Humana’s Holly Kessinger and NTT DATA’s Robert Elliott on omnichannel strategy at large organizationsOmnichannel strategy is all about combining the head and the heart. This week on Catalyst, Humana’s Holly Kessinger and NTT DATA’s Robert Elliott chat with Clinton about how to drive experience transformation at large enterprises. Holly shares her thoughts on how she approaches creating consistent customer experiences across multiple platforms for millions of people. She shares tips on how to keep teams motivated and how to enable them to work cross functionally. Links: Humana

Humana’s Holly Kessinger and NTT DATA’s Robert Elliott on omnichannel strategy at large organizationsOmnichannel strategy is all about combining the head and the heart. This week on Catalyst, Humana’s Holly Kessinger and NTT DATA’s Robert Elliott chat with Clinton about how to drive experience transformation at large enterprises. Holly shares her thoughts on how she approaches creating consistent customer experiences across multiple platforms for millions of people. She shares tips on how to keep teams motivated and how to enable them to work cross functionally. Links: <a href="https://www.humana.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Humana</a>

Omnichannel Bliss: On a Unified Customer Experience

Clinton is joined by Ash and Dave to chat about how having design involved early in the process sets your teams and products up for success.Design led does not mean design only. This week on Catalyst, Clinton is joined by Launch by NTT DATA’s own Dave Schell and Vectorform’s Ash Howell to talk about where design should be fitting into the big picture. Their answer - as early as possible. They share tips on how to get the design conversation started early and why time and time again their clients have left happier than ever when they bring design in at the outset.  Links: Vectorform

Clinton is joined by Ash and Dave to chat about how having design involved early in the process sets your teams and products up for success.Design led does not mean design only. This week on Catalyst, Clinton is joined by Launch by NTT DATA’s own Dave Schell and Vectorform’s Ash Howell to talk about where design should be fitting into the big picture. Their answer - as early as possible. They share tips on how to get the design conversation started early and why time and time again their clients have left happier than ever when they bring design in at the outset.  Links: <a href="https://www.vectorform.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vectorform</a>

Design Led: On When to Include Design

This week on Catalyst, Launch by NTT DATA’s Clinton Bonner, Brant Beard and Robbie Elliot chat about how to ensure you’re creating and sustaining a healthy team environment. They discuss the importance of good communication and how having other life passions is pivotal to being a good leader. Links: Launch by NTT DataBrant Beard

This week on Catalyst, Launch by NTT DATA’s Clinton Bonner, Brant Beard and Robbie Elliot chat about how to ensure you’re creating and sustaining a healthy team environment. They discuss the importance of good communication and how having other life passions is pivotal to being a good leader. Links: <a href="https://launch.nttdata.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Launch by NTT Data</a><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brant-beard-a001663" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Brant Beard</a>

Culture and Innovation: On Creating A Healthy Environment

The stability of large enterprises can be both a blessing and a curse. This week on Catalyst Chris Losacco is joined by NTT DATA’s Product Management Lead Jamie Bernard to talk about how large organizations can learn to innovate while still taking care of their core business. She explains the 3 horizons principle and how dedicating a small percentage of money to experimentation can help you better serve your customers and your business in the long run. Links: Diffusion of InnovationBuild - Tony Fadell

The stability of large enterprises can be both a blessing and a curse. This week on Catalyst Chris Losacco is joined by NTT DATA’s Product Management Lead Jamie Bernard to talk about how large organizations can learn to innovate while still taking care of their core business. She explains the 3 horizons principle and how dedicating a small percentage of money to experimentation can help you better serve your customers and your business in the long run. Links: <a href="https://www.nafems.org/community/the-analysis-agenda/diffusion-of-innovation/#:~:text=Moore's%20argument%20was%20that%20Early,are%20pragmatists%20and%20risk%20averse." rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Diffusion of Innovation</a><a href="https://www.buildc.com/the-book" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Build - Tony Fadell</a>

3 Horizons: On Finding Product-Market Fit at Large Organizations

Intimacy isn’t a word you often associate with clients or customers. This week Launch’s Clinton Bonner, Chris Losacco and Nathan Henry chat about the term intimacy and how thinking about client relationships in terms of (professional) intimacy can actually be helpful. They share tips on how to build lasting and meaningful relationships with clients and explain how intimacy can help you get to the root of what problems actually need solving for your clients. Links: Launch by NTT Data 

Intimacy isn’t a word you often associate with clients or customers. This week Launch’s Clinton Bonner, Chris Losacco and Nathan Henry chat about the term intimacy and how thinking about client relationships in terms of (professional) intimacy can actually be helpful. They share tips on how to build lasting and meaningful relationships with clients and explain how intimacy can help you get to the root of what problems actually need solving for your clients. Links: <a href="https://launch.nttdata.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Launch by NTT Data </a>

Show Up and Listen: On Customer Intimacy

When Catalyst host Clinton Bonner saw Per Kristian Stoveland’s recent work on Twitter, he was struck by the images. This week on the podcast, Clinton sits down with Per Kristian to hear all about how he developed his generative art collection The Harvest. Per Kristian explains what generative art actually is, how it differs from AI art, and breaks down the technologies and platforms that power his stunning work. Links: Perkwerk OpenSea OpenSea - Per Kristian Stoveland The Harvest #0The Harvest #112The Harvest #162The Harvest #369Void

When Catalyst host Clinton Bonner saw Per Kristian Stoveland’s recent work on Twitter, he was struck by the images. This week on the podcast, Clinton sits down with Per Kristian to hear all about how he developed his generative art collection The Harvest. Per Kristian explains what generative art actually is, how it differs from AI art, and breaks down the technologies and platforms that power his stunning work. Links: <ul><li><a href="https://perkwerk.art/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Perkwerk </a></li><li><a href="http://opensea.io/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">OpenSea </a></li><li><a href="https://opensea.io/collection/the-harvest-by-per-kristian-stoveland" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">OpenSea - Per Kristian Stoveland </a></li><li><a href="https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/407000000" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Harvest #0</a></li><li><a href="https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/407000112" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Harvest #112</a></li><li><a href="https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/407000162" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Harvest #162</a></li><li><a href="https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/407000369" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Harvest #369</a></li><li><a href="https://void.as/studio" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Void</a></li></ul>

Generative Art and Digital Rights: With Per Kristian Stoveland

The Postlight Podcast has undergone a few changes in the past weeks. We’re now Catalyst — the Launch by NTT DATA podcast! This week Chris and Gina chat with new co-host Clinton Bonner, VP of Marketing at Launch. They discuss the future of the show and how Launch is helping to grow the audience and scope of the podcast. The Postlight DNA is still there, with fresh new insights and exciting new guests!Links: Clinton Bonner - Twitter 

The Postlight Podcast has undergone a few changes in the past weeks. We’re now Catalyst — the Launch by NTT DATA podcast! This week Chris and Gina chat with new co-host Clinton Bonner, VP of Marketing at Launch. They discuss the future of the show and how Launch is helping to grow the audience and scope of the podcast. The Postlight DNA is still there, with fresh new insights and exciting new guests!Links: <a href="https://twitter.com/clintonbon?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Clinton Bonner - Twitter </a>

Catalyst: Can Design be Cruel?

