After more than twenty years working in many companies, many of them as a consultant often dramatically improving operations, I have received a blessing and a curse: Blessing: I see improvements and benefits potential almost everywhere. Curse: I see improvements and benefits missed almost everywhere. The other day, I spent six and half hours in a hospital emergency room (ER) with a family member. Fortunately, everything is fine, and they are healthy.

For the last year or so, my various news feeds have been filled with dire warnings about the "Rise of the Robots." Apparently, the advances in robotics - hardware and software - are now beyond relatively simple home vacuums, and are poised to become the new drivers and waiters, gardeners and barbers. Simon Wardley has argued that they even could replace higher-intellect roles, such as CEOs. Many are worried that this is an economic disaster in the making, as millions of blue-collar and possibly white-collar jobs could be at risk.

A few days ago, I had a conversation with a friend of mine who told me something shocking: a particular cloud company's gross margins on cloud products are below -40%. That is not a typo, it is minus 40% or worse. Essentially, the company is doing one of: burning investor money; running down their own cash reserves; borrowing from banks or the market; or subsidizing from other business lines. Whatever the method they are using to stay afloat, they are burning quite a hole.

You are reading this blog on WordPress. It is not a secret; any technologist with experience managing WordPress can look at the page and see that it is run by WordPress. How does WordPress show you this page? Here is what WordPress does, simplified: Look at the requested address, showing right now in your browser's address bar. Translate that address into a specific article. Retrieve the text for that article from the database.