Do you know that feeling? An exciting sense which is commonly caused by an impulsive recognition of correlation? An association which seems significant or at least insightful?

Yesterday evening, I was reading the last pages of “The Philosophy of the Art of Living” by Wilhelm Schmid. It is an appealing paperback with a nice blending of ancient philosophy, like Plato and Socrates, with relative contemporary thinkers like Nietzsche.

Concurrently, I’m also finishing “Does IT Matter?” from Nicholas Carr. I’m not sure if this is a twist of fate, but those two books have a remarkable analogy about commodity input. Let me quote this (self translated) phrase from Schmid’s book:

“Both with conditional as autonomous habit shaping, the power of habits is founded by the principle of inertia. Slow inertia is the core of the habit. It requires absolutely no effort to hold patterns; everything simply remains unaffected. The antithesis however, every attempt to change a habit requires considerable strength. And if the change really occurs, sooner or later this change will inevitably turn into a habit again. This even applies for changes which are considered revolutionary.”

Just think about this phrase when you are reading, writing or discussing the widespread, fascinating discussion initiated by Nicholas Carr. Does IT matter? Is IT revolutionary? Consider IT as revolutionary and here you have the future direction of IT: old habits die hard.