We are way past the “information age” as knowledge and information are plentiful on the internet today, and most recently with the advent of ChatGPT and other AI information sources, access to information is without constraint.

Even more importantly, access to curated information is astronomical.  We can search for the information we seek, and if we prompt effectively, we can have this information provided to us with clarity, devoid of filler or wasted content.

We can get to the point, quickly and easily.

However, we still need greater context exposed within this content.  Decision making with wisdom remains a constant of value and importance.

I recently reflected on a story I encountered a number of months back.  I was watching a short documentary on the rise of the group One Direction, specifically how the group was created.

The instigator of my watching was out of an interest in how Niall Horan (one of the groups members and a new judge on my favorite show, the Voice) had come to be a part of the group.

The documentary presented Niall’s audition.

He showed great talent, but also an arrogance not warranted for his age or experience.  He caught the eye of the judges, but when it came time to send him through, the notoriously negative Simon Cowell surprisingly voted yes.  I believe it was Sharon Osborne who also put him through, but a third judge voted no because she felt he’d been too arrogant. 

Katie Perry was the fourth judge. She agreed with Simon’s assessment of his underlying talent, but she also felt he was too cocky…….despite these feelings, she pushed him through.

Segue forward several weeks, and Niall along with all the future members of One Direction had been cut from the talent camp. They didn’t make it as individuals to the final talent show.

However, the show featured both an individual and group program, and the judges decided to create a new group to compete in the group format.

From a palette of images on a desk, the judges collated pictures of each of the former members of the camp who had been cut.  Working their way through, they slowly defined the membership of this new boys group who would compete in the group program.

Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Zyan, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson

Names of five boys who until this moment were headed home to lives of the unknown.  What lies ahead, who knows?

Here was Niall Horan, second time lucky again.  Almost didn’t make it through the audition, and now gone from cut to collected, united with four others who would soon be famous beyond anyone’s imagination.

This ragtag band of unknowns would soon win the show, and go on to being one of the biggest boy bands in the history of music, and each a multi-millionaire.

Why do I tell this story?

Because the decisions made to allow Niall to pass through the audition, the decisions made to put him with the rest of that group of boys, and the consequent decisions by those who voted to see them win the competition, these are context based decisions.

They are the decisions born of experience and intuitive trust. 

Katie Perry just felt something was right about this kid, born of her own trajectory in the business, a feeling, an itch. She sent him through.

Simon Cowell, perhaps loaded with more experience than Katie as a judge of talent just knew he was something special, and pushed him through with no question.

Another judge, for other reasons unknown, just didn’t feel right.

Context matters, and contextual decision making is informed by experience.

I recently asked ChatGPT this question:

Why would you decide to allow your patient who has recently had their ACL ligament repaired ride a road bike or not?

Chat GPT Response:

Deciding whether to allow a patient who has recently had their ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) repaired to ride a road bike depends on several factors, primarily related to the stage of recovery and the specific circumstances of the patient. Here are some considerations:

• Post-Operative Phase: Initially after ACL repair, typically in the first few weeks, the patient may need to restrict activities to allow for healing and to prevent stressing the repaired ligament too soon.

• Rehabilitation Progress: As the patient progresses through rehabilitation, the focus shifts from protection and healing to strengthening and functional recovery. The decision to allow road biking would depend on how well the patient’s knee is responding to rehabilitation exercises, their range of motion, and the stability of the knee joint.

• Doctor’s Advice: The orthopedic surgeon or the physical therapist overseeing the patient’s recovery will provide specific guidelines based on the individual’s progress. They will assess factors such as muscle strength, joint stability, and any residual swelling or pain.

• Type of Road Bike Activity: Road biking is generally low-impact and involves repetitive motion. If the patient is cleared for cycling, they may start with stationary biking and progress to road biking as tolerated. The bike fit and setup should also be appropriate to minimize strain on the knee.

• Risk Factors: Road biking involves potential risks such as falls or sudden movements that could stress the knee joint. The decision to allow road biking will factor in the patient’s overall stability and the likelihood of avoiding such risks during the recovery period.

• Monitoring Symptoms: Throughout the recovery process, it’s crucial to monitor the patient’s symptoms closely. Any increase in pain, swelling, or instability during or after road biking should be reported to the healthcare provider.

In summary, the decision to allow a patient with a recently repaired ACL to ride a road bike hinges on their stage of recovery, rehabilitation progress, and individual factors.

What ChatGPT doesn’t say is how you navigate this information and weigh it. What is more important or less important. How does it dovetail with a current set of timelines and constraints.

How does it change if say, the athlete in question had also suffered a shoulder fracture and was rehabilitating that injury at the same time?

Complex problem decision making is fraught with contextual information that needs to be weighed against a myriad of factors, and this ability is cultivated through time under tension.

Why do I write about this?

If you want to get better at what you are doing, selecting mentors and programs, and information sources that provide context as a backdrop of choice and decision making is key to getting better.

