"A funny thing happened on the way to the digital utopia. We've begun to fall back in love with the very analog goods and ideas the tech gurus insisted that we no longer needed."
That's the way David Sax's "The Revenge of Analog" starts off but that was 2016--light years ago since the intervening pandemic seemed to stretch time, itself. Sax's most recent effort, "The Future is Analog" was published in 2022.
"This book came out of the experience with the pandemic when everything in our lives --work, school or family reunion--went online," Sax told Steve Tarter.
"This was the future, the new normal" was the feeling at the time, he suggested, adding that folks later found out they wanted to do real things again--like going out to movies, concerts or restaurants.
Sax, who lives in Toronto, said business in the city still hadn't returned to what it was before the pandemic. "I was in a big office last week and it seemed pretty bustling but they said that at one time only 50 to 60 percent of the workforce was in the building," he said.
"I don't think any place is back to 100 percent. Everybody's experimenting now (with hybrid models balancing remote and in-office work). Unfortunately, you physically can't be in both places," said Sax.
"How do we strike the right balance between analog and digital?" That's the real message that Sax brings.
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