JUST THINK

My own  expectations of everything in my life are way out of whack.

It  means that I am almost always disappointed. But not for long.

I remind  myself that actually I don’t care because there will always be something else  next. I either get frustrated or get on. My choice. I expect great things from  other people. I expect great things from what I do. I expect great things from  technology and of every aspect of life’s journey. I know. It’s stupid. But on  the whole Apple has never let me down. It’s true my expectation of some people  has gone down. But my expectation of people hasn’t.

I just haven’t  found the key to unlocking more belief in us as a species – on a grand scale –  as a WE – a more socially connected more influential whole. There goes my  grand expectation whirring into life again.

Frustration is always  around but what am I going going to do? Well actually I’m going to do  something. Sure I’m going to continue to get prickly when the internet goes  down, people act dumb, airport process – people royally disappoint and piss me  off – stuff like that. But I’m doing something – I’m remaining optimistic in  the face of it all.

Anyway frustration is becoming a daft and all to  easy a word. It’s a cop out. An excuse. It’s also, like all too many words,  overused – abused. What does it really mean. In point of fact – for me it’s  the raw material of creativity – the catalyst of action and change. Bring it  on. No wait.

The category should be redefined from tablet to Laptop,  Desktop – Lifetop.

Well the iPad looks like a real sign of  optimism to me – and if Steve Jobs becomes even richer good luck to him. It’s  an engine of optimism, no matter how long it takes for the idea of what it is  to take root – it is a game changer for a kind of WE.

• Smaller, so more  people carry it
• Cheaper so that it  and its applications will more likely get to grips, literally, with what it  represents and…
• Game changing  because it will bring a more thoughtful thinking connectivity to ours and  future generations.
  

This is a new category.

Instead of sitting  at a desk, for the first time you can hold the thing like a book and read  stuff. For the first time, unlike a computer you can pass the thing around and  exchange ideas in that more social way. For the first time, because of Apple’s  paradigm changing reach, this will become the device of millions. So our  challenge is not with the device and others like it but what we make it do.  The ‘Apps’ we create, the use we put it to.

This category – the Lifetop  - has the capacity to change our way of working and thinking. It’s not locked  down to the desk, it’s not the teeny screen with limitations like a phone, its  inbetween. But unlike other category killers it’s not quite yet a category. It  will be when we use our imaginations to put such a tool to use.

I  hope WE do. What say you?