Sorry, You Must Adapt to the Machine

This article has been written over a few weeks, and therefore has changed direction slightly from beginning to end. The core of the article still remains intact and he is very much about people losing the ability to be flexible and insightful in their thought and actions. Choosing instead in many cases to go for the quick fix even though it misses a lot of the detail and depth. It doesn't matter what the topic of discussion is about people just want the answer quickly.

Personally, I love understanding the details and find it rather sad that we are going through this, faster, shallower time. From my perspective it is working through the details to gain greater understanding where a person really grows. It is not enough to know the answer, to really benefit one must understand how the answer was arrived at. The current buzz phrase is "Artificial Intelligence" and I have seen article after article praising it in this application or that application. Let us be clear, even if A.I. has some spectacular uses, people must not forget how to understand and ultimately learn so that indeed you can benefit the most from the use of artificial intelligence. It is not just the answer that matters, it is the details that make up the answer.

Take for example the photo at the top of this article: at first glance it is an old rusting truck but there are many other details contained within the photo that tell the story. Depending on your interpretation of the image the story can be dramatically different but as you examine all of the items and aspects your understanding will grow. A side note to this photo is it was taken many years ago but my father. He had a habit of just taking a photo of something that caught his eye and I think this is one of those cases. I came across it in a collection of old slides about 20 years ago when I had the presence of mind to scan it. We can be fairly certain that the photograph was taken in Canada and that's about all I know. Still something about it caught my father's attention… We will never know what it was… Perhaps the time of day the colours and shadows in the image. In the next few days I will post to this article the full size original scan. For now though consider the thought that went into not only the photograph but the actual creation of the vehicles depicted. There was absolutely no AI back then involved. The truck itself looks like it's from the 1950s which would mean that only be designs would be and calculated and drawn up. Think of the mental process that the people had and employed to make it all come together. It is truly inspiring to know that throughout history the human race has been able to repeatedly achieve remarkable things. Yes we still have to adapt… That is a good thing. There will be a time however when we have a choice in regards to artificial intelligence, however at this time...
 

Like it or not, we are still in an age where we must adapt to the machine.

 People are loosing their ability to adapt to new situations and they are doing so willingly.

In the last five years I have noticed a real degeneration in people's expectations.

• They are self-centred and usually quite extreme regardless of context.
  
  
• There appears to be a real lack of the amount of time or effort involved.
  
  
• There is an assumption that technology or someone else's work will take care of any aspect of their idea they don't want to address
  .
• They believe that using AI means that everything will be done perfectly.

Boy do I have news for them. More than ever, people need to improve their adaptability and social IQ. We are not living in a small cloistered community anymore. Unlike previous generations, all the benefits and issues are going to require people to be flexible and more aware. With greater achievement always comes greater responsibilities and it's not the other way around.

Society is going to have to begin to look at it entirely new paradigms. As I write this the USA is going through some very, very turbulent and destructive events. This is largely due to old attitudes and ways of perceiving the world. In a way this is the late 1960s all over again except that the upheaval is being caused by a very small group of old guard individuals.

These individuals are unwilling to adapt and what I see is that many people are being swayed emotionally to at least some of their ways of thinking. This is dangerous. The world is not what it was 100 years ago or even 50 years ago. You cannot go back because what you recall is a "simpler time" never existed. Every step in human history was and will be complicated and require the individuals of the society to be involved. When you invoke the idea of a simpler time you are just cherry picking the pleasant parts of the past.

This trend toward being more inflexible and one's attitude also has other side effects. If we approach one's lifestyle with such an attitude we may not only ignore danger signs but impact the quality of one's life as well. I mention this in the video when someone I know insists on drinking 11 cancel the pop per day and regardless of the health consequences. True that is an extreme situation but it is an extreme example worth mentioning because settler behaviours are occurring in society. People adopt a perception about the world and stick to it blindly. This is not a good way of getting the benefits from life and is ultimately extremely self limiting.

Anything worth doing well, takes time and this is the other component that I see people shying away from. Don't look for the quick fix. It doesn't exist. You must be involved in whatever endeavour you undertake and if it is a large event in your life by the time you are through it you will have changed. Usually this is a positive change because to encompass a great idea means you must understand things to a greater detail than you did when you started your endeavour. But again this takes time and a great deal of effort.

Don't assume that technology will come to the rescue and do all the things you don't want to do. You want to do as much as you can because this is how you broaden your horizons. Doing anything less leaves you at a risk of not understanding a part of your endeavour. It would be like learning only the rudimentary parts of a language and not understanding the subtleties involved in the phrasing which might lead you to some very unexpected results.

"For best results, be prepared to adapt to the machine, and in this case the machine is life itself."

Stay involved everyone. Stay flexible in your outlook and critically consider all that you hear and read.

Take care Patrick

Overthinking and Hidden Habits

 

Many years ago I read a book called "Using Your Brain for a Change" (I've mentioned that book previously on this blog because it is so good. See the article: "Do we all live in our own abridged reality?") One of the things it pointed out was you don't normally react to a situation it self, what you react to initially is your perception of the situation. That is, if you think a particular food is going to taste bad then it very likely will.

Using Your Brain--For a Change:
Neuro-Linguistic Programming
By Richard Bandler

Publisher: Real People Press
Year : 1985
ISBN numbers: 9780911226263, 9780911226270, 0911226265, 0911226273

• Listing on WorldCat Library index
•  Listing on Google Books

People tend to bring their reality into alignment with their belief system. And one's belief system can be very, very powerful. But many of us don't realize it, because our belief system is not often scrutinized. For the most part it's on autopilot and doing what ever it likes. It's also very fast, especially when taking the form of an emotion. In such a case, your conscious mind has been conditioned to just follow along. Whether you like it or not.

