Strategist. Lecturer. Consultant
We made it through another week of healthy eating. And to celebrate we had man day.
This included a wagyu burger, steak, chips and onion rings. And a quart of beer
I felt a little bit sick afterwards.
But it was great.
And it also reminded me that eating healthy feels so much better 🙂
Image is of our fantastic man day spread.
Blog: 257/365
Song of the day: Right Said Fred – You’re my mate
Last year I was part of a team of 5 people from 5 universities that wrote a paper on Universal Basic Income (UBI). The concept of UBI has been proposed as a tool to address poverty, inequality and unemployment. Our analysis incorporated these but took a slightly different approach and argued for UBI as a strategy to counter to the effects of Artificial Intelligence on the global economy.
If you’d like to check out our paper, you can download it at this Dropbox link
The abstract reads as follows:
Artificial intelligence, a term used commonly in computer sciences to describe machines able to make decisions and learn from those decisions, is rapidly entering our daily lives in the form of driverless cars, automated online assistants and virtual reality video games. In so doing, AI has already substituted some jobs that were previously thought to be impervious to technological development. Based on current research and estimates, this trend is predicted to be more pronounced in the future, leading to high unemployment levels in the society.
Our multidisciplinary analysis seeks to attack this problem head on and argues for the introduction of Unconditional Universal Basic Income (an unconditional, periodic transfer of money from the government to every citizen), accompanied by a reform in school curricula and retraining programs. Our proposal goes beyond mere theoretical discussions on basic income, and discusses ways to fund the proposed scheme and its political viability. Finally, we provide a practical roadmap that would see a government take our proposal from the “drawing board” and implement it nationwide in about one decade.
If you have any other resources you’d like to share, feel free to add them in the comments 🙂
Image was taken in St Gallen where I met the other 4 members of the team 🙂
Song of the day: Muse – Something Human
Blog: 255/365
Today was deadline day for one of my projects. I managed to write over 4000 words, edit various documents and produce a number of slides and diagrams. Our team of three must have written over 30 pages and more than 10000 words, which is an honours level thesis.
We didn’t make the deadline
But we accomplished so much today. And I’m proud of what we did.
I guess that’s the magic of deadline day.
Image was taken from my desk, sometime in May
Blog: 254/365
Song of the day: Chasis cars – Snow Patrol
I had two very deep conversations today, one with a person doing her masters degree in social work and the other with a close friend visiting from China. Something that popped up in both conversations was the realisation that a small amount of money in one person’s life can revolutionise another person’s life.
With the master student we talked about a refugee she was working with. She got him working at the clinic she was at but the clinic didn’t have enough money for the salary… of R2500 a month.
I said to her that this sounded like an incredibly small amount of money. But she said it would change his life as his current salary is around R200 a month.
Living off such a small amount is unfathomable to me, in both instances. But this man supports a family on that salary. And yet I’ll spent R200 on a meal.
My friend from China said she spoke to a woman today who was really distraught. She was being evicted from her home because she couldn’t pay the rent.
It was overdue by 3 months with the total amount due being R300. Meaning this person was going to lose their home as R100 a month was too expensive for them.
My friend gave her some cash and the person replied that it was the first time she had been shown compassion regarding her situation
Finally, this point was touched on in Obama’s lecture today. He said that some people have more money than they know what to do with. And that that money could change many people’s lives.
So it’s seriously time we start thinking about this. How do we correct this inequality?
Image was taken at a social entrepreneurship program called Siyaya that I used to run
Blog: 253/365
Song of the day: Dinka – Elements (EDX 5un5hine remix)
I had two magnificently long phonecalls today, both almost an hour long, while driving to Stellebosch and back. Before getting in the car I put my headphones in and can then chat during the commute.
The first call was with my mom, and we caught up on news and chatted about plans for the coming months. I often use long drives as opportunities for catch ups with her, and they make me feel great.
The second was with one of my best friends, Jess. We realised we hadn’t spoken in a few weeks and so managed to sneak in a call. Which ended up being 53min long. We spoke about work, relationships, mental health, Portugal and life. It made my heart so warm to speak to her again.
As life becomes more complex, people move around the world and we have less time for friends, it’s important to make some space for the relationships that matter.
So I’m going to aim to sneak in a few more calls whenever I get the chance. It’s much better than listening to the radio 🙂
Image is of me, Jessface and her brother when she had a sneaky visit to Cape Town 🙂
Blog: 252/365
Song of the day: Starley – Call on me (Ryan Riback Remix)
Jared and I managed our first week of healthy eating. It was tough at times, and I felt famished at certain points in the day, but we pushed through.
We then had our cheat day that was not as intense as we thought it would be. We didn’t go overboard.
And today we were supposed to go back to the healthy eating.
But then there was this cake
It was the Doctor’s birthday party (happy birthday doctor) and this magical cake was presented to her.
It’s a four layered red velvet cake with special chocolates from My Sugar on top.
So we made an exception for it, and ate cake even though it wasn’t part of our diet
I think the useful thing about allowing exceptions like this is that it doesn’t make you feel trapped. We didn’t have to stick to the diet super strictly. And I also didn’t feel guilty about having cake.
Building good habits is tough, so allowing yourself some room for the exceptions is important. As long as the exceptions don’t become the norm.
Image is of the magnificent birthday cake
Song of the day: Seven Lions – Dreamin’ ft Fiora
Blog: 251/365
A close friend, Chantelle, sent me a message yesterday asking if I’d ever consider writing a book. Something along the lines of my business/strategy blog posts that I write.
I think I’d really like to do that.
I’ve wanted to write a book since I was in high school but the feeling I have is the same as I had then…. that I don’t know enough to fill up all the pages.
I think I’ll take it on as my next big goal, after the blog series 🙂 I’ll give it some thought
Image is of the notebooks at a stationery shop, taken in April 🙂
Blog: 250/365
Song of the day: Dropkick Murphys – I’m shipping up to Boston
Isn’t it curious that we have a cycle of 5 work days and 2 rest days? How was that decided? Was there a randomised control trial to determine if this was optimal?
I don’t work best in set hours. I’ll take a Tuesday off but work through a Saturday.
We fit people in to set times because it’s convenient, not optimal.
But to maximise output and performance, let work happen when the person is best able to work.
Image is a sneaky prom shot 🙂
Song of the day: Backstreet Boys – I want it that way
Blog: 246/365