Himal Mandalia

Techo international airport in Phnom Penh. People in foreground and Buddha statue behind.

Techo International Airport

👏👏👏

Miss you all!

ADHD Pathfinding Weeknote #18 14 November 2025 — Analysis, resilience, and advocacy

Weeknote 18 is out.

- ADHD Taskforce report part 2: we're going deeper to write a full and comprehensive response.

- Team resilience tested and passed (@himal.bsky.social in Cambodia, @sianmurrayhuynh.bsky.social holding the fort)

- Call to participate in ADHD research studies

Read it here.

Ready room. Earl Grey, hot.

respect for standing up for yourself like that. that's huge. 21:09

Large distributed, bureaucratic organisations can hide a lot of bad behaviour and people limping on in survival mode. It’s systemic. And normalised. I’ve been pushed hard this week and it didn’t have to be like this. It won’t be for the next mission. I’m taking operational control.

Made a friend.

Bearded bespectacled man in light suit jacket and stripped shirt in car backseat with folder emblazoned with gold UN logo.

I am the guy in a spy thriller that finds out something he’s not meant to and then gets taken out with a silencer. Except it’s a ruse and it wasn’t really me. I got away.

Anyway. Mission complete.

I’ve handled the situation. For now.

By pointing out things others missed. I’m not too strategic but I have inadvertently made someone feel insecure.

I was called “too strategic.”

It’s pronounced “autistic.”

Have hardly been outside hotel or offices. Glad I got this run in.

Independence monument Phnom Penh.

Royal palace of Cambodia.

Out for run this morning before another full day. This was originally planned as 10 days but got squeezed down to 5 before I was onboarded. The scope wasn’t reduced. 16 hour days. Last one tomorrow. Fly back Saturday.

I was a couple of years ago on my travels.

I’m going to be wrecked by the end of this.

Have dinner with person running this. Sort of equivalent to UK civil service deputy director. Young, smart, driven. Told him we’re doing too much. This lightweight training, assessment and consulting combo is a good idea but needs better planning. He agrees. Doesn’t know how to say no. Coaching time

Finished off the training and went straight into interviews. Two ministries and a committee. Tomorrow is five focus groups. Gov, academia, startups… then prep for playback Friday morning. There’s also call for next mission.

Being overtired is your ADHD brain stuck in a dopamine chasing loop. Looking for one more hit. And just one more after that. Oh go on then, last one… not realising that it needs sleep and rest.

Slide projected on screen: The real infrastructure of Digital Government: People • UKGovCamp: annual unconference since 2008 - self-organised by volunteers, open attendance, peer learning. • Peer-to-peer problem solving: informal, fast, no hierarchy. • Source of innovation: many GDS and departmental projects started from community discussions. • Lesson: openness builds capability and trust before formal structures exist. ukgovcamp

Maybe the real digital public infrastructure was the friends we made along the way?

Independence Day was Sunday. Or it’s something else.

And got out for a bit.

Man in blue jacket and white chinos with microphone in front of projector screen with GOV.UK Design System shown.

Day 1 done. All day training for ~35 civil servants on digital this and that. What, why, how, good practice and examples. Some exercises too and guest speakers. Breakfast with a Secretary of State. Mentioned running… so going for a run with His Excellency tomorrow at 0700. Then more training.

Green suitcase by window with curtains. Brown Oxford shoes on wooden floor.

Four shirts and two jackets on hangers on a rail.

Decent hotel. I get a daily subsistence allowance and terminal expenses (to/from airport). Allowance is worked out per country. UN simplifies this for staff and contractors. More than comfortably covered for this trip.

Had nap. Prep for tomorrow, check venue, dinner, early night.

Linked up with my contact. We have a lot of prep before Monday morning. He left his laptop on the plane at Singapore. So we’re off to a good start.

All fixable.

View of Phnom Penh from place.

Phnomomenal

Did 35 on the trip to New Zealand. Last leg was 14 hours.

I missed my chance with that.

I’ve been on this plane for… I only exist on this plane now. This plane is the universe. They just brought breakfast but my body says it’s dinner.

If it’s like multiclassing in D&D there are prerequisites to meet.

When the person checking your boarding pass at the gate is the same as the one that checked your bag. It’s like a video game where they reused the same NPC model (sorry airport staff).

I’m actually nervous. But that’s a good thing. I’m doing something new and I’m out of my comfort zone. I surprised myself this year by comfortably doing things that had previously made me anxious. But that’s the point, I had done them before.

This is all new now. Butterflies.

Good good. Be intentional and make it a part of who you are and your journey.