Google proof vs AI proof

I remember the fear mongering when Google revolutionized search. “Students are just going to Google their answers, they aren’t going to think for themselves.” Then came the EDU-gurus proclaiming, “If students can Google the answers to your assignments, then the assignments are the problem! You need to Google proof what you are asking students to do!”

In reality this was a good thing. It provoked a lot of reworking of assignments, and promoted more critical thinking first from teachers, then from students. It is possible to be creative and ask a question that involves thoughtful and insightful responses that are not easily found on Google, or would have so few useful search responses that it would be easy to know if a student created the work themselves, or if they copied from the internet.

That isn’t the case for Artificial Intelligence. AI is different. I can think of a question that would get no useful search responses on Google that will then be completely answerable using AI. Unless you are watching students do the work with pen and paper in front of you, then you really don’t know if the work is AI assisted. So what next?

Ultimately the answer is two-fold:

How do we bolster creativity and productivity with AND without the use of Artificial Intelligence?

This isn’t a ‘make it Google proof’ kind of question. It’s more challenging than that.

I got to hear John Cohn, recently retired from MIT, speak yesterday. There are two things he said that kind of stuck with me. The first was a loose quote of a Business Review article. ’AI won’t take over people, but people with AI are going to take over people.’

This is insightful. The reality is that the people who are going to be successful and influential in the future are those that understand how to use AI well. So, we would be doing students a disservice to not bring AI into the classroom.

The other thing he said that really struck me was, “If you approach AI with fear, good things won’t happen, and the bad things still will.”

We can’t police its use, but we can guide students to use it appropriately… and effectively. I really like this AI Acceptable Use Scale shared by Cari Wilson:

This is one way to embrace AI rather than fear and avoid it in classrooms. Again I ask:

How do we bolster creativity and productivity with AND without the use of Artificial Intelligence?

One way is to question the value of homework. Maybe it’s time to revisit our expectations of what is done at home. Give students work that bolsters creativity at home, and keep the real work of school at school. But whether or not homework is something that changes, what we do need to change is how we think about embracing AI in schools, and how we help students navigate it’s appropriate, effective, and even ethical use. If we don’t, then we really aren’t preparing our kids for today’s world, much less the future.

We aren’t going to AI proof schoolwork.

Beyond a simple blood test

I have to go get some blood work done. It’s time to check a few levels, and make sure that I’m in the healthy range. I have an issue maintaining my Vitamin D levels, and cholesterol issues run in my family… and also in me. So I’ll head to the medical center and line up this weekend for them to poke me in the arm and fill a few small vials of blood. I’m a week or so I’ll get a call from my doctor after she looks at the results.

I wonder how far away we are from being able to do this from home? Prick your finger, put a drop of blood on a sensor, and get a full spectrum of results. Add to this a health monitor on your smart watch that tracks heart rate and rhythm, as well as activity, and you’ve got a full service health monitoring system that can be preemptive and preventative. And add to this a toilet that analyzes your urine, and you’ve got a regular no-line-up doctor’s visit without ever leaving your home.

Cholesterol levels seem high? The monitor will tell me, and my doctor. Vitamin D levels low? My watch tells me to double my morning dose. Imagine your watch telling you that you should go to the hospital because it detected a heart arrhythmia that is consistent with the early signs of a heart attack. Wouldn’t that be so much better than not knowing?

The possibilities of what you can do to improve your health with a system like this are incredible. Is this possible in the next 5 years? I think so! It’s going to be amazing to see the way technology enhances our healthcare system in the next decade. We will literally be able to regularly and continuously monitor things that we used to have to do several doctor and clinic visits to do on a yearly (or longer) basis. And when you do go to the doctor, your complaints about your health won’t just be anecdotal, you’ll have streams of data to share. This is exciting for everyone except hypochondriacs… these poor people are going to have a lot more to worry about!

Spam call strategy

I don’t know about you, but I almost never pick up a phone call from a number I don’t know. I’d rather listen to a voicemail than listen to spam. However, recently I’ve been trying something new.

I actually do pick up, then I immediately hit the mute button and the speaker button. So far I’ve only had a callback once from someone who was trying to contact me, because the call wasn’t a spam. And one other time I heard a questioning ‘Hello?’ and responded.

