Month: August 2018
-
Unknown Unknowns
Noah Brier has a great analysis of the true origins of the 'Unknown unknowns' framework which looks something like this: Despite being brought to wide attention by Donald Rumsfeld's remarks about Iraq, the concept has origins that seemingly stretch further back and derive from a military procurement context. The framework is a useful way of categorising risk…
-
The Angel in The Marble
'Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.' Michelangelo I happened across this Michelangelo quote via this Hidden Brain podcast on the subject of marriage, and I rather liked…
-
Blitzscaling
I wrote something about scale over on the agile business blog. About how in order to scale sometimes you need to do things that don't scale, and how difficult this can be in an organisation that is used to only thinking in terms of top-down, big projects, large spend, significant near-term return. The ability to…
-
On Creating a Purpose-Driven Organisation
I've been driving back and forth to Kent over the past week (long story) so my podcast consumption has dramatically increased. This HBR Ideacast on creating a purpose driven organisation was fascinating (there's an article here on the same theme but the podcast is better) and it contained a few nuggets that I want to cut…
-
The Buxton Index, and the Rhythm of Business
'The Buxton Index of an entity, i.e. person or organization, is defined as the length of the period, measured in years, over which the entity makes its plans.' I came across the 'Buxton Index' via this Shane Parrish podcast with Patrick Collison founder of Stripe (which is really worth a listen). Seemingly originated by Professor John Buxton at…
-
Post of the Month – July 2018 – The Winner
Well it was a stellar list to choose from this month, and a close run vote but in the end it was Ian Leslie's excellent The Death of Don Draper that just about won it. So well done Ian. You join the hall of fame. My thanks to everyone that took part and look out…
-
Post of the Month – July 2018 – The Vote
Thanks for the nominations. BBH Labs' World Cup of Books has been nominated and although it's slightly beyond the norm I've included it as it was a good celebration of great writing and rather fun, and I've also included a great talk from Paul Adams which is not strictly a post, but hey. So our…
-
Post of the Month – July 2018 – Nominations
It's been a pretty good month for reading this past month, reflected in my starting nominations for Post of the Month below. If there are good things that you've read over the past month please do nominate them for the vote by sending me the link direct, or via the comments below. I'll add them…
-
How Blogging Shaped the Web
Amy Hoy has a thoughtful post on the early evolution of blogging and how choices that were made back in those early days have shaped a lot of what's happened with content on the web since. The shift from creating new pages and building your own system to one where you're using tools, form and…