technology

It has been a while since I have been deprived of technology.

The last time I seriously remember living without technology was my summers in China when I was in elementary school. I received my first phone when I was in 4th grade, and I remember playing a lot of free mobile games ever since whenever I was bored, which was often, when my parents would be late picking me up from swim practice or some other activity. Before that, I would preoccupy myself without technology, and it is hard to imagine how I would do so considering the integral role of technology in my life now.

Even when I was in college, I was not too interested in technology in the abstract. I liked data science, but more in the academic sense. I liked statistics and writing code that made me feel like I was smart when I ran it and created a model I didn’t entirely understand. After graduating, I covered transportation for two years, and that was interesting. At the time, during the peak of covid, everyone wanted to cover internet because internet stocks were going through the roof. I also fell within the hype for a bit, but then I realized that covering internet meant more than covering Amazon, Facebook, and Google. When I was interviewing for internet equity research positions, I realized that it also meant covering online travel agencies, and I didn’t want to cover online travel agencies.

Now that I am a tech investor, I think about technology quite a bit. I don’t take the technology I use for granted because I recognize its complexity and the magnitude of its accomplishment. Even though my apartment here in Santa Teresa is multiples cheaper than the one I had in SF, the quality of life is not that much worse. The infrastructure is less developed, both in roads and power and internet, but the houses are still the same, the appliances are still the same, and the food is more-or-less the same. Innovations in materials and production have resulted in everything being so cheap compared to how they were before, and I am able to live comfortably knowing that Beyond Meat costs the same in SF and Santa Teresa.

My power frequently goes out now, which means that my internet also frequently goes out. I lose connection to the internet. Even though I still have access to my e-books I downloaded, I don’t particularly feel the desire to read. I still have all the technology that I really want to have, including air conditioning, running water (but not hot water), and gas stoves, but it does make me miss the internet, which I think is the ultimate accomplishment of humanity until this point. I don’t entirely understand how the internet works, but I find it absolutely beautiful that I can stream an educational video about any topic from mostly anywhere in the world.

I spent the night yesterday watching Attack on Titan analysis videos after finishing the series yesterday, particularly on how Eren and Historia were the true ship in the series, which I agreed with. I originally wanted to work longer and prepare more for a CFO call I had the next day, but then I decided after dinner that I didn’t want to work anymore. It was one of my more unproductive evenings that I have spent this year. I don’t know why I am like this.

In theory, I have the same resources as I did in SF. I still have the same internet, with the same access to information, with the same ability to research stocks. Sure, I have one less monitor than I am used to, and my chair is less comfortable, and the lighting is bad, but I still have everything I need to be a good investor as I did before. What is it about me right now that encourages me to live less than my potential? Surfing in the afternoon and sipping beer in the evenings is the life that I have right now, that I never wanted nor imagined I would have.