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Author Archives: Alexander Szewczak
2017.02.01
Forget autonomous cars — Autonomous ships are almost here. New Zealand bank replaces SAS server with R server.
Posted in Automation, Data Analysis
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Faced with the recent onslaught of drug price increases, hospitals are using some old school methods to hold down costs — reducing inventories, using smaller packaging, and switching to low cost substitutes. Barry Ritholz has a good podcast interview with Michael … Continue reading
“This is what a great lake looks like after the vacationers have gone home”
Great Lake photography by Dave Sandford. In the waves, in November. The entire series is here.
Fredrick Winslow Taylor Gets a Bum Rap
Fredrick Winslow Taylor is recognized as the father of scientific management, sometimes called “Taylorism”, the application of which has been responsible for tremendous increases in productivity and standards of living for millions of people. “Frederick W. Taylor was the first man in … Continue reading
This 100-Year-Old To-Do List Hack Still Works Like A Charm
From fastcompany.com, the story of a simple to do list strategy from 1918, effective enough that it motivated Charles Schwab (at the time president of Bethlehem Steel) to reward an efficiency consultant named Ivy Lee $25,000 ($400k today) for improving the productivity of … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Productivity
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If a Driverless Car Goes Bad, We May Never Know Why
Will Knight comments on how the recent Tesla autopilot crash highlights that the increasing complexity of modern AI systems potentially outstrips our ability to comprehend them: Tesla hasn’t disclosed precisely how Autopilot works. But machine learning techniques are increasingly used to train automotive systems, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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New data and commentary on clinical research productivity
From BIO (a biotech trade organization), new data shows that over all trials, the 2006-2015 clinical development success rate was only 9.6% for phase I through approval. Some disease areas have had better luck than others, but overall the report is a … Continue reading
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The Economy is not a car, and fiscal stimulus is not a gas pedal
Great observations from Arnold Kling, promoting his new ebook, Specialization and Trade: A Re-introduction to Economics. I don’t buy into everything Arnold writes, but I do agree that there are problems with the paradigm of macroeconomists treating the economy like a homogenous GDP factory … Continue reading
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The knowledge economy is a myth. We don’t need more universities to feed it | Andre Spicer
Interesting take on the somewhat overhyped knowledge economy. It’s a pretty accurate assesment in terms of the types of jobs we have in the economy (even in the 21st century) — but it neglects that fact that knowledge management and data analytics … Continue reading
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A fleet of trucks just drove themselves across Europe
About a dozen trucks from major manufacturers like Volvo and Daimler just completed a week of largely autonomous driving across Europe, the first such major exercise on the continent. The trucks set off from their bases in three European countries and completed … Continue reading
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