I’ve had several times in my career where I thought I was on the verge of living in the future. It’s a seductive feeling, especially for someone like me who grew up playing with early personal computers and reading science fiction. Eventually, the thing that inspires that feeling fades from public interest or life normalizes around it, and it’s not long before something else comes along to capture everyone’s attention.
I can rattle off a list of these things. The Web, which worked out well for me. Then, Second Life in 2007. That one was done by 2009. The iPhone, another win. Then, Cryptocurrency. The iPad as computer. Even Apple ran that What’s a computer? ad. Somewhere in there I was really believing in smart home automation and voice assistants, which I almost never think about anymore. Finally, there was virtual reality. VR was a big one for me, all the way up through the launch of the Vision Pro.
I sold my Vision Pro earlier this year. I just never used it that much.
Tech people get excited about things. That’s ok. It’s fun for us. Let us have our fun. Just don’t trust us when we tell you something is going to change the world. We’re wrong way more than we’re right.