This tale is from a lecture, it probably never happened, which in no way makes it less usefull :)
A lecturer placed a jar on his desk and asked his students "Is this jar full?"
"No" replied the students
He filled it with golf balls and asked "Is it full now?"
"Yes" replied the students
He then poured beans between the holes left by the golf balls "What about now?"
"Yes" replied the students
He produced a jar of sand and poured it to fill the gaps left by the beans "And now?"
"Yes, it's completely full" replied the students
He then took a tea bag and balanced it carefully upon the jar of balls and beans and sand.
"What is the point of this?" asked a student, finally losing patience
"This jar represents your life" replied the professor "The balls represent everything that is truely important. The state of your friendships. Your health. The beans represent things that are not central to a good life, but are important to maintain, such as your job or your car. The sand represents all of the little day to day things, a certain deadline, a particular annoyance."
"What's your point?" queried the student
"It would have been possible to fill the jar with sand first. Or to put in the beans before the balls. But that would've left no more space for the balls. The thing to learn from this is to concern yourself first with what is truely important before worrying about more minor problems, because if you fill your days with those you will soon find that the life waiting for you once you solve them is worth little."
Most of the students were satisfied, but one noticed something had still gone unexplained and asked "What about the teabag?"
"Ahh" said the professor "That is the most important thing. That we can balance a teabag on the jar, even when it appears completely full, tells us that no matter what is going on in life, no matter how busy you think you are, there is always time to have a cup of tea with an old friend"
Unknown "Zombie Overlord"
- 16 years, 10 months ago