Insights In Black and White

From everything we hear here at Small World Big Data, many of you prefer our analyst video content, but still many of you are also fans (I’m humbled even writing that much!) of my analyst writings – both in-depth reports and quick-take columns in publications like SearchStorage and Virtualization Review (if you haven’t read anything, just browse back through this blog a bit!). A couple of years ago I had decided to switch from “heads-down” writing to do more video interviews, podcasts, events and produce rich media analyst products. But this has left a void in my soul that I’m just beginning to notice!

This week I was inspired by my podcast producer (shout out to Michelle Redo of Flying Pig Audio!) who has her own podcast featuring up-and-coming autobiographical authors telling true stories. Michelle also writes a mean newsletter about her life and podcast (I mean, she writes a great newsletter in her own autobiographically style – she is not at all mean!).

I conduct a lot of analyst briefings (NDA) and interviews (embargo’d/public), and take copious notes not just on what I’m being told (sometimes being “sold”), but also on the many cross-connecting thoughts I’m having at the time. You know, little ideas about how what was just “said” ties to industry trends, comparisons to other vendors and the “where does this go next” and “how is this going to change things” kinds of open predictions one makes when presented with cool advances in key technologies. Looking back, I’m feeling a bit sad for all those little thoughts just wasting away lonely there in my ever-deepening Evernote stack.

So, in 2022, perhaps as an early New Year’s resolution thing, I intend to jot some of the juicier notes down publicly here in my blog on a regular basis to share with you all (not the NDA stuff, of course!). Not all of those random, close to raw thoughts are going to take root, but in casting the seeds more widely maybe we can all germinate something good together!