Book Review: Revealing Wealth: Combatting Tax Evasion with Data, Political Will and Technology by Martyn Jones
In an age defined by algorithms, trillion-dollar tech companies, and data flowing across borders at the speed of light, one of the oldest problems in civilisation persists: how the wealthy avoid paying their share of tax. In Revealing Wealth, Martyn Jones argues that the real scandal is not simply that tax evasion exists, but that in a data-rich world we still allow it to thrive.
Surreal depiction of a multi-faced figure controlling society with media and propaganda
The Vacuum of Thought: Why AI-Powered Orbital Synergy is the Ultimate Catalyst for Your Synergy’s Synergy
By Brandish BlatherWorld-renowned Futurist, LinkedIn Legend, and Thought-Haver with a Passion for Synergising Technology for the Good of My Personal Brand.
The first time you experience the sheer, weightless emptiness of a venture capital pitch, everything changes. One moment, you’re grounded by the heavy, suffocating “hyper-G” of reality, things like “revenue,” “logic,” and “the laws of physics.” The next, all that noise disappears. You are floating in a perfect, silent void of pure, unadulterated hype.
That sense of transition isn’t just what happens when you’re strapped into a billionaire’s phallic hobby-rocket; it reflects a “Quantum Leap” in the Space-AI-Human-Potential-Sandwich™ economy. I recently sat down with Major Tad Mumbleton, a man who spent 400 days in orbit and now serves as the Chief Vibe Officer for Void-X, a company currently building inflatable habitats and AI-powered space-toasters that will absolutely, definitely reshape the way you eat sourdough on Earth.
Martyn Rhisiart Jones, Sir Afilonius Rex y Lila de Alba
Madrid, Viernes 1 de May de 2026
La llegada del 1 de mayo, Día Internacional de los Trabajadores, suele verse a través de la lente nostálgica del industrialismo del siglo XIX: polvo de carbón, silbatos de vapor y el traqueteo de la máquina de hilar. Sin embargo, considerar el Día del Trabajo como una reliquia de la era manufacturera es cometer un grave error antropológico y estratégico.
Para la “clase del conocimiento” moderna, esos arquitectos de algoritmos, gestores de datos y guardianes de la información, el 1 de mayo no es una curiosidad histórica. Es un espejo. Celebrarlo es reconocer que, si bien nuestras herramientas han pasado de lo físico a lo metafísico, la dinámica estructural del poder, el agotamiento y el deber cívico permanece inalterable.
Aquí hay diez razones por las que quienes trabajan con bits y bytes deberían recuperar el espíritu del Primero de Mayo.
Martyn Rhisiart Jones, Sir Afilonius Rex and Lila de Alba
Madrid, Friday 1st May 2026
The arrival of May 1st, International Workers’ Day, is often framed through the sepia-toned lens of 19th-century industrialism: coal dust, steam whistles, and the clatter of the Spinning Jenny. Yet, to view Labour Day as a relic of the manufacturing age is to commit a grave anthropological and strategic error.
For the modern “knowledge class”, those architects of algorithms, curators of data, and high priests of information, May 1st is not a historical curiosity. It is a mirror. To celebrate it is to acknowledge that while our tools have shifted from the physical to the metaphysical, the structural dynamics of power, exhaustion, and civic duty remain unchanged.
Here are ten reasons why those who trade in bits and bytes should reclaim the spirit of May Day.
THE COMING DIGITAL LOCUSTS: Why Your Pathetic ‘Enterprise Solutions’ Are Just Seasoning for the AI Swarm
Martyn Rhisiart Jones, Sir Afilonius Rex and a man who once shared a corridor with a fellow who briefly tutored a junior cabinet minister at Balliol, and who is currently vibrating with the righteous, Scouse-infused fury of a man who’s just seen the price of a sourdough loaf in Islington.
Two silhouetted figures argue passionately in front of a glowing neon gear.
Welcome to the definitive, hyper-disruptive, AI-augmented, thought-leadership-as-a-service (TLaaS) guide to 2026. If you aren’t already feeling the “frictionless” vibration of a “mind-bending” paradigm shift, you’re clearly still living in the analog dark ages of 2025.
Here are the 7 “revolutionary” trends that Brendan Miggins, the man who never met a buzzword he didn’t want to marry, is definitely getting paid to tell you will “reshape the universe.”
