Man-Hours

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Yes, I’m still doing the reading myself back through old science fiction, but post probably tomorrow. I’m JUST starting to function so things will be a little off schedule.

And speaking of old science fiction, I keep remembering an old-science fiction where the unit the dollar was based on was the “man-hour”, ie. how much work a man could do in an hour.

This tied in in my brain — forgive me, I’ve been feverish for the last few days — with the fact that every year I seem to get busier. And I have a never ending list of things that I MUST do this year.

I’m not alone, either. Most people are… hustling. They have the thing that do that brings them their main money, the secondary thing they do for money, the third thing they’re trying to learn to upgrade thing one and thing two.

I’m not talking about having multiple jobs because one job doesn’t pay enough. That is a problem caused by illegal labor and forbidding teens from working and a bunch of other things, including stupid MBA tricks.

No, what I’m talking about is the people in my circles — who are, almost to the last person, smart, self-actuated, hard working — and who get busier and busier every year, even those of us reaching retirement age.

It finally clicked. It’s not a bad thing. It’s that our man-hours are increasing in value.

Let me explain, take me … 20 years ago. There was one thing I could do. I could write books and submit them. The books would then sell or not sell. I could optimize my value per hour by writing to the house. I.e. since I was in Baen, there was a certain type of book they’d accept. Same for the mystery publisher, for that matter.

I’m not even talking about matter or content, though there was some of that. There is a touch-feel to the books that will sell and where. But more importantly, if I had an idea that could be sufficiently told in 20k words, I couldn’t sell that. Heck, I couldn’t sell 40k words or 60k words. It had to be 80k words or nothing. And the same thing for the current monster which will weigh in at 250k words. I can already imagine the “no. It’s too long.”

So– So I wrote what I could, and put up with it.

Nowadays not only can I write and market whatever crosses my mind, but there’s a million things I can do to make them sell better. From learning publicity, to improving covers, to better typesetting.

You’ll say I outsourced that to others and you’d be right, but that also reduced how much I was worth to me. I now can make things sell better, goose them with a little extra time/effort.

The same with other side things. I’d like to start a podcast (eventually he’ll remove the boxes from my audio booth. After taxes, likely. Right now I don’t have a voice anyway) that is a reading, a talk, sometimes interviews with my friends, etc. I’d like to do short animated movies (I have been playing with animation programs) which I think can exponentially work to promote the books. Or at least some of the books.

And needless to say I want to write. I want to write all the things that I couldn’t write for trad pub.

The point is that every hour can be filled with activities that will certainly pay at least some, and probably/possibly a lot. The potential man-hour is near endless. And not just for me. I’m using my own situation, because it’s easier, but I think each of you could give the examples.

Two conclusions from this:

The first is What a time to be alive!

If they’re right and you live longer when you’re involved and interested? I’m gonna live forever. (Now, can we work on that forever not being taken up with hacking a lung?)

The second is… If you’re one of mine, one of the people who feel pathologically obligated to maximize your value and effort in the world (born owing money) you have to learn to take breaks. You have to learn to pace yourself. And you have to carve out time when you’re not “on”.

I say this as someone who sucks at this. I am aware the fact I forget to take time off leads to my getting sick, which leads to my falling behind, which leads to my forgetting to take time off as I’m catching up, which leads….

I told Dan the other day my happiest time in recent years was a mini vacation we took in September. We spent two hours walking around a car museum, and in my head this keeps shining like a golden moment. Oh, what fun we had!

This is stupid. I mean the fact we don’t have more of these times. Hence the serious talk on how we need to do a weekend every two months or so, so that we decompress.

Because yes, our man-hours are more valuable in potentia than ever, but the body is still mortal and made of flesh, and the d*mn thing just gives out unexpectedly. Particularly if you’re over sixty.

So, rejoice in your potential, but make time when you say “yes taking time off costs me money, but I’m worth it” and take a break now and then.

I will tell you this is not how I thought it would be in my sixth decade.

And I’m very glad it is.

