March 2025

End of Q1 for 2025! I didn't blog much - but I was out in the world - reading, listening and watching too.

The Vibe

The vibe for March was hot and dry. We've been inundated with a burst of hot weather late into the summer this year and a severe lack of rain. The Hills have run dry - anyone on tank water is now out of it, and the garden is looking parched and burnt. I am not a gardener of any sort, so I haven't really tried to do anything with the garden during this period - it's a bit of survival of the fittest. But for that reason, I think I'll have a bit of cleaning up I do once the weather cools down.

I think the heat had a bit to do with my lack of buying into the "Mad March" feeling this year. Sure, all the standard events were on, but it wasn't overly motivated to get out there. Part of that was the "Cost of Living Crisis" now starting to bite. We've had our mortgage at a fixed rate for a few years, and that time is up at the end of the month. We've been trying to budget for that new reality, which has much less discretionary money to spend. It's not as much fun, but it's better for us in the longer term. Every purchase requires a second thought, which has left me with a deep appreciation of how much we already have and how susceptible we are to marketing and hype.

With a bit more time at home I've been trying to get myself more organised. Part of that has been doing a pretty radical cleanup in Obsidian, my second brain. I've let myself be pretty experimental with how I use the tool, having a place to write everything was really the key for me. But it's gotten very unruly in terms of where things live and how it's organised. I've done a bit more work on the Johnny Decimal course – sorting out some other areas of life, and while I haven't got to a point where it's all sorted and working I can see progress. I'm hoping that this work can then drive some other effort this year – basically getting the world around me into a more organised state.

That drive for organisation is probably a result of the ongoing chaos at work. I'm still filling the role of Curriculum and Educational Developer - a pretend-and-only-on-paper role within the curriculum development process for the new university. We're now about 35 weeks into that process, and not once have we actually provided any meaningful feedback into the process. Now things aren't going as well as planned. So, at the moment, I'm having a very solid "See! I told you so!" moment – while also stuck in a system where I cannot change or influence what is happening. That's despite the fact that there is apparently a "continuous improvement" process, which doesn't seem to be very continuous or capable of improving much.

On the bright side, I got brought on to a couple of other projects, which have been more engaging and played to my strengths. One has been outlining the curriculum for a course on entrepreneurship and design thinking, which will form part of six courses that will be part of the Common Core of the new university curriculum. These will be a suite of, for want of a better term, 'Mandatory Electives' - three courses every student must complete at the new university. This stage was working with a large stakeholder group to define what the course should be – aims, goals and course learning outcomes. I enjoyed the deep engagement with a topic I'm really interested in and the collaboration required to get a consensus within the group.

That work has led into now planning out the resourcing and development process for creating these courses. This is something I've come to reflect on as a strength of mine. I've been able to apply my past experiences and the successes I've had in doing this. That success part is something I don't feel I've got a lot of credit or kudos for within the organisation... but every project I've led we've delivered and almost uniformly within the timeframe and budget I developed. I was hoping to do this months ago with the curriculum development but got completely sidelined in that process by. This time though I'm at least at the table. There is a lot to navigate to get anything I have proposed up and running – and then there's the actually doing – but I am hopeful that I can move into this project into the near future.

I've also been working on the initial discussions for the Online unit and what that might look and operate like. It's been another great group to work with, and I heard the stories, experiences, and lessons learned from all sides of both universities. I loved the honesty and the safe space that was created so that we could share not only what worked but what failed and sucked about the process. I did pitch the idea of treating online as a Campus – ensuring you have the right infrastructure, spaces for students, services, and access – and the idea of maintenance and cleaning services as well. There is such a hidden burden when it comes to technology around maintenance, particularly at an institutional level where every system seems to be treated as a one-off purchase, and that's it – "What do you mean there's upkeep?". The reaction from the group and the thinking this enabled was really gratifying.

One final thing I want to add – I wrote a business plan. Not a pretend Business Canvas – I mean a fully fledged 27-page business plan. There's an associated spreadsheet and everything! One of the things I've been working on throughout Q1 2025 is getting this thing together in order to progress developing up a piece of software we created while working at UoA. We tried to develop it internally, but the merger canned that process – so now we're looking at taking what we have and developing as an external business. The commercialisation part of the university is still interested in our product, but in order to progress, we had to have a viable business plan to present to them. It was no mean feat pulling this thing together – but it's done now – just requiring a few added details from the team. We need to work on a name, we have a Project X name for the time being - but I am keen to share more about what we are planning and to work out loud through this process.

Events

To kick off March, I went along to one of the Writers Week sessions hosting a conversation with Kara Swisher, who was on tour promoting her latest book. I've been a long-time listener to the Pivot Podcast and enjoyed the dialogue and conversation between Galloway and Swisher. I get the critique of them as individuals, but in terms of voices outside my bubble, I can handle them and do find some occasional nuggets of wisdom. During the talk Swisher made an off-hand remark about Silicon Valley being a
Mirrortocracy rather than a Meritocracy which did stick with me. Their aim is not to elevate the best, but simply perpetuates the system that brought them to power.

On the following weekend it was off to WOMAD festival for our now traditional Dad and Daughter day. There weren't any huge acts on the Sunday we went and it was warm, so it was kind of nice to just sit and chill and wander around the stages. We watched

Finishing up in the cool of the night chilling out to Nils Frahm was highlight of the event, but I loved seeing the variety of music on offer. I'm glad my daughter gets to experience more than the pop-menu of sterilised top 40 music.

Mrs K and I celebrated 25 years together on St Patrick's Day, so we had a lovely treat on the weekend and headed to the McLaren Vale to the Salopian Inn for an amazing long lunch. I'm still trying to get my head around 25 years, but it's been a fantastic journey together through life so far. It is crazy thinking about our time together and I am getting a flashback sequence similar to the Up! movie (obviously without the dying bit, but am resonating with a grumpier old man being developed!).

Next weekend was pretty chilled and relaxing. For the first time in a long while I actually sat down and read a book - it had paper and everything. A friend lent me their copy of Systems Thinking For Social Change; while I'm very aware of systems thinking, I've never really gone in-depth with it. It was a nice change just to sit and read, something I've been meaning to spend more time doing. The next day Mother-In-Law came to town and we had a great family. dinner down at Henley Beach and were rewarded with a great sunset.

I took a look and had a quick test of an eBike as an alternative for the daily commute and to get a bit more activity baked into daily life that doesn't require the car. We are blessed with trails all around us which I've only explored some of. The quickest way from our place to the city is on the trails through the conservation park, so I tested that out on my hybrid bike, but the seating position and lack of dual suspension made the downhill ride feel a bit precarious. So I've been looking at what they're calling an eBike SUV (namely the Specialized Turbo Tero X and Focus Thron² EQP) as they have mountain bike DNA but some of the luxuries of a commuter (built-in lights, mudguards and pannier rack). I tried out the Specialized and it was impressive just on the flat in terms of feel and comfort. Will have to see what I can find price wise, and also end of trip facilities at the University in order to fit into my daily routine.

Followed this up with a nice family weekend. Spent some time with Ms 13 in the city and went and saw the Viking hoard exhibition on in town. Wrapped up March with an outstanding Chinese feast at

Photos

2025

Watched

Super Rugby Pacific is getting a good run at the moment and we're part way through both Severence and White Lotus. Managed to finish these though:

Reading

This month I blogged a lot less, but read a lot more. Here's some recommendations:

Listened

Wrapped up a couple of really good podcasts:

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