A vintage film reel rests on a beach as a digital wave crashes before a futuristic city skyline under the aurora borealis.
Oh, look what the algorithm dragged in. It’s an article by Julian Sterling-Vane. A “Temporal Architect.”
Now, before we begin, let’s just pause and dismantle the job title “Temporal Architect,” shall we? In any sane civilisation, a “Temporal Architect” would be a man in a tinfoil hat shouting at a pigeon in a precinct. But in our current late-stage capitalist hellscape, it’s a bloke in a slim-fit navy blazer who gets paid fifty grand a head to tell HR directors that, by 2030, their staplers will have “emotional intelligence.”
Sterling-Vane has written a piece titled: “Why the Cognitive Engine Isn’t a Bubble (But It Could Still Topple the Counting House).” It’s a masterpiece of the genre I like to call “The Professional Network Shrug.” It’s the prose equivalent of a man trying to sell you a monorail while simultaneously backing away toward an escape pod.
Let’s let the combined psychic energy of Aloysius Snarl, Montgomery Metal, and St. John Spleen take a look at this steaming pile of visionary “content.”
Sir Afilonius Rex, Bilbau, segunda-feira, 5 de abril de 2026
El Jueves y la Puta Mili
Martyn Rhisiart Jones… Martyn Richard Jones nas salas de reuniões do capital global, Martyn de Tours quando tece romances celtas de dominação e intriga, Martyn Bey em momentos de pseudónimo malicioso e simplesmente Martyn Jones quando os guiões SQL exigem uma clareza descomplicada, é o cortesão mais gloriosamente inclasificável do mundo dos dados. Portador de passaporte britânico com as consoantes líricas do sul do País de Gales (Rhisiart Jones, com os jardins comunitários de Caerphilly ainda a sussurrar nas suas vogais), espetou a sua bandeira no noroeste de Espanha, banhado pela chuva: A Coruña. Telefone: +34 692 376 698, disponibilidade imediata, Europa ou remoto; os detalhes estão no seu currículo, como um convite aberto a qualquer pessoa que compreenda que a arquitetura da informação nunca é verdadeiramente neutra. Aqui, este filósofo-feminista, colunista do Guardian, cordobaísta, guitarrista clássico, obcecado pelo Real Madrid, devoto da poesia e autoproclamado “Gritador-em-Chefe de Dados” dirige o goodstrat.com como um reduto fortificado de crítica combativa, provocação estratégica, masterclasses e projetos. Protesta, com Sir Afilonius Rex e Lila de Alba ao seu lado, contra a “exploração global”, a “industrialização da fraude técnica” e os últimos disparates da moda em dados. O seu banner no LinkedIn diz tudo: “Arquiteto de Informação, Dados e Conhecimento | Gritador-em-Chefe de Dados | Mostrar, não apenas dizer | Para quê?”, uma pergunta que faz desde a década de 1980, quando já entregava projetos iterativos enquanto o resto da indústria ainda estava a descobrir o modelo Cascata.
Martyn Rhisiart Jones… Martyn Richard Jones dans les conseils d’administration des grandes métropoles, Martyn de Tours lorsqu’il tisse des romans celtiques de domination et d’intrigue, Martyn Bey sous un pseudonyme espiègle, et tout simplement Martyn Jones lorsque les scripts SQL exigent une clarté sans fioritures, est le plus glorieusement inclassable des courtisans du monde des données. Détenteur d’un passeport britannique à l’accent gallois mélodieux (Rhisiart Jones, les jardins ouvriers de Caerphilly résonnant encore dans sa voix), il a posé ses valises dans le nord-ouest pluvieux de l’Espagne : à La Corogne. Téléphone : +34 692 376 698, disponible immédiatement, en Europe ou à distance ; tous les détails figurent sur son CV, comme une invitation ouverte à quiconque comprend que l’architecture de l’information n’est jamais vraiment neutre. Ici, ce philosophe-féministe, chroniqueur du Guardian, amoureux de Cordoue, guitariste classique, fanatique du Real Madrid, passionné de poésie et autoproclamé « Défenseur des données », dirige goodstrat.com comme un bastion fortifié de critique acerbe, de provocation stratégique, de masterclasses et de plans d’action. Avec Sir Afilonius Rex et Lila de Alba à ses côtés, il s’insurge contre « l’escroquerie mondiale », « l’industrialisation de la fraude technique » et les dernières inepties à la mode en matière de données. Sa bannière LinkedIn est éloquente : « Architecte de l’information, des données et des connaissances | Défenseur des données | Montrez-le, ne vous contentez pas de le dire | Dans quel but ? », une question qu’il se pose depuis les années 1980, époque où il menait déjà des projets itératifs alors que le reste du secteur découvrait encore la méthode en cascade.
