Progress Report 5: General Conference, work, progress report, teamwork
General Conference was excellent but I couldn't process it all. I felt like I was watching a shower of pearls pass by and I could only catch one here and one there. I would like to establish a routine of review and go through all the talks a few times each to see what I can glean.
A normal man works 8 hours or more a day most of the days of his grown life. And we're taught that it was ordained to be so from the beginning. What that means to me is that work has a place in fulfilling our purpose here on earth and that it can be a teaching experience. So when I approach work and school I want to approach them with an attitude of one who is learning spiritually as well as in other ways. And not just learning like the mind learns but also learning as muscles learn under stress. Not just spiritual learning but spiritual exercise and training as well.
This idea is part of a broader concept, the concept that we are here to learn and to become more like our God and Father. I think this amazing concept can inform our decisions about how we handle our attention, talents, our finances, and to what we choose to love. I guess it is my hope that as I participate in one exciting challenge after another that I might keep my heart and mind aware of the larger picture. I hope to treat this life as a spiritual quest for progress as much as an adventure. Time is so short here on the earth. There is so much to be done. I can't afford to lose my way by taking my heart off of the most important things, off of God and off of the well being of people around me.
So where do I hope to put my attention over the next months? I hope to put it on learning. On coming to understand and apply the great truths that are offered me everyday but that take so much effort to really take advantage of. I hope to repent every day. Because, again, life is short. It's too short to procrastinate changes for the better until later. I have to make them now.
This week I finally got to look at raw data. It was exciting. I had to learn a bit about classes and objects and Java syntax to do it and I had to learn some specifics about the Java sound API as well. But I saw the data. Unfortunately it was completely unintelligible: it was an array of bytes taken directly from the audiostream entering the computer from my microphone (after ADC of course). The bytes were displayed not as ones and zeros but as crazy characters from I don't know how many different alphabets. But at least I got to the bytes! Now I have to figure out how to turn them into a sequence of numbers that can be analyzed and how to handle them in the stream in such a manner that I won't miss any data while analyzing it. April 15th looms. It will take a miracle to complete a working pitch detector by then. I do, of course, believe in miracles. So maybe we should try for one. I am unsure. I want to but I am scared to lay it on the line. And I want to keep priorities straight. I don't want the miracle coming through giving up time reserved for things more central to my life . . .
Teamwork. I think that most people would agree that I am pretty independent and introverted. I like it that way. I like to be very much in control of my life, opportunities and activities and that kind of control can be more difficult to maintain when you work with other people. And yet, the best thing that I have ever done, which is my family, is very much a team enterprise. And I love it.
So here is a question: what is neater? A) you stay independent and get nothing accomplished of any lasting merit, B) you stay independent and accomplish something of lasting merit, C) you work with many others and get nothing accomplished, or D) you work with many others and accomplish something of lasting merit. (Note: I really don't know where the question mark belongs in a question like this! If you know please tell me how I should do it.) What I have come to realize is that I think that option D is by far the neatest. Even more surprising is that I am beginning to think that it is about sixes whether B or C is a more attractive option. The thing is this: if you accomplish something on your own, good for you. If you work with others, good for you and them. More people benefit. So what I think I am learning is that introverted or no, I think that working with a whole team devoted to a goal is neater than working alone. But how shall we go about recruiting the best bunch of free workers we can get?
A normal man works 8 hours or more a day most of the days of his grown life. And we're taught that it was ordained to be so from the beginning. What that means to me is that work has a place in fulfilling our purpose here on earth and that it can be a teaching experience. So when I approach work and school I want to approach them with an attitude of one who is learning spiritually as well as in other ways. And not just learning like the mind learns but also learning as muscles learn under stress. Not just spiritual learning but spiritual exercise and training as well.
This idea is part of a broader concept, the concept that we are here to learn and to become more like our God and Father. I think this amazing concept can inform our decisions about how we handle our attention, talents, our finances, and to what we choose to love. I guess it is my hope that as I participate in one exciting challenge after another that I might keep my heart and mind aware of the larger picture. I hope to treat this life as a spiritual quest for progress as much as an adventure. Time is so short here on the earth. There is so much to be done. I can't afford to lose my way by taking my heart off of the most important things, off of God and off of the well being of people around me.
So where do I hope to put my attention over the next months? I hope to put it on learning. On coming to understand and apply the great truths that are offered me everyday but that take so much effort to really take advantage of. I hope to repent every day. Because, again, life is short. It's too short to procrastinate changes for the better until later. I have to make them now.
This week I finally got to look at raw data. It was exciting. I had to learn a bit about classes and objects and Java syntax to do it and I had to learn some specifics about the Java sound API as well. But I saw the data. Unfortunately it was completely unintelligible: it was an array of bytes taken directly from the audiostream entering the computer from my microphone (after ADC of course). The bytes were displayed not as ones and zeros but as crazy characters from I don't know how many different alphabets. But at least I got to the bytes! Now I have to figure out how to turn them into a sequence of numbers that can be analyzed and how to handle them in the stream in such a manner that I won't miss any data while analyzing it. April 15th looms. It will take a miracle to complete a working pitch detector by then. I do, of course, believe in miracles. So maybe we should try for one. I am unsure. I want to but I am scared to lay it on the line. And I want to keep priorities straight. I don't want the miracle coming through giving up time reserved for things more central to my life . . .
Teamwork. I think that most people would agree that I am pretty independent and introverted. I like it that way. I like to be very much in control of my life, opportunities and activities and that kind of control can be more difficult to maintain when you work with other people. And yet, the best thing that I have ever done, which is my family, is very much a team enterprise. And I love it.
So here is a question: what is neater? A) you stay independent and get nothing accomplished of any lasting merit, B) you stay independent and accomplish something of lasting merit, C) you work with many others and get nothing accomplished, or D) you work with many others and accomplish something of lasting merit. (Note: I really don't know where the question mark belongs in a question like this! If you know please tell me how I should do it.) What I have come to realize is that I think that option D is by far the neatest. Even more surprising is that I am beginning to think that it is about sixes whether B or C is a more attractive option. The thing is this: if you accomplish something on your own, good for you. If you work with others, good for you and them. More people benefit. So what I think I am learning is that introverted or no, I think that working with a whole team devoted to a goal is neater than working alone. But how shall we go about recruiting the best bunch of free workers we can get?
posted by Douglas H. at 12:26 PM
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