“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination” – Albert Einstein
What are you going to be for this Halloween? For me, I think I’m going to be… out of candy! I don’t know who keeps munching down our supplies for tomorrow but we may need to make another run to the store.
Last Tuesday, my family and I took some visiting family down to Disneyland. Pumpkins were everywhere! Some of them were even walking around. Little Jedi Padawans, princesses and heroes. I absolutely adore these little ones. A tiny Rey ran up and gave a huge hug to the actual Rey cast member walking across Galaxy’s Edge. A two foot tall Jedi with his light saber, clung on to the leg of Mando struggling to walk through the market with Grogu. At Avengers Campus, a miniature Spider-Man ran with arms open wide towards his hero who had just appeared after flying through the air. The park was full of dreamers, decorated with capes, robes, hats and sabers. I saw Captain Marvel, Tinker Bell, Elsa, Jack, Little Mermaid and so many more…
Tomorrow is Halloween. Kids of all ages will become whoever they want to be. They will wrap themselves up in the wonderful world of imagination and make-believe. They will go on epic adventures, explore new worlds as their favorite character, and if all goes well, pick up some candy.
What will you be? This time of year reminds me of the power of imagination. It unlocks restrictions we place on ourselves and lets us explore alternatives. It would be good to have some of this fantasy magic throughout the year. Try on some new “what ifs” and “why nots” and see if you can gaze into the crystal ball of the future and imagine some new “what can be’s”. We propel ourselves and our human family forward when we step into the imagination realm. Dream it. Do it. The future awaits… and so does some candy.
I have a terrible memory. I get frustrated with myself when I can’t remember someone’s name. Worse, you know those login screens that prompt you for a number they text you? Ideally you should just be able to glance at it and then key in the number, right? Well, I sometimes have to look multiple times to get it right. It’s the same with dates, phone numbers and addresses. It’s embarrassing. I used to say, I have a photographic memory, but I’m always out of film. Sadly, that joke is about to run out of generational memory too.
How is your memory? Do you sometimes get “out of memory” errors when you try to learn something new? You’re not alone. If you are like me, you will find yourself leaning a lot more on notes and digital tools to help “remember.” I have lists for birthdays, groceries, food orders, clothes and gifts. This external memory storage is an incredible blessing. Now I just have to remember where I put the notes.
How do we remember? It turns out that we are made up of tiny little chatty organisms that love to talk to each other. They sit on our shoulders, at the apex of the human structure, behind our smile and the light of our eyes. We have about 100 billion of these little creatures. Their tiny arms reach out and connect with each other. With their dendrites they branch out and listen for incoming chatter from their neighbors. With their long axons arms, they pass along that information, ever the while adjusting that signal through the synaptic contacts. They subtlety change their connections, including adding brand new ones, in response to experiences or learnings, enabling them to form new memories and modify existing ones. Everything we experience through our senses is broken down into signals that are fed into this incredibly complex neighborhood of neurons, listening, adapting and signaling. This is how we remember. Sometimes, I wonder if my friendly neighborhood neurons are on holiday.
Artificial Intelligence seeks to replicate this incredibly complex learning ability through neural networks. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, have had their massive networks trained on enormous amounts of textual data. Over time, that learning encodes into the digital representation of synaptic connections. Those “weights” are tuned so that given an input prompt signal, the output produces something that matches the desired result. The amount of memory that these can contain is incredible. You can ask questions about history, science, literature, law, technology and much more, and they will be able to answer you. All that knowledge gets compressed into the digital neural network as represented by virtual synaptic weights.
LLMs are often categorized by the number of synaptic “weights” they can adjust to gain this knowledge. They are called parameters. You can run a 7 billion parameter model on your home computer and it will impress you with its vast knowledge and proficiency. It even has a command of multiple human and computer languages. The most impressive models like ChatGPT have 175 billion parameters and far exceed the capability of the smaller ones. It contains the knowledge and ability to pass some of the most advanced and rigorous exams.
Sit down for a minute. I’m going to tell you something that may blow your mind. Guess how many synaptic connections we have sitting on our shoulders? 100 trillion! That’s right, 1000 times greater than the current LLMs that seem to know everything. But that is just the start. Our brain is capable of forming new connections, increasing the number of parameters in real time. Some suggest it could reach over a quadrillion connections. The brain adapts. It grows. It can reorganize and form new synaptic connections in response to our experiences and learning. For example, when you learn a new skill or acquire new knowledge, the brain can create new synaptic connections to store that information. So answer me this, tell me again why I can’t remember my phone number?
Do you understand how amazing you are? I mean, really. You have an incredible ability to learn new skills and store knowledge. If you manage to learn everything your head can store, the brain will grow new storage! This biological wonder that we embody is infinitely capable of onboarding new information, new skill, new knowledge, new wisdom. Think for a minute. What is it that you want to learn? Go learn it! You have the capability. Use it. Practice expanding your brain. Listen. Look. Read. Think. Learn. You are amazing! Don’t forget it!
