Sometimes Jumping In At The Deep End Makes You Love Swimming
My first day at 10Fold was a whirlwind of acronyms, complicated jargon, and general confusion. I heard the term edge computing for the first time ever, I sat in on a meeting where at least fifty percent of the words made no sense, and I learned that the cloud is far less fluffy than I assumed. I vividly remember thinking, “what have I gotten myself into?”
I grew up with the technological revolution; if Google were a person, it would have been in my grade in school. I scarcely remember a world before CDs were the norm, and can hardly believe that people used to go everywhere without a cell phone (because they hadn’t been invented yet) and were not only functional but content with being unreachable. Technological paradigm shifts were as much a part of my childhood as Harry Potter or making mud pies, and for that reason, the next one has always been an exciting prospect for me. Dramatic change was not only a possibility but a probability.
We are advancing more rapidly than at any other point in human history. When you consider this reality, the possibilities are endless. Share on XHaving grown up in this world of tech, I went into this summer feeling as though I knew all there was to know about it. I knew what the cloud was, I knew that robots existed and that they were useful sometimes, and I knew that computers can communicate with each other. Turns out, despite technology having been there every step of the way for me, there was A LOT I had to learn.
Instead of choosing to be discouraged by everything I needed to learn, I began immersing myself in the less-publicized side of technology. Now, two months into my internship, I am more fascinated by deep, complex tech concepts than ever. I find it incredibly exciting that the future innovations that we will someday come to rely on have their foundations within the kinds of clients that 10Fold works with.
Imagine a future in which every drop of water used in agriculture is accounted for, and leaks are a thing of the past; where a smart hospital not only knows that you’re sick before you do, but how to cure you; where cars can talk to each other to not only prevent collisions but also minimize or even eliminate traffic. All of these things sound futuristic, and they are, but the coolest part about living today is that by using concepts such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, they will all likely be possible in our lifetimes.
We are advancing more rapidly than at any other point in human history. When you consider this reality, the possibilities are endless. If someone had told my parents on the day I was born that, by the time I was in college, you could buy a pocket-sized device that can access the entirety of human knowledge, or store billions of gigabytes in the cloud, they probably would have looked at you funny. Today, not only are these technologies real, but we use them every day, and anyone can upload to the cloud; because virtually everyone has some form of internet-accessible cell phone.
Who’s to say that Back to the Future was wrong about what’s to come?
10Fold, in the multi-office format we exist in today, would have been impossible to operate only a short time ago. It’s very likely that your job would have been too. The ritualized, technology-reliant tasks we do every day would be unbelievable and fascinating to someone even only fifty years ago.
The initial pain of wading through a dictionary of terms I was totally unfamiliar with has ultimately been extremely worth it. Now, I don’t only feel more educated on the future of tech, but genuinely excited for what’s to come.
Yes, change can be scary. However, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t simultaneously incredibly exciting. Based on how far we have come in my lifetime alone, I am certain that in another twenty years, even more now-inconceivable technology will have become everyday and life-changing. There’s no reason for the exponential growth of advancement to slow, let alone stop. If you can dream it, you can do it.