Technology and quality of life

I am an engineer, a passionate one, at least self-considered so. Well really my passion is on how to get things done, rather why get things done. I believe in getting things done right, technically right. Like designing a new product or a new feature on the product, there are normally many ways of doing the same thing. But there is always one better way. If to do it, why dont we spend a little more time and thought to find the better way of doing it.

But someimes, I just dont believe I am a good engineer, as I dont believe technologies necessarily make people live happy. Rather, I believe it is quite irrelevant to one's happiness of his/her own life. My son, Kiki, a 1 and half year old, spent some 3 and half months in Beijing with my wife this year, living with my parents. He made some friends there. His favorite was a 3 year old boy, Le Le. Le Le and his parents came from countryside, to Beijing for a better paid job and a better living. For those who dont know China much, there are tons and tons of poorer people from countryside coming to major cities like Beijing. They take up the lowest paid jobs there, and work very very hard. By hard I mean 12-15 hours, or more. Their lives away from home, family, and friends are not easy. And even though they get paid much better than they could have got back home, they get paid very little given the living standard in the cities. On my last day of visit in Beijing, I went with my wife to bring some very simple gifts for Le Le to his home. They live in the basement of a 14 story condo tower. Le Le and his parents, 3 of them, get to have one room, in where they have a king size bed plus a beat up TV, a desk looking like as old as Le Le's parents, and some toys. In the hall, they have a gas stove so they can cook there. I dont know where they go for washroom or shower, hopefully there is one in the basement. I did not crutinize their room carefully, but dont believe they have much more than these. It does not seem like Le Le has Play Station or DVD player, or maybe even a stereo.

Are you going to cry reading all these? Why? Their lives are hard. But who is to say they are not happy? Le Le is a very loving boy. He treats Kiki like a he is a big brother of his (Kiki's). When they play outside together, he is always taking care of him. Guess why he is my son's favorite? Le Le's mom also offers a lot to Kiki. For what she gives to Le Le, she gives a share to Kiki if he is there. One time, the little 1 and half year old got the ice cream from Le Le's mom melted all over him. Now remember, every penny to them is a much bigger one than to others. They have all the reasons there is to offer less. But they dont. They love and they offer. How can I not believe they are happy, and less than myself? They surely dont have a lot of technologies in there house, but I dont believe it matters to them a lot. Now because of Le Le's parents hard work, he gets to later on go to school in Beijing, and have better education, and opportunities. Their hard work open up more chances for themselves and for Le Le.

Technologies make lives easier. It is nice to have. I am proud of myself when I make things happen, get a new feature working or find a bug and fix a problem. But how insignificant this is when seeing what I am doing have no effect on Le Le and his family's lives... Sometimes I feel more proud of Le Le mom, when she offers ice scream to Kiki, than myself when I get the software working.