Top Researchers Write 100-Page Report Warning About AI Threat to Humanity

26 researchers from 14 organizations compiled a sweeping report on the dangers posed by malicious superhuman artificial intelligence.

When we think about artificial intelligence, we tend to think of the humanized representations of machine learning like Siri or Alexa, but the truth is that AI is all around us, mostly running as a background process. This slow creep of AI into everything from medicine to finance can be hard to appreciate if for no other reason than it looks a lot different than the AI dreamt up by Hollywood in films like Ex Machina or Her. In fact, most ‘artificial intelligence’ today is quite stupid when compared to a human—a machine learning algorithm might be able to wallop a human at a specific task, such as playing a game of Go, and still struggle at far more mundane tasks like telling a turtle apart from a gun.

Nevertheless, a group of 26 leading AI researchers met in Oxford last February to discuss how superhuman artificial intelligence may be deployed for malicious ends in the future. The result of this two-day conference was a sweeping 100-page reportpublished today that delves into the risks posed by AI in the wrong hands, and strategies for mitigating these risks.

One of the four high-level recommendations made by the working group was that “researchers and engineers in artificial intelligence should take the dual-use nature of their work seriously, allowing misuse-related considerations to influence research priorities and norms, and proactively reaching out to relevant actors when harmful applications are foreseeable.”

This recommendation is particularly relevant in light of the recent rise of “deepfakes,” a machine learning method mostly used to swap Hollywood actresses’ faces onto porn performers’ bodies. As first reported by Motherboard’s Sam Cole, these deep fakes were made possible by adapting an open source machine learning library called TensorFlow, originally developed by Google engineers. Deepfakes underscores the dual use nature of machine learning tools and also raises the question of who should have access to these tools.

Although deepfakes is specifically mentioned in the report, the researchers also highlight the use of similar techniques to manipulate videos of world leaders as a threat to political security, one of the three threat domains considered by the researchers. One need only imagine a fake video of Trump declaring war on North Korea surfacing in Pyongyang and the fallout that would result to understand what is at stake. Moreover, the researchers saw the use of AI to enable unprecedented levels of mass surveillance through data analysis and mass persuasion through targeted propaganda as other areas of political concern.

The other two areas considered to be major risks for malicious AI are digital and physical security. In terms of digital security, the use of AI to carry out cyberattacks will “alleviate the existing tradeoff between the scale and efficiency of the attacks.” This might take the form of AI performing labor intensive cyberattacks like phishing at scale, or more sophisticated forms of attacks such as using speech synthesis to impersonate a victim.

In terms of physical AI threats, the researchers looked at the increasing reliance of the physical world on automated systems. As more smart homes and self-driving cars come online, AI could be used to subvert these systems and cause catastrophic damage. Then there’s the threat of purposefully made malicious AI systems, such as autonomous weapons or micro-drone swarms.

Some of these scenarios, like plagues of autonomous microdrones, seem pretty far off, while others, such as large scale cyberattacks, autonomous weapons, and video manipulation are already causing problems. In order to combat these threats, and ensure that AI is used to the benefit of humanity, the researchers recommend developing new policy solutions and exploring different “openness models” to mitigate the risks of AI. For example, the researchers suggest that central access licensing models could ensure that AI technologies don’t fall into the wrong hands, or instituting some sort of monitoring program to keep tabs on the use of AI resources.

Visit

Simply Shredded

 Relax, this doesn't happen often.

Visit

Private Prisons in the United States

Private prisons in the United States incarcerated 128,063 people in 2016, representing 8.5% of the total state and federal prison population. Since 2000, the number of people housed in private prisons has increased 47%.

States show significant variation in their use of private correctional facilities. For example, New Mexico incarcerates over 40% of its prison population in private facilities, while 23 states do not employ any for-profit prisons. Data compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and interviews with corrections officials find that in 2016, 27 states and the federal government incarcerated people in private facilities run by corporations  including GEO Group, Core Civic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America), and Management and Training Corporation.

According to BJS data, 19 of the states with private prison contracts incarcerate more than 500 people in for-profit prisons. Texas, the first state to adopt private prisons in 1985, incarcerated the largest number of people under state jurisdiction, 13,692.

