What Is the Very Essence of Problem-Solving?

 We all have a friend or a family acquaintance who is the go to person when it comes to resolving device issues or even understanding the latest smart TV. What makes them so good at what they do? Is it a skill that can be learned? Or is it some "magical power" they received by virtue of watching 60 years of Star Trek? 😀

In this article and accompanying video (video coming soon) I would like to break down what I personally think are some of the key attributes of such people. Let's start with a short list: This is from my own perspective. You may definitely feel differently about the following four points.

1. They come in every issue with a completely open mind. And have a tendency to look at the issue from multiple perspectives. If they could they would indeed try to walk a mile in someone shoes.
   
   One of the most important skills in problem solemnly is the ability to step out of your own mental framework of limitations. Most of us spend the day in this framework because it makes the mental load light on the brain. There is a structure to your reality and everything it's interpreted and filtered through this reality. Being able to put this framework aside makes it possible to be open to unconsidered possibilities. This is the biggest aspect of the essence of problem-solving. If you can do justice first step then you are 90% there to fixing what ever the issue is.
   
   You would be surprised how many people can't or are unwilling to go outside of their framework of reality. I have seen people stop dead in their tracks, hold up their hands and say "I don't know how to make this thing work." Even though the answer may be right in front of them, but not presented in a way they are used to.
   
   A real-life example: Someone bought an Amazon TV and couldn't get the built invoice assistant to work. Here's what they were doing, momentarily pushing the correct button on the remote control and speaking in to the built in microphone. They try this over and over… To no avail. If they had bothered to glance up at the TV while momentarily pressing the button they would've seen a larger message on the screen which read "Press and hold the button down well speaking." Instead they were just pressing the button momentarily and completely ignoring the message on the TV set. The answer was there all the time but they were locked in to their framework which said "You only press a button on a remote control briefly."
   
   
2. They aren't afraid of saying "I don't know.". Then there mind starts to search for possible ways to break the problem down.
   
   Sometimes you are confronted with an issue which is completely baffling or you don't know how to break the various aspects down in order to search for the appropriate answers. Good problem solvers will always ask for alternate input and ideas. This includes using AI to gain further insight or fellow colleagues. Sometimes you just have to sleep on the issue as well, until you get one of those "Eureka" moments. (I find this happens quite a lot with me.) A key point here is, if something isn't working using one approach, don't just repeat the same approach over and over. The open to asking others or stepped back from the problem for a while. Very often an answer will come to you later in the day.
   
   
3. They cultivate emotional awareness in themselves. This aids in the ability to look at a situation in different ways and identify biases they may have which could block the solution.
   
   Additionally, cultivating your own emotional awareness allows you to adapt to other people's way of explaining an issue. In its most basic form this could be just recognizing and adapting to the fact that the person who you are trying to help solve a problem has a completely different way of describing the issue than you're used to. To use a computer as an analogy, you may be completely clear on exactly what a "Drag bar" is on a typical computer screen. The person with the problem on the other hand may have no clue as to what you're referring to. They may see the exact same object and call it a "small rectangle". Emotional intelligence allows you to adapt to another way of communicating with the world under the circumstances. The first step in adapting is to understand how you communicate and how you interpret things. Then using this awareness to translate appropriately in order to make the communication between all parties clear.
   
   
4. Not only do they love to solve problems, they love the entire process. They may experience a little let down if the solution is to easy. 
   
   Oh, this one is so applicable to me! 😊I do love the thrill of solving a problem. I really do love the difficulty. There is one little downside you have to be careful though, and that is knowing when to move on in order to keep a project or other activity on schedule. Left to my own devices I would focus on one aspect for an entire day. Getting everything perfect! Well this can also be a way to shoot the project down completely. The good news is I am slowly learning not to get stuck. But I admit I still love perfection. And I am finding a happy ground between "Too Easy" and achievable.  

Edited photo of a Stella d'Oro Daylily. 
Just thought it looked nice with this post.
Download full size by clicking on image (3285 x 2266) 11 MB

You may have a different order or additional items than the ones I have indicated above, but I think the essence of problem-solving is in these four steps.

Problem-solving is a critical skill, and it is something I do every single day. Indeed I welcome the various challenges and I am the first to say that I actually enjoy difficulty in a variety of aspects. To clarify that previous statement, "difficulty" in this context refers to having to do additional work to find an answer and making progress during the process. Just making something difficult without any reason or expected outcome is a waste of time and can only lead to polite frustration.

There will of course be and accompanying video once I have fleshed out the points mentioned in the above list. For now however, take care and have a great night or morning where ever you are.
 

Patrick

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.    

