Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Most job interviews center on one question, “What do you know?” Here’s a suggestion for a new central question, “Can you learn?” I don’t like job interviews. The folks interviewing me are usually quite pleasant. They want to know what I know. The central question is, “What do you know?” That question […]

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by Dwayne Phillips This one is finished. Time for the next one. It too will finish, and another one will come after it. Many years ago as a much younger man, I spoke with a much older and wiser man. He was about to leave an assignment and begin another assignment. He had learned the […]

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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 […]

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by Dwayne Phillips It may be a good idea to have your friends test your system. Who should test your system? Who should tell you what they think about your idea? Who should read the manuscript of your novel? Friends or a “friendly audience” may be the answer to these and related questions. Consider the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I finally did it—I spilled a cup of coffee on my computer (first time ever over 40 years). A few lessons learned. After 40+ years of using my own personal computer, I spilled a cup of coffee on my current Apple MacBook Air. After a couple of hours, the coffee saturated the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Is it a data leak or an information share? Perhaps it is both; perhaps it is for the greater good. An old question has been asked again several times recently. Several decades ago I read of the non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that the chip makers in Silicon Valley had. Employees signed legal documents […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A new acronym for each day: what did you learn today? I have read about a new trend called “quiet quitting” in which persons earn their paycheck (a necessary component) and do not more. They are not climbing the ladder or whatever we call is these days. They work hard and then […]

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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. […]

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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 […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Data, data, data. Enough already. Just tell me something I don’t know. Data is the new oil. Data is the new bacon. Data will fuel the economies of the future. Data will determine the winner of the next world war. Data, data, data. I work with data. On some days, some folks […]

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