Daily Musings
The narrative around increases taxes on businesses was always that it was a bad idea because it would impact hiring and job creation. If a company had to pay more in taxes, it automatically meant it would employ less people. I always knew it was bullshit, and that greed was the actual reason, but that was the excuse I always heard.
But now that AI is here and companies are laying off, or anticipating laying off, people by the thousands, maybe we can all agree that it never was and never is about concern for human lives. That if they really wanted to they could have paid more in taxes, more in wages, and employed the same number of people. And if they really wanted to they could not adopt AI and let people keep their jobs. But that’s not the narrative we’ve been hearing for the last 5 - 10 years. The narrative is it has to.
Why does it have to? Who actually benefits?
Yes, there are good use cases for using AI over humans, where human error can literally mean the difference between life or death. Healthcare comes to mind. AI can quickly read diagnostic results, and be trained to pick up what doctors sometimes miss. Robots are starting to perform surgery with a level of precision that no human can compete with.
But when it comes to most other jobs, does AI really have to take over? Or is the inevitability of AI’s dominance really just come back to dollars and cents? Figuring out how to drive the most revenue with the lowest cost, regardless of the impact. I have this vision of companies in the future where the only employee is the founder and with just a bunch of AI and robots reporting to them.
It’s just weird to think about where this all goes, and what happens to all the people who rely on working to get paid.
On the one hand I see a bleak future where the majority of the population walks around like zombies devoid of meaning, scrounging to stay alive, while a few companies control our daily lives. But on the other hand I think maybe it won’t be so bad. Maybe it will be ok because somehow it always is. Because somehow society has always found a way to move forward. And maybe instead of the image a lot of us have of a few companies controlling the world, AI turns out to be the great equalizer. That once the power to create anything and know everything is in the hands of every person in the world that there will no longer be the underprivileged and the privileged. Maybe the privileged have made a miscalculation there.
I think about how most of the jobs we do are just made up in the first place. Invented to support a capitalist society driven by money, earnings, profit, equity. If money didn’t exist, how many of the jobs we do today would actually be necessary? If we existed on a resource based economy, what work would actually be important? Growing food, providing shelter, and taking care of each other?
So maybe when AI takes over it will allow us to all go back to simpler times, when it was only the small things that mattered. Maybe AI will allow us to transition away from a society dominated by greed, power, and corruption, into one that makes more sense for human survival. Maybe when AI takes over and we all get fired from doing the jobs that we hated doing in the first place we’ll get to focus on what we want to do, and it will be a net positive. It’s too early to tell but I hope thats the narrative.
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My fiancé is the queen of comfortable. If she’s cold, she put’s on a layer or a pair of socks. If she’s too hot, she immediately sheds a layer. She likes her drinks fizzy, cold, and flavorful, no exceptions. When she’s ready to go she says ok I’m going to take off now. If she’s getting bored or tired, she’s not afraid to tell you. She doesn’t like to be in positions where she’s uncomfortable, and she’s not afraid to try something or say something to change the situation. And after being with her for four years, that’s rubbed off on me. Because I’m the opposite.
If I’m cold I hunker down, and if I’m hot I sweat. I only drink water at room temperature, not because it tastes good, but because room temperature water is the best thing for you. I don’t take medicine. When I’m sick I fight the virus, and when I have a headache I try to will it away. And if I get stuck in a conversation or place I don’t want to be in, I tough it out and wait for a natural conclusion to the situation.
But my way gets exhausting, and while I always thought that it made me tough to sit and suffer in uncomfortable environments, I’ve learned that it’s not really the case. That actually I’m just creating unnecessary suffering for myself that in most cases has no impact on future outcomes. And so I’ve begun to change and give more into her ways.
When I was sick this past week with the flu for the first time in my life I leaned into it, instead of trying to fight it. I took medicine to handle my congestion and I took medicine for the aches and fever. I rested. I sat on the couch watching TV all day and TV all night. I didn’t force even a small workout (ok, there was one small workout, but it was before I realized I was really sick). And even once I started to feel better I gave myself an extra day before going right back into my normal routine. All of which is abnormal behavior for me.
I’ve finally realized that there is no point in suffering unnecessarily. That suffering unnecessarily will not make me stronger, or more disciplined, or more prepared for when challenges and obstacles come my way. I will be ready regardless and do whatever I need to do to make it through, and the interim I can allow myself to be comfortable. And that’s something my fiancé has helped me to realize.
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The power of community is something that I’ve really been paying attention to recently. I’m part of an exercise group that meets for class every Saturday, and chats in a group text all week exchanging workout videos and feedback. The group I’m in is part of a bigger community of people led by the world renowned Beth Lewis. In my group there’s around 20 of us, and in the larger community, of which we are all a part of, there is probably close to 100.
Recently one of our community members had surgery that was going to sideline her from exercise for a few weeks. So our trainer Beth decided to organize a gift from the everyone. The gift was a PhysioPedal, a machine small enough to fit on your counter that can be used for lower and upper body resistance training. It cost $400. Not a cheap gift if someone or a couple of people were thinking about buying it on their own. But for a community of 100 people it meant less than $5 per person.
When it snows in my neighborhood I always shovel for two of my senior neighbors. And as I walk between all of our houses I shovel the sidewalk along the way as much as I can. I always notice how some people shovel their sidewalks and others don’t. And I always think how if everyone just did their own sidewalk, then the whole neighborhood would be shoveled, and no one would have to worry about stepping through snow or slipping on ice.
There’s just enormous power in every capable person doing their small part that results in a greater good that could otherwise never be accomplished. It’s the kind of effort I see from the local nonprofits that I’ve been lucky enough to support and be a part of. Every Friday at Food For Thought, 100 or so volunteers get together and fill 3,000 bags with food that get distributed to 3,000 underprivileged kids to feed them through the weekend. At We Don’t Waste 50 or so volunteers gather each week to setup food markets that serve 400 families facing food insecurity.