So the first thing to do is pay attention to how aware you are of your surroundings. This is the beginning step of taking your self off autopilot. Just stop right now for example, and take stock of what there is to notice. Do this a few times throughout the day. Then consider if you have any opinions about what you've noticed:

•  Is there anything you would like to change?
• Are there any unexpected reactions to your environment when you actually pay conscious attention to it?

Just this simple act of taking yourself off autopilot can yield so much information. I recommend you don't go overboard but just pick one or two things to modify or perhaps make notes on.  

Now, for Those Hidden Habits:

Have you ever found yourself in a position where you have a straightforward task to perform and yet even before starting you fear that you will fail to complete it?

Taking an initial great idea and becoming overly worried about it because of perceived fear some aspect is going to have a greater impact in reality than it usually does. This habit has an effect that I bet you never thought about.

It keeps you from taking a risk, and risk is built into all new endeavours. Even though you may become this frustrated as hell. It is possible that subconsciously part of you is relieved. The trouble is unless you address what you are feeling and begin to deconstruct it, this automatic "kill switch" will just keep firing whenever a new endeavour or idea wonders by.

I talked with many people were very frustrated because in their own words "I can never get anything off the ground. The more I try the more frustrated I become a mineralogist give up." After a little more investigation most of the time it is revealed that they start with the initial idea and then they keep building requirements on to it. Before they know it may become overwhelmed.

The thing to do in this situation is take the first simple and thereby doable version of the idea and implement that. Instead of trying to get the concept perfect. This is one of the best ways to start things. Frequently, my article start with the simplest of ideas and rather than waiting until I got some sort of Mangum openness, I type the first sentence into the online editor of my blog. That gets me going, and because it actually creates a draft entry of the article on the site it makes it just a little bit more real. Now, not all ideas come to fruition. Sometimes I find other sites covering the same topic and doing much better job. In which case I may simply reference them in an later article. Sometimes what seemed as a great idea doesn't hold water the next day. It's is all part of my creative process. The big point here is that you start with whatever you've got.

This also conditions you to not overthinking everything and actually getting something off the ground. Over 12 years ago when I started this blog it sat dormant for many years and then one day boat four years ago I just decided to start adding content and now we are at 165 articles. They are not all by any means literary masterpieces, but slowly and surely I am getting better at this and the monthly views are following suit. At this point in time I can't even remember why I started the site and that doesn't matter. What matters is I enjoy what I'm doing and I know in a small way I am adding content and value to the good old Internet😀

So don't think too much about a new idea but take steps toward a small goal as fast as you can. That helps keep it real and gets you going on whatever the adventure is.

The other thing I hear a great deal when talking with people is ingrained automatic habits that they are barely aware of . These habits can have great effects both positive and negative. Here's an example:

A coffee lover who has an important event in next day. Normally they enjoy their Java throughout the day. But in this case the night before and have to be alert at their event they drink double the amount of coffee. Because that is what to do when they're nervous. Of course but they don't always realize is that they are guaranteeing themselves to have a bad night's rest. Breaking this little habit for them is very challenging. They have relied on this mechanism for a long time. Even though it is totally counterproductive and works against them ultimately.

This same scenario can take different forms but you get the idea. Small little habits that don't seem to be harmful at all and yet if you're not totally aware of what you're doing these little routines can spell a guaranteed scuttling of your ship. So start tracking what you're doing will you go throughout your day especially when you're in stressful moments. I have a feeling you are going to find a few of these little habits kicking around and actually ingrained behaviour can become someone conscious that the only way you know it's there is because of your emotional reaction.

Take care,and as usual feel free to leave comments.

Patrick

My Magic Potion for Success

 

**Used under provisions:
"Fair Dealing" Canada and
"Fair Use" United States.

 

It has taken a long time for me to realize that I have a "magic potion for success". What follows is a list of ingredients:

⭐Act on the idea in some way immediately. This can be jotting down the concept or making a quick recording, but to make a permanent record of your inspiration. In enough detail so that you can fully remember the train of thought leader. This does not mean you have to write the entire book now but so many great ideas get lost in our busy world.

⭐Recognize that this will take time to fully evolve and make plans for ways to get back on track should life throw you a curve ball. The best ideas can take a long time to fully flush out. So be realistic and be prepared to reevaluate things as you go along. Very often an idea can evolve to include many more aspects. If necessary rather than trying to create an all-encompassing project, limit it to an achievable outcome. It may be the first of many versions and that's fine.

⭐Sometimes along the way of your journey you find that the idea has completely changed. Again, there's nothing wrong with that. Take a look at your expectations and if the new version fits within those boundaries, continue the project.

⭐If it is a long undertaking deliberately insert appropriate breaks. Even with the best big ideas it is healthy to step away for a while. Nothing hampers creativity like burnout. Burnout can best be avoided by diversifying the activities you undertake. It doesn't matter how much you like your project, if it becomes all-consuming for too long the quality will suffer and probably so will you. Everybody has an activity they become very enthusiastic about and spend many hours at it but please watch out for burnout and take appropriate action. Usually your friends or loved ones will start sending you signals ahead of time that you need to come out for a breath of fresh air. So keep your options open.

⭐⭐Bonus point: Expect to change. All major events change you. One of the things people forget when we are planning for success is that, they will fundamentally be different if they succeed. Perhaps and only a small way but you will have changed. So plan for it. It's analogous to going from childhood, to adolescence and then finally to adulthood. At each step of the way you were different. Success in your endeavour will change you.

There you have it. My short recipe for success in almost any undertaking. Like all good ideas it need not be long or complex to express.

As usual leave comments and take care.
Patrick

NOTE:
**Source of image at the top of this article. This image has been very stylized by myself using Corel Paint Shop Pro. I was browsing through Google image search when this photo from an eBay auction appeared. I remembered almost the exact model sitting in my grandmother's kitchen. When the idea for this short article occurred to me this seemed like a perfect image. No copyright or rights infringement is intended.

To benefit from Challenge, Is the Meaning of Life.

