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Ali Almossawi

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20
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2018-08-08
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2018-08-08
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1
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  1. “That's a tough one. Yeah, I think the question that you asked me earlier is one that gave me some pause. I think it would be useful to ask, and that's what's one thing that you changed your mind about today or this past week. It's not easy to change your mind, it turns out, because for various reasons it becomes part of our identity sometimes, our thoughts. So it's separating ourselves from our thoughts is not always that easy. So I would ask, what is one thing that you over the past week maybe you that you changed your mind on?”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  2. “That type of person, I think, social media is a bit challenging. But again, there are a few people I follow who are brilliant at kind of sharing information and being very useful and interesting. And it all depends on your personality, I suppose.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  3. “I'm fairly introverted. I'm not particularly active when it comes to sharing stuff. So I think if, yeah, I usually post things that have to do with projects rather than with me. So on Twitter, Instagram, I think there are some photos that I've taken on the road, on Instagram, but otherwise it's mostly to do with any output that I have that I think is of interest. But I have to say, even for me, I've not quite cracked those platforms. And maybe I'm not the target audience for them because I don't quite excited by, I'm not really excited by the thought of sharing things and kind of being always under the spotlight. I much prefer spending a year working on something in the dark and then kind of presenting it after that and then seeing how it's perceived and how we can improve it. And then going back for another year and then working on something else and then coming back.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  4. “And for some people, they decide that it's not worth it, so they're not on any of those platforms. And for some people, they decide that there is no cost. So they go all out on those platforms. And then I think for a lot of people, they're somewhere in between where they consciously decide what to post on these various platforms. And yeah, and I think it depends on the person.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  5. “I mean, absolutely. I mean, that's the problem. I remember I used to work for a company where their slogan was that we care about the user's privacy. And they valued privacy over everything else, including features and the ability to acquire data and so on. And then they discovered after many years that the user doesn't care a lot about privacy. We live in a time where we post stuff on Instagram, we post stuff on Facebook, a lot of it is personal stuff and photos. And so there's been a shift in how we view things that were in the past super private, right? You'd never share a picture of yourself with friends maybe or with family members, or maybe there was some other stuff they would never put online. But now it's all fair.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  6. “Well, the first question I would ask is what are the inputs to that algorithm? And how did it get access to those inputs? Because obviously when you're trying to create a summary of a profile, which is me in this case, you can't rely on all the inputs that are available. You kind of pick and choose. So I'd be interested in kind of knowing what are the things that summarize me because I still don't know who I am. And I don't think anyone does. But you kind of know various facets of yourself. So I'd be interested in knowing how the algorithm picked those facets or if somebody picked them, what the basis for that was. And then also I think there is a kind of a softer thing that I would consider. And that is, you know, do I like the piece of music? And if I do, what does that say about me or the algorithm? But yeah, I'd be, I can't quite remember right now, but I think I've come across.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  7. “Yeah, I do. I go through my notebook all the time, and it's always nice going through older notes because often you find that you wrote down a lot of things that didn't make sense at the time, but now because of a changing context or different circumstances, all of a sudden that idea that you had three years ago takes on a different form. So I do go through my notes. I don't know, I mean, regularly, but I don't know how frequently, but there is this constant going back and seeing what I wrote before, how applicable it is to what I'm doing right now.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  8. “I'm thinking about what can I do right now that will bring me closer to that draft that I would like to have ready in six months time. And again, it could be something obvious like sketching a scene on a piece of paper or the back of my notebook or something, or it could be just looking at people and seeing how they interact with each other, how people get off the train, how they get on the train, how they sit next to each other, what kind of small talk goes on between them when they're doing that. just various things. I try to keep all those observations and my thinking focused on whatever the short-term goal is.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  9. “So for me, for instance, again, I get up in the morning, I get on the train, it's about an hour to the office. And what do you do in that hour? You could just watch YouTube videos. You could do nothing. You could listen to an audiobook. These are all decisions that you have to make. And it could be the case that sometimes the audiobook is the most effective thing for that day, or it could be the case that just looking out the window is the most effective thing. And that's been the case for me sometimes. Or maybe just listening to what everybody else is talking about in the cabin. So I think, yeah, so you have that one hour and then you make a decision about what you do in that one hour and how is it affecting everything else that might come in that day. So for me, for instance, I have this side project about empathy that's top of mind. And so when I'm sitting on the train, that's the only thing that I'm thinking about.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  10. “Well, I would say again, time, respect for time is hugely important because once you, I mean, it's a finite resource and we don't realize it sometimes until it's too late, right? Either we fall sick and then we realize it or something changes in our life or we switch jobs or something happens with family. But I think just time being cognizant of time, how much time there is in the day, how many hours you've spent on various things, that helps a lot. At least it's been useful for me.