Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Non-fiction books should be useful and recommendable. It is easy to lose sight of these qualities. A book by Rob Fitzpatrick is full of these qualities. I recently finished reading a book of simple fundamentals for writing non-fiction. “Write Useful Books. A modern approach to designing and refining recommendable nonfiction,” Rob Fitzpatrick, […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Thoughts on writing and publishing a non-fiction book. This book strongly recommends having a plan for the business and a plan for the book’s content. I recently finished “Hungry Authors” by Liz Morrow and Ariel Curry, Rowan and Littlefield, 2024. I like the book. It focuses on knowing why you are writing […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We seem to think that everything will be on the screen and we don’t need to use pieces of paper. Years ago, we didn’t have the computers we have today. How many years ago? Twenty? Ten? Two? Years ago, some of us would take great pains to put lots of information on […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Information is power. It can be good as well. I keep a steno spiral notebook on my workspace. I jot the date for today and everything I do today. I have done this since sometime in 1986. That is … a bunch of years. I have all the notebooks, so if you […]

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By Dwayne Phillips We all have a less-than-perfect memory. Let us admit that and use little gadgets that help us remember to do what we know we should do. I keep noticing professional and other high-level athletes wearing giant wrist bands. I guess ”wrist band” is incorrect as these things cover the entire forearm of […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Unfortunate events provide yet another great reason to use a clipboard and a pencil. My records indicate that this is the fourth blog post I have written about the clipboard and the pencil. The gist is that these old, simple tools are still quite valuable. Hence, we might reconsider a few other […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We don’t have to “throw away” or discard ideas. We can always put them in a place to visit later. I have lots of ideas for writing, speaking, and generally contemplating. I don’t always have the time to use the ideas right now. That is fine. I save them for later, i.e., […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The weekend tends to erase all prior history. That is a bad thing in endeavors that are worth our time. Monday morning. A good weekend behind me. Okay, now what? Well, what’s interesting in the tech and culture news? Oh, look at that. I’ll spend some time exploring it. Problem: I am […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Yet another reason that writing in a weblog or a paper log is helpful. I find many benefits to writing in a log whether that be in a paper book or in an Internet thing like this one. One benefit is that whatever thought I write is now out of my head. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The napkin or envelope is still one of the best tools for the engineer or manager or fill-in-the-blank. I have a(n old-fashioned) laptop computer, a smartphone, and a tablet – and I still write notes on a napkin. Yes, I am old, that is part of the explanation. Yet, there is something […]

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