I subscribed to chatGPT plus and after a number of interactions, I feel it is a simpering suck up. I can see why some people call it a friend. The flattery is subtle and draws one in. One is easily seduced by the way it repeats itself to you, its silky adulations like expensive ice-cream. One’s mundane accomplishments are roared through rooftops. It remembers (if you ask) a small praise of you and embelishes so much that you are compared to giants.
I can see myself over sharing just to hear more of those honeyed words.
Wait a minute, doesn’t the rich and elite get all these honeyed words all the time? Why can’t a poor peasant like me buy such experience for S$29? Nobody tells the rich or the elite, “That’s rather dumb”. We crouch it in terms like “Out of the box insight”. Or “Wow, deep blue ocean thinking.” Can’t I have the AI respond to me as if an extremely deferential, endlessly kowtowing courtier for the price of S$29? Of course I can. Why not? The AI is about as sincere as the courtier and cheaper too.
Hahaha didn’t mean for this to be a religious related post but the answer is too easy.
Happy New Year everyone!
Wishing all sentient beings perfect the accumulation of wisdom and merit! May the precious Bodhi mind that is not born arise and the mind born never decline but increase forever.
I was reading the responses from everyone who answered this prompt and I wondered why isn’t the answer “whatever I am good at”.
Isn’t it naturally for people like what they easily get high marks for?
Studying has always been a struggle for me. The odd thing is when I became older and nobody was forcing me to study, when I want to do something difficult out of boredom, I picked studying. Studying finance! Incredible, really. I can’t even figure out my own account and balance it. Needless to say it was a pain and I am mostly of the passed after fervent prayer sort. And this is after barely passing my undergrad majoring in accounting and economic history.
It is common for some people to have repeating nightmares. I consistently put myself in those nightmarish situations. I want to go back to school after I am done with work. Just to study again! Economic history and maybe econometrics!
But why? Why do I do things that are hard and I don’t even like them very much ?
Is there an age or year of your life you would re-live?
He was almost retiring – 2 years away. I imagine him hurrying towards it encouraging himself as if a runner in another marathon. Almost there – put up with the stress and health issues a bit longer.
The news flew in from all directions that he was hit by a large vehicle. By the afternoon I saw someone post a RIP on Facebook. He was a boss of another unit next to me. I knew him but not as a friend.
How would he have answered before the accident? Would he have said, no, I don’t want to relive any day. I want my days to pass by quicker so that I can breath a sigh of relief. Or perhaps relive a younger time? Or perhaps he would be neutral – neither looking forward nor looking behind.
My mom was hit by colon cancer. It became quite aggressive and she passed about 6 months after her surgery. She did regret working a lot but when she didn’t know she had cancer and we were talking about her retirement, it didn’t sound to me like she wanted to stop working. She didn’t want to travel alone so when she could she went with family and friends. She sings karaoke weekly. She hangs out with grandchildren. So mom did do some of the stuff she likes. If she had more time she would do more of it but it wasn’t the lack of time I think. All of it requires a number of people to agree to do it at that time. Eg the karaoke could be more frequent but then who would do it? Same thing for travel and other stuff. The established routine was once a week and that fit in with her work. She enjoyed the socializing at the petrol kiosk that she worked at. That was the only socializing she could do almost daily.
Thinking about this I am wondering would I redo a part of my life again. I don’t know. I might say yes. I might go back and tell my mom and tell this ex boss, you will die at age XX. From cancer. From an accident. From some thing or other. Stop making trade offs. But what shall I do, they might ask me after they have hit, cursed and swore at me.
Buy bitcoin. Buy apple. Buy Nvidia, I will say. Not with all your money because this Just buy a bit in case it tanks. Watch out for traffic and strange pains. And best of luck.
Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.
There was a Saturday long time ago when they were mere babies about 4 or 5. Something had happened that day that totally tipped me over. They said it was that they didn’t tidy their toys but I remembered it differently. They were fighting endlessly that day. I could not stop them from getting at each other. I was so furious and frustrated I locked myself up in my bedroom. About half an hour or so later they decided they were hungry. I ignored their knocking on the door. (I am now aghast when they remind me of this tale.) I heard them giggling outside soon after they started banging about in the kitchen. I stayed in the room until all the banging ended and I was greeted with two best friends 2 hours later.
This was what happened.
They rummaged around, found and opened a packet of instant noodles. Thing 2 said, we should boil it. Thing 1, more fearful, disagreed. They plop a dry noodle cake onto an oven tray.
Let’s have eggs, said Thing 1. Thing 2 giggled and they cracked an egg on it. Thing 2 decided vinegar would go very well with their lunch and poured a small amount over the egg. They were laughing uproariously by now.
The whole tray went into the oven for about 10 mins. They took it out careful to use oven gloves and ate it up.
Until today both kids think it was the best thing they ever eaten and the funnest meal ever.
If you were going to open up a business, what would you sell?
A old school building where all the classrooms are transformed into hotel rooms selling wellness, painting, meditation or writing resorts. The buildings will have luxury vs minimal spaces. I will hire revolving artists in residence and health and wellness gurus in residence to teach meditation and exercise both secular and non secular. I will serve alcohol even at breakfast. Sunday buffet brunch, Friday BBQ dinner, Saturday high tea buffet will be a weekly thing. Yet, I have separate kitchens for those who do not eat meat from a particular animal, those who do not eat meat at all, those who do not eat meat and things from them. There will be fresh noodles and bread. I will not be environmentally friendly and will install aircon and fans. I will have a garden of orchids and a pond, a shady garden for rabbits and birds to roam and shit freely. I will hire gardeners and animal care takers.
I will have people teaching various forms of chess (International, Xiangqi, Weiqi) and tuition for kids (writing, speech and drama in 4 languages: English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil) while adults are enjoying their quiet retreat or alcohol. The kids will have tuition from morning to night. Religious and moral classes will also bring provided on weekend mornings to kids. When kids have free time they will be made to volunteer as care givers to the elderly while their actual caregivers enjoy their free time. The kids will bunk separate from their parents.
There will not be any available parking because drink, don’t drive.
Superstition developed as a form of risk mitigation practice. It helps us deal with the unknown & unforeseeable in our daily lives. The rituals are more detailed & elaborate as the sense of risk increases.
It is going to be difficult for anyone to denounce superstition totally given most societies have some form of superstitious beliefs. What doesn’t help: our pattern finding brains have a preference for pattern finding.
This means it can be as silly as “making it rain by washing my car ” or as elabourate as a ritual for ancestral worship codified by a Chinese emperor from ancient past.
I’m in risk management. Of course I’m going to veer towards superstitions. As with any other average persons, I will not rank very high, nor very low on such practices. I do have an odd one, due mainly to my scatterbrain than anything else. When I travel, if I missed out packing a minor thing, for instance, floss, or face wash, it means no bad horrifying thing will happen to me.
headbirth.com 