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.

Goals - warning!

In reading Steve Forbes’ book, How Capitalism Will Save Us ®, I didn’t think I would like it before I started.  I must admit though, he caught my interest.  Warning!  His style is blunt and aggressive.  Come to think of it, an undergraduate at MSU Denver I was in a working group with told me I’m blunt and aggressive.  But I digress… 

As I said, I was skeptical right from the title; right from the Preface.  You see, I have a bias about rich capitalists defending capitalism.  I mean, we don't typically hear a blue collar, “under class” person defending capitalists and capitalism.  I’m more in alignment with this warning for business schools as written in the book Drive®: 

Goals… Business school professors suggest they should come with their own warning label: Goals may cause systematic problems for organizations due to narrowed focus, unethical behavior, increased taking, decreased cooperation, and decreased intrinsic motivation.  Use care when applying goals to your organization. 

Daniel H. Pink

 “… narrowed focus, unethical behavior, increased taking…”  sounds like today’s corporations headed by… yep… capitalists, true?

On the other hand, when I Googled what the goal is of the free market Steve Forbes refers to, the response surprised me:

 “… to efficiently allocate resources to satisfy consumer demand while promoting economic growth and individual freedom.  By minimizing government intervention, it allows supply, demand, and competition to determine prices and production, which aims to maximize prosperity and innovation.” 

“… promoting economic growth and individual freedom…”  Hard to argue with that!

Forbes doesn’t sugar coat the reality that a free market is brutal; people lose jobs; companies go out of business.  He simply emphasizes that the subsequent employment, emerging businesses, and ultimate impact on Americans’ lives is positive.  He also emphasizes today we are not “… minimizing government intervention…” Steve claims capitalism it is totally better than government over-intervention.  I think Wicker agrees: 

Wicker's Law 

Government expands to absorb revenue, and then some. 

Unknown Sage 

That is how I feel today towards our federal government.  State, county, and local governments, too!  The “revenue” they are absorbing is our tax dollars.  I’ve never heard of a blue collar, “under class” person defending higher taxes, either.  

Do you think Joseph A. Tainter’s book, The Collapse of Complex Societies ®, is an accurate warning for today’s circumstances? 

… bad government is a normal cost of government. 

Maybe Stave Forbes has a good point about the benefits of the free market goals we should strive for, after all. 

GAP 

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