The coffee machine is broken.

I was standing in a queue at a petrol station recently, watching a man try to navigate a self-service coffee machine clearly designed by someone who hates people.

He was roughly my age. Well-cut coat. Decent shoes. The look of someone who's managed departments, or at least a very complicated mortgage. He stared at the screen choosing between "Intense" and "Velvet" with the kind of quiet frustration you only recognise if you've been there yourself.

We made eye contact for a second. No words. Just the shared understanding that the world is currently being redesigned by people who think "seamless" is a personality trait.

He got his Velvet latte. I got my petrol. We both left slightly more annoyed than when we arrived.

Most welcome pages would insert a life lesson there, or a free download nobody asked for.

The Chapterist arrives once a week when there's something worth saying. Not on a schedule. Not to fill a slot. No lists, no life hacks, no quiet implication that you need fixing.

Just one sharp, human perspective on navigating a world that's moving too fast and thinking too little.

If that sounds like the kind of thing you'd actually read — you're in the right place.

The Chapterist