Working Up

Working Up in Project Management, Systems Engineering, Technology, and Writing

Working Up header image 4

Entries from January 2014

A Sense (and Source) of Urgency

January 30th, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A sense of urgency is obvious as people think, work, and move faster than when there is no such sense. There is a source of urgency that managers can find to help instill the sense. 1980, (yes, I am that old) I visited several contractors who were working with us. People moved […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Management · Work

Writing with Questions

January 27th, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes I “outline” writing pieces by type a series of questions. There are many ways to write a piece. One way is to outline the piece first. There are many ways to outline a piece. One outline method I use more often is to write a set of questions. I type a […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Writing

Run LaTex Online

January 23rd, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I find an online tool for formatting LaTex documents I once wrote a book using LaTex – the electronic typesetting system. LaTex allows you to do things that you cannot do with just about anything else. The result is a document with an excellent, professional appearance – much better than anything MS […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Technology · Writing

Kids Today! or is It Just Us Old Folks?

January 20th, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Kids today can find any fact in the world in a minute, but they don’t. Is it that they don’t appreciate this gift or is it that old folks are putting yet another impossible-to-achieve standard on them? We live in a world where any fact in the world is available in one […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication · Culture

A Simple Drafting Tool for Writers

January 16th, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I try DRAFT – an online writing tool. Years ago I tried a web site called writely.com. It allowed a person to use a simple word processor online. That writer could then “share” what was written with other people who also had writely.com accounts. One day, as the stories go, Google bought […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Technology · Writing

An Urban Myth: The Man, the Dog, and the Red Button

January 13th, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I write an oft-repeated tale of factory with two occupants and one control mechanism. There are these urban myths. People tell a story over and over. It sounds pretty good, plausible, it could happen. Then I hear someone else in a completely different time and place tell the same story about a […]

[Read more →]

Tags: General Systems Thinking

The Impossible and those Pesky Second Questions

January 9th, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips How we describe the impossible helps us answer the second question. And the second question is about or imperfections. Question: Can we land persons on the moon and have them live there for a year before January 1st, 2015? Think about the answer a moment.  Time is up. One answer: That is […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication

Migration to the Cities (or Just Another Reaction?)

January 6th, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Younger adults are moving back into the cities. Is this some great trend or just the normal reaction to childhood? There is a big trend today: younger adults are moving from the suburbs back into the big cities. In Washington, D.C. it’s called gentrification, or is it re-gentrification, I get confused sometimes. […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Change · Culture

Obvious to the Casual Observer

January 2nd, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I often heard “it is obvious to the casual observer” in grad school. I even read it a few times. Guess what? That is not a true statement. I used to hear that in grad school, “It is obvious to the casual observer.” That was sort of a joke when we were […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication · Learning