Managers, Diplomats & Gaskets: On Being the Seal That Holds Teams Together by Petrus Theron

“For important negotiations we don’t send telegrams; we send ambassadors.” — Alan Kay

The problem with ambassadors is they only speak one language…typically French. But to negotiate between worlds, you need to speak two languages. You need a diplomat - or in mechanical terms, a gasket.

This talk is about transmuting wealth between domains of knowledge. Electrical engineering, in particular, has been unreasonably effective at predicting phenomena in other domains. So let's explore some ideas for creating wealth in an increasingly specialised world by cultivating generalist skills.

Transcript

1. Managers, Diplomats & Gaskets On Being the Seal That Holds Teams Together by Petrus Theron petrustheron.com @PetrusTheron petrus@petrus.co.za
2. Hi! I’m Petrus ‍ Engineer by day (BEng. Elec w/Comp Sci) Musician by night 15 years solving business problems with software I like melodic progressive techno I’ve built a few things:
4. Telemetrics.co.za
5. Cruise control for sound: ▇▅▄▂▅▇▅▆▆ http://wallfly.app
7. Surviving the 4th Industrial Revolution 1. The Edge of Glory 2. Localism: Islands of Knowledge 3. Big Rockets, Diplomats & Gaskets 4. Why Autistic People Rock Themselves 5. Telescopes & Transistors 6. Areas I’m studying to stay ahead
8. Chapter 1: Moving to the Edge (of Glory)
9. Yesterday Today Tomorrow Computing Timeshare Computing Energy Food
10. Yesterday Today Tomorrow Computing Timeshare Computing Personal & Cloud Computing Energy Food
11. Yesterday Today Tomorrow Computing Timeshare Computing Personal & Cloud Computing Personal Supercomputing Energy Food
12. Centralised Chapter 1: Moving to the Edge (of Glory)
13. Centralised Decentralised Chapter 1: Moving to the Edge (of Glory)
14. Centralised Decentralised Distributed Centralised Decentralised Chapter 1: Moving to the Edge (of Glory)
15. Yesterday Today Tomorrow Computing Timeshare Computing Personal & Cloud Computing Personal Supercomputing Energy Centralised Nuclear Energy Home Solar & Wind + Battery Personal Fusion / Supercapacitors Food
16. Yesterday Today Tomorrow Computing Timeshare Computing Personal & Cloud Computing Personal Supercomputing Energy Centralised Nuclear Energy Home Solar & Wind + Battery Personal Fusion / Supercapacitors Food Manual Farming Combine Harvesting Vertical Container Farming
17. Chapter 2: Islands of Knowledge / Localism
19. In large graphs, mobility dominates.
20. Graph Theory: Betweenness Centrality Most “connected” node
21. “For important negotiations we don’t send telegrams; we send ambassadors.” — Alan Kay
22. The problem with ambassadors...
23. ...they only speak one language,
24. ...they only speak one language, typically French. “Oui oui!”
25. • an official envoy • an authorized representative or messenger ambassador
26. • the art of conducting negotiations between nations • tact / skill in handling affairs without arousing hostility diplomacy
27. Diplomat: Nomadic Lives out of a suitcase Multilingual Generalist Has an accent
28. Chapter 3: Big Rockets
31. What makes a good gasket? • elastic & strong • thin, but no thinner • knowledge of both sides
32. diplomat = gasket OK, but what do I do about this?
33. Be a good API
34. Chapter 4: Prefrontal cortex is a simulator
35. Humility: “Maybe my model is wrong.”
36. Chapter 5: Telescopes & Transistors
37. Telescope = scope + lens
38. Sensor = filter + amplifier
40. resistor = dump valve
41. inductor = shock (inertial mass)
42. diode = one-way valve
43. capacitor = spring
44. What happens when we compose these components?
45. RC Circuit Resistor + Capacitor = Low Pass Filter
46. transistor = switch + amplifier (a.k.a. relay)
47. Information Amplifiers
48. Voltage Regulator = Transistor + Diode with feedback
49. Audio Compressor = Non-linear Feedback Amplifier Reduces dynamic range.
50. Information Amplifiers Compressors
51. Search = on-demand topic curation
52. Time Check
53. “A country may import corn & export manufactured commodities, even if corn could be grown for less.” — David Ricardo, 1817 Comparative Advantage
54. Big Graph
55. OK, so what am I doing about this? Chapter 6: Conclusion
56. Unexplored territories in the information age: • Statistics • Control Theory • Chemistry • Astronomy
57. Maximise comparative advantage.
58. Specialise & facilitate trade between specialists
59. Learn to write Learn to perform Learn to speak publicly Learn to negotiate
60. Invent amplifiers Invent filters Invent seals Invent sensors Invent compressors
61. Things I’m Studying: • Public speaking • Probabilistic Graph Databases • Analog Signal Processing / Harmonic analysis • Control System Theory • Probabilistic Programming • Discrete Constraint Solvers
62. Things I’m Betting On: • Electronic Negotiation Protocols • Distributed Supercomputing • Graph Databases • Signal Processing (Managing noise) • Probabilistic Programming • Constraint Solvers
63. Keep Your Identity Small
64. Big thank you to the sponsors!
65. CTO for Hire CV: petrustheron.com/cv/ Essays: petrustheron.com Twitter: @PetrusTheron GitHub: @theronic Music: theronic.com