A positive end to the week...
Oct. 24th, 2014 05:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylI've finally had a good week which, given the weeks I have been having, feels like it's more than a bit overdue. Partly it's a consequence of my long weekend, spent recharging in Coventry with my family. But equally, I suspect it's the result of having some exciting new work to be getting on with; something that makes me realise the degree to which I haven't really stretched myself over the last couple of months.
I've got some interest new ideas to do with workload balancing — my area of expertise only in as much as everyone tries to avoid it! — and I've had some really good discussions about different methods of charging, about the problems of passing costs directly back to individuals, and the problems that occur when costs and payments replace social pressures and altruism — I'm pretty sure Michael Sandel talks about this somewhere in the contest of paying blood donors in the US. I don't think there's a perfect solution — ultimately it's going to be a combination of a politics, compromise, and personal taste — but I'm sure there are ways to improve and simplify the existing methods and still achieve the required goals.
I've also reached the point where this year's Manic Reading Project has reached last year's total, despite having two and a bit months of the year still to run. I doubt I'll beat 2012's total — a shocking 165 books — unless I switch to reading nothing but the very shortest of novels, but I'm still going to try and give it a serious run for its money.
I've got some interest new ideas to do with workload balancing — my area of expertise only in as much as everyone tries to avoid it! — and I've had some really good discussions about different methods of charging, about the problems of passing costs directly back to individuals, and the problems that occur when costs and payments replace social pressures and altruism — I'm pretty sure Michael Sandel talks about this somewhere in the contest of paying blood donors in the US. I don't think there's a perfect solution — ultimately it's going to be a combination of a politics, compromise, and personal taste — but I'm sure there are ways to improve and simplify the existing methods and still achieve the required goals.
I've also reached the point where this year's Manic Reading Project has reached last year's total, despite having two and a bit months of the year still to run. I doubt I'll beat 2012's total — a shocking 165 books — unless I switch to reading nothing but the very shortest of novels, but I'm still going to try and give it a serious run for its money.
