Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips In which I consider one of the more quotable aspects of knowledge. My dad used to tell me that knowledge was the one thing no one could take away from you. A search of the world’s knowledge, a.k.a., Google it for yourself, shows that many famous people are the origin of this […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Most job interviews center on one question, “What do you know?” Here’s a suggestion for a new central question, “Can you learn?” I don’t like job interviews. The folks interviewing me are usually quite pleasant. They want to know what I know. The central question is, “What do you know?” That question […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We know the answers. We have the information. Can we access it? More importantly, can you access it? We have the data silo. Some call it the data stovepipe. Some call it the sandbox. Others call it job (in)security. Enough of the metaphors and cliches. We have the information. I can find […]

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by Dwayne Phillips It seems that everyone wants to say or write AI or artificial intelligence these days. Please stop misusing the term. Our Federal Trade Commission wants to regulate AI. The lack of literacy is astounding, but then again, this is the pinnacle of regulating instead of creating. The FTC, with all its good […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Is it a data leak or an information share? Perhaps it is both; perhaps it is for the greater good. An old question has been asked again several times recently. Several decades ago I read of the non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that the chip makers in Silicon Valley had. Employees signed legal documents […]

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by Dwayne Phillips When assuming that another person already knows something, ask, “And why would they know that?” It happened again the other day at work, someone interrupted a presentation, pointed to something mentioned but not shown, and asked, “But what is that thing? What does it do?” The presenter, unable to hide the aghast […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Data, data, data. Enough already. Just tell me something I don’t know. Data is the new oil. Data is the new bacon. Data will fuel the economies of the future. Data will determine the winner of the next world war. Data, data, data. I work with data. On some days, some folks […]

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by Dwayne Phillips These inconvenient facts seem to be everywhere. They are inconvenient, however, only when we have a story to tell that denies reality. There are some old sayings like, “opinions being mugged by facts,” and “don’t confuse my opinion with facts,” and “there is nothing like facts getting in the way of my […]

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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 […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we “know where everything is” despite outward appearances. Sometimes we have “a place for everything and everything in its place.” Sometimes both ideas work. Sometimes neither work. Data is everywhere. Data is the new oil or bacon or pizza or something good or bad. The trouble with data is if I […]

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