Category: Uncategorized

at CNR LADSEB Institute for Systems Science and Biomedical Engineering
of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), Padova, Italy. Member of the initial KnoW Interest Group. Interesting stuff on Ontologies, Semantics, AI, and Uncertainty in Systems.

Sturgeon’s Law
which comes from sci-fi writer Theodore Sturgeon who said,
“Sure, 90 percent of [anything] is crap.
That’s because 90 percent of everything is crap.”

See also 90/90 rule
“The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.”
attributed to Tom Cargill of Bell Labs, or
“The time from now until the completion of the project tends to become constant.”
attributed to Douglas Hartree.

and
Hanlon’s Razor – A simple explanation based on cock-up (stupidity) is more usual than a complicated one based on conspiracy (evil). “Razor” after Occam’s Razor.
Finagle’s Law (Sod’s Law) – anything that can go wrong will.

Whatever happened to Nils Brunsson ?
Still active at Stockholm School of Economics

[2016 Update – That Stockholm SofE link is dead – but he’s still active.]

Whatever happened to Chris Argyris ?
Still active in Action Research / Organisational Learning

Blogger FAQ – Including commenting options

The End of Change
Extract of book by Arthur D.Little people Peter Scott Morgan, Erik Hoving, Arnoud van der Slot, and Henk Smit.
Uses Pyramid, Cube, Cylinder & Sphere analogies in the obligatory Boston Consulting Group 2×2 grid to charaterise different organisation styles affecting change processes – (How easy is it to move one of these shapes in any given direction, and what profile would that change have ?). Intended as an antidote to change fatigue, where constant stream of “new initiatives” is ultimately self-defeating. Suggests exploiting organisational culture to embed the appropriate style of flexibility, learning and motivation for improvement and innovation. (Cf MBA dissertation on this subject.)

Digital Web Magazine The web designer’s online magazine of choice (sic).

What Good is Information Architecture Anyway?
Jan 22, 2002 Blog entry from Louis Rosenfeld
with some discussion & feedback too.

Thinking For A Living
“Quantity begets quality. If you want to find the answer, ask as many questions as possible first”
“Genius is the ability to edit.” – Charlie Chaplin quoted from
Thinking For A Living: Creating Ideas That Revitalize Your Business, Career & Life – by Joey Reiman, summarised in The Creative Process of Ideation, published on Brand Era Readings, spotted by Blog Thinking Around the Corners

[Reminds me of the workplace cartoon – “I can’t stop to think just now, I’m working”.]

Clifford A. Pickover’s Home Page
Prolific mystic science author with impressive collection of fractal graphics to boot.
(Also part of “The Infinite Fractal Loop”)