It’s all too easy to bow to experts and gurus to the extent that we feel inadequate. We will limit our options and opinions because so-and-so guru said something that we took to be true simply because he’s an expert. We then imbibe their opinions or ideas into our thought framework and become trapped. There are a number of problems with expertise. As Gladwell wrote in Outliers: The idea that excellence at performing a complex task...

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We are makers, not hunters. Kids love Lego. We love to build. Perhaps the first event that made us modern humans was the invention of the stone axe. Ever since we discovered the concept of increased productivity through mechanization, we were hooked on invention. If we want to return to “manufacturing greatness” then we have to think anew. We need to redefine what making things means. This transformation is already underway with the...

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In my current role as Director of Labs and Chief Scientist for Art.com, I do a lot of thinking about color (or “colour” for my UK friends). It is easily one of the most fascinating topics I have pondered in a long time. My labs team is trying to solve various problems to do with perception, taste and color harmony. The end goal is to suggest decor products that the user will find pleasing in his or her current, or planned,...

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Maybe your child has the “Edison Trait. In this age of distraction, we get increasingly frustrated that some of our kids find it hard to focus on the task at hand. They prefer Minecraft to slogging through another set of algebra questions. And, when we’re not looking, they flip quickly to Minecraft, Facebook, YouTube etc. If we are honest with ourselves, we are all easily distracted, especially in this multi-tasking world that we now...

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Telco Innovation is a Values Problem Telcos are rapidly headed towards their own fiscal cliff because the model they built their industry upon is crumbling. Many of them don’t believe it, but only in the same way the Roman Empire, or any empire, constructed a worldview mostly in terms of past glories. There is also a good dose of denial – “it can’t happen to us.” That is the child-like naivety that we all like to...

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Voxeo Labs just released their communications PaaS (cPaaS), which they’ve named Ameche in a tip of hat to Don Ameche in his portrayal of telephony pioneer Alexander Bell. Ameche enables applications to run “in a call” hence the Ameche moniker: “Apps in your Calls” (a Voxeo trademark). It’s a great addition to the existing Voxeo Labs programmable voice products (e.g. Tropo), but this time aimed at operators to...

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