March 2, 2025
Here is the best thing I heard (What?), saw (Eye.), and read (Read.) this week, as well as the best idea (π‘) I developed.
What?
On Fire with Jeff Probst: The Official Survivor Podcast | S5 E1 | You’ve Been Marooned | Survivor 48:
- “For tonight’s episode, I want to do something extra special. You may have seen that this past Saturday night, Jeff made a special announcement at the Survivor Premiere Party about what’s to come on season 50. Well, I thought instead of fan questions for tonight, I would play you the audio from that panel so you can hear from Jeff’s mouth exactly what’s to come on Survivor 50.”
- If you’re excited for Survivor season 50 like I am, then you’ll enjoy this podcast episode starting at the 42:50 mark of the episode. That being said, based on episode 1 of Survivor season 48 which I watched this week, I’m excited for this season as well!
Eye.
An Artificial Intelligence Formula for Eternal Happiness | Sunday, February 23, 2025, Sacrament Meeting:
- A member of my ward asked an artificial intelligence (AI) bot (he thinks it was either chatGPT or LDSBot) to provide a formula for eternal happiness based on teachings from the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here is the formula:
- “Here’s a formula for eternal happiness based on those teachings:
“H = (F + P + G + S + R) Γ C
“Where:
β’ H = Happiness
β’ F = Faith in Jesus Christ and His plan
β’ P = Purpose (setting and striving for righteous goals)
β’ G = Gratitude (choosing to recognize blessings)
β’ S = Service to others
β’ R = Repentance and reliance on grace
β’ C = Covenants (baptism, temple, sacrament, etc.), which amplify everything
“Explanation:
β’ Faith gives hope and trust in God’s plan, making trials easier to bear.
β’ Purpose keeps life meaningful and forward-moving.
β’ Gratitude changes perspective, bringing contentment.
β’ Service takes the focus off self, bringing joy.
β’ Repentance removes guilt and keeps the soul light.
β’ Covenants provide divine power and direction, multiplying the effects of everything else.”
- “Here’s a formula for eternal happiness based on those teachings:
- As an added bonus, I heard about another equation in the followHim Podcast this week:
- followHim Podcast β Doctrine & Covenants 18 – Dr. Steven Harper: “In our family, we’ve started using an equation … [me] plus Christ equals infinity.
“I like to think of the plus sign in that equation as the covenant, the covenant of baptism, the New and Everlasting Covenant. Just as soon as I make that covenant, or just as soon as I add myself to Christ, I get all of Christ. I get His infinite grace, His infinite power. I may be a massive deficit. Let’s say I’m negative half a billion. Steve equals negative half a billion plus Jesus Christ’s infinite atonement equals infinity. …
“Not bad, huh? But what if I was really bad and I was negative one billion, or two billion, or one hundred billion? How does it come out then? No difference. Isn’t that something? That’s the New and Everlasting Covenant in the equation. That’s really what section 18 is teaching us. It’s that truth.”
- followHim Podcast β Doctrine & Covenants 18 – Dr. Steven Harper: “In our family, we’ve started using an equation … [me] plus Christ equals infinity.
Read.
“SEC Football: How a Regional League Became a National Obsession” | Colby Newton:
- “[Nick] Saban blew the LSU contingent away with his preparation for the meeting and vision for the program. ‘He had done extraordinary research and given really deep thought to what was possible at LSU,’ [Mark] Emmert [LSU chancellor] described. β¦ ‘Nick recognized that Louisiana led the nation in NFL players per capita, and he had a plan to win a championship.’
“Even before the meeting concluded, the LSU administrators identified Saban as the man who could bring championships to Baton Rouge. They offered him the job on the spot, with a total compensation package of $1.2 million. The contract would make Saban the third-highest-paid coach in the country. β¦ Saban accepted the position, and in the process, LSU let everyone in the SEC and beyond know that they were serious about becoming one of the premier programs in the country. β¦
“Saban embraced the challenge ahead of him, telling the media, ‘I think that we should always be in the Top 25. And I certainly think that we want to win our conference and play in the championship game. And if you do that, you’re very close to being one of the top teams in the country.'”- No matter our profession, there is something to be said for being prepared. Nick Saban went on to win one national championship as head coach at Louisiana State University (LSU) and six national championships as head coach at Alabama. What can each of us do today to become a bit more prepared – financially, intellectually, physically, professionally, socially, and spiritually? We can’t control when life will present us with our big breaksβ¦ But we can control how prepared we will be for those big breaks.
π‘
I had the idea to go to Stockton 12 Honda this week to test drive a white 2022 Honda CR-V. I never test drove that car, however, because I found a white 2021 Honda CR-V that I ended up buying!
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