Guy Kawasaki wrote a really interesting post on his blog:
"Why Smart People Do Dumb Things" (Like Not Backup Their Hard Disk).
His post wasn't intended to be about making backups but merely about the flaws of the immature human mind. Guy's experience came from a failing hard disk. My latest encounter with the "god of stupidity" was after synchronizing my new PDA at home and at work. In the process I lost several contacts.
Why Guy did not make a backup of his hard disk? For him the question was answered in this book: "Why Smart People Do Dumb Things". In this book the authors list four reasons why smart people -like you and me- should know better:
- Hubris; exaggerated pride or self-confidence, often resulting in fatal retribution [Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubris].
- Arrogance; from the Latin word arrogare: “to claim for oneself.” Arrogant people believe they have claim to anything and everything they want--they are “entitled” to it.
- Narcissism; self absorption to the point that you are blind to reality.
- Unconscious need to fail; if you think failing is hard, try winning. The questions that go through people’s minds when they are on the doorstep of success are: Do I really deserve to win? Do I want the pressure of constantly having to win in the future? Can I really handle success?
The post goes on with the "Six Basic Principles of Maturity". Also good stuff to read but has nothing to-do with making a backup in time.
So why didn't I make a backup of my contacts before synchronizing? Let’s go over the four horsemen again:
Hubris: Why would this sync not work? It never failed before so why would it fail now?
Arrogance: Oh sure, I was "entitled" to have a proper working sync
Narcissism: Losing data during a sync process? No way that won’t happen to me?
Unconscious need to fail: Never crossed my mind.
I now have a backup of my contacts and after reading the "Tao of backup" plan to change my backup strategy as well.
But what will you do with this knowledge? Are you waiting for the disaster to happen or will you change your backup strategy as well?