Simply Computing
If we
weren't emotionally involved with computer technology, we wouldn't be at
TechShow. We like to talk about
all the rational decisions we make in purchasing and deploying technology in
our law practices, but that behavior is just the glove the heart wears to grab
hold of something it wants. In a
culture like ours where the technology we use communicates what kind of people
we are, buying and using computers is an emotional decision.
Herein
lies the strength and the weakness of a technology focused culture, whether it
be a law office culture or a global one. We can be motivated to extend
ourselves technologically because we are attracted to the lifestyle of the
technologically adept and because we enjoy being appreciated as cutting edge
type people who always have the latest gadget before others do. But we can also be motivated to over
extend ourselves, to purchase too much and try to incorporate an excess of
technological apparatus into our working lives. The more we adopt the adage,
"you are what you own," to the technology we place in our lives, the
more likely we are to acquire more than we can use.
Given that
the technology we buy today is so soon obsolete, owning more than we can well
use or owning anything before we are ready to learn how to use it is a fool's
errand.
We seem
less inclined to run fool's errands since September 11th and there
are a lot fewer fools with the money to run them since the Internet Boom went
bust. These two events of last year stripped the extreme self-absorption and
the hyper-materialistic gluttony from the computer technology community. Human
and financial catastrophes have a way of forcing a reevaluation of what is and
is not valuable.
It would
be easy to take on a puritanical severity and pledge, like recovering
alcoholics, never to sip from the cup of technology again. But abstinence is
seldom the cure for a bad romance, and trying to reform by renouncing computer
technology as tools of positive change and professional growth is just another mode
of obsession.
There are
no times better than hard times for us to partake of those things in this world
that enrich us. Whether it is the
smell of petunias or PDA's, a new love or a new laptop, don't surrender the
precious resources that bring joy to living. If computers are your catnip,
don't let your boss or your budget tell you that technology isn't important. We
may have learned last year that there is no soul in the machine, but that
doesn't mean the machines aren't good for the soul.
This is not
to say that we should reform the way we think about applying technology to our
work. Absorption in technology can
still be a recess from job routine and conventional thinking without being an
excess. We only need to strive for proportionality in the way we use
technology.
By
proportionality, I mean that we don't over tax ourselves with more technology
than we can handle and that we put a priority on what is simplest and least
consuming to employ. The measures
of simplicity that come to my mind are economy, portability, and versatility.
When I
advocate economy, I don't mean it in the sense of paying the least amount of
money that can be paid to acquire a particular product. I mean that we should
be economical in our acquisitions. Challenge yourself to fully exploit the
capabilities of a few products rather than over run your life with too many big
and little machines. This sometimes means paying more for more integrated
devices. For example, rather than walk around with a phone, a wireless pager
and a Palm, isn't it better to spend some extra money to acquire a single
device that is all three? That way, you cultivate knowledge of the performance
characteristics of one digital tool rather than three. Even if the three
separate devices cost less, the distraction and complication of managing
multiple technologies is more than worth the difference. Once again, less is
more.
Economy of
use also applies to how few computers you can own and operate. I have always
had more computers than I needed because I always assumed that in the near
future, I would be doing more than I am doing now and that the extra capacity
would be important to have. Whether I was right about the future or not, I was
wrong to buy technology in anticipation of future rather than present needs.
All I did was ensure that when and if things worked out the way I hoped they
would, I'd be saddled with a less capable system that I'd paid too much money
for. My new rule is never do without what you need, but never buy until you
cannot do without.
This rule
applies for organizations as well as individuals. Long range planning for
technology acquisitions ignores the fundamentally transient nature of computer
products and the technologies they embody. As far as computer hardware, the
future is now. But for now, no technology has much of a future. Treat computers like houseguests; you
love having them, but only for a while; the longer they stay, the more you
regret having them there.
Try to
switch over from the paradigm of knowing all about all of the technology to one
of choosing to know about the technology that matters to you. The hard part is
deciding what technology really matters. That is a better focus than treating
each generation for computer equipment as a smorgasbord where you must have one
of everything to be considered technologically hip. Real technical
sophistication flows from making the right choices, not the most choices.
Portability
is part and parcel of computing simply because it allows for work as you please
rather than having people tell you to please go to work. Defeating the physical
conventions of where and when to work are life changers, especially when your
organization of one or one hundred is focused on performance rather than
attendance. Portability means performance without place. Although it takes some
retraining of one's concept of what is "professional," a lawyer can
be as productive on a park bench as in a corner office.
Portability
has as much to do with how you work as it does where you work. When the
physical attributes of office and fixed assets of practice become less a part
of how one sees oneself as an attorney, one's professional focus shifts towards
working relationships. In fact, we become more comfortable with internalizing
our professionalism as what we know, how well we know it, and how well we share
it rather than what we own, where we office and who with.
Versatility
in technology means that we choose technology that can serve as many roles as
possible in our professional and personal lives. Why have a computer that is
only "for the office" when a computer can be a family photo album, a
music collection, a movie theater, a personal dictation assistant and alarm
clock, an encyclopedia, a phone, the Internet, your check book, a radio, a TV,
and a game arcade?
The
portable computer has become life centered rather than work centered as a
machine enabling its owner to do far more with it than the old fashioned yin
and yang of work and play. We can
now integrate what we find supportive and nurturing into our work time as we
extend our work into our casual living times. If it is recognized as
professional to be drafting email at the beach, then surely it is equally
professional to enjoy music while at work or to have one's family pictures
moving by on a computer screen saver, or maybe stay late at the office and take
in a DVD movie while going through some old files. Versatility in computing
permits versatility in living to such an extent that we may be taught how to
better integrate our labor and our recreation.
