Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Improving what and how we do things is a touchy subject. Approach it carefully. “I wish they would do better,” said the optimist. “They are awful at this,” said the disgusted. “Improve,” said the commander. And what other stereotypical comments can we make when we see someone do something poorly? First, what […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There are persons and things that we don’t notice much, but who keep everything working and everyone smiling. Please notice and appreciate. lip: noun, the edge of a hollow container or an opening. “drawing her finger around the lip of the cup” Behold the wonder of the lip, that protruding edge that […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We hate to admit it, but we are here and now because of our past actions. “How did we get here?” bemoans a person currently caught in some quicksand of life. The answer is, “Out steps brought us here.” Another answer is, “The system is the way it is because we made […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Many of our problems already have solutions in waiting. And many of these are effective and inexpensive. Person A: My kid won’t stop chewing on fill-in-the-blank. Person B: Put a drop of fill-in-the-other-blank on it. It will taste bad, and the kid will stop chewing on it. Person A: Oh. … Person […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Ask for information. Use it to change me—not the other person. I teach classes on a few topics at work. The best thing I can do afterwards (a few days later) is ask one of the students questions: “What is this? What is that? How would you do this? What is the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The most difficult thing about the agile and similar approaches is the zero-th step. “I’m aren’t sure about this.” Let’s take small steps and learn as we go. Let’s not reach too far and make too costly a mistake.This is the agile manifesto stated another way. There is nothing new here; we […]

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by Dwayne Phillips It isn’t easy to admit that I lack knowledge for something that “I should know.” Most people are like me in this respect. How can I “help” without looking over their shoulder? “Maybe if you did it that way instead of this way,” said the eager, wanting-to-be-helpful person standing behind me and […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we recognize our failures. Then—for some strange reason—we attempt something that will fail an order of magnitude more. We have failed to manage our $1 maintenance budget. Let’s correct this by starting a $10 development budget. We have failed to communicate in daily operations. Let’s correct this by starting a large […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The claim of greater “better-ness” and ensuing failure seem to associate frequently. There is an old story of programmer who coded for six hours. Then, instead of going home, the programmer coded two more hours and made enough mistakes in those two hours that it took the rest of the week to […]

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