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On The Bus — Gail’s Coffee. What’s essential? The government or… | (Marcus and Boone are walking to the bus together. Kristin sees them.)
Kristin: HEY — wait for me!
(Marcus and Boone both turn. They see her and wait for her. They start walking together.)
Kristin: Thanks for waiting.
(They keep walking for a bit. Then Boone stops. Looks at a store that has a sign on the door indicating that is closed.)
Boone: Holy shit. When did this happen?
Marcus: Oh my -
Kristin: Fuckety, Fuck.
Marcus: I couldn’t have said it better. When did they close? I think I came down this street last week and it was still open.
Kristin: I had coffee here just a couple days ago. Closed? How?
Marcus: You know what I hate most? (He slaps his hand against the door). This damn “Closed due to Covid.”
Boone: I used to go here all the time. Look how small it is. They couldn’t have more than three people in the store so I just stopped going in.
Marcus: Three people? Where I work there are three people in the bathroom at any time. They ain’t closed us down yet.
Kristin: I can’t believe this place closed. They had the best latte. She made a raspberry scone that was unbelievable. What is Gail going to do now?
Marcus: Gail?
Kristin: She owned the place. She used every bit of her savings to open. She had to borrow from her parents to keep the doors open. It was her dream.
Boone: It’s her nightmare now.
Kristin: Can we ever forgive ourselves for letting this happen?
Marcus: We didn’t do nothin’. It’s this damn Rona. I know it kills people but it has destroyed people’s dreams. Look at this block. Every other store is dark.
Boone: Maybe they should turn the lights on? Look. (He points down to a row of chain stores). They seem to work down at CVS.
Kristin: You are just a damn fool. You think anyone listened to Gail? Or that restaurant over there? Is the food they make not essential?
Marcus: Essential. The box store is essential and open. The government offices are closed. Can’t get through to unemployment. Not essential. You can still get a $500 pair of shoes shipped to you. Essential.
Kristin: Shit.
Boone: Now what? Your favorite makeup store closed?
Marcus: No, dumb ass. We missed the bus.
Boone: We didn’t miss it. There’s always another bus.
Kristin: There’s not always another Gail’s raspberry scone.
Boone: There’s a 100 at the grocery store. I’ll buy you one.
Marcus: You just don’t get it, do you?
Boone: I do. My Dad owned a business. He lost it to Amazon. To eBay. To all the places that would let you buy something without sales tax. Remember those days? He lost it to your employer, Marcus. Amazon. That “savior” of small businesses everywhere. Fuckers.
Marcus: It’s just a place I work. I gotta pay the bills.
Boone: It’s not your fault. I know that.
Kristin: How do we forgive ourselves? How many times do we hear to just contribute the cost of a cup of coffee. All this shop needed was a cup of her coffee bought.
Marcus: We did it again.
Kristin: What now?
Boone: We missed the bus.
(They all start walking to the bus stop.)
Marcus: Two busses in a row. Unbelievable. We’ll probably have to wait an hour now.
Kristin: I hope she is OK.
Boone: Well, we probably got some time till the next bus. I’ll buy you a scone.
Marcus: Marcus. There is always room for one more on the bus to Dumb Ass station.
(They continue walking to the bus stop.) | https://medium.com/@bobdumont/on-the-bus-gails-coffee-ccd2374f30d6 | ['Bob Dumont'] | 2020-12-24 15:16:57.140000+00:00 | ['Dialogue', 'Stage', 'One Act Play', 'Screenwriting', 'Film'] |
PROBLEM: Waste management in Hayatabad township Peshawar | Today I am going to share an experience regarding “problem-solving through design thinking”. I was taking this online course about problem-solving through design thinking and I had to submit my project work by identifying a problem. I live in Hayatabad Peshawar and it's under the control of “Peshawar development authority” (PDA), I always thought about the waste management problem in Peshawar but as Hayatabad Peshawar is a township and waste management seemed flawless here because PDA has Municipal solid waste management which takes care of solid waste and collects waste from door-to-door in the pretty much-organized way. So I thought, waste is not a problem here after all.
During the course, I came to know the steps behind problem-solving through design thinking and it involved observing a problem, identifying and acknowledging it. At this point, I thought about this waste problem with more observation and asked a question from myself, “what do they do with the waste they collect? To find the answer I started to research about it and came to know that they dump all this solid waste in a dumping facility at phase-7 Hayatabad. According to the case study “Municipal Solid Waste Management Crises in the Developing Countries: A Case Study of Peshawar City”, around 90 tons of MSW is dumped in this facility on a daily basis.
Now that seems to be an alarming problem for me. I will state this as a major problem because dumping waste at a local facility has many negative impacts on the people living nearby. The foul smell is unbearable, the beautification of that nearby area is compromised, it can give rise to many health issues and can turn out to be a habitat for micro-organism that play role in spreading different type of diseases.
The second major problem is the adverse effect on the environment. It can lead to soil degradation and also releases different kinds of gases upon break-down that has substantial effects on the atmosphere.
Figure 1:Soil Stock for spreading over the thrown batch of the MSW
Figure 2:Covered Dumping Pits already reached a ground level
As a resident of Hayatabad Peshawar, I am also concerned with this problem but the people who are most affected by this problem are people who live nearby the dumping sites. Those people are more affected by the societal negative impacts of this method of waste management because of the foul smell and health concerns. But if we look at the problem in-depth, every person in Peshawar and specifical residents of Hayatabad are indirectly affected by the soil degradation and effects on the atmosphere.
This activity and thinking process has a very good impact on the way I tackle problems, sometimes there are problems all over around us but due to the lack of observation and empathy with the people concerned, we overlook the problem and fail to identify and acknowledge it. Design thinking is a process that we cannot adopt until we start practicing it and through this experience, I realize that we have to tackle any problem through these steps and not by getting panicked. | https://medium.com/@muhammad-izaz170/problem-waste-management-in-hayatabad-township-peshawar-7192d5e8af0a | ['Muhammad Izaz'] | 2020-12-27 14:53:01.801000+00:00 | ['Design Thinking', 'Problem Solving', 'Amal Fellowship'] |
Accessible colors for user interfaces | Colors for AAA contrast ratio
When looking for an even more apparent contrast, it becomes more difficult. The method proves to be even more imprecise here, and again we can set the colors significantly brighter by a few percent.
Talking about colors
Like the AA contrast colors, Red, Violet, and Purple remain relatively bright (B70%) with high contrast and are easily recognizable. Green is already very dark (B40%) and is no longer very apparent. The most transparent colors are the Blue tones, which can be recognized most clearly with almost constant brightness (B100%).
12 colors that fit either AA or AAA contrast requirements
A good starting point
Based on our approach, we found a couple of very suitable colors. However, it will not be sufficient to adopt them. When choosing colors, we have to use the colors in context and test them to decide. If there is already a brand color, the colors should be adjusted. Also, the accessibility for color-blind users must be checked. To find the right colors based on the colors we saw, the 10°-Hue steps can be broken up to look for more suitable colors between these color tones. The saturation does not have to stay at 100% either. It can be matched to an existing color to achieve a harmonious appearance. | https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/accessible-colors-for-user-interfaces-b82ba5a837da | ['Lukas Kühne'] | 2020-12-08 03:01:56.272000+00:00 | ['WCAG', 'Design', 'UI', 'UX', 'Colors'] |
The Ashland Tragedy Proves Evil is Nothing New | December 26, 1881
Two days after the murders, a service was held for the three teenagers at the Methodist Episcopal Church. There were so many in attendance a large part of the crowd was left to gather outside.
They were buried in a common grave in the Ashland Cemetery.
Later that afternoon, the Mayor of Ashland, John Means, called for a town meeting. He asked for donations so they could offer money for a reward, and to hire a detective to hunt down the murders.
Within a few days, they had gathered over $1,000 (over $25,000 in 2019).
Private Detectives from surrounding states, including Deputy US Marshal Heflin, who quickly became the man the townspeople wanted to handle the case.
Original and newer headstones for Robert and Fannie Gibbons | via Find a Grave
When They Get it All Wrong
Another Detective, J.B. Norris from Ohio, arrived with a theory. He believed that the killer had to be John Gibbons, the father of the house. From the outside, this doesn’t seem to make sense, he was out the state at the time, and the girls were savagely raped; this didn’t seem to fit.
But, Newspapers started running the story, and the streets were lined with wanted posters for the arrest of John Gibbons.
Marshal Heflin didn’t believe it was the father and pointed out that one man couldn’t have carried out the crime alone.
Unfortunately, people had already declared John Gibbons guilty before he had even been arrested. Heflin realized that they would have to bring the father in and clear his name before they would be able to focus on the real killers.
December 31, 1881
Helfin was able to track John Gibbons down to a remote area in West Virginia where he had been working. First, he had to tell John what had happened to his children. The news hadn’t reached him. Then he had to bring him back to Ashland, to clear his name.
Helfin was able to prove that John had been in West Virginia the whole time working, and was not the killer. This blow landed Detective Morris running for the train with his head down.
Ashland Tragedy written by The New York Times
Did They Know? The Killer Kept Asking Himself
After clearing John of being involved in the murders, the townspeople were back to wondering who could have done it.
Ashland’s general store Geiger, Powell & Ferguson would play a part in bringing the killers to justice. That day Mr. Powell waited on a regular named George Ellis, who wanted to purchase a cigar.
Powell making conversation said, “Well, now that old man Gibbons is in the clear, I wonder who it is going to fall on now?”
As soon as the remark was made, George Ellis looked startled. Suddenly he wouldn’t look up at Mr. Powell.
Then Ellis blurted out that he might know who did it, and then he said something about “states evidence” before turning and walking out of the general store quickly.
Ellis started walking down the street, but he felt like everyone was watching him. He began to think they all knew what he had done.
Did they know? He kept wondering.
After hours spent walking, he made his decision. He walked to the hotel, then straight to the door of Marshal Heflin.
Once inside, Ellis started to talk, telling Heflin that he lived near the Gibbons house and that he might know something about the murders.
Ellis took a seat then asked Heflin to explain to him the meaning of “States Evidence.” (What Ellis had mumbled back at the general store.)
Heflin told him that if someone was guilty of a crime informed on the others that were involved, that the informer would most likely get a lesser sentence.
After hearing that Ellis told Heflin, he wanted to relieve his conscience and explain what happened.
Marshal Heflin had interrogated quite a few criminals in his career and knew precisely what was needed to bring charges to get a jury to convict. One thing he knew he needed was a witness to the confession.
Confession Given by George Ellis to Marshal Heflin: “A few evenings prior to the 24th, I met Craft, who stated that he was going to see Fanny Gibbons and take her some black candy and that he was going to have intercourse with her, and he wanted me to come along. About midnight, the fatal night, we all started Craft, Neal, and myself, and when we got to the house, Craft raised the window with an old axe and stepped in first. Neal followed, and I stayed behind on the porch, and afterwards, I went in. Robbie was the first aroused and started to get up when Craft said: “you had better lie still.” Craft then went to the bed where the two girls were sleeping and began to take improper liberties with them. Robbie said, “you had better stay away from there,” when Craft hit him with the axe. He fell back on the lounge, then plunged forward and fell fully six feet from the bed under the stairs where he was found. The girls screamed when Craft jumped on the bed, and they both said: “George Craft, what are you here for?” Emma also started to jump from the bed when Neal choked her and pulled her onto the floor. She fought him, and I held her while he outraged her. Neal then struck her on the head with the big end of the crowbar, and she instantly died after throwing up her hands. Craft also had some trouble with Fanny Gibbons and called on me to come and help him. He then outraged her and killed her. Neal proposed killing the girls, and after they were dead, I took some coal oil, poured it over the bodies, and set fire to them with a match. We then left the house.”
Ellis told Heflin that for months before the murders, his two friends had been watching the girls.
One day while they were working in the back yard, Emma passed by, and William Neal declared he was going to have “carnal communication” with her before Christmas. Ellis said that George Craft had made similar remarks about Fannie.
Three Killers Arrested, (left-to-right) George Ellis, William Neal, and Ellis Craft | via Sword and Scale
Arrests Made
With Ellis’s confession, both Neal and Craft were arrested. The three men were transported to the County Jail in Catlettsburg about five miles away from Ashland.
For whatever reason, all three prisoners were put in the same cell. The first thing the next morning, Ellis tried to recant his confession, saying it wasn’t true but was told it was too late.
As word spread through Ashland that the killers were in jail, the talk of getting justice was overwhelming. So much so that officials believed the only way to get these men to trial would be to protect them until then.
So the court ordered the prisoners to be moved to the more secure jail in Lexington. Being escorted by armed guards, the prisoners were put on the Catlettsburg Ferry and headed down the river to Lexington. But the townspeople heard and boarded a steamboat to try and catch up with the ferry. Fortunately, the ferry eluded the steamboat, and no one else died that night.
The ferry made a stop in Vanceburg, Kentucky, where reporters were allowed to board and interview the prisoners. Craft and Neal were joking and singing, but denied they had anything to do with the crime.
Ellis was being held a distance away from the other two and refused to speak to the reporters.
Once in the Lexington Jail, George Ellis claimed his confession was coerced. He said that Heflin held him at gunpoint and forced him to say those things. | https://medium.com/true-crime-addiction/the-ashland-tragedy-proves-evil-is-nothing-new-364efc34b9dc | ['Lisa Marie Fuqua'] | 2019-12-27 13:51:01.960000+00:00 | ['Murder', 'True Crime', 'Crime', 'History', 'Christmas'] |
Managing Class Attributes In Python | Hello guys, in this blog post we are going to dig down into some python programming trick , or do i say features we can leverage on as python developers, we all know every thing in python is an object, class is an object , instance is an object , function is an object etc.
We all know that any time we do:
object.attribute or object.attribute = value`
We are trying to get the attribute or set the attribute of an object which is very common in all python programs especially when working with classes.
So what ? why should you care?
So why should you worry about attribute management , now let me break it down , here are some possible scenarios :
USE CASE #1
We know in python we can access any class attribute by referencing it with the obj.attribute.call , which means our attributes are open for various operations such as read , write , delete. Here is an example in the code snippet below:
When this code is executed , below is the result:
>>> John Doe you a confirmed user
>>> John Doe you're not yet confirmed
You can see that, we have altered the state of our object outside the context of the class , when we reference the confirmed attribute, and set it to false.
This is what happens when you do that , lol.
Most times we don’t want that we want to set permission on our attribute , such as read-only , or read and write attribute access e.t.c. In other to prevent the outside world of changing the state of our class.
USE CASE #2
Sometimes we want to hook into the attribute and perform some changes to it at the point when it’s been accessed by calls like this:
>>> obj.attribute
>>> obj.attribute = value
attribute management play a big role here as we will see in this post, there are more use cases, but we’ll leave this two so as not to make this Post bulky.
Features :
Here are the python features that help us manage attribute access in our code
The __getattr__ and __setattr__ methods, for routing undefined attribute fetches and all attribute assignments to generic handler methods.
and methods, for routing undefined attribute fetches and all attribute assignments to generic handler methods. The __getattribute__ method, for routing all attribute fetches to a generic handler method.
method, for routing all attribute fetches to a generic handler method. The property built-in , for routing specific attribute access to get and set handler functions.
, for routing specific attribute access to get and set handler functions. The descriptor protocol, for routing specific attribute accesses to instances of classes with arbitrary get and set handler methods, and the basis for other tools such as properties and slots.
In this post , i will be going through the last two features in the list above,
i promise to create another post that explain the other two.
Prerequisites
To make use of this post a basic knowledge of ‘OOP’ python is needed , also if you are trying out the examples with python 2.x, note that you should use the new-style classes.
Property Protocol
The property protocol allows us to route a specific attribute’s get, set, and delete operations to functions or methods we provide, enabling us to insert code to be run automatically on attribute access, intercept attribute deletions, and provide documentation for the attributes if desired.
A property is created by assigning the result of a built-in function to a class attribute:
>>> attribute = property(fget, fset, fdel, doc)
The property attribute take four optional positional arguments where the first argument is the callback to run when when the attribute is referenced, this callback return a value.
>>> obj.attribute
The second argument is the callback to run when the object is been assign a value, this callback return None.
>>> obj.attribute = value
The third argument is ‘fdel’ is a callback when a ‘del’ operation is performed on an attribute, this callback return None.
>>> del obj.attribute
While the last argument doc is doc-string .
All this argument are optional if one of them is not passed, and we try performing the operation python raises an ‘AttributeError’ Exception stating that the operation is not allowed .
enough of the story let me show you how it works in code
This code snippet on your left , does not do any thing meaningful, but it shows how the property built-in can be used when the attribute is referenced or assign a value , here is the result when the code is executed.
>>> getting attribute
>>> John Doe
>>> setting value
>>> This is person name
With the fact that we can hook into when an attribute is referenced, it a platform for us to create some attribute access modification here, where by we can only provide a read-only access to the name attribute used in this context.
Let us remove the ‘setName’ and ‘delName’ method that we passed into our property built-in it and give it a read-only access.
This is what we get when we run this code:
>>> getting attribute
John Doe
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/user/path/python_files/read_only_property.py", line 14, in <module>
person1.name = 'smith'
AttributeError: can't set attribute
With the above code, we’ve set the name attribute to be a read-only attribute, where by if we try to set a new value to it , we get an error.
What if we don’t want the attribute to be readable and writable? it’s simple, we set the attribute to the property built-in without passing it any argument like this :
>>> name = property()
And if the name attribute is fetched or set an Exception is raised.
>>> Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/user/path/python_files/pratice.py", line 13, in <module>
print(person1.name)
AttributeError: unreadable attribute
Let’s go to a more meaningful use case of property protocol, let say we have a class Employee that collects the name of the employee, and the salary at the point of instantiation , and we want it to deduct tax from the salary whenever, the salary attribute is referenced , the below code shows how:
don’t mind the way i calculated my tax …. lol.
Here is the output.
>>> 2982.0
>>> 994000.0
You can see that at the point of getting the attribute we have hooked into the process, and performed some code while returning the value. | https://medium.com/shecodeafrica/managing-class-attributes-in-python-c42d501c5ee0 | [] | 2017-10-18 15:18:50.873000+00:00 | ['Python Programming', 'Programming', 'Decorators', 'Property', 'Attributes'] |
What Is Resurge Pills? | What Is Resurge Pills?
The Resurge supplement is formulated to deliver fat-burning properties to help one lose weight in a short period. This supplement does so by promoting proper sleep to ensure one covers all the sleep cycles – including the REM stage.
It is during this stage of sleep where the body’s metabolic processes at their peak; thus, allowing one to quickly lose weight. According to the makers of Resurge,the supplement naturally restores the healing potential of one’s body overnight to effectively induce fat burning process whilst facilitating deep and sound sleep.
How Does Resurge Supplement Works?
The Resurge supplement integrates 8 key natural ingredients that enhance its functionality. The supplement uses these ingredients to function in the body. The supplement works by targeting the human growth hormone (HGH) levels in the body as it promotes uninterrupted sleep. The ingredients in the supplement are what increase the production of the HGH hormones in the level.
As it targets the HGH levels in the body, it also improves the body’s healing qualities thus, facilitating effective fat burning during the REM stage of one’s sleep. Generally, the human growth hormone is responsible for rebuilding and healing the body. When one continues to age, the production of HGH levels in the body declines.
The human growth hormone plays a significant role in daily life because it promotes a wide range of processes in the body. This hormone is responsible for aiding in recovery from injures and even, maintaining a youthful look. Whilst some people choose to take the HGH through pills or injections, the Resurge supplement contains ingredients that stimulate its natural production.
Benefits of Resurge
According to the makers of Resurge, the supplement comes with a host of benefits. These include;
Provides anti-aging properties
Increases HGH production in the body
Accelerates the fat burning and healing process in the body
Promotes the natural metabolic regeneration in the body
Encourages deep and sound sleep without drowsiness
Reduces stress and anxiety
Addresses the root causes of weight gai
100% natural, safe and effective ingredients in Resurge
Resurge has been made with all-natural ingredients only. These ingredients have been sourced from pure and safe places that we can't usually reach.
The company now has rights to these ingredients and has now sourced 8 pure nutrients from all the ingredients they had initially gathered.
They researched a lot and learned how our bodies fail to absorb these 8 nutrients from the foods we consume daily.
It is not possible to consume 8 nutrients in different Resurge supplements or capsules. Hence, Resurge has combined all these 8 nutrients in one, a panacea-like capsule that treats obesity naturally. Here are the 8 nutrients of Resurge:
Magnesium: Magnesium is said to control glucose and insulin resistance in obese people. Since insulin resistance slows down metabolism and shuts down our body's natural fat-burning mechanism, we can never lose weight effectively. In order to lose weight, our body needs adequate magnesium to improve insulin sensitivity. This hormone helps reverse obesity from its roots.
Zinc: Zinc helps in many ways to treat obesity as it has been linked with reducing appetite for ages now. Since most of us are deficient in zinc, our bodies become weaker and crave more carbohydrates and fatty foods. Zinc is also essential to boost metabolism, absorption, and digestion of all the foods we eat. It helps treat insulin sensitivity and resistance too.
Melatonin: This unique nutrient is rarely found and absorbed from the foods we eat. We need melatonin to absorb the nutrients and create good fat for our body to remain energetic. This nutrient has been specially added to ensure that obese people are not lethargic anymore. It helps fight fatigue and improves your body's immunity so that you can fight diseases as well.
Ashwagandha: Ashwagandha has been said to treat inflammation, metabolic disorders, and hormonal imbalances for ages now. It is one of the healthiest herbs you will ever find in Asia. It improves the overall well-being of obese people. It is also extremely beneficial in hypothyroidism. So, the people who have gained weight because of their hypothyroidism can even lose some pounds with the help of Ashwagandha.
Hydroxytryptophan: In order to promote weight loss, this nutrient has been added to subside your cravings, hunger pangs and reduce your appetite. It produces hormones in the brain that signals that you're full, so you don't keep eating and packing yourself on carbohydrates and unhealthy fats. This nutrient is indeed a scarce one since most are deprived of it.
L-Theanine: There are absolutely no side-effects of consuming this nutrient as it is said to be very natural and healthy. It controls weight gain by reducing tumors caused by the inflammatory response of oxidative stress and damage. This nutrient also helps improve metabolic conditions in most adults.
Arginine: It is a fantastic amino acid that helps reduce fats in people by flushing out harmful toxins and reducing the inflammation around our vital organs. It also fights numerous diseases, including those that make you obese. It is guaranteed to help reduce fat mass in people who are obese and diabetic as well.
Lysine: It is an excellent nutrient said to control blood sugar, cholesterol, and diet habits in obese people. It helps improve lipid metabolism and accelerate your body's natural fat-burning mechanism as well. Furthermore, when mixed with other ingredients, Lysine prevents the risks of being obese again in the future.
When mixed together, a potent combination of naturally acquired nutrients is obtained, and that is put in a very efficient capsule that you can consume as Resurge.
Here's the obesity defeating formula: Resurge
Resurge is an all-natural dietary supplement formulated by John Barban. Resurge formula treats, fights, and defeats the obesity of its roots.
It helps people target the root cause of their obesity: slowed down metabolism. Resurge helps people of almost all age-groups fight the toxins and flush them out of their systems.
It is an amazingly revolutionary breakthrough that has shocked all the pharma companies.
The formula treats you while you're asleep and ensures you recover and lose weight initially every day until you're in tremendous and perfect shape.
The formula is made available in the form of easily swallowable capsules that are not too huge and nastily flavored.
The formula has been tested several times before manufacturing, and the unit has considered all safety measures, so there are no risks during the pandemic too.
The consumers who have already tried Resurge explain how the formula has no side-effects on them no matter how long they've taken it for.
It is usually advisable to consume Resurge for at least 3 to 6 months for best results. | https://medium.com/@anshulkumar989719/what-is-resurge-pills-707abbba1f8 | [] | 2021-11-24 08:26:20.084000+00:00 | ['Weight Loss', 'Health', 'Weightloss Recipe', 'Weightloss Foods', 'Weight Loss Tips'] |
My Thoughts on Martin Luther King Jr. and Black Lives Matter: A Meditation | In between late nights with my baby (momma is working the night shift), I’ve been reading Strength to Love, which Martin Luther King Jr. published in 1963. I felt it was pertinent to dive into the books he had published before his murder in 1968. The United States is currently burning down. The work he gave his life for — equality before the law and the rising of Black personhood to full citizenship — is under threat. He has every right to come back to us as a revenant. Yet vengeance does not stir his spirit to anger. In his afterlife, I want to understand how he continues to walk in the path of Jesus and preach peace to his enemies and love to his followers.
It is an easy read. The chapters read like sermons, filled with parables and parallelism. Some of my thoughts on the first three chapters. A quote from the first chapter grabbed my attention:
“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge that is power; religion gives man wisdom that is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary. Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism. Religion prevents science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral nihilism.” — Martin Luther King Jr., “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart”
In this age of Black Lives Matter, how do we move forward when science and religion are in such poor shape? Since King’s death, our nation’s scholars used the hard and soft sciences to research the impacts slavery and racism has had on Black people. We know so much more about epigenetics, weathering, cognitive bias, redlining, and structural discrimination. Yet the research of Black agony has not meaningfully changed the political environment of my country.
The presence of a malignant religion — a faith in an ordered superstructure of existence — prevents us from transforming the nation with our scientific findings. I am not referring explicitly to Christianity, though I cannot ignore that those who align their voting patterns most vocally are evangelicals who consistently vote against Black people’s interests. I am referring to white supremacy, the superstructure of the West. Even in those white people who proclaim allyship with Black Lives Matter, we see a hostility toward Black leadership, of them taking the voice and garments of our cause for their personal use instead of the political advancement of my people.
When I think of spiritual life, I think of 2Pac’s question — does Heaven have a ghetto? The lyric harkens back to the confusion I felt as a child growing up in a Brooklyn housing project. If this existence is a reflection of what awaits in the beyond, then I think it does. That is a problem. King wrote, in the third chapter of the book regarding the pain of his holy neighbor that “his agony diminishes me, and his salvation enlarges me.” Agony makes us reflexive; salvation makes us, as a species, contemplative. Our nation’s current conflagration is reflexive, and thus cannot lead to long-term change until we move into what it means to forge salvation from the past of the United States. Otherwise, we will enter into a divided life when we pass into history. I do not want what comes after my physical body to be a continuation of what we face now. COVID heightens my anxiety. | https://medium.com/established-in-1865/my-thoughts-on-martin-luther-king-jr-and-black-lives-matter-a-meditation-991b58804253 | ['Hal H. Harris'] | 2020-10-13 02:37:16.123000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Politics', 'Race', 'Religion', 'BlackLivesMatter'] |
Reviving Emily | Reviving Emily
Spared Love
Image by Aryok Mateus from Pixabay
With thine body lain upon this table,
Anointed in sacred herbs,
And runes inscribed as best I’m able,
I speak the mystic words.
I call to you, my Emily.
Your vessel I have prepared.
Please come forth and be with me.
For then, our love is spared.
Oh my dear sweet Emily,
The time finally has come.
Rejoin me on this mortal plane.
My will — be done.
Waxy orbs roll in your head.
Your spirit’s here, your form is dead.
Your pleas come from maggot-ridden tongue.
My dear sweet Emily, what have I done?
With much pain, I must oblige
Your living-dying wish.
Thus I thrust the dagger forth
and release you to your bliss. | https://medium.com/the-purple-pen/reviving-emily-761cac675d87 | ['I. M. Dust'] | 2020-07-13 01:13:01.386000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Fiction', 'Fantasy', 'Magic', 'Love'] |
Stop chasing “wants” and look inside for happiness — A contemporary perspective on The Four Noble Truths | Although the teachings are 2500 years old I find The Four Noble Truths relevant for contemporary life, possibly even more so now in the age of internet where we can feed every temptation and in many cases get instant gratification at a click of a few buttons.
The Four Noble Truths deal with what in Sanskrit is called duhka. There is not a very precise translation of this word to English but the most often used English word for duhka is suffering.
I don’t like this translation as it is focusing on the feeling that often is very dramatic — suffering — and the power of The Four Noble Truths is that it’s a way of relating to self and life long before it may turn into suffering.
The dictionaries offers other translations as well. Such as pain, unhappiness and stress, and my preferred translation: dissatisfaction.
I find that dissatisfaction covers the entire range of unpleasant experiences from mild irritation to tormenting suffering, and I think this is important as most of our experience of life hopefully is at the lighter end of the scale.
By reflecting on The Four Noble Truths I experience that I can catch myself before sliding downwards on the spectrum towards suffering.
The Four Noble Truths are said to be Buddha’s first teaching and the most important as it encompasses the entire Buddhist path in four short sentences.
1. The Noble truth of Dissatisfaction
Accepting that the presence of dissatisfaction in life and according to the Buddhist scriptures there are three roots of dissatisfaction.
Ordinary dissatisfaction or Blatant dissatisfaction
Dissatisfaction produced by change
The dissatisfaction of conditioning
Ordinary dissatisfaction is the closest to what we would call suffering and concerns the suffering of birth, sickness, ageing, dying and death. Not only birth and dying as in entering and leaving this world but also birth and death of our identity, similar to how Joseph Campbell describes the Hero’s Journey.
Dissatisfaction produced by change is the worry we experience as we go about life and experience events, actual and perceived. We worry about facing tough situations, about losing relationships or possessions, about not achieving what we wish, and worrying about what may happen in the future.
The last form of dissatisfaction is dissatisfaction of conditioning. This is often connected to our ego story — how you experience life and make sense of it. Our grasping to make sense of ourselves in the world that over time has led to habitual behaviours that keep us in a state dissatisfaction.
Dissatisfaction from conditioning could for example be your habitual avoidance of conflict which leaves you with a feeling of being unseen, unheard which seeds resentment.
Or your habitual inclination to fuel your good mood with too much alcohol leaving you with regret the day after.
Or you habitual shopping to chase temporary highs of instant gratification.
2. The Noble Truth of the Cause of Dissatisfaction
The cause of dissatisfaction is craving and the grasping at self.
Grasping at self is the endless motion of the mind trying to make sense of self in relation to the world so you can create an ego-story to give yourself a sense of safety.
This motion evolves around grasping at the ideas, concepts, things, desires and activities that uphold our ego-story.
We tend to be caught up in focusing on what we don’t have rather than what we have, believing that if only we could get that thing we desire then our lives would be more complete.
Maybe you see your neighbour’s nice car, or your colleague’s high-street clothes, and think to yourself that you need to upgrade to feel better about yourself. Craving external things to elevate your ego-story.
Craving and grasping is expressed through karma, which simply means action and the idea that every action causes an effect. There’s no fatalistic meaning to karma, karma is not retribution, it’s simply a consequence of our choices.
3. The Noble Truth of the End of Dissatisfaction
This follows from the 2nd Noble Truth. The end of dissatisfaction is to stop craving and stop grasping at upholding your ego-story.
The two main schools for Buddhism differ on what the ultimate goal of the end of dissatisfaction is.
In Theravada, the Orthodox tradition, the ultimate goal is Nirvana, the ascension beyond duality. This is called to become an arahat.
In Mahayana the ultimate goal is to become a bodhisattva, which means reaching a state of almost enlightened, or being enlightened but choosing to stay in this world to help others reach enlightenment.
