Tag Archives: not a dinosaur

What’s Next?

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There probably comes a time in every career when you begin to think, what’s next?  For those starting out, it’s a matter of; is this working for me?-do I like this job?-am I bored?-or I can do better?  For those of us beginning to wrap up it’s a matter of relevance and retirement.  The big R & R.

Many of those in the middle aren’t even thinking about it, somewhat afraid to tempt fate.

Something happens to start the process, for those starting out it’s a matter of money-status-deserving-entitlement!  For those of us wrapping up it can be something along the lines of technology.  Technology rushing ahead of us with the force of its fury sneaking up behind us to bite us in the ass. Or…you can find yourself in the unusual position of being one of a select few who actually know something others don’t.

About what?  A rickety old mainframe system, once state of the art I’m sure, that now needs to be upgraded to interface with the real world. The app world.  The world that includes code and mapping and URLs, that world.

I recently found myself in that position and I’m not sure how I feel about it.  On one hand I feel like a dinosaur about to take the plunge into extinction and on the other hand I feel like a dinosaur being resurrected from a company archeological dig.  You notice either way I remain a dinosaur.

Regardless of how I felt about it I found myself, along with one other colleague of the same status, awake at 6am and at the ready to test the newest upgrade of the poor old mainframe system.  We came to the conclusion that the last time we heard each other’s voices, this time over Skype, was the last time this function got a facelift.

The test failed at 630am and there was much discussion of what went right and what went wrong, most of which escaped me.  Fast forward several hours later and phase one of the testing had been completed successfully.

These are the things that get me thinking, wouldn’t it be better to think of yourself as a well-regarded “company historian” than a dinosaur?  Didn’t it prove better to take a preexisting system with good bones, that has served you well, remains relevant and important and upgrade it?

Could one make the leap that in our throwaway society, where spikey hair and skinny jeans reign, sometimes the lessons and knowledge of the past also serve you well and remain not only relevant but incredibly important?  If only to prevent you from trying to reinvent the wheel?

Perhaps this is what’s next; a renewed respect for the company elders. Perhaps…or more likely, since the last known existing old mainframe system has been upgraded, a bit of R & R is in order.

 

Air Texting

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It’s like texting in the air without having your phone…you mimic real texting…STOP DOING THAT.  RIGHT NOW.   Unless you want to be mistaken for someone who should be rocking back and forth on the psych ward you need to stop.   It looks ridiculous.

It scares me that just the mention of the word text causes people to do this.  Have we lost all sense of being among the living that we are struck by some Pavlovian trigger to move our fingers when we talk about what we said to someone via text message?

There is actually a Facebook page; they call themselves a community, Air Texting Rocks:

air texting

This community is screaming teenage angst.  So far they’ve got 15 Likes, been up since 2010 and hopefully have outgrown being grounded from their phones over the last 4 years.  Who knows?

I get this silliness from teenagers.  I don’t get the trigger response from adults.  I know you think I’m sounding anti-technology but I am actually a fan of technology when it enhances my life.  I was one of the first people shopping on line, paying bills on line, I had, and still have (no snappy remarks) one of the first Tivos.  I love my laptop and even more my IPad.  But when it comes to the phone I know it’s just another piece of equipment.  I use it to make my life easier but it doesn’t define my world.  I feel lucky to have been on the cusp of new technology while still young enough to appreciate it and make it part of my language but old enough to understand that human interaction is key to a long and healthy life.

While waiting to be seating in a restaurant the other night I watched a couple stand side by side each on their own phone.  There was no conversation.  There was literally no interaction.  They had the look of a couple out without the kids, or out after a hard day, or even if it was just out for a quick bite they didn’t speak to each other.  What could be so enthralling on their phones that they didn’t feel the need to speak.  When I’m with my people, I’m with my people.  No phones allowed.  I want to hear what you have to say, I’m interested in you.  If you aren’t interested enough in me to put your phone away for a couple of hours you’re not my people.

with my people

If you can’t speak without air texting you have a problem.  Your technology has become something other than a tool.  It has gotten under your skin and into your brain.  What if technology fails?  Are you self-reliant enough to withstand down time?

Tom Chatfield from the BBC:

If it’s disconcerting that checking my smartphone has become a habit, there’s a particular irony for me: for the last few months, I’ve been involved in a project to design a “code of conduct” for smartphone usage on Australia’s Sunshine Coast. The code comes in seven parts, and aims to help holiday makers stop their smartphones taking over time they’ve set aside for leisure, each other and the place they’re in. Behind it, though, lies something that applies to us all: the need for new etiquettes in an era where shared notions of acceptable behavior lag years, if not decades, behind the tools we’ve incorporated into our lives.

My phone code of conduct? If you call my cell phone after 9 it will go to voice mail.  If you call and I don’t call you back, get over it.  I’ve taken to checking my messages at certain times of the day, I’m not a doctor it’s never an emergency.  Unless, of course, you’re my Mother in which case everything is the end of the world.  If I’m out with friends, not gonna get me because if I’m with you I’m with you.

Most of all, STOP AIR TEXTING, you’re acting like the phone is a phantom limb and it demeans you on so many levels.  You are a person of high intelligence that can certainly have a conversation without it. Surely you must know what to do with your hands while speaking. If you don’t then learn, quickly, before the temptation to rock back and forth sets in next.