Adventures in home working

I used to have an IPAQ years ago and despite using it a lot in the beginning I gradually stopped using it mainly for the following reasons:

1. I did not like having to sync it
2. It was too big to carry around everywhere
3. I did not have a case that gave me instant access to it when carrying it around, so it tended to be in a bag
4. The battery life deteriorated to the point where it could not be relied upon
5. It did not have enough storage space without a great big expansion jacket add-on

Then along came a Blackberry which I instantly fell in love with, I have talked about my love affair with my Blackberry before in my gadget blog.  However I recently started working from home and the subscription costs to the Blackberry service no longer seemed worthwhile so I decided that I would take that money and invest it in something that was a higher priority, I decided I would try a traditional Palm or Pocket PC PDA again.

The process of choosing is a classic example of the tyranny of too much choice.

My experience went something like this:

1. Every day I changed my mind because I loved my Blackberry so much
2. Email and Calendar on a PDA always seemed like a compromise compared to the Blackberry, but everything else I wanted from a PDA either was not an option or didn’t work too well, like tasks for example.
3. I have a company supplied phone and for some reason its incredibly difficult to get GPRS approved so I would have a PDA that was only online at home, making the transition from the BB even more difficult
4. On the days when I did decide to go the PDA route I alternated between Palm and Pocket PC.
5. Each day I switched from wanting a lovely large high resolution screen at all costs, to wanting a small Bluetooth and wireless equipped machine

I finally managed to make a decision to swap from the BB as follows:

1. I gave myself the money from a years BB subscription and asked myself how I wanted to spend it
2. I decided that it was useful to break the instant email addiction
3. I decided that when I was out of the house it was most likely that I was not working so getting a device that had many non work related distractions would be a good idea

I made the Palm/Pocket PC decision as follows:

1. I run Windows 2003 Server on my desktop and I was able to make sure that Active Sync worked fine and that Wireless worked fine with Pocket PC before I made the purchase
2. I had quite a lot of software left over from my old IPAQ.  Particularly eWallet and Pocket Informant which I really liked
3. I use Lotus Notes at work and came across some fabulous synchronisation software called mNotes and I was able to check this out before I made the decision, (its available for Palm too but I couldn’t test it)
4. I was familiar with Pocket PC and knew that it was good enough

I made the decision on which form factor to get as follows:

1. I knew from past experience that having a small device was important if I was to be successful in motivating myself to carry it around
2. The small devices were cheaper than the half or full VGA models
3. The VGA models had problems with some applications using the screen in VGA mode that required hacks to get around and whilst these seemed to work for most people they seemed to stop WIFI working for some people
4. The VGA models were first generation.  Next generation models were likely to be much better, but I didn’t want to wait
5. I decided that if the next generation models were really great then I would do a bit of cascading and make my eldest daughter very happy when she starts High School in September!

I finally decided on an IPAQ 4150 because:

1. HP has a good reputation and they are going to be in the market for the long term
2. I had an IPAQ before and that gave me confidence
3. It is very small
4. It has a great screen
5. It has a good software bundle
6. It has Bluetooth and WIFI
7. I found a great case, holster style that fits on my belt and is as close to the Blackberry case as you can get.  That decision was easy I wanted something exactly like the Blackberry, this is it.
8. I got a good deal and had money left over for the case and 512MB storage card
9. Battery life seemed ok, but a high capacity battery is available if I have problems

- Posted by Steve Richards - 5:59:40 PM - comment []

An article in Scientific American, titled The Tyranny of Choice has sparked a considerable debate on the web about the problems faced by western societies as a result of too much choice.  In fact the idea is a very old one, I came cross it years ago but it is not mentioned very often by your every day Happiness literature which tends to talk more about internal changes that people can make to the way they think rather than factors from their external environment.

You can sum up the material prior to this article as follows:

• The intent of advertising is to make us dissatisfied with what we have
• If we meet people who have more than we have, or have different spending priorities or saving priorities then we tend to be dissatisfied with what we have

These two factors are the main environmental factors that effect happiness.  In my experience they are even more powerful than having somewhere warm and dry to live and enough food to eat, which I soon got used to.  However some people disagree with this and consider these to be essential, (Hygiene factors in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

This new article extends the model a bit with the following concepts:

• Too much choice can be a bad thing
• Especially if when faced with a choice you spend a lot of time and energy of assessing the options and agonising over them.  This is a particular problem now days with the popularity of “what xxx” type magazines and the Internet which:
  • Exposes us to ever increasing choice
  • Provides access to a huge amount of information on each option
  • Provides access to a huge amount of often conflicting opinion about each option
• Even worse if when you finally make a decision you then continue to expose yourself to options and opinions that may change the choice you made and lead to dissatisfaction.  In fact this can easily happen anyway because often the way that tradeoffs are prioritised when making a decision then change once the decision has been taken and real life experience refines or overturns them
• These factors are compounded with easy credit which does not provide a natural limit on peoples capacity to dream and plan to acquire things.

I don’t want to repeat the article, but it’s worth mentioning that it identifies different personality types who are affected by the above to a greater or lesser extent.

There are a few articles that discuss this topic in more detail and I have provided a few of the links here:

• Decisions, decisions ... the right choice isn't always the best
• Making The Right Choice
• Studies associate decreased happiness with explosion of options

Worth repeating is a great quote by the great physicist Richard Feynman, who when faced with the dessert menu in restaurants always chose the chocolate option. As Feynman saw it, while the other desserts might be better, they might not be. On the other hand, the chocolate option was always pretty acceptable - so why fret for ages over making a choice that might be wrong anyway?

In many ways Richards approach mirrors my own, I am happiest and most at ease when I am doing simple familiar things, that I don’t have to think about, but which I know I enjoy.  When faced with the option to do something different I will often avoid it to reduce the risk that I won’t enjoy it, rather than take the risk that I will enjoy it more.  However when faced with choice I definitely suffer from the problems described here.  Read my blog entry about choosing a new PDA for an example.

- Posted by Steve Richards - 5:58:40 PM - comment []

I just read a very nicely crafted article describing 10 tips for writing the Living Web.  Essentially its about writing blogs.  As I progressed I wondered increasingly who could have put together such an article and what motivated them to put in the effort.  When I got to then end I found it was Mark Bernstein who is chief scientist at Eastgate Systems, publishers of Tinderbox, a personal content management assistant.  I went straight there to have a look, (so its good advertising Mark!), but unfortunarely its for the Mac only, but they are working on a Windows version.

- Posted by Steve Richards - 4:23:56 PM - comment []