For as long as man has been on this Earth we’ve dreamed of the future. Progress, innovation and technology have made our lives simpler in a drastic many aspects. The world has soldiered forward bringing many new and wonderful products and services to us. Yet so many of these innovations bring with them the baggage of what has come before it. Innovation is continually slowed to accomodate older technology and methods of doing things, just to appease the masses who refuse to move forward. Be it making webpages so people using old versions of Netscape can see your page, or waiting 10 minutes in the ATM line for an old lady to update her bank book it grows quite tedious.

I bring this whole topic up because it seems to be something that I run across almost daily. Companies and people complicating my life because they refuse to move with the times. How often are you asked to fax something to someone? The whole technology that fax machines are built on is total bullshit, yet people live and die by it. Let me get this, you want me to send you a copy of a print out, sent through the phone line, then shittily reproduced by your machine. Send a fucking email! Then the person can print it out if they want a copy instead of trying to dicipher a crappy printout. And it’s not like fax is an inexpensive either. Incurring long-distance charges just to send a fax seems rediculous. I think Douglas Coupland said it best in the book Microserfs(as awesome a nerd read if there ever has been one), when one the characters states that "getting a fax is like getting an email from 1987".

I’ve worked long and hard to streamline the money matters in my life. I pay the majority of my bills online and couldn’t be happier with the ease with which I can do it. I can get my balance instantly, move money from one account to another with just a few mouse clicks. I love the freedom it grants me and the pain it saves me. I think we’ve all been there when someone is doing 6 months of banking in front of you at the ATM while you just came to get $20 out. Yet there are some bills that just don’t fall in line. I have a student line of credit which I pay via cheque that I have to drop off at the bank every month. I feel dirty writing cheques. Cheques are ancient. They were invented by the gawd damn Romans! Why are they even still around? They’re basically a glorified IOU. In my case, the bank offers me no alternative to using cheques. I also pay the rent via cheque as well. As much as I wish my landlords took Paypal, it just isn’t going to happen.

I run into these types of issues at work all the time. Some people refuse to upgrade their skills to keep up with new programs and operating systems. I try to keep up with the latest and greatest in design software. Long ago I switched to using InDesign and feel like I’m slumming when I’m forced to use Quark because of others. It affects my productivity because those around me can’t be arsed to upgrade their own skills.

As much of a pain in the ass as it is, some people will never move forward. On the bus of life they got off 5 stops ago and have no intention of using the transit system ever again. At least come Christmas I can laugh from my Ivory Tower at them as I do all my shopping online and avoid the savagery that is the mall.

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