Your Sweet Spot

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Once you understand introversion and extroversion as preferences for certain levels of stimulation, you can begin consciously trying to situate yourself in environments favorable to your own personality--neither over-stimulating nor understimulating, neither boring nor anxiety-making. You can optimize your life in terms of what personality psychologists call "optimal levels of arousal" and what I call "sweet spots," and by doing so feel more energetic and alive than before.

Your sweet spot is the place where you're optimally stimulated. You probably seek it out already without being aware that you're doing so. Imagine that you're lying contentedly in a hammock reading a great novel. This is a sweet spot. But after half an hour you realize that you've read the same sentence five times; now you're understimulated. So you call a friend and go out for brunch--in other words, you ratchet up your stimulation level--and as you laugh and gossip over blueberry pancakes, you're back, thank goodness, inside your sweet spot. But this agreeable state lasts only until your friend--an extrovert who needs much more stimulation than you do--persuades you to accompany her to a block party, where you're now confronted by loud music and a sea of strangers.

Your friend's neighbors seem affable enough, but you feel pressured to make small talk above the din of music. Now--bang, just like that--you've fallen out of your sweet spot, except this time you're overstimulated. And you'll probably feel that way until you pair off with someone on the periphery of the party for an in-depth conversation, or bow out altogether and return to your novel.

Imagine how much better you'll be at this sweet-spot game once you're aware of playing it. You can set up your work, your hobbies, and your social life so that you spend as much time inside your sweet spot as possible."

Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that can't stop talking

Buying Happiness

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Not long ago an enterprising professor at the Harvard Business School named Mike Norton persuaded a big investment bank to let him survey the bank’s rich clients. (The poor people in the survey were millionaires.) In a forthcoming paper, Norton and his colleagues track the effects of getting money on the happiness of people who already have a lot of it: a rich person getting even richer experiences zero gain in happiness. That’s not all that surprising; it’s what Norton asked next that led to an interesting insight. He asked these rich people how happy they were at any given moment. Then he asked them how much money they would need to be even happier. “All of them said they needed two to three times more than they had to feel happier,” says Norton.

The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that money, above a certain modest sum, does not have the power to buy happiness, and yet even very rich people continue to believe that it does: the happiness will come from the money they don’t yet have. To the general rule that money, above a certain low level, cannot buy happiness there is one exception. “While spending money upon oneself does nothing for one’s happiness,” says Norton, “spending it on others increases happiness.”

Michael Lewis writing in The New Republic

Wonder & Fear

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The emergent properties of the latest large language models — their ability to stitch together what seems to pass for a primitive form of knowledge of the workings of our world — are not well understood. In the absence of understanding, the collective reaction to early encounters with this novel technology has been marked by an uneasy blend of wonder and fear.

It is not at all clear — not even to the scientists and programmers who build them — how or why the generative language and image models work. And the most advanced versions of the models have now started to demonstrate what one group of researchers has called “sparks of artificial general intelligence,” or forms of reasoning that appear to approximate the way that humans think.

Alexander Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, a company that creates data analysis software and works with the U.S. Department of Defense, writing in the New York Times

The building blocks

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The stories we create to understand ourselves become the narrative of our lives, explaining the accidents and choices that have brought us to where we are: when I'm good at, what I care about most, and where I'm headed. If you're among the last kid standing on the sidelines as the softball teams are chosen up, the way you understand your place in the world likely changes a little, shaping your sense of ability and the subsequent paths you take. What you tell yourself about your ability plays a part in shaping the ways you learn and perform-how hard you apply yourself, for example, or your tolerance for risk-taking and your willingness to preserve in the face of difficulty.

But differences in skills, and your ability to convert new knowledge into building blocks for further learning, also shape your routes to success. Many of the best managers and coaches in pro sports were mediocre or poor players but happen to be exceptional students of their games.

Each of us has a large basket of resources in the form of aptitudes, prior knowledge, intelligence, interest, and sense of personal empowerment that shape how we learn and how we overcome our shortcomings. Some of these differences matter a lot-for example, our ability to extract underlying principles for new experiences and to convert new knowledge into mental structures.

