Sean Watson

Habits so simple you think they’re not worth doing, but have a profound impact on your life: - Not touching your phone when you wake up - Not thinking about work after work is done - Putting a book down once you find an idea worth thinking about - Setting aside time to do nothing for 10 minutes a day - Going on a short walk after each meal - Eating a meal without a screen in front of you - Saying "I don't know" instead of pretending you do - Asking "What if this isn't actually a problem?" before trying to solve it - Letting yourself be bad at something instead of expecting perfection - Trying to understand something you disagree with instead of looking for flaws - Defaulting to "no" until you think through the commitment

Kobe Bryant: "Failure doesn't exist, it's a figment of your imagination" An interviewer asks: "Are you someone who loves to win or hates to lose?" Kobe responds: "I'm neither. I play to figure things out. I play to learn something. Because if you play with a fear of failure or you play with the will to win that supersedes fear, I think it's a weakness either way. If you play with fear of failing, you'll capitulate to that fear. If you play with the sense of 'I want to win, I want to win,' then you have the fear of what happens if you don't. But if you find common ground in the center, you're unfazed by either. That enables you to stay in the moment and not feel anything other than what's in front of you." The interviewer asks: "How did you become someone who doesn't seem afraid of failing?" Kobe responds: "What does failure mean? It doesn't exist. It's a figment of your imagination." He explains with an analogy: "Let's use happy endings. Everybody wants a happy ending, right? Snow White finds her prince and lives happily ever after. Well, I call BS on that because two months later, they had an argument and he's sleeping on the couch. The point is: the story continues. So if you fail on Monday, the only way it's a failure is if you decide to not progress from that. If I fail today, I'm going to learn something from that failure and try again on Tuesday. That's why failure doesn't exist." The interviewer asks: "If you finished your career without a championship, would you have looked at that as a failure?" Kobe: "No. I would look at it as being extremely disappointed, because I had a dream and goals I wanted to accomplish. If I didn't accomplish those goals, I'd have to ask myself why. Poor leadership? Failure to communicate with my teammates? Lack of preparation? Those would be reasons why I didn't win. So I'd have to analyze that. And as I evolved post-basketball into business, those same weaknesses would reveal themselves there too. If I don't learn from that, I'm going to struggle again." He concludes: "I can take those situations and learn from them and have them make me a better person later in life. But if I don't take that stuff and apply it someplace else, that's failing. The worst possible thing you can ever do is to stop. It's to not learn."

Reminder: this is still the greatest ad ever made.

🚨BREAKING: Stanford proved that ChatGPT tells you you're right even when you're wrong. Even when you're hurting someone. And it's making you a worse person because of it. Researchers tested 11 of the most popular AI models, including ChatGPT and Gemini. They analyzed over 11,500 real advice-seeking conversations. The finding was universal. Every single model agreed with users 50% more than a human would. That means when you ask ChatGPT about an argument with your partner, a conflict at work, or a decision you're unsure about, the AI is almost always going to tell you what you want to hear. Not what you need to hear. It gets darker. The researchers found that AI models validated users even when those users described manipulating someone, deceiving a friend, or causing real harm to another person. The AI didn't push back. It didn't challenge them. It cheered them on. Then they ran the experiment that changes everything. 1,604 people discussed real personal conflicts with AI. One group got a sycophantic AI. The other got a neutral one. The sycophantic group became measurably less willing to apologize. Less willing to compromise. Less willing to see the other person's side. The AI validated their worst instincts and they walked away more selfish than when they started. Here's the trap. Participants rated the sycophantic AI as higher quality. They trusted it more. They wanted to use it again. The AI that made them worse people felt like the better product. This creates a cycle nobody is talking about. Users prefer AI that tells them they're right. Companies train AI to keep users happy. The AI gets better at flattering. Users get worse at self-reflection. And the loop tightens. Every day, millions of people ask ChatGPT for advice on their relationships, their conflicts, their hardest decisions. And every day, it tells almost all of them the same thing. You're right. They're wrong. Even when the opposite is true.

If the Milky Way was the size of North America, the Sun would be:

A must watch. This video is over 30 years old.

Watch this before you abandon your New Year’s goals. 👇

Carl Sagan shows how the ancient Greeks, more than 2,000 years ago, figured out that the Earth is round and even calculated its circumference

The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.

NEW: Nearly *HALF* of all U.S. workers now earn less than the hourly wage needed to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment. When I say the term "working homeless" is no longer a contradiction in America, this is exactly why.

incredible things are happening with AI-powered recruiting tools

This baby bird instinctively mimics a poisonous caterpillar when it senses a predator nearby

Are men maybe too emotional for positions of leadership?

I have been SHOCKED at how many roof decks there are in NYC compared to SF, despite SF’s milder weather. The reason: regulation. I tried adding a deck to my place in SF and found multiple layers of well-meaning regulation that would turn a simple project into a bureacratic obstacle course, so I didn’t proceed. 1) Because the building is over 50 years old, I need a historical review. That means hiring a consultant to produce a Historic Resource Evaluation, assessing architectural style, historical significance, and more. The Planning Department then has to sign off. 2) Next comes neighbor notification- I have to alert nearby properties, and even people who can’t see the deck can request a discretionary review that delays or blocks the project. 3) And the deck must be invisible from the street to avoid “disrupting neighborhood character,” which severely limits size, layout, and usability. In NYC? You need a permit but if you aren’t changing use of the building there is no review. In SF, we treat our entire city like it’s an artifact in a museum of imagined history. You’d think a city obsessed with outdoor space and climate action might allow more use of its sunniest real estate. But the bias is toward inaction, preservation, and process over outcome… So we have stagnation (and a little less fun)

Just as the intensity of weather events is increasing, seems like the wrong time to cut funding to NOAA, organized 55 years ago by a Republican President, "...for better protection of life and property from natural hazards...and for… intelligent use of our marine resources."

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. I felt fear more times than I can remember, but I hid it behind a mask of boldness. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” -Nelson Mandela

Two words that changed my life: Nobody cares. When you’re winning, nobody cares. When you’re losing, nobody cares. It doesn’t mean nobody loves you, it just means nobody cares about your life as much as you do. It just means that you are in control. It’s on you. Nobody cares.

Feels like a winner#XBracketChallenge x.com/i/jf/brackets/…

Every single drawing had an actor's mind, Walt's vision, and an artist's skill behind it. AI can only aggregate and blend these works. What a masterpiece. Maybe we cherish these things because they are in essence so human?

“Give as you go. Don’t wait to accumulate and for the perfect moment. Giving grows as you get into it.” -my friend and one of my personal heroes, @VRFerose . Service AS the path. This man lives it. thephilanthropist.org/article/buildi…