Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Let us begin anew. Why not?

By some arbitrary counting of days, a.k.a., a calendar, today is the first day of the new year 2026. I suppose that is a good thing for us. Hence, some of us have the new year’s resolutions wherein we resolve to do something.

I resolve to breathe as long as my heart keeps pumping and I can breathe.

I resolve to think as long as my brain continues to function and I can think.

I resolve to write as I am the type of person that if the above two resolutions hold, I must write as I have no idea what else to do.

I thank God for my family—every person in my “family” (yet another arbitrary concept).

Today is called Thursday. It is in the latter half of this week. Hmm. A new year beginning in some random part of a week. Why can’t we align the new year with a new month with a new week? I wander off topic.

Anyways, I wish you and yours a happy new year and a happy day and a happy moment. I hope I wrote something that helps you have some happiness. I try.

by Dwayne Phillips

All this $$$ is killing AI.

I used to work in AI. That means that I researched things that might allow us to do things that we couldn’t do. I attempted to instruct a computer or, as we used to say, I attempted to write a computer program to do something that people could do and computers couldn’t do. I struggled with the fundamental that all a computer could do was tell the difference between a one and a zero.

It was research. That is what AI is: a field of research.

At one time a home thermostat was considered AI. Make it colder when it was too hot and make it warmer when it was too cold. Amazing stuff that only thinking people could do. After successes in that research, AI turned into control theory. There are many other examples of research in AI turning into other endeavors that we take for granted.

Now, however, AI is big BIG B I G money! I have nothing against folks making money and supporting their families. I have nothing against folks turning research into practice and creating jobs for other folks. Good stuff.

If you want to make money, shout AY EYE! or something like that. People with money will beat a path to your door. Who care$ if we are a bit loose with word$. We are talking money here.

Nevertheless, I am troubled by folks in technology not understanding these basic tenets. Come on folks, let’s do a little research into history. Journalists? Well, their profession is marked by getting things wrong far more often than getting them right, so I have low expectations there.

Come on, we can do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

Today is Christmas Day. Some thoughts.

By most arbitrary calendars, today is Christmas Day. Many folks celebrate this as the day that a boy was born to a carpenter and his young wife in a stable in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago. Many folks celebrate this as a day to exchange gifts.

Different cultures have different traditions around this day such as putting a “tree” of one sort or another in a room and putting decorations on it. I loved the silver aluminum tree of the 1960s. If you had it right, you also had a lamp with a wheel of colors turning so that the silver tree would turn colors.

It seems that in the last 20 years, people do a White Elephant gift exchange exercise. It is some type of game or conversation starter or something. I guess I understand the point of all that, but it is not my favorite past time.

What I like about this day and this week is that I sit and talk with people that I otherwise wouldn’t see. I like to “catch up” with their lives and know what they are doing.

I have what I consider to be two “sets” of grandchildren. One set comprises two teenagers while the other set comprises twin toddlers. That is quite a spread in experience. I enjoy either, or, and, and both experiences. I wish I could have the toddlers sit in my lap while I talk Calculus with the teenagers. Alas, that won’t happen this day.

I am of the age where I have seen more Christmas Days in my past than I will see in my future. That is a great influence on my thoughts about this day.

I enjoy good health this Christmas Day as does my wife as we have our 42nd Christmas Day together. Our children and grandchildren also enjoy good health this day. Those statements summarize the best earthly gifts I have. I will take them, happily.

by Dwayne Phillips

I often hear people speak with great certainty. Further consideration, however, reveals almost no certainty.

People like to speak with great certainty. I write those words because I often hear people speak with great certainty. If people don’t like to do that, why do they do it almost all the time? Great puzzles for me.

Despite the certainty in the speech, further consideration often reveals almost no certainty. 1 + 1 = 2. Certainty. Consistency. Aha. We are getting somewhere.

“So-and-so believes such-and-such,” said with great certainty. But really? How does the speaker know what old Mr. So-and-so believes? Has the speaker confirmed all this with Mr. So-and-so? Can we talk to Mr. So-and-so on the phone right now and confirm this? Is there any hesitancy from the speaker to call Mr. So-and-so right now? Hmm.

“I spoke with So-and-so last week and I believe he is leaning towards such-and-such,” said with great hesitancy. Aha. Now we are making progress. This is candor and honesty.

