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Walk Softly, and Carry a Big Delete Key
by Lee H Goldberg
The buzz surrounding the long-anticipated first shipments of Apple’s iPad has even managed to briefly eclipse Tiger Woods’ punctuated rehabilitation, but I’m finding it hard to get very excited. Perhaps some of my lukewarm reaction is because Apple’s latest darling has deliberate limitations on the types of web content and applications that it will support, or its numerous other shortcomings. But mostly it’s because I’ve fallen in love with another high-tech gadget: my new keyboard.
I’d gotten along nicely with my trusty Microsoft ergonomic keyboard for a couple of years until it fell victim to an involuntary christening by the mug of Genmaicha tea that took a swan dive off my desk. After futile attempts at emergency resuscitation with a high-powered hair dryer failed, I borrowed the keyboard from my daughter’s computer and hit Tiger Direct’s web site to survey my options. A few days later, I swapped out my “loaner” for a shiny new Logitech Wave keyboard. Since I’d been pounding on the slightly larger, differently-featured Microsoft unit for several years, it took a day or so for me to get comfortable with the Logitech’s slightly-different key geometry and placement of its special function keys. It was only after my muscle memory had embraced the new key geometry sufficiently to bring the number of typos I made down to my usual level that I noticed the huge breakthrough that the Logitech folks had quietly tucked into the Wave: a strategically-located, double-sized “Delete” key.
Since I’m a mistake-prone typist and with a tendency to type faster than I think, the delete key is probably the most frequently-used artifact on my keyboard. Making a large, easy target to hit and positioning it close to the action has probably added 5% - 10% to my productivity. I was so pleased with this that it took me another week or so to discover the advantages of a large delete key made an equally big impact on the other aspects of my digital life. I never imagined how much better my life would become when it became easier to delete most of the constant stream of ads, newsletters, poorly-targeted editorial inquiries and other random chunks of digital detritus from my ever-growing inbox stack.
Even with an extremely aggressive Spam filter in place, I get 100 - 150 pieces of e-mail which, under the right circumstances, might be relevant enough to read. But since I only shop for computer or office supplies, contribute to various charities, and keep up with the several dozen technical and political blogs on an intermittent basis, I have to constantly triage the stuff flowing into my inbox for its immediate relevancy to my work.
When properly used, a large, easy to use delete key serves as a sharp knife to cut through the digital clutter that could easily paralyze my life. Given the information-rich environment that we are immersed in throughout most of our lives, I think we may be seeing the equivalent of a Delete key, or some sort of filtering mechanisms, popping up in other technologies and in the social conventions that give structure to our lives. Even today, I find myself less offended when someone takes a few days or even a week to respond to a non-urgent e-mail and I don’t feel compelled to chime in on every discussion group I monitor. By asking myself whether what I have to say will bring enough new information to a blog or discussion group to make it worth reading, I aim to de-clutter my exchanges with friends and colleagues. Likewise, I exercise my own internal Delete button and try to only write stories that are worth a busy engineer’s time to read, and my time to write.
Comments? Questions? Examples of other kinds of delete mechanisms you use to navigate the deep, vast reaches of the digital ocean? Share them on our blog, or write me at lhg@en-genius.net.
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