Peter C. Brown and Henry L. Roediger III, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

8 Great Quotes About Teaching with AI  

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Research shows that when students feel confident that they can successfully do the work assigned to them, they are less likely to cheat. And an important way to boost students’ confidence is to provide them with opportunities to experience success. ChatGPT can facilitate such experiences by offering students individualized support and breaking down complex problems into smaller challenges or tasks. The Conversation 

Rather than trying to stop the tools and, for instance, telling students not to use them, in my class I’m telling students to embrace them – but I expect their quality of work to be that much better now they have the help of these tools. Ultimately, by the end of the semester, I'm expecting the students to turn in assignments that are substantially more creative and interesting than the ones last year’s students or previous generations of students could have created. We Forum

ChatGPT can be directed to deliver feedback using positive, empathetic and encouraging language. Forexample, if a student completes a math problem incorrectly, instead of merely telling the student “You are wrong and the correct answer is …,” ChatGPT may initiate a conversation with the student. The Conversation

“AI can help with lesson planning,” Kerry O’Grady, an associate professor of public relations at Columbia University wrote, “ including selecting examples, reviewing key concepts before class, and helping with teaching/activity ideas.” This, she says, can help professors save both time and energy. Chronicle of Higher Ed

I don’t think that AI is going to necessarily destroy education. I don’t think it’s going to revolutionize education, either. I think it’s just going to sort of expand the toolbox of what’s possible in our classrooms. CalMatters

AI could analyze an individual learner's strengths, weaknesses and learning styles during online training and then recommend the most effective teaching methods and most relevant resources. Eventually, AI-powered virtual assistants could become standard features in learning platforms by providing real-time support and feedback to learners as they progress through their courses. TechTarget

Use these tools to help you understand challenging passages in assigned readings, or to build preliminary foundational knowledge to help you understand more difficult concepts. Don’t use AI to cheat — use it as a tool to help you learn. Chronicle of Higher Ed

As AI-enabled cheating roils colleges, professors turn to an ancient testing method— oral examinations, which date at least to ancient Greece, are getting new attention. Wall Street Journal

7 articles about AI & Ethics

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Can AI chatbots like ChatGPT help us make ethical decisions rationally? - Vox

Amazon created an AI resume-reading software and worked on this project for two years, trying various kinds of bias-mitigation techniques. And at the end of the day, they couldn’t sufficiently de-bias it, and so they threw it out.  - CNN

Teaching AI Ethics - Leon Furze Blog

People Using Generative AI ChatGPT Are Instinctively Making This AI Rookie Mistake, A Vexing Recipe For AI Ethics And AI Law - Forbes

Online mental health company uses ChatGPT to help respond to users in experiment — raising ethical concerns around healthcare and AI technology - Business Insider

When AI Overrules the Nurses Caring for You - Wall Street Journal 

A.I. Is Becoming More Conversant. But Will It Get More Honest? - New York Times

Yes, you need data scientists and data engineers. You need those tech people. You also need people like sociologists, attorneys, especially civil rights attorneys, and people from risk. You need that cross-functional expertise because solving or mitigating bias in AI is not something that can just be left in the technologists’ hands. - CNN

Obstacles

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The first thing to do about an obstacle is simply to stand up to it and not complain about it or whine under it but forthrightly attack it. Don't go crawling through life on your hands and knees half-defeated. Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have.

Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking

13 things journalists need to know about AI

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A good rule of thumb is to start from the assumption that any story you hear about using AI in real-world settings is, beneath everything else, a story about labor automation.  Max Read’s blog 

This new era requires that newsrooms develop new, clear standards for how journalists will — and won’t — use AI for reporting, writing and disseminating the news. Newsrooms need to act quickly but deliberatively to create these standards and to make them easily accessible to their audiences. Poynter

Any assistance provided to these (AI) companies (by news organizations) could ultimately help put journalists out of business, and the risk remains that, once the media’s utility to the world of AI has been exhausted, the funding tap will quickly be turned off. Media executives can argue that having a seat at the table is better than not having one, but it might just make it easier for big tech to eat their lunch. Columbia Journalism Review 

Google is testing a product that uses artificial intelligence technology to produce news stories, pitching it to news organizations including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal’s owner, News Corp, according to three people familiar with the matter. New York Times

“Reporters tend to just pick whatever the (AI) author or the model producer has said,” Abeba Birhane, an AI researcher and senior fellow at the Mozilla Foundation, said. “They just end up becoming a PR machine themselves for those tools.” Jonathan Stray, a senior scientist at the Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible AI and former AP editor, said, “Find the people who are actually using it or trying to use it to do their work and cover that story, because there are real people trying to get real things done.” Columbia Journalism Review

