And I wish we’d stop pretending that we can. If we have a little something that people use and are happy with, that’s enough. We don’t need to pretend that we, as a company, do anything else other than make nice things that people enjoy, because pretending that we’re not sounds kind of silly.
So, the Daylight DC1. It’s a tablet with an e-ink-like screen. It’s similar to the screen on a Kindle, for example, but it’s said to refresh fast enough to run video and other graphical elements that aren’t currently state of the art for e-ink devices. This seems like a potentially great little device that combines the reading feel and long battery life of an e-ink device with the interactivity of a device like an iPad. Like I said before, it’s excellent. Maybe not the best device for $729, but it’s still good.
That should be enough! It’s good to make nice things! We all like nice things! But the CEO of the company that makes them apparently can’t just make nice things. No, it has to change the world in some way. See, this one also emits less blue light, which is said, although the science is uncertain, to make it harder to sleep and worsen eye strain. With no blue light, there will apparently be more great literature in the world.
No, it’s true.
Daylight CEO Anjan Katta says he founded the company to prevent eye strain and distraction, and to fundamentally rethink our relationship with gadgets. In recent months, Katta has waxed poetic about the issues of modern devices on podcasts with a particular affinity for cryptocurrency. Katta is clearly a big fan of Bitcoin. “I think a lot,” he said on Twitter. Healthier Technology In a podcast last year, I asked, “What if Tolstoy had grown up like this? What if Maya Angelou had a cell phone that emitted a distracting blue light? Would she have been able to write poetry?”
That is nuts. I guarantee you, Maya Angelou would have been perfectly fine with a little blue light in her life, and even if you want to argue that our devices are distracting, it’s because their software is designed to entice and distract us; the hardware has limited impact at best.
This kind of nonsense is rampant in business, especially in the tech business. Everything is going to change the world. Everything is mind-blowing. Everything is more important than the last. Some of this is clearly self-serving. If the guillotine version of Uber is going to change the world and is the most important thing of all time, who is going to regulate it?
I think a big part of this ridiculous thinking is a desperate desire to pretend that they matter. They are unable or unwilling to accept the idea that all human beings are inherently important. So they must justify to themselves and to us why they deserve the money, power, and praise that capitalism gives them. It is not a function of luck and organized power. No, they must be more important than doctors, teachers, and firefighters! They must be! After all, they are Eliminate blue light from the world! Maya Angelou We depend on them! I do not understand?!?
Humans are valuable just for being human. Participating in society, being kind to one another, trying to make the world a little better every day is valuable enough, valuable enough. Not everyone has the calling or temperament to be a doctor, teacher, or firefighter. Some people tinker, some people create. Some people get jobs to earn a living and pursue their passions, hobbies, friends, and family. And the world is better for people like that. It would be even better if some business people looked at teachers, nurses, and firefighters and thought, “Well done, thank you!” instead of, “I have to prove I’m better than them!”
Maya Angelou would understand.