I’m feeling funky. Not the good Parliament Funkadelic or James Brown kind of funky, but the ‘not quite firing on all cylinders’ funky. The ‘we need a kick in the pants’ kind of funky.
Really, it’s a ‘what’s next?’ funky feeling. Everything is in a flow, and doesn’t feel stale, but does feel a little too familiar. New Tech events are doing great, the website is getting more robust, and the community feels vibrant. Still, I wonder what we can do next to make New Tech even more vibrant and valuable as a company and as a community.
It’s kind of an entrepreneurial curse of always wanting to create something more and better. The Seattle tech ecosystem is in hyper-drive and it’s actually hard to keep up with it all (it would be impossible without reading GeekWire every day). Still, I’m missing that inspired and fired up feeling.
These moods always pass; usually ending up with great new ideas and plans to pursue with passion.
Romain Dillet’s article on “Tech fatigue” in TechCrunch yesterday hit me square in the face. It just feels like time for something exciting to break through in the tech world. We have a trillion bazillion apps, the next iPhone is going to be made of glass (not a huge leap forward), and even VR hasn’t broken through with a hot offering or a game changer yet. At the same time, SpaceX made a historic sea landing on a drone ship and Stephen Hawking and some Russian billionaire announced a space exploration program intended to go as far as to Alpha Centauri (the next nearest star in our solar system) – so things are looking interesting in space technology.
I know there’s good stuff happening in eco-tech too (did you read about the 100% solar powered, off-grid street lamps?). And health-tech is doing some amazing experiments with 3-D printed, replacement body parts and robotic limbs. So, maybe my complaint is with lifestyle and work-related technology. We still haven’t figured out how to hack our way into adding another hour into our day. But maybe that’s for the best. And where’s my flying car? I’m pretty tired of hearing that question too.
It’s not that innovation isn’t happening. Clearly, it is. It’s just that the tech that affects the average human feels like it has stalled. I’m looking forward to the next thing -beyond a mobile app that, with only a voice command, will heat up my smart oven before my smart car parks itself in my smart garage so I can bake my gluten free pizza before my smart tv tunes to my new favorite series, The Americans (a Cold War thriller set in the 1980s that would terrify a modern-era spy with the prospect of dialing for emergency backup with a rotary telephone).
For now, I’ll blame my funky fatigue on this crazy heat hitting Seattle in April and just look forward to whatever’s next. If my dog can do it. I can do it.
If you have suggestions on how to tap into new and inspirational ideas with our New Tech community, I’m all ears. We don’t want it to ever get stale. So, let’s innovate, imaginate, and instigate together!
Thanks to everyone who came out for our Eastside event last night in Bellevue! Our presenters received some great questions. Your participation in the discussion is really valuable.
