Some folks might know that my University has recently decided to cause me some issues... Well... I ain't here to brag - I just wanna get to the bottom of a question...

What is more important - What I'm doing here at the moment...?

• Enabling communication in the Afghan languages for the first time - launched the world's first Afghan language email service; creating a new community website to enable a complete free and open source Linux operating system in the Afghan languages.
  
  
• Creating new systems that work better in the local conditions - no power; no problem - our wireless router and server comes at less than half the price of a regular server and works for 5hrs on a battery.
  
  
• Making it easier to work with less net speed - connections here ain't cheap and ain't fast because there's no fiber optic cable here. We'll cut the speed you need 95%
  
  
• Training 250 people to become self employed entrepreneurs designers creating web pages, solving electricity problems and doing basic networking... Massively cutting costs for companies and organisations to connect up and improving effectiveness.
  
  
• And other things like coding competitions to encourage students to apply their knowledge, power conservation, etc. etc.

Or getting back 1 year sooner and dumping it all? This isn't something I will just run away from at 3 weeks notice. Something I remember learning about management - it doesn't count for anything until it's finished. And that's what I intend to do. Period.

I would say that it's a shame that anyone would consider trying to stop that. Oh well....

Life in Kabul will soon be complete - a very friendly little cat who lives in the compound of a fellow expat here will soon join us in our new home.

Picture to follow... I hope she is also looking forward to the move...

My alarm clocks can wakeup anyone within 10m or so of them - regardless of walls... except me...

So it's time to check out self-imposed Behaviour Modification again - all the days in the working week = ice coffee, 1 > 10m delay = no ice coffee... There's a sheet next to me for recording it... let's see...

I could always try finding one of these unexploded landmines to use as an alarm clock - that oughtta do the trick...

How's this one?

Firstly - why not try preaching evangelical Christianity in a conservative Islamic country?

Second - as foreigners - let's go to Kandahar - one of the most dangerous parts of the country...

Thirdly - why not get on a normal public bus service driving from the most dangerous provinces where the buses are often stopped by the Taleban?

The strange thing is that it took until the bus got well past the half way point in Ghazi until they were kidnapped...

Amazing - fantastic - brilliant... Evolution is @ work...

Everyone here knows that going to Kandahar is a bad idea unless you're a local / international who really knows the place - they know going by road is kinda risky, and that using the public buses is a bloody stupid idea.

I'm not normally known for being lazy - I work pretty hard at most things...

But I seem to be immune to alarm clocks. 3 phones trying to wake me up - 0 success. If I can sleep through an earthquake how is the phone ever gonna work?

I need to get back to morning bike rides - but here - that's a little tricky...

OK ... I know this is a very technical person's way of looking at world issues / philosophy...

Let's say you have a computer in a tough, dusty environment. Now - what you need is the knowledge and initial equipment to earth the power system, put in surge protectors, block and clean the dust regularly.

But where do you get that from? More over, where do you get the idea to do that from?

Let's Google!! - oh wait, hang on, that's another language...

Maybe someone will come from somewhere else and show me - but hang on - that person needs money... and most of them would probably would rather stay at home...

But then maybe I don't actually need what they know about somewhere else - I need part of what they know - but it's kinda different here...

What's the most likely outcome? Well, chances are we're stuck replacing things that blow up...

Something's gotta change - and I reckon we can here - skill enough folk and publish the info bringing together both the local and outside touch into a unique distribution network - it might just work...

How unhealthy is living in your office?

I'm wondering... it seems like somehow there has to be some kinda undisciplined self discipline - that you have to control yourself to work and not to work - and somehow stop the places from merging into one...

Where does it start that if I work beyond this point x to point y that actually it's more productive to call it a night? It's finding those uniquely individual balances - timing combinations etc. where the secret lies...

I love my job - no doubt - perhaps that's part of the problem. If I didn't then I could just as easily sit all the out of office hours somewhere else watching DVDs...

I'm a definite believer in working hard - damn right - without it nothing ever got done.... But I'm wondering where the right balance is - consider...

Is working so long actually partly a sign that you're working inefficiently? Or that you're not delegating and supporting others effectively? Is it that you're actually somehow not shooting in the right direction? Perhaps you don't have it adequately valued by others such that a reasonable amount makes a reasonable amount to live off in the rest of the time?

Of course in starting anything that's where it's really gonna be tough. Then how long should that go on for?

Putting my mind back over the last year - it occurred to me that I really perhaps should have done more at an earlier stage for training / supporting / then delegating - but then - some issues... well it just wouldn't have been possible- maybe even after spending the whole year doing training - to get new folks ready to take them on - fundamentally - how long will it take me to train more people to do this to create the sustainable capacity vs. when does the customer demand that this get done and how much time is it gonna take now?

Then technology comes and throws something else into the mix - you can somehow come to the middle ground - where you create a bit of a toolkit first - then the training can be based on that. One could argue it's just McDonaldisation by the backdoor - I would say not really - and particularly in emerging markets it's going to be more and more important to create the toolkits that make the more complex work a bit more reproducable.

In Afghanistan are we ever going to reach the stage where every office has a competent Linux (e.g. relatively advanced) IT Administrator able to manage all the services, optimize connectivity, make it all work faster, and keep the system secure? uh, not now anyway...

Is it possible that we could create toolkits / standardised products that could be put in en-masse with control panels that then enable them to run it with advanced remote support if required? Why, yes - that might be possible...

So where are we at now? Well we're at effective decision making rule #0 - consider the options...

Then let's go back to the original point - how do we best make sure our mind is ready to consider all the options? Well - my plan for that - more project management - more systems to clean it all up - and a new house down the road ;)