Being Careful With Time

It was, I believe, Napoleon Bonaparte who once stated, "One always has a chance of recovering lost ground, but lost time --  never." It is for this reason that I, at some cost, employ a person skilled in the art and science of information technology.

Some have questioned the not inconsiderable expense of such an approach, but I stand firm. My reasons are as follows.

When I wish to write something electronically, and to communicate whatever was written to another, that is time well spent. Mind you, the written piece should be worth reading, but as a devoted reader of this weekly report, I'm sure there are no qualms in that regard. What would not be time well spent is thrashing about trying to get ta faulty communication device -- computer, laptop, or whatever -- to work effectively.

Too often I have seen others grappling with such an issue, and wasting a goodly amount of time being frustrated as this or that attempt fails. Worse, when dealing with that modern avatar of Satan, the Indian Help Desk located somewhere in Uttar Pradesh, the whole already too lengthy process can now, if allowed, extend to infinity.

Not a good use of time. Not at all. I want my time to serve my priorities, priorities which are some distance away from technical arcana.

Such time-wasting is not a mistake we make when we write a letter. When the mail sometimes goes amiss, a phone call to the post office will quickly clear up the situation. Could be a statuary holiday, or the union happily exercising its abundance of sick days,* or whatever. But rarely does such a conversation go beyond five minutes, if that.

Compare that use of time to your latest rumble in the jungle of technology, an area where it doesn't do to bungle. And there, methinks, lies the crux of the problem. Technology, and the newness of it all.

Therefore, my answer is to fight fire with fire, and employ a technical expert who can hold his (actually, her) ground with the best that Dell, Microsoft, IBM and others have to offer in the field of complicated technical advice. And I must add that my expert enjoys grappling with all the new advances that seem to occur daily.

After all, it was not that long ago that people thought semiconductors were part-time orchestra leaders and microchips were very, very small snack foods.

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* Now, now -- a titch of bias showing there. -- Ed.