Bit Literacy - Mark Hurst [1]
There is a better way. It's something I call "bit literacy," a set of skills for living and working with bits in a healthy and productive way. Bit literacy can work for any user, in any occupation, at any age, using any kind of computer, under any load of bits. It just requires learning and practicing some basic skills. Much like literacy itself, bit literacy can grant a lifetime of benefits, and it doesn't require any special software or expensive tools. The basic principles apply to any situation and any technology where bits appear.
The importance of such skills in today's world cannot be overestimated. Bits are everywhere, and they're increasing every day; they have changed the world like no other technology since perhaps the invention of paper. This is no longer the industrial age, the atomic age, or the space age. We are now living in the age of bits. Those who know how to work with bits will master the age; those who don't will be left further and further behind in every profession and creative pursuit that bits infiltrate.
This book is an invitation to take control of your bits by learning the methods and skills of bit literacy. The skills are yours to learn and use; no software, website, or device can do it for you. I've designed the book to make it as easy as possible to understand why and how to start practicing bit literacy. Chapter 1 starts with a description of bits and their unique qualities that give rise to such dramatic opportunities, and problems. Chapter 2 explains why it's your responsibility to practice the solution; and Chapter 3 describes the solution itself: emptiness. In a phrase, bit-literate users must "let the bits go."
Chapter 4 begins "The Method," a set of chapters describing the major skills involved in bit literacy: managing e-mail, todos, media diet, and photos; creating bits and choosing the right file formats for them; and naming and storing files. Chapter 12 lists other essential tools and skills that practitioners should learn, and finally in Chapter 13, "The Future of Bit Literacy," I describe why I think practicing the discipline will become increasingly important. Technically-minded readers, whom I call "techies" throughout the book, may also like to read the appendices. Appendix A encourages developers to create more bit-literate tools; Appendix B gives my answer to the "Mac vs. Windows" debate and describes how my company sets up employees' computers to enable bit literacy.
Part I: The Context
Chapter 1: Bits
Bits are heavy. Though they have no physical weight, bits—the electronic data that flows in and out of our e-mail inboxes, cell phones, Web browsers, and so on—place a weight on anyone who uses them. A laptop computer weighs the same few pounds whether it holds one e-mail or a thousand, but to the person who has to deal with all those e-mails, there is a big difference. Appearing in large numbers as they often do, bits weigh people down, mentally and emotionally, with incessant calls for attention and engagement.
Bits are appearing everywhere today, and people are feeling the strain. E-mail traffic has increased, computers and other devices have proliferated, new acronyms and technology terms have invaded our speech, and many people can sense that there’s a problem. It’s all too much. “Information overload” is discussed at the water cooler, bemoaned in the press. The global economy is full of overloaded workers who are more weighed down, less productive, and ultimately less happy