135 thoughts on “Man-Hours”

  1. started feeling ill Monday. just a bit of sore throat, but later that evening it was full on headcold and stomach/intestinal issues and I got just a hour sleep at a stretch, at best. Stayed home, felt near human by 8am, and even considered going in for a half day, but the urge to sleep hit again, and I got maybe 3 hours nap. Any way. Got a lot I need to do, a lot I want to do, and the things I must do. I got nothing I’d planned to do over winter, done. Well, I sorta wanted a small car, and the truck decided to lunch its 4 year old transmission (with its 3 year warranty 1 year gone), so that happened rather fast. Add fix a transmission to the list of things I need to do (I have the old “bad” one I can rebuild myself). Life is what happens when you have other plans.

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    1. Yeah, I have to get a joint bolt fixed on my tractor. It apparently blew the seals and pees hydraulic fluid at a quart an hour. Too expensive and messy to not get fixed.

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      2. The list of things left over from last year (finish the patio/walkway, remove slash from trees already taken town, deal with too much firewood) is bad enough, but the additional fun and games from our monster February snowstorm (and knock-on effects, plus Murphy’s Revenge) is bad. Lately, I’ve been dealing with the myriad downed branches, separating the usable firewood (a lot!) from the small stuff, and getting the latter into burn piles. Still have to get my part of the new shop/barn chimney, and have to clean up the crud from when the dog kennel collapsed. Have to see what’s salvageable and what has to be bought.

        Then there’s the stuff we want to get done, like residing 3 outbuildings.

        Some of it will get done. Not sure how much.

        Note to self: get the studded snows off the backup Subaru. They’re not road-legal now.

        Whee.

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        1. Downed trees. Bleah. Yeah, I have enough to keep me in firewood for the next 5 years and then some. Probably should cut, split, and bundle a few cords worth and put them up for sale to the campers coming through.

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          1. The old shop stove went through wood like a Lib through other people’s money, but could not throttle down. Replaced it about 10 years ago; more efficient stove, but peak output is rather less. As a result, with the usual winter usage, I’m going through less than a cord of wood a year. (No wood stove in the house. Propane, for better or worse [Glares at Murphy].) With what I have split and old rounds that need it, I’m good for wood for 10-15 years.

            I really need to find a home for the remnants of the trees we took down. I need to find a firewood donation program. One or more seem to exist, or did. Have to try some contacts I found. (The trees are medium huge; around 3.5′ at the base. My tractor will lift an 8′ log about 18″ in diameter, but after that, nope.)

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            1. IIRC most states now have local firewood only laws in place to reduce/slow the spread of invasive species. Personally, I think it’s more of a scam to force people to buy firewood in state rather than transport it from a cheaper source, as those laws can’t stop the spread of an invasive species that is more competitive than native ones or have no natural enemies.

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              1. In Flyover County, the preferred firewoods are pine and juniper. Lodgepole is preferred, but was logged extensively for wooden box shook in the first half of the 20th century. Stands are around, but you’re far more likely to see Ponderosa (like what we have–in abundance) or Sugar (seems to be in some of the higher terrain).

                I like to burn juniper, but hate splitting it. OTOH, I got all the mature trees years ago. Our side of the river valley is a bit too cool for juniper to thrive, where on the other side, the south-facing slopes have juniper crowding out the pine.

                The purists will say “why don’t you use oak?”. Nearest oak stands are 60 road miles away on the other side of the Cascades, and that’s where the market is. They’ll use Douglas Fir as a cheaper alternative, but that’s fairly rare on our side of the mountains.

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      1. The worst thing for me is an inability to get sleep. I did only wake 3 times last night, but getting back to sleep took too long. Cole liked it, he got more and longer sessions of scritches.

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  2. I’ve been given a bit of foreshadowing that I may need to find another job soon. I need to do some brainstorming.

    My needs are minimal, I set up my life that way on purpose. I have no debt, and I’m living a good chunk of my dream. I don’t want things to change.

    I suppose change is inevitable, and I know I won’t be hit nearly as hard by it as most people would be. In the meantime I’ll go out at dawn, check on the chicks, let the chickens out and wander my garden, looking for any sign of life.

