Daily Tech Digest - January 14, 2024

Quantum mechanics uncovers hidden patterns in the stock market

What does this mean for the stock market? It implies that higher volatility and a slower reversion to equilibrium amplify herding behavior among investors, especially during times of uncertainty and information asymmetry. The study goes further by testing this model with empirical data from the U.S. stock market. Using the growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) and forecaster uncertainty as indicators for business cycles and economic uncertainty, respectively, they found a positive correlation between the power law exponent and the GDP growth rate, and a negative correlation with forecaster uncertainty. This confirms their theoretical predictions and highlights the role of economic uncertainty in linking business cycles with herding behavior in stock returns. ... “Our study shows that quantum mechanics can be a useful tool to understand the stock market, a complex system with many interacting agents. We hope that our study can inspire more interdisciplinary research that combines physics and finance to explore the hidden patterns and mechanisms of the stock market,” he states.


'We Never Upskill Fast Enough': NTT DATA Services CEO Bob Pryor on mastering change

It's always a challenge, and to be honest, we never upskill fast enough given the myriad of options available. However, we're heavily investing in training, development, and skilling across all levels. Retaining talent involves helping them acquire more advanced technologies and skills in high-demand disciplines. Individuals tend to find greater satisfaction in roles that require complexity over those that are simpler to master. Constantly evolving the mix of skills, technology, and labour is crucial. Take AI, for example—it doesn't eliminate labour; it enhances people's efficacy when working with AI. In healthcare, top oncologists use advanced AI algorithms for diagnosis, medical devices, and treatment. The challenge isn't whether they are displaced by technology but whether we're scaling them fast enough to use the advanced technologies we're investing in and developing. Working effectively with AI involves having people smart enough to ask the right questions—what to create, what questions to ask, and how to interpret language models. 


5 Ways To Upskill As A Leader And Gain Respect From Your Team

Leadership is about building relationships, not task lists. This year, upskill yourself by building these skills to develop a leadership style that inspires cooperation and motivation, not fear. ... Being polite shows the people around you that you respect them, and they are more likely to return the favor. It costs you nothing to be kind. A basic greeting can go a long way, as can asking about your employees’ weekends, family, etc. Remember to say please and thank you. Never interrupt when your employees are talking, and show that you respect their time, work, and ideas. ... Bossing people around doesn’t feel great long term. You know when there’s tension in your office and when people aren’t glad to see you. It’s not good for your mental health to spend nine hours a day (or more) with people who resent your presence. When you tap into your humanity to create better relationships with your employees and become a leader people enjoy working with, not only will you feel more respected as a person, but you’ll likely also enjoy the benefits of a happier workforce, such as higher productivity, better work and even higher profits.


Yes, We're Still Messing Up Hybrid Work. Here's Where Exactly We're Going Wrong.

Hybrid work environments are dynamic, and what works one day may not be effective the next. Managers must be trained to be flexible in their leadership approach, adapting to the varying needs of their team members. This adaptability also means being open to feedback and willing to continuously learn and evolve their management style. It involves understanding the unique challenges and opportunities of managing remote and in-office team members and being adept at creating a cohesive team culture that bridges the physical divide. Honing communication skills is another key focus. In a hybrid setup, clear and inclusive communication is paramount. Managers need to be adept at conveying their messages effectively across various digital platforms, ensuring that every team member, whether remote or in-office, feels equally involved and informed. ... Developing strategies for remote team building is equally important. Hybrid work models can lead to a sense of disconnection among team members.


It’s time to fix flaky tests in software development

Not only do flaky tests threaten the quality and speed of software delivery, they pose a very real threat to the happiness and satisfaction of software developers. Similar to other bottlenecks in the software development process, flaky tests take developers out of their creative flow and prevent them from doing what they love: creating software. Imagine a test passes on one run and fails on the next, with no relevant changes made to the codebase in the interim. This inconsistent behavior can create a fog of confusion, and lead developers down demoralizing rabbit holes to figure out what’s gone wrong. It’s a huge waste of time and energy. By addressing flaky tests, technology leaders can directly improve the developer experience. Instead of getting tangled up in a web of phantom problems that drain their time and energy, developers are able to spend more time on fulfilling tasks like creating new features or refining existing code. When erratic tests are eliminated, the development process runs much more smoothly, resulting in a more motivated and happier team.


Building Cybersecurity Resilience With the Power of Habit

Clear's principles and philosophy, advocating for small yet consistent changes, should resonate deeply with cyberprofessionals. These principles, while not originally intended for use in the cybersecurity realm, can be creatively applied to construct a robust framework for a resilient cybersecurity culture. Clear's principles can be adapted to the cultivation of cybersecurity habits. ... The journey can begin with the fundamentals, for example, the management of cloud access rights. This involves regularly reviewing who has access to what information or resources and why, revoking access rights when an employee changes roles or leaves the organization, and implementing the principle of least privilege, wherein users are given the minimum levels of access necessary to perform their jobs. These minor changes, when consistently applied, can become the building blocks of an enterprise’s cybersecurity framework. The cumulative effect of such microchanges can be surprising. 


Customer Experience Is King, but CIOs Could Do More to Help

The very nature of how customer experience projects get defined and shepherded places IT at the back of the room, as an executor of tasks but not as a strategic leader. Is this bad? Not necessarily, considering that the end business units interacting with the customer ostensibly have expertise in dealing with customers, and are in the best position to know what customers want. However, as technology becomes a more integral element of the selling, informing, fulfillment and servicing of customers, there also is unique expertise that IT brings to the table. It can be invaluable in improving the customer experience, and that can also avert disaster. Being able to sell non-stop, 24/7 to worldwide customers is a major driver of e-commerce, as is the ability to provide customers with self-service options that can reduce internal operational costs for companies. Analytics, which can assess an individual customer or demographic buying habits and anticipate what customers will want to buy next are seen as beneficial. 


Leveraging Chaos Engineering To Test The Resilience Of Distributed Computing Systems

It helps build the resilience of distributed computing systems and improves their ability to withstand unexpected disruptions. Read on to know how. Chaos engineering leverages the chaos theory to achieve this. Further, the chaos theory introduces random and unexpected behavior in a controlled manner to identify system weaknesses. How does it benefit organizations? By enabling them to identify system vulnerabilities even before they actually occur. As a result, an organization can proactively adopt measures to plug potential vulnerabilities and improve system stability. However, developers associated with a premier software development company use an innovative approach to chaos engineering. ... The concept might look similar to stress testing but they are not the same. There are some key differences. For one, the concept leverages the chaos theory to proactively identify system or network issues and correct them. It also tests and corrects all components at the same time. Here, developers associated with a software development company in New York tend to look beyond possible causes and obvious issues. 


Neither ‘Agile’ nor Architecture are Going Anywhere

Want to move the enterprise to little a or big A agile? Want to modernize the technology stack? Implement flex points in subsystems? Integration effectiveness? Harness information for outcomes? Deliver technology services? Event-Driven Architecture? Customer-Centric Design? Manage cross-system compatibility and quality attributes? Handle mergers and acquisitions well? Project/team thinking do not account for these outcomes. The product owner doesn’t understand them and the development lead is focused on speed, simplicity and delivery. They may not understand them either. Architecture connects big outcomes to little decisions. I have seen huge objectives brought low by simple development decisions. ... From the board room to the basement. From idea to outcome. In between operating responsibilities. In between competing business objectives. With partners. With vendors. With an ever changing technology adoption cycle. From finance to legal to customer impacts, it takes a LOT of fascilitation, discussion, decision making and prioritization to deliver a balanced advantageous technology strategy. 


Demystifying Cloud Trends: Statistics and Strategies for Robust Security

The Shared Responsibility Model is a security and compliance framework that defines the responsibilities of cloud service providers (CSPs) and cloud customers for securing every aspect of the cloud environment, including hardware, infrastructure, endpoints, data, configurations, settings, operating system (OS), network controls and access rights. In basic terms, this model helps clarify who is responsible for securing various aspects of the cloud infrastructure, services, and data. The division of responsibilities varies depending on the cloud deployment model. ... Implementing strong IAM practices enforcing the principle of least privilege to restrict access rights for users and systems and regularly reviewing and updating access permissions can have a major positive impact on an organization’s cloud security posture. It’s as simple as granting users and other cloud resources the authorization to access the required resources only to a required extent. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds an additional layer of security, ensuring that only authorized users have access to resources and data. 



Quote for the day:

"We become what we think about most of the time, and that's the strangest secret." -- Earl Nightingale

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