Working Up

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

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Entries from June 2011

Success Breeds Suspicion

June 30th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Success leads to different things. One disturbing trend is that it leads to suspicion. Google is a rather successful business. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Google. Why is it that (2) often follows (1)? Google offers a free service to Internet users. Come to our site and search the Internet. I […]

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Tags: Government · Success · Writing

Tutoring Writing – Part 3 – Internet References

June 27th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Writing students at George Mason University teach me how to cite Internet references using APA Style. I continue to work with students at George Mason University on their writing. And they continue to teach me. A recent student had questions about citing references from Internet sources according to the APA Style Guidelines […]

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Tags: Learning · Wikipedia · Writing

Inflicting Advice

June 23rd, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Advice is welcome and often heeded in one circumstance: when it is requested. Freely giving advice to the non-requesting tends only to waste energy, time, and emotions. Consultant, author, and friend Jerry Weinberg has written (something like) Most people interpret attempts help as attempts to interfere. This is true for 98.6% of […]

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Tags: Communication · Culture · Expectations · People

The Pull-the-Wire Test

June 20th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I have given many demonstrations of systems. I have watched even more demonstrations of systems. One thing I have learned to do during a demonstration is to pull a wire to see if the demonstration still works. Many years ago, I was involved in a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day test of a system. This […]

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Tags: Problems · Systems · Technology

Your Personal Google Machine

June 16th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The personal computer, the laptop computer, the home computer, the netbook – whatever title we use, they have all become the personal Google machine, i.e., the window into the knowledge of mankind. I live in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. Tony Kornheiser, one of those guys on ESPN’s “PTI,”  has […]

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Tags: Change · Communication · Computing · Internet

A Couple of Thoughts about College

June 13th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Watch out for the coming college bubble where tuition at prestigious universities crashes. Maybe some of those universities will crash as well. I read a couple of things this week about college. They seemed to be related (in my mind at least). The first item was on TechCrunch and it discussed the […]

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Tags: Learning

Unspoken Messages

June 9th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes no one will talk to me. There is a big message in the silence. All I have to do is find it. I asked for input, but no one said anything. I’ve heard that a few thousand times. The person is open for advice, criticism, anything from anyone. They are met […]

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Tags: Communication · People

Identity Rules

June 6th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips An identity rule is something that I must have or must do or must be to maintain my identity.  If you violate an identity rules, you lose your identity. People have rules, I know I have my own rules. Have you ever tied the shoe laces of another adult? That would be […]

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Tags: Culture · Differences · Expectations · General Systems Thinking · People

Tutoring Writing – Part 2 – Smaller Concepts

June 2nd, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Here are some items I see often when working with college engineering and science students – part 2. For the past couple of years, I have been working with engineering and science students at George Mason University on their writing. I found myself spending the vast majority of the time discussing a […]

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Tags: Writing