Month: May 2012

Considering the Costs of Rushing

I read a blog post entitled, “Could You Speed That Up a Little?” written by my friend, Bill Bridges yesterday with great interest. In this case, Bill is discussing a book entitled, “Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything.” I haven’t personally read the book, but I could readily identify with a number of Bill’s comments about the motive for writing such a book. We live in a sound bite society. Nothing goes fast enough-everything must be compressed and people multitask to satisfy an ever increasing need for speed. Bill focuses on the book for the most part, but the inspiration for this post comes near the end of his post where he says, ‘I was amazed to learn that some microwave users, told to zap something
for 90 seconds, have learned to fudge by hitting the “8” button twice,
thus saving the nanosecond involved in going from “9” to “0.”‘

Something in me disdains the saving of a nanosecond for the inaccuracy for cooking something for two less seconds. Of course, people take shortcuts all of the time. In many cases, these shortcuts don’t result in any serious negative effects. I don’t imagine that cooking something two seconds less in a microwave is going to cause a problem unless you’re performing some sort of exotic experiment or cooking something that’s especially sensitive. However, the inaccuracy remains.

The post caused me to think about the whole business of rushing everything. If our society is changing due to all of this rushing about, what sorts of side-effects might we expect? Where will our society go? How will everyone be affected? I wrote down a list of the things that we might see changed as a result of living in a sound bite world.

 

  • Stress Related Health Problems will Increase: Rushing causes stress. Constant stress causes certain physiological changes. It’s not a matter of if you’ll be affected, but when you’ll be affected. In order to live a healthy lifestyle, you need to learn how to slow down and relax a little.

  • Small Inaccuracies Tend to Accumulate: Anyone involved in any sort of technical field needs to consider the effect of rushing, of taking shortcuts, on the accuracy of output. Every article I’ve read on the subject of improving accuracy focuses on the need to set aside additional time up front to reduce errors that cause delays in the end. However, the effects of shortcuts can affect anyone. Drivers often find out too late that a seemingly reasonable shortcut results in an accident. Moreover, there are no doubts about it, car accidents can have devastating consequences. Of course, no one likes to think too much about being injured on the road, but it is important to remember that if ever you are involved in a car accident and you suspect that another driver was responsible then you might want to seek legal advice from an attorney. Personal injury law can seem complex and therefore it is always best to get help from an expert. It is not just driving that rushing can have a negative impact on though. Even the environment is affected by bad decisions that come from rushing. The most prominent effect of rushing and the resultant inaccuracies is that you’ll spend more money to obtain less worthwhile results.

  • Reduction of Personal Pleasure: It doesn’t matter how you’re rushing or in what environment you rush-when you rush you reduce the pleasure derived from that activity. The sad fact is that rushing affects everything from eating a delicious meal to making working meaningful. Multitasking makes matters worse because now you’re not even paying full attention to the activity. When the world goes by in a blur, it’s hard to define what you’ve done, why you’ve done it, and what you’ve gotten out of it.


There are probably other negative side effects, but even considering these three side effects should make you think twice about the world we’re creating. When was the last time you were honestly able to say that you fully enjoyed an activity? When was the last time you finished a task (personal or business) and were able to take pride in the results? Whether you’re writing code, playing with your pets, or taking time with your sweetie, consider focusing on that single activity and spending the time required to participate in it fully. Yes, you’ll find that you get fewer things done, but you’ll also find that the tasks you do complete are more enjoyable and done better. Let me know your thoughts about our sound bite world at [email protected].

 

Bending Corrugated Roofing

This post continues the series on building a chicken coop. The previous post, Finishing the Chicken Coop Structure, shows how the coop looks with tar paper in place. The outside of the coop will be covered in corrugated tin roofing recycled from a friend’s house. We picked some of the better pieces (those without holes or serious bends) from the selection. There are a little rust and a few holes, but we reused holes whenever possible and cut out any major blemishes.

To work with corrugated tin roofing, you
need a circular saw blade designed to cut metal and also need a face shield. Make sure you wear long sleeves (the metal bits are quite hot and will burn you) and gloves are a good idea as well.
Unfortunately, all of this equipment won’t solve one problem, bending
the corrugated tin roofing over corners to provide better coverage. If it’s a particularly large piece of metal then safety concerns take precedent. Instead of a saw, you will need to use a lathe such as a CNC lathe which does the work for you.

