At heart technologists are lazy. We work very, very hard to not have to work very hard. (A couple years back a colleague taught me this and it was one of those light bulb on self aware moments that has stuck with me.)
The purpose of tools is to make our tasks easier. The spear was an improvement over a rock. The gun replaced the sword. Calculators replaced pen and paper. Computers replaced memorizing facts. Robots replaced the assembly line. Each step along our evolutionary path is one more toward further efficiency in the tasks we do.
In all of this lies a challenge – how can humans boil down a task that takes time to a series of processes that can be improved. The hard part is not the interface or the data or the building. The hard part is in the spark of creation that ignites an idea in the right person at the right time. Once that idea reaches the air hundreds, thousands or millions of people attach on to it to drive it somewhere new. Creation is cultural.
But in R&D or design or development we seek challenge because we desire to be lazy. We do not challenge ourselves because we want to do the same thing every day for the next 40 years. We challenge ourselves because we want to make ourselves productively useless.
1 thought on “We build new tools for the challenge. We work hard because we desire to be lazy.”