In 2024 Scott McTominay went viral for a comment about a tomato.
What he experienced in the UK was mediocre by design. To make a tomato travel, the industry had to solve for friction.
And when you solve for optimisation, you often destroy the content.
open.substack.com/pub/ptaylor/...
The digital obsession was responsible for “leading to endless repeated examples of wasted money and idiotic fantasies about the necessity of IT to solve everything”.
Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Ao3IS
The UK’s median age of 41 reflects a mature society with creaking infrastructure preoccupied with the pressures of supporting both children and ageing parents.
Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Ao1Bp
Historically, communities frequently served as the primary, and often only, engine for generating solutions, driven by their direct needs and local context.
Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AojGS
"Long-term strategic thinking turns innovation from a panic response (fixing a crisis) into a deliberate design (building a future)" https://lttr.ai/AoiyR
27.02.2026 16:33 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Interesting observations...many parallels between UK situation to Canadian state of affairs today.
(Continuous shaking of head at 5 year planning cycles).
This, while Canada and India both former colonies of UK, though with different histories pre- and post-colonial contact.
yes , the five year planning cycles are ruinous. You'd think we'd know better
27.02.2026 10:36 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
While the UK remains tethered to the legacy lock-in of its own history—patching up Victorian pipes and firefighting —India is playing a civilisational long game.
Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AojGc
Plus, it's my wordpress paulitaylor.com/2026/02/25/f...
25.02.2026 14:23 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0I don't buy that it's any different to any of the others
25.02.2026 14:23 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
69% – 81% of Indian citizens state the country is on the right track.
The UK is a different story. The right direction score places between 16% and 21%.
It's long term vision and big bets vs fixing foundations.
New post
open.substack.com/pub/ptaylor/...
The most common manifestation of decline is a bloated bureaucracy, where too many layers of management create a long and winding road for any decision.
Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Aocl6
Reward challenging power as a recognition of critical thinking.
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One of the most counter-intuitive phenomena in trust repair is where initial success in building trust leads to a short-term surge in reported ‘negative metrics'.
Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/An59q
Four picture travel update:
Why don't we let people decorate the places they live?
The use of storytelling (and exaggeration) to create a sense of place.
And, why is booze so bureaucratic in India?
paulitaylor.com/2026/01/29/f...
Latest travel diary update.
Is airport marriage counselling a good idea?
And - what would hotels look like if designed by Deloitte
paulitaylor.com/2026/01/27/f...
The flow of resources is the lifeblood of any initiative; so the organisational immune system restricts this flow to maintain central control.
Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Al8QE
The traditional organisational model is designed to minimise variance and maximise control, whilst place-based and decentralised approaches seek the very opposite.
Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Alo7F
The systemic barriers to collaboration—conflicting budgets, targets and the self-preserving logic of the bureaucracy—are formidable
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An accountability sink is a systemic phenomenon—an organisational structure where responsibility, while appearing to be assigned, is absorbed, obscured, or deflected when negative outcomes occur.
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Are small organisations fundamentally better at innovation?
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Four picture diary replacing my usual blog until February.
Today, Jugaad in action: the Hindi approach to innovation.
Plus, why are us drone fans still viewed with suspicion, even by dogs?
paulitaylor.com/2026/01/18/f...
True community enabling leadership demands that we finally dismantle the persistent silos separating public services
Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Al8QU
A picture diary update with four crucial questions.
Which destination has Hollywood wrecked the most?
Is there anything better than fish curry and a cold beer in Goa?
Why do cows like the beach so much?
Why would you wash your balls in a public toilet?
paulitaylor.com/2026/01/14/p...
"The immune system resists decentralised governance and innovation efforts not through a single decisive action, but through a complex, synchronised network of defence mechanisms all designed to maintain stability and homeostasis." https://lttr.ai/Al8Qo
13.01.2026 16:35 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Dismantling “Because We Always Have”: Product thinking challenges the inertia that protects outdated systems.
Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Al8QX
Four Picture Diary.
Today I grapple with the really important issues:
How does tourism disrupt place naming conventions?
And, why do Indian drivers beep their horns so much?
paulitaylor.com/2026/01/10/f...
A hive mind is a collective consciousness where the entire organisation acts as a single entity with shared goals and actions.
Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AkfAQ
Four a day picture diary.
I can cross a road without dying.
Food tours are the best way to understand a city.
Elephants are cool.
ATMs are better in India.
paulitaylor.com/2026/01/07/f...
When a decentralised unit is introduced into a centralised host, the host’s systems react as an immune system would to a foreign body, isolating and neutralising the threat.
Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Alo7O
