Wearily upward

There are a lot of focus on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence at the moment. It really is an exciting and terrifying technology that is already influencing so much of what we do and know today; from algorithms that suggest what ads we see on websites to self-driving cars, and so much more. Exciting because the possibilities of what can be achieved is quite possibly endless. Terrifying for the same reason, and also that the long-term consequences of using this technology are still largely unknown. Does any of this remind you of something else? Something else that has a near-infinite capacity for doing good and/or evil? Something else that influences lives in significant yet unseen ways? Something else that has consequential actions which echo far beyond the here and now? I am, of course, thinking of human beings. More specifically, the human mind and heart. I'm sure you have heard the old adage "You can do anything you put your mind to." credited to Benjamin Fra...

I can't help but think that I disappoint my wife and kids more often than not. I get the sense that my wife fell in love with her mental picture of me back in the day, and I just can't live up to that person. At least not as much as I would like to. She never says this, but I get a vibe every now and then - a well timed sigh loud enough to hear from the other room, the uncontrollable look of disappointment when I don't do something "the right way", etc. My kids, on the other hand, just outright tells it as it is. Children are honest and sincere like that. I wonder whether that is why Jesus welcomed them so openly...  Anyway. It's hard when expectations outweigh our abilities. Or, put differently, it's hard when the reality of who we are does not line up with the expectation of who we are. We all do it. We all set expectations of others, mostly determined by our own experience and preferences. For example: a teacher has a classroom of children, each with th...

Trust is an interesting thing. Even a scary thing at times. But it's something we do every day, inadvertently. We were driving to Devon just after Christmas for some time away after a busy year full of many changes. I quit my job, started (and successfully completed) a Data Science bootcamp, our son started Reception, and our daughter seemed to have become an 8-year old teenager overnight. Anyway. I was driving us to a place in Devon I've never been to, using Google Maps to guide our way. I tried to work out how we  used to travel before phone based GPS's were a thing (I still can't remember what that was like...).  Anyway.  I realised that we were putting our trust in something without knowing how it works to get us somewhere we've never been, on a road where we didn't see the destination until we got there (in the dark). That's trust. And never once did I doubt that we'll get there. Then I realised that we were putting our trust in Google Maps for a co...