Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips People ask questions about what they understand. Their questions tell you about them, not about the stated subject of the conversation. A few years ago in the last century, I once interviewed for an engineering job. At the time I had a BS, MS, and PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering. The […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Questioned if I noticed little patterns in the data, I asked back about little tools. Several decades ago, I interviewed for a job in some sort of computer center that processed some sort of data. The descriptions were intentionally vague because the person speaking to me felt that it was all too […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Some of the more productive things to do in a group of persons is to talk through scenarios. No decisions, just learning. I am a decider. I think the term from Myer-Briggs is “Judging.” Present the alternatives, decide, move on. That is what I do. There are times, however, when it is […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Thanks to recent legislation concerning health insurance, we have a new way to calculate take-home pay. In the old days, whenever that was, take-home pay was calculated as: income minus taxes Now, however, take-home pay is calculated as: income minus taxes minus what you pay for health insurance in your job based […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Systems analysis is merely a few basic skills in what a person notices. From time to time I analyze systems. I analyze all types of systems, and most of those systems are usually not recognized as systems. I suppose I have a broad idea of what comprises a system. A fundamental skill […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Persons in special positions have few people who will talk to them. The result is a problem. Leaders occupy special positions. One result is that persons view the leader as a thing: a Vice President of such-and-such, a Director of this-or-that. Persons speak to things in a different and usually less-helpful manner […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We never have time to to it right, but we always have time to do it again. The summary above is an old cliche or common sense or something. The trouble with common sense is that it is usually common sense and rarely common practice. (Is that another cliche?) Gosh. How many […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Over the weekend, I passed the test for CompTIA Security+ certification. It was probably the worst test I have taken since my junior year of college (back when we scratched answers on cave walls with colored rocks). Anyways, I memorized a bunch of stuff and passed a test. Perhaps this will come […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I explore another aspect of logical implication and how lying permits people to construct all sorts of crazy stories. Background: If logical implication makes no sense to you, and it made no sense to me for years, I point to two prior blog posts that I hope will help you understand this […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Five minutes of quiet thought. Each morning, at the end of Internet viewing and blogging and before I “go to work,” I sit for five quiet minutes and drink coffee. I stare into space. I am not wasting time. It is an investment, one of the sharpening-the-saw moments from a self-help best-selling […]

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