Photo by Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash

🎧 Prefer to listen? Audio version read by Lady N.

I write for the pleasure of it.

I write for the very reason I drink water. It nourishes my soul.

I write to understand the world within and without.

I write for me, and hope that, someday, someone finds my thoughts on paper as amusing and as entertaining as I do.

I write not to impress but to express my unique perception of this colorful world I live in.

Writing is part of me. It adds color, texture, and fragance to my every day experience.

When I am sad, I write. When I am confused, I write. When it feels like the whole world is closing in on me, I write.

When an intriguing thought flashes on the screen of my mind, I scribble it down. I know it’s the universe whispering it’s secrets into my ears.

Can you hear her? the universe I mean.

Every time I write, I uncover a new side of me. A side that surprises me, sometimes frightens me.

Writing upgrades the lens through which I see the world around me. It allows me to zoom in on the beauty, and ugliness of humanity. Above all, it recenters my life-compass towards Truth, whatever that may be.

In writing, I’m free. Free from all mental, social, and physical chains. Like a bird, I can fly and perch at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Like a fish, I can swim to the depths of the Atlantic ocean.

Writing reminds me of my God-like DNA. Like God, from nothing I create something. With every word, I spin a new world into existence. With just the movement of my digits across a keyboard, something beautiful, something magical, something stupid appears before me.

So you ask me why I write? Let me ask you this, why do Roses bloom, why do Jasmine’s smell pleasant, why do trees shed their leaves? why do babies cry?

I am here now. You are here now. We are here now. Born into the age of digital machines. What a billion-dollar luck.

I don’t need stones to etch my thoughts like Moses in the Bible. All I need is a tablet to engrave my words into the fabric of silicon, of course without the blood, sweat and tears of stone carving.

What a wonderful gift, this life is. Enjoy it with all it’s pleasures - and writing is one of them - for thy cometh a time, where all will be lost and gone.  

Thanks for Reading and Listening!

If you found this article helpful, feel free to reach out and connect with me…

1. You can follow me on Medium here.
2. Follow me on LinkedIn here.

A Little Background

The IBM Agentic AI with LangChain and LangGraph course is the 7th course of the IBM RAG and Agentic AI Professional specialization, focusing mainly on how to build multi-agent systems using LangGraph.

It builds on the previous IBM Fundamentals of Building AI Agents course on building AI agents using LangChain.

If you’re interested to know more about the previous course, click here for a 3-minute read on my personal thoughts after completing it.

While the previous course shows us how to use LangChain to build an autonomous AI agent, this course moves us one step forward towards Agentic AI.

The objective of this post is to highlight the key concepts covered in the course and provide simple, easy-to-understand definitions and explanations. It is grounded not only in the content of the course, but also in additional external sources and my own understanding.

So after reading this post, you will have an overview of the main skeleton of the course and knowledge of the central concepts that make it worth taking.

So let’s dive in…

What’s the Difference Between AI Agent and Agentic AI?

An AI Agent is an autonomous system or single entity designed to accomplish a specific, narrow, well-defined task with minimal human intervention.

Agentic AI is a team of AI agents working together to achieve a goal. The agents coordinate tasks, exchange information, adapt roles dynamically, and share memory.

Table: Differences between AI Agent and Agentic AI

LangChain and especially LangGraph are the 2 main frameworks used throughout the course to demonstrate how to build these multi-agent systems.

The course focuses for the most part on LangGraph framework.

So,

What’s LangChain and LangGraph?

LangChain is a Python framework for building applications around large language models (LLMs). It achieves this by executing a sequence of actions in a chain. Key components of LangChain are Memory, Prompt, LLM, Tools, and Agent.

LangGraph is a specialized library within the LangChain ecosystem for building stateful, multi-agent applications. It models complex agent workflows as graphs — so its core components are nodes, edges, and persistent state.

If you remember one thing about LangGraph, it is this: It follows a graph structure.

Core Components of LangGraph

The course dives deep into building a LangGraph application using its core components:

• State: The central concept in LangGraph. It represents all the information that flows through your application workflow.
• Nodes: The core fundamental unit of action. A node represents a specific task, function, computation, or operation the AI agent needs to perform. It takes in state as input, performs some operation, and outputs updates to the state. Examples: fetch data from an API, process information, or generate a response.
• Edges: Define the connections between nodes and guide execution flow. Edges can be:
  • Direct — always go from node A to node B.
  • Conditional — choose the next node based on the current state. These are the decision-making points in the workflow.

NOTE: Two special default nodes required in any LangGraph workflow are START and END — they trigger the beginning and end of a workflow.

Agentic AI Approaches

The course covers 3 main agentic approaches:

1. Reflection Agents

Figure: Basic reflection agent mechanics

Reflection strategy aims at improving the quality and accuracy of outputs generated by AI agents. Reflection agents use internal critique to refine outputs — they can evaluate their own output, identify weaknesses, and iteratively improve through feedback loops.

The basic reflection approach is made up of 2 LLM calls:

• A generator that responds to the user prompt.
• A reflector (like a critic or teacher) that analyzes the generator’s response, identifies flaws, and provides constructive feedback.

This creates a generator-reflector loop that runs for a fixed number of iterations until a final polished response is produced.

Reflection agents are well-suited for content generation, creative, and open-ended tasks.

Drawback: Since the reflection step isn’t grounded in any external process, the final result may not be significantly better than the original.

2. Reflexion Agent

Reflexion agent strategy builds on reflection agents by iteratively improving responses using self-critiques, external tools, and citations. A Reflexion agent is made up of:

• A responder that generates a response along with additional actions in the form of search queries.
• A revisor that explicitly critiques each response, grounds its criticism in external data, refines the response, integrates tool outputs, and adds references.

3. ReAct Agents

Figure: ReAct Pattern

ReAct stands for Reasoning + Acting. It is a strategy designed for tasks that require step-by-step reasoning, combining 3 key concepts:

• Reasoning: The agent thinks through the problem step by step.
• Acting: The agent uses external tools (e.g. search engines like Tavily, calculators, APIs) to gather information or perform actions.
• Observing: The agent processes the results of its actions and integrates them into its reasoning.

Bonus: Tavily is a search tool that can be configured and invoked to enhance AI responses with external, real-time data.

Example Use-Cases of Multi-Agent Systems

• Automated market research reports
• Customer support automation
• Legal contract review

Agentic Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)

RAG is a technique that enhances LLMs by integrating them with external data sources. Without RAG, the LLM is the only source of knowledge — leading to hallucinations, limited knowledge, and generic responses. RAG combines the generative capabilities of LLMs with precise information retrieval, producing responses that are more accurate, up-to-date, and relevant.

Agentic RAG enhances RAG by incorporating an intelligent decision-making component that selects the most relevant data source based on the query context. An LLM acts as the decision-making agent, boosting accuracy, adaptability, and real-world applicability across industries.

Takeaways

• LangGraph represents agents as graphs of states and nodes.
• State (often message history) flows through nodes (functions or LLM calls) linked by edges with conditional logic.
• Multi-agent systems organize agents into specialized teams that can collaborate.
• LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, and IBM BeeAI are frameworks for building, orchestrating, and managing multi-agent systems.
• Agentic RAG is RAG with an intelligent decision-making component that selects the most relevant data sources based on query context.

Here’s a cute little certificate I was awarded for completing the course

Thanks for reading! If you found this article useful, subscribe — I’ll be sharing similar content as I dive into the next IBM RAG and Agentic AI course.

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.

Okay let’s cut straight to the crux of the matter — why you’re here.

You want to know if the IBM Fundamentals of Building AI Agents course is worth your time, effort, and money?

I will try my very best to share with you my thoughts after enrolling and completing the course.

But before I do that, if you’re curious to know what Coursera promises you’ll learn, here’s the official link to the course.

1. Why Did I Take This Course — and Why Should You?

I’m a data scientist and I have spent many years building AI models to solve challenges in various sectors — from healthcare, to energy, to academia and more.

And in 2022, the world was set on a frenzy. OpenAI released ChatGPT.

