What I am working on, right now.
Borrowed from Derek Sivers and the nownownow.com convention. Updated when something material changes.
Last updated: .
Building.
EDGE Diagnostic v2. A 25-minute structured conversation that produces a board-ready AI capability snapshot. Single-page memo output rather than a slide deck. The v2 spec is closed; build runs through Q2 and lands on democratising.ai.
Drafting the EDGE field manual for nominating committees. Aimed at the question a board chair actually asks at a quarterly review. Due Q3.
Advising.
Two engagements active right now, both anonymous on the public site. A catering business in Singapore, where I am also an investor. A professional services firm in Malaysia. The work ranges from strategy through operating-model redesign and AI integration.
Where I will be.
Mentoring SDG Open Hack 2026, Ngee Ann Polytechnic Edition, from late May 2026 onward. Working with student teams across the NP edition of the hack as they build toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Moderating Ortus Club executive roundtables (ongoing).
Frequent panellist across business strategy, operational implementation, playbooks, and frameworks, increasingly with an AI overlay back to EDGE.
Full speaking calendar on /speaking. New dates added there first.
Recent moments.
Moderated the Ortus Club closed-door senior executive roundtable on "The Era of Services Delivery" and the impact of artificial intelligence. Chatham House format. Useful room. Notes stay in the room; the questions worth carrying forward are explored at /writing.
Taipei City Government keynote at Smart Living, Sustainable Future 2025 still landing. Opened "Democratising Intelligence for a Sustainable Future" and moderated the startup panel. The post-event reflection became the first essay live on this site: Is your AI earning its energy?
Reading.
Anything by Rory Sutherland. Margaret Heffernan on uncertainty. Marc Levinson on the box. Mark Slouka's older essays. Gillian Tett's Anthro-Vision, again. Iain McGilchrist on attention. The Patrick Collison reading list is still the bar.
Listening.
All In, The Continental, AI Mezze, 3 Before 9, the Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen archive on rotation. The Conversations with Tyler episodes with operators rather than economists. The occasional Founders Podcast biography when the subject is unfashionable.
Thinking about.
Two things, slowly. First, why "AI capability" still gets read as a technology question by boards when it is mostly a decision-rights question. EDGE Govern is a partial answer. The longer answer is the essay queued at the top of the drawer.
Second, what an executive practice looks like when the operator publishes from their own surface instead of renting LinkedIn's. AIinASIA. Three years of days now. Approximately ten thousand readers a month, zero paid distribution. The conclusion is not "everyone should blog". The conclusion is more specific and slightly contrarian.
If something here is genuinely useful to you, get in touch. I read every note.