​This weekend, after finishing Homo Deus:  A Brief History of Tomorrow, an intriguing book by Yuval Noah Harari (Also available in Chinese Edition),  I started thinking more about questions regarding the future and what gives life meaning and purpose? And in this age of globalization and automation, what if we - the human race - run out of stuff to do?   

The author's previous book, Sapiens, explains how our kinds - humans - came to rule the world.   Although I haven't read the book, I've read great reviews, and it's on my reading list.  

Homo Deus is a quite challenging book, but very smooth and enjoyable.  Rather than looking back, it looks to the future of the world.  I don't entirely agree with everything in the book, but it has been written very thoughtfully about what all of us, our children, grandchildren and our future generations may encounter in the future.  

Harari argues the systems that have created our community, and our way of life will surely undergo an enormous shift in the 21st century, with significant consequence for life as we comprehend it.  

He argues that we have adjusted and organized in ways to satisfy fundamental and essential human needs:  being comfortable and happy, healthy and in control of the environment around us.  But what would the world be like if we accomplish those things?  

It is quite terrifying, but he foresees a likely future where some elites upgrade and improve themselves through biotechnology and genetic engineering.  Therefore, leaving the masses behind and creating the supernatural or divine species of the book's title; where artificial intelligence, "knows us better than we know ourselves" and where these supernatural elites and super-intelligent robots consider the rest of humanity to be unnecessary and frankly useless.  

The future according to Homo Deus is a kind that robots take over, but is not the most interesting to me.  Yes, artificial intelligence gets more powerful, and it is up to us to be sure that it assists, helps and serves humanity and not the other way around.   Come to think of it; this is more an engineering problem than some science fiction.  And If we look at it this way, it becomes a control problem.  

But, I think, we - the human race - are more drawn to the determination and purpose problem.  Let's say that we have control, and we even solved significant problems like starvation and illness, and the world kept becoming more and more peaceful:  What purpose would humans have then?  What challenges and tests would we be excited and fired up to solve?  

Maybe the fear of future should not be about an attack by super smart robots like we see in Hollywood movies, but a lack of purpose and determination.    

"What if a peaceful, healthy life was guaranteed for every child on Earth?  How would that change the part parents play?"  I think about this question in my own life.  My family gives my life a sense of purpose and meaning,  I want to be a good husband, son, brother, friend and later father.    

In the book, Harari tries to solve the purpose problem.  He implies that finding a new purpose requires us to develop a new ritual - using the world in a much broader sense than most people do, something like "organizing principles that direct our lives."  

In the final portion of the book, he discusses a religion he calls "Dataism," in which the greatest moral right is to increase the flow of information.  Dataism "has nothing against human experience,"  he writes.  "It just doesn't think they have intrinsic value."  Despite my admiration or criticism of the book and its ending,  it is a deeply engaging work with many exciting and inspiring ideas. 

It truly made me think about the future, which is a different form of saying it makes me ponder about the present.  


I urge you to read this book.  It left me with more questions than answers.   

Last night I experienced a blackout in my neighborhood for few hours due to crazy weather.  Along with no light, cooling or TV, it meant no internet!  And my phone was also on its last leg, so even using data was not an option.  What was I to do?  Read of course.

I surely understand the importance of technology. I know that the internet is an excellent tool. It allows us to connect more easily, access information more quickly, and explore new, exciting, and affordable ways to do many things. But, as someone who constantly uses technology, I also know that the internet can be abused, or to put it more accurately, it can abuse us.

Although it was perhaps not the smart phone’s primary intention, most of the time when I see people, add me to the category of people too, using a smartphone in public spaces, in fact using it for the sole purpose of distraction. Think about it: we find ourselves alone in a waiting room, subway, elevator… what do you do? The endless “feed” (so aptly named) often minimizes the potential of these moments and can make you numb to what they should really be used for: reflection.

I say “often” and “can” because I believe that the feed can be used for more than just distraction. In the right hands, the internet can make users pause and turn towards reflection. 

Let me go back to last night's blackout in my area; I got to catch up on a book I’d been working on, "When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi. Truly devastating and spectacular story, Paul is so likable, so relatable and so humble, that I became immersed in his world and truly forgot where it's all heading.  It was a sincerely moving and penetrating memoir.  This eloquent, heartfelt meditation on the choices that make life worth living, even as death looms, really prompted me to contemplate my own values and morality.  

