“Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Airman’s Odyssey

Specs: Hard to get, for now.

Exupery has long been one of my favorite authors, and this is one of my favorite quotes. Amazingly, it took me a pair of Spectacles by the soon-to-be-public Snap, Inc. to reconnect with the thought. I think this is a tremendously exciting product, arriving at a moment we actually need a bit of a reset on perspective.

Here’s the why: our look-at-me world is a race to the bottom. And the race to the bottom feeds upon the instant gratification that has taken hold of our world. No-one is really to blame. It’s just that hit of Dopamine that has become so addictive in segments of our society: it comes with every selfie, every like, every share, every follow. But, usually there’s no there, there. Twitter has some breaking news value- like if you are stuck in Tarir Square in the Arab Spring- but otherwise I think it a selfie fest. Snapchat V 1.0 was definitely a expressway to hell, but at least you left no tire tracks. No one is as happy as they look on Facebook, nobody is as sexy as they sound on Tinder (third party reporting), or as successful as they appear on LinkedIn.

But here’s what Snap Spectacles seems to be saying: Let’s look out at the world together. Snap is betting, and so am I, that 2017 may mark the evolution for certain people of… “let’s look at the world together” and share a discussion. It’s the modern version of people watching. But the camera is not on the self… it is from the self.

I see a lot of cool things from where I sit. Here’s an example, from my perspective…