by Dwayne Phillips There are many endeavors in which it is important to do something before talking about doing it. Have an idea for a book? Great. Don’t pitch the idea to publishers. They will expect you to come back with 90% of the book in hand. Then they will talk to you about you […]
Do and Claim, in That Order
March 6th, 2023 · No Comments
Tags: Concepts · Ideas · Intellectual Property · Resources · Stories · Tools · Work
50% is Not One Half
February 27th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips A review of percent may surprise some. Sorry about that. Use this information cautiously. I recently read a contract that purported to calculate 50% of 50%. That struck me as odd, so given too much time on my hands, I thought about it a while. Warning: thinking about basic things for a […]
Tags: Approximation · Concepts · Data Science · Mathematics
One Thing at a Time
January 12th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips How to you accomplish a big task? One thing at a time. Sorry, I wish there were magic here, but I have yet to see any of that. I recently removed 6,000 pounds of items from a home. Given each item weighed half a pound on average, that is … a whole […]
Tags: Concepts · General Systems Thinking · Lifecycle · Problems · Process · Solutions
We Don’t Have to Write It All
January 9th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips If AI wrote this, is that okay? The question isn’t that difficult. In the past few months, we have all sorts of artificial intelligence or machine learning sites “writing” things for us. Well, this isn’t that intelligent or learned (in my humble opinion), but clever mimicry. Still it is quite useful. Why […]
Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Concepts · Ideas · Information · Intellectual Property · Research · Work · Writing
The CONOPS
December 12th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This is a reminder of one of the fundamental documents or documentations in creating systems that delight users. It is the Concept of Operations. First things first. We want to provide a system that delights users. Where do we start? Let’s talk with the users; watch the users; learn from the users, […]
Tags: Communication · Concepts · Conversation · Engineering · General Systems Thinking · Listening · Systems
Reading a Product Catalog Does NOT an Engineer Make
December 8th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The ability to read a product catalog does not make a person an engineer or an architect or someone who can think and reason. I have encountered this for 30 years. It is as if someone had a cue card in their hand. They spew product names. Things like: Kafka HDFS TensorFlow […]
Tags: Clarity · Concepts · Design · Engineering · Ideas · Systems
Augmented Reality in 1980
February 21st, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Forty years ago I saw what Augmented Reality could do. I’m still waiting for it. Back in 1980, I spent much of my workdays repairing electronic equipment (yes, I am that old). Pull a piece of equipment out of the rack, put it on the workbench, remove the cover, and trace through […]
Tags: Concepts · Engineering · Help · Information · Knowledge · Technology
The Denial of Service Attack
August 30th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips What we saw with gas stations is known as a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. Flood a business with customers and the business fails. The scary part is that someone learned from the situation. Back in May of 2021 (boy, that seems like a long time ago), a pipeline was closed due […]
Tags: Concepts · Customer · Failure · General Systems Thinking · Observation · People · Reaction
Three More Explanations, Please
August 16th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Things are the way they are because… Fine. That is one explanation. Let’s have at least three more. Few things are as difficult as explaining why something is the way it is. We see more brown leaves on trees this year than we have in the past. Well, the reason is… Really? […]
Tags: Alternatives · Analysis · Concepts · Experiment · General Systems Thinking · Science
Let Me Explain Myself, Then I Might Understand Myself
March 1st, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips There is much good in the act of sitting down with another person and explaining to them what I think I am doing. It isn’t always easy to explain to another person what I am about to do. It is, however, a good use of time. That act usually shows me what […]
Tags: Communication · Concepts · Ideas · Talk · Visibility