In the tech industry we have some acronyms meant to describe the order of how things
come in and go out of objects or subsystems.
"FIFO" means First In, First Out. Pronounced "fy-foe", the concept can describe any line of people, like at a movie
theatre. The first in line faces the box office, so when the box office opens, the first person
in line transacts her business, then moves out of the line in the desired direction to go see
the movie the ticket allows her to see.
"LIFO" ("ly-foe") is more like a narrow elevator that carries everybody to the same floor. As people
enter the car, they're pushed toward the back to allow for more people to enter. When they get
to the desired floor, the last person who entered is actually the first person to leave: LIFO
stands for Last In, First Out.
If notifications are enabled for your mobile text messages, then your messages are presented to
you in LIFO order — either through dismissible popup dialogs or through notifications that
display on your home screen.
In both cases, they're presented backwards from how conversation is consumed —
backwards temporally, in the case of the popups, and backwards ordinally, in
the case of the home screen notifications.
Yesterday afternoon I pick up my phone to see I have a number of message notifications on my
home screen. I start at the top and begin to read downward:
Laurel (Work) 1 hour ago
My parents are interested in going to dinner tonight. You up for Applebee's or Chilis?
Laurel (Work) 1 hour ago
Gonna ask for a gland squeeze too
I.... had to work pretty hard to get past the notion of my mother-in-law getting her anal
glands cleared at dinner (tip your servers!) to reach the final message at bottom, which read:
Laurel (Work) 1 hour ago
I made an appointment to take the dog at 4:00. Trim toenails and update shots
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