Early adopter or retro-grouch?

It has been a while since my last post. I ran an experiment in that post, using a dictation app to write it. Ultimately, I found the process of writing by dictation both difficult and unrewarding. I am not sure if unrewarding is the correct term, but there was a sense of disconnection, a sense of the work not being mine. Now, I know and understand that over time and with regular use, I may have overcome that difficulty and embraced the technology — I have in the past with other newfangled things — but there is a current conflict in my psyche between being an early adopter and a retro-grouch.

Over the past several months, as I have run the kernel of an idea for a journal entry about my being between the poles of early adopter and retro-grouch, I have contemplated using the term Neo-Luddite. After some research, I discovered that retro-grouch is a term used almost exclusively in the cycling world. The best explanation or definition I could find came from a mountain bike website — xjd.com.

The term “retro-grouch" refers to cyclists who prefer older, often simpler bikes over the latest high-tech models. This philosophy is rooted in a love for the craftsmanship and aesthetics of vintage bikes. Retro-grouches often value the experience of riding over the performance metrics that dominate modern cycling culture.

While Wikipedia defines Neo-Luddism as follows:

Neo-Luddism, or new Luddism, is a philosophy opposing many forms of modern technology. The term Luddite is generally used as a pejorative for people with technophobic leanings. The name is based on the historical legacy of the English Luddites, who were active between 1811 and 1817. While the original Luddites were mostly concerned with the economic implications of technological improvements in relation to industrialization, neo-Luddites tend to have a broader, more holistic distrust of technological progress.

Through this research, I believe the term retro-grouch is the more accurate term for what I sometimes feel about new technology, but at the same time more often than not, I am also an early-adoptor — any new “shiny object” that promises to make my life simpler, improve my photography, make me a faster cyclist, give me bragging rights about my tech-savvy, brother, I am all in! Then comes the reality check: my life is often more complicated, my photography hasn’t noticeably improved, I've never really gotten any faster as a cyclist, and nobody cares about how tech-savvy I was/am.

Those periods of insight, when I came to understand the limits of whatever new “shiny object” that I just had to have, often resulted in a period of regret, buyer’s remorse and an inclination to reject new technologies and seek solace in the past — the good old days. That was particularly true over the forty-odd years of my cycling era, but I have slipped back into a retro-grouch stance on journaling, task management, photography and writing.

These days I keep a journal with pen and paper — lots of pens and lots of paper — new “shiny objects!”

Over time, I have tried all sorts of task management methodologies and tools, many of them as part of programs I managed in my career in the cycling industry. I even tried a tool using AI, created by David Sparks at MacSparky.com, which he called the Robot Assistant. He built a basic tool with Claude Cowork that you could modify and add to, doing what he calls “donkey work.” I used the Robot Assistant to keep track of my calendar and task list, and to hold me accountable for a number of things — a form of coaching. It worked great for a while, but ultimately the disconnect and distance I was describing above developed — and it was too literal, too many X’s and O’s, and not enough humanity. So, I have gone back to the only task management system that has worked for me: the Bullet Journal method, an entirely analog methodology — see journaling above.

I fully embraced the current enthusiasm for analog film photography, but I fell down the rabbit hole of new, well, used “shiny objects,” actually and still struggle to get any real photography done with analog tools. I cannot seem to let go of digital photography — I quit photography in the early 1980s because I found it frustrating, time-consuming and expensive. I thought I had left photography behind, but in 2007 I bought the iPhone the day it was introduced (early adopter) — digital photography was easy, and the camera was always in my pocket! I wish it had stayed that simple, but I chased the white rabbit down the deep hole of new “shiny objects.” The rabbit hole was deep and expensive, and I took an express elevator down, and down, and down. Today, I shoot almost exclusively with my iPhone again!

My experiment with the dictation app was my attempt to make my life easier, to write and post more of these journal entries, among other projects. I have experimented with ChatGPT and Claude Chat to help me with my writing. I have limited those experiments to a more “proof-reading” level rather than a compositional tool. I have found that I like Grammarly more for regular proofreading — granular spelling, punctuation, tense, etc. It is too easy to let ChatGPT or Claude rewrite your work — it is no longer yours; it’s too clean, and there’s too much separation from the creation and creator.

I have not moved entirely to analog in any of my efforts/activities. I am working on a photo diary, an effort that I hope will develop into a 365 project for 2027. I do not print out each day’s photographs and insert them into my analog journal — I add them to the Apple Journal app — an app that is very basic and almost bad (do you hear me, Apple?). I am still using digital photography tools, my iPhone, various cameras and Photoshop, but I am experimenting with Polaroid lifts and making my own books by hand using the Japanese stab binding technique. I am writing this journal entry in an app called Ommwriter — a very simple interface (see screen capture below) with some background music and no spelling/grammar checker. It would take days for me to write an entry of this length by hand — but I am fascinated by the revival of interest in typewriters! Another potential new/used “shiny object” and another deep rabbit hole.

So, I am apparently an early adopter and retro-grouch simultaneously. I drift back and forth from one pole to the other — back and forth without making any progress in my pursuits. I am lost at sea without a compass to find my way to my destination.