>Punctuality is the politeness of kings. Louis XVIII

Something interesting happened after I wrote my last post. It's like I removed a firewall and ideas started flowing. They won't leave me alone until I write them down.
This one came to me on a train. Most of my ideas show up on the road, in cafés, while walking. That makes sense your brain is more active when relaxed, entering what's called theta rhythm. Want to boost creativity? Get moving.

Here's the thing about being punctual: I'm always early, always waiting. Over time, I've learned to appreciate this weightless moment. Like Neil Armstrong floating in space, you can discover ideas, call loved ones, or just drift in your inner world.

While waiting in a café, I watched a twenty-something guy walk in with his grandmother. Unusual. Elderly people in our culture don't often enter establishments like this.
My brain started filling gaps.

Maybe he's visiting for vacation and she mentioned this used to be their favorite spot, back when grandfather was alive. So they ordered coffee and éclairs while she shared memories.
Maybe she never accepts his compliments about her cooking, so he brought her here to prove his point.
The real story is probably more mundane. But for me, they'll always be the grandson and grandmother sharing something meaningful over coffee.

We do this constantly. Create narratives for strangers. Just like Humans of New York, we photograph moments and fill in the gaps.

Here's what I realized: those stories we invent aren't really about them.
They're about us. What we notice. What we value. How we see the world.
The person who imagines romantic stories sees romance everywhere. The cynic creates cynical narratives.

Your stories about strangers are actually stories about you.
And that makes people-watching the most honest mirror you'll find.
P.S. After writing this, I found someone actually created a guide for this (https://www.wikihow.com/Begin-People-Watching). Of course they did.
These are the thoughts that surface on trains with no internet.

I've started many times and procrastinated just as many times when it came to beginning my own blog. It always seemed to me that people should receive information that adds value to their daily lives, rather than experiencing feelings of emptiness and regret about wasted time, as often happens to me at the end of reading many blogs...
I'll write about why everyone should start their own journal: whether it's simply notes in a notebook or an online format! I hope you'll be able to learn from my mistakes .
(just don't forget that I, like you, am only beginning - let's call this test #1)
Briefly, how I started "Mark Twain-ing"

During my school years, when everything in the world felt overwhelming, I decided I'd make an excellent writer (though I was never much of a grammarian). I admired the lifestyle of writers, at least the one shown to me by films and media. So, after the movie "Secret Window" 2004, I gained a short-lived hobby and a lifelong favorite author (Stephen King). Most importantly, I started writing everything down and sketching.

**What this led to**
Today I write down everything that comes to mind, all ideas that might be useful in the future! And it doesn't matter if at the moment of writing I don't know how to use them.
You could call this process idea cartography. At the end of the week, you can go through all the notes and sketches and understand what kind of week it really was. This brings awareness and provides an opportunity to acquire some navigation.

Re-reading your own notes improves self-understanding. I especially notice this when I find old entries and remember what I was going through at that time and what values guided me. Understanding yourself also helps in understanding others - all of this develops your emotional intelligence.
Very often, when writing something down, you create a stronger connection between your idea and your brain, forcing it to work in the right direction.

A few years ago, I developed a small tradition - writing down my plans for the day in the morning. During the day - jotting down ideas that chaotically come to mind, and in the evening some conclusions or additions to what's already there. Unconsciously, I began to discipline myself and became slightly more organized (here "slightly" is already good). Habits are like muscles - the more you develop them, the stronger they become rooted and the less energy they require.
In difficult moments, when the solution to a problem isn't obvious, I write out the problem, breaking it down into small parts. Writing helps understand what the essence is. Only recently did I learn that this is a recognized method for solving emotional and psychological problems. (Dr. James Pennebaker)

Before important moments, entries about positive experiences helped me gain self-confidence, as the brain re-experiences positive emotions. This can be compared to a kind of self-support.

While writing this, I had a thought that all these lines written above remain. When we read books, we learn about others' stories, their character, ideas, adventures, and habits. We dedicate time and energy to reading so that after 500 pages we can find out how the story ends. Sometimes after reading, the thought slips through that no one will ever write about us like that. No one! except ourselves! All our entries are that thick manuscript of our life, which, if you want, you can preserve for your children. When I find old notebooks of my father or grandfather, it always sparks intense interest. Even my entries from five years ago, which I completely forgot about, can amaze me - how interesting, absurd, or innovative they were at that time.

In the Middle Ages, we were told what to believe by the Church. After the appearance of the printing press and the Reformation, we were guided by state censors and the licensors of publishers. Later, with the rise of liberalism in the 19th and 20th centuries, publishers themselves took control, followed by broadcast media—a small, elite group of professionals.

This is how the democratization of knowledge emerged: the acquisition and spreading of knowledge among common people, not just privileged elites such as clergy and academics. Libraries—public libraries in particular—and modern digital technology such as the internet play a key role in the democratization of knowledge, as they provide open access to information for the masses.

