Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

If you want your books noticed in the bookstore or the library, have a last name close to that of a famous author. Another way is of course to write a great book.

I was sitting in the public library this past week. While waiting for someone, I was looking at the books on the shelves from my spot at a table. I guess I was sitting in the fiction section as there was a shelf full of books by Louis L’Amour the author of old west tales. On either side of L’Amour’s books were others in the same genre.

Then it hit me – if I were looking for a particular book by L’Amour that wasn’t on the shelf, the next books I would peruse would be written by authors whose last name is next to “L’Amour” alphabetically. Duh! The libraries shelve a lot of books alphabetically by author. Most of the book stores do the same – in order by author’s last name alphabetically.

If you want your books noticed, have a last name close to that of a famous author.

For examples:

“L’Amous” if you write novels of the old west

“Asimow” if you write science fiction

“Steell” if you write romance novels

I haven’t tried this, but I only came upon the idea this week.

Of course, another way to have your book noticed is to write a great book.

by Dwayne Phillips

Some various thoughts on Apple, writing, the TSA, the Talent Economy, and National Novel Writing Month.

sundry: (adjective) assorted: consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds. wordnetweb.princeton.edu

My mind is racing with a number of different things. I couldn’t decide what to write in the regular Thursday blog posting. Then one of those goofy questions hit me:

Why decide?

Okay, maybe I won’t decide. I’ll just write short, short posts about each item and put them all up on one post. So here goes.

Thanksgiving: Today is Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. Yes, a bit of historical research will show that the stories we were told in school as kids were a bunch of bologna. Still, Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday followed by the 4th of July.

Apple continues to do everything wrong: Apple finally received permission to sell music from the Beatles on iTunes. How stupid can Apple be? Everyone knows that all the Beatles fans already own all the Beatles music they want. Ooops, two million Beatles songs are sold on iTunes in one week. And to add onto that, sales of computers are rising again. Sales of Apple computers are rising three times faster than Windows-based computers.

The TSA continues to do everything wrong: I find it unfortunate that this heading is not sarcastic. The TSA is actually doing just about everything wrong. The past week has given us examples of patting down nursing mothers and crying three year olds. And then Adam Smith of Mythbusters carries two 12-inch razor blades onto an aircraft (accidentally) after going through a full body scanner. Your tax dollars at waste.

Writing students: I continue to work with students from George Mason University on their writing. They continue to teach me.

Talent Economy: I ran across this phrase this week. Aha! That phrase solve many of the puzzles I have found at work this year. My current employer is struggling with expanding our business (we are not along in this struggle). We need instant expertise in new fields; we need to hire people who have worked on something for ten years and are expert. That is the Talent Economy. Talented, expert people are the most valuable resource.

NaNoWriMo: November is National Novel Writing Month. The idea is that you write (I prefer to tell people “draft”) a 50,000-word novel during the 30 days of November. I am trying this. As usual, I love the writing, but hate they gyrations needed to find the time. I need about 90 uninterrupted minutes each day. I can usually find those minutes, but it isn’t easy.

by Dwayne Phillips

I often see claims that software systems will be secure, i.e., only authorized people will be able to see the information. Just as often I see cases where “secure” software systems are broken and the data are spilled onto the floor for all to see. Why? I believe it is a simple numbers game.

All minds are not created equal. There are some of us who are much smarter than me. Folks like me, however, like to think that there is some sort of average mind out there (and of course I am a little to the left of the average mind). Given the great average mind, what makes the difference among groups of people is which group is larger. On average, we like to think, 50 average guys have more brainpower than 20 average guys. I am sure there are cases where one brilliant person can out perform 50 average persons. Those cases, however, are exceptions.

Now let’s go discuss software security. Consider WiFi access on commercial airplane flights. The nice airlines didn’t want people to be watching “objectionable” materials on the Internet. Such material would offend some of the paying customers. Hence, the airlines put “filters” in their systems that would block the objectionable material. People broke through those filters the first morning.

How did they do it? Simple – the numbers game. The number of people trying to break through the filters was much greater than the number of people building the filters. In math, it looks like this:

# of filter breakers >> # of filter makers

The symbol “>>” reads, “is much larger than.”