 To benefit from Challenge, Is the Meaning of Life

In the last two days I have had several people sitting me things like "oh this is too hard..." or "this was supposed to be easy." and "I hate ' XYZ' because it is hard." (Implying that they won't even try doing the task because they perceive it to be difficult.)

Challenge and difficulty are essential components of life. Without them, a person over time will in some sense literally de-evolve, they will lose basic skills. This is a self evident statement. People were much better doing basic mathematics before the calculator as an obvious example. But we are now entering a time in society where people expect things to be easy all the time. This has me worried and honestly surprised.

Now, I understand the natural desire to take the simpler road, especially if it makes your life smoother, but just not all the time. The default choice must not be the path of least resistance. Difficulty has its benefits and they are usually long term. It keeps you engaged with the idea of growing, whether the perceived difficulty is undertaking a new field of study or doing something that is different and perhaps slightly uncomfortable, as most new things are.

It is not so much what you learn or experience, it is the tools you discover along the way which can be used in different contexts to solve other challenges. One can only be a good problem solver if they have run into a few problems in the first place. Personally I love a good challenge and my boss knows this 😀. Sometimes he will just give me a task and let me dig through it. I am very lucky to have a volunteer job which has the latitude built in to do this. That does not mean there are deadlines, it  means there is the breathing room to explore. 

I totally admit that, I like difficulty, with the qualification that said difficulty has to be meaningful and have a goal. At the very least there needs to be a possibility of resolution. The process as always is a learning process and that is what I really personally enjoy. I'm taking a computer science and Python course on Brilliant.org and I must admit I'm having a blast. It is nice to feel the brain cells "stretching" and hopefully multiplying in the process.

What I don't understand is why people now seem to be averse to learning and working through the process of gaining new knowledge. But some people really are reticent on this point. I have seen people get very angry and I honestly don't get their reaction. The human brain is ment to learn, but we appeared will learned a weird lesson, that the act of learning itself is not good… "What is going on?! " is my usual reaction. Where is this behaviour coming from? More importantly how can we turn people back on to learning and undertaking challenge?

Here are some answers that have occurred to me and of course, the list is incomplete and I may be totally wrong. Let me know in the comments.

• People need to take some time to get to know their reflexive behaviours. To question why they are having said reaction. In short get to know themselves a little bit better. This does not mean they have to become a Buddhist monk or undertake some grand therapy. Just not be so externalized. Stop reacting instantaneously to everything around themselves and ask is the reaction doing anything positive for themselves. Then they can understand why they are resistant to undertaking a challenge.
  
  
• Think about what the end goal is. If it is too vague like "I want to make money easily." Then it would be impossible to start because there is no central idea and thereby no way to know when you're at the end of the goal. Keeping a task vague guarantees to keep it difficult. If you find yourself in this situation take a look at why you are being so big in the first place about the idea. This point relates to other points in this list but it cannot be understated.
  
  
• Getting over their biases against difficulty. Yes, some things are just difficult and rather than complaining about it being difficult one just has to undertake what ever the activity is. Sometimes to discover that once started the perceived challenge is not such a big deal. But they do have to start the process.
  
  
• Things take time to accomplish. Especially if it involves changing preconceptions, and one may have to start with very small steps. The trick here is to keep one's eye on the goal. If the goal is to vague then I suggest putting it down to something definable.
  
  
• Lastly make a plan on what to do if something interrupts this process. 

 

Often it's as simple as making a promise to yourself that should something get in the way temporarily that you will just pick up where you left off. It may take a few tries before you see progress toward resolving the challenge. All good things are worth fighting for.😀

 

I had a friend who for many years wanted to write a science fiction story and had aspirations of selling thousands of copies of their literary masterpiece. The trouble less than ever sat down and went through the above list, rather they always spoke about the ultimate outcome. This went on for years until eventually they just gave up. When I reflected on this memory it was obvious that they never told me what the story was about, and I didn't realize it at the time because of all the enthusiasm they showed.

So if I had to boil all this down to one point, I would say: "Embrace the Difficulty!"

 

 

I have made the following 21.6 x 27.94cm (8.5 x 11 inch) poster which prints nicely on a standard sheet of paper. Feel free to download and print it. Clicking on the image will download the 9 MB JPEG image file from my Google Drive. It is detailed enough to enlarge well beyond that paper size as well

Okay that about does it for this article. Feel free to watch the included video it covers essentially the same thing.

Take care Patrick

In 12 months time what would you like to achieve?

 

In 12 months time what would you like to achieve, that is by the year 2026?

Many, many people and an equal number of articles are written every year in January regarding New Year's Eve resolutions, but have you ever thought of sitting a goal and a timeline to assist in achieving the objective? As well as a backup plan should something get in your way.

I learned many years ago that when something is difficult it is actually a good sign because it means that transformation of one sort or another is being achieved. Human beings I absolutely hate changing preferring to stay in their default mode no matter what it is. Even if that default situation is very unpleasant for them. So as you progress through 2025, if you find things uncomfortable recognize that there may be something from the event. Modify your plans as needed but do not give up, and if you have to put something on hold, then do that but do not see it as a defeat. Simply make a promise to yourself to revisit it when you can.

For myself I just started an introductory computer science course and my ongoing goal is to slowly learn a variety of languages. I am not holding myself to a strict schedule but deliberately keeping things very pliable only promising to myself that I will return to the course as many times as necessary in order to achieve success. Because as I have learned in the last few years and overly strict schedule simply does not work when one's life is complicated and very susceptible to interruptions. Therefore my approach is to literally say "The interruptions are not a negative. They simply need to be where they're occurring. I have a commitment to myself to move on when ever possible." I shall alter whatever needs to be altered in order to achieve this goal.

I think a great deal of life can be approached in a similar fashion and by that I mean, not to overly critique your self in pursuit of the goal. But do keep a timeline and a commitment adjusting things as necessary.

