Two Disparate Veiws of Tech

By Shana | Published: September 22, 2009

Two Stories.  I’ve been thinking about them a lot because I recently finished “In The Beginning was the Command Line.” (Which is slightly more apropos for two weeks from now, but never-mind.) (The 2004 response from Slashdot, also great.)

I highly recommend the essay, which can be gotten from Neal Stephenson‘s website, here.  It is a super-enlightening view about the progression of technology, about mediation between us and the screen, and how we as a society learn about values and transmit those values around the world.  It’s interesting.  Despite the fact that it was written ten years ago, it still feels (mostly), relevant to this day.

Onto the stories:

Last week I decided I was going to arrive late for a tech event by the Shake Shack. (because I didn’t RSVP and because I wanted to go out to dinner with an ex of mine, who is getting married, and I doubt I’ll be able to show for the wedding).  Because I’m me, and even with Google Maps giving me directions I still manage to get lost because I don’t know which way is left, I had arrived not five minutes after closing up, as I planned, but more like a half hour.  I still managed to chat people up, because I’m me.

One of those people was a Venture Capitalist, whose name I didn’t catch.  I did catch the name of the firm.  I’m disinclined to name it publicly.  He was talking to a woman.  I was walking by, and had decided to ask them what they think of their smartphones (knowing the crowd, I assumed they all had smartphones).  Turned out they had smartphones, in particular the IPhone.  What struck me interesting about  this person was that I asked him about how many apps he had on his phone.  Over 130.  He claimed he was fairly normal for his age, sex, and income bracket and living particulars.  He also claimed he doesn’t use all of his apps, or as I took it, that probably some these apps are as I would call app bling.

While I believe in the concept of app bling, and I believe him that probably his age/sex/income bracket/living particulars probably does buy a lot of apps (If I remember correctly, my 37 year old ex, and you are reading that number correctly, had a ridiculous amount of apps) I doubt most people have over 100, including in his ____________.  At some point, if you are hearing “I don’t use them all” then probably people with less aren’t using them all either.  Personality differences would state that some people would abhor the clutter, that some want to use some space to store documents, or music, or video.  Not all phones are the same.  Not all users are the same, why would it be that we all will have a zillion apps?

He seemed to have a specific kind of comfort about his phone.  He was jonesing for it, as if it were caffeine.  It was in the sound of his voice.  He needed another app to make him app.  An app hit.  I had never seen anything like it before.  He needed his apps.  I’m figuring though, it isn’t just this tech, he was comfortable and needed all sorts of technology in his life.  It was part of his identity.  He must swallow all of it, make it a part of him, and figure it all out, before anyone else does, even if it is technically impossible.

Second story:

Most people by now who have been reading my writing should know I grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home of some sort in the New York Metro area.  There are various kinds of Orthodox Jewish people running around.  We all have a love/hate relationship with each other, even when we leave the fold, because we all know too much about each others business.  (It’s why Madoff was such a shocker.)  We’re the Jewish version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, on steroids.  Some people are more so, some less. (I’m actually on the less side)

My cousin, who moved to Israel with his wide and children, is from a practice standard, on the more side.  He’s what we call, Yeshivish.  (you will want to click on that link.)  He’s college educated, and technically licenced to be an accountant, and he gave it up to study Torah all day.  He’s also a licensed ritual circumciser.  His wife, in some ways, is the main bread-earner.  It’s a radically different  lifestyle than what most Americans are exposed to, despite the fact that both he and his wife grew up with college educated parents and watching TV*.

My father sells refurbished videoconferencing equipment (if you want one, contact me, I get a commission, seriously).  He wanted to give my cousin one, because his parents live stateside and were just given one.  His younger brother recently got one  from my father as well (his home is now being used as a showroom in NJ).  There is one main hindrance to this: They can’t have a television.  It goes against that subsection of Orthodox Judaism, which does not believe in having televisions in the house at all.  (They tend to show things that aren’t proper when it comes to moral values, as well as take time away from families and things like studying.)

Right now, last I heard he’s in a bit of a tiff over how he’s a bit uncomfortable with the video-telephone my father sent instead.

This is the exact reverse reaction of our Venture Capitalist Before.  It’s utter rejection of certain technology, and in some cases, all sorts of interrelated technology.  It’s a peculiar kind of uncomfortable too. You could make all sorts of logical arguments about the TV having one channel (I know of families like that, it’s connected to a tape/dvd deck, and that’s it, and they watch religious content on it), and it won’t help.  It’s utter uncomfortableness with something beyond the technology: the meaning of technology.

While most people you’ll meet on an every day basis will not be either of these cases (unless you are me, I seem to be able to run into both of these types on the same day) you should be aware of the fact that

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  • http://www.thehackensack.blogspot.com/ DaveinHackensack

    Shana,

    Do you use Firefox? If not, give it a try. It's got built-in spell check.

    Stephenson's Cryptonomicon is an incredibly entertaining novel, btw.

  • http://shanacarp.com/essays ShanaC

    I spell check twice. It doesn't help. At least I am now writing enough to notice that I am having the spelling mistakes :)

    This not the time for more books (though it may make the list). Starting my last quarter, tomorrow afternoon with “How to Get a Job” Bootcamp!

  • http://www.thehackensack.blogspot.com/ DaveinHackensack

    Try Firefox. It automatically underlines your spelling mistakes in red as you type them. It's a great feature.

  • http://shanacarp.com/essays ShanaC

    I use it, it doesn't catch my worse mistakes. I then double check with the internal spell check feature inside WordPress. Right now it thinks WordPress is misspelled. *sigh* Spelling never was my strength. I overly rely on it, if I were even a few years older I think I would spell better. I grew up with spellcheck, and it shows, badly. Most of the time I can tell something is off, but not always…How do you fix that besides reverting to handwriting?

