Survival strategies

Alarmingly Shallow Ideas

/ SupremeCmdr / 3 Comments

As one New York financier told Financial Times journalist Gillian Tett, new hires who were seen as “AI natives” are turning out to have alarmingly shallow ideas. So much so, the anonymous finance worker admitted, that his firm now actively avoids seeking out AI-literate STEM graduates, and opts to comb through humanities students instead…

The state of higher education is so bad that many of today’s higher ed students are not only offloading their coursework to AI chatbots like ChatGPT — a shortcut, educators say, that’s even impacting their ability to participate in face-to-face discussions. Bosses Horrified as “AI Native” College Graduates Hit the Workplace – https://futurism.com/future-society/college-critical-thinking-ai

Yikes.

Deeply disturbing. So what can a concerned parent do?

Ask ChatGPT what to do!

My college graduate son has no critical thinking skills after relying upon ChatGPT. What should I do?

Treat this as a skills-and-habits problem, not a character flaw or a “ChatGPT ruined him” problem. A lot of recent graduates learned to use AI as a shortcut before they learned how to think through ambiguity on their own. The good news is that critical thinking is trainable.

A few things matter here:

  1. Don’t turn this into a fight about technology
  2. Separate competence from confidence
  3. Create situations where he has to reason, decide, and defend conclusions

What often happens is:

  • Students get very good at producing polished answers
  • But weak at:
    • evaluating evidence
    • making tradeoffs
    • spotting bad assumptions
    • persisting through confusion
    • forming independent judgment

Those are different skills.

Here’s what tends to work better than lectures about “kids relying on AI.”

Change how he uses AI

The goal is not “stop using ChatGPT.” It’s “use it as a sparring partner instead of a vending machine.”

Encourage rules like:

  • No copying answers directly
  • He must form an opinion first
  • He must explain why an answer is correct
  • He must ask AI to critique his reasoning instead of replacing it

Good prompts:

  • “Challenge my assumptions.”
  • “What are the strongest counterarguments?”
  • “What evidence would disprove this?”
  • “What am I overlooking?”
  • “Give me three competing interpretations.”

Bad pattern:

  • “Write this for me.”

Put him in environments that punish shallow thinking

Critical thinking develops fastest when reality pushes back.

Good environments:

  • Jobs with responsibility and consequences
  • Sales
  • Operations
  • Managing projects
  • Technical troubleshooting
  • Apprenticeships
  • Debate-heavy workplaces
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Volunteer leadership

Real-world feedback is hard to fake.

Ask questions instead of giving conclusions

If you immediately correct him, he stays mentally passive.

Instead ask:

  • “How did you arrive at that?”
  • “What evidence supports it?”
  • “What would change your mind?”
  • “What’s the downside of your approach?”
  • “What assumption are you making?”

That forces metacognition.

Make him defend positions he disagrees with

One of the fastest ways to build reasoning is:

  • argue both sides
  • compare tradeoffs
  • steelman opposing views

You can do this casually over dinner or current events.

Encourage slow thinking

A lot of AI-heavy habits create intellectual impatience.

Critical thinking often requires:

  • sitting with uncertainty
  • reading longer material
  • comparing sources
  • wrestling with incomplete information

Books, long-form journalism, analytical podcasts, and difficult projects help rebuild that stamina.

Watch for learned helplessness

Sometimes the issue is not inability but reflexive dependence:

  • “I don’t know immediately”
    → “I need AI to think for me”

A useful rule:

  • Spend 15–30 minutes thinking independently before asking AI.

Also be realistic about the transition to adulthood

Many graduates — long before AI existed — left college without strong judgment skills. Those usually develop through:

  • responsibility
  • mistakes
  • work
  • relationships
  • financial pressure
  • repeated decision-making

You do not need to panic because he’s behind in one area at graduation.

The biggest mistake parents make here is trying to “convince” an adult child that he lacks critical thinking. That usually triggers defensiveness and dependency at the same time.

