Blog Gran'daddy

2009-04-02T18:06:00.000+05:30

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Bridging the Divide - a perspective

2009-04-01T12:21:00.000+05:30

Our tech age has divided people into certain categories.

There are the 'normal' folks who were born before around 1985 and got introduced to all the fancy gadgets like CD players, Ninetendo, Cable/ satellite/DTH TV, PC's and the internet, mobile phones, Intel Core, hard disks, thumb drives, digital cameras, laptop's, WiFi, remote controls and that sort of thing, as they came into the market. All of them loved the new toys, and struggled valiantly to understand each new gizmo which entered their possession. Who spent hours trying to choose the right equipment for their needs, and paid good money to then purchase it. Who spend a lot of time in actually reading the manual that came with it, and getting thoroughly confused in the process, but nevertheless finally managing to maximise their usage and enjoyment.
A subset of this same age group who must ALSO manage the use of techonolgy products in their place of work. Either for their own business' needs or for their bosses. Here we open a pandora's box - and the demons that emerge are the huge corporations like Cisco, IBM, Hughes, Symantec, HCL, Wipro etc etc each spewing out venomous jargon attached to huge price tags. Firewalls, Routers, Servers, ICT, Microsoft, MPLS, Oracle, ERP, Security, Virus, on and on and on. How can a normal person possibly deal with such horrors ?
Then there are the 'normal' folks who were born after 1985, and practically grew up with all of this stuff. The next-gen people so to speak. They did not have to struggle to understand ... they were accustomed to such things practically from their infancy. It was part of their normal world and quite natural. And they are still too young to have to really deal with anything like this at a corporate level - so they are safe for a while.
Then there is the category of people who make technology products their business. The demons (so to speak) themselves. And the software creators - or programmers - are the largest set in this group. Another set is the shopkeepers & corporations who sell these products and supposed 'solutions', and the mechanics or techs who hack or repair them. Who seem to understand what its all about, but in fact have a very tunnel vision of the entire spectrum. Limited to only their speciality, they are almost like normal folks, but not really. These are the pretenders. Take them even a half-step away from their very specialised training, and these people flounder like everyone else. But here's the sad part - since they are supposed to be tech savvy, they cannot let on that they do not know ! Which leads to all SORTS of terrible dilemna's ....
And finally there are the engineers who have actually seen such products being conceived, developed, improved. Who actually have a breadth of knowledge founded on hard work, study, and practical experience. And may have had a hand in the actual creation of one or several of these marvels. These people may not know the tiniest of details of any one of the shiny new toys or technologies - but are savvy enough to grasp the essentials right away. Who because of their cross-domain knowledge can immediately understand what is good & what is not. What will work & what will not. And also know why. And how. Covering all aspects of the systems life cycle, and also taking into consideration the normal folks actual needs. Who actually understand the purpose of the bells and whistles, and cannot be fooled by jargon and acronyms. Such engineers are worth their weight in gold, but equally hard to find !

With almost a shock, one seems to recognise rude elements of HG Wells 'The Time Machine', complete with Eloi, Morlocks and a supposed utopia beginning to evolve. For the pre-1985 folks, you know what this is about. For the post-85'ers heres a summary.

But maybe thats an exaggeration. Nevertheless, normal folks need to find the true engineers to have their problems solved. And the engineers need problems to solve.

Hopefully this blog will help establish that communication channel with at least One engineer.

Me.

Ensuring Things WORK

Blog Gran'daddy

Bridging the Divide - a perspective