Nicholas Tickle - nicholastickle.com

Nicholas Tickle

Look around… All of us. In this together. None of us alone can achieve the synthesis required for human progress. We are all great… but only when we’re together

Subscribe to my Newsletter >>>

About me

Engineer in London. Co-founder and CEO of Anchorbase.xyz  where we are building a centralised technical library for designers in the AEC industry. 

I am currently focused on web development with AI with a particular interest in context engineering and RAG pipelines for agents. Prior to this I focused on design and project management in structural engineering working on commercial and transportation infrastructure. Most notably working on HS2 for a number of years.

I created this site to share the projects I am working on, share lessons learned, publish essays, and share my views on engineering, history, and science. There is also a reading list which shows all the notable books I have read with some commentary for each.

Current Project

Anchorbase.xyz – We built Anchorbase to help Engineers and designers in the AEC industry navigate their codes and standards using a “chat to your documents” agent. The agent produces direct citation links that take you to the source document and highlights the position of the reference material. The app combines a couple of RAG techniques that allows the agent to select tools and decide how to answer the user queries. The app also has a built in PDF viewer to allow for easy viewing of the citation references. The agent can can access the web to check for the latest design codes and standards and is capable of checking cross-references to see if you are missing  documents that you should be using in your design. The app is being piloted by a couple of consultants and a basic version is free to try out on the Anchorbase.xyz website. The idea was developed by myself and my cofounder during a residency at the Ambitious Impact Startup accelerator in London.

Projects

Here’s a curated list of projects I’ve fully committed to. Click each for details and lessons learned.

  • Anchorbase.xyz (2026 – Present)
  • Project Machine (2025 – 2026) – Built a project management web app aimed at recording how long tasks take and storing them as lessons learned for future projects. Pivoted to focus on Anchorbase.xyz
  • High Speed Rail 2 (HS2) (2022 – 2025) – Design management of the viaduct structures for the sublot 4 section of the HS2 railway development in the UK.
  • Immigration to the UK from South Africa (2021) – Documented my immigration experience. Insights may be useful to others.
  • Everbox (2021) – An idea to reduce single use plastic, starting with restaurant takeaway containers. Developed a deposit return scheme with reusable containers.
  • Everfarm (2020) – Built a compact at-home vertical farm for fresh leafy greens and vegetables.
  • Health and Fitness (2012 – Present) – A collection of endurance events completed. Each treated as a project. Insights gained on fitness and endurance.
  • Bridge Design (2017 – 2021) – Learned bridge design. Here are some details on some of the structures and a comprehensive list of lessons learned.
  • Automated Culvert Design (2018) – Collaborated to automate major concrete box culvert design. A major culvert is a large drainage structure for roads and railway lines. Design/drafting time was reduced from three weeks to one day.
  • Alice Lane Phase 3 (2016 – 2017) – Served as a Site Engineer for a contractor on a large commercial development in Sandton, South Africa.
  • Civil Engineering Degree (2012 – 2015) – Earned a Civil Engineering degree at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
  • Rowing Coxswain for One Year (2010 – 2011) – An attempt in my final year of schooling to become the school’s first team rowing cox having some big successes and failures along the way.
  • ‘Allo ‘Allo! Theatre Play (2011) – Wrote and starred in a high school theatre production based on the UK television series ‘Allo ‘Allo!. This was a school competition that my team won. Having never acted before, writing the play and holding the leading role created many lessons learned.
  • Drumming (2005 – Present) – Learned to play a full drum kit. Performed for crowds. Played the snare drum for a school pipe band. Gained insights on mastering a musical instrument.

Essays

Reading list

Here is my reading list. Have added some commentary against each book. Have also added some thoughts on how to approach reading. 

Feedback

Use this form to provide feedback about my website. Or use the contact options below.

Contact

Recommended

  • Fall of Civilizations – Documentaries about the collapse of civilizations throughout history. Created by Paul Cooper.
  • Human Progress – An organization dedicated to providing evidence of human progress and showing that this is the best time to be alive.
  • The People Profiles – Long form documentaries on the lives of the most famous and infamous people in history. With a strong emphasis on evidence available and an attempt at impartiality.
  • The Royal Institution – Full length talks from the world’s leading scientists.
  • Brett Hall – Do Not Destroy The Means Of Error Correction.
  • Nina Jablonski – The Evolution and Meanings of Human Skin Color.
  • David Goggins – Joe Rogan Experience #1080.
  • Naval Ravikant – How to get rich without getting lucky.
  • Carl Sagan – Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (Internet Archive).
  • Neil deGrasse Tyson – We are made of stardust.
  • The Waking Up App by Sam Harris.
  • The All in Podcast – Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calcanis, David Sacks & David Friedberg cover all things economic, tech, and political.