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Memory
Jul 21, 2019
If you want to be a Pretty Good Problem Solver, you need to avoid the trap of depending too much on your memory.
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Safety
Jul 8, 2019
Technical folks are often driven by a strong desire to show-off their unique skills.
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How my sons and neighbor saved Christmas
Jun 14, 2019
My wife and I took a trip-of-a-lifetime. One day I received a text message saying, "Call me when you get this." I had not seen the message for 8 hours.
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Getting Hired: Look Forward with Optimism
May 14, 2019
When searching for your next job, you should ignore the negatives of previous work and focus on the positive aspects of new opportunities.
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Are Videos the same as Writing Stuff Down?
Mar 14, 2019
Videos are increasingly used to explain, teach, and entertain. Do videos meet the requirement to Write Stuff Down as part of solving problems?
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Articulate the Feasible
Feb 19, 2019
Engineers are often called upon to explain the technical details of a problem and the available options for solving that problem. You need to organize your presentation and express it appropriately.
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A Delicate Balance
Feb 5, 2019
First impressions of a design can be wrong as I found out when fixing the LED backlight of a low-cost television set.
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Are You Paid for Time or Results?
Dec 17, 2018
A recent article sparked a lot of discussion about the virtues or evils of automating some of your work.
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Don't Get Caught in the Web
Oct 25, 2018
There is a lot of great information and entertainment available on the web. Unfortunately, far too much of it is wrong.
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Show Your Work
Sep 27, 2018
Other folks can duplicate or check your work when you document that effort by showing every step.
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Patience
Sep 7, 2018
Sometimes slowing down can help speed up overall project success. A little patience will definitely improve your project and product quality.
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Getting Lost in the Tasks
Jul 4, 2018
Human nature makes it far too easy to get lost in the little tasks and forget a larger goal.
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The Most Important Person
May 20, 2018
When you are setting Priorities, sometimes you ask yourself, "Who is the Most Important Person?"
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Repeating an Error
Apr 10, 2018
Despite our best efforts, we sometimes make the same error more than once.
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Problems Occur at the Interfaces
Mar 15, 2018
In human and technical systems, difficult problems often occur at the interfaces.
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Abstraction
Feb 16, 2018
Abstraction is the process of pulling a general lesson from specific details of any problem and solution. Abstraction is a critical skill for career success.
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Stuff
Jan 22, 2018
A short discussion of the difficulty of figuring out what we should keep and what we should discard.
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Do What You Wrote instead of Writing What You Did
Nov 15, 2017
I recently learned a fantastic new method to produce error-free documentation of lab experiments.
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When You Assume...
Mar 4, 2024
It's not always a bad thing when you make assumptions, but you will need to verify them.
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If I Could See It, I Could Fix It (2)
Jan 31, 2024
Here is another story about struggling to see past a barrier.
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Paper Cuts and Itches
Dec 12, 2023
Lots of little things can get in the way of a project. Some can be very irritating, just like Paper Cuts and Itches.
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Resilience
Aug 31, 2023
Resilience is that magic which helps us get back up when we have been knocked down.
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One Hundred
Jun 14, 2023
My one-hundredth post discusses some things I have learned and shared over the past 10 years.
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Projects
May 1, 2023
The end of a recent many-year, many-problem project got me thinking about the mixed feelings I was having about it ending.
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Obsolescence
Mar 18, 2023
Stumbling across an old component led me to consider what happens when they or specific technical skills become obsolete.
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Planning
Feb 8, 2023
One key skill for getting hired (and staying hired) is your ability to work with your project team's planning tools.
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Spammers
Dec 8, 2022
Many communication channels are being overwhelmed with endless spam (unwanted and unwelcome messages). The message signal-to-noise ratio is falling below usable minimums.
