Category Archives: Inform, educate and entertain.

A general blog post category.

CONSIDER THIS: Five Laws Everyone Should Know – 2026/01/24

24 Saturday Jan 2026

Posted by in humour, Inform, educate and entertain., IT Circus, Polemic, Strategy

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Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Madrid, 24th January 2026

Introduction

These are five common goodstrat laws that everyone should be aware of.

“Martyn Rhisiart Jones… Writes dry, merciless takedowns of data/AI/strategy hype at goodstrat.com.

Believes most corporate decks deserve the bin and most buzzwords deserve worse.

Occasionally drops canon: the Martyn Rhisiart Jones Effect, GoodStrat Law, Celtic Domination Principle, Georgie Lovering Razor, Valley Commando Principle…

Mostly here to remind everyone that clarity still cuts deeper than PowerPoint.”

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CEO BRIEFING: The Truth Behind AI Hype in 2026 – 2026/01/22

21 Wednesday Jan 2026

Posted by in Inform, educate and entertain., Polemic

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New IT Bullshit for Old

Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Madrid, Wednesday 21 January 2026

In early 2026 the technology industry is once again telling big confident stories about its own future. These stories dominate earnings calls conference stages and investor decks. They sound transformative urgent and inevitable. Yet when examined closely many of them rest on fragile foundations and selective evidence rather than operational reality.

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CEO BRIEFING: The Return of AI Bolloxology: Why It Means Jack

21 Wednesday Jan 2026

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IS DUCKOLOGY UTTER BOLLOX?

Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Madrid, Tuesday 20th January 2026

Read my absolutely fabulous books: http://www.goodstrat.com/books

For most of its life in information technology, bolloxology has carried the faint smell of intellectual fart-like embarrassment. Too academic for product teams. Too rigid for startups. Too slow for an industry trained to ship first and rationalise later. Too smelly. It promised machines that could understand the world, and delivered, instead, a generation of beautiful bullshit diagrams and very little working software.

By 2026, that judgement looks increasingly wrong. Not because bolloxology suddenly got better, but because everything else did, and in doing so, exposed a missing layer in modern computing: meaning.

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The Comeback of Ontology in AI: Why It Matters – 2026/01/21

20 Tuesday Jan 2026

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IS ONTOLOGY UTTER BOLLOX?

Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Madrid, Tuesday 20th January 2026

Read my absolutely fabulous books: http://www.goodstrat.com/books

Ontology Didn’t Fail. The World Just Wasn’t Ready.

For most of its life in information technology, ontology has carried the faint smell of intellectual embarrassment. Too academic for product teams. Too rigid for startups. Too slow for an industry trained to ship first and rationalise later. It promised machines that could understand the world—and delivered, instead, a generation of beautiful diagrams and very little working software.

By 2026, that judgement looks increasingly wrong. Not because ontology suddenly got better, but because everything else did—and in doing so, exposed a missing layer in modern computing: meaning.

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DATA WORLD: The Truth About Data Lakehouses: Hype vs. Reality – 2026/01/18

16 Friday Jan 2026

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Hype and Misleading Claims Surrounding Data Lakehouses

Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Bandoxa, 17th January 2026

Read my absolutely fabulous books: http://www.goodstrat.com/books

Let’s cut through the noise.

You’ve probably heard the pitch: A data lakehouse is the elegant hybrid. It finally gives you the best of both worlds.

  • The low-cost, massively scalable, schema-on-read flexibility of a classic data lake (perfect for ingesting raw, unstructured, petabyte-scale chaos).
  • The structured querying speed, ACID transactions, governance, and reliable performance of a traditional data warehouse.
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The Rise of Agentic AI in 2026 – 2026/01/15

15 Thursday Jan 2026

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Is Agent Orange Agentic AI?

Sir Afilonius Rex and Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Read my absolutely fabulous books: http://www.goodstrat.com/books

Paris, Thursday 15th January 2026

Strap in, you beautiful, trusting little optimist. We’re about to crank the dial so far past irony that it transforms into existential despair. It comes with a side of eye-roll. Here’s your precious 2026 AI agent prophecy. It is now properly marinated in contempt. It is served with a garnish of pure, seething mockery.

