a random assortment of ideas about data, economics, poetry, & mathematics
Déjà Voodoo A mere 12 years after the 2008 financial crisis, we're back once again with another crisis that will kneecap an entire generation of young workers. These young people did nothing wrong themselves, but were unfortunate enough to have been a certain age at a particular time when the old people in power were… Continue reading Repair the broken bits
Chaos & Trauma We live in a chaotic & traumatized world. Given the ambient chaos, it's natural to think about things like phase transitions and bifurcations. Likewise it is natural to think about diversity. America's diversity is often cited as a strength, and it is. But there are unhelpful forms of diversity. And these unhelpful… Continue reading Combinatimics: exploring better rhythms for better lives
In my last post, I claimed There is still hope on our horizons, particularly when you explore them with an intelligent teamMountains Beyond Molehills: Recovering the Lost Art of the Mathematics of Empathy Such a statement begs the question: "What is an intelligent team?" Intelligence There are all kinds of definitions of "intelligence" depending on… Continue reading Topologies of intelligence, combinatorial synesthesia, & emergent technologies
Algebra I was reading the other day about algebra. The word "Algebra" originally had to do with the mathematics of fixing fractures. الجبر, or al-jabr meant putting broken stuff back together again. Some translations of the word have to do with fractures, literally bone-setting, or reuniting shattered physical things. In some cases, algebra had to… Continue reading Mountains Beyond Molehills: Recovering the Lost Art of the Mathematics of Empathy
banks & perverse incentives Not long ago, banks required tax-payer subsidies to offset risky bets that never should have been made in the first place. These banks had leveraged their bigness into an economic life raft, paid for by the public. Many went on to profit from betting against the exact same messes they'd made… Continue reading too big to succeed
Context for my strategy bets have to do with localism, social infrastructure, tools and weapons, monetization of data, inequality, imperfection, education, wealth creation and law, evolution, game theory, automation, trauma, information asymmetries, misinformation, aging, attention, homelessness, hearing, American history, tap dance, poetry, debt, the Blues, the Delta, rural towns, sorting, forgetting, market failures, resilience, leaderless… Continue reading where to from here? context on my strategy bets for 2020
Data and its V's You've probably heard about the "Three V's" of data: Volume, Variety, and Velocity. Lately some folks also add a fourth data V, with the addition of "Veracity." Volume, variety, velocity, and veracity are all certainly important considerations when we talk about data, but I want to focus on a different data… Continue reading the five L’s of data value
Alongside part one, I have a few additional predictions about the future of data. They are: Consumers will demand a better balance between technology, data, healthcare, and nature. Expectations of "More faster better now" will give way to an increased demand for quality over quantity with technology/data/AI. Alongside this, there will be an increased emphasis… Continue reading the future of data: part II
Prediction is funny business. There are no shortage of erroneous forecasts to liter history. Mine may ultimately join the garbage heap of forecasts proven wrong. Nevertheless, I have a number of bets I'm making about the future of data. In no particular order, I expect that: Misinformation and security breaches will cause data to become… Continue reading the future of data: part I
I gave a talk recently at WordCamp Long Beach about data, technology, and some important questions I think we need be asking about our shared futures. Why you are losing to data right now I'll add some more thoughts on it soon, but since the video is up now, I figured I'd go ahead and… Continue reading cambridge or cancer?: critical questions about the future of data and technology