Writing.
Some of these essays are written here and nowhere else. The rest are collected from the brands I build - cybersecurity, critical thinking, men’s health, the shape of work after fifty - each linking back to where it first ran. One address for the lot.
Written here
Originals
Essays written for this site, published nowhere else.
The Bottle I Read Like a Vendor Proposal
A supplement label is a sales document, and I have read sales documents for thirty years. Three questions I ask before I believe a number on one.
5 Oct 2026
The Alarm I Have Never Once Ignored
My dogs bark at the delivery driver every day and have never once been right. I would still back them over most of the detection products I have paid for.
24 Sept 2026
The Electrician Who Would Not Stop Learning
The best small-business marketing I have seen belongs to a working tradesman. He is not technical. He just refuses to stop learning.
8 Sept 2026
The Work With Someone Else's Name On It
Watching my own work go out under another man's name happened in enough different places, with people who had never met, that it stopped being personal. Consulting rewards proximity to the decision over contribution to the outcome.
26 Aug 2026
The Afternoon I Stopped Calling It Age
Somewhere in my fifties I started accepting a verdict on the one system I can't replace. This is about the change in thinking, not the protocol - the day I stopped calling it age and started calling it a question.
17 Aug 2026
The Scan I Assumed Was Broken
The first time I measured the security basics of a batch of ordinary small-business domains, the results were so bad I assumed my own tool was faulty. It wasn't.
6 Aug 2026
The Tools I Stopped Renting
Over a year I quietly replaced most of the software I used to pay for with tools I built myself. The money saved is the least interesting part of what happened.
13 July 2026
Why I Keep a Blog I Never Meant to Start
I decided at fifteen that writing was something other people could do and I could not. That was wrong, and it cost me thirty years - writing is a skill built by repetition, like every other one I have picked up.
3 July 2026
Collected
From across the brands
Pieces first published on the brands I write for - each links to its canonical home.
The Bus Factor of a Five-Person Business
Software teams count how many people could vanish before the work stops. In most small businesses the answer is one - and it’s usually the owner.
From Red Bridge Cyber8 Oct 2026
The Thirty-Minute Fire Drill
Stadiums rehearse their bad days; most small businesses never practise anything. Four scenarios, thirty minutes, a coffee - and a list of what would break.
From Red Bridge Cyber1 Oct 2026
Locked Out of Your Own Business
No attacker required: a suspended account and a recovery email pointing at a dead mailbox will close your business. Know the way back in before you need it.
From Red Bridge Cyber24 Sept 2026
You Can’t Claim What You Can’t List
After a fire or flood, the insurer asks ‘what did you lose?’ - and you’ll answer from memory at the worst moment. An asset list is one afternoon.
From Red Bridge Cyber17 Sept 2026
What Pathology Teaches You About Evidence That Business Schools Don't
Pathology training instils a cognitive discipline that business schools rarely teach - diagnostic reasoning. Here's why that matters far beyond the lab.
From ABC Training & Consulting15 Sept 2026
The Spares Shelf
Every mine site keeps a room full of spares. Your business needs a shelf: keyboard, charger, a configured spare laptop and a UPS. Cheap uptime.
From Red Bridge Cyber10 Sept 2026
Nothing Moves in a Quarter
My September posture numbers rose in every cohort. Of the 104 domains measured in both editions, seven changed anything. The rise is not real.
From Red Bridge Cyber10 Sept 2026
Two Wires Into the Building
One internet connection is a single point of failure for your whole business. A second service - different supplier, different technology - fixes it.
From Red Bridge Cyber3 Sept 2026
Your Phone Is Now a Single Point of Failure
A business partner lost his phone overseas - and the telco needed the number to verify the man asking about the number. Your MFA has the same loop.
From Red Bridge Cyber27 Aug 2026
Write the Run Book Before You Need It
Your laptop was stolen overnight. From a borrowed computer, get back into your business. The document that makes that possible is a run book.
From Red Bridge Cyber20 Aug 2026
Pattern Recognition: The Skill Every Lab Technician Is Building Without Knowing It
Pattern recognition isn't a natural talent - it's an accumulated database built through disciplined observation. Lab training builds it faster than almost any other environment.
From ABC Training & Consulting15 Aug 2026
A Backup You Haven’t Restored Is a Hope, Not a Backup
Backups are the most-ticked, least-tested box in small business. ASD’s guidance says to test restores regularly - here’s why almost nobody does.
From Red Bridge Cyber13 Aug 2026
The Third Word in the Definition of Security
The CIA triad defines security as confidentiality, integrity and availability. The industry sells the first two and forgets the one that closes businesses.
From Red Bridge Cyber6 Aug 2026
Be a Harder Target Than the House Next Door
Most cyber attacks are opportunistic, and attackers are on the clock. In June 2026 the median Australian small business scored an F on web security. Be the C.
From Red Bridge Cyber30 July 2026
Why I Don’t Recommend the Essential Eight to Small Business
ASD says the Essential Eight is designed for Windows-based networks. Most small businesses don’t have one - and 43% don’t enforce DMARC. What I suggest instead.
From Red Bridge Cyber23 July 2026
Th@ts!s3cure: Why Complex Passwords Aren’t Strong Passwords
NIST’s 2025 guidelines dropped complexity rules: length beats symbols. A 2011 stick-figure comic was right all along - most password policies still aren’t.
From Red Bridge Cyber16 July 2026