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Meet our New Co-Founder

Mind over Tech

Skills that unlock your best digital life.

发布日期: 2023年5月17日

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My name is Harriet, and I’ve recently joined Mind over Tech as a late co-founder.

Today I'd like to share a little about how I came to join forces with Jonathan and our plans for the future.

In October 2023, I was ready for a new challenge in my career.

I have a background as a technologist and digital creative, and started my career developing 3D animations and web experiences for advertising clients, and designing interactive apps for media companies.

I then spent over 10 years working in tech education, building and facilitating digital transformation courses for professional teams.

I've known Jonathan for many years. In fact, when I was pregnant with my first child, he was the second person I told.

It was 2015, and we were in Australia delivering back-to-back "Code in a Day" workshops for Decoded in a beautiful AirBnB, right on the water in Sydney.

I was in the early weeks of pregnancy, and during one session, became so overcome with pregnancy-fuelled hunger I had to leave Jonathan to run the workshop solo while I raced downstairs in search of food. I remember tearing the wrappers from dozens of tiny Celebrations bars and shoving them in my face like an animal.

That evening I told him about my baby and he?shared his own secret—an ambition to start his own business—what would become Mind over Tech. His baby.

As I grew my family, Jonathan grew Mind over Tech and has found a mission to help others build a better relationship with their devices.

My daughter is now 7, and I also have a 5-year old son. As they’ve grown, I have become increasingly aware of how use my phone around them.

In the spring of 2022 my daughter came running upstairs with my phone, desperate to reunite me with my device. Clearly the idea of her mother being separated from my phone felt unnatural to her, and something that needed resolving urgently.

That moment made me realise I wanted to make some changes in how I modelled my use of tech.

The challenge is that I love technology and the benefits it brings to my life as a parent.

I rely on my phone to communicate, to plan, to shop, to navigate—the list is endless.

However, I am aware that I am guilty of phubbing my kids (ignoring them while lost in my phone) and will sometimes use my tech to distract myself from uncomfortable parenting moments.

I reached out to Jonathan for advice, and what started as a quest to improve my own relationship with my devices for my family soon turned into the new career challenge I had been looking for.

Jonathan’s approach of shame-free experimentation has encouraged me to stop taking my to school pick-up, to keep my phone away from the table at mealtimes, and to talk to my kids about how we want to use tech as a family.

Building a better relationship with technology is not a quick fix. Like all relationships, it takes time and effort, and you have to keep working at it.

In April I officially joined Mind over Tech as a late co-founder and co-CEO, and I’m excited to share the benefits of the Mind over Tech approach with more professionals, leaders and parents.

I’m still on a journey with my digital habits, and I share the anxiety of many parents about how I will support my kids when they are old enough to have their own smartphones.

In her moving BAFTA acceptance speech last weekend, Kate Winslet shares how her film I Am Ruth was, “made for parents and their children, for families who feel that they are held hostage by the perils of the online world”.