[nicollo]

tech-savvy geeks who are almost pathological about pursuing technological advances for no other reason than to just do it.

I enrolled a student of mine in a Verizon code-a-thon, and out of curiosity I attended to see what went on. As I wandered about listening to the groups try to decide what they would "solve," I was amazed by their life-ignorance and utter disconnect from the real world. One group was working on an app to "group source" office supplies, because they fretted that you can only buy 20-packs of pencils at Staples, for example, when you only need one. So if users each signed up for a pencil, they could divide the purchase.

I kid you not. (While I hardly expect this generation to know that the entire Staples model was to make available wholesale office supply purchases at retail, but one would hope they know that the CVS around the corner will sell them 3 pencils.) These kids believe that apps can solve problems that don't even exist.

As I left, I muttered to the Verizon rep that it's too bad none of them were working on an app to improve my phone service... He was not pleased.

[Alberta's Child]

To be fair, many of those seemingly useless applications may be very transferable to other things that can be developed at much larger scales and for different uses. Many entire industries were born this way — like Post-It notes, microwave ovens, etc.

[9YearLurker]

Not totally unrelated was a presentation I saw from a small/mid-sized city transportation manager sharing highlights from their ultimately unsuccessful bid to become a self-driving car test/smart city.

The vision included communal self-driving cars. So if you would regularly drive to work or to a train or bus station to get to work, a self-driving car would come give you a ride. Then it would continue on to other commuters or shoppers or whatever through the day.

He wasn’t a millennial, but he sounded like one, gushing over how much better and more efficient that would be than having people own their vehicles.