• ABOUT THOSE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS: For most of us, the best intentions typically peter out during the first few months or even weeks, when aggressive Goals were set, but without realistic consideration of Time constraints or Priorities, ignoring allocation of hours to channel our time & energy, A common-sense tactical method which at least has a chance at success is (1) a Budget – a grid which allocates planned daily or weekly hours, and regularly tracks time spent over several weeks, then (2) as necessary, re-balances Priorities and/or Time allotment to remain aggressive enough to be meaningful and still conceivably achievable. With greater self-awareness of whether your actual time is being focused on genuine priorities, Resolutions can be far more effective, and help achieve what matters most to you.   DCG can help; call for courtesy guidance in time management.

 

  • “OUR INNATE CURIOSITY, INSTINCT FOR GOSSIP, AND ADDICTION TO MESSY DRAMA drive us to spend way more time-consuming internet nonsense than we should. Generative AI models powering chatbots have been trained to produce convincing stories – very different from being able to confirm whether something is actually true, and especially when some human-made posts are amplified over others by algorithms that respond to ‘likes’ and engagement versus accuracy. So, reality is that the tendency of chatbots is to lie to us… Social media has trained users to rely on fluency, coherence and social endorsement as proxies for credibility, with plausibility becoming a sufficient stopping condition for judgement, and accepting ‘true enough’ as a proxy for actual truth, while losing the habit of verifying information for ourselves… In an age in which internet info is so abundant and so low-quality that it’s essentially noise, the challenge going forward is to fight our evolutionary instinct to absorb all available info, and instead filter out unreliable sources and bad data.” But good luck with that.   [WALL STREET JOURNAL]

 

  • WITH WALL STREET STOCK VALUES AND PAY SYSTEMS CURRENTY APPROACHING ALL-TIME HIGHS, so is concern for a likely financial ‘crash.’  Key drivers are investor optimism over Artificial Intelligence, substantially loosened regulatory, and a compensation system for traders & asset managers which “rewards short-term, current year bottom line numbers based on market-making and intraday liquidity, handled by automated systems overseen by financial engineers whose bonuses (typically multiples of salary) are tied to model profitability, not market stability.” Today’s private-credit industry/ mortgage/ consumer-lending shops operate without regard to long-term exposure or the risks they create – precisely the dynamic that produced earlier ‘crashes.’  [ECONOMIST]  DCG can help with developing financial strategy based on long-term Goals and risk tolerance; call for courtesy strategic guidance.

 

  • SLOW MORNING STARTS AND UNDER-EYE CIRCLES are directly related to lack of sound sleep, attributed mostly to poor digestion caused by ingredients, snacks & drinks. Tips for improved sleep begin with avoidance of: (1) Spicy foods which can cause heartburn & indigestion when lying down; (2) Alcohol which can cause tossing/turning; (3) Caffeine – especially from coffee, dark chocolate & soda – which acts as a stimulant; (4) Cured meats or aged cheese, which contain tyramine, an activity-boosting brain stimulant; (5) Pizza tomato sauce which is acidic, especially when combined with red pepper flakes; (6) Sugar-filled & high-fat snacks; (7) Citrus fruits, which are diuretics and interrupt sleep from necessary restroom visits. ‘White Noise’ can be another helpful support.

 

THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK

  • Skepticism of scientific ‘findings’ continues to increase, as academic research has now evolved to a system guided by profit metrics more so than scholarly integrity. Similar to online platforms which have shifted to prioritizing revenue from advertisers versus accuracy, some 15,000 ‘Journals’ now serve corporations which influence what research gets done, compromise how it is evaluated (i.e. peer review), and have adopted a process being called ‘enshittification’ — which often results in research utilizing misleading names to appear credible, and/or research quality being judged more by where it’s published than by intrinsic worth. Just beware. [REAL CLEAR SCIENCE]

 

  • One distressing perspective on the future: “Society is entering a state of ‘psychosocial freefall’ – a fractured reality in which groups interpret events which cannot be ‘verified’ to prove what is real. So, instead of presenting opposing political narratives or conspiracy theories, AI creates a series of parallel realities, leading to collapse of a shared reality altogether, leading to results like: (1) the upending of midterm elections from ultra-realistic deepfakes flooding the infosphere; (2) clips going viral before even ‘fact-checkers’ can respond, instantly generating thousands of supporting ‘eyewitness accounts’ with hyper-realistic voices, backstories and social profiles; (3) AI-generated ‘leaked documents’ alleging voting manipulation, foreign hacks and corrupted ballots. When the public no longer mistrust the government but mistrust reality, democratic institutions prove incapable of responding at digital speed and trust erodes, fragmented truth enclaves harden into antagonistic tribes, citizens become more apathetic, institutional authority collapses, and the vacuum is quickly filled by fast-moving authoritarian actors and ever-more powerful tech platforms that step in as the new arbiters of Truth.”  [POLITICO MAGAZINE]

 

  • “Billionaires are beginning to exit California: California Democrats’ plan to impose a wealth tax on billionaires is creating a predictable result: rather than staying and having their wealth looted by the state government, at least six billionaire residents are planning to move out. Topping the growing list of billionaires fleeing the Golden State are Google co-founder Larry Page and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Six billionaires left before New Year’s Day to avoid a potential one-time 5% tax on all their assets exceeding $1 billion. Democrat lawmakers in the state have pushed this wealth tax, which residents will vote on in November. It’s estimated that as many as 20 additional billionaire families will move out. Given that California has roughly 200 billionaires, that’s no small number.”  [PATRIOT POST]