Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

And look, the same day I introduce the Yot Dow tag we have two stories that fit the tag. Both are from NASA (one of the biggest wasters of tax dollars in America). Here is one where NASA is using really old tech to control the space station. Yes it works, but in my experience it costs a lot of extra money to use technology that is so old. Here is the other – NASA does a nice thing with data, but their mission is to go to the stars, not monitor someone’s factory.

by Dwayne Phillips

This introduces a new Tag and Category for my blog posts:

Yot Dow

This is short for “YOur Tax DOllars at Waste.”

This is sort of a silly take off on the old your tax dollars at work. It is a shame. The old statement your tax dollars at work used to appear on signs next to road construction sites. People were told that their tax dollars were paying for a new road that they would all use. That was a good thing.

Perhaps I am becoming too old. I see much of government spending as waste. I worked in the government for 28 years, so I have a rotted perspective. I estimate that perhaps 30% of every tax dollar spent today is waste. Yes, too bad.

by Dwayne Phillips

A list of activities that are a lot of work.

On a recent visit with family in Louisiana, a group of us discussed:

• decorating cakes for weddings
• sewing and making clothes
• cooking for 50 people
• and a few more things like these

The consensus was

these are a lot of work.

To the list of “sounds basic, but is a lot of work” I add:

writing a book

These things sound fairly simple. One thing though, you have to sit (or stand) in one spot for a bunch of hours and do something over and over and over. None of these activities can be done in 30 minutes.

by Dwayne Phillips

There is a difference between deciding well and documenting a decision process well. The human condition means that we are mistaken a good portion of the time. Processes and documents can help, but they don’t erase that.

I once worked in a government organization that prided itself on its excellent decisions. They made a few good ones, but being human, they made their share of bad decisions. One thing, however, that they always did was document their decisions well.

They had a process (here we go with the “p” word). They had an elaborate process. Every decision was passed through a series of meetings. At each meeting

• attendance was taken
• options were presented
• trade-offs were discussed
• decisions were made

Note that in the above list of bullets, I used the passive voice. I didn’t assign any action to any particular person. In essence, no person decided – the process decided. And on top of that, everything was documented. Somewhere there was a check list – a long check list – with check marks in every box on every line.

Still, some of the decisions were wrong. Millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money were wasted. And no one was held accountable because everything was done per the process and the documentation was available to prove such.

In one sense, I am fine with this. People make mistakes; people decide incorrectly. As long as no one takes a short cut, as long as no one tries to sneak one through behind my back, I can tolerate the human failings.

In another sense, this is maddening. People in this organization attributed too much power to the process and the document. They actually believed that as long as you went to the required number of meetings and checked all the boxes on the list, the result would be good. The check list would overcome the human condition. Gasp.

We are human; we are mistaken a good portion of the time. Nothing can change that. An extra set of eyeballs can help. Note, help our condition, but not eliminate it.

by Dwayne Phillips

Fatigue is natural. Thinking that I can beat fatigue is wishful. Find a test that indicates your level of performance. Adjust your activities to meet your level. Fatigue beats wishes, but rest beats fatigue.

I wish that fatigue didn’t always win. I wish I conquered fatigue all the time. I that no matter how tired I am, I can overcome fatigue and do brilliant, wonderful, extraordinary things.

But these are only wishes.

There are some things I can do about fatigue. One is to maintain my physical, mental, and spiritual health. When I run three miles a day, four days a week, I am not tired after walking from my car to my office through the parking garage. When I exercise my mind regularly, small amounts of mental work do not tire me as much.

Training to build strength only goes so far. Fatigue still comes. What is there to do? I recommend learning how to recognize fatigue and adapt.

Jerry Weinberg once told me about a technique he uses to help recognize when he is tired. Jerry plays several computer solitaire games. He knows that when he is in good condition, he can win a certain percentage of the time on a certain game at a certain level. Therefore, when he suspects that he is tired, he plays that game at that level. If his percentage of winning drops below his known ability, he concludes that he is tired. Given that he is tired, he no longer attempts tasks that require good performance. He spends his time working simpler tasks and resting. Once rested, he returns to the more taxing tasks.

Find a performance test, like Jerry uses, that works for you. When you suspect that you are tired, test yourself. Adjust your activities appropriately.

Wishes won’t beat fatigue. Rest, however, wins every time.

by Dwayne Phillips

Want to learn faster? Go to different places, go at different times, or go without any money. How will you survive? You will learn.

Want to learn faster?

Go someplace different.

The difference of surroundings helps me to notice so much more than when I am in my regular routine visiting all the same places.

There are a few problems with going someplace different. One is that travel costs money. Don’t have the money?

Go to the same places but at different times.

Shift your commute schedule so that you drive the same roads at a different time of day. Go to the same Internet coffee shop during a different work shift when different people are behind the counter and at the nearby tables.

Another suggestion to combat the “no money” reason is:

Go to the same places, but with no money.

This one is tough at first glance. Take neither money nor credit cards with you. How will you get in the door? How will you acquire items? What could you do in the same place without purchasing items? How friendly are the “friends” you have in these places?

The answers to these and a few hundred other questions bring a lot of learning.

by Dwayne Phillips

A scheme for the government to use the idle computer time of taxpayers. I think the scheme will work, but I wish it never happens.

An idea struck me this morning for a way to save billions of dollars of taxpayers money (without eliminating half of the Federal government). Here is the idea:

The government dumps all its computers and doesn’t replace them.