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  11. “You know, it depends with some things I am very respective of time. I try to be very time planned out. And if I'm meeting with someone, I'm there on the dot, if I want to get something done, I'll impose deadlines on myself. But then with other things, not so much. So if I'm going out for a walk, I'll just go out for a walk and it could be half an hour. It could be an hour and a half. So it depends, I say, on it depends.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  12. “I like this category of books where it looks like it's for the book is for a child, but actually it's for an adult. So that's kind of the approach that I've taken with the previous two or three projects. And I think I would like to kind of stay in that category and see if we can do something within the same framework with this new idea. And I think it's very effective when you combine illustrations and prose and kind of the physical packaging of the product. It's not only been enjoyable for me to kind of work with those various components, but I think they also are very effective. It's a good way to reach various people and people still go to bookshops, so that's good.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  13. “Think I would say again it all depends on your vantage and your circumstances and where you're coming from. But I think one way is to recognize people. So one idea I had for this project that I don't think is going to work, but it's something I had early on was to have a book where the character of interest is not the protagonist, but it's somebody else in the background. So you follow the story to the very end and then you find out at the end that the story is actually about the secondary character that you can only barely see in the background. So I think that's part of empathy is kind of recognizing people and things that are not always easily recognizable or seen or acknowledged. But yeah, doing that and also not being too focused on the obvious, kind of having more heart when looking at the world. And yeah, those are all factors that I think play into it.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  14. “Absolutely. I mean, that's a great connection. And also, I mean, you see it in other places as well in design and coding anytime you're thinking about the audience, right? Or considering who the audience might be, or whether this particular control that you've designed on screen is something that somebody could use without much struggle. That's a manifestation of empathy. So I think you see it's not only the obvious definition of somebody not bullying somebody else or kind of giving someone their lunch money or so on. But also I think you see it in all other kinds of fields as well.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  15. “Yeah, I mean, it's still very nascent, so I don't have it. It's not really developed or materialized or anything, but the general concept or the theme is empathy. How can we explain how do you convey empathy in a way that's not been done before? So you find attempts at doing that in various children's books. Various people have done research on the topic and have in some cases published books. So I thought of just taking all that material and seeing if there's something else that could be done with that.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  16. “Yeah, I think with this one, I might have reached the end of the road because I've spent three years on it. I was a bit pig-headed to begin with. I tried something that didn't work. I tried something else. I think I spent like $15,000 on it. Didn't quite work. I tried something else. So I think I've spent about three years or I had spent about three years on this project. And I feel there's, you know, there is a point where you get diminishing returns. And I think that's kind of the point that I'm at right now. So I am looking, I am kind of currently working on another project that I'm hoping to spend about six months on and then maybe have it in draft form by the end of the year.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  17. “Bad arguments, for instance, I tried to break that model a bit by maintaining the open source project. So there's the brook in print and then there's the book online. And it was interesting to see kind of how that dynamic shifted and changed even the publisher who picked up the book in the beginning weren't too sure that it was going to work. Having these two projects side by side. But slowly, there were people buying the book. And then at the same time there were people contributing to the book and trying to improve it and so on. So even when I think of the second book on algorithms, I like to think of it as kind of one of several iterations that have occurred over the past few years. And it just so happens that this is one that was commercialized. But there's no stopping others coming after it, either by myself or by others and kind of building up on that idea.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  18. “Yeah, so with a website, I mean, especially if you're coming from, say, an open source background, with a website, you put something out there and it's more often than not free. And then someone comes across it, if they like it, they like it, they might share it. And if they don't like it, one of two things can happen. Either they don't do anything or they might submit a contribution to you. They'll say, I came across this particular thing that is not quite working or is not accurate. And you should fix it. Or better yet, here is the fix. So there is that kind of dynamic between the creator and the audience. And crucially, the artifact is always a work in progress. Whereas I came to learn that with a book, there is this perception that a book is the culmination of an effort. And maybe rightfully so for historical reasons, that's how it's always been. But”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  19. “It's so important to kind of how you approach a problem, but also how you explain something and how you interact with various people. So that's something I've grown, you know, I appreciate more appreciative of.”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  20. “When I first got into publishing, I kind of fell into it because I'd produced this, I'd put together this website, bad arguments. And then we talked about how it might work as a book. And then I went ahead and printed it as a book. And I didn't realize that by shifting the medium from a website to a book, that the audience would change for that project and the expectations would change. And all of a sudden the connections with people were different. It's much more active when there's a book in between you and somebody else. So that's something I didn't quite know a lot about four years ago. And I've come to appreciate and really enjoy over the past few years. I didn't realize that publishing or I should say more generally the medium plays such a huge”

    2018-08-08 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT