“Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world.”

Emotional security. The feeling of being at home in the presence of another. Safe to be who you are, good times or bad.

or because he is now drawing nearer to that other place, he has a clearer view of these things; suspicions and alarms crowd thickly upon him, and he begins to reflect and consider what wrongs he has done to others. And when he finds that the sum of his transgressions is great he will many a time like a child start up in his sleep for fear, and he is filled with dark forebodings. But to him who is conscious of no sin, sweet hope, as Pindar charmingly says, is the kind nurse of his age: ‘Hope,’ he says, ‘cherishes the soul of him who lives in justice and holiness, and is the nurse of his age and the companion of his journey;—hope which is mightiest to sway the restless soul of man.’

one of the most obnoxious (but true) pieces of advice I've ever seen is that if you want to get a question answered on the internet, and merely asking doesn't get a response, say something on the topic that you know is wrong -- then people will leap to correct you, and you'll get an answer to your original question much easier.

The book changed my point of view. Statistics, surveys, and anecdotes bear out that there are a great many marriages that are soul crushing for a woman based on the traditional marriage roles that still dominate. There’s an inequality of sharing household chores and childcare and an inequality of who sacrifices their desired careers, especially poignant at a time when women are ascendant in their educational attainment and career opportunities. 2Lyz’s book gave me a clear picture of how in many “normal” seeming marriages––no infidelity, no physical or cruel emotional abuse, no addictions or criminal behavior–––a woman might live a far happier and more fulfilling life if she got a divorce or had never married.

Conversations are the ultimate intersection.It's where the rubber meets the road. Where we leave the safety of our own mind and force ourselves to make our nebulous ideas legible to ourselves and others. It's dangerous to be at intersections. Thoughts are going in all directions. You might have to merge lanes. You might miss a light. Someone honks at you. Random pedestrians dash out without warning. You might not even know where you're going.

What's the hard part?What does success look like?Is the juice worth the squeeze?Who is this for? What is this for?What are potential reasons not to do this, i.e. counterpoints?What is our unfair advantage for doing this?What are areas of risk and how might we mitigate?Why is this likely to work and be a good investment?What evidence, data, and examples am I pulling from?What assets, levers, and constraints are we working with?Who do we need buy-in from in order to move forward?What’s the upside, downside, and trade-offs?Where might I be making an assumption or logical leap that doesn’t make sense?How can we test this in the lowest-overhead way possible?How does this stack rank against other ideas for driving the business?If we decided to move forward today, what would you need to bring this to life?Can we do this ourselves, or do we need to tap into other teams?Why would your target audience be excited to do the thing you want them to do?

Rigorous thinking is realizing that 90% of ideas are probably not worth doing, and the ones that are worth doing, won’t just magically work. It’s realizing that many ideas are decent, but decent doesn’t meet the bar for moving forward when you have limited resources (and resources are always limited, even at large organizations).

Remember: You hired intelligent people, and your best high performers already want to think rigorously. Be their thought partner. If given the chance, they will be excited to sharpen their thinking with your guidance because it's a skill that will serve them now and forever in their careers.

If you only say yes or no to ideas, your team will keep coming back to you with a similar level of ideas. They won’t know why a strategic proposal worked or didn’t. If you want something to change, it’s your responsibility to invest the time to share your thought process, give feedback, and coach them on how to think differently.The end result of whether you move forward with an idea isn’t as important as the thought process behind it. The world champion poker player Annie Duke coined the decision-making principle of resulting, which describes this well:Resulting is the tendency to judge a decision based on its outcome rather than its quality. It's a natural human tendency to think that if a decision leads to a good outcome, it must have been a good decision. Likewise, if it leads to a bad outcome, it must have been a bad decision.

Ask hard questions in a way that's supportive and driven by curiosity, not contempt. When you take this approach, you empower your team members to figure out and articulate a solution. You show you're there with them, and you believe in them.It’s two people walking through an idea and scenario planning what it could look like, with the goal of finding the best solution. It’s win-win.

To establish a norm of rigorous thinking, you’ll want to encourage your team to speak up if they disagree, and to do so respectfully and openly. And when questions are asked of them, to react positively and see the questions as a gift. This part is important: A team member’s initial reaction may be to feel a little defensive, and that’s natural, but that’s not the reaction to act on. The way to react is to appreciate when a colleague cares enough to speak up.

We value qualitative data as much as quantitative, because while numbers never lie, they also never tell the full story. We then write down our thoughts because it is both the most efficient and effective form of communication.

In this world, you rarely say no to an idea, because it's not about saying yes or no. It's about vetting an idea. You ask strategic questions, so your employee ends up realizing themselves that the idea won't work in its current iteration.You work collaboratively to pressure test assumptions. They excitedly go back to the drawing board and come back to you with a stronger iteration and next steps. They hone their judgment and become more strategic over time, requiring less support from you.You have less decision fatigue and get better results. Direct reports feel empowered and take ownership.

