If you only read one thingThe Objects of Our Life (19 minute read) Steve Jobs predicts in 1983 people will spend more time in front of a computer than in their car in 1986. A visionary knows where the market is moving to and builds for that. Is your startup following a vision? Of a future market or of a yesterday market? To be wildly successful, you need to correctly predict the future. See things no one else can see. https://stevejobsarchive.com/exhibits/objects-of-our-life
Stories Iâve enjoyed this weekStudy Finds Consumers Are Actively Turned Off by Products That Use AI (17 minute read) Me thinks this is like CGI in films. There is more and more CGI in films, but people want âCGI-freeâ films, to the point that filmmakers advertise them that way. In reality, these films have more CGI than ever; you just canât see it. Filming is without green-screens, computers just remove the background. So actors-who equate CGI with green-screens, shout âNo CGI used!â Like with the latest Top Gun movie. âReal planes!"âyes, planes flew in real, but then every plane was replaced with a CGI model. And FX experts love this, painting over the real things makes it easier getting the lighting and color mood right. With AI? Consumers want devices with more AI but want the illusion there is none in it. The device is real, just like âfilms without CGI.â https://futurism.com/the-byte/study-consumers-turned-off-products-ai How did Facebook spy on encrypted traffic from a mobile VPN app? (17 minute read) They got users into installing a âVPN appâ that tricked users into installing a custom cert from âFacebook Research.â Someone at FB wrote âWe developed âkitsâ that can be installed on iOS and Android that intercept traffic for specific sub domains, allowing us to read what otherwise be encrypted trafficâ and didnât find anything wrong with it. Also: If youâre an influencer stop pushing VPNs. https://doubleagent.net/onavo-facebook-ssl-mitm-technical-analysis/ Unfashionably secure: why we use isolated VMs (25 minute read) They run each customer in their own VM. NICE! An exploit only impacts one customer. Maximum isolation. There is something to this idea, itâs good to have that one in our tool belt (/Tim Grunt/). Downside: Many things are more complex, backups, releases, hot fixes. But at least this is complexity that has a real benefit. If you need it, a good idea. https://blog.thinkst.com/2024/07/unfashionably-secure-why-we-use-isolated-vms.html CrowdStrike offers a $10 apology gift card to say sorry for outage (21 minute read) Sounds laughable. But from my experience, this is whatâs in most SaaS contracts. When as CTO every time we had massive vendor problems, they offered $1000 a day or a month for free, when we lost millions. So $10 is funny, but $1000 (look into your contracts!) isnât better. Today, of course, Iâd have a second vendor in place. About CrowdStrike? As CEOs, Iâd fire lots of CIO/CTOs. No limited rollout strategy in place, auto-update enabled for systems for critical infrastructure? Are you mad?! https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/24/crowdstrike-offers-a-10-apology-gift-card-to-say-sorry-for-outage/ Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century? (32 minute read) Alluring read. The gist, Steve Ballmer started Azure and developed his reports, like Satya Nadella and set him up for success - who then became the wonder-CEO. Changed my image of Steve Ballmer at least. (Also, set up your successor for success!) Minor note: A visionary chooses an ops guy as a successor who can scale the revenue, but has no vision. Ballmer and Cook. https://blog.jovono.com/p/ballmer-microsoft-underrated 77% Of Employees Report AI Has Increased Workloads And Hampered Productivity, Study Finds (34 minute read) Interesting study. âTo add insult to injury, nearly half (47%) of employees using AI say they donât know how to achieve the expected productivity gains their employers expectâ Which reminds me of the discussion I recently had at a conference. AI makes seniors more productive and juniors less productive one attendee said. And I would agree. You need to know how to use the tool and also need to judge the resultsâwithout experience impossible. Do you put too much pressure on devs? Do you see this in Scrum meetings? âWhy a 13, you have AI now!â Is this a thing yet? https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2024/07/23/employees-report-ai-increased-workload/ AI paid for by Ads â the gpt-4o mini inflection point (15 minute read) OMG Apocalypse now. âLetâs invent a blog that generates content in response to whatever the user types in the search bar.â https://batchmon.com/blog/ai-cheaper-than-ads/ New Atlassian research on developer experience highlights a major disconnect between developers and leaders (9 minute read) Some interesting insights from the developer study:
https://www.atlassian.com/blog/developer/developer-experience-report-2024 Amazon cracks down on âcoffee badgingâ employees by tracking individual hours spent in the office (22 minute read) Learned what âcoffee badgingâ means. Too many people lack second order thinking. You force people into the office? They come, have coffee, leave. You force them into the office for some hours? Theyâll find something. Classical must read on that topic, Robert D. Austin, âMeasuring and Managing Performance In Organizationsâ People will react in their own way to thing you force on them. Not in the way you intend them to.
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