busyMost people are late occasionally. Some people are late chronically. It is usually due to carelessness and/or lack of organizational skills. So the first things you want to check are:
* Does the person realize that being late causes difficulties for self and others?
* Does the person CARE about those difficulties?
* Have they taken basic steps to avoid lateness, such as having accurate timepieces (if feasible), making schedules, and studying organizational techniques?
The article raises an interesting issue: ability to estimate time required to complete a task. Some people are really good at this. Others are really not. To some extent, this can be compensated by timing oneself and memorizing or recording how long it takes to do things, rather than trying to imagine how long it will take. (Frex, I have timed myself writing, so I know that it takes me -- very roughly -- an hour to produce a thousand words. Sometimes considerably more or less, but that's a good ballpark estimate.) This ability is something that can be measured objectively by giving someone tasks and asking them to estimate the completion time. It should be measured with both familiar and unfamiliar tasks, because skill at estimation may differ for those categories.
Closely related to this, not explictly mentioned in the article, but implied in the fellow's description of his experiences, is the ability to get tasks done -- or lack thereof. Some people are excellent at staying on track and dealing with unforseen complications. Others are not. To some extent, this can be compensated by padding the deadline. It doesn't always work, but for most people, it reduces the frequency and duration of lateness. Like estimation, task progress is a thing that can be measured.
We'll set aside the social issues of demanding more from people than they can possibly accomplish, or expecting them to get places faster than is safe or possible, which can cause lateness. We'll also skip folks whose presence bends the spacetime continuum and/or causes timepieces to malfunction, thus making them often late (or early). Those are separate challenges outside this discussion of mental processing of time management.
It's one thing to blame people for being careless. It's quite another to demand that they perform well in an area where they have little innate talent or ability to acquire skill. The latter is a disability -- a pretty bad one, in our culture. So while most people who are frequently late probably do that out of indifference or ignorance, some probably do it out of disability. And the appropriate responses are different: indifferent people need to learn empathy (or how to emulate it), ignorant people need to learn time-management skills, and disabled people may need an assistant or some other accommodation for a potentially life-wrecking problem that can't simply be trained away.
Chance of people actually bothering to test for this? Or trying to ameliorate the various reasons for lateness? Probably almost zero, despite the fact that lateness is something people complain about frequently both in personal and work contexts. Because then they might have to do something other than cast blame or make exuses, and that would be work and likely cost money. I bet they'd rather just keep being late or bitching at late people.
August 28 2013, 00:01:12 UTC 7 years ago Edited: August 28 2013, 00:02:21 UTC
Although, glad that you mentioned people doing weird things to space/time... I thought that was just me. [yay, not alone!]
Thoughts
August 28 2013, 00:40:40 UTC 7 years ago
That can still be an effect of difficulty with task estimation or time management. It usually evolves as an exaggerated coping skill.
Frex, I tend to turn in work early, because I hate doing things at the last minute. I know that I procrastinate (and that I bend time and break machinery) so I pad my deadlines. Sometimes I get things done on time, but often early. In my case, it turns a disadvantage into an advantage.
>> Although, glad that you mentioned people doing weird things to space/time... I thought that was just me. [yay, not alone!] <<
You're not alone. It's common among magical people, and especially so for the fey. Some can learn to control it at least partially, others not so much. It's useful to be able to extend or contract time at will.
I once walked into a room with three timepieces in it, all running together. Very shortly, they all read differently -- and none of them agreed with my poor wristwatch.
This kind of thing is partly why I got into studying quantum mechanics. I can't do the math, but the parts that are in words make perfect sense to me and are often useful.
Re: Thoughts
August 28 2013, 00:57:10 UTC 7 years ago
Re: Thoughts
August 28 2013, 01:08:19 UTC 7 years ago
This is why I don't touch other people's electronics. And why I can't use a wireless/wheelless mouse, which is terrifying because apparently wheeled mice have been completely replaced by lasertrack mice and it's getting hard to find corded ones. The last wheelless mouse we tried lasted less than two weeks before becoming spastic to the point of uselessness.
My electromagnetic field is higher than normal at its ordinary level, and spikes under strong emotions. However: plastic insulates against both scientific and mystical energy. Try wearing a watch with as much of a plastic case as possible, and a nylon strap between you and it. Don't let any metal part touch your skin. The more mechanical something is, the more resistant it is; the more electronic or computerize, the more vulnerable it is. I have a digital watch with mostly plastic casing and a nylon strap. It's kind of senile but better than nothing. I used to have one with actual hands that moved, but it died on me, and I never found another one that would run, except for this digital one.
Re: Thoughts
August 28 2013, 01:22:07 UTC 7 years ago
Your advice regarding wristwatches is very good, though I've found that for me it just doesn't work.
I would recommend the Logitech Marble Mouse, which is a laser trackball with a balanced base for left or right handed use. It's very comfortable if I'm careful to use it at a proper angle to my elbow and wrist, and costs around $20 these days. It's also a competitor to the Microsoft trackball, which is a thumb-driven trackball that I find awkward and difficult to work with due to its ergonomics, despite having more buttons and wheels to play with. I've used my own Marble Mouse so much that its cord is starting to wear out, and it has served me very well for years -- almost a decade at this point!
Re: Thoughts
August 28 2013, 05:25:50 UTC 7 years ago
Re: Thoughts
August 28 2013, 18:42:37 UTC 7 years ago
Yeah, those fare pretty well. I think it's the plastic.
>> and I can tolerate the energies of a cell phone in a case on my hip (or in my pocket sometimes). <<
I loathe phones. The most I'll do with a cell phone is keep it on the desk when I'm expecting a call. I don't carry one; I'm sure that would kill it.
>> I would recommend the Logitech Marble Mouse, which is a laser trackball with a balanced base for left or right handed use. <<
I've tried trackballs and they wreck my hands. I can use a touchpad like some laptops use, though.
Re: Thoughts
August 28 2013, 10:36:06 UTC 7 years ago
and yeah, I bend time so much sometimes that it'll reverse or even skip. Controlling it is as yet imperfect however. Which is a pity, because that would be immeasurably useful in so many ways. The irony is, I never seem to get enough time to mediate & practice! *wry grin*
As for always being early.. it's mostly because I always use the worst-case scenario and plan accordingly, which means I usually leave myself far too much time in case of things happening that rarely do. A product of overly negative parenting maybe, I dunno.. But whenever I catch myself doing it, and think that 'nah, it'll be alright'.... that's when it all goes horribly wrong!
Re: Thoughts
August 28 2013, 18:33:14 UTC 7 years ago
I've done that on occasion.
>> Controlling it is as yet imperfect however. <<
It takes practice to improve, and insofar as I've seen, nobody gets perfect control. But it's possible to gain enough to be useful.
>> The irony is, I never seem to get enough time to mediate & practice! *wry grin* <<
Try practicing on the road. That's usually a handy place to shrink time. Just be careful not to miss an exit.