@DalillaNimpaga1@EtienneMitik Hi Dalilla. Iâve followed your work for a long time, and Iâm so sorry youâre carrying so much weight right now. You don't have to go through this alone, and thereâs no pressure to be strong for anyone. So many of us are quietly rooting for you today. đ«
I love Plato's allegory of the cave, because he's so clearly searching for television as an example, but it won't be invented for thousands of years, so he has to basically invent the concept of a projector (light source + shadow puppets) just for his hypothetical to work.
@MattBraynard I once missed a flight because airport staff decided the COVID test report on my phone wasnât acceptable, I needed a printed copy. They then kindly offered to print it for me. The printing process took 3 hours. The flight did not wait
Search is full of ads and wrong answers. Every other email is an ad. Prime Video charges you and shows ads. Paramount? Ads. Peacock? YouTube? Hulu? Ads followed by more ads. Netflix full of ads. Meta and X, every other thing is an ad. Pinterest is nothing but ads. AI is in everything. AI finishes sentences incorrectly and wonât stop. AI reads your email and search history to target you with more ads. Every time you open an app or visit a site thereâs an update making it worse. In a hurry? First, click here to agree to terms you donât have time to read and must accept. You need an account to do that. Change your temporary password. Enter your 2FA code. Check your email and enter that code. Now use a passkey. Your password is too simple to remember. Change it. No, not like that. Now log on. Enter your 2FA code. Check your email for a code⊠Welcome back! Weâve updated our terms of service and privacy policy (you have none). Subscribe to the site. Subscribe to Netflix. Subscribe to toilet paper. Subscribe to these groceries. Pay a membership fee for the right to subscribe then tip your driver who delivers the subscriptions your membership lets you subscribe to. Time to work? Weïżœïżœve got to update your laptop and will slow down everything you do until you agree to update. But first, click here to agree. Update installed â your laptopâs broken now. It doesnât matter, since your boss just replaced you with AI. Go to your phone to complain on social media. Wait, your phone needs an update so we can add more AI. Click here. Oh sorry, your phone canât handle this update. Now itâs useless. Go get the newest phone. Hereâs a text from a friend, an email, a voice mail they left three days ago but you didnât see until now because of sync problems with the cloud. Itâs their GoFundMe. Their MLM. Their Patreon. Never mind, you didnât respond to their text within 9 minutes and now youâre no longer friends. They blocked you. Make new friends. Download this app to find people in your area. In your neighborhood. On your street. Two doors down from you. Do you know this person yet, we think youâd get along. You need an account to use this app. That username is taken. Enter a password. Not that one, you used it on another site. You need to be connected to WiFi to download the app. Allow the app to connect to other devices on your network. Allow the app to access your contacts, know your precise location, store your credit card details. Oops, sorry, we got hacked now all that info is available on the web. Thereâs a class action suit. You can join. Itâll take a decade to get your $3.73 share of the ten billion settlement. Weâll send it via PayPal or deposit it to your bank, just tell us those details. Oh no, another hack. That info is circulating now, too. Hereâs a spam call, a spam email, a spam text. Why are you angry? Why are you talking about getting rid of your phone? Why donât you like AI, it lets us make all of this easier? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? This is progress. Youâll be left behind. Do you want to be left behind? Do you???
Right now youâre largely experiencing the economy from a time when the Strait of Hormuz was open, because it takes many weeks for oil tankers to traverse the seas. You still experience the Strait as open, even though itâs been closed for weeks. But once that reality hitsâŠ
Happy 50th Birthday to a legend. As Tupac would say himself 'People die but legends live forever' #Tupac
'Cause any day they'll push the button
And all come in like Malcolm X or Bobby Hutton' #WestSide
There's a physicist at Stanford named Safi Bahcall who modeled this exact principle and the math is wild.
He calls it "phase transitions in human networks." When you're stationary, your probability of a lucky event is limited to your existing surface area: the people you already know, the places you already go, the ideas you've already been exposed to. Your opportunity window is fixed.