That's it for this very short post. It's the first one of 2025. Many more articles and ideas to come in the upcoming days. Stay tuned in 2025 and make your own adventurers be fruitful.

Patrick

How to Cultivate Patience: A Personal Journey.

Image generated by Ideogram AI.

 First, let's define what I consider "patience" to me:

1. It is not just the willingness to wait for something to complete or happen.
2. It is about being comfortable and open to the passage of time.
3. It is about understanding that people and things occur at different rates.
4. It is also about understanding one's self and others around you.

That last point  (number 4 ) is really interesting and important. If you find yourself in the state of being impatient. That means that something about the situation you are in is bothering you and it is not usually as apparent as you first may think.

When I was in my mid-20s even though due to a disability I was physically slower, I would frequently get angry at people who didn't understand concepts as quickly as I could. This was missed place frustration at the physical limitations imposed by my condition. It took a long time, but what I finally discovered was the key for me is that you must be willing to go beyond your personal perceptions and consider for a moment the larger picture. Once I properly understood my physical frustrations, the impatient situations began to decrease.

So when you feel impatient about something, take a moment to look at your bigger picture. I bet you will find that there is some other component not being addressed. This is actually a very big lesson to learn: To continually alter the way you look at things. It is actually a good habit and one worth developing.No one likes to go outside of their comfort zone, so this lesson did take me a long time to really "get".

Judgements about people can also manifest as impatiences. To cover the fact that we are judging someone we simply feel impatient. Here, the answer is to look inside oneself to see what is motivating any particular feeling.

Learn not to take things personally. You are not the centre of the universe. Adults and children are spending far less time with each other in social activities. So we get used to dramatic feedback in everything from games to YouTube and this can result in a very insecure personality. Emotionally such individuals develop a need to be focused upon all the time. This is a recipe for disaster. Conversely if one understands that they are part of a larger community and that communities go through various cycles and changes you will find that there is no need to get an "Attention-Hit".  So turn off the computer and spent some time with your fellow human beings. The insecurity will disappear replaced by a healthy sense of balance.

The more you understand about your self, the more you will grow and the more you will learn. The ability to be patient will grow and grow. You will also know when on occasion to not be patient. The point is you will know what true patience is.

As with all things in life, cultivating "patience" takes effort and commitment. For some of you it will not come easily because it will inevitably involve challenging yourself and your belief systems on some level. To truly understand what patience is, is indeed a journey. I can guarantee you that as you go through life your definition will change. But it is well worth the ongoing undertaking.

As always, feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think. Take care,
Patrick

** NOTE: The pictures "Image generated by Ideogram AI" 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.

 

 

Let's Get Back to a Richer Quality of Reading and Writing.

 

A special thanks to Paul Stenning at The Heathkit Schematic and Manual Archive, which is where I found the Heathkit material mentioned in both the article and video.

  What Have We Done to the Written Word?

Have Articles, News Stories, Books and other documents become too brief and chopped up to be truly useful to anyone looking up information?

On March 11, 2023, I wrote a short blog post entitled "Oh, for the Love of Manuals!" regarding the decline in quality of manuals and the written word in general. Not only is it sad to see the discipline of writing go downhill, I am now of the opinion that the lack of good quality material whether it be factual or storytelling has an effect on the whole person.

A lack of explanation results in ambiguity.

Think about it, an abridged piece of writing demonstrates how the author's thought processes functions. Usually showing off lack of depth about the topic at hand. Sometimes the author's train of though can be fallowed, while at other times the lack of detail is frustrating for the reader. I was perusing a manual the other day and part way through the text they they showed a screen capture of an icon. Nowhere in the text did they define whet  where this icon was in the program, much less give it a name and it was a bad screen capture to boot. How did this pass into the final printing of this book? I know people like to be able to zero in on snippets of a document now, but sometimes a little more detail would certainly help. Here's an example of the icon from the manual.(Now that the image has been enlarged by four times, I can just see enough detail to recognize the icon.)

Enlarged image of icon shown.

 Nowhere in the book does it name the icon, it just says what it does, and really, can you tell what it is?--I can't.

Even if your preferred choice of format is audiobooks the same issue holds true. The difference in writing in the literature created only 30 years ago is astounding. Listen to this introduction from Carl Sagan's book "Pale Blue Dot" (or read it via the Open Library). The video below is hosted on YouTube and is part of the " carlsagandotcom" channel The wording used is eloquent and accessible, whether it is read or listened to this text is inspiring. Carl Sagan took the time to describe his vision. He didn't optimize the ideas for fast consumption, nor did he make any assumptions on what the reader already knew. This is why this three minute clip from YouTube is so widely appreciated. It is a story unto itself. When was the last time you heard or read something like this? This is writing,and it achieves its goal of informing fully and inspiring.

Imagine the textbooks Carl Sagan and others read when they were going through their various courses. Difficult to read perhaps by present-day standards, but well worth the effort. Even the illustrations would be well thought out in books and manuals, for example from a 1961 Heathkit: manual. In less than a page it describes clearly the technique for proper soldering. Click the picture to enlarge:

Excerpts from the 1961 Heathkit
Compact Hi Fidelity Speaker System
manual model number AS-193 from
The Heathkit Schematic and Manual Archive.
Used under provisions:
"Fair Dealing" Canada and
"Fair Use" United States.
(Click image to enlarge)

 

The writing and diagrams in this manual is simply marvellous. Dare I say it is bursting with well-written information.

So how did we get from concise written guidance to "blurry icons"? One thing is for sure, in the soldering example, it is not assumed that the reader knows anything. Whereas in the blurry icons scenario the text assumes that that the reader does. It is to the point where they don't even describe the blurry image. Clearly we have gone too far in the direction of making everything a snippet of knowledge...  at least they could've provided a keyboard shortcut 😀.

