The Discernable Interviews

Tom Goodwin: We Are Addicted to New Technology

1hr 11min

21 June 2022

Why are humans so addicted to new technology? We race to embrace that latest technological development even when it makes a task more difficult. We ignore the inefficiency we just created whilst marvelling at our engineering prowess!

Tom Goodwin points out and corrects these errors in judgement in his work as a consultant, speaker, author and presenter to organisations where the C Suite are at risk of burning resources on adolescent implementations of technology. In a way it’s understandable because being more outlandish is the only way futurists and technologists gain enough attention and they have captured boardrooms of companies everywhere.

Tom has a foundational belief of ‘human first’ and in this discussion we explored:

  • The attraction of technological hyperbole
  • Media is geared for attention seeking and outrage
  • Commonwealth countries resist following the USA into divisive politics
  • The road-centric society
  • When a technology succeeds too rapidly
  • Techno geeks and their brains that took over the world
  • Building empathy into technology
  • Restaurants that ruin themselves with technology
  • Covid-19 excuses in call centres
  • Are cryptocurrencies just technological indulgences?
  • Elon Musk’s enormous ego and dedication to free speech
  • Twitter is not a traditional ‘public square’
  • The New Normal
  • The pandemic lasted for different lengths of time for different people
  • Questioning reality – are we all just Sims?
  • The importance of working in an office (not from home)
    Fashionable ‘tolerance’
  • Beauty, difference and class structures