Despite the diminishing profiles of our gadgets, technology is heavier today than it has ever been before. The weight we choose to carry in silicon, aluminum, and glass is only a small part of the problem. As our devices capabilities increase their hunger for data increases too. We feel obligated to feed them with the latest content. We want to sync our data across all of our devices and keep the latest versions with us wherever we go. This need to stay in sync combined with the gadgets we feel obligated to carry is the true burden of technology.

Over the years a popular solution for reducing the weight of technologies burden has been to lighten the load by removing devices and data from our workflows. By utilizing a single laptop computer with no data to sync and fewer files to maintain technologies burden has been decreased. But trading multiple dedicated desktop machines for a single laptop means sacrificing the ergonomics, power, and storage capabilities a desktop computer provides. Users who adopt this single laptop solution may be simplifying their lives, but they are shackeling themselves to the physical burden of their portable computers while evading the modern syncing solutions the cloud has to offer.

My daily walking commute is only 15 minutes long. During that time I don't need a computer. The 3 pound weight of a MacBook Air, or 1.5 pound load of my iPad is too much of a burden for me to carry. Instead of hoisting a laptop bag over my shoulder every morning I leave my 20 pound iMac at home, and my 8 inch Mac mini on my desk at work. I use a combination of MobileMe, Dropbox, and SpiderOak to keep my documents and preferences in sync across both of my computers. Neither of my computers goes to sleep. What I save on one computer is instantly uploaded to cloud and downloaded to the other. When I sit down at work in the morning I don't have to wait for anything to sync up. I can instantly begin where I left off at home the night before. BBEdit even refreshers my open documents in the background. The MacBook Air may be lite and syncing all of ones files may seem like a burden, but I choose to travel lighter than air by letting the cloud manage the weight of technology for me.