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A family office is not simply a wealth manager with a smarter brochure. It is a private structure built to protect, invest and govern a family's capital across generations. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/why-kent-is-becoming-britains-southern-france 2026-08-23 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/29b943d5-f6f4-4b05-a0f2-46880ac07e06/kent-climate-southern-france.jpg Why Kent Is Becoming Britain's Southern France Kent has always enjoyed a warmer, drier climate than most of Britain. What has changed is the pace: the county is beginning to feel less like an outlier and more like a preview. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/kent-vineyards-world-class-wine 2026-08-20 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/7f8ce554-8ffb-4f86-afc8-fc6ed6ad6603/kent-vineyards-wine.jpg Kent Vineyards and the Rise of World-Class English Wine Thirty years ago English wine was a brave hobby. In Kent it has become a serious industry, with chalk soils, major investment and bottles that stand comfortably beside Champagne. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/local-author-whitstable 2026-08-18 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/ce551053-e327-435a-b5a3-fe5303cfec28/local-author-whitstable.jpg The Quiet Pleasure of Being a Local Author in Whitstable Whitstable is not a backdrop I chose for effect. It is the place that formed me, and after years overseas it remains the town that quietly corrects my sentences. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/return-of-the-trams-kent-canterbury 2026-08-16 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/f645be7c-cc3b-4ab6-b15d-2b30fc892d90/kent-trams-canterbury.jpg The Return of the Trams — and Why Kent Should Pay Attention Across Europe the tram has returned not as nostalgia but as infrastructure. Kent, with Canterbury's traffic and growing districts, should at least join the conversation. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/kent-film-locations-2026 2026-08-13 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/8fd9c687-4e63-4647-9821-ba6cbb1067d8/kent-film-locations-2026.jpg Kent Steps Into the Frame: Film, Television and the County's New Role A Hollywood shoot in Whitstable and Hallmark's Christmas in Canterbury are not isolated novelties. Kent has become one of Britain's most useful counties on screen. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/golden-age-package-holidays-1980s 2026-08-10 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/940e73fc-caad-491a-8d4e-a3bdb5034a7d/package-holidays-1980s.jpg The Golden Age of the British Package Holiday Thomson, Cosmos, Intasun and the great charter brands made the Mediterranean affordable to millions. Having worked inside that world, I still think it was one of Britain's finest industries. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/has-technology-gone-too-far 2026-08-08 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/5f001c04-4b18-4215-8368-81bf99f75a98/technology-gone-too-far.jpg Has Technology Gone Too Far? The question is not whether technology is good or bad. It is whether we have allowed useful tools to reorganise our lives around their own appetite for attention. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/best-surfing-beaches-kent 2026-08-06 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/d73e766a-a7d2-485e-a9af-c7760e26896b/best-surfing-beaches-kent.jpg The Best Surfing Beaches in Kent Kent will never be Cornwall, and does not need to be. On the right swell and tide, Joss Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay and their neighbours offer real, joyful surfing. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/growth-special-interest-tour-operators-uk 2026-08-03 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/57d13a27-71cc-40ca-8522-2ac11544bf08/special-interest-tour-operators.jpg The Quiet Growth of Britain's Special Interest Tour Operators As mass tourism became easier to book alone, the most interesting travel businesses moved in the opposite direction: smaller groups, deeper knowledge and journeys built around a shared obsession. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/why-entrepreneurs-are-switching-to-business-retreats 2026-07-31 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/ec2c92ae-01c3-4375-8230-1d6468670a03/small-business-executive-retreats.jpg Why Entrepreneurs Are Switching to Small Business Retreats The best strategic thinking rarely happens between meetings. Founders are increasingly stepping away — briefly, deliberately — to think clearly, challenge assumptions and return with a plan. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/what-is-a-social-footprint 2026-08-25 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/8b69d1b6-9cce-4cd9-b80b-0e9ba1932be1/social-footprint.jpg What Is a Social Footprint? Every business leaves a mark on the people and places around it. The social footprint is how you measure whether that mark is a bruise or a benefit. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/lost-civilisations-around-the-world 2026-08-22 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/d648c7ad-9c22-418b-9e36-a2e7e3ff3b04/lost-civilisations.jpg The Lost Civilisations of the World From the Indus Valley to the jungles of the Amazon, entire sophisticated societies rose, flourished and vanished. What they left behind still puzzles us. