In one week I will turn f’ing 58! There is no reversing time. But you can get stuck on a rock as the river flows around you.
A friend asked me a couple weeks ago on his birthday if I ever felt like letting go of trying to keep up with new developments in technology. I have, in fact, thought about it. Sometimes it feels overwhelming. Sometimes I get tired. Always I am aware of how little I really know and how small a piece of the world of technology I am aware of and have time to follow.
But letting it all go would mean what? Maybe I would return to something more true, like writing fiction and poetry where my heart was for so many years. Maybe I would return to theater where I spent 20 years of my professional life. Maybe I would just find more time to kayak (which has it’s own interminable depths of hardware and learning and technological advances).
I’ve been doing tech for 20 years now, though, so it’s become so much a part of me, it would be hard to stop learning and trying new things. Back when I started, tech was a fun side note to my “real life” in theater and academia. Now, as with so many people, it permeates everything I do. And I have lots of ideas and projects that will keep me moving ahead for quite a while. Still, I need to keep in perspective that all the apps and gadgets are really just a means to connect with real people, no matter how many robots I come in contact with.
Happy new year. Happy birthday to me!
Ok, so I’m only 47, will be 48 this year (in August) so I’m about 10 years behind you, Bob. It’s hitting me as well that I’m almost 50, and have been doing shows or some sort of production for the last 30 years or so, if you include the time that I was volunteering at my local Community Theater… Anyway…technology does keep advancing, and while I, as you, have considered backing off the shows, and writing my poetry, or pursuing other interests, I feel like Al Pacino in Godfather 3… ‘Every time I try to get out, it pulls me back in!’… I say to myself and my wife…’ok…no more shows or projects…I’m gonna write’… and then another show comes up, and off I go again. Technology is growing and continues to do so. I bought Adobe CS3 a couple years ago for editing…it’s now almost obsolete as CS5 has just come out. Where was I?? Sometimes I feel like Rip Van Winkle…I go to sleep and the tech changes…it’s funny. I’m trying my best to keep up with it. I also agree with all of you, that I would love to combine tech with ‘getting back to the basics’…and seeing what could happen…
Happy Belated Birthday Bob…hope it was a Great One!!!
Rusty
Thanks vor the birthday wishes. Good luck with that Deva. You let me know if you come up with something, too!
Wow, George, you really are a geek!
Happy Birthday, Bob.
Re tech stuff, I just had a birthday, too. But I’m a bit older than you. I first learned about electronics from Uncle Sam, mostly vacuum tubes, resistors, capacitors, inductors, etc. – but also had an introductory course in semiconductors (germanium!). A little later I built circuits for missiles using the ‘new’ silicon transistors and later the ultra-new integrated circuit chips (flip-flops, op amps, etc). Then larger scale integrated circuits came along including microprocessors (8080, 6502), solid-state memory chips, and finally design-it-yourself very-large-scale-chips used in every product/gadget you can think of.
Happy Birthday!
I love technology but what I often wonder is if there is a way to take what you call “something more true” and incorporate it into the love of technology. This is what I’m mulling over on the first day of the decade, how to take these different pieces/interests/passions and find a way to fit them together. If you come up with any answers, be sure to write a follow-up post. 🙂