How to Make Your To-Do List Actually Useful - The 6-Box Template

To-do lists are everywhere, but most people don’t use them effectively. Instead of helping, they often turn into endless, guilt-inducing lists of unchecked tasks. After plenty of trial and error, I’ve figured out a system that actually works. And today, I’m sharing it with you.

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My 6-Box To-Do List Template

First, let me introduce you to the secret weapon that keeps me organized: the 6-Box To-Do List template I created myself. I use this every day on my iPad with the Goodnotes app (which, by the way, is free). Here’s how it works:

At the top, I write the date and day of the week (I usually create pages for the entire week at once). The template itself is a simple 2x3 table that divides my tasks into Home and Work categories. Each category is further split into three types: Must, Ideal, and Must NOT.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Must: This is the non-negotiable stuff. Things I absolutely have to do today or tasks I’m highly motivated to complete. The key is to prioritize. Keep this list short and focus on crossing off at least 80% of it.

• Ideal: These are my “bonus” tasks. I’d like to get them done, but if I don’t, no big deal. It’s like the dessert of my productivity day—nice to have, but not essential.

• Must NOT: This is where things get interesting. This box is my reminder of what NOT to do today. It could include:

  1. Tasks that aren’t worth my time (hello, endless scrolling through YouTube shorts).

  2. Things I’m intentionally pushing to another day because they’re too time-intensive or require more focus than I’ve got for the day.

Writing these down is like decluttering my brain. It’s a mental unload that helps me stay focused and stress-free.

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My To-Do List Principles

Having a great template is only half the battle. Here are some key principles I follow to make sure my To-Do List works for me, not against me:

1. The 5-Minute Rule: If a task takes 5 minutes or less, just do it now. Don’t waste time writing it down. The exception? If you have a bunch of quick tasks to remember, jot them all down together before they skip your brain.

2. Keep the Must Box Manageable: Overloading this box is a surefire way to set yourself up for failure. If you’re constantly carrying tasks over to the next day, it’s time to re-evaluate and preload tasks to future days.

3. Separate Repeating Tasks: Daily habits (like drinking water or checking email) don’t belong on your To-Do List. Use a habit tracker or a different tool for those. I’ll dive deeper into this in a future blog post.

4. Start Your Day with a Plan: Creating or finalizing your To-Do List first thing in the morning is a great way to plan the day. It sets the tone, helps you prioritize, and ensures you’re clear on your goals right from the start.

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A Few Touchups in Goodnotes

1. Stamps: Sometimes, I like to spice up my To-Do List with digital stamps, marking tasks as either Important (stuff that might get me in trouble if I skip) or Happy (tasks that bring me joy when completed). These items are more likely to get done.
2. Highlighter: When I complete a task, I use the highlighter tool to mark it. There’s something immensely satisfying about seeing those colorful highlights at the end of the day. It’s like a visual trophy case of your productivity, and reviewing the list becomes a moment of pride instead of stress.
3. Cut/Paste: One of the reasons I love using Goodnotes for my To-Do List is how easy it is to move tasks around. Didn’t finish something today? Drag it to tomorrow. Priorities shifted? Rearrange your boxes without rewriting a thing.

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Final Thoughts: Less Stress, More Success

A good To-Do List isn’t about cramming as much as possible into your day. It’s about focusing on what matters, staying organized, and giving yourself the mental space to actually enjoy crossing things off. With the 6-Box method, I hope you feel more in control.

So give it a try, and let me know how it goes in the comments.

Picture of The Day

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— Dr. Tree (@lannyland.com) January 11, 2025 at 9:02 PM

P.S. Remember, the easiest way to keep up with my journey is by visiting blog.lannyland.com 

Introducing the CGI Problem-Solving Framework

Over the years, I’ve faced challenges in personal and professional domains. Each obstacle presented an opportunity to learn and refine my approach to problem-solving. These experiences inspired me to develop the CGI Problem-Solving Framework, a straightforward yet powerful tool for tackling a wide variety of challenges. CGI stands for Challenge/Current States, Goals, and Ideas—a three-step process that brings clarity, focus, and creativity to any problem.

Let’s explore how the CGI framework works, its benefits, and how it can be applied to real-world scenarios.

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Step 1: Challenge/Current States

The first step is to define the Challenge or Current State. This involves two critical actions:

• Identifying the problem: Clearly articulate what needs to be addressed. The more specific you are, the better equipped you’ll be to address it.

• Documenting the current situation: Take note of all relevant details. What are the contributing factors? Who is involved? What systems or processes are currently in place?

This step ensures solutions address real issues, not assumptions or surface-level symptoms. For instance, if improving team collaboration is the challenge, you might note:

• Inconsistent communication channels lead to missed deadlines.