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    1. Same deal for me. I expect my current job to evaporate sometime between October and December of this year. Whether I choose to retire or look for another job is still up in the air. I don’t really need it financially, but there are benefits to my physical and mental health to keep working, even if only part time.

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      1. I’ve told my spouse that if I retired or won a FU lotto, I’d have to invent a “job” that would keep me sharp, out of the house, and off the honey-do list tasks for at least 35-40 hours a week. The good thing is that all my hobbies would fall into that category.

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        1. I retired (so to speak–my engineering job went to SE Asia along with the rest of the Silicon Valley semiconductor industry) in 2002. We moved to rural Oregon in ’03 and life has been pretty busy. I’ve built three outbuildings from scratch, done various upgrades in the house and shop and outside, and the list stays long enough.

          I’ve pretty much decided that Saturday is going to be a light work day. Late afternoon, $SPOUSE and I build a pizza from scratch. Sunday is a rest day unless something really has to get done. Haven’t had much time to do hobby work, but I try to get a bit of time when practical. This was complicated by storm damage, making the shop’s wood stove unusable. I have a bit to do before I can call a contractor in to do the portion that I’m not willing to do. (Steep Metal roofs and I don’t get along.)

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          1. Was cleaning off my father’s home’s roof with a pressure washer. Only a 15-degree pitch, but the wet and mold made was like ice and I almost took an unplanned 2-story drop. Body harness, proper length and weight safety line, and good anchor points are a must.

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            1. None of which I have, nor want. I’ve done 5 roofs, ranging from the house at 2.5 in 12 pitch to 6 in 10 for my wife’s shop. The spookiest was the 5 in 12 pumphouse; it’s only 8 x 12, but one side could not have scaffolding (major trench in the way), and there was very little room to do it. Most of that side was done butt-upwards.

              The barn roof’s lowest portion is 14′ up, 5 in 12, and metal. When the chimney was first installed (we’ll redact everything I had to say about the installation the previous owner had done), I had the neighbor GC do the work.

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              1. s/6 in 10/6 in 12

                The garden shed has the same footprint* as the pumphouse, but that one was a shed roof, with lockseam. Far easier to install than shingles.

                ((*)) Much of the same framing. Why do a new drawing from scratch? Qcad FTW.

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    2. I deliberately chose the “you will no longer have a job past Sept 30” thing, and now, a bit more than a month in, I’m trying not to freak out at the idea Change may be inevitable, but no less scary for all that.

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  3. Just a question: who is this mystery publisher? A few of us on ALH are working an epistolary, and if we think it may be worth our time… I mean, man hours, where could we send it without an agent? If it’s still active that is.

    The idea of making little movies for book previews is a good idea. I’ve seen a few of those AI made fake movie trailers, is that what you’re talking about? Seems to me it would take a lot of work, and money to get the programs needed to do the job.

    Funny thing about being over sixty, you don’t even have to be doing heavy work to get tired for the rest of the day after doing something.

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  5. What! I’m ever so slightly older than Our Dear Sarah so in my 7th decade?

    Good grief no wonder I feel like an old lady.

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    1. Your first decade is invisible. If you’re 12 yo, technically you’re into your 2nd decade, but we usually look at the number 1.

      If you’re sixty, you’re into your 7th decade.

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        1. My knees hurt when I was still in my 6th. Got the worst one fixed* last year, but the 70 year warranty on the other knee expired a few years back.

          ((*)) For values of fixed. Don’t want nor (currently) need a replacement, but the surgeon did a good job fixing what he could.

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        2. Other than my auto immune being more screwed up than normal, “old” hasn’t got to me yet.
          Dad says old is at 80. I’m hoping I’m the same way.

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          1. Yes. If it wasn’t for the stroke I had in my 6th decade, my MS, and my blood cancer, I’d be running rings around all you whippersnappers!

            But I’ll settle for walking carefully along with my trekking poles.

            At my age I could break a hip!

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          1. Oops.

            Pretty sure I put a ‘.’ in there (10.0).

            Must have disappeared. Whistles innocently.

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  7. I have long practiced the biblical sabbath. Many believe the sabbath is a religious observation but it really is about the design of humans. We function best when our bodies and minds get sufficient rest. So setting aside one day to rest, no work, greatly increases our productivity the remaining six. You can use the day for God but also for family and enjoying the world around you!

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    1. Indeed if the Author and Creator of all that is felt He should rest 1 in 7 then it is just sheer hubris of we mortals to think we can make do with less.

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        1. Well, God has certainly complained about humans *not* taking the days (or years) of rest, if you look at the Old Testament. The Babylonian Exile specifically was held up as “you didn’t let your fields lie fallow, so they’ll lie fallow while you’re captive in another land.”

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    2. If I somehow mess up Sunday, is that

      …

      Sabbath-tage

      ?

      (hits “play” on Beastie Boys, cranks it)

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  8. I hope your car museum memories are like to mine. The family had headed out for a Saturday trip, but it was raining persistently, which would have put a HUGE damper on the original plans. However, we had gone by a little car museum I had always intended to check out. This was serendipity; the museum was larger than I realized, and we had decided to stop on the perfect day. The owner was spending time there that day, and observed my kids respectfully checking out the displays, reading the signs, and (emulating me) laying on the floor to look UNDER some of the vehicles. He overheard me discussing the one engine display with my wife, and her accurately commenting on the design. So he walked up and complimented me on my family, and how pleased he was that my two sons were taking such an excellent appreciation of it. And proceeded to regale us with some stories of how he had come in possession of some of the cars, and some adventures he and his wife had with them. And then asked us to sit in his million dollar plus Duesenberg so he could take our picture. NOT something that happens everyday. That will ALWAYS be a golden memory in my mind.

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  9. So, I excercised my magic power this morning making the stock market go up by my selling it. Sigh.

    The basis trade (speculating on the difference between spot and future treasury rates) is blowing up That’s a multi trillion dollar problem. The carry trade (speculating on the difference between e.g., US and Japanese interest rates) is blowing up. That’s another multi trillion dollar problem. China is dumping US treasuries to shore up their liquidity position and stave off a total melt down, which is contributing to the above. Situation excellent, I am attacking.

    we’re in a world historical period right now. It’s gonna be a wild ride. Risk is high, very high, rewards even more so. Pray if that’s your thing. Buckle up as much as you can.

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    1. Is it possible part of the reason for the Treasury sales is to crash our economy? That used to be a standard TV plot, but I could understand a, “If we go, you go,” attempt.

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      1. one narrative is that China is selling treasuries to crash the economy, so yes. Another narrative is that China is selling treasuries to shore up a faltering economy and provide money to the “home team” to stop the rout in Chinese stocks. That’s what I think, along with noise in the repo markets as the carry trade and basis trade get hammered by all the noise.

        I really ought to finish that money article i promised and didn’t deliver. It’s sitting there with the first three paragraphs mocking me.

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        1. A third thing to note is that if China and the US go to war, the treasuries can be seized as enemy assets.

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      2. If the USA has an economic crash, China is utterly wrecked.

        Without some other problem to keep us busy, we generally will do better in any such “wreck” situation. Our leaders get may deposed, either voted out or impeached. Theirs get dead/missing.

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          1. China has long had all its political philosophy Utopian, with the firm belief that there was some rule by which you could make everyone good. Even the Legalists thought their harsh laws would result, not in ferocious punishment, but in people being too afraid to break the law.

            That China has survived must mean that the actual officials can work around their theory.

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    2. Oh, you have my luck!
      Dan has genuine stock market luck. Since I don’t I encouraged him not to invest most of our lives. Then at 50 we found out he’s magical.
      Seriously, he comes from a long line of financiers and appears to have a sixth sense. younger son too. I suspect older son is like me.
      It goes with being a mathematical idiot-savant.

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      1. I shouldn’t complain since I’ve consistently made money over 40 years and not many people can say that. Still, the first move is always against me since I tend to be too damned early. It’s so annoying. I’ll never make a day trader, which is probably a really good thing.

        nothing has actually changed since last week. It’s still a very expensive market with faltering earnings in a high inflation environment with prices below the short and long term moving averages, every one of those things has been reliably negative for the last 100+ years.

        still, it’s so bloody annoying. I’m going to see how this goes and fade it one more time. Bet I can make it go up again.