Since 2000, the number of people in private prisons has increased 47%, compared to an overall rise in the prison population of 9%. In six states, the private prison population has more than doubled during this period. The federal prison system experienced a 120% increase in use of private prisons since 2000, reaching 34,159 people in private facilities in 2016. Among the immigrant detention population, 26,249 people – 73% of the detained population – were confined in privately run facilities in 2017. The private immigrant population grew 442% since 2002.

At the federal level, a 2016 Obama Administration policy shift to reduce reliance and ultimately phase out private prison contracts was reversed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in February 2017. The reversal took place despite significant declines in the federal prison population and a scathing report by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General that found federally contracted prisons had more safety and security incidents than public prisons. Currently, the federal Bureau of Prisons maintains the nation’s highest number of people managed under private prison custody. Changes in policy at the Department of Justice in 2017 that are likely to increase sentence length and expand prosecutions for drug and immigration offenses may contribute to the expansion of private facility contracting.

See complete graph at > https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/private-prisons-united-states/

5 Reasons We Play the Blame Game

• You left the stove on too long and now your meal is burned. 
• On your way out the door, your cat escaped outside, and now you will be late.
• While walking down the street, you slip on some fallen leaves.

When misfortunes like this occur to you, what’s your first thought? Do you immediately figure out who was at fault, other than you? Or you do resign yourself to accepting responsibility for such common mishaps that were under your control?

Not everyone is equally likely to engage in the blame game, but there is little scientific research to advise us on who is most likely to do so. We can, however, define a dimension of blame-acceptance by adopting a few simple principles: On the extreme Blame side of our scale would be people who can alwaysfind something else to blame: You could attribute the burned meal to your partner, who doesn’t help enough around the house, forcing you to multitask and forget the chicken simmering in the pan. You do not blame your cat for its misbehavior, but you might blame your neighbor who waved hello at just the wrong time. Slipping on the sidewalk as a result of your clumsiness? Of course not; people should sweep the leaves up off the ground before they become a hazard.

At the other end of the spectrum are people who blame themselves for everything, even when they’ve had nothing to do with an unfortunate outcome. This isn’t just false modesty or fishing for reassurance; some people do believe that they cause every bad thing all or most of the time.

It’s also possible, of course, to blame fate or a higher power, especially when there’s no one else who could conceivably have caused the outcome. You certainly wouldn’t be able to blame your partner, or yourself, for the devastating effect of a tree crashing through your roof in a storm (although maybe you'd blame your partner for not getting the tree cut down). Religiouspeople often attribute such events to a higher power who is either testing their faith or punishing them for their weaknesses.

Related to the study of blame is the social psychology of attributions. Blaming yourself when something goes wrong might relate to a general tendency to make so-called internal attributions for failure in which you see yourself as inept, foolish, or irresponsible. That tendency might motivate you to attribute your successes to external factors, such as fate, chance or luck, as well. 

And there’s always the fundamental attribution error: People excuse themselves for the same negative behavior that they blame others for doing. 

Another related area of research involves deciding whether someone who commits an immoral act is to blame. Consider what happens if two people each throw a brick off a bridge at passing cars. One person’s brick lands harmlessly on the road, but the other person’s strikes the people in the car, resulting in a serious accident. Theoretically, the person whose brick didn’t injure anyone is just as culpable as the one that did—they both had the same malicious intent. Moral luck is the belief that you should hold someone to blame only if the action causes harms to others, not what the intent was. You would therefore blame the accident-causing brick thrower more than the other.

Not everyone is equally likely to engage in the blame game, but there is little scientific research to advise us on who is most likely to do so. We can, however, define a dimension of blame-acceptance by adopting a few simple principles: On the extreme Blame side of our scale would be people who can alwaysfind something else to blame: You could attribute the burned meal to your partner, who doesn’t help enough around the house, forcing you to multitask and forget the chicken simmering in the pan. You do not blame your cat for its misbehavior, but you might blame your neighbor who waved hello at just the wrong time. Slipping on the sidewalk as a result of your clumsiness? Of course not; people should sweep the leaves up off the ground before they become a hazard.

At the other end of the spectrum are people who blame themselves for everything, even when they’ve had nothing to do with an unfortunate outcome. This isn’t just false modesty or fishing for reassurance; some people do believe that they cause every bad thing all or most of the time.

It’s also possible, of course, to blame fate or a higher power, especially when there’s no one else who could conceivably have caused the outcome. You certainly wouldn’t be able to blame your partner, or yourself, for the devastating effect of a tree crashing through your roof in a storm (although maybe you'd blame your partner for not getting the tree cut down). Religiouspeople often attribute such events to a higher power who is either testing their faith or punishing them for their weaknesses.

