PPPPassages on Time: (Four Ps #231)
Time machines, Time management, Time-saving A.I. tips & Time to Pay
"Time is what we want most, but what we use worst."
I always loved this quote by William Penn. In fact, the first paper I ever wrote in college, for my freshman writing seminar, started with those exact lines.
The subject of time may be the most quoted topic in history, but I've always viewed it as the most important metric there is. It is also the most objective and subjective unit of measurement that exists.
Something that happened last month could feel like it was forever ago, whereas something that took place 20 years ago can feel like just yesterday.
THE PERSONAL: Stepping into the Time Machine
Over the weekend, my family and I visited an interactive museum exhibit at a local museum here on Long Island showcasing the history of the arcade video game era. Within minutes of walking in, I was taken back 30, 40, even 50 years.
Time collapsed, with memories flooding back all at once.
Starting with games from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s: Pac-Man, Centipede, Galaga, and Star Wars to Tron, Back to the Future, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tetris, and about 150-200 more, only some of which I remembered. There was even a Michael Jackson "Moonwalker" game where he's fighting zombies.
The museum also had every at-home video console from ColecoVision to PlayStation, including multiple generations of Atari, Nintendo and Sega Genesis. It was awesome.
It was even more fun watching the multiple reactions from my kids, who were amazed at the basic 8-, 16-, and 32-bit graphics, and even more amazed at my complete dominance and mastery of certain games. They kept asking if this is what it was like in "the olden times."
Sitting down to play Super Mario Brothers for the first time in at least 30 years was surreal, and the memories of how to play, the locations of hidden power-ups and warp zone cheats, and even the note-for-note soundtrack of the different levels all came flooding back. And yes, within a short period of time, I completed all 32 levels.
Other highlights include beating my son and his cousin in NBA Jam ("He's on FIRE!"), remembering the rope swing and alligator patterns from the original Jungle Hunt, and dropping wrap-around and 1-timer goals in EA’s NHL '91 with the dominant Pittsburgh Penguins.
If only this is what our kids had today. Instead, the access to information and overload of realistic games on handheld and console devices is far beyond what I could have ever imagined possible at their age.
Speaking of time, the exhibit's run is also limited, and will be gone by early April. I'm hoping to get back once more before then, but anyone in the NY area who remembers the '80s, or wants to learn what they were like, should check it out at the Cradle of Aviation Museum.
(The museum is also home to one of the last remaining original Lunar Excursion Modules on display from the 1960’s moon missions. To see that live 55 years after the last moon landing, but also just one day after the newest, unmanned LEM landed on the moon, was yet another example of time messing with us.)
THE PRACTICAL: The Relativity of Time Management
Ask anyone over the age of 40, and they'll tell you that time is the most precious commodity in life.
You feel it when you watch your kids growing up. You see your parents getting older (if you're lucky). But you feel pressure, pain, and passage of time the most in the quiet moments. Running an errand. In the shower. Working out.
The irony of time is that it becomes increasingly challenging to manage as we get less of it. With more responsibilities, tasks, connections, and shifting priorities, time becomes even more limited and precious. Professionally, I've always valued my ability to manage time.
Yet in recent years, I've taken on new responsibilities that have demanded more of my time to learn, complete tasks, develop processes, and optimize workflow. Transitioning from a purely creative role over a decade ago to add operational management, business development, and client partnership responsibilities has introduced a whole new set of challenges.
A colleague recently introduced me to a time management technique called "chunking" — a term new to me, but a concept as timeless as any. It involves blocking off chunks of time to focus on similar tasks, whether it's outreach, follow-up, creative planning, or administrative duties like handling expenses.
This reminder was a revelation, and a reminder. 20 years ago, I was gifted a book about successful time management. Sadly, the author and title are lost to time and memory, but I took notes on a tiny series of post-its while reading on various flights and at some point I typed them up and found them in an old word doc recently on an external hard drive.
Literally from 2003. Here's what I wrote down then:
SMART Basics
Set SMART goals: (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timed)
Keep a time log to differentiate between plannable, reactive & wasted time.
Break big tasks into smaller ones for easy progress tracking, implementation.
LEAD for Organization:
List activities, estimate time, allow for contingency, and prioritizing (LEAD) to enhance organization and focus
Incorporate batch tasks and checklists for routine activities to improve efficiency and reduce context-switching. (Hello, Chunking!)
Keep a tidy workspace and a clear ordering system for documents and tools.
Minimizing Time-Wasters:
Learn to say no. Set boundaries to protect work time from interruptions.
Lead by example in communication to streamline interactions.
Address procrastination and prioritizing tasks based on the 80/20 rule, focusing on efforts that yield the most significant outcomes.
Working Well with Others:
Assess the value of social interactions and conflict resolution for time management.
Delegate, encouraging independent problem-solving, and optimizing meetings with clear agendas and time limits.
Do these all still apply two decades later? I'm not sure. As much as I love a good acronym, SMART and LEAD feel forced... even formulaic. But revisiting even a few of these principles and strategies -- and carving out time to actually implement them -- it requires putting more time into it than I can give at the moment. But you know what might help...?
THE PROFESSIONAL: All A.I., All the Time
The increasing use of Artificial Intelligence tools in my daily life has made time management both easier, and more challenging. Yes, harder. Or maybe not harder, but it's changed my entire way of working, and not always faster or more efficient.
