We live in a time of cutting-edge obsolescence.

John Finger

If it’s not clear by this point, I’m damn close to being done with the infinite loop of the tech innovation hype. As much as technology is important to so much of what I do, I’ve been feeling near my limit with Silicon Valley’s self-aggrandizing half-truths for a while. Technology is always better when it’s simpler, when normal humans have a hope in actually understanding how it works, and the decisions that went into what drives its behavior, rather than the impenetrable black box we’re frequently served up.

It’s all too much — too interconnected, too complicated. And also too fragile¹. The promise of innovation and technology is to make our lives better but it’s too often falling short because those creating it often lack the fortitude to see past their own hype — or are incentivized to look the other way.

What of the fundamental problems facing people across the planet — safety and accessible housing, healthcare, climate change, food production and waste to name a few. Maybe we’ve just let it all get too big without actual safeguards in place. The so-called tech titans of industry are just sad, broken children who continue to prove that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Maybe my cynicism has gotten the better of me, but it’s hard to see so much pain and misery every day and know that everything needed to change things for the better could be, but that we’re too caught up in our own bullshit to do anything about it.

And that’s my cue to go to bed.