Personal Musings: How Technology has Made Life More Enjoyable
Let’s take a brief break from Enterprise Data Science and discuss our lives outside of our profession. But technology has made our personal lives so much better, compared to life a decade ago.
This is my first article on this newsletter about personal life. When you get into data science, make sure you take a breath and have some fun and recreation, as a data science career can be all-consuming otherwise. You will do well for yourselves financially as Enterprise Data Scientists, so what will you do with your earnings? It’s important to make room in your life for things not related to your work, in general, for good mental health and having a breadth of experiences.
You notice I’m not talking about acquiring material possessions- the joy from this is fleeting. I’m talking about family, friends, and experiences. These are the relationships and experiences one looks back on as you become older and have regrets about not focusing more on these personal endeavours. Your data science career defines you while at work, but how are you defined outside of that? If you only do data science, then your personal life will be empty and go unfulfilled.
Speaking of recreation, I visited NYC a few weeks ago, and was last there in 2011. So it’s been over 11 years since I visited NYC last. I did notice how much technology made my last trip to NYC seamless and enjoyable.
For starters, when I arrived at LaGuardia airport, instead of taking an expensive taxi to my destination in Manhattan, I was able to hail an Uber, for half the price, all from the convenience of my iPhone on the Uber app as soon as we touched down on the runway. No more waiting in lines to hail a taxi, and you can see the quality of the driver picking you up, as you track their progress on the map and their ETA. In addition, no exchange of cash or credit cards as it is all taken care of in the app. All this convenience for half the price!
First stop is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with no ticket person present- all done via an electronic kiosk. I quickly go in and spend the whole day wondering through art from Von Gogh, Picasso, Rembrandt.
Next stop, I meet up with my son, send him my coordinates from my phone. He meets me for a slice of NYC’s best pizza, which was found on my Google Maps app, as it guides us, walking through the streets of Manhattan. Within minutes, we arrive at the restaurant with the best slice of pizza ever tasted! Paid for it with Apple Pay, then back on my phone to get to the hotel in Brooklyn.
As we approach the subway in Mid Town, I ask my son where I can reload my Metro Card, as I kept it all these years for the next time I returned to the Big Apple. He said I don’t need it, just use Apple Pay. Lo and behold, I approach the turnstiles at the entrance of the subway, then I hold my iPhone over the reader, and beep, I’m through the turnstile!
Then I notice there are no NYC paper subway maps. We don’t need those paper subway maps, as it’s all on Google Maps and Apple Maps, and you can use these on your phone to seamlessly maneuver you through the highly confusing and complex web of subway lines known as the NYC subway system!
After a quick trip through various subway lines, we emerge from the station and make our way to the hotel to get refreshed for our night on the town. Checkin is seamless as it was all arranged and purchased online, and had a deal when combined with my airfare, which was also purchased online. Hungry? We look up reviews on another app and we quickly make our way for dinner. After dinner, pay with Apple Pay, then summon an Uber to take us to the movies, where the tickets were purchased on another app and we enter the movie from the electronic ticket on my phone.
My wife joins us as she doesn’t want to miss out on all the fun! I pick her up from Newark Airport, and again, the trains that take you from Newark to Penn Station in Manhattan, the paper tickets from kiosks are now replaced with purchasing the train tickets from the NJ transit app. As this is my wife (and not my son, where pizza suffices), I take her to a fancy restaurant- our favourite spot in Manhattan, Chez Josephine’s, which I reserved via Open Table app, and Google Maps guide us there from Penn Station.
The next day, we decide to go to a Broadway play, and see that Into the Woods is new on Broadway. Instead of going to Times Square, and waiting in line to purchase paper tickets for a Broadway play, I reserve and purchase the tickets online from my phone once again.
Those few days in NYC would not have been as seamless and fun without the assistance of technology. Our previous excursions into NYC required lots of prior planning, research, price checking, and coordination of all of the logistics of travel from your door, to your destination hotel, and back home.
My wife and I reminisce about how those last few days in NYC was so much fun, as technology has taken away all of the heavy lifting of the logistics of recreational travel. Technology has digitized and automated the logistics of recreational travel, while also making it intelligent. But make no mistake- this was not a virtual experience. This NYC trip was a real experience, one that is filed away in memory. Thank you NYC!
If you're looking for support from me, here are a few options:
Enterprise Data Science Consultancy: With my consult team comprised of a Senior Data Scientist/ML Engineer, Senior Data Engineer, and Senior Cloud Engineer, we will help you architect and build your Enterprise Data Science platform, and transfer knowledge to your IT team to maintain and optimize it. If you don’t have an MLOps team, I will help you build one. Please get in touch about this consultancy here
Coaching and Mentorship: I offer coaching and mentorship; book a coaching session here