I’m pretty sure he was kidding about the elves. In the article he says:

“I work for three hours, and then I get stumped, and I’m not making progress. So I quit, and I go and work in the tunnel. It takes me an hour or so to dig four inches and put in the 4-by-4s. … Then I go back up and work some more.”

It’s a common technique when dealing with a difficult research/creative problem.

• gain a good understanding of the problem (even if you’re stuck on how to solve it)
• go do something unrelated work (preferrably physical, like gardening or housework or… working on your basement apparently.)

I think it gives your subconscious a chance to work on the problem without your conscious mind interfering.

Yeah I was a little surprised, but… there’s been talk of a reboot by JJ Abrams.

I can’t just assume everyone is just giving up

But if people really are just giving up, we need to recognize it.

I think a lot of people are unhappy but don’t know what to do. Just going to a general protest doesn’t seem like enough. And there’s no obvious leader to the opposition.

This is the stage of the conflict where we try to minimize the damage until the next election. That’s not a very motivating message, but that’s where we are. I suggest you pick an organization and do what you can with them. There are others, but personally I picked Indivisible:

• https://indivisible.org/resource/guide
• https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/