Related to the study of blame is the social psychology of attributions. Blaming yourself when something goes wrong might relate to a general tendency to make so-called internal attributions for failure in which you see yourself as inept, foolish, or irresponsible. That tendency might motivate you to attribute your successes to external factors, such as fate, chance or luck, as well. 

And there’s always the fundamental attribution error: People excuse themselves for the same negative behavior that they blame others for doing. 

Another related area of research involves deciding whether someone who commits an immoral act is to blame. Consider what happens if two people each throw a brick off a bridge at passing cars. One person’s brick lands harmlessly on the road, but the other person’s strikes the people in the car, resulting in a serious accident. Theoretically, the person whose brick didn’t injure anyone is just as culpable as the one that did—they both had the same malicious intent. Moral luck is the belief that you should hold someone to blame only if the action causes harms to others, not what the intent was. You would therefore blame the accident-causing brick thrower more than the other.

Unhappy people watch TV, happy people read/socialize, says study

A new study by sociologists at the University of Maryland concludes that unhappy people watch more TV, while people who describe themselves as very happy spend more time reading and socializing. The study appears in the December issue of the journal Social Indicators Research.

Analyzing 30-years worth of national data from time-use studies and a continuing series of social attitude surveys, the Maryland researchers report that spending time watching television may contribute to viewers' happiness in the moment, with less positive effects in the long run.

"TV doesn't really seem to satisfy people over the long haul the way that social involvement or reading a newspaper does," says University of Maryland sociologist John P. Robinson, the study co-author and a pioneer in time-use studies. "It's more passive and may provide escape - especially when the news is as depressing as the economy itself. The data suggest to us that the TV habit may offer short-run pleasure at the expense of long-term malaise."

TV VIEWING DURING A FINANCIAL CRISIS

Based on data from time use surveys, Robinson projects that TV viewing might increase significantly as the economy worsens in the next few months and years.

"Through good and bad economic times, our diary studies, have consistently found that work is the major activity correlate of higher TV viewing hours," Robinson says. "As people have progressively more time on their hands, viewing hours increase."

But Robinson cautions that some of that extra time also might be spent sleeping. "As working and viewing hours increase, so do sleep hours," he says. "Sleep could be the second major beneficiary of job loss or reduced working hours."

STUDY FINDINGS AND DATA

In their new study, Robinson and his co-author, University of Maryland sociologist Steven Martin, set out to learn more about the activities that contributed to happiness in people's lives. They analyzed two sets of data spanning nearly 30 years (1975-2006) gathered from nearly 30,000 adults:

-- A series of time-use studies that asked people to fill out diaries for a 24-hour period and to indicate how pleasurable they found each activity;
-- General Social Survey attitude studies, which Robinson calls the national premier source for monitoring changes in public attitudes – in-depth surveys that over the years consistently asked subjects how happy they feel, how they spend their time among a number of other questions.

UNHAPPY PEOPLE VIEW SIGNIFICANTLY MORE

Robinson and Martin found that the two sets of data largely coincided for most activities – with the exception of television.

From the General Social Survey, the researchers found that self-described happy people were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read more newspapers. By contrast, unhappy people watched significantly more television in their spare time.

According to the study's findings, unhappy people watch an estimated 20 percent more television than very happy people, after taking into account their education, income, age and marital status – as well as other demographic predictors of both viewing and happiness.

UNHAPPY PEOPLE ARE HAPPY WITH TV

Data from time-diaries told a somewhat different story. Responding in "real time," much closer to daily events, survey respondents tended to rate television viewing more highly as a daily activity.

"What viewers seem to be saying is that 'While TV in general is a waste of time and not particularly enjoyable, the shows I saw tonight were pretty good,' " Robinson says.

The data also suggested to Robinson and Martin that TV viewing was "easy." Viewers don't have to go anywhere, dress up, find company, plan ahead, expend energy, do any work or spend money in order to view. Combine these advantages with the immediate gratification offered by television, and you can understand why Americans spend more than half their free time as TV viewers, the researchers say.

Unhappy people were also more likely to feel they have unwanted extra time on their hands (51 percent) compared to very happy people (19 percent) and to feel rushed for time (35 percent vs. 23 percent). Having too much time and no clear way to fill it was the bigger burden of the two.

