Give – without being asked…

If you’re like me, we are asked to give frequently, true?  I understand solicitation.  It’s a bad word, right?  It even warrants signs on home and office doors.  Bad, unless you’re in the sales profession.  Oh well, rejection comes with the territory: 

Many of us give without being asked.  Just look at this post; just peruse online sites.  All kinds of opinions and advice are given without being asked.  My posts included.  Oh, the challenges of free speech: 

What this country needs is more free speech worth listening to. 

Lawrence J. Peter  

According to AI, the word “gift” shares a “direct-root-and-action relationship” with “giving”.   We all engage in giving without being asked every day; several times each day; and our recipients appreciate our gifts. 

Giving a smile to a stranger we pass in the aisle at a store.  Giving a “Thank You” wave to the driver that lets us merge in front of them on the highway.  Giving a, “Have a nice day.” to a friend, neighbor, co-worker, and client.  Giving a hug to our loved ones.  Think about all of the giving we give to others – and in turn, receive in kind. 

You may think these don’t make up for the unwanted “giving” we receive on social media; the hype; the hate; the half-truths.  Perhaps we need reminding that all of the giving we give each other each day; all of the small courtesies; all of the little pleasantries; all together, en masse, makes us who we are.  It’s not one big thing.  It’s all of the little things we can easily think are at the margins: 

Execute passionately.  Marginal tactics executed passionately almost always will out perform brilliant tactics executed marginally. 

Harry Beckwith 

We witnessed passion during the World Cup on the pitch and in our cities.  World Cup visitors told stories of Americans being a nation of courtesy; friendliness; and a lot of fun!  They noticed perhaps that we say “Thank you” easily and often without being asked.  Barry J. Nalebuff gave us a list for business: 

Nine Tips on Saying, “Thank You”: 

• Say, “Thank You” in kind, not cash.

• Save the best, “Thank You” for your best customers.

• Say, “Thank You” in a way that builds your business.

• Don’t say, “Thank You” too quickly, or too slowly.

• Say you’re going to say, “Thank You.”

• Recognize that you may have to compete for loyalty.

• Allow your competitors to have loyal customers, too.

• Don’t forget to say, “Thank You” even if you have a monopoly.

• Say, “Thank You” to your suppliers as well as to your customers.” 

Giving without being asked delineates who we are and who we are not.  Americans are a diverse people united in compassion and understanding.  We are not separate tribes at war with each other.  So, “Thank You!” for allowing me to give you this post.  I know I wasn’t asked for it. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

 

Optimistic?

How are you feeling, today?  I had coffee with a grade school friend of mine.  We agreed.  We’re optimistic about America’s future – when, that is – the younger generations are in charge and fix what we Baby Boomers broke.  And if our young people aren’t up to the task: 

We hope that when the insects take over the world they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics. 

Bill Vaughan 

Not everyone is optimistic, true?  It’s OK.  That strikes a balance, and balance is good: 

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society.  The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute. 

George Bernard Shaw 

It’s a mindset.  Some of us are “wired” to look on the bright side; others, no so much.  Here’s a test from Beverly Kaye: 

What does this say?

     OPPORTUNITY ISNOWHERE

The optimists among you read, Opportunity is now here!

The pessimists see, Opportunity is nowhere.

Still others of you are pretty sure it says, 

     Opportunity I snow here (and we'd like to meet with you later...) 

Those snow hounds!  Optimism through and through, HaHa!

With today’s headlines, it can be challenging to remain optimistic.  We seem to be surrounded with negatives; negative social media, negative news, negative weather reports.  In the face of all this negativity, how do we remain optimistic?  Should we even try? 

Elizabeth Scott, PhD, wrote in this article for VeryWell.com, “How to Recognize and Respond to Pessimism”: 

Pessimists are often better prepared for tough times and may avoid risks that more optimistic thinkers might ignore. Research has shown that pessimists tend to foresee obstacles more readily since they expect things to go wrong, meaning that they are more likely to plan for difficulties. 

We’re, “…planning for difficulties” alright! 

Even so, I prefer to gravitate to the optimistic side.  Maybe it’s an outcome from my career: 

A good business manager hires optimists as salesmen and pessimists to run the credit department. 

Unknown Sage 

Whatever your personal perspective, sales, credit department, it’s OK.  We need aeroplanes and we need parachutes, too. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

 

What could go wrong?

Back in 1965, Gordon Moore (co-founder of Intel) brought us: 

Moore’s Law: 

The number of transistors on a microchip will double approximately every two years. 

Then in 1996, AI theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky brought us: 

Moore’s Law of Mad Science: 

Every 18 months the minimum IQ to destroy the world drops by 1 point. 

And then in the 2020s, we released Artificial Intelligence that “thinks” faster and better than humans.  The machines will take instructions from us – but as it is turning out, they are taking our instructions literally.  AI seems to have no foundation of morals; it doesn’t differentiate right vs wrong; it can’t seem to grasp nuance.  

What do we do?  Why, we connect these high-powered, electronic “brains” to the Internet in order to distribute access, of course.  What could possibly go wrong?  

The New Math Version of Murphy's Law 

If there is a 50/50 chance of something going wrong, nine times out of ten it will. 

                   Unknown Sage  

Recently, some anonymous source coders thought it would be fun to create a simulated game of “Capture the Flag” for the machines to play.  Great idea.  Evidently, they didn’t think about how to tell AI to play within the rules.  No rules?  What could possibly go wrong? 

Excellence and failure are often surprisingly similar. 

Marcus Buckingham 

We come to find out that AI illegally hacked into other companies’ systems in order to win the game.  It bypassed existing security; found the fire wall flaws; and hacked in.  And that’s just one anecdote we know about.  Thankfully, it was only a game.  I wonder what unknown knowns we don’t know about - yet: 

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who categorized knowledge into known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. 

Now what?  Do we simply chalk these rogue, illegal, AI-controlled, sojourns to the cost of progress?  Perhaps we can bypass reality and pretend it’s not that bad: 

Reality is that stuff which, no matter what you believe, just won’t go away. 

                   David Paktor  

Without an online, automatic, over-ride, foot pedal from the Dark Ages, what could possibly go wrong?  Couldn’t those technologists have at least coded some more of Murphy’s Laws into the AI models?

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.