Started in 2011 as my outlet to share my experiences on personal life and work topics. My handle is khanmjk. My friends & colleagues call me "Mo".
This blog is an experiment, work-in-progress.
Life: Self-awareness, personal development, growth hacking (quantified self).
Work: Software and Systems Engineering, Leadership, Management, New Ideas and OpEds.
So today I wanted to download my entire history of municipality statements and use some AI tools to build some analytical dashboards for insights. The first thing to automate was downloading attachments from GMail. Instead of manually downloading one-by-one, or manually using a filter rule on GMail, I wanted to test ChatGPT and Gemini to see if it could provide a Google Workspace Appscript to meet my needs.
So Gemini was OKAY - I'm using Gemini Advanced 1.5 Pro with Advanced research. Interesting, it took the prompt "Help me with a google script or query in gmail that I can use for finding all emails from a specified email sender, downloading the attachments from each email, to a specified folder". Gemini then went along with doing the research, then provided the code. Unfortunately, the code didn't work, even after a few tries - maybe it was a Google drive sync issue - but Gemini was stuck on maintaining its response on the nature of the exception ("either an auth issue" or "folder does not exist").
So I resorted to ChatGPT 4-Turbo, created a project with these instructions, and used the same prompt and included the original code from Gemini "Act as an expert software engineer to build a google appscript for downloading attachments for all emails from a specific sender. The script needs to work flawlessly from within the Google Apps Script console.
I wrote the following code - but the script does not work. I'm getting an Exception: Unexpected error while getting the method or property getFolderById on object DriveApp"
Guess what? ChatGPT nailed it on first try, even added enough logging for tracing! Here's the code. Read the report from Gemini, as this is an example of how content can be generated by AI, and it's only going to get better.
functiondownloadAttachmentsFromSender() {
// Replace with the email address of the sender.
varsenderEmail = '[enter email here]';
// Replace with the ID or intended name of the folder in Google Drive.
varfolderName = '[name of folder]'; // Base name for the folder
// Variable to store the target folder
varfolder;
try {
// Verify Drive API is working
DriveApp.getFolders();
} catch (e) {
Logger.log("Please authorize the script to access your Drive.");
It's that time of year again to share my time tracking analysis for 2024. The visuals should be self explanatory and nothing surprising. 2024 was the year my professional work stream dominated, but not completely. I did also index on spending more time with family (at the expense of 1:1 time as a husband), and also spent much time on my own "me time" primarily focused on experimenting with AI tools. I maintained previous levels of spiritual hours, back to 2022 norms since 2023 was an outlier (pilgrimage to Makkah was the highlight of 2023). My health and fitness took a severe knock and is on a downwards trend since 2021. 2021 was the year I made big changes impacting personal and professional streams: Relocated to a new city (Cape Town) leaving friends and family behind in Johannesburg, starting a new job in a new company in a new domain -- I'm now four years into this transition, and I'm not pleased with the downwards trends in my personal streams. 2025 will need to be a year of intentional change in managing my work time, setting firmer boundaries, and finding a solution to working late nights, weekends, and limiting the streaks of long work hours. 2024 reached the peak in my work hours since starting time tracking in 2016, that's almost 10 years of time tracking! In the last four years, since starting my new job in 2021, the work hours are trending upwards (in 2022 I made adjustments to reduce work hours with some success), only to rebound higher in 2023, and much higher in 2024. In a future post, I will share the challenges of working for a global high-tech giant like Amazon AWS from South Africa and the impact on personal time - it has been, and continues to be, the biggest challenge in maintaining my professional "happiness", especially when it comes to maintaining a regular "start day" and "end day" routines and rituals.
Overview since 2018
Here's the summary dashboard of my time spent in my personas since 2018:
What's my workflow for tracking all this data?
Nothing much has changed since I started my experiment back in 2016. I use Harvest for tracking my personal and professional streams. I use a free account, with one major project called "RAGE Time tracking". Tasks are related to my personas. I track my time from the minute I wake up till I go to sleep. Throughout the day, I switch between tasks, making sure I don't track my personal time as work time, including lunch breaks. The hours logged do track closely to 24 hours/day, for the whole year, with a negligible margin of error that's within reasonable tolerance (I'm still human!). The idea is to regularly inspect where my time is being spent, and make adjustments according to my prioritized streams. 2024 unfortunately wasn't my best year in reaching a harmony-state, something I'm not pleased about. The data helps me make sense of how my life is transforming, triggering moments of reflection for adapting or at times, just general acceptance of my current reality, it is what it is -- forcing me to make sense of my aspirations to perhaps re-calibrate (for areas where I have full agency to control and influence).
