Work Life
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76. A Tactical Slacking Cautionary Tale
Today’s Merlin Wisdom post was a bit too on the nose for me, what with my non-job searching job search. It chimes with something I had thought of before, namely recognising the value of a bird in hand and not taking tactical slacking to the extreme. A big part of the de-motivation is yet another… Continue reading
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61. More AI Stuff
AI and its use in the Investment space came up on a podcast I listen to from time to time, featuring Sarah Ketterer of Causeway Capital Management. Whilst adopting AI at her firm, they are focused on keeping humans in the loop, using AI as an enabler, not as a decision maker. Not too dissimilar… Continue reading
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59: Re: How I Use AI
(Gen) AI and its impact on life, the future of work and pretty much everything in between has been on my mind for quite some time, more so of late. It hasn’t helped that Co-pilot has been rammed down our collective throats at work for the better part of a year, in the name of… Continue reading
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56. On Becoming a Tactical Slacker
Someone, a Black-British celebrity/ intellectual of sorts, who I follow on Twitter posted a link to a substack article which hit far too close home. The article, I did no work for a year and no one noticed, delves into the crisis of meaning which is apparently endemic to corporate life and the author’s experience… Continue reading
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38. Taxes and (Gen)AI
It’s that time of the year when HMRC commences sending nagging reminders to file one’s self assessment taxes, even though the deadline is in January of the next year. I usually leave it till late until I am spending half a day organising the paperwork then beating it into a summary for the (online) forms.… Continue reading
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34. Job Search Revisited
The neither here nor there job search continues “at pace”. In today’s edition of interviewing, I somehow ended up across the table for a guy who used to be my boss, four times removed (i.e the boss of the boss of the boss of my boss at the time). Of course that stint came up… Continue reading
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28. A Bird in Hand…
I self describe as a middling mid-career Materials & Corrosion Engineer in jest mainly, but recognise there is a kernel of truth there with much of the past year and a bit feeling like I am treading water. A big part of this derives from my career to date being largely of a specialist nature… Continue reading
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18. Comparisons
When a reasonably large number of (successful?) people gather, what one does, or has done for work inevitably comes up. Sometimes (as at school reunions perhaps) it is about blatant competition – who succeeded, who didn’t, who stayed mid – at others (such as family reunions) it masquerades as catching up. For my sins, I… Continue reading
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On Being a Specialist in a World of Generalists…
Photo by Oliver Roos on Unsplash — One of the enduring memories of the past twenty years and some of work is getting hauled into my Supervisor’s office for a career chat. At the time I was twenty three, fresh off a year of national service , quite literally in the middle of nowhere, and two weeks into my first proper job.… Continue reading
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On Coffee and Conversation
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash — She is usually putting the coffee machine through its paces by the time I arrive on most days, she being the lady who keeps our machine ticking along, the water fountain up to snuff and our daily fruit bowl topped up. The wait for me is usually somewhere… Continue reading
A Geek's Life 