Slow IT and the Fifth Conference
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010Please find underneath the results of an interview I did with The Fifth Conference about the concepts of Slow IT and Simplicity.
Most hesitant consumers of fast food will agree that the Slow Food movement has a point. That burger may look very appealing initially but seldom does one feel fulfilled afterwards. As Ron Tolido sees it, the consumption of technology can leave a similar feeling of dissatisfaction. We may consume a vast amount of information daily, but did we learn anything useful or valuable? In fact, did we actually even ‘think’ today? Today’s technology and communication tools have obvious benefits, but have we thought through how we best interact with that technology? A similar line of questioning can be levelled at the producers of technology, since it is they who are creating the IT equivalent of fast food. According to Ron Tolido, too many CIOs are losing sight of strategy and architecture, and instead are caught up in a never ending rat race to keep up with the latest hype. Technology products also often miss the point. Winning products do not necessarily have the most features and functions. On the contrary, their appeal is often rooted in their simplicity.
You are writing a book entitled ‘Slow IT’; what do you mean with slow IT?
It is an idea that needs to seen in context of the broader Slow movement. People may be familiar with the Slow Food movement that began in Italy, in protest to the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in the Piazza di Spagna in Rome. Since then, this concept has been embraced by people in other areas, such as design, business, travel, even sex. I’m a big fan of Carl Honoré’s book ‘In Praise of Slow’, wherein he describes the rise of the Slow movement and the way its principles can be applied to so many aspects of our lives.<br>
It is important to note that Slow doesn’t necessarily mean being slow in the literal sense of the word. Slow is about doing things with the right timing, the right concentration, the right approach. It is about using good quality materials or resources, and if necessary, taking your time. And it also refers to the way we consume, or eat: slow eaters take their time to savour the meal, to experience the flavours, as opposed to stuffing yourself in quick tempo. Consider the difference in eating culture between the US and Italy. Dinner in the US is a one-hour business. Therefore when Americans spend time in Italy they really suffer. First they have to wait until about 9 o’clock for dinner time and then they have to stay put at the table for hours. In a way it highlights a cultural clash between the Anglo Saxon world, which is all about speed and a ‘just do it’ attitude, versus the Rhineland model which is more contemplative and reflective. Not that the one is better than the other off course. The Anglo Saxon approach tends to be more dynamic and innovative while in the Rhineland model we can get stuck in endless discussions.
I come from the IT sector so in a way we helped create the fast, chaotic world we live in today. Clearly there is opportunity to reflect on the way we interact with technology, both on the side of the producer and the consumer. As consumers we are bombarded by impulses. But also at the producer side we often run ahead of ourselves. At Capgemini we increasingly receive requests from clients to produce fast, for the short term. There is no time anymore for strategy, for vision and architecture; when these elements are so important.
Related to the Slow movement is the idea of simplification, which is also something I am trying to tackle in my book. You can make things as complex as you like, but it is via simplification that you create rest and peace. That point is so well illustrated by the iPad. Again, what a clash of culture! When the iPad was launched the geeks criticised it because it didn’t have enough specifications. No flash, no multitasking—how archaic! But I think it succeeded because it is so simple. Within two minutes of using your iPad you forget that you are using technology. You’re not even aware of the fact that there is no multitasking because you’re so engaged with the task at hand. And you can sit in your sofa and actually relax while you interact with IT—that’s amazing. The iPad isn’t the only example that illustrates the power of simplicity.
One of the best selling IT authors in the world today, Nicholas Carr, is about to release his third book entitled ‘The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.’ Basically, he is arguing that the internet is changing the way we think. You can clearly see that in the way young people think. They’re very good at finding information quickly, online obviously, but they lack depth in understanding. The internet offers access to a huge amount of information but we tend to use that information very superficially and that is gradually turning us into superficial thinkers. These are fascinating arguments. That’s why I’m interested in technologies like the e-readers because they counter that superficiality. People are experimenting with all sorts of tools in that regard. For example, there is an Apple app called ‘Freedom’ that forces you offline for a specific time period per day. Sometimes you just need that, to focus on your task. Otherwise you’re always tempted to check your emails or your Twitter or Facebook feeds. Think about it: how many apps do you have running simultaneously on your laptop? It’s absolutely frenetic. That’s why I’m fascinated by such tools. Another example is Ommwriter, a minimalist, full-screen word processor. Here’s a tool that confronts you with your text, only your text. It blocks out all the toolbars and has no formatting functionality—no time wasting trying to make your text look nice.
Look, I’m not saying that Twitter is wrong. Such tools are useful. I certainly find them useful to network with people. Sometimes I meet people at conferences who I have known for some time via Twitter and it is amazing—it feels like you have known them for years. That is great. And I guess we’re becoming more aware of the world around us. But on the other hand we’re becoming hyperventilated users of superficial information, who have the attention span of a millisecond. There are no easy answers here. I certainly don’t want to make any judgement, but I do believe that we need to be more aware about the information and people that we interact with. There are real human beings behind those Twitter accounts.
In the book I also look at the CIO’s perspective. Also there you can see these types of tensions. If you look back at the past few years then the key trend has been the demise of the large IT project, the project by the waterfall method. Today, Agile IT is all the rage, which entails a more flexible and iterative way of working.
Here the point is to work with smaller modules, to show results relatively quickly, and to subsequently fine-tune as you go, and in the process work very closely with the client and users. Compare it to cooking a good stew. You get it going, lift the lid to taste, add herbs, taste again, and so on. Agile IT is an important shift, and a good one, but there is a danger that it is used as an alibi to just ‘do it’, without analysis and thought. I see that happening more and more. Developers are not doing decent analysis anymore because they’re reasoning that the client will want something else anyway within a few months. Everything changes constantly so why do strategy? Therefore that attitude; ‘just do it’. But then you’re just being kicked around by circumstances and will soon have the look of wounded prey. It is amazing. Even when companies are prepared to think about strategy, then that process is still constrained by our hyperventilated state of being.
For example, I often sit in on strategy sessions with clients and am always amazed to see how half the group arrives late while emailing or phoning or twittering or whatever else they do. And during the session too, they’ll be checking their emails and if a phone rings you’ll see a wide eyed exec bolt out the room in panic. It’s hilarious, when you think about it.
A similar thing is happening in conferences, in the way delegates all pull their laptops out during the keynotes.
Absolutely, everybody has become a blogger—or twitterer. Are they still able to concentrate? And whose show is it? In a way they’re trying to create their own show; they want to be the show. Also, the impatience of people is getting out of hand. People get claustrophobic if they have to sit down for a 60 minute presentation. I went to a recent conference in Scandinavia recently where the organisers had arranged a room where 6 simultaneous sessions were broadcast live on 6 screens. What a success! Here’s an area where you can simply zap between the 6 sessions, a bit like watching TV with nothing on.
I’m my book I’m trying to confront readers with these types of issues. Technology is tremendously useful, no doubt, but we also need to reflect on the way we interact with technology, on its impact on the way we think and how it influences our social interactions and social norms. I’m trying to make an appeal for more depth, for more reflection, and that sometimes we should just unplug.
First published by The Fifth Conference.