Any idea goes, but each team member should be prepared to advocate for their idea and defend it. You should be prepared to walk through the upside, downside, data points rooted in reality, and how it works given your assets and constraints. Anyone can ask questions and probe, and these questions are received with gratitude and openness.

Lazy thinking is assuming your idea simply works, or that someone else will be in charge of “figuring out the details.” Lazy thinkers consider anything they don’t want to do (usually the hard part of actually solving a problem) to be “the details.”

The Early History of Counting is a great article focusing on how long humanity has been offloading its brain, which makes me feel way less awkward about taking so many notes and using fancy tools like calculators and LLMs. Ancient philosophers like Socrates complained about books making people lazy because of not doing oral memorization anymore, which solved into people complaining about computers. Stone Age cavemen probably complained about people offloading their number sense onto tally sticks.

“We can keep ourselves so busy, fill our lives with so many diversions, stuff our heads with so much knowledge, involve ourselves with so many people and cover so much ground that we never have time to probe the fearful and wonderful world within… By middle life most of us are accomplished fugitives from ourselves.”—John Gardner

“You always have the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.” I have no opinion about this.

“Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the human spirit is colored by such impressions.” You live wherever your attention is, and become whatever you most focus on, so steer your curiosity toward your desired fate.

“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.” The majority of our suffering is caused not by events but by our interpretations of them.

“It is not death that one should fear, but never beginning to live.” How many of the posts you recently scrolled through on social media do you remember? Not many? Then was there much difference between scrolling and being a corpse?

When I was a teenager, I used to cart an entire duffel bag of books with me whenever I went on vacation. I have a particularly vivid memory of a ski trip with friends in college; one green duffle full of books, and a matching red duffle (borrowed from my parents) full of clothes. I couldn’t imagine going on vacation without books, and for a week away I needed at least twelve.

It is not only in war-time that the British press observes this voluntary reticence. One of the most extraordinary things about England is that there is almost no official censorship, and yet nothing that is actually offensive to the governing class gets into print, at least in any place where large numbers of people are likely to read it. If it is ‘not done’ to mention something or other, it just doesn’t get mentioned.

But he likes playful people, who see conversation as a game. After all, what is conversation for?

11. Noble Cause CorruptionThe greatest evils come not from people seeking to do evil, but people seeking to do good and believing the ends justify the means. Everyone who was on the wrong side of history believed they were on the right side.

7. Fiction Lag (aka Experience-Taking)When people are captivated by a work of fiction, they unconsciously adopt the traits of their favorite characters. We develop our identities by copying others, and perhaps one reason we enjoy fiction is that it gives us ideas on who to be.

5. Ovsiankina Effect (aka Hemingway Effect)We have an intrinsic need to finish what we’ve started. Exploit this by taking your breaks mid-task; the incompleteness will gnaw at you, increasing your motivation to return to work. (When writing, I end each day mid-sentence because it

“If I can predict all of your beliefs from one of your beliefs, you’re not a serious thinker.” — Chris WilliamsonBeing pro-choice and being pro-gun-control don’t necessarily follow from each other, yet those who believe one usually also believe the other. This is because most people don’t choose beliefs individually but subscribe to “packages” of beliefs offered by a tribe.

3. Fredkin's ParadoxThe more similar two choices seem, the less the decision should matter, yet the harder it is to choose between them. As a result, we often spend the most time on the decisions that matter least. To avoid being paralyzed by meaningless choices, use decision-making heuristics.

So how do you decide which games to play? The story of gamification offers five broad rules.

There is, after all, a vacancy in heaven. When God is dead, and nations are atomized, and family seems burdensome, and machines can beat us at our jobs and even at art, and trust and truth are lost in a roiling sea of AI-generated clickbait — what is left but games?

Companies that exploit our gameplaying compulsion will have an edge over those who don’t, so every company that wishes to compete must gamify in ever more addictive ways, even though in the long term this harms everyone. As such, gamification is not just a fad; it’s the fate of a digital capitalist society. Anything that can be turned into a game sooner or later will be. And the games won’t just be confined to our phones — “extended reality” eyewear like Meta Quest and Apple Vision, once they become normalized, will make playing even harder to avoid.

On X, meanwhile, there is a self-propagating system known as “the culture war”. This game consists of trying to score points (likes and retweets) by attacking the enemy political tribe. Unlike in a regular war, the combatants can’t kill each other, only make each other angrier, so little is ever achieved, except that all players become stressed by constant bickering. And yet they persist in bickering, if only because their opponents do, in an endless state of mutually assured distraction.

On Instagram, the main self-propagating system is a beauty pageant. Young women compete to be as pretty as possible, going to increasingly extreme lengths: makeup, filters, fillers, surgery. The result is that all women begin to feel ugly, online and off.