A better posture is:

  • respect him as an adult
  • expect reasoning and accountability
  • ask probing questions
  • stop rescuing poor decisions too quickly
  • encourage environments that require independent judgment

If you want, I can also help you with:

  • signs that this is normal vs genuinely concerning
  • exercises that rebuild critical thinking quickly
  • how to talk to him without sounding accusatory
  • ways young professionals can use AI without weakening reasoning skills

(Less Than) Random Thoughts on Retirement – 05.03.26

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

Yes dear reader, yet another post in the never ending series of random thoughts on retirement. https://lifeunderwriter.net/tag/random-thoughts-on-retirement/

Though the traditional retirement age in the U.S. typically falls between 62 and 67, many Americans continue working beyond that point. As of 2024, slightly more than 22% of adults aged 65 and older are still employed, either full-time or part-time. Though the traditional retirement age in the U.S. typically falls between 62 and 67, many Americans continue working beyond that point. As of 2024, slightly more than 22% of adults aged 65 and older are still employed, either full-time or part-time. – https://financebuzz.com/working-in-retirement-data

I’m not the only Old Guy who is still working past age 65.

But despite the fact I’m not the only Old Guy who is still working past age 65 more people are starting retirements earlier than they expected (always have a Plan B and maybe even a Plan C).

2026 EBRI/Greenwald Retirement Confidence Survey https://www.ebri.org/content/2026-ebri-greenwald-retirement-confidence-survey

I just learned I’m not the only Old Guy who still has a mortgage.

Over the past three decades, the share of homeowners ages 65 to 79 with a mortgage rose from 24% to 41%, while median mortgage debt surged by 400%, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. More Americans aging into retirement are still paying down mortgages – https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/06/09/more-older-americans-continue-to-pay-mortgages

I also learned about the disappearance of structured cognitive demand in retirement.

A 2025 systematic review published in Health Psychology Review found that retirement is associated with measurable cognitive decline, not just because people age, but because structured cognitive demand disappears. Researchers have called it “mental retirement”: The brain follows the body’s example and withdraws from challenge. Gary Has a Plan for Retirement: Crash on the Sofa and Veg. Here’s the Problem With That …https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/retirement-planning/your-long-term-retirement-plan-needs-a-purpose

I’m now paranoid about the disappearance of structured cognitive demand with a mortgage to pay off and too scared to retire.

More Random Thoughts on Retirement – 03.28.26

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

We plan for the money. We don’t plan for the Monday morning when no one needs you to be anywhere.

Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, published a landmark meta-analysis in 2015 involving over 3.4 million participants. Her finding: social isolation increases the risk of premature death by 26%, and loneliness by 29%. Those numbers rival the health impact of smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. We treat smoking as a public health crisis. We treat retirement loneliness as a personal failing.

Nobody ever tells you that retirement doesn’t just end your career, it ends the only social structure that was generating daily human contact, and that most people don’t realize their workplace was their entire community until the day they leave it – https://vegoutmag.com/lifestyle/j-a-nobody-ever-tells-you-that-retirement-doesnt-just-end-your-career-it-ends-the-only-social-structure-that-was-generating-daily-human-contact-and-that-most-people-dont-realize-their-workplace-was-th/

Yes dear reader, yet another post in the never ending series of random thoughts on retirement. https://lifeunderwriter.net/tag/random-thoughts-on-retirement/

Though the traditional retirement age in the U.S. typically falls between 62 and 67, many Americans continue working beyond that point. As of 2024, slightly more than 22% of adults aged 65 and older are still employed, either full-time or part-time. Though the traditional retirement age in the U.S. typically falls between 62 and 67, many Americans continue working beyond that point. As of 2024, slightly more than 22% of adults aged 65 and older are still employed, either full-time or part-time. – https://financebuzz.com/working-in-retirement-data

So I’m not the only Old Guy who is still working past age 65.

Benefits of Physical Activity in Older Adults

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

Benefits of physical activity in older adults.

Longevity

The association between physical activity and mortality and morbidity is well established. A 2023 meta-analysis of large prospective studies that examined dose–response found that physical activity levels equivalent to the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate physical activity reduced all-cause mortality by 31% compared with no physical activity.12 The authors used metabolic equivalent of task (MET), the ratio of work metabolic rate to resting metabolic rate. One MET is equivalent to the energy cost of sitting quietly. A 2019 systematic review and meta-analysis found that, among middle-aged and older adults (aged ≥ 40 yr), higher levels of total physical activity were associated with reduced risk of death in a dose–response relation, such that the most, second-most, and third-most active quartiles were associated with 0.47, 0.35, and 0.28 hazard ratios, respectively, compared with the least active quartile.13 According to a large 2019 observational study, resistance exercise is also associated with reduced mortality independent of aerobic exercise.14 Two 2022 meta-analyses found, respectively, that 60 minutes of resistance exercise per week is associated with a risk reduction of 27% in all-cause mortality15 and that muscle-strengthening activities for 30–60 minutes per week is associated with a 10%–20% reduction.16

