Author: Robert Schouwenburg

The Kamprad Test and Moravec’s Paradox

It took a pair of robots, pre-programmed by humans, more than 20 minutes to assemble a chair that a person could knock together in a fraction of the time. Moravec's paradox is at play here.

Centralization of data is not conducive to innovation

Unbundling the internet and data ownership

AOL used to be internet in the US, there was Minitel in France and i-mode in Japan. All of them were widely successful in their day but turned into obscurity when disrupted by more open and distributed solutions. There’s a law which says something like “any institution always strives to become more powerful over time”. I can’t find the source of this law, but it applies to any organization - commercial or non-commercial. In their strive to become more dominant in a market or sector, they typically strive to centralization of power, influence, usage and product.

Bye Medium and Squarespace

Back to the future – hello WordPress

After a journey of a few years to Medium and then Squarespace, my blog is back on a self-hosted Wordpress site. I've been blogging for a decade and hosting my own website for two. Here's the story.

Who still uses RSS newsreaders right?

Trying something new – RSS to email

There are quite a few blogs I like to follow and I visited them regularly to see if there was an update. But since the update intervals for each of these were very different, regularly visiting wasn’t really working for me. There must be a better solution to this.

Mere Potential Can Be More Important Than Achievement

In a series of experiments set in different contexts, we found that high potential can be more appealing than equally high achievement.

Self-Destructive Behavior of Entrepreneurs

The article Why do entrepreneurs engage in self-sabotage? tells something about human nature which in general applies to everyone, but gets super-exposed when starting a company.

How to write engaging stories

Pixar Story Rules (one version) [2012]

This is from 2012 and has been written about many times on the internet, but I came across it recently for the first time. As someone who likes to write but has no particular talent in that, I do find it fascinating how writers think and write. Here’s a summary of the rules of story telling by Emma Coats (Story Artist at Pixar at the time, now at Google)

Why Blockchain Matters

It's an excellent introductory talk by Muneeb Ali into blockchain and why blockchain matters. He uses very concise arguments, stays away from technology and - more importantly - cryptocurrencies. Even though there's nothing new (for me) in this talk, I found it very inspiring.

Make you feel safe

The Art of Persuasion

First Round Review keep putting out excellent articles, but every now and then one of them is a must read. The post Master the Art of Influence — Persuasion as a Skill and Habit is definitely in this category - especially when you’re pitching or selling something. This article gives a great overview with concise and concrete examples on how to persuade people for your ideas, companies, views or products.

Values inspires and action follows

Why -> How -> What = How Great Leaders Inspire Action

The TED talk “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” is a classic but I came across it quite recently. You could substitute leaders with organizations or companies. The end result is the same. When there is a clear defined WHY, it’s easier to persuade people on your HOW and WHAT. This applies to defining, building and selling your product through hiring members for your team. If you can’t clearly define WHY, then HOW and WHAT does not really matter. It will never be as convincing.