That last sentence from the intro might be a bit of an understatement. Martijn started 38 years ago, when he was fifteen, as an entrepreneur. By now, he is one of the most experienced speakers in the Netherlands and has stood on stage about 2,500 times. 'I'm not necessarily a very good speaker, but I am extremely experienced,' says Martijn Aslander with a smile. How does he end up on all those stages? 'Besides my curiosity, I just enjoy helping people. That has taken me down various paths.'
Martijn Aslander on stage: "I'm not necessarily a very good speaker, but I am extremely experienced."
Information Capital
He helps primarily by sharing information: 'I have always been fascinated by capturing information. How do you capture it, how do you find everything back? And how do you use it? I see information as a form of capital,' says Martijn. That sounds, to the ears of this writer, like the old saying Knowledge is power. But Martijn doesn't entirely agree: 'Especially sharing knowledge is power. If you are the one who shares knowledge and others hold it back, then people will come to you.'
In his books, information is always central. For example, in Easycratie, sharing knowledge is central as an alternative to the existing bureaucracy. In his latest book, Starting with Obsidian, he focuses more on storing information: 'I actually just wanted to write a book about getting a grip on information. I just took the tool that I think is currently the most suitable for that.'
According to Martijn, getting a grip on information is crucial in today's society: 'It's great if you have a lot of useful knowledge. I call that information capital. If you share that, you gain social capital, and that is the currency of today's network society. So by freely giving information, your social capital increases, which leads to a better information position or an information advantage, which again leads to more information capital, which you can share again, and so on.'
Most entrepreneurs overlook these forms of capital, according to Martijn. He believes this is mainly because we don't know how to store information. Meanwhile, there is more information, more speed, and more information channels than ever. 'Organization is derived from organizing, and organizing is putting puzzle pieces together and making decisions. But if you can't find those puzzle pieces...'
The Dogma of Documents
Martijn has been seeing for a long time that his grip on information makes a difference. In Starting with Obsidian, he explains how he does that. We need to move away from large files, he says: 'Your computer loves nothing more than bits and bytes, ones and zeroes. The smaller a file, the better, so a text file, or .txt, is its favorite food; just gobble it up and done. But most people work in .doc or .docx. Those are at least a thousand times larger than text files, mainly just because print instructions have been added to the file. But how often do we print anymore?'
That's why Martijn advocates for a transition. While many companies and entrepreneurs struggle to find files and emails, he can still clearly see the trees in his 30-year-old information forest. 'I can capture the information I need in 3 seconds. But I've been at it for a while – since I figured out how to store information, I'm in a completely different paradigm.'
Such a paradigm shift is very difficult for people, Martijn admits: 'Adjusting a belief or an idea is already hard, let alone a whole paradigm. But as a society, we are now stuck in the dogma of the document. New technology is nice, but if you put that into old organizations, it only results in an old, more expensive organization.'
And by old, he really means old. Martijn argues that we have brought the output of typewriters to a computer screen without changing anything. This now causes problems. 'It's the cause of not being able to restore the Groningen dossier, the childcare benefits scandal, and the WIA. The document is not necessarily the cause of the IT misery, but it is the cause of not being able to restore that misery.'
All the files have to be manually sifted through because computers struggle to read anything other than .txt files. 'Are you still following?' asks Martijn. 'The rule of thumb is that we are using the wrong storage medium for information.'
'As a society, we are stuck in the dogma of the document'
The Path to Digital Fitness
About digital fitness: "We are losing between 500 and 800 hours a year on things that are not necessary."
Alright, time for a paradigm shift then. Martijn sees this as a solution to another problem: 'We are currently losing between 500 and 800 hours a year on things that are completely unnecessary. We are chasing after new technologies, but that doesn't necessarily solve anything.' Often, people don't know that solutions exist, simply because they are not told. To create more awareness about our digital practices, he founded the Digital Fitness foundation with like-minded Mark Meinema.
The foundation was conceived as a framework to make the 'vague concept of digitization' tangible: 'We noticed that digital transformation and digitization were hollow container terms. So we are trying to give it a bit of a "digi-language" so that people know what they are talking about, instead of it remaining strange abstract concepts.'
The five ingredients of digital fitness
- Digital awareness: be aware of the role of technology
- Digital hygiene: ensure your information is in order
- Digital skills: know how to work with a computer
- Personal knowledge management: how do you handle your information
- Digital well-being: use technology to grow yourself
Martijn wants to make it clear here: it's not about technology, but about information. 'For digital literacy, there is something else, and everyone forgets that: information literacy. For example, there is often a very mystical and airy approach to AI, while you should be able to come to terms with good analytical skills and common sense.' Asking things of LLMs is not rocket science, Martijn laughs: 'You really only need to ask one thing; view this text through the lens of a skeptical grump. A better prompt simply does not exist.'
The Current Technological Landscape
Aslander likes to look ahead, even now. While many of us are equally amazed and worried about AI and the cloud, he is not too concerned: 'AI is a nice helper, but also a logical consequence of the development path of technology. It has been coming for a long time.' The hype around a (European) cloud, according to Martijn, is not what we should be focusing on: 'Do you know what the problem is with the cloud? It takes away sunlight and can cause thunderstorms. You have to make sure you know how to use it.'
'New technology in old organizations leads to a more expensive, old organization'
Martijn is, in his own words, not a trend watcher, but he does look forward to the future: 'There are so many technologies. Quantum computing is coming, which is very interesting. And I have been interested in DNA storage for years. DNA is nature's hard drive - in 1 gram, 500 petabytes of information can fit.'
And that's no small feat: 'That's all the books that have ever been written. In all languages, including cookbooks and comic books. Oh, and all the movies, all the series, all the music that has ever been made. And then you still have a bit left over. Incredible, right? The only question is how long that will last.'
About the book by Martijn Aslander
Starting with Obsidian is available in bookstores.
Starting with Obsidian, by author Martijn Aslander
Want to know more about Martijn Aslander and digital fitness? Visit start.digitalefitheid.nl or www.digitalfitheidacademie.nl!
