Conversations worth sharing…

…may make it easier for us to deliver the right to dignity to all.

I witnessed a cool conversation over the past 12 hours and I thought it was worth sharing, here’s what happened:

I shared this video from Mad over Marketing (M.O.M)’s page about how simple cardboard is being used to make an easy to assemble work desk for the millions of children who can’t access a comfortable place to sit and study.

It made me think that I take a lot of my comfort for granted, which is terrible because actually it is this comfort that makes it possible for me to learn, and learning gives me what I need to live an incredible life, something I believe I owe to my brain and body.

In the conversation thread of this share, Zainab expressed excitement about the idea, but was not sure about a good next step, to which Madiha very effortlessly replied(paraphrasing here):

“Get the design file from the organisation mentioned, locate a printer that can print say a 1000 cartons, also find out if the printer can cut the boxes along the printed lines or if not, then look for a vendor that cuts cardboard, get the costs, tally up the total, line up vendors and distributors, do a crowdfunding campaign and place the orders.”

… Some exaggeration, but entertain this thought for a moment….

Intent, Will, Execution and Fear are key components that result in impactful actions. We can improve our chances of success by isolating fear to a point where it never interferes with Intent, Will and Execution to do what is necessary in order to take the next step. Perhaps a machine learning algorithm could make the process of identifying actionable next steps super easy for us, we will of course have to take “some” action, but not as much as we think.

I mean we all have some friends who complete certain tasks more effortlessly relative to us because they have had more practise than us. It’s as if their System 2 has learned a few things which have just become second nature or part of System 1 for them. Now, if one were to gather enough System 1 capability for solving some of the global grand challenges (World Hunger, Climate Change, Poverty, Inequality, Terrorism, Obesity, Wastage…and it’s a long list), and provided that whole capability some context when the collective capability pool is “relaxing”, the ability to hash out action plans and initiate VERY quick action over the internet will most certainly improve wouldn’t it? At least a little.

This ability can be improved to a point where the only thing that stands between a human’s desire and achieving the foreseeable outcome is fear. For that I don’t think machines have a cure, and nor will they ever make one.

However, I think technology will improve to a point that will significantly reduce the time it takes us to figure out where to go next (further weakening of value chains will happen as communication costs plummet even further). This will help because at the height of motivation, we often find it easy to overcome fear, it’s just that maintaining motivation levels is tough due to all the incredible distractions of daily life and struggles. If we are able to crack the code of achieving our intended outcome when our motivation levels are high, fear won’t stand a chance!

For example, here’s what I wish I get to see someday soon:

In the future, I hope that when someone like Zainab sees a cool idea on the internet and intends to do it + has the will to see it through, at that time, hopefully tools will exist that will line up the next steps very effortlessly for her. I mean in some ways this is already happening, but what would be cool now is if someone who knows a printer and someone who cuts cardboard can also provide a link, name or phone number, and for that vendor to respond and say hey, it will cost you X, I can deliver in 3 weeks. All Zainab has to do is click the button and pay the money from her credit card. (maybe Bitcoin will make transacting with virtually anyone a whole lot easier, but that’s a sub thought in all this)

Very often, we think that a certain task looks too difficult and that is why we don’t get started towards doing it. But, maybe the perceived task is not that difficult, maybe it’s really straight forward and can possibly be done in the leisure of your home as you type on the internet, hoping to engage a few more brains to take an action worth taking.

Perhaps, this exchange becomes a conversation worth sharing?

I think conversations likely to result in action have a certain anatomy + features, I think the quality of visualisation we experience resulting from the usage of written language determines conversation or instruction quality.

Why can’t we solve for conversations by defining visualisation quality?

I’m of course assuming that visualisation quality can be coded, perhaps neural signals of our brains can be used to measure visualisation quality if we can’t articulate some of it’s key features to ourselves in written or verbal language. Or it could just be a simple voting mechanism as Quora uses already, but provides a bit more context and gets a conversation to take place real time. Why should it be so hard to assemble capability?

Imagine if the people who can influence an outcome can join a real time conversation to see if rapid actions taken within 3–5 minutes can get the wheels turning for a positive outcome to become more likely, how cool would that be?

We all like impact, wouldn’t it be cool to set up virtual meet ups where in 3–5 minutes a group of 5 could achieve massive impact because they bring to the table their respective networks and capabilities to effortlessly take a bunch of steps needed to make something meaningful happen? I’d surely pay for that service. Set up super high quality conversations based on observed capability set and declared intentions about a certain objective.

Why can an AI not suggest the next phase of this conversation, if that is exactly what it’s programmed to do? Why does such a program not exist already?

I think the only thing missing is context for those who may be interested in acting. For my part, I thought I’d at least write about it and see what the internet throws back at me.

The future is very exciting. And so is working from home! :D

I hope everyone is having a great Thursday and looking forward to the weekend.