Reframe, and you will see opportunity everywhere

 

I talk a lot about opportunities. But I've begun to realize that there are even more opportunities available then I had first thought because initially I had imposed a set of restrictions which I wasn't aware of on what exactly an opportunity should look like.

This is something we all naturally do, however if one removes the subtle preconditioned we place on any given opportunity which might arise than a whole range of possibilities opens up. For example, let's say we are looking for an opportunity in a certain field, let's say the nonprofit sector. Further presume that we already have an idea in our heads which we believe would be of great benefit to a particular community. We've done the research, added up the various costs and the pros and cons of slightly different approaches. Then we approach a few organizations and are very surprised as well as disheartened to find that we are turned down after a series of very polite meetings.

What just went wrong? In this case the reason was because we didn't demonstrate any previous experience in the nonprofit realm. Of course the agencies would be nervous about funding an idea and a person who had no previous experience and was a complete unknown.

Now let's approach this same opportunity in a different way. Rather than beating the door down and visiting the agencies as a complete unknown, we instead volunteer with a nonprofit group. Getting to know how things work, and a much better overview of issues. Not to mention networking with various people. Then once we have a bit of a track record we pitch the very same idea and this time we get support and some small funding for our idea.

Green Timbers Park Surrey BC July 24, 2026

The difference between these two approaches is obvious, the first one we attempted to bulldoze what we perceived as a marvellous concept. In the second situation we work with the group gaining a track record and understanding along the way. We approach the same opportunity in different ways and one way led to success. Maybe not the full idea which is often what happens when you are asking for funding but we made a step in the right direction.

Opportunities really begin to appear when you think incrementally. The steps involved toward an ultimate goal, rather than trying to achieve everything all at once. When one approaches a situation in this slower more methodical way there are many benefits. A deeper understanding is acquired which can only be gained by going through the more detailed process. Additionally your network of acquaintances grows tremendously. And let me tell you that network may be important throughout your entire life not just the project at hand.

So when you are looking for new opportunities, make sure to consider the situations which might help get you part of the way there rather than attempting to reach the full goal all at once. I can guarantee that when you adopt this approach you will see many more "opportunities" available to you.

Have a great day!
Patrick

 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.    

The "Gift" of difficulty.

 Much can be learned from the difficult things in your life. Don't shy away from them.

This is a topic that is worth revisiting, simply because it is so important in a person's development and perspective of the world. Every time you are faced with a difficult situation whether it be a decision, or something in which the correct answer cannot easily be found online (or by asking your favourite AI.)

The most amazing thing is, if a person faces their difficulty head on goes through whatever process entails, when they come out the other end there not only is a "solved problem" but they have demonstrated to themselves that they can handle the situation they just went through. This builds character and a deeper understanding of the individual. Challenge has a habit of doing that. You will always learn something.

The next time they face any type of difficulty they will benefit from a deeper reservoir of coping skills. You can't get this kind of knowledge by simply reading about it or watching a video. The person must go through the event themselves. Learning ahead of time can always help in coping with the difficulty, but nothing replaces dealing with the specific situation.

If you don't have challenge in your life then you will have less coping skills. As someone who's been on the earth for 67 years, I can tell you personally that facing difficulties always yields many more positive results in the long run.

A 1963 student in grade 7 making their  presentation about 
the discovery of electricity. (AI generated)

 Depicted in the picture above is a grade 7 student in the year 1963, presenting their a science experiment to the class. This was quite the common event and the details in the picture are not overblown. The student would've had to do all lot of manual research, and this is before, way before, the Internet. It would have been difficult for him. But the student would've gained so much insight and experience, not of the topic per se but of the process of doing the assignment. Gathering the materials, doing the research, and then putting it all together in the above panorama.I wonder how this compares with the current grade 7 curriculum? Take a look at the image again and imagine some of the insights the student would have gained throughout his project.

Learning to enjoy the difficulty itself

Image Credit: NASA. April 7, 2026. The Artemis II crew
Clicking on the image will take you to the NASA 
photo information page.

The most amazing thing about taking on a project of any kind where you are forced to stretch your self is that the difficulty can actually become joy. As one overcomes each problem, there is a sense of satisfaction and growth. Do this enough and you begin to look forward to the problems about to be faced. It can actually become quite intoxicating. This is why when you see photographs of researchers celebrating over an achievement they appear so ecstatic. Not only have they reached their goal, in the process they may have discovered something unknown. Months or years of work can have such marvellous paybacks.

 

The world is in constant change.

