Bit Literacy - Mark Hurst [5]
Bit literacy is an invitation to all users to take control of their bits and become as effective as they want to be. It does require some time and effort, but it doesn’t require high-tech aptitude—you don’t need to be a “computer person”—and it doesn’t require expensive software. While it helps to be able to choose one’s tools, even users in the largest corporations, on company-issued computers, can become fully bit-literate. Senior citizens going online for the first time can become bit-literate. Perhaps most importantly, young children who are developing lifelong habits can and should learn these skills. The way they work with bits will define their lives and careers to a greater extent than any previous generation.
The only people who may find these skills irrelevant are those who worship technology for its own sake. These include Busy Man, who shows off the latest upgrade as a symbol of his success, and many techies who are simply in love with technology. For them, productivity isn’t nearly as interesting as endlessly examining and comparing the tools and features that promise it. Trendy buzzwords and fads, leading-edge features, and above all, complicated frameworks and systems: these are the things worth playing with and blogging about. To such people bit literacy may seem hopelessly out of step with the times, too simple to bother with.
But simplicity is exactly what bit literacy offers. Users who practice it will find that they become more productive than those who try to keep pace with the technology industry. The difference comes from users choosing to be in control of their bits, rather than ceding that responsibility to the tools.
Chapter 3: The Solution
Bits are heavy, and it’s the users’ responsibility to manage their bits in order to avoid overload. But how? The core of bit literacy is a simple solution, applicable in every situation where bits appear, requiring no conceptual leap or complex framework. In fact, it’s really the only possible logical conclusion.
Let’s review. Bits are overloading users from all sides, constantly, and they’re increasing. The overload makes users less productive and more stressed; thus, there’s a need for some solution. Passively ignoring the problem won’t work, since bits are still heavy, even if we pretend not to notice. And rushing around trying to react to all of the bits at once doesn’t work; Busy Man isn’t effective, healthy, or sustainable. The solution must lie outside those two strategies, and it must work at any scale. Bits are now essentially infinite, since any amount of load we manage today will be exceeded tomorrow. The solution, therefore, must be both effective and sustainable, indefinitely, in a world of infinite bits. There is only one possible solution.
Let the bits go.
The key to managing and thriving in a world of infinite bits is to let the bits go. This deserves some clarification, because the phrase is easily misinterpreted. First, it doesn’t mean to delete everything—hardly an effective strategy. I once gave a seminar in which an attendee told me that she has an easy way of dealing with her incoming e-mail: whenever her inbox gets too full, she simply “lets the bits go” by deleting all the messages. Important or not, read or unread, everything simply disappears, never to bother her again. When I expressed some concern about her method, she replied, “Oh, if it’s really important, they’ll write back.”
There’s another possible misinterpretation of “let the bits go,” and that’s not to use bits at all. Live off the grid with no e-mail, no cell phone, no digital camera, no Internet access at all. Such a lifestyle might be appropriate for some people, but not for anyone who needs to work with digital technology. Bit literacy means engaging the bits, just as any discipline requires meeting the challenge, or the material, at hand. Meditation means wrestling