The Moth Podcast: Technology Fails

You can also get a product market, then you can get your first big enterprise.

With KaE, the development of the Amazon is also the advantage of the development of the company. And that's the question as it is. Where the team, like security and compliance, is really worth it. It's long-awaited, it's almost out.

“That's why many startups are happy, and wait for them.”

And if it's not, it's still not worth it. Yet, statin, alfanta.com. Welcome to the Moth podcast. I'm your host, Dan Kennedy. It's undeniable.

Just how attached we are to technology. And how integral it is to our lives. Sure, there are times-- oh, actually. Literally, making sure my phone is turned off. So we can record this, and you can listen to it on your phone.

There are definitely times we take those little breaks. Those sort of digital detox periods from social media, or we put away messages on our email, so that we can go off and be one with nature. But even then, we use Google Maps to get to our campground. Or we download a meditation app to unwind while we're on that trip.

But this week, we're talking about the times when technology really isn't the answer. Our two stories this week are actually from the same story slam here in New York City, fittingly themed technology.

“Up first, Jill Birkman, here's Jill live at the Moth.”

[CHEERING] This story takes place in 1999. At the time, I had just turned 30, and for my 30th birthday, I decided to venture into the world of music. My past experience with music was lessons for piano when I was about seven,

and I read the music backwards for a week. And the second venture in a music was in middle school. I took a clarinet back and forth to school for about a month to afraid to tell my parents. I didn't know where band practice was. So at 30, I really had no experience with music.

And I thought I'd go for something real easy. And I went with an instrument that would make me happy.

And the one thing that I thought always made me happy was the banjo.

So I thought, boy, easy instrument to learn. Not the best choice for someone who has no rhythm at all. And so I got the banjo. I'm getting lessons. And the instructor has me by a metronome technology, metronome.

And so I don't buy the little-- because I really need technology. I buy the one with all the bells and whistles. And it's got the little rhythm, it goes, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, because all of the different things.

But for me, being very new into the music world, I had it set very low. And it's got the big red flashy light. So it's, you know, beep, beep. And I'm trying to strum along with it. And I'm working really hard at this.

And counting to four has never been so hard in my entire life.

And I have a business trip paired with a business conference. And I'm going to be gone for about three weeks. And I decide that I'm going to take my banjo with me, Benjo, and I have a talk. We say, let's go on the trip together. And we get on the airplane, we go.

I practice very quietly in my hotel room. I have a pretty good trip. I have a pretty good conference. So I'm very pleased with myself for sticking with music. And now I'm traveling home.

And I get on the plane. And it is the big jumbo jet that seats 252, first class upstairs. And I'm way in the back. And there's no room to put the banjo. And so a flight attendant asks if she can put it up in first class.

And torn. And I finally give her my banjo. And it goes up into first class. And it disappears.

“Now at this point in the story, what you need to know is my banjo case is soft.”

It's very thin nylon. And my metronome is in the case. And my metronome still has batteries in it. What you also need to know is that after flight attendant number one, put banjo and set closet, flight attendant number two,

put something else and set closet. And flight attendant number three, open set closet to the metronome going be. So as this big jumbo plane is nearly loaded with, remember, first class upstairs, downstairs, huge plane. They start making announcements.

Everybody has to get off the plane. And the flight attendants are coming from the back in this military army, yelling at everybody off the plane, off the plane, leave your bag, leave your bags. They're not letting anybody, they're pulling bags out of people's hands. They're getting everybody gets off the plane.

And they're all kind of mumbling. And finally, they start seeing police car show up with lights.

We're by the big glass window.

“They're telling us, please stand back from the windows.”

And then the police cars go away. And they say, we're all getting back on the plane. It was a metronome and a musical instrument case. And my heart just sank. And they have to reticate everybody and it takes a long time.

So when I get back, I don't know if I'm supposed to tell anybody starting to sweat profusely. And the flight attendant who remembered me and remembered the banjo, of course, pulled me aside into the little galley and she says, "Don't tell anyone."

