Blog - Ville Takanen | Ville Takanen

While this blog officially exists to help me think, the real reason behind its existence is a nefarious plot to show the world how footnotes are the most extraordinary literary invention ever.

2025-07-07

Tech: My Summer Car Project

Or, how I found out the limits of vibe-coding, and learned to love them.

2025-06-27

Tech: Unpacking the Digital DNA of Social

Summer 2025 special: What if we classified social media by their core technology? By focusing on the underlying architecture, we might gain a clearer understanding of how these services work and why they feel so distinct.

2025-06-13

Biz: What if we organized around value for a change?

Where I return to a maxim I heard years ago, and how it has shaped my thinking on value, measurement, and the structure of teams.

2025-06-08

Biz: The brave new future of careers?

What if the winning formula is to use the Large Language Models (LLMs) not just to hire the best people but to build them internally?

2025-05-28

Tech: kW/h is not the Question We Should Be Asking

How to rethink the conversation around AI energy use and the environmental costs of our digital footprint.

2025-05-20

Biz: The Renaissance of Project Management

A few days back, I posted on LinkedIn that we need a renaissance in project management. What if we could re-invent project management to streamline team-to-strategy alignment?

2025-01-31

Management Fallacies: The project mode override

A look at the most common management fallacies created by trying to see everything through the language and mental model of the project management frameworks.

2024-11-19

Tech: Where the AI is taking us

My observations on the how the AI landscape is evolving, and the emerging four distinct approaches to creating AI powered services.

2024-11-07

Tech: Why Architecture Fails (and How to Fix It)

Lately, I've realized that the problem isn't architecture but how we approach it. We often jump into technical details without asking the crucial question: Why? Perhaps we get so caught up in how to build something that we forget why we're building it in the first place?

2024-10-10

Mgmt: Type 2 Laziness == Profit?

"Some thoughts on Type 2 Laziness" and its potential to revolutionize workplace productivity. This leadership philosophy challenges traditional notions of laziness, arguing that a strategic approach to work – one that prioritizes efficiency, innovation, and thoughtful problem-solving – can lead to greater success.

2024-09-05

Biz: The curse of cycles

The Finnish press never fails to recount the joke: "Lumi yllätti autoilijat!" – as the first snow catches half of the drivers unprepared and skidding with summer tires still on. Snow seems to come at least twice a year in business.

2024-02-23

Tech: What makes building quality services so hard?

Why is it so hard to build quality services? The real reasons are much simpler but more challenging to admit – than blaming the tech.

2024-02-06

Tech: The high cost of computation

Or what we need to understand when discussing AI and what it can do. And some hints on how to adjust our tech roadmaps and strategies.

2024-01-18

Mgmt: Is efficient ever optimal?

Random thoughts on the Finnish tendency to optimize for efficiency without impact or value.

2024-01-05

Tech: A pebble is not a monolith.

The Monolith vs. Microservices discussion is a prime example of how we try to oversimplify things. While microservices are a fantastic way to solve business problems at scale, they are not a panacea. A distributed computing paradigm will only reduce the complexity of a solution if the source of complexity is monolithic architecture.

2023-12-18