A roller coaster of a week, which ended on a high. Winning and losing work, a year of The List, Digital Sovereignty Unconference, Map my Patch V2, more posts about climbing and work, becoming a binflu...

Last week,  I joined the growing number of people who have visited Michaela Community School to see it action.   I’ve read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Teachers and numerous blogs and articles ab…

What would a TechFreedom tech stack look like if you were starting from scratch? A question I was asked, and one which actually tested my thinking around what is the best approach here. Fundamentally ...

This week was focused on two main things: running a mini TechFreedom session at TechNExt and bringing to a close the 6 month Organisational Resilience programme. Actually reflecting, focusing on condi...

The Slow Post week. That was the main thing. That should probably be the main thing more. I also wrote a couple of things about Neighbourhoods, Responsible AI, did some building, and some work. But mainly, just go slower.

If everything is described as a neighbourhood, is anything actually a neighbourhood? Explore the word and the data and why it's so confusing

Remembering to stop and protect my boundaries, writing a mishmash of the history of climbing and AI, having some incredible feedback from two programmes, planning The Field Station, TechFreedom sticke...

An occasional round up all the posts and weeknotes and things I've been up to that some of you said you might like! A bumper couple of months - TechFreedom went live, a residential happened, The Pastry Index _™_ , several new tools, a viral piece on grantmaking infrastructure and what actually counts as a "skill". Here's the lot, newest first. ### Main posts There be goblins — 16 May 2026 A commodore 64 reference and "you can't run accountable public services on immutable systems" quote in one piece? Hell yeah. A riff on OpenAI's habit of reaching for goblins, gremlins and trolls in its metaphors that leads into a broader discussion of the ability to forget in LLMs and how this might impact our approach in public and social sectors. The Constant Gardeners — 9 May 2026 The flashy new initiatives feel nice, but it's the quiet work that really matters. My musing on the constant gardeners in work and in life, as I ponder my tree peony. My Stack — going local — 8 May 2026 The yearly tour of the tools I actually use day-to-day, with this year's theme a deliberate shift towards local-first. Resetting habits, progress not perfection. Is This Just a Skill? — 27 Mar 2026 At one point everything was an app, or at least someone said it should be an app. Now I wonder, is everything a SKILL? And what's the difference between a skill and an actual product. I consider this with something I built and then decided...I think this is a skill. The Grant Application Is Dead. What Comes Next? — 25 Mar 2026 **The viral piece.** How federated protocols, local agents, and organisational self-sovereignty could replace the broken funding model. Come down the rabbit hole with me... The Case for Loose Ends — 18 Mar 2026 A push back against the urge to tie workshops and projects up with a neat bow. Are we diminishing long-term impact by over-finishing things in the room? What has the IMD ever done for us? — 11 Mar 2026 This one caused some discussion, which was the whole point. No-one is arguing that the Index of Multiple Deprivation is bad, but does it actually make a difference? A genuine question that's been bugging me for a while, and so, with a bit of apprehension, I wrote about why. ### Weeknotes Weeknote 51 — 16 May 2026 — A good week of conversations and ideas, plus some decent food. Weeknote 50 — 8 May 2026 — The fiftieth. Collective resilience, time in Norwich, the second TechFreedom session, vibes as infrastructure, venues as participants, and Strava kicking me while I was down. Weeknote 49 — 3 May 2026 — Short one. Illness. Weeknote 48 — 26 Apr 2026 — Trail running into the start of the week, the first TechFreedom session delivered, a new client meeting, tools shared. Weeknote 47 — 19 Apr 2026 — Northern Ireland trip, a workshop on question-based approaches to data, TechFreedom cohort prep, and the build of Bearing a tool for choosing AI models. Le weeknote 46 — 12 Apr 2026 — A week off in Fontainebleau. Mostly bouldering and the Pastry Index _™_ data visualisation which is off the charts. Yes I went 3d on pastries Weeknote 45 — 2 Apr 2026 — Reflection, the launch of Stackmap, more TechFreedom progress, an oh-shit moment or two, and the case for testing. Weeknote 44 — 28 Mar 2026 — TechFreedom, "20% beefs", the grant application is dead, is everything a skill, knockbacks, and some actual paid work. Weeknote 43 — 22 Mar 2026 — Just enough structure. Saying no to neat little bows. Residential week, letting go of ideas, and a run. ### New tools launched Stackmap - a tool for umm mapping you stack. You can map the tech stack you use, what functions the tools support, data flows, risks. You get a few simple outputs (JSON, mermaid diagram, CSV) - all free and in browser Flowlance - onboarded some new users. A tool for managing your freelance business - cashflow, invoicing, expenses, proposals, contracts and amendments. Drift Forms - a new forms platform. I know I know, who needs another? Well this one is hopefully a little different, build around making forms both fully featured (all form field types as standard), AI first, and really built around workflows

Lots of great work, conversations and ideas really filled my cup this week. Plus I had some nice food, which always helps. Lots of interesting links this week.