The Myth of the Paperless Office

AdamBa writes: "The New Yorker is running an interesting review of the book 'The Myth of the Paperless Office', also discussing 'Scrolling Forward'. Read it and the ever-informative Malcolm Gladwell will explain why paper enables collaborative work much better than computers do, why a messy desk is a sign of productivity, and give a little background on the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System to boot."

Comments

Is there an online version.....

[mickwd]

....of the book ?

Or is someone just taking the myth ?

Re:Why Paper Rules

[O2n]

"Any New Year's resolution?"
"Yep: 1440 dpi" :)

The next generation portable, PAPER!

[t0qer]

With paper you don't need,
Batteries
Network connection
Power plug
Monitor
Keyboard or mouse (pen though)

Paper is about the most reliable form of interoffice communication there is. You can take it with you anywhere, you can read it anytime you want. It's lightweight, and neatly folds up into a smaller space. If you need security, paper can be burned or shredded. If you get really bored, you can make airplanes out of paper.

You want games? Paper has some of the most ancient and popular games ever. Tic tac toe, connect the dots to name a few. Paper even has an intuitive interface for making your own games. In fact it's so easy a toddler can do it!

Paper in volume can be used to prop up a montior to eye level that doesn't have a stand. Have a table with a leg that's a little short? Easy enough, some folded paper under the affected leg will make that table stand on all 4 legs like new again.

Girls love paper! Write a love letter, send a card, these will allways get you more brownie points with your signifigant other than electronic methods.

Paper has been used for thousands of years, without paper, we wouldn't have the great teaching of our forfathers. Our constitution was written on paper!

Have you hugged your paper today?

Re:The next generation portable, PAPER!

[NanoGator]

You can also encrypt it like Enron did by cutting it up into tiny packets and randomizing the order.

Re:The next generation portable, PAPER!

[Chris Y Taylor]

I think you are confusing "Written on hemp" with "Written WHILE on hemp." :)

Re:The next generation portable, PAPER!

[Anonymous Coward]

When I was in the military I worked with a REAL shredder. It was the size of a VW and used a series of rotating blades to grind the paper through a metal screen. We would dump entire grocery bags full of documents into it. It would grind for a few minutes and reduce the papers to a fine toner-like dust. We called it "The Disintegrator"

I dropped a stapler into it once. It made a tremendous racket and eventually jammed the blade assembly. We took the thing apart and cleared the jam. About half the stapler was gone. It had been shredded.

A few weeks later the drive assembly of the thing exploded when a big steel pulley the size of a car tire came apart and bounced around the room. Remarkably, no one was hit by any of the debris, though the largest part of the pulley did nock a mellon sized hole in the concrete wall. We called maintenance and they has The Disintegrator fixed in a few hours. We hung a picture over the hole in the wall and didn't bother mentioning the incident to the day shift. I doubt there was a connection with the whole stapler thing.

Re:Why Paper Rules

[Corporate Drone]

And, as Enron/Anderson and Microsoft have shown us, it's so much easier to dispose of inconvenient paper evidence than electronic evidence...

Re:Why Paper Rules

[svenqhj]

My favorite quote is "The paperless office is about as effective as the paperless bathroom."

Re:wrong

[einhverfr]

Whether or not your producing is a sign of productivity, not the state of your desk.

Darn... I was just starting to feel really productive :-(

Paperless PHB

[gafferted]

I used to have a boss who couldn't quite grasp the paperless office concept.

When he got an email, he would print it out, then scan it, so that he could store the image in a document management system.

Re:Paperless PHB

[brodiedreamyou.ca]

Thats kinda like my mom, she heard that sending forwards can spread virii, so she prints out chain letters and snail mails them to people i'm serious

Re:wrong

[hymie3]

Yes, but my manager seems to think that messiness equates to productivity, so I'm more than happy to leave my desk in a state of mess.

Now if only I could convince my girlfriend of the virtues of me having a messy house....

Re:Whoever wrote this...

[clarkgoble]

Right. . . So did you get the memo about the new cover sheets?

Don't like paper?

[gila_monster]

Try wiping your butt with a PDA. You'll experience new-found admiration for PAPER!

Welcome to the Paperless Office

[(outer-limits)]

Who forgot to order more?

Re:Why Paper Rules

[Shadowlore]

*snicker*snicker* he doesn't know how to use the three shells. *snicker*

Re:Apple Computer, "Piles", and Unix inflexibility

[Pig Hogger]

An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overature and not think of The Lone Ranger.

What if I think of Spike Jones???