Choices

On Monday my phone told me that it is four minutes to the Arco station. It wasn’t magic. Each Monday, I stop and buy gas at the Arco station, which is near the entrance to the 405 Freeway, that I get on before transitioning to the 10 Freeway and the cruise for 25 minutes until I hit my exit, which I use to get me safely to my place of employment.

My phone looked at my data and then made a prediction based on the patterns.

That is all it was. Look at data and making a prediction. A prediction of future behavior doesn’t bind me to select that behavior. Why? I am a human. I have free will. I can make choices.

On the day my phone told me it would take four minutes to reach the Arco station, I decided to wait. Wait until I got off work for the day, and then I drove to a different gas station, close to where I work.

This is what we need to do from time to time. Break out of our own predictable patterns and try something different. Our technology works as a useful tool. It can make suggestions but remember we are still the boss. We still have a choice. It is limited to technology. We all have options in front of us.

Some have more than others. Some were fairly gained; others were not. Some have been swindled, hustled, and duped. Yet to those who did the swindling, hustling, and duping, the day will come when you will have to face the consequences for those actions, and for those of us who were on the receiving end, get back up, dust yourself off, and keep moving.

You did it once, twice, three times; you can do it again. Look inside and analyze your own data, and make decisions based on your patterns.