This overly abbreviated trend in the media and knowledge industry also has a side effect on how people learn. Especially if they are only exposed to abbreviated documents as they are beginning to think critically. Indeed how as Google and other search engines affected the way people educate themselves  and the depth to which that knowledge goes, or lack of thereof.

Here's a question: How much time do you think has been invested in creating this text so far? The answer is over two hours (and a good eight hours later I am still at it) . Why, because first the soldering example had to be found, checked for copyright, and edited graphically from two printed pages down to one graphic. So even though I use voice dictation which makes entering the text for the most part rather painless, there is a fair bit of work that goes into these kind of things. The Internet is not a place to just upload things without checking. Not if you want your content to last.

But this article really is about the thought processes that are going on, as related to the use of knowledge and actually how we think. The depth to which those thoughts go and the understanding that is the result. 

I marvel at minds that can seemingly just absorb and understand information. For me it's a much more effort intensive thing. I may have to go over something several times in order to really grasp the concepts. I do this willingly because it is only then your horizons expand. The other reality that must be accounted for is that everything takes time. Even though we may want to get something completed quickly, quality must trump everything else even when we are on a deadline at least to some extent. Yep in other words quality takes work.

Which brings up another point: With the ability now days for people to, how shall I put this, " Copy and Paste " just about everything you really have to resist that urge, because it can make the quality of the  final product go down the toilet if one is not careful. (Have you looked at YouTube lately 👀 .  Somebody post something original and within hours there are legions of copycats). However the creators that do put in the work and I can think of a few that only post every few weeks, really do come out far ahead.

To sum up. In order for people to do better in their lives they should seek out more detailed explanations and experiences. Do your best to try to get away from the "brief answer" mindset. In the long run you will benefit greatly and the experience you gain will even make your own brief answers better than the rest when you need to use them. And at the end of the day your brain will thank you 🙏.

Have a great day Patrick....

PS: Wait! This article is about to get a little longer with an example of the downsides of the overly brief approach to writing.

As many of you know I usually try to produce a short video to go along with each article. It takes time but usually the process follows smoothly. This time around however I decided to use a new tool to create the end credits of the video. I like to include all of my sources and licensing information just to keep things transparent. I wanted to create a scroll of text which included still images. My video editor was not up to the task so I decided to use an add on which according to its brief description could do exactly what I want.

The documentation however is a disaster and that includes the video tutorials all except for a few which ultimately saved the day. Most of the documentation was overly segmented and again assumed the reader was fully versed in the philosophy of use for this particular software. A simple scroll with pictures took about a week to do, and I don't know how many articles and videos I watched and read. Fortunately once I found a good bunch of videos the project was completed within the hour.

The point this_so is that all of the information is segmented and fragmented. Did the company who created the software ever sit down and really consider who the product and documentation was aimed at.?… I don't think so, and  even the official material is fragmented. I'm avoiding mentioning the product name simply because it is not about the product, it is about the information supporting the product. Perhaps though the most annoying aspect of this hunt for information was the fact that the online documentation does not mention what version the information applies to.,and like all software, there are different versions over time and between computers. So I'm begging anyone who reads this… If you write documentation, please indicate right off the bat the version numbers it applies to.

The other issue is that maybe it's more a case of a fault of the search engines. A friend last night was mentioning that now days in 2024 it is much harder to find the information you are looking for online.

People addicted to anger.

 

Basic Image generated by Ideogram AI.
Text added by me.

Thought I done an article on this topic before but it's not in my database, so here we go…

I am continually surprised by how many apparently angry people there are when I look around me where I live, which happens to be Surrey British Columbia. Individuals and what apparently appears to be a perpetual "bad mood" who when you ask them actually want to stay angry. They may put it in different words, but at the end of the day you can see by how they are framing things that they really want to stay upset.

Why the heck would people want to do that? It stalls any hope of personal growth or being able to benefit from life. They also apparently want to complicate everything. Small seemingly insignificant events become full one multiperson debates. I have seen arguments over the availability of coffee and/or its strength get to the point where of their staff in my assisted living building have to get advice from the administrator. To me that's just ridiculous. I'm not talking about big changes to the coffee situation it's more about things like 6 (178 ml) ounces versus 8 (236 ml) ounce cups. The results will want to projecting going on in these arguments and they all seem to like it in a very negative way.

To be honest, I live in a facility which is far above most others that I have seen. The staff here are kind, enthusiastic and just a bit quirky 💗. It's not perfect of course because the healthcare environment is just full of rules and regulation. Sometimes that can put a damper on things, but overall the staff does an excellent job of keeping the quality of life going.

Yet for a lot of the tenants there is a malaise. Yet when ideas are brought forward to break the pattern people are stuck in there is tremendous rationalization as to "why they can't" to whatever is being suggested. ...I just don't get it. There is so much opportunity to do what ever you want and the time to do it. That's a lot free most of the world doesn't have. Yes the cost of staying here is 70% of one's income but that covers everything aside from Internet and a landline if you want it. (the land line is only $20 a month). One cannot get kicked out unless something really insane happens. Essentially people have the time to take courses if they want; we have a few libraries nearby. Because everyone here is disabled in one way or another they all qualify for discount Internet plans. I get 150 Mb per month for $30 unlimited. I mean it's insane the amount of opportunity that you just sitting there for anyone to grasp.

So what is this negative hold over people? What are they getting out of it? There must be something. I really do find it fascinating and I admit I also find it very unsettling because it is wasted potential. Now I'm not perfect and I have my own issues that I deal with, but at 65 years old I am doing pretty darn well. Most people in this building are much younger than I am. One of the things I do to balance out the negativity and stay connected with the world at large it's write this very blog. I also volunteer five days a week via a remote connection to the office of the organization. Occasionally I going to Vancouver to attend meetings but 90% of my work and duties is done right from my very desk. Still it keeps me connected with people and events and drawing value from my life.

