I think there is a universal law that goes something like this:

The degree to which information technology can
truly help problem X is inversely proportional
to the enthusiasm with which the average young
software developer approaches the problem.

Maybe "universal law" is a bit high here? How about "rule of thumb"? Yes, that's better. Example? Personal productivity. "How hard can it be?", says the typical enthusiastic young software developer. "You have meetings, calendar appointments, notes, TODO lists, contact list, task lists, expense recording...Just a whole bunch of lists really. How hard can it be to get a computer application to manage that sort of thing?"

The answer - as I have found out to my cost - is that it is really easy to create that sort of thing. The only thing that comes close to being this easy is sitting back and watching the beautifully crafted system fall into disuse over a period of about a month or so.

I lump productivity gadgets into this category too. Over the years, I have tried most variants on the personal productivity gadget theme. I generally approach with high enthusiasm. I force my way through the pain of the initial information loading headache. I keep my eye on the prize - a simplified life! I steadfastly force myself to use the gadget for the first while. Then things start to slip. At first it might be just a single appointment on a post-it note. Then comes meeting notes on the back of napkins. Then phone numbers find their way into my computer but not the gadget...The slope slippeth. Some time later - I think six months is the most I have ever lasted - the gadget gets mothballed.

A second example. More flippant this time. Managing your music collection. I have lost count of the number of music collection management systems I have come across. all of which - at least up to the dawn of mp3 - shared the same feeling of complete futility to me. Yet it sounds so obvious and so doable to the average young software developer.

Perhaps it is not so much that problems like personal productivity and music collection management sound "solvable" at all. Perhaps the key here is that they sound bounded. Doable. Tractable...

Unfortunately the bits that are bounded, doable and tractable are also the bits most likely to fall into disuse - if I am anything to go by. The real problems in both these spaces are deeper. Too deep for the average young software developer, blinded by sheer enthusiasm and enraptured by the machines, to see.

Anyway, that is how I rationalize to myself the fact that I manage my life with simple text files and bits of paper.

Your mileage may vary.

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