When Did Technology Become Fun Again?

A funny thing happened while I sat in my troglodyte cave working with cost models, business cases and service descriptions. Technology became fun again. I am not exactly sure when this happened. If past experience holds true, I would say I am about two years behind the curve. I plan to aggressively make up for lost time.

I keep asking myself, "What has changed?". Looking at the technology industry landscape, I would have to say that virtually nothing has changed. With one rather significant exception, everything that I am discovering in terms of technology has existed for years. Facebook, blogs, Sharepoint, RSS, the web, certainly nothing new there. So as Morrisey famously asked, "Has the world changed or have I changed?"

Moz, I guess it's me.

But the change is a little hard to see. I mean, I am still the same cynical curmudgeon that I was six months ago. I still have (roughly) the same job. I've moved to Malaysia, but I hardly see Kuala Lumpur as the vanguard of the technology revolution, even for someone as far behind the times as me.

I've given this some serious thought and I have come to a couple of conclusions. The first reason why I believe I am enjoying technology once again is because I am being encouraged professionally. It's not part of my job description, certainly, but the new management has been pushing me to see what new technologies can bring to the table, rather than focusing on the purely bottom line investigations that I have been working on for the last two years or so. Some of this is probably because changes in economic conditions have allowed the siege mentality of most large companies to ease a bit, but I think "management" (you know who you are) deserves much of the credit.

Another reason I am enjoying technology more is the significant exception I mentioned above: my iPad. This feels like something the Jetsons or the guys on the Discovery in 2001: A Space Odyssey should have. For every minor annoyance (why should I pay $0.99 to open zipped files?) there are 10,000 revelatory moments (for instance, the fact that I can type is blog on the thing...comfortably). It is a nice piece of technology that is fun to use, even when I am answering my work email with it.

But I think the most important reason that I am enjoying technology again is because I am much more of a user than I used to be. I am accustomed to being the administrator, and let's face it, that is sometimes no fun at all. I had gotten to the point when I could not tell you about most of the technologies I dealt with day-to-day. Everything looked like a box in a PowerPoint presentation.

I remember when I was a kid seeing a teeter-totter and being utterly fascinated. The principles of leverage and balance made me stare and think for long periods of time. But I don't think I ever actually got on one. It looked kind of scary to use, but I still wanted to know how it worked. I think IT became like that for me. I'm not 100% sure what happened, but now I am a user, and I am really enjoying it. I think the most important thing to hang onto at your work is a sense of play. Even if the toys are cool, I think we all get bored if we don't actually take them out and play with them for a bit.

I'm sure this will pass, and eventually I will get bored again, but for now, I am enjoying every second of it.