Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Some thoughts on a balance among job and life.

It is my job, not my entire life.

But it IS my job.

When at my job I should give it everything I have for that place and time.

Do my job.

Live my life.

Both are possible.

by Dwayne Phillips

Good tests and experiments provide useful information. Sometimes the information isn’t what we want to hear, but we need to keep the two separate.

In France recently, tests were performed to learn if roadways could generate electrical energy from the sun. They learned that roadways were not a good place for solar panels.

1. People were disappointed in the result.
2. The experiment was a success.
3. Sometimes we confuse the result of an experiment with the experiment itself.

A good test or experiment provides useful information. The above test was a good one as it showed that at this place, at this time, with current technology roadways are not good for solar panels.

Hence, 2. above. And 1. above.

3. above is common. Let us keep the experiment and the (often-desired) result separate.

by Dwayne Phillips

It can be a sobering question, but one that we should address.

Person A: Do you want to hire a scientist or a technician?

Person B: A scientist, of course.

Person A: But the job description lists a lot of tools, software and otherwise.

Person B: Yes, of course. The person needs to use these tools.

Person A: Do you want to hire a scientist or a technician?

Person B: silence

Person A: Technicians use tools. Scientists delve into scientific thought.

Person B: Well, maybe in theory, but we also need the scientist to…

Person A: Do technician jobs now and then.

Person B: Yeah, that’s right!

Person A: Okay, is the technician part of the job 10% or 90%.

Person B: Well, I guess like 20%.

Person A: Then make it 20% of the job description, 20% of the interview, 20% of the hiring decision, 20% of the performance evaluation, 20% of the…

Person B: Okay, I get it, but still…

Person A: There is no but. Do you want to hire a scientist or a technician?

by Dwayne Phillips

There are many things we can do to reduce the time required to complete tasks. Is that always a good thing?

If we do a task each day, let’s find a way to automate it. Surely we can write a little piece of software that will do it for us at the click of a button. Then we can move on to more important things.

But at what cost?

Cost? There is no cost. The cost to write the software will be earned back in a week. Henceforth, it is all profit. Let’s do it.

But at what cost?

Cost? You aren’t listening, get with it, try to keep up.

Time-consuming tasks that are not mind-consuming bring benefits. Such tasks—pick up the little waste basket, walk down the hall, dump it into a large waste basket, etc.—allow time for thinking.

Thinking is usually a good idea. It requires a few moments here and there. Let’s not eliminate all those moments.

by Dwayne Phillips

There are other words, but there are three basic things to consider in projects and project management, so let’s review these basics.

Time goes on. We have new methods and methodologies (let’s toss in a couple of extra syllables to trick in unknowing into thinking that we are thinking), but there are basics and now and then we should review them.

Performance: What is it? What is it we will have when we are finished? A cookbook? A reservation system? A social media platform? A bridge across a river? How good will it be? How difficult is it to make it? What could possibly go wrong?

Schedule: When? When will we start? When will we end? When will we be at a place where we have to decide something important? Where is our calendar? How difficult will it be for us to be at the right place at the right time? What could possibly go wrong?

Cost: How much? How much money will we need? How many persons will we need? What type of persons will we need? Do we have enough? Will we have enough? Does anyone have enough? Where will we get the money and persons? How difficult will it be to gather these? What could possible go wrong?

These are a few words, a few questions. There have been libraries written on these. I wrote a few books myself. Review a few now and then. It may provide some helpful insight.

by Dwayne Phillips

Instead of paying fines to “the Treasury,” how about we do something useful instead?

Facebook recently paid a $5Billion fine for violations of this or that. Lots of fussing about the “pain” felt by Facebook and the pain felt by those who were violated in this violation.

Let us consider, for a moment, the money.

$5Billion is a lot of money to me and most of the persons I know. $5Billion may not be a lot of money to Facebook or the US Treasury.

Why, however, does the money go from Facebook to the US Treasury. Did they drive a big truck full of money from Facebook headquarters to the Treasury building in Washington D.C.? Did one line of a spreadsheet here and a corresponding line of a spreadsheet there change? What really happened?

Here is an idea: have Facebook repave the roads in all the National Parks and put up signs stating such: “We did you wrong. As penitence, we are repaving these roads.”—Mark Zuckerburg.

