This week I have learned: - some people are just plain grumpy - there is a big difference between logical thinking and getting your message across - opportunities come in waves - and disappear as quickly too - life as a single parent is hard - I'm glad I only ever have to do it in … Continue reading Weeknote 227: comprehension
I've an interesting challenge at the moment with one of my clients. I have a group of people who don't come from an IT background who need to get up to speed pretty quickly with what IT in organisations is all about. And there doesn't seem to be much out there in the way of … Continue reading What is IT? A brief guide for non-IT people
This morning there was an interesting idea tweeted by author Ian Leslie about how to make a distinction between what is a game of skill and what is a game of chance or luck: It got me thinking. It got me thinking specifically about the deterministic role that people and organisations have on the world around … Continue reading Attributing success
Compare and contrast, if you will, the average purchasing processes for two different sorts of technology in many businesses today: Mobile telephony services have become truly commoditised. Organisations select on the basis of price and perceived value (handsets on offer, consulting services and so on). Rarely does quality of service come into it: I've known … Continue reading Trust and precedence
I've become slightly obsessed with the distinction between social networks and social media. I don't know if I'm the only one, but it strikes me that social media is what organisations tend to do, whilst the advantage of all this wonderful technology to us as individuals lies in social networks. Networking is what us humans do. Well, some … Continue reading Why network?
This week I have learned: - first weeks back are quite exhausting - scheduling work to jigsaw together is an interesting logical challenge - I've missed having days where I just meet people (rectified today!) Next week: more jigsawing
Charles Arthur flagged an interesting article by Richard Chirgwin on The Register about the weird worldview that the Google Nest Internet of Things house has about it's occupants. Put simply, it really struggles to understand that there might be more than one person living in a house. If you use online services and you are … Continue reading Groups think
We love to predict the future. Predicting the future reduces our uncertainty. It reduces ambiguity. And it's often wrong. Predicting the future comes in many forms. There are the seers and guides who issue pronouncements, whether it's that the world will end a week on Friday, or that 2015 will be the year of Wearable Nano … Continue reading Repeatable, predictable
About six years ago I started to look at the options to introduce "Bring your own device" thinking into my then employer, the global marketing agency Imagination. It shows how quickly the world moves, because this was just before the BYOD moniker came into fashion and certainly before any of the big technology vendors had … Continue reading Bring Any Device
A New Year and a new online security scandal - this time involving purveyors of customised greetings cards and irritating advertising jingles, Moonpig.com. Well, I say "new online security scandal" - apparently this one has been around since August 2013 and involves an insecure API which allows just about anyone to post orders on behalf of … Continue reading Technical debt, MVPs and an irritating jingle
