7 Essential Tech Life Skills

I often asked, “How do you get your technology knowledge? Did you go to school for it? Do you take training classes?” The answers to those questions are – not really. I think that I’m just a very curious person and I want to know how things work. As a product manager, I was expected to be the expert on my product and competing products, so I’ve devised methods to learn new programs and technologies quickly.

To use and benefit from technology, we all need our own set of Techno Life Skills. Here are my top recommendations, borrowed from Kevin Kelly’s The Technium Blog (read the full post here):

Anything you buy, you must maintain. Each tool you use requires time to learn how to use, to install, to upgrade, or to fix. A purchase is just the beginning. You can expect to devote as much energy/money/time in maintaining a technology as you did in acquiring it.

Nowhere is this more true than a website. Particularly for businesses. Know that to continue to get value from your site you must maintain it!

 You will be newbie forever. Get good at the beginner mode, learning new programs, asking dumb questions, making stupid mistakes, soliciting help, and helping others with what you learn (the best way to learn yourself).

I couldn’t have said it better. Technology changes so fast, a majority of the tools we are all using today will likely be obsolete in less than 3 years.

How easy to switch? You will leave the tool you are using today at some time in the near future. How easy will it be to leave? If leaving forces you to leave all your data behind, or to learn a new way of typing, or to surrender four other technologies you were still using, then maybe this is not the best one to start.

Referring back to the last point, things change fast, be aware of switching costs.

What do you give up? This one has taken me a long time to learn. The only way to take up a new technology is to reduce an old one in my life already. Twitter must come at the expense of something else I was doing — even if it just daydreaming.

We’ve all been pulled in by “new & shiny” (okay, it could just be me). Be sure to actively manage your technologies, otherwise they will end up managing you.

Every new technology will bite back. The more powerful its gifts, the more powerfully it can be abused. Look for its costs.

Be aware that the more information you entrust to technology (e.g. your smartphone), the more you have to actively protect it (use a pass code already!).

The older the technology, the more likely it will continue to be useful.

Hello email, our old friend! Email used to be the catch-all for everything. It was the instant message, task manager, news feed and file delivery service. Here’s a great article about why the Golden Age of Email is just beginning.

Find the minimum amount of technology that will maximize your options.

This is the key takeaway. More technology does not usually equal better or more productive.

Keeping these 7 keys to technology in mind will enable you to use technology to its fullest and minimize (but never eliminate) the pains of using it.

Techno Life Skills | The Technium