The difference between reaching Nirvana and becoming a bodhisattva is that in Nirvana “you’re done”, whereas in the Mahayana tradition, becoming a bodhisattva, a central idea is to help others to become enlightened.
In the Mahayana tradition there’s an emphasis on bringing your practice out into the world to inspire others to walk the Buddhist path.
My Buddhist home, Rinzai Zen, is a branch of the Mahayana tradition and host a meditation community I’ve named xingru from the teachings of Bodhidharma, which means Entrance by Practice.
This implies that it’s not enough to meditate and read the scriptures but you are encouraged to bring your insights into everyday life — live it and share it.
4. The Noble Truth of the Path the End for Dissatisfaction
What is the path that leads to the end of dissatisfaction? It is The Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right contemplation. - The Buddha
Sounds easy enough right?
I’ll unpack the much dissected The Eightfold Path in another story and continue the exploration of the fourth Noble Truth by pointing your attention to the lesser known teachings The Two Entrances and Four Practices by Bodhidharma
According to this teaching The Two Entrances to enlightenment are (1) Entrance through Principle (liru) and (2) Entrance through Practice (xingru).
Entrance through Principle means to use the teachings as the path to enlightenment.
Entrance through Practice means to live by The Four Practices that encompasses all other practices.
Making amends for injustices, or Accepting injustice Accepting worldly conditions, or Being unmoved Not craving, or Stop seeking Practicing the Dharma
Making amends for injustices means to accept that every effect comes from cause. Everything you experience now is rooted your past choices and experiences so you should accept all the difficulties in life without complaint and see it as an opportunity to practice.
Accepting worldly conditions means to accept that everything shall pass. When you experience fortune and joy, and when you experience misery and sorrow, they are borne out of conditions stemming from cause and effect. Conditions change but your mind remains. It’s the practice of not being stirred by worldly conditions.
Not craving means to stop seeking happiness outside of yourself and accept that happiness comes with when we turn inside and stop seeking.
Practicing the Dharma is to live in the truth of how things are, that all beings are inherently pure, and we stop getting caught up in form — good or bad, better or worse, like or dislike, light or dark. Practising the dharma is to live an undivided life, freed from duality.
It simple, not easy, so start in the small
The Four Noble Truths are easy to grasp but the practice of living it is a life long journey.
Start by noticing with when your everyday life experiences connects with The Four Noble Truths.
When you experience a sense of dissatisfaction, stop for a moment to reflect:
What type of dissatisfaction is this?
Which feelings and thoughts is bubbling up?
What’s my internal story about myself and this situation?
Is this story true?
Could there be other perspectives on the situation?
Does this situation really matter?
A first small step but many small incremental steps will over time build to something great.
— — — — — —
Join my newsletter for exclusive content and notifications when I release new stuff!
I also host weekly virtual meditations in the Rinzai Zen tradition, on Mondays 20:00–21:00 CET and you’re welcome to join us. More info here. | https://medium.com/@fredriklyhagen/stop-chasing-wants-and-look-inside-for-happiness-a-contemporary-perspective-on-the-four-noble-2a89cbdc666f | ['Fredrik Lyhagen'] | 2021-01-26 05:15:09.312000+00:00 | ['Happiness', 'Personal Development', 'Buddhism', 'Self Improvement', 'Unhappiness'] |
20 Days to Google Cloud Professional Machine Learning Engineer Exam (BETA) | 20 Days to Google Cloud Professional Machine Learning Engineer Exam (BETA)
A journey of throwing oneself in the deep end
Photo by William Ferguson on Unsplash
— — — — — — — — Update on 15 Oct 2020 — — — — — — — — Congratulations! You are officially a Google Cloud Certified — Professional Machine Learning Engineer.
I tried a new set of 10 sample questions at https://cloud.google.com/certification/sample-questions/machine-learning-engineer
I’d say they are more difficult than 70% of the exam questions.
— — — — — ——— — — End of update — — — — —— — — — —
1 Aug 2020, I checked to see that the registration page which a week ago showed “we have sufficient beta test takers and registration is closed” is surprisingly active again. I looked through the exam booking calendar to see the latest date on 21 Aug 2020, after which even scrolling till Aug 2021 presented no available slots.
GCP exams usually recommend 3+ years of industry experience, including 1+ years of designing and managing solutions using GCP, none of which I had, but you only get to try Beta once, so challenge accepted, and a plan transpired: https://www.meistertask.com/projects/lgkxmr98po/join/
If you want to make edits, please duplicate the project and then remove yourself as a member from the original project, don’t archive or edit the original because it affects my copy.
I knew there was time to go through any material for only one pass, so focus and efficiency is crucial, then I discovered creating flashcards using PowerPoint filled with screenshots (~120) of material I have gone through is really helpful to jogging memory. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fLGQfco8DcTx-g4djL7KQYc2SY1MbT6w/view?usp=sharing
Unfortunately, I did not complete the recommended Machine Learning with TensorFlow on Google Cloud on Coursera and only went through Big Data and Machine Learning Fundamentals, and the first 2 courses (they covered a majority of what’s necessary) of Advanced Machine Learning with TensorFlow on Google Cloud Platform Specialization. However, going through the slides of all the other recommended courses was significantly helpful to the exam (especially the 5th course in the advanced specialization). A significant amount of knowledge covered in the exam also came from Google’s machine learning crash course.
Most of the preparation tips I have are collected in the MeisterTask planner above already, so I will share my thoughts after taking the exam.
Section 1: ML Problem Framing
Be able to translate the layman language in the question to machine learning terminology, such as what kind of algorithm to use to solve what real-life problems. Read the question carefully, it is not as straightforward as just looking at the label type. Some questions seemed completely business-oriented and required an understanding of business metrics and what is good for the customer.
Section 2: ML Solution Architecture
IAM and permissions may have been implicitly tested through the MCQ options provided, so know what GCP products have additional security features beyond the general IAM. Know what products can be used at each stage (ingest, transform, store, analyze) of a data pipeline. Read very carefully the current state of the company in question and do not choose options that repeat what has already been done by the company or what is too far ahead.
Know the differences between GPU and TPU acceleration and what makes either option impossible or undesirable so the choice is immediately clear once you see the key points in the question. Learn generally about what KMS, CMEK, CSEK do, and how they are used to deal with privacy requirements.
Section 3: Data Preparation and Processing
Be familiar with translating modelling requirements into the right feature engineering steps (hashes, bins, crosses), and hashing for repeatable train-test-split. MLCC (https://developers.google.com/machine-learning/crash-course) is thorough on this. Statistical methods of feature selection should be compared and understood. Quotas and limits are implicitly tested through the options showing substitute products at a particular stage in a pipeline. Knowing common uses of DataFlow vs Cloud Functions would help.
Learn how TFrecords feature in data pipelines and the general ML flow involving them, such as when to convert to them, how to train-test-split with them. Be able to identify data leakage and handle class imbalance (MLCC covers this)
Section 4: ML Model Development
Know the spectrum of the modelling tools on GCP(BQML, SparkMLlib, AutoML, ML API, AI Platform) and their degree of no-code to transfer learning to full custom code. Modelling speed and accuracy are competing requirements. Learn how data/code moves in between GCP ML components and look out for import/export shortcuts and their formats.
Know what kinds of explanations are available in AI Explanations for what types of data.
Section 5: ML Pipeline Automation & Orchestration
Most of the questions were asked at a higher level than I expected, so running through Kubeflow pipelines UI with Qwiklabs, looking at the sample code to see how components connect and understanding how TFX vs Kubeflow differ is sufficient. Note how some things can be done on-prem vs GCP. Learn how to build Kubeflow pipelines fast. There is always a competing concern between no flexibility but fast copy-paste development vs full flexibility but time-consuming development from scratch. Neither is always better, depends on where the company is at in terms of skills and product, and what infrastructure, libraries they currently use or are planning to go towards, so read the question.
Section 6: ML Solution Monitoring, Optimization, and Maintenance
Know the tools to analyze model performance during development. and continuously evaluate model performance in production. Pipeline simplification techniques are introduced in the 2nd course in the Advanced Machine Learning with TensorFlow on Google Cloud Platform Specialization.
General Exam Tips
Some questions are really short that you can answer within 5 seconds. Some time burners exist where the options are longer than the question. Some options can be guessed correctly through careful reading of requirements and common sense. Understand what the question wants and go for the option that does things just right, not more, not less. Some options are a subset of other options. Sometimes the best answer does not fulfil 100% of the question’s requirements, but the other options are even more wrong. Sometimes the closest answer suggests you do something undesirable to solve a higher priority problem, so there are elements of sacrifice. There were not many “tick all that is correct” questions. There are general python questions and Tensorflow debugging questions that require real hands-on experience which Qwiklabs will not offer because they can only teach how to succeed, not how to fail.
Read the options first and form a mental decision tree of what are the decision variables to seek from the question. There seems to be very little of the “permute 2 options on 2 decision variables to make up 4 MCQ options”, but mainly slightly different options, with up to 4 all correct, but just meeting the requirements at 0–20%, 50%, 70%, 90–100% effectiveness. Some parts of the multi-part options are repeated so there is no need to choose there. Much of the question could be irrelevant once you parse the options so reading the question anymore is wasting time. Filtering out irrelevant options is an effective speed booster. If it’s not obvious where the variances in the options are and you have to read the whole question, always start from the big picture of the current state of the company, what stage of the SDLC are they in. If you know the question is talking about deployment, all options regarding development can be eliminated. The options being multi-part could confuse people and make it harder, but it also means there are more opportunities for elimination, so even if you don’t understand all the parts of the option, you just need to find one part that makes the whole option wrong.
If time permits, prove not only why your selection is correct, but also why all other options are not on your first pass. If short on time, it is easier to prove options wrong than how the possibly correct one matches all requirements. I had only 24 minutes left to review 58/120 and only managed to review 20.
Handling the Exam UI
Questions load page by page and there are 4 buttons on every page (back, forward, review all, submit). Do not submit until all questions are done and reviewed. The review page will show how many were answered and put an asterisk beside those you marked for review. Have a low threshold for marking review (i had 58/120), because it costs a lot of time to click the back button repeatedly and look for something you did not mark for review but later wanted to. However, if you realize in the middle you don’t have 1 min to spare per review, start having a higher threshold for review because having too many asterisks at the end means you could spend time reviewing things you are pretty sure of already rather than on the ones that really need review. The “review all” page only shows you question numbers (with an optional asterisk) and your selection, with no question preview text at all, so unless you have great memory it’s hard to know which number corresponds to which question, so you may have to go through all the asterisks.
Jot down on first pass in the comments box below every question(not sure if this box is only a beta feature) why certain options are wrong so when coming back to review, you don’t restart the question from nothing and can immediately think through only the possibly correct competing options. Another use for the comment box is to record concepts you are unsure of. There could be future questions you come across that resolve such uncertainty by providing the answer as a given in the question, such as what tools are used together, which tools call which tools. Google has a history of offering non-existent options, but if you see the same option/concept appearing in more than 1 question, it is likely possible.
Don’t click the Back button 2x in succession to prevent accidental submission, because the submit button will be loaded right under your cursor after the 1st click. The back and forward take about 3–5 seconds to load, where the timer stops, so you can get some extra time to think while the page loads. Don’t type in CAPS using shift lest you do a Ctrl+C/X or some other combination that gets your exam locked (i got locked twice, luckily I did it onsite so a proctor was there to unlock, not sure how it works if done remotely).
Study Strategy
If you have time
Follow the recommended courses first before going to the tutorials (search ai platform on https://cloud.google.com/docs/tutorials and you cover 95%, the rest are GCS, PubSub, Cloud Functions, Bigquery). The courses cover a majority of what’s tested. Another benefit is when you know the concepts already, reading the tutorials will organize the individual tools and concepts into an entire architecture. You can then use the knowledge from tools to ask questions about how a tool performs against another in this architecture, how to stretch its limits, can it be connected to another source/sink, how does 1 tool’s quotas/limits affect another tool’s limits in the pipeline, where/which tools are the common bottlenecks, where is seldom a bottleneck, where are the serverless parts (2 types: can configure vs no need to configure) and which parts are not serverless.
Opening multiple tools when doing Qwiklabs is useful, such as always keeping the VM console page on, to learn that your 1-click GKE cluster deployment is actually provisioning 3 VMs by default under the hood with certain settings, or that your “Open JupyterLab” click in AI Platform notebooks has provisioned one VM of certain machine type behind the scenes, or that the startup script that was automatically run when you do some Qwiklabs has set up some git clone behind the scenes already. Keeping the GCS console open is important too since so much of GCP AI tools depend on buckets.
If you don’t have time
Read the tutorials and documentation (overview, best practice, faq) straightaway. This is the more difficult path because there will be many unknown concepts while going through the tutorials, and they may be too in-depth, that level of knowledge covering < 10% of what’s tested. However, they serve as the fastest starting point for the learner to know the unknowns.
Know the gcloud SDK
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference
This is the fastest way to know what Google has and how it is named. Expand each section to see the method names and you will have an idea of what services are available without trawling through GCP console UI. This page also alerts you to doc pages you may have missed and helps solve questions that test the correct command to use.
“I’m afraid I’m too much of a newbie to go for it.”
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash
On Day 1, I had totally no idea what 53/81 bullet points in the exam guide meant, or how to achieve those points. After studying https://developers.google.com/machine-learning/crash-course, I also realized some of the 28/81 which I thought I knew, was not what it’s supposed to be.
I don’t think having a ton of ML knowledge is necessary for these reasons.
The exam has very little implementation/ debugging questions, mostly focusing on GCP tool selection and solution architecting (sometimes open-source tools are given as options but usually GCP tool wins for serverless scalability). I would definitely have not attempted with 20 days of study if any implementation is required. Even if someone did something before (eg. handling imbalanced data), he may not have done it in the google suggested way. Yes, it’s not as objective and there are indeed google recommended practices to memorize. A good portion of the exam is on GCP specific tools, commands, workflows. If someone does not study GCP, he won’t know what’s possible, or how development, test, deploy, monitor workflows are done using GCP tools. Knowing how to do it outside GCP does not mean it’s the correct answer. Often on-prem tools or doing it locally is wrong in the exam context. It is not in Google’s favour to make exams incredibly hard. People who have enough experience would not need the certificate to prove anything. Making it too hard discourages people from studying for the exam, which means fewer GCP users, fewer exam fees earned, less open-source companies employing these test takers and switching to GCP on a company level.
Some arguments supporting the benefit of previous experience:
Dataflow is based on Apache Beam, Cloud Composer on Airflow, AI Platform pipelines on Kubeflow, so if you already used the open-source version, you can go through code in tutorials faster, and know why some tools are overkill and obviously the wrong choice compared to another tool in the multiple-choice. But remember again, implementation is rarely tested. What’s more important is knowing what GCP specific source and sinks are available for Dataflow, and how a GCP pipeline allows for certain workflows/shortcuts, which may not have been possible with open source tools. People who read/experience more can better distinguish which business metric to apply for what situation or what ML problem can be framed from given features and vague requirements. However, there is only very basic ML, technical jargon required before common sense can take over. People who read/experience more will know more ways to do something or more ways something can go wrong and its negative impact, and use that knowledge to be able to identify and infer what went wrong when presented a scenario and what steps to take to fix it. (eg. Data leakage, bad train-test-split, training-serving skew, underfitting). However, knowing solutions is not enough, because you must also know what to try first, and here comes again google recommended practices to study.
As a final disclaimer, it is unlikely that anyone can pass this in 20 days without previous experience which helps answer the debugging questions and to react faster to evaluation metrics like (precision, recall, F1, AUC), but this article hopefully motivates people who are considering that it can be done.
Feel free to connect with me on Linkedin if you have any more questions or like to share your experience: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanqi91/ | https://towardsdatascience.com/20-days-to-google-cloud-professional-machine-learning-engineer-exam-beta-b48909499942 | ['Han Qi'] | 2020-10-26 06:44:29.962000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Exam Preparation', 'Google Certification', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Data Science'] |
Understanding species co-occurrence | Understanding species co-occurrence
With calculations in R
In ecology, co-occurrence networks can help us identify relationships between species using repeated measurements of the species’ presence or absence. When evaluating potential relationships, we might ask: Given presence-absence data, are two species co-occurring at a frequency higher or lower than expected by chance? Somewhat surprisingly, although co-occurrence analysis has been around since the ’70s, there’s no universally agreed upon method for measuring co-occurrence and testing its statistical significance (Veech, 2012). In this post, we’re going to examine the probabilistic model as seen in Veech’s A probabilistic model for analysing species co‐occurrence(2012). We’ll start by defining the model before moving into calculating co-occurrence probabilities in R. To view this article with proper subscripts, go to the original article.
Photo by Wynand van Poortvliet on Unsplash.
Defining the probabilistic model of co-occurrence
Notation for the probabilistic model.
Overview
In order to understand whether two species co-occur at a frequency greater than or less than expected, we first need to know the probability of two species co-occurring at a given number of sites. This will depend on the number of sites sampled (N) and the number of sites each species inhabits (N1 and N2). Using this information, we can determine pj, the probability that 2 species co-occur at exactly j sites, for j = 0…N. To calculate pj, we’ll count the number of ways species 1 and 2 can be arranged among N sites while co-occurring at j sites and divide that by the total number of ways species 1 and 2 can be arranged among N sites (Eq. 1).
Eq. 1
The math behind pj
The numerator of can be calculated by multiplying 1) the number of ways j sites can be arranged among N sites, by 2) the number of ways species 2 can be arranged in the remaining sites that don’t have both species, by 3) the number of ways species 1 can be arranged among sites that don’t have species 2. The denominator can be calculated by multiplying the number of ways species 2 can be arranged by the number of ways species 1 can be arranged (Eq. 2).
Eq. 2
There are limitations to the number of sites two species can co-occur at. Let’s say we sample 10 sites. Species 1 is found in 7 sites and species 2 is found in 5 sites. If you were to randomly place species 1 in 7 sites, you’d have 3 sites empty sites leftover. Since species 2 is found in 5 sites, the two species have to co-occur at a minimum of 2 sites. Thus, max{0, N1 + N2 - N } ≤ j. Additionally, j can’t exceed the number of sites the species with the lowest presence inhabits. For instance, species 1 and 2 can’t co-occur at 5 sites if species 1 is only present at 2 sites. Therefore, max{0, N1 + N2 - N } ≤ j ≤ min{N1, N2 }. If j doesn’t meet these criteria, then pj = 0.
Calculating pj: an example
Let’s say we’re interested in the co-occurrence of two different bird species across 4 different sampling sites. Both species 1 and species 2 are present at exactly 2 sites. What’s the probability species 1 and 2 are found together at exactly one site? In other words, what’s p1?
Breaking down the numerator
We’ll start by looking at the numerator of pj. We can see from the Fig. 1 there are 4 different ways the single co-occurrence could be arranged among the 4 sites. For each unique way of placing the co-occurrence, there are three sites where species 1 and 2 don’t co-occur. That means, there are three sites (N- j) where we can arrange species 2. Since species 2 is only found in two sites, we only need to place species 2 in one more site (N2- j). That gives us three different ways of placing species 2 in one of the three remaining sites.
Now, we have two sites leftover that don’t have species 2 (N - N2). Again, we only need to place species 1 at one site (N1- j) and there are two ways to place species 1 among two sites. Multiplying these all together, we get 4 * 3 * 2 = 24 ways species 1 and 2 can co-occur at 1 of the 4 sites given they are each found in two sites.
Fig. 1 Adapted from Veech (2012).
Breaking down the denominator
The denominator is a bit more straightforward (Fig. 2). There are six different ways of arranging species 2 across 4 sites (see picture below). Since this is the same for species 1, this gives us 6 * 6 for the denominator. Altogether, = 24/36 ≈ 0.67.
Fig. 2 Adapted from Veech (2012).
Calculating p1 in R:
Once we’ve defined and j, we can use the choose() function to evaluate Eq. 2 in R.
# Define the number of sites.
N = 4 # Define the number of sites occupied by species 1.
n1 = 2 # Define the number of sites occupied by species 2.
n2 = 2 # Number of sites species 1 and 2 co-occur at.
j = 1 # Probability that species 1 and 2 occur at exactly 1 site. choose(N, j) * choose(N - j, n2 - j) * choose(N - n2, n1 - j)/ (choose(N, n2) * choose(N, n1))
Using pj to assess significance
Assessing the statistical significance of an observed co-occurrence relies on the fact that ∑pj = 1 for j = max {0, N1 + N2 - N } to min{N1, N2}. Let’s say Qobs represents the observed co-occurrence. To assess whether or not two species co-occur less than expected, we’ll want to know the probability of seeing them co-occur at least Qobs times, ∑pj for j = max {0, N1 + N2 - N } to Qobs. If this probability is less than our significance level, say 0.05, then the two species co-occur significantly less than expected by chance.
On the other hand, if two species co-occur at a frequency greater than expected, then the probability of seeing them co-occur Qobs times or more will be less than the significance level, ∑pj for j = Qobs to min{N1, N2}. To find the expected co-occurrence, we can take the weighted sum of each j with pj as the weights. Mathematically, this is ∑( pj × j ) for j = max {0, N1 + N2 - N} to min{N1, N2}.
Fig. 3
Assessing species co-occurrence significance: an example
Imagine we’ve sampled 30 sites and found two lizard species co-occur at 6 sites. Species 1 is present at 10 sites and species 2 at 25 sites. Do these species occur more or less frequently than expected by chance?
To answer this question, we can use our code from above with a few modifications:
# Define the number of sites.
N = 30 # Define the number of sites occupied by species 1.
n1 = 10 # Define the number of sites occupied by species 2.
n2 = 25 # Number of sites species 1 and 2 co-occur at.
j = max(0, n1 + n2 - N):min(n1, n2) # Probability that species 1 and 2 occur at exactly j sites.
pj = choose(N, j) * choose(N - j, n2 - j) * choose(N - n2, n1 - j)/ (choose(N, n2) * choose(N, n1)) # Show table for j, pj, and the cumulative distribution. round(data.frame(j, pj, sumPj = cumsum(pj)), 4)
The probability of the two lizard species randomly co-occurring at 6 sites or less is 0.0312 (p5 + p6). Assuming a significance level of 0.05, we can conclude the two lizard species occur less frequently than expected by chance. On the other hand, the probability of the two lizard species co-occurring at 6 sites or more is 0.9982 (p6 + p7 + p8 + p9 + p10 or 1 - p5). Additionally, the expected co-occurrence is 8 sites.
# Expected number of co-occurrence.
sum(pj * j)
Using the probabilistic model of co-occurrence in practice
Now that we’ve worked through understanding the probabilistic model of co-occurrence for two species, how can we extend this to multiple pairs of species? Luckily, the R package ‘ cooccur’ can do this for us. Check out our blog post to see how to create co-occurrence networks using ‘ cooccur’ and ‘visNetwork’. Hopefully, you’ll now have a good understanding of how they calculate probabilities of species co-occurrence and can replicate their results if you desire. As always, happy networking!
Citations
Veech, J. A. (2012). A probabilistic model for analysing species co-occurrence. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 22(2), 252–260. doi:10.1111/j.1466–8238.2012.00789.x | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/understanding-probabilistic-species-co-occurrence-71d9382293b1 | ['Brooke Bradley'] | 2020-12-18 16:20:29.219000+00:00 | ['Species', 'Co Occurrence Networks', 'Ecology', 'Co Occurrence', 'R'] |
Bitcoin ATMs: The Good vs. The Bad | Apart from being a public health emergency, Covid-19 exposed and exaggerated many societal, economic, and political issues. The inequality has been exacerbated as those in the “knowledge economy” benefited from access to technology and flexible work arrangements. Investors are also better off with U.S. stock markets sitting at or near all-time highs. On the other end of the spectrum are the minimum wage and blue-collar workers, small businesses and, often, minorities. At the same time, fiscal and monetary response to the pandemic has raised concerns about inflation and potential devaluation of most major currencies. As countries around the world, including the U.S., experience significant economic shocks, many are turning to Bitcoin and crypto platforms.
Investors increasingly view Bitcoin as a safe haven asset, better suited to provide inflation protection than gold. Bill Miller, Paul Tudor Jones and Stan Druckenmiller have all disclosed positions in Bitcoin based on this narrative. Furthermore, Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of fixed income at BlackRock has recently said that Bitcoin has the potential to “replace gold to a large extent.”
For many people, Bitcoin ATMs (BTMs) represent the only opportunity to participate in this evolution of financial services. It’s therefore not surprising that as demand for Bitcoin surged during the pandemic, so did the number of BTM installations. As of November 11, installations rose by 85%, exceeding last year’s 50% rise, according to Coin ATM Radar.
Crypto ATM installations growth
Blockchain and crypto products, including BTMs, are increasingly necessary in today’s world. BTMs, for example, can be found in easily accessible places like convenience stores and gas stations, reducing barriers to entry. Many BTM operators are also using their business for good. CoinFlip, the world’s largest BTM operator, aims to “provide financial services to unbanked or underbanked customers” and its COO, Ben Weiss, believes that the future of crypto is to empower “more people with greater access to services by removing intermediaries.”
The issue of financial inclusion is, without a doubt, one of the most urgent issues we are facing today. In developed and developing economies alike, billions don’t have access to essential financial services. In fact, the most recent data shows that globally, more than 1.7 billion people are unbanked. Even in the U.S., 22% of Americans are either unbanked or underbanked. The cost of financial exclusion often falls on the most vulnerable people, with minorities bearing the brunt of it. Without access to necessary financial products, many struggle to pay bills, insure themselves or invest in the future.
This is where BTMs offer an innovative and effective solution. They are easy to use, convenient and inclusive. They provide an essential service for many Americans who by choice or necessity, still prefer cash over plastic. Most importantly, and this deserves special attention, they offer a cheap way for many unbanked and underbanked to invest and preserve their money.
One of the reasons Bitcoin has done well as an investment is its monetary policy. Only 21 million Bitcoins will ever be created. The current rate of inflation is 1.8%, below 2.5% for gold, and is programmed to decline over time and will eventually reach 0. In comparison, traditional currencies inflate at a much higher rate. $1 in 1800 is now worth more than $20, meaning that the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar has gone down substantially over time. This situation is like to get even worse due to substantial monetary and fiscal stimulus to address the Covid-19 pandemic.
$1 in 1800 adjusted for inflation
Bitcoin has plenty of other desirable characteristics that make it an excellent investment. Institutional demand is picking up on the back of the “digital gold” narrative. It’s scarce and can’t be censored. It’s the favorite asset of millennials and generation Z. According to research by Bank of America, income of Gen Z is expected to reach $33 trillion by 2030, an increase of 500%. Furthermore, millennials and Gen Z are likely to inherit nearly $78 trillion of wealth with some of that capital likely flowing into Bitcoin. Using BTMs, the unbanked and underbanked people around the world can participate in this paradigm change.
When it comes to operating Bitcoin ATMs, there are major differences between good and bad operators. Good operators provide a convenient and safe experience, while bad operators can get you in trouble with authorities and steal your money.
In the U.S., operating a BTM requires registering as a Money Service Business (MSB). This means complying with the Bank Secrecy Act and establishing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols. Daniel Polotsky, CEO of CoinFlip, stated that his company requires AML and KYC for all customers. Other major BTM operators in the U.S., like LibertyX and Coinsource, also emphasize the importance of these checks and balances. LibertyX, for example, requires customers to complete KYC checks on the app, before using their BTMs. They also ask users to provide a wallet address and a verified purchase location.
These measures, while sometimes frustrating, are necessary to protect consumers. CoinFlip’s Ben Weiss recently stated that “creating strong consumer protections will keep bad actors from competing with legitimate products and help the crypto industry gain legitimacy in the general public’s eyes.”
Unfortunately, there are plenty of bad actors in the crypto space, many of whom engage in money-laundering and terrorist financing using BTMs. Just recently, John Fort, Criminal Investigation Chief for IRS, said that IRS is working with law enforcement to investigate illegal usage of cryptocurrencies through BTMs. According to him, BTM operators are “required to abide by the same know-your-customer, anti-money laundering regulations, and we believe some have varying levels of adherence to those regulations.”
This problem is not unique to the U.S. Last year, a criminal gang in Spain used two BTMs to launder cash and pay drug suppliers in Columbia. Just recently, German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, known as BaFin, seized 17 illegally operated and unlicensed BTMs. In its regulatory efforts, BaFin went a step further, making it illegal to provide any service, like broadband connection or electricity, to unlicensed BTM operators.
While most U.S. BTM operators comply with existing rules, the government has been slow to implement progressive regulatory reforms due to the outdated perception that Bitcoin is primarily used for illicit activities. Lack of regulatory clarity is curbing innovation and preventing BTM operators from creating economic opportunities. Instead of streamlined, federal regulatory framework for Bitcoin and other crypto assets, the U.S. still has dozens of state-level regulations. This convoluted framework is simply inadequate, restricting innovation and failing consumers along the way.
Many BTM operators agree. According to Ben Weiss, “the biggest issue with current regulations is a lack of clarity. By developing a straightforward framework, governments encourage investment and industry growth.”
Financial inclusion has always been important, but even more so today. As the Covid-19 pandemic pushes more and more people into poverty, they need access to a fair financial system. Bitcoin ATMs are part of the solution, providing easy access to essential financial services. However, lack of regulatory clarity is weakening consumer protections and limiting the ability of the blockchain industry to innovate. The U.S. government should work with industry leaders, like Ben Weiss of CoinFlip, to develop a more robust regulatory framework. Otherwise, U.S. companies will move overseas, leaving millions of Americans behind, and only widening the wealth and inequality gaps. | https://medium.com/@isla-schultz9/bitcoin-atms-the-good-vs-the-bad-8d099e60a69e | ['Isla Schultz'] | 2020-11-25 14:02:45.074000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin Atms', 'Regulation', 'Bitcoin', 'Finance'] |
The Letters | He found the letters while looking for a nail file in the dressing table; he finally knew the truth behind their misfortune. To think she was capable of such vile act! His very own wife!
Yet, she was unrepentant upon confrontation.
“They’re harmless, dear. All chain letters are.” | https://medium.com/cracked-pieces/the-letters-3f84b4eb22a8 | ['Tien Skye'] | 2019-05-22 07:46:00.809000+00:00 | ['Superstition', 'Humour', 'Chain Letter', 'Relationships', 'Flash Fiction'] |
How To Get The Best Value From Your Editor | Know what kind of editor suits your work
A developmental editor looks at the big picture: they’ll read your manuscript and produce notes to help you understand what’s working and what could be improved in your overall narrative or concept. If they’re an industry or genre specialist, they may provide specific guidance as to current trends. What they won’t do is get into the detail of how your words flow.
A copy editor, on the other hand, won’t appraise your book concept: they’re there to make sure it’s clear and easy to read. They’re looking to perfect grammar, syntax and spelling, and to eradicate repetition and inconsistencies. As such, a copy editor may suggest significant rewording or restructuring. They are not to be confused with a proofreader, however, who is there to catch indisputable errors such as typos and is the last line of defence for your book.
I’m a copy-editor with extensive experience in non-fiction (so think website copy, blog copy, history books etc.). I also edit crime fiction (though this is the only fiction genre I’m experienced enough as an editor, and widely read enough as a human, to work in). This hasn’t stopped people from wanting me to work on books outside of my experience, despite my protests; in this case, I work doubly hard to deliver, yet I still think they’d get better value elsewhere. It also hasn’t stopped customers expecting developmental overviews or wanting to know where to submit their book.