Why not just increase the number of filter makers? It costs too much. How did the number of filter breakers become so large? There are a large number of programmers (potential filter breakers) out there. A large enough percentage of these potential filter breakers found the challenge issued by the airlines too great to resist.

Let’s move to online election software. It is “secure,” right? I mean their are programmers who write the election software who put in security features, right? Yes there are. And as with the airline filters:

# of security breakers >> # of security makers

Let’s move on to one day promised when every-one’s health records will be available (via the Internet, what else?) to any doctor (with the right passwords) anywhere. These health records will be secure. What are the odds that

# of security breakers >> # of security makers???

There is the wish that a few of the security makers are brilliant, and their brilliance will be enough to overcome the large numbers of average security breakers. Let’s consider that for a moment. National electronic health records will be a government project. How often do we see individual brilliance on government projects. Oh well, it was a thought.

by Dwayne Phillips

Some people are undependable. Most of the time, I can choose to work with them or not. My choice can tell me much about myself.

I know people who fit the title of this post.

If they tell me they will be someplace at nine o’clock, I am almost certain they will appear no sooner than 9:15.

If they volunteer to bring cookies (or whatever) to an event, I ask someone else to also bring cookies (or whatever) to the event.

Politicians – let’s use them as one stereotypical example – are dependably undependable. If they say a bill will not raise taxes, I can depend that the bill will raise taxes.

Computer programmers – let’s use them as another stereotypical example – are dependably undependable. If a programmer says he tested the changes he made to software, he probably didn’t. If a programmer says he didn’t touch any code other than the code he was supposed to touch, he probably touched other code.

Are these people liars? Think about this. They say something (I’ll be there on time, there are no taxes hidden here, I tested the code) that isn’t true, and they often say things that aren’t true. That is the definition of being a liar, isn’t it? I suppose there is a difference between lying and merely being undependable. It seems that the undependable have good intentions. They intend to appear on time and bring what they promised. Something just seems to get in the way or come up at the last minute or … I can always depend on the undependable to have plenty of excuses.

Enough about those dependably undependable people. Let’s talk about me.

Why would I depend on someone who I know is undependable?

Have I ever confronted one of the dependably undependable about their undependability?

Do I relish watching the dependably undependable fail time after time?

Do I depend on the dependably undependable to give me a sense of superiority?

The questions and their answers start to hurt. The questions and their answers tell me much about myself, some of which I may not want to realize.

by Dwayne Phillips

I noticed a recent story on outsourcing. It seems the state of Ohio required work performed on state contracts to be performed  in Ohio by residents of Ohio. Imagine that! Work funded by the taxpayers of Ohio should be done by other taxpayers in Ohio.

That seems reasonable to me.

It doesn’t seem reasonable to outsourcing companies in India.

Several years ago I wrote an article for the Cutter IT Journal (a link to their base web site, not to the article I wrote). It was about how to survive as a programmer in a world where programmers in India, the Philippines, and other places would program just as well for a much smaller salary. One way to survive in such a world was to work on government contracts. Even back five years ago, governments at all levels were requiring work to be performed by residents of the contract-issuing government.

I pay taxes. I want the government to obtain the most work for the least tax money spent. Still, I don’t like my tax money going to a foreign country or to non-citizens. I have no animosity towards non-citizens. I just don’t want them to receive taxpayers’ money.

My advice to programmers in the U.S. remains largely unchanged:

live in a low-cost-of-living area of the U.S., i.e., rural

live an hour from an airport, i.e., still rural and cheap

keep your personal overhead low

if you can stomach the inherent problems, work on government contracts

if you can stomach the really bad inherent problems, work as a government employee

Some or all of the above may be repugnant to many programmers. If you can earn a living programming in the U.S. without doing any of the above, good for you. Please write me and tell me how you are doing it.

by Dwayne Phillips

Time and again I have seen people make a terrible mess, work hard to fix their mess, and be proclaimed a hero. I still don’t understand why anyone would reward such a person.

In the mid-1980s I started managing projects. I looked about to see what my peers – other project managers – were doing. I kept hearing praises of some of my peers, so I looked closer to learn from their successes.

I got sick.

“So-and-so is dedicated to the project. Look at him, he cancelled a cruise that he and his wife were to take so that he would finish his project on time.”

