In Love with the Machine
History lessons don’t always have to trace huge spans of time. Technological advances have been so quick, and their adoption into society so pervasive, that the vast majority of millennials in the developed world know nothing of life without portable devices and connectivity.
Aside from sociological implications, the reality is that we have formed some very serious relationships with our tech, and it would appear that we are especially drawn to two things: gadgets and games.
Those inventors who have understood what must somehow be part of deeper human desires, to play forms of cause and effect, escape worlds and connect with other people wherever they are, AND have translated that understanding into an intuitive tool that doesn’t get boring, have reaped rewards.
But this tech revolution is inevitably maturing and innovators have to aim at developing new markets (IoT) and new product categories (commercial drones, for example), otherwise they become saturators and drive down the customer experience value in their entered field. Those aiming at improving within the established tech market categories must bring a compelling value proposition to customers that oftentimes should include related services that compliment their software.
For any and all bad press that aims fire at Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp or this platform, LinkedIn, those service providers are not diminishing in size and their market share is barely being carved up, so did they just get it right?
To return to the subject of history lessons, the answer delivered from our long-recorded past, is emphatic.
No.
In the future our generations will be described quite rightly as the Technological Age, but our application of the technology in society might appear debilitating or stunted. For civilizations to advance (and advance they must), innovations must provide a sustainable benefit to a major part of the population.
These benefits, when assessed, remain constant.
Improvements to people’s quality of life, conditionally and psychologically, is clearly what underlies both the stability of society as well as their compulsion to change it.
The question now becomes something a little more altruistic, and simple.
You have something very clear to solve in every direction you look. Where can I help people?
It’s not that you should do this, of course it’s easy to see your working life is fairly short and trying to earn as much as you can is just one level of comfort you would like to attain.
What I’m suggesting is your desire to succeed through technology is not mutually exclusive from human happiness and the pursuit thereof, in fact it’s intrinsically linked.
But we have to apply ourselves with that in mind. It has to be a part of what we’re trying to achieve. It has to be the defining feature of our strategy.
Because, we are in love with the machine.
And, it is fabled that love, through time immemorial, is blind.
And, sometimes the most youthful and immature of love, can become inward-looking, and suffocate.
People reading this have been born more “free” than any other in 2,000 years. Your ideas can change your life. Your work ethic and determination can affect the world.
David Porter is the CEO and Founder of The Porter Consultancy (TPC). He and his team of business intelligence experts work with clients across the world building all kinds of data-driven solutions.
TPC’s most recent adventure has been to go to market with PriceMark, the only competitive pricing tool to combines product matching and price monitoring and aimed primarily at vendors, distributors and online retailers.
https://theporterconsultancy.com
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