General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I work at the State Dept. Let's talk email. [View all]calimary
(81,220 posts)I'm pretty much a Luddite, too. And even to this very day, I don't feel as though I have all my work tools available to me unless they're printed out and clipped together in packets - that I can just LAY MY HANDS ON whenever I need to. Those organized packets are there whether there's a power failure or not, whether there's a bad signal or not, whether the internet is down or not. I can still get some work done.
I don't keep an online or iPhone calendar or any of that stuff. I have a date book for the year. And I write my schedule items on the pages with a pen. And I can carry it in my purse and get it out and refer to it and get my reminders from it - wherever. Whether there's a good internet signal or not.
I, too, can understand why she would have stuck with a system she already knew, and already knew worked. That's totally ME as well! TOTALLY me! And I'd bet she never wanted to have to take much time to learn or be shown whatever system it was. She probably had WAY too much else to do that was equally time-sensitive and strategic and critical, if not moreso. And one other note here - sometimes with people like me (don't want to speak for Hillary, but this is definitely ME), the very idea of "showing how it works," or "showing what to do or how to operate it" is going to take DAYS. And I have to make notes. ON A PAPER NOTEBOOK, WITH A PEN (or pencil). If I can't make notes, I'm less likely to remember what was just shown to me or described to me.
My husband finds me frustrating to try to help in this regard. He's a genius. I'm an idiot. And he'll say - "just watch. Just WATCH what I'm doing. You'll get it. JUST WATCH. Don't write anything down. JUST WATCH!" And then I don't know what to do! WHAT am I supposed to watch? The screen? Your hand? The keyboard? I can't see what keys you're hitting 'cuz the top of your hand's in the way anyway. Am I supposed to follow the cursor? WHAT DO I WATCH?
And as you can imagine, it just deteriorates from there. Sometimes someone will comment to me - "hey, I can't believe you don't understand - this is so simple a child can do it!" My response is - "well, then, okay. Go get a child in here to work it for me!"
Oddly enough, this actually makes me like Hillary Clinton MORE. I can appreciate her more. And maybe I "get" her a little more, too.