[LAUGHTER] She says, people are going to get real upset. Just sit down. It's going to be OK. So I sit in my seat and I'm like on the edge.

And I'm sitting next to a family, a five, like mom and dad. And I got like the babies and everything. And they're looking to be like, we were so scared. And I'm like, you don't know how scared I am. And we take off.

We're going back to where we're going. And I'm flying, thinking, they're going to arrest me on the other end. I just know it. Or they're going to find me.

“And I'm so in debt because of banjo lessons.”

And I just have no money left. And I'm like, maybe I can sell a kidney. Maybe I could donate my eggs. I'm thinking all the different ways I could raise money to pay when they're going to arrest me on the other end.

But we land and nothing happens. And everyone gets off the plane and nothing happens. And I let everybody go off.

And I still have to go get my banjo, which is up in first class.

So I go to get it and all the pilots and flight attendants are waiting with a banjo sitting in the sea. And I start crying and crying. I'm sorry. I apologize to everybody.

And I get my banjo. But that's not quite the end of the story. Because now I've got to go get my luggage along with the 500 other people who know, a musical instrument. That's now my back has delayed them two hours.

So I see my luggage going around and around and around from a couple of miles away. And I swoop in at the last minute. I get it. And I am sitting and waiting for my taxi, the van shuttle

right to come up in a man sits next to me. He was like, were you on the flight to Denver? We had a delay with a musical instrument. And I said, oh, no, no, no. I just flew him from Hawaii.

Thank you very much. Jill Bergman is an architect and storyteller. She believes that short, well-run medians are a thing of beauty. And she has a tiny magic door cut into her home.

That is probably the best sentence I've ever read in a muff storyteller bio. She also wants you to know that she won third place at this story slam. Thanks for sharing your story with us, Jill.

We always recommend Shopify.

It took us from an idea to a real business.

“We got set up, I think, in less than a day.”

With very little effort, we could just focus on the supply chain to the product development. Shopify gives us the ability to customize without the complexity. We can change something without introducing fragility

or having to pay a developer. Well, thirsty total, and we leveled up our business with Shopify. Start your free trial at Shopify.com/AU. Up next, we have Ailey Baker from the same

month story slam that night in New York. And just a quick clarification before we jump in. Ailey Baker was working as a baker before this story took place. Which you'll hear becomes a crucial part of her story.

So here's Ailey Live at the Moth. [APPLAUSE] It's five o'clock in the morning. And the sun is just coming over the horizon. And I'm sailing a sailing canoe in the middle of the Pacific

100 miles from land three years ago. I was doing field work in the Micronesia when I met Cesario, one of the last traditional navigators in all of the Pacific. Cesario doesn't use a GPS.

He doesn't use compass. He doesn't use maps. He only uses the stars and the rising sun and the wind and the birds. Young boys on his island are placed in tide pools

at a young age so that they can begin to feel the patterns of water and wind on their bodies. Some people say that they have the power to call whales to their boat, to guide them to their destination. And when it's a moon this night,

they can actually call the thunder and lightnings that they can see the sea. So Cesario invites me on this trip. And there's this one night when the sky is completely covered in fog and he's steering the boat.

Only he's not actually facing forward. He's facing backward. And sailing with only a handful of stars on the sky into the mist. Two days later, after 12 days at sea,

we arrive at an island the size of this building. And being on a sailing canoe is kind of like being on a raft

Every person has a bunk and every person has a hammock. You're six hours on and six hours off,

“but there's absolutely no shielding you from the elements.”

When it's rainy, you're soaked in your freezing and when it's hot, you're completely burning. And for me, most of the time I was also ready to throw up. But Cesario is teaching us so much in the morning he teaches us how to read the clouds

so that we can tell the weather. And at night he's showing us the storm clouds. One afternoon, he tells us that the reason that the storm, the waves are so high at this time of year, is so that they can rise up and clean the beach

so that the turtles can go up and lay eggs. When there's a storm, he's out there blowing the con shells so that he can break up the thunder clouds. There's this one night that we're out and it's raining. And we actually have the sails down because it's so windy.

