AI Definitions: Causal AI

Causal AI – This is where the principles of causal inference is applied to AI so that it uncovers connections between data points and looks for the cause-and-effect relationships to understand why things happen. Instead of predicting an outcome and its value as in predictive interference, causal inference looks at how an outcome changes if a particular factor is manipulated. While predictive AI is ideal for anticipating what a user is most likely to be interested in based on past behavior and user characteristics (such as when making purchase recommendations), causal AI will gauge the impact of changes to user behavior (such as A/B testing).

More AI definitions here.

LegoGPT

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University unveiled LegoGPT, an AI model that creates physically stable Lego structures from text prompts. The new system not only designs Lego models that match text descriptions (prompts) but also ensures they can be built brick by brick in the real world, either by hand or with robotic assistance.- Ars Technica

Stealing from Yourself

There once was a thief, a man named Emanuel Ninger. The year is 1887. The scene is a small neighborhood grocery store. Mr. Ninger is buying some turnip greens. He gives the clerk a $20 bill. As the clerk begins to put the money in the cash drawer to give Nr. Ninger his change, she notices some of the ink from the $20 bill is coming off on her fingers which are damp from the turnip greens. She looks at Mr. Ninger, a man she has known for years. She looks at the smudged bill. This man is a trusted friend; she has known him all her life; he can't be a counterfeiter. She gives Mr. Ninger his change, and he leaves the store.     

But $20 is a lot of money in 1887, and eventually the clerk calls the police. They verify the bill as counterfeit and get a search warrant to look through Mr. Ninger's home. In the attic they find where he is reproducing money. He is a master artist and is painting $20 bills with brushes and paint! But also in the attic they find three portraits Ninger had painted. They seized these and eventually sold them at auction for $16,000 (in 1887 currency, remember) or a little more than $5,000 per painting. The irony is that it took Ninger almost as long to paint a $20 bill as it did for him to paint a $5,000 portrait! It's true that Emmanuel Ninger was a thief, but the person from whom he stole the most was himself. He was another in the endless list of thieves who steal from themselves when they try to steal from others. 

Zig Ziglar

14 Recent Articles about AI & Robotics

China's AI-powered humanoid robots aim to transform manufacturing – Reuters  

The Evolution of AI Products – LukeW

China Has an Army of Robots on Its Side in the Tariff War – New York Times

Humanoid robots run a Chinese half-marathon alongside flesh-and-blood competitors – Associated Press 

Invasion of the Home Humanoid Robots – New York Times

Nvidia says ‘the age of generalist robotics is here' – The Verge 

Agibot unveils AI model that allows humanoid robots to perform real-world tasks – SCMP 

Newly developed artificial intelligence can account for how the brain changes as we learn, enabling a person with paralysis to move objects. - University of California, San Fransico  

A robotic spacecraft designed to detect metal-rich asteroids - New York Times 

Humanoid Robot Startups Are Hot. This AI Expert Cuts Through the Hype. – Wall Street Journal

“Murderbot,” a sci-fi comedy introduces TV’s latest fascinating cyberbeing for an age of A.I. angst. - New York Times

How AI and robotics can help prevent breakdowns in factories — and save manufacturers big bucks – Business Insider

Eldercare robot helps people sit and stand, and catches them if they fall – MIT

Walgreens doubles down on prescription-filling robots to cut costs, free up pharmacists amid turnaround – CNBC

A Journalist’s AI 'Go Bag'

"What should be in a journalist’s AI go bag? For starters, the one basic thing that should be in everyone’s bag, the AI prepper’s equivalent of a flashlight and bottled water: skill at using AI tools. It is not enough to use it as a slightly better Google; you need to keep abreast of the latest releases and spend time every week pushing both its capabilities and your own. Trying to make it do your job is table stakes. Try making it write a children’s book, or invent a new game, or solve cold fusion. As with any learning process, the outcome is less important than the effort, because the effort is how you learn not just what it can do, but what you could do with it." -Megan McArdle writing in The Washington Post

The advantages of flexibility

Flexibility is valuable in almost any aspect of life – in school, on the job, in intimate relations with other people, and even in dealing with oneself. Just think of how much more effective teachers could be if they accommodated themselves to the varied styles of thinking in their classrooms, or how easy it would be to work for people who allowed us to be ourselves and to get our work done in ways that are effective for us, or how enjoyable it would be to be in a relationship with someone who fully appreciated us for ourselves – for our own likes and dislikes – rather than for what they would like us to be. The advantages of flexibility are so overwhelming that one wonders why we don’t emphasize it much more than we do in our teaching of our children, our students, and our employees. 

