Goodbye, TI

This is an obituary of sorts, but not the type you might expect. When I started my marketing research consulting firm of Surveys & Forecasts, LLC many years ago, I had a handful of tools that I still rely on today: a computer, a phone, and a calculator. I am most fond of my Texas Instruments TI-1795+ solar powered calculator, pictured above. It does four or five essential things remarkably well: it is very basic, almost in a pure sense.

 Yes, I could use the calculator on my iPhone, but I am much less likely to make entry errors using the TI-1795+'s chunky Chiclet style keys. It is easy to hold and the display is angled and easy to read. I often find myself reaching for this basic device to crunch a formula, work a quote, or do simple math. It doesn't doesn't require a fingerprint ID, and I don't have to hunt for a calculator app. It's always there, waiting to help, anxious to work. And because it is solar powered, I am saving the planet.

The other day, some type of karma occurred when my iPhone slipped from my hand and fell onto my desk. As if to tell me it was time to enter the modern age, the corner of the iPhone landed directly on the solar collector and smashed it to bits. My poor TI-1795+ was immediately killed. The coroner ruled it suspicious.

Somehow, I feel there was a larger story here, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I have long believed that we, being creatures of habit and all things familiar, find comfort in objects that we use every day: a keyboard, a tape dispenser, a coffee maker, a handheld calculator. They become extensions of ourselves in some way.

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