A NEW CAR!

The first episode where Bob has his real hair.

I’m not sure how it happened, but The Price is Right is a major show in my life canon. The music, the camp, the excitement and sincerity of it all - it’s perfect in every way. At my first job at a dot.com in the late 90s we would gather every morning to watch it on a huge projection screen. Why? You would think in those grunge-tinged days it was ironic, but it was not. It was because we actually liked it as a whole even.

Anyhow, it’s all so lovely. The contestants are so happy just to be acknowledged and given a chance, so into it and vibrant. They’re all made equal and part of a larger whole by practicing the purist, most complex, mysterious, and poetic part of commerce: pricing.

And even when that sad trumpet sounds, they give Bob a hug and as they walk off stage, that sparkle in their eye says “don’t worry, imma get it next time!”

Also, what other show would you ever hear the phrase “a handsome grandfather clock”?

Enterprise DevOps TechCon, October 3rd, Utrecht

If you’re into cloud native apps, kubernetes, and all that, and you can make it to Utrecht on October 3rd, you should come to Enterprise DevOps TechCon. They’ve put together a really good agenda, including talks from The Dutch Police about how they’ve been running their apps, an overview of the same at RTL/Videoland, and The Netherlands Railways (NS). Plus, all sorts of other technical talks. Oh, and an opening talk from me. I’m looking forward to it - you don’t get to see that density of practitioner talks too often. And, it’s totally free to attend! Come check it out.

Relative to your interests

• The Drunk and Retired Podcast, a review from 2005 - I’ve been podcasting for like 20 years!

• Stop saying “fail”

• When It Comes to Enterprise Tech Spending, Buyer Enthusiasm is “Not Dead Yet!” - Enterprise tech spend survey from VC shop, Battery Ventures.

• Google monopolized internet search for a decade, landmark antitrust trial hears - Ruling expected early in 2024. Also, the EU is going after Google’s real business: advertising.

• Taking a careful approach to AI in marketing - There’s a lot of analysis that we should all be doing with marketing, but it’s often hard to get at data and figure out what to do with it. // “Fifteen percent said that more than a quarter of their tasks today are intelligently automated, but they expect that to increase to 78% in five years.”

• The Artists and Cartoonists Who Designed Pee-wee Herman’s World - “I remember feeling giddy most of time we were in production, not from the legendary amount of pot consumed, but from anticipation that we were going to blow people’s minds. We were excited and felt lucky to have an audience for our artwork.”

• Apple’s iPhone 15 adds Dynamic Island and switches to USB-C - Concise overview. I’m hoping to finally get a new phone now if they’re available where ever I am at the time.

• The Poetry of Pricing - “Pricing is a signal. It’s a conversation between seller and buyer containing information that both parties will exchange. On the part of the seller it suggests both the cost of the offering and the value it provides. Buyers are inclined to see if they can stretch to the next higher increment given the increased value proposition.”

Wastebook

• “If you ever want to know what is going on with a particular issue, start by looking at who is willing to shame what, or not.” I’m not sure what the mechanics of this are, but it sounds like some interesting investigative device. Here.

• To add to the “try have less managers” theory: “I was talking to a friend of mine back at Google, and his reporting chain looks like him, Director, Director, VP, VP, VP, Senior VP, and then the CEO of the company. Every single person between him and the CEO of the company is trying to add value wherever they can to show that they can move to the next level. Which means that decision making takes forever, because you have to have too many people in the room who are used to being the decision maker, who are all competing to be the ones making that decision, which in turn absolutely kills innovation stone dead because it’s like trying to swim through concrete.” Here.

Upcoming

Talks I’ll be giving, places I’ll be, things I’ll be doing, etc.

Sep 18th to 19th SHIFT in Zadar, speaking. Oct 3rd Enterprise DevOps Techcon, Utrecht, speaking. Oct 5th to 6th Monktoberfest, Portland, ME. Oct 9th Spring Tour Amsterdam Oct 12th Spring Tour London Nov 6th to 9th VMware Explore in Barcelona, speaking (twice!).

Logoff

I’m off to Zadar today for the SHIFT conference. I’m giving my platform talk tomorrow and doing some extra video stuff. I’m having to fly outside my airline alliance, and since there’s no Marriotts there, stay outside my hotel chain. THE HORROR! On the other hand, short as my trip is, I hope to get a little Mediterranean. time, s