X : Any views on cross comparson of countries regarding COVID?
Me : None in particular. We will need to learn lessons hence the need for a Royal Commission i.e. why is the UK death rate per 1M approximately 130x that of New Zealand? What things can we do better etc ...
... COVID is only one of many future shocks we have heading our way from environmental consequences to material constraints. It would be a horrendous waste of life not to learn the lessons that have been so costly.
X : Do you think Gov will avoid a Royal Commission?
Me : It can't be avoided. To do so would be a form of negligence bordering on the criminal. To try to curtail the necessary investigation and learning would open up Gov to accusations of corporate manslaughter.
X : Do you think UK Gov has performed badly?
Me : I am not concerned with attempts at absolute comparisons of right and wrong, I am only concerned with us learning lessons and improving. This is not the only shock we will face in my lifetime.
X : "Build back better"?
Me : A slogan. I'm not a fan of story telling with catchy phrases. I prefer improving our understanding of the context, an ongoing drive to greater situational awareness. Rallying cries for different collectives are generally counter productive.
We should be having that national conversation on "Me" vs "We" since COVID has clearly exposed weaknesses in our collective efforts and highlighted the tension between collective and individual. We need to agree on what our beliefs are. You don't get that from slogans.
X : Do you think we will have that discussion?
Me : I have my doubts. Unfortunately there are two paths to maintaining power - doing good and educating (i.e. having that discussion) or manipulating perception and behaviour. Alas, manipulation is the cheaper option these days.
X : Is there a way to fix that?
Me : Of course, You have to raise the cost of manipulation. Alas the economic self interest of many of those who have power may well be opposed to doing this.
X : Research and learning are cheaper than the cost of ignorance.
Me : Absolutely but alas, in the long run. Short term interests may well arrive at a different conclusion given the cost of manipulation is so cheap as it becomes industrialised.
Never underestimate our ability in capitalist systems to discount the future ... see environmental change.
X : Discount future?
Me : We load up the future with our debt so that we can spend today. We hope that when the debt becomes due that some magic lottery or technology will have solved it. We're anti guardians ... we spend what we have and what the future was supposed to have.

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More from @swardley

8 Oct
Four years later, I'm still concerned that we are ignoring the causes (fear of being forgotten, loss of control, lack of opportunity, percieved unfairness) in order to pursue comfortable narratives for the symptoms ... oh well ->
... they were racists, they were ignorant, they were conned, we were robbed, it was the Russians ... anything to avoid saying that we (in our "wisdom") have created a manifestly unfair, unjust and excluded society in which a large number of people have rightly become angry.
X : How do you fix this?
Me : You won't like it.
X : Try me.
Me : You have to introduce exclusion / disadvantage in the opposite direction.
X : Such as?
Me : Anyone who has attended University or Private School should be permanently excluded from voting.
Read 4 tweets
7 Oct
X : What is the main lesson from COVID? Resilience? Supply chains? Adaptation? Adoption of digital tech?
Me : Lack of competency in leadership kills. It's not a new lesson, just a grim one.
X : What are the main casualties of COVID?
Me : People. Or do you mean something else?
X : Economy? Specific industries? Way of life?
Me : In the West? Truth, trust and fairness. I'm not sure how we're going to recover those.
X : Are you left or right wing?
Me : It's irrelevant. The fear of being forgotten, of lack of opportunity, of lack of control and unfairness has been ruthlessly exploited. We keep focusing on the symptoms (i.e. brexit) and not the causes. You can't rebuild bridges that way.
Read 4 tweets
7 Oct
X : What is cloud native?
Me : Containers and buy our kubernetes, give us money or you won't be cool but we also mean serverless but maybe build your own serverless on kubernetes and DevOps, it's got to be be open source, you're not really hip are you? What was the question?
X : What sort of definition is that?
Me : It's not about definition, it's a way of thinking, it's culture, it's ... buy some of our stuff, we've added new and improved microservices.
X : You're just making this up.
Me : It's fluid, you've got to be in the zone, it's anti-fragile.
X : This is hopeless.
Me : See cloud. Not the concept of providing compute as a utility but the term. Do you want some stickers?
X : Stickers?
Me : I've got some old "cloud" stickers for your data centre. I could scribble on "native" in biro if you like?
Read 14 tweets
3 Oct
X : You know that project you spent a day mapping for us and said we would fail in these specific contracts.
Me : Gosh, that was seven years ago.
X : Well it failed in exactly the contracts you pointed to.
Me : You didn't change the contracts?
X : No.
Me : Why?
X : We spent five months writing those contracts, you spent a day mapping.
Me : You thought that time spent was somehow associated with correctness? The more words the better?
X : I'm not going to end up an X am I?
Me : No-one will ever know.
Me : Look on the bright side, a lesson learned. Next time map your project, apply contracts to the map and then chalenge whether you're building it the right way.
X : An expensive lesson.
Me : I won't ask. Water under the bridge. You're not getting those millions back.
Read 11 tweets
2 Oct
X : Has UK Gov handled COVID well?
Me : Many things we could have and could still do better on. However, compared to letting this virus run rampant then I applaud the action taken. But there are costly lessons (in terms of lives) to be learned and that needs a Royal Commission.
Me : I would also emphasise that we're not through this yet by a long shot. No, things are not "perfect", they never are. There are failures in the system and unfortunately those failures mean loved ones. But there are also good efforts being made. Hence my encouragement of Gov.
X : You're not answering the question. Is UK Gov handling this well?
Me : We could have and could still do better on many things. Let us leave that to a Royal Commission. Now is not the time. We should start by supporting positive actions being taken.
X : No criticism?
Read 7 tweets
1 Oct
X : Future threats to humanity? Climate Change? Politics?
Me : Inequality.
X : You think it'll be worse?
Me : Much worse, especially as we divide into the three classes.
X : Three?
Me : Human (third class), AI (second) and Human + AI (first class) - for those who can afford it.
X : Human + AI?
Me : The centaur class. This is the real threat to equality. Why do you think the Beijing AI principles spell out "be designed to benefit as many people as possible, especially those who would otherwise be easily neglected" - baai.ac.cn/news/beijing-a…
X : China? You saying China is leading the way on AI ethics?
Me : Next year is the centenary of the CCP. They've been focused on eradicating poverty, in the next wave as China pushes for world leadership they'll tackle the one area the West is totally exposed on ... inequality.
Read 7 tweets

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