We've got a pocket trawler, the Gumption, a Camano Marine Troll that we're beginning to use to cruise Puget Sound and the Straight of Georgia — and maybe eventually the Inside Passage to Glacier Bay. The boat is equipped with a GPS navigation system and I consult it from time to time to try to figure out how the darn thing works. So far I can find our bearing and speed, but I know I can set way points and other arcana of the maritime world. I just don't understand how to do it.
Our sixteen year old, James, is home for the summer and goes cruising with us, sometimes reluctantly, since by design nothing much happens — at least as far as a teenager is concerned. I showed him the GPS and you know what happened next. He figured it all out in a few minutes, showing me, among other things, that the system will show you the tide situation wherever you happen to be. I still don't know how he did it. Maybe I'll make him show me before he goes back to school.
But, of course, it isn't just the GPS that befuddles me, but not James. Several times now Yvonne and I have made emergency calls to James to get help with the VCR/DVD/TV hook up. He's patient, but I'm sure he thinks there's something wrong with our brains.
We got a satellite dish TV system recently and have access to thousands of channels. I don't watch television often, but sometimes want to surf or check out Bloomberg. But now I can't find anything. It's just too much work. James, on the other hand, has programmed the system to turn on the Simpson's at the right time every day.
It looks bad, doesn't it? But I know I'm not a total idiot. I installed DSL into my boathouse office and then to the house and actually more or less understood what I was doing. And more remarkable, I actually took the time to learn how to use a volt meter/ohm meter last week to test a back running light bulb and circuit on the Gumption. I've got two meters. One my father gave me about 30 years ago. I also inherited his 1981 Radio Shack model. But I could never understand how to use them until I really wanted to use one and was willing to sit, read the directions, and experiment a little. Why did that take 30 years?
It's conventional wisdom to assume that the young can pick up new technology by osmosis, perhaps the way small children can learn multiple languages simultaneously and effortlessly. When I marveled to James about how he had found the tides display on the GPS, he opined that all I had to do was try pushing some buttons and see what happens. "I do?" "Yes, Dad," he replied. "Are you afraid it's going to explode?"
Hmm. I don't think I'm afraid as much as I'm lazy. Actually, a better way to say it is that I'm discriminating about what I turn my attention to and master.
What's the point?
Managing your business is about making practical choices on the one hand and dividing the work load on the other. Managing agency technology and your agency Web site does not mean you have to know everything about it. But you do have to know what's possible, set a destination, establish your waypoints, and then get out of the way of your fine crew.
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