Weeknote 02/2024
We lack the sense of our own visibility, as we lack that of distances, imagining as quite close to us the interested attention of people who on the contrary never give us a thought, and not suspecting that we are at the same moment the sole preoccupation of others.
Marcel Proust
I have almost never planned to be awake at 01:45. I’m a morning person, but not this early in the morning. I’m the kind of morning person that requires a good night’s sleep and a routine. I’ve always been this way, so being up at this time does not signify good things. I’m either coming down with something or I’ve consumed something that doesn’t agree with me.
This week has involved returning to work, our daughter’s 13th birthday, and us putting in an offer on a house. I spent time working on my MSc, including attending a tutorial. I showed up to a Future Trends Forum featuring the dream team of Bryan Alexander and Helen Beetham, had a virtual coffee with a couple of people, got back into client work, and collaborated on a response to an Invitation to Tender (ITT) that we probably won’t win.
Strava tells me I’m currently ahead of my goal to run 1,000km in 2024. I celebrated by purchasing more running shoes that I don’t need, which are now in a queue behind the last ones I bought which are still in a box. What is it with men over forty and footwear? It’s a thing. I also went to the gym and lifted weights and told teenage boys to stop dicking around and spot each other properly.
I had planned to move Thought Shrapnel to micro.blog, but that didn’t go to plan. So I’m a little in limbo as I see other former Substack users primarily moving to Ghost. Perhaps I’ll do likewise, but with everything else going on, and the fact that doing so without the concierge migration service sounds… involved, I’m doing my best emu impression and putting my head in the sand.
Next week we’ll ramp up the client work a bit. We’ve got some spare capacity, but winning the ITT would take all of that. So we’ll see. Right now, as the clock ticks past 02:00, I just want to publish this and get back to sleep. Let’s see if that’s going to happen 😴
Image: Pawel Czerwinski
