Lifelong Learning

Alarmingly Shallow Ideas

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 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

GLP-1s (it’s kind of a mess)

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“But the real question is what is the quality of the weight regain and what is the shift in people’s metabolism, and it seems to be very bad,” she said. “Ongoing studies that haven’t been published yet suggest that hypertension comes back. All the inflammatory markers come back, and lipids go up. And if you have diabetes, it gets worse. Overall, it’s kind of a mess…As these studies and others showed, most people regain the weight. Whether or not they regain all the weight depends in part on diabetes and insulin and many other factors, but people will likely regain most of their weight.”

“But the message isn’t that you regain the weight. The message is that you may be less healthy when you regain the weight. That’s why we need to couple the drugs with lifestyle interventions. And it’s why people who just want to lose 5 or 10 pounds really need to consider that lifestyle change, hard as it is, is the better way to do it.”

Anne Peters, MD, professor Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California

Less Weight Regain, More Health Loss after Stopping GLP-1s? – Medscape – March 05, 2026 – https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/less-weight-regain-more-health-loss-after-stopping-glp-1s-2026a10006rv?

I never envisioned developing an obsession with pharmaceuticals. And after many years of endless blogging into the void I learned I could link to previous posts like this: https://lifeunderwriter.net/tag/glp-1-receptor-agonist/

The learning never stops.

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.

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.

Random Thoughts on Unretirement – 01.10.26

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“We have to understand that anything in the past takes you out of the present moment. Anything in the future takes you out of the present moment.”

Zen Master Daigneault

To readers who are visiting this blog for the first time my posts on Random Thoughts About Retirement and Unretirement are written by an Old Guy who is old enough to be retired but isn’t retired and is still working. I had another birthday and the older I get the more I think about retirement. Back in 2023 I was thinking about what retirement for me would look like (see More Random Thoughts on Retirement – June 2023). But decisions such as this take serious thought and consideration. At first I thought I wanted to retire to a quiet life of blogging and writing my Future Best Seller titled The Man Who Had No Hobbies. After much thought I decided to add a short term goal to my retirement plan. My new short term goal is to avoid unretirement.

My RSS feed feeds me headlines on unretirement.

According to a new report from T. Rowe Price around 7% of retirees are looking for work in retirement, while 20% say they’re already working part time or full time…The two main reasons for coming back into the workforce are a tale of opposites. While 45% chose to work for social and emotional benefits… a slightly larger percentage — 48% — felt they needed to work for financial reasons.

Unretiring: More retirees are going back to work because they want to — or need to — https://finance.yahoo.com/news/unretiring-more-retirees-are-going-back-to-work-because-they-want-to–or-need-to-123203300.html

And this.

Once an eagerly awaited milestone, retirement is currently undergoing a transformative reevaluation. Traditionally seen as a well-deserved period of rest and relaxation, the dream of early retirement is now being challenged by a new perspective – that of embracing lifelong work. This paradigm shift reflects the changing nature of work, increased life expectancy, and the desire for personal fulfillment.

Rethinking Retirement: The Case for Embracing Lifelong Work — https://due.com/rethinking-retirement-the-case-for-embracing-lifelong-work/

The reality is many won’t have a choice. The following chart illustrates retirement savings as of 2019.

Americans are having trouble financially preparing themselves for life after work. A recent Federal Reserve report found that nearly a quarter of U.S. adults have absolutely no retirement savings or pension. Even though the level of preparation increases as people get older, concern about inadequate savings is still readily apparent across all age groups, even older people in their 60s.

A Quarter Of Americans Have No Retirement Savings — https://www.statista.com/chart/18246/share-of-americans-who-have-no-retirement-savings/

OOPS. I’m glad I didn’t click the Publish button. The savings situation appears to be worse than I thought. The study below was an analysis of data from 2010!

The study broadly examines how American households are faring in relation to retirement savings targets recommended by some financial services firms. It uses the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances to analyze retirement plan participation, savings, and overall assets of all U.S. households age 25 to 64, not just those with retirement account assets. This is important because some 45 percent, or 38 million working-age households, do not have any retirement account assets.

