The dearest child of humanity is purpose

[Music]

so i fell

into the deep once again the sea

of darkness then i cannot

find even if i swim ashore

the dark will swallow me once more

march 26 the year 2020 norway has just

shut down

due to kovit 19. restaurants bars

hairdressers retail shops pretty much

all companies

that depend on customers coming

physically into their premises

except those defined as essential

grocery stores

and so on lost all revenue overnight

the norwegian minister of finance has

just received the answer to an important

calculation

how long will it take for shops to go

bankrupt the answer

is despairing for many of them it will

be a matter of only three

to four weeks

i’m a technologist and although i don’t

i know you cannot do everything with

technology i also know that you can

hardly do anything

without it so i’m a technology optimist

and i’m a human being and i’m a

technology optimist for the sole reason

that i am a humanity optimist

and that has been amplified through this

story that’s changed the way

i look at myself and the way i look at

what is possible

it has changed the way i look at human

beings

i have experienced what i firmly believe

to be a universal and powerful law

consisting of two main ingredients first

is that we choose our own conditions

or what i call in the program of our

lives

we are the programmers and secondly

it’s finding an engaging true purpose

tens of thousands of norwegian companies

needed cash support from the government

and they needed it fast and we’re

talking transfers of

billions of norwegian crowner every

month

the minister had the cash for what was

called kumpang sashon soldnegan

or the norwegian compensation scheme but

he had no means to identify the

companies in need

nor to distribute the cash to the right

beneficiaries

and money transfers between government

and private

companies typically are handled by

government administration such as

the tax administration or the labor and

welfare administration

but modifying their existing computer

systems for this task

was complex and time consuming it simply

could not be done

fast enough it was said to be impossible

in norway there is a long tradition a

collaboration between

public and private sector and since

banks do the actual payout

of money on behalf of government banks

were the next

natural step to ask for help the banks

had optimized their computer system to

help companies with loans

in during this emergency but not for

government cash support

however in one of the banks there was a

small and different team

this is my team our team so this is how

we come into this story

and we’re kind of like a swat team

almost like an odd

little silicon valley startup

but we’re still within this circle of

public and private

trust and my team’s

usual job day job or rather unusual is

that we build entirely new digital

solutions from scratch

through experimentation of rapid cycles

of trial

and error trying and failing and trying

even more

we like to say that nobody fails as fast

as we do

because in our world for every stairway

to heaven

there’s a thousand highways to hell

in this precarious situation the

government’s attitude was to

heal the patient first and then fill in

the papers

papers later so that meant that the

detail criteria of who gets cash support

and how much

we’re not ready and hence not passed in

parliament either

but although the detail criteria was not

ready and although it was said to be

impossible

and although this was not our

responsibility and part of our day job

we decided to give it a shot

this was not an experiment we truly

thought it was possible

it just had to be and failure was not an

option this time

if money in the correct account

was it necessary an inevitable outcome

and oh by the way do not get hacked

because this was the mother of all honey

pots for malicious minds

we had to ask ourselves which truths

would have to be true

for this to become possible which

conditions and circumstances that we had

to create

for ourselves in order to make this

possible because clearly

normal rules normal conditions did not

apply

and one such truth was that we must

build the

simplest but convincingly sufficiently

secure

version of all possible solutions to

this problem

another truth was that we must build

something so elastic and flexible

that we can change it quickly when the

criteria

changes because of all the ever-changing

criteria from the government

so this is kind of like building the

30th floor of a skyscraper

and then all of a sudden being asked to

move the foundation

two blocks north so this is very

different from the traditional

make it great plan and execute it well

approach of many big technology

projects

but despite attacking this problem in a

radically untraditional way

we immediately realized that one of

these other truths was that we had to

keep an enormous and almost unbearable

pace working around the clock

became almost literal 20 20 hour working

days

became the standard rather than the

exception

fortunately i don’t have to spend a lot

of time shaving every morning

i’m a single parent of my two kids and

the three of us were together in

isolation during this whole period

and i personally lost conception of time

until my 12 year old daughter asked me

dad

are you still in a meeting yes i’m going

to finish

soon yeah it’s just that it is saturday

and it’s almost midnight and it’s easter

eve that touches your daddy’s heart

not that she minded staying a plate

three weeks later the minister announced

the national television that money

is on its way and there were many

parties involved

and all of them were very satisfied

perhaps the most satisfied were my kids

who got their dad back full time

and once again a warm daddy heart

but at the core of it all was just one

small team

where time was most critical they

redefined their circumstances

mobilized the finest in human beings

made the impossible possible

and caused survival rather than

extinction for thousands of companies

let alone the consequences for their

employees

and their families i firmly believe

that in the program of our lives we are

the programmers and in this project

we’re lived

by that

i’ve circled through on the

gate somehow felt i was helpless

it’s time that i fail when i see your

rainbow

i believe i’ll get back to my love

[Music]

