IT Essentials: Engage your rage

Anger can be productive, if you use it well

IT Essentials: Engage your rage

It's easy to give in to frustration when you work in a service organisation, but there are better uses for anger than stewing in it.

The internet was originally thought of as a sort of digital utopia, a place where people could build and create to their heart's content without oversight, like a text-based Minecraft. That's not exactly the case any more.

In the 2020s there's plenty of oversight, but it's made the internet much more annoying to get around - a place where roaming gangs of consent banners jump anyone foolish enough to travel without a pop-up blocker. And it's really, really bloody frustrating.

While I was editing an episode of our new podcast Ctrl Alt Lead (listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify - the next episode is due out later today) last week, I tried to fix an error by clearing my history and reinstalling my browser ("Turn it off and on again"). So of course, the next day, I had to deal with websites' various attempts to be "helpful."

Even with the invaluable Consent-O-Matic tool, I was awash in pop-ups as soon as I opened Chrome. Requests for contact information, requests for feedback, helpful hints letting me know the website changed its sidebar layout four months ago - the sort of pertinent information you need and questions you're qualified to answer after being on a site for less than 30 seconds.

Search results suffer the same problem, shoving pointless information down your throat before you get to what you actually need. From computers to cat food, modern results are dominated by sponsored content, suggested pages, products and maps before you find anything related to your request.

Maybe Google could fork out a bit of the money it's raking in from advertisers on a UX designer.

Why the extended rant about the modern internet? Partly to make sure any web designers who happen to read this take note - why are you trying to stop people engaging with your content? - and also because frustration is the topic of my recent interview with Jeremy Cooper, head of IT at Apollo Therapeutics.

At the end of the day, IT is largely a service profession; and while it's easy to get angry when dealing with customers, it's not smart. It's better to channel the frustration into something productive, like learning how to speak to the board to win executive buy-in, or macramé.

Penny Horwood has written the third in our series of articles looking at the big three cloud providers' ESG credentials, this time dealing with water use. As our summers get longer and hotter, and areas with an already heavy datacentre presence suffer extended drought conditions, this is a subject that needs to be tackled - especially by one provider. I'll let you read the article to find out why.

John Leonard has reviewed a new book that crosses the gap between law and tech, written by lawyer, technologist and Computing contributor Dr W Kuan Hon - which also includes a detailed analysis of last year's attack on the British Library. Read on to see why John marked the book as "Highly recommended."

Finally, we've opened nominations for the Tech Women Celebration 50: a list the impressive female technologists, at every stage of their career, who are inspiring the next generation with their excellent work. If you're a tech professional who deserves a place on the list, or you know one, put yourself forward now.