h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A lot of my day is spent being frustratingly inefficient. I have a very busy boss who spends most of his day being reactive rather than proactive and he tends to offload some of the smaller stuff on me so I have to drop what I'm doing. Our company has downsized quite a bit in the last year so everyone is multitasking, and I like variety. But one of the jobs I do is process our purchase invoices. This is often pushed fairly low down on the priorities list as it doesn't need to be done *now*. But then you find it's nearly March and you've hardly processed any of January's invoices, and people are starting to tie up the phone line (which I have to answer) asking when our next BACS run (which I have to do) is going to be. I then have to rifle through a pile of invoices to find theirs just so I can confirm it's been received.

However, one of my other jobs is payroll. I get great satisfaction out of saying "Well, do you want me to do this job for you, or do you want to get paid?".

I check my emails when they come in, but I often just preview them to see if they're important. What drives me mad is when people (and there are several of them here) send an email then walk over to tell me about it. wtf?

But then there are also several people here who will stand around for 10 minutes telling you how busy they are (and you stand there and smile and nod, all the while thinking "For god sake shut up, I'm too busy for this!"). Then you go for a coffee and they're in the kitchen telling someone else how busy they are.

Deb

Ooh, here's my best tip for regaining efficiency when you feel swamped and a bit like a headless chicken: do some filing or an equally mundane chore. It makes you feel back in control and you can tick a little job off your list.

Says the girl who's just done the filing!

Deb

In my humble opinion, effectiveness is a better goal than efficiency. This is because you can be very efficient at doing things that don't really need to be done, but to be effective you need to successfully do things that matter to you or to those whose good opinion you need to have.

Nevertheless, I'll try to talk about the efficiency thing. You can't hope to be efficient if you are stressed out, not getting enough sleep, skipping meals, and sitting in one place for a long time. people who work through their lunch hours often find that they get less done than if they had taken the time to eat. Lack of sleep fogs the brain, so that judgment is apt to be poor. Regular exercise oxygenizes the mind so that a clear perspective is possible. Maybe you can skip some of what you had planned to do because it won't come in useful ever.

Besides good nutrition, adequate sleep, and regular exercise, there is something that was once called "hanging loose." Your mind is an incredibly complex machine that perdorms miracles when it isn't overloaded by asn incoming barrage of data. Heck, your mind might even spot that dog thing that the Zen Buddhists talk about. The dog is a metaphor for what your purpose in life ought to be. You can't make your mind spot the dog, but if you just let your mind wander, sooner or later the dog will be there to tell you what is most important for your life. Chances are, you will find a way to be efficient *and* effective in pursuing the purpose that you were meant to have.

"This is because you can be very efficient at doing things that don't really need to be done, but to be effective you need to successfully do things that matter to you or to those whose good opinion you need to have."

I'm not convinced - I know a lot of people who are also very *effective* at doing things that don't really need to be done.

"I'm not convinced - I know a lot of people who are also very *effective* at doing things that don't really need to be done." [KB]

Such are the vicissitudes of life. I used to work in a factory that manufactured plastic spoons. I guess I was efficient and effective enough, but the point of my working there was to bring home a paycheck. If they're paying you to do something that doesn't much need doing, and you really need the money, you may not have much choice.

So, yes, your point is well taken. I'm going to hang onto my own assumptions, though. Some day the person whose work entails meaningless duties that nevertheless bring in a paycheck is going to have an epiphany about what life really means. Maybe there's a better way to get the paycheck, or maybe the paycheck wasn't actually needed.

Remember A Beautiful Mind? There are people in the world of work who busy themselves almost to obsession about things that, in the end, don't count for anything.

In fact, after 40 years behind a typewriter, I've come to the conclusion that none of it really matters. I have worked for companies who were swallowed up by larger companies. We had just been through a complicated training process learning to use the new corporate identity in one case. Since I left the firm they have been swallowed up by a yet larger company. All that stationery that has to get thrown out. Not to mention operating systems, staff, equipment, etc.

However, that's by the by. What counts is that you go home in the evening feeling you've achieved a reasonable amount in the time given. Which is why I'm off home now.

Gandhi once said that much of what people do is meaningless, but it is very important that they do it. I'm not sure that I grasp what he was getting at, but maybe someone reading this thread can explain.

Gandhi was referring to those satisfactions I mentioned earlier.

Consider the old expression 'Practice makes perfect'. Much of the
pleasure of doing something efficiently comes from the satisfaction
of knowing and doing things that are familiar, some so familiar they
can be done subconsciously or at a level of detached involvement that
is akin to the dream state of consciousness. These are mostly at the
level of handcrafts such as weaving or carpentry.

