Everyone Has AI. So What Are You Paying Me For?
AI makes production faster. The work clients pay for is deciding what to make, challenging the brief and standing behind the result.
WRITING
What I’m thinking about while I’m actually making things.
The Agent Said It Checked. It Hadn't.
A polished verification report turned out not to verify the thing that mattered. The failure was not confidence; it was missing evidence.
Fast Isn't Finished
AI can make the first eighty per cent arrive quickly. The remaining work is verification, correction and taking responsibility for what ships.
I Like the Bit Before I Know What I'm Doing
On curiosity, the boredom of knowing the answer, and learning to finish the final twenty per cent without losing the part that opens doors.
When the Machine Builds a World
Small transformers can learn internal maps of games and algorithms. What changes when those representations gain memory, tools, actions and a history?
Make the Agent Prove It Did the Work
Do not ask an AI agent whether it finished. Ask for the tests, diffs, screenshots and state changes that make the claim checkable.
I'm Not Going to Give You What You Want. I'm Going to Give You What You Need.
Good client work starts by treating the requested solution as evidence, then listening hard enough to find the problem underneath.
How I Use a Builder and a Critic
One agent makes the thing. Another attacks the evidence. Separating those jobs produces fewer agreeable reports and more useful corrections.
I Went Looking for Cornwall's Smugglers' Tunnels
I remembered a smugglers’ tunnel under a Cornish pub. The records confirmed the building, not the smuggling—and that became the more interesting story.
The Railway to Holywell Bay That Never Was
I grew up in Cubert, so Holywell Bay was never really a destination to me. It was just there. I learned to swim and surf around that coast.
The Infinite Revision Machine
Iteration should narrow uncertainty. Without agreed criteria, ownership and boundaries, it becomes a machine that produces versions forever.
Useful Is Not the Same as Used
A clever product is only the start: it has to work, earn real use and support a viable reason to keep existing.
Twenty Every Twenty
Every twenty minutes I get out of the chair and do something definite. It is not a medical protocol; it is how I interrupt circular thinking.