Comments on: technological problems don’t exist

By: Dre

Dre — Wed, 04 May 2005 20:35:45 +0000

Agree! problems are just psychological. Even worse… define “problem”!

By: mike dunn

mike dunn — Mon, 02 May 2005 02:13:15 +0000

right ben, exactly

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 01 May 2005 04:07:18 +0000

Re-reading my comment, I think I just realised what Hugh is getting at:
»> Technological problems do not exist, cultural problems do.
Too many times in my industry (which provides services to EVERY industry) we are stumped by technological problems created because of the customer’s culture. When a problem would be solved by an ASP.NET solution, we get told “no, sorry, we’re a Mac house”. When a problem could be solved by Java, we get the “no, sorry, we only use Compaq hardware running Microsoft”.
Or maybe I’m looking at it too technologically?

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 01 May 2005 03:58:48 +0000

Re technical vs technological. I agree they are different. My take:
Technical relates to techniques & trickyness. Technical problems are problems that go beyond the simplistic, and require some application of thought and technique to solve. Technical problems DO exist, but are rarely impossible to solve, especially if one thinks outside the square.
Technological problems relate to technology. As everyone else hinted, genuine technological problems only exist if the solver has a blinkered world-view. Sure it can cost a lot to solve a technological problem, but they can always be solved. In my world (software development) ‘unsolvable’ technical problems usually come down to a poorly defined scope and a reluctance to pony up the time (and therefore money) to do something correctly with the most appropriate* technology.
*Or preselecting a technology (Microsoft) based on unreasonable bias (corporate policy).

By: MarkN

MarkN — Sun, 01 May 2005 02:44:23 +0000

Technological problems will always exists because “solving the problem” stops the instant the marginal benefit falls below that of some other greater institutional/organizational/personal need.

By: Bob McCabe

Bob McCabe — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 23:49:53 +0000

There are no technical problems, only the failure of management to expect that there will be techincal problems.

By: Bill de hOra

Bill de hOra — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 22:10:07 +0000

Technological solutions don’t exist.
Agree/Disagree?

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 17:49:23 +0000

What, Keith, are those the only two options I’m allowed?

By: Keith Handy

Keith Handy — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 13:42:42 +0000

Hugh: is the statement in question an actual observation that you had, or just a CCC — calculated controversy catalyst?

By: Malcolm Ryder

Malcolm Ryder — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 12:59:07 +0000

I'll grab the invitation to spin the open question... sure there are technological problems, meaning that there are problems created by technology, and/or meaning that there are situations in which technological approaches to solutions are considered to be either the accelerator of the solution or the inhibitor! I'll also volunteer that "technical" and "technological" are not the same thing, and as soon as we stress the "-logical" we're moving in on the aspect that points more at decisions to use the tool than at the tool itself. The decision to use the tool might be validated or might be corrupted by the characteristics of the tool itself. I'd say a technological problem that we all know about is the situation in which we work to try to adapt (by configuration and/or by usage) the tool to the characteristics that we think the *solution* should have. How do we go about deciding that a tool fits the characteristics? The biggest mistake we might make is in thinking that the tool *is* the solution, instead of thinking that the tool can *support* the solution. When we make that mistake, we usually shrink the problem to the shape of the tool, risking putting the cart in front of the horse. But sure, it's also possible to have a problem for which the solution really needed is to have a tool instead of not having one! There are plenty of those problems to go around. Ask any designer...

By: Carl

Carl — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 11:41:48 +0000

Technical problems most certainly exist, and they can determine what kind of culture developes, too. As an example, Live Journal ( http://www.livejournal.com/ ) allow "friends' lists", which gives you a page to monitor all your friends' journals, (not to mention RSS feeds). This means you should notice all your friends' posts without needing to go to their journal's. You can also receive email-alerts when you get replies to your journal, as well as replies to any replies you've made in other journals. Full-featured you might think, except that format more or less ensures threads on a topic will peter out within a day or two - unless two or more people keep endlessly replying to each other. The result is mostly off-the-top-of-my-head discussions, rather than ones made up of thoughts that've been mulled over for a day or two. So, on Live Journal, the culture is molded by the technology, and if you consider discussions ending in a day or two to be a problem, then it has a problem - one that's entirely due to its technology. (Simple email lists are an example of a technology without this problem - everybody on the list gets every post and every reply.)

By: Ken Dyck

Ken Dyck — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 10:07:15 +0000

Sorry Hugh, I have to disagree with you here. Technical problems exist.
I think what you are getting at is that all problems arise from basic human desires that usually have little to do with technology.
Let’s say you’d like to walk on the surface of Mars. There are many definite technical problems that need to be overcome to fulfill that desire, such as keeping a person alive in a spacecraft long enough to survive the trip, propelling the vehicle to its destination, and landing it on the surface.
There are also definite political and cultural problems. You must, among other things, convince somebody or organization with the means to send you to Mars to do it, for example.
Both types, technological and cultural, are real problems. Your desire to walk on Mars is, however, all yours.

By: pheloxi

pheloxi — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 03:34:23 +0000

technology is as smart as its user.
if you try to use techology above your knowlegde the chance you will get errors is high, because techology itself has no knowlwgde. a user who will increase the knowlegde will get smarter. the learned knowlegde will than make user smarter, but also the technology, because the user can be more advanced.
1 + 1 = 2
1 + 1 = 5 — 3

By: sayten

sayten — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 03:11:18 +0000

Technological problems do exist. My view may be tainted since I’m a technical guy who works in the trenches. The suits are the ones who’s answer to this question really matters.
I like what Sig said about other options but I think that lazy is a strong word. If the problem is getting from point A to B then maybe there are 3 or 4 ways to do that but there are times when throwing out assumptions does you no good. Sometimes the technology may not exist to execute a task within the constraints of the job.
I can imagine a day when we have wireless power but that doesn’t mean I can stop charging the battery in my cell phone right now.

By: John Corrigan

John Corrigan — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 01:47:26 +0000

Technological problems exist, but they should be irrelevant to everyone other than the builders of technology. They become relevant to other people, when a piece of technology falls just short of solving a real problem they have. If some widget solves a problem for someone, then that person has no technological problems with the widget. If widget doesn’t solve the problem at all then there still isn’t a technological problem: the person doesn’t use the widget. Technological problems manifest when the widget almost solves the problem.