AN ADDICT'S FIX

Martin likens the short, temporary pleasure of television to addiction: "Addictive activities produce momentary pleasure but long-term misery and regret," he says. "People most vulnerable to addiction tend to be socially or personally disadvantaged. For this kind of person, TV can become a kind of opiate in a way. It's habitual, and tuning in can be an easy way of tuning out."

Source: University of Maryland

Wholly shit LOL > 10 Reasons Why Facebook is For Losers

 *I admit that I have a Facebook account and actually post material from this blog there. The bad part is that I only receive 1 or 2 visitors per month from Facebook and they're normally not from the states.

I am on Linked In and have over 200 contacts. 

On Stumbler, I have over 200 friends and add about 5 a day when I want to. 

I have  less than 50 - - contacts on Facebook. 

What's up with that and what does that have to do with Needing Money? 

Facebook has replaced MySpace as the hottest social network in the universe. Nope, I don't have numbers to back that statement up, but I think it is true. 

A friend came over for dinner a few weeks ago and he told me 1% of all people on earth have a facebook account. I wonder if some of those people in countries outside of the United States even know what a "facebook" is? 

Anyway, some people who do internet marketing swear by Facebook. They claim they can make all kinds of money somehow or another using Facebook. I read a long post from some guy who wrote all about using flyers and getting 5% click thru and a bunch of other things. Then he said that his money making only worked a few times before his account was deleted. Fun. 

Here is why Facebook is for LOSERS and it has nothing to do with making money. (I am just tired of hearing about Facebook and why it is soooo neat.).


1) Facebook specializes in bringing people together with their former classmates

I hated high school, so why would I be interested in seeing what "nobody I was ever friends" with is doing now? Most of the people on Facebook look like losers now, so what is the point? 

Further, I think I am still friends with one person from college. Again, why in the world would I want to dig around on Facebook and see what people from college, whom I was never friends with, are up to now?

And this is a very interesting fact : just check out your friends list and u will find so many people who were ur classmates and u were never friends with them when u were classmates but now they are in ur friends list just hanging on the wall without any interaction with u ? whats the use????

2) Facebook's interface sucks

Why? 

If I join MyBlogLog or LinkedIn, I can find all kinds of people and websites from the "get go". I don't have to join, I can just start searching. 

Go to Facebook.com. "Its Free, anyone can join". Nothing else to see. Yes, you can go to the Find Friends and search by a topic or even drill through names, but that's it. You can see a picture, but if you want to know anything else, you have to join. 

To compare, go to Linkedin. Go to the bottom of the page. Enter in a name and bingo, you have the full profile of the person you are looking for, even if you are not a member or logged in. 

3) The Wall

Who gives a rat's butt what you are doing today or this minute? People write the dumbest things like "I am using the bathroom" or "just changed the baby's diaper". 

Now think about it. What kind of person finishes an activity and quickly runs to their computer and puts a post on their Wall? L-O-S-E-R, that's who. 

4) Facebook is a time waster. 

A friend revealed to me today, she spends 1-2 hours A DAY on facebook. Some of it is spent looking up old friends (losers from high school). But most of her time is spent trying to sound more interesting than the other people on her friends list. 

So she makes up stuff to put on her wall like, "just finished reading Obamas book" or "Tutoring the baby in French while listening to Mozart". And she it not alone. I read lots of nonsense like this on people's walls like "working on my spiritual drumming", "finding my inner self", etc... 

Its all made up. Losers just post what ever they think their little group of friends will believe that day. 

Um, I think it would be a better waste of time to eat bon-bons and watch soap operas all day.

5) Everybody lies on Facebook

If you are divorced, you are "suddenly single!" 
If you are out of work, you are "starting your own business!". 
If you live at home, you are "homesick and visiting your parents!". 
If you are not married, you are "single and loving it!"

Everybody has a great life on Facebook. What a place for losers. 

6) Why would I want to network with my sister, co-workers or customers in the same place? 

Facebook is for everyone! Which means my family is on facebook along with one or two of my coworkers, someone from another company I really want to work for, a few of my customers, ten losers from my high school, a lady from church, the next door neighbor and the guy I play golf with. 

Do I really want all of those people to potentially know each other through me? Talk about the walls between your world coming down. 

That sounds like the beginning of a nuclear network meltdown. Divorce, shootings, home invasions, ughh. 

7) Facebook is full of middle aged people trying to hook up with that guy or girl from high school that for some reason, they think has frozen in time and still looks like they did when they were 17. 

