Life and the Right Technology Are Simple

By Todd Rissel, CEO e2Value

It is amusing to hear on the one hand the many ways technology has made our lives simpler, yet to then hear how complex our lives have become. I understand the need to embrace change and even to be a leader of change. My life and livelihood depend on change. However, the community that I grew up in taught me about the consequences of poor choices and change just for the sake of change. After all, the leisure suit was a change but clearly not one we ever needed or, thankfully, kept. Change has to yield clear and definable results. Change needs to be guided by common sense.

When you are in the midst of making a decision about whether to purchase updated technology or not, put it to one the following tests. Does it enhance your life and make it simpler? Can it hold up in a hostile environment? Does it help you focus on the most important facets of an issue or does its bells and whistles distract the user? Is it a panacea that is sold by “medicine men” or is it real medicine that will cure your company’s ailments?

Since I had the great opportunity to grow up “Down East” – on the coast of Maine – I chuckle when I hear how complex our lives are. The Maine coast is a place famous for its natural beauty, unyielding environment and independent locals that have adapted to the environment and flourished. Life in a harsh physical environment is difficult but it can teach you some simple fundamental truths. Heritage has meaning. Traditions live on and are rooted in times and places we have long since forgotten. There is a distrust of things “not from here.” It is not hostility or close-mindedness, just a need to have things proven true because the locals understand that the unknown can kill you.

In order to have survived there for as long as the folks have, they have overcome challenges in an area where the physical environment can warm you one day and freeze you the next. Down East is along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. That ocean can be calm and inviting one moment and a rabid torrent the next. It may leave you no opportunity to change your mind about a quick boat trip or day out on the sea. You must be able to deal with the challenges that nature throws at you when and if they happen in this environment. When your life depends on the tried and true, and a set of known facts, people are cautious about adapting to new ideas. The punishment for a poor decision can be very severe.

Simple truths can be realized living in an area like that, which is unencumbered by the busy pace you’ll find in urban and suburban landscapes – as in the places “from away” (otherwise known as areas not Down East or “not from here”). That upbringing has helped me keep my perspective as a technology provider, among other things. One of these truths is that the technology must work all the time; you must be able to count on it as though your life depended on it.

The very image of a lobsterman heading out in the morning to gather the great delicacy screams “luddite.” How much further can you get from technology than a man and a boat harvesting the sea’s bounty? Don’t let that scene fool you however. Technology has found its way to the far reaches of Coastal Maine.

Those quaint boats run by rugged and seasoned mariners are full of technology. There are radios, radar, sonar and even GPS. After all, GPS is far superior to radar and memory. Imagine the time and fuel, also known as money, saved as each lobster trap is marked to precise latitudes and longitudes. No more wasting fuel or time looking for errant traps or errant memories of where the traps were supposed to be. Technology is used and embraced Down East, but it is often adapted by different standards and with different measurements. Perhaps these standards could help us all to make better decisions about what technology to use.

Down East, any new devices need to enhance lives AND keep lives simple. Only technology that achieves both will survive. It has to be good technology to survive the conditions that a lobster boat works in, out on the road in below zero winter storms or under thick canopies of trees. The improved technology must be good enough to risk your life on. What if all technology had to pass that same test in organizations today; both by the provider and by the buyer? No doubt, that would improve the quality of new technology.

Common sense and practicality rule in a place like Down East. That rule is enforced by an environment that can punish poor choices with severe trauma or death.

Although products have changed over the years, people and their needs haven’t necessarily changed. Many of us want to buy solutions to our ailments, whether it’s a medical, emotional or business ailment. Years after it has been proven again and again that medicine men sold panaceas not medicine, we still have “medicine men” selling weight-loss solutions – and yes, those items are bought by people Down East too – and technology that looks and sounds good but does not solve basic business problems. Often humans suffer from and are punished for their desire for an easy solution. Technology is supposed to be an easy solution. Technology is even easier for us since we don’t need to understand how it works.

