X : What interests you in technology today?
Me : Lots of things? Do you mean companies?
X : Besides Amazon?
Me : Oodles. What are you after?
X : Something different?
Me : Try Feenk - feenk.com - and the Glamorous Toolkit underneath this - gtoolkit.com
X : Why them?
Me : Well, I happen to know @girba, we talk about what he is doing. The core area he is tackling is in observability of systems, GT is the underlying platform for this ... these are huge problems he is dealing with. It's a very interesting space.
X : Why?
Me : Well, what % of massive transformations do you think take place without a real understanding of the systems in place?
X : 5%?
Me : I'd guess it's the same as the number of crisis that occur because we don't understand our tech landscape.
X : 10%?
Me : 99%?
X : How do you know Tudor?
Me : Gosh, one presentation or another. I spend time with him, looking at his space. He maps. There are people I take an interest in.
X : Do you get paid for this?
Me : Lol, that's always the cynical question. I give what limited time I have to volunteer to people I take an interest in, people who can make a difference ... ask @Rachel0404 or @girba or ... well, there are people that I'm fascinated by.
It's like MapCamp ... do you think I do this to make money? I certainly have a vested interest in mapping spreading because I like mapping and I work in mapping. Sometimes, you do things because there is more important things in life than transactions.
X : So, what do you actually do?
Me : I research. I'm paid by DXC (a group within it known as the LEF).
X : What are you researching?
Me : The future decade of practices that are emerging from industrialisation of technology. As I did back in 2011, I'm looking for what matters.
X : Containers?
Me : Seriously? Are we going to do this again -
X : When is #mapcamp happening this year?
Me : Wed, Oct 13th.
X : What's the plan?
Me : Right now? Find some funding.
X : How much do you need?
Me : For a 1500 - 3000 person online event? Back of envelope calculation ... about £50k to make it happen. LEF has kindly sponsored it for the last few years but we now need to stand it up on its own two feet.
X : What does that mean?
Me : Like all events, it's a risk profile. So, today the chance of #mapcamp happening is 0%, as we raise some funds, identify costs and find ways of reducing costs etc then that chance increases to a point that we can say ... yep, we can do this.
X : Who uses your maps?
Me : Different people and groups. It's creative commons, so there are no restrictions.
X : So, you don't know?
Me : People do tell me, it's in books etc. If they find it useful, it'll spread. If not, it doesn't deserve to.
X : But who?
Me : Shopify?
X : But who else?
Me : All sorts of people. Why?
X : I need an example from my industry.
Me : Ah, if someone we know does this then we should do this? The 67% of generals bomb hills problem?
X : ?
Me : You shouldn't map because others do, you should map if you find it useful. That's it.
X : But we want to know if it will be useful.
Me : Certainty before you try and explore an uncertain space you have little visiblity on? Try it for a day, if it doesn't help ... stop.
X : How common is imposter syndrome?
Me : In execs?
X : Yes
Me : Common. Most twig their position has little to do with talent but more with luck and privilige. It can be a shock.
X : The rest? Talent?
Me : No, the rest are mostly psychopaths disconnected from reality.
X : So talent has no role?
Me : It has a role but it's relatively minor. There are outliers etc. But wealth and position are not gaussian distributions correlated to talent but appear to be power laws more clostly linked to luck, inheritance and other reinforcing mechanisms.
X : Is that fair?
Me : Depends upon your poisiton and whether your interest is in making the system more competitive. If so, you'll tackle inequality and shift the system to a more gaussian distribution based on talent.
X : Anyone doing this?
Me : Watch China, this year.
X : Do you like Star Trek Voyager?
Me : IMHO, it's the best of the Star Trek franchise. Glorious. Two fantastic lead characters in Janeway and Seven of Nine.
X : Who else?
Me : Others? Oh, there's the doctor who is good but really it's all about Janeway and Seven of Nine.
X : Other characters?
Me : Off the main plot which is the relationship between Janeway and Seven. There are other filler characters ... Neelix likes to be annoying, B'Elanna likes to break people's faces, Chakotay likes vision quests and Tuvok is the required Spock ...
... the doctor is the most interesting secondary character. Beyond that there was Tuvix (a mix of Neelix and Tuvok) formed from a transporter malfunction. That was a wonderful episode. Still, the whole series is worth watching.
It's essential. Last Mar / Apr, I built a new desktop (hadn't done that for ages), two screens, extended table, microphones, back light, camera, SAD lights, blue tint glasses, trackball, cooling and kitted out an office. Since added C02 monitors, UPS, channel bonded 4G etc.
I'm fortunate that I had the space and the basic skills needed to get the environment right for me but if you can then it's worth it.
Couple of other things to consider - I use an XP-Pen board for drawing, I pinched a lot of lessons from gaming (hence the blue filter glasses, the 144Mhz screens etc), get a decent set of headphones and invest in a good chair.