Chillax, as my boys say. This is only tangentially about quantum physics.
Time really is relative.
When you are the general public waiting on someone in a position to act during a catastrophe -- like the BP oil spill - time and the parties involved seem to move like frozen molasses.
When you are a parent, an entire year, or decade, or lifetime can go by at Gaussian blur speed.
When you work for a private corporation and are waiting for people to respond to internal deadlines, you can often count multiple eternities between cricket chirps, and then hold your breath for another year as you wait for delivery of the actual deliverables or the solution to a problem.
There are days that seem to pass in a moment, and others that drag on interminably. Occasionally, when we make an out-loud reference to our day's odometer reading, we find that others may be experiencing the same odometer reading as well. How does that happen?
Einstein called this time dilation. (Indulge me for a moment as I share the technical explanation, then I'll dumb it down blonde Aggie style so the rest of us can understand.)
Official technical/fancy explanation: Time dilation can arise from (1) relative velocity of motion between the observers, and (2) difference in their distance from gravitational mass.
Rough translation: time speeds up or slows down depending on how fast one thing is moving relative to something else.
So, when some of us are moving at light speed trying to meet a particular deadline and your molasses ass is barely creeping along, we're going to perceive the approach of the impending deadline a little differently than you are, and then we're going to help you feel it. We will also eventually put as much distance as possible between ourselves and the black hole of your worthlessness so that we're not sucked into the vortex that will become the end of your career/livelihood/existence, if we have anything to do with it.
In other words, if you're not moving quickly enough to meet the demand, beat the deadline, minimize the disaster, hasten the response, clean up the mess, lead the team to the finish line, stop stalling and obfuscating and GET OUT OF THE WAY AND LET SOMEONE COMPETENT TAKE CARE OF IT.
Are you listening, BP? MMS? Politicians? Wall Street execs? Bankers? Corporate Titans?
The rest of us can not be your janitors forever.
shortstuff, I know what you mean about the "time speeds up the older you get" thing. My 12-y-o seems to think his (school) days drag by. Mine truly seem to be zooming by at the 4:1 ratio since I'm about 4 times his age! Or something like that. (Math is HARD when you're a blonde Aggie.)
Why is it that there's never enough time to formulate a REAL plan before we venture headlong into something, but there's always enough time (or so they seem to think for my team) at the 11th hour to have us do it over again, and still meet the deadline?
Measure twice, cut once. Read twice, then hit send. Think twice before acting.
I'm not sure which is worse: ready, fire, aim or paralysis in decision making.
Neither seem to serve us well.
"time speeds up or slows down depending upon how fast one thing is moving relative to something else."
And can someone please explain to me how it is that time speeds up the older you get? I know that the days and years were much longer many, many (many) years ago but now they are just zipping by. I'm sure it's not just me. The earth's orbit around the sun must have been set to "ZOOM".
*smile*
As for BP, it might have taken them a little longer in the beginning to have had an emergency scenario plan in place, but I'm betting that the original cost would have been dwarfed by what they will have to spend now to fix their mistakes from their lack of planning.
True, I speak in education. Let's say we have a kid that has gotten in trouble a lot. Simply sending them to ISS is a perfectly reasonably band-aid. What usually happens though is that their case is forgotten and they are sent back to class the next day. The situation is never really dealt with.
as a wise man once said...
"It's astounding, time is fleeting. Madness takes it's toll...but listen closely, not for very much longer. I've got to keep control"
There are those occasions when a "quick and dirty" solution is the most expedient way to solve a problem. But you must recognize, "bookmark" and come back to those for additional attention when you have time. The trick is to identify those problems that have a real urgency to necessitate a fast response as opposed to those for which we have the time to do a real analysis and find a real solution. But, don't ever forget to come back to those problems that you hose to band-aid. They will bite you in the ass every time.
If you are so rushed that you do not have the time to do it twice, do it right.
It is not "human nature", it is profit making the only logic guiding the corporations. If the explanation was to be "human nature" then how come some do not care for anything but profits and yet others are concerned with matters of safety? Perhaps those concerned with safety are not human? When profit making is the fundamental logic, then it will guide decisions.
I hear you, loud and clear. A couple of my bosses preferred expedient decisions. Years after those decisions were made, I found myself struggling with those decisions in entirely different organizations. It must be human nature to want what seems to be easiest, quickest.
When those poor decisions come back to bite us, it's unlikely the original decision-maker is anywhere to be found -- promoted for their leadership skills, no doubt.
I think you lost BP et al at obfuscating. Excellent analogy though. My biggest challenge is the reverse. I am always on the lookout for well thought solutions. My last boss didn't like me because I am thoughtful and methodical. I want to take the time to come up with solutions that would be lasting. She wanted to rush and come up with quick blanket solutions (like having every problem kid medicated). The problem was that she rarely found a long lasting solution. So the problem would always return. In terms of the spill, I don't know what will ultimately stop it but I want a permeanent solution. People of action are easily satisfied if "something" is being done even if that something doesn't solve the problem. Some like to point the finger at someone. That might make us feel better but it doesn't solve the problem. It might prevent future problems, but there is a time (there we go again) for assigning blame and that time is not now.
I often remind my employees of what i expect by the following:
Take the Lead if you can ,
Follow if you can not,
but never ever ever just stand in the way...
Not sure where I picked that up but maybe BP could make a nice motivational poster out of it.
Very well put. We need to take our country back from those that think of us as nothing but serfs. As it was once put " Lead, Follow or get out of the way!"