• A lack of shared tools for project tracking.

• Unclear roles and responsibilities cause duplication of efforts.

By fully understanding the context, you lay the groundwork for effective problem-solving. Often, simply documenting the current state reveals hidden factors that may otherwise go unnoticed.

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Step 2: Goals

Once you understand the challenge, the next step is to set clear and actionable Goals. Ask yourself the following:

• What do I want to achieve?

• What does success look like?

• How will progress be measured?

Goals are the compass that guides your efforts. They transform a daunting challenge into a series of manageable, actionable steps. For example, to improve team collaboration, your goals might include:

• Implementing a shared project management tool within a month.

• Hosting weekly team check-ins to foster alignment.

• Clearly define and document team roles to eliminate ambiguity.

Specificity is key. Avoid vague objectives like “improve communication”; instead, define measurable outcomes such as “ensure all project updates are shared in a centralized tool.” Clear goals prevent distractions and keep you focused on desired outcomes.

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Step 3: Ideas

With goals in place, it’s time to brainstorm Ideas to achieve them. This stage invites creativity and exploration. Here are some tips to maximize its effectiveness:

• Collaborate: Involve diverse perspectives. Fresh viewpoints often lead to innovative solutions.

• Don’t self-censor: No idea is too wild at this stage. Many groundbreaking solutions, like the invention of post-it notes, stemmed from seemingly impractical concepts.

• Think short-term and long-term: Balance quick fixes with strategies that ensure lasting impact.

For the team collaboration example, potential ideas might include:

• Trialing tools like Slack or Asana to streamline communication.

• Organizing a team-building retreat to strengthen relationships.

• Creating a shared workflow document to clarify roles and expectations.

After brainstorming, evaluate your ideas. Prioritize them based on feasibility, alignment with goals, and potential impact.

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Why the CGI Framework Works

The CGI framework is effective because it simplifies problem-solving into three actionable steps. It ensures:

1. Clarity: By grounding efforts in reality, you tackle the true problem, not its symptoms.

2. Focus: Clear goals prevent distractions and scope creep, allowing you to concentrate on what truly matters.

3. Creativity: The structured approach encourages innovation while ensuring practicality.

Moreover, CGI’s adaptability makes it a valuable tool across personal, team, and organizational challenges. Whether you’re streamlining a workflow, enhancing personal habits, or addressing a strategic business issue, CGI provides a roadmap to success.

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Real-Life Example

Let’s apply the CGI framework to a common challenge: maintaining a fitness routine.

• Challenge/Current State:

  • Lack of motivation to exercise.

  • Inconsistent workout schedule.

  • No clear fitness goals.

• Goals:

  • Work out three times a week consistently.

  • Build strength and stamina over the next three months.

  • Lose 10 pounds by the end of the quarter.

• Ideas:

  • Join a local fitness class to create accountability.

  • Set daily reminders and schedule workouts in a calendar.

  • Reward yourself for consistent progress with small, motivating treats.

Breaking down a challenge into these steps turns a vague intention into a realistic, actionable plan.

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Expanding the Use of CGI

The beauty of the CGI framework lies in its flexibility. It can be used to address personal habits, improve team dynamics, solve technical challenges, or even plan a vacation. Following its three steps, you can approach any problem with confidence and clarity.

For instance:

• Personal Development: Use CGI to develop better time-management habits by first identifying distractions, then setting goals for efficiency, and brainstorming strategies like using time-blocking techniques.

• Workplace Challenges: Apply CGI to resolve conflicts by outlining current grievances, establishing mutual goals, and generating ideas for compromise and collaboration.

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The CGI framework helps bring clarity, focus, and action to problem-solving. Whether you’re addressing a minor inconvenience or a major life decision, try it out and see how it transforms your approach to challenges!

Picture of the Day:

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— Dr. Tree (@lannyland.com) December 31, 2024 at 3:17 PM

P.S. Remember, the easiest way to keep up with my journey is by visiting blog.lannyland.com 

2025 New Year Resolution

It took me too long to realize that one's health, both physical and mental, is the most critical asset in life. Stress, I've learned, is the ultimate enemy of well-being. Without good health, you can't work hard or enjoy life's pleasures. So, as we approach the time for New Year's resolutions, here is my commitment for 2025:

I plan to hug myself every day. Yes, you read that correctly. Each day, I'll embrace myself in various ways. Self-hugging can strengthen muscles, increase mobility, reduce stress, and promote gratitude and mindfulness—key ingredients for success, according to numerous articles I've found inspiring. I encourage all of you to try it and share your experiences!

