The Future Is Here, And It’s Now Being Evenly Distributed
If you work in tech you have probably heard this quote over the years: “The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.” William Gibson - August 1993
The Oculus, New York City
If you work in tech you have probably heard this quote over the years:
“The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.”
William Gibson - August 1993
Having lived in New York City for most of the past decade, I have often felt like New Yorkers live in the future compared to others around the country. Fast-casual salad restaurants, seamless, electric bike shares, uber, revel, spectacles, ramen burgers, cronuts, the void VR, capsule, etc, all existed in New York City (and to be fair other tier-1 cities) before making their way out into the smaller cities, then the suburbs, and finally the rural parts of America. Normally the process of “innovation sprawl” can take years.
In the very short amount of time we have all been in this global COVID-19 pandemic, technological innovation has been sprawling faster than ever. Everyone everywhere is being forced into the future. Using and adjusting to future technology to help cope in their own ways with the virus.
Learning for Pre-K through College has moved online, those younger students who didn’t have access to a computer at home, are now getting iPads. Education departments are also working to finally solve the issue of internet access for those students who lacked access to adequate internet (about 29% of households across NYC).
Traditionally online courses are seeing an increase as well. Two years ago I taught a course on Skillshare called Productivity Today. Normally January is the most-watched month of the year for all the courses on the platform, due to the increase in new year’s resolutions. But recently, with everyone working from home, March and April’s view times are beating the record high’s of January’s past.
While most young urban professionals (yuppies as the boomers call us) used to be the core customers of food delivery apps like Seamless, Grubhub, Uber Eats, etc. Now everyone, at every age, is using them. And every restaurant that wants to stay alive has been onboarded to deliver through them, greatly increasing the supply side of these marketplaces.
The same goes for grocery delivery apps like Instacart, Amazon Prime, and local grocery chains that have white-labeled their own solutions, such as Wegmans (which is actually powered by Instacart on the backend).
“This level of online shopping was, at best, forecast to occur five years from now,” says David Bishop, a partner at grocery research consultancy Brick Meets Click. “The demand has overwhelmed the capacity of the retailers.” In 2019, Bishop reports that 6.3% of grocery-related spending was through online orders, bringing in around $29 billion in U.S. orders alone. That’s a lot of green, but it’s a fraction of the $650 billion industry. “Shopping online costs more for the retailer, and was a low priority for grocery stores,” Bishop says. “They offered it as an add-on, not a core part of their business.”
Everything flipped this March. With shelter-in-place orders across the country, online groceries are now a hot commodity. About 40% of orders come from first-time shoppers, according to Gordon Hasket Research.
- Excerpt from The Real Reason It’s So Hard to Order Groceries Online Right Now
When I don’t order online and I do really need to get something from a physical retail location, I have been using contactless Apple Pay almost every time. In the times of social distancing, no cashier wants to touch a card or money I hand them and contactless payments have also flipped to become the norm.
You have probably downloaded Zoom recently, which has exploded massively in growth.
Along with FaceTime, Houseparty, and the up & coming Clubhouse which are bringing how we “hang out” with friends and family into the future.
Slack, which is enabling companies to communicate with their employee’s during remote working from home has also seen explosive growth. From Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack:
In lieu of expensive gym memberships, at-home workouts are taking off with Fitbod, Obe Fitness, and Peloton. And most fitness instructors are replacing their employer/gym by building a direct to consumer relationship, and teaching classes over Zoom or Instagram.
I’m not going to even touch on the changes happening in healthcare, because that could be its own post in and of itself.
We were headed toward a future at the end of 2019. A future that was likely inevitable but still 5-10 years away.
Now in 2020, this coronavirus is global and it’s accelerating the support for new technologies all around the entire world, all at once. The future is now being more evenly distributed than ever before. And when that happens, this fast, you not only arrive at the expected future sooner than later, but you pave a new foundation. Allowing the “next wave” of technology to build on top.