Exciting changes have arrived at Postlight, officially now Launch by NTT DATA! This week Chris and Gina are joined by Mark Orttung, President of Launch, as he shares how Launch brought together the best digital companies around and his own journey to leading the company. They discuss Postlight’s unique fit in the new firm and look towards an exciting future of strategizing, shipping, and scaling provocative digital experiences.   Links: Launch by NTT DATAMark Orttung Twitter Postlight Joins Launch by NTT DATA 

Exciting changes have arrived at Postlight, officially now Launch by NTT DATA! This week Chris and Gina are joined by Mark Orttung, President of Launch, as he shares how Launch brought together the best digital companies around and his own journey to leading the company. They discuss Postlight’s unique fit in the new firm and look towards an exciting future of strategizing, shipping, and scaling provocative digital experiences.   Links: <ul><li><a href="https://launch.nttdata.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Launch by NTT DATA</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/morttung?lang=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mark Orttung Twitter </a></li><li><a href="https://postlight.com/insights/postlight-joins-launch-by-ntt-data" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Postlight Joins Launch by NTT DATA </a></li></ul>

Launching Launch by NTT DATA: On an Exciting New Chapter

Editor’s Note: Exciting changes are coming to the Postlight Podcast! We’re taking a few weeks off from recording and sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll have some big announcements for you soon, so stay tuned!Pop quiz: What feature only makes it onto the feature list when it’s too late? In this archived episode, Chris and Gina chat about why speed should always be top of mind when developing a digital platform. They discuss how things can slow over time and share tips on how to build for speed. From database indexes to better search, they share how to make your platform speedy for everyone, no matter the bandwidth. 

Editor’s Note: Exciting changes are coming to the Postlight Podcast! We’re taking a few weeks off from recording and sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll have some big announcements for you soon, so stay tuned!Pop quiz: What feature only makes it onto the feature list when it’s too late? In this archived episode, Chris and Gina chat about why speed should always be top of mind when developing a digital platform. They discuss how things can slow over time and share tips on how to build for speed. From database indexes to better search, they share how to make your platform speedy for everyone, no matter the bandwidth.

From the Archive: On Speed as a Feature

Editor’s Note: Exciting changes are coming to the Postlight Podcast! We’re taking a few weeks off from recording and sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll have some big announcements for you soon, so stay tuned!What’s a good metaphor for running a business not about sports or war? Gina asked this question on Twitter some months back and got an overwhelming response. In this archived episode, Gina and Chris share the best answers that came out of this question. They explore gentler business metaphors like tending to a garden, playing in a band, or swinging through a forest. 

Editor’s Note: Exciting changes are coming to the Postlight Podcast! We’re taking a few weeks off from recording and sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll have some big announcements for you soon, so stay tuned!What’s a good metaphor for running a business not about sports or war? Gina asked this question on Twitter some months back and got an overwhelming response. In this archived episode, Gina and Chris share the best answers that came out of this question. They explore gentler business metaphors like tending to a garden, playing in a band, or swinging through a forest.

From the Archive: On Leadership Metaphors

Welcome to Catalyst, the Launch by NTT DATA Podcast. Catalyst is an ongoing discussion for digital leaders dissatisfied with the status quo and optimistic about what’s possible through smart technology and great people. In this studio we believe in shipping software over slideware, that fast will follow smooth, and aiming to create digital experiences that move millions is a worthy pursuit.

paul ford is one of the greatest living tech critics. rich ziade needs to come around to socialism.

one of the few good podcasts

Quality podcasting. These guys are the real thing. Deep, penetrating industry analysis.

Amazon Toilets

Catalyst Podcast

Why is LinkedIn so unpleasant? This week Paul and Rich want to connect with you, as they tackle the messy hellscape that is LinkedIn. What makes the site so bad—and what, if anything, could make it better? And in the second half of the show, they break down design culture, and how it shapes the things that get built.

Why is LinkedIn so unpleasant? This week Paul and Rich want to connect with you, as they tackle the messy hellscape that is LinkedIn. What makes the site so bad—and what, if anything, could make it better? And in the second half of the show, they break down design culture, and how it shapes the things that get built.

Add Me to Your Professional Network

Is Facebook a monopoly? This week Paul and Rich tackle the 2-billion-user elephant in the room and go back and forth on two big questions: whether Facebook violates antitrust laws and should be broken up, and how the platform (or its regulators) can solve its rampant fake news problem. Topics covered include what “breaking up” Facebook would even look like, how the platform might verify news sources, separating news from satire, and the general public’s ambivalence about privacy and security.  

Is Facebook a monopoly? This week Paul and Rich tackle the 2-billion-user elephant in the room and go back and forth on two big questions: whether Facebook violates antitrust laws and should be broken up, and how the platform (or its regulators) can solve its rampant fake news problem. Topics covered include what “breaking up” Facebook would even look like, how the platform might verify news sources, separating news from satire, and the general public’s ambivalence about privacy and security.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do: A conversation about Facebook

For decades, startups have tried to unseat the mighty spreadsheet, with no success. Does Airtable, a database for the web, have what it takes? And what did it take to make Airtable? Paul Ford and Rich Ziade talk to Airtable co-found Andrew Ofstad to find out.

For decades, startups have tried to unseat the mighty spreadsheet, with no success. Does Airtable, a database for the web, have what it takes? And what did it take to make Airtable? Paul Ford and Rich Ziade talk to Airtable co-found Andrew Ofstad to find out.

Spreadsheets Are Off The Table

What does product management really mean? How can you effectively couple design and engineering to bring a product to life? Paul and Rich talk about the difficulty in defining the discipline of product management, the three red-flags you should avoid on a resume, and how to demonstrate value under an ambiguous title. You report to the product: This week Paul Ford and Rich Ziade sit down to talk about hiring product managers who do more than the hand-off. We delve into the intersection of design and engineering, why product management is so difficult to define, and the value of curiosity. We also share our top three ways to destroy your resume! 

What does product management really mean? How can you effectively couple design and engineering to bring a product to life? Paul and Rich talk about the difficulty in defining the discipline of product management, the three red-flags you should avoid on a resume, and how to demonstrate value under an ambiguous title. You report to the product: This week <a href="https://medium.com/u/168dab556633" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Ford</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/u/829d19bc636a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rich Ziade</a> sit down to talk about hiring product managers who do more than the hand-off. We delve into the intersection of design and engineering, why product management is so difficult to define, and the value of curiosity. We also share our top three ways to destroy your resume!

Getting on the Inside

Are we building the dystopian future we’re afraid of?: This week Paul Ford and Rich Ziade talk about Amazon, Facebook and other big-tech companies that have changed our basic human interactions. We delve into the commoditization of our feelings, valuing efficiency over communication, and the despair that comes from seeing a death announcement on social media (especially when it’s bumped up against a recipe for a chocolate soufflé). 

