Self-tracking: “If man were meant to fly” and other objections
Self tracking for performance has a place on the map now thanks to the May 2 New York Times Magazine article by Gary Wolf. But along with praise and interest, “The Data-Driven Life” also drew harsh, skeptical reactions. Many of the objections were of the “if man were meant to fly, he’d have wings” variety. [...]
Self tracking is business intelligence
Back when secretaries were common, you could have had yours track your day in 15-minute increments. In his book The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker suggested this as a way to find out what you really did all day. The picture usually wasn’t so pretty. Tracking your time then and now is personal, it’s messy, and [...]
You know it when they dance
Here’s that eternal question again: how do you know when whatever you’re working on is good enough? Today, two perspectives. The Oscar-winning sound designer Walter Murch, speaking Friday night at the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael California, told about talking shop with Michael Jackson’s engineers. They told Murch that they had no special insight, [...]
As if there there can be a single version of the truth
The popular New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman often disagrees with his fellow economists. Let’s all raise our eyebrows in shock. Not! My shock is at the idea among some of his readers that there’s a right and wrong answer. Today, for example, Krugman again refers to his opinion that the stimulus [...]
Big BI, meet Big Ag
Swap out a few terms in a recent New York Times story about farmers’ attempt to split California, and you might see the IT vs. business saga.
Alex Vollmer’s review of election day infographics
Be sure you don’t miss Alex Vollmer’s excellent review of election day infographics. He wanted to see the margins of victory, percentage of precincts reporting, number of delegates at stake, and other goals. He looked at the New York Times online, CNN, National Public Radio and other media.
