AMA with Jeffrey Ladish. Wednesday 2/4 at 2:00 PM CT

Executive director of Palisade Research; studying AI loss of control risks.

Please help me stay intellectually honest! I'm not a fan of generative AI in general, and LLM technology specifically. I think its capabilities are being drastically over-hyped. It's a perfect, sweaty example of a solution looking for a problem. I'm skeptical of many claims people are making wrt how it's helping them.

My experience is it's like having access to an idiot-savant intern. Awful at most tasks, but knows everything and can read incredibly quickly.

Publicly, I've taken on the mantle of a staunch critic of generative AI and a pro-human, pro-soul advocate.

And for the most part, I'm happy with that stance. I like it. It feels good to rail against something, and it feels good to contrast a thing that I hate against something I love. It throws the love into more relief.

Yet, I don't want to lose any babies in that bathwater, and I don't want to lose my intellectual honesty in the neurochemical rush of fighting for a cause. So I'd love to explore the best use cases of LLMs that you all are actually using, and actually finding beneficial, life improving, productivity increasing, all of that.

I'd love to hear your experience, and ideally, you'd to tell me how you're doing what you're doing with it in enough detail so that I can try it.

I'll start.

Absolutely most useful thing I've found for it so far, and it's not even close, is language learning.

I'm in a slow process of learning Japanese, and asking a chatbot to break down the grammar of a specific sentence is super useful. It's also great for generating content for flashcards. Say you have a set of characters, and you want some example words that use each particular character. It's so easy to generate stuff like that.

Outside of that, I use it in super basic ways (basically as google with one less step).

So please, give me your best use cases, things that you've not only been impressed by, in a "oh wow, that monkey can tap dance!" way, but that has actually improved the quality of your life.

On Aspiration. In a recent Relateful Flow session, I said that I was aspiring toward something and that, to me, aspiration is an active principle.  My comment was met with strong disagreement from a person who said that aspiration is passive and only concrete action of a physical kind, actually "doing" something, is active.  I was a bit shocked and then realized that I might be in the minority on this subject.  To me, "aspiring" is actively signaling Life/God that I am now ready and willing to receive the thing I have been saying I wanted.  It is an energetic "yes"!  Other more physically tangible actions may follow, but aspiration is first , especially in things which have always seemed to be beyond my grasp. 

However, I understand what the person was pointing to.  There is a world where action is physical; aspiring may be useful in some way, but it is a passive practice.  

Would love others' thoughts and experience with this.

Musings: The World Is Overstilumated. I'm reflecting on my experience this summer spending 3 days in the dark. I was in Tangier, Morocco, in an apartment, and I had those garage door window shutters that would keep the entire apartment completely pitch black even in the middle of the day. I chose to spend 3 days in the darkness. Mostly sitting on the couch staring into darkness.

I wasn't aware of this experience having much impact until I started having phone calls with people from the darkness. I could hear everything in the silence. Beyond someone's voice, I could hear the Soul speaking. I'm pretty convinced we can communicate in Silence, and I love words.

I've been wondering about how overstimulated the world is. In this moment I'm watching the woman across the table from me scroll through her phone, going from Instagram to Spotify to texting to checking out concert tickets this weekend. Starting sentences and starting new ones mid sentence. I'm in love with how incongruent and disoriented we can appear as humans.

I wonder what it would be like for the world to take a day off from stimulus: food, cell phone, entertainment devices, etc. What if we had a collective pause? Sunlight, water, fresh air. Our collective nervous system could use a Parasympathetic Pause. I like this as an Emerging Probability and Planetary Potential. Feels like part of the emerging meta-model and protocol for The Wellbeing of Humanity.

I like my Relateful sessions like I like my takes… deep and hot. The coaching industry remains one of the last truly free markets, and we are about to witness the beauty of an unregulated ecosystem in action. The industry is undergoing a natural correction—one driven not by government oversight, but by the marketplace itself, which is beginning to self-organize in hierarchies sourced from quality, wisdom, and genuine experience.

The best part? The product itself—coaching—is evolving. As consumer discernment grows, the market is demanding greater depth, skill, and true transformational capacity.

For years, the unregulated coaching industry has been producing coaches promising transformation, many of whom, let’s be honest, are mostly full of cookie cutter sayings and emotionally charged buzz words, lacking the true depth and nuance needed to facilitate transformation. 

These coaches have achieved tremendous success in conventional terms, making millions of dollars and selling out events by developing business building skills like funnel creation, ad conversion strategies, sales processes, and more.

Meanwhile, many of the most gifted healers and practitioners of transformation have been mostly unrecognized and living essentially unheard of, many of them lacking the business building capacities needed to grow a vibrant business and get the word out to the world about what is available.

The result? Those with marketing and business savvy have dominated the industry, often outpacing those who possess the real art of facilitation. Meanwhile, the true healers and transformational leaders have struggled to gain traction, lacking the business building capacities needed to scale their impact.

