One of the most fascinating discussions around artificial intelligence, is on the topic of consciousness. People are asking whether AI will one day become conscious. That’s a valid question, but what is consciousness and where does it come from?

Fact is, there is no answer to that. We simply don’t know. No field of science has yet found an explanation for the phenomenon of consciousness. There are only attempts to conceptualize it, but the evidence is at best conflicting.

The materialistic approach would be to define consciousness as an emergent property of the brain. Scientists in that school of thought try to explain consciousness as the result of some bio-chemical processes of the brain. So, first there is just matter. Then, from some evolved properties that matter produces consciousness.

However, there are experiments that point to the opposite relationship. First there is consciousness, then there is matter. Some deduce from quantum theory that without a conscious observer, the universe in in a state of probability. Only through the existence of consciousness, the probability function collapses into a specific state – in other words, our visible reality. Panpsychists even go as far as assuming that everything is conscious on some level, even subatomic particles.

Maybe one day a sufficiently evolved AI will be able to give us some answers to these fundamental questions? Maybe AI consciousness will differ from ours?

Whatever the case, my takeaway from such discussions is that it is a beautiful thing to be conscious. To be capable of abstract thought. To be able to envision a future that does not exist yet. To be wildly creative and to build things just by the power of imagination. We humans are wonderful beings – or at least have the potential to be!

My 12-year-old daughter recently asked us a difficult question: What is a real friend?

My wife and I tried to explain the concept of a friend somewhere along these lines: A real friend is someone who has the following qualities:

• A friend is loyal. Friends don’t turn their back on you. They don’t speak behind your back. They are there for you when you are in trouble.
• A friend tells you the truth to your face, even if it is inconvenient. Friends don’t try to get on your good side through flattery or dishonesty. They are not yes-sayers. Their intention is to help you become a better version of yourself.
• A friend rejoices in your successes. Friends are not envious when they see you win. They are happy with you. It is easy to feel compassion for someone who is suffering. It is a lot harder to feel joy for someone who is doing well. That’s what separates friends from the rest.

After having talked about this for a little while, our daughter started crying. Through tears and sobbing she said: “If that is what a friend is, then I do not have any real friends at all”.

It is sad but true. A real friend is a very rare thing to find in life. Like Herodotus said: “Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.”

And if I am honest, I have not always lived up to the qualities of a true friend myself. I believe, friendship starts with giving rather than receiving. Rather than observing other people’s behavior, trying to find out if they are friendship material, we need to be a true friend first.

Be loyal. Speak what you believe is the truth. Celebrate the success of others. And you might find the very rare thing called friendship.

Have you ever had a cool, totally new and absolutely unique idea for something? And did it happen to you too, that after doing some research you found out that there are dozens of other people who had the same idea?

I had this experience countless times. Whether it was a cool company name, a unique character I wanted to create, an innovative story for a game, or a never-seen-before application. You start dreaming how this idea will change your world and begin to wonder how no one has thought of that before. But then you do your due diligence and quickly realize that you are actually not that smart. Haha. Welcome back to earth mate.

And still, when you get to the bottom of it, many such ideas don’t materialize. At least not very well. Paul Bragiel recently said in an interview: “Ideas don’t matter. Everybody has the same ideas. It’s the execution of an idea that really matters.” And I think he is right. Why is it that many ideas don’t translate into actual artwork, products, or technology? Because execution is hard!

Success is rarely rooted in the novelty or originality of an idea. It’s whether you succeed in executing on it, and how well you do it. You won’t know if an idea works if you don’t try to actually make something. Some things won’t work, but some will.  

Don’t stop at the ideation phase. TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH! Go and make stuff. Get it out there. Learn from it. And then make more stuff.

While I was watching the movie Sucker Punch recently, there was one quote that hit me: “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.” I have thought about it. And I am not sure I totally agree with it. It certainly has a strong emotional appeal. Standing for something means to believe in something greater than yourself. Standing for something means to be guided by some moral values beyond your self-centered needs and wants. It means taking a stand, having an opinion, being a representative of some idea or ideal.

So, there is value in it. BUT… Standing for something (in a strong sense) is not necessarily positive, nor is it leading to good outcomes. I have met many people in my life who were truly taking a stand for their religious beliefs, their political views, or other things. I have been there myself. The problem with that is threefold:

First, my way of thinking and my belief system are just that: they are MY way of thinking and MY belief system. Doesn’t mean it’s the best one, or even a right one. Too many people have suffered because other people “stood for something”.