Every other call has been silence and then a click to end the call. I think it’s the muting of the call that does the trick. The auto-callers the spammers use waits to hear a greeting to know they have a person online. I don’t get a call back, and I don’t have to listen to the start of a spam message… and hopefully my number is deemed as a bad line, whereas responding and hanging up is confirmation that they have a ‘live one’ to call again.

The call is still an annoyance, but at least it’s less of one and also less rewarding for the spammer.

If I had the time

Here’s a great comic by @MrLovenstein:

On the same topic, I printed this and stuck it to my home gym wall by my exercise bike, after I read it in James Clear’s weekly email last March:

Author Julia Cameron on how to find time to write (or do anything, really):

“The “if I had time” lie is a convenient way to ignore the fact that novels require being written and that writing happens a sentence at a time. Sentences can happen in a moment. Enough stolen moments, enough stolen sentences, and a novel is born — without the luxury of time.”

Source: The Right to Write

Sometimes I’m brilliant at making the time for things. I’m up every day between 5 and 5:30am, I write these posts (if I didn’t the night before), I meditate, I do a workout, all before I get in the shower to start my work day. Recently I was challenged to do 2,000 pushups in February. I started on the 3rd, and as of yesterday I’d done 80 pushups for 10 straight days. I might take today off before doing another  800 in the next 10 days. Then a last break before 5 straight days and hitting 2K on the 29th. That’s the plan. If I forget and miss a day, guess what… I’ll make it up and still make sure I hit the target.

For other things I’m notoriously bad at finding the time. Tidying up my closet is a great example of that. I seem to know how to mess it up, but I never seem to have time to organize it. Some days I get home and my back is sore, but I’ll sit uncomfortably on the couch and think about getting in the hot tub until it’s too late and I just skip it. My blog drafts usually have a whole bunch of idea starters for when I get stuck, but now it’s filled with longer writes that I’ve started and don’t seem to have the time to follow up with. Drafts used to be drafts, now they are just good ideas that have died from a lack of taking the time to expand on them.

If only I had the time… would I use it? Would you? How convenient and comfortable is this lie? The reality is that if it’s important enough, there’s probably time for it, time we can find, time we can make, rather than making up excuses.

We Live in a Tetraverse

Whenever you see a movie like the Matrix, data sets, information, and all storage are shown in cubes.

Even beyond the movies, it is clear that we represent the world on three axis: X, Y, and Z.

In the words of Joe Truss, these 3 axis are ‘necessary but not sufficient‘ to really understand the world we live in. We Live in a Tetraverse:

This is the first video in a series called ‘Book of Codes’, which over time you will help you discover for yourself the power you inherently have as a natural geometer. Join Joe and Dave Truss as they discuss the building blocks of a tetraverse… where the foundations of life, and everything in our universe is built around the unique geometric shapes that are comprised in the geometry of stacked and interlocking triangles.

The Book of Codes will awaken the natural geometer within you.

 

Some people spend their weekends watching sports… while the Super Bowl was on, I was putting the finishing touches on this video. That’s not a slag on anyone who enjoys watching sports, it’s just not my thing. What I do enjoy is nerding out and thinking about how I can use geometry to make sense of challenging ideas in mathematics and physics that are actually way beyond my capabilities to calculate and understand without the geometry. Thanks to Joe, I have almost weekly meetings on Sunday mornings to learn from him and to think deeply about the hidden geometry behind our universe and all life within it.

We record most of our meetings. This is hopefully the first of many we will share. While there are more videos to come, don’t expect them too soon… I only really get a chance to work on them on the weekends and editing video takes a lot of time. Still, I hope you enjoy this video, and as always, feedback is appreciated.

Coming Soon

I have been meeting my uncle, Joe Truss, and playing with geometry regularly on weekends. We didn’t meet this week, but I still put some time into our project. Today I put the finishing touches on the first video we are going to share about living in a Tetraverse. We believe our universe is structurally built out of triangles… Triangles (not turtles) all the way down.

Is the video perfect? No, far from it. Is it polished? No, I could spend a few more hours tweaking it. Is it ready to be shared? Yes! We have hours and hours of video, but we chose this one because we are actually playing with the shapes we are talking about, and it seems like a good entry level introduction to the topics we discuss.

Originally I had hoped to have the video edited before the end of 2023, but I had almost no time over the holidays to finish it. So, I put in a few hours the past few Sundays and now it’s time to share… as soon as my uncle approves. I didn’t hit my year-end goal, but I got it done in time for my uncle’s birthday in a couple days.

