Weeknote 28-3-25
Pushing at the edges, experimenting with a new idea, but mainly its all about the running and the mountains and the lakes.
No data. No frills. No budget. No rules. Approaches that leave them free to take risks and make statements others can't. What could you do if you let go a bit? https://rewildcreative.co.uk/so/9aPNElbjs?languageTag=en
It's increasingly easy to be drawn into homogeneity. Feed the algorithm, use language that fits, join the hype. Especially in a time of information overload, and centralisation of resources and money. Shouldn't we just follow the crowd? We've all done it right? Respond to tenders and grants in the way we are asked, rather than the way we really think something should be. It's hard to be at the edges. But what could we all do if we let go a bit?
Maybe it's because I feel recharged by the mountains, but if there's one thing I think this week it's to just keep pushing at the edges. Maybe you go full Nick Power and break the bounds of linkedin or maybe you use your powers for sillyness. Don't lose your creativity to the powers that be, or to the black boxes. Whatever it is, push back a little, push out a little. Embrace the weirdness, be creative, turn on the real drums, turn up the humanness.
What I did this week
I took every opportunity I had to enjoy the good weather. Yes, I know I'm lucky. The main highlight was running round the Fairfield Horseshoe on Tuesday. It's been years since I did it (on a wainwright bagging day) because it's in a bit of the lakes that is always rammed. But on a tuesday in March it was pretty empty, and it was bloody lovely
After the run I then went for a swim in Rydal Water. I mentioned to someone how warm it was compared to other lakes, they laughed. For a lake in England in march it was warm, even though it was decidedly cold. Everything is relative.
During my run I thought a lot about endings. So i wrote a post about it.
Other than running and gardening I also spent a bit of time building out an idea i've had. I've often thought about the lack of tools that really support emergent learning, specifically digital ones. So i spent some time building out a tool based around unstructured observations and surfacing signals. It allows users to submit observations via text, written notes via OCR, & voice notes (multimodal for all you buzzword fans).
After this the tool runs sentiment & intensity analysis, and creates embeddings. The tool then looks for signals, things to maybe pay attention to. I'm experimenting with how to display these back to people, using graphs, quadrants, and a few other ways.
Following the surfacing of signals, there is then a secondary process with the user to explore what the signals mean, are they important, what should we DO about them with?
It's been a fun build so far, lots of lateral thinking, of how to do something different, something at the edges. I'll probably get it to a testing MVP stage in a couple of weeks. Hit me up if you fancy giving it a whirl.
What I thought about
I thought about how it can be quite hard to be contrarian, to be cautious in the face of all the hype. Even though I clearly use tech and data and AI, I'm always pushing for effective uses, not just tech led solutions. I've written a lot about concerns around big tech and AI. But No one wants to bet the under . So it was nice to read Alice and Johns and Jennys posts today.
Interesting things
Bryan McMahon
I've cited the Humanitarian Data Exchange a few times as an interesting way of collecting data. So it was interesting to read this report about the state of open humanitarian data in 2025
Who doesn't love an Airtable of stuff! Well this is a directory of NatureTech. Enjoy!
I wish we would all use plainer language