Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we recognize our failures. Then—for some strange reason—we attempt something that will fail an order of magnitude more. We have failed to manage our $1 maintenance budget. Let’s correct this by starting a $10 development budget. We have failed to communicate in daily operations. Let’s correct this by starting a large […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips In many cases it is a bad idea to have the problem solver in the room when a problem describer describes a problem for the first time. About a generation ago, there was a movie about engineers and scientists at work in a small tech company. A couple of consultants arrive and […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Often it is not the thought that counts but the second thought that really counts. I got a great idea! Wow! Here we go. Two days later…well, that wasn’t such a great idea. It was a good idea, but after a good meal, a bit of exercise, some time doing something completely […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips A little future prediction about what we used to call automobiles. When the self-driving car actually arrives. We will no longer have: Rear-view mirrors – we’ll have lots of sensors “looking” in all directions. Steering wheel – what would we do with that? Front-facing seats – car interiors will be rectangles that […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips I try hard at everything. Sometimes I try hard too much. <start advice> Slow down. Back away. Breathe. Drink a cup of coffee. Relax. Take a nap. Find your own little zen thing that helps you to not try so hard. <end advice>

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips If you want time alone to think, do something distasteful to your colleagues. They will leave you alone. A few years ago I was in a job where we had a small refrigerator of soft drinks in the office. One thing that comes from such is that someone has to refill the […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips I sing the praises of Jumpcut: a little clipboard buffer for OS X. I do a lot of copying and pasting on my computer. That saves me untold hours of time typing. It also saves me from making data entry errors. I use Jumpcut: a little clipboard buffer for OS X. It […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Change in people (and what other type of change is interesting enough to consider?) takes time. Plan for it. Change takes time as people just don’t change quickly. Sometimes in an emergency we change quickly, but who wants to face an emergency? Here is a true story. I was working on the […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Contemplative writing is a valuable practice. It is far more valuable and far less used than shallow meetings. In my 28 years working for the government, I attended countless meetings where much of nothing was discussed. I avoided far more if these meetings than I attended. Meetings are a characteristic of government […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Solutions to problems don’t always work. A person can change the world by being available to another no matter the outcome. The situation is fairly common. One person comes to another with a situation that requires some assistance. The second person provides instruction for the situation. The first person is about to […]

[Read more →]