Working Up

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

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Punishment Assessment

May 19th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A part of or a separate activity is the punishment assessment. What is the result of not following the rules? Years ago, I supervised a person who always asked the question, “And what happens to me if I don’t do this?” He wasn’t avoiding work; he was assessing rules and regulations to […]

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Tags: Accountability · Adults · Alternatives · Choose · Questions · Requirements · Risk

Things Don’t Have to Be This Way

May 15th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Each of us has the ability to change something in a direction which we desire. I guess this post is a pep talk or an admonition to “buck up sissy pants” (I think I heard that phrase on a TV show). Unhappy with the current situation? I am. Well, things don’t have […]

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Tags: Adults · Change · Communication · Conversation · Fear · Influence

Of Course We Want Bias

April 14th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Despite cries to the contrary, we want bias. Our individual bias is what makes us individuals. Do we really want everyone to be the same? I doubt it. “We need to reduce bias,” said someone who meant well but wasn’t thinking things through. I am biased. I like some things and dislike […]

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Tags: Adults · Alternatives · Choose · Differences · Honesty · Humility

Safe AI Text

March 24th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Are we spending too much time and effort on making AI systems “safe?” Perhaps we should allow adults to be adults and move on. Consider an LLM or whatever that creates text promoting: Those people, those philosophies are horrible! Okay, are you an adult? If so, you can easily reject those horrible […]

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Tags: Adults · Artificial Intelligence · Choose · Data Science · Decide · Technology

Obligations

February 20th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Other persons are not obligated to do things for me (as much as I wish). I am not obligated to do things for other persons (as much as they wish). I wish people would fulfill their obligations to me. I mean, look at what I have done for them. Surely, they will […]

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Tags: Adults · Commitment · Conversation · Error · Ethics · Expectations · Technical Debt

One or Both Hands in My Pockets

January 2nd, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There are times when a good thing to do is put one or both hands in my pockets before doing something else. In the late 1970s (yes, I am that old), a college professor was working with us know-nothing students in an electrical engineering lab. The experiment of the week involved a […]

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Tags: Adults · Choose · Education · Engineering · Error · General Systems Thinking · Systems

When the Audience Knows More

October 10th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes, the audience knows more than the designation teacher or expert. Great. There is much good that can come from this. Let’s discuss teaching adults or at least a situation where someone says you are the teacher and everyone else in the room is an adult. It is common for one of […]

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Tags: Adults · Authentic · Conversation · Honesty · Learning · Teaching

Kids’ Sports and the Company Picinc

September 9th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Some advice on kids’ sports. This is really good advice. As usual, someone else gave it to me. Major league baseball is concluding yet another season. The Little League baseball national and international tournaments just concluded (putting all those kids’ games on national TV live was a horrible mistake). What’s one to […]

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Tags: Adults · Competence · Fun · Learning · Teaching

Always Be Ready to Teach

August 19th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Hiring new people? Want to them to know everything that people who already work here know? There is no easy answer, but there are some answers. When look at the Help Wanted ads, I frequently encounter employers who want to hire people who already work for them. The ads are easy to […]

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Tags: Adults · Learning · Reality · Teaching · Time · Work

Hard Right, Easy Wrong

June 6th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I must have missed something in my life as the title of this post was very confusing the first time I heard it. I was being interviewed for a job. This was on the telephone. There were several people on the other end of the line. The principal interviewer asked me something […]

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Tags: Accountability · Adults · Authentic · Communication · Trust