 Another important point is that you must be willing to change. Often times, what is perceived as a difficult issue isn't. The difficulty is that you are unwilling to change and sometimes that's all the difficulty truly is. People often get locked into routines and they become very comfortable in those specific environments. The world however is in constant change, and challenging you to adapt with it. In order to truly see difficulty as a gift, the first step is often identifying whether you are subconsciously insisting that the situation adapt to you rather than you adapting to the situation. Trust me, the correct answer in this situation is for you to adapt to the situation.

 

Personally, I have found writing this short post very inspiring and although it always takes much longer than I first envisioned it was indeed worth it. One cannot help but think back to all the accomplishments achieved in just a short time. The amount of effort which must've gone into each one is just dumbfounding… And yet someone began the undertaking, the initial first steps. You can't be afraid of difficulty, you must embrace the challenge!

There will be a follow-up video shortly to this article, so stay tuned.
Patrick 

Creativity and AI, Can They Coexist?

Image of a Tulip taken with a Kodak DX3900 in April 2002.
I just thought it looked cool 😲 for this post.

You may be tempted after reading the title of this post to fervently respond "No!..." , then articulate various reasons why. But hold on, before going down the gloom and doom rabbit hole, consider the following:

Let us consider image creation and here I'm not talking about the dreaded "Deep Fake" phenomenon, I would like us to consider the ability to create images by merely articulating an idea. This has quite a few benefits when used responsibly. 

1. If a person has a disability which physically impairs their motor function, AI can allow them to release their creativity like never before. As with, anything else it takes practice to learn how to prompt artificial intelligence correctly. That in turn means that the person must organize their thoughts and consider the various aspects of the image they want to create.I myself have found this very liberating. Often I take what the AI initially generates and tweak it to improve the presentation or context. In this situation, Artificial Intelligence allows the manifestation of creativity.

The image below of a fictitious RCA "Cathedral" vacuum tube radio from the 1930s is an example of what can be done by simply describing to an AI system what you would like created. The actual prompt (text) is in italics below the image. With practice just about anyone can create a pleasant useful image. It should be noted here that some understanding of how AI works is necessary when creating your request. In a nutshell AI in its current form statistically calculates the all odds of words in a sentence, maps that result to a meaning and then reevaluates. It does this for each word until it gets a high probability that the answer is correct. In the case of an image it may start by evaluating what shape is most likely being asked for. This results in billions of calculations and is the reason why it is so power intensive. 

AI generated picture from the service Ideogram AI. 

My prompt to the AI: "A beautiful 1930s RCA Cathedral vacuum tube radio sitting on a desk with the tuning knob marvellously lit in that warm incandescents light glow. The lighting should be warm and inviting in the room and the image should be photorealistic."

2. You're working on a problem and you reach an absolute dead as to the solution. This can be a physical situation or an abstract idea, but in either case, you've hit the proverbial brick wall. So you put the question to an AI chatbot, and even if it doesn't come up with a usable answer, it very likely approached from a different angle. That's just enough for you to get inspired and tackle the problem once again. Normally you would ask friends in this situation but sometimes, especially if you're stuck at two in the morning, this is the more appropriate way to go.

The above two examples are the benefits of artificial intelligence. In both cases the tool of AI is not detracting from the process of creativity, it is adding to it in a very beneficial way. Allowing the individual to explore more deeply their given situation. This is in stark contrast to another article I wrote several years ago " Learning and knowledge in the shadow of AI " which explores what happens when people use AI to circumvent understanding of an issue or topic. The above two points are almost the opposite of what that article is talking about.

To be rather blunt, the question is whether people will be wise enough to use this new tool to expand their understandings and opportunities to learn, or will individuals insist on taking the easy road and thereby reduce their opportunity to grow. Both situations will probably exist for some time but it is my hope that overall people will use this collectively as a society and individually as a person to grow.

In order to ensure growth means that when AI is used we must always not take it for granted, being involved with the technology only superficially. Society must understand what is going on and how AI mechanisms work and continue to evolve. Not to mention this is the only way to get the maximum benefits of this revolutionary tool. AI is not human and the current mechanisms used to create the manifestation of Artificial Intelligence can never understand the information it presents. That must be understood. We do not know however how this technology will evolve. There are many, many, ways forward. This means that society again must understand and be involved with the evolution of this technology. This is not a way to get out of school so to speak, this is another course in your curriculum of life. This is a technology we must continually grow with.

There is one final point - AI is an incredibly rapidly evolving technology. It should never, ever be blindly relied upon. One must always double check with other facts and research. In some ways this has a historical parallel. 

