A Tool For Growth

Shocking disclosure: I am a computer geek. Today, I read a piece by another computer geek who is a geezer like me. Here in Geezer City, there are a LOT of folks who are committed to continued personal growth. Senior University exemplifies this commitment. Sherman (the other geezer computer geek) writes a column in a computer geek newsletter. Today's post deals with computer-driven personal growth for geezers. The (fine-print) links to Sherman's tutorials at the end of his post should contain the disclosure that the tutorials aren't free. The links Sherman provides merely take your browser to sales literature for Sherman's tutorials. I am a little long in the tooth to be shocked at ol' Sherm's pecuniary motives. The argument that the computer can promote growth in geezers is sound, though. If this is a (fair & balanced) hustle, so be it.

[x Lockergnome's Windows Fanatics ~ February 3, 2005]
Growth: A Lifelong Pursuit (Sherman's Senior Service)
Posted by Sherman E. DeForest

This is the first in a series of articles about people who have taken up the challenge of continual growth. If any readers have similar anecdotes to contribute, please do.

Many seniors seem to think that they are required to settle down and stop growing as they age. They arrive at maturity and decide the world has stopped! That impression, foisted on us by society, is false. I have many counter-examples. And, every now and then, among those counter-examples, we find over-achievers with interesting personalities who refuse to stop growing. Those individuals who want to learn and continue to grow can be an inspiration to all of us - especially to those who work at helping seniors become computer literate. After all, computer literacy is not an end in itself: it is a way of providing new tools for growth.

Earlier I gave the example of a respected graphic artist who took up Adobe at age 80 and now does all his work on the computer - and you have likely seen it since he has done several splashy ads for high performance automobiles. Today I want to introduce another person who changed careers and interests relatively late in life, Lois Zetter.

Lois tells some of her background on her Web site, but that is different from meeting this lively, intelligent woman and her husband, Walt. Her early interests were far from technology: She was born in Boston, raised in Pawtucket, and graduated cum laude from Brandeis in Theater Arts. She moved to New York and achieved success as an actress and singer/comedienne. Her stage appearances included starring roles in "Fiddler on the Roof," "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," and "Ben Bagley's Cole Porter Revue." As a nightclub entertainer, she appeared on bills with Joan Rivers, Rodney Dangerfield, Stiller and Meara, and Dick Cavett, among others. She also appeared in many television and radio commercials.

Sounds impressive, doesn't it? Well, she left performing and teamed with her manager to start a personal management firm. Did it succeed? Her clients included John Travolta, Patrick Swayze, Katherine Helmond, Mickey Rourke, Mark Harmon, and Ted Shackelford - not too shabby! She and John Travolta were in Mohammad Ali's entourage in New Orleans when he won the title back from Leon Spinks. She still manages a few of her close friends, but a few years ago she decided her love of art was the next path to follow.

As a private collector, she and Walt amassed an impressive collection of "Outsider Art," but found they needed to sell some of it to be able to buy more. So Lois started a new company, "The Zetter Collection," which buys and sells the art she particularly enjoys. (A workable, but somewhat controversial, definition of "Outsider Art," is art by self-taught artists, and this is different from "Folk Art." See her site for examples.)

Running businesses is very different from performing. As a mature adult, she had to learn how to do all the things associated with running a business, including the financials. She also had to keep track of things like vital statistics of clients (what size shoe does Katherine Helmond wear? What is John Travolta's social security number?), their bios (constantly updated), their most recent salaries (very important to know what they should get for their next job.) The catch is that she knew nothing about computers or how to use them. Her life and career up to that point did not require those skills, but in this new role, she quickly became dependent on her computer.

In the art business, that dependency spread to include e-mail, databases, the Internet, and the ability to handle images. So she hired a pro to set up her databases and hired a secretary to manage them. Later, she hired a professional graphic artist, who still works for her, to help manage her data and create the Web site from which most of her sales come.

So she learned by participating. At this time, she is comfortable dealing with her machine on a daily basis. She still hires out some work such as modifying her Web site with her input, but she has taught herself enough about all facets of the business that she can keep the game honest and ask intelligent questions. That is a good compromise for her. She doesn't need to know how to set up a spreadsheet or database from scratch, but she needs to know enough to decide if the forms she is using are adequate and how much effort it would be to change them.

Nothing in this woman's earlier life would have indicated to a prospective tutor that, as a senior, she could become computer literate, and that was never really her goal. She wanted and needed the ability to use e-mail and the Internet in addition to the database management and financial controls. For me to try to force her to understand what she was doing with her computer in the same way that I do would be like a mechanic forcing drivers to understand how to build an automatic transmission before they are permitted to drive.

I seriously doubt Lois could pass a test on the theory of computer operation. But I wouldn't bet money that she couldn't learn it if she wanted to. She is the kind of active senior that can inspire a generation.

With all these accomplishments behind her and still growing, when she looks back over her life, what does she think is special? She feels that one of her greatest accomplishments was appearing for five days on "Jeopardy" in the 1960s. Oh, and she is a competitive bridge player who knows the joys of playing online.

One can only hope she uses her skill at word processing to write a book about her special life.

For more in-depth tips on tutoring seniors, see the complete tutorial here. I also have posted a tutorial on elementary decision theory for those who might question a physician's diagnosis (important for seniors) or anti-terrorist activities (important for everyone) but haven't had the framework to analyze the data. That tutorial can be found here.


Sherman E. DeForest 

Sherman designed and constructed his first computer out of discarded pinball machines and jukeboxes when he was sixteen and never looked back. He migrated from Upper Michigan where it is cold to Southern California where the climate suits him better. He has been an academic, an entrepreneur, an author, and consultant (euphemism for unemployed). When he first saw VisiCalc, he gave up machine language programming for good. The future was obviously in what was then called high-level languages. His philosophy of using computers is that it should be fun, or at least enjoyable, or maybe not too bothersome, or at least mostly useful, or not so bad it drives you into the street, tearing your clothes off and shouting, "Back to nature - we've gone wrong!" Unlike many Americans, he owns more PCs than guns. On a recent vacation in rural Mexico, his wife did not even comment when he packed a laptop. It was a given. His passion is video and image processing - and people actually pay him to do it! What a trip! Getting paid for something you enjoy!

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