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Entries Tagged as 'Learning'

Being Smart and Being Wrong

September 24th, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Quick, read the following and agree or disagree: Smart people are wrong more often than stupid people. I believe the above is true. It seems that smart people read, study, think, and propose ideas more often than stupid people. Stupid people seem to sit around and choose-your-own-stupid-activity (e.g. watch TV, surf the […]

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Tags: Learning · Logic · People

Trying Harder

September 7th, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I am working a on process improvement this week. I wish I could state a brilliant insight. Alas, all I have is, “let’s try harder.” That reduces to having good people spend the time necessary to do a task well. Blogs don’t always announce breakthroughs in any field of endeavor. Let’s downgrade […]

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Tags: Learning · Management · Process · Writing

Writing in the Air

September 3rd, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A recent manager wrote his thoughts in the air with his finger. There was some good, some bad, and some annoyances with this habit. But, as with most things people do, there was plenty to learn. I worked on a short project recently where the project manager wrote in the air. To […]

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Tags: Communication · Learning · Management · Writing

Leave Room for Learning

August 24th, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I like to be ready. At times I forced myself to be less ready and learn during the moment. Those were quite satisfying. Project managers can take something from this and help their people learn. I like to plan. Well, not to plan, I guess what is really like is to be […]

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Tags: Learning · Management · Observation

Learning with Computers, SELinux Collides with HP Printer

August 17th, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips HP printers struggle to work under Linux if SELinux is “enforcing.” It seems that HP and others would have taken care of this foible by now. I have a new computer, actually two new computers. Well, they aren’t new and they aren’t really two, they are one. Now I have confused myself. […]

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Tags: Learning · Linux · Technology

Staying on Task

August 13th, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We spend too much time avoiding some tasks. They are not interesting, praiseworthy, or worthy of note. We simply cannot stay on task. I recommend changing tasks – at least temporarily. There are many benefits to changing tasks. Some benefits apply to the original task. All the benefits apply to me. I […]

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Tags: Change · Health · Learning · Time

Learning the Magic Words

July 27th, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Most organizations have “magic words.” Utter these words and things happen. If you don’t know the words, work slows and frustration rises. None of this makes any sense, but nonsense continues to exist and often thrives. Years ago, a colleague who lived in a nearby rural area wanted to construct a building […]

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Tags: Communication · Culture · Learning · Magic

Working with OpenCV on OS X

July 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I return to some of my technical roots this week. I am experimenting with the OpenCV image processing and computer vision library. This is fun. This is a “techie” blog post. Many years ago I worked with image processing. I did this work in graduate school and then wrote a lot of […]

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Tags: Learning · OS X · Programming · Technology

What are You Searching?

July 6th, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The computer has become the learning appliance. Don’t believe me? Just ask my six-year-old niece. So what do schools do now? “What are you searching?” That was a simple question. Last weekend I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee visiting with relatives. I was sitting in front of my portable computer studying and modifying […]

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Tags: Culture · Learning · Technology

Word Swapping

June 25th, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I like writing exercises – things that make me think. I came across a good one today from Kenneth Davis at ManageYourWriting.com. He calls it the Alphabet Shift. choose a word you’ve written beginning with a letter from the first half of the alphabet. Replace it with a more effective word beginning […]

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Tags: Communication · Learning · Writing