Idle Year-End Advent Train of Thought. Musings on nothing and everything

It is that time of the year again when I put down my headhunting gear and reflect on another year gone and what is to come. This year that reflection is especially fuelled by taking leave of my work for all of December to enjoy some new treats such as English truffle-hunting and hedge-laying. ( On the truffle hunt the gorgeous Italian truffle-hound found just shy of 2 kilos of truffles in a friends woods here in the UK, which 20 of us ate in their entirety for a very rich lunch!! “She-who-must-be-obeyed” and I also found TV stardom on local Wiltshire BBC TV, spending the day wallowing in mud to plant 100 metres of about 850 metres of new hedging to form part of an extensive habitat for endangered Tree Sparrows on a friends farm. Lucky sparrows will have an enviable hotel with room service meals on tap 24X7. A lovely time in the countryside ruined only by the infernal whining aerial drone of the TV crew!! They had a drone and they were going to use it!!!)

Much enthused by new activities, it has also been time to just lean back and reflect on what might turn out to be a momentous year. For many of us it has been intensely frustrating as decisions are deferred in many different domains. Knowledge is power . No knowledge - no power – no activity. So all the data analytics in the world will not correct a macro situation of no knowledge. It may help you make less worse decisions but it cannot address the really BIG questions. That made me think (somewhat obvious and rather late in life to realise how small we all are ) that there are still priorities in what we as technologists might do. And things that technology currently has no place in. The issue with AI and Big Data is maybe that the hype and bluster doesn’t recognise some fundamental boundaries in its ability to inform on BIG issues? Its good on difficult-to-see detail but not on big picture. Can we solve some of the macro issues in the world with technology? Climate change? Geopolitical inertia? Plastic in the oceans? Poverty? Hunger and famine? Refuge and refugees?

The answer is technically yes but in bits and pieces. If there was a collective will to do so maybe it can BUT there is never the will because it is just too big and extends beyond one entities political range. This calls into question the role of bodies like the UN and whether, given UN is politically diverse, that technology could not be deployed by UN to do more good than any one constituent part might do. I am not close to the UN agenda but I haven’t heard much of any initiatives. Does that consign us to doing philosophically small things? I think that maybe it does? Hence the Gates Foundation takes big but philosophically bite-sized targets and actually gets stuff done. It deploys IT at a level and range it can make an impact. IT cannot yet wholly answer big questions.

That thought then led me on to IT itself, and its very nature, which from its earliest days has been micro-level focussed and not macro- level focussed. All my career as well I have been focussed on what is micro level stuff – which bit of code does what? Which person could best do this? What is the scope of that device etc etc. Rarely or ever does one get to think “Why is that like that in the world?” We don’t normally have time or bandwidth to reflect on such issues but this year I have clawed some time out of my diary to try to do just that. And its interesting. The ability or desire to think of BIG things is a real treat with no definite answers but lots of possibilities. Perhaps that is the joy? No answers can be divined but opinions can be wide and varied. It does feel to be a privilege to ponder this way, but at the same time one also now perceives how dangerous it can be in 2019 to do so. Our ability to insult, threaten, criticise and flame those we do not agree with, rather than debate and consider, means that as far as I am concerned social media has gone way too far. Debate is dying under the insidious weight of social media anonymities and propensities. I have also completely lost interest in acquaintances self-important “beamings” from their ego on which concerts they have attended or what their golf-swing is like? Who gives a flying f***!! None of this makes you a better person! None of it helps anybody move forward. We are wasting so much of life in pointless activity, fuelled by technology simply because we can – not that it helps anybody do anything of value.

At the same time as trying to read and think BIG I have also spent time on very tiny things such as how to knock that dent out of an old silver box – which I achieved with a new tool- patience!! Patience is something I have never had, perhaps fuelled by the incessant desire to do stuff and get stuff NOW!! Technology and Patience are not natural bedfellows. This was multi-tasking at its best ??. I can thoroughly recommend time reflecting as the antidote to a career in the weeds! Its another level of thinking and takes one beyond the tuning of our micro command and control environment today. Now it is NOT only the advent of high-speed technology that has fuelled our task-level narrow focus and lack of real insightful thinking in the wider public. Its also a fault of something that dates back at least to the 1970’s. This was a horrendous period of 3 day working, strikes and industrial dispute that sowed the seeds for Thatcherism to bloom. The mantra became do it for yourself. Take control. Looks after yourself. And indeed I am a wholehearted supporter of that philosophy – with a softer edge of also looking after the ill-equipped. What the more tawdry aspects of Thatcherism did however was to really weaken the range of thinking from wider social impact of actions to the narrow focus of self. Morals slipped. Notions of right and wrong altered alarmingly. Care for others withered. Respect due to Blue light staff plummeted. Crassness flourished. Litter blossomed. In fact people’s range of thinking narrowed to mostly self-interest. The children of that generation often were brought up with limited sense of propriety and balance. And technology also then became personalised and personal, enhancing the “ I am right so F**** you” mindset that we see behind many behaviours online and in social media today. It’s all the fault of the Walkman!! It would be really cool if something the scale of Facebook actually became a vehicle for shared and higher goals but I cannot imagine what it might be. Surely mass technology might be more useful and inclusive?

This all makes me sound like an idealist Socialist which I am not, but I cannot help but be disappointed by where consumer technology and consumer-facing technology is taking us. It’s a bit sterile and lacks value and also breeds self-absorption and narrow-mindedness. I kinda like a lot of it though so I must be the ultimate hypocrite!! Maybe if I had given myself less time to think this December none of this would have occurred to me?

I heard Nick Knowles on radio today and he was talking about the success of DIY SOS as a programme and he reminded me that all the work and materials were given free and without advertising. Over 20,000 donated time and effort. Then he pointed out that BBC charity appeals had raised ￡1billion over the years. ONE BILLION!! That made me feel better. Apparently over 130,000 charities in the UK survive on donations which is awesome. We have a local charity that helps the homeless with food and preparation for meetings/interviews and we asked what is was they needed and the leader said she would value underwear for her “guests”. Note that “guests” – such cool thinking. Clean socks and underpants made everyone feel a load better and humanised them. I had never shopped JD Sports before but they do massive bulk packs of these so we got some. I have never seen socks and Y’s so appreciated. Even some good comes from dark places like JD!!

All this makes me feel much, much better especially at this time of the year. But next year lets see if we can really leverage IT to some common good?