Imagine 10,000 years in the future. Two archaeologists are digging a site, and they find the remains of human bones. They take those remains to the lab, perform tests on them, and try to reconstruct the habits and lifestyle of that human. Say those bones belong to me. They are trying to find out my story, how I lived, what I ate, where I traveled, etc. Once they find all the info they need, they toss it into a museum where they store all other such ancient human remains they find. I was essentially one data point to them in trying to understand how humanity evolved over time. Or I can also call myself a “datum”, the singular form of data, literally one piece of information to solve a bigger puzzle. Honestly, I don’t need 10,000 years to become a datum. I am already a part of several datasets people use these days to study many things. So for that objective learner, I am already a datum. Now let me get to how I got the dumb part of it. I have had an interesting and eventful life so far...
Cool weather is here in Dallas. Only difference it makes to me is that now I have to keep my shirt on while running, and sometimes I will even have to layer up. But one other fact I observed is that when it isn’t freezing cold, there are usually many couples out on the trail. Some are old couples who clearly have been with each other for a long time. Some are young couples who are experiencing the taste of a budding romance. Sometimes they are engaged in deep conversations, which I understand based on the look of serious concentration on their faces, but sometimes their conversations are just silly and playful. There are also couples who walk in a pin drop silence, maybe because they have found comfort even in a shared silence and stillness. Only commonality between all these different couples is that they walk slowly, holding each other’s hands, and that’s how I decide that they are a couple. On the same trails where these couples are walking, I am usually running by myself, immer...