Tech is a very fluid and changing world, but one of the most lasting truths in technology is Conway’s Law. Any organization that designs a system will inevitably produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization’s communication structure. “How do committees invent?“, Melvin Conway What does Conway’s
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How do you measure expertise?
What is expertise? How do you know when to promote someone? What’s the difference between a Mid-level and a Senior? All of these seem like they have subjective and vague answers but this article intends to provide tools for making these decisions explicit and consistent. What is Expertise? Elliot himself
Continue readingWhy do people only read things that back up their way of thinking?
Remember when the internet was in its infancy? We all had to put up with little 468 x 90 banner ads everywhere you looked – and sometimes we clicked them because we didn’t know better. As time went on we grew smarter, we were able to tell the bad adverts
Continue readingThings I learned at my last job
Today I closed a chapter in my life. After nearly 4 years tenure at a company I wanted to reflect on the things I learned over that time. I have been very lucky to have a few excellent – world-class even – mentors here who have taught me things that will
Continue readingWhat We Can All Learn from the Aviation Industry
The aviation industry is one plagued with red tape and strict process, and not without good reason. With more than half of all plane crashes caused by pilot error, and the flying public unwilling to fly without pilots in the pointy end, aviation authorities are doing everything they can to turn the
Continue readingHow to Take a Good Photo
Christmas is almost upon us and pretty soon the flood of pictures of Uncle Bob in his reindeer jumper will reach its peak. Photography is a very simple thing, you just point and click, right? And with the proliferation of camera-equipped smartphones and other devices you’d have thought that learning
Continue readingGeneration C
The new leaders of the free world are Generation C. They aren’t an age group, people born between certain arbitrary years such as Generation X or Y, instead it is a mind-set and an attitude. But the really interesting thing is that they don’t know they’re in charge. The C
Continue readingFlightLevel390 has Vanished! Hello, Dave?
Have you seen him? He’s vanished off the interwebz! The mysterious, greying Captain, fond of Japanese superbikes and perfect landings, only known as “Dave” has removed his blog, “flightlevel390”. And I’m not the only one who is missing this paragon of aviation blogging awesomeness… In fact, you don’t have to look very
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