The unbearable lightness of beards
Man Feelings 08 Mar 2024
You can tell a lot about me by the state of my beard. I’ve worn facial hair since my mid-teens, ever since my maths teacher commented on my “bum fluff moustache” when I was 14 and struggling to establish myself as a cool, stylish young... keep reading
Pub banter, sexist movies and the joys of being a dad
Man Feelings 01 Mar 2024
I had half an hour to kill yesterday before a post-work event started, so I popped to a favourite quiet bar for a cheeky pint before it started. It’s a real ale specialist pub so it’s usually full of middle-aged men asking to sample half... keep reading
I think I'm addicted to videos of men living on narrowboats.
Man Feelings 23 Feb 2024
My name is Matt and I’m addicted to watching YouTube video series about men making new lives for themselves on canal boats. I don’t know exactly how or when this addiction started. I remember late one night, perhaps during a covid lockdown, browsing the Amazon... keep reading
In which your narrator gets a stomach bug
Man Feelings 17 Feb 2024
Hello. This man has been feeling, well, sorry for himself. This email is a day late, which isn’t so bad in the grand scheme of newsletters. But most of my week has been a write-off due to a particularly unpleasant stomach bug. It began ominously... keep reading
Welcome to the Hotel California
Man Feelings 09 Feb 2024
Twelve years ago today, I climbed out of a taxi in Menlo Park, California and was greeted by a large billboard featuring the ubiquitous blue thumb of the Facebook logo, whose head office we were there to visit. This was my first experience of visiting... keep reading
Why man caves are actually hugely important
Man Feelings 02 Feb 2024
A “man cave” is a bit embarrassing, isn’t it? There are various other euphemisms for these spaces where men go to escape their wives, hide from the kids, indulge in their nerdy hobbies, or just drink from a secret booze stash and watch questionable YouTube... keep reading
In pursuit of the perfect Tetris grid (and what it taught me about life)
Man Feelings 26 Jan 2024
I remember reading somewhere that playing Tetris could be used to avoid post-traumatic stress disorder. According to research, people who played a game of the famous block-wrangling classic were able to avoid forming painful memories of car accidents if they played within six hours of... keep reading
On sixteen years as a partner: how did I manage to swing this?
Man Feelings 19 Jan 2024
I celebrated sixteen years with my partner Madeleine this week, a number so mind-bogglingly large that we had to count on our fingers to ensure we’d definitely worked it out correctly (look, we’re tired parents). We got together at university when we were 21, and... keep reading
Do you need to know how to drive to be a man?
Man Feelings 12 Jan 2024
When I turned 18 years old, I received a razor in the post. It was a marketing campaign by Gillette to congratulate me on “becoming a man”, even though I’d been shaving for years by the time I opened it. I also seem to remember... keep reading
Why riding a bike with stabilisers is fine, and a Victorian ghost for Christmas
Man Feelings 05 Jan 2024
In the “festive perineum” between Christmas and New Year, there’s a lot of time to kill. Alas, I was in charge of a four year old, whose appetite for sitting down quietly with a book is famously limited. I was desperate, therefore, to encourage him... keep reading
Why that box of old cables you're keeping can go in the bin
Man Feelings 29 Dec 2023
Every man has a drawer or box full of old cables and electronics, right? I hate to stereotype, but I’m also reasonably confident that every man reading this (and let’s be fair, quite a few women too) will have a tangled mess of old USB... keep reading
Why the Bear reminded me that working in kitchens is chaotic yet fun
Man Feelings 22 Dec 2023
We tried watching The Bear at the start of this year after hearing good things, but my partner Maddy got fed up with the intensity of the kitchen scenes and didn’t enjoy it. Fast forward to this week, and the Guardian have named it TV... keep reading
Things I learned managing people in 2023
blogpost 20 Dec 2023
I wrote last year about things I learned as an engineering manager in 2022. It’s been another twelve months of ups, downs and sideways, so here’s a couple more things that I learned this year about leading people in tech. Let good people go A... keep reading
The Invincible Man
Man Feelings 15 Dec 2023
I was getting my hair cut this week and the barber was making small talk as he negotiated my sideburns. We were talking about children and their chaotic injuries, and I mentioned my son’s space hopper/slide injury (see a previous Man Feelings for the full... keep reading
How well dressed are you?
Man Feelings 08 Dec 2023
Before my son started school, he went to nursery on the campus of the University of Birmingham where my partner works. When collecting him I’d sometimes take the scenic walk through campus which was always filled with irritatingly young-looking students having fun with their carefree... keep reading