Self-Referential

Looking forward and back, 26th July 2021 I’m very wary of journals and journalling, but “work out loud” keeps being recommended more and more, and I’ve seen friends and contacts manage to navigate the line between self-promotion and bluster successfully. Last week Tried to figure out the antonym of terrorism Thought about a “kind insurgency” organisation and how it would work Made inroads into an umbrella consulting organisation Had a great conversation with a CISO about their career plans, and where the cyber security industry is going Caught up with an old friend who’s a CISO now, and the difficulty of finding the right position, even when you’re in demand Helped umpire an influence modelling wargame, impressive in terms of Control and attendee engagement Attended DSTL’s “Supercharging Science” event, which confirmed a few opinions, and led to useful conversations Attended the CardStock meetup, thought provoking and useful Been rather impressed at the creativity in the Masters of the Universe release Caught up on a lot of newsletters, closed a few tabs This week Act as an “external security brain” for a customer Various dull technical projects Slightly more interesting technical projects, looking at automating some things More chats with the consultancy umbrella Catching up with others… I’ve taken a step back recently and, as naff as it sounds, realised just how many really smart people I know…

The ( former ) subtitle of this blog is a bit much isn’t it, “I am the coxswain on my boat of thought”. But the phrase “train of thought” is common, implying something that travels from one station to the next, on well established and solid tracks, to exact destinations. And if it goes off the rails at all, everything is lost. Whereas I have a “boat of thought”, it goes in a general direction from one port to the next, but it’s buffeted by waves and storms, and sometimes is forced to take interesting diversions. Wikipedia says that the coxswain is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives a literal meaning of “boat servant”, which I kind of like. ...

What do you think of the colour scheme? I like the green, black, and white - based on the graphic I chose for my Twitter avatar an age ago. It looks fine on my machine, but how does it look to you? If it’s particularly egregious please @ me on Twitter, or drop me an email. Thank you.