Are we building the dystopian future we’re afraid of?: This week Paul Ford and Rich Ziade talk about Amazon, Facebook and other big-tech companies that have changed our basic human interactions. We delve into the commoditization of our feelings, valuing efficiency over communication, and the despair that comes from seeing a death announcement on social media (especially when it’s bumped up against a recipe for a chocolate soufflé).

Death in Feeds

Friction is introspection: How did the iPhone come to feel like an intuitive thing to use? This week on Track Changes Paul and Rich sit down with UX designer Cliff Kuang and co-founder of Dalberg Design Robert Fabricant to talk about their new book User Friendly: How the hidden rules of design are changing the way we live, work and play. We discuss the history of the concept and how it’s become something that we demand yet often take for granted. We also chat about the greater paradigm shift that led to the popularity of user experience design and about why we should maybe start to question the view that ease equals progress.  Links:  User Friendly - Penguin Books  Dalberg Design  Frog Design Paul Rand - Wikipedia  Carbon Design System  Plex - Google Fonts   Three Mile Island  Raymond Loewy - Wikipedia   Ideo  Marvin Minski - Wikipedia Doug Englebart - Wikipedia  Health Kit - Apple   The Softbank Effect: How 100 Billion Left Workers in a Hole - New York Times  Softbank

Friction is introspection: How did the iPhone come to feel like an intuitive thing to use? This week on Track Changes Paul and Rich sit down with UX designer Cliff Kuang and co-founder of Dalberg Design Robert Fabricant to talk about their new book User Friendly: How the hidden rules of design are changing the way we live, work and play. We discuss the history of the concept and how it’s become something that we demand yet often take for granted. We also chat about the greater paradigm shift that led to the popularity of user experience design and about why we should maybe start to question the view that ease equals progress.  Links: <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1107939/user-friendly/9780753556641" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> User Friendly - Penguin Books </a> <a href="http://www.dalbergdesign.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dalberg Design </a> <a href="https://www.frogdesign.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Frog Design</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Rand" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Rand - Wikipedia </a> <a href="https://www.carbondesignsystem.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Carbon Design System </a> <a href="https://fonts.google.com/featured/Plex" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Plex - Google Fonts </a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Three Mile Island </a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Loewy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Raymond Loewy - Wikipedia  </a> <a href="https://www.ideo.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ideo </a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Marvin Minski - Wikipedia</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Doug Englebart - Wikipedia </a> <a href="https://developer.apple.com/healthkit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Health Kit - Apple </a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/technology/softbank-startups.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> The Softbank Effect: How 100 Billion Left Workers in a Hole - New York Times </a> <a href="https://www.softbank.jp/en/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Softbank</a>

User Friendly: A History

Aaron Lammer

Product management, from journalism to music to podcasts. This week Paul and Rich talk to Aaron Lammer about the three prongs of his career—as the co-founder of Longform, as a musician with Francis and the Lights, and as the host of Stoner, a new podcast about weed. They look at his career through the lens of product management and entrepreneurship—and Aaron’s tendency to downplay success, like going on tour with Chance the Rapper.

Product management, from journalism to music to podcasts. This week Paul and Rich talk to Aaron Lammer about the three prongs of his career—as the co-founder of Longform, as a musician with Francis and the Lights, and as the host of Stoner, a new podcast about weed. They look at his career through the lens of product management and entrepreneurship—and Aaron’s tendency to downplay success, like going on tour with Chance the Rapper.

Aaron Lammer Is Not Safe For Work

Evan Ratliff

Can a reclusive coder become a criminal mastermind?: Journalist and author Evan Ratliff spent four years piecing together the story of Paul Le Roux, a programmer who began by selling hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of painkillers through an online prescription drug network— but he didn't settle. The rest of Le Roux’s story spirals into a grim parody of startup culture not even a novelist could’ve dreamed up. In this episode Paul and Rich sit down with Ratliff to discuss his new book, The Mastermind, the true account of the decade-long pursuit of Le Roux. What happens when expertise on information security and internet infrastructure falls into the wrong hands? What could have become of the villainous tech-savvy entrepreneur? What can the tech world take away from this eerie chain of events? Links:  Evan Ratliff  Evan Ratliff on Twitter  The Mastermind by Evan Ratliff  The Mastermind on Amazon Evan Ratliff’s piece on Wired Paul Le Roux on Wikipedia E4M on Wikipedia 

Can a reclusive coder become a criminal mastermind?: Journalist and author Evan Ratliff spent four years piecing together the story of Paul Le Roux, a programmer who began by selling hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of painkillers through an online prescription drug network— but he didn't settle. The rest of Le Roux’s story spirals into a grim parody of startup culture not even a novelist could’ve dreamed up. In this episode Paul and Rich sit down with Ratliff to discuss his new book, The Mastermind, the true account of the decade-long pursuit of Le Roux. What happens when expertise on information security and internet infrastructure falls into the wrong hands? What could have become of the villainous tech-savvy entrepreneur? What can the tech world take away from this eerie chain of events? Links: <ul> <li><a href="http://www.cazart.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Evan Ratliff</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/ev_rat?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Evan Ratliff on Twitter</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/549566/the-mastermind-by-evan-ratliff/9780399590412/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> The Mastermind by Evan Ratliff</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mastermind-Drugs-Empire-Murder-Betrayal/dp/0399590412" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> The Mastermind on Amazon</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/mastermind-excerpt/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Evan Ratliff’s piece on Wired</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Le_Roux" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Le Roux on Wikipedia</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E4M" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">E4M on Wikipedia</a></li> </ul>

What if Al Capone wrote C+? : Evan Ratliff on the The Mastermind, Paul Le Roux

How can you pitch your product without boring an investor? How have audio platforms won the competition for user attention? Paul and Rich talk to Matt Hartman about product development, chatbots and the importance of creating products that establish a sense of connection. Competiting with the Infinite Scroll: This week Paul Ford and Rich Ziade sit down with Matt Hartman, Partner and Director of Seed Funding at betaworks to talk about creating products that stick. We delve into the future of chatbots, why audio is an exciting space to invest in, and how to not bore an investor with your pitch. We also challenge Rich to start the new year with daily positive affirmations!

How can you pitch your product without boring an investor? How have audio platforms won the competition for user attention? Paul and Rich talk to Matt Hartman about product development, chatbots and the importance of creating products that establish a sense of connection. Competiting with the Infinite Scroll: This week <a href="https://medium.com/u/168dab556633" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Ford</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/u/829d19bc636a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rich Ziade</a> sit down with <a href="https://medium.com/u/8fe961141dd3" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Matt Hartman</a>, Partner and Director of Seed Funding at <a href="https://medium.com/u/5e777814cf5f" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">betaworks</a> to talk about creating products that stick. We delve into the future of chatbots, why audio is an exciting space to invest in, and how to not bore an investor with your pitch. We also challenge Rich to start the new year with daily positive affirmations!