To illustrate his point, Kaczynski describes a thought experiment involving a forested region occupied by several rival kingdoms. The kingdoms that clear the most land for agriculture can support a larger population, affording them a military advantage. Every kingdom must therefore clear as much forest as possible, or face being conquered by its rivals. The resulting deforestation eventually leads to ecological disaster and the collapse of all the kingdoms. Thus, a trait that is advantageous for every kingdom’s short-term survival leads in the long term to every kingdom’s demise.Kaczynski was describing a “social trap”, a term coined by a student of Skinner, John Platt, who’d theorized that an entire population behaving like pigeons in a Skinner box, each acting only for the next immediate reward, would eventually overexploit a resource, causing ruin for everyone. What Platt called “social traps”, Kaczynski called “self-propagating systems”, because he viewed them as negative-sum games that took on a life of their own, defeating every player to become the only winner. He believed such games not only drove industrialization but also replaced the sense of purpose and meaning that industrialization destroyed. They were thus inextricable from technological advancement, and, in a society like ours, impossible to stop.

Put simply, we try to measure what we value, but end up valuing what we measure.And what we measure is rarely what we mean to value. As Skinner showed, the goals of games — points, badges, trophies — are secondary reinforcers that only derive their worth due to their association with something we actually desire. But these associations are often illusory. A click is not the same thing as a food pellet. And points are not the same as progress.

Kaczynski’s theories eerily prophesize the capture of society by gamification. While he overlooked the benefits of technology, he diligently noted its dangers, recognizing its role in depriving us of purpose and meaning. Today the evidence is everywhere: religion is dying out, Western nations are culturally confused, people are getting married less and having fewer children, and many jobs are threatened by automation, so the traditional pillars of life — God, nation, family, and work — are weakening, and people are losing their value systems. Amid such uncertainty, games, with their well-defined rules and goals, provide a semblance of order and purpose that may otherwise be lacking in people’s lives. Gamification is thus no accident, but an attempt to plug a widening hole in society.

Kaczynski argued that such conveniences didn’t make us happy, only aimless. And to stave off this aimlessness, we had to continually set ourselves goals purely to have goals to pursue, which Kaczynski called “surrogate activities”. These included sports, hobbies, and chasing the latest product that ads promised would make us happy.

These features turned social media into the world’s most addictive status game.

Respect is so important to humans that it’s a key reason we evolved to play games. Will Storr, in his book The Status Game, charted the rise of game-playing in different cultures, and found that games have historically functioned to organize societies into hierarchies of competence, with score acting as a conditioned reinforcer of status. In other words, all games descend from status games. The association between score and status has grown so strong in our minds that, like pigeons pecking the button long after the food dispenser has stopped dispensing, we’ll chase scores long after everyone else has stopped watching.

Most of the feedback loops in employment — from salary payments to annual performance appraisals — were torturously long. So Coonradt proposed shortening them by introducing daily targets, points systems, and leaderboards. These conditioned reinforcers would transform work from a series of monthly slogs into daily status games, in which employees competed to fulfil the company’s goals.

This led him to propose two kinds of reward: primary and conditioned reinforcers. A primary reinforcer is something we’re born to desire. A conditioned reinforcer is something we learn to desire, due to its association with a primary reinforcer. Skinner found that conditioned reinforcers were generally more effective in shaping behavior, because while our biological need for the primary reinforcer is easily satiable, our abstract desire for the conditioned reinforcer isn’t. The pigeons would stop seeking food once their bellies were full, but they’d take far longer to get tired of hearing the food dispenser click.

Skinner’s goal was to make his pigeons peck the button as many times as possible. From his experiments, he made three discoveries. First, the pigeons pecked most when doing so yielded immediate, rather than delayed, rewards. Second, the pigeons pecked most when it rewarded them randomly, rather than every time. Skinner’s third discovery occurred when he noticed the pigeons continued to peck the button long after the food dispenser was empty, provided they could hear it click. He realized the pigeons had become conditioned to associate the click with the food, and now valued the click as a reward in itself.

Or as Leonardo da Vinci declared, “To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution." - Albert Einstein

Seeing things for what it is. That's intelligence.

Someone once said that at least one in five people are writing a novel. I barely know anyone who isn’t. It is still a prestigious form. And so, despite social media – the junk food of communication – literature continues to adapt to the contemporary mood. Where there is digital overload, people are returning to this more relaxed, nutritious analogue mode - reading words on a page.

What makes a writer a real writer is that they begin to find an audience for their work; readers who are excited by what they find on the page.

A good, adaptive or healthy coping mechanism is one where the coping behaviour leads to the problem being resolved, or at least dealt with, in way that reduces stress and reduces harm. A bad, maladaptive, unhealthy or destructive coping mechanism is one where the behaviour does not resolve the problem in the long-term and may actually increase the harm. Unhealthy coping strategies may feel like they are having the desired effect in the short term.

A coping mechanism, coping behaviour or coping strategy, is behaviour that someone engages in to try and insulate or protect themselves from psychological damage resulting from a problem in life.

In this sense, humor would help maintain a good emotional state while avoiding solving the problem at hand; and this strategy has been proposed to be particularly effective with low controllable or uncontrollable stressors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic scenario [18].

