Very Human Algorithms

It’s that time of year again. Time to put together our new year resolutions for the following 24 months. Things we want to differently; different things we want to do. Using the same old format: set a goal; commit to goal by telling others; battle habits and external influence beyond our control in order to focus on achieving goal; make excuses as to why it has not been possible; try again next year.

There has been much talk of late about AI. Specifically, the benefits of developing such a thing, and the fears we have about it replacing us human beings in day-to-day tasks.

For clarity (using the definition provided by McKinsey.com): “AI is a machine’s ability to perform the cognitive functions we associate with human minds, such as perceiving, reasoning, learning, interacting with an environment, problem solving, and even exercising creativity.”

I have spent most of my life trying to predict or shape the behaviour of human beings. In early childhood, as a way to avoid danger - by recognising the signs and also by finding a way to fit in with others by mimicking their actions.

Later I fell into civil engineering and many projects which attempt to provide safe and effective environments for people in their day-to-day activities. In the picture provided to this article, you can see how well that works, when people are determined to ignore what would seem to be good advice or even prescribed restriction. It’s what we call a ‘pedestrian desire line’ and you see them in all sorts of human behaviour.

Then came my lengthy and fulfilling career in learning and development, where we try to give “best practice” guidance to people to help them deal with their day-to-day problems. And blame the teaching when it doesn’t happen.

I have said before that my success is always determined by what other people do after I have left the metaphorical room. I can’t make choices for people. I found that out while training to be a hypnotherapist! But that only confirmed what I think I already knew: people are largely unpredictable.

While our own individual behaviour is normally determined by our lived experience (particularly at times of heightened pressure or emotion), it is greatly affected by our environment too (what is going on around us). We are physically designed to be able to notice and respond to change. But we are also hardwired to be uncomfortable with it: preferring patterns and certainty.

Here’s a hypothetical situation for you: a crowd of people runs screaming by you. Do you: 1) run with them, regardless of where they are running to or what they are running from? 2) wait to find out what they are running from, or how many people are running? 3) go back the way they came from to find out the source of their behaviour? 4) stay where you are, largely uninterested in them? 5) take your time in following them, feigning a lack of interest? 6) try to stop someone and ask what is going on? 7) do something else entirely?

It's all about the data, right? We just don’t know what is happening in this moment, and it is therefore difficult to make an “informed” decision. If we choose to act in a way that is normal to us, then we are following our pre-programmed algorithm. If we choose to do something different, then we are consciously ignoring our algorithm in order to gain better data should this happen again. We call that Learning: we have an algorithm for that already programmed into us by our childhood experience. We are, after all, dependent on others for our learning much longer into early development than any other creature on the planet. It is part of being human.

On the whole, we tend to follow the path most trodden when it comes to decision making. I call them Bias Junctures: what worked well for us in the past that we can choose to do again in similar circumstance.

We reinforce a pattern! It’s how our brains work. It’s how ants function – by laying down trails of pheromones that others can follow and establish further. The behaviour of ants is what Alan Turing based his early concept of computer programming on. Modern algorithms within social media and marketing do the same, when providing us with options which fit our usual choices. ?

What media algorithms also do is try to influence our behaviour by giving us options we hadn’t considered yet. We try do the same in civil engineering, learning and development and in various forms of therapy – help you make the right choices for you, because you are the one who has to make the choice: change, or do not.

?“People do not change all the time that they are satisfied.” I can’t remember where the quote came from originally, but it makes sense to me. It explains why some people resist change, why others embrace it, some seek it, and many fear it.

Change breaks the pattern! Even seeing Change as a constant in our lives does not help us entirely. It does not help us set goals, does not predict the future, does not allow us to go back the way we came, does not relieve the inbuilt risk aversion so important to our survival which manifests itself as fear, or anxiety, or apprehension.

I love a bit of Growth Mindset. The Power of ‘…Yet’. “I cannot do that… yet!” “I have not done that… yet!” “it is not possible… yet!” “I don’t want to… yet!”

It’s a game changer for cognitive behavioural therapy. Moving you from what fells comfortable right now, into the realm of possible future comfort. Helping us overcome the fear of change.

I picked up a (large-ish) spider in my hands in 2023. For the first time in living memory, I decided not to crush it, nor reach for the tried and tested glass-with-removable-card-base/ lid. It felt different. But it didn’t hurt me. It’s a small step in defeating old biases. But it was a victory, nonetheless. I overcame my algorithm and set a new one in place. More than one in fact: because I understand now that small things can be changed, and outcomes can be better for me and my environment.

I will not be bungee-jumping next year. Nor will I be swimming with sharks. Those are not the fears I want to face and overcome! Nor will I be searching for spiders in order to show how I have mastered the whole dealing with creepy things scenario. I will use that skill only when I need to, because I have confidence enough to try again… when I need to.

I am not going to worry about AI. Until it wakes up one day and calls in sick, because it is unhappy and would rather be doing something else. Until it can mimic the life journey of a single human being in all its complex and diverse beauty. Until it can create its own algorithms to overcome its programming. Until it questions itself. Until it scares itself! Until it becomes, in other words, wondrously unpredictable. Until then, I will see it and use it as a useful tool for being able to hold, and therefore process, more data than I can – especially the stuff I have had no interest in or use for.

Instead, I am going to try to be more mindful of the other algorithms I have set in place for myself and make decisions based on what I think and feel is right in the moment: not what has always been ‘right’ (for me) up until now.

I will attempt to influence better outcomes for me and everyone around me. Not “control”: Influence.

I will continue to learn from what I, and others, do. I will continue to flex and adapt. I will use the forthcoming year to shape new ways to see and explain the world that I experience, for the benefit of better understanding. I will continue to be a human being in thinking, feeling and doing. I will try to be more authentic and less artificial, whatever I discover that means.

Basically, I am going to do what I do every year! LOL. Well, it’s an empirical algorithm which has served me and others well in the past. Maybe I will need to change the pattern next year, or even in a few months or weeks. Maybe I won’t. I don’t have the data… yet.

Happy New Year, my fellow humans, being.