Analog is making a comeback

Kids these days are apparently calling things that I still remember fondly “vintage”. Things like tape cassette players, floppy disks, and even plug-in headphones. And I fully support this trend.

In this day and age, especially with AI, things are more virtual and self-serving and less in-person and analog. So I’ve been going against the grain myself. I value the coffee chat, the conferences, and even launched a podcast (called “Before the Cure”) and all in line of going more analog and having more “human experiences”.

It’s not efficient always, and most things can be an email nowadays, but that inefficiency is exactly the point. Everything else in the workplace is getting faster. There are tools now that draft, summarize, analyze, and route in seconds — and I’m genuinely excited about what that unlocks.

But none of it replaces sitting across from someone.

There’s a pause before somebody answers a hard question that tells you more than the answer does. There’s the thing people only say after the recording stops, or halfway through a meal, or in the break room at the office. And some interactions carry their weight in the moment. That’s actually how I met my wife. In real life. And none of that scales.

But that’s not a flaw — that’s the whole value.

Almost every good thing in my career traces back to a human interaction. A friend of a friend introducing me. Talking to someone about what they care about and sharing what gets me excited. A conversation that ran long. Somebody who took an hour with me when they had no reason to.

The tools are going to keep getting better and I’ll keep using them. But the trust part, the part where someone decides they’d go to bat for you — that still gets built the slow way. In person. One human at a time.