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On Tue, 2004-10-12 at 20:39, Neil Williams wrote:
The distinction here is that your logic assumes that only one task can be done at a time. I don't have an off-switch for all this code - it just keeps on popping up. If I was in the bath or at work - anywhere at all - I get ideas and I formulate the code. It doesn't stop just because I'm doing something else.
Not necessarily, but in this case your opportunity cost of sitting in the bath thinking about coding is not sitting in the park thinking about ducks (Where sitting in the park thinking about ducks represents all your possible alternatives). You can increase this example to any number of tasks at once.
However, the economic argument is not universal. Not everything in life comes down to economics, not everything in life is costed. (Even the credit card companies agree on that one.) Some things in life really are free of all financial cost. Otherwise, what did we do before money was invented?
You're implying that all economics is fiscal, which isn't the case. You make economic judgements about how to spend you time constantly. If you think "I'm not going to do that because it would be a waste of my time" you're putting a value (not necessarily a financial value) on your time and judging that it would be better spent (a word that has financial implications, so the English language is either muddying the waters or illustrating my point) doing something else.
There's a lot of confusion here about terms - use of the words 'paying' and 'cost' opposed to 'choice' and 'activity'. A choice of activity does not necessarily involve any monetary cost.
I'd like to reinforce that I'm not necessarily talking about monetary cost. I've just looked up cost in the dictionary and one of the definitions is "Loss of any kind". The choice to code looses you (not you specifically, but anyone) the opportunity to use that same moment in time to sit in the park and think about ducks. Alex. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.