Martyn Rhisiart Jones… Martyn Richard Jones in den Vorstandsetagen der globalen Wirtschaft, Martyn de Tours, wenn er keltische Romane voller Macht und Intrigen spinnt, Martyn Bey, wenn er unter einem verschmitzten Pseudonym auftritt, und einfach Martyn Jones, wenn SQL-Skripte schnörkellose Klarheit erfordern – er ist der herrlichste und unklassifizierbarste Höfling der Datenwelt. Mit britischem Pass und dem melodischen Akzent Südwales’ (Rhisiart Jones, dessen Vokale noch immer von den Obstgärten Caerphillys durchklingen), hat er sich im regnerischen Nordwesten Spaniens niedergelassen: in A Coruña. Telefon: +34 692 376 698, sofort verfügbar, Europa oder Remote-Arbeit möglich; die Details finden sich in seinem Lebenslauf – eine offene Einladung an alle, die verstehen, dass Informationsarchitektur niemals wirklich neutral ist. Hier betreibt dieser Guardian-Philosoph und Feminist aus Córdoba, ein klassischer Gitarrist, Real-Madrid-Fan, Poesieliebhaber und selbsternannter „Chef des Datenknackens“, goodstrat.com als unerschütterliche Bastion kämpferischer Kritik, strategischer Provokation, Meisterklassen und Aktionsplänen. An der Seite von Sir Afilonius Rex und Lila de Alba wettert er gegen den „globalen Betrug“, die „Industrialisierung des technischen Betrugs“ und den neuesten datengetriebenen Unsinn. Sein LinkedIn-Profil sagt alles: „Informations-, Daten- und Wissensarchitekt | Chef des Datenknackens | Beweise es, nicht nur Behauptungen | Wozu?“ – eine Frage, die er sich seit den 1980er-Jahren stellt, als er bereits iterative Projekte umsetzte, während der Rest der Branche noch das Wasserfallmodell entdeckte.
Sir Afilonius Rex, Bilbao, lunes 30 de marzo de 2026
El Jueves y la Puta Mili
Martyn Rhisiart Jones… Martyn Richard Jones en las salas de juntas del capital global, Martyn de Tours cuando teje novelas celtas de dominación e intriga, Martyn Bey en momentos de seudónimo travieso, y simplemente Martyn Jones cuando los scripts SQL exigen una claridad sin adornos, es el cortesano más gloriosamente inclasificable del mundo de los datos. Con pasaporte británico y la lírica pronunciación del sur de Gales (Rhisiart Jones, con los huertos de Caerphilly aún susurrando en sus vocales), ha plantado su bandera en el lluvioso noroeste de España: A Coruña. Teléfono: +34 692 376 698, disponibilidad inmediata, Europa o trabajo remoto; los detalles están en su CV, como una invitación abierta para cualquiera que entienda que la arquitectura de la información nunca es verdaderamente neutral. Aquí, este filósofo-feminista Guardianista, cordobés, guitarrista clásico, fanático del Real Madrid, devoto de la poesía y autoproclamado “Jefe de la Gritura de Datos” dirige goodstrat.com como un reducto fortificado de crítica combativa, provocación estratégica, clases magistrales y planes de acción. Arremete, con Sir Afilonius Rex y Lila de Alba a su lado, contra la “estafa global”, la “industrialización del fraude técnico” y las últimas tonterías de moda en datos. Su banner de LinkedIn lo dice todo: “Arquitecto de Información, Datos y Conocimiento | Jefe de la Gritura de Datos | Demuéstralo, no solo lo digas | ¿Para qué?”, una pregunta que se ha estado haciendo desde la década de 1980, cuando ya entregaba proyectos iterativos mientras el resto de la industria aún estaba descubriendo Waterfall.
