Andrew Doran
Andrew Doran
Andrew Doran
I write here in order to work things out and understand myself better. I write here in order to put things down that I have been carrying around in my head, so I don’t need to carry them around anymore. I write here in order to capture a moment and have something that I can look back on, remembering what I thought and felt at the time.
Latest Posts
Added an ‘/ai’ page to my site to disclose my use of generative AI, inspired by Damola Morenikeji’s /ai ‘manifesto’.
Gave my About page a long-overdue update. I’ve also added a /now page to the site too.
A regular week, back in the office after last week’s trip to Barcelona. Things have suddenly turned very cold here in the UK. It’s feeling dark and wintry. This was a week in which I: Had the weekly call with our audio-visual design...
I’m a big believer in the philosophy of ‘Post (on) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere’, or POSSE, as it has come to be known. My website is the canonical place where I post anything I want to get out into the world. The syndication takes...
Sunrise over the Mediterranean as seen on my morning run. Most of this week was spent in Barcelona at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo. It’s the third time I’ve been1 (see my previous write-ups of 2023 and 2024), and I now feel I know...
A small software change that delights: holding down a key on my iPad keyboard now brings up a menu of accented variations of that letter. This is a massive improvement over having to bring up the on-screen keyboard and doing a similar...
About a year ago, I asked ChatGPT “Based on what you know about me, draw a picture what my current life is.” It came up with this: Aside from the fact that it has that typical AI feel about it, I was intrigued by the elements it...
Finished reading Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. A friend suggested I pick this up; I’m glad I did, as it contains snippets of wisdom that I needed to hear. I love the idea of treating my reading pile “like a river, not a...
Strava seem to have removed their activity map styles of ‘Black Lives Matter’, ‘Pride’ and ‘Support Ukraine’. Presumably this is part of getting ready for their IPO and not wanting to have a potentially damaging narrative about whether...
After starving myself for over twenty-four hours last week ahead of a colonoscopy, this week I once again found myself going without food for a whole day. Unfortunately, this time it wasn’t planned. We’re not sure whether it was food...
Without beating around the bush, the major event of this week was a colonoscopy. This year I decided to follow up with a couple of minor medical issues that I’ve experienced in the recent past, figuring that there would be no harm in...
Finished reading The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Resistance Shaped Popular Culture (1955–1979). An epic book in five parts, covering the mid-1950s, the early and late 1960s, and the early and late 1970s. This period is transformational for...
There was something about Monday. You could just feel it. I got to the office, checked my diary, and for the first time in months I saw a meeting-free afternoon stretched out before me, full of possibility of all the productive things I...
Looks like we picked the wrong week to fly to a popper-fuelled party at Everest Base Camp. Two and a half years after it happened the first time, my wife developed another detached retina, this time in the other eye. Late on Friday...
Last night, thanks to a friend pointing out that there were three members of Britpop-era band Dodgy, the penny dropped and I finally got the triple meaning pun of Dodgy’s 1996 album title Free Peace Sweet. Superb work, guys from Dodgy....