by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we don’t know something. There is a magic question that moves us from unknowing to knowing. Three words: when will you? Person A: How much will this project cost? Person B: I don’t know. Person A: When will you (know how much this project will cost)? Person B: I don’t know. […]
Entries Tagged as 'Knowledge'
Moving Past “I Don’t Know”
February 3rd, 2020 · No Comments
Tags: Knowledge · Learning · Questions
I Understand this Well Enough to…
August 5th, 2019 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips One basic progression of understanding. I understand this well enough to: understand it in my mind use it explain it clearly to others invent it invent what comes next ignore it
Knowledge Management: The Fundamental Need, now, what was it…
March 14th, 2019 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I forget the fundamental requirement of knowledge management. Maybe that was it. I recently met a person who declared that she took great joy in formatting Microsoft Word documents. She loved they way she could align everything on the page and mis-align a few things in just the right places. This person […]
Tags: Communication · Knowledge · Management
But How will that Person Learn?
February 18th, 2019 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Experts are far more productive than the average. But if we eliminate the average, how will anyone become an expert? Expert managers can manage 10 times the work of the average manager. Expert fill-in-the-blank can do 10 times the work of the average fill-in-the-blank. But how will the expert become an expert […]
Tags: Competence · Judgment · Knowledge · Learning
It’s Called “Source Code” for a Reason
January 21st, 2019 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Want to know what computer software is doing? Go to the source of knowledge regarding it. I run a bash script daily to put my Internet viewing log online. (See here.) This script runs through a series of folders, us old guys still call them directories as in the Unix days, copies […]
Tags: Knowledge · Systems · Uncategorized
What have You Seen or Heard…
March 1st, 2018 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Often, perceptions and other ghosts cause us to believe things. Go back to a fundamental question. The world is coming to an end. Nothing is right. Everyone is against this. What else have I told myself? What else did I “know?” All were hunches, perceptions, gut feel, and such. Sigh. All is […]
Tags: Analysis · Breathe · Clarity · Knowledge
Knowledge Management in Real Life
August 17th, 2017 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Want to see knowledge management in action? Go to, of all places, the library. No, we won’t go to the library to find a book all about knowledge management. We will go to the library to see knowledge management in real life. Look about. We are surrounded by reusable modules of knowledge […]
Tags: Knowledge · Library · Management
Analog Had Its Advantages
March 23rd, 2017 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Somteimes I miss the analog days. They covered a lot of my mistakes. Handwritten notes let me fudge and smudge and avoid mistakes—like spelling. I could smudge the “i” and the “e” together and put the dot of the “i” somewhere in the middle, and no one could tell that I didn’t […]
Tags: Knowledge · Learning · Technology · Work · Writing
Free Knowledge
November 14th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips O’Reilly creates a large section of “free” books on technology. Once again, they have raised expectations of other publishers. I have long liked O’Reilly publishing. At first, the books with the excellent sketches of animals caught my eye. The content was usually as good or better than the covers. I attended a […]
Tags: Knowledge · Learning · Library · Publishing
Knowledge Management and Job Insecurity
November 10th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This is what I find to be the biggest obstacle to managing knowledge in an organization. Knowledge management is pretty simple: when someone learns something, record that information. When someone else needs that information, they don’t have to learn it again for themselves. The expense of learning is not repeated. I have […]
Tags: Knowledge · Management