Will people be brave enough to contradict themselves to improve the world in 2024?

The 20-something columns he wrote in 2023 just scratched the surface of what the columnist hoped to discuss, he says. However, he hopes that in 2024, everyone continues to strive to be the best versions of themselves, and to keep seeking varied and multifocal ideas and experiences. — 123rf.com

Another first week of January, another new year, signalling a time-honoured tradition for many columnists to reflect on the past year’s writings, examining their relevance today and implications for the future. I’ve taken a slightly different approach this year and asked the artificial intelligence-driven ChatGPT to summarise the key points from all my 2023 pieces, offering a unique lens on the topics I've covered.

One standout theme is the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and how we humans are adapting to it ranged from the dangers of blindly accepting what AI churns out, and how it can help anyone be a football analyst (but not necessarily be good at running a successful club).

Indeed, since writing some of these articles, scientists have continued to argue exactly how intelligent something like ChatGPT is, and whether the stumbling block is how we define "intelligence" in the first place.

However, one piece that I still believe holds up acknowledges how AI is a convenient way of accessing the world's knowledge, and then argues it can be used as a tool to direct users to where the gaps in knowledge are; in essence, how you can use AI to come up with original thought by exploring the answers that it doesn't give.

Given the new government formed at the end of 2022, Malaysian politics was another recurring topic for me in 2023. Why are the dynamics so difficult to come to terms with, when does a democracy really represent the peoples' will, and what does it actually mean to be a good and functioning government? It is perhaps not surprising that complications in the former two hamper progress in the last. I discussed everything from the shenanigans involved in trying to win votes to the new trend of government officials eschewing ties as part of the formal dress code.

The marker for me was a column I wrote way back in January of last year when I drew parallels between the fight for the Sabah state government and the murder mystery movie Glass Onion. Both had a convoluted storyline that was tough to understand, and both carried moments that left me a little teary eyed (whether from sadness or the ridiculous subplots, I'll let you decide).

A year on, I'm still not convinced anybody really understands what the political situation is (just look at all the people who went to Dubai for Christmas). But I'm still certain that the right thing to do is to put the right people in place to do the right jobs, and trust them enough to get out of their way.

The third topic that I broadly covered could be summed up as "societal concerns". This spans articles about improving public transportation in Malaysia to how cleanliness – both in practice and in spirit – starts with oneself. It also encompassed what I considered to be the most direct and unnuanced article I wrote last year: How Malaysia needs the goods and services tax (GST) to cover both the nation's overreliance on corporate tax and the increasingly decreasing tax contribution from petroleum-based revenues. The fact that I could eke out 900 words from such a simple and obvious idea is ridiculous, so many years after we reneged on the GST.

In fact, I believe most of the societal issues in the country come not because we don’t know what needs to be done, but because we lack the will or the conviction to do what’s right.

In fact, I believe most of the societal issues in the country come not because we don't know what needs to be done, but because we lack the will, the willpower, or the conviction to do what's right. More often than not, it's about looking at what works elsewhere and unashamedly just copying it where it makes sense, while fixing problems quickly and efficiently as they come up. (Right now, I'm looking at you Padu – the Central Database Hub launched on Jan 2, 2024 – and hope you can capitalise on a rocky start, not the least to demonstrate you have a capable and well-funded implementation team.)

I also believe that the government needs to be both the lead and sometimes the enforcer of certain behaviours in society. In one of my columns, I discussed how insurance is a tool for people to manage risk, yet most Malaysians are insurance-averse, happy to accept that something might go wrong, while pleading for help (sometimes from the government) when it does.

So I am completely OK, for example, for the government to make it mandatory for Malaysians to have to buy car insurance before they can get their road tax renewed. I would hate to think how many drivers would go uninsured if they had to choose to do so. Basically, the problem with free will is that it includes the will of people to do things that don't benefit themselves or society (fourth vaccine jab, anyone?).

Finally, there is the section in the columns that ChatGPT calls "international relations and global affairs". In part it covers what I wrote earlier about comparing public policies from countries around the world, and how Malaysia can stand to benefit from a little copy and paste. But it also covers things like what Indiana Jones teaches us about being woke, how well (or badly) Aston Villa plays football matters less than you might think, and why The Marvels is the most underrated movie in 2023.

A theme I like to continually bang on is that as humans we are usually more alike than we are different. We are also incredibly illogical in thinking that what we hold fast to as individuals is necessarily what the rest of the world holds to. For example I think we overestimate the effectiveness of boycotts of single brands in a world of crisscrossing global supply chains.

This then leads to behaviour that at times can be argued to be, at best, inconsistent, and, at times, self-defeating. In fact, you must consider that the right thing to do might be the opposite of what you and so many others in your bubble strongly believe to be true.

At the end of it all, I think the most interesting issues and topics I wrote about in 2023 aren't really straightforward (apart from you, Mr GST) and deserve a degree of thought and discussion. And the 20-something columns last year have by and large just scratched the surface of what I hoped to discuss. However, too much of today's world seems to prefer a short, sharp blurb like a smart gotcha, rather than a more rounded discussion of the ins and outs, especially if it concludes unanswered instead of neatly tied up with a bow.

Anyway, my hope for 2024 is for everyone to continue to strive to be the best versions of themselves, to keep seeking varied and multifocal ideas and experiences, and to – hopefully – not be afraid of coming to contradictory conclusions, because sometimes that's what needs to happen for the world to get better.

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In his fortnightly column, Contradictheory, mathematician-turned-scriptwriter Dzof Azmi explores the theory that logic is the antithesis of emotion but people need both to make sense of life’s vagaries and contradictions. Write to Dzof at [e-mail]. The views expressed here are entirely the writer's own.