In Brad Smith’s 2021 book “Tools and Weapons,” the entire tech industry is accused of driving the economy into a precarious dependency, so cavalier and irresponsible in it’s unchecked growth.

This week’s (September 7, 2021) testimony to congress is a perfect example of what they (They being The Tech Titans) are being accused of., and how freaking evasive they are in answering complex questions. Just watching Zuckerberg lie to politicians, and Bezos…don’t even get me started.

When was the IEEE formed? 1884. Sure, we were talking about electricity standards back then, but still…

I remember when Wikipedia came along and those participants in my midwestern focus groups shunned it because it wasn’t “accredited.” It was 2006 and I was 36 years old. I was incredulous that those midwesterners wouldn’t accept “the crowd” wisdom of the wiki. Wikipedia, to me, was the replacement for The Man, when it came to publishing. Let the crowd put forth our common knowledge, and here are the rules for doing so.

Boat builders vs. House builders, wood working is wood working, right? Not really. Turns out, the more niche and specific you get, the more a generalist like me finds herself out of her depth.

By the people, for the people. We are the government. As much I hated Trump, I recognize parts of him in myself. Rambling Incoherent Rant? (uh, have you read my blogs? and my other blogs? what about this one?)

Doesn’t feel like I am the government. My standard, my ability to flit between the slats to fall between the cracks, to find the work arounds? It’s epic. That is not what you want in gov’t. Nor in tech.

In the workplace experience I’ve had in corporate America, there has been little in the way of standards. No ISO certifications, no pre-set rules; the leaders have been making them up as they go along! Or not, which can be fun but ultimately reckless to the health of the company, and it’s “resources” er, people, tools, processes, funding.

Which brings me back to Brad Smith’s book: His premise is that when your company’s technology changes the world, literally the behavior of an entire society, you have an inherent responsibility to deal with the long term effects of those changes; both positive and negative. The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age is that it is reliant upon us: the best in us, but in spite of ourselves, also, the worst in us.

In the infamous words of Ice Cube, we have to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves.