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

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Entries from November 2018

The Portfolio

November 29th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips In the age of the temporary job, the portfolio becomes important to us all. For most of my life, I heard of the artist’s portfolio—the collected works of an artist. Well, welcome to the age of everyone-is-an-artist. Everyone needs a portfolio to show potential employers. Wikipedia has a few definitions of portfolio […]

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Tags: Portfolio · Work

The Winding Path to the Solution

November 26th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes—make that almost all the time—the path from the problem to the solution is winding. “We had a problem; we solved it. Let me describe how we found and implemented the solution.”—a satisfied problem solver. Ah, nothing more satisfied than a problem solver just after solving a problem. Listen carefully. They will […]

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Tags: Agility · Problems · Solutions

We aren’t Finished, Yet

November 22nd, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I’m all for brief meetings, but sometimes we walk away too soon. I’m an engineer. I work with engineers and scientists. You know, insert-you-favorite-derogatory-word-here’s. We don’t concentrate on social skills. When we talk, and we admit that we have to talk with another human now and then, we state the facts, decide, […]

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Tags: Communication

Disagreements

November 19th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Of course no one agrees with me when we read, hear, see, etc. the same thing. We are in different places in different times while in the same place at the same time. As a kid, the most enjoyable episodes of my favorite programs were the ones where they played one scene […]

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Tags: Communication · Listening · Management

Life and Ctrl-Z

November 15th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Life doesn’t have an undo key. Isn’t that wonderful? The Ctrl-Z key sequence (command-Z for the Apple universe) is the universal undo command. Type the wrong words? Press Ctrl-Z to remove them. Deleted the wrong words? Press the Ctrl-Z to bring them back. Did something regrettable? Well, you know. Life doesn’t have […]

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Tags: Mistakes · Simple

But Mom said…

November 12th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We can’t seem to shake this childish manipulation. Ask around enough, and someone will provide the desired answer. And it won’t be my fault. I suppose we all did this as children. If Dad said, “No,” we asked Mom because there was a chance she would say, “Yes.” Childish behavior. We all […]

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Tags: Accountability · Adults · Childhood · Mistakes

AI: Algorithm-Assisted System

November 8th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I have a failing in that I like to call things what they really are. Hence, I take on the recent AI financial boom. AI is everywhere (too bad we don’t seem to feel that real intelligent people are everywhere, but that is another topic). AI drives our cars. AI reads our […]

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Tags: Ethics · Fatigue · General Systems Thinking · Systems

Hacking Political Campaigns

November 5th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Election day is upon us. Let us pause a moment as adults and state the obvious. Let’s state the obvious: of course “foreign actors” are hacking political campaigns. In the old days you would throw toilet paper all over their front yard trees or hit their house with rotten eggs. That took […]

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Tags: Adults · Government

When the Solution is Worse than the Situation

November 1st, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Will the solution solve anything? Will the solution make the situation worse? “Let’s fix that!”—the cry of the optimistic solution-er. Will the solution improve our situation or only make it worse? A long-time colleague once described a situation he faced decades ago. Things at home were a mess. His wife and kids […]

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Tags: Problems · Questions · Solutions