Writing

Let Starmer Carry the Failure. Let Labour Carry the Renewal

The calls for Keir Starmer to resign are understandable. Labour has taken a serious beating in the local elections. The government looks exhausted less than two years after winning a landslide. Reform is pulling voters away on the right. The Greens are pulling voters away on the left. Starmer’s personal authority is badly damaged, and recent polling suggests the electorate has fragmented in a way that should terrify anybody hoping for a straightforward Labour recovery.

So the obvious response is to change the leader. I think that would be a mistake.

The lazy myth that Europe regulated itself into decline

There’s a familiar libertarian story about Europe: too much bureaucracy, too many regulations, too many worker protections, too much privacy law, and too many rules about what companies can and can’t do. This, we’re told, is why Europe doesn’t produce as many world-beating technology companies as the US.

How AI will Affect the Design Industry

I don't think that AI is going to "kill design" in the next few years (as some pundits are claiming). However I do think we reached "peak designer" several years ago, and the volume of designers needed over the next 10 years will be less than the previous 10. (This is as much to do with the rise of design systems leading to the industrialisation of design, and the power shift of decision making, as it is AI)

From Chess to Poker: How Speed Changed Design Before AIand and

There was a time when design was slow, considered and informed. This was not simply a matter of culture or temperament. It reflected the economics of software at the time. Development used to be slow, expensive and risky. If you built the wrong thing, the cost of fixing it could be enormous, so product teams created space to think before they made.

Will AI Super Charge Venture Studios?

Coming from an agency background, I’ve always had a soft spot for the idea of the venture studio. At its simplest, it’s a pretty seductive model. Instead of using your design, engineering, marketing and commercial skills to help clients build their businesses in exchange for fees, you use those same capabilities to build companies of your own in exchange for equity.