Hardtalk
Hardtalk with Stephen Sackur
Recently I was introduced in the hard-hitting BBC television show/ podcast, Hardtalk. The host Stephen Sackur takes no punches. The exchange with Alan Dershowitz was awesome. On my run today, I listened to the episode with Lina Khan, a US lawyer who took on Amazon about whether the tech giants can be tamed.
The episode covered both Amazon’s position in a free market, as well as the power of Twitter to censor people. The comparison with Europe was quickly made, where European laws regulate these types of issues more strictly. It was a great observation by Sackur. Yet, he didn’t follow through on his train on thought: what’s the difference with US law, and what role has US congress played or failed to play.
The public focus right is on Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple or Amazon. The debate is about banning Trump, or about removing Parler from their platforms. Yet, little conversation in the US happens about the role of Congress, or the enforcement of existing laws swiftly. The only talk seems to be about punishing tech companies by revoking Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Section 230 provides immunity to online platforms from civil liability based on third-party content.
Is anything online acceptable and must tech companies allow it? Free speech and the first amendment don’t apply here. A company doesn’t have to allow any speech on their platform.
I don’t know what the right answer is here. I surely don’t want to end up in an over-regulated system where one debates the curvation of a cucumber. Yet, I do think that we should discuss what online speech should be prosecuted and how, as not to rely on companies to have to create such guidelines on speech and moderation.
January 23, 2021
Google Sites, the missing link
In the olden physical library days, books were catalogued and numbered according to a common Dewey Decimal Classification system. Each book belonged on a specific shelf. You looked up books by author or by topic by consulting an index card system. The index card DDC information would then direct you to the right shelf. It worked! It worked because there were only so many books one could store in a library.
The scale of the internet made such a catalog impossible, even though Yahoo originally tried it. Altavista, Lycos, Excite and a host of other companies worked very hard at making finding information online easier through search engines. As we all know, it was Google who perfected finding needles in the internet haystack.
That is, for as long as the haystack is public. Once you within the confines of a corporation, all bets are off. Of course, Google’s web crawlers have no access to the servers behind the firewall. But what happens if a company hosts their files in Google Drive, a private cloud drive, hosted by Google? In my experience, astoundingly, search doesn’t work in Google Drive.
Also the cataloging in Google Drive folders is a problem. The Google Drive folder sharing approach is a mystery for many people. I have a My Drive view and can make portions of it selectively available in your My Drive. This can be confusing as we believe we are looking at the same shared information. Yet, it can be different. Only portions may have been shared, or it may have mapped it differently in your My Drive. There are many things which can screw it up.
Google Team Drives meant to solve some of this. They didn’t, as team membership and permissions can get complex. The more recent Shared Drive concept provides hope. I understand it as a set of corporation-wide shared and discoverable drives where everybody has the same view of the world.
In a corporate world where one has figured out a working folder structure, there remains the problem of findability. The true solution is to fix search.
A companion solution to this is a Portal, a landing place, organized by how the company operates, and with links to the right documents. It is a Dewey crutch, yet one which can be quite effective. It may even be key to fixing search. After all, Google Search started with the Page Rank algorithm applied to webpages and their links.
Google Sites is such a Portal solution. However it is clunky, has limited functionality, flexibility, and appears to neglected by Google.
As a result, I see folks build crafty workarounds using e.g., Atlassian Confluence. As Atlassian Confluence overlaps in functionality with Google Docs and Sites, you end up somewhere in an even more confused no-mans land. It is as if Dewey created both a catalog and a typewriter, wrapped in the same product.
By fixing Private Search and investing in Sites, Google could solve a lot of companies’ information sharing problems.
For information systems to work, you need to use single-purpose and simple tools. Every time, companies try to blend capabilities, it becomes a mess.
January 22, 2021
That day I got carried away
I avoided Election Night and fell peacefully asleep that night in November.
The next weeks I followed subduedly the legal jousting. It turned out to be a one-sided fight with team Trump and Four Seasons Total Landscaping biting the dust time after time.
January 6, 2021 Attack on the Capitol
Then came the disgraceful events of January 6th, and the attack on the Capitol. The first visual which came to mind was that of the attack dogs in Animal Farm. Regardless of the Trump’s admiration of Putin, that allegory is almost the opposite of what right-wing Trump is about.
That afternoon, my work productivity was declining rapidly. When I read Belgian Twitter commentary, in favor of Trump, I got carried away and waded into dangerous Twitter-war waters.
For context, there is huge political divide in Belgium between the Flemish-speaking North and the French-speaking Walloons in the South. In political terms, this translates largely to the Right-leaning N-VA and Right-Wing-populist Vlaams Belang in the North, and the Socialist Party PS in the South. Trump’s rethoric about the Radical Left immediately appeals to the right-wing Flemish voter. The difference between the GOP and Democratic Party is much more nuanced, and the mapping is not as direct.
With that background, one of the Flemish comments to the attack on the Capitol read
This makes sense when one has to cheat so blatantly to claim the president’s seat. 52k testified under oath to fraudulent cases. 74M people voted for Trump but Biden would get 80M to his name? More than Obama ever did? Think logical and rational.
