You Will Own Nothing with Carol Roth

Carol Roth joins us to talk about her new book "You Will Own Nothing" and her innovative legacy planning system Future File

I’d like to start by saying thank you to everyone who has been rooting for me in my job search as I just started a new position with a very lovely company last week. I appreciate all the care and help you have shown during this time.

In this episode, I spoke with analyst, author, and entrepreneur Carol Roth. She has a new book You Will Own Nothing about how the intentional economic strategy in play from both businesses and governments to reduce the ownership footprint of the average person.

I’ve tackled this topic from a couple different angles. I’ve talked about the importance of owning your artistic media instead of subscribing to a service that may censor or remove art at their whims. I’ve written on the importance of owning physical copies of your data because of the ephemeral nature of online-only backups. I’ve written in praise of owning and preserving physical things as a way of maintaining our connection to the past. Carol is onto something important here and I’m eager to read her book.

Normally, I would make it a point to read a book before I interview the author, but Carol came to the podcast through an additional point of interest: the importance of legacy planning.

In May, Google announced that they were going to start deleting accounts that had not seen login activity in the past two years. This would remove everything for an inactive user: email, documents, online backups, and photos. In the event of the death of a loved one, it could well mean the removal of a decade or more of family data, memories, and important documents.

This announcement sent me on a short rant about the importance of digital account management and having an “in case of emergency” book that your loved ones can access. Several people saw this and let Carol know that I was talking about this because this has been a passion of hers for many years.

Carol understands the importance of managing a physical and digital legacy in the aftermath of tragedy and created Future File to address this problem. Future File is a product designed to help people write down and store exactly what they want to happen in the event of incapacitation or death. While it’s not a legal document like a will, Future File was built with an understanding that our “stuff” has turned into more than just physical objects and includes email, social media accounts, and digital license.

I like the decision to offer the product as both software and hard copy. I’m a software guy, but then again we just finished talking about the importance and permanence of physical things so I guess that is maybe the duality of modern life.

I’ve been impressed with the comprehensive nature of Future File. It helps users set up standard important things like medical wishes power of attorney but reaches deeper into the our end-of-life needs with instructions on where things are stored, who to contact when the time comes, or what post-mortem message to post to social media accounts.

We live in a world that is incredibly dynamic and ever-changing. Future File is an incredibly forward-looking product. I’m glad I found it and I’m glad Carol was able to come talk about it with me.

Disney Shorts: Farmyard Symphony (1938)

This is one of those fantastic Silly Symphony classics that is its own pure work of art in the blending of high and low culture. Disney loved to play the role of old country boy bringing great art to the masses & this is one of those pieces. In the context of morning on a farm, we get a lavish and dynamic piece set to a spattering of classical pieces, including Beethoven’s 6th Symphony, the William Tell Overture, Barber of Seville, Verdi’s Rigoletto, and Wagner’s Tannhauser Overture. It is, of course, low on plot, but that is never the point of a short like this. It’s more like a playground than a theater performance and we can see the animators and musicians having a great deal of fun with it.