In a recent review article, Stanisławski proposed the construct of hedonistic disengagement, defined as “a combination of problem avoidance and positive emotional coping. Hedonic disengagement involves the avoidance of information on the problem and a strong tendency to maintain momentary well-being”

Approach coping includes strategies such as active coping, positive reframing, and planning, while avoidance coping includes denial, behavioral disengagement, and distraction. While humor has been reported in association with all these strategies [11,12,13,14], it is largely considered an independent coping strategy, which does not cluster with the avoidance and approach coping styles [15].

Humor is generally considered an adaptive coping strategy [2], that is, a strategy that has been proven to be effective in reducing perceived stress in the presence of stressful events. Humor is also effective in increasing psychological well-being and reducing psychological symptoms.

Humor can be defined as a hedonistic escapism strategy that would work better in the presence of unpredictable or uncontrollable stressors, such as the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related confinement measures.

Many of the coping mechanisms prove useful in certain situations. Some studies suggest that a problem-focused approach can be the most beneficial

Coping is generally categorized into four major categories which are[1]: Problem-focused, which addresses the problem causing the distress: Examples of this style include active coping, planning, restraint coping, and suppression of competing activities.Emotion-focused, which aims to reduce the negative emotions associated with the problem: Examples of this style include positive reframing, acceptance, turning to religion, and humor.Meaning-focused, in which an individual uses cognitive strategies to derive and manage the meaning of the situationSocial coping (support-seeking) in which an individual reduces stress by seeking emotional or instrumental support from their community.

Maladaptive coping refers to coping mechanisms that are associated with poor mental health outcomes and higher levels of psychopathology symptoms. These include disengagement, avoidance, and emotional suppression.

Generally, coping is divided into reactive coping (a reaction following the stressor) and proactive coping (aiming to neutralize future stressors). Proactive individuals excel in stable environments because they are more routinized, rigid, and are less reactive to stressors, while reactive individuals perform better in a more variable environment.

When individuals are subjected to a stressor, the varying ways of dealing with it are termed 'coping styles,' which are a set of relatively stable traits that determine the individual's behavior in response to stress. These are consistent over time and across situations.

Coping is defined as the thoughts and behaviors mobilized to manage internal and external stressful situations.[1] It is a term used distinctively for conscious and voluntary mobilization of acts, different from 'defense mechanisms' that are subconscious or unconscious adaptive responses, both of which aim to reduce or tolerate stress.[2]

"No artist has ethical sympathies," Oscar Wilde once wrote. "An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. All art is quite useless."

To address climate change, we need to change culture.

What you must do now is not just read these classics. No, you need to copy them word-for-word in your own handwriting. If you are really serious about becoming a master copywriter, you will do this over and over. The idea here is not for you to steal these promotions but rather, to be influenced by them. You want good writing to become one of your automatic skills and rewriting superb ads and sales letters in your very own hand is the best way in the world to do this.

"The Lazy Man's Way To Riches."

OK, remember how, in several of my past issues, I've kept at you to create a "swipe file" of good ads, sales letters and so on? Not to mention all those headline cards? You do remember? Good!

A very detailed CONFIDENTIAL FACT SHEET. A very detailed LIST OF BENEFITS. A DEAL SHEET which contains the strongest proposition you can offer which has       been reduced to writing.

Writing "copy" is less than 1/10 as important as learning to think about new offers and getting them down on paper as I just did. I can't say it often enough or strongly enough... It Is The Deal... The Offer... The Proposition You Are Making That Is The Heart And Soul Of Great Copywriting!

Strong copy will not overcome a weak offer but.. In Many Cases, A Strong Offer Will Succeed In Spite Of Weak Copy Written By Marketing Morons!

You should think more about how to "sweeten" your offer than any other aspect of writing copy. Think about what you are selling. How would you like to buy it? Would you want a free trial? A huge and legitimate discount? Easy payments? A money-back guarantee? Would you like a free gift with your purchase like a color TV or a toaster oven? A night on the town with Kim Bassinger or Paul Newman? A free Florida vacation?

What you need to do next is to start thinking about your offer. Your offer (think of it as a business proposition) is by far the most important element in the entire sales message we are constructing here.

What's that? You say your car is not heavy at all? In fact, it's quite light? OK, it seems to me that probably translates to a believable reason why your car gets great gas mileage.       It's a snazzy red convertible? Perhaps that translates to the "benefit" of the owner getting a lot of attention from young ladies or other folks he'd like to impress.       It's a sedate grey sedan? Perhaps that translates to the "benefit" of giving the buyer a dignified, no-nonsense impression. Very useful when trying to impress out-of-town clients with your trustworthiness and respectability.

A Benefit List       What we do here is we go over our Fact Sheet very carefully and we translate the facts therein to benefits whenever we can.

Let's get going on that Fact Sheet. Make it long. Make it detailed. Make it complete. What make is your car? What model? What color? How much does it weigh? How many miles on it? What kind of tires? What's their condition? What's the interior like? How many miles per gallon? How much horsepower? How much did you pay for it? Who's been driving it? What kind of treatment has it received? Did it sleep in a garage or on the street? Where has it been driven? In the salt-free South or the metal eating highways of Ohio?

