In a tech world obsessed with AI efficiency, with some companies gaining a reputation for moving fast and breaking people, I realised that culture isn't just a 'nice-to-have' - it is becoming the ultimate competitive advantage.

Somebody cuts you off in traffic. In the space of about a second, before any conscious thought arrives, the body has already decided: threat, defend, win. That reaction isn't a personality trait. It's two hundred thousand years of survival wiring now trigger in a commute, a Slack message, or a planning meeting.

End-of-year reviews are a strange time. Even when things are going well, there is often a low-level hum of fear or anxiety in the background, especially in the current ‘climate’.

I really believe we need more fun Easter Eggs in EOY reviews and New Year’s resolutions.

Most of us measure a good year through one lens. Career. Did the title move, did the number go up, did the project land. It's the easiest thing to score, and everything else quietly goes unmeasured.

Every few years, something arrives that rewrites your plan. A merger, a redundancy, a reorg, an AI shift nobody scheduled. The trigger changes each time. The reaction, for most people, does not.