And we're just trying to keep under this tarp to stay warm. We're putting coconut oil on ourselves. And I turned to my friend. And we realized that we both worked at bakeries at one point in our life.

And at this point, that is the most exciting thing.

And we think when we finally get to land,

we are going to bake bread.

“And we decide we're going to make bread,”

but we need to look up our recipe on the internet because we don't know it by heart. And Cesario overhears us and he gets so angry. He says, why are you so lazy? What happens if you lose that recipe?

What happens if your computer dies? Can you bake bread then? You have to learn it to know it. And suddenly, I am blown open. I feel utterly helpless.

And I realized that the main difference between me and Cesario, it's Cesario holds all of his information within him. And I hold it outside of myself. There's absolutely nothing between Cesario and the stars and the wind and the waves.

He holds it within him. Whereas with me, if I'm without my journal or my iPhone, I am utterly lost.

Cesario will never be lost.

And I realize if I'm facing encounter of ingredients, even me who worked three summers in a bakery, waking 95 loads of bread a day, I will never be able to bake something resembling bread. And so finally, the night comes

when I'm going to tell Cesario my star points and I'm feeling really jazzed. I'm sailing the, you know, I've got the, the paddle and I'm moving forward. And all of a sudden, and I look down

and water is rushing into the bunk and I realize our boat is about to sink. And it all happened so quickly. It's so surreal. The sails are down. People are starting to bail

frantically using anything they can get. The boat is filling with water and we're tipping and all of a sudden the left side of the boat is under water and things are floating away. Our oven, our pots and pans, my sleeping bag.

Everything is just drifting away. And I'm scrambling to find life jackets to give to people and I fall in my leg as bleeding. And all of a sudden I freeze. Because all I can think about is the satellite phone

that's in the captain's box. And I know that it's cheating and I know that it's going against everything, so sorry it was taught me. And I know that as soon as I call that phone, I'm bringing my world of technology rushing into this

wonderful world that we've created. But I can't stop myself. So sorry, are you going to call someone? And you stop spailing and he looks up to me on the high side of the canoe and he doesn't say anything.

And I feel horrible. I know that this has been my test and I just failed. The sun is rising and he climbs up to the top of the canoe and for the very first time in my life he gives me a hug. And I don't know at first whether it's a hug that he

wants to give for a child or someone out of pity. But he turns to me and he says, Ali, everything is going to be okay. Keep an open mind and a clear head and everything will be fine. And in that moment, I don't know that we're

going to be picked up in six hours by cargo ship. And I don't know that by midnight, we're going to be back on dry land. But I do know, Sassario does not judge me.

“In fact, I think he knows as well as I do that I will never”

be able to sail a boat in the middle of the fog and find my way. But I think he also knows that when I get back to New York, I am going to keep an open mind. And I will try as hard as I can to walk down a busy street and know which way is North to be able to big bread.

And for God's sake, to look up for my iPhone and know that the stars are more than just points of light. [APPLAUSE] That was Ali Baker. And it seems Ali is living out her promise

to be less reliant on technology. And we reached out to her to follow up on the story. Our email bounced back because of the full inbox. And then we tried to contact Ali through Facebook. And we found a public status saying

that she was taking a break from social media but sent her love to friends and family. When we did finally get in touch with Ali through a mutual friend and the Moth family, Ali told us that after the shipwreck, the community

and Micronesia rebuilt the canoe and they've been sailing ever since.

So I feel like there's always a lesson to be

learned from Moth storytellers.

a wall, but maybe we can all follow Ali's lead.

“Just taking a little break from technology every once in a while.”

That's it for us this week here at the Moth podcast.

Until next time, from all of us here at the Moth,

have a story worthy week.

Podcast production by Julia Persell.

“Dan Kennedy is the author of Luzergo's first”

rock on an American spirit. He's also a regular host and storyteller with the Moth.