These are jobs that could not get done without the help of the community. There’s so many people out there everyday giving what they can and improving their community as a result. There are so many huge issues that we face, but if we could get everyone to chip in what they can, and shovel their sidewalk, we’d be able to make real progress.
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As far as I can tell there are three different types of weight that we carry. There’s weight that comes from fat. There’s weight that comes from carbohydrates. And there’s weight that comes from protein (that hopefully turns into muscle, but can turn into fat). And the only way to lose weight is to consume less of one or all three of these macros. But I think you have to know which ones to cut back on.
Because if you’re carrying a lot of carbohydrate weight, then cutting back fat isn’t going to help much. And if you’re carrying too much fat weight, then cutting back carbohydrates isn’t going to help much. And I think typically you want to avoid cutting protein. But so it’s important to know what you’re carrying. Like right now I’m carrying extra carbohydrate weight that I picked up over the holidays.
My fiancée and I spent three weeks in New York and Massachusetts over the holidays. It was the first time I had been back in two years and I did a lot of eating. Mostly in the form of pasta and dessert. It felt like not a meal went by without either. I gained 10 pounds in those 3 weeks, and two months later and I’m still carrying 7 pounds.
In order to drop that weight I know I need to cut back on my carbohydrates and sweets, but I just haven’t done it. I’ve been enjoying my bread, rice, potatoes, oatmeal, and pasta, and I’m not ready to give them up. I’m not eating more than I usually do, but I know that weight isn’t going to come off until I cut back. I just haven’t had the desire to yet.
Everyone struggles with weight from time to time, and I think part of the struggle is not knowing what you’re carrying. My father recently made a huge lifestyle change and lost 60 pounds, but when he still had some weight around his midsection that was bothering him. He asked me what I thought. He had lost most of his weight from cutting out carbohydrates, but as I watched him snack I saw that he was consuming a lot of nuts, which are extremely high in fat. So I pointed that out to him.
When he got back home he cut back snacking on nuts, and slowly but surely he saw improvement. If you’re trying to lose fat, you need to cut fat.
Diet and exercise is a dance that requires constant attention and frequent modifications. Our bodies adapt quickly and very often require different inputs to continue to improve (in this case with weight loss). Something that worked before might not always work, or maybe it was working for a reason you didn’t realize. If you’re not getting the results you want pay attention and try to find something different that you can change.
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I haven’t been able to fully enjoy the warm winter in Colorado this year because in the back of my mind I fear what it’s going to mean for the spring and summer. If I knew that 60 and sunny every day wasn’t going to lead to drought and a bad wildfire season, then I would be happy to just take advantage of the weather. But it’s unlikely we’ll get that lucky, so it’s hard to enjoy it.
We were in Steamboat Springs a couple of weeks ago and learned that Steamboat gets 80 percent of its water from snowfall. But so far this year they’ve had less than half of the average snow fall from previous years. Things aren’t looking good.
I wrote recently about how so much of the anxieties I have are not because of current conditions, but rather how I predict current conditions are going to impact the future, and this abnormally dry and warm winter is just another example of that. It’s hard to stay happy in the present when the future looks bleak.
But I know the only thing I can do is try not to think about it, and hope that the scenario I’m creating in my head is not the one that comes to fruition. A former colleague liked to say you can’t plan for a disaster, and that’s the mentality I’m trying to carry with me. It’s impossible to predict what will happen, and whatever situation we find ourselves in I know we’ll be able to navigate it.
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It’s weird when you find the person you want to spend the rest of your life with and you think you have everything in common. And when you realize you don’t it makes you question why?
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I find that when people don’t have an answer for you or they don’t have an answer they think you’re going to like, they just don’t respond. It’s like this fear of disappointing, and so rather than disappoint, they disappear. Meanwhile, 10 out of 10 times we would prefer some answer even if it’s not a great one. I know I would.
I know I’ve been guilty of doing this throughout my life, and I recognize how much it annoys me when other people do it, so it’s something I’m always trying to work on. I try to keep it in mind whenever I’m stalling to get back to someone. I put myself in their shoes and remind myself that any answer is better than no answer. And any fall out from a bad answer is better than ignoring someone.
But it’s hard, because it can feel mean. Take this situation I had recently with a guy on Craigslist. He had whiskey barrels for sale, and we were looking to buy a few as decor for our wedding. So for almost a week we went back and forth trying to coordinate a date and time to meet. On the day we were scheduled to meet I decided it would be much easier for us to rent whiskey barrels and have the company bring them to the venue. So I no longer needed to meet him.
After all the back and forth I didn’t want to tell him we weren’t coming and disappoint him. I thought about just not showing up like so many people have done to me on Craigslist, but I knew that was the wrong thing to do, and I knew I shouldn’t keep him waiting. He would want some answer, even if it wasn’t the one he hoped for. So a few hours before we were supposed to meet I sent this email.
“Hey Mike - Just wanted to give you a heads up that we’ve changed our minds about the barrels. We realized our rental company has them so we’re going to go that route and won’t be coming by tonight. Sorry for taking up your time. Appreciate your help. Thanks James.”
I wanted to be direct and just say “hey, we’ve changed our minds, we’re not coming tonight. Thanks.” But I felt like I needed to give him an explanation, and what came out was this word salad email.
It’s just this really interesting thing we do as humans trying to avoid and delay the inevitable uncomfortableness. And whenever we do that and we procrastinate, it almost always ends up worse than had we just come clean with it. Because the only thing worse than bad news is delayed bad news. Bad news can be dealt with, but you have to know what you’re dealing with first to figure out the path ahead.