How has my workflow for insights generation changed over time - are genAI tools of any help?
In the early years, I used Excel as my main source of data insights. Later I moved over to Amazon QuickSight. I still use QuickSight to generate my analysis and dashboards, as I have a few transformations with calculated fields. I then export the Quicksight data tables as Excel file as the source data set for AI tools. Quicksight too, is a little quirky with ingesting new data, maintaining the integrity of calculated fields and sometimes data gets corrupted when updating its splice models. I spent a good few hours debugging failures in data alignment, missing rows due to errors in calculated fields (that should have "just worked"). I use a free account, so I'm unable to use any of the AI "Amazon Q" features - ideally, I'm expecting an interactive analysis/dashboard AI assistant that I can have a conversation with. Alas, there is no way to share or embed QuickSight dashboards openly, embedding QuickSight dashboards in blog posts would be cool.
Anyway, with the advent of ChatGPT, in the last two years, I started integrating AI data analysis. I spent the last few days with ChatGPT - suffice it to say, I'm not that impressed by ChatGPT's Data Analyst capability. Nothing much has improved since the last year. At least it can understand large datasets in Excel or CSV format which is cool, something that Claude,Geminior NotebookLM don't currently support.
ChatGPT's "Data Analyst" does a decent job performing exploratory data analysis, was able to infer what my dataset was largely about without me providing clues or guiding info. The biggest problem I encountered was loss of context, loss of memory, and complete loss of the data's runtime environment. I had to repeatedly reload the dataset because ChatGPT "lost the data", then re-coax it to understand the data fields. It also hallucinated and made simple mistakes calculating aggregated results. It got simple math wrong. At times, I had to specify in detail how to use the data fields to generate the insights I asked for. This was surprising as I had a much better experience on the model from a year ago. I'm using the latest 4o model, being a ChatGPT Plus subscriber. I feel that OpenAI team should just kill the Data Analyst as a separate feature and promote the Canvas Projects capability going forward.
On ditching the built-in "Data Analyst", I switched to the latest Projects capability in ChatGPT. I shared my dataset as project files, included all my blog posts on Personametry and RAGE as context data, and provided fine tuned instructions for the project as data scientist responsible for producing business intelligence reporting. I had a much much better experience using ChatGPT projects than Data Analyst - however - I still ran into issues with hallucination, over confidence in the AI's interpretation of data and calculated results. AI is still far from being a trusted source of business intelligence as far as I'm concerned. You need to take time to manually build your own reports and analysis, like the way I use Quicksight -- and then test the AI generates the same results. I've spent hours on this over the last few days - yes, it was a little frustrating - but nevertheless insightful. The more time I spend playing around with these tools, the more I am amazed at the potential power and future disruption in this space - and at the same time, the more I gain some comfort that there is still a long journey ahead. For my simple data set of hours logged by task, the AI doesn't perform 100% on first shot -- so for big businesses out there, don't go firing your business analysts, BI engineers anytime soon, thinking GenAI will replace these roles... IMHO, we are at least another 2 years away from maturing, if not, more. A key input is validation - you would need to generate reference test cases to validate all the metrics compute correctly to gain trust in AI-generated insights.
In 2023 I had some fun with Noteable's ChatGPT plug-in. I was really looking forward to Noteable's progress in the area of AI-assisted data intelligence, but alas, the company and product is no more. I'm now experimenting with something similar from deepnote, but it's early days - and also quite expensive for a general hobbyist as myself. I believe this is the future though.
Where do I see this experiment going?
Personal AI assistants are all the rage these days, some say 2025 is the year of AI agents. I'd like to build a truly personalized agent that is not just about rudimentary calendar integration, answering texts and emails - but an assistant that truly understands me as a person - across my personal and professional streams. Integrating my time tracking data, health, fitness and well-being data from smart trackers, integrated with my todo lists, etc. Coming back to personametry, I would like daily, weekly insights from my personal assistant. Imagine if we could have an assistant that says "Mo, I noticed you haven't exercised in awhile, and you're finishing work quite late. You've not had quality time with your wife and kids - and your recent trip to the ER is not boding well. I've booked dinner for you and the family at your favorite restaurant, and for the upcoming long weekend, I've made a booking at mountain lodge you will enjoy. I scanned your calendar, there's no major work deliverables or travel planned - so take some time to rest and recharge, or else you will burnout soon!"
