*I admire Stowe Boyd because he's unafraid to imply that modern technology is a net loss to capitalism.
*it's likely true that productivity of many enterprises would skyrocket if every computer was replaced with typewriters and carbon-paper. But would any business think to objectively test that idea? Heck no! Too busy junking the computers and replacing them with smartphones.
http://www.stoweboyd.com/post/4049261850/looking-ahead-into-the-past
(...)
"One thing we DID learn through the adoption of email is the underestimation of the costs of transition, and the enormous impact of second order effects once the technology has been ubiquitously adopted. Most large businesses required a return on investment analysis to demonstrate direct cost savings prior to adoption of email; in over 70% of the time, no subsequent analysis was performed to see if the expected efficiencies had been achieved. Instead, the second order effects took over, and companies realized that their businesses had changed so fundamentally post-email that there was no practical way to remove email even if it in fact cost more and led to inefficiencies...."
