Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

When introducing something new, it helps to do something useful at the beginning and then delve into more details and more powerful capabilities later.

I am interested in robotics, software, and my grandchildren. The intersection of these centers on my grandchildren and finding things for them to do when they visit me. I want them to visit me often, and if they have something interesting to do, they will visit me often. Learning for both me and my grandchildren is a big side benefit.

There are many little projects that we could do. One problem exists with the many took kits out there: it takes hours and hours of effort to do the first thing. There are simple tool kits that will do one thing with minimal time and effort. That, however, is the end. The tool kit does nothing else.

We can acquire many other tool kits that will do just about anything we can imagine. The problem with these is that they require many hours of effort before anything happens. There is no positive feedback to keep a person going.

This situation of tool kits not doing anything early extends far beyond robotics kits and grandchildren. I have seen it many times in my profession. You need three weeks of training before you can hit the power on button. Gosh.

Systems need to do something useful right out of the box. The users need some feedback—now. Exhortations of, “Yes, this is really slow at first, but after a while you will see the benefits,” don’t work. In the real working world “after a while” almost never arrives. People have jobs to do—now. People need tools that provide help—now. Show people benefit now, and they will continue with the tool.

We can do this. We can do better than “benefit will come after a while.” That applies to working professionals and grandchildren as well.

by Dwayne Phillips

Doing something that goes beyond what is required often leads to discovery, and discovery may be a wonderful unintended result.

Many years ago (in the last century), I was involved in an upgrade to an existing system. There were new requirements that required new capabilities. Some of the computing hardware was to be replaced with newer, better, faster, cheaper, etc. Great stuff.

And while we were at it (here it comes), how about replacing some of the other old computing hardware with newer hardware? The old hardware met all requirements. We had spare parts for the old hardware. The old hardware would far outlast the system. Why would anyone replace the old stuff with new stuff? In that (hi)story, we didn’t replace the old hardware and everything worked just fine.

Fast forward to this century and I ran into a similar situation. We had a functioning system. Some of the computing hardware was old. Some of the engineers wanted to replace it with newer hardware. Why?

One of the young engineers told me, “We are tired of the old stuff. You will never be able to hire a new engineers once they see that you are using old, outdated technology. Come on, we are all sick of this.”

Hmmm. This young engineer had several good points. We replaced the old stuff with new stuff.

The performance of the new stuff far exceeded the requirements. We had lots of extra computing power on hand. And then the unintended happened:

We discovered new opportunities.

Discovery is an unintended result. We “discover” things we don’t know exist. We don’t go looking for them, but there they are.

In that (hi)story, we discovered new opportunities. We talked to the system’s users. They liked the opportunities. We expanded and then fulfilled the requirements. The system became more capable and successful—all because some young engineer convinced this old engineer that updating already functioning hardware was needful.

I don’t endorse waste. I endorse fulfilling requirements. There are times, however, when doing more with new stuff provides discovery. And that is usually a good thing.

by Dwayne Phillips

We invent new ways of being lazy in communicating. It sort of sets us apart from the ignorant masses.

I did a Google search on “Kubernetes.” The result:

Kubernetes, also known as K8s, is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.

Oh, containerized applications. Of course.

Jargon in terms of jargon. That isn’t new, but it seems to be gaining popularity.

“Oh, you don’t know the jargon ‘containerized applications?’ Well, you obviously are behind the times or behind the curve or some disdainful position of inferiority to me. I won’t soil myself by speaking English. And besides, that is too much work for me.”

Sigh. Well, we try to move on and push back the edge of ignorance or something. Kubernetes manages jargon which points to another layer of jargon which points to another layer of jargon and so forth. After several years of attempting to understand Kubernetes (just one example), I still haven’t been able to peel back all the layers of jargon. There is yet another layer that I must dig through to find a foundation.

Perhaps this is one of those tests that some people feel obligated to apply to other people. If you cannot pass the test, you do not deserve to be with us.

More than likely, this is just another version of being lazy. It is too much work to understand something well enough to explain it in plain English.

We struggle on. Someone will enter the room one day and explain Kubernetes or something else in plain English. At that time either the someone will be given untold riches for their efforts or the jargon of the day will collapse as everyone else will see that the emperor has no clothes.

by Dwayne Phillips

A writer can write 2,400 words in an hour and thereby finish a novel in 14 days (three weeks). Why don’t we?