The Power of Physical Touch

Physical touch is essential for both psychological and physiological well-being. Research indicates that physical contact, including self-hugs, helps reduce stress, alleviate pain, and boost feelings of happiness and security. When we hug ourselves, it's more than a simple squeeze; it's a reminder that we deserve care and love.

Daily Self-Hugs Options

Let’s explore some ways you can incorporate self-hugs into your daily routine:

Standing Hugs

1. Hug your arm: Bring your arm across your chest and squeeze gently with affection.

2. Hug your back: Reach your hands behind your back. If you struggle to clasp your hands, hold a towel between them for assistance.

3. Hug your knee: Maintain good balance with a straight back, embracing your knee for a solid squeeze, which also strengthens your ankles.

4. Hug your legs: Relax your back and rotate your hips. If this is challenging, try hugging one leg at a time with slightly spread legs.

Chair Sitting Hugs

1. Hug your knee: Sit up straight, place the foot of the bent leg on the chair, and pull your knee toward your torso.

2. Hug your thigh: Feel your glutes engage by bringing your thigh toward your body without bending forward.

3. Hug your shin: Lean forward to embrace your shin. Go lower to hug the other shin if your body lets you.

4. Hug your legs: Bend forward to touch your head to your knees and reach your hands toward the floor.

 

Floor Hugs

1. Hug one foot: Bring your head towards your foot while keeping your back straight.

2. Hug both feet: If this is difficult for you, sit with bent knees, hug your feet, then scoot back to try to straighten your legs.

3. Hug your knee: Similar to the standing version but easier since you don’t need to balance.

4. Hug both knees: Give a final squeeze to feel the stretch in your back.

5. Hug your thigh: Draw your thigh in slowly and exhale deeply.

Conclusion

As we step into the new year, let's focus on resolutions that enhance our well-being and resilience. By literally embracing ourselves, we combat stress and cultivate a loving relationship with the most important person in our lives—ourselves.

Call to Action

Join me on this self-care journey and share your self-hug experiences or photos. Let’s make 2025 a healthier, happier year!

If you want something, just get it yourself. Don't wait for someone to get it for your birthday or Christmas. It aren't gonna happen.

P.S. Remember, the easiest way to keep up with my journey is by visiting blog.lannyland.com

Happy 4th of July and some random nice things!

Happy 4th of July, the Independence Day of America!

Since the pandemic is still going and has no trend of getting any better soon, I thought I just share some random nice things to boost the spirit up!

1. The Finch Story

A pair of finches made a nest next to our garage door window, so I put a Wyze camera there and recorded some clips. Finally put everything together into a nice little movie. So enjoy. The background music I used was from Night Coming (a great story by Maoni), composed by Roc Chen.

2. My Indoor Pepper

I planted a pepper plant in a flowerpot late last year. I had not expected to get anything out of it because people normally plant peppers after Memorial Day, so I was like half a year ahead of the time. But the plant actually produced a pepper! I'll be fine during the summer with respect to veggie supply now!

3. Mozart's Sonata

My daughter has been practicing this song for over 6-months. She finally got to a level minimally presentable. Very happy for her! So enjoy! 

4. Around the World

I set a goal for my kids to be able to do Around the World by the end of summer. They asked me to also do it. So here it is (although this one is really the reverse around the world), the first time I've ever done anything so fancy. Feeling pretty good about it! Of course, I'll still have to master the real around the world by end of summer.

5. My Bookshelves

Someone on Twitter asked people to post photos of their bookshelves. So I snapped a picture of mine. I like my bookshelves (I also share the shelf space with kids), because I love books, in case you haven't noticed. See how many different collections you can spot from the photo.

 

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://blog.lannyland.com

Some useful websites for COVID-19 virus information

I have been following the COVID-19 situation very closely for the last 5 months. Thought to share with my readers some useful websites, so you can get up-to-date information on the Coronavirus.

Lanny's Predictive Model

First, let me shamelessly promote my own predictive models that I update daily when real official data gets in, and then tweet them to my Twitter account. I have two predictive models.

First one is for the entire United States:

USA
Real data: 7/2/20 2,739,230 / 128,743
Prediction: 7/2/20 2,815,627 / 131,572#COVID19#coronavirusUSA pic.twitter.com/M6D7W6ZPDr

— Lanny Lin🧢 (@lannyland) July 3, 2020

The second one is for Utah only:

Utah Only:
Real data: 7/2/20, 23,270 / 176
Prediction: 7/3/20, 24,475 / 186

18.30% today. Yesterday the nation had a new record of over 50,000 new cases. Let's not have a new record in Utah.#COVID19#coronavirus pic.twitter.com/7PpEUMIPRL

— Lanny Lin🧢 (@lannyland) July 2, 2020

So for the entire United States, you can see that on July 2nd, we just had a new record of 52,981 new cases in one day, when my model predicted 50,972 new cases. Not too bad from the model perspective. Very bad from the virus containment perspective. Following this trend, we would exceed 4 million cases on July 20th if no extreme measures are enforced. That means over 183,000 in death toll by August 1st. I use numbers reported by CNN at midnight Eastern time each day (link in the section below.

