Category: Bicycle for the mind

AI is Loose: Is Bard Better?

The artificial intelligent search engine wars are starting. Microsoft has plans to use OpenAI and Chat GPT with Bing. I tried out that search engine with my Powerful Chat GPT Good?? post. As noted, it was not very accurate, though it did capture some good information.

To compare, I tried out Google’s Bard. You can try Bard and use Google’s AI by putting Bard.google.com as your URL. It notes all over the page that is experimental. They also encourage us to provide feedback on the information provided to improve their responses. I did a search by asking, Can you tell me about paneugenesis?

In the first few searches I did, others were given credit for the concept of paneugenesis. However, after providing feedback about the factual errors, new searches with the same query correctly attributed the concept of paneugenesis to me. It learned fast.

Is Feedback Considered Accurate?

I wonder about the feedback I provided. I saw it updated with the accurate information I provided, but does that mean it could update with incorrect information? I did not want to try it to find out. Although the responses by Bard to my query provided a lot of good information, some results made things up. For instance, some of the responses created indicated that there were books about paneugenesis and community groups that work on paneugenesis. All good ideas, but not factually incorrect.

Example Bard Search

Below is a picture of the top portion of my search asking Bard, “Can you tell me about paneugenesis?” The full output of Draft 2 from Bard is posted below. Although I would word things a bit differently, the responses were good. In Drafts 1 & 3 it incorrectly mentioned books or community groups about paneugenesis. If you do a query, users can export the full output to a Google Doc.

Bard’s Response Draft 2: Can you tell me about Paneugenesis?

As you can see, it incorrectly indicated I wrote a book, “The Positive Health Revolution.” That is just a post on this website. Other than that, the information seems good. What do you think?

Sure. Paneugenesis is a term coined by Craig Becker, a health promotion expert and author of the book “The Positive Health Revolution.” It is a process of creating comprehensive improvements by creating interactions so everyone and everything benefits. Paneugenesis is based on the principle that doing good things enables good outcomes as it simultaneously crowds out bad actions.

There are five key principles of paneugenesis:

  1. Regenerative: Paneugenesis is about creating interactions that are regenerative, meaning that they produce more good than they consume.
  2. Net-positive: Paneugenesis is about creating interactions that are net-positive, meaning that they produce more benefits than they create harm.
  3. Pervasive: Paneugenesis is about creating interactions that are pervasive, meaning that they have a positive impact on a wide range of people and things.
  4. Reciprocal: Paneugenesis is about creating interactions that are reciprocal, meaning that they benefit everyone involved.
  5. Synergistic: Paneugenesis is about creating interactions that are synergistic, meaning that they create even greater benefits when combined with other positive interactions.

Paneugenesis can be applied to a wide range of areas, including health, education, business, and the environment. When applied effectively, paneugenesis can help to create a more positive and sustainable world.

Here are some examples of paneugenesis in action:

  • A company that creates a product that is both environmentally friendly and profitable is practicing paneugenesis.
  • A school that teaches students about the importance of health and wellness is practicing paneugenesis.
  • A community that comes together to clean up a polluted river is practicing paneugenesis.

Paneugenesis is a powerful concept that can be used to create a more positive and sustainable world. By following the five key principles of paneugenesis, we can all make a difference.

The feedback I provided was that this was mostly good, except cleaning up a polluted river would not be practicing paneugenesis because it can only result in less bad. If actions were taken to make the community better than it was before, even without a polluted river, then that would be paneugenesis. I also told them I had not written that book.

It will be interesting to see how this develops and how it will impact our world. Please try out these new AI search engines and provide feedback. It is a monumental project similar to how Wikipedia was created but on a much larger scale.

Please share your experiences with this new Artificial Intelligence (AI). It appears Bard and other new AI tools can help us generate comprehensive improvements if we use them well. For these to work well, we will need to help make sure these tools help enable regenerative, net-positive, pervasive, reciprocal, selfish, selfless synergistic interactions so everyone and everything benefits. Please share how you think we can help make that happen!

Be Well’r,
Craig Becker

Be selfish, selfless, & synergistic so everyone and everything benefits!

