John A. Trax Jr.
Northwest Nursery Buyers Association
Rhododendron, Oregon
2007 President of Garden Centers of America (GCA)
When I was asked to write for the TPIE blog I decided the time had come to actually find out what the heck a blog is. Now, I’m fairly technology savvy and have worked with computers and the whole internet thing most of my adult life. But I really didn’t have an answer to “What is a blog?” This led to a search of the online encyclopedia, http://www.wikipedia.org/, where I discovered way more about blogs than I really wanted to know.
This led to the realization that I am not as up to date on technology as I thought I was. Which led to more thinking on the nature of change itself. This eventually led to my brain hurting. One conclusion I reached is that every generation has felt itself to be “on top of things” until our kids show us how antiquated we really are. As an example I offered to write down some directions for #2 son, (the one still in college). This was met with a blank stare, then the comment, “You mean like in actual handwriting?” I offered to type them up in Word and print it out for him. “But that will just waste paper, why don’t you just text me?” “Text you? Like on that little keyboard on my new phone?”
We don’t speak the same language but that doesn’t mean we don’t both want the same things. He buys flowers for his girlfriend, he likes to help plant in the garden, he appreciates a good landscape or that African violet that just bloomed on the windowsill. The fundamental wants and needs do not change but the details do. When I needed to buy flowers I used something called the Yellow Pages, a big book with yellow pages in it - you may have heard of it. When #2 son needs to find a florist he uses something called Live Search (http://www.live.com/) on his phone which shows him the closest florist, their phone number and shows him a map and gives turn by turn directions to it.
If you need to communicate with someone who speaks a different language you hire a translator. Maybe we should have a generational translator in our marketing departments?
Everyday in the news we are bombarded by dire statements of how change will destroy our businesses. Immigration reform, tax law changes, new environmental regulations, global warming, declining economy, increasing competition and a whole list of other things. But if you looked at a newspaper from 1950 or 1960 or 1970 you would, with minor changes, find all of those issues being raised as contributing to the imminent demise of the world as we know it. We have all been taught since childhood that the only constant is change, but we always forget that when it comes to our everyday lives.
I have often heard the ancient Chinese proverb “May you live in interesting times.” This proverb has been described as both a blessing and a curse depending on whether you like life to be boring and predictable or well, interesting. Thinking I would demonstrate my new found technological abilities and name the actual Chinese author in my blog I checked my new friend Wikipedia. However, what I found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times was rather disappointing since it states that the earliest known reference to this “Chinese proverb” is in a 1950 science fiction magazine.
We do live in interesting times, and as the proverb implies, that is a two edged sword, so deal with it.
Northwest Nursery Buyers Association
Rhododendron, Oregon
2007 President of Garden Centers of America (GCA)
When I was asked to write for the TPIE blog I decided the time had come to actually find out what the heck a blog is. Now, I’m fairly technology savvy and have worked with computers and the whole internet thing most of my adult life. But I really didn’t have an answer to “What is a blog?” This led to a search of the online encyclopedia, http://www.wikipedia.org/, where I discovered way more about blogs than I really wanted to know.
This led to the realization that I am not as up to date on technology as I thought I was. Which led to more thinking on the nature of change itself. This eventually led to my brain hurting. One conclusion I reached is that every generation has felt itself to be “on top of things” until our kids show us how antiquated we really are. As an example I offered to write down some directions for #2 son, (the one still in college). This was met with a blank stare, then the comment, “You mean like in actual handwriting?” I offered to type them up in Word and print it out for him. “But that will just waste paper, why don’t you just text me?” “Text you? Like on that little keyboard on my new phone?”
We don’t speak the same language but that doesn’t mean we don’t both want the same things. He buys flowers for his girlfriend, he likes to help plant in the garden, he appreciates a good landscape or that African violet that just bloomed on the windowsill. The fundamental wants and needs do not change but the details do. When I needed to buy flowers I used something called the Yellow Pages, a big book with yellow pages in it - you may have heard of it. When #2 son needs to find a florist he uses something called Live Search (http://www.live.com/) on his phone which shows him the closest florist, their phone number and shows him a map and gives turn by turn directions to it.
If you need to communicate with someone who speaks a different language you hire a translator. Maybe we should have a generational translator in our marketing departments?
Everyday in the news we are bombarded by dire statements of how change will destroy our businesses. Immigration reform, tax law changes, new environmental regulations, global warming, declining economy, increasing competition and a whole list of other things. But if you looked at a newspaper from 1950 or 1960 or 1970 you would, with minor changes, find all of those issues being raised as contributing to the imminent demise of the world as we know it. We have all been taught since childhood that the only constant is change, but we always forget that when it comes to our everyday lives.
I have often heard the ancient Chinese proverb “May you live in interesting times.” This proverb has been described as both a blessing and a curse depending on whether you like life to be boring and predictable or well, interesting. Thinking I would demonstrate my new found technological abilities and name the actual Chinese author in my blog I checked my new friend Wikipedia. However, what I found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times was rather disappointing since it states that the earliest known reference to this “Chinese proverb” is in a 1950 science fiction magazine.
We do live in interesting times, and as the proverb implies, that is a two edged sword, so deal with it.
