Starting Tuesday, April 21st, more than 3,000 people from 82 countries are coming together for a 21-day "Mindful Technology Challenge".  It's an idea whose time has come.

In all the technical documents I have read and written in the electronics industry in Silicon Valley over many decades, I’ve never encountered words like 'kindness,' 'empathy' or 'virtue' anywhere.

On one hand, you don’t expect such words in tech docs. On the other hand, why not? What are tools for, if not to promote personal and communal well-being? When ‘high-tech’ meant a computer at work, a television at home, and a radio in the car, it probably didn’t matter much.

But now that we are immersed in an all-digital ecosystem, expected to double the pace of life every two years to keep up with our tools, issues of virtue, meaning and values are essential.  It's time to rethink technology -- as if people mattered.

But how would we even begin to integrate humane values into tech specs?

All technology is based on the principle of leverage, minimizing inputs to achieve maximum outputs. Archimedes said with a lever long enough and a fulcrum strong enough, he could move the Earth.  And in theory he could. 

At the same time, all the world’s ethical systems are based on two principles: be composed within yourself, and manifest that in acts of kindness to all others. Be calm; be kind.

If we harmonize the key principle of all technology – leverage – with the two pillars of all ethical and moral systems, we arrive at: composure and compassion.

Imagine being in a composed frame of mind before designing or using a tool, and then leveraging that composure to result in an act of kindness. Be in a calm, composed frame of mind (and heart) when you input your energy into a tool. And intend the result of that leveraging action to produce kind outcomes.

I know that it is far easier said than done. But working to achieve such a practice – even occasionally - might be the start of hacking through the complexity, disruptiveness and hyperactivity of so much of our tool-use today.

Imagine if the user manuals for all tools began with the instructions: be calm; be kind.

And our upcoming 21-Day Mindful Technology Challenge is an invitation to do just that - in small steps.  Every day for three weeks, a virtual community of people from all over the world will receive a simple, unique idea for how to shift their relationship to technology. We'll share stories, draw inspiration from each other and create new possibilities. We hope you can join -- because it's time to make every click matter.