The Calculus of IT

The new episode is live, and special guest Kevin Dushney joined us to ask the question nobody wants to answer: at what point do people just stop learning technology, and what the hell do we do about it?

We set out to explore whether IT should hire someone with 10 years of experience or someone who learned everything in the last two years via YouTube and GenAI, which spiraled into a debate about aptitude versus historical context, an...

In this episode, Mike and I put on the latex gloves and explored the uncomfortable reality that PowerPoint has ruled corporate communication since 1987, and somehow nothing has replaced it despite Prezi, Lucidchart, Google Slides, and Canva all existing and working perfectly fine. The thesis: PowerPoint persists because it's the ultimate crutch.  It's like eating a donut.  Relatively safe, expected, and nobody will questi...

Mostly true but also possibly just purely theoretical fact: IT's real job is studying human behavior, not fixing computers.

In this episode, Mike and I set out to explore why IT needs to think like anthropologists (e.g., observing how people actually work instead of how we think they should work) and discovered, as we tend to do in every episode, some uncomfortable truths along the way. It seems like the reality is that we desi...

The new episode is live, and we went deep into the nostalgia mines before emerging with some uncomfortable truths about how we communicate now.

Mike and I started by tracing our entire chat history from 1992 BBS systems (Nate had to mail his driver's license to Iowa to get approved for ISCA) through IRC, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, MSN, Office Communicator, BBM (RIP that little red blinking light), and eventually Slack. Turns ou...

So Mike and I set out to answer a simple question: What actually constitutes an operating system in 2026? Turns out, it depends on whether you're talking about computers or how people actually work. For a computer OS, you need hardware management and file I/O. For a business OS, you need the thing that, when it goes down, everyone goes home. By that definition, Slack is absolutely an operating system. Nobody in your company ca...

The new episode is live. As usual, we were topical af.

The question: In an industry flooded with analysts, vendors, and LinkedIn thought leaders, who actually speaks for IT versus speaking to IT?

Short answer: Gartner speaks TO IT (specifically to CIOs with budgets). The Register speaks FOR IT (with appropriate cynicism). Your Discord/Slack communities speak WITH IT (peer-to-peer, no bullshit).

Longer answer: IT spent decades being in...

In part two, we tackle who actually does all this verifying, what it costs, and the uncomfortable questions nobody's asking yet.

IT is becoming the verification department whether you signed up for it or not. You're verifying employee identities, contractor credentials, AI agent authority, data provenance...basically everything, constantly.

We explore the shift from proactive governance to reactive verification, the impossi...

In Episode 4 of The Calculus of IT, Mike Crispin and I dive deep into what happens when "proof of X" becomes the fundamental currency of digital interaction. We're entering an era where verification matters more than the technology itself and IT leaders are on the front lines whether we're ready or not.

We explore the five pillars that need verification:

• Identity (are you who you say you are?)
• Humanity (are you...

Two years ago, we spent 4 hours and 27 minutes hours dissecting decentralized IT models. Now, AI has changed everything or has it?

In this episode, Mike and Nate return to one of Season 1's most epic deep dives to ask a critical question: Has the AI revolution fundamentally altered how we should think about IT organizational models? (Hint: Maybe?)

The uncomfortable truth? AI simultaneously pushes companies in BOTH directions. It...

Identity...I mean...super easy topic right? 

Wrong.

Season 3 is largely devoted to looking at "capital-I Identity" from all available viewpoints.  Tonight, we just started to try and figure out what the hell it actually means.  We will come back to this idea many times this season so let this be the baseline to our discussion.

We also spent some time talking about idealizing tech stacks for small businesses and why Bob Barke...

aaaaand we're back!!

Season 3 of The Calculus of IT is here, and we're coming in hot with 40 episodes that go way beyond the AI silliness. Sure, we'll talk about GenAI when it matters - but from angles nobody else is touching. This season is about identity, autonomy, the death of IT as we know it, and why your infrastructure is probably lying to you right now.

We kicked off with a recap of Season 2&...

Oddly enough, the bots don't seem to be too emotionally affected by their future rise to becoming our overlords.

Support the show

The Calculus of IT website - https://www.thecoit.us
"The IT Autonomy Paradox" Book - https://www.longwalk.consulting/library
"The New IT Leader's Survival Guide" Book - https://www.longwalk.consulting/library
"The Calculus of IT" Book - https://www.longwa...

.....aaaand that's a wrap folks.  It’s the end of the season, the end of an era, and maybe the last human-hosted podcast you’ll ever hear. In our Season 2 finale, Nate, Mike, and Kevin take everything we’ve learned about autonomy and decision-making power—and push it into the future with a deep-dive into Industry 5.0.

What’s after digital transformation? What happens when the data giants own 80% of the world’s information? And ...

We’ve talked resilience, compliance, AI, and risk - but what does it really take to become the architect of your organization’s technology future?

In this penultimate episode of Season 2, Nate and Mike step back to connect the big picture. It’s not just about weathering trends or keeping up with the latest tech - it’s about building systematic autonomy into every layer of IT leadership.

This episode covers:
- ...

The bots will have their way.  So get out of their way.  

Support the show

The Calculus of IT website - https://www.thecoit.us
"The IT Autonomy Paradox" Book - https://www.longwalk.consulting/library
"The New IT Leader's Survival Guide" Book - https://www.longwalk.consulting/library
"The Calculus of IT" Book - https://www.longwalk.consulting/library
The COIT Merchandise Store - https...

Welcome to the Calculus of IT double feature you didn’t know you needed. In this two-part journey, me and Mike stare down the end of the world - at least, the IT version - and ask: what does it really mean to be resilient when everything is “as-a-service,” your best people keep quitting, and zero-trust is somehow both everywhere and nowhere?

In episode 11 Parts 1 and 2:

• Why true resilience is about more than just backup plans and...

Welcome to the Calculus of IT double feature you didn’t know you needed. In this two-part journey, me and Mike stare down the end of the world - at least, the IT version - and ask: what does it really mean to be resilient when everything is “as-a-service,” your best people keep quitting, and zero-trust is somehow both everywhere and nowhere?

In episode 11 Parts 1 and 2:

• Why true resilience is about more than just backup plans and...

It’s the regulation episode you didn’t know you needed - but absolutely do.

After three weeks swimming in the future of AI, quantum, and edge, Nate and Mike are back with a rundown of the one thing every IT leader loves to hate: compliance. From GDPR’s wake-up call to the alphabet soup of CCPA, DORA, and CPRA, we break down how the modern regulatory landscape is reshaping not just what you do—but how much freedom you have ...

Bots don't actually care about compliance.  Maybe because they are literally one of the most noncompliant technologies possible?  Who knows, let's listen to them hash this one out.

Support the show

The Calculus of IT website - https://www.thecoit.us
"The IT Autonomy Paradox" Book - https://www.longwalk.consulting/library
"The New IT Leader's Survival Guide" Book - https://www.longwalk.consul...