The Currency of Attention

The year to come: On this week’s episode of Track Changes, Paul and Rich sit down to discuss some of the top trends to look for in 2020. From codeless platforms to Product Led Growth we chat about some of the biggest trends in tech right now. We share our thoughts on new products and discuss whether some of these trends should actually be trends. We also talk about the craziness that could be 2020.  Gina Trepani  Lifehacker  Jobs to be Done  Hasura  GraphQL  PostGraphile  MySQL PostgreSQL Elixir  Erlang Ruby  Yap.Chat  Firefox Pi-hole  Gatsby  AWS  Netlify  Notion  Airtable  Filemaker Glitch  Salesforce 

The year to come: On this week’s episode of Track Changes, Paul and Rich sit down to discuss some of the top trends to look for in 2020. From codeless platforms to Product Led Growth we chat about some of the biggest trends in tech right now. We share our thoughts on new products and discuss whether some of these trends should actually be trends. We also talk about the craziness that could be 2020.  <a href="https://ginatrapani.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gina Trepani </a> <a href="https://lifehacker.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lifehacker </a> <a href="https://jtbd.info/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jobs to be Done </a> <a href="https://hasura.io/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hasura </a> <a href="https://graphql.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GraphQL </a> <a href="https://www.graphile.org/postgraphile/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PostGraphile </a> <a href="https://www.mysql.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MySQL</a> <a href="https://www.postgresql.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PostgreSQL</a> <a href="https://elixir-lang.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Elixir </a> <a href="https://www.erlang.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Erlang</a> <a href="https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ruby </a> <a href="https://yap.chat/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Yap.Chat </a> <a href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Firefox</a> <a href="https://pi-hole.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pi-hole </a> <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gatsby </a> <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">AWS </a> <a href="https://www.netlify.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Netlify </a> <a href="https://www.notion.so/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Notion</a> <a href="https://airtable.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Airtable </a> <a href="https://www.filemaker.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Filemaker</a> <a href="https://glitch.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Glitch </a> <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/ca/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Salesforce </a>

Top Trends of 2020

Why Do People Want To See Others Fail? This week on Track Changes, we take a look at the power dynamics that play out when we go into big companies to solve problems and ship software. What happens when organizations show that they don’t want our help after they’ve brought us on? Why are people resistant to scaling? Is it because we’re taking all the cool jobs? There are three ways to overcome that: Firstly, use your advocate. Let them lead. Somebody brought you here. Your failure is their failure; your success is their success. Second, establish your mandate and keep it brief. Memorize it! This is your best defense against tweaks, delays, and edge cases. Lastly, meet your first promise. Ship early, ship often, and show value. There’s a currency exchange from great design to political capital. Rich values this advice at $720,000. All listeners will be invoiced.

Why Do People Want To See Others Fail? This week on Track Changes, we take a look at the power dynamics that play out when we go into big companies to solve problems and ship software. What happens when organizations show that they don’t want our help after they’ve brought us on? Why are people resistant to scaling? Is it because we’re taking all the cool jobs? There are three ways to overcome that: Firstly, use your advocate. Let them lead. Somebody brought you here. Your failure is their failure; your success is their success. Second, establish your mandate and keep it brief. Memorize it! This is your best defense against tweaks, delays, and edge cases. Lastly, meet your first promise. Ship early, ship often, and show value. There’s a currency exchange from great design to political capital. Rich values this advice at $720,000. All listeners will be invoiced.

Meeting the First Promise : How Showing Value is Your Most Valuable Political Tool

Are we experiencing bitcoin’s tulip-mania moment? Do we need to care about the iPhone X? Is Russia our biggest threat? Paul and Rich talk about the top three letdowns of last year, and make predeictions for what’s coming down the pike.  A Bad Technology Year: This week Paul Ford and Rich Ziade sit down to talk scrutinize 2017. We talk about being letdown by iPhone X, relate the bitcoin economy to tulipmania, and question how we will deal with cyberwarfare in the future. We also make goals for the year ahead —  Paul wants to go to more museums; Rich wants a good omelet! 5:01 — Rich: “I think if you trace money back to its roots it’s goods and services, right? … So, I don’t understand where the dotted line goes from Bitcoin. It seems to go back to Bitcoin.” 5:40 — Paul: “we live in an economy that favours bubbles…It takes an entire aluminum smelting plant in China to process one transaction on wish.com with Bitcoin… At what point do you look at this and go, ‘Maybe this isn’t sustainable.’” 6:05— Paul: “The Silicon Valley ethos around technology, if you talk to venture capital people they are very, very focused not necessarily on making amazing, awesome products. That’s a big part of what they do but what they really wanna do is make the marketplace. Google is a great search engine. Truly great. Probably the best in the world. However, where it really is, is a marketplace for ad distribution.” 11:19 — Rich: “If you can maintain scarcity that’s where value lies.” 13:26 — Rich: “This is a big deal, right? Because what we saw is that platforms can be consolidated to the point on the internet that they have massive, direct cultural power. And then you can feed that with complete garbage information that satisfies the users.” 17:17 —Paul: “We’re two Mr. Digital Guys and we went to war without knowing it. And we just got the crap kicked out of us….the Russians were like, “Well, what can we do?”… “We can’t use nuclear weapons. That’s really bad. Let’s avoid that, at least so far.” ... “But boy, you know, with one relatively cheap cable modem line we can destabilize a giant global democracy”.  A full transcript of this episode is available. LINKS   Extraordinary Popular Illusions and the Madness of Crowds. Tulip Mania List of items you’d need to buy one tulip bulb iPhone X Microsoft Connect Bitcoin Cryptocurrency The Kimberley Process and Conflict Diamonds  Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by Paul Ford and Rich Ziade. Production, show notes and transcripts by EDITAUDIO. Podcast logo and design by Will Denton of Postlight.

