That's Life: Technology Fatigue
That's Life: Technology Fatigue
I don’t know about you, but I have technology fatigue. I also have learning curve fatigue. I was one of the first people in my circle that had an Internet connection. In fact, I had a BBS dial up service where I started the first Dental Technician’s Bulletin Board back in 1988. I also had one of the first laptops in my neighborhood. I had the first Palm Pilot and I had a Toshiba Pocket PC smart phone before there was a smart phone.
But now I’m burned out. I’ve overly connected and I don’t want it any more. I lost my iPhone, and instead of buying a new one, I dug through the junk drawer at home and reactivated my son’s three-year-old cell. I never read my text messages anymore. Leave a message, I probably won’t get it. I’m off the grid and I like it.
I don’t know if Moore’s Law took into consideration the fact that as technology grows faster and faster and gets smaller and smaller, so does the writing in the operating instructions. It seems as though as soon as I figure out how something works, it becomes obsolete or is ready for an upgrade.
I remember as a young dental technician, all I really needed to know was how to make a better porcelain butt margin, or perhaps some new theory on occlusion. Then, methodically, we trudged forward implants and all-ceramic crowns. It was a brave new world in those days.
Graduating from dental technician to laboratory owner I had to learn how to read a financial statement, understand labor laws, tax laws, research and development credits and reporting. Of course I still had to manage production, set quality control and productivity standards and manage cash flow and a growing inventory. All made easier with technology.
Now that we have so much exciting new technology on the production floor, we have to learn another whole new language. Lately, I’ve been shopping for a Rosetta Stone program to help me understand adaptive slicing, beam hardening, additive fabrication, ballistic particle manufacturing, fused deposition, gradient photo-curing materials, solid free form manufacturing and voxel trimming.
All important terminology in today’s modern dental laboratory. My only fear is, that as soon as I learn the new terminology, will it be obsolete? Not one to enjoy the view of the leaders from behind, I’ll continue to slog along and try to stay ahead of the technology curve in my laboratory, but don’t be upset if it takes me a while to return your e-mail - I’m studying liquid metal jet printing.