Journalists’ greatest value will be in asking good questions and judging the quality of the answers, not writing up the results. Wall Street Journal 

There are 49 supposed news sites that NewsGuard, an organization tracking misinformation, has identified as “almost entirely written by artificial intelligence software.” The Guardian

Recently, AI developers have claimed their models perform well not only on a single task but in a variety of situations … In the absence of any real-world validation, journalists should not believe the company’s claims. Columbia Journalism Review

If media outlets truly wanted to learn about the power of AI in newsrooms, they could test tools internally with journalists before publishing. Instead, they’re skipping to the potential for profit. The Verge

One of the main ways to combat misinformation is to make it clearer where a piece of content was generated and what happened to it along the way. The Adobe-led Content Authenticity Initiative aims to help image creators do this. Microsoft announced earlier this year that it will add metadata to all content created with its generative AI tools. Google, meanwhile, plans to share more details on the images catalogued in its search engine. Axios 

In the newsroom, some media companies have already tried to implement generative AI to create content that is easily automated, such as newsletters and real estate reports. The tech news media CNET started quietly publishing articles explaining financial topics using “‘automated technology’ – a stylistic euphemism for AI,” CNET had to issue corrections on 41 of the 77 stories after uncovering errors despite the articles being reviewed by humans prior to publication. Some of the errors came down to basic math. It’s mistakes such as these that make many journalists wary of using AI tools beyond simple transcription or programming a script. Columbia Journalism Review

OpenAI and the Associated Press are announcing a landmark deal for ChatGPT to license the news organization's archives. Axios

AI in The Newsroom (video) International News Media Association International  

10 Specific Predictions about AI

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Attackers (will) use artificial intelligence to write software that can break into corporate networks in novel ways, change appearance and functionality to beat detection, and smuggle data back out through processes that appear normal. Washington Post

Actor Tom Hanks believes he will be starring in new film roles long after his death, as he speculated on the possibility that his likeness could be captured by AI. Forbes

Any site that depends on contributions from the public — text messages, product reviews, photo or video uploads — is preparing to be swamped with AI-generated input that will make finding signal in the noise even harder for human users. Axios

Robots presented at an AI forum said they expected to increase in number and help solve global problems, and would not steal humans' jobs or rebel against us. Reuters

While much of the media attention has been on large language models, the field of causal AI has gotten comparatively little. If causal reasoning is combined with large language models, it could have a major impact on humanity. Semafor 

In a way, I’m agnostic to that question of “do we need more breakthroughs or will existing systems just scale all the way?” My view is it’s an empirical question, and one should push both as hard as possible. And then the results will speak for themselves. (DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis) The Verge

Artificial intelligences that are trained using text and images from other AIs, which have themselves been trained on AI outputs, could eventually become functionally useless. New Scientist

One need not even know how to program to construct attack software. “You will be able to say, ‘just tell me how to break into a system,’ and it will say, ‘here’s 10 paths in’,” said Robert Hansen, who has explored AI as deputy chief technology officer at security firm Tenable. “They are just going to get in. It’ll be a very different world.” Washington Post

Fifty-six percent of respondents (in a recent survey) think ‘people will develop emotional relationships with AI’ and 35 percent of people said they’d be open to doing so if they were lonely. The Verge 

In 2019, Christian Szegedy, a computer scientist formerly at Google and now at a start-up in the Bay Area, predicted that a computer system would match or exceed the problem-solving ability of the best human mathematicians within a decade. Last year he revised the target date to 2026. New York Times

The best strategy for persuading others to help you achieve something

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Let's say you're considering a wonderful business opportunity, but you also face challenges.

The average leader might gather the team and explain why it's such a great opportunity for the company. The emotionally intelligent leader, however, skips much of that, and frames everything from the point of view of his or her team:

1. First, what the opportunity means for everyone together,

2. Second, what it means for individual contributors, and

3. Finally, what's needed from each person to reach the goal.

The hard part is that it takes more time to think about all of these angles and to craft the right message. On top of all of that, you have the challenge of being brief. But, when done right, you also get the benefit of being far more likely to achieve your goals.

