Introduction: Struggling with Technology
How do you feel when you are struggling with technology? I always thought that I was fairly tech savvy, now I realize that I am delusional. I struggled with whether I should write this post, then I decided that others like me would appreciate it. I wrote on my blog that this weekend I was going to try the technique of reading a print book while listening to the audio at twice the speed. It seemed straightforward enough.
I wrote about my frustration trying to get audio versions of the print books I have that I want to read this summer, and I mentioned that I was only able to snag Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder
and Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread-The Lessons from a New Science
from the Toronto Public Library.
I signed up with Audible and used my free credit to get The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
. I decided that this morning (Saturday), I would listen to the audio book at twice the speed while reading my print copy. Man, I was so excited.
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Well, things seldom go as planned, and you do not always get what you want. First, I wanted to download the mp3 version of The Hard Thing About Hard Things
to my desktop, so that I could use MySpeed software that I purchased to speed up the audio. I couldn’t get it to work, and it turns out that if you want to download the mp3 version from Audible, you cannot use your desktop, you have to use a device such as your smartphone. And if you listen to an audio book from your Audible Library, you cannot speed up the audio – the audio version of The Hard Thing About Hard Things is close to eight hours long.
The more challenges I faced in trying to test this new way of reading, the more ticked off I was getting, and I was feeling very stupid. And I was feeling like I did not understand the technology as well as I thought. In trying to get this to work, the three hours I set aside to read the book has passed. When you think about it, it really isn't a big deal to listen to the audio on my Android phone. I had already downloaded the Audible app, so based on my conversation with the customer service rep at Audible, I logged into the app, I saw the books I have purchased, then I downloaded The Hard Thing About Hard Things.
I start to play the audio book and there is no sound, I must be showing my age, because I do not listen to music or any type of audio on my phone, I use my desktop – all the time. By this time, I am even more annoyed because I do not have a clue what to do to hear the audio. This process shouldn't be this complicated, but I tell myself that once I resolve this, I won't have the same problem again.
I called Audible again, and I get another very nice rep. After an hour on the phone troubleshooting – uninstalling and re-installing the Audible app, deleting the mp3 audio of the book, then re-uploading it – we still cannot hear the sound on my phone. The rep writes up a ticket to escalate the matter, and I tell her that I am going to shut off my phone, then turn it on again to see if that makes a difference.
I shut off my phone, then I uninstall the Audible app, then I turn on my phone again, re-install the app, turn off the phone, turn it back on, then I remove the mp3 version of the book, then I turn off my phone again, turn it back on, add the mp3 version of the book again. I bet by now you can see how desperate I am to get everything working as it should. By the way, while I was talking to the customer service rep from Audible, she told me that it usually is a straightforward process and the audio should play from the get go. Just my luck.
After all of that, I still couldn't hear the audio. It occurred to me to Google the problem. I found a forum, I felt great because there were other people who couldn't hear audio on their phone, then I noticed a suggestion to go into Sound settings on your phone, which I did. The setting was at zero for media, that's why I couldn't hear the audio.
Final Thoughts: Struggling with Technology
The point of this post is that sometimes it is your fault, not technology! And sometimes the solution is so simple that you do not even think about it. The big lesson is, if you decide to try reading a print book while listening to the audio version at twice the speed, make sure that the sound of the media player on your device is turned on. I wasted over three hours today on something that I could fix in one second simply because I ignored the obvious.