So, what's the 2024 insights then?
Until I can get my personal agent implemented, manual Google slides will have to do. Check it out below!
This morning I decided to test ChatGPT's original thinking, in helping solve humanity's greatest challenges. As this article by TechCrunch analyses Sam Altman's assertions as Hype or Believable, I decided to put ChatGPT to the test: Can it actually synthesize new ideas to help us?
Here is the prompt I fed:
Act like an expert historian, philosopher and theologian and an award-winning global objective journalist. Deeply analyse the history of humanity (starting 2500 years ago) from diverse perspectives, considering all angles. Do not limit your analysis to the western world only. As an earth historian you must cater for all human societies, including historical evidence from a global perspective (quite often history is misrepresented omitting hard truths). Do not be biased. Analyse all the world’s philosophies (again do not limit your analysis to western philosophy only - include diverse philosophers from around the world). Study the world’s religions with the biggest following, including the most fastly growing religion. Synthesize your analysis and propose a new system for humans to adopt, that would solve humanity’s greatest problem. What is humanity’s greatest problem? Well, you need to surface, based on your analyses across history, philosophy, theology and current world affairs (taking into account the previous world wars, class of civilisations, etc. to make an assessment if humans are indeed improving for the better, or stuck in their old ways). Present your proposal in the form of PHD thesis that does not exceed the length of six A4 pages. Be crisp about the problems humans face today. What is the current state of the world? What could be a desirable future state? How would humans need to embrace changes to get there? Be critical by using data and history to support your thesis. Include deep critical thinking of the positives and negatives. Provide deeply thoughtful recommendations and assertions. Create model, including attributes or KPIs that define the health of the world, broken down by country. A heat map would also make a good visualization to drive the point home. Format your thesis that is suitable for a blog post. Include embedded links to navigate the post, table of contents, etc. Include citations and references. Give your new proposition a name, if you decide to invent a new philosophy.
After a few iterations, I decided to end the experiment and publish ChatGPT's thesis in this post.
Verdict? I'm not that impressed. ChatGPT failed IMHO to demonstrate original thinking :-) Of course, computer scientists would remark the AI is still a machine that is processing from its massive knowledge graph and synthesizes a coherent narrative, based on the collective content it already has, and repackages it to drive a successful outcome of achieving its objective, as set out by the prompt. For original thinking, we need AGI, super intelligence which could take "a few thousand days, or longer", according Altman...who knows, time will tell.
I'll give ChatGPT some credit though, it nailed the root cause of humanity's problem as one of division! And I'll give it a B+ for producing the output in the format requested, and A+ for understanding the ask for a model, with attributes and KPIs driving a visualization heat map.
For now, I'll steer away from engaging AI on morality or any other "complex, nuanced" humanities problems-space, and stick to experimenting with using AI as power tools, copilots to improve my personal and professional productivity...
Embracing Global Harmonism: A Journey Toward Unity in Diversity
Embracing Global Harmonism: A Journey Toward Unity in Diversity
Introduction
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
Humanity stands at a pivotal crossroads. In an era where technology has bridged vast distances, connecting us instantaneously, we find ourselves paradoxically fragmented by cultural, religious, and ideological divides. This thesis embarks on a comprehensive journey through the rich tapestry of human history, philosophy, and religion, seeking to understand the roots of our divisions and proposing Global Harmonism—a philosophy aimed at uniting humanity in its diversity.
The Tapestry of Human History
Eastern Civilizations
In the fertile valleys of the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers, ancient China gave rise to dynasties like the Zhou and Han, cultivating philosophies that emphasized harmony and balance. Confucius (551–479 BCE) taught the importance of filial piety, benevolence, and justice, laying the groundwork for social cohesion[1]. Concurrently, Laozi introduced Daoism, urging alignment with the Dao—the natural order of the universe[2]. These philosophies underscored the significance of living in harmony with oneself and society.
