Monday, October 18, 2010

What are we looking for?

On the way from the garage to the office, I passed at least a dozen people with their faces buried in their phones. These weren't just hipsters either, they spanned different races, and classes from workmen to professionals. It got me curious. What was everyone doing? Are they actually getting work done? Or just satisfying a craving to check something?

I like to think that everyone is checking to see if they got that new job they applied for. They keep checking during their commute, as if they will receive the job offer, and not have to go in that day.

Surely, everybody isn't getting things done. In my office, staff members don't all carry smartphones. So for those that do, I have to assume that there is a delay between sending a message and getting the reply.

Assuming this delay is greater than zero what amount of our workday is lost to the waiting?

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 ads promise to help us get in and out of our phones faster, but they also promise Xbox live gaming, so they have to assume people have time to kill in their phone world.

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