We are living wonderful times!!!

Continuing my series of positive contributions, I wanted to write today about how special and unique our current times are. The democratization of access to technology is behind all this positivism.

Despite the extended belief that the increasing use of technology is alienating people behind a computer, a phone, a game console, and making human physical interactions colder and less frequent, I could easily argue the opposite by stating that technology is enabling richer human exchanges. The best way to justify my point of view is to describe two real life cases:

I have a school friend who, at the age of 20, fell in the trap of anorexia. This happened in the 90s. Mobile phone use was not yet spread and I personally kept in touch with her by calling her father for news and asking some common friends how she was doing. I was then away from Barcelona, from where we are both from, and only these common friends could pay her visits to the hospital. Years passed by, her fight against anorexia is still going on. She has, however, turned into technology as her way to find support and encouragement to continue fighting. She first got a mobile phone on which she was easily reachable for a chat, even if, because of her illness, she did not want to go out or see anyone. Then ‘MiPasado.com’ a school-friends finder allowed her to reunite with some school mates that so good memories had given her. That helped her launch again her social network. Finally, Facebook came along. In using it, she has found a way of expressing herself and connect to all those that we have been following her in a way or another because we care. We might not be able to be physically next to her, she might not be even feeling like physically meeting us as often as we would like to, but she has embraced technology as her way to be linked to life and friendship, and that brings meaning to her existence letting her know that she is not alone, which has in some instances evolved in more numerous personal physical interactions (so necessary to fight anorexia).

I also have the story of my father to support my optimism. He retired 20 years ago. As workaholic as he was, he suddenly had a crisis of lack of activity. During his first years in retirement, because he has always been very little social, he hid behind his computer and “worked” in small accounting pet projects that made him feel better (useful). One day, I let him discover the Web, I showed him that he could easily find what I was doing by simply typing my name on Google. That was the start of a full metamorphosis. He suddenly started searching for all those topics he was interested in. He found the website of the small village he was born in, and engaged in vivid discussions with youngsters that were born in his village through the site’s forum. He became the village’s grandpa and shared his memories of the past with them.

My father had a brain stroke two years ago. These past two years have been very difficult and he was forced to learn to move (he is still half paralyzed) and speak (after the stroke he could not articulate well what he was thinking) again. Thankfully, his mind has not been damaged and he can communicate well within the limits of his paralysis. I have been supporting him and my mother through all this with regular trips to Barcelona and, above all, with frequent Skype video sessions that let them see that I am ok and feel that I am closer and caring, despite the distance. I even talk more often to my father now than I used to. He has recently rediscovered the computer and started browsing again for information about those places that bring him sweet memories. He even surprised me once with a Skype video-call initiated by him, because he wanted to show his sister that he could see me so easily. My father is 79 years. I tell myself that if an almost half-paralysed 80-year old can find a use of technology that has improved his life, everybody can.

Some people may think that these examples are the exception and not the rule. I doubt it. If we really feel that more and more people isolate themselves today, we should not blame technology. Technology is only the vehicle that shows us that something social development is happening. However, I just think that in the past, the ‘asocial’ people were less visible, and nowadays technology has given them a presence, that before they did not have (so we might feel they are more numerous). People that are social will remain social. They will use technology to boost the social side. If we think that being asocial is a problem, we should then look at our schools and our family models, at the quality of our human exchanges between parents and children and teachers and students. 

Let’s not excuse ourselves by blaming computers!!!

Let's be positive!

Like every Sunday morning, I am reading my Sunday newspaper and enjoying the reading. Today, Eduard Punset (Spanish scientific educator) explains in one interview the many reasons we all have to be positive despite the current economic turmoil and the so called global/planetary crisis, which, by the way, is far from being global and please, planetary????

Among the many things he mentions I will cite: the unprecedented speed at which humans have gained life expectancy in the past century and how, despite humans still create violent conflicts we have managed to minimize the physical harm we cause as well as decrease general violence (on the street, at home, etc.)

He also states something that for me is obvious: technology and knowledge are the drivers of that progress. Even if we believe that they might be dehumanizing us (weird expression with no real sense), they are actually giving humans larger potential: live longer, live better and have made us more altruistic. And we DO LIVE BETTER. We might simply not be HAPPIER, by nowadays standards. Although I will bet that none of us would like to go and live what our grandparents had to go through. Past times might seem better (we just keep the good memories) but they were objectively worst (we simply choose to ignore that).

I agree with Punset in that we are in an inflection point, which, from my perspective, is causing the turmoil in the developed world because actions, establishment and life cannot be kept as they were in the past if we want to progress. He summarizes it brilliantly:

“Tienes una sociedad que técnicamente está en el siglo XXI; socialmente, en el XIX; y mentalmente, en la Edad Media.”

[You have a society whose technical foundations are on the XXI century; whose social foundations on the XIX and which  is still on the Middle Age mindset.]

So, let’s be positive! Let’s embrace the change! And let’s bet for our future, not just on how we will survive tomorrow, but on what is there well after that! Because thanks to our progress, you will live that tomorrow that you see so far away. And in any case, history proves that it can only be better.

To those that are currently suffering the crisis in their families and whose current present is not any better than their recent past, I would suggest to remind them that they are not alone, that things have changed, and that they have the power and the tools to steer their future in the direction they want. However, they have to do it themselves; waiting for somebody to solve your situation will not solve it at all: ACT NOW! Use your pillars of survival: knowledge/education, social support (through family, friends and professional network), and be generous to others and they will be generous to you. Btw, technology can boost the use of these pillars.

