// blog
Blog
The wider notebook. Stories from the work, and the ideas underneath them. Most began life on LinkedIn; they’re gathered here so they last longer than a feed.
// blog
You Can’t Automate What You Don’t Systemise
A developer handed over gigabytes of code and told me the valuable part was a few kilobytes of plain text. She was right.
Be the Citation: SEO in a Zero-Click Search Environment
I spent years buying votes for a living. Then Google finished building the machine that could tell.
Content Shield Is Dead. Long Live the Citation.
I built a door to keep AI plagiarists out. Now it’s everyone’s front door. A retrospective on calling it early, and calling it right.
Shoreside Maritime Training Is Closing Its Log
Six years, ninety articles, and proof you can build real authority online from nothing but what you know.
It’s Rare to See a Sale Increase Revenue
A client obsessed with flash sales, and the formula that got them from twice a month to twice a year.
The Laziest Professional I Ever Met
He was in my kitchen. In marketing, as in life, the best fix is rarely a rebuild.
Black Friday Is Just Bad Business
The economics are cracked. Nine studies on why the discount rarely pays.
I Bought a Knife Off the Street
A street-market knife demo, the OCEAN model, and why marketers misjudge normal buyers.
David Beckham and the Magnus Effect
Three things a thousand hours of writing marketing courses taught me about how people actually learn.
Forget the Metrics
What an allotment full of people in their seventies taught me about community.
If You Want to Understand a Community, Break Something
A snapped bike-polo bracket, the bystander effect, and the difference between an audience and a community.
The Blank Departure Board
A tense moment on the Underground, Rory Sutherland, and why clarity beats doubt.
The Recycle Ad That Got Me
The gap between wanting to act and being able to: mental versus physical availability.
I Don’t Know the Brand’s Name. I Always Buy It.
The quiet power of brand codes: remembered, not named.
I Measured It Wrong
A 1,490-day Duolingo streak, and the trap of optimising for the wrong number.
All Band Names Are Awful
Every brand name is terrible until it isn’t. Why naming matters less than you fear.
A Eulogy for UrbanFox Club
I ran a moustache-wax brand. On putting your money where your mouth is.
Maslow’s Hierarchy Is Wrong
The most compelling models of human need are the ones you should trust least.
The Microwave Streetfighter
What selling rancid burgers in a chef’s hat taught me about conviction.
AI Isn’t Piracy. It’s Sampling. So, Where Are the Royalties?
What the music industry’s rulebook can teach us about the New York Times v OpenAI, written the week the lawsuit landed.
It’s About Consent
AI crawlers trawled the internet before anyone had the chance to say yes or no. And a bet about the industry that would come next.
AI Stole Everything I’d Ever Written
I found my life’s work laundered by AI. So I built a tool to stop it.
If We’re Not Careful, All the Good Stuff Will Hide Behind a Paywall
AI-laundered plagiarism disincentivises publishing original ideas on the open web. And that, frankly, sucks.
Content Shield: My Battle Against Digital Copycats
The founders’ blog that started it all: why I built a tool to stop AI-laundered plagiarism.