As we live in a moment when just about everyone is analogizing the fast-emerging tools of artificial intelligence to one science fiction movie or another, I’ll offer up my own — that scene in The Matrix where Morpheus offers Neo the choice between the life-changing “red pill” or the stay-in-the-ordinary…

I’ll give the benefit of doubt to the new University of Austin (UATX), which can bring together a young MAGA Republican and a student activist in Black Lives Matter and help them listen to one another, politely debate, and even find a bit of common ground. It’s a hard thing…

Proving that an agile approach is just as relevant to data delivery as it is to software development Part Two Sometimes, technology evolves very quickly, as I discussed in my last essay on the past half century’s three “surges” of data. …

Amid large layoffs at iconic technology firms, tech job hiring shifts to more traditional sectors such as manufacturing and health care, foreshadowing data’s “Fourth Surge”. Part One You’ve seen the headlines that closed out 2022 and began 2023: layoffs at Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Salesforce, and others. You’ve watched the year…

And the spell of wizardry, an enchanting but false mythology of leaders beguiling us, is the real culprit we together should be focused on in 2023. When it comes to the curious case of Elon Musk, and his ongoing sh*tshow in San Francisco, we’re referencing it all with the wrong…

Hurt Family Investments is our family office (we’ve been doing this for 11 years, following successful exits at Coremetrics and Bazaarvoice, my prior startups): 1. We invested 19% more in startups and VC funds this year than last. 2. We made 26 investments, over two per month. 7 of these…

In the now iconic line of the 2015 movie The Martian, marooned astronaut Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) gave us a new verb to sum up his only possible exit from his Red Planet dilemma: “I’m going to have to science the sh*t out of this.” For many businesses…

The quantum speed with which data is insinuating itself into every facet of life is challenging to comprehend. But doing so is imperative to our future, which is why we must be crystal clear about the past. By Brett A. Hurt Not long ago, I had the chance to share…

It’s finally the day before Inauguration. I originally wrote this post on Lucky7, my main blog, on Nov. 14 after it was very clear that the Election had been called. I’ve refreshed it below given what has happened since, with Stop the Steal and the attack on our nation’s Capitol. …