Why Technology is Bad: A Call for Human-Centered Innovation

Why is tech bad?

I delve into the recurring failures of technology and the impact they have on our lives. From the recent CrowdStrike/Microsoft outage to the daily frustrations we all experience, it's clear that technology often misses the mark. But why is this happening, and more importantly, how can we change it? This article where a $6 Billion Tech Company Executive says "Gen Z job seekers should be willing to work for free, long hours, ‘willing to do anything’" hints at some of the issues I see. 

Key Takeaways:

• The Failure of Leadership: How poor leadership in tech companies prioritizes shareholder value over human well-being.
• Toxic Working Conditions: The detrimental effects of current work environments on both employees and the products they create.
• Lack of Vision: Why a compelling vision for a better future is crucial for technology to truly serve humanity.
• Personal and Collective Action: Steps we can take to support better practices and more human-centered technology.

Join me as I explore these critical issues, pick apart this article and share insights on how we can reclaim technology for the benefit of all. Let's create a world where technology enhances our lives rather than detracts from them.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Why technology often fails and disappoints despite its potential to improve lives.
• 4:21 Poor leadership and working conditions in tech industry.
• 12:29 Tech industry's negative impact on workers and society.
• 17:30 Technology's impact on work and society, with a call to action for positive change.

Transcript

Justin Wenck: 0:00

Are we really all that surprised when we consider how technology continues to fail us over and over again in so many ways, because it should be about impact. It should be about doing something that matters, not just putting in long hours because somebody says, so it's time to start wiping up things, and enjoy a beautiful, wonderful world where technology is here to serve us. It's here to serve us, not the other way around. The good news is we can change all of this. This is all stuff that we can change. Once you do it does matter. It does matter. Are you ready to live a life with enough time, money and energy? have relationships and connections that delight you? Are you ready for the extraordinary life you know, you've been missing? If so, then this is the place for you. I'm a best selling author, coach, consultant, and speaker who's worked in technology for over two decades. I'm a leader at transforming people and organizations from operating in fear, obligation and guilt to running off joy, ease and love. It's time for engineering emotions and energy with me, Justin Wenck. PhD. Why is technology bad? That's the question I'm going to be talking to today. So if you're watching this, right, when it comes out, this is about two weeks after the large CrowdStrike slash Microsoft outage of so many key critical internet systems. A lot of people got impacted around the world. Nobody, most people did not know what CrowdStrike was. Now they just know it caused a huge pain in their life. I even have a friend who was in Las Vegas at the time, and it was supposed to be flying back. But all of the airlines systems were down or at least the ones for his airline was down and he ended up having to take a 24 hour Greyhound bus trip back. And this is probably just the latest biggest technology disaster. That is was a huge global scale self inflicted, it wasn't even, you know, a cyber attack. There was no you know, security vulnerability. This was no way y2k issue waiting to happen. Yet, are we really all that surprised when we consider how technology continues to fail us over and over again, in so many ways, this is just a big one that really hit people in a lot of critical ways yet, even just to the smallest things of where it just makes us feel like we're missing out because it's like, you get a beep and, or a vibrate or whatever. And it's like, oh, is this you know, somebody I want to hear from her on just something asking you, you know, do I want to try Uber Eats for free? And it's just, it's just like, so why? Why is technology bad? Like, this wasn't why I got into technology. And I will be going over three, three main points as to why technology is bad. So get get ready to buckle up and enjoy these three parts that I'll be getting to. And I'm also going to be referencing a story that I read on Yahoo Finance, that really got me motivated to do this topic, as well, because I think it helps underlying why technology is bad, because I've been in the technology field was way too long now. I mean, I got into it when I was like a teenager. You know, like I like playing video games. And then, you know, I was like, Oh, can we get Can we get a computer at some point. And then I you know, got a computer and then I got into computer repair. And you know, there's always been been challenges with technology needs fixing and problem solving and things like that. Yet, I was really enjoyed the promise of technology that it's like, oh can make our lives simpler, make that make our lives easier, allow us to have time to do the things that like we care about enjoy to spend time with people to connect, to be in nature, to have adventures to do things that light us up and enjoy being a human. Like, I might not have had the words to describe it when I was 15. But that was that was what it was about. It wasn't what it's about now, because does anybody actually know what technology companies do? what their purpose is? There's what they say