Reflections on Mastery

In the summer of 2015, I sat in a local chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada with a few hundred other young missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although we met regularly, this meeting was going to be different and we all knew it.

The excitement was palpable, the energy was high. We knew things were about to change.

Because we were getting iPads.

Up to that point, technology had played a minimal role in our ministry service. You’ve likely seen young men and women with name tags on, dressed nicely in shirts and ties or blouses and skirts. They’re smiley, eager to talk to you, wanting to share a message about Jesus Christ and our beliefs — whether you’re in the mood or not! We are out there because we want to help people by sharing what makes us happy.

And we did it all with paper notebooks, brick phones, physical books, and bikes.

But now that was about to change. With iPads, we’d be able to manage our contacts easier, share videos, connect to people online, and more. We were excited for that. We were also excited because it had been anywhere from 2 months to 2 years since we’d used an iPad and, being young people ranging from 18 to 25, that’s a long time to be separated from our beloved technology.

Understanding what the buzz in the room meant, the Area Authority over our mission got quickly to the point of the meeting. iPads were coming and it marked a new era in our proselytizing. He spoke about the logistics of the roll out, the opportunities before us, and general principles about using them well.

Truthfully, I wasn’t listening that much. I would be concluding my service in just a few months and knew that I wasn’t going to be impacted as much as the younger missionaries would be. But as he spoke, the mission leader said something that I didn’t know then would change my life. He said:

“Look, we know you young people are cleverer than we old folks who set these machines up. We know that you can get past the firewalls we put on and can use these tablets to do pretty much anything you’d like.

So you need to be the filter. Now is the time for you to learn to be masters over technology, not to let it be a master over you.”

That hit me.

It planted a vision of myself within me. I recognized in one moment both the potential for achievement and the potential for regret that hinged on that ability, and the massive gap between the two. I knew that if I did not learn to master technology in my lifetime, I would become a fraction of the man that I could have been.

Now, in April 2020 I have the opportunity to reflect on that lesson. Despite the lack of graduation ceremonies, this month I earned my Masters of Science in Information Systems Management from Brigham Young University.

In this season, having earned the degree and title, I find myself asking myself: are you truly a Master over technology?

What makes one a Master?

I’ve learned how to utilize technology to transform a company. I’ve learned how to build applications and tools, leverage APIs, and implement cloud infrastructure. I’ve learned how to research customer needs, design mobile apps, draw conclusions with financial models, start a business, analyze data, create machine learning models, and even build ethernet cables. I can organize teams, develop corporate vision, and turn a profit.

Does that make one a Master?

Reflecting on my years in school, I’ve determined that the differentiating factor between master and servant, at least in regards to technology, comes down to a simple lesson that I learned that day in a hot, crowded chapel:

Purpose.

Before you unlock your phone or open your laptop, ask yourself: what is your purpose?

Is it to answer your email? Is it to surf the web for Indian food near you? Is it to turn on Netflix and turn off your brain for a while? Each of these are good and valid.

I find that when I am purposeful in my use of technology, when I am intentional with how I use it, I am happier and more successful. When I have no purpose to my activities, I find that the hours slip away. I accomplish less in the determined time frame. I turn inward instead of outward. I allow the distractions of notifications, overflowing inboxes, and an ever-increasing number of channels to monitor keep eating away my time.

True mastery over technology is the ability to make it serve your own purposes and intentions and to refuse it to distract you away from them.

I will admit that I’m not there yet, personally. I have more to learn, practice, and master.

As I depart the university, I am grateful for the men and women, peers and colleagues, mentors and friends who have taught me how to master technology in a business setting. My commitment to them as I “go forth to serve” is that I will use what I’ve learned to further the purposes of Good and Right in the world.

Amazing what we can learn from an iPad.