What’s not to like about this reorg?
I
found a note that I wrote to myself a few years ago. It said: “If I ever don’t have a sailboat, I’m going to have to find another place to focus my love of elaborate systems.” This note was buried deep in a …Well, honestly, where do we find things buried deeply these days? We, of course, find them within a hierarchy of folders on a laptop computer. And this goes directly to my point. That note appeared this morning when I was cleaning out and reorganizing my computer files. About every two months, I announce to my wife that I am doing a “reorg.” (In business, that used to be a dreaded word: reorg. It meant that consultants were going to be eating lunch in the cafeteria. These professionals have the personal affect of a kindly therapist and a ruthless passion for bold experiments in human efficiencies that meant jobs would be lost.) My reorgs are no less potent. During my most recent, I decided that my home-insurance files would no longer be found under “Properties,” but now would be filed under the vastly more sensible “Family” category. This thoughtful shift was inspired by a whole new way of thinking about my priorities. Now, as I look across the landscape of my high level folders, I see categories that are meaningful. Imagine looking at folders called “Family,” “Public Service,” “Work,” “Personal Growth.” It is all so lovely and efficient I can hardly bear it. Previously, home insurance has been filed under “Properties,” and before that, under “Financial,” and before that, under “Contracts,” and before that, under “Risks.” I think anyone would agree that this most recent reorg is going to make me more proficient, happier and a better person. Alright then! See what I meant in that little note I found? Just look at the above. Thinking about systems is a full-blown hobby. Add a boat to the mix and… well, a boat can be described as a mounting surface on which to install systems. I’m not saying all, or even most, boaters have such a suspicious relationship to their vessel. A few do, and we do more than our part to keep the modern marine hardware
industry alive. To that extent we are heroes, I suppose. The opportunities are ever-expanding in the marine world. Take refrigeration, for example. The opportunity for monitoring and controlling efficiencies is spectacular. Once you have your fridge installed, you will quickly want to save on fuel by powering it with a solar panel, the output of which you will want to enhance with a nifty piece of electronics that senses and maximizes its behavior. Then, with a little thought, you will realize that on cloudy days you will need a backup of wind power, which will nicely fill in the gaps unless the wind is blowing too hard. Your battery needs to be protected from such an overload. But here again is another opportunity for efficiency: Shunt any extra surge of wind energy into a heating coil inside your fresh hot-water tank. And speaking of batteries, the refrigeration demands on these hard-working cells can be monitored with an amperage-sensing device the output of which can be sent directly to a spreadsheet on your laptop. But why stop there when a wireless thermometer inside your fridge can send cooling-cycle data to that same spreadsheet? Now to close the loop on the entire refrigeration system, you need merely to write a macro program that will discover within your dataoptimizing scenarios. Fun? Yes sir. By some therapeutic lights, however, it has been suggested that people who fill their time with dreams of robust organization and its associated devices are hiding from emotion. I couldn’t agree more, and believe me, I’m working on it. By the way, that is a separate project filed under “Personal Growth.” Back to the note. Having sold my boat, I am considering the hobby of bicycle touring. Obviously the first project will be to install a trailer rack on which to mount my gear. I figure that any efficiency lost due to the added weight will be offset by the maximizing breakthroughs waiting for my attention.
Tom Snyder
www.pointseast.com
Tom Snyder organizes his multitude of systems from Cambridge, Mass., and Peaks Island, Maine. Points East Midwinter 2009
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