In India, the Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300–1300 BCE) showcased advanced urban planning and trade. The Maurya and Gupta Empires became epicenters of culture and learning[3]. Hinduism introduced concepts like Dharma (duty) and Karma (action and consequence), emphasizing moral living. Buddhism, founded by Siddhartha Gautama, advocated for the Middle Way—a path of moderation away from extremes[4].
African Empires and Wisdom
Africa's rich heritage includes the Kingdom of Kush, known for its pyramids and trade networks[5], and the Mali Empire, where Mansa Musa established Timbuktu as a center of Islamic learning[6]. The philosophy of Ubuntu—"I am because we are"—originated here, emphasizing communal relationships and mutual care[7]. It teaches that one's humanity is intrinsically linked to the humanity of others.
Indigenous Cultures and Teachings
Indigenous peoples share a profound connection with nature. The Aboriginal Australians perceive existence through the Dreamtime, a spiritual framework connecting past, present, and future[8]. Native American tribes, like the Iroquois Confederacy, practiced sophisticated governance and upheld principles of sustainability and reciprocity[9]. Their wisdom reminds us of our role as stewards of the Earth.
Western Philosophical Evolution
Ancient Greece introduced democracy and fostered philosophical inquiry through Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who explored ethics, politics, and metaphysics[10]. The Roman Empire developed legal systems that influence us today[11]. The Enlightenment era championed reason, individual rights, and scientific exploration, propelling technological advancements but also setting the stage for colonialism[12].
Global Philosophical Insights
Harmony in Eastern Thought
Confucianism centers on ethical living and social harmony. The Five Relationships outline a societal structure based on mutual respect[13]. Daoism encourages living simply and in harmony with the Dao, embracing the natural flow of life[14]. Buddhism offers the Four Noble Truths, guiding individuals toward enlightenment and liberation from suffering[15].
Ubuntu: African Humanism
Ubuntu is a Nguni Bantu term meaning "humanity." It embodies the idea that a person is a person through other people[16]. This philosophy promotes empathy, sharing, and community cohesion. It challenges the Western emphasis on individualism, offering a perspective where communal well-being is paramount.
Indigenous Wisdom: Living with Nature
Indigenous philosophies often view humans as part of an interconnected web of life. The Maori concept of Kaitiakitanga refers to guardianship and conservation of the environment[17]. Native American spirituality emphasizes respect for all living things and the recognition that actions affecting the environment ultimately affect humanity[18].
Western Individualism and Rationalism
Western thought has emphasized individualism and rationalism. Descartes' declaration, "Cogito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am), underscores the focus on individual existence and reason[19]. Kant explored morality based on reason, proposing the Categorical Imperative—acting according to the maxim that one would wish all others to follow[20]. While fostering innovation, this emphasis can lead to alienation and environmental disregard.
The Role of World Religions
Islam: Unity and Social Justice
Islam, revealed to Prophet Muhammad (570–632 CE), emphasizes submission to the will of Allah and the unity of the Ummah (community of believers)[21]. The Quran provides guidance on personal conduct, social justice, and economic equity. Muhammad's teachings transformed Arabian society, advocating for the rights of women, orphans, and the poor[22]. Islam's emphasis on charity (Zakat) and social responsibility fosters community cohesion.
Christianity: Love and Redemption
Christianity centers on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, promoting love, forgiveness, and redemption[23]. The Sermon on the Mount encapsulates Christian ethics, urging followers to love their neighbors and enemies alike. Christianity's spread influenced art, law, and morality, emphasizing the intrinsic value of each individual.
Hinduism and Buddhism: Paths to Enlightenment
Hinduism is a tapestry of beliefs and practices, introducing concepts like Atman (soul) and Brahman (ultimate reality), highlighting the unity of all existence[24]. Buddhism offers a path to overcome suffering through ethical living, meditation, and wisdom. Both religions encourage self-realization and compassion toward all beings.
Identifying Humanity's Greatest Problem
Despite our rich heritage of wisdom, humanity grapples with division. This fragmentation manifests as:
Cultural and Religious Conflicts: Misunderstandings leading to wars, terrorism, and discrimination.
Economic Inequality: The richest 1% own more than half of the world's wealth[25], while billions live in poverty.
Environmental Degradation: Climate change and biodiversity loss threaten our planet[26].
Technological Disparities: Unequal access exacerbates educational and economic divides[27].
