In Tech we trust
At my most introspective I’ve sometimes asked myself ‘How much can one human being achieve?’
Over the past year that question has begun to morph and I see myself instead wondering ‘How much can that same individual achieve with technology?’
My ability and experience in programming is negligible, so paltry that I have been seen writing in Markdown by hand, with pen and paper. However, in the two years I have been working, I have seen how programming can transform the way a company works, the way employees interact and think, and even how it can transform their jobs and lives.
I started working for an education company one and a half years ago. We use technology to market and recruit students, but we were rapidly expanding and our systems became a hybrid of hacks, as we added new elements and requirements. A year and a half later we have a dedicated tech team, who have transformed how we work and think. It is not that tech has replaced would-be employees, it has provided the tools for current employees to work better, more productively, and certainly less painfully.
In that time I have seen my attitude to problems change. I am more logical in my approach to problems and have a new mindset where anything seems possible, now that I have technology at my disposal. When we launch new projects, not only are the tech requirements considered but also what tools can tech provide to deliver the project; this has become a central element to our thinking.
Yet, this plethora of possibilities comes with pitfalls. Our tech team is still small, and the macabre joke about what would we do if one of them fell ill or was hit by a bus is as frightening as it is funny, not only because we see the tech people as valuable assets — able to write in alien languages to meet our requirements — but because we have almost forgotten they are human; so crucial have they become to the functioning of things beyond ourselves. We have outsourced our problems and efficiencies to an internal team we are now dependent on. With this reliance comes a difficult balance, we have the tools but what happens when they become blunt or we require new ones for new materials? We must return to tech.
This is where the burden falls upon us, outside of the tech community: while we cannot become experts at tech, we must appreciate and fear its potential in equal measure. Isle of Ruby excites me because it is not only a celebration of Ruby and programming but a reflection; a reflection on what programmers can bring to the workplace, and from the workplace to the world. Nonetheless, for the less-initiated I wonder how much we are beginning to depend on the technology that is transforming so much of our lives?
