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Outsourcing Thinking: Finally, We Now Can Get Back to Being Effective, Happy and Totally Human

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Before I learned to think critically (BA, MA, PhD, 1L at Harvard Law School) I was a very effective human being. Happy too. Like Caveman , I lived by my wits. I went out there from the tenement apartment in the early 1950s to the mean streets of pre-gentrified Jersey City, New Jersey and functioned splendidly. In fact, I was way ahead of my times. For instance, at age 11, I operated a Wallace Brown solopreneurship peddling greeting cards and religious icons. More importantly, I was free of clinical depression, imposter syndrome and self-hate. Those arrived during my MA studies.  You know the story. Our Boomer generation was the first in America to matriculate en masse in higher education. By then, the university have mutated from being the trade school the Puritans had established in 1636 to train ministers into a freak institution pursuing pure thought. In Freshman year drilled into us was the Scientific Method. Ah, the supremacy of reason. And there it was: We were separated from...
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No Joke: Middle-Agers Positioning Prison as Retirement Solution

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  "When I get 'that' age, I'll just rob a bank. That will get me three hots and a cot in a prison." Yes, it's come to this for those generations following us Baby Boomers. We have pensions. Social Security was there and as soon as age 62. Medicare kicked in at 65. We earned enough to be able to invest. An added asset probably is a house.  From middle-agers on through Generation Z most envision no way to stop working. That is, if they can continue to get work. There may no longer be the concept of retirement. Homelessness could take over their lives before that. So, at a local community meeting recently that kind of gallows humor should have been predictable. When a man put it out there, others indicated that might not be a bad idea. Universally those working hated their jobs. Those not working couldn't even land gig stuff.  Already, some might have arranged that solution for the necessities of human existence. The Prison Policy Institute reports: State pr...
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Overwhelm Nation: So, Keep Your Health Problems to Yourself

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The new kind of client for my tarot reading services is over-65, socially isolated and unemployed but needing work.  Fortunately for them, the obstacle blocking what they need is easily identifiable It's their health problems. That is, talking about them. Right in the first session and they only need one, I instruct: Stop talking about your health stuff. Do that and the world opens up to abundance. Everything from a social life with deep connections to access to jobs and contract assignments. Talking about your health problems has always been a social turn-off. But in this era of overwhelm, as The Atlantic documents, all kinds of negatives have become unwelcome in conversation. No longer is confiding your troubles, including glucose fluctuations, a bonding mechanism. On the New York Post, a 70-something complains about those in their orbit who share those medical details. In addition, broadcasting negative health data can knock you out the box for work. Of course, there is the A...
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Aging In America: Yes, You've Lost Ground, How to Head Off Homelessness

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  It's cheaper than psychotherapy. So, the aging in angst about whatever tend to come for a tarot reading versus an appointment with a therapist.  ,More and more the anxiety is about losing traction in controlling expenses. BusinessInsider documents that reality: "The share of all Americans living below that adjusted poverty measure grew from 9.1% in 2020 to 13.1% in 2025. For Americans 65 and older, that rate grew from 9.4% to 15.4%." Homelessness isn't unthinkable. To head that off I guide those over-65 to: Be willing to pull up roots and relocate from HCOL area such as the East Coast to a LCOL one. That includes getting on waiting lists around the nation for subsidized housing. That's usually billed at one-third your income such as Social Security.  Keep working. That's income coming in. Having work tends to lead to better work.  Unretire. You probably can no longer afford to not work. There's plenty of free info on the internet how to develop job-sea...
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Wage Deflation, Quality Sucked Out of Jobs, Tense Workplaces

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  It's confirmed. You're not imagining it. There really is wage deflation because of AI. The New York Times  reports: " ... occupations highly exposed to A.I. have experienced a 6.7 percent decline in real wage growth since 2023."  That's not only at the front end, that is when being hired into a job. While on the job, the employer can give you an either/or: Accept a cut in compensation or be gone. Reddit posts: "I'm in a really tough spot and hoping someone has advice. My company just announced a restructuring. They said my current role is being eliminated but offered me a 'new' position. The catch is it's the exact same job but with a 15% pay cut." In addition, the nature of the deflation can take even another form. That's dragging feet on what is usually lockstep increases in compenation. Law Fuel  notes a halt in the traditional ritual of matching the number that market-makers in the legal sector puts out there. Few law firms, so...
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Mental Illness & Openness: Dial It Back

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I put it to clients this way: "Suppose you've been injured in car accident. You want the best lawyer around. Would you hire the one who's open about their clinical depression? I bet you'd wonder if they could lapse into an episode when representing you ..." That client, naive I've concluded, has been too open about their mental illness. It's a combo platter of anxiety attacks and imposter syndrome. Given that they're ambitious and functioning well at work, I present to them that their disclosures are risky. No surprise, the first card in the tarot deck is The Fool.    The message of The Fool card is to calculate carefully each and every risk. Sure, in some circles of society there is lot of interest in mental illness. Empathy too.  But I also hammer: "For the snippets of attention you receive and what may seem like compassion, you could be trading off credibility. Advancement on the job. Probability of being hired after a layoff." Therapyspea...
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So Damn Lucky!

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  Folks don't come for a tarot-card reading because everything is great. No, they're troubled. Most of the time it's because they feel they have been shut out from life's goodies. And so I get to study why their wheel of fortune is moving in the wrong direction. That is, they're not lucky. What I have found is that, sure, some luck is a given. That goes by the crude phrase "the lucky sperm club."  Because your father was ABC and not XYZ you have access to the advantages of the upper classes, including healthy nutrition, braces for that bright smile, enlightened medical care, decent education, coaching in presentation of self and a gold-plated network. However, as we bear witness with the Reiner family that doesn't necessarily play out as expected. More dependable and actually an entity you create is what's known as "encounter luck."  That entails setting yourself up to be, well, lucky. In the 2005 Woody Allen film "Match Point" ...
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