There’s nothing more discouraging than having systems go down and not knowing why. I still don’t. I started creating commercial websites in late 1994 and yet I’m still left with the bad feeling that it’s all run by mysterious spirits. No wonder UNIX has daemons running all the time. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the United States, my home, and we’ll …
Keynes on Why Bankers Can’t Self-Regulate
I asked Warren Kinston about something I had recently written regarding Imaginist thinking and Obama’s success. (He points out that Imaginist isn’t appropriate at societal level; I was wrong and should study more.) But that got me thinking about the values in play, and I returned to his Working With Values to look at Ethical Choice. Warren is describing the …
Keynes on Why Bankers Didn’t Avoid Danger
I asked Warren Kinston about something I had recently written regarding Imaginist thinking and Obama’s success. (He points out that Imaginist isn’t appropriate at societal level; I was wrong and should study more.) But that got me thinking about the values in play, and I returned to his Working With Values to look at Ethical Choice. Warren is describing the …
ANN: Now read us on your iPhone & Blackberry, too!
I’ve implemented a little addon that will let you read Requisite Writing on your iPhone, Blackberry or other mobile device. I’ve been delighted by how it works on my Blackberry Curve. If you have an iPhone, would you consider testing out this page’s permalink and leave a comment below? The addon is “WordPress PDA & iPhone Plugin” by Imthiaz Rafiq, …
Chinese Young People: Loyal and Adamant About It
The New York Times has a recent piece on the surprising loyalty of Chinese young people to the government, especially its actions in Tibet. (They do have a point that China is treating its “aborigines” better than the Americans treated theirs.) This is not just a problem in China. Because growth in one’s capability of information processing (CIP) is a …
Upgraded again
Which probably broke more things.
Instilling Values in an Organization Takes Time, So Be Patient
vOne of the things that always seesms to surprise people who do organizational change projects (and pretty much all IT projects are organizational change projects) is that it takes longer to change things than you thought it would. While you are waiting for things to settle down, you can’t walk away or everything that you brought to them walks out …
Adult Underachievers and Why That’s Stupid
Michael Bates, in a recent email, suggested that I take a look at what Julie R. Neidlinger, who besides having a fun last name, recently discussed her total failure at Ken Christian’s “adult underachiever test”. (I should note that I have no affiliation or relation with Neidlinger or Christian, but I have spent a couple of enjoyable evenings talking with …
How Standardization Creates Dis-Order
What happens when you move to standardization? In IT, we’re pushed to do single server loads, unified single-sign on systems, international PKI based Role Based Access Control, and all types of other forms of simplifying, rationalizing and standardizing. But no one ever stops to ask, Does standardizing in IT really make life easier? Not “no one” exactly. Because two researchers …
Communicating at the Right Level
I’m helping out a European bank with some communications work. I know that the secret will be to communicate at the right level. The right level for the role, sure, but also the right level for certain people. It’ll be tough. I know that in the meetings to communicate the vision across and down the organization’s organizations (it’s a bank …