Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

There is the meta-plan or the plan about the plan. There is the meta-rehearsal or the rehearsal for the rehearsal. There are many other meta-this-and-that. They are quite useful.

My wife and I have been married since 1983 (40 years as of the writing of this post). I recall our wedding rehearsal. I recall the rehearsal for the rehearsal. We sat with my father (the person who married us) and talked about the rehearsal. Guess what? The actual wedding rehearsal for several dozen participants went quickly and without confusion or angst.

There is planning to plan. Before a planning session with lots of folks working, be sure to have all the resources on hand. That way, people don’t stand around waiting for someone to find a white board and marker.

There are many other of these meta-things.

• prepare to prepare
• practice to practice
• outline how I will outline
• meet to meet
• run a tournament to run a tournament
• write to write
• blog to blog

I could go on. Sure, we could take this to the extreme and rehearse to rehearse to rehearse to …

There are advantages to simply start something without preparing for it. Some folks do that quite well. Most of those folks, however, have done the exercise many times and are always prepared to do it. Some folks are simply well prepared to be unprepared. They do that quite well.

The rest of us? Let’s rehearse to rehearse and so on. I need to do that sort of thing. I’m not smart enough to “just do it.” Let’s all admit when we are in the 98.6% and have to do these meta things. We can all do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

BYOD or Bring Your Own Data is a big deal. It has been in computing since the start of computing. Nothing new here folks, but it is still important.

Everyone is a data scientist (sort of). Everyone works for a data-centric organization (sort of). Data is the new oil (sort of). Data is the new … well pick your favorite cliche’.

And there are these tools that tout “bring your own data” or BYOD. What is that about?

I have been bringing my own data to computers since I owned my first one in 1983. Yes, I am that old and I was late to owning my own computer. (Many computer users bought home computers in the late 1970s. I was too tired at the end of the day to do more computing.) I had a Kaypro II—an outstanding CP/M machine.

I used BYOD software called WordStar. My data were my words. I put my words into WordStar, WordStar saved my words for updating later, and WordStar formatted my words for printing (on an IBM dot matrix printer). It all worked quite well.

An earlier use of BYOD was the American census of 1890 where Herman Hollerith used punch cards and machines to process the data that were brought to them. It all worked quite well.

But, but, but… cry the marketers of today’s BYOD products. We’re talking about something else, something better, something you should buy from us.

Of course BYOD means different things to different people. Let’s, however, not be carried away with our own hyperbole. Users of computing machines have been “bringing your own data” since they have used computing machines.

by Dwayne Phillips

People have their own experiences. Assuming their experience denies them as a person. Try to avoid such.

Each person has their own experience with something. It is often the case that several people have similar experiences. That gives me the luxury of describing some “average” experience and continuing to satisfy the “average” person.

Nevertheless, the individual’s experience is their own. Denying their experience denies them as a human person.

I had this happen yet again recently. Someone showed my their documents. I told them, “I had to study this back and forth for hours to understand it.” The person assured me that the documents were easy to understand and that everyone understood them quickly and easily.

That person denied my experience. They also assumed my experience. I was part of “everyone,” so my experience would be just like everyone’s experience. Trying to have my own experience was me just being difficult.

Life and work can be difficult. I work on something and explain my work to others. They look at me and tell me that they don’t understand what I did. WHAT? IT’S PERFECTLY CLEAR! THEY DON’T SEE THE GENIUS IN MY WORK!

I am denying their experience. I am assuming what they should experience. I need to breathe, pause, and learn something from them. And, in the final analysis, I need to decide if that person is worth my efforts.

Gosh. This is more difficult than what they told me in college.

By Dwayne Phillips

Despite what I have noticed the past couple of years, declaring, “I’m just learning” does not allow us to do whatever we want.

Earlier this year, I wrote about using Emergency Flashers to gain allowance to do whatever I want (not). I’ve noticed something similar with stickers on cars that say something like, “Caution, Student Driver,” or “Student Driver, Please be Patient.”

In Virginia, Driver’s Education is no longer taught in schools. There are private companies that provide on-the-road driver’s ed. These are required for obtaining a license to drive. These private companies put these and other stickers on their vehicles to identify themselves—or something like that.

I was almost smashed by one such car recently. The student driver didn’t know how to turn left when there are several left-turn lanes. Oh well.

I’ve noticed that putting a “Student Driver” sticker on a car allows the driver of that car to do just about anything they wish. Everyone else will just have to abide by that.

Let’s extend this to the workplace and other areas of life. I’ll hang a “Student” lanyard from my neck.

If someone at Starbucks says, “Hey, there is a line here. Get in the back of the line.” I’ll smile and point to my Student lanyard. That will make going to the front of the line okay.

If I crash the computer network at work and everyone loses hours of work, I’ll point to my Student lanyard. That will ease everyone’s angst and make everything okay.

Of course these are silly examples. Being a student at something or other does not make everything okay.

Of course, however, there are cases of people being new to a job and needing some time and space to learn. Now the manager of the work earns their pay. Create learning situations. Create “sandboxes” in which learners can experiment, make major mistakes, and not adversely affect others.

Student drivers exist (I wish there were closed areas for them to learn to drive). Student butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers exist. Mistakes are costly. Let’s be sure to have places where students can make mistakes and learn and minimize the cost.

by Dwayne Phillips

We seem to think that everything will be on the screen and we don’t need to use pieces of paper.

