No cure for curiosity
Post by Karl Southern |
I’ve read a number of articles recently that posed the question: "has tech gotten boring?" What seems to be at the root of this assertion is that technology has become 'routine' and 'par for the cause' for consumers. It is an intrinsic part of their daily lives and is now taken for granted.
While this realisation among consumers is new, those of us who have worked in IT for a long time, already know the absolute truth of the matter. Technology is boring, seriously boring.
The problem for many IT bods is that our interest lies in the "how tech works". Normal people are interested in “how it impacts” them. Perhaps it is highlighted in the difference between "ooohhh, that’s clever" vs "ooohh that’s useful". I have cupboards full of gadgets that were “clever” but never quite made it to becoming "useful".
The fact that a programming library may be based on the factory design pattern is of interest to me as someone who dabbles a little with code. Let me go out on a limb here and suggest that the majority of senior partners won’t care. The fact that this same library could help shave a minute of staff time off the creation of a matter is much more interesting, particularly as they are doing 2000 of those inceptions a month.
There is no obvious technology/application candidate for what the next big thing is going to be. We can talk about virtual reality, the internet of things and artificial intelligence as much as we like, but until I can see how they are going to impact me, I won’t get excited.
And while we're talking about the impact of technology (in a particularly unsubtle segue) I find myself looking on with a combination of awe and admiration at what our clients are achieving using Visualfiles. It is one of the reasons I find the annual get-together of the Visualfiles community so interesting. Those conversations that start with "we're trying to..." may well necessitate some talk at the geeky level but rest assured, there is an end game and that end game is primarily focussed on the business. I really enjoy that geeky bit in the middle, but I take much more satisfaction from what that geeky bit delivers.
This year, the Visualfiles Share event is in Birmingham on 3rd of March. Let’s see if we can help you find your technology mojo and show you a little more than "tech for tech's sake". We are very keen to help pique your curiosity.
As American poet Dorothy Parker remarked: "The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."
About the Author: Karl Southern
In an IT career that has spanned well over twenty-five years, Karl has spent time in consultancy, operations, product management and solutions design. Particular areas of his expertise include integration, mobility, and exploiting information. Our clients do amazing things with our technology, and what Karl enjoys most about his role, is helping clients to unlock the potential of our software, so that they can achieve amazing things too.
Some of his colleagues have pointed out that he is a geek by nature due to his keen interest in all things technical. He takes this as a huge compliment. Outside of work, Karl likes to walk, albeit slowly; a pace he blames on frequent pauses to take photographs.
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