While on vacation in Hawaii with his family in 2011, Tony Fadell woke up in a cold sweat. He couldn’t get something out of his mind: a group of people at the resort unable to put down their phones and in search of the perfect paradise selfie—or snapshot of their tropical drinks.
“They’re not enjoying the world around them and you’re like, wait a second. What’s going on here? We are disintermediating reality with this screen in front of our face?” he told me.