Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Does expertise mean you are focused on a narrow area or that you have become narrow minded?

I recently met with a few persons who all had PhDs. Perons with a PhD tend to know a lot about a little. That is the state of us. We study something in great detail so we can add to the body of knowledge in that little area. Some of us move on to work in fields that are wide and shallow. Some of us continue a deep dive into a confined pool.

Enough of the cliches. It is easy to become narrow minded. It is easy to consider a few things paramount to everything else. It is easy to extend the last sentence to excluding almost everyONE else in life.

Sigh. Focus on topics does not necessarily mean exclusion of persons. Let’s take care with that one. Inclusion of persons often brings breakthroughs in narrow fields.

What is more important is that inclusion of persons is the right thing to do.

by Dwayne Phillips

Instead of trying the magnificent, perhaps we should try something we can accomplish.

Many problems confront us everyday. These are all opportunities to excel. Really, not just for those silly posters, but these are actually opportunities for us to accomplish something and do some good for us and someone else.

It seems that I have worked in large organizations all my adult life. “If we could just gather all these important people in the room, why we could fill-in-the-blank-with-something-magnificent.” Trouble is, we can’t gather all those important people. They are busy elsewhere doing things of import as important people tend to do.

So, what do we do? How about something we can do? Something we can accomplish?

We can gather ourselves, discuss the situation, and find something that moves us in a desired direction. Maybe we won’t move far, but we will move far enough to show someone. Maybe that little movement will satisfy someone, make their job easier. We gain some fans who will support us. We gain some friends.

And—let’s not underestimate the value of this one—we will make the life of someone a little better. That’s pretty good, and we can accomplish that.

by Dwayne Phillips

How to write a computer program when you have no idea how to do it in a new language.

I wrote a computer program this week at work. (oooops, I am supposed to write that I was developing because that is what the job recruiters call it nowadays.) This shouldn’t sound remarkable, but I’m not supposed to write computer programs AND I’m supposed to be so old that I forgot how to do that years ago…so let’s keep that part of the story quiet.

Anyways, how do you write a computer program in the 21st century when you’ve never used the only language available to you? Simple, you Google it.

Yes, that’s it. Go to Google and type something like, “powershell csv read write.” Try to read the answers shown (they were written in blurbs by programmers—ooops slipped again, developers not programmers—developers who had other things to develop), copy, paste, run, and that’s it.

I guess having some background developing helps, but really. Just ask a question and copy the answer. The profession has devolved a bit.

by Dwayne Phillips

Let’s twist the meta-problem and meta-solution a bit to help reveal the underlying problem.

It happened again this week… I wanted a software tool installed on my computer at work. Now the computer at work is on a network. We can’t just go installing software on networked computers willy nilly. We have special persons who can do these special tasks while not compromising the integrity of the network.

At home? Go to the website, click the download button, click the install button, viola. Software tool installed. Let’s accomplish some work.

And I am discussing a tool—which I shall not name—that has been “out there” for many years and is used by … oh conservative estimate of 20 million tool users and is free, open-source software.

At work? It took two people three days to install the software. No exaggeration.

So, this was the solution. Install the tool, let’s get on with the work.

Now the problem with the solution. See above. Are we kidding ourselves? We have created and imposed on ourselves a situation where tools are almost prohibitively expensive to use. Hence, the solution shows the real problem. We are our own worst enemies. No one else could impose such on us but ourselves.

Oh well. We go to work again tomorrow and try again.

by Dwayne Phillips

The user interface and the user experience seem to be based on two, quite simple things.

I love to look at the photos on the Analog Dreams posts in tumblr. Those big, beautiful round knobs. I owned a lot of the things shown in the photos, and there was something magical about slowly turning those round knobs.

Today, the world evolves around (another circle) that one simple little blank field that we see on Google and everywhere else. Type something in the blank and the world opens.

That summarizes the world of the user interface: the round knob and the blank field. I guess for a few more years we will all have the steering wheel, that big round knob that gives us the power of choice as to where we take our lives. I hate to see it go away. Perhaps I won’t live that long.

by Dwayne Phillips

Let’s reduce all this accountability business to a simple question.

The Accountability Question:

“What happens if I don’t do this? (thing you told me to do or some regulation or policy says I have to do)”

If the answer is, “nothing.” Well then, we have no accountability.

Or maybe this “thing” just isn’t important in which case we have to ask,

“If it isn’t important, why did you tell me to do it?”

If the answer is, “because, uh, er, just because.”

Then no one is holding you as a manager accountable for wasting resources.

