Working Up

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

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Entries from June 2012

Less Work, More Success

June 28th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips If you manage software development, here is a tip for success: write less software. The above tip for success doesn’t make much sense at first, but humor me by reading the following story (a true story). Once I worked in government, and we hired a company to write software for us. The […]

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Tags: Management · Work

More Accepting Less than Perfect

June 25th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Self-flying airplanes are coming. They will be very good, but not perfect. Younger generations may accept that less than perfect. Aviation is repeating its history from about a hundred years ago. Instead of the Wright brothers, we now have “drones” or “UAVs.” I put these terms in quotes as they are misused […]

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Tags: Technology

Knowing My Limits

June 21st, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips One of the best things to know is what I don’t know. A next best thing to know is what to do when I don’t know what I’m doing. I have my shortcomings. Yes, hard to believe, but true. One of my shortcomings is admitting when a situation highlights one of my […]

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Tags: Thinking

The Face of Bad Things

June 18th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Do people associate your appearance with bad tidings? There is another way. Let’s oversimplify and divide the world of bosses into two categories: 1. those bosses who only visit when something is wrong and 2. those bosses who visit everyday to chat about the weather I have worked for both and prefer […]

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Tags: Choose · Management

Yet Another Reason for Writing

June 14th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I discover another reason for writing – the keyboard has an infinite attention span. Last night I discovered another reason why I like to write: The keyboard has an infinite attention span. I sometimes tell my stories (fiction and non-fiction) to my wife. After a few minutes, she usually tells me, “enough.” […]

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Tags: Writing

Some Thoughts from Germany

June 11th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips My wife and I are visiting our son in Germany. Being a good, bad Ugly American, I have thoughts that capture the entire country ( 😉 My youngest son has been teaching English in Ludwigshafen, Germany this school year. Since the year is almost over, my wife and I are visiting him. […]

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Tags: Differences · Family · Vacation

Who is in Charge Here?

June 7th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Longevity almost always wins over positions of authority. A conversation: Person A: You must do what I say because I am a VP or deputy under assistant director of something or other. Person B: Really? Person A: Yes. Person B: Let’s see, I have 15 years to retirement and the average above […]

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Tags: Culture · Management · People

The iPad – part 0.11 – even Better Writing

June 4th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Using the iPad (version 3), PlainText and DropBox makes writing even better. I now have the new iPad or iPad version 3 as some of us like to call it. I even have an Apple Bluetooth keyboard (I know, the keyboard is an old device, but new to slow adopters like me). I […]

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Tags: iPad · Technology · Writing