Quick video on the book:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aetY_zS7Q6M
Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-Kalanithi/dp/081298840X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497615965&sr=8-1&keywords=when+breath+becomes+air

To me this is why reading is so important, and why it will always be as important or perhaps more important as the latest technology. In a world where technology is so often used to lose oneself, I read to find myself.

What are you reading nowadays?  

​I've been watching Comedy Central's The Daily Show for many years.  In fact, I'm a loyal and longtime fan, since high school.  Jon Stewart, the Show's host, stepped down in 2015 and replaced with Trevor Noah, a South African comedian.  He is super funny.  His humor connects with global audiences.  Trevor's humor has a lightness and optimism that is so refreshing to watch.  He uses his outside (South African) perspective to his advantage.  He is actually very good at making fun of himself and the rest of the world.  In my opinion, Trevor Noah's comedy is so universal that it has the power to exceed borders.  

Watch few of his Youtube clips if you don't know Trevor Noah. 

I just finished his memoir, Born a Crime.  Amazing book.  Born to a black South African mother, and a white Swiss father in apartheid South Africa, Trevor entered the world as a biracial child in a country where mixed race relationship was forbidden.  So he was not just a misfit, he was, as the title of his book says "born a crime."  

In South Africa, at that time, race categories were so arbitrary and yet so prominent, and Trevor never had a group to call his own.  As a little boy living with apartheid laws, he couldn't even be seen in public with his white father or his black mother.  He explains in the book how his father would walk far ahead of him to ensure he wouldn't be seen with his biracial son.   Many times his mother would pose as a maid to make it look like she was just babysitting another family's child.  There were many more problems, like on the schoolyard, where he was a misfit.  

Magically during Trevor's childhood, he quickly finds out that there's a freedom that comes with being a misfit.  A polyglot who speaks English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, Tsonga, Tswana not to mention German and Spanish, Trevor used his talent for language to bounce from group to group and win their hearts in some of the most stressful situations and even avoid being mugged by locals.  

Noah tells the story of how he discovered that language was stronger than skin color in building connections with other people during his childhood in South Africa.  He writes, "My color didn't change, but I could change your perception of my color.  If you spoke to me in Zulu, I replied to you in Zulu.  If you talked to me in Tswana, I replied to you in Tswana,  Maybe I didn't look like you, but if I spoke to you, I was you."  

Trevor is a super funny comedian but his story growing up in South Africa is truly tragic.  Father moved away, the family was desperately poor, he was arrested, and the list goes on and on.  His mother was shot by his stepfather.  In Noha's hands, these moving stories are told in a way that will often leave the readers laughing.  Trevor got this comedy skills from his mom.  Even after his mom's shot in the face, and somehow survives, she tells Trevor from her hospital bed to look at the bright side.  "now you're officially the best-looking person in the family," she jokes.  

Trevor writes:  "if my mother had one goal, it was to free my mind."  
​
The real hero of Trevor Noah's book is her mother.  She is a truly extraordinary person.   In fact, her greatest gift was to give Trevor the ability to think for himself and see the world from his perspective.  

In one of my kitchen conversations, I found out that Haiyang was a mathematics major in college.  We talked about it for a bit.  I confess, I was never a good math student and found every opportunity to run away from it.  

But I guess the beauty of mathematics only shows itself to its most patient students.  

The true beauty of math.  Take your time and go through it slowly.  

1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321



1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111


9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

This was interesting, right?

Now take a look at the beauty of these proportions below.

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111=12345678987654321

Now maybe this is worth thinking about.  It will be fun.

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Equal to:
1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 

Is hard work enough to achieve a happy and prosperous life?
Hard work
H+a+r+d+w+o+r+k=8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11= 98%

Will knowledge make us fully successful in life? 
Knowledge
K+n+o+w+l+e+d+g+e=11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5= 96%

How about love?
Love
L+o+v+e=12+15+22+5= 54%

I always thought that knowledge and hard work are the most important elements of a happy and prosperous life.

What will get us to 100%?  

Money? 
Money
M+o+n+e+y=13+15+14+5+25= 72%

This is not enough either.

So what do we need to get to the top and the 100%?

Attitude
A+t+t+I+t+u+d+e=1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5= 100%

Yes, Attitude.  It is that little thing that makes a huge difference, in love, in work, in knowledge and more important, in life.