Tomorrowland
I Deleted Every App On My Phone
Every app on my phone I have ever had is gone. And I think I am happy about it.
I and everyone around me knows I have too many apps on my phone. Years of testing apps from various startups and services combined with the never leave an app behind again "iCloud Backup" meant that unless I deleted an app manually, it never went away. Then something happened. Apparently somewhere hidden in my iCloud backup was a glitch according the Genius's at Apple. I was told the only way to not have it affect my phone anymore was to erase my phone and start from scratch. So that is what I did.
I have been thinking about doing this for years after reading a few blog posts from others before me. I was attracted to how freeing I heard it could be. Also, I clean my home all the time and it felt about time I did the same for my digital world too.
So currently, I am only re-downloading the apps that matter to me. In the process I will be saying goodbye to several apps. Those of note worthy in both categroies I will mention here. I thought it would be interesting to share which apps are worth keeping in 2016. So without further ado:
Apps I Am Keeping:
Dark Sky - Best weather app there is.
Apple Podcasts - Can't delete but its back on the home screen so Ambition Today is always close!
Audible - I listen to a lot of books.
Slack - Immediate access for those close to me and on my teams who know my email inbox can get a bit backed up.
Todoist - the life saver of to-do list apps.
Google Maps - Obviously. I tried Apple maps recently in NYC and it took me to the wrong place by about 20 blocks. I was late for that meeting...
Google Inbox - My lifeline. My go to-email app. If you know a better one you swear by then let me know in the comments.
Google App - I look up a lot of things. I'm curious, what can I say.
Google Drive - Are you seeing a theme here?
Twitter - The best social network there is currently.
Snapchat - The best up and coming social network. If you need further proof of that, my Mom joined recently. Really loving Snapchat lately.
Instagram - Just because.
Nuzzel - I love Nuzzel! It has become the first news app I click each day.
Yahoo News Digest - When I want to know whats happening in the world outside my immediate industry and networks.
Fitbit - because health.
Bitmoji - because fun with friends.
Giphy - because hilarious with friends.
Esper - Great platform to track my time and work.
Robinhood - Why is anyone still paying Scottrade $7 to buy and another $7 to sell?
Youtube - Loving the content on Youtube recently.
The Herd Report - You have to have your own app. Plus the Sabres have Eichel now.
Ward eSports - Best new eSports app for fans there is.
Timehop - Who doesn't love some personal nostalgia from time to time.
Buffer - Best app for sharing content across multiple channels. Works with Nuzzel to easily share article I like.
Venmo - Use it constantly with friends and family.
Acorns - I didn't want to re-download but it is mobile only so I kind of had to.
Uber- I live in New York City. Enough said on this one.
Apps I Am Saying Goodbye To:
Facebook - I turned off badge and push notifications a few weeks ago. Not even going to put it back on my phone this time. I will check in on my laptop when I feel like it.
Google Chrome - It's just not "that" much better then safari. Don't need it and will give Safari one more chance.
LinkedIn - Very, very little value comes out of this app that isn't more easily found other places.
Reddit - Nuzzel has replaced it.
Periscope - I broadcast from time to time, but I haven't consumed anything of note recently.
Medium - The best medium posts surface inside Nuzzel. And Medium has been sending way to many push notifications recently anyway.
Vine - I recently went viral on vine, but still do not think enough people are using it day to day. I never open it.
Skype - Will probably have to re-download but don't want to.
Whatsapp - I talk to these friends on iMessage or Facebook Messenger now.
Facebook Messenger - Will probably have to re-download but don't want to.
Many, many more - I didn't even re-download any apps from screen 3 or 4 of my phone.
These are the apps I have downloaded while setting my phone back up and the ones that I didn't bring back. I am sure I will have to re-download more apps as I realize I need them and I will do that when the time comes. In the meantime though I feel freed. Most importantly I am excited to see how my phones battery life improves.
