After well over a decade of ceasing to formally learn and teach the practice of piano, I recently started playing again for my mental health and enjoyment. I decided to focus on the works of probably my favorite composer of all time, Frédéric Chopin, and took on the challenge of learning his first Ballade in G minor.
After months of using my free time to learn the score and technique, I’ve come to a level of proficiency where I can play the entire piece from start to finish. Even with the passage of over a decade, I still recall perfectly many, if not most, aspects of piano performance because I once dedicated so much of my life to that training. There is a semi-climactic passage of this first Ballade, from bars 99 to 124, that is so poetic it mirrors the agony of a heart crying out for release. In comparison to the practice of law, I can say honestly, it does not come close to the level of difficulty, intellectual rigour, and dedication required to learn classical music, at least for me.
My journey back to the piano has brought to light a reality of my professional world. While I frequently post about Artificial Intelligence, my other tech hobby is a more practical one: automation, using the numerous software available today. This hobby was born directly from the tediousness of much of my legal work. In real estate closings, the standard practice is to hire assistants for mundane data entry, using what is, in my opinion, generally overpriced closing (data entry/document generation) software. This is because over 90% of residential real estate transactions follow a series of highly repetitious patterns. This isn’t a critique of the profession itself, but far from it. The human element, meeting my clients and getting to know their unique stories, is the part of the work I value most.
So I began to bridge my two worlds. With every new closing, I now see an opportunity not just to complete a transaction, but to refine my automation technique. My goal is to dull the monotony, while not incurring inordinate costs which would be passed onto my client, to teach a machine to handle the black-and-white tasks so I can focus on the nuances that require my intellect. I often dream of a world where the labour of data entry is delegated to machines, and thereby freeing the human spirit.