Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Hiring new people? Want to them to know everything that people who already work here know? There is no easy answer, but there are some answers.

When look at the Help Wanted ads, I frequently encounter employers who want to hire people who already work for them. The ads are easy to decipher as they list all the tools, many of which are obscure, they use on the job. They want people with five years experience in the tools in combination with the other tools in a unique way that only people who have been working for them for five years could have and such.

Sigh.

Let’s go back to Brooks’ Law: Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.

Oh, you mean when you hire people you have to show them what you are doing, how you are doing it, and all that. I mean, that takes time and effort to show new people all that stuff. Shouldn’t they just know it? I mean, shouldn’t they be able to read our minds from a distance while they drive to work on the first day? Huh?

Nope. Doesn’t work that way. People will have to learn. Also, people will learn and then do a fine job.

Do you want to shorten the time to learn? Simple, always be ready to teach.

But our employees are busy working. They are good at their jobs. They aren’t teachers and preparing to teach would be a waste of their time and we prefer wishful thinking to reality.

Grow up. Admit reality (reality always wins over fancy). We’re the managers, the persons “in charge.” We should prepare for the teaching so the learning happens faster and more efficiently. Come on, let’s do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

I have a concept, an idea, just the right thing. Now “all I have to do” is put it into words.

I have a great idea. Here, you write it up and we’ll share the money.—Many a person who thinks they are a great thinker.

A famous author (I can’t think of the name at this time, if anyone knows it, please tell me) once said something about such “great thinkers.” It was something like, “I have great ideas all the time as well. Sometimes I actually write all the necessary words and have a ‘great novel.'”

The great idea is a concept or an idea. First, I scribble some thoughts around the idea. Okay, I have some scribbles on a sticky note or a Starbucks food sleeve (those things are great for scribbling). Now what?

Oh, someone has to write all the words so that my great idea is understandable by others. Others will find it entertaining and maybe even throw money my way.

“All I have to do” is write all the words. Sometimes that takes five minutes. Sometimes it takes a lifetime. Sometimes I think this should be easier, but it isn’t. It still is worth a try.

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes the better solution is to not provide a solution. After all, who decided that this was a problem and I was the person to solve it?

“Here is your problem, and here is my solution. Use it,” said a confident problem solver.

I’m a smart guy. I can see things others usually miss. I see problems in the lives of other people. Sometimes I even see the problems in my own life. I pass along solutions. Who wouldn’t want to solve their problems?

Two items here.

First, who appointed me to be the problem recognizer and solver of the world? Keep my mouth shut, keep my eyes closed, and work on my own life (if I want).

Second, sometimes a person’s problem is a key part of their life. If the problem went away, their life would go away. Do I want to take their life away from them. Then what would happen?

There are many times when the best “solution” is not to provide a solution. Can I accept this other person as they are? If not, that is my problem. Oh, another problem. Do I have a solution to that I-can’t-stop-providing-solutions problem? Where was I? Oh yes: move on.

by Dwayne Phillips

This is impractical. Still, someone wants to do it with their own resources. Please, do it.

I want to write a novel. Why? We already have a zillion novels. Go to the library and read a few.

I want to make a movie. Why? We already have a zillion movies. Go to PrimeFlix or something and watch a few.

I want to build a computer. Why? MicroBuy already has a zillion computers. Go there and buy one.

I want to fill-in-the-blank. Why? We have enough of that already, don’t we? Do something practical, huh?

Use your resources as you choose. Go ahead and do it. Who cares if it is impractical? Practice.

by Dwayne Phillips

Let’s review some basics on telling another person about something they do and did that affects me and us.

The basis of this post comes from consultant and writer Esther Derby. Over the years, we’ve discussed this topic, and I have learned much. I hope to pass along some of Esther’s thoughts. We can do better; I certainly can do better.

The out of providing feedback to another person is:

• Create an opening
• Describe the behavior or events
• State the impact
• Make a request

I want to talk with you about something.

Last week’s meeting, last month’s PowerPoint, yesterday’s lunch…

Did you notice how John left in the middle of everything? John is important to this project, yet he was so angry that he left. Without John’s support, this won’t work. Let’s try to make it work.

In the future, let’s meet before the meeting and discuss how John might receive what we are trying to convey.

This isn’t difficult. This isn’t easy; at times it is the most difficult task in the world. Still, it seems to work better than the other things I have done on many disastrous occasions. Let’s all do better—especially me.

by Dwayne Phillips

An old political phrase can be applied to just about any endeavor as a test of how awful bad something is.

Once again, we are in the time every four years in America when we have the seemingly endless campaign for President of the United States.

This year, more than in the past few elections, I read famous people saying things like, “I don’t care who OUR CANDIDATE is, we will do everything we can to defeat THEIR CANDIDATE.”