Perhaps, Albert Einstein was right, pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.  I guess Professor Einstein had the right attitude about math and life.   

I will not take credit for putting together the arithmetic operations in this email, but I am beginning to like mathematics more and more. I suppose my attitude is changing about math, thanks to Haiyang for the poetry of logical ideas, and a valuable life lesson at our very own kitchen.  

I often shy away from reading books about entrepreneurs.  I don't know why.  I also don't look at the "how-to" titles section at Barns & Nobles, where books and their titles remain filled with neat checklists of so many step programs and other promising methods and procedure for "entrepreneurial success."  

Last year when I was in Singapore, Monty (our WholeRen guest and Speaker), introduced me to Shoe Dog, Phil Knight's memoir about making Nike.  I just finished the book.  It was a truly refreshing and honest reminder of a bumpy path to business success and what it truly is.  What a disordered, uncertain, and rough path riddled with mistakes, struggles, and incredible sacrifices.  

Today, Nike's sales top over $30 billion.  Its logo is one of the most globally recognized.  And we all probably own a pair or two.  But we truly never think about the story Nike, at least I haven't until I read Shoe Dog.  Phil Night's Shoe Dog brought me back to the 60s where the company started selling imported Japanese athletic footwear.

I won't plan on spoiling the story.  You just have to read it.  But if you are looking for a lesson from Shoe Dog,  Mr. Night may disappoint you a bit.  I don't think Phil Night tries to teach us anything.  There are no tips or checklists.  Instead, he achieves something much bigger.  He describes his story as genuinely as he can.  It is an amazing story.  It is real.  And you will certainly understand in the last few pages why despite all of the hardships and struggles he experienced along the way he only wishes if he could do it all over again.

​I am a first generation American, and not entirely a self-made man.  My parents started me off in life in America with every possible resource that they could afford or provide - from good schooling to more important, constant encouragement to patience with my many characteristics and turn as a rebel teenager. 

But the unfortunate world that J.D. Vance reveals in his excellent and truly heartbreaking book "Hillbilly Elegy" is one that I know only through some of m friends when I was growing up in Pittsburgh, living in Columbia, South Carolina,  Richmond, Virginia or hanging out with friends in Steubenville, Ohio and Morgantown, West Virginia.

*What is a Hillbilly
*What is an Elegy 

J.D. (our author) grew up in Appalachian Ohio and Kentucky, in impoverished white neighborhoods where family struggle and disorder was a constant, work was not, and even numerous pawn shops even closed stores.  Yes, that poor!

Just imagine what it was like for J.D.  when he somehow managed - through the high expectations of his grandmother,  the order and discipline of the Marines, and his own intelligent - to get himself into Yale Law School.    So his life was no longer the experience of the "abandoned son of a man I hardly knew and a woman I wished I didn't"  but as a highly sought-after member of America's most elite universities.  As a first generation American, early on, I thought of myself as being a stranger in a strange land.  Just imagine how J.D. felt.

When he was at Yale University, recruiters from law firms were beating a path to his door.  "Two years earlier, I had applied to dozens of places in the hope of landing a well-paying job after college but was rebuffed every time,"  he writes.  "After only a year at Yale Law,  my classmates and I were being handed six-figures salaries by men who had argued before the US Supreme Court."

J.D. shares deeply personal stories like these in his book, but "Hillbilly Elegy" casts light on America's enormous cultural divide - a topic that had become far more important than the author ever imagined when he was writing this book.  And not many of us get to see or experience it.
 
I was very excited to read Hillbilly Elegy not just because of the now visible indications for American Politics.  But because I was learning about a part of America, we often ignore or neglect.

I have always been fascinated by politics and economics.  How people move up from the lowest levels of the economic ladder (what experts call mobility from poverty).  And pursuing the "American Dream."  Although the book doesn't use much data, I truly came away with fresh insights into the multidimensional cultural and family dynamics that add to poverty and much more in this land.

Hillbilly Elegy is not just an essential read in today's America; it surprised me too. There is no "how will it end?" -Type mystery was driving this story.   I recognized from the start that J.D outlives his rough and for the most part fatherless childhood and lands at Yale Law School.  But the book was such a great read in part because of J.D.'s courage and stamina.  He learns early in his life that there is "no greater disloyalty than class betrayal."  By writing this book, he risks being called a traitor by calling a culture that, in his view, is hurting from self-inflicted wounds.   

