UCOVI Newsletter - 2023 Christmas Round Robin

It's Christmas 2023 everyone - peace and good will to all, family arguments over dinner, and depressing Christmas crackers that don't go bang anymore because it causes climate change.

And of course, the UCOVI LinkedIn newsletter's Christmas Round Robin. It's more Christmas-round-robin-y than Robin Leach (Google him) admiring his beer gut in a concave mirror after eating a reindeer.

Here's what UCOVI brought you in 2023 - the year when:

• AI came to the fore.
• Chaz Windsor plonked his royal rump on the rag and bone.
• the COVID Inquiry dropped the bombshell that people in high office use swear words and WhatsApp.
• Microsoft CHANGED EVERYTHING (from Power BI to Fabric).

UCOVI in 2023

Blog

Featured posts this year included a bumper book review for statisticians and data analysts, a look at no-code data tools and the false claims behind their glossy sales pitch, and a study of the causes and consequences of high turnover in the job market for data analysts and scientists and a possible solution.

Data Viz

The UCOVI Data Viz Gallery has no less than 13 Power BI dashboards on it, of which 2023's highlight is an attempt to make climate change fun by mapping OWID stats on global adoption of sustainable energy sources to Power BI custom visuals by showing each energy source on an appropriately named graph. Hydro energy is on a waterfall chart (looks terrible), solar energy is on a sunburst chart, and oil is on Power BI's "Enlighten Aquarium" visual that shows things as different sized fish, where I've used DAX to flip the fish upside down to remind everyone about BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill. You can take a look here.

Talks

I got my ugly mug on Youtube twice this year. The first time was at SQLBits 2023 where I got onto the stage in a seminar room at a conference centre in Newport and riffed off 20 minutes on Regex expressions in .NET to a crowd of about 80 blokes in software-developer-joke T-shirts. The second was a talk on Making Python Fun with open data and your own ideas at Data Science Festival's Oktoberfest event in London. Thanks also to PyData London, Data Relay, and London Business Analytics Group who gave me speaking slots in 2023.

UCOVI's Highlight of the Year ...

... was none of the above however. It was going on holiday in Sicily in August and doing what all good pasty-Brit data nerds do in glorious Mediterranean sunshine; closing the shutters, opening the laptop and spending all afternoon coding up a home-page logo in JavaScript that changes shape over a two-second animation on page load. Peak web dude, no sunburn. Bellissimo.

Back to the #futureofwork with ChatGPT

To get into the festive spirit, I asked ChatGPT to set the scene at the North Pole on Christmas Eve, where Santa Claus takes the unusual step of putting present wrapping and sleigh preparation on hold to have HR investigate and remedy a toxic bullying culture between reindeer and elves. Was the snowflake pun at the end intended? Only ChatGPT's algorithms will ever know...

My prompt: Could you write me an irreverent, 200-word scene about Santa Claus putting his Christmas Eve present delivery preparation on hold to work with his HR department to resolve workplace bullying allegations between elves and reindeer? What steps could Santa and North Pole HR take to improve the toxic work culture and increase equity, inclusivity and diversity there?

ChatGPT's response: In the frosty halls of the North Pole workshop, Santa, his rosy cheeks redder than Rudolph's nose, halted the Christmas Eve present delivery preparations. The jolly old man found himself knee-deep in HR reports of workplace bullying between elves and reindeer. His sleigh wasn't the only thing in need of fixing.

Summoning the HR department – a team of candy cane-wielding bureaucrats – Santa, with a twinkle of annoyance in his eye, declared a temporary cease-fire on present wrapping for a North Pole summit on harmony.

Step one: The elves and reindeer were paired up for festive team-building exercises, forced to collaborate on snow globe crafting and trust falls. The reindeer found themselves mystified by glitter, and the elves discovered the challenges of hooves versus hands.

Step two: Sensitivity training became mandatory, with modules on "Navigating Yuletide Hierarchies" and "Accepting Differences: A Guide to Non-Discriminatory Gift-Wrapping."

Step three: Santa instituted a North Pole hotline – "Elves and Reindeer Unite" – for reporting incidents and airing grievances, ensuring that no festive fracas went unnoticed.

And so, in the midst of holiday chaos, Santa waged a battle against workplace toxicity, determined to make the North Pole a beacon of equity, inclusivity, and diversity – one snowflake at a time.

Web: ucovi-data.com |?YouTube: Ned Stratton |?X: @NedStratUCOVI