Once or twice this has ended in frustration on both sides, but it doesn't need to. Understand what your specific editor does and doesn't do before signing up or you may be disappointed with the outcome.
Get your manuscript into the best possible shape first
If you give a copy-editor a manuscript that’s in desperate need of developmental work, you’re asking them to polish a book that isn’t structurally sound, and you’re wasting your money. Similarly, if you give a developmental editor your first draft rather than your second or third, you’re paying them to deal with low-level issues you could probably spot yourself rather than taking full advantage of their expertise.
I know this sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how often I get approached to proofread or edit something the author hasn’t even read through themselves.
Working on any kind of manuscript is often laborious, and it’s tempting to just hand it over to an expert as soon as you’ve typed your last line. Don’t give in to the urge. Get your work into the best possible shape first if you want to get real value from the editing process.
Always ask for a sample edit
Most editors will be happy to provide you with a free sample edit for a full manuscript query. It helps you to check you’re happy with the way they work and ensures the editor understands how heavy or light an edit your work needs (and therefore how much to charge per word).
Your editor deciding your work needs more attention is not generally a reflection of how talented you are. Similarly, whether or not you like an editor’s work isn’t always a mirror of their ability. Although many editors trained at the same institutions, we’re not robots, and none of us will approach problem-solving the exact same way.
No editor will be offended if after seeing their sample edit you turn them down. We want to work with someone who is a good fit just as much as you do.
Know you don’t have to accept every single change
Most editors work with track changes or only make tiny changes directly to the text and include larger suggested restructures as notes. There’s a reason for this: it’s your book and the final decision is always yours.
No editor worth their salt is going to force you to accept a change, they just want you to consider whether it might improve the flow of your story.
That being said, I once worked with a client who’d dive in and change my corrected sentences without considering why they’d been changed. In doing so, they would inadvertently introduce new errors. It made the process much longer (and more expensive) as I kept having to re-edit the work. As such, my client wasn’t getting the best value for money.
It’s always worth discussing changes with your editor before going in to doctor them yourself. Your editor will be happy to explain why they made a particular change and for what reasons they think it improves the text. They’ll also be able to come up with some other options you might prefer.
If you don’t work with your editor, you can end up going in circles. | https://medium.com/the-book-mechanic/how-to-get-the-best-value-from-your-editor-790f3be08637 | ['Jessica A'] | 2021-01-20 14:16:16.177000+00:00 | ['Writing Tips', 'Editor', 'Writing', 'Experience', 'Editing'] |
How Babysitting is Fuelling My Depression | After babysitting for nine years, this is why I’m done.
How I Got Here
Throughout high school, I suffered from severe depression and anxiety. After telling my guidance counselor I was hurting myself, she called my parents and I was thrown into therapy. A few years later, I started in a group therapy program for Borderline Personality Disorder. Once I committed myself to the program, my life completely changed. When I finished I finally felt like I could manage my relationships and cope with difficult situations.
My Babysitting Journey
I began babysitting in high school and now I have a decade’s worth of experience caring for all kinds of families. Working with autistic children is my specialty, and I’ve seen everything — screaming, punching, hitting, kicking, peeing and pooping on the floor or in their pants, running away from me, calling me names, or refusing to listen. None of this compares to the disrespect I see in the children I work with now.
Dysfunction Junction
I work with one of three boys in a family. For the sake of anonymity, I will refer to the boys as Zack, Jake, and Chad. I work with Zack. He is severely autistic while his twin, Jake, is not. I love Zack. He has tons of potential.
Their oldest son, Chad, is 12. I have never seen a more disrespectful child in my entire life. The way his parents manage his behavior, or don’t, is the real problem in this family dynamic.
Awful Adolescent
One day, Chad was eating popcorn in the living room. His mom walked into the room, found a piece of popcorn on the floor near him, and asked him if it was his. Without looking up, he said “no, you can pick it up.” My eyes almost fell out of my head. This behavior is a daily occurrence, and it still shocks me every time.
I could never talk to my parents like that and not experience a consequence. His mom’s exact response was, “Don’t talk to me like that”, which he ignored. This is about the same as her walking into the room wearing a neon sign that says “there will be no consequences for your actions”.
So that’s Chad. He is painfully insensitive toward his siblings, who both struggle with mental health issues. Jake is on medication for ADHD, but he is the most apparent undiagnosed case of OCD I’ve ever seen. I’m not a psychologist, but growing up my brother had OCD and Jake’s symptoms are so much worse. Chad tortures him constantly and there are no consequences. The saddest part is that both of his parents along with Chad talk about Jake’s “issues” directly in front of him.
https://me.me/i/bad-parents-we-all-know-a-few-very-demotivational-com-bad-5ff53a00e17b4953b1160614b305151a
The Tragic Part
Unfortunately, based on numerous conversations with Zack’s parents, it’s clear that they think that HE is the source of their family issues. That is completely absurd. The source of the issues in their family is their behavior, their parenting choices, and Chad, the byproduct of their parenting choices. Due to their inability to understand Zack and their unwillingness to adapt for him, Zack is now the scapegoat.
Zack is at his worst when I’m not there. I know this because his parents tell me about how difficult he is when I’m gone. It is abundantly clear to me that they are afraid of their own child, yet most of his bad behavior is their fault. But what kid is perfect 24/7? Besides, I’m not sure how any of it is worse than allowing your 12-year-old to be utterly disrespectful to your face without consequence.
Nurture vs. Nature
What do children need to be well adjusted? I can tell you based on my experience that structure and consistency are two of the most crucial factors in raising kids, and this family has neither. Zack is a product of his environment. This is true for any child, but Zack’s developmental issues make him incapable of removing himself from an environment that he doesn’t thrive in, and it shouldn’t be his responsibility anyway. It is up to parents to create a supportive environment, and to remove a child from an unhealthy environment when they can’t remove themselves. It is not okay to place parenting responsibility on a child.
Where Does This Leave Me?
As someone who cares about Zack, thinking about leaving him is devastating. But his family’s dysfunction and lack of awareness has caused me to dread going to work. I lie in my bed thinking about how Chad is going to make me want to take a leisurely stroll off the edge of a cliff and how I can’t rescue Zack from his unqualified family. If you’re taking 200mg of Zoloft and your depression is still unmanageable, it may be time to change your environment.
From Coping to Hoping
I don’t have a nicely folded solution for caregivers. I wish I could just put Zack in my pocket and keep him safe forever, but I can’t.
In my group therapy program, they used dialectical behavioral therapy to help us manage our internal and external lives. For those who don’t know, DBT is a skill-based therapy for people with Borderline Personality Disorder. It focuses on interpersonal skills and emotional regulation. This is extremely helpful when I’m at work. I often think about maintaining a wise mind, using radical acceptance, and using skills that help you get what you want out of an interaction with someone. These skills are not meant to work every single time — they are meant to set you up to speak with someone in a respectful and healthy way and to accept the outcome.
DBT skills can be useful to anyone. If you are struggling at work like me, I highly recommend checking out the DBT workbook or meeting with a professional so that you can cope with a dysfunctional environment and protect your mental health until you are able to find a better path. It is okay to stay to protect someone you care about, but you must find a balance between your work and your health to ensure that you continue to thrive. | https://medium.com/@linagiglio/how-babysitting-is-fuelling-my-depression-d498ece8b9eb | ['Lina Giglio'] | 2020-12-16 22:06:58.433000+00:00 | ['Depression', 'Parenting', 'Autism', 'Children', 'Self Help'] |
How “Personal AI” Will Transform Business and Society | By Steve Omohundro, PhD, Possibility Research
PwC predicts that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will create $90 trillion of value between now and 2030.[1] But this huge economic value only hints at AI’s profound impact on information networks, commerce, and governance. Many are worried that powerful AI will disempower individuals. The Wall Street Journal recently published best selling author Yuval Harari’s commencement speech to the class of 2020 entitled “Rebellion of the Hackable Animals.”[2] He argued that AI will allow corporations and governments to manipulate individuals and challenged the students to find ways to counteract this manipulation.
This article describes “Personal AI” and argues that it will be the antidote to AI-powered manipulation. It will, instead, dramatically empower individuals to reshape their social and economic networks. We define “Personal AIs” as artificial intelligences trusted by individual “owners” to represent them in interactions with other individuals, organizations, and networks. There are great challenges in building personal AIs, but their impact will be profoundly positive for humanity. To understand why, we must first understand the current role of AI in society.
The Rise of Platform AI
Flashy AI applications like self-driving cars, deepfake videos, and the Sophia robot have dominated news headlines. But the AI technology with the greatest economic impact has actually been “recommender systems.”[3] These simple AI systems model users to make recommendations such as movies on Netflix, products on Amazon, and friends on Twitter.
Recommender systems were only invented in the 1990’s but have had an enormous impact. Netflix reports that their movie recommender has been responsible for creating more than $1 billion of business value. Amazon’s recommenders generate 35% of the purchases on their site. ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, was recently privately valued at $140 billion primarily due to their innovative recommender AI.
One reason that recommender systems have had such a big impact is that they enable the “Platform Business Model.” Platform companies match up producers and consumers and take a cut from each transaction. For example, Uber’s AI connects nearby drivers with people who need rides.
The platform business model creates sustainable outsized profits and is responsible for the rise of the most valuable companies over the past 15 years. In 2004, the top ten companies were General Electric, Exxon, Microsoft, Pfizer, Citigroup, Walmart, BP, AIG, Intel, and Bank of America. By 2019, they were Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Facebook, Berkshire Hathaway, Alibaba, Tencent, Visa, and Johnson and Johnson.[4] Seven of these are based on an AI-driven platform business model.
According to Applico, 60% of the billion-dollar “unicorn” startups are platform companies and most IPOs and acquisitions also make use of this model. It is estimated to have created over $3 trillion in market capitalization.
Many aspects of platform companies are counter-intuitive from a traditional business perspective. A popular meme states that:
● Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles.
● Airbnb, the largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.
● Facebook, the most popular media provider, creates no content.
● Instagram, the most valuable photo company, sells no cameras.
● Netflix, the fastest-growing television network, lays no cables.
● Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory.
While recommender systems are critical to platforms, several other forms of AI are also important. On the producer side, platform companies provide: AI-driven content creation tools, AI-driven auctions for placement, AI-driven A/B testing for optimization, AI analytics to track performance, AI-based producer reputations and AI-driven malicious content blocking. On the consumer side, platform companies use: AI-based gamification for engagement, AI-personalized marketing, AI-driven pricing, AI-based consumer reputation and AI-driven malicious consumer blocking. Each of these functions will improve as AI technologies improve.
The remarkable rise of platform companies can be understood through “Coase’s Theorem.” Ronald Coase was an economist in the 1930s who studied the nature of the firm. Economists understood that market mechanisms produced efficient results and Coase wondered why firms weren’t organized as markets internally. He showed that if information and contracting were inexpensive enough, then market mechanisms produce the most efficient outcomes. He concluded that traditional firms are organized hierarchically because business information was not freely available and contracting was too expensive.
AI dramatically lowers the costs of both information gathering and contracting. Traditional taxi companies owned their own cars, hired drivers as employees, and had managers who determined which car would transport which customer. Uber’s AI systems enable their cellphone app to turn the traditional taxi company “inside out” and to profit by intermediating between external drivers and riders.
This “inversion of the firm” is also happening in HR, marketing, innovation, finance, logistics, etc. An extreme example was Instagram which had only 13 employees when it was bought by Facebook for $1 billion. This remarkable purchase has been called the “most brilliant tech acquisition ever made.”
Many of the consequences of the platform revolution are quite positive for society. Airbnb unlocked resources (people’s spare bedrooms) which would otherwise have gone unused. Individual consumer needs can be better met by platforms (eg. the long tail of demand met by Amazon’s many sellers). Platforms enable more producers (eg. Uber’s many part-time drivers). We can understand Platform AI as creating both business value and social value.
Platform companies gain value through network effects on both the producer and the consumer side. These networks create strong “moats” around their businesses and allow them to sustain outsized profits. In typical platform niches, one company is dominant (eg. Uber) with a much smaller company in second-place (eg. Lyft) and third-place being insignificant. The strong position of the dominant company gives them great power in interactions with both producers and consumers. As AI improves, you might think that this platform power will only increase and that Harari’s fears are justified.
Platforms use their power over producers to gain the advantage. Uber has been criticized for squeezing drivers and taking a bigger share of profits. Amazon has repeatedly created their own branded versions of products which they observe are profitable for third-party sellers. Netflix notices what elements of movies and TV shows are most liked by customers and creates their own shows using that knowledge.
Platforms also use their power over consumers. Platform advertising has been criticized for being manipulative and for rewarding click-bait headlines. YouTube has been blamed for “radicalizing” viewers who watch a video out of curiosity and then receive recommendations for increasingly extreme related videos. Deceptive news stories generate outrage which causes clicks and recommender systems incentivize their creation in a vicious loop. There is increasing concern about privacy and the use of personal information by platform companies.
The Rise of “Personal AI”
If the simple AI underlying platform companies have had such a transformative societal effect, what will be the impact of more powerful AI? All indications are that AI is improving at a rapid pace and is likely to power another phase of Coase’s theorem. This will create more market-like structures and will spread power throughout networks. While AI is the enabler, the underlying forces are economic.
Two technological trends, “Moore’s Law” and “Nielsen’s Law,” are driving the improvement in AI. Moore’s Law says that the number of transistors in a CPU grows by 60% per year and has held since 1970. Nielsen’s Law says that internet bandwidth grows by 50% per year and has held since 1984. Together, they give AI learning systems increasing amounts of computation and data to improve independently from algorithmic innovation.
But learning and reasoning algorithms are also rapidly improving. The last decade has seen dramatic improvements in machine vision, natural language processing, and game playing. As advanced AI becomes more commercially viable, it attracts more investment, students, researchers, and practitioners.
Rich Sutton’s influential essay “The Bitter Lesson”[5] argued that simple algorithmic techniques like search and statistical learning have always overcome clever human-designed algorithms as computation and data increase. OpenAI’s GPT-3 “transformer” language model is essentially a scaled-up version of their GPT-2 model, but exhibits a wide range of new behaviors. Many are speculating that scaling up this class of models by another factor of 10 or 100 may lead to dramatically improved AI systems.
What will these more powerful AI’s be used for? “Digital Twins” are an AI application that has seen increasing interest over the past decade. These are digital AI replicas of living or non-living physical systems. The physical systems are continuously monitored by sensors which are used to update the corresponding AI twin models. The digital twin models are then used for estimation, diagnosis, policy design, control, and governance. Each of these is first tested on the twin and then deployed on the real system. Monte Carlo simulations estimate interactions between multiple twins for game-theoretic analysis, contract design, and analysis of larger system dynamics.
“Personal AIs” are related to digital twins but model a human “owner” and act for that owner’s benefit. They are trusted AI agents which model their owners’ values, beliefs, and goals, are continually updated based on their owner’s actions, and act as the owner’s proxy in interacting with other agents. They filter ads, news, and other content according to their owners’ preferences. They control the dissemination of the owner’s personal information according to the owner’s preferences. They continually search for new business and purchase opportunities for their owners. They communicate their owners’ preferences to governmental and other organizations. When personal AIs become widespread, they will have a profound impact on the nature of human society.
What AI advances are needed to create personal AIs? Simple versions could be built today but powerful versions will require advances in natural language processing, modeling of human psychology, and smart contract design. Each of these areas is undergoing active research and powerful personal AIs should be possible within a few years.
The simplest personal AI contract is making a purchase. If an owner trusts their personal AI, they will allow it to search Amazon and other sellers for the best product at the best price for their needs. More complex contracts will allow an owner to contract to watch a video in return for watching ads that meet their value criteria. More complex purchase contracts could include terms for insurance, shipping, return policies, and put constraints on the sourcing of components and labor. As personal AIs become more powerful, contracts can become arbitrarily complex. A new era of highly personalized purchases and interactions will follow that better meets each person’s needs and desires.
Personal AI will dramatically change the nature of marketing. If an owner knows they are emotionally vulnerable to depictions of alcohol, fast cars, or chocolate cake, they can instruct their personal AI to refuse advertising with that content. In today’s internet, recommender systems might discover an owner’s vulnerability and start specifically showing them the manipulative content they are sensitive to because it generates a stronger response. This is disempowering for the viewer and harmful for society.
With personal AI negotiation owners can block manipulative advertisements and only enable calm, informative ads about products they are interested in. If enough individuals use personal AIs, advertisers will no longer have an incentive to create manipulative ads. Cigarette advertising was only banned after governmental intervention, but personal AIs provide a more effective direct mechanism to move advertising in a positive direction.
Personal AI will also dramatically change the nature of social media. Today’s popular social media sites have power because no one wants to spend time on sites that their friends aren’t on. Lock-in is maintained by the annoyance of maintaining accounts on multiple sites. Each site has its own user interface, profiles, password, and identity system. Tracking content on multiple sites is time-consuming and confusing for users. But powerful personal AIs will easily be able to interface with multiple social media sites. They will present their owners with unified interfaces for information from a wide variety of sites personalized to their owner’s tastes. The owner need not even be aware of which site particular messages or interactions are from. This new flexibility will put additional pressure on social media sites to truly meet their user’s needs rather than relying on the power of network effects for lock-in.
Personal AI will also dramatically change the nature of governance. Today, voting gives citizens a small bit of influence over governmental decisions. But the expense and complexity of voting mechanisms means that elections happen rarely and only support a limited expression of preferences. New voting procedures like “range voting”, “quadratic voting”, and “liquid democracy” would improve the current system. But personal AIs will allow detailed “semantic voting” in which citizens can express their ideas and preferences in real-time. Governments will be able to create detailed models of their citizen’s actual needs moment by moment.
Personal AI will also dramatically change the nature of commerce. Instead of being locked into a few online marketplaces, personal AIs can explore the entirety of the web for products and deals. Complex negotiations with a wide variety of sellers will allow personalized contracts that better meet the owner’s true needs. As increasing numbers of people shop using personal AIs, this will change the nature of commerce. Buyers will be able to demand greater transparency about supply chains, counterfeiting, and forced labor. They will be able to know the exact history of a product and the exact ingredients in food and supplements.
Perhaps the largest impact of personal AI will be in the transformation of information gathering. The internet shifted news from a few powerful channels to a wide variety of sources and networks. Unfortunately, this has also enabled the spread of disinformation and misinformation. Recent AI technologies can create fake text, audio, images, and video which is indistinguishable from real content. Various groups are developing AI to detect fake content but it appears that the fakers will ultimately win the arms race. That means that careful tracking of the source and “provenance” of content will be fundamental to future information networks. Today, various gatekeepers are attempting to take control of “fact-checking” and information tracking but many are themselves being questioned.
Personal AI enables individuals to choose their own sources of validation. New sources of validation, reputation, and information tracking will arise and personal AIs will be able to choose among these according to their owner’s preferences. “Liquid Democracy” allows voters to delegate their votes to trusted knowledgeable third parties (eg. the Sierra club) who may in turn delegate their votes to even more informed groups. A similar mechanism can be used to create networks of information validated by an owner’s trusted groups. The societal effect of these kinds of information networks will be to democratize knowledge and to weaken the power of centralized information sources.
Our Empowered AI Future
W. Edwards Deming helped create the Japanese “post-war economic miracle” from 1950–1960. He proposed management and manufacturing processes that dramatically improved Japanese productivity and the quality of their goods. The Japanese word “Kaizen” means “change for the better” and has come to represent continuous improvement of all functions and full engagement of all stakeholders. Personal AI will enable a kind of “Deming 2.0” for the whole of society.
Interactions between an owner and their personal AI continuously improves the AI’s model of its owner’s ideas, values, and beliefs. Interactions between personal AIs and AIs associated with larger groups will enable those groups to integrate the detailed knowledge and needs of all stakeholders in a kind of societal “Kaizen”. This responsive interaction will happen from the local level up to the global level improving effectiveness at all scales.
The impact on the global level is especially interesting given the huge number of global crises we are currently struggling with: climate change, pandemic, economic crises, poverty, pollution, and transformative technological change. The United Nations maintains a list of the 17 most important “Sustainable Development Goals.”[6] Every one of these goals can be addressed with advanced artificial intelligence and extensive networks of personal AIs will enable every human to contribute their perspective.
The picture of our future that emerges when we include the personal AI revolution is a far cry from the “Hackable Animals” dystopia that Harari worries about. It is a future of extensive inclusiveness and individual empowerment. It is a future in which global problems are solved through careful consideration of every human’s needs and ideas. It is a future in which empowered networks enable each person to contribute and connect to the whole of humanity through their unique individual gifts. | https://medium.com/hivedata/how-personal-ai-will-transform-business-and-society-cdb72065628c | ['The Hive'] | 2020-08-28 19:00:53.608000+00:00 | ['Future', 'Innovation', 'Technology', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
“I use the hype of data journalism as a pretext to teach the fundamentals of public interest reporting” — Interview With Eva Constantaras | You mainly train. Do you like it? Is it hard and why?
Training is extremely rewarding because every country has capable, passionate journalists who need a process, some time, space and the right tools to produce groundbreaking data-driven investigations. The hardest part about the training is identifying these people and giving them the time and resources to thrive. When I first started training, I fell in the same trap as most have: I was teaching tools instead of a new approach to journalism. I improvised activities to grow journalists’ critical thinking and research skills. I eventually found Mark Lee Hunter’s Story Based Inquiry manual for investigative journalists and built data journalism teaching pedagogy around it. I have now published editions for Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Albania, Central America using local examples and local datasets and each time it gets longer. Now it’s over 650 pages and takes about five weeks to deliver. I learn as I go and share what I have learned from training here.
When training in places such as Myanmar, Iraq or Afghanistan how do you make sure what you teach is relevant to the local realities? How do you anchor what you say?
One of the first lessons I learned is that people do not want to learn concepts, tools or data out of context: so no California forest fire data or exercises with baseball scores. But as I mentioned above, there are some very tangible problems that seem to affect people in just about every country: unequal access to food, health and education, broken justice systems and poor management of environmental resources. One of the first things I do in a new country is an open data assessment to find out what data resources are out there, what studies government, civil society and academics are doing in those areas and how media has been covering those same issues. Usually, there are some excellent opportunities for journalists to develop hypotheses and dig into these datasets themselves. At first, the exercises are basically a trail of breadcrumbs to a potential story to teach the concepts and tools and then the journalists are free to explore their own angles.
(…) people do not want to learn concepts, tools or data out of context…
Data journalism hype seemed to be intertwined with the general “tech” fever in all social fields. Do you think this hype is over? Is it good or bad?
I use the hype of data journalism as a pretext to teach the fundamentals of public interest reporting: media literacy, data literacy, critical thinking, research methods, investigative reporting processes, all of which, for me, is much more challenging to teach than the tech itself. Meredith Broussard coined the term “technochauvanism”, the belief that the technological solution is always the right one. Technology can certainly enable, speed up, automate, many parts of data journalism, but first, one has to learn to be a data journalist. Learning to create a chart in DataWrapper, or even D3, does not make you a data journalist. Learning to analyze data for stories makes you a data journalist, and that skill is hard to learn. Yet nearly every week I field calls from institutions asking me to teach a data journalism workshop, or bootcamp or run a hackathon and inevitably they are vastly overestimating the role of technology in improving the quality of local journalism. Think about it like building a house. You can have all the aesthetic sense in the world and paint your house a pretty color, but if your foundation isn’t sound your house is going to fall down. I spend a lot of time listening to people obsess over picking out paint colors and much less attention on structural integrity. So no, I will not fly to country X to teach people to make interactive maps of malaria outbreaks unless they have a group of journalists who already know where the malaria is, who is most vulnerable, what caused the outbreak and how it can be fixed. Then we can talk maps.
I will not fly to country X to teach people to make interactive maps of malaria outbreaks unless they have a group of journalists who already know where the malaria is, who is most vulnerable, what caused the outbreak and how it can be fixed. Then we can talk maps.
What is broken in data journalism as a field?
I would say data journalism right now is suffering from a plethora of missed opportunities, but that is starting to change as the media industry crisis deepens. One opportunity that I alluded to above is harnessing tech to enable, speed up or automate many parts of data journalism. Services such as RADAR which helps local news outlets identify interesting story angles in datasets. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project’s Aleph enable reporters to search for data and documents already compiled by the organization. These tools don’t replace humans in the investigative process but it cuts out the manual labour of digging through raw source material again and again. The next big opportunity is pooling resources, which has been practiced by data journalists in developing countries for years and is now catching on in the West. IndiaSpend serves as a non-profit data-driven wire service for media outlets throughout India covering exclusively public interest issues. Groups like Bureau Local in the UK, ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in the US and Ojo Publico’s Regional Reporting Network in Peru are trying to reverse the trend of data journalism concentration in major cities by pushing local data sources and data skills back out to local media for local accountability stories. Finally, in the future, I see more collaboration among journalists and civic tech, civil society, and academia for joint data-driven investigations based on evergreen databases.
Dehli’s Dowry Bazaar story by Hindustan Times in the Outriders Network database
What are your favorite data journalism stories of all times?
Rather than focusing on specific stories, I think I would rather highlight a few categories of stories that have proven the importance of data journalism to democracy in times of growing inequality, whether they are done by large teams working with massive datasets or smaller teams making do with limited resources. The first of these is harnessing data to investigate the widespread miscarriage of justice whether by law enforcement (in the US or Kenya) or the justice system (in the US or Afghanistan). The second explores the reach of gender inequality and violence against women whether in India or Canada. And finally, stories that seek to explain the consequences of unregulated capitalism such as the Big Pharma project in Latin America or Leprosy of the Land in Ukraine.
…and of recently?
What has excited me about data journalism over the last few years is a move towards building and maintaining evergreen projects that can have a long-term public impact. These living projects cultivate audience’s understanding of complex public interest issue and also offer a less resource intensive way for data teams to engage in data reporting by removing the need to create a brand new database for each project. Great examples include projects that enable longitudinal oversight of education reform such as South Africa’s Passmark, regular government accountability reporting such as Datasketch’s public tender project, and introduce nuanced beat reporting on marginalized groups such as the Bureau Local’s Homelessness project or invisible organized crime victims such as Mexico’s Where Do the Disappeared Go?. These projects foreshadow a future in which all journalism is informed by data to provide context and insight on people that often go uncounted. | https://medium.com/outriders/i-use-the-hype-of-data-journalism-as-a-pretext-to-teach-the-fundamentals-of-public-interest-f51adc3ed60e | ['Alicja Peszkowska'] | 2019-04-25 06:02:44.216000+00:00 | ['Data Journalism', 'Media', 'Journalism', 'Outridersnetwork'] |
My Six-Year-Old is My Drinking Buddy: A Story About Water and Poo | Photo by Anete Lusina from Pexels
My daughter has a problem. Not a huge problem in the grand scheme of things and one that supposedly will resolve itself with time, proper training, and awareness, called encopresis. It started when she was about three after she’d already been potty trained. She started having poo smears and accidents 8–10 times per day. I let this go for a while but after washing or going through countless pairs of underwear and not wanting her to revert back to pull-ups, I sought medical advice.
At first, the pediatrician didn’t feel any blockage and because of her young age, though it must be a dietary issue. We spent a full year trying all sorts of elimination diets to see if something helped. She had her blood tested for celiac disease and other things I can’t remember now. All tests came back negative and there were no significant improvements from any of the dietary changes. Around this time, she was also starting to get bad tummy aches. There would be times when she would be playing with friends at the park and she’d suddenly double over in pain and I’d have to carry her home. Her pediatrician put her on the list to see a gastrointestinal specialist.
At the hospital for her appointment, she had an x-ray that clearly showed blockage in her colon so I was instructed to give her regular “clear outs”. The clear outs were a bit of a nightmare — painful for her physically since she hated the taste of the laxatives and how much water she’d have to drink with them (sometimes she’d throw some of them up) and they made her tummy sore. Emotionally it became stressful for both of us; I hated putting her through it. We switched specialists when the first one showed no empathy towards my daughter’s resistance or lack of improvement. Her medication was switched and even though she still had to have a few clear outs, she was given more tolerable options. She is still struggling. I have been keeping a poo journal for three years now and am forever cleaning or buying her underpants despite regular bathroom breaks, increased fiber in her diet, and having a water bottle with her at all times.
My daughter’s diagnosis has helped me to change the way we eat and drink. I was already a fitness coach but became certified as a wellness coach also so I could make better choices for my family as well as my clients. My biggest takeaway from all this is just how hard it can be to drink water. It’s not that my daughter doesn’t like it (I have a friend who actually hates water) she just can’t seem to drink much of it. Trying to get her to drink her water has made me hyper-aware of how much water I drink on a regular basis. It was only ever instinctual during or after physical activity. During the day, however, I would just forget or couldn’t be bothered to. Now that I have a better understanding of how important water intake is for regulating our hormones, satiety and overall wellness, I’ve calculated how much water I need to drink for my body weight and size and carry it around with me all day in a water bottle — just like my daughter. Every time I remind her to drink, I drink. Gradually, like any life changes we make, it becomes easier over time and it’s become more of a habit now; more instinctual. I can only hope it helps with her encopresis and I can quit my job as the “poo police”. In the meantime, we’re helping each other. There are far worse things so we count our blessings and drink our water. | https://medium.com/an-idea/my-six-year-old-is-my-drinking-buddy-a-story-about-water-and-poo-ca69d00d8fa2 | ['Stacie Moana Mistysyn'] | 2021-02-14 14:53:34.173000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Water', 'Kids', 'Drinking', 'Bathroom'] |
Climate Action Ambassador Highlight : Tina Jacobsen | Climate Action Ambassador Highlight : Tina Jacobsen
Don’t plan or strategize too much. Make a small change, and then grow the initiative from there. You will quickly learn what works best, and where/how you can make the most impact. Erin Gallup Follow Nov 18, 2020 · 5 min read
Tina Jacobsen is a business designer that is part of a climate hive at Designit, a strategic design firm with a studio in Oslo, Norway. Her work includes helping organizations innovate their business models, operations and market offerings.
What has motivated you to proactively take climate action at the place you work?
Though I find it super meaningful, interesting and fulfilling to design for sustainability, I don’t really see that we have a choice here — it’s a given. As designers we are involved in making key decisions on how businesses operate and how products and services are made. We have a major responsibility to ensure our designs can be sustainably produced, used and reclaimed, without harming our current surroundings or stealing resources from future generations. It is essential that we see to it that the things we are helping our clients create serves a meaningful purpose — that this new ‘thing’ has the right to life, or this new ‘way’ means genuinely doing better. This is not to say we always make perfect decisions, often it’s just as much about making good compromises, but the aim is always to leave the world a little bit better off.
How did you start? What things did you do in your effort?
Designit already had a solid focus on sustainability when I started, which was part of the reason why I was drawn to the company. The aim at the time was to signal more clearly to the market that Designit is ready to help businesses and organizations make the necessary changes to become more sustainable. We wanted to attract more clients with that mindset.
Specific initiatives I contributed to was conducting a case study to learn more about Nordic companies that on some level have made success on sustainability. I also organized Designit Sustainability Day where we invited companies in our network to come and play. The aim was to learn from each other through inspirational talks, panel discussions and sustainability hacks. We sparked a lot of engagement that day.
