Working Up

Working Up in Project Management, Systems Engineering, Technology, and Writing

Working Up header image 4

Entries from April 2026

The First Version (Sometimes Is the Best)

April 30th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips As much as we “have a better idea” and want to revise, sometimes the first version is the best. The first draft. The bane of writers of fiction and non-fiction. Let’s fix it. Okay. That’s the first version. Let’s revise as we become “smarter.” Are we always becoming smarter? Sometimes not. The […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication · Management · Publishing · Reframe · Review · Writing

This is Not AI: Scheme and Deceive

April 27th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I would hope that journalists would understand AI and software better than this. I am disappointed. Yet another story about AI written by the ignorant for the masses: AI models that lie and cheat appear to be growing in number with reports of deceptive scheming surging in the last six months, a […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Journal · Learning · Mistakes · Programming · Software

Too Soon

April 23rd, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Endeavors have fine, precise adjustments. The details matter. There, however, is a time for details and fine, precise, adjustments. The early stages of work is not the time. I wish I was smarter. I wish I knew all the details and adjustments and the little factors of success at the start of […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Adapting · Humility · Learning · Management · Thinking · Time · Wishes · Work

AI Ate My Homework

April 20th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We have a new twist on the old excuse, “My dog ate my homework.” That excuse about the dog and the homework goes back to 1905 (some sources report, but then again, there may be earlier instances, but the dog ate the stories and …). John Steinbeck even said that his dog […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Computing · Conversation · Excuses · Learning · Teaching

AI: Add Another Excuse to the Unending List

April 16th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We never run out of excuses. Well, if we ever come close to the end of the list, we can add AI. Microsoft had a mistake. No worry as mistakes can be corrected. The source of the mistake? Well, people are always the source of mistakes, but now we can blame AI. […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Computing · Excuses · Microsoft · Mistakes · People · Software · Testing

Moore’s Law for AI

April 13th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips AI capabilities are increasing fast. Too fast for some of us. What do we call this? This past week, Anthropic showed people what Mythos could do. WOW! That is amazing. Why only a few months ago… Where were we way back then? And, by the way, how do you pronounce Mythos? There […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Change · Chaos · Computing · Time

This is Not AI: Rogue Agents

April 9th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I would hope that journalists would understand AI and software better than this. I am disappointed. I recently read this story about a rogue AI Agent: A rogue AI agent recently triggered a major security alert at Meta Platforms, by taking action without approval that led to the exposure of sensitive company […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Journal · Learning · Mistakes · Programming · Software

The Return of the Mainframe

April 6th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Big iron is back. The mainframe is back. And we hate it more now than ever. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… well it was 1979, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and a friend of my father worked for the computer company of America (IBM). He walked me through the […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Change · Cloud Computing · Computing · Data Science · Datacenter · History

Mistakes: Allowable and Not

April 2nd, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We all make mistakes. Some are allowable and some not. There is the mistake budget. We all make mistakes. The sooner we acknowledge and live that the better we will be (IMHO). Some mistakes, like typographical errors in blog posts, are embarrassing but that’s about the cost. Other mistakes, those that cost […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Accountability · Agreement · Government · Leadership · Learning · Management · Mistakes · Money