I interviewed someone for a job for the first time in 1998. The interviewee had a slightly unnerving habit of pecking with his whole body like an absent-minded pigeon whilst answering questions. He was clearly ill-at-ease, but I think a casual observer would have been hard pressed to tell who was more nervous. I’d had […]
Focus on the basics — the four needs of high performance team members Read More »
Every so often I sit down to write an article, taking some time to imagine how today’s magical technology might unfurl into one of many possible near-futures. In part, this a challenge to think creatively about the application of technology. In equal part though, it’s so I can look back in five years and laugh
Fast moving molecular goods — the future of shopping in an augmented world Read More »
Journeymen (journeypersons?) in traditional garb by Sigismund von Dobschütz CC BY SA 3.0 Imagine, if you will, a world with no CVs or resumés. Forget for a moment the gloomy predictions of job loss and declining productivity and spend a moment to imagine instead a future where the interview — a deluded, hour long industry standard with little
The Future of Work — The Challenge Economy Read More »
Inside AirBnB’s Dublin offices — a startup that knows how to scale I love working with startups. Startup founders are dreamers, visionaries, rebels and artists. I am, however, reliably informed by someone who has met actual rock stars that founders are, in fact, not rock stars. Founders tend to be unconstrained by physics and unconcerned with reality. They’ve
How to scale your (startup) team Read More »
In software development, or cooking barbecue, when we estimate our small errors will net out – more often than not it will take longer than planned, sometimes less. I rarely remember anyone’s estimate really improving materially the more time they spent on it. But spending time working on estimation will ALWAYS cause a project to
On estimates and guesswork. Read More »
In software development, or cooking barbecue, when estimating small errors will net out – sometimes it will take longer, sometimes less. Normally longer, sure, but not always. But spending time working on estimation will ALWAYS cause a project to take longer by at least the time you spend adding detail to your estimates, and usually
On estimates and guesses Read More »
Or, the time five people from five continents pitched a sex toy at MIT (read Part 1) I had a shirt laundered and bought razors specially for this. They, like my hotel room on Thursday night, went completely unused. As my teachers at school would have told you, I’ve never been much of a note-taker.
The MIT Global Entrepreneur’s Bootcamp – Afterword Read More »
Or, the time five people from five continents pitched a sex toy at MIT (read Part 6) This is my beautiful bed at the Kendall Hotel in Cambridge. Sadly, this is also how it looked at 7am on Friday morning Friday 12th August Notes from last night: “Powerpoint is a pile of shit.” Previously, at the MIT
The MIT Global Entrepreneur’s Bootcamp — Part 7 Read More »
Or, the time five people from five continents pitched a sex toy at MIT (read Part 5) Thursday 11th August It’s now tough to get up in the morning, and I snap awake with a flood of adrenaline as the alarm sounds, feeling like it’s just minutes since I closed my eyes. I’m sure every one
The MIT Global Entrepreneur’s Bootcamp — Part 6 Read More »
Or, the time five people from five continents pitched a sex toy at MIT (read Part 4) Inga Stasiulionyte, Elaine Chen, Marius Ursache, Andrew Ngui and Billy Kirkley. Plotting something. Wednesday 10th August Having treated myself to a lie-in in until 6.50am, I start the walk down to the MIT Sloan building. It’s more overcast than
The MIT Global Entrepreneur’s Bootcamp — Part 5 Read More »