Build the world you'll live in

2 minutes read

When we're young, we imagine the world as we want it to be. A world where everyone gets to play together, regardless of how fast they can run or how well they can see. Where technology just works for everyone, like magic. Where everyone gets along and there's always room at the table for one more.

Usually magic exists in that world and it's always a better world. I never heard of someone imagining a world worse off than it currently was when they imagined it.

When we grow up, we start to see that we can have an impact on the world. We can shape it ever so slightly to be closer to what we imagine. Some of us do it. Some of us just forget we all started from a vision of a better world, no matter how childish the vision.

Those that forget don't do it on purpose. Life gets in the way. I get it.

And when we forget, we end up building something else entirely. A world where we can't all play together. Where those that run fast don't look back to wait for those that need more time to catch up. Where those with perfect vision don't see those without. Where technology frustrates more than it helps. Where getting left behind becomes normal, expected even.

I'm sure we don't want to build that world. But it's what we're building nevertheless. And I can't understand why.

Especially when the world we're building is the world we'll live in.

We all age. And eventually we'll get to a point when our eyesight will fail us. Or our hands will ache when we try to open those impossibly tight jar lids. Our eyes will struggle to navigate websites with microscopic text. Maybe we'll appreciate that curb cut we never thought about when we're pushing a walker or wheeling a suitcase. Maybe we'll finally understand why captions on Netflix actually matter or why someone designed that app with voice commands.

Maybe you're there already. Maybe you're nowhere near.

In either case, don't forget where you started and what you imagined the future to be like.

Your future.

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