59: Navigating Life, AI, and Change
(All images courtesy of ChatGPT)
The day before Christmas Eve, as Christmas is Monday. I have been struggling all week for the top ten predictions for IT. It has been hard to get to ten when the top 9 are all AI-related. However, I will share more this week.
The other change in my life was when I turned 59 a month ago. I don't know how this snuck up on me.
It's not my birthday because it is on or near Thanksgiving. So, it would be hard to forget or miss. I carefully hide this from the public and am truly grateful that it is around Thanksgiving. There is a great holiday to share, and my birthday can easily slip unnoticed. The older I get, the number goes up, the happier I am about this.
That said, 59 is an odd age. I see celebrities celebrating their 70th birthday, and my reaction is much different as I can see 70 a lot clearer than 40. I can't say I am mid-life when the oldest person is 117.
It is not that I feel old. Honestly, I feel healthier than I did in my 40s. I walk 4 to 5 miles daily, depending on DaisyBelle's mid-day walk. I sleep well, take no meds, and am content and happy.
That said, there are a few points I am focusing on at this stage of my life.
Just Say No! I get asked to do things, and sometimes I don't want to. I would rather watch The Family Stone for the 10th time with DaisyBelle and Lucky than go to a winery or dinner in Dallas. The challenge in the year ahead is not to feel compelled to give an excuse,t just to say no.
It is a wonderful life. When watching social media, it is hard not to sit back and wonder about our lives. I haven't been out of the country in four years. I drive a car I love that is five years old. I live in a small town in East Texas, not outside NYC or on the beach. Life is pretty good. I own that car, our home, and we live in a peaceful and friendly community. This town is 90 minutes outside of Dallas, and an airport that can get me anywhere on this continent in under three hours.
Square peg around round holes. My career is more akin to a treasure map than a straightforward plan. That has led me to marketing, sales, and technical roles that give me diverse skills and backgrounds and make me unique. A career that started with the dawn of software companies and has been a part of many industry eras, including mainframes, client-server, internet, and mobile, now AI is unique and not the normal path.
I don't fit the mold. I am a gay male! However, I don't really have an affinity for brand-named clothes. I wear what I like, not who made it. I am not a celebrity watcher, nor do I desire to have a celebrity life. I was listening briefly to NPR on the way here, and the talk was about celebrity autobiographies. One of the panel members said, why do all these celebrities believe we want their lives? I don't.
I am a pain in the ass at times, ask Frank. It is difficult, if not impossible, to buy me a gift. As mentioned earlier, I am sometimes challenged to get myself to agree to go out. My mind tends to wander in more directions than a Dallas highway interchange, so asking me what I am up to sometimes is more complicated than it sounds. It is not intentional, but I just am what I am, and trying to change those characteristics of myself is not likely.
However, apparently, I like change. I have lived in 13 cities across the East Coast and Texas. I have changed jobs and regularly change what engages and entertains me. When I meet people I have known earlier, they expect someone they knew twenty or thirty years ago. Surprise I am not that person anymore.
Bigger is not always better. As you hear on Food TV, NY Times Cooking, and other places, the better the ingredients, the better the taste. We have a great butcher in Longview, and Chickens are natural. Their breasts have not been bred with Dolly Parton Dimensions. These chickens taste better, and they need much less effort. I tend to brine the chickens, but as compared to even organic chickens, they just stand out from the other hens.
My sister is an extrovert. She is always on the go and engaging others. I often think she sees me as an introvert. Maybe she is right. I am sitting here thinking about holidays and some of my best memories. On my birthday, I was alone in Vegas watching Bette Midler. One of the best Christmases was alone in Fort Lauderdale, watching a movie (It's Complicated) and having lunch. One of the best Thanksgiving was in Key West, mostly alone. A while back, I spent a month in Key West. I had company, Bruce and Graham, Tom and Mike, Donna, and Ben, but I also enjoyed the time I had alone. If I am an introvert, it may be because I like my own company. It doesn't mean I want to be a hermit alone on an island; it just means that I am comfortable alone. It is also, going back to number 5, I know I can be a pain in the butt, and sometimes to be kind to others, I feel I should be alone and not subject other people to my moods.
Am I old? I think a good deal about my Dad. Thirty-three years ago, he would have been 59. Then I was 26, living in Atlanta. I had already been a Co-Op with IBM, a sales rep and systems engineer at IBM, and a sales leader for the Southern area. I was on my way professionally, but I had a long way to go personally.
I sit here now at 59, wondering about retirement and what may be the last leg of my career, and feeling more content than excited. Maybe being content at 59 is a sign of aging, as compared to a 26-year-old, who would have been amazed by the journey ahead and the landing in East Texas.
AI made my top ten list. So, let us think about 2024. It will be a year of change for most professionals as AI takes hold and makes changes across many industries. It is making major changes in the enterprise, marketing, and other professions. But I also see the new generation of AI as a way to level the playing field between smaller companies and larger ones as smaller enterprises tap into publicly available AI, such as LLAMA from Meta and ChatGPT from OpenAI and others.
AI has been around for a long time. In college, I wrote two papers on AI in the 80s. Generative AI is something quite exciting and new. There is much comparing it to the Internet. The better comparison is the car phone. Does anyone remember? They had to drill holes in the car to install the phone. They had to attach an antenna to the car. I got one as part of a pilot with IBM for sales reps, and it was a great asset, but beyond that, did we know what the future of mobile phones would be? From cars to mobile phones, to text messages, to smartphones, mobile phones have changed how we live and work. Generative AI is similar. We see it, and we understand it, but what it will do and its impact is much harder to predict.
More to come about AI as we head to the new year, but this is a time to breathe and relax as the year comes to a close.
I wish you all a happy holiday season and a very happy and prosperous new year!
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