Wu Wei
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🌱 Learning & Growing
Maintaining Optimism
Even when we feel helpless to solve the world's ills, we must remember that we are empowered.
That’s right. We have the power to change things, to change people’s minds, to change the direction in which things are headed.
But I’m not gonna lie… it’s hard to avoid the negativity of despair and anger. So much anger at the people working furiously to make most of us worse off.
I fight this anger ALL DAY LONG. I get mad at myself for being too mad!
But I know with 100% certainty (at least when it comes to myself) that anger will not fix this. Only compassion, calmness, and clear-headedness will.
I stumbled upon the concept of wu wei recently.
Wu wei is often translated as ‘actionless action’ or ‘doing without doing.’ Like many things in the Tao Te Ching, it’s a delicious paradox.
To embody wu wei is to live in a state of alignment with the flow of life. It means to respond effortlessly to the needs of any situation without resorting to struggle and force (which includes stress, anxiety, anger, etc).
I have a dear, sweet friend named Laura who recently posted this on Instagram, and I love her for it. (Click to watch the video on Instagram.)
“Hope is our rebellion, our belief that the future can be better and that we have the power to make it so. Let's cultivate optimism and a can-do attitude!
Imagination is our weapon, allowing us to visualize a brighter future.”
We need to keep reminding each other of this every day. ❤
When AI Lies
I don't know if it's because AI is truly getting dumber, but I got to laughing pretty hard about a conversation I had recently with Google Bard. I wanted help with the MyLinks plugin, which was sabotaging the portfolio entries on ElsieGilmore.com. I really wanted AI to look at the ENTIRE plugin and not just the sections I was copying and pasting to show it. So, I switched to Google Bard and started out asking it this:
I was so excited! Not only could it go to Google Drive and read the files, but it could also analyze any potential errors! This was going to be great! So, I gave it the link.
It quickly answered me, but I immediately felt like something was off. So, I asked a follow-up question.
This is where I started laughing out loud at my desk. There is no plugin called “portfolio.” And if there was, it was not in the files I told it to examine. It was making stuff up out of thin air. I searched the MyLinks plugin for this code, and it didn’t exist. So, I pressed it for more information.
It again insisted there was a plugin with a file named portfolio.php. And it ended its cheery message with “I hope this helps!” Well, it didn’t help at all because it was all completely fabricated information! So, I called it out on its bullshit.
Then, it apologized and admitted there was no portfolio.php in the files I sent it. But, then it fabricated ANOTHER fake bit of code, this time from a file that did exist within the files I sent.
Then it told me the code was in the functions.php file, which also does not exist in the plugin. (The functions.php file is usually in the theme, not a plugin.) Since I could not find this code anywhere in the entire plugin, much less in this file, I again asked it for clarification. I wanted to know if it was actually able to go to my Google Drive and read these files.
And then suddenly, it started playing dumb! I laughed so hard during this conversation because I could not understand why it lied to me the whole time. I don’t think it was ever capable of reading the files in my drive. But if that’s the case, why did it tell me it could?
This is just one of many examples of why you really need to know what you’re doing when you use AI. You’ve got to have some idea of what the answer should be, which is probably why your physics teacher can tell if you’ve used it.
I don’t know if AI is getting dumber, but this was a surprising encounter!
I’ll honestly be pretty bummed if it won’t be able to help me with code anymore.
(On the bright side, I figured out the issue quite randomly on my own, so maybe I’m smarter than AI!)
🌬 Capitalism Blows
Increase Your Credit Score With More Credit
I can't believe how ridiculous this is. As if $18,800 isn't enough credit to have available. They'd like to give me more.
The logic is baffling. Just like the logic that paying off and closing credit cards hurts your credit. None of it is intended to make you more responsible with money or show that you are more responsible with money. It all hurts my head.
Reductionism
One thing that I hate, hate, hate about the world today is that the economy works so badly for people that we feel like we have to monetize everything in our lives. We monetize our homes. We monetize our hobbies. We monetize our personalities on social media. I am not someone who chases money, and this need to monetize everything just to keep up with the increasing cost of living feels very icky (and stressful) to me.
We shouldn’t need monetary motivation in every facet of our lives. We should be able to enjoy our lives without worrying about how everything we own can make us money.
What are your thoughts?
📑 Project Updates
The Hugmobile
I just launched a Facebook page for The Hugmbile and am closing down, after all these years, the page for Urban Mayhem Project. I also migrated all the blog posts on the Urban Mayhem Project website and took that down. Those blog posts are now on ElsieGilmore.com.
I’m working to consolidate all my projects so I can focus on them more efficiently.
It’s hard being a person with lots of interests!
Please follow the new Hugmobile page on Facebook and share it with friends!
Sunday Mornings in Bed
A shout-out to
for recommending my newsletter to his audience! His newsletter, , is primarily about AI if you want to check it out. Thank you so much, Adam!
👀 Life Observations
Facebook Scammers
I'm sure you're already aware of one of the biggest scams going around Facebook. It's the lost or abused dog or lost human scam. They are usually posted in groups, and instead of having a phone number to call like a normal plea for help would have, it merely asks you to share the post to “boost" it. I tell at least one person a day that they’ve re-posted this scam.
Here's the same post listed in two entirely different places: Pasco County, FL and the Finger Lakes district in New York.
The scammer creates new Facebook business pages daily and uses them until Facebook finally catches them. If you click into what looks like a personal profile, you'll see it's a business page with often zero or few followers that was created either that day or very recently.
The scam is that once a bunch of people have shared the post, the scammer goes in and edits the post so it's not about a lost dog at all.
This post has been shared 272 times.
Ultimately, the post becomes a housing scam where they advertise very cheap rent to prey on people who are suffering in our expensive market. They get people to send them a deposit, but the property doesn't exist. Some people have left their current rental and showed up to the address with a Uhaul only to find out someone already lives there, and their house was never for rent.
I've tried to report these accounts to Facebook but get their automated message that the account doesn't go against their standards. It's very frustrating. If Facebook had real people look at these instead of an automated algorithm, they would clearly see the pattern and put a stop to it. A future without people, to me, is a future without nuance. And that lets people with bad intentions get away with stuff.
🌻 One Positive Thing
This may feel like a net negative, but teams of people are bringing pieces of coral out of the waters around Florida to save it from the extreme water temperatures we’re experiencing. They expect anything left will be dead at the end of summer. By harvesting pieces and keeping them alive, they can replace them afterward.
⏰️ Currently
📚 Reading How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life by Dalai Lama. A much needed book for me right now.
🧘♀️ Working on putting out less negative energy and more positive energy. It is a challenge right now.
🌃 Starting to make a pile of things I'm taking with me to Albany next week.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday! 🌼
(And don't worry, next week's email will NOT be all about AI!)
Hugs, Elsie