Telomeres, computers, customization, and commoditization
You may never have heard of Telomeres, but they are the true Fountain of Youth. In your DNA, they are the section at the very end of every chromosone. They create an enzyme that allows cells to duplicate, to grow – they allow life itself. Over time, they wear down, and when they no longer exist, cells no longer exist and death occurs. Extend the length of telomeres and you can stay healthy and live for at least for 100-150 years.
But in life as in business, for every credit there is a balancing debit. Telomeres cause cells to grow and duplicate, so they not only create life, but they create cancer, and death. In fact, some scientists now believe that the reason telomeres eventually wear down is so that the body can avoid cancer. It is a natural defense. They wear down to allow us to live as long as we do.
If we can learn to control telomeres, we can end cancer and drastically extend our lives. You don’t believe me? Just Google it – go onto Wikipedia and check telomeres out for yourself.
Ah, Google and Wikipedia. These bring us to the subjects of computers and business. The computer age has brought electronic miracles to business – and devastation to human interaction and art. Because it has stored us as electronic blips, it has turned each of us and every business into a number. It has commoditized craftsmanship and originality. Today, most custom projects are put out to bid over the Internet. An easy way to find craftsmen is to look in unemployment lines. And they can’t get new jobs because they are skilled workers, and HR departments have used computers and the Internet to commoditize their personal abilities.
Did you know that when you met with your CPA prior to April 15, chances are good that he or she took all your tax information, copied it into his or her computer, and then e-mailed it to India before leaving for the night? Nighttime here is daytime in India. A cheap technician in India entered your data into the correct tax forms, and e-mailed all this back to your CPA, who then downloaded it, asked you to sign it, sent it to the IRS and billed you at his or her full rate. That’s personal service, circa 2011.
But modern communication is lightning fast, incredibly cheap, and impeccably accurate. What did we Americans do before computers? Well, we won several World Wars, amassed the greatest economy the world had ever known, built great cities with magnificent architecture, created masterpieces of art and literature, and developed a religious culture based on loving our fellow man. There were problems, of course – after all, we are simply animals with big brains, so we have animal instincts. As my father used to say, “People are the craziest monkeys.”
Even so, we didn’t do so badly.
Am I saying things were better before computers than they are now? No, I am not suggesting that we go back. I am suggesting that we move forward. But to move forward as a nation, we need to do several things.
First, each of us needs to realize that computers have allowed us to create more and better original ideas. We cannot continue taking these inventors and their ingenious custom work, and put no value in them. This is exactly what we do when we constantly seek a cheaper price. The epitome of this is electronic bidding. Companies post project specifications on line and accept bids from all approved vendors. Quality, imagination, craftsmanship, and an excellent final product – none are considered. The lowest bidder wins. Blip, blip, blip.
People do not need to interact with other people anymore. Families can sit in front of cable TV screens hour after hour, year after year, and be passively entertained. Kids don’t need to toss around a baseball when they can sit alone in dark rooms and play video games hour after hour, year after year. Blip, blip, blip.
So, how do we move forward? By controlling the telomeres in our lives and finding ways to make them work for us, not against us – namely, our computers, cable TVs, cell phones, I-Pads, I-Pods, Nooks, and more. We need to rediscover our humanity. We need to respect custom work and originality.
We need to love the brilliance of computer chips and reject commodity thinking. We need to buy our canned goods at Costco and our dress shirts at the local custom shop. We need to start with a room of experienced professional marketing people, creative thinkers all, and then use our computers to implement their ideas – not start with a computer and a techno-whiz who knows nothing about humanity, history, or the arts. We need to put value on a piece of fine wood furniture designed by an artist and hand-sculpted by a craftsman. In the end, will historians write that the American system unleashed human potential, made us the envy of the world, allowed us to overcome every challenger, and helped us live better, more productive, happier lives?
Or will they just say, “Blip, blip, blip.”