The place where I live could be a hive of activity. There actually is an organization in Vancouver British Columbia called "HiVE Vancouver Society". They rent out space and hardware for those needing to set up a small office for their entrepreneurial grassroots business. I've never been there but I heard it's quite something. I can see the place where I live doing something similar if only the tenants would avail themselves of the opportunities that exist. Yes many of them have been through accidents which brought them here but "here" is not a bad place at all. As I said earlier this particular facility is far ahead of others I have seen. The apartments by the way are huge, I intuitively want to say about 600 ft.² (55 m²). Far larger than other organizations provide.and like I say the staff is very, very "groovy"! 😀.

I think I just figured this topic out…  Why people can be addicted to anger:

As long as you are angry, especially if it's your preferred state, the responsibility for everything tends to be placed on other things or people. -- It's a short term get out of jail free card! And it's easy. One gets to ignore everything else. The trouble is of course, you don't get anywhere. There was no benefit because you handed over mentally the responsibility for everything. In that mental state, you can't even change your self. Yikes!… The person's stuck until they break the routine.

Conversely, taking advantage of an opportunity frequently involves work and commitment. The benefits however are legion. First off, the opportunity allows the person to evolve and of course the evolution takes one in uncertain but often times incredibly beneficial directions. Speaking from personal experience, I think by getting to know your self and the opportunities around you, one's health overall is much better. Because you are looking at the various things in your life. Even though I have Cerebral Palsy and am 65 years old I take absolutely no drugs. Not because I'm a Puritan, because I don't have to. (I think I may be the only person in my building who can make that claim.)

This ties into something else, I wonder if society is making things a little too easy. (See Difficulty Has Its Advantages on this blog.) In order for people to grow they need challenge that is meaningful and they need to learn the skills to benefit from such situations.

With that I think I will end this positive rant and put together a quick video for it.

Have a great day everyone. Patrick. Thanks for stopping by.

 

** NOTE: The picture "Image generated by Ideogram AI" 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.

Perception throughout the Ages. Part 2.

 

Basic Image generated by Ideogram AI.
Text added by me.

Yesterday I had my second person visit with the elderly client in Vancouver who is trying to learn Windows 10 on their laptop. If you will recall, during the first visit it became apparent that the laptops trackpad would not work for them. He kept putting two fingers on the pad no matter what. I would correct him and for a few moments he would be fine but ultimately his hand would relax a bit and the other figure would get close enough to the trackpad that the on-screen pointer began to do all sorts of things. If you want to know more you can read the first article in this series here and it has its own accompanying video.

I thought about this for a while and it is suggested that we try a mouse the next time I visited. I really didn't feel certain that this would solve the problem. We weren't that lucky... A couple of interesting issues arose. Have you ever considered how smooth and uniform a modern physical computer mouse is, not to mention how little haptic feedback there is? Yes, I know that the user should be focused on the screen and and therefore be able to connect the actions of the hand what is happening in front of them. But if it is a new device or for whatever reason a person is focused on in this case a physical mouse they may not see the small changes. Or hear the soft click. This was the case so I try to make things a little more obvious by putting a little bit of tape on the left mouse button just to make the texture feel a little different. That did help a bit. He was able to click on a few items on the Windows desktop. I could tell however it was taking most of his concentration. The other thing was he would often try too hard and in the process either move the mouse off the target on the screen or accidentally touch the scroll wheel.

We kept that this for about an hour. Patiently trying to do various things like closing a window, opening a window, maximizing it, etc. . They are very determined to learn this computer and I really commend them for that. Just going through this very repetitive right and left clicking of objects over and over again is a testament to their patientce.

Up until doing this yesterday I never really thought about how social the movements are when using modern devices. Think about it, when you tap something on a screen it's a very gentle quick movement and there is very little physical feedback. Personally one of the things that drives me crazy on a phone is that for me I have to look at the numbers otherwise my own fingers stray off. This is actually quite new. 20 years ago, everything was for the most part mechanical in some fashion. The first cell phones, which weighed a ton by the way, and physical pushbuttons . I had one of the early Motorola "grey bricks" (The Motorola DynaTAC) after 20 minutes of holding that to your ear, your arm would begin to ache. It was also very expensive I think around $0.60-$0.75 a minute. But the bizarre thing was if you made a long-distance call those prices were governed by agreements outside of your carrier. It was actually cheaper for me in Vancouver to phone Toronto and it was to make a local call...

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I have been racking my brain on how to best proceed. Then a friend of mine told me that they have seen people in care facilities using mice that are especially designed with the buttons a few centimetres apart so you have to use your whole hand. I'm going to try to track one down and either borrow it or at least find out more.

 If we can get around the mouse problem I think my elderly friend will actually be able to benefit from the laptop. Right now the plan is to go out every weekend and I will print up some posters indicating some of the stuff we've covered. He says that would be very helpful and so that is what I'm going to do.

So stay tuned for next weekend and part three of our adventure!
Take care Patrick

** NOTE: The picture "Image generated by Ideogram AI" 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.

 

Content, Content, And More New Content...

Image generated by Ideogram AI.

It is clear from the reviewing the blog statistics that the way to keep the numbers of visitors coming back is in a phrase: "Content, Content, And More New Content." However if I rush out short articles Google and the other search engines frown and send the blog down to the basement of the search listings, which is not a good thing.

Nevertheless, during 2023 I did attempt to put out an article every few days and while there were a few good ones, for example "Nurturing the Creative Soul" there were also some that made me want to cringe. But I made a commitment when I started the blog way back when never to delete an article, I may tweak it a bit if I find it glaring error but the article as a whole will stand as long as this site keeps running. The whole year taught me a lesson that it is better to aim for meaningful content rather than just cranking it out. 

So how to pull this off is the question. In a way that I can sustain. The video production takes the longest to create even though I very much enjoy doing it. Then of course there's all the other related stuff:

• Creating the artwork for the YouTube and Pinterest thumbnails.
• Checking all the copyright information and making sure that it is included clearly in the video. I also want to make sure that in doing so you the viewer/reader can discover perhaps new resources in the process.
• There is always a surprise somewhere in the production. I keep trying to get it down to a formula but things are always in flux.