Robert Sternberg, Thinking Styles

22 Articles about What AI can do now

NBC will use Jim Fagan’s AI-generated voice for NBA coverage –The Verge 

Eldercare robot helps people sit and stand, and catches them if they fall – MIT

4 ways I use AI as an accessibility specialist – Scott Vinkle Blog 

AI Helped Heal My Chronic Pain – Wall Street Journal 

AI headphones translate multiple speakers at once, cloning their voices in 3D sound – Univ of Washington  

New Lego-building AI creates models that actually stand up in real life - Ars Technica  

An AI-created video of a murdered man is used to deliver a victim's statement at a killer's sentencing – BBC

World biometric identity network launches in U.S. with iris-scanning stores - The Washington

Visa and Mastercard unveil AI-powered shopping – Tech Crunch 

The Evolution of AI Products – LukeW

Researchers Secretly Ran a Massive, Unauthorized AI Persuasion Experiment on Reddit Users – 404 Media   

I Recorded Everything I Said for Three Months. AI Has Replaced My Memory. – Wall Street Journal

An AI-generated radio host in Australia went unnoticed for months – The Verge

These autistic people struggled to make sense of others. Then they found AI. – Washington Post

Mother feeling lonely? Pay for an AI app to give her a call – The Times

Google created a new AI model for talking to dolphins - Ars Technica  

Wearable AI system helps blind people navigate – Techxplore  

An AI model that learns to predict how quantum systems evolve – The Quantum Insider  

Google AI masters Minecraft - Semafor 

Philly’s new Vision Zero dashboard shows where and how crashes happen – Technical.ly

Invasion of the Home Humanoid Robots – New York Times

Walgreens doubles down on prescription-filling robots to cut costs, free up pharmacists amid turnaround – CNBC

Bot Trained to Provide Students Feedback on Assignments

A communication professor at the University of Washington, developed a custom A.I. chatbot by training it on versions of old assignments that she had graded. It can now give students feedback on their writing that mimics her own at any time, day or night. It has been beneficial for students who are otherwise hesitant to ask for help, she said.  “Is there going to be a point in the foreseeable future that much of what graduate student teaching assistants do can be done by A.I.?” she said. “Yeah, absolutely.” - New York Times

The Importance of Leisure

German philosopher Josef Pieper wrote, “We mistake leisure for idleness, and work for creativity." 

In a world of “total work,” there is no space for contemplation or rest. There is no need for people to be in “harmony with themselves” as long as they are employed. To “know thyself” is a secondary concern, and any sort of break from work is merely in the service of doing more work. 

As Pieper put it:

The simple ”break” from work — the kind that lasts an hour, or the kind that lasts a week or longer — is part and parcel of daily working life. It is something that has been built into the whole working process, a part of the schedule. The ”break” is there for the sake of work. It is supposed to provide ”new strength” for ”new work,” as the word ”refreshment” indicates: one is refreshed for work through being refreshed from work. 

Paul Millerd writing in Quartz

22 Articles about the Business of Running an AI Company

AI Startup Perplexity’s Valuation Surges to $14 Billion in New Funding Round – Wall Street Journal  

Google AI Overviews leads to dramatic reduction in clickthroughs for Mail Online – Press Gazette

How China’s Biggest Chipmaker, SMIC, Could Threaten U.S. AI Dominance - Wall Street Journal

AI Is Not Your Friend How the “opinionated” chatbots destroyed AI’s potential, and how we can fix it – The Atlantic

Reports: US losing edge in AI talent pool - Semafor

Google Plans to Roll Out Its A.I. Chatbot to Children Under 13 – New York Times

Researchers Find Easy Way to Jailbreak Every Major AI, From ChatGPT to Claude -Futurism 