Still, the most important work I and my colleagues do is the everyday design for sustainable strategies, services and products together with our clients. That’s where all the talking and thinking materialize to real value in the real world.
How did your company and office react?
I never had to convince anyone to start working on sustainability challenges. I talked a lot about my passion for sustainability in the interviews, and then I was asked to take a lead role here — which I of course was very excited about. Our Nordic managing director Christian Søgaard and the general management team are all very passionate on this topic, and the sustainability initiatives I’ve been part of have always been joint efforts with Christian, the core sustainability team or with Designit designers in general.
What were the outcomes? Were there any changes?
The outcome of the case study was locally-oriented insights on how Nordic companies best succeed in transforming their business models to become more circular. These insights have been valuable when advising our clients on how to do similar things. We have also shared these learnings in talks on internal and external events.
A specific change we’ve seen the past few years is that clients, at least in the Nordic countries, come to us more often asking for sustainable circular designs, rather than us introducing the topic first.
What worked best?
Solving sustainability challenges with a client is very much like solving any other challenge, things work best if we work together. In every project we try to include our client as an integrated part of the group. Once the project kicks off, we are one team solving a challenge together — not merely employer and employee. That feeling is essential for success.
What did not work so well?
I still sometimes feel there is too much talking before doing. I think many companies have great visions and ideas, but struggle to materialize these in their day-to-day work. That of course also counts for us. Setting up a core group to plan initiatives, make ambitious goals and discuss our sustainability principles in internal meetings is important, but when it comes to getting things done it hasn’t been where we’ve made the most impact on the world.
What is your advice to someone starting out?
In my experience it’s always easier to approach sustainability challenges if we first acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers, that we aren’t sustainability experts yet. We need to listen to each other and learn and be willing to go through challenging changes and processes to get there. If we manage to lower our guard and defense mechanisms, keep an open mind and stay humble, that’s a great starting point.
Once the right mindset is there, identify a very specific problem you want to address. It can be a specific part of your value chain, or perhaps one single feature of a digital service. Don’t plan or strategize too much. Make a small change, and then grow the initiative from there. You will quickly learn what works best, and how/where you can make the most impact.
Then again, sometimes radical change is necessary to transform your company in a more sustainable direction. Secure that you have a dedicated, motivated and multidisciplinary team on the task, and you are off to a good start.
Illustration by Zhi Wang
What would you like to see happen in the coming years- what is your wishlist for climate action?
I would love to see more companies becoming more transparent and honest about their state of sustainability. Be proud and humble when sharing your success, but be brave and honest when sharing your shortcomings. We have to acknowledge that we aren’t there yet, or at least very few of us are. Not until we openly commit to walking the extra mile, can we collectively tip the scale toward climate positivity. This will imply we have to make some short-term sacrifices, but the long-term benefits will be so much more rewarding. Let’s design for the benefit of people and future generations, for our environment and all living creatures; as well as for our companies’ bottom-lines. | https://medium.com/the-hive-initiative/climate-action-ambassador-highlight-tina-jacobsen-2e86dea2e615 | ['Erin Gallup'] | 2020-11-18 07:02:22.519000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Design', 'Sustainability', 'Climate', 'Climate Action'] |
Oil On Water by Helon Habila Book Review — Samuel Saintmark | Oil On Water by Helon review by The Luminaries Bookclub
Oil on water revisits the chilling tale of the uprising of the evolution, activities and missions of the Niger-Delta militants in Nigeria. After their farmlands and rivers have been extensively damaged as a result of oil spillage from drilling, and the subsequent lack of clean-up of their environment, the Niger Delta implodes. In order to fight this perceived sin of injustice and dehumanization against their people, a faction of the Niger Delta youths resort to bombing oil rigs and kidnapping workers from the oil companies.
Helon Habila gives an insight into this period by telling the story of the kidnapping of the wife of a British oil Engineer — Isabel Floode. Zaq and Rufus, both journalists, find themselves in the murky waters of Port Harcourt on a journey to the kidnappers’ den to confirm if the white woman is alive before the ransom is paid. They are plunged into an adventure as their seemingly easy quest turns dangerous.
Helon Habila is a master storyteller. The way he effortlessly portrays the Niger Delta struggle in this story of a kidnapping case, encompassing the perspective of the Niger delta people, the kidnapping victims, the soldiers and even the journalists.
Helon Habila stood on the fringes, a silent observer and gave a glimpse into the life and perspective of all involved, without seeming to take sides.
A point worthy of note was how he kept flawlessly switching from the present to the past and back again, creating perfect backstories for each character without losing the reader.
From the vivid and entrancing way the author painted the Niger delta, one would think he was on these waters during that period and we are seeing directly through his eyes.
I recommend this book to everyone. | https://medium.com/@luminariesbookclub/oil-on-water-by-helon-habila-book-review-samuel-saintmark-d43474293a3a | ['The Luminaries Bookclub'] | 2020-12-17 18:00:50.646000+00:00 | ['Prose', 'Oil On Water', 'Helon Habila', 'The Luminaries Book Club'] |
Journalists Should……Roam | Journalists Should……Roam
Roam Research is a productivity tool that could be the main driver of your day, the glue of your collaboration or even your CMS. David Cohn Dec 14, 2020·7 min read
An important and often overlooked layer of innovation is about taking our existing products/processes and finding tools that help us do them better and faster. I’d put Slack into this category. The most basic use-case of Slack doesn’t fundamentally change what a newsroom creates, but it does help with efficiency and improve the quality of work. We should always be upping the tools we use.
This post is about a tool “Roam Research” which has the potential to be as widely adopted by journalists as Trello or Slack. In this post I’m going to lay out three main use-cases.
1. The personal use-case of roam for individual journalists
2. The organizational adoption of Roam for newsroom coordination
3. The publishing use-case of Roam ie: Roam as your CMS.
The first two are about improving the work you’re already doing, the last is transformational/aspirational if somebody went for it.
What is Roam?
In this post I’m not going to detail all of Roam’s features. There’s simply tooooooo many. You’ll just have to trust me when I tell you about a way you can use it. The most important thing to understand about Roam is that it adds structure to your thoughts. You could even say it allows you to “code your thoughts.” This means the tool is as fungible as your ideas. And with the ability to add your own CSS and javascript functionality (and a community sharing these snippets) you can extend Roam even more, akin to WordPress plugins.
Personal Use
Roam is a great tool for the individual journalist. The most straightforward use of Roam is as a daily journal and knowledge management tool. Roam has quickly become the main driver of my days.
Roam as notebook: Roam has the potential to be the most dynamic “reporter’s notebook” ever. Imagine being able to create bi-directional links between various sources, interviews and stories you’ve written. Before you call a source, check out your notes on them in Roam or any instances where they’ve been quoted in old articles you’ve written or from colleagues. The notebook works as a knowledge management tool and can be a place to save drafts with either a “folder” like mentality, but also along a system of tags. We all know your Google Docs are out of control. Roam can solve that. Roam comes with version control and allows you to sift through notes and final drafts very easily.
Task Management: This is probably what first drew me to Roam. There are plenty of ways Roam can accomplish this. Again, the beauty of Roam is in its flexibility. There’s no one “right way” to do task management, but you can easily set up the method that’s right for you. I use two different methods depending on the type of task. If there’s a date I want to do it on, I’ll tag it with that date and I can rest assured when I open Roam that day, the task will be in my daily log waiting for me. I also tag things with “#Tasks” and a “#ToDo” checkmark. Then when I “query” my Roam Graph all things marked “Tasks” that are left undone, I get the list of things I still need to do. When I mark them as “Done” they’ll be removed from this query. Of course they don’t disappear. I can always find them by looking at old #Tasks and see what days I created/finished them, etc. This is how a lot of people have used ToDoist.
Remember what you’ve read: From what I understand, Roam started out as a tool for Ph.D researchers to upload what they’ve read, so they could then search for common words and create a page that shows all references across various articles. Imagine uploading the Bible and searching for “Manger” and instantly being able to see, in context, all the uses of that word. In short, Roam lets you build connections across media you’re consuming. Every journalist spends a lot of time reading. You probably wish there was an easy way to find all the articles you’ve read about X. Or maybe you vaguely remember reading Y and now can’t find it. Roam can help with both of these and more, which means you can close the 150 tabs you currently have open on your browser, and save your “To Reads” in Roam. And again, a simple query brings up all the things still on my “to read” list or I can look over all the things I have read and search across them.
Manage Sources with Roam: Every journalist, especially one with a beat, has a web of sources that they’re tracking. Roam can be your new Rolodex, keeping track of who is where, what are they are knowledgeable in, when was the last time you chatted with them and what they said. This is essentially a CRM, with a journalistic twist.
Search your old ideas and make connections: With Roam everything you write is not only searchable, but with the click of a button, you can immediately find all instances of that word/idea/person/etc. Your notes are automatically connected. Now think about how powerful this is when combined with drafts, notes on articles you’ve read and more.
This is my graph overview which shows how some of my ideas are connected.
In summary, when it comes to personal use, Roam is where the right/left sides of your brain can find unity. The same tool that keeps your tasks and calendar organized is also where you can jot down free flowing ideas and keep a dream journal. While strange at first, I’ve found it to be highly effective.
Organizational Use
A more ambitious use-case of Roam would be for an organization to adopt Roam for project management, product specs, Kanban boarding, CRM’s and more. Roam allows for team graphs and can keep track of who adds what.
I won’t go into how each of these features above can be done. Much of it is captured in the “personal use-case” section and you just have to imagine multiple people using the same graph. Roam does a good job of showing who has edited what and while it will require some coordination at first, to make sure everyone can agree to the framework, the flexibility of Roam allows for it to apply to almost any use case.
Publishing with Roam as your CMS
Okay. Now we’re getting into territory that isn’t for the faint of heart. But let’s start by pointing out that Roam itself might fund your journalism startup.
This use-case of Roam is radical. To the extent that I believe the CMS is your first editor, you’ve never had an editor like Roam. If you believe, as I do, that technical features of a CMS impact editorial, then a truly unique CMS will enable truly unique editorial.
If you’ve ever followed the “structured journalism” concept, then that’s what Roam powers like no other CMS before it. What is “structured journalism.” Here’s a small example. It’s not the best UX/UI for news, but I think it shows what I mean with news that is non-linear. This is the most basic implementation of structured content. It is the “wiki” content hole.
This becomes really powerful over time when you can “query” things like “quotes from Tump.” “Quotes from Trump tagged #Untrue” “Quotes from Trump from 2–15–2020 through 6–14–2020, tagged #Covid.” You can start to see how knowledge could bubble up that would be difficult via traditional methods of writing articles — because articles don’t have structure the same way you can add structure to information on Roam.
With Roam you will create daily content, but it has the ability to be understood non-linearly. So much of news is based on the now-ness of it all and while attempts like Wikinews have tried to put things into context, Roam has the ability to do this not just by linking back and forth (although it does do this), but by creating relationships and structure at multiple levels between words, points, tags, pages and more.
While Roam can be an “open CMS” it doesn’t have to be. The learning curve of the CMS is real, but its mastery could allow a small group of people to “own” a beat in both daily coverage but also deep understanding of a topic over time.
It was this “movement” between daily and long-term understanding of a topic that I loved so much about working at Circa. And as noted in the Tweets above, Roam is the first tool I’ve seen that could allow anyone to do something similar.
The best way to start to understand this is by playing with Roam or watch some YouTube tutorials (there are plenty). I would even recommend playing with Roam’s own “Graph.” Here’s the daily log of December 9th, as I’m writing this. You can type and play around, although it won’t make sense at first.
Your Next Special Project
While I’m envisioning an organization built and publishing entirely on Roam, a more reasonable approach might be for your organization to launch a “special project.” Get a Roam Graph, point it to a public URL www.yoursite.com/special-project and give it a tight focus. It could prove to be the ultimately “special project in a box” tool.
Caveats
Roam purposefully doesn’t have an intuitive onboarding process. There’s a bit of a learning curve. Their philosophy is that if you have to work a little to learn the system, you’ll fundamentally understand it better. So if you stick with it you’ll find a rainbow at the end. There are a lot of YouTube tutorials and you can even reach out to me. I’d be happy to give you a crash course.
Keep in mind you can add your own custom CSS, so don’t let the aesthetic turn you off. You can also add your own Javascript, allowing you to make Roam’s CMS more powerful as needed. | https://medium.com/@digidave/journalists-should-roam-e963ee01de9e | ['David Cohn'] | 2020-12-14 17:17:26.398000+00:00 | ['Roam Research', 'Journalism', 'Tools'] |
Holiday Hustle: Top 5 TrendSpotter Favorites of 2020 | photo by Jewish Greeting Cards
Tonight marks the seventh day of Hanukkah — or the Festival of Lights. It commemorates the victory and recapture of Jerusalem in the year 164 BC. It is celebrated by the lighting of a menorah. One candle, known as the shamash, is lit and then used to light the other eight candles. It recreates a miracle that happened shortly after the victory when the Jews lit a menorah — which represents knowledge and creation — with only one day’s supply of oil and it lasted for eight nights. For all of us, whether Jewish or not, it is a symbol of resilience — which is a perfect analogy for 2020. We have had a roller coaster of a ride this year. While the journey has been difficult and there have been many unknowns, we have been impressed by the resilience of the social sector in continuing to be a light in the face of much darkness. To help you stay motivated, we’ve prepared a list of 2020 TrendSpotter favorites. We hope this retrospective empowers you as you prepare for 2021.
#1 7 Actions Nonprofits Can Take to Be Anti-Racist Organizations
We hope 2020 will be known as the year we turned a corner on racial justice and truly prioritized equity as a sector. It doesn’t matter if your mission is in the arts or afterschool programs, racism is an undercurrent that devalues our work in the social sector every day, and it should be everyone’s mission to name it, claim it and resolve it. In this 2020 blog, we showcase the top 7 actions nonprofits can and should take to become better anti-racist leaders as well as examples of how they are doing it. As you move into 2021, we encourage you to re-read this post and see how far you have progressed on racial equity this year.
#2 Are Nonprofit Business Plans Dead?
We talk a lot about innovation in the Social Trendspotter, but sometimes we need to invent a completely new solution. “Evolve or die” — this saying is even more true today than when I started Social Impact Architects. Just 10 years ago, I learned about social business plans in business school, but today traditional business plans are being replaced by a more efficient tool — the business model canvas. In this post, I share our simple, time-tested template for a social business model canvas — which requires nonprofits and social entrepreneurs to address the tension between impact and revenue. As you decide on social ventures or programs to pursue in 2021, I hope our revamped version will serve as a valuable tool to jumpstart your efforts.
#3 System Change: Do We Fix the System or Change it Altogether?
In 2016, we predicted a surge in interest in system change. When COVID-19 hit, it acted like a wrecking ball to our established systems. Already vulnerable, many organizations buckled under the weight of the pandemic. Now, we have an opportunity to fix the system collectively — or perhaps change it altogether. In this blog, we discuss lessons learned from two decades of experience in the trenches conducting system change.
#4 Do’s and Don’ts of Remote Leadership
As more people work from home, the greater our need is for remote leadership. In February, TIME Magazine called the last few months “the world’s largest work-from-home experiment.” To help you better navigate the world of remote leadership, we have put together our do’s and don’ts for culture, norms, rules and tools. As you evaluate 2020 and plan for 2021, see how you stack up as an employer and resolve to upgrade your organization.
#5 Etiquette for Effective Enjoyable Online Meetings
“You are on mute.” How many times have we all uttered this statement in 2020? Too many times to count! Because of remote work, we were thrown into online meetings without a lot of preparation. So, throughout the year, we curated tips for not only effective, but also “connected” online meetings to share with your teams. It builds upon one of our top blog posts on effective meetings and applies best practices to the online medium. We even produced a training on it for the Federal Reserve that you are welcome to use at your next lunch and learn (online etiquette training). If you want to improve your online meetings, check it out and let us know what you think.
“Hanukkah Sameach!” We hope you enjoy this look back at this year’s Social TrendSpotter favorites. If you have been inspired, we would love for you to share them through Twitter or Facebook. Feel free to forward this post to friends and colleagues, too. We would also love to hear your favorite posts of the year and how you have used them in your organization. | https://medium.com/@socialtrendspot/holiday-hustle-top-5-trendspotter-favorites-of-2020-363f8d63ef39 | ['Social Trendspotter'] | 2020-12-17 15:46:36.923000+00:00 | ['Hanukkah', 'Nonprofit', 'Anti Racism', 'Remote Working', 'Social Justice'] |
See It, Want It, Buy It! | See It, Want It, Buy It!
The Proven Method To Teach Kids (And Adults) Impulse Control Without Losing Your Sanity In The Process
Every parent dreads the grocery store candy gauntlet of the checkout aisle. It’s like an episode of American Ninja except you are negotiating the gauntlet with a toddler, a pre-K, and a cart full of groceries. You know you’re going to have to deal with the persistent nagging the moment your child sees the candy. Immediately they go into what I call the see it, want it, buy it mode.
The impulse buy is the marketer’s mission. Amazon’s “Epic Daily Deal’’ screams at us to buy it NOW at this great low price, or forever regret your dithering. Just last week I went to IKEA to replace two broken green plates from my dishware set, a shopping trip that should have cost me six dollars. At checkout I shelled out $57 to cover the perfect plant stand for my porch that I didn’t know I needed before I saw it on display.
Excuse me, but haven’t I earned the right to impulse buy when I want to?
The crucial question is, can we walk away without buying, and how do we learn that? How do we teach that to our kids?
Marketers target kids not because they have money to spend, but because kids are natural negotiators. They plead, whine, bargain, and rationalize until Mom and Dad shell out for what they want right this minute. The marketing bombardment begins innocently enough; it’s just a candy bar, or a fidget spinner. But the candy bar clamor becomes Lego longing, then it’s video games, branded clothes and the newest electronics.
There is always something else to want. How do you teach kids to make good choices and resist temptation?
The See It, Want It, Buy It Method To Teach Kids Impulse Control
We did not buy ‘stuff’ for our kids, except for a birthday gift and a Christmas gift. Since the kids knew this was how it was done in our family, they didn’t pester us to buy them anything. They bought their own stuff with a small allowance and some birthday gift money. They could make their own choices, AFTER the “see it, want it, buy it” interval had elapsed. The expanding Lego collection was often held up by this decree.
When Jake and Sam were about 6 and 10 years old, they would pour over Lego magazines for days, trying to decide between the huge pirate ship or Star Wars set. When they announced they wanted to order the Medieval Castle that came with a working trebuchet for $78 dollars, we initiated the two-week cooling off period. If they still longed for it after two weeks, and if they had the money, they could buy it.
This was our shopping strategy, too. Walmart puts toys in the grocery section for a reason.
On one shopping trip the kids saw Nerf Guns that they wanted right that minute. I reminded them we would not do the “see it, want it, buy it” purchase. If they still wanted it in two weeks, we would come back and make the purchase.
The return trip to the store was worth the effort; there were many times that the kids changed their minds about something they wanted. Most often that two weeks only cemented their desire for that toy. By waiting two weeks, they had a chance to decide if that toy they pined after was something they really wanted to spend their money on. More importantly, the wait fostered the important virtue of delayed gratification.
This two-week waiting strategy effectively teaches delayed gratification in a way that encourages thoughtful discussion and consideration, and is a powerful tool for more than purchases. Christine was seven when she begged me to cut her long satiny blond curls off; just thinking about it made me want to cry. We talked about why this was important to her. Even though I wished I had hair like hers, ultimately it was her hair, not mine. I asked her to discuss it with her dad, write down her reasons in her journal, and give herself two weeks to make sure she wanted her hair short. Two weeks later we celebrated Christine’s choice with a hair-cutting party. | https://rebeccahollinger.medium.com/see-it-want-it-buy-it-7c21a981a6f3 | ['Rebecca Hollinger'] | 2020-11-09 14:02:51.953000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Education', 'Life', 'Finance', 'Parenting'] |
“THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES WITH CRYPTOART WILL BE SOLVED SOON, RIGHT?" | And yet, I see you live in society.
Every time the ecological cost of cryptoart comes up, inevitably someone comes in with “What about cars? What about shipping? What about flying to art fairs? Aren’t the carbon footprints of all of those things worse?”
Despite this being enormous “ah i see you critique capitalism and yet you live in society, how curious” energy, I do want to respond- both because yes, other things do have big carbon footprints and also before someone @’s me with it again.
There are a few things wrong with this approach:
First, it is not a gotcha that there are worse things in the world than the thing you are currently talking about. I am capable of hating cryptocurrency AND capitalism AND art fairs. I contain multitudes.
I’m dedicated to the long work of trying to disentangle society from capitalism and the art world from the speculative art market. But it is so rare that we have a chance to look at a harmful technology before it is deeply embedded in societal systems and simply say: no. We can still do with with NFTs. We can still just not.
Secondly, there is no guarantee that an NFT market replaces something like the art fair (and certainly won’t change things like “cars”).
If anything, a robust NFT market bolsters the idea of the art fair or the blue chip gallery, which have always been about investment, speculation, and resale- even when the work bought or sold is also talked about for its aesthetic, conceptual and emotional qualities.
Not every piece of artwork purchased in a blue chip gallery or at an art fair is intended for eventual profit at an auction house (many simply go on to live on the walls of homes), but every artwork from these kinds of spaces has the capacity to function at auction.
When bought, these artworks have a record of sale and statements of authenticity, and are often couched as “a good deal”- this artist showed at X or Y gallery, they’re undervalued, they’re a hot investment opportunity. And from that point on, it is always up to the purchaser of the work- not the artist- how that piece will function in the future; as an artwork, as a futures investment stored in a warehouse, as a tax shelter, or as somewhere in between.
Some have said that the contemporary art market’s sudden interest in NFTs is due in part to this year of quarantine, where art markets are having to look at other models than the traditional wine-and-dine at Basel to attract buyers, but my bet is just that the art market is just remarkably good at smelling money.
If I had to guess, I’d say the NFT market will replace absolutely nothing- will cause no wasteful, physical art fairs to close- but will instead be folded into existing art fair and gallery contracts. This is because cryptoart is a perfect match to how the art market already functions.
Much like the world of blue chip, some NFTs may be bought and sold simply as artworks, intended for personal collections and acquired for aesthetic, conceptual, or personal reasons. However, every single one is made from the outset to be liquidated- an asset first, artwork second. They are images attached to dollar figures, not the other way around.
Third- the green energy solution?
A generally accepted number is that about 39% of PoW mining runs on renewables, and that number could increase with attention, investment, and time (a 2019 report from, uh, a cryptocurrency investor puts the number at more like 74% for Bitcoin in particular). Would this make the cryptoart market ethically viable?
Green energy is incredibly important for the continued future of society, but it isn’t free energy. Cost of production for solar cells, wind turbines, hydroelectric dams and thermal capture are still sunk ecological costs in mining, fabrication, and construction. Per usual, they are better but not best. Best is simply to reduce consumption as much as possible.
Furthermore, the “green energy” of cryptocurrency mining generally does not operate on a separate power grid. Using green energy sources still means pulling power out of a system also used to power houses, which drives up cost and encourages and funds new energy capture projects, including in coal, oil and gas.
(As a personal note, I’m writing this essay from the Gulf Coast of Texas, where our power only recently returned after a week of outages because of grid mismanagement, scarcity and greed.)
Fourth- the lifestyle offset.
A very common line of justification is the “I’m using my income from NFTs to replace other wasteful aspects of my lifestyle.” I’ve seen artists take this line of approach over and over, a “I don’t have to fly to sell work anymore so it evens out.” or “I don’t drive a car or import expensive art materials!” or “shipping prints isn’t environmentally friendly either!”
There is an inherent numbers problem here- it is actually pretty hard to reduce your energy consumption enough to offset the cost of minting an NFT. They are so wasteful that it would take years of careful planning to generate enough “saved carbon” to justify burning it all in one fell swoop on a minted NFT.
Because of this, some artists have opted for carbon offset credits instead, promising to reinvest some portion of their sales into forest restoration, wildlife conservation, green energy infrastructure or any of the thousands of other greenwashing schemes that allow you to purchase peace of mind.
Carbon offsets are, and I cannot stress this enough, a fake idea. Unlike direct lifestyle changes which at least are under your immediate control, carbon offsets are calculated as a hypothetical benefit in a hypothetical future that we may or may not live to see. Planting a tree does not guarantee that it will survive, thrive, or recreate the forest. Carbon offsets as an industry also have little to no regulation; often times the tree is never planted. This is well documented.
Carbon offsets do not do what they promise, which is offset. But even if they did, you cannot use lifestyle or credits as an offset when you are actively building a system that does harm. Even if you, personally, come out more or less even on the books- to do so is to loan your power to a worldview that has doubled down on worth being tied to completed labor and spent physical resources.
To do so lends your validation to the entire concept of cryptocurrency, aspects both inside of and outside of your direct control. It invites others into the space. It builds power.
It is, as an artist and an individual, to say “I believe that burning energy makes value.” It says “this is worth it to me.”
Fifth- the more efficient NFT.
There has been a lot of talk about “finding more efficient NFTs”. There is even a bounty!
There are various ways to reduce wastefulness, including more considered block sizes in the blockchain, removing pay-for-priority gas, scaling optimizations, and moving to non-Ethereum blockchains.
I doubt it will be very long before there is a “more ethical” NFT marketplace, one that has taken these steps to ensure a slower, more considered NFT minting and selling model. (Foundation.app proudly made the switch to xDai in October, but quietly returned to the Ethereum blockchain sometime since.)
This desire for an eco-NFT, one that dramatically reduces energy waste, is not in and of itself the worst idea. The trouble is, we already know how to do these things. We know how to reduce energy waste, to reconsider block sizes, to use sidechains, to move to alternate proofs. The technology is there; the market has not followed.
This is because cryptocurrency and cryptoart are not bad for the environment accidentally- they are not simply bolted onto this blundering machine and cannot just be taken off (the technology of a proof of work-based system almost guarantees this). And even if we manage to reduce those costs to a palatable number, cryptocurrency AND cryptoart are still fundamentally valuable because they burn energy.
To repeat the common maxim, the purpose of a system is what it does. Cryptocurrencies turn sunk energy cost into futures.
If that is the value system we are building, we are doomed. | https://medium.com/@everestpipkin/but-the-environmental-issues-with-cryptoart-1128ef72e6a3 | ['Everest Pipkin'] | 2021-03-14 03:48:32.919000+00:00 | ['Environment', 'Ecology', 'Nft', 'Cryptoart', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
A new model of the design process | In my previous essay, I started thinking about a more holistic view on design. I thought about how design is not just beauty, not just problem solving, but also problem finding, questioning. How design is all of that. The head, the heart and the hands. Today, I wanted to take this train of thought one step further. Today, I wanted to think about how to connect these three functions of design and how design can help bridge the gaps between strategy and operations in most organizations. All in the name of uncovering the way design can bring the most value and have the highest impact.
Three levels
Design, as most things in business, happens on three levels: strategic, tactical and operational. That these three levels seem hierarchical comes from the dominant ideas about how to organize work from the Scientific Management movement. In that school of thought, strategic work is done by managers that have a higher hierarchical position. That only ever worked in factories and other environments that have a clear, linear business processes that benefits from dumb operational workers that don’t have to think. In complex environments, this doesn’t work. Managers that are supposed to define strategy don’t have the required overview and necessary operational information to make strategies that work. One of the main problems that arises from defining a strategy anyway is that the strategic, tactical and operational levels are disconnected. The reality of most companies is that people do their work regardless of the strategy. Okay, this might sound a little harsh, but there are clear gaps between these three organizational levels in most organizations.
Three levels of work in organizations
Six areas
To bridge these gaps, we need to let go of the mental model that the levels are hierarchical. Let’s put them all on the same level. Strategy is just different work, not more important or better than other work. And strategy is too important to be left to strategists. We also need to create in-between area’s: strategic tactics between strategy and tactics, tactical operations between tactics and operations, and operational strategy between operations and strategy. Between the three levels interesting things happen.
Six areas of design
If we look at it like this, we get to six areas instead of three levels:
1. Strategy: question.
This is where we go out and find the right questions. What is the real/core problem? Why is it that a problem? Why is it not working right now? What are the assumptions we have around the problem? What is the question we need to answer in this project?
This is where we go out and find the right questions. What is the real/core problem? Why is it that a problem? Why is it not working right now? What are the assumptions we have around the problem? What is the question we need to answer in this project? 2. Strategic tactics: problem framing.
In between coming up with solutions (tactics), and finding the question (strategy), there is work to be done to translate the main questions into a description of the problem that opens up the minds of people to come up with solutions that work. The way you frame a problem determines what kind of solutions that will be found.
In between coming up with solutions (tactics), and finding the question (strategy), there is work to be done to translate the main questions into a description of the problem that opens up the minds of people to come up with solutions that work. The way you frame a problem determines what kind of solutions that will be found. 3. Tactics: functional solutions.
This is where the problems are solved by coming up with solutions. What solutions are we going to develop to answer the questions, to solve the problems? What solution fits best to the questions in the project?
This is where the problems are solved by coming up with solutions. What solutions are we going to develop to answer the questions, to solve the problems? What solution fits best to the questions in the project? 4. Tactical operations: engagement.
Between coming up with functional solutions and determining how they will look like exactly, there is work to be done to imagine how these functional solutions can be designed so they engage people. This is not just about the functionality and the looks but about the interaction patterns, the flow, the user journey, the way we can make the solution work for the users and the business.
Between coming up with functional solutions and determining how they will look like exactly, there is work to be done to imagine how these functional solutions can be designed so they engage people. This is not just about the functionality and the looks but about the interaction patterns, the flow, the user journey, the way we can make the solution work for the users and the business. 5. Operations: love.
Beauty has a big role to play in how successful a solution will be. People are visual creatures and react to solutions not only with their heads but also with their hearts. Beauty makes people enthusiastic, it opens their hearts.
Beauty has a big role to play in how successful a solution will be. People are visual creatures and react to solutions not only with their heads but also with their hearts. Beauty makes people enthusiastic, it opens their hearts. 6. Operational strategy: purpose.
The whole process is a circle. So between operational beauty and strategic questions is work to be done to make sure that the solutions align with the questions that were uncovered. The final solution is input to uncovering new and more fundamental questions. The solution gets purpose and meaning if the solution is lovely but also solves the fundamental question.
Double loop learning
All these areas feed back into each other. Or they should. Creating solutions in a complex environment requires constant learning. There are two types of learning. The first is single loop learning. You do something, there is a certain outcome, then you change the thing you do so the result is different. You learn by comparing the result to the action. Basic trial and error. This can be an effective and simple method to learn things. The downside is that you might up ending trying lots of actions to get to the result you want. There is also another way of learning and that is called double loop learning. In double loop learning, you not only reflect back on the action based on the result but you also revisit your assumptions, mental model of the situation. Especially in complex situations, this can be a more efficient way to learn.
Double loop learning
If we look at the six areas in the design process outlined above, we see that it is best to let the different areas loop back into each other. Each area works on its own assumptions that need to be revisited based on the results in the next phases to get to the best results. (You see the same circular, double loop learning in Agile ways of working.)
