Directory · W
New here? Start with the premise →
Weather
3 min read · 709 words
Weather is both the external conditions of the environment and the internal weather of the inhabitant’s own state. Both vary continuously. Both affect operations more than the inhabitant tends to register.
The hardware was tuned in continuous contact with external weather. The temperature, the precipitation, the wind, the light — these were continuous inputs to operations, and behavior adjusted to them constantly. The modern inhabitant runs in conditions that buffer external weather substantially — climate-controlled buildings, weatherproof clothing, indoor activities — with the result that awareness of external weather has diminished, and the inputs that external weather provided to the system’s calibration have substantially reduced.
The internal weather runs continuously regardless of external buffering.
THE INTERNAL WEATHER NOT REGISTERED
Some inhabitants have substantial awareness of their internal weather. Many run with limited awareness, with the result that the internal weather affects operations without being registered as a contributing factor.
The inhabitant does not notice they are in low-energy weather. They conclude the day is going badly.
The inhabitant does not notice they are in irritable weather. They conclude the people around them are difficult.
The inhabitant does not notice they are in heightened weather. They conclude the small thing was actually large.
The weather was the variable. The inhabitant attributed the effect to something else.
WEATHER AS IDENTITY
The inhabitant in low mood concludes they are depressed as a state of being. The inhabitant in high energy concludes the configuration is permanent.
Both readings are usually wrong. The internal weather varies. What was present this morning will likely not be present this evening. What is present today will likely shift across the week. The misreading of weather as identity produces inhabitants who make permanent-feeling decisions during transient internal configurations — and then live with the decisions long after the weather that produced them has moved on.
DISMISSING INTERNAL WEATHER ENTIRELY
The opposite failure mode.
The inhabitant attempts to run continuous uniform output regardless of what state they are actually in. The configuration produces continuous strain — working against current weather rather than with it. The inhabitant who would have produced their best demanding work during higher-capacity weather, and easier maintenance work during lower-capacity weather, gets uniform mediocre output by running uniform demands across all conditions.
The weather was free information. The inhabitant declined to use it.
DEVELOPING WEATHER AWARENESS
Across the day, what state is the inhabitant actually in? How is it changing? What conditions or events are producing the shifts?
For external weather: what conditions is the environment producing, and what response would they warrant?
The honest reading often surfaces information the inhabitant was operating around without registering. Once registered, the information becomes usable.
WORKING WITH WEATHER RATHER THAN AGAINST IT
The demanding cognitive work scheduled for the typically higher-capacity weather. The routine work scheduled for the typically lower-capacity periods. The conversations that require presence scheduled for when the inhabitant is actually in conditions to be present. The recovery operations scheduled during the periods when the inhabitant is genuinely low rather than during prescribed times that may not match actual state.
The configuration produces more from the same total capacity than the configuration that ignores weather.
EXTERNAL WEATHER ALSO WARRANTS RESPONSE
The day with substantial weather warrants different operations than the mild day. The season that constrains outdoor operations warrants substitute operations rather than the same configuration. The dramatic weather event — the storm, the heat wave, the unusual cold — warrants attention rather than the assumption that operations should continue as if conditions were normal.
The hardware evolved with weather as a meaningful input. Treating it as background noise discards the calibration the system was built around.
WEATHER IN OTHERS
Notice what weather the other person appears to be in before responding.
The same input lands differently in different weather. The inhabitant who has not registered the weather often produces effects that the same input would not have produced in different conditions — and then is puzzled when the response makes no sense relative to what was offered. The puzzle clears if the weather is registered.
The conditions vary continuously, externally and internally. Operating with awareness of weather is one of the operations that distinguishes calibrated operation from generic operation.