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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley
@robbowley.net
2.2K followers 1.1K following 5.1K posts
Product & Tech Leadership Advisor, Consultant, Coach & Mentor Tech, Software Development, Science, History, Economics, Politics https://blog.robbowley.net https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertbowley https://pragmaticpartners.co.uk Manchester, UK
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Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · Nov 16
Lots of new followers so thought I'd do an intro 🙂

This is me, without hat, in my garden, on a rainy morning in Manchester 🐝, UK

Been working in tech for 25 years - software engineer then various leadership roles. Nowadays I'm a product & tech leadership advisor, coach, consultant.

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Selfi of Rob Bowley on a rainy morning in Manchester with his garden in the background
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Reposted by Rob Bowley
robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d
JLR, M&S, Co-op and Harrods all allegedly outsourced things like cyber security and service desks to the same supplier
The Elephant in The Biz: outsourcing of critical IT and cybersecurity functions risks UK economic…
Recently, there’s been three major UK ransomware and/or extortion incidents at three big UK companies — Co-op Group, Marks and Spencer and…
doublepulsar.com
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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d
@gergely.pragmaticengineer.com you were saying the other day the JLR incident deserved more visibility than it was getting. It is wider than that - all the major cyber incidents in the UK over the last 6 months have a common thread
robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d
JLR, M&S, Co-op and Harrods all allegedly outsourced things like cyber security and service desks to the same supplier
The Elephant in The Biz: outsourcing of critical IT and cybersecurity functions risks UK economic…
Recently, there’s been three major UK ransomware and/or extortion incidents at three big UK companies — Co-op Group, Marks and Spencer and…
doublepulsar.com
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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d
AI doesn’t mean you’ll be able to leapfrog best practices in engineering – more likely, jump off a cliff
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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d
A conference with Eliyahu Goldratt memes is my kind of conference

#TheoryOfConstraints #FastFlowConf
A slide showing Eilyah Goldratt next to a signed - Warning Local Optimisation Ahead
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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d
Via @davefarley77.bsky.social keynote @ #FastFlowConf
Photo of slide: The Quality of a System is Defined by Our Ability to Change it"
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Reposted by Rob Bowley
justinhendrix.bsky.social
Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 2d
The New Yorker's @johncassidysays.bsky.social draws on details from Andrew Ross Sorkin's new book, 1929, to consider the possibility of an AI bubble and what might be revealed if it is to pop.
The A.I. Boom and the Spectre of 1929
As some financial leaders fret publicly about the stock market falling to earth, Andrew Ross Sorkin’s new book recounts the greatest crash of them all.
www.newyorker.com
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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 2d
Keen to know more - i have seen multiple sources suggest GPUs under high load burn out quick (if that's what you mean), but also others refuting it
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Reposted by Rob Bowley
robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 3d
The dotcom bubble left us fibre that still powers the internet.

The AI boom might leave us a pile of short-lived silicon and silent cathedrals of compute – monuments to a forgotten era.

The web was open. AI isn’t. That may prove the real difference.
After the AI boom: what might we be left with? | Rob Bowley
blog.robbowley.net
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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 2d
😂
robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 2d
Does this make me internet famous now?
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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 2d
Interesting waking up to 300+ comments on HN for a post I threw out in between child wrangling on a Sunday to get stuff out of my head

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4556...
robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 3d
The dotcom bubble left us fibre that still powers the internet.

The AI boom might leave us a pile of short-lived silicon and silent cathedrals of compute – monuments to a forgotten era.

The web was open. AI isn’t. That may prove the real difference.
After the AI boom: what might we be left with? | Rob Bowley
blog.robbowley.net
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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 2d
2 likes here; 200+ comments on HN. I have no idea how it turned up there 🤷‍♂️
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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 3d
Errr
robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 3d
The dotcom bubble left us fibre that still powers the internet.

The AI boom might leave us a pile of short-lived silicon and silent cathedrals of compute – monuments to a forgotten era.

The web was open. AI isn’t. That may prove the real difference.
After the AI boom: what might we be left with? | Rob Bowley
blog.robbowley.net
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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 4d
Went with my son to 6th form open days. The Computer Science workbooks mentioned Waterfall, Spiral, RAD, Agile and even XP – but interestingly, not Scrum. That probably dates it to around 2003–2006, when Agile was new and RAD was still hanging on.

So 20 years out of date 😳
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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 4d
Came to make same point you beat me to it 👏
robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 4d
The AI boom risks leaving us with a pile of short-lived silicon and data centres that may be difficult to repurpose once the current wave passes.

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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 4d
While some of the supporting power and networking infrastructure will remain useful, much of what’s being built is highly specialised and tightly coupled to the current generation of AI hardware.

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Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 4d
AI data centres also need to be built for extremely high power density and advanced cooling, making them harder to repurpose if demand or chip architectures shift.

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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 4d
In contrast, much of today’s AI investment is going into expensive GPUs with a lifespan of just two to four years. These chips not only become obsolete quickly but also physically wear out faster under constant high load.

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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 4d
However, the dotcom overbuild left durable infrastructure - fibre networks and interconnects - with multi-decade lifespans. Those assets became the backbone of the broadband and cloud eras.

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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 4d
Some people are saying the potential overbuild because of AI might not be a bad thing because, like the dotcom era, it could leave behind infrastructure we’ll benefit from for a long time.

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robbowley.net
Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 4d
BBC News - 'It's going to be really bad': Fears over AI bubble bursting grow in Silicon Valley
A tangled web of deals stokes AI bubble fears in Silicon Valley
Some are worried that the rapid rise in the value of AI tech companies may be a bubble waiting to burst.
www.bbc.com
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Reposted by Rob Bowley
edzitron.com
Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 5d
Premium: The AI Bubble's promises are impossible. NVIDIA's customers are running out of money, GPUs die in 3-5 years, most 1GW data centers will never get built, and OpenAI's Abilene data center doesn't won't have the power it needs before 2028 - if it ever does.
www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-bubbl...
The AI Bubble's Impossible Promises
Readers: I’ve done a very generous “free” portion of this newsletter, but I do recommend paying for premium to get the in-depth analysis underpinning the intro. That being said, I want as many people ...
www.wheresyoured.at
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