From the Editor’s Desk: More Time (Premium)

I'm lying on our bed in the apartment in Roma Norte as I write this, surrounded by all manner of electronics, each waiting to be sorted to stored accordingly. We're flying home in the morning, and the last day of each trip has turned into a sort of ritual in which the two of us take stock of what we have here, what we'll leave and what we'll take home, and what we think we might need to bring on the next trip.

I wish I had more time.

I mean, I always do. I expressed one form of this all-too-familiar feeling, a form of regret, I guess, back in April in From the Editor’s Desk: Puente (Premium). But there's more urgency before and at the end of trips like this: If I forget something and go home without it, three months will pass before I can set it straight. Unless I want to put out one of our neighbors, that is. (Which we've done: Some friends in the building have a set of keys to our place just in case.)

This thought came to mind recently when I saw a headline for a recommended article in Pocket with the awkward title People’s Last Words Are Often These 4 Phrases: What They Teach Us About Living Happy, Meaningful Lives, From an Oncologist. This isn't the type of thing I usually read, but I was positive one of the phrases would be, "I wish I had more time." And so I looked.

I was wrong. Instead, each was some version of a person expressing love for those around them after a lifetime of not saying it enough. Which is sad to me and, fortunately, not an issue. The people around me know I love them. I at least have that much.

What I don't have is enough time.

Before this trip, I made a to-do list of everything I wanted to get done while we were here. My wife listed everything she wanted to get done. And the two of us made plans for various things we'd accomplish together. She's more organized than I am, and there's little doubt she got more done, percentage-wise, than I did. I did OK, but I always seem to run into weird blockers—like the Phone Link issues I wrote about in Windows 11 Field Guide Update: Thankless—that stop me in my tracks like a curse. Or the bizarre week-long delay in me getting a Copilot+ PC to review that required me to scramble this past week to catch up. Which I think I handled it about as well as I could, especially given how upsetting that was.

But I wanted to get more done. I wanted to make more progress on the book, wanted to … you know, it doesn't really matter. I just wake up and work, and I run out of time. Not every day. But many days.

I want things to just work. This is a big part of the reason I have so much invested—and not just mentally, as it turns out—in Windows 11 on Arm, Snapdragon X, and what Microsoft has stupidly decided to market as Copilot+ PC. I have what are clearly unrealistic expectations. For example, I feel strongly that a laptop should actually power on, and instantly, when I open its lid. And that when I plug that laptop into a USB-C hub, one it's used many t...