Years ago, we didn’t have the computers we have today. How many years ago? Twenty? Ten? Two?

Years ago, some of us would take great pains to put lots of information on a few pieces of paper that were in our notebooks (three ring binders, not laptop computers called “notebooks”) that we kept with us all the time. These few pieces of paper (two or three at the most) held amazing amounts of information. Little figures and keywords that reminded us what was what and where it was and who was who and … you get the idea.

Well, today we have electronic dashboards. They have all the information.

Not.

The screens that 98.6% of us have are still not big enough to hold the information that a single 8 1/2×11″ piece of paper held. But, but, but … nope. The screen still isn’t big enough. The screen still isn’t clear enough. The screen is much better than it used to be, but it isn’t there, yet.

Use a piece of paper or two. Paper still works well. Paper still works better than screens that aren’t big enough, yet.

by Dwayne Phillips

Accepting poor performance and low-quality products sets a precedent. The longer this lasts, the more difficult it is to change the situation.

Comedian Don Knotts had this routine playing Barney Fife on the Andy Griffith Show. “Nip it in the bud,” was the punchline that was punched over and over. I still think it is funny whenever I see it.

Ten years ago, I wrote a blog post titled, “Act Early, Act Small.” That post had the same point as this post. Act today. Do something today. Nip it in the bud before it grows and grows and grows. Weeds are easier to pull at 6″ than at 6′. More cliches?

Poor quality products arrive from someone. Well, I’m new here and I don’t want to make an early impression as a grouch or some type of bad person. I’ll let it go for now. I’ll say something later when it is really important and we won’t have time to fix it and we will all look bad and others will suffer and…

Uh, wait. Maybe that isn’t a good strategy. Maybe waiting a long time will produce bad things that are big like that weed that is now six feet tall.

Nip it in the bud—today. “Fellas, this isn’t the most important thing in the world, but let’s start now and improve a little here, today.”

We can do better. Let’s act early while we can still act small.

by Dwayne Phillips

To be flexible enough to do new things, I often need a foundation of fundamentals in place first.

If I am standing on shifting sand, I have to be flexible to adjust my stance and upper body so I don’t fall. Flexibility is required just to stay in place.

If I am standing on a foundation of fundamentals, flexibility allows be to do new things. I can bend, twist, stretch, reach, etc. without falling flat on my face. The foundation of fundamentals is in place first.

But how long do I have to work on building this foundation of fundamentals before I use flexibility to reach out to new things?

The answer is almost always, “Longer than I want.”

Okay, that aside, the answer is, “That depends on what new things I want to attempt.”

A bigger leap requires a firmer foundation of fundamentals.

If I want to write one paragraph of fiction, I need to know something about grammar, punctuation, and such fundamentals. If I want to write a ten-page short story, I need more fundamentals. If I want to write a 500-page novel, and so on.

If I want to change the world with a new type of software, I need a pretty big foundation of fundamentals. The same is needed if I want to build a bridge across the English Channel or a space elevator that lifts me to the moon.

Fundamentals can be boring. Acquiring fundamentals can be boring. If I want to be flexible and try untried things, I need some foundation of fundamentals.

by Dwayne Phillips

If we work a little, learn a little, and repeat, we can do some pretty impressive things. We don’t, however, like to do this “little” thing.

Let’s work a little, talk about what we did, learn a little, and try again. That reduces the misunderstandings. That keeps us from wasting resources by going far, far, far in the wrong direction. That moves us in the right direction much quicker and by using far fewer resources.

And we don’t like to do that.

This “little” part kills me. It means I am probably heading in the wrong direction the first couple of days or months or years. It means I can be grossly mistaken. What? Me? I’m not stupid. I can do it! I don’t need you sitting around talking and talking and talking.

Maybe. Maybe not this time in this situation. Maybe I—maybe all of us—need a few experiments that are much less expensive and teach valuable lessons.

We can all do better. Let’s try to work a little, learn a little. Set the ego aside. We can do that, right? Let’s set the ego aside for a little while to learn if we can.

by Dwayne Phillips

An apology is just that—an apology. It is neither an explanation nor a justification. Rats!

An apology is simple: I did this wrong. I am sorry for that. I ask your forgiveness.

An apology does not contain an explanation: I was trying to do such-and-such and …

An apology does not contain a justification: The sun was in my eyes and I tripped an such-and-such …

An apology never contains: You have to understand that …

The fewer the words the better in most cases. Apologize and move forward. But apologize.

by Dwayne Phillips

Things are the way they are. But why? An old saying explains much of the reason.

There is an old but little known saying, “Things are the way they are because they got that way.”

Pause to consider. Yes, of course the saying is correct. We are here because everything and everyone who passed through here influenced the situation and made it what it is today.

But, but, but… no buts. Of course the ways of the greater world out there influenced things. There was the election of whatever election we wish to blame. There was the heat wave or cold spell of whenever the year was we wish to blame. We had no control over inflation and we certainly had no control over the pandemic, we just had to go along and we cannot be held responsible.

I suppose the last statement is the big point of all this. Surely we can find someone else to blame for why we have the bad situation we have. If not someone else, some thing else is to blame. We just cannot take the blame on ourselves. After all, we were here, and … and there we have it. We were here then and we did the things that caused us to be here now. If we weren’t here then, we joined at some point, and here we are.

Rats. Surely there is something else to all this. Perhaps not. Perhaps we should simply do better—all of us.