Rebecca Solnit once again making the case for hope as a form of resistance. “There is one hummingbird on the power line outside the window of the room I’m writing this in, in the middle of San Francisco, and this work is worth it just for hummingbirds.”
“We need to understand the worst-case scenarios and the suffering and loss happening now, so we know what we’re trying to prevent. But we need to imagine the best case scenarios, so we can reach for them too.” my imagination of best case has been lacking in recent years: too much cynicism.
when I had Italian on Tuesday, my teacher (in Rome) had been indoors for three days. she thinks everyone in the UK is insane for still going outside, told me not to go to work and if I had to, I should at least cycle and not get on public transport.
it’s good the weather has cheered up, isn’t it? that’s why I’ve been cycling to work every day since Tuesday!
moving team next week to join GOV.UK for a bit. quite pleased about this because I imagine international work will be a bit quiet for a while. plus, I get to work with Kate, Stephen, Ignacia, Conor, Mia and Jeremy! ace.
also, back in a dream team with Jen, which means I can draw identity assurosauri (?) on post-its and leave them on her stuff while she’s off at important meetings. sure, you cut Jen and she bleeds GOV.UK, but I’m not going to let her forget her identity creds.
“I live in fear of anyone asking me to actually do the work” “yeah, that’s how I feel about service design” -> after more than 2 years of majority ‘leadership’ and 'stakeholder management’ I am both excited and terrified to do what I sometimes call 'real work’ again.
at 6pm today I got a text from Leo saying that Control by GoodBooks is back on Spotify. that’s after around three years off it - Columbia’s copyright expired 10 years after release, if I remember correctly. thank you Leo for all your work! still deeply proud of this record and my part in it. management remains one of the most formative experiences of my life.
there’s a lush moment where in Violent Man Lovesong, about 2m30 in, and Max sings “within a frame of goldleaf”. still so nice.
back in things that didn’t happen 13 years ago, one of the best bits of my week was a long chat with Sanjay yesterday afternoon. I had a talk to finish cutting down from 45 to 10 minutes, and dinner with friends to be at, but it was such a delight to see him that I didn’t want to cut it short. I’m not going to say that one of the best bits of line management is when they leave, because it isn’t, but seeing the people you line managed after the fact is great: back on a level of human-to-human, rather than any odd power dynamics being in the mix.
back to GoodBooks: I think my feelings towards managing them are probably, approximately, what I imagine parenthood must feel like. fiercely proud and protective. wanting the best. advocating always. we had our fair share of challenging each other, but it was never and has never been in doubt: I will always, always go out to bat for you.
sounds kinda creepy when it’s spelled it out like that. I guess this is why I get annoyed when what feels like needless bureaucracy gets in the way of what I want for 'my people’.
schadenfreude is one of an Arsenal fan’s primary currencies. obviously I hope the Premier League season isn’t cancelled, because if it was that would be terrible for public health (pls get better Mikel). I still sent a text this morning that said 'lol Liverpool’.