When my son was an infant, watching his neural network get trained in was something to behold. Even when he couldn’t control his arms yet, he understood emotion, and often half-grinned with his “collaborative look” when someone would do something silly. He is an old soul in a new body. We come from a line of relatively long-lived Germans. The men live until they are in their 80’s, and the women live into their 90’s and 100’s. My grandfather died at 84, and I recently surpassed 42. So, I’m halfway there, coming from the eternal and returning to the eternal.
In my 20’s, I remember discussing with a friend my hope that I would be able to reconstruct every philosophical tenant from a few basic beliefs as I aged. I didn’t like it when unthinking dogma or blindly accepted belief systems determined a person’s response. However, I’ve had to compromise this standard in order to “keep up” with life – I’ve had to create opinions (a belief system) to help me make decisions faster. These opinions have been formed either from experiencing something or through having to solve a sticky problem – often having to do with people. In typical dogmatic fashion, therefore, I’ve decided that I’ve seen some interesting things in these last 42 years, and even have learned a few lessons worth sharing.
Today, I find myself living in two continents, investing in technology via business while investing in people via NGOs, advising my college age kids while changing the baby’s diapers, writing smart contracts on Ethereum and variants while developing incentive schemes for wireless network operators, enjoying an off grid life while scanning my fingerprint to speed travel, making custom furniture while building financial models, and always evaluating how to focus energy to make the largest impact with the time and talents I’ve been given. Half way back, let’s make it count…