Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips We use process on projects. Aargh, process can be irritating and it can be precious. We are still snowed in here in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. The main roads are clear now, but six to eight inches of snow remain in my yard. Most of us here are sick […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Adjectives describe our work and the results of our work. Hence, our worked is judged by the adjective. More to the point, our work is described by the person who selects the adjective. ad·jec·tive n.   Abbr. a. or adj. The part of speech that modifies a noun or other substantive by limiting, […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I like to work alone. Being alone, however, brings a heightened risk. There is great value in having another person to talk to. Absent others, checklists and other reminders are helpful. I have been taking a walk this past week. I have been all alone in doing this. I won’t describe the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Analysis paralysis is where I sit and think a long time about what I should do. I recommend against such. Instead, experience has taught my that in most cases the best thing to do is one thing, and then the next, and then the next. This has happened to me about a […]

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by Dwayne Phillips One group of leaders can ruin a decades-old organization in only a couple of years. I have seen several examples personally. Harvard University is one example in the recent news. Leadership is difficult. It seems wise to limit the power of any one group of leaders. One group of leaders can do […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There are many methods to use to reach a conclusion. Since they all involve fallible people like me, most of the methods are fallible. Expect requests for further study. Anticipate them and ask others to study alongside you from the beginning. Arriving at a conclusion is a primary task of an engineer, […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I had an enjoyable evening yesterday. My son was working on a programming project for a freshman-level computer science class (college). I – after being asked – jumped into the problem. Several observations. (1) Computer science professors aren’t any better at creating meaningful programming assignments than they were 30 years ago. (2) […]

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by Dwayne Phillips In part 1 of this post, I covered the mathematics and truth table of implication. Implication shows that If I accept something that I know is FALSE, I can prove anything else that I know is FALSE For example, if I accept that “1=2”, I can prove that “2=3”. I know that […]

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by Dwayne Phillips This is dangerous – I am splitting a blog post into two parts. Hang in there with me. People are not always logical. That bothers logical engineers like me to no end. There is a mathematical and logical method to prove the non-logical behavior of people. That math helps me understand the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Newspapers are dying. They are being replaced by the Internet. The story goes on and on. But why? Newsprint is easier to read for many of us. I always found the big page format clumsy to hold and fold and keep straight, but it was print and I could take it anywhere. […]

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