We tried all sorts of methods to bend the corrugated tin. How anything
manages to accidentally bend the stuff (such as a hailstorm) is beyond me. The answer to the problem turns
out to be one of leverage and careful weakening of the area targeted for
bending. Start with the longest piece of corrugated tin roofing that you can.

To begin the bending process, we created a jig using two 8′ 4 X 4 posts that are
screwed together with a 2 X 8 support. A combination of a 2 X 6 top
piece two heavy C-clamps holds the corrugated tin in place as shown
here.

ChickenCoop0701

Once the corrugated tin roofing is secured, use a piece of wood with an
angled end and a hammer to create a flattened line across the bend. You
won’t be able to flatten the corrugated tin roofing completely. All you
really want is a weak spot in order to control the bend. The reason
you’re using a stake to perform this task is that metal tends to punch
holes in the corrugated tin roofing. If you’re not keen on doing the work yourself. You may want to go ahead and get a professional. There are plenty roofing austin texas firms about which are able to complete the work.

ChickenCoop0702

With the weak area in place, one person grabs the long end and gently starts toward the bend, while the other person stands on the 2 X 6 holding the corrugated tin roofing in place.

ChickenCoop0703

It’s important that the person doing the bending maintain equal tension across the bend and not to move too quickly. Take your time and keep moving toward the other person. Eventually, the bender will meet up with the person standing on the bender and the person standing on the bender can step off.

ChickenCoop0704

At this point, you can cut the bent piece to length. Make sure to take the proper safety precautions when cutting the corrugated tin roofing. The saw will definitely buck a little, so use two hands. Bits of metal are going to hit you and they’ll be hot when they do. Wear a face mask and long sleeves. If you follow this procedure, you won’t have any problem getting the results you want from the corrugated tin roofing, despite a lack of roofer’s tools . Let me know if you have any questions at [email protected]. Next week we’ll look at how to attach the corrugated roofing material to the chicken coop.

Bad Assumptions About Computer Use

There is a tendency to think that everyone uses computers of some sort today and that all of these computers are connected in some way to the Internet. When I use the term computer here, I mean some sort of device that contains a processor and runs applications. What you may have is actually a smartphone and not a computer in the conventional sense, but even so, a smartphone contains a processor and runs applications. So, when you define the term that broadly, there is an expectation that everyone is connected. The fact is that not everyone is connected. According a recent eWeek article entitled, “One in Five U.S. Adults Does Not Use the Internet: Pew” 62,318,383 people in the US don’t have an Internet connection (based on a US Census Bureau estimated population of 311,591,917 in 2011). That’s a lot of people.

So, why is this statistic even important? If you write computer books and articles as I do, the statistic doesn’t affect you at all. However, if you’re currently selling a product online and don’t offer a catalog for that product, you could be missing out on 20 percent of your possible sales. When you want to communicate with family members, there is a 20 percent chance you won’t reach the party you want to reach if you only rely on computer technology to do it. As I move more and more into self-sufficiency topics, I’ll need to consider the effect of print media on my books sales because 20 percent of my potential audience may lack the capability of using an e-book (see my post The e-Book in Your Future for my thoughts on e-book usage).

Every once in a while, I need my perceptions of the world around me stirred up and challenged. I get stuck in a pattern of thought that could be invalid or downright harmful for those around me. Finding information that challenges your view of the world is helpful and useful because it forces you to think through the assumptions that you’re making. If you’re a vendor, you may have thought about getting rid of your paper catalogs because you assume that everyone shops online, but that may not be the case.

Of course, you also need to read the report further to really understand the ramifications of the data it presents. For example, 95 percent of teenagers are currently connected to the Internet, which means that if you’re targeting a younger audience, chances are good that you’ll reach them using the Internet. Of course, that 5 percent is still a huge number. Whether you exclude them as a component of your sales, information, or other campaign has to be based on the focus of that campaign. The point is, assumptions are simply a bad idea if they’re never challenged, revised, and reevaluated.

What sorts of assumptions have you made lately that affect your world view of computers or any other technology for that matter? When was the last time you challenged your assumptions? Let me know at [email protected].