Nothing screams loser like that. 

8) Facebook is the MySpace of 2010

Just wait. In a few months you will be getting friend requests from some girl named "Jazmin" and a guy name "Pimp-O-Dellic" neither of whom you know. 

Then there will be sparkly, bling a bling  wallpapers for Facebook. 

Finally, the last straw will be when ten people named Odinga from Nigeria want to friend you and tell you about the $10M you have in their bank that they need your help getting out of the country. 

9) Your Facebook membership serves only to make the owners rich with your self absorbed content. You get nothing for your work.
There is no revenue share for your content, your life, your posts. They put ads on your profile and bank the payback. You get nada, loser. 
There is no linkback, SEO benefit, no way to build something better and money making outside of Facebook. 
Nobody is going to hire someone from Facebook. "Hey check out my wall. I need a job, man".
Try LinkedIn, The Ladders, heck Monster. At least that is where employersmight look. 

10) 10 years from now, you will be embarrassed about all the stuff you put on Facebook. 

But because it is the internet, it will be there forever.. 

You can throw the diary away from grade school. 

You can burn your yearbooks. 

You can pretend you never dated that guy with the Camaro your junior year. 

Facebook lives forever. With all of your Wall posts, friends, everything. 

Now you understand why Facebook is for losers?

7 Ways To Accept And Celebrate Your Flaws, Because We All Have Them

We live in a world where "#flawless" is a trending hashtag and an adjective used to describe everything good in this world. But really, that kind of flaw-hate can be damaging because we all have weaknesses, and it's important to accept your flaws, whatever they might be.


Enter Emily-Anne Rigal, founder of the YouTube channel WeStopHate and major advocate for accepting and celebrating your flaws. In her new book FLAWD: How to Stop Hating on Yourself, Others, and the Things That Make You Who You Are, Rigal asks, "What if we could all be up-front and accepting of the things we don't like about ourselves? Well, we can. it's a matter of getting a handle on how we look at these things."

"Maybe you're in a really good space when it comes to flaws," writes Rigal. "If that's the case, you already know that accepting what you don't like about yourself sets you free." But if you're still struggling to come to terms with yourself and your personality and your flaws, FLAWD can guide you through the process of both accepting and even celebrating the very things about which you might be most ashamed or embarrassed.

As Hannah Montana would say, "Nobody's perfect," so here are 7 ways to accept and celebrate your flaws because, at the end of the day, we all have them.

We live in a world where "#flawless" is a trending hashtag and an adjective used to describe everything good in this world. But really, that kind of flaw-hate can be damaging because we all have weaknesses, and it's important to accept your flaws, whatever they might be.


Enter Emily-Anne Rigal, founder of the YouTube channel WeStopHate and major advocate for accepting and celebrating your flaws. In her new book FLAWD: How to Stop Hating on Yourself, Others, and the Things That Make You Who You Are, Rigal asks, "What if we could all be up-front and accepting of the things we don't like about ourselves? Well, we can. it's a matter of getting a handle on how we look at these things."

"Maybe you're in a really good space when it comes to flaws," writes Rigal. "If that's the case, you already know that accepting what you don't like about yourself sets you free." But if you're still struggling to come to terms with yourself and your personality and your flaws, FLAWD can guide you through the process of both accepting and even celebrating the very things about which you might be most ashamed or embarrassed.

As Hannah Montana would say, "Nobody's perfect," so here are 7 ways to accept and celebrate your flaws because, at the end of the day, we all have them.

Complete article > https://tinyurl.com/yap95gcu

The "Biblical" Fisherman's Net Reveals More

 One of the few things that I can agree with written in the Bible refers to a fisherman's net not being able to catch all fish.
 Now flip that and come to terms with the fisherman not being able to see all fish because they are outside the scope of his net > this is our mental emotional state.

 I post many things that are probably beyond your scope and that's ok. People do many things such as eating peanut butter and sardine sandwiches which is beyond "my" scope, I will never see or get it and that's ok too.

 One of the keys to a content life is no more than accepting what you can see and what you can't.

 Some people want to pay to go to the moon which is as crazy it gets "to me" but I also can fully grasp that I am not the center of the universe and accept their ambitions. Not my net, not my fish.

