Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips A simple tool for providing feedback to a writer. “Mary had a little lamb.” The above five-word phrase can be said at least ten different ways. It can be assigned at least ten different meanings. Which one did the writer intend? Now we come to providing feedback to a writer. Ask, “Do […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I can introduce problems by asking others to consider a specific example. Often, a general example works better. Years ago, author and consultant Jerry Weinberg was leading a session on how to lead sessions. Jerry began with, “feel the sand between your toes on the exotic beach with the surf gently sounding […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the better type of improvement is when all the other people improve. That tends to help me improve, too. This is about working with others in a manner that they become smarter and better. Some would describe this as leadership, but often I think of leadership dedicated to the designated leader […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the good ideas are lurking in the wrong places. Looking for good ideas? Look at bad sources. Read a crummy book. In it I will find, “Now that sentence there is a good idea for a book or something. Why didn’t this person write the book about that instead of the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I have been experimenting with Google’s NotebookLLM. I like is using it to remind me of what I have written in fifteen years of this blog. I have been experimenting with Google’s NotebookLLM. I’m still not sure what NotebookLLM is or what it is intended to do. I guess there is value […]

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by Dwayne Phillips This is an old saying told to me many, many years ago. It is true today more than ever. Recent “reports” tell me that some Federal agencies are arresting folks who are merely trying to help their neighbors. And I hear of nice folks pointing guns at other Americans who are temporary […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Was my book or speech or seminar replaced by Wikipedia and ChatGPT? Time for me to learn. Was my book replaced by Wikipedia, i.e., each section of my book can be read or the reader can just go read a few Wikipedia pages? Is my book redundant to Wikipedia? The same can […]

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by Dwayne Phillips An old adage that still applies today as long as we apply it wisely. Some wise and famous person stated the title of this post long ago, I think. Still, it bears repeating in one variation or another. I am here to tell you something. What I have to say is important. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips When confronting something that looks odd, show it to an old person. They may have seen this before and can explain it. Many years ago, a programmer saw an odd way to demodulate amplitude modulation. The method didn’t resemble any of the equations or diagrams regarding amplitude modulation (AM, or that radio […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Did the system we are building pass the test? Wrong question. Let’s consider the purpose of testing. We have been testing the system we are building. The first question is almost always, “Did the system pass the test?” Wrong question. What these anxious folks want to know is, “Will the system do […]

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