Why Aren't People Using RRSPs?

RRSP is a type of saving accounts available to Canadians with the ability to gain tax break or money back, for each dollars put in it. The catch here, is you need to give that tax break money back depending on how much money you're making when you take it - the idea here is that you should only take that money out once you retire and have little other sources of income.

While few people save, a lot less seems to be putting money towards their RRSPs and that's a shame considering how much money you can get back from doing so. Why isn't there more people putting money towards their RRSPs?

• They may not have enough money to put towards RRSPs.
• Some are afraid that they may need the money prior to retirement and not have enough money to pay the tax break back.
• There's a lack of understanding of what an RRSP is.
• They file their own taxes and are afraid that RRSP would make things more complicated and they would make mistakes.
• They may be putting their money towards other endeavors for their retirement.

Whatever the case may be, you should put forth some effort in understanding RRSP in order to take advantage of the benefits it may bring to you. The strategy a friend of mine like to use is take whatever tax break money he gets from RRSP and put it towards next year's RRSP contribution. 

The sooner you start the better it is.

You Future Self Will Thank You

(Image created by A.I. DALL-E)

While I don't believe it's possible to live a life of no regrets there are some good things that our future selves will thank our present self for doing. To me, those things are:

• Saving Money - In the moment, saving money for the future is annoying as it usually means that you need to sacrifice something today. This sacrifice, at least in my case, has been worth it for me so far as there's a sense of peace that comes with not living paycheck to paycheck.
• Books - I've been reading non-fiction since my early 20s with no regrets today other than perhaps I should of read more.
• Health - I spent most of my 20s, and early 30s, at gyms and eating decently and it's not something that I regret doing as I came to understand the relationship between physical and mental health.
• Writing - Writing is one of the few hobbies that I've committed to which allowed me to express myself more effectively.
• Work - I've had my ups and downs as far as work is concerned but sticking to it has proven beneficial to me. I've been with the same company for roughly 15 years and I don't currently have a reason to leave.
• Insurance - Buying Life/Critical/Disability insurance is something that most 25 years old would think is crazy but doing so early is cheaper in the long run.

When we're young, we don't picture ourselves being old which is why most of our decisions are for the current moment rather than our future but one day we will be old. Make decisions on where you think you'll be in 10/20 years - your future self will thank you.

"You can be young without money but you can't be old without it." 

-Tennesse Williams

Will A.I. Monopolize Online Traffic?

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While A.I. chatbots are impressive, they're more like an extension of a search engine than a legitimate intellect with ideas that you can converse with (at least for now). In its current form, it can create an output from your requests as long as it can find some answers for it in its dataset - namely the Internet. Perhaps the biggest difference between a chatbot and a regular search is that the chatbot tends to provide a more complete answer making the user less likely to go to the sources.

When asked about creating python code, it did so using an online website currently popular amongst python developers. 

Did this count as legitimate traffic for the owner of that python website?

If website owners are no longer getting legitimate traffic, and selling ads, how long will it take for them to shut down? If they shut down, wouldn't that make the A.I. less effective? 

Most of the discussion surrounding A.I. currently is about the various job losses that it can potentially cause but have those A.I. companies thought about a strategy to insure that the dataset they use can remain online?

The data is as critical, to Artificial Intelligence, as is the code used to interpret it. No dataset means no quality output!

My prediction...

I suspect that, in order to maintain a healthy dataset, A.I. companies will need to pay a small fee wherever they access content as not doing so would eventually kill said dataset making the A.I. less effective. It's a spiral that must be avoided if A.I. is to be viable longer term.

We Shouldn't Be Selling A.I. Generated Stories

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“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”

-Dr. Johnson.

Question: Why would you buy a book that's been entirely created using A.I. when you can create your own using the same tools?

According to reuters.com, there's been an influx of A.I. generated stories submitted to various platforms, such as blogs/Amazon/Magazines..., for money, ever since people found out about ChatGTP or similar A.I. tools. 

The A.I. revolution has just begun and suddenly everyone is an author. The problem with this is if everyone is an author then nobody is an author. If the tool creates the story then there's no need to buy the story - just ask the tool to create a version of it using the same formula.

How should we be using A.I. for our stories?

With A.I., writer's block is a thing of the past. If you're struggling with a chapter and need some inspiration then sure ask the A.I. but that's as far as it should go. If the A.I. creates the entire story then can you really consider yourself an author? How can you expect to live off of your craft if you're not even the master of your craft?

Because of A.I., legitimate authors will need to find new and ingenious ways to make their stories stand out since the old ways will be inundated by A.I. generated stories. 

Relationships Aren't What they Used to Be

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 According to TheConversation.com, the Greeks came up with the idea of soulmates stating "Aristophanes states that humans originally had four arms, four legs, and a single head made of two faces. He continues that there were three genders: man, woman and the “Androgynous”. Each with two sets of genitalia with the Androgynous having both male and female genitalia.” Zeus, apparently, separated the two halves and the term "Soulmates" is what you call the two halves that found each other.

Whether or not you believe in "Soulmates" doesn't change the fact that how we approach our relationships today isn't the same as it used to be. 

• Humans used to have a lifespan of 30 years making it easier to commit to a marriage as it wouldn't typically last as long.
• Marriage is a religious concept but today we marry without religion. Instead of making a marrital promise to God/Friends/Family we only make promises to Friends/Family and that promise inevitably carry less weight without God, or religious beliefs, attached to it.
• The economy has changed which, in turn, changed the roles of each individuals in the relationship. We haven't adapted properly to this change.
• The focus is no longer on each other. Too much work/entertainment/devices/dating apps/financial struggle that keeps the attention away from our spouse.
• We're more pleasure seeking than we used to be. We date because we're bored more so that to find a suitable mate. We are more likely to leave a relationship if we become bored within it.
• We expect the other person to make us happy but the responsibility is on us to find our own happiness. While the spouse should definitely want their partner's happiness, they can't be responsible for it in its entirety.
• Family life isn't as big of a priority as it used to be. Whether it be economics, global catastrophe, or other, there's a sense of hopelessness making us rethink how we approach relationships and whether or not we even want to bring a child into this world.
• Too much focus on how we look and not enough on how we think. Vanessa Quitero once said "Exterior beauty, without the depth of a kind soul is merely decoration."
• For men, the risk of marriage outweighs the rewards as he's more likely to be on the loosing end of a divorce.

Is being single worse than being in a relationship? 

That's a question that we all need to ask ourselves and the answer to it largely depends on who's willing to jump into the relationship adventure with us. If it's someone that understand that relationships requires work,, from both sides, then maybe there's a chance that it'll be successful. We also need to keep in mind that being single does carry it's own set of risks as well. Sometimes the decision is about choosing the lesser of 2 evils.