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

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Entries from July 2024

Specifics Usually Mean the Opposite

July 29th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips When someone is quite specific in what they convey, they often mean the opposite. “I will inject some humor here,” often means that nothing funny will be said. “I don’t care about the money,” often means that I really do care about the money coming my way. “We are transparent here,” often […]

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Tags: Authentic · Communication · Expectations · Respect · Trust

In Praise of Embarrassment

July 25th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I am happy to learn that embarrassment still exists. We still aspire. I recently read an article about how people are not asking Siri and the like questions in public by voice. They type the questions instead of saying them aloud. They are a bit embarrassed to let other people hear their […]

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Tags: Adapting · Appearances · Improvement · Self · Simple · Talk · Thinking · Visibility

Let the Marketplace Decide

July 22nd, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Let’s stop hyperventilating about this and that AI thing. The marketplace will decide and with more wisdom than myself. I just read yet another article about yet another artificial super-duper large language model. How can a model of something be larger than the something? Isn’t a model a smaller representation of something? […]

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Tags: Choose · Decide · Design · Error · General Systems Thinking · Systems

The Upside Down Expertise Pyramid

July 18th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We often have the experts looking up at someone atop the pyramid who simply doesn’t know much of what they are saying. There is supposed to be an expertise pyramid. The lone person atop the pyramid has more expertise than all those below. That is how the person reached the top of […]

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Tags: Baseline · Culture · Expertise · General Systems Thinking · Government · Systems

Learning to Solve Problems

July 15th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Show it, break it, fix it, make it better. My two older grandchildren were at my house recently. They are both teenagers now. The older was showing the younger a game that the older programmed. The younger tried an example that broke the game. Angst, frustration, embarrassment, etc. Then the older set […]

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Tags: General Systems Thinking · Improvement · Problems · Solutions · Systems

Choosing the Problem

July 11th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips For those who have the resources to choose the problems for those who can solve them, please, choose wisely. Smart scientists, engineers, and problem solvers abound. Well, maybe not abound, but given the population of the earth, there are millions of these folks. What problems are they trying to solve? Rocket engines? […]

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Tags: Choose · Problems · Requirements · Resources · Solutions

Communications Channels and Checks

July 8th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Let not check a communications channel using that same communications channel. It is pretty silly to do so. Since the great pandemic of the early 2020s, I have been part of countless ZoomerTeams meetings. Almost every one starts with, “Can everyone hear me?” Let’s pause and think. If a participant cannot hear […]

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Tags: Appearances · Clarity · Communication · Conversation · Respect · Thinking

Happy Birthday, America

July 4th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Once again, America is still here. I guess the Peter Principle explains our situation as the founders seemed to understand that. Once again we come to the anniversary of the founding of this grand experiment we call America. This is an election year, and those of who who can still think have […]

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Tags: America · General Systems Thinking

The Hero and the System We Really Use

July 1st, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the system we really use is not the system we tell people we use. “This system won’t work,” said the person whose job it was to analyze a system. But, the system works, i.e., the group of persons using the system that won’t work seem to get along just fine. In […]

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Tags: Analysis · Fear · General Systems Thinking · Management · Systems