A Game of Words: George R. R. Martin Finds Use For Old Technology

The latest technology can provide your business with increased productivity. However, not everyone sees it that way. George R. R. Martin, one of the most well-known authors of our time, would disagree. He prefers to work in the ancient realm of 1970s word processing.

Martin, known far and wide for his fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire, has won numerous awards for his writing, and helped produce and inspire A Game of Thrones, a popular HBO series based on his novels. You'd think that Martin would have the most cutting-edge technology to help him achieve his writing goals, but no - he still uses WordStar 4.0 on a DOS machine.

On the late-night talk show Conan, Martin confessed that one of his secrets to his success is writing on a Disk Operating System (DOS) word processor. When discussing the subject, he says, "I actually have two computers. I have a computer I browse the Internet with and I get my email on, and I do my taxes on. And then I have my writing computer, which is a DOS machine, not connected to the Internet. I use WordStar 4.0 as my word processing system."

Tech experts might remember the DOS system from the good old days of computing before the modern-day phenomenon of Microsoft Windows had been established. His word processor, WordStar, was the go-to word processing software of the 1980s, more than well-known for its bare-minimum capabilities. Martin says that he particularly enjoys these features (or lack thereof). The lack of extra add-ons ensures that he can concentrate on the text-only display: "I actually like it, it does everything I want a word processing program to do and it doesn't do anything else. I don't want any help. I hate some of these modern systems where you type a lower-case letter and it becomes a capital letter. I don't want a capital. If I wanted a capital, I would have typed a capital. I know how to work the shift key."

In a world where basically everything is done on the Internet, it's hard to imagine writing on a computer that doesn't have access to the web. By not being subject to the distractions that the Internet is so well-known for providing, Martin also avoids hackers and viruses which could besiege his medieval technology in a heartbeat. So, instead of worrying about his work being compromised by hackers, readers can instead worry about his 30-year-old piece of hardware breaking down on him in the middle of his next installment of A Song of Ice and Fire (and another six year wait).

George R. R. Martin might be as happy as can be with WordStar 4.0, but it's unlikely this solution would work for your business. Call k_Street Consulting, LLC today at (202) 640-2737, and we'll find a way to improve your performance in the workplace, and kickstart your business with modern-day technology.