For the Utah State, I predicted 668 new cases for July 2nd, and the official number was 554. Because the number of people tested each day can vary dramatically, the daily positive rate line is the more interesting indicator of how well Utah is doing.

CNN COVID-19 Live Feed

I don't want to search for COVID-19 related news every day, so I simply follow the news live feed from CNN. When new information becomes available, I get prompted to see the new updates automatically, which is nice. However, you do have to manually change the date in the URL manually to stay update to date. For example, replace the 07-02-20 in the URL below with today's date to get the latest info.

Coronavirus pandemic: Updates from around the world

https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-07-02-20-intl/index.html

CNN also has a page showing more detailed information by each state with maps, tables, and graphs. They are doing a pretty good job updating total numbers using the Johns Hopkins website data. That's why I just use their numbers for my daily update to my US model.

Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US

Worldometers

This website is a great tool to compare different countries and different states. You can sort by total cases, daily new cases, total death, or daily new death. The numbers they report are always more than the ones reported by CNN and Johns Hopkins data feed. I don't know why. Maybe they track data more aggressively? But anyway, still great to see trends.

Worldometers Report by Country

Worldometers for the United States

rt.live

This website focuses on computing the Rt value, a metric on how fast the virus is spreading. It ranks different states based on the Rt value. You can also go into each state and get more detailed information.

rt.live website

Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard

I used to use this website a lot for up-to-date COVID-19 data. It is one of the most famous data-hub websites. However, the website is very buggy. It takes forever to load and tends to crash my Chrome browser frequently, so once CNN started using data from this website, I stopped visiting it. You can use this website to look at worldwide data, and can also drill down to one country or one state to get more information.

John Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard

Coronavirus Dashboard from Utah Gov

This website is the official COVID-19 dashboard for Utah from Utah Government's website. Probably not relevant for most of my readers.

Utah COVID-19 Dashboard

Hope these can be useful for you to get more information about the spread of the COVID-19 virus so you can be prepared accordingly. Best luck to all of us in this long fight, but we will prevail!

Video of the Day:

I will survive and you'll survive if we all wash our hands frequently!

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://blog.lannyland.com

Are you ready for the second half of the 2020 game?

Someone said that 2020 was the longest decade of his life. Do you feel the same way?

What a year it is! So far the world has already experienced:

• Bush fire in Australia
• Volcano eruption in Malasia
• Koby Bryant's death
• A Global COVID-19 pandemic and a worldwide shutdown
• Multiple stock market crash pauses
• Flood in 26 provinces of China
• Many earthquakes around the world (US, Puerto Rico, China)
• Protests, riots, and Culture Revolution in many parts of the world (US, Europe)
• Multiple dam breaches (Michigan US, China, Uzbekistan)
• China passing national-security law for Hong Kong
• Border clash between China and India
• Heated tension tween North Korea and South Korea
• Cyclones and tornados (India, US)
• Locusts swarms around the world (Africa and Asia)
• NAVY releasing UFO footages and UFO crash in Brazil
• NASA finds evidence of parallel universes
• 30 million people unemployed in the US

I personally experienced an earthquake and a wildfire that almost resulted in an evacuation.

Prayers! Hope people stay safe! 🙏🙏🙏 https://t.co/9tr7U1fS1S

— Lanny Lin🧢 (@lannyland) June 28, 2020

So how are we doing so far? This picture perfectly summarizes it:

Today's July 1, 2020, which means we are just starting the second half of the 2020 game, or level 7 of the Jumanji game.

Congratulations on successfully completing level 6 of Jumanji. Level 7 starts today. Retweet if you think you are ready! pic.twitter.com/KRkcWuqLTj

— Lanny Lin🧢 (@lannyland) July 1, 2020

I get the feeling that the second half of Game 2020 will be even tougher. I wouldn't be shocked if we ended up with:

• A disastrous dam breach at Three Gorges Dam in China
• World War 3
• An alien invasion

In fact, someone already got a video of this:

#StayCalm The second half of 2020 is about to begin! https://t.co/MHgKFKXUzi

— Lanny Lin🧢 (@lannyland) June 29, 2020

So are you ready? I am ready!!

