Tom Purves – Product Management, Fintech & AI

Had the opportunity yesterday to attend the launch of ICT Toronto. where I snapped this picture of Mr Miller our Mayor. he was here to announce the launch of the strategy to make Toronto a global leader (well, top 5 globally to be exact) in, ahem, ICT. which, as far as anyone known stands for something like “Information and Communications Technology” (but correct me if I’m wrong). Generally, a lot of noble thoughts and good ambitions were offered to us although how exactly it was all to be achieved was left more than a little vague. Perhaps there’s more info in the report. You can find more detailed coverage of the even on Mark’s and Joey’s blog here.

Update: while the politico’s work on their own level, some us are this done on our own.

Have just been spending the week and japan and do you know what strikes me the most? How different it isn’t. From food to fashion, the western influence is strong in modern japanese culture just as global influences are common in the west. Sure there are infinite small and some large differences — but fewer than (I) expected.

I’d argue that you can find nearly as much cultural difference between Texas and Portland as generally between Tokyo and Toronto. Which draws into question this idea of a national culture. Another topic that was keenly on the agenda at iSummit last week. Despite the evidence on the ground, our government remains ardent to encourage (ok fine) and protect (questionable?) a unique “canadian” culture. Does a national culture really exist? What are the real policy motives here? How much of this is for the nobler benefit of producing Public Goods and how much of cultural policy motivated by political ends our outdated ideas of nationalism?

I can say this, the Canadian Dept of Heritage was quite generous (and sage i’d say) in their support of iSummit, but my friend Christina Bing let me in on a secret: The ministry is quite sensitive about anyone crediting them as “sponsors“…

On the surface, Malcolm gladwell is a great public speaker. Engaging, humorous and clearly adept at handling an audience. I caught Gladwell speaking at the Rotman school of business the other day.

Gladwell spoke about ideas that bloom late. He related the world of art and media to the world of business by talking about creativity and great ideas that sometimes come slowly or only through “happy accident” or serendipity.

he spoke of how venture capitalists and big media these days have often a too-short or too-well-defined expectations such that they risk missing many great ideas that would not have been obvious at the onset of a project. He provided some entertaining and spectacular (anecdotal) examples like Fleetwood Mac or Six Feet Under. both of these franchises were enormously successful in the long run however took considerable time to find their voice and their audience.

Fleetwood Mac’s tipping point came with its 11th album. Had six feet been a regular cable show its initially abysmal audience share would (presumably) had it cancelled in its first season. This is an important idea. A lot of people have been speaking lately about what’s “broken” with venture capital or with Hollywood for that matter these days. Gladwell argues that myopic investment parameters are causing us to miss out on whole fields of creative opportunity.

The trouble I have with Gladwell on Monday, are the same troubles ahead with The Tipping Point, his insights are mostly applicable post-facto.

It’s well and good to say that “sometimes long shots pay off over time” or “sometimes the darnndest little things will make a huge difference” but it’s not very helpful. These same factors which make for the best storytelling , are the least helpful at actually developing testable or predictive models of the creative process.

By marketing his ideas to a business audience it’s like Gladwell is dangling this carrot of huge opportunities in front of us without really providing us any proscriptive advice on how to capture it. It’s a good way to sell books though. As the saying goes, the market for something to believe in is infinite…