And that's just what comes to mind at this very moment. My intent has never been to make money, although I would never say no to that. 😀. So rest assured I'm just going to keep on going.

There was a recent request to make a comparison between Linux and Windows video. However I am not going to reproduce the same "Geeky" production which is overly detailed. I'm thinking about a split screen approach where you accomplish a task. It could be as simple as watching a YouTube video Or using some graphics program to edit a photo. We shall see what I come up with.

There will be an update on the blog sometime Monday, September 2 when I have the next segment to the "Perception Throughout The Ages" series which deals with in a broad sense how a person's perceptions alter how they work with the world. Briefly I am working with someone who has a very different way of looking at reality and I am having to teach them the very fundamentals of using a computer. There is more information in the current article,.

I am heading out to see them on Saturday, August 31. Currently I'm trying to develop some sort of very informal lesson plan. The idea of small posters with key points on them of how to do very fundamental things had occurred to me but after seeing their room in the facility it became apparent that it is far too small to clutter up with things even on the wall. Well, I'm just going to have to be adaptable and make this work.

So this is my way of saying stay tuned and please bear with me as I discover and uncover all sorts of things as I go through each day 👍.

Take care Patrick

** NOTE: The picture "Image generated by Ideogram AI" 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.

 

Perception throughout the Ages. Part 1.

 

Altered image licensed under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
Original photo by Dave Bezaire.

I want to get this article out rapidly, mainly because this is a fleeting thought and as most of you know sometimes you just have to grab the idea before it flies off into the ether, never to return.

I just spent the afternoon with someone who has a different way of looking at things due to their age and background. Needless to say they've been around for quite a while and they are trying to learn Windows 11 and indeed everything about the fundamentals of a computer we take for granted.

We are starting from the very beginning of cursor control, using the touchpad and what the various keys on the keyboard do. The challenging part is becoming clear to me and that is that the problem is not intellectual, it is rather out fundamentally different way of working with the world.It is physical involving three-dimensional actions. One pulls a lever and sees the spring the fulcrum acts on. It is very visual and clear not at all abstract. A modern graphical user interface on a computer is the exact opposite. Mere images are referred to as physical things "The Taskbar" for example, it is treated in discussions and books the same way of physical item is in the real world. The same holds true for "DragBars". Even the action of "clicking and dragging" is often treated in speech the same way as if it were a physical item. To this person however the computer screen is an image composed up of rectangles squares and circles. When I use the term Drag bar it took quite a bit of explaining and I think at that point they were just humoring me when they said "I understand…"

People build up mental models of their world as they proceed through life but these become structured and limiting if one is not careful. For example when I was growing up every car had a key that you physically put in to start the car. I still find it somewhat odd when I am in the vehicle and instead of a physical key they use a small electronic device or fob or even a fingerprint. I am sure they would find the world equally odd and it audits with their perceptions if they were to go back to 1960. Everyone's mental model in that era out was much more physical and just plain different. You would have to explain to a modern person just exactly how to use a rotary phone and why the heck the dial had the letters of the alphabet printed on it in such a ridiculous matter. (If I can find a good video explanation online I will put a link here of a rotary phone in action.NOTE: This link is to a 37 minute YouTube video on the rotary telephone by the channel "Our Own Devices" . It is a thorough overview and well worth the watching.)

Build Your Own Television Receiver
Science & Invention magazine cover art,
November 1928. Volume 16 Number 7
In the public domain. (Get Archive)

This is something that happens to everyone, the time you are born, the technology around you and other factors form on a very deep level how you interact with the world. I go into it in a little more detail in the short video included with this article, but suffice it to say that "not only are we, star stuff. We are products of the very time the star was made."

I for my part am so thankful that I get to experience and understand all these subtleties in life. Every time I think I've got a handle on them, reality and mother nature come along and say "There's more to this story…"

Why exactly do people stop adapting their mental models? The initial obvious answer is that it is easy to just rely on what has worked in the past and stick to it. But I think there is more going on. Many articles go on this blog I wrote a short piece entitled "They Have Never Been Taught To Think" and that may be a partial answer. As I see it diversity and challenge are what keeps you going and indeed growing. Maybe we have "overdone it" when it comes to certain types of automation and convenience. Do you really know what is going on behind the scenes when you click that icon on your phone to open any particular app? The probable answer is "No", but you do expect to work". But if that was the singular answer in this elderly person would have adapted to their new laptop quickly. For the simple reason that through most of their lives they've had to work things through. A light didn't just come on when they walked into a room, they had to turn it on. Further, they had to understand at least partially the number of things that had to occur for things to work. If the light didn't turn on when they flipped the switch may be the fuse, which was a precursor to the modern circuit breaker, needed replacing. Their mental model had to be adaptable. That again brings me full-circle back to the initial question at the beginning of this paragraph.

I will be filling this article out more as we go a long.

August 28 update:

 Perhaps the best way to move forward in situations like this is to find out what their, for lack of a better word, baseline is. For example I remember a few years ago working with someone who in their mid-adult years used Microsoft MS-DOS extensively. As a matter of fact when I was working with them they still had a computer running that operating system and had it online using a dial-up modem service in conjunction with the program called "Telix". This meant that they can only connect to the Internet via a strictly text interface. There were no embedded graphics at all.

Over the course of months we attempted to move them to a "Windows 7" machine which they absolutely hated. Ultimately to he did decide to go back to their old machine with the dial-up modem. Even though the new computer functioned quite well.

So on my next visit to our current user I'm going to ask them what using a computer was like originally for them and try to put everything in a similar context.

Take care Patrick.

Too Used to Feeling Comfortable

 

The debating team

Have you noticed in the last 10 years or so that people are becoming very uncomfortable with being "Uncomfortable"? I mean people seem to want no controversy in their life at all. While this sounds good from a philosophical point of view, I believe it has a very negative impact in the long run.

