Working Up

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

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Ok, It’s 2020, enough already

January 27th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips According to some arbitrary scheme, we are in the year two thousand and twenty. Let’s let it be. My eight year old granddaughter told me that it was the year 20 20, “the year of perfect vision.” I can live with that as she is eight years old and was born with […]

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Tags: Adults · Calendar · Writing

Adult Discussions

December 9th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes some persons should not be in the room during discussions. You may stay in the room if you like. It is obvious from your reaction that this is all above your head. Please keep quiet. Learning is permitted, but interruption is discouraged. This is harsh. Sometimes it is necessary. Greater learning […]

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Tags: Adults · Learning · Work

The Future will be Different (???)

October 7th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Change is much easier said than done. We don’t have to let the past determine the future, but otherwise requires change. Consider myself; I can change my future and make it different from my past Consider others. What makes me believe that others will change? That they will behave differently in the […]

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Tags: Adults · Change · Choose · Goals

If Learning is the Goal…

May 20th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Schools are for learning. Or are schools for teaching? The two are different. If learning is the goal, this school district succeeded. “High school students crash the WiFi system so the teachers cannot access homework assignments.” The kids at that high school learned a lot. They learned computing; they learned computer security; […]

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Tags: Adults · Childhood · Education · Learning · Teaching

Whispers at Work

April 1st, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Hushed voices in the workplace and what they tell us about our workplace. It happens around me—too often. Several persons near me in the great cubicle farm are talking in a “normal tone of voice.” Then the tone changes. They voices become hushed—almost whispers. My “colleagues” have something to say and they […]

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Tags: Adults · Childhood · Failure · Fear · Management

Let’s Discuss Rubbing Spaghetti Play-Doh on Surfboards

March 18th, 2019 · No Comments

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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Tags: Adults · Education · Learning · Teaching

Life Lessons from (observing) Teenagers

February 28th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Perhaps we all grew up at age 12 and have been coasting ever since A few years ago I noticed something about teenagers in high school They do what they have to so they can do what they want. If they want to play sports, they study enough to get the grades […]

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Tags: Adults

A Tale of Two Facebooks

December 27th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Success can lead to failure. Sometimes great success can lead to great failure. See, e.g., Facebook. There must be two social media companies out there named “Facebook.” There is this social media site called Facebook that many of my friends and relatives use. They show photos of the kids and the new […]

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Tags: Adults · Failure · Judgment · Success

But Mom said…

November 12th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We can’t seem to shake this childish manipulation. Ask around enough, and someone will provide the desired answer. And it won’t be my fault. I suppose we all did this as children. If Dad said, “No,” we asked Mom because there was a chance she would say, “Yes.” Childish behavior. We all […]

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Tags: Accountability · Adults · Childhood · Mistakes

Hacking Political Campaigns

November 5th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Election day is upon us. Let us pause a moment as adults and state the obvious. Let’s state the obvious: of course “foreign actors” are hacking political campaigns. In the old days you would throw toilet paper all over their front yard trees or hit their house with rotten eggs. That took […]

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Tags: Adults · Government