When you move, your collision rate with new nodes in a network increases nonlinearly. Double your movement (new conversations, new cities, new projects) and your probability of a serendipitous encounter doesn't double. It roughly quadruples. Because each new node connects you to their entire network, not just to them.
Richard Wiseman ran a 10-year study at the University of Hertfordshire tracking self-described "lucky" and "unlucky" people. The single biggest differentiator wasn't IQ, education, or family money. Lucky people scored significantly higher on one trait: openness to experience. They talked to strangers more, varied their routines more, and said yes to invitations at nearly twice the rate.
The "unlucky" group followed the same routes, ate at the same restaurants, and talked to the same 5 people. Their networks were closed loops. No new inputs, no new collisions.
Luck isn't random. Luck is surface area. And surface area is a function of movement.
The lobster emoji is doing more work than most people realize. Lobsters grow by shedding their shell when it gets too tight. The growth requires a period of total vulnerability. No protection, no armor, soft body exposed to the ocean.
That's the cost of movement nobody posts about. You have to be uncomfortable first. The new shell only hardens after you've already moved.
I worked 20 years for a child sex trafficking rescue group. I want you to know this:
90% of Lost Children Are Found Within 30 Minutes.
That statistic should both comfort you and wake you up.
Most lost children are found quickly. But the ones who arenât? They usually made one mistake.
And hereâs the uncomfortable truth:
Itâs often the exact thing most parents teach them.
We tell our kids:
âIf you get lost, come find me.â
It sounds logical. It sounds empowering.
Itâs WRONG!
The Mistake Most Lost Children Make:
When children realize theyâre separated, they do three things almost automatically:
They panic.
They wander.
They try to find you.
Every step makes them harder to locate.
From a search standpoint, movement creates chaos.
Parents retrace their steps.
Security scans zones.
Staff lock down areas.
Search works best when movement stops.
When a child keeps walking, they move outside the original search radius. Helpers are looking where they were last seen â not where theyâve wandered.
Stillness increases probability.
Movement expands the problem.
The first lesson is not âgo find me.â
Itâs this:
Stop. Stay. Yell.
Why Stillness Wins:
Think like a search team.
If a child stays put:
Parents can retrace steps.
Security can scan systematically.
Helpers converge to one fixed location.
The search radius remains small.
If a child keeps moving:
The search area expands.
Adults pass each other.
Missed connections multiply.
Minutes stretch into hours.
Stillness keeps the math on your side.
Teach Them Who to Approach:
The second mistake we make as parents?
We say, âFind an adult.â
Not any adult. Not the nearest stranger. Children need a filter.
Teach them to look for, if at all possible:
A mother with children.
Caregivers who already have kids with them are statistically among the safest people to approach in public settings. They are visible, stationary, and more likely to engage quickly.
Itâs a clear, concrete instruction.
Children donât process vague categories like âsafe adult.â
They process visuals.
âFind a mom with kidsâ is visual.
A Phone Only Helps If the Number Is Known:
We often assume phones solve everything.
They donât â unless your child can use one. Even young children can memorize a 10-digit phone number with repetition.
But you must train it.
Practice it like a song.
Sing it in the car.
Chant it at bedtime.
Turn it into rhythm.
Repetition becomes recall.
In an emergency, recall matters more than theory.
The Code Word Rule:
One more layer of protection.
Choose a private family code word.
Something only your household knows.
If someone approaches and says:
âYour mom sent me.â
Your child asks:
âWhatâs the code word?â
No word.
No go.
This simple rule eliminates manipulation attempts instantly.
It gives your child agency without requiring them to evaluate character.
Real Safety Is Training â Not Luck!
We donât get safer by hoping.
We get safer by practicing.
Teach:
âą Phone number
âą Code word
âą Stop, stay, yell
âą Find a mom with kids
Multiple skills.
Simple instructions.
Clear visuals.
Five minutes of training can replace hours of panic. This isnât about fear. Itâs about preparation.
Because when a child gets separated, the clock starts.
And what they do in the first minute determines what the next thirty look like.
Thatâs real protection.