Modern Economics appreciation by Gaming.

In a GURPS discussion about jobs, I just realized some interesting parallels about Modern and Ancient Economics.

• One interesting parallel is how Government Hoarding of Gold is similar to the Central Bank raising interest rates. Choking the money supply can increase its buying power to an extent, farmers who have saved up coinage can substitute cash for owed labor.

• How it is not the purity of the metal used for coinage but the over supply of the coinage that causes rapid inflation. How an army, like that of Frederic during the Crusades moved through Byzantium carrying so much gold and spending it in these byzantine cities increased the overall supply of gold and thus raising the prices of the goods they sought.

• As an example the historic inflation of gold when spain brought it over from the new world. Prices soared yet the gold was pure.

• How Kings, princes and lords and their monetary policy work much like a government. With lords passing on the complaints of farmers as inflations makes the cost of living much less tolerable. Where the prince, king or emepror has to make declarations for a certain good like grain (e.g. 1 solidus for 1 modii, 1 penny for 2lbs of bread) just to ease the injustice and abuse.

• Also note how slow this processes is compared to modern times, unlike today where there is tracking of inflation and proactive measures in place. By the time corrective action comes by the emperor's decree much human suffering has occurred already. A hardworking freefamer would have become a serf, or his daughters sold off, his sons run-away to the cities. An entire village can be abandon, depending on how merciful or cruel its owners.

  One lesson to take to the game table is that, when there is an event, inflation goes up. Depending on the kind of event: Low Yield Harvest, Bumper Crop, War, Famine, etc. In a bumper crop where farmer s and villages benefit from their greater supply of goods vs the actual "monetary cost" going for them. Farmers can accumilate coin in such an event. In war, famine, building projects and low yielding harvest, inflation goes up because goods become scarcer thus their prices goes up.

When the largest and most powerful institution starts a lot of spending bringing about a larger supply of money, this raises the cost of goods but also raises the quality of life in the immediate vicinity. Suddenly there is money to spare. Soldiers paid begin having money to spend. In the heirarchy of needs, other needs start getting attention as well as other vices.

Inflation and Escalation is a standard in a world in flux because some where out there a good or commodity increases/decreases in supply. Going back to "golden age" levels of inflation doesn't happen without preventing necessary change. This change can be technology, climate, the titter of the scales of social justice, and ebb and flow of population.

Economics being taken forgranted.

In a previous discussion with my wife, one interesting thing about economics is how it is taken for-granted because it is so difficult to measure and predict. Even when studies prove that the economists are statistically wrong all the time (from her CFA book), these same critics still rely on the system they say is wrong. I think they have yet to isolate what is "wrong" and their definition of "wrong". Sometimes any actions/policy is good as it keeps us moving forward and not repeating what is bringing more harm.

The discussion was brought about by her CFA lectures that have many critical things to say about economics... but fails to provide any useful suggestions, recommendations or proposals. A rule of thumb with criticism, if the critic cannot imagine a solution or how to come to a solution then it ceases being constructive or a critical thinking exercise¹

That rule of thumb is pretty useful in determining how well-meaning vs conscious or unconcscious malice in a criticism. That fact, that there is no useful forward moving suggestions makes me find such criticism useles. Its like complaining about something no-one else can prevent or stop, where there is no constructive-ness in the action like measring and assessing the situation, it's just a waste of time and not even worth note.

My opinion differs greatly because my historical appreciation is enhanced by gaming. The first example that point out how costs were arbitrary and economics helped fix a lot of things we take forgranted today was in a lecture about Levantine Empires². On how slavery through debt was epidemic, successive civiliazations made many laws to prevent such from happening again and how those laws can be found in Islam. Same such problems happened in other cultures, where the costs of living these individuals thought they could pay was so flawed they ended up in perpetual servitude and slavery³.

Its easy to imagine a world without our conveniences when you role-play these worlds often or play them out in your head as a GM.

1The Art of Critical Decision Making by Micheal Roberto

2Empires before Alexander

3 Some forms of slavery is more sustainable for an individual when they can take advantage of the buffers and defenses of a larger and self sufficient household. Note that in modern concepts of social order, one can achieve the same buffers under a more liberated relationship among equals, in a community. But such social order requires a large amount of wisdom, philosophy, and awareness of individual rights.

ISW missile breakdown and other missiles

this is my calculations as I broke down the missile stats in ISW. I assumed a certain proportion (as seen in the length vs diameter). I also converted each cylinder, squaring its diameter to get the volume to allow it to fit in a cube compartment.

