Skilled Incompetence

Skilled Incompetence. Thanks to Danny for this 1995 essay on “Structured Procrastination” by John Perry. Magic. This is my main theme about information models Danny. Spot on the Argyris thread about how normal (western) culture in organisations institutionalises bad practices justified by rationalisations. I have a colleague that regularly characterises “displacement activities” when it is obvious there is something to do (some decision to be made) which is more difficult that some other more interesting tasks, and guess what ? Manana.

Wayback Machine

Wayback Machine. New Scientist article via Danny about the 100 tera-bytes of web archives. [Quote] The average life of a web page is 100 days. [Unquote] See my broken links plea below.
[Quote] And where is the Wayback archive ? physically? It’s now in three places, two in the San Francisco Bay Area and one at the new Library of Alexandria in Egypt. If you ask someone, “What do you know about the Great Library of Alexandria?” they mostly say, “Isn’t that the one that fried?” So don’t just have one copy. Take special care of collections that are really important to the definition of cultures. [Unquote] I have soft spot for the Alexandria Library since I was there when it opened to the public. Blogged a link earlier since I had in my hands (in Alexandria, but not in the library) an important first edition relating to T. E. Lawrence (one of my obsessions) which I enquired about bringing home to UK, but discovered the new library had the enlightened policy of maintaining Egypt’s legacy of published texts and forbidding export. – (link here later !).

Dismantling Walls

Dismantling Walls – “Dad,” he said. “You know I said I want to be a doctor when I grow up?” “Yes, son.” “And I want to be a footballer, too?” “Yes.” “Well, now I’ve decided I want to be a martyr.” [Davos via John Robb] Don’t normally link to national politics in this blog but this is a powerful message that cannot be ignored.

All Human Life is Here

All Human Life is Here. Another gem via Jorn – a Guardian review of “Sex Crimes: From Renaissance to Enlightenment” by William Naphy [Quote] Naphy’s careful study draws heavily on the official court reports from that unforgiving time and yet manages to see past them to the warm, messy human dramas that lie beneath. [Unquote]. It was ever so – “Official Reports” always disguise the mess [buzzing, booming confusion of paradox] of reality – caveat emptor according to Quinn and Cameron (see Manifesto).