Life is grand

* Talk show host Larry King. He said so on his show earlier this month.
* Doug Morris, CEO of Universal Music Group.
* Judge Judy Scheinlein.
* Media entrepreneur Ted Turner. He told me this personally.
* Former Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill.
* Donald Trump may be an Internet-resister as well.

What do all these people share? Apart from wealth they all admit to not using computers. Russel Shaw goes on asking a question about why this is. Is it there age? No.

The truth of the situation is made clear when he mentions “These are people who don’t place their own phone calls, don’t write their own letters… …don’t send their own e-mails… …Heck. Not even all of them drive!”

They have other people to do it for them. Assistants, secretaries, researchers, consultants and entire companies.

The real question that should be asked of Larry, Morris, Judy, Ted, Sanford and Trump is; could your job be done without computers in this day and age? The answer would be no. Larry King has an army of researchers who, without doubt, use digital technology. Donald Trump has an empire of computer users monitoring his wealth. Judge Judy would find many of her law references come from digital sources now.

The wealth of these folks is now digitised. Stock markets don’t run without computers. Banks don’t run without computers. Their platinum credit cards are mini-computers connected to an epic computer network.

The initial question, do you use a computer, is a misleading one. When the answer is “no” and we see the success of these people we falsely think there is something meaningful to the lack of computer use in their lives.

But ask them some other misleading questions; Do you do your own taxes? Do you make your own bed? Do you ever clean, cook or take the trash out? Do you take your kids to school or pick them up? Do you book your own flights, personally set up meetings and so on.

The answer is not that we should attempt to achieve success through removing computers from our lives. The answer is we should employ people to handle the “trivia” in our lives but make sure we own the rewards of what they do. When Larry’s research assistant finds a damning fact about an interviewee it isn’t the assistant who gets the acclaim, it is Larry. When Ted makes an astute deal we pin it on him, not the army of lawyers and assistants that made it happen.

I don’t begrudge them at all. They have found a tactic in life that works and, hopefully, most of them are happier for it.

But Larry King does use computers. In the year 2007 he wouldn’t be able to broadcast without them.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at 10:31 am and is filed under Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.