Steve Jobs, the founder and long-time leader of Apple, is credited with saying that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” He was talking about the intuitive design of the phones, tablets and computers the company makes.
But I have been embracing the concept of simplification in my own life recently, ironically due to a bad experience with Apple.
Sophistication is a misunderstood word. It is positively associated with complexity, elegance and being cultured or important. The word comes from the Greek “sophists,” a group of people who were itinerant teachers for pay, experts in rhetoric and philosophy, known for their ability to persuade. It’s how we get the notion of a “sophisticated” argument. In the fourth and fifth centuries, a sophist was a term of contempt for someone who engaged in fallacious arguments intended to mislead.
Whatever the meaning of the term, in modern usage related to technology, sophistication has come to mean having multiple devices and apps and programs. But, as I noted, I was moved by a tech company to make some significant reductions in technology in order to be more simple, or the ultimate sophistication.
The issue I had with Apple was the sudden closure of my Apple account. I don’t know what I did wrong and customer service would not tell me. I suspect I forgot to monitor my cloud storage and went over the limit. As I result, I had to start a new Apple account and rebuild much of my digital life.
Fortunately, I was able to recover some vital documents and other parts of my digital life. But in the process I made some significant, dare I say sophisticated (ie simple) changes:
- I eliminated many apps that I was no longer using;
- I purged my contacts, including hundreds of people who I no longer had a professional or personal relationship with. A surprising number of contacts are now deceased.
- I no longer back anything up to the cloud, since that was the source of my problem and exposed the fact that someone else controlled a lot of my stuff. I have several high capacity thumb drives and a large external hard drive and back up to those so I am not dependent on an impersonal company to retain access to my personal documents if anything happens to my equipment.
- I separated my work and personal lives by no longer syncing anything but calendar. Its a sophisticated, technological work-life balance.
- I have started to favor reading hard copy books from the library over electronic anything. I still have e-books and news online. But for a pleasant diversion I am enjoying free access, no power requirement, and no interruptions by ads, emails etc.
I thought I was doing something unique, emerging as “Tim Penning, unplugged.” But as I have spoken to people about this, I find a broader cultural movement with eliminating or reducing technology in our lives. Around the world, including various US states, there is a move to ban or limit cell phones for kids in schools and to monitor social media access. Many adults are voluntarily using technology less. I read an article that old basic flip phones are popular among young professionals. And of course there are all sorts of cautionary objections to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in our culture.
This view of technology may remind some of the Luddites, a group of British craftsmen in the 18th century who objected to automated machinery for fear of losing their lives. The term Luddite is unfairly used to indicate people just against all technology. But they were merely responding to a practical concern about their livelihood.
I am responding to a practical concern for my life.
Since going not no-tech but less tech, I have found I have greater energy and less stress. I savor times when I am walking in nature or reading a book on paper. I often set my phone in another room, shut down the computer, and do what comes naturally as opposed to waiting to respond to the next device “bing” like one of Pavlov’s dogs.
I feel sophisticated.
