Oli Barrett

☕You have lost touch with hundreds if not thousands of people over the years and that's fine. But within that group are a smaller group of people you didn't really mean to lose touch with. Life got in the way. Things got busy. ✒️My latest post; linkedin.com/posts/olibarre…

🖊 We are closer than we think... linkedin.com/posts/olibarre…

📢 Attention all UK space companies! The Size and Health of the UK Space Industry 2025 survey is open! 🚀 Run by @SpaceEconomics, your responses will help us keep track of growth in our thriving UK space sector. 🛰️ Survey closes 26 June. Say your say 👉know.space/sh25?utm_sourc…

I’ve just come back from a trip to London – a world-leading hub for investment and the world’s third-most visited city! Social media can give a very distorted view of the UK and our cities, London especially. If you want to know about #London, ask the people who live there, like Dame Susan Langley @citylordmayor 👇 hindustantimes.com/ht-insight/int…

I spoke to @amolrajan on Radical about what it will take to make the UK grow again - we cover a lot: AI, pensions, capitalism, the role of risk in British culture, state capacity, entrepreneurship... and lots more.

✒️ If other countries confused our own leaders with our own country, we'd be disappointed. There is more to us than that. We are not our politicians. There is more to the US than that. linkedin.com/posts/olibarre…

NEW: Today I’m announcing plans to deliver at least one new late-night youth club in every London borough - the biggest investment in youth clubs ever made by a Mayor. We’re bringing youth clubs back. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

Alzheimer’s is one of medicine's hardest unsolved problems, and one of the most devastating. At the OpenAI Foundation, we believe AI is well suited to its complexity. We're directing over $100M to scientists mapping the disease, designing drugs, & more. I wrote about it here: openaifoundation.org/news/ai-for-al…

We're hiring for someone to help write the ARIA playbook 🚀 We're looking for a 'Special Projects Manager (Science & Tech)' to create the projects, initiatives, and ecosystems to ensure we're pursuing the boldest scientific ideas that reach the real world. Learn more below👇

Everyone needs to hear this... Michael Caine on his defining philosophy for life: Use the Difficulty As a young actor, he was rehearsing a play when a chair got stuck in the door and blocked his path. He told the other actor he couldn't get by the chair to enter the scene. The actor's response: "Use the difficulty...if it's a comedy, fall over it, if it's a drama, pick it up and smash it." This idea became a defining mantra for his life. "There's never anything so bad that you cannot use that difficulty...if you can use it a quarter of one percent to your advantage, you're ahead, you didn't let it get you down." I can't stop thinking about this... How can you use the difficulty you're currently facing? How can you embrace the struggle? How can you find flow through the friction? As with everything in life, control the controllable: The difficulty is already there. You can't control it. But you can control how you react to it. You can control your response to it. You can control your attitude towards it. Lesson: Difficulty is inevitable. Use it.

✒️On pink elephants, paralipsis, and antithesis; linkedin.com/posts/olibarre…

Number 10 has actually released a dashboard tracking their fulfillment of @matthewclifford's AI Plan. Very unusual to have this from a gov department. The link is below, worth playing around on it - one thing that strikes me: some good progress on these recommendations but a year is a long time in AI and Britain needs to raise its ambitions, fast.

📖 The Economist, Macquarie Dictionary, Merriam Webster and even the American Dialect Society (whose "Word of the Year" choice goes back further than all of the others) all agreed on the Word of 2026... 🥄 𝗦𝗹𝗼𝗽. So what's my word of 2026? linkedin.com/posts/olibarre…

@TellyChat1 👀

Finding this series a bit meh it’s not the same without Tom Hollander and Hugh Laurie #TheNightManager

@danielsusskind "Two eggs good" 👀

I love these cold days in London. They always remind me of something I once read about George Orwell, that on cold days like this he would boil a pair of eggs and keep one in each pocket as a handwarmer and then eat them when he arrived at work.

Nearly 250 attendees from 45+ utilities gathered in Boston for the @NGAlliance_ Summit to address surging demand, AI-driven load growth, and grid modernization. Check out Aaron Panzer’s recap: ngpartners.com/stories/collab…

The UK tech sector is thriving - but not for everyone. Technology Secretary @leicesterliz convened the first meeting of the Women in Tech Taskforce, a flagship initiative to dismantle barriers and unlock the full talent pool. This taskforce will deliver practical solutions for government and industry to implement side by side.

We need more women in tech and we need more tech to work for women. I am delighted so many talented people have agreed to be part of the Women in Tech Taskforce so we can create a future that works for all bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

A map of that there London showing fictional characters, and where they're from. Mr Benn - Putney - bottom left. I think this is Fabulous!!

“In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd” Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616)

We're wildly unprepared for the pace of change in AI, so I'm excited to have recorded a 5-part AI miniseries for @RestIsPolitics with @RoryStewartUK exploring the tech, where it's going and what it means Rory and I have v different POVs, so it's a fun series of conversations...