Welcome to the Porismos Project1 – it is basically an experiment to look at two things:-
- Life simplification I usually approach tasks with a lot of planning/preparation before I start. Procrastinating some might call it! Most things separate into neat subject areas, which creates multiple notebooks and then multiple facebook, email and other accounts. This leads to a complex set of accounts. passwords etc which all take time to manage. The object is to simplify life
- Communication. Is it possible to have a central place for communication to reach both a wide general audience and more specific groups at a single accessible location. The object to simplify communications.
The overall objective is that I am looking for a single integrated space to make communication of “stuff” easier with everybody.
I am now retired, so life should not be complicated but it just still seems to be. I don’t tend to sit around, but somehow still find ways to get distracted and so not achieve things I would like. One of the big things currently filling my planning times is how do I improve the environment I operate in to allow me to achieve more, become more efficient if you like. It is not about achieving more financial gain, or business gain more about gaining more “life”. You will soon notice that I am a Christian, and what it means to “live life well” is important in what ever circumstance you find yourself in, I am sure at some point you will see a “blog” on the subject.
The second part of the experiment is communications based. There are so many ways to “communicate” these days – first email and then the explosion of “multimedia” applications. Somebody must have done a survey on the use of the multimedia applications asking questions like how many accounts people hold and which is the principal “app” used for communication. I’d also ask how does the applications use vary depending on communications across the generations?
I have multiple applications for communications and obviously not all friends use the same one. Also some of the friends don’t use a single app, but multiple. This just adds the communications question – “Did Fred contact me on Messenger, WhatsApp or Txt last time ?”. A further move from the simplicity of life rather than enhancing it.
This all leaves me convinced that simplifying life is one of the hardest things to do.
- Called the Porismos project because as an active Christian I wanted a word that was meaningful and expressed something. The word “porismos” in Greek means to “gain”. Although it can refer to financial gain, it can also mean to gain in terms of wellbeing. “But Godliness with contentment is great gain,” is how it is written in the NIV Bible ↩︎