I was immediately assigned full responsibility to build a prototype research tool for document analysis using OpenAI’s large language model API.

In that project, at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Istanbul, I experimented with LangChain’s tools such as embeddings, vectorstores, chains, chat models, prompt templates and more. And that gave me a glimpse of the seismic change the world of software development was about to undergo.

After completing the project and transitioning to my new role as a Data Scientist at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, I took a step back and watched from the sidelines how the shock waves of LLM development swept across different industries.

Now, fast-forward to 2026 — the discussion in the AI arena has shifted from using LLMs merely as text-generation and pattern recognition machines, to extending their function to interact with the real world: that is, the Agentic AI approach.

This is a complete game-changer and I couldn’t be left behind. So I had to pick up from where I had dropped the ball and stay on top of the AI development trend.

That’s why I looked around and found the IBM RAG and Agentic AI Professional specialization as the best systematic path to become fluent in Agentic AI.

If you’re a data scientist looking to upskill, or an AI enthusiast who’s just curious about what all the fuss around Agentic AI is about — this course can be a good first step.

2. How Much Time Does It Take to Complete the Course?

The website says 11 hours. I say it depends.

It depends on your current understanding of the Python programming language and the LangChain framework. It also depends on your motivation for taking the course.

I wanted to learn how to build Agentic workflows from scratch. So I wasn’t in any hurry to just watch videos, complete the quizzes and lab sessions, get the certificate, and scream “Hurray, I did it!!”

No.

I took my time to understand what each piece of code was doing and replicated it myself. I even went the extra mile of running the lab sessions locally, developing a user-interactive interface using Streamlit, and playing around with the agents. This takes a bit more time and patience — but it’s worth it.

3. How Much Does It Cost to Enroll?

Coursera offers monthly and annual subscriptions of €50 and €342 respectively. These give you access to almost all course specializations, including the IBM RAG and Agentic AI Professional Certificate. You can also enroll for free for 7 days without charge.

Now, here’s a little secret most people don’t know about the platform:

It offers 75% financial aid for almost all its courses. Which means you get to pay only about €10 per course. So if you’re low on budget, consider this option. Note that it takes about 2 weeks for financial aid to be granted.

4. What Did You Like About the Course?

• The extra readings provided throughout the course. They allowed me to digest the content bit by bit at my own pace.
• The lab walkthroughs. These provided the most value for me. I want to build Agentic workflows, so I need to practice. The lab sessions gave me the basic foundation from which I can build more complex Agentic workflows.
• The course hammered on the idea of ensuring I understand how tools are defined and structured, how LLMs interact with these tools, and how LangChain provides an easy framework for agents to orchestrate LLMs and tools to achieve set goals.

5. What Did You Dislike About the Course?

• The videos were too fast for me, and the voice sounded like it was AI-generated (I might be wrong — who knows these days what’s AI and what’s human?). I’m an AI advocate but I still enjoy the human touch.

6. What Advice Do You Have for Someone About to Take the Course?

Take notes as you read and listen to the videos. Don’t just copy and paste. Write them in your own words. This will serve as a quick memory jogger whenever you return to the content.

After completing the course, you’re awarded a certificate. Here’s mine:

Certificate: Fundamentals of Building AI Agents

Alright. That’s it for now. And thanks for reading.

If you found this article useful, consider subscribing for more related content. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: No ChatGPT or any Chatbot was used in this post. So please forgive me for any spelling or grammatical errors you may find. I’m only human.

Photo source: Calculating Signal-to-Noise Ratio Using DFT

2025 is gone. Done and dusted. You can cry about it, laugh about it, or feel nothing about it. It won’t matter. It’s dead.

Here you are. At the borderline. Ready to crossover and begin another 365 day marathon. Yet, no goals. No plans. Confused. Maybe scared. Maybe overwhelmed. Others seem to have their calendars already planned out including the restaurants and menus for the next vacation in Malaysia (If you live in Germany, you know what I mean).

But not you.

For you, 2025 passed by like a gust of wind. And 2026 is an incoming storm.

It is easy to watch the 1 minute 2025 highlights of your friends on Instagram; the places they visited, the foods they ate, the parties they attended, and think to yourself, “What a fun and adventurous year they had. Mine was boring and miserable.”

What they don’t show you, are the lowlight moments of their lives; perhaps the depression, the emptiness, the demons within that tormented them almost everyday of the year.

Now those same friends have probably shared with you again big plans and goals for 2026; hit the gym, climb Mt. Everest, visit the Great Wall of China.

But here you are. No big goals. No exciting adventures. 2026 feels like it’s gonna be the same or even worse than 2025.

But it doesn’t have to be. And you don’t have to set big goals. You don’t have to know with surgical precision what to do or who you’re going to become in 2026.

What’s important is that you orient yourself in a direction or path that leads to a better you.

How do you do that?

Here’s what I’m suggesting you focus on for 2026. A worthy goal that would be of immense benefit to you.

Have you ever heard of the term: Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR)?

It is a ratio commonly used in engineering to measure the performance of a system. The greater the SNR value the better the system. Lower SNR value is undesirable.

I first came across it in my undergraduate years, as a telecommunications engineering major at the University of Buea, Cameroon.

And most recently, the term became central to my work at Robert Koch Institute in Berlin. We used this metric as a measure of the performance of our AI-powered micro-service. This micro-service predicts if an article is relevant or irrelevant using machine learning. Hundreds of thousands of articles from multiple sources pass through our system and it basically filters out noisy articles from the relevant ones.

You maybe wondering why this got anything to do with setting 2026 goals.

You see, you and I are biological filters. Every second, we are bombarded with information from all sorts of sources. For instance, the blaring music by our neighbour, the unending fireworks on new year’s eve, the Istagram Reels, Facebook posts, Youtube shorts, X tweets, Tiktok videos, etc.

All these information does one of two things. It either increases your SNR or decreases it.

As a biological machine, what if your goal this year can be as simple as:

Increase my signal-to-noise ratio.

What does this really mean?

Take a look again at the SNR formula above: There are 2 ways to increase SNR. You can either increase the relevant (wanted) component, or decrease the irrelevant (unwanted) content.

How?

Increasing the relevant component could mean: Do a side project and share on LinkedIn; Read 2 pages of a book everyday, Spend 15 minutes listening to an audiobook or podcast, learn how to play chess, enroll in an extra course, write a book, exercise 10 minutes a day instead of zero. The list is endless. All these activities will increase your brain signal power and therefore your SNR.

Another way to increase SNR is by decreasing the unwanted component. This can mean reducing the consumption of irrelevant content e.g Spend 2 hours on Istagram instead of 5. It could mean sleeping 7 hours instead of 4; it could mean drinking 3 beers per week instead of 10. These activities reduces the noise power, and hence, increases the SNR.

Consumption without intent is Noise. Consumption with intent is leverage — Dan Koe

So here’s my challenge for you this year.

What if in 2026, you and I set our goal to train the software in our brains to be better filters. To focus more on signal and less on noise.

One technique I found that will help you cut through the noise and focus on the signal in every part of your life is a simple question that Author of The One Thing, Gay Keller, asked:

What is the ONE thing that I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

If you’re a student, what’s the ONE thing you can do that would improve your grades at the end of the semester?

If you’re unemployed, what is the ONE thing you can do that will increase your chances of getting a job.

If you’re married, what is the ONE thing you can do to improve your relationship with your partner.

I recently asked myself: What is the ONE thing I can do to improve my focus? More than 5 ideas popped up into my mind. But the one I knew would make the most impact was 10 minutes of daily meditation. And so I started doing directed meditation. And the rewards became apparent almost immediately.

Here’s my wish for you.

May 2026, be less noisy for you. And may you find peace and calmness.

Happy new year!!

𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘳- 𝘕𝘰 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘎𝘗𝘛 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘣𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵. 𝘚𝘰 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 me for 𝘢𝘯𝘺 spelling or 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 may 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥. 𝘐’𝘮 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯.

Photo by Madhav Rajesh on Unsplash

You might be going through the worse time of your life right now. Or maybe you went through some gloomy incident in the past, that shattered your life into pieces like the remains of a wine glass fired into a solid-wall. 