#SelfishSelflessSynergy

Please share your thoughts and questions below.
Contact me: BeWellr@gmail.com

“Finance adds No value”

I recently listened to the April 2022 Deming Institute podcast, “In Their Own Words”, entitled and linked: Kevin Cahill’s Reflections on Dr. Deming and the Deming Institute (April 2022). Andrew Stotz hosted. Andrew Stotz is an awarded, successful financial analyst.

Mr. Stotz indicated how Deming’s work had impacted his thinking and career. Deming also provides a solid basis for all I do with health. His ideas about continual improvement of the process so the product takes care of itself and systems appreciation are at the basis of all I have done. Personal and planetary health are interconnected and as we continually improve the lifestyle process with an understanding of how it impacts everyone and everything – we can achieve the desirable aim of regenerative communities by living regenerative lifestyles. You will see Dr. Deming mentioned often in multiple posts on this blog and he has also been a basis for many of my peer reviewed published articles.

The part that caught my attention in the recent Deming institute podcast was when Andrew Stotz, despite being a financial analyst, said, “Finance adds no value” He went on to explian:

“Finance adds no value….Ultimately it’s the products and the service, and finance is a support function just as human resources… it’s when finance starts being the head of the business that you get into trouble…Never make the right finance decision over the right business decision.”

Andrew Stotz

This may be a stretch, however, to me his statement that finances cannot provide value is similar to how I have adopted what I learned from Dr. Deming. As I have noted, Prevention Can’t Work and Problems are Irrelevant! if improvement is the goal. He even states, good finances are a by-product, and cannot be the aim, just as research has shown prevention is the by-product of good health, not its aim. Prevention and problem solving only stop bad things from happening but do not make things better than where we were before the problem occurred. We could not get healthy after COVID occurred, we had to create a better life first and the protection against COVID from good health was a beneficial by-product. Those without co-morbidities have done better.

Mr. Stotz comments about finances by explaining that money desires should not drive actions, because earning money is the necessary result or by-product. These ideas were outlined in this post, Money Is a Lagging Not a Leading Indicator which demonstrated that

Money must follow, it cannot lead.

Businesses, as Kevin Cahill explains, often want to just seem to be keeping up so they go with the new management fads or “the flavor of the month” rather than maintaining a constant aim. As he notes, this does not work out well, especially over the long term. This linked 4/24/2022 Close to Home comic humorously captures this idea about just doing something because it is a current idea.

Mr. Cahill then provides a great example of the outcomes from a focus on value or money when he contrasts Apple and Enron. One company was guided by financial statements while the other was guided by providing value. Apple, which he cites from Walter Isaacson’s book, Steve Jobs, says Apple had the aim or mission to create “insanely great products”. In contrast, the now defunct Enron’s mission was to make more money. The result: Apple is worth a trillion dollars and Enron went bankrupt.

In looking back, I realized I have cited Steve Jobs and things he has done almost as often as I have cited Dr. Deming. To me both provide great examples of how we can help generate comprehensive improvements by creating net-positive, pervasive, reciprocal, selfish, selfless, synergistic interactions so everyone and everything benefits.

I hope you listen to the Deming podcast and that it motivates you to study Deming’s methods. Deming was my inspiration and it has helped me a lot in my career. Please share what you learn and how you implement his ideas to benefit everyone and everything so “everybody wins” as Dr. Deming used to say!

Be Well’r,
Craig Becker

Be selfish, selfless, & synergistic so everyone and everything benefits!

#SelfishSelflessSynergy

Please share your thoughts and questions below.
Contact me: BeWellr@gmail.com

Is this Why Some Phrases Stick?

For the millions (well not yet) of you that follow me, you know I often use this blog as a scratchboard. I post these ideas hoping some of my unfinished thoughts will aid you in your thinking process. I recently realized that certain phrases seem to keep coming back to me and seem relevant. SInce I am a professor I a proposing a hypothesis about why they have stuck and I would appreciate your thoughts on accuracy of these thoughts. Can you do that by leaving a comment at the end?

One of the phrases that has stuck was in my thesis that I completed for my MS in Wellness Management at Ball State University. My thesis study focused on lifestyle behaviors. Throughout the paper I continued to emphasize that lifestyl behaviors were necessary, but alone they were insufficient. That phrase…

“…necessary but insufficient“

…has come back to me again and again. Most recently I heard it when I listened to Freakonomics episode #498. In the 1890s, the Best-Selling Car Was … Electric. In the episode they discuss how after a huge false start, electric cars are finally about to flourish. However in the episode, they emphasize that while moving to electric cars is necessary, it is insufficient to solve our climate crisis due to the many other damaging environmental factors from agriculture, cement and steel making and other processes.

An important aspect with this idea seems to be consistency. By that I mean that, it seems waht a person considers necessary actions are are also probably consistent with your values and therefore beneficial to your well-being. What are things you do that are necessary, but insufficient? Please share and also let us know how and if it helps.

The other phrase that keeps coming back that I used in my dissertation when I got my PhD from Arizona State and have also used in many articles is…

“… latent underlying constructs“

Latent means hidden or concealed. However it is not really hidden, it is just not prominent or noticeable right away. I have used this phrase to document the importance of health and or the environment. Health is something that enables all else, but is hidden or latent because without it, everything else is problematic. Of course when we don’t have health, it is prominent, but the lack of ill health is latent or hidden yet it is still necessary.

The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate Crisis & The Fate of Humanity: Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity

I also read a lot of James Lovelock and in all his books, especially in The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis & The Fate of Humanity: Earth’s Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity, he emphasizes the necessity but insufficiency or our current environmental actions. He suggests, “…We are like a revolting teenager, intelligent, with great potential, but far too greedy, and selfish for our own good” and that “…We must stop acting as if human welfare is all that matters”. He says this due to the interconnectedness of all living things, most especially the living Earth, or Gaia as he explains. As we all know, without a habitable earth, nothing else is possible. In this way, Earth is the “latent underlying construct” that is “necessary”.

In writing this I am just realizing these phrases are related. Latent underlying constructs are necessary, but insufficient. To me this means we must build on our good actions to enable continual and never ending improvement. In my teaching, I emphasize the ripple effect or the fact that it is not just what happens right away from that transaction, it is also about what happens down the line because that transaction that really matters. For instance, we can get car to go using fossil fuels, but the leftover CO2 from burning this fossil fuel is rushing climate change. This means the ripple of climate change, not the transaction of driving is most relevant.

This idea then brings us back to the start of this post about electric cars. Electric cars are necessary and can help, especially if we power them with clean renewable energy, but they are insufficient. They will not repair what we damaged, their use will just not add more, or as much damage. For these reasons and many more, my focus has been to attempt to generate comprehensive improvements by creating net-positive, pervasive, reciprocal, selfish, selfless, synergistic interactions so everyone and everything benefits – which is the practice of paneugenesis.

As a professor, I write and publish articles in journals. These articles allow us to share our inferences, which means we use our expertise to share what we think the data for findings from a study or experiment mean. This also means inferences are not always accurate, they are initial understanding of phenomena.

Overall, this means my inference is that those phrases have stuck and keep coming back to me do so because they are relevant and important. What do you think? Do the reasons stated accurately explain why those phrases seem important and relevant and have therefore stuck with me and keep coming back?

Please share the thoughts and also actions you take to help even though we must all contribute because alone our actions may be necessary, but insufficient. Thank you – I look forward to reading your thoughts!

BeWell’r,

Craig Becker

Be selfish, selfless, & synergistic so everyone and everything benefits!

#SelfishSelflessSynergy

Please share your thoughts and questions below.
Contact me: BeWellr@gmail.com

“Think Again” Very Helpful Book

Front Cover

Adam Grants book, “Think Again: The power of knowing what you don’t know” is a very good and helpful book. Especially for the current times. As James Lovelock exclaimed,

“We live at a time when emotions and feelings count more than the truth and there is a vast ignorance of science.”

James Lovelock (in Revenge of the Gaia)

For some reason, I did not think I wanted to read Grants book, however, I am now glad was able to “think again”and read it. As we all aware, sometimes we become stuck in our beliefs and are hesitant to rethink because we are afraid it can make us look bad.

The book helped me learn to embrace confusion and to be excited when I found contradictory information. It also helped me rethink about “Rethinking” and it enabled me to realize that when I discover thoughts could be better, it was a good to change my thoughts. This was one of the best things I got from the book.