I find myself going to Midjourney and ChatGPT and other tools for things AFTER I've already gotten started, then find myself inspired by something new, wanting to forge a middling solution, then re-thinking it all once I get frustrated by the inability to find a hybrid solution. Then I'll go back, think about what I really want to say, do, create, share, or send. So I either need to start with AI or end with A.I., and honestly, I've been using it as much for grammar checks as anything else.
Then there's the challenge of feeling like I need to try every new tool that comes out, and comparing it to what I already have. The pace of development and iteration is absurd.
Take Groq. It's new, it's different. It's supposedly better. But I'm less familiar with the intracacies, I haven't set up my own personalized GPTs for it yet, and I'm getting distracted. But it does look pretty awesome. Third-party tests are suggesting that Groq’s claims of having the fastest large language models might be accurate, indicating a significant advancement in AI technology. So if you believe the hype it's got:
Fastest Language Models: the world’s fastest large language models, with demos showing their AI producing hundreds of words in a split second, outpacing competitors like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok.
Real-Time Conversations: Founder and CEO Jonathon Ross demonstrated the ability to have real-time, verbal conversations with an AI chatbot halfway across the world on live television, showcasing the speed and practical use cases.
Language Processing Units (LPUs): Groq has developed AI chips called LPUs, which are purported to be faster than Nvidia’s industry-standard GPUs, potentially revolutionizing the speed at which AI models can run.
And with these shifts in the way we think, work, and create, AI is also going to shift our economy in very significant ways. While some argue it may level the playing field and diminish gaps in social economic strata, I also could see it creating bigger divides between rich and poor, while also creating new challenges for a middle class already struggling to adapt to rapid changes. And the last thing any of us needs is the rich getting richer...
THE POLITICAL: Time is Running Out
If you listen to economist and historian Rutger Bregman, the few top global billionaires are playing a real-life version of Monopoly, but with a "Get Out of Tax" card. And it's a permanent fixture in their wallets.
To understand the crux of our economic imbalance, we must first acknowledge a simple truth: Not all wallets are created equal, especially when they're thick enough to influence tax policies. Historical data paints a stark picture of widening gaps, not just in wealth, but in the civic responsibility of tax contribution.
In the decades following World War II, the highest earners in the United States faced tax rates upwards of 70%, a figure that would today likely cause a billionaire to choke on the artisanal coffee grown on their own private South American plantation.
Fast forward to the present, effective tax rates for the wealthiest can sometimes dip into the single digits, thanks to a labyrinth of lobbying loopholes, offshore accounts, and creative accounting that feel villainous, treasonous, and even Trump-eous.
This isn't merely an academic quibble over numbers; it's a foundational crack in the edifice of our society. The revenue lost from these "optimized" tax contributions could fund health care, education, and infrastructure—the very public goods that underpin a functioning society and, ironically, the ladder to success that many a billionaire has climbed.
Consider, for example, the revelations from the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers, which read like a who's who of the ultra-wealthy, creatively avoiding their fiscal dues. These aren't just isolated incidents of financial mischief; they're emblematic of a systemic issue where the economic burden disproportionately falls on the middle and working classes.
The wealthy are showing up to our potluck dinner empty-handed but taking home the leftovers.
The argument often made in defense of such disparities is that the wealthy contribute through job creation and investments. However, this "trickle-down" economic theory has been about as effective as a paper teapot.
Studies and real-life experiments, such as those detailed by the Dutch Bregman, suggest that direct investment in public welfare and services has a far more tangible impact on societal health and economic stability.
It's easy to cast aspersions when you're not wealthy. And I'm not. But I have to think that if I ever get that Fuck You Money, I'd be paying much more back to society than these greedy MoFos. And yes, in the face of mounting evidence and public outcry, some billionaires have called for higher taxes on the wealthy.
But it's like volunteering to be the designated driver after the party has already ended. While commendable, these calls often lack the urgency and systemic overhaul needed to address the root issues.
Expecting billionaires to voluntarily pay more taxes is like expecting a cat to bark—it defies the very nature of the beast. The economic imbalance fueled by tax avoidance and evasion by the ultra-wealthy is not just an issue of fiscal policy but a moral and societal quandary.
The solution lies not in the benevolence of the few but in robust, transparent, and fair tax policies that ensure everyone pays their fair share. It's high time we rewrite the rules of the game, ensuring that the economic ladder is not only climbable but has rungs sturdy enough to support everyone, not just those at the top.
Until then, the game remains rigged so that the house always wins, with the rest of us hoping for a lucky roll of the dice.
THE PODCAST: Real-Time Marketing and Urgent Care
In the latest episode of The Snarketing Podcast, Paula Blomquist, Chief Experience Officer at GoHealth Urgent Care gives us a healthy dose of insights into marketing in the healthcare industry.
🔹 Her transition from #CMO to #CXO
🔹 The ups and down of cold & flu season
🔹 Why she calls us "#customers," not patients
🔹 The power of noble #purpose
🔹 Life as a New Yorker turned Oklahoma rancher
🔹 Balancing #AI and human touch
🔹 Embracing continuous #learning
Listen as we uncover the strategies and wisdom that drives her sense of 𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲. And why she 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬:
And if you’re headed to SxSW next week, I look forward to seeing you there…