My assumption is that the 200mm is 2m long (size modifier +0~ish). As the missile got bigger the damage progressed following the diameter (under the same proportions 1:10). So even if the missile got 8x bigger in mass and volume, the warhead which proportionally got bigger only increased in damage by x2.

So here is the stats of the other missiles with these assumptions. Note that from these calculations, there are 176 missiles in 1Dton (500cubic feet or 14.ish m^3) if you see anything wrong please correct me.

Diameter in mm	Length in mm	Size	Area of Circle		Volume of Cylinder in mm^3		Vol. of Cylinder in m^3		Volume Variance	Diameter Variance	Mass (Tons)	No. per Dton	dice	dDmg Average
100mm	1,000 mm	SM-2	7,854mm^2		7,853,981.63		0.01m^3				0.02	1415.84	6	21
200mm	2,000 mm	SM+0	31,416mm^2		62,831,853.07		0.06m^3		8.00	2.00	0.15	176.98	12	42
300mm	3,000 mm	SM+1	70,686mm^2		212,057,504.12		0.21m^3		3.38	1.50	0.51	52.44	18	63
500mm	5,000 mm	SM+2	196,350mm^2		981,747,704.25		0.98m^3		4.63	1.67	2.34	11.33	30	105
700mm	7,000 mm	SM+3	384,845mm^2		2,693,915,700.45		2.69m^3		2.74	1.40	6.43	4.13	42	147
1000mm	10,000 mm	SM+4	785,398mm^2		7,853,981,633.97		7.85m^3		2.92	1.43	18.75	1.42	60	210

Eric's Dominion: GURPSLand

I wish I saw this before. An awesome web resource for gurps. So much stuff and plus he made the GURPS Spaceships spreadsheet.

Eric's Dominion: GURPSLand:

'via Blog this'

with better understanding comes higher standards...

I had to redo my ship generation spreadsheet. The back-room calculations and the tables had to be cleaned up a bit. Cleaning up a spreadsheet while formatting the "worksheet" to look more pleasant and understandable eats up a lot of time. Also I've made a system to make all my backroom calculations well documented and annotated, so that I can easily modify it and find my way around if I made some mistakes or need to further modify the system for my house rules.

I'm at step 4 in the ISW ship creation. I will work on 5 to 6 next week. I think it eats up about 4-5 hours a week fixing this.

Renewing my JTAS subscription. So i will be making the spreadsheet follow ISW and JTAS (gurps) canon as well as purchasing some stuff from E23 for collection and support purposes (more than actual use).

That reminds me that I have to renew my JTAS subscription, problem is that our credit card, dedicated and special for online transactions was compromised. There is an internet credit card scam that only kicks in every few months, and charges only a small amounts. Hiding itself conveniently among my PDF purchases. The wife and I had to research through our finances we found out it wasn't anything any of us bought and just typing the company charges up brought up a lot of results warning that it is a credit card scam. So it will be a while before i can input again our credit card online.

Man, making these spreadsheets eat up time. I wonder how many other ISW GM's are out there. I just started using Google Alerts for Traveller and GURPS Stuff.

On a Roll, but Real Life has come up.

Thanks to Dan, DC, and Ken. I'm on a roll right now, if not for real life obligations and duties. I'm prettying up the Spreadshseet while testing how well it works. To minimize distractions, I plan to allow for only canon Ship design options as per Mgelis articles and the ISW book.

Inclusive in the workshseet are some building notes. I got carried away cleaning up Step 2 and 3, while inadvertently making step 4. Step 1 was supposed to be the Benchmarks and notes on Doctrinal Sizes and the cliff notes on how each has changed per TL.

I promised myself to stick to ISW and Mgelis's articles, then fill out the other nagging details later on. there are a lot of ideas bugging me:

Ultra-Tech and Special Warhead and Missiles. Mgelis has an article on scouts that detail missile drones. Ultra Tech and the JTAS article "Common Fighters of Third Imperium" has stat breakdown of missiles allowing you to use the other warhead type like: Jammers, EMP, swarm etc. I cannot tackle this until I finish the basic ship creation.

In combination with reading Atomic Rockets, to keep me grounded. There are still a lot of things that can be done despite the limitations it imposed. You cannot overcome line of sight, unless you intentionally put something between LoS that can screw with visual and thermal passive sensors.

Also I think the assumptions of Traveller sci-fi Tech vs that of Atomic Rockets de-mystifies should be put on a list.