I looked closer.

So-and-so had,

1. estimated the project to take X hours of work
2. estimated the project to end on date Y

So-and-so was a terrible estimator as the project required 2X hours, and the date Y would not move because so-and-so was a hero. To finish on date Y, so-and-so literally slept at work. He worked nights; he worked weekends, and he cancelled his cruise with his wife. I never heard if so-and-so’s wife divorced him.

Hmmm, so-and-so worked like a hero to save the day and put out the fire. The problem, as I saw it, was that so-and-so was the person who started the fire by terribly underestimating the work on his project. This all seemed obvious to me. Why would anyone hail so-and-so as a hero?

Well, senior managers didn’t see it the way I did. They rewarded so-and-so and everyone else who made the same terrible mistakes while estimating the work required on their projects.

Thirty years later, I see the same happening again. People make a terrible mess, work crazy hours or something, and clean up their mess. They are heroes.

Why do we proclaim heroes those people who make terrible messes or set their own houses on fire?

by Dwayne Phillips

HP’s new Photosmart printers have a feature HP calls ePrint. I can send an email to the printer, and the printer prints it. iPad and iPhone apps allow for taking notes and emailing them. In this case, emailing them to the printer.

I can now print from my iPad. Well, I can print some things. This is none of Apple’s doing; all the credit goes to Hewlett-Packard.

My HP Photosmart all in one printer (PSC 2510 Photosmart All-in-one printer) finally quit on me. I lost track of how many years I had it. Sometimes it would print, sometimes it wouldn’t. Sometimes it wouldn’t come on after I turned it off. Strange things. Oh well, it served us well. It was our first wireless printer in the house and I loved it.

I bought an HP Photosmart Plus e-All-in-One model B210a. )I have to throw in the part about model B210a because the model B209a is not the same thing and though it looks remarkably similar in the store and has the almost exact same box, phew, don’t get it.) This costs less than $200. One side note, the first HP ink printer I bought in 1989 cost $600, printed only black and white, was slow, was loud, and didn’t do any of the scanning and copying stuff either. We have come a long way. Sometimes I drift when writing about HP printers.

Anyways, the nice feature in this new printer is that it has what HP calls “ePrint.” You can send an email to the printer. It prints the contents of the email and even files attached to the email. I have to take care as I often have emails with hundred-page attachments.

The iPad, and the iPhone, have a few note-taking apps. Each of these note-taking apps allows me to email the note. I can type or write notes on the iPad and email them to the printer. This works, wow, great. Printing from the iPad. At least printing of notes that I write from the iPad (and the iPhone).

by Dwayne Phillips

Don’t just encourage someone to do something – teach them how. Modeling the behavior yourself is probably the best method of teaching.

Sometimes it takes me a while to remember things I have learned. Someone comes along, does something, and it all hits me: What are they doing?  Don’t they know…?

I guess that is why we have blogs, so we can write things that we know and maybe remember them better. First point,

Don’t (just) tell, teach

Recently, I sat in a class and the teacher encouraged the attendees to do something. He encouraged them to do something again. He encouraged them to do something yet again, and again, and … well so on. This is like telling people to invest their money wisely without explaining what wise investments are. It doesn’t do anyone much good.

Then the class continued on and it occurred to me,

Don’t (just) teach, model

This is a twist on the old cliche, “don’t do as I do, do as I say.” (or is it the other way around, I forget) Again, if a person who is bankrupt walks in a room and says, “Invest your money wisely and here is how.” Not effective.

This takes me back to author and consultant Jerry Weinberg. I first met Jerry in person some dozen years ago at a week-long class he did called Problem Solving Leadership. All week long, Jerry led us in solving problems. He not only taught being a leader when solving problems, he did it, i.e., he modeled it. Jerry also teaches congruence. He doesn’t just teach it, he does it all the time when teaching his various classes, i.e., once again he models it. (For a chance to meet Jerry and others who model what they teach what they encourage, see the Amplifying Your Effectiveness conference.)

So, instead of sitting in front of a class and telling people, “take time to get to know one another,” bring another person to the front of the room, sit, face one another, and have a conversation where you get to know one another. Model how you would do that.