I sheepishly responded with
And off we were to the races. I had been waiting to have a facts-based debate with a Trumpista for a long while. To each lie and falsehood article he posted, I responded with a fact-checked counter response. This was not an opinion debate or a troll war. Oh no, I wanted to call him and Trump on the lies. And I was ready to eat crow if needed. But let’s be honest, … this was too easy. I could have done it all night. What a rush!
Now back to my shell and staying on the right side of Twitter.
January 8, 2021
LinkedIn forgot to serve its “users”, and missed the opportunity to be a great professional community
Without a LinkedIn profile you don’t exist and you don’t have a career.
Your HR department probably has several LinkedIn recruiter licenses to find great candidates. You may even have asked your team to mine their networks for great candidates. For hiring managers, LinkedIn provides inspiration to specify the right job title or to describe the role. LinkedIn Recruiter appears to be serving companies well.
For many sales teams, LinkedIn has replaced the rolodex from over a decade ago. You may need some third-party add-ons to find the right email or phone number. The majority of the LinkedIn connect requests I receive turn into sales pitches. The introductory message “Hi, your profile looks interesting. I am looking to expand my professional network”, is quickly followed up with a sales pitch about the product or service the person is offering. It is as if I dropped of my business card at all the booths of a conference and told each salesperson, please contact me.
In the process of providing a great product for recruiters and account managers, LinkedIn forgot about the people volunteering their personal data. The saying “If you are not paying for it, you are the product” is more than ever true. Where is the value it offers me?
LinkedIn Groups often turns into a sales channel with a stream of press releases, or with news updates crossposted on Twitter and Facebook. I am sure we all have seen the Boston Dynamics robots jump and dance across all social media multiple times over. (Spot and Atlas are really cool nevertheless!)
LinkedIn experimented with a personal relationship manager (PRM) product. You could keep notes per contact, and schedule follow-up reminders. It was a really useful idea. It came and went away, pushing me to explore alternative Personal Relationship Managers: Ryze, Etch.ai or Followup.cc.
Peer-to-peer Career Advice was launched and is since no longer available either.
Slideshare used to be hot, but now feels on life support. It is no longer linked from main page. Instead, the $29.99/mo LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda) is promoted.
I understand LinkedIn is a for profit business and not a community service. I don’t mind paying for a great product. For example, after enjoying (free) Medium articles for a while, I signed up and became a member to enjoy the full set of articles.
Microsoft and LinkedIn are missing an opportunity to create a great professional community. My advice would be to invest in offering a great free (and premium) product to those who share their personal information.
For example, in addition to making student resumes available to recruiters, also provide a low friction path for those students to connect with a company or ask a question from more experienced people. I can see integrations with Calendly or features from Handshake or Doorways benefit students. To the more experienced, put the skill listings to good use, so one can more easily find a knowledgeable person to answer a question. Stackoverflow meets Skills. It doesn’t have to be just about technical topics, advise on the software skills can benefit many managers. Blind meets Skills. Perhaps a professional bookclub feature or a mentoring program with a free and premium option.
Start by making great services free. Continue making money with the services targeting companies: recruiting, sales and corporate training.
January 1, 2021
A short update of two numbers
The first number is 216.9. It is the number of miles I have run in 2020. This year was not a stellar running year. We sheltered a lot at home this year, because of covid-19 and because of the poor air quality from the California wild fires. I also lacked the peer pressure from the MVARC running group. During the summer months, we did a lot more walking than running. At the end of the year I was able to put in more regular runs, and was hitting more than 10 miles per week. Slow and steady wins the race, right?
The second number is 365. That is the number I pledge to hit for 2021. I will run on average one mile per day.
December 31, 2020
Green Shorts guy
Over the last weeks, I’ve been alternating between hikes on the Bay Area backyard trails and running the mean streets of San Jose. My goal is to increase the distance slowly to be able to run another half marathon. After a few 4 mile runs in the past weeks, my next target distance is a 10K (6.2mi).
The hardest part on these runs is to quiesce my active mind, and make it focus on anything else — but running. I often listen to podcasts. Today, I rekindled listening to Ali on the Run. I used to listen to her regularly over two years ago.
Trotting around the hard pavement near my house in my green shorts, I listed to the Ali on the Run Show with Calum Neff. They discuss in great detail what it took to pace Sara Hall at The Marathon Project in Arizona.
Calum is also known as green shorts guy. Running in green shorts is probably only thing we have in common. He runs marathons, and at a 5:20min/mi pace. My pace is double that, and over the shorter 10K distance.
I am glad I rediscovered Ali’s podcast as the run was over before I realized it.
December 30, 2020
Prof G 2021 Predictions
Pour yourself a glass of your favorite alcoholic libation. Strap yourself in your office chair and be ready to be overwhelmed by the 2021 predictions of Scott Galloway.
Prof G is my favorite twitter/blog/YouTube/podcast discovery of 2020. Yeah, where have I been all this time?
