or search for 'martin cadwell -caldwell' Take note of the position of the minus sign to eliminate caldwell returns or search for 'martin cadwell blog' in your browser.
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[ 8 minute read ]
Jumping the gun
Getting the jump; leaping ahead; advancing; pre-emptive forwardness; proactive intent; acting for the future; future investment; or just plain old jumping the gun. Call it what you will, I do it. I can't bear being 'in the now'; the present; a passenger in my own life. I don't feel safe driving myself when I am not in control of the steering or the brakes.
Many of us pay into a pension, an investment for the future. Who knows what the future will be like. I do. There are no photographs of me from the age of eighteen years old until present, barring driving licence and passport pictures, because I knew that there would be a future. I don't pretend to know what will happen tomorrow or in five years time. I am not prescient in that way. I, however, am like many, many other people in that we know that the future will not be the same as the present. And, we, as the public, are not party to the web of information that Governments have. They, the one's who can access this information have an information channel we others can only dream of; 'What's happening in Korea today, Millie?' We don't even know who Millie is!
No, my tiny sphere of existence must be carefully prepared to have future avenues that seque into 'Millie's' answers; or Graham's or Pasha's or Marta's answers. I jump the gun. I try to get a head start. I try to act in a proactive manner in a series of pre-emptive actions and plans.
Have you ever heard the expression 'Eat the meat and spit the bones'? Perhaps, you may with a few miles on your clock have heard 'I have no bones with that' or 'It is all gravy', or even if you have a different education, 'This a bone of contention.' I am not concerned with why there is an obsession with bones in these expressions; I am only concerned with not having any on my plate. Or, if I am to be entirely honest; I don't want to be served any bones or meat that turns out to be gristle. Which, if I allow myself to digress, brings me to 'The fat of the land' meaning the bountiful produce of an environment; hopefully an environment which I have tilled and prepared.
If I have something to do that is a requirement set by another entity I cannot rest until the task is complete and packaged. If I could do tomorrow's work yesterday I would still think it is late, but still within a safe area of making contingency plans that are observant of tomorrow's problems.
I have a lot of problems with mobile phone companies. The fact that there is a list of which one is the worst is enough for us all to know that it is all of them. I have contingency plans so if I can get one to give up on me and waive the early termination of a contract I can do it within the time it takes to say on the phone 'Consider us separated.' or the time it takes to send an email. I don't need to work out how I can stay connected; quite simply the first thing is never use the same company for more than one connection (mobile phone / broadband/ TV internet / security). It is tricky because there are only four telephone network providers in the UK but it can be done. I have two accounts that use one of the four telephone service providers. I pay two businesses that use the same network. so I cannot be 'locked in' to an agreement or contract as might other people find themselves.
How can we take control then? How can we be proactive or jump the gun or get a headstart? We can't really. We can only make contingency plans wherever we can. I read that fugitives from justice sometimes keep a packed bag of clothes and essentials (passport and money) by the door of an escape route in case they are raided. Nice people used to have 'speed-dial' on their phones - is that still a thing? As a keen cyclist, I have three working bicycles I can use without applying any tools at all to them and two donor bicycles. Why? in case one gets a puncture I need to be somewhere and I am over the drink-drive limit. It won't be a surprise to you if I tell you that I never cycle anywhere outside of my village without a spare inner tube and pump (spoons and spanner too). During the Covid 19 lockdown I could not get a replacement rear wheel - I have six now.
I have such a financial safety margin that the latest budget announcements just made me say, 'So, live with it!' If people choose to give in to their desires for optional and discretionary goods, then you give in to someone else's determinations so 'Live with it? No, live with yourselves! You made it so for yourself!'
When I say financial safety margin I am not talking about wealth or savings, I am talking about financial commitments that I have not subscribed to because I have spotted an alternative way of doing things.
