When I was young, some thugs broke into our house one night and robbed us. I often had nightmares about it. I dreamed I was being chased through city streets. I ran and ran, but the bad guys were always faster. Just as they were about to catch me, I woke up.

One night as I ran through the darkness, hearing their footsteps growing louder ... suddenly I stopped running. I stood and waited. Two thugs burst into the alley and had to pull up to avoid crashing into me.

Their expressions were puzzled. Wasn't I supposed to be running? Instead I stepped toward them with a smile, my arms outstretched. I wanted to know them, to embrace them.

I woke up with a feeling of peace. I never had the nightmare again.

My oldest son is twenty-five. He develops and troubleshoots multimedia in Silicon Valley.

I thought of him when I received email warning of a horrid new virus that didn't even need to be executed to destroy your hard drive. It arrived via email. If you read it, "your computer's processor will be placed in an nth-complexity infinite binary loop which can severely damage the processor."

I forwarded the warning to my son. He replied:

"You DO know this is a hoax that's been going on over a year, right?

"Nth complexity binary loop! Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha."

Ok, so I had two choices.

(1) I could tell him of course I knew it was a hoax and rebuke him for his superior tone; or,

(2) acknowledge that he was WAY beyond my level of technical competence and partner with him to our mutual advantage. (Yes, middle-aged men still have something important to contribute!)

I flashed back to the lad's twelfth birthday. I gave him a new Apple II and our lives changed forever. He began programming like a demon and never stopped. Me? I watched him for two years before using the computer.

Then I stopped running. I embraced what I feared and immersed myself in learning how to use it. Over the years, my weakness became my strength.

Do anything an hour a day for five years and you become an expert.

Now I speak, consult, and write about the impact of computer technology. It didn't happen all at once. I morphed from a spectator watching a little stick figure dance on a green screen to someone happily trafficking in java-happy applets.

Computers are symbol-manipulating systems. So are people. We're made for each other. Computers are not about technology; they're about information and communication. I don't have to be a techno-wizard to turn information into knowledge. I don't have to be a programmer to network with people I meet online.

Next time you hear those footsteps coming after you, turn and confront them. Those muggers are cowards. They never even put up a fight. And once they become your friends, their energy becomes your strength, your advantage, your power.

1996

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