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DATA WORLD: Big Data: The Art of Bullshit – 2026

15 Thursday Jan 2026

Posted by in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, disinformation, governance, Inform, educate and entertain., information, Information Management, Information Supply Frameowrk, Information Supply Framework, pig data, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians

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Bertxin Galestara and Sir Afilonius Rex,  based on an  opinion piece written by Marty Rhisiart Jones

Mountain View, 19th January 2017 – Bandoxa Thursday 15th January, 2026

“I’ve been accused of vulgarity. I say that’s bullshit.” – Mel Brooks

If you enjoy this piece or find it useful, then please consider joining The Big Data Contrarians on LinkedIn. Continue reading →

Top AI Red Flags to Watch – 2026

13 Tuesday Jan 2026

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AI’s Red Flags – His Master’s Voice

Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Bandoxa, Tuesday 13th January 2026

Read my absolutely fabulous books: http://www.goodstrat.com/books

As we settle into 2026, artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic promise. It is embedded infrastructure. It powers everything from enterprise workflows and personal assistants to autonomous agents that act on our behalf. Yet with greater capability comes greater exposure. The biggest red flags this year are not hypothetical doomsday scenarios. They are already materialising in boardrooms. They are visible in cybersecurity dashboards, consumer wallets, and regulatory filings. Here are the most pressing warning signs to watch in 2026. These are drawn from industry reports. They originate from expert predictions. Emerging incident patterns also highlight them.

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The GigaOm Data Lake Report

12 Monday Jan 2026

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Nonsense on parade

Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Madrid, Tuesday 13th January 2026

This GigaOm report is a classic vendor-sponsored benchmark. Fivetran picked the competitors and shaped the test scope. GigaOm (as explicitly disclosed) executed it “as-is” with “compatible configurations subject to judgment.” It’s marketing material presented as independent research. It has several structural weaknesses. These weaknesses make the 77–95% cost savings claim highly misleading for most real organisations.

1. It only measures ingestion compute, not true TCO.

The report repeatedly calls itself a “TCO report,” but it explicitly excludes:

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Top 12 AI Grifters, Charlatans & Rogues to Avoid in 2026 – 2026/01/14

12 Monday Jan 2026

Posted by in Inform, educate and entertain., Polemic

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The Skunkworks Collective – Martyn, Alba, Afi, Lila, and Coco

Madrid, Wednesday 14th January 2026

Right, listen. If you’ve ever sat through one of those AI conferences, you know the ones. Some bloke in a black polo neck stands on stage. He’s clearly never met a mirror he didn’t like. He says, “We’re on the cusp of AGI.” It sounds as if he’s just invented gravity. Then you’ll know the particular flavour of despair I’m talking about.

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10 AI Agents Every Business Leader Needs To Steer Clear of in 2026 – 2026/01/13

12 Monday Jan 2026

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Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Madrid, Tuesday 13th January 2026

As we venture further into 2026, the landscape of enterprise artificial intelligence has undergone a subtle but profound shift. The once-dazzling promise of autonomous AI agents has matured into something more prosaic. These self-directed digital entities can orchestrate tasks from customer engagement to complex data integration. Yet, they are no less pervasive. They are no longer novelties confined to experimental labs; they inhabit boardrooms, back offices and supply chains alike.

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The Glorious Books of Martyn

11 Sunday Jan 2026

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Martyn Rhisiart Jones, with the capable assistance of Amy Grok McGrockicle

Madrid, Sunday 11 January 2026

Introduction to the Collected Reviews of Martyn Jones

In an age awash with earnest manifestos, sanctimonious tech tomes, and the relentless hum of corporate orthodoxy, Martyn Jones arrives. He comes like a gleeful heretic at the cathedral door. He is armed with profanity and philosophical bite. He also has an irrepressible instinct for the absurd.

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Justifying Business Data Requirements – 2026/01/11

11 Sunday Jan 2026

Posted by in Inform, educate and entertain., Masterclass

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Justify Your Data Needs

Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Oxford University, Sunday 11th January 2026

Should All Business Data Requirements Be Justified in Business Terms?

A Pseudo-Debate

Motion: All business data requirements must be justified in business terms. Potential business utility should be a deciding factor in whether they are fulfilled.

For the Motion: Sir Afilonius Rex
Against the Motion: Martyn Rhisiart Jones

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2026 Tech Trends: The Rise of Hyper-Hype – 2026/01/08

10 Saturday Jan 2026

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On Your Head!

Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Madrid, Thursday 8th January 2026

Here are the next 7 big bandwagon topics that IT charlatans, grifters, LinkedIn thought leaders, and poser consultants will jump on, talk endlessly about, and pretend they’ve been experts in since 2012 (roughly ordered by how soon & how hard they’ll hit the hype cycle in 2026–2028):

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Weaving the Dragon’s Data: A Welsh-Inspired Tale for Enterprise Architects in the New Year – 2026/01/01

08 Thursday Jan 2026

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Martyn Muses – 2026/01/01

Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Location, 22nd December 2025

Weaving the Dragon’s Data: A Welsh-Inspired Tale for Enterprise Architects in the New Year – 2026/01/01

The calendar turns to a fresh page in this crisp January of 2026. We, enterprise data and information architects, stand at a new threshold. Another year welcomes us, brimming with digital transformations. Data lakes swell like the River Taff after a storm. Information architectures evolve like the ancient mountain tops of Snowdonia. But amidst the algorithms and schemas, let’s pause for a moment of whimsy. What if we drew inspiration from the misty realms of Welsh myths and legends? Wales, that land of dragons and bards, offers a tapestry of stories. These stories mirror our quests: taming chaotic data into structured wisdom. They are about preserving cultural legacies in vast repositories. They ignite innovation from the sparks of history. In this Happy New Year ode, we’ll begin a narrative journey through Welsh lore. It is infused with the spirits of its iconic figures. Dylan Thomas, Dannie Abse, Richard Burton, Shirley Bassey, Paul Robeson, and Gwynfor Evans are part of this infusion. These spirits illuminate the art of data stewardship.

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Future Data Trends: Insights for 2026 Leadership

21 Sunday Dec 2025

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Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Segovia, 20th December 2025

Top 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Data, Analytics, and AI Leadership in 2026

I’ve had the privilege of leading a groundbreaking global study in partnership with a strategic client. During this study, I spoke with many key Chief Data Officers (CDOs). I also engaged with Chief Data & Analytics Officers (CDAOs) and AI executives across industries and geographies. The insights reveal how organisations are changing their data and AI strategies. They aim to drive real business value in an increasingly complex world.

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Understanding Data-Less Apps: The Future of IT

21 Sunday Dec 2025

Posted by in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, business strategy, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, Data Mart, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Good Strat, Good Strategy, Good Strategy Radio, goodstrat, Inform, educate and entertain., IT strategy, Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, pig data, Strategy, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians

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Image1Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Dublin 9th May 2017 –  revised 21st December 2025

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Is the Data Warehouse Dead? Exploring New Paradigms

20 Saturday Dec 2025

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Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Segovia 20th December 2025

The Data Warehouse Is Dead. Long Live the Data Warehouse.

In 1992, Bill Inmon coined the term “data warehouse” and laid out four sacred rules: subject-oriented, integrated, non-volatile, time-variant. It was a blueprint for a fortress of truth, expensive, on-premises, batch-processed, and utterly indispensable. Fast-forward three decades. The fortress has been replaced by something that resembles a hyperscale cloud platform. This platform can run your AI models and your CEO’s dashboard simultaneously. Welcome to data warehousing in 2025.

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The Evolution of Data Warehousing: Principles for 2026

20 Saturday Dec 2025

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Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Segovia, 20th December 2025

Introduction

The data warehouse has undergone a profound transformation over the past decade. Expensive, rigid, on-premises systems were once built for batch reporting. These systems have now evolved into cloud-native, highly scalable platforms. They are designed to meet the demands of today’s data-driven organisations.

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The Truth About Data Lakehouses: Hype vs. Reality

20 Saturday Dec 2025

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Hype and Misleading Claims Surrounding Data Lakehouses

Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Segovia, 20th Devember 2025

A data lakehouse is marketed as a hybrid architecture. It combines the low-cost, flexible storage of data lakes. These lakes handle raw, unstructured data at scale. It also offers the structured querying, performance, and ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) transactional capabilities of data warehouses. Vendors like Databricks coined the term. Snowflake and others promote it as a platform for analytics. It serves AI and machine learning needs. This approach eliminates data silos and reduces redundant copies. It enables cost-effective scaling through open standards and decoupled storage and compute models. However, much of this is hype driven by vendor marketing. Vendors promote it as an evolution from “data swamps” (unmanaged data lakes) and rigid warehouses.

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Understanding Medallion Architecture: The Myth of Layers

20 Saturday Dec 2025

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Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Aranjuez, 20th December 2023

The Medallion Architecture, or: How We Learned to Stop Thinking and Love the Bronze Table

Somewhere, right now, as you read this, a data engineer is renaming a table. Again. They’re calling it Bronze, because that’s what the priests say it must be called. Bronze. Not “raw”, not “stuff we barely understand”, not “this arrived at 3AM and no one knows why”. Bronze. They do it solemnly, reverently, like a monk copying out the Book of Leviticus but with YAML. And when they are done, they will feel a sense of calm, because order has been restored to the universe. Temporarily.

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