Bulletin 2 November 2026. Always Take The Whether With You
These are interesting, unprecedented times. Oh yeah, there’s all that AI stuff and the rest, but even more important than that — I have reached an age where I can question my life and gainful employment choices. I feel most fortunate to have been an early adopter of the wonderful sycophantic, hallucinatory early days of LLMs in this process. As a result I now believe I could achieve just about anything; the challenge has been deciding what goes in the pot-folio.
With the all night bakery and the piano restoration company ruled out, I have come back to writing and analysis. They’re fun, keep the brain going, and perhaps by doing them I can connect some of the lessons I have learned from the wise, to people who have yet to learn them. As a technology analyst, I’ll be leaning into my background of software development and operations, networking, security and infrastructure. Just add the word ‘agentic’ in front of all of those and it’s game on.
Before putting my toes back in the water, I spent the summer completing the draft of a book (of which more later), which gave me the opportunity to step back from the tech world for a few months. Whilst times they are indeed a changing, it’s interesting to reflect on what stays the same. Human nature for one thing, which we take so much for granted that we ignore it when we talk about how different things are going to be. And then nature as a whole, he writes, as the leaves turn from green to brown in their timeless cycle.
I have spent my whole life spotting patterns in behaviour, in processes, in structures, some of which remain unassailably consistent. Even as technology shifts the goalposts, we are still wed to goals; we still aspire to create and deliver value, and be recompensed for it; we still look for new ways to intermediate between resources and needs. We also are easily confused by complexity, we struggle with long-term planning, and we wax and wane between zeal and lackadaisicality.
The future, and our future (individual and collective) success, lies in setting the right course, striking the right balance, doing the right things in the right order. It’s that simple and that hard, all at once. I’m setting off on mine with a (hopefully regular) take on the tech landscape. The first couple are here (spot a theme?):
- Beware the Sirens of AI Speed (Blog) (LinkedIn) — in which I question whether AI makes us faster
- Running through AI-generated marshmallows (Blog) (LinkedIn) — where I consider the detritus AI creates
I’m also fascinated by the evolution of analyst relations. I have worked with AR folks for 25 years now, and I will always be full of gratitude for our conversations and interactions and support. Here’s a post on Agile AR (https://joncollins.info/agile-analyst-relations/) (LinkedIn), there will be more. And more to come notably on actual research (rhymes with Steve Miller’s The Joker), watch this space!
In terms of extra-curricular, expect more writing. I mentioned a book: the past three years I have been collating acclaimed producer Rupert Hine’s collected thoughts on songwriting, recording and production. I met Rupert when I was researching a biography on Rush, and we kept in touch; sadly he died six years ago but his widow approached me to complete the book he had started. This has been a rollercoaster of a project so far, more to come but please do follow Four Minutes Later on Instagram if that is your thing!
As ever, all the best on all your endeavours.
Jon
