YouandTheTarot

  It was Sylvia Plath, who eventually took her own life, who created one the best descriptions of mental illness. That was in her autobiographical novel "The Bell Jar." No longer on copyright, the entire book is here for you to read free. Plath depicts mental suffering as being totally enclosed in a bell jar, with no openings. So you continually take in your own bad air. That is, your own confused thinking. With no input from the outside, you sink deeper and deeper into the abyss. We commonly refer to that as "isolation." Isolation is exactly the state of being when attempting to sort out emotional turmoil with a chat bot.  At least when you phone or text a free 24/7 mental health crisis line like Samaritans you're engaging with another human being. Attend the free peer-to-peer weekly meeting at the National Alliance for Mental Health (NAMI) and there's plenty of input. Free 12-step program Emotions Anonymous offers in-person meetings, with opportunities f...

  Four years ago I was interviewed in a podcast about how-to-freelance strategies. The host edited out my statement about my own transition from content-creation to tarot reading. I didn't balk. At the time I was still on the defensive about no longer being able to make a good living as a member of the Creative Class.  Now, that host likely is among the creatives and more who are skipping meals to pay their bills and not wind up homeless. Also they probably are skipping long drives, vacations and buying new. About the latter, Goodwill and other thrift shops are jam-packed.  Meanwhile, during the past four years I have built a reserve in my checking account. Added to the investment fund. This week I was hired for a tarot-reading gig at a local spiritual shop. And I haven't missed a meal. Here's the real tragedy in this reversal of fortune for so many creatives: They remains closed systems about the law of supply and demand.  It doesn't matter how talented they are in ...

  This year the oldest of the boomers, including myself, are turning 80 years old. Is this the new 80?  Sure, there are new aspects. For example, given our family histories, many of us wouldn't have anticipated still being alive at 80. More of us are working for income. Some of us are expert at technologies such as AI. But, overall, for the human species, 80 is still 80. Most often an aging professional will come for a tarot reading to sort out the disappointment that they can no longer approach work like they used to. For example, they can't put in the long hours. If an early riser, by 3 PM they're exhausted. In addition, they wonder, since crises in work raise their blood pressure, if they will have to hang it up. One did hang it up because of challenges managing diabetes. For the generation whose members changed the rules in Americana these realities are a shocker. And for those realities - that's where what's known as "radical acceptance" kicks in. De...

  Globally, the players at the top of heap are dropping like flies. That is, a result of the Epstein files. There have even been two arrests in the UK. Might there be a suicide as there had been in the 1960s John Profumo sex/national security scandal? But, the focus is on which Friends of Jeffrey will be forgiven. That is, enough to open the possibility of a comeback. That return to grace could range from regaining some kind of title to full reputational restoration. The latter was accomplished by Wall Street tycoon Michael Milkin. His misconduct was so bad that not even the elite lawyers at Paul, Weiss couldn't prevent his serving a prison term. Right now, given Bill Gates' town hall mea culpa about two outside-his-marriage affairs with Russian women and traveling places with Friend Jeffrey (but he never stayed overnight), the spotlight is on him. The comments following The Wall Street Journal coverage are primarily negative about this guy. Most rejoice at the hits he's t...

The first card in the mystical tarot is the one for risk. And the buzzy  Substack post by Citrini Research  positions and packages AI as a big risk to the stock market, employment throughout the US and the role of humans in sectors like real estate which historically demanded that kind of go-between. Also at risk is the age-old value put on high intelligence.  By 2028, no employer might care about your IQ. So, stop guiding your children to study hard and get top grades. Instead, maybe tell them to get good with their hands or prepare their heart to work in personal services. Here's a snippet from Citrini: "It should have been clear all along that a single GPU cluster in North Dakota generating the output previously attributed to 10,000 white-collar workers in midtown Manhattan is more economic pandemic than economic panacea. The velocity of money flatlined. The human-centric consumer economy, 70% of GDP at the time, withered. We probably could have figured this out sooner...

  The need for a human being to confide can be intense. Even if it's to an AI chat bot. But that can get you in all sorts of trouble, including being brought to the attention of the law. The Wall Street Journal discloses how automated reviewers at OpenAI monitor the content of ChatGPT accounts: "While using ChatGPT last June, [Jesse] Van Rootselaar described scenarios involving gun violence over the course of several days, according to people familiar with the matter ... Her posts ... alarmed employees at OpenAI. Internally, about a dozen staffers debated whether to take action ... Specifically that would be to refer the matter to law enforcement. Instead, OpenAI simply suspended the account. Would lives in Canada have been saved had law enforcement been brought into the loop? We'll never know. But now chat bot users know this: Their communications on those platforms are not entirely private. There can be legal consequences. The same applies to sharing at a meeting of 12-s...