I am so thrilled to have survived the first half of Game 2020, and I am going to put it all in for the second half!! I am going to stay tough and fight it all the way with my teeth and nails. I swear that I'll be more efficient, more productive, healthier, and stronger when I look back at 2020. I'll be fighting like this little tough guy:

#StayCalm Are y'all ready for the second half of 2020? I am ready!! Bring it on!! https://t.co/3epDf6NYb3

— Lanny Lin🧢 (@lannyland) July 1, 2020

Join me to fight in the second half! Let's kick some ass!! And whenever you feel hurt, defeated, or feel the need to give up, look at this video, chill, and then get back into the fight! We can do this!!

Whenever I open news these days, I go:

XUE HUA PIAO PIAO! pic.twitter.com/1EErlrRVu9

— Lanny Lin🧢 (@lannyland) June 20, 2020

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

A great summary article on what happened inside Google for the last three years

Sharing a good read, an article on WIRED summarizing all the events happened inside Google for the last three years. WIRED talked with 47 current and former Google employees and then produced a great story explaining the bumpy road Google had to take in the last three years. The article was written by NITASHA TIKU, a senior writer at WIRED.

THREE YEARS OF MISERY INSIDE GOOGLE, THE HAPPIEST COMPANY IN TECH

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

10 Famous Thought Experiments That Just Boggle Your Mind Part 10

Read part 9: Schrodinger's Cat

1. Brain in a Vat

Imagine a mad scientist has taken your brain from your body and placed it in a vat with life
sustaining fluid. Neurons in your brain are wired into a supercomputer which can general all the sensing signals your brain normally receives. Thus, this computer has the ability to simulate your everyday experience. If this were indeed possible, how could you ever truly prove that the world around you was real, and not just a simulation generated by a computer?

This thought experiment is called “brain in a vat” and has to be the most influential thought experiment that touches the subjects from cognitive science and philosophy to popular culture. The idea for the experiment, which was popularized by Hilary Putnam, an American philosopher, dates all the way back to the 17th century philosopher Rene Descartes. In his book Meditations on the First Philosophy, Descartes questioned whether he could ever truly prove that all his sensations were really his own, and not just an illusion caused by an “evil daemon.” Descartes accounted for this problem with his classic maxim “cogito ergo sum” (“I think therefore I am”). Unfortunately, the brain in a vat experiment complicates this argument, too, since a brain connected to electrodes could still think.

This really sounds too familiar, you say, to the movie The Matrix. Well, that film, along with several other sci-fi stories and movies, was heavily influenced by the brain in a vat thought experiment. Neo was hooked into this big simulation called The Matrix, and before he unplugged, he thought that was his real life. Then turned out Zion, the last sanctuary for human kind, is merely another layer of the matrix, another simulation.

There are really two perspectives here:

The first perspective is that from humans. 

When we humans dream, our brains can experience signals that are pure simulations generated by the brain itself. We can see, smell, touch, walk, jump, run, fall off a cliff or a tall building (this one happens pretty much to everyone), and even fly. The simulation generated by the brain is so good that we could interact with the world and the world changes accordingly, for example, when we turn in a dream, the world rotates correctly "in front of" our eyes.

Once in a dream of mine, I was able to correctly recognize that I was in a dream. Since anything is possible in a dream, I tested it. "Let there be a spear!" I commanded. And a giant spear magically appeared in my grip. Next thing I know I was there swinging the spear, showing off a beautiful staff form. Unfortunately, the dream ended shortly. To this day, I don't know why I asked for a spear when I could have anything I want in a dream. That's also why my kids now call me Shakespear from time to time.

So how do you know you are not dreaming? How do you know you are not in a simulation? There's no spinning pendulum to give you a clue like that in the movie Inception.

Humans are also very good at simulating input signals to our brains when we are awake. That's why we enjoy books, plays, and movies. We put ourselves into the characters minds, or merely become a bystander in an imaginary world. Then we experience joy, sorrow, love, and hatred from things that never truly happened in the real world.

Then there's the world of MMORPGs (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) from text-based MUD (Multi-user Dungeon) games in the early days, to EverQuest, to World of Warcraft, to Minecraft today. Players of such games get deeply immersed into the simulated worlds and sometimes preferred the fake worlds over the real one.

The other perspective is that from Artificial Agents.

In the Matrix Trilogy, Neo had no idea that he was actually not even a real human. When a software agent has been told that the world it lives in is the real world, it is just like a brain in a vat. When Agent Smith realized that, he went all haywire!

Software agents we build today are frequently developed or trained in simulations. It is true that most simulations today are not very sophisticated (but the agents themselves don't know), but they will get better over time. And the agents we train or send to work will also get more sophisticated and more intelligent. What if one day they become so intelligent that they realize they live in a simulation? What happens then if they break out of the simulation and start feeling the real world with real sensors and interact with the real word with real actuators? Will we end up with Jane (from Ender's Game series)? Or Philip (from The Outcast)?