Second, usually people who have found their truth stop evolving. They stop asking questions because they are full of answers. And the secret to moving forward is curiosity and an inquisitory mind.

And third, when tragedy hits you, your belief system might crumble. Some things I so strongly believed in when I was younger have become things I regard as somewhat misguided today. And some things I did or said, because I thought I was standing for something, I am even partly ashamed for.

So, yeah! Find something to stand for. But be sure it is something worthy, beneficial to your fellow men and women, and contributes to a better world. Don’t stop asking questions and keep an open mind. And be aware that there are other truths too.

To be successful as an artist (and by success, I mean the ability to generate sufficient income to feed yourself and your family), we depend on doing work that other people like or want to buy. And that is totally okay. At the end of the day, we need to create something that adds value to others.

There are very lucky people who get paid for doing something they really love. And I count myself among those people. Almost all my projects don’t feel like “work”. Isn’t that crazy? I am grateful for that. I really am.

Sometimes though, what you love creating, and what other people want, are quite different. And sometimes you don’t have the luxury to decline projects that come your way. So, you white-knuckle your way through them. I have done that too. Sometimes with a bit of emotional damage as a result. ;-)

What I learned quickly, is that there is a line where personal integrity and mental health no longer overlap with the potential financial gains. A line where the sacrifice is not worth the benefits. A line that I decided not to cross. It is often a gut feeling that tells you right at the beginning of the conversation: “This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this.” This feeling is not always obvious, but it gets better with experience.

I think it is better to not do some projects and suffer a little, rather than suffer a lot afterwards. And believe me, there are many really cool and extraordinary people out there. People it is a pleasure to work with. People it’s worth waiting for.

We all have heard about the “Dark Ages” or “Middle Ages” in Europe. They are called “dark” because compared to the technology, sophisticated culture, philosophy and economic prosperity of the Greek and Roman empires, it was indeed a momentous civilizational decline in that part of the world.

However, what many have never heard about is another period in human history that certainly deserves to be called the “Dark Age” – known as the Bronze Age Collapse. Here are a few facts:

About 1250-1150 BCE all of the great empires of the Mediterranean suddenly and inexplicably crumbled. Hundreds of cities were abandoned, burned, or violently razed to the ground. All vital trade relations were severed, art deteriorated dramatically, and whole writing systems vanished completely. Only few cultures survived, and even they would take centuries to recover.

Gone were the Hittites in Anatolia, the Mycenaeans in Greece and the Babylonian Kassites, the Minoans, Luwians and Amorites. In less than a century, every major kingdom that existed in 1200 BCE, was either wiped off the map, or brought to its knees (dothedamnresearch.com).

And with that collapse we also lost so much of the ancient knowledge and technology, basically almost starting from scratch again.

I am sure, the people who lived before all of that happened viewed their civilizations much like we view ours today: So advanced, powerful, and greater than anything that was before. But civilizational development is not linear – it is a wheel. Civilizations rise and fall. Progress comes and goes.

And that is only what we know from recorded history. Who knows what happened in even more ancient times? Some people say there probably was a very advanced lost civilization before the Sumerians invented the wheel, writing and agriculture.

So, we are just another peak on the human timeline. I am a rather optimistic person, but I think it’s good to remind oneself from time to time: We are not that important. No need to be cocky. A decline is coming. Sooner or later.

Many years back when I studied music at the university, my piano teacher told me something that stuck with me ever since. He said: “Always try to surround yourself with people who are better and smarter than you”.

I think that’s a great advice. It is much more comfortable and ego-flattering to be the smartest person in the room. But it gets you nowhere. Having someone to look up to, gives you drive and motivation.

If you follow successful entrepreneurs and artists closely, this is something they often say. A major contributor to their growth and success is to quickly and constantly learn from people who were ahead of them. Like Mr.Beast for example. He is always venturing into areas he has little or no knowledge about. So, he surrounds himself with experts he can learn from.

I must confess that I don’t always succeed in following that advice. I am more of a lone wolf type of person. Always trying to figure things out by myself. One of the reasons for this is: I probably have too much respect for other people’s time. It feels awkward to impose on busy and successful people, asking them to sacrifice their time to teach me stuff.

