What was it Reagan said?

Ronald Reagan is widely quoted as saying:

“There
are three kinds of people in the world – those who make it happen,
those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happened”
Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004

I have a new variation of this theme however.

"There are three kinds of people who use technology - those who love it, those who question it and those who are amazed by it."

The reason for this statement is based upon my walking around the City yesterday and generally being a bit of a tourist taking photos here, there and everywhere.

Here's a picture of Westminster for example:

and here's the Gherkin:

These photo's were taken on the 5 megapixel camera that came free with my mobile telephone.

As I took these pictures, it suddenly struck me that a century ago, folks would have been unlikely to own either of these items: a phone or a camera. 

A quarter of a century ago, most people would have a phone or camera, but the former would have been locked in the house and the latter would give you photo's after about a week.

Now, I can walk around, take photographs, and send them to my contacts in Asia and America instantaneously.

That place me in the age of amazement. 

I am amazed at the ability to do this, and continue to be in awe of the speed of development and change.

There are then those who just love that this is the way it is.   They don't even question how these technologies work.  It just works, and they love the fact it works in making their life more functionally rich.

Finally, there are those who question it.  They want to know how these technologies do the magic they do, and then potentially want to improve and enhance it.

Some people may be one or all of these categories.

For example, I love technology, am in awe of it and wonder how it works.

The thing is, there's a fourth sort of person out there.

The one that ignores technology.

If you ignore technology, does that make you ignorant?

Ignorant: "the condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed."

I think it does, and the ignorant person is in a dangerous position as technology is transforming our world rapidly, as demonstrated by the speed of global communication outlined above which actually would have been difficult to achieve five years ago.

It's not that I feel sorry for the folks who fall into this final category, but I would be deeply concerned if they were guiding the future of my business.

After all, they should be predicting how life will be in five years from now based upon the next wave of change, not ignoring a world that has been transformed just in the last few years.

In fact, if the leader of my business was struggling to keep up with the pace of change, or if they had no advisors to enable this, then surely it should call into question their leadership?

Just a thought.