Aleem Shaun

aleemshaun.com · Australian English

Coffee addict enthusiast.I like connecting dots and I have various thoughts about: belonging, capitalism, communication, creativity, enterprise, faith, grief, health, humility, justice, leadership, love, parenting, productivity, systems, technology, and wonder....

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Last post: Nov 5, 2026
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Sunrise over Naarm
Nov 5, 2026 · original
location: Level 19, Rydges Melbourne
Falling to systems
Nov 2, 2026 · original
In 2021, I wrote a short post called Notes Nirvana doesn’t exist . I’d been getting plenty of things done but creating almost nothing, and I’d lost sight of why any of it mattered. My closing line was “It’s a journey…” Five years later, the journey continues. Mostly in circles. “The purpose of a system is what it does.” — Stafford Beer The purpose of my system? Busywork disguised as the perpetual pursuit of “better”. I chased the perfect note setup, the ultimate “second brain”. I scoured the interwebs for the best app, the best method, the better way of working. I downloaded, set up, abandoned, downloaded again, and called the search “progress”. Each tool promised to be the last one I’d ever need, until the next one stole my attention. Eventually, the cracks showed. Notes spread across too many apps. One forgotten meeting became three. I couldn’t find the thing about the thing, and a mis
The Next Horizon
Oct 20, 2026 · original
I’ll jump straight to the headline: I’m calling time on my role as CEO at Welcoming Australia . When you believe in an idea and its potential, you build it in a way someone else can lead. That’s been my modus operandi since I began community-centred work; by that measure, it's almost time to hand over to someone else. In May 2027, at our National Symposium in Melbourne , I will deliver my final address as CEO of Welcoming Australia after more than 11 years in the organisation. The comfortable choice would be to stay. I could make that case easily. There is more to do. There is always more to do, and Welcoming Australia is the healthiest it has ever been (by every metric), across the organisation, membership, reach and impact. But that’s also the reason to try something new, and the easy and comfortable decision isn’t always the right one. Staying would also mean robbing someone more ener
Taking a stand is too costly, say people who have nothing to lose
Oct 13, 2026 · original
2026 has been a year of capitulation dressed as principle. My timeline has been littered with an inordinate number of people abandoning apparently principled positions for the path of least resistance. What follows is far too many words explaining their revised ‘position’ and a scrambling defence mixed with victimhood when people disagree. Taking a stand should be costly. It should mean something. But those who can trade their ‘principles’ for a cost-benefit analysis had nothing to lose in the first place.
Black Coffee and Other Certainties
Oct 9, 2026 · original
I have a confession. I believe that if you don’t drink your coffee black, one of two things is true: either the coffee isn’t very good (or wasn’t made properly), or you don’t actually like coffee. I hold this view quite firmly. I’m also aware it’s ridiculous and arrogant. I’ve been thinking about purists lately. People who are certain there’s a right way to do something, and that most people are doing it wrong. You find them everywhere. There are grammar purists, Markdown purists, and people who will tell you that you’re not really doing GTD ( Getting Things Done ) unless you follow it to the letter. There are (cough) coffee purists too. What fascinates me is how recent many of these ‘right ways’ are. Markdown was created by John Gruber in 2004 to make writing for the web a bit easier. Getting Things Done was published by David Allen in 2001. Each was one person’s attempt to solve their
Deleting Meta
Sep 28, 2026 · original
I left Facebook more than 8 years ago. In the past 8 years, I’ve missed being on the platform for precisely zero days. At the time I wrote: I am not decrying digital platforms or online engagement. We live in 2018. I’m not dropping out of society. However, I have recognised that Facebook has made me less human, not more. I’m trying to become better, not worse. And, for me, Facebook is causing regression rather than advancement. Until now, I’ve held on to my Instagram account. I joined in November 2010, a month after it launched and two years before Meta bought it. I was early. I was enthusiastic. I liked that I could post and observe a steady stream of photos. There was no algorithm or ‘AI’, just visual moments in time. Instagram has progressively become everything Meta stands for: attention-grabbing addiction and monetisation for relentless profit. In the past four years, I’ve posted el
27 years and counting
Sep 26, 2026 · original
Maiwar (Brisbane River) stretching out under The Story Bridge Yesterday, my better half and I celebrated 27 years of marriage. 27 years 🎉 The first few years were a slog (we both agree on this). We were young and naive and carrying a lot of baggage. Today we’re older, less naive and carry the baggage together. 😂 It’s a joy to share life with someone who makes me better than I am by myself and who I want to be a better human for.
