The Little Miracles We Take For Granted

Steve Jobs once said "It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."
-- Business Week, May 25 1998

The other day I was sitting at my computer when the phone rang. Larry was calling from Phoenix, where he had just landed. He sounded tired. It was understandable. This is the time of year when he spends more time in airports and airplanes than at home. He had flown out of Pittsburgh early that morning. However, he didn't just sound tired. He sounded aggravated.

"What are you doing?" he wanted to know.
"Not much," I said. "Where are you?"
"I'm sitting at the freaking car rental and I CAN'T rent a car!"
This wasn't sounding good, so I proceeded with caution. "Ohh, hmm, uh, (pause) er, why not?"

Deep sigh, disgust, frustration...."because I left my driver's license going through security at the airport."

Here is where I suddenly experience a rapid series of wild imaginings. Stolen drivers license, identity theft, long months of tiresome work trying to get a mess straightened out.

"So," he continued, "you need to head out to the airport to pick it up and overnight it to me."

OHH! "You mean, they have it?" I asked in disbelief.
"Yes, I called my travel agent and he checked and TSA has it. You just have to go get it and send it out to me."

So, I did just that. I headed to the airport. I wasn't sure where to go when I walked inside. I saw a man in a gray uniform and asked, uncertainly, if he was TSA? No, he wasn't but could he help?

"My husband left his driver's license here this morning." "Rosenberry?" he asked.

Really? The first person I talk to knows exactly why I'm there? He told me where to find TSA and 10 minutes later I was walking back to the car with Larry's drivers license. (Don't worry. I did have to show proof of who I was.)

I had no idea where there was a Fed-Ex office so I pulled out my iPhone, opened maps, typed in Fed-Ex and discovered there was one 3 miles away. I had parked about 25 yards from the terminal door and before I had gotten back to the car, I had directions in hand.

Fifteen minutes later I was leaving Fed-Ex. Larry would have his license by 8:30 the next morning.

There are so many ways this could have gone wrong. But it didn't. And that's really not the point I want to make. Instead I am in awe of how easily everything worked. And I am suddenly appreciative of the many conveniences we have today.

First of all, Kudos to TSA! The people at the security checkpoint did just what they are expected to do. Sometimes people don't, so it's important to recognize them when they do. That was the first hurdle.  Finding, protecting and getting the license was done. Transport was the next one. Not so long ago that would have been the hard part.

I don't embrace change quickly. When cell phones came out I thought they were ridiculous. Who couldn't handle being away from the phone for the 30 minutes it took to get from work to home? I have an iPhone now but it's an iPhone3 that I got when I traded in my falling-apart-old-cell phone that couldn't even text. The iPhone4 had just come out so the iPhone3 was free if I signed up for a 2-year plan.

I remember Steve Jobs making that quote about designing things for people they didn't even know they wanted. As much as I admired Jobs, and love Apple products, I scoffed at his assumption that it was up to him to figure out what we wanted before we knew we wanted it! I scoff no more. Not all that long ago Larry would have been calling long distance from a pay phone. Overnight delivery was non-existent. We paid extra for airmail that took 3 days to get there. This would have been a major event.

Thanks to Steve Jobs, Fred Smith (founder of FedEx), and other visionaries, we live in a world of convenience that we often take for granted. I may scoff at most new inventions but I'm glad there are creative people who imagine them. I'm grateful for the crazy fanatics that wait in line for hours before every release, thus ensuring it's initial success. And if those new fangled gadgets hang around long enough I'll jump on the band wagon and benefit from all the ways they improve my life.

I love my laptop. Who knows? Maybe someday I'll finally own an iPad.