📒 November 2025 – Read Write Collect

At work, I have been acting as team lead in the midst of an upgrade this month. Into the unknown. I have long wondered about professional develop/support with regards to stepping up to leadership when required – like now – however I wonder if some challenges simply need to be experienced, rather than taught? For example, at which point do you esculate problems and what consequences will this have? Another lesson learnt is that leadership is in part learning to have the confidence to say ‘no’ or not saying yes instantly. I learnt this after receiving a request from another team that was littered with the usual references to ‘ASAP’ and the general manager who raised it. Of course, I had completed the task in a few hours. The person was shocked. The problem is that in ‘not being the blocker’, you risk being the weak point I guess. All in all, the most useful experience was seeing the grass on the other side, as well as appreciating people in a new light.

You’re not awkward — the world is.

Source: The Gray Area with Sean Illing: How to survive awkward encounters

On the home front, everything was about the end of year dance concert. It can be easy to lose track how far we have come. Things such as concert are a testament to this.

With regards to technology, I have been moving more of my workflow to my hand-me-down Mac. This has helped me think about what it is I actually use. The interesting challenge was coming up with a workflow associated with my Samsung phone. My answer, a USB drive.

On jogging, I returned to lumbering up the hill in Brimbank Park avoiding the rabbits and kangaroos. It is a reminder that data ain’t data. It is not always about average time or speed. Always more context. All in all, I clocked up approximately 70kms for the month.

Here is a list of books that I read this month:

Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green: An exploration of the different versions of TB, its long history, and the stigma surrounding it, along with its political and social origins.
Gravity Let Me Go by Trent Dalton: A novel that interweaves a gripping true-crime murder mystery with a deeply personal exploration of marriage, ambition, and self-deception associated with the ‘storage box of life’.
The Beautiful Ones by Prince: A book as much about writing a book about Prince as it is about Prince himself, in part because Prince died before it was complete.
Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg: An exegesis into what it means to communicate, whether it be what it is we are communicating, how we feel about it, and who we actually are, all with the overall focus being to connect with others.
The Two Towers) and The Return of the King) by J.R.R Tolkien: Books two and three of The Lord of the Rings trilogy read by Andy Serkis.

I was lucky enough to see Arseless Chaps for their album launch, which included Davey Lane shredding his way through FOSAGAWI. I also got my signed copy of the self-titled record, which included the the nice surprise of track transitions not present on the streaming platforms, giving it an almost live feel.

In other music, I have also been listening to Davey Lane’s album Finally, A Party Album, as well as Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory (on the back of Stella Donnelly’s Take5). While I also started a new deep dive, this time into the music of Prince. I have listened to the first two albums so far, For You and Prince self-titled.

With regards to my writing, I wrote the following:

REVIEW: Supercommunicators (Charles Duhigg)

Podcasts that stood out this month:

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