Author: curiousmike

I’ve been training in the martial art called Aikido for more than two decades. I hold the rank of Shodan (1st degree black belt), and I’m training/studying for my next rank (Nidan, or 2nd degree). People unfamiliar with Aikido, but who may have heard something about it, often tell me that they have heard Aikido […]

I mentioned to someone recently that my daughter is “on the spectrum,” which is shorthand for saying that she’s autistic to some degree. However, the phrase is horribly imprecise, and can lead to some serious misunderstandings. Autism has a very wide range of symptoms — from people like my daughter who may be somewhat socially […]

I just created a YouTube Channel. Thought I’d start with this…

I sat down to have some breakfast today and turned on TED to see what I could see, and stumbled onto this talk. I couldn’t have said it better. THIS is an idea worth spreading. The high points: Scenery along the way: … and if you liked that, try this:

I arrived at the idea for this post from an article that included the following statement: “[Natural Language Processing] underpins all conversational AI, as ‘you must first understand a request before responding.’” This should sound familiar to people who read this blog. I’m usually an optimist about technology, because I think of technology as an […]

I’m a fan of Ozan Varol, author of such books, as “Think Like A Rocket Scientist” and “Awaken Your Genius.”  I just finished the latter, which Varol reads himself. I usually prefer when the author reads their own work. At one point in the book — maybe in the “Detecting Bullshit” section, or maybe it […]

This came to me on Facebook. My thanks to whoever posted it, and my apologies for not remembering who it was or thinking to take note when I saved the clipping. Shame on you, Facebook, for making it so damned hard to find stuff that you once glimpsed but now remember you really want to […]

Scott Perry at creativeonpurpose.com once told me that, at some point, I had to speak my message “out loud and in public.” In part, that statement planted the seed in my mind for this website. I understand this statement to mean that thoughts we have in our heads are little good to anyone until they […]

As a musician, I’m mostly a solo artist. I like it that way because I get to be in full control. I conceive of the songs, I write them, and I perform them. It’s one of the few parts of my world in which I focus on “my own voice” — literally and metaphorically. I […]

I have not yet done the homework to learn how to launch an official podcast. But I did just finish a first draft of my first episode. This is a conversation with two friends of mine, both of whom I know from practicing Aikido. We got together over beer to discuss how to have better […]