No dead air please (day 114)

Multitasking was a desirable trait back in the early 90s.  Saying you were a multitasker was a winning interview strategy.  Multitasking meant you got a lot done.  Now the word is old and the belief is waning.  Whatever way it's sliced, the time to do something is the time to do something.  The real killer quality is the ability to find the minimum amount of time to do something particularly amongst other things.  Optimization is key.

If I had an app in my iphone that could somehow tell me the most efficient thing to do given:

• the list of things pending
• deadlines
  
• the time before my next meeting, lunch time, etc.
• proximity and availability of resources
• time of day
• location
• energy level
  

...I would be very efficient.   My friend Christopher gave an example of an app that would be aware of all the gifts you need to buy in the next year and the state of your bank account.  It could then suggest that you stop in at certain stored based on proximity to a store, state of bank account, and the other person's preference.   It may start to feel like an onboard gps navigator: "please turn left.  turn around.  turn around. "  Maybe it could be a once a day schedule suggestion based on previously entered data, which would be less annoying.

It is based on a notion of slotting in the appropriate thing at the appropriate time which is the hardest problem most of us face in our work lives.   But it comes with an assumption of complete quantifiable data.  Even if that assumption were satisfied, someone would have to enter that data.  Would it be worth it?  Perhaps if some learning was taking place over time and the dependence on the app lessened. 

I can't shake the idea that the solution may be in doing less though.

A song for this post.

What you don't know (day 44)

Apparently when we go to sleep we forget most of what happened during our day.  Only the unusual gets stored in a way that can be recalled in more details.  The rest gets absorbed and reinforces certain patterns or inhibits them.  The point is that we think we know what happened yesterday but we're missing big chunks.  This gets worse as time goes on.  We have very little recall of what happened last week and even less last month and last year.    There was a book written recently that talks about why life speeds up as we age.  One of the points mentioned was the repetition of pattern with less new or unusual stimulation.  The older you get, the more you've done and seen, and the harder it is to stimulate the brain to create a new memory.   Memories are intimately linked with time perception.  They also mention the fact that a year when you're 60 is not the same as a year when you're 4.  One is 1/60th of a life lived, the other is a quarter.   I'm not sure I buy that argument for life speeding up but it's a worth a reflection.   I know that the older I get the more paranoid I am about what I'm not perceiving either deliberately or through forgetfulness or just plain physiology.  I think about a certain mood I was in a few weeks back and it seems so foreign, like another person.   Yet I know it will happen again.  I'm puzzled by the contrast between immediate control and long term uncertainty.

If you know french, Jacques Languirand spoke about the book mentioned above on his show Par Quatres Chemins.

A song for this post.