Ode to technology
In a conversation yesterday with entrepreneur-visionary Phil Nabors who pioneered whole foods groceries and restaurants, he reflected that technologies that are marketed to “save time” rarely do. We still experience a lack of time, perhaps more than ever.
I’m an admitted early tech adopter: on the internet in 1992, one of the first with a PDA in hand, wireless everything and anything, hanging out with guys who know what’s emerging before the local paper hints at it.
It’s interesting how technology creates a deficiency perspective, focusing us on the time we could have, but obviously don’t. From an abundance perspective, we have all the time we need. We don’t need more than one moment at a time to do whatever we want. An abundance perspective puts the responsibility on us to use each moment in a way that aligns best with our strengths and passions. Technology, I think, cannot give us more than one moment at a time. When it adds value, it does so only to the extent that it assists us in creating the highest quality of each moment possible.
May 13th, 2005 17:52
Shalom Jack,
Have you read Jeremy Rifkin’s 1987 book Time Wars?
B’shalom,
Jeff
May 13th, 2005 19:40
Jack: At a workshop I attended recently the teacher spoke of opposing forces, such as liberation and limitation. I wrestle with those forces all the time. I am a firm believer in abundance, yet must admit that while encased in human flesh, I am subject to limitation. Being a raving extrovert, I want to embrace life passionately, and I do! Yet there is also a drive to accept the fact that I face very real limits in this lifetime. You know all too well what a “squishy” relationship I have with time. I think that is because I am always trying to pack too many things into too little time. I am trying more and more, however, to accept with grace and dignity the fact that I can’t get everything done that I’d like to do. The distortion that we can “have it all” may be one of the worst burdens our culture has foisted upon us, and “good” technology may well have been co-opted in service to that lie.
May 19th, 2005 09:55
This also gets to the question of whether multi-tasking saves time or just insures that you do everything mindlessly. I’ve found over time that doing one thing at a time is the real time (and sanity) saver.