Monthnote, February 2025

This is my second attempt at a monthnote, a post where I reflect on the previous month's work and other life stuff.

I'm still playing with the format, but I like the mental note-taking it requires.

What I've been working on

February was a short month that felt like a long month.

It was * a lot * more bitty and frustrating than anyone would have liked, but sometimes that's the way of the working world.

Without overthinking it, I'd summarise that we've reached a point in our delivery cycle where creating the conditions for change feels harder than the implementation itself.

On one hand there's a talented team itching to get on with designing and developing a service, and on the other there are tricky decision-making processes, and perspectives that don't always align.

Adam shared this wonderful blog post where Katherine Wastell sums it up rather perfectly. TL;DR: we're in Stoke, it's raining.

It will pass, it always does, but humps in the road can slow everyone down.

In brighter news...

Adam also wrote an excellent blog post himself about the progress the team are making on continuously improving the Researcher Access Service, and the processes being followed.

Ross McCulloch gave a lively, inspiring presentation to the whole Research Data Scotland team about the work of Third Sector Lab and in particular their digital trustees programme (which I'm a massive advocate of, and how I was first introduced to Charity Finance Group).

I've had a couple of fruitful meetings tied to our new partnership with Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre and I'm very keen for them to share their experiences of blending design and technology with our staff.

We met with the technology team at HDR UK and have some follow-ups in the pipeline to consider how we share best practice and make use of the product developments they've been putting in place.

I sat in on our Finance Audit and Risk Subcommittee – one of the groups who oversee the running of our organisation – where I'd contributed a paper on innovation. I got some helpful feedback (more focus, clearer recommendations required) and found, as ever, it's valuable to observe how governance processes work in practice.

We concluded a lot of the planning activities that dominated much of our time last month and the end result is a business planning and measurement process that's so much more structured and streamlined than what came before. There are no doubt elements to tweak, but it feels like a massive step forward.

The Researcher Access Service was nominated in the digital transformation category at the annual Digital Health and Care Awards. Alas, we did not win 😢 but at least the official photographer got a nice snap of Jen, Suhail and I in our glad rags. 🎉

Reading, watching, listening

📖 Books
Inevitably, my reading pace slowed following January's exuberance. But I'm pleased to have kept my oar in.

• I suffered my way through Intermezzo, Sally Rooney's latest turgid novel. Honestly, the pace was so laboured at points I often lost track of which dour male protagonist was being referred to in the insufferably long chapters. "Is there a better writer at work right now?" 🤔 Why yes, howabout...
• ... Alice Winn, another thirtysomething Irish(ish) writer? In Memoriam is everything Intermezzo isn't – passionate, humane, life-affirming in its tale of forbidden love against the horrorific backdrop of the First World War.
• Nothing could have fully prepared me for Miranda July's All Fours. Funny, filthy, profound, and quite simply some of the best writing I've read in years. Astonishing.

📺 Films & TV
A bumper film month. Three (three!) visits to the cinema, and two stay-at-home feminist body horror treats.

• The Brutalist. Stylish, affecting, but weirdly unsurprising. Enjoyed it though.
• September 5. It was OK, but I'm unclear exactly why it was made. The point it was trying to make seemed subtle at best, and One Day in September and Munich already deal with the tragic subject matter more thoroughly and dramatically.
• Conclave. Loved it. One of the details I particularly liked was the archaic church traditions awkwardly juxtaposed against the modern age, helping to underpin the ridiculousness of it all: Nespresso pod machines, iphones, web browsers, contactless room keys, nuns in springy trainers.
• The Substance. This article pitches it as a "wildly unlikely [Best Picture Oscar] winner" and also notes how viscerally memorable it is. Still wincing.
• Nightbitch. The 'horror' is a helluva lot more subtle than The Substance, but Amy Adams performance is just as powerful and physical as Demi Moore's and it's a shame she was largely overlooked in awards season. I thought it was brilliant: very funny, very on point. "Every man should see it" says Mark Kermode.

🎧 Music & podcasts

• Speaking of Nightbitch, the soundtrack introduced me to Aurora and this incredible slice of Norwegian power pop. I've listened to it approx. 7000 times.
• Stumbled across the debut album by Kaeto and really like it. Strong Saint Etienne vibes.
• Stakeknife. This series is not an easy listen, covering the collusion between the IRA and British Army during the Troubles, but it's superbly produced and carefully handled.
• Digital Drugs Have Us Hooked: a fascinating interview with Dr. Anna Lembke.
• I loved this edition of Search Engine for its quirky-yet-challenging take on the AI debate, drilling into education and writing.

Links and other diversions

I turned 50 and I ran my 50th parkrun in an unusually orchestrated life moment. To mark the occasion some lovely people helped me raise almost £1,000 for Oxfam. In these dark days of slashing aid budgets and deleting entire aid agencies it's important to remember why humanitarian aid is vital.

Rachel Coldicutt's proposed Union for Hopeful Technologists feels like a welcome beacon to push back against the prevailing techno-optimist shower of shite.

Archives are great, and now you can mix up a huge array of sounds from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

Jay Rayner's final Observer Food Monthly column was a marvellous piece of writing.

In line with many of the comments in this post, I thought I'd maybe dreamed up going to a Buck Rogers-themed burger bar in 1980s Glasgow. Seems not.

📅 I wrote this during an hour I set aside in my calendar, and finished it off while my youngest son attended a music lesson. Thank you for reading.