It was believed that the sun and planets revolved around the Earth since before the time of Ptolemy the standardized this idea in the Ptolemaic model. Even though there alternate ideas which challenge this model. It became the predominant one for hundreds of years. Until Copernicus published "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres" in 1543, which portrayed the earth and other planets going around the sun. However, the Ptolemaic model was entrenched, for one reason it appeared to align with common sense. The compartment can idea was only accepted slowly however as we all know Copernicus was correct in his observations.

 In a similar way there is a tendency to automatically assume that whatever is generated by AI is accurate and to be taken at face value, even if it feels right.

Personally I find the very act of researching a topic on my own very rewarding. In some cases I find it intoxicating to follow little trails of knowledge to a larger concept which I have the satisfaction of understanding. This is something you don't experience with AI. It just gives you the answer which is different from the knowledge attained by understanding. As a matter of fact, yesterday I had this very experience, albeit in a subtle way.

A local library had one of their patrons come in complaining about not being able to access an online resource. It was one of those situations where because they were a member of the library the should've been able to access this streaming service by simply entering their library number and password. At one point the library and thought it might be a problem with the patrons email address, and so they contacted the place where I volunteer the Vancouver Community Network (VCN) which provides email addresses and other services to low income and seniors. One of the volunteers at VCN asked an AI about the issue and followed a number of steps, with the presumption that the email address the patron was using was the source of the problem. The next day I called the library back and had a long talk with the librarian hoping this particular patron. There were many details we found which indicated that the problem was on the streaming services and and not an email issue at all. Details which the AI had ignored in its analysis.

Even if the issue hadn't been solved, going through the mental exercise gave everyone deeper insights and that is something that no AI can provide. The lesson here then is, even when AI is the most efficient way to go, if one still wants to truly understand something they must do it themselves.

With that final thought I will wish you a pleasant day.
Take care Patrick

** NOTE: The picture of the RCA "Cathedral" vacuum tube radio is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.  

Who says the world has to make sense?… See it like a child for a day. Or more often if you like😃

I recently met a child of about seven years old, and the first thing he said was "You've got a big tummy." They were dancing around with blinking LED shoes when they said this. I thought to myself "What a joyful honest answer." I couldn't help smiling.

There was absolutely no malice in what they said, rather there was honesty and the simplicity of how they interacted with people. No judgements, no negativity, lots of playfulness and above all, simply direct. I don't's can learn a thing or two from this encounter between the old and the new.

As adults, perhaps it is time to look and think a little bit like a child. When you next open your front door, take just a moment and look around your surroundings as someone much younger. Not only will you go down memory lane, I'm betting you will realize just how many layers of complications and considerations grown-ups tend to put on themselves. Most of the time this is good, but if we begin to do it subconsciously without thinking there is a chance we can lose touch with the simple pleasures of life. Things need not be complicated. And it could be quite refreshing 😄

I'm reminded of a time when I was very young in Trail British Columbia when my brother had received a miniature working steam engine, complete with a boiler, and a flywheel. I was fascinated by this little gizmo. So I asked my dad if we could build one out of a coffee can. He looked at me and said "I don't think that would work." The more he tried to explain why this would not be a good idea, the more my young mind went wild with ideas on how to fix each of his stated issues. You see, he was looking at it as an adult, and rightfully so, but I was looking at it as a child and coming up with solutions, albeit based on the cartoon logic of the Coyote and RoadRunner" (Thank God I was exposed to those cartoons, back then). Even though we never built this steam engine. I have learned something very important from the experience and lingering memory. "Keep your mind open to the possibilities--Even If They Are Ridiculous. Because from that ultimately not so ridiculous answers may emerge."

Today's lesson then is to remember to think like a child on a regular basis. Just stick your head out the door, or a look around the corner with the attitude you had when you were five or seven years old. The world is about exploring and some of the best toys come from being open to the simple ways of seeing things. Take it a step further if you find this enjoyable. Do it regularly. Don't worry about limitations, details, or whether you may make a mess 😉....  If it puts a smile on your face then you have gained something magical.

Most of the really creative and free people I know stand touch with their childlike perceptions and frequently revisit their own mental playground. Leaving behind all the considerations and the judgements that adults have.

Is matter-of-fact I'm have put a few days on my calendar right now and if I can find a way to do this regularly I may go off and fly a lollipop and dunk it in my chocolate pudding!


Have a great day everyone.
Patrick

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

Change May Bring Discomfort But...

 ...It Is Guaranteed to show you something positive you didn't expect.

It is always wise to remember that no matter who you are and how observant you are there will be many times in the life where one becomes, quite accidentally, a little too comfortable.

That is, in the absence of an external force acting on the human being, we have a tendency to stop our own evolution by becoming a little too comfortable with whatever the current situation is. This stops most people from developing further. That is until something comes along and shakes them up a bit so that they continue on the road of life.

