Technology, Culture & Social Media

How Billionaires Manage Our Time

They contract it out — to us

A clock in my mechanic, Joe Webb’s shop. It’s not just stopped, but unplugged. This is a device that knows its limits, “I aspire to being correct only twice a day, no more, no less.” There’s something kind of zen about that. Photo: Author.

In my duties as a police officer I am often required to take what other industries might call “continuing education” or “recertification” courses. I had to do so last week for a “conducted energy weapon” (CEW) that the agency is adopting. If you don’t know what a CEW is, “Bro,” do a little web search for the biggest brand name. It’s electrifying.

This newest generation of CEW is an amazing piece of technology for many different reasons. The thing that made the biggest impression on me is the device’s ability to capture data. It records when the device has been unholstered, when it has been armed, when it has been tested, when it has been deployed and several different data points about its deployment. It transmits all of this data to a cloud that’s accessible to the manufacturer and the agency. I’m certain it collects a lot of information that’s only accessible to the manufacturer. A single deployment could yield several thousand data points.

All of this data can be used to analyze ways in which the devices are used, the behavioral characteristics of individual officers (that could then be binned and further categorized as user types), and agency proclivities (and binning thereof) as well as data about the…