by Dwayne Phillips It can be a sobering question, but one that we should address. Person A: Do you want to hire a scientist or a technician? Person B: A scientist, of course. Person A: But the job description lists a lot of tools, software and otherwise. Person B: Yes, of course. The person needs […]
Scientists or Technicians?
October 24th, 2019 · No Comments
Tags: Concepts · Employment · Jobs · Science · Technology · Tools
Automation and Time to Think
October 21st, 2019 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips There are many things we can do to reduce the time required to complete tasks. Is that always a good thing? If we do a task each day, let’s find a way to automate it. Surely we can write a little piece of software that will do it for us at the […]
The Amazon Written Memo Meeting: Nothing New Here
September 2nd, 2019 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Jeff Bezos and Amazon have received much praise for their use of written essays at meetings instead of PowerPoint and bullet points. Great, but not new. This is a good piece about Amazon’s use of written memos at meetings. Keep the thinking focused. Don’t waste time. Think. Communicate. Excellent. Great. I love […]
Tags: Communication · Thinking · Tools · Writing
The Clipboard and the Pencil…and the Database
June 20th, 2019 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Before embarking on a new database, or any new system, learn what it is we want and need. “Let’s create a database to track this,” said an eager and well-meaning person. “But,” interjected another well-meaning person, “do we know what we need or want or anything?” My livelihood has been technology. Of […]
Tags: Analysis · Testing · Time · Tools
The Clipboard and the Pencil: Recording History
June 13th, 2019 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The clipboard and the pencil are perhaps the simplest yet effective tools for doing something important: recording history. And if we don’t have our history, we will repeat work and waste resources. I was in high school—a long time ago in a place far, far away. It was the train station (no […]
Tags: Accountability · History · Resources · Tools
A Clipboard and a Pencil: Best Value Analysis
May 23rd, 2019 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Let’s analyze the best value of an old tool and a new one. Consider a tool in frequent use today: the smartphone. It can access the world. I can access my personal and professional databases. I can control anything in the world wide networks that I connect to just about any device. […]
The Humble Calendar
October 8th, 2018 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I contemplate a simple yet still effective management tool—the humble calendar. What will I do tomorrow? What about the day after? What about next month. Oh, wait, is next week in next month or this month? How can I keep track of time? We revisit the humble calendar. If this is insulting […]
Graduate School (concepts) vs Trade School (tools)
January 11th, 2018 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips If we could keep concepts and tools separate…well maybe the world would be a better place. There is graduate school: learn concepts and how to extend concepts. There is trade school: learn how to use a tool to do a job. Hmmm, these two sound different, different enough that we wouldn’t confuse […]