Even though I live with gadgets and tech, I am not really a gadget person. I think in terms of ‘doing’ things not ‘enablers’ and such.
Chris Heathcote, who might come across as a techie, but isn’t really (he’s ‘just’ a really interested, as in ‘interested in everything’, person). He voices his realization that he is a ‘neophile’ and that ‘doing’ is what he does.
Here he mentions the most recent things he’s done. I think this ties in well with some of the things he says he heard Ben Hammersley talk about (link below) and with some things Ulla-Maaria, of Crafting fame, keeps talking about – despite our digitalization of everything, we still need tanglible things – sweaters, books, albums, bicycles (that’s my weakness), glass, shirts (that’s Chris’ weakness), and so on.
When I think of the narrative the underlies all that we create, electronic or otherwise, I always like to ask myself how that fits into our Lifestyle. Too often I see colleagues enamoured with the latest trend, a trend that just doesn’t make sense or is unsustainable since it really doesn’t fit how we love, live, fight, screw, build, touch, taste, and feel.
It’s about making meaning, about being relevant, about slipping in to the way I experience and share my world.
Link: Reboot.
I’m speaking, on Thursday night, at Reboot 8. It’s a wonderful conference – despite having had me back to speak three times now – and always a joy. For a tech conference, it’s remarkably untechy: I’m talking on “How to be a Renaissance Man,” but as I’ve been given the keynote slot of fun/doom – 8pm between the beers and the DJ – expect lots of knob gags and references to the more profane influences on the life of Raphael. Looking at the programme the striking thing is the amount of old tech people running as fast as they can from the digital to the tangible, and from the solo to the social. I know many people in the online world who yearn to make things with their fingers, to be cooks or gardeners or painters or carpenters, and who are rejecting the web2.0 rehash of 1999 as ultimately tiresome and meaningless. Maybe I’m old and jaded, but there’s got to something more beautiful than yet another blog or social network. Time to find it.
Chris, I’ll take your lead (again) and strive to say ‘Yes’ more often. Looking forward to more adventures you will have by just saying ‘yes’. 🙂
