Double Disdain
Maybe I’m just a bit old-fashioned, but there are two technological advancements that I disdain, and I just realized they have a certain commonality. Automatic transmissions in cars, and the electric cooktop. They share an aspect of vagueness that I don’t like. I want to be able to feel the control of gears and I want to see the flame providing heat for cooking. Neither of the two technologies do that for me.
I needed to drive Cyndie’s car on the commute yesterday, and in comparison to my manual 5-speed, her car left me feeling dramatically less in control. A lot like placing the pan on the stove and not having any idea of the status of the heat source below.
Cyndie and I are both gas cooktop people and now using an electric style that is in the kitchen of the home we just bought. We are trying to adjust to it, for now, but can’t help feeling it is a totally inferior option. With a gas flame, you know when it is on and when it is off. It doesn’t ramp up and down in intensity while you are cooking. Want more heat? Adjust to a bigger flame.
With the manual transmission car, when I let out the clutch and give it gas, it responds directly, without hesitation. When I want to slow down, simply removing my foot from the pedal allows the gears to slow the car. I just don’t get that kind of control with an automatic transmission. Her car just keeps gliding along, even after removing my foot from the pedal. I’m forced to tap the brakes. Yuck.
I have enough lack of control over other areas of life. Like software. Just when I learn how to control an application, a new version is released that sets me back to struggling to accomplish tasks. Isn’t it frustrating when devices that are supposed to make things easier for us, end up doing just the opposite?
There is a silver lining, though, in my suffering through the driving of Cyndie’s car. She brought mine back all clean and shiny from the car wash.
Sometimes, letting go of that need to control, can bring rewards.
Relative Something 
Our new home is all electric so had many misgivings about the stove….but I LOVE IT!! I’m amazed at how fast in responds to a change in the dial setting. A bit nervous about the glass top but much easier to clean than the burner grates were. Maybe new electric is better than older electric?
Judy
December 22, 2012 at 7:35 pm
Interesting! Again, I wouldn’t be surprised that our inexperience with the appliance is resulting in our disdain. Maybe if we learned more about how it works and how to properly use it, we would get more enjoyment out of it. I’ll practice keeping an open mind to the possibility.
Thanks for the added perspective!
johnwhays
December 23, 2012 at 9:49 am
Don’t the automatic cars there have an option for holding the various gears and overriding the system?
Ian Rowcliffe
December 22, 2012 at 6:07 pm
Well, yes, I think they do, but I guess I am not properly trained as to whether the way that works would be a solution the the situations I want to feel the manual control.
Good point!
johnwhays
December 23, 2012 at 9:46 am
Actually, I do know what you mean because in my experience I never used that option either in my mum’s car.
One of Linda’s Guiding Principles, coming out in the Power of the Herd, is ‘Choose the programs; be the programmer. So often we just let things and routines take over our lives – horses have a way of jolting us out of that. That twist of fate is not unlike the effect of rearranging stones like you do – you suddenly see things in a different way. Actually, some moments are best described as a state of immanence.
Ian Rowcliffe
December 23, 2012 at 10:46 am