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

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Entries from January 2021

Sorry, I Hoped We Would See Some Errors

January 28th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips When teaching and demonstrating systems, it is better if there are errors. Teaching how to use a system is better when there are errors. No, that prior sentence is not a typo. I want errors to appear when I am showing a person how to use a system—anything from software to a […]

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Tags: Error · General Systems Thinking · Learning · Systems · Teaching

The Common Person

January 25th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Thoughts about all those folks out there who seem to be doing something that the experts don’t like. 1980—it was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away when I heard a woman telling foreign dignitaries about the common person in America. I didn’t approach her and hit her with […]

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Tags: Appearances · Fairy Tales · Integrity · Observation · People · Respect

Does It Matter How We Do Things?

January 21st, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips All organizations have management processes. Do they matter? All organizations have management processes. Some organizations codify them, teach them, spread them, proclaim them, and even sometimes use them. Do things management processes, i.e., “the way we do things around here,” matter? Of course they do. And sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the personnel, […]

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Tags: Management · Process · Stories · Success

Our Mistakes

January 18th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Our mistakes put us in this situation, a tree didn’t fall on us. “How did we get here? What happened?” Simple, we decided to do this and that and some other thing, and we were mistaken. No one made us do what we did. We chose on our own. So, here we […]

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Tags: Accountability · Choose · Mistakes · Risk

Who Called First?

January 14th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Who wants whom? Who wants someone else’s attention or expertise? People tend to forget the answers. You called me. We called him. These mean something—important. We called him. We want his time, attention, expertise—we want something he has and we don’t have. The same when you call me. You want something of […]

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Tags: Analysis · Influence · Questions · Respect

“Good” by Situation, not by Choice

January 11th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We are often the way we are because of our situation, not by a choice. Sometimes our situation forces us into “good.” Slim and trim are good. At least being slim is seen as good by most of western society at this time in the 21st century. Obesity is not good. Again, […]

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Tags: Choose · Management · Reality · Remote Work

The New Economy, The New Technologists

January 7th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Productivity leaps are possible and happening. I am sorry to write that fortunes can be made while employing just a few persons. I recently learned of a game called Among Us from a company called InnerSloth. In November of 2020, there were 500 million people playing the game. InnerSloth has four employees. […]

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Tags: Cloud Computing · Economics · Jobs · Software · Technology

Back in naught-20

January 4th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips What did you do during the Wuhan virus lock in of naught-20? First, I predict that in the future we will look back at this and double blind or blind our inoffensive offensiveness and call this the “Wuhan virus” because that follows the traditional naming convention of such. (Lyme disease is named […]

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Tags: Choose · Virus