by Dwayne Phillips “Omit needless words,” still holds true. Sometimes in a different form. I just listened to a 30-minute talk. The context isn’t important. What is important is there were 20 minutes of excellent talking in those 30 mediocre minutes. Cut this, cut that, don’t repeat that. Omit needless words. This is one of […]
20 Excellent Minutes Inside 30 Mediocre Minutes
May 24th, 2021 · No Comments
Tags: Communication · Time · Word · Writing
Words per Sentence
May 13th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This is perhaps the once piece of writing advice that has more return per ounce of effort there is. How many words do you have in a sentence? Here is an example of the first sentence of an article in a nationally famous newspaper (The Washington Post, 1 April 2021, and it […]
Tags: Engineering · Journal · Mathematics · Writing
DRY in Non-Fiction and Technical Writing
May 10th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips A basic principle in writing non-fiction is Don’t Repeat Yourself. Write it once and point to it. DRY means “Don’t Repeat Yourself.” This is simple, but not often used, and that causes us lots of headaches and heartaches. I have a background in computer programming. A fundamental part of computer programming is […]
Tags: Design · Systems · Technical Debt · Writing
Write a Short Story
May 6th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips A simple method for writing a short story (I mean really simple). I like to write short stories. Perhaps that is because I think I have so much to tell, but not enough persons to sit and listen. Anyways, here is one method to writing a short story: Remember an event in […]
Tags: Learning · Meta · Stories · Writing
Internet Discussion Chaos and Semi-Public Groups
April 1st, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Where will we go for discourse on the Internet? Semi-public groups for forums work. I like Seth Godin’s recent short essay on trust and how folks use the Internet. Godin described the early (1970s) online interaction as, “Because each of these groups were high-trust communities, it was easy to conclude that the […]
Tags: Adults · Conversation · Ideas · Internet · Respect · Talk · Trust · Vocabulary
Figuratively and Literally
February 4th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips We often use a “figure of speech” to describe something. Well, that’s nice, but I know that such-and-such cannot literally do something-or-other. Can we please have some literal descriptions? I have recently been reading constantly about a very popular software app. I won’t mention which one because that would take us off […]
Tags: Communication · Fairy Tales · Technology · Work · Writing
Fiction and Disinformation
December 14th, 2020 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Fiction, when repeated enough, becomes fact in the minds of many. So why aren’t we trying to stomp out fiction that is far from reality? I have seen many movies on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries. 99% of murders in real life are not like that, nothing like that. 99% of murders in […]
Tags: Expectations · Fable · Fairy Tales · Information · Stories · Writing
Some Essentials for Writers II
December 10th, 2020 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips At last, I continue a series of essentials for writers. The first Some Essentials for Writers was posted December 10th, 2012. I actually promised that I would write some more parts to that post. Well, 7 1/2 years later, here we go. I have been working recently with things called Jekyll, Markdown, […]
What is Complicated, the Thing or the Description of the Thing?
November 30th, 2020 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips It sure is hard to understand fill-in-the-blank. Or is it hard to understand what someone wrote about it? I recently experimented with Jekyll. Good grief! That’s complicated! I also experimented with Git and GitHub. Good grief! Those things are complicated! And then I read several textbooks on machine learning and convolutional neural […]
Tags: Clarity · Learning · Simple · Teaching · Writing
Don’t Try So Hard
November 9th, 2020 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we are trying so hard that we fail to notice the simple and wonderful things right in front of us. Person A: I don’t see. It can’t find it. That idea, that concept, that thing that I’m trying to write. Where is it? Person B: Don’t try so hard. Person A: […]
Tags: General Systems Thinking · Notice · Observation · Thinking · Work · Writing