The average working household has virtually no retirement savings. When all households are included— not just households with retirement accounts—the median retirement account balance is $3,000 for all working-age households and $12,000 for near-retirement households. Two-thirds of working households age 55-64 with at least one earner have retirement savings less than one times their annual income, which is far below what they will need to maintain their standard of living in retirement.

The findings confirm that the American Dream of retiring comfortably after a lifetime of work will be impossible for many. Based on 401(k)–type account and IRA balances alone, some 92 percent of working households do not meet conservative retirement savings targets for their age and income. Even when counting their entire net worth, 65 percent still fall short.

The Retirement Savings Crisis: Is It Worse Than We Think? — https://www.nirsonline.org/reports/the-retirement-savings-crisis-is-it-worse-than-we-think/

So how will you afford retirement without any savings? Don’t look to Social Security. Here’s some numbers on average Social Security payments. The full chart at the source website goes up to age 100.

As of December 31, 2021, the average Social Security payment for all retirees was $1,658.03 a month, according to the Social Security Administration’s Annual Statistical Supplement for 2022. For men, the overall average was $1,838.08. For women, the average was $1,483.75 — a difference of $354.33 per month.

Here’s the Average Social Security Check for Men vs. Women — https://www.gobankingrates.com/retirement/social-security/average-social-security-check-men-women/

I’ve previously advised everyone to Save as Much as You Can Because Whatever You Manage to Save Will Never Be Enough – Random Thoughts on Retirement. Now here’s my second piece of sage advice: keep working so you don’t have to unretire.

Whether people unretire or simply stay in the workforce longer, some of the largest financial benefits of additional years of work are delaying retirement account withdrawals and delaying claiming Social Security benefits. These actions essentially shorten the amount of time your assets will need to support you in retirement. Even a few additional years of income have a positive effect on the probability that you won’t outlive your funds.

“Unretiring”: Why Recent Retirees Want to Go Back to Work — https://www.troweprice.com/personal-investing/resources/insights/unretiring-why-recent-retirees-want-to-go-back-to-work.html

Whew. Long post. Longer than I anticipated. If you made it this far, congratulations!

Double OOPS. Hit the publish button too soon. Postscript.

Economic Satisfaction Declines With Age – https://www.statista.com/chart/35656/us-respondents-who-view-their-financial-situation-positively/

Note the survey respondents’ age stops at 64.

Think Again About Outsourcing Your Thinking 2.0 (if you can)

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Michael Gerlich, head of the Centre for Strategic Corporate Foresight and Sustainability at SBS Swiss Business School, began studying the impact of generative AI on critical thinking because he noticed the quality of classroom discussions decline. Sometimes he’d set his students a group exercise, and rather than talk to one another they continued to sit in silence, consulting their laptops. He spoke to other lecturers, who had noticed something similar. Gerlich recently conducted a study, involving 666 people of various ages, and found those who used AI more frequently scored lower on critical thinking. (As he notes, to date his work only provides evidence for a correlation between the two: it’s possible that people with lower critical thinking abilities are more likely to trust AI, for example.) Like many researchers, Gerlich believes that, used in the right way, AI can make us cleverer and more creative – but the way most people use it produces bland, unimaginative, factually questionable work. Are we living in a golden age of stupidity? – https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/18/are-we-living-in-a-golden-age-of-stupidity-technology

Yikes.

Clearing Up Myths About Older Workers

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In 2001, only about 1 out of every 7 U.S. workers was 55 or older. By 2021, the number jumped to almost 1 out of every 4 workers (a 93% increase). That’s almost twice the proportion of older workers as before.3 Older workers are staying on the job longer for various reasons, ranging from financial needs to the joy of work.  More people are working past the age when they might have retired. They might be responding to the increase in the Social Security full retirement age, needing money or health insurance, or simply enjoying their jobs and being around their friends at work.⁴ Clearing Up Myths About Older Workers While Understanding and Supporting an Aging Workforce — https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2023/09/25/older-workers/

I just learned I have a high level of Crystallized intelligence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_and_crystallized_intelligence