Suggestions have a shelf life
“98se will still be running in years to come. If you are running Anti Virus and a Spy Zapper and a Firewall and possibly a Spam Killer then 98se will still serve you well. I am running a P1, 166Mhz with 64 Meg memory on 8 Meg broadband and it works perfectly. I could use a better video card but apart from that it’art wits fine and it boots up faster than most XP machines.”
Skycatcher — 2006 — On a topic upgrading from Windows 98 to Windows XP.
Good to start with a quote.
This suggestion was made, 10 years ago. In a world where 8GB of ram (memory) is becoming the standard for our systems, would you laugh at 64 MB of memory today? Would you have laughed in 2006? What about in 2001? What about in 1995? Where memory used to cost around $100 per MB.
We know that technology moves ahead at a rapid pace, different companies will shake up the market with new products (First iPhone) or even completely change how we find things on the Internet (Google)
To keep up with this technology, we turn to our IT experts, consultants and training resources. The topics range from “What’s the best way of backing up my data” to “Which anti-virus product is the best right now” but within a short space of time a suggestion can go out of date.
General consensus and opinion might have said “use this product” or “try this method” one year but suddenly it seems the same people have changed to a different opinion. In the SMB world, certain ideas which have past their sell by date have lasted for years longer than needed, one of these ideas is:
“If you buy security product X, you will be covered from security threats”
We now know this is not true, we can see the proof before us. From tiny 5 person offices to multi million turnover companies. There is no magic product you can buy which will cover you from all threats but most businesses are still buying anti-virus products faithfully each year, in the belief that is all they need.
There is also the knowledge that product X which they have been renewing and purchasing for years, no longer protects them from modern security threats. Certain products are incapable of stopping some of the newest strains of ransomware and malware available but the suggestion given years ago is still being followed.
Why do suggestions have a shelf life?
What used to be the best product on the market can easily slide into the worst product, through bad decisions made by the vendor you could have a widely acclaimed product which then almost becomes a joke.
Remember AOL? Millions of subscribers, huge popularity and usage, it has fallen into decline and yet there are still AOL users out there because they are relying on the suggestion they received in the past, AOL is Good, use AOL, there is no better alternative available.
Advice you receive, opinions you hear, reviews you read, all of them have a shelf life. Some last for decades and become a foundation of how we do things, others are displaced within weeks of being stated.
What can you do about it?
Start with 3 things.
1) Accept the fact that what you know to be the right way of doing things, might not be in the future.
This is ok, no one can see the future, a new product launched on the market or a once perfectly working product going into decline suddenly, no one can truly predict or control that. What we can do is take the information we have and make the best decision we can at the time. If there is a better way of doing things, consider evaluating them fairly.
2) Be prepared to challenge your ideas or beliefs, test them and see if they still hold up, if they do, don’t change for the sake of change but be open to new ideas.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. If you are constantly plagued with technology problems and those problems are not going away, maybe it is time for a different way of doing things. At the same time if something is working and meets the need, why change it?
3) Share your knowledge & experience whilst learning from others, join a community or peer group.
The internet has done a lot for making knowledge available, you can type in a product or method and get huge amounts of reading material all for free. What you do not have is a community where you can bounce off ideas, get opinions checked and actually help someone who is looking for something similar.
When is the last time you tested an idea? It can be scary to look at how you are doing something and ask “is there a better way” — Especially if you involve others, You open yourself up to scrutiny and outside judgement but once you get over the initial fear, there are so many benefits that out-weigh the negatives.
Separate out the technology from the people. Remember that the technology can change/shift and rapidly adapt BUT the people who you talk to and ask for advice, they are trying to keep up with the changes just as much as you are, Join up with each other rather than work separately and you’ll get there much faster.
Just remember, this article was originally written 24/05/2016 and it has a shelf life too.