And the more famously lamented result: the growing group of quasi pyramid scheme “coaches coaching coaches on selling coaching to coaches.”

Why is this happening? Facilitation and business building are two entirely different domains of mastery.

What’s happening now? The market is getting smarter. Clients are becoming more discerning. The demand for real, lasting transformation is rising, and with it, a new hierarchy for practitioners of transformational facilitation—one based on skill, depth, and authentic results—is emerging.

Celebrating the unregulated market response. We are about to witness, in real time, how a free market itself catalyzes transformation in the transformational coaching industry, leading to a better, richer experience for everyone involved.

Addendum: Opportunities for Collaboration:

There is an opportunity for these 2 paths of Mastery to service each other:

1. What if business-building coaches helped transformational coaches turn their gifts into thriving, scalable businesses?

2. What if transformational coaches helped business builders develop the depth, wisdom, and skill to deliver real, lasting transformation?

3. What if these two groups coached each other, exchanged mastery, and elevated the entire industry?

Uptrusting as Oral Culture. Interesting to explore UpTrust w/ the frame that it's more of an "oral culture" than a "written culture", where it has more of a riff and jazz kind of energy than other internet community sites that I frequent. I think it's looking through the comment sections, with the branching and forking, and I imagine more of "sparking a multi-party conversation" and "ah yes" than traditional writing. LessWrong (another experiment in a new internet forum style) is strongly essay culture, Twitters got a bit of oral culture vibes, but perhaps less collaborative (uncertain).

I wonder how far this lens can go for community or product development.

When I was writing this post, I realized I'd rather have dictated it!

Politics self-assessment quiz from an integral perspective. I’m obsessively working on a course I’ve been trying to build for 4 years and have recently made big breakthroughs with. I’ve just completed the first draft of questions in the topic of politics.

Ideally, the way this would be scored is that people could rank all of the statements that are true for them, put as many responses as they want in a no way bucket, and put as many responses as they want in a I don’t get it bucket. I haven’t found a quiz builder tool that will let me build it that way yet, so in the meantime I’m using one that lets me randomize the order the responses are shown in and lets them rank the answers.

Here’s the first draft of the prompts, would love any and all feedback, support, and nit-picking!

What are your opinions and feelings about politics?

 M I personally don’t care, that’s just not where my focus is in my life.

 R I’ll stand firm until I die to defend my country.

 A I worry that things could be heading in the wrong direction.

 O The people with the best strategies will always win.

 G The efforts of good intentions are persistently threatened by corruption and greed.

 T The current political landscape shows me a mirror of my inner world, and the most impactful solutions start by looking within.

What are your priorities in how you interact with politics?

 M I’m not going to do anything that might make my people reject me.

  R As long as I can live my life the way I want to, we’re good, but as soon as someone tries to get in the way I’m going to fight for my rights.

 A I perform my civic duty, like voting, writing to my senator and staying aware of local politics, because that’s what a conscientious citizen does to maintain what matters.

 O I leverage connections and resources to move the cogs of the political machine in directions that support my endeavors.

 G I volunteer for causes that work to fix systemic flaws and care for those in need.

 T I trust the overarching trend that life has always had toward greater good, and I take action when needed.

What do you want or expect from politicians?

 M As long as me and my family’s lives stay the same, whatever they do is ok by me.

 R Take charge, get shit done, and don’t get in the way of what I want.

 A Protect our valued traditions and morals.

 O Make everything as functional as possible without getting in the way of progress.

 G Undo antiquated laws that systematically oppress and harm people, and create safety nets to ensure everyone’s basic needs will always be met.

 T Stay aware of societal patterns, and look for solutions that balance holding firm limits with honoring the current views of all who live here.

What are the keystones of our political culture?

 M I’m not really sure.

 R Honoring our forefathers who fought for our independence.

 A Maintaining law and order.

 O The system of checks and balances makes sure history doesn’t get in the way of innovation.

 G Legislation that protects people and the environment.

 T Public and private entities interacting to create policies that accurately represent the beliefs of the people.

When you talk about politics, where do you tend to come from?

 UL My feelings- what makes me feel safe and protected, and what makes me feel threatened.

 LL The people I love- what matters to them and will help them feel safe and protected.

 UR Data- polls, statistics, and effectiveness.

 LR Systemic impacts- how voting functions, ways laws are implemented, etc.

When you take in information about politics, what do you want most?

 UL Personalization- ask me questions and find out what matters to me.

 LL Connection- let’s listen to each other and see what we discover.

 UR Facts- I want to study what’s happening and why it’s happening.

 LR Structures- I want to explore the methods and protocols at work.

VP debate. God, it’s so painful to watch these debates. All I hear is vote for my party, we’re the best and they suck! No, vote for MY party, WE’RE the best and THEY suck!

When it comes "the global warming debate," there are often third ways that are ignored. Often the framing is global warming and climate deniers or something like that.

but it seems like there are obviously multiple perspectives here, and these two black and white boxes keep us from really seeing potential solutions.

