May 17, 2026 Weeknote

#67 - From Dublin

My mantra this week

Updates

Work remains in a holding pattern. Layoffs were announced weeks ago and we're still waiting on the specifics. Who stays, who goes, what the new shape looks like. Everyone is planning in the abstract, running scenarios, having conversations that feel productive but aren't, because nobody can commit to anything until the decisions land. It's exhausting. You can't action uncertainty.

Wednesday night, our quiz team won by four points. I'd love to claim credit, but I was genuinely useless. The kind of performance where your teammates carry you and are gracious enough not to mention it. A win is a win, though. I'll take it!

On the upside, I've been clearing the decks. OncePosted, my postcard collection site, is finally wrapped up and documented. I wrote a piece on how and why I built it, which turned into a satisfying exercise in reflecting on what I actually learned.

With that cleared, I've started sketching out new personal projects. Nothing concrete yet, just ideas forming into shapes. I've been using Claude to pressure-test them, turning vague "what if I..." thoughts into something closer to plans with steps and timelines. It's a useful thinking partner.

A week of waiting and clearing and beginning. Not the most dramatic!

Reading. Loves Executioner by Irvin Yalom - a recommendation from a friend, Therapy case studies written like short stories. Not light, but hard to put down.

Recommended Music

This week, I'm going back a few years - to a name I hadn't heard of until this year when a single popped up in orbit somewhere.

Thomas Feiner as the singer in a Swedish band called 'The Anywhen' and they released this superb album, 'The Opiates Revisited'.

I've listened to this a few times this week, I really like his voice and the grandiosity of some of the tracks. There are hints of Nick Cave and maybe Tindersticks or The The in here. It helps that Feiner has done a cover version of Ship Song by Nick Cave - and I really endorse this to anyone who likes that stile of music.

Highly Recommended.