Art & Enterprise

The Toronto Raptors know their defense stinks. But knowing how to improve isn’t straightforward. In basketball, as in business, there are many variables at play and few are neatly isolated for optimization.

The Raptors employ the SportsVu camera system, along with their own algorithms, to record and analyze a variety of in-game variables such as ball possession and player position. Half the teams in the NBA employ this camera system but each team is responsible for their own analysis.

The problem is the coaching staff and front office are hesitant to apply the big data derived suggestions that conflict with historically sound basketball strategy. Many coaches and executives across the NBA don’t “believe in” advanced stats and prefer to “go with their gut”. They say you can’t measure heart, chemistry and personality. I think you can. If it shows up on the floor it can be measured.

There are reasons not to trust the data-backed suggestions. Algorithms and data can be flawed. But these decision makers seem to dismiss what they don’t understand. Instead of using the results to question assumptions, they use it to reinforce preexisting and widely held notions, thus negating any advantage the analysis provides.

When presented with a data-backed argument, a decision maker must be willing to go against their gut.

The onscreen keyboard on every touch device I’ve used takes up too much screen realestate and is painfully slow. Apps like Swype are not much of an improvement.

I’m typing this post using a keyboard case attached to my iPad. I hope to write many future posts while commuting and the iPad + keyboard case is a decent solution, if somewhat of a compromise. While the keyboard case allows for faster typing and increases screen space, it can be awkward and adds bulk to the tablet.

Minuum, inspired by a University of Toronto research project, is an onscreen keyboard that aims to speed up tap typing and reduce the size of the onscreen keyboard. I doubt Minuum is faster than my external keyboard but this neat idea looks like a perfect fit for tablets, phones and even wearable computers.

Developers interested in this technology can support their indiegogo campaign to get access to early builds and libraries.

Love it or hate it, Hacker News provides a steady stream of intelligent entrepreneurial and technology articles. If you hate it, it’s probably because of the often pedantic, humourless and sometimes misogynistic comments. I try not to read the comments. My suggestion is to consume the most highly rated articles via your RSS reader of choice.

This game is a work of art.

Homeworld is a real-time strategy game originally released in 1999. It stands apart from other RTS games due to its innovative 3D environment and controls. The game, set in the furthest and stunningly beautiful regions of space, tells the story of a people searching for their home planet, on which they’ve never stepped foot.

A Kickstarter campaign is underway to fund the development of a licensed, touch version of the game on iOS and Android. The cinematic graphics, galaxy-scale battles and haunting soundtrack come together to deliver an epic experience deserving of your gaming dollar.

Here’s a neat method to unearth valuable content from the Twitter users you are already following.

If you use Tweetdeck, Twitter’s more powerful interface, you can add an Activity column alongside your normal timeline. This column shows a real-time list of all the Follows and Favourites made by the people you follow. I prefer to filter the column to include only Favourites with links; this adds signal to the noise.

If you already follow too many people then adding an Activity column might be overwhelming. However, I find it a fascinating backchannel of content from highly engaged users.

The New Disruptors is a wonderful podcast by Glenn Fleishman about the “profound changes in the economy for making things”.

His guests thus far include writers, roboticists, designers, software developers and entrepreneurs of various stripes. What they all have in common is that they’re makers.

Highly recommended listening for makers and non-makers alike.

Netflix is great for a walk down memory lane. When I was six years old, He-Man was big. I’ll remember the Filmation intro chimes forever. Netflix doesn’t stream the original cartoon but they do stream the new animated series. 

Castle Greyskull is a forbidding place. Someone once wrote that building a business is like building a castle. Castle Greyskull is the one to emulate.

Build it to protect and strengthen your source of power. It should appear imposing and uninviting to competitors. Build your walls high. Make them impenetrable and impossible to scale. Atop these barriers, you gain the advantage when launching an attack.  

Your walls could be built on infrastructure investments, network effects, distribution reach, branding or technical wizardry.

Not only will your company be virtually unassailable, but only fools would try. Keep an eye on the fools.