Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Over the weekend, I passed the test for CompTIA Security+ certification. It was probably the worst test I have taken since my junior year of college (back when we scratched answers on cave walls with colored rocks).

Anyways, I memorized a bunch of stuff and passed a test. Perhaps this will come to something some day.

by Dwayne Phillips

I explore another aspect of logical implication and how lying permits people to construct all sorts of crazy stories.

Background: If logical implication makes no sense to you, and it made no sense to me for years, I point to two prior blog posts that I hope will help you understand this odd logic. Here is one. Here is the second. Also, here are two Wikipedia pages that may help. One. Another one.

And now, here we go…

It is a terrible thing for a public official or a spokesperson for a public agency to lie. The lie is FALSE. Logical implication then permits members of the public to create crazy stories which are also FALSE. Such things allow people to link the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations and claim that the World Trade Center events of 9/11 were performed by the US government in an effort to…

World Trade Center? Sure, some false statements were issued by government spokespersons. It doesn’t matter what the statements were or how false they were, if the spokesperson said anything that was incorrect (FALSE), logical implication leads to stories of extra terrestrials doing the destruction (FALSE).

The silliness or foolishness is important. A spokesperson doesn’t have to lie about something. They merely have to say something that is FALSE. That something could be tiny. That something could be an honest mistake. The FALSE statement leads to much greater FALSE stories.

One lie allows the creation of a much greater, much different lie.

Public officials must be honest. Lies lead to mistrust which leads to any sort of wild, fantastic theories about what is coming next. The public distrusting public officials is a horrible thing for a country or city or neighborhood.

Perhaps I am naive. Perhaps everyone expects public officials to stretch the truth.

But then, perhaps we need to start over and be honest from now on.

Please.

by Dwayne Phillips

Five minutes of quiet thought.

Each morning, at the end of Internet viewing and blogging and before I “go to work,” I sit for five quiet minutes and drink coffee. I stare into space.

I am not wasting time. It is an investment, one of the sharpening-the-saw moments from a self-help best-selling book of a prior generation.

by Dwayne Phillips

Many on-the-job frustrations come when we try to do our job.

The title and summary of this blog post may not make any sense. I have, however, heard much grumbling on the job when people are asked to do their jobs.

Some examples I have heard over the years:

• I can’t believe they are asking me to write this!
• But, you are the technical writer. It is your job to write things like this.

and

• I had to call the police to see if you were in jail when you didn’t show up for work!
• But, you work in security. It is your job to call the police.

and

• All I do is sit in meetings all day and take notes!
• But, you are the meetings facilitator assistant. It is your job to take notes in the meetings.

and, let’s just be silly for a moment…

• I’m sick and tired of hearing people complain.
• But, you work in the Complaints Department. It is your job to listen to complaints.

Oh, one more thing—never tell a distraught person,

but, that’s your job.

by Dwayne Phillips

There are too many things to mention on this Thanksgiving Day. To be brief, thanks to WordPress, Apple, Xfinity, and all those who taught me a few things about writing.

by Dwayne Phillips

Thirty years later, the $50 computer is back. I think that is a good thing.

In the early 1980s (yes, I am that old), we had the Sinclair Research made by Timex ZX81. It was a computer you could buy for $50. No, it wasn’t powerful, but it was a programmable computer.

Recently, Amazon introduced a $50 Fire tablet. I haven’t figured out how to program it, but it is a computer.

I have read a number of reviews of the Amazon $50 tablet. I agree with the reviews in that:

• the tablet works
• the Fire operating system is the biggest limiting factor

Why sell a $50 computer? Why not. Put more computers in the hands of more people. Put more paint brushes in the hands of more people. Put more musical instruments in the hands of more people.

Who know what wonderful things might happen.

by Dwayne Phillips

Why aren’t people taking me seriously? Why aren’t people paying attention to me?

If I want people to take and my group seriously, I should:

• do CMMI
• do PMP
• do ITIL
• sit at the keyboard and write everyday
• sit at the table and draw everyday
• take photos everyday
• play my instrument everyday
• do these on a schedule
• have portfolios in my hand (thumb drive)

Find out what people consider “serious” and do those things.

by Dwayne Phillips

This is the key to information—what separates just more data from something that enables a good choice.

Of course we all want to find this. This is the stuff of basic science that most of us understand.

Let’s walk through a silly example:

• I am gaining weight. Why?
• I eat 12 hot dogs every Saturday

Eating hot dogs on Saturday doesn’t make me overweight. Eating 12 hot dogs does. It is the quantity of the hot dogs, not the day of the week is the difference that makes a difference.

Or then again, maybe it is the composition of hot dogs that makes a difference.

Did I mention that I eat a gallon of ice cream every weekday evening before going to bed? Perhaps it is the ice cream. Perhaps it is the time of day. Perhaps…

Everyone can see that, right? I guess not given the mess of the world we have. That is, the world is so complex and there is such much information and I am overwhelmed and didn’t sleep well last night and really didn’t read the above clearly and…

What difference does it make?

by Dwayne Phillips

I find a long-lost cartoon. It is wonderful.

Shown below is a cartoon that I saw pinned to the wall in the mid-1980s while I was in grad school (yes, I am that old). The thought of the cartoon has stayed with since.

We don’t know what will happen with an idea or phrase or just about anything that comes to mind. We have to see how far down it goes.

…discovery of the century.

As best as I can learn, this cartoon is from William O’Brian. I have been unable to find the original publication. I welcome information. This is the best source I have found for William O’Brian cartoons.

by Dwayne Phillips

Why don’t those other guys see what is so obvious to us? Because they didn’t have the same experience we did, and we don’t want to do the work required.

We go through a changing experience, i.e., an experience that changes our concept of something. (I use the word “we” because it is always “we” who are on the forefront of something important while it is always “they” who lag behind for obvious reasons.)

We want them to change their concept to agree with our new concept. No matter how hard we try, they don’t change like we changed.

What is wrong with them?

Simple: They didn’t have the changing experience we did.

This is most often found when a small group of people spend time considering a situation. Through time, this small group comes to a new conclusion. The small group returns to a larger group and shouts, “Hey! Look at this. Let’s go!”

The larger group stands back and shrugs. The small group ponders the dimwitted people in the larger group.

Let’s review what has happened in small steps:

• small group
• lots of time
• lots of discussion
• change

And then let’s consider “them:”

• larger group
• almost no time
• almost no discussion
• no change

How can we expect them to see our new concept when they didn’t have the same experience? Somehow, we do, and we are greatly disappointed in “them.”

So what do we do? How do we have them see the new reality as we see it? The answer is not nice as it involves time and hard work.

1. realize what has happened (the most difficult step)

2. find a way to recreate the changing experience with the larger group

3. perform that changing experience with the larger group

4. maintain the energy to do all this hard work (and it is hard work and maintaining that energy is the second most difficult step)

Perhaps, just perhaps, they—those people in the larger group—will finally understand what we understand. Then again, perhaps we will conclude that the new understanding isn’t worth all that work and time.