The Gravel

OK, it’s Sunday, it’s 6.15pm and I haven’t written my weeknotes yet so I’m going to have to dictate them to my phone. My eyes are tired so I don’t really want to sit down and write.

This feels way more cringe than usual. I mean, sitting down to write weeknotes can feel a bit embarrassing in general but yes, speaking to a room what I did during the week just feels a bit…awkward.

[Intermission]

No. Sod the eyes, I’ll have to type. Too many misheard words and unheard punctuation to continue dictating.

Extracting data from documents with AI

It’s been a busy week, pushing our AI work forward whilst packaging it up to handover to another product manager on the team. That included writing a brief report on the incubation phase, meeting with i.‌AI to plan the next phase, and reaching out to local authorities to join the alpha. I also had to write a blog post that covered the incubation phase because, well, many people don’t really like reading GitHub Issues pages!

I’m really proud of the work and the impact it’ll have. The local authorities we speak to tell us just how much information is held in documents and how expensive and time-consuming it would be to digitise it. This lack of data contributes to time-intensive processes, manually retrieving and extracting key information, which takes planners away from doing the important aspects of the job.

Anyway, those are the early signals. Once we’re working with a few authorities, we’ll also do a wider survey to better estimate the size of the problem. But given that large, well-funded authorities are saying it’ll really help them out, it’s clear it’s not a small thing.

My next job

In 2 weeks’ time, I’m leaving the Digital Planning folks to go hiking in the Spanish Pyrenees. I’ll be back with them in July but going down to 3 days a week, so that I can work with more clients and offer more services.

If you’re looking for someone to do product or design strategy, or advise on product operations, or train your team, or you just need someone for 1 or 2 days a week, get in touch.

Interesting 2025

It was my first time attending Interesting on Wednesday and, wow, what an event. It was like the web but in-person: interesting little rabbit-holes to fall into on topics you might not have thought about before. Oh, and a lot of internet people in the audience too.

It was all incredibly good, I don’t think there was a talk I didn’t like. A few bits that stood out: the Polish concept of kombinować from Daria; the infraordinary from Daniel; and how Anthony found himself reading obituaries (‘I was in hospital, on morphine, bored.’).

But genuinely loved every bit of it. Will go again.

Lovely to catch up with many people, but I know there were plenty there whom I didn’t catch up with. Must reach out.

South London gravel

Before watching Palace lift the FA Cup on Saturday, I pumped up the tyres on my Kepler and took it out for a spin on the paths and bridleways of Croydon and Bromley.

I headed out to Keston then turned south-west, through Leaves Green and towards Chelsham, then north through golf courses and woods and heathland back to Beckenham and South Norwood. It was a gorgeous day, not too hot under the trees, and the gravel was good. Got the heart-rate up while being kind to the knees.

Recorded on Strava if you’re that way inclined.

Prepping for the Pyrenees

Last week I changed my route, deciding to do the second section of the GR11 rather than the first. It’s a proper mountainous route, Alpine. But on re-reading the guide this morning, it seems like there could be a fair bit of snow about in early June which could make it a treacherous journey!

So now I’ve got an alternative plan. I’ll start from Candanchú and hike into the mountains for two days, where I should reach the first snowfield. If the snow’s hard and it’s too dangerous to pass, I’ll turn around and walk back to the Atlantic coast at Irun. And if it’s not too dangerous, I’ll walk straight through to La Guingueta d’Aneu!

After the first test pack, my bag is not overfull and still feels light enough. The first weighing puts it in at 6.8kg! That’s light, not ultralight, but that suits me just fine. I’ve got to add food and water which will likely take it up to below 10kg, but any more than that will be uncomfortable.

Bookmarks

· Weeknotes

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