Six hundred blogs. You would think that much writing would be exhausting, but in truth it has been the opposite. Each step sharpened a thought, each post proved again that the world is both ridiculous and fascinating in equal measure. Looking back, there are six discoveries that stand out.
1. People do not really change, they repeat themselves
Psychologists call it repetition compulsion: the tendency to re-enact the same behaviours even when they hurt us. Businesses are guilty too. Today it is AI, yesterday it was blockchain, before that it was “digital transformation.” New packaging, same mistakes. The costumes change, but the script rarely does.
2. The basics always beat the gimmicks
Strategy documents grow thicker, jargon grows louder, but the organisations that succeed are the ones that do the boring things well. Toyota with Kaizen. Amazon with pricing and the ability to read other people’s feedback before you commit to buy. Even in personal life, showing up consistently matters more than grand gestures. Excellence is rarely glamorous, but it works.
3. Fear often dresses itself as confidence
Business schools talk about signalling theory, but you do not need a lecture to see it in practice. The CEO who pounds the table about “disruption” is usually the one most afraid of being disrupted. The louder the insistence, the shakier the ground beneath. Real confidence is quiet; it sets a clear path and others follow.
4. Culture is behaviour, not branding
You can declare values in neon, laminate them on cards, and paste them above every photocopier. It will not matter if behaviour contradicts them. Uber’s aggressive culture was never about slogans, it was about what leaders rewarded. Patagonia, by contrast, does not need to say “sustainability”; it lives it. Culture is always what people do, not what they say.
5. Numbers are not the whole truth
Metrics are addictive because they look like certainty. But Goodhart’s Law reminds us that once a measure becomes a target, it stops being useful. Hospitals meet waiting-time goals by moving patients into corridors. Social platforms drive “engagement” by encouraging doomscrolling and making it really, really hard to get harmful profiles and posts removed. The essentials of trust, humour, loyalty cannot be relied upon, yet they decide outcomes every time.
6. Writing is not therapy, but it sharpens the edge
Six hundred blogs have not solved the world’s problems, but they have forced clarity and helped me to vent. Writing moves ideas from vague to precise, from fog to shape; it also helps me to get my frustrations out on paper and I knw it’s helped me. Psychologists call it reflection. Business schools call it learning. I call it survival. Patterns emerge, the noise fades, and what matters stands out.
Six hundred steps behind the hilt, and I am still learning. Which is exactly why the next six hundred are TBD, things I have yet to come across and others I will inevitably trip over. And somewhere in that mix, a certain Sir might recognise himself in these pages, though bien sûr, I will never admit it outright- it’s called plausible deniability… 😉
