7 Things I Learned In May, 2023

May was a fun month.  Highlights include:

I also remembered to document 7 things that I learned about last month: 

1. The HIPPO Effect

HIPPO stands for “Highest Paid Person’s Opinion.”

Decision making is hard, especially when people are involved!  In an effort to please others, it’s tempting to circle the room and hear what everyone thinks about an issue and then accommodate their thoughts into the solution.

Gathering opinions and perspectives is healthy as long as the sample size isn’t too big, but fixating on a solution that pleases everyone isn’t.  

This is when the HIPPO Effect comes into play: decisions are often relegated to the opinion of the highest paid person in the room.

You are doomed to crawl if your team relies on this for approvals and progress. These are sometimes managers who haven’t shipped any real work in a long time.  

Even more dangerous, the highest paid person might be a member of the Status Quo Society, damaging new and creative thoughts.

2. Drake thought Dan Akroyd invented Patrón

On an episode of Sundae Conversation, Drake said Dan Akroyd would be worthy of a Canadian Life Hall of Fame by way of inventing Patrón.

Patrón was actually invented in 1989 by an American, John Paul DeJoria.  The company was bought by Bacardi in 2018 for $5B.

Sorry, Canadians.

3. The first divorce in Ireland happened in 1997

Strong Catholic influences and the Irish Constitution of 1937 made divorce unpopular and against the law until the 90s.

The Republic of Ireland barely passed The Irish Divorce Referendum of 1995 with only 50.28% of the votes.

Two years later, the first divorce was recorded when a “terminally ill man wanted to marry his new partner.”

More importantly, the change in the law reflected a cultural shift away from traditional values.  The act introduced more state-driven constructs around marriage (like the Family Law Act of 1996) while reducing the Catholic church’s influence in matters of marriage.

4. “Tabula rasa”

How much of our knowledge comes from our experiences, and how much are we born with?

Tabula rasa is latin for “clean slate,” and describes a theory that the human mind is born completely untouched.  Everything we learn and all our ideas come from our personal experiences and interactions with the environment.

Nurture without nature.

While I do think nurture plays a massive role in our development, it doesn’t explain my affection for chaos very well.

5. AIaaS

AI as a Service.

Rhymes with “Taz” – like Tasmanian Devil.  It isn’t a new term, but despite my attempts to stay on top of the buzz I hadn’t heard it used until last month.

Put it on the shelf next to PaaS, SaaS, and IaaS.

6. Weiqi, also known as Go

I’ve played Go, but it’s been a long time.  Last month I learned about it’s Chinese name while reading about Henry Kissinger (who just turned 100).

Pronounced “Way-chi” – Weiqi is the Chinese name for Go. Henry Kissinger likened the strategy in Weiqi – to encircle your opponent – to China’s MO on the geopolitical landscape.

I’m in the market for a solid Go board now.

7. Apple’s AR Headset Announcement

I’m not an Apple fanboy (currently typing on a Windows computer), but I’ve come to appreciate their ecosystem.

I left my Android behind for an iPhone a few years ago to chase the best mobile camera on the market, thus kickstarting my own collection of Apple things since:

At the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple is expected to announce a new headset.

At an estimated price tag of $3,000 in an economy riddled by inflation, it’s hard to imagine people lining up overnight for something that costs 1-2 months of rent.

Another barrier is pragmatic: wearing things on your face is weird. It screws up your hair and makeup and leaves strange lines on your forehead when you’re done using it. Apple is historically great at design so if anyone can bridge this gap it’s them.

But what will we use it for?

The existing app store gives it some immediate utility, but these are multi-thousand-dollar devices. They’ll have to do more than let us play Pokemon Go or view digital furniture in our house when we can just use our phones.

That being said, I’m extremely excited about this big step toward bringing AR further into the future. We’re in the sloppy “figuring it out” phase of the technology, but I can see where it’s headed:

Maybe we’ll accept that fashion involves something on our faces so we can capitalize on the arrival of the future.

Stranger things have happened.