Its (All) About Time Part 1

Prologue

Several years ago I became enamored with the idea of how one's perspective of the world around you is a powerful motivator to put idea into action. That action could be aggressive, passive, passive-aggressive or any of the many ways to categorize behavior. Simply put, the way you frame things determines how you behave towards tasks, people, and even things.

How often have you felt a certain animosity toward someone only to find they have a serious personal problem weighing on their life? Once you interpret their gruff behavior through the "glasses" of this new interpretation, their actions take on a totally different meaning. The individual hasn't changed…you have!

For the past several years I have come to conclude that the intellectual process of creating a "picture frame" to view the world may be the foundation of understanding. This frame, while strictly ONE way to view things, may be the key to learning, happiness, success.

As I have come to view things, there seems to be a universal frame through which many, if not most things can be viewed. This frame is TIME. The proof is in the reading! Follow along as we investigate several aspects of life and its link to time.

The World of Technology

The things we call technical have at their core a basic principle of time. The significance of technology can be viewed through its effect on this variable of time.

Computers

The history of computers is filled with key ingredients of time. The evolution in the speed in which certain computer parts moved, computed, or changed required us to break down a unit of time that was satisfactory for hundreds of years into even smaller units. That unit was the second. This unit of measurement was sufficiently small enough to measure most things until the invention of the modern computer. Why would anyone want to invent a smaller unit of time than the unit called a second? It is unwieldy to speak of something happening 2,000 times every second, much less 500,000 times in a second. As computer speeds increased, smaller units of time crept into our vocabulary. The terms micro-second, nano-second, and pico-second became practical units of time when something could be measured requiring six and seven digits per second.

While we are on the subject of computers, consider the devices that are often attached to a computer. These include printers, CD-ROMs and modems. Each of these is "packaged" by ad agencies on the basis of its ability to perform some task with respect to speed (synonym for time). A fast modem is preferable to a slow modem. Printers are benchmarked by the number of sheets of paper they can print per unit of time. CD-ROMS are sold as 16x, 24x, 32x, 40x speeds.

In somewhat recent times, computers have been able to produce images on screens. The ability of a computer to internally convert combinations of 0's and 1's into a series of "dots" on a screen has transformed the commercial art field into a computer graphics field. In fact, the speed at which these computers can internally make these images appear has led to most of the special effects now enjoyed in the video industries of computer games, movies, and entertainment. (More about this later.)

Technology as applied to the communication field may be viewed as a time revolution! When the prevailing tools to produce symbols were a stick and mud tablets, there just weren't many people spending much energy on creating better symbols or learning how to interpret those symbols. Consider what happened when the field of communication added a printing press. Suddenly, information could be mass-produced. Copy machines made duplicates in pages/minute then pages/second! Interpreting these symbols became important. Information that could be printed quickly became the basis of literacy efforts rather than the apprentice process. Reading is important only because it now possible to produce a written manuscript in hours or minutes rather than years!

Technology is too easy to show how time is the central issue in framing ones perspective. Let's come back to this area and treat it in more depth later. Why not tackle some areas of life where time is a little less obvious?

The Home  

Probably the single-most sacred concept to most people is that of their home. The government suggests the sanctity of the home can not be violated because of the Constitutional amendment concerning the search and seizure of homes. Clichés like "a man's home is his castle" or "home is where the heart is" abound. Songs offer tribute to the "warm fuzzies" associated with the home. The home is a pretty important place. Consider the typical home of the 90's. The clock runs it. Meals must be completed faster and faster to accommodate the different time schedules of the occupants. The real purpose of the refrigerator is to display the family calendar of events and a bulletin board for family communication! The refrigerator is only one appliance linked to time. What are the advantages of a micro-wave oven except to save time? The remote controlled TV offers the ability to change to a new station faster than walking to the set and turning a dial. How many dishwashers would be sold if the labor to operate (synonym for time) equaled that of the "sink washing" process?

If a family has children, consider the effects of time on the family. One wakes up in time to get the kids fed and dressed for school. That alarm clock has to be set to factor in the time required to drive/walk to school. Then there is the issue of what happens after school is out. How long will it take for the parent to get home from work and how long will the kids be left home alone? How long should it take to complete homework before bedtime? Are the children getting enough sleep (time to sleep)? What time does ball practice end? When is the piano recital to start and how does that match up with the time for the soccer tournament? Lots of time-management issues here aren't there. But we are not finished.

How long will it take to get the infant to begin sleeping through the night? How long before potty training can start/end? When does the first step, first word, first date, etc. happen? When to set curfew and how long do you wait before calling the hospital when they are late getting home? These are important time issues and occupy much of the energy of the family with children. Seems like they occupy much of our time in conversation with friends and relatives too!

But how about holidays? Does your step have a little more spring on birthdays or anniversaries? In the life of a family (or at least many families I know), traditions become very serious and violations of these traditions are causes of family crisis. These traditions are behaviors repeated over time or passed down from one generation to another. (Again, that time angle.)

Family vacations are planned according to time. Coordinating the time available to two or more individuals according to vacation days earned, workload schedules, and length of travel time required to go and return is often too much of a headache. We even hire a travel guide to manage our time.

For more illustrations of the significance of time, read Time2.