Glacial Erratics

In separate conversations with an old coworker and a new coworker I've stumbled upon a new word that I rather like.    (POV)

It seems to me that the most effective way to manage a collection of tasks is to model them as a queue: first in, first out. Real life requires that we be able to reorder the queue in response to changes in the world, but the general principle of FIFO applies.    (POW)

A queue can be lengthened or shortened as needed, but provides a fairly robust cognitive aid in the face of additional requests that happen when the queue is already full: "There's no room in here, what would you like me to take out to make room?" or "You can get in here, but you have to go on the end."    (POX)

Very often organizations or people that are too busy or unfocused lose the discipline to maintain a queue of tasks and switch to using a stack: first in, last out. I know I do this. A lot of forces influence this: It's important not to say no to someone or something; A mess of dependencies makes it difficult to choose which tasks to sacrifice in the queue ; When there is a perception that stack or queue overrun will cause an organizational crash of some kind, a stack absorbs tasks into its dark confines more easily.    (POY)

It's in these dark confines where the new word lurks. Those tasks which are in the depths of the stack, pushed in a long time ago, warped and sickly from lack of attention, are filobytes.    (POZ)