Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips The old ways of doing AI are still better than some of the new ways in some cases. The answer, of course, is to combine the best of all to do something better. Feed the following into a chatbot: “The cow jumped” The chatbot will finish with “over the moon.” That is […]

[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 →]

by Dwayne Phillips Please, choose words wisely so that actions will match the words. Yesterday, I was hit with a couple of examples of the Aesop’s fable. The trouble was, these were real life, and a boy wasn’t crying—it was adults jabbering nonsense. I won’t repeat the examples. There is something about these crying-wolf examples […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips For some reason, we often run away from the words that we want most to convey. I work with persons who are trying to write. They show me their draft, we talk, we walk through the words, and I ask questions. The questions usually lead to grimaces and twisted expressions, struggled breathing, […]

[Read more →]

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 […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips “Omit needless words,” still holds true. Sometimes in a different form. I just listened to a 30-minute talk. The context isn’t important. What is important is there were 20 minutes of excellent talking in those 30 mediocre minutes. Cut this, cut that, don’t repeat that. Omit needless words. This is one of […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Another variation of Lewis Carroll’s “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” This time we apply it to hiring data scientists. “We can’t hire enough data scientists.” At least I read that almost everyday out there on the Internet. Well, why can’t we? Here are […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips We “just” … Nothing is easy. We might as well describe the situation as it is. Everything is easy if someone else is supposed to do it. When I have to do it, not so easy. Yet, we describe things as easy. We’ll just do this and that and be done with […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Similar to the signal-to-noise ratio is the knowledge-to-opinion ratio. Watch for it. sig·nal-to-noise ra·tio noun the ratio of the strength of an electrical or other signal carrying information to that of interference, generally expressed in decibels. The signal-to-noise ratio used to be important to most of us. While riding in a car, […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Some of life’s more complicated moral issues are fairly simple when we use words per their meanings. Want to stop abuse at fill-in-the-blank? Don’t bring in abusive persons, i.e., abusers. Want to stop lying? Don’t bring in lying persons, i.e., liars. Funny how the English language works and answers our own questions.

[Read more →]