February 2009
9 posts
IT's path from exclusiveness to inclusiveness
Once upon a time there were a handful of computers, owned by governments. Very very exclusive.
Eventually a few big businesses bought them. Then more.
In the 1980’s, PC’s came along and suddenly lots of people had them - even at home. And there were spreadsheets and graphics applications and individuals could do amazing things.
Then we got laptops and we took them everywhere. ...
Road Map for Financial Recovery: Radical... →
My earlier article on transparency neatly anticipated this
incumbency vs appetite for power
It is a common wisdom that voters dislike political parties staying in power for long periods; that they instinctively turn against long-term incumbents.
I believe the opposite. Voters like incumbents - better the devil you know, etc - and incumbents have enormous power to maintain their position. It’s hard for oppositions to look presidential. Look at the percentage of incumbent US...
Web 2.0, it was good knowing you...
OK, so the phrase “Web 2.0” is sooo last year. It was a fraud, but not a total one. I think these are what we will carry forward:
Public API’s. As programmers we’ve used them for years and can take the latest incarnation for granted. But they have become a significant force in the makeup of the modern internet. The most obvious example is Twitter; their UI’s...
Computer games and effectiveness in the workplace
A few people have said to me recently that I’m too critical about my and my own company’s performance. Only time will tell whether my criticism is right or not - we’ve not even launched the product yet.
But it caused me to reflect on the psychological drivers for why I’m critical. There are a few reasons, but the most interesting stand-out was my experience playing...
leverage vs transparency
I was on a martini session at Shoreditch House the other night, after an awesome steak at the Hawksmoor, with a load of friends who all happen to be traders. You can imagine the cry into your glass atmosphere after half a bottle of gin.
The consensus among them was that the fundamental driver for the current financial situation is an excess of leverage. This is a point that has been widely...
Confidence and recession
I’m sooooo weary of hearing politicians and celebrity entrepreneurs inveigling us to think optimistically to get out of the recession.
The recession is not a confidence trick and credit markets and the broader economy won’t recover when people start feeling more confident because the infrastructure that provides the credit that fuels the economy is now badly damaged. You cannot wipe...
