Monday, 29 January 2007

Procrastination

I used to work with a guy who used far more energy avoiding doing what he was supposed to do than he would have if he just did it. His main aim in life seemed to be to have a job where he could stand around and do nothing. He had no shame about it. He would freely share his tips on how to avoid work while staying in favour with the bosses. He wasn't liked as much as he thought he was, but he had been there for so long it was like he was part of the furniture. About as useful as the furniture too, perhaps less so. Maybe I'm not being entirely fair, he did work sometimes. But when you're in a job that's boring anyway, why would you want to make it more so? Who knows. But this guy was a champion procrastinator.
Now I'm taking up his mantle, though I don't work there anymore. You wouldn't think it was so hard to make a damn sales phone call, but when the office is silent it's hard to make the only noise.
So there's a professor in the United States who has come up with a mathematical equation for procrastination. This is his "Temporal Motivational Theory" which looks like this: Utility = E x V / ΓD.
If you're like me and you need that translated into words, it goes like this: the desirability of the task equals the expectancy you have of succeeding with it times the value of completing it divided by its immediacy and your sensitivity to delay. Apply that to work and I understand that the task is someone elses, I have no sensitivity to delay unless it's a late parcel full of birthday presents, and I don't always expect to succeed. No wonder it is so easy to procrastinate.
I really ought to get to work, but first I'm going to tell you what this site is actually for, bar my welcome message that tells you nothing.
Wellington is an awesome place for music. Musicians know it, audiences know it, tourists know it, even those boring business people who I now have to talk to for my new job know it. By the way, I don't think all business people are boring. The ones who are secret musicians and travellers and body painters are all good. But those who think about money all day long... well. I don't mind insulting them because they'll never visit this site. (Unless you do, in which case, sorry!)
This site is to profile the random buskers you meet on your lunchbreak, the bands you always mean to see but might not get around to that night, and the people everyone wishes they were (even if they need a haircut). Intersperse this focused information with random thoughts from me, and hopefully you have a vaguely readable site that my family at least might visit.

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