How many guns can a gunner coordinate? I have to make a rule for this. but plan that fire control is one person, even on a warship. In a warship, despite there is only one Gunner who controls all the weapons he has to coordinate with the EW (electronic warfare) officer. I have to figure out what the Gunner does or what role he plays in a non-combat condition. Also consolidate the differences between UT computers and ISW computers.

Details about Sensor, Com and EW officers. There are multiple roles of officers, so that the GM and players have a better idea of how to allocate officers/specialists is by simply dividing the focus on Combat/Emergency Status and Non-emergency/Non-Combat Status.

I will have to dedicated post on attention/job allocations for bridge crew. There are tasks that require full concentration and attention, and are long ongoing actions in a combat scenario. Then there is the Job-load of an officer in a non-combat scenario.

Detailing this will give some flexibility and guidelines for players and GMs for ad-hoc actions. eventually there is a limit of options, but it will always be an exercise of creativity, preparation, innovation to develop ones own approach/doctrine.

All non-missile weapons fire pinpoints of energy but... The fire pattern in a 30min round of non-missile weapons appear to be cones, with a very narrow oval at its base, with its widest measure equal to the distance the target has traveled. The Ranges are a built in aspect of the fire-control computer where it cannot effectively manage the fire pattern anymore.

All non-missile weapons fire a constant beam or a continuous, very rapid bursts.

Bay weapons and Spinal Weapons and Turrets. Since Bay and Spinal weapons eat up turrets, a Carrier's. Troop Carrier, and Auxiliaries have the most turrets for its size. Strangely it is the fighters carried by Capital Ships, not just carriers, which provide them valuable point defense.

Big Missiles 500mm and Point defense Doctrine. even if missile volume triples when the diameter doubles, the damage just doubles. So even if the damage and energy packed by a warhead is x3, gurps damage is just x2, it follows that rule in GURPS where damage dice progresses slower than the actual energy.

Still, considering missiles and the sizes they can take in these modern times, even with miniaturization compensating to keep sizes much like modern times. Swarming the enemy with enough missiles that their defenses cannot cope in ranges far greater than they can effectively defend against is still an avenue to pursue.

Considering that Honoverse has thoroughly created a doctrine how such engagements work, its easier to figure out the limits of the method. Hi-Accel, and stealthed drones with powerful sensor or fighters can allow warships to launch these missiles of greater endurance and firepower at such great range (light seconds or minutes away in ambushes), which can reach speeds that allow them to overwhelm the defense layers of other ships.

Missile arrays that take up 8 to 10 turrets, sacrifice 16-20 point defense opportunities for the ability to launch 24-36 200mm missiles. Thats is going to be a juggling act. and a decision that will need me to figure out how many 300mm and 500mm missiles I can fit in such arrays.

A small bit of calculation, a light missile array occupies 27-32ksf.

8 Ship Escort for a Squadron. this is the doctrine according to Mgelis. My first concern was how to visualize this, where are the ships positioned? Then I imagined a D8 where each ship in in a center of a Die's facing relative to the ship it is escorting, that escorted ship is in the very center of the D8.

When enemy facing is determined, practical geometric formations are another thing I have to figure out in the future.

Day Dreaming some more work for myself. Fun thing about dreaming is that the possibilities are endless and one can dwell in that reality for that brief instant of its inception.

Not just stopping at the spreadsheet that can generate warships and macro that lets me keep building a detailed stat block of such. The next would be a 3d Template or Blender 3d guidelines to make warships and space ships in general. That means documentation of how to arrange for a 3d ship, internally and externally.

Documentation that is very idiot proof (since I always assume I will forget everything I learned, that I could be that very idiot). That can allow any sci-fi gamer to just grab Blender and install a list of other stuff necessary, then build a traveller warship. Then allow that gamer to render the ship in realistic detail (there are rendering services that get it done very quickly if you can't leave your pc or its slave to render), along with other useful props like planets and space stations.

Note learning curve plus a basic warship design project will take about 40 man hours initially, spread out in a few months. Its like building a model ship, but this is 3d.

This has its uses in a semi-practical pursuit. the ability to quickly generate props for a Game or 3d Animated Sci-fi adventure show (maybe 10minutes long each episode for youtube). Imagining the logistics of how to make such a show, makes me want to start listing and organizing the amount of time each action needed and listing all the skills and personnel needed (something my Multi-Media degree has prepared me for).