Long ago, while still in primary school I recognised that the fastest way to solve a problem is to focus on the problem before focusing on the solution. Sounds about right doesn't it? Except it isn't the right way to do things if you expect a series of problems to arise within a specific field of activity, then you have to go to college or read a book or something beforehand. The first part of this, find the problem before learning the solution may seem a bit wobbly in thinking, because it helps to know where the stop-cock is when you get a water leak, instead of searching for it by moving junk or furniture around. Obviously, on the first day of moving into a property we locate the stopcock, don't we?(rental people might not do this as a matter of course because the water is already on - look for it). That is a contingency plan that negates having to look for it in a later panic. While it is not a great analogy, for quickly solving problems, the stopcock works sufficiently well for me. Stop the problem and then get the DIY book out to learn specifically how to fix the leak is faster than reading a whole DIY book and wait for a leak or a tile to fall off the roof or something. This, I realise, is plainly NOT acting proactively or jumping the gun or getting a headstart. No, our attention, focus and energy should be spent doing something else rather than reading a book and waiting for an problematic event that matches our knowledge. I suggest searching for an event in the future that may need a detailed understanding of the nature of that event.
A worse case scenario might be armed conflict in the house next door (we are safe if it is in the next street and we can grab our escape bags before they come and get us). Or, if there are aerial attacks we will find the supply of fuel particularly difficult. I am not suggesting stock-piling anything at all not even toilet paper.
(I have just now wasted time putting my boots on to hang my hoodie out to dry when it has already dried in the bathroom by the open window).
Nobody is about to invade the UK (where I live), with people, so it won't be the next street or next door that is isolated from the rest of us. We will all within a geographical or technological region suffer alike. COOP and Marks & Spencers customers have recently had their details hacked including personal details. Personal details, I might add, that the businesses never actually needed in order to do their core activities; everything else is 'Added services'.
Perhaps then, the last especially relevant as an obvious facet, we should create skeleton outlays of future work, if they are to be written, in case a mode of communication is broken. For many, this is their mobile phone as their sole source of digital communication. If lightning hits the right signal relay tower (building) they will be in a high-use log-jam of disconnection, perhaps on the day an assignment, essay or report is due if they work from home (they should have a laptop at least).
I have always be bemused that people think it is funny or ironic when they come across the skit of someone writing a list of 'Things to do Urgent', and at the top of the list is 'Make a list'. That much is the minimum we need to do. If I have a list of things to gather before leaving my house when there is an encompassing flood, I would at least know what to look for before I leave.
Getting a headstart
All my posts: https://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/view.php?u=zw219551
or search for 'martin cadwell -caldwell' Take note of the position of the minus sign to eliminate caldwell returns or search for 'martin cadwell blog' in your browser.
I am not on YouTube or social media
[ 8 minute read ]
Jumping the gun
Getting the jump; leaping ahead; advancing; pre-emptive forwardness; proactive intent; acting for the future; future investment; or just plain old jumping the gun. Call it what you will, I do it. I can't bear being 'in the now'; the present; a passenger in my own life. I don't feel safe driving myself when I am not in control of the steering or the brakes.
Many of us pay into a pension, an investment for the future. Who knows what the future will be like. I do. There are no photographs of me from the age of eighteen years old until present, barring driving licence and passport pictures, because I knew that there would be a future. I don't pretend to know what will happen tomorrow or in five years time. I am not prescient in that way. I, however, am like many, many other people in that we know that the future will not be the same as the present. And, we, as the public, are not party to the web of information that Governments have. They, the one's who can access this information have an information channel we others can only dream of; 'What's happening in Korea today, Millie?' We don't even know who Millie is!
No, my tiny sphere of existence must be carefully prepared to have future avenues that seque into 'Millie's' answers; or Graham's or Pasha's or Marta's answers. I jump the gun. I try to get a head start. I try to act in a proactive manner in a series of pre-emptive actions and plans.
Have you ever heard the expression 'Eat the meat and spit the bones'? Perhaps, you may with a few miles on your clock have heard 'I have no bones with that' or 'It is all gravy', or even if you have a different education, 'This a bone of contention.' I am not concerned with why there is an obsession with bones in these expressions; I am only concerned with not having any on my plate. Or, if I am to be entirely honest; I don't want to be served any bones or meat that turns out to be gristle. Which, if I allow myself to digress, brings me to 'The fat of the land' meaning the bountiful produce of an environment; hopefully an environment which I have tilled and prepared.
If I have something to do that is a requirement set by another entity I cannot rest until the task is complete and packaged. If I could do tomorrow's work yesterday I would still think it is late, but still within a safe area of making contingency plans that are observant of tomorrow's problems.