Bill Murphy, Jr. writing in his newsletter

Think About Your Death and Live Better 

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We banish death from our thoughts. But this leads us to make choices in life that actually curtail our happiness. People who express more regrets tend to be those who postponed profound activities that yield meaning, such as practicing religion, appreciating beauty, or spending more time with loved ones.

This is probably because they realized too late that they had implicitly assumed life would always go on and on, so there’s always time to do these meaning-filled things. When we avoid thoughts of death, we unconsciously assume that tomorrow will look a lot like today, so we can do tomorrow what we could do today. But when we focus on death, that increases the stakes at play in the present, and clarifies what we should do with our time. 

Arthur C. Brooks writing in the Atlantic

10 iPhone Photo Tricks Worth Knowing

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8 Articles with Predictions about Where AI Is Going

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13 Free webinars in the next 2 weeks about social media, AI, media law, journalism, & more

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Tue, July 18 - Critical AI Literacy

What: How can we develop our own critical AI literacy as educators, and how do we develop students' critical AI literacies? In this session, we will explore multiple dimensions of critical AI literacy and discuss various pedagogical strategies educators can use in class.

Who: Maha Bali is Professor of Practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo.

When: Noon, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Media Education Lab

More Info

 

Tue, July 18 - Age Verification Tech for Social Media: Exploring the Opportunities and Pitfalls

What: A discussion of age verification technology for social media, AI age estimation, and current capabilities and limitations that policymakers should consider when crafting legislation designed to protect children.

Who: Scott Brennen, Head of Online Expression Policy Center on Technology Policy, UNC-Chapel Hill;  Ashley Johnson, Senior Policy Analyst Information, Technology and Innovation Foundation; Yuelin Li, Chief Product Officer, Onfido; Nicole Saad Bembridge, Associate Counsel, NetChoice

When: Noon, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Information Technology & Innovation Foundation

More Info

 

Tue, July 18 - Threats to Haitian Journalists and Press Freedom

What: A discussion of the dangers journalists face as they cover the upheavals in Haiti.

Who: Macolivie J. Neel, executive editor of Haitian Times; Michael Drudge President, San Antonio Pro SPJ Chapter & retired foreign correspondent.

When: 9:30 am, Pacific

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Society of Professional Journalists

More Info

 

Tue, July 18 - One-Day Law School for Journalists

What: An intensive program designed to support journalists and others in the media who face the challenge of reporting on the court system without a law degree. While this program was designed for those in the media, all are welcome to attend.

Who: David Sonenshein, Professor Emeritus, Temple University; James E. Beasley School of Law;

Judge Timothy K. Lewis, Former Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit;  Linda Greenhouse, Senior Research Scholar in Law, Yale Law School; John Watson, Associate Professor, School of Communication, American University; Cynthia Rufe, Senior Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; Charles Becker, Deputy Chief Counsel, Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board; Melissa Norton, Deputy Chief Counsel, Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board; Kaitlin Gurney, Partner, Ballard Spahr LLP; Jane Kirtley, Director, Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law, University of Minnesota Law School; Paula Knudsen Burke, Local Legal Initiative Staff Attorney, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; Melissa Melewsky, Media Law Counsel, Pennsylvania News Media Association, and others.

When: 9:30 am – 3:30 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Pennsylvanians for Modern Court & the Society of Environmental Journalists

More Info

 

Wed, July 19 - How to Manage a Crisis on Social Media

What: Our expert panel will guide you through the rocky terrain of crisis communication, provide insights, and answer all your questions.  Whether you're facing a natural disaster, a PR nightmare, or an unexpected disruption, this webinar will help you navigate the storm. 

Who: Melanie Gaboriault, Senior Director Global Corporate Communications, Hootsuite and panelists

When: 11 am, Pacific

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Hootsuite

More Info

 

Wed, July 19 - Unlock More Value From Your Social Media Metrics

What: Learn the best practices to uncover valuable insights about your brand, industry and competitors that can help you craft content that resonates with your target audience

Who: Harvey Rañola Global Head of Media Intelligence NetBase Quid 

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: NetBase Quid 

More Info

 

Thu, July 20 - Quick, actionable strategies for earning trust

What: In this quick training we'll be talking about how journalists can earn trust with sources.   

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Trusting News

More Info

 

Mon, July 24 - Breaking Into Narrative Journalism

What: In this webinar, seasoned editors and reporters will offer tips for breaking into narrative journalism, including knowing what editors want, crafting pitches and figuring out whether the pay will be worth the effort.

