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 […]
Entries Tagged as 'Communication'
Systems Analysis or “How’s Your Analytical Skills?”
December 28th, 2015 · No Comments
Tags: Analysis · Communication · General Systems Thinking · Systems
Not Deciding, Just Talking (Learning)
December 24th, 2015 · No Comments
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 […]
Tags: Communication · Meetings
Apologies
December 10th, 2015 · No Comments
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 […]
Tags: Communication · Competence · Excuses
Logical Implication, Lying, and Distrust
December 5th, 2015 · No Comments
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 […]
Tags: Adults · Authentic · Communication · Government
If We Tell Him, He’ll Get Mad
October 8th, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips People are free to choose their reactions to events. I am included in “people.” We all are. I don’t know how many times I have heard the phrase that is the title of this post. There are countless variations: You tell him that! That’s easy to say when s/he isn’t around. The […]
Tags: Adults · Breathe · Choose · Communication
Software Developers
September 7th, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This is yet another job title that is constantly misused by recruiters. Software Developer: another stupid job title that reveals the ignorance of those trying to hire people. Yes, I am a software developer. No I don’t have ten years Java programming experience. Are you trying to hire a programmer or a […]
Tags: Communication · Programming · Work
Lying and Liars
August 31st, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Verbs sometimes lead to nouns. Some of which we should seek to avoid. If you lie, you become known as a liar. That verb leads to that noun. Funny how that works. Once you are a liar, can you erase that? Can you do anything to remove that noun from you. Perhaps […]
Tags: Communication
Find the Disconnect
August 24th, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips News is happening when there is a disconnect in the pattern A leads to B. Consider this: A leads to B. So, find A, and when it leads to something other than B, you have a news story. For example, more money spent on schools leads to better student performance. When it […]
Tags: Communication · Economics · General Systems Thinking
Warmware
July 23rd, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips A little-publicized factor in the computing world is that to understand something, you have to find someone, i.e., a warm body. Back in the dark ages of computing, I wrote software in a language called FORTRAN. We used FORTRAN code that had been written the pre-dark ages by a group of people […]
Tags: Communication · Engineering · People · Programming
Childhood, Adulthood, and Privacy
July 2nd, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Too often I hear adult-to-child language used in discussions of adult privacy. If you aren’t doing anything wrong, you shouldn’t care if I’m watching. This is what parents tell small children. I heard it often as a child and I said it often as a parent of then small children. It seems […]
Tags: Adults · Change · Communication