Power Constraints

While flipping channels, I came across Apollo 13. 1995. This was when Tom Hanks was at the height of his powers. There is a scene in the movie where they sequence powering up the LEM module for landing. To recap, these steps have to be done without using 20 amps of power, history style history style. In the knick of time, the team solves the problem to bring the astronauts home.

Then, I started to ponder that folks, me included, struggle to get outside of our own constraints:

• Do developers build for CPU horsepower today or for five years ago?
• Why do I take the same route to work each day? Time? Route? Work start time?
• Should I live where I live? And why do I?
• Should I check my email at the start of the day? Should I use it at all?
• How much is my budget for a project? Can I ask for more? What happens if I use more?

Perhaps, the real question is what are my own perceived constraints? And, more importantly, can/should we change them?