Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Is faster or slower better or worse? Or is it simply different timing and rhythm? And are there advantages to changing the timing and rhythm?

This past week I was in an office in a different city. Frustration, angst, and generally a lousy week of poor productivity. Just before the week ended, I understood the frustration, and then it went away.

It was all about timing and rhythm.

Andy Rooney used a manual typewriter until he died … in 2011. He tried and tried to use a computer, but it went too fast. The timing was different, and he couldn’t adjust to the timing, even though it was “better.”

My experience last week was “worse.” The computers were S L O W. I was three clicks ahead. I was not seeing what I expected. I was frustrated. This was worse.

I finally understood. Oh, the timing is different. Adjust to the difference in timing. This isn’t better or worse, it is different. Ah, that is better. This is okay. I actually had more time to think, more time to breathe. Some aspects of this timing were better. Perhaps I could adjust when I returned home to better thinking and better breathing. Perhaps I could adjust my timing and rhythm.

by Dwayne Phillips

Outsiders, drifters, those who aren’t like us. These are the persons we need the most.

We need people here and now who don’t belong here and now.

How else would we learn anything?

This is pretty simple. With a little thought, most of us would agree with it. Most of us, however, don’t practice it. We have plenty of “good” reasons why we don’t, but we don’t, and we lose the learning.

How much is learning worth to us? Please consider.

by Dwayne Phillips

Before embarking on a new database, or any new system, learn what it is we want and need.

“Let’s create a database to track this,” said an eager and well-meaning person.

“But,” interjected another well-meaning person, “do we know what we need or want or anything?”

My livelihood has been technology. Of course I will look to a technology to solve a problem. I, however, urge the use of time. Hence, I propose

The Longer than Necessary Law

Before building a database or other system “to help us keep track of things,” use a pencil and a clipboard to keep track of such things for a period of time that seems longer than necessary.

That period of time may be three months, six months, or even a year. Long pause (I have heard such many times). Really folks. If we don’t work at this for a long while, we won’t really understand what we need.

Who knows, maybe we can save a lot of precious resources by moving slowly.

by Dwayne Phillips

We are talking about this because this is what we are talking about now.

The preacher—the person on TED talks, the motivational speaker, the person next to you at the bar— preaches on the topics that we talk about in the parking lot, the hall ways, the grocery store, etc.

At work, we build the systems that people at work talk about in their fondest dreams.

They don’t stand up and shout, “I WANT THIS! I REQUIRE THIS!”

but they talk about it.

LISTEN.

by Dwayne Phillips

The clipboard and the pencil are perhaps the simplest yet effective tools for doing something important: recording history. And if we don’t have our history, we will repeat work and waste resources.

I was in high school—a long time ago in a place far, far away. It was the train station (no longer used) in Amite, Louisiana. Our high school was using the building to host a fund raiser.

As I was want to do, I wandered away from the organized activities to seek out something more interesting. I found papers on a dusty shelf from 1941 (sort of a famous year in American history). Someone with a clipboard and a pencil had written on them. This was history.

History is important. It is important to society as we have that saying about being doomed to repeat mistakes or something.

History is important to an organization attempting any endeavor worth attempting. If we don’t know what we did yesterday, we are apt to do it again today and waste lots of resources. How many of us have resources to waste?

I once saw a group of really smart people spend $20million building a database system to record the comings and goings of magnetic tapes from a storeroom. No kidding—these were really smart people. No kidding—they spent $20million of 1990 money. (Is that $30million or $40million today?)

All we needed to do back then was put a person at the door with a clipboard and a pencil. Take a tape out of the storeroom? Your name is recorded along with the tape you took. Bring the tape back? Your name is checked off the list. Don’t bring the tape back? We find you and the tape.

Of course this is a silly and trite example. Such examples of waste, however, often seem silly and trite.

Still, a person with a clipboard and a pencil can do an important and resource-saving task: record history.

