TRANSLATE GAME
SKIP INTRO
Translate the highlighted words as you listen to the song
In
the
summer
of
1997
NASA's
Pathfinder
spacecraft
landed
on
the
surface
of
Mars
And
began
transmitting
incredible
iconic
images
back to
Earth
But
several
days
in
something
went
terribly
wrong
The
transmissions
stopped
Pathfinder
was
in effect
procrastinating
Keeping
itself fully
occupied
but
failing
to
do
its
most
important
work
What
was
going on
?
There
was
a
bug
it
turned out
in
its
scheduler
Every
operating system
has
something
called the
scheduler
That
tells
the
CPU
how long
to
work
on
each
task
before
switching
And
what
to
switch to
Done
right
computers
move
so
fluidly
Between
their
various
responsibilities
They
give
the
illusion
of
doing
everything
simultaneously
But
we
all
know
what
happens
when
things
go wrong
This
should
give
us
if
nothing else
some measure of
consolation
Even
computers
get
overwhelmed
sometimes
Maybe
learning
about
the
computer science
of
scheduling
Can
give us some
ideas
about our own
human
struggles
with
time
One of the
first
insights
is
that
all the time
You
spend
prioritizing
your
work
Is
time
you
aren't spending
doing
it
For instance
let's say
when
you
check
your
inbox
You
scan
all
the
messages
Choosing
which
is
the
most
important
Once
you've
dealt with
that
one
you
repeat
Seems
sensible
but
there's
a
problem
here
This
is
what's
known as a
quadratic-time
algorithm
With
an
inbox
that's
twice as full
these
passes
will
take
twice as long
And
you'll
need
to
do
twice
as many of
them!
This
means
four
times
the
work
The
programmers
of
the
operating system
Linux
Encountered
a
similar
problem
in
2003
Linux
would
rank
every
single
one
of
its
tasks
in order of
importance
And
sometimes
spent
more
time
ranking
tasks
than
doing
them
The
programmers'
counterintuitive
solution
Was
to
replace
this
full
ranking
With
a
limited
number
of
priority
'buckets'
The
system
was
less
precise
about
what to do
next
But
more
than
made up for
it
by
spending
more
time
making progress
So
with
your
emails
insisting on
always
doing
The very most
important
thing
first
Could
lead to
a
meltdown
Waking up
to
an
inbox
three
times
fuller
than
normal
Could
take nine times longer
to
clear
You'd
be
better off
replying
in
chronological
order
or
even
at
random!
Surprisingly
sometimes
giving up on
doing
things
in
the
perfect
order
May be
the
key
to
getting them done
Another
insight
that
emerges
from
computer
scheduling
Has to do with
one of the
most
prevalent
features
Of
modern
life
interruptions
When
a
computer
goes from
one
task
to
another
It
has to do
what's called
a
context
switch
Bookmarking
its
place
in
one
task
Moving
old
data
out of
its
memory
and
new
data
in
Each
of
these
actions
comes
at a cost
The
insight
here
is
that
there's
a
fundamental
tradeoff
Between
productivity
and
responsiveness
Getting
serious
work
done
means
minimizing
context
switches
But
being
responsive
means
reacting
anytime something
comes up
These
two
principles
are
fundamentally
in
tension
Recognizing
this
tension
allows
us
To
decide
where
we
want
to
strike
that
balance
The
obvious
solution
is
to
minimize
interruptions
The
less
obvious
one
is
to
group
them
If
no
notification
or
email
requires
a
response
More
urgently
than
once
an
hour
say
Then
that's
exactly
how
often
you
should
check
them
No
more
In
computer science
this
idea
goes by the name of
interrupt
coalescing
Rather than
dealing
with
things
as
they
come up
The
mouse
was
moved
?
A
key
was
pressed
?
More
of
that
file
downloaded
?
The
system
groups
these
interruptions
together
Based on
how long
they
can
afford
to
wait
In
2013
interrupt
coalescing
Triggered
a
massive
improvement
in
laptop
battery life
This
is
because
deferring
interruptions
lets
A
system
check
everything
at once
Then
quickly
re-enter
a
low-power state
As
with
computers
so it is with
us
Perhaps
adopting
a
similar
approach
Might
allow
us
users
to
reclaim
our
own
attention
And
give us back
one of the
things
that
feels
so rare
in
modern
life
rest