Why I've been so quiet recently

A quick life update.

Many of you have noticed that it’s been quiet around here across the last few weeks. There hasn’t been a New Week instalment for a while.

Now, I’m finally free to say why.

My son Leo was diagnosed with a serious heart defect recently, and two weeks ago he had open heart surgery to correct it.

I'll relate the most important news first: the operation was a great success, and Leo is now at home and recovering well! We were told that children rebound with amazing speed, and so it has proven. We’re all feeling very lucky.

As you can imagine, the whole journey has been pretty intense for Leo and the family. And that meant NWSH had to go on pause.

I’m going to keep it that way for a couple more weeks while Leo continues to recover. Then I’ll resume normal New Week service, and write a longer note that reflects on this whole experience.

Leo's operation was made possible by a heart-lung machine, otherwise known as a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. In other words, it was made possible by technology, combined with the incredible skill of a world-leading heart surgeon and associated team. So it’s not surprising that going through this experience with Leo has, among many other things, prompted some new thinking on the place of technology and technique in our lives.

Leo outside St Thomas’ hospital, central London

The pause will also give me time to reflect on where NWSH is at, and where it should go next.

It’s been an amazing journey so far; one that I’m extremely grateful for. I really feel the responsibility of making the most of it all and serving you, the reader. To that end I want to introduce some new kinds of writing over the coming months. And there are a couple of big projects in the works that I can’t wait to tell you about.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you. What trends and futures-related development is on your mind right now? What would you like to see covered in a future NWSH essay? Most important, how are you?

You can drop a comment, hit reply to this email, or join the NWSH Slack group to let the community know.

And if you’d like to share a get well message with Leo, I’ll pass it on; he loves reading them!

I’ll be back soon. Until then, be well,

David.

P.S To those who’ve written to me recently and are yet to receive a reply, apologies. I’ll be writing to you soon.