Nice Guys Finish First!

At work we were talking about some people we worked with, who retired or transferred to other projects. Remembering them fondly, their quirks, and how they helped us. My program is in sustaining / cost saving mode, so there are a lot of former teammates. 

Interesting thing is no matter how successful they were, manager or higher, the people who came to mind were all nice. We did not waste our time on difficult people.

Later in the day thought about other co-workers over my 4 decades in manufacturing and business. Wondered where they went, their careers, retirements, and how they were doing? These people taught skills, they helped with problems, they asked for input and help as well. We do business with people we like and trust.

Have great friends from college freshman year, 43 years ago we started having Saturday dinners together. Still in touch though spread out over the country. 

Met their fathers, and like mine they were successful. More importantly they had character and were nice to those who could not help them. They raised us to stand on our own, ask questions, try something new, to fail and succeed. Our parents raised our siblings and us to be good citizens, charitable, as well as nice to people. 

What we learned has helped us through hard times, layoffs, relocating, new assignment, illnesses, marriages, and divorces. We pass on what we have learned to coworkers and the next generation. My family and friends have great children, and we get to spoil the grandkids.

Leo Durocher famously said, “Nice guys finish last.” He was wrong.

Nice guys and women build families, build churches, build teams, build great businesses and build communities you want to live in. Nice Guys Finish First!

“Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people -- your family, friends, and coworkers, and even strangers you meet along the way.” -- Barbara Bush

Artificial Intelligence Not Replacing All Humans

Saw an article this week the 100% of all human jobs will be replaced with Artificial Intelligence by 2050. I respectfully disagree.

Computers are easy to program to do linear thinking well. But that is a group of humans telling computers what to do. Computers do not extrapolate and apply knowledge to different situations near as well as a child.

Humans know how to experiment, to combine lessons learned, and to make jumps in logic to solve problems.

The first hint is the self-driving killing a pedestrian in Arizona. She was walking a bike across the road in the dark. There were no vehicles nor obstacles to possibly block the lidar & radar views of her. Yet the car still hit her.

Self-driving cars should have been programmed to avoid people walking into the street, and avoid bicyclists. But were they programmed to avoid a person walking a bicycle? 

Suspect the issues is what happens when the self-driving vehicle comes into situations it does not expect. Nature, other drivers, pedestrians, skateboarders, bicyclists and children do not always act in predictable ways. Can you program a machine to avoid a tornado driven house on the road?

As a technologist / engineer think quite likely we will see self-driving vehicles. It will take longer than the optimists think. Self-driving trucks are set up for well mapped out freeways with limited on and off ramps. City streets and country roads are still too difficult. What would they do in a blizzard without human intervention? 

Drove from my brother’s rural house in New York down to JFK airport on a narrow parkway and city freeway. Was able to use the radar cruise control most of the trip, and appreciated the lane drift warnings. However could a self-driving car on an unfamiliar road know to move to different sides of the lane or straddle the lane markers to avoid potholes and wet patches? 

What about dogs, cats, deer and other animals crossing its lane?

What about the parking at McDonalds with a dead truck in the middle of parking lot lane and cars parked all over? Would it know how to figure a safe place to park out of the arriving tow truck’s way? Could it manage the drive thru?

Does AI know a ball rolling into the street means a child may follow?

AI will be a helper for humans, and make roads safer in the long run. Lets face it the biggest safety problem today is distracted drivers. Computers will not replace creativity and deep thinking.

Scientific American interviewed Leonard Mlodinow about his new book, “Elastic”. Leonard Mlodinow believes the future belongs to the elastic mind. Read here: 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-power-of-flexible-thinking/?utm_source=World+Future+Society+Members+and+Supporters&utm_campaign=732627831c-WFSNewsletter_032818&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0898ed6394-732627831c-283213941&mc_cid=732627831c&mc_eid=910ad0ceeb#

Free Time for Professional Growth

Life is too short to think only about work.

“Those who are wise won’t be busy, and those who are too busy can’t be wise.” - Lin Yutang

There is no way to be healthy, wealthy and wise working 14 hour days. You will be too tired and frustrated to learn anything. Your productivity started to fade hours before the end of the day. Monday may have been productive, but by Wednesday or Thursday you are not sharp. Friday you come home and fall asleep on the couch.

How are you supposed to think? Thinking and learning are how we get more efficient and productive. New skills earn us more money. Not brute force.

I use to schedule an hour or two a week to read the business articles I cut out during the week. Found ideas and tools from other industries that improved factory productivity. Reading was not a waste of time.

Your goal is not to be a good worker. You want to be a complete, well-rounded person. Emotionally healthy, physically sound, and mature are desirable goals.

It is not the long workdays you think about when you get older. You think about time with friends, family and loved ones. Think about adventures and experiences. You think about mentors and classes who changed our life. Successes and the strange paths they all took. 

Hard work is necessary to be successful. But choose the right work to do. Happiness is important.

“The three American vices seem to be efficiency, punctuality and the desire for achievement and success. They are the things that make the Americans so unhappy and so nervous.” - Lin Yutang

Credit Mark Skousen’s “The Art of Letting Go” inspiring these observations.

http://mskousen.com/2007/03/the-art-of-letting-go-2/