How computers do not save you time.

Here's one for you kids out there. When you think of computers you think productivity. You can see it in an entire category of software called 'productivity suite'. Don't be shocked, but computers and their software don't often save you time or make you productive. Case in point, I just received an x-ray image from my doctor to view on my computer. Well, as it turns out it is Windows software that I cannot run on my Mac natively. So I go and launch Parallel, only to have it tell me I should chose between installing XP or Vista. What the f***? The app runs already on the computer for my wife. Before I could pick 'vista', it pops up an update notice. So now it is updating the Parallel after 15 minutes elapsed. Still no image of my X-ray. I end up taking the disc and putting it into my PC instead.

This kind of redirecting happens all the time. You want to do one thing and the computer says, oah aah, no you can't do that you have to install this that and the other thing first. By the time you're done, it would have been easier to not use the computer at all. Say you need a calculator, would you take 10 minutes to boot up your computer, wait for it to acquire the network, launch email, and then launch the calculator. It would have been much faster to open the drawer, pull out your calculator and start punching in numbers; 15 seconds?

Computers are still great at repetitive and redundant tasks. You want to surf the web? No problem, same task over and over again, just keep clicking away until you see something you like. Oh, you want to write volume 4 of your memoirs? No problem, Word will let you write until you drop. You can do both as fast as you can switch your eyes and hands between them. It's called multitasking. Humans have learned to do that too. But if you have something you need a computer to do that you don't already have a routine for, like looking at X-rays your doctor gave you, then forget about it. It will take forever to hunt down the right computer and software. You're better off doing it the old fashion way. Give me the film doc!