Posted: | Categories: diary
Introducing a new category: Diary Diary is just a reminder for the future me to read back and smile. It is a pill of future fun, for me and my kids. You might remember that I started using a straight razor to shave, well today for the first time I managed to get a great shave AND not cut myself. Very proud of myself :) Read more...
Posted: | Categories: learning in public
Chief Pest Officer You: An individual contributor responsible for running a portfolio of slow-down-the-business activities, impacting both Customers and internal teams. This role combines bad temper with genetical negativity and profound cynicism. What we want you to do: Be the devil’s advocate, always and without contain. Contradicting yourself should not be a blocker Find new ways to slow down the business with the worst repercussion on frustration felt (your main KPI) The ability to handle multiple complex pest streams at the same time Ability to complicate problems quickly and inefficiently ensuring customer pain and if possible failure Meet with high profile customers including senior business leaders like the CIO, CFO and CEO, feeling confident presenting complex additional problems presenting them as features When required, discuss and negotiate more complicated, rip-the-customer-off business terms, contracts and deals with the company and end-customer mutual failure in mind Happy to complain to direct sales as and when called upon Basic Qualifications: Being cynical to an extreme Having no friends and if possible being at war with all your family Experience in upsetting people of all background Being rude when needed (i. Read more...
Posted: | Categories: learning in public
I feel there is a need in most companies for a CSimpO (Chief Simplification Officer). Role description The CSimpO is a temporary role, reporting to the CEO and working with peers. The role require to look at the existing ways of doing things in each department (e.g. marketing, sales, operations) and provide a simpler way to do things. The CSimpO will have a small team (5-8) of people, with a real desire to improve things, coming from existing department. Read more...
Posted: | Categories: learning in public
I’ve been reading Drive a good book on motication. My thinking at the end was, so basically, the military got it all right about motivation. This makes sense when you think that the army is sending people to very very dangerous places for not a great salary. They understand and focus since time immemorials on the real human drivers we all have. Need to buy a book on military organisation. Do you have any recommendations? Read more...
Posted: | Categories: tech
IoT is talked talked and talked about (aka it is a buzz word), but examples are hard to come by. Some very basic context: IoT stands for Internet of Things, which is about computers, talking to computers and doing stuff without humans. Here is the example: Immagine, you kid had been hit by a car and was just put in an ambulance. You want that ambulance to fly. With IoT the ambulance system could communicate with the traffic system and make sure every red light is actually green, allowing the ambulance to go full speed all the time might be the difference between life and death. Read more...
Posted: | Categories: learning in public
Today I needed to pee urgently while out on the street, and this triggered some thinking about patents (strange I know). So while I was holding my need, I started thinking about toilets around me, and I realised that there were hundreds. Every house nearby has at least one bathroom. The resource is not scarce at all. So why am I struggling? Because I do not have easy access to what I need. Read more...
Posted: | Categories: learning in public
Some link to documents related to the value of private data World Economic Forum 2017: putting some numbers and showing how incomplete is our understanding of the topic: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/09/the-value-of-data/ Standford Business 2018 : https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/how-much-your-private-data-worth-who-should-own-it TechCrunch 2015: funny that the to view the article I need to accept cookies https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/13/whats-the-value-of-your-data/ Read more...
Posted: | Categories: learning in public
This post is supposed to be about simplicity, but today I decided to turn it over its head and talk about a topic that we consider simple but is very complicated. I remember at Uni being very confused about how non-decimal based numbers work. For example, hexadecimal and binary numbers. I felt that the way of counting was just crazy, 10 in hexadecimal is 17 in our standard way (i.e. decimal) of counting. Read more...
Posted: | Categories: learning in public
I’m out with friends there is an assumption that I know about wines (I do not), so I learned some tricks to help me choose acceptably priced wines without the sophisticated knowledge (and sense of smell) required to do it the right way. So here are some tips tested in the field that can help: Conversational wine is a wine with a taste that disappears fast (feels like drinking water). It is usually refreshing and perfect for drinking with friends and getting the conversation to be even more enjoyable. Read more...
Posted: | Categories: tech
I need to go back to do some real tech work, both for my sanity (fun) and because I need to keep up. Lots of ideas in my heads, lots of exciting experiments to try, new things to do or old things to unearth. All cool tech stuff, but without a meaning! While at AWS re:Invent last year (2019), I noticed how much good tech work was used only to show technical competence, without a thought about possible use. Read more...