Cardiorespiratory fitness and peak exercise capacity are associated with mortality. Peak exercise capacity is a better indicator of risk of death than established cardiovascular risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus.17 A study examining cardiorespiratory fitness in older adults found dose-dependent reductions in mortality across all age groups (including participants aged 60–69, 70–79, and 80–95 yr).18 Substantial improvements (approximately 16%) in VO2max (an individual’s maximum rate of oxygen consumption, a strong indicator of mortality19) in older adults can occur with only 90 minutes of submaximal exercise per week over 16–20 weeks.20

Strength is also associated with reductions in all-cause mortality in older adults. A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis found a linear inverse relation between handgrip strength and all-cause mortality up to sex-dependent thresholds (42 kg for men, 25 kg for women) in older adults.21 In their 2018 systematic review and meta-analysis, the authors found both handgrip and knee extension strength to be predictors of all-cause mortality in adults, with most of the studies examining adults older than 65 years.22 – Move more, age well: prescribing physical activity for older adults CMAJ January 27, 2025 197 (3) E59-E67; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.231336

The Best Resistance Training Program

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

A key takeaway from the updated guidelines is that the biggest benefits often come from a simple starting point. Transitioning from no resistance training to any regular activity can lead to meaningful improvements. While factors such as load, volume, and frequency can be adjusted, experts say the main priority for most adults should be building a routine they can follow consistently.

Another important shift in the recommendations is the recognition that effective resistance training does not require access to a gym. Exercises using elastic bands, bodyweight movements, or simple at home routines can still produce measurable gains in strength, muscle size, and daily function. McMaster University. “The best strength training plan might be simpler than you think.” ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260319074552.htm

Source: https://acsm.org/resistance-training-guidelines-update-2026/

Resistance is not futile.

The Nutritional Challenges of Advanced Age

/ SupremeCmdr / 7 Comments

The study focused exclusively on adults 80 and older, a group with very different dietary requirements than younger adults. As people age, the body goes through significant physiological changes. Energy expenditure decreases, and losses in muscle mass, bone density, and appetite are common. Together, these changes increase the risk of malnutrition and frailty.

Most evidence for the health benefits of diets that exclude meat comes from studies of younger adults rather than frail older populations. Some research suggests older non-meat eaters face a higher risk of fractures due to lower calcium and protein intake.

In later life, nutritional priorities shift. Rather than focusing on preventing long-term diseases, the goal becomes maintaining muscle mass, preventing weight loss and ensuring every mouthful delivers plenty of nutrients. Study finds vegetarians over 80 less likely to reach 100 -The Conversation. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260225081214.htm “Study finds vegetarians over 80 less likely to reach 100.” ScienceDaily. (accessed February 27, 2026).

Story Source:

Materials provided by The Conversation. Original written by Chloe Casey, Lecturer in Nutrition and Behaviour, Bournemouth University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

How Not To Invest – A Lesson From The University of Chicago

/ SupremeCmdr / 4 Comments

CRSP’s origins date back to the 1960s. Its initial goal was to build a database of historical stock prices. This is harder than it might seem. Before trading was computerized, stock prices were maintained on paper. And when stocks split or companies merged, that added to the complexity.

Despite this seemingly dull mandate, CRSP has played an important role in the development of modern finance over the years. Most notably, the efficient market hypothesis and the capital asset pricing model were both made possible by CRSP data. And today, many of the world’s largest index funds, including Vanguard’s Total Stock Market Fund, are built on CRSP indexes. Endowment Lessons https://humbledollar.com/2026/02/endowment-lessons/

This article by Adam M. Grossman uses the University of Chicago’s financial struggles as a cautionary tale for individual investors.