It could be depression, fear of expression, fear of criticism by family, fear of starting that project that can change your life forever, or loss of a significant person in your life.

If you ever felt like quitting but suddenly found yourself reading articles like this, then you are a fighter, not a quitter. What you must be looking for is a better weapon that can help you crush the demons life puts on your path.

In this article, I’ll show you how to use your greatest weapon — your mind, and build a powerful optimistic mindset that will permit you to face life and all the nasty monsters it throws at you head-on.

While reading the book Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy, I came across a simple yet powerful sentence;

To build a powerful mental attitude you must strive to become an optimist.

I became so curious and wanted to know more. So, I asked the god of the internet world— Google, and it came up with this man known as the father of positive psychology — Martin Seligman who after researching for 22 years at Pensyvennia university finally summarized in his book — Learned Optimism that;

Optimism is the most important quality you can develop for personal and professional success and happiness.

So now, the question that was swimming around in my head was;

How can I become an optimist when life itself feels unbearable?

I’m guessing this is the same question that must be cycling over your head as well.

It turns out that, even the most optimistic people the world knows today lived optimistically with a lot of troubles and tribulations. They weren’t special. They also faced the wrath of life. However, they developed an indestructible powerful mental attitude.

I have come to realize that, being an optimist has very little to do with your current state in life. However, it is about consistently and consciously deciding to react differently to everyday situations you encounter; From cursing the alarm clock when it rings, to breaking your TV set when you’re favorite team loses. 

So, here is how to build a powerful optimistic mental attitude with four simple principles.

1. Look for Good in Every Situation.

Every Dark Cloud has a Silver lining.

I have heard countless stories of people who hit the very bottom of the bottomless pit of life but, still yet built a fortune from scratch. A typical example is the story of Oprah Winfrey born to a single mother, molested during her childhood and early teens and became pregnant at 14; her son was born prematurely and died in infancy.

There are thousands of people across the globe with similar stories. Maybe you know a couple of friends or relatives that have been to hell and back. Maybe you have been through hell or are currently going through one right now.

If you ask every one of such people, how they succeeded to become who they’re today, the answer is going to be the same. They stopped focusing on how bad their situation was and then started searching for the good in the bad situation.

So, beginning from this very moment, no matter what your situation is, poverty, joblessness, heartbreak, etc, here is what you can do. Forget for a second about the problem, and focus your conscious mind on finding the good in that situation.

It’s not going to be easy. I know that. So, here is what I propose. Take a cold shower and put on some comfortable clothes and shoes and then go out for a walk to the park, sea-side, forest. Whatever works for you,

Then ask yourself this. What is the one good thing that has come out from this horrible situation? It doesn’t matter how small the good might seem. 

For example, let’s imagine, the Love of your life, suddenly called you and said it was over without any explanation. Your heart is crushed into a smoothie. You can’t live without him or her. How can you? When you did everything together. 

Here is a possible silver lining. At least you’ll get to sleep peacefully without someone snoring in your ears like a pig in labor. That counts for something right? Keep searching for more good and soon you’re going to start feeling good.

But this isn’t enough to become a powerful optimist.

2. Seek the Valuable Lesson in Every Setback and Difficulty.

Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results _ Albert Einstein

Brian Tracy in his book wrote, “Optimists believe that difficulties come not to obstruct but to instruct”.

Look, every obstacle or setback that you are going to face in life contains a valuable lesson that you can learn and grow from. This is a universally accepted truism by optimists. They’re always ready to embrace challenges. Sometimes it feels like they get motivated by it.

This is totally contrary to what most people do when they encounter a setback in their lives. Their minds automatically switch to defense mode and they just crawl back to their previous miserable conditions. They never change and they never use the experience to grow.

Let’s imagine for a split second that, you’re a drug addict and have almost lost your life to drugs. After such a near-death experience, what lesson have you learned? What you can do to turn things around? 

For me, for example, I could enroll in a rehab center. Later, create an NGO educating youths about the perils of drugs and offering counseling to drug users. 

Whenever you find yourself in deep shit, don’t interpret it as a difficulty or challenge, that has come to kill you. Instead, ask yourself these questions; 

What valuable lesson can I learn from this? How can ensure that next time it doesn’t happen?

Remember, setback and difficulties are like the universe’s way of saying it’s time to up your game and move to the next level. Just like in video games, where it’s impossible to defeat a certain villain unless you have a particular weapon in your arsenal, the same holds true in life.

By changing how you approach challenges, you’re halfway to building a powerful mental attitude, but you ain’t there yet.

3. Look for the Solution to Every Problem.

Photo by 胡 卓亨 on Unsplash

Have you ever had a problem you know you must solve but you try as much as possible to ignore it with the hopes that, it’s somehow magically going to disappear?

Well, I don’t know about you, but for me, I would have won a gold medal in such a contest 2 years ago.

Everything started changing when I realized that problems don’t just disappear. I had to make them disappear and the only way to do that was by actually making a conscious effort of taking sole responsibility to solve the problems as they appeared.

Look, problems will always appear out of the blue and there is nothing you and I can do about it. That is life. Choosing to ignore problems will only lead to more problems piling up like dirt in your backyard.

To build a powerful mental attitude, you have to make up your mind and start taking responsibility for everything that happens in your life. 

Do what you know has to be done by you at the time you need to do it. You’ll be amazed by how much control you have over your life. 

Instead of pointing fingers and blaming others when things go wrong, strive to take action, and find possible solutions. 

Here are some questions optimists ask themselves when faced with a problem. 

What’s the problem? What can we do now? What is the next step?

In your journey to becoming an optimist, you have to ask yourself these very questions each time a problem pops up in your face and then take action immediately. You’ll be mindblown by how quickly the mountain in front of you collapses like dominoes.

In very rare situations, you won’t find any solution, because maybe it doesn’t exist. In such a case, it helps to remind yourself that you are not alone. That there are millions of people who have lived before you and who are currently living with the same problem.

4. Think and Talk Continually about Your Goals.

Photo by Anna Vander Stel on Unsplash

I had this friend back in my undergraduate days, who never stopped talking about the car he wants to buy, the company he’s going to build, or the book he’s going to publish?

Guess what? He’s done all of these and even more. He now owns his own publishing company. 

For these types of guys and gals, all they talk about is what they want and how they are going to get it. They have total disregard of the past and where they came from. They are laser-focused on the future. They seem to base their life-decisions and actions on the old adage Forward Ever and Backward Never.

To develop a powerful mental attitude through optimism, you should always visualize your goals and desires. Write them down. Talk about them to the people you trust. Let the thought of achieving your goals bring a smile on your face. You’ll start feeling more confident, focused, and creative. 

The Takeaway

I know life is hard. It wasn’t meant to be easy. Just as Les Brown said, “If your parents or someone promised you life is meant to be easy, they lied”. 

I want you to understand this and then develop an impenetrable mind, one that can’t be broken. One that is ready to handle anything life throws at it because whether we like it or not, life is going to throw a whole lot of dirt at us.

So, building a powerful mental attitude, requires that you always strive to find the silver lining even in the darkest clouds. There is always one, keep looking. 

Also, the universe we live in has a way of teaching us, and I believe this is by placing challenges along the path of life we walk on. Always learn from any difficulty or setback.

When you’re faced with a problem, avoid the temptation of pointing fingers and focus all your conscious mind in finding a solution. Never cry over spilled milk. 

Lastly, talk to friends who share the same ideals with you about your goals. If you have no friends you trust, talk to yourself. Get excited about the person you’re becoming and act like it. 

Do these consistently and you’ll be surprised by how powerful your mental attitude will grow. 

Thanks for Reading!

If you found this article helpful, feel free to reach out and connect with me…

1. You can follow me on Medium here.
2. Follow me on LinkedIn here.

source: http://enterprisetalk.ondot.media/tech-trends/ai/human-intelligence-can-fix-ai-shortcomings/

Outline

• Definition of Artificial Intelligence
• Brief History of Artificial Intelligence
• Sub-sections of Artificial Intelligence
• Leading Companies in Artificial Intelligence Today
• Major Industries Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Today
• Artificial Intelligence existing in our Everyday Life
• Future of Artificial Intelligence

1. What is Artificial Intelligence?

source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/11/11/13-mind-blowing-things-artificial-intelligence-can-already-do-today/

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a sub-field of computer science that involves using computers to do things that traditionally require human intelligence or intervention such as decision making, problem-solving, and learning.

