Second week at GDS/GOV.UK and I am starting to feel at least a little useful and that I might have an idea of what I need to do to add some value around the place.
There were more intro meetings this week but also there were meetings interspersed where I was able to contribute a little and a couple of opportunities where I was well placed to offer some answers. Felt good.
One of the meetings this week was a brilliant walk through of the technologies and tools that provide GOV.UK’s web pages. It was genuinely fascinating and a bit <mind blowing emoji> that required a long walk after to let it all soak in. The scale of things on this website really remarkable – the traffic, the number of pages, the amount of components, the APIs…all of it. Wow.
…and I did kind of know lots of it – I’ve been an interested observer since day one and have known ‘generations’ of people who have worked on it all…but still…wow!
It feels so good to be back working on actual web stuff though – it has been pretty rare since the ONS days but it is what I really care about and get excited about.
I’m being a good citizen about OKRs and reading up on approaches to make them as useful as possible – a new quarter is imminent so the OKR train is chugging to life and I need to be ready. I’m also thinking about roadmaps and seeing what I can do to get things out in the open again (which definitely has support).
Just received the email telling me I now have a hard pass to collect so next week I’ll visit the office in Whitechapel for a couple of days (Wednesday and Thursday it looks like) and thereafter I’ll regularly be in both the London and Bristol offices so shout if you fancy a cuppa or a wine..
The week actually started with the Massive Attack event on the Downs in Bristol. This ended up being a bit of a damp squib for a couple of reasons but mainly because I misjudged my ability to deal with the crowds and expectations on the day and found my anxiety rising to intolerable levels almost as soon as we got in to the site. Honestly I must have some kind of selective amnesia because in hindsight it was obvious I’d struggle – I wasn’t great before Covid etc but since that trauma rewired my brain I find it nigh on impossible. The crowds, the queues, the terrible acoustics (it was louder at the pub), the general chaos, the booze all combined to leave me vibrating with tension.
That said I did queue up (35 minutes!) to get a t-shirt and limited edition Mode2 print, push my way towards the front to listen to Killer Mike for 30 minutes, have a wander around waving at old friends, get some pics of the art installations and then end up drunk at a middle aged, middle class pub quiz. So it could have been worse.
I enjoyed doing this #moviemadness thing on Bluesky – like the kind of things that went on elsewhere in ye olde days – a proper throwback.
- Star Wars
- Up
- Rio Bravo
- Batman Returns
- Wild Style
- Aliens
- Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
- Frances McDormand – Three Billboards
- Get Carter
- The Wicker Man
- 8 Mile
- Beat Street
- The Godfather
- The Intern
- Dodgeball
- Snyder’s Superman
- The Dark Knight
- Infernal Affairs
- Star Wars
- Manchester by the Sea
- A Star is Born
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
- Reality Bites
- Justice League: The New Frontier
- Nice Guys
- The Usual Suspects
- Heat
- In the Heights
- Back to the Future
- Midnight Run
Digital by Default 
One response to “[2024] Week 35”
I went to the Massive Attack homecoming gig in Bristol in 2003 and had to queue an hour and a half for a couple of pints of beer! It was more stressful than expected all round (very hot with no shade, having to leave early for a train…) but they and the many support acts were marvellous.