TOR146: How AI And Machine Learning Prove The Journey Is More Important Than The Destination With Dr. Kenneth Stanley

Terms Of Reference Podcast

How obsessed are you with goal setting? I mean seriously - if you've been living on planet earth you know that, those invested in the science of achievement, have done an incredible of not only convincing, but actually getting us as a whole to adopt goal setting as a lifestyle. And, full disclosure, I am not only a living, breathing product of this paradigm, but I'm also one of its loudest proponents (at least in my mind).

Goal setting has become something of an absolute in the design of products, services and programs in the social sector, as well. Just think of how many times you've designed theories of change, conceptual and logical frameworks or SMART indicators. You know what I'm talking about here - the obsession with defining the results that we want to achieve with our work and, perhaps even more importantly, how will measure our progress towards achieving them.

While I could hold court on how to improve the way we design programs to achieve social goals for the next 4 days, here's the thing: this show isn't about that. In fact we're about to spend the next hour and change talking about how creating objective goals may be the exact wrong thing to do when trying to achieve something amazing.

My guest, and truly the inspiration, for this episode is Dr. Kenneth Stanley. He currently works for Uber Labs while on leave from the University of Central Florida where he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science. Ken focuses on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. I learned about Ken from ISG's Director, Micheal Klein, when he shared an article with me from the 538 blog titled "Stop Trying To Be Creative," that was written by Christie Aschwanden. I'll let you read that on your own, but suffice it to say that I was intrigued and had to know more - and how it might apply to the business of helping others.

And, I think that's exactly what you'll get in this episode. The revelation in this podcast should, ultimately, blow your mind. We get started by talking about AI and Ken's pet project (called Picbreeder) and how that led to his discovery that objectively determining what we want to achieve may be the best way to miss out on true awesomeness