Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Often it is not the thought that counts but the second thought that really counts. I got a great idea! Wow! Here we go. Two days later…well, that wasn’t such a great idea. It was a good idea, but after a good meal, a bit of exercise, some time doing something completely […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A little future prediction about what we used to call automobiles. When the self-driving car actually arrives. We will no longer have: Rear-view mirrors – we’ll have lots of sensors “looking” in all directions. Steering wheel – what would we do with that? Front-facing seats – car interiors will be rectangles that […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I try hard at everything. Sometimes I try hard too much. <start advice> Slow down. Back away. Breathe. Drink a cup of coffee. Relax. Take a nap. Find your own little zen thing that helps you to not try so hard. <end advice>

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by Dwayne Phillips If you want time alone to think, do something distasteful to your colleagues. They will leave you alone. A few years ago I was in a job where we had a small refrigerator of soft drinks in the office. One thing that comes from such is that someone has to refill the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I sing the praises of Jumpcut: a little clipboard buffer for OS X. I do a lot of copying and pasting on my computer. That saves me untold hours of time typing. It also saves me from making data entry errors. I use Jumpcut: a little clipboard buffer for OS X. It […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Change in people (and what other type of change is interesting enough to consider?) takes time. Plan for it. Change takes time as people just don’t change quickly. Sometimes in an emergency we change quickly, but who wants to face an emergency? Here is a true story. I was working on the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Contemplative writing is a valuable practice. It is far more valuable and far less used than shallow meetings. In my 28 years working for the government, I attended countless meetings where much of nothing was discussed. I avoided far more if these meetings than I attended. Meetings are a characteristic of government […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Solutions to problems don’t always work. A person can change the world by being available to another no matter the outcome. The situation is fairly common. One person comes to another with a situation that requires some assistance. The second person provides instruction for the situation. The first person is about to […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Have some spare time? How about tutoring people using online course materials posted by universities? Here is a new opportunity for people with knowledge to connect with people seeking knowledge. MIT and others have put many of their courses online. MIT has recently added a set of courses that are tailored for […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Don’t just encourage someone to do something – teach them how. Modeling the behavior yourself is probably the best method of teaching. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember things I have learned. Someone comes along, does something, and it all hits me: What are they doing?  Don’t they know…? I […]

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