00:09 We Spend Most of Our Lives in the Future

00:11 Future in the Magazine for Youngsters

00:43 The Future Is Already Here

00:47 The Future Blocked by Barbed Wire in Our Heads

01:01 The Past and the Future Together in the Same Place

01:22 I Expect to Spend the Rest of My Life in the Future

01:27 I live in the Future

02:03 The Future Shines Through the Cracks in Space-time

02:16 The Future Already Exists Somewhere

02:42 But Who Am I To Say

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When I was a child, I used to read a magazine for young engineers and scientists. There were articles about what the near future might be like. I was a boy from behind the Iron Curtain. I could read about the Western world’s technologies and futuristic projections.

The magazine had many small, poor-quality photos. They featured Minitel – the French predecessor of the Internet. Japanese Maglev trains. The Concorde supersonic plane. Early mobile phones and video cameras with video cassettes. I started to understand that what one person thinks of as their future is another person’s everyday life.

“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.”— William Gibson

The future isn’t spread evenly across the world. Sometimes, it’s blocked by barbed wire at the borders. More often, the barbed wire in our minds holds it back. Political barriers in our country fell long ago. Yet many people still refuse to move into the future.

In the mid-1990s, I saw the past and the future together in the same place again. I was in high school. Back then, graphic designers my age today still trusted duct tape and film on the screening table. They believed they could finish any job with those familiar tools. Even though a Mac with Photoshop had recently arrived at the DTP studio a few feet away.

“I am interested in the future because I expect to spend the rest of my life in the future.”— Charles F. Kettering

I live in the future. I read about it when I was a kid in the magazine. Supercomputers are so small that they can fit in our pockets. They can connect to each other. An invisible communication network is everywhere and spreads through the air. Pocket supercomputers can also connect to central servers — the collective brains of humanity. Cars and household appliances can now communicate with us. Vacuum cleaners can vacuum and mop themselves. Satellites in space help us find our way faster in heavy traffic. Delivery services deliver your order within hours or the next day. We don’t have to learn foreign languages to talk to people in other countries.

The future is unevenly distributed. We must stay alert and notice where it already shines through the cracks in space-time. Sometimes, you can see the future in a parallel time branch close to you. Then you can bring it to our timeline.

I’d like to live and see some of the significant changes in the future. I don’t want a flying car or wireless power transmission over distance. I’m perfectly happy when the car pays for parking on its own — no apps, no buttons, no hassle. I don’t need to choose a delivery method in an online shop. I’d like to get the results of the lab tests without having to call to ask for them. When the state fills in my tax return, I check it and send it off.

All these ideas of the future already exist somewhere.

But who am I to say…

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00:00 On the Defence of Long Dash

00:11 The Chat GPT Hyphen

00:35 AI Follows Instructions

00:51 Typewriter Convention

01:10 Computers Should Enhance Our Writing

01:30 Features of Modern Fonts

01:43 But Who Am I to Say

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit butwhoami.substack.com

00:00 Baking Is Fun

00:11 Pictures of Freshly Baked Bread

00:32 Men Bake

00:54 I Kept This Skill a Secret

01:18 Baking As a Chemical Process

01:32 Best Bread In The World

01:55 Kneading The Dough

02:17 Baking As Self-Realization

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# Baking is fun!

I have many photos of perfect cakes and freshly baked bread on social media. Sometimes, someone sends me a picture of oatmeal cookies made from overripe bananas. Fruit that might have ended up in the trash at the supermarket. Since the pandemic lockdowns, everyone in the country has been baking. And there’s one thing they all have in common: men bake.

But these men are not metrosexuals exchanging live sourdough at a farmers’ market. One man bakes bread. He lives in a country house located in a former military zone. His social media is a mix of photos of bread and snapshots of his carpentry work at home. Another solitary fellow brings oatmeal cookies from a small cottage by two rivers. He comes to town once a month. When he does, we go to the taproom.

I learned to bake a biscuit cake as a child. Back in college, I often baked during exam season — not for stress relief, but as a handy excuse to avoid studying. I kept this skill a secret for a long time. But then I moved into an apartment with a hot-air oven twelve years ago. My spouse complains that my buns always come out burnt on the outside and with a runny middle. So I started baking again.

I remember a TV advert for baking margarine about how the mixture rises as a chemical process. That’s how I approach baking. I’ve heard that men who like cooking and baking are creative. For me, baking means following a step-by-step process.

Mark makes a living as an analyst. He lives alone, yet he bakes a large loaf of bread every day. He would be worth a lot of money if he charged by the hour. Mark keeps detailed records of his baking. He cuts a slice from each loaf, assessing consistency, aroma and taste. Then, he gives his friends some of the bread. One day, he’ll work out the secret to making the best bread in the world.

