LiNE Zine Spring 2001 - Being Analog by Jay Cross http://www.linezine.com/5.2/articles/jcba.

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Being Digital N.
Negroponte (Vintage
Books, 1996)

The Social Life of Photo by Henri D. Grissino-Mayer

Information J. S.
Brown, P. Duguid "There are three types of people in the world, those who can count and those who
(HBSP, 2000) can't." -Anonymous

Management: Tasks Computers are bipolar. A bit is on or off. 1 or 0. Unless you're a digital processor,
Responsibilities this binary thinking can trick you into oversimplifying what's going on.
Practices P. D.
Drucker The human world is not yes or no; it's a sea of maybes. Most decisions aren't
(Harperbusiness, black or white; they're shades of gray. Are you liberal or conservative? Perhaps like
1993) me, you're a little of each.

A Year to Live. How Treating the world as an open-or-shut case leads to thought crimes like "The
to Live This Year As Internet changes everything." In my work, I struggle with the knuckle-headed
If It Were Your Last assumption that learning must be either instructor-led or computer-delivered
S. Levine. (Three rather than a blend of the two. Few things in life are really all or nothing.
Rivers Press, 1998)
"Computer scientists have a tendency to count '1, 2, 3, one million…'as if scale
Unwinding the Clock: were insignificant once the first steps were taken." - John Seeley Brown, Paul
10 Thoughts on Our Duguid. The Social Life of Information
Relationship to Time
B. Jonsson (Harcourt Real life is analog. Situations are continuums, not just the extremes. There's a
Brace, 2001) whole world between the poles.

“You say yes, I say You may be asking yourself, "Why bother?" After all, it's easier to use the

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LiNE Zine Spring 2001 - Being Analog by Jay Cross http://www.linezine.com/5.2/articles/jcba.htm

no. shorthand of yes/no than to give a situation a probability rating, simpler to paint
I say yes, but I may something black than Pantone 7C gray.
mean no. You say
stop, I say go, go, The rub is that everything's relative. Each of us sees things differently. My
go. I can stay 'til it's internal movie is not the same as yours. You've got your scale, I've got mine, and
time to go. Oh, oh other people see things differently from either of us.
no.”
—Hello Goodbye, The each of us is at the center of the universe. so is everyone else. -e. e. cummings
Beatles

“Time keeps on People who stick to yes or no (and never maybe) are extremists. By definition,
slipping, extremists have few alternatives. If you say yes and I say no, one of us has to
slipping, slipping capitulate or we'll never agree. This is a zero-sum game. I win/you lose. Or
Into the future.” perhaps you win/I lose. Life's too short for losing all the time.
—Fly Like An Eagle
The Steve Miller Band
Time
“Well, I told you once This is an essay about time. Didn't I mention that?
and I told you Timing is everything. Time is all we have.
twi-ice. But you
never listen to my All too many of us are extremists when it comes to
advi-ice time. Chronologically, we are single-minded. We are so
You don't try very busy chopping trees that we don't take time to
hard to please me. sharpen our axe. Some of us can't see the forest for
With what you know, the trees; others can't see the trees for the forest.
it should be easy” The nearsighted live like there's no tomorrow. The
farsighted seem far out.
”Well, this could be
the last time, this Peter Drucker once said that to be successful in business, one must have her
could be the last nose to the grindstone and eyes to the hills. Certainly, balancing the short-term
time. Maybe the last with the long is healthier than fixating on either.
time, I don't know
Oh no Of course, now vs. then is another binary oversimplification. Here's a metaphor to
Oh no” help you when you're looking at the world, or when you're trying to imagine how
— The Last Time, some other human being is looking at the world.
The Rolling Stones

Think of the time period you’re focused on as a slide switch that

you control.

If you find yourself jumping around in the immediate present,

perhaps acting recklessly, overlooking things that you know really
matter, slide your consciousness into the future for reflection.

Does what you’re doing right now make any difference in the larger
scheme of things?

Is this what you want on your tombstone?

On the other hand, if you’re so wrapped up in the future that

you’re paralyzed for the present, slide your concentration into the
immediate moment.

Are you doing the things to get to that future you were
contemplating?

Are you living the life you choose or going through the motions?

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LiNE Zine Spring 2001 - Being Analog by Jay Cross http://www.linezine.com/5.2/articles/jcba.htm

One more thing. Don’t forget to spend some time in the middle.

Jay Cross founded Internet Time Group to help organizations get the most out of
elearning and collaboration. Internet Time’s “Little 5” have the same credentials
as the “Big 5” without the boilerplate, overhead, and recent college grads. The
team specializes in rescue missions to wring results from elearning basket cases.
Write him at jaycross@internettime.com.

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