Stuff

Technology

Not sure about you but I’ve noticed an increasing amount of posts on LinkedIn with video clips showing us up and coming technology advances with all sorts of supposedly break-through technologies, machines, robots, rockets and other machines, stuff!

Now, I’ve been a technology fanboy for many decades a tiny futurist hoping for the world to become a better place with technology.

I was a huge fan of a British TV series, Tomorrow’s World. Many of the technology ideas presented and showcased there very rarely became reality but some did.

I worked without computers for many years, we wrote on pads, delivered hand-written memos to pigeon holes, which got lost when the recipient said they never got it (I always suspected it was in their in-tray somewhere, buried underneath all the other papers), delivered hand written pieces of paper to the telex-room or if they had to see an exact copy of the document stood next to the upright fax machine (the size of a medium size printer) for 20 minutes whilst the phone gurgled.

I was amazed and excited when I saw the first lotus notes spreadsheet, it was the biggest technology breakthrough for me who had been writing figures on graph paper for years.

My only worry is that it keeps us in a place of wanting more technology advancement all the time and when we see something new, we go oh look that would be great and our mind goes longing for that thing, the new stuff to replace the stuff we thought was cool just a few hours ago.

Of course technology is great and the futurists in Davos in January 2018 were even suggesting that because of technology we will eliminate cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes, hospitals will disappear with the exception of emergency rooms and living until 120 will be common place.

Life will pass us by if we don’t stay in the moment and be grateful for what we have in this moment.

Stay in the moment!

Michael de Groot

Stuff

You don’t need the stuff that you already have. So why are you buying more of it?

Because society, the retailers, the brands, the advertising moguls and governments say and convince you that you should. After all without stuff the economy won’t grow, without growth you will starve and then you will die, oh and your family will die too.

If your family dies, your name will be forgotten forever.

Wrong!

None of that is actually true is it? There will always be growth, because the population grows, whether we like it or not.

The current world population of 7.3 billion is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100.
Source: http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/2015-report

We don’t need to worry, we are adding 1.2 billion people in the next 12 years. Did you read that? The next 12 years!!

Growth will happen without us even trying.

https://www.becomingminimalist.com/clutter-stats/

The average American home has 300,000 items. Even if you halved it for the average British home that would still be 150,000 items. Can you even get your mind around that?

It feels suffocating doesn’t it? And it is, stuff causes dense energy in and around you, causing you to feel demotivated, depressed and lethargic. Have you ever felt what it feels like when you have tidied up any clutter? It feels good doesn’t it?

We have all been brainwashed from a very very early age that we need stuff to feel good and actually it makes us feel bad, it gets us into debt and then we don’t find a way out.

Get real, get rid.

Michael de Groot