The average typing speed is 40 words per minute. That is 2,400 words per hour. If you write three hours a day and rest your hands the remainder of the day, you write 7,200 words a day. A 100,000-word novel, which is pretty long by today’s standards, would take less than 14 days. Take off the weekends, and there is a novel in three weeks.

Pretty simple, right? And so why doesn’t this happen often?

The writer is not in the mood. Don’t like “moods” and emotions? Okay, the writer was not in the right frame of mind.

Start with “In the beginning” and end with “The End.” If you are in the right mood or frame of mind, the stuff in the middle flows as fast as you can type.

Silly idea? No. That is how I write this and other blog posts. I am writing this one as fast as I can type. (I am currently riding in a van while typing these words as fast as my wobbly lap will allow.) I am in the right frame of mind to write this piece.

I have a long list of blog posts to write. I picked this from the list because I felt like it. The “energy was right” for it (yet another cliche’). I write the pieces that are right for the time and place and mind of the moment. I have written half a dozen such pieces in half an hour at times. Everything was right.

Okay, now what if you are told to write something “at work” and don’t feel like it. Look at the paycheck. Gather what mood or energy you can from the money and start typing. Its just a paycheck and not love, so it isn’t as important as this little piece about writing as fast as you can type (at least not to me).

What is important to you at this time? Write that piece at this time.

Do you have some sort of quota of assignments to complete in some period of time? Write the ones that flow. When in the writing mood, write extra pieces so they are sitting at the ready when you have to do something and are not in the mood. There are ways to “game the system” and be ahead.

I find it much more fun to write things when I am in the mood for writing them.

Now, how fast can I type? (Not much more than the average. Too bad.)

by Dwayne Phillips

We seem to create silly rules about silence. This is another one of those, “What happens here stays here.”

We create silly rules about silence. I wrote about one earlier in this blog, “Silence is agreement.” Nonsense.

Another that just came to mind is, “What is said here stays here.” That permits “open discussion” without fear of retribution or something or other.

Nonsense. If someone in this discussion admits to a crime I am not allowed to call the police and report it? Nonsense.

Of course no one would admit to a crime in these discussions. Really? Of course they would. People admit to all sorts of odd things when they have a belief that no one will say anything to anyone else.

Watch our language. That includes saying things like, “What is said here stays here.” Some people interpret things literally.

by Dwayne Phillips

There is much hyperbole in the technology field these days. There are three words that can eliminate that hyperbole. Be polite when using them.

Over the years I have heard many amazing statements from people concerning something or other in the field of technology. I have mostly worked in computing over the decades, and computing is one area of technology where astounding gains happen daily. Wow! Wow! Wow!

Sometimes, however, I have heard amazing things that were really just too amazing to believe. I mean, if some of them were actually true, the world would change overnight.

I have learned three words that have helped me find the difference between the astounding regular achievements and the just-too-amazing-to-be-true. These are:

Please show me.

Many people hate to hear these words. The amount of disdain of the request is usually a good indicator of what is happening. Those who have astounding gains are usually happy to show them. Not always, but most of the time. Those with unfounded hyperbole are usually upset at the request.

Two things happen when the request is granted. One, oh my. It is here. Wow. This is truly astounding. How can we use this?

Two, oh my, we can’t find it. Perhaps it doesn’t exist. This appears to be unfounded hyperbole. Never mind. I won’t spread the rumors.

There is a variation on case two: perhaps we haven’t learned yet how to show it to people. There are things we know exist, but we haven’t created a way to see them. That is rare, but it exists.

Still, use the three words. Smile when you say them and be polite.

by Dwayne Phillips

Big data? What we usually do is automate work on data that is too big to work manually.

I used to work on a project where the project leader would tell people, “We work big data.”

I was frequently asked (later after the project leader left the room), “What is big data?”

Pause to reflect. Consider WalMart. They have thousands of stores in America and other countries. They have many cash registers in every store. They have many customers at every cash register in every store in every country, and we have many, many, many individual items bought.

WalMart collects all that. Every single item sold is stored and analyzed. They don’t throw away any of it (those in government could learn many lessons here). That is big data. I don’t know how many individual items WalMart sells in a day or a minute, but it is a big number and that is big data.

The rest of us are not WalMart or Apple or Amazon or any other outfit that has many, many transactions per minute. The rest of us are trying to do our jobs with the data and questions that we have. The rest of us struggle to finish the work by the end of the day so we can go home and eat dinner.

