Age of Technology

This was an old piece I wrote in September. I left it in my 'Work in Progress' document, because I thought it wasn't quite ready to go out. After having read it I decided it was actually good enough to see the light of day. So there ya go. Obviously, that piece in the paper you're not going to find; sorry for that.

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More and more I see articles about what the new technology, we’re speaking Information technology here, is doing to our brains. Everything goes faster; we’re offered the possibility to do more things at the same time while they keep flashing suggestions of other ways to turn into our faces. Even though our brains are processing faster than mankind’s grey mass ever has, we’re on the brink of overload. Our long term memory is deteriorating, our attention span is decreasing and privacy is something historical. (I made up the last one, but it is generally true.) Also we’re not as good at multi tasking as we thought, and the youth is performing worse than their seniors. Yet, the progressing technology is not bad; it’s the way we cope with it.

I remember being taught our ancestors wouldn’t be able to cope with our fast paced world. I still believe that’s true. However, now I’m wondering if the same doesn’t apply to us too. There’s so much possible and yet we don’t know how to deal with all these possibilities. We’re like little children in a candy shop with a pushy salesman. All the colours and promises to our palates make our eyes grow bigger and our fingers itching to grab. And we grab till our head starts to spin with a sugar rush and our stomachs are trying to rid itself of the overload of sugar and preservatives. In the end we go back home too sick to join for dinner and going straight to bed to nurse nausea and a pounding headache.

I work in IT. I know what’s possible (about everything) and I know how unproductive you can get with all these toys in your hands. These days you can do research in your bed with your laptop hooked up to the Internet. You don’t need to leave the house to find out your ancestor bought one of the first motor bikes. And if you don’t need to leave your bed it automatically means you don’t need to leave your office to do research. You can research, for instance, the perils of progression in your boss’ time. Or you can do that and work at the same time as well. It’s all possible.

I’m involved, side ways, in a large project called “het Nieuwe Werken” (the New Working; what a crap translation). The project mainly tries to implement even more electronic ways to work and offer employees possibilities. It might sound wonderful, but in the greater scheme you can see where this is going. Now we do know about these “perils” and I believe we should act upon it. We have to go from reactive working to proactive working. We have to learn to work again. We have to learn to cope with technology.

I read in the paper that only the notification of receiving an e-mail already costs us 3 seconds. That might not sound like much, but in the end it adds up. Firstly, I think I’m now mixing Charlie’s column up with that paper article. Never mind. Secondly, so what? Does the writer even consider the time lost when getting and drinking coffee and when chatting to colleagues? Even if we exclude all the external disturbances, the fact we do need taking breaks doesn’t seem very important. Of course it is. I think I lose more minutes drinking and chatting to people then I do noticing emails coming in. In the end when I look back, I often do think I had a productive day even though I received many mails and read them. It’s a point of variation that we need. Let’s not forget that.

Sources:
Dutch paper: de Pers, page 12 from Monday September 13th.
Charlie’s column

Leap Into Same Ol' Same Ol'

Here's a mishmesh of feelings and insights... (Sorry for all the spelling and grammar mistakes; I just couln't be bothered to spell check)

My mind seems to be poisoned with anger. It's just between these walls I want to scream and abuse several objects. I'm not a violent person, usually, just rude, but back in the world of common misconception and misguided optimism I want to bang my head repeatedly against something hard. I can't for my life figure out why everything keeps going wrong here. It seems so simple to do the right thing, yet they manage to lead is into new potentional failures of reorganization and inactivity. I don't think I have seen any plan come into fruition in this organization. Whenever we dig the spade into the ground to build the foundation they change plans and we have to cover up the concrete floor with soft sand. That's how we keep sinking in the floor knee deep till we hit something hard which can't be broken away easily so we build foundation on foundation without actually building anything. Our basement is now 2 stories high and we're in danger of falling off.

Anything today brought me back to the state where I could burst out into tears any moment. Within the course of less than 8 hours my body had forgotten it suffered a lazy holiday with too much food and too less exersize. I should be happy to get back to work, but I'm not. I feel less productive than when I spent the whole day watching QI on my computer in my bedroom. I feel deprived of fresh air more than I would after having spend all morning in bed with the window tightly shut. Even the fresh shot of columns by my favourite people ticked me off. Not that I understood what they were whining about, but after reading I felt I should be mad and I can't stop thinking that's an unjustified feeling.

When did everything stop making sense? How come everyone and everything seems to be spinning in an endless circle? It's like we're orbiting around our own faiths and beliefs and we're never really getting to the core. Moving out seems to be an option, but I lost faith it's any better anywhere else. Isn't that what we do; fool ourselves? For the richer count themselves richer at all times and the poorer keep losing time and therefore money. Hasn't it always been like that? That security is just an illusion, because in the end, we'll all go? That we all end up with more delusions than dreams fullfilled?

I think I was lucky. I'm not saying I have less delusions or that my planning wasn't altered somewhere along the way. I'm saying looking back it all could have been worse. I could have gotten into serious trouble with my big mouth. I might have won the lottery if I ever bought a ticket. That's not the point. The point is that I am able to bang my head against something hard for something maybe very futile. Or I can choose to indulge it all and see my next turn out. That's my luck; I've still got places to go.