June 13, 2016

To survive we need to be smarter than smart products; like “Walking the Fitbits”

Sir, Lucy Kellaway writes about the ever increasing number of products supposed to help us manage intelligently many daily chores “We need more smart products because we are stupid” June 13. I think she has missed a very interesting point, namely our efforts to beat these products because we’re smarter.

For instance children who are concerned with their parents not walking enough have furnished many of us a Fitbit... for many of us a torture instrument. That represents a great market opportunity for hackers or app developers who find a way to surreptitiously multiply the number of daily steps taken. I am currently working on a more basic method I call “Walking the Fitbit”. It very simply consists in a group of neighbors organizing themselves to take turns walking each other’s Fitbits. I can already see before me seven Fitbits gladly sharing the same arm… while six happy walkers take a day off. 

We will survive!​

@PerKurowski ©