As a kid, I dreamed of being a scientist and working in outer space. Like many of my generation, I was inspired by Star Wars. I loved the Jedi and fancied being one myself, but I was absolutely fascinated with spacecraft. I would spend hours in grade school drawing spaceships and orbital space stations while the rest of the class worked on their lessons. I wasn’t alone. My friends were equally captivated by stories of adventure, exploration, and distant galaxies.
Then I saw TRON.
A new passion formed. I wanted a computer so badly I could taste it.
TRON inspired me. I dreamed of creating virtual worlds where my programs could live. I even imagined living inside the Grid myself. In fact, I rode a light cycle to school every day. To be fair, everyone else just saw an old beat-up BMX bike, but in my mind I was racing through neon pathways and fighting for the users.
I wrote my first real program in seventh grade. Unsurprisingly, it was a space game filled with rockets, asteroids, and invading aliens. I still remember how incredible it felt to create something from nothing and then watch other people enjoy it. For the first time, I realized that technology wasn’t just about machines. It was about imagination. It was about building experiences. I was a computer astronaut, pushing bits around and shaping tiny worlds through code.
After college, I worked as a civil engineer, helping shape the physical world through software. Roads, neighborhoods, utilities, and infrastructure all began as digital models. We used technology to transform ideas into reality. Yet even then, I continued to dream about creating places where my love of science, technology, storytelling, and imagination could collide.
Then one day, something unexpected happened.
It smelled like dirt and diesel. Large earth-moving vehicles roared around us while steelworkers and construction crews busily shaped the terrain. We navigated deep ruts and temporary walkways, eventually making our way toward the center of a massive construction site. Tall rock spires reached into the sky all around us.
Then I felt goosebumps.
A grin spread across my face as we rounded a corner and suddenly there it was: a place that had once existed only in my imagination.
It hit me.
Soon, people of all ages would walk through this world. Families would create memories together. Children would stare wide-eyed in wonder. Guests would experience an adventure powered by technology, science, storytelling, and imagination.
In that moment, I realized something profound.
Dreams don’t always come true the way we expect.
As children, we imagine ourselves piloting starships, exploring distant worlds, or living inside fantastical adventures. Reality often takes us down a different path. Yet sometimes, years later, we discover that we have arrived at those dreams by routes we never could have predicted.
I wasn’t flying the Millennium Falcon. I wasn’t living on a space station. I wasn’t racing light cycles across the Grid. But I was helping build experiences that allowed others to dream. And somehow, that felt even better.
Standing there, surrounded by imagination being transformed into reality through creativity, engineering, technology, and human determination, I realized I had spent my entire career chasing the same dream that began in childhood. Not a dream of becoming a hero in someone else’s story, but a dream of helping create stories that inspire others.
That realization led me to think about dreamers.
Every meaningful thing that exists today began as someone’s dream. A bridge. A spacecraft. A novel. A work of art. A scientific breakthrough. A technology that changes lives. Someone imagined it before it existed. Then they did the difficult work of bringing it into reality.
The world advances because dreamers refuse to accept that things must remain as they are. They imagine what could be and then get to work. The dream itself is important, but the courage to pursue it is what changes the world.
So let me ask again:
What is your dream?
Maybe it’s something you’ve carried with you since childhood. Maybe it’s something new. Maybe it’s so ambitious that you’re afraid to say it out loud.
That’s okay. Dream it anyway. Pursue it anyway. Because you never know where the path will lead. One day, years from now, you may find yourself standing in a moment that makes you stop and smile. A moment when you realize that the dream never really left you.
It simply found a different way to come true.
As a boy, I dreamed of becoming a scientist in outer space. Life had other plans. Instead, I became an engineer, a builder, a storyteller, and a dreamer.
Looking back, I realize I wasn’t chasing rockets or light cycles at all.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” – Neil Armstrong
July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first humans to ever set foot on the moon. But it almost didn’t happen and it almost ended in tragedy. As the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) was preparing to land on the moon, the onboard navigational computer started flashing a “1202” alarm. The crew had been meticulously following their checklist. Each step, nominal. But now, something was wrong. Abort? As the crew radioed in the situation to mission control, they could feel the adrenaline surge and anxiety rise.
For months, the crew, the nation and the world were anticipating this historic moment. It was one of the most heavily covered and widely watched events in history. An estimated 600 million people were watching worldwide. The mission had captured the imagination of people. Now, all of it was in jeopardy. “1202” alarm! The alarms kept going off. Each time the LEM guidance computer flashed that alarm, it would reboot and restart. Not good! I can almost feel that tension myself. This was a critical stage that would demand precision to guarantee the safe landing of the module on the treacherous moon’s surface below. Sounds like bad news, right? Would this require the mission to abort?
