John Leeke wrote:
> >>Triangles can provide a too easy over-simplification of complex 
> issues.<<
> Of course, these are highly complex issues. I need the triangle 
> simplification to help me ease my simple mind
I agree John, we need simple models with which to scale up to deal with 
complexity. But once one has quality/time/cost in hand it is important 
IMHO to make sure to move on to include style.
All the little cookies dipped in a batter of style.
I have seen you bring epiphany to property stewards, you are real good 
at that.
> You know, when you're listening to a good story you loose track of 
> time? You loose track of "clock time" because the story happens in 
> "event time."
I am more familiar with talking about your 'event time' as 'flow'. When 
we are in flow then we are absorbed in the activity and we lose track of 
'clock time' as you say.
> This difference between clock time and event time is one of the big 
> difficulties of some independent tradespeople who have their own 
> businesses. The trade activities, say glazing a window or cleaning the 
> mortar off a pile of bricks, happens in event time, where all the best 
> trades work occurs. But, to do business and get paid clock time is 
> needed. It is impossible to be in event time and clock time at the 
> same time. Some can make the time shift easily, back and forth, 
> several times a day. Some can't. You know, the tradesperson who is 
> happy hand-planing boards all day long, day after day? He measures his 
> life in stacks of boards completed, or in days of hand planing--both 
> measurements of event time.
And so for the tradesperson who is absorbed in event time it helps to 
have sympathetic middle persons who will work to make the environment in 
which the individual can stay in event time, or flow, whichever. There 
are even folks who will flow well in the middle. Not too many people are 
going to have functional right:left brain switches. I know for myself 
that when I really get absorbed in my creative writing that I tend to 
become socially and business dysfunctional. There is a constant tension 
to hold on and keep a balance.
> How does the difference between clock time and event time fit into 
> preservation estimating?
In one respect it involves understanding what sort of clock:event ratio 
is involved in activities that can be delineated out from each other. 
Putting up scaffold is a different sort of task from fitting and 
finishing stone dutchmen, or gilding, or fresco work. Each activity has 
different perceived market values (cost/price), either perceived by the 
estimator, by the purchaser, or by the tradesperson/supplier. We may use 
different individuals, who each work in different relationship to their 
sense of time. In general though there is a perceived sense of what 
something should cost and that is reflected in the cost that is agreed 
by someone that they will pay. The task of an estimator is to figure out 
as close as possible what that perceived cost is, and to do so balanced 
out by the individual perceptions of all of the players in the activity.

When you mention problems that tradespeople have re: how they allocate 
and charge for their time, a common misunderstanding that I find toward 
estimating is an idea that one needs to figure out all of every step 
needed and to assign clock time to it and then sort of add it all up. 
What an estimate needs to do is come as close as possible to presenting 
a cost that makes doing the activity in whatever way it might actually 
happen. An estimator needs to imagine a segment of the future and assign 
a cost to it... and this process of estimating itself is a craft that 
involves 'event time' vs. 'clock time', particularly clock time when 
there is a drop-dead delivery date/time. The 'event time' is that while 
I am writing this e-mail response I am also mulling over how best to 
approach costing for a restoration of a marble fountain [in fact I 
stopped to take a phone call in the middle of this e-mail to talk with 
an associate about how we are collaborating on an estimate process].

What I like about preservation estimating vs. estimating of new-built is 
that there are elements in working on existing structures that go beyond 
the simple commodity of units of work, units of time, units of cost. 
There is either some odd element never before encountered that needs to 
be imagined around, or there is a task that nobody has any clear idea 
just how much it should cost. My favorite projects have always been ones 
where nobody had a clue what it should cost and we were therefore able 
to accommodate an optimal amount of 'event time'. For example: 
repointing of mortar joints is a commodity with a widely perceived unit 
cost per sf, least ways in the NYC market it is fairly 'fixed' (it is 
not always the right cost, but it is the one that people are willing to 
pay), but if one is asked to do a 1 sf mock-up of a repointing with a 
specified sand that means driving 150 miles to get one bag of it, and it 
needs to be done before Monday morning, and therefore it needs to be 
done in a snow storm... well... that sf of repointing is relatively 
expensive, about 200 x more expensive. Was there event time? Yes, we got 
lost driving in NJ. How did we estimate that? We knew that it would take 
a long day.

Recently in conversation w/ another tradesperson when discussing how a 
specific project could be staffed someone suggested, 'hire art 
students'. This brought on immediate moans from the tradespeople... art 
students and artists are known not only for being lost in event time, 
but as well for having their own ideas about what they are doing and 
often inflated fantasy as to what it is worth for them to do it, as well 
as for having all sorts of uncontrollable diversions... showing up late 
to work in leopard skin pants, with sneakers, beads and multi-glow 
safety glasses kind of stuff. But on occasion there does come the task 
that requires an artist because they understand the materials and more 
aptly grok the scene... such as restoration of a tesserae mural map on 
the side of a police substation at Times Square. It is situations such 
as these in which those middle persons who understand both clock time 
and event time come in handy to enable both the public bureaucracy and 
the idealistic romantic artist to mutually benefit in a mediated interface.

Then there is project management, extended out from estimating, that 
shapes the environment, the ecosystem of the project, in which the 
differing interfaces of time and time perceptions are shaped and 
managed. Providing a place to sit, shade, and clean drinking water and 
pauses to tell stories, to convey anecdotal knowledge, to build 
relationships, reinforcement of good work-site attitudes, these sorts of 
activities shape the project environment.

Another area where this all gets interesting is when religious groups 
take on the work. It has often been determined that God has a whole lot 
of time.

][<en

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