Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Alas, we worked from home during the PAN(dem)IC. Now we are encouraged to live in the office with everyone else.

In the title of this post, “home” is a verb and “work” is a noun. Make the office your home. Live at work with your colleagues.

During the great PAN(dem)IC (we are learning that much of what we did was a bad idea, especially with schools) we worked from home. Many lessons came from the experience. Many of those lessons are already forgotten.

Now we have AI. Now we are productive. And now we want to home from work instead of work from home. Huh? Wait, this is all backwards — right? Wrong? Are we overcompensating the other way? When will we dampen the oscillations and find some happy median? (When will I stop writing questions and start writing answers?)

I am fortunate in that being in the same room with some of my colleagues is pleasant and productive. Not everyone is that fortunate. The good fortune of some should not prescribe the situation for all. Living in the office is bad for many (I believe most). I recommend a home away from the office. Sprinting at work for a short term for one occasion may work well. Repeating such is folly.

This is not an original thought. Many prior studies conclude the same. Have a full life. Bring all those life experiences to bear on the current work. Live at home. Work at the work place a third of the time — maximum. We can do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

I find an old method of editing that I was using without knowing it.

I recently discovered the paramedic method of editing from UCLA professor Richard Lanham. I think I have been using this method for years without knowing it had a formal beginning and technique. I referred to what I was doing as trying to find the real verb in a sentence.

There are many places that describe the paramedic method. The one I like is here from The Center for Arts and Language. Their example shows breaking a bloated sentence into separate lines to highlight the problems. Once seen, it makes sense on how to remove needless words (from Stunk and White) and write intention instead of extra words.

In their example, the following junk becomes the following brief and clear sentence:

The point I wish to make is that perception is the process of extracting information from stimulation emanating from the objects, places, and events in the world around us.

Perception extracts information from objects, places, and events.

In my current day job, I write proposals attempting to win government contracts. Proposals have page limits. Writing something clearly while removing two-thirds of the pages is good. Therefore, I recommend the paramedic method.

by Dwayne Phillips

Tools cost money. Tools amplify abilities. It may seem obvious, but consider if the amplification is worth the cost.

Tools cost money. Tools also amplify the ability to do something. A lever helps me lift an object. The lever is not free. Is it worth it? That is pretty basic. Of course adults know these and consider them.

Well, several things from this past week weakened my certainty in adults. At Meta, engineers and others were using the AI tools from other companies. They “ran up the bill” beyond estimations. Instead of firing the estimators for being wrong, managers chastised those using the tools. I have no doubt of similar happenings at other companies. Meta is in the news because a few persons “leaked” this news to the news journalers.

And then I attended a seminar where a person from a famous consulting firm (names withheld to protect the guilty) advised those who signed contracts at government agencies to know what they were signing before they signed it. It seems that they were signing contracts whereby users who used tools also “ran up the bill” beyond estimations.

Several things here that I am embarrassed to write. First, don’t buy something that you don’t understand. Read the fine print and understand what it means to pay-by-the-token or something like that.

Second, do not make incentives for people to use tools. If there are incentives, they should be for products produced, not resources consumed.

Third, if a tool costs a dollar and that tool means you don’t have to hire someone else at a hundred dollars, that dollar spent on the tool is a good use of a dollar. At third-and-a-half is, if you spend the dollar on the tool, don’t spend a hundred dollars to hire a person who now has nothing to do.

Again, I am embarrassed to write those three things. AI, or whatever shiny tool appears at the tool store, does not break these and other tenets of business. Sometimes we need reminders. Let’s do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

A malady is a setback. A malady teaches a person something unique. That allows the person to do things others cannot.

Permit me to dote on my granddaughter a bit. I am subjective here, but that is my privilege.

She has congenital cataracts, i.e., she was born with cataracts. She sees well-enough to function and will probably have a driver’s license in a couple of years. No driving after dark or other restrictions, but a license to operate a motor vehicle in the daylight.

She is smart — brilliant if you ask me, and since I am writing this, you asked me. She had two brilliant great grandfathers with one being an engineer and the other a minister. Her grandparents and parents were pretty bright as well.

She sits at the intersection of brilliance and malady. While quite smart, none of her ancestors had this malady. She is unique in that she knows what it means to see poorly. She also has the advantages of education and ability. Given all this, I have no doubt that she will do something remarkable that greatly benefits others.

Malady is no fun. It is, however, a resource. We can choose to lament that resource or use it. I believe she will choose wisely.

by Dwayne Phillips

AI is a tool to be used by those who provide ice cream cones and honey buns. Lose sight of that and advance at your peril.

Who is going to be the winner in all this AI competition? Who is going to be the loser in this? After all, avoiding losing is almost as good as winning.

Here are a few folks who won’t lose: those who make ice cream cones and those who make honey buns. Please, running AI here, there, and the other place is nice. I’ll settle for an ice cream cone on a hot afternoon and a honey bun with a hot cup of coffee on a cold morning.

Forget about those tech folks saying, “Every company is a software company,” and now, “every company is an AI company.”

Companies that make ice cream cones and honey buns, and thank goodness there are many of those companies, should focus on ice cream cones and honey buns. They can and will use AI in “the back office” just as they use word processors, spreadsheets, the internet, and databases in the back office.

It’s not the tools; it’s the final product.

