Tag Archives: Engineering

Business, Engineering, Management, Money, Time

TIME AS A RESOURCE

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by R. Srinivasan

Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.
Peter F. Drucker

Peter Drucker is right, of course. Time has immense practical value. Time is money. But do we really understand what time is? We only sense its passing, based on the regular daily rounds of the sun, phases of the moon, devices known as clocks … et cetera. Some people relate time to karma, others relate time to entropy – while others still blame Einstein for all the confusion. After all, if everything in the universe is in ceaseless relative motion, whom can we trust?

When we harken back to our childhood, this inevitable question pops up in the mind: ‘O Father Time! What have you done to me?’ But perhaps that plaint should be addressed to Father Karma? Or to Father God? Is time just another name for God?

Indeed, we have no choice but to be humble. So let us turn to practical matters, related to our livelihoods. We do so by delving into Srini’s first-hand account of his many years of professional experience in the efficient management of time.

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Civilization, Economy, Engineering, Society, Technology

ENGINEERING OR TECHNOLOGY?

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It comes as a slight surprise when we first learn that the word ‘technology’ has its root in the Greek word tekhne, which meant ‘art’; after all, today we understand art as being quite distinct from technology. The older Greek word harks back to the era when technology, in Greece and elsewhere, was much simpler; we may assume that practitioners of tekhne in Greece were viewed much as we view ‘artisans’ today.

It is no surprise, however, to learn that the word ‘engineering’ is rooted in the word ‘engine’; presumably, in the early days of engineering, ‘engines’ of one kind or another dominated the scene. But, to dig deeper, we enquire about the origin of the word ‘engine’. It turns out that ‘engine’ is indirectly rooted in the Latin word for ‘intellect’ or ‘inventiveness’. In fact the English word ‘ingenious’ is close in its form and meaning to the Latin near-equivalent ingenium.

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