Are we experiencing bitcoin’s tulip-mania moment? Do we need to care about the iPhone X? Is Russia our biggest threat? Paul and Rich talk about the top three letdowns of last year, and make predeictions for what’s coming down the pike. A Bad Technology Year: This week <a href="https://medium.com/u/168dab556633" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Ford</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/u/829d19bc636a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rich Ziade</a> sit down to talk scrutinize 2017. We talk about being letdown by iPhone X, relate the bitcoin economy to tulipmania, and question how we will deal with cyberwarfare in the future. We also make goals for the year ahead —  Paul wants to go to more museums; Rich wants a good omelet! 5:01 — Rich: “I think if you trace money back to its roots it’s goods and services, right? … So, I don’t understand where the dotted line goes from Bitcoin. It seems to go back to Bitcoin.” 5:40 — Paul: “we live in an economy that favours bubbles…It takes an entire aluminum smelting plant in China to process one transaction on <a href="http://wish.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">wish.com</a> with Bitcoin… At what point do you look at this and go, ‘Maybe this isn’t sustainable.’” 6:05— Paul: “The Silicon Valley ethos around technology, if you talk to venture capital people they are very, very focused not necessarily on making amazing, awesome products. That’s a big part of what they do but what they really wanna do is make the marketplace. Google is a great search engine. Truly great. Probably the best in the world. However, where it really is, is a marketplace for ad distribution.” 11:19 — Rich: “If you can maintain scarcity that’s where value lies.” 13:26 — Rich: “This is a big deal, right? Because what we saw is that platforms can be consolidated to the point on the internet that they have massive, direct cultural power. And then you can feed that with complete garbage information that satisfies the users.” 17:17 —Paul: “We’re two Mr. Digital Guys and we went to war without knowing it. And we just got the crap kicked out of us….the Russians were like, “Well, what can we do?”… “We can’t use nuclear weapons. That’s really bad. Let’s avoid that, at least so far.” ... “But boy, you know, with one relatively cheap cable modem line we can destabilize a giant global democracy”. <a href="https://medium.com/@editaud_io/transcript-a-good-omelette-e06388f0aded" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"> A full transcript of this episode is available.</a> LINKS <ul> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_Popular_Delusions_and_the_Madness_of_Crowds" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Extraordinary Popular Illusions and the Madness of Crowds.</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Tulip Mania</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania#cite_ref-Mac3_35-0" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">List of items you’d need to buy one tulip bulb</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.apple.com/ca/iphone-x/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">iPhone X</a></li> <li><a href="https://connect.microsoft.com/intro/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Microsoft Connect</a></li> <li><a href="https://bitcoin.org/en/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Bitcoin</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Cryptocurrency</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.diamondfacts.org/conflict-diamonds/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The Kimberley Process and Conflict Diamonds</a></li> </ul> Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by <a href="https://medium.com/u/168dab556633" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Ford</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/u/829d19bc636a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rich Ziade</a>. Production, show notes and transcripts by <a href="https://medium.com/u/16db3d2b704" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">EDITAUDIO</a>. Podcast logo and design by <a href="https://medium.com/u/95c4ef348109" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Will Denton</a> of Postlight.

A Good Omelet

Claire L. Evans

How did cyberpunks and activists affect the tech industry? Do we understand the history of the internet? How much of what we know comes only from a man’s perspective? This week, Claire L. Evans tells us about her new book, Broad Band, and the women who created the internet.  Photo by Jaclyn Campanaro There Were Women In The Room: This week Paul Ford and Gina Trapani sit down with Claire L. Evans to chat about her new book,  Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet. We discuss the impact of online communities, how weird the dot-com era was, and the stories of the women who made things work. We also get a window into Y△CHT’s future project — the Broad Band Musical! 2:29 — Claire: “[This book is] a corrective if you will, of all the books we’ve all read and love about Silicon Valley, and the garage-to-riches stories of entrepreneurship… These are the stories about the women who were in the room the whole time, and nobody asked about them.” 5:06 — Paul: “Women get forgotten from activist histories too, and it was kind of an activist scene in the early days.”  5:22 — Gina: “Weird was welcome, in a way that is no longer the case.” 7:03 — Claire: “My big takeaway is how little we value long-term care and maintenance when it comes to building things… I profile Stacy Horn, who founded Echo BBS in the late 90s. It still exists. And she has devoted 25 years of her life to fostering and caring for this community. … She’s taking care of something, because she’s responsible for a community, and I think that’s really beautiful.” 8:24— Claire: “We mythologize the box, but it’s the users that change the world; it’s what you do with it. The culture work, the development of making things worth linking is almost as important as making the conventions for linking.  8:24 — Gina: “It’s broadening the definition of what making the web was. It wasn’t just about standardizing protocols and running code, it was about building the places where people wanted to come and connect and share.”  9:07— Paul: “Moderation…it’s critical, it’s key to these communities but it doesn’t get as much appreciation as ‘I wrote a page of code.’” 20:51 — Claire: “We’re all very siloed in the contemporary media landscape.” A full transcript for this episode is available. LINKS  Claire L Evans Y△CHT  Broad Band : The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet Ada Lovelace Jamie Levy Halt and Catch Fire BBS Echo BBS Stacy Horn Heather Champ Polymaths  Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by Paul Ford and Rich Ziade. Production, show notes and transcripts by EDITAUDIO. Podcast logo and design by Will Denton of Postlight.

How did cyberpunks and activists affect the tech industry? Do we understand the history of the internet? How much of what we know comes only from a man’s perspective? This week, Claire L. Evans tells us about her new book, Broad Band, and the women who created the internet. Photo by <a href="http://www.jaclyncampanaro.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Jaclyn Campanaro</a> There Were Women In The Room: This week <a href="https://medium.com/u/168dab556633" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Ford</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/u/e7173b64fd0d" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Gina Trapani</a> sit down with <a href="https://medium.com/u/3cc0497276a8" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Claire L. Evans</a> to chat about her new book, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545427/broad-band-by-claire-l-evans/9780735211759/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"> Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet</a>. We discuss the impact of online communities, how weird the dot-com era was, and the stories of the women who made things work. We also get a window into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht_%28band%29" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Y△CHT</a>’s future project — the Broad Band Musical! 2:29 — Claire: “[This book is] a corrective if you will, of all the books we’ve all read and love about Silicon Valley, and the garage-to-riches stories of entrepreneurship… These are the stories about the women who were in the room the whole time, and nobody asked about them.” 5:06 — Paul: “Women get forgotten from activist histories too, and it was kind of an activist scene in the early days.”  5:22 — Gina: “Weird was welcome, in a way that is no longer the case.” 7:03 — Claire: “My big takeaway is how little we value long-term care and maintenance when it comes to building things… I profile Stacy Horn, who founded Echo BBS in the late 90s. It still exists. And she has devoted 25 years of her life to fostering and caring for this community. … She’s taking care of something, because she’s responsible for a community, and I think that’s really beautiful.” 8:24— Claire: “We mythologize the box, but it’s the users that change the world; it’s what you do with it. The culture work, the development of making things worth linking is almost as important as making the conventions for linking.  8:24 — Gina: “It’s broadening the definition of what making the web was. It wasn’t just about standardizing protocols and running code, it was about building the places where people wanted to come and connect and share.”  9:07— Paul: “Moderation…it’s critical, it’s key to these communities but it doesn’t get as much appreciation as ‘I wrote a page of code.’” 20:51 — Claire: “We’re all very siloed in the contemporary media landscape.” A full transcript for this episode is available. LINKS <ul> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_L._Evans" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Claire L Evans</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht_%28band%29" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Y△CHT</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545427/broad-band-by-claire-l-evans/9780735211759/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"> Broad Band : The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Ada Lovelace</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Levy" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Jamie Levy</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_%28TV_series%29" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Halt and Catch Fire</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">BBS</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.echonyc.com/about/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Echo BBS</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stacy_Horn" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Stacy Horn</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/haitchchamp/?hl=en" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Heather Champ</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Polymaths</a></li> </ul> Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by <a href="https://medium.com/u/168dab556633" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Ford</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/u/829d19bc636a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rich Ziade</a>. Production, show notes and transcripts by <a href="https://medium.com/u/16db3d2b704" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">EDITAUDIO</a>. Podcast logo and design by <a href="https://medium.com/u/95c4ef348109" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Will Denton</a> of Postlight.

