Just in Case vs Just in Time

You know when you hear a new idea and you just know it's right...

So a friend of mine was telling me about Just in Case vs Just in time, how it impacts manufacturing (do you keep nuts and bolts just in case you need them, taking up cash and inventory space, or do you keep abreast of what you need and order them, just in time. Traditional manufacturing used to have a lot of just in case stuff lying around, leaner, more profitable manufacturing keeps it's cash and inventory freer and orders things to be just in time. Of course, you need some sensitivity and balance here, but that's the idea in a nutshell) and, more importantly (for me!) are you doing this in your life (as I have no factories to manage.)

Certainly in my life I have plenty of Just in Case (JIC) things in my cupboard - sensible things, like medicines that I don't need now, but keep just in case I get a cold, and, many more foolish things I keep, just in case I might want day need them, or even more likely, find a use for them. I'm actually not one of those people who have great emotional difficulty throwing things out. I like clutter free zones. So if even I can immediately see I have way too many JIC items in my house, I'm pretty sure everyone does.

And I feel that a lot of this JIC stuff is taking up way too much psychic (and financial!) inventory. Sometimes there's not enough room for new thoughts, new people, new ideas in our lives, because we are so cluttered with the backlog of JIC stuff that we are carrying around. I think I could discard some of it and have more options to collect things JIT.

But when I went to google this phrase, I came across all sorts of interesting blogs/information of JIC vs JIT and learning (don't you just love the internet!) Lots of computer people are writing about how we learn - how the entire school learning seems to be JIC information - in case you become a doctor, you need to know this, learn it now, it has no outside world relevance now but learn it any case. There are studies that prove learning information that has no extraneous use is harder to both learn and recall, than learning information that you need to know now (JIT knowledge.) One eg given was - if you buy a new phone and read the instructions, and put them into effect, you are far more like to remember them, than if you read instructions for a phone you don't own and may never want.

Well, if you put it like that, obviously you aren't going to recall the technical specs for phones you don't own or want. But that is how we approach a lot of our teaching of high school kids. And the second I read that I knew it to be true. I know it to be true from my own life experience (how much of what we sweated to learn have we ever referred to in later years?) and from what I see of students learning today.

I do believe there is knowledge that people should have just to be citizens of the world - you don't have to know every historical fact, but a sense of history gives you a sense of time and place, even if you don't know why you need to know it right now. However, if you embed history in a story that the students find relevant they are far more likely to listen in the first place and be able to recall it later.

Ditto with science and math. If I give you math problems which are totally abstract (my personal bete noir - if two trains from different stations leave at different times and lots of other details, when will they meet?) solving them is complex and formulaic. But if I tell you, you have $117.37 to buy your favorite songs, but, and add in complications/give you 12% extra or something else, now tell me how much music you can buy.. (or, if you want an adult eg - you bought your house for X amount/square foot, now, it's selling for Y amount/sqf, what's the new total - I've seen people do that in their head after a bottle of wine!) Embedding the knowledge in personally relevant information moves the learning from JIC to JIT, and makes everything easier...