This Post is About Coffee

I like coffee—a little too much, probably. Depending on my mood and the time of day, I’ll either make it with a French press (I wonder what the French call it? “Le Presse”?), an Aeropress, a Moka pot or a pour-over/cone/funnel thingy. I enjoy the ritual most days and it’s relaxing.

I caught myself wondering the other day how I would design an automatic pour-over device and how that differs substantially from a drip coffee maker. (Too much engineering and coffee nerd stuff to unpack in that sentence.) A machine, after all, could be more accurate and precise; it would save me time in the morning...

But part of the luxury of coffee in the morning is the ritual, even if it is a little hurried sometimes. If I delegated that to a machine, I may as well just use our Nespresso machine. (told you: I like coffee a little too much)

So second best is that I watch someone else make it for me. I get to enjoy the ritual vicariously through them. Also relaxing, also effective and efficient.

But really, the difference between a human (me or anybody else) and a machine making my coffee is attention. It feels better to make it myself because I get to indulge in giving the ritual my attention and control the outcome. It feels better to watch someone else make it because I can see them giving it attention as well as observing and indirectly experiencing the process of making it.

To precisely monitor and control the making of my coffee is not the same as giving it attention. Technology doesn’t have attention to give.