Category: In the Industry
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Make Your ORD Life Easier
My days of using OpenRoads Designer are behind me. I’ve moved on to contracts, lettings, and administrative support at my department of transportation. What isn’t gone though is OpenRoads Designer. In fact, it is etched into my bones and will remain there after I die. There are so many things about it I wish to…
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I’m No Longer Drowning in Email
Like the man who described going bankrupt, my unread emails increased gradually and then suddenly. I had too many emails that were a mixture of FYI’s, conversations I was CC’d on, actionable items I was responsible for, random “thank you” emails, weekly internal newsletter emails, and the list goes on and on and on. There…
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How to Understand Any Software
Introduction There is an overwhelming amount of software out there. Too many to count. Too many to play with. Too many to bother with. A common theme I have found in myself and others is that we tend to stick with the software we know and seldom go out looking for more. But how many…
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The Lost Art of Working Slowly
The spirit of the air these days calls us all to work as quickly as possible, while, of course, maintaining the quality of previous ages, which, us moderns forget, was done slowly. It was not the tobacco smoke staining the waxed linen that made their work excellent, though the aroma certainly was excellent. It was…
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Essay: On Project Requirements
Small Introduction This is a subject previously posted half a year ago. I’ve decided to revisit the thing and expand into an essay. Well, here goes. On Project Requirements Some time ago, I self-enlisted into the Project Management Institute. Unlike the enlisted soldier filled with bravado, I joined the institute when I was filled with…
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Close Minded on OpenAI
Introduction I’ve spent my dues in the AI marketplace. I eagerly surrendered to subscriptions of ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor. With AI, I’ve vibed my way through a dozen neat tools in less than a year. Creating one VBA Excel tool, on the other hand, took 6 meandering months. These things truly are the real deal…
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On Estimating Time To Complete Tasks
Introduction Everyone estimates time. The most popular way among engineers is the unit rate method. It reduces elements of a project, such as plan sheets or driveways into an hourly rate for production. One example of using the unit rate method assumes an hour for each extra plan sheet, although it equates a project we…
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On ADA Compliance and its Virtues
Introduction As I stood on a corner waiting for the pedestrian walk signal, I had several thoughts come to my head. The subject was on the Americans Disability Act and how my designs strove for its compliance. I attempted to place them in a logical order but decided to write them as they came to…
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Requirements in TDOT’s PDN
Introduction The lessons learned from the Project Management Institute’s Certified Associate Project Manager certification course are a mouthful. Seriously. I’d like to slap the narrators with a wet fish for every word more than two syllables long. The PMI’s main talent is the ability to create sentences as long as a goose neck. Funny as…
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Small Tasks for Big AI: Everyday Work
Introduction Everyone has AI now. Even Old MacDonald. He has an AI here and an AI there and all that. But many are trying to take AI to the very top to solve the world’s problems. I only want it to empty my email. It hasn’t solved the world’s problems. My inbox is still full….