This discussion as a whole has made me (painfully) aware that our
modern work environs lack the joys that used to come with what we
used to call skills. Skill is the development of efficiencies through
repeated activity. Skill is craftsmanship. Skill is the development
of efficiencies to a level of personal satisfaction independent of
the opinions or expectations of others.

An Olympic swimmer or runner has skills and satisfactions that grow
from repeated efforts to increase their efficiency. A capitalist
corporation is not interested in your personal satisfaction only the
bottom line.


~jwf~

That is a wonderful analysis, jwf. I read somewhere that artisans are the happiest workers. The things they make are under their control from beginning to end. None of this assumbly-line stuff where opne person twists on one doohickey for seven hours a day, and the guy just down the line from him does some other operation.

Oh, all of that is well known from occupational psychology etc etc - if only employers would pay attention.

In the 1930s there were attempts at 'Scientific Management' or 'Taylorism'. Jobs were time and motioned to the nth degree and people were regarded as components in a machine. Problem is - people aren't machines and they perform very badly when they're treated as though they are. Screw workers' happiness - the bottom line suffers.

However, like it or not we *do* live in a Capitalist system of production. For now. We can't all survive by whittling fancy furniture or moulding scented candles. One way of alleviating the problems has been 'The Japanese Method' or 'Kaizen' whereby workers and managers cooperate to meet goals, innovating as they go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen

Or there's 'The Mondragon Experiment'. A successful Basque engineering company has gone a stage further and given employees full democratic control over the company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation

And some of these cooperative ideas were tried in a Clydeside shipyard 'The Fairfield Experiment'. It was so successful that it was shit down. The yard was amalgamated to become part of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, and then the govt. (it was nationalised) announced its closure, despite its still having orders on its books. The workers staged a Work In, shut the doors, and in cooperation with management completed the orders, (And *then* they were closed down, but the point is...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDcJ_FJzI7I (classic moment at 6:12)

Or there's little things. At VW's Wolfsburg plant the working population are ageing. They're highly skilled guys who know how to a wrassle the robots. To keep their peckers up they're rotated between jobs and get to speed up or slow down the pace of production.

Well - OK. None of this is quite as fun as being an artisan maybe. Take home message:you don't have to manage in a totally daft way. Don't fight the workers - work with them.

Meh. Capitalism works. Even Marxists know that.

The Buddhists (I understand) have a concept of 'right effort'. Effort in itself is not laudable. 15 minutes spent doing it properly is worth more than 3 hours of furious but misguided activity. I often wish more people knew this.

But that assumes you know what you're doing. Life ain't always like that.

Knowing what you are doing comes from practice and experience
and not from abstract directions descending from powers above.

Skills are the truest efficiencies. In most jobs there are 'trade
secrets' such as the way the grain flows in a piece of wood that
cannot be put into a training manual but can only come from the
experience of handling the materials.

It may be naive to lament for the days of craftsmanship but once
you've learned the differences between craftsmanship and mass
production it is difficult to spend money that rewards the mis-
guided efficiencies of consumerism but not the labours and skills
of the gifted craftsman.


~jwf~

"It may be naive to lament for the days of craftsmanship but once
you've learned the differences between craftsmanship and mass
production it is difficult to spend money that rewards the mis-
guided efficiencies of consumerism but not the labours and skills
of the gifted craftsman" [jwf]

That's beautifully written.

Sooo...one of us is writing an Executive Summary, the most important part of the document, being the only part people will read, even after all those 'kin appendices have been chopped out, torn up and thrown away.

The other is IMing him with things like 'There's a reference missing from section 5.3.4'

(OK. I'll fix it)

'We need to say something about...'

(You type it, I'll C&P it.)


AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

>> That's beautifully written. <<

And your kind comment makes the effort worthwhile.

~jwf~

But don't despair, squiggles. I reckon that there are loads of young people out there with the talent and diligence to make lovely things.

I am old and crotchedy and I'll bleeping well despair
if I have a mind to. And I have a mind to. Naturally
it is unkind and impertinent of me to sow the seeds of
despair but I honestly fear that the darkening clouds
of economic enslavement make it less and less possible
for young people to have the opportunity to explore the
possibilities or discover their true talents due to the
necessities of making a survivable living in our sadly
over-commodified whirled.

~jwf~

Don't despair, squigs - at least, not completely...

A74908777

Excellent Rod.

>> I enjoy using what I have to make the things I do.
The most satisfying things you can do... involve coordination
between brain, eye and hand – inception, design, planning and
using learned skills to achieve a finished product. <<

That's the stuff!


~jwf~