Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Revisiting an old post in a new era. The idea is pretty good now more than ever.

Way back in 2009, I wrote a little post about the magic words, “Up until now.” These words imply that, while I have always lacked something or other, I can change my future and not be tied to the past.

This past week, I read something in the Washington Post about cuts in government spending and employment and gosh golly the world was coming to an end. The article ended with:

The two employees said they cannot imagine how their agency is going to fare with the current wave of cases.

To which I hopefully add, “up until now.” In the past, they could not imagine how their agency is going to fare. Now, however, they can. They can imagine how. They can change.

I am not naive. I know that article is about politics and political parties and philosophies and all those things. Still, we can change. We can sit and sigh and sulk for a moment because someone has done something that turns our world the wrong way. Then the moment is over. This is a new moment with new possibilities. We are not tied to the past. We can do things differently. Yes, we can. Let’s do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

An old book refreshes how to write to someone else.

I recently found an old book—old meaning 40 years old. “How to use the power of the printed word” was published in 1985. It comprises a dozen essays from famous folks of that day about writing and reading and such.

I am still early in the collection of essays. The first essay is from Malcolm Forbes. He writes about writing a business letter. His little bit of advice is:

Write the entire letter from his point of view

The letter is about the other person. It is from their point of view about their situation in their life and their business with their people. Instead of beginning with, “My name is Dwayne and I want a job working for you.” Begin with, “You have built an organization of folks who serve the public with your great public-serving things… I wish to work alongside your folks and serve the public…” Or something like that.

It is about the other person—not me. Sure, I come in later, but I come in later. The other person is first. Describe the other person’s situation. Describe the change that I can bring as if the change already exists. That means to write in the present tense. “Your folks know linear algebra and that allows them to do this and that to better serve the public.” Later, I wish to bring my background in linear algebra.

It is about the other person. Simple. Easy to forget. Let’s not forget.

by Dwayne Phillips

Everyone is building a big(ger) datacenter. Fine. Let’s use some sense while we are at it.

Everyone is building a big(ger) datacenter. If you are going to build one, you must build it bigger than the one across the fence. Louisiana building a $10 Billion datacenter? Mississippi must build a $15 Billion datacenter. And Texas, well everything is bigger in Texas.

Okay, lots of concrete and steel and copper wiring and here come all those computers. Big money. Many jobs during construction and a few jobs during operation.

And all those computers produce heat.

Let’s use some sense here folks. Pipe that heat to the nearby people to heat their homes in the winter and heat water the rest of the year. Good grief, let’s not build the world’s largest air conditioner. That is nonsense.

And then there is water. Water helps cool the computers. Run the water around in a circle so it cools the computers and then cools itself. Down the drain? Nonsense. Evaporate? Nonsense.

Let’s use some sense. Cost too much? Good grief. How much? Those who use the computing power in these datacenters are the richest companies in the history of the world. They can afford a few pennies here and there.

Let’s use some sense.

by Dwayne Phillips

Let’s consider what it means to be responsible.

Responsible

Responsable

response able

able to respond

Are you responsible for something?

No, that’s not my responsibility! Oh, you are completely unable to respond to that?
Well, no, but er uh how did I get into this conversation?

by Dwayne Phillips

It isn’t flattering to understand that what I do is quite predictable.

Ah these AI chattering bots—they are amazing. Type a question, they call it a prompt, in plain English and out pops answers, sometimes as long as books, in plain English. This is amazing!

Well, the software looks at a bunch of numbers and such that has been gathered. It predicts the next word that is most likely. An example prompt is, “There is a town in Texas that has the same name as a big city in France. That town name is what?”

The answer is Paris. That’s just the most likely word given all the numbers calculated by reading all the stuff on the Internet. Predictable. Simple.

Wait a minute…writing is predictable. Answering questions is predictable. So much of this amazing stuff is predictable. What I do all day is … predictable. Yikes! If I am so predictable, then software can predict and do my job.

Hmm. Perhaps I should be doing something that is not so predictable. Perhaps I should be producing something that is not so predictable. Perhaps…

by Dwayne Phillips

Here is an attempt to gain value from a chattering bot by wording the prompt a little differently.

These chattering bots are everywhere. Some value is gained while some skill is lost. I thought of a better prompt:

Find, display the URL, and display a few sentences from three key commentaries regarding fill-in-the-blank.

“Three” is a arbitrary small number, so replace as you see fit.

Here are some examples:

1. Find, display the URL, and display a few sentences from three key commentaries regarding the use of the robo ump in baseball.
2. Find, display the URL, and display a few sentences from three key commentaries regarding value gained vs. skill lost in using a chatbot.
3. Find, display the URL, and display a few sentences from three key commentaries regarding the use of the Oxford comma.

I like the results better than using, “What are the arguments for and against fill-in-the-blank.”

Just a musing on a Saturday morning.

by Dwayne Phillips

Perhaps these chattering bots fulfill the role I requested.

