Brad: Interactive erotic software. The wave of the future, Dude. One hundred percent electronic!
The Dude: Yeah well, I still jack off manually.
And I suppose I'm like the Dude. I still do things manually. Most things, really.
The most used app in my family is probably the Peterson Bird Guide app for birders (great app by the way), so I'm not totally anti-app. And there are some things I don't do manually, though I'm perfectly OK with looking up birds in a hardcover book.
I've spent a long time questioning our app culture, but a line I saw recently really solidified some of my harsh feelings towards our app-centric culture. It was really paradigmatic of how we have sort of degraded as a society: "I have an app to tell me when it's raining. How cool is that?" Well, actually, it's not very cool. Because if you need an app to tell you if the sun's shining, you're probably missing some real important things in life (you know, like going outside). Bob Dylan called it pretty well in 1965: "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
When I lived through the first dot com boom of the late 90s, early 2000s, the most lasting line I ever heard was from a fat cat wealthy tycoon (actually he wasn't really a tycoon or a fat cat, but he was definitely living the good life and it was a life to aspire to). His wise line, something I'm still trying to aim toward was about cell phones. At that time, when cell phones (you know, the old flip phones) were still a novelty, people would conspicuously talk on them in public places (we still do, but it's becoming more ingrained into our culture). The cell phone was like a status symbol to look important because you had another conversation that was more important than being present with those who were with you. This almost tycoon (but too wise to be a tycoon) told me: "Kendall, the goal in life is not to be one of those guys standing around with a cell phone in public places. The real goal in life is not to have one of those things." He was right. Hopefully, I'll become so important and lose some of my insecurities enough so that I can ditch my phone and become 100% present in what I am doing. I'll know that I have made it in life when I can ditch my phone.
I grew up with Star Wars and so I like technology. I like the idea of us as a species going to space and exploring other planets and using technology to live longer and better lives, but I feel like we've lost the story a bit. A line that made a big impression on me in college was from an interview with George Lucas. He said, "Technology is only a tool." In Lucas's case, technology is a tool he uses to tell a story. It's interesting that his worst movies were made when he forgot that important life credo, when his movies became about the technology itself and not about the story.
My cautionary tale for app makers and app users is that we should spend more time thinking about the story, our story. What are we really using that app for? Do we really need an app for that? I use the map apps that everybody else uses and they're fine for getting the general direction of where I am going, but I'll do a little jig in my car the next time (the first time really) that one of those navigational apps actually gives me the right directions to where I'm really going.
I'd like to live a good life. I don't need an app for that. 50 years from now we're not going to regret not having invented an app for X. We'll regret not having cured cancer, stopped the spread of malaria, or having figured out how not to completely destroy the place where we live.
The most used app in my family is probably the Peterson Bird Guide app for birders (great app by the way), so I'm not totally anti-app. And there are some things I don't do manually, though I'm perfectly OK with looking up birds in a hardcover book.
I've spent a long time questioning our app culture, but a line I saw recently really solidified some of my harsh feelings towards our app-centric culture. It was really paradigmatic of how we have sort of degraded as a society: "I have an app to tell me when it's raining. How cool is that?" Well, actually, it's not very cool. Because if you need an app to tell you if the sun's shining, you're probably missing some real important things in life (you know, like going outside). Bob Dylan called it pretty well in 1965: "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
When I lived through the first dot com boom of the late 90s, early 2000s, the most lasting line I ever heard was from a fat cat wealthy tycoon (actually he wasn't really a tycoon or a fat cat, but he was definitely living the good life and it was a life to aspire to). His wise line, something I'm still trying to aim toward was about cell phones. At that time, when cell phones (you know, the old flip phones) were still a novelty, people would conspicuously talk on them in public places (we still do, but it's becoming more ingrained into our culture). The cell phone was like a status symbol to look important because you had another conversation that was more important than being present with those who were with you. This almost tycoon (but too wise to be a tycoon) told me: "Kendall, the goal in life is not to be one of those guys standing around with a cell phone in public places. The real goal in life is not to have one of those things." He was right. Hopefully, I'll become so important and lose some of my insecurities enough so that I can ditch my phone and become 100% present in what I am doing. I'll know that I have made it in life when I can ditch my phone.
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| In English: "Put your cell phone here/The first to use it pays the bill." (Spanish grammar nerds, note the spelling mistake.) |
I grew up with Star Wars and so I like technology. I like the idea of us as a species going to space and exploring other planets and using technology to live longer and better lives, but I feel like we've lost the story a bit. A line that made a big impression on me in college was from an interview with George Lucas. He said, "Technology is only a tool." In Lucas's case, technology is a tool he uses to tell a story. It's interesting that his worst movies were made when he forgot that important life credo, when his movies became about the technology itself and not about the story.
My cautionary tale for app makers and app users is that we should spend more time thinking about the story, our story. What are we really using that app for? Do we really need an app for that? I use the map apps that everybody else uses and they're fine for getting the general direction of where I am going, but I'll do a little jig in my car the next time (the first time really) that one of those navigational apps actually gives me the right directions to where I'm really going.
I'd like to live a good life. I don't need an app for that. 50 years from now we're not going to regret not having invented an app for X. We'll regret not having cured cancer, stopped the spread of malaria, or having figured out how not to completely destroy the place where we live.
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