AllyBurns
I wrote Turn Down the Tap, a decluttering book for people who like their stuff. I co-founded Learn to Love Digital, a digital agency and innovation lab in Edinburgh. The rest of the bench is bikes, a flat that mostly runs itself, a YouTube channel about the unexplained, a curiosity about where AI is taking us, and a loft I am no longer allowed to trust.
Books
Item 0001 / Shelf A
Turn Down the Tap
A no-shame decluttering book for people who like their stuff. Most tidying advice assumes you want to own less. This one assumes you want to keep the record collection and still be able to find the kitchen table. It starts with the tap rather than the mop: slow down what comes in, and the rest gets easier.
- Format
- Kindle
- Published
- 25 July 2026
- Companion
- turndownthetap.com, free guides and printables
- Goodreads
- Ally Burns, author page
Driftcasting
A word I coined for doing your best creative work in motion: walking and talking, and arriving home with something built. There may be a book in it. There is already driftcasting.com.
About
Item 0002 / Job cardDeveloper by trade, author by accident, CTO by now.
I have been a developer for over twenty years, and I still am one. These days I am one of the two co-founders of Learn to Love Digital, a digital agency and innovation lab in Edinburgh, where I am the CTO. I am also a co-founder of Whereverly.
Turn Down the Tap is the book I spent a decade not writing: every method that half-worked for a magpie brain like mine, finally lined up so the dots connect.
- 2017 to nowCo-founder and CTO, Learn to Love Digital
- 2017 to nowCo-founder, Whereverly
- 2016 to 2017Developer, LarderBox
- 2014 to 2016Senior developer, technical lead, then principal software engineer, Blonde
- 2006 to 2014Senior developer, Line Digital
- 2002 to 2006Developer, Mercurytide
- Before thatA few earlier jobs, which I won't list, because the dates would give away my age
Made
Item 0003 / Shelf BContext Manifest
Bring your own context. An open draft standard for a site to ask your AI assistant about you, with the purpose and how long it keeps the answers stated up front.
github.com Tool / QRdottr
Make a QR code. That's it. Paste a link, get a clean code, download it. Runs entirely in your browser: no login, no cookies, works offline.
dottr.app Tool / PDFPDF Placeholder
Dummy PDFs from a URL. Set the title, page count and watermark in the query string and link straight to it. No signup, no API key.
pdfplaceholder.com Site / the nameclanburns.scot
A small, honest site about the Burns surname rather than the poet: no clan chief, no ancient tartan, no coat of arms that belongs to you, and thirteen poems with the Scots glossed.
clanburns.scot Video / YouTubeRoom 78
A YouTube channel about mysteries and the unexplained, one case file per episode. I write, voice and edit it.
youtube.com Idea / maybe a bookDriftcasting
A word I coined for doing your best creative work in motion: walking, talking, and arriving home with something built. I coined the term; I'm not the world's foremost driftcaster.
driftcasting.comInterests
Item 0004 / The matCycling
A good ride, not an epic one. I would rather have a good day out than a long one.
Home automation
Home Assistant runs the flat, on an Unraid server in the corner: the lights, the heating, and more automations than one flat strictly needs.
Technology, all of it
A huge nerd, with no plans to recover. New tools get tried on a Saturday and either kept or written about.
AI, and where it is taking us
Not a thought leader, more a curious tinkerer with opinions. I use it every day, and I think a lot about how it is changing everything, especially how we work and how we make things. Some of that thinking ends up in the musings, and some of it in Context Manifest.
Workshop
Things in here I cannot show yet. When they are ready they turn up on this page first.
Films
Indie, foreign, big and small: a wide taste and opinions to match. Watched properly, on a home theatre and sound system I never quite stop fiddling with.
Video and photography
Video production, photography and documentary making. Most of it ends up in Room 78 at the moment.
Board games
Playing them, and designing them. There is one of my own on the table, which is all I will say for now.
DIY
A lot of it. If something in the flat can be built, fixed or improved with a drill and a free weekend, it probably has been, or it is on the list.
Dancing
Techno and drum and bass, as loud as they come. Sober raving: all of the dancing, none of the hangover.
Transformers lore
Not just the toys: the lore. Forty-odd years of cartoons, comics and continuities, every incarnation and retcon, and I will happily talk about most of them.
Productivity tools, configured
I run Mac, PC and Linux, and I cannot leave a default setting alone on any of them. A mouse with a thumb grid of buttons and a keyboard's spare F-keys do different things depending on which app is in front and which desk I am at, all wired up with Hammerspoon; Helm is the write-up. And at home, an Unraid geek.
Collecting
More Transformers than the cupboards were ever designed to hold. Four bikes. A record collection that is frankly out of hand. And LEGO: some of it still in the shipping box after fifteen years, plus a Star Trek shuttle I absolutely did not need. I gave up cataloguing it, so nobody knows how many sets are up that loft. Not even me.
- Scottish history
- The Burns name
- Mysteries and the unexplained
- Walking and thinking
- Self-hosting
- Unraid
- Gadgets
Musings
Item 0005 / The boardOccasional musings.
I don't post often, but every now and then you'll find some musings here. Short pieces, mostly about building things, keeping things, and the overlap.
- Oct 2026
A clan with no chief
How a domain I bought because my name is Burns finally became clanburns.scot: a small, honest site about the name rather than the poet.
- Oct 2026
Bring your own context
My assistant already knows how I like things. Why does every new site still ask? Why I wrote Context Manifest, a small open proposal for fixing that.
the Tap Latest guide
A record you never play: how to declutter a vinyl collection
Read it →Skills
Item 0006 / DrawersContact
Item 0007 / Job sheetSend a message.
About the book, about work, about which of the four bikes is the right one for a wet Tuesday. I read everything and reply to most of it.