This means creating algorithms to classify, analyze, and draw predictions from data. It also involves acting on data, learning from new data, and improving over time. With AI, computers can learn to accomplish a task without ever being explicitly programmed to do so.

2. Brief History of Artificial Intelligence.

Photo by Giammarco Boscaro on Unsplash

How did we get here and why was AI not Popular in the 1990s?

• 1950 — Alan Turing Introduced the Turing Test to determine whether a machine can think and respond logically to questions like a human without any distinction.
• 1956 — The term Artificial Intelligence was coined by John McCarthy in the Dartmouth Conference.
• 1960 — Psychologist Frank Rosenblatt’s work on the perception lead to the development of the Mark 1 Perception regarded as the first computer that learned skills by trial and error.
• 1978/1979 — SCARA robotic arm was created in Japan that changed the automated Assembly.
• The late 1970s — Early 1980s — Known as the “winter of AI”. Time of reduced funding and interest in AI
• 1988 — British scientist Rollo Carpenter creates Jabberwacky. A chatbot designed to carry out conversations with users and initiate human interactions.
• 1997 — IBM’s Deep Blue computer beats Gary Kasparov reigning world chess champion, in a game of chess.
• Late 1990s — Dr. Cynthia Breazeal of MIT designs KISMET. A robot that can recognize and replicate human emotions.
• Late 2000s — IBM introduces Watson. A question-answering computer system that is able to answer questions posed in Natural Language.
• 2011 — Apple launches Siri. An intelligent personal assistant.
• 2017 — Google AI Alpha Go beats the World reigning Champion and Grand Master Ke Jie in the Game of Go.
• Other intelligent systems are emerging across the globe now.

https://www.acuityads.com/blog/2019/02/25/ai-advancements-for-2019/

3. Sub-sections of AI

source: screenshot from my presentation

Machine Learning — An Approach to Achieve Artificial Intelligence

Machine learning at its most basic is the practice of using algorithms to parse data, learn from it, and then make a determination or prediction about something in the world.

So rather than hand-coding software routines with a specific set of instructions to accomplish a particular task, the machine is “trained” using large amounts of data and algorithms that give it the ability to learn how to perform the task.

Computer Vision remained one of the best applications of machine learning but couldn’t surpass human performance. It wasn’t good enough. So,scientists had to do better. Deep learning was born.

Deep Learning — A Technique for Implementing Machine Learning

source: https://techweez.com/2014/03/19/facebooks-deep-learning-face-verification-ai-performs-good-humans/facebook-deep-learning-face-verification/

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that is based on artificial neural networks. ANNs were inspired by the biology of the human brain where each artificial neuron tries to mimic the functioning of the neurons of the brain.

ANNs are organized in discrete layers made up of a fixed number of neurons. These layers are interconnected with one another starting from the input layer to the output layer. Imagine blocks laid next to one another and in each block, you have to perform a computation and then parse the information to the next block and so on until you get to the final block where the final output is delivered.

In deep learning, models require lot’s of data compared to machine learning.

The advent of GPU and the availability of so much data following Moor’s Law has made Deep Learning the new girl in the town of AI.

4. Leading Companies in AI Today.

According to Forbes Magazines. These are the 9 tech-giants that are paving the way for the future of AI:

source: screenshot from my presentation slides

5. Major Industries AI is Transforming Today.

a) Health-Care (Medicine)

• Robot Doctors: Theseare complex and intelligent machines designed for specific tasks e.g In 2017, a robot in China passed the medical licensing exam using only its AI brain.
• Clinical Diagnosis: AI algorithms diagnose diseases faster and more accurately than doctors. e.g In 2018, Google’s DeepMind trained a neural network to accurately detect over 50 types of eye diseases by simply analyzing 3D rectal scans. Also, AI algorithms can analyze and detect certain cancers with high precision using MRI scans faster than doctors
• Drug Discovery: The idea is to build a drug discovery program using deep learning and AI that takes maybe days instead of the normal months and even years by trial and error format of the past.

b) Transportation

AI and machine learning have produced significant innovation in the transportation industry through the development of self-driving cars or autonomous vehicles. By using cameras, LIDARS and sensors these cars are able to navigate the streets and avoid collisions. For example, in 2018, trials of the first self-driving taxis were launched in Tokyo.

source: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2018/08/9739c81b3760-autonomous-taxi-trial-carrying-passengers-begins-in-tokyo.html

c) Education

It is mindblowing the extend to which AI has been incorporated into education in certain countries. For example; kids in some primary schools in china now wear headbands that track their cognitive levels, determines when they are paying attention, distracted, yawning. Sends this information to the teacher and also shares it with parent chat groups. The results are insane. Kids have laser-focus and grades are highly improved.

d. Agriculture

https://www.aitrends.com/ai-in-agriculture/the-environmental-impacts-of-ai-and-iot-in-agriculture/

It is estimated that, within the next 80 years, an additional 3.6 billion people will need food. Production needs to improve beyond what’s possible today in order to meet this drastic rise in population.

Artificial can help build increase productivity to circumvent the rise in population.

6. AI existing in our Everyday Life.

Photo by Morning Brew on Unsplash

I am confident most of us are oblivious of how our day-to-day lives are being affected by AI and machine learning-powered applications

• Facebook face recognition
• Email Spam Filtering used by google
• Netflix movie recommendation
• Google Translate: Uses NLP techniques to automatically translate text from one language to another.

8. Glimpse into the Future of Artificial Intelligence

Photo by Alex Iby on Unsplash

“We will look back on 2019 and wonder, How did they do that without AI?” — Alex Shartsis, founder and CEO of Perfect Price.

No one actually knows where AI is headed even in the next 50 years. What people like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, and other tech leaders say is prophetic. This is because AI seems to be running amok into the future with no leash on. This is a double-edged sword. I hope we find ourselves on the blunt side. Regardless, there is a lot of excitement for the possible doors AI is potentially going to open in almost every industry. Based on the vision of some of the leaders in the leading companies of AI here is a sneaky peek into the future:

a) Transportation.

https://www.techradar.com/news/everything-ces-2020-taught-us-about-the-exciting-future-of-autonomous-cars

The future of AI in transportation is autonomous vehicles, efficient traffic management systems. Autonomous vehicles will help reduce traffic and increase safety. Vehicles will be able to communicate with each other, pedestrians, and the infrastructure of smart cities that comes with 5G.

We’ll have vehicles that predict the need for repair using AI-powered machinery to fix it. The goal in many cases is to improve safety and reduce the cost of transporting goods and people.

b) Education

https://www.fourgoods.co/is-the-future-of-education-ai-led-learning-platforms/

Some experts say that AI will play the role of a teaching assistant(TA note your job is at risk). AI will improve Personalized education based on the ability of a student to learn a particular subject. Provide you hints to some complex math problems. Classrooms will be completely replaced by virtual classrooms. Repetitive tasks such as grading and assessment will be delegated to AI and the teachers can focus more of their time in teaching students.

c) Energy

AI will help to control power grids. It will contribute significantly to energy conservation at home. For example, in smart homes powered by AI, we’ll be able to recognize patterns of energy consumption by their host and adapt to automatically regulating it. 

Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, deep learning are tools that can either be used to create something so significant such as saving lives, eradicating poverty, eradicating hunger thereby jolting living standards or it can be used as a weapon to exterminate humanity.

Thanks for Reading!

