Oil price is spiking this morning. Three major implications:
1) Makes life less affordable here. Bad news for democracy.
2) Russia will get more revenue from oil sales
3) Time for us to get off these fossil fuels
Less good at proof reading? 🤣
ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR
Link is down
Nigel Farage claims that he's fighting the Greens.
But for weeks now he's refused to debate me.
Reform know Gorton & Denton are ready to vote for the Green Party.
Managers are legacy systems with zero documentation. They run on caffeine and anxiety.
I wrote a guide on how to reverse engineer the 5 most common configurations (including the Polling Loop and the Random Number Generator).
Build the interface: reluctantleadership.substack.com/p/your-manag...
Trump has told the UK that if we want to revive a failing UK-US tech pact, we need to start buying chlorinated chicken from the US!
Say no, please sign the petition!
act.38degrees.org.uk/act/chlorine...
It is December 31st. You are tired. You are probably mostly cheese.
Do not make a New Year's resolution to do more.
Here is the gentle art of doing less in 2026.
open.substack.com/pub/reluctan...
This was a lot of fun to write. The cathartic ones are the best.
New post: The Canary in the S3 Bucket
A field guide to spotting when your startup is… not fine.
reluctantleadership.substack.com/p/the-canary...
The Canary in the S3 Bucket - A slightly traumatised guide to startup oblivion
I finally wrote up all the startup red flags I’ve collected over the years.
Some funny. Some painful.
It’s live: The Canary in the S3 Bucket
reluctantleadership.substack.com/p/the-canary...
You can get my Engineering Manager OS from the Notion marketplace now. I'd love to hear how it helps you.
Today’s Reluctant Leadership post digs into nudging as a leadership skill. Not manipulation, just the quiet art of helping someone reach their own best idea without taking over.
If you’re a manager who prefers asking to ordering, this one might resonate.
In the UK, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's friendship with Epstein has led to total disgrace.
He's been stripped of his titles, reduced to the status of a pariah.
Nobody is defending him.
He's a TOTAL disgrace.
In America, Jeffrey Epstein's close mate, Donald Trump, remains the president.
Insane.
Very proud to announce the release of my project I've been working on for a few months.
I’ve spent years trying to turn the chaos of engineering management into something repeatable. This is the result.
If it helps just one person be a better manager, I'll be happy.
😎😎😎😎 GOOD THINGS CAN STILL HAPPEN 😎😎😎😎
This is what the #nokings movement should really focus on:
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
I'm looking forward to @zackpolanski.bsky.social resetting their Overton window soon.
I listened to @restispolitics.bsky.social for the first time in a while. What a mistake.
It was alarming to hear how much they have shifted right. Alistair softer on taxing the super rich, Rory suggesting watering down net zero targets.
Sad.
Took a month off writing. I now have the same sense of direction as most early-stage startups: vague intentions, unclear roadmap, too many ideas.
So naturally, this post is about surviving startups as an Engineering Manager.
I hope it helps someone who's in the middle of it... or about to be.
Talk on insuring hobbits
Inspiring day at #newscientistlive
The Green surge is breaking limits! 😲
Together, we can make hope normal again! 💚
Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?
Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚
We flounced out of the EU on the say-so of politicians who lied to us. And what a total shitshow that’s turned out to be. The polar opposite of what they promised. Now the call to flounce out of the ECHR. By the same people. Telling the same lies. Has the country been kicked in the head by a horse?
Poor Robert Smith
We can but dream
quick while the government is shut down let’s all switch to metric