One of the truly most brilliant parts of the book is the part where he admits that his childhood troubles his marriage.  "Even at my best, I'm a delayed explosion - I can be defused, but only with skill and precision... In my worst moments, I convince myself that there is no exit."  

The book is full of interesting characters.  My favorites are Vance's grandmother and grandfather, Mamaw and Papaw.  J.D.'s half-sister Lindsay is another one.  

In Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. doesn't pretend to be a policy expert or a scholar.  He doesn't offer simple solutions either.   As I read the book, I imagined disadvantaged and impoverished communities, rural and urban alike in America.  The key point for me was the complex realities of poverty in America that we don't get to see much these days.  

If you want to learn more about the part of America, we don't get to see much, talk about, or understand fully, read Hillbilly Elegy.

Growing up in Iran, it was mandatory to study Persian literature.   I regularly had to memorize Persian poetry and was often examined on it.  Not fun at all.   

I had a very difficult time relating to Persian literature, particularly poetry and notably Hafiz.  I was told by my 6th-grade  teacher, that 'Hafiz is this mystical poet that would help us reach a better life.'  Those days and for a teenager, a better life didn't have such mystical purpose and memorization of such verses compounded to the misery.

Let me briefly introduce you to Hafiz.  He is the 14th-century Persian poet.  His work is not only beautiful; it is beyond useful in life.   Hafiz poetry teaches us how to get the most out of our lives.  The man - Hafiz -  is one of the most respected and loved poets among Persians.  In fact, from Emerson to Goethe and many others have viewed him to be one of the seven literary sensations of the world.  

Both Emerson and Goethe have translated Hafiz.  Emerson stated of Hafiz:  "He fears nothing.  He sees too far, he sees throughout: such is the only man I wish to see or be."  Goethe's extensive study of Hafiz - utterly states, "Hafiz has no peer." 

Thinking of those days in middle school and how I ought to memorize his poetry as a teenager does not leave me with many pleasant thoughts.  Not knowing that many people like Nietzche admired his poetry, even Sherlock Holmes quotes Hafiz.  The legendary 19th-century Spanish poetGarcia Lorca praised Hafiz many times.  And the musical legend, Brahms was so moved by Hafiz verses that he adopted several in his compositions.  Queen Victoria too was said to have consulted Hafiz poetry in times of need.  

As a tourist in Iran, one will never leave the land without being offered  "FAL - E - Hafiz" which is an ancient tradition in which a reader asks Hafiz for advice when facing a hurdle or a critical crossroads in their life.  I have taken Fal-e-Hafiz many times, treating Hafiz as an oracle and opening it with a profound wish from my soul for direction.  

I have a confession to make.  I have stopped reading poetry since I attended middle school.  Nonetheless, I was reintroduced or candidly introduced to Hafiz last week when I picked up a book in Farsi (my native language) by Masoud Khayam.   How I know the author is irrelevant, but how he made Hafiz enter my heart for the first time is deserving of contemplation.  

Majority of us have been born in the East, in Asia.  Poetry has been certainly a favorite literary class for thousands of years in the East.   There is a famous Chinese saying coming from Zhao Yi - the historian of Qing dynasty that "the anxiety of the land leads to the emergence of great poets" 国家不幸诗家幸 - or perhaps more literally "when the state is unfortunate, poets are fortunate."   In the East, remarkable men like Hafiz and Zhao Yi have observed the phenomenon in which classic works of poetry often appears during times of disaster; war, starvation, dynastic destruction and so on.   In the epilogue of his book, Masoud Khayam reminds us that Hafiz lived during the Mongol conquest of Persia.  But we are reminded how poetry is perfectly dwelled in times of turmoil and tragedy.  When things go wrong, you can trust that poets will find a way to put into words what many are thinking and feeling.  

What Hafiz and Zhao Yi say to remind us of Sichuan Earthquake of 2008 that killed over 70,000 lives but remarkably an outpouring of poems that widely circulated on the cyber space, in newspapers and on televisions and radio at fundraising events.  It was an extraordinary form of writing that followed from emotions and passions. 

Masoud Khayam's Hafiz book reminded me that we read poetry because the world is more than the facts, laws, and realities.  

Life is way too short, only poems will make it last a bit longer.