Learning from Experience
I went down a rabbit hole trying to decide what to write about today. The main things that have been on my mind of late are 1) the Suez Canal drama and 2) the collection of sci-fi short stories entitled Exhalation by Ted Chiang. They both took me into the depths of interesting and relevant content from the web, but probably not urgently necessary.
First of all, it was fascinating to see such a mammoth of a ship being rescued by everyday machines. If you haven't seen the photo of a little excavator next to the Empire State Building-sized ship, it's pretty amusing. It's a clear visual reminder that even huge problems are solved in small steps, with basic tools. There was a lot of online chatter about high-winds, intense tides, and whether or not "human error" caused the mishap. In the end, I wonder if the guy digging sand out from underneath the boat cared why it happened? I imagine the task of getting it unstuck was more of a priority.
As for Ted Chiang, his collection of short stories also had me thinking about the relationship we humans have with tools and technology. Chiang explores technology-related topics in a series of stories that range from the impossible to the quite relatable. He writes about robots, time-travel, and free-will in a way that had me thinking less about the machine and more about being human.
The longest story of the series, "The Lifecycle of Software Objects," catalogs the creation of virtual robots, their virtual worlds, and their transition into the real world through the ability to download them into a physical body. In the story, the "digients" are created as pet-like companions for humans (remember Tamagotchi?), but as the novelty of a robot pet/friend/child wears off, their purpose and place in the world becomes less clear. What exactly is the role of these digients and how can they be useful?
Other robots are uploaded with information from the start, thus making them valuable at completing a specific task, like solving puzzles or keeping a calendar. But when it came to the digients, their most valuable attributes were their human-like traits. They became relevant for their "fluency at navigating the real world, creativity at solving new problems, the judgment you could entrust with an important decision." How was this developed? As the story reads, "Experience isn't merely the best teacher; it's the only teacher...if you want to create the common sense that comes from twenty years of being in the world, you need to devote twenty years to the task."
My take-away from both stories? You have to do the work. And the work takes time. There was no quick-fix solution for unsticking the Ever Given from the Suez Canal: no app, no magic wand, no algorithm that could pull it out with the flick of the wrist or the push of a button. It took a man and a machine (actually many men and lots of machines) to dig, push, and pull that huge ship. In the future, it may take less time to clear up a similar situation, or such an incident might be avoided thanks to learnings from this experience. But in the end, we have to do the work, to have the experiences, in order to make the change. We are valuable because we are a collection of our past learnings and experiences. We are valuable because we have our minds, we have our tools, and we have choices.
So whether you're reading top news headlines or delving into sci-fi stories, I'll pose you a couple of questions. Think of a moment when you've been stuck. What different approaches did you take to becoming unstuck? What tools have you used to get unstuck? What past experiences gave you valuable insight towards solving that situation? What more did you learn that you might apply to future situations?
Feel like thinking about these questions with me, please, come say hi! There's always more space in the calendar than what's open, so if you don't see a time that works just email me here. All intro calls are free, fun, and no-strings-attached. As always, thanks for reading, and look forward to hearing from you?
Sending sunshine,
Henna