If you do your research properly, if you do enough "prep," your ads and sales letters will almost write themselves. It's like painting a boat. The actual painting is easy; the hard part is the faring (preparation) or getting the boat ready to be painted.

Besides that, we're an arrogant, surly lot most often more interested in dwelling on our divine wonderfulness than we are slaving away on your lowly project.

ou see, the few of us who really can do it (write copy that sells) are so much in demand, you can't even think about hiring us unless you are willing to spend an arm and a leg. And, even then... you'll still have to wait in line.

I have zero competition. It's not that there aren't any other good copywriters. No, it's just there are so incredibly few of us that, mostly, we are friendly and exchange ideas and info freely.

The ability to write ads and/or letters that sell is by far the most wonderful money-making skill you could ever hope to acquire. If you master this skill you should never again have to worry about money.

She believed that too many Latter-day Saints exhibited “a very general indifference” toward genealogy and temple work.7 “Not even an angel from heaven could induce some of these club women and these successful business men to set aside a portion of their time for temple work,” Susa wrote to a friend.

“All the desired inspiration in the world will not save our dead,” she declared. “We must also have information in order to consummate that noble work.”

the genealogy lessons were too difficult. They suggested that the lessons be “simplified” and “emphasis placed on the spiritual rather than on the educational side of this study.”

Susa and Elder Smith spoke together at genealogical meetings—she provided practical instruction in methodology, and he laid out the theological foundations of the work. Thanks to their efforts and those of several like-minded associates, thousands of Latter-day Saints received training and encouragement in performing family history and temple work.

Surname Book and Racial History: A Compilation and Arrangement of Genealogical and Historical Data for Use by the Students and Members of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

She served on the general board of the Relief Society, where she succeeded in having lessons on genealogy (most of which she also wrote) incorporated into the curriculum. She published a 600-page reference book on surnames and contributed frequently to a new magazine devoted to genealogical research.

She visited genealogical libraries in the eastern United States and England and corresponded with genealogists from many other countries, seeking greater knowledge and expertise.

But in 1918 her driving interest was genealogy and temple work, an area in which she had been a leading Latter-day Saint advocate for over a decade.

In 1889 she founded the Young Woman’s Journal, the monthly magazine of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, which she edited until 1900. She contributed to magazines and newspapers for the rest of her life, and in 1914 she became the first editor of the Relief Society Magazine. For Susa, writing was a beloved pursuit through which she could make a meaningful contribution to the community. “My whole soul is for the building up of this kingdom,” she wrote to one close confidante about her literary ambitions. “I would labor so hard to help my sisters in this same work.”

Brigham Young Academy

if federated approaches take a POSSE approach first, they will likely get better adoption (everyone wants to stay in touch with their friends), and thereby more rapidly approach that federated future.

POSSE is more important than federation.

Friends are more important than federation.

It’s not surprising, as the success has come after significant investment in cycling infrastructure dating back to 2015 when Mayor Anne Hidalgo first started advancing Paris’s cycling plan with 150 million euros invested to double the number of cycling lanes and create a critical mass of infrastructure. This, followed by even greater investment to fill in the gaps and make Paris a “100 percent cycling city.”

cycling in Paris has transcended mere trendiness; it’s become a fundamental aspect of the city’s identity.

The only true praise is thought. The only thing that can back-bone an essay is thought.Robert Frost (1874-1963)

to be effective, thinking should be written down.

the more Source Notes you make, the more insights you can expect to gain.

In the third stage, you will return to the Source Note and begin analyzing it, describing your reaction to the source material and how it relates to a problem you are working on or a question you’re addressing.

n the second stage, which I call a Source Note, you’ll summarize and paraphrase the passage that grabbed your attention. Occasionally you might quote a line or two, if they seem to especially capture the thought. But the point is to begin the transition to your own words, which is the transition to your own thoughts.

when we can express an idea in our own words, it’s on the way to becoming ours.

In prehistory, before writing, talking was thinking. Today, writing has taken the place of talking.

writing is thinking

writing about something you have read or researched should serve at least three purposes: to explore the material; to describe your reactions to it; and to communicate with yourreader.

I develop ideas, theories on my overview Zettel. Sometimes, like in the book I write after finishing my next one, titled “Modernity as disease”, I develop a theory in a Zettel which serves as an outline and manuscript at the same time. I always state that the method should bend around your thinking and not the other way around. I just can think and write - the Zettelkasten Method does the rest. This is the freedom of the digital version.

There is a difference between normal academic reading and reading for the Zettelkasten. It is not about understanding the author but about filling your archive with meaningful thoughts and how to improve its content and connections.

One of my favorite ways that creative people communicate is by “working with their garage door up,” to riff on a passage from Robin Sloan (below). This is the opposite of the Twitter account which mostly posts announcements of finished work: it’s Screenshot Saturday; it’s giving a lecture about the problems you’re pondering in the shower; it’s thinking out loud about the ways in which your project doesn’t work at all. It’s so much of Twitch. I want to see the process. I want to see you trim the artichoke. I want to see you choose the color palette. Anti-marketing.

