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The Social Life of Paper

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to the pilots passing through his sector, and talks to the other con t ro llers about a ny new tra f fic on the hori zon .An d ,as a c on t ro ller juggles all those planes ove rh e a d ,he scribbles notes on little pieces of p a p e r, m oving them around on his desk as he does. A i r - t ra f fic con t rol depends on computers and ra d a r.It also depends, h e a v i ly, on paper and ink.
When people talk about the need to
TNY—03/25/02—PAGE 9 2—133 LS—LIVE OPI ART R10895—GUIDANCE PROOF TO ARRIVE ON FRIDAY A.M. POUCH!!—#2
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n a busy day, a typ i cal air-tra f fic c on t ro ller might be in charge of a s m a ny as tw e n ty - five airplanes at a time— s ome ascending,s ome descending, e a ch at a diffe rent altitude and tra ve lling at a d i f fe rent speed.He peers at a large,m on och romatic radar con s o l e, t ra cking the m ovement of t i ny tagged blips mov i n g s l ow ly across the scre e n . He talks to the sector where a plane is headed, and talks
9 2 THE NEW YO R K E R, MARCH 25, 2002
BOOKS
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF PAPER
L o oking for method in the mess.
BY MALCOLM GLADWELL
For “k n o w l e d ge work er s,” piles ofp ap er re p resent the process of a c t ive, o n going thinking. m o d e rn i ze the Am e ri can air-tra f fic - c on t rol sys t e m ,this is, in large part ,w h a t t h ey are re fe r ring to. Wh e n ever a plane takes off, the basic data about the flight—the type of p l a n e, the radar I.D. n u m b e r, the requested altitude, the dest i n a t i on — a re printed out on a stiff p i e c e o f p a p e r, p e rhaps one and a half by six and a half i n ch e s ,k n own as a flight stri p.
And as the plane passes through each sector of the airspace the con t ro ller jots d ow n , using a kind of s h o rt h a n d , eve rything new that is happening to the p l a n e—its speed, s ay, and where it’s h e a d i n g, cl e a

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