If we’re lucky, there are moments in life where the things we do just sing. A doctor who is passionate about helping patients might find hints of music in the acts of diagnosing an illness and then being in the position of treating said illness. A sushi chef who goes to bed dreaming of the types of Sushi he’ll make the next day finds that the process of putting together the perfect roll sings to him. An actress who spends hours rehearsing a scene surely finds that the emotions she’s able to evoke in others also evoke a sort of song in herself. Feeling the metaphoric music around you while you work can be incredibly rare yet staggeringly beautiful. For me, I feel this music when I use and help others use technology.
There is something about the way technology can be used to help others and improve one’s self that I find deeply beautiful. See, while I might become infatuated with a certain device or a particular app, what makes me hear my song is what those apps and devices can do for us all. As I wrote in the article What Technology Should Be, “Technology isn’t the thing, it’s the thing that gets us to the thing.” That’s what I find truly profound, that there could be a device or application that helps people get to their thing. Whether it’s an AI Chatbot that helps doctors get to a diagnosis faster, or it’s the phone itself that’s used to call and check what ingredients are available for a Sushi Chef to serve that day, or even an app used to help an actress memorize lines faster, I find melodies in the possibilities. In many ways, like a liquid in a glass conforming to the vessel it’s in, technology conforms to its user and their needs. The seemly limitless opportunities that technology has to transform and simplify people’s lives is what keeps my mind racing at night. See, I’m obsessed with the idea that by improving an often frustrating part of someone’s life, I’m able to help them get back to what they love most. That’s why I’m a Nerd, because by being deeply passionate about technology I’m able to help people get back to what they love the most, helping them hear their music.