Everyone falls into this trap many times over a human being's admittedly short lifespan. When people become content for a long period of time they inevitably stop evolving. Which  is a shame, because that is the very time to undertake something new and shake up the tree. To be clear I don't mean you have to do this every day, but I do you mean that it should be frequent enough that you are keenly aware of the benefits. And what might the benefits be you ask?… Far too many to mention, and for each person the list is unique. I can tell you however that it keeps you engaged with the very process of life. Allowing you to notice things you might otherwise have not seen. I bet you as a matter of fact that when you see something new especially if it's unexpected, there is always something deep within that feels a little uncomfortable. That feeling of being "uncomfortable" is an extremely important sign because it means that you are looking at an opportunity to change. You may not like what you perceive as the change, and indeed there may be a fair bit of resistance to the new concepts you are confronted with, but I promise in the end you will gain more than you lose. Usually in ways that are imperceptible to other people. But you know what has occurred.

Click picture to view / download full
resolution printable copy.

This artwork is hereby placed in the
public domain and is based upon material
in the public domain. Patrick Clark

So please don't allow yourself to become overly comfortable or complacent. You should always try to shake each day up a little bit. Because the only meaningful constant in one's life is "change itself".

 So go out and do something you were not quite expecting today. Shake up the day!

Feel free to let me know in the comments if you had any Eureka moments 😉

Take care Patrick 

 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

 

 

Where Will Your Magic Moment Be Today?

 

Somewhere, in the next 24 hours you will experience something positive. 

It will be amongst a flurry of other activity. The challenge will be to notice it.

We are also busy with activities and obligations, while at the same time, being not so subtly, attuned to the negative things that we frequently don't notice small moments of enlightening pleasant events. Now evolutionarily the human species is more attuned to the negative things. After all if you were in the wild you would want to be aware of that line hiding in the bush. Trouble is that advertisers and other influencers have learned to manipulate this trait and the things have gotten out of hand. We are absolutely bombarded with the darker side of life so much so that it takes some effort to see the more positive things out there. I promise you however they are there. Small little dots of pleasantness or calmness scattered about.

Make it a goal today to notice these little moments of uplifting insight. They may be very short, but don't discount them. Indeed, add them up and see what the average amount of daily positive insights there are. To this over a week and I'll bet you will be surprised.

One of the things that everyone has to deal with now days which is unique to our generation and those coming after us, is information is coming at us and an incredible rate. Everything is delivered to us almost instantaneously now. We don't even have to type in a query on a keyboard anymore, you can just ask the question directly and for the most part you get an answer. I find that amazing personally on one level, because I see the potential of this technology, however I wonder on average how this technology is used every day. It is used to uplift, or is it used to depress? Give me a moment, I am going to run off and ask "Gemini" this question right now. The question I posed and the answer will be posted immediately below this text.

The question: "Are there any statistics on whether questions posed to Artificially Intelligent services like yourself or chatGPT are of a negative nature versus a positive query?"

Google Gemini produced quite a response, a mini report on the subject. 

As always take everything produced by an AI system with scepticism. I have not verified any of the information contained in the report. Use at your own risk.

Having said that, it does appear to ring true to me. One thing I take from this output is questions to such systems I won't be as "flowery" in my queries.

 Google Gemini's response begins now:

The question of whether users are "nice" or "mean" to AI is a significant area of study for researchers. While there is no single, real-time "dashboard" for all AI queries, several large-scale studies and dataset analyses provide a clear picture of user behavior.

 

Generally, the data suggests that most interactions are neutral and task-oriented, but a small, vocal minority of users engages in highly emotional or "negative" querying.

1. The Majority: Neutral and Utility-Driven

Most users treat AI as a tool rather than a social companion. Analysis of public datasets like ShareGPT and WildChat (which contains over 1 million real-world interaction logs) reveals that the vast majority of prompts are:

●     Informational: Fact-checking or asking for explanations.

●     Productive: Writing code, emails, or summaries.

●     Creative: Generating stories or brainstorming.

A 2025 study by OpenAI on "affective use" found that while users do occasionally personify AI, the majority of users engage in relatively neutral ways. The emotional or negative queries typically come from a "tail set" of power users who use the AI for more personal or experimental reasons.

2. The "Politeness" Statistics

Interestingly, there is a distinct divide in how people frame their prompts. Some users include "please" and "thank you," while others use blunt commands.

●     The Accuracy Paradox: A recent study from Pennsylvania State University (2025) titled "Mind Your Tone" found that rude or blunt prompts actually resulted in higher accuracy (84.8%) compared to "very polite" prompts (80.8%).