If you found this article helpful, feel free to reach out and connect with me…

1. You can follow me on Medium here.
2. Follow me on LinkedIn here.
3. Visit my website; beltus.github.io for more interesting posts.
4. Follow me onTwitter
5. Follow me on Instagram

References

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Archives - Disruptor Daily
Whether it’s a disruptive new artificial intelligence startup or news on AI disrupting another industry, you’ll find it…www.disruptordaily.com

The History of Artificial Intelligence - Science in the News
by Rockwell Anyoha Can Machines Think? In the first half of the 20th century, science fiction familiarized the world…sitn.hms.harvard.edu

What Are The Differences Between AI, Machine Learning, NLP, And Deep Learning?
What is the difference between AI, Machine Learning, NLP, and Deep Learning? originally appeared on Quora: the…www.forbes.com

The Future of Artificial Intelligence and Cybernetics
Science fiction has, for many years, looked to a future in which robots are intelligent and cyborgs are commonplace…www.technologyreview.com

The Difference Between AI, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning? | NVIDIA Blog
This is the first of a multi-part series explaining the fundamentals of deep learning by long-time tech journalist…blogs.nvidia.com

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/01/15/how-ai-is-revolutionizing-health-care/#1d5277db403c

Photo by Kat J on Unsplash

Have you ever finished watching a motivational video and that very moment you feel like you can pull a Range Rover with one finger? 

Or you wake up one morning so pumped up with energy that you decide to engage in that 10 million dollar idea, but five minutes later, you find yourself miserably staring at some random youtube video about how to live in the Sahara desert for one month with no water. 

I’m guessing you are smiling right now because you know pretty well what I’m talking about. In fact, I have done it countless times in the past.

It became so normal that whenever I feel motivated I just tell myself it’s going to pass anytime soon. So why even bother to start working on a project when you’re just going to abandon it in a few minutes or days?

It is pretty clear that motivation is super important to get us started, but it fails every time to get us across to the finish line. 

The problem is that, as humans, we tend to give a blind eye to simple truths that are right in front of us and we keep believing things will be different the next time. But it never is.

Let me explain. I have always believed for many years that motivation is what I needed to get the results I wanted. But why does that inner burning desire always die out every time? 

I asked myself this question time and time again and finally, I stumbled upon a tiny concept while reading the book The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. I then immediately knew that I might have just found the key to solving this life-long mystery.

Before writing this article, I had to make sure this concept works. I have experimented on it for a month now and the results are mindblowing.

So in this article, I will show you how to not rely on motivation to finish whatever project you decide to work on. For example, writing a book, learning how to build a website, starting a new business, whatever it is.

Before you continue reading this article, I want you to put this in mind. Motivation is going to give you the initial momentum that you might need to get started, but it is not what you are going need to get to the finish line.

What is going to get me to the finish line then?

The answer is simple. It is Accountability and I am going to show you how shortly in this article. 

Hal in his book suggested to his readers to each get what he calls an accountability partner to practice the lessons of the miracle morning with. It can be a friend, colleague, or even your dog if you are living on an isolated island in outer space(just kidding!)

Photo by Alvan Nee on Unsplash

When I saw that, I had a vivid epiphany. I asked myself what if I could apply the accountability technique to help solve my chronic procrastination problem. Yes, I do procrastinate a lot. Don’t be shocked.

At that instant, I picked up my phone and posted these words on my WhatsApp status…

“I have decided to create a book reading club to help those who like reading books to develop the discipline to complete the book they chose to read. Feel free to join using the link below”,

Remember, this was me trying to get myself to read more books.

For those who were bold enough to join, I warmly welcomed them and set the following rule. 

1. Choose a book you love to read.
2. Calculate the number of chapters or pages in the book
3. State the number of chapters or pages you will be reading daily
4. State the date you going to begin reading
5. Calculate the end date of completing the book
6. Post it in the group.

These rules were meant to reinforce the concept of accountability. I knew that, by stating your name and posting the above information for everyone to see, you become obligated to do it. It’s like making a deal or signing a contract. No one wants to be a fraud or liar or pretender or anything bad. 

Now, fast forward 3 weeks later. I completed a 500-page book in 8 days and I have just finished reading my second book The Four-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris this morning before completing this article.

My book reading club members especially those who started the same day with me, are almost done reading their second books as well as I write this article today.

Remember that, these are normal guys and gals that could not even commit to reading 5 pages of a book a day, now some of them even surprised me by reading up to 60 pages some days. It is simply unbelievable.

Do you see where I am going with this?

If not, let me explain. I decided not to look for an accountability partner. Instead, I looked for an accountability group. And then made everyone accountable to everyone.

Now, as the group creator, I have no choice but to read at least a chapter of a book every day. You can’t preach what you don’t practice. Can you?

Now, do I need motivation for that? You tell me. Whether I like it or not, whether I feel like it or not, I am bound to do it. I gave myself no way out. It is like creating your own prison, getting in, and then throwing the keys out of the window.

I know you might be thinking that this must be hard and I feel miserable and sad. Guess what? It is the best decision I ever made in my more than 2 decades of existence on mother earth and I go to bed happier than I ever did before. 

Words can’t even begin to describe the feeling of being able to read at least 2 books every month while at the same time pushing people to become the best versions of themselves.

It is the most impactful transformation I ever witnessed in my life to date just within a short period of time all thanks to this new concept of accountability.

Do you want to get stuff done?

Screw motivation. Here is what you need to do.

You need to put yourself in a situation where you are accountable to someone or a group of people. For this to be highly effective, it needs to feel like something you can only escape from when it is done. No other way out.

But how can I get an accountability partner?

Getting an accountability partner is super easy. I don’t even want you to do that. I want you to get an accountability group. Look, it’s easy to call your accountability partner and convince him/her that, you need a two weeks break and he/she will definitely understand.

But convincing a group of people that truly depend on you is way more challenging and that is what I want you to do. If you are dead serious about completing any project, get a freaking accountability group, and see the magic.

Let’s say for example you have decided to learn how to create websites. You had tried several times but you always gave up. Here is how you can hack your mind and get it done in less time than you ever thought possible.

Find a small organization in your locality. Explain to them how the world has become a global village and organizations like theirs all have websites. Make them see the importance of a website and then offer to create one for them for FREE!!. No charge. Nadar. Sifir.

Next, give them a deadline of 2 weeks or a maximum of a month. Set a specific date and time. Let them know you are going to update them weekly, then get to work.

Now, that is an inescapable prison. You won’t need motivation to get it done. You just got yourself an accountability group. Your reputation hangs on the line. You either swim or drown in your own pool?

Fortunately, the innate human instinct is to survive and that’s exactly what you’re going to do. 

You can use this strategy on anything you plan on starting and finishing. You can even get creative. The higher the stakes the better. For example, you can make a deal of 1000 dollars or more with a friend, that if you don’t finish reading a book in 1 week, it’s all his.

Guess what? In two days you might even be done.

The Takeaway

Whenever you feel demotivated about something you started to do with so much passion and enthusiasm. Remember, motivation is not necessarily what you need to get it done. 

You need an external driving force that will continuously push you even when you feel like stopping. I want you to understand that almost everyone gets demotivated after they start doing something and that is totally normal and you should expect it to happen.

The concept of accountability that I shared with you in this article is a powerful preemptive technique that is going to ensure that you get through the stormy days of your awesome project and to the very end.

If you loved reading this article, then you should definitely check out my recent article on how to permanently create a new habit based on what I learned from Hal Elrod.

Try to use the accountability technique and please come back and share with us your stories of how it has helped you to complete any task.

For anyone wishing to be part of this prestigious group of committed readers from around the globe, feel free to contact me on any of the social media platforms.

Thanks for Reading!

If you found this article helpful, feel free to subscribe below and never miss another article. Also feel free to reach out and connect with me…

1. You can follow me on Medium here.
2. Follow me on LinkedIn here.
3. Visit my website; beltus.github.io for more interesting posts.
4. Follow me onTwitter
5. Follow me on Instagram

Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash

What I learned from Hal Elrod about creating a new habit and how I created four new life-transforming habits.

Remember that moment you decided to stop eating McDonald’s or any fast food, or on new year’s eve when you held that last lonely cigarette and took the last deep breathe while savoring the smell emanating from the smoke as you promised yourself it was your very last? then two days later you said, “Screw it!!”

Sounds familiar? That’s right. I can’t even count the number of times I decided to start a new habit and quit even before I started.