On the way home from the meeting, Jacob and I chat about baking. He listened for a moment. He asked a few questions. Then he said, “Baking a pan of buns takes all day. You need to prepare and plan carefully.” I nod my head to show that I agree. I also tell him that kneading the dough to make it rise fits with the Pomodoro technique he uses when he works.

For each of us, baking represents something different. For some, it is a way to relax or even as therapy. For some, baking is a way to take care of others. For some, it provides an environment over which they can have control. Some people find that baking helps them connect to their traditions. Some people like baking because it gives them a sense of self-sufficiency. For everyone, baking offers the possibility of self-realization.

But who am I to say…

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit butwhoami.substack.com

00:00 Every task starts out wrong

00:14 They don’t believe it’s not a ruse

00:51 Double Diamond

01:17 If I had only one hour…

01:39 Do we solve the right problem?

02:09 Even the assignment is never good the first time

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# Every task starts out wrong

When students come to my first class at university, they have already been in education for sixteen years. In my first class, I assign a term paper. And I immediately tell the students not to worry about not knowing what the assignment is about. Every task assignment is wrong at first. It’s not until halfway through the semester that we figure out together what I actually want them to do.

They look at me like they don’t understand or expect a trick. They don’t believe it’s not a ruse. They usually feel better when I write their grade at the end of the semester. How often have they taken their hard-earned work to the teacher, only to be told he wanted something else? I’m going to draw two rhombs on the board – a double diamond.

This was first drawn in America thirty years ago by Béla H. Banáthy, who was from Hungary but fled to America. He used a picture to explain how to solve problems, and we now call this ‘Design Thinking’.

In the first diamond, we are trying to solve the right issue. Only in the second diamond do we try to solve the problem the right way.

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«If I had only one hour to solve a problem, I would spend up to two-thirds of that hour attempting to define what the problem is.»

— Albert Einstein

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Einstein was also an expatriate from the Central Europe. He probably never said that if he had one hour left before the Earth was destroyed, he would spend most of it trying to understand the problem. But he might have.

We are so used to the feeling of success when we get things right. We often forget that we are solving problems that are not right for the situation. But when we create an assignment for someone else, we take shortcuts. We use templates, sample assignments, or frameworks.

After a while, we see that the solution we didn’t want comes back. We can behave like overbearing teachers. We may accuse the solver of misunderstanding. We might also blame them for a lack of judgment. Or…

We have already accepted that a good solution requires working in iterations. Perhaps it would be suitable for us to admit that even the assignment is never good the first time.

But who am I to say…

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit butwhoami.substack.com

00:00 Universal tools are better than specialised ones

00:12 Excel is the biggest competititon for every startup

00:43 My first summer job

01:13 Humanoid robots in factories

01:45 Cat climber in my backyard

02:25 Cheap all-purpose tools always win in the end

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# Universal tools are better than specialised ones

People say the biggest competition for any new business is an Excel spreadsheet. It’s almost always true. My spouse works for a huge international company and uses Excel all day. There are common problems: wrong data, mistakes in formulas, and people changing email attachments. But they don’t mind. They could use special software, but their work changes every six months. Someone would have to keep updating the software, which would cost money and take time.

My first summer job was on the production line in a small cosmetics factory. I capped shampoos, soaps, and creams. The sharp-edged lids gave me calluses and chapped fingers, but I smelt nice, and my skin was soft. During a break, I asked the foreman why the capping mechanism on the machine was out of order. Is it broken, and do we have to cap shampoos here? “It’s not broken, but changing to a different product line takes a long time. It’s easier to have people standing at the belt instead.”

Perry E. Metzger recently wrote on Twitter that humanoid robots are starting to do special jobs in factories. These robots might be slower and less efficient. Still, it’s easy to adapt them for different tasks. Just like workers who operate the cap-filling machine at a cosmetics company.

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«If you’re a mom and pop manufacturing operation with 20 employees, and you are capital constrained, you are in a very different position, and buying a humanoid robot every few months as you can afford it might very well transform your business.»

— Perry E. Metzger

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Yesterday, I was constructing a cat climber in my backyard. When the Vltava River flooded in the autumn, a tree fell in my backyard. I’m going to use the wood to make a cat climber. I’m too lazy to walk down to the hourly workshop on the riverbank for the bandsaw. So instead, I made a jig using a board and a few screws to cut a straight line in a circle. I’m going to use a universal tool instead of a specialised one!

Metzger is right. The bandsaw costs 120 euros at a hobby market, while the more versatile jigsaw is only 30 euros. It may not be as powerful or accurate, but I can pack it in my briefcase when I’m done. Unlike the bandsaw, which has nowhere to go.

Specialised tools may be more effective, but cheap all-purpose tools always win in the end. This is true for all kinds of tools. It applies to kitchen tools, workshop tools, and factory machines. It also includes software, like Excel, automation tools like Make.com, and artificial intelligence. A specialised tool that’s faster and more accurate is great, but it often ends up unused after a short time. But who am I to say...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit butwhoami.substack.com