Working Up

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

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An Educated Guess

November 27th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes it is worth the effort to identify the noun and the adjective. This is an educated guess. The word “guess” is a noun. The word “educated” is an adjective. Nouns are usually facts (a tree is a tree). Adjectives are usually chosen by a person and are subjective (what is a […]

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Tags: Clarity · Language · Logic · Reframe · Talk · Thinking · Vocabulary

They Made Us Do That in College

September 2nd, 2013 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There are practices that time has proven to be worthwhile. Someone in school drilled them into us. We vowed to avoid them as soon as school was out, but life eventually catches us. I have lost track of the number of times I have seen this on the job. We have a […]

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Tags: Education · Excuses · Logic · People · Process · Risk

The Driver’s License and Alcohol

March 4th, 2013 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips It seems odd that to purchase alcohol a person must show they have a license to operate a motor vehicle. There are things in society that seem odd to me. One is the relationship we have established between obtaining alcohol and having a license to operate a motor vehicle. If you want […]

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Tags: Culture · General Systems Thinking · Health · Judgment · Logic

Reality Applies to Us, Too

October 27th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips As much as we might wish otherwise, reality applies to us, too. I was recently speaking with a group of people age 13 to 60. My question was: How far back can you remember? The near-unanimous answer was, “age three.” Some people could vaguely remember some things that happened when they were […]

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Tags: Culture · Judgment · Logic · Magic

The Law of the Average fill-in-the-blank-noun-for-a-person

February 21st, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Contrary to the Lake Wobegon Effect, the average fill-in-the-blank-noun-for-a-person is average. Something I recently realized: The average fill-in-the-blank-noun-for-a-person is average. Here are some examples: The average doctor is average The average teacher is average The average writer is average The average engineer is average and so on. This all contradicts the Lake […]

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Tags: Culture · Differences · Expectations · Ideas · Logic · People

Concentrating on the Differences

November 2nd, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Organizations tend to highlight their differences. The differences set them apart in the marketplace. Concentrating on the differences also can dim thinking. Perhaps it is good enough to merely be good enough. In my experience, organizations tend to highlight what makes them different from all other organizations. They concentrate on the differences. […]

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Tags: Communication · Differences · Ideas · Logic

Being Smart and Being Wrong

September 24th, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Quick, read the following and agree or disagree: Smart people are wrong more often than stupid people. I believe the above is true. It seems that smart people read, study, think, and propose ideas more often than stupid people. Stupid people seem to sit around and choose-your-own-stupid-activity (e.g. watch TV, surf the […]

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Tags: Learning · Logic · People

The World is Analog (and so are people)

June 12th, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The digital devices we have can dominate our lives. That still doesn’t change a simple fact – this is an analog world inhabited by analog people. We live in a digital world. Cell phones, Internet, digital cameras, digital video camcorders – all digital. At its heart, the digital world comprises only two […]

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Tags: Culture · Logic · People · Uncategorized

Problem Solving – caught vice taught

March 2nd, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I had an enjoyable evening yesterday. My son was working on a programming project for a freshman-level computer science class (college). I – after being asked – jumped into the problem. Several observations. (1) Computer science professors aren’t any better at creating meaningful programming assignments than they were 30 years ago. (2) […]

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Tags: Culture · Judgment · Logic · Observation

Proving Anything from Nothing – Implication Part 2

February 6th, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips In part 1 of this post, I covered the mathematics and truth table of implication. Implication shows that If I accept something that I know is FALSE, I can prove anything else that I know is FALSE For example, if I accept that “1=2”, I can prove that “2=3”. I know that […]

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Tags: Judgment · Logic · People · Technology