International man of (little) mystery

On my umpteenth trip out of the country for work, I was hanging out in New Jersey at Crestron’s international HQ. I was in a round table with then VP of Engineering (and later CTO), Fred Bargetzi (RIP) and several other overseas representatives. He asked what I thought about an iteration of a particular new product design. “It’s shit. It won’t sell in our region,” was my gut felt reply.

He took initial offence until I qualified my statement. Americans love faux finishes. Australians, as a rule, do not. This amplifier he was showing had a great sound, good tech specs and would fit their broader product ecosystem well. The main volume knob was large and took pride of place in the centre of the unit. It looked like a serious bit of kit and would have a price tag to suit. All was good until I twiddled said knob and it immediately felt of cheap, lightweight plastic – it had no physical heft to it. Artificial metallic finish and all. I explained that this was a problem for our consumer base back home. Fortunately, some of the Euro crew backed me up. We then had a fascinating conversation on cultural differences between countries and continents.

Fitting in to the place where you belong

In your home country, it is relatively easy to fit in. As you grow up, you learn and understand the traditions, the conventions, the variations and ways of going about daily existence. Unless you are part of a fringe or marginalised subset, you follow the dominant paradigms and win the game of life. Health and geo-political tragedies notwithstanding.

Not too long ago, we read the newspapers, watched the evening news and maybe caught some radio while commuting. These inputs helped us form our understanding of the outside world. A weekly pub session or sporting outing would fill in the rest. Uncle Shane would upend it all at family gatherings. That was about as worldly as we got.

Now, we have addictive Q-holes, self-important podcaster influencers and cat memes lined up in our pocket. Even as we do our best to stay informed, all our free time becomes one endless scroll in futility, desperately seeking dopamine but ultimately ending up with frustration, confusion and a sense of despair.

We are living in an untamed sociological experiment, running in real time, the algorithmically driven cesspool trapping us in polarised silos, harvesting our data and preferences in lieu of blood.

The dub-dub-dub of connectivity started with caring and sharing. It has since devolved to exploiting and shaming, shouting and blaming for clicks. It needn’t be so.

The internet has brought us many great things, from Facetiming your family overseas to instant knowledge of international events, from generational memes to bitcoins. But its major impact has been reducing the distance between everyone on the planet. For better or worse.

Commingling

By crossing old geographical barriers at light speed, we have reduced the impediment of long held social and cultural constraints. This comes at a cost. It is those very institutions that suffer. The homogenisation of cultures has been underway since ships started sailing the ocean. The pace of this consolidation has steadily increased of late and it scares me that our ubiquitous “yeah, nah” might soon get replaced by “I’d like to thank my Mom,” or some other crap that has filtered into our increasingly less unique customs.

To abet monoculture, incessant globalisation of world trade movements has accelerated the intermixture of products. Traditions and society are following only just behind. How many young antipodeans, Europeans or Africans use US based phrases in their daily banter? USA has done a sterling job of pushing its folklore to all corners of the world. Bluey, Kylie and Randy Feltface cannot combat that hegemony on their own.

Fashion and design are equally victims of a globally homogenised society. Looking at real estate ads, it is hard to tell one country from another. All the houses look the same as trends converge on the bland, to blend inoffensively with what little local colour is left.

It’s not all gloom

On the upside, sharing DAW files in real time with collaborators on the other side of the world is awesome for audio partnerships.

Access to the sum of human knowledge in your pocket may not make you one swipe away from enlightenment, but it is pretty handy for finding out about stuff.

Exchanging pre-vis files and pre-production ideas without having to be in the same room is a breakthrough for touring companies working across borders. Remote working is not just for corporate types trying to find a pathway through pandemic distancing.

Video conferencing has broken down a lot of physical and time barriers. Now, that meeting with HQ in the intro would happen over the internet and we would miss out on the nuances of interaction that occur in person. My product statement would likely go down like a lead balloon without the ability to sense the mood change upon uttering it. VC shortens distance but removes nuance.

As a rural resident, telehealth has saved me innumerable hours in transit to and from medicos. Although I don’t see how remote dentistry or surgery could work without some serious improvement in robots.

New World Order

Crestron never did add a proper metal volume knob to that amp and I never managed to sell many because of that. Later models had design cues more acceptable to Euro/Oceanic sensibilities and did much better numbers with the international contingent.

Unfortunately, Fred passed too young a few years ago to MND. I miss him. He was smart, personable, humble and very good at his job. “A bloody good sort” in Oz parlance. Our minor differences were cultural, yet we put those aside to concentrate on our commonalities.

My off-handed Australian bluntness clashed with his thinner-skinned US dryness, but he respected that I could both understand and stand up for my market. He would have made for a brilliant President.

Instead, the one that we have inherited is wreaking havoc on the world order, and we are seeing a real time reset of international interactions. Conventions are mere suggestions when there is no accepted rule book.

Maybe one good side effect of the current ructions might be every nation, every culture, every subgroup promoting and strengthening its individuality rather than conforming to the soul-less, characterless norm that globalisation has encouraged.