People, however, understand that the certain statement is just a short way of saying the hesitant statement. Don’t they? Need I say all those extra words every time?

I guess I am not smart enough to understand that the shorter version means the longer version. I like to hear the words. Perhaps we can take the time and energy to say the extra words and show hesitancy instead of certainty. We can do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

“Just as soon as I build my writer’s cottage, I will write and write and write,” said no one who was actually writing and writing and writing.

I am going to write and write and write. But first, I need to:

• build a writer’s cottage where I can write
• buy a comfortable chair that I can write in
• buy a better computer for writing
• learn to paint illustrations to go with my writing
• stop making lists of things I need before I write

I put the last bullet in the list just for fun. he he he.

I learned many years ago from some older people who had been through all these things. People who say these things are never going to write. Most will never build that writer’s cottage or do anything on the list. They will think and dwell and analyze and plan and dream and never do anything. That is too bad. They have the desire, but just can’t force themselves to do anything.

I think the horror writer Stephen King wrote something about needing only a room with a door that can close. There is a point to that. I’ve written essays and stories about people who went to the public library and wrote novels using only Google Docs on the library’s Internet computers. No cost for anything. Just sit and write. I seem to be able to write at home and at Starbucks. I seem to be able to write using any keyboard. I seem to be able to write regardless of noise, music, chatter, or absolute quiet. I know those things don’t fit everyone.

Write.

I don’t care if you have a cottage or tent or cave.

Write.

I once wrote a 300-page book that had 200 illustrations. I scribbled the illustrations on the backs of pieces of paper that had book drafts. The illustrations were awful. The book sold to publishers with those awful scribbles. I guess I was just lucky.

Write.

Frustrated? Write about frustration. Cheated? Write about being cheated. Angry? Write about anger. You are uniquely qualified to write about those things.

Write.

Have a great desire to build a writer’s cottage before you write? Go ahead and (you probably guessed what comes next) write about the desire to build a writer’s cottage so you can write.

Write.

Please, write. The rest of us need to read what you have written.

by Dwayne Phillips

AI has eaten the world. It is the latest and greatest thing…or is it?

I hang around America’s Federal government. There are many new programs in our Federal government to push and pull and take advantage of AI. AI will do wonders. Isn’t it wonderfully wonderful? Sigh.

Perhaps I am just too old for all this.

Generative AI generates things that were not there, hence the adjective “generative.” Well, actually it doesn’t generate, it predicts based on things that were already present. Oh, so it’s Predictive AI. Wait, we’ve had predictive AI for many decades.

Wait, before that we had mathematics that predicted things. Remember y=mx+b? Put a new value as x, use the slope of the line and the Y-axis intercept point and predict the next value of y. But that wasn’t Predictive AI, that was just the equation of a straight line. Yes, and the equation of a straight line was a mathematical model of the line. And the AI model (like GPT-whatever) predicts the next word. The AI model is based on all the text that was fed into some software to build a model. The equation of the line is based on all the numbers fed into … wait, there must be something wrong here.

Could it be that all this generative AI is just a clever packaging of mathematics and software and … ? Naw, couldn’t be that. Must be something else, huh?

‘Fraid not. Predicting the next thing is as old as the equation of a straight line. Except now, we have super duper computers that consume lots of electricity and are clever enough to be cleverly deceptive.

Perhaps I am just too old for all this.

by Dwayne Phillips

It must be difficult running a college and deciding what departments to create and what degrees to offer.

It seems only yesterday that colleges started offering degrees in Data Science. Data Science was the sexiest job of the century or so said an article in Harvard Business Review. I guess they missed as it wasn’t even the sexiest job of the first quarter of the century.

Now colleges are offering degrees in Artificial Intelligence. Uh, let’s see, most employers consider AI to be a part of Data Science. Or do they? I am confused. And I am not the only confused person wandering blindly about and bumping into ivory towers on college campuses.

Should colleges be behind the times and offer courses in the new stuff that fit in the old fundamental stuff? Should data science and AI be offered as classes in Mathematics or Computer Science? I remember when Computer Science classes were offered in Mathematics. But then, I am old and slow and not qualified to run a college and setup departments and offer degrees and keep up with the times.

Seems like these hot topics should not be college degree programs. We can do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

I don’t like surveillance. Why is someone surveilling me? It is sort of like testing a system I built. But are the testers out to get me or help me?

