Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

New tools sometimes allow us to modify the techniques we use. The new tools don’t require modification, but allow it.

These kids today, these engineers and scientists under 30, they just … well, they just do things differently. They have new tools (and I have new tools). They work the way the new tools allow. I, sometimes, modify they way I work to adapt and adopt.

Consider typing—you know, banging on the keyboard to put words and such into the computer. This may go away, but anyways, the kids today type differently. Word processors and look-ahead and think-ahead applications correct typing in real time. The kids are sloppy in their typing. They just fudge the words on the screen as the software corrects the spelling for them. You no longer have to start a sentence with an uppercase letter as the word processor fixes that for you. You don’t have to spell all the words correctly as the word processor fixes that for you. Slop the words on the screen. Don’t worry.

Now consider these chattering bots. They give a different answer every time you ask the same question. Huh? Ever heard of a repeatable experiment? Well, its all probability, so the answer is probably a good one, until it isn’t.

New tool. Modify the technique. Ask a question. Don’t like the answer? Ask again. Change the order of the words in the question. Oh, here’s a different answer. Like it?

Take what is good enough, check the box that the task is done, and move on to the next task.

Hey, that isn’t how I always worked in the past. New tools, modify the technique. Move on.