The year 2020 lifted its curtains offering quiet an unusual play for its world audience; it made a tragedy befall upon us, and assigned each the role of protagonist in this plot.
Whether we accept reality, or struggle to accept it; whether we are coping with it naturally, or struggle to get accustomed to the situation, the plot called life goes on, and time, the narrator, will never stop unthreading the story, hence why we, as the sole protagonist of such a play, must keep moving on and, with our heads lifted up, rise up to the current and future challenges that await us, getting hold of who we are and remember what we ought to do.
Even in the direst situations, where everything can be taken from you, there is still one freedom left: the freedom to choose with what attitude to face it, to choose one's own way.
- Adapted from Austrian Psychiatrist Viktor Emil Frankl
A pandemic that is out of our control is affecting each of us differently, given the distinctive story behind us, be it concerning our loved families, financial concerns, physical and mental health or safety. Despite this, wherever you are or whatever you are doing, I hope the following humble words can fuel your attitude and spark your motivation to smoothly transition into a new way of education and lift, because, indeed, even in the direst situations, we still can get a hold of our attitude and choose how to face it.
We might be wondering, then, how can we attain this “attitude” from which we can extrapolate strength to sustain ourselves. Till nowadays, I can’t provide a precise answer, so let’s inquire together.
As a possible starting point, we can look back throughout the numerous springs of our lives and recall when there was that moment worthy to be imprinted into our memory until now. That moment you felt happy doing that thing, and by happy I mean:
- Something that you thoroughly enjoyed doing: was it extending your hand to help someone? Was it achieving a goal you set to yourself? Was it surpassing someone you know? Was it rising up to a challenge set by yourself or others? Was it discovering something you didn’t know, meeting someone you’ve never seen?
- Something you keep reflecting on: a live event? A piece of knowledge? A word from someone important?
- Something you think you can professionalize on: what was the skill at that moment that can now be polished further? What was the preparation you underwent to live that moment and now can make new plans?
These questions, as abstract and open as they’re meant to be, are the way they are in order to further understand ourselves.
After having this base established where we get to know ourselves a bit better, we can now focus on the present and reflect upon on being the best of ourselves, doing better the things we enjoy and honing our skills.
The questions put out by our Dragon Warrior are analogous to bottomless pits you can now explore and keep inquiring what you can do now to live up to your own “you”.
Despite confinement, there is a plethora of knowledge available for us to improve our current skillset, learn to develop new capabilities, increase our understandings, meet new people, among others.
Maybe there is already a myriad of questions about what’s that “specific” thing we like to do and specialize on, but, in the end, I can only offer guidelines on how to discover it yourself. In other words, at most I can only show the roads to take, but can’t choose the road for you:
l We are about to welcome the Fourth Industrial Revolution, whose protagonists are the application of grapheme; artificial intelligence and its involvement in the diverse sectors of society, be it medicine, economics, education, entertainment, and more; genetic engineering and its impact on health; nuclear energy as an alternative source that can even fuel space exploration; quantum computing. Based on your personality, own likings, what can you do know, learn now to be prepared for this? What preparation and plan can you devise to exploit your skills revolving this issue?
l The current pandemic has exposed an abundance of issues underlying the fabrics of society, be it infodemic, the disastrous dissemination of false information through mass media such as social networks, or the lack of responsibility assumed by the various people leaders of the public and private sector. Based on what you understand about you now, what can you learn now to find how to devise the proper solutions to such problems? If you think this is the field you want to professionalize, what knowledge must you accumulate to sort out what political and economic measures are appropriate to face these challenges? What to do to relieve mental stress in society?
l These and among other problems we can all observe.
Ideas can start swarming into our heads, but slowly we can make each land down and properly examine it.
We learnt more about ourselves, asked what we can do now; therefore, a plan (which can also be called a dream) into the future is required to define clearly what we are aiming for. Such plan or dream can act as fuel to keep us moving and living up to the answers we gave to the above questions. For this plan can be designed as follows:
Specific: define in detail how can you use your skills to address certain problem you would like to solve, and why. What goal do you want to achieve and why is it worth achieving? Why is that goal, and not another one, the one makes you feel motivated enough to take action? What is your vision, and what is your mission? What’s important is defining a set of coherent steps and constantly asking yourself whether or not what you do has to do with your initial objective, remembering your motivation.