It is through conflicts and uncomfortable situations that we often have a chance to learn about ourselves. People get to ask those questions "Why do I feel this way?" That simple short question can lead to a lot of self-discovery. When you deal with the feeling or uncomfortable situation you get to confront and no the deeper aspects of the self.

It is human nature to want to feel comfortable and safe. But taken to extremes we are robbing ourselves of the opportunities to grow and mature. When I was very young I remember hearing my parents talk about debating teams. (The "debating teams" link will take you to https://debatingmatters.com/ a website where you can find all the information you need about setting up your own team. This was just some quick research I have not fully reviewed the destination site but it looks very informative.) These would be groups of people that would get together and they would deliberately take opposing views on any issue. Then they would spend the night trying to win the debate. Sometimes it would get quite heated. But always in the spirit of exploration and understanding. Regardless of who won the debate.

People and indeed society seemed to therefore be going backward. Rather than embracing challenge and being uncomfortable when necessary we seem to be demanding that we are never made to feel awkward or to go outside of what is considered politically correct. This is a great disservice to our mental health and growth in the long run because we are not preparing ourselves for change, the natural evolution of things.

This is going to be a very short post simply because the point of this text is so straightforward and clear. Challenge is needed in everyone's life, and let's face it, no one can really escape feeling uncomfortable all the time. What bothers me is that we have made being comfortable and politically correct and end goal he knew of deeper consideration and thoughtfulness.

Let me know what you think
Patrick

FYI: In the title of this post I use the verb " Used to". I've always wondered about the use and spelling of this phrase. Well, if you too, have been confused here is the answer about how and when it should be applied

** NOTE: Some of pictures in this article were generated by 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.

Disability from an optimist's point of view

 

 "Don't seek comfort and conformity in your world. Seek to engage  the world."

Most people spend a fair bit of time and indeed their life, trying to differentiate themselves from what they perceive as "The Rest of Us". Sometimes this effort works out and sometimes it does not.

Now if you're born "disabled", and feel free to insert whatever terminology you want to put in there for whatever condition or situation you are in. We are different from the get go. "A limited run", "A one-of-a-kind… The descriptions and labels could go on and on.

But for me, and I really mean this,  disability is an opportunity in disguise. I look at the normal world and I see most people not taking advantage of the great options that are right there in front of them. I speculate, and this is only my speculation, that they never had to think outside of the box. They never had to become good problem solvers. Whereas being different, and having challenges forces you to engage with the world as it is. The world is not going to adjust to me for being different. So one must be very creative, and stretch whatever boundaries exist.

As I have grown older I have become very aware of the benefits inherent in challenges.

I don't want things simple and I don't want things easy. However I despise meaningless effort. If something is going to be difficult and it darn well better be difficult with a good goal. This is an important point because as long is there is a positive goal inherent in the challenge then the individual will be given an opportunity to grow. Whether they take advantage of that opportunity is another matter entirely and probably an additional article on the blog at some point.

Now, I know there's an infinite range in regards to disability, from the minor to the utterly devastating. I don't want to reduce any condition or state of life to an overly simplified point of view. But that being said, if you are different or see yourself as disenfranchised in any way, rather than falling down the stereotypical black hole of disadvantage and/or despair. 

Take your differences and work with them. This is where ideas truly come from and thereby so does opportunity.

At almost 65 years of age, I can say unequivocally that I would never want to be normal and that is especially true in the 21st century. People who are born now, may not have the early exposure to the effort needed to expand their horizons. Young minds who simply go online to find a predigested answer to a question. They may never get a chance to really explore and find out why something is the way it is. That puts them at a great disadvantage because a person must learn to think at a fairly early age in order to really take advantage of life. Yes, one can do it at any age but it is so much more effective the earlier one undertakes these challenges. Same goes for the amount of time invested in some undertaking. I myself have to fight my own shrinking attention span. Yet look back less than 100 years and you find people undertaking complex disciplines and working of the answers using only their minds and paper. That means that they truly understood the concepts they were evolving and in that process they gained resilience and depth in their understanding.

Use the gift of technology and the coming artificial intelligence revolution in the best way possible. If automation has make your life easier then use that freedom to continue to explore other avenues. Do not just stay a consumer of technology and or the environment. Seek a little difficulty. Make it something slightly uncomfortable, so that you have to work at it. This will help keep you alive on so many levels...

In short:

"Don't seek comfort and conformity in your world. Seek to engage  the world."

One of the things that really surprised me when I moved into my assisted living facility was the lack of motivation of all the tenants. I on the other hand treated as a godsend, rather than being tied down with the various energy sapping necessities which are required to make it through the day, the staff greatly reduce my physical strain. Leaving me with a lot of free time to explore all sorts of avenues. Which is what I've done and will continue to do till the very last day of my life. So apparently I'm a bit of an outlier because I thought that everyone who has their burdens of life reduced would naturally explore what ever interested them. However are stuck in a rut of their own making. Bizarrely they use their own intellect to maintain the status quo. This is something I really do not understand…

Well I will keep trying to motivate everyone around me because life is just too short to waste. Hopefully the articles that I now post will leave some of my audience thinking and the other us smiling. I would like to publish more articles however time and energy just do not permit at this moment of my life. My ultimate goal is to increase the quality of these articles a great deal. That however takes time which is why I am not publishing is much as I used to compared to early last year.

There will be a video with this post but I can't tell you exactly what it will be because I am just about created it and at this very moment there are lots of ideas along the vein of "Disability from an Optimistic Point of View." So let's see if I can surprise myself.

Thank you for stopping by my blog. And come back to this article in the next day or two because I will be adding or reediting parts. It's just that kind of weekend. (In other words I'm running out of time.)

Take care Patrick

** NOTE: Some of pictures in this article were generated by 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.