Category: Explained
Robotic Process Automation in Plain English
The robots are coming! Be warned, they will automate our jobs, and they will take work away from us. But wait, if the office of the future is full of robots doing our jobs, who […]
Neural Networks in Plain English
If you Google ‘neural networks’ you’ll find millions of articles explaining how Naive Bayesian regression is used to drive reverse propagation across hidden layers of artificial neurons, with cool pictures of lots of circles connected […]
Neural organizations
What is the optimal business process for delivering a disruptive product that has never been made before? That question is like asking Ikea to write assembly instructions for an item of furniture that hasn’t yet […]
In very plain English: Blockchain is not Bitcoin.
I sat through a presentation by one of the industry’s leading experts on blockchain, and was shocked that he constantly confused the audience by talking about blockchain and bitcoin as if they were the same […]
Digital in plain English
Emerging technology is coming at us thick and fast. IoT, augmented reality, neural networks, big data, robotic process automation, deep learning, analytics, wearables, blockchain, bots, and digitalisation. This field is becoming so complex that even for the […]
Blockchain in plain English
Unless you’ve been living under a digital rock, you would have heard about blockchain, and chances are someone has told you it will change the world and be the downfall of banks (or similar grandiose claims). Unless you are part of the 1% that understands what blockchains are and how they work you are probably at a loss as to what all the fuss is about (if you are part of that 1% then please forgive the brutal simplification of the concept that I’m about to provide).
Ransomware in plain English
In the good old days viruses were almost friendly, they very rarely did that much harm, were easy to get rid of, and were typically written by bored geeks with no social lives. Today it’s a very different story, viruses have become a multi-million dollar industry, and they are doing very real harm, not just to our computer systems but as with the recent WannaCry virus, they can threaten human lives.
Design Thinking – How to make it Work
Your business is lagging, what do you do? Put a bunch of people in a room for a day with five million Post-it notes, pizza, coffee and some bean bags for a solid day of Design Thinking. The next day hang the flipchart pictures of their cool new ideas around the office and pronounce yourself an innovative company. Unfortunately that’s where it usually stops and the only company that grows as a result is 3M, thanks to Post-it.
Because of scenarios like this Design Thinking gets a bad rap, but as with all things you shouldn’t blame the tool for poor workmanship. Like all things there are some great uses for Design Thinking, but on its own its not the cure-all that some claim it to be
Quantum Computing in plain English
Quantum computers are one of the trickiest but most colourful things to try and explain in the entire technology sector. What other technology is explained by talking about zombie cats that aren’t dead or alive until you look at them, spooky action at a distance, quantum-mechanical phenomena, superposition, and teleportation?
In Plain English 