Read Before Monday #10

This week is, again, shorter in the UK with the Bank Holiday, but todays RBM edition is packed with cool stuff, with a series of thought-provoking articles that ranged from technological nostalgia to modern workplace strategies! One standout piece highlighted the resurgence of website home pages, but also this year also marks the 60th anniversary of BASIC. Additionally, the conversation around workplace burnout in the engineering sector offers crucial insights on maintaining balance and self-care to sustain innovation and productivity. The "Tarzan Method" of career development also caught my attention, advocating for a non-linear, explorative approach to professional growth, which resonates deeply with my own experiences across a dynamic 27-year career in technology. Finaly, we'll soon have discussions around the ethical use of surveillance and biometric technologies in Europe, highlighting critical privacy concerns in our increasingly digital world.

See you next week!

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This New Yorker discusses the resurgence of website home pages, exemplified by The Verge's successful redesign that integrates real-time content updates similar to social media feeds. This shift comes as major social platforms pivot away from news distribution, with Twitter's decline under Elon Musk highlighting the unreliable nature of social media for stable news delivery. The narrative suggests that despite past reliance on social platforms for content distribution, direct engagement through dedicated websites offers a more curated, reliable source of information and may cultivate greater user loyalty and intention.

• My take: I've been through all of that! From the homepage to the landing page, to the social media, blogs, podcasts, videocasts, you name it. Having a website that aggregates everything from other channels reclaims that space back - the one place where people go to and have all their information. It really underscores the importance of adaptability in digital strategy that organizations need to have.

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Ars Technica commemorates the 60th anniversary of BASIC, a programming language created in 1964 at Dartmouth College by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz. It highlights BASIC's role in democratizing computing, making it accessible for amateurs, and fostering a generation of programmers. It traces BASIC's journey from a mainframe environment to becoming integral to personal computing with contributions from figures like Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak. Despite its decreased practical use today, BASIC's influence persists in modern programming languages and educational tools.

• My take: there's always some nostalgy in the RBM edition :) Basic was the first programming language I learned and was the starting point to understand computers - back when I had the ZX Spectrum. It's been 60 years, but the story between Gates and Wozniak regarding Basic are epic!

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Over at the Engineering Leadership, they discuss strategies to prevent burnout in the engineering industry, highlighting factors contributing to burnout, such as excessive workloads, lack of support, and perfectionism. It emphasizes recognizing early signs of burnout, like chronic fatigue and negativity, and suggests practical steps like seeking support, setting boundaries, and prioritizing self-care. The piece also advocates for preventive measures through self-awareness and maintaining a balanced routine.

• My take: This is an interesting article and view on burnout that is worth reading, especially if you are an engineer and have been told you need to be a 10x whatever... Unfortunately, the industry really wants to, industrialize, these roles and there will be a lot disappointment went it comes to the future of a developer or sysadmin. GenAI will become the basis for the new roles, either we want or not.

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The article "The Tarzan Method" discusses an approach to career development where progression is viewed not as a straight line, but more like swinging from vine to vine, as Tarzan does in the jungle. This method acknowledges the uncertainty and unpredictability in career paths, encouraging a focus on exploratory and iterative progress rather than a fixed trajectory. It emphasizes adapting to opportunities as they arise and values the journey of career development, which can lead to unexpected but valuable outcomes. This approach advocates for growth through varying experiences, recognizing the importance of both scope and impact in career advancements.

• My take: Job hopping or Tarzan Method - the things we learn, eh? :) If a few years ago, we in the tech industry, could predict our career path and follow it, maybe because the company would give you several paths and help you through, or we could see role evolving, now it's very uncertain. Throughout my 27 years career, I've worked at several companies, but what changed were the roles and challenges I've been given. I always took that as the opportunity to learn and make a difference. If you stall, then you can't evolve.

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Pete Sena discusses the need for startups to focus on creating Minimum Valuable Experiences (MVE) instead of just Minimum Viable Products (MVP). It emphasizes understanding what truly adds value to the customer, illustrated through the historical example of Edison's development of the light bulb. The piece further explores effective communication strategies with the "A.C.T." framework—Audience, Communication, Touchpoints—to engage customers meaningfully. Through these strategies, businesses can better connect with their audiences and create experiences that drive value and prevent startup failure.

• My take: Now this is something I don't fully agree with, but still find it interesting. For a startup it's crucial to understand your unique selling proposition and build a minimum viable product around it. If that is the MVE, then sure, makes sense. But building something just to add value to the customer, then why bother? The purpose of a startup is to find what the costumers think they need but never had it. The value will come later with adoption, not first.

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The article "Measuring the mobile body" in Eurozine explores the ethical and historical implications of Europe's advanced surveillance and biometric technologies used at borders. It traces these technologies back to the 19th-century methods for criminal identification, discussing their evolution into today's biometric systems. The piece raises concerns about the potential human rights violations involved in tagging and tracking migrants and the impact of such practices on personal privacy and freedom.

• My take: what a great read! This is going to be key in the age of GenAI/AI, where we would want tools and tech to identify the people that committed crimes, but we don't want to track everyone. We will be thorn here, and legislators will soon make a choice for us between privacy and freedom or tracking and tagging.

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This week in GenAI

• The Atlantic: ElevenLabs is building an army of voice clones
• The NY Times: From Baby Talk to Baby A.I.
• The WS Journal: For Conversations You Dread, Try a Chatbot
• The WS Journal: The AI-Generated Population Is Here
• The AP: An AI-controlled fighter jet took the Air Force leader for a historic ride
• The Verge: The teens making friends with AI chatbots
• IEEE Spectrum: AI Copilots Are Changing How Coding Is Taught