Lesson: Presume Good Intentions
Teamwork shares a lot of good practices with parenting. This lesson was no exception …. I realised fairly early on in my time as a parent that I had a tendency to fail, bigtime, by blasting my …
Entries
Lesson: Track What You Learn
When I was recruiting the fabulous Chris McDowall for a job, he asked me “why do YOU work here?” I replied that I was learning lots. He then said the most important thing anyone has said …
Kiwi Startups in Silicon Valley
I was asked for comment by Bill Bennet from the NZ Herald, for a piece on Kiwi startups moving to Silicon Valley. He built a nice little article, in which “Torkington says” features …
Some Things Don't Change
In this internal 1972 DEC memo (PDF) about the PDP-16 re-release, modern tech companies should find plenty of familiar territory: While the PDP-16 has been marginally successful to date, some problems …
"Work" continued
I moderated a panel today at Gather on the topic of “Work”. We had representatives from different types of work: self-employed, salaried employee, startup, and investor. As moderator, my …
Citizenship
“Digital citizenship” is a phrase I encounter often in my educational travels. Rather than merely teach how to use software and hardware, we should realize that students are citizens in an …
Lighting a Spark Under Telecom
Telecom New Zealand is changing its name to Spark. Most commentators regard it as a backward move, most recently Lance Wiggs who diagnoses marketing capture, distraction from executive and board, and …
I'm Going on an Adventure
I caught up with Jesse Robbins at Foo Camp, and he gave me a great line that I remember as being something like: “I’m going on an adventure. The outcome is uncertain, there will be …
Andreas Schleicher to NZ Members of Parliament
Andreas Schleicher runs the PISA programme for the UN. PISA is the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, a test given to 15-year-old students from most of the world. Data about the …
What is PaCT and Why Did It Cost $6M?
(this post is about the New Zealand education system. I wanted to say more than Twitter made easy) NZ has an amazing education system. We went through the “Tomorrow’s Schools” …