It’s just after five o’clock in the morning.  I have spent approximately the past three hours ardently organizing my so-called Tags on my computer. I am reminded of the quip that there’s nothing hard about law, you just need to know where to find it!  There’s more than a particle of truth to the saw. As for my current industry I can’t think there’s tremendous advantage in my having done so. But it does quell an obsessive element of my nature. The effort is diluted by the knowledge that many of the documents can be and have been already stored on other platforms – for example the income tax documents on the accountant’s “portal”. I have as well already uploaded and stored on my Google blog page the books and diaries I have composed since the advent of computers in the 1980s (which is when I stopped typing things on my portable Smith Corona typewriter). Whatever I had once handwritten in hardcover books, on blank pages or in three-ring binders has long ago disappeared. That early stuff was as stock an undertaking as a morning coffee when I attended prep school, undergraduate and law school. I even had an analgesic compilation in the early years of the practice of law.

Initially – that is, when I transferred from Microsoft (WordPerfect) to Apple iOS technology – I succumbed to the invitation of Apple to store everything “in the cloud”.  When at last I realized that my photos, books and documents were near to consuming the limited iCloud storage capacity (beyond which there was an expense) I began qualifying the habit.

“Today, cloud technology means that companies can scale and adapt at speed and scale, accelerate innovation, drive business agility, streamline operations, and reduce costs. Not only can this help propel companies through the current crisis (COVID pandemic), it can lead to increased, sustainable growth. According to our Future Systems research, companies that are more strategic in their approach to technology are doing better financially. They’re achieving more than twice the average revenue growth of companies slow to implement and use their tech. In fact, 95 percent of leaders have adopted sophisticated cloud services.“

Being the relic I am of confidential information, the attraction of cloud technology is somewhat muted. It is still perfectly reasonable to store hard copies (paper) in filing cabinets in addition to storing the identical material on one’s computer especially assuming that regular back-ups are made on a portable USB. The predominance of information stored on my computing devices (MacBook Pro computer, iPhone and iPad) is unimportant to others, having no more relevance than the balance of a chequing account. Pretending to resist identity theft or compromise of information by adopting a cloud service is as questionable as it is expensive; that is, not really! This at least is the lack of persuasion for me.  For those transitioning to remote employment – whether individual or corporate – the attraction is much greater by virtue of its necessity and simplicity. But one doesn’t need a transport truck for a passenger vehicle.

My next exploit is cleaning up and discarding the volumes of paperwork surrounding transfer of records to our financial advisor and the administration of the estates of my late parents. Having now received Notices of Assessment from Canada Revenue Agency for both parents, the lingering documentation is superfluous.