The Importance Of Postmortems

Two weeks ago, when I mentioned, in “Geek As Citizen” that part of being a Geek was to experiment – and thus that was a role we played as Citizens – Serdar brought up the fact that experimenting doesn’t always mean success.

In fact, that’s the point of an experiment. It’s why we call it an experiment, because we’re not sure it’s going to work or even what we’re doing. If we did we’d call it a sure thing, or business as usual, or we wouldn’t have a name for it because it would be Normal.

Experiments aren’t normal. Or sure. Or at times all that planned. Which means they fail.

Which means that it’s time for what we call in the business world a “post mortem.”

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Link Roundup 10/22/2013

– Steven “China Is Busy” Savage

Link Roundup 10/21/2013

In the US, 15% of youth 16 through 24 aren’t employed or in school.  Needless to say that’s got some unpleasant economic and cultural repercussions down the road, and may be something we’re revisiting (and fixing) in the next decade.  I suppose at least we’re still having sex.

Good for Netflix?  They’ve surpassed HBO’s viewer base.  Bad?  The binge viewing they created may work against them.  The first is obvious and should give people pause (and get you sending resumes).  The second is an issue because it messes with earning reports and often involves paying a lot up front to recover it years later.  Not a big issue – but a damn good reminder of the complexities of how technology changes even simple things like accounting.

Gaming has had over $5 billion in mergers and acquisitions globally.  Article six thousand and whatever in “gaming is a big thing” news.  But worth remembering.

Finally California is getting a bullet train and the complaining has begun.  Plus side, lots of job potentials for a long time . . .

– Steven “Amortizing Your Viewing Experience” Savage