The rest of use work with too big data. It is too big for the rest of us to do manually. The rest of don’t have the resources to automate the work so that we can do it in minutes instead of days. The rest of us just try to get by. The data is too big.

Solutions? Yes, there are many. The rest of us are happy to hear about them and hoping that someone will bring them to us so we can handle the data that is too big and we can go home on time and eat dinner.

by Dwayne Phillips

Caution to the unemployed: beware of “just do this test” before we interview you. There are plenty of fake jobs out there that use one con or another to obtain free work.

This recent article is about fake jobs. Con artists on the Internet are tricking people into believing they have been hired and are doing work for pay. Surprise. After working for a few weeks, the “hired” person learns that there is no pay, no job, no company, nothing. They have done real work for someone for no compensation other than learning about fake jobs on the Internet.

I constantly warn writers and editors to be wary of “tests” that companies want us to take before hiring us. They are perfect setups for doing actual work—not test work—and receiving no pay and never getting a job.

This comes as “take our editing” test. I once did this for a company everyone knows (I won’t mention their name). I worked 12 hours editing papers. I heard nothing from them for six weeks. After hours of searching and calling, I spoke to a person about the test editing I had submitted. Five minutes later I received an email stating that my editing was substandard. It took them five minutes to judge 12 hours of work? No. It was a scam and a con. I had done real work for them at no pay. It wasn’t a test. (Can I prove this? No. But really, folks.)

Job interviews can be the same. They are job interviews, not consulting sessions. “Tell us about a difficult situation and what you did to handle it.” That is a consulting session. The applicant is teaching the interviewer techniques. Don’t answer other than, “I have plenty of experience with difficult situations. Some I handled well, others I didn’t. I have learned from these and my rate of success is much higher now than when I was 21.”

“But what did you do?” is the next question.

Answer, “My techniques for working through difficult situations is what makes me a person you want to hire. I am happy to teach these techniques, but that comes with a fee.”

The job interview becomes a fake job. “Teach us your techniques (at no pay).”

There are plenty of other schemes, scams, and cons out there. When I am unemployed, I am vulnerable to these things. Beware. Sometimes you take the work because what else are you going to do. Beware.

By Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves what it is that computers can and cannot do.

Computers are taking over the world. Well, maybe not. Let’s recall what a computer can do.

A computer can tell if a light bulb is on or off.

That’s about it folks. Nothing more. Everything else is what us folks teach them simple machines to do.

We taught the simple machine to store data and bring it back when we ask. We taught the simple machine how to be a word processor and a spreadsheet. We taught the simple machine to show us pretty pictures and make the pictures move. We taught the simple machine to do all the things that the simple machine does for us.

And one day, we combined the simple machine with a radio and made it into a “smart” telephone. Boy that changed everything. What a good idea. Or was it a good idea? I predict the day when doctors who operate on sore necks and sore wrists and elbows will rule the world.

But I digress from light bulbs to surgeons who will rule the world. (Wait, did I write that correctly?)

Regardless of whom will rule the world, I doubt it will be a computer. That is, unless we teach it how to rule the world. Then again, it doesn’t appear that we have mastered the art of ruling the world. We are still waiting for someone to teach us that one.

by Dwayne Phillips

That job is a “meat grinder.” It has chewed up several people. Stay away. Or do we simply need to reframe the situation?

While writing this, I have spent much of the past week(s) looking at the help wanted ads and talking to several companies about their job openings. Several of the job openings can fairly be labeled as “meat grinders.” Look at the recent past and you see that several people were in the job for less than a year and left it for something better. That job grinds up people and pushes them out the door.

Stay away from meat grinders.

Or perhaps we can reframe the situation. Instead of “meat grinder” we might say:

• People have used the job as a springboard for other opportunities. Instead of “meat grinder” it’s a “springboard.”
• People have used the job to learn what they want in life and move to that desired place. Instead of “meat grinder” it’s a “life goal learner.“

We could go on with these reframes. It is all in the mind. And, come to think of it, the mind is one of the best places to be.

And one final reframe, it would be fascinating to learn what it is about the job that has caused people to leave quickly and then reverse those fortunes into something else. The “meat grinder” becomes “a prime place for learning and reframing.”

We are able to choose. Let’s not forget that.