Last weekend I joined the global series of Home Assistant Community Day meetups. Hosted locally here in Surrey, UK (thank you to Ian Gibbs for organising), the meetup brought together like-minded enthusiasts to share ideas, solutions, and stories of success and failure in the home automation space. As I sat there listening to people discuss the challenges and successes of their… Read more →
Author: Benjamin Ellis
Is AI Making us stupid? The impact of generative AI on cognition.
In the tech world one paper drove a huge number of headlines in the last week. Microsoft Research posted a paper looking at the impact of generative AI on critical thinking. It lead to some headline gems, including these: Actually, probably the main ‘red flag’ there is the line ‘new study proves…’ – it is incredibly rare for a single… Read more →
Correlation is not causality – but there are effects
This video triggered a few thoughts and even a smile, beyond the immediate concerns over safety! This week, you’ll do something, and something will happen; you’ll connect the two. The link seems solid, but that link may not exist at all. The phrase “correlation is not causality” is overused, especially by those newer to data science and statistics. Yes, just… Read more →
Point Positive – Navigating Change
Many years ago, while in Australia, I went white water rafting. It was an exhilarating adventure, but the reality of the dangers were brought home to me very sharply when one of the team broke their arm and had to be air lifted to hospital. Staying safe on the rapids is important, but challenging. Communication on the water is difficult,… Read more →
Shedding at Login Lounge
Last week saw the inaugural TED shed at Login Business Lounge , thanks to Steve Coburn. It was a chance to listen to some stimulating talks and discuss them, and I had the privilege of leading a table and feeding back. Steve asked us to consider what harms own industry had been responsible for in the pursuit of growth. As… Read more →
Growing in a circle
There’s a sign, a little artisan placard, on a wall at my parent’s house. I’m not sure where it came from, or even when it appeared. It is ornate, but it has just three simple words on it: ‘seed’, ‘feed’, ‘weed’. I noted it, because it echoes the approaches I’ve been taught for developing products, growing businesses, and even life… Read more →