Page 162 - Hard Goals

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edge, almost sci-fi , approaches. We were literally thinking years
beyond everyone else in the industry.” There were days his brain
hurt; days he questioned the “smartness” of this approach. “But
I’ll say this,” he says, “my brain was alive. I hadn’t felt this
pumped about something since we started the company. We
didn’t know what we were doing at fi rst, but we learned every
day. And now we’ve got people coming to us because we’ve
become so expert.”
Although I don’t think his computers have developed their
own independent consciousness, there were moments when I
test-drove their system when I wasn’t sure. In fact, Kevin told
me, “It sounds crazy, but as we continue to develop the algo-
rithms, we keep having these ‘aha’ brainstorms. It’s almost like
the program wants us to keep learning, to keep getting smarter.”
You don’t necessarily need to go create artifi cial intelligence
algorithms to keep your brain active. (For me, I’d end up with
way too many Terminator and Matrix dreams). But you do have
to push yourself to learn something, to keep your brain alive
and lit up.
The second test involves another pretty simple question: To
what extent is this goal within my comfort zone? Let me give
you some choices for your answer:

1. Totally within my comfort zone (“Don’t worry, I could
do this with my eyes closed.”)
2. Pretty much within my comfort zone (“I’m awake, but
hardly in a state of excitement.”)
3. A little outside of my comfort zone (“I feel a little
twinge of excitement or nervousness.”)
4. Outside my comfort zone (“I’m on pins and needles,
totally bug-eyed alert.”)