Avant Garde – From your musical tastes to your political views, were you ever way ahead of the rest of us, adopting the new and the emerging before everyone else? (Daily Prompt)

That’s an interesting questions. What makes it interesting is I’m not sure where “everyone else” was. I knew where I was at. I knew where my personal friends were, what they liked, what they were “into.” How do you know if your taste in art is avant-garde or merely different? If everyone eventually decides what you liked is what they like, does that mean you were ahead of your time? What if you have obscure taste in art or literature and it never becomes popular?

Is there a “standard”? A set of cultural norms of which one can be ahead or behind?

After I got involved in high-tech, I was probably somewhere on the leading edge of that, but I was never way out in front. I was computer savvy when most people weren’t — yet — but the masses would catch up with me in short order, and surpass me in many areas.

I was always retarded about music. I like (liked)(will like) classical and folk plus some other rock n’ roll that (for whatever reason) speaks to me. I liked the Beatles and the Stones, but there was nothing avant-garde about that. Art? I was (am) pretty much stuck in the impressionist era, which is not merely not avant-garde. It isn’t even garde. If the year had been 1875, I would have been a trendsetter, but I was a hundred years late for that.

I’ve always been good at seeing where things were going, what the world (specifically technology) would be in another 10, 20, 50 years. Being able to see future directions didn’t (doesn’t) mean I was (am) trendy or liked the directions I saw. It was obvious to me from the first time I put my hands on a computer that this was the way the world would go. I was in love with computers from the beginning and there was never any question in my mind that was the way of the future.

I saw cell phones too as the future. Useful, though I didn’t personally like them. I found them intrusive, invasive — and still do. It didn’t stop me from getting one for Garry as soon as they were became available. Mobile phones were a huge help to him professionally. I don’t think that made me avant-garde, just practical.

If you want avant-garde, look to leaders, bellwethers, trendsetters — developers, thinkers, authors, artists, writers, musicians. People who create. These are the true trend setters who move our culture in new directions. It’s not people like me. I’m just an “adopter.” A bandwagon jumper. Computers are the only “bandwagon” I jumped on ahead of the rest of the world, but my motivations had nothing to do with style or fashion. I saw it as the way the world was going and an avenue to make a living. It was an opportunity.

I am not a fashionista or a leader. I am practical. I adopt what suits me and mine. I’m not arty or trendy. I use and enjoy that which will improve my life, ignore what I don’t find appealing or useful.

Probably I am the exactly opposite of avant-garde, wouldn’t you say?

Categories: Computers, Technology

Tags: Bellwether, creativity, future, tecnology, trendsetter