Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

This is interesting to me. Is it interesting to you?

interesting, adjective, something that attracts your attention, arouses your curiosity, or holds your interest because it is unusual, exciting, or engaging. It is highly subjective, meaning what is fascinating to one person may be dull to another.—Google search

The answer to my question is, “Probably not.”

See the definition above, the second part of the definition, the part I don’t like. This interesting thing is dull to you.

Also notice in the definition is the absence of “important.” Just because it is interesting does not mean it is important. And if it isn’t important to me, the chances of it being important to you are … pretty much zero.

Nevertheless, I will tell you about it. SEE THIS? WOW! Pardon my enthusiasm. Sorry to bother you. I’ll just casually turn and walk away. Maybe we will talk again tomorrow.

by Dwayne Phillips

All this computing power, datacenters, rising prices for hardware, land, water, electric power, etc. for what? To plan a party? This is utter waste. Come on, stop it!

Wired recently had an article on the full story of OpenClaw (is that the name they eventually decided to use?). That is the agent orchestrating thing that, according to Wired, revolutionizes something related to computing that needed revolutionizing.

Wired interviewed Peter Steinberger on how all this happened. One statement about Mr. Steinberger, “He figured that a digital assistant with access to your apps and data could automate a huge range of tasks. To plan a party, for example…”

To plan a party? To plan a party? TO PLAN A PARTY? Are you kidding?

Per the summary above, we are devoting all these resources so that software can run software can run software so someone can plan a party. Really? Utter waste.

There are much better things to do with all those resources than connect emails, calendars, recipes, etc. to plan a party. How about expeditions to some other planet or to the bottom of our oceans or simply to the middle of our great forests. And then there is medical research. Oh, that. Perhaps those problems are too difficult or too something-or-other so we plan a party.

Per the article, Mr. Steinberger strikes me as a smart and well-meaning persons. Perhaps he could have cited some other problem-solving examples. Some problems are interesting and pressing. That doesn’t make them worth the consumption of resources.

Let’s do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

The world of computing has turned upside down.

In 2001, Marc Andreesen noticed and noted, “Software is eating the world.”

Here I am to notice and note, “Hardware is the new software.”

Everyone wants to buy computer hardware. Prices of computer hardware are shooting upwards as demand far exceeds supply. If you make computer hardware, you own the world. Cancel your contract for $1. Open the bidding and get $10 for the same hardware.

Write it down. I think I said it first.

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 saying about, “There is no free lunch.”

Enough old, wise sayings. I face problems. I have resources. The resources are limited. What do I do?

Some of these current AI tools are useful. If the problem has to do with text, which many of my current problems do, these tools are quite useful. I have this AI tool and that AI tool. I work in this setting and that setting. Sometimes I am in a setting where my problem would be easy to solve if I had a tool that I don’t have. Rats.

Go back to the other setting, ask the AI tool how to solve the problem in the first setting with the tools available there.

For example, I have a problem in a setting, a tightly controlled office, that is solvable by writing a Java program. All I have, however, is Power Shell. How do I solve the problem with that? Another example: I have a problem I can solve with Excel. I don’t have Excel in this setting. How can I solve it with bash scripts?

And then I can extend this with: I have a problem that a group of degree-holding engineers can solve. I don’t have those people. What I have are 18-year-old high school seniors. How can I solve this problem?

Hmm. Use a tool to suggest tools. There may be something to this. All I have is a hammer. How do I make my problem look like a nail?

by Dwayne Phillips

These chattering bots merely predict the next N word(s). Software has been doing this for many years—nothing new here.

In the 1990s (yes, 30 years ago, I am that old), word processors started guessing what word we were trying to type. Some called that “auto complete.” It was nice. Not perfect, but nice. Sometime between then and now, we saw IDEs (integrated development environments). If any term ever needed an acronym instead, that one did.

Regardless, these IDEs did auto complete. Start typing the name of a function or variable, the software would look through of list, and show guesses at what it was I was typing. Well, that was convenient. It wasn’t perfect, but it helped me remember things that I new but were a bit murky.

Nowadays (does anyone still use that word?), we have these new chattering bots. They write essays and entire computer programs. WOW! New stuff! Great stuff!

New? Let’s see, in the 1990s, the word processors would predict the next one word. Today, the chattering bots predict the next one thousand words. What’s the difference? Just the difference between one and one thousand. It is N. N is bigger or smaller depending on various things that affect the outcome, but N is just N. Programming? We have gone from N is one to N is a larger number, but it is still N.

Why all the fuss? Why are school teachers at all levels in an uproar over students not learning this or that? It is just N words where is goes from zero to some arbitrary larger number. Same stuff. Nothing new here.

Let’s move on to something of more substance to discuss.

by Dwayne Phillips

It seems we haven’t learned much as we still read stuff that makes no sense.

