Fit for a King: A Thanksgiving Reflection on the Infrastructure We Take for Granted
Gratitude is simply recognizing the good that is already yours.
As we head into Thanksgiving week, I’ve been thinking even more about gratitude—not in the abstract, but in the very real, very concrete sense (construction pun fully intended) of what it means to live in the modern world.
And the more I reflect on it, the more I’m reminded of something that sounds outrageous on the surface but is absolutely true: Most people today enjoy a lifestyle dramatically better than the wealthiest kings, queens, and emperors in human history.
Not just a little better. Massively better.
That might seem absurd. After all, we’re surrounded by stories about stress, inflation, political turmoil, and uncertainty about the future. But zoom out just a little, and the picture changes radically. If you dropped a medieval king into one of our homes, whether it’s a downtown apartment or a suburban house, they would assume you were some kind of sorcerer.
Let me make that comparison real for a moment.
A medieval monarch had countless servants, cooks, and guards, but they also lived with filth in the streets, unfiltered water, food scarcity, brutal winters inside drafty stone halls, and medical care that amounted to guesswork and herbs.
A king’s “heating system” was a roaring fire on one side of a room and freezing cold on the other. A queen’s “refrigeration” was … winter. And Caesar himself never once had the experience of flipping a switch and watching darkness turn instantly into daylight.
Meanwhile, in a typical modern home, we have:
- Clean water on demand, at any temperature we want. A medieval royal’s “clean water” often came from rivers shared with livestock.
- Food from around the world, available year-round. Kings ate lavish feasts, but only what was in season and surviving long-distance transport without refrigeration.
- Sanitation that prevents disease instead of spreading it. Even wealthy royals bathed rarely, and sewage systems were rudimentary at best.
- Climate-controlled comfort. We set our homes to 72°F. Kings wrapped themselves in furs and hoped the fire didn’t go out.
- Instant communication across the globe. A royal messenger once traveled on horseback for days to deliver a message. We “instant” message and complain if our Teams meeting takes 5 seconds to connect.
- Medicine that actually works. A simple infection could kill a ruler. Today? Antibiotics, vaccines, X-rays, MRIs, and specialists on standby.
When you stack it all together, it becomes obvious: We are living in an age of abundance that even royalty couldn’t have imagined.
And that abundance didn’t happen by accident.
Construction and technology are two of the biggest reasons we live so well
Working in construction technology for decades—from CAD/CAM to BIM, from SaaS-based PMIS to Kahua’s modern low/no-code platform, and now the inclusion of AI in nearly every aspect of our solutions—I’ve had a front-row seat to how the built world and the digital world intersect. And I’m convinced of something profound:
If you look at the foundation of modern prosperity, construction and technology are two of the biggest pillars holding it up.
Think about it.
Every modern convenience we enjoy is rooted in the physical infrastructure around us: water systems, power grids, transportation networks, schools, hospitals, housing, data centers.
None of that exists without builders.
None of it exists without engineers.
None of it stays safe, efficient, or functioning without ongoing capital programs.
And none of it operates at the scale of modern society without technology tying it all together.
Our ancestors spent most of their lives just trying to avoid freezing, starving, or getting sick.
We spend most of ours inside buildings that are warm, safe, and connected ... because generations of construction professionals made it so.
The roads we drive on?
The bridges we cross?
The hospitals we rely on?
The airports we travel through?
The clean water we drink?
The Internet we use to read posts like this one?
All results of construction. All accelerated, streamlined, and made smarter by technology.
Modern construction is, quite literally, the reason billions of us live in comfort unimaginable to earlier generations. And modern construction technology ensures those systems are delivered faster, safer, and with a clarity and accountability past eras never had.
The spreadsheet didn’t build our world, but it helped us organize it.
BIM didn’t pour the concrete, but it prevented countless mistakes that once cost lives.
Project management systems didn’t lay the pipe, but they ensured work got done on time, safely, and with transparency.
When you combine physical craftsmanship and digital intelligence, you get the backbone of our modern civilization. And that’s something worth giving thanks for.
A moment of gratitude for the people who build
In this season especially, I want to express gratitude to:
The construction workers who show up in the heat, the cold, and the rain to build the infrastructure everyone else relies on.
- The engineers and architects who solve problems most people never realize exist.
- The inspectors and safety professionals who make sure everyone goes home at the end of the day.
- The project managers and owners who take on the responsibility of stewarding public and private capital.
- The technology innovators and integrators who help everyone work smarter, not just harder.
Most people never see the countless hours, coordination, and complexity behind modern construction. They just turn on the lights, open a tap, or plug in a phone and assume it “just works.”
But it doesn’t “just work.” It works because people—dedicated, skilled, relentless people—make it work.
And whether you’re in construction or construction technology (or like many of us, straddling both worlds), you are part of that legacy.
Abundance isn’t an accident. It’s built.
This Thanksgiving, instead of focusing on what’s missing, let’s choose to focus on what’s present.
And what we have today is extraordinary. We live longer, healthier, more connected lives than any generation before us. We live in safer homes. We move through cleaner cities. We benefit from infrastructure that quietly supports every aspect of our daily lives.
And the truth is: Every bit of that richness comes from people who build and from the technology that empowers them.
So, as we head into the holiday week, I want to wish everyone in the construction and technology communities a heartfelt thank you. Our work matters. It always has. And future generations will live even better than we do because of what we’re building today.
And may we never lose sight of just how fortunate we are, and how much of that fortune was built from the ground up.
Every Friday I try to do a specific exercise: If you follow me on LinkedIn, you know I’m not talking about physical exercise. Every Friday I post about gratitude. I write down a few things from the week that I am grateful for, and I encourage everyone else to comment about something they are grateful for. Practicing gratitude makes me a happier person.
After all, it’s impossible to be unhappy and grateful at the same time. Really think about that for a minute.
Follow me on LinkedIn for an inside look what at this construction tech evangelist is grateful for. And have a safe, restful, blessed Thanksgiving!