Advanced AI gets more unpredictable - Axios 

Here’s How Big the AI Revolution Really Is, in Four Charts - Wall Street Journal

Sam Altman Admits That Saying "Please" and "Thank You" to ChatGPT Is Wasting Millions of Dollars in Computing Power -Futurism

Immigrant founders are the norm in key U.S. AI firms: study - Axios

Reasoning models don't always say what they think - Anthropic

Nvidia reveals plans to manufacture some AI chips in the U.S. – NBC News 

Oracle to provide cloud computing, AI services to Singapore military – Reuters  

Nvidia to Make AI Supercomputers Entirely in U.S. - Wall Street Journal

AI startup is reportedly aiming for a massive $2B seed round – Tech Crunch

Google unveils Ironwood, its most powerful AI processor yet – ArsTechnica

Meta got caught gaming AI benchmarks to make it appear its new AI model is better than the competition  - The Verge  

Google is in trouble... but this could change everything - and no, it's not AI - ZDnet 

OpenAI and Anthropic are fighting over college students with free AI – The Verge 

Why the AI Revolution Will Require Massive Energy Resources - AEI

Perplexity partners with PayPal for in-chat shopping as AI race heats up – CNBC

LegoGPT

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University unveiled LegoGPT, an AI model that creates physically stable Lego structures from text prompts. The new system not only designs Lego models that match text descriptions (prompts) but also ensures they can be built brick by brick in the real world, either by hand or with robotic assistance.- Ars Technica

Impersonating People with Down Syndrome

AI-generated accounts impersonating people with Down syndrome are spreading across social media. Many of these artificial intelligence-backed profiles are gaining followers faster than real disability advocates — and they're making money from it. For people with Down syndrome, these fake accounts can feel like a new level of discrimination — one where their lived experiences are copied, exaggerated and monetized. -CBS News

The Time Test

If a class of students are allowed an hour to complete an essay test and one student completes her assignment before the time is up, she isn’t penalized, is she? The assignment was to write an essay, not merely to use the time. 

But what if using the time was the assignment? If a person is told to use an entire day profitably, but he becomes bored and diverted by mid-morning, wasting the balance of the day, then his speed is worthless.

The same is true when life is the task. To be finished with life before life has finished with us is to have failed to complete the assignment. 

18 Recent Articles about AI Fakes

Why people are using AI to fake disabilities like Down syndrome online – CBS News

The AI Slop Presidency – 404 media

An AI-created video of a murdered man is used to deliver a victim's statement at a killer's sentencing - BBC

In Battle Against AI-Powered Fraudsters, Colleges Turn to New Weapon – AI – Voice of San Diego

Deepfakes on trial: How judges are navigating AI evidence authentication -Reuters

The Age of Realtime Deepfake Fraud Is Here – 404 media

Reasoning models don't always say what they think - Anthropic

Is this AI or a journalist? Research reveals stylistic differences in news articles – Techxplore  

Nine Ways to Protect Yourself From ‘Impostor’ Voice Scams – Wall Street Journal

A deepfakes bill is flying through Congress. Critics say it’s flawed. – Washington Post

YouTube Turns Off Ad Revenue For Fake Movie Trailer Channels After Deadline Investigation – Deadline

AI Slop Is a Brute Force Attack on the Algorithms That Control Reality – 404 media

Russia seeds chatbots with lies. Any bad actor could game AI the same way. – Washington Post

Researchers raise red flag about AI-generated fake images in biomedical research – Medicalxpress

This ‘College Protester’ Isn’t Real. It’s an AI-Powered Undercover Bot for Cops – 404 media

Major deepfake porn site shuts down – NPR

7 Best Deepfake Detector Tools & Techniques (May 2025) – Unite AI               

Former school athletic director gets 4 months in jail in racist AI deepfake case – Associated Press

AI Headphone Translation

A team of researchers at the University of Washington say they have designed an AI headphone system that translates several speakers at once, while preserving the direction and qualities of people’s voices. Read more in this press release

