Structure is so much more useful than unstructured data. Structured data on the hand is often too rigid and inflexible to account for reality. While there have been advances in using unstructured data in recent years, it still feels chaotic and less than helpful. The dream has been to allow Read more…
Information technology can be incredibly unforgiving. In all the effort made to error trap on data entry, software can be overbearing.. Yes, on one hand, thank God there is built-in error checking. Preventing the preventable…and automating that which can be automated… But, sometime it just goes too far. Maybe the Read more…
The concepts of entropy and ergodicity are very different, but they are very much related in my mind. I think they are similar because both of these concepts explain why things that are supposed to happen don’t happen. Entropy has to do with loss due to complexity, while ergodicity has Read more…
I used to think that better upfront information would lead to better decisions and help to prevent mistakes further downstream. To a certain extent that is true… But experience has taught me that this is not always the case. There is more information to know and at some point you Read more…
The complexity of our world is seemingly infinite. And chance of anything really happening seems to be about zero when you think of all the things that have to go into to make it work. In the digital world we are confronted with thousands of settings that interact with each Read more…
The broad definition of information that I am using here is “any bit of data that can be transmitted.” Whether it is received, captured, understood and understood as intended to be understood is a different and more difficult question to answer. I am going to avoid that question for now. Read more…
By docking, I mean documentation and information systems. Are we putting too much faith in information. Will more information really lead to better performance and better results? At what point do the returns start diminishing? I spend most my days filling either filling in forms or creating forms for others Read more…
The squandered Internet isn’t really a thing. Sure people complain about the Internet. It is a remarkable time suck (hello cat video people and meme makers), but it has also empowered some pretty great things… In a decentralized way, it has allowed for some pretty great centralizing tools. I am Read more…
Maybe it’s schadenfreude or maybe it’s Maybelline…I confess that I almost always root for the experts to be wrong. When the experts are wrong, it kind of proves my point…And then I am the expert. At the same, I can’t really lose. If the experts are right then I can Read more…