Some ten years ago, I wrote about The Round Table of Librarians. Since all the knowledge of the world was on the Internet, we just searched for it with Google et al. and found it. What were we to do, however, if we couldn’t think of the right terms for the great searchers? We would go to a group of experts, talk to them, and they would tell us the correct search terms to find what we wanted.

Now we have the chattering bots. Ask them for advice. Type to them vague notions of things. Viola’. They find stuff.

Have we corrected the situation? Well, I think we have better capabilities in our tools, but no, I don’t think we corrected the situation. I still find great value in a group of people who can provide advice.

There is something good that I cannot quantify in spending time with smart people. Let’s not forget that. Let’s treasure that. This is not a blog post advocating return to the office and stop all telecommuting. Nevertheless, let’s note the value of time well spent.

by Dwayne Phillips

Abbreviations have real purposes. Laziness is not one of them.

I see many abbreviations these days. Most are acronyms (TBD, F/U/W, Apr, etc.) that are not expanded. Funny thing, I read in an authoritative book at some point in time that abbreviations were used for:

1. Save space on a page or PowerPoint or such.
2. Faster note taking like short hand writing.

Please note “to save typing when there is plenty of space on the page or PowerPoint or such” is not in the list of uses for abbreviation. If you want to save typing, type some abbreviation and follow that with a find-and-replace with the actual term. Otherwise, I am just being lazy.

We can do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes success brings failure. Sometimes success brings anxiety. Note Wikipedia as an example.

Back when Wikipedia was young (I am old enough to remember that), it was fun. I would write articles for it. I would put photographs in it to add some depth to some articles. Joy. Experiment. Learn.

Then Wikipedia became THE ENCYCLOPEDIA of all encyclopedias. Does anyone remember when Microsoft tried to distribute an encyclopedia on a CD? I digress.

Once Wikipedia succeeded in the eyes of some people, well, we started to worry and fuss. Who is editing those articles? That is political! X-wing folks are trying to take over and slant the world towards X. We shouldn’t have all that X. Replace X with fill-in-the-blank or some sort of evil.

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. Back when I would write articles, I was constantly reminded to write in the style of an encyclopedia. Just the facts. Cut the adjectives and adverbs. Date, places, numbers, facts. Boring. Not so much fun. And boy, cutting those adjectives and adverbs brings anxiety.

An encyclopedia is supposed to sort of be boring. Sorry about that. If you want opinion, read the National Enquirer.

by Dwayne Phillips

Do you have a great idea for a story? If you can write one sentence, there you go.

“I have a great idea of a story,” said a a person who has a writer as a friend. The person continues with, “I will tell you the idea, you write the story, and we’ll share the (really big anticipated) profits.”

Several things to note here: (1) there are no really big profits in 999,999 of 1,000,000 stories, (2) everyone has great ideas for stories, (3) writers actually write the stories, and (4) that is the difference between writers and everyone else.

Moving on, here are some tips for the person with the great idea. First, write the great idea on a piece of paper with a pencil.

“These guys rob a bank by bulldozing an ATM and grabbing all the cash.”

Expand “these guys.” You don’t have to write sentences or paragraphs, just grab another piece of paper and write something like: (1) three white males, (2) age 23, (3) high school grads, (4) work for the construction company owned by one of their uncles, (5) live in the wheat farming area of Kansas, (6) it is the year 2024, (7) all three are single.

Now there are seven things about “these guys.” We can change any of those seven to change the story. For example, they are all married, they live in Brooklyn, New York, or both. Perhaps it is the year 2020 in the beginning of COVID-19. Those and other changes change the story.

Move to the next thing and expand “bank.” Grab another piece of paper and write something like: (1) convenience store, (2) edge of a small town, (3) owned by a dreaded enemy from high school, (4) has gas pumps, (5) keeps all the cash in a safe cemented in the floor.

Now there are five things about “the bank.”

Step through everything else in the one sentence that began the story. Expand (1) bulldozer, (2) grabbing, and (3) cash. Now there are about … let’s see 5 times 5 times 5 times 5 times 5 … and that is, uh, carry the two, add the seven, and there are over 3,000 different ways to make the original one-sentence story real. There are probably some crazy combinations with some really funny and some really frightening.

Okay, six pieces of paper: (1) original sentence, (2) expansion of “these guys,” (3) expansion of bank, (4) expansion of bulldozer, (5) expansion of grabbing, and (6) expansion of ATM. Cut pages (2) through (6) so that there is one item per cut. Randomly pull one item from each pile. Look at it. Write it? Try again. Write it? And so on.

Here is another variation: start writing the story and then change one item. Two out-of-towners show up and now there are five guys. Maybe two females join and now we have three guys and two gals. Make the gals 66 years old. Gosh. I lost track of the stories we could write.

Got a great idea for a story? Don’t bother your friend the writer.