Amazon Layoffs and Streamline Decision-Making

Posted on March 19, 2025 by decisionmanagementcommunity

In a surprising move, Amazon is set to lay off up to 14,000 managers by March 2025. Comments from LinkedIn: “Is this really about cost-cutting, or something bigger? Amazon is flattening its hierarchy and betting big on automation and AI-driven efficiency. What’s the real play here?

– Are they cutting bureaucracy to move faster and be more efficient?
– Is this the beginning of a leaner, AI-augmented workforce?
– Or is this just a way to appease investors / Wall St in a shaky economy?

We’ve seen this before, when companies eliminate middle management, it’s usually because they believe AI and automation can replace oversight and streamline decision-making.” Link

Posted in Trends | Leave a comment

Event Stream Processing by Roy Schulte

Posted on March 18, 2025 by jacobfeldman

Roy Schulte published a two-part series about Event Stream Processing (ESP) today. Part 1 provides context, defines terms, and explains how AI helps ESP. Part 2 explains how ESP helps AI by enabling streaming data pipelines.

Posted in Decision Modeling | Leave a comment

Is there a perfect programming language?

Posted on March 17, 2025 by decisionmanagementcommunity

Stephane Dalbera: “Faced with every crusade proclaiming that a particular language is the miracle cure that will save the world of computing, I always remind people that if we ever reach the point where only the strengths and weaknesses of languages remain to be addressed to achieve “perfection,” software engineering will have made more progress than it has in the past fifty years.

We often fight the wrong battle when we focus on language issues, probably because they are the easiest to debate and where there can be a significant emotional involvement.” Link

Posted in Languages, Software Development | Leave a comment

Hype as a Service (HaaS)

Posted on March 16, 2025 by decisionmanagementcommunity

Stephen Klein’s “announcement” about a new highly popular business model Link

Posted in Trends | Leave a comment

Will software engineers became extinct?

Posted on March 16, 2025 by decisionmanagementcommunity

Andrew NG‘s answer is negative. He posted: “As coding becomes easier, more people should code, not fewer! One question I’m asked most often is what someone should do who is worried about job displacement by AI. My answer is: Learn about AI and take control of it, because one of the most important skills in the future will be the ability to tell a computer exactly what you want, so it can do that for you. Coding (or getting AI to code for you) is a great way to do that.” Link

Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Software Development, Trends | 1 Comment

Happy PI Day!

Posted on March 14, 2025 by decisionmanagementcommunity

About PI Day

Posted in Decision Modeling | Leave a comment

Decision-making under uncertainty

Posted on March 2, 2025 by decisionmanagementcommunity

Meinolf Sellman: “The key to efficiency and smooth, low-cost, and low-surprise operations is to make better decisions. And that has always been the objective of AI. Not the silly chatbot AI that you see being hyped. Not the expensive AI that asks you to spend millions on GPUs and data initiatives either. The AI that companies need to oil their operations is Optimization.

  • Need to take waste and costs out of your production?
  • Need to perfect your pricing and revenue management?
  • Need to schedule your personnel under uncertainty of labor demand and labor supply?
  • Need to optimize your inventory management so costs go down and service level goes up?
  • Need to save on transportation?
  • Need to optimize your energy production or consumption?

All of the above asks for decision-making under uncertainty can be done with optimization solvers.” Link Constraint Solvers Linear and MIP Solvers

Posted in Decision Making, Decision Optimization, Optimization, Uncertainty | Leave a comment

Ponder Feb-2025 Challenge “Mr Bates vs The Post Office”

Posted on February 24, 2025 by decisionmanagementcommunity

The Post Office in DS City has come up with a new measure to limit packages that can be sent under a new flat rate, regardless of weight or volume. The “strap measure” of a box is the length of the longest side plus two times the sum of the two shorter sides. For the new flat rate for sending a packet, the strap measure may not exceed 100 inches.

Your e-commerce client Mr. Bates sells large comforters of 9,000 cubic inches in volume and wants to make use of this new flat rate if possible. Can you design a box that will be large enough to hold these comforters and that can be sent at a flat rate price?  Link

Posted in Challenges, Decision Modeling | Leave a comment

Fun Fact

Posted on February 23, 2025 by decisionmanagementcommunity

Fermat’s Library shares interesting facts on LinkedIn. Here is one of them. In the 1780s a German schoolteacher gave his 8-year-olds a problem to keep them busy. He asked them to add up all the numbers from 1 to 100: 1 + 2 + 3 + … + 98 + 99 + 100 = ?

One student came up with the answer in just 2 minutes. The boy told the teacher that he had just “folded” the numbers so that 1 joins with 100, 2 joins with 99… Each pair of numbers added up to 101. He counted 50 pairs of numbers and so he multiplied 50 by 101 which gave him the answer 5050.

That boy’s name was Carl Friedrich Gauss.

Posted in Human Intelligence | Leave a comment

Marvin Minsky

Posted on February 23, 2025 by decisionmanagementcommunity

Stéphane Dalbera posts brief biographies of the most influential figures in the development of AI and computer science in general. Here are quotes from his latest post about Marvin Minsky with comments by Philippe Kahn: “Minsky helped develop early AI systems for solving mathematical problems, playing chess, and simulating visual perception. He focused on creating machines that could replicate human thought but remained skeptical of the idea that machines could quickly achieve true intelligence… In The Society of Mind (1986), Minsky expanded his theory that intelligence emerges from the interactions of simple processes, or “agents,” each responsible for a different aspect of thought.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Minsky remained a leading figure in AI, advocating for interdisciplinary approaches to understanding intelligence.

Despite early successes, Minsky was critical of AI’s progress and skeptical of claims that machines were close to true intelligence. He recognized the challenges of creating machines capable of understanding and reasoning like humans. ” Link

Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Most Influential | Leave a comment