Balance
From WhyNotWiki
Aliases: Balances See also: Boundaries
Balances edit (Category edit) .
[edit] Patterns
I've noticed several common patterns start to emerge here... Most balances seem to fall under one of these categories:
- A balance between two mutually exclusive alternatives: "a balance between doing X and doing Y"; finding the "right" proportions for mixing those, with regards to time, resources, etc.
- "Fine lines" / Moderation: Finding the right amount, the right balance, for a single thing, without taking it to the extreme: "having some A without having too much A"...
[edit] Misc.
[edit] (Sources of)
Redeeming the Time - Time Management Radio Transcripts
[edit] The cost of administration / paperwork / ...
- Doing actual stuff vs. doing information-tracking/note-taking/administration related to that actual doing
- Finding the right amount of time to spend tracking your expenses so that you spend wisely, without spending too much time doing so
- Finding the right amount of time to spend tracking how you actually spend your time so that you can schedule wisely, make wise time-management decisions, budget your time wisely, etc., without spending too much time doing the overhead of time tracking
[edit] Time management / getting things done
Treating your inbox / personal to-do list as a stack or as a queue. If you treat it as a stack, then the older messages starve; if you treat it as a queue then the newer messages starve. So we need a better scheduling algorithm to prevent resource starvation. (Priority queue??)
[edit]
Keeping up with the new vs. contributing something new: Keeping up with / learning about all the cool new technologies/applications/sites available on the Web vs. writing your own, creating something new.
[edit] Planning for the future vs. taking one day at a time
[edit] Buying / Consumer
[edit] Spending more time looking around to try to find the best deal vs. spending less time and potentially paying more than you need to
If you value your time (time is money), then you may not want to waste too much time shopping around looking for a good deal. On the other hand, money is probably important to you too, and you don't want to have missed out on a deal that could have saved you 50% of the cost if you'd just kept looking another 5 minutes until you came across this deal...
[edit] Analyzing (not over-analyzing)
For example, if you over-analyze music, it ceases to be "music" but is just a bunch of notes with mathematical relationships between them.
If you over-analyze a joke, it ceases to be "funny" but is just [...].
So I think it's okay to analyze these things, to figure out how a piece of music accomplishes what it does, how it creates a certain effect, or how a joke is funny, or what it has in common with other funny jokes, but...
When all that's said and done, you've just gotta step back from the analysis and let it be musical or funny naturally.
Analysis may help you answer the "how" or the "why" about something, but while something is being analysis, I think it can cease to be what it's supposed to be (kind of like in quantum mechanics?), until you cease to observe it again... (?)
[edit]
Collecting "stuff" (material possessions) so that you're able to efficiently and effectively function to the best of your ability (and be reasonable happy) in your present geographical/etc. location vs. having little stuff so that you are free to move, to travel, not tied down to own geographical place for your entire life
[edit] Writing/researching/creating
- 2nd-hand research (looking for and then reviewing pre-existing works that have already been created) vs. doing original work (creating something new)
- Researching to see if someone else has done something similar already (so you don't reinvent the wheel) and seeing how they did it; and writing your own software from scratch ([Software development (category)])
[edit] Web sites / user interface
- putting too much on a page vs. making pages too short and requiring the user to do a lot of clicking to browse through multiple pages (Optimal page length)
[edit] Scope: Software development
- Marketing the software that you currently have and its existing features vs. improving the software to make it more marketable, add new features, remove bugs, etc.
- Documenting the current state of the software vs. moving on and improving/changing the software (causing previously written documentation to become out-of-date)
- Documenting / letting people know about problems/bugs with the current version of a software vs. fixing those bugs sooner and releasing a bug-fix release
- Top-down development vs. bottom-up development
[edit]
Developing (standards, software, ...) in isolation at higher speeds vs. developing with higher community involvement, consensus, etc., at slower speeds.
Source: Tim Berners-Lee: 2006-10-27: Reinventing HTML
...There is the age-old tradeoff for any group as to whether to zoom along happily, in relative isolation, putting off the day when they ask for reviews, or whether to get lots of people involved early on, so a wider community gets on board earlier, with all the time that costs. That's a trade-off which won't go away.
...
[edit] Knowledge vs. contentment
In particular, knowledge that may make you jealous or discontent...
Is it better to know what (wages) everyone else in the world / at your company is making so that you can compare yourself to them, or is it better to not know that kind of information and just be happy with what you've got? But how do you know if you're being paid fairly? Surely we ought to be concerned about making sure we're not being ripped off / taken advantage of without our knowledge, for example. We ought not to be naive....
Contentment vs. knowledge that things are "fair"...
Of course, life isn't fair, so what's there to know?
[edit] Bible study
A balance between looking up the original Hebrew or Greek for every word you come across (to make sure you understand the English, make sure you understand the shade of meaning from the original, etc.) and just reading it in English (your native language)...
[edit] Keeping one's life balanced
Keeping one's life balanced edit
There are so many different ways that one's life can get out of balance!
[edit] Areas in which we need to maintain balance
[edit] Time
Getting things done : getting enough sleep
[edit] Time / Friends
Spending enough time with friends to nurture/maintain those relationships without letting them take too much of your time, prevent you from getting things done that you need to get done.
[edit] Food
Tasty food : healthy food
[edit] Time with God
Personal quiet time with God : small group Bible study/fellowship : corporate worship : sharing one's faith with others
Of all of these areas, I would guess that personal time with God is the most important... but the others shouldn't be neglected either!
[edit] Bible study
Old Testament vs. New Testament: The New Testament, and especially the Gospels, seems to be the most worthwhile part of the Bible to read, the part that is most able to draw one to Jesus, the part that teaches the most about God's love and character, and the part that is most relevant to me today. And yet we shouldn't be ignorant about what the Old Testament has to say either. So how does one find a balance between the two?
Reading a chapter/book of the Bible through sequentially vs. Doing a serious topical Bible study. Each one has its advantages. It's good to get the context and the big picture that comes from reading it sequentially. But we also shouldn't make a doctrine out of any one verse, so we should see what the Bible as a whole has to say about a particular topic.
Aliases: Balances, Maintaining a balance
