When the Bits Strike Close to Home

Patience is a virtue, they say, but it's a virtue I don't have the patience to master. That's why several weeks ago, when a PayPal transfer didn't go through to my bank within the expected 2-3 days, I promptly made a Skype call to the bank to see what's up.

It's worth mentioning that I don't have the most traditional banking setup. I transfer money from PayPal to the New York branch of my bank in Thailand. I've also just started doing this, and it was the first time I'd transferred from PayPal directly instead of going through another bank first. Delays perhaps should have been expected. But then, that'd take patience.

So I call the bank long distance during my evening so it's daytime in the US, and count my blessings that Skype calls are cheap. Moments later, I'm talking to a teller who explains that my account isn't showing any pending transfers, but then says that they're experiencing delays now.

Her voice cracks. "I'm sorry, but we're in a temporary location due to floods, and that's delayed everything."

The world spins slower. I suddenly feel cold, heartless.

Banks aren't supposed to be worthy of our compassion, and digital transactions should just work, right? I press a button online, and expect cash to come out of my local ATM days later with no problem, always, every time. It's just bits and numbers, and if Google can do searches in 3 microseconds, then the bank is just old fashioned if they can't get my money to me as fast and cheap as possible.

And yet, it takes humans to keep those bits flowing. It takes a lady at a branch of my bank in New York, someone who was displaced thanks to Sandy, to make sure my transactions are processed. Perhaps there's an easier way for the bank to do it, a more efficient process, but no matter. Right now, there's a real human making sure my click actually does what it's supposed to do. The thought that Sandy had affected real people that process my bank transactions never crossed my mind.

In the end, the transfer went through, thanks to the amazing people at my bank that kept working through Sandy, a storm I totally forgot about when I rung their number from Bangkok. A storm that affected their lives, and made the people behind the bits more real.

~

This Thanksgiving weekend, my Dad came down with stroke-like symptoms, leading to a late-night ER visit, one night in the hospital, and numerous scans. Thankfully, today the doctors said he was fine, thanks to the marvel of technology that is a MRI scan. It turned an image of his brain into bits, and let the doctor see that his brain was fine. Blood tests turned samples of his blood into bits of data that showed things he needs to keep tabs on going forward.

Yeah, just bits. But some rather important bits, bits that mattered far more to me than a stray bank transfer.

Of all things, it was Windows XP and IE6 that got all of my Dad's medical info from lab to technician to doctor. The very OS and browser we all love to decry fun at online was now serving a live-changing function for my family. It was keeping a vast medical center running, day in and day out. Ancient, outdated bits were still working, giving me a new perspective on just how tough it would be to move organizations like this to new computing platforms.

And in the end, it wasn't the raw bits that mattered so much, or the XP Bliss background that filled the doctor's screen. The results could have been written in Comic Sans, for all I cared. It was the people - the technicians, receptionists, doctors - that used those bits to get us an appointment, analyze Dad's data, and tell us what to do, that really mattered.

~

We often decry banks for being greedy, and wonder aloud how people could be so lazy as to never upgrade past IE6. We get frustrated with web pages take more than a few seconds to load, are frustrated when an online order gets delayed, and expect doctors to instantly know how to help us (or else expect we can Google Doctor our own selves). When our favorite app breaks, or support doesn't email back in 1 minute, or the app we want to buy hasn't been reviewed by anyone yet, or mobile internet is flaky, we're frustrated, annoyed, and worse.

The people using old tech? They're luddites. The weather knocks out a popular site? Well, they surely should find some way to keep the power on, or else we'll move our business elsewhere.

You know what? It's not all that simple. There's people behind those bits, people with real lives and problems and time constraints, and sometimes there's a real-world explanation for our tech problems. And sometimes, there's a better reason for things we see as problems than we'd ever think of behind the comfort of our browsers.

One day, you'll be on the bad side of the bits. Or the good side of old bits. And it'll all make a bit more sense.

Thoughts? @reply me on Twitter.