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        1. My spouse seems to have developed a late knack for it. He was also early and regrets not waiting just a bit longer to buy. But since the restaurant is still losing money (it’s only been open since January; it loses less money every month), we’re not in the market for the moment.

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        2. I have made steady gains over the last 20+ years. Not “wealthy”, but no longer poor/broke with potential for secure modest retirement.

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      1. Er.

        I just wish our left would quit extolling the virtues of violence. But if the alternative is driving it underground, I’ll take it.

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      1. Probably a bump. Big reverse days like this tend to happen during bear markets. Someone published a chart of the biggest one day gains, most during big bear markets. It’s usually short covering. It could be the end though. Bounced of long term resistance and all that technical stuff.

        I’m fading it anyway, because the reasons are still in place — expensive markets, inflation, etc., — but see the above on my magic ability to move the market.

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  10. If your brain is going “but but but … I could be making so much money during the time I’m resting!” then think of it as an investment. You could be making some money during the time you’re resting, but if you don’t rest, soon your body will start breaking down (insert old joke “_____ is nature’s way of telling you to slow down” with your “favorite” issue filling in the blank: pneumonia, asthma… I’ve even seen “a sucking chest wound is nature’s way of telling you to slow down” from someone who was probably military or first responder, given the gallows humor that they liked). So consider that opportunity cost of resting as money invested into your future earning potential.

    If your brain is more mechanically minded than financially minded and it’s efficiency you care about (“I could be getting so much more work done instead of taking this break”) then think of it as necessary maintenance. Your body is a finely-tuned machine that needs periodic breaks for maintenance, otherwise it will start to break down in first subtle, then increasingly-less-subtle, ways. Ignoring maintenance will degrade efficiency, so the most efficient long-term strategy is to take the maintenance periods recommended by the designer (one day in seven, as mentioned upthread).

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    1. The blackest “slow down” entry I heard was “Death”. [Wonders if KW is still alive. Talk about burning a candle at both ends…]

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    2. “A sucking chest wound means it is time to slow down.”

      That is so Army it should be rendered in Olive Drab paint.

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      1. Probably much pithier when said in the original Latin by some two-enlistment “First Spear” Senior Centurion.

        (Legion enlistments were for 16 years, later 20.)

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      2. First heard a variation from an Aussi major who was up here on a training exchange. “A sucking chest wound is nature’s way of saying that your personal camouflage isn’t up to snuff” — hear this in your head with a deep Australian accent

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  11. Sheepishly pulls up scan of Startling Stories July 1950 to read “The City at World’s End” by Edmond Hamilton. Yes I probably read it a few years back but don’t remember. I did cheat and skimmed over a review of it, and it seems kind of familiar, but the thing with old pulp stories is that the elements can get used over and over in newer stories and become tropes.

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  12. It’ been getting busier and busier here, but I realized my main problem is taking on more and more until everything crashes and I turn into a rotten lemon, bitter with the stink of acetone.

    So I’m saying “NO” to a lot of people this year so I don’t totally burn out. This includes the volunteering and tilting at windmills that I’ve done over the last 3 decades.

    Since we moved into a new place a few years ago, I’ve neglected my hobbies and creative outlets that help restore me. So I’m setting aside time for those.

    I’ve realized there are somethings I can’t count on being there for “retirement”, I need to do them now, since there will be no retirement in “interesting times”.

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    1. i resemble that statement, have had that problem a bit more than i like of late, is kinda frustrating, even more so as my skill has increased to quite proficient levels while having to work for people who just dont care and dont strive for even some shred of what used to be a standard.

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    2. Mom has been retired for 28 years. Getting her to say “no” to the various Shrine/Masonic groups she belongs to is a problem. Comes down to “if she doesn’t do something, something doesn’t get done” and the groups start shutting down. Guess those somethings are just going to not get done, and the groups shutdown. We’ve (all 3 of us daughters) have been telling her she needs to learn how to say “No”. She’s 90. She never had any problems telling us “No”. (Or I’d had my horse!)

