Revenge of the admin
”Men have become the tools of their tools.” Henry David Thoreau
Previously at the Volcano Base it was Halloween, and my thoughts were on Dead Money and resurrection protocols. Since then I wrapped up a couple of system design projects and a chunky one kicks off in a couple of weeks. So I’m having a bit of a pause. I feel like I’ve been climbing a mountain for a year, so the opportunity to slow down for a bit and enjoy the view is very welcome. Daytime Arc Raiders, anyone?
Mission Briefing
Revenge of the admin
In every company of a certain size, not too big, not too small, just enough people to make things complicated, there comes a moment when someone invents a new spreadsheet and accidentally creates a God.
No one calls it that, of course. They call it a system. Or a process. Or “the way we do things now.” It starts small. A form here. A tracker there. Maybe a shared calendar that everyone agrees is just a “pilot.” Then, a month later, you are filling in cell D47 every Tuesday so that something downstream doesn’t implode.
This is admin. And like most ancient forces, it doesn’t care whether you believe in it. It only cares that you participate.
The Latin root of all evil
The word administration sounds respectable, but its roots are blunt. It comes from the Latin administrare, meaning “to serve.” A combination of ad (towards) and ministrare (to serve or attend). The same root as minister, which originally meant a servant. Not a title. A position. Someone smaller, doing the attending while someone else had all the fun.
So when you’re doing admin, you are, in the purest sense, serving something. The question is what.
In theory, you’re serving the business. In practice, you’re often serving the system. You’re not deciding what matters. You're updating the tracker that updates the report that updates the dashboard that tells someone else what matters.
Which is fine, until you realise no one knows who the dashboard is for.
Admin with a mission
Admin doesn’t become a problem all at once. It seeps in. Through compliance and good intentions. Through a general desire for things not to be on fire. But once it’s in, it tends to become self-replicating like nanotech grey goo. The process justifies the process. And before long the work begins to orbit the admin, rather than the outcome.
What would it look like if admin were actually useful? If it were a quiet form of stewardship. Not a burden, but a structure that helps the right things happen?
- A weekly report that leads to an actual decision, not an awkward silence
- A CRM that supports relationships, not posturing
- A process that reduces friction, not morale
Admin will always serve something. The question is whether that something still matters.
Classified Intel
Some interesting stuff I discovered on my adventures.
Lumen is a minimalist productivity system inspired by GTD, Obsidian, Zettelkasten – with a tasteful amount of AI sprinkled in. It brings your notes, tasks, and ideas into one focused workspace so you can capture fast, stay organised, and do your best work.
Why care? If your admin is spread across a dozen tools and half-remembered sticky notes, Lumen might help you tame the chaos without losing the thread of thought behind the task.
Affinity is a fully featured, free design suite (think Photoshop alternative). It's by Canva so, if you have a Canva account, you can use some built-in AI tools too and integrate with your Canva workflows. It's pretty good without any of that integration jazz though.
Why care? You can use every tool in the Pixel, Vector, and Layout studios, plus all of the customisation and export features, as much as you want, with no restrictions or payment needed.
Brixx offers visual, scenario-based financial forecasting for businesses that don’t have a CFO lurking in the server room. It's planning software without the spreadsheet nightmares.
Why care? You shouldn’t need a PhD in Excel just to plan for next quarter. Brixx helps teams understand their financial future with more clarity and less Ctrl-Z.
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