I’m thinking a lot about writing lately. I also spend a lot of my time working on technology. There’s actually a tension there. It might not be obvious, but it’s there. Writing is about slowing down, savoring the language. Every. Single. Word. Technology is about speeding things up, about doing more with less. The oft talked about, and (depending on your perspective) dreaded: productivity.
I was out walking earlier this week, here in Atlanta, maybe headed into work, maybe out for exercise. I was on this part of a street near my home where the trees dotted both sides of the road as it stretched out toward the horizon. High-rise apartments and corporate offices stood off in the distance, reaching into the clear, blue sky. People were walking by, listening to music on their iPhones. The AirPods were the give away. A lone Uber delivery robot was creeping up the sidewalk across from me, and I thought, “Wow, I’m living in the present and the future, all at the same time.”
That’s writing and technology. One takes us into the future, the other makes us present. The world is a little slanted toward technology at this point, and it shows. We're starting to wear under the weight of that singularity. There's a work around, though. It's being present and writing about it.
Tech companies tend to focus on process, data, and engineering practice. Media companies focus on the humans driving the technology. Great software engineering orgs should have a balance of both.
It's a high bar, to be sure, but occasionally, companies do get this right. I've been watching sessions from the current Ubuntu Summit the last couple days, and I'm reminded that Canonical did pretty well at this when I was there.
When I joined, Ubuntu was using the tagline "Linux for human beings," and one of the things I really enjoyed about working there was the diversity of humans working at Canonical, the level of interest in human endeavors outside of tech, and the technical rigor we undertook in our work. There was a lot of effort on the teams I was on to figure out our development process, how to structure our work, and how to deliver value on the six-month Ubuntu cadence. There was also a recognition of humans behind the technical work, and I had great chats with colleagues there about art, literature, gaming, and more. I suspect this says as much about open source development as it does Canonical, but I did think about it while watching these Ubuntu Summit sessions recently.
I've been say something to the effect of this for awhile now – every business is ultimately either a tech business or a media business, and the really great ones have figured out how to be both.
Let me make this concrete with an example. My oldest daughter is a hair stylist. She spends as much time posting videos and content on social media as she does doing hair. Is she a hair stylist or a tech-based media brand? Really, she's both. She needs tech and media to attract clients and for her business to be successful.
Customers have essentially placed their money in a savings account that accrues no interest, while giving these conglomerates an interest-free loan to use at the company’s discretion.
This article, clearly, doesn't see this as a positive thing, the way I see businesses becoming tech and media businesses as a good thing. And for sure, this is about consumer behavior that certain companies are exploiting. It's just the "everything" in the article title is a little misleading to me. I'm not sure that's true in the same way my "everything is a tech and media business" comment can be. I guess "A Few Big Corporation Are Trying to Be Banks" just doesn't have the same ring.
I haven't gotten to the reveal of the Hidden Reason Digital Comics Never Took Off in the latest episode of the Comic Industry Insiders podcast, but I'm already intrigued. I'm only 15-20 minutes into an hour and half plus episode, and they're already discussing the big questions. I'm linking to the episode for this reason: if you're thinking about the same sort of questions, questions of how digital content fits in with a traditional industry, you might find this episode really interesting.
I'm a comics fan, and I've been curious about what the Sweet team are doing with their new Sweet Shop digital comic store. I'm doubly curious because it seems like they're wrestling with what I think are the right questions – What makes a digital comics shop distinct from brick and mortar shops? Why do we need something new instead of just using Kindle? Why is it so hard for an online comics app to succeed?
While these are all comic industry question, the same sort of questions apply to almost any industry today that deals in content. At some point, your content business is going to have a traditional component and a new component. How do those compliment each other? How do they differentiate? How does technology enable that? How does technology get in the way?
We all need to be wrestling with these kinds of questions more, while also building out something new. I love hearing the thought process of anyone who is doing the same.
