Living in Washington, DC in the late 80s, I had a social conversation with a gentleman who worked at the Pentagon. He was studying something called the paperless office. I’m not sure why the Pentagon was interested in this, but he was excited about his work.

“In 20 years, we’ll have no need for paper because computers will do everything for us,” he said. “Computers will process our words. Computers will replace all the accounting work we currently do on paper. Computers will make office paper obsolete.”

I found this farcical. And we were both right.

Here we are using countless software applications, with our doctors carrying tablets, us with pocket computers on our persons. And we’ve reduced paper usage some and would use a lot more if we didn’t have this technology.

But we haven’t come close to shaking paper. The average office worker still uses 10,000 sheets a year, according to a March 2026 report from Vizitor.

Lessons:

• Habits are deep in our neural pathways. My research and experience has found the best way to get people to change habits is for them to “want” to change. We do this by making it “their” idea. They need to own the change.
• Sweeping predictions stink. They may be right directionally, but they don’t turn out the way anyone expects.
• The reason why sweeping predictions are so unsuccessful usually has to do with people…the ones with habits. In other words, Lesson 2 is “See Lesson 1.”
• Final Lesson: Don’t believe everything you hear (or see on paper). I sometimes wonder if that Pentagon guy was actually a spy, and the paperless office spiel was just his cover for idiots like me!