Thoughts on Paperless Workflows

So, a friend of mine read a previous post where I talked about what was in my bag on any given day, and he commented on my stack of index cards. He pointed out that I have a smart phone, and that presumably any sort of note I would need to take could be taken on my phone, which is true, and that just about everyone I know could be left a message using my phone, either through facebook or SMS or email, which is also (generally) true.

Thing is though, as fantastic as my phone is, it can't do everything I need it to do. Data entry is slow, and inaccurate. Sometimes, like when I need to sketch something out (like a flow chart), it's downright clumsy. And a lot of the index cards therefore wind up being for me. As a matter of fact, my pockets, including the pockets of my backpack, my blazer, or any other garment I'm carrying wind up full of index cards by the end of the day. And postits. Numbers scrawled onto thermal printer slips. You're starting to get the idea.

There's a really good reason for that. Like I said, some data doesn't lend itself to rapid-fire digital entry when you have a brain that works best with a keyboard and stylus, when all you've got are your thumbs. What's more, some social situations simply don't allow you to pull out your cellphone and jot down a quick note. Me updating statistics in a performance tracker at work looks an awful lot like texting to my clients, and my co-workers do more than enough of that for the whole store.

Even above that, I don't trust digital. Granted, 90% of the time, something I choose to write down on index cards is a triviality - a name I needed to remember for a few hours or a handful of stats that are going to be digitized later. The other 10%, though, winds up being at least tangentially important, and often what is tangentally important doesn't get digitized at all... enter the stack of books, top left.

I have a weakness for stationary, and my love of fine pens has already been discussed. Accordingly I tend to collect quite a few notebooks, and while some are very good and others are mediocre, I've come to learn just what I want and where to find them. There are a few constants, partly due to the forcings of what people give for gifts and partly due to habitual purchase. MOST of the books in that stack are either moleskines, or hardcover PaperBlanks that have the right level of tooth.

They have their uses. As a general rule I try to keep the numbers down, if only because I never seem to totally fill a book before I destroy it (yes, even the skines).

Paperless is good. A reduction in waste is good, which is why I'd like to find an alternative to index cards (there's an electronic scratch-pad for $30 at Coles which shows some promise), but notebooks don't go to waste. I reference older stuff all the time, even just for lulz.

The Radical Notion of Dissent

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A recent article by the CBC brought my attention to the fact that both CSIS and the RCMP have put it into writing that "environmental radicalism" is on the rise, without sufficient detail into what constitutes a radical.

Radicalism is a strong word, and it implies a number of things that are antithetical to the environmental cause, and to a proper sense of morality at large.

For the most part, I've been uninvolved in the latest environmental snafu's to make waves in the Canadian Media, because I've been focusing (in that regard) on my two pet projects: a sustainable alternative housing proposal for the provincial legislature, and shelling out the framework to be able to talk about Nuclear Power (and a possible proposal for the legislature in that regard as well). Some of these projects have taken years because the relevant data is industry-limited and difficult for the general public to get access to. But that's not the point.

The environmental issues Canada is facing are nothing new, even if the locations are. We've known Hydrofracking was questionable technology for years, but we employ it anyway. We've known oil pipelines have risks that border on criminal liability, but we construct them anyway.

I don't believe you have to be a radical to dissent on those points.

This all reminds me of the occupy movement, which might have been one of the most overblown protests of all time. Millions of people worldwide, stopping in their tracks and skipping shifts in order to protest corporate corruption, but able to present no tenable solution or do much more than air their grievances and lose their minds when they're removed from public property in month three of the protest.

I recall a friend of mine involved in the local occupy who was furious that he was arrested for spraypainting some graffiti on the park steps in front of two police officers. As far as I know, he still considers that to have been protected speech under the Charter. He's wrong of course, but that's not going to stop him, nor is it the point.

This generation seems to have a pretty low bar for what's considered radical. Sabotage, now that's radical. Not that I'm calling for sabotage.

This trick, of labelling opposing views as "radical", is nothing new, though the extent to which it's being deployed lately in my neck of the woods is. Seems to me like ever since the conservative party took the PMO, anything that involves a change (apart from "staying the course") is labelled as radical. We must do better, and we can do better, and we will do better.

It's one of the great things about this country; every four years we get to overthrow the government.

