And you say dinosaur like it is a bad thing
Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 06:06AM 
Where's my MacBook? (Image from BBC)
The dinosaurs were among the most successful animals ever to live on the Earth. Their reign lasted over 100 million years - and if birds evolved from the dinosaurs, then their descendents are still alive today. BBC
In response to my Thursday post about trying to improve my PIM (Personal Information Management) abilities, Miguel Guhlin takes me a bit to task for still "lugging" my laptop with me. He writes:
Carry a laptop back and forth ... I did this for quite awhile (not since the dinosaurs, like Doug but...). I was lugging around my laptop and eventually decided to try a different approach.
I feel very bad that Miguel thinks I am a dinosaur for still carrying a laptop with me. How - with all that abundant online storage space, those amazing web-based productivity tools, and them tres chic social networking abilities - can I perpetrate this positively Paleolithic propensity?
Here's why I love my laptop...
- It is one of the few things that helps me maintain my upper body strength. Just because I am a geek, doesn't mean I have to be built like one. 50-60 reps of the computer-bag lift do wonders for the biceps. Try wrapping the laptop bag WITH YOUR LAPTOP IN IT around your head while you do sit-ups. We're talkin' 12, not 6, -pack abs!
- Just because wireless is available, doesn't mean the appliance to get to the wireless is. Conference rooms, hotel rooms, coffee shops, your brother-in-law's house, and the waiting room at the county lock-up all may indeed have a wireless signal, but unless I have MY LAPTOP with me, it does little good. My dental fillings only pick up radio transmissions.
- My files are safer and more private stored locally. Encrypt all you want, but the likelihood of somebody getting to one's files increases exponentially as soon as they are moved online. And have you read Google's privacy philosophy lately? That being said, the only real thing of value on my laptop is that Neiman-Marcus chocolate chip recipe.
- I have some big-assed files. My last 42 slide Powerpoint prez weighed in at 38MG. (Thanks to Presentation Zen for advocating all pictures, all the time.) Anyway, those files are pretty clunky to work with online. And let's face it, desktop apps are more feature rich, faster, and often easier to use than their online counterparts. Not that I ever use the advanced tools in Excel, but it is comforting to know they are there just in case I ever experience major brain trauma and decide to do a pivot table.
- I don't have to sit at a desk to work. Do you remember what my home offices look like?
I've had a laptop habit since I bought by first DOS PC "portable" clunker in about 1990. So for 18 years, I've never not had a laptop. I am indeed a creature of habit, and highly susceptible to meteor-caused climate change.
As you conclude, Miguel:
...personal information management is a JOURNEY along a continuum, rather than a frozen set of practices. So, Doug, keep doing what works for you. If you never get to the same spot along the journey I'm at, that's alright.
Thanks. I appreciate the permission. I hope that hair, milk, warm-blooded, live birth, Google Docs business all works out for you more evolved types.
Off to find an Apatosaurus to harass.
Reader Comments (9)
rolling around on the floor laughing, one finger typing.
Great!
This is why some blogs are fun to read (the Blue Skunk) and others are (ahem) not so fun. I like the Blue Skunk’s mental meanderings that are so brutally honest about the struggles of mucking through that cluttered, messy, one-upmanship, mine’s-bigger/cooler/newer-than-yours world of technology. And Doug mucks among the best of ‘em, in my opinion. Others who are not so interesting and entertaining to read (and they’re pretty easy to smell right off the bat) are those who parade their ‘look-at-me’ wonderful skill sets showing how they are the master of their domain…of technology. Chiding others for being less masterful makes for a pretty vapid blog in my book (forgive the dinosaur-era reference…). It doesn’t take a master mucker to know that mastering technology is a rarified realm that most of us can barely conceive of, much less have the time to achieve. At the very least, us mediocre muckers know enough to be suspicious of any of those rarified types who claim to be so masterful.
Hi Keith,
Thanks for the kind words. If figure if something isn't fun to write, it won't be much fun to read either.
I've said for years that tech people too often suffer from the "Alpha wolf" syndrome - he (most often) who has the fastest computer, longest string of TLAs (three-letter-acronyms), and latest software release "wins." Not exactly the best way to encourage others to use technology.
That being said, I am glad there are the early adopters who are willing to share their experiences. If the early worm gets eaten by the bird, let's let some other worms be first!
Keep up the good song writing. Now there is the demonstration of a sense of humor!
All the best,
Doug
I'm struggling in the muck at the bottom tonight. I lost my Internet connection for three hours because of a wireless router that went to sleep. Since I called tech support while using a computer that does not use the wireless router, I said "No" when asked if there were a router in my set-up. That added a half hour onto the call. Just when you think you know enough to survive, some technical difficulty lays you flat, and your brain seems to go down with it.
Even here at the bottom, I still began to wonder if anyone has opened a treatment facility for addicts who suddenly face the loss of the Internet. Your dinosaur post turned out to be just the treatment I needed. Thanks, Doug.
-Mary
Hi Mary,
I call this IDS - Intelligence Deficit Syndrome. When otherwise loveable and capable people are brought low by technology making them feel stupid!
http://dougjohnson.squarespace.com/dougwri/intelligence-deficit-syndrome.html
Always happy to know I improved someone's day. Thanks for the kind words.
All the very best and good luck with the routers!
Doug
Doug you're still too high tech. Just print out a bunch of overhead transparencies of your slides. You carry one manila folder, no heavy equipment, no cords, no batteries. Just don't DROP the folder!
This is great. I had jury duty last week. They had wireless internet and the day certainly went a little better since I had my laptop with me. We never got called, but unlike others sitting around reading the paper, I was able to get a little work done and surf the web.
Jim,
I bet I can give a better talk using overheads than an awful lot of other people using PPT.
I used to 3 hole punch my overheads and keep them in a binder. No worries about dropping them.
Thanks for the advice!
Doug
Chad,
Laptops actually make meetings productive too. So long as no one catches you not listening ;-)
All the best,
Doug