In 2020 I worked in 10 Downing Street for the year, landing a position with the Prime Minister and his then Chief Advisor, Dominic Cummings.
In 2017 I co-founded a company called Course Concierge. We were part-acquired in March 2020.
In 2010, aged 17, I left school (despite being an A-student) to pursue entrepreneurship in favour of academia.
Two standout passages from Dominic’s own writing that have stuck with me, and in part inspired this Substack.
On the outbreak of WWI:
‘Westminster handled deterrence over Belgium catastrophically and could not integrate thinking between economic, political, military and intelligence considerations. We did the worst of all worlds, fighting over Belgium after confusing our message so much Berlin thought we would not fight.’
On his own experience as Chief Advisor at the heart of government:
‘I asked questions like: 1) where is the place/entity that thinks across all aspects of conflict — conventional, WMD, diplomatic, economic, intelligence, psychological, special forces, space, cyber etc? Answer: nowhere.’
My Substack here is a humble attempt to help better integrate such thinking.
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Roughly fortnightly. Each digest aims to be something that can be consumed within ~15 minutes. Occasional book notes too.
I post highlights I find interesting. I do not necessarily agree with everything I post.
This Substack will remain free.
