Everything Everywhere: All at Once Yet Not So Much
Headlines Edition #11
Dear Skytop Readers:
Welcome to Edition #11, where we share our contributors and their views on the speed of disruptive change and how it’s impacting our daily lives.
Looking back on how the world has changed since September 11, 2001, it’s easy to understand why we are living through the highly polarized and divisive world of today. Even in the 10 years since Skytop began its service, I’ve witnessed change as it has rapidly unfolded before my eyes. Sometimes my response to it felt as though I was simply moving through the change process and therefore biased through acting out my resistance in fully embracing it. Sometimes it was simply the feeling that progress often requires the principle of, “something’s lost when something’s gained.” But then, I didn’t always believe that what was gained was actually embedded in our world. We heard the pitch: we didn’t necessarily buy the offering, however.
I’m taking a stab at a few (maybe I’ll miss others) things that have changed and as such have changed us.
Technology is front and center. While technology has helped us in so many ways, it has—like most things—become a weapon. Technology has changed the world, how we shape our companies, how we do conduct our lives and how to manage our worlds. Analytics at your fingertips have saved us from devasting destruction—including the 2008 capital markets near global meltdown to planning for extreme weather to watching a geopolitical event unfold. It’s changed the risk calculus for us all, in so many ways.
But technology has changed how we related to one another. Having a “box” (my sarcastic term for an iPhone) as a go-between you and another person has cost us more than we comfortably wish to sometimes acknowledge. Consider how you communicate when you and a friend are at a table, face-to-face, and sharing a conversation versus texting or talking through a screen. Are you texting to connect with your friend or are you texting to receive a desired response?
I read an article the other day that single people are “beginning” to no longer use dating apps. The word beginning made me feel quite outdated. Apparently, those interviewed would prefer more “social” ways of meeting potential new connections, for example, one way being through joining an association where there is a common ground to exchange thoughts and ideas. A sports club, a social club, or an athletic club. For those reading this who are over 60 years old, it must seem like everything old is new again because I remember that the best dating opportunities for our generation, as evidenced in the “Tales of the City” series, were to be found in the fresh produce section of your local Safeway, usually on Friday evening after 10PM. And you didn’t even have to pay for a monthly subscription!
The article said that the notion of swiping profiles on their eye phones wasn’t fulfilling their needs as planned, I guess.
What’s lost? The answer to this question can be seen in social media exchanges where we have decided to let go of all things civilized. We go for the jugular so fast, and with such a sense of vitriol. Rather than working toward a common understanding while acknowledging what you don’t agree on, we have rushed to judgement with words that clearly lock in our opposing views. Sometimes, because of the business I’m in, I remain shocked at how much less difference exists between our views at times—than we seem to have invested our “fight” into. There’s always someplace where we agree with that can serve as a place to start from. Yesterday alone, I logged onto the news for about 12 minutes for a “mental health break” (not so much I’m afraid to report), and on the home page alone of one outlet read words such as, “moron”, “idiot”, “failure”, “loser” and “stupid.” These words are written for impact. They are written to reject someone’s attempt to participate in the process. They separate and cost us more than either side is willing to acknowledge.
The lack of humanity and basic respect is out the window. I bring this up with others at times and they react so negatively that it leaves me at a loss. Our politics are not different from our other relationships. We need to understand that our politics are simply the aggregation of what we individually think and feel. Good liberals and good conservatives need each other, and in working together create solutions that are work for all. You can have different views but still play on the same sports teams. Or you can ensure that no one, except those who agree with you can play on your team, as for example, was experienced in the story of Enron. The leaders of this company were all about the same age, lived in the same neighborhood, went to the same church and seemed to have their children around the same time. The case story of this company is or should be on the curriculum of every business school.
Zero sum games are fun at the pinball park where you and a friend go to “war” for the benefit of a beer and for blowing off steam. With a country of more than 340 million citizens, I don’t believe that zero sum games are sustainable. Effective leaders, from the Dali Llama down understand that the way to build is through finding a middle way. Because our exposure to face-to-face exchanges has lessened and because we get our cues from media, we tend to predetermine who someone is by the label you assign to them. In the past, time spent with a person you don’t know might help your point of view, expand your understanding and offer you ways of unifying and sharing in creating a common view.
No matter how you do the numbers if 49 or 47 or 51 or 53 percent of our legislators sit on different sides of the isle, there is something very wrong here. Do we really know what, why and how such polarized views have formed? Do we care? I would argue, based upon probability theory alone, that a percentage of both groups represent a gray zone where a conversation could create a way of unifying behind a leader’s direction. The way that I look at this is that we are all interconnected, with parents, families, teachers, employers, religious leaders, and mentors who challenge you to step out of your comfort zone and consider each other. Our politics should be nothing less than an aggregation of this.
A friend of mine once told me that we don’t have to agree, but we need to push for a way to align. Our fathers and grandfathers who fought in World War II sat in muddy trenches with fellow Americans who were different in palpable ways. But they fought a war, and they won it by working together on a common goal. When the war ended, they went back home and resumed their lives. However, when your mom or dad or grandfather was passing, and they recalled the war as an experience that they are most proud of, I bet that they didn’t focus on the person to the left or to the right of them, by recalling how they were cancelled because of their differences. Instead, they will likely recall how they worked together, unified through the goal of beating the enemy, and how they celebrated their victory (assuming they all made it through) or by celebrating what they sacrificed for success.
Today we are experiencing everything everywhere. We are probably more tuned into the state of the world today than never before. Your day, and mine, are not about the immediate world around you anymore. What happens everywhere is in front of you for consumption all the time. You can’t escape it. All at once, you know that our world is not linear, but a dynamic state of events all happening as they unfold. You don’t wait and pick up the daily newspaper on the driveway before or after work or wait until you see the six o’clock news. You have it 24/7, even when you prefer it leave you alone for a while. Has it made us any smarter? You tell me. In my opinion, with everything everywhere and with all at once, I would say yet not some much. Not so much because we live in fear, anxiety and uncertainty day in and day out and because everything we read is about separation. Not unity.
Sometimes you just want to meet a friend and share conversation and coffee.
I hope you enjoy Skytop’s headlines edition #11.
Kindly,
Christopher P. Skroupa
Founder & CEO, Editor-in-Chief