The scariest monsters are the ones that are almost human. Zombies, werewolves, liches. Contrast these with a Dalek – rolling trash cans with lasers don’t scare us. People are most frightening to a group when they almost fit in, but then violate some core value. Zombies refuse to die – not acceptable. Some of us … Read moreWe are all monsters
What are these opportunities I have to fight so hard to have and obstacles I have to fight to overcome everyone is always talking about? – (someone who has since changed her mind) She nails it, but not in the way you might think. Where are these opportunities? You don’t see the opportunities that no … Read moreThe invisible hand that isn’t there
We like to take a hunk of data, graph one factor against another, demonstrate correlation, and infer causality. This naive form of analysis is appealing in its simplicity, but it doesn’t cut it in the real world. With Big Data, we can identify correlation out the wazoo, but it’s time to get way more sophisticated … Read moreCausality: tougher than it looks, but we can take it on
Do you introduce people, like when you have two friends who don’t know each other yet but share common interests? I love this, love that something great might come from that connection with no further action from me. One of my accomplishments in life was introducing my best friend to her husband. The other day … Read moreNetworking
This morning my daughters fought over a kitchen stool. A box of fruit snacks from the nearby shelf hit the floor and spilled. “I didn’t do it, she did!” “It wasn’t me, it was you!” “It fell because of both of you together,” I told them. “Causality is rarely singular.“ In our biological world, events … Read moreMany weapons against one Big Ball of Mud
Startups are supposed to pivot: run with one idea, then stop in the middle and possibly switch to a completely different path. Reassess the market, their current position and where they can go. Abandon the original idea completely for a more promising path to big profits. This is hard for humans. We get attached to … Read morePivot
As a long-time Java dev, it is tempting to declare function parameters as Lists. This is appropriate if we require an ordered sequence, but usually we only care that we can iterate over it. Our functions are more general if they accept any Seq. [1] However, now and then I really miss the cons operator … Read moreScala: when you wish that Seq was a List