Legal Commentary

What would Henry Ford do?

By Ernie the Attorney

Henry Ford's greatest invention was the assembly line. The assembly line was more efficient than what preceded it, and it allowed Ford to make cars faster and cheaper than before.

The assembly line wasn't Ford's biggest insight, though.  First, he had to identify the proper sequences of action needed to make a car.  Then, in a large factory floor, he created the assembly line that allowed those sequences to be carried out.

Think of computers as today's factory floor.  And software is the assembly line. Computers were built to execute repetitive sequences of action quickly.  So why aren't you taking advantage of automation when you use your computer?

For example...

Your emails arrive and sit in your inbox. Why don't you have a system that  automatically files incoming emails into the proper folder?

Or someone sends you an invitation to an event.  Why don't you have a system that automatically routes the event into your calendar?  And then the calendar event also gets automatically added to your iPhone calendar?

Or someone calls you on your phone and you add them to your phone's contacts.  Why don't you have a system that automatically, and immediately, synchronizes that information to your computer's contact database?

Computers allow you to set things up this way, and yet many people still do things manually.  The result is chaos and inefficiency.  What would Henry Ford do if he had a computer?

He'd probably learn how to use it to automate routine tasks, and make his life easier.

Full post as published by Ernie the Attorney on December 14, 2009 (boomark / email).