Compare the two actions. What is more meaningful? What is more practical? Why do we modify the spreadsheet instead of repaving the roads?

by Dwayne Phillips

We reinvent the past and give it a new name.

IBM is pushing into the cloud computing business. They are “behind” the competition, but have hopes of making ground and money with “hybrid” technologies.

Let’s consider this idea of hybrid cloud. I trust the cloud provider to keep my stuff reliably and safely. Still, I’ll hedge my bets and keep my own copy on my own network, thank you.

Go back 20 years. I trust that disk drive hidden inside the computer to keep my stuff reliably and safely. Still, I’ll hedge my bets and keep my own copy on my own floppy disk, thank you.

I’ll hedge my bets and keep my own copy, thank you. The more things change, the more we repeat old cliches.

by Dwayne Phillips

Change is much easier said than done. We don’t have to let the past determine the future, but otherwise requires change.

Consider myself; I can change my future and make it different from my past

Consider others. What makes me believe that others will change? That they will behave differently in the future than they have in the past? What event will befall them that causes change? Let’s be serious, what?

Wishes usually aren’t reality. Changing behavior is one of the more difficult things that a person can do. Just consider myself. I want to do some things differently, but…how often do I change? How often do I lose weight, exercise more, read more, write more?

Others are similar to me.

by Dwayne Phillips

A group of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) folks sit at a table and dream. This is a fable. Don’t take it seriously folks.

One day in the cafeteria at a college, a group of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) persons gathered at a table near the patio. (Actually, it was a mildewed table in the corner know to everyone else as the “nerd table.”)

“We need to pull one over on the business majors,” suggested one person.

“Yeah,” added another. “Something big. A real big gag. Make them look foolish.”

“And,” chimed in a third, “do it in a way so that we make lots of money.”

“Yeah,” added a fourth. “Might as well make lots of money.”

They thought and they thought and they thought. They were good a sitting quietly and thinking at lunch. No one else noticed the quiet, deep thinking as that is what nerds did all the time.

“I’ve got it,” said one of the nerd…I mean STEMers. “Let’s create a new profession and convince the business majors that they need to hire that new profession.”

“But how will we make money?” asked another.

“Simple,” said the one who had the idea. “It is a profession so simple that all of us already know how to do it.”

He continued. “We all know problem solving, some statistics, math beyond all these business majors, some computer programming, some systematic approaches, and general principles.”

The others looked on curiously. They didn’t know what to say. Of course they all knew the things he mentioned. Who didn’t? Well, the others in the cafeteria didn’t, but there was lots they didn’t know.

“All we need now is a catchy name for this new profession,” said the first.

They all thought a minute longer.

“Let’s get a marketing major to find us a name,” suggested one.

“Yes!” said another. “I am tutoring a marketing major right now. I’ll give him a free session in exchange for a catchy name.”

The group gathered again several days later for lunch in the same, mildewed corner of the cafeteria.

“I have the name,” said one of them.

He wrote it on a napkin and passed it around the table. They all smiled. They all knew they would have jobs for the next decade and demand high, high salaries.

And that, boys and girls, is how we created…

Data Science.

(I told you this was a fable. Don’t take it seriously.)

by Dwayne Phillips

Systems engineering consumes resources. It isn’t “real engineering.” It, however, is usually necessary.

Systems engineering—one part of it—enables us to record what everything is and what everything does. But we already know that, duh! Or do we?

Consider an organization with three or 33 software systems.

• What does #1 do? #2?…#33?
• How does #13 differ from #23? from #33?
• Are there common parts? Unique parts? What are they?

Can we answer any of these questions with CERTAINTY? And CERTAINTY means if you answer one question wrong you don’t get paid this week. Well? Certain?

This is one result of not performing systems engineering. A group of persons starts with a basic problem and a basic system. We understand it. We hold it all in our heads. One day we awaken to a large group of persons (What is that new guy’s name? What does he do?) and a large number of large systems (What is the purpose of the TPS report?). The only persons who know what they are doing work in the Redundant Department of Redundancy.

Life at work isn’t funny or fun anymore. The resources consumed keeping track of everything and tracing everything to something worthwhile are worthwhile.