This hearkens to the phrase of “yellow dog democrat.” That phrase came out of the south after the post-civil war era of reconstruction in which a southerner would vote for an old yellow dog instead of voting for a Republican.

Times change. Parties change. Phrases change, and so on. Still, it seems to me that we are in an era where people vehemently detest THEIR CANDIDATE and will vote for anyone or anything that is OUR CANDIDATE.

Enough political analogies. Let’s talk systems, designs, ideas, concepts and the like. “I’d rather write specs on a bathroom wall than use your design.” I haven’t heard this exact phrase, but I have seen and heard people mean this in however they said it. “I hate your idea so much, I would rather tie a note to an old yellow dog’s neck and have it delivered that way.”

Okay. Tough situation. Stop. Breathe. Let’s talk. Let’s talk candidly. Let’s try to avoid venom in our talk, but let’s talk.

“Tell me openly. Do you hate my idea? Okay, keep talking to me. Tell about your dislike. What are you feeling? What brings about the hatred? What are you thinking? What are you fearing?”

The questions are endless, but are necessary. Talk. Bring hidden ideas to the surface. Why is it that my idea is so abominable to you that anything else is preferred? Teach me.

Let’s do better. We don’t need to build old yellow dog systems.

by Dwayne Phillips

When someone is quite specific in what they convey, they often mean the opposite.

“I will inject some humor here,” often means that nothing funny will be said.

“I don’t care about the money,” often means that I really do care about the money coming my way.

“We are transparent here,” often means that of course there are things happening that we don’t tell everyone.

For some reason, we tend to overstate or overcompensate for something that is important to us. That’s just something we do. We are an odd lot.

by Dwayne Phillips

I am happy to learn that embarrassment still exists. We still aspire.

I recently read an article about how people are not asking Siri and the like questions in public by voice. They type the questions instead of saying them aloud. They are a bit embarrassed to let other people hear their questions.

Wonderful. Great news. I am encouraged. Embarrassment still exists!

We still aspire. We still want to do better. We still don’t want to admit our silly little mistakes that plague us. Let’s move upwards (wherever upwards is, but it isn’t here).

I find embarrassment to be a good quality. It is humble. It says, “I can do much better than this.” Let’s do much better than this.

by Dwayne Phillips

Let’s stop hyperventilating about this and that AI thing. The marketplace will decide and with more wisdom than myself.

I just read yet another article about yet another artificial super-duper large language model.

How can a model of something be larger than the something? Isn’t a model a smaller representation of something? I digress again to the English language. I must stop doing that.

Back to the subject, this brand new model was “hallucinating.” It was creating images of people with three arms and four knees and two fingers and all sorts of things that didn’t make sense. Like we used to say, “It was full of errors caused by the people who built it.”

We don’t like to say “errors” much anymore. We don’t like to attribute these errors to the people who built something much anymore. Hmm. I guess that says something about us.

Back to the subject, someone built a bad product that is full of errors. Remember the Yugo car? Remember Ken Burns’ documentary on baseball? Just two examples of products full of errors. The marketplace rejected them (eventually).

The marketplace will reject these AI things that are full of errors. Maybe someone will build an AI thing that doesn’t have (as many) errors. We know that anything built by people will have errors in it because, well, us folks are error prone. Sorry about that. If we could just build a machine that builds machines then those machine-built machines won’t have errors in them because they weren’t built by error-prone people. Sorry. People are in the chain of events somewhere.

I suppose there is value in someone writing an article that scoffs at a product that is full of errors. Perhaps that speeds the marketplace’s rejection of the product. Perhaps not as, “there is no bad publicity” or something.

The marketplace will reject the error-filled product. Let’s try to reduce the number of errors. We can do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

We often have the experts looking up at someone atop the pyramid who simply doesn’t know much of what they are saying.

There is supposed to be an expertise pyramid. The lone person atop the pyramid has more expertise than all those below. That is how the person reached the top of the pyramid—their greater expertise.

The editor at (name a famous newspaper) is the smartest person at the newspaper. They have the experience, expertise, and perspective that is above everyone else at the newspaper. Since they work at the newspaper, they have greater expertise than everyone else in the community. That is how it works, right?

Increasingly, I see it upside down. The famous newspaper prints articles that are just plain silly. Someone who failed middle school science can see the logical flaws in the newspaper stories.

Another example was from a few years ago when the chief building designer for a large school district was corrected by the parent of a kindergarten student. The correcting parent was chief building designer for a multi-billion dollar international company. That company wouldn’t hire the school district’s building designer because the school district’s employee wasn’t competent enough.

The parent was rightly correcting the school district’s chief building designer. Hmm. There is that upside down pyramid again.

Perhaps I am told old for all of this. Perhaps I know too much or know more than I know I know (does that make sense?). Perhaps we have different pyramids these days or something like that.