GOOD STRATEGY REBELLION

Category: Good Strat

  • DATA WORLD: Friends! Romans! Countrymen! Big Data is not Data Warehousing – 2026/01/29

    DATA WORLD: Friends! Romans! Countrymen! Big Data is not Data Warehousing – 2026/01/29

    Martyn Rhisiart Jones

    29th January 2026

    Hold this thought: To paraphrase the great Bob Hoffman, just when you think that if the Big Data babblers were to generate one more ounce of bull**** the entire f****** solar system would explode, what do they do? Exceed expectations.

    I am a mild mannered person. However, one thing that irks me is hearing variations on certain themes. These themes include phrases like “Data Warehousing is Big Data.” Another is “Big data is in many ways an evolution of data warehousing.” Lastly, some say “with Big Data you no longer need a Data Warehouse.”

    Big Data is not Data Warehousing. It is not the evolution of Data Warehousing. It is also not a sensible and coherent alternative to Data Warehousing. No matter what certain vendors will put in their marketing brochures or stick up their noses.

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  • Understanding Data-Less Apps: The Future of IT

    Understanding Data-Less Apps: The Future of IT

    Image1Martyn Rhisiart Jones

    Dublin 9th May 2017 –  revised 21st December 2025

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  • Three really stupid things you can do with a Data Lake

    Three really stupid things you can do with a Data Lake

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMartyn Richard Jones

    Gif sur Yvette, 27th December 2017

    To begin at the beginning

    First, a thought.

    Just because it’s there, it doesn’t mean it has to be done. Just because you can, it doesn’t mean that you should. Just because you believe you are right, doesn’t mean that you are not wrong.

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  • IT’S POLITICS: UK: Better off with Brexit

    IT’S POLITICS: UK: Better off with Brexit

    Picture6Martyn Jones

    Bornheim, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany – 25th August 2017

    When you offer people all of the benefits of the single market and the customs union, but without any of the EU bureaucracy, constraints and costs, what happens?

    We ran an experimental consultation last year in the UK just to demonstrate what happens when bat-shit-crazy mad-cow Britain has a chance to throw a spanner in the works. Some people will inevitably believe the boloney whilst others will use it as a mere tool in a simple-minded and obtuse attempt to rationalise their own irrationality and misanthropy. Nobody can throw a spanner in the works quite like the Brits.

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  • Postmodern Digital Stories: We’ve never seen anything like this before

    Postmodern Digital Stories: We’ve never seen anything like this before

    Picture2Martyn Richard Jones

    Dunny on the Wold, 23rd August 2017

    The prevailing conventional wisdom is that innovative technologies and their novel use are having an effect on many peoples’ lives. Indeed, the fascination with the possibilities offered by social media, the internet and the age of data is becoming all pervasive. Of course, not all is goodness and light. Some aspects, such as Denial of Service attacks, phishing without a permit and creatively-ambiguous chimping, mark the down side of this story. (more…)

  • IT’S POLITICS: The Selfish Brexiteers

    IT’S POLITICS: The Selfish Brexiteers

    Picture2Martyn Richard Jones

    Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany – 11th August 2017

    What will the UK look like ‘post-Brexit?

    Will Brexit result, as I read on Twitter, in the UK “taking back what we never lost to lose everything we currently have.”?

    My concern is about what could happen to the people in the UK when we have finally run-away from Europe.

    With Brussels gone, with the EU and the Single Market gone, with our EU citizenship ripped from our cold dead hands, who will Brexiteers have to complain about once we have become an isolated, tiny and populous ex-colonialist island to the east of New Jersey?

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  • Consider this: The ten key dimensions of Applied Business Knowledge and AI

    Consider this: The ten key dimensions of Applied Business Knowledge and AI

    10 dimensions B

    AI, KNOWLEDGE, INFORMATION AND DATA

    “Knowledge is the capacity to give correct answers to questions.”

    “There is no well trodden path that takes a straight line from symbols, through data to knowledge and wisdom. This is just some nonsense invented by the IT industry.” – Martyn Jones

    We may define data as being the symbolic representation of value or conversely of something which has no attached value. Data may represent, among other things, time, money, resources or worldly objects.

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  • How to turn internal user data into a massive liability – Zéro pièce

    How to turn internal user data into a massive liability – Zéro pièce

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    Martyn Richard Jones

    Laugharne 18th May 2017

    “Our discreditable secret is that we don’t know anything at all, and our horrid inner secret is that we don’t care that we don’t.”

    ― Dylan Thomas

    Let me explain

    I read a poster the other, it read “How To Turn Internal User Data Into Revenue”. It was one of those Facebook or LinkedIn hooks, you know, the ones used to get people to spend precious time on useless pursuits.

    It reminded me of a book that my mother-in-law bought for my partner, many, many moons ago. “How to make a mint whilst you snooze”, or some such wacky title.

