The Speculist

Phil Bowermaster has been a full-time amateur speculist since about age three. Often misunderstood during his childhood and adolescence, he fought a frequent perception that he was "daydreaming" or "goofing off" when in fact he was involved in serious contemplation of alternative scenarios to the world he saw around him. This misunderstanding persists to the present day.

As college degree programs in speculism were not available in the recent past, Phil studied English as an undergraduate and took a master's degree in technical communication from the University of Colorado.

For more than 15 years, he has worked in the fields of IT and Telecommunications. His first big break came when he accepted the position of reviews editor for MacGuide, a now-long-defunct magazine devoted to the Apple Macintosh computer. After MacGuide, he was hired by Denver-based Quark, Inc., developing end-user documentation and training materials for their QuarkXPress desktop publishing software.

After Quark, Phil joined U S WEST (now QWEST), where it took him about two years to parlay his Technical Editor position into the role of Global Business Process Development Specialist. As an international man of process, Phil worked on the roll-out of a number of digital mobile joint-venture companies in Russia. He had the chance to work in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhni Novgorod, and Rostov. Plus he spent some time in London and Budapest.

He eventually landed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he spent four years heading up the Process Management/Business Improvement group for a company called Maxis. Originally a joint venture of U S WEST and local Malaysian partners, Maxis was the most ambitious start-up in the history of telecommunications: a single company that would (from its inception) incorporate digital mobile service, fixed wireline service, digital cable television, internet access, international gateway, and satellite communications — including the launch of MeaSat, Malaysia's first sattelite.

At Maxis, Phil was introduced to a beautiful and brilliant corporate lawyer named Suraya. The two worked briefly together on a project, and both were glad to see it come to an end. She considered him a typical loud American with a sophomoric sense of humor. He found her to be intractable and difficult to work with.

They were married in November, 2000.

Phil returned to Denver in early 1999 and remained with U S WEST Information Technologies until shortly before the QWEST merger. He's spent the past five years at Sybase, doing product management and business development for the telecommunications vertical group and data management.

He lives in Colorado with his wife and two shih tzus. Suraya is a senior manager in the legal department of a major Telecom. Phil's daughter— who lives with them part-time — is a teenage actress/musician double threat who shows strong speculist tendencies in her own right.

Today, Phil continues the work he began at an early age: re-imagining the world he sees around him, devising scenarios of what might have been and what might yet be, and developing tools for making the most of the future. The Speculist gives him the chance to share this work with others.

If you have comments on this site, or interesting speculations of your own, Phil would love to hear from you.

Originally posted August 4, 2003 05:32 AM