Wednesday, 30 June 2021
Improved Away Context
In a world where IT is constantly evolving, it’s frustrating when a feature you love is “improved away”. The phrase, I think, was coined in our office to apply to circumstances when an application or product is updated and a helpful feature removed as part of the improvement.
Today, I discovered one of the spreadsheet programs improved away a template I loved. If memory serves correctly, there was an expense planning format. The spreadsheet worked differently from a budget. A budget takes an income and breaks it up into expected costs; its associated report bundles the results into categories.
Once you suspect a favourite or frequently used item has been moved, merged, removed, or bundled with some other things, you might spend some time looking to get the feature back. Your search engine gets a workout as you seek a solution to the problem the improved away created.
Indeed, removing something from someone that they have become used to is incredibly difficult. There’s a surprising kind of stress associated with slight separation or loss. And that’s not just in the IT world, although separating us from our mobile phones has the potential to form into a full-blown phobia or nomophobia (netdoctor). Try to take anything away that has been beneficial to someone, and you’ll get a fight. Have you tried taking candy from a toddler – note, not baby, that’s the easy one; now, a toddler is on an entirely different level.
As we head into day one of another three-day lockdown and speak of trying to remove something beneficial, I’m reminded some organisations implemented work from home strategies in response to COVID’s enforcement. The main reason for this pushback is that people have discovered the convenience of putting a load of washing on while attending a meeting.
Today's Cards
The Cards - Analysis
Carryover Cards
Two cards carried over from yesterday; Moment to Moment moved from Hopes & Fears to Recent Past, and New Vision stayed in the Feelings position.
Cross
Projections are in the Now influenced by Compromise. What I forgot to mention above was today was my rostered day off. However, it is also the end of the financial year in Australia, which equals timesheets, last-minute financial adjustments, and is an arbitrary date that motivates many business decisions. For your information, the abbreviation we use for the End Of the Financial Year is EOFY.
So, why did I raise the day off? Well, timesheets needed completion, which I forgot to do yesterday, and I had scheduled a meeting I was going to attend. As a Compromise, I decided to hand over my meeting notes to another invitee (ooh, Projections can me handing over something) and let them run the session, but I would log in to do my timesheets.
Healing is in the Goal position. My Healing was going to take the form of catching up on work.
In the Distant Past is Harmony, Day 179 had the Harmony card in the Future Energy spot and has moved from there into the Distant Past over two days? On Day 179, I had been frustrated by events where I needed to justify someone else’s actions, unpleasant and left me on tenterhooks but happened in the meantime to create a time of Harmony.
Moment to Moment is in the Recent Past, continuing the harmonious feel and leading me into Projections, leading to an environment with a Future Energy of Stress. The Stress is most likely me needing to have a difficult discussion with the person involved.
Base
New Vision has stayed the Feelings spot since yesterday. Yesterday, New Vision was about getting to my source or core. Today, New Vision relates to a new way of existing and opening up. However, there’s the possibility I’m opening up because I’m projecting my feelings of trust onto someone else.
Others see me as The Creator, and The Creator in Osho describes it as being able to enrich his own life and those of others (p.48). I like the idea.
Hopes & Fears has in the card of Receptivity. Receptivity echoes the opening up of New Vision; there’s the fear of abuse for being trusting with any opening up. The hope for the opening up is that trust will breed itself and others are able to confide and trust in your generosity.
The final outcome is The Burden. The Burden in this case is the need for me to action something I’d rather not. Maybe the discussion with the person I’d been justifying – we’ll see, it might be something completely different.
References
- Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7
