iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

I'm going to set up a new page here for The Sentinel. Does anyone have a list of accounts to follow on European defence, please?

001

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Some things I learned living in the Middle East, travelling in India and studying lots of languages - and why they're more relevant than ever today. www.theleopard.eu/p/race-relig...

Race, religion, politics, faith

How cultural Christians misunderstand the wider world.

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

This was good. I hope you expensed the Taittinger and a premium Bumble sub.

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

There's a metaphor in there somewhere

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Just wait until you get promoted to movie editor-in-chief, where your job is to spike the plucky young reporter's stories because you're scared of the proprietor!

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Good morning, America! I need you to like this essay so people in Europe can read it. Thank you for your attention to this matter. www.theleopard.eu/p/american-f...

The only way to reach Europe’s single market.

American flywheel

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

What a viral essay taught me about Europe's economy: If you want to conquer Europe, get big in America first. www.theleopard.eu/p/american-f...

The only way to reach Europe’s single market.

American flywheel

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Go to Ghent. Go directly to Ghent. Do not pass Bruges. Do not collect 200 ecocheques.

000

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Jeremy Corbyn splits the UK left with a new pro-Palestine vehicle, helping Nigel Farage on his way to Number 10. And it just so happens that I had drafted an essay on how Palestine activism has taken over the European left: open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

A distant conflict devours the European left.

Everything is Palestine

230

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

A big chunk of creative work is done away from the office. As AI takes away mundane tasks and frees us think more deeply, spending eight hours at the office isn't just unnecessary - it's a hindrance to the creative process. New essay: open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

A better way to make a living.

Working 12 to 5

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

The Liverpool ramming attack wasn't entirely apolitical - it was the natural extension of embedded, and sometimes violent, driver entitlement. New essay: www.theleopard.eu/p/militant-c...

Driver entitlement is a violent ideology.

Militant car brain

130

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Why do so many people in the West hate their own civilisation? I argue it's because of a lopsided teaching of history and culture, where the West gets an interrogation and other peoples get a hagiography. New essay: open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Those who hate the West

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

It was, and I'd call this an anti-Muslim pogrom. Why this framing? One sort of racism doesn't diminish or discount another.

100

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

The global flood of misinformation could revive a dying breed: the foreign correspondent. Not long ago, the value of having a trusted reporter on the ground was in freefall as reliable information flowed on social media. Fake news is reversing that trend. open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

The rise of misinformation could revive the business model of eyewitness reporting.

Return to trust

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Good if you only want to talk to like-minded people, which is fine some of the time but not all. What this graph tells me is that if you want to see a representative cross-section of views, you need to be on several platforms. No single service has replaced Twitter.

100

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Too much stuff? Most cities in Europe provide you with a large storage space in front of your house for a token fee. You can put anything there so long as it's in a car.

040

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

Saw 1815 and brain immediately went to St Helena... but it seems you're closer to home!

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

The most dangerous racists are the people who think they can't possibly be racist. This week's essay: open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

Antisemitism is gentrifying. We should be alarmed.

Racist, moi?

100

Call it what you like; if it's money forcibly paid to the state then it's a tax. Setting up a company is under consideration - but of course this institutionalised tax-dodging by Belgians, while expat employees get milked, is a big part of why Belgium isn't fit to host the EU institutions.

Not necessarily, I don't know their pay and conditions. But if they're not being paid enough, then where the hell are my 55% taxes going?

100

I'm not and I did. Frequent debilitating strikes are a subset of inadequate public services.

100

You've been traumatised into low expectations! We're paying Scandinavian levels of tax. Public services should be impeccable.

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

I want my 55% tax back (Nala loves it but she doesn't pay tax)

210

An essay on the joy and toil of writing essays, with a digression into the Substack economy. Tl/dr: Work is really busy so I can't publish every week for the next few months. Going to prioritise quality over quantity and slow down a bit. open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

Good writing takes time. I have a limited amount.

Slowing down

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

The death of Twitter left a void that hasn't adequately been filled. I've previously written (/moaned) about BlueSky and now it's the turn of LinkedIn - a place where people are posting more and more about politics but haven't shed their corporate masks. open.substack.com/pub/theleopa...

LinkedIn is the repository of bland, inoffensive views.

The groupthink codex

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

The lack of urgent emails is the best thing about freelancing! And shows how much of the 'urgency' in corporate life is either manufactured or down to bad management.

030

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

My pet hate is when websites lock their language options to the country you're in. Why?!

030

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

A gift to Anglo-German relations!

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Thanks for the gift link, I'm getting in there quick! Also amazing example of a back-to-front NYT headline

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Europeans are too often passive consumers of technology, media and culture made by and for Americans. This not only makes us dependent on the US, it impoverishes our culture and stops us reaching our full potential. This week's essay: www.theleopard.eu/p/the-inesca...

American tech and media have captured European minds.

The inescapable nation

031

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Sad news. I'm not convinced that demand is naturally low, but when a service is frequently delayed by several hours then it will never go mainstream. There's perhaps another chance on the horizon, if Germany's current push for infrastructure investment sorts out the railway capacity.

060

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Saying 'Brussels' doesn't solve that problem, though - it's even vaguer. Personally I think 'EU' is fine in headlines for generalist publications, because people outside Brussels can't parse the blob. I'd put the institutional details somewhere in the text.

100

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Good example of the awful journalistic habit of writing 'Brussels' when you mean 'EU' (which is shorter!) I read the first half of this headline and thought the city was doing an amnesty to stop the gun crime epidemic. Why not just 'EU proposes collective weapon purchases for member states'?

241

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

He's right. American champagne can be very good - the only real reason to insist on the champenois stuff if there are hefty tariffs is to show off one's wealth.

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

True, though poverty isn't the only factor driving crime/insecurity. Of course there are other factors, but the impression I got at the debates was that security was the main turn-off for the Greens, especially at local level (economics and cost of living were more significant nationally).

000

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Not sure tbh. It might be that security is better in Dutch-speaking parts of town. In any case, the Green vote share has dropped overall. I went to a few debates before last year's election and security was definitely the top issue, followed by mobility (compared to 2019 when mobility was top).

100

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

The importance of security to sustainable urbanism. Alternatives to car ownership are unviable in the absence of law and order. Stolen bicycles and violence on the metro drive people back into cars. Vandalism kills scooter and car rental companies. This is how Green politics lost Brussels.

261

Sam Wilkin @samwilkin.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Welcome to Brussels, where the enforcement of the law is rare enough to be newsworthy. Next up, drunk driver fined €10 and told to be careful driving home!