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Sunday, June 04, 2017

Some Time

If I put a mug in the microwave for a minute and a half and wait, the time passes in a flash and it's done. But if I go do something during that time, it's amazing how much I can get done in a minute and a half, or conversely how long a minute and a half really is.

I would like a time warp index, that lists how compact time is in various activities. Writing journal entries would score pretty low. Especially writing journal entries late at night--I can see the hour hand moving in real time. It would probably be wise to take 10% of the time out of the low scoring activities and give it to the highest ones--I wouldn't notice the loss but would definitely feel the gain. What are some high-progress-per-minute activities?

I think it should be a feature of web browsers to add up the time you sit waiting for pages to load. By the end of the month I bet it's a shocking sum. And there're no refunds for lost time.

There's a long one-lane (each way) road between here and town, that's often packed full. Once I'm on it I like to leave a fair space behind the car in front of me. Won't make any difference in how fast I get home, right? Traveling the same speed, with just a couple seconds extra delay... But wait -- if everybody did the same, then someone on the side of the road would count maybe half as many cars passing per minute. The cumulative effect of everybody going a little slower at the beginning backs the traffic up at the inlet so it takes much longer just to get on the road in the first place. Tragedy of the commons, since once you're there it's only a couple seconds for you--but half the throughput for the road! So yeah, tailgating actually does help traffic--go figure.

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