Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Folks out there in the crowd are clobbering the high-tech giants and everyone else they want to clobber.

Yet another essay appears about how open-source software projects appear faster than systems produced by high-tech giants full of experts. Computing power is so inexpensive that there are many, many, many folks out there with the power needed to do big things in software. Someone out there hears an idea being worked at one of the tech giants, implements the idea this weekend, and releases the system on Monday.

Part of this concept goes to “The Wisdom of Crowds” by James Surowiecki. That book copied and was copied by many others. And the concept of the crowd goes back dozens of centuries.

Today, we have the crowd sitting around in front of computers with software that allows folks to write software. “It’s just software” is what I used to have on my business card. If you can think of it, you can write it in software and have it. It is a little more difficult than that, but that trite saying works.

And then we have the “hacktivists.” We don’t know what to call these folks and we certainly don’t know what to do with them. Hacktivists are living in their grandparents basements and piddling around on their computers. They have the technical resources and the physical and mental energy to do what they imagine.

Hacktivists messed up the Russian invasion of Ukraine by hacking into the rail system of Belarus and fouling the Russian logistics needed to conduct a successful invasion. These were not hackers employed by any world government. These were just folks sitting around who were angry and did something. Were they mercenaries? Were they contractors? We don’t know what they were.

A hacktivist broke into Uber in late September “just for fun.” Of course it was a teenager living in the family basement who did it.

Hacktivists took down the web sites of several US states in early October. These folks were “pro-Russian.”

The hacktivists are part of the crowd. The open-source software programmers are part of the crowd. The computing crowd has tens or hundreds of millions of members.

If you are part of a large organization (government, successful company, et al), watch out for the crowd.

by Dwayne Phillips

It seems that everyone wants to say or write AI or artificial intelligence these days. Please stop misusing the term.

Our Federal Trade Commission wants to regulate AI. The lack of literacy is astounding, but then again, this is the pinnacle of regulating instead of creating. The FTC, with all its good intentions, is not talking about AI. They are talking about noticing and marketing. Those are things that businesses have done since businesses were in business.

This is, “We noticed that you go to the grocery store on Tuesday, so we will send you a sale paper or email on Monday evening.”

Collecting the information (everyone calls it “data” nowadays) to notice when I go to the grocery store might be abusive. Then again, it might be helpful to me as well as to the folks running the grocery store (“here comes that old man who still uses cash”).

Of course, those folks who tend to abuse others might use all this to abuse others since that is the type of folks they are. That is a shame, but we have yet to figure out how to right laws that cause abusive folks to stop being abusive.

Funny, we haven’t mentioned AI in all this. I guess that is because AI has nothing to do with it. If you know anyone at the FTC, please mention this to them.

by Dwayne Phillips

A recent major survey shows that managers and the managed disagree on what work is and isn’t.

Microsoft recently surveyed 20,000 persons across 11 countries about work. The result:

• 87% of the managed felt they worked as, or more, efficiently from home
• 80% of managers felt that at-home workers weren’t working

Here is my explanation: the two groups were talking about two different things.

The managed were talking about work that is necessary to keep the organization operating, meeting its mission, serving the customers, satisfying the stockholders, etc.

The managers were talking about the above PLUS the work they assigned here and there, now and then.

The managed were doing the necessary work in less time in that they accomplished it in two or three hours a day. That is opposed to an 8 1/2-hour day in the office plus 1 1/2 hours of commuting. Two hours to accomplish the work of a ten-hour day is a leap in productivity. The managed are doing great.

The managers, however, were not seeing the extra work they assigned here and there, now and then. That work was not being worked. This at-home stuff was bad.

In my 40 years working in the office, I have seen much of the extra work assigned here and there, now and then. Since everyone is here (thinks the manager) and doesn’t have any necessary work to do, I’d like to see them do such and such. They need something to do. Here is something.

That extra work assigned here and there, now and then was a waste of time. The managed knew it was, but did it anyways because they weren’t allowed to go home, so they had to do it. Now, they don’t have to do it.

There are too many of the managed. Organizations can get by with half the employees they used to have. Would that increase unemployment to unmanageable levels? I doubt it. There is supposed to be a labor shortage, but I don’t see that. I see some organizations with too much extra labor on hand and other organizations who cannot hire the extra labor. There are probably some labor categories in some locations that have shortages. I think those are in the great minority.

What is work? I guess that depends on your perspective.

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes, if you wait a week before writing something, you can write it well and quickly.

Here is a writing technique that works for me. Try it; it may work for you.

I think about something for a week. No great concentration, but thinking now and then, off and on, having conversations with myself in my mind.

Then I sit at the keyboard, and bang it out in an hour. Finished.

This works if I have a week. What if I don’t? I make a week. Sometimes I delay the due date. Sometimes I compress the things I do over a week (think now and then, talk to myself) into a day or an hour. That isn’t easy, but it works for me.

There is something about time. There is something about “mulling it over.” There is something about waiting until a writer is ready before writing. Wait for the right time.

by Dwayne Phillips

Is it a data leak or an information share? Perhaps it is both; perhaps it is for the greater good.

An old question has been asked again several times recently. Several decades ago I read of the non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that the chip makers in Silicon Valley had. Employees signed legal documents stating that if they left this company for another company, they wouldn’t tell the other company how this company made stuff.

For the most part, these NDAs held. People did not reveal the secrets of patents and obvious things.