●     Why? Researchers suggest that polite language often adds "linguistic noise" or "redundancy" that can distract the model from the core instruction. Direct, imperative commands (e.g., "Solve this.") provide a cleaner signal to the AI.

3. Negative vs. Positive sentiment

When researchers perform sentiment analysis on user prompts, they typically find the following distribution:

Sentiment Type	Characteristics	Estimated Prevalence
Neutral	Fact-based, coding, "how-to" instructions.	70% – 85%
Positive/Polite	Including "please," "thank you," or "good job."	10% – 15%
Negative/Hostile	Aggressive commands, testing "jailbreaks," or venting.	5% – 10%

4. Sentiment Mirroring

A phenomenon called sentiment propagation is often observed in AI interactions. If you are negative or aggressive, the AI may inadvertently mirror that tone (though safety filters now "soften" extreme emotions).

 

●     Positive Prompts: Tend to increase the "verbosity" (length) of the response.

●     Negative Prompts: Often lead to a decline in factual accuracy (up to 8.4%in some tests) because the model may shift toward more speculative or defensive language.

Summary of Trends

●     The "Venting" Factor: A small percentage of users use AI specifically to vent frustrations they wouldn't say to a human.

●     The "Test" Factor: Many negative queries are not "mean" in intent but are "adversarial"—users trying to trick the AI into saying something offensive to see where the boundaries are.

●     The "Directness" Shift: As users become more "AI-literate," the use of social pleasantries like "please" is decreasing in favor of efficient, direct prompting.

 End of Google Gemini's response.

 

Now let's get back to the topic at hand and that is being aware of the positive events that occur every day in your life and mine. Remember to when you're speaking with people to give them the benefit of the doubt and not to check everything so personally. If need be step out of your comfort zone for a moment and look at at the bigger picture. Even if your Magic moment isn't immediately apparent stepping back from an event often gives you some insights which can allow you time to mold your emotions and indeed see the magic which may be just around the corner.

As you can tell, this is how I tend to approach every day. Knowing that somewhere in the next 24 hours there will be something unexpectedly pleasant. Maybe very brief in duration, but it will be there.

Have a great day and don't forget to keep looking. Maybe make a journal of the events you are now noticing which you might otherwise have ignored. You may be very surprised. Let me know in the comments.
.
Patrick

This seems a fitting question to answer for the first article of 2026 👀

 One of the questions I hear often regarding this blog is, "Where do you get the ideas to write about on your website [blog]?"

This seems a fitting question to answer for the first article of 2026.

The inspiration for ideas comes from the fact that I keep not only my mind open, but I'm also very aware of my environment as a whole. One's environment is always changing, people come and go, and if you look closely can pay attention new things are always happening. One has to take an active role in this process though. You cannot just wait for it to come to you. Be ready to embrace change of all kinds. In brief that is how I come up with new articles. I may be talking to someone, or hear something, or just a flash of insight. I never really know where and how the motivation for a post on this website will appear.

Let me stress that you have to be active in being open to new ideas and mixing things up a bit. By that I mean not being too comfortable with your current environment. If you find yourself being bored and that is a really good indication that you have to shake up your situation. You cannot wait for an event to come to you. Chase an idea and get used to doing this on a regular basis. The idea may or may not pan out but it is the process that is most important. The process of being aware of your surroundings and keeping yourself open to experiences will result in ideas and insights becoming part of your daily life.

So, to summarize:

1.  Actively seek change.
2. You must put energy and effort into the undertaking. It will not come to you without effort.
3. Get comfortable with the idea of short-term discomfort. This is required when exploring a new frontier as in an idea or activity.

 I created this poster to remind myself that "Change and Challenge" are opportunities. You can download a printable copy or order a full poster:. 

 

Click the picture to download a printable
version on your computer.

 

Please feel free to download and print out the image if it inspires you. If you would like a unique hard copy version of this printed on steel as a poster it can now be purchased at "Displate" in several sizes. Full disclosure, I do receive a percentage of every sale.   

Click here to view all  posters available on my Displate page  

 

Things are changing... As they always do. 

We live in an unusual period of history, in that unlike previous generations, for the most part we don't have to put in any energy to find a basic answer to our everyday questions. All that needs to be done is ask the local virtual assistant and the answer is provided. On one hand this is fantastic, everyone has access to a knowledge bank of information, and even though it may not be totally accurate it gives us the ability to investigate further. The initial work of figuring out how to attack a problem has been done.

