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Two books, by Quote

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[Old? But somehow, still functionally Good, it seems, it looks; Lille]

Yet another ‘Book By Quote’ then (An attempt to subjectively summarise a book by the quotes I found worthwhile to mark, to remember. Be aware that the quotes as such, aren’t a real unbiased ‘objective’ summary; most often I heartily advise to read the book yourself..!).
And because you’ve been such a nice audience [still countable on the fingers of one hand], you’ll get a double treat; two books by quote in one go. One in English, one in Dutch, even.

So, this time, first up: Alan Lightman, The Accidental Universe, Pantheon Books, 2013, ISBN 9780307908582

Physicists call it the second law of thermodynamics. It is also called the arrow of time. (p.26)

Yet despite all the evidence, we continue to strive for youth and immortality, we continue to cling to the old photographs, we continue to wish that our grown daughters were children again. Every civilization has sought the “elixir of life” – the magical potion that would grant youth and immortality. In China alone, the substance has one thousand names. (p.28)

To my mind, it is one of the profound contradictions of human existence that we long for immortality, indeed fervently believe that something must be unchanging and permanent, when all of the evidence in nature argues against us. (p.34)

Continue reading “Two books, by Quote”

All newld

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[As in: Modern museum, aptly]

Just some note. Suddenly realised why the upcoming, near, Singularity is such a big deal:
It will change the way the world turns. It will no longer allow the New to be adopted…! It will require all old to be abandoned as fast as possible, not retaining anything of the Old that was good.

Of course, we still have classic stuff, and have not yet fulfilled all dreams, but up till now, we have always have progressives to embrace the New while the ‘conservatives’ wait for proof the New is actually better than the Old. (And reactionaries just don’t want to try or test anything new.)

With the Singularity, there may not be such a thing anymore as nostalgia and valuing the Things of Yesterday. We’ll have the newest of the newest only; all things less than perfectly new are a waste. So that is where all the grand (hard pastel) sketches of the bright future all fail, quite consistently: In them, there is nothing left of the past, nothing cared for as remembrance of where we came from, nothing from our youths to remind us of the finitude of our lives. Which means we’ll make all the errors ever more clearly and wholesale’ly [better word?], over and over again, in the end certainly erring to the side of killing humanity and/or the planet; if we’re at it, why not go all the way, right?

And if we don’t, the Singularity, or Matrix, will do it for us.

T-Rend Not Found

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[How to call this, politically correct..?]

Uhm, would anyone have a serious overview of security trends as they unfold this year ..? So far, there’s nothing but a handful of incidents. Or is my memory just insufficient …

Anyway, I’d really like to at least have some classification scheme whereby we can bin various news items. “Antivirus is useless since it’s reactive and too slow for the rapid morphing of fingerprints” versus “Heuristics and profiling [secondary signatures?] solve this, as does upping the effort; unprotected neighbours go down first, please” would go into the Basic Endpoint Protection bin, for example. Privacy would be a similar bin. But who has a useful (sic) partial taxonomy or tree ..?

Kennis-werkers?

Short post, long read (in Dutch): Surprisingly valid, all the things I dreamt up in 1994 … this paper on Kenniswerk, in particular from page 13 on – but the rest, is also still valid and very worthwhile reading when I may say so.
And a picture for your viewing pleasure…:
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[Where? No contest.]

Die Information

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[Twisting by the pool]

Claim. There needs to be some seminal work of economics on the thing that follows Labour and Capital, being Information. And how societal structures are impacted. I will write that book. Someday. And/or, sooner, when (not if?) you fund me through some crowdfunding scheme. After Das Kapital, a new wave.

Short link: Brain laser

Michio Kaku predicts we’ll send our minds into space via laser in this piece.

If we’re capable of that, there more probably will be no ‘us’ or ‘our minds’ anymore. We’ll reach Singularity (have passed the S point) already some time before that; dystopian version.

Oh well, here’s a picture for your viewing delight:
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[Your viewing delight ..!? in Riga]

Books by Quote: Collaboration

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[Monopolised, lost all]

Yet another ‘Book By Quote’ then (An attempt to subjectively summarise a book by the quotes I found worthwhile to mark, to remember. Be aware that the quotes as such, aren’t a real unbiased ‘objective’ summary; most often I heartily advise to read the book yourself..!)

So, this time: Morten T. Hansen, Collaboration, Harvard Business Press, 2009, ISBN 9781422115152.

Yet the goal of collaboration is not collaboration, but better results. (p.15)

Leaders who pursue disciplined collaboration never lose sight of this dictum: collaboration is a means to an end, and that end is great performance. (p.16)

… the disciplined collaboration framework targets four barriers: (pp.16-17)

  • The not-invented-here barrier (people are unwilling to reach out to others)
  • The hoarding barrier (people are unwilling to provide help)
  • The search barrier (people are not able to find what they are looking for)
  • The transfer barrier (people are not able to work with people they don’t know well)

In tailoring their solutions, leaders can choose a mix of three levers. … unification lever … people lever … network lever. (pp.17-18)

The idea of disciplined collaboration is to let organization units work independently when that approach produces the best results … This approach, however, needs to be complemented — not replaced – with a “behavioural overlay” of collaborative efforts, … (pp. 18-19)
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[Disciplined collaboration: High performance from decentralization and collaboration]

The first task is to understand the case for collaboration – to appreciate how collaboration can increase performance.
The second task is to evaluate the upside for the company – to consider the potential for the organization overall.
The final task is to understand when to say no to a collaboration project – to articulate a decision rule for when to go ahead, and when not to, at the project level. (p.26)

There are three areas of potential upside in business: better innovation, better sales, and better operations. In a nonbusiness context, these can be thought of as new services, greater client satisfaction, and better-run organizations. (p.26)
Continue reading “Books by Quote: Collaboration”

Maverisk / Étoiles du Nord