Right at the beginning of my career I remember my dad giving me a piece of advice: that where ever I found myself working in my career I should always regard myself as a supplier, providing my services to my client (my employer). Dad's an organizational psychologist, so he was speaking from a professional as … Continue reading Parent/Child
This week I have learned: Calm waits at the end of the A12... Next week: writing.
Sad news yesterday that Stephen Fry has had enough of the trolling and vitriol that he experiences on Twitter. I've no doubt that for celebrities with large followerships, the bile must be overwhelming. Given Fry's great openness about his own mental health challenges, one can imagine that the social networks, and Twitter in particular, are … Continue reading Failing the Turing Test
There was a short exchange between a Twitter account run by the CBI and Minister for the Digitals Matt Hancock MP last week that in less than 280 characters summed up my concerns for what appears to be currently going on in the UK government: https://twitter.com/MattHancockMP/status/697811253385895937 Now I know that it's probably unfair and unkind … Continue reading Technoration
This week I have learned: I'm getting a bit obsessed with the idea of intellectual diversity... ...which meant that http://www.namesnotnumbers.com could not have come at a better time Never, ever try to interview a CIO who is sitting in a car skirting the French/German border. I feel I'm on the brink of a significant breakthrough... ...although … Continue reading Weeknote 275 (and 285 and stereo VHF)*
One of my favourite concepts from my years of studying sociology back in the 1990s was one from the quite frankly partially-hatstand French Postmodernist Jean Baudrillard. There was one book in particular (his 1988 "America") where he talked about how the images that we see on through the windows of a car could, in fact, as … Continue reading A Turing test for VR
I've spent the last couple of days mostly in the wonderful Names Not Numbers event in London, a festival of eclecticism that was timely given my recent thinking about the importance of diversity of thought. The final session I was able to attend yesterday was a debate about the impact of emergent technologies, and particularly the … Continue reading Technology doesn’t shape the future
"Paradigm shift" is a much overused phrase, coined originally by the philosopher Thomas Kuhn. Kuhn argued that far from being a series of linear progressions, the body of scientific thought tended to move in abrupt leaps - paradigm shifts. At times of a new paradigm emerging, established wisdom tends to double-down on the existing models … Continue reading A perfect storm
Things I have learned this week: - 16-24 year old in the UK watch more porn than they do YouTube - I'm guaranteed to find out random stuff at a Silicon Beach event - serendipity continues to be my best sales channel - engineering that serendipitous events is key- hence part of the motivation behind … Continue reading Weeknote 274: I love it when a plan comes together
Worried about your business being "Uberized"? Concerned that your services need to get more like AirBnB? Well, hope you've got deep pockets... There is a pernicious meme that is well established in business that relates that the Internet is basically free. In turn, it relates that technology using the Internet (and mobile too these days) … Continue reading Digital poster children
