Mr Richard Dawkins is all at once witty, entertaining and almost accurate in his writings.
Wondering where to start? Or which of his works perhaps captures the whole essence of Mr Dawkins’ life’s work? Perhaps his 2019 long essay may be an enjoyable, if informative read and starting point.
The choice of data collection medium could skew your data towards certain known and unknown biases.
Data doesn’t lie.
Your analysis and subsequent interpretation could be subjective.
My passenger was bored two minutes into an 18 minutes drive. I tossed her the book I had taken along, as I had a 1 hour wait time at our destination, whilst she jumps on poles and straddles beams. I wasn’t expecting much of anything except to distract her for the rest of the drive and maybe ensure she doesn’t fall asleep during the drive. I asked her if she understood what she had read when we arrived. Her: No, daddy. Except that it is about numbers and facts. Me: That’s a good start. #AdukeDairies
Dear Parliament, Having taken the time to evaluate my calorie consumption. And having noted that Saturdays are for parties and other fun activities which could induce consumption. And Sunday lunches are still a thing. I’d like to move the motion to abolish Saturday (and Sunday) calories. They should not count. They are likely to ruin the weekend if they continue to count. They could also seed doubt in one’s capabilities to be self-disciplined. I hope you give this motion some consideration and then vote right: which is to abolish weekend calories. Thank you! Honourable YaKoYo.
November numbers are in. Not much of physical activities – as it turns out sprained ankles do take their time to heal.
The link to the video is at the bottom of the post. — Are there any significant differences between the disciplines of project management and product management? My opinion is that each is a well-established discipline, which goes beyond nomenclature and could at best be complementary. Project managers are professionals who oversee projects with the broad goal of seeing them achieve their stated objectives and deliver the goods from such efforts to the team that would operate them. Think of building a new stadium, a new hospital or a new product or product capability/feature. On the other hand, product managers own the product from end to end – from visioning to alignment with organisational visions, objectives and strategy; to post-product release management and engagement with customers, management and other important stakeholders. Think of the stadium – its visibility to event organisers, its performance as an events destination, the cost of running it, the revenue it generates, and the comfort and safety of guests amongst other considerations. In creating a new product, there could be one or many projects. In maintaining or improving a product’s performance in the market, there could be one or many projects. Think of a situation where guests complain about access to the stadium for sold-out events. a new project could be implemented to widen the access roads and increase the number of access roads to the stadium. The stadium remains the product. The new projects to widen existing access roads and add new access roads are,
News: NASA DART space vehicle successfully collides with an asteroid 7 million Km in space (a distance 28 times that of the distance between the earth and its moon). NASA crafted this exercise to test man’s ability to redirect the path/orbit of an asteroid. Whilst this asteroid poses no challenge to the earth, the test is possibly the beginning of an interplanetary defence system, which would see earthlings fire shots (in the form of space vehicles) at errant space rocks whose path and that of the earth could potentially cross with disaster level outcomes, in the hope of altering the course of the meandering space rock. Me: NASA could be on to something here. Or they may have just won another ‘space’ medal. Conspiracy theorist: How do we know it happened? How do we know it wasn’t filmed in Area 51 and then broadcast live? Don’t we have evidence that the moon landing didn’t happen? (Clue: man landed on the moon.) Steve Banon: They are launching human 2.0. Be very worried. Fox News: Biden is fighting a war in space that no one asked for. Asteroids are just busy minding their own business, yet we are shooting space vehicles the size of a domestic fridge at pyramid-sized asteroids. For what? All this whilst Americans are here busy fighting inflation. Has a government been this unfocused since Obama’s war on healthcare with his Affordable care act? (Clue: the affordable care act liberalised the health insurance industry and allowed previously disadvantaged people
Conversations is something I have wanted to do for some time. I am quite curious about a lot of things. I tinker with the thoughts of others by asking soul-searching questions of them. And I often leave comments on people’s opinions, social/economic/religious developments and whatever else crosses the path of my fancy. Oftentimes, these get lost within the platform where such was created. And one question is, is there a way to elevate this side of me? I mean is there a way to canonise this in some way or the other and make it available to more people than would chance on it on those platforms? I really do not have an answer. But I am prepared to tinker with a podcast and see how it goes. So, here is the plan: I will invite people I have banted with on social media to a live conversation With their permission, the conversation would be recorded This conversation will then be posted to my personal website and will be available on ALL free podcast platforms Should you be interested in joining live sessions or to be one of my conversational partners, then drop me an email here: mailme[at]oluwakoredeasuni.com Let the conversation start!
