Spending Time

My colleague Undi has an interesting hobby, if you can call it that. I have teased him as a person who has prioritas tidak jelas (unclear priority), with a peculiar inkling towards books especially in their handling.

Like most people who love books, he can’t resist from buying books. Yet unlike most people who love books, he worships books to the extent that he would copy his own books and read the copies instead. For treasured books, he would scan them, save them in his external hard drive, print copies of the scan, and read the copies.

I asked him this morning why he would bother doing that, considering the time and effort it takes. He said it’s mainly for safekeeping. In case all his books burn down, he still have multiple copies, both soft and hard. Hard core obsession if you ask me.

But then this remind me of a comment another friend made after reading my blog recently. He said that I should be spending the time instead to read journals to extend my own learning, which is what he would do in his spare time.

Same finite spare time, different choices. I guess we all have some obsessions which others would find peculiar, or simply a waste of time. Does it mean some people value their time more than others? Or is the way we spend our time reflect our values in life?