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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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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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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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 the Tyranny of Measures
Image Source: Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash | Previously published on Substack One of the (admittedly dubious) benefits of having worked for the better part of twenty years in one industry is that my work has now taken in arguably the two largest companies in my industry. At the first one, I was a green-around-the-ears graduate engineer, fresh out… Continue reading
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On Data and the Death of Expertise
Previously published on Substack in December 2021 — It seems to me that one of the defining trends of the past few years has been the death of expertise, occasioned by a deep distrust of experts and what they have come to represent, the entrenched gatekeepers (of knowledge in this case). Like all other such… Continue reading
A Geek's Life 