November 29, 2009
The "support hell"
The main problem that is logically result of what the GTD (getting things done) pronciple solves is the having to worry about multiple things (tasks) at the same time when one is best in solving only one task at a time, not good in solving two tasks same time and much worse than good when one need to solve multiple tasks. Some call this as dispersion, and I like to call this the "support hell", because this always appears when building some complex system.
From the first sight, I see two ways of solving this problem. The first one is described in GTD principle: to "... move tasks out of mind by recording them externally". This is, if to talk about building complex systems, is transferring of responsibility for each part (or some parts) to somebody else. But seems that this is not clear solve of the problem: actually, instead of being responsible for making parts of system to work, you makes someone else responsible for the same. Therefore one is not relieving the responsibility, instead one changes it with responsibility to control others make their work the right way. Sometimes this is better.
The second way is to build system parts that does not require much maintenance during ordinary functioning (a kind of "high availability" system). The breakdowns, of course, require one's attention.
The second way require much more technical skills to build the system but less (at least theoretically) work for the ordinary maintenance.
From the first sight, I see two ways of solving this problem. The first one is described in GTD principle: to "... move tasks out of mind by recording them externally". This is, if to talk about building complex systems, is transferring of responsibility for each part (or some parts) to somebody else. But seems that this is not clear solve of the problem: actually, instead of being responsible for making parts of system to work, you makes someone else responsible for the same. Therefore one is not relieving the responsibility, instead one changes it with responsibility to control others make their work the right way. Sometimes this is better.
The second way is to build system parts that does not require much maintenance during ordinary functioning (a kind of "high availability" system). The breakdowns, of course, require one's attention.
The second way require much more technical skills to build the system but less (at least theoretically) work for the ordinary maintenance.
