Drew Bruce

Drew Bruce

Author  ·  Problem Solver  ·  Staff to Two Great Danes

I've spent twenty-five years solving problems across industries that share almost nothing in common — oil and gas, banking, education, media, government — which, depending on how you look at it, is either a useful qualification for writing about problem-solving or a cry for help.

Somewhere in there I helped build BBC iPlayer when streaming was still the kind of problem people lost sleep over, and I've spent longer than I'd like to admit arguing about architecture in organisations large enough that no two people could agree what "the architecture" actually was. These days I work from home in northwest Tasmania, where the problems are different and the main interruption to my writing day is a 100kg Great Dane named Hamish deciding it's time for lunch. (His mum Freya backs him up. It's a coordinated operation.)

I write non-fiction about thinking clearly and communicating visually, and science fiction about things that won't fit in a diagram. The dogs are indifferent to both genres but supportive of the general concept of sitting still for long periods.

Currently: Completing Arguments That Land, the third and final book in The Practical Thinker series. Plotting book four of The Ancients of Tomorrow. Negotiating daily with Freya and Hamish over whose office this actually is.

The Practical Thinker Series

Diagrams That Speak book cover

Diagrams That Speak

A Practical Guide to Visual Communication

How to create diagrams, frameworks, and visual explanations that actually do what you need them to do. For anyone who has ever stood in front of a confusing slide and quietly wondered if there was a better way.

Read more →
Well, That Didn't Work book cover

Well, That Didn't Work

A Practical Guide to Solving Problems (Even the Ones You Created)

A practical toolkit for anyone who has ever been handed a mess, a deadline, and a look that says "can you fix it?" One pause, three questions, and thirty proven methods for the kinds of problems that don't come with instructions.

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Arguments That Land book cover

Arguments That Land

A Practical Guide to Making Your Case

A five-check pre-flight system for anyone who has ever been right and had it make absolutely no difference. Because being right is not enough — the room has to hear it.

Coming Soon

The Ancients of Tomorrow Series

Co-authored with Hugh C. Gray.

Uterra book cover — Ancients of Tomorrow

Uterra

Book One of The Ancients of Tomorrow

Beneath a thousand square miles of Queensland swamp, a classified facility is running experiments that shouldn't be possible. Colonel Mack is about to become one of them.

Available on Amazon →
The City Below book cover — Ancients of Tomorrow Book 2

The City Below

Book Two of The Ancients of Tomorrow

Uterra City has grown into something its founders didn't plan for. So has Mack. The question is whether either of them can be trusted with what they're becoming.

Available on Amazon →
The President's Man book cover — Ancients of Tomorrow Book 3

The President's Man

Book Three of The Ancients of Tomorrow

Washington doesn't know what Mack is. Washington is about to find out that this is their problem, not his.

Available on Amazon →

Elsewhere