Thinking / An evolving notebook
Less a list of conclusions than a set of questions I keep using to understand companies, technology, people and the world.
Current thinking, take with pinch of salt - it can change*.
01
Human capability
Technology can expand what people are able to do (internet = access to info, mobile = connectivity, strava = social motivation + feedback), but it can also make distraction easier (doomscrolling, mental health). How do we become more capable using: tools, education, confidence, health, money, institutions or environment? How technology can help us use our agency better rather than just consume more of it.
02
Company-building
A breakthrough is not automatically a product, and a product is not automatically a company. Someone still has to find the painful problem, understand the workflow, earn the first users, build distribution and make the economics work.
03
Economic growth
Food insecurity, preventive healthcare and climate adaptation can have obvious social value without an equally obvious way for an investor to capture that value. The beneficiary may not be the payer; benefits may arrive decades later or spill across society. I’m interested in the gap between private returns and social returns — and in business models or financing mechanisms that might narrow it.
04
Capital
Following the money as a means to understand a system. Who provides the capital? What return do they need? Over what time horizon? Who ultimately pays and who benefits? Those constraints shape which ideas get built and which never see the sunlight.
05
Climate
My MSc dissertation made me wonder whether better reporting actually leads to better decisions — or just better reporting. I’m especially interested in what that looks like for suppliers and SMEs operating with fewer resources and weaker reporting systems.
06
Circular economy
I keep circling this one. Recycling is one part of the equation; What about the economics. Who pays for reverse logistics? Who owns the recovered material? Can it compete with virgin material? And on price? At what point does the customer pay the extra cost?
07
Sport
As an amateur athlete, I’ve seen myself on the edge so many times: the moments when the body says stop and the mind pushes back. Athletes make human potential feel unusually visible: training, repetition, coaching, belief and grit can push limits further than expected. I've lately come to believe we over-credit grit — and under-credit right environment
Smaller rabbit holes
Questions that may become bigger ones.
How much of the life we think we chose was actually timing, context and chance?
Why do some places make high standards feel completely ordinary?
What makes someone change the direction of their life on one particular day?
Writing
Occasionally one of these survives long enough to become an essay.
Read on Substack ↗Better questions welcome
If one of these is occupying your head too, I'd like to hear about it.