A Bigger Idea. Much Bigger.

Bigger Idea, Much Bigger

When thinking about challenges facing our nation, our society, even our planet — I’m not convinced we need much more new technology to solve many of them. In fact, we may already have the technology we need to solve some of them.

My last few posts have talked about the reasons why I joined Expert Support, focusing on some of the ways excellence in technical communications can deliver positive business impact for technology product teams and companies.

But our mission goes well beyond that.

As I consider the bigger problems we face and the role innovation could play, I realize it hasn’t always been this way. When Silicon Valley was just getting going back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the massive technology industry we rely upon today didn’t really exist. Computers were insanely slow and didn’t have much memory. Software was very difficult to create. The internet only connected a few machines together through connections that were both slow and unreliable.

Now, nearly everyone is walking around with their own personal, connected, super computer: a smart phone.

The amount of data, information, and know-how that can be accessed from that little device is beyond staggering.

Over the past few decades, digital capabilities have accelerated our understanding in every field of human endeavor. In the context of the big problems, this accelerated understanding has helped us identify many potential solutions.

Plus, if we do need any more new technology to find or create new solutions, we now have a big capable technology industry that will happily create whatever we need.

But instead of more new technology, what we need is more understanding and the will to adopt known solutions. In today’s world, we too often lack the will to adopt solutions because we lack adequate understanding.

Frustration arises when known solutions are not adopted. This frustration is most intense for those who do understand the solutions, especially if they helped create them. Since many solutions rely on technology, they are inherently hard to understand.

Yet once people do understand, they do the right thing: They change and effect solutions.

Remember when we had a hole in the ozone that was getting bigger every year? In just a few years, people stopped using CFCs. Think about how complicated that problem is. We’re talking chemistry of the stratosphere, radiation from the sun, skin cancer biology, and chlorofluorocarbon aerosol propellents. Yet despite all of that, our ozone hole problems are going away.

Sometimes, change happens even faster.

Just last year, I attended the Digital Narrative Alliance, and saw a talk by Louie Psihoyos about a movie he directed called The Cove — a documentary about dolphin slaughter. The movie helps people understand the beauty and intelligence and behavior of dolphins, and also the grisly horror of dolphins being “harvested” for dolphin-based products. It’s heartbreaking, graphic, and gut-wrenching to watch.

But it was very effective.

Psihoyos reported that after the film was released, demand for dolphin-based products in Japan (the largest market) dropped by 85% in the first year. Worldwide, Psihoyos estimates the film reduced the slaughter by about two-thirds.

The ozone hole and The Cove stories prove how easily people change—once they get it.

Here at Expert Support, we’ve been explaining technical complexity for decades. Like most arenas of human endeavor, there’s a right way to do it. In the years ahead, we hope to apply our expertise in new ways to solve more problems and scale the positive impact we create for our clients, our community, and yes, even our world.

If you’d like to be a part of that, please let me know how.

Of course, if you need help assessing and improving your technical communications, please let me know. It’s highly likely Expert Support can help, and I’d love to explore how.

Also, sign up for our email list so we can let you know about important posts and updates. 2018 will bring some great ideas you won’t want to miss to this space. Stay tuned!

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