Now comes the ultimate question: How do you know you are a real human, not just an artificial intelligence agent?

In the movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn't really tell if his Martial adventure was just the imaginary vacation he paid for or he really was a spy. And in the movie Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio also wasn't sure if his return to home and his kids were real or merely another dream. In a sense, Arnold and Leonardo were both in the superposition of both in a dream and also in reality (why do I keep thinking of Schrödinger’s Cat?). Arnold stayed confused. But Leonardo made a choice to accept it as the reality, even though the pendulum never stopped spinning. So maybe what matters the most is whether you choose to believe the world around you is real. But then what would you do if you were presented with the blue pill and the red pill?

Man, this is deep!! My brain hurts (whether it is in a vat or not). This concludes the 10 Famous Thought Experiments That Just Boggle Your Mind series (only took 10 years). Hope you had a good read!!

Now on to my daily battles!

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

10 Famous Thought Experiments That Just Boggle Your Mind Part 9

Read part 8: The Chinese Room

2. Schrodinger's Cat

Schrödinger’s Cat is a paradox relating to quantum mechanics that was first proposed by the physicist Erwin Schrödinger. He hypothesized a scenario where a cat is sealed inside a box for one hour along with a radioactive element and a vial of deadly poison. There is a 50/50 chance that the radioactive element will decay over the course of the hour. If it does, then a hammer connected to a Geiger counter will trigger, break the vial, release the poison, and kill the cat. Since there is an equal chance that this will or will not happen, Schrödinger argued that before the box is opened the cat is simultaneously both alive and dead.

Schrödinger meant to use this thought experiment to demonstrate the absurdity of Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, where a quantum system remains in superposition until it interacts with, or is observed by the external world. Turned out that:

Successful experiments involving superpositions of relatively large (by the standards of quantum physics) objects have been performed.

I still remember the day when my Statistics Professor Dr. Reese threw a coin to the floor and then immediately put his foot on top of it. "The event has already occurred. But what is the outcome?" he asked. That was a great example of the Bayesian world, where the reality has already happened, but we still don't know -- the uncertainty.

Uncertainty is actually everywhere in AI/Machine Learning/Robotics challenges. For example, an object detection model detected a person, but only with 50% confidence. That means the object detected could be a person or not a person at all. And the bounding box detected could be spot on, perfectly bound the person inside, or it could be 50% off with a 50% IOU (Intersection Over Union). So how do you use this information if you have to decide if there is a visitor by your door? In this case, the event has already happened (there's an object there, whether person or not). There are also cases where you don't know what future holds. If you are in a self-driving car, the self-driving car has no idea what the car next to it will do in the next minute, it could just stay in its lane, or it could change into your lane and collide with your car. A well-designed self-driving car has to be able to deal with uncertainty, maybe when it notices the car next lane starts to weave, maybe it's a good idea to break a bit and keep a good distance from it. But just like Schrödinger’s Cat, before you open the box, anything is possible.

One solution is to try to obtain more observations that might give you more information and reduce the uncertainty. Maybe if you shake the box and hear the cat meow, then you know the cat is likely still alive. Maybe you wait 20 years, and then likely the cat is dead. Actually you don't even have to wait that long, a cat probably will die if it eats no food for a week? What is the cat is pregnant when you put it in the box. You would now have multiple cats that are both dead and alive and you don't even know how many cats you have.

Let's end this with a picture of cute kittens. Didn't Jeff Dean build a deep neural network that learned the concept of a cat all by itself simply by watching lots and lots of youtube videos?


Read part 10: Brain in a Vat

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

10 Famous Thought Experiments That Just Boggle Your Mind Part 8

Read part 7: Monkeys and Typewriters

[Found a 10-year old draft of this post that was never published. So here it is with some new contents added.]

3. The Chinese Room (Turing Test)

Source: Wikicomms

The Chinese Room is a famous thought experiment first proposed in the early 1980s by John Searle, a prominent American philosopher. Searle first hypothetically assumes that there exists a computer program that can translate Chinese into English and vise versa. Now imagine a man who only speaks English is placed in a sealed room with only a slot in the door. What he has are an English version of the computer program and plenty of scratch paper, pencils, erasers, and file cabinets. He would then receive Chinese characters through the slot, process them following the program instructions, and then produce Chinese characters on paper that he can slip out through the slot on the door. Although he doesn’t speak a word of Chinese, Searle argues that through this process the man in the room could convince anyone on the outside that he was a fluent speaker of Chinese.