Consider the cost and the savings.

by Dwayne Phillips

Adding to something can be difficult. The result is often less beautiful, less structurally pure, less this and that. Behold, however, the beauty of the “add on.”

You see them in houses. At least we used to see them. We still do in some rural areas where construction isn’t regulated too much.

A family grew (babies). Income grew. They added a bedroom. Then they added another. And then another.

A restaurant had more business. They added a dining room onto the left side of the building.

Software use grew. We added a few new features that the new users wanted.

Ugly? Maybe. Not fitting perfectly with the original architecture? Probably.

Beautiful? Absolutely. Someone succeeded. Someone grew. Someone added on.

by Dwayne Phillips

When will the curve bend? When should I change? Will I be willing to change?

There are curves we can draw that show cost, performance, and lots of things. Take note of them. Take note of the bend in the curve…

• when USB thumb drive air gap is faster than a network
• when we pay more for lawyers than programmers
• when health care costs exceed health care insurance premiums
• when weight gain exceeds time exercising
• when something really important in my life changes

A bend in a curve means the way I did something is no longer the way I should do something. A bend in a curve means I should change.

Should does not always equal do. I can decide if I change. If I refuse to change, perhaps I should ask why I drew the curve in the first place. Why did I collect the data and plot it?

Things change with time whether I like the changes or not. If it weren’t for change, life would be awfully boring.

by Dwayne Phillips

Present and past weave together. New tools or old techniques?

I am a bit slow on the uptake of “new” things from time to time. This past week or so I stumbled across this thing called Jupyter. It is a type of “notebook.” Some call it yet another implementation of the “notebook” paradigm. It allows the analyst to weave descriptions of work with short pieces of computer programs. Hmmm. I like this.

Lest we forget…and old people are want to forget at times and remember at others…I seem to recall…

Literate programming: Donald Knuth invented this a few generations ago. (It seems that anything of value invented in the past 50 years came from Knuth, Dijkstra, or Weinberg.) Literate programming combined descriptions of what a person was thinking in English with descriptions of what the computer should do in computer-understandable language, i.e., source code.

Literate programming didn’t catch on nearly as much as I felt it should have. I think the trouble with literate programming and these analyst notebooks is that the person is thinking, understands their thinking, wants to communicate their thinking, and can communicate their thinking.

That is a lot to ask of folks these days. That is a lot to ask of folks any days.

Still, I consider the concept worth exploring and introducing to colleagues.

by Dwayne Phillips

It is an old concept, the secretary or admin assistant, but are we misusing our resources?

I remember when there where persons in the workplace called “secretaries.” I remember when we stopped using that title and started using “administrative assistant” instead.

I find it unfortunate that we often have other persons now performing these jobs.

Do you tell an engineer or computer scientist to:

• manage budgets
• keep spreadsheets
• attend telephone calls
• handle visitors
• maintain websites
• arrange travel
• prepare expense reports
• take notes in meetings
• arrange meetings
• proof read documents

ooops, Wikipedia lists these as duties performed by secretaries. So, how are we managing our resources?

Perhaps we should hire a secretary. A person trained and skilled at these things. Expertise still has a place.

by Dwayne Phillips

Would anyone mind if we simply did this correctly?

There are some fields of endeavor where the problem has been solved. The solution is known and many have employed the solution successfully many times. I know we don’t usually do this type of thing here, but would anyone mind if we did?

I find it unfortunate in that there are many fields of endeavor and many persons who do mind if we simply did something correctly. There are many explanations for such seemingly irrational behavior. There is some merit in some of the explanations like, “Let’s try something different as we may learn something here.” I like that explanation as it has a goal: learning.

Many of the other explanations for not simply doing something correctly lean towards the ego. “I am in charge here, now. We will do it my way.”

Such “simply do it correctly” examples range from computer programming to peeling potatoes.

Again, please refer to the beginning. There are some fields of endeavor where the problem has been solved. Apply appropriately.