they're meant to do. But do you know what they really do? They do the same thing that every other company does, which is they seek to increase shareholder value. That's all they're here to do. They're not here to do anything for you or me. That's the system that we have. And so there's a lot where people are worried about like, what's AI going to do? It's gonna do what we choose it to do and if we allow, and I'm going to get into the three points which is leadership. There's there's leadership is one of the problems. Working conditions is an issue. And then lack of vision. And these are all things that are changeable because these have nothing to do with technology these have to do with, with you, me and the other people, as we collectively decide what kind of world we want to live in. So that's the good news. So how did we, how did we get here? Or why are we here. And you know, this is not a history class. This is a fun podcast about how to like improve your life, and improve the world because it is kind of like Improve Your Life, Your World gets better and other people's gets better, because people who are living a better life just tend to do better things. And so let's talk about leadership. Leadership is just bad across the board in most companies that are very, very large. Other than, you know, they do what they're supposed to do is increase shareholder value. But when it comes to technology, so I saw this article on Yahoo Finance, which I don't for some reason, I'd like to get some of these articles. But the the article is titled titled, Gen Z job seekers should be willing to work for free, long hours willing to do anything. So Squarespace Chief Marketing Officer kinjal, mature. So Squarespace is a $6 billion software service provider. A lot of websites you go to could be, you know, hosted, partly created by Squarespace. And the person who does the marketing believes that, hey, it's your problem, that you can't get a job, you just need to do anything and everything for free until maybe you get what she want, which seems a little odd. And then this article, she goes on to say that, like, you know, when I was doing it, I'd go through the Yellow Pages. Because that's, that's how long this person's been at it. And I would just, you know, do anything and whatever I did what it takes, because I didn't think just just my finance degree was good enough. And you know, got that first internship, and then that led to another and another and then just continue working hard and harder and harder. And if you've read my book, you're to kind of like, you know, I say fuck hard work. Because it should be about impact. It should be about, you know, doing something that matters, not just putting in long hours, because somebody says, So, I guess who's saying so mature? Yeah, it was funny. Okay. It's like, well, let's check out the Squarespace website and see what they're all about. And one thing I found is funny is they have recognition highlighted. And they say like, We are humbled to consistently win workplace recognition for being a truly exceptional place to work. That's not being humble anymore. You just bragged about it. Like, I'm way more humble than these people. I am so much more humble than Squarespace. But and I don't think they can say that they've ever been humbled because I'm way more humble than they are. They clearly have not been humbled. Because they're just straight up bragging. So if this is what the chief marketing officer thinks is good stuff, I don't know. And so it really is just kind of this is the leadership. Yeah. And I was like, let me ask Chad GPT what's you know, because because she says, I was willing to work for free, I was willing to work any hours they needed even on weekends, or evenings, I was not focused on traveling, you really have to just be willing to do anything, any hours, any pay any type of job just really remain open. So I find this is just a bad, bad leadership. I mean, I asked chat GPT. So I'm like, Okay, let's ask technology, what technology thinks of this concept of that and chat. GPT says, What you just described that could be volunteering, if it's done willingly. And for a nonprofit, charitable community based organization, which Squarespace is not. They're not, it's as if it's in a work context where compensation is expected and not provided, it could be considered exploitation. And so I find that leadership that was saying, Hey, you should just be exploitable because I was because I got exploited as I was going up through the system. Like this is not good. This is not good leadership. This, you know, that's just gonna lead to just work harder, just do more, but what are we doing? Why are we doing things? Right? So this that leads me to number two, which is the working conditions. These are horrible, awful working conditions, right. And then people are under horrible, awful working conditions. They are not thinking their best. They're probably not thinking for the best of other people. And they are not thinking of probably just anything other than And I just don't want to lose my job. Because I don't want to be a failure, I don't want to be a disappointment. I don't want to get I don't want to have to go through all of the struggle that took me to get this shitty job, right? So if these if these are the conditions for the people that are creating your technology, are they going to be thinking of how can I ensure that someone has a smooth, amazing, beautiful experience, and that this is going to uplift them, and this is going to help them connect with their families, this is going to help them you know, actually be creative