Time Unknown (Entries tagged as communication)

Balancing the scales

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:31:14 +0200

Often when I feel down I play this game with the world: I look at the strangers on streets. I look them into their eyes. I smile. Then I notice how many smile back. I feel this helps to balance the scales.

Having a funny hat helps, but do give it a shot even if you don't have one.

Language inversion

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:12:21 +0200

As some of you might know, I'm now kinda bilingual, equally comfortable and (uncomfortable?) with English as with Finnish. Almost every time I run through what I'm planning to say in my head, I do it in the other language than what I'm actually likely to use. I have no idea why. It's not a conscious choice by any means. The downside of this is that I might in the end still not know what to say, the upside is that what I say will not be practiced to death, no matter how often I have been running it in my head.

How do you other bilingual people do this? I know that not everyone 'practices' conversations at all... even I don't do it often, it just always catches my attention when I do.

Map is so much more than just the territory

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:33:25 +0300

I needed to learn about visual hierarchies for web design purposes and shocking the most illustrative guide to them seemed to be a map making book called Making Maps: a visual guide to map design for geographic information systems. Quite a mouthful, that. There are excerpts of the book available online for the curious and the needy.

What is ATWCWI and why you might want it too

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:10:52 +0200

ATWCWI, which stands for "Avoid Time-Wasting Conversations With Idiots" was named after the Dilbert album "Always Postpone Meetings With Time-Wasting Morons" and it's the name of the by far best IRC command alias I have ever had.

I know the name sounds a bit brutal for some of you, but let me explain it first:

Avoid: Don't be bothered by
Time-Wasting: Stuff that you cannot do anything about, don't need to do anything about, or that is not contributing in any useful way to your life
Conversations: Conversations
With: With, or simply within the scope of your vision
Idiots: Not necessarily actual idiots, but people you get frustrated, angry or infuriated with, or simply overwhelmed by.

Basicly, that is a principle found in almost all productivity systems: Avoid things that distract you from what you are trying to do.

So, what does the command actually do?

/ignore -time 600 $0

It ignores a user completely for 10 minutes, and 10 minutes only. You will not see a word they say, not on the channels, nor in messages from them. The distraction will be removed, giving you time to focus, get on with more important things and maybe think about how the heated discussion was so not worth it, and how next time a more productive course of action can be taken. After the ten minutes are up, the ignore is lifted, and you'll have to reassess the situation. Usually, whatever bothered you is over by that time.

I do recommend being honest and kind when you use atwcwi. Don't offend a person and them atwcwi them without apologizing first, as that would clearly make you an idiot. Try to speak for peace. When using it to exit a conversationg you were participating in, tell them, if you can, that you valued their time, input or opinions and bid them goodbye (for a fixed time, or just 'bye' is up to you). If you just use it to temporarily ignore distracting conversations you are not participating in, no need to say anything at all. They probably hardly noticed you were there and don't need to notice you no longer see what they write.

Probably the hardest, but perhaps the most wonderful use of atwcwi is to use it on people you like. If there is a fight developing that would not solve anything, or a discussion that is just way to stressful right now, it's within your rights to 'walk away'. Tell them your reasons, honestly and kindly, tell them whether you think the conversation will be ok later, ask them gently but firmly to postpone or drop the subject with you. Then, if they will not, you can tell them that you'll need to have some space now for 10 minutes and that you hope you can talk about something else later.

In a perfect world atwcwi would not have any use at all, but before that world of everpresent kindness, patience, moderation and directness becomes a reality atwcwi can help you focus on what you want to do, be it volunteering on a support channel or just returning to talking with a friend you like without needing to lose your temper with them meanwhile.

The mystery of disappearing question marks

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 08:21:23 +0200

Question marks are starting to be an endangered species. Online people regularly drop them even from non-rhetorical questions and then wonder why they don't get very many answers. Why is this? Is the guestion mark key inconveniently located? Are people so afraid of seeming ignorant that they don't dare to use it even when they really want to ask a question? What do you think?