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  14. always busy,

    and now, always tired too, cant keep up, in this sixth decade, never looked at it like that before.

    illegal immigrants do screw up the pay scale.

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      1. definitely, have seen it since that program began, had a friend who had to train their replacement at xzerox years ago, total BS, get rid of all of em.

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  15. I dealt with man-hours during my construction career. The theoretical amount was used to determine labor costs to accomplish a completed project. The more productive man hours, the less amount spent on labor, and an increase in profits. Companies, or individuals, with the most experience, and with the most efficient learned methods, could always out perform those with less human talent. Those with most skills had more time to get more done, and the most time to do something other than work. Call it a reward for the wisdom gained during experience.

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    1. “the most experience, and with the most efficient learned methods, could always out perform those with less human talent.“

      –

      This is how mechanics make the best money. Mechanics charge based off of what a specific book says the hours a specific job should take times the shop hourly rate. The better efficient experienced good mechanics make more money by beating the book hours, and not having the job come back because the repair did not hold. Project programmers can do the same. Problem with project programming is fully defining the project to when it is done and preventing project creep so the project never gets done, but only get paid the bid hours. (Or why I said “No Thank you”, translation “Hell No” to project work when I retired from my last job. Willing to take work, but hourly rate. If client said “meant this, not that”, and it would happen, worked there 12 years, it always happened, hourly paid would get paid for hours changing code, again. Gee, never got called to do more coding.)

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    2. Ricardo’s Law of Comparative Advantage.

      If John Doe is better at A than B, and Richard Roe at B than A, the way to maximize value is to have Doe concentrate on A and Roe on B, even if Doe is better at both A and B than Roe is.

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      1. Microeconomics versus Macroeconomics.

        What you stated does not scale up to large countries. Nations that only do one thing, or just a few, are very fragile and vulnerable, as are many of their people. They handle change, and adversity, quite poorly.

        Because humans are all different, and nations, thus, are not homogeneous.

        This annoys greatly many classic economists, especially those fond of “free trade”.

        We quickly get back to Heinlein’s quip:

        “Specialization is for insects.”

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        2. Macro is what economists angling to be court priests came up with so they could pretend to still be economists while denying every aspect of the subject.

          It is to be spat upon, not lauded.

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      2. Apparently, you folks have to put up with me a bit longer than I was thinking.

        Doc got all the cancer out. I get to stick around.

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        4. Fantastic News.

          We don’t know about hubby yet. His second PSA test is in a week or so, and next visit with oncologist is in two weeks. Praying it goes down, prefer down to zero, but any drop will be good too (already down to 0.04 from high of 6 before surgery).

          BIL has had first of two chemo sessions after his cancer surgery. Scan didn’t see any sign of cancer after surgery, which is why the limited chemo sessions.

          BIL’s cancer is more aggressive than hubby’s.

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  16. I’ve been suffering from not enough time to write. So, the last two weeks we’ve tried out have a housekeeper in three days a week to clean/ do laundry/ prepare food ahead etc, etc. It appears to be going well. I finished up my latest book I hadn’t expected to wrap up until June. My writing will more than pay for the help and I enjoy writing – stains praying laundry and chopping vegetables not nearly as much. If you write take a hard look at what increasing your output would cover in things like household chores and yard work. Unless you really ENJOY mowing the lawn.

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    1. I’ve suffered WAY up from not enough man hours. Once I finish unpacking, I work more steadily.
      We outsourced the lawn from day one. It’s almost an acre, and Dan can’t do it.

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      1. Buy an old fairway mower. Six to eight foot cut, you’ll be done your acre in an hour. IF you have someone not afraid to wrench on it.

        My old Ransoms machine has cut my 3 acres for 20-ish years now, and it was old and busted when I bought it. Full disclosure, I have replaced a few things over the years, mostly deck rollers, deck wheels etc. A hydraulic hose one time. Also I had to weld up a broken frame panel (like completely re-weld it because it was broken into 3 pieces), which meant pretty much taking the whole thing apart.