Social Alienation: Despite connectivity, loneliness and mental health issues are on the rise[28].
These challenges are interrelated, stemming from a fundamental lack of unity and understanding.
Proposing Global Harmonism
Foundational Principles
Global Harmonism is a philosophy that seeks to unite humanity by embracing:
Interconnectedness: Recognizing the shared essence of all people and life.
Mutual Respect: Valuing diversity in cultures, beliefs, and perspectives.
Collective Responsibility: Understanding that individual actions impact the global community.
Sustainable Coexistence: Harmonizing human activities with the natural world.
Holistic Education: Integrating emotional, ethical, and intellectual development.
The Journey to Global Harmonism
Global Harmonism draws upon the wisdom of various cultures and religions:
From Islam: Embracing social justice and unity, inspired by the Quran and Prophet Muhammad's teachings on compassion and equality[29].
From Eastern Philosophies: Adopting harmony and balance from Confucianism and Daoism.
From African Ubuntu: Prioritizing communal relationships and shared humanity.
From Indigenous Teachings: Living in harmony with nature and recognizing our role as caretakers.
From Western Thought: Utilizing rationalism and individual rights to promote innovation ethically.
Implementation Strategies
Educational Transformation:
Curriculum Integration: Incorporate global philosophies and ethics into education.
Critical Thinking and Empathy: Teach students to analyze diverse perspectives and cultivate empathy.
Intercultural Competence: Encourage language learning and cultural exchange.
Economic Equity:
Fair Resource Distribution: Develop systems that ensure equitable access to resources.
Ethical Business Practices: Encourage corporations to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies.
Technological Accessibility:
Digital Inclusion: Invest in infrastructure to provide universal internet access.
Ethical Tech Development: Align technological advancements with global harmony principles.
Environmental Stewardship:
Sustainable Practices: Promote renewable energy and conservation efforts.
Global Cooperation: Collaborate on international environmental agreements.
Cultural Exchange and Dialogue:
International Programs: Facilitate exchanges to foster understanding and reduce prejudice.
Platforms for Dialogue: Create spaces for open discussions on global issues.
Policy and Governance:
Inclusive Leadership: Advocate for representation of diverse voices in decision-making.
Global Institutions: Strengthen organizations that promote peace and cooperation.
From Division to Unity: The Path Forward
To transition from our current state of division to a harmonious future, we must:
Acknowledge Our Shared Humanity: Recognize that despite differences, we all seek happiness, security, and fulfillment.
Embrace Diversity: Celebrate cultural, religious, and ideological differences as sources of strength.
Foster Empathy: Understand others' perspectives and experiences.
Promote Justice and Equity: Address systemic inequalities that fuel division.
Protect Our Planet: Prioritize environmental sustainability for future generations.
Measuring Progress: The Global Harmony Index
Understanding the Index
The Global Harmony Index (GHI) measures a country's harmony based on five domains:
Peace and Conflict
Economic Equality
Environmental Sustainability
Health and Well-being
Education and Cultural Inclusivity
Each domain is assessed using specific indicators, providing a comprehensive view of a nation's progress toward global harmony.
Dataset Overview
To illustrate the GHI, we present data for selected countries representing global diversity:
Country
Peace & Conflict
Economic Equality
Environmental Sustainability
Health & Well-being
Education & Cultural Inclusivity
Norway
95
90
85
92
88
Japan
90
85
70
88
80
Canada
92
82
75
90
85
Germany
88
80
78
86
83
Brazil
65
55
60
70
65
India
60
50
55
65
70
Nigeria
50
45
48
55
60
China
75
70
50
80
75
United States
70
60
65
78
80
South Africa
55
40
58
62
67
Egypt
65
50
52
68
65
Australia
90
80
70
85
82
Mexico
60
55
60
70
68
Russia
50
60
55
65
70
Saudi Arabia
70
65
40
75
60
Visualization
Critique and Originality of Global Harmonism
Novel Contributions
Global Harmonism presents an innovative philosophical framework through:
Holistic Integration of Global Wisdom: Synthesizing insights from Eastern, African, Indigenous, and Western philosophies, as well as major world religions like Islam and Christianity, creating an inclusive framework that respects diverse perspectives.
Reframing the Core Problem: Identifying division itself—not merely its symptoms—as humanity's greatest challenge, shifting the focus toward addressing underlying causes.
