Working Up

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

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Interesting

June 4th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This is interesting to me. Is it interesting to you? interesting, adjective, something that attracts your attention, arouses your curiosity, or holds your interest because it is unusual, exciting, or engaging. It is highly subjective, meaning what is fascinating to one person may be dull to another.—Google search The answer to my […]

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Tags: Alternatives · Communication · Concepts · Expectations · Ideas

But No One Asked Me To

May 4th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I just thought things would be better if I took the role of … I was wrong. Why? I was just trying to … but no one asked me to. I was just trying to assist the project manager. Our project manager is a good person who knows their job. There were, […]

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Tags: Agreement · Consulting · Help · Ideas · Improvement · Influence

We’ll Do It All Over Again Anyways

February 26th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There is a penalty paid for late changes. It is not just money, it is often in the loss of people. Ideas spawn ideas. That is the nature of ideas and people. Write something, paint something, sing something, create something so that we can gather and think and create more. There comes […]

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Tags: Change · Growth · Health · Ideas · People · Process · Thinking · Writing

Happy New Year

January 1st, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Let us begin anew. Why not? By some arbitrary counting of days, a.k.a., a calendar, today is the first day of the new year 2026. I suppose that is a good thing for us. Hence, some of us have the new year’s resolutions wherein we resolve to do something. I resolve to […]

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Tags: Calendar · Family · Ideas · Thinking · Writing

Exceeding the Job (Caution)

November 13th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes I can do more than my job. I can exceed and excel. I recommend caution. I read an editorial recently about newspapers. Perhaps that editorial was agreeable or not as it delved into the politics of the English language (thoughtful and fraught with peril). The topic was journalism, journalists, and journal-ing. […]

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Tags: Communication · Competence · Expectations · Expertise · Growth · Ideas · Journal · Management

I have a Great Idea for a Story…

October 6th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Do you have a great idea for a story? If you can write one sentence, there you go. “I have a great idea of a story,” said a a person who has a writer as a friend. The person continues with, “I will tell you the idea, you write the story, and […]

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Tags: Alternatives · Concepts · Ideas · Process · Stories · Writing

The Suggestion in the Form of a Question

June 9th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Like the TV game show Jeopardy, lets make suggestions in the form of a question. The TV show Jeopardy always had the answer in the form of a question. This always seemed silly to me, but the show was and still is successful, so what do I know about TV game show […]

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Tags: Communication · Ideas · Leadership · Learning · Questions · Teaching · Thinking

Discovery Writing

February 27th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Writing is a type of thinking. Thinking often leads us to discover something. Writing (thinking) is worth the effort. Writers often divide their methods into two camps: outlining and “pantsing” (seat of the pants). Those who use outlines think ahead, plan, create detailed outlines, then write by filling in the outlines. Those […]

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Tags: Ideas · Thinking · Writing

Looking for Good Ideas (In the Wrong Places)

December 19th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the good ideas are lurking in the wrong places. Looking for good ideas? Look at bad sources. Read a crummy book. In it I will find, “Now that sentence there is a good idea for a book or something. Why didn’t this person write the book about that instead of the […]

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Tags: Ideas · Learning · Mistakes · Process · Resources · Stories · Stupid · Thinking · Visibility

Story Quilters

December 12th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips An age-old method of writing long pieces comes from writing short pieces without a plan or outline. The “outline” comes later. I recently stumbled across a description of writers as Story Quilters. This is not a method of planning or outlining a large piece before writing anything. This is not a method […]

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Tags: Alternatives · Communication · Experiment · Ideas · Improvement · Stories · Writing