If we arrange the six areas of design work in a process and apply the double loop learning, we arrive at the following diagram:
A new design process model
I did not draw all the double loop lines. I drew the line back to the questions that are the foundation, the place where the most fundamental assumptions lie. But all phases can loop back into each other. More often than not, you discover that the functional solution doesn’t work the way you thought it up when you design an engaging interaction for it. Insights from the next engagement creation loops back to the solutions design phase. This goes for each phase. The most impact comes from the phases looping back to the fundamental assumptions in the question phase. It could happen that you find that your assumptions and questions have been wrong once the whole solution is live and completely built. That is the most expensive way to find this out. That is why a Lean Startup approach for testing hypothesis, questions, assumptions is advisable in situations with a lot of uncertainty. | https://medium.com/design-leadership-notebook/a-new-model-of-the-design-process-35ea103441be | ['Dennis Hambeukers'] | 2020-12-24 10:56:51.167000+00:00 | ['Design Strategy', 'Design Leadership', 'Model', 'Design Model', 'Design'] |
Five Reason You Need Contact Management App | Agreement EXPIRATION
Hazy expiry date prompts an expansion of the agreement. It is OK if the association worked out effectively yet surely not alluring if either party isn’t fulfilled. The agreement termination date is a significant marker to survey the relationship with the current provider. It is for the two players to profit by an agreement expansion and clear a path for a superior arrangement. While it guarantees affirmed deals for the provider, it likewise guarantees the purchaser a decent deal. A high-level agreement the executives programming factors in the lapse date so it can deliver choice alarm to the client.
Record DIGITALIZATION
Our market knowledge advises us that numerous associations are as yet utilizing paper. Enlisting a high-level agreement the executives programming is a lean technique to grasp innovation and improve the climate. Record digitalization encourages open and focal assessment at some random time. On work area applications, however, a high-level arrangement is additionally accessible in a hurry; i.e., your cell phones. On account of later, job bound admittance to data is conceivable whenever without rebuilding your folios like clockwork.
Agreement AUTHORING
With a high-level agreement, the board arrangement set up, creating contracts become simple and maintains a strategic distance from redundancy. An agreement of comparative terms, conditions, and legal jargon can be a format for rehash use. You can skirt the repetition of agreement drafting on different occasions by utilizing standard format pre-affirmed by your legitimate group and article board. It seems as though the agreements will keep in touch with themselves and offer you sufficient space to zero in on other key issues of your business.
Programmed BOOKING
A high-level agreement the board programming has the office of computerized receipt handling. With it, you can without much of a stretch match a buy receipt to authoritative arrangements. Interestingly, you don’t need to scramble a common receipt physically. The arrangement will naturally extricate instalment conditions from the agreement. There is no requirement for manual intercession if portion and legally binding particulars are a match. What’s more, you can without much of a stretch track the number of solicitations reserved for a specific agreement and forestall fake exchanges for all in-substantial agreements.
Execution EVALUATION
At long last, a high-level agreement the executives' framework encourages you with the understanding expected to assess your provider execution. As an association, you’ll have a standard agreement convention to quantify provider execution. Such data encourages you with choosing whether or not you can proceed with a specific provider. Execution assessment likewise causes organizations to remunerate the best provider and put in exertion toward supporting a drawn-out beneficial relationship. | https://medium.com/@bizconnect321/five-reason-you-need-contact-management-app-df3c2a3774df | ['Biz Connect'] | 2021-01-22 11:22:20.592000+00:00 | ['Hubspot', 'CMS', 'Zoho', 'CRM', 'Salesforce'] |
EPISODE #55: Is It Time To Start Hiring Digital Coworkers So Human Staff Can Spend More Time With Customers? | Guy Nadivi: Welcome, everyone. My name is Guy Nadivi, and I’m the host of Intelligent Automation Radio. Our guest on today’s episode is Chaz Perera, Co-Founder and CEO of Roots Automation, which claims to have the world’s first self-learning, zero integration Digital Coworker bots. There’s lots of debate about whether automation in the form of bots will replace more people or augment more people, and that’s one of the subjects we want to hear about directly from an expert. So we’ve invited Chaz to join us today and share his thoughts with our audience. Chaz, welcome to Intelligent Automation Radio.
Chaz Perera: Hi, Guy. Thanks for inviting me on. I’m excited to share what I’ve been learning over these last few years in the automation space, and yeah, hopefully your listeners will take a few bits and bites from it, and help them improve their businesses.
Guy Nadivi: Well, fantastic. I think the first thing, Chaz, that everybody would like to know is what was the path that led you to start Roots Automation and your focus on Digital Coworkers?
Chaz Perera: Sure. I, at one time was the Chief Transformation Officer of AIG, a large multi-national insurance company. We were, at the time, we had been leveraging RPA technologies for roughly five years. It struck me as odd that we were spending, in our case then, many millions of dollars running an RPA program, and we were sort of challenged to get to value. I started to ask people, my peers at other companies how they were sort of dealing with that challenge, and I was coming across the same sort of problems, which is that the traditional RPA deployment methods, which really mean you need to spend a lot of money on a variety of different skill sets, you need to spend a lot of money on different technologies, and you need to spend a lot of time, typically many months, building a bot, and that is different from what RPA technologies typically promise, which is speed, and short time to value, and so I wanted to come up with a different way to deploy bots in a working environment. The second thing that struck me and the reason that we are focused so much on Digital Coworkers, as opposed to just bots, is at one time, I also ran shared services for the company. I noticed that when we were running shared services, often, people here in the U.S. or the U.K., for example, would often complain that the folks in the Philippines or in India, wherever our shared services entities may have been didn’t understand the business. They weren’t helpful, and so people would rather just keep the work onshore and do it themselves. I noticed that when we started to introduce bots into the operating environment, people had the same responses that the bots weren’t doing the job properly. They weren’t as complete as they needed to be, et cetera, and so it struck me that we needed to create bots that had more human-like qualities that, where humans could feel almost a fellowship between themselves and bots. Otherwise companies would be making huge investments in robotic technologies, automation technologies, but not getting value from them because people were essentially opting out of leveraging these technologies.
Guy Nadivi: Now, you just mentioned shared services, so I want to ask about an article you recently posted about the importance of standardization for automating processes. Before automating a process, in addition to it being standardized, it’s also a well-accepted best practice that it should be optimized, as well as thoroughly documented, so I’m curious, Chaz, what percentage of business processes are you seeing that are standardized, optimized, and documented before you begin to deploy your automation?
Chaz Perera: It’s a really good question, Guy. I think the reality is when you start to talk to a prospective customer, you find more often than not, and by more often, I mean, 70, 80% of the time, their processes are not well-documented. Their processes aren’t optimized. Their processes may be standardized in their mind, but not necessarily the way we, in the world of sort of process improvement, think of what a standard process looks like. All that being said, one of the things that we see at Roots Automation, and this is the advantage of sitting outside of a company and seeing the business processes of lots of similar companies, what we find is that the processes at one company are often similar to the same process at another company. A very simple example would be the accounts payable process within a finance team at one insurance company, is often very similar to the accounts payable process at another insurance carrier. In fact, what we’re finding is that for those back office processes, the similarities amongst those processes are closer to 80%, so what we end up doing is thinking about that remaining 20% and how we can build our Digital Coworkers in such a way that that 20% becomes something you can configure as opposed to having to always build from scratch. Similarly, as we move into the front office of insurance or the middle office of insurance, so underwriting and claims, we find similar things that the underwriting processes have a lot of commonality, insurance company to insurance company. The claims processes similarly have a lot of commonality, insurance company to insurance company. I suppose a long-winded answer to your question, even though these companies may not have standardized processes in their mind or they may not have documented these processes to the degree that we would like, we see enough of these processes to be able to say that there is standardization, there is commonality amongst the processes that we can leverage and take advantage of.
Guy Nadivi: In another recent article you posted about automation and return on investment, you touched upon the topic of automation centers of excellence, which generally speaking, are highly recommended for enterprises as part of their automation journey. However, you state that, “Statistically speaking, only about 4% of COEs deliver a positive ROI.” Is everyone wrong then about the need for centers of excellence, or is there a better path to take in order for them to successfully deliver an appropriate return on investment?
Chaz Perera: It’s a really good question. I would say there is no one size fits all. I think if you are a very large enterprise, having an automation COE makes a ton of sense, because you want to standardize on a certain subset of technologies. You want to be able to take advantage of the scale, that leveraging those same technologies will bring you, but if you’re a medium-sized company or a smaller business, the requirements around talent, the requirements around the technologies you need to bring forward are so vast that a COE is not an affordable exercise for most companies. Just to give a very simple example, if you want a bot to be much more human-like, and you think about how processes often begin today, they often start with an email, you need to think about Natural Language Processing, and so you need to bring some AI, machine learning expertise to the table. How many companies have people with NLP as a specialty, and maybe you need to now start to think about OCR as well, because sometimes you need to actually digitize these documents before you can run them through your NLP, and that OCR expertise and the computer vision that’s required to get OCR to work at a very high degree of accuracy is very expensive, and so that’s why I say the COE model doesn’t make sense, unless you’re a large enterprise. Excuse me, what I would add to just provide additional color, some of the largest enterprises in the world don’t need to have a singular COE. They could afford to have COEs by function as long as those COEs are operating as a federation, where the sharing, the learning, leveraging the same technologies so you can take advantage of your scale is still sort of core to that federated model. For everyone else, the best bet is to partner with a third-party advisory house like EY or KPMG to consider systems integrators, or look for a company like Roots Automation, which provides Digital Coworkers as a service, where you physically don’t have to worry about anything other than, “Here’s my business process. Can I leverage one of your bots to run it?”
The last thing I’d say, Guy, on that particular topic, what we found in our research is that the magic number for needing to have your own COE is if you believe you can automate 35 processes at your company, then it makes sense for you to have a COE because you can get to break even on that investment over the course of a few, short years.
Guy Nadivi: Very interesting. I’ve never heard that specific number. Chaz, you write a lot of really good articles, and in another of your recently published ones, you talk about the importance of enterprises upskilling their employees. That’s actually a topic we’ve spoken about quite a bit on this podcast. Let’s say I’m one of those employees, and let’s also assume that I want to acquire the skills needed to ride this growing automation wave that’s digitally transforming everything. Regardless of whether my organization pays for my upskilling or I have to pay for it myself, what are the top skills I should acquire to take advantage of job opportunities in automation?
Chaz Perera: I think it is wise for everyone, regardless of the industry they work in to try to learn to code in some language. There’s a mindset, a way of thinking through logic that coding brings forward, and I think that’s important. If you’ve never coded before, learn to code in some language, and it doesn’t have to be deep understanding of it, but just understanding the basics. If you want to be in the world of automation and more specifically in the world of RPA, it makes a ton of sense to try to learn using one of the base, more common RPA platforms like a UiPath, or a Blue Prism, or an Automation Anywhere. I believe all the RPA software providers out there for the most part, at least, provide a community edition or some sort of free edition that you can use to learn. Then, I would say that, thinking about my answer to an earlier question, Guy, around machine learning, and specifically computer vision and NLP, I’m not saying you need to become a data scientist, but I do think it’s important you understand what the art and the science of data science actually is, so that you can speak to it with some level of understanding so that when you are sitting with a data scientist and trying to solve some of these complex problems, you’re able to work off of a single dictionary, and you’re not sort of two or three steps behind. I’ll quickly add one more thing that sort of comes to mind, Guy. In the world of automation, it’s really important to remember there are humans at the end of every single transaction, and so change management has to be a skill that we all have. Automation technologies should be scary. They’re not intended to be scary, but the way you can make them scary is by not being transparent, by not talking about how these technologies can really help to improve the experience for customers, help to advance business objectives. If you introduce this stuff without a little bit of fanfare, without the right change management, that’s when people start to worry about their jobs, and so I would say also focus heavily on change management.
Guy Nadivi: Okay, so let’s talk about the humans in those automation transactions. Your company, Roots Automation specializes in Digital Coworkers, and yet, that’s a term I imagine might create some anxiety in people, and perhaps even trigger some resistance from employees fearing job loss, or radical changes to their job. On this podcast, we refer to that kind of resistance as robophobia, and it’s been known to create friction for enterprises deploying automation. Chaz, what would you say to someone experiencing robophobia at the thought of working alongside a Digital Coworker?
Chaz Perera: We were very careful when we thought about what Roots Automation’s product would be and how we would offer it to the world. The reason we chose the term, Digital Coworker, the emphasis on “Co”, is because we wanted people to recognize that our bots are not simply there to take over their work. Our bots are there to be one, an extension of their team, two, to essentially step in and do the types of work that people typically don’t enjoy doing, don’t get much satisfaction from, and by being able to engage in that more mundane and rote work are, you as a team member of this Digital Coworker, you should now have the ability to engage with customers, to work on projects, to do things that we all hope will create more value for the company than more of the transactional work that bots or Digital Coworkers are just great at. All that being said, transparency is really important, and so when we are talking to customers about implementing one of our Digital Coworkers, we think it’s really important that they talk about where these coworkers fit in on the team, the types of work that the Digital Coworkers are going to be doing, the types of work that the humans will now start to do. Fundamentally, in our platform, Guy, you talked about how we provide this self-learning bot. We don’t pretend as though our bots on day one will be able to do all the work that a human does today, and we also expect that they will be imperfect in that exercise, and so what we encourage is an interactivity between humans and bots, and in our product, that means that as the bots come across things they’re not sure about. If they’ve come across data that they’re not sure about or data that’s missing, or they can’t triangulate data, what they will do is they’ll stop, and they’ll actually ask one of their teammates, the human on the team, a set of questions. Through that interactivity, the bots are starting to learn. What we found is that our customer’s employees, the people that are teammates to these Digital Coworkers, really enjoy that experience. What it’s allowed us to do is to dial down very naturally some of that fear, some of that trepidation that people have had.
When our Digital Coworkers are introduced in one part of an organization and people start to get excited and start to feel like these bots are really part of a team, they naturally start to talk to other parts of the organization about the experiences they’re having, the excitement they’re having, and it helps to, again, dial down some of those fears, and so nothing is better than one employee talking to another to say, “Hey, it’s not what you think it is.”
Guy Nadivi: Chaz, can you share with us some of the outcomes, and particularly the ones that created that excitement from Digital Coworker deployments you’ve overseen?
Chaz Perera: Yeah, absolutely. Typically, what we are able to do for our customer, because we provide these pre-trained Digital Coworkers, what we’re able to provide is a coworker that’s ready to work in a customer’s environment typically between three to six weeks. Because of their ability to learn and engage, they get to productivity quite quickly, and as a result, our customers are seeing a break-even on that investment in as little as five months. If you extrapolate the benefit, because one of our Digital Coworkers is as effective as four to eight people at a company or four to eight people on a team, what we’re seeing is our Digital Coworkers will get a company to about a 250% ROI over the course of a five-year cost benefit analysis. What’s also interesting, Guy, what we’re seeing that’s less to do with the financials and much more to do with the feeling on the ground at a company, our customer’s employees really do endear themselves to our bots. They give them names, they give them personalities, they talk about them as though they’re real people. In fact, we regularly get emails from customers saying, “Hey, any chance Roxy could do this? Any chance Claire could do that?” That is probably the best indicator of success, that we know we can make the CFO happy by getting them to the financial value, but making sure that the line staff and the line managers are just as excited is really what we’re striving to do.
Guy Nadivi: Personalization is very interesting. Chaz, given some of the radical changes to the way people have worked since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, what role do you envision Digital Coworkers can play going forward?
Chaz Perera: I hope that because of the pandemic, companies recognize how critical their human workers are to keeping customers apprised of what’s happening at the company, keeping customers highly engaged, keeping people loyal to brands and how important employees are to solving those substantive problems that customers often have. And so really, I hope that Digital Coworkers are enabling that by continuing to leverage these bots to not just handle your low complexity and mundane tasks, but because in the world of intelligent automation bots are starting to learn that they can move beyond the more rote tasks that companies often use RPA to do, and start to move towards the tasks that are slightly less sort of defined and structured, because then, you really can free your people to focus almost entirely on engaging with your customer, having conversations with them. Ultimately, that’s the thing that will allow you to build your brand and keep customers on your books in perpetuity.
Guy Nadivi: Chaz, as you know, the pace of innovation in our field can leave your head spinning, given some of the advances in automation, AI, and other digitally transforming technologies, but I’ll ask you this question anyways. What do you envision will be some of the biggest disruptions we’ll see in the next one to three years with respect to Digital Coworkers?
Chaz Perera: I think a couple things. The first, in the context of process mining, I think a lot of the process mining technology we have today is very good at developing a solution designed to document, providing you with that process map, but I imagine that over the next few years, we will be able to go from an exercise in process mining to an actual working bot, this concept of no code actually occurring in the world of bots, and so that would be a huge leap in terms of getting to value quickly, simplifying the exercise of developing and maintaining what are quite complex technologies. I think that would be a fantastic shift in something I do see coming. The second thing would be GPT-3, starting to get bots to not just be able to converse more naturally, but read more naturally. That will allow these bots, as I was sort of talking to earlier, start to move beyond the more mundane, rote, standardized tasks, and start to move into those tasks that require more and more judgment. Then lastly, and this is something we pride ourselves on at Roots, when we talk about Digital Coworkers, we want our coworkers to have very human-like qualities, and so today, our bots learn, our bots communicate, and they can do that on Slack, they can do that on email, whatever it might be, and our bots have this ability to sort of anticipate things. In our parlance, two examples of that might be that our bots, Guy, might recognize that you have your cup of coffee at 9:15 every morning, so that’s not a good time to bother you, come ask me questions at 10:00 instead because you’re more likely to provide a good answer. That’s an example of how we see bots being more human-like. What I hope to see over the next few years is that bots, our Digital Coworkers start to anticipate more. Imagine a Digital Coworker participating in your daily huddle, listening in on the conversation, hearing that the manager who’s leading that team saying things like, “These are the 10 things that are going to be the priority for the day.” “Everything else comes second,” and the Digital Coworkers actively reprioritizing work as a result of what it’s hearing. That’s how we get to a more cohesive office environment that has this happy balance between humans and Digital Coworkers, and certainly that’s what we’re striving for.
Guy Nadivi: Intriguing. Chaz, for the CIOs, CTOs and other IT executives listening in, what is the one big must-have piece of advice you’d like them to take away from our discussion with regards to implementing Digital Coworkers at their organization?
Chaz Perera: It’s interesting, I’ve heard a lot of IT leaders at companies of all sizes talk about agile, and that being the way they deploy technology quickly and create value quickly, but what’s often missing in those conversations are business people, so the IT part of the organization has adopted agile, is trying to move fast, but they’re not doing as good a job educating their business counterparts about how they need to operate, they need to contribute, how they need to learn in this agile-operating environment. You can’t have a true agile environment unless all parties are at the table with an equal understanding and an equal ability to contribute, so I would say that is something, thematically speaking, I see often that some people are left behind in that conversation. Then, the other thing I’d sort of throw out there, bots don’t fail gracefully, and so I would encourage IT leaders across an organization to think long and hard about the interactivity layer that needs to exist between humans and bots so that you don’t leave a human stranded. The thing that, going back to that original question, Guy, you asked about, “Why Roots Automation?,” one of the things that absolutely drove me nuts about the deployments of robotics at AIG, we would give our business users an Excel spreadsheet at the end of the day that said, “Here are all the things the bots did. Here are all the things the bots couldn’t do.” “For whatever reason, you need to pick it up.” That is not a great user experience. That is not a great customer experience, and so I would say spend time thinking about that interactivity layer and how you can create a better human experience for people that now have to work with bots.
Guy Nadivi: Setting realistic expectations, always a good idea. All right. Looks like that’s all the time we have for on this episode of Intelligent Automation Radio. Chaz, we love having automation innovators on the show, and it was great hearing your thoughts about the innovative role Digital Coworkers will play in the future of work. Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast.
Chaz Perera: Guy, it was a pleasure, and again, thank you for the opportunity to share my two cents at least with your audience.
Guy Nadivi: Chaz Perera, Co-Founder and CEO of Roots Automation. Thank you for listening, everyone, and remember, don’t hesitate, automate. | https://medium.com/@intelligentaut4/episode-55-is-it-time-to-start-hiring-digital-coworkers-so-human-staff-can-spend-more-time-with-113f3ecab72f | ['Guy Nadivi'] | 2020-12-15 21:07:22.668000+00:00 | ['Automation', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Future Of Work', 'Ayehu', 'Digital Transformation'] |
A distant fifty | Author photo
Fifty is a dubious milestone although I know some celebrate it. I hear of surprise parties, expensive dinners, maybe a bucket list vacation. My wife envisions a trip to Hawaii or some other exotic, for us, destination. She is damn near giddy about the prospect, but mostly what I feel is stunned. A previously dim horizon has suddenly clarified in alarming proximity and detail. Fifty is not my number. It’s my father’s number. A faraway number.
As I near my fiftieth year, the impulse to reflect and make an assessment of my life has lately been hard to ignore. In my accounting, I have been surprised to find that there is no sense of ground covered, no relief at nearing a destination. I have instead an uneasy suspicion that rather than gain, these five decades have cost me something. I have accrued a mortgage, a couple of generally reliable cars and a modest savings account — the material hallmarks of a life spent grinding in the corporate world. These are the sorts of things I thought I was working for, but I find that I’m having trouble counting them as signs of headway. I find myself counting other things.
This lowball tumbler here on my desk, for example, once cradled in the hard knobby ironworker hand of my grandfather. The curved surface is frosted with the words Bass Anglers Sportsman’s Society — Member. He was also a Life Member of the NRA, an Army veteran, a union man and occasional Sunday school teacher. Life. Member. I like to drink sweet tea from it as he often did, the clink of ice against the glass shaking loose my childhood memories of him.
Also on this desk sits a green foam beetle fly tied by good friend John Bolton, gone now nearly ten years. I can see him plucking it from his vice to hold to the light, turning it this way and that before judging it worthy. It was one of many things he shared with me during our time fly fishing Georgia farm ponds together. John’s career in the airline industry allowed him to fish extensively throughout the world, but he still chuckled every time one of those country bluegill slurped down one of his creations. 401K? You can have every penny of it if I can go back and spend a few more summer evenings on those ponds with him.
A shelf beside this same desk holds a stack of ragged baseball caps once belonging to my sons, dusty relics cast aside after the various seasons had ended. At one point though these old hats were important to them. The headbands are discolored and dirty, deeply marked with their sweat, their work, their anxieties as they met challenges on the fields of competition. I sometimes pull one from the pile and slip it on over my own aging head, imagining this as one way to remain close to my boys as they grow into their own lives and begin to slip from my orbit.
My reading/writing room is cluttered with such artifacts. I believed for much of my life the world view that the pursuit of profit and lucre is an honorable pursuit, but with nearly fifty years of perspective I wonder about the truth in this. I can’t convince myself that the things I hold as valuable can be measured in tender as common and mundane as dollars. Truly valuable things are rare. Irreplaceable. A drinking glass once held by a good man. A soiled cap worn by someone who means something to you. Old growth forests and pristine rivers and reedy ponds in quiet pastures. Fish rising to a fly tied by a long gone friend. I realize this could just be sentimental tripe from a man suddenly faced with the reality that his life is almost certainly more than half over. Or it could be, as I prefer to think, a turning back to things I’ve known all along. | https://medium.com/illumination/a-distant-fifty-fa9232bbfa50 | ['Gt Goodwin'] | 2020-12-17 14:32:56.059000+00:00 | ['Personal Essay', 'Nonfiction', 'Philosophy', 'Life Lessons', 'Life'] |
Radical Candor: Rocket Fuel for Your Teams | What did we learn?
Anecdotally, we’ve seen some incredible growth, and some missteps, from folx exploring this material. It’s been encouraging to hear that Radical Candor is helping people think through their relationships (both personal and professional) differently, and what we owe to each other in terms of feedback. It’s also been heartening to see the places we’ve over-extended — sometimes with a preamble that they realize hasn’t been quite tuned enough, like I’m going to be Radically Candid here — and then been self-reflective enough to realize that’s not quite how to apply the concepts in practice.
I wanted to hear, and share, reflections from participants. Feedback was copious. I’ve selected a few thoughts across the organization that hopefully give a sense of the impact the series has had and why we continue to invest in it.
About the material and model
If a team signs on to implement Radical Candor and has trust in each other to be kind, that team can focus on the work and get more high quality work accomplished. It’s an un-blocker. — Jeremy Brett, Software Engineer
Using Radical Candor to constantly point out each and every flaw in a colleague is not helpful. I think the book calls it Obnoxious Aggression and it is definitely both those things. I have also noticed obnoxious aggressors are the least likely to actually take constructive feedback in the spirit it is offered. I think there is this happy middle ground that requires judgment and good intentions to find. — Mike Ryan, Director of Engineering
Rock Stars have a different motivation. As an organization, how can we structure our HR tools and techniques to support these concepts? I’d like to use the book when we are recommending new things like our career mapping conversations… how do we align our processes, tools, etc to Rock Stars vs Super Stars? — Robin Morrison, Head of Agile Solutions
I tend to think in systems, and I have a hard time with consistency without them. Radical Candor gives me a system for managing interpersonal interactions that I never really had before. It finally made ‘There’s a difference between nice and kind’ make sense. — Chris Terry, Platform Engineer
Understanding how other people have the same blockers to being candid helped me acknowledge that discomfort and push through it myself… the harder something is to say, the more important it is for you to give that feedback. — Kellan Folkers, Director of Client Solutions
About the book club framework
I got to bounce my interpretations off other people, hear angles I wouldn’t have thought about, and through those, better understand the concept model. It felt especially useful hearing from others who had experiences they could tie Radical Candor to. — Chris Terry, Platform Engineer
My learning from the book club was less regarding the book material itself. Instead, I learned more about the people in the book club series within my group: how they think and feel, how they perceived the material of the book, and how they felt challenged by the book. — Dennis D. Kirkpatrick, Platform Engineer
The open, honest discussions amongst our cohort were insightful and highlighted that different readers can come away with nuanced understandings of the text. The discussions about those nuances were the highlight of the sessions for me. — Bill Schwanitz, Technical Architect
Getting to hear others’ perspectives and insights is always extremely valuable. As we discussed in the CS book club, no two people have the same experience, so hearing these varied perspectives could not only help us expand our insights into the material, in this instance it could help provide fuel for caring personally.. — Jeff Grow, Senior Manager, Client Solutions
Listening to others enabled me to learn from situations that I may face in the future. Hearing from others how to apply the methodology to situations I haven’t yet faced helped me to speed up maturing as a manager without having to pay the price. — Jaffid Landeros, Director of Engineering
Radical Candor needs context — if left unguided it can definitely end up in ruinous empathy or obnoxious aggression. It is an uncomfortable topic and can be hard to operationalize without guidance. To that end, I love that we did it as a book club series and that Elisa championed it around the organization with a rigorous, thoughtful approach. — Ming Linsley, Head of Kenzan
Paying it forward
If you’ve gotten this far, perhaps you are interested in leveraging Radical Candor in your organization to make meaningful change in your operations and communication. No sense in reinventing the wheel… in our next post we’ll share our blueprint for running your own book club.
Are you using Radical Candor personally or in your organization? I’d love to hear your thoughts and how it’s working! Find me on LinkedIn.
If you enjoyed this article, catch up on all the articles in Elisa’s series on Radical Candor:
Part 1, The Daily Practice of Crit(ique)
Part 2, Calling Yourself Out
Part 3, Management Style: Sunny With a Chance of Bananas
Part 4, Pink Hair, Piercings, and Professional Services
Part 5, Pandemically Candid | https://medium.com/@kenzanmedia/radical-candor-rocket-fuel-for-your-teams-c300ca6d014c | [] | 2020-11-16 22:46:29.601000+00:00 | ['Radical Candor', 'Team Building', 'Agile Methodology'] |
Using Logical Counter-Examples to Refute Anti-Nuclear Rhetoric | Image: Brane Space
By Joe Buff, MS, FSA
The Global Zero Movement and their nuclear disarmament fellow-travelers keep telling Congress and the American people something fundamental, something lovely, some great news about war and human psychology. Alas for global peace and human survival, their claim is about as real as unicorns that fly like Pegasus, eat rainbows, and fart no-cal rocky-road ice cream. The No Nukes crowd keep trying to say that the United States can effectively deter any enemy nuclear attack by threatening to retaliate with conventional weapons only. Unfortunately, this forlorn hope has been gaining some traction in the media and on Capitol Hill — pushed along, no doubt, by adversary foreign influence operatives who would love to see us discard our nuclear Triad.
The neo-pacifist unilateral-disarmament delusion falls apart under the slightest rigorous scrutiny. It is completely undermined by a simple fact of history: Conventional arms don’t even effectively deter conventional attacks. So how could they ever prevent nuclear attacks? Each nuke is 100 to 1000 times as powerful as a piece of h. e. ordnance. Each mighty nuke takes up vastly less space and weight than a puny iron bomb, and needs minimal crewing and very few platforms to deliver with the utmost devastating effect.
The 1000-plane strategic bomber raids of World War Two took a whole army of air crews, ground crews, and support personnel, working hard for weeks, to first mount and then recover from each such operation. A nuclear surprise attack or drastic crisis escalation, in contrast, once an adversary fields a good sized nuclear arsenal, can be accomplished in mere minutes. A difference in degree makes a difference in kind. Never is this truer than with the equipment of war. Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight. Your enemy, unscathed, will make you bleed and die, quickly and from a safe distance.
Don’t preach great patience to someone who has poor listening skills and no impulse control. Don’t preach both-win statesmanship to someone whose whole value system is winner-take-all brinkmanship. And don’t expect anything fair, let alone compassionate, from an amoral sociopath gambler-type who is driven by political/geopolitical desperation or unbridled greed. Above all, don’t try to advocate some radical defense policy that is starkly contradicted by plain facts from actual history.
There’s an old colloquialism, “That’s the exception that proves the rule.” For instance, if you say that all Audi vehicles are reliable, and someone tells you that theirs is always in the shop, you can retort by saying “That’s the exception that proves the rule.” This might work well in a third-grade schoolyard argument but this colloquialism is in fact an oxymoron — a self-contradiction in terms. Such verbal shenanigans have no place whatsoever in high-stakes debate about national defense policy and adequate funding. In factual reality, which is the only reality that actually exists and is the highly compelling one in which we have to survive and thrive, “alternate facts” such as “the exception that proves the rule” deserve immediate relegation back to that third=grade schoolyard.
In any system of rational logic — in line with the incontrovertible decision-making principles of higher (and lower) mathematics — a single exception is enough to utterly disprove any putative rule. There are in pure math no “alternative theorems.” Theorems that are just plain false, but that someone wishes were true badly enough to claim their validity anyway, would not from anyone but a madman or a con-man get the slightest credence. It only takes one counter-example to decisively reject any logical hypothesis. This should especially be true for hypotheses whose advocates want them to be used in national defense policy, in matters of nuclear war and nuclear peace, of life and megadeath.
Academic studies have carefully assessed world military history for the past 200 years to test whether conventional deterrence is even very effective for preventing conventional attacks by major industrial states.(1, 2) Their thoroughly peer reviewed conclusion was that the threat to retaliate using conventional weapons does not effectively deter even mere conventional attacks; it worked at all barely half the time in dozens of test cases. The hypothesis that conventional retaliation alone would somehow serve to deter nuclear attack cannot be tested empirically for obvious reasons. But the above discussion of enemy moods, methods, and motives says it would be much less effective here even than against conventional attacks.
To claim otherwise would simply be the action of a madman or a con-man. QED.