Road rage victim 'speaks' via AI at his killer's sentencing

Chris Pelkey died in a road rage shooting in Arizona three years ago. But with the help of artificial intelligence, he returned earlier this month at his killer's sentencing to deliver a victim's statement himself in what could be the first-of-its-kind use of the technology. -Read more at the BBC

The Backfire Effect

The backfire effect happens when the myth ends up becoming more memorable than the fact. One of the most striking examples of this was seen in a study evaluating a “Myths and Facts” flyer about flu vaccines. Immediately after reading the flyer, participants accurately remembered the facts as facts and the myths as myths. But just 30 minutes later this had been completely turned on its head, with the myths being much more likely to be remembered as “facts”.  The thinking is that merely mentioning the myths actually helps to reinforce them. And then as time passes you forget the context in which you heard the myth – in this case during a debunking – and are left with just the memory of the myth itself. 

Mark Lorch writing in Business Insider  

22 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism & Media

Tue, May 13 - AI-Powered Attacks: How Hackers are Weaponizing Artificial Intelligence

What: Cybercriminals are weaponizing AI for phishing, deepfake social engineering, and LLM-powered malware. Discover how these threats work and the strategies to stay ahead in the evolving cybersecurity landscape.

Who: Ali Uzun Senior Solutions Engineer.

When: 11 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: SOC-Radar

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Tue, May 13 - 30 Minute Skills: Writing Workshop 102

What: Once the reporting ends, how should the writing begin? Journalists and other writers often have difficulty structuring their stories and making editing decisions. In this lesson, you'll learn:  An effective blueprint for writing your stories; How to determine what should be cut and what should be included in the final draft; Why "nose-pickers" and "warts" are essential to every profile.

Who: Edward Fitzpatrick, a Rhode Island-based reporter for the Boston Globe.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: New England Newspaper & Press Association

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Tue, May 13 - Selecting the Right edtech Tools in the Age of AI

What: This session will explore: The need for board policies and administrative guidelines; AI’s role in enhancing student learning while maintaining safety and authenticity; Frameworks for assessing instructional value; Practical use cases to improve efficiency and reduce cognitive load.

Who: Eric Lawson, Director of Technology & Innovation; Ellen Kaschuluk, Assistant Superintendent/Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment at York School Department.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Follett Software

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Tue, May 13 - How Americans Feel About AI—and Why It Matters for Policy

What: A timely discussion of new polling data exploring how U.S. public sentiment toward AI is evolving. The conversation will unpack where Americans see promise or peril, how their views have shifted over the past year, and what these perspectives mean for lawmakers, business leaders, and the future of AI policy.

Who: Daniel Castro, the director of the Center for Data Innovation and vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: YouTube & in-person

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The Center for Data Innovation and Public First

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Tue, May 13 - Storytelling that Connects and Inspires

What: Tips, techniques and tools to help keep your mission at the forefront, ensuring ethical storytelling and staying top of mind to your audience.

Who: Firespring’s Kiersten Hill.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Firespring

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Tue, May 13 - Trends in Application Security and Increasing AI Adoption

What: Recent research on the application protection market and modern application security to help security teams solve the challenges they face.

Who: John Grady, Principal Analyst, Network Security & Web Application Security, Enterprise Strategy Group.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: BrightTalk, Enterprise Strategy Group

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Tue, May 13 - AI Innovator Collaborative

What: Join the collaborative if you’re an ONA member who is already experimenting with AI tools — even if you’re not an expert. This is a regular gathering for members using AI in journalism to connect and share ideas.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free to members, $25 for students

Sponsor: Online News Association

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Tue, May 13 - Journalism Career Essentials In the Mobile Device Era

What: This session will offer a candid discussion on how journalists can adapt to the rapidly changing industry.

Who: Kevin Olivas, News Recruiting Manager, Sinclair

When: 5:30 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: National Association of Hispanic Journalists

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Wed, May 14 - The fundamentals of data storytelling   

What: In data storytelling, less is often more. Knowing how to simplify big concepts or break down large datasets is an essential part of the data storyteller’s toolkit. In this first session of our three-part webinar series, you’ll discover: What makes charts so compelling—and why you should use them; How to remove clutter and boost clarity; How to use charts as a communication channel.