Who: Pamela Weintraub is the senior editor for science and psychology at Aeon and the co-editor in chief at OpenMind magazine; Brady Huggett is the enterprise editor at Spectrum, where he edits features and long-form projects; Jane C. Hu is a freelance journalist based in Seattle. She sits on the boards of the National Association of Science Writers and The Open Notebook.

When: Noon, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Association of Health Care Journalists

More Info

 

Tue, July 25 - Storytelling for Impact

What: Tips, techniques and tools to help the modern marketer tell better and more impactful stories to activate their audiences around ideas and actions.

Who: Firespring’s Kiersten Hill, Director of Nonprofit Solutions

When: 2 pm, Central

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Firespring

More Info

 

Tue, July 25 - Brain Drain: How to Combat Burnout

What: You’ll hear from a burnout expert about steps you can take to get balance back in your life. Specifically, you’ll learn:  The key indicators of burnout to watch out for in yourself and your team. How to create more effective boundaries at work … even when the workload is piling up. Stress relieving techniques for when you feel completely overwhelmed.

Who: Lisa Jammer, Chief People and Culture Officer, Department of Information Resources, Texas

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: GovLoop

More Info

 

Tue, July 25 - Getting Projects Done Right

What: A simple, intuitive framework to increase every project’s likelihood of success using case studies from multiple industries and companies across the globe,’

Who: Project management expert Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, author of the HBR Project Management Handbook.

When: 11 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Harvard Business Review

More Info

 

Tue, July 25 – Artificial Intelligence — The Good, the Bad, and the Scary

What: Join us as we explore the boundless potential of AI, where we will confront the good, the bad, and the downright scary aspects of these game-changing technologies. This webinar will explore how to harness the power of AI while remaining responsible stewards of the invaluable data entrusted to us  

Who: Deb Stuligross, a seasoned technology professional with extensive experience working alongside nonprofit organizations.

When: 10 am, Pacific

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: TechSoup

More Info

 

Mon, July 26 - Do More With Data: A Needs-Based Approach to Advanced Audience Strategies  

What: How to increase brand engagement and conversions by using data to personalize your messaging, reach audiences across multiple channels, and target your audiences in addressable advertising. Learn more about the use of AI, ML, and other cutting-edge data science tools in audience targeting.  

Who: TransUnion Director of Product Marketing Ayelet Palmore; Audigent President Greg Williams is

When: 10 am, Pacific

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: TransUnion (IT Services & Consulting)

More Info

 

Fri, July 28 - Social Media Journalism

What: In this webinar we will discuss the possibilities and challenges that social networks are putting before the world of journalism.

Who: Moderator Livia Viganò, the co-founder of Factanza Media and panalists

When: 11 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Journalismfund Europe

More Info

Other People are Responsible for the Way I Feel

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A consistent characteristic of imperative people is the desire to persuade others to be just like them. When encouraged to look back to their childhoods, most imperative people can recall a history of strong persuasion. The parents have been so intent on keeping order that their behavior said, “If I can get you to behave in my world, there will be order.” Developmental years were full of relationships that featured arm-twisting, intimidation, or threats.

Jack told me that he had learned early on that it was not safe to be vulnerable. He told me, “I remember a scene when I was only five or six years old. I had just stepped onto the back porch of our home to set something outside when a very loud clap of thunder sounded. Scared to death, I ran indoors, where my father grabbed me and told me to quit acting so ridiculous. Then my mother scolded me for upsetting my father. I was immediately defensive and told them they were both mean. The next thing I knew, I was smarting from a spanking.”

“In a sense you were in school at times like that.” I said, “You witnessed how effectively they persuaded you to be what they wanted, so you eventually learned to do likewise with your family.”

While it is a good thing to express opinions (as opposed to repressing them), it is not healthy for us to become bossy or condescending or explosive in order to get our way.

Les Carter, Imperative People: Those Who Must Be in Control

Relational Diversity

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A 2022 study found that the more “relational diversity” a person has in their social repertoire, the higher their well-being. Using the analogy of a “social portfolio,” Harvard Business School doctoral candidate Hanne Collins and her colleagues found when people socialize with a range of conversation partners — family members, coworkers, friends, and strangers — on a given day, they report feeling happier than those who converse with fewer “categories” of people. 

Allie Volpe writing in Vox