About Thirteenth Strike

I’m Braeden. I’m a senior information security analyst with strong combined ADHD. I write about what happens when those two things crash into each other—which is most days.

I can trawl through systems looking for vulnerabilities for hours on end, happily—but I can’t open an email that’s been sitting in my inbox since Tuesday. I’ve built a colour-coded laundry system because choosing what to wear was genuinely ruining my mornings. I once applied a SWOT analysis to my own brain and it was the most useful thing I did all year.

If you’ve ever sat in a meeting knowing you just connected two dots nobody else has—while also knowing you’re about to interrupt someone and get That Look—you’re probably in the right place.

What I write about

The biggest post on here is about figuring out which ADHD phase you’re stuck in. Most of what I write is about the weird little systems I build to function when my brain won’t cooperate—borrowing from security frameworks, risk analysis, whatever works. Sometimes I write about cybersecurity and privacy properly. Sometimes I just rant about technology, culture, or whatever’s been rattling around my head that week.

I have a Master’s in Information Security and a Bachelor of Criminology where I wrote my dissertation on facial recognition and biometrics. I mention this mostly so you know the security stuff isn’t coming from someone who read one article and started a newsletter.

Why Thirteenth Strike?

If a clock strikes thirteen, you don’t just question the thirteenth strike but everything that came before it. George Orwell opened 1984 with that image for a reason.

That’s what I do. Pull at threads.