Working Up

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

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Rigidly Flexible

July 28th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips As a writer and just about anyone else, we must be flexible in a rigid manner. The same is true for almost every adjective and its antonym. A writer must be flexible. Except when the writer must be rigid. Except when exceptions arise. The same goes for just about any adjective and […]

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Tags: Adapting · Agility · Alternatives · Choose · Communication · Language

Happy Birthday America, Again

July 4th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This is the third or fourth time I wish us all a happy birthday. Happy birthday America. We are free to address our grievances to those who govern us. That one happens so often and freely that we forget someone had to put it in the Constitution. Congress cannot stop us from […]

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Tags: America · Choose

The Tyranny of The Urgent vs The Primacy of The Relevant 

May 12th, 2022 · No Comments

By Dwayne Phillips What is urgent and what is relevant often do not match. Should I balance them or is that not relevant? What are you saying or doing today? Is that the most urgent thing you can say or do today? No, but we have a plan. We are working towards something big, we […]

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Tags: Choose · Decide · Relevant · Urgent

Mistakes and Learning

May 5th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We all make mistakes. Some of us learn from some of our mistakes some of the time. The choice is ours. We all make mistakes. That is part of being imperfect humans. How many mistakes did I make this week? How about just this morning? (Forgot to bring my laptop’s power cord, […]

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Tags: Choose · Humility · Learning · Mistakes

A Meat Grinder (time for a reframe)

March 17th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips That job is a “meat grinder.” It has chewed up several people. Stay away. Or do we simply need to reframe the situation? While writing this, I have spent much of the past week(s) looking at the help wanted ads and talking to several companies about their job openings. Several of the […]

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Tags: Adapting · Choose · Jobs · Learning · Reframe · Stories

Telephone and Smartphone

December 2nd, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips When the terrain and the map differ, believe the terrain. It is there in front of us. We ignore this at our peril. We have a telephone (at least I still do in my home) and a smartphone. We call both of them “phones.” Their names are the same. How we represent […]

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Tags: Alternatives · Appearances · Choose · Differences · Experiment · General Systems Thinking

Do You Want to Communicate?

November 22nd, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Of course we want to communicate. That is a basic. Nevertheless, here is a small test to measure the actual desire to communicate. Here is a quick test to measure a person’s desire to communicate to others. Here is a blank piece of paper. Here is a pencil. Write three things (plus […]

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Tags: Authentic · Choose · Clarity · Communication · Growth · Testing · Writing

Centralized vs. Disbursed

November 18th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We revisit an old tradeoff that moves to a different dimension, but retains the tradeoff. In the early 1990s, (yes, I am that old) we had about a dozen different computing systems in a laboratory. On any given day, one of the dozen would be “down” for repair. Too bad, but we […]

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Tags: Alternatives · Analysis · Choose · Decide · Security · Trust

There are Always Trade-Offs

November 11th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Have a direction? What did we lose in choosing it? Sorry, we traded something for something else. We lost something. I am never supposed to write “never” and “always.” And there is always an exception to all rules. Hence, the title of this post. I have yet to find a perfect solution […]

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Tags: Alternatives · Choose · Decide · Management · Questions

No-Cost Learning

October 4th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I find it unfortunate, but no-cost learning doesn’t exist. I guess this goes back to the concept of if it is worth something, it is worth something. No-cost learning? Boy, I sure do want that! Free online courses have a price tag of $0. They do, however, require time, energy, and other […]

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Tags: Choose · Learning · Resources · Teaching