"We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done." - Alan Turing

Long post incoming, so go grab a coffee first. But while you're heading to the kitchen, ask yourself:

What are you doing with your life?

While attending the International Security and Intelligence program in Cambridge, my peers and I spent a good amount of time talking about why people do what they do. What separates the personal drive between someone who watches Netflix all day and someone who joins the Peace Corps?

In order to do something great you're going to need some type of inspiration. Besides coffee, you need something to get you going. Certain determined individuals already have it figured out; they are able to be sitting on the toilet when an idea comes to them and they think, "I'm going to do something great today," and then proceed to devote their lives to the development of some sort of world-changing idea. That's an extreme example, but it does happen.

But most of the time, inspiration is going to come from some outside source. When I was a little kid (around ages 6-11 or so), for whatever reason, I was inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger. I remember watching the first two Terminator movies with my dad. I didn't realize who this giant human being was at the time, but as I grew older, I could see why millions of people use him as a stereotypical example of inspiration. He first became famous for lifting weights, then made some movies, then got into politics, and now he's spending most of his time performing charity work. Sounds like a fulfilling life, no?

"I'll be back... as the governor of California."

What Arnold accomplished is nothing to sneeze at, but it is worth noting that everything he has done that has resulted in glory has been openly presented to the public. What bodybuilder doesn't want to be Mr. Olympia? What aspiring theater student wouldn't jump at the chance to star in a dystopian robot movie? Simply put, there are rewards involved - money, connections, happiness, fame. Arnold's profession was multifaceted, but overall, it revolved around notoriety. What I want to talk about is an inspirational profession that involves none of that.

Many of the jobs within the intelligence community are some of the most thankless jobs anyone could ever pursue. If something goes right and you discover information or draw certain connections during the analysis phase, and you prevent a nasty terrorist attack, you can't disclose the details because your enemies will know how you stopped them. And if something goes wrong? Every single person in your country is now pointing fingers, shoving the blame onto you. (See: 9/11)

After some type of unforeseen attack, it's very easy to take a step back, look at the evidence that your intelligence community provided, and say, "How did we not see this coming?!" Most of the time it's not very fair to take this stance. This is called "connecting the dots" and it can be done in two ways: before the event and after the event. Preventing an attack would require connecting the dots in a timely manner before the attack, which is often very difficult. After an attack occurs, however, it will become exceedingly clear which dots were relevant and which were not. That's a simple explanation. It's an inherently tough job and the factors that influence your intelligence collection, validation, analysis, etc. are incredibly numerous.

Know this - there are tens of thousands of people that are working to keep you safe. They are working every hour of every day. They devote their lives to preventing the next attack, and they do it all for the purpose of national security. The important bit here is that they do it all discreetly. I'm not in one of those positions, so I don't know how I would feel if I worked a 120-hour week and was able to provide intelligence that prevented people from dying. Anyone not immediately relevant to the case would have any idea of what you did, and there would be but one reward: the knowledge that you had saved people's lives.

I'm not trying to make a huge statement here. This post isn't meant to sound like it's being given from atop a soapbox. Rather, I just want people to acknowledge the "man behind the curtain" that stopped the subway car they're on from being gassed, or the hotel they're staying in from being shot up, or the plane they're on from going down. Yes, of course it's not fun to think about these issues. They're morbid. But if a select group of people wasn't willing to spend such large portions of their lives preventing these things from happening, we would be in a pretty bad position. The people that play these roles deserve praise, too, even if we can't directly attribute it to individuals.

But enough about this! Let's move on to one of the field trips we went on and also one of the baddest dudes that lived during the 20th century.

During my time attending the ISI program, we visited Bletchley Park and Madingley American Cemetery.

Bletchley Park was a top secret code breaking facility opened in 1938 and it was converted into a museum during the 90s. There were thousands of people who worked here during WWII and very many of them have gone unnoticed, their deeds done primarily in blacked-out "huts." By far, the most prominent person associated with this place is Alan Turing.