Hindle Ottawa Blog -Works, then Speed

NCSC Inukshuk  Works, Then Speed


Why the need for speed?
In todays modern environment we are now used to split second response time. We expect communications, world wide, with only millisecond delays, we need our movies to download in seconds rather than minutes (or hours). We have lost or patience waiting for things in our world to happen. But this is a very recent occurance in the history of man. What is lost on many is that everything we do today happened similarly 100 years ago but the time understanding then was much different.

Today one can fly around the world in about 80 hours. Each voyage of Captain James Cook, Captain Georges Vancouver, Magellan and others in the 1700s were often more than 3 years (800+ days) in the undertaking. But in those days they had a proven technology of square sals that allowed them to set off and move continuously. A top speed for then was 16knots but the average was more likely 1knot. At those rates getting around the 21659 nautical miles of the earth, (even if you could do it straight) would take a while. It worked and then people determined how to make it faster, especially when they had specific landfalls in mind. So you had India Clippers specific for the India to China run, you got fishing Schonners for the North Atlantic and ranges of sizes and speeds in between.

Yes the difference is technology, but more importantly it is time understanding. When sailors sailed into the unknown there was a hope that they would return but not when. Even early trade, from the Minoan's of the Aegean through the tea clippers of the late 18th century understood that weather and wind affected if or when a shipment would go through. We have lost that time understanding.

We have also lost the understanding that with almost everything there is any early need, to show that it works. We might now call this learning curve or an initial configuration phase but essentially these are periods to show that it works. As young children we learn to walk, and quickly try to run. We inevitably experience the traditional falls, scrapes and pains of that lack of mastery. We forget these fundementals. We forget that each of us had to learn these fundementals for ourselves. And this applies when we develop tools or software into new areas. We have to learn what it is doing first, then we can make it faster.

In soccer any skills that are taught are first done emphasizing the steps, the balance, the technique encouraging a level of mastery before applying force and speed. With proper techniques some levels of improved force and speed come. But the proper techniques allow players to apply even more force and speed, and for it to continue to be applied effectively at these new higher levels.

A solar heater I built took a very small bleed of pumped water within a pool and put it through a heating process. The net effect to the water being pumped only measured as a 1degree C rise from pool norm. At 1000 litres per hour and a 14 hour day, this amounts to a net increase in the pool heat store of about 1 million calories each day. A small temperature increase, here repeated enough means a pool raised to a luxurious temperature within days just from solar energy.


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Update 2021-02-21  rwh