Technologies Old and New

Last Tuesday was the future and the past. It was my day off, and I had an appointment to try out the new Apple Vision Pro around lunchtime. It was, for lack of a better word, amazing. I felt like I was in the future. And, no, I didn’t buy one. I’m an Apple fanboy, but I know that it’s best to wait until Gen 2 (at least). Even so, I hope everyone who’s rocking out in the Apple-spatial computing-verse is having a blast.

After lunch, I picked up a dozen Blackwing 602 pencils from a Barnes and Noble down the street. Despite fancying myself a writer, it had been at least 10 years since I’d bought (let alone held) a pencil. Learning about the storied Blackwing a few days prior, I figured I could use a little more analog in my life. Yes, I know I probably overpaid for a Japanese pencil, but, hey, I’m a sucker for any brand with lore. Just ask all those Moleskine notebooks I bought in high school and college. (RIP – Tubbs Fire.)

That said, I went home, sharpened up my first Blackwing, and got to writing. The cedar smell took me back to middle school, and the graphite glided effortlessly over the page. It felt so incredibly different from what I’d experienced that morning at the Apple store, but just as meaningful, just as wonderful, just as inspiring.

Does it take an Apple Vision Pro to create the next killer software app? No. Does it take a Blackwing 602 to write the next great American novel? Of course not. But they’re both enjoyable things, appealing technologies that can happily coexist next to each other on a desk or bedside table. And, I figure, in a few years, an Apple Vision Whatever will take its place next to my pencil cup.

Old things are still valuable. New things, even unproven ones, can be valuable, too. It’s all in the eye of the beholder, and to thine eye, be true.