Slave to the Beep
I get a lot of email. Some of it is important. But really... is it that important? Am I that important?
I am a slave to the beep. My email program beeps... I drop what I'm doing and rush to check the mail. Mostly it's not important. Once in a while, it's something I need to deal with quickly. But not that often, realistically speaking.
So why do I respond so quickly? Why do I drop everything to respond to the beep? I think probably it's a need to feel important. To feel that if I don't respond, and quickly, bad things will happen. Sometimes that's true (I administer a network of machines doing computational biology tasks... when they go wrong, it can cost money). But mostly it's false. It's a kind of self-importance-building thing, I think. I really must work on this.
Sorry, must go now... new email coming in...
I get a lot of email. Some of it is important. But really... is it that important? Am I that important?
I am a slave to the beep. My email program beeps... I drop what I'm doing and rush to check the mail. Mostly it's not important. Once in a while, it's something I need to deal with quickly. But not that often, realistically speaking.
So why do I respond so quickly? Why do I drop everything to respond to the beep? I think probably it's a need to feel important. To feel that if I don't respond, and quickly, bad things will happen. Sometimes that's true (I administer a network of machines doing computational biology tasks... when they go wrong, it can cost money). But mostly it's false. It's a kind of self-importance-building thing, I think. I really must work on this.
Sorry, must go now... new email coming in...
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
Location: Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area
Focus of research: Nestling ecology of the threatened sprague's pipit (a grassland passerine) - particularly related to parental care, diet, and food abundance in native and anthropogenic habitats.
Is it somewhere cool? I think so.