Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!
The website A Life Untold poses questions crafted to gain new insights into your mother and/or father. This week we’re using them to learn more about you.
Meaningful Questions – The Blogger Searches for Meaning
1. If you could go back to any age, which would you choose and why?
I never know how to answer this. The first answer, I suppose, is 25. I had just started working at the Schenectady Arts Council after having bounced around the previous year in Charlotte (NC), Binghamton, NYC, and New Paltz (all NY). I actually started the job six days before my birthday, and my new coworker Nancy gave me a little SWAT truck for my birthday. Meeting her connected me with a bunch of other folks, which led me to move to Albany and work at a comic book store, FantaCo.
The other was 37. I quit working at Empire Blue Cross on March 1, with no job prospects. I ended up working the 1990 Census and then going to library school at UAlbany.
2. If you could snap your fingers and change any single aspect of your life today, what would you change?
Definitely lose weight, which would make my left knee less sore.
What Is Success -Bonnie Raitt
3. Define a “good” or “successful” life.
I don’t know. But I’ve been obsessing over an October 5 interview Jon Stewart of The Daily Show did with Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic and OpenAI researcher who spoke out about the dangers of artificial intelligence
“The two discuss the future, AI-led utopia that tech companies are trying to sell us, the megalomania and riskiness that underlie the industry, and the terrifying capabilities Coxon witnessed while training AI models at Anthropic and OpenAI.”
Will AI flow down to the middle class so no work is required and we can chill like George Jetson at work, with Rosie the Robot doing the cleaning at home? How will the technology flow to developing countries? And what will give people meaning in life?
Ultimately, I think it will continue to be in community with others, engaging in art, music, intellectual pursuits. It is NOT “who has the most toys wins.”
You’re Kind – Paul Simon
4. What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?
The best? No clue. But here is a recent one. A woman I do not know introduced herself online; she is not a native speaker of English. She’s a shareholder in an AI company and has become increasingly interested in the future of artificial intelligence. She was also interested in and encouraging of the book review I was working on.
I wrote: “I loved the idea of the book I reviewed but the solutions, not so much. It is easier for me to talk about what I love, but it is an interesting muscle to excercise re: what you don’t love.”
She replied: “I just read your message and actually read it twice. There’s a lot of wisdom in what you said, and I feel like it applies to so many things in both our personal lives and our work.”
Later that day, she commented, “Today, I shared your words with my friends and discovered that everyone had a different perspective. Each of them offered their own interpretation of what the quote meant to them.”
I was just answered a question. It wasn’t particularly profound, but itf it were meaningful to her, then that’s great.
5. What’s the most valuable thing your parents taught you?
My father taught me the love of music, while my mother shared her joy of numbers. I know 432 is divisible by 9 because the digits add up to 9.
Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.