Productivity
🤔
From Jon Gertner’s The Idea Factory I learned how Bell Labs invented the whole modern telephone industry. They came up with everything from telephone poles and transistors to cell phones and satellite communication. Like some of the other innovative organizations I’ve read about, it seems Bell Labs’ success is hard to replicate, but you could start with their basic formula: Have a new industry to develop, get a bunch of really smart people, put them all in a big building where they’re forced to interact, point them in a research direction, and let their minds and their feet roam freely. Alas, the heyday of Bell Labs ended with the breakup of Ma Bell, but Gertner notes that after idea factories, the next phase in this degree of innovation may be idea geographies—the newer business model of startups funded by venture capital in closely networked areas like Silicon Valley and Boston’s Route 128. I’d say there’s merit to this idea, though Ed Zitron would have some words about the results.
In my quest to apply computer algorithms to human task management I expanded my investigation of CPU scheduling into real-time systems. The difference between real-time systems and others is that they have stricter deadlines for their tasks, sometimes with millisecond response times, as in flight control systems. So how can their techniques help me hit my deadlines? One factor is that their tasks are assigned priorities based on their type, so maybe I could start by prioritizing tasks by their broad categories, such as their project or origin. For more I’ll be studying the Linux real-time scheduler.
Spirituality
🙂
To reawaken my spiritual side whenever I catch it asleep, I started a practice of music meditation. I’ve learned that music is the key to getting myself in a better frame of mind, so to reset myself mid-day I put my worship playlist on shuffle and spent a few minutes listening. The key for these music meditation sessions is that I can’t be listening in the background while I focus on other things—I have to be paying attention to the music and contemplating it. I quickly found that this practice works very well for me, and I tried to do it every day after lunch when I remembered.
I had an especially fruitful music meditation session for my Friday fast. My reflections were kind of random but mostly revolved around the centrality of our friendship with God. That idea reminded me of Immanuel prayer, so I did some exploring to dig further into what that perspective on prayer means to me, and I ran across a good interview with my Immanuel trainer, Margaret Webb, that captures some of that meaning as she traces the journey that led her to this ministry.
Music
😬
Saturday I participated in a recording session for my worship team leader, Larry. The set consisted of a couple of existing worship songs plus one of Larry’s compositions. I like playing with the team, but I was sort of dreading the session because I’d never done that kind of live recording and I’m not a polished enough performer to want my improvisations preserved for posterity. But I played it safe and curbed the creativity, and it turned out okay. It was at least an interesting experience and even slightly fun.
