Capitalists, communists, and climate; spies and assassins; cops and robbers; class, race, and gender. And footballers. A few years ago a friend told me he keeps a record of books he reads. So, I started doing it. It's nice to look back on what you've read. It also helps you avoid buying books you then realise you've...

I've been writing an account of my time as a lecturer at Sussex University since 1990. Critical academics' inconsistency keeps rearing its head. This hasn't surprised me. It's been coming up for years. I've felt a bit alone perceiving it as a problem. But I got validation when, a few months ago, Lorna Finlayson...

It has been about a year and a half of working three days a week in response to burnout. It took me six months to regain the ability to do anything beyond resting the moment I was done working, and in the past year I have recovered much of my ability to function, though not necessarily in the sense of spending eight...

Between 2010-13 I wrote some blog posts (links at the bottom) about the privatisation and marketisation of universities in the UK (and elsewhere - for example, Chile, Canada, and the USA). This was as £9000 student contributions to their fees were being introduced in England. Some key themes were emerging then which...

PS: This blog post has been converted into a talk, which GDG Melbourne very generously hosted. The audio quality is sketchy, but it has points which are not present in the blog post. It is less evocative but contains more concrete advice. You can watch it here. I. A scorpion wants to sell some software but cannot...

The time is upon us. I'll try keep it brief because I really don't think who I am is that interesting - but there is a podcast link which might actually be of interest if you wish to indulge in my dulcet tones. All links below may give you adblock warnings as I've shortened the ones containing my name via TinyURL to...

This post is enormous, clocking in at 7.5K words. Strap yourselves in, make some tea, and I hope you can forgive any typos. Walsh: That's your opinion. Hitchens: Well, guess what? Guess who's saying it? That's a very clever thing to say. Shall I ask, would you prefer I answer with your opinion? What a fatuous...

Last week, I received the following invitation to a compulsory on-site meeting, following management's repeated engagements with some sort of Agile shaman. You have been invited to: Compulsory On-Site: Continuous Improvement Playback & Strategy Notes: This will be an all-morning meeting so arrive energized as we hit...

We need to talk about the kind of person that loves "flexible" schemas, and why I am unable to disclose what I will do the next time I see one without going on a watch list. I. A few years ago, I worked at a company that had received $1M from FAANG (that's Facebook et. al. for the one art historian who reads this...

I am just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles Such are promises All lies and jest Still a man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest I. I'm somewhat frequently asked how I write. Here's the secret - I sit down and write, write until my...

Two things are true. The first is going to sound bad in a culture where engineers are encouraged to apologize for existing while it is totally acceptable for a grifter that can't code to insist that they're a "thought leader". It is that, in my immediate professional environment, I am consistently acknowledged to be...

This is the view from my window at this second. There are two significant things about this picture. The first is if that you squint very hard at the very center, you can just about make out a chair lying on the adjacent rooftop. Despite living in one of the fancier areas of Melbourne, someone threw that out there...