We’re smoking. It’s just not that weed.

So. Was this another ad?

The thing that cracked it open for me was Dale Carnegie "How to Make Friends and Influence People". It is very old fashioned but the core message is evergreen. People aren't interested in you. They are interested in themselves. The more you are interested in them the more interested they will be in you. They will eventually want to know what's on your mind but only because it's a mind that shares interest.

This sounds kind of manipulative because we are only doing it for attention. But the thing is people can smell that from a mile away. You actually have to BE interested and remember the things. You can't just pretend to listen or you will get the opposite effect.

I love reading about the use of AI in politics over the past decade. One thing I noticed is that once a person runs a successful campaign they either quit and devote their life to undoing the damage they did or… They say things like “takes a strong stomach” and devote their lives to causing riots and civil wars for massive profit.