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/chalk-streams-river-stour-kent 2026-08-17 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/1b790e9e-4466-4736-9f3d-e38ee1c62f3b/chalk-stream-river-stour.jpg England's Chalk Streams and the River Stour There are barely two hundred chalk streams on earth, and most of them are in England. Kent's River Stour is one of the finest — and one of the most threatened. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/home-soap-making-business 2026-08-15 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/1d124fba-e3d9-4d51-80ec-3553556f9a82/home-soap-making-business.jpg How to Start a Home Soap-Making Business Low start-up costs, real margins and a product people buy again and again. But soap is a regulated cosmetic, and that is where most beginners trip up. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/wild-swimming-sea-pools-kent 2026-08-09 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/f6c71648-859c-45d5-bf52-14eb5941bc4b/walpole-bay-tidal-pool-cliftonville.jpg Wild Swimming and the Sea Pools of the Kent Coast Walpole Bay Tidal Pool at Cliftonville — one of the largest tidal swimming pools in Britain, refilled by the sea twice a day. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/the-private-stock-exchange 2026-08-05 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/5cefea3c-cbb2-425b-b298-22933a28704c/private-stock-exchange.jpg The Rise of the Private Stock Exchange Companies are staying private longer and their shares still need to trade. A quiet parallel market has grown up to do the job — and most investors have never heard of it. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/art-of-long-term-business-planning 2026-07-29 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/fa53e584-da0d-426c-8478-a99240ea83fe/long-term-business-planning.jpg The Art of Long-Term Business Planning Everyone agrees you should plan for the long term, and almost nobody does it. The discipline is rarer than it sounds — and it is the closest thing business has to an unfair advantage. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/manston-airport-reopening-kent 2026-07-26 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/ff5daa54-3fcb-4cd7-a259-dc1cff250f83/manston-airport.jpg Manston Airport and What It Means for East Kent After years of silence on the runway, Manston is set to return as a working airport. For one of Britain's most overlooked corners, the stakes could hardly be higher. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/is-beekeeping-a-profitable-home-business 2026-07-21 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/ffc1379c-6623-4410-8108-c5333499673f/profitable-beekeeping.jpg Is Beekeeping a Profitable Home Business? Honey sells for a premium and the bees do the work. But between the romance and the revenue sit varroa mites, winter losses and some honest arithmetic. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/good-business-etiquette-rules 2026-07-17 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/2e2b042a-de4d-4527-9ffa-62be07ae4cc0/good-business-etiquette.jpg The Quiet Rules of Good Business Etiquette We hear endlessly about bad etiquette. The good kind is rarer, quieter and worth more — a set of small disciplines that compound into reputation. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/most-progressive-us-cities-startups 2026-07-11 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/e35c9d87-f2b1-4e7e-a0f9-bfb494e8312a/progressive-us-cities-startups.jpg America's Most Progressive Cities for Start-Ups The action is no longer only in the Bay Area. From Austin to Raleigh, a new map of American enterprise is being drawn — and the lessons travel well. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/the-wonders-of-village-cricket 2026-07-09 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/5cc06f59-7472-453c-b999-428220e5362c/village-cricket-england.jpg The Wonders of Village Cricket White flannels, a church spire, tea at four o'clock and a leg-side boundary into the nettles. Village cricket is England at its most itself — and it matters more than ever. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/start-a-travel-agency-from-home-uk 2026-07-04 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/186738f7-c6b7-4138-b387-57918d91091e/homeworker-travel-agency.jpg How to Start a Travel Agency as a Homeworker in the UK The licences, the money, the suppliers and the honest arithmetic behind running a travel agency from a spare bedroom in Britain. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/most-progressive-cities-in-the-uk 2026-07-01 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/19fa4bef-1414-41c2-86c6-049714037227/progressive-uk-cities.jpg The Most Progressive Cities in the UK Which British cities are actually changing, and what they are doing differently on transport, energy, housing and enterprise. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/bookshop-growth-return-to-reading 2026-06-25 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/f882f8c4-a59b-4e13-bc7d-39fa2bbaf245/bookshop-revival.jpg Why Bookshops Are Growing Again Independent bookselling has been growing for a decade against every prediction. The reasons say a great deal about what people now want from a high street. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/ai-skin-cancer-detection 2026-06-21 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/ba006f94-fbfe-459f-ac17-e5b5f816fac0/ai-skin-cancer-detection.jpg AI and the Early Detection of Skin Cancer Algorithms can now match dermatologists at spotting melanoma in an image. The interesting question is what happens to the rest of the pathway. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/travel-etiquette 2026-06-14 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/12b74bdb-1bd1-4911-bd1e-4fa97e43af84/travel-etiquette.jpg Travel Etiquette: The Unwritten Rules Not a lecture about reclining seats — a working code for behaving well in other people's countries, aircraft and hotels. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/how-to-start-a-tour-and-travel-business 2026-06-11 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/bf82d4c1-d108-4da1-9020-0659cec3f54e/start-a-tour-business.jpg How to Start a Tour and Travel Business Building an operator rather than an agency: designing the product, pricing it honestly, and surviving the cash-flow trap that kills most of them. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/extreme-day-trips-from-gatwick 2026-06-07 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/1299ab8d-2426-43bb-8823-78b14bb02685/extreme-day-trips-gatwick.jpg Extreme Day Trips from Gatwick Leave Sussex before dawn, have lunch in another country, sleep in your own bed. The art of the one-day flight abroad. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/chatgpt-commands-everyday 2026-06-02 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/677006a8-01ca-41a1-bb75-f13cda767621/chatgpt-commands-everyday.jpg ChatGPT Commands That Actually Save You Time Twelve practical prompts for everyday work — planning, research, admin and thinking — with the reasons they work. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/has-ai-gone-too-far 2026-05-31 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/94c2d71d-beeb-4306-8003-4d78b808f480/has-ai-gone-too-far.jpg Has AI Gone Too Far? A working view from someone who uses these systems daily: where the genuine harms are, where the panic is misplaced, and what should actually be regulated. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/growth-of-home-jam-making 2026-05-25 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/d98481f3-3456-4ccd-9a82-745342ac36af/home-jam-making.jpg The Quiet Boom in Home Jam Making Preserving is growing fast in Britain again — driven by cost, waste, allotments and a genuine appetite for making something with your hands. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/uk-beekeeping-growth 2026-05-21 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/69d923af-85b5-4278-bf22-205bd4ddab42/uk-beekeeping-growth.jpg The Rise of the British Beekeeper Beekeeping in the UK has grown dramatically in twenty years. What that means for pollination, for honey, and for the bees that are not honeybees. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/juvenile-idiopathic-arthritis-awareness 2026-05-18 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/b79567e0-0342-4d7a-999b-79c1e1b3c091/juvenile-idiopathic-arthritis.jpg Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: The Childhood Illness Nobody Talks About My son Thomas was diagnosed in 2017 after collapsing with inflammation in forty-seven joints. He has systemic JIA, the most severe form. This is what the disease is, and why it remains so badly understood and underfunded. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/nat-holidays-coach-tours 2026-05-13 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/6f8b3664-9d59-40f0-82d9-10ad52c11a3e/nat-holidays.jpg NAT Holidays: The Rise and Fall of Britain's Great Coach Holiday How a budget coach operator carried a generation of British families to the Mediterranean on a shoestring — and why the model that built it eventually broke it. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/starting-a-candle-making-business 2026-05-07 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/25e47548-a110-42a4-8876-c605480ca969/candle-making-business.jpg Starting a Candle Making Business: A Genuinely Enjoyable Way to Begin Low startup costs, fast feedback and a product people actually want. What to focus on if you want a candle business that makes money rather than a very expensive hobby. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/starting-a-travel-business 2026-05-03 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/61e653f9-d61d-4948-afa6-50c5e18ee54e/starting-a-travel-business.jpg The Key Things to Starting a Travel Business Now and in the Future Four decades in travel have taught me which fundamentals never change and which have changed entirely. What actually matters if you are starting today. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/solar-panels-eco-disaster 2026-04-26 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/a0d21fed-aa09-400c-b694-0dd237d2d35e/solar-panels-eco-cost.jpg Why Solar Panels Are an Ecological Problem We Are Refusing to Discuss Clean at the point of use is not the same as clean. The mining, manufacturing, land use and waste realities behind solar deserve an honest hearing. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/growing-a-travel-business-uk 2026-04-23 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/87e42553-6c10-4520-8961-36ced49e8d79/grow-travel-business-uk.jpg How to Grow a Travel Business in the UK Growth in travel is rarely a marketing problem. It is a margin, repeat-rate and seasonality problem — and those are the three levers worth pulling. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/uk-salt-industry-whitstable-seasalter 2026-04-18 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/18ffad14-8fab-44dc-a9bf-b143d9ce2f7c/uk-salt-whitstable.jpg Salt, Seasalter and the Industry Britain Quietly Lost The north Kent coast once produced sea salt at scale. Today a village called Seasalter is almost all that remains of it — a name outliving the trade that gave it one. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/genghis-khan-grave 2026-04-14 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/ee0e7a48-5d07-454d-b561-4a0799cbc1f2/genghis-khan-grave.jpg The Grave of Genghis Khan: Where Is the Great Khan Buried? Eight centuries on, the most powerful conqueror in history has no known grave. The theories, the evidence and the reason Mongolia may not want him found. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/why-eating-fish-is-healthy 2026-04-08 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/cbbf83bd-c34f-487a-8063-1f054e22ef58/eating-fish-health.jpg Why Eating Fish Is So Good for You The evidence for fish is unusually strong across the heart, the brain, the eyes and the joints — and the practical case for eating more of it is simpler than most diet advice. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/bad-business-etiquette 2026-04-05 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/f10c7d98-0fff-48d9-8dff-35f20194b4a9/bad-business-etiquette.jpg Bad Business Etiquette: The Habits That Quietly Cost You Deals Nobody ever tells you why they stopped returning your calls. After four decades in business, here are the behaviours that end relationships without anyone saying so. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/ai-in-pharmacology 2026-03-31 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/cf86442e-0462-4621-81d2-5fab80c58339/ai-in-pharmacology.jpg AI in Pharmacology: What It Is Actually Changing Beyond the headlines about machines discovering drugs, artificial intelligence is reshaping pharmacology in ways that are less cinematic and rather more important. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/chatgpt-commands-for-business 2026-08-24 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/ff302b97-3d23-4edb-90fc-414d261d6cea/chatgpt-commands.jpg The 10 Best ChatGPT Commands for Business Ten prompts that have earned their place in the running of my companies — for briefs, board packs, negotiations, hiring and the dull admin nobody writes about. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/why-i-had-to-write-echoes-of-a-season 2025-08-14 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/29503700-093e-43df-85e3-4e597d26fb04/why-i-had-to-write-echoes-of-a-season.jpg Why I Had to Write Echoes of a Season — And Why I Almost Didn't There is a strange truth about life: it often takes nearly losing it to truly understand what mattered all along. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/six-word-memoirs 2026-07-08 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/02652ea7-c73f-4f89-a6f4-cbeb5d01fadd/six-word-memoirs.jpg Six-Word Memoirs: Small Phrases, Whole Seasons A short essay on how the smallest sentences can hold entire chapters of a life — from travel and business to quiet moments of recovery. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/memoir-examples 2026-07-05 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/cead06cb-7974-4b9e-911a-baa57c756324/memoir-examples.jpg Memoir Examples: Real Scenes, Simple Structures, Honest Moments How the strongest memoirs are built from ordinary evenings, particular streets and the people we can still describe by heart. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/costa-brava-summer 2026-06-20 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/d60587fb-76c1-4e7d-a87b-cfa10d7c7830/costa-brava-summer.jpg A Summer on the Costa Brava, Remembered The small hotels, the harbour lights and the sound of a scooter at midnight. A short travel essay on the coast that inspired Sunshine Seasons. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/leadership-through-change 2026-05-11 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/d115f07a-fceb-45c8-afc6-1549d1bf742d/leadership-through-change.jpg Leadership Through Change: What Four Decades Taught Me Notes on building companies through recessions, technology shifts and the quiet moments when leadership really matters. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/surfing-and-writing 2026-04-02 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/ddbf83b7-9d78-43fd-b613-aeb3482e3803/surfing-and-writing.jpg Surfing and Writing: Two Practices, One Discipline Why a lifetime spent paddling out at dawn quietly taught me almost everything I know about finishing a book. