Learning the Human-PC Interface and Why Smart Phone Users May be Unproductive

I have learned a lot from watching my kids work, especially on their laptops or PCs. The human-machine interface is incredibly important to our national productivity and most people relate poorly to their PCs—other than write email, prepare a PowerPoint presentation, use a word processor program and (perhaps) a spreadsheet program, most folks can’t do much with their PCs.

They can’t for instance: manage and edit images, build websites, load or edit video, add music or animation, copy what’s on their screen, use a desktop search program, organize and properly store their own info, make backups, digitize paper files and give them proper names so they can actually find them again, use some of the 10,000s of free software tools that are on the web, really harness the power of spreadsheets, use social media tools like Twitter, Yammer and Facebook to communicate with and learn from some really smart people, use a server, use a FTP (file transfer protocol) piece of software to load files to their own server for back up and also so they can have secure access to all their data from anywhere there is an Internet connection, do free calls and con calls on the net, use project management software to organize their work flow, reverse out the work on the Internet to their supply chain and clients or customers, create custom products or services from standard inputs using the web, store their data in the cloud, concept share, mind map, use free CRM tools, use online accounting tools—some of which are free, write a blog, set up a store, use pay pal, try hosted e-commerce, do an online auction, use free marketing sites like Kijiji or Craigslist, create an online poll, use a managed list to send out a newsletter, find stuff and do research using Google, Amazon and other free platforms, organize their desktops for maximum utility, customize their browser for rapid access to data and applications they need, create their own social network or news agglomeration site, add ads to their sites, improve their page rankings and optimize for search engines.

If I can do this in middle age, there is no reason why others can’t as well. All it takes is study and effort. The rewards are fantastic. First of all, you aren’t beholden to others to help you do things—you have disintermediated the techies for instance, the moment you start building your own websites, writing your own blog, using Facebook or Twitter. You can communicate with a mass audience in an effective way. Second of all, your personal productivity will rise considerably. There is no doubt that my personal productivity has risen fantastically since I got my first Mac in 1983. I can be the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management, the Executive Director of Exploriem.org, a consultant and real estate and mortgage broker at GMAC, the Founder of the Ottawa Senators, serve on a number of committees, support numerous charities, assist my colleagues and mentor my students because I have learned to interface and use my PC at a high level.

But while I learn from watching how my kids and my students relate to their various electronic devices, I have also noticed that they are not, overall, very productive. I conjecture that the reason for that is the tortoise v. hare analogy. My youngest son, Matthew, can do things on his laptop about 50% faster than I can. So his peak productivity is obviously greater than mine. In the graph below, I show his notional productivity curve—labeled ‘Youth’. This curve shows three peaks, each followed by long ‘rests’ in low valleys.

My productivity curve (labeled MA, Middle Age) also goes up and down but is less peaky. My productivity is the area under the MA curve (A[MA]) and Matt’s productivity is A[Y]. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that A[MA] > > A[Y].

Now wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could combine Y’s ability to achieve much higher speeds with greater consistency so that one day A[Y] > > A[MA]? Of course, that is why they say, youth is wasted on the young.

Prof Bruce

Ps. Another thing I have noticed is that the accuracy of people using smart phones to answer their emails or organize their calendars is quite poor. I don’t know whether it is the small screens or the speed they are trying to achieve but there is a false economy in all of this. If you think you are being productive just because your inbox is empty and because you have answered all your email within 5 minutes, you could be wrong.

In one tech company I advised, they had to fire a person who thought her job was to be a post office box. We tried desperately to break her of the habit of cc’ing (or worse, bcc’ing) everyone in the company. She was the source of about 60 to 70 emails a day and she would cc or bcc about 15 people in the company on each of her responses. She was creating nearly a 1,000 emails a day just inside the company that employees had to review. Of course, over time (measured in a couple of months), people would realize that many people were cc’d on each of her emails and they would assume someone else would look after the problem. It was as if she had never sent any emails. She just could not stop.

The firm implemented a successful policy that you could NOT use cc or bcc on any emails. If you wanted to send a cc, you had to go into your sent file and forward that to a colleague explaining why they needed to read and act on this. It was a very effective policy.

I think smart phones have made this problem worse. People are tempted to think that their work is done because they have emptied their inbox. This is not a substitute for action and resolution.

And if responses are inaccurate and meetings and deadlines are missed because they have been entered into their digital calendars incorrectly, their personal productivity is going to suffer and those who depend on them will suffer too.

It’s corny but still true—“The Hurrier I Go, The Behinder I Get.”