Fed Economist Explains Why Today’s Ultra-Low Unemployment Rate Is Misleading

The current stage of America’s economy is hard to define. While some economists claim we’ve moved past the post-recession period and entered another pre-recession time, others doubt the recovery is complete.

Per estimates by the Federal Open Market Committee, the economy is considered running at full-speed when the unemployment rate reaches 4.5 percent. However, despite the unemployment rate falling from the 2009 peak of 10 percent to 3.9 percent as of last month, an 18-year low, the average wage has barely grown accordingly. Neither has inflation.

Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (one of the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks), believes the culprit lies within the unemployment calculation itself.

“The headline U.S. unemployment rate captures only those who are actively looking for work. For example, it ignores people who are out of the labor force because they have given up looking for a job,” he wrote in an op-ed for the Financial Times on Wednesday.

The Great Recession pushed many working-age Americans out of the labor market. Although the economic recovery has brought some of these people back to the workforce, it’s unknown how many are still left behind.

According to recent months’ statistics from the Labor Department, the “marginally attached” group, defined as people who had not looked for jobs in the four weeks before the Labor Department’s monthly job survey, has been slowly rising.

“Backward-looking statistics show nearly a third of these marginally attached Americans are now aged over 55,” Andrew Hunter, co-founder of job search engine Adzuna, told Observer.

That means a lot of people have simply stopped looking for jobs.

“It could be that the 3.9 percent measure does not capture the true slack in the labor market and that additional, hidden slack explains today’s modest wage growth,” Kashkari explained.

A more reliable measure of workforce robustness, Kashkari suggested, is the employment-to-population ratio of prime age workers (aged 25 to 54).

“By focusing on prime-age adults, this measure of how many people are actually working helps adjust for demographic trends such as aging,” he added.

This ratio, as of today, is 79.2 percent, down from 80 percent in 2007. The difference represents one million people.

“That drop suggests that approximately one million additional prime-age Americans would be available to work if the U.S. labor market recovered to its pre-recession strength,” Kashkari wrote.

The prime-age labor participation has also been declining in recent years. Although in some sectors the decline of human labor has been a result of technological advancement, which is actually good news, to the broader economy, this is an alarming sign—particularly when this rate is rising in other developed countries.

According to the most recent data from the San Francisco Fed, prime-age labor participation rates in Germany, Canada and the U.K. all exceeded 85 percent as of 2015.

“Each of these countries is experiencing falling fertility rates and an aging population, just like the U.S.” Kashkari noted. “The truth is, we don’t know how much slack still remains in the U.S. labor market. But international labor markets offer a hopeful sign that many more Americans might choose to work if wages picked up.”

• SEE ALSO: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: Odds for the Next Recession Are 100 Percent

10 Habits Of Unsuccessful People You Don’t Want To Copy

by DARIUS FOROUX

Do you really think you’ll be successful if you simply copy other people’s habits? If that was the case, success was easy.

I never met a successful person until I was 24. I grew up in a working-class family—I was more frequently around people who were the opposite.

The first successful person I met was an entrepreneur in his forties. When I started my first real business, he was one of my first clients. When I met him, he was slightly overweight, had more money than he could count, and was merry all the time.

But he also lost his wife, the love his life, a half decade before. We became friends. He told me that he never got over it. Even though he experienced tragedy — he still had a positive outlook on life and did good things.

He truly cared about others. I have to be honest, my first business wasn’t great, but he still gave me a chance to do business with him.

He always said, “I just try to avoid being unsuccessful.” That is the number one thing I learned from him. He said that you should study what makes you unsuccessful, unhappy, broke, fat, stupid. Then, eliminate those things out of your life.

To this day, I still live by that advice. I like his concept of trying not to be unsuccessful. Because what is success? The second best definition that I’ve found comes from Bob Dylan, my favorite musician of all time.

“A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.”
– Bob Dylan
You’ve probably read articles that discuss the habits of successful people. The problem with those types of articles is that they give you conditional promises.

“Eat three eggs with bacon, wash your hair with soybeans, do ten push-ups, and do your daily affirmations, AT THE SAME TIME.”

We have to let go of the “if I do x, I’ll be successful or happy” way of thinking.

What follows is a list of things that we shouldn’t do. If you have one of these bad habits, don’t worry, no one’s perfect. If you have two bad habits, you should worry.

Do you have three or more? You might want to change — because one thing is sure: No one wants to be unsuccessful.

1. They Are Always Distracted
Essentialism by Greg McKeown is one of my favorite books. McKeown shares the story of when he met his former classmate, years after graduating.

