Twice while living in Kansas I attempted to learn Objective-C and Cocoa. Getting past the first few chapters was pretty mind numbing. It didn’t really have anything to do with the difficulty curve. I already knew other languages—Python, Javascript—and didn’t really have a reason to learn something else. The third time I tried was early 2012 when I started reading iOS Programming. This time I needed a project or I’d fail yet again.
We’ve witnessed a lot of products in our lifetimes. Some have faded away without even realizing it. Products like fax machines, AOL, desktop computers, atlases, home telephones. Sure, some of us still use these but they’ve all been replaced with better alternatives. The best companies and people are capable of predicting when these shifts happen — some even have the capacity to obsolesce their own products. They understand if they don’t, someone else will.
Last year Philips introduced Hue, a dead simple way to automate all your home lighting. After living with it for a few months and buying into Sonos — a wireless multi-room audio setup—I’m beginning to realize how accessible home automation is becoming. They’ve both forgotten one thing though, automation. Automation is the use of machines, control systems and information technologies to optimize productivity in the production of goods and delivery of services.
I’ve never been fond of arbitrary markers in time. Holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, they all seem odd to me and I’ve never been one to celebrate them. Every day should be special and accomplishments, small and large should be relished, not random days. As you would correctly suspect I don’t do resolutions. But I do think constantly about a question Buckminster Fuller used to ask his grandson, “What is the most important thing we could be thinking about today?