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Erik Gfesser

📍 Greater Chicago Area

Blog Note: Part 7 - Free paywall added for subset of posts

Of the total current count of 505 published posts, I've recently modified 184 to be behind a free paywall that solely requires an email address to be considered a member. I have no plans to ever charge a fee to read members-only posts. The sole reason I'

9 years of running in Altra shoes

An article that I came across a few weeks ago entitled "The running brand growing 35% with almost zero name recognition in the US is outpacing HOKA and On" was admittedly the nudge I needed to finally write the one you're reading now. I've

Community Comment: Part 43 - M&A technical due diligence starting point

* Initial technical due diligence guidance offered to fellow acquisition entrepreneur * Caveat: I don't suggest software heavy business acquisitions for non-technical buyers * As a starting point, it's important to get code access, and understand integrations and hosting / environments * When quickly evolving third-party products like AI are involved,

Past Book Review (June 13, 2010): "IBM and the Holocaust"

New book review for IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation, by Edwin Black, Dialog Press, 2008: As a consultant, I often hear complaints from others in the workforce about IBM's WebSphere product line, but the objects of

Media Query Source: Part 58 - Database Trends & Applications (US digital magazine); Data experts and leaders for opinions on transforming data & analytics in the cloud

* Database Trends & Applications (US digital magazine) * Data experts and leaders for opinions on transforming data & analytics in the cloud * Public clouds support all data and analytics functions * Considerations include use cases, construction & administration The query responses I provided to Database Trends & Applications on August 27, 2025:

Community Post: Part 6 - GPTZero can't be relied upon to determine human or AI authorship

* I've been quoted 25 times by various publications since 2016 * A platform I started using in 2025 provides a "Check for AI" option * GPTZero increasingly considers my replies to be AI generated * Apparently, my English is too perfect to be human

Media Query Source: Part 57 - CIO (US digital magazine); Book recommendations from CIOs and other tech leaders

* CIO (US digital magazine) * Book recommendations from CIOs and other tech leaders * "The Ideal Executive", by Ichak Adizes * Every executive has a unique, but not "ideal", management style My responses ended up being included in an article at CIO (September 18, 2025). Above image from cited

Blog Note: Part 6 - Blog migration underway (cont.)

Blog Note: Part 5 - Blog migration underway (cont.)

Community Comment: Part 42 - Positive, negative & "realistic" company culture

* For a long time, I valued being a realist rather than a pessimist or optimist * However, I've long discovered something * The world is largely negative, so being a realist means largely being negative * Making the choice to be positive is the only true alternative path The comments I