Google Wave hello

I have a reductive approach to complexity. When anything starts to get complex, I try to do without it. This is a principal reason why I would never be a good engineer.

Sometimes I wonder what I miss by eschewing complication. I'm aware of technological generalities, but almost never the specifics. I don't get trendy things until they're not trendy anymore. Sometimes that means I don't get them at all.

It also means I spend a lot of time in the boondocks. I often wonder if I've made a mistake for valuing things the way I do. But man, two roads diverged in the yellow wood, you know what I'm saying?

Enter Google Wave. I think I'm supposed to be excited? I am a little excited. Curious. Interested. But, like when gmail started up, you can only get in with an invitation.

So I applied. This is what I said:

I'm a semi-neo-Luddite, a late adopter, but a curious one.

I want to see how this thing works. I want to see if it's something I'll want to use, or if it will be another distraction, another new system to learn that becomes outmoded in 18 months.

I want to see. Let me see.

So we'll see.

On Twitter a couple days ago, Merlin Mann said:

Guess I'm resistant to any tool that thinks my REAL problem is not having fast enough access to what 1000s of strangers just typed.

That is my flavor of Internet cynicism right there. If someone at Google gives me the nod, I'll report here.