rod McLarenpriscilla page @priscillapage.bsky.social · 11/03/2025decided to share my essay on The Fugitive since St. Patrick's Day aka Dr. Richard Kimble Day is nigh www.patreon.com/posts/fugiti... 1541164
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 10/03/2025There's a deadline coming up for state pension top ups: 5th April 2025 buttondown.com/checksies/ar... - @annagoss.co and i wrote about the deadlines to fill national insurance gaps that are older than 6 years. Could be useful for freelancers.buttondown.com✅ You've got a month to check your state pension✅ Checksies Money things to read, money things to do. 7 March 2025 Hi, long time. This is Checksies. You signed up for it ages ago to get occasional money... 033
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 05/03/2025"Consider the data like web analytics; look at the trends, not the numbers" feels correct yes! (and thank you) 030
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 28/01/2025Yes, wind farms sometimes make less energy during big storms www.holdfastprojects.com/feather_curt... (and even so we should still decarbonise our energy)holdfastprojects.comYes, wind farms sometimes make less energy during big storms - Rod McLaren: Words that work27 January 2025 More wind means more energy, except when the wind farm equipment must be protected or the grid balanced. Generators manage turbines 020
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 23/01/2025Weird, that $500bn stargate ai infra project www.theverge.com/2025/1/21/24... is being built in a town that lent its name to a collective fallacy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abilene...theverge.comOpenAI and Softbank are starting a $500 billion AI data center companyNvidia, Microsoft, and Arm are among the technology partners. 000
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 24/12/2024Ahhh didn’t know it was your line! Have a magic christmas joscho! 110
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 11/12/2024great piece by @abscond.org on making Co-op membership matter more. In the same 2017ish era my take was: detach membership from Co-op-customer transactions and federate it www.holdfastprojects.com/radical-co-o...holdfastprojects.comRadical Co-op membership - Rod McLaren: Words that work11 December 2024 James Darling’s A Proposal to Transform Co-op Membership for the Internet Age is great. My favourite bits - local, community 053
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 29/11/2024Nick Sprinz's latest newsletter is about designing optimistic infrastructure mailchi.mp/ustwo/optimi... - featuring brilliant ideas from @debcha.bsky.social @sarahtgold.bsky.social tgold.bsky.social @soniaturcotte.bsky.social @rangetherapy.bsky.social @amymcnichol.bsky.socialmailchi.mpOptimistic infrastructure 261
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 26/11/2024Great writeup of a fund for Sport England by great designer-researcher @soniaturcotte.bsky.social - it was a privilege to work with such a good team and I learned a lot 020
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 22/11/2024I like starling for business current and tide for business saving, currently looking at triodos and nationwide for personal (bank carbon emissions are a decision factor for me) 100
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 12/11/20243 reasons to start by rewriting the words www.holdfastprojects.com/start-with-w... , feat @tomski.com @benunsworth.bsky.social @escmum.bsky.socialholdfastprojects.comStart with words - Rod McLaren: Words that workOrganisations know they want to change, but they often assume that the only way to change is to do a big technology project. They call in some big 031
Reposted by Rod McLarenAmy McNichol @amymcnichol.bsky.social · 12/11/2024You can now pre-order the I Thought About That A Lot book! ithoughtaboutthatalot.com/shop It includes 23 essays that we’ve published on ithoughtaboutthatalot.com between 2020 and 2023. As well as 3 that will be part of this year's advent calendar.ithoughtaboutthatalot.comShop – I thought about that a lotA new anonymous essay published every day in December in the countdown to Christmas. 1127
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 10/11/2024Introduce yourself with some jobs you have done apart from what you do now. Pheasant plucker Dresser royal opera house London’s worst ship broker 000
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 29/10/2024I wonder if that’s more about bond prices, which are more about US election odds than the UK budget? How do you like Freetrade Cait? 200
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 08/10/2024I wonder if we've dumped so much heat energy into Nature that its layer has now shifted above the Culture, Governance and Infrastructure layers #entropocene 010
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 08/10/2024A quick way freelancers can guestimate their carbon emissions - www.holdfastprojects.com/freelancer-e...holdfastprojects.comA quick way freelancers can guestimate their carbon emissions - Rod McLaren: Words that workMultiply the number of hours you typically work in a day by 0.33378. Eg if you work 8 hours a day, the number is 8 x 0.33378 = 2.67024 kgCO2e/day. 112
Rod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 03/10/2024I remember the feeling of AoE claw and the dried out eyes after a session 010