________________________________________________________
1. Jervis, Robert, Richard New Lebow, and Janice Gross Stein, Psychology and Deterrence, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, 1989).
2. Mearsheimer, John J., Conventional Deterrence, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, 1983). | https://medium.com/@joebuff/using-logical-counter-examples-to-refute-anti-nuclear-rhetoric-9148b015fcb2 | ['Joe Buff'] | 2020-12-17 10:13:59.343000+00:00 | ['Cold War', 'Nuclear Weapons', 'Deterrence', 'Submarine', 'Foreign Policy'] |
A Humanitarian Foundation that Brings Hope to Millions of People | In ancient Rome, Spes was the Goddess of Hope. The Romans believed that Hope was a divine virtue bestowed on humans by the Gods. Roman Emperors consecrated temples to Spes along the triumphal routes in Rome to encourage Hope during difficult times.
One morning in May of 2015 a husband and wife named Ali and Essagi were forced to leave their home in a village in Iraq by ISIS. On that morning, armed ISIS fighters took their four children. No one has heard from their children since that day. Everyday Ali and Essagi pray, wait, and hope to be reunited with their children. Ali and Essagi are Yazidis from the Sinjar province in Iraq. Their story is a common one across refugee camps. ISIS fighters seized 81 Yazidi villages around Mount Sinjar in a coordinated attack, enslaved thousands of Yazidi women and girls, killed thousands of Yazidi men, and drove everyone from their homes. To avoid torture by ISIS, Ali and Essagi fled with 1.8 million other people to Kurdistan, which is a safe haven for people fleeing ISIS.
While this was happening in Syria and Iraq, Dr. Mariwan Baker was living in Sweden with his wife and daughters. Dr. Baker was born and raised in Iraqi Kurdistan. In 1991, during the First Gulf War, he became a refugee and was trapped in the mountains between Iraq and Iran. Over 3 million Kurds were displaced in one night and Dr. Baker was one of them. He personally witnessed the eight year Iran-Iraq war, the chemical attack on Halabja, and the massive Kurdish exodus during the First Gulf War. He managed to immigrate to Sweden and lived in eight different refugee camps outside of Stockholm. In 1995 Dr. Baker was granted asylum and permanent residency by the Swedish Government. He went on to earn two master’s degrees and a PhD in Sweden, and in 2015 he was a medical scientist working in radiation oncology in Scandinavia.
After living through the refugee crisis in Kurdistan 1991, watching another refugee crisis unfold in Kurdistan in 2015 had a profound impact on him. He wanted to create change and improve the lives of other people. Most of all, he wanted to give hope to other people so that they would believe in the future. Dr. Baker left his career as a medical scientist in Denmark and founded Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation to deliver humanitarian aid, medicine, and medical equipment to refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Dr. Mariwan Baker at a refugee camp in Iraqi Kurdistan with refugee children
Bring Hope’s Mission
Bring Hope’s mission is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and bring hope to the most vulnerable people. Bring Hope has delivered medical supplies and aid to refugees living in over 50 refugee camps in 4 provinces in Iraq, and people living in poverty across the Middle East and Africa. Bring Hope has distributed over $130 million worth of medicine and aid to over 2 million people. Bring Hope is the largest organization on the ground and has delivered over 300 loads of humanitarian aid to refugees. Bring Hope collaborates with many international organizations and corporations to make the biggest impact and help the highest number of people.
Over the past five years, Bring Hope has evolved into a worldwide organization providing aid to refugees, victims of natural disasters, survivors of wars and famines, and people in need all over the world. With 40 strategic partners including Johnson & Johnson and International Humanitarian City, Bring Hope has helped people in Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria, Bangladesh, Guinea Conakry, Pakistan, Ukraine, Togo, Nigeria, Congo, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Gambia, Kenya, Liberia, Ghana, and Mali.
The unique story of the creation of the Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation
1 in every 97 people in the world is displaced by war, violence, and persecution
almost 80 million displaced people are unable to return home
34 million of those displaced are children
twice as many people are displaced now compared to 10 years ago
8.7 million people were newly displaced in 2019 alone
73% of the 80 million refugees are sheltering in counties neighboring their own
poorer countries are hosting 85% of displaced people
7 in 10 of displaced people are from Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar
68% of global forced displacement would end if crises in these countries were solved
the vast majority of displaced people are unable to rebuild their lives
in 2019, only 317,200 refugees were able to return to their country of origin and only 107,800 resettled in third countries
Bring Hope documentary, produced by Tarika Vara and Bit Finer Design Studio
“As a survivor of many wars and being a refugee for many years, I can attest that restoring Dignity and Hope are essential elements of humanitarian relief. If someone told me 29 years ago, while I was displaced, that I would one day be able to live a different life, I’m not sure that I would have believed that it was possible. Bring Hope seeks to instill Hope in people who are displaced, so that in turn, when their needs have been met, they will advocate for spreading hope for all displaced people.” Dr. Mariwan Baker, Founder and Chairman, Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation
Bring Hope’s Eight Programs
Bring Hope’s mission to restore Dignity and Hope goes beyond distributing medical supplies and aid. We have created 8 programs to help displaced people develop their lives.
2. Bring Hope Medical Aid Bring Hope delivers high quality medicine donated from western pharma companies. Bring Hope collaborates with dozens of international organizations, local NGOs, medical teams, clinics, hospitals, as well as the ministry of health, to ensure that the donated medicines are efficiently used for the most vulnerable groups of people.
5. Bring Hope Sportsis a high impact social development model in collaboration with Erbil Sports Club. This partnership provides an opportunity to refugees to play in Iraq Division One football. As 4-time champions of the Iraqi Premier League, Erbil Sport club is a source of pride and inspiration to the Iraqi-Kurdish people and gives displaced children and adults a sense of belonging.
Bring Hope Leadership and Board of Directors
Bring Hope has grown from one man into a talented group of highly skilled people all around the world who share a passion for bringing hope.
Mariwan Baker, PhD was born in Northern Iraq in 1973. During the Kuwait war, he became a Kurdish refugee, trapped in the mountain area between Iraq and Iran. At age 19 he migrated to Sweden and lived in eight different refugee camps outside of Stockholm. Dr. Baker personally witnessed the 8 year Iran-Iraq war, the chemical attack on Halabja, the Kuwait war, and the massive Kurdish exodus during the first Gulf war. After settling in Sweden, he earned two master’s degrees and a PhD, and worked as a medical scientist in radiation oncology in Scandinavia. In 2015 Dr. Baker abandoned a 10 year clinical career treating cancer patients in Scandinavia and founded Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation.
Robert Blum has been an active philanthropist for many years. In 2004 Mr. Blum created Le Cercle Diplomatique de Genève (CDGE) to promote intellectual exchange and dialogue between diplomats, representatives of civil society, and business leaders. As President and CEO of the CDGE he works to integrate many segments of society including leaders of political parties, countries, corporations and those operating at high ranking levels. Mr. Blum has received many honors, recognitions and awards including Légion d´Honneur, the highest decoration in France, Cavalieri from the Italian government, and Grand Commodore and President of the Order of Lafayette. Mr. Blum functions as Administrator and CEO of many companies and serves as a member of the Management Board or representative for many others.
Catherine van Kampen Esq. is an American-trained attorney with 20 years of commercial and international litigation experience. Catherine has been a champion of social change and justice, particularly for immigrant and refugee women and children with whom she has privately worked since 1997. A committed humanitarian, Catherine was honored as the 2018 Ambassador Medalist at the New Jersey Governor’s Jefferson Awards for Outstanding Public Service for her international humanitarian and pro bono work with refugees. In 2020, as a member of the New City Bar Association’s United Nations Committee and African Affairs Committee, she spearheaded the highly successful New York City Bar’s International Law Conference on the Status of Women.
Margaretta Colangelo is President of U1 Technologies, an enterprise software company, and Co-founder and CEO of Jthereum, an enterprise Blockchain company. She has worked in Silicon Valley at the forefront of emerging technologies for over 30 years. She was a core member of the team that developed the first Java based secure messaging software for stock trading platforms used by the world’s top multinational banks, and has influenced important technical specifications and standards, including JDBC and JMS that have helped advance the technology industry. Margaretta serves on the advisory boards of the AI Precision Health Institute at the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center, Ageing Research at King’s College London, Nanomedicine company NaNotics, and First Longevity.
Leyla Celebi is an engineer with over 15 years of leadership and software experience. Throughout her career, she has focused on developing, launching, and growing profitable product portfolios in software, wireless semiconductor, Internet of Things, telecommunications, and automotive industries. She is the founder of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society at Kansas State University and has served as the Technical Committee Chair of various consortiums in Silicon Valley. Throughout her professional career, she has focused on diversity, inclusion, and has been an advocate encouraging women and under-represented students to pursue STEM careers. She loves boxing, gardening, giving back to the community, cooking, and art.
Dr. Michelle Sanders is a licensed psychologist in New York and Texas and has a private practice in Austin, Texas. She specializes in treating children, adolescents, and adults who have experienced trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Dr. Sanders received her M.S. Ed. And Psy.D. in School Clinical Child Psychology from Pace University in New York City. She has held faculty positions at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Pace University. Dr. Sanders has worked on humanitarian projects in several countries throughout the Middle East and South America and speaks fluent Spanish. Most recently, Dr. Sanders has made several trips to Kurdistan to provide therapeutic interventions for Yezidis and has trained local psychologists to diagnose and treat trauma.
Bring Hope Partners Worldwide
Bring Hope is able to help millions of people because of the generous support of over 40 partners around the world who donate medicines and supplies and help distribute them to people in need. We are very thankful for the generosity and dedication of our partners.
Join Us and Help Us Bring Hope!
Bring Hope is a global movement dedicated to bringing hope to millions of displaced people around the world who are in dire need of basic commodities, support, and skills to restore dignity, a sense of belonging, and achieve a decent life. Bring Hope is a non-governmental, non-profit organization with a mission to alleviate suffering and to Bring Hope back into people’s lives. The one thing that can really help people to believe in the future is hope. Join us to bring hope to millions of people around the world!
How can I become involved and help as a volunteer ? You can donate your time and skills by sending an email to [email protected]. Please provide us with your CV and your field of interest so that we can match you with an appropriate project.
You can donate your time and skills by sending an email to [email protected]. Please provide us with your CV and your field of interest so that we can match you with an appropriate project. Does Bring Hope have internships ? Yes, we have internships.
Yes, we have internships. Can I send goods to support Bring Hope? Yes! Bring Hope accepts in-kind donations.
Yes! Bring Hope accepts in-kind donations. Does Bring Hope accept monetary donations ? Yes, monetary donations are used to cover transportation costs of donated goods, handling fees, and provide supplies.
Yes, monetary donations are used to cover transportation costs of donated goods, handling fees, and provide supplies. Are my donations tax deductible? Yes, in the USA Bring Hope has Tax-exempt 501 © (3) Code: ID# 31954
Yes, in the USA Bring Hope has Tax-exempt 501 © (3) Code: ID# 31954 How is my donation used and distributed? Your donation will be used based on your wishes. Bring Hope’s strength is that each dollar you donate gives $20 in value of goods right in the hands of the people in need.
This article was written by Margaretta Colangelo . Margaretta serves on the Board of Directors of Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation. Margaretta is Co-founder and CEO of Jthereum, an enterprise Blockchain technology company, and President of U1Technologies and enterprise software company. Margaretta serves on the Advisory Boards of the AI Precision Health Institute at the University of Hawai’i Cancer Center and Ageing Research AI at King’s College London. She is based in San Francisco.
To contact Bring Hope please visit our website. We would be happy to hear from you!
To follow Bring Hope on LinkedIn please click here | https://medium.com/@margarettacolangelo/a-humanitarian-foundation-that-brings-hope-to-millions-of-people-7e236a286f | ['Margaretta Colangelo'] | 2020-12-10 16:29:56.694000+00:00 | ['Social Good', 'Impact Investing', 'Philanthropy', 'Humanitarian', 'Charity'] |
Crazy deal alert: This 50-inch 4K HDR Roku TV is less than $200 today | If you're planning a socially distanced holiday season, you're going to need a bigger TV might watch Wonder Woman 1984 and catch up on The Mandalorian. That's where today's ridiculous deal comes in: Target is selling aHisense 50-inch 4K HDR TV with Roku built-in for $180Remove non-product link, down from the $300 MSRP and one of the best prices you're going to find on a 4K set.
The biggest feature for this TV is that it's rocking HDR (high dynamic range) supporting both Dolby Vision HDR and HDR 10. HDR is a feature that creates greater variations of colors allowing for a more vivid picture. In addition to HDR, the TV also supports DTS Studio Sound for your surround sound audio set-up as well as three HDMI ports, Ethernet, and a USB 2.0 port, as well as 802.11ac Wi-Fi but no Bluetooth.
This Hisense 50R6040G comes with Roku TV onboard giving you access to all kinds of premium video services including Apple TV, Disney Plus, Netflix, Hulu, and audio services like Pandora without any extra equipment. The set also works with Google Assistant and Alexa to control your TV via voice command. It has a game mode to improve input lag coming from your console, and the TV has a thin bezel providing a larger viewable screen area.
[Today's deal: Hisense 50-inch 4K HDR TV for $180 at TargetRemove non-product link]
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@rachel60894764/crazy-deal-alert-this-50-inch-4k-hdr-roku-tv-is-less-than-200-today-f81a4a8aea62 | [] | 2020-12-24 01:11:56.788000+00:00 | ['Headphones', 'Services'] |
The Literally Literary Weekly Update #7 | Wounded Mother by Cassius Corbin (Poetry)
“Earth’s children going back
to be held by The Mother
then running back home
at the first sign of thunder”
All Passages by Water Lead Home by Jerry Windley-Daoust (Fiction)
“ It was as forlorn as a desert, except that the upside-down part of this watery desert harbored a whole world of strange living things, and unexplored mountains and plains, and the shipwrecks of people who hadn’t made it to the other end of the ocean.”
How Democracies Die by Dale Biron (Poetry)
“When middle-class dreams shatter,
rarely do the jagged shards fall upward,”
The Lessons from the Sea Mist by Sylvia Clare MSc. Psychol (Poetry)
“Can we learn
there is always a mist around us,
even when it is unseen?”
Do you remember? by Taiwo Adesina (Fiction)
“Do you remember on your wedding day, when I promised to write you every month? How you smiled and looked away? Did you even get the other letters?”
A Cruel and Swift Instrument of Nature by Edward Punales (Fiction)
“Every world is a collection of many worlds, each one conceived, used up, and excreted by nature to make room for the next.”
What’s the Role of Fiction in Social Change? by Aline Müller (Society)
“We don’t create things from nowhere, we imagine them first and then we work on it. Fiction is a rich pot of concrete technological developments and images to take inspiration from.” | https://medium.com/literally-literary/the-literally-literary-weekly-update-7-e607d389ac8d | ['Jonathan Greene'] | 2020-02-05 14:30:40.291000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Nonfiction', 'Ll Letters', 'Essay', 'Poetry'] |
What Is Cloud Native Computing? | Many employers want developers who have experience with Cloud Native Computing. As a junior developer, I currently have no experience with Cloud Native Computing. Thus, here is an overview of what Cloud Native is and what it entails.
“Cloud Native” is an approach to building and running applications that takes advantage of the cloud computing delivery model. In development, it utilizes cloud computing to build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments such as private, public, and hybrid clouds. It’s about how applications are created/deployed as opposed to where. Cloud native applications live in the “Cloud” vs. data centers.
The CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) defines “cloud-native” a bit more succinctly. It defines Cloud Native as using open source software stack to be containerized, where each part of the application is packaged in its own container, dynamically orchestrated so each part is actively scheduled and managed to optimize resource utilization, and microservices-oriented to increase the overall agility and maintainability of applications.
By taking advantage of cloud services, applications can use agile and scalable components like containers and deliver reusable features that integrate readily. Cloud-native app development typically includes Devops, Microservices, cloud platform, continuous delivery and agile methodology. It also includes containers like Kubernetes and Docker, some of the more modern ways of application deployment.
Cloud Native applications require a different architecture than traditional enterprise on premise applications.
Languages
Cloud Native applications typically use web-centric languages such as: HTML, CSS, Java, Javascript, Node.js, .Net, Go, PHP, Python, and Ruby. Traditional on premise applications are usually written with C/C++, C#, or Enterprise Java. If it’s with a mainframe, it’s written with one of the early programming languages: Cobol.
Elasticity
Traditional on premise applications can’t scale dynamically while Cloud Native applications take advantage of the elasticity of the cloud by using other resources during a spike. A user can set a cloud application to use extra computational resources when a spike occurs. The application can also scale and adjust to spikes as needed.
Updatability
Traditional applications need constant updates that need delivery based off a subscription based model that depends on the vendor. It requires downtime whenever it needs the updates. Cloud Native applications can update constantly and are always up to date. There is virtually no down time for these updates.
Multitenancy
Many traditional on premise applications don’t work well in an virtual environment or don’t work at all, which requires a non virtual space to operate. Cloud Native applications have no problem working in virtual spaces and is able to share resources to other applications.
Connected Resources
Traditional on premise applications are antiquated in its connections to the network resources. It is rigid in its network, security, permissions and storage. All of these resources usually need to be hard-coded and can easily break if any of that code is change. With the Cloud Native applications, network and storage operate completely differently. Cloud applications can accommodate changes in networking, storage and even database technologies in real time to allow the app to run in the cloud. This is a term called “re-platforming”.
Down Time
On premise applications are server dependent. Thus, if a server were to go down, there is a strong likelihood the applications that run on that server go down with it. If a cloud provider suffers an outage, another region can pick up the slack.
Modular Design
Traditional on premise applications tend to be archaic in design. It usually is one big application with some sub-libraries. Cloud Native applications are much more modular and have many functions that are broken down into micro-services. This allows some of these functions to be shut off when they are not needed and can update specific parts rather than the whole application.
Automation
On premise applications have to be managed manually and are slow. Cloud Native applications are mostly automated and most of the automation is in application management. This automation can increase the speed, reliability, and provides proven audited processes.
Statelessness
Cloud Native applications are generally not tied to infrastructure. This means that generally these applications are stateless. Cloud Native apps store its state in a database. This allows the application to be ‘loosely coupled’ and not tied to infrastructure. This allows the app to be run in a highly distributed manner and still be able to keep its state independent of the infrastructure. On premise applications are stateful; they store the state of the application on the infrastructure the code runs on. This can cause breakage when adding server resources.
Conclusion
The benefits of Cloud Native Applications far outweigh traditional on premise applications. The reason why there is so much hype surrounding cloud based computing is because of the multitude of benefits cloud native applications bring. Learning how to use cloud native computing is going to be a skillset that will be invaluable to future software engineers. | https://medium.com/swlh/what-is-cloud-native-computing-d7514622f6cb | ['David Chung'] | 2020-11-18 12:14:23.163000+00:00 | ['Cloud Native', 'Programming', 'Coding', 'Flatiron School', 'Kubernetes'] |
Top books on bitcoin & blockchain you should read in 2020 | Top books on bitcoin & blockchain you should read in 2020 LetKnowNews Follow Jan 22 · 4 min read
Blockchain, over the years, has gained a lot of popularity, and rightfully so, because it can be decentralised and the data is cryptographically stored where no one can touch whats inside it. Blockchain is a revolution in digital ownership and digital privacy, which will eventually become a part of our daily lives. Many companies like Facebook and WhatsApp are already implementing blockchain to safeguard the way their users exchange money.
Banking and investing probably make the most out of the blockchain technology than any other sectors. So, in recent years, blockchain has piqued interest from everyone looking to invest because of bitcoin.
Naturally, if one is interested in it, then one has to read about it. Here we list down books on blockchain in no particular order that one should be reading:
Digital Gold
Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper might be the perfect book for beginners. In this book, the author has entailed some of the riveting tales filled with innovators which might pique interest from beginners who want to understand blockchain. The author presents events form millionaires, criminals and programmers who were hell-bent on creating a new form of digital money.
What’s interesting about this book is that anyone with no knowledge about blockchain can read it and by the time they are finished, they will have a strong understanding and ready to jump to the next level.
Blockchain: The Complete Guide to Understanding Blockchain technology
Miles Price’s book gives details about the implementation of blockchain, the technical underpinnings and also how to earn profit through mining cryptocurrencies. This is a short and sweet guide to blockchain implementation along with its history, mechanics and limitations of blockchain and much more. This book is another example of a great beginner’s guide.
The Bitcoin Standard
The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralised Alternative to Central Banking is a book that can be read by both blockchain beginners and intermediate readers. Saifedean Ammous’s book is one of the best books at demystifying bitcoins and money. Everyone, whether it be a beginner or intermediate level blockchain enthusiast, can get an understanding of the sophisticated transformational technology after reading this book.
Blockchain Revolution
Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies Is Changing the World by Dan and Alex Tapscott is an excellent resource for one who has a basic understanding of blockchain. This book is a unique combination of casual reading packed with technical information. This book assumes that the reader is an investor, so it might be better if someone with prior knowledge of blockchain investing is reading it.
Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies
Mastering Bitcoin is from Andreas M. Antonopoulos, which strictly speaking, is for everyone who has a basic understanding of what blockchain is. This book gives a deep dive of the bitcoin, and by the time one finishes the book, one will know how to write the next cryptocurrency applications.
“The invention of the Bitcoin Blockchain represents an entirely new platform to build upon, one that will enable an ecosystem as wide and diverse as the Internet itself. As one of the preeminent thought leaders, Andreas M. Antonopoulos is the perfect choice to write this book.” — Roger Ver, Bitcoin Entrepreneur & Investor
Mastering Ethereum, another book by the same author, is also a great read and gives details about smart contracts and an additional layer of security.
LetKnow.News on Facebook, Twitter and Telegram | https://medium.com/letknownews/top-books-on-bitcoin-blockchain-you-should-read-in-2020-346f0b56f2ad | [] | 2020-01-22 07:44:08.676000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Books', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin'] |
Practical Machine Learning Tutorial: Part.3 (Model Evaluation-1) | Practical Machine Learning Tutorial: Part.3 (Model Evaluation-1)
Multi-class Classification Problem: Geoscience example (Facies)
In this part, we will elaborate on some model evaluation metrics specifically for multi-class classification problems. Accuracy, precision, recall, and confusion matrix are discussed below for our facies problem. This post is the third part of part1, part2. You can find the jupyter notebook file of this part here.
When I was fresh in machine learning, I always considered constructing a model as the most important step of the ML tasks, while now, I have another concept; model evaluation skill is the fundamental key to modeling success. We need to make sure that our model is working well with new data. On the other hand, we have to be able to interpret various evaluation metrics to understand our model’s strengths and weaknesses leading us to model improvement hints. As we are dealing with the multi-class problem in this tutorial, we will focus on related evaluation metrics, but before that, we need to get familiar with some definitions.
3–1 Model Metrics
When we are working with classification problems, we will have 4 kinds of possibility with model outcomes:
A) True Positive(TP) is the outcome of the model correctly predicts the positive class. In our dataset, a positive class is a label that we are looking for specifically for that label prediction. For example, if we are analyzing ‘Dolomite’ class prediction, TP is the number of truly predicted Dolomite samples of test data by the model.
B) True Negative(TN) is an outcome where the model correctly predicts the negative class. Negative class in our dataset for Dolomite prediction are those facies classes that truly predicted as not Dolomite(predicted as the rest of classes and truly were not Dolomite).
C) False Positive(FP) is an outcome where the model incorrectly predicts the positive class. In our dataset, all facies classes that incorrectly predicted as Dolomite when we are evaluating Dolomite class prediction.
D) False Negative(FN) is an outcome where the model incorrectly predicts negative class. Again for Dolomite prediction, FN is the prediction of Dolomite as non-Dolomite classes.
1.Accuracy: it is simply calculated as a fraction of correct predictions over the total number of predictions.
Accuracy = (TP+TN) / (TP+TN+FP+FN)
2. Precision: this metric answers this question: what proportion of positive predictions is totally correct?
Precision = TP / (TP+FP)
looking at the equation, we can see that if a model has zero False Positive prediction, the precision will be 1. Again, in Dolomite prediction, this index shows what proportion of predicted Dolomite is truly Dolomite (not other facies are classified as Dolomite).
3. Recall: recall answer this question: what proportion of actual positives is classified correctly?
Recall= TP / (TP+FN)
looking at the equation, we can see that if a model has zero False Negative prediction, the recall will be 1. In our example, recall shows the proportion of Dolomite class that correctly identified by the model.
Note: to evaluate the model efficiency, we need to consider both precision and recall together. Unfortunately, these two parameters act against each other, improving one leads to decreasing the other. The ideal case is that both of them show near 1 values.
4. f1_score: The F1 score can be interpreted as a weighted average of the precision and recall, where an F1 score reaches its best value at 1 and the worst score at 0. The relative contribution of precision and recall to the F1 score are equal. The formula for the F1 score is:
F1 = 2 * (precision * recall) / (precision + recall)
Let’s see one example of Logistic Regression classifier performance:
Run:
from sklearn.metrics import precision_recall_fscore_support
model_log=LogisticRegression(C = 10, solver = ‘lbfgs’, max_iter= 200 )
model_log.fit(X_train, y_train)
y_pred_log = model_log.predict(X_test)
print(classification_report(y_test, y_pred_log, target_names= facies_labels))
To evaluate the Logistic Regression classifier performance, let's look at the first facies class Sandstone(SS). When this model predicts a facies as SS, it is correct in 75% of the time(Precision). On the other hand, this model correctly identifies 89% of all SS facies members(Recall). We can guess that f1_score is somewhere between these two metrics. Support means the individual class members for the test.
Let's have some block of codes to implement the above-mentioned procedure in order for all models and plot the result as an average. Up to line 15, we defined the model objects with hyper-parameters that we already obtained from the grid-search approach. Then(line 16 to 25) models are appended into a list to be iterable when we want to fit and cross-validate in order. After cross-validation, we stored metrics results in the list for each model. line 37 to 52, we established a for loop to calculate the average value of each of these metrics for each model. The rest of the code is a plotting task. | https://towardsdatascience.com/practical-machine-learning-tutorial-part-3-model-evaluation-1-5eefae18ec98 | ['Ryan A. Mardani'] | 2020-11-04 02:57:02.834000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Multiclass Classification', 'Model Evaluation', 'Geoscience', 'Python'] |
ByteSize: App Optimization with Flask + React | The Road So Far
Coming from our last tutorial, our component is almost perfect. Users get a beautiful infinite grid photo grid, as well as the ability to search for specific photos with natural language. There are just a few things to do before this component is ready for production.
Right now, the latency for downloading the component is relatively small, on the order for a few hundred milliseconds. Once you start building more and more elaborate applications with multiple components, those extra milliseconds can mean everything.
Opening up our network tab, we can see that our app makes quite a few requests before it’s rendered. Breaking them down into groups:
The React bundle The API request The Unsplash Images
We can use a few different strategies to minimize the size and latency of those requests and mitigate their impression on the end user.
Caching Reducing Media Size Smoke and Mirrors Bundle Splitting
Caching
Very basically, caching works by storing the results of a function or endpoint locally, and serving them in subsequent requests. Since we know that the images are unlikely to change drastically from one request to the next, we can use caching to speed up our service.
Setting up a cache is also incredibly simple. First we install the package with:
pip install flask-caching
Next we will create a new Python file for our extensions to import it in the application initialization (in app/extensions.py)
Then we import and initialize it in our create_app function. (in app/__init__.py)
Next, we need to add the cache type in our config file (in config.py)
Then we can use the extension as a decorator on our view (in app/main/views.py)
The decorator works by automatically storing the results of the last request for 60 seconds as a key:value pair (like a Python dictionary). This stops us from having to request the same data every time from the Unsplash API. Opening Postman, we can see that currently the request takes ~200ms.
~200ms response time
On each subsequent request (within 60 seconds of the last), we can see that the response time drops down to ~8ms.
~8ms response time
Huge.
If you go to run the app now though, you’ll quickly discover a problem. You get the same page over and over again. That’s because the cache decorator doesn’t distinguish between arguments made in each request. To do that we are going to have to make our own custom cache key.
To understand this problem we have to do a little more background on caching. I mentioned before that the cache acts as a key:value store, but the decorator simply takes the route name, not the argument string that is contained in the request. Because of that we need to create a new (non-generic) key to reference in the request to make sure we get the proper response. The code above works by concatenating a string including both the path and the items of the request argument to make a unique key for the response value.
Caveat Emptor: Be aware that caching will be dramatically less useful by the amount that your responses change. If each request and response is slightly different (like lat/long coordinates) the less helpful caching will be as a strategy
We can now implement this new cache key in the cache decorator by using the key_prefix argument (in app/main/views.py)
And with that, we have caching built into our app!
Media Sizes
The biggest problem that we have is with our images. This stems from two issues:
The image files are large. We have to wait for the images to load.
A key change we can make right away is changing the size of the images that we’re returning. Simply by adjusting our list comprehension to extract the ‘small’ image size instead of ‘regular’ from the Unsplash response, we can reduce their size by more than half.
Smoke and Mirrors
Even with the reduced size though, the images will take time to download and render. Rather than having to wait for them to though, we can play a little slight of hand to give our users something to look at while they wait (milliseconds) for their pictures. It may seem silly, but those milliseconds make all the difference in making your site appear more professional.
We can use what are known as blur hashes to generate a low resolution approximation of the underlying images.
This means that we can have a picture in place in under 10ms, rather than waiting until the image is fully downloaded to show something to the user. Unsplash provides the blur hash of each image as part of its response, but you can generate your own using the blur hash algorithm.
Our first step is adjusting our views endpoint to return the blur hash.
Now that they are returned with the response, we’ll need to set them up to be read on the React App.
First up is installing the blur-hash package.
npm install blurhash react-blurhash
Now we will import them at the top of our InfiniteScroll file (in app/static/src/InfiniteScroll.jsx)
While the idea of blurhashes is simple, implementing them in this context will take a little bit of thought and planning. We want to make sure that we only show the blurhash for as long as it takes for the image to load, at which the image replaces it.
Img tags provide an onLoad event which we can use in order to toggle a loaded state which will then hide the blurhash to reveal the image (in app/static/src/InfiniteScroll.jsx)
The sizing of the width and height in the BlurHash element has a bit of hackiness to it, as the GridList component handles multiple elements somewhat strangely and doesn’t size them correctly, so there was a bit of trial and error in finding the correct height and width for the BlurHash component. But with that code, our images are now ready.
Bundle Splitting and Compression
Our last step is taking a look at our bundle and static assets that we’re serving to our users. Right now we are currently passing the entirety of our node modules to the user, resulting in bundle over 5mb. Seeing as we are only rendering a few elements, 5mb is pretty hefty.
Webpack
Webpack does a great job of providing optimizations with a tiny amount of code.
We’ll need to make sure that we import the new split bundle within a script tag in the index.html file. By adding defer to the script tags as well, we can make sure that the loading of both are non-blocking and can be done asynchronously.
The bundle splitting and optimizations done by webpack actually reduce the combined bundles to only ~346kb, a pretty far cry from over 5mb.
The best part?
We’re not done yet.
We can still compress them more on the backend using Flask-Compress. Flask Compress compresses all files in transit, including our JSON responses. We can install it with:
pip install flask-compress
Next we import it in our extensions file (in app/extensions.py)
Then we initialize it (in app/__init__.py)
and finally we add a few basic Config variables specifying the compression level, minimum size and MIME types we want to be compressed (in config.py)
Finished!
