The power to predict

Perhaps the most practical description of intelligence is “the power to predict”. So far, I can’t think of any example of intelligence that does not fit that definition. Prediction seems to be the whole reason for it to exist.

You and I seem to live in the bizarre situation where we are constantly traveling in a direction we cannot see. We have to steer, but we can only see where we have already been. In order to travel well, we have to make intelligent guesses about how to steer, based on what we just passed; lines on the road, the nature of obstacles we almost hit, what our neighbors are hitting. This must be a fun game because judging from the crowds it is very popular. One strategy to do well in this game is to develop intelligence.

Now consider a being that lives outside of time. This being can view time as just another dimension in space. She could “see” history at a glance. Past and future have no meaning. Different times are simply different locations on a landscape.

This being has no need for intelligence; there is nothing to predict. She would seem to us to be super intelligent and wise and knowledgeable. To us she would appear to be omniscient and omnipresent

Not consumers; Participators

Society is the brain. Individual people are the neurons.

As a student of neural networks, I was fascinated when the internet first got popular. This meant that the giant brain that we live in suddenly became much more connected. In neural nets, that usually means much smarter and able to learn much faster. I was wondering how that might manifest in society.

There is a pwerful new movement afoot. The awesome power of its timeliness struck me when I began to hear it explained this way...

People are so tired of being "consumers".
They want to be producers.

The author of an upcoming book "We-Think" phrases it this way

Google paying close on £900m for Youtube, a profitless business little more than a year old. Wikipedia continues to draw more traffic than much more established media brands, employing hundreds more people. Open source programmes such as Linux insistently chip away at corporate providers of proprietary software. Immersive multi user computer games, such as Second Life, which depend on high levels of user participation and creativity are booming. Craigslist a self help approach to searching for jobs and other useful stuff is eating into the ad revenues of newspapers. Youth magazines such as Smash Hits have been overwhelmed by the rise of social networking sites such as MySpace and Bebo. What is going on?


We-Think: the power of mass creativity is about what the rise of the likes of Wikipedia and Youtube, Linux and Craigslist means for the way we organise ourselves, not just in digital businesses but in schools and hospitals, cities and mainstream corporations. My argument is that these new forms of mass, creative collaboration announce the arrival of a society in which participation will be the key organising idea rather than consumption and work. People want to be players not just spectators, part of the action, not on the sidelines.

Check out his pre release book and help him edit it.

Observations about anger

When you have anger welling up inside you, It reduces the clear headed thinking it takes to deal with people around you.

It is good to discuss what bugs you and get into the daylight. Keeping anger under-communicated is very similar to nutrients being held in anaerobic conditions. It festers and stinks and is toxic to our kind of life. Way better to expose it to just enough fresh air to let friendly critters break it down into healthy soil.

Eventually it will nourish you.

Tell your story

Have you ever wondered why fame and fortune are usually in the same context? It is no accident that the two are linked. When you ask “What is she famous for?” you are asking “What is her theme?”

You don’t have to be a superstar to make good use of the principles behind fame and fortune. It is very basic and applies well to your job, your business, and your personal life.

People love to help. If they think you have a theme, every time they run across something that reminds them of that theme, they will think of you. They will buy you gifts or send you information associated with that theme. It makes them feel good about you, and therefore talk well about you.

Some experts say, the most important part of running your business (perhaps your life too) is telling your story. It is a valuable skill to be able to explain what you do and why, fast enough and clearly enough to get the message through before your listener runs out of attention span.

One important version is your elevator story. That is the short one that can get the point across in the time it takes to ride an elevator.

Practice counts. Nearly everyone you talk to is another opportunity to fine tune your story. You want your story to hit the target (the listener’s psyche), so you sharpen and hone it to a fine edge, able to cut through the mental noise and piles of debris left by all the other stories.

Repetition counts. It is just as important for YOU to hear your story over and over as it is for anyone else. It helps create theme and focus in your life. It helps you define (and thus fine tune) your sense of purpose.

Your story helps create a point of view and a platform to act from. It also becomes a moral force in your life. Each time you tell your story, you are listening. You decide if you like what you hear. You feel the reactions from your listener. You fine tune it to better serve you and your listener.

The quality of your story defines the quality of your life.
Are you making yours better?