Author: alearningaday

I shared my experience with ChatGPT the other day. Generative AI is here and we’re going to feel the ripple effects for years to come. I ended that post with a note about unintended consequences.

One of the challenges with predictive AI is that the output is based on all the data it is trained on. That can result in all sorts of algorithmic bias. A powerful example of this was in a powerful post by Melissa H on the MIT Technology Review titled – “The viral AI avatar app Lensa undressed me—without my consent.” TLDR – as an Asian woman, the avatars showed hyper sexualized images while her male colleagues got to be astronauts and inventors.

These give a sense of just how much work lies ahead – to debias training data while also improving our ability to generate quality output when that isn’t easy.

But, perhaps more importantly, it points to the second and third order consequences of adopting transformational technology. There’s a lot of goodness that will be unlocked from these advances.

We just have to be mindful and thoughtful about the unintended consequences.

I shared a note yesterday about an analogy I have for the process of approaching work worth doing – walking down a corridor with motion activated lighting. In response, Will wrote in sharing a quote that he found inspiring during his P.hD thesis.

“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”| E.L. Doctorow

It is the same idea – more articulately stated.

A couple of reflections –

(1) Most good ideas we have are either identical to or have echoes with ideas from the past/from different cultures. Over the years, I’ve loved hearing about these echoes – often via email responses from many of you (thank you!) – as they’re a reminder that there are a few fundamental principles that are causal to a more fulfilled life.

(An aside – someday, I’d love to attempt compiling these principles together. Not this day though. :-))

(2) Working with the analogy of driving at night in the fog, I think the most important decisions we make are (a) which road we are on (direction) and (b) how we drive (process).

Driving on the wrong road is disastrous and will take us nowhere. And driving too fast, without intention, and without bringing the rest of the folks in the car along can be equally disastrous.

Pick direction and run with good process. The path will reveal itself.

One analogy I have for the process of approaching work worth doing is walking down a corridor with motion activated lighting.

You can’t see the end of the corridor when you start walking. But you still have to take that first step – and when you do, the next few steps become illuminated.

Every step we take reveals the next few. The important thing is to keep moving and keep our faith in the light showing up.

And it does.

The amount of communication required in a relationship is inversely proportional to the trust in it.

The biggest implication – early on in relationships, err on the side of over-communication.

“We’ve lost a game, I don’t think we should be speaking about referees, I can just compliment France and wish them good luck. They’re a fantastic team. They’ve got some brilliant players and Didier (Deschamps) has done a fantastic job. So congratulations to them.” | Gareth Southgate, Manager of the English football team, after their loss to France in the quarter final of the World Cup.

I thought this was a remarkably classy response to a question about decisions by the referee. Many managers would have taken the bait and said something unsavory.

But there’s nothing good that would have come off it. It wouldn’t have helped him or the team accept the defeat and move on.

Things rarely go according to our well laid plans. Complaining isn’t good strategy.

Learning from our experiences and continuing to move forward is.

Most successful days/events tend to include some missteps and some unhappiness.

There’s no point being overly reactive to the inevitable misses. It is hard to get everything right and it is near impossible to make everyone happy. Perfect days/events don’t exist. Our memories just omit the imperfect details over time.

So, even on a good day/after a successful event, expect the good to be 70% of the story.

Then, acknowledge the unhappiness, learn from the missteps, and move on.

I had the opportunity to speak with high school students at one of the schools I graduated from recently. After the conversation, a high schooler asked – “Were you a back bencher or a front bencher?”

I explained to him that I was both. There were periods when I was happy to sit in the back bench. And there was a time in my final year of study when I decided it was important to sit in the front bench. So, the 4 of us who were known for being very chatty at the back of the class the previous year all moved to the front.

In retrospect, it was one of those decisions that changed the trajectory of my life. Sitting in front of the teacher and engaging with them helped me focus. Perhaps more importantly, it changed our implicit norms and culture – the same 4 kids who were okay with getting distracted in the past year committed to focus and engagement.

I then became a back bencher in my undergraduate years again. I chose not to engage and focus. I clearly hadn’t learnt my lesson then. But, as I graduated with a sub-par educational experienced, I resolved to never be a back bencher again.

It remains one of the better choices I’ve made.

We can choose our identity.

I switched on my laptop today working through 3 possible ideas from today that I wanted to write about. I then read Seth’s post, shelved all those ideas for the coming days, and decided to just share it in full.

“If a customer, a colleague or a friend is generous enough to share their feelings, those feelings are what they are.

We might disagree with the assumptions that led to those feelings. But acknowledging that the feelings are real is a great place to begin a conversation.

“You feel this way” is not the same as “Everyone who experienced what you experienced would feel the same way.”

It spoke to a mistake I’ve made many a time in the past – not being able to separate the feelings from my disagreement about the assumptions.

I hope to do better.

Thank you, Seth.

The Metro rail project in Chennai is building new stations all over the city. At every one of these construction sites, the temporary walls have the tag line – “Inconvenience today for a better tomorrow.”

It is an idea that is applicable to every aspect of our life.

Our long term well-being is a function of our ability to consistently embrace inconvenience.

A friend was reflecting on COVID-19 and the impact it had on the many social events he felt socially obligated to attend.

In his words – “One of the most amazing things about the past 2 years is that we managed to get through so many life events – births, deaths, marriages, puberty, and so on – without needing to make a big deal about all of them.”

He shared that the biggest thing he took away from all of this was that he’d be better off optimizing for quality in terms of the relationships and events he prioritized over quantity.

It resonated. Opting for quality and focus always feels counter intuitive.