Not for the first time, today when I started going down the list of stories, many made the cut to look at, some starting with source before going to the comments. I just counted, there are twenty tabs open, each earmarked for an unknown but not trivial length of time to read, try to digest, maybe have an attempted coherent thought on, and then perhaps to consider posting.
I note the time - 8:51pm - and realize that no matter how interesting many of the stories are to me, some even important in some fashion, there is no way that I can do anything more than quickly skim through at best half of what I would prefer to have the time to dig into as I find needful.
Yes, I know, poor li'l me and my first-world prob and all. Yet the problem is there. No real solution is available. Draconian triage can help, certainly, but that's not an actual solution. Thinking ahead, even given the large numbers of neurons that could handle the load did we know how to do some kind of 'out there'-into-the-brain thing, that still would not solve the problem of highly constrained time with the wealth of things to spend thinking on.
None of this is new. I found a similar situation pre-Web, pre-Usenet, pre-Internet. All that happened was that a small number of things got read, fewer digested - background reading, analyzed, etc. - and then disposed of. Of the remainder, some made it to a To-Do list or a 'rainy day' note on the bulleting board. Looking back, had each item been a dollar bill rather than adding to the pile of things to be gotten to "Real Soon Now" I'd be wealthy indeed.
My life likely won't become any the poorer for not getting to any of these tabs at the top of my screen. Yet, in the time I've been coming to slashdot, I have learned things. Some even about myself and about how to try to think and act more in line with who I am wanting to continue to become - a living, growing, improving sort better able to help himself and others as opportunity provides, beyond satisfying curiosity or addressing concerns.
Given the wealth of skills, talents, and the wealth of background and history of people, some expert in their field, some who have been around since the electronic age started making real inroads into daily existence and importance thereof, I've had the grand opportunity for the price of an Internet connection and my time, to become aware of technologies, how-tos, personal knowledge of what happened or is happening, and potential ways to proceed. Sometimes I'll find deep thinking, good questions, and good stories as well.
Such wealth, and twenty tabs, and it's now 9:15pm. And I still feel like the little kid at the grown-ups table.
Cheers.
Later....
Ok, it's 2:30am, eight tabs and three more external articles read along with two quick Wikipedia look-ups. I'm done; tabbed through the remainder and blew them off. Enough's enough.
