New Artisans.
Choosing Craft in a World Obsessed with Scale.
I write for professionals who sense that conventional career wisdom no longer works and are ready to rediscover the craftsperson's way of navigating uncertainty.
The old playbook—climb the ladder, follow best practices, optimise for efficiency—feels increasingly hollow. Many of my readers are successful by traditional measures yet find themselves asking: "Is this it?" They're caught between needing security and craving meaning, between following proven paths and trusting their deeper instincts about what work could be.
Modern organisations have trained us to outsource our judgment to systems, processes, and algorithms. We've forgotten how to read the subtle signals that craftspeople have always relied on—the feel of the material, the rhythm of the work, the quiet voice that says "something's changing here."
But uncertainty isn't a problem to solve; it's material to work with creatively. Like a potter responding to clay or a sailor reading wind patterns, we can develop sensitivity to what's emerging rather than forcing predetermined outcomes.
Through frameworks like NOTICE and the New Artisan Principles, I explore how we might navigate by internal compass when external maps prove unreliable. How we build sustainable practices that resist the pressure to scale beyond recognition. How we create work that shapes us as much as we shape it.
My writing serves those ready to step off the beaten path—not recklessly, but with the craftsperson's combination of patience, skill, and attention to what wants to emerge.
Why subscribe?
Because the old maps no longer match the territory. You'll receive weekly explorations of how to navigate by internal compass when external systems fail us, moving from analysis to care, from predetermined objectives to quality as it emerges, from following someone else's GPS to developing your own sense of direction. This isn't about solutions; it's about creating the craftsperson's sensitivity to what wants to emerge.
Stay up-to-date
Every Wednesday, you'll receive free insights on what I'm learning and noticing about the artisan's way forward. Paid subscribers get deeper dives into the NOTICE framework, access to our Wednesday evening conversations, and materials for developing your own practice of productive not-knowing. No noise, just signal.
Join the conversation
Be part of a community that understands work as craft, where what we do shapes who we become. Our Wednesday conversations create space for the kind of thinking that can't happen in Slack channels or performance reviews. We're professionals from diverse backgrounds who sense something shifting and are ready to explore what lies beyond the beaten path of efficiency and best practice.
Outside the Walls
New Artisans emerged from conversations on my Outside the Walls Substack, where I examine the broader changes dissolving our familiar world of work. While Outside the Walls maps what's changing around us, New Artisans focuses on what we might do in response—how we develop the capabilities to thrive when the territory itself shifts faster than our mapmaking can keep pace.