Unfortunately this has a downside in that the skills we need for introspection and understanding of ourselves have rapidly declined and these are the very skills necessary when discovering new ideas to explore. Because it is in the exploration that you discover not only how to find an answer, you discover something about yourself along the way.

I often wonder if I'd be born in the 1990s as opposed to 1959 whether I would have my own investigative skills developed. For all of my teenager years research of all kinds was done manually. One had to go to a source of knowledge, be at the library, or an authoritative organization and bring all the pieces together to make a hypothesis. I am very grateful to have been born it at this transition period in that I can avail myself of both systems. 

How do you come up with your own inspiration? Is it a different approach than mine? Let me know in the comments.

May we all have an excellent 2026!

Of course more articles are on the way.
Sincerely Patrick Clark

 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

 

The Spirit of Joy

Many people know I am an agnostic, and yet I very much enjoy the season of Christmas and New Year's. This is due to a simple fact, it is one of the few times in the North American calendar during the year where people are encouraged to feel "Joy" in their religious beliefs. It occurred to me, that it is equally valid to give oneself permission to feel joy for the sake of being happy in itself.Here's a spontaneous idea… Click the search button below to do a search on the word "joy" right now and see what comes up. We both could be surprised 😃. There is no trickery here, it's just a simple search on a single word. Indeed the results will probably change over time.

There are so many things going on in the world that are negative or complex. So regardless of how you want to frame it take the season of joy at face value. Put down the negativity for a while and allow yourself to smile and maybe even feel wonderful. Approach everything from a slightly younger perspective, being curious and playful. North American society has given you permission to do so during this time of year so take society up on that offer.

My apartment has twinkling lights and Christmas music playing. The day after Labor Day, I went out and did a impulse buy, an illuminated two thirds of a meter tall Christmas elf because it was something that I knew the child in me would go crazy for and indeed it did. I also purchased, a Santa's Workshop figurine pictured below (unfortunately the illuminated elf is very difficult to get a clear photograph of. If I ever manage to get one I will of course update this little article.) 

Santa's Christmas Village by Spode.
With battery-powered LED illumination.

Remember the magic and joy you felt anticipating a new toy at Christmas?… Looking at the present under the tree, and wondering which one of them might be the one. There is nothing stopping you from rekindling that glorious feeling today or at any time of the year but during the festive season one can really get into the spirit of things. I have spent the last two weeks drawing pictures and making Christmas screensavers for the computers and rooms in my facility, which happens to be an assisted living building. The funny thing I noticed right away was that when I did something in the spirit of the season, somebody else added their own declaration or ornament. It's contagious, and it's a positive contagion something that helps bring out the best in people. Have you ever made a paper snowflake out of a sheet of plain old stationary? It can be glorious fun! It does not matter if it looks great. The only thing that matters is if you enjoy it in such a way that it brightens your day.

If for whatever reason you can't be joyous right now then put it off until the opportunity presents itself. When I was about 14 years old I had to go into the hospital over the Christmas season and for much of that year. When I finally got out in July my parents held Christmas all over again. Yes we had Christmas in July! And it was spectacular. My young mind discovered that it's not "the when" that matters, it's giving yourself permission to indulge in play and a smile.

As I write this this short article, I keep getting inspired. What if you gave your self permission to at some point in the day to play? This could be very liberating… For it to work one would not worry about rules or a schedule. You would just play when ever the opportunity or idea occurred to you. What defines "play" would be entirely up the individual. Just thinking about it inspires me.

I must begin again to pay attention to how young people play. Not just learn what they are doing, but to discover what atmosphere and mental state they put themselves into. I am willing to bet that for most people as they grow up, they lose touch with some of the lessons learned in childhood. I vividly remember mom and dad telling us on weekends to go out and play, the exact wording was "Time for you to get out of the house." This wasn't said in a negative way. It was just the way our weekends went. Kids were self-sufficient to a larger extent back in the 70s and 60s… At least that is how I remember it. We would go out for a few hours and perhaps wonder back in for lunch, and that was conditional on the fact that we might be too involved in our playing to worry about something as mundane as eating 😀. I definitely remember feeling like the comic strip character Dennis the Menace.

Yes, by all means dear reader, set up some time play. For just a little while put down all other concerns. This will definitely encourage joy once again.

That's it for this very short post. Here's wishing you all the joy and happiness in the world, which you can dream up any time!

Take care Patrick

Creativity And the Unexpected

 

The unexpected is the catalyst for creativity.

I find it very strange, that I keep running into people who emphatically tell me they don't like change-they like routine. These aren't elderly people either, their ages run the gamut. If this article has one point, it is that I believe the unexpected is it very necessary component of a full life. 