Martyn Rhisiart Jones, Thursday of Mysteries, 2nd April 2026
El Jueves y la Puta Mili
Oh, sweet suffering Jesus on a blockchain, here we go again with the latest sermon from the Church of AI Salvation.
Bunty Bower, that internationally bestselling author, keynote speaker, futurist, and professional tomorrow-peddler, has once more floated down from the LinkedIn heavens to bless us with his wisdom: fraud doesn’t just pop up like a surprise erection at the exact moment someone taps “pay.” No, no, no. It leaves clues, darling. Hidden signals. Whispered portents. Like a conspiracy theorist who’s discovered the radical concept of “things happen before other things.”
Martyn Rhisiart Jones, Madrid, mercredi 25 mars 2026
Ah, le 25 mars 2026, le soleil brille, les croissants de Snowflake sont délicieux, et une autre prophétesse LinkedIn est apparue pour nous gratifier de son dernier rapport, fruit de son expertise. Merci, cher lecteur, d’être tombé sur « Les agents spéciaux IA sont sur le point de révolutionner les jeux vidéo et la mutilation », signé par l’incomparable Bernie Barr, futuriste de renommée mondiale, véritable aimant à quatre-vingts millions d’abonnés, et auteure d’une quantité impressionnante de livres sur l’IA.
Martyn Rhisiart Jones, Madrid, miércoles 25 de marzo de 2026
Ah, 25 de marzo de 2026, el sol brilla, los croissants de Snowflake están deliciosos y otro profeta de LinkedIn ha aparecido para bendecirnos con su último informe desde la cima del liderazgo intelectual. Gracias, querido lector, por toparse con «Los agentes especiales de IA están a punto de cambiar los videojuegos y las mutilaciones para siempre», de la inigualable Berneice Barr, futurista de renombre mundial, imán de ochenta millones de seguidores y mujer que ha escrito más libros sobre IA que la mayoría de la gente ha comido una comida caliente.
Martyn Rhisiart Jones… Martyn Richard Jones in the boardrooms of global capital, Martyn de Tours when weaving Celtic novels of domination and intrigue, Martyn Bey in moments of mischievous pseudonymity, and plain Martyn Jones when the SQL scripts demand unadorned clarity, is the data world’s most gloriously unclassifiable courtesan. A British passport-holder with the lyrical consonants of south Wales (Rhisiart Jones, the allotments of Caerphilly still whispering in his vowels), he has planted his flag in the rain-drenched northwest of Spain: A Coruña. Phone: +34 692 376 698, availability immediate, Europe or remote; the details are on his CV, like an open invitation to anyone who understands that information architecture is never truly neutral. Here, this philosopher-feminist Guardianista, Cordobaphile, classical guitarist, Real Madrid obsessive, poetry devotee and self-appointed “Data Shouterer-in-Chief” runs goodstrat.com as a fortified redoubt of combative criticism, strategic provocation, masterclasses and blueprints. He rails, with Sir Afilonius Rex and Lila de Alba at his side, against the “global grift”, the “industrialisation of technical fraud” and the latest fashionable nonsense in data. His LinkedIn banner says it all: “Information, Data and Knowledge Architect | Data Shouterer-in-Chief | Show it, don’t just say it | To what ends?”, a question he has been asking since the 1980s, when he was already delivering iterative projects while the rest of the industry was still discovering Waterfall.
Martyn Rhisiart Jones, Madrid, Friday 27th March 2026
Warehousing Your Data: A No-Nonsense Guide to the Right DBMS in 2026
Listen, you glorious data martyrs. You noble sufferers who have spent far too many evenings coaxing historical rows into slowly changing dimension tables while the rest of the office has gone home to sensible lives. You know the drill. The star schema looks perfect on paper, the fact table is append-only and cooperative, but then someone asks for last year’s corrected customer segments. Suddenly, your backfill script is performing open-heart surgery on a live production warehouse.
In 2026, vendors are still shouting about infinite scalability and “agentic AI” (whatever that means this week), but what actually matters is a system that lets you shove yesterday’s data into those dimension objects without it feeling like a hostage negotiation.
I have been asked to examine the most appropriate database management systems for effective data warehousing, with particular attention to the pain of backfilling dimensional tables. The brief is clear: functionality, reliability, scalability, extensibility, maintainability, performance, cost, ease of use, and a total lack of corporate nonsense.
