Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips
Design reviews can be important parts of projects. At design reviews, we attempt to communicate clearly and minimize misunderstandings. There are several design reviews that are important to the success of a project. This essay describes one design review that people want to have but should never be allowed.
We have design reviews In [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
We use process on projects. Aargh, process can be irritating and it can be precious.
We are still snowed in here in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. The main roads are clear now, but six to eight inches of snow remain in my yard. Most of us here are sick of the [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
Adjectives describe our work and the results of our work. Hence, our worked is judged by the adjective. More to the point, our work is described by the person who selects the adjective.
ad·jec·tive AC_FL_RunContent = 0;var interfaceflash = new LEXICOFlashObject ( “http://sp.ask.com/dictstatic/d/g/speaker.swf”, “speaker”, “17″, “15″, “<a href=\”http://dictionary.reference.com/audio.html/ahd4WAV/A0088900/adjective\” target=\”_blank\”><img src=\”http://sp.ask.com/dictstatic/g/d/speaker.gif\” border=\”0\” /></a>”, “6″);interfaceflash.addParam(”loop”, “false”);interfaceflash.addParam(”quality”, [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
I like to work alone. Being alone, however, brings a heightened risk. There is great value in having another person to talk to. Absent others, checklists and other reminders are helpful.
I have been taking a walk this past week. I have been all alone in doing this. I won’t describe the stupid things [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
Analysis paralysis is where I sit and think a long time about what I should do. I recommend against such. Instead, experience has taught my that in most cases the best thing to do is one thing, and then the next, and then the next.
This has happened to me about a thousand times [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
One group of leaders can ruin a decades-old organization in only a couple of years. I have seen several examples personally. Harvard University is one example in the recent news. Leadership is difficult. It seems wise to limit the power of any one group of leaders.

One group of leaders can do much for [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
There are many methods to use to reach a conclusion. Since they all involve fallible people like me, most of the methods are fallible. Expect requests for further study. Anticipate them and ask others to study alongside you from the beginning.
Arriving at a conclusion is a primary task of an engineer, scientist, adviser, [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
I had an enjoyable evening yesterday. My son was working on a programming project for a freshman-level computer science class (college). I - after being asked - jumped into the problem. Several observations.
(1) Computer science professors aren’t any better at creating meaningful programming assignments than they were 30 years ago.
(2) Programming assignments are [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
In part 1 of this post, I covered the mathematics and truth table of implication. Implication shows that
If I accept something that I know is FALSE, I can prove anything else that I know is FALSE
For example, if I accept that “1=2″, I can prove that “2=3″. I know that 1 doesn’t equal [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
This is dangerous - I am splitting a blog post into two parts. Hang in there with me.
People are not always logical. That bothers logical engineers like me to no end. There is a mathematical and logical method to prove the non-logical behavior of people. That math helps me understand the how and [...]

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