We live in a society that emphasizes glamour and sex appeal. That is why most of us strive to achieve external beauty, but oftentimes we lose our uniqueness in the process.

It is quite “normal,” and human, to not enjoy making mistakes! That is why we often feel embarrassed, deny their existence, and/or blame others for our errors. We believe that the best way is to admit your mistakes, learn from them and take corrective action. After all, a mistake is a mistake – no more, no less.

How has your life been blessed by living the Gospel and how has it sanctified you?

Now, the question is not 'why do we not listen to God', but rather why do we forget. The example of Lamen and Lemuel is perfect. They not only were visited by angels (1 Neph 3:29), but also were shocked by their younger brother from God (1 Nephi 17:55). SO, let me explain through analogy from a book called Competing for the future by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad (1996). In business I am very familiar with cultures that are created, and then I have to show how to break the culture and teach them a new one so that the business can thrive. The analogy I utilize to help explain to the people this concept when I come into their business without sounding condescending is about five monkeys. The analogy states: A study took 5 monkeys. In the middle of a room where these monkeys were placed to live was a ladder. On top of that ladder was some bananas. The monkeys didn't notice the bananas at first. Finally, one monkey takes notice of the bananas and decides to climb the ladder to get them. As soon as the monkey starts for the bananas, the other four monkeys are sprayed with ice cold water until they figure out that the monkey climbing the ladder is the problem. So, they push the monkey down and the cold water stops. When the same monkey tries for the bananas again, the same events takes place, and all is safe when that monkey stops climbing the ladder. The scientist remove one of the monkeys that was constantly sprayed with cold water and replaced with a new monkey. This monkey starts for the bananas and immediately, the monkeys are sprayed and the monkeys keep this new monkey off the ladder. Another monkey is removed and replaced with a new monkey. This time before the new monkey can start up the ladder, all the monkeys attack this new monkey before water can even be sprayed. This happens until all the monkeys are replaced and this continues. In the writing from the researchers, he queried that if latter monkey's could be interviewed, they would probably state that they do this because 'that is what is just done around here'. You can see this with crabs in a bucket. If one crab tries to escape from a bucket then the other crabs pull it down. When we take into consideration the power of the mind, which according to the gospel of 'me' is the opposition within man, we see that we can have a very powerful event take place in our lives, but habit/ conditioned responses are more powerful. In the story with the monkey's, this happens a lot in our everyday lives. Not because we are bad people, but because we develop heuristic pathways throughout our lives. Heuristic meaning mental shortcuts (neurological pathways that have been created and strengthened to help us make quick decisions) to help us be faster in our decision making process. Example: Hand to flame means hot after we touch it. Make a faster decision to not touch flame because it hurts next time we see it. The same thing happened with the monkey's. They developed heuristic pathways to attack the monkey that climbed the ladder because they KNEW bad thing happen. So, when we do this over time those neuro pathways become stronger, and then we choose those pathways faster. Especially when it comes to protecting oneself. So, as Brother Joseph stated that there is opposition in all things, man is no different. Our mind is that opposition to God when we are asked to do things that have already been learned behavior patterns of hurt/ pain. To Lamen and Lemuel their plush lifestyle is now gone, and they are left with pain of the wilderness to remind them of what they had, and how much they wish to go back to that. It doesn't matter the messenger, the dopamine hit they desire is more powerful and already apart of their psychological influence. Doing what God wants is showing opposition to what they have already learned. 'How can our life in Jerusalem be so bad?', is what they were asking themselves.  So, when we pit our psychological development against what God is asking, it is foreign - it hurts. What we think we are and developed over time is now met with the opposition of truth from God makes it harder to let go of strong neuro pathways. Try to ask someone to stop smoking that has done it for 20 years of their life. You have to actually die daily and be reborn again mentally to walk by God's request. Like the monkey's, you have to change your paradigm/ your world view filters. What does that mean? Well, when you have God in your life only during Sunday - but then soaked in the world's influence the six other day's - who will you more likely become? Even as he is? Or more like the world? Thus, this is the reason we are reminded to remember Him always. At the end of the day, you will forget whom you serve."

“The purpose of our life should be to build up the Zion of our God, to gather the House of Israel, … store up treasures of knowledge and wisdom in our own understandings, purify our own hearts and prepare a people to meet the Lord when he comes. … “We have no business here other than to build up and establish the Zion of God. It must be done according to the will and law of God [see D&C 105:5], after that pattern and order by which Enoch built up and perfected the former-day Zion, which was taken away to heaven. … We, through our faithfulness, must prepare ourselves to meet Zion from above when it shall return to earth, and to abide the brightness and glory of its coming” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young [1997], 111–12).

The Doctrine and Covenants provides some interpretation of this parable, explaining that the blessings promised to those who are wise include the promise to be with the Lord during His Millennial reign on earth (see D&C 45:56–59). The wise are described as those who “have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived” (D&C 45:57).