What will you be when you grow up?
Sep 7, 2026 · original
We recently watched the 2015 animated film The Little Prince for family movie night. I’ve seen it a couple of times before. It’s a beautiful, poignant film based on the 1943 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry book of the same name. This time, I was struck by a scene in the movie in which The Little Girl prepares for her entrance interview to the Werth Academy. In the waiting room, a poster reads: “When I grow up, I want to be essential.” The assumption is that Werth Academy is an elite, regimented school. Guided by her mother, The Little Girl has prepared a response to one question: “Are you Werth Academy material?” Instead, she is asked, “What will you be when you grow up?” She can’t respond. She’s been drilled through a brutal schedule of studying equations and learning the ‘correct’ answers. The question requires something she’s been taught to forget: childhood creativity, wonder and curiosity.
Chasing something that’s not where he is
Aug 30, 2026 · original
My Dad has been staying with us because he lives between Fiji and Australia and needs to be here for medical appointments. He recently turned 80 and his health challenges, along with recent additions to ‘club 80’ in Dolly Parton and Tim Curry , have prompted quiet grief. I’ve been waking before sunrise so I can try and talk with him, as that is when he’s up and hovering in the hope of some coffee. His first comment to me this morning, after I poured him a coffee, was, “I have a dilemma.” I replied, “What’s the dilemma?” He said, “I’ve been offered a meeting in Fiji tomorrow morning.” My response was simply, “That’s not a dilemma. That’s impossible.” Through further queries, I discovered he “had to be in the room” (not online) and would “try to reschedule”. He’s 80, in Australia for a hernia operation and dental health problems, but contemplating a sudden return to Fiji for “a meeting”. M
No Robots
Aug 26, 2026 · original
I want to make things Hey look the sun is rising No robots in sight
Vivid Pink
Aug 24, 2026 · original
On Purpose
Aug 6, 2026 · original
I’ve never actively tracked this or cared to, but if I were to nominate my favourite and most cited quote of the year, it would have to be: “The purpose of a system is what it does (not what it claims to do).” — Stafford Beer I’m obsessed with this quote, and people have started to get that here he goes again look on their face when I say it. My obsession is due to how that statement informs my thinking and how I increasingly view the world around me. Broken or built that way? Before coming across this quote and understanding the thinking behind it, I used to think and say, “ x system is broken.” The housing system is broken. The youth justice system is broken. The immigration system is broken. But as I’ve grappled with that quote, what I’ve come to understand is that a system is only broken for the people who are marginalised and excluded by it . For everyone else, the people it was bui
P is for Preclusion
Jul 17, 2026 · original
A key aspect of my work involves addressing participation. Economic, cultural, community, civic and sports participation. In that context, P is for participation. It’s in the policy documents, the strategy papers, the funding applications, the speeches at conferences and events. Everyone is seemingly for participation. We want everyone to participate, hooray! 🎉 But if you’ve ever tried to navigate the systems designed to enable it, you might wonder if P is actually for Preclusion; being shut out before you’ve even begun. This morning I needed to print, complete, scan and email a 14-page form so my child could participate in a 100-metre race. Rant to follow: A. 14-page. Form. Courtesy of a Government Department. Walls of text. For my child to run in a 100-metre race. Imagine I don’t have a university degree and English isn’t my first language. Some policy person or department thought thi
Failing in Love is Not Failure at All
Jul 10, 2026 · original
"And yet I decide, every day, to set aside what I can do best and attempt what I do very clumsily—open myself to the frustrations and failures of loving, daring to believe that failing in love is better than succeeding in pride.” — Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction The easier path is to succeed at what we ‘do best’. It’s harder to pursue what we ‘do clumsily’. Peterson calls it failing in love. I’m not sure it’s failure at all. Human relationships are clumsy. Parenting is clumsy. But clumsiness isn’t a deficit to overcome. It’s the cost of attempting something that pride can’t do well. The skills that make me effective professionally — strategy, clarity, decisiveness — are frequently the wrong tools in a relationship with a child. I can’t optimise my way into presence. I can’t lead my kids the way I lead an organisation. The clumsiness is built in, and it’s what
The EnshAIttification of Day One
Jul 9, 2026 · original
