A Reflection on Wu Wei - Finding My Own Ritual

1.
Across more than ten years in the IT field, what were all those projects and products I carried out and built actually for? What kind of technology was that?
What was that time for?

DB, DT, RPA, AR, VR, Blockchain, NFT, AI..
For my friends living outside the city and for my parents, technology is still just news from another world.

Using a smartphone only to make calls, watch YouTube, or use KakaoTalk and Coupang isn't fundamentally that different from using AI only as a chatbot.

What we need isn't technology that boasts of its technical superiority. It isn't massive technology that secures profit for entrepreneurs or burnishes the country's prestige.
It's technology that genuinely helps the people around me, including my own family - technology that doesn't pull us into excessive immersion or push us into bias the way smartphones do.
Appropriate technology, and small-but-useful tools and services, are precisely what we desperately need for our daily lives right now.


2.
I have stepped out of the IT industry and am running around in the field. It's the work my mother spent a long time, literally half her life, doing.
At first, I couldn't contain emotions like anger, frustration, and resentment over the huge technological gap. I lashed out at people who didn't deserve it; even when I knew the issues, I couldn't summon the courage to deal with them on my own, so the time of helplessness, loss, and self-blame stretched on. Of course I haven't fully recovered, but through this whole process I have come, again, to feel the value and reality of labor, and within that, to think anew about minimum-functional models and appropriate technology.

Maybe because of that, my time spent thinking about real relationships and community, beyond productivity, efficiency, and marketability, has grown.

In the process, I sometimes fall into depression because of the bewilderment that comes with situations I have no choice over... but instead of dwelling in endless possibilities and equally endless anxiety and unrest, I am trying to look on at a self that, here and now, can hope for something more than mere survival.

Finding my own ritual,
I jot down a few small thoughts on Wu Wei (non-doing).




——

What was that technology for?
For people in the regional towns, and even for my own parents, technology is just news from another world.

Using a smartphone only for calls, YouTube, KakaoTalk, and Coupang
isn't all that different from using AI only as a chatbot.

What's desperately needed isn't tech-superior technology, but appropriate technology, retail-scale technology, tools, and services that are useful for my family and the friends just over my shoulder, that don't suck us in or push us into bias the way phones do.

Lately I've been feeling the importance of labor.
I find myself thinking about real relationships and community, beyond productivity, efficiency, and marketability.

Instead of endless possibility and bottomless anxiety and unrest,
I want to gaze, here and now, at a self that hopes for more than just survival.

Finding a ritual,
I leave my own small reflection on wu wei.