Summation

Teaching old dogs new tricks

My favorite story about new technology is about my mom. And yes, she's a Luddite.

Just a few years ago, my mom was far away from the technology revolution. Though living in cosmopolitan new york, she still had many old-school sensibilities. I remember growing up when she needed help using the microwave. Or that she hated watching TV … partly because there is nothing good on TV but also because she did not know how to change the channel or control the volume.

My mom's an artist and I guess it was her good fortune that both her sons became computer engineers.

My mom's very smart and an entrepreneur … and she quickly realized the power of the internet. It could potentially save her hours of time. In the past, if she wanted to draw a dolphin, she'd go to the library to get a book on dolphins. But now, one can easily go to the Internet and get pictures. But my mom didn't know how to use a computer so she'd rely on friends to print out pictures for her.

Then one day my mom got a cell phone and her world slowly started to change. She realized she could even make calls in the car. Both my brother and I had been trying to get her to get a mobile phone for a long time (with the repeated promises of telling her we'd call more often if she got one). But it wasn't until she got one that she really realized the power of mobility.

Getting a computer was a bit harder.

Though she had a computer and internet connection in the house for a long time, my mother stayed away from the computer -- completely scared of it. But after her sons nagged her for years, my mother finally decided to put her toe in the water and become a user. That was about a year ago.

I remember her first phone call to me:

"Auren … why aren't the keys in alphabetical order?"

Good question! I realized that not only was she unfamiliar with the keyboard … she did not even know how to use a typewriter. She is an artist who likes to make things with her hands.

After explaining the history of QWERTY keyboards and the like, my mother finally settled into hunt and peck mode and me her first email. Success. Today she emails me all the time (realizing it is a much better medium to get a hold of me then the phone). And she'll probably be the first one to emailing me about this blog post.

So a year ago (in 2004), my mother finally entered the 1980s.

Then, this summer (about 9 months later), my mom calls me … on Skype. That's right, she skyped me. Some of her friends in Europe and her sister (who lives overseas) told my mom about it. Free is a great motivator.

So, no, my mom is still not a technology genius. But she is now a heavy user of mobile phones, email, and Skype and has moved decades in just a few short years.

Even in the scary world of technology, you can tech old dogs new tricks.

Book: The Search

The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Cultureby John Battelle

This is a great book. John was kind enough to send it to me when it came out and I only got to read it now. My main regret was that I was not able to read it sooner.

The Search is a quick read about the history of Internet search … especially the story of Google. It is particularly illuminating and gets you thinking about the future of search.

I highly encourage you to check out this book.

A Council of Elders …

If you are under-40 today and if you are healthy and relatively wealthy, there is a good chance of living past 140.

Maybe even living past 340. that's a long time. Technology is going to change our lives.

In general, this is a very good thing. One of the biggest miseries about life is death. Death sucks. And if we can prevent it, or postpone it, all the better.

But people getting older will likely have a few unpleasant consequences that we, as a society, are going to have to think about.

how will aging of our decision-makers change our society? Imagine Rupert Murdoch living for another 500 years. He certainly has the money to do it once the technology arrives. In the past, leadership succession in business has yielded new opportunities and innovation. In general, change is good. But imagine a world where the media titans of today are still the media titans of 50 years from now.

Or think about policy making. Older people resist change more than younger. Their views are sometimes less elastic. imagine when George P Bush becomes president in 2033 and he names Don Rumsfeld as his Sec of Defense again … here we'll see Rumsfeld as Sec of Defense three different times over a period of 60 years.

ok .. i know ... far-fetched ... but an instructive example to think about how society will be changing in the next few decades ...