Author | Lightnews

Tom Dolan

@tomskerous.bsky.social

570 followers 440 following 430 posts

Tall, curly, silly, sometimes musical. Currently Head of Product at Which?, freelance product coach and somehow also a trainer for Mind the Product. Did time at GDS, DIT, ITV, MTV, BBC. Helping art meet massive, and to get stories told.

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Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · 2d

May have just had a really really big idea.

A reframing of something we always talk about as linear, but I knew wasn’t really. So that’s nice.

Hopefully @r4isstatic.com will agree when he reads it on Monday.

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Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · 10d

“Hope is a verb. It’s an action. It’s got muscle.”

A timely reminder, when sometimes it feels like a (depleting) noun.

www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

‘What I do with my body is none of your business’: musician Beverly Glenn-Copeland on trans rights, cult stardom and living with dementia

His music was ignored for decades. Now, at 81, he is collaborating with pop stars. He and his wife talk about his extraordinary life – and facing severe illness

www.theguardian.com

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · 10d

Jeez

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · 10d

It’s been quite a week for unexpected plot twists.

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · 13d

Got through a big thing today.

It went actually really ok.

I'm having to remind myself that this is the norm, and the other similar events over the last few years really *weren't*.

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · 15d

Great.

So because my council have moved to a new parking permit provider, and can't (presumably this means "don't have the budget/risk appetite to") migrate all the existing proofs, I have to go and find and scan an absolute ton of documents all over again.

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · 17d

This is excellent news to celebrate the start of a "day off". WRNTDP are just wonderful if you've not come across them before. "Nation's Most Central Location" and "Your Community Hub" are Paddy-Kingsland-retro but bleakly modern at the same time.

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan @warringtonruncorn.com · 17d

And we are go! warrington-runcorn-cis.bandcamp.com/album/public...

Public Works and Utilities, by Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan

6 track album

warrington-runcorn-cis.bandcamp.com

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · 22d

New fridge moved into place. Bike is back on the wall in the hall where it should be. My studio is no longer storage for sanitaryware, and I have the ability to put things away on shelves once more.

There's a bathroom for them to finish still, but we're definitely approaching endgame/normality.

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · 25d

That’s fab.

I successfully did a conference talk, realised I had a new genuine not-just-work friend, and ate a fried breakfast someone else paid for.

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · 26d

Talk about trusted teams done!!! Yay. Seemed to go well.

Now hearing about Mob Programming from @woodyzuill.bsky.social.

@swardley.bsky.social was ace this morning, extending his normal talk into AI, culture, sovereignty and much more. @randysilver.outofowls.com as fab as ever.

#agilecam

Simon Wardley pacing on stage, in front of a diagram about tools and robots. We’d never use a blender to dig a tunnel, we need the right tools, but somehow we imagine that adding robotics to the wrong tools will be a good decision.

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Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · 28d

Awwww,so sorry to have missed this.

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · 29d

Turned a mindmap that was a 45 minute talk into slides today. I know it was 45 mins, because I timed it.

Somehow it’s now looking scarily much much longer.

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · Sep 25

Pah. 01 811 8055 here. I’m showing my age.

Reposted by Tom Dolan

Moose Allain @mooseallain.bsky.social · Sep 24

www.worldofmoose.com/products/boo...

Cartoon: two people at a table with paper, rulers, pens, knives, a jam jar with tools in. Third person entering the scene. Person at the table says "Welcome to Book Binding Club. Please make yourself a tome". I don't know how well puns work with readers. It's two separate words, "a" and "tome". Would welcome any feedback on this.

8 200 930

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · Sep 14

Definitely “sometimes”. Hey ho.

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · Sep 10

Just connected a microphone to a computer for the first time since "Incident of the Month".

Be afraid. Lightly afraid.

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Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · Sep 9

It’s foreshadowing the Penhaligons lineup today. :-)

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · Sep 5

Yeah, the bug is gone. But that collapse was partly triggered by, and masking, some other bigger stuff that is taking a lot longer to work through. I'll get there though.

Work have been incredibly supportive, which is such a change from my contractor habits that it's uncomfortable at times. :)

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · Sep 3

Too much driving today, starting at seven bloody am, after a 5:30 alarm. Six hours all told, I think. :(

Tomorrow will hopefully involve sitting still or being on buses where someone else is doing the hard work.

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Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · Sep 1

So, I am going to be talking about some things that happened, and what I thought about them, in very public on 1st October.

Perhaps you’d like to come and hear it?

agilecambridge.net/programme/tr...

The trusted teams toolkit

agilecambridge.net

Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · Aug 24

Chapter one of the poorly-timed side project “let’s completely rebuild the kitchen and dining room, just as I get super-ill, V has a restructure at work, and our daughter moves home from university” is looking largely complete.

This is a huge relief.

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Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · Aug 22

Think I may just possibly have a working (new) kitchen.

(Apparently the next step involves using an app to update the firmware on the oven and hob and dishwasher. Welcome to 2025.)

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Reposted by Tom Dolan

amy brown @amybrown.xyz · Aug 22

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

Why should I write better when a machine can do it for me?
Because actually no one can do it for you, because your voice is unique among all the people on earth. Siri never petted a horse's neck. Alexa has never been ghosted by the captain of the football team. But you have lived, your heart is beating, you have suffered, and you have something important to say. It's a human's job, to use words, and whatever job you give to a machine, that part of your brain goes dark. Maybe it's worth it when it comes to remembering phone numbers and directions, but when that part of your brain that uses words goes dark, that's a vast area that's very close to your soul. Don't let some internet platform convince you that what you have to say and create isn't worthwhile. Words are the echo of your soul. Honing that echo matters.

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Reposted by Tom Dolan

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · Aug 19

The fact that the thing we're calling artificial intelligence *can't do math* and yet we're jamming it into programs that successfully *have done math* for decades, then warning people against using the AI to do math, seems like an excellent summary of where we are.

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Aug 19

Good thing no one uses Microsoft Excel for anything related to legal, regulatory or compliance business functions

www.theverge.com/news/761338/...

Microsoft Excel adds Copilot Al to help ...
theverge.com
The Verget-4.1-mini Al model | 5
successor to the LABS.GENERATIVEAI function Microsoft started experimenting
with in 2023.
Microsoft notes that you can combine its new Al function with other Excel functions, including IF, SWITCH, LAMBDA, or WRAPROWS. The company adds that information sent through Excel's COPILOT function is "never" used for AI training, as "the input remains confidential and is used solely to generate your requested output."
The COPILOT function comes with a couple of limitations, as it can't access information outside your spreadsheet, and you can only use it to calculate 100 functions every 10 minutes. Microsoft also warns against using the AI function for numerical calculations or in “high-stakes scenarios” with legal, regulatory, and compliance implications, as COPILOT "can
give incorrect responses."
Copy Share Select all Web search Dictionary
...

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Tom Dolan @tomskerous.bsky.social · Aug 17

So the unexpected Edinburgh Moment this year...was a full faceplant just off Cowgate yesterday.

4h in Minor Injuries, getting worrying looks from others.

Thankfully nothing is badly broken, no stitches, still (somehow) have my two top front teeth. But I do now look like a Simpsons take on Hitler.