Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips I express a bit of angst over the use of “geo.” This post may mean nothing to everyone else in the world, but I have to get it out of my system. I have been overwhelmed with the use of the term geo the past ten years. Just my personal problem, but […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Abbreviations have real purposes. Laziness is not one of them. I see many abbreviations these days. Most are acronyms (TBD, F/U/W, Apr, etc.) that are not expanded. Funny thing, I read in an authoritative book at some point in time that abbreviations were used for: Please note “to save typing when there […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips I suppose I am several generations behind in the lingo of my profession. Is it too much to ask people to speak English or at least define their terms? I read this recently, “Get the architecture right, then the details.” Hmm, sounds like in that case “architecture” means the “high-level design.” But […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Much of the jargon we use doesn’t make sense. If we didn’t use the nonsense, no one would understand us. We use jargon. I work in computers, and we are one of the worst offenders of jargon in communication. The jargon is nonsense. If I used real words, however, no one would […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips It is easy to use vocabulary that is popular at this moment. It is a bit more difficult to explain the situation in plain English. That exercise, however, is often well worth the effort. Here is some popular vocabulary in the endeavor of software development: It’s nice to toss out one or […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips We often use the vocabulary and ceremonies of a prescribed practice without actually doing anything worthwhile. Daily standup, peer review, prototype, minimum viable product, agility, AI, agent, etc.: examples of vocabulary that makes it appear as if something good is happening. Do they have a minimum viable product? Is there product much […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes it is worth the effort to identify the noun and the adjective. This is an educated guess. The word “guess” is a noun. The word “educated” is an adjective. Nouns are usually facts (a tree is a tree). Adjectives are usually chosen by a person and are subjective (what is a […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips I think OpenAI did this before I get around to writing this blog post, but if you want AI to succeed, stop calling it AI. There is a large part of society that doesn’t like “AI.” First, how do you pronounce “AI?” Is it “A” then “I” or it some word that […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips If someone asks a question in English, please answer in English. Please avoid some other private language. In recent conversations, I asked, “Your research, how far ahead in time are you working? Your work may become reality in 1, 5, 10 years?” The answer was, “TRL 4.” (see this for a translation) […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips It is important to use the right or correct word and avoid using the wrong word. This is an old fundamental in writing and speaking. Why am I writing about this? Because I continue to encounter professionals who make this error often. What is the right word and the wrong word? Consider […]

[Read more →]