I recently read a new book by writer Jim Collins, “What to Make of a Life”. He’s a best-selling author and the title grabbed my attention because I’ve thought a lot about just that lately. I’ve spent more time in life looking for my life and the work to pay for it than living it and working at it. I can’t say that I’ve pursued any avocation with the dedication that signals a passion. So, I’m hoping to pull something out of the hat so to speak now late in life! I wasn’t looking for a self-help book which the author makes clear is not “What to Make of a Life” is, but perhaps a few encouraging words or a new perspective.

There wasn’t much new other than his use of an annoying terminology to describe some common ideas we’ve all had or heard like realizing what your good at in life (“encoding”), learning to stop and reflect when life presents you with a big change or challenge (“cliffs”), understanding that sometimes the best thing to do is to take small and present steps forward (“simplex stepping”), and to ignore societies templates for success if they don’t seem to fit you and just go about your business in a self-contained and safe manner (“hedgehog mode”). Oh, and for a second or third act, “extend out and circle back”, in other words use your strengths perhaps in a different context in order to fortify yourself, return to your “encodings” and renew yourself.

There is, of course, a lot more to the book which involved extensive research and uses real people (some deceased and some still alive and mostly well-known) whose lives illustrate his main ideas. Because the author wanted to be able to look at a life in full, most of the subjects are from an earlier time a few generations ago. I only mention that because it seems to me that the challenges they were up against while considerable lose a bit of relevance for younger people today. I did appreciate the section on luck, it’s prevalence in our lives, and his idea of “return on investment” when applied to luck. Good luck and bad luck are going to happen he writes, and you can manage a good outcome even from bad luck.

I find it particularly hard to fully follow the advise to just do things for your own enjoyment and satisfaction another conclusion of the book. Certainly life is full of examples of people being able to turn a passion into a money-making venture. And this approach seems to me to have worked well in the past before so many careers and talents had been developed. I think most of us can’t afford to just do what we enjoy and hope it turns into a living. After all you have to be able to pay the bills. And earning a living is what’s so hard these days and becoming harder all the time. The old trope of starting in the mail room and working your way up isn’t too prevalent these days. Maybe we need to get “the mail room” back.

The competition for jobs just keeps getting harder. There are so many gatekeepers out there now—people who you have to get past to get an interview, to get a job. I guess this is my particular pet peeve. They’re mostly in the human resource departments or recruiting agencies out there for hire. A philosophical answer to the question “so what have you been doing?” isn’t going to fly with these types. “What have I been doing?” and this coming from a twenty-five year old! I’m dying to tell the truth because lately in addition to applying for jobs, I’ve been having treatment for breast cancer. I caught it early and so I will be cancer-free and in that sense I recognize how very lucky I am. But, being diagnosed with cancer has been a classic “cliff” to use Jim Collins’ terminology. It hasn’t and doesn’t fit nicely into the recruiter mindset that abhors gaps in employment (duh duh dun).

But back to my “cliff”. I’ve had excellent treatment close to home and access to advanced medical treatments and technology. I find it amazing; I really do. A century or two ago I would have been put in a corner to fade away. But here I am getting chemotherapy and my blood tested for trace cancer cells! And the imaging and radiology equipment, Oh my God. Thank-you TruBeam®, thank-you.

“Lie down and stay relaxed, let us position you. We’ll play music; some people find it helps them relax”. As the giant “arms” of the TruBeam® machine rotate around the table I’m lying on, I try to relax and close my eyes; I really do. What’s that noise? Sounds like, like a swarm of angry bees. Yikes. Dammit. I’m trying to get away but why can’t I move any faster. It’s my shoes and my pants... they’re all wet. Or am I wearing galoshes? I don’t own galoshes. No one owns galoshes anymore. But wait a minute ...I’m trying to go up these stairs...what’s that noise now. Pfhluup, pfhluup, pfhluup. Is that my wet shoes or or ...it’s like the wheel of fortune on that show or in a casino...the wheel spinning and the plastic thingy flopping from one possible future to the next. Where will it land? But I’ve never been a gambler...wait it’s, it’s the big board at, at an airport? with the flight updates? I’m in an airport? But I still hear the music from the hospital room I’m in ...”Might have a little dirt on my boots, but I’m takin’ you uptown tonight...”* Ok. They put on a Country station. Fine. That’s good. But the big board if that’s what it is: Canceled, Canceled, Departed. It sounds just like the wheel of fortune, pfhluup, pfhluup. Wait there are the bees again. Where am I? Fortuna, is that you? What’s going on. Get me outta here!