With millions of people, sitting on the edge of their seats, Mission Control finally responded. The mission would proceed. Relief! It turns out that this was a “known error” that NASA had seen many times before during simulation testing. The computer had a capacity of 2KB erasable memory and 16KB of fixed memory. The computer would run several concurrent programs related to navigation, all competing for the limited memory. If a program couldn’t allocate memory, the “1202” alarm would be raised and the system would reboot. At restart, the most important programs would start up again where they left off. Thankfully, the mission would proceed. Neil Armstrong would soon step off of the LEM and millions of people would hear him say those “one small step” historic words.
But the mission wasn’t over. The mission was to get them safely home as well. Unfortunately, while the astronauts were suiting up for their moon walk, they accidentally bumped into the button of a circuit breaker. It broke off. This switch controlled the power running the ascent engine, the one responsible for getting them off of the moon. Unless it could be fixed, they would be stranded on the moon. NASA and US President Nixon were preparing for the worse, drafting speeches to be given when their oxygen supply ran out. Thankfully, it wouldn’t be needed. Mission control didn’t have a solution, but Buzz Aldrin did. His background in mechanical engineering paid off! He looked at the small opening where the circuit breaker had been and realized he could manage to depress the breaker with a small felt-tip marker. He did and it worked! Mission control reported the circuit was closed. In my mind’s eye, I can’t help but play out that scenario. I imagine Buzz pushing in that pen and saying with confidence, “To Infinity and Beyond!”
Problems always happen. It isn’t a matter of “if” but “when”. What do we do to prepare for them? What do we do when they happen? The story above reminds me of the importance of preparation. The “1202” alarm could have killed the mission, but it didn’t because NASA had invested in time to play through the simulation many times. Seeing this exact alarm gave them confidence in the LEM computer’s ability to recover from this condition. Testing is important, not just to prove that something is ready for launch, but to build knowledge. The testing didn’t remove the alert, but gave the mission team a foundation of experience to make difficult decisions in the heat of the moment.
Not every possible condition can be tested or will be discovered during simulation. As the circuit breaker example highlights, creative problem solving is still needed. The Apollo mission is full of stories like this, but it isn’t alone. We need engineers. We need smart creatives who are capable of plotting solutions across seemingly impossible odds.
Hopefully you won’t find yourself stranded on the moon anytime soon, but I bet you could be running simulations for learning or plotting solutions to problems. You are engineers. You are creatives. You are critical to the mission! Thanks for all you do in helping making the impossible, possible, every day.
To infinity and beyond!
References
Inspired by the Apollo 11 story as referenced in this book: Kim, Gene, and Steven J. Spear. 2023. “Wiring the Winning Organization: Liberating Our Collective Greatness through Slowification, Simplification, and Amplification.” IT Revolution, Portland, OR. [Link to the book: https://itrevolution.com/product/wiring-the-winning-organization/]
Chimney sweeps and chainsaws. That might be a good prompt for a suspense or thriller story, but that’s not my intention. This last week, as Fall began to arrive, our neighborhood came alive with buzzing, chopping and thudding sounds. Removing dead branches or pruning for safety is important. It improves the health of the tree and maintains the neighborhood aesthetics. At least that is what our HOA says.
Buzz! Roaring chainsaws began screeching their terrifying soprano shrill. Ching! Metal sounds and falling branches could be heard throughout the day. Boom! A palm tree prawn fell to the ground. Pow! Branches drop into a bed of a truck. Swoosh! Workers drag dead tree carcasses across the lawns. Okay, maybe it is sounding a bit more like a thriller.
As the cooler weather starts punctuating our weeks here in SoCal, we also began to see chimney sweeps showing up. They dance across the rooftops conducting their trade. Soot is removed and chimney caps are repaired. Preparations are underway for the coming winter months. And I can’t help but sing the song Chim Chim Cher-ee.
Pruning and preparing. I see a personal application during this season. I suspect some of you, like me, have “dead branches” that need to be removed. Maybe that old meeting series that no longer adds value. It could be that routine or habit that we keep for comfort, but the leaves of value have long since died. Some of the well-worn rituals are rotting away and adding dead weight to our work. It’s time to prune. Clear away the dead prawns and free up your cognitive load.
Practices, processes and patterns in our lives are helpful and add a warm glow to our days. But over time, like creosote, they can build up and add the risk of burnout. It’s time to sweep away the soot. Examine the demands on your life. Look with care at what consumes your energy, your movement, your heart and your mind. What should you keep? What should you sweep? Now is a good time to pause and survey the branches. Clear the flue. Prepare for the winter months. Make room for the new.
And of course, I’m confident as you begin your pruning and sweeping, good luck will ensue!
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-oo!
Good luck will rub off when
I shakes 'ands with you
Sherman, Richard M., and Sherman, Robert B. “Chim Chim Cher-ee.” Mary Poppins, Walt Disney Records, 1964.
