Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips The Rule of Three Solutions: one solution is a trap, two solutions is a dilemma, and three solutions helps point to more solutions. A recent post by a friend – Johanna Rothman – reminded me of this rule. It is part of a general idea of finding at least three thoughts in […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A reminder about models. Please take care when using them to predict the future. George Box is credited with: all models are wrong, but some are useful It is a model, an approximation that helps describe real life. It is not real life. Some of these descriptions are useful to help us […]

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by Dwayne Phillips If a system fails at one boundary, it will probably fail at another boundary. Hence, if you find a boundary failure, start looking for other boundary failures while you still have a chance at prevention instead of correction. A few years back I had a problem with my van. I couldn’t reliably […]

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by Dwayne Phillips One reason for blogging is to clear ideas from the mind. Put them in the blog and they no longer rattle around up there. That makes room for the next ideas. Why blog? There are many reasons. Here is one: To clear the mind. This is one thing that writing, any type […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Facebook puts a data center near the arctic circle. The natural cold air will cool the computers. Why is this news? Why is this hailed as a brilliant “green” action? It was December of 1980. We had a small room with a dozen racks of heat-producing equipment that needed to be cooled. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Often, greed is not the result of one great big greedy villain, but rather the sum of many well-meaning people who wanted to add just one little item to a system. The Occupy Wall Street occupiers continue to occupy Wall Street and a few dozen other famous places in a few dozen […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We have chased manufacturing out of America. We now have holes in our job structure and have lost the ability to adapt to a changing world. I read a few posts on the “Econolypse” lately. Here is one post, and here is another. We have chased the manufacturing jobs from the U.S. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A simple yet powerful tool for change is to stop and breathe. This is a simple step in changing the world. It involves only one person – me. Therefore, I can do this whenever I decide, and no one else can stop me. This step is to breathe. Stop what I am […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Many problems are solved; many others are not solved. And then there are problems that are not solved, but they just go away with time. The United States Postal Service, otherwise known by the often disdainful name of “the post office,” had a big problem. They had millions of envelopes a day […]

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by Dwayne Phillips One of the few things I remember learning in high school is that if I keep quiet about some privilege I have, no one minds. I guess I learned a lot of things in high school. I remember that I learned how to play a couple of musical instruments and march in […]

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