        But apart from all that, it’s been no trouble a ‘tall. ~:D

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  17. This post made me want to shout “Hell yeah!”

    I’m so completely exposed and unbuckled it’s funny. It’s such a glorious age, a time of opportunity where hard work of the proper kind, diligence, bravery, and some luck will yield amazing benefits. And offer a terrific adventure in my mid-60s (I’m 65, turned so last December).

    It’s a time where all of our creative outlets can be used–writing, verbal storytelling via podcasts and various and sundry video types and platforms, drawing, painting, poetry! ALL of it is needed, and has a platform.

    I’m house and animal sitting for family–one chihuahua and four cats–while they go on a Viking cruise from Prague to Berlin for a couple of weeks. Everything in me wants to WORK–writing, videos, all the things. This is a time for play, and adventure, and revisiting places I grew up in–they live a few scant miles from where I grew up. I haven’t put my feet in salt water in years.

    Even on the days where I’m anxious, which is much of the time, I’m so optimistic about things I can’t even tell you. The time for creatives/odds is now. Praise Himself.

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    1. The time for creatives/odds is now. Praise Himself.

      I just KNEW my time was here when gnome doctor started popping up everywhere.

      First time in my life I ever was ahead of a trend!

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  18. I don’t think I encountered the “man-hour” currency, but I do recall in one part of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War that the UN had forced the planet onto a currency based on thousands of calories, the KCal (or something very close to that). But, since it was the 1970s, and since Haldeman is no dummy, the characters newly-arrived to this time instantly realize that it’s a sham. A thousand calories of bread does not have the same value as a thousand calories of steak, I think was the example used. And the system was, therefore, a right mess.

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    1. I read a story that used energy as currency. Kilowatt-hours were small change, megawatt-hours were the equivalent of about $20, big investments were denominated in therms.

      Of course, not all energy is of equal value either. A cubic meter of rock at room temperature holds far more than a KWH of energy, but it’s not in a usable form.

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    2. There was a short story called “Wasted on the Young” written around 1970-ish. I don’t remember the author; IIRC it was in one of the Galaxy Reader anthologies. Time was currency, and you got unlimited “credit” until age thirty. Then you had to work it off.

      The protagonist had run up a 300-year bill in his self-indulgent youth, and the story consisted of his bragging to an older acquaintance about how much better his life had been than the other’s more-frugal one, and what a chump the acquaintance was for not having used Protag’s “brilliant” plan to cheat the system.

      On the evening before his 30th birthday, he bought a pill of some exotic Recreational Pharmaceutical (it cost 5 hours) and headed out to sea in his deliberately low-on-fuel flying car.

      Needless to say…

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  19. Getting sorta old has been a journey of discovery.

    Discovering that weights / loads / jobs that I remember doing easily, all day, now are either impossible, or they wear me out in 30 minutes.

    Discovering that the keys that I put on the table by the door were put there last week, and that they are now hanging on the hook in the kitchen, where they were supposed to be.

    Discovering that 20% of my phone contacts are for friends who have died, but whom I do not want to forget.

    Thanks to Herself, and everyone here for making an interesting and generally safe place to visit and vent.

    John in Indy

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    1. Learning that I must have a specific spot for every day items rather than leaving them wherever, or the items “get lost”. Started with the “where did mom leave her glasses this time?” No, glasses were not on me (once or twice it was because a certain cat moved them, doesn’t help). Now it is the car keys, wallet, purse, and phone (at least the cat can’t make off with the latter 3). The phone we can call.

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      2. I became addicted to checklists long ago (a useful infatuation with NASA and SAC). To make sure you don’t forget anything. It started when I would go down to my parent’s house (that I kept up after they passed). Shutting the house down on leaving. Is the coffeepot off and unplugged? Nothing to spoil in the fridge? Temperature tuned down and water heater shut off? Etc. All checked and verified. Better than worrying for a month or more in winter.

