New Everyday Driver – Lessons Learned

Quality, Consequences and the Construction Industrial Complex (part 197).       

4 weeks ago I started an experiment to increase focus and productivity. I have been surprised by the results so far. 

I changed my everyday driver phone to a flip phone (actually a Nokia 8110 banana phone) plus an iPod so I can listen to podcasts and take the occasional photo. The iPod is striped down to iTunes, Audible, iPhoto, FaceTime and Skype. There are no Google or Facebook products on it at all. The goal is to check in with my iPhone a maximum 2 times a day i.e. morning and end of work day.

Why do this?:

• My iPhone is a great device but it is heavy, and a creepy invasion of privacy. 
• I was starting to feel like a smart phone addict.
• I am tired of being in meetings where grown men and women are constantly looking at their phones like uncontrollable teenagers. BTW, if you take a phone call or play with your phone in a meeting, you are disrespecting everyone there.  
• When everyone is addicted to their smart phones I think there is competitive advantage in going the other way. 

4 Weeks in my takeaways are:

• It takes at least 2 weeks to stop feeling naked without your phone and be able to leave it at home when you go to work. Clearly, I had a dependancy!
• I am way more productive due to increased focus.
• It turns out I do not make or received any calls. All my real communications are via WhatsApp, IMO and Skype, which I can do from my laptop if necessary. The only calls I get are from sales people. Turns out, I win a lot of cruise’s and need double glazing!
• I am back in control of my day because I am not reacting to every message, e-mail and chirp from my smart phone.
• 4 weeks in, I now do not miss my smart phone. 

What next: 

• I have already sold my shares in Vodafone. This experience made me finally realize that phone companies sell data not metered calls, they are just high debt utilities and not growth stocks. 
• I plan to keep this up for 6 months to see if the increased productivity persists or I fall back into my smart phone addiction. 

Wider insights:

• Smart phones are like company cars. Rich people do not use them, workers do.
• Responding each minute to a smart phone as part of your job might be the price you have to pay for being an employee. 
• To be forced to see advertising on your devices is the toll you pay for “Free” stuff. Rich people pay to not see advertising, avoid queues and avoid mixing with the masses. 

On deeper reflection, I think smart phones are a trap because in the near future:

1. We will be forced to use them for ID by police, banks, hotels, government etc.

2. Banking will only be possible from a smart phone due to identity being tied to phones and banking. Internet banking from your laptop or desk top will go away for “our own safety” due to security issues around ID. 

3. Healthcare will be tied to your smart phone for record keeping and entitlement to care based on biometric ID via smart phone.

I try to be forward looking and embrace technology. However, I am starting realize how much technology can be used against us to force required behaviour and compliance. Freedom of choice is the only real freedom. If you have no choice, you are not free! In the future, rich people and the “elites”, whomever they are, will be identifiable by their lack of “tether” to smart devices.

So, I will continue to hone my digital skills whilst trying not to be a smart phone addict. Or maybe, I will be woke from the Matrix?

#matrix #neo #morpheus  #nomad 

Twitter: @BLDWhisperer

Related posts & links

#119 – e-mail is for old people! https://bldwhisperer.com/e-mail-is-for-old-people/ 

#178 – New Year Purge https://bldwhisperer.com/new-year-purge/ 

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