Wednesday, July 19, 2006
1978
1978, for some reason, is the year I think of, when I decide to take a look at the time I live in and be grateful for it.
There are plenty of reasons to think 2006 isn't a glorious time. Just watch the news and wonder if in a few weeks or months, you might be on the camera, shell-shocked and talking about the carnage you've recently witnessed.
But purely from a business standpoint, I'm deliriously happy.
I was eight years old in 1978, so, yes, I was around then, but every so often, I think about what my life would be like if I were a freelance journalist, working in 1978. I'd have no computer, no Internet, no email, no fax (oh, that's right, I got rid of my fax; if I knew how to do it, I'd link you to one of my first posts, where I talked about that) -- anyway, you get the picture. While 1978 wasn't the dark ages, its technology was a bit lacking.
I began successfully freelancing in 1993 (unsuccessful attempts were as early as the mid-1980s), and I'll always look back fondly at those days, because I didn't yet have email or the Internet, and I didn't yet have a fax machine. I have actual memories of driving to the library and doing research for hours on various articles, and seeing as I lived in Los Angeles and often drove to the Beverly Hills Public Library, I loved it. It made my job seem more glamorous, which I needed, given that I lived in a one-room apartment with a bed coming out of the wall, and months earlier had been poor enough that all I could afford to eat was peanut butter sandwiches.
At any rate, I've thought a lot about those times, and I'll sometimes choose a year like 1950 or 1980, but generally I always fall back on 1978, and I think about what my career would be like, if I were researching and interviewing and writing articles with 1978 technology, and I'm pretty convinced I couldn't do what I do. I wouldn't have written articles any faster in 1978, but the technology has obviously sped up research. What might have taken two days in 1978--for instance, searching something in an obscure book or aging newspaper at the library--is something I might accomplish in 20 seconds these days.
But there's something else that I've got going for me, that I might have not had in 1978. Even though they were the post-hippie, Disco years, I've always had the sense that the business community was more uptight back then, an extension of the workforce in the 1950s. And yesterday, I couldn't help think how lucky I am, to be in 2006, when my two daughters came into my office and started talking to me about a birthday party they were about to go attend.
"Ssh," I whispered to the girls. "I'm doing an interview."
Lorelei, my two-year-old who always wants to lend me a hand, asked, "Help?"
"Well, no, you can't help me do this interview," I said, hearing a chuckle on the other end. Fortunately, the businessman I was interviewing had a child of his own, and he works from his home, too. He couldn't have been more understanding, which was decent of him, given that we were in the middle of talking about a sensitive topic--insects had raided a food product that he and his business partner make. They caught the problem before their product was manufactured, and thus there was no danger of their customers eating it. But it was a dicey topic for him to be discussing, and here were my girls, raiding my office.
And he didn't care.
And I don't think most people would, these days.
But I'm not so sure the reception the business community would have given a work-at-home dad in 1978.
And so I'm glad to be working in 2006.
Now you know.
Not that anybody asked.
There are plenty of reasons to think 2006 isn't a glorious time. Just watch the news and wonder if in a few weeks or months, you might be on the camera, shell-shocked and talking about the carnage you've recently witnessed.
But purely from a business standpoint, I'm deliriously happy.
I was eight years old in 1978, so, yes, I was around then, but every so often, I think about what my life would be like if I were a freelance journalist, working in 1978. I'd have no computer, no Internet, no email, no fax (oh, that's right, I got rid of my fax; if I knew how to do it, I'd link you to one of my first posts, where I talked about that) -- anyway, you get the picture. While 1978 wasn't the dark ages, its technology was a bit lacking.
I began successfully freelancing in 1993 (unsuccessful attempts were as early as the mid-1980s), and I'll always look back fondly at those days, because I didn't yet have email or the Internet, and I didn't yet have a fax machine. I have actual memories of driving to the library and doing research for hours on various articles, and seeing as I lived in Los Angeles and often drove to the Beverly Hills Public Library, I loved it. It made my job seem more glamorous, which I needed, given that I lived in a one-room apartment with a bed coming out of the wall, and months earlier had been poor enough that all I could afford to eat was peanut butter sandwiches.
At any rate, I've thought a lot about those times, and I'll sometimes choose a year like 1950 or 1980, but generally I always fall back on 1978, and I think about what my career would be like, if I were researching and interviewing and writing articles with 1978 technology, and I'm pretty convinced I couldn't do what I do. I wouldn't have written articles any faster in 1978, but the technology has obviously sped up research. What might have taken two days in 1978--for instance, searching something in an obscure book or aging newspaper at the library--is something I might accomplish in 20 seconds these days.
But there's something else that I've got going for me, that I might have not had in 1978. Even though they were the post-hippie, Disco years, I've always had the sense that the business community was more uptight back then, an extension of the workforce in the 1950s. And yesterday, I couldn't help think how lucky I am, to be in 2006, when my two daughters came into my office and started talking to me about a birthday party they were about to go attend.
"Ssh," I whispered to the girls. "I'm doing an interview."
Lorelei, my two-year-old who always wants to lend me a hand, asked, "Help?"
"Well, no, you can't help me do this interview," I said, hearing a chuckle on the other end. Fortunately, the businessman I was interviewing had a child of his own, and he works from his home, too. He couldn't have been more understanding, which was decent of him, given that we were in the middle of talking about a sensitive topic--insects had raided a food product that he and his business partner make. They caught the problem before their product was manufactured, and thus there was no danger of their customers eating it. But it was a dicey topic for him to be discussing, and here were my girls, raiding my office.
And he didn't care.
And I don't think most people would, these days.
But I'm not so sure the reception the business community would have given a work-at-home dad in 1978.
And so I'm glad to be working in 2006.
Now you know.
Not that anybody asked.
# posted by Geoff Williams : 10:18 PM