 I know you must be nodding your head right now and saying “Me too!!”. If you’re not, then count yourself among the lucky few born with a DNA of self-discipline.

What makes us quit just after few days of starting a new habit?

After reading the book the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, I finally found the answer I had been searching unsuccessfully for quite a while.

In this article, I will share with you exactly what you need to know every time you embark on the challenging yet highly rewarding journey of creating a new habit that can definitely transform your life forever. 

But before we get to the cream of the article, let me provide a lucid response to this question that must be spiraling in your mind.

How long does it take to develop a new habit?

Photo by Christian Weinberg on Unsplash

Depending on the articles you read or the experts you listen to, you are going to hear compelling evidence that it takes somewhere between a single hypnosis session, 21days, or even three months to incorporate a new habit into your life.

I’m no expert, but based on the timeline specified by Hal Elrod, it takes approximately 30 days to concretely develop a new habit.

Of course, I didn’t take his words as gospel so I decided to try for myself. In the next section of the article, I will tell you exactly how long it took me to develop several habits.

But for now, let us agree and set our timeline for permanently creating a new habit to 30 days as suggested by Hal Elrod’s based on his many years of experience working with hundreds of clients.

So whatever habit you want to develop in your life; maybe it’s reading a chapter of a book a day, or running 4 miles every morning, your mind should be fixated to a period of 30 days.

Okay good! Now to our real question of the day.

How to permanently develop a new habit?

Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

Why do we fail 98% of the time we decide to create a new habit?

Pause for a second to ponder about this question. Think deeply why for example you have never truly stopped smoking cigarettes even after promising yourself, or why you have not started eating more veggies instead of KFC.

Here is the reason.

When your expectations before committing to develop a new habit doesn’t align with what you are experiencing when you begin the process, frustration sets in and you quit.

Let’s take, for example, you’ve been waking up every day for the last 10 years at 10:00 am, then you decide that you’re going to start waking up at 5:00 am. 

Or you’ve decided after one year of no sports to lose some weight. The very next day you hit the road with excitement aiming to run for 5 miles. But just half a mile away, you are breathing like a dying horse. 

Your chest, your knee, every muscle, and fiber of your body hurts. You are in excruciating pain. You feel like you might collapse and die.

What do you do in such circumstances?

You simply quit. You tell yourself it’s too hard, it’s not worth it and scuttle back home with your tail between your legs in utter frustration and disappointment.

The real question to ask yourself is; What did you expect? To run like Usain Bolt after one year of no sports? Come on! Who’re you kidding?

Now, here is the ultimate game-changer approach to creating a new habit that has revolutionized the way I develop new habits and I believe it will also transform how you approach the development of your own new habits. 

I have used this technique to develop not only one but 4 daily habits and it has been a life-changing experience. 

Now I wake up at 4:55 am every day including weekends instead of some arbitrary hour around midday. I write every morning. I read a chapter of a book every morning and I do sports every morning. All these are done before the clock strikes 9:00 am. The time now as I write this article is 06:19 am.

I changed my approach based on what I learned from Hal and everything has been a roller costa experience.

Now let me explain to you what you need to do to permanently develop a new habit. The secret might not be what you expect. 

Successfully building a new healthy habit within a period of 30 days boils down to breaking it into three phases. Understanding these phases and mentally preparing for it, is the critical part of the entire habit creation process.

Phase 1: The First 10 days

Photo by Kat J on Unsplash

In his book, Hal calls this the Unbearable phase. 

This is the phase that marks the beginning of something new and exciting. However, it is the stage where your body is going to resist the change, your mind is going to resist it. In fact, every fiber of your being will resist and reject the change.

Let us assume you have decided to lose some weight by waking up every morning and hitting the gym. Note you ain’t an early morning person. So, the next morning, you wake up early and excited to start something new.

But as soon as you do five pushups and situps, you are done and dusted. Feels like hell itself. You feel excruciating pain around your collar bones. 

This is the phase where over 95% of people fail and simply give up. What they don’t realize is that this is temporary and it gets better. They just slip right back into their old habits.

You and I know better. The secret is that this is only temporary. Keep this mind, in fact, write it in bold and plaster it on your wall to remind yourself every time you start a new habit and feel like your drowning in pain.

It does not matter the habit you wanna start or quit. Maybe quit smoking or drinking alcohol. You’ve got to be mentally prepared. It feels unbearable but it’s only temporary. 

I felt so much pain in my arms after I stopped doing sports and especially pushups for more than 6 months. My arms hurt and my body ached for about four days. But every day I knew the pain was fading away and kept on despite the pain.

I couldn’t do 20 pushups without collapsing on the floor like a log of wood. Now just 2 weeks after, every day I do a minimum of 100 decline pushups, in 2 sets. 60 pushups on the first round then followed by 40 immediately after. This seemed impossible when I first started.

You’ve got to know it’s going to be freaking challenging but you are prepared to pay that price just for a few days so as to be on the other side of success.

Phase 2: 11–20 Days 

Photo by Yuris Alhumaydy on Unsplash

This is the period Hal calls the Uncomfortable phase. 

At this phase, your body is beginning to adjust and accept the new changes. You are also beginning to witness the benefits of surviving the challenging 10 days and your confidence is building up. 

This is good, but you are not out of the woods yet. Some wolves are still lingering around and you need to be extra careful. 

Adhering to your new habit will still feel uncomfortable. Don’t listen to that small voice within that tells you to take a day or 2 off and chill.

Let’s say, you decided to quit smoking cigarettes, you might be tempted to say “well let me just have at least one. It’s not like it’s gonna kill me”. Well, after smoking one, you might as well have the entire packet.

Please Don’t!! Stay committed, you almost there.

During my uncomfortable phase of doing pushups, my arms and collar bones did not hurt any more hours after finishing the routine. However, I still dreaded the exercise every time I wanted to start. It was the same experience I had waking up early.

Phase 3: 21- 30 Days

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

At the end of 21 days, you then enter the final phase of your journey to a new lifestyle. This is what Hal calls the Unstoppable phase.

After the first 21 days, the last 10 days is my favorite part of the new habit creation process because you begin to derive pleasure from doing whatever you have been doing for the last 21 days. And you feel proud of yourself.

The first two phases have not been fun at all but during this stage your identity changes. If you were a smoker, you can proudly say “I am not a smoker!” while finishing off the last 10 days.

Remember, it is also highly tempting to want to take some days off during this stage, but you know better. This stage determines your new identity, who you have become. 

Ask yourself this before thinking of taking a day off. Is it worth risking everything I have worked for so hard the last 21days just for a single moment of “pleasure”?

It is important that you take the time to reap the rewards of your new habit during these last 10 days because that is essentially the feeling that is going to make you continue practicing your newly founded habit.

The Takeaway

Developing a new habit is more about developing mental strength than doing the actual activity. I had no idea about this and that is why every time I wanted to create a new habit I failed miserably and felt worse than I was before.

Understanding the three phases involved in creating a new habit and the number of days you need is critical for successfully quitting bad habits or creating new ones. 

So before you engage in this journey of self-transformation, you need to tell yourself, repeat it in your mind that, the first 10 days are going to be unbearable, the next 10 days are going to be uncomfortable, but the last 10 days are going to be enjoyable.

Using this strategy I have developed more than 4 new habits. I wake up now every day at 4:55 am sometimes before the alarm clock goes off. I write every day, I read a chapter of a book every day and I do sports.

Now, I look forward to waking up every morning and doing these every day as nothing is more thrilling than the feeling of giving my life structure and working on things that are important instead of sleeping and letting life pass me by.

Sometimes unforeseen circumstances will force you to take a day off your routine. Feel free to do it, but get back into the groove as soon as possible.

You too can do it and I promise you that, you’ll never want to go back to your old life ever again. 

So let me ask you this…

What new habit do you want to develop right this moment as you are reading this article?

Leave a response in the comment section and I will gladly encourage you to keep going as there is joy at the other side of pain.

Thanks for Reading!