Measurable: define a goal which can monitor your progress. For example, constantly measure how fast you can read and understand a book, article, finish a challenge, watch a video, an online conference of your interest and extract relevant information, so you have a sense of how you can increase your efficiency the next time you do such activity. If you like to expand your influence, monitor how many people you know and how much they can learn from you and you from them. Reflect on how much knowledge you can offer to others.
Attainable: Defining a plan doesn't mean straying from reality, but rather be honest and down to earth to you and others. If you want to be A, reach B, achieve C, solve D[1], define this plan to suit your personality and context. I do not recommend that you aspire to be someone who doesn’t follow one’s own personality (hence why we seek to understand ourselves through the past), nor someone who is so ignorant of the strengths and weaknesses of which you carry yourself (hence why we focus on the present about cultivating skills). For a goal to be attainable, find the balance where it is voracious enough to ignite your motivation, but also truthful enough to be measurable.
Results-based, results-based: connecting with the above, defining an achievable action plan, constantly record your results, such as what you have learned, what skill you have developed (for example learning to program), what online course relevant to you have been finished, what motivating speaker have you met, all in order for you to compare yourself with your past and witness your slight evolution, in this way, that you inspire yourself to continue on your personalized cultivation. It is advisable here to pretend you do not know yourself so that you become an objective judge of yourself.
Time-based: it goes hand in hand with “results-based” since it is not only about achieving specific achievements, but also measuring the speed with which you can finish them to improve your performance. In this way, you can train your competitiveness that will serve as a foundation when you grow up and are part of larger projects. For example, if you completed an online challenge yesterday in m hours, or finished a manuscript in n days, press yourself to maintain the quality of an upcoming project and finish it in less time.
Life’s value is found on having dreams, so what is your dream that you can prepare yourself to achieve?
l Electricians have the paramount dream of making Moore’s Law a reality
l Cognitive psychologists still have the duty of unraveling the mysteries of the mind, language and emotions.
l Social scientists still bear the responsibility of understanding the mechanisms keeping a society in shape and ensure public safety and welfare
l Bio – technicians still have the responsibility of exploiting the ever growing data for the health of society
l Artists still have the passion of exploring the unique beauty of art and maybe its fusion with AI.
l What is your dream?
And perhaps, as a side note, this is where education’s value is found.
What is education? For what purpose do we attend a lecture and get tested? For the sake of doing so?
The words of endless educators across the world may resonate in our ears: to be the best of us, be the best of us for the rest, so no barricade or situation will stop us from having the attitude to live up to ourselves and others that no matter where you are, and how you are.
All the above is perhaps where we can extrapolate strength and attain a positive attitude to face the current unusual times.
What is your personality and virtue? What is your current skillset that can be bettered? What is your duty, for which it can act as fuel even in the direst situations?
In short, look back to understand yourself, live in the present to cultivate yourself, gaze at the future to propel yourself.
Whatever you are aiming after, I would just want to finish with what renowned scientist Albert Einstein said before his departure:
"Try not to be a person of success, but rather a person of virtue."
- Albert Einstein
Live up to your own virtue, enhance your skills and find that fuel that can keep you motivated in the hardest times.
Unwind your own story, as the narrator will never stop unthreading the plot, and, finally, stay safe.
Recommended works to review:
Eric, T. (2019). Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again. New York: Hachette Book Group.
MIT Technology Review. (2019). 科技之巅3 (Eng. The Epitome of Science and Technology III). Beijing : Posts & Telecom Press.
Weekly newsletter from deeplearning.ai. (2020, 05 21). The Batch. Retrieved from The Batch: Covid-19 Infects AI, Learning from Small Data, Generated Music Goes Mainstream, Fighting Pandemic Disinformation: https://www.deeplearning.ai/thebatch/
Zhu, S.-C. (2017, 11 02). A light discussion of Artificial Intelligence: Current Situation, Purpose, Framework, and Unification | Finding the root of the issue (浅谈人工智能：现状、任务、构架与统一正本清源). Retrieved from Untitled: http://www.stat.ucla.edu/~sczhu/Blog_articles/%E6%B5%85%E8%B0%88%E4%BA%BA%E5%B7%A5%E6%99%BA%E8%83%BD.pdf (for an English version: https://dm.ai/ebook/)
[1] Fill in the variables you think best suits you.
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