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Entries Tagged as 'General Systems Thinking'

Does it Have a USB Port?

September 20th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Every generation has a default question that hearkens backwards. These can be quite irritating, but return the evolutionary thinker to earth. And that is needed. Way back in the 1990s, the world was crawling out of one generation of computing into another. No matter what great new thing there was, there was […]

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Tags: Choose · Design · Engineering · General Systems Thinking · Questions

Change Changes Things

September 6th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips As much as we might not want to admit it, when one change occurs, everything in that system changes. Tech workers, who can work from anywhere, are moving to places with a lower cost of living and hence increasing their quality of life. This raises the average salary in those lower-cost-of-living places. […]

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Tags: Change · General Systems Thinking · Hope · Systems · Wishes

The Denial of Service Attack

August 30th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips What we saw with gas stations is known as a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. Flood a business with customers and the business fails. The scary part is that someone learned from the situation. Back in May of 2021 (boy, that seems like a long time ago), a pipeline was closed due […]

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Tags: Concepts · Customer · Failure · General Systems Thinking · Observation · People · Reaction

First, Make it Work, Second, Make it Better

August 26th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips An old wise technique is being forgotten, again. This is an old technique, but let’s run through it again. Make it work Make it better Please do these two steps in order. Please do both steps. Do not stop after step 1. I read daily about people attempting artificial intelligence and machine […]

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Tags: General Systems Thinking · Process · Thinking

Three More Explanations, Please

August 16th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Things are the way they are because… Fine. That is one explanation. Let’s have at least three more. Few things are as difficult as explaining why something is the way it is. We see more brown leaves on trees this year than we have in the past. Well, the reason is… Really? […]

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Tags: Alternatives · Analysis · Concepts · Experiment · General Systems Thinking · Science

Programming Languages for Artificial Intelligence

August 9th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We used to discuss this topic, but with different choices. Time passes. People discuss this on the Internet. Today’s question is “R or Python?” Good grief, two interpreted languages that run slow. But they are good for prototyping things, bringing in mammoth libraries, and writing useful things in ten lines of code. […]

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Tags: Choose · Data Science · General Systems Thinking · Programming · Research · Thinking

Chimney, Orange, and Odd Connections

July 19th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The words “chimney” and “orange” rhyme, well, sort of, maybe not, but they are certainly connected. In English, there is no word that rhymes with “orange.” At least that is what I have read. I’m not sure about that. I have heard the same about the word “chimney,” but once again I […]

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Tags: General Systems Thinking · Observation · Reality · Systems · Thinking · Word

The View from the Inside

May 17th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Candid comments from someone on the inside. It can be ugly in here. For a while, I worked on a project where I would teach persons how to use the software that was produced. We had good intentions. When the software worked as advertised and taught, it allowed the users to do […]

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Tags: Adults · General Systems Thinking · Humility · Mistakes

The Technology Imperative, Part II

April 8th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We just cannot resist applying the latest technology to something. This is the second in my series on the “Technology Imperative.” (I have learned that there are books and papers with this title elsewhere.) The first part in the “series” was blogged in the year 2010. Oooops, not much continuity, but here […]

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Tags: General Systems Thinking · Government · Technology

A Fundamental Problem with Machine Learning

April 5th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Despite all the promise and all the already fulfilled promise, there is a fundamental problem with machine learning. Machine learning is that part of artificial intelligence that time and technology favors. We have the stuff needed to make machine learning work right now. Machine learning “works” because you feed in a million […]

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Tags: Data Science · Ethics · General Systems Thinking · Neural Network · Pattern Classification · Systems · Technology