How good is change?

I was sitting in my office, thinking, this morning. I was pondering all the changes I deal with in supporting numerous types of hardware and software. In the course of the last two days I've had to cope with several emergencies caused by changes, large and small.

In my younger days, my philosophy was: "Change is good; newer is better. Deal with it. Period."

When all I had to worry about was me, that was fine. Now that I have to worry about taking care of several other people, and keeping them productive, without *any* mistakes creeping into the finished product, I find that coping with changes is more and more of a burden.

Thirty years ago, the pace of life was much slower, and I longed for "new and exciting." Nowadays, I long for, "It worked yesterday, it will work the same way today."

I hope to get my excitement in recreational activities, not figuring out how to make new or upgraded software work like it did last week, or getting a simple document to appear the same when printed on two different printers.

In my dotage, I've come to the conclusion that life can deliver plenty of new and exciting stuff on its own, without every single device or gadget that I own forcing me into a week of dealing frustration and lost productivity every time there's an upgrade.

Nokia, Motorola, HP, and especially Microsoft--Give us a break, whenever you add new features, please keep the old ones available. Some of us have real lives that we would rather spend our attention on, instead of plumbing the depths of the owner's manual.