Edition #267 – June 4, 2023

For some of us, tech provides an ever-evolving banquet table of opportunity. For others – it’s an ever-evolving invitation to destroy the fabric of our nation and our lives. 

Clearly, we are not educated to vet what is coming into our laps daily. 

Clearly, we are a gullible society influenced by high emotion coupled with information taken out of context and amplified.

Clearly, the above combination doesn’t bode well for making sane decisions. 

Stephen Hawking said: “Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.”

Below is a Daily Pnut warning-report. 

By the way, I highly recommend Daily Pnut. I like the way the site structures the top news stories along with providing links for deeper dives into topics of interest. It is one of several newsletters published by Tim Hsia. Tim is a graduate of West Point, and was deployed twice to Iraq. After leaving active duty, Tim graduated from Stanford University’s JD/MBA program. He is also the co-founder of Service to School, a nonprofit for veteran higher education programs.

The Election Looms While Deepfakes Lurk

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, the waves of deepfake videos of presidential candidates and political figures are already beginning to wash ashore. We’re over a year out, but we’ve so far seen videos of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Anderson Cooper making insane statements (endorsing Ron DeSantis, ranting at a transgender person, and dropping profanities, respectively) using AI-powered fabrication technology called deepfaking. 

I found Dore’s article (below) on learning to wait – interesting.

The mental gymnastics involved in “waiting” can be intense. Those times when you vulnerably wait for good or bad news. Sometimes you are handed a reprieve and then you wait for something else – and so it goes.  

Frankly, I am not as good at waiting as I used to be: I was quite patient – even philosophical – and the patience served me well.

Now?

Let’s just say “buck up” is one of my current mantras.

So dear readers – do buck up and enjoy your Sunday!

Love,
Vicki P

What’s the hurry?

The Practice:

Avoid the rush.

Why?

What are you chasing, and where would that energy be better served? – Nedra Tawwab

Alan Alda has been my “boyfriend” since Mash and when I found out he was smart and a good husband, in addition to being adorable, he entered the main room of my Hall of Admiration.

Below Kevin Dickinson outlines Alda’s rule of three for effective communication. Considering how much material we skim and try to stuff into our brains daily, using this method might actually backfire and lead us to realize we don’t know what we are trying to communicate!

Check it out and have a good Spring Sunday!

Hug

Vicki P

3 Rules to Express Your Thoughts So Everyone Will Understand You (excerpt)

by Kevin Dickinson

(…)

Whether from public speaking or just having a heart-to-heart, life is full of these types of conversations. You’ve been there, I’ve been there, and Alan Alda has been there.

Though best known for his role on the 1970s sitcom M*A*S*H, Alda is a public speaker, science enthusiast, and long-time advocate for better science communication. He has interviewed scientists as the host of Scientific American Frontiers, won the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award, and founded the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University.

In that time, he has developed a playbook of strategies to help people engage in conversation and voice their ideas clearly. If these tips can help biologists explain genetic drift, physicists Hawking radiation, or linguists anything about Chomskyan linguistics, then chances are they can help us express our thoughts and feelings when we need others to understand them the most.

What’s in your control:

• what you do
• what you say
• what you think

What isn’t:

• what other people do
  
• what other people say
  
• what other people think

– Ryan Holiday

“No way of doing things is beyond improvement.”

I love Edwin de Bono’s quote above. Read it in the column I am featuring today, written by Thomas Oopong.

How about keeping that quote in mind so you don’t break your own back patting it?

Yes. How about: not only could someone else be doing what I am doing – better – but SO COULD I!

Don’t you just love pushing your lazy self-serving brain around? No? What’s the risk? You might change your mind?

Awwwwwwwww… well don’t look for no sympathy here.

AND…have a good week.

Vicki

How to Use Lateral Thinking to Remove Unnecessary Cycles in Life (excerpt)

by Thomas Oopong

You’d be forgiven if you think lateral thinking is something that only works in the creative industry. After all, who would need to think outside the box in real life? The answer is everyone.

Anyone can find themselves in a situation where traditional thinking simply won’t cut it. It could be a job interview, clarifying a new idea, making a life-changing decision, or another challenge you face daily.

Thinkers like Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Edison all had one thing in common: they were all masters of lateral thinking.

They were able to view problems from unusual angles, coming up with creative or original solutions that others simply couldn’t see.