by Dwayne Phillips Can’t use one of those AI tools in your workplace. Solve that problem. Some wise person once said something about a hammer and a nail. It goes something like, “if the only tool you have is a hammer, the world looks like a nail.” This has something to do with another wise-person […]
A Hammer
May 25th, 2026 · No Comments
Tags: Alternatives · Artificial Intelligence · Design · Problems · Research · Resources · Solutions · Tools
The Bottleneck
March 16th, 2026 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips These new tools, ahem all that AI, are boosting productivity in our work. And then we hit the bottleneck and come to an emergency inducing crisis. Yesterday and today I have been using one of these new tools (some folks them AI, I don’t). I have accomplished in an hour what would […]
Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Chaos · Emergency · Failure · Management · Tools · Work
AI, Productivity, and Choice
March 9th, 2026 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Some AI tools increase productivity in some areas. Okay, I’m done with this task. Now what? That choice can be vexing. I used an AI tool (won’t mention which one). I completed a two-day task in an hour. Now what? Hey boss, tell me what to do now. One answer: go to […]
Tags: Analysis · Artificial Intelligence · Choose · Management · Time · Tools
AI Coding of Sorts
January 8th, 2026 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Software that writes software is quite helpful. Well, maybe sort of not. MIT jumps into the fray and asks a few dozen programmers if AI that writes software is helpful to people who write software. First, the folks at MIT are smart enough to not base a survey piece on a survey […]
Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Computing · People · Programming · Tools
Garbage In, Garbage Out
November 20th, 2025 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips One of the oldest phrases in computing is still true. Rats. Some folks thought AI would fix this. If I meant to find the sum of 2 and 3 but typed 2+4, I would have the wrong answer. Rats. Inputing the wrong information produces the wrong output. So said Charles Babbage some […]
Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Chaos · Commitment · Competence · Expertise · Humility · Technology · Tools · Work
AI, Tools, and Jobs
November 17th, 2025 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Here come new tools. Adopt them or lose your job? Probably not. Yet more recent news about big tech eliminating jobs due to AI. Or perhaps they were eliminated because those companies simply hired too many people and they weren’t doing much of anything on the job. Here are more thoughts on […]
Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Jobs · Technology · Tools · Work
A Little-Better Prompt
October 20th, 2025 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Here is an attempt to gain value from a chattering bot by wording the prompt a little differently. These chattering bots are everywhere. Some value is gained while some skill is lost. I thought of a better prompt: Find, display the URL, and display a few sentences from three key commentaries regarding […]
Tags: Alternatives · Artificial Intelligence · Clarity · Communication · Tools · Writing
Deskilling or I Forgot What I Was Doing
September 4th, 2025 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips It seems that when we stop doing something, we forget how to do it, sort of. I recently read reports of AI causing “deskilling.” (pronounced de-skilling, not des-killing) It seems that some folks were using AI tools to do something they used to do all the time. After a few months, one […]
Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Knowledge · Learning · Remember · Tools
New Tools, Modified Techniques
July 28th, 2025 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips New tools sometimes allow us to modify the techniques we use. The new tools don’t require modification, but allow it. These kids today, these engineers and scientists under 30, they just … well, they just do things differently. They have new tools (and I have new tools). They work the way the […]
Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Problems · Solutions · Technology · Tools · Word · Work
Chatbot Analysis and Longer Written Pieces
June 19th, 2025 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Chatbots can answer questions about written pieces. They can be good tools for feedback. I was recently testing several different chatbots to understand which performed better. I fed a 200-page document I wrote into each chatbot and asked them questions. There were several questions which all the chatbots failed to answer. The […]
Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Communication · Mistakes · Tools · Writing