David,
Great message. A couple of thoughts.
Technology is a wonderful thing, but it seems to allow us to spend more
and more time working and less and less time doing other things. I think
we would see a radical difference in how we spend our time today, and how
people spent their time a hundred years ago. Technology has made us so
efficient, that our expectations constantly increase, forcing us to work
harder and harder. . .and then technology catches up with us and we think
we'll finally be able to relax, and the expectations change again. . .it's
a real struggle to stay ahead of the curve, and get some good relaxation
time.
At the same time I know for certain I'd rather live today than a hundred
years ago. The idea of having to ride a horse around town, instead of
driving holds no appeal; having to use an outhouse instead of private
bathroom with a toilet holds even less appeal; the idea of traveling
across the country in covered wagons is even worse. . .I love being able
to fly from Boston and San Francisco in just a few hours. . .
Speed has become a symbol of our information age. Everything has to be
now, this instant, today. . .I'm working on my computer, and I can't stand
how slow it is (a Pentium 166 MHz computer, 64 mb RAM). I want a Pentium
200 with 128 mb RAM because I want my software to run faster. I don't want
to see the little Windows hour glass as much as I do. . .what am I, nuts?
What is it that drives my expectations and my desires? Why am I not
content with the computer I have, as it is pretty damn fast?
Why is it that I want airplanes to travel faster? What's wrong with flying
at 500+ mph? Why do I want to go 700 or faster? Why is it that I'm
frustrated with a five hour flight from Boston to Salt Lake? Why should I
expect it to take only two hours, or less?
Why do we think work has to be done in seconds when just a little while
ago it took minutes? Why does management want us to do in hours what used
to take days? Why do we put ourselves under so much pressure?
The other night my wife and I were laying in bed talking. She had just
read a book called "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakaurer. It's a true story
about a young man who gave away all his money, and took off to Alaska to
live on the land. His attempt to do so ended in death (starvation). We
were talking about it, and she said, "Wouldn't it be nice to just run away
to the back country? To get away from the city, the pressures of living a
fast paced life? Just imagine a world where there were no clocks, no
deadlines. Wouldn't that be nice?"
I think that's the root of the issue you raised: Why are we so attracted
to speed? When do we hit maximum capacity, where we just can't speed
things up anymore? There is, I'm quite certain, a minimum amount of time
which is required to make a pair of shoes, sew a pair of pants, and build
a house. Perhaps once we discovered those time limits we'll devise new
ways of doing things, and they'll be shattered, and new expectations will
emerge. But what will they satisfy? What need does speed satisfy?
-- Benjamin Compton DWS -- A Novell Platinum Partner "The GroupWise Integration Specialists" E-mail: bcompton@emailsolutions.com Web: http://www.emailsolutions.com/bcompton
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>