I’ll share it here really soon!

James Clear on hats, haircuts, and tattoos

I love this! James Clear has a weekly email, 3-2-1 Thursday, with 3 ideas from him, 2 quotes, and one question. I have shared this a few times because I think this weekly email is one of the only subscriptions I read every single time I get it.

A couple weeks ago this was one of the items from him:

“I think about decisions in three ways: hats, haircuts, and tattoos.

Most decisions are like hats. Try one and if you don’t like it, put it back and try another. The cost of a mistake is low, so move quickly and try a bunch of hats.

Some decisions are like haircuts. You can fix a bad one, but it won’t be quick and you might feel foolish for awhile. That said, don’t be scared of a bad haircut. Trying something new is usually a risk worth taking. If it doesn’t work out, by this time next year you will have moved on and so will everyone else.

A few decisions are like tattoos. Once you make them, you have to live with them. Some mistakes are irreversible. Maybe you’ll move on for a moment, but then you’ll glance in the mirror and be reminded of that choice all over again. Even years later, the decision leaves a mark. When you’re dealing with an irreversible choice, move slowly and think carefully.”

How often do we think of hat decisions as if they are haircut decisions, or haircut decisions as if they are tattoo decisions? I think that we tend to overdramatize or exaggerate the consequences of small risks or decisions, and this holds us back from a lot of opportunity for adventure, growth, and learning.

Try some different hats on… and don’t worry so much about the ones that don’t fit.

Introvert at a party

Sometimes the introvert in me really comes out… or rather shuts me in. In a social setting I can find comfort in a one-on-one conversation, but feel totally removed from a larger group discussion. It’s like a switch goes off and suddenly I’m no longer a participant but a distant observer of everything happening around me.

I don’t feel isolated or secluded. It’s not like I’m trapped somewhere I don’t want to be. I’m not suddenly feeling left out or alone, I am simply not fully engaged in what everyone else is doing. It’s not sad, it’s a comfortable place that is just one step removed from the present, or rather presence of everyone else.

A joke is told, I hear the laughter, I smile. It’s like I’m watching a sitcom, and I’m not part of the laugh track. I get and appreciate the humour, it just doesn’t hit me like something that would make me laugh. If someone asks me a question, I’m right there to respond, but it feels like it is filtered through a vail from the outside, remote yet not far away. I answer politely but I’m not fully engaged.

This is not a place I choose to go. It doesn’t happen all the time. It’s just a consequence of being an introvert. A loud and busy gathering is not a comfortable place, so I recede to a place inside myself that is more comfortable and I engage with the outside world from there.

Still happy to be with people I like. Not fully disengaged, but also not fully present. A slightly distant observer rather than full participant. An introvert in an extraverted world.

What’s my age again?

My youngest turns 22 today. Sometimes I struggle to grasp how I am the father of 2 kids in their 20’s? Am I really that old?

I remember hearing old people – as in my current age – say that they didn’t feel very old. I remember the look on my dad’s face when I asked him how ‘my old man’ was doing for the first time. I remember being in my 20’s and seeing old people, like in their 50’s, on tv and thinking they were ancient.

In some ways I’ve earned my way here. In other ways I feel like an imposter pretending to be older and responsible. How did I get here? Wasn’t I just in my early 30’s?

My perspective on what ‘old’ means has changed year by year, or maybe decade by decade. My 60’s are just around the corner, so I guess 80 is old… for now. So what if younger me thought my current age was old, I’m not old… that word will always belong to people older than me!

The Playmaker

I watched a high school basketball game tonight. It was a blowout, ending with a score around 51-98. One kid on the winning team was a real highlight reel, with dunks, blocks, steals, 3-pointers, and despite being the biggest guy on the court, he’d bring the ball up the court sometimes, and even play the point guard position.

But of all the things he did, the highlight for me was when he’d penetrate the defence then find the open man and dish it to him for the easy basket. It wasn’t the dunks and blocks, it was being the playmaker and making sweet passes.

Teams need the clutch player that you can count on to score points, but when that clutch player is also a playmaker who makes his team play well, and who isn’t selfish, that’s a really great player. Then he’d be on the bench and he’d cheer like he’s the number one fan of the team.

In life, that’s the player to be.

This is just Canadian high school basketball, and while this kid will probably play university basketball, he’s probably not NBA material… but I’ll tell you one thing, whatever he does in life, I’d want him on my team.