I'm Shrinking, But That's Okay

- jim Young

“My Mother always used to say ‘The older you get, the better you get. Unless you’re a banana.’” - Betty White

I ain't no banana, but some days it seems as though I’m shrinking. I just can’t seem to reach shelves that I used to be able to reach. I find this a little confusing because the floor also seems to be a lot further away when I bend to pick things up, which would suggest quite the opposite.

Which is it? Am I growing taller or am I shrinking?

Sadly, according to my good friend Google, it’s the former. Like most people my age, I am shrinking. But ever the optimist, I have decided that’s a good thing. 

Just take a look at technology. The better the technology, the smaller it gets.

For example, in 1956 an IBM 5 MB Hard Drive required a full skid space as shown in this photo of one being loaded onto a Panam Plane. It weighed approximately 2,000 lbs (907 kg).

This relic cost about $35,000 per year to operate (in 1956 dollars) and could hold the equivalent of 1 or maybe 2 photos that you might take on your Smartphone today.

The 4 TB Hard Drive shown below however, measures approximately 3" x 4" and weighs in at about 259 grams (9 oz).

It can store well over a million photos.

You would need 800,000 of the 1956 IBM Hard Drives to hold the equivalent amount of information that this baby can store.

Hard Drives similar to this sell on Amazon for about $125 CDN.

Depending on where you live, the use of a plane may or may not be required and will likely be delivered to your door by Purolator or UPS WITHOUT the use of a forklift.

While the Hard Drives of today are much smaller in size, their “insides” are much larger. I like to compare that to how much the knowledge in my brain and the love in my heart has increased since 1956.

(And let’s just gloss over the fact that my weight loss has not kept pace with my size loss as hard drives have.)

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