Who Really Made The Internet?: Claire L. Evans on Tech History

The Only Success that Matters: This week, Paul Ford and Rich Ziade discuss the figurative moats that protect companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google from competition. Has anybody really figured out how to disrupt their markets? Why isn’t Postlight jumping on machine learning and  blockchain? This episode is about companies zeroing in on their own strengths and focusing on their right-sized ideas. Paul — 3:10:“How do you function and thrive in a world where you know you’re never going to be the biggest? Where there are giant organizations with giant competitive moats around them and yet the whole narrative is like, ‘this is the only success that matters.’” Paul — 6:10:“Starbucks at one point was making little coffee shops that were not Starbucks but were really cool and looked local. They wanted to just make sure they had a place to test out ideas and they wanted to make sure they were getting that market.” Paul — 7:40:“It’s so hard for the legacy company to catch up.” Rich — 8:10:“I think the way you disrupt is you eliminate steps. There was a day when you’d have to sign on to the internet with some internet provider. There was a day when you weren’t on the internet and when you wanted to get on the internet you dialed a number… Then you’d open your browser, and you’d go to Google.com, then you go into the search box and search. Google decided to come out with a browser. I couldn’t get it. Firefox was killer. It was excellent at that point in time… It turns out the only reason they were doing it was to eliminate one of the steps. The search bar and the URL bar became one.” Paul — 11:40:“Organisms at this size are vulnerable in a very sort of macro way. They’re vulnerable to economic shifts, technological disruptions, and cultural shifts. They’re not vulnerable to somebody else [doing] something 4% better, because then they’ll just buy them. Maybe global warming will destroy Google.” Rich — 16:30:“It’s funny, right? These monsters are competing with each other. They’re paranoid about each other. We started this with the moat. I mean there’s the moat between Starbucks and Pete’s Coffee — those are little moats compared to what’s going on [between Amazon and Google], so how the hell do you get in?” Paul — 17:30:“What we did is we made a decision to just focus on being a good company that puts nice things in your hand, and build solid platforms.” Paul — 19:16:“The giant tech companies, because they have such loud voices in the room, they get the press, they get to define the web and they define mobile… They eat up all that oxygen and they define success entirely for the vast majority of human beings.” Rich — 25:15:“That’s the tone of this. Just keep your chin up. Don’t ask if [you’re] going to be the next Facebook. Who wants to be Facebook?” Paul — 25:30:“When you are in this world and you listen and you pay attention to the media, you feel like an idiot if you don’t have a trillion-dollar opportunity.” LINKS   Lily Tomlin — This is a Recording Slack Tensor Processing Unit TensorFlow Google Brain Stealth Starbucks  Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by Paul Ford and Rich Ziade. Production, show notes and transcripts by EDITAUDIO. Podcast logo and design by Will Denton of Postlight.

The Only Success that Matters: This week, <a href="https://medium.com/u/168dab556633" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Ford</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/u/829d19bc636a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rich Ziade</a> discuss the figurative moats that protect companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google from competition. Has anybody really figured out how to disrupt their markets? Why isn’t Postlight jumping on <a href="https://trackchanges.postlight.com/tagged/machine-learning" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">machine learning</a> and <a href="https://trackchanges.postlight.com/an-earnest-blockchain-manoush-zomorodi-on-creativity-and-the-internet-4f77215701d9" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> blockchain</a>? This episode is about companies zeroing in on their own strengths and focusing on their right-sized ideas. Paul — 3:10:“How do you function and thrive in a world where you know you’re never going to be the biggest? Where there are giant organizations with giant competitive moats around them and yet the whole narrative is like, ‘this is the only success that matters.’” Paul — 6:10:“Starbucks at one point was making little coffee shops that were not Starbucks but were really cool and looked local. They wanted to just make sure they had a place to test out ideas and they wanted to make sure they were getting that market.” Paul — 7:40:“It’s so hard for the legacy company to catch up.” Rich — 8:10:“I think the way you disrupt is you eliminate steps. There was a day when you’d have to sign on to the internet with some internet provider. There was a day when you weren’t on the internet and when you wanted to get on the internet you dialed a number… Then you’d open your browser, and you’d go to <a href="http://Google.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google.com</a>, then you go into the search box and search. Google decided to come out with a browser. I couldn’t get it. Firefox was killer. It was excellent at that point in time… It turns out the only reason they were doing it was to eliminate one of the steps. The search bar and the URL bar became one.” Paul — 11:40:“Organisms at this size are vulnerable in a very sort of macro way. They’re vulnerable to economic shifts, technological disruptions, and cultural shifts. They’re not vulnerable to somebody else [doing] something 4% better, because then they’ll just buy them. Maybe global warming will destroy Google.” Rich — 16:30:“It’s funny, right? These monsters are competing with each other. They’re paranoid about each other. We started this with the moat. I mean there’s the moat between Starbucks and Pete’s Coffee — those are little moats compared to what’s going on [between Amazon and Google], so how the hell do you get in?” Paul — 17:30:“What we did is we made a decision to just focus on being a good company that puts nice things in your hand, and build solid platforms.” Paul — 19:16:“The giant tech companies, because they have such loud voices in the room, they get the press, they get to define the web and they define mobile… They eat up all that oxygen and they define success entirely for the vast majority of human beings.” Rich — 25:15:“That’s the tone of this. Just keep your chin up. Don’t ask if [you’re] going to be the next Facebook. Who wants to be Facebook?” Paul — 25:30:“When you are in this world and you listen and you pay attention to the media, you feel like an idiot if you don’t have a trillion-dollar opportunity.” LINKS <ul> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_a_Recording_%28Lily_Tomlin_album%29" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Lily Tomlin — This is a Recording</a></li> <li><a href="https://slack.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Slack</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor_processing_unit" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tensor Processing Unit</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TensorFlow" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TensorFlow</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Brain" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google Brain</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealth_Starbucks" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stealth Starbucks</a></li> </ul> Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by <a href="https://medium.com/u/168dab556633" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Ford</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/u/829d19bc636a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rich Ziade</a>. Production, show notes and transcripts by <a href="https://medium.com/u/16db3d2b704" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">EDITAUDIO</a>. Podcast logo and design by <a href="https://medium.com/u/95c4ef348109" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Will Denton</a> of Postlight.

The Innovator's Dilemma

Digital Transformation is like a Horoscope: In this week’s episode, Paul and Rich sit down to discuss need creation and the tech industry's move to talk about trends in such abstract language that it seems like it applies to everybody. We chat about the relationship between service providers and tech research firms and why you should be suspicious of new industry buzzwords and complex acronyms. Reminder: it’s okay to ask what that new acronym means!

Digital Transformation is like a Horoscope: In this week’s episode, Paul and Rich sit down to discuss need creation and the tech industry's move to talk about trends in such abstract language that it seems like it applies to everybody. We chat about the relationship between service providers and tech research firms and why you should be suspicious of new industry buzzwords and complex acronyms. Reminder: it’s okay to ask what that new acronym means!

