New Reasons To Love My Computer

November 19, 2008

Lock the front door, oh boy. Online. AirPort : connected. Signal strength : perfect. Hello, whole world.

Back in the Archives, you’ll find 20 Reasons To Love My Computer.

I thought of 7 more :

1. The great new words in the jargon (hard-coded, firewall, FireWire, Skype (and the great tagline: Take A Deep Breath. ). It’s added a whole new vocabulary to our language (or is it, a whole new language to our vocabulary?.

2. I can’t eat and type at the same time (but I can drink).

3. There is so much free stuff. Here is a community of people dedicated to learning and growth and sharing and building something together, without knowing quite what is because it has never existed before.

4. Everyone is equal. You can’t see anyone. You can’t deposit your pre-conceived notions about tall/short/redheaded people into the game before the dialogue even begins.

5. Not everything needs to make sense, or happen for a reason, or happen the way you expect or think it will. The best events in life are often the erratic, unexplained ones.

6. It’s a magazine where the pages keep changing. It’s a cookbook today, a fashion mag tomorrow, and a travelogue the next day, all for a single subscription fee.

7. Some of my greatest friends live inside it.

Hey! The list is done! I can stop now because I found a book that says it all and more. Back in the article “So You’re A Shill For Paula, Right?”, I introduced it briefly. At the Cluetrain site, you can read the book, catch up with its 4 authors, or scroll down and read the 95 Theses that describe the real meaning of “market” and “business” today.

Weinberger at Joho the Blog

I’m always cut to the quick by David Weinberger’s writing and brainpower. I follow his writing at Joho the Blog. I will always try to stay out of politics and religion, since I don’t know enough to steer clear of tastes and colors but I do want to direct you to his piece after Mr. Obama’s election victory. Few people express big feelings and big concepts so well in writing.

I greatly respect the American people for having sent such a powerful message of their desire for unity an for their courage in putting so much of the past behind them. As David said, Mr. Obama’s election win is about so much more than just race. The citizens of the USA have the power to set an example on a global scale in the finest sense and they stepped up to the plate. They agreed to spend the next 4 years trying to focus on what makes them the same instead of different. As Spiderman’s Uncle Ben said, “with great power comes great responsibility”.

Having said that, Mr. Harper is the Canadian Prime Minister for many of the same reasons as Mr. Obama will be President. In most cases, 20 years of experience in a trade or profession is an asset. In politics, I’m not so sure that holds true. Which animal said that “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”? The people of both countries elected leaders without so much political baggage, in the faith and belief that things can be different and better. Hope is what matters most, because so many live without it.

The thrill of this election result was reinforced for me by the woman that Mr. Obama has standing beside him. The First Lady, with her inevitably huge influence on the President, has caused me either total neutrality or some trepidation, as far back as I can remember. Michelle Obama is as brave as her husband, with the same unwavering personal integrity. As a person of powerful intelligence and awareness and a high code of personal honor and dignity, Mrs. Obama is the first First Lady I can remember to evoke in me a sense of gigantic relief.

Book Review : the cluetrain manifesto : the end of business as usual.

Though written for marketers and business folks, the point is really to recognize the internet as a tool for collaboration on a planetary scale. Until we see ourselves as one and put aside our histories and our battles, we can’t hope to save this planet and the people on it.

Published in 2000, it might have received a “we shall see” reaction. It is in the business section of the bookstore but it far transcends business. It is about sharing ideas, stories and thoughts. It’s the story of how the internet became a place where real people speak to one another with real human speech, not reiterating paragraphs from flyers. Our natural voice is blemished, not perfect, but at least it’s real. We conflicted dwellers of this planet can tell when we hear each other speaking from our hearts.

The internet gave us a place to connect with one another and find out what we wanted to know in ways that businesses didn’t allow. Play, laughter, trust, individuality, all are antonyms of the word “business”. This is a story of how insulated, top-down, guarded corporations came to exist and how that stronghold is being dismantled.

Photo by altemark

In a style of writing I admire for being at once relaxed, cool, precise, sharp, and exciting, this book explores the meeting-after-the-meeting, where the real talk happens.

We all have our antennae up to detect incoming marketing BS. Marketers invade our privacy (see The Abuse of Permission Marketing) firing slogans and brochures at us more aggressively, so we fight back harder. We hang up on them, we block the senders, we change the channel, we close the window. They made it easy, even necessary, for us to be more rude than we’re comfortable with.

Do you send email? Do you hate your job and are not sure why? Is every word you say carefully policed by higher-ups? Do you have an opinion you can never express? If your conscience doesn’t feel so good after a day at the office, and you need insight as to why, read this book. If nothing else, read the definition of professionalism in the How To Hate Your Job section of Chapter 2. It’s fabulous.

Businesses can dream up whatever slogans and jingles they want. They’re not the best till their customers say it too. If one of your customers starts a website called www.yourbusinesssucksoutloud.com and 1000 people leave comments to that effect, well they’re not the misguided ones. You’re missing your own boat. It has sailed and you’re not on it. Priceless on page 88 is the meaning and value of PR and press releases.

Photo by leighblackall

Companies are not run by anyone with superior knowledge who is very busy and important. They’re just people like us. Those that get it are listening and they’re talking. They’re not reading brochures to us on the phone, they’re just talking. We love the hairstylist who will say “That won’t work for you”. We have less-than-zero faith in the cosmetician who tells us every product “looks fabulous with your coloring”.

What about those corporations that are ticking along in the old ways behind the old walls and doing just fine? The bigger and more established, the less affected they are by grass roots movements. The solid bureaucratic monoliths will have the most safeguards in place, be they banks, government, or the Department of Education. But they can’t pretend we don’t exist. They haven’t spoken English since anyone can remember, but we’re not listening like we used to. I don’t want to be told what someone thinks I should know, or need to know, or want to hear. Just tell me the honest truth.

Some fool may come along who tries to censor and control the internet. He might succeed. But we’ve tasted it now and we can rebuild it.

Every voice on Earth raised in free, irrepressible speech.

We have our heading.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Love My Computer

Comments

2 Responses to “New Reasons To Love My Computer”

Julie LaPoint on November 20th, 2008 5:42 pm

Loved the link to the Obama Election writing. It was such a wonderful description of the joy our family felt – we now have the Audacity of Hope!!!
Christine Scaman on November 21st, 2008 7:34 am

Glad you loved it as much as I did. David Weinberger writes firewords. He tells us about us. I might not always agree with him, and when he writes about internet policy, I don’t even understand him. But he sure can back up an argument.