I have become bored with video chats in the span of six months.
When I bought a Macbook last July, the built-in webcam was a revelation. Now I rarely call Davison, who lives 250 miles from Oakland. Instead, I click on the video icon next to his name in iChat. I say hi to Lori, his wife, if she walks into the room. I get to see his kids. If there's something in his office he wants to show me, he picks up his Macbook and points to it.
Sometimes we conduct three-way video chats with clients who use Macs. Sometimes there's a little chit-chat about how cool it is. Then it's just another meeting.
Technology now moves at a pace that leaves little time for amazement. Our "capacity for wonder," to borrow Fitzgerald's phrase, is now filled with "transitory enchanted moments" on a regular basis.
The fantastic becomes banal in a matter of days.
This is exciting, fleetingly, but also exhausting. At least it is for me. I find it tough to keep up with everything flying by the window as we speed forward.
Once in a while, though, I slow down enough to let something sink in. And damn if that video chat isn't something! The possibilities, looking forward now, are pretty stunning. Take the integration of 12seconds with Tweetdeck announced today. Or the rapid dispersion of Seesmic across the web. These things, or their progeny, will radically alter how property is merchandised and sold online. It's easier to see that when you pull back from the grind.
Perspective
My grandmother turned 91 today. I just got back from visiting her. It's shaken me out of my unconscious disregard for the extraordinary for a few hours.
She grew up poor, the daughter of Italian immigrants. They had a goat in the backyard for milk, a wood stove inside for warmth, and a drunken illiterate uncle (exquisitely named Guido Guidi) living in the basement.
Now I video chat with my business partner from my home office… and take it for granted.
So enough aimless rambling form me. What's blowing your mind these days?
– Brian Boero
Local, Mobile, Social and the future of real estate
20 Tools to Bring your Real Estate Business to the Cloud
15 Ways to Make Your Marketing Mobile
Don't laugh. My Kindle2 was just delivered. I thought it was dorky when they first announced Kindle1.
The 2nd version looked cool and a few friends swore by it. I bit. So, I'm a big reader, a whole freaking library in my palm is cool. The ability to make notes, tag phrases, etc. is awesome and very handy. The idea of authors being able to publish without the expense of printing, storage, distribution etc., it pretty mind blowing too. Where will that lead. Anyway….it's impressive and where it will go is impressive too.
My 2cents.
PS. I will miss the heft, color and feel of the pages. I imagine I'll get over it soon.
Just read this on my iPhone sitting inside Du-Pars in Studio City. That blows my mind!
This economy is blowing my mind. The fact that at the end of this year, things will be SO different than they are right now.
Stalwart company names that we grew up with may be gone, industries will have changed entirely, and unfortunately your neighbors may be changing too (not by their choosing.) It's a pretty scary and mind-blowing time for everyone right now…
@Marc – Exactly. We take the iPhone for granted. It's literally more than a geek of 10 (even 5) years ago could dream up. It's a gps, portable e-machine, phone, and music player in one that also is one of the better portable gaming platforms out there.
It blows my mind that there are still real estate agents or brokers that opt out of IDX. It blows my mind that there are MLS' and Board of Realtors that hoard all of the real estate data, acting still as gatekeepers of all the real estate information rather than exposing and sharing it with consumers. Blows my mind indeed.
I too, am blown away at the pace of technological assimilation that we maintain. I'm blown away at the night and day difference I see when I compare what my team was working on a year ago vs. today. It's as if the "cloud" has engulfed us and is raining showers of discovery.
I love my mac. A key indicator that it may be a good time to buy there stock is a friend of mine that bought his first and loves it. He was a rabid windows nut and will never go back.
Aloha,
Keahi
What blows my mind is my Mac. I got it last year and I am amazed at what I can create in pages. I am amazed that I can actually create my own music in garage band and I am in awe that I can create my own podcast and get it on itunes.
I was not just a windows girl, I was a PC girl. Now I have switched to a laptop, my first ever. I had no idea that my back pain was connected to the PC. My back feels great, my creativity has soared and I feel so connected.
Way cool.
Iyabo Asani
@Chuck – It blows my mind is how horrible AT&T is and how it reduces the the potential greatness of what the iPhone could really be if…
What blows my mind is how right now, with no signal inside my home located in a downtown area, that I now can't make a call and have to consider getting a Blackberry with Verizon.
And the mere fact that I have such choices in life… blows my mind even more.
This economy is blowing my mind. The fact that at the end of this year, things will be SO different than they are right now.
Stalwart company names that we grew up with may be gone, industries will have changed entirely, and unfortunately your neighbors may be changing too (not by their choosing.) It's a pretty scary and mind-blowing time for everyone right now…