With that, we have drastically reduced the loading time and size of our application, by around 50–100x. Don’t believe me? Just take a look:
All of our requests are significantly under 100ms each, and our largest file (1.bundle.js) is sitting at just over 100kb.
Our infinite scroll is now ready for production!
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope this will help you in whatever exciting new project you’re working on.
Also, be sure to follow as next we’ll be working on creating a nifty link preview component! | https://medium.com/@spencerporter2/bytesize-app-optimization-with-flask-react-3f36ad0aa671 | ['Spencer Porter'] | 2020-11-26 20:15:00.087000+00:00 | ['React', 'Programming', 'Web Development', 'Flask', 'Python'] |
How To Balance Studies With Work & Get Everything Done | Working while in college is beneficial in many ways. It brings one hands-on experience, new skills, and increases income. However, trying to kill two birds with one stone, students often face time management issues and can’t handle everything at once. Since you’ve chosen to balance study and work life, you need to know some essential dos and don’ts to get it right.
Time Management
The first point is the trickiest, yet it is quite feasible with the help of several tips. When it comes to managing one’s time, there are several steps you should bear in mind:
Make a schedule;
Prioritize;
Avoid distractions and procrastination.
Get a Planner
The first thing to do to get you started is making a schedule. Having all your tasks, assignments, and deadlines in one place will help you organize every day, never forget about upcoming exams and essential events. Depending on your preferences, you may choose a bullet journal or an app to keep all the tasks there. So, a good way to balance studies and work.
Don’t forget to include all to-dos in your schedule, including assignments, projects, exams, due dates, and work duties. It will allow you to balance daily responsibilities and not to get lost. Not only will it help to track your time, but it also will bring a sense of accomplishment.
Prioritize & Delegate
The second aspect of proper time management is prioritizing. When your schedule is tight, it is crucial to realistically assess your abilities and not put too much on your plate. If you’re feeling worn out and some assignments’ deadlines are coming up, delegate some of the tasks. Get essay writing help on EssayHub from a professional essay helper and free some time for yourself.
The last but not the least thing on your to-do list should be getting rid of distractions and stopping to procrastinate. On the way to productivity, you need to learn to say ‘no’ to things that bring you neither benefits nor pleasure.
Put Down the Phone To Balance Studies and Work
Social media is the most significant productivity killer for students, and it steals a lot of valuable time. To resist the temptation to scroll the feed, you can download blocking apps meant to control your time spent online. Or, if you have an iPhone, you can just set time limits for apps that you tend to overuse.
While postponing essential tasks, you increase the ultimate amount of work, which leads to anxiety and stress. Cramming and doing the assignment on the last day or night negatively affects your productivity and mental health. Set yourself reminders on an app with all deadlines and plans.
Some students put off writing an essay because they lack ideas and inspiration. One way to get started is to read a blog created by writers. Draw useful advice and competent opinions from there and have your papers done in advance.
Set Your Boundaries To Balance Studies and Work
You interact with many people daily, and most of them are expecting something from you. Be it your boss, a professor, or best friend. It is important to let all these people know about your duties. This way, you will prevent future misunderstandings and arguments.
Your boss and colleagues should be aware of your upcoming exams, lectures, and class time. These issues should be noticed ahead. Don’t let your work take priority over your studies. Financial support is good, but it shouldn’t harm your academic life. As a result, a great method to balance work and studies
College staff knows that many students have part-time work. If you feel that you can’t handle studies because of it, try to seek advice from your student center and negotiate this question. You may also opt for a weekend job, which will take way less of your time.
Knowing your boundaries is crucial if you want to achieve harmony. It gets more problematic when it comes to friends as they can take it personally if you don’t spend time with them. Close people should also be aware of their duties. Otherwise, they will think that you’re neglecting them. Talk to a friend, open your schedule, and decide on the day when you can hang out.
Reward Yourself
Hard work should be rewarded, and unless you do it, nobody else will. When you set a goal, think of the treatment you will get when you finish. It may be something small, like a delicious meal, or something big like spending money on a journey, as suggested in That Epic Alper blog. Choose something that you feel like and will anticipate while working. This will increase motivation and drive you to finish the task.
Final Thoughts To Balance Studies and Work
Gaining new skills and knowledge is outstanding, but taking care of your health is vital. The young body usually is full of energy, so that students tend to overlook their well-being. Don’t forget to eat healthy food, sleep well, and do regular physical exercises. Working while in college has never been easy, but if you follow all the tips and be determined, your life will be more pleasant and happy. | https://medium.com/visualmodo/how-to-balance-studies-with-work-get-everything-done-16b3c652dc15 | [] | 2020-12-24 00:31:13.487000+00:00 | ['Work', 'How To', 'Balance', 'Life', 'Sudioes'] |
we thought | down the street, after the gravel rises and then falls
the bicycle creaks and the neighbor’s dog barks
tick-tock, the silent dance of lines on a watch
time is a whiplash, graceful in her poise then
merciless in her truth- we swallow new poisons
with our evening dinner, the mirror shows
a stoic’s mouth and reticent lips
this is a story reading hopeful backward
in the beginning- boom and cackle, laughter song
before we learned the false smile
when we thought mistakes were made in pencil. | https://medium.com/meri-shayari/we-thought-43f44f1c199b | ['Rebeca Ansar'] | 2020-12-24 02:25:01.385000+00:00 | ['Storytelling', 'Creative Writing', 'Poem', 'Poet', 'Poety'] |
Wellness Saturday~ 05/02/2020 | You deserve to live and enjoy a blissful fulfilled life! Consciously self-direct toward achieving your full potential. Elevate your wellness for the kind of lifestyle of better mental and spiritual well-being that uplifts your soul, mindset, and physicality for the better. Positively affirm good health within and believe in what you desire for yourself with an attitude of gratitude.
Disallow yourself in giving in to any temporary problematic ailments of some form or another at whatever degree of pain and annoyance you're acknowledging at the moment. We're all mentally irritated throughout moments of our existence. This is my reasoning revolving around the investment in your health education, so one may learn more about what energizes them to actively continue on their desired path!
Here is today's wellness assistance to improve yourself for a healthier well-being. Hope this piece of advice helps with better care for your health and well-being for better moments today and for an ideal tomorrow because you deserve to be that much better as the world needs you~
CHEERS~ to your bliss and best version of yourself as you're meant to be as your great day continues~
#wellness #wellbeing #stretching #infographic #exercises | https://medium.com/@edwardftcharfauros/wellness-saturday-05-02-2020-386c3f086b09 | ['Edward F. T. Charfauros'] | 2020-05-02 16:29:37.348000+00:00 | ['Infographics', 'Self Care', 'Stretching Exercises', 'Wellness', 'Wellbeing'] |
Click away with the iPhone SE (2020) | Apple’s iPhone SE features the same 12MP single camera found on the iPhone 8. It uses a Sony sensor with 1.22µm pitch behind a 28mm f/1.8 lens. Optical stabilization is available, as well as phase-detection autofocus. The front-facing camera is the same 7MP unit we saw on the iPhone 7 and 8. It can use the so-called Retina flash, where your screen lights your face up in particular color to provide more pleasing skin tones depending on the color of the available light.
The detail levels are very good, even excellent at some spots, though elsewhere some more complex areas turn out to be a challenge for the camera. The Apple iPhone SE shoots very natural-looking photos. The dynamic range and the contrast are superb, the colors are simply spot-on, and noise is non-existent.
The iPhone SE 7MP images come out with outstanding detail, contrast, and even dynamic range. The colors are great and overall — this is one of the best selfie cameras. The 7MP Apple iPhone SE (2020) selfie photos can put to shame most of the 20MP and 32MP Quad-Bayer shooters we’ve experienced lately on a variety of Android phones. The iPhone SE selfie shooter can also do portraits, and it does such with surprising proficiency. Both subject separation and simulated bokeh are remarkable, while nothing was lost on the subject.
Apple iPhone SE captures videos in all popular resolutions and frame rates, all of them — optically stabilized as usual. All 30fps videos also feature cinematic video stabilization and expanded dynamic range thanks to the Smart HDR. The iPhone SE can do 4K at 60fps and 1080p at 240fps.
The low-light performance has improved since the iPhone 8 by a lot even if the same camera takes the images. They present enough resolved detail, probably a result of a gentler noise reduction. The exposure is balanced on most of the photos, the color saturation is great with true to life colors (neither washed out, nor over-saturated). The quad-LED dual-tone flash from the iPhone 8 is also available on the SE, and it supports slow-sync flash. It keeps the shutter open for a bit longer, letting in some of the ambient light and making the image look more natural and not as contrasted as with regular flash images.
Even though for Apple’s standards the iPhone SE 2020 is considered to be a budget phone, it in no way compromises with the features and the specifications of the phone. The camera specs delivers splendid picture quality making it a good option for all the camera enthusiasts out there. | https://medium.com/@bennyefosa19/click-away-with-the-iphone-se-2020-6e408c08aee2 | ['Benny Efosa'] | 2020-11-23 12:43:25.218000+00:00 | ['Apple', 'Cameras', 'Iphone Se', 'Phone'] |
Amanda Marmot: 8 Tips that makes Advertisement More Useful | One thing that makes Internet businesses a challenge is that you won’t be able to learn everything. But a lot of people who are now successful in their online business has been through the ups and downs of the web. Most of the time, it seems so unrealistic but the biggest contributor to sales in a business, which is also the one that costs a lot is the advertisements of businesses.
Read below and find out about the 8 tips which could help you take advantage of the benefits of advertising through the internet.
Amanda Marmot — One of the biggest mistakes of some advertisements is when they try to sell more than one product in their advertisements. Remember that it will take more than one paragraph for you to sell a product. A good advertisement is the one that focuses on the benefits the consumers can get. There is a high probability that clients will patronize product which could give them some benefits rather than nothing.
Amanda Marmot
A good example of this is by stating what the child gets, and what are the benefits he can enjoy when he buys the product instead of stating what the specifications of the product you are selling are all about.
You should not expect sales the moment you have released your advertisements. One reason for this is that you cannot enumerate all the advantages of your product in the space provided for your advertisement. You should also consider the fact that not all the readers of your e-zine would be ready to buy right after they are done reading.
But internet marketers should not lose hope because there is an approach that could prove effective, and this is the soft sell technique. With this technique, you can easily convince a consumer to patronize your product, and once you get the confidence of your buyers, you can easily offer them new products.
A good example would be if you are selling a product, in order for it to be more profitable, you should not go for the hard sell technique. What you can do is to employ the soft sell approach and sell your products on a different technique. Instead of the usual advertisements which do nothing but to promote and sell products, you can give them free items. These items should form part of what they can expect from the main product that you are trying to sell. You should be able to study your market carefully for you to be able to plan your attack well.
Amanda Marmot
This will result in a number of people subscribing for a newsletter which means a lot of opportunities for you to promote your products and you can have a lot of new prospects for selling your products. You can also email them regularly to buy your products or to try out new ones.
Another usual error is by not giving your advertisement campaign the right amount of time for it to take effect.
Statistics show that for a client to patronize your products, you have to be able to expose it to them for at least 7 times before they buy your product. Usually, a consumer average about 3 revisits to a particular website before they even make a decision. This is telling you that you should be able to put your advertisement correctly.
A lot of people just browse their emails quickly and they might even accidentally miss your email. Keep on sending them your email and be patient. It works to be a little patient most of the time.
Having an advertisement page doesn’t mean you have to flood your site with the advertisement. This will make your visitors tired of your site because of the numerous advertisements you have. It pays to just keep your advertisements and website simple.
Aside from stress-fully large advertisements, you should also observe the ad suggestion in connection with your email address posting. It shouldn’t be big enough to distract people from entering your site.
USE A HEADLINE
The most crucial part of an advertisement is the headline. It determines whether the reader is going to continue reading your topic or not.
Here are some effective headline formulas:
1. Ask readers a query.
2. Teach the reader how to do or make something new.
3. Give feedback.
It might sound unnecessary, but teaching your clients the step by step way is going to help you a lot in your goals.
DETERMINE YOUR BUDGET
The hardest thing to do in a business is to shell out money. But an advertisement requires capital because it is an investment in a way. You should carefully study if it will be worth it to pay for costly advertisements.
MAKE REALISTIC GOALS
If you have proper control of your business, you can easily set your goals, but unfortunately, the behavior of the buyers change and this greatly affects the performance of your business as well. This means you have to reset your goals from controlling your business to exerting efforts to get more customers. This way, you will achieve a common goal of all businesses and that is to increase sales.
Most of the time, as costly as an advertisement is, it only does half the job. You still have to sell to your visitors most of the time. The success of your advertisement depends on how many people responded to your advertisement and how many did eventually buy your product. | https://medium.com/@marmotamanda518/amanda-marmot-8-tips-that-makes-advertisement-more-useful-75fb7ce34a89 | [] | 2020-02-20 05:36:29.371000+00:00 | ['Advertising Executive', 'United Kingdom', 'Amanda Marmot', 'UK', 'Advertisement'] |
What if i don’t know what I want in life? | 1. Embrace not knowing
Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, but sometimes, in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself. — Unknown.
It is perfectly okay not knowing what you want to do next, especially when it comes to your career. But on one condition, you ACKNOWLEDGE and DECIDE that you do not know.
The mind, being the powerful tool that it is, follows the command of your decision. When you DECIDE you do not know, you command it to move places and circumstances to make sure you have the answer.
The problem with most people is, they do not acknowledge and DECIDE that they do not know. They pretend to have it all figured out when their subconscious mind is really trying to tell them something else. What happens is, they stand in the middle of the door not knowing whether to get in or get out.
So if you do not know, say it and mean it. Better, ask for advice from others.
2. Practice Gratitude
Acknowledging what you already have in your life is the foundation of all abundance — Eckhart Tolle
There are times when we plan, and there are times to just sit back and be thankful.
Just got laid out and not know what to do next? Be grateful for what you KNOW and HAVE in your life!
Gratitude isn’t just a wishy-washy, new-age, feel-good concept. Gratitude brings your mind to the present moment, clear the clutter in your head and gets you to focus on what you ALREADY HAVE in your life vs the opposite.
Or in simple terms, you start focusing on abundance vs lack.
When you focus on Abundance, which is truly your natural state of being, more ideas like it will be attracted to you.
3. Master the art of making decisions (We can learn this from Jeff Bezos)
In X years, will I regret not doing this? YES : Do it. NO : Don’t bother. — Regret Minimization Technique by Jeff Bezos.
Decision making is tough. Some of the reasons we don’t make great decisions (or we don’t make them at all) are:
We’re too scared to make mistakes.
We’ve never truly practiced decision making (Due to the first point).
We don’t have enough information (Or we think we don’t, which brings us back to the first point).
Let us learn about this from the master himself, Jeff Bezos.
On bezos’ 2017 letter to his shareholders, he share some really powerful tips on Decision Making. The full article is here, but i’d quote a paragraph for you.
Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you’re probably being slow. Plus, either way, you need to be good at quickly recognizing and correcting bad decisions. If you’re good at course correcting, being wrong may be less costly than you think, whereas being slow is going to be expensive for sure.
The key here is to make decisions fast, with as much information as we need. If we make mistakes, we could reverse it later. But in the long run, making no decisions hurt us more than making the wrong decisions.
Or in Jordan’s terms,
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
4. Realize that all path leads to Rome
If you’re doing your best, you won’t have to ever worry about Failure. — H Jackson Brown Jr.
One of the BIGGEST realization came to me from the words of a friend.
As I was asking him what shall I be doing with my life, he sipped a beer and told me,
“Ultimately, you could succeed in any field. You just need to do your best and serve your stakeholders well. That’s it.”
If you focus on service, you wouldn’t really think too much. You would grab anything that’s in front of your eyes, do your best and make sure your stakeholders (Clients, Co-Workers, Investors etc) have the BEST EXPERIENCE with whatever product / service you’re offering.
5. Warren Buffett’s 25/5 Strategy (?)
To ignite your life, you have to just focus on one thing long enough for it to catch fire. — Gary Keller
What’s amazing is, this tip didn’t actually come from Warren Buffett. In the 2013 Berkshire Hathaway Stakeholder’s meeting, he debunked ever quoting it.
I personally haven’t really tried this one, but this may help you narrow your focus. Original article is right here, let me quote it for you.
Write down a list of your top 25 career goals.
Circle the five most important goals that truly speak to you. These are your most urgent goals and highest priorities to focus on.
Cross off the other 20 goals you have listed that hold less importance.
For me personally, I wouldn’t cross the remaining 20 off. I would keep them as a “Later” or “Someday” goal and would revert to them whenever I have plenty of free time. But on times you’re focusing on your top 5, top 3 or top 2, forget the other 20.
6. Start Journaling.
Journaling is like whispering to yourself and listening at the same time. — Mina Murray, Dracula.
Journaling is a GREAT WAY to gain clarity over your life.
There are many ways to journal, but really the best way is different for everybody. Just grab a pad & pen, and just start writing ANYTHING that comes to your mind.
My journaling strategy is pretty simple, I call it Peeling the onion. This is how I do it.
I focus on the right part of the brain and just write down ANYTHING that comes to my mind, no matter how random. (For example: I don’t know what to do with my life.)
I ask Why. (Why Don’t I know what I want to do with my life?”
I keep asking why until I reach the root of the problem. Do not judge, be objective. (In this case, perhaps I was too afraid to waste my time doing the wrong thing).
After this exercise, you’d realize 90% of your unwanted thoughts are gone.
Fun Tip: While writing, visualize you’re transferring the contents of your brain to the paper. Feel the relief in your head as this happen.
7. Meditate.
Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak. — Ma Jaya Sati Bhagawati
I know, I know.
“My head is filled with junk that I can’t control, I need to figure out what I need to do by next week and you want me to sit down and observe my thoughts?”
Yes, and no.
Meditation is basically a process of you realizing that whatever chatter happening in your mind is not the real you. Those are information that you pick up from outside, that is mostly driven by fear.
And no, you don’t have to always “watch your thoughts”. There are other ways to meditate, too.
I was an over-thinker for WAY TOO LONG, and one meditation style fits me perfectly.
They call it the BOX Meditation technique. Full explanation of it here.
This meditation style is SO SIMPLE, can be done ANYWHERE and is EXTREMELY POWERFUL.
So, if you’re not in a position to “Observe your thoughts”, try this instead. You will feel much calmer, you realize your thoughts subside and your head feels lighter.
8. Get a Coach.
Everybody should have a coach. — Erich Schmidt, Google CEO.
Coaches aren’t similar to Mentors or Motivational Speakers. They do not tell you what to do, and give you advice when what you needed is to just talk.
Coaches are more like listeners, and diggers. Their duty is to listen to you as you speak, and ask questions so you eventually figure out the answer yourself.
Think about peeling the onion, but someone else does the questioning for you.
I’ve hired a coach in my life, who eventually became my very good friend and he helped me make some tough decisions in my life. I will forever be grateful for his presence in my life.
Consider hiring a coach to help you make your own decisions. It’s one of the best decisions you could make for your future. | https://medium.com/@theniteshg/what-if-i-dont-know-what-i-want-in-life-84a1c77fb12d | ['Nitesh Gianchandani'] | 2020-12-26 16:01:12.188000+00:00 | ['Focus', 'Personal Development', 'Decision Making', 'Careers', 'Coaching'] |
What Working on Cars Taught Me About Taking Care of Myself. | Most people wouldn’t think much of a car. They hop in, go to where they need to, and get out. Simple right? And when the car has a problem or it starts making a funny sound, you just take it to a shop and they fix it. Well, I for one don’t have the money to do something like that. Coming from a poor family, you find out pretty quickly that taking a car to get fixed is not an option most of the time. So what do you do? You fix the problem yourself!
I remember when I got my first car. It was an old 1997 Ford Escort and from the moment we bought it, it had issues. First, the front end had a problem with the suspension, then the rear. To top it all off, the entire brake system needed to be replaced. It was one thing after another, and who was caught repairing all of it? Me. That was the first time I really learned how lucky some people were to just take their car to a shop and have it fixed. Now don’t get me wrong, some issues were too big for me to handle, such as needing a specialty tool I didn’t own. However, for the issues that didn’t need a specialty tool, you bet the first two things under that car were me and a wrench.
That was until the day that I wrecked the car. I was crushed. That car had cost me nothing but time and money since the day that I got it. After the fact, I realized just how much that car meant to me. I had put so much time into it that I hadn’t noticed how attached I had gotten. Sure, it wasn’t the most glamourous vehicle but it took me on some of my first dates, toted my friends around when they didn’t have cars yet, and drove me around when a lot was on my mind. I had loved that car and I took it for granted.
Since then, I’ve had two more cars. The second one’s engine quit on me only six months after I bought it (I never liked that one anyway). Then there’s the car I have now, a 2003 Toyota 4-runner. It’s the sturdiest, most reliable car that anyone could ask for. You bet that she gets regular maintenance and is always looked after. On top of that, any problem that she’s had I’ve taken care of personally. She’s never even been to a shop! Almost two years later, she still runs like a champ.
Working on all these cars over the years has taught me something as well. It’s that cars and people are not too different when you think about it. We both have our issues and breakdowns. Most of all, we both need regular maintenance. We have the tendency to run ourselves dry without even noticing. We might not take the time to do simple things, such as eating and sleeping. We deprive ourselves of our basic needs just by not paying attention.
But like cars, we need to take time to understand and take care of ourselves. Life is so fast and sometimes we forget to take the time to check-in. You wouldn’t run your car 24/7 without turning it off, right? Eventually, the gas would run out or something would break down in the car. We have to take the time to understand ourselves and address the issues in our everyday life.
When a car starts to make noise, you find out where it’s coming from. We need to be able to recognize what those noises are and what kind of warning signs our body is giving us. We might not make actual noises or have a light that comes on when we’re hungry, but there are other signs we might want to take notice of. These can come in many forms, such as feeling sick, having headaches, or a grumbling stomach. We then check on why it’s making that noise, like how a mechanic would trace a noise back to the issue of the car.
We have to be careful of looking out for these issues. If you don’t, then before you know it, you’re broken down on the side of the road, and your phones dead. This is where regular maintenance comes into play, like how you would change oil in a car every 5,000 miles. You have to sit down with yourself every once in a while and ask yourself questions like, “Have I been feeling ok lately?”, “How are my relationships with my coworkers and friends?”, or “How am I doing financially?”. Regularly answering these questions can lead you to live a happier and healthier life in the long run.
Now that you’ve found the issue, it’s just a question on how to address it. Like going and picking out parts for your car, you’ll have some decisions to make. What parts should you use? What tools do you need? Do you pick the cheapest part or the more expensive one? There’s been many times where I’ve bought a cheaper part because I didn’t have the money for the more expensive one. I put things together with the items I had around me instead of doing it the correct way. Know that this is ok, but when you have the time and resources to put the quality part in, do it. That jerry-rigged cable tie will only last so long before it causes more damage than it fixed.
Always understand that it’s ok to have a breakdown once in a while. Sometimes we forget to check-in or we’ve left a light on for a bit longer than we should have. In the end, it’s not about how much you’ve broken down, but how many times you’ve fixed yourself and gotten back on the road. | https://medium.com/@chasebridwell/what-working-on-cars-taught-me-about-taking-care-of-myself-5f2af24ff8de | ['Chase Bridwell'] | 2020-12-19 02:44:58.177000+00:00 | ['Self Care', 'Self Care Tips', 'Resilience', 'Cars', 'Self Improvement'] |
gRPC basics with example | What is gRPC ?
gRPC is an open source, language agnostic RPC framework, which can be used for service to service communication. It is an alternative to ReST. It uses Protocol Buffers as the interface definition language.
Advantages
Contract-first approach helps negotiate API contracts across teams very clearly. It is very suitable for polyglot systems where services are implemented in different technologies or languages. It supports both unidirectional and bidirectional streaming calls. It reduces network usage due to Protobuf binary serialization It uses HTTP/2 for transport, which is lighter and performant.
Drawbacks
Yet browsers do not offer complete support needed for a gRPC client to make HTTP/2 requests. Need additional tools to view the actual gRPC payload due to Protobufs, requests and responses are not human readable. We can not test or invoke a gRPC service using tools like cURL and Postman
Example
We have a gRPC server implemented in Scala, and a client implemented in .NET Core. For simplicity, the server here adds input numbers and returns the sum as a result. In my next post, I’ll try to cover streaming gRPC calls.
Service specification
gRPC service specification is described using proto syntax. It tells you the name of the service and its parameters along with their types. Below is the proto file I used for this example, and its Github link.
syntax = "proto3"; package com.surajgharat.practice.grpc.service; service SumService { rpc Sum(SumInput) returns (SumOutput) {} } message SumInput { int32 n1 = 1; int32 n2 = 2; } message SumOutput { int32 result = 1; }
At the Scala server side, as we compile, the proto compiler generates a SumService scala object in the given package, and that object contains a nested trait that we need to implement as a part of service implementation. It also creates SumInput and SumOutput Scala case classes in the same namespace.
P.S. : We can not use plain primitive types as input and output parameters in gRPC.
Server implementation
I am using ScalaPB, a protocol buffer compiler for Scala, which generates traits, types and stubs needed for implementing gRPC server as per the service specification, and also client side channels and stubs, as we compile the project using sbt compile
Install ScalaPB by adding it as a plugin in the project/plugins.sbt file of your Scala project as below.
addSbtPlugin("com.thesamet" % "sbt-protoc" % "1.0.0-RC2") libraryDependencies += "com.thesamet.scalapb" %% "compilerplugin" % "0.10.8"
Add below two dependencies to your build.sbt
libraryDependencies ++= Seq( "io.grpc" % "grpc-netty" % scalapb.compiler.Version.grpcJavaVersion, "com.thesamet.scalapb" %% "scalapb-runtime-grpc" % scalapb.compiler.Version.scalapbVersion )
Below statement in the build.sbt would enable generation of gRPC code on sbt compile
PB.targets in Compile := Seq( scalapb.gen() -> (sourceManaged in Compile).value / "scalapb" )
ScalaPB is very configurable and so it offers to configure proto file location as below. In my case I saved my sumservice.proto in the main/proto folder of my Scala server project.
PB.protoSources in Compile := Seq(sourceDirectory.value / "main/proto")
Below snippet shows the Scala service implementation, wherein SumServiceGrpc.SumService is the trait generated by ScalaPB proto compiler using our service specification. This is a non-blocking implementation which makes use of Scala Futures and simply adds two numbers to create the final result. See complete server code here.
class SumServiceImpl extends SumServiceGrpc.SumService { // service implementation override def sum(request: SumInput): Future[SumOutput] = Future.successful(SumOutput(request.n1 + request.n2)) }
Below Scala statement builds and starts the above server
ServerBuilder .forPort(50051) .addService(SumServiceGrpc.bindService(new SumServiceImpl, executionContext)) .build .start
Client implementation
For .NET Core client implementation, we need to add Grpc.Tools, Google.Protobuf and Grpc.Net.Client nugets to our project which would generate C# types for service, client and message as we build the project.
Also add below tag in the project file to indicate location of grpc service proto file. Moreover, using the “GrpcServices” attribute, we can indicate whether to generate gRPC types only for client, or server or both or none.
<ItemGroup> <Protobuf Include="Protos\sumservice.proto" GrpcServices="Client" /> </ItemGroup>
Below C# snippet shows how to create a channel and gRPC client. A channel represents a long-lived connection to a gRPC service. When a channel is created, it is configured with options related to calling a service. Please note the SumService and SumServiceClient are the generated type/stub by Grpc.Tools as per our given service proto file.
var channel = GrpcChannel.ForAddress("https://localhost:5001"); var client = new SumService.SumServiceClient(channel);
There is a provision to configure the channel using GrpcChannelOptions, which allows us to configure it with HttpClient or MessageHandler of our own choice. gRPC uses HTTP/2 for transport, and by default HttpClient in .NET Core uses HTTP/1.x, and that is why I configured my channel to use a custom message handler which sets request version to HTTP/2.
Finally the below statement makes the gRPC service call and collects the result asynchronously.
SumOutput sumOutput = await client.SumAsync(new SumInput { N1 = n1, N2 = n2 });
See complete client code here. | https://medium.com/@iamsurajgharat/grpc-basics-with-example-cf6153b1646f | ['Suraj Gharat'] | 2020-11-27 13:36:40.383000+00:00 | ['Grpc', 'Scala', 'Net Core 3'] |
Redefined: How a Leadership Organization Impacted My Student Life | Canadian Student Leadership Association, a non-profit leadership organization.
Near the end of grade 11, I got accepted as a Culture Board member of the Student Council at my high school. As part of my newly adopted role, I attended their first meeting and got introduced to the Canadian Student Leadership Association(CSLA), a leadership organization that focuses on improving leadership skills for students. Our Student Council leaders encouraged us to enroll in their certification program and get us started on becoming better leaders.
Consider the period when I enrolled in the program. The COVID-19 pandemic. The reason everyone has to wear masks, stay home as much as possible, and socially distance themselves from others. My experience was void of large, in-person conferences and other large gatherings, but it was worthwhile and engaging for an online program. The certification course consists of video lessons from leaders within the organization and others who are well-recognized in Canada and are TED Talk speakers. There are also lessons in the form of articles that center around specific skills for students to hone in. Usually following the lessons are assignments that ask questions about the lesson or a proposal to concoct a creative project that relates to the lesson. These modules can be completed at an independent pace, making it even more convenient(unless you are a professional at procrastinating).
Enrolling in the course has been a rewarding and productive experience. It propelled me to take advantage of more volunteering opportunities and has insightfully redefined my perception of being a leader. There are an abundant amount of lessons that I could name that had an impact on my leadership abilities, but for the contents of this article, I will focus on a few.
One of the skills that have improved from the program is reading. For the obvious reasons, reading is significant for leadership skills because it enables people to communicate more effectively. The module based on reading expands on the purpose of reading and emphasizes the reason why excellent readers make excellent leaders. From better decision-making to greater creativity, these benefits can be immensely helpful to anyone in any environment. From then on, I made a goal to read more books that I found interest in and I have been successful in my endeavour so far. Since completing the module, I have read ten books, ranging from non-fiction to dramatic fiction, as opposed to zero beforehand. It has enhanced my leadership skills by making me more empathetic with people who have different perspectives and experiences and enabling me to contribute more to my Student Council meetings with thoughtful ideas.
Another module that was one of my highlights of the program is The 40 Developmental Assets. The module informs students of many circumstances and internal values that add purpose to one’s life. The assets are categorized into several types of themes such as empowerment, constructive uses of time, and positive values. I highly recommend visiting this module multiple times as a reminder of how one should conduct themselves as an individual and the values that one should instill themselves. One of the values from the developmental assets that I have recently been focusing on is promoting equality and social justice. That focus has galvanized me to join the Social Justice Initiative at my high school where students and educators educate others on issues of social justice such as sexism, racism, and xenophobia through meetings, research, and discussions. I have been given the chance to lead multiple discussions and am forever grateful for it as it has given me confidence in public speaking and presentation skills.
