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The Calculus of IT

The Calculus of IT

By: Nathan McBride & Michael Crispin
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About this listen

An exploration into the intricacies of creating, leading, and surviving IT in a corporation. Every week, Mike and I discuss new ways of thinking about the problems that impact IT Leaders. Additionally, we will explore today's technological advances and keep it in a fun, easy-listening format while having a few cocktails with friends. Stay current on all Calculus of IT happenings by visiting our website: www.thecoit.us. To watch the podcast recordings, visit our YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/@thecalculusofit.

© 2025 The Calculus of IT
Episodes
  • Calculus of IT - Season 2 Episode 12 - NLM Bot TL;DR - Shaping the Future: Autonomy, Adoption, and the Four Pillars
    Jun 6 2025

    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 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://thecoit.myspreadshop.com
    Donate to Wikimedia - https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ways_to_Give
    Buy us a Beer!! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/thecalculusofit
    Youtube - @thecalculusofit
    Slack - Invite Link
    Email - nate@thecoit.us
    Email - mike@thecoit.us

    Show more Show less
    22 mins
  • Calculus of IT - Season 2 Episode 12 - Shaping the Future: Autonomy, Adoption, and the Four Pillars
    Jun 6 2025

    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 tec - it’s about building systematic autonomy into every layer of IT leadership.

    This episode covers:
    - The Standardization Paradox: how to create innovation zones without losing operational control
    - Matrix leadership and decision rights: thriving in the age of distributed authority
    - The rise of composable enterprise architecture—and why optionality > efficiency
    - Rethinking IT talent: why tomorrow’s teams need both deep specialists and versatile generalists
    - Building adaptive learning and knowledge transfer into your org’s DNA

    And, as always, we tie everything back to the original four pillars - Risk, Productivity, Automation, and Innovation - showing how true autonomy is the thread that connects them all.

    Wrap up with our final IT leader archetype: The Autonomy Architect - the leader who builds for adaptability, modularity, and future strategic choice.

    Next week: our grand finale, as we take everything we’ve learned into the future of Industry 5.0.

    Keep fighting for autonomy, one decision, one architecture, and one team at a time.

    Support the show

    The Calculus of IT website - https://www.thecoit.us
    "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://thecoit.myspreadshop.com
    Donate to Wikimedia - https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ways_to_Give
    Buy us a Beer!! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/thecalculusofit
    Youtube - @thecalculusofit
    Slack - Invite Link
    Email - nate@thecoit.us
    Email - mike@thecoit.us

    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 27 mins
  • Calculus of IT - Season 2 Episode 11 - Part 2 - Long-Term Resilience and Autonomy
    May 29 2025

    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 disaster recovery - it’s about knowledge transfer, adaptability, and culture.
    • How to build “graceful degradation” instead of catastrophic failure into your tech stack - and why sometimes, “just go get a coffee and wait it out” is the right answer.
    • Rants on SaaS fragility, fourth-party risk, and why duplicating your data across every vendor is fun until AWS gets nuked.
    • The real-world pros and cons of zero-trust, passwordless dreams, and whether we’re just dumbing people down for the sake of convenience.
    • Practical frameworks (and a few philosophical tangents) for building knowledge resilience, operational resilience, and maintaining autonomy - even when the world is melting down.
    • The Resilient Orchestrator archetype: that unnervingly calm IT leader who’s already got Plan B, C, and D (and maybe some snacks).
    • Plus: job updates, security news, the fate of Box, why “five nines” is a myth, and the launch of Micro Spin - IT’s first trance supergroup.

    Whether you’re prepping for the next cyberattack, pandemic, or sudden urge to form an EDM band, this is the survival kit for modern IT leaders.

    Stay resilient, stay witty, and don’t forget to document your runbooks before the next person quits.

    Support the show

    The Calculus of IT website - https://www.thecoit.us
    "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://thecoit.myspreadshop.com
    Donate to Wikimedia - https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ways_to_Give
    Buy us a Beer!! - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/thecalculusofit
    Youtube - @thecalculusofit
    Slack - Invite Link
    Email - nate@thecoit.us
    Email - mike@thecoit.us

    Show more Show less
    2 hrs and 2 mins
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