By Mark N. Vena
Mark N. Vena is a Moor Insights & Strategy senior analyst covering the smart home, home automation, security, and console gaming.
There’s something in the water.
Some of my fondest memories from growing up in northern New Jersey center around the in-ground pool my father installed at our home when I was in my teens. For my dad, the pool was a labor of love and a not too subtle device for getting my mom, brothers, and sister to spend time together for afternoon barbeques and family swims. But for all the joy that it brought him, there was one thing that he truly hated about pool maintenance: treating the water on a regular basis so that it was safe to swim in.
Despite the virtual elimination of polio beginning in the 1950s, my Depression-era father remembered how the disease devastated the lives of countless children, who sometimes contracted it from swimming in unsafe water. While the fear was irrational, he became almost obsessive about water treatment. He spent a lot of time on it, and hated the sheer work that was involved and the complexity of performing the necessary tests.