Russell Davies

Basement railway

Timehop has just reminded me that sixteen years ago we had a G-scale garden railway that started in the basement, went out through a window and circumnavigated the garden. This was in Portland, Oregon. I do not have this any more. Somewhere, somehow, my life has gone badly wrong.

It's revealing to me that these are the only photos I have of this set-up. I was immensely proud of all this but I only bothered with these pictures in the basement and the only shots I have outside (and there are only two of them) were taken by my Dad. So much of everything went un-photographed before they put cameras in our phones.

Stories of explanatory depth

I continue to wonder why Massive IT Failures are so happily tolerated in most large organisations. Actually, 'tolerated' might be wrong. 'Accepted' may be better. Regarded as something inevitable, something that just has to put up with, something that can't be prevented.

Some of it, I suspect, is to do with Illusions of Explanatory Depth. People and organisations create folk understandings of how IT systems work. These are poor, unhelpful explanations which don't usefully predict or explain disasters, but no one offers better ones.

I suspect 'stories' are part of the problem. Stories are not good ways to understand systems.

Amateurs and experts

Adrian's description of this post captures the magic of blogging, when it's good, perfectly:

"I much prefer reading amateur writers writing about the field in which they're experts, rather than expert writers writing about fields in which they're amateurs."

Perfect.

And/or..

Attention

And

Why is looking at the moon somehow perceived to be more ‘present’ than looking at your phone?

Told you so

Look how awful this is. Uber’s Ad-Toting Drones Are Heckling Drivers Stuck in Traffic and Attention adland - drones are going to take over our lives

Team

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-velluvial-matrix

and

Members of productive teams take the effort to understand each other, find a way to relate to each other, and then try to make themselves understood.

Not dentists

Designers do not just solve problems, they also discover them.

The Persistence of MySpace

A correspondent alerted me to the fact that MySpace is still there, and the page for the ElectroPlankton Quartet is still there and you can still listen to our special, only, performance at Interesting 2007.

Me too, normally, but this is fantastic

Walking Football

I started playing Walking Football a few weeks ago. I've always been more of a football player than a fan and I've always assumed that eventually I'd have to stop due to failing eyesight/knees/ability to move. It's excellent fun. All the satisfactions of a kick-around, none of the muscle tearing.

But it's also fascinating culturally. It's really made me conscious that I'm entering a demographic. I was welcomed into walking football by an outreach worker. The club is funded, in part, to tackle social isolation. I've spent most of my life as a person of total privilege; white, straight, male, middle-aged is the default setting for most organisations, starting to slip out the back end of some of that is illuminating.

It's also interesting being around something that's still nascent, still codifying.

The FA have recently started moving their tanks into position, using rule standardisation as a way to draw Walking Football into their ambit. A classic, old school power play. You can feel the various clubs bristling and unsure how to react. Being able to agree the rules for tournaments would be useful, on the other hand, we like our rules, they're what we play. It's localism vs globalism. AFC Wimbledon v MK Dons. Fascinating.

And my immediate thought was of naked capitalism - there's a Rapha opportunity here. Older men with money to spend on kit who can't be arsed with bikes. Make some t-shirts Russ, you'll clean up. But. Couldn't be bothered. I just like playing.

Anyway.