Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we are trying so hard that we fail to notice the simple and wonderful things right in front of us. Person A: I don’t see. It can’t find it. That idea, that concept, that thing that I’m trying to write. Where is it? Person B: Don’t try so hard. Person A: […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we do things backwards and expect everyone else to know. Here in the year of the virus, I sit outside a nationally recognized chain of coffee shops (whose name begins with an “S”) viewing the Internet and occasionally writing blog posts….(is that a long-enough opening sentence?)… But anyways, in the year […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Just as every event provides a learning, every event provides an opportunity. The choice to see and seize it is ours. The times are a troubling. What’s new? Everything is new; nothing is new. The times present us with the choice to shrug or to learn. We are paying the tuition by […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Events occur constantly. Each is an opportunity to observe and learn and learn to observe ourselves. The title of this post is one of those questions that a person can ask another after any event on any day. It is personal as it is about the other person. I don’t care if […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Signs of wealth are all around us. Do we notice and act accordingly? I sit here on a Saturday morning in a coffee shop as usual “writing Pulitzer-winning essays” (what I tell passers by). And, as usual, someone is setting up the Bloody Mary bar. They put a few classes of ingredients […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Really smart persons continue to blunder. How? I read this article recently about how women are hurt more often and more severely than men in automobile accidents. Why does this happen? The crash dummies used in safety tests work well, but are almost always the size and shape of a man. Crash […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There are a long list of things we could try that would not work, but there may be side benefits for trying. A recent article highlighted what some call agri-hoods where people are trying to live an agriculture life in the outer suburbs. Yes, they are going to grow their own food. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips In which I consider what happens in a kitchen and ask, “what was it those guys with the manifesto invented?” For years, my wife has managed kitchens in all-volunteer organizations. For years before that, my wife’s mother did the same. Consider the situation: There is unprepared food There is an end-state—prepared food […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Be alert when first meeting someone. You first few minutes are often the most valuable. Consultant and author Jerry Weinberg once told me, “Pay attention, your customer will tell you their problem and its solution in the first few minutes.” I have found this to be true, many times. Recent examples of […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Take great care when everyone agrees about something. Once the world was plagued with the longitude problem. Long-distance sea travel was dangerous and fraught with the great unknown, “where are we?!?!?!?” Everyone agreed on the solution to the longitude problem. Everyone, that is, except the carpenter who solved the problem. For background, […]

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