Posts

Showing posts from May, 2020

The Future As Seen By Me In 2010

Image
Well looky here, things one has scanned in eh. (ignore the photo, that's some guy that made some accounting software, not sure what became of him ;) MIKE RIVERSDALE is fuming. The expensive headphones he bought in Sydney three weeks ago have just died. His first reaction is not to randomly spill expletives into his coffee, but to use his iPhone to vent his frustration to his Twitter con- tacts, under the moniker Miramar Mike. "I will also put, 'What should I do?' It's a conversation. I'm reaching out to the people following me." The council predicts hand-held digital devices such as smartphones will rule the world in 2040. They already rule the life of Mr Riversdale, whose company WaveAdept helps businesses adapt - their computing sys- tems to allow staff to work from anywhere - and with anyone. In order of fre- equency, he uses his iPhone to tweet (1136 followers; 8363 tweets since joining), e-mail, make phone calls and use online services, such as checki
Reply

YES! We can "get back to normal"

Image
With two unrelated tweets I realised why "going back to normal" is such a deep fundamental desire and why we are seeing that word so many times. Bill Bennett, journalist and tech writer here in New Zealand, popped up link to  Economics New Zealand: Where are we? (4-May-2020), and I instantly baulked at the phrase "... going back to normal" and challenged Bill on it. He responded beautifully and I had an epiphany. Things truck along at one level. Along comes a huge disruption. Eventually after some time, we don’t know how much time, things find a new level to truck along at. That disruption time can be very long but it won’t be forever. — Bill Bennett (@billbennettnz) May 4, 2020 Normal is NOT a set of circumstances. It's NOT an environment we can describe. it's NOT a series of routines we run through, and it's NOT about being in the office or working from home. It's not even about other people. As sociologist Allan Horowitz points out,
Reply