Riffing on why some new ideas catch on.
Category: innovation
Grace Hopper on Letterman
Some heavy gratitude to John Feminella (@jxxf), Jeff Roberson (@jeffroberson), and @snipeyhead for sharing their inspiring conversation via twitter today that turned me onto this incredible clip.
The Future of Technology Operations
Since I last wrote about it, Technology Operations (TechOps for short) has evolved. Here’s how.
Specialization is for insects.
In his novel, Time Enough for Love, Robert A. Heinlein wrote the ultimate creedo for the human race.
More Gratitude for Postman and McLuhan
Neil Postman (March 8, 1931 – October 5, 2003) was an American author, media theorist and cultural critic, who was associated with NYU for forty years. He wrote countless articles, papers and seventeen books. Though my personal favorite is Teaching as a Subversive Activity, Neil is best known for his 1985 book about television, Amusing…
DIY vs. DIT – Part II
The first part of this post built an analogy, that centralization is like DIY (Do-it-Yourself) and decentralization is like DIT (Do-it-Together).
If we can agree on that analogy, simply for the sake of conversation, then we can take it a step further by looking through that lens into some specific contexts where this approach can add value to our efforts by breaking down our silos.
Unlikely Lessons in UX
Insights often reveal themselves in unlikely ways.
“Do It Yourself” (DIY) vs. “Do It Together” (DIT)
Tired: DIY (Do-It-Yourself)
Wired: DIT (Do-It-Together)
All in the telling
The latest technologies, including cloud, social, anything mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have and will continue to transform business, especially the customer experience, which still revolves around the story. Storytelling is still the centerpiece. Nothing new there. Storytelling has been the centerpiece since before anyone could even write….
Telling stories
We can’t throw a rock across the Web without hitting one of the many articles, posts, books, podcasts or interviews focused on the use of storytelling in business. Arguably kicking the magic out of the hat, most of them address the way stories are used in marketing goods and services (yawn). We need to think…
The Future of UI
Human interface devices are keyboards, mice and screens, things that allow us to give and get information to and from computers. Combined with how software allows us to interact with machines, this is known as User Interface. For the last 70 years or so, User Interfaces have stayed more or less the same. That is…
Human potential, pushing boundaries, and the International Race of Champions
We have always pushed the boundaries of what is possible. That’s why we love things like the circus, competition, and pursuit in general, especially, perhaps, from great heights. Certainly, there are many moving parts to our success in pushing the envelope of what is possible, how fast we can go, how far we can push,…
Amazing Grace Hopper
Grace Murray Hopper was born on December 9, 1906. Before she passed away on January 1, 1992, “Amazing Grace” made significant contributions to the way we use computers today. The Hour of Code, a part of Computer Science Education Week, is held in her honor each year. Grace was a pioneering American computer scientist who…
MakerBot Academy is coming to a school near you
The President, during a State of the Union, does rally the troops to begin the next industrial revolution. The launch of MakerBot Academy may indeed be an attempt to realize President Obama’s urge to: “ensure that the Next Industrial Revolution in manufacturing will happen in America.” The plan is pretty simple, and already underway, from…
It’s true. Our brains aren’t awesome light meters.
via Strobist: My brain is still a little scrambled by the fact that what looks like a shadow in the checkerboard isn’t actually a shadow. It’s a tone.
Honey, it really works, honey.
Since becoming a grown-up, there are many things about childhood I remember fondly but one of them I was happy to forget about forever and wasn’t anticipating having to deal with again: allergies. For my entire adult life I was allergy-free living in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. . In Chicago, I have tried over-the-counter…
MacAskill
We tip our hats to @kdragon87 for the tip on this one:
Tabula Rasa
From Wikipedia: Tabula rasa is the epistemological thesis that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception. Generally proponents of the tabula rasa thesis favour the “nurture” side of the nature versus nurture debate, when it comes to aspects of one’s personality, social and emotional behaviour, and…
Cold War
I love the unfettered, personal nature of this:
Pigs on the Wing
Part 1 If you didn’t care what happened to me, And I didn’t care for you, We would zig zag our way through the boredom and pain Occasionally glancing up through the rain. Wondering which of the buggars to blame And watching for pigs on the wing. Part 2 You know that I care what…
Tinkering School: Day 8
Go cart design, assembly and testing by the inimitable Team Tinker with snippets of boat model design and other moments of singular, whimsical tinkering mastery. Thanks to Moby for his song, Porcelain.
Geometry of Life
thanks to @kurt_vega for reminding us of this beautiful film by Cristóbal Vila: