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Entries Tagged as 'Thinking'

Silence is Complicity (not)

September 14th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We have another variation of the “silence is agreement” notion. Let’s refute that notion—again. Looking back through this blog, it appears that I have written about this topic every four years. Once in 2012, once in 2016, so I guess it is time again. This time around “silence is complicity” is being […]

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Tags: Appearances · Communication · Conversation · Justice · Respect · Thinking

Trades: We All Do Them

April 27th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Whatever method you use to accomplish your work, you are choosing it over something else. You gain something with your choice; you lose something with your choice. That is your trade. “We do DevSecOps,” said one practitioner. “We do agile,” said another. “We do what we feel like doing everyday,” said a […]

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Tags: Alternatives · Choose · General Systems Thinking · Thinking

Misinformation, Disinformation, Entertainment, and Questions

March 2nd, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We seem to have confused ourselves once again. Perhaps simply asking a few questions would quell all the hyperventilating. Is it misinformation or disinformation? I confuse the two. Is either a real word or something a word inventor invented last week because he couldn’t find his dictionary and an appropriate word among […]

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Tags: Adults · Information · Questions · Thinking

Automation and Time to Think

October 21st, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There are many things we can do to reduce the time required to complete tasks. Is that always a good thing? If we do a task each day, let’s find a way to automate it. Surely we can write a little piece of software that will do it for us at the […]

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Tags: Thinking · Time · Tools

The Amazon Written Memo Meeting: Nothing New Here

September 2nd, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Jeff Bezos and Amazon have received much praise for their use of written essays at meetings instead of PowerPoint and bullet points. Great, but not new. This is a good piece about Amazon’s use of written memos at meetings. Keep the thinking focused. Don’t waste time. Think. Communicate. Excellent. Great. I love […]

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Tags: Communication · Thinking · Tools · Writing

How Did We Mess Up This One?

August 15th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Really smart persons continue to blunder. How? I read this article recently about how women are hurt more often and more severely than men in automobile accidents. Why does this happen? The crash dummies used in safety tests work well, but are almost always the size and shape of a man. Crash […]

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Tags: Analysis · Notice · Observation · Stupid · Testing · Thinking

Certainty, Doubt, and Arguing with Myself

July 1st, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Some matters are certain in my mind. Others are a bit fuzzy behind a veil of doubt and cause me to argue with myself. There are times for both situations. Some things are fuzzy in my mind. I am not certain about them. I have to argue with myself. I start a […]

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Tags: Clarity · Conversation · Questions · Thinking

The Last Minute

September 27th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Need a decision? Know the last possible minute. Little Me: Here is the situation. I don’t have the authority to decide the direction. Please decide. Big Boss: Not today. Little Me: But, I, we, need… Big Boss: If I don’t decide now, will we all cease to exist? Little Me: long pause…I […]

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Tags: Decide · Thinking · Time

Brevity, Clarity, and Explanations

August 6th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips If I cannot explain something with brevity and clarity, I am not ready to explain it. Gosh, that summary is a killer. I am ready to explain something. I have this earth-changing wonderful great super-duper (note the lack of brevity and clarity) idea that the world needs to hear and implement just […]

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Tags: Brevity · Clarity · Communication · Ideas · Learning · Patience · Thinking

Of Course I Write about What I DON’T Know

April 23rd, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Part 2 of 2 blogs on writing about…of course I write about what don’t I know. How else would I ever learn anything? This one doesn’t make as much sense as part 1 did. How can I write about something that I don’t know. Well… First, I learn. Second, I write. Or […]

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Tags: Learning · Thinking · Writing