Setting the foundation
Self Education update
At the start of 2024 my mother gave me a book on how to be the best at whatever I pick. While I don’t believe in competition, I do believe in being better or more skilled in my chosen areas of interest. The motivation isn’t elitism or belief in meritocracy, I think it's just an inevitable product of focus and attention. I genuinely believe no one could be better than me due to my unique perspective. Even if you copied me, you’d still not hit the mark I’m aiming at. Plus, I’m going to shoot through the target every time and exceed my own expectations.
The challenge I have faced most of my adult life was having what felt like too many interests. I tried writing everything down that I knew I wanted to do and cut some things from the list but I couldn't. The things I wrote had purpose and made components of who I am and who I want to be. But what I could do was reorganize, setting a timing and allowing room for miracles to happen to accomplish a few things here and there sooner.
[That being said, if anyone wants to support my wingsuit goals, and train me; I’m very open to that, if it fits our schedules.]
In the past I was plagued by indecision, beliefs about my own inadequacy, and concerns about timing. All of which fed into one another as I procrastinated on what I wanted to do. So implementing the practice of being decisiveness was liberating. Once I made a decision I didn’t have to think about it again, the time became now and I began to learn and surround my pain of inadequacy with the healing power of learning and experimentation. This led to my second solo start up venture, Epicuratorial. Within Three months I had participated in the So Ambitious Pre-Accelerator, The Founder Institute Accelerator and started a partnership with the National Institute of Health and the Public Policy Lab. Every two steps forward I took resulted in one readjustment step back. But I was learning!
In thinking about how I could best lead my company as it expands and the types of personal projects I’d get into once I moved Epi Curatorial from start up to an actual business; I saw a common thread of what I’d need to understand. Data Science and Machine Learning. “Ugh, really Bakari?” Yes! I had seen the need for this before the hype but I was scared to learn. Initially I thought my weak foundations in mathematics would prohibit me. I’ve had terrible mathematics teachers my entire life up until college. And not just terrible in teaching content but I always seemed to get teachers who were mean, intentionally not helpful outside of class hours, and made sport out of personal insults. I actually took a year to work with a therapist on my relationship to math and studying on my own. Once I picked up the confidence and enjoyment of math I was ready.
Late 2024, I just so happened to learn about a myriad of subject matters that I wanted to put my fingerprint on. I’ve always had the approach of learning the most useful generalist skill. Data Science fits the bill. During my time in the pre-accelerator Demonic Ardi's, the founder of ACT House in Tulsa Oklahoma, introduced me to the idea that technology is only meant to be applied to processes that have been refined and worked. Well, I have case studies for things that work but I don’t have the tech understanding I need. But I also understand Ohm's Law about technocracies and management. That I don’t need to be the best, I just have to understand the topic, be able to critically think, and then I can layer on some tech and teamwork to move fast and effectively. So there arrives machine learning. And yes, we live in an era where no code solutions are becoming more and more popular. But aren’t we all tired of subscription services?
Open source data, native models, open source design, and community forums are the future. Remember, there's no such thing as competition. We can only make each other better, smarter and stronger through collaboration and sharing. If you happen to beat me, it was meant to be and I’ll pivot into something that works better for me anyway. I’m resilient and adaptable like that.
I also have a theory on how we should engage in activities. We should do it in pairs but with three options. We have two eyes which work in synchronicity, we have two hands which can work in asynchronicity if trained properly(I’m proof because I taught myself to write with both hands in 2018 and now I have two different styles of handwriting), and we have a third eye or mind which works actively in synchronicity with our body and passively in asynchronicity with our organs and cells without or attention. Stick with me here. If we have the capacity for three synchronous intangible actions and two asynchronous actions; then we can prioritize two subjects of learning or action at a time. With the swapping in and out of one subject as I believe it is best to have one constant.
Right now data science and machine learning are being juggled between one hand and my mind. While entrepreneurship is on my other hand as a constant as it's my means of making a living. So basically I’m busy. But once shit pops OOH WEE. Anyway, back to studying. And if you read this and thought “wow, he's doing a lot and probably needs help” I’m always hiring; hit me up!