Just-In-Time PM #14: Personal Productivity Networks

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In Part 13, we looked at the benefits of Component Thinking, which involves thinking of any product we are working on as made up of subcomponents, which can be evolved or swapped out over time.

Now I’d like to take a step back and consider the big picture of what it means to work in small packets.

The implicit model of human productivity that most people hold is a pipe with a fixed diameter. You can only push so many units of work through the pipe at any one time, so it’s better to dedicate your full bandwidth to one thing before moving on to something else. This is apparent when you hear people turn down new projects or commitments with the phrase “I don’t have the bandwidth.”

But taking the bandwidth metaphor to its natural conclusion, we find an interesting possibility.  The history of telecommunications suggests that a 100-fold increase in bandwidth is possible just by changing the way the network operates.

In the 1990s, internet service providers rolled out “broadband” internet. Within a few short years, connection speeds increased by up to 100 times. DSL and cable connections accomplished this feat by piggybacking on existing twisted pair copper wiring, a technology invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1881.

How was this possible? Through a new invention called packet switching.

Instead of sending the data through one channel, one bit at a time, in a certain order, packet switching networks break up the data stream into discrete packets. These packets were able to fill in the in-between spaces in transmissions that were often wasted.

But this was just the beginning. By individually labeling and tracking each packet, routers were able to send them along multiple pathways to their destination. This allowed them to route around bottlenecks, take advantage of unused capacity anywhere in the network, and resist disruptions, since any lost packets could be sent again.

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