How to logically solve a problem…
By +Dax Radder
I was speaking with a friend last week who was complaining about how often he had to mow to his lawn, how often his toilet was jammed with this year’s birthday toys (he and his wife have five kids) and how often he had to cram receipts and other important papers into his already overflowing file cabinet.
I told him that I could not help him with the first two irritations, but I could certainly lead him down the right path on the third problem. As a matter of fact, I answered, we can rectify your third problem as fast as next-day air delivery!
I had him hook, line and sinker with that response and from that moment on I had his complete attention. Or, so I thought…
But let me back up a moment.
My friend is not exactly Mr. Technology. Oh, sure, he has a computer at home. He checks his email, logs on to Yahoo!Sports and occasionally watches a YouTube video. He even sits in front of a computer monitor for five days a week, fifty weeks a year for his job. Yet, once he strays out of his technological bailiwick he’s a quivering mass of jello.
You know the type. They can do their job within a narrow scope of utilizing the computer, but deviate out of that scope, their mind goes blank, they border on hyperventilating and the only thing their cubicle neighbors hear are high-pitched, squeaky cries for help.
So I had to be careful. I couldn’t just blurt out, “buy a document scanner!” or his face would sag, his eyes would become downcast and he would lose whatever interest he had in my idea and start thinking about how wonderful a bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup would taste as he reclined in his lazy boy, watching an episode of Star Trek and practicing his Vulcan “Live long and prosper” hand sign.
Dude, I said, drawing out the word dude so much (as in du-u-u-de) that I got his attention back on me and not on the ice cream. “Dude, what if I told you that we could clean up that mess in your home office faster than you could say, Beam me up Scotty.”
Now he was riveted on me and wanted to know more. A lot more. I could tell he was serious now, because he stood with his hands behind his back like Mr. Spock, with one eyebrow arched higher than his other one and said, “Fascinating, tell me more, Jim.”
That threw me for a bit of a loop because my name isn’t Jim and I’ve known him for years, but I shook the surprise out of my head and continued on.
So I said, follow me, took him upstairs to my computer, sat him down in my office chair, peered over his shoulder and accessed my favorite review website here.
He clicked the linked, bought the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 Document Scanner with next day delivery and was genuinely happy. I know because he yelled, “Yahoo!” Jumped into the air and clicked his heels just like Fred Astaire.
I’ll never forget his last words as he headed back to his house and spoke into his Starfleet communicator, “Spock to Uhura, honey, get all the kids together-yes, all the kids, Tiberius, Sulu, Chekov, Scotty and Bones. We are going to boldly go into that office and reclaim that space!
“Spock out.”
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