From Check-Ins to Chatbots

I don’t know how it happened or why it happened; all I remember is that one day I decided to create an account on WordPress.com, didn’t bother to select any custom theme, just went with the default, and started writing. It was many years ago, probably 2009. I was living in Austin, TX, and at the time, this city was becoming a popular place for tech startups. Although it was not nearly as popular and prolific as Silicon Valley or San Francisco, CA, Austin was slowly becoming a new startup hub.

There was so much going on. I remember this company I really liked called GoWalla, a location-based social-network app that allowed users to “check in” at various locations and share their experience with friends. They launched around the same time (2009), and it was one of the first apps I enjoyed on our new iPhones, which had just become available a few years earlier. A lot was going on, not unlike what is happening with AI now. The big difference was that we, as a society, didn’t occupy our minds and time stressing out about the world and politics. Although we were amid the mortgage-backed securities fiasco and almost lost our home, everything felt lighter, less stressful, less hateful, more chill. In early 2009, I also lost my job due to the Great Recession, and you know what we did? We went on our first trip to Europe with the kids for almost a month, one of the best trips ever, and something I’ll remember until my last breath.

I was younger and more naïve than I am today; that helped me deal with the problems of the time. Even when everything around us was falling apart, it just didn’t feel that bad—it didn’t feel heavy. Today is another story. There's considerable concern about the state of the country socially and politically. Still, there are also exciting developments, such as the utility of AI and the advancement of large-language models (LLMs). All that technological advance also casts a very large and dark shadow… we don’t know what super-intelligence will mean to humanity in the future… no one knows.

I continue to write and express my thoughts and experiences on my blog; it helps me think and feel at peace, which is the only way I can put it. Additionally, writing about the past is enjoyable; it feels like browsing through a photo album from years ago and reliving the moments and experiences. This is why I value experiences more than material possessions.

Many significant events have occurred over the past fifteen years. Things are more complicated now. Humanity has decided to weaponize social media and other technologies that, fifteen years ago, were starting out as fun and collaborative ways to connect with people beyond physical boundaries, bringing individuals all over the world together. For example, have you been to Twitter (X) lately? Yeah, it’s no longer reporters sharing news, or a place to learn about new technologies and processes, or to find out what your friend had for lunch yesterday, or to share your favorite movies.

When I look back at my old projects and work, it’s hard not to see the vast amount of opportunity available had I just focused and kept going in one direction… but that’s a bad way of thinking. The “what-ifs” are a wasteful way to go about life. Own your decisions, and enjoy the good things you have and all the things you’ve accomplished—I do, I try. One thing I have been consistently good at is writing and publicly sharing my thoughts and experiences. Perhaps I am still naive since I have this motivation regardless of the impact. Although it is challenging for people nowadays to discover blogs like mine, I personally prefer these types of publications to today’s social media posts, where most people have adopted a position of being part of one group and criticizing the other. It is very tribal, and it’s not my cup of tea.

Many of my favorite reads are personal blogs that still offer unique perspectives on different areas of life, without all the bullshit politics and social issues trying to convince you to be part of one team or another.

In this new era of AI and chatbots, writing from your thoughts and finding something to read that’s original and not AI-generated is a luxury. Please support those who continue to do so. And even if it is for a moment (or a day or a week), stop watching biased opinions masked as news; it’s not worth your time and mental health.

Happy Friday!