by Dwayne Phillips Is it okay to not be the person in charge? I am nearing the end of my professional working career. Maybe I will retire in a year or ten. Regardless of the retirement date, I have worked many more years than I will work, i.e., the past is bigger than the future. […]
Expertise and Ego
October 27th, 2022 · No Comments
Tags: Experiment · Expertise · Questions
The Explainers
September 19th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips We need more explainers. These are persons who answer the question, “Whatcha’ doin’?” Whatcha’ doin’? Hows’it work? How ya’ doin’? These are simple questions. These are the basic questions we ask others all the time. Often, we repeat the question six or seven times in different forms and still don’t receive an […]
Tags: Brevity · Clarity · Communication · Expectations · Questions
How’sit Goin’?
July 14th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This is one of the fundamental questions that persons working projects need to answer. We know what we are attempting, but we don’t know the actual progress and how that compares to the expected progress. There are several fundamental questions that should be asked and answered by people working on projects. Among […]
Tags: Communication · Management · Questions · Work
Yes-No Questions
May 26th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The basic yes-no question is quite easy to answer. It is either “yes” or “no.” Recognizing the question is a bit more difficult, but not impossible. There is a type of question for which the answer is either “yes” or “no.” It is quite easy to answer as there are only two […]
Tags: Analysis · Communication · Conversation · Questions · Trust
There are Always Trade-Offs
November 11th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Have a direction? What did we lose in choosing it? Sorry, we traded something for something else. We lost something. I am never supposed to write “never” and “always.” And there is always an exception to all rules. Hence, the title of this post. I have yet to find a perfect solution […]
Tags: Alternatives · Choose · Decide · Management · Questions
Does it Have a USB Port?
September 20th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Every generation has a default question that hearkens backwards. These can be quite irritating, but return the evolutionary thinker to earth. And that is needed. Way back in the 1990s, the world was crawling out of one generation of computing into another. No matter what great new thing there was, there was […]
Tags: Choose · Design · Engineering · General Systems Thinking · Questions
The Essence of Data Science (attempt #2)
September 2nd, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips After a few more years, I think I understand the essence of Data Science. It isn’t that complicated. I wrote a post in November of 2020 attempting to describe the essence of data science. A few thoughts came to me recently. So here goes another attempt. A person has a large amount […]
Tags: Computing · Data Science · Questions · Science · Time
Question Asking
June 21st, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The skill we should be teaching and learning and using more than any other today is question asking. We live in a world where all the questions have answers. We just have to find the answers. We have the facts, the data, the everything online in front of us. It is there. […]
Tags: Analysis · Data Science · Experiment · Learning · Questions
Pulling Information
May 31st, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Pulling information involves asking questions. It means you receive information other than what the holder of information volunteers. Ask with care. Pulling information makes an information meeting much longer than the presenter planned. The audience asks questions to learn information that wasn’t presented. But what about this? Why say what you said? […]
Tags: Information · Questions
The Next (Logical) Question
March 25th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The path to solution is often found in the next (logical) question. Person A: How much will this cost? Person B: I don’t know? Person A: When will you know? Person B: Uh, I don’t know that either? Person A: What will you need to do so that you know? Person B: […]