I fundamentally don't trust Ian Duncan Smith. I do trust, however, that he holds deep beliefs that social security benefits dissuade people from working. For me, I agree, but only in the same way that I believe a lack of oxygen dissuades people from breathing. I don't think he's right about causality, and he and … Continue reading Balance of evidence-based policy
Category: Themes
Continuing the theme whilst I'm off on holiday... Now this one is all Apple's fault. In the old days there were files and directories on MS-DOS and the same in Unix. Then Apple got all fancy pants with MacOS and started talking about Documents and Folders (which to be fair to them, is slightly more … Continue reading Crap Tech Industry Metaphors: 3. Files and Folders
Whilst I'm off optimistically sunning myself in South Wales, I thought I'd get a few more of these rubbish metaphors off my chest. Second up - the concept of "Dogfooding", aka "Eating your own dogfood", aka running beta tests of new products amongst one's own staff before putting in front of real customers. Where, exactly, … Continue reading Crap Tech Industry Metaphors: 2. Dogfooding
One of the quotes I've most overused in the past few years is Don Tapcott's “Institutions are becoming naked, and if you're going to be naked … fitness is no longer optional. If you're going to be naked, you better get buff.” It sums up so much for me about the world we now live in. That when … Continue reading Socially naked
As we find technology becomes easier and easier for people to use, it does sometimes feel to me that we are on a precipice of terminally dumbing-down our species. Here lies the distinction between intuitive user interfaces and user experiences, and complex activities and specialist knowledge. The history of information technology has often been about … Continue reading Counter-intuitive
Last night was the first public outing for some of the material I've been working on with my "inevitable" side project, Stamp. I ran an hour long webinar for a few kind folk who volunteered to be Guinea pigs exploring some ideas about developing personal digital strategies. If you are interested, you can find the … Continue reading Stamp
If you read this blog with any regularity, you'll know I'm a bit of a metaphor junkie: the name itself stems from that love, and I've even performed on stage extolling their virtues. Now with analogy there is always a risk that one will descend into Swiss Toni territory, where using metaphor, analogy and simile … Continue reading Crap Tech Industry Metaphors: 1. Breadcrumb Trails
An old friend of mine yesterday asked me to share a list of the things I've been reading recently. Thought I'd share more widely: 50 Economics Ideas You Really Need to Know: your really need to know (50 Ideas) a bluffer’s guide to economics Adland: A Global History of Advertising another self-explanatory title. Useful to … Continue reading The Book Shelf
Next week I'm running a short webinar about the way in which people can take personal control over their use of digital and social media. It's testing some content that I've been playing around with over the last few months thinking about how to help individuals make sense of their personal and work use of … Continue reading The power of personal
It's often said that the Internet is leading to a disintermediation of services: that the ability for organisations to communicate and transact with their customers online cuts out intermediators (more widely known as middle men). What's happening in London with taxi firms these days seems to show an opposite effect. I've written in the past … Continue reading Intermediation
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