I was just thinking about organisational change and pondering over how our natural tendency to change is to resist it, when this thought popped up: if resistance to change is so hardwired in our brains, it must serve some purpose -- but what? One of the premises of evolutionary theory is this: if something survives... Continue Reading →
The Case for Modelling
Last week I wrote about the need for experimentation over models. Models are generally too abstract and far afield from reality that it’s hard to get any accurate answers. If you want to find out if an intervention works, try it. Do experiments on it. Carry out pilot projects and see what happens. Don’t model... Continue Reading →
Some thoughts on the thinking behind building things
I’m going to write a bit about my thinking process whenever I build things, whether it’s websites, VBA applications, or financial models. I’m not too sure if this is going to be a “oh that’s so obvious why is he telling me this?” piece, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, one person’s normal behaviour... Continue Reading →
Business vs. IT
I was reminded today in a book I'm reading on visual analytics that the purpose of any analytical project is ultimately to make better decisions. Coming from a mixed business and IT background, I have had my fair share of IT vs. Business conundrums. With my IT hat on, I'm always thinking about efficiency, optimisation, ease-of-use,... Continue Reading →
For the lack of a plan
I spent close to five hours working on an assignment that I thought would take me an hour at the most. It was an ad hoc project, and as often the case with many ad hoc projects you can’t really tell how long they’d take till they were done. My initial estimations were based off... Continue Reading →
Student loans and how the deed is infinitely stronger than the word
Interesting article giving the perspectives of three people with outstanding student loans and how they're paying it off. I'd never been that heavily in debt and I do sometimes wonder what I'd do. Though I cannot say for sure, I do not see myself holding off the payment of loans if I could I help... Continue Reading →
User requests are like hunger pangs
“So, when is the [request] going to be ready?” he asks me, the fourth person to ask in a one-week period. This, I think to myself, is probably real hunger. “I’m working on it,” I reply, which means I’m waiting it out to determine how important the request really is. The moment I can confidently... Continue Reading →
Choose your customers
Seth Godin recently had a great post on choosing your customers. He's not the first to say this, and he'll certainly no be the last, but it's always good to hear reminders like this. Choosing your customers first (before doing anything to get customers) isn't intuitive. Heck, choosing your customers isn't intuitive (who cares who buys my product... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 