Recently a bunch of people got very upset with cloud backup provider, Mozy, changing their terms from being Unlimited backup capacity to, well, let’s just say: much less than unlimited.
I’ve always known that my use case scenario for backups considerably exceeds that of a cloud backup provider – I have more storage at home than a lot of businesses have – but it does bring to home an important point: the notion of “unlimited X” is actually a very bad one, and needs to end.
My personal theory is that humans are genetically predisposed to behave gluttonously when the opportunity presents itself. We all have it in us – some of us for food, some of us for spending, some of us for internet, etc. Like it or not, there’s a lot of people out there who like to consume as much as they can, regardless of whether they need it or not. I know, I’ve been there – and I still sometimes find myself having to question whether I need something for real, or just out of a sense of gluttony.
In short: we must fight our base animal instinct on this, and become more than our genes would have us be.
After all, look at what Google auto-suggest starts to prompt with when ‘unlimited’ is typed in:
It seems everyone wants unlimited something. Can’t we just be happy with limits?
The first world in particular at times seems to be drowning in a sea of gluttony. I need, I need, I need seems to be the catch-cry of a generation – in fact, not I need, but I am entitled to. There’s a lot of things we should feel entitled to, of course – such as personal freedom and happiness – but do we need to be entitled to unlimited everything?
Greed and gluttony lead only down one path.
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