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        1. “addicted to checklists“

          –

          Oh definitely. At work as a programmer and developer. At home, any trip from loading the RV, to car or backpack tent camping, and now for our retirement trips. Lists of lists. The only time I get into trouble now is when I think “I won’t need that!” Guarantied to be needed. Doesn’t have to be a very big, or critical, item to be something missed, a lot. Our lists are so extensive that our thought is “well if we forgot it, we can pick it up at our destination”. Um, no. Not always. Or “guess we didn’t need it very bad”. <– Nope. Never true.

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  21. I’m having so much “fun” learning everything else around writing indie, which makes me wish that I had an easy kit to handle the big things.

    I also know that writing indie has let me write stories that most publishers and agents won’t touch. (My characters are heterosexual and sane. And happy! And not riddled with guilt or issues!)

    And that there are so many things I can look at, find, and explore.

    I think the next big revolution is going to be the toolsets to make organizing and finding this information easier. And the sooner, the better.

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  22. <sigh> I just discovered that I’ve spent the last 4 days in my stenography course doing something ENTIRELY wrong. So now I have to start over on the particular lesson, unlearn the wrong thing, and relearn it the right way. I keep telling myself, “It’s been a long time since you learned something entirely new, and you’ve only been at this 3 and a half weeks (with some dinking around with it in past years, but still).”

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  24. Pingback: Instapundit » Blog Archive » THE ONLY REAL WEALTH IS HUMANS: Man-Hours.

  25. So randomly, my job has a task manager that tracks time per task (if you remember to hit the little timer button.)

    I just finished a task that took 44 hours of work. This is currently my record, though I get one next week that may take as long, since we’ve upped the number of images per person, and this is another youth sports league. (Thank *goodness* we’ve talked them out of the all-league photo. That was a single image whose construction took me over 10 hours, because the auto-creation ones are not good enough to compete yet, even on the big teams. And on the little teams, they look awful.)

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  26. I heard about the Hudson helicopter crash, and thought “Guys, it’s time to politically profit from an aviation accident, before we even know what happened.”

    1. Happened today.

    2. There is video, which I have not seen.

    3. The vehicle was not made by Boeing, so we cannot blame Boeing.

    4. With that model, it seems like there is a chance it was made many years ago, in Canada. Probably cannot have anything to do with covid related manufacturing issues.

    5. AP talked a bit about aviation safety. This is reasonable if we want to know what happened to our maintenance cultures and stuff, and are not blowing statistically normal incidents out of proportions. This is less reasonable if they are trying to imply that everything in the world is all federal government, all the time.

    6. Schmuer had a comment that could be appropriate, or it could be bad if I read my dislike of him into it.

    7. Without seeing the video, and without being a competent expert, I cannot understand what happened from data so preliminary. Video, in particular should have details more definitive than what I know. Which is that the bird looks like it was missing its tail, which is consistent with some of the testimony about parts falling off. Which could be a failure in the structure of the tail. Or it could be something more energetic involving some of the rotating mechanics. All of these things can fail. In theory, a ‘good’ maintenance program catches problems before they develop into failures. In practice, maintenance is hard.

    Aviation maintenance is a hard challenge, and we would like to prevent all accidents. Engineers have been trying for the true zero accident rate for over a hundred years, and have not found the secret formula yet.

    Helicopters are reputed to be fairly challenging maintenance wise.

    This has been my TED talk, where I demonstrate that I am an overconfident jerk, thanks for listening.

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    1. I saw one video that looked like the same helicopter doing a very aggressive pullout of a very steep dive, makes me wonder if the pilot was showing off and somehow managed to either break the tailboom off, or do something to cause a rotor blade to hit the tailboom.

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    2. I did see the video, for my sins. It showed a blade hitting the water, a rather large blade. Then the body of the helicopter tumbling out of the sky into the water. Horrifying

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  27. I have now read three books in two days. I had forgotten City At World’s End, except for Varn Allen’s name. I suspect it hit me differently the first time. Now it strikes me as being spare and beautiful writing. And it struck me at once how Hamilton tells us Kenniston has lost his girlfriend almost from the moment we meet her.

    I wonder if his city was influenced by the domed cities in After World’s Collide.

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