Bluetooth…? When are you getting a real job?

As I drive around Wisconsin talking to people not involved in tech, it reminds me of something that happened in the summer of 2005. Back then, my mother and father were both very ill and I was visiting my parents as often as I could. I’d fly to Wisconsin about every month or so, and help out with little things.

It was a very busy time for Open Interface North America (OINA) so I was on my phone a lot. Bluetooth was not yet a household word. Few cars had it yet, and the iPhone was still two years away, but we were working on it in secret.

Relatives and friends of my parents were often coming over, unannounced, as they do in the Midwest. They were stopping by to drop off food and check on my mom and dad in a small town way. It was all very heartwarming and kind. Inevitably, the conversation would turn to what I was doing in Seattle. A group of my parents friends were sitting on the back porch talking about stuff people talk about in Wisconsin; the weather, corn, a good apple, important stuff.

I sat just listening. Then the conversation turned a bit more serious because of my parents condition. They asked what I was doing in Seattle. I told them I acquired control of a Bluetooth protocol stack company and I was focused on running that. There was a long quiet pause. It was long enough for me to still remember it today. One of my mother’s friends stepped in and said, “Tom, it’s time to take your life a bit more seriously.”

I did everything I could to contain my reaction, and I just listened. They talked as if I was in need of an intervention of sorts, as if they all needed to talk some sense into me and get me to stop the nonsense and “come home.” I called my friend Allan Katz on the way to the airport to tell him about it. Allan thought there was a good book in there somewhere.

Sixteen years later, and the attitude remains. So far, as I look for a house, surprisingly, not a single realtor has been the least bit curious about my background. Not one asked me anything. When I do try to explain it, it sounds so fantastic that they start to have doubts, so it’s better to say nothing. “Okay then, I’ll keep in touch!” This is the usual response.

I’ve heard the expression “flyover country” as a term politicians use to describe everyone in the Midwest who’s not connected to how they think the world really works, as if the Midwest isn’t just as valid. It made me realize how vastly different world views are in different parts of the country. In Seattle, they think of themselves as the center of the world, where tech is the engine that drives things and how they shape point of view. They don’t. Not even a little. The Midwest in general terms, has an almost opposite view. Technology is met with, “what do you need that for?”

They think Seattle, if it exists at all, is a little crazy and they go on about their lives completely ignoring the West Coast’s overblown sense of self-importance. Tradition has deeper roots.

So, here I am, in the middle of Wisconsin, almost unable to describe a world I lived for forty-three years. Meanwhile, to my friends in Seattle, I’m nuts for being here. Reality may be somewhere in the middle.