Thanksgiving was a low-tech holiday at our house. We fed the geese that live at the end of our street and colored with magic markers. We used a lot of dishes and a lot of dish soap. The oven was put to good use.  FaceTiming occurred and it worked really well, thanks to somebody else’s expertise. There were no Tech Frustrations!
 
My role this year, and each year we host, is something like “head of housekeeping”. I make sure the table is big enough and set, the house is clean, and the guest rooms are ready. I also make sure that there are age appropriate toys in the basement and the serving dishes are ready. Lucky me, not only am I’m married to the “head chef”, but we have extremely helpful relatives who bring lots of the food along with their smiles.
 
Previously I mentioned that I had listened to the audio book the life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo. While I have not fully adopted all of her suggestions, I have started to use some of them and started to think differently. Basically she encourages you to rid your life of all items that do not “spark joy”. Her guidance enabled me to see at least a few things we had been storing for years in a new light. And some of these things now find themselves in new homes via freecycle, TrashNothing! and craigslist. The amazing thing is that it made a real difference as we prepared to host Thanksgiving this year. Finding things was easier and therefore the prep was more efficient and more fun. 
 
This experience of rethinking the things I chose to keep in my house got me to wondering if we’d all be better off if we also applied some new thinking to the technology we use. Rather than chastise myself for not knowing how to use every single feature on every single device, instead, I think I’ll start trying to simply appreciate the features I do use and understand and forget about the others. I may even delete a few things.  This doesn’t mean that I’m opposed to learning new things, of course, but it does mean that I’ll focus most of my attention on the features I need, like, and use already. I’ll appreciate what I have instead of what I may lack.
 
We’ll see if this helps avoid some Tech Frustrations in the future. Stay tuned.

​
​Do you have any Tech Frustrations?  If so, tell me about them on the Tech Frustrations web site.

Subscribe or unsubscribe to this blog.

Diversity is valuable. I’ve seen first-hand the way a diverse team can deliver high value in business. When a team includes a “strategic thinker”, a “technical genius”, a “process guru”, some “construction workers”, a “diplomat”, a “communicator”, and someone who can “sell ice cubes to Eskimos” it is often impossible to stop them from succeeding. They come up with great ideas, design great products and services, and get them into the hands of customers who often use them to produce great value for others and sometimes the world. There is no way a team of strategic thinkers could deliver as much value. Nor could a team comprised of only communicators. You get the idea. 
 
But diversity is also hard. Once, when I was working for a large company going through significant strategic changes, the CEO was consistently communicating with employees. The message became repetitive and boring; change is hard. My reaction was to think, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know! You’ve told us this so many times before.” The more we got into that hard work of change, the harder it got. I still remember the very moment, in a fit of total exasperation, I thought to myself, “This is really hard!” And that’s when it hit me; the CEO had meant that this change was going to be hard for everyone … even me. In that moment I realized that every time we had been told that it would be hard, I had assumed that meant it was going to be hard for the other people, but certainly not me. Of course I was wrong. Very wrong. It was hard for everyone … including me. Diversity is usually hard … for everyone.

Years ago I remember reading a letter to the editor in our local newspaper that talked about this very issue. The writer pointed out that most people say that they value diversity. What they mean is that they don’t care what their neighbors look like or where they do (or don’t) go to church. But our value of diversity is really tested when those same neighbors don’t maintain their lawn in a way that ensures it looks like every other lawn on the block. And it gets really tested when those same neighbors come from a part of the world where dog meat is sometimes served for dinner … and your dog ends up on those neighbors’ dinner plate!  That is not easy. Diversity can get very complicated very quickly.

Speaking of diversity, maybe you’ve heard that over here in the United States, we’ve just gone through an election that enabled us to express a little diversity of opinion. For those of us experiencing the aftermath, let me just tell you that it has been quite the experience, and that experience is just beginning. There are plenty of people producing plenty of commentary about what’s going on and why, so let me just tell you that as a “communicator” I find it exciting to see so many people sharing so many ideas. Diversity certainly has the power to improve our country, improve our government, and improve us as people. It’s worked very well for us in the past. I’m also finding it sad to watch as some are communicating their way to damaged relationships and lost opportunities by refusing to look at things from a different perspective.  It has me wondering if maybe we all need a little more guidance about how to communicate with others when we don’t agree with them ... when we have a diversity of opinion. I suppose those books have already been written and the courses already taught. But maybe we need to seek them out right now. Maybe the media, which has mastered the art of division, would like to help us out by modeling better behavior and trying to become part of the solution.
 
