Hacking
I applied for the YCombinator “AI Startup School” programme, and one of the questions was:
“Please tell us about a time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.*”
This was my response: My own brain. By Turing’s definition a computer still, but I hope it’ll pass your non-computer classification.
It started when I was perhaps 16, having read “Getting Things Done” by David Allen, I resolved to organise my efforts as he prescribed, categorising to-dos by class, delegating where possible, scheduling more menial tasks in between bursts of more cerebral ones.
At 17-18 I became enthralled in all things philosophical and spiritual, I spent much of my waking hours with my nose buried in a dense philosophy book - Metaphysics, Hermeticism, Kabballah, Stoicism, Nietzsche, Hall, Absurdism (Camus), innumerable generally “spiritual” books, articles, PDFs etc. This was the point I began renouncing all matters vain carnal and material, and instead concerned myself with absorbing as much knowledge as possible. I love to learn. Everything and anything. Consumption of knowledge breeds creation. Creation is man’s salvation.
19-present: I had already established a keen interest in data science in my college days before University, and now AI had my full attention; Intelligent machines! I mean, this encompassed everything I was interested in - technology and philosophy. The philosophical, metaphysical implications of a truly intelligent machine are needless to say, incredibly interesting.
I began reading Tiago Forte’s “Building a Second Brain”, and that was the turning point. All that had accumulated since I read Getting Things Done at 16 came flooding down and I realised I had laid most of the groundwork subconsciously - it just made sense. I realised I had unknowingly been hacking my own brain to absorb, digest, and retain more and more information - unifying the distinct paper processes I had previously devised simply streamlined and unattenuated my creative force.
Alas, a long and winding road I took to say: I love learning more than ever before, the more complex and perplexing the better, the more multifaceted and nuanced the better - I cherish every opportunity to grow and evolve. I can look at things with a fresh perspective, with child-like wonder, and I am constantly in awe of the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of our shared existence.
And that’s the truth. I hacked my own brain without realising it. I think most people just call that growing up, but the magic came when I streamlined all the efforts. I genuinely enjoy learning, and writing and coding, it’s never a chore or something I have to do. I want to do it, and that’s my philosophy.