by Dwayne Phillips Are we spending too much time and effort on making AI systems “safe?” Perhaps we should allow adults to be adults and move on. Consider an LLM or whatever that creates text promoting: Those people, those philosophies are horrible! Okay, are you an adult? If so, you can easily reject those horrible […]
Safe AI Text
March 24th, 2025 · No Comments
Tags: Adults · Artificial Intelligence · Choose · Data Science · Decide · Technology
Specific and Thinking
March 10th, 2025 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I find it good to be specific. There are, however, times when being specific limits thinking, and that is not good. Precise, concrete, and specific: three concepts that are good for writing and communication. I try to remember these things that were burned into me in my first semester of college way […]
Tags: Alternatives · Choose · Communication · Improvement · Influence · Thinking
Popular Ceremonies
February 17th, 2025 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we hold popular ceremonies without thought. Doing just about anything without thought can be fraught with peril. There are many popular ceremonies among those of use who build systems. One of those is the daily standup meeting. I could go on with a long list of these. Are we using these […]
Tags: Agility · Choose · Magic · Management · Thinking
Do It Quietly to Minimize the Hurt
January 23rd, 2025 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips There are times when we do some things quietly to minimize the hurt. We should, however, decide whose hurt we are minimizing. Someone has made too many mistakes. We are dismissing the mistake maker. Let’s do it quietly to minimize the embarrassment and hurt of the mistake maker. Well, there is no […]
Tags: Choose · Context · Leadership · Management · Other · People · Self
Not My Fault Either
January 6th, 2025 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the better thing to do is accept whatever the situation and move to the next step. Person A: It’s not my fault. Person B: It’s not my fault, either. Person A: Whose fault is it? Person B: Let’s accept that it isn’t either one of our faults and move to the […]
Tags: Accountability · Alternatives · Choose · Decide · Thinking
One or Both Hands in My Pockets
January 2nd, 2025 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips There are times when a good thing to do is put one or both hands in my pockets before doing something else. In the late 1970s (yes, I am that old), a college professor was working with us know-nothing students in an electrical engineering lab. The experiment of the week involved a […]
Tags: Adults · Choose · Education · Engineering · Error · General Systems Thinking · Systems
Half of What You See, None of What You Hear
December 2nd, 2024 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This is an old saying told to me many, many years ago. It is true today more than ever. Recent “reports” tell me that some Federal agencies are arresting folks who are merely trying to help their neighbors. And I hear of nice folks pointing guns at other Americans who are temporary […]
Tags: Choose · Clarity · Expectations · General Systems Thinking · Information · Learning · Listening
The Event and the Reaction
November 4th, 2024 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Tomorrow is our national election day. As with almost everything, it is not the event, it is the reaction. A little research shows that I have written on this topic several times. I do so again as I think it is important. Tomorrow is our national election day in America. Millions of […]
Tags: America · Choose · Ethics · Event · Reaction · Thinking
How Simple Can You Be?
September 19th, 2024 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This is a question we should constantly ask. Try the simplest thing to be, to do, to have. Several years ago, I posed a question to participants at a conference session I was facilitating. The design problem was about storing information from a business. I wanted a design of a system that […]
Tags: Choose · Design · Learning · Problems · Simple · Solutions
Let the Marketplace Decide
July 22nd, 2024 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Let’s stop hyperventilating about this and that AI thing. The marketplace will decide and with more wisdom than myself. I just read yet another article about yet another artificial super-duper large language model. How can a model of something be larger than the something? Isn’t a model a smaller representation of something? […]
Tags: Choose · Decide · Design · Error · General Systems Thinking · Systems