Away with the Unnecessary! What are some things people still do that are no longer necessary?

April 28, 2016 ♦

Future

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Collage by @MicheleTrainer

Let’s start thinking about a smarter future.

To make time and space for innovation, we have to leave the things that do not serve us behind.

Here are some answers I’ve collected from idea generating friends and myself:

College, teach yourself.
Grammar (online grammar police are labeled as such)
TV Guide mag (as others have said)
Going to work every day (work remotely sometimes?)
Lost dog flyers, cause of chips and the internet
Wristwatches (because of cell phones)
1-hour photo shops (b/c of cell phones)
Alarm clocks (again, use phone)
Giving friends directions (just message from Google Maps)
Having a body (almost), just save your head or download your brain
Eating meat. We never did have to, and now in most places it’s ridiculously easy to avoid. Dairy too.
Destroying forests for livestock. We need the oxygen!
Building materials. There is plenty plastic/metals, etc. to recycle and reuse
Offices.
Performance Reviews. Telecommuting will make it obvious who does and who doesn’t.
Shopping for x=everything from food to cars. We can move to showrooms or maybe someone will make a 3d model of us every 6 months for sizing for clothes, or like a design house where we just see samples of x in place. Think of the real estate this will open up!
Cars. Some of us will still want a car, but car sharing is already happening. (Uber)
Gas stations.
Buying a home. It will still make good sense for many, but renting is already happening (Airbnb)
Going to school. Unless it requires human interaction which could end up being the only education worth getting if you think about it. Scuba diving, brain surgery, sculpting, etc.
The radio. With the internet why do we need the radio?
TV. With the internet why do we need TV?
TV news. The news on TV here was on Facebook 3 days earlier, why should anyone watch the news?
Electric. Everyone can go solar as the cost decreases
Book lovers buying loads of physical books
Carrying around wads of cash
Asking friends general knowledge questions that can be
Googled
Elections the way they are still conducted
Keeping household appliances and gadgets being held on to just in case
Staying in hotels while on vacation
Hailing an old fashioned cab
Going to pay bills at the post office
Buying a house with extra rooms to host infrequently visiting relatives
Put the empty glass milk bottles out on the front porch so the milk man will deliver fresh milk in his truck
Screw the landline phone to the wall, and stand beside it to talk
Put the rabbit ears on top of the television so we can tune in the station
Roll the clothes through the ringer in the washing machine to get most of the water out
Get the newspaper delivered to the door
Own a fax machine
Buy a desk calendar
Wait for the coffee to percolate through the grounds
Wait for the oil truck to come and fill the oil tank beside the house
Telephone Books
Let the TV Networks decide one’s schedule
Worry about tomorrow
Regret the past
Letting others determine one’s mood
Live in fear of missing out
Check in on the FB wherever they go (what’s the point?)
Keep Wi-Fi on the phone all of the time (huge distraction)
Drive to the gym to walk on a treadmill
Take shit ton of plastic bags from the grocery stores
Read news and watching TV to be “relevant”
Buy a shiny new things as soon as they pay off the loan for a previous one
Believe in all kinds of things just because someone wrote it and put it online
Make bathroom selfies (we saw enough, it’s no longer necessary to do that)
Same goes for selfies from the gym
Take free stuff (fliers, magazines, coupons) that they end up dumping a few months later
Sleep with their phone by a bed and Wi-Fi on, just to be on the alert if something happens in the world
Smoke
Travel long and far to sit on meetings that could be done over a conference call
Buy bottled water, when tap is just fine (at least in my part of the world)
Drive their cars EVERYWHERE
Forget that the only one sure thing in life is change (except death and taxes 😉