Running the Years

I will be in Los Angeles for my niece's wedding. Afterward, I will be in Oregon to visit my son. It will be a good vacation seeing my brother in California and revising my son. The wedding is a significant milestone in our clan's life as the first marriage of our children.  The years have gone by quickly with the challenges of life affecting our generation: 2 first cousins with a stroke, another dead with a stroke as well, and nieces and nephews growing up getting married and having kids.  

I also have my own challenges at work with the younger generation coming up and we struggle through the changes in the company, meeting new people, and adjusting to technology changes like artificial intelligence. Last week a project I managed went live with almost zero issues which is a rarity as people rush their projects to go live and meet deadlines without proper testing and preparation. Our team got a lot of praise, some from top management and I got credit for leading the project.

It is a welcome development for me as I am in my new or rather old role as project manager, surviving the last year as scrum manager without proper training and support and with our preparation from management. I survived the transition with meditation, reflection, and a little therapy; using this situation to get more training and learn new subjects like artificial intelligence.  AI is heralded to be a watershed like the coming of computers that will change all facets of life.

I have heard such stories before with blockchain, digital currencies like Bitcoin, and other new technologies that did not quite meet their potential. I will soon purchase an electric vehicle: a VW ID4 standard, the cheapest SUV that one could get, and claim the tax credit. Learning to live with an EV would be different and would be perfect with the solar panels I installed last year. In the twilight of my career, I still try to be relevant by keeping up with the latest trends and get the same feeling I got reading Alvin Toffler's 'Future Shock' which heralded a new world.

I just read the book about having a digital mindset, as if the mind can be molded into something new, to adapt to this new world of massive data and artificial intelligence that somehow would change one's life.  I reflected on the way my mind has worked all these years as I cleared out the stuff in my garage, my impulse buying of new gadgets, the chaotic way I tried to store these stuff and eventually donate or sell these items in the Facebook marketplace; realizing that my mind was working on impulses and daydreams perhaps with a touch of ADHD.

I realize that that type of mindset made me succeed in my role these past many years until it did not; I got overwhelmed; not realizing that I had sunk into a hole of my own making until I managed to crawl out. Management was not exactly the best and one had to accept and live with the situation. But I got out into the light with new technologies and ways of thinking to discover and thrive in.

Crossing to the Other Side

Last week was spent on the new project I am managing which is migrating to critical systems to a new way of transmission. No one in the head office in Europe is available despite the fact that these applications are managed overseas. Not a major endeavor but the applications are critical enough to need serious attention. I am working with a young Indian specialist who is overweight but is hardworking and open to my suggestions.

My mental health is much better and I have been sleeping more based on the statistics for the month. My move to my new role has made me do less as I turn over my work to a new guy who seems much older than me or perhaps slightly younger. He has a family with grown children lives at a lake nearby and owns a boat. Clearly, this position requires someone who is experienced. and able to handle stress. He underwent a good orientation with the squad going through workshops to change their way of working.

I do not see my departure as a failure as I did not receive the same level of training and support from the management team. They have acknowledged that I was not given the right preparation for my new role. In fact, I applied for a different post which changed mid-stream without my knowing of the change. Also, new people have been added without proper planning. The situation was a mess and I was caught in the middle trying to do everything and make things work.

I have transitioned to my new role and behaved in a manner that is helpful to both the squad and the new person. I have decided to take the high road, not to be resentful and embittered but to move on. I am stuck on some other projects with my old way of thinking. Clearly, the game has changed beneath my feet and I did the right thing to withdraw from the field of battle and chart a new way forward. I was listening to a book about what to do when one is stuck to accepting one situation and moving on.

I decided to focus on AI and devote my energies toward this new field. There is great promise with all that I have heard, read, and seen. This is a new beginning for me, a way to start afresh and devote attention, effort, and time to pivot to this new way of working. This path will be my salvation and perhaps help me achieve my goal of finally being a novelist.

Rush to Learn

I am in a mad rush to complete several courses in Linked In. The month-free trial period will be ending on the 31st of July. After the trial period, my credit card will be charged close to $ 300. I am cramming on all the courses on Artificial Intelligence and general productivity subjects. Afterward, I plan to continue my AI learning in the company-sponsored Udemy account. I also have been listing to podcast on investing in stocks that will benefit from the current rush to AI.

Some commentary point to a bubble with AI tools way into the future to significantly improve work and life but companies like Microsoft are already raising subscription prices on the use of their tools. Who would have thought that MS would take the lead with their investment in Open.AI and Chat GPT. Google and Meta are close behind having made significant early investments in the field. Google may lead eventually with their significant early investment and embed it into the toolset.

