by Thomas Otter | October 26, 2011 | Comments Off
I’ve just read Brynjolfsson and McAfee’s Race against the Machine in one sitting when I have masses of other pressing stuff to do. It is short, sharp, engaging and easy to read. Put down that Scandinavian crime novel, ignore your travel expense application issues and read this book instead. I’m perhaps reading too much into [...]
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Category: books history innovation software industry Tags: book review
by Thomas Otter | June 7, 2011 | Comments Off
April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. While I’m somewhat uneasy about the impact of the iPad and Kindle on books and literature generally because of the intellectual property control that it gives the device maker, I’m rather impressed with [...]
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Category: Applications ERP books innovation software design Tags: ERP, iPad, poetry
by Thomas Otter | September 13, 2010 | 3 Comments
Many technology writers deify or reify technology. There is often an assumption that more technology is by definition a good thing. Nicholas Carr’s recent book challenges that. This is probably why many tech types don’t seem to like it. Looking through my blog archive, I’ve often disagreed with Carr, but rather than just base my [...]
Category: books internet software industry Tags: Carr, De Botton, google, Hopkins, reading, Shallows
by Thomas Otter | August 29, 2010 | 2 Comments
In this interview on the O’Reilly blog Scott Berkun nails it. How do you define "innovation"? Scott Berkun: I strongly recommend people use this word as little as possible. It’s mostly a distraction. Many great ideas and breakthroughs were achieved without people worrying if they were innovative enough or not. They simply chose to try [...]
Category: books innovation measurement software industry Tags: Berkun, books, innovation
by Thomas Otter | August 11, 2010 | 2 Comments
I have been meaning to write up a book review on this for a while, so here goes. The publisher sent me a review copy of the Design of Design sometime ago. Many of us have heard of Fred Brooks, the fellow who wrote the Mythical Man Month and was at heart of IBM [...]
Category: books Tags: the design of design; book review
by Thomas Otter | January 8, 2010 | 5 Comments
I received a review copy of Andrew McAfee’s Enterprise 2.0 just before Christmas, so I added it to my book pile as an extra Christmas present. Thank you Andrew and the publisher, HBS. In reviewing books, I have a simple test. Would I spend my own money on a copy? This book passes that test. [...]
Category: books software industry Tags: review; enterprise2.0;McAfee
by Thomas Otter | July 24, 2009 | 1 Comment
Watch here if it doesn’t display. It is full of excellent nuggets. Obsess about your customers, not your competitors. Invent. Think long term. Be prepared to be misunderstood. I wonder how many other CEO’s could present their business principles in this precise yet genuine way? I believe the presentation was mainly aimed at the [...]
Category: CEO Law books history politics Tags: Amazon, Bezos, copyright., kindle
