Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips People often enter business relationships without first answering one question: If I fire you, will that affect our personal relationship? Business relationships are about business. They involve contracts and agreements: You will do this and I will do that. This is pretty simple when you consider these terms. This is pretty complicated […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We tend to treasure failed tools. It is as if the tool becomes part of me. One remedy is to realize that a tool I use is just that, a tool I use. It is not me. I don’t know how many times I have seen it. A person is standing at […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The foundation of risk management is asking, “What could possibly go wrong?” Some people, however, shrug when asked while others make a list of a million things. A recent chat: Person A: What do you know about risk management? Me: A “risk” is a problem that hasn’t occurred yet. Person A: What […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There is a difference between a gift and a contract. I have met many people who fail to notice that. Persons give other persons gifts. Many of these gifts are not gifts – they are contracts. Here are a few signs that gifts are contracts. In contracts, the giver says something like: […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A common malady of persons in government is to predict the future of commercial computing. No one seems to learn the folly of this practice. Recently, the Administration announced a few things about the future of computers in education. There is a five-year plan from someone about how they are going to […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There has been much talk recently about reducing the  price of college. Most government actions, however, increase the price. There has been much talk recently about the price (see note) of a college education. This is supposed to be one of the reasons of the Occupy this-street-and-that-street Movement. The Washington Post has […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Every new thing involves a change. A period of chaos comes with every change. If the new thing is to be short-lived, the chaos may require a large percentage of time relative to the short-lived activity. A colleague noted that the estimates for short tasks were often incorrect by large percentages. Here […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We seem to believe that special things are for special people. And we all want to be a special person. We can employ this idea to surround ourselves with special people. A few years ago I was at a high school track meet. There was this little girl at the concession stand. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We are afraid of some things. Often, however, the heart of the fear is not the stated fear. Finding the source of fear can help us cope with it. Am I afraid of heights? No, but I am afraid of falling off a tall building. Many of us have fears. There is […]

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