I think that today I have comprehensively proven that a man my age should not attempt to understand Skibidi Toilet.

That is all.

Back to some work blogging, with a look back on the posts that caught people’s attention in 2024. The fall of Twitter, Facebook and the big digital news sites, and the rise of AI slop.

And… Shrimp Jesus?

Second-Hand Bookshops in Britain: 2024 Report — not great news, but not as bad as it could be. The secondhand bookshop world is changing.

I spend quite a bit of my life feeling like imposter syndrome on legs.

Too many of us are trapped in a social media-generated bubble of synthetic citizenship, with activism and attention in the digital world substituting for actual civic engagement.

The work I do for NEXT Conference is relentlessly future-looking. But, once a year, we allow ourselves to look backwards. Lots of interest in where AI might go in 10 or 15 years. But also lots of interest in rehumanising tech, and escaping dark patterns.

Lots to explore here.

“Wits’ end” not “wit’s end”.

Winter sun on the beach.

A pebbled beach stretches out to meet the ocean under a dramatic sky filled with colorful clouds during sunset. Worthing pier is visible on the horizon.

The beach is doing drama today…

A pebble beach stretches along the coast under a partly cloudy sky, with modern houses lining the shore.

Guess who just took his youngest daughter to school - on an inset day…

🤦🏼