38 Analog

“Our accelerating disappearance into the digital ether now defines us—we are the mediated people, whose contact with one another and the world around us is now mostly veiled by a screen. We threaten to rebel, just as we threaten to move to Canada after an election. But we don’t; the current is too fierce to swim to shore.” - Bill McKibben After returning from summer holidays, we feel compelled to incorporate more analog habits into our lives and into our business. We’ve both felt the physical acknowledgement that the pen is an extension of the human body in a way that typing on a keyboard will never be. The writer and activist Bill McKibben writes that humans have come to use screens as mediators that color virtually every experience and relationship in our modern lives. If the solution to digital overwhelm is to make a conscious effort to engage in offline living, how do we apply these analog tools to business? Offline connections. Word of mouth. Sales calls. Good old-fashioned networking. We’re all trying so hard to automate and to minimize the contact that we have with potential clients and customers, but the truth is that people trust (and crave) human connection. How can you find ways to take your online community offline? How can you add just a little more humanity into someone’s life? Other Mentions: Why I Love My Paper Dictionary, Pause! We Can Go Back!, Surviving This Summer on the Internet Joy: The Artist’s WayHustle: The Revenge of Analog