9 out of 10 monkeys believe they are not behind glass

I finally figured it out. I understand why so many people rather be technology agnostic and just ignore the amazing things around them.

Now you are probably expecting me to say something like, it is the complexity, or it is the rapidity of change, or it is the myriad of different options and features that are available, or (the most common) it is already obsolete when you buy it.

And while many of those are true, the real answer lies in the fact that we (as geeks and technophiles) make it scary. It is a trillion dollar industry, and guess what, we all want a piece of it. So the best way to do it is to make you all feel like crying whenever you ponder a significant technology purchase.

Think about this. If technology wasn’t scary, would you spend 6 months shopping for your next TV? Researching, going to stores, reading online, talking to your cousin Larry about what the differences are in HDTV? Hell, no. You would go to the store, look at the pictures, buy your TV and walk out. Heck you wouldn’t even have to talk to the salesperson (who is a non-trained, low intelligence high school student). You could try to do that today… but think of the consequences.

You would get home and wonder if you made the right decision. And you would start suffering from buyer’s remorse. Immediately you would be plagued with guilt… and in that moment, when you are about to slam your head against the wall (right next to the previous head hole from your recent PC purchase), if you listen carefully, you will hear a million geeks laughing at you merrily.

Cause technology is not scary. The underlying physics and nature of most technologies have grown slowly over the last 100 years. Look at the latest hard drives sitting on the shelf at Best Buy. The actual theory is no different than a CD, which is no different than a LP, which is no different than a wax tube from the civil war period. All it is a track with a respective pickup reading the changes in the surface. A CD uses a laser, a LP uses a crystal needle, a hard drive uses a magnetic head. And read the box of that hard drive. You read nothing but what seems to be a foriegn language of specifications and standards and compatibility.

And your logical mind breaks down. You can’t handle it. So you call your cousin Larry again and ask him to take care of for you. “I will pay you!” you shout into your phone. And deep down your cousin Larry laughs in congregation with the rest of the earth’s geeks.

Attention world: we got you by the balls.

Message ends.