Gumption Scarcity and the Engineering Mindset
“[Entities] often have problems that can be solved, and have been solved in many other [places]. But if they do not have the will to solve them, then all of our effort to address the issue is wasted. Our desire to solve the problem will simply come across as interference, meddling, or worse. So as I move from youthful enthusiasm to elderly wisdom, one of my development goals is to supress the desire to solve every problem and focus on the ones where I can make a difference”
Fred Wilson on how best to utilize the “Engineering Mindset” of problem solving and stay sane in this world. Only problem with the above is that many times “I need an environment where people will listen and want to solve a problem” can be readily used as an excuse for not trying again and making another effort. This is particularly true with extremely intractable problems in large organizations. Buying back in, however, is a risk - you may be wasting your breath so you should think hard about why and make sure that the payoff will be worth it.
"What is it to do one’s “fair share”? In small groups, it’s clear enough. If my friend and I are shoveling the front walk, my fair share of shoveling, and his, is about half. Often we adjust for differences in ability. If I am big and strong and my friend is small and frail, his fair share may be as much as he can manage. That won’t mean that the whole remainder is my fair share, though. If we’re going to get the walk shoveled, I may have to do a bit more than my fair share. These things get complicated quickly. That’s why the question of what it means for an American do his or her fair share, qua citizen, is completely baffling."
~ The Economist’s always awesome bloggers on “The Politics of Fairness” via T.E.S. The article does a great job of attacking what we really mean when we talk about fairness, and wades into equality territory as well. A good read at either end of the political spectrum. Fair assessment?
"Ryan: Machines don’t have a universal noun – that’s why they suck. Every programming language, database, or other kind of system has a different way of talking about nouns. That’s why the URL is so important. It let’s all of these systems tell each other about each other’s nouns.
Wife: But when I’m looking at a web page, I don’t think of it like that.
Ryan: Nobody does. Except Fielding and handful of other people. That’s why machines still suck.
"
Tom Blomfield: Automate Everything
Performing manual, repetitive tasks enrages me. I used to think this was a corollary of being a programmer, but I’ve come to suspect (or hope) that this behaviour is inherent in being human.
But being able to hack together scripts simply makes it much easier to go from a state of rage to a basic…
"But then one gray morning did Internet Explorer 6 no longer load The Google. Refresh was clicked, again and again, but still did Internet Explorer 6 not load The Google. Perhaps The Google was broken, the people thought, but then The Yahoo too did not load. Nor did Hotmail. Nor USAToday.com. The land was thrown into panic. Internet Explorer 6 was minimized then maximized. The Compaq Presario was unplugged then plugged back in. The old mouse was brought out and plugged in beside the new mouse. Still, The Google did not load."
~ An epic tale of tech support and bravery that is a must read for any brave souls that have ever ventured into the dusty depths to ”fix” a router (via McSweeney, via Kottke)
Holy cow this is the new Tech Dinghy?!! I have to go back to school. While I am heavily endeared to the lumbering fiberglass beast from my college racing days, this thing looks almost (dare I say it)…sexy! Nice work to Fran and the crew - what a great way to celebrate 85 years. (http://sailing.mit.edu)
"9/11 could join the Trojan Horse and Pearl Harbor among stratagems so uniquely surprising that their very success precludes their repetition"
~ (via Seitz via Schneier) Interesting sentiment. Lots to think of there when it comes to assessing one’s disposition to risk, our current security posture, and the importance of being first in order to succeed. (I shouldn’t have to say it but just in case, I’m measuring “success” as outcome / intended outcome, >=1 being exceptional, and I’m not saying that these attacks were good for the world.)
Much has been said, written and posted about SOPA over the last month or so. But what I found refreshing and enlightening about this talk from Cory Doctorow was the lengths to which he went to frame SOPA in it’s real historical context. The title of this talk says it all “The Coming War on General Purpose Computation”.
A few excerpts:
The proponents of SOPA, the Motion Picture Association of America, circulated a memo, citing research that SOPA would probably work, because it uses the same measures as are used in Syria, China, and Uzbekistan, and they argued that these measures are effective in those countries, and so they would work in America, too!
It may seem like SOPA is the end game in a long fight over copyright, and the Internet, and it may seem like if we defeat SOPA, we’ll be well on our way to securing the freedom of PCs and networks. But as I said at the beginning of this talk, this isn’t about copyright, because the copyright wars are just the 0.9 beta version of the long coming war on computation. The entertainment industry were just the first belligerents in this coming century-long conflict. We tend to think of them as particularly successful — after all, here is SOPA, trembling on the verge of passage, and breaking the internet on this fundamental level in the name of preserving Top 40 music, reality TV shows, and Ashton Kutcher movies!
It doesn’t take a science fiction writer to understand why regulators might be nervous about the user-modifiable firmware on self-driving cars, or limiting interoperability for aviation controllers, or the kind of thing you could do with bio-scale assemblers and sequencers. Imagine what will happen the day that Monsanto determines that it’s really… really… important to make sure that computers can’t execute programs that cause specialized peripherals to output organisms that eat their lunch… literally. Regardless of whether you think these are real problems or merely hysterical fears, they are nevertheless the province of lobbies and interest groups that are far more influential than Hollywood and big content are on their best days, and every one of them will arrive at the same place — “can’t you just make us a general purpose computer that runs all the programs, except the ones that scare and anger us? Can’t you just make us an Internet that transmits any message over any protocol between any two points, unless it upsets us?”
So we’re here, at logger heads, ostensibly arguing about piracy when the underlying fear of these disruptive, connective, enabling devices extends far beyond the gilded stars of Hollywood boulevard.
And it’s just the beginning.
Which is why Cory’s talk at 28C3 is required weekend viewing on BRYCE DOT VC.
It is important to recognize that SOPA opposition is not an anti-IP argument, but a protest against the consequences of limiting technology just because it may happen to have a secondary impact and make a specific activity easier. We must adapt to change instead of fighting it - that will be the only way to lead in the future.
About Me
A strategy consultant with a passion for IT, geopolitics, economics, media, and simple, elegant approaches to difficult problems. This represents my favorite slices of the web and serves as networked storage for my brain which is now entirely pointer-based. Opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent those of any organization with which I may or may not be allegedly associated.
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