Happy Friday, everyone!
There really isn’t a trend to the types of articles I’ve been hitting this week; there’s been a cornucopia of different topics, from security to leadership.
Image credit: Quotes n Thoughts
With Wayland, linux has never been easier (or more handsome) (ArsTechnica)
I post this at the risk of sounding self-congratulatory, but this is a really nice write-up about the latest Fedora release. Nice quotes, which I combined: “Not only is Fedora 25 a great release, the updated GNOME 3.22 running on top of Wayland appears to beslick and very stable….[W]ith Fedora 25 I think it’s safe to say that the Fedora Project has finally nailed it.” The thing I like about the Fedora project is the choice it made a couple of years ago to break into a couple of different distros designed for different use cases (server, workstation, and now atomic). Like Java and MicroProfile , microservices and SOA,orcontainers, this shows how technology is naturally evolving as opposed to going stagnant and being replaced by something new .Worm on the sensor: What happens when IoT data is bad? (CIO)
Very interesting stat: according to the head of GE Digital, about 40% of the information gathered by IoT devices is useless. An unknown amount of information is just bad, from misplaced or damaged sensors, bad device settings, or other human error. In any information-based system, the quality of the system is related to the quality of the information in it.
The outwork myth (Signal v Noise)
Jason Fried has done a couple of articles this week looking at the myth of infinite work time ― essentially arguing that it is not possible to outwork the world or to work hard enough to achieve greatness. Although these posts specifically look at the myth of over-working, he does hint that there are other characteristics ― talent, luck, networking, timing ― that are more important for success. One of the comments brings up an older HBR article which noted an interesting phenomenon: organizations which encouragedlong work weeks weresupporting exotic vacations yet discouraging family-related leave. The idea is that luxury items would demand a strong commitment to work, while family obligations could pull attention away from work.
Every piece of your attention is being monetized (6 Pixels of Separation)
This is super short, but it is a fascinating subject. The idea is that advertising has evolved from the initial visual impact of product-on-eyeballs. Along with grabbing your attention, organizations are using additional layers of your personal data and related transactions to create layers of monetized streams, all still predicated on your attention. As he notes, it used to be that you couldn’t identify the product, you were the product. In the new age of advertising, you’re always the product.
Anthropology and biology backgrounds can be assets in IT (Enterprisers Project)
Spoiler alert: the goal is to find people who think of complex adaptive systems. Being able to look at an entire ecosystem, or to interact with users with different needs, is as important to the success of an IT architecture and the technical expertise. Quote David Bray from at the FCC: “If you are able to demonstrate that you can do systems-level thinking and you’re able to understand how people use tools and the impact of incentives and cultures on technology use, you are going to be a vital asset to any forward-leaning organization.”