Writing
Notes on technology, leadership and football.
Strategy, architecture and how teams make decisions, plus football, which I think about almost as much.
Who will win the Premier League: update?
City for the title. Spurs finishing 4th. Newcastle to stave off relegation. These are some of the predictions my new Premier League prediction model has come up with. How right is that likely to be?
Football · 7 min
Predicting the EPL
In my covid state, I decided to give something a go that has been of interest for a while. I decided to use basic (and I mean basic) statistical analysis to work out who will win the premier league this season. This is how that exercise went, in my self-isolation.
Football · 10 min
Recovering Midfielder
How to train your kids to recover back to support the defence once the opponents transition from the midfield zone to their attacking zone. On small 5 aside pitches kids do this more naturally. On the larger pitches, needs more encouragment.
Football · 3 min
Responding to change: Applying OODA to tech strategy
The way organisations do technology strategy often follows a path of attempting to control the chaos and create predictability in a world where none exists. It is not a problem that the strategy was wrong. That is a certainty. It is that there is no recognition of its fallibility until it has already failed. Technology strategy in organisations is rarely a strategy in the truest sense but dogma—a set of immovable edicts created not to handle change but to dictate actions.
Technology · 5 min
Just say no: to versioning APIs
The success of your APIs is in making them easy to consume. That should include not forcing the consumer to change. Rethink the approach to anything that makes API consumption more difficult. Do the hard work at the design stage, and hopefully, you’ll have easy to use, evolvable APIs that will be maintainable and keeps everyone happy.
Technology · 8 min
The Modern Architect: Technology Pilots
Think of them as pilots, captains of a plane. They work out a route before departure. During the flight they work with their team to react to passenger issues or unexpected weather. They will also keep an eye on upcoming potential causes of turbulence (e.g. high pressure zones), and change course to avoid it. But they will still arrive at the same destination as fast as possible and safely.
Technology · 4 min
The truism fallacies: underpromise and over deliver
Underpromising is a lie borne out of vanity. It is about giving the impression of success and not about actually being successful. Setting lower expectations and lower goals rarely leads to over delivering. Rather, it leads to underselling and underachieving with a facade of success.
Technology · 9 min
Learning never stops
Some resources that I have found useful and enjoyable. This is a growing list and hopefully will never stop growing.
Technology · 3 min