You have to go on and be crazy. Craziness is like heaven
-- Jimi Hendrix
()

It's still the first week in March, and I've got great plans. Like many of you, when I read or hear about things, I get sucked into a rabbit hole full of curiosity. Steemit seems to be one of those rabbit holes. I plan to do some blog writing about technology and it's impact on society. To introduce myself ...

Here are a few interesting things I've learned this past year, in 2017, that I wish to share with you -- in case they pique your curiosity too!

5. The rise of blockchain

I know, I know, you've heard it: Bitcoin blaaah bluuuuh@@@####. Ethereum laaa wooohoo!!!!!!XXXX. You know it's viral when you start seeing Tai Lopez advertisements promoting crypto. No offense Tai. Woohoo CryptoKitties.

So I'm going to skip all those pesky analyses you see. What I will share is that investing in Etheruem in June profited me overall and made me happy :) Simple pocket change. Nothing major. I would also like to add that new sharing based technologies such as Steemit and Sweatcoin have the potential to change how things get done in social media and workouts. Now there is the whole 'cry scam' crew who just won't stop to declare everything in crypto a scam. Thank you! Without you nothing would actually get better. DApps is a crazy wild-westish space and I am excited to be following it closely.

Lesson Learnt: Be careful what you are putting your money into but definitely invest to get a feel for how crypto works before jumping to any conclusion about it.

4. Miami is great for spring break

Three of my friends, Farrukh, Umar and Abhinav decided one day to let bygones be bygones and ventured toward the sandy beaches and flashy nightlife of South Florida in my sexy 2010 Lincoln Town Car. I had always dreamed of going to party at Miami. Probably since when I was fourteen or fifteen years old, growing up in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, where I used to binge watch American movies such as Miami Vice ;) Those spring break YouTube videos helped too.

We arrived at South Beach and it was unreal. During the day the sand was softly golden with just the right comforting warmth. Not trying to come off the wrong way, but almost all the girls were 10s. When the sun went down on South Beach, the neon lights went on and the city bustled to life. Everywhere I looked around there was either a Lamborghini, a Ferrari, or a Rolls Royce Phantom. Definitely one of the most blingy places I have been to ever. A guy can dream. Downtown Miami was also nice with nice clubs such as Eleven and fun bars to hang out and meet folks. The only tip I would leave you with is that it would have helped a lot if we could have booked a hotel room in advance as they fill up quickly.

3. Computer vision is awesome

I used to be able to see flying insects in the air. I'd look ahead from out the window in my bedroom window in Rawalpindi, and if I concentrated just hard enough I saw it. A tiny flying insect waving through the air. My eyes would focus on that circle of air, fairly studded picking out flying insects in the air. But I lost interest, I guess my eyes are flawed. Then, after I became an engineer, I realized computers have great eyes -- razor sharp. A few mathematical concepts and invisible data packets unite to give rise to beauty. It mesmerized me and so I went and understood it in great detail last year. It's coming. They can see everything! If interested, my Steemit blog will focus on this topic amongst others. Follow me for technical tips and techniques. Feedback is also much appreciated.

2. I still can't believe an election was hacked

I think modern technology has changed democracy as we know it. It is hard to determine what's hype and what's evidence anymore. The internet and social media has created this grey zone. We are within our own echo chambers and it's hard to navigate out. What will we do? Personally I enjoy hearing different peoples opinion on things. It is what keeps us human. But with all the negativity in the media and flamboyant headlines and all around eccentricity I find it strange the impact computers have had on the social fabric. Yet that's my echo chamber, and I simply shackled to it. On the other end hackers have gotten more sophisticated. Did you hear about the Github DDoS attack recently? I am interested in exploring how decentralized applications will impact hackers as well as governments because I think decentralization is a game changer for a lot of aspects of society such as how we track value.

1. Life is good

I’ve been waiting for, praying for, some kind of top-down change, but now I know it won’t happen that way. We’ll still be chasing that lifestyle we’ve been groomed for from childhood to crave, that life equals consumption, success equals consumption. When I was in college a few years ago, I used to volunteer some days teaching middle and high school kids things I liked about computing technology in the biomedical and healthcare domain. I wish to do the same on the internet. That's what my coming weekly posts on Steemit will be about. I hope you enjoy. Please share some interesting things you learnt last year in the comments. Tips and feedback for educational blogging will be extremely helpful, and I will be very thankful to you.

-Umar