I don’t like surveillance. I don’t like the police state. Why is someone surveilling me? I haven’t done anything. What about the Bill of Rights? You don’t search someone or surveille someone without due process.

Back in June 2025, there were the No Kings protests in America. Guess what? Federal, State, and Local law enforcement used various video camera systems to watch the protests and the protestors. What? What was that about? Did they gather data on all the protestors so they could “round ’em up” and punish them for something? That is rotten.

Let’s ask, “Why?”

Let’s sidetrack to something else I often don’t like (at first glance). Testing. I don’t like someone testing something I’ve built. I built it. I tested it myself. Leave me alone. I don’t want your opinion on the system I built—even if your opinion is based on data. Leave me alone.

Perhaps, however, the testing is for my own good. Perhaps, however, the other person will see things I didn’t see. Perhaps, however, I can learn and do better. Hmm.

Let’s go back to surveillance. Remember the Boston Marathon bombing? Video cameras in public places helped law enforcement catch the bombers. Good thing, huh? Some people question that. Those questioning people weren’t relatives of the dead. This isn’t an easy item to discuss.

Now consider the video surveillance of No Kings day. Perhaps law enforcement was watching because they feared some malcontent would shoot some of the protestors. Surveillance, like in the Boston Marathon bombing, would help law enforcement find and convict the malcontent. It is possible that the surveillance was to protect the protestors, not spy on them.

I am not naive. No Kings day was a political event. Surveillance is a privacy versus security political issue. The politics cannot be removed.

Still, there are more reasons for some of these things like surveillance. Let’s try to consider the possibilities.

by Dwayne Phillips

Influencing behavior via modeling instead of coating with chocolate syrup.

I recently read an article written by a mother describing how she had her children eat vegetables. The answer applies to all behaviors that are distasteful to some persons.

There is an old joke about a farmer who fed his dogs spinach. Another farmer asked if the dogs ate the spinach. The spinach-feeding farmer replied, “They didn’t for the first three weeks.” The punch line meaning that given enough hunger and pain, dogs will eat spinach.

The article written by the proud-as-can-be mother related how she combined vegetables with something her kids liked. She covered the vegetables with chocolate syrup. Not literally, but she coated the vegetables with something her kids liked. She taught her kids bribes work.

When my children were young, someone gave me wonderful advice about vegetables and all that. When you put green vegetables on the table, proclaim, “Ooh, aah, asparagus. I love it. You can’t have any until you eat all your mashed potatoes and meat. This is great!”

This worked. My kids loved the green vegetables because I loved them.

Management consultants call this modeling behavior or something that has enough syllables to warrant outrageous management consulting fees. If I want others to do something, I do it first.

As I sit sipping coffee and typing words, a little boy across the room is climbing all over a chair, bouncing, sitting upside down, and generally doing everything to the chair that you shouldn’t do. It is evident that the parent hasn’t modeled the reason and use of chairs.

I have sat in business offices and watched new employees doing everything on company time that is like the little boy and the chair. It is evident that the supervising employees haven’t modeled what is deemed as appropriate uses of company time. Hmm.

As a manager, have you eaten asparagus in front of the new employees and proclaimed their goodness? Hmm. Let’s do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

A simple question can start a meaningful conversation that prevents bad things from happening.

As I write this post, our elected representatives ended a partial shutdown of our Federal government a couple of days ago. Such shutdown set some type of record and brought lots of grief to thousands of people. I know this involves politics and as such raises blood pressures and the volume of speech but keep reading as the solution is applicable to many different situations.

Before such a standoff occurs, gather the folks in a room and ask, “What do you want?”

Answer honestly and candidly.

“Well, we have certain constraints here, what can we eliminate so that you have what you want?”

Further honest and candid conversation as both sides say what they want with brevity and clarity.

No on belittles what the other wants.

Note: if what you want is to embarrass the other party, say so. Honesty and candor are essential.

Oh, you want to embarrass me? Okay, I can take some ribbing and be the butt of your jokes. What else?

I can picture our current elected representatives engaging in such. Perhaps I am silly, but I can picture this. I can also picture the needless loss suffered by thousands of innocent bystanders.

Move to my regular day-to-day job. Same question applies. Same honesty and candor applies. Same conversation applies. We can do better with simple questions like, “What do you want?”