Paddy is off this week doing what he enjoys most, being outdoors in some remote and obscure place either hiking GPS in hand or going for a run/riding his mountain bike. He is maintaining that all important balance and living the motto “work to live, not live to work”.
The world moves on and there is always work to be done. We have prepared a number of newsletters that deal specifically with our general leadership series that are ready for publication. The mail technology we use also allows us to schedule and send the newsletter even if were are both away. But what about our blog posts? Those you like to read every week, the ones based on current news events such as our posts on the BP Gulf Oil Spill. (A little inside information - the blog posts are written jointly and involve intense debate between the two of us which then culminate in a ydangle view of the world.)
How do we have the debates and prepare the content when either or both of us are doing our balance thing? You could argue that we don’t but would our loyal followers be happy with that?
Just imagine Paddy had packed an iPad 3G for this trip..... He would probably dread the thought but it would surely have allowed us to collaborate on the blog post!
The process would probably go something like this. I would have written a draft blog post on Pages ( Apple’s word processing software) and then sent the document to Paddy via email or simply uploaded it to iWork. At a prearranged time Paddy would have plucked his iPad from his back pack and headed for a mobile signal. More often than not finding a mobile signal in the places Paddy likes to go requires hopping into the Landrover and driving or hiking several kilometers to find a signal that connects him to the world. (I know he loves driving that 4 x4 and hiking is his thing, but would he have done this? It may be worth keeping an eye on the comments section of this blog post for his response!)
Upon finding a signal his email would appear in his inbox. He would open the attached document using Pages for the iPad, make his comments and send the document back to me. Alternatively, if I had uploaded the documents to iWork he could have either downloaded the document and followed the same process or simply commented directly on iWork upon which I would have made the necessary changes. I would then simply cut and paste the revised content into our blog post. As simple as that.
Now, I can see the arguments already. Surely he could have taken his MacBook with, used a 3G dongle and done the same thing. The answer would be yes he could have but he wouldn’t have. For starters his MacBook is a work thing and does not rhyme well with the balance thing. Secondly, the iPad is a toy with a lot of functionality and knowing that he likes toys there is a good chance it may have accompanied him. Finally with a weight difference of 1.5 kg’s (iPad incl. car charger = 0.778 kg’s vs MacBook + car charger = 2.255kg’s) and an unmeasurable awesomeness factor I can’t see him leaving it behind if he had one. I know I wouldn’t have!
So if Paddy can get himself an iPad’dy I will be a happy chappy.