I am a massive fan of podcasts. I first started listening to them back in 2009 on my commute to work. It was so valuable to me to have the opportunity to learn whilst driving. Gaining back 'lost time'. Hanselminutes was my gateway drug to tech podcasts. It remains consistently brilliant after ~720 episodes. If you're interested in technology, go subscribe, I'll wait.
Back at the end of last year I discovered the BBC podcast The Missing Cryptonqueen. It tells the story of an entrepreneur who created her own crypto currency. Without wanting to give too much away (spoilers!), the currency was a smokescreen for an old-fashioned pyramid selling scheme.
What was different about this scam was the scale of the scam. She made billions (no, that's not a typo) of dollars selling people a dream. But technology wasn't what people were buying in to here, the dream for sale was making money. Technology was just the magician's misdirection.
The series got me thinking about the fine line between technology and magic. Arthur C. Clarke said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And it's true. Think back to the first time you saw a smartphone, or a videocall. You probably couldn't believe what you were seeing. If you had not been in the same room with it, touched it, you wouldn't have believed it was real.
But with software and a lot of the concepts surrounding it, you can't do these things. You can touch nosql or see a cryto currency. You can't be in the same room as a Kubernetes cluster. These things are conceptual by their very nature.
However the difference between technology and magic is that technology is magic that becomes real. These things that twenty years ago may have seemed fantastical, like being able to know the exact location of your friend where ever they are in the world are now commonplace. And therein lines the rub. Because the fantastical become real it is easy to deceive people. Even those with a lot of knowledge about technology.
However I believe what ever level you are at as a technologist, from straight out of college to Senior Vice President, we all have a responsibility to be clear, open and honest with those with less understanding. With a greater understanding of anything comes responsibility.
As tempting as it may seem to be liberal with the truth, like when your boss asks you tomorrow for an estimate on when that story is going to be done, honesty always pays back many times over. It could also seem like a good idea to oversell a particular technology or tool because you are curious to use it in the latest product you are building, but again, being honest and genuine with your motives, and your team, will stand you in better stead.
So, go use your better understanding of technology to help others, to explain the concepts, so they too understand them just a bit little more. Share your knowledge with everyone. And I mean everyone. Yes, even that family member who asks you again to explain why Duo is appearing next to all the contacts in his phone. Share my friends. ❤