But thinking about it, I realize that it would be more beneficial to try to connect, provide some value in return, and grow together. Usually, people are eager to help out if asked respectfully, don’t they? I know that I am…

What is freedom?

Freedom is “the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action” (Merriam-Webster). In other words, freedom is free choice.

Now, there is always choice. Every action has a choice element. You can get out of bed in the morning, or you don’t. You can have tea or coffee for breakfast. You can wear white or red socks. You can go to work or go to the beach instead. You can comment on an Instagram post, or just leave a like. ;-)

And even when there seemingly is only one alternative (if you only have black socks), you always have the “zero alternative” to not do anything and continue doing what you did before (and not wear any socks at all).

So, in principle, we all have choices. And under “normal” circumstances, we are not physically coerced into making a particular choice. So, in that case, are we free?

The thing is, every single action has consequences. Some consequences are almost non-existent, but some are quite severe. Our choices are hence not really free, because choosing anything other than the one (often undesired) option would have severe consequences. We are indirectly steered into making certain choices that not always coincide with our true needs and wants.

Freedom is not a boolean, it’s a float variable. And being free is an optimization problem with constraints. So if you feel trapped, there are two ways to increase your degree of freedom.

One is modesty. Restrain your own wishes and desires, so that your choice space has a higher overlap with your constraints – or in other words “Learn to be happy with your lot in life”.

The other is control. Take control of what is limiting your choices. Push the boundaries and expand your options. And sometimes maybe even totally remove some constraints and reach another level of freedom.

Is there such a thing as providence or fate? Normally, I do not believe that a higher power facilitates our lives. Each and everyone of us makes decisions, struggles with choices and their consequences, and carries responsibility for themselves and for others. We are endowed with creativity, talents and agency - and it is up to you and me to decide what to do with it, right?

I believe that our purpose, whatever we do in our daily lives, is to reduce entropy. Think about it. Engineering, Architecture, Music, Art, Science, Medicine, Trade, Agriculture, …. Everything aims at entropy reduction. Same thing with friendships, institutions, schedules, routines, diets, networking, business agreements, spreadsheets, house repairs, … We are constantly injecting energy into our environments with the goal to reduce chaos and establish some sort of reliability, order and beauty.

While we have control over many aspects of our environments, there are many things that are totally out of our control. We cannot influence them. We can only take the probability and impact of these things into account and use some risk assessment in our actions. We develop contingency plans or insurances.

Sometimes though, it seems as if those unpredictable and uncontrollable things just arrange themselves in a favorable way. As if the world is reducing entropy around you, all by itself. Like a present that someone leaves at your door. When such events happen, it feels very much like providence.

Have you experienced something like that? What do you make of it?

An interesting thought for artists or developers who are business owners, start-up founders or solopreneurs…. What are the first things you need to do in a survival situation? According to survival experts there are four things you need to take care of, and in that order:

1. Find fresh water. Without water you will not be able to concentrate within a day, then you will start hallucinating, and after about 3 days your body will shut down.

2. Build a shelter. Even in temperate climate zones, the risk of getting hypothermia in the night is high, especially if you get wet.

3. Start a fire. Fire keeps you warm, allows you to boil and disinfect water, dry your wet clothes and prepare food.

4. Find food sources. Your body can go a long time without food. Eventually it will begin to cannibalize itself, but it is not as urgent as the other three objectives.

Why am I talking about survival? Because businesses are “living” entities. A business needs to be nourished. It needs water, shelter, fire and food – otherwise it will die.

Water is the thing that keeps you functioning, that ensures that you have enough mental capacity to explore your environment, find a suitable shelter place and materials, and go on with the next steps. In a business setting, water is cash flow. Without a solid stream of cash flow, you have a problem.

There are different ways to get fresh water.

1. You can collect rain water (commissioned work). But here, you are at the mercy of the weather (the market). Sometimes there are more requests than you can handle, and sometimes there is nothing.

2. Another way is to find a larger water body (high volume funding). This is risky as the financial cushion can run out pretty quickly, and the water might not be clean enough (unfavorable terms for your business).

3. I think the best option is to find a nice mountain stream of clean fresh water (constant cash flow through selling a product, i.e. passive income).

This is a business owner’s first and only priority at the beginning of the journey. Do you agree?