Who Knew? Linda Stone, Stowe Boyd, and Woody Allen

For all readers old enough to have seen (and quoted) Annie Hall, you'll appreciate this.

I had a Marshall McLuhen moment a moment at CTC.

How It Started

Stowe Boyd almost famously disagrees with Linda's reading of trends. He's blogged about it both on his own and on the CTC site, and he argued with me after Linda had finished. The only problem was he was arguing on the basis of misrepresenting what she said.

I like Stowe a lot and appreciate how smart he is about so many things. With this argument, however, I had a rather large bone to pick.

What Ensued

Stowe told me he disagrees with Linda's contention that authorities are entering a trend of protection, authenticity, and trustworthiness. He added that the trend to connect will increase, not decrease.

I pointed out that Linda had said that one trend absorbs another rather than entirely replacing it. Trends are never erased. We simply react against a trend to fill the needs that weren't fulfilled by putting our attention in a new place.

I also added that Linda never mentioned authority figures and their practices. She was speaking about cultural trends and the sweet spot of opportunity for technology. In this case, Linda predicted the opportunity lies in making our quality of life richer through better filters that protect us from the noise of being a live node on the network.

Boyd argued using (mis)quotes again.

A Marshall McLuhen Moment

Luckily, Linda was standing nearby. I pulled her over and asked her if I had missed something she said about authority and trends.

To Linda's credit, she wasn't rude as McLuhen was in the movie line with Allen. But she definitely told Boyd to get his facts straight.

Don't you wish that could always happen in life?

Back to the main events at CTC in the next post.