Searle wanted to answer the question of whether a machine can truly "understand" Chinese, or does it only simulate the ability to understand Chinese. By creating this thought experiment, Searle argues that the man in the room does not really understand Chinese, therefore, the machine can also be a simulation and doesn't have a "mind" to understand the information, even if the machine can produce responses that gives people the impression of human intelligence.

This thought experiment raises a big question: Does something that appear to be intelligent truly possesses the intelligence. Searle calls the system that actually possesses the intelligence "Strong AI", and the system that doesn't "Weak AI". He argues that this thought experiment proves that "Strong AI" is false.

Today, there are many AI/Machine Learning algorithms at work that perform tasks for us human beings, from chatbots to self-driving cars. Especially with the popularity of deep neural networks, computers can do an amazing job at recognizing things such as human, cars, or stop signs. But how does the machine know an object is a stop sign? With the deep learning approach, we humans don't really know. Interestingly, with just changing the values of a few pixels, an object that still looked like a stop sign to humans now becomes a sign for speed limit 45 sign. And that's the danger of using blackbox systems, where misclassifying the sign could mean the difference of life and death.

This thought experiment is an extension of the Turing Test, which deserves a blog post entirely dedicated to that topic. Turing proposed that if a computer can fool human judges into thinking they are conversing with a real human through a typing only chat program, then the computer is considered to have artificial intelligence and has passed the Turing Test.

Based on this simple definition, many programs could be considered as having passed the Turing Test. in 1964, a program named ELIZA out of the MIT AI Lab gained fame by making users believe they were actually chatting with a psychotherapist, when in fact, the program simply was parroting back at patients what they'd just said. Then later in 2007, a Russian chatbot that emulated a woman was able to fool many lonely Russian males into giving out personal and financial details, given that these males probably couldn't think straight especially after excessive vodka consumption. In both cases, these chatbot programs appeared to be intelligent, when they don't really truly understand what humans had said to them.

[Fun fact: You can talk to a Martian version of ELIZA in Google Earth.]

On March 23, 2016, Microsoft released a chatter bot named Tay via Twitter. Only 16 hours later, Microsoft had to shutdown the bot because it started posting all kinds of inflammatory tweets. Was Tay really a racist? Of course not! But it sure looked like it was intelligent enough to get conversations going.

In one of our Innovation Weeks at work, I actually played with a bunch of chatbots, including cleverbot and Mitsuku (Pandorabots), and integrated them with smart home/smart assistant functions. Mitsuku chatbot has won the Loebner Prize 4 times out of the last 6 years, so it is really up there with respect to its capabilities. During the live demo, when I asked the bot "where is my wife?" it actually replied, "Did you check the bathroom?" Very impressive!! Things got a bit weirder when I had a volunteer talking with the bot and the bot started asking him, "How is your father?"

Earlier this year, OpenAI's researchers unveiled GPT-2, a text-generating algorithm that can write news articles if you give it the beginning part.

[GPT-2] has no other external input, and no prior understanding of what language is, or how it works,” Howard tells The Verge. “Yet it can complete extremely complex series of words, including summarizing an article, translating languages, and much more.

This is a perfect example of the Chinese Room scenario. We have AI that can behave as if it is intelligent, yet has no understanding of language. I guess we have to be super careful about what tasks we give such AI agent/algorithms/models. It might be able to fool us most of the time. But when it comes the time when it fails, because it is only a fancy simulation, we are in big trouble.


Read part 9: Schrodinger's Cat



Picture of the Day:

Amazing depiction of how I felt about my thesis during grad school years... (picture credit: http://www.phdcomics.com)

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

Random Thoughts: Answers to a few Brain Teasers

Quite a while ago, I posted some brain teasers in my blog. When I was randomly looking through my past blog posts, I realized that I never provided answers to those brain teaser questions. So today I'll post the answers in a new blog post. If you have not seen those questions before, you can read the questions here:

Random Thoughts: A Few Brain Teasers

Give it a try and see if your brain hurts. 😁

[Spoiler Alert]: Scroll down to find the answers:.
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Problem 1: The Missing Dollar
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Image credit: Canvas

Answer: 

The three guests each spent $9 at the end. That makes it $9 x 3 = $27. The hotel owner kept $25 and the bellhop kept $2. That makes it $25 + $2 = $27.

The common mistake people tend to make is that they use $27 + $2 = $29, instead of realizing it is really $27 the 3 guests spend and the $3 the guests got back: $27 + $3 = $30. The $2 here really should be -$2, which makes it $27 - $2 = $25, where $25 is the real cost of the hotel stay for the 3 guests.

The official name of the problem is Missing Dollar Riddle.


Problem 2: Cut the Loss
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Image credit: iStockPhoto

Answer: 

This problem seems very confusing due to the many moving parts and money (real or counterfeit) exchanging hands. The easiest way to think through this is from the perspective of each person involved and just check the difference at the end.

