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When budget allows: Difference between revisions
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“When budget allows” is a [[hypothetical]] time in the future that, like Little Orphan Annie’s ''Tomorrow'', is always there, dangling tantalisingly before us, as each day turns, getting no nearer. It is an [[Indeterminate liability|indeterminate]] time of hope and aspiration: a sunlit dream-time in which there ''will'' be budget to hook up that feed, build out that [[API]] or invest in that brilliant piece of [[legaltech]], for which there is no budget ''now''. | “When budget allows” is a [[hypothetical]] time in the future that, like Little Orphan Annie’s ''Tomorrow'', is always there, dangling tantalisingly before us, as each day turns, getting no nearer. It is an [[Indeterminate liability|indeterminate]] time of hope and aspiration: a sunlit dream-time in which there ''will'' be budget to hook up that feed, build out that [[API]] or invest in that brilliant piece of [[legaltech]], for which there is no budget ''now''. | ||
Logicians will immediately sense a [[paradox]]. If its worth ''now'' fails to pass muster, its [[present value]] should it be delivered at an unknowable point in the henceforth is surely smaller still. The aperture constricts the further out we push. | Logicians will immediately sense a [[paradox]]. If its worth ''now'' fails to pass muster, its [[present value]] should it be delivered at an unknowable point in the henceforth is surely smaller still. The aperture constricts the further out we push. What kind of contortion in [[Space-tedium continuum|spacetime]] must we therefore crawl through, to reach that happy land? | ||
Minds will hardly be put at rest by that glint in the [[middle manager]]’s eye. Presented with some supplicant’s exhortations, he will happily promise to sort it all out ''just as soon as budget allows''. He will say this with confidence and without regret, maintaining eye contact the whole time. He can assure her, in good conscience, that all will, when the appointed time comes, be well. For ''then'' — the notional time in the future ''when budget allows'' — is ''literally'' unknowable. | |||
''It will never be known''. | |||
For if there is not enough interest to shell out for it ''now'', will it be any closer to that threshold ''next'' month, ''next'' quarter, or by the time the ''next'' fiscal budgeting cycle rolls around? | For if there is not enough interest to shell out for it ''now'', will it be any closer to that threshold ''next'' month, ''next'' quarter, or by the time the ''next'' fiscal budgeting cycle rolls around? | ||