by Dwayne Phillips There are things I don’t want to know. Knowing those things means I have to do some work that I just don’t want to do. Life is full of headaches. There are more than enough headaches for each day. I don’t need any more headaches. Then some well-meaning person walks in the […]
Entries Tagged as 'Learning'
Things I Don’t Want to Know
April 24th, 2023 · No Comments
Tags: Health · Learning · Management · Multitasking · Resources · Work
Portable and Permanent Possessions
March 27th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips In which I consider one of the more quotable aspects of knowledge. My dad used to tell me that knowledge was the one thing no one could take away from you. A search of the world’s knowledge, a.k.a., Google it for yourself, shows that many famous people are the origin of this […]
Tags: Education · Family · General Systems Thinking · Knowledge · Learning
Meta Mistakes
March 9th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Some of the worst mistakes I make are my mistakes about my mistakes and the corrections of my mistakes. Confused? Most of us are. We all make mistakes. Sorry to write that, but it is true. Then we make meta mistakes. These are mistakes about our mistakes and the corrections of our […]
Tags: Accountability · Choose · Excuses · Leadership · Learning · Mistakes · Reaction
Not This Place and Time
February 23rd, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The persons who are in this place at this time to decide this thing are usually in the wrong place and time and deciding the wrong thing. Let’s decide. We are the deciders. We are in the deciding position because at some time and place in the past we showed how well […]
Tags: Choose · Decide · Learning · Mistakes · People · Time
First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, …
February 20th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Events occur in a set order, unless they don’t. Thought is encouraged. The title is from a nursery rhyme (origin unknown by me). The third event is a baby in a baby carriage. Events occur in a set order. Breakfast-lunch-dinner. Entree then desert. Eat breakfast, then brush your teeth (or is that […]
Tags: Design · Learning · Rest · Systems · Testing · Thinking · Work
Job Interviews: Can You Learn?
February 13th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Most job interviews center on one question, “What do you know?” Here’s a suggestion for a new central question, “Can you learn?” I don’t like job interviews. The folks interviewing me are usually quite pleasant. They want to know what I know. The central question is, “What do you know?” That question […]
Tags: Jobs · Knowledge · Learning · Questions · Work
Next Slide, Please
February 2nd, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This one is finished. Time for the next one. It too will finish, and another one will come after it. Many years ago as a much younger man, I spoke with a much older and wiser man. He was about to leave an assignment and begin another assignment. He had learned the […]
Tags: Expectations · Experiment · Growth · Learning · Time
Levels of Abstraction
November 28th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips What are you talking about? What level of abstraction are you discussing? There are levels of abstraction. A car moves me from here to there. A car has an engine, a transmission, wheels, and fuel. An engine has spark plugs and belts and hoses. A spark plug has a housing, insulator, and […]
Tags: Analysis · Communication · Learning · Systems · Teaching
Friendly Testers
November 17th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips It may be a good idea to have your friends test your system. Who should test your system? Who should tell you what they think about your idea? Who should read the manuscript of your novel? Friends or a “friendly audience” may be the answer to these and related questions. Consider the […]
Tags: Authentic · Honesty · Information · Learning · Testing
Spilled Coffee
October 31st, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I finally did it—I spilled a cup of coffee on my computer (first time ever over 40 years). A few lessons learned. After 40+ years of using my own personal computer, I spilled a cup of coffee on my current Apple MacBook Air. After a couple of hours, the coffee saturated the […]
Tags: Accountability · Chaos · Cloud Computing · Computing · Failure · Humility · Learning · Mistakes