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My Analog Life

Confessions of a luddite fighting screen addiction

Callum McCadden, all rights reserved

I used to run a blog called Refusing to Scroll. I suppose the idea was getting away from dopamine. Getting away from unlimited scrolling the cheap hits of dopamine associated.

Seven years later I still struggle with these algorithms. They’ve become even more intensely weaponised with the rise of short form video content. So still struggling there.

But I’m winning in some aspects, and I want to write a short series on the steps I take to have a more ‘analog’ life. Now I don’t mean analog in the traditional sense. I mean to escape the mess that is rentier capitalism whereby you are subscribed to anything, brain is flooded with everything and you own nothing. And you WILL be happy.

So come with me. I’ll email you each week with a short rant + a solution to the specific issue. End goal is to make us both happier, more connected and less frustrated.

I’ve learned that sadness is death by a thousand cuts and I’ve learned that happiness isn’t instant, but a slow accumulation of better habits through time.

So here’s the plan. One blog, twice a week. The blogs are split into four ‘sets’. Each set will start with a ‘scene setter’ which will be more emotional/philosophical and less practical. Each individual episode will go into a specific issue of the digital age, explain why it sucks and what you can do about it.

I’ll try make you laugh. I’ll go dark and light. I’ll take swipes at everyone (including myself). It’s tongue in cheek. I love you all.

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Plant Seeds

https://plant-seeds.net

Plant Seeds is a project that I have run between November 2023 and November 2025. It is a two year project where I redirect 10% of my income into maximising the conversion to plant-based diets with the people around me. My motivation for this project lies in the nexus of environmental, health and moral concerns. There are greater descriptions on the Plant Seeds website and in the literature than I can summarise here, but put simply conversion of our societies to plant-based diets represents both an environmental and moral imperative.

I have long been an advocate for animals, but not to much effect to people around me. So I wanted to try something new and operationalise some literature I read during my undergraduate: to get people to change their values, change their behaviour first.

So over the past two years I have paid people to go vegan for a week, paid for potlucks, challenges, lunches. I have paid for a reality TV style contest whereby two teams of my friends competed to win a large donation to their charity of choice by being consistently vegan. I have paid for a vegan Christmas dinner and I have paid for people to watch movies. Impact uncertain – we have a rough calculation on the website of the number of animals I think we have saved.

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Schneider Electric Sustainability Business

In September 2023 I was hired by ‘EcoAct’, a Paris headquartered sustainability consultancy and carbon project developer. I was hired as a ‘Business Development Executive’ responsible for generating new business. Our company, formally owned by ATOS, was acquired by Schneider Electric in 2024 and has since been folded into their sustainability business. The intention of this acquisition was to rapidly expand SE’s sustainability consulting and carbon offsetting business and to compete in this space.

My role is pre-dominantly chasing new business, with ~75% of my sales figure in 2023 (~300k GBP), coming from new logo business. In my role I utilise a variety of out-bounding techniques to secure meetings and talk clients through their sustainability issues. Given my academic back-ground, I have found success in working with clients with climate risk exposure (by and large: everybody). I remain alarmed about how little interest there is in climate risk, given we have surpassed 1.5c and are accelerating our environmental decline.

I will remain in this role in 2025 and look forward to engaging with more clients on matters pertaining to climate risk.

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Liberton Northfield Parish Church

Sustainability Planning in a Religious Context

Through October to December 2021 I had the pleasure in working with the congregation at Liberton Northfield Parish Church. Working in a consultant role, I helped develop an ‘Eco-Plan’ that integrated both the wants of the congregation and the recognised requirement to be more sustainable.

Essential to the plan was an aim to be more integrated with their local community. As such, much of the plan was geared towards the community: employing local craftspeople, workshops and activities. The plan avoided being ‘prescriptive’, in order to avoid creating a hiearchy. I likewise tried to assimilate the ideas of the parishners from the onset, and invited feedback for immediate use in the development of the plan.

Unfortunately due to difficulties unrelated to the eco-planning, the project was put on hold indefinitely. With this said, the project was still mutually beneficial for both parties in advancing the meaning behind being a sustainable religous congregation.

By Callum McCadden. Originally written January 17th 2022.

Liberton Northfield Parish Church
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Untitled Oats

Untitled Oats was an oatmilk company that I, with the excellent Alex Baldwin, started in early 2020.

I conceived of the company whilst finishing my degree in Sustainable Development at the University of Edinburgh. The logic behind the company was not to get rich, but to answer a sustainability problem. The problem was found between two disparate groups: Scottish farmers who advocate local produce as a sustainability solution and Scottish vegans who advocate a plant-based diet as a sustainability solution. The problem is they are both correct.

However there is some mutual ground: oats. Add this observation to the startling discovery that oat milk is often imported across the sea to Scotland, the land of the oat, and a company was born.

Alex and I operated Untitled Oats from June 2020 through to its acquisition in April 2022. The business expanded from a kitchen operation to providing fresh oat milk on a regular basis to hundreds of customers and dozens of retail outlets across Scotland’s central belt. We were the first commercially available oat milk in Scotland and have encouraged growth in the industry – even going so far as establishing an Association to assist other fledgling producers.

In April 2022 we made the decision to sell our company and everything we knew to the Mackintosh family. With considerable investment, the company can now go on to providing Scottish oat milk at a much larger scale – multiplying the environmental benefits. Alex and I have continued working with the company, now named Mackintosh Oats Scotland, to facilitate its continued success.

Ultimately, Untitled Oats was a great learning exercise for both of us and it taught me valuable lessons in leadership, realism, and working with stainless steel.

Post by Callum McCadden. August 2022.

Me and Alex after upgrading our tanks.
Stirring in amalyse, an essential step.
Labelling