makes me stand up straight and fine

try to make it through the night

and dry my tears

what does it mean that in a program of

our lives we are the programmers

what does it mean that in your life you

are the programmer let me answer by

asking some questions

what does it mean to have a sense of

deep purpose and what does it mean to be

a human being

in contrast to say a computer

what does it take if first

is our self-awareness an ability

unprecedented by any other species

throughout

all time it’s the ability to have a

thought process

about our own thought process to see

ourselves

from the outside secondly

is our imagination the ability to see

the outcome of our actions before we

carry them out

to envision paths for the future as well

as the outcome of simple actions

before we actually take action

and thirdly is a conscience our inner

contest is distinguished

right from wrong

and this make up our free independent

will because we can see ourselves

before we act compare it against decide

outcomes that we have already imagined

that our conscience can confirm to be

good not bad

and this comes with responsibility it is

up to us

not to blame conditions but to make

decisions

responsibility is a wonderful word

response

ability even in spite of unfavorable

conditions and ungrateful circumstances

we have the ability to choose our own

response

through our self-awareness we can pause

and reflect on our

response to put it in the lingo of a

tech person

in the program of your life you are the

programmer

combining our conscience self-awareness

and imagination

we can start inside ourselves to find

out who is it that i truly am

and who is it that i truly want to

become my true self

my purpose my why my reason to exist

have you ever done the gravestone test

using your imagination

envision your own funeral many years

from now

what is it that people say when they

share their memories of you

what were you like what were you really

about and ultimately what does it say

on your gravestone and there are many

versions out there

on my grandfather’s gravestone it simply

said

farmer and on my grandmother’s his wife

it simply said

wife because this was their life

dedication

through struggling and ungenerous years

before

during and after the second world war

there are also other versions kind of

more posh versions

uh one is over over conductor

and that’s not an overconductor or

philharmonic orchestra or anything

but an overconductor of a tram

and perhaps the funniest of them all

car owner i find that hilarious

but you might want something deeper

something that reflects your mission

your purpose in my case i hope it

doesn’t say

he got money to companies during the

pandemic

but rather something along the lines of

a technology dreamer

or a crusader of always changing the

game

purposes are not just for individuals

they’re also for groups and for teams

so what is the purpose of our team the

swatch team in this story

our purpose are why our reason to exist

is that in everything we do we believe

in creating a future

where people have more peace of mind and

where people and organizations can do

more of what really matters to them

r why

we do this by fearlessly exploring how

new technologies can create a portfolio

of options

for what might become this future our

how

and we do this by building and breaking

things our

what

but neither what we do nor how we do it

applied this time

but it was the essence of our why the

peace of mind

think of it as sleep well at night and

the

what really matters to people that still

applied

because if all those companies went

bankrupt

it would definitely not be peace of mind

for all their employees and their

families

and definitely not being able to do what

really matters to them during the

chaotic and confusing times of the

corona crisis

our purpose was our guide our purpose

was our driver to embark on this trip

into dire straits

and into stormy waters our purpose

kept us fighting when there were not

enough hours in the day and it felt like

the ground was dissolving underneath our

feet

our purpose made our made us dry our

tears

and go where our hearts truly lie

and in a world where computer algorithms

make more and more decisions for us

and becomes better than us in a lot of

things we can stop worrying about that

and take control if we capture what is

genuinely human

our inner core are reason to exist

as individuals as teams as groups

and ultimately as humanity and this is

what has changed the way i look at

myself

and how i look at what is possible and

this is what has changed the way i look

at human beings

and i take no claim for inventing this

nor for discovering it

but through my story i have experienced

what i firmly believe to be a universal

law

and although this could have been a

story about de-bureaucratization

or about technology bravado it is not

this is a story about the universal law

that applies

to all people at all times under all

conditions and this is why i want to

share it

we need to nurture our human qualities

that computers don’t have

self-awareness imagination conscience

free independent will and use that to

find

our true purpose choose our own

conditions and be the programmers in our

lives when that force awakens

it creates hearts of lightness it

mobilizes the finest in humanity

and it shows the power of purpose

and just like our dearest child

mobilizes an

unconditional power in us and a devotion

to do

pretty much anything for it just like

that

the dearest child of humanity is purpose

and that makes the impossible possible

[Music]

now it seems oh so

long ago the sea of

darkness that will let

the sling grow down standing in

your race

i feel the warm breeze touched my face

[Music]

and then a rainbow

and glimmers through the darkened skies

[Music]

makes me stand up straight and fights

try and make it through the

nights and dry my tears

[Music]

it got me through the fight

now i make it through the night

i’ve tried my tears

you