Dreaming Into 2020
In Visualization and Miracles, published around Thanksgiving time, I mused on how cool would that be if we could allocate some time left in the year 2019 to visualizing miracles, or… simply put, to dreaming. What do we want see change in the year 2020?
And, you might have noted that my blog writing has been put on hold because I’ve approached this initiative of mine with all the seriousness it deserves and took some lengthy dives into the narratives that have been developing in tech-related web media for years. The reason? I wanted to get as down or as high as I could, and have this sorted out: where’s the proverbial bath water and where’s the proverbial baby? What am I supposed to dream of, for myself as well as for a greater good? Of note is, through the years of living & exploring I’ve come to realize that, fortunately or not, my well-being (that is, my mental, physical, emotional, and *insert another adjective here* health) totally depends on what I allow myself to be engaged in. I’m simply incapable of shutting myself out of what’s going on big picture-ishly by hiding in some boxed mindset. To some, dreaming and visualization of miracles might appear a leisurely hobby, while to me… these activities are as mandatory as going to a gym would be (to some, as well). What I read, and watch, and “sift” through my being just makes or breaks me. *If I forget that I’m in possession of the magical tool of dreaming*.
And, those dives that I’ve regarded as a necessary prerequisite to complete the dreaming/envisioning tasks must have utterly exhausted my empathetic scanners & sensors.
All of that doesn’t sound like this cheerful uplifting Christmas-y talk, does it? So, after enough tear-drenched baby wipes have been tossed into a waste basket, I’ve reminded myself that I gotta hold on to … dreaming, yes! However, the 2020 dreaming doesn’t look to me like the one that implies more of something. Actually — and all of the above has been said in relation to tech and things around tech, in case you forgot — if they’d let me, I’d envision the year 2020 as The Year of Reclaiming Humanity by focusing more on where we could go with less.
… and the dream pad may run out of pages here because… I want all the instances of less value disguised as added value gone and replaced by a sustainable value which stands the test of ethics and big picture efficiency.
One of the narratives that have embittered me a lot over the years is that of the gig economy copy-paste Ubers-for-everything. What to dream of here? Simple. I’ll dream of safe self-driving cars produced by a firm that has enough managerial, engineering and ethical competence to get those cars tested before letting them out onto public roads — and, as the dream would go, that would be a firm or a corporation that treats their employees ethically, too. Sorry for not providing a link to one of those stories that ruminate over a toxic work culture here (crying a river is not included in my bucket list, after all).
And, I’ll dream of the world where people are free from the need to rent their living spaces out to strangers solely for the purpose of making more money. As for the living spaces, I’ve got another dream, and I wrote on that one earlier in Lend Them a Helping Hand.
Then, I’ll dream of less “social” as in media, with its data for everything, and more of social as in genuine, warm and heartfelt gatherings and exchanges, and I wrote on that one in Face to Face.
Next in my list: I’ll dream of less “training”, and more of education, and I wrote on that before, too. It just doesn’t sit right with me: they “train” machine learning models, and they also *train* humans as, for instance, leaders? And they expect those “trained” individuals to be ethical and strategically-minded? That would be the same as expecting AI to be ethical and strategically-minded. In fact, one of my other deepest woes has been evoked by the narratives that tell horror stories of the humans’ lives being ruled in courts by AI-algorithms. I just don’t get it. What, are we officially under the rule of some dark overlord, as in old-school sci-fiction movies? And why does it take so much ink to convince those in authority that this practice is a horror story? Well, of course, I know where it all gets started. With so much hype over AI, etc., you will want to prove that all of that hype has some value, and this one is just a horrendous instance of how things have gone wrong with tech as an industry lately. Back to my today’s less-more dichotomy: I’ll dream of less hype around AI and machine learning, and of more focus — not hype — on educating humans who are going to be wise leaders (check out (tech) Leaders, Managers, and Tennis Umpires and other stories with the “leadership” tag in Q-Blog.)
As for the AI, machine learning, data science, and all those other words & phrases they throw around in tech media, I’ll dream of less robotic so-called news, which just spew another story of how an AI-related thing has happened, or has raised whichever round of funding, but of more stories told in human-speak as to how this AI and machine-learning have been thought through ethically, with humanity and a greater good in mind.
Next, I’ll dream of less reliance on AI as the prime supplier of what is commonly referred to as “content”, and more of a human curation. I saw an opinion piece in NYT once, called A Better Internet Is Waiting For Us, and it made my day. I’ve also written on the subject in Curiosity and Curation and The Dietitians of Info-Sharing.
Another item in my 2020 dream list: less of stats, graphs, and numbers — and more of thoughtful analysis and reasoning (see Quantify or Wordify? and When To Visualize Numbers and When Not To).
I’ve shared just a few items included to my 2020 dream pad, and.. of course, the pad includes a number of Quandoo-related dreams as well! I’m a fairly consistent creature and, for better or for worse, when I get started with something, I follow through. So… my dream, from the start, has been this one:
— Less of food delivery start-ups, and more of dining out experiences powered by Quandoo apps! Citing from Experiences and Narratives:
..while I’m aware of how tech companies might have compromised the word “transformation”, I see that… Quandoo does indeed transform the world’s dining experiences! In the way that I’d call “the vintage digital transformation”, which flashes back to the times when “transformation” as a word carried more of a taste of some new hopes, and an aspiration that technology is meant to make people’s lives better and richer vs. poorer and deprived of sensations. And, since many of you who read this blog know what this “vintage” transformation is about, I won’t go into many detail on what exactly Quandoo does :)
and one more:
What we are tapping into here goes far and beyond than dining out. The soul-less machine of the media to which we expose ourselves, for one reason or another, makes zero mention of such a fact that we are alive … to cherish life and to enjoy the pleasurable experiences that this life gifts us with! In the end, it’s this exuberant joie de vivre that we are here for, not hustling and bustling, and it goes without saying that a fine meal shared with friends at a nice public venue… does make our life joyful!
— less of Slack-ing and Google docs-ing and more of …blogging! In case you forgot, Q-blog is not supposed to be my solo performance space. I’ve been here for quite a while coming up with the written pieces which, thankfully, my diverse experience allows me to pen. Call me a hopeless romantic, but here’s, again, what I wrote in Your Q-Blog Needs You:
Your Q-Blog needs you not like Uncle Sam would need whoever he needs by pointing his finger at them. The Q-Blog needs you because it’s going to help in your learning and professional journey big time. Where else will you be able to write & publish your stories with the support and encouragement from your teammates? This really is a precious opportunity, and it is not available to just anyone.
There’s another reason for my sticking with the Q-Blog initiative: I want to honor the legacy of people who have chosen to continue their journey elsewhere. And, to me, following through is just the right thing to do. That’s why, as for the Q-Blog, I’m not just into dreaming. In fact, writing & blogging are the non-magical tools that might help those 2020 dreams of mine come true.
Related:
Integrity: The Costs of Bitterness
A Manifesto for Big Picture Pragmatism
Further reading:
7 Ways Blogging Makes You a Better Leader
Want To Become An Amazing Leader? Write More
Why Hasn’t Everyone Switched to Google Docs?
Group Chat: The Best Way to Totally Stress Out Your Team
From Principles to Action: How do we Implement Tech Ethics?
A Better Internet Is Waiting for Us
