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Entries Tagged as 'General Systems Thinking'

Thoughts on Heating and Cooling

November 10th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Facebook puts a data center near the arctic circle. The natural cold air will cool the computers. Why is this news? Why is this hailed as a brilliant “green” action? It was December of 1980. We had a small room with a dozen racks of heat-producing equipment that needed to be cooled. […]

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Tags: Adapting · General Systems Thinking · Management

A Few Thoughts on Greed

October 24th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Often, greed is not the result of one great big greedy villain, but rather the sum of many well-meaning people who wanted to add just one little item to a system. The Occupy Wall Street occupiers continue to occupy Wall Street and a few dozen other famous places in a few dozen […]

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Tags: General Systems Thinking · Greed

We’re Missing a Few Layers (and Adaptability)

October 13th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We have chased manufacturing out of America. We now have holes in our job structure and have lost the ability to adapt to a changing world. I read a few posts on the “Econolypse” lately. Here is one post, and here is another. We have chased the manufacturing jobs from the U.S. […]

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Tags: Employment · General Systems Thinking · Generation Y · Ideas

Change the World – 0.10 – Breathe

August 11th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A simple yet powerful tool for change is to stop and breathe. This is a simple step in changing the world. It involves only one person – me. Therefore, I can do this whenever I decide, and no one else can stop me. This step is to breathe. Stop what I am […]

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Tags: Breathe · Change · General Systems Thinking

Problems Bypassed by Time

July 25th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Many problems are solved; many others are not solved. And then there are problems that are not solved, but they just go away with time. The United States Postal Service, otherwise known by the often disdainful name of “the post office,” had a big problem. They had millions of envelopes a day […]

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Tags: Communication · General Systems Thinking · Problems · Technology · Wikipedia

Keep Quiet About It

July 18th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips One of the few things I remember learning in high school is that if I keep quiet about some privilege I have, no one minds. I guess I learned a lot of things in high school. I remember that I learned how to play a couple of musical instruments and march in […]

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Tags: Fun · General Systems Thinking

Identity Rules

June 6th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips An identity rule is something that I must have or must do or must be to maintain my identity.  If you violate an identity rules, you lose your identity. People have rules, I know I have my own rules. Have you ever tied the shoe laces of another adult? That would be […]

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Tags: Culture · Differences · Expectations · General Systems Thinking · People

Desirements

May 12th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Systems are built to satisfy the requirements of the user. Sometimes, engineers want to add things, i.e., they desire to add things. Such are “desire-ments,” and they can kill projects. I walked into an existing project. Well, I  wasn’t in the middle of the project, but I was to work with a […]

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Tags: Fun · General Systems Thinking · Requirements · Work

Learning How to be Smarter

March 17th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips. I have multiplied my “smartness” in the last couple of decades due to techniques I learned from two peolple. I always wanted to be smart. Then I wanted to be smarter than that. I guess I am still working at being smarter. I recently switched to paying for Starbucks coffee using an […]

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Tags: Differences · General Systems Thinking · Learning · People · Thinking

Failure to Maintain Control of Your Vehicle

March 14th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips. There are a lot of standards today guiding our behavior. There seem to be a lot of people today who ignore the standards and yet they succeed. It is illegal in many places to talk on a cell phone while driving. It is illegal in many places to send text messages while […]

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Tags: General Systems Thinking · Judgment · Management