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My current publisher, which happens to share the same name and face as me, is a terrible marketer.

Therefore, I’m at this time forced to remind you that I have books and guides I think you’ll enjoy and, perhaps, may even make your life better.

Thank Your Software Developers

In 1999, I got hired to work doing Quality Assurance for PowerOn/Now Software. Among their software offerings was a pair of programs, sold together, called Now Up-to-Date and Contact. They were calendaring and contact applications for true power users. Folks that not only needed a ton of unique features above your average calendaring and contact software but, perhaps most importantly, needed to be able to share that information with others in a team/office/company or even family basis.

The best way to test software is to use it and so I did.

Ever since, Now Up-to-Date and it’s evolution BusyCal (which is still developed by the original developers Dave Riggle and John Chaffee) has been an essential part of my and my family’s life. We often say in our house “if it’s not on the calendar it doesn’t exist” and it’s true. The elegant design of the shared calendaring feature is the only way we can keep track of what everyone is doing and when.

In other words, the software Dave and John wrote decades ago has been a part of my life for almost half of it.

We don’t often think about how important software can be in our lives. How it can make it better. How it can become essential to it. How, by extension, the humans behind that software have in no small way made our lives better.

I thought about that today upon meeting Manton Reece, the lead developer of my favorite blogging tool, Micro.blog. Not only what an honor it was to meet someone who has created something that makes my life easier and better in no small way, but who also developed a little program called Clipstart years and years ago that I used and loved. I got a chance to thank him, in person, for making my life better.

I’m sure there is software and services you use daily that makes your life better. Remember that a human made that. If you ever get the opportunity, thank them.

The one they forgot.

My step-father was a USCF-rated chess master. One day, we were talking about what makes the elite of the game so much better at the game – grand masters like Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov – than everyone else.

Him: “Well, those guys can see every possible move and every possible counter move for the whole game. So, from the very first move and every move after they can game out all the ways it can go until mate in their heads.”

Me: “Wait, if they can both see the whole game and every possible move how does anyone ever win? Why doesn’t every game end in a draw?”

Him: “Ah, that’s easy. It’s the move they forgot to consider. They are so busy seeing everything they missed something. They can’t escape the fact they’re human”

I think about this conversation often these days.

I’m “every time your favorite music acts from your teen and college years come to town you buy the ticket because they’re all 10-20 years older than you and it very well could be your last chance” years old.

Very excited to see Sting tonight. I’ve seen The Police every time they toured the US and Sting almost every time he’s toured solo. Excited to add one more to the list. We’re all getting older and I don’t know how many more chances I’ll get.

When A.I. Comes for Your Purpose in Life – The New York Times

Steven Strogatz, a professor of mathematics at Cornell University, describes the excitement and grief of watching A.I. take on work that gives people a sense of purpose — and asks what could be lost if machines deliver answers without the human struggle, insight and understanding that make solving problems meaningful.

This was fascinating and, dare I say, beautiful. If you have any interest at all in the current conversation around A.I. this is a must listen.