Working Up

Working Up in Project Management, Systems Engineering, Technology, and Writing

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Entries Tagged as 'Thinking'

We’ll Do It All Over Again Anyways

February 26th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There is a penalty paid for late changes. It is not just money, it is often in the loss of people. Ideas spawn ideas. That is the nature of ideas and people. Write something, paint something, sing something, create something so that we can gather and think and create more. There comes […]

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Tags: Change · Growth · Health · Ideas · People · Process · Thinking · Writing

I Just Thought of Something

February 9th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I like to plan my work and work my plan. Sometimes, however, thoughts hit me and that plan gets all jumbled up. Plan for, “I just thought of something.” I like to plan and work the plan. I like process. I like procedure. Let’s do this before that. Why? The past has […]

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Tags: Change · Chaos · Management · Planning · Process · Thinking

Hurry

January 29th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We are in a hurry. We still need to do this well. Basketball coach John Wooden, his UCLA teams won 10 national championships, had many sayings. One was, “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” Hurry means to move or act with great haste. There is some implication in there about moving or acting […]

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Tags: Breathe · Competence · Management · Mistakes · Multitasking · Thinking · Time

Happy New Year

January 1st, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Let us begin anew. Why not? By some arbitrary counting of days, a.k.a., a calendar, today is the first day of the new year 2026. I suppose that is a good thing for us. Hence, some of us have the new year’s resolutions wherein we resolve to do something. I resolve to […]

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Tags: Calendar · Family · Ideas · Thinking · Writing

Magic Words: Up Until Now … Updated

November 6th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Revisiting an old post in a new era. The idea is pretty good now more than ever. Way back in 2009, I wrote a little post about the magic words, “Up until now.” These words imply that, while I have always lacked something or other, I can change my future and not […]

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Tags: Alternatives · Change · Chaos · Management · Thinking

AI and the American Teenager

September 18th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This current trend in AI fails miserably when confronting the nemesis of all logic—the American teenager. I recently read about a big fast food chain in America that installed one of these AI chattering bots on the drive through ordering system. Let AI take the orders. Save cost. Improve profit. This will […]

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Tags: Adapting · Adults · Artificial Intelligence · Fun · Logic · Technology · Thinking

Doing It Wrong or Recounting It Wrong

July 7th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I can do something wrong. I can do something right, but be mistaken in how I tell the story of the doing. There is a difference. Is one mistake better? I can do something wrong. For example, not tighten the lug nuts properly when I change a tire on a car. I […]

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Tags: Communication · Ethics · Government · History · Leadership · Learning · Thinking

The Suggestion in the Form of a Question

June 9th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Like the TV game show Jeopardy, lets make suggestions in the form of a question. The TV show Jeopardy always had the answer in the form of a question. This always seemed silly to me, but the show was and still is successful, so what do I know about TV game show […]

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Tags: Communication · Ideas · Leadership · Learning · Questions · Teaching · Thinking

Would Someone Please Explain “Architecture” to Me

May 12th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I suppose I am several generations behind in the lingo of my profession. Is it too much to ask people to speak English or at least define their terms? I read this recently, “Get the architecture right, then the details.” Hmm, sounds like in that case “architecture” means the “high-level design.” But […]

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Tags: Clarity · Communication · Design · Thinking · Vocabulary · Word

What Do You Want? How Can You Reach That?

May 8th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Stop. Breathe. Think. Now act in a way that leads to what is desired. Stop. Breathe. Think. Act. In that order. I think that is the definition of a wise person acting wisely. “Knee jerk reactions” are not in the definition. A long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away) a […]

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Tags: Choose · Leadership · Management · Thinking · Time · Trust · Urgent