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Work for a large company is like getting on a train. Are you going 60 mph or is the train going 60 mph and you're just sitting still?


Windmill at the Spring Festival. Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart. October 2011.

Theme Thursday again, and this week I am in a "railing against" mood.

You see, I currently hold the controversial opinion that there are too many gizmos and GADGETs these days. It used to be that the most advanced gadget you'd see at a meeting was the humble retractable pencil. Then overhead projectors got a foothold. As they died out, along came the laptop and with it the dreaded PowerPoint.

Alongside this bloated behemoth you will now find your audience (that's how I view meetings, d'you wanna make something of it?) came the mobile phone, the I-Pod, the I-Pad, the touch pad maxi pad taxi pad plus-double-plus-plus. There are the coffee machines on the way in. Fax machines on the way out. The boom gate in the parking bay and the pay-as-you-go before you can go machine.

There are the octopus phones and the video-conference gear that never works and the stapler that never works and the laminator that never works and the air condition is too loud and the thingamyjig that should open the blinds won't open the blinds and there are high tech blinds that don't work and curtain rods have been superseeded by microchipped bells and whistles that don't ding and don't tweet.

Ultimately, despite all this stuff; despite the gizmos, despite the GADGETS and despite the technological advancement that the rapid growth in the industrial output of India and China has afforded us; we STILL couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.

Bitter, moi?

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Comments

smudgeon said…
Maintain the rage, Kris.

While I am appreciative of my ipod, smartphone, and laptop - the only functional item I ever cart into a meeting is my arse. And I'm frequently reminded that none of the above is going to make me happy - not even my arse.
3 November 2011 at 11:42
Roddy said…
Answer your own question son. Did you travel sixty miles in the hour the train took to cover the distance, or are you still at the point the train left from?
My son, without technology I would not be able to keep up with you and your family.
I wouldn't be able to converse with your mother as often as I do. Both email and phone.
My company would not be able to harass me so mercilessly without either phone or email.
Perhaps life was simpler before the advent of technology!
And couldn't live without my coffee machine.
3 November 2011 at 18:57
The Silver Fox said…
Hm. Love a good rant, m'self. There's a trade-off for almost every gain, I fear.
3 November 2011 at 21:24
Mrsupole said…
Geez, now I am trying to figure out if I am coming or going when I am on a train, plane, or automobile.

But I am not giving up my iPhone because it is the best gadget out there.

You know that half the people were born after me and I have also just realized that most of the gadgets were also invented after I was born. Did man really land on the moon? I guess I have seen a lot.

I loved your TT gadget rant too.

God bless.
3 November 2011 at 23:04
Betsy Brock said…
Interesting question there...but if the train were to stop...you'd still be going 60, right? Yep..and it would hurt... And yes, it would hurt you more than it would hurt me. lol......
4 November 2011 at 06:49
Baino said…
Wouldnt mind so many gadgets if they didn't become obsolete so quickly.
5 November 2011 at 19:34
Kris McCracken said…
Smudgeon, people do confuse objects with something more meaningful.

Roddy, the train does the work.

Silver Fox, it's the constant demand for more that gets me.

Mrsupole, can openers are great.

Besty, quite.

Baino, and cost buck buck$ in the process.
8 November 2011 at 08:34
Roddy said…
Theoretically you are moving at sixty miles an hour if you are on the train.
8 November 2011 at 13:56
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