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/the-notebook-habit 2026-03-18 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/1898b5d8-dde7-4d81-824c-c3ab18606674/the-notebook-habit.jpg The Notebook Habit: Why I Still Write by Hand Forty years of paper notebooks, and why the slower medium keeps producing the better sentences. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/on-solitude 2026-02-14 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/a1415c81-fc3f-4c4b-a117-7c2465bbfb27/on-solitude.jpg On Solitude, and Why It Is Not Loneliness A quiet essay on the difference between being alone and being lonely, and why the writing life depends on the first. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/the-second-draft 2026-01-22 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/28b33016-bb26-47a1-aefc-06ca610927f8/the-second-draft.jpg The Second Draft: Where the Book Actually Happens The first draft is a promise. The second draft is the book keeping it. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/andalusian-evenings 2026-06-05 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/f84bf69c-f955-4c67-a441-88c3c528c610/andalusian-evenings.jpg Andalusian Evenings: The Hour Before Dinner On flamenco, orange trees, and the particular quality of light that hangs over Seville between seven and nine. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/mallorca-in-winter 2026-01-08 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/6d007513-86a2-4a16-8b8e-e4681246aab1/mallorca-in-winter.jpg Mallorca in Winter: The Island Nobody Talks About Empty coves, quiet villages and the version of the island the summer crowds never see. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/hiring-slowly 2026-03-02 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/467eb0bb-c697-4051-87b2-30a144fe86b5/hiring-slowly.jpg Hiring Slowly, Firing Kindly Two of the hardest lessons of four decades in business, and why most companies get both of them wrong. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/the-quiet-founder 2025-12-11 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/55076605-856c-4d95-948b-8701b545d4a9/the-quiet-founder.jpg The Quiet Founder: Building Without a Megaphone Not every strong company is built by a loud founder. Some of the best ones are built by the person you barely hear from. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/the-history-of-a-shutter 2026-06-28 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/3684ad6f-f321-43c8-8b62-34c173b17660/the-history-of-a-shutter.jpg The History of a Shutter: A Small Object, A Long Story How a simple piece of painted wood carries centuries of climate, craft and Mediterranean daily life. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/the-lost-cafes-of-europe 2026-05-24 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/97bf1455-a659-4bf0-b984-4b167814e15e/the-lost-cafes-of-europe.jpg The Lost Cafés of Europe On the disappearing rooms where writers, exiles and idlers once passed entire afternoons — and what we lose when they close. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/spies-and-storytelling 2026-04-19 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/fe5d8216-4800-45a4-81f7-98f5dcb9c9b5/spies-and-storytelling.jpg Spies and Storytelling: The Cold War as Literary Material Why the espionage novel remains the great modern form for writing about loyalty, doubt and the private cost of public work. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/ai-and-the-writer 2026-07-01 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/cbdf4c9b-0739-4100-b7d8-95e5a4cbd423/ai-and-the-writer.jpg AI and the Writer: A Tool, Not a Replacement A working novelist's honest view on generative AI — where it helps, where it flattens, and why the sentence still belongs to you. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/the-slow-internet 2026-05-30 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/8c15a6fd-91fc-4d18-9d19-a0c66c43be10/the-slow-internet.jpg The Slow Internet: Rediscovering the Web as a Reading Place The case for RSS, personal blogs and email newsletters — the quiet parts of the internet where good writing still lives. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/the-founders-second-screen 2026-02-28 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/2997a12e-6acd-449c-a608-3f3984660387/the-founders-second-screen.jpg The Founder's Second Screen: On Technology and Attention The single hardest discipline in modern leadership is not strategy. It is the ability to close a laptop. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/cold-water-mornings 2026-03-11 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/c61f455e-7ad5-4a8e-879b-9c0a0f0e5709/cold-water-mornings.jpg Cold Water Mornings: A Small Argument for the Sea in Winter Why a swim before sunrise, in water you would rather not enter, may be the most reliable act of clarity available to a working life. https://wesleybaker.com/journal/reading-the-tide 2025-11-19 monthly 0.6 https://wesleybaker.com/__l5e/assets-v1/39a5828a-c905-45f0-9fd8-e8e435c07ca7/reading-the-tide.jpg Reading the Tide: What the Sea Teaches About Timing The tide does not negotiate. It arrives when it arrives. A short essay on rhythm, patience and the discipline of the working day.