Why a Book? by Rick Thues

Why a book?

I was pleased when an old high school classmate contacted me about forming a writer’s support group.

We are a diverse group of human beings.
Among us is a fiction writer, philosopher, documentarian, historian, poet, playwright and technical writer.

The format of the meetings is Zoom, a video conferencing platform. Since the COVID 19 pandemic Zoom has become a social meeting place pulling together people from distant locations.
I like the metaphor of a cloud technology which illustrates that a pandemic has a silver lining.

The timing of the support group is good for me.
I have written the iMentor Hints and Rants weekly bLog for 12 years. There are over 600 pages and 200,000 words. The topics range from tips, tricks and troubleshooting a computer to human legacy, instinct and magic.

My desire is to group the bLog episodes into topics which will form chapters. Then I will order the chapters to tell a story.
In essence, my outline will be my table of contents.
The overreaching story that I will tell is my unique approach to computing.

A computer is a puzzle.
Occasionally the puzzle falls apart. Sometimes two similar pieces are exchanged. When this happens the computer must be repaired. Critical thinking and the scientific method are used to reorder the system.
Split half analysis can identify the problem and isolate the repair.

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Homes.

More than troubleshooting, my job as a computer consultant and bLog writer is to introduce the user to the computer.
Writing down a step by step procedure is less useful than teaching the concept of computing.

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
— derived from Chinese proverb.

A computer is highly customizable. The skill of using it is to order its tools to accomplish ones goals. Often many applications are used to step through the process of completing a project.

The book I will write will tell the story of embracing the computer as a vehicle for life. The way we pull its levers and push its buttons is unique to each of us.
Like all tools, the computer is an extension of who we are as humans.

The newly formed writers group is a community of human beings helping me with my book.