I’ll be the first to admit I’ve got an Internet addiction. I’m used to checking my email far more times a day than I’ll ever admit even to myself. Since I’ve left San Francisco, it’s been a critical lifeline back to Max and the friends I miss so terribly.
It’s not just my connection to my social life that’s been cut off, but it’s a critical component of my productivity that’s missing as well. This blog posting, for example, was written in a word doc. It probably took me at least a half hour’s worth of attempts to post it before it finally went through. There’s no way I’ll be uploading photos for the next few months. I would guess that I’m at about 30% of my overall productivity due to how slow the Internet is.
I can’t help but think about what this means for economic growth. What if the productivity of the government, private sector, and NGOs suddenly increased by 20%? (I realize that slow Internet is not the binding constraint here. The 20% estimate reflects this. My email productivity is probably 5% here vs. at home). While building roads, schools, and health clinics is certainly a top priority, having faster communications would make all of this more efficient. I can’t say exactly where I think investing in better Internet infrastructure would fall on the government’s priorities, but based on what I’m seeing all around me – in the small sliver of the people working here to build this country, the impact would be enormous.
What’s even crazier is that I’m the person putting together a case for this, and potentially getting private foundations to support it. What if I can actually make it happen?
It’s not just my connection to my social life that’s been cut off, but it’s a critical component of my productivity that’s missing as well. This blog posting, for example, was written in a word doc. It probably took me at least a half hour’s worth of attempts to post it before it finally went through. There’s no way I’ll be uploading photos for the next few months. I would guess that I’m at about 30% of my overall productivity due to how slow the Internet is.
I can’t help but think about what this means for economic growth. What if the productivity of the government, private sector, and NGOs suddenly increased by 20%? (I realize that slow Internet is not the binding constraint here. The 20% estimate reflects this. My email productivity is probably 5% here vs. at home). While building roads, schools, and health clinics is certainly a top priority, having faster communications would make all of this more efficient. I can’t say exactly where I think investing in better Internet infrastructure would fall on the government’s priorities, but based on what I’m seeing all around me – in the small sliver of the people working here to build this country, the impact would be enormous.
What’s even crazier is that I’m the person putting together a case for this, and potentially getting private foundations to support it. What if I can actually make it happen?
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