If we treat the counterfeit bill as worth $0.

Customer: $0 out and $20 worth of merchandize plus $30 cash in. Total gain: $50

Tom: $20 worth of merchandize, $30 cash to customer out. Nothing in ($50 from Charlie was returned to Charlie at the end, so just a wash). Total loss: $50

Charlie: $50 out to Tom and then $50 in from Tom at the end. Total loss: $0

Everything balances out. So the answer is $50 total loss for Tom. There are many variations of this Counterfeit Money Problem out there you can read about.


Problem 3: Green Onion Vendor
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Image credit: The Virginian Pilot

Answer: 

The original price of the green onions is $1/lb. So you spend $1 you get 1lb. of green onions. Once separating into stems and leaves, the prices become $0.70/lb. for stems and $0.30/lb. for leaves. So spending $1 now you can get 1lb. of stems and 1lb. of leaves. That is actually a total of 2lb. of green onions. That's why the customer was able to spend $50 and get 100lb. of green onions.


Problem 4: Find the Odd Ping Pong Ball
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Image credit: 123RF.com

Answer: 


The key challenge in this problem is that we don't know if this odd ball is lighter or heavier.
There are many solutions to this problem. Here's one:

If you divide 12 balls to 3 groups of 4 each. You can compare two groups with the first weighting. Let's name them group 1, 2, and 3. If group 1 and 2 are identical (case 1), then the odd ball has to be in group 3. If group 1 and 2 are not equal (case 2), then group 3 must have all normal balls.

For case 1, take 3 balls out of group 3 and compare to 3 normal balls (just pick them from group 1 and 2). 

Case 1.1: if the weights are identical, the 3 balls from group 3 must be normal. The remaining ball from group 3 is the odd ball. We just have to compare it against a normal ball in the third weighting to see if it is lighter or heavier.

Case 1.2: if the 3 balls from group 3 are heavier, now we know the odd ball is heavier. Pick 2 out of these 3 and compare them. If the weights are identical, then the remaining ball is the odd ball. If the weights are not equal, then the heavier one is the odd ball.

Case 1.3: if the 3 balls from group 3 are lighter, now we know the odd ball is lighter. Then perform same steps as above, but looking for lighter ball instead.

For case 2, let's just say group 1 is the heavier side (we can swap group names if not),  remove 3 balls from group 1, take 3 balls from group 2 and add to group 1, and take 3 balls from group 3 (normal balls) and add to group 2. Remember the balls originally in group 1 and 2.

Case 2.1: If group 1 is still heavier, that means either that original ball in group 1 is the odd ball and is a heavier ball, or the original ball in group 2 is the odd ball and is a lighter ball. Just compare one of them to a normal ball, we would know which one out of the two original balls is the odd ball and if it is lighter or heavier.

Case 2.2: If group 1 is now lighter after the swap, that means one of the three balls moved from group 2 to to group 1 is the odd ball and it is lighter. Now you just have to find the light odd ball out of the 3 by comparing 2 of them similar to case 1.2.

Case 2.3: If group 1 and 2 have same weights now, that means the one of the three balls we removed from group 1 is the odd ball and it is heavier than a normal ball. Now just find the heavier ball out of those 3 using methods similar to case 1.2.

The official name of this problem is the Balance Puzzle. You can read the Wiki page if you want to lean more.


Problem 5: Silver Utensils Problem
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Image credit: Shutterstock

Answer: 

The key of solving this problem is to realize that there are many possible combinations of how much the fork, spoon and knife each cost. But there is only one answer on how much money Bill has once the prices for the fork, spoon and knife are set.

The easiest way to solve this problem is to just pick some easy numbers for the prices of the utensils that meet the requirements, and then figure out how many sets Bill can buy.

For example, let's just say a fork is $1 and a spoon is also $1. That means 21 forks and 21 spoons would cost $42 and that's how much money Bill has. If $42 can buy 28 knives, each knife must cost $1.50, and a set of fork, spoon and knife would cost $3.50. Now divide $42 by $3.50, we get 12. So Bill can buy 12 sets of utensils with all his money.

If we double the prices of each utensils, so fork is $2, spoon is $2 and knife is $3, the only thing changes is how much money Bill has. He now has $84, and he can still buy 12 sets of utensils.

What if the fork is $1, spoon is $2, and knife ends up been $2.25, and with the $63 Bill has, he can still buy 12 sets of utensils. You just have to make sure each utensil ends up in whole cents.

You can of course solve this problem using system of linear equations. You will end up with 12 set and you also don't need to know what price each utensil has.

Hope you enjoyed the reading. Do you feel smarter now?

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com