The ideas in this book also resonated with me because I remember I had heard about how one of my hero’s, the management guru Dr. W. Edwards Deming would regularly “think again” about his successful ideas. Even though he was highly successful, he never wavered from rethinking his ideas and update them so was able to continually improve.

The podcast,“I Make No Apologies for Learning” by Ron Moen and Cliff Norman for the Deming Institute document and demonstrate how Deming would continually think again about his work. The podcast is based on the response he would provide when people noticed his message had changed and evolved after he would “Think again” and learn. He wanted all to yearn to learn so they could think better. I encourage you to listen to this podcast.

Artwork for Ron Moen and Cliff Norman of Associates in Process Improvement (API) - "I Make No Apologies for Learning"

“I Make No Apologies for Learning”

Ron Moen and and Cliff Norman Podcast

In the podcast they explained that Deming was not always easily accepted because he challenged peoples core beliefs and inspired them to think again. However, as they explained, thinking again took a lot of effort and many were not willing to make that effort. For me, it has been significantly beneficial to “think again”.

While it is impossible to list all the wonderful ways Grant inspired me to rethink with this book, I will mention a few that were helpful to me, please see if any may help you:

  • Doubt is helpful because you question your methods
  • Task conflict helps find better ways, no conflict means apathy
  • Question how, rather than why which also makes it less controversial
  • When not able to entertain different ideas, “What evidence would change your mind?”
  • To many facts will dilute their impact and audience gets defensive
  • Ask, can we debate about the ideas, not emotions
  • Acknowledge common ground in any debates, it can invite rethinking
  • As facts change, change your opinions
  • Challenging core beliefs causes emotional reactions
  • Confidence is the result of progress, not just its cause
  • Work to IMPROVE, not prove oneself
  • Seek to evolve ideas rather than confirm tehm
  • We need to rethink because of the accelerating pace of change in the world
  • A debate is not a war but a dance where you don’t always lead
  • Use curiosity and ask questions
  • Asking questions helps people rethink
  • Uncertainty signals confident humility and can increase your credibility
  • Contested views leave people with blurred vision and guards to be set
  • The act of resistance fortifies our psychologic defense system
  • Good communicators make their audience, not themselves feel smart
  • Acknowledging complexity disrupts overconfidence and spurs rethinking
  • Our beliefs are shaped by our motivations and desires of what we want to believe
  • Skeptics are scientific and can entertain new ideas
  • Deniers are dismissive and often twist facts to fit beliefs
  • Limitations are holes in the research but portals to future discoveries
  • Emotion should be in conversations, restricting them stymies rethinking
  • Inspiring messages are scrutinized less and often forgotten, need to invite rethinking
  • Respond to confusion with curiosity and interest
  • Confusion is a cue that there is new territory to explore
  • Happiness is more about frequency of emotions than its intensity
  • Meaning is healthier than happiness
  • Often people overemphasize pleasure at the expense of purpose
  • Enjoyment wanes, meaning tends to last
  • Passions are developed more so than discovered
  • Happiness depends on what we do, not where we are
  • Interest doesn’t always lead to effort and skill, sometimes it follows
  • Aiming at something or someone else to improve often leads to happiness as a side effect
  • Questions to ask ourselves about our ideas:What leads to that assumption?
    • Why do you think that is correct?
    • What might happen if it is wrong?
    • What are the uncertainties in your analysis?
    • What are the advantages to the idea?
    • What are the disadvantages to the idea?

Thinking again can help us generate comprehensive improvements through the creation of net-positive, pervasive, reciprocal, selfish, selfless, synergistic interactions so everyone and everything benefits, or by practicing paneugenesis.  I look forward to hearing about the how you thought again and were able to generate benefits for everyone and everything.

Please share what you learned when you thought again so we all can benefit! Thank you.

Be Well’r,
Craig Becker

Be selfish, selfless, & synergistic so everyone and everything benefits!

#SelfishSelflessSynergy

Please share your thoughts and questions below.
Contact me: BeWellr@gmail.com

Bringing it All Together is Progress

Last week in my post, Being Paid in Multiple Ways, and in many others I have emphasized how quality, environmentalism and generating health can generate comprehensive benefits from which everyone and everything can benefit. Evidence suggests these methods that bring all these benefits together are more efficient, less expensive, impact more people in a positive way and are better for the environment, which of course helps everyone and everything.

