Category: Technology

Categories
Cyberinfrastructure Education Google Network Reading Technology Vietnam War

Latest Read: Surveillance Valley

Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet by Yasha Levine. This book is an amazing and enlightening deep dive into the history of the US military-driven internet. Google and Facebook have become today the major players of a corporate DARPA.

Surveillance Valley

The message of Surveillance Valley is twofold: the US military has held the key, foundational role of today’s internet. After all, ARPANet, the initial ‘internet’ went into production in 1966.

The second message is the evolution of counterinsurgency from signals intelligence to Google Chrome. This will surprise many. This can be a very interesting read for our times.

At first glance this story is about Google and law enforcement surveillance within the City of Oakland. Yet, Yasha takes the reader all the way back to the Vietnam War. For instance, he lays the foundation for today’s internet to Project AGILE, an early clandestine effort to aid the French to recolonize Indochina after World War II. Likewise we did not learn from their failures.

This highly secret project launched under Truman as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), and rebranded Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Those early cyclical electronic counterinsurgency efforts in the mid-1950s failed.

In other words, the opening chapters actually provide a very detailed history lesson regarding Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. Data harvesting, aka “counterinsurgency” was flourishing in the Cold War. The impact of Sputnik and French defeats in Vietnam drove counterinsurgency efforts.

Continue reading “Latest Read: Surveillance Valley”
Categories
Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Start with Why

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek helps identify an idea of a ‘golden circle’ in three consecutive rings. The Why, How, and What provide a foundation to show certain stories are successful. When measuring ‘why’ they succeeded against, in some cases overwhelming odds.

Start with Why

Simon acknowledges that many talented companies make good products. But they are also a short term success story. Simon shows how Tivo fits this example.

But only a few really understand ‘the why’ that makes their efforts timeless. These groups (or individuals) succeed beyond all expectations. Focusing on your purpose and cause you cannot only find success, but also differentiate yourself.

Above all, Simon’s story of the Wright Brothers success is a key example of ‘Why’ matters. Simon provides a vivid example of achieving success based upon the Golden Circle.

Samuel Langley worked to become the first man to fly an airplane. He was very qualified to tackle this challenge. In 1880 he invent the Bolometer. Langley was a professor of mathematics at the Naval Academy. He also worked at Harvard University. By the late 1880s, Langley was a senior officer at the Smithsonian Institution. Then the US War Department funded ($50,000 grant) his airplane project. Langley assembled a team of very talented engineers. Even Alexander Gram Bell followed Langley and photographed early test flights. So by all accounts he was gong to be the first to fly a plane.

Continue reading “Latest Read: Start with Why”
Categories
Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Drive

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink. This is another enjoyable read and consider myself a fan of Dan’s writing. I very much enjoyed reading When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing and A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Drive’s core message is effective motivation is not by money, the old carrot and stick approach. Rather Dan asserts the true secret to achieving high performance is our own human need to control our lives. Many current business systems built long ago around the carrot-and-stick motivation does more harm than good as it turns out.

Dan shows in other words how science leads the way based upon three essential elements: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. For some reason my acronym for this PAM in reverse….but it works for me.

Above all, Drive outlines that Autonomy is our desire to direct our own lives. Mastery is our urge to be even better at something that matters to us. Purpose is our desire work in the service of something bigger than ourselves.

Motivation 3.0, the upgrade from current 2.0 (as defined by Dan) is necessary for the smooth functioning of twenty-first-century business. success in v.3.0 also requires Type I behavior: “which concerns itself less with the external rewards an activity brings and more with the inherent satisfaction of the activity itself.” He elaborates that for both professional and personal success we need to move ourselves and our co-workers from Type X to Type I.

Continue reading “Latest Read: Drive”
Categories
Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Sway The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman. Ori also wrote The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations. Both are good reads and worthy of your time.

The opening chapter set the book’s tone for great learning. Why do we fall for irrational behavior? There would be no excuse for experienced, well educated professionals to stumble so badly? Are we really that close to irrational behavior that could actually endanger the lives of others?

When you want to tell a convincing story you start off with a homerun statement. This captures the attention of everyone.

Ori does this for instance, by sharing the story of an educated, deeply experienced professional. Highly regarded by colleagues both internally and from other companies as a voice of reason and industry leader.

In other words, what changes in behavior allows one to commit such an irrational action that results in the deaths of 534 people? Sway examines in chapter one the deadliest aviation disaster in history. It happened on the small island of Tenerife.

Similarly, this was one of the first investigations to conclude “human factors” as a cause. The investigation suggested his reputation, captain’s seniority, and being one of the most respected pilots working for the airline. The apparent hesitation of the flight engineer and the first officer to challenge pilot Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten contributed to the crash.

Continue reading “Latest Read: Sway The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior”
Categories
Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Originals

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant. This was a very relaxing read, not a lot of deep thinking to the book. Adam is a good storyteller. Originals addresses challenges to improve the world by simply being an original thinker willing to defy accepted practices, or wisdom by others.

Originals

Adam shares upfront how he ‘missed the boat’ on investing with the founders of Warby Parker. He was teaching the four at Wharton Business School.

However they did not quit grad school and go for broke to launch their company. They actually landed other internships, which leads one to think they did not truly believe in their idea.

When GQ called them the Netflix of eyewear, we like cheering for the underdog. The Italian company Luxottica, was the ruling king of eyeware and owned LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Ray-Ban, and Oakley, and the licenses for Chanel and Prada. David versus Goliath?

You just needed a well designed visual website, which Adam admits the four left to the very last day before launch. Fair to say luck factored into much of their success.

Adam fails to account for the accepted explosion of eCommerce in society. We all know by now that by 2010 the ‘Amazon-ification’ of just about every product that could be sold online was well accepted. Adam shares the personal compelling story, yet anyone would have been the next Warby Parker.

Originals has good insights to the Segway failure. Dean Kamen’s reputation in medical device success did not translate into a consumer transportation success. Again the failure was attributed to the price-point. The irony has been learning this week (reading this book) the Chinese company that today owns Segway announced it will no longer be manufactured. Forbes article about the demise of the Segway.

Good lessons on how Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos and John Doerr hyped the Segway beyond their known product markets. Jobs spoke about Segway’s development, code named “Ginger” during a MacWorld event that further hyped the machine before the official launch.

Continue reading “Latest Read: Originals”