December 29, 2020
The great accelerator
A week ago I wrote that Covid-19 is quickly becoming the great equalizer. Today I started reading a new book, Post Corona, from Crisis to Opportunity, by Scott Galloway.
He starts the book with two theses. First, the pandemic’s most enduring impact will be as an accelerant. Second, in any crisis there is opportunity; the greater and more disruptive the crisis, the greater the opportunities.
As exhibit A, prof G points to the recent and large changes in e-commerce, video conferencing, tele-healthcare and grocery delivery.
I am only at the beginning of the book. There may be other examples later-on. Yet, I wonder what changes Covid-19 will be accelerating in two specific areas.
First, we need a change in how we share information and news.
Thomas Jefferson wrote:
An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.
The recent years have shown that an educated citizenry we are not. Knowing what is fact from fiction has become much harder. When you listen to the Whitehouse press briefings, you even wonder what the title journalist still stands for.
I sense we are on the cusp of a major change in how we write, fact check and distribute the news. Content moderation at Twitter*, YouTube and Facebook are still using training wheels. Fox News appears to realize after so many years, that lies and deceit may be bad for business*. Yet, the answer to the question what information can we trust, is not always clear to me.
The second area I wonder about is infrastructure. The United States is due for a major overhaul and investment in our infrastructure: roads, tunnels, bridges, energy distribution, and high-speed internet access.
Elon Musk is leading the way on multiple fronts. There are the Tesla Powerwall, Solar Roof and panels. Starlink is bringing internet to previously hard to reach areas of the United States. The Boring Company makes tunneling easier. Another Musk brainchild is Hyperloop. Virgin Hyperloop demonstrated on Nov 8, 2020 the first passengers traveling safely on a hyperloop. However, the first true applications will be outside of the United States. As trains don’t deal well with sand, the first hyperloop project will be in Abu Dhabi, and eventually to Dubai. The first hyper loop project in the US may be the Great Lakes project and connect Chicago, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Its timeline is unclear to me.
Nevertheless, Elon Musk is only one person. Jeff Bezos focusses his billions on e-commerce, distribution (planes, vans, warehouses) and groceries. Bill Gates is looking at education, global health, fighting infectious diseases, and a new nuclear reactor design, through the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and TerraPower. The Google guys have the X moonshot company with some really interesting projects. Some infrastructure-related projects are Taara and Loon to provide internet access, Makani and Dandelion in the energy generation space, and Waemo self-driving taxis.
Which other billionaire is pouring in money to accelerate a better US infrastructure? How much is the US government investing? Covid-19 will change where we work from, where we travel and how travel. It is another major opportunity to pay close attention to.
December 29, 2020
Under the tree
This Christmas Santa brought T-shirts, pyjamas, a newspaper, and a homemade tool belt for the barbecue-chef, spices included. Our son gifted us a yearlong subscription to the New York Times — so we are no longer limited to 3 articles. Our daughter crafted a tool-belt for when I am outside tending the smoker. I love all the gifts.
Thinking about all this for a moment, I realize I am both quite content with all the things I already have. It must be very hard for my family to come up with gifts.
I also realize I start to appreciate the things associated with older age. Nice pyjamas, a cup of poor-over coffee, and a newspaper (even if it is in electronic format), and you can picture my weekend early mornings.
So, I went this morning on my regular 4 miles run in the neighborhood, and an afternoon hike up the Santa Cruz mountains.
Now, get off my lawn!
December 26, 2020
The great equalizer
Covid-19 is quickly becoming the great equalizer, where location or how deep your pockets no longer matter as much.
Soccer teams have to play behind closed doors, or at least with a fraction of the supporters in the stadium. Home team advantage is no longer a factor in the quiet stadium. The 12th player is absent from the stands and unable to sway the momentum. Also the revenue stream from ticket sales must be dwindling. While match-day revenue is smaller than broadcast or merchandise revenue, it still represents $150M annually if you are Manchester United or Barcelona. Or to put it in competitive terms, $150M in match-day revenue equals the cost of two Kevin De Bruynes. Of course, with season ticket holders, the revenue isn’t all gone. Manchester United is reporting $30M less match-day revenue in 2020.
Also the US university education system is going through a transformation. Universities are putting more and more of the lectures online and are figuring out how to serve students remotely. Why pay $50-$70K/year to be on campus at these elite universities, when you take the same classes online? Of course, taking classes over Zoom is not the same as being on campus. Taking the classes from your home is not the same as taking them in person. And then there are the evening social events and student parties. I am not advocating that we move to an all-remote university system. However, I can see how this can make education more available, and at a lower cost.
Lastly, this pandemic will have an effect on housing costs. We are getting more comfortable working remotely. More and more people are moving away from the expensive areas such as Silicon Valley. This will likely stagnate house prizes in the area or worse. More people will be able to join some of the big tech companies, while working from other locations. Some companies are creating satellite teams, bringing multiple team members together in a new location, others allow people to work from anywhere in the US. Regardless, proximity to the Bay Area will no longer be as big of a factor as it is today.
December 20, 2020