Yesterday I had what I thought was a great idea. Or at the very least it was an idea. In an attempt to help heal a divided country, I found myself wondering (out loud to a friend on Facebook) if we could launch a program that would match people who have diverse opinions with each other. My thinking was that if we could match people who live close to each other, they could meet one-on-one and face-to-face to become slow friends. As time progressed they could discuss more significant issues. Maybe they could start by talking about the weather, and over months and months move on to more significant topics like cooking, families, sports, movies, and eventually ... ideas. The goal? World peace, of course. I think it just might work.
 
Which brings me to Tech Frustrations. If we’re going to resolve them, I think we need to harness the power of diversity. If you design products, I encourage you to seek out a tech-challenged friend or family member. There is power in that partnership … for both the tech-savvy person and the technically challenged. The more the “techies” see where the rest of us struggle with technology, the more you all can design the help we need right into the products. And when the tech-challenged get to know the tech-savvy? Well, heck, that’s when we learn how to use these powerful frustraters. And that’s when we realize much of their value.
 
So remember, diversity is hard.  Maybe those of us using technology can form valuable partnerships and model the value of diversity for the rest of the world. Let’s not stop trying until we’ve achieved world peace. And freedom from Tech Frustrations.

Comments are encouraged below.

Do you have any Tech Frustrations?  If so, tell me about them on the Tech Frustrations web site.

Subscribe or unsubscribe to this blog.

​

It's been a good week on the technology front. I finished my first free audio book and started a second. I enjoyed watching the World Series. And we started a new Netflix movie. All of these activities had one thing in common; streaming.

Streaming means that data, especially audio and video content, is received (or transmitted) over a computer network (like the Internet) at a steady, continuous rate. Basically, the content is delivered to you as you listen and/or watch. It isn't permanently stored on your device (e.g. computer, cell phone, or tablet).  

Streaming is different than a "download" which copies the content completely from one device to another providing you with a permanent copy (unless it has some technology to automatically erase it after a given time period). 

Free Audio Books  Unlike an Audible.com purchase of an audio book where you download the book onto a device and then listen to it, when you check out an audio book from your local library (via Hoopla or Overdrive), the book is "streamed" to your device via the Internet. This means that you have to listen to it on a device that has an Internet connection.  For me this is my phone or laptop. Previously, with the downloaded books, I listened to them on my tiny iPod Nano. I am surprised that the phone actually works really well.  I finished my first book in record time and am already into my second book. This change has caused me to swap my habit of listening to the radio while I'm in the house and listening to my audio book while I walk outside. Now I'm listening to books in the house and listening to the radio while out for a walk. Given that the news is rather unsettling right now (with the election and all), I'm finding it better to take in the news while I'm outside where it seems easier to remain optimistic.  It's worth noting that I had the ability to listen to audio books from Audible.com on my phone all along, I just thought I didn't want to use that device because of its size. Necessity really is the mother of invention ... or at least the incentive to try something new.

Live Video Streams  More and more, live video streams are popping up on my Facebook News Feed. It's been fun to watch Cubs fans live as they celebrate their big win, while concerning to watch some civil unrest unfold real time. I've also had a friend and a relative post live video streams on occasion. This has me wondering about the appropriate etiquette for these events. Should I feel compelled to watch if a good friend or relative is "live streaming"? If I do watch, should I feel compelled to comment in the moment? These are not rhetorical questions. Please let me know what you think.

Netflix Streaming vs. DVD Movies  It feels like we've watched most of the reasonable content via the Basic Netflix Streaming service, so we recently decided to live it up and order the DVD option too. Over the years, as we've watched streaming content via Netflix we begrudgingly learned to endure the occasional Tech Frustration when there is a break up in the picture and or audio.  It wasn't until last night, as we were watching a movie via a DVD, that I realized the streaming experience has really improved recently. It's rare to have a picture break up these days.  Unfortunately our DVD contained a few trouble spots (aka Tech Frustrations) which required us to skip over very small sections of the movie.  As it got late, we gave up during one of the glitches near the end.  Hopefully we can finish this nail-biter soon.  (We are watching The Intern, which really isn't a nail-biter at all.  It's surprisingly funny and even a little thought provoking.)

So it seems that streaming is merrily here to stay, the quality it good, and it is changing the way we listen, learn, and connect with each other.  What are you streaming?
​

Do you have any Tech Frustrations?  If so, tell me about them on the Tech Frustrations web site.

Subscribe or unsubscribe to this blog.