February 6, 2009

“When in doubt, right click.  That’s where they hide all the good stuff.”

Watching the rapid advances in information technology has been fun for all of us.  For those people who are my age, the biggest advance we saw as children seemed to be the change in 1970 when we started moving away from Matchbox cars toward the new craze:  Hot Wheels.  Those Hot Wheels could go so much faster.

And so it is with IT these days.  Everything changes quickly and seems to go so much faster.  Obsolescence happens just as quickly.  The challenges of producing IT-enabled products and making margin in that market are certainly daunting.  Changes in product touch and feel are typically driven by user demand.  We all know how fickle we are when it comes to IT.  Some users, however, are still trying to get their arms around technology. 

Evidence of the difficulties many experience was recently overhead as two “non-power” users of a certain desktop application were trying to help each other.  Befuddled and frustrated, one said to the other, “When in doubt, right click.  That’s where they hide all the good stuff.”  I chuckled when I heard the comment.  Right clicking does indeed have its advantages.

 For a generation used to moving Matchbox cars slowly through our dirt and gravel driveways while making the engine noises ourselves, discovering the right click is akin to getting our first Hot Wheel replica of Don “the Snake” Prudhomme’s 1970 Yellow Plymouth Barracuda.  “The Snake” was the first funny car racer to exceed 250 miles per hour.  Just as he broke a barrier, the IT barriers will all eventually fall as well.

Sooner or later, those two “non-power” users will discover vast and currently hidden secrets well beyond the simple joys of right-clicking.  When they do, my guess is they’ll let out a loud “varoom, vroom” to celebrate.