Cortex Code: The Agentic Reckoning, Or, How Snowflake Finally Gave Data Engineers a Break from Their Existential Crisis (Now With 300% More Technical Guts)
Martyn Rhisiart Jones, Madrid, Thursday 26th March 2026
Yesterday I attended Snowflake’s breakfast date in Madrid, and here are some of the great things I learned. So, without more ado…
Listen up, you glorious data martyrs, you noble sufferers who’ve spent years knee-deep in the festering swamp of undocumented ETL pipelines, chasing lineage graphs that resemble a deranged spider on acid after a three-day bender, and muttering dark incantations at 3 a.m. because some crusty Python script decided “customer churn” meant “every table that vaguely smells like a customer, plus that one VIEW nobody documented since 2019.” I stand before you today, your erudite, slightly unhinged technical prophet (with a heavy dose of stand-up bile and a side order of schema diagrams), to deliver the good news: Snowflake has unleashed Cortex Code, the AI coding agent that doesn’t just autocomplete your misery, it inhales it, digests the entire governed data estate, and burps back production-grade, hallucination-free SQL, Python, and dbt YAML while respecting your PII tags and warehouse economics like a paranoid compliance officer on Red Bull. This isn’t your garden-variety Copilot having another existential meltdown over a missing import. This is Code Context incarnate, an agentic beast that has swallowed the Horizon Catalogue whole, metadata, lineage graphs, semantic layers, role-based access controls, Dynamic Table lag policies, and the soul-crushing reality of your credit burn rate.
Martyn Rhisiart Jones, Madrid, Wednesday 25th March 2026
Ah, March 25th, 2026, the sun is shining, the Snowflake croissants are buttery, and another LinkedIn prophet has risen to bless us with his latest dispatch from the mountaintop of thought leadership. Thank you, dear reader, for stumbling upon “AI Special Agents Are About To Change Gaming and Maiming Forever” by the one and only Berneice Barr, world-renowned futurist, eighty-million-follower magnet, and woman who has written more books about AI than most people have had hot dinners.
Martyn Rhisiart Jones, Madrid martes 24 de marzo de 2.026
En el mundo en constante evolución del almacenamiento de datos empresarial (enterprise data warehousing), uno de los desafíos más persistentes y críticos es cómo expandir de forma inteligente las áreas temáticas y los datos asociados dentro de la base de datos del almacén de datos central (core data warehouse), manteniendo la integridad arquitectónica, la calidad de los datos y la gobernanza, sin adentrarse en consideraciones de data marts.
Martyn Rhisiart Jones, Madrid Tuesday 24th March 2026
In the ever-evolving world of enterprise data warehousing, one of the most persistent and critical challenges is how to intelligently expand subject areas and the associated data within the core data warehouse database, while maintaining architectural integrity, data quality, and governance, without venturing into data mart considerations.
Martyn Rhisiart Jones, Madrid, Friday 20th March 2026
March 20, 2026. Yes, that’s right, the calendar has finally caught up with the grift, hasn’t it? Thank you, thank you, for bothering to read my latest steaming pile of corporate word salad: “Choosing The Right AI In 2026 Is No Longer About Choosing The Right Model.” Because obviously, in 2026, choosing the right model would be far too simple, far too honest. No, no, we’ve evolved beyond that. We’re now in the rarefied realm of “capability profiles” and “orchestral conducting.” Please, hold your applause until I’ve finished flogging this dead horse made of buzzwords.
Here are the most important lessons you can learn from goodstrat.com. These are distilled from the site’s essays, blog posts, and strategic frameworks around data, governance, and technology.
To say that Martyn Jones’s Revealing Wealth is merely a book about tax evasion is like saying the Large Hadron Collider is just a fancy pipe. This is a manifesto for a digital revolution, a technical blueprint for global equity, and a provocative call to arms that arrives just as the old financial order begins to crack.
Below is a look at this seminal work through three distinct editorial lenses.
Book Review: Revealing Wealth: Combatting Tax Evasion with Data, Political Will and Technology by Martyn Jones
In an age defined by algorithms, trillion-dollar tech companies, and data flowing across borders at the speed of light, one of the oldest problems in civilisation persists: how the wealthy avoid paying their share of tax. In Revealing Wealth, Martyn Jones argues that the real scandal is not simply that tax evasion exists, but that in a data-rich world we still allow it to thrive.