In other words, a lot of my posts are what Rory Vaden called “Time Multipliers” (see Be Fruitful and Multiply – Time That is…) because over time, they give you more time to do what you want to do. It reminded me of how Steve Jobs explained the computer was a bicycle for the mind because it helped you do things better and faster. Steve explains this concept here and below.

All this came to mind as I was listening to Amber McReynolds TED talk, “An election system that puts voters (not politicians) first”. She describes a voting system that brought everything together and showed how it helps everyone learn more, do more and be more involved. The voting system she describes can help our government be a bicycle for society. Better voting from more educated citizens enables a better system that will function more efficiently. I strongly encourage you to listen to Amber’s talk – it is very powerful and empowering.

I also realized this post is overdue, especially after learning more about the hidden massacres like the described in this NYTImes Daily Episode, The Burning of Black Tulsa. If we work together, many answers will evolve that can help everyone and everything make progress. As we all know, voting is a current issue and Biden puts Harris in charge of efforts to protect voting rights. If we use Amber McReynolds ideas, we can not just protect voting rights, we can improve the voting system.

Please share how you will help empower and enable yourself and others to be the best version of themselves so you can feel the glow and pride for acting in selfish, selfless, synergistic ways. I believe this this was captured well by Simon Sinek and Time Shriver podcast in Episode 34: Learning to Love with Tim Shriver. Though they talk about problems, it seemed they were promoting us to help others more and to practice paneugenesis by doing selfish, selfless, synergistic actions.

My hypothesis, that has been supported by a lot of evidence, is we can generate comprehensive improvements by creating pervasive, reciprocal, selfish, selfless, synergistic acts that benefit everyone and everything. What do you think?

Be Well’r,

Craig Becker

Be selfish, selfless, & synergistic so everyone and everything benefits!

#SelfishSelflessSynergy

Please share your thoughts and questions below.

Valuable Skills & Steve Jobs

Did you ever think that you might have been better at something else? Do you have multiple interests? In Emilie Wapnick’s interesting TED Presentation about her many interests, she makes a persuasive presentation about the value of having multiple interests. In this presentation, those with multiple interests are called Multipotentialites.

In a very convincing way, she points out that multipotentiality leads to the development of superpowers. The specific superpowers developed include:

  1. Idea Synthesis – the ability to synthesize multiple concepts and ideas from different areas
  2. Rapid Learning – as noted in previous posts, being able to learn fast is a sign of high intelligence (See here). Rapid learning becomes a superpower because of how many times multipotentialites are beginners and endeavor to learn something new. These repeated learning experiences help multipotentialites become rapid learners as repeated exercises become habitual.
  3. Adaptability – the ability to morph into what is needed because of the ability to take on different roles as needed for each endeavor. Of course, new skills are needed for these roles, and this enhances one’s capacity and potential.

Interestingly, it is the3 skills developed by multipotentialites that can help us be successful in the 21st century, thus validating pursuing and developing multiple interests and related skills. These skills are valuable because today, we need innovators and creative thinkers to make tomorrow better. Being able to use idea synthesis, becoming a rapid learner, and being adaptable means we can more quickly generate comprehensive improvements by creating interactions so everyone and everything benefits (which is the practice of paneugenesis).

I encourage you to watch her TED Presentation:

As I listened to EmilieWapnick’s presentation, it kept reminding me of Steve Jobs’s amazing Stanford Commencement speech. In this speech, he shared 3 stories. One was about the ability to connect the dots. He related this to when he went to Reed College and took a calligraphy class because he found it interesting, beautiful, and amazing. He then related it to how that then later led to the Mac having multiple fonts and beautiful typography (which Windows and the whole computing world copied), highlighting the value of following his interest and being a multipotentiality.

After all, it was the ability to pull together multiple interests that made the modern computing world the most advanced living idea possible. Below is his Stanford presentation. If you have never seen it, or even if you have, I encourage you to watch it and share the overlap you see or don’t see. I look forward to hearing from you. Enjoy.

Be Well’r,
Craig Becker

Be selfish, selfless, & synergistic so everyone and everything benefits!

#SelfishSelflessSynergy

Please share your thoughts and questions below.
Contact me: BeWellr@gmail.com