Two day work-week

This week was a two day work week for me, due to bank holidays, but also taking some time off for my daughter's birthday. It did feel like i was trying to fit a quart into a pint pot in the two days i did work.

Sometimes stuff just has to stay unresolved

I've been reflecting on this, this week there were a couple of situations where an issue wasn't resolved, i find this uncomfortable, but my reflection is that sometimes i need to be comfortable with the fact that not everything has to be resolved, maybe its not the right time for resolution, maybe we need time for greater clarity, maybe resolution will come when we have better information. Sometimes i need to get comfortable with not getting hung up on something being left hanging.

AI stuff

I've been doing a fair amount of reading and thinking around AI (again). Some stuff that really struck me was:

Friends of the Earth 'Harnessing AI for environmental justice'

Read it here . A long but excellent read nailing down FOEs thinking around the use of AI.

It felt well-researched, balanced, and well thought through, the example of "data collected for protection can be weaponized for destruction" was really striking and makes me immediately think about what opportunities the current fascist regime in the US will seek.

The Principles in the paper are really good:

1. Curiosity around AI creates opportunities for better choices.
2. Transparency around usage, data and algorithms builds trust.
3. Holding tech companies and governments accountable leads to responsible action.
4. Including diverse voices strengthens decision making around AI.
5. Sustainability in AI systems helps reduce environmental impact and protect natural ecosystems.
6. Community collaboration in AI is key to planetary resilience.
7. Advocating with an intersectional approach supports humane AI.

1,2 and 4 i think are principles that any organisation would do well to stick to.

Benn Jordan's 'The Art of Poison-Pilling Music Files'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMYm2d9bmEA

The excellent Youtuber and seemingly unbounded Polymath, Benn Jordan's video shows a technique for disrupting AI company's rampant and sustained pillage and theft of copyrighted music, by 'poisoning' music with artefacts that don't impact the human listener experience.

By the way of you aren't clear that the current crop of AI companies are taking part in the biggest theft of art (whether film, books, music, paintings, etc) in human history, then please educate yourself and reflect on your usage these companies products.

Claude Code Best practices

In my ongoing quest to adhere to a principle similar to FOE's "Curiosity around AI creates opportunities for better choices" i've been looking at Claude and similar tools. This article by Anthropic, the creators of Claude gives some clear guidance about how to get the best out of the tool.

Redesign

I decided to give this website a small spring clean, and reduced the number of pages by combining a couple into the homepage. Other than my blog/newsletter the main purpose of this site is as the palce online to learn about the coaching services i offer, so having watched a few youtube videos about how better to structure my content, and with a judicious use of grammarly, i restructured the content, so hopefully it makes it a bit clearer about what i offer, what i've done, some social proof from testimonials, and some (hopefully) clearer calls to action.

New Project

After reflecting on my ideas list i've decided to work on a new digital product, it'll be a relatively short ebook, focused on helping a specific group of people with a specific part of their job role. I'll share more info once i'm further down the line. I'm currently doing some research to sensecheck and validate my own thinking, and i've pretty much got a little micro-site ready to go (before i've actually written the thing i'll be selling, lol). I'll no doubt mention this in coming weeknotes as i make progress towards launch.

Running

I've managed to settle into a nice 3x 5ks a week, without knackering any part of my body, which is nice and unexpected. This Saturday i did my 10th Parkrun at the infamous Great Yarmouth North Beach Parkrun. Hilariously out of the 117 parkrunners, only 4 were regulars, this is because the whole course is run on sand! The course was relentless, i found myself longing for sections that were next to the water's edge, where the sand was firmer, or nearer the dunes where the seagrass held the sand together a bit more. I managed to get round in 29:38, roughly 5 minutes off my usual sort of 5k pace. but i did it! and its another one chalked off my list as i aim to complete all 23 Norfolk Parkruns this year.

Photography

I managed to get out for a short bit of walking around with my camera and mainly tried to take interesting photos of blossom trees

BTW, i'm irregularly posting my favourite photos over on the Fotos app, if you are on there give me a follow