The World's Not Falling Apart

Countless people are forwarding me key opinion pieces that share thoughts of doom and gloom about our future economy. Experts make provocative claims by comparing what happened in the past with what is to come for our future. For that reason alone, I find it hard to believe what they're saying.

Because what will come is largely going to be shaped by us. And because we're now inter-connected computationally, I don't feel there's any fair comparison to be made with our past and our rapidly evolving present world. There's three things that are top of mind for me right now that make me optimistic and curious about the future.

1. The Internet will co-evolve dramatically. The sudden migration from smartphones back to desktops/laptops is amassing large amounts of data for the tech companies to take an even greater advantage. People of all ages and walks of life have been forced to shift to an all-digital lifestyle. Forced evolution is now happening.
2. An expert opinion is an expert's opinion. There's tons of professors being put on TV or in the media right now explaining how they see the calamitous future of our economy. But many of them are brand new to even using Zoom. Just ask their students <wink>. An expert of the past is no longer an expert of the future.
3. AI's antidote to its badness is inclusiveness. As I explain in my new book, How To Speak Machine (2019), the AI of today gets smarter when it has access to large amounts of data. It's getting that opportunity right now. Fortunately, there are a few folks in tech companies like Annie Jean-Baptiste who seek to address the imbalance.

So in summary, the world's not falling apart — in my view — because digital natives are intrinsically different people than the digital dinosaurs and digital immigrants out there. The majority of expert opinions are just coming from knowing "how things used to be" rather than knowing how the world of business really works today. So think twice when you hear their expert opinion. Lastly, thanks to many rising digital natives out there who are led by their strong moral compasses and are asking questions about inclusivity, we have a fighting chance at our society's ability to grow into one that's more AI ready. —JM

Recreated From What Was Left On The Cutting Room Floor

I wrote a longer post on LI that got trashed by the version control system. Gah! I had a few thoughts that led to the ones above, that I want to keep in mind for the future. This is like my little scrapbook so I can remember what I thought about today.

Lifecounter

Lifecounter (2006) visualizes the number of springs you might have left in your life. I've been thinking a lot about it with all the morbid C19 stats being shared out there. I wrote it while trying to understand the nature of being "middle aged" and what it really means. A gray flower means a year that's passed by; a colorful flower means a year to look forward to if you're lucky to have it. I've found that when you see how the flowers wrap per row, it's possible to feel the various proportions of life that you might have left differently. I find that it reminds me how changing your perspective is a voluntary choice — either you force yourself to see the perspective or you let the perspective into you. The latter is best, but the former is how we start.

Mom, The Time Traveler

My Mom makes me think about life in the context of relativity. She often asks me, "Summer went by in the blink of an eye, but it wasn't always like that. Why?" My response to her is that it's because when she was 8-years old, she remembers when summer would never end. It was 3-months out of an 8-year old's life; whereas for someone who's 80 years old, 3 months is indeed the blink of an eye. So everything's about considering how time is relative — and to keep shifting your perspective around the progress of time is key to remain fresh and awake. When you recognize that the time you have available to you can speed up, or it can consciously slow down if you choose to savor it and taste it, then you are able to not only get things done but also feel it get done, too.

Quentin Hardy's POV on POV

In 2013, after just arriving in Silicon Valley the then NYT SF Bureau Chief Quentin Hardy once told me, in slight disgust, that I didn't tell him anything that he couldn't have read on my website. He indicated that like all people who rise to a certain level, the desire to really say something is stifled for fear of saying the wrong thing. That's always stuck with me, and I recall hastily writing down the note from when he said it. I still have it in my "pile of notes to remember" that I keep in a rubberbanded deck on my desk in case I ever get stuck or lose my sense of curiosity. Thanks forever, Quentin!

"At some point you need a strong opinion. It's okay if in the back of your head you know that you could be wrong."