More and more people are beginning to realize that technology holds only part of the answer to our future. A lot of the future will mean returning to our past.
Since this blog is new, I give myself permission to reach back a month or so for this excellent post by Douglas Johnston of DIY Planner in a guest column for Dave Gray’s Communication Nation.
Dave has mentioned the back-to-paper revolution here, and he’s right. Strangely enough, it’s mainly a revolt of tech lovers against their favourite toys, junkies eschewing their drug of choice. It’s painful, it’s heart-wrenching, it flies in the face of our own self-identities, and it makes all our high-tech podium-thumping and evangelising suddenly look hollow.
Trading away the handhelds, tablet PCs and online productivity tools for pens, planners, cards and Moleskines is a leap of faith, like toppling a regime in the hope that the next one will somehow be more benevolent, more attuned to your needs, and offer greater opportunities. It may not, and you may find yourself before the firing line, remembering with fondness the evils of yesterday.
I’m overstating the case, of course, and the metaphor too. But to a techie, the sudden wild thrust into the world of analog is a revolution, both exhilirating and frightening. It’s the thrill of learning new skills and gear and approaches, but it’s also the abandonment of many addictive tools you know so well. But why bother?
The rest – and it’s worth the read – is here:
Why techies are leading the back-to-paper movement