He told McKeown that he was in between jobs and asked if McKeown could help him. Twenty seconds into the conversation the guy got a text and started looking down to his phone and started responding.

McKeown says: “Ten seconds went by. Then twenty. I simply stood there as he continued to text away furiously.” After 2 minutes he gave up and walked away from the obsessive texter.

Don’t live your life in the future or past, lost in thoughts and worry. If that guy from the example was present, he might have got an awesome job recommendation from Greg McKeown.

2. They Only Talk The Talk
You know what’s better than talking about something? Doing it.

In 2010, Derek Sivers gave a TED talk called Keep your goals to yourself, where he presented scientific evidence that talking about your goals is counterproductive.

We see it all the time in real life and on social media: “I’m training for a marathon.” “I’m starting a business.”

The crazy thing is how people react. They applaud you for announcing something. Let’s pause for a second: Saying you want to run a marathon and actually running a marathon are two different things, right?

In your brain, those things are actually not that far apart. Derek Sivers says:

“When you tell someone your goal and they acknowledge it, psychologists have found that it’s called a “social reality.” The mind is kind of tricked into feeling that it’s already done. And then because you’ve felt that satisfaction, you’re less motivated to do the actual hard work necessary.”
Be someone that does things, not someone who talks about things.

3. They Spend Time With Losers
Spend enough time with losers, and you’ll become one. Apply this analogy to any type of person.

Do you want to get fit? Hang out with fit people. People feed off each other’s energy.

What’s better, your friend asking when you’re going to the gym, or your friend asking to go out for the third time that week?

4. They Hate Everything
They especially hate people that are doing well. Why can’t you be happy for other people? Don’t worry, you won’t be a Pollyanna. You can still be cool and be positive.

Give people some love, it won’t kill you. They even hate things that just ‘are’. “Ugh, it rained this morning, and my hair got all messed up. I hate rain.” C’mon, really?

Having a bad day is ok—everyone get’s irritable once in a while. But if you always hate everything, you’ll have a bad life.

5. They Procrastinate
What’s the benefit of putting things off? I once asked my college professor to extend a deadline for an essay.

He said: “I’m perfectly happy to extend your deadline by a week. The only thing I’m asking you is, ‘will your essay be better if you hand it in a week from now?’ ”

My answer was “no”, so I worked my ass off to finish it on time. Only delay things when you’ll do a better job later.

What’s the point of delaying something if you get the same outcome? Do it now, or do it better later.

6. They Don’t Listen To Others
Unsuccessful people only love themselves. To be honest, we all love ourselves, but if you’re unsuccessful, you ONLY love yourself.

We listen to others because we care about them. How else can you show you care? Everyone can give a hug, but not everybody calls you just to ask “How are you?” Ask, listen, care, repeat.

7. They Are Lazy
Never feel like doing anything? We’ve all been there: Not feeling like going to dinner with your partner, or not feeling like buying an awesome present for your mother’s birthday. Let’s face it, it’s all because we’re lazy.

Be a sport and get off your couch — participate with your family, friends, partner. The beauty of life lies in new and novel experiences.

When you’re lazy, you don’t even give yourself a chance to experience new things. It’s also not fair to the people in your life.

8. They Don’t Learn
Learning is one of the most difficult things in the world. It’s not a surprise that many people never read a book, never finish school, or never learn from their mistakes. Learning is a struggle.

But think about it: We live in the most exciting time in history for learners. The access to information has never been this easy. In the past, if your dad was a farmer, you became a farmer. Things were like that.

Now, you can be anything you wish — you just need to learn how to do it.

9. They Are Not Nice
Somehow, people think it’s cool to be a jerk. Honestly, it’s way cooler to be nice. You don’t have to be a Buddhist Monk or anything, just be a nice person.

Try it some time, you might make a few new friends. And if you have difficulty defining what a ‘nice person’ is, you’re likely a jerk.

10. They Are Quitters
I saved the worst for last. If there’s one thing you take away from this article, I hope it’s this:

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” — Thomas A. Edison
There’s nothing I can add to that. Actually, there is: Never Give Up.

This article was originally published on dariusforoux.com.

Do you want to get my best productivity tips for free?
I’ve made an eBook with 5 tips, exercises, and video training, that you can use to get immediate results. Curious?

Linked > https://tinyurl.com/yd23byzr

No words necessary