Tech Simple

I have been in so-called high-tech for more than 25 years, and I’ve worked with labor and time-saving software and hardware—and I’ve wasted a lot of time, too, often laboring long days and weeks with little to show for it outside of that ephemeral favorite, the wisdom of experience.

This blog is my celebration of the adage: Keep it simple, stupid. I intend to apply this discipline to technical challenges low and high, in a way that's both clear and entertaining.

We all have to find ways not only to understand the technology that surrounds us, but to bend it to our will, to be masters of our time and talent, and protect our most valuable asset: our time.

Welcome to you, I hope you find the information I post here useful.

Friday, June 1, 2018

Simple Pleasures Are the Best

Years ago, when my dad was in his seventies, I tried to teach him how to use a computer.  He was overwhelmed by what was for him a serious challenge.  This was long-enough ago that there were still dedicated "word processors," units which looked like a computer keyboard and monitor, but which had only one function — to create documents.  Learning how to use them was far easier than learning to use a computer and all it's distracting features, even in those days when they operated in a relatively limited field of effort.

My father tried, but a word processor was not for him.

I realized that the only technology my father might appreciate, even master, would be the closest technology to the manual typewriter he'd been using his entire adult life, a machine which would mimic his old Royal's features.  I was happy to show him how to work an electric typewriter, and he took to it like a fish to water.

I believe that one should consider before racing to adopt the latest technology, particularly if you are efficient using the technology you're used to using.  You should account for the expense, time to adjust, retrain, and even the loss of some aspect of your current process that you might come to wish you had retained, for whatever reason.

I posted about whether or not to agree to software updates years ago.

Be at ease with your own expert notion of what's comfortable for you.

Always use the simplest effective technology.

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