Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Why don’t we have more engineers and computer scientists? Maybe, for better or worse, we don’t have enough “tough” people. I have recently read of a shortage of engineers and computer scientists. I have my doubts about this shortage, but enough people are declaring it that there may be some truth to [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips That’s hard to do. Is it really? How “hard” is it? How much time will it take? How much learning will it take? Often, “difficult” tasks are really “distasteful” tasks, i.e., tasks that I really don’t want to do.

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by Dwayne Phillips We have chased manufacturing out of America. We now have holes in our job structure and have lost the ability to adapt to a changing world. I read a few posts on the “Econolypse” lately. Here is one post, and here is another. We have chased the manufacturing jobs from the U.S. [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips Feeling like there is nothing you can do in our current economy to help others? Can you do one of the following? cook a meal listen If you can, you can help someone. If you can do both, you can really help someone. Now for the hard part (at least the hard [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips Most government agencies are dysfunctional. There are simple reasons. One reason is that the path to promotion lies in spending money, not bringing value per cost. Try to understand how people “get ahead” working inside a government agency. To make more money, you are promoted to a higher grade. I worked in [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips Government employees retire and go to work for companies that the government is supposed to regulate and hire and such. This is a revolving door. Is it bad? This story from the past week discusses how Telcos hired retired government employees to help them influence how the FCC (current government employees) regulates [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips No journalism degree? Not needed to blog and break news. Not a pro photographer? Not needed to publish world-wide on Flickr. No computer science degree? Not needed to learn programming and work. I believe these things to be true. I believe that you don’t have to have a credential from an organization [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips When can you quit your day job and write full time? This question comes from time to time. Actually, it comes more often than I wish it would. People are looking for one answer: Quit now, write full-time, and you will make loads of money. I disappoint a lot of people because [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips When faced with a situation on a system-building project, we can find an approach that will work. We can also find many other approaches. Do we choose the better approach or one we personally like? Several years ago, a professional soccer player spent a few afternoons helping to coach one of my [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips The latest computer, the best desk and chair, even coffee brought to you while working – these are nice, but not the subject of this post. No, the most valuable asset a freelancer has is good health. No Work No Pay The reason I picked good health is simple: freelancers don’t have [...]

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