Mental Popcorn

It seems that in the world of I.T. (and I’m sure in other Industries) there are just so many disciplines that one can specialise in; yet so many of us tend to be so over-stretched that we often specialise in many things at once.

I was talking to a very good friend over New Year’s about why so many I.T. Professionals get over stressed and often want to leave the industry all together, and he highlighted some very interesting points.

In many cases your average I.T. Professional is relied upon to be “Handy”, like a Swiss Army Knife that has a solution for every situation.  For some jobs, in order to apply the correct solution you need to find a Specialist, and in many cases one is unavailable or nowhere to be found.  This, in turn, requires the I.T. Professional to quickly learn and fill the role of the “Specialist” in order to complete the Job.

And therein exists the problem, the strain of having to constantly learn and re-train, an I.T. Professional becomes overloaded, confused, overburdened, burnt out.  The amount of working memory a person has is finite; and long-term memory requires months and often years of rote in order for it to develop properly.  The unfortunate I.T. Professional often has to learn a new speciality in a matter of days, sometimes hours in order to apply the solution.

So, if you are an I.T. Professional, my only advice is to take it easy and just remember that the hourly rate you charge needs to reflect the fact that your cognitive light is shining bright!

Age has a nice way of tangling up with one’s affairs. To start with, it is like an observer, in the distance, someone that stands at the side of the field watching as you learn to play the game, like an eager parent, but one that is obedient and happy just to watch.

And then, as years peel by, Age has a nice way of appearing now and then, randomly, around corners, in Doctor’s offices and at the roadside of misfortune. Just enough to remind you that someday soon your free ride may require a fee - that those years of consuming microwave foodstuffs from convenience stores at unholy hours might not have been good afterall.

More recently, I discovered that my friend the root canal is waiting in upper right number seven, just paused for that opportunity to pounce at the insistence of Age. And, of course, everyone who is more friendly with Age has gone through this before, but strangley some force prevents them from informing those of us who are not as familiar.

I hope one day, when Age comes to roost, that we’ll be old friends. Until then, I guess I’ll try to look the other way.

Yes, time once again to revisit a question that keeps popping up from time to time.  Who are we?  What is an Australian?  What is our identity?  Yes, it is a quesion that comes in many forms, but are all the same.

Well, Today Tonight has highlighted a survey being conducted by a University in Sydney.

Have you ever noticed how out-of-balance things in the world seem? I often wonder why more people don’t stop and think sometimes - think about the things they believe in, say, or read.

One of the more absurd propositions that I find curious in our society are the many number of occasions that result in people focusing on issues that are either unimportant, or grossly out of proportion when weighed up with other more important items.

Take for example the recent hoopla over Paris Hilton and the throngs of media that have surrounded her, and the hours of media coverage that one jail term resulting from driving with a suspended license can cause.

I have a theory about what we focus on as being important to us in our lives - I call it my theory of focus. You should have guessed by now that I have a theory for everything; just ask anyone who knows me in real-life!

So first of all, a bit about the concept of focus. Well, we know in a camera that focus is used to bring certain objects into a clear view, and so with our own lives certain items are clear to us, and others are unclear - or out of focus.

Sometimes life throws you something from a dark corner. It can hit you completely unexpectedly, and when it does it can cause your focus to change. You see, we all have focus, it comes to us naturally.

I consider focus to be all those things in our immediate (short-term) world that are important to us. Things that make us want to get involved, or things that make us feel a particular way, things that we care about.

If only we all spent more time focusing on important things, imagine how different the world might be.