Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Mean Time
One of the more thought-provoking days of my recent trip to London was our visit to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. While snapping photos of my kids standing on the meridian line, I thought about how necessity drove the invention of longitude and latitude.
Sea captains needed to be able to chart their location to avoid shipwrecks and other catastrophes like getting lost at sea. While latitude was based on the equator and could be calculated by the stars, longitude was harder to divine. By arbitrarily choosing a spot (Greenwich) as 0 degrees, they could use time to calculate the distance travelled. As a result, marine chronometers were developed, and great strides were made in the accuracy of these timepieces. The ability to have a universal, precise time led to the growth and expansion of railroads and other businesses and industries.
There was something beautiful to me about this story. While it’s often true that we solve one problem only to have another crop up, it’s also true that sometimes we solve one problem and other things improve. For example, if you have trouble getting to work on time, you might realize that you need to get up earlier. Getting up earlier might necessitate going to bed earlier, and that might very well be a good thing. You might spend less time being jealous of your friend’s vacation photos on Facebook, and your boss might notice that you are getting to work on time—always a good thing. I truly believe that good systems beget other good systems. And time is key to any good system.