Top ten lessons from a 13-day trip in the early summer of 2012: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blindingly obvious given that this is the start of my fourth decade at an Apple keyboard of one sort or another…
10. As long as there’s no need to check versioning and edit/commenting trails in a Word document, or to create 8-stage builds in Keynote that rely on carefully masked images, an iPad is all the computer a person needs for travel.
9. Particularly if that iPad has a Logitech cover that doubles as a Bluetooth keyboard.
8. If all the materials, agendas, resolutions, and ancillary documents for a multiple-day board meeting can be retrieved as a PDF in iBooks on one’s iPad, a dramatic decrease in the risk of rogue meeting-room power cords ensues.
7. The trickiest thing about reading an e-book is learning not to advance the page too quickly.
6. The Chicago Tribune digital e-edition is a fine substitute for the printed paper when a person leaves the distribution area.
5. As long as there is a Starbucks nearby, a person never leaves the distribution area of the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.
4. As long as there is a New York Times or Wall Street Journal within driving distance, there is never a need to turn on a television set.
3. One size of update will not fit all 1,500 of one’s Facebook friends.
2. 90-plus degrees Fahrenheit in the Central Valley of California is nothing like 90-plus degrees Fahrenheit on the shores of Lake Michigan.
And the No. 1 lesson from a 13-day trip during 2012:
1. One voicemail message and fewer than 5 telephone calls across two phone lines over 13 days would seem to indicate that no matter how important the news, intentionally asynchronous communication is forever where it’s at.
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