1 day ago

Vin Scully, Neighbor — again

by Dwayne Phillips Vin Scully died last week. He retired almost six years ago. I wrote about him in September 2016. Here is a repeat of that. I won’t hear my old neighbor’s voice anymore. Vin Scully retires. It was 40-something years ago. I was a kid playing in the…

Vin Scully

2 min read

5 days ago

The Right Word and the Wrong Word

by Dwayne Phillips It is important to use the right or correct word and avoid using the wrong word. This is an old fundamental in writing and speaking. Why am I writing about this? Because I continue to encounter professionals who make this error often. What is the right word…

Words

2 min read

Aug 1

The Compliance Matrix

by Dwayne Phillips I take the time to describe an old tool that helps us do what is asked. There is room for doing more, but we should at least do what is asked. There is an old tool called a compliance matrix. For mathematicians, I apologize for the word…

Requirements

2 min read

Jul 28

Rigidly Flexible

by Dwayne Phillips As a writer and just about anyone else, we must be flexible in a rigid manner. The same is true for almost every adjective and its antonym. A writer must be flexible. Except when the writer must be rigid. Except when exceptions arise. The same goes for…

Agility

1 min read

Rigidly Flexible

by Dwayne Phillips

As a writer and just about anyone else, we must be flexible in a rigid manner. The same is true for almost every adjective and its antonym.

A writer must be flexible. Except when the writer must be rigid. Except when exceptions arise.

The same goes for…

Jul 25

Data is the New…Nausea

by Dwayne Phillips Data, data, data. Enough already. Just tell me something I don’t know. Data is the new oil. Data is the new bacon. Data will fuel the economies of the future. Data will determine the winner of the next world war. Data, data, data. I work with data…

Data

1 min read

Jul 21

The Clipboard and the Pencil…and Organizing the Work

by Dwayne Phillips Overwhelmed with many tasks and people? Grab a clipboard and a pencil. This one may require a clipboard with a bigger clip that has a bigger capacity than most, but the basic tools will suffice. There are too many tasks and too many people. Emails and text…

Management

2 min read

Jul 18

Inconvenient Facts

by Dwayne Phillips These inconvenient facts seem to be everywhere. They are inconvenient, however, only when we have a story to tell that denies reality. There are some old sayings like, “opinions being mugged by facts,” and “don’t confuse my opinion with facts,” and “there is nothing like facts getting…

Facts

2 min read

Jul 14

How’sit Goin’?

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…

Management

1 min read

Jul 11

Computing and the TPS Report

by Dwayne Phillips Though we hate to admit it, the goal of us who work in computing is to produce a TPS report. The “TPS Report” is the butt of all office jokes. It is meaningless paperwork that serves no purpose. For a full explanation, see the Wikipedia page on…

Computing

2 min read

Jul 7

Measuring Small Things

by Dwayne Phillips Measuring small things is much more difficult than measuring large things. We do it anyways and report the results with great confidence. Woe is us. It is more difficult to measure small things that it is to measure large things. Consider measuring the diameter of a sphere…

Science

2 min read