Homelessness May Just Be One Tragedy Away...

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Most of us are one tragedy away from being homeless. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is because we focus on the wrong, unimportant, things in our lives. We indulge in addiction, we buy things we can't afford to impress people we don't like, we don't take care of our bodies/minds, we don't work on our relationships...

Homelessness isn't that far away for most people. While we don't know what tomorrow will bring, we can do things today that will help make tomorrow, hopefully, better. First and foremost it's important to understand that homelessness can happen to anybody under any circumstances. You need that fire to burn inside of you to get you to move in the direction that's less likely (no guarantees) to get you off the streets.

• Educate yourself: A wise man once told me that I was worth minimum wage from the neck down and that it was what I knew, and how I would apply what I knew, that would ultimately determine how successful I would be in life. Education can't be taken away from you.
• Your Health is important: Do what is necessary for your physical and mental health as your body is the vehicle for your life. We often take it for granted until it's too late. It's easier to achieve with a good body/mindset than with a bad one.
• Relationships are important: As we get older, we come to understand that true friends are rare and it's not about quantity as much as it is about quality. Associate with people that pushes you to be better.
• Finance is important: Life isn't about getting the latest and greatest gadgets as much as it is to save for a rainy day or to use the extras to be a blessing to other people. As mentioned before, don't buy things just for the purpose of impressing other people.
• Your time is important: Use your free time wisely. You'll never get back the time you spent watching Netflix or play video games. 
• Discipline is important: Get organized, stick to your goals.
• Broaden your horizon: Get outside of your comfort zone to learn things outside of what you already know or are comfortable with.

Be kind to those less fortunate as you don't know their stories and you could be in their situations one day.

Any homeless person will tell you that once you're on the streets it's much more difficult to get back on the job market. If you have anxieties about being homeless then use that to fuel better habits into your life in an attempt (again no guarantees) to minimize the risk.

I Asked an A.I. How to Learn A.I.

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I've been spending a great deal of my time learning all I can about Artificial Intelligence which is the reason why I ask an A.I. to help with the process.

What I asked: Design steps on how to learn about A.I.

The Output:

1. Begin by researching the basics of A.I. and familiarizing yourself with the key concepts and terminology. Make sure to understand the different types of A.I. and the goals and objectives of each.

2. Take online courses or tutorials that teach the fundamentals of A.I. such as machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing and robotics.

3. Read books and articles from experts in the field of A.I. to gain a deeper understanding of the topic.

4. Follow blogs and forums about A.I. to stay up-to-date on the latest developments.

5. Participate in hackathons and coding competitions that involve A.I.

6. Experiment with A.I. by creating projects or building applications.

7. Network with other A.I. professionals and attend conferences to learn more.

Crazy uh?

Will the novelty of A.I. wear off?

A.I. is in its infancy and is already gathering a lot of attention but will it last?  I don't see A.I. as a novelty as much as the next step in our evolution. The future of such things as online searches is found in A.I. - some companies, behind those online searches, may already be using some form of A.I. 

The day will come where A.I. will be widely available via our phone or via a drone that would follow us around to help in our daily activities (For gamers: Think of "Ghost" in the "Destiny" video game).

The issue with A.I. currently is that we can't always trust the data that it produces. There's always a little something that we need to double check or fix. You can't currently, for example, use A.I. to build software without first knowing about software as the output that it produces needs to be refined in order to work properly. The key word here, however, is "Output" - the A.I. is producing "Something" which is better than "Nothing" and can be used with a little tweaking or help inspire new things.

A day will come, with enough data/time, where all of the issues will be fixed and every output will be as good as the experts.

We're In the Knowledge Age

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The Information Age is what we call our ability to store/retrieve large quantity of information. The Information Age is over as we're now entering the age of knowledge.

Knowledge Age is the ability to create new information using A.I. from the data stored during the Information Age. A.I. now has the ability to create images/videos/sentences/code/misc (meal plans, diagnosis, schedules...) at the same level, or better, than the average human.

Some students are using A.I. for their homework in school. If an A.I. can do a student's homework then how long will it be until it can do the work the student is training for? What's the point of going to school to train for a job that an A.I. can do quicker, often better, than us?

To say that a revolution is coming is an understatement. The landscape has already changed - the rules we were using in the Information Age are no longer relevant. If you want to thrive in the knowledge age then you need to find ways to incorporate A.I. in what you do. 

Intellect is Just One Piece of the Puzzle

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There's no doubt in anyone's minds that Albert Einstein had an above average IQ as he's responsible for one of the greatest discoveries of our time. We have to remember, however, that it took Einstein 10 years to perfect his general relativity formula.

J.R.R. Tolkien, who was also a man of intellect, spent the better part of 60 years perfecting his Middle Earth effectively cementing, in the process, fantasy as a subject to be enjoyed by kids and adults alike as previously fantasy stories were more for children than anything else.

The key point that we have to remember here is that intellect, without focus, isn't doing much. We could argue that focus is even more important than intellect for anyone that wants to create something meaningful. Without focus, Albert Einstein wouldn't of been able to come up with the general relativity theory regardless of his IQ. Perhaps someone, with a lower IQ, could of discovered the theory of relativity as well given similar background and focus.

Intellect, without focus, is wasted. You don't need a high IQ to create something meaningful - you need dedication to it.

Fleeting Beauty

 "Exterior beauty, without the depth of a king soul, is merely decoration."

-Unknown

The beauty industry, which is estimated at 572 Billion dollars, is feeding off of our fear of aging and actually does nothing to prevent it as creams/mask (or whatever else) does nothing to stop the inevitability that is aging. You can hide the gray, you can hide the wrinkles but it does little other than cover up the natural order of things. Think of it as painting over a rust spot on a car - the rust is still underneath it all. 

Find peace...

I saw an interview where this young man was asking this older gentlemen what it felt like to be 60 years old and he said that it was like waking up after a party without actually partying. He also admitted that he came to terms with aging at around 50 years of age. At that point, he said, he truly felt like aging was inevitable as he could feel/see it happening.

Deep down, we all fear aging but the sooner we accept it the better life will become. It can't be helped regardless of what the beauty industry is telling us.

What am I suggesting we do?

"Happiness is not easy to find. It's very difficult to find it in yourself - and almost impossible to find anywhere else."

-Nicolas Chamfort

While there's still value in proper dieting, exercising, taking care of ourselves... we must do these things for the proper reasons. If it's just to delay aging then we're not dealing with our fear as much as pushing it for later. Our self-worth doesn't need to be tied to our age/appearance and the focus should be on finding peace with the fragility/short nature of our existence rather than spending a great deal of our effort in fighting it as its time that could of been spent elsewhere.

This won't matter a hundred years from now...