Equality's Truest Sense is Blind

One of the things I always liked about "managing by spreadsheet" was that I can look at such digital schedules and scorecards without having any idea what the face is for the name. Sure, you get the odd tip-off to statistics you don't care about, like demography, if you're tracking by name, but "Alex Watson" could be a man or a woman of just about any race, age, or religious differential. It means that you have only merit upon which to evaluate people, and the practice of judging solely on merit is the most admirable and fair-handed practice one can employ in dealing with people.

Being born at the turn of the century I have had the remarkable experience in growing up in an age of melting borders, in one of the most diverse countries on the face of the earth, and in an age where understanding is the means and stereotypes are no longer an end. I was born just early enough to understand the Racial Profiling issue in the post-9/11 atmosphere even as it was being discussed, and I was born just late enough that even my small town and the surrounding towns were populated on a mixed level, rather than the single-racial image we are presented in the televised media. I grew up hearing people in the mall speak Punjab, learning French in school, babysat in a Korean Restaurant, exposed at once to the foods of any of nineteen different nationalities, exposed to the history of any of a dozen, and interested in (to date now) the history, language, of culture of any of a half-dozen more.

I was not raised with race as an issue, because it shouldn't be. Morgan Freeman is famously quoted for saying the best way to end racism would be to "stop talking about it", and while I can't say I grant his premise I can certainly say I understand it. I don't look at a person's skin colour and make assumptions about their behaviour, because in this day and age I know more white people who "act black" and more black people who "act white" than any stereotype that could apply. People are just people, and they act according to the dictates of their personalities and values.

I never even understood some the stereotypes that I encounter because they are overblown. "Asians are the best at math" doesn't make sense to the kid in grade 6 who was doing math on the high school level. I don't need to be told that "Germans are precise" when the two ethnic germans I know are no more precise, orderly, or "uptight" than anyone else I know in their age group. I identify more with the phrase "terrorists are to islam as the KKK are to Christianity" than with the phrase "Islam is a religion of the sword". Women are not "more artistic" when you surround yourself with artists, nor are they "less athletic" when you observe the practice of athletics.

The more you understand about people in general, the more you understand they do not come in flavours. Men, women, blacks, whites, hispanics, asians, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Jainists, Zoroastrians, heterosexuals and homosexuals are all just people. We all want the same things in life and we all find our own way toward them, and if we are going to engage in the futile exercise of trying to judge people (for what purpose I deign not to specifity), we should do it for that. For the things we choose, rather than the things we are. For the way we behave, rather than the way we were born.

I hate to keep cribbing Aaron Sorkin, but he said it best when he said this. "Now that we have abandoned discrimination in our laws, it's time that we abandon it in our hearts and minds as well."

All Opinions are Sacred, Except Those That Aren't

I sometimes have difficulty talking to people who haven't worked in a kitchen. Being a professional cook is a lot like cooking for a 70 person dinner party, and everyone is arriving at different times and wants different things. You have to juggle multiple trains of thought at once, and if you can't do that, you simply won't keep up.

Chik-Fil-A, which I understand to be a fried chicken chain (I really haven't spent all that much time south of the border), is the subject of a recent boycott by some on the left after their president made a statement, while stalking to a religious reporter, no less, that they supported the biblical order of marriage. Film at eleven.

In seriousness, such a statement, made inside a church, isn't exceptionally rare. Neither is the position, within churches, that marriage should be of the biblical variety. The only reason this became an issue is that the speaker has what passes for notoriety in the States, and that, for the most part, the entertainment media leans left (in contrast to every other business, which inherently leans right). Cue an uproar. Chik-fil-A is anti-gay! Film at eleven.

Thing is, Chik-fil-A hasn't actually done anything wrong. They do not discriminate (on protected grounds) in hiring or in service. President Dan Cathy wasn't necessarily speaking for the entire company, and even if he was, there's nothing wrong, legally, with what he said. The problem with this particular boycott is that it is the result of a difference of opinion, which I suppose is ultimately true in all cases, but this particular difference of opinion is predicated upon an unwillingness or inability to understand the opposing point of view.

To the boycott-supporters, I can only say that you're fighting this one stupidly. Taking the things that people honestly believe on religious grounds and bigotry is fine. You're allowed to do that, both here and in the US. The problem is that it doesn't work. You aren't going to change minds. You aren't going to pursuade anyone. You're just going to piss them off and set their heels more firmly into the muck. This has to be made clear: you must frame the issue properly.

