Communities::Design->Discussion

On the previous page are listed two Tiers: Tier 1 and Tier 2. The top tier lists a number of roles (trades and professions). The bottom tier also lists a number of roles. The large green box denotes an entire community at 2,640' on a side, or a quarter section. Each of the smaller coloured boxes at 240px on a side denote a cluster. Within these are six properties of 180' on a side (60px x 60px). The first tier represents the best guess as to who should come on the property first to help get it started. The second tier is as the name implies: those who are needed, but as a second layer.

When attempting to place both tiers in the same physical two dimensional space, a problem arose. The text from the second tier obscured the text from the first tier. To solve this, the text was first moved below center (from top to bottom). At that point is was realized that a decision had to be made as to who in the second tier should match up with those in the first tier. This couldn't be done! At least not if those in the two tiers would be expected to live together. Planned marriages, anyone? From a systems point of view, it would be wonderful if this could be done. It would eliminate one more uncertainty.

At the same time as I was realizing this vast, complex problem, I happened upon an service for someone who was in the process of building a tiny home. This is a home with a small footprint that could fit one or two people. This past weekend, a small group of students got together and set up a makeshift shelter made of pallets that they proceeded to stay in overnight, to raise money for an organization seeking to make it easier for ordinary peole to own a home. Given my own experience building, I was tempted to solve this problem by having everyone build their own micro shelter! It would be just as easy doing it this way as it would be to try to solve the tricky matching problem.

In fact, it was here that I was realizing how much is expected of the average married couple. Do multiple unrelated things at the same time, from the same space. From a programming perspective this is a bad idea. A program works better if it does one thing well, than if it is expected to do multiple things well, at the same time. If we liken people to programs (for the sake of understanding how they work and process information), then it can be seen how a person can "jam" when trying to carry out multiple tasks and achieve multiple goals from a single space. In fact, this is a benefit of working out of the home. It removes the work tasks fro the living space and leaves this space for relational and family related matters, rather than work.