Too bad there not much other gamer geeks in the BPO industry :(

Stuck, looking for Spreadsheet functions

I'm stuck. I've been working on a ship building spreadsheet for ISW traveller. Using it as an exercise to learn spreadsheets.

how to reference several arrays? When choosing a shape, it narrows the streamlining options for the ship. Some structures don't have any streamlining options, like diffused hull ships. Now I want to make a list field in the Form control that changes its refence array as it changes choice of shape.

Vlookup is not working. There is something strange happening in my spreadsheet. Vlookup is not working, I found a long winded work around to the problem above but I can't execute it because all my vlookup functions are not working (error:502). I don't get it, some vlookup formulas are working others are not. I double and tripple checked, rewrote them again and reread everything. No clue why.

Recalculate randbetween function. F9 is supposed to recaclualte certain randbetween but it is not working. Looked around and all the help I found online say F9 to recalculate. Anyway, I'm supposed to make a macro targeting one cell, for recalculation down the line. I need to be able to learn to do this If I plan to make a character generator spreadsheet.

Export or Reference macro or function. After all the stats are generated, I need to be able to express all of the data into a stat block. Ideally all can be exported to a text file to be easily cut and pasted for an article. The function list is not detailed in description, I really need to find the time to go through function per function and look at what they really do in detail.

Currently i have colds and a bit of a fever, but the head ache its giving is not helping and stressing me even more.

Other dream spreadsheet projects:

• Harn/GURPS character creation spreadsheet. Using Harn character generator but automatically converting to GURPS equivalent.
• System Generator > a more detailed economic system generator
• Trade Tables Generator

Reading the Black Company Again. Half way through Shadows Linger.

Open source Ecology: Sustainable Communities

I invite the Sci-fi geeks who like to imagine how the future might look like check out Open Source Ecology.

It follows the premise I first heard about from Warhammer 40k. As humanity spread out into the stars, they used easily self-sustaining tech to quickly bring themselves at TL6-8 level and able to maintain that TL indefinitely because of Idiot proof ways to make the necessary tools and idiot proof way to keep everything running as efficiently as possible.

I personally want to contribute, particularly in the tractor project. Like any GM who had done their agricultural studies from Medieval Historical RPGs, I'm quite aware of the drawbacks and economies of how animal based labor works and how technology (from TL5 industrial age to present modern age TL8) compares and improves on it.

I think the Open source engineers can really make a case when you can make a "business plan" for the tractor. A plan of how the tractor (or microtractor) can quickly make its return-on-investment. Other than accomplishing the task of a Carabao/Waterbuffalo, a tractor can help create roads, remap the village, it can plow: new irrigation, ponds, rain catchers, water reservoirs, canals, create dykes, etc. It can possibly move building materials (to be combined with the brick maker to create many sturdier structures for storage and other uses), or small houses (like the Nipa Huts of farmers).

Each project for the tractor and the open source tech is insight to what goes on in a self sustaining community of the future and the same time exercising a mental puzzle of value generating work for a very basic community like the one these tools are meant for.

A simpler exercise: Interstellar Wars Ship Creation Spreadsheet using Forms Control

I started making Traveller: Interstellar Wars Ship Creation Spreadsheet. Its doing well so far. The reason I moved to this project instead of the character sheet is because, I don't need to learn (libreOffice database) Base to finish this project.

The ISW Spreadsheet is mostly putting all the tables in One Sheet (tables) and learning how to use some reference functions like Vlookup.

There is a little problem with the Forms Control. When you choose a reference cell, a cell that will be linked to the forms list (a clickable list of options) the exported value has an apostrophe before it. This ruined the vlookup values when there was a comma seperator with some of the values, causing error.

I figured out a way around it is by giving it a formula that allow its to recalculate it self =(datalinked cell)*1. It removed the apostrophe from the result and allowed the vlookup to operate normally.

Currently i'm having second thoughts about using the Hull Precalculated Table and allow the player to determine the exact hull size he/she wants, since I already have the formula for most aspects (surface area and cost).

The spreadsheet follows the ship creation steps. I plan to break from the ISW book in terms of ship type conventions since it is not as consistent with Mgelis's Jtas articles and doctrines. I will borrow some aspects from Honorverse wikia (like allowing for the construction of Q ships).

I am influenced by Lost Fleet in the definition of Auxiliary ships (which is not the same as Honorverse). I want to emphasize the automation that brings down manpower requirement. Basically making automation a late TL10 option, this is standard and an improved feature of TL11, with the option of further enhanced automation features. I don't know how I'm going to implement this yet, but I'm very open to suggestions. These non-cannon options will be given a special place in the table so that people can easily take or leave it.

