What’s in your genes? About 98% homology with chimpanzees for starters. The human brain has 100 million times the number of neurons a sea slug's brain has. Where do those differences in quantity come from? At some point in their development, all embryos — whether human, chimp, rat, frog, or slug — must have a single first cell committed toward generating neurons. That cell divides and gives rise to 2 cells; those divide into 4, then 8, then 16. After a dozen rounds of cell division, you've got roughly enough neurons to run a slug. Go another 25 rounds or so and you've got a human brain. Stop a couple of rounds short of that and, at about one-third the size of a human brain, you've got one for a chimp. Vastly different outcomes, but relatively few genes regulate the number of rounds of cell division in the nervous system before calling a halt.-- Robert Sapolsky Discover Magazine The first time I heard this statistic I was working on a children’s book, “There is a Frog in My Genes”.This was around the time that Dolly the sheep had been cloned and it seemed appropriate to level-set the conversation. The file with rhymes and draft illustrations is buried in a hard-drive somewhere but I find the 98 to 99% chimp analogy to be most compelling. First of all, and maybe the most important take-a-way, is the power of 2 percent. Think of what you could do 2% better that could make a big difference in your life? There is an article that outlines what a 1% improvement can do--let’s use that and think that clearly 2% would be even more massive--excluding the law of diminishing returns for a moment. James Altucher reinforces the idea that you don’t have to be better than the other person. The improvement should come from within. I haven’t worked the math but the claim is if you are 1% better every day you will actually be 3800% better in just one year. Tragically if you become 1% worse you basically disappear. You lose 97% of your value after one year. You can read Altucher’s nudges in Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Spiritual health here. I am going to list my rag tag thoughts in no particular order. They are making the cut because I don’t see them on many lists but I think they belong.
They matter to me but your mileage may vary. 1. Begin your day with a small success -- Atomic Habits I commit to running most mornings. When you meet your commitment it is a win. They begin to build throughout the day and lead places you didn’t even know you were headed. 2. Learn something Seth Godin said something in his book, The Practice: Shipping Creative Work You are not the boss, but you are in charge. Unless you only create work for your amusement, you clearly are not the boss. Those you serve have preferences and needs--this might require a modest amount of coloring within the lines to reach your smallest viable audience. But because you are in charge, you can decide what skills you learn, what books you read, and even what conferences you choose to attend. The links to the books mentioned throw a few pennies my way. I don’t know how it works but I notice tiny payments of $3.50 here and $1.95 there from time to time. 3. Skill up--don’t get mad, get data. In full disclosure, although I authentically claim autodidacticism in geospatial analysis, there were several university degrees in the hopper before I tackled location intelligence. None of them specific to analysis. I launched with an executive online program in applied analytics from an Ivy League institution. The investment was in credibility because the real skill development, at least in Python, was due to Ted Petrou. If you want to learn Python--I mean really learn Python--explore his company website, Dunder Data. He also has YouTube videos. I enrolled in every MOOC I could find--bonus points if they were ESRI. One weekend I watched every ESRI conference video from my bike trainer. I took notes, made recordings, and referenced material I wanted to return to for several hours a day. I run quite a few trail miles each week and use those hours for learning. I listened to every episode of Mapscaping podcast. I wanted to understand the acronyms, ideology, and theory behind the science of geospatial analysis. The final bit was to code. Learn how to code Python to explore geospatial platforms like ArcGIS, QGIS, Google Earth Engine, and more. 4. Monkey see, monkey do Communicating needs to explore the other 2%--the bit we don’t share with our chimp friends. Although visual cues, auditory calls, and even fecal tossing may have their place in primate culture, we need storytellers. Are you able to describe a spatial algorithm clearly and concisely? Provide context about why we should care? I have been recommending the Opportunity Projects, Product Development Toolkit. The Opportunity Project has the tagline, “Putting America’s data to work for the people".The datasets are all worthy of a deeper dive. They hold stories and opportunity. Comments are closed.
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