NEW YORK (Reuters) - You'd think the leaders of the world's biggest and coolest tech companies would be total gadget freaks, 'tricorder'-carrying whiz kids sporting the latest doodads months before the masses.
Think again.
Top brass and chief thinkers from companies from Web upstart Twitter to "Big Blue" IBM told the Reuters Global Technology Summit that, when not developing "the next big thing," they turn to hobbies similar to that of non-geeks.
They read books and go fishing. Very un-Star Trek, eh?
"I'm not actually a gadget freak. And I'm not a computer freak. I'm a physicist," said Eli Harari, chief executive of SanDisk Inc (SNDK.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which makes those ubiquitous fingernail-sized digital memory cards and USB thumb drives.
"I love technology. But I don't like gadgets. I rarely use my notebook PC -- and I type with two fingers," he said.
Popular folklore and network TV, fuel a belief in a high-tech world of anti-social genius's like Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory" or Jack Bauer of Fox's hit show "24", who have critical data at their fingertips via powerful gadgets.
But most of the summit guests admitted that the only super device they wield is a mobile phone -- Research in Motion's (RIM.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Blackberry or Apple Inc's (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) iPhone -- with most saying they would suffer without them.
"I like to walk and wander around a lot, and I say 'iPhone where am I', and it says 'you are right here,' three miles away from my house," said Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, who added that he would drive back home to get it if he forgot it.
BOOKS OR KINDLES?
Technology executives said their busy lifestyles don't leave much time for dabbling with sophisticated devices that do not pertain to building their own businesses.
"I like to get away from electronics," said John Chen, CEO of business software provider of Sybase (S.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz). "I have found that very constantly grinding (is) quite stressful."
Like many of his peers, Chen seeks respite in the printed word. But two camps are evolving, now that Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Kindle digital reader has captured the fancy of executives bored with sitting around airports.
"This morning I got on a plane to come down here," Corning Inc (GLW.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Financial Officer Jim Flaws said. "I had checked to make sure it downloads the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. I can read both of them on my BlackBerry, but it's a little easier to read on your Kindle, which is...bigger."
Venture capitalist Tim Draper, a man accustomed to writing million-dollar checks, said he was itching to buy a Kindle, but was too frugal to do it yet. Continued...
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.
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