General observation: Each time I travel, I bring with mementoes (usually inexpensive) gifts for each person in the household as well as friends and family. Something to tell them they were on my mind during my trip. My wife does the same. My closest friends do the same. I have observed my siblings do the same. Gap(s) in my observation: I don’t know if this is a general societal norm (because my friends and family don’t begin to approximate a significant sample size) of this observation. The (observational) experiement: #Abeke just returned from a few days away from home, and she brought her little sister a gift from her trip. It is her first solo trip – in a manner is speaking. Assessment: I couldn’t help but think, does it run in the blood (nature)? Or is it something she has picked up from the environment (nurture)? Conclusion: We may never know. The process of determining an answer (measurement) may influence the experiment (the behaviour being assessed). For example, if I ask her why she did what she did, she will likely attempt a rational answer. That answer may or may not be the truth. But it would be logical enough to satisfy her but may be grossly unrepresentative of the true reasons behind her behaviour. Note: I am not disparaging surveys and interviews as data gathering tools. I am just pointing out the limitation of these modes of inquiry in this one instance. First posted here.
Good news: MacBook died suddenly in May. Had backup of all work and school files to date (Google Drive for Mac). Had a dated but still useful backup copy of system settings and ALL files on a local network drive (TimeMachine – a free, bundled into MacOS by Apple. There are alternatives for Windows and Linux). All web servers we rely on at OluwakoredeAsuni.com, are backed up incrementally every night and entire snapshots taken once a month. Good practice. Served me well. Bad news: You may not know the pain of not having a backup until you need it. As I did for a project that started off as experimental and grew some wings and I hadn’t bothered to back it up. You know, I planned to get to that, some day. Woke up that morning and life had happened to the project. And there is no backup. The manual work to restore from diagrams, clippings, emails etc., will take a few weeks – time that could have been better used. Lesson: Back it up. Better you don’t need it but have it, than to need it and not have it. That’s it.
We don’t have forever. So: Do it now. Quicken the pace. Take the trip. Propose to her. Start the savings account. Dip your feet in the pool. Buy and complete that course. Read that book. Lay that foundation. Sip that wine. Ask that question. Lift that weight. Crack that joke. Write that code. Teach that person. Keep that promise. If it aligns with your values. If it brings you joy, peace and health. If it takes nothing away from the world. Then do it. There is no other perfect time than now. And if you fail, tomorrow is yet another opportunity to do it all again and better, given the lessons from today. Always, be doing it. That’s it.
There is no one way to combat this epidemic. However, the following steps may help one get started: (a) Awareness: Always bear in mind you are swimming in a lot of or even too much information and that this could lead to decision paralysis. (b) Start with the end in mind: Establish before starting your research or any work for which consuming, analysing and taking decisions based on information is dependent. A rough sketch of your intended destination is sufficient. That ensures you do not fall into the trap of confirmation bais, and leaves you room for discovery. (c) Where possible, identify credible sources and always start there. (d) Know when you are going down a rabbit hole: Similar to (a), as soon as you realise you may be delving into information that doesn’t solve the problem you are trying to solve, stop, then retrace your steps. (e) Burn your fingers quickly but don’t repeat: It is ok to over consume information, get stuck and make no progress. However, it should not become a pattern. Build systems, heuristics, templates, models or frameworks that helps you sift and navigate your way through information into decisions.