For the most part, these NDAs didn’t hold. A person on the job, any job, does what they know how to do. They don’t stop and ask themselves, “Hmmm, I learned how to chop tomatoes at the last restaurant, I signed an NDA there, so do I have to act like I don’t know how to chop tomatoes?”

These little odds and ends of knowledge learned elsewhere spill from one employer to the next. One result was that an entire regional industry advanced quickly. The knowledge shared quietly and in small pieces among the companies improved all of them.

I am now working for my fourth company in the last 14 years. I use the knowledge gained from the first three companies while working for the fourth company. Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I? I use the knowledge gained from personal study over the last forty years on all of these jobs. Of course I do.

Is that a data leak (a big no no)? Is that information sharing (a big plus to everyone)?

by Dwayne Phillips

A new acronym for each day: what did you learn today?

I have read about a new trend called “quiet quitting” in which persons earn their paycheck (a necessary component) and do not more. They are not climbing the ladder or whatever we call is these days. They work hard and then stop working.

What do you do with the rest of the day and its precious resources?

Learn.

Yes, learn. Grow. Do something more that may come in handy one day. Hence, I have a new acronym to go along with WDYWT (what did you write today, a form of learning). What did you learn today?

Take a few of your newfound moments (remember, you earned your paycheck by working, now you have a few moments), recall the day, and jot down what you learned today. Write it on a sticky note and stick it on the door or the wall or the sliding glass door. Soon that thing will be covered with new learnings. This is great stuff or it can be great stuff.

by Dwayne Phillips

Most tasks provide us with something and information. Often the information is more important than the something. Often the information is something we already know. If that is the case, skip the task.

Testing is a task that provides information. Well let’s back up: a good test provides information we can use.

Building a model is a task that provides information. Let’s build a model of a building, put it on a table, and show the neighbors how it fits in the surrounding area. That provides information to the neighbors and to us.

I could go on with designs, first drafts, and all sorts of things that help us do our work, but really provide information.

We now reach the question that is the title of this post: what will this tell us?

A model of a building sitting on a table will tell me how the building looks in the surrounding area. If I already know that information because of my experience with buildings and the surround area, the information is neither new nor useful. It is a waste of time to build that model.

A preliminary design of a system will tell me what I know about the system and tell others the same. If we all have experience with this type of system and know everything about it, the preliminary design is a waste of time.

I could go on and on with examples. Does the task provide information I don’t have? If yes, do the task. If I already know the situation, the task provides nothing new and nothing useful. The task is a waste of time.

What will this tell us? If the answer is, “Nothing new and nothing useful.” Skip it.

And be wise when skipping tasks. There are risks, but often they are quite small.

by Dwayne Phillips

Stop worrying about the next technology. Do something simple that has all the functions you need.

The database. Sigh. Gosh, what is next? What is the next database technology that will solve all my problems?

Requirements: Enter information. Find entered information. Read entered information. Change entered information.

Solution: The ASCII text file.

The text file meets all the requirements. What is more, it met them 30 years ago and will still work 30 years from now.

Use Notepad (Windows), TextEdit (Mac), emacs or Vim (Unix and those other two as well). I think these things also run on iPhones and Android phones and all the tablets.

There must be a catch. No, there isn’t. I can put all my recipes in this text file. I can list the titles and authors of all the books I have ever owned or read. I can find these things later. I can alter them and copy them and morph them into something else and do all sorts of things that I want to do.

Simple. Do something simple that moves you in the desired direction.

Buy something? Analyze something? If that is what you want to do, do it. If you want a database that works, just do a text file. If you want to do something, do something simple in the right direction.

by Dwayne Phillips

Each generation laments how no one recognizes how special they are. Well, sort of. Times change, ya’ know?

I just saw another one of these things online. It was a black and white photo of kids on their bicycles in the street. We were the last generation to ride bikes in the neighborhood. We used a clothes pin to attach a playing card to the bike. The playing card flapped in the spokes of the wheel. It made the bike sound like a motorcycle for at least two minutes, then it tore itself to bits.

We were the last generation to eat Kool-Aid from the package and turn our tongues purple or red or green or something.

Alas, time. It moves. Of course we were the last generation to…

I am writing this on Saturday, September 3rd, 2022. This day is unique in the history of mankind. Those alive today will be the only persons in human history to be alive today. We are special. If you don’t believe me, well, you just are worth believing anything obvious or some put down that I can state about you who don’t think I am really special and so are all the others in my arbitrary “generation.”

Alas, time. It moves. Today is unique; tomorrow will be unique, and so will the day after. I will be the last person alive to write this blog post. See, I’m unique and special. Well, there are probably a million other folks out there writing blog posts today. Maybe I’m not so unique.

Alas, time. It moves. Enjoy today. Watch some kids doing whatever it is those unique kids in their unique generation are doing on this unique day. Smile. No one else will ever experience today again.

by Dwayne Phillips

We need more explainers. These are persons who answer the question, “Whatcha’ doin’?”

• Whatcha’ doin’?
• Hows’it work?
• How ya’ doin’?

These are simple questions. These are the basic questions we ask others all the time. Often, we repeat the question six or seven times in different forms and still don’t receive an answer. Why? Because we don’t have enough explainers.

An explainer has the ability to answer a basic question. An explainer can understand a question and answer that question instead of answering 531 other questions.

The explainer gives the who, what, where, when, why, and how.

Somehow, the explainer keeps track of those things, sticks to those things, and doesn’t wander off into the weeks.

The explainer understands how much detail the person asking the question wants.

For some reason, we don’t have many explainers hanging around. Those of us who are explainers are quite irritated by those who either cannot or do not want to explain.