There is a fear, a palpable fear, whenever any ground is lost, that the Churches will somehow have to change their teaching in order to coincide with the new laws. It must be made clear that this fear is unfounded. "Congress shall establish no law establishing a state religion or abridging the freedom of religion", I believe is the line. Religious Marriage and Civil Marriage are two different but often entangled things. The church marries you spiritually, and the marriage licence marries you legally. That's all gay marriage is. Civil marriage.

To the others, as is said, I disagree with what you are saying but will fight with my death to defend your right to say it. I hold that the old covenant has been fulfilled (as we are taught) and that includes the abolition of homosexuality. For those who insist that homosexuality is still a sin, I have a few questions, and must nod generously to Aaron Sorkin.

My mother-in-law is thinking of auctioning off her daughter as permitted in Exodus 21:7. She's special to me and if anyone's going to own her I'd rather it was me. What price should I offer? My team lead insists on doing work on the Sabbath; Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death - do I have to kill him myself or is it okay to call the police? There are 90,000 people in this city: do they all have to gather to watch me be put to death for planting different crops side-by-side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing clothes made from two different threads? And one more thing: you like shrimp, right?

While we all have generally forgotten that morality comes from within and justice comes from without, I want to make it clear that we can't pick-and-choose which proscriptions in the bible we get to follow. If you're a Christian who thinks they have supreme moral authority, then speaking as a Christian - Go to bed, would you please?

Having the Grind Nature, f(Confidence), and Balanced Living

The thing about the daily grind is, it's inevitable. No matter how good your job is, no matter how much fun you have doing it, you're going to have days where working is, well, work. Whether this sudden aversion is the result of performance falloff, low traffic, or an allergy to routine, you're going to have a few days where working isn't such a good time. This is when all you MMORPG players (especially those of you who play EVE Online) are going to start to feel right at home... you already have the grind nature.

Having the X Nature is a common construction in certain internet-connected subcultures. I could explain the etymology, but it's effectively just a roundabout way of saying that someone or something possesses the given trait. In this case, having the grind nature means that you are attuned to the nature of slogging through things that might not necessarily be fun, like the 40th iteration of a "kill X bugbears" quest or the fifth or sixth haul on your asteroid mining run. While the grind is most often associated with gaming, anyone over the age of about 20 knows it applies to work as well. There are any of a number of ways to prepare potatoes but every cook knows just how boring it is to make roasted garlic mashed. I sell tea and tea products for a living, and if you were only going to get three teas and one cast iron pot, there are 18, 821, 880 permutations of that transaction... and yes, calculating those probabilities is one way I keep myself entertained when we're bored... but anyone who has ever worked retail knows there's really only four or five rockstar products you earn in the run of the day.

So how do you get the Grind Nature? There's a certain extent to which that question has no real answer, in the sense that there is no one trick that will imbue everyone with that mythic level of patience. Again, you see this in how different people play different games. I like to chat when I'm grinding on MMORPGs, especially ones that require minimal player intervention, like EVE. At work, I get around Grind Nature by making it a game. Work's boring? Find a way to score it, and then beat high score. Sometimes this solution leads to interesting consequences like the construction of eight-sheet Excel Workbooks for tracking job performance. Shooting for high score continually moves the goalposts and a competitive nature can allow one to push themselves into higher and higher brackets.

Of course, I mentioned performance falloff for a reason. As near as I can glean from talking to people, job performance falloff is the main reason they feel like they're stuck in a grinder, and this attitude is a negative feedback loop. Succumbing to the bite of performance falloff usually results in laziness and this just breeds more falloff, especially if the initial cause of the falloff was external, like decreased customer traffic or increased competition for individual metrics. When I worked in tech support, we called this the Stupid Sunday phenomenon - the call time of each individual agent maps inversely to the number of agents on the floor.

It is important to remember that in virtually every field, performance is a function of confidence. We simply do better at our jobs if we are comfortable doing them, and all the fancy tools and specialized knowledge in the world won't help a person who doesn't trust their own work. In retail, this is because confidence and charisma often map to each other. In the trades, this is because one needs to be able to function well without outside intervention.

Of course, the main way to develop the Grind Nature is to have an outside release from the grind. MMO players often find this through PvP interaction - in the real world, we like to go to bars instead. Still, one must be careful about what their chosen release from work is. While no one behaviour is inherently bad, over-relying on it it can be. Bar evenings are fun, but so can be an afternoon trip to the gym or the pool.

What do you think, readers? What's your best way to find work-life balance? Do you have the Grind Nature?