Technology is somehow believed to be immune from the basic laws of markets and physics. Since most people don’t understand how technology works, or want to know, this results in people sitting back and letting the “wiz kids” handle it all. That leaves an impression of magic and a feeling of fatalism. It’s just easier that way for most people; they don’t need to make any decisions or take responsibility.

However, it is important that providers and customers make sure that they understand the technology and to ask questions about it. This is missing in many markets. Be sure to ask “why?” Asking for clarification is not a bad thing. If you don’t understand the what, how and why, how can you decide if it will work, if it will work when you need it most and if it will simplify your life?

Author Robert Fulghum said in, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten , “All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.”

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don't hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

Many of those qualities are lived Down East. Often in other places these are the items that people try to complicate. There are basic truths that we often try to kid ourselves into ignoring or are helped to ignore by those who might benefit from our ignorance. That is the exact behavior that both medicine men and bad technology sellers look for.

Technology lends itself to even greater issues than that of ignoring basic facts. So it is doubly important that we make sure we have covered the basic rules and uncovered the truths about it. In the Vietnam War pilots were handed technologically superior fighter jets with many bells and whistles and systems to warn of multiple dangers. A fighter jet in a war is a tough environment, similar in some aspects to life in a hostile physical environment. That is not to say lobstermen face the same issues a fighter pilot does, but clearly decisions on hardware and software can have a life and death impact in the fighter jet just as it does on a lobster boat. The testing and thought process of choosing technology for a fighter jet is not dissimilar to the way technology is scrutinized Down East.

Buying technology for a fighter jet involves a great many people, rigid standards, testing and oversight. The items in those cockpits are deemed necessary to enhance the pilot’s chance at life over death. In the midst of air battles with their lives on the line, what did those pilots do? They turned most of the technology off. In the heat of a battle they would turn off sensors and warnings. Why? To focus on what was in front of them. That is what mattered. If they didn’t effectively fight off the enemy pilot, the bells and whistles would not matter, the jet would be lost.

For the pilot the priority was survival. Pilots met after both successful and unsuccessful dogfights to analyze them. They learned that they were each being distracted when they could least afford distractions. They wanted to know about speed, altitude, attitude, weapons and little else. The basic facts would enable survival at that moment. Survival could not include the luxury of the bells and whistles.

The people selling the bells and whistles were in nice offices, reliably safe and where no lives were at stake. While they meant well and were trying to help, their frame of reference was very different than the ultimate user’s frame of reference. The procurement and testing people also did their jobs well but they were testing false choices. In lockstep these groups all thought technology was the answer and that more was better. The reality of combat can’t be found in theories or at a desk. The one reality this technology was built for was overlooked and underestimated.

Fundamentals are not only essential in piloting jets and lobstering; they are essential in life too. The kindergarten lessons survive because they, too, are fundamental. Regardless of one’s spiritual orientation, basic rules and tenets are at the core of any belief system. The rest is parsing in the hopes of getting by on a technicality. The one thing to remember about surviving on an ocean is that there is no judge or jury, no one who cares or can be impressed. The ocean does as it pleases. The fact is that it is a cold ocean and it has hidden rocks and shoals that can instantly punish bad choices. Its actions are not predisposed or premeditated. We can put ourselves in a position where we let the fates decide or make it so they don’t have a vote.

If you had to sell or buy technology based on the kindergarten or Down East or fighter pilot tests, how would it stack up? Are you focused on the real issues? Have you been sold medicine that did not medicate? When your organization is in a battle, whether for more customers, quicker service or lower costs, is it focused on the key facts or busy with bells and whistles? Are you seeking out the basics about a product by shining a light on the tenets of the kindergarteners? Life is not complicated, we make it so.

Todd W. Rissel is the founder, CEO and chairman of e2Value, Inc. and is one of the nation’s leading experts on property valuations. Todd is a former insurance executive who recognized the shortcomings of the traditional appraisal and valuation systems. As such, many of the world’s leading insurance companies are now using e2Value to more accurately assess the true value of properties.

For more information visit www.e2value.com.