First published on CIO.co.uk, May 2016. CIOs should still be careful for what they wish for. For some time I've been voicing scepticism of the importance of the CIO having a seat on an organisation's board to be effective. Too often it has sounded to me like a perceived shortcut to the hard work of … Continue reading CIO Archive: Sitting on the board might not make you a more effective CIO
Humanoid intelligence is more than just skin deep First published on CIO.co.uk, July 2016. Sticking a face on technology is still a cheap trick used regularly. There's a friend of mine, a colleague from back in the days when I worked at the BBC, who is a touch obsessed with the psychological concept of pareidolia. Every week … Continue reading CIO Archive: The rise of the anthropomorphs
Agile, Waterfall and stupid ideas First published on CIO.co.uk, November 2016. I still see people making the mistaken assumption that a methodology can make a bad idea good. From my extensive research I can tell you exclusively that the following three things do not exist: UnicornsMermaidsA software development methodology that will always successfully deliver From … Continue reading CIO Archive: The siren call of the unicorn
CIOs need to prepare for a future business computing model without the PC First published on CIO.co.uk, January 2017. This one has turned out to be a bit wrong, given Covid... In my work in the last few years I've been skirting between the worlds of digital and traditional IT. One of the things that … Continue reading CIO Archive: #noPC
And so we enter the last 10 albums of this project... In 2011 I left what had been, to that date, my most successful job to date and joined Microsoft. After six interviews, I'm not sure how we didn't all work out that this wasn't going to work out. Culturally, I was never going to … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2011
Where exactly has 10 years gone? When I wrote the first of these little diary entries back in 2010 I didn't really think that I'd still be doing them more than a decade later. Bar a couple missed during holidays, and one or two posted on a Saturday because the Friday was just too exciting, … Continue reading Weeknote 500: Ten Years of Weeknoting
I love the geekiness of Hot Chip. I also love the music and the tender yet essentially maudlin lyrics. The essence of good disco music, basically. I also recall hearing an interview with one of the members of Hot Chip and hearing how despite being a successful modern pop band they were basically brassic. The … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2010
This week I have learned: the restorative power of a good break.that it seems I'm getting the key people onside with the longer term approach.liminal is becoming increasingly important. That chap Roland Harwood is a visionary.Back to the office is not the same thing as back to work. I've never worked as hard as I … Continue reading Weeknote 499: Back to it
I know that Lily Allen annoys some people, but that's probably even more reason to like her. Clever, witty lyrics, and not all about pop song guff. The single The Fear, for example, being a caustic analysis of the consumer/celebrity world that no doubt Lily skirted in and out of. We listened to this album … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2009
In the sheep-filled fields surrounding the Yorkshire Dales village of Threshfield where we spent last week on holiday, we stumbled across some strange earth workings whilst out walking with the kids. Built between 1900 and 1902 at the peak of the speculative railway building in the UK, the Yorkshire Dales Railway was hardly a rip-roaring … Continue reading The cost of failure
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