On Deciding . . . Better 3.0

For reasons I only partly understand, I bought the latest version of Tinderbox from Eastgate. It’s been over 4 years since I last worked on the Decision Tools blog. I found the relevant files and templates to update the home page at least.

The iPad is serving as catalyst here. Somehow the eBook format of the iPad suggests to me that is worth weaving together all of the threads contained in my philosophical investigations.

What a pleasant way to transition out of winter. Alwin Hawkins has started his weblog back up again:

code:theWebSocket;: Arisen from the ashes…: “”

(Via .)

It’s a nostalgic day. I’m reading David Allen’s new book, “Making It All Work”. I had settled into a comfortable routine of capturing information and processing it, but reading his Getting Things Done roadmap has me thinking about kicking it up a notch again.

I don’t have a laptop tool for tracking projects like I had for my last job. Now I work on a shorter cycle time and projects are generally managed for me. My role is more reactive these days.

So I started up Tinderbox for the first time in years, finding that I was at version 3.5 and Mark Bernstein had moved all the way up to 4.6. I’ve downloaded the new version and will decide whether to pony up for the upgrade.

On one monitor tonight I’m watching Garry Winogrand’s New School interview via 2point8. His work was just taking pictures. He transformed the ordinary by capturing it.

On my other monitor, Dave Rogers reminded me just how long we’ve been at this. The Edit This Page group is now going on 9 years of online writing.

Groundhog Day: “Tomorrow will mark the ninth anniversary of my effort in this thing called ‘blogging,’ or, as I tend to think of it, ‘ranting into the void to no discernible effect.’ Not sure if longevity counts for anything, but there it is. Been here longer than Scoble. Go me.”

I think Dave can safely assume his writing has been toward some end, as we have all moved to occupy different spaces than we did 9 years ago. We’ve gotten somewhere, but not where we imagined back then. I still enjoy reading Dave’s work on figuring out exactly how that works.

Since my original weblog is now lost to time and the discontinuation of the ETP servers, I go to the Internet Archive every once in a while to read what I wrote back then. From Dec 5, 1999:

On Deciding . . . Better : Imagination as Simulation: “Simple solutions to complex problems are usually wrong. Complex problems usually require complex solutions. In a complex situation it can be hard to know which variables are important. We tend to act from simple biases based on simple analogies once complexity becomes too great.

When decisions involve uncertainty, multiple goals and multiple effects technology can help amplify imagination. In my own life, I’ve been exploring how this technology can help me clarify my goals, understand my assumptions and help me act in a way that is most consistant with what I believe.”

My set of concerns are very different now and my approach to this complexity is also very different. My decisions are now much smaller and short term. They are less focused on getting someplace, less focused on defining path. More taken with what to do rather than which to do.

The problems are no less complex and the uncertainty is just as great. Yet rather than looking at the pieces analytically, I’ve moved to a wider view in which emergence of choice dominates analysis of options.

I used my iPhone pretty extensively in Europe during the last trip. The reaction was interesting.It’s viewed as a great phone, but the limitation to high priced, long term contracts is a huge barrier to everyone I talked to. These folks are used to buying unlocked phones and switching plans or carriers as needed. Avoiding the iPhone seems more of a protest against changing the current adventageous system than a real economic decision for them.Here in the US, we’re used to carrier lock-in and contracts. 

After 6 months of regular writing here, I took down my previous weblog. Because of it’s long life, decidingbetter.com had better page ranking than this weblog on Google. I’m redirecting the domain here for now and plan to hold on to it.

I looked over the referer log for the last 6 months and found that there was only one theme that was getting regular searches, which was some posts on chromogenic C41 process black and white film. That should be replaced, since I don’t think there’s a great deal of information on this alternative on the net.

But the site was ugly, was probably leading to occasional attacks on my home network and wasn’t where I wanted searchers looking for my net writing. For now then, I’ve consolidated here.