Creating Need: Paul and Rich put a critical lens on new industry trends

Bret Victor

Can electrical engineers create tangible objects? Do we really need to be writing lines of code in a text-editor to be programming? Is it time for society to redefine what it means to compute? This week, Paul and Rich sit down with Bret Victor to discuss his journey from Electrical Engineer at Caltech, to UI Designer at Apple, to Creator of his ultimate vision, Dynamicland. The building is a computer; the computer is a building: This week Paul Ford and Rich Ziade sit down with Bret Victor to talk to about Dynamicland — a non-profit that’s inventing a new computational medium, where people work together with real objects in the real world (not alone with virtual objects on screens). We chat about the tech behind Dynamicland, the importance of creating intentional communities, and how a culture of secrecy at Apple inspired a life-long vision of community computing. Bret also shares a surefire way to impress a date — bring them to GuitarCenter and show them your analog modeling synth! 3:58 — Rich: “The bureaucracy got obliterated; all the machinery that usually slows you down was gone. The parents weren’t home!” 13:14 — Bret: “I came in the first day, went ot my desk and there was an iPad sitting on my desk. This was 2007. The iPhone just had been released. The iPad was not a thing at all… and I said ‘what is this?’ and my boss said ‘well we don’t know, Steve wants a tablet’.” 16:03 — Bret: “I was starting to see that my values and Apple’s values were a bit at odds. Apple ultimately wants to enable people to listen to their music, and read their email, and watch videos, and have an entertaining digital experience. I wanted to enable people to understand things more deeply or create amazing things that they couldn’t create before.” 22:08 — Bret: “It’s hard to have the level of motivation to pull off something really huge like that, if you don’t have the right support structures in place.” 22:08 — Bret: “We want to create a medium that works for all people. So growing our community, we’ve been pretty deliberate about reaching out to people who aren’t on Twitter and who aren’t traditionally advantaged by technology.” LINKS  Bret Victor Bret Victor on Twitter Dynamicland Donate to Dynamicland Dynamicland on Twitter Alesis Ion Alesis Micron   The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity by Alan Cooper Edward Tufte William Cleveland  Magic Ink : Information Software and the Graphical Interface by Bret Victor  Joystick Example at Dynamicland with Paula Te David Hellman  Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by Paul Ford and Rich Ziade. Production, show notes and transcripts by EDITAUDIO. Podcast logo and design by Will Denton of Postlight.

Can electrical engineers create tangible objects? Do we really need to be writing lines of code in a text-editor to be programming? Is it time for society to redefine what it means to compute? This week, Paul and Rich sit down with Bret Victor to discuss his journey from Electrical Engineer at Caltech, to UI Designer at Apple, to Creator of his ultimate vision, Dynamicland. The building is a computer; the computer is a building: This week <a href="https://medium.com/u/168dab556633" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Ford</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/u/829d19bc636a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rich Ziade</a> sit down with Bret Victor to talk to about Dynamicland — a non-profit that’s inventing a new computational medium, where people work together with real objects in the real world (not alone with virtual objects on screens). We chat about the tech behind Dynamicland, the importance of creating intentional communities, and how a culture of secrecy at Apple inspired a life-long vision of community computing. Bret also shares a surefire way to impress a date — bring them to GuitarCenter and show them your analog modeling synth! 3:58 — Rich: “The bureaucracy got obliterated; all the machinery that usually slows you down was gone. The parents weren’t home!” 13:14 — Bret: “I came in the first day, went ot my desk and there was an iPad sitting on my desk. This was 2007. The iPhone just had been released. The iPad was not a thing at all… and I said ‘what is this?’ and my boss said ‘well we don’t know, Steve wants a tablet’.” 16:03 — Bret: “I was starting to see that my values and Apple’s values were a bit at odds. Apple ultimately wants to enable people to listen to their music, and read their email, and watch videos, and have an entertaining digital experience. I wanted to enable people to understand things more deeply or create amazing things that they couldn’t create before.” 22:08 — Bret: “It’s hard to have the level of motivation to pull off something really huge like that, if you don’t have the right support structures in place.” 22:08 — Bret: “We want to create a medium that works for all people. So growing our community, we’ve been pretty deliberate about reaching out to people who aren’t on Twitter and who aren’t traditionally advantaged by technology.” LINKS <ul> <li><a href="http://worrydream.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Bret Victor</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/worrydream?lang=en" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Bret Victor on Twitter</a></li> <li><a href="https://dynamicland.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Dynamicland</a></li> <li><a href="https://dynamicland.org/#donate" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Donate to Dynamicland</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/dynamicland1" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Dynamicland on Twitter</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alesis_Ion" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Alesis Ion</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/micron.php" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Alesis Micron</a> </li> <li><a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Why_High_tech_Products_Drive_Us_Crazy_an.html?id=04cFCVXC_AUC&amp;redir_esc=y" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"> The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity</a> by Alan Cooper</li> <li><a href="https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Edward Tufte</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Cleveland" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">William Cleveland </a></li> <li><a href="http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Magic Ink : Information Software and the Graphical Interface</a> by Bret Victor </li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/mandy3284/status/969286428126408704" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Joystick Example</a> at Dynamicland with <a href="http://www.itshunkydory.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Paula Te</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/davidhellman" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">David Hellman</a></li> </ul> Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by <a href="https://medium.com/u/168dab556633" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Ford</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/u/829d19bc636a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rich Ziade</a>. Production, show notes and transcripts by <a href="https://medium.com/u/16db3d2b704" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">EDITAUDIO</a>. Podcast logo and design by <a href="https://medium.com/u/95c4ef348109" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Will Denton</a> of Postlight.

Computing is Everywhere : A Conversation with Bret Victor

Specify like a caveman: This week on Track Changes, Paul and Rich are joined by Gina Trapani, a managing partner at Postlight, to talk about statements of work (SOWs). We chat about Postlight’s unique SOW process. We talk about why we base our approach on trust and relationships rather than just time and money. We also talk about managing risk, what to do when someone oversteps their original demands and Paul gives some tips on how to make the SOW writing process easier. Hint: write like a caveman.  Links:  Gina Trapani   React Native  Org Mode   Google Analytics Facebook Twitter Github  LinkedIn 

Specify like a caveman: This week on Track Changes, Paul and Rich are joined by Gina Trapani, a managing partner at Postlight, to talk about statements of work (SOWs). We chat about Postlight’s unique SOW process. We talk about why we base our approach on trust and relationships rather than just time and money. We also talk about managing risk, what to do when someone oversteps their original demands and Paul gives some tips on how to make the SOW writing process easier. Hint: write like a caveman.  Links:  <a href="https://ginatrapani.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gina Trapani </a> <a href="https://reactnative.dev/?source=post_page-----6e8a2396eea1----------------------" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> React Native </a> <a href="https://orgmode.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Org Mode </a> <a href="https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/provision/#/provision" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Google Analytics</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> <a href="https://github.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Github </a> <a href="http://www.linkedin.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn </a>