Sister Ann M. Dibb, who served as a Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency, explained how we can stand in holy places: “President Ezra Taft Benson counseled, ‘Holy places include our temples, our chapels, our homes, and the stakes of Zion, which are … “for a defense, and for a refuge’’ [D&C 115:6]’ [‘Prepare Yourself for the Great Day of the Lord,’ New Era, May 1982, 50]. In addition to these, I believe we can each find many more places. We might first consider the word place as a physical environment or a geographic location. However, a place can be ‘a distinct condition, position, or state of mind’ [Merriam-Webster Online, ‘place,’ merriam-webster.com/dictionary/place]. This means holy places can also include moments in time—moments when the Holy Ghost testifies to us, moments when we feel Heavenly Father’s love, or moments when we receive an answer to our prayers. Even more, I believe any time you have the courage to stand for what is right, especially in situations where no one else is willing to do so, you are creating a holy place” (“Your Holy Places,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2013, 115).

The signs of the Lord’s Second Coming may be divided into two main categories: (1) signs that are part of the Restoration of the gospel and its eventual expansion throughout the world and (2) signs that are part of the increase of evils and the calamities and judgments to come upon the world. Some of the signs and events of the Second Coming that are described in Doctrine and Covenants 45:16–59 include the following: Gentiles and Jews will be gathered (see D&C 45:25, 30, 43) “Wars and rumors of wars, and the whole earth shall be in commotion” (D&C 45:26) The fulness of the gospel will be restored (see D&C 45:28) “A desolating sickness shall cover the land” (D&C 45:31) The Lord’s disciples “shall stand in holy places, and shall not be moved” (D&C 45:32) “Earthquakes … in divers places, and many desolations” (D&C 45:33) “Signs and wonders … shown forth in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath” (D&C 45:40) “The sun shall be darkened, and the moon be turned into blood” (D&C 45:42) The Lord will come “clothed with power and great glory; with all the holy angels” (D&C 45:44) “Saints that have slept shall come forth” (D&C 45:45) The Lord will appear on the Mount of Olives and converse with the Jews (see D&C 45:48, 51–53)

“What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3). Jesus Christ’s teachings found in Matthew 24:3–51 were greatly expanded through the inspired translation made by the Prophet Joseph Smith, as found in Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:4–55 (in the Pearl of Great Price). Several sections in the Doctrine and Covenants also help to explain the events of the last days and how God’s children can prepare for them (examples include D&C 29; 38; 45; 63; 84; 88; 101; 133).

Jesus Christ met with His disciples on the Mount of Olives during His last week in mortality. At that time He prophesied of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and His disciples asked when that destruction would occur and when He would return to the earth (see Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:2–4). In response the Lord revealed the signs that would occur shortly after His death and those that would precede His Second Coming. He repeated this prophecy to His Saints in the latter days, as recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 45:16–59.

“The great day of the Lord” (D&C 43:17) refers to Jesus Christ’s Second Coming and the commencement of the Millennium. God commanded His servants to declare repentance to prevent His children from being destroyed with the wicked when the Savior returns. While some will give heed and repent, others will ignore and reject the voice of the Lord’s servants. Therefore, the Lord raises the voice of warning to repent through a variety of means: His servants, the ministering of angels, His own voice, and even the destructive power of nature.

The Lord explained in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith ‘that when ye are assembled together ye shall instruct and edify each other, that ye may know … how to act upon the points of my law and commandment’ [D&C 43:8]. But knowing ‘how to act’ isn’t enough. The Lord in the next verse said, ‘Ye shall bind yourselves to act in all holiness before me’ [D&C 43:9]. This willingness to take action on what we have learned opens the doors for marvelous blessings” (“The Blessings of General Conference,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2005, 52).

“We must understand that we have got to act upon certain principles by which we can bind ourselves together as a people, to bind our feelings together that we may become one, and this never can be accomplished unless certain things are done, and things that require an exertion on our part. “How would you go to work to bind yourselves together? How would a man go to work to unite himself with his neighbor? If two men were associated together who had never been acquainted, how would they go to work to secure each other’s friendship, attachment and affection one towards another? Why something would have to be done, and that not by one party only, but would have to be done by one as well as by the other. It would not answer for one to do the business alone; it would not do for one to answer those feelings and do the work himself, but in order to become as one in their sentiments and affection—the action of both would be requisite” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow [2012] 198–99).

President James E. Faust (1920–2007) of the First Presidency summarized five fundamental truths relating to how God reveals truth in His Church: “First, the keys and the authority of God have been given by Him to Joseph Smith and each of his successors who have been called as Presidents of the Church. “Second, those keys and authority are never to be given to another people, and those who have such authority are ‘known to the Church’ [D&C 42:11]. “Third, continuing revelation and leadership for the Church come through the President of the Church, and he will never mislead the Saints. “Fourth, individual members of the Church may receive revelation for their own callings and areas of responsibility and for their own families. They may not receive spiritual instruction for those higher in authority. “Fifth, those who claim direct revelation from God for the Church outside the established order and channel of the priesthood are misguided. This also applies to any who follow them” (“The Prophetic Voice,” Ensign, May 1996, 7).

