A colleague and I sat across from each other yesterday at a coffee shop as we worked out mutual task lists for one new, one future, and two ongoing projects. There were names to add, tasks to do, people to assign, call and drop from the lists. It was a few minutes into this seemingly simple management task that a thought struck –
- we both work for disparate employers
- I was using a Microsoft Surface tablet and he an Apple iPad
- we were connected to a free public wireless network
- we were managing tasks for four separate projects that represent four separate legal entities (companies, people, etc.)
- we were using the free version of a publicly available application, Trello, to manage our work
- the free application, on disparate computers, on a public wireless network was concurrently handling and synchronizing data as we worked
- we paid a nominal rent for the office being used – essentially a portion of our $1.96 coffee
- we had no idea where the data we entered into our tablets is actually stored
- we didn’t care
This is so remarkably different from where I started in this industry that the various inflection points that led to here seem insignificant and forgotten. But the magic remains. I am glad to have retained the ability to still marvel at this stuff – the sense that attracted me to computers and computing in the first place.