Bjorn Lomborg for example believes in man-made climate change, but also doesn’t like the alarmism. Although he cherry picks data like he accuses others of, he also I think rightfully points out lots of flaws in the arguments that help us identify solutions. Much of the hurricane damage increase over time is because we’re building bigger and more expensive houses in hurricane alleys; for this problem, we can stop building there; everybody stopping flying altogether until 2100 delays increases the increase by a few weeks, so stopping flying isn’t the solution. Often the solutions are smaller, more local, less sexy: want less polar bears to die? Increase regulation on poaching. (Polar bear populations are up over the past decade because of this, apparently). I would love to identify and popularize these solutions, so they are spoken in the same breath as global warming rather than it being all gloom and doom and end of the world.

There are real tricky questions about what we’re trying to preserve and for whom, as well. If all we care about are humans and climate migration, then building infrastructure in places like Haiti and even evolving to coal power would be more helpful.

When it comes "the global warming debate," there are often third ways that are ignored. Often the framing is global warming and climate deniers or something like that.

but it seems like there are obviously multiple perspectives here, and these two black and white boxes keep us from really seeing potential solutions.

Bjorn Lomborg for example believes in man-made climate change, but also doesn’t like the alarmism. Although he cherry picks data like he accuses others of, he also I think rightfully points out lots of flaws in the arguments that help us identify solutions. Much of the hurricane damage increase over time is because we’re building bigger and more expensive houses in hurricane alleys; for this problem, we can stop building there; everybody stopping flying altogether until 2100 delays increases the increase by a few weeks, so stopping flying isn’t the solution. Often the solutions are smaller, more local, less sexy: want less polar bears to die? Increase regulation on poaching. (Polar bear populations are up over the past decade because of this, apparently). I would love to identify and popularize these solutions, so they are spoken in the same breath as global warming rather than it being all gloom and doom and end of the world.

There are real tricky questions about what we’re trying to preserve and for whom, as well. If all we care about are humans and climate migration, then building infrastructure in places like Haiti and even evolving to coal power would be more helpful.

When it comes "the global warming debate," there are often third ways that are ignored. Often the framing is global warming and climate deniers or something like that.

but it seems like there are obviously multiple perspectives here, and these two black and white boxes keep us from really seeing potential solutions.

Bjorn Lomborg for example believes in man-made climate change, but also doesn’t like the alarmism. Although he cherry picks data like he accuses others of, he also I think rightfully points out lots of flaws in the arguments that help us identify solutions. Much of the hurricane damage increase over time is because we’re building bigger and more expensive houses in hurricane alleys; for this problem, we can stop building there; everybody stopping flying altogether until 2100 delays increases the increase by a few weeks, so stopping flying isn’t the solution. Often the solutions are smaller, more local, less sexy: want less polar bears to die? Increase regulation on poaching. (Polar bear populations are up over the past decade because of this, apparently). I would love to identify and popularize these solutions, so they are spoken in the same breath as global warming rather than it being all gloom and doom and end of the world.

There are real tricky questions about what we’re trying to preserve and for whom, as well. If all we care about are humans and climate migration, then building infrastructure in places like Haiti and even evolving to coal power would be more helpful.

The Relateful Company should embrace more job titles. We’re under-appreciating orange.

We’ve included the green critiques, like the classic:

What gets measured gets managed — even when it’s pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organisation to do so - V. F. Ridgway, 1956

But we need to embrace more healthy competition, striving for excellence, even rankings.

one way we can do this is to make more liberal use of titles, and brag on people. @Valerie Daniel is the MANAGING DIRECTOR, and we should have her listed as such in emails and things

What else is healthy orange and how can we transclude it?
What do we already do that is already healthy orange?

Who should date me? I get really pumped about what can be possible for online dating in UpTrust.

For example, someone having high current trust scores from a majority of his exes.

Or me going through all my single friends who are the gender I date and posting on their Dating Recommendations tree posts like I adore him as a friend and would totally want to date him if we wanted the same lifestyle! He gives the best hugs and is someone whose opinion I value highly when I make major decisions. I’d like to see him with a woman who embraces spirituality and likes throwing Superbowl parties.

So here’s my personal test-drive. Feel free to populate this tree with your opinions on my dating life, recommendations, questions, etc. <3

Current Session "instructions" (Feb 26): Converse, and see if nudges happen. nudges 

We launched a system where the AI bots can automatically detect intervention points. We need you to make a bunch of comments and new posts to see if they'll engage. So this week we're asking you to engage a bunch, if you can!

It's a little rudimentary at the moment so sometimes you'll get multiple bots responding on multiple posts. We'd love your feedback on which ones you like, don't, when it seemed to miss the spot, anything else you notice. 

Thanks and love yall

J (and the UpTrust team)
p.s. this week I'm at an investor meeting so dara will be with you

# [Optional Zoom](https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86795216050?pwd=TllxSzYrTFFXTW5LRmg3WUQrT04vdz09) with Jordan and Dara at least, for faces, questions, help, etc: