Digital Dilemma, True Confessions

Are We Losing Our Curiosity?

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Though born at the tail end of Gen X, I never questioned where I belonged. I always felt my generational pull firmly. I’m now a working professional getting my first taste of Gen Z employees. I feel that tug even more strongly.

Growing up as a latch-key kid, I took my sense of independence for granted. For me and most of my peers, both parents worked necessitating us to take on responsibilities at a young age. My parents were fine with me doing extracurricular activities. However, I had to find my own transportation most of the time. We figured things out, mostly because we didn’t have other options. This forced us to be curious, engage with others, and learn how to be resourceful. If I didn’t know something, I hunted around for the answer. Sometimes this meant going to the library or asking other people. We didn’t have the internet.

By contrast, I notice with many Gen Z’s, they just don’t seem as curious. I wonder if this is because they grew up with an abundance of information instantly available, literally at their fingertips, all the time. It’s almost as though the over stimulation desensitized their curiosity muscle. Or maybe they have overload from too much internet, social media, and digital interaction.

Even more surprising to me is the reticence I see in Gen Z’s to take the initiative to look things up. For example, I’m honestly shocked sometimes after interactions with distinctly Gen Z’s because they don’t think to use the internet. This is usually my first instinct. They often seem uncomfortable to ask somebody else. I’m guessing the latter might be because they’ve had so much digital social interaction that reaching out in person probably feels foreign to them.

By contrast, many people I know who are Gen X or even Gen Y, will make attempts to figure things out. They do this either by researching, asking around, or looking things up. This is all done before escalating something or submitting a more formal query. I have a hunch this is because of being raised to be independent from a young age. However, part of being independent also means knowing when to reach out to someone else for assistance. We were, in essence, independent to make those decisions. We weren’t alone, even if we only had a telephone to connect us.

Deletion

Archiving vs. Deleting

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Some years ago I posted about the difference between Archiving and Saving. In the world of archiving and records management the terms are distinct. Archiving is designating items or content for long-term preservation. Typically, defined criteria helps with the selection. In essence, there’s a process. It’s not just randomly saving everything because of seemingly unlimited digital storage space.

However, since I changed jobs to work on the dark side in data, another nuance developed. I frequently find myself having to define storage, archiving, and deleting. Then I need to translate what each term means from a data perspective or a records management/archival one. In essence, archiving in the data world means storing data on cheaper disk space. This means it may take slightly longer to access. In some scenarios, the data will be retained for a long time. Sometimes it could be for large volumes of data that will only be needed for a couple of years. In any event, it differs from the archival definition of the term.

Yet, in many circumstances, I find the definition getting blurry between the two. For example, when I had to migrate my list of subscription users from one service to another. I took the opportunity to clean up and remove invalid email addresses. To me, this was an obvious delete. I had no use to keep outdated email addresses. When I hit the delete key, the system gave me a prompt questioning my decision and requiring me to provide a reason. Even more puzzling was that my answer belonged with archiving!

It felt curious to me that permanently deleting wasn’t an option for cleaning up my audience. To me, this is building bad habits in people. Digital storage, and digital archive space, isn’t limitless. It’s not a good practice to save everything simply because the space is available without having a valid reason. When would I ever need to refer to an invalid email address? How would this information be valuable to me? Why does “permanently delete” only happen due to a compliance reason?

The point is, we shouldn’t be conditioned to choose “archive” instead of opting for delete when it makes sense. It’s healthy to get rid of things that no longer have value to us.

Productivity, True Confessions

The Simple Magic of a To-Do List

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I spent my time leisurely on Saturday doing fun activities. Sunday morning my thoughts felt scattered. I was having some (mild) panic about how much I had to get done. Cleaning, weekly preparations, laundry, grocery shopping, yard work (it was a beautiful day!), practicing, writing my blog… basically, a lot of stuff. To add to the mix, some things required multiple parts. For example, I had some vacuuming to do. However, I couldn’t knock that off the list until I first cleaned out the vacuum cleaner. It had gotten gummed up with baking soda after an unfortunate mishap on the rug. In addition to all the tasks, I was also desperate to go for a swim to reset.

Though it was tempting to avoid everything and enjoy the sunshine, I knew my future self would regret that decision. Instead, I spent a few moments over breakfast making a to-do list. Like magic, my breathing slowed down and the morning felt manageable again. Even better, I didn’t have to think about what I was doing. I simply had to consult the list and see what was next, or available, to do in that moment. As I blogged in June, there’s something about “Lists and Why We Love Them.”

The to-do list grew over the day, some things crossed off, others added, and a few tasks getting stars as something critical to finish as time was running short. Even though I failed to accomplish one of the more critical tasks, I completed most of the list. This also included a few small, annoying tasks such as tightening a loose pan handle. Another bonus was the satisfaction of seeing the list and the crossed off items. I even added a few things to the list just so I could cross them off. It’s funny why that feels so satisfying.

All in all, it was a good reminder of how something as simple as a list, scratched out on a scrap of paper, can result in so much clarity. I don’t make a list every weekend, but I’m thinking of resurrecting the practice after Sunday’s success! It also helped me to break down some of the more miserable tasks, aka cleaning out the gummed up vacuum cleaner, into smaller steps I could handle. Otherwise, I easily could have let that one go for another two months.

Digital Dilemma

When Technology is More Problems than Answers

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In many ways, I love the conveniences of technology. Keyless doors, wireless speakers, and the portability of smartphones, are some of my favorites. These things make my life easier. They’re also easy to use. This is the way I imagine technology should be. An invention that helps me and improves my life, maybe even in ways I hadn’t previously imagined.

The keyless door is a good example of this. Having a keyless door means I’ll never worry about forgetting, or losing, my keys. I can confirm it’s locked remotely through a smartphone app. This is perfect when I have that old nagging anxiety wondering if I locked the door when I left. It’s also handy when visitors come since I can open the door remotely, or provide them with a customized code for their visit. All in all, it solves a lot of problems. Previously I would have to leave a lockbox for guests, which sometimes led to a lot of drama when the visitor couldn’t open it. And if I had worry about leaving the door unlocked, I couldn’t do anything about it the whole day.

However, the keyless door is far from perfect. In one place I lived the door wouldn’t open because I hung a few shopping bags on the knob. I did this so I would remember to bring them to the car. All of a sudden, I was locked out. I kept trying the code, hearing the mechanism whir and attempt to open the lock. Yet, it couldn’t do it because of the weight of the shopping bags. I ended up breaking in through the bedroom window. After I did this a second time, I started hiding a key to the backdoor outside, old school style. Even though the front door was keyless, the backdoor had a regular lock. I had grown accustomed to being keyless and never had the backdoor key on me. whoops!

In those moments, I longed for the simplicity of a regular door lock. One that opened without needing batteries or unencumbered door handles. For these reasons, I’m sometimes wary of immediately jumping to technology to solve every problem, or perceived or real. Chances are, there’s probably already a way to solve it, even if it’s a little clunky and un-automated.

Digital Dilemma

The Gains of AI

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For over a year advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) fill the headlines. In particular, the rise of generative AI represents a new level of capabilities with its impressive range of skills. As the name indicates, it can generate new content, instantly. This has left some people concerned for their jobs (e.g., writers and other artists). While others profit in a fraction of the time.

However, it is sometimes valuable to stop and reflect on what we are really gaining. As the world seems to process everything faster, time feels shorter than ever. With all this technology and advancements, I feel like that should free me up to do the kind of things I enjoy most. Yet, it seems that learning about new technologies consumes more and more of my time. This includes how to use them and also how to protect myself on them. The rest of my time is spent using the new technologies, or sometimes just getting frustrated. I think the frustration comes from my expectations that everything should be a seamless experience. Often, it’s not. It’s the same old clunky processes, except now I have to bumble through them in paper or poorly designed electronic mediums.

The other day I was chatting with one of my coop students about cover letters. A professor wanted to use his cover letter as an example for other students. I agreed that he had written a great cover letter. In fact, I used it as a tie breaker between him and the other shortlisted candidate. More importantly, I could tell that he hadn’t used AI to generate his cover letter. Or if he did, he spent time customizing and editing whatever AI prepared.

What really caused me to think was when the student mentioned some of his colleagues had applied to hundreds of positions. My student, however, had only applied to a few dozen. Even with the benefit of technology to author cover letters, write, and customize resumes for specific jobs, applying for hundreds still takes a lot of time. On the hiring side, it also takes lots of my time to filter through the applicants, even if I use AI to help.

Does using AI to apply for that many positions increase your hiring rate by the same amount? Or is the time “saved” spent sifting through quantity over quality to ultimately achieve the same outcome?

Productivity, Spring Cleaning, True Confessions

Finding a Home

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I often think my biggest barrier to tackling clutter is finding a home to put something. A friend of mine visited the other week. She had recently moved to a new place and ended up downsizing in the process. One of her top priorities was to find a place for everything. Even if this place was cumbersome and difficult to access, such as the cupboards above the refrigerator, she didn’t care. As long as the item was stored somewhere, a better “home” could be made later.

I’m in the process of getting ready for four window replacements. To prepare, we need to clear away everything near the windows. This is both to provide space for the workers and to protect things from getting dusty. This is particularly important for the basement window, which requires some extensive repairs. It’s been a lot of work finding, or making, temporary “homes” for things that normally live on the window sills, such as the house plants. It’s been doubly frustrating to create homes for things in the “to-do,” donate, or gift piles.

I once read an article about a clean up method comprising five buckets: trash, dishes, laundry, things with a place, and things without a place. In theory, this seems like a solid system, except for me the majority of clean up is things with a “cumbersome and difficult to access” place. This is likely why they weren’t in it. Sometimes I designated the place hurriedly and organically, resulting in a jumbled interior. The problem with these homes is that often space is available. However, everything is difficult to access and find because the organization is poor. The big challenge is finding time and energy to reorganize everything.

Often, I think this problem is both easier to solve and worse in the digital world. On a computer, or device, it’s incredibly easy to create a “home.” I can always create a folder, or a tag, or save it within some app. Many apps automatically create some kind of organization system for us. Yet, this can often result in an abundance of “homes,” many containing a single item. Poorly named folders and labels make it difficult to find anything later. Of course, purging doesn’t happen as routinely because it’s easy to get more space.

The first step is finding a home, even if it ends up being the garbage can.