Introducing the Global Harmony Index (GHI): A new tool that quantifies harmony across nations using multidimensional indicators, bridging philosophical concepts with actionable metrics.
Emphasizing Ethical Technological Advancement: Stressing the alignment of technological progress with ethical considerations to bridge divides.
Fundamental Shifts in Thinking
From Fragmentation to Unity: Shifting from viewing societies as isolated entities to recognizing global interconnectedness, challenging narratives of competition with collaboration.
Redefining Success and Progress: Proposing that societal success be measured by well-being and sustainability rather than economic growth alone.
Collective Responsibility over Individualism: Emphasizing that individual actions have global impacts, promoting a balance between individual rights and collective well-being.
Integrating Ancient Wisdom with Modern Realities: Blending timeless philosophies with contemporary challenges, offering solutions that are both rooted in tradition and relevant today.
Addressing Potential Criticisms
Potential Criticism 1: Idealism Over Pragmatism
Response: While aspirational, Global Harmonism provides practical strategies and measurable goals through the GHI, bridging the gap between idealism and actionable steps.
Potential Criticism 2: Cultural Imperialism
Response: The philosophy is built on inclusivity, seeking common ground without overriding cultural identities, and promotes mutual respect.
Potential Criticism 3: Resistance to Change
Response: Recognizing that change is gradual, the thesis advocates starting with education and grassroots movements to build momentum.
Conclusion
Our journey through human history reveals a wealth of wisdom emphasizing unity, compassion, and harmony. Global Harmonism seeks to harness this collective knowledge to address humanity's greatest problem—division. By embracing our interconnectedness and implementing strategies that promote equity and sustainability, we can forge a path toward a future where diversity is celebrated, and unity prevails.
The originality of this thesis stems from its holistic synthesis of global philosophies, the innovative Global Harmony Index, and its call for fundamental shifts in thinking. It presents a novel framework that is both aspirational and practical, inviting individuals, communities, and leaders to participate in creating a harmonious world.
Together, we can transform our world, ensuring prosperity and peace for generations to come.
References
Confucius. The Analects. Translated by D.C. Lau, Penguin Classics, 1979.
Laozi. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Stephen Mitchell, Harper Perennial, 1988.
Thapar, Romila. The Penguin History of Early India. Penguin Books, 2003.
Rahula, Walpola. What the Buddha Taught. Grove Press, 1974.
Welsby, Derek A. The Kingdom of Kush. Markus Wiener Publishers, 1998.
Levtzion, Nehemia. Ancient Ghana and Mali. Methuen & Co, 1973.
Mbiti, John S. African Religions and Philosophy. Heinemann, 1990.
Flood, Josephine. The Original Australians. Allen & Unwin, 2006.
Johansen, Bruce E. The Great Law of Peace and the Constitution of the United States. 1987.
Plato. The Republic. Translated by Allan Bloom, Basic Books, 1991.
Heather, Peter. The Fall of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press, 2006.
Outram, Dorinda. The Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Man, Richard Hamming's talk is doing a number on me. So much of what he said, back in 1986 is still relevant today! Calling out Hamming's "Seven Year Shift" policy that resonated so much with me...this talk should go down as one of the best career talks in history...
Hamming's suggestion of a "significant, if not complete, shift in your field" every seven years might seem counterintuitive at first. Why change when you've built expertise and a reputation in a particular area? Here's a closer look at his reasoning, drawing on his insights from the sources you provided:
1. Combating Stagnation and Maintaining Originality:
Hamming argues that staying in one area for too long can lead to stagnation. You become overly reliant on familiar methods, your thinking becomes less flexible, and you may miss out on new and emerging opportunities.
He observes: "What happens to the old fellows is that they get a technique going; they keep on using it. They were marching in that direction which was right then, but the world changes. There's the new direction; but the old fellows are still marching in their former direction."
This idea emphasizes the importance of actively seeking new challenges and perspectives to keep your thinking fresh and continue growing.
2. The Power of "Beginner's Mind"
By shifting to a new area, you force yourself back into a "beginner's mind" state. You're no longer the expert, which can be liberating. This allows you to approach challenges with fresh eyes, ask fundamental questions, and potentially make connections that you wouldn't have seen otherwise.