    I occasionally use Opera, but not for blogging. Mostly for just looking at how stuff looks on the web, or for lightweight reading.

  • http://www.thehackensack.blogspot.com/ DaveinHackensack

    One thing you can do is type your headline in your message body to let it get spell checked. That would have caught your misspelling of “disparate”.

    When you're done with that, you can look up the parallel postulate and the development of non-euclidean geometries and report back.

  • http://shanacarp.com/essays ShanaC

    Ok I fixed it.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_postulate

    And very cool. Very Very cool. Nailpolish red cool. Why did no one tell me about this before?

    Also I have to Ask Mr. Hackensack, Does it entertain you to make me look up about Geometry? Out of curiosity….

  • http://www.thehackensack.blogspot.com/ DaveinHackensack

    I don't know if “entertain” would be the word I'd use, but it's always nice to see young minds expand. Now I bet you can't wait to re-read that comment I left on Fred's blog where I first mentioned the parallel postulate, and see how your understanding of the simile changes with the context filled in. Do tell.

  • http://shanacarp.com/essays ShanaC

    I'm kvetchy and should be sleeping (as should you, say's my internal Jewish Mom Compass.) A detailed understanding of math is for later. :(

    I'm in the middle of a Getting a Job bootcamp. The most inspiring thing was the Entrepreneur guy< David Chung, who is on his second Venture, http://iwishlessons.com/ They'll be in the New York Metro area in six months from what I am hearing.

    I also realized I would be a poor “normal consultant in a suit” girl. I own red stockings. When they make us play modified spades, I end up trying to see what I got out reading the beginning of my easy version game theory book in applied card games, even when they started switching people around and apparently those people came in with different rules. I'm going post why in a few. (Apparently it does work to always be winner or second best, you will never leave the table, and also to play a leadership role and to delegate unimportant tasks, like scorekeeping, especially when one of the rules is don't talk, don't write, only handmotions or drawing, The banker types seemed slightly more interesting, yet also more burnt out. I feel bad. Some of these people are so young.

    Also, I'm slightly odded out that The Mckinsey/Bain/Boston crowd never heard of IDEO. Seriously odd, and seriously snobby. I know I need to work for a year or two to learn better work habits (and how to uhh read a financial statement better), and I'm not the snobby type. In an office, I could show up in jeans. Or start drawing on my Board of Ideas. It's about the Work and Getting some value out of it….Batty…And they all have grade cutoffs (also batty, I taught myself practical stuff, that if I wanted to go into that enviroment and do observation, I've done it, batty………..)

    Sorry I'm kvetchy. And Now I'm definitely sure that I'm right about that McKinsey post. Damn it. I feel bad too. Value adding by watching people and asking lots of questions and designing things. Damn Annoyed. Damn.

  • http://steamcatapult.com/ Dave Pinsen

    One thing you can do is type your headline in your message body to let it get spell checked. That would have caught your misspelling of “disparate”.

    When you're done with that, you can look up the parallel postulate and the development of non-euclidean geometries and report back.

  • http://shanacarp.com/essays ShanaC

    Ok I fixed it.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_postulate

    And very cool. Very Very cool. Nailpolish red cool. Why did no one tell me about this before?

    Also I have to Ask Mr. Hackensack, Does it entertain you to make me look up about Geometry? Out of curiosity….

  • http://steamcatapult.com/ Dave Pinsen

    I don't know if “entertain” would be the word I'd use, but it's always nice to see young minds expand. Now I bet you can't wait to re-read that comment I left on Fred's blog where I first mentioned the parallel postulate, and see how your understanding of the simile changes with the context filled in. Do tell.

  • http://shanacarp.com/essays ShanaC

    I'm kvetchy and should be sleeping (as should you, say's my internal Jewish Mom Compass.) A detailed understanding of math is for later. :(

    I'm in the middle of a Getting a Job bootcamp. The most inspiring thing was the Entrepreneur guy< David Chung, who is on his second Venture, http://iwishlessons.com/ They'll be in the New York Metro area in six months from what I am hearing.

    I also realized I would be a poor “normal consultant in a suit” girl. I own red stockings. When they make us play modified spades, I end up trying to see what I got out reading the beginning of my easy version game theory book in applied card games, even when they started switching people around and apparently those people came in with different rules. I'm going post why in a few. (Apparently it does work to always be winner or second best, you will never leave the table, and also to play a leadership role and to delegate unimportant tasks, like scorekeeping, especially when one of the rules is don't talk, don't write, only handmotions or drawing, The banker types seemed slightly more interesting, yet also more burnt out. I feel bad. Some of these people are so young.

    Also, I'm slightly odded out that The Mckinsey/Bain/Boston crowd never heard of IDEO. Seriously odd, and seriously snobby. I know I need to work for a year or two to learn better work habits (and how to uhh read a financial statement better), and I'm not the snobby type. In an office, I could show up in jeans. Or start drawing on my Board of Ideas. It's about the Work and Getting some value out of it….Batty…And they all have grade cutoffs (also batty, I taught myself practical stuff, that if I wanted to go into that enviroment and do observation, I've done it, batty………..)

    Sorry I'm kvetchy. And Now I'm definitely sure that I'm right about that McKinsey post. Damn it. I feel bad too. Value adding by watching people and asking lots of questions and designing things. Damn Annoyed. Damn.

    Edit: I really need to stop writing things when I am hungry, tired, and cranky. And stressed about not knowing what to do with my life.

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