Ship Every Day in October: A CMS Migration [Part 3]

ChatGPT'd "Draw me a LinkedIn header for Ship Everyday in October"

At the beginning of October, I set myself a challenge: Ship something every day of the month. Part 3 of 3 in my CMS Migration Series: Feeding the AI Vampire: A CMS Migration [Part 1] Is the Vampire Juice worth the squeeze: A CMS Migration [Part 2] I'd been feeling the need to shake things … Continue reading Ship Every Day in October: A CMS Migration [Part 3]

Is the Vampire Juice worth the squeeze: A CMS Migration [Part 2]

Race of Remembrance 2021 in the BOM C1

In Part 1, I wrote about migrating our websites from Contentful and Sanity to Payload CMS, the challenges of delivering it against a hard deadline, and my experience of feeding the AI Vampire. There's more to the story than the migration itself. Particularly what it's enabled us to do, where the bottlenecks have moved, and … Continue reading Is the Vampire Juice worth the squeeze: A CMS Migration [Part 2]

Feeding the AI Vampire: A CMS Migration [Part 1]

ChatGPT AI Vampire me

It's been a while since I've been this deeply involved in writing code. Or, perhaps more accurately, orchestrating the writing of code. Over the last six weeks, alongside my regular responsibilities as Head of Engineering, I've been migrating our websites away from Contentful and Sanity to Payload CMS. Part 1 of 3 in my CMS … Continue reading Feeding the AI Vampire: A CMS Migration [Part 1]

BMW M3 CSL: What’s all the fuss about?

BMW e46 m3 CSL, shot from a GT2

From being slightly disappointed to be handed the keys to earning second place on my list of all-time favourite cars. The BMW E46 M3 CSL completely recalibrated my expectations. Twenty years old and still capable of embarrassing far more exotic machinery, it’s a reminder that outright power and performance figures only tell part of the … Continue reading BMW M3 CSL: What’s all the fuss about?

Was VS Code peak IDE?

Gemini: BBC Micro to VS Code

Visual Studio Code changed the game for me, and this documentary feels like a fitting tribute to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHL3XzjpT5w My programming journey started in a BBC Micro at school. Then, out of necessity to play early PC games, I became proficient at editing CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. If that sentence means nothing to you, look up … Continue reading Was VS Code peak IDE?

Never Meet Your Heroes? Driving the Porsche 997.2 GT3 RS 3.8

Porsche 911 997.2GT3 RS 3.8 outside Cobbles Cafe

Every so often you get a proper "pinch me" day. Thanks to a generous friend, after years of obsessing over the 997.2 GT3 RS 3.8, I finally got to drive one. One of my goals this year is to write more. Another is to drive more. I'm hoping those two things complement each other. If you've … Continue reading Never Meet Your Heroes? Driving the Porsche 997.2 GT3 RS 3.8

The Bottleneck Moved: An H1 2026 Update

Q4 vs Q1 vs Q2 2026 LoC vs PR Count

The bottleneck moved The week after Agile on the Beach was an odd one. One day I was supporting our CPO with the board pack, pulling together the engineering story: six months of delivery, tidied into charts. Another I took off to spend at my friends' company, helping them work out how to adopt AI, with the … Continue reading The Bottleneck Moved: An H1 2026 Update

AI Needs Human Guardrails Too

Me at Agile On The Beach 2026 - Collecting Car AI AMA

After my talk at Agile on the Beach 2026, a Software Engineer Leader from John Lewis & Partners came over with a question I wasn't expecting. He didn't ask which model we use, whether we prefer Cursor or Claude Code, or which MCP servers I'd recommend. He asked about the AI framework I'd mentioned almost in passing. Could I … Continue reading AI Needs Human Guardrails Too