Technology of the Year, 2024 Edition

🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P22TEf4pZZs.

I haven’t written much this year. There are two reasons, and neither of them are tragic, thankfully.

The first: After writing Imagination with Relation in April, I felt that I had set a new benchmark for myself in regard to the writing I promised you all in January to revisit the foundational values Mid-year, I had an epiphany: I realized that I live by ten — not eight — foundational values. The ninth is love, which I have written about before. After months of intense reflection, I will reveal the tenth in my first post of 2025, which will arrive in January. I will resume regular updates after that.

The second: This was not a year of revolutionary new technologies, but rather a year of technology refinements. When I look back at the bar I’ve set for “Technology of the Year” since I started this, there was simply nothing in 2024 that approached what I offered in past years. Sure, there was some progress in Generative AI, but there were regressions as well. Windows got a boost in the ARM, but Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X offerings still can’t compete with Apple M4. The fact that Microsoft woke up to ARM in 2024 might have been the most important step of the year, but the technology behind it isn’t worthy of calling out.

For a period of my life, I was involved with an awards organization that had criteria for first, second, and third places. In some cases, we only offered a second, or even a third place award. In other cases, we offered no award at all. This organization had standards! I always respected that. I feel the same way about The Progressive CIO’s “Technology of the Year” – I don’t want to award something simply because it was better than other humdrummery.

So it will be this year.

I look forward to writing more deeply for you all in 2025. Happy New Year to you and yours!

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