You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics. Nobel Prize in Economics winner Robert Solow, in 1987 (quoted everywhere but it’s… Read More »Technology (6): How did we sink Solow? – true ubiquity, clotheslines and switching costs
You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics. Nobel Prize in Economics winner Robert Solow, in 1987 (quoted everywhere but it’s… Read More »Technology (5): Paul A. David’s Computer and Dynamo – on the evolution of techno-economic regimes
Recommended – link below. 1. The most basic [type of connectedness] that we all think of is just popularity: how many people you connect with.… Read More »Network theory: Matthew O. Jackson on four types of connectedness
Covid-19 testing has been a mixed bag: Singapore and Korea seem to have been able to get on top of things quickly, while the UK… Read More »The onion strikes back: Maggie Koerth on the nested problems of Covid-19 testing
Here’s another example of how “best practice” is context dependent, this time in responses to the Covid-19 crisis: In the response to the COVID-19 pandemic,… Read More »Contextualising best practice: one size does not fit all
This is a nice illustration of a set of nested problems (a.k.a. “The Onion“) in development from Bill and Melinda Gates’ philanthropic work. Often –… Read More »Bill Gates’ onion
Jean Valjean – in a desperate hurry to save an innocent man from being condemned – has stopped to rest his horse and discovered that… Read More »On Jean Valjean’s carriage, technological progress and interchangeable parts
Some examples to illustrate what it means to maximise components rather than systems – and why it’s best avoided: Sports teams with star players that… Read More »Maximising components vs maximising systems
A friend was talking about building resilient systems today, something Seth covered at length in Akimbo (S4 Ep 20)… and also in this blog post:… Read More »More from Seth Godin on slack in systems and resilience
I love old buildings , and I usually feel a strange sort of curiosity mixed with nostalgia for the people and cultures that made them.… Read More »Old buildings