My Journey Down the Rabbit Hole of “Artistic” French Media and What It Taught Me About Tech
Alright, so I decided to dip my toes into understanding what the big deal is with some of those, shall we say, “artistic” French films. You hear stuff, right? People talk about how different they are, how they push boundaries. So, I thought, “Okay, let’s see.” I started digging around, trying to get a sense of the landscape, what’s what. And you know what? It’s a maze. A complete, utter maze.
Honestly, trying to figure out the nuances and categories over there felt a lot like a project I tackled a while back, which is what I really wanted to share. It was supposed to be simple, make life easier. Famous last words, eh? I’m talking about setting up a “smart home.”
The Grand Vision of a Seamless Home
I had this idea, you see. Lights that turn on when I walk in, music that follows me around, thermostat that knows when I’m chilly. The whole nine yards. Looked great in the commercials. So I started buying bits and pieces. A smart speaker from one company, smart bulbs from another, a fancy thermostat from a third, and some security cameras from yet another. Each one promised to be the best, the easiest, the most revolutionary.
My “practice” went something like this:
- Day 1-3: The Unboxing Excitement. This was fun. Shiny boxes, new gadgets. I’m thinking, “This is gonna be awesome.” Plugged in the first smart speaker. Easy. Connected my phone. Sweet.
- Day 4-7: The Bulb Nightmare. Then came the smart bulbs. Supposed to work with the speaker. Did they? Sort of. After three app downloads, two firmware updates, and a factory reset of my router. And even then, only half of them would listen. The other half developed a mind of their own.
- Day 8-10: Thermostat Tussle. The smart thermostat. Oh boy. This one needed its own “hub.” Another little box to plug in. And its app looked like it was designed in 1998. Getting it to talk to the speaker felt like negotiating a peace treaty between warring nations.
- Day 11-14: Camera Conundrum. The security cameras. These were entirely their own ecosystem. “Works with everything!” the box lied. It worked with its own app, and that was about it. Integrating notifications was a joke.
A Symphony of Disconnected Noise
What I ended up with wasn’t a smart home. It was a collection of squabbling gadgets. Each one did its own little thing, in its own little world. Kind of like trying to understand a foreign film scene by just watching random clips without any context – you get bits and pieces, but nothing really connects.
I had one app for lights, another for heating, a third for music, and a fourth for cameras. If I wanted to create a “scene,” like “movie night” (dim lights, cozy temperature), I had to manually juggle three different apps. So much for smart, eh? It was dumb. It was a dumb home run by a frustrated me.
What I Learned From This Mess
It really reminded me of how some big projects get managed. You get different teams, each using their favorite tool or language, and nobody really thinks about how it all fits together. You end up with a Frankenstein’s monster of a system that’s a pain to use and even worse to maintain. Sounds familiar, right? Like some tech companies with their mishmash of programming languages for different bits, making everything a headache.
My big takeaway? Sometimes, chasing the latest “thing” or trying to piece together a bunch of “best of breed” components just leads to a massive headache. And just like with trying to understand those “artistic” French films, sometimes the complexity isn’t a sign of depth, but just a sign that things are a bit of a muddle. I eventually ripped out half that smart home junk. Simpler is often better, turns out. Still got a few smart bulbs, but they know their place now.
