Writing
The AI Catch 22: It Makes Today’s Experts Faster but Removes the Path to Expertise
AI now handles the coordination that once trained junior people. Judgement is learnt by doing that work, so who will build it next?
I recovered $6,000 from an insurer using AI. The real story isn't the money; it was the economics of pursuing it.
I won an eight-month dispute with an insurer because AI cut the cost of analysing the evidence. One person can now read, test and answer evidence the way large organisations do.
I wrote a letter to my Mum: Why human imperfections are the new premium
My first handwritten letter in decades, written without AI. As machines grow more polished, the effort and small mistakes of a person matter more.
Unit Economics: The Fundamental Building Block of Profitable Business Decisions
A P&L shows whether a business makes money, and the economics of a single unit show why. Worked examples apply this to pricing, launches and portfolio choices.
Excel is an e-Sport now: Unpacking the Excel World Championship
Competitive Excel is now a televised eSport. The best players in the Microsoft Excel World Championship have lessons for everyday users, and its free cases are there to try.
A real-world example of using suboptimal metrics to derive insights from data - Vic Roads Driving Handbook
A handbook chart claims crash risk falls with experience but counts drivers by age. Rebuilding it per 100 drivers from public data mostly confirms the claim, with one surprise for older drivers.
Improving data visualization using the principle of Data-Ink Ratio
Charts persuade best when every mark carries data. I apply Tufte's data-ink ratio step by step to a simple population chart, with the Excel settings for each step.
ChatGPT Saved Me Hours: Removing Unusable Photos From My Archive
A short script cleared thousands of underexposed photos from my archive in under twenty minutes. Anyone can do the same, provided they understand each step before running it.
My take on Chat GPT and AI in general
My early view of what large language models change at work and at home. The efficiency they bring has to be weighed against privacy, jobs and control.
This is how I would use a Mac if I had one. A Power-User's Guide to macOS.
What I learnt from a weekend testing a borrowed MacBook: the apps, settings and shortcuts that turn macOS into a fast, keyboard-driven workspace, and why I still did not buy one.
Your data on the cloud is not yours anymore. How I lost all my emails overnight and what I learnt from it.
Years of old messages vanished after a long gap in use. Data held only by a provider is on loan, and a local backup is what makes it yours.
How I use the Internet without Ads and Trackers
I block tracking on my browsers, phones and TV with a few tools and settings. Pages load faster, use far less memory and share less about me.
How I use my 10-year-old laptop like a brand new one, with Linux
Old hardware often slows down because new software demands more, not because it wears out. Linux keeps my decade-old laptop fast, though switching does not suit everyone.
The computer-keyboard design is not optimal. So I developed Capsy, a keyboard remapping tool, to create my own keymap.
The standard keyboard makes our hands travel more than they need to. I turned the unused Caps Lock key into a modifier and built a free tool to do it.
A comprehensive guide to documenting your Excel Model
A well-documented model saves its next reader hours. These are my habits for versioning, comments, naming, colour coding and sheet structure in Excel, and the macros that make them quick.
Businessman, Entrepreneur, Consultant and Artist
A joke post about consultants nearly convinced me they are overpaid. Reading the comments showed what I had missed: frequency, value created and cost structure.
How I made peace with Facebook.
A business paid by advertisers profits from attention and personal data. This is how I keep using social media on my own terms.
Google's Strategy behind Google Photos and how I lost the plot.
When Google ended free unlimited storage in Google Photos, I saw the trade I had made with my memories and how one-sided its terms were.