But, you might ask, how does the government do its job without computers? Simple,

The government will use idle computer time on the taxpayers’ computers.

There are practically limitless supplies of idle computer time out there. As evidence, consider the scientific research being done on donated idle computer time. Here is one place where you can donate your idle computer time to charity. Here is an IBM site where you can donate idle computer time to scientific research.

This is a simple scheme. Whenever an American buys a computer for personal use, software is loaded on that computer that allows the government to access the computer when idle. This is legal as Congress can use its authority to regulate interstate commerce. Surely some clever attorneys can work the details. The interstate-commerce clause has been used for far-less valuable purposes.

When the government employees come to work, they log onto a really cheap computer device that accesses a taxpayers’ computer. The taxpayer is at work as well, so they aren’t using their home computer. The government might as well use the taxpayer’s idle computer. Look at it this way: if a taxpayer can buy a home computer and not use it all day, they must be rich or at least medium-to-sort-of-almost rich. Whatever we call them, it is obvious that such taxpayers can afford to help out for the common good of the country.

So there you have it. The government just uses the idle computers of the taxpayers.

P.S. – I wish that this never happens. I think it will happen one day as the scheme is almost flawless. Then again, someone in the government will find a way for this scheme to cost more money than it saves.

by Dwayne Phillips

Tradeoffs involve decisions. You choose that one thing is more important than another. This is not popular, especially in public projects.

Last week I saw a post about people wanting to build high-speed train lines between cities. This would reduce automobile traffic between the cities, provide construction jobs, provide operations and maintenance jobs, and so on.

Great! Let’s do it. Let’s do it right now.

I doubt that will happen. There are a few (million) government regulations standing in the way of the project. Time, money, and commitment can work their way through all these regulations, but those qualities are rare. Here’s an idea:

Congress passes a law (signed by the President) that erases all those regulations for this project.

Hmm. That would mean that all these elected representatives would decide that rail projects were more important than all these other regulations.

In the systems engineering world this is called a tradeoff. One alternative – with all its faults and with all the good aspects of the other alternatives – is chosen. The other alternatives are not used.

Tradeoffs mean (among other things):

• life is tough
• nothing is perfect
• everything has its flaws
• adults decide what is more important to them

Most of us don’t like tradeoffs; we want everything.

Yes, there are alternatives to tradeoffs. It is better to find ways to combine several alternatives, keep the best of everything, and keep none of the worst of anything. There are, however, occasions when the world is too complex, complicated, and involves too many people to combine the alternatives. The way to proceed is to make the tradeoff, decide, and go with it.

I fear this high-speed rail is one such occasion. That is why I doubt that anything productive will happen. I fear that billions of dollars will be spent studying regulations, creating documents, assessing impact to the environment, and so on. Someone will be employed to do all these things, and there is some value in that. I think there is much more value in building a train line.

That, however, would require a tradeoff.

by Dwayne Phillips

In an earlier post, I discussed difficult people and reframing statements. Once again, I meet a difficult person. Once again, I can choose how frame the situation, and once again I can choose how to live and work.

I worked with a different set of people this week. Some of those people were difficult to work with.

[1] Now let’s reframe a bit. Change

They were difficult to work with

to

I had difficulty working with them.

[2] Delve into some of the behavior.

One of the people I had difficulty with had this habit of looking at me when I asked him a question, but then he would turn away and look at the computer screen when answering my question.

[3] Why did this bother me? Because:

You are supposed to look at people when you talk to them.

It is disrespectful not to look at someone when you talk to them.

That person was misbehaving and disrespecting me. Right? Hmm, what is the source of those statements?

Adults told these things to me when I was a child.

But wait,

I am no longer a child

and

I am an adult and can decide for myself

[4] Now it is time to change me.

I can’t change the other person

but

I can change me.

I can choose to

not apply things that adults told me as a child to other people

not feel disrespected when someone faces away while talking to me.

If I did these two things, I would no longer have difficulty working with that person. That person would cease to be a difficult person.

[5] If I choose to change me

One of the things about being an adult is that we get to choose what we do most of the time.

I can choose to change me

or

I can choose to keep labeling others as “difficult” and hold onto my excuses

Well…

by Dwayne Phillips

Wikipedia now allows you to gather articles into a book. You can download the book as a PDF or actually have a printer make you a hardcopy of you book.

For several years now, Wikipedia has allowed printing articles. The printed pages looked good and were easy to read. Recently, Wikipedia has added a feature that allows you to create a book. The book-building feature allows you to group many articles and print it all as a book.

The book building is fairly simple to use, but I suggest practicing a bit before doing something “serious.” Instead of clicking on the usual “print” on the left side of the Wikipedia page, click on “print/export.” You can now create a book, Download as PDF (also a nice newer feature), or print with the usual Printable Version.

I have used the create a book option to build half a dozen “books” comprising related articles. I’ve put upwards of several dozen articles in some of my books. I put the results of my books into PDF files of over a hundred pages and downloaded them to my computer. I can also go to my Wikipedia page and modify my books at any time.

Wikipedia also provides the option of sending your book (collection of articles) to a printer and having a hardcopy made and mailed to you. The cost of the hardcopy depends on the number of pages. I haven’t used the hardcopy service, but my “books” would each cost less than $10. You can put a photograph from any of the articles on the cover of the printed book.

Why gather Wikipedia articles and print them? Why not. Hold a set of articles in your hand and read them on the airplane or any other place where you can’t access the online library.