Granny: “What I want, is a phone… for my wrist. So I can call if I get in trouble.”
Me: “Oh yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a phone like that. But lots of cell phones can clip on your belt.”
Granny: “I don’t wear a belt, though. What I do wear, is my wrist. And my wristwatch.”
Me: “Hm. Most cell phones are too big to wear on your wrist. How about hanging it around your neck, or keeping it in your waist pack?”
Granny: “But you see, I’d want it to be convenient to get to. When I’m in the car, driving, I can get to my wrist really quickly.”
Me: “So you want a private detective, wristwatch walkie-talkie?”
Granny: “Yeah!”
Next time my grandmother invents something that already exists, I should just buy it for her even if I think it won’t actually work very well with her lifestyle. (I mean, she phones me and plays her answering machine messages into the phone and has me say them back to her. Pretty sure a cell phone would be a bad idea.)
Galen’s granny invented music videos one time. She even got the dominant structure right. (“Darling, do musicians ever make little movies to go along with their songs, as a marketing device? You could have scenes of the band playing, mixed with scenes of the band, say, walking down the street.”)
It seems like there should be some way to define this quality. Technology or media so right that grannies spontaneously invent it.