Relative Something

When I was a much younger man, working for a mid-sized company in the 1980s and ’90s, there was talk of a move toward becoming ‘paperless’ in our business dealings. Over two decades later that ideal has yet to be achieved. Even though, as fast as technology has moved, with cell phones shrinking each time a new model is introduced, and now becoming dramatically more than just phones, we still have failed to achieve many of the goals that visionaries keep boasting are possible.

Well, sure, they are possible. There are houses that are completely computer controlled, down to the inventory of groceries. But how many people actually live in one? No one that I know. At the same time, there are still people that have VHS tape players hooked up to their televisions. As fast as technology appears to move, there remains a fair amount of lag for complete adoption of the latest and greatest by the masses.

At my current day-job, business is pretty strong right now and orders have been arriving in bunches. I’m afraid we are taking a significant bite out of the forests with all the paper we are going through. We are advanced enough to have computers at work, but we are a bit behind the new technology curve, using outdated software programs on hardware released around the turn of the century.

It is sad to think about how many advances in technology are being rolled out year after year, yet how difficult it is to implement them all in a timely and effective manner.

I’m left wanting to go out and plant more trees to compensate for all the business we are doing lately. How many months do you think it will be until the ground thaws?