… the 20th century saw a nearly 40-fold gain in useful energy [i.e. energy available for human use]; since 1800 the gain was about 3,500-fold.… Read More »Technology (26): Vaclav Smil on available energy per capita since 1800
Don’t become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific. Zig Ziglar Returns to specialisation Dangers of specialisation See also: Dr SnipTechnology (22): Francis Bacon on… Read More »The Specialist; or, Dr Snip
The work of nonprofits gets framed in different ways, but fundamentally they all address a lack of something.* This might be a lack of resources… Read More »What does your program (try to) compensate for?
This simple question gives a reasonable at-a-glance assessment of your team’s effectiveness. It diagnoses: If anyone is making clear plans at all; If you have… Read More »“Do the things we plan actually happen?”
Jordan Peterson on the Five Factor Model of Personality and the disadvantages of openness is one of the most frequently visited posts on Driverlesscroc. I’m… Read More »Jordan Peterson on the Five Factor Model of Personality (2): Going Deeper with The Big 5 and IQ
One question I like to ask everyone, I’ll just give you a moment to think about: how many software devs are there out there in… Read More »Peter Wang: Scripting Society (PyCon US Keynote, 2022) – how many programmers does the world need?
Creating high performance teams is obviously hard but in what ways is it really hard? It is not hard in the same sense that some things are… Read More »Dominic Cummings on High Performing Teams
QUEEN GERTRUDEGood Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.Do not for ever with thy vailed lidsSeek for… Read More »That Within Which Passeth Show (on Isomorphic Mimicry)
The way of the thing “Tao” refers to the inner nature or natural tendency of things. For example, water tends to flow downhill: that is… Read More »Boardroom: Lessons from Surfing (4) – Tao, Timing, Vectors
A neighbourhood cat has been leaving unwelcome deposits on our porch with impressive (and elusive) regularity. You can’t let things like this bother you: dealing… Read More »Crap Arising; or, Catch It