Who: John Burn-Murdoch, chief data reporter at the Financial Times.

When: 10 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Flourish

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Wed, May 14 - Smart Brevity & scaling your comms strategy  

What: A virtual roundtable on how to engage employees and scale your comms strategy.  

Who: Jason Tomassini Axios HQ Head of Services.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Axios

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Wed, May 14 - AI as Your Career Ally: Leveraging Smart Tools to Land Your Next L&D Role

What: In this practical webinar we’ll demonstrate how learning professionals can harness AI to transform their job search process from resume creation to interview preparation. Through live demonstrations and real-world examples, participants will learn how to use free and accessible AI tools to craft standout application materials, identify promising opportunities, prepare for interviews, and showcase their value in a competitive market.

Who: Margie Meacham Founder and Chief Freedom Officer, Learningtogo.ai

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Training Magazine Network

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Wed, May 14 - Evaluating the AI Landscape and Organization Readiness in Medical Writing

What: This webinar will guide you through key considerations for understanding your AI needs, evaluating potential product features, understanding cybersecurity risks, and making informed decisions without getting lost in the technical weeds. We will also showcase AgileWriter™, an AI-enabled document authoring and management platform designed to streamline workflows while supporting high-quality medical writing.

Who: Jeanette Towles, President and owner of Synterex, PhD; Jason Casavant, Executive Director of Medical Writing and Quality Assurance at Synterex; Alex Olinger, Information Technology Manager at Synterex.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free to members

Sponsor: American Medical Writers Association

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Wed, May 14 - Harnessing Cloud Storage to Build Smarter AI Agents

What: How to build an AI agent that can query, analyze, and generate insights from company-specific data—all powered by cost-efficient, scalable cloud storage.

Who: Pat Patterson, Chief Technical Evangelist & Jeronimo De Leon, Sr. Product Manager, AI.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: BackBlaze

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Wed, May 14 - Advanced Features for Nonprofits: ChatGPT's Next-Level Tools

What: Explore ChatGPT’s next-level capabilities for more efficient and impactful work. Features include GPTs, Canvas, Projects, and Deep Research. This session is designed for people who have already had several hours of experimentation with a generative AI tool such as ChatGPT. No knowledge of computer science, machine learning, coding or even how AI actually works is necessary - this is an entirely practical session.

Who: Rich Leimsider is the Director of the AI for Nonprofits Sprint; Mohammed Husein Solutions Engineer, OpenAI.

When: 1:30 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: OpenAI Academy

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Wed, May 14 - The Core Principles of AI

What: You’ll learn: How good data fundamentals and governance are essential for AI to function properly; The security and privacy risks associated with AI; Use cases from successful agencies who have piloted AI programs responsibly

Who: Jason Lally, Chief Data Officer, California; Damien Eversmann, Principal Chief Architect, Education, Red Hat; Murtaza Masood, Managing Director, State & Local Government, Box; Francisco R. Ramirez, Chief Architect, State & Local Government, Red Hat; Jared Vichengrad, Head of Public Sector, Check Point

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: GovLoop

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Wed, May 14 - Press Freedom Defense Fund Workshop

What: This workshop is designed to equip journalists with practical strategies to maintain control over their digital workflows. We will provide the knowledge and frameworks needed to identify AI risks, implement effective solutions, and develop policies that safeguard journalism in a digital ecosystem.

Who: Nikita Mazurov is a security researcher focusing on source protection at The Intercept and the Fund; David S. Bralow is the chief legal officer of The Intercept and co-director of the Fund; Sumi Aggarwal is The Intercept’s chief strategy officer and an investigative reporter and editor.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The Press Freedom Defense Fund

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Wed, May 14 - AI for Freelancers

What: Join us for a virtual training series for journalists looking to get started with AI tools in news. From the basics of generative AI to image generation, data journalism, audience engagement and writing effective prompts, we will cover how to use these technologies, ethics, legal issues and more.

