Jargogled Impressions.

As a consultant, travel becomes a part and parcel of your life. Being on the move constantly has severe disadvantages when it comes to continuity, certainties, expectations, and planning. Especially with the unreliable weather patterns and languid airliners struggling to compete with shrinking margins, these uncertainties rise like hot air balloons and end up consuming an alarming portion of your productive time.

On the flip side though, there are moments when you realize that stepping out of your own zones can be an intensely enlightening experience. With a constant streaming of new environments and new demographic zones, the experiences are able to swing themselves precariously from one end of the spectrum to another.

I had a therapeutic conversation with an Uber driver the other day. As is often the case, I found myself with a talkative lady which did make me wonder if there’s a self-selection bias when it comes to these sharing economy providers – more conversation friendly, the more fun it is to drive random strangers, the more they ply. The frequency with which I meet similar folks on the numerous Uber / Lyft rides speak their own story.

Anyways, back to the lady. She seemed to be a cheery, opinionated, and grounded (had been in Arizona for the last 30 years or so) person who was well versed in her ways and satisfied with her world. I could not be more wrong.

Turns out, the lady had been a mid-level executive in a multi-national healthcare provider organization and had been traveling throughout the country as part of her role in operations. Expert in turning around loss-making pharmacy holdouts she worked tirelessly on her role and traveled the world.

What she told me then shocked me.

She mentioned she was now a part-time Uber driver, worked as a grief counselor, taught music an an elementary school, volunteered at a local NGO, and published articles with a media organization. At this point, I was wondering if I had come across an older version of a modern day millennial who keeps herself busy all the time in a relentless pursuit of being successful and recognized and as an antidote to FOMO.

Again, I was surprised by what else she had in store.

She lost her son when he was 22 years old due to a faulty heart condition. It struck me then how wrong I had been in forming a mental picture of the lady when I had first stepped into her car and into her world. For those brief 30 minutes, as I found myself learning more about her life and her journey to where we were in that moment, it was a one of the most heartening Thursday mornings I could possibly have experienced.

She mentioned her focus on putting those 22 years she shared with her kid as the part of her life when she was blessed with a gift that was only meant to last these many years. As she traced her thinking then when she used to trouble herself with planning for a future for her son, his tuition / college payments, his future, etc. to where she was now when only the present mattered, it was clear to me that she had imbibed the sorrow as an amazing memory, and the grief as a learning pivot.

It seemed to me that this lady here had turned what must have been one of the most harrowing experiences of her life to a slice of her life that was in fact the most beautiful and charming part, largely through a reformulation of what those short 22 years had given to her.

We often focus on the de-humanizing aspects of technology and the wreak it has inflicted on our personal connections as we increasingly find ourselves attached to that 5.7*2.8 overlord we keep ourselves glued to constantly. We delude ourselves calling into question the impact technology is having on us when in fact, its a natural evolution of our species. How we adapt to it is naturally a choice but given the deep satisfaction we feel when we actually connect to someone, I am hopeful that the choices we make would lead us to explore further how we can maintain, even augment these moments of revelation and deep connection. Much as the lady who drives an Uber purely for the satisfaction of meeting and connecting with fellow travelers of the world, there are people who are using technology to positively impact their own lives and those of others. Being conscious of how you use technology then, is what will drive what you get out of it.