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The AI Juggernaut's avatar

Really interesting how taxi drivers mix step by step routes with bigger mental maps. With GPS doing all the thinking for us now, do you think we're losing that sense of direction? Can AI ever fully learn the way humans do by combining experience with imagination? Would love to know what you think.

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Ali's avatar

I worked with an engineering head once who embodied 'survey and route' knowledge and was able to identify potential pressure points in advance and caution the team. To @Scott's point, this person was also very accutely aware of the 30000ft landscape, and could easily dive into grass root level problems.

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Scott Davis's avatar

Fascinating finding. It reminds me of an idea I heard once that the best leaders are like yo-yos (funny, but not what I mean) in that they can drop down into the weeds of detail and then zoom back up to the 30000ft perspective and then return to a detail. A sort of logical dead-reckoning between strategic waypoints. Wonderful piece, Donald.

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Donald Farmer's avatar

BillG had that ability. In fact, even more, he could see the duck and the rabbit together, seeing the extreme detail of an application and the global vision at one and the same tiime.

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