Russell Davies

October 2016

October 2016 from russelldavies on Vimeo.

Conflict is attention

Trolls for trump

Mags at Interesting

I asked Mags to talk at Interesting but she wasn't sure we wanted to go on stage. So, Mark very kindly made this video and we showed it on the evening. Excellent stuff about creativity and failure. Thanks Mark. Thanks Mags!

Wired archive

Every now and then some event occurs and I become convinced that I once predicted that event with astonishing perspicacity. Which takes me to the Campaign or Wired archives so I can boast of my foresight. Typically I'm disappointed because the archive proves that I've misremembered something. The last time this happened though (and I can't remember what the triggering event was) I was disappointed because the archive had disappeared. Wired's had a bit of a tidy up and most of my stuff has been 'wiped'. 

For reasons of ego (and future-proofing my future prescience-proving) I've picked through the Wayback Machine, found most of them and for your convenience (who am I kidding? for my convenience) they are now presented here. Enjoy. (Enjoy?) 

Basement railway

Timehop has just reminded me that sixteen years ago we had a G-scale garden railway that started in the basement, went out through a window and circumnavigated the garden. This was in Portland, Oregon. I do not have this any more. Somewhere, somehow, my life has gone badly wrong.

It's revealing to me that these are the only photos I have of this set-up. I was immensely proud of all this but I only bothered with these pictures in the basement and the only shots I have outside (and there are only two of them) were taken by my Dad. So much of everything went un-photographed before they put cameras in our phones.

Stories of explanatory depth

I continue to wonder why Massive IT Failures are so happily tolerated in most large organisations. Actually, 'tolerated' might be wrong. 'Accepted' may be better. Regarded as something inevitable, something that just has to put up with, something that can't be prevented.

Some of it, I suspect, is to do with Illusions of Explanatory Depth. People and organisations create folk understandings of how IT systems work. These are poor, unhelpful explanations which don't usefully predict or explain disasters, but no one offers better ones.

I suspect 'stories' are part of the problem. Stories are not good ways to understand systems.

Amateurs and experts

Adrian's description of this post captures the magic of blogging, when it's good, perfectly:

"I much prefer reading amateur writers writing about the field in which they're experts, rather than expert writers writing about fields in which they're amateurs."

Perfect.

And/or..

Attention

And

Why is looking at the moon somehow perceived to be more ‘present’ than looking at your phone?

Told you so

Look how awful this is. Uber’s Ad-Toting Drones Are Heckling Drivers Stuck in Traffic and Attention adland - drones are going to take over our lives

Team

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-velluvial-matrix

and

Members of productive teams take the effort to understand each other, find a way to relate to each other, and then try to make themselves understood.