Notes on words, design and getting found
Practical, no-nonsense thinking on communication that works — from the team that does it for a living.
The Door, the Staircase, and the Very Careful Committee
The micro-credential appears three times in the revised HEQSF, which is three times more than it appeared in 2013, and therefore constitutes a policy revolution conducted almost entirely in subordinate clauses.
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2 September 2026 · 5 min read
Higher educationThe Great Reluctance: Why Universities Won't Develop Their Leaders
Universities have outsourced their fundamental responsibility to develop their own people to external consultants who must now design—at considerable cost—what should be the most obvious function any institution performs.
21 August 2026 · 5 mins
AIScarce and critical skills after AI
The people who were told throughout school that they were "not academic enough" for university are about to become the last aristocracy of the labor market, while the people who got distinctions in Business Management are filing unemployment claims next to a chatbot that took their job and didn't even feel bad about it.
14 August 2026 · 7 min
HEThe South Africa Capability Atlas:
This is the Capability Atlas: part policy paper, part existential group therapy session for a country that has, by its own admission, become extremely good at producing "qualified people and failing systems at the same time."
27 July 2026 · 6 min
AIWhen the Robots Learned to Write, the Humanities Finally Got Interesting Again
The easy argument goes like this: robots will take the boring jobs, so humans will still be needed for creativity, empathy and judgement. There's truth to it (even the World Economic Forum agrees curiosity and critical thinking will matter through 2030).
1 July 2026 · 5 min
Higher EducationCrafting the public good
Higher education matters not only because it produces employable graduates, but because it supports democracy, social cohesion, cultural life, critical thought and human development.
28 May 2026 · 7 min read
DigitalWhat your website says when you're not in the room
For most prospects, your website is the first conversation they have with you — and an expired security warning or a 2018 design ends it before it starts.
20 May 2026 · 4 min read
Higher EducationBuckle up
Welcome to South African public higher education, where the funding situation is less "steady ship" and more "Titanic with a motivational poster on the deck."
6 May 2026 · 4 min read
StrategyThe brief is the work: why we ask before we write
Most communication that misses the mark didn't fail in the writing. It failed in the brief. Here's how we get to the real message first.
28 April 2026 · 5 min read
NonprofitIt virtually happened
For Health Education Training and Technical Assistance Services (HETTAS), the lockdown announced in March 2020 heralded the inevitable end of the organisation. HETTAS solely relies on donor funding and its HIV prevention offering is largely centred around three curricula aimed at youth beneficiaries between the ages of 10 and 18.
10 April 2026 · 7 min readGet new insights by email
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