I used to do a lot of work on airplanes.  But, that was back in the olden days when I flew for work internationally — I had elite status and so almost never flew coach.  It’s a lot easier to get something done when you can actually fit your laptop on the tray-table in front of you (pretty difficult in coach these days — especially if the person in front of you tilts back even a little).

Besides the shrinking seat-space problem, Bloomberg Business Week adds a few medical reasons to skip cracking open the laptop: you’re headache-y, you’re forgetful, your heart’s working harder, etc.  (I’m still confused about why they seem to assume most people have hangovers, however.)

But, they left out one reason that I think might trump them all: no privacy.  Recently, I was on a flight and the person in the row in front/across from me opened up her laptop, clicked onto the plane’s WI-FI, and began working in her practice’s Practice Fusion EMR.  (Yes, I could clearly see it was Practice Fusion.)   Potential privacy violation?  I wondered how many records the people directly next to her could see — and what a morally challenged individual might do if she left her computer open while in the bathroom line.  You really never know who you’re sitting next to on a flying bus, after all.