I learned a bit about algorithms recently from watching a documentary on technology.  It is fascinating to me how computer programs go to work undeterred to reach goals set forth by instructions received.  And when it comes to social media, the user is along for the ride (often unknowingly) as a key assistant to this process by way of any online interaction, helping a given company achieve wealth by studying the user’s preferences.  

While it can be alarming to realize one is a pawn of an industry that studies your clicks for profit, the notion of how powerful algorithms are struck me as an analogy for the capabilities of our minds.  A believer in the notion that our lives go in the direction of our most dominant thoughts, I can see how our minds, as great computers, follow the directions we give it with similar precision.  After all, we are the lead programmers of our lives.  We can set an objective intentionally and focus upon it steadily.  By doing so, it’s as if we have placed a magnetic pull ahead of us that will draw us to that desire in time.   

The difference between us and actual computers, obviously, is that we get distracted and go off course.  And while I’d much rather be part of the human world, with all its personal variations and quirks, my pondering about algorithms reminds me of our power to achieve incredible things when we set our minds to doing so.   

Indeed the mind is a magnificent instrument.  Let us choose wisely how to use it.  

May you be inspired!