Article:  |
Failing Miserably, If Not Inventively | |
| Subject: | ?? | |
| Date: | 2004-02-07 20:44:02 | |
| From: | morbus | |
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Response to: ??
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| Your suggestion is idiotic. Collecting is not about amassing files for the sake of amassing files. Collecting is about enjoying what you're collecting. Having more of what I like means less time to enjoy each individual piece. I'm already behind roughly 200 albums, all leeched through dialup (my listened-to collection is available at http://disobey.com/d/lists/albums, where I don't consider an album "listened to" unless it's gone through the player twice, from start to finish, sans interruption). Likewise, only 20% of my mpeg collection has been watched, cataloged, and enjoyed (that 20% is at http://disobey.com/d/lists/video_files). Increasing the amount I download merely decreases the amount I enjoy. The current line of reasoning is that I'm losing "time" because dialup is "slow"; it shows an incredible lack of understanding about what I do with my machine, how I do it, and what type of time I wish I had more of. As predicted, you hold your sides in contempt, yet I merely chuckle at your ignorance. | ||
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??
2004-02-08 08:06:47 fofer [Reply | View]
You're not the only one chuckling, morbus.
The question is asked, how anyone can be "religiously devoted" to an inferior technology, with the hopes of gleaning insight that may apply to the audience. (After all, your article was intended for mass consumption, no?) And yet your justification and defense rests solely on your own personality handicap -- an obsessive compulsiveness to which most of us cannot relate.
There's no reason for the replies your audience to be insulting and curt.
You begin your article by confessing, "When something hits me, I'll drop everything I'm behind deadline on and spend 20 hours automating a task that takes five manual minutes; I know I'll eventually recoup the benefits months down the road." You realize that this payoff (in time saved) won't kick in for about eight months, right? Yet in the meantime, you've neglected your current deadlines and refused to explore any alternative solutions.
The more I see your overly defensive responses, the more I realize this article was not intended for an audience's feedback, but rather as yet another way for you to "catalog" your personal experiences. And that your quest for life automation is less about efficiency, than it is about personal empowerment over insecurity.
Your workflow would be much more efficient if you focused on the one piece of software that was *really* slowing you down... your mind.
In all seriousness, though, I am quite disappointed with the tone and direction of your article. O'Reilly does such an incredible job of introducing people to new and emerging subjects in an intelligent manner. It is then a surprise to find your prose on troubles with and childish defense of a waning technology. However, it now looks as though my piece on "How I Just Can't Seem to Get My Apple ][ Connected to the ARPANET Anymore" has a much better chance of being published than ever before...