Put on a happy face.
Put on a happy face – as sung by Dick Van Dyke and Janet Leigh.
Yesterday I played a 90’s classic for the kids, Eutow by Autechre, as loud as the car stereo goes. It delighted them. Which delighted me.
If you don’t have kids in your immediate life, I suggest you borrow some because they have the right outlook for the present moment: “Are you kidding me?”
Ours have internalized all the incisive irony of their generation and don’t miss a beat. They mock the ridiculousness that makes us despair. (As we should, also.)
The Professional-managerial Class
I have not done enough to describe the deadbeats, losers and nincompoops in control of the Democratic Party. They had the means. They had the power. They failed us. They failed America.
Last week, Tim Walz admitted it. Because he’s smart and right. And good. AOC, who is also smart and right and good should lead the Senate.
And with that, I’ll stop talking about politics here. Because I want to briefly talk about this again.
The Apple Vision Pro
This week I caught a lecture by a doctor demonstrating an onboarding tool for psychiatrists that allows incoming patients to describe their general state of affairs as if filling out a form only the form is an immersive environment generated by their own words.
The patient is enveloped in an setting that allows them to relax in order to better describe their mental situation.
Would it be better if there was 100x more psychiatrists and the onboarding could be done by people? I mean, I guess. Sure! Why not!
And, also, people have to fill out forms. All the time.
And some people are really comfortable describing their thoughts to what feels like their own selves. As if writing in a diary.
Today, using our app for the Vision Pro, I played one of the full dome films I’ve licensed for our startup (Sphere by Robert Koch and Mickaël Le Goff) and it washed and rinsed my mind.
For the first time in a week, or more, I was free from the weight of our dark reality.
But it took me a moment to relax enough. To surrender.
To have one’s eyes covered is to be vulnerable. And I’m feeling very much at risk these days.
So how did I manage to finally “open” my mind? I covered my ears.
I put on a pair of AirPod Max headphones. It was only when I was thus fully enveloped (eyes covered, ears covered) that I felt safe enough to allow myself to be transported.
A computer that requires you to feel safe before it works is, ipso facto, a most personal computer.
Perhaps, men will feel safe enough to wear it without a second thought. Maybe.
But I suspect the majority of users will only accept such an intimate machine if it’s presented as a device for wellness.
Which, ultimately, is what I think it is.
