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