Key Lessons for Individual Investors

  • Spending: Avoid “Keeping Up with the Joneses”
    • The university invested heavily in new buildings and programs to maintain its “eminence” without securing corresponding revenue.
    • Takeaway: Financial success depends on income exceeding expenses. Operating costs of new assets (like large homes or complex projects) must be planned for in advance.
  • Saving: Beware of Recency Bias
    • During a 15-year market boom, the university ramped up debt rather than stockpiling resources.
    • Takeaway: Investors often falsely assume current trends will continue forever. Use periods of market strength to re-balance portfolios and manage risk rather than increasing lifestyle or debt commitments.
  • Investing: Complexity vs. Simplicity
    • Performance: UChicago’s endowment returned 6.7% annually over 10 years, trailing a simple Vanguard Balanced Index Fund (VBIAX), which returned 8.2%.
    • Liquidity: The university locked over 60% of its funds into illiquid assets like private equity and real estate, making it difficult to cover cash flow needs.
    • Takeaway: High-fee, complex, and illiquid investments often under-perform simple index funds. If elite institutions with dedicated investment offices “are having second thoughts” about private equity, the message for individual investors seems clear.

This summary was produced by Gemini AI and edited by yours truly.

Here’s a link to an article on the sale of CRSP. Morningstar Completes Acquisition of CRSP and Extends Relationship with Vanguard https://newsroom.morningstar.com/news/news-details/2026/Morningstar-Completes-Acquisition-of-CRSP-and-Extends-Relationship-with-Vanguard/default.aspx

High Altitude and Diabetes Risk (in mice)

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

In findings published in Cell Metabolism, the team demonstrated that red blood cells can alter their metabolism when oxygen levels drop. This shift allows the cells to deliver oxygen to tissues more efficiently at high altitude. At the same time, it lowers circulating blood sugar, offering a potential explanation for reduced diabetes risk. Gladstone Institutes. “Scientists discover why high altitude protects against diabetes.” ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260221060952.htm (accessed February 21, 2026).

Journal Reference:

  1. Yolanda Martí-Mateos, Zohreh Safari, Shaun Bevers, Ayush D. Midha, Will R. Flanigan, Tej Joshi, Helen Huynh, Brandon R. Desousa, Skyler Y. Blume, Alan H. Baik, Stephen Rogers, Aaron V. Issaian, Allan Doctor, Angelo D’Alessandro, Isha H. Jain. Red blood cells serve as a primary glucose sink to improve glucose tolerance at altitude. Cell Metabolism, 2026; DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2026.01.019

The Edge

/ SupremeCmdr / 1 Comment
The Edge

My takeaways:

The first takeaway is about the mindset. Winning requires staying in the present. When you lose nearly half the points you play, the past offers no help. Dwelling on past mistakes only distracts from the real goal, which is to win the match. We cannot change what has happened, and we cannot control what comes next. Stay present, follow the process, and let the result take care of itself…The idea of edge applies directly to our lives. Life is made up of thousands of decisions taken over decades. A small edge in how we make those decisions quietly stacks the odds in our favor.

Take health. Lifting weights a few times a week, walking a few miles a day, eating reasonably well, and sleeping enough each give us a small edge. We are not competing with anyone else here. We are competing against chronic diseases. These habits do not guarantee outcomes, but they help us avoid most of the problems that are within our control, and leave the rest to chance. None of these decisions matter much on their own. Taken together over years they matter a lot.

Nice article, wonderful insights. Now go read the entire article.

Keep Moving

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

Physical activity consistently emerges as the most important factor influencing both absolute physical capacity and the rate of age-related decline. Our longitudinal data are consistent with previous studies showing that regular physical activity can attenuate the decline in physical performance [17, 32–37]. Individuals who were physically active in their leisure time at age 16 maintained higher aerobic capacity, muscular endurance and muscle power throughout the observation period. This emphasizes the importance of early intervention to establish positive exercise habits in adolescence and early adulthood, as these patterns appear to have long-term benefits for physical function. Encouragingly, our results show that transitioning from physical inactivity to activity at any age significantly improves performance in all fitness modalities studied. These findings contradict the assumption that early inactivity irreversibly impairs physical performance. Rather, taking up regular physical activity leads to measurable improvements in performance even in later decades of life. This finding is of particular importance for clinical practice, as physical activity is still the only evidence-based intervention to reduce the risk of sarcopenia [2, 38]. Recent large population studies also show that an active lifestyle is beneficial at any age [13, 39, 40]. Rise and Fall of Physical Capacity in a General Population: A 47-Year Longitudinal Study – https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcsm.70134

Text above in bold are my highlights.

Despite the documented limitations this is a very strong study.

I’ve been doing my home based virtual physical therapy for nearly a year. I’m trying to get to the gym at least twice a week. I don’t walk as much as I used to but…

Keep moving.