“But that would take all the class time,” protest some. Yes, it would. And, believe it or not, getting to know a person takes time.

by Dwayne Phillips

A procedure for writing a novel from Jack Woodford.

Here is a procedure for writing a novel. Ouch, that probably hurts for a lot of people. “Procedure for creating the great American novel? Where is the art?” Well, from an engineer and an organized person, some sort of procedure is comforting. Take it for what it is – a tool. If it works for you, use it. If it doesn’t work for you, forget it.

This procedure is from Jack Woodford in “Trial and Error, A Key to the Secret of Writing and Selling.”

Write a synopsis: “The actual written synopsis should run somewhere between fifteen hundred and five thousand words. In it include no dialogue; no descriptions of anything; just the roughest and barest outline of the basic, fundamental story behind the novel.”

Start to form chapters from the synopsis: “Go over your synopsis and, with a pencil, draw rough lines between sections which seem to you naturally indicate chapters”

Form chapter pages: Copy the relevant material from the synopsis to separate pieces of paper. One piece of paper for each chapter. As you copy the material, add material as it comes to mind.

At this time, you will have one piece of paper for every chapter in the novel.

Your chapter pages will contain about twice as many words as your synopsis.

The entire novel is now set in your mind.

Add to the chapter pages whenever new thoughts come to mind. The chapter pages give you a place to put ideas.

Character dossiers: “Write a dossier on them (each major character) … which catalogues all object facts about them and suggests their subjective identities”

Describe the locale: Write a description of the locale or setting of the novel.

So there you have it. And as Woodford writes, “So far you have arranged the architecture in such a way as to make it almost fool proof. Anybody can write a novel if he goes at it that way.”

by Dwayne Phillips

Buy books? Sure, buy lots of the ones I have written. Read books? Go to the library. It works quite well, and you have already paid your part of the cost.

I read yet another blog post the other day about how awful it is that Americans don’t buy and read books. I’m not sure the source of these we-don’t-read-anything-of-any-substance statistics. This story says that 3 billions books were sold in an average year. With 300 millions Americans running about, that comes to ten books bought for every man woman and child in America.

Regardless of how we count books sold, let’s move to books read in a year. I can buy a book, read it, and loan it to a dozen people who then read it. That only counts as one book bought in that year. Hmmm.

And then there is the library. The library is a building full of books. The people who operate the library will loan you a book for a few weeks. If you want the book longer, they will loan it to you for a few more weeks. It is amazing.

When I was a kid, I attended a small private school. This was not a school for rich kids. Most of us attending were charity cases in that we attended for little or no cost (another story for another time). This little poor private school took us to the library often as the little poor private school didn’t have the money to buy many books.

There are public libraries. This is what most of us see on the street. If you pay taxes, you fund the public library. Since you pay for the library to exist, you might as well use it. Funny thing is, when the economy is bad, see for example right now, use of public libraries goes up (see this story and this one as well).

There are libraries at colleges. These are only open to people associated with the college. Well, that isn’t exactly true. Most college libraries are accessible in that a non-college person can walk onto the campus, walk into the library, pull a book from the shelf, and read it while sitting there. Maybe that isn’t always practical, but it is possible. A person could also inquire as to how involved you would have to be to qualify to borrow a book from a college library.

I live in Reston, Virginia. We have a Fairfax County Public Library here. It is a pretty good library in that it has a lot of books, convenient hours and location, and has inter-library loan with all the other libraries in Fairfax County.

Oh, inter-library loan. Some libraries do this. If you want a book that they don’t have, the library staff will check with another library. That library will loan the book to your library who will then loan the book to you. That is pretty nice.

Then there is the big one – the Library of Congress. Lucky for me, I can go to that one in person. It isn’t convenient. They won’t loan me a book to take home. I have to sit in the reading room, an awesome place, to read the book. And it really isn’t that convenient for me. It is at least an hour commute and the Metro costs $5 each way, and all that stuff.

The Library of Congress has an inter-library loan program. Perhaps your local library can borrow a book from the Library of Congress and loan it to you. That means you can read almost any book ever printed.

All this library talk is perhaps bad news for authors (like me) and publishers. It is, however, great news for the vast majority of us.