If you found this article helpful, then please feel free to reach out let’s connect…

1. You can follow me on Medium here.
2. Follow me on LinkedIn here.
3. Visit my website; beltus.github.io for more interesting posts.
4. Follow me onTwitter

Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

Introduction

In this era of accelerated change, overwhelming complexities, tremendous competition, only the best stand a chance of winning. If you ain’t ready, it’s going to be a rather grueling and ferocious battle.

The question becomes, how can you ensure that you are one step ahead before the war even begins?

During my four years as an undergraduate, I spent a significant amount of my time focusing only on the things that were related to my field, telecommunications engineering. It wasn’t until the final semester of my degree program that reality struck me like a lightning bolt. 

I suddenly realized there was so much I did not know because I was very confident my institution had taught me everything I needed. Oh boy, how wrong I was. I was not ready to face the real world. I lacked some critical soft skills that were paramount to bridging the gap between school and the world out of school.

In this article, I will share with you some soft skills that are imperative to build as a student before hitting the job market. These skills will go a long way to pave the way for more success in your career. In fact, mastering these skills is a prerequisite for frictionless attainment of success in the nearest future.

So if you’re ready, let’s get down to it…

1. Writing Skills.

Photo by Les Anderson on Unsplash

There is a huge misconception between having a college education and knowing how to write with outstanding finesse and creativity. 

Writing is a skill that every student needs to develop. The ability to express your thoughts and ideas on paper in such a logical way that anyone reading feels they are inside your very own brain is a powerful tool.

In the course of your education, you will encounter lots of opportunities that are life-changing and your writing will be the only passport required to get you through. For example, writing motivation letters for scholarships, jobs, internships, writing reports for your boss, etc.

Unless you are majoring in English at the university, I believe it is important that you try and dedicate some time to honing your writing skills. It doesn’t matter what you write about. Don’t fret, you need not be as good as writers of novels.

Avoid the delusional thought that having a college degree implies you are good at writing. Most of the time this is never the case if you are being absolutely honest with yourself.

How can I improve my writing skills?

Just like muscle building requires constant weight lifting, improving your writing skills require that you write constantly and consistently. 

Start by writing a page of anything every day. It could be a journal entry, part of a novel or short story, a blog, a homework, a grocery list. The idea is to strengthen the mental muscles needed for writing.

If you are feeling more excited and love to share your thoughts with others, you can start by creating an account on Quora which is a question and answer website and start providing answers to some questions. This will help you build some confidence. If you want to go one step further and write a blog post just like this one, register for a free account on medium and start writing immediately.

One last tip to develop your writing skills is to read what great writers are writing, learn from it, and start emulating that. I will recommend you check out Jerry Jenkins’ blog where he shares tips on how to write great pieces.

A good writer is a good reader!!

2. Communication Skills

source: Davissciencesays.ucdavis.edu

Have you ever been filled with brilliant ideas but just can’t seem to express yourself lucidly? Your mind just freezes every time you have to speak to an audience. That is like the most frustrating feeling in the entire universe.

Despite the popular opinion that some people are just naturally outspoken while others are introverts, when it comes to communication skills, anyone, I mean anyone can be a good speaker with practice.

Most students usually shy away from being put in situations that require them to express their thoughts to an audience. It feels uncomfortable which is understandable. 

However, it never gets better. As you grow, your audience changes not only in age but also in size. From the class of 25 students, you soon find yourself amid a group of 100 people, and the fear of talking just keeps spreading like the Australian wildfire.

We need to understand that speaking in a group of people is inevitable in a person’s lifetime and that, those who are brave enough to speak in such situations are those that are usually regarded as leaders. 

As a student, it is much easier to put in the effort to hone your public speaking or communication skills while you are still in school and among familiar faces, before encountering the real world filled with strangers. This goes a long way in building the confidence necessary to express your opinions in front of a board of directors in your future company or address an audience of thousands of people.

The best way to develop any skill is to start small. For communication skills, I will advise, you begin by always ensuring that you ask at least one question in every class to the professor. Sooner or later, it’s going to be like second nature to you. Your lecturers will think highly of you and at the same time, you will be conquering your fear of public speaking. Shooting two birds with one stone and it is a win-win.

3. Persuasion Skills

Photo by Science in HD on Unsplash

Look around you, everywhere you turn someone is trying to persuade you to do something. The media wants to keep you glued to your screens, social media apps send random notifications every second just to get you to click that button. 

Not forgetting you, yes you reading this right now!. Now, remember as a kid when you wanted ice-cream so badly that you had to cry out loud until mum bought it? or when you had to muster the confidence to ask that beautiful girl next door to go out on a date with? Yeah, that was you putting on your A-game of persuasion.

When it comes to your educational and career life, it is of utmost importance to develop professional persuasion skills, because it will literally dictate how fast and how far you can get in life and what you can achieve.

Students who get admissions to top-elite universities, scholarships, internships, job offers are always those that were more persuasive. They were able to convince the bosses, the board of directors, the superiors that they were better than everyone else. 

Here is something we need to understand as we aspire to achieve our dreams. Certificates and academic accomplishments can only go so far. That is why face-to-face interviews are always conducted by organizations and institutions. These interviews almost always determine your fate.

But where exactly do I start Beltus?

From my personal experience, I strongly advise you to search for some great books on the topic of persuasion. My personal favorite is the very popular book How to win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Trust me, after completing this book, you will know exactly how to relate with people and so much more.

If you not feeling like reading a completed book, it’s okay. I got you covered. Here is an article that summarizes the 12 ways to be more persuasive from the book.

4. Independent Thinking Skills.

Photo by Juan Rumimpunu on Unsplash

Are you are downloader or a processor?

There are two types of students. The ones I term downloaders and the other processors. Downloaders are rigid. They spend hours in class listening to what is taught without ever questioning for any second the information or asking themselves if the information really makes sense.

Processors, on the other hand, listen diligently, process the information in their brains, and then try to draw their own personal and logical conclusions. They do this either by applying the knowledge they just learned in different scenarios or seeking alternative sources of information to validate and clear any doubt they might have. By constantly forcing their brains to analyze the information that is being bombarded to it, they develop powerful creative thinking ability.

But how can I become a Processor?

Begin by always asking very basic questions. Don’t think about the big questions. Not yet!. You are doing this to let your mind develop a sense of curiosity. Later on, people around you will be marveled by not only the profundity of your questions but also its relevance. 

Wherever you are be the Independence thinker. Every decision that has ever been made started with someone asking the right questions.

5. Flexibility and Adaptability skills.

Photo by Petr Ruzicka on Unsplash

Love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort and keep on learning — Carol Dweck

We find ourselves in a world that is rapidly changing. What is relevant today would be completely out of date tomorrow. We have technology to thank for that. 

Your ability to adapt to changing times would go a long way to ensure that you remain a valuable asset to your company. It is easier to develop these skills while in school than when already on the job.

How do I develop such a skill?

To be flexible is to have an open-mindset. This can be achieved by committing to continuous learning. By understanding and accepting that there would be a lot of things that you don’t know and will be required to learn as you undertake the journey of life is the perfect growth mindset to have.

Sometimes it would require that you take full in-class or online courses just to acquire the necessary knowledge required to accomplishing a particular task. This can either be a torturous exercise or an exciting adventure of seeking new knowledge depending on whether you are mentally flexible or not.

Takeaway

It is a shame after studying very hard for years in school just to get to the real world and realize there is so much more you don’t know. Our educational institutions are great at teaching you the theoretical and technical concepts related to your area of specialization, however, there fail significantly in focusing on skills that are necessary for a successful and satisfying career.

In this article, I highlighted the five top skills I believe are the most important for every student to develop before they are thinking of hitting the job market. 

They included the ability to write, the ability to communicate, the ability to persuade, the ability to think independently, and finally the ability to be flexible and dynamic. I hope you enjoyed reading this article.

Thanks for Reading and Never stop Learning!

If you found this article helpful feel, then 

1. You can follow me on Medium here.
2. Follow me on LinkedIn here.
3. Visit my website; beltus.github.io for more interesting posts.
4. Follow me onTwitter

Do me a favor: think back to a day you tried to read or learn something you believed was freaking challenging. What do you see?

