I am shocked by the pain that people will put themselves through when they don’t know any better.

I have been helping a small law firm with their office tech. No question, most lawyers would be considered technology laggards. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, just that technology is not important to their business. A small practice lawyer could get by without a computer, or email, or even a phone. Frankly, it would make their lives very difficult, but they would get by.

To a lawyer, technology is a means to an end. A tool. A way of being more efficient with their time. He just wants to get his job done and get on with his life. Technology is used to free up more of his time, or allow him to do more with the same amount of time. Better technology is not his goal; a better result for his clients is.

In fact, this lawyer does not know how to use a computer. He hired someone else to do that for him. Though, he has an iPhone. Never downloaded an app for it, and uses only the phone and photos apps. He doesn’t actually need anything else from his phone. He gets everything he needs, and isn’t curious to explore further. He’s content.

Being oblivious to the world of technology, he hired someone non-technical to be his assistant. Honestly, how would he know to evaluate someone with knowledge of computers. What questions would he ask them? By the same token, how would a bad programmer know how to evaluate a much better programmer?

When he asked his assistants to get an email account for the firm, they did a little research and came up with what they thought was an informed answer. A friend told them how to register for a domain which included email accounts, all for a price they could afford. Can you see where this story is going?

They got an email account, and continued to use it for years. Never revisiting their choice, or considering a change. Why change? We are getting by just fine now, and we know how to use it. Emails come in, we respond, we delete the email. Wait… what? Sure, they had to delete the email. Most email they get contains large attachments; legal documents. If they didn’t delete the email they would run out of space in their inbox quickly. But, they would download a copy of the attachment and store in a folder on the desktop of one of the office computers.

Everyone needs to access these files from several computers in the office, and from home, so they use portable hard drives to share files. Really? Yup, files get moved physically just like they were on paper. That portable hard drive is also the only long-term backup of all electronic documents used by the firm.

No one has done anything wrong here. They all did what they thought was best with the problems they faced. But to anyone who knows better, the result was a disaster. It felt like it was but a thread from ripping apart.

When I told them I could solve all the problems they hadn’t encountered yet,

they told me, “why fix what isn’t broken?”

Me: “I can save you time and make it easier to do these simple tasks!”

Lawyers: “What will we do when you’re gone and the tool breaks? We’re not going to be able to do our work until we find someone to fix it.”

Lawyers: “The process we have now, it works. I figured it out, and I’m used with it.”

So, I fixed their problems anyways and used an excuse. I continue to check in, so far without hiccup. Even starting to get some appreciative thanks.

You have to respect the loyalty they placed in the first solution they found to work.

You have to wonder, could they have come to an informed decision, without me? How?