My plea to the ice cream cone and honey bun companies is to remember this and focus on their products. Those products are SO MUCH BETTER than AI.

by Dwayne Phillips

Which way is AI going? The big datacenter or on my little laptop computer?

We seem to be at some fork in the road regarding artificial intelligence. The big (colossal) datacenters are rising from the farmlands of America. Big, bigger, and even bigger. If the price doesn’t run into the hundreds of billions of dollars, it isn’t worth mentioning.

The little artificial intelligence is also bearing fruit. I’ve recently read of ways to run AI locally on my electronic typewriter (an Apple MacBook Air with an old-time M1 processor). Hmm, I like the sound of that.

Will running AI locally become practical and practiced before those datacenters are completed?

I guess that is one way of asking the question of questions.

I have always cheered for the local AI. For years, I’ve wanted to type, “What did my dad think of such-and-such?” while I point AI to the folders that contain what my dad wrote years ago. Search, summarize, and display the answer. Please. Here are some private, handwritten notes. Scan them, convert them to digits so I can file them and ask questions about them as well. The whole world of those chattering bot companies don’t need to know these things.

The big datacenter, at least as of today, is winning. More money and people are going that way. The tide is turning against the datacenter as it becomes the new villain in a country where we love to have villains, especially if they are rich and appear villainous.

I would hate to see datacenter construction stop halfway. There are advantages to have four walls, a roof, electric power, air conditioning, and access to high-speed data lines in a community. I have written of that before. I still believe it would be good. What would be bad is farmland covered with cement, a few steel girders standing, and then the site abandoned. I guess those things could become the world’s largest outdoor pickle ball arenas, but, who wants that?

Perhaps the better is some of both—not a fork in the road but two finished and well-traveled roads. I would like that. Please. Let’s do this well.

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes, some things are important to me. It is usually a mistake to extend that importance to another person.

The idea hit me. This is IMPORTANT! I will dig into this topic. I will expand it in many ways.

Me: Hey, look at the results of my analysis. I have looked at all the details in all these dimensions. Look what I discovered.

Other Person: With a blank expression looking at the numbers on the screen. Silence.

Me: These findings are important. See how they affect the outcomes?

Other Person: More silence.

Me: Given this, you should understand how important my work is to you.

Other Person: Even more silence. Finally, “Can you start at the beginning and tell me why I want to know any of this.”

Me: Because it is IMPORTANT.

Other Person: Can you start at the beginning and tell me why I want to know any of this.

Me: Silence.

The meeting ends in mutual silence.

Sometimes it simply wasn’t important to the other person. I should ask. I should do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

One of the greater challenges is to continue what was started on the other side of an event.

We have the best intentions. Let’s work on topic A. Topic A is important. Topic A deserves all our attention. Here we go! Topic A is it.

Boom! Something happens. Sometimes it is merely going home, eating, sleeping, eating, and coming back to the office. A small canyon or event. Sometimes it is bigger. The weekend! Lots of activities and fun and all that. Monday morning comes: what were we doing? Something about an A or B or something? A bigger canyon or event.

Sometimes it is an event. “Hey, look at the news. See what happened? This changes our industry completely. Let’s react. NOW!” A even bigger canyon. A week or month later, “What was that Topic that was so important?”

Whatever it is and however large it is, there is a canyon, a gap, time or event or anything. We are on the other side. What was it that we were doing back on the first side?

Something derailed our best intentions and best efforts. How can we return to topic A? Should we return to topic A? What was topic A? Sigh.

Sometimes we just lose track of what we were doing. We can do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

Vibe coding shows us that coding is not all there is to developing software. No duh!

For many years I applied to jobs for software engineers and later what was called “developers.”

“How many recent years have you written Java?” was a common question (substitute any other language).

I tried to explain that coding or programming was about 10% of software engineering or developing software. The reply was blank stares. (See ya’ old man).

Fast forward a few years and we have vibe coding or whatever we call it this week. The current slate of chattering bots are spitting out code. The code works for the most part.

Computer programmers are obsolete! No one is majoring in Computer Science! It is all over! Those were the headlines for a day or three.

But wait. Recent discussions indicate that there is more to this than coding. There are the ideas, the requirements, the designs, maybe even specifications, and Heavens to Betsy (does anyone say that anymore?), there is testing. THERE IS MORE TO DEVELOPING SOFTWARE THAN CODING!

Hmm. What are the chances that I could revisit some of those recruiters who only cared about my recent Java experience. I could tell them, “See? I told you so.” Perhaps zilch. Never mind.

Let’s do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

This is interesting to me. Is it interesting to you?

interesting, adjective, something that attracts your attention, arouses your curiosity, or holds your interest because it is unusual, exciting, or engaging. It is highly subjective, meaning what is fascinating to one person may be dull to another.—Google search

The answer to my question is, “Probably not.”

See the definition above, the second part of the definition, the part I don’t like. This interesting thing is dull to you.

Also notice in the definition is the absence of “important.” Just because it is interesting does not mean it is important. And if it isn’t important to me, the chances of it being important to you are … pretty much zero.

Nevertheless, I will tell you about it. SEE THIS? WOW! Pardon my enthusiasm. Sorry to bother you. I’ll just casually turn and walk away. Maybe we will talk again tomorrow.