Connecting the dots is one of those common metaphors that we don’t think about very much. When we do invoke it, however, it leads us astray more often than it helps. The premise is that the elementary school activity of revealing a hidden picture by drawing lines from one numbered dot to the next teaches […]

Here is a brief clip from an interview Steve Jobs did in 1995 while he was at Next. It neatly captures an important attitude about dealing with complex systems: Whenever you poke at a system, the system pokes back. If you grew up with siblings, you learned this at a visceral level.  Too many of […]

Finally had a chance to read a very interesting essay in the Journal of Cell Science titled “The Importance of Stupidity in Scientific Research.” In the wondrous ways of the web, this little gem from 2008 found its way into my life by way of a blog post by Matthew Cornell in January of this […]

Here’s a pointer to an excellent interview with Alan Kay. As always, Alan shares some deep insights about technology innovation and the willingness to take on risk (he’s not confident in the ability of most organizations to tolerate risk no matter how small the level of funding involved). Anyone with an interest in the continuing […]

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of curiosity. Wanting to know how things work or what’s around the next corner is fundamental to being human. I’ve come across two video clips that illustrate the power of this far better than I can. The first is a clip by the late Nobel prize winning physicist […]