If I can do it, anyone can do it

This has been a traumatic two weeks for me. As anyone who knows me knows, I am not the world’s most accomplished internet person. I’ve managed to adopt to some of the developments, but it’s not been without a fight. One thing I never learned was the (to me) esoteric process called “posting to the web,” which is making something available on our web site. I would write it, but someone else would “post it.” A while ago, my company announced that they were introducing new posting software, and that everyone would have to do their own “posting.” No more giving it to someone else. Two weeks ago, it became Packaging Digest’s turn to make this transition.

It all started with training. For parts of three days, we sat around a conference table watching a monitor where the expert showed us how to execute the new software on. In my opinion, this is not the most efficacious method of learning new software. It’s a lot like trying to learn to play the accordion by watching an old Lawrence Welk rerun or trying to learn to drive by watching Danica Patrick on Sunday. Sitting at a computer where we could actually practice what he was teaching, would have been much more effective. In any case, after three days, it was, “go, do it,” so I plunged in, and with a lot of help from a local IT guy here in our office and from Mark Spaulding, the chief editor of sister-publication Converting, who got into the new software a while ago, I actually posted my first article to the web last week.  I posted the October Food and Beverage newsletter, which I write, yesterday, and if you’re reading this, it means that I posted this blog today.

What this really means for anyone out there who ever struggles with the latest IT developments—take heart. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.  Joseph Campbell