These notes are a tool I use for reflecting, remembering (to counter my SDAM), networking within my profession, and public accountability. Read more here.
Let’s catch up.
Since 5 July…
That stuff that was happening all happened. We came 3rd at football, got a new PM and extra No 10, and heatwave after heatwave after heatwave.
Glad I bought those shares in disposable barbecues. Oh.
GDS moved to DCMS. As a bigwig in an ALB of DCMS my lips are sealed on this topic but much has been written elsewhere.
I went to Paris on a whim. On a train under the sea, which remains a marvel. Avec les enfants mais pas ma femme. We braved 40°C for beaucoup tourisme, steak frites, crêpes and a Royal with Cheese.
I boardgamed in Nottingham. We played Brass Birmingham (you’d think we’d play Sheriff of Nottingham, but so far not). We got stuck on later chapters of LOTR FOTR TTG. I’ve gone right off Nemesis, all 3 editions are more fiddly than fun.
There was a partial eclipse. Bonnie Tyler would have loved that. No Triffids invaded, phew. Or do I mean Audrey II?
The eldest got his A-Level results and is locked in for CompSci at Warwick, student debt and an increasingly uncertain future in coding.
I learnt loads I didn’t know about using AI in product teams to do more, better, faster. It’s been eye-opening and I’m into it. First I went to a fab event where Love Holidays shared their approach (thanks Ste for the invite). My notes here. Then Motorway folks came to BFI and chatted to my team, thanks to new governor Tanya. Check out their agentic product operating system here. Woah.
We also made headway on our own journey adopting AI at the BFI.
Our archive teams (outside my direct remit) are leading the way by doing sophisticated AI-enabled work on collections inference, as well as agentic coding. In my teams we’re incorporating agents more and more in software engineering, playing with tools for UX work, and getting ready to kick off a 100-person org-wide trial of M365 Copilot. That’s a leap forward in recent months. Lots more to do and learn, and Motorway told us to expect to slow down a bit while we learn how to use it to speed up.
A work-in-progress joke: I keep asking AI what “non-deterministic” means but I get a different answer every time.
Folks are loving our cinemas beta. Give it a try.
We have procured a box office system (to be revealed), a major milestone and learning opportunity for an org with a lot of long-running sub-optimal systems.
Our new DDaT committee is bringing some order to that backlog and defining the right way to approach it (i.e. iterative outside-in service redesign).
New BFI Player TV apps are live, after a platform migration that brings both improvements and new problems to solve.
I implore you to watch the excellent Rose of Nevada which just landed on BFI Player [correction: landing 24 Aug] and is one of the best films of last year, then delve into our comprehensive Mark Jenkin collection.
Lots of other stuff is ticking along, let’s not list it all, this isn’t my all-staff address.
As for me, work’s been tough and full-throttle. Some fun work at pace to move exciting things forward, and other stuff that’s no fun at all. Occasionally overwhelmed but also calm that all shall be well, I’m learning as I go, and I can only do what I can do.
I’ve got dxw helping me facilitate an inception to convey and refine an idea with a bunch of clever BFI colleagues and form some sort of plan for how we’d begin to build it for real.
In the Exec, our focus is on finances, and an (imperfect, iterative) programme of workstreams to grow revenue and lower cost.
At home, my garden gym building project is nearly complete, with a cross trainer and multifunctional weights rig (barbell cage, smith machine, cables) son 2 and I are proud we managed to assemble. All those years of IKEA and LEGO experience paid off.
I went to Devon and saw my folks, sister, twin nieces, nephew, and Spiderman.
Had a decent crop of networking chats with:.
- Janey MacRae-Tym, CDO at Science Museum
- Sathya Poduri, CDIO at Arts Council England
- Andrew Hayes and Dom Smith at the Barbican
- Emma Perry, BAFTA Media Technology
- Jeremy Gould, Deputy Director for public sector AI adoption at GDS
New (to me) words
North Australia has a name for how irritable hot weather can make everyone. They call it “mango madness” or “going troppo”, with police reporting an annual uptick in hostilities during the humid months coinciding with the mango harvest. Source.
Kelly in the team here shared the Stacey Matrix, which was a new one on me. Helpful for choosing appropriate project methods. Here’s a simplified version.
Russell reminded everyone about the Fredkin paradox. The decisions people prevaricate about the most are by definition the ones that matter least. Just decide!
🔎 Found, interesting 🧐
How People Work, Live! I’ve only watched one of these Dan Hon hosted chats so far (Russell’s) but I want to watch them all.
The Subtraction Instinct: Why your best improvement might be a deletion
AI won’t rescue your organisation from itself
Not always invisible, but often hidden
Tension-Based Prioritization (A Non-Framework)
After Google: what to do about the visibility gap
What are the principles of prototyping?
How tech workers are feeling in 2026: a workforce splitting in two
Transformation Happens at the Speed of Trust
Know Your Agent: Why you should act now, to avoid playing catch-up later
A digital standard for local government – and here’s the standard
Listening, watching, playing, reading
🎬 Spiderman Brand New Day. Way better than I expected.
🎬 The Odyssey. Aspect ratio is no substitute for character. My Nolan ranking: Dunkirk, Memento, Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Prestige, Interstellar, Tenet, Odyssey, Following, Oppenheimer. I think I’ve seen Insomnia but can’t remember it.
🎬Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in NFT1. “But my goodness, doesn’t it help?”
🎬Shipwreck: Nightmare at Sea. Enjoyed this real-life Poseidon adventure with Titan Sub/Chernobyl bad leadership vibes.
📺 Alley Cats. Mawkish and hateful. Tom Basden and Diane Morgan should’ve said no.
🎬 At home we rewatched Casino Royale, Fatal Attraction, Rosemary’s Baby, Coming to America and Final Destination Bloodlines.
📺 Finished all of Mum, completely wonderful.
📺 Make That Movie with Sam Campbell is weirdly unfunny.
📺 Loving the current Project Runway season on Disney and binged Hitmakers on Netflix.
📓 London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe was a very good read. Now loving Echogenesis by Gary Gibson.
🎧 Found a DnB masterpiece I had missed: Alpha Omega by Rufge Kru, Goldie and Submotive. It’s maginificently Photek-esque, I’ve been playing it on repeat.
🍳 I made a slow cooked beef bourguignon which was a triumph
Distractions
- Recipe tables (useful, via Jem at work)
- Arty Bollocks (funny, via the wife)
- Web Desktops (nostalgic, via some newsletter)
- Ordinary abundance (lovely, via Jukesie)
- Jason Doner-van and other excellent pun business names
Thanks for reading! Next time I post here I will be 50.