Setup a recurring Zoom meeting for set times every week where you guarantee to be present. As much as possible, when people send you an ambiguous request or initiate a conversation that will require a lot of back and forth, point them toward your office hours schedule and tell them to stop by next time they can to discuss. It’s a simple idea, but it can reduce the number of attention-snagging back-and-forth electronic messages in your professional life by an order of magnitude.

I currently inhabit four professional roles: writer, teacher, researcher, and director of graduate studies for my department. For each of these roles, I set up a Trello board that includes a column for: things I’m working on actively, thing I’m waiting to hear back about from someone else,  things on my “back burner” that I’m not yet ready to tackle, and  a list of ambiguous or complicated things that I need to spend some time on figuring out. Every email I receive immediately gets moved to one of these columns in one of my Trello boards.

In our current moment in which casual conversations in the hallway or impromptu office visits are impossible, you have to be using meeting scheduling services that allow people to select a time from your list of available times. Use calend.ly, use Acuity, use the features built into Microsoft Outlook,  and if you’re setting up a group meeting, use Doodle. But do not let this coordination unfold as a slow back-and-forth exchange of messages, as this is guaranteed to keep you in a state of constant, agitated inbox checking.

Actually, as Davidson argues, multitasking helps us see more and do more, and experience texts and tasks in different ways. There’s no evidence that anyone ever was deeply reading for hours on end with no interruptions. All we have are claims from Plato saying that writing is going to kill our ability to memorize. Our minds have always been wandering; we’ve always been distractible. We’ve always been doodling on the sides of pages, or thinking about our lunch, or stopping to converse with someone. Now we just have distraction that’s more readily available and purposefully attuned to distracting us — like popup ads, notifications; things that quite literally fly across your screen to distract you. But the fact that we have students who have grown up with those and have trained themselves to deal with those in such interesting ways is something that I think we should bring into the classroom and be talking about and critically thinking about

I always like to point to a text that changed my thinking about this question, and that’s Kathleen Yancey’s “Writing in the 21st Century.” It basically states that students are writing more than ever before. If you were to challenge a group of students (which I have) to document how many text messages, TikTok, IG posts, Facebook posts, tweets, emails they send out in a day, the sheer volume of writing is staggering. Why we don’t value that writing in academia is the question for me.

Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his beloved twelve apostles at the end of his three-year ministry. At this Last Supper, he initiated the ordinance of the sacrament. All three of the synoptic Gospels bear record of this event, which occurred on the evening of the first day of unleavened bread.

Just as proper baptism was the beginning of the building upon the rock, so was the covenant of the sacrament. While the ordinance of baptism was a one-time, long-term commitment, the sacrament serves as a weekly opportunity to keep a proper foundation, the rock of Christ, under our quest for eternal life and to build upon it. For those who fail to observe their sacrament covenants, their foundation becomes one of sand and leads to an entrance into the gates of hell (18:13).

But what are we to remember? We are to remember that through his Resurrection, we too may be resurrected. We should acknowledge his Resurrection and give thanks to our Father in Heaven for this blessing of his son. Furthermore, we might remember that the Lord has given us certain commandments to make our bodies fit tabernacles for the Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16–17; 6:13–20; D&C 89). As we live in this mortal state of probation, we are preparing ourselves for our endless resurrected state (Alma 12:24). The type of resurrection we receive is commensurate with the degree of glory that we have prepared ourselves to receive (D&C 88:14–24). A reflection of our past week’s activities in relation to the commandments given to keep our bodies as fit temples of God and to be worthy of his Spirit would be most appropriate as we partake of the bread. We should also make personal commitments to do better in our areas of weakness and thank our Father for the blessings of the past week. Through partaking of the bread, we have an opportunity to periodically evaluate our progress toward immortality.

And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.

The Book of Mormon clarifies the real purpose and significance of partaking of the bread and wine. Although among the Nephites Jesus first gave the sacrament to the Twelve and then to the multitude, the only instructions he gave concerning the ordinance were regarding the multitude: “And when the multitude had eaten and were filled, he said unto the disciples: Behold there shall one be ordained among you, and to him will I give power that he shall break bread and bless it and give it unto the people of my church, unto all those who shall believe and be baptized in my name. And this shall ye always observe to do, even as I have done, even as I have broken bread and blessed it and given it unto you. And this shall ye do in remembrance of my body, which I have shown unto you. And it shall be a testimony unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you” (3 Ne. 18:5–7).

My emphasis will be on the Book of Mormon, because the Savior taught the sacrament ordinances to the Nephites almost immediately after he came to them, not long after he had instituted the ordinances among his Jerusalem disciples. Therefore, we have a close parallel between the two experiences.

Learning does not happen in a vacuum. It is influenced by social dynamics, most notably between students and their peers.

college students engage with and consume more content than at any time in history. It just so happens that this content is delivered by a streaming service, video game or social media platform, not by a college instructor.

Student engagement is one of the strongest leading indicators we have of positive learning outcomes. Consequently, when students are disengaged, they are less likely to achieve their learning goals.