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  • Data-Less Apps: Revolutionary IT

    Data-Less Apps: Revolutionary IT

    Image1Martyn Richard Jones

    Dublin 9th May 2017

    Weighed down with data?

    Inundated with information?

    Overstrained with knowledge?

    Intimidated by wisdom?

    Don’t despair!

    Relief from all of this is just be around the corner, in the shape of the next revolutionary inflection point in IT. Yes, as you might have guessed it by now. I am talking about data-less apps. (more…)

  • BIG DATA GURUS: Trifling Little Fibbers?

    BIG DATA GURUS: Trifling Little Fibbers?

    Rantasaurus ‘Ricky’ Wrecks

    Moscow 1st May 2017

    In this week’s episode of ‘Putin the Bootin…’ Big Data Gurus…! Yep! Hold this thought…

    There are no Big Data gurus.

    THERE ARE NO BIG DATA GURUS!

    T H E R E . . . A R E . . . N O . . . B I G . . . D A T A . . . G U R U S !

    Call these unscrupulous wide-boys what you like, but, in any reasonable sense, when it comes to the Big Data enchilada, the unhelpful clowns who flog fake news, vulgar hype and vain-glorious exaggeration, are not gurus, of any way, shape or form.   (more…)

  • Getting Agile Right

    Getting Agile Right

    Image10Martyn Richard Jones

    Madrid, 16th April 2017

    I think Agile has its place, especially in the world of software application development, especially in building the kind of software that businesses frequently use in the peripheral aspects of their day-to-day operations.

    Done right, Agile can make the difference between a great success and a painful failure. Done badly, and you might suffer a worse fate than a badly applied Software Development Life Cycle such as Waterfall. Done well, and Agile will oil the wheels of the machine that gets things done.

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  • Hadoop’s Revolutionary Data Warehouse

    Hadoop’s Revolutionary Data Warehouse

    Martyn Richard Jones

    Baile Átha Cliath

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
    2017 Martyn Richard Jones

    It’s Easter in Baile Átha Cliath, and thoughts naturally turn to purple-shrouded, sombre-shadowed and mystical aspects of bereavement, resurrection and bunnies.

    Which may go some way to explain why people come up to me in the street, and apropos of nothing, ask me about what is the biggest reason why Data Warehousing projects fail.

    Try as I might, I cannot convince people that the reasons I give have any validity. It’s as if the mundaneness of the stupidity involved in these failures is just too frivolous, banal and immature as to be believable or even worth listening to.

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  • Post-truth, Fake-news and Big Data

    Post-truth, Fake-news and Big Data

    Martyn Richard Jones

    Lora del Rio, 2nd February 2017

    image10

    post-truth – ADJECTIVE – Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.

    fake news – a type of hoax or deliberate spread of misinformation in social media or traditional news media with the intent to mislead in order to gain financially or politically.

    Big data – a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate to deal with them.

    If we believe the presses, and who wouldn’t, we are living in an age of post-truth, fake-news and Big Data.

    Actually, none of this is new, not even the amazing volumes, varieties and velocities of boloney that surrounds the Big Data bandwagon. In fact, the big porky technique (a.k.a. the big lie) was invented when Anglo-Saxon cynicism was in its infancy.

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  • Why I Really Like LinkedIn

    Why I Really Like LinkedIn

    It’s not something I have thought about a lot. But, apropos of nothing, a question came to mind. That question, as if you couldn’t guess by now, was “why do I like LinkedIn?”

    Well, here is my first attempt at addressing this question.

    I really like LinkedIn because:

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
    Sunny Guadalajara

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  • IT’S POLITICS: BREXIT: Where’s Theresa May’s Plan B?

    IT’S POLITICS: BREXIT: Where’s Theresa May’s Plan B?

    Image1

    image12Martyn Richard Jones

    Dublin, 10th September 2016

    Theresa May, as Prime Minister of Her Majesty’s Government, has overall responsibility for organising the United Kingdom’s retreat from the European Union.

    But, Theresa May has a problem, she doesn’t appear to have a detailed plan for Brexit, at all.

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  • UK POLITICS: The Jeremy and Owen Show

    UK POLITICS: The Jeremy and Owen Show

    image10Martyn Richard Jones

    Mountain View, Friday 9th September 2016

    Although I am not a Labour voter, I, like many people across the UK, have been following the Labour Party leadership debates, which have seen the incumbent Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Labour MP Owen Smith battling it out in public. And although it’s not up there with Itchy and Scratchy, it still provides some surprisingly irritating entertainment interspersed with facts, fiction, Pontypandy bitchiness and Islington exasperation.

