Media makes you petrified, the global economy wants you to be fearful, and your fellow men fuel your pessimism – a deadly cocktail most of us aren’t immune to.
The whole world wants you to drag into a downward spiral, and you have no other chance than to give in.
Are you destined to live in apathy and stagnation?
Sometimes, out of nowhere, we have these motivational spikes. It may be only a tiny spark, but a moment like this is already enough to make us realize our true potential. We get a glimpse of who we could be.
Most of the time, however, we know that this small burst of energy is just a fleeting moment, waiting to pass.
Don’t you wonder why staying motivated is so damn hard? Why do you feel no sense of urgency in your life?
We’re living in an era of massive acceleration.
Governments get dismissed within days, self-made billionaires are made within a few years, and companies grow and collapse rapidly. Heck, even time seems to run quicker every single day.
In such an accelerated world, established knowledge gets outdated quickly to the point where mainstream opinion can’t keep up anymore. Universal rules, which have been valid for decades, grow old by tomorrow.
Think of the German car industry for example. Within a few years, the classic automotive industry is threatened by electric cars to the point of becoming extinct.
In the last months, I’ve been thinking a lot about software engineering and life. Technology meets philosophy, so to speak.
It all has started with a simple observation: When I’m in programming flow, things are easy. Everything just clicks.
But as nice as that feeling may be, my workday eventually ends, and my momentum vanishes away quickly.
Thinking becomes hard again, and life gets its grip back on me. Daily chores, nutrition, finances, private life – the whole package.
So I asked myself a question only a software engineer would ask himself: Can I apply software engineering (SE) to improve my general life? Why not leveraging my knowledge about software engineering in all areas of life?
This is a story about a simple bus driver from Santorini, Greece. He taught me how to prevent artificial intelligence (AI) from taking over the world – and from stealing your job.
It was on my last summer vacation, my wife and I traveled to Naxos, the largest island of the Cyclades, which is located in the South of Greece.
As Naxos doesn’t have an airport, we had to fly to the neighboring island Santorini and continue our trip from there. Once arrived at Santorini airport, we went to the bus station to catch our bus which would take us to our hotel for the night.
Our bus driver was already waiting for us, next to his 1980s bus, and was chatting to one of his colleagues. He had a notable figure: About 6,2 feet tall, strong physique, dark curly hair, and the obligatory hairy chest you’d expect from a greek male. He was about 50 years old.
He greeted every single passenger personally, then our bus journey started.