This week I have learned: - un-constructive name-calling is surprisingly hurtful. Criticize by all means... - being the edge case of an automated process is surprisingly stressful. But at least they had the sense to talk to me about it... - there is a pre-holiday tax to be paid - and probably a post-holiday tax … Continue reading Weeknote 254: en vacances
Category: Themes
So here's the narrative: Windows XP was a storming success. So successful that people didn't need to upgrade from it. And certainly weren't going to upgrade to Windows Vista, which was widely accepted within and without Microsoft as a dog. With three legs. And mange. Windows 7 sorted out all of the problems with VIsta, … Continue reading Windows 10… first impressions
I woke up early this morning. I had things on my mind. And the kids are away so I was perturbed by the silence in the house. I checked my phone. I skirted through LinkedIn, Facebook. On Facebook there was a particularly irritating ad for Windows 10 proclaiming that it would allow me to "sign … Continue reading The end of the PC era
Back in the days before social networks, us Gen Xers used to do most of the stuff that we do today on Facebook and Twitter using email. Pictures of cats existed before the era of the social networks; email was social without the like buttons. Every so often I would send a joke of my … Continue reading Going viral
Part of my week last week found me with a group of project delivery people from across the organisation of one of my clients. The discussion revolved for much of the day around a thorny challenge: the group has been tasked with forming a broader community of practice around project management, but how do you … Continue reading Side projects
Sitting on the train this morning reading this week's Economist briefing on Silicon Valley made me think one thing above all else. If the techno-utopian vision of a virtual, Artificial Intelligence world is so close, why the heck is so much of the world of technology development focused in such a small and relatively remote … Continue reading The triumph of the PostIts
Today marks the 102nd birthday of my late grandfather Robert Ballantine. It also marks the end of the second year of the Stamp experiment, to a lesser or greater extent a project inspired by Granddad. At this time last year I think I was putting a brave face on things. Many, many positive conversations. Much hope. Very … Continue reading Bertie Day 2015
I have written in the past about how the language that we attach to failing is part of the fundamental challenge of organisations dealing with the ambiguity of the world we are in. Failure is pejorative, so it's no wonder that people find it so hard to embrace. The lessons from the world of agile … Continue reading Happy mistakes
In a panel discussion organised by the global pay-wall provider The Times this week, Baroness Lane-Fox of the Interwebs apparently suggested that the UK government should scrap investment into the HS2 programme in favour of high speed internet infrastructure. She's wrong. We need both. And the irony for me is that both of these initiatives … Continue reading Platforms come in many forms
The more I read about the field of Behavioural Economics the more I think that maybe the entire discipline is an increasingly complex set of workarounds to address the more fundamental issue that the science of economics is failing us. It takes a lot to shift an entire academic discipline's mindset, and the period leading … Continue reading Copernicus
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