Monday, September 12, 2011

Breathe Deeply and Be Original

Breathe Deeply and Be Original

by Peter Barrett

Occasionally in the IT industry (where I work) someone comes up with an idea that really annoys lots of people. In 2003 Nick Carr wrote a brilliant article (and a subsequent book) for Harvard Business Review (HBR) called ’IT doesn’t matter’. The basic theme was that IT has become a commodity and lost its ability to have an impact on a company’s direction or strategy. So many IT execs wrote to HBR to refute this that the following issue had to include a special supplement just for the 15 pages of letters from angry CIOs (that’s Chief Information Officers i.e. the guys in charge of IT). So, I figure, he must be doing something right.

He’s just recently published another book, The Shallows, which explores how using the internet is actually changing the way we think. Just as watching TV or reading a book has an impact on the neurology of the brain (stick with me here) so does using the internet. It’s almost as if it is rewiring our thought processes. Its frequency, intensity and interactivity actually drives “the promotion of cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking and superficial learning,” according to Carr.

CONTINUED.....................