and allow their voice to be heard in the world. They're just going to go back, I guess I just somebody said so. So I better do it. This is basically the old it's garbage in, garbage out type of thing. Like if the workplace is garbage, the work out is going to be garbage. Pure and simple. And it's only getting worse. Because I do think like, you know, you got to chat GPT, which I recommend, always be polite to chat GPT because you're always kind of training it. So I say please, I say thank you, I'd say I appreciate that. Like, Hey, could you let me know this, like that wasn't so good. i Yeah, just because I want it to be nice back to me. It's not a person, it never will be a person. It should never be a person. It's technology technology supposed to be here to serve us. Yet. When we look at the working conditions, we're serving technology. And then when we see the technology that comes out, we also ended up serving that technology. So it's just it's already a completely backwards as from what I wanted technology to be about. So that's the second thing is the working conditions are, are bad. And a lot of tech companies, they have really great benefits. You know, like good short term disability, good mental health. And that's because they're necessary. Because it's such it's such an exploitive environment, and many, many companies that people have horrible health issues, they have horrible mental health, the suicide rates, which are often not actually disclosed or share they're put under the rug are really, really startling ly high. And that's why they have these benefits. So that it's kind of like, Oh, hey, we have these things available. It's not our fault. It's the workers fault. Because again, the leadership's is, hey, you're just supposed to do whatever it takes. You're supposed to work hard. And that's your fault if something bad goes happen. Yeah. And one other kind of fun quote that comes from martyr the Chief Marketing Officer. I think it's just I'm sure most other C suite executives and large companies have these just martyr was said the quiet part out loud. Like, I don't know why they're sharing this like so now, you know, don't go work at Squarespace. I would not advise you to use Squarespace, because apparently, they must treat most of their employees horribly. And eventually, that's going to turn into a horrible product. So here's another quote that, oh, it's about hiring new people out of college, the list of criteria for people coming out of college or in college right now is so long, saying that the time will come that you can be picky. But for now, the advice is to flip the script. And instead of saying, Hey, are you going to treat me like with respect and dignity, if you didn't give me any kind of experience, I would be forever indebted to them. That's the advice be forever indebted to the place of work. That's awful. And then she's She says I was willing to work for free. I was willing to work any hours I needed even on weekends and evenings. I think I read that one already. So let me this brings me to point number three of why technology is bad. Its vision, or lack of vision, the Squarespace vision is our vision is a future where everyone can be an entrepreneur, apparently, so they don't actually have to pay people then they can just, you know, negotiate to pay them nothing and go like well, they're not even employees. So we don't actually have to bide by any sorts of rules or regulations that you know, might give somebody you know, certain number of hours or health care or anything. We can just get whatever we want out of them. That's That's our vision. Gross. That's awful. How about a vision where everybody has enough money, everybody has enough food, everybody has enough access to medical care, baby, you know, some of you're gonna be like, that sounds ridiculous. Justin's like, No, we pretty much have a world where that is 100% possible. There's enough resources. There's enough there's enough abundance. It's just all a matter of deciding that that's what we collectively would like to do. That's called the vision no mean that at some point, we humans don't need to do anything. Right? Because you just imagine with artificial intelligence getting is, you know, getting better and better. The rise of robotics, there literally will be no reason for any human to do anything. So why, why get up in the morning? That is, that is the big question. And it is to do these things that I said is the reason for technology that I knew back when I was 15. Before I went and got a doctorate electrical engineering, before I started working at super, super huge fortune 100 companies and, you know, big giant, multi billion dollar pre IPO startups, is it the whole point is to allow us to, you know, have adventure, and to have fun and joy, and to connect with people, and to be able to be creative and do stuff just for the experience of it. And I don't see the leaders of our tech companies having really any vision of this, of this, actually, there's some there's definitely some that get closer. And there's a ton of like, really small startups out there that, you know, do have this vision. And that's one of the things that I love doing is working with these startup founders, and helping accelerate them and scale them as fast as possible. So that we do have some technology that is actually meant to service, right, that is actually here for our benefit. And that's going to be a company where the workers are feeling like they're having an impact. And they are getting rewarded for the impact that they're having. They're not doing it to eat or to survive, because