Question of the Week
What Have You Done in Your Work or Home Life to Go Decidedly Untech?
Posted Oct 25, 2007, 10:06 am CST
By Molly McDonough
Intel's high-tech engineers have decided to take a business casual to a new level, shunning e-mail to wind up the work week.
We think Intel's e-mail-free Fridays is a great way to escape—ever so briefly—the wired world in which we live.
But this made us wonder...
What have you done in your practice or home life to untech?
Answer in the comments section below.
Read last week's Question & Answers about access to private places.
Commenting has expired on this post.
Comments
Posted by Steve - 1 year, 2 months, 2 weeks, 5 hours, 24 minutes ago
I insist that a live human voice answer the phone when the office is open… no directory of how to reach a party by extension number, no extension to get directions, or fax number, no advertising, no music…
Posted by Bill - 1 year, 2 months, 2 weeks, 5 hours, 9 minutes ago
Home life -
I am a hard-core do-it-yourselfer. I have a woodworking shop in a building behind my house. I do not use the latest new, plastic, shiny tools from Home Depot. I seek out antique machinery and hand tools and restore them to better than new. I have many tools that are over 100 years old, and several machines from the first half of the 20th Century.
My wife and I also spend a lot of time on projects in the yard and house. In the past 10 months, I have finished the construction, painting, wiring and outfitting of my workshop, built a greenhouse, installed a bluestone patio and walkway, gutted our master bathroom, replaced and updated the lighting systems in our family room, replaced the dishwasher and sink disposal, and planted about a dozen trees on our property. Working with my hands allows me to use a different part of my brain than I use all week while sitting at my desk and computer keyboard.
I also volunteer at a local living history museum, where we interpret the year 1860. I do blacksmithing and woodworking demonstrations using period-correct hand tools and techniques.
Posted by Charlotte - 1 year, 2 months, 2 weeks, 5 hours ago
We are decidedly low tech at home - live in a passive solar house with a woodstove for back-up heat in cold weather and also have a solar hot water heater backed up with a tankless, on demand water heater. We have no dishwasher, and all laundry is dried by hanging on a clothesline. We have not had a TV for over 10 years and do not miss it. We raise most of our own fruit and vegetables, as well as chickens for eggs and fertilizer.
Posted by Curious - 1 year, 2 months, 2 weeks, 4 hours, 1 minute ago
I’m curious. Do people like Bill & Charlotte (comments 2 and 3) still have time to practice law?
I’m determinedly low tech in that I keep my calendar in a hardbound calendar (and no where else) and I carry it around with me when I go to court. And I rarely use powerpoint slide shows in court, it’s not worth the hassle of hooking it up. My courtrooms all have an ELMO, so I use that instead. And I use a lot of large foam core boards that I leave standing around the courtroom, so even when I’m done talking the jury can read what I want them to see.
Posted by Sarah - 1 year, 2 months, 2 weeks, 2 hours, 28 minutes ago
I try to spend some downtime every day—knitting, making homemade dinner, gardening or just meditating. Focus on the try—my schedule is so busy, I can’t always fit it in!
Posted by Maria - 1 year, 2 months, 2 weeks, 2 hours, 7 minutes ago
Being a law student makes going low tech much easier, I simply have no choice. I also have no Tivo, no cable, no ipod, no camera phone and no texting. My “blackberry” is the back of my old outlines and a pen. We have laundry drying all over our chairs instead of using a dryer and I used to take class notes with pen and paper until I took Constitutional law and it became impossible write so much so fast.
Posted by Norm - 1 year, 2 months, 2 weeks, 19 minutes ago
I prepare my own tax returns by hand; no computer.
Posted by Shanika Weerasundara - 1 year, 2 months, 1 week, 6 days, 22 hours, 35 minutes ago
I wrote the entire 2007 Washington State Bar Exam - an all essay 2.5 days exam and passed the first time.
I found it better than tryping; I could write more, and I did not have to deal with possible computer malfunctioning.
Posted by Charles - 1 year, 2 months, 1 week, 6 days, 21 hours, 30 minutes ago
One way that I keep my life low-tech is by sending hand-written letters to family and friends.
Posted by Mr. Techie - 1 year, 2 months, 1 week, 6 days, 18 hours, 52 minutes ago
This is really a shocking question to me. I can’t think of any reason why I would WANT to UnTech. Tech saves me time, and reduces my need for business travel, so I can spend more time with my friends and family, and still give my clients top notch service. Tech helps me make more money, so I can do the things I want to with my friends and family. Tech helps me keep in touch with my family and friends in far off places, sharing photos, videos, spur of the moment thoughts such as via IM, just as if they were here. Certainly there are people who would like to select a particular moment in history and stay in that time, the Amish for one example. That’s fine for them, and they are free to do it, if that is what makes them happy. I would not be as happy if I did that.
Posted by Loraine - 1 year, 2 months, 1 week, 3 days, 3 hours, 16 minutes ago
I still use paper checks - no check card for me. Other than that, I think I’m still fairly teched-up.
Posted by Sheri Ann - 1 year, 2 months, 1 week, 2 days, 21 hours, 52 minutes ago
I have steadfastly refused to buy my kids DVDs or videos games; this does not however, mean they don’t have a shelf full of the stuff from well meaning and overindulgent grandparents and relatives. It seems those are two things from which it is impossible to escape as a child in today’s society.