There is much knowledge available, but how you use it is the key to your success.

How you use it is informed by Why and When questions, so keep asking and keep learning.

We just celebrated Father’s Day this past weekend.  Or should I say, many of us did.

Some celebrated their own father’s, others celebrated being a father as well.

My father passed many years ago, and to be honest, my relationship with my Dad was not a strong one.  

My Dad was a great provider, he did his job as the job description was told to him. That’s all he knew.  

But he was a good father just the same.  

I hold no resentment for our relationship, it simply was what it was.

But it also set the table for my own wrestling match with fatherhood. For a long time, it just wasn’t a likely thing.  I went through several relationships and marriages without its contemplation.

I didn’t yearn for the opportunity, I didn’t seek its fulfillment.

When I met my wife at almost 40, something began to change.  I began to feel like it was something I wanted to know about myself, something I should experience, especially with this woman. She was the right partner for this new horizon.

I had no idea what it meant, or what it would mean.  I just knew it was something I could see myself doing.

And then in a moment, from one day to the next, I went from oblivious to engulfed.  I went from nothing to something in a heartbeat.

For a closet control freak, becoming a father was an overwhelming experience.  Welcome to the firehose called life.  

Being a father is the greatest responsibility one could ever imagine.

You have to get up in the middle of the night, there is no option not to do so.  There is no get out of JAIL free card, no chance to do over.  All of a sudden, you realize this is here to stay, and you are in charge of this little being’s life, a life that depends on you.  

No matter how you feel that day, no matter how well slept, no matter how empty of energy, no matter how much money you might not have, you must deliver.

Suddenly you realize, unlike most anything else in your life, you can’t walk away from it, you can’t pretend it doesn’t exist, you can’t forget about it.

But why would you want to anyway?

It’s a responsibility I cherish deeply.  I GET to be a Dad, and it’s the greatest honor and privilege I could have ever imagined.

Becoming a father made me a better man, forced me to change in ways I would not have changed without her influence, and made me think about things differently.

It tugs at your heartstrings, pulls on your strength, and pushes you to the limits sometimes.  But all of this leads to unimaginable growth. If you give way to it, you explore parts of you that you never knew existed. Parts you later lean on for so many other challenges that undoubtedly come along.

You realize when you become a father that you really can do anything, and you really do know nothing.  

It’s humbling indeed.

Most importantly for me, I get to be Gretchen’s Dad. 

My daughter is  an incredible human, and I know I am biased, but she’s a wonderful package of smart, funny, inquisitive, curious, caring, kind, and amazing! She makes me proud every day.

I see life differently since becoming a Dad.  I feel different, I have a wonderful sense of purpose that wasn’t there before her.

And I know there is so much yet to come, so much more she will teach me.

Her mother gave her to me, and I am truly grateful. Thanks for choosing me to be Gretchen’s Dad <3

Happy belated Father’s Day to all the amazing dads out there.

Just back from a big junket to China for the first time in my life.

The more I travel this globe, the more I realize we are all the same, just dealing with the trials and tribulations of life with different strategies.

There is too much made of the political discourse, too much focus on our differences, not enough on our similarities.

I had the same remark fifteen plus years ago now when I did some extended work in Oman in the middle east.  Everyone figuring out how to make a living, how to navigate each day.

Different foods, different cultures, different fashions……but all the same challenges.

China surprised me.  I think the overreaching and constant messaging in western media about the oppressiveness of the regime made me believe I would feel oppression in the air.  

But it was the exact opposite.

The hustle and bustle of every airport, train station, and thorofare. Scooters and bikes buzzing everywhere, mixed in with the new car smell almost everywhere. 

Roads that didn’t give me a headache from the potholes were a change of pace from back home!

Walking the Houtongs, smelling the food, seeing the people in their day to day.  Everyone just going about their business, being human.

Walking the Great Wall, something I never in a million years thought I would ever do.  That was something special. But still taken by the “touristic” sensation of it all.  People everywhere, not many foreigners, just regular citizens being curious about something they themselves had never seen as well.

Teaching with live simultaneous translation, if you’ve never done it before, is a real exploration in patience.  Someone told me to forget the jokes, and they were right.  Jokes don’t work so well in translation mode.

But the patience in the listener was cool to watch.  People just as attentive having to listen once to something foreign, and listen twice to understand. But they listened, learned, and asked questions just the same.

Is there background noise, most certainly. Is there much I don’t understand, for sure.  I probably received a sanitized version curated for the foreigner. But I couldn’t help watching people simply go about their business each day and they did the same things we do.

They made the best of difficult situations, managed the turbulence of life, ate on the run, laughed, stared at their phones, moved quickly from one place to the next.

Kids are kids, they scream, and they cry, and they laugh and they play.  They are just kids.

We are all just the same, and the more we focus on that, the better off we will all be on this big blue planet.