Ideas from the workbench.
Things I'm building, learning and thinking through. Client work, personal projects and research, written first-hand.
AI Research
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My First Week on the Herculaneum Scrolls
In August I wrote that I wanted to help read the carbonised Herculaneum scrolls. This is what the first week on real data looked like: a new Mac, a first pull request, a silent bug found in someone else's port, and a 3D look inside a 2,000-year-old book. AI Research17 min read
The Part Where AI Stops Showing Its Working
I always assumed the people frightened of AI were frightened of something they didn't understand. Then OpenAI shipped a model and published a document saying, in its own words, that it is harder to monitor than the one before it. Here is what a chain of thought actually is, why it is the best window we have into what these systems are doing, and why that window is narrowing. AI Research8 min read
Reading a Library No One Can Open
The Herculaneum scrolls are the only library to survive from the classical world, and they are too fragile to unroll. This year the first sealed scroll was read end to end without being opened. Here is why I am joining the effort, and what thirty years of film, physics and software have to do with carbonised papyrus. AI Agents7 min read
What Retrieval Owes You When the Corpus Is Your Life
I built a RAG system over three decades of my own journals, notes and transcripts. It taught me that retrieval design is not exhausted by relevance: when the corpus is a life, the retrieval layer inherits duties of recency, context and care. Automation1 min read
Your Enquiry Pipeline Should Not Be a CSV
Every enquiry from one client's old website left as a CSV export that someone processed by hand. Connecting systems through their APIs makes that job disappear. Personal1 min read
Twenty Years, Same Client
One of my clients today first worked with Digitalus, the web company I co-founded, back in the 2000s. Twenty years on I am rebuilding their site from Reading. Distance is the easy part. AI Agents9 min read
Built in a Day, on the App Store in a Week. Welcome to 2026.
I built an iPhone app in a single session and shot a promo video for it. Submission and Apple's review took the rest of the week. Three years ago that would have taken months. Here's what changed. AI Agents9 min read
My AI Tutor Is Better Than Any Course I've Ever Taken. I Know, Because I Built It.
I'm learning Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs and the traditional course wasn't working for me. So I built an AI learning system that adapts to how I think. Here's why I believe it's the future of education. Personal8 min read
Dairy Farming and Rugby Just Weren't My Thing
I grew up in rural New Zealand where the two currencies were farming and sport. I had neither. What I had was a talent for pulling things apart and building something new from the pieces. Personal7 min read
The Most Productive Months of My Life (And What Changed)
The last few months have been the most productive of my life. It started with realising that the tools I had been building for myself were exactly what other businesses needed. Personal7 min read
The Day I Met Mark Knopfler (And How It Changed How I Think About Impossible Things)
I once called every hotel in Auckland to find one person. Then I used the same trick to get a job on Lord of the Rings. Here is what those two moments taught me about getting past the word 'no'. Business8 min read
Stop Paying for Software That Doesn't Fit
I replaced eight subscription tools with software I built myself. Most of them took a few days. Here is why more businesses should be doing the same thing. AI & Business5 min read
I Audited 10 Business Websites in Reading. Here Is What I Found.
I ran my free website audit tool against 10 real business websites in Reading. The same problems came up again and again - slow mobile speeds, missing SEO basics, and unused code. Indie Dev7 min read
I Shipped 18 Products in a Year Using AI. Here's What I Learned
Vibe coding is all the rage. But shipping real software still needs experience. Every product I built, how AI helped, and what it cannot do for you. AI6 min read
What Can AI Actually Do for My Business? A No-Jargon Guide
Most people think AI means ChatGPT. It can do so much more. A plain-English breakdown of how AI can automate your admin, refresh your brand, generate content, and handle your finances. AI7 min read
5 Tasks You're Still Doing Manually That AI Could Handle Tomorrow
From product photography to email triage to SEO. Five things eating your time that AI can take off your plate, with realistic costs and timelines. AI6 min read
n8n vs Zapier vs Monday: Which Automation Tool Is Right for You?
An honest comparison from someone who builds with all three. What each is good at, where they fall apart, and why I usually end up building something custom. Personal7 min read
From Weta Digital to AI: What VFX Taught Me About Solving Hard Problems
Rain leaked through the ceiling onto the render farm. We raced deadlines on films that became cinema history. The problem-solving I learned there is the same problem-solving I use building AI solutions today. AI6 min read
Why Most AI Consultants Overcomplicate Everything (And What to Ask Instead)
A project manager once tried to charge $20,000 for a feature I built in fifteen minutes. Here is how to spot when you are being oversold, and what to ask to protect yourself. Personal6 min read
The One-Person Business Tech Stack: Tools I Use Every Day
No project management tools. No CRM. No time tracker. Here is what I actually use to run a consultancy and ship software, and what I deliberately left out.Showing 8 of 20 notes
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Based in Reading, England.
Working with people in the UK and New Zealand.
Calls from 11am to 11pm UK time, Monday to Friday.