You probably sat there, staring at the same page for hours, trying to understand what the hell you were reading. You read it over and over again until you lost count.

Frustration sets in and later, anger slowly finds its way into your mind. You angrily get up, disappointed at yourself. You look at yourself in the mirror and think you must be the dumbest individual to have ever lived.

All of this just because your cute little brain could not help you out at that moment. 

As a postgraduate student in computer science whose area of research focuses on Artificial Intelligence algorithms, I have been there a couple of times and it sucks. 

I have encountered the easy, difficult, and almost impossible to understand concepts, equations, and algorithms in my life as a student.

Whenever you face a challenge, your natural response is to quit. The concepts feel unbearably overwhelming, you try and try but you don’t get it. You feel like quitting, you feel like screaming at yourself. You even curse yourself for being so dumb and not able to figure stuff out.

Hold on just for a second. Don’t give up just yet!!

In this article, I will share with you critical ideas on how to learn anything challenging. It will include techniques from my personal experience of studying some crazy stuff for years.

If there is anything you love to learn that the thought of it terrifies you, then I believe after reading this article, it will be time to pick that little devil up and defeat it.

So what is it that has been giving you a hard time. Let’s solve it together.

1. Break it Down

Take a look at the image below. Breathtaking isn’t it? 

But wait, this isn’t about the painting. It is about the process of transformation of the painting from an idea to the very first stroke of the painter’s brush on the canvas to finally becoming such a masterpiece.

Why I am talking about paintings here?

The fundamental reason why we struggle in grasping certain things we study is that, when we encounter them for the first time, we instinctively try to make sense out of them at a superficial level. 

For example, when you first saw the painting, your first nonverbal reaction was likely: I can’t paint this even in a million years. 

You came to this conclusion because you were looking at the image with a completely different lens. The same lens you have likely been using whenever you encountered complex stuff. 

Now, you didn’t think for a split second how exactly the painting was made from the very beginning. Take a close look at the image below. The combinations of thousands of those square little boxes made this mindblowing image.

Everything that has ever been built by humans, from ships to submarines, from planes to skyrockets, from supercomputers to quantum computers is just made up tiny little boxes joined together in a particular order. 

The secret to understanding anything irrespective of its complexity is based on your very own ability to break it down to its very basic form. If you still can’t understand it, then keep breaking it down. Keep going till you are able to nod your head and acknowledge within you that you finally get it. 

You will be surprised by how many years it took for me to understand the principle of breaking things down. I used to think as I go up the educational ladder and encounter challenging concepts, I am supposed to ‘get it’ just as it is.

In order to show you exactly how to apply this method of breaking things down. Imagine you have never been in a physics class before and you just came across this equation.

F = M x A

Just to be clear, it is the famous Newton’s second law of motion. 

Stay with me here a little longer, this article is not about physics.

The breaking down process begins by you asking very simple questions like:

What do* F , M and A *stand for? 

You will find the simplified answer to be Force, Mass of an object, and Acceleration. Okay cool!

But wait, what the hell is Acceleration? Good question. So you break it down again. 

Acceleration = Velocity / time. 

Alright, I don’t need to study physics to know what time means. Great!

But hold on. What is Velocity? Interesting question. 

V = Distance / time.

 Perfect! I guess everyone knows what distance is. 

So now you can appreciate, how we started from an equation you had no modicum of a clue and ended up with something even my grandmother can understand.

As a computer science postgraduate student I found myself struggling to find solutions to questions whose answers could easily be found if I had broken the problem down to a simpler form.

How I wish someone had told me simplicity is the fundamental basis of understanding even the most complex of things.

Remember; If you don’t get it, break it down and if you still don’t get it, well you know what to do.

2. Don’t Beat Yourself

Have you ever felt so frustrated and disappointed in yourself just because you came across a new concept and you could not wrap your mind around it? The feeling gets deeper and stronger when your mates seem to effortlessly get it.

Well, I don’t know about you but I have been there and done that multiple times. I used to get utterly frustrated when I could not grasp a concept which I thought I am supposed to get it.

This went on for a while and as I grew older and wiser, I started to understand how the human brain works, and this has been a life-changing experience.

You see, our brains are one of the mysteries of humanity. Since the beginning of time neuroscientists have been pushing the boundaries just to figure out how exactly it works. Today, I think all they got is a shallow understanding of what exactly happens in this soft matter behind our skulls.

Just to give you an idea, here is how scientists believe the brain works. It is made up of millions of cells called neurons interconnected with one another in a complex manner beyond human comprehension.

Now, in order to learn something new, it requires the creation of new connections between neurons that didn’t exist before.

What does this have to do with learning anything challenging?

Well, what no one will tell you is this. Creating these new connections takes Time! That is why you forget the name of the stranger you just met a minute ago but will never forget the name of your childhood friend.

When I was first exposed to Artificial Intelligence concepts two years ago, I felt like I was in a universe where everyone is breathing normally while I was suffocating. Nothing made sense. Nothing!! I am sure you can guess how I felt.

Now 2 years later, looking at those very concepts that eluded me and gave me freaking difficult times, it all makes sense now. 

Why is that?

I gave myself time for my brain to create the necessary connections needed for me to be able to understand those concepts.

There are things I never thought I could ever be able to figure out, but now I do. There are still hundreds of them I struggle every day to get, however, I know now it’s just a matter of time.

Every time you get frustrated at not understanding anything. Don’t beat yourself. Take a deep breathe and tell yourself this,

It’s just a matter of time before my brain forms the neccessary connections.

3. Go Old School

I remember in the old good days when my teachers use to work tirelessly to ensure that I hold the pencil correctly and carve out letters that at least resembled the English alphabets. They did a great job and to this day, it is one of the most valuable and useful skills I have. 

The world around us is changing at a lightning speed and we are just following along. It doesn’t matter where that leads us, there is nothing anyone can do about it. 

We are slowly being carried away by the wave of technology with the availability of smartphones, notebooks, laptops that have tremendously aided us in making our study lives so easy and enjoyable.

But here is the problem, there are complex concepts and ideas that you might never understand if you simply study them using these devices. You will spend hours staring at your PC and wondering why you just can’t get it.

What you might not understand is that computers and other smart devices were not meant to replace the old fashion way of studying with just a pen and a piece of paper.

It is rather sad that many students have developed the habit of just reading notes on these devices and that’s it. 

As a programmer and computer scientist, it might seem rather ironic the idea of using a pen and paper is coming from me. 

On my study table, there are 3 things you will find if you happen to pay me a visit; my laptop, a pen, and a bunch of papers. Whenever I am studying anything and it starts to get complicated, my pen and paper are right there by my side to save me.

Writing things down on a solid piece of paper is just like imprinting it in your very own mind. The action of moving your finger along the paper, visualizing what you are doing, and thinking about it freely is more powerful and effective than any computer can ever provide.

From today, whenever you come across a challenging concept, drop your phone or laptop; go old school and write it down on paper. Trust me, you will not only understand easily but also save yourself a lot of time, headache and heartache.

The Takeaway

In life, we are faced with challenges, every day, every hour down to the very last minute. There is no running away from this. Learning how to face these challenges is the only way out that will permit you to grow and evolve into a better version of yourself.

In this article, I have shared with you some important strategies that you can begin to incorporate in your very own life from today moving forward. 

Firstly, when you study something and your brain can’t figure it out, the first thing to do is to break it down to the simplest level for which you can understand. 

Secondly, always remember your brain needs time to make the necessary connections between neurons. So, if you can’t understand a concept, don’t beat yourself, just give it time.

The last point I mentioned, was to ensure that, you always have a pen and paper by your side. When you face a challenging concept, leave the pc for a while and pick up your pen and paper. Go old school.

Thanks for reading and if you enjoyed reading this article, here is a list of other articles I recommend you check out.

• The Ultimate Guide to Success in Education.
• Four things to Do as a Student at Times of Uncertainty
• Five Things to Do to Become a Top-Performing Student
• The Secret if Quadrupling your Chances of Landing your Dream Scholarship

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