Workin’ for the Man - This is how most all request driven processes (you have to file a ticket) end up being gamed by users: “So I think the winning technique is simply to flood their input queue with issues and eventually one will find a chink in the armour and reach an intelligent human being who Just Fixes It."
Free Lunch - Some strong Amsterdam type vibes here. // “Free Lunch is an all-caps display font that would look comfortable in a butcher shop window. Or a lunch counter menu in 1955. Or printed on the waxed paper that wraps a half-pound of Swiss cheese from your neighborhood deli. A little playful, great for headlines and logos."
The DoD: A Compelling Case for Extreme Programming - Good overview of why/how the practices in Extreme Programming (XP) help the needs of the military, and fit the constraints and challenges they have. For example, spreading knowledge with paired programming manages high turn over in staff.
Waiting for the close of open - how long can the 2000s spirit of open source and open APIs last?
Midjourney: Medieval serfs defending a castle from demons in the style of Hieronymus Bosch, from venusinfurs.The changing nature of “open”In our tech world, the idea of “open” has changed a lot in the past few years. Instead of it meaning “open to everyone,” the classic notion of “open source,” now it more means “open to everyone except our competitors.” Making money with open source is difficultRunning a high growth business on open source is difficult; you’re giving up on the easiest, most obvious thing to get paid for: the software itself.
Change takes a long time - This is my new thing after five years of talking with large companies about digital transformation: it just takes a long time. There’s usually a lack of urgency, but this is a benefit for most of those large companies. The employees, management, and share holders want stability, predictability. Also, they don’t want to spend money unless they really, really…really…have to. Few people like change unless it’s needed.
People are getting fed up with all the useless tech in their cars - “Unsurprisingly, more people are choosing not to use their car’s native infotainment controls. Only 56 percent of owners prefer to use their vehicle’s built-in system to play audio, down from 70 percent in 2020, JD Power found. Less than half of owners said they like using their car’s native controls for navigation, voice recognition, or to make phone calls."
What connected-car services are consumers willing to pay for? - There’s some fun stated-preferences versus revealed preferences in there.
Lines of Code - When there’s no perfect and easy measure, you have to (“end up”?) use the ones you have that are good enough.
The problem with t-shirt schwag at tech conferences
Ever wonder why there’s not more t-shirts at tech conferences? Marketing people hate getting t-shirts for booths at conferences. In last week’s Tanzu Talk about platform marketing I went over why:
Tech conference attendees love t-shirts. They’re also good for brand- and idenity-marketing: if you’re wearing the shirt, you’re likely a fan. Or, at least, you tolerate the brand. You don’t see a lot of t-shirts at tech conferences because marketing people usually hate t-shirts.
A4 Issue 1 July 2022 – Notes from the Drawing Board - This kind of thing is fantastic.