A long time ago, I heard a political commentator read part of a political party’s platform. Parties used to do these platforms to inform everyone of what they were saying. The commentator would read a sentence and then remark, “This is amazing. All these words are in the dictionary!”

What did the words mean? Nothing. In my research on this phrase, I found, “Vagueness is a failure of intent. It is a deliberate, highly calculated use of perfect grammar to say absolutely nothing.”

Aha, use words (all of whom are in the dictionary) to say nothing.

Alas, I haven’t read any party platforms recently. Do they still do that? Some companies have their manifestos or policy statements, but I haven’t seen any platforms lately. Still, I read many things. I work in and around our Federal government. I have read too many things where most (not all, but most) of the words were in the dictionary. The documents said nothing.

Must we do this? Must we engage in this foolishness? Come on folks, we can do better. Let’s do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

Let’s turn these nouns into verbs. Let’s not.

We are going to modernize the application to optimize it and maximize our efforts. — Wrote someone who shouldn’t have been writing

In other words, we want maximum free time. Let’s make the application modern and optimal.

Turning a noun into a verb (I love this next part with all the fancy words) is called verbing or verbification. Some say that we nominalized the noun into a verb. Some say this is an anthimeria or functional shift (I really like that word, anthimeria). Of course these examples are affixations where we add the suffix -ize to the noun to make a verb.

Turning a noun into a verb is also called being lazy. There is a verb out there waiting to be used. Let’s find it and use it. We could also simply say what we want to say using the nouns as nouns. That’s what I did in the example above. Not enough long and fancy words? Oh well.

We can do better. Let’s do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

Just use those other words.

“In other words…,” spoken by someone frustrated with their attempts to write or speak.

“What I’m trying to say is…,” also spoken by someone frustrated with their attempts to write or speak.

There is something about communicating in either the written or spoken word. After fumbling, grumbling, and doing everything else that rhymes with -umbling, the person blurts, “In other words …” What follows are golden words that communicate thoughts.

Great! The frustrated and flustered person had the right words. Throw away all that other stuff and use those words.

“But I spent so much time on those words.” So what, toss them.

“But my boss expects two pages and I can’t just turn in three sentences.” Yes, you can.

Simply use the other words. Simply use the words that you are trying to say. It will be fine. Everyone will be happier.

by Dwayne Phillips

I just had a chattering bot filter through layers upon layers of a spreadsheet and provide the answer. After a moment, I realized I could have written a simple program to do that, but that was true for me, not everyone.

I just solved a problem with data presented in a spreadsheet. It was one of those, “For every case of X, find the rows that meet condition Y, then find the rows that further meet condition Z, then find the rows … and put the results in a table.

The spreadsheet had about 500 rows. I could have done this by hand, e.g., see this, then see that, then see the other things. I could have let Excel filter the data, then filter again, then … until I had an answer. Instead, I tried a chattering bot (names withheld to protect the guilty). I was able to find left-handed pitchers who struck out three batters on less than twelve pitches on the road when the game was after 9 p.m. and it was raining slightly.

Satisfied with how quickly I had solved a problem, I began to ponder the situation. I could have written a ten-line program to do that. Python would have been the choice for today (it is the Pascal of this century). The C programming language would have also worked. The list of languages that would have worked is quite long.

That, however, is me. I could have written a program to do this. Then again, I programmed a video game on a computer in 1978. I think everyone can write computer programs. Perhaps everyone can, but not everyone does. (Enough italics for one blog post.)

I suppose that is one of the great benefits of these chattering bots. Type what you want the computer to do in English. It happens. No extra training required. It happens. Life is easy or at least easier. Low code? Nope. This is no code. Okay, this wasn’t the most difficult problem in the world. This chattering bot did, however, save me a lot of time.

by Dwayne Phillips

I just thought things would be better if I took the role of … I was wrong. Why? I was just trying to … but no one asked me to.

I was just trying to assist the project manager. Our project manager is a good person who knows their job. There were, however, just a few little things I could see that if I would interject here and there all would be better. It all blew up. No one liked my “just a few little things.” Why not?

I was just trying to assist the writer. Our writer is a good person who knows their job. There were, however, just a few little things I could see that if I would interject here and there all would be better. It all blew up. No one liked my “just a few little things.” Why not?

I was just trying to make the workplace a little more peaceful. Our workplace is good with good people who know their jobs. There were, however, just a few little squabbles I could see that if I would interject a few little things here and there all would be better. It all blew up. No one liked my “just a few little things.” Why not?

I could go on with this list. Help the decorations team who were working on the conference room Help the testing team. Help the choir director. Help the fill-in-the-blank who was doing a good job but needed a few little suggestions on just a few little things.

One of the problems is that no one asked me to suggest just a few little things. No one asked me to “help” them at all. But I have the best intentions and everyone can see that and just a little…

Nope. When people ask is one thing. Everything else is something else.