Punset’s Interview (in Spanish) http://xlsemanal.finanzas.com/web/articulo.php?id=74518&id_edicion=6847

Things have really changed!!!

If you had told me 4 years ago that I would be working for a real estate company, I would first have laughed and then said: “No way!”. If you had told me that I would be doing technology R&D and innovation for them, I would have expressed open scientism. Et voilà! Here I am, 2011 and working for a real estate company as head of their European IT R&D group.

I think that non technology companies starting to invest in novel technology and aiming at creating their own is simply a sign of the major changes the economy and the market have had in the past years. The last economic boom and crisis, during the post .com era, came from an overinflated technology sector. This current crisis comes, from my perspective, from the mismanagement of resources and investments, from human greediness to get a lot from nothing.

Behaving and working as we have done in the past does not seem enough. Doing things differently seems the only option! Technology companies struggle to get the human and the business side of their clients and customers. Business and non-technology sectors struggle to get the most out of the investments they do not consider core to their business (like technology). Technology companies are moving into business services, closer to the human-need side of their clients. Looking at that evolution it does not seem such a foolish idea for a company whose core business is not technology to start exploring how technology can bring it one step closer to its clients.

I feel I am the guinea pig of my employer's experiment! 

We’ll see how it turns out.  So far, I am really liking it. J

Back to humanism? DaVinci in the workplace

These past days I have been reflecting a lot. Being hired by a non-technology company as a technologist has made me see a complete different world.

For many years, a good technologist or a good IT expert has been assimilated to being a geek, an expert in some technology that allowed him or her to be able to excel professionally. Specialization was the key word. “In what do you specialize?” “What is the programming language that you master?” “What kind of telecoms are you proficient in?” These are some of the questions that all IT professionals had to have a good answer for.

I believe,  however, that this specialization focus is starting to disappear. As technology evolves faster than people can actually specialize, being an expert in “something” technical is simply mission impossible. So what can a good IT professional do? I guess, it is time to go back to basics, to understand the nature of human beings, and to embrace the fact that only by also exploring other aspects of science and arts, an IT specialist can fully contribute in the work place.  Which for me it translates into becoming a humanist, or better said, a Leonardo DaVinci – kind of person, somebody interested and proficient in multiple facets of life. The first facet being: encourage curiosity and learning of science and arts to understand technology, and vice versa. Continuous learning is a must nowadays anyway, why not to encourage arts and humanities to be a fine complement to technology?

Disclaimer: I am not stating that IT people should stop specializing in technology, I am only stating here that this is not enough anymore. The reality is that the day only has 24h and that there has only been one Leonardo DaVinci  in history. How will humans cope with excelling in multiple facets of life?

How old are you?

Some weeks ago I turned 35, a nice round and sound number. In one of those typical exercises that some people like me do when reaching a milestone, I found that the reflection of my face on the mirror had suddenly made a dramatic change.

For many years, my inner I, myself, my soul, always felt older than my physical image. Some people would call behaving maturely, others simply being boring.  It has always had a very nice effect as people believed I looked very young :P. It had the disadvantage that when I applied for certain jobs, with important responsibilities, the recruiter would consider me too young and reject me. When I turned 30 though, I reached equilibrium, I felt everything was in sync: my physical age, my mental age and my looks.

Now, five years later, I realize my mind stepped off the race at 30. I notice my body getting older faster than my head (oh, gosh, I hate those grey pieces of hair!) I prefer to continue doing what I used to do, I appreciate being surrounded by younger people and I often find thirty-manies boring (and I am one of them!). Faces do not lie, and for the first time, my face's age has overtaken my soul's.

I have a friend who has been turning 49 since some years ago (I won't say how many ;) ). Now I understand her, very well.

So, when did you start feeling your body aging faster than your brain?

First reflections about England

Bags, bags and more plastic bags...

I have not yet finished my first week in London and I am surrounded by plastic bags at home.

Coming from an 'anti-plastic-bag' country like France, this has been a real choc culturel. 

Maybe I am simply stating the obvious. So far I have noticed that people reuse them until they finish in the trash. I, myself, cannot keep track with the speed of reuse that is required.

On top of that, my neighbourhood does not recycle :( 

I live in a complete nature unfriendly environment :P in one of the greenest cities in the world!

Skills help donations be effective, donate your skills!!

Most of those that were blessed with a very good education, that made the choice of study even more and get trained by companies on how to be efficient, productive and do our best at work, also decided that we wanted to get well paid for all the efforts. Very few are those that decide that prefer a job where helping others is the priority and pay comes second or third. Jobs where salary comes last are less backed by good training and continuous learning, thus leaving NGOs full of individuals with great potential being unexploited. Volunteering associations and NGOs also suffer from a very little data/scientific approach to run their :"businesses". They seem more driven by a political will that a thorough analysis of facts. That makes them inefficient by wasting money in activities that with ‘better management and accurately interpreted data’ could have been avoided.

Things are changing. Bill Gates, in one of his speeches at the TED talks, exposed his view on how to tackle challenging problems for developing countries by using a more scientific perspective to have better results.

I guess we do not have to become as rich as Bill Gates and as old as him to start applying what we have learnt to help people working in programs that help society development.

So, I encourage everyone to reflect on how they could volunteer their skills, many times more needed than their money, to help around. Often help is needed around the corner. Let’s not wait until we are old, we’ll enjoy it more while we are young :)