they're not good enough, yet. They're doing it because this is why they want to be a part of enabling the human experience to expand and to grow. And to get over the idea that you have to struggle and you have to fight. It's so old, That's so old, that's like the yellow pages, the Yellow Pages is dead, this way of thinking of our work environment needs to be dead, it needs to be gone. It's it's enough, it's, it's time, it's time to upgrade. And then hopefully, we're not going to have another CrowdStrike like fiasco because I was looking up on, you know, so CrowdStrike apparently, they have this cybersecurity software that's in a lot of mission critical arenas, it's supposed to help stuff, they push, they pushed an update. And, you know, they didn't test it, they didn't test it as well as they should flat out period, you know, they didn't have a good strategy for rolling it out, they didn't have a good enough strategy for testing it. Likely, because they wanted to increase shareholder value. I was looking up their, you know, the last quarterly profits I was able to look was, you know, like a good record quarter. And it looks like maybe it's not going to be so good. Maybe this this next quarter. But again, that's an anomaly. Because usually companies just get away with this, they, they're able to get more money, they're able to improve the shareholder value. And so they get encouraged for basically just like, squeezing the blood out of the stone, and the stone being the workers, and also the consumers. So it's we get less, and shareholders get more, but to what end to what end, the shareholders get all the money. We're all even if you're a shareholder, you got to live in this world, too. Right? I don't know. I've always found it very interesting. A lot of people who are just like, I don't have any kids, why should I pay for schools, I kids bored kids will just do nonsense, like cut up your card or beach up or whatever, because they're bored, and they don't know better. So teach them things. And so they do something else besides cause mayhem and whatever. So just from a pragmatic sense, like, invest in people and invest in a vision. And I want to live in a world where we don't have a CrowdStrike downturn ever again. We're not saying that peoples that have invested heavily into their education, and learning skills that they still haven't done enough and they need to be indebted to somebody who gives them a shot to do work for them for free. And I liked that there wasn't even any talk about doing this because this is your passion. And you know, if something is your passion, this is just like, bullshit admin nonsense crap work. That is was likely dumb. When it's because I mean, done point four, which is back to leadership. A lot of leaders just have bad ideas they're poorly thought out. I once worked with a principal engineer who he told me he's like, Yeah, When my boss, the director tells me to do something, I wait until he tells me three times because most of the stuff he asked for he doesn't even care about. So I just ignore it until he asked three times, and then I consider doing it. And I found this to be very prudent and wise that most of the people in charge asking for stuff. They don't know, I even recognized a lot of times I asked for stuff. And it's not that important or that thought out. And I'm always very happy when my my producer, my executive assistant, kind of goes like, why are we doing this? Or what's Do you still want me to do that? And sometimes I'm like, you know, no, I don't need that. Not at times. You know what? That's, I'm glad you caught that. Yes, we should really do that. Yeah, because it's like, we should be doing things that are thought out and have benefit and have impact, we shouldn't just be working hard. We shouldn't just be forcing people to do crap, because we went through crap. It's it that just leads to a shitty world. It's a shitty world, it's time to start wiping up things. Tidy up, go clean, and enjoy a beautiful, wonderful world where technology is here to serve us. It's here to serve us, not the other way around. And it's only going to be that way when we have companies that are there to serve their worker, and also there to serve their consumer, and not just there to set to serve shareholders. So you're wondering why technology is bad. That's why that's that's the reason. And the good news. The good news is we can change all of this, this is all stuff that we can change. You can change it by, you know, where you decide to work, what products you decide to buy. And also buy a you know, what the what regulations and stuff you decide to support or don't support. So do be mindful of like, hey, what's it? What's it like? Because once you do, it does matter? It does matter. So with that, I want to know what you think? What are some examples of technology like not working out very well? And how could How could technology better? What are some of your ideas that can make technology good? Because I do believe that now more than ever, we have so much possibility to make this the world that that we all would like to live in. And there's plenty and there's enough. So with that. Thank you, and good day. Thanks for tuning in to engineering emotions and energy with Justin Wenck PhD. Today's episode resonated with you please subscribe and leave a five star review. Your feedback not only supports the show, but also helps others find us and start their journey of emotional and energetic mastery. You can also help by sharing this podcast with someone you think will love it just as much as you do together or engineering more amazing lives.