Tag: Information Revolution

Can we break through the inertia that plagues IT-change?

Posted by on in Architecture Principles, Information Inertia, Management and OrganisationLeave a comment

You’re on the Titanic. The engineers are shouting: “The bulkheads are too low! The rudder is too small! There aren’t enough life boats!”. The sailors mumble: “It has been cold, there will be many more icebergs than usual and further south”. The owners are pressing the captain: “You should be in New York in six days, we desperately need a record!”. And the captain thinks: “I have execution power. I can break through. I will be successful.” and orders: “Northerly course and full steam ahead!”.  Move fast and break things…

Like we don’t see air, we don’t see the Digital Revolution

Posted by on in Brittle Logic, Enterprise Architecture, Information Inertia, Information Revolution, Management and Organisation2 Comments

Fundamental properties of digital IT have set ons on a road not to a Singularity Point, but towards Complexity Crunch. That has consequences for our strategic (IT) choices and landscapes. A ‘long read’ (sorry) about lessons we can learn by now after half a century of Digital Revolution so far. Written as I have been giving talks about the subject this pas half year.

No-IT.   Really.    No.    I.    T.

Posted by on in Brittle Logic, Enterprise Architecture, Management and Organisation2 Comments

What happens when your organisation suddenly loses all of its IT? There are enough realistic ways for that to happen. Think: a really successful ransomware attack. As it turns out, first turning ourselves into 'digital organisations', and then requiring a speedy recovery from 'digital armageddon' creates a weapons grade challenge. A story about 'Out-of-Systems', 'Out-of-Sync', and your 'Minimal Viable Organisation' (MVO), and a 'fix' that may only make matters worse.

Don’t forget all the things that a core team performs to a tee, but that you never see

Posted by on in Agile and Architecture, Brittle Logic, Enterprise Architecture, For the Board, Information Inertia, Information Revolution, Management and Organisation1 Comment

The third 'fragmentation wave' of the IT-revolution is upon us, it seems. Fragmentation/encapsulation is a repeated pattern in the IT-revolution for managing complexity. First as object oriented programming (for code) and later as agile (for IT landscape change). Now, it is the organisation’s turn to fragment. How strong is your mission, your ‘why’? You might soon find out, thanks to IT.

Ain’t No Lie — The unsolvable(?) prejudice problem in ChatGPT and friends

Posted by on in AI, Information InertiaLeave a comment

Thanks to Gary Marcus, I found out about this research paper. And boy, is this is both a clear illustration of a fundamental flaw at the heart of Generative AI, as well as uncovering a doubly problematic and potentially unsolvable problem: fine-tuning of LLMs may often only hide harmful behaviour, not remove it.

Artificial General Intelligence is Nigh! Rejoice! Be very afraid!

Posted by on in AI, Background Knowledge, Information Revolution5 Comments

Should we be hopeful or scared about imminent machines that are as intelligent or more than humans? Surprisingly, this debate is even older than computers, and from the mathematician Ada Lovelace comes an interesting observation that is as valid now as it was when she made it in 1842.

Will McKinsey be the first ‘big consultancy’ that gets (enterprise) architecture right?

Posted by on in Agile and Architecture, Architecture Principles, Enterprise Architecture, Management and Organisation5 Comments

McKinsey seems to be the first 'big consultancy' that really frees itself from outdated, ineffective, orthodox enterprise architecture notions.

Are we humans still ‘top dog’ in this brave new world of massive IT?

Posted by on in Brittle Logic, Extended Humans, Gossip versus Ratio, Information Inertia, Information Revolution2 Comments

What is the information revolution doing to us humans? A very condensed journey from essences of digital technology and human intelligence to the role of talk, trust and the impact of IT — especially social media — on society. We are most intelligent on the planet, but that is a relative measure. Our intelligence has serious weaknesses, some of which the IT revolution is now making painfully visible. We must hope that we're intelligent enough to accept that we're not very intelligent. That may be an even more difficult paradigm shift than Copernicus' or Darwin's.

Don’t become an Enterprise/IT Architect…

Posted by on in Enterprise Architecture, Information Inertia, Management and Organisation17 Comments

With increasing IT volumes in the world, landscape change is getting harder and harder, and we need to adapt to that fact. Upper management is very slow to adapt and the Enterprise/IT Architect/Strategist's position becomes more frustrating as a result.

Perspectives on the Information Revolution

Posted by on in Brittle Logic, Extended Humans, Gossip versus Ratio, Information Inertia, Information Revolution8 Comments

What is the information revolution doing to us humans? A very condensed journey from essences of digital technology and human intelligence to the role of talk, trust and the impact of IT on society.