Posted in Start ups, Strategy, Books on Jun 28th, 2007 1 Comment »
I was reading about Josiah Wedgwood last night. Wedgwood industrialized the manufacture of pottery in the last decades of the 18th Century. The author cited a letter in which Wedgwood wrote,
Few hands can be got to paint in the style we want them. I may add, nor any other work we do. We must […]
Posted in Strategy on Jun 26th, 2007 No Comments »
Brad Feld’s post on Strategy vs. Fundamentals has educed more than one response. Here is mine.
The problem is not strategy but rather people’s concept of strategy. People treat strategy as something ethereal, intangible and detached rather than something practical.
Dr. Michael Mazarr is a professor at the National War College. He taught me that: […]
Posted in Software, Managing engineers, SOA on Jun 26th, 2007 No Comments »
Consciously or unconsciously, engineers approach their work with the idea of a system. The typical engineer thinks in terms of systems. In his mind, the engineer creates a boundary between the items he is working on and the rest of the universe. The boundary defines the system. He then attempts to optimize the items within […]
Posted in Managing engineers on Jun 21st, 2007 1 Comment »
The essence of engineering is compromise.
Many engineers believe that essence of engineering is optimization or perfection. It is part of their training. Every engineer is taught the concept of a system. A system has a boundary between it and the rest of the universe. Engineers are taught to ignore the universe and optimize the system.
In […]