We’ve Been Flying for a Century and Still Hate the Snacks
Air travel is another one. For most of human history, people were born, lived, and died without ever leaving their village. Seeing the world meant a dangerous, months-long journey by foot, horse, or boat. Now, we can get on a plane and be halfway across the planet in less than a day. All that is required of us is to sit in a padded seat, eat a meal, and maybe watch a movie.
And yet we complain through the entire thing. The lines are too long. The food is bad. The in-flight entertainment screen is too small. The legroom is insufficient. Somehow, we’ve turned crossing oceans in a metal tube at 500 miles an hour into a customer service nightmare.
We Hate Our Cars, Phones, and Now AI
This isn’t limited to fridges or flights. It’s everything. Our cars are infinitely better than a horse and buggy, but we kind of hate them. Our smartphones are the most advanced personal technology in human history, yet we count down the days until we can replace them with something newer and shinier.
And now, AI.
We have talking, thinking computers that can answer questions, write code, make images and videos, and hold conversations. Five years ago, the average person had never used anything like it. If you’d shown me ChatGPT in 2020, I would have sworn it was science fiction. And yet here we are, nitpicking.
“ChatGPT 4o was better.”
“It’s worse at complex math than Grok.”
“This update barely feels different.”
We’ve gone from being amazed at the fact that this exists to being irritated if it takes more than five seconds to think.
We’re the Fastest Generation to Stop Being Impressed
The speed at which we go from “That’s impossible!” to “Meh” is almost comical. We live in a world our grandparents couldn’t have imagined. But the easier life gets, the less we seem to appreciate it.
Right now, look around your home. The walls, the roof, the lights, the plumbing, the heating and cooling systems - all of it is a marvel of human ingenuity. That alien-looking rectangle in your pocket contains infinitely more computing power than NASA had when they landed people on the moon.
And yet we will still find something to complain about by the end of the day.
Appreciate the Magic (Because Not Long Ago, There Was None)
If you were born just a few generations ago, you’d be walking to the local well with a bucket so you could have your monthly cold bath. You’d be sleeping on straw, hoping a bear didn’t eat you on your way back from fetching water. You’d be lucky if you owned more than one set of clothes and if you could eat more than one meal a day. Not to mention if you ever lived to see the ripe old age of 35!
So maybe - just maybe - take a second to appreciate the fact that you live in a time where “bad Wi-Fi” is the most dangerous thing you’ll face before your hot dinner, which you ordered through the magic rectangle.
We are living in a futuristic wonderland. And maybe, before we complain about the peanuts not being salty enough on our next intercontinental flight, we should stop and remember that.
