DPL Reading List – November 18, 2016

Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading around this office this week.

How Artificial Intelligence Will Redefine Management – “While oncoming disruptions won’t arrive all at once, the pace of development is faster and the implications more far-reaching than most executives and managers realize. Those managers capable of assessing what the workforce of the future will look like can prepare themselves for the arrival of AI. They should view it as an opportunity to flourish.”

Let’s Chart: stop those lying line charts (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “The better visualization here is actually to not use a line chart at all. A bar or column chart better conveys discrete quantities like monthly sales: it’s easier to compare relative quantities visually, and it doesn’t imply continuity in the underlying data where there is none.”

Semantic class names: are you being too generic? – “The process of naming is challenging, but after all, it is just a name and as you can see, the benefits (or consequences) of naming are quite far reaching. The good news is that if you’re conscious from the beginning, you can avoid the problems that are born out of either being too generic or too specific.”

You Don’t Need Big Data — You Need the Right Data – “But the reality is that our relentless focus on the importance of big data is often misleading. Yes, in some situations, deriving value from data requires having an immense amount of that data. But the key for innovators across industries is that the size of the data isn’t the most critical factor — having the right data is.”

These Skills Are Hard To Learn But Pay Off For The Rest of Your Life – “People skills are so important now and will continue to be in high demand in the future. EI allows us to create relationships with others, provides insights into people’s motives and allows us to predict responses.”

JavaScript Fatigue Fatigue (Thanks to Cassey Lottman for recommending this article) – “JavaScript Developers are finally getting the caliber of tools that other ecosystems have had for a long time. And then some. We should be happy about this.”

Skateboard, Bike, Car (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “Our big strategy misfire sent us back to our roots. We’ve realized that we had had it right the first time, and we’ve spent the past few months documenting our process. We call it Skateboard, Bike, Car. Why does it have this dumb name? Because building a product should be tangible, satisfying, and fun the whole way through. Call it lean. Call it agile. Whatever you call it, it’s about building stuff that you can play with and give feedback on along the way.”