Roundup: May 30, 2023

I miss the BlackBerry. I found some fun stuff.

The BlackBerry had the best keyboard of any phone I’ve ever had, and I miss it to this day. The new movie BlackBerry got me all misty. What a great phone it was! Until the week when the system crashed and no one could get their email.

I’ve never needed the latest technology, unless it solves a vexing problem. I went through the 1990s with an HP organizer (which I loved), then skipped the PalmPilot phase because I never saw why it was better. I got the BlackBerry for the keyboard, then held on to it until the next upgrade after the system crashed. I now have a Pixel with a broken display; I dropped it on the floor at the Mexico City airport trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets, which sounds like the plot of a sitcom episode. If I got a new phone, I would use it more, and I already doomscroll more than I need to.

The BlackBerry made a mark on our culture in another way. Back in the late years of the Obama administration, there was a meme that went the rounds showing Hillary Clinton texting from a military jet. At first, it seemed like a fun thing: the Secretary of State was on top of it all. But then, government investigators realized that she didn’t have an official email address. If she was using that BlackBerry for anything other than personal messages, there was a big problem.

And, of course, there was a big problem.

In that era, a group of investors including Ryan Seacrest tried to market an iPhone case that had a BlackBerry-like keyboard. I’m not the only one who loved that keyboard. They lost a patent dispute with BlackBerry, and so we’re all getting misshapen thumbs.

Anyway, go see the BlackBerry movie. It’s really good. And check out these things:

Things to Do

• Get Assistance: I set up three “assistants” in ChatGPT: one for travel planning, one for marketing ideas, and one for research assistance. The idea is that if I keep making requests in these three threads, the bots will get a better understanding of what I want. I found a blog that has a lot of prompts for business use to get me started, and it probably has ideas you can use for whatever you need. (blog.WordBot.io)

• Register for this webinar: How to beat age discrimination in the job search, on June 13 at noon central time. It’s open to alumni and friends of the University of Chicago, and I’m an alum and you’re my friend, so it’s cool. (University of Chicago Alumni Association)

Things to Read

• Looking for Solace: We’ve had a lot of illness on both sides of the family. I recently read the book Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler, and it’s fabulous. She’s a fantastic, funny writer. We’re all struggling, and terrible things happen, for no reason, to all of us. (Amazon affiliate link)

• Learning to Swim: Adults can learn to swim! If you never learned, for whatever reason, consider taking it up. It’s important for safety, and there are so many fun things to do in and near the water. (Washington Post)

Things to Hear

• Get Happy: Dan Gilbert has a TED talk on the science of happiness. It came out several years ago, but if it’s new to you, it’s new. You can start your summer off with a new perspective. (YouTube)