Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Angst and polarization during the pandemic could have been greatly reduced with the use of a few magic words. Magic words: Please and Thank you. Some of us were taught these magic words at a young age. Somehow, we forgot them through the years. Their absence increased the angst and polarization of […]

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by Dwayne Phillips “Omit needless words,” still holds true. Sometimes in a different form. I just listened to a 30-minute talk. The context isn’t important. What is important is there were 20 minutes of excellent talking in those 30 mediocre minutes. Cut this, cut that, don’t repeat that. Omit needless words. This is one of […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There is a risk to clarifying the message relative to an idea. We many learn that the idea is a bad one. I have an idea. I have a message. My message is fuzzy, not good. I want to clarify my message. Really? If my idea is a bad one, clarifying the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Is a thought expressed a complete, accurate, well considered thought or merely thinking out loud? Lots of folks express thoughts in social media these days. I define “social media” as anything that is published in any form without exhaustive peer review. Lots of folks are massacred because of some of these thoughts […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Every now and then, someone shows how well you can do something. In rare situations, everyone else improves. Most of the time, however, not so much. I like to watch TED talks. They are so goooooood. Twenty minutes. Every sentence full of content. Just enough visuals, but not too many. Relevant topics. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There is much good in the act of sitting down with another person and explaining to them what I think I am doing. It isn’t always easy to explain to another person what I am about to do. It is, however, a good use of time. That act usually shows me what […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The pandemic has its own phrase for the use of bad or junk science and poor thought and communication. It’s in the “news” almost everyday now. I feel it came about from the pandemic, but there are other excuses we can use. It is that phrase in the title, We know more […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We often use a “figure of speech” to describe something. Well, that’s nice, but I know that such-and-such cannot literally do something-or-other. Can we please have some literal descriptions? I have recently been reading constantly about a very popular software app. I won’t mention which one because that would take us off […]

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by Dwayne Phillips When delegating a task to another person, clear communication is key. It is unfortunate that clear communication is also rare. Here is a simple test. Person A: Are you doing task such-and-such? Person B: Not myself. I delegated task such-and-such to Person C. Person A: Oh, good. Task such-and-such is intricate and […]

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by Dwayne Phillips If I work directly for you, I will do as you say. If, however, your are three or four levels distant, meh. A number of years ago I wrote about the information thermocline. Bureaucracies tend to reduce the flow of information as it attempts to pass from the top to the bottom. […]

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