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I recently set a goal to become conversationally fluent in Spanish by my birthday in August. For context, I set this goal about 6 weeks ago, having a handful of words of Spanish, like counting to ten, colors, a few foods, maybe 2-3 verbs, and not much else. I’ll leave the reasons for my Spanish language adventures for another conversation because today I want to talk about tech.
When I’ve shared this goal with friends and family – which I did profusely for accountability – almost everyone asked this question, or some variation of it, first: “Which app are you using?”
In the age we live in, technology has made almost everything seem easier. We traded atlases for Waze. Post-its for smartphone notifications. Taxis for Uber. The list goes on. Whatever you set out to do… there’s an app for that.
There’s an app, or 100, for language learning.
There’s an app, or 100, for money management.
The challenge for us now lies in differentiating when the technology is truly better than the previous ways.
For example, having developed my systems for managing money during the pre-app days, I’ve come to feel that money management apps and software are often just another headache. A trusty spreadsheet or two has always seemed to suffice (and one modeled after the old-school checkbook register system, at that). Yes, a spreadsheet is technically tech, but a simpler, old-school, doesn’t-take-over-and-tell-you-how-to-do-everything kind of tech.
Throw in the recent end of Mint, a leading money management app, as well as the increasingly “pay for premium” or “software as a subscription” environment we’re now in, technology feels increasingly unnecessary (and expensive) to use for managing daily life tasks.
In my language learning research, I found myself in a surprising parallel. Only a few weeks into my Spanish journey, I quit using the Rosetta Stone I thought I’d rely on, or any other language software or apps. They were pretty, organized, and tidy – but the learning (the part that matters) was slow.
It turns out the low-tech way is the fastest. And that’s with reading and listening to books that immerse me in the language using topics and stories I find compelling (i.e. stuff my brain wants to understand). No fancy tech needed. And a boatload of evidence to back its effectiveness up.
The same happens with teaching my kids. The deeper I get into homeschooling, the less any software, apps, or structured open-and-go curriculums feel helpful. They start to feel boring and inefficient.
Obviously, there’s a place for high-tech innovation (and I get the irony of my having an online business and emailing you this message). I’m just realizing our knee-jerk reflex to go straight to Google, Amazon, and the app store to solve all our problems may need some tempering. Maybe we don’t really need so much technology after all?
Is your money management more complicated by tech?
Is there a simpler solution you’d like better?
By questioning the tech tools you use, maybe you too will discover some delightfully simple changes that help make things a little easier and more efficient.
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.
E. F. Schumacker
I hope you enjoyed this edition of Under 2, an email series designed to share quick bites of wisdom to empower your financial journey (while keeping it short). Be sure to sign-up below to get these messages in your inbox.
All for now,
Lindsey