A simple world – Wht? Where?

Once I happened to take a stroll with a senior collegue of mine, generally discussing where our much hyped IT industry’s heading, also bordering occasionally on how ‘easy’ our lives hv become.

Thought I’ll b showered with gyaan on the latest app/framewrk in the fray, stuff which cud make things simple, so to say ‘make technology work for the common man’, and somehow try n get the kicks that u being in the IT industry are playing such an key role in the lives of these ‘Common men’. Surprisingly, all tht this dude with over 10+ years dev-experience in the industry had to say was:

I hate technology. It has made life so fast, so stressful, so miserable for the Common man. A common man wants ‘some’ work, wants peace, wants time. Can technology really fit in here.

Seriously, think of a farmer, staying in a village. Can technology really help him ease his job? Yeah mebbe, but can he afford it? Can technology really substitute the conventional modes of entertainment? Can technology really save him a great deal of time, without changing his conduct, his daily schedule much? Can technology really fill in his quest for solitude?

Chance illla!!!

Was forced to think, how technology helped, if it actually did? In fact there’re certain aspects of life that undoubtedly gain from technology. Sheer pressure from our peers forces us to allow technology to impact the rest, permeate almost every sphere of our lives.

A classical example being that of a sales guy who uses a cell phone to keep in touch with his customers 24x7. His job in most cases has got nothing to do with technology, and as part of which it’d ideally demand him to be accessible for abt 8 hrs a day, but to keep up the pressures of the Sales job in ‘today’s’ world, he’d invariably have to remain accessible 24 hours a day, bole tou cell phone. If not, he’s shown the door. Had it not been for technology, the Customer’s wouldn’t have been so demanding; his job wd’ve been simpler. And we thot technology made life simpler! Phew!
Same is true with our desktop machines; so if we don’t keep upgrading our systems from time to time we’d not deliver solutions in better time thn our competitor, and it wd only b a matter of time before getting thrown outta business.

I’m confused. Not that I’m particularly against novel ideas, newer technologies. But why this rat race? where are we heading ? where is all this gonna end ? what is that we really want ? whats the truth ? Not the first time that I find myself @ square one, asking myself such cliched yet fundamental questions!!

I tried hard to pin-point where the problem really lies, found the soln in the rate at which things are changing, obviously! One idea comes out and the industry pounces (obviously no one’s prepared to backout frm seizing the initiative) on that and comes out with a zillion products, flooding the markets and overwhelming the users with an ever-increasing list of options. More the options, tougher the choice, tougher the decision to tell the right from the wrong, the critical from the important, forget the useless, which infact forms 70-80% of our options . There’s far too much noise. This is akin to searching the meaning of a word on Google. It throws up a million search results (who’z bothered dude). Its much easier with an oxford dictionary. Not always though, but in most cases yes. (diffnt matter tht Google surely realizes this and something’s surely in the works)

Change is good, but with the tech-revolution, the rate of change has become atrociously rampant, which has made life only more complicated – technology’s made life simpler!!
A possible solution is mebbe controlling the rate at which a new technology impacts the market. Idea-horses have to get their timings right, give the market, the users some time to settle down. We’ve gotta somehow control the current chaos, although I believe tht it’d self-balance over a period of time, but whts the time period we’re talking about; who’s got the time dude?