The best creativity comes about when something unanticipated is thrown into the mix. Which can result in an "Aha!" moment. Indeed, I think the whole concept of the unexpected is underappreciated. Some people will avoid the uncertain situations at all cost. This is the wrong way to approach life. One needs to embrace the opportunity that potentially comes from the unexpected. From the discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen to the creation of WD-40   Which actually stands for "Water Displacement formula 40" lubricant, the "unanticipated"has always played a role in the creative process. (For an in-depth article in the creation of WD-40, see this wonderful article "Who Invented WD-40?" on the "Today I Found Out" website.)

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen looking into a fluoroscope (X-ray
screen) placed in front of a man's body and seeing
the ribs and the bones of the arm. 
Chromolithograph Date:1896/1900

Licence: NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Source: Wellcome Collection.

Wilhelm Roentgen's Realization of the practical application of x-rays wasn't the focus of his 1895 experiments. However, when he saw that they could permeate solid matter and cause a chemically treated paper to fluoresce, it was definitely an "Aha!" moment. His mind was open to unexpected ideas.

 Have you ever had an idea not work out, but that very failure inspires you in a new way to solve the problem?

An unexpected situation can have the benefit of shaking you off of a limited train of thought, that is by injecting something new into your experience . In computer science especially when generating random numbers, there is the concept of a "seed value" it is a random number you pick to start the program going and it can dramatically alter the results you get. This is not the part of the day I where you ask a question this is on a more fundamental level that affects how the program initially approaches the problem. This would be equivalent to giving it something unexpected. Therefore the results are completely different.

So whether it be random numbers or an unexpected situation the influence of the unpredictable cannot be understated. I would go farther and argue that it is necessary to keep an unpredictable component in your life just so that one does not suck. I once had a friend who was great for doing this,"being random", he would burst through my door at all times of the day or night with some of the craziest ideas or adventures. Everything normal would occasionally go right out the door and I had more adventures and meant more unique people than I would've ever imagined if this person had not been part of my life. Sadly, they passed away a long time ago, but I still remember the lessons learned. Which can be summarized as follows:

"Be thankful for the unexpected. This is where life grows."

Having said this however underscores just how important the "unexpected and surprising" is. Without them it can be difficult to go beyond your boundaries. One tends to stay with what they know and you can't just say "Okay The Unknown, surprised me was something new."Probably because you can't anticipate what is outside of your own experience. The random conditions have to combine in order to create the unanticipated. One might be able to engineer part of but there always must be a random component.

I have spent the last few days wandering the Internet and books in order to add some unique items to this article. Things that would really underscore the usefulness of the unexpected.

At the beginning of this article I mentioned WD-40. It is without a doubt one of the most well-known products for, lubricating, cleaning, and rust removal. With an endless list of uses. (See the WD-40 Blog.) The thing is though that is not why it was created. It was supposed to be a water repellent used on the Atlas rockets to reduce rust while they sat in their silos. It was a accidental discovery about the lubricating aspect and fortunately the developers realize this. Again the unexpected played a role. While I was reading up on the history I decided to ask my local AI software to draw me a picture. I told it to "Draw a can of WD-40 in the style of Atlas rocket." What it came up with was totally unexpected.

Output from an AI when asked to combine an
Atlas rocket with a can of WD-40.

Image created using Vector FX 1.0  software 
by Distinct AI.

 
A few weeks ago I bought myself a 360° camera. The device captures everything around you and converted into an MP4 video file.See the companion YouTube video for several examples of the 360 camera in use. There's also 15 second long example video on this post.

If you are unfamiliar with this type of camera here is a very short, 15 second video clip. It should be noted that the camera uses two lenses mounted on either side of the device and I am not moving the camera at all. The panning affect is done with software. It's a little crude I am still learning, but you will get the idea.

The 360 camera used in the clip and longer video.
Insta 360 X4

  

Here is the companion video to this article. There are a few much longer clips from the new 360 camera. What became immediately clear to me in reviewing the footage was how much is missed as one proceeds through their day. I was surprised by how much was going on that I was completely unaware of. This is the "unexpected" again and it gives my creativity a real boost.

The lesson to be learned here it is then, when you noticed your creativity beginning to dry up start in on something new. Whether that be learning a new skill or exploring some terrain. Also be prepared to go back and reevaluate your daily life, there are most likely many things that you just haven't noticed. Being in the moment can be great for focusing and and calming oneself down, but don't get in the habit of defaulting to a particular mode of living life. Experience in the world are very diverse. Indulge in the mysterious and unexpected opportunities they afford.

Take care and as always feel free to leave comments.

Patrick