All Writing by Jamie Miles

Memories aren’t replayed, they’re rebuilt, which is why the ones you keep revisiting can grow kinder or crueller. Here’s the science behind the drift, and five ideas for steering it.

Silhouettes of five string musicians playing violins and cellos in front of a large window

Playing The Orchestra

Benjamin Zander realised a conductor makes no sound. A quarter of storms, grief and tinkering taught me what that might mean for a one-person business, and why everyone may soon have an orchestra.

Abstract multicoloured line drawing of a bird-like figure, in orange, green, blue and yellow, on a cream background

#15: Bouncing back & AI Agent joy

Sitting at my desk, surrounded by the warmth of several new books, I realised that I’ve digested the turbulence of the last few weeks in record time.

Neon-lit Soho street at dusk with a vertical red "Soho" sign glowing between old brick buildings

Spitting Truth

A walk through Soho, London, turns sour and Jamie is left wondering where he went wrong.

Building an AI Newsletter Assembler

With plain English and no technical experts, I built a AI Agent to turn a Notion newsletter into a website post and email campaign, saving me hours of manual work.

Stylised illustration of a black paw pressed against a larger cream-coloured paw on a pale yellow background

#14: Roller Coasters & Eclipses

When the next wave hit, I thought in earnest: am I going to drown?

None of the waves were especially big, but the first one caught me off guard, knocking me off my feet and under.

Tall church spire and old town rooftops of Tallinn at dusk, with the sea beyond

Down The Drain

A fight over tap water in Tallinn, and the small, absurd battle against a city’s growing devotion to Big Bottle.

Smartphone being pulled into a purple gravity-well grid, captioned "Part 3", for Escaping Your Phone's Gravity

Escaping Your Phone’s Gravity: Part 3

There’s a free dumbphone hiding inside every iPhone. Here’s how to find it, and why it beats every app promising to do the same thing.

Illustration of two pink hands cupping each other, entwined with blue flowers and green vines, on a pale blue background

#13: Holidays & Remembering Too Much

I didn’t realise my body was a blabbermouth, but there it was, giving away all my secrets like some toddler who had learned to talk but not the art of discretion.

Sketch of a person's head being rubbed away by a pencil eraser, with crumbs floating off, for remembering too much

The Creative Cost Of Remembering Too Much

Getting stuck on a wrong answer and getting stuck on a grudge are the same failure in disguise. Here’s the science, and three ways to force the redirect.

Illustration of a child riding a glowing fish with a flowing tail through a night sky above lavender fields

The Fish’s Tail

The lessons and progress from another three months of writing Jamie’s Journal, and a revised editorial focus.

#12: Future Forgetting & Clowning

In this week’s piece, I’ve broken down the different kinds of future forgetting that most often trip us up, along with their likely causes, so you can better support your memory. I’ve also included a newsletter-exclusive.

Illustration of a hand passing a red baton to a faded blue hand in the dark, about future forgetting

Future Forgetting: Understanding The Most Common Form Of Forgetting

With past forgetting well-covered in previous pieces, let’s focus on the greatest cause of memory frustration and unpack the anatomy of future forgetting, why it’s vulnerable, and how to use the If-Then Technique to more effectively keep our promises.

#11: Nine Funny Filters & A Funeral

It’s been a dislocating fortnight. By popular demand, find your guide to writing satire inside. Today is also Father’s Day. My intention was to write about my dad but last week, my Nana Bapa – my mum’s dad – passed away.

Winged cupid in a jester's hat drawing a bow in a Greek landscape, with comedy masks in the clouds above

How To Write Satire: A Practical Guide To Being Funny

Satire is never just a joke; it’s a thought-provoking challenge to the status quo, making it a skill worth learning. Whether your goal is to be more engaging, invoke change, or both, let’s unpack how to write something sharp and funny about the world.

#10: Fixing Your Forgetting & Brighton Improv

‘I have a terrible memory. What’s wrong with me?’ is the next addition in my series on memory. Instead of giving you more memory tools, I wanted to share how to diagnose why you forgot and how to fix it.

The word "NOWO" in bold letters on a linen background, with sticky notes of plans pinned to the corner

Why You Keep Forgetting (and How To Fix It)

Our memories are not ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in any meaningful general sense. Instead, they are specifically fallible. They fail in particular ways, under particular conditions, for particular reasons. And these reasons are largely diagnosable.

Red towers and cables of the Golden Gate Bridge emerging from thick fog, as seen in a foggy city

The Foggy City: Part One

‘You’ve been here a while now. Do you prefer San Francisco or London?’ Fran, Britney, and I were having lunch in the canteen. I finished my bite and answered without hesitation. Souring my colleagues' excitement wasn't my intention, but I can't deny that seeing their...

#9: Magnetic Conversation & Writing Satire With The Onion

You might remember what to say, but struggle to express it. So while I continue to chip away at the next memory-focused article, ‘Why We Forget and How To Fix It’, I wanted to share the recipe for having magnetic conversations I learned from my improv practice.

Two hands building a toy dinosaur from orange and brown bricks, with speech bubbles reading "Idea?" and "Yes, this here"

The Art of Magnetic Conversation: Build Up, Not Out

Learning to bring a conversation to life turned out to be simpler than I expected, and the insight came from an unlikely place: improv.

Specifically, from realising I’d been misreading its foundational principle, ‘Yes and…’. Once I corrected my understanding, I started noticing it everywhere, especially in the people I find the most magnetic to talk to.

Warm brass table lamp with a glowing amber shade, in front of a blurred shop window of posters

Creative Company

I found Vincent the way you find most good things: in a bookshop. We were both attending a signing event by one of our favourite authors and happened to be neighbours in the queue. As seems to be custom for my best friends, Vincent promptly left the country.

#8: Muscle Memory & Dark Chocolate

I’ve turned to one of the forgotten cousins of memory: the comeback. This week is about the power and consolations of muscle memory, repairing my broken body, and the strange way I’ve been eating dark chocolate.

Overhead view of a dark chocolate bar with a few broken pieces on a dark surface

The Oil Layer