When "Good" Gives Way to "Better"

The world of technology moves quickly, offers tools which make our lives more productive, and often yields tools upon which we come to depend. But what if we wake up one day to find something we have come to depend on ceases to exist?

What it that company stops making that software? What if that website is discontinued? What if they stop making computers with CD-ROM drives? The list of "what ifs" can get long.

Rather than worry about what will happen when it's gone, enjoy it while it's here. So often, the "what if" of the future stops us from using and enjoying tools which can make our lives better right now.

What??? No more Google Reader? 
On March 13, countless thousands of people went to their Google Reader feeds and were confronted with a most disturbing message. If you are not familiar with Google Reader and why it is important, my blog post from March 20 explains it. It's a service I have been using daily for over 4 years. Within days, over 1 million people signed an online petition to keep it.

But just as much of the tech world was expressing outrage over the demise of something good, others were posting their opinions about what could be better. By the end of the day, I had an alternative, and wrote about it in that March 20th post. By the next day, I was not missing Google Reader one bit.

Google Reader is but one example 
If you hesitate to adopt a piece of software or service for fear that one day, it will cease to exist, let me put your fears to rest. One day, it will cease to exist. You can count on it. Get used to it. The good news is that when something good disappears, something better takes its place. Our world is too connected for a void to exist without enterprising people knowing about it and working on a way to fill it.Our world is too connected for someone to have invented a better mousetrap and the news not to spread.

Google Reader is but one example of a service which I depended upon that was "here today and gone tomorrow." Rather than worry about what will happen when it's gone, enjoy it while it's here. Trust that somewhere down the road, something even better will come along.

"When you walk to the edge of all the light you have and take that first into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand upon, or you will be taught how to fly."
                —Patrick Overton Rebuilding the Front Porch of America