This post is about time.
First my time away. What started as slow posting because of poor internet connectivity while attending a trade show morphed into pre-holiday festivities, then time at the cottage (and more poor internet connectivity) and then a little bit of new years reflection (on time and goals). Each in their own just a short period of non-posting but strung together ….. an eternity – or so it seems.
That’s the thing with time – it’s the perceiver that gives meaning to its passage, and decide what events are important.
What got me interested in time is that I’ve been teaching myself stop motion animation for a project I’m developing. It’s an interesting Art. Single shots taken over a protracted period are strung together to create the perception of movement over a much shorter time scale. 15 shots which may take an hour to compose – are seen as 1 second of animation.
It’s the minds ability to connect some things (like a sequence of images) while holding others at bay (such as the fact that clay cannot move or talk) that gives the resulting animation meaning.
That same process is all around us. Over the holidays a friend said when we were talking about the rise of new media said:
“Everyone enamored with the technology overestimates the speed at which it will be adopted while those affected by it underestimate the profound changes it will make to the industry.”
We see the world the way we believe it should be. That’s why profound insights come from people at the edges of, or new to, an industry. Their vision isn’t framed by the same core beliefs so their observations and insights can be broader – and occasionally more basic.
What’s more the beliefs that shape our understanding are constantly, but slowly, evolving. The more the belief is core the more resistant it is to change (Work as self definition etc.)
It’s mapping these slow changes in underlying collective belief that lead us to new opportunity.
Sometimes time off for reflection is a good thing. Only time will tell if this was.
Welcome back to the blogosphere Peter.
Good Post. I particularly liked the quote about over estimating adoption rate, yet underestimating the profoundness of the changes. Very true.