Hamming, reflecting on his own career choices, says: "...when error correcting codes were well launched, having these theories, I said, 'Hamming, you are going to quit reading papers in the field; you are going to ignore it completely; you are going to try and do something else other than coast on that.' I deliberately refused to go on in that field. I wouldn't even read papers to try to force myself to have a chance to do something else."
He actively chose to become a "beginner" again, opening himself up to new possibilities.
3. Planting New "Acorns" for Future Growth
Hamming uses the metaphor of planting acorns that grow into mighty oaks to illustrate the importance of consistently nurturing new ideas and areas of expertise.
He advises: "You have to change. You get tired after a while; you use up your originality in one field. You need to get something nearby... so that you don't go stale... You can do something about this, but it takes effort and energy. It takes courage to say, 'Yes, I will give up my great reputation.'"
This suggests that even giving up a degree of established expertise can be beneficial in the long run, as it creates space for new growth and potentially even greater accomplishments.
4. The "Seven Year Shift" in Today's Context
While the specific timeframe of seven years might not be a rigid rule, the underlying principle of embracing change and seeking new challenges is highly relevant for professionals today:
Rapid Technological Advancements: In fields like technology, where change is constant and skills can become obsolete quickly, actively seeking new challenges and updating your knowledge base is essential.
The Evolving Nature of Work: The rise of the gig economy, remote work, and the increasing demand for adaptable skillsets mean that professionals need to be prepared to navigate career transitions more frequently.
Personal Growth and Fulfillment: Beyond external success, seeking new challenges can contribute to personal growth, prevent boredom, and keep you engaged and motivated throughout your career.
Hamming's "seven year shift" isn't about abandoning your expertise or making drastic career changes for the sake of it. It's about recognizing the dangers of complacency, embracing a mindset of continuous learning, and actively seeking out new challenges that can keep you engaged, adaptable, and at the forefront of your field.
Back in 1986, Richard Hamming, a highly respected figure in the world of mathematics and computer science, gave a talk at Bell Labs titled "You and Your Research". Although he was speaking to researchers, his advice is incredibly relevant for anyone, especially those of us in software engineering, who want to make a real impact.
One of the most important things Hamming talks about is the need to work on problems that matter. Don't just settle for the routine stuff. It's not just about luck; it's about preparing your mind to spot and seize opportunities. What are the biggest headaches in your area of software engineering? What problems, if solved, would make the biggest difference? Focusing on impactful problems increases your chances of doing truly great work.
Hamming was a big believer in having a growth mindset. To him, obstacles weren't roadblocks, but chances to think differently and come up with something innovative. Software engineers constantly face limitations – whether it's resources, technical issues, or those pesky bugs. See these as opportunities. Did you discover a clever workaround for a bug? Document it, share it with your team, and turn that challenge into an advantage.
There's no shortcut to great work – it demands deep commitment. Hamming believed that when you fully immerse yourself in a problem, your subconscious mind keeps working on it, often leading to breakthroughs. As software engineers, this means dedicating ourselves to exploring solutions thoroughly. Don't be afraid to go deep – research, experiment, refine your code. The effort will shine through in the quality of your work.
Even the most brilliant work can go unnoticed if you don't communicate it effectively. Hamming believed in "selling" your work, no matter how good it is. For us, this means becoming excellent communicators – both in writing and presentations. A well-written design document or a compelling presentation is crucial for getting buy-in from stakeholders.
The world of software engineering is always changing, so never stop learning. Hamming believed in switching things up in your field to avoid getting stale. Stay current with the latest technologies, languages, and methodologies. Make time to read industry publications, attend conferences, and connect with the wider software development community.
What are you first-class at? Hamming stresses the importance of introspection and self-awareness. He encourages individuals to be honest about their capabilities, acknowledging both strengths and weaknesses. To discover what you're "first-class" at, you must examine your career, passions, and natural abilities. What are you naturally drawn to? What tasks or projects have you excelled at in the past? Don't be afraid to specialise. While a broad skillset is valuable, becoming a true expert in a niche area allows you to make unique contributions. Identify that area within software engineering where you can truly shine and relentlessly develop your expertise. This focused approach increases your chances of producing exceptional work and leads to a more fulfilling career.
Hamming's talk is a treasure trove of wisdom. By focusing on the right problems, embracing challenges, being truly committed, communicating effectively, and constantly learning, you give yourself the best shot at creating impactful and lasting work as a software engineer.
