DIY vs. DIT – Part II

The first part of this post built an analogy, that centralization is like DIY (Do-it-Yourself) and decentralization is like DIT (Do-it-Together).

If we can agree on that analogy, simply for the sake of conversation, then we can take it a step further by looking through that lens into some specific contexts where this approach can add value to our efforts by breaking down our silos.

On Being Prepared

It’s not a big secret. Organizations need to be much more proactive about security. Firewalls and antivirus are not a plan anymore, they are doors and windows that can and will be circumvented. Expecting that attackers will simply stay off of your network is foolish. No one knows the moment they’ve been hacked. They find…

Perfect is the enemy of good

WARNING – This is a long post. Something Dad used to say came into my mind yesterday, a variation on Voltaire’s wisdom: “Don’t let perfection get in the way of your best!” He used to tell me this especially while I was stymying myself by procrastinating on this or that. His words resonate today, even…

Show up. Do your best.

Showing up is the default for effort. It requires little or no attention, which works well if you are an alternate on the softball team or filling in on trivia night. In nearly most every other kind of situation where it might actually count, though, attendance requires intention in order to move anything forward. Careers,…

experience

Experience is the move. The move to a new understanding, a motion towards a richer perspective. We spend our lives chasing it, striving to open up new opportunities for it, while surrounding ourselves with those who have it. A simple thing shrouded in complexity, we go to great lengths and take risks to pursue it….

I didn’t go to university. I learned from Linux instead. 

TOUGH CHOICES When I chose to forego college, preferring instead to join the working world confident that doors would open and I’d be able to continue my own learning, there were a lot of the expected reactions. My friends and my friends’ parents asked me questions like: “What are you thinking?” “Why would you do…

Changing without changing

Many of us make great sacrifice to avoid it. Laws are written and put into place to stymy it. Large, expensive buildings are built to protect against it. Minds are made up against it and reject ideas that even hint at it. Blockades of all sorts are built against potential outcomes that may lead to…

#PrivacyAwareDay

In anticipation of #PrivacyAwareDay, the smart people (including Jon Callas) at @SilentCircle, in collaboration with @Guardian (journalist Aleks Krotoski), made this rad documentary about privacy and security. It is worth 30 minutes of your time. Please watch it.

Rituals

Is it a tough debate that rituals have not been affected by recent changes in our modern age? Do many people spend more time alone with machines than in the company of others? Have machines conversely opened doors to more rituals for more people? Are the new rituals, such as sitting together at a restaurant…

The teeter of convenience, the totter of innovation

Every Christmas, as I watch everyone tear into gifts and unearth the world’s latest new hotness, I cannot help myself to fixate on innovation – what it is, what it means, what makes it successful and the key tenets of achieving wide adoption. It always reminds me of a seesaw, the way a system is…