Who: Mike Reilley Senior Lecturer, University of Illinois-Chicago.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Online News Association

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Wed, May 14 - Moving Beyond Efficiency: Strategically Leveraging AI in Learning and Development

What: This webinar will delve into the concept of viewing AI as a transformative disruption, rather than a transactional tool. Drawing insights from the early adoption and evolution of AI at Golin and Publicis Groupe, we will highlight the crucial alignment of AI initiatives with overarching business objectives.

Who: Joe Leslie Global AI L&D Lead, Golin.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Open Sesame

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Thu, May 15 - The Impact of Student Reporting Programs

What: The preliminary results of the annual benchmark study by the Center for Community News (The University of Vermont) measuring the breadth and impact of university-led reporting across the country. We will here directly on the latest research into the success of these programs from research leaders at CCN and around the country.

Who: Duc Luu, Director of Journalism at the Knight Foundation; Sima Bhowmik, Post-Doctoral Researcher at CCN.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: University of Vermont

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Thu, May 15 - How to Master On-Camera Reporting

What: This webinar will offer valuable techniques for developing a captivating presence as a reporter and will discuss his methods for producing engaging video explainers, vertical videos, and other hosted content. Participants will gain exclusive insights into his creative workflow, which includes behind-the-scenes snippets of outtakes, editing choices, and scriptwriting techniques. This is a fantastic opportunity to improve your skills and capture the attention of video consumers.

Who: Alex Clark is a producer for CBS News Confirmed, covering AI, misinformation and their real-world impact.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Video Consortium

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Thu, May 15 - Narrating America, Reporting for People

What: The winners of the 2024–2025 David Nyhan Prizes for Public Policy Journalism in a conversation about their work and the importance of journalism that centers the people most impacted by political and public policy decisions.

Who: Cynthia Tucker, Journalist and Pulitzer-Prize-winning commentator; Michael Harriot, Award-winning journalist, bestselling author, poet, and public historian; Rose Conlon, Reporter.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Harvard Kennedy School

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Fri, May 16 - AI Journalism Lab: LEADERSHIP Showcase

What: A sandbox for journalists to explore how AI is reshaping managerial roles and decision-making processes in newsrooms and media organizations.  In this panel, program participants will take turns with 5-minute presentations showcasing their capstone AI projects. 

Who: Moderator Anita Zielina, program lead instructor; ​Reina Kempt, Assistant Managing Editor/National Data Automation and Newsletter Editor, Gannett Center for Community Journalism; ​Aisling McCabe, Strategy and Business Development Director, The Irish Times Group; ​Alba Mora Roca, Executive Producer, AJ+;  Martin Schori, Director of Editorial AI & Innovation, Aftonbladet; Lina Al-Ejeilat, Executive Editor, 7iber.

When: 11 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: AI Journalism Lab

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Our First Duty

We are often worried about teaching doctrine, but we risk forgetting that our first duty is to communicate the beauty and joy of knowing Jesus. - Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV

err in the direction of kindness

Below is part of a commencement speech given by George Saunder on May 11, 2013.

Accomplishment is unreliable. “Succeeding,” whatever that might mean to you, is hard, and the need to do so constantly renews itself (success is like a mountain that keeps growing ahead of you as you hike it), and there’s the very real danger that “succeeding” will take up your whole life, while the big questions go untended.

Since, according to me, your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving: Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now. There’s a confusion in each of us, a sickness, really: selfishness. But there’s also a cure. So be a good and proactive and even somewhat desperate patient on your own behalf — seek out the most efficacious anti-selfishness medicines, energetically, for the rest of your life.

Do all the other things, the ambitious things — travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, swim naked in wild jungle rivers (after first having it tested for monkey poop) – but as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness. 

Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial. That luminous part of you that exists beyond personality — your soul, if you will — is as bright and shining as any that has ever been. Bright as Shakespeare’s, bright as Gandhi’s, bright as Mother Teresa’s. Clear away everything that keeps you separate from this secret luminous place. Believe it exists, come to know it better, nurture it, share its fruits tirelessly.

And someday, in 80 years, when you’re 100, and I’m 134, and we’re both so kind and loving we’re nearly unbearable, drop me a line, let me know how your life has been. I hope you will say: It has been so Wonderful.