Another part of the Ship Creation system is the option of Carrier Role. How many small ships it can carry and figuring out all the logistics for that.

One of the last steps in ship creation is the Job Loading or the Manpower needs of the ship. I find this another fun part to look forward to because it is a easier iteration of Time and Motion study. I think I need to finish the basic Canon version before implementing the automation changes.

Progress is Slow, Using LibreOffice Writer to make a Charactersheet

Progress is slow. Here is a sample sheet which allows me to write characters, player and description. This process is taking a while. Unfortunately, (libreOffice) writer is not the only program I have to learn to use. I have to learn to work with LibreOffice base.

Making a database is also another challenge. I recently figured out how to make list (shift + enter) in writer, but I can't seem to make a list selection for some fields typical of characters like powers level and genre for Base.

There is a huge gap of things to know. Also I realized that google Forms is the EASIEST way to make automated testing, unfortunately one can't just do it all without having to have an internet connection. I though Forms shifted between a spreadsheet and its test paper GUI, I was wrong. When exporting Forms, it becomes a spreadsheet with the answers. I made the wrong assumption it exported everything: the questions and choices.

So when we transcribed our psychological profiling tests at work to google forms, we can't store the test independently. I was completely wrong about how much work it would take to create an automated testing system with just LibreOffice Suite, I thought it would be as easy as Google Forms but not as pretty.

I failed to factor having to learn LibreOffice Basic. There is not much in terms of exercises for LibreOffice basic in the current set of manuals. I still have to find out more about Macros and I haven't successfully executed one except the "hello" exercise.

Now finding time to learn all that between work is going to be another problem.

All hope is not lost, there may be a program out there that can let me make forms easily and allow me to export it to a spreadsheet and vice versa.

Reading. I just finished Lost Fleet Dreadnaught and in the middle of Honorverse Mission of Honor. Now I have the hankering for a Traveller Game, another distraction.

Time and Motion Study. I'm learning to do time and motion study at work. My boss and our new recruitment person is going to help, check, my papers. I wonder if there is a GM out there who has been influenced by the Time and Montion study? A GM who can quickly create man-hour estimates based on complexity, coordination loss, competence, organization, and available manpower for PC actions?

I've mentioned before my sources comes from the BPO industry and practices. Then there are those in military and naval/maritime sources also have such metrics and enough circumstantial details that allows a GM to create a heuristic based on the factors I mentioned in the previous paragraph. I realized there are also such metrics in IT books, like the sources cited by my previous post as well.

If I look at The Combat Leader's Field Guide, there are many heuristics in planning and intelligence analysis found in the book. Particularly when processing data for navigation and forward observation.

Declassified Social Engineering books, also has metrics for conducting very difficult social interactions when it discusses interrogations, interviews, persuasions and negotiations. It shows these metrics in the trials and the amount of time needed for such long actions.

I bought a dummies guide to writing fiction and several writing books I plan to skim for their metrics. I think writing is one of the most useful metrics for mental actions. When i compare the different kinds of writing like: when my wife writes her financial reports, my blogging, the kind I do for my games, the reports at work, it appears to be one of the core skills underlying a multitude of many mental tasks or processes.

I was surprised at how proficient our financial auditor writes his reports and recommendations. It makes me makes me jump to conclusions to how attention to detail and process may have a strong correlation in how organized and clear one writes.

Seeing a Master at work. The way gamers identify various tricks and techniques, I can't help but watch the techniques my boss employs. He is a process expert, a veteran of many mergers, audits, turn-arounds, computerization (which is essentially process overhauls) and difficult negotiations.

In moments, like what I witnessed recently, some clue of what hides behind that vast experience sometimes shows. the clue being that he's done everything and remembers such details so vividly he's got it down to a game. the way he quickly formulates a template and memo, how he actually improvises within a framework shows me the limits of his own abilities, still awes me at how much he's mastered so many templates and processes of not just operations but social approaches.

He has mastered the playbook of how to act and make people feel a certain way. That there really is a playbook, and he's mastered it to a point that he can navigate with his eyes closed. It makes me realize how much time I wasted when I was younger, and I should have been learning such things at the foot at a master instead of wasting time daydreaming.

Well I understand the theory, hopefully my son will benefit from my regrets.

Day dreaming Productivity: a min/maxing habit.

I'm currently studying on the side, spending about almost two hours (sometimes 4 hours) reading and doodling these kinds of productivity metrics in the hope to find something useful for fun or for making my work easier. I admit it is a almost constructive form of day dreaming.

