Returning from the UC-CSC conference last week, hitched a ride with a very cool UC Irvine operating systems prof. Had some interesting conversations about databases, filesystems, etc., then the conversation drifted to the topic of people’s insanely busy lives. I made some off-handed comment about time and money, and he responded without hesitation:
NO! Time is not money. You can always get money back. You can never get time back.
Music: A Certain Ratio :: Knife Slits Water
I think it is funny how sometimes others that we come in contact with show us how the glass looks from a different angle. One thing that comes to mind is the commercial about families that always end with “Isn’t it about… time?” It makes one wonder.
I had a friend a few years ago that saw a documentary/program on how people are living with only what they really need and getting rid of the excess (if anyone knows of the program, please let me know). He and his wife gave away everything that they really did not need. They then had less to play with and started spending more time with each other and their kids.
While I agree with this presumably-tenured (read = unfairly given a guarantee of employment, unlike the rest of the working world) professor, it’s amazing what NOT having money will do to your perspective.
Yeah, money != happiness either, but you’d be amazed at how much happiness money can buy. And conversely, how unhappy you can be when you don’t have any/as much money as before. (And I’m not even referring to materialistic pursuits, but one can always extend this argument to that length too – if you really wanted to).
Yes, yes – very cynical way to look at things, but being forced to work retail after getting laid off because your industry is going down the tubes might do that to you. I’d really like to be my younger, idealistic self again too, but reality tends to get in the way of things (no double-entendre intended).
The documentary Steph evokes is probably about “volontary simplicity”. Google it.
Now that prof’s formula is quite scary, i can’t imagine the total sum of time spend to make the computer work or to tweak it for rather futile reasons :-(( . Go realism !