Category: Ruminations
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Rumination No. 34: Barista in Beta
These days, we constantly hear about the inexorable march of artificial intelligence, which is fuelling the Fourth Industrial Revolution and will make humans useless in most (if not all) jobs. Accountants, lawyers, labourers, whatever… you’ve probably heard about how positions in a range of fields will meet this fate, regardless of the required education level…
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Daily Rumination No. 33: Takeaway on a Plate
Late last year, I wrote about how café workers have the ridiculous habit of soiling your napkin by placing it between your food and the plate. Recently, I encountered an equally strange service situation. Observe the photo below. You’re looking at a salad that I ordered in a dine-in context, presented in a black takeaway…
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Daily Rumination No. 32: ‘Liveable’
Flowing on from yesterday’s Daily Rumination on urban planning, I’d like to discuss briefly the notion of ‘liveability’. In our data-obsessed society, we now strive to measure everything, even broad, subjective and ambiguous human experiences. Liveability is one such broad concept that must be broken down into many smaller components in the hope of measuring…
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Daily Rumination No. 31: Regional Vision
Whilst munching on dinner this evening, I read this fantastic article by Vox: Barcelona, Spain, urban planning: a city’s vision to dig out from cars. It tells the story of Salvador Rueda, a biologist, psychologist, engineer, ecologist and the so-called father of the ‘superblocks plan’ for Barcelona. Superblocks represent the revitalised idea for a more…
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Daily Rumination No. 30: Screenshots
Ever since the early days of iPhoto, I have used Apple’s photo-management software to collect, edit and share my family memories. Today, that software comes in the form of Photos on iOS and macOS and for all of its early controversy (i.e. the concurrent death of Aperture), it does a fantastic job of storing and…
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Daily Rumination No. 29: What Royal Commission?
I spotted an update from LinkedIn today called Top Companies 2019: Where Australia wants to work now. Here is the opening paragraph that explains the purpose of the update and how it is put together: ‘Every year, our editors and data scientists parse billions of actions taken by LinkedIn members around the world to uncover…
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Daily Rumination No. 28: Valuing Education
Earlier this evening, I had the great opportunity to hear Dr Brendan Nelson, Director of the Australian War Memorial, speak at an Illawarra business dinner. He gave an extremely impressive, rousing speech about his work at the memorial, his values and also his experience as former federal Leader of the Opposition and Ambassador of Australia…
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Daily Rumination No. 27: Instagram Is Dead (to Me)
In 2010, I joined a new, exciting social network called Instagram. Its purpose was quite simple: post square-shaped photos with a range of interesting colour filters and follow people whose photos you also enjoy. That was really it… until Facebook came along and destroyed everything. Over time, the network that I loved became a cesspool…
Lounge Ruminator 