Working Up

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.

by Dwayne Phillips

Someone will take the next great solution and turn it into the next great problem.

I am pretty sure that today someone will arrive with the next great solution. That will solve some great problem that has plagued us far longer than plaguing should have plagued us.

Then, some time after now, someone will find the next great problem in today’s next great solution. It is only a matter of time and some amount of plaguing. These next great solutions are never perfect.

These giant windmills that generate renewable electricity are great. Oh, after a few years, some of those incredible giant blades have problems. We replace the blades, restore operations, and then try to figure out what to do with the old blades. The next great invention of those blades means they are made from wonder materials that are a composite compositions of composable synthetic materials that won’t degrade in the ground for a few thousand long times into the unforeseen future. Hmmm. Now we have the next great problem. How do we decompose uncomposable composite materials?

Those electric cars are great. The next great solution to air pollution works. Then in a few years, the batteries won’t recharge and we have to do something with them, right? We have the next great problem. What do we do with all those chemicals?

Enough energy and environmental problems. We recently learned that some folks have implants in their eyes that allow them to see. That was the next great solution. Now we have the next great problem. That company went out of business. No one can maintain those implants. Those folks will be blind again and stuck with things in their eyes. What are we to do?

If someone merely had the foresight to understand the next great solution so that it wouldn’t bring the next great problem, we wouldn’t need the next great solution. I guess the next great solution we really need is a training program that provides the foresight to ensure the next great problem doesn’t arrive. Still, there is probably a next great problem lurking in that next great solution training program. I just haven’t thought of it, yet.

by Dwayne Phillips

Pandemic, hybrid, remote—it is still about people.

“Nobody quits companies. They quit managers.”—Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft

How do you manage distributed or remote teams? Same way you manage in any situation.

(1) You don’t manage people. You manage work. You lead people.

(2) You lead people who are remote the same way you lead people who are in the same room with you.

Explain: This is what we are doing. This is why we are doing it. I am going in this direction.

If others choose to go in that direction as well, they are following and you are leading. They will follow if following you is better than going in some other direction. Hence, to lead, pick a good direction to go.

Of course it is all more complicated and complex and convoluted than what I wrote above. If it were so simple, everyone would be doing it. If it were so simple, I wouldn’t be writing little pieces like this for 13 years. I would have written one or two pieces and been done with it.

Still, it is about people. If you cannot explain something to the people who are with you. Give up and do something else. If you cannot understand the people who are with you. Same.

by Dwayne Phillips

Hiring managers and job applicants are often poor with words. We all seem to be pretty good with numbers—especially the numbers that have a dollar sign in front of them.

The week I wrote this post I applied for a bunch of jobs and talked to an equal number of hiring managers. I am probably the world’s worst job-description reader. Am I a junior, mid, or expert butcher, baker, or candlestick maker? I just can’t tell by reading the description.

I can’t tell the difference between “intuitive” and “highly intuitive.” I guess I am just plain dense.

There is, however, one thing I can understand: salary. The salary for this job is $small number, $medium number, $big number. Aha! Now we are talking!

The problem is, no one wants to talk about numbers with dollar signs. There is something taboo about that. It is especially inappropriate for the job applicant to ask about salary. It implies that money is dirty and not the reason to work for an employer. I am tempted to say, “This is my monthly mortgage note. Will the take home pay for this job be less than, equal to, or greater than four times my note?”

At some point in the conversation—perhaps at the end of the third or fourth conversation—the hiring group will reveal the salary for the position. Yikes! That low? We could have saved a lot of time if you had said that last week before all this talking. Yikes! That high? I would have signed on the dotted line last week had you said that.

Funny thing about numbers with dollar signs. We all seem to understand those better than all the adjectives that are in (and many should not be in) the dictionary—and the job description.

by Dwayne Phillips

Expediting the fall of the nation state are the hacktivists or activist hackers.

We have had mercenaries for many centuries. These were soldiers hired by governments to fight battles for them. Sometimes nations hired the armies of other nations to do this. Sometimes nations hired individuals. And we have had Internet mercenaries. These are groups and individuals hired by governments to hack and disrupt other governments.

Now we have the hacktivist. These are individuals and small groups that are not hired by anyone. They simply hack governments for fun. Sometimes they hack their own government and sometimes they hack another government.

Is it illegal to hack a foreign government? I don’t know international law.

Anyways, these small groups decide that some government or other somewhere on the planet is doing wrong. The hacktivist pokes around the Internet to find a weak point and hacks in to disrupt something or just plain give someone a lot of extra headaches.

These are not nations foiling other nations. These are guys and gals still living in their parents’ basements who grew bored playing Grand Theft Auto and stealing BitCoins and are seeking some other thrill. Is that an exaggerated stereotype? Maybe, but maybe not.

The nation state seems to be in its last days or centuries. These hacktivist is speeding that decline.

by Dwayne Phillips

This bothers me—this bothers me often and deeply. We abbreviate or shorten descriptions of individual persons. We “lump them together” so as not to name individuals or describe them. Such removes accountability. This bothers me.

Here is a news story about the Congress of the United States. There are hundreds of such stories everyday. Someone is informing Congress about spending this or spending that or whatever.

How about instead of writing “Congress,” we write “persons elected to represent voters in their home districts and states.” Hmmm. That provides a different perspective, huh?

Simple response, “Well, that is too many words and everyone knows what Congress is and we sort of shortened that to one word and it has the same meaning and you know. Right?”

Well, this bothers me. I prefer writing the long version at the top of the news story and maybe using the shorter or abbreviated version in the rest of the news story. That way we are all reminded of whom we speak, how they appear, their homes, and their primary duties.

“Congress” is vague. I prefer precise, concrete, specific, and clear over vague.

And then we come to accountability. How about naming the specific elected representatives who were addressed by the group in this news story? How about we inform the reader about the origin of these individuals and something of their personal interest in the topic of discussion. Now we can hold these individuals responsible for their actions in this news story.

Well, that is all too long, too many words, too much space on the page, too expensive, too tiring, and all sorts of good excuses. Despite the goodness of the reasons, they are still excuses.

How about some clarity and accountability instead? Please.

by Dwayne Phillips

The Great Resignation? The Great what-do-we-call-it? How about the embarrassing realization that we have been grossly inefficient in much of what we have been doing the last 20 years?

We are in the midst of the Great Resignation. Record numbers of us are quitting our jobs and moving on to something better. At least we hope it is “better” in one way or another. Otherwise, why are we going to so much trouble?

Simple, “I don’t want to spend my day commuting. I can do my job from home.” Some persons are doing two “full-time jobs” from home.

Uh, wait. Let’s move away from fantasy and back to reality. Many of us have office jobs. We go to the office; we work, and we return home. Repeat daily.

And now, we have all these fancy pants folks telling us that they can do all the work from home in three or four hours instead of in eight “at the office.” And the embarrassing thing is, they are not stretching the truth. They can do it all from home in half the time and not commute.

Now comes the great embarrassment.

1. No one had to build all those expensive office buildings
2. No one had to hire all those managers to ensure people were motivated and working
3. No one had to live in an expensive urban center
4. And, the embarrassment that hits all us “workers,” no one had to spend all that time commuting

We are all embarrassed at how inefficient we all were. Why did we all waste so much time and money? Why did we all fail to realize that the tools for greater efficiency and greater productivity were right in front of us? Why did we all do these foolish things for so long?

Quick, find a scapegoat! Find someone to blame for all this. Gosh, this is embarrassing.