Stay calm because The TruBeam® is my friend. And after chemo and surgery, it’ll add its magic to the trifecta and I’ll be cancer-free and that’s all that matters. Ahh technology. And to be a twenty-first century American. Thank-you God. My personal relationship to technology is mostly one of confusion and respect. Like with the TruBeam® here. These days we’re in the grips of technology now as were earlier generations. But that nice pleasant pace of development which was always a bit of an illusion anyway, has now completely retreated. In the face of Artificial Intelligence, it’s all we can do but to let jaws drop and ask ourselves where are we going? This is all happening too fast.

Technology is such a tricky thing. And some of the most inventive minds can get it wrong. The Criterion streaming channel is showing the old 1960’s show The Prisoner.† Starring and created by Patrick McGoohan, it was a dystopian story about a man after he quits his job is suddenly transported to a mysterious island and he has to figure out where he is, why he’s there and who he is. “What do you want?” “Information” comes the sinister reply. Well, credit where credit is due, they got that right. Information is the new currency, information is power. “Who is Number One?”. “You are Number Six.” It’s great stuff, back when other people and communism was still the threat. Losing your identity? “I am not a number. I am a free man” he shouts in defiance. Doesn’t sound so evil now compared to say having your identity stolen or your life being hijacked by self-developing, self-replicating intelligent software that you can’t see and don’t know where it will show up next. “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”**

I remember seeing some of The Prisoner in a rebroadcast I guess during the 70’s. Mostly what I remember was the British actresses with mod hairstyles and clothes. The introduction sequence to The Prisoner is a classic with the main character, Patrick McGoohan a.k.a. Number 6, slamming down his resignation on his bosses desk and delivering a blistering critique of some kind it’s assumed—the musical soundtrack with thunder claps covers the dialog. A typewriter then types “XXX” all through his government profile to complete his annihilation (this is how it was done before digitization and the delete key). With a the future-is-here tension building, we see a mechanized arm of sorts traveling down a row of file cabinets. File cabinets! I love it. It stops at one cabinet labeled “RESIGNED”, and drops our hero’s file into it. The chills from the 60’s run up my spine. Sort of. This was the future back then. Certainly not fun, but back then we apparently were worried about being co-opted by an evil government entity and losing our identity and freedom. Not so different from today, I guess, only the technology has changed and seems much more omnipresent and powerful. At least the prisoner got transported to a nice village with a ready-made community: “Be seeing you.”

How will AI change our world? I imagine it will be similar to what society has faced in the past? There will be major upsets and many of us will be unable to get work. I’m not underestimating the upheaval and I’m not advocating complaisance. But, because it’s so hard to see where technology is going and where it will end up, I’d hate to see the government step in and start regulating. We shouldn’t hand over power to the government with a technology any technology in its infancy. We can’t delegate authority over it to the people we vote for (who’ll just buy our votes with facile politics) especially since they then consult or take advice from so-called experts (calling Dr. Fauci, calling Dr. Fauci). The experts, they’re the real threat. No, let’s wait and see.

It’s a cliff on the societal level. We have more control over personal cliffs to be sure, but with technology not so much. With technology, not only do we repeatedly fail to see where it’s going, but it also has a life of it’s own. Not in the science fiction sense although with AI that is becoming less fictional by the day. But technology ends up finding it’s own paths that aren’t necessarily the original intent. Let’s perhaps “simplex step” to use Jim Collins’ term for now. And in the mean time, it’s that giant white balloon from the Prisoner we need to watch out for.

** A line from the 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”, directed by Stanley Kubrick, is quoted here.

† The TV show “The Prisoner” filmed from 1966-1968 and produced by Everyman Films for distribution by Lew Grade’s ITC Entertainment is referenced here.