Month: June 2025

Happy Father’s Day. I texted this today to friends and family, I of course could not say it to my dad. Sadly, we lost him a few days before Father’s Day last year. I spent some time reflecting on what it means to be a dad, what it means to be a father and how fortunate many people are, including me.  

I wrote once about making mistakes when you are young is a good thing, but as an adult and as a parent your mistakes are multiplied. I had a discussion with my dad about a decision he made before he passed. He was struggling with wondering if he made the right decision about something. That decision was made thirty plus years ago, and it was still on his mind. I asked him if he thought he made the right choice, he said he did.  

We make hundreds of choices every day, from when to get out of bed, what to do first, to the choice of clothes we wear to what we eat. There are people who go out of their way to make fewer decisions in their daily lives, Steve Jobs was famous for wearing the same outfit every day. He got the idea while visiting in Japan and saw workers wearing a uniform. Einstein was also known for wearing the same grey suit also.  By making fewer decisions we reduce are decision fatigue, and thus can make better decisions when it matters.

More recently from the Harry Potter movies the quote “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” That brought a whole new generation of people thinking about the choices they make. The quote is all over graduation speeches, tattoos etc. The quote reminds us that we others will judge us on decisions we make, and they will define us. Before Harry Potter it was Luke Sywalker’s making which side of the force he was on, and I am sure before that other movies that surface the one choice that defines us.

I guess I should get back to the decision my father had to make, and why I thought about it this weekend. If we are choices who define what we really are, what happens when we make the wrong ones, or choices others don’t agree with. The obvious answer is taking responsibility for decision, but that is not so simple. For people who we know who disagree, what is their part in the decision. Should they have empathy, forgiveness or just respect our choice.

And for my dad, I did spend time thinking about his decision. As there is no way to rewind and go and play it over and see what happens. Unfortunately there is not an easy way from me to jump to another universe where he made the other decision. I may one day find a way to jump to it and see what happened. Instead, right now I am looking at my friends, my family and my kids and I realize, I do not have to find another universe. He made the right decision. Our decisions help define who we are, but so does our acceptance of other decision around us, as those choices along with our own are what made us.

Somewhere my dad is watching, and as I told him before when he asked, yes you made the right decision. In fact, all your decisions were correct.  

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain; I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. The fundraising site had to be restarted, and NYP Hospital made changes to their donation sites. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket; my intention is to keep it free.  You are welcome to comment, but note it is moderated, and all spam will be removed. 

This Blog is a labor of love and was originally going to be a book. With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path. I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content. I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip. I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog. AI is not used in this writing other than using the web to find information. Images without notes are created using an AI tool that allows me to reuse them

This weekend was the last of three races in a row for F1, the Spanish Gran Prix. Now Formula one is not my favorite auto sport, but I got into it as my daughter loves it and being a geek on autos and tech was something we could share. Formula E (electric) is more my thing.  

The race was typical for Formula 1 this year, the start is important. Getting out in into the lead and into clear air is an advantage. The next advantage was Tire management, and the eventually winner did both to perfection. But this is not the story if the race, or why we watch sports. What happened a little further back in the pack was the interesting part of the race. 

Four-time champion Max Verstappen and one of the best drivers showed human emotions. He in a rage of anger bumped another car. There was a series of incidents that led to him getting this angry and he was not angry at the car he tapped but blowing up as part of a chain of events. The one thing I was thinking was the AI autonomous drivers would never do this.  

If there is a race of autonomous vehicles, they will try to drive the perfect race. The systems will algorithmically figure out optimal decisions. Choosing when to pass, where to pass and the exact move would be impressive. Each driver would have this, and well it would be boring. We do not watch sports for perfection, in fact the opposite. There was a running joke that people watch NASCAR races for the crashes. But the crashes are simply just mistakes. Humans make mistakes and thus make watching sports that more interesting.  

I love hockey and watching it when a goal is scored there is immediate reaction about the goalie making a mistake. In most cases there are a few mistakes as there are five other players on the ice. How did the puck get to the shooter? How did the shooter get open? How did the puck get into the zone? Yes, there are a ton of players with talent and sometimes there is a great play, but in most goals, there are mistakes made. This makes the sport interesting to watch.  

There recently was a boxing robot match, and a marathon for autonomous robots, but did not go well. It was interesting to see the failures and mistakes. It was laughable to watch. If the robots get it perfect, I am not sure how interesting it would be to watch. I have written about failure before and so have a lot of others. There is the notion about celebrating failure, allowing people to fail, and learning from mistakes. As an outside observer it is these small mistakes and failures that make a great race. 

Thinking about watching mistakes there was a whole TV show based on it, called Americas Funniest Videos. This was really us watching things go horribly wrong and celebrating it. While there is a lot of talk about AI taking over but there is something where I think humans will continue to be needed. Please not I am not condoning what Max did, or any violent behavior, but it was his team’s strategy and other mistakes that made the race enjoyable to watch.  

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain; I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. The fundraising site had to be restarted, and NYP Hospital made changes to their donation sites. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket; my intention is to keep it free.  You are welcome to comment, but note it is moderated, and all spam will be removed. 

This Blog is a labor of love and was originally going to be a book. With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path. I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content. I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip. I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.  AI is not used in this writing other than using the web to find information. Images without notes are created using an AI tool that allows me to reuse them