As part of my MSc, I'm reading MoneyBall. OK, I just watched the film! Cut me some slack! The basic thesis of the book is this: Our baseball team doesn't have much money to buy new players Which baseball players have the best Statistic X for the lowest price? Buy undervalued players which increase your Stat X The film book is well worth watching reading. What I like about it - and the…
Continue reading →
Welcome to Yak Shaving School! As part of my MSc I'm reading a book about Data Analytics. So I've been chasing down quotes to find their origin. One paper had this popular quote in it (emphasis added): As with many rapidly emerging concepts, Big Data has been variously defined and operationalized, ranging from trite proclamations that Big Data consists of data-sets too large to fit in an…
Continue reading →
As part of my MSc, I fell down a research rabbit-hole of 1980s "Office Of THE FUTURE!!" articles. Ultimately, I couldn't find a way to include it in my research - so you're getting my cast offs. So, I present to you some choice predictions from "Technology and the office of the future" by B. W. Manley. Low cost computers (VDU) - yup! Data storage - the article talks about storing "the entire…
Continue reading →
As part of my MSc, I'm reading a lot of "Leadership" books. They're all pretty bad - but they have one common thesis; it is essential to improve your company culture. I'm not sure if I agree. I feel completely divorced from most forms of company culture. I find the way that these books talk about changing people is pretty creepy and disingenuous. That's my problem, not theirs. I prefer to look…
Continue reading →
Before GameStop became a memestock (what even is 2021) - it was the subject of another popular meme. The First National Bank of GameStop. This got me thinking. In the UK, retail banking is (mostly) free. Rather than pay interest to depositors, banks give away free ATM withdrawls, free Direct Debits, free transfers to other accounts. Some premium accounts cost money. In return, the customer…
Continue reading →
I am reading The Digital Transformation Playbook for part of my MSc. It's a good book, but I found this passage about eBooks a little confusing: what about gift giving? No one I have ever asked has thought that an e-book was an acceptable substitute for a printed book when giving a gift. I've received an eBook as a gift (thanks David!) and it was perfectly acceptable. It was nice to…
Continue reading →
Another short - and probably incorrect - prediction about disruption. Spotify, for all its tech, isn't magically disruptive. The business model is similar to a radio station. It pays music publishers based on what songs its listeners' request. (This is grossly oversimplified. Stick with me.) Spotify buys a product wholesale and then sells it retail. This is different from, say, the original…
Continue reading →
As part of my MSc, I'm being asked to think about "digital disruption" - so here are some personal thoughts about the future of transactions with the state. The UK Government has a lot of APIs to let computers communicate with each other. Most of them are department-to-department. For example, the Ministry of Birds wants to get an updated list of incidents from the Department of Avian Accidents …
Continue reading →
Backstory - I'm doing a taught Masters course. It's going OK. Mostly. But I've been thinking about the nature of university lecturers. This Tweet has been doing the rounds. Aaron Ansuini 🍋🪴🌱@AaronLinguiniHI EXCUSE ME, I just found out the the prof for this online course I’m taking *died in 2019* and he’s technically still giving classes since he’s *literally my prof for this course* and I’m lear…
Continue reading →
There's a famous quote from Tom Goodwin about the way the world has changed recently: Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening. As part of my MSc,…
Continue reading →
This is neither a serious proposal, nor an official proposal. This is just me thinking in public. Governments are a monopoly. There is only one institution which can grant you a passport - Her Majesty's Passport Office. That's not quite true, of course. You are free to seek citizenship in other countries. And some countries will sell you a passport. In business studies terms, other countries…
Continue reading →
I'm doing an MSc Apprenticeship! As part of my desire to work in the open, these are (semi-regular) weeknotes about what I've done / learned / achieved. I tend to be grumpy and curmudgeonly when faced with something I don't understand - or when I suspect I won't be good at an activity. So read the following with that in mind. I've spent the last few weeks working through the pre-course…
Continue reading →
