The computer revolution \u2014 and I’m talking about the 1980s computer revolution \u2014 was supposed to lead us to the paperless office. Didn’t happen. In fact, I venture to say that the computer has done more to sell office supplies than any other machine in history.
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\nI’ll use myself as an example, because I’m handy and I have to write a blog post for tomorrow and I happen to be in my office and available right now.<\/p>\n
Around my computer workstation I have the following office supplies:<\/p>\n
I could go on, but you get the idea. The only thing different between my office today and what my office would have been were I a writer in the 1960s would be a typewriter instead of a computer.<\/p>\n
The odd thing is that all the office crap I have around my computer also exist as programs or utilities on the computer itself: Post-It Notes, Calculator, Dictionary, and all the rest also exist in the digital world. So why bother buying those things?<\/p>\n
Answer: Because they remain useful. In fact, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a pen and a pad of paper by their computer. You need those things!<\/em><\/p>\n Yeah, I tried using the digital versions, but it’s just not the same. For example, you can take notes on the computer, but you will probably print them to have a copy with you. (Of course, that could change with portable computing devices, but there isn’t a way currently to swiftly slide a note from your computer desktop to your phone.)<\/p>\n I suppose the paperless office revolution was over when computer printers continued to sell. Face it, there is just something handy about having something in the real world. I mean, it’s easier for me to jot down a note on a Post-It than it is to fire up the Post-It app and type the note. I don’t know why, but that’s the way it is for me.<\/p>\n Even my kids keep paper and writing implements handy by their computers. When they don’t, they ask me for a pen and a pad of paper, which I have handy.<\/p>\n Will there ever be a time when we truly don’t need office supplies? Will there ever be a paperless office?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The computer revolution \u2014 and I’m talking about the 1980s computer revolution \u2014 was supposed to lead us to the paperless office. Didn’t happen. In fact, I venture to say that the computer has done more to sell office supplies than any other machine in history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2424"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2428,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424\/revisions\/2428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}