Working Up

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

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Entries from August 2016

I Want My Mommy

August 29th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Let’s be honest about all these calls for better personal digital assistants. This one has to be the worst. This guy wants a drone to follow him, record his life, and do all the little tasks he mumbles during the day. Where ever you are right now, imagine a small object hovering […]

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Tags: Technology

Writing—One Step at a Time

August 25th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Contrary to famous success stories, writing comes one step at a time. The writers most of us know are exceptions. I advise everyone else to take things one step at a time. Write a story (fiction) or an essay (non-fiction). Start to finish. Done. Good. We got that out of the way. […]

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Tags: Writing

Something for Nothing, Nothing for Something

August 22nd, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A new deal where we are offered something for nothing indicates that the provider has been delivering nothing for something. This isn’t just a rant at McDonald’s or Starbucks. It holds for any situation where we expend some resource from some product or service. Someone is “improving” their offering at the same […]

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Tags: Change · Communication · Customer · Expectations

Show Some Respect

August 18th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Okay, I’m an old man. Nevertheless, can persons in the workplace show some respect to one another? As I write this, I remain unemployed. There is always hope for a 50-something with a few job skills (advanced degrees, certifications, books published, etc.), but it is tough. One request for those interviewing the […]

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Tags: Competence · Employment · Respect

MOOCs and Bad Presentations

August 15th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Why do online educators put bad presentations in their courses? I am taking yet another online course. My wish is to show potential employers that despite my advanced age I am not brain dead yet and still actively learning. My current online course—no names mentioned to protect the guilty—brings with it something […]

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Tags: Education · Learning · MOOC

To Write is to be Misunderstood

August 11th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sorry, the title of this post is true. Several years ago, I managed a West Coast project from the East Coast. Every day I would send several faxes to the other coast to ask and answer questions. (I wrote that this was several years ago and faxes were the best means of […]

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Tags: Work · Writing

The Cheapest Part

August 8th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the cheapest and simplest part of a system is the one that fails and you may have to buy half a dozen of them to find one that works. I had a bad experience repairing that large appliance in the bathroom. Did you know that you can crawl under a toilet? […]

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Tags: Adapting · Agility · Analysis · Systems

Short and Bitter

August 4th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the news has a sharp, pungent taste or smell. Short and sweet is a fond, old cliche. Gosh, wouldn’t real life be better if most news were short and sweet? Sometimes that is not life; sometimes the news in life is short and bitter. So, let’s attempt to learn something from […]

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Tags: Questions · Reaction

Neither Nor—Another Legitimate Choice

August 1st, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the better choice among two alternatives is neither, nor. We have two alternatives—this, that. The most well known choice is either this or that One of them must be better than the other. Let’s decide which is better and go with it. Aha, but we grow smarter with the years and […]

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Tags: Choose · Clarity · Communication