Barnaby Robson

Hi, I'm Barnaby

Barnaby Robson

I write here to sharpen my thinking; publishing forces clarity. It also gives me a space for a more personal voice than the macro, sector and strategy research I author for KPMG.

It's also a visual archive. I am obsessed with composition, colour and light — whether that's street, landscape or portraits in my Galleries, or translating abstract business concepts into graphics. The site hosts the visualised mental models I rely on in my work — and in most decisions I make.

There's a long-running log of the coffees I brew, articles on design, and notes from the books and podcasts that have shaped me.

It's unapologetically an eclectic mix. The older I become, the more I feel it's a mistake for people to become too centred on one discipline.

Thanks for visiting my corner of the web.

Essays Mental Models Galleries Presentations Notes From Cup of Record

Recent Essays

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A writer at a worn desk by the window pulling a page from a typewriter, crumpled drafts scattered on the floor.

Productivity & Wisdom

Making it up, changing my mind, and learning to COPE with AI

AI’s effect on your job is still anyone’s guess. The practical response is getting good at directing it, and COPE gives you a framework for doing exactly that.
A worker in a hard hat facing steel framework on a construction site at dawn

Artificial intelligence

We are all going to have to become engineers

What tinkering with agents at home taught me about deploying them at work
An empty highway running straight to a distant horizon under a vast pale dawn sky, open plains stretching away on either side.

Travel photography

America – A Wider England

An eyewateringly large dinner, a business class seat that doesn’t recline, and a NASA engineer who changed history with a nine-page memo. First impressions of America at forty-five.
A quiet photograph of a person working at a desk at the still centre of a bare room, ringed by soft concentric loops of light — the calm human at the centre of an automated system.

Artificial intelligence

Strategies and Tools for Coping in the Agentic Age

The bottleneck used to be information overload. Now AI handles the mechanical work — and the real challenge is knowing what to pay attention to.
Two people talking beside a round moon-gate window in a wooden teahouse

Travel photography

China – Singapore at Scale

Perfect highways, better consumer products than the West, and a surveillance state that makes it all feel slightly too clean. Notes on a country that builds while others deliberate.
The blue city of Jodhpur seen from a shaded arch of Mehrangarh Fort, indigo houses spilling across the valley toward distant hills.

Travel photography

India – Not Bad

Ten days driving cross-country from Delhi to Udaipur. Traffic as a contact sport, English better than yours, and a country that oscillates between boundless energy and voluntary chaos.

Mental Models

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Pareto Principle

Twenty per cent of effort drives eighty per cent of results.

Find the vital few inputs and put your attention there first.

Explore the model
80% 20% Effort 80% 20% Result

Circle of Competence

Operate where you understand cause and effect.

Stay inside the circle, expand it deliberately, and partner outside it.

Explore the model
What you don’t know PASS · LEARN · OUTSOURCE What you know TAKE ACTION

Eisenhower Matrix

Importance beats urgency.

Sort every task into one of four moves: do it now, schedule it, delegate it, or eliminate it.

Explore the model
Spend more time here IMPORTANT Schedule Do now Eliminate Delegate NON-URGENT URGENT
01 The Idea Maze Before building, map the space: the key forks, dead ends and dependencies—so you can choose a promising path and run smarter tests. 02 The Map is not the Territory All models are simplifications. Don’t confuse the representation (map, metric, plan, narrative) with the thing itself—and update the map when facts change. 03 The PARA Method Organise everything into four buckets—Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives—so what you need is one click from action. 04 Thought Experiment Use a carefully imagined scenario to test an idea’s logic, expose assumptions, and predict consequences—before you spend time or money. 05 Thucydides Trap When a rising power threatens to displace a ruling power, fear and miscalculation can tip competition into conflict unless incentives and guardrails are redesigned. 06 Zero to One Aim for vertical progress—create something truly new (0 → 1), not just more of the same (1 → n). Win by building a monopoly on a focused niche and compounding from there. 07 Pavlovian Conditioning A neutral cue paired with a meaningful event can come to trigger the response on its own. 08 Probabilistic Thinking Reason in degrees of belief, not certainties: use base rates, ranges, and expected value—then update as evidence arrives. 09 Redundancy Add independent alternatives so one failure doesn’t stop the outcome; test failover so the backup isn’t imaginary. 10 Regression to the Mean Extreme results are usually followed by more typical ones—even without any real change. 11 Perceptual Bias When perception systematically deviates—illusions, context effects—so the same data looks different. 12 SWOT Analysis Map internal factors (Strengths, Weaknesses) and external factors (Opportunities, Threats), then convert the grid into a short list of strategic moves.

Galleries

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Rajasthan

Travel

Rajasthan

29 photographs
Sumba

Travel

Sumba

10 photographs
The Northern Territory

Travel

The Northern Territory

20 photographs
Baizhangji Waterfall, Wenzhou

Baizhangji Waterfall, Wenzhou

Photography · 17 photographs
Hong Kong, Sea

Hong Kong, Sea

Travel · 12 photographs

Presentations

Becoming Engineers — opening slide All That Glisters — opening slide When AI Leaves the Chat Window — opening slide

Coffee Log

Lately, in the cup.

The newest specimens in the archive — each tasted and scored out of five, with the roaster's notes and mine.

See all 105 →
Jagong Jeget by Two Hands Full, a coffee bag photographed for the Cup of Record archive Specimen No. 105
Recently reviewed 4.0/5

Jagong Jeget

Two Hands Full — Central Aceh, ID

Carbonic Maceration · Light roast · 1625 masl

red berries · orange · tropical fruits

Aroma4.0
Acidity4.0
Body3.0
Finish4.0
Avatara Thermal by Two Hands Full, a coffee bag photographed for the Cup of Record archive Specimen No. 104
Recently reviewed 3.5/5

Avatara Thermal

Two Hands Full — Central Aceh, ID

Thermal Washed · Medium roast · 1640 masl

lemon · green apple · yellow stone fruits · white flowers

Aroma3.5
Acidity4.0
Body3.0
Finish3.0
Nigusse Nare by Two Hands Full, a coffee bag photographed for the Cup of Record archive Specimen No. 103
Recently reviewed 3.0/5

Nigusse Nare

Two Hands Full — Guji Zone, Ethiopia

Anaerobic Natural · Light roast · 2100 masl

black tea · gentle body · clean finish

Aroma3.0
Acidity3.0
Body2.5
Finish3.5

Notes From

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Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson — book cover

Podcast — Walter Isaacson

How Elon Works

Notes from the Founders Podcast on Elon Musk
The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek — book cover

Book — Simon Sinek

Infinite vs. Finite Games: Rethinking AI Rivalry

Notes from Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game – and parallels to the AI “Race”
Breakneck by Dan Wang — book cover

Book — Dan Wang

Breakneck

Notes from the book Breakneck by Dan Wang.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius — book cover

Book — Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

Notes from the book Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

Uncommon Interests

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Drafting desk under a brass lamp: calipers and wooden rules on a green cutting mat, coffee at hand, snow outside the window
AI Tools The stack I actually reach for.
Tools & workflow
Reading by the water
Bibliophile A shelf worth keeping.
Books & reading
Contax T2 resting on a green-slotted bench beside a red loafer
Gear What survives daily use.
Everyday carry

All, Investing & Economics, Productivity & Wisdom, Artificial Intelligence, Trip Reports, On Photography, Graphics & Design, Crypto

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