I write a fortnightly column about IT security for bCentral. One of the hardest things is warning people about potential problems. Not something that is actually bugging them today but next week’s potential disaster. For example, a mechanical failure on a hard disk that has no backup, as happened to Guy Kawasaki recently.
The challenge is to provoke action without causing despair or fatalism. Or boredom.
One thing I try to do is avoid ‘rubber statistics’ of all kind. You know: “10% of all top bloggers suffer a hard disk failure.” Usually, such statistics are generated by backup software vendors and lack credibility. (See my post on the uses and abuses of surveys.) I also try to offer an antidote or remedy for any problem I cover.
I imagine the problem is that much harder for people writing about global warming. This subject has been pressing in on me recetly: a big feature in the Economist this week, a big piece in last night’s Radio 4 news and this morning a glib piece in Slate: how to protect your beach house from global warming.
My first reaction to all this is horror, anxiety and despair. What can I do? (Actually, my home, car and business are all carbon neutral and I get my electricity from a wind farm. See ‘how to be carbon neutral‘. Mmm. Smug. But I feel I should marching on Downing Street or something.)
My second reaction is to do something else less stressful. I think this must be the reaction of most of my bCentral readers. At least you can make a copy of a hard disk. Civilisation has no backup.
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