These reflections come as a consequence of a period using my replacement computer -the regular one had a keyboard problem that the tech service spent ages to fix-. More precisely, they are due to the fact, quite shocking, that, during those days revisiting my old, faithful Compaq Presario 1200, not only was I able to do all my tasks in the same way, with the only apparent difference of some programs taking longer to open, but I was more focused, calm, and efficient. (Of course, it must be noted, I am not a 3D designer for Pixar or something of the kind; most of my computer needs have to do with words and a few static images, the “cheapest” goods in terms of memory and CPU time).
Call me naive, but the experience has brought me back to some very worthwhile basics: a computer is a device to extend the range of your thought and your reasoning. A sort of crane that you use to select things from a vast ocean of mashed information. The length and perfection of the crane may vary, but on the other end, the crane operator is always one and the same. As the old saying goes, information is not knowledge, and when the amount of information is infinite, the skill to distinguish what’s essential and what is garbage is what makes all the difference.
There is a certain peaceful feeling in using this vintage computer. It has 196Mb of RAM, so I cannot see videos, and very heavy websites take ages to load or become black holes, but, for the rest of my tasks, as I said, it has made almost no difference. In fact, from my experience, some of its previous disadvantages have turned out to be advantages too:
- It prevents multitasking: you cannot spill 134 open windows in the desktop as a result of doing 78 things at the same time. It helps you to recover the lost art of serenity: finish one task, label it as fully done, close the corresponding windows, orderly proceed to the next one.
- Less distractions available: you know the names, the list is long… But an AMD K6 and a 4.5G hard disk is not precisely a dream location for online and multimedia orgies, so… it’s a shame but… all you can do is work (well, to be honest, I slaughtered some old-fashioned space invaders now and then, shame on me…)
- It pushes you into creativity: when one of your essential programs suddenly takes longer to open (and especially when you were used to open it 140 times a day), you’ll soon become more attentive and start to figure out better clusters of tasks, better shortcuts and default values, how to find things more easily… Those improvements will stay with you once you return to your modern machine (in which the additional speed might not be required any more, but efficiency is never excessive).
I realize that this experience might not be for everybody. I have found it very challenging and learned a lot from it, but I understand that a computer of this age could be a torture for many people. I think I am quite of the Spartan type in everything that I do: my needs are always very simple and I like to keep sight of the core of things. If I were a teacher, if I had the authority required, the only technology (if any) that my students would use during their first year would be pen and paper. All you can do with pen and paper is think. And once they learned to think, and only then, they would be allowed to use the computer… if they want to. But once you learn to think, the tool is not that important anymore.
Or take musicians, for instance: all those guitar pedals that the kids get as a gift for their 15th birthday… So many reverbs and distortions make them forget the fact that there were, there are, and there will always be only seven musical notes. Go bring me a good melody with them, and then, and only then, you can add all the decoration you like. I think no one should ever deal with an add-on before having steady notions of the unit to which it is added to… Otherwise, you don’t know why you do things, and that is terrible. First things first, and then the rest is easy to achieve.
This flawless equipment brings you the page that you're reading.
So this has been a peculiar productivity practice for me, a sort of unexpected “retreat” that allowed me to spend some time with myself and re-learn the essentials (in my case, it also helps that I am very fond of my Presario: we have gone through a lot together). I hope I can keep all that knowledge with me now that I have my modern “crane” back. Sometimes, those elements that are intended to help us, can become complex and confusing to the extent of severing us from ourselves.
Have you recently adopted or recovered other examples of “simple is better”?
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