Examples of Knowledge Democratization
Even in the startup world, where you typically need to be in a formal accelerator to gain information on how to start and manage a startup, Y Combinator came up with Startup School. By democratizing startup knowledge, YC hoped to spur economic activity around the globe while promoting and preparing companies for its more formalized accelerator program.
The Internet's ability to democratize content creation in both South Korea's gaming and music industries has led to the rise of many new artists and game creators.

The Four Principles of Mass Collaboration
Here are the four principles from Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams's Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything:

Openness, which includes not only open standards and content but also financial transparency and an open attitude towards external ideas and resources.
Peering, which replaces hierarchical models with a more collaborative forum. Tapscott and Williams cite the development of Linux as the "quintessential example of peering."
Sharing, which is a less proprietary approach to (among other things) products, intellectual property, bandwidth, and scientific knowledge.
Acting globally, which involves embracing globalization and ignoring "physical and geographical boundaries" at both corporate and individual levels.

Industry Adoption and Innovation
Nevertheless, some industries are adopting new concepts faster than others. Those that are more digitally oriented are changing faster, while the rest in the offline world grow at a slower pace.
The same transformation is happening in the fashion design world with the help of the Fennec&Finch platform—the one-stop place where you can ideate and produce your fashion collections, even without being technically skilled. All that is needed is an idea. Through this marketplace, any creative person can become a brand and launch their product easily. This will surely bring significant economic growth to a sector that can create multiple job opportunities in this particular market.

Let's talk about AI. Last week, I had an interesting conversation with one of my friends, and we ended up discussing artificial intelligence. For many years, we have been bombarded with the idea in movies and books that AI will destroy humankind and that there will be an ultimate Skynet that will rule the world.

Nowadays, AI helps people detect fake news and deepfake videos (even though some fakes are also created by AI). Many services use AI for navigation and route creation. And let's not forget the gaming industry, which relies heavily on AI for its characters.
The Reality of AI Today

As you can see, there are many types of AI developed by individuals or companies to perform specific tasks—usually tasks that no one wants to do but that need to be done. Of course, humans are typically hired to edit text or sort certain data, roles that can now be replaced by AI. This is an inevitable consequence of technological revolution and industrial change.
The same thing happened when factories introduced robotic assistants and automation in production. Many people lost their jobs, but the worst part is that their positions completely disappeared. However, that is not the main point I want to make.

The Democratization of AI
For the past few years, anyone with sufficient proficiency can build their own AI and teach it to do anything they want. Just think about it: you could have your own personal AI that you haven't purchased, and you could teach it, for example, to filter news and recommend the best articles that you would enjoy.

In Terminator, The Matrix, and Avengers, AI is described as unique and the only one in existence. In reality, I think there will be multiple AIs that will operate in fields ranging from simple to complex, solving minor to major problems. The keyword here is "solving."
Of course, you might argue that the planet's problem is the entire human race, and solving it could be good for the planet but bad for us. However, that depends on how we teach our AIs, and if we do it correctly, we will have a bright future that will arrive sooner than we expect.
The Acceleration of Progress

With the democratization of AI, the pace of progress will no longer be measured in years as it was before. We used to say that we needed 5–10 years to have electric cars or 1–2 years to develop personal assistants. With the popularization of AI, innovations could take hours to appear and days to implement. One year would be worth ten compared to our current state of technology.
This would mean faster medical care and cures for diseases. Architecture would become more accessible; even now, there is software and AI for designing buildings without requiring a bachelor's degree in the field. Every aspect of our lives will be affected. This means countless AIs, from small to large. Google and Facebook would have their giants; small businesses would have their specialized tools. Even countries could develop their own national AI systems.

Personal Reflections and Concerns
I like to think about AI as a valuable asset that will make our lives better. Of course, there is significant uncertainty, which gives me pause.
Elon Musk, in order to balance AI development, has developed Neuralink, which could bring cyberpunk scenarios into reality very soon. This may solve many problems, and I hope it will help people who are disabled due to neurological disorders.
Implications for Human Consciousness and Society

When you start thinking about it and consider various possibilities, an interesting question arises: how will this shape our consciousness? Not so long ago, we couldn't imagine that we would pay for products that aren't physical. Now, people pay for skins in video games, premium subscriptions, or XP boosts in mobile games and become very frustrated if something goes wrong with their accounts.
Another consideration is that innovation is not reaching all countries uniformly. This means that some countries will be the pioneers of AI and will have priority and advantages in this competition. I call it a race because this might resemble something like the Cold War—just not a war; let's call it the "Cold AI Race."

Consequently, countries that fall behind will have an economic status far behind those leading the race, and their people will experience a lower quality of life, especially if the country's main industry involved outsourcing services that AI can now perform.

The Digital Divide of the Future
Another concern is how unfair it might become for people without access to technologies like Neuralink compared to those who have it, and that's how the world might divide.
While writing this, I've realized that this is such an expansive topic that I become overwhelmed thinking about all the possibilities and challenges that await us in the coming years.