Words Per Minute

Composing Words per Minute¹ is the key concept and search term, for such a project to begin. Currently it is at 19wpm². My assumption, where this gets pretty much invalidated, is that composition is a mental task comparible to that of thinking creatively and constructively. I will point out now that I've read the google docs link and its very hard to find definitive that this supports my thesis, but I will still follow through with this thought experiment.

Reading Tests

Time should be made to take Reading Test, not necessarily the link I provided but any one that the munchkin can be confident of the results. I've done my own reading test and I've discoved that I read at 120 words per minute at +90% comprehension. I discovered at this speed, I am inclined to use audio books which speak at 150-160 words per minute at 90% comprehension (assuming a particular level of subject complexity, I had to repeat several economic lectures and philosophy of science lectures, for example.)

Composition Tests

If your a regular blogger, then this is a matter of looking at how long it takes for you to write any post and communicate your point effectively. I have a very low composition speed, composition that is readible enough to pass off as an adult work. I can guage myself at 7 words per minute for my last post (Learning LibreOffice Forms) still with glaring mistakes. This makes me assume the 19wpm in composition is based simple ideas and not exaclty work critical expectations (given the drastic difference).

Measures of Time

In marching, every hour is actually made up of 50mins of marching and 10mins of resting, except the first hour of marching in the day, which is 45mins and 15mins resting and fixing equipment³. Another assumptions of how closely physical exertion limits follow mental exertion limits, which is my own observation and I have no reference except bringing in the argument of substance dualism fallacy.

If one follows the assumption of limits of an hour of action, that being 3/4ths is productive while 1/4 is necessary rest, then 1 hour of mental action can be made up of 45mins. This is an arbitrary assignment. I am actually inclined to use 2/3rds vs 1/3, but in my observations when routines have been established the 3/4ths vs 1/4th rule is more of the median between the deviations, also an observation. So if I take 19wpm, assuming an easy task, or 7 wpm, assuming a complex task, and compare it to an hour of work I would have 855wph and 315wph (good for one page).

A Days worth of Productivity.

In a past post, I talked about a days worth of productivity from experience in call center metrics. In a 10-12hour work day (including going home and meals) 6hours, is the most productive and substantial amount of work in a day. I have that an assumption that the other work hours, the remaining 2 hours, are organizational and clerical tasks like answering emails and some basic reporting. An assumption that has to be taken very very lightly.

Taking the amount of time above into consideration, then 5130wpd and 1890 wpd respectively.

Planning and Output

As a fan of Game of Thrones, I used the first novel as a metrics for comparision. ~1,200,000 Words for the first novel, at a median average of ~4000 words per chapter, and a median average ~300 words per page. If I were to plan writing something so big, I would first consider the military rule of thumb 1/3 planning, 2/3 implementation⁴.

If I were to write 1,200,000 words I must consider the amount of ideas such an edited work would produce. Just assuming how much edits reduce final output to depends on one's understanding of writing factors, especially when there is a consideration of complexity and aesthetics, I would think a draft of 2,400,000 words would be necessary (double). This would mean an implementation of 1269.8 days, assuming 261 days (from our HR; Phil workdays a year) a year of productivity that would be around 4.8 years. Using the 1/3 planning heuristic that would be that would total 7 years overall. Its not even going to guaranteed to be good.

Taking the calculations in another direction, looking at what I can produce with the freetime I have. Assuming 4 hours in a week, I can produce roughly 1260 words which might be edited down to 600 words a week.

Reality and the Hobby

Such metrics, as above, my aspirations for writing my own epic is crushed with glaring reality backed up by my own experiences and observations. Then there is the ability to sustain any dream, given how times change and circumstances change a long with it.

In my experience, given work and obligations, I'm better off planning my little projects monthly with as most 10 hours at my disposal. If 3hours are done for planning, and 7 hours execution, I probably have a 2,205 word output.

Maybe next month I should spend my 10 hours doodling a mind map of an Epic Plot for my Fictional Alternate history 19th Century Philippines Setting.

Planning Tools

One program and tool that I have not used to its full potential is Draw or FreeMind. Mindmapping tools were not only awsome in helping me keep track of complex family trees but also in political/economic relationships, and flow of events.

1 Karat, C.M., Halverson, C., Horn, D. and Karat, J. (1999), Patterns of entry and correction in large vocabulary continuous speech recognition systems, CHI 99 Conference Proceedings, 568–575.

2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute

3Small Wars Manual United States Marines 1940,

4Combat Leader's Field Guide