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  • IT’S POLITICS: BREXIT: Theresa May’s Catch-22

    IT’S POLITICS: BREXIT: Theresa May’s Catch-22

    image7Martyn Richard Jones

    Bamberg, 8th September 2016

    Months have passed since the United Kingdom held its European Union membership referendum which resulted in a ‘win’ for the pro-leave Brexiteers. Yet the strongest signal coming out of London is that the government is stalling; playing for time. Clearly, as yet, the government hasn’t worked out in any real, concrete or detailed terms what it should be doing or where the country should be going or what it can even say to the array of stakeholders and interested parties. Which, given that Brexit is by far the biggest constitutional challenge in my lifetime, is quite problematic.

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  • STRAIGHT TALK: Amazing Uses of Big Data at ISIS

    STRAIGHT TALK: Amazing Uses of Big Data at ISIS

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    Martyn Richard Jones

    Langley, 2nd September 2016

    Few outside of the big intelligence agencies of the USA, Russia and Andorra know this, but a big part of the success of Operational Excellence at ISIS can be put down to their judicious use of Big Data and Data Science. Or, so say the experts[i].

    This will probably come as no surprise to big-gun Big Data gurus such as Bernard Marr, Rab C. Nesbitt or Alan Latchley, or indeed will it appear unusual to the more peripheral and intellectual areas of Big Data ‘guruship’ and Data Scientology, where we may find the likes of Shapiro, Kobielus and Podge and Rodge O’Leprosy.

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  • Seven Magnificent Big Data Success Stories

    Seven Magnificent Big Data Success Stories

    Mount_Everest_as_seen_from_Drukair2_PLW_editMartyn Richard Jones

    Lora del Rio, 31st August 2016

    Big data has arrived. Big Data is here for keeps. Big Data is the future.

    Despite some of the malicious, mendacious and malodorous words of naysayers, sceptics and contrarians, the world of big data and big data analytics is replete with totally amazing and fabulous success stories.

    Big Data gurus are often accused of not delivering coherent, cohesive and verifiable accounts of Big Data successes. Which is understandable but at the same time a pity. So here, to illustrate this miraculous and remarkable turnaround, I give you not three but seven of the many Big Data success stories that I could have casually grabbed out of the ether.

    First, we take a trip to Glasgow to discover the leveraging of Big Data in alternative investments. Then we pass over to Boston to explore the magic of Big Data at Universal Legal. We venture through Switzerland and innovative marketing. Explore the heights of Dongalong Creek. Have a word with the good folks at Heisenberg Labs. Then round it off with a quick in-depth summary of Big Data at Choppers. So, here we go…

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  • Big Data on the Roof of the World

    Big Data on the Roof of the World

    Mount_Everest_as_seen_from_Drukair2_PLW_editOnce upon a time, there was a mountain known as Peak 15. Very little was known about it. Then in 1852, surveyors found it was the highest in the world, and they named it Everest.

    As with other significant challenges that we can identify in life, many people have been driven by a passionate desire to conquer peaks all around the world. This is just one illustration of those of us who can identify their significant challenges and rise to them. This sharp focus, determination and courage turns ordinary citizens into people who are invariably on a mission. People who know what they want. (more…)

  • Yo! Professional networkers! BlankedOut Sucked

    Yo! Professional networkers! BlankedOut Sucked

    Martyn Richard Jones

    Hello, readers.

    Before my Aunt Dolly went to a better place she received a handwritten letter from her dear friend and long-time admirer Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling, which was to be passed on to the CEO of, what he called, an interweb professional dating site. My Aunt Dolly didn’t actually give me a precise indication of the intended recipient, this is why I now find myself at a loss. If there’s anyone out there who recognises the person or persons this letter might have been written to, then please let me know. Many thanks in advance.

    What follows is Sir Arthur’s text, as relayed to me by my sainted Aunt Dolly. (more…)

  • Too Much Information

    Too Much Information

    Martyn Richard Jones

    I have questions about data.

    Most of us who have more than a cursory knowledge of the English language have heard of the phrase ‘too much information’. We know what it means, even if we don’t always know when to apply it.

    For those who don’t know, or are unsure, the Urban Dictionary describes ‘too much information’ as “An expression of exasperation and disgust when a person is divulging personal details of his sex life, toilet habits, or anything the listener finds disgusting, uninteresting, and unwelcome.”[1]

    Sum, sum. Just because we know it, doesn’t mean we should share it or even try and remember it, never mind go about analysing the hell out of it.

    This is where Big Data comes in. (more…)

  • Can You Read? Be Honest, Now

    Can You Read? Be Honest, Now

    Martyn Richard Jones

    When you have read this, if indeed you read it all, will I have failed to convey the essence of what I am trying to get at? Will a confusion of entropy win the battle? Will the wheel of fortune turn in my favour, or will I fail to connect and communicate effectively?

    Let’s give it a spin and see what happens. (more…)

  • Free Business Analytics Content –Thanks to Wikipedia – Part 4

    Free Business Analytics Content –Thanks to Wikipedia – Part 4

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    Why buy when you can get it for free?

    Back at you! Here is the fourth fantastic delivery of an amazing, fabulous selection of free, widely available business analytics learning content, prepared… just for you. (more…)