A line of miners walks past a small shop whose window displays one shovel on a velvet stand like jewellery.
Economy15 October 2026

In a gold rush, work out who sells the shovels

Most of the money in the AI boom is being made by companies that make no AI at all. The pattern is 170 years old. Here is how to find your place in it.

AI

Hacks, new models and agents, explained plainly.

A teacup joined by one thin cable to a spreadsheet grid floating in the air like a kite.
20 August 2026

How I build a small AI tool in one afternoon

You can build a working AI tool with a prompt, a spreadsheet and a short script. Here is the exact recipe I use for client work.
A paper checklist standing on two thin legs, holding a pen and ticking its own boxes.
4 June 2026
An agent is a to-do list that does itself
A robot head with a small hatch open on top, where a cog, a lightbulb and a gear wait in a neat queue to come out.
19 March 2026
The new models think before they talk, and that changes how you use them
A tiny robot wearing an oversized office lanyard sits at a huge empty desk, holding a sheet of paper larger than itself.
8 January 2026
Treat AI like a new hire, and it starts to work

Marketing

Answer engines, copy and email that works.

A long tangled garden hose being cut by large scissors into short neat lengths laid out in a row.
17 September 2026

Write for the reader who learnt English second

In Melbourne, a large share of your customers read English as a second or third language. Writing for them makes your marketing better for everyone.
One envelope in a tiny bow tie stands on a podium beside a bin overflowing with glossy brochures.
16 July 2026
Email in 2026, the channel everyone wrote off that still pays the bills
A vintage typewriter typing directly onto the side of a glass bottle moving along a conveyor belt.
16 April 2026
The lost art of copywriting, and why it is coming back
A lone closed door stands in an empty field with cobwebs, while a speech bubble floats above a small figure nearby.
5 March 2026
Your customer asked an AI, and your website was never opened

Philosophy

Greek, Indian and German ideas, brought back to marketing.

Two identical clay pots on a laboratory bench, weighed against each other on a small balance scale.
3 September 2026

The Buddha told a village to test everything, and marketers should too

An ancient Indian talk to a confused village is one of the earliest arguments for checking claims yourself. It is also a good way to run marketing.
A pocket watch in a tricorn hat walks down a cobbled street, followed by a row of identical small houses copying its step.
18 June 2026
Kant's one rule, and why it kills most marketing tactics on contact
A calm figure meditates on top of a giant phone lying face down, while small bar charts float away like balloons.
2 April 2026
The Gita's advice for a marketer who checks the stats too often
A Greek marble bust wearing modern headphones studies three floating shapes: a circle, a heart and a triangle.
22 January 2026
Aristotle wrote the first marketing framework, and it still works

History

Strange inventions and the lessons inside them.

A crane lifts the box off a small toy truck like a sugar cube held by tongs, beside a giant ship.
1 October 2026

A trucker who hated waiting at the docks changed the price of everything

The shipping container is a plain steel box. Its inventor was an impatient truck driver. The box is the reason a T-shirt from Bangladesh costs what it does.
A fish frozen inside a perfect ice cube, held up by a pair of tweezers, beside a test tube holding a tiny snowy landscape.
6 August 2026
Frozen food was invented by watching people fish in the cold
A small complete house half pulled out of a mail-order envelope with a postage stamp, like a pop-up card.
21 May 2026
You could once buy a whole house from a catalogue, delivered by train
A tall vintage wall telephone shaped like a lighthouse beams lines of music notes across a sea of rooftops.
19 February 2026
In 1893 Budapest had a radio station, delivered by telephone

Economy

Energy, weather and the money behind AI.

A line of miners walks past a small shop whose window displays one shovel on a velvet stand like jewellery.
15 October 2026

In a gold rush, work out who sells the shovels

Most of the money in the AI boom is being made by companies that make no AI at all. The pattern is 170 years old. Here is how to find your place in it.
A hot water bottle floats on calm ocean waves, with a supermarket trolley drifting nearby holding bread, coffee and a steak.
2 July 2026
A warm patch of ocean is about to change the price of your groceries
A power pylon holds two cables like a waiter holding plates: a huge platter with a data centre and a small saucer with a corner shop.
7 May 2026
The AI boom runs on electricity, and your power bill has noticed
A vast featureless shed sits on a tiny planet, so large that the town beside it looks like crumbs.
5 February 2026
The biggest building boom in history is happening in sheds you will never see

I run a small marketing studio in Melbourne. I write here about the ideas I keep coming back to.

About me