ambiguity

Few months back, I read in a self improvement book that whenever your boss assigns you with work, he doesn't know 80% of what is to be done.

Over that same few months, I was assigned more and more work, and the pace was so fast that it felt like projects were passed around like changing clothes. I realised that the only way I could finish my work was to make decisions based on the 20% information passed to me. When I think of it in another way, anybody else could have done the same piece of work because I was answering questions and planning what to do based on the 20% information. The difference is, whether the answer is right or wrong. 

When I first started work here 6 months ago, I had 2 projects, of which I was spending 50% of my time on each. Now I have 8 projects, of which I am barely spending more than 15% of my time on each. Some are just getting only 5% of my time. I still get by. I also recalled the support work I was doing in my previous job, and the times I told my boss that if I didn't have to do support, I would be able to do more. After getting rid of support work, unfortunately by quitting, I was able to see how much capacity I actually had. Surprisingly, a lot, and my boss still thinks I still can be loaded with 2 or 3 more projects =.='

The only "warning" I issued was I can't multitask if you want me to cook and wash the floor at the same time, I can't, but if you want me to multitask in terms of brain work, I have no problems, I can have 10 or 20 problems uploaded in my brain and as long as I get the time to download them from my brain. I really feel the drag my hands are to my brain when I spent the last whole month preparing a tender evaluation report and letter of award. I didn't even use 1% of my brain and couldn't even get any other work done. However, once I was done with the hand work, I managed to solve the whole month's worth back log of problems that have been queueing up. This also made me think that if I didn't have to use my hands at all, I would still have capacity, but that's not very realistic because I am not stephen hawking.

Back to ambguity. I realised that how I got around juggling my work is like playing a game of sudoku. The board is likely to be only filled with 5% of the answers, but given the rules, I have to think of heuristics to convert all the blanks into a constraint satisfaction problem, and then start filling the blanks, starting from the most constrained. I am like the doctor only seeing you for 5 minutes, but there are other people to do the data gathering and eventually prescription. I can't exactly say that I enjoy being the 'doctor' because I have a forever long queue of patients but I am contributing to the society by being a useful citizen, and my 20 years investment in education is fully utilised.

What inspired me to come into terms with ambiguity was that self improvement book telling me that anyone, given 100% of the information, will be able to make the right decision. I recalled all the mathematical problem solving our education system put us through. We were given only 20% of the information in the form of a question, and we had to work out more information to help us derive the final answer, and when it's correct, gives you 100% of the information. Now I am solving problems based on 5% information and sometimes no information. It feels like having to piece a 1,000 piece jig saw without the picture. lol 

I think of my current disambiguition cum jig saw puzzle work like the mathematical problems I used to solve. I practise a lot so that I don't make mistakes and I get better each time, so even with more projects, I get by. Back in school days, out of 400 people, you get the most 5 people (1%) who will get full marks, sometimes none. At work, it's the same, not everyone will score a perfect score with all the problems given to them, but it's likely that the people who always score full marks or near full marks are the same few people. There is a secret to it, they are just not telling you.