This week I have learned:
- Spent a glorious weekend in the Cotswolds. Spending time with friends is so important.
- Meeting booths in offices have often been designed for a different era. The one I used this week in a client’s office had a wedge “seat” in the wall, perpendicular to a shelf that was slightly too narrow to comfortably hold a laptop. The whole vibe was shouting two things: use this space for telephone calls and keep them brief.
- Volume 28 in “Customer services are falling apart”. Have you tried calling a bank to speak to someone recently? AI is all over the experience with NatWest/RBS and is basically there to try to stop you from talking to someone. And at the end of the call I was asked to complete the process by putting my card into a bank machine. Not any bank machine, but one from a “major” bank. Which of course these days are rarer than hen’s teeth in 2026. And all because the retailer couldn’t accept the transaction on my phone, a device orders of magnitude more secure than a Chip and PIN bank card.
- This week I have made a big decision. More will become clear in due course, but let it be said I had a tear in my eye.
- The latest addition to my menagerie of musical gadgets is a glorious litle machine from a French company called Cyma Forma that is called the RND and creates music randomly at the press of its oversized button.
- I’m working on some ideas at the moment that might be a bit countercultural in my industry. That’s both exhilarating and terrifying.
- Suffice to say, it’s people-centric.
- How on earth is it the Autumn already? How on earth am I the parent of a sixth-former?? The passage of time continues its relentless progress.
The week in media:
Saw
- A bit of a binge of Shrinking. It’s very good.
Read
- Continued Walking the Lines.
Listened
- The new albums from both Mike D and Erykah Badu. Both wonderful.
Next week:
- Some serious workshop and talk planning to do.
The week in photos:
mmitII 