By Ayobami Oladejo This article was first shared on Ayobami’s facebook timeline, here So, what career should you pursue? We need to be realistic and have frank discussions especially going into a new year. I guess it is no longer news that most career paths you knew are no longer viable. Why? Technology has improved and is improving at a rate that ensures that most tasks today can be automated. We are also in a period where degrees are most crucial for giving you a foundation to learn, unlearn and relearn. Apart from core science, medicine, law and a few other careers, you can pivot to most job roles from various backgrounds. I have predicted before that we will have generalist first degrees that will teach critical thinking, communication, philosophy, project, fundamentals of finance, research methodology, self-leadership, analytics, and product management in the future. Folks will then enter the workplace in various roles. Why? Things change quickly, and the most important ability I want from a fresh graduate is adaptability and some foundational skills. There are many openings in software development, business analysis, product management, digital marketing, designers, project management (business and co including agile project management), etc. Most people are still looking for traditional roles and therefore miss out on the new career shifts. Why? I believe many don’t even know how to start when it comes to these new roles. Many are scared of step 1. Think about this: how long does it take someone with a degree
Risks and Luck are two sides of the same coin, sometimes the same exact same side of the same coin but viewed from different angles, or at different times of the day or an epoch or with varying contexts. Whilst I am firmly of the opinion that all causes have an effect and that studying the previous cause of an effect may be a great way to repeat that effect, the truth is that, there are often certain elements mixed into the causes which are beyond our individual control, which when varied even ever so slightly could result in massive variations in the effect. Two of these elements are luck and risk. And there are many more. And most are outside of our immediate control. But we can choose how to leverage or respond to them, if only we are aware of them. Luck, also perfect timing. You may have heard ‘there is no great idea like that one whose time has arrived’ (paraphrased). Risk, sudden or not so sudden changes in dynamics, that can result in outcomes other than intended. So, risk may have a positive impact (luck?). Sometimes, negative impact (bad luck or risk as we most know it). When risks turn out positive, it may turn a bad situation around or amplify a good one. And the converse will be the case of risk were to have a negative impact. So do we then just pray to the gods of risk and luck? Ask for favours and
Whilst this is by no means an exhaustive list, and I will update from time to time, I can assure you that for any budding product manager, being in the company of those listed here is simply being in good company! Khadijah Abu – Head of Products, PayStack Mamuna Oladipo – VP of Product, Shopify Jamal Eason – Senior Product Manager, Google Tatyana Mamut – Fmr CPO, Nextdoor Rapha Cohen – CPO, Google Waze Salem E Smith – Head of Product, TheCuralate Oluwaseun Runsewe – Vice President of Growth at Softcom Limited
Knowing the bit I do about YouTube’s algorithm – which is similar to most social media platform’s – its key goal is to keep viewers on the platform for as much and as long as possible, thus selecting and presenting to users, either on the users’ YouTube.com landing page, search results, or recommended videos (which follows after a video is watched completely by users) what the users’ watch history suggests the user will likely watch. I am quite intrigued by the data in the screen below detailing the location my videos have been watch from the most for a given period. And some of the questions that arises includes: Are people in the top locations, particularly interested in the subject covered in my videos for the period under review? Are my videos more attractive/understood by those in those locations? Are… Answers will be tough to come by solely on the strength of this data point. However, combined with other data points, I might reach some valuable conclusions. That, my friends, is one way to get the most out of raw data. Whilst it is often advised that you determine and track one (or a very small number of) super important metric(s), arriving at that metric, isn’t ever the job of a single data point – or you risk blindsiding yourself and your key stakeholders and inadvertently murdering your product at the alter of vanity metrics. Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk
Yep! Erm… we did it!!! Having had some doubts – like any one starting a new career or journey would – it is quite gratifying to cross a milestone (well, I defined it, for myself). This month, I am challenging myself to publish a video daily – short, crisp, straight to the jugular conversations, but also well produced. Not too late to catch the challenge and subscribe to the channel !!!
What you have is now. Only, now. And as time progresses towards the future, you have yourself instantaneous new nows. With the old nows out of reach and now useless to you, except of course, if you have made something of the old nows which you can take along to the new now. With every new now comes new challenges and responsibilities – well for most people. And as nows pile, so does the responsibilities and challenges one has to deal with it. If you know, there isn’t a nirvana, where all is ok and taken care of, then perhaps, you will start the work to arrest the occasions, the nows, and make them count. Where will fails, perhaps skill can help. You do not have forever. You create forever.
Yesterday, I told the barista politely that I am going to do something about our trade deficit. The back story: I buy coffee from her,
If you’ve ever wished for a tool that could cut through the chaos and help you focus on what really matters—understanding and applying the information—you’re not alone. That’s where NotebookLM steps in.
Do we do work for the sake of it and its direct benefits (ability to buy things and by a stretch the ability to create wealth) or as a means to live a fulfilled life (where each is free to define fulfilment)? A position I might have maintained given “my confusion” is to maintain a hybrid view of work. I seize or attempt to seize every opportunity to create something that brings me fulfilment (I have been known to go as far as crossing boundaries of organisational hierarchy to get stuff done and apologise afterwards rather than wait endlessly for permission) and sometimes, too, I simply toe the line – in the hope that something great emerges – especially one that does emerge despite our efforts to the contrary.
Here are three reasons, I am not bothered, two things I am doing to further ensure I do not develop any anxiety (and that you should consider as well), and one potentially irrefutable truth
OluwakoredeAsuni.com, is a self-named website which serves as the central hub and connecting tissue for ALL of Oluwakorede Asuni’s digital content.
For the latest in the work Oluwakorede Asuni is busy with and his reflection on matters always start here.
Coming soon!