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13 June 2011

Plasticity

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I’m not entirely convinced I agree with the premise of Daniel Wilson’s essay for The Wall Street Journal, “The Terrifying Truth About New Technology“.  

In the piece, Wilson explores the notion that the stagnation of learning potential in maturing adults is the catalyst of dreading new technologies.  Except he does this with humor.  To wit:

The fear of the never-ending onslaught of gizmos and gadgets is nothing new. The radio, the telephone, Facebook–each of these inventions changed the world. Each of them scared the heck out of an older generation. And each of them was invented by people who were in their 20s.

My reason for disagreeing is that I have actually worked with a number of people well-outside their twenties who are far more into technology advancements than I am.  And there’s of course the most famous 50-something CEO on the planet, Steve Jobs.  That guy probably likes new tech.

I ended up coming back around to Wilson’s side, though.  His advice for staying positive about the high tech onslaught was resoundingly correct:

I’m not saying you have to keep up. But at the moment you choose to stop growing, your world will begin to shrink. You’ll be able to communicate with fewer people, especially the young. You will only see reruns. You will not understand how to pay for things. The outside world will become a frightening and unpredictable place. 

 As they say, the only constant is change.