by Dwayne Phillips Old metaphors indicate many problems. One result, however, is that they prevent thought. Thinking is a pretty good practice, and I discourage anything that reduces it. The old metaphor should be avoided. George Orwell wrote about this in his essay on Politics and the English Language. Orwell wrote it much better than […]
Entries Tagged as 'Communication'
The Metaphor and Thinking
January 19th, 2023 · No Comments
Tags: Communication · General Systems Thinking · Problems · Solutions · Thinking · Writing
Omission
January 2nd, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips No one lied, they just omitted some information. There are ways to find the omissions and those things are some of the more important pieces of information we need. No one lied, they just omitted a few bits and pieces of information. And, oh, if we had those bits and pieces of […]
Tags: Appearances · Communication · Ethics · Fear · Honesty · Information · Questions · Talk
The Editor
December 19th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This post is about the person who edits. Most organizations no longer employ an Editor, and that practice is fraught with imminent peril. Consider The Editor: An Editor is a professional who is the voice of a company, ensuring that all written materials are accurate and of high quality. They work with […]
Tags: Communication · Competence · Education · Ethics · Writing
The CONOPS
December 12th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This is a reminder of one of the fundamental documents or documentations in creating systems that delight users. It is the Concept of Operations. First things first. We want to provide a system that delights users. Where do we start? Let’s talk with the users; watch the users; learn from the users, […]
Tags: Communication · Concepts · Conversation · Engineering · General Systems Thinking · Listening · Systems
Levels of Abstraction
November 28th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips What are you talking about? What level of abstraction are you discussing? There are levels of abstraction. A car moves me from here to there. A car has an engine, a transmission, wheels, and fuel. An engine has spark plugs and belts and hoses. A spark plug has a housing, insulator, and […]
Tags: Analysis · Communication · Learning · Systems · Teaching
The “Take a Week” Writing Technique
October 10th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes, if you wait a week before writing something, you can write it well and quickly. Here is a writing technique that works for me. Try it; it may work for you. I think about something for a week. No great concentration, but thinking now and then, off and on, having conversations […]
Tags: Communication · Process · Writing
What will This Tell Us?
September 29th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Most tasks provide us with something and information. Often the information is more important than the something. Often the information is something we already know. If that is the case, skip the task. Testing is a task that provides information. Well let’s back up: a good test provides information we can use. […]
Tags: Communication · Design · Information · Learning · Process · Testing
The Explainers
September 19th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips We need more explainers. These are persons who answer the question, “Whatcha’ doin’?” Whatcha’ doin’? Hows’it work? How ya’ doin’? These are simple questions. These are the basic questions we ask others all the time. Often, we repeat the question six or seven times in different forms and still don’t receive an […]
Tags: Brevity · Clarity · Communication · Expectations · Questions
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Mimicry
September 15th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips There is nothing wrong with mimicry. Let’s stop kidding ourselves; much of today’s machine learning is simple mimicry. mimicry: noun, the action or art of imitating someone or something, typically in order to entertain or ridicule. Let’s be candid here. Much of Machine Learning (ML)—a currently popular branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI)—is […]
Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Communication · Honesty · Machine Learning
And Why Would They Know That?
September 8th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips When assuming that another person already knows something, ask, “And why would they know that?” It happened again the other day at work, someone interrupted a presentation, pointed to something mentioned but not shown, and asked, “But what is that thing? What does it do?” The presenter, unable to hide the aghast […]
Tags: Communication · Expectations · Knowledge · Learning · Work