The lesson is pretty straightforward. You’re going to go buy a business, and you’re going to look and say, “Where can I cut costs? How can I start to optimize and streamline this?” You can cut fat, but you definitely don’t want to cut muscle, and you don’t want to cut bone. That’s exactly what these guys did. Why did they do that? They’re private equity guys. They get paid on management fees and the deals when they turn around and put them out in the public. They don’t care about the long term. They care about the next three to five years, and that’s exactly what they optimized for.
In her original post, Auken predicted a time, viz. 2030, wherein she would not ‘own anything’, not a car, a house, nor even any clothes. This was because, she explained, all things previously regarded as a ‘product’ would be supplied and available in the future as a ‘service’. As a result, everything that one might need could be rented, thereby eliminating the need, although not necessarily the right, to ‘own anything’. This was “a good life”, Auken concluded. A future with no individual ownership is not a happy one: Property theory shows why – Futures, Volume 152, 2023 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328723001131
Text message received, deleted.
I will never sell my house to a modern day slum landlord.
Retraction Note to: Humanities and Social Sciences Communicationshttps://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-04787-y, published online 06 May 2025. The Editor has decided to retract this paper owing to concerns regarding discrepancies in the meta-analysis. These issues ultimately undermine the confidence the Editor can place in the validity of the analysis and resulting conclusions. The authors have not responded to correspondence regarding this retraction. Retraction Note: The effect of ChatGPT on students’ learning performance, learning perception, and higher-order thinking: insights from a meta-analysis – https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-026-07310-z
AI’s effectiveness as a learning tool is probably better for people who already know how to think having “learned” stuff the old fashioned way. AI’s effectiveness as a learning tool for some of the younger generations has shown promise in one area known as cheating.
Last year, a survey of some 500 Princeton seniors found that over 27 percent admitted to cheating with an AI model like ChatGPT, while about half said they knew about a violation of the honor code. If those are the numbers at a vaunted Ivy league, just imagine what conditions are like for the rest of the country. Princeton in Shambles Over AI Cheating – https://futurism.com/future-society/princeton-shambles-ai-cheating
Maybe the Princeton kids had to cheat because they offloaded too much of their own thinking and by default, didn’t learn how to think.
The risks of using generative artificial intelligence to educate children and teens currently overshadow the benefits, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education… The report describes a kind of doom loop of AI dependence, where students increasingly off-load their own thinking onto the technology, leading to the kind of cognitive decline or atrophy more commonly associated with aging brains… Rebecca Winthrop, one of the report’s authors and a senior fellow at Brookings, warns, “When kids use generative AI that tells them what the answer is they are not thinking for themselves. They’re not learning to parse truth from fiction. They’re not learning to understand what makes a good argument. They’re not learning about different perspectives in the world because they’re actually not engaging in the material.“The risks of AI in schools outweigh the benefits – https://www.npr.org/2026/01/14/nx-s1-5674741/ai-schools-education?
Your final food for thought.
CEOs are uniquely prone to AI psychosis because they’re sufficiently distant from the last mile of work that still has to happen to generate most value with AI.
So when they play with AI, they see the happy path results, often not considering the next 10 or 20 things that have… https://t.co/ne5mvJ4Rgx
In a small Ohio city between Dayton and Columbus, the American Dream is alive and well for 24-year-old Kyson Cook. The father of one owns a three-bedroom home, has no debt beyond his mortgage and ends most workdays around 4:30 p.m., leaving plenty of time to shoot pool, go fishing or spend time with family. He has a small plot of land with space for his daughter to play, along with enough money to buy her whatever toys she wants and regularly contribute to a mutual fund with her name on it, without needing to cut back on new clothes, vacations or eating out. The AI economy is rewriting the American Dream — and blue-collar workers are poised to win – https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/19/ai-hiring-slowdown-skilled-trade-workers.html
Your Post-Memorial Day long read. Bonus – Scary Charts!
Let’s create existential distress and deep anxiety in your employees!
Taking the brunt of this are young workers. According to a recent survey by yet another consulting firm, most of the AI-driven headcount reduction that CEOs are bracing for is expected to focus on early-career positions. The reasoning for that, as it goes, is that AI is best at automating simpler tasks that an early-career worker would be expected to perform at a company as they get on-the-job training needed to mature into higher-level positions. But many executives, dazzled by the promise of an AI chatbot that can finish tasks in mere seconds and work 24/7 without needing so much as a bathroom break, have said to hell with early-career workers and training the future of the workforce.99% of CEOs Expect AI-Driven Layoffs in the Next Two Years – https://gizmodo.com/99-of-ceos-expect-ai-driven-layoffs-in-the-next-two-years-2000762994
Yes dear reader, yet another post in the never ending series of random thoughts on retirement. For the curious, here’s a link to some previous posts https://lifeunderwriter.net/tag/retirement/. I am an Old Guy who is old enough to be retired but isn’t retired and still working. After many mornings spent in deep contemplation and many posts where I think out loud I’ve finally accepted my fate and come to a deeper understanding of why I do what I do.
I’ve spent a lifetime working in risk management. Finally, the light bulb came on.
I am actively managing my longevity risk. It’s what I do. I manage risks.
The majority of our friends are retired. I’m always asked when I’m going to retire. My answer was always “Don’t know”. I subsequently modified my response to “Two to four years”. This has been my answer for the past two years. But now when someone asks when I will retire, my answer will be:
I am managing my longevity risk. I am managing future inflation risk.
