Change is good

imagesI can come up with a million reasons why I love change but I do have a hard time understanding why everyone doesn’t embrace change.  Change is inevitable.  Change is happening everywhere.  Cities are changing, homes are being rebuilt based on how we live our lives now vs 30 years ago, our businesses are being shifted due to technology and the environment that they have to compete in, educating students is changing because the students are different than they were 30 years ago, styles are changing as they always do and that is from home decor to haircuts to clothing.

There is a shift across the globe into the next generation.  Just take a look at the ads and the consumer that they are geared towards.  That says it all.  The millennials are the next generation who has influence over the way we consume everything from style to food to products to educating their children.  They are the next generation of leaders.  I hope that they are not as cranky about change as some past generations and that they embrace it as we should embrace theirs.

These changes that take place with every new generation represent the now.  You can just look back at old photos of anything and pinpoint the time it took place.  We are constantly evolving and that is a good thing.  It is not always easy for older generations to embrace that change even if they were all about change at a young age.  Fighting against a changing tide is exhausting because the tide always wins.  Instead we should all enjoy the wave.

My Grandma was so into every new season of fashion.  She’d relish the new look each year and was totally into what people were wearing now, how interiors and architecture changed, and essentially the new new now now.  I love that she was like that until her last day.  Maybe it is innate but everyone should embrace change.  Otherwise it is becomes boring when you don’t move forward.

Sherry Turkle, a professor at MIT said something that I really liked about change when it comes to what is happening today.  Technology doesn’t just change what we do; it changes who we are.  I think that can be applied to anything when it comes to change.

Comments (Archived):

  1. awaldstein

    Once you start to look back and fight against a future that looks different you are old–and unhappy.My mom is 96 this year, grew up speaking Yiddish and her dad drove a horse drawn cab in LES when she was born.Today she is frail, but sends emails, loves that movies come to her. She lives in the changing world around her. Old in body, strong in spirit.

    1. Gotham Gal

      My kind of girl!

    2. Susan Rubinsky

      I want to be just like your Mom when I grow up!

      1. awaldstein

        She is very cool.What I’ve learned from raising a teenage boy by myself and now with my mom in the twilight of life is never judge teenagers or the elderly by how they look.Be patient and the discoveries are well worth the effort.

        1. Gotham Gal

          i like that.

          1. Susan Rubinsky

            Me too!!!

        2. Kirsten Lambertsen

          I like this a thousand times 🙂

  2. Kirsten Lambertsen

    Your posts often contain some Zen. This one, definitely. The title could have been, “Change Is.” :)”Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” – Buddha

    1. Gotham Gal

      nice quote

    2. Susan Rubinsky

      We live in a Buddhist kind of world 🙂

  3. Steven Kane

    “The only thing constant is change.” – James Burke:D

    1. Gotham Gal

      i might have to make that into a t-shirt.

  4. Sofia Papastamelos

    So much of my job is convincing an older generation that consumer behavior has changed and been shaped by technology (and thus they need to adapt the way they do business). It always makes me think “will I be this slow and stubborn to change 20 years from now?” I feel like I’ve grown up in a time of fast growth but it’s hard to tell…

  5. Matt Kruza

    I am not usually a person that relies upon arguments of “privilege” or am exactly a social justice warrior, but I think that change is much easier for wealthier, more connected, and more intellectually intelligent (broadly defined as higher IQ, more formal education etc.). I definitely embrace change, and grant that it is inevitable and in the LONG-RUN good. But think in the short-term. Tens of millions of middle class americans earn 30-50% (in inflation adjusted terms) what they earned 40 years ago to globalization, technology innovation, and decline of unions (which again, long-term I think unions have been destructive, but may help blue-collar workers in short-term). I mean, its easy to embrace change when you are the one to benefit or the one who is primarily changing things (whether you directly or you “in” socio-economic group). Just a thought meant to provide some perspective. Ultimately the dichotomy exists that if people embrace it more then ironically the fears / negative consequences I mentioned above hopefully are reduced.

    1. Gotham Gal

      interesting perspective.

      1. Matt Kruza

        Yeah, like I said not really my usual perspective, but perhaps it is a lot of the blogs or friends outside of tech that made me want to say that. I think overall change is amazingly pro-the average person in the LONG run, just always a good reminder as people with great TALENTS and PRIVELEGE use in the best way. Which, you have done in many endeavors from what I can tell!

    2. JLM

      .I agree with you more — slightly more — than you agree with yourself.There are two trains operating here: one to the future for which you must buy a ticket priced either in human capital or money or privilege or bitcoin or education.This train has been operating since America was discovered.The other is a train going backwards which is herding people on to it with demoralizing declines in median family income, exploding health care costs (including premiums and deductibles) and a “norm” that is moving so fast in the opposite direction they and their children cannot catch up.We missed a chance to slow down the rearward bound train by a myriad of policy failures and the creation of a nanny state that, today, simply cannot afford to be what it said it was going to be. This is not a policy rant; more of an unrealistic expectations rant.The view from that rearward bound train is a landscape of issues that should have been solved years ago and which, simply, are not. My exemplars would be race, poverty, food.We are at a worse place than we have been and yet there is ample evidence of progress for the advancing train.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

      1. Matt Kruza

        Yeah, I agree. (we do that a surprising amount.. 🙂 ). We are in agreement that politically we have made promises that cannot me made at current tax rates, and honestly probably not even with tax rates double the current levels (so basically fundamentally impossible promises). I think the one area we may disagree is I believe the private sector has done the same thing. Largest one being real estate. Technology will make location less essential (telecommuting will get more accepted) and self-driving cars will make living 50 miles outside a city center not a big deal. We got into this a month ago and you pretty much disagreed that prices in real estate would drop much. But at least when my finish comes true in 15 years (I think the term of our bet) you owe me a sandwhch -reuben I think? 🙂

        1. Gotham Gal

          lol.deal.

        2. JLM

          .I will try to be a good winner and not gloat. I may share it with you. Maybe not.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          1. Matt Kruza

            I appreciate the all-around generosity 🙂

  6. Cristina Dolan

    One of the most common reasons to resist change is the fear of the unknown, but hopefully the more success people enjoy the less fear they will feel.

  7. Mario Cantin

    Change happens constantly in the universe, things don’t stay static long, if at all, and so it would be an uphill battle to try and fight the laws of nature. And it’s liberating to embrace change. Gee, it’s very philosophical around here today 🙂