random thoughts

Here are a couple random thoughts before I head off to bed.

First, have you noticed that books exhibit flocking behavior? Especially reference books. I get one out to look something up, which leads to another, and pretty soon a good sized flock has accumulated on the desk. If one of them moves, like if I relocate to the dinner table, the rest soon follow. Not all of them, of course -- the flock can split -- but a "fair number" depending on the topic.

Second, what do you suppose the market value of canned time would be? We already sell time: Whole Foods makes a tidy profit selling preprepared dinners, for instance. People who buy those meals pay a premium for the ability to transfer time from cooking to doing something else. So we know time has market value, and it's not infinite. But is it consistent from one product to another? Could you look at the price differences in products and calculate a consistent market value for time? Also, the way we sell time today has a limit: you don't get more than 24 hours in a day, you just get the ability to reallocate those hours. Pure time in a can, that could add more hours to your day, might be a lot more valuable.