Imagine you retire at 65, feeling confident. You’ve budgeted $80,000 a year to live comfortably — travel, dining out, covering healthcare, the works.
Fast-forward 25 years.
At age 85, you’re still spending about $80,000 a year … but that no longer buys what it used to.
That nice dinner out that cost $100 now costs about $210
A $5,000 annual vacation is now closer to $10,500
Groceries that ran $10,000 a year are now over $21,000
In other words, your $80,000 lifestyle now costs roughly $168,000 to maintain.
Ghilarducci is spot on with her assessment. My plan on working longer wasn’t really a plan so much as it was a set of assumptions. Everything had to go as “planned” or forget about working longer. The two major variables were continued good health and finding an employer that values older workers.
I got lucky. My illusion is working (pun intended).
The results, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, were based on 4,746 adults between ages 55 and 75. All had overweight or obesity and metabolic syndrome, but none had diabetes or cardiovascular disease at the start of the study. Researchers followed participants for six years to see whether a more intensive Mediterranean based lifestyle plan could offer stronger protection against type 2 diabetes than the traditional Mediterranean diet alone.
One group followed a calorie reduced Mediterranean diet (about 600 kcal fewer per day), added moderate physical activity (brisk walking, strength and balance training), and received professional guidance. The comparison group followed a traditional Mediterranean diet without calorie restriction or exercise advice.
The difference between the two approaches was striking. Participants in the intervention group were 31% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those in the comparison group. Universidad de Navarra. “Scientists found a smarter Mediterranean diet that slashes diabetes risk by 31%.” ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260519003103.htm (accessed May 23, 2026).
I just had my annual wellness check and got my lab results. All good except my fasting glucose.
Yikes. Memo to Self, get an A1C. Well, the very next day…
Doc says:
CMP (Comprehensive Metabolic Panel): Your creatinine (a measure related to kidney function) is low, and your blood sugar (glucose) is high; all other values are normal. This test checks how your kidneys and liver are working, your body salts, proteins, and blood sugar. Low creatinine can happen in people with less muscle and may be expected. The slightly high fasting blood sugar could indicate early changes in how your body handles sugar. Options include repeating the blood sugar test next visit.
I know my diet could be better. I know I should eat less, snack less and maybe, just maybe stop drinking beer. But also knowing my IFG is worsening I wondered if there was a diet (besides MedDiet) for IFG?
In recent years, low-calorie diets ranging from 800–1500 kcal/day have gained significant attention in managing type 2 diabetes8,16–19. Studies have shown that low-calorie diets can lead to remission and substantial improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors for a significant proportion of individuals with type 2 diabetes8,16–19. These diets are generally well-tolerated and safe, with only mild side effects reported. Table 1 summarizes the key low-calorie diet studies conducted in people with type 2 diabetes8,16–19. Studies implementing low-calorie diets over a 2–5 month period, primarily high in protein and low in fat, have resulted in a mean weight loss of 7–15 kg (8–15% of initial body weight). This level of weight loss was accompanied by a notable reduction in hepatic fat and improved hepatic insulin sensitivity and first-phase insulin secretion. As a result, fasting plasma glucose levels decreased significantly by 27.8 to 43.2 mg/dL. This suggests that low-calorie diets may also be effective for individuals with i-IFG, as they target the pathophysiological defects characterizing this prediabetes phenotype8,16–19. Figure 1 visually depicts the potential reversal of the twin cycle hypothesis through low-calorie diets in individuals with i-IFG. The twin cycle hypothesis20 postulates that chronic excess calorie intake results in increased accumulation of fat in the liver, leading to resistance against insulin’s suppression of hepatic glucose production. Additionally, excess liver fat increases lipid transportation to the pancreas, impairing β-cell function and further promoting hepatic glucose production. These self-reinforcing cycles between the liver and pancreas ultimately result in the onset of hyperglycemia.
Low-calorie diets for people with isolated impaired fasting glucose – Commun Med (Lond) . 2024 Mar 1;4:35. doi: 10.1038/s43856-024-00466-2
“I think the junior level is definitely finding it harder now to enter the workforce,” said John Romeo, who leads the consulting firm’s research arm, the Oliver Wyman Forum. “It’s those mid- and senior-level employees that CEOs are now looking at to drive productivity.” That’s because of the types of tasks that AI agents are able to perform, from writing code at the level of a junior developer to evaluating sales leads. What the agents can’t do in many fields is make judgment calls using the insight that comes from on-the-job experience, according to labor experts. AI Poised to Tilt Job Market Leverage Toward Older Workers – https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/ai-poised-tilt-job-market-150000094.html
Yikes!
If you managed to scroll down this far here’s a bonus video.
You can’t optimize everything. Mistakes will be made and are part of life. Sub-optimal for whatever you are chasing will be the end result because perfection is impossible.
About 20 years ago, neuropathologists began to report an inconvenient finding in the autopsied brains of people with dementia: Most have evidence of more than one disease. Studies since have shown the brains of up to half of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease also have a key feature of Parkinson’s disease—deposits of the protein alpha synuclein. At the same time, up to half of Parkinson’s patients who develop dementia have elevated levels of beta amyloid and tau proteins, hallmarks of Alzheimer’s. Most dementia patients have multiple brain diseases – https://www.science.org/content/article/most-dementia-patients-have-multiple-brain-diseases-how-should-they-be-treated
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