robinrendle-com-aa25aa.txt (6904B)
1 This Glorious Machine 2 3 Riding an e-bike is like discovering a long forgotten secret of the universe 4 or, perhaps, inventing something worthy of a heartfelt “eureka.” Look: zipping 5 through traffic on my first e-bike, blitzing past the stuffy tin cans all 6 around me, I’ve become master of the four winds. Now first place in a 7 triathlon, now a mythical creature that can move at the speed of thought. Upon 8 my trusty electric 6-gear steed I am Hermes, lord of heavenly motion. 9 10 And the sound! An e-bike makes every thunk, whip, and whirl that you might find 11 in a comic book: gears rattling, spokes spinning. Just listen to this thing go! 12 I’m dashing between cars and blurry, bipedal pedestrians, and right now, on my 13 first ride to work, I can’t stop smiling. 14 15 I’m smiling because, unlike so many promises that tech has failed to deliver, 16 e-bikes are genuinely worthy of an hour-long presentation delivered in a 17 turtleneck. If a computer is a bicycle for the mind, then an e-bike is a 18 bicycle for our bicycles, a wonder of micro-mobility as they reimagine our 19 relationship with our bodies and our cities and even with the future of 20 technology itself. 21 22 Simply put... 23 24 E-bikes aren’t a dumb tech grift. [1]# 25 26 As I weave through double parked cars and brave pedestrians, I see that this 27 bicycle with an electric motor has returned the hope I’d lost over the years. 28 Here, listen, it whispers: tech doesn’t have to be a con or make us the worst 29 versions of ourselves. Look: technology has kept its promise and genuinely made 30 the world better! 31 32 My e-bike is pulling me into an alternate dimension where tech isn’t designed 33 to be a grift from the start, as these two-wheeled bad boys aren’t only here to 34 generate shareholder value; they’re designed to help. 35 36 I’m halfway through my ride now and it’s dawning on me that this little e-bike 37 of mine offers a critique against tech culture as a mere profit-generating 38 tool, sure. But this machine comes with a vision, too. A vision of what a city 39 should be and how we ought to navigate it. 40 41 It’s clear from this ride that our cities have been built all wrong as for more 42 than a century we’ve incentivized cars to segment and separate our country into 43 human-free zones and endless freeways with generic, Lego-like blocks copy and 44 pasted in between. Although, my e-bike, as brilliant as it may be, is a 45 well-designed hack on top of all that. It’s a patch on top of poor city 46 planning and underfunded public infrastructure. 47 48 Our cities don’t have to work like this and e-bikes show us a clear way out: 49 every e-bike is a manifesto for lost common spaces, huge sidewalks with giant 50 trees above and local shops within walking distance. Parks! Places you can sit 51 down! Shade! Shelter! Not just an in-between place or a hurdle to 52 circumnavigate between your job and your home, e-bikes argue for a city to be 53 proud of instead. And isn’t that what tech was supposed to do, show us a way 54 out? 55 56 Wasn’t tech supposed to show us the future? 57 58 E-bikes are more punk rock than punk rock. [2]# 59 60 For a decade my primary method of transportation was a motorcycle. Back in my 61 early 20s I believed there was nothing more punk than an exploding hunk of 62 metal beneath me. Roaring, screaming through dinky villages in Devon or across 63 the sparse and shining cities of southern California. 64 65 Bicycles were the opposite of all that freedom. For decades I associated them 66 with my childhood and being trapped in my tiny hometown without access to the 67 wider world. Bicycles weren’t objects of desire or of longing because they 68 simply weren’t fast or loud. And to be cool there always has to be volume and 69 speed. Drums? Fast. Loud. Cool. Hip hop? Same. Motorcycles? What did you say? I 70 can’t hear you because my eardrums have shattered and all that remains is a 71 wonderful, heart-stompingly loud vibration in my chest; loudness personified 72 and loudness eternal. 73 74 But now, as I’m slipping between cars on my first e-bike after two decades of 75 being a total jerk and looking down on cyclists, I’m embarrassed to say I’ve 76 thoroughly learned my lesson. Bicycles, and e-bikes specifically, are genuine 77 wonders. Somehow strapping an electric motor onto a bicycle changes everything 78 for me. 79 80 Here’s the kicker though. E-bikes aren’t cool because of the way they look or 81 how loud they are and they’re certainly not cool because they turn heads or 82 make strangers jealous. Instead, e-bikes don’t care about cool. They argue for 83 a new kind of world where technology is genuinely helpful, where technology 84 doesn’t have to be cool at all. 85 86 Technology can just do the job it’s meant to. 87 88 E-bikes are the future we deserve. [3]# 89 90 Almost home now, stopping for a kid to cross the street. She’s smiling and 91 dancing, oblivious to the world around her, but now she’s caught sight of me, 92 looking me up and down. Slowly, she raises her hand up to her head in the shape 93 of an L. 94 95 Who knew that a simple gesture could undo years of therapy in a flash? And 96 sure, I might very well be a nerd, a loser, perhaps even a dreaded cyclist now 97 but no matter how much I love this machine it will never be truly cool. But 98 isn’t that...fine? 99 100 Cool tech is overrated anyway. We tend to think of cool in all the wrong ways 101 because we only see cool as loudness and speed and aluminum, presented on stage 102 to glorious fanfare. We see minimalism and a hefty price tag or the 103 unrealistic, bewildering promise that can’t possibly be kept and we think 104 that’s cool. Yet we tend not to think about hearing aids or MRI machines or 105 clean drinking water or contact lenses. We don’t think of small, meaningful 106 progress as cool and this limits our understanding of what technology is 107 capable of and what role we should play in it. 108 109 As someone who’s worked in tech for more than a decade (sorry) I’ve seen how a 110 lot of folks in the industry are terrified of making something merely useful. 111 It must be important! It must scale! It must have a million eyes on it! And 112 I’ve sat through meetings where progress isn’t measured by real progress, but 113 rather a bunch of abstract numbers in an ugly spreadsheet. So—ranting aside—I 114 reckon technology can only truly help us if we ignore what’s cool. Imagine no 115 more handsome, turtlenecked speeches or rapturous applause. Imagine no more 116 dumb catchphrases or logo redesigns or promises that can’t possibly be kept. 117 118 Rather, e-bikes ask us a new and exciting question: 119 120 What if we made something useful instead? [4]# 121 122 [footer] 123 124 References: 125 126 [1] https://robinrendle.com/stories/this-glorious-machine/#e-bikes-aren't-a-dumb-tech-grift. 127 [2] https://robinrendle.com/stories/this-glorious-machine/#e-bikes-are-more-punk-rock-than-punk-rock. 128 [3] https://robinrendle.com/stories/this-glorious-machine/#e-bikes-are-the-future-we-deserve. 129 [4] https://robinrendle.com/stories/this-glorious-machine/#what-if-we-made-something-useful-instead