Shared Goals: Paul, Rich and Gina on Statements of Work

Do you need a security camera for your front-door? Do you need programmable lighting? Are smart homes really innovative? Paul and Rich talk about the pros and cons of connected homes, the security of our information, and the impossibility of competing with giant platforms like Google and Amazon. Smart Homes, Foolish People: This week Paul Ford and Rich Ziade sit down to talk about connected homes. We talk discuss the pros and cons of distributed networks, the fear of sharing data with giant platform companies, and ask if smart-tech is eating away at our creativity. Paul also predicts that one of Zuckerberg’s 2018 goals will clam-digging! 5:15 — Rich: “All of this stuff is so you have to do less. I used to love that sense of achievement when I had a 486 computer and when I finally got it to print in colour, because I bought a colour printer that took 20 minutes to print a colour page and it only worked right because I got the latest drivers that were crashing before, but finally it was working right. That felt so good. We’re eating away at the skills needed to do some incredibly complex things.” 7:57 — Paul: “This is the fundamental flaw of everything though right? Which is that your home is increasingly becoming a set of distributed network processes and the way the cable companies and the routers are set up it’s very difficult to gain access to those from outside of your home” 11:44 — Paul: “What’s happening is you’re seeing the same thing that always happens, which is that enormous consolidated players are starting to get their platforms together. They’ll get into a partnership. Like Amazon, I’m sure, is talking to Netgear right now. 13:30 — Paul:“The big platforms, because of their ability to form relationships with other big platforms, always tend to win.” 14:17— Paul: “In ten, 15 years from now this will be built in like HVAC.”  A full transcript of this episode is available. LINKS  Alexa  Echo Dot John Herrman Shitphone: A Love Story — John Herrmann Speech to Text Brother Printer Foscam Prince of Persia Video Game  Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by Paul Ford and Rich Ziade. Production, show notes and transcripts by EDITAUDIO. Podcast logo and design by Will Denton of Postlight.

Do you need a security camera for your front-door? Do you need programmable lighting? Are smart homes really innovative? Paul and Rich talk about the pros and cons of connected homes, the security of our information, and the impossibility of competing with giant platforms like Google and Amazon. Smart Homes, Foolish People: This week <a href="https://medium.com/u/168dab556633" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Ford</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/u/829d19bc636a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rich Ziade</a> sit down to talk about connected homes. We talk discuss the pros and cons of distributed networks, the fear of sharing data with giant platform companies, and ask if smart-tech is eating away at our creativity. Paul also predicts that one of Zuckerberg’s 2018 goals will clam-digging! 5:15 — Rich: “All of this stuff is so you have to do less. I used to love that sense of achievement when I had a 486 computer and when I finally got it to print in colour, because I bought a colour printer that took 20 minutes to print a colour page and it only worked right because I got the latest drivers that were crashing before, but finally it was working right. That felt so good. We’re eating away at the skills needed to do some incredibly complex things.” 7:57 — Paul: “This is the fundamental flaw of everything though right? Which is that your home is increasingly becoming a set of distributed network processes and the way the cable companies and the routers are set up it’s very difficult to gain access to those from outside of your home” 11:44 — Paul: “What’s happening is you’re seeing the same thing that always happens, which is that enormous consolidated players are starting to get their platforms together. They’ll get into a partnership. Like Amazon, I’m sure, is talking to Netgear right now. 13:30 — Paul:“The big platforms, because of their ability to form relationships with other big platforms, always tend to win.” 14:17— Paul: “In ten, 15 years from now this will be built in like HVAC.” <a href="https://medium.com/@editaud_io/transcript-connected-homes-f99005b9aaa2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"> A full transcript of this episode is available.</a> LINKS <ul> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Alexa" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Alexa</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Echo-Dot-Previous-Generation/b?ie=UTF8&amp;node=14047587011" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"> Echo Dot</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/jwherrman?lang=en" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">John Herrman</a></li> <li><a href="https://medium.com/matter/shitphone-a-love-story-a44e66434807" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Shitphone: A Love Story</a> — <a href="https://medium.com/u/3790ebd1f42a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">John Herrmann</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_recognition" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Speech to Text</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.brother.ca/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Brother Printer</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.foscam.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Foscam</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Persia_%281989_video_game%29" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Prince of Persia Video Game</a></li> </ul> Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by <a href="https://medium.com/u/168dab556633" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Ford</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/u/829d19bc636a" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rich Ziade</a>. Production, show notes and transcripts by <a href="https://medium.com/u/16db3d2b704" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">EDITAUDIO</a>. Podcast logo and design by <a href="https://medium.com/u/95c4ef348109" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Will Denton</a> of Postlight.

Are Smart Homes the new HVAC?: Paul and Rich discuss the pros and cons of a connected home.

Marc Andreessen

There’s a reason to expect criticism: Paul and Rich dig into the newest article from VC Marc Andreessen. In it, Andreessen exhorts Americans to innovate and blames our lack of preparation for the pandemic on a lack of desire to do so. We reflect on the current state of America and how apparent the holes in our social governance have become since COVID-19 (especially the education system). Is there a world where VC and startups can help us improve these old systems? Has social policy towards more privatization led us towards the wrong things being optimized? We look to other innovations that have come from crises and ask: How can you install that startup-style motivation outside of commercial profit? (Spoiler: Marc Andreessen doesn’t have the answer!) Links: “It’s Time to Build” by Marc Andreessen Andreesen Horowitz Marc Andreesen   José Andrés   José Andrés Wants To Feed The World Through The Pandemic 

There’s a reason to expect criticism: Paul and Rich dig into the newest article from VC Marc Andreessen. In it, Andreessen exhorts Americans to innovate and blames our lack of preparation for the pandemic on a lack of desire to do so. We reflect on the current state of America and how apparent the holes in our social governance have become since COVID-19 (especially the education system). Is there a world where VC and startups can help us improve these old systems? Has social policy towards more privatization led us towards the wrong things being optimized? We look to other innovations that have come from crises and ask: How can you install that startup-style motivation outside of commercial profit? (Spoiler: Marc Andreessen doesn’t have the answer!) Links: <a href="https://a16z.com/2020/04/18/its-time-to-build/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">“It’s Time to Build” by Marc Andreessen</a> <a href="https://a16z.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Andreesen Horowitz</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Andreessen" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Marc Andreesen</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/chefjoseandres?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> José Andrés </a> <a href="https://time.com/collection/apart-not-alone/5809169/jose-andres-coronavirus-food/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> José Andrés Wants To Feed The World Through The Pandemic </a>

Is it Time to Build?: On Marc Andreessen’s Viral Article

Going deep inside Microsoft: in the first of a two-part episode, Paul and Rich talk to Dean Hachamovitch, the former corporate vice president for Internet Explorer at Microsoft. In this installment, they talk about what that job is like on day one, and how to motivate a large team working on a massive scale.

Going deep inside Microsoft: in the first of a two-part episode, Paul and Rich talk to Dean Hachamovitch, the former corporate vice president for Internet Explorer at Microsoft. In this installment, they talk about what that job is like on day one, and how to motivate a large team working on a massive scale.

The Man Who Killed Clippy, Part 1

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The best podcast episodes on physical health. Episodes talk about your diet, sleep, exercise and all the things that people do to improve their physical health and live a healthier life. This topic is for everyone, with applications in all of our everyday lives. Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!