You’d probably struggle to explain to anyone under the age of thirty that there was a time when the internet didn’t exist. Worse than that, tech didn’t really exist – at least not in the way we know and use it today. Some may remember when the solar powered calculator was hailed as ‘the future’. I’m being flippant of course but don’t be so quick to dismiss the solar powered calculator even if it did spawn some terrible jokes about ‘what if you need to do a calculation at night’ and school kids using the ‘magic eight’ style display to type in certain numbers that looked like rude words when turned upside down. Despite these childish pranks though, there’s a more serious point. It was Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu who said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and that’s what the solar powered calculator was – a step in the right direction. 

The thing about a renaissance is that you can only ever look back on it. In the moment, at the time, you don’t even notice it. It’s just something that happens around you. Well, that’s what happened to us. We were living in the age of the digital revolution but we didn’t know it. We were just happy with the progress. I for one am more than happy to reminisce about the ground-breaking Pong on the Atari but then we were introduced to the Spectrum 48k and the Commodore 64. This was greater processing power than that which took Armstrong and his crew to the moon and here it was in our own homes. Any comparison with today’s consoles of course is pointless but for that generation, this was the first time they’d been able to experience game playing at home. Prior to this, if you wanted to do that, you had to go to an arcade and fish around the back of the sofa to find enough coins for another go on Pac Man. Things were changing in the office too. The word processor had already reduced the typing pool to a puddle and by the time Windows ’95 had been introduced – well, that was a game changer. The rest as the say is history. An ironic turn of phrase of course because the direction of travel is only ever forward.

So, in terms of relevance, that’s the story behind why tech shapes our lives today. And, is kind of the explanation behind why our SDRs love tech so much. For a start, they get to work and play with some of the coolest tech in the world. They are at the cutting edge of everything that’s new and exciting and they get to hear about it, potentially years before we can get our hands on it. If you think about it, there’s not a commercial app or platform that isn’t designed to make our lives better and our SDRs get to see it first. That’s advances in cybersecurity, in med tech, fintech and basically any technology you care to mention. No wonder they’re enthusiastic. They get to see new SaaS solutions that can really help businesses and they get to see the latest and greatest innovations in all manner of tech fields. If you look at the things people worry about whether it’s health, the climate, money management and more, I can guarantee you that some of the world’s best people are on it, right now. What’s more, these are the kind of current issues which our SDRs are working with in the market every day. 

Tech reaches seamlessly into so many part of our lives now that it is integrated into everything we do from the phone in your pocket to the IoT devices at home. Doesn’t that make everyone feel better? Everything that’s working in tech now is done for our benefit. So lastly, do me a favour and stop giving the solar powered calculator such a hard time. It got us this far didn’t it?