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  • The Future of the Web, According to AI

    After reading a recent article in The Economist (AI is Killing The Web. Can Anything Save It? / Alternative Link) which aligned with some of the points I raised in my own post, The Silent Revolution: How AI Could Render Blogs Obsolete, I wondered how some of the current crop of Generative AI chatbots would…

  • From VIC-20 to AI: Why I’m Looking Forward to Some “Retro-Coding”

    There’s no denying it. The sun will soon begin to set on my long and fulfilling career in technology. I’m still some years off, but as I approach retirement I’m finding myself drawn back to where it all began: the simple, pure joy of coding. It’s a feeling that’s been stirring for a while now,…

  • Embracing Generalism in a World of Specialisation

    I’m a … Generalist! The world often champions the idea of mastering one skill, of finding your niche and excelling in it. Specialists are revered for their depth of knowledge in a specific area, but I’ve never felt the need to confine myself to one lane. Instead, I fly in the face of this notion…

  • The Evolution of Lad Lit: From Cheeky Beginnings to Contemporary Depth

    In the late 1990s, while women were devouring Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary and candid confessionals about urban single life, publishers identified a parallel opportunity: men needed their own contemporary fiction that spoke to their experiences. Enter “lad lit,” a term that would briefly define a literary movement centered on the male experience of relationships,…

  • How Gen Z Views Steve Jobs and His Vision for Technology

    In my last post about The Whole Earth Catalog, I mentioned the late Steve Jobs. As fully paid-up member of Gen X, I grew up well aware of who Jobs was, and how he co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak, starting the business from the garage of the Jobs family house in Los Altos, California. It’s…

  • Using Zen to Enhance Productivity and Transform Your Work Life

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    Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was deeply influenced by Zen philosophy, which he encountered during his travels to India and through his interactions with Zen masters like Shunryu Suzuki and Kobun Otogawa in the U.S. Jobs practiced meditation, a core aspect of Zen, and was particularly drawn to the Sōtō school of Japanese Zen, which emphasises sitting…

  • The Whole Earth Catalog: The Paperback Internet That Changed Everything

    The Whole Earth Catalog (WEC) really was as cool as people say – if you were into DIY culture, self-sufficiency, and an early, almost proto-internet vision of knowledge-sharing. It was a mix of a Sears catalogue for hippies and an anarchist’s manual for building a better world. Published by Stewart Brand from 1968 to 1972…

  • The Art of Kaizen: Small Changes for Transformative Living

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    In our fast-paced world of quick fixes and instant results, the Japanese philosophy of kaizen offers a refreshing alternative. This centuries-old concept – which translates to “continuous improvement” – presents a gentler, more sustainable path to personal growth through small, consistent changes that compound over time. What is Kaizen? Kaizen emerged in Japan after World…