Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips If you want people to focus on the focal point, discuss nonsense first. Rubbing spaghetti Play-Doh on a surfboard means nothing to no one. (At least I think it means nothing to no one. If someone out there has a strong feeling about it, please let me know.) It is the perfect […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Have we sunk so low that we give prizes to those who teach that lying and theft are wrong? Back in medieval times when I was in college and used punch cards for computer input…professors used to joke about (or so it went), “So and so was a programmer for such and […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We work in the real world; not in one where what we wish is true. Sometimes we simply need to teach a little. A: I told these people what to do…and AARGH (pained expression interrupts speech). B: How did you teach them how to do that? A: What? What do you mean? […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Someone who had a big influence on my life has passed away. “The Mote in God’s Eye.” Star Wars was in theaters, and everyone was enthralled. The science fiction community tried to fit in with Luke, Han, and the rest, often in vain. Every science fiction commentator had their own list of, […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There is often a gap between our history and our story about our history. I suppose, since most of us are not famous, that is okay. We have experiences—those comprise our history. Then we tell people a story about those experiences. Sometimes the stories enhance the histories. Barack Obama has some doozies. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I find an excellent resource that helps me put video on a web site in HTML. Not many people face this “problem.” The world uploads their video to Facebook with a click and drag and such. I am old and still have cases where I want to put a private video in […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I point back to a classic but little-known work on instructing people how to do something. Way back in time in the mid-1980s (yes, I am that old), I stumbled onto a book written by Edmond H. Weiss titled How to Write a Usable User Manual. I thought it was a basic […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Take care when choosing an example for teaching. Often what seem to be great examples are terrible in that people concentrate on the unintended. I have taken a lot of courses related to project management. I have taught a few. I have read a lot of books on project management, and, as […]

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