Why the universe is doomed

August 6, 2007

An alternate post title could be…

“Why can’t we listen?”

But the crux of my rant today is that people don’t read or listen or pay attention to anything except themselves. I’m guilty of it (I’m writing a blog that publishes MY thoughts anytime I want, c’mon now!!) and plenty of realistic and intelligent people out there are guilty of it too.

How we got to this point is anyone’s guess. I think it’s because we’re trained from the start of our lives to claw for attention. We want literal and figurative pats on the back for our accomplishments and we are encouraged to be active in our quest for success.

To get ahead of the next guy (or gal) requires being better, louder, faster and more focused than them. There’s nothing wrong with that in a track meet, but life is different.

One thing I’ve learned from people smarter than me is that there can be peace among dissenting opinion holders. We can all argue and get along. Try telling that to anyone who answers a question on a Web news site these days.

I got slammed today when I commented on a news story about the worth of IT departments. I think IT departments have too much power and too much proprietary knowledge to make them a true asset to any business.

IT departments should be included in the decision-making process at companies and not just called in to put out fires or save critical information at the last minute.

But my comment on the Boston.com site today said in effect that I don’t need an IT department because I use a Macintosh computer and I am the owner and operator of a one-person business.

Behind this statement was certainly some smugness, but also some truth. If I can’t fix my computer, then I go to an Apple store or hop online and find an answer to my issue. Failing that, I call my friend Matthew or any number of Mac geeks out there.

Well, I was taken to task for being a Mac Fanboy. I was told that the Mac only has 5% of the market and that I was being unrealistic.

In the next FIVE pages of posts by other people, only two read my post completely and understood that I was talking about my particular situation. Every other poster took the stance that either Macs are great and should be everywhere or that Macs are overrated and Mac lovers are drones who follow Steve Jobs wherever he wanders.

The two people who read my posting understood that I am a wholehearted advocate for using the right tool for the right job. The Macintosh computer is the right tool for my projects and challenges. So I use it. Simple as that.

People who can’t derive the meaning from a simple sentence shouldn’t even have access to electricity, much less the authority to turn on a computer. And some of those people who couldn’t understand my comment are running IT departments at large companies all across the world.

That’s why I think the universe is doomed.

More to come…