by Dwayne Phillips Technology appears to be changing so fast that culture and jobs cannot keep pace. This leads to a large group of people whose newly acquired skills never give birth to a new job. Culture adjusts to technology. The automobile displaced everyone in the horse and buggy industry. The culture and the economy […]
Cultural Adjustment and Technology Runaway
April 16th, 2015 · No Comments
Tags: Adapting · Change · Culture · Education · Employment · Technology
Adjectives, Nouns, and Persons
January 8th, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips When we turn an adjective that describes a person into a noun, well, we make a big mistake. We describe persons with adjectives: tall man short woman active boy new employee Sometimes, we use the adjective-person pair so often that we transform the adjective-person pair into a noun. One silly example is: […]
Tags: Communication · Culture · People
One Benefit of Personality Surveys
January 1st, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The one benefit of personality surveys that I have always seen is that people gather and talk. I have been part of organizations, yes, several of them, that initiated big projects wherein everyone answers personality questions. MBTI is one such set of questions; strength finders is another. I have yet to be […]
Tags: Communication · Culture · People
Two Unspoken Requirements
November 24th, 2014 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Many projects make no sense. They are driven by two unspoken yet paramount requirements. I have seen many projects that were driven by two unspoken but paramount requirements: The project must cost a certain amount of money—no more and no less You have to look like you are trying to do something […]
Tags: Culture · Expectations · Magic · Management · Requirements
Hello World
November 13th, 2014 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Yet again, we have a less expensive way to broadcast live to the entire world. Recently, GoPro (makers of those neat little action cams) announced that if you wince just right and combine GoPro with LiveStream with a smartphone with the Internet with some imagination…you can show the world what your GoPro […]
Tags: Communication · Culture · Technology
It’s Called “Winning the Pennant”
October 7th, 2014 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This is a repeat post from October of 2011. I find it unfortunate that the sorry situation is still the same. <rant>Baseball now (soon) moves into the World Series. You take the pennant winners from the National and American leagues and play a best-of-seven series to see who is the best in […]
Tags: Culture
The Purpose
February 10th, 2014 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips People often choose a development method without any reason other than, “that is what everyone is doing now.” I urge a bit more thought. More thought on day one brings more time and energy the rest of the way. Agile development is all the rage today. I know because I am unemployed […]
Tags: Culture · Management · Problems · Process
Kids Today! or is It Just Us Old Folks?
January 20th, 2014 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Kids today can find any fact in the world in a minute, but they don’t. Is it that they don’t appreciate this gift or is it that old folks are putting yet another impossible-to-achieve standard on them? We live in a world where any fact in the world is available in one […]
Tags: Communication · Culture
Migration to the Cities (or Just Another Reaction?)
January 6th, 2014 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Younger adults are moving back into the cities. Is this some great trend or just the normal reaction to childhood? There is a big trend today: younger adults are moving from the suburbs back into the big cities. In Washington, D.C. it’s called gentrification, or is it re-gentrification, I get confused sometimes. […]
Big Government Programs (not)
October 28th, 2013 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Don’t try big government programs. The government doesn’t have the expertise. There have been lots of problems with the new government health care site. What surprises me is that some people are surprised. How can you not build a web site that registers users and takes orders? Amazon and just about everyone […]
Tags: Culture · Government · Technology