Thoughts on humanizing technology
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Chris Brogan
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By its very nature, technology is in a constant state of change. And because it’s always new and never perfect, it often doesn’t work as we expect or hope it will. I’m seeing more and more people who are familiar with technology throw up their hands at the pace of change, ready to give up on whatever tool is vexing them at the moment. Those with less experience worry that there is little hope that they will ever become competent.
When thinking of my own ability to solve the technical challenges that I deal with every day, I came up with some techniques that can ease some of the stress for both technical and non-technical folks.
Remember what you are trying to do. Technology often leads us off on tangents, like pausing to install some required software or look something up on Google. It can be hard to refocus on the original task but that’s where the real benefit lies.
Remember who you are. Not in the existential sense, in the technical sense. In the days before the Internet, this was easy. You were whoever you signed into your computer as. Nowadays, we access so many different accounts through the browser that it can be hard to keep them all straight. When things start getting strange, ask yourself, “who am I in this situation and what am I allowed to do here?”
Remember where you are. Are you signed into your personal Gmail account or your business Google Apps account? Are you posting on the right Facebook account? To which website are you adding content? Goes hand in hand with who you are.
Know your software. When you encounter a new program or online service, take a little time to get an overview of what it does and how it works. All quality programs have some kind of tutorial overview that won’t take up too much of your time and can provide valuable tips that can be used later. A side note: software doesn’t make you an expert in things that you know nothing about. A subscription to Adobe Creative Suite doesn’t make you a designer and a copy of Quickbooks doesn’t make you a CPA. Know when to ask for help.
Know a little bit about the Internet. Here’s about as much as you need:
Google is your friend. Chances are good that your problem isn’t unique and has already been solved. Search for a few descriptive keywords about your problem and you may find the answer quickly. If you’re staring at an obtuse error message, try cutting and pasting it right into Google to find all of its possible meanings.
Allow technology to be frustrating. Sometimes you get stuck; we all do. If you’ve been working at something long enough to make your brain hurt, take a break. When you come back, remember what you’re trying to do and try and think back to when you did something similar. Test things out, ask questions and know that if it’s hard for you, it’s hard for other people too. Eventually, you or someone else will find the answer and your problem will be solved. Until the next time….
Hair pulling self portrait by Evil Erin.
When I was learning to drive, my driving instructor told me that when I pulled to a stop behind another car, I should always be able to see its rear bumper. Following this simple rule meant that I never had to learn later in life how to stop at an appropriate distance behind someone at a stop light. It seems that we often miss out on the answers to those key questions, either because no one thinks to teach us something so basic or because we chose not to be listening. When we learn those lessons later – sometimes years later – we often think, if I’d only known that, things would have been so much easier.
When I asked some friends for examples of “if I’d only known” moments, this is what I heard:
If I’d know the benefits of a high protein diet, I would have cut carbs a long time ago!
The most important lesson I learned way too late is to figure out the purpose of any activity.
If I’d only known how to breathe properly and mindfully I wouldn’t have needed medication for panic attacks all those years.
If I’d only known that not everything needs to be perfectly planned before starting, I would have been a lot more productive.
There is a surprisingly large difference between knowing nothing about a subject and knowing enough to start learning about it. It is in this gap that those “if I’d only known” lessons are especially important. Students are often looking for something that will give them a grasp on the subject. During that time their minds are wide open, as they look for the hook that will give them a place to start. If you can provide that, it may prevent an “if I’d only known” moment somewhere down the road. It is also the time when providing the wrong information can be particularly harmful.
If you are in the position of providing people with new information, ask yourself these questions:
Think carefully about how you will introduce a new subject, because it will be very difficult to undo the first few concepts that a person hears. If you do misspeak, clear things up right away: “Wait, I said that wrong, let me start again”, is a good approach.
If you’re really lucky, people will recall your words years later. I still remember a lesson on flying instrument approaches with a very experienced pilot named Dan Chauvet who told me, “if the needles aren’t centered [i.e. you’re off-course], you need to make very small corrections but you need to do it right now.” Thanks, Dan.
Photo credit: Martyn Wright
When I flew chartered airplanes for a living, I had to decide every day (sometimes several times a day) whether the job we were expected to do could be done safely. Weather was the biggest factor, because the single and twin engine aircraft we flew didn’t fly above the weather, they flew in it. I remember in particular a flight from Watsonville, CA (WVI) to Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC), a one hour flight in a six-seat Piper Seneca. The weather was lousy; low overcast and rain. As pilot-in-command, it was up to me to decide if the flight could proceed. A number of factors went into the decision to launch:
We took off into the overcast and spent the next 50 minutes in the clouds and rain. The two of us who were flying stayed very focused on our position (this was in the days before GPS and moving map displays) and our procedures. We emerged from the clouds about 500 feet above the airport and circled to land on the runway in use. Our passengers spent an hour in the plane instead of four hours in a car and the charter company got paid. A successful outcome all around.
In business today, there is lots of talk about the value of saying no: Perhaps saying yes will take you away from your primary mission, or will cause you to lose focus, or the chances of success are simply too low. All of these are valid reasons to pull the plug on a particular project or task. Here are some useful questions to ask when coming to a go, no-go decision:
By law, a pilot has have alternatives. Good decisions are based on awareness of a number of possible outcomes, which narrow to a single choice as events unfold. Just make sure that you can divert to an alternate if things don’t go as expected.
Cloud photo: Wikimedia Commons