Category Archives: Deep Thoughts

I think…therefore I’m dangerous.

More Thoughts on Claude’s AI Summary of a Video Transcript

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An update to my October 13, 2025 blog post about the Claude AI system summarizing the transcript of a video I really liked.

I’ve been thinking about the 30 Habits video I shared earlier this month a lot. Maybe too much.

First of all, I really do like the 30 “habits” listed in the video. Maybe not all of them, but most of them. I really think they are good things to make part of your life. (If you haven’t watched the video and are looking for little things to make your life better, please take less than 20 minutes of your day and watch it.)

I decided that in order to make them part of my life I needed to be reminded of them. The idea was to make myself a little cheat sheet that I could put in my daily planner and look at once in a while. No one can expect me (or anyone else) to remember all 30 things on the list.

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Is Certification Really Much More than a Money Grab?

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I share my less than satisfactory experiences becoming a certified powerboat handling instructor.

I got my OUPV or “six pack” Captains License from the USCG back in 2023. It required me to take a 7-day class, pass four tests, and document 360 days under way on the water. (A day, in case you’re wondering, is at least 4 hours; two 3-hour days does not equal one day and one 9-hour day does not equal two days.)

I think the experience requirement is excellent, although 360 days is quite a bit of time. If you’ve spent 360 days under way on a boat and have been given any responsibilities other than tossing lines to someone on a dock, you probably have what it takes to captain a boat. Or at least that’s the logic behind the requirement.

As a USCG-licensed boat captain, I can do two things that someone without the license can’t legally do:

  • I can take up to 6 paying passengers on my boat, thus earning a little income should I decide I want to offer fishing charters or tours.
  • I can provide boat training to paying students.

In other words, I can use my skills, knowledge, and boat to make a little money. My fourth career? (Or fifth? I’m loosing count.) Maybe.

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A Short Self-Improvement Video, an AI Summary of It, and What I Think about Both

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I’m impressed by a 15-minute you tube video and surprised by how the Claude AI/LLM summarized it.

I’ll try to keep this short. Let’s see how I do.

As some people know, I often watch boring YouTube videos on my iPad in the middle of the night to help me sleep. The other morning — probably too late to get back to sleep anyway — this one was suggested to me. I tapped it and was soon pulled in by the concise way the creator presented 30 excellent tips in about 15 minutes.

If you’ve got 15 minutes to spare and think your life could use some improvement, I highly recommend watching this. (If you don’t think your life can use some improvement, you’re only fooling yourself; we can all improve.)

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Follow Your Dreams

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A blog post I felt I needed to write that is mostly already written for me.

Lately, my brain has been stewing over the situation faced by an acquaintance. Without going into too much detail or identifying him, I’ll just say a few things to set the backstory for this post.

My acquaintance — I’ll call him Joe — is recently retired in his early 60s. He’s married and his wife still works, but she is set to retire in spring. They’re financially secure, living in a nice home in a nice neighborhood. They have friends and family and are involved in a community organization they like.

Joe has some rather serious health issues and they are definitely slowing him down. But he also has a personal goal that means a lot to him. He started taking steps to achieve that goal, despite a total lack of support by his wife and family — in fact, they actively oppose him. In a way, I was part of the steps he took, providing assistance and training to the best of my ability in the circumstances. But when I recently followed up with him, he indicated that he was going to give up on this dream.

And that’s what I’m stewing over.

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Battling Irrational Beliefs

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Some comments related to an excellent blog post about the ABC model of Rational-Emotive Therapy and being a writer.

One of the blogs I’ve included in my RSS feed reader is called Writer Unboxed. It presents anywhere from 5 to 10 blog posts related to writing each week. Some are extremely specific, such as a recent post about including blurbs with published books. Others are more general, such as the one I’m touching upon today, which discusses psychology.

If you’re serious about writing, whether for yourself or for publication and (hopefully) profit, this is a great blog to follow. I won’t say that I read every post in detail, because I don’t. But I find that many of the ones I do read give me lots of food for thought. I usually share my thoughts in a comment on the blog post — that’s why I really like blogs that allow commenting — but sometimes those comments will trigger a blog post here. That’s what happened today.

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