Use Appropriate Technology

Ben Yoskovitz at the Instigator Blog posted a couple of days ago on places to not get carried away spending money when starting a new business. One of his points was we shouldn’t spend a lot of money on software until we need it. That got me thinking about how we choose the tools we use to go about our business and daily lives in general.

As I’ve mentioned before in Getting It Done I have a pretty full life. I run this site, have a full-time job, run a movie theatre with my wife, Lady Glynis, write software, and live in a three generation household. Keeping my ducks in a row can take some juggling, juggling that doesn’t need to be complicated by unnnecessary toys.

Yes, I said toys. If you use a piece of technology because it is the latest and the best, because it’s the “in” thing, it’s a toy. Rather than looking for toys, look for what accomplishes your purpose with the least amount of care and feeding required.

At heart I’m a geek. My first computer was a Xerox 8080 with an 8″ floppy driving running CP/M. Except for laptops, I’ve only bought one brand new PC. I’ve built the rest. I have a wireless network in my home. My daughter goes to cyberschool instead of a bricks and mortar school. But. You don’t always need the newest technology or the technology with the most bells and whistles to accomplish your purpose.

Take the computers at home. For the first few years PC equipment was available I got the most powerful equipment I could afford. Even then, it was often frustratingly slow. As the technology has improved, though, staying on the edge has become less important. None of us play graphic intensive games. Most computer use is with office type tasks. A processor that is a couple of years old does just fine. The only reason for the wireless network is it allows us to share one internet connection and one printer at less cost than wiring the house for a network. My programming is the most computing intensive thing that happens in our house, and my work is with relatively simple database driven applications. Huge amounts of computing power aren’t required.

The theatre is another example. It is a small single-screen neighborhood theatre. We have no cash register. Every thing is priced in multiples of a quarter at the concession counter. That makes it easy to tote up an order and had the added bonus of forcing our daughter to learn to do basic math in her head without the benefit of a machine. We don’t have a computerized ticket machine. There is no need for one. Our tickets are dispensed by an Automaticket machine that is at least 60 - 70 years old. It does what we need it to do - sell tickets without breaking down. A piece of tape by the machine tells us how much to charge for a given number of tickets. Our movie projector is also at least 60 years old, while the lamphouse and film transports are only 30 years old. A little oil to the projector every day and it just runs and runs. The sound equipment has been upgraded to handle today’s soundtracks. The point is, what we have fulfills it’s function without much maintenance and without saying “Hey! Look at me. I’m cool!”

I’m not an advocate of low tech. I’m not an advocate of high tech. I’m an advocate of appropriate tech. The best tool for the job may be something a hundred years old. It may be something that just came onto the market last week. Choose the one that accomplishes your purpose with the least amount of time and trouble. Look around your life. Are you doing what you want to do, what is important to you? Or is your time eaten up by taking care of toys?

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