So this idea of “being held accountable” goes around in some type of circle. Are people accountable, i.e., do they have to account for or justify the resources they spend? If I don’t do what you tell me, I am doing something else, i.e., I am spending resources on something else. Must I account for those resources?

But we go back to the fundamental question above, “What happens if I don’t do this?”

Answer, “You will no longer be paid to come here.”

“Oh, I guess I will do this, at least for now. If it is too distasteful, I will leave.”

In a high-unemployment economy, leaving and finding another paying job isn’t so easy, so people are more apt to “just do it” than ask the Accountability Question.

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes we forget some of the fundamentals of “news.”

Fake news: this is the stuff we used read in the grocery store checkout counter in The National Enquirer. My mother never let me buy one, but they had great headlines about then first lady Hillary Clinton having an alien baby and other great stuff.

Real news: it snowed six inches today. The baseball scores are…

Non news: this is the one folks seem to struggle with most.

There are strong ties between the sex industry and the tech (or any) industry. This is true, so it is sort of real news, but it is also old as dirt, so it is non-news.

People mistreat others; again, real news as it is true, but it is also old as dirt, so it is non-news.

Journalists lie to sell their stories. Real, true news, but old as dirt and non-news.

Fake news used to be fun. Then some self-proclaimed declarative person declared that the rest of us actually believed that the President’s wife had an alien baby, and fake news became some sort of a crime.

Real news is verifiable. What fun is that?

Non-news is just the same old stuff.

Let’s try to keep these straight.

by Dwayne Phillips

Us humans are non-rigid and aren’t built for sudden and large changes in position and velocity. Sometimes we forget this.

Don’t try to jerk someone from 0 to 60mph in three seconds. It hurts me and you both. It often scares away the other person.

How many seminars have you attended or life-changing podcasts have you heard that shout, “We want you to be fill-in-the-blank-with-something-amazing.” And then the speaker admits something like, “Oh, by the way, it took me 20 years to reach this point, but I would like you to do it this afternoon.”

Jump too far. I see kids on the school playground while driving home from work. Some are running full speed in a game. Others stand on the side, others sit on the ground. If the game or speed or something is too far a leap, some will just sit on the couch and twiddle their thumbs. They really should be running and playing, but it is too far a jump. Arrange for shorter jumps.

Adults do this, too. Years ago while I was working in a developing country (we called it the “third world” at the time) an elderly person there told me about this. If there were products that were just a little out of the reach of the poor, they might work a little harder so they could reach them. If products, however, were available and affordable only by the rich, the others wouldn’t try because they were just too far out of reach.

Little by little. Slow, constant change, small steps. Not exciting, but far more effective.

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes you are best served and serving if you ignore a request or two.

Me: The thing the boss just asked for, what is it? How do you do it?

Older Co-worker: What? Oh never mind.

Me: But the boss wants it, real quick, it is important. Right?

Older Co-worker: Forget about it. If our boss asks again, think about it, but don’t do anything.

Me: No words, but puzzled expression.

Older Co-worker: The boss always asks for stuff. Most of it just pops up because some other boss mumbled about it earlier today. Our boss doesn’t have any idea what that is or what to do with it. Just mimicking the other bosses.

Me: more puzzled expression.

Older Co-worker: If another boss mumbles about it again, our boss will ask for it again, but our boss still won’t know what it is.

Me: Yeah, but… (note how I progress from puzzled look to two actual words)

Older Co-worker: If it is actually important and the boss understands what it is, the boss will ask for it again. Then we’ll do it.

Me: but isn’t that calling our boss…

Older Co-worker: Yeah. So it is. If you gave our boss what our boss requested, our boss would look at it, try to figure out what it is, try to figure out what to do with it, and probably get a headache. Give our boss a break. Wait until our boss knows something.

Me: Puzzled expression. Shrug of the shoulders. Turn and walk away.

by Dwayne Phillips

Just because you have a tool in your toolkit doesn’t mean you know what to do with it.

Tools tools tools. Everyone in the tech world has lots of tools. If you don’t have a list of tools on your resume, you aren’t hired.

Let’s go through some obvious things:

• Just because you own a typewriter (word processor or other fancy thing) doesn’t mean you know how to write.
• Just because you have a saw doesn’t mean you can cut something precisely.

Okay, now that we have some basis for discussion, we go on.

Person A: We have the latest thingy that automates our software testing!

Person B: Great. Can you tell me the purpose of a test? Please explain the Oracle principle of testing and its ramifications to your situation. Please explain the role of requirements tracing in test design.

Person A: huh

Who do you wish to hire? The person who has tools, tools, tools or the person who has abilities?