Continuing a theme from a post I wrote earlier, I have been spending a bit of time today looking through Business Insider's encyclopaedic collection of data about all things digital (see for yourself here: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-digital-2013-2013-11?op=1)There's a lot of data. Much of it summarized into neat graphs. It's all very interesting.But what does it tell us about … Continue reading Trending nowhere
Category: Hobby horses
Nearly 17 years ago I was a member of a team that implemented the BBC's first data warehousing project. It gathered information from a number of operational systems, and then using a combination of products provided reports about the profitability of various products that the commercial wing of the organisation produced and sold. Technically … Continue reading Big data, little questions, cognitive biases
At university (distressingly some twenty-odd years ago now), I quite quickly realised that I was a qualitative, rather than quantitative, kind of guy. Oh yes, I knew how to live the student dream. To explain - I studied Sociology. And in the realm of the social sciences there is a long-standing debate about whether … Continue reading Qual not Quant
So the news is that Microsoft have decided that their infamous stack-ranked performance management and rewards system is to be retired. The news comes too late for many. Whilst there will be much coverage of the change, and much discussion about how tech companies manage performance and pay their employees, I expect little of it … Continue reading Ding dong the curve is dead
There are two stories alive in the press at the moment at two very different ends of the security spectrum. The first is the ongoing debate of the extent to which The Guardian's leaks of data released by US whistleblower/traitor (delete as per your viewpoint) Edward Snowden have impacted national security. The second is … Continue reading The bigger threat to national security?
I'm not a big fan of sporting metaphors in business. They're basically meta-metaphors for war. And the hockey stick one took me a long time to get my head around because of other cultural differences: in the UK, hockey is a grass-based sport with a stick that has a hook on the end. In … Continue reading Crap tech industry metaphors: 8 The Hockey Stick
Your computer is running slower than usual? Well, "it's running like a dog". Huh? Have you ever tried to outrun an Alsatian? Turns out, much like the old phrase "pot calling a kettle black", there's a bit that's been lost at the end along the way... in the case of slow things it's the … Continue reading Crap Tech Industry Metaphors: 7 Running like a dog
Last night and this morning there has been much coverage on the BBC news channels about government plans to create a "reserve cyber army" - territorial hackers, if you will. I do hope that this is an elaborate PR exercise and has little bearing on the reality of what our defence services are doing … Continue reading Cyberarmies
I'm currently about half way through Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, David and Goliath. The core of his thinking appears to be that where we often see the underdog as having disadvantage against the overdog, actually what are often regarded as advantages can be anything but. It's thought provoking, and as ever with Gladwell incredibly well … Continue reading The Malcolm Gladwell Effect
I've just seen a billboard advertising Lloyd's Bank, proudly proclaiming that they are "lending millions to first time house buyers every week". That sounds good, doesn't it? Well, let's unpick that number a bit. According to the BBC, the current average UK house price is running at about £242,000. First time house buyers wouldn't necessarily … Continue reading Big numbers, tiny numbers
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