We conflate the quality of our decisions with the quality of their outcomes so automatically that we rarely notice we’re doing it. A good decision that leads to a bad outcome gets reclassified in our memory as a bad decision. A terrible decision that happens to work out becomes evidence of our brilliant judgment. We are constantly running our own internal kangaroo court, retroactively convicting or acquitting our past selves based solely on how things turned out.
Posts in "links"
Reducing the 7 R's of modernization down to 3 - new take on tech debt, from Charles Betz
Where once there were 7, now there are three:
Forrester data provides clear guidance on where organizations should focus. Knowledge and process debt, selected by 37% of respondents, demands immediate attention through process improvement, reengineering, and organizational change management. Unsupported vendor software and redundant IT systems, each selected by 30–32% of respondents, require proactive migration planning before crisis points emerge. System inflexibility, identified by 35%, calls for architectural investments that preserve future options.
Only three kinds of AI products actually work - “For my money, the current multi-billion-dollar question is can AI agents be useful for tasks other than coding?” // Good thinking about productizing AI: what seems to work and not work.
I’m no epidemiologist, but all of this seems like the biggest positive health impact since vaccines. In the America, all my life The System and The Culture have been telling us we’re overweight and that is causes problems. No doubt, a lot of healthcare spend is in response to that.
Well. This seems like a legit “quick fix.”
If generic semaglutide were made available to everyone with obesity and diabetes globally, it could save 2.1m-3.1m lives a year, according to one model. Moreover, glp-1 medications are known to reduce cardiovascular events, improve sleep apnoea, protect the kidneys and liver, and even show promise for reducing addictive behaviours. Early data have even hinted at reduced risks of cancer and Alzheimer’s. More results on these unexpected side-benefits of GLP-1 use will be published in the coming months. However you slice it, 2026 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for these remarkable drugs.
It feels like these drugs, popular as they are, are likely “under-rated” in that they would address huge, systemic problems in US health. Hopefully it will and they’ll become “boring” like vaccines and high blood pressure medicine.
He goes hard and detailed in the Masto recco.
Our tech is fine, ROI is a user error
We’re solidly in the “you’re doing it wrong” era of AI hustling:
The companies that are thriving in the AI era are doing much more than building models. They’re building systems. They’re aggregating data, governance and workflows into AI-ready infrastructure that delivers at scale. If you’re stuck in pilot purgatory, this is your roadmap out.
And:
The McKinsey survey shows one clear signal of progress – workflow redesign.
That’d be an unexpected source for a data leak.
🔗 OpenAI: The New York Times is forcing us to turn over 20 million ChatGPT conversations
IT spending in Europe will grow 11 percent next year to hit $1.4 trillion amid a desire for cloud sovereignty, according to Gartner.
Up from $1.3t in 2025.
Spending on GenAI models is set to grow 78 percent next year in Europe as organizations look to increase investment in AI, cloud, and cybersecurity.
“61 percent want to increase their use of local cloud providers. Around half (53 percent) said geopolitics would restrict their use of global providers in the future.”
🔗 Europe’s IT spend to surge 11% amid cloud sovereignty fever
“These estimates suggest that by 2025, Brexit had reduced UK GDP by 6% to 8%, with the impact accumulating gradually over time. We estimate that investment was reduced by between 12% and 18%, employment by 3% to 4% and productivity by 3% to 4%.”
Platform engineering for AI stacks
Your AI stack needs to have DevX, thus, a platform:
I think it’s a sign of maturity that even when you mix in cloud native development with the current AI hype, organizations are actually realizing that developers are still the internal customers who need platforms as products. You can’t just say ‘get on with it’ and hand them a box of tools,” said Daniel Bryant, head of marketing, Syntasso Ltd.