I have a lot of problems with mobile phone companies. The fact that there is a list of which one is the worst is enough for us all to know that it is all of them. I have contingency plans so if I can get one to give up on me and waive the early termination of a contract I can do it within the time it takes to say on the phone 'Consider us separated.' or the time it takes to send an email. I don't need to work out how I can stay connected; quite simply the first thing is never use the same company for more than one connection (mobile phone / broadband/ TV internet / security). It is tricky because there are only four telephone network providers in the UK but it can be done. I have two accounts that use one of the four telephone service providers. I pay two businesses that use the same network. so I cannot be 'locked in' to an agreement or contract as might other people find themselves.
How can we take control then? How can we be proactive or jump the gun or get a headstart? We can't really. We can only make contingency plans wherever we can. I read that fugitives from justice sometimes keep a packed bag of clothes and essentials (passport and money) by the door of an escape route in case they are raided. Nice people used to have 'speed-dial' on their phones - is that still a thing? As a keen cyclist, I have three working bicycles I can use without applying any tools at all to them and two donor bicycles. Why? in case one gets a puncture I need to be somewhere and I am over the drink-drive limit. It won't be a surprise to you if I tell you that I never cycle anywhere outside of my village without a spare inner tube and pump (spoons and spanner too). During the Covid 19 lockdown I could not get a replacement rear wheel - I have six now.
I have such a financial safety margin that the latest budget announcements just made me say, 'So, live with it!' If people choose to give in to their desires for optional and discretionary goods, then you give in to someone else's determinations so 'Live with it? No, live with yourselves! You made it so for yourself!'
When I say financial safety margin I am not talking about wealth or savings, I am talking about financial commitments that I have not subscribed to because I have spotted an alternative way of doing things.
Long ago, while still in primary school I recognised that the fastest way to solve a problem is to focus on the problem before focusing on the solution. Sounds about right doesn't it? Except it isn't the right way to do things if you expect a series of problems to arise within a specific field of activity, then you have to go to college or read a book or something beforehand. The first part of this, find the problem before learning the solution may seem a bit wobbly in thinking, because it helps to know where the stop-cock is when you get a water leak, instead of searching for it by moving junk or furniture around. Obviously, on the first day of moving into a property we locate the stopcock, don't we?(rental people might not do this as a matter of course because the water is already on - look for it). That is a contingency plan that negates having to look for it in a later panic. While it is not a great analogy, for quickly solving problems, the stopcock works sufficiently well for me. Stop the problem and then get the DIY book out to learn specifically how to fix the leak is faster than reading a whole DIY book and wait for a leak or a tile to fall off the roof or something. This, I realise, is plainly NOT acting proactively or jumping the gun or getting a headstart. No, our attention, focus and energy should be spent doing something else rather than reading a book and waiting for an problematic event that matches our knowledge. I suggest searching for an event in the future that may need a detailed understanding of the nature of that event.
A worse case scenario might be armed conflict in the house next door (we are safe if it is in the next street and we can grab our escape bags before they come and get us). Or, if there are aerial attacks we will find the supply of fuel particularly difficult. I am not suggesting stock-piling anything at all not even toilet paper.
(I have just now wasted time putting my boots on to hang my hoodie out to dry when it has already dried in the bathroom by the open window).
Nobody is about to invade the UK (where I live), with people, so it won't be the next street or next door that is isolated from the rest of us. We will all within a geographical or technological region suffer alike. COOP and Marks & Spencers customers have recently had their details hacked including personal details. Personal details, I might add, that the businesses never actually needed in order to do their core activities; everything else is 'Added services'.
Perhaps then, the last especially relevant as an obvious facet, we should create skeleton outlays of future work, if they are to be written, in case a mode of communication is broken. For many, this is their mobile phone as their sole source of digital communication. If lightning hits the right signal relay tower (building) they will be in a high-use log-jam of disconnection, perhaps on the day an assignment, essay or report is due if they work from home (they should have a laptop at least).
I have always be bemused that people think it is funny or ironic when they come across the skit of someone writing a list of 'Things to do Urgent', and at the top of the list is 'Make a list'. That much is the minimum we need to do. If I have a list of things to gather before leaving my house when there is an encompassing flood, I would at least know what to look for before I leave.