The unnecessary tweak to the keyword in the title refers to Cory Doctorow’s term , which describes the systematic, gradual decline in the quality and user experience of online platforms and digital services. My variation is unnecessary because it doesn’t enhance the meaning beyond centring the reason for this decline: AI. But I have included it for emphasis. Up until recently, Day One had resisted enshittification, although its purchase by Automattic , the owners of the now-bloated WordPress and Jetpack, should have signalled this was coming. I’ve used Day One for more than a decade. It was an excellent journalling app. Private, minimal, easy to use, with excellent features such as geolocation, weather, ‘On this Day’, and book printing. Features that got out of the way and either worked quietly in the background or appeared only when you summoned them. That’s changed. Now there are new s
Becoming an Applied Synthesist
Jul 3, 2026 · original
“To develop a complete mind, study the science of art; study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realise that everything connects to everything else.” — Leonardo da Vinci For years I have called and considered myself a generalist. Good at a few things, not exceptional at anything. It felt honest and the best way to describe how I’ve managed to carve out a career by bringing together diverse ideas, disciplines and people. The problem with generalist is that it describes a knowledge base, knowing a little bit about a lot, rather than a way of thinking or being. It tells you I’m broad. It doesn’t tell you what I do with any of it. Here’s what I’ve landed on instead: I’m a synthesist . Not like this guy . You may be too young or sophisticated to remember Jean-Michel Jarre, but his album Oxygène was in high rotation (mostly by me) when I was a kid. Anyway, a different type of synthesist. Ac
A Random Note Widget for iOS
Jun 18, 2026 · original
What this does What you need Step 1: Set up a Scriptable bookmark Step 2: Build the RefreshWidgets Shortcut Step 3: Add the Scriptable widget code iA Writer/Obsidian NotePlan Craft docs Step 4: Add the widget to your Home Screen Why bother Whether you’re a PKM enthusiast (if you don’t know what this means, you’re not) or someone who collects notes of various thoughts and observations, it’s easy for what we create to get buried and never surface again. One of my favourite, and underrated, features of the Bear notes app is the Random Note widget. I had it set on my Thoughts tag and another on Topics , surfacing random notes as part of my daily routine. It was a great way to rediscover something worth revisiting. As I moved to plain markdown files stored outside any single app, it was the key feature I missed. I went on a journey to rebuild it. I’ll save you the details of the journey, but
On War
May 8, 2026 · original
War is the product of men. Men who fundamentally believe their way is the only way and their certainty is the only certainty. They embody and perpetuate the delusion that the only way to realise their certainty is to take what they believe is rightfully theirs. By force, by violence and by any means necessary. And so they send other men (and women) to do their bidding. The cost is borne by these and others. The pawns, the shields, the mums and their children. And we can but wonder why we rarely learn from the follies of our fathers.
Dad Life + Our youngest child is a pack animal
May 5, 2026 · original
I’ve recently come across Terry Godier , a software designer and developer, through his thoughtful and beautifully designed posts, such as The Last Quiet Thing , and his RSS reader, Current . Terry has a plan . In my opinion, it’s a good plan. In addition to his philosophy behind Current , he’s also created an RSS first and only service, Sourcefeed . I’ve long been an RSS fan, but this has excited me about internet things again in a space where I’m wondering if we can co-exist with ‘AI’ 😳. I already use Current, but I just subscribed to Sourcefeed and created a feed titled Dad Life . That RSS only feed will document, in an anonymised way, various random and curious moments of being a dad to 7 unique humans. I’m sharing my first post below, but if you care to subscribe to my observations as a parent, any future parenting posts will live here . Our youngest child is a pack animal We’ve be
The Point
Apr 27, 2026 · original
When the arc of the moral universe seems to have inverted. When people boo Elders during sacred moments , and others justify it. When there is an inability to hold complexity or paradox in both hands. When two things can’t be true, and only your certainty remains. When some lives are deemed more important than others. When wars are prioritised over diplomacy. When children and mothers are placed on the frontline of bombs and battles . When all seems lost. It is easy, reasonable even, to wonder, “What is the point?” What’s the point of persevering? What’s the point of dialogue and debate? What’s the point of fighting the good fight? It’s at that precise moment, when the question is posed and persists, that the forces of dehumanisation have won. And that is the point. The point is not only resisting fascism, authoritarianism, and dehumanisation. The point is not only standing in the gap fo

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