The promise of AI in improving one's life has significant potential. Writers who have strong fundamentals in storytelling can benefit from the use of LLM - Large Language Models that simulate understanding the generated output like written stories. Most people call this aspect generative AI which is the prevalent manifestation of AI and not the omniscient behemoth in movies like Mission Impossible. Linking AI to actual tasks and concrete actions (controlling machines or nuclear missiles) will cause significant danger as compared to the current manifestation via chatbot.

The current potential is more on increasing one's productivity, to add or augment one's skills. I plan to learn AI tools for novel writing and perhaps responding to emails and making reports in the office. My recent discovery of my slight ADHD condition is the other area that I am studying. I entered a course on Building a Second Brain (BASB) is the other game-changer for me. This will help me organize my life in a way that I have never had the ability to do. Recognizing the problem of ADHD was the first major step.

My early intuitive urge in writing journals and blogging helped me manage my ADHD without my knowing it. Having an active lifestyle of exercising, swimming, biking, and hiking kept my mind sharp. My second intuitive urge to learn meditation and Tai Chi, do therapy, and practice Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) was also helpful. Now including AI and BASB are the next wave of tools that will help me in a second career. TCDS and magnetic headband tools plus learning to juggle and play a musical instrument will play a part as well.

Too much AI = Hallucination

I am taking several courses in LinkedIn on topics like artificial intelligence, creating lists and other productivity lessons. I also enrolled in 2 courses in Udemy on Chat GPT and Google Bard that I have not completed.  I also enrolled in Tiago Forte's Building a Second Brain as well as several courses on writing in  Domestika.com. I am cramming due to the recent change in my role from squad lead back to Project Manager. I guess also to prepare for my life after work ; just to keep me busy and continue earning money.

As struggle to achieve my goal to be a writer, a thought came to my mind is that writing is just a hobby to me, not a real pursuit as I keep procrastinating. There is always attempts on self-sabotage by cramming to learn the latest trends such as AI and what not. Yesterday I watched the latest Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movie as well well as Ben Affleck's move 'Air' about Nike's pursuit of Michael Jordan. Both movies are highly recommended and I felt I needed to watch - actually the fear of missing out (FOMO).

In the midst of of all these mental procrastination and missed attention, I face several challenges at work especially on the project INDU which I thought I had a handle to but turns out the problem has not been solved. Complicating maters is my move to the new role plus stress, anxiety and loss of face that brings me. Projects are ongoing, customers are angry, criticisms abound from co-workers, bosses and management team who I feel are screaming for my blood.

But that is being dramatic as management really want to help out and not look for the scapegoat to sack. My boss is a different matter: striking alliance with business teams in her usual slick and cute manner; conniving behind my back possibly because she thinks I am a threat or insecure or just a cold-blooded operator who will strike down anyone who gets in her way. Thank the lord that I have been meditating every morning plus getting exercise to help relieve stress.     

I do acknowledge that I struggle in my role as team leader (though I blame my management for not preparing me for the role but also for general incompetence). A recent survey have rated the team at a low level which is testimony to the common feeling that not all is right. I have so many ideas that I cannot keep track and lose sight of other goals at work and other personal projects like clearing out my garage.

The strategy is to keep calm and focus on the moment, use science like getting enough exercise and sleep and use gratitude journals and blogging to keep the mind sane as well as use TCDS devices to zap my brain and compensate for any effects of my slight ADHD syndrome. But I have changed as well, to recognize my emotional states at time and the inappropriate ways of communicating and relating to my squad members as friends instead of being ruthless and cold-blooded to get things done. 

  

Artificial Intelligence

AI is the buzzword that's spreading like crazy with major business leaders predicting a major change happening in all aspects of life. In keeping with this hysteria, I took several courses on this topic on Udemy and Linkedin. It does promise a new way of working and living. I study ChatGPT and Googla Bard, learning things like Large Language Models (LLM)and regenerative AI. Frankly, I am excited and see the potential for transformation.

I linked this topic with Building a Second Brain(NASB) and revisited a podcast to remember the steps and the main tasks of taking notes. I failed to move forward and have not fully exploited the ideas on BYOB; struggling to implement the next steps of taking good notes and reflecting and constructing a second brain; getting caught up in the toolset rather than the process.

I feel I am on the cusp of a major event; that this is a watershed moment of a new way of thinking and working. It will be a weird world as expressed by Ezra Klein in a past podcast; where the strangeness of a new form of intelligence is guiding people's future. I took a lesson on Sudowrite - which is an AI tool that provides writers with a writing assistant or partner. This looks like a tool that I have been waiting for to kick-start my writing goals.

What are the roles of the writer if the computer can do the writing? How will the office work use AI to be more productive and excel? This is where the excitement and wonder lie, where one figure out what to do with the new tool and change his life. It is the aspect of the new that draws people to the new age.