Greg Harris

📍London, UK | Freelance Consultant / Flaneur

📝 Editor’s Note | Rob Belk

I’m guilty of one of my pet peeves: asking stale questions.

Whether it’s the awkward 3 minutes before a Zoom call starts or slowly working around a room at a cocktail party - I hate when I find myself in a ‘how’s the weather’, ‘where are you from’, or ‘what do you do’ conversation.

Three questions I like for different settings are:

1. Personal: “If we are together a year from now, what would we be celebrating?” (Borrowed from a David Brooks book)

2. Family: “What was the most fun weekend day you’ve had with your family recently?” (As the camp counselor in our house, I’m always looking for ideas)

3. Work: “What was your favorite meeting last week, and why?” (I still think it’s interesting to know what someone does but I want to ask it in a different way)

I also really like some of Sahil Bloom’s favorite questions:

• If you had an entire day to yourself with zero responsibilities, how would you spend it?

• What do you feel you’ve changed your mind on recently?

• What has been something you’ve purchased for under $100 that has really made a big difference in your life?

Let’s hear it - does anyone have go-to questions that I can add to my repertoire?

Last question, inspired by a trip last weekend to the Greensboro Science Center:

What’s a Pirate’s favorite letter?

“R” even though they love the “C”

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Without further ado…

Why Greg?

Greg has been reading Rambull and reached out, interested in sharing his recommendations. My sense is that people who read Rambull before submitting a profile have a great sense of the type of recommendations that will resonate. Oh, and it's always great to have an international perspective - please continue to let me know here if you have any suggestions. At this point, Rambull profiles are built on your support in recommending people!

Greg’s Self-Description

I’m a Canadian who’s lived in London for years, now enjoying a liminal space between decades in corporate roles and actual retirement: a bit of consulting helping small organisations grow, and a quite a bit more of lunches, travel, cultural stuff and dipping into new things.

Greg’s 6 Recommendations

Written in his own words…

1. 3-in-1 Charging Tool

I suffer from digital device charge anxiety, getting a little squirrelly if their levels drop below 50%. I’ve recently invested in two 3-in-1 charging tools. One is by my bedside, so the phone, AirPods and watch are good to go in the morning. The second is a portable, MagSafe charger, which I use if I’m out for a full day or when travelling. Each is powered with a single cable (go USB-C!) so also eliminates all that multiple cord business.

2. La Pavoni Coffee Machine

For years we’ve had a La Pavoni coffee machine. I love its mechanical design, with a hand-pulled lever to squeeze out the coffee and fashion it into a flat white, iced latte... or crema-topped espresso. After the initial learning curve it’s still a little temperamental: the grind + tamping + extraction motions are no friend to consistency, but when it pops, it’s the best.

3. Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting

2024 was the Year of Ireland for me: a daughter in a Dublin university, some great bands (Lankum, Fontaines D.C.), a surge of Guinness all over London (side note, I think their 0.0 version is one of the best alcohol-free beer around for when that’s the need), and Irish novels. And top of the latter for me was Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting. A modern(ish)-day sprawling family story in a small town in Ireland; funny, tense, twisty, sad. It’s told from multiple viewpoints and saying goodbye to one character’s voice is momentarily disappointing...until the next one grips you. And that ending!

4. Parkrun

Nine years ago a friend pestered me to join him on a Parkrun, an organised, volunteer-run 5K run each Saturday morning. And now, 250+ runs later, I can’t recommend it enough! With over 2000 locations globally, it operates as a run (or walk), not a race. Sure, you’ll get timed, so can go for that personal best, but more importantly, it’s the sense of community and participation, from the friends you go with to the rotating cast of volunteers to manage each run. Check their maps to see if there’s a location near you.

5. Not-Your-Typical Europe Trip

With so many great restaurants (and so many not so), I like digging into food scenes via social media and websites. I love Topjaw, produced by two guys who’ve eaten and drunk their way in video guides for cities around the world. But, in particular, they’ve done tons of super snappy interviews with London’s best chefs who share their tips. These range from cheap eats to some of the best reservations in town, with cocktails and pubs in between. Anyone coming to London should book themselves a Topjaw rabbit hole session and emerge with a tasty list of places to eat.

A few places I’d recommend:

• Agora (more casual) / Oma (more formal): sort of Greek-adjacent, charcoal rotisserie based sister restaurants, in the middle of the generally good foodie destination of Borough Market

• Kiln: an open fire, Thai-inspired restaurant in Soho. If you can, sit at the counter with a cold bottle of orange wine, and watch the cooks fire up the meals a few feet away.

• Andover Arms: a plug for my perfect local pub - imaginatively run, friendly, tasty. If Hammersmith is part of your London itinerary, it’s worth a stop.

  

  

6. Music Recommendations

It’s been a great year for gigs but two to call out so far:

1. North Carolina’s MJ Lenderman has been a constant streaming presence in recent years; check out the bittersweet, wry “You Don’t Know The Shape I’m In” and his contribution to Waxahatchee’s “Right Back To It”. Our family hit peak MJ in June when we all saw him play in London.

2. In February, my wife and I ended a road trip in Austin, climbed the stairs in the Continental Club, paid a modest cover charge, got a beer and saw the wonderful Caroline Hale do a fab set. Early in her career, but oodles of talent.

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Plug | thissongthattime.com

I’ve never been able to code, so was curious to try “vibe coding”, using natural language prompts for the heavy lifting. I needed a motivating use case, and, eventually, voila! thissongthattime.com was born. It’s a site where anyone can pair a song with a special memory and then shared it in your own words... or with a little AI magic. No ads, no revenues, and slightly clunky, but for me a fun proof of concept! I invite anyone to try it out.

Want to get in touch with Greg? Email him at greg@gregharris.co.uk

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P.S. from Rambull — Last week, we went to the farewell Mipso concert in Carrboro, North Carolina. Thank you, Will and Carrie, for the tickets! Mipso played an early acoustic set that was, not surprisingly, very emotional and raw. Check out their best-known song, People Change - it has almost 130M listens on Spotify: