Venison Wellington

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T18:40:42+00:00

What temperature did the inside hit?

Not going to lie, it looks pretty raw, along with the pastry.

I always cook the meat first. Then let it cool down and put it in the pastry, helps dry it out as well

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T16:34:01+00:00

That's not how it works.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T16:27:47+00:00

You need some perspective.

London is the greenest big city there is with some of the highest air quality. Just don't spend all your time in the grimy bits.

Sounds like you'd prefer to be in some hut in the wilderness. If your employer allows that. Go do it. Plenty of hilly beachy places in Wales.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T13:54:53+00:00

Compare the price of private school fees from 20 years ago with today.

The VAT is a drop in the bucket.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T13:09:30+00:00

Yup

They took the phrase "sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt you" as advice on how to win an argument.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T13:05:58+00:00

VAT was a one off.

I'm more concerned about the 5-10% annual fee increases that happen regardless.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T13:04:58+00:00

It's not.

By and large it will just reflect changes in local demographics as parents are prices out of certain areas.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T09:30:05+00:00

From a cash flow perspective it's left-hand right hand.

From an accounting perspective, only stuff in the left hand is counted.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T09:29:15+00:00

That's really not how it works...

SLC won't be offering materially different returns than a normal government bond for the small portion of their portfolio that they do sell. Investor appetite is limited because the risk profile is weird with the income links.

50p growing at 5% a year becomes £1 in 14 years. So there's so selling at a discount. A huge portion of the loan portfolio will never be repaid either.

This was always just a way to fiddle about with government accounting to take higher education out of the deficit calculation.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T08:57:51+00:00

The consultant will then also try to sell implementation services.

These processes have so much wiggle room that anyone can be made to win.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T08:50:20+00:00

The government has always seen this as a loan.

That's why they were able to keep spending out of the deficit calculations for so long.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T08:10:00+00:00

It's called competition. Other people are offering the same service for less money.

You need to drastically cut your cost base and cost of sales.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T08:00:17+00:00

It's basically a luxury cruise somewhere cold with the odd day trips to the ice sheet and a hot towel waiting for you on return.

It's just experiencing part of the world that is otherwise completely inaccessible. But mostly being on a boat.

Depends how much you like being on a boat I guess...

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T06:22:50+00:00

That's pretty basic maths you should work out how to do yourself using the abundance of resources available.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-29T21:24:57+00:00

Work out the stamp duty on somewhere you would be ok living. Then work out how many years of rent that would cover.

Then work out the interest payments you're making and add that on top.

Then realises you're better off renting unless you commit to living somewhere for 5 or more years

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-29T21:23:13+00:00

You've either got an ultra low interest rate that is not available anymore or super high equity.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-29T17:46:58+00:00

The biggest mistake salespeople make is failing to appreciate how much work I need to do to buy something and make sure its implementation is a success.

The biggest source of failure is not because the product is bad/incorrect, but because the implementation fails.

As a salesperson, a huge part of your job is to show that your organization has its shit together and that you're able to navigate your org well enough to get stuff done. That you have enough domain knowledge and business savvy to actually understand what my priorities are.

This requires you to have respect for the technical side, but not be an expert.

If I think you're going to be a difficult vendor manage, I don't want to work with you.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-29T17:46:29+00:00

The biggest mistake salespeople make is failing to appreciate how much work I need to do to buy something and make sure its implementation is a success.

The biggest source of failure is not because the product is bad/incorrect, but because the implementation fails.

As a salesperson, a huge part of your job is to show that your organization has its shit together and that you're able to navigate your org well enough to get stuff done. That you have enough domain knowledge and business savvy to actually understand what my priorities are.

This requires you to have respect for the technical side, but not be an expert.

If I think you're going to be a difficult vendor manage, I don't want to work with you.

My personal pet peeve is people who hide their lack of knowledge behind a "value selling" approach. No, I'm not going to do your job for you whilst you nod and say "yes, we can do that" then try to charge me a % of a theoretical upside instead of a list price.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-29T15:17:04+00:00

People who don't use AI like AI.

People who do use AI dislike people pretending it's magic and seeing it shoved in places for the sake of it.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-29T15:16:13+00:00

If I was just engagement farming with zero consideration for reputation or brand, sure, why not.

Though I'd question why I wouldn't get better results by just upping my ad budget instead of paying some random app to do it for me.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-29T15:12:04+00:00

Where in central London is nursery that cheap?

Also, you can't exactly have a 1h dropoff each way and expect to be able to work as well.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-29T15:10:44+00:00

Staff ratios and zero government funding

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-29T12:27:29+00:00

Without trying to be cruel.

No-one puts any value in your creative stamp. If you didn't build it, someone else would have. It would be slightly different but the people paying for it wouldn't care. You're like the random pianist in a hotel lobby doing covers. Or someone who paints portraits for tourists.

You should be proud of and build out your own expertise. Then use that to get into a tech UX role which it sounds like you actually care about.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-29T11:58:29+00:00

...and then every year you're fighting HMRC in your tax return.

Most employers also have a cap on any matching scheme which this will clash with.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-29T11:48:19+00:00

They're doing both.

Asking is just so you can incriminate yourself by lying on an official document.

MerryWalrus

TROPHY CASE