For years now I’ve subscribed to Mark Hurst‘s Good Experience newsletter. This week he wrote A Warning Sign on the Way to Digital Utopia, which should be required reading for anyone that owns a computer.
Less than twelve hours ago I sadly had to repeat a conversation I’ve had dozens — if not hundreds — of times in my life.
When you are doing something on your computer, save it. If it’s important, save often. If it’s really important, save often and save it somewhere other than the computer you’re using. If it’s really, really important, save often, save it somewhere other than your computer, and save it someplace other than the same place where your computer is.
That’s it It’s not rocket science and it’s not complicated. It can be tedious, yes. It can feel like a waste of time, yes. But when you’re on the last page of your novel and you spill coffee on the keyboard and when you get home from Starbucks to find that the dog has eaten your backup CDs, you’ll be very, very glad that you have an extra copy at the office (or your mom’s house, or a safe-deposit box).
2024-01-21: Broken links in this post have been removed and/or updated.