I’m still enrolled in the program and I am the first person to be a student in Level 4 of their certification program. The work may seem overwhelming and that is often the reason many students don’t attempt to make it past level one. Nonetheless, completing a few assignments whenever feasible shouldn’t be an issue considering that the course can be completed based on one’s independent goals; it isn’t structured like a usual secondary school course. The course is convenient and always teaches relevant lessons that can be applied to any environment, not just situations that directly involve leadership. So for individuals who are looking to make an impact on their school or improve their skills, take the time to start at CSLA. | https://medium.com/@edwinibon90210/redefined-how-a-leadership-organization-impacted-my-student-life-a9f44802086c | [] | 2021-06-30 15:41:31.529000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Leadership', 'Leadership Skills', 'Summer', 'Leadership Development'] |
Taimi Upgrades Its Livestreams with a Promising LIVE DUET Feature | Taimi, the biggest LGBTQ+ platform that features a social network and a dating app, launched livestreaming at the end of August. After just two months, Taimi significantly upgraded its in-app livestreams with the launch of Live Duet. The feature allows Taimi users to join any streams via video.
Live Duet can be a universal tool for anyone on the LGBTQ+ platform, be it influencers who can use the feature to get to know their audience better or people looking to connect more organically. | https://medium.com/taimi-news-updates/taimi-upgrades-its-livestreams-with-a-promising-live-duet-feature-2f662bbe1fbf | [] | 2020-12-04 14:53:43.545000+00:00 | ['Streaming', 'Social Network', 'Livestream', 'Dating App', 'LGBTQ'] |
Gone Kesh! — A comic tragedy of hair during lockdown. | During lockdown, I didn’t comb my hair for months literally. They were tangled from root to tip. Odomos , all-out se yada machchhar to mere ballon me fans ke mar rahe the hamare ghar me. Poora nation jab dengue ki chapet me tha, my family was safe, due to my hair.
kabhi koi mehmaan aa jae ghar pe achanak to me mask ke pehle hairnet dhundti thi.Abhi sirf hairnet me jana to achha ni lagta to mask bhi lagana padta tha. To ghar me Bahar se aane wale without mask, mere senior citizen, unvaccinated, co-morbidity wale parents without mask and me fully vaccinated and in-20s used to be in mask as well as hair net. aadhe log to guilt me aa jate mujhe dekh ke, like they are underdressed for the party.
‘Anyways, so I realised ki ab to kuch Karna padega . Bahot din koshish ki, serum lagaya, pani lagaya, ungliyon se, mote dant wale comb se , ni suljhe,samajh age ab to professional ki help lagegi. Gae parlour, bola aunty, is kesh ke case pe discussion ke Alawa aapko jo Karna hai kar do balo ka,
steam, spa, shampooing, special treatment. Aunty ne dekha Baal thodi der, koshish ki. Fir andar gai.. thodi der baad Bahar aai, boli beta next weekend kya kar rahe ho aap, mujhe laga shayad kuchh ache mehnge products aane wale honge aunty ke, mene bola kuch ni aunty aa jaungi Aunty mere hath me ticket dete hue bolti hai beta aapko jana nahi jana padega. Ticket the Tirupati Balaji ki.
Kehti hai hamari ek khandani zameed ka case uljha hai court me saalon se, use suljhane ki mannat mangne jane wale the, but aapko yada zarurat hai, aap hi jao. Mene kaha aunty aapko to nuksaan ho jaega ese , boli ni beta baal aap chadhaoge punya to me hi rakhungi uska, jese hum relatives kahi ja rahe ho to ni bol dete hai na ..are hamari taraf se bhi 51 rupay ka prasad chadhha dena, ese aunty mujhe baal chadhake aane bol rahi thi,… mere,… unki taraf se. Ni iska ek aur fayda hone wala tha unko, wo apne baal chadhati to wo pehli hi baar me wig comapnies le jati , par mere baal to koi na le jaata, unko sabse zyada der bhagwan ke pass samarpit rehne ka saubhagya prapt hone wala tha.
{Feedback appreciated in comments} | https://medium.com/@gunjan.vg/gone-kesh-3467eb075b6e | ['Gunjan Shrivastava'] | 2022-01-22 09:08:08.142000+00:00 | ['Hair', 'Lockdown Diary', 'Funny', 'Lockdown', 'Comedy'] |
Chapter 3: All is Not Fair in Love and War (Always Ask Why) | Tom was much more comfortable with having friends than my ex, Travis, was. Most of my friends were men and most of his were women. He hugged and cuddled all of them just like I did. We had a similar mindset that everyone deserves love and affection, and while we fell for each other fast, we were still individual people.
One day he brought up something that he said had been on his mind for a while.
How do you feel about having an open relationship?
I stopped breathing.
Like… sleeping with other people?
Yeah.
My mind was racing. Didn’t I make him happy? We were already becoming “the power couple” at school, even though it had only been a few months. Our friends made jokes about us getting married someday.
So I’m not enough for you? I was starting to cry. My heart felt like stone.
Of course you’re enough for me.
This started the longest single conversation that I’ve ever had. It was interrupted by work, school, sleep, and living at our respective parents’ houses, but otherwise it lasted roughly three weeks. Those first few weeks were like chasing each other around in a circle. He brought it up, I cried, he shut down, I nagged, he distanced, I yelled, he repeated himself, I cried.
What if I said no? I said one day. I was exhausted. We were talking in circles again. I wanted to get up and leave, but we were driving around the city as we talked. The car was the only place we could get any privacy.
Then I would want to take a break.
That made my heart drop. I knew I couldn’t take a break. I was still heartbroken over Travis, and I knew I couldn’t wait around for Tom on top of that. I couldn’t watch him bang girls that I knew while I sat around and waited for him.
So I figured this was the end. It had been the deepest, most committed relationship I had experienced in my nineteen years. I couldn’t read his expression. He wouldn’t even look at me.
All this time, I had felt I wasn’t enough for him. I assumed I didn’t satisfy him. I must be too clingy, like Travis had been, because I liked to call him after work. I was confused why he didn’t just break up with me instead of putting me through this.
I knew there had to be a way to end this conversation, a way where we would both be happy. But I was so tired. It feels ironic that I only found the right question after I thought it was over.
Why?
This is a toddler’s favorite word, but it’s somehow lost in the mess of adulthood. Many of us decide somewhere that we know what someone is thinking. We’re usually wrong. We don’t know anyone as well as we think we do. We don’t normally know ourselves as well as we think we do.
The car jolted. He was taking an exit to the highway. Driving me home. The sound of the wind blowing over the car was deafening.
Because I’m going to marry you, he said. You’re the only girl I’ve slept with and I want to experience everything. If I spend the rest of my life with you I don’t want to resent you that I’ve missed out on anything. I can’t risk that.
Something clicked.
He wanted to experiment because I was his first. Not because I wasn’t enough; because he knew that I was.
I want to know my heart is committed, he said.
I thought back to my last relationship. I thought how he pushed me for sex, even though I told him it made me happier to wait for marriage. I thought about how he was still calling me over and over. Even after I told him that the relationship didn’t make me happy, he wouldn’t give me the space I needed.
I had wanted to wait until marriage. I resented him for that.
Would this make you happy? I asked him.
Yes, he said.
Part of the reason I loved Tom was because my happiness was important to him. He had told me if Travis made me happy, I should be with him. I saw the pain in his eyes when he told me that, and I felt how hard he squeezed me when I shook my head no.
You’ve made sacrifices for me, I thought.
The car rattled as he changed lanes. The tires vibrated underneath me. I took a deep breath.
There’s going to have to be some ground rules, I said.
The word “polyamory” defines as the practice of, or desire for, intimate relationships where individuals may have more than one partner, with the knowledge and consent of all partners. Now, I use this label to describe myself because it’s straightforward.
“Open relationship,” however, is subjective. It’s generally used to open the relationship to different sexual partners.
But how do you find the boundary lines?
How do you make sure that neither one of you begins to care for someone else emotionally, and if you do, is that technically cheating?
The first boundary rule would be that we would discuss any plans to follow through. The second rule was a common mistake. It’s also the most detrimental: we kept score. If beginning this journey was a step forward to avoid resentment, keeping score was five steps back.
I slept with a mutual friend first, because I couldn’t stand the thought of him making the first move. It was my first hookup. I hated it. It felt empty, awkward, and strange. The only two men I had slept with always made eye contact. He hardly looked at me at all.
The day after, Tom asked if I did it. When I told him I did, his silence made me wonder if he had been planning on changing his mind. But, as we said back then, it didn’t matter. Now he gets one.
My mind was wiped clean of everything except that damn scoreboard.
It was like the most hurtful competition in the world. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to catch up; he didn’t have someone specifically in mind, but he was pissed that I had. He was pissed that it was so easy for me. It made me feel guilty, and couldn’t figure out exactly what my boundaries were until he scored his goal.
Was I allowed to flirt with others, or did I have to wait?
Did it count as a second goal if it was the same person?
Fairness and compassion are worthwhile goals in any relationship, but that doesn’t mean life is fair. It’s not logical to expect that he’ll have the same amount of free time that I did, or that he’ll find the exact same amount of people interested in him at the same time that I did. I socialized more and had classes with a more diverse group of people, and it made sense I would have more options at my disposal.
It was quite a while before he got his first goal, and the waiting was the worst part. I wasn’t attached to my first experiment. Or my second. Or my third. I had found that sex was an easy way to keep my anxiety under control, so I was able to easily separate it from my emotions. But I hadn’t seen proof that he could do that too.
I never knew jealousy could be so possessive. It made me hate myself and hate our situation, but the more jealous I felt, the more I knew I cared about him, and the more I wanted to pull through. I didn’t want him to resent me either. Every time he talked to a girl, I wanted to pull him away. Every time he I saw him check someone out — something that had never bothered me before — I asked if he was going to try and sleep with her.
It didn’t happen until college. He came home and held me, told me that he had slept with her.
I moved to see his expression. He wouldn’t look at me at first. He kept his arms around me firmly until I stopped struggling and relaxed. Finally, when he moved away and looked down at me, he looked at me with more love than I knew he was capable of.
Something shifted when that happened. I knew we were going to make it.
Do you still love me? I asked.
Yes. Even more.
Soon after, we wiped the scoreboard clean together. It had become apparent that over-communication was possible. If one of us went out of our way to tell the other our sexual plans, the other would go crazy until it happened. There was no reason to revolve our situation around our individual motives. Either it happened, or it didn’t.
I told him we needed to stop keeping tally; I was beginning to see the benefits of sleeping with other people, and it made the relationship more fulfilling for me. But it wasn’t fair that he still worked thirty hours a week. He literally had no time to see other people when he was unavailable for fifteen hours a day. We loved each other madly, but I was getting lonely; between classes and our work schedules, I couldn’t see him more than a few hours a week. Even then he was exhausted and normally fell asleep. Sometimes it felt like I wasn’t even in a relationship. The anxiety that runs in my family caught me off guard when I moved to the dorms and started college, and the easiest way to keep it under control was drinking and sex.
Both of which I craved constantly.
By now, I welcomed any intimacy I could get. I was good at turning my emotions off, and the sex would relax me and made me feel wanted until I was able to spend time with him. College was sprinkled with experiments: drunken makeouts, getting the confidence to explore a few girls, and occasional hookups with people that I partied with and cared for.
Tom and I still hung out with a small group of friends who carried over from high school. Rather, I did on the weekends while he was at work. We all dealt with our anxiety in the same way, and he usually only saw them while picking up a trashed Kayla on his way home from work.
This was the circle of friends who had watched us grow up together and saw how much we loved each other. They saw how much we went through our first few years and knew how hard we struggled to stay together. There was no judgment of our situation in that group, and many of them were even involved. A mixture of pot, alcohol, and a few discussions of alternative lifestyle conversations even brought many of them into our situation in one way or another.
By now, Tom and I knew that we were committed. We were more settled into the idea of an open relationship because we were both affectionate and sexual people, and knew if it was to tear us apart, it would have happened by now.
A lot of friends came and went during my college career. At first, only my group from high school knew about our relationship. But after a while it felt important to come out to new friends. I didn’t want to keep secrets from someone who thought they were getting to know me, and it was becoming a large part of who I was. It also cleared up a lot of confusion because I was such an affectionate person. To this day, I still can’t fathom being in a relationship where I am not permitted to kiss an old friend as a greeting.
A few friends faded out when I told them, and it hurt a little. But I understood my lifestyle choice wasn’t for everyone. I understood that when I answered the question can you date other people? and I said no, they wondered exactly how many people I had slept with.
By the time college drew to a close, we were much better about our jealousy. It was far and few between. He would feel it sometimes if I found someone new — he was always nervous I would find someone who was able to spend more time with me than he was, and forget about him. Even though the more time he put into his job, the more I loved him.
Fairness operates globally, not situationally. If you’re in a relationship with two separate girls, it wouldn’t be fair for one of them to say, “you took her out to dinner last friday. Now you have to take me!” or “you spent a hundred dollars on her birthday. I must be worth the same amount.”
What was important, as long as we were both consenting to the situation of having an open relationship, was that we were both emotionally supporting each other’s happiness.
At the time, my emotional needs drove me to seek out sex more often than he needed it. It helped my general well-being, and unless we kept score, it wasn’t detrimental to our relationship.
We shouldn’t be asking if we’re getting the same thing as our partner, or the same thing as our partner’s other partner. Besides, half the time, we don’t realize we want something until we notice someone else has it first.
Your own happiness comes first. Instead of seeing what the other partner has, focus on yourself and ask, am I getting what I need? Instead of assuming that we know what our partner needs or wants, we need to ask them why.
If I had never asked that question, I might not have found the love of my life. | https://medium.com/emotionalstrength/chapter-3-all-is-not-fair-in-love-and-war-always-ask-why-959a9c946e5a | ['Kayla Murphy'] | 2016-07-19 05:55:09.713000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Love', 'Sex', 'Self Improvement', 'Polyamory'] |
New New Brutalism: The Architecture of Troubled Times, Then and Now | Genex Tower, Belgrade
Le Corbusier, one of the pre-eminent figures of modern architecture, has been widely quoted as saying “a hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe,” a statement he immediately qualified with “and 50 times…it is a beautiful catastrophe.” Fittingly enough, it was the adoption of Le Corbusier’s term béton brut [raw concrete] which heralded the coming of an architectural style ideally suited to a modern era that, justifiably or not, has consisted of populations perpetually viewing themselves as being on the brink of catastrophe. The New Brutalist form, which was essentially inaugurated and proselytized in the 1950s by the architect couple Alison and Peter Smithson (the style was eventually freed of the superfluous “New” when it moved beyond its English epicenter after the 1950s), has proved itself oddly resilient, gradually becoming more recognized and even celebrated for this fact.
Insofar as we use built environments to embody the history of ideas rather than the history of forms, Brutalist structures seem perfectly tailored towards an area in which the conflict of ideas (and, by extension, ideologies) has never been more obvious in public discourse, and more potentially likely to explode into a conflict that will permanently alter interpersonal relations. Nearly every site that could be described as a public forum, whether actual or virtual, has become ideologically contested in the digital age, with acclaim and attention becoming much harder to come by for moderate or simply non-aggressive voices. In a climate where a significant amount of the American populace feels that an ideologically driven civil war is not only possible, but inevitable, it would make sense that much thinking about the aesthetic and ethical qualities of our habitats is already in a “post-catastrophe” mode.
Brutalism, despite the gloss of cruelty inherent in that name, has always had playful and good-humored exponents that defy a one-dimensional assessment of the movement: the undulating modular blocks of Moshe Safdie’s Habitat ’67 complex in Montreal, for example, exude a free spirit hardly in keeping with any contemporary understanding of “brutality,” also managing to ameliorate some skepticism about the aesthetic appeal of “raw concrete” itself. However, I believe that Brutalist architecture has increased in its relevance precisely because of it offers us an unparalleled projection surface for our persistent musings on catastrophe, be they of the optimistic or pessimistic variety. The key designs in the Brutalist canon, whether they are functionalist slabs or experiments in non-orthogonal dynamism, seem catastrophe-proof; their rigidity and defiant lack of inessential elements putting their apparent durability on par with that of natural monuments. Hypnotically repetitive and stylistically unique examples of the form, like the hovering space station aesthetic of the Druzhba Sanatorium in Crimea or the Genex Tower / Western City Gate in Serbia, play on utopian and dystopian sentiments alike, with their surfaces seeming impenetrable to all but projections of the human imagination. More intensely austere projects, like the pre-cast concrete Buffalo City Court Building, are striking enough in their monumental character that it is tempting to see them as larger-than-life placeholders marking a break between past periods of conflict and speculative, future periods of the same.
Model of Moshie Safdie’s Habitat ’67 complex
Having said this, it was not durability but a perceptible nakedness of intent (i.e. Peter Smithson’s mantra of “directness, truthfulness, no concessions”) that truly distinguished Brutalism from other Modernist forms, and which makes its projects an attractive counterweight to the endless deceit of the (dis)information age. The authenticity of such structures was also bolstered, in the New Brutalist beginnings at least, by a very direct connection to catastrophic scenarios: this style was, after all, largely conceptualized within a post-WWII Britain subject to austerity rationing and visually marked by ruins. Early members of the informal, trans-disciplinary New Brutalist think tank had experienced first-hand intense levels of privation and anxiety during the war years: the sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi had seen his whole family designated as “undesirable aliens” after Italy’s declaration of war on Britain, while the author J.G. Ballard had been held for two years in a Japanese internment camp. Most of the project’s pioneers did seem mentally steeled for scenarios in which they would be building atop literal rubble and psychological / ideological debris, trying to re-calibrate the moral compass of humanity in the process.
Their success depended upon voices whose proclamations would be as bold and unequivocal as the projects they were drafting: one of these was the critic Reyner Banham, whose 1955 defense of Brutalism remains one of the keynote texts on the subject 65 years later (even after his eventual repudiation of the style’s ultimate relevance). Apart from the Smithsons themselves, it was Banham who most passionately proposed that then-‘New’ Brutalism’s aspiration towards the embodiment of ideas was one of its most enduring strengths. This was a point that is none-too-subtly driven home by the subtitle of Banham’s 1966 volume The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic? This question would be answered by Banham simply enough: New Brutalism was not “a stylistic label” like “Neo-Classical or Neo-Gothic,”[i] but a statement demarcating a clear ethical stance. Elaborating on this, Banham insisted that “all great architecture has been ‘conceptual’ […] and the idea that any great buildings, such as the Gothic cathedrals, grew unconsciously through anonymous collaborative attention to structure and function is one of the most insidious myths with which the Modernist movement is saddled.”[ii] Such attitudes, lent credence by the Smithsons’ own attitudes towards information vis-à-vis physical space, could be seen as early iterations of the modus operandi later taken up by radical urban planning groups like Archigram, whose focus on purely conceptual and even implausible habitats represented what Hadas Steiner adtroitly describes in his own musings on Brutalism:
Architectural representation would be a medium for ideas about structure itself, through which one could, it was hoped, confront radically new structural and social possibilities and explore the contours of intangible entities.[iii]
If nothing else, this was an approach that allowed for architects to descend from the rarefied heights of their profession and become more fully integrated into “pop” culture, with newer magazines of architectural drawings being not dissimilar from “’zines” in their urgent and excited tone.
Despite his initially impassioned defenses of New Brutalism’s ethical uniqueness, Banham realized full well that there were contradictory opinions, and that many used the Brutalism descriptor as a pejorative term from the outset. It was essentially born out of ideological polarization of “Communists vs. the Rest”: more specifically, it was a “term of Communist abuse…intended to signify the normal vocabulary of Modernist architecture — flat roofs, glass, exposed structure — considered as morally reprehensible deviations from the ’new Humanism,’ [which] meant, in architecture at that time, brickwork, segmental arches, pitched roofs, small windows […] picturesque detailing without picturesque planning.”[iv] Banham knew that it would be necessary to make a positive programmatic descriptor for the movement that allowed it to be defined on its own terms, and so set forth the following three-pronged proposal:
The definition of a New Brutalist building . . . must be modified so as to exclude formality as a basic quality if it is to cover future developments and should more properly read 1.) Memorability as an Image [alternately written as ‘formal legibility of plan’]; 2.) Clear exhibition of Structure; and 3.) Valuation of materials “as found.”[v]
Paul Rudolph’s Art and Architecture building at Yale
I would submit that, since this checklist is not organized hierarchically, the second item on this list is maybe the one that most visibly distinguishes the New Brutalist school from other types of architecture. Le Corbusier, perhaps the true originator of this style, exhibited this early on with his structures that appeared “coarse, rugged, created by man […] weathered, affected by the work of time” (this in sharp contrast to Mies van der Rohe’s “crystal-clear, sharp-edged, machine-made buildings,”[vi] the likes of which were initially an influence on New Brutalism but would eventually be derided by Peter Smithson as “Miestakes”. At this early stage, Brutalism’s potential as a great polarizer was already evident, with Le Corbusier’s structures seeming to be a “consciously ‘brutal’ reaction to the machine mass-produced Miesian building types,” which themselves were “more readily accepted by a technologically oriented and economically-minded society.”[vii] This polarization would continue throughout the 1950s and certainly the more ideologically contested 1960s, where something like the work of Paul Rudolph — one of the great innovators of the hammered, corrugated concrete wall surface — could be denounced with a straight face as “fascist.”
Banham stood at the ready to counter such accusations. He insisted that the distaste for these buildings was not really because of their imperious, domineering qualities, but the way in which they forced observers and inhabitants to confront a more familiar, comfortable atmosphere of near-universal deceit:
“…what has caused Hunstanton [School] to lodge in the public’s gullet is that it is almost unique among modern buildings in being made of what it appears to be made of [emphasis mine]. Whatever has been said about honest use of materials, most modern buildings appear to be made of whitewash of patent glazing, even when they are made of concrete or steel. Hunstanton appears to be made of glass, brick, steel and concrete, and is in fact made of glass, brick, steel and concrete. Water and electricity do not come out of unexplained holes in the wall, but are delivered to the point of use by visible pipes and manifest conduits.”[viii]
If these details seem to describe something like a warehouse rather than an actual habitation, this is not that far from the Smithsons’ own aspirations, as they wished for the builders of their Soho House to “refrain from any internal finishes wherever practicable.”[ix] This commitment to honesty as a fundamental design quality would later be echoed by Rudolph, who neatly summed up the Brutalist attitude by stating his preference for pre-fabricated concrete walls over glass-and-metal facades, and attributed this to a desire for “buildings that respond to light and shade” over “buildings that are all reflection.”[x] For Brutalism’s most enthusiastic proselytizers and adherents, an aesthetic based around reflection would be a parallel to deflection or distraction from truly useful information in interpersonal matters, part of a sweeping program to (following Adolf Loos’ infamous 1908 article “Ornament and Crime”) use ornamentation as a layer of camouflage over the raw flesh of reality. In contradiction to the “fascistic” accusations leveled at so many Brutalist artifacts, this enforced nakedness led to a certain flexibility as well. Numerous Brutalist architects insisted on considering topological qualities over geometric ones when conceptualizing new projects, and this meant a resilience of form that not only allowed Brutalist designs to encompass everything from single housing units to juggernaut skyscrapers, but reinforced the existing impression of their being resilient to catastrophe.
Rainer Veil, “New Brutalism” EP
To better drive home this point, it is well worth looking at another creative field that has taken the outstretched hand of the Brutalist ethic and aesthetic: popular and “alternative” music. Music remains a bellwether for public attitudes on contentious subjects, and in the case of New Brutalism, musical works inspired by that movement have provided one of the most intriguing proofs of this style’s “durability through resilience” and its intimate emotional connection to tragedy or upheaval. It is worth taking a look at two recent, very similarly named releases from the electronic music milieu to understand just how much the aforementioned statements on Brutalism have manifested themselves outside of intellectual or academic spheres of influence. A New Brutality, from London-based producer Perc a.k.a. Alistair Wells, features Erno Goldfinger’s inimitable Trellis Towers on the front cover, utilizing this landmark Brutalist construction as the template for an overdriven, predatory rush of post-industrial damage. The alternately pummelling and smoldering music on the release fits into a kind of tradition for utilizing this particular building complex as the projection surface for psychological terror, i.e. J.G. Ballard’s novel High Rise or the Black Mirror interactive feature Bandersnatch. The music also provides a fairly stark contrast with the New Brutalism EP of the Manchester-based duo Rainer Veil, which uses for its cover art an image of the Preston bus station designed by Ove Arup and Partners, and whose audio program is a comparitively benign suite of languid caresses and flickering grayscale atmospheres: an epehemeral mix that is seemingly a world removed from the “hard” surfaces of Brutalist work, yet still oddly redolent of its ethos. The press release for Rainer Veil’s newest outing, Vanity, even reads like a defense of Brutalist architecture (i.e. “a breaking away from the binds of overthinking, an embrace of imperfection”).[xi]
More striking examples of Brutalist inspiration on music continue to crop up in addition to these. For example, the boldly tessellated concrete wedges of the late Welbeck Street Car Park grace the cover of the Irresistible Art of Space Colonization and its Mutation Implications, a recent album by Italian esotericists Sigillum S (deftly defying expectations, the artwork by Petulia Mattioli shows a sort of rainbow-colored magma oozing over the surface of the structure). Maybe the most salient connection of the New Brutalist aesthetic into pop culture comes courtesy of Peter Chadwick’s photographic guide This Brutal World, whose superposition of pop music lyrics with pristine photography of Brutalist landmarks helps to validate the thesis that both New Brutalist architecture and certain types of emotionally bare, no-nonsense music (Joy Division, etc.) are animated by a common impulse: that is to say, they are cognizant of past catastrophes and of looming disaster, but charge ahead to innovation even when saddled with this disconcerting knowledge. Meanwhile, Banham’s description of New Brutalism as “sophisticated primitivism” also presaged the linking of various d.i.y. music styles to Brutalist architecture, and to other aesthetic innovations which aim for a similar impact.
With all else that has been said to this point, it feels as if “sophisticated primitivism” is the key to why Brutalism stands as an antidote to the current wave of catastrophism. This is, after all, the inversion of “technological infantilism,” a pathological condition whose symptoms manifest more malevolently the more we come to expect technological immediacy to deliver the rest of the world unto our favored ways of thinking and acting. It really is not inconceivable that something as hideous as a new civil war might erupt out of our incessant techno-tribalism, itself enabled by social media echo chambers and their discouraging of dialogue and compromise. Brutalism stands as an example of the maturity that a culture can maintain while still licking the wounds sustained from past disasters, and as such deserves to be rediscovered at a time when we are hurtling towards new ones.
[i] Banham, R. (1966). The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic? London: The Architectural Press.
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Steiner, H.A. (2006). “Brutalism Exposed: Photography and the Zoom Wave.” Journal of Architectural Education, 59(3): 15–27.
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Banham, R. (2011). “The New Brutalism.” October, 136: 19–28.
[vi] Curcic, S. (1969). “Reviewed Work(s): The New Brutalism. Ethic or Aesthetic by Reyner Banham.” The Journal of Aesthetic Education, 3 (2): 171–173.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Banham (2011).
[ix] Smithson, P. & Alison Smithson (1953). “House in Soho, London.” Architectural Design, December 1953, p. 342.
[x] “Boston Bucks a Trend.” Architectural Forum 113 (Dec. 1960), 64.
[xi] https://forcedexposure.com/Catalog/rainer-veil-vanity-2lp/LOVE.112LP.html | https://thomasbeywilliambailey.medium.com/new-new-brutalism-the-architecture-of-troubled-times-then-and-now-562783ff2878 | ['Thomas Bey William Bailey'] | 2019-06-20 02:00:10.858000+00:00 | ['Architecture', 'Modernism', 'Brutalism', 'Music', 'Crisis'] |
6 Tips For A Powerful HR Technology Strategy | HR Technology Strategy
If you’re a CHRO or an HRIT Manager, one of the major challenges you might be facing is the digitalization of HR processes. Whether it’s attracting or retaining talent, reducing costs, gaining a competitive edge or driving HR efficiencies, digitalization has become imperative.
And this should reflect in all the core processes of the employee lifecycle — right from hiring, onboarding, engagement to offboarding.
According to a study by Gartner, 88% of chief HR officers say they need to invest in about three or more technologies over the next two years.
While this is an important step towards bringing in greater efficiency in HR processes, it can also be an overwhelming undertaking for most HR heads.
Additionally, the wide array of options in the HR technology market can be mind-boggling, making it difficult for CHROs and HR heads to identify which new HR technologies to choose so as to maximize the benefits of digitalization and ensure business alignment.
But it is also essential to recognize that the digitalization of HR management extends beyond just adopting efficient technology. Essentially, as important as investing in technology is, the real impact on HR processes can be brought about when the technology is employee and consumer-centric as well. Using technology to bring in transparency in HR processes and to foster interactive, personalized experiences, is what true digitalization is all about.
With how things currently stand, not adapting to technology means a detrimental impact on cost per hire, cost per employee and the overall productivity of the workforce. Hence it has become essential that HR heads identify the challenges early on and employ the right digital solutions to each problem in order to stay ahead of the curve.
Ultimately, the primary aim of adopting any HR technology should be to maximize the efficiency of HR processes and improving productivity, while reducing costs and delivering better employee experiences and business outcomes.
But with the current boom in the HR technology market, every company is trying to position their software as the silver bullet to all your HR needs. So how can you as a HR leader, ensure that you select what is best-suited to your requirements?
In order to select a technological solution that will help you accomplish your organizational goals, establishing a well thought out HR technology strategy is critical. In this article, we give you 5 tips to help you form a powerful HR technology strategy.
6 Tips For Forming A Powerful HR Technology Strategy
1. Assess your existing HR Technology landscape
The primary step in establishing an effective HR strategy involves assessing your existing HR technology landscape thoroughly; Take stock of the technology you are currently using and assess whether it meets all your current and future requirements. Actively look for opportunities to leverage technology and automation to streamline workflows in all facets of the HR function.
If there is a need to change your existing technology solution and adopt other, emerging technology providers, you should determine the level of investment it requires and map it against the current HR technology cost. Even before you invest in new technology, ensure that you have a solid grasp of its possibilities and limitations. World’s renowned HR industry analyst, Josh Bersin recommends the below HR Technology Architecture as a part of the HR Technology Market 2020 Report.
HR Technology Architecture
2. Optimize HR Technologies
Most companies tend to have poorly integrated HR technology applications that are obsolete and have functional gaps, making them difficult to use. This impacts employee adoption.
Hence companies should find ways to optimize and modernize the existing technology while adopting other, emerging technologies as well. A successful HR technology deployment goes beyond implementation. For managing a diverse set of HR technologies, you also need to consider different factors like employee preferences, stakeholder expectations and business operating models.
Below is Gartner’s recent Hype Cycle for Human Capital Management Technology that shows the modern and emerging trends in HR technologies.
You can also refer to Gartner’s report on Assessing the Maturity of Your HR Technology Function for further insights.
3. Collaborate with IT on a digital workplace strategy
HR heads need to understand that digitizing HR processes is not just an IT initiative. Instead, HR should collaborate with various functions, including IT to establish the HR technology strategy.
Partnering with IT helps provide a new perspective on what the right technology solutions are to approach existing business problems. IT’s technological acumen can help CHROs choose the right applications to drive the digitization of HR processes.
But the HR technology strategy must predominantly be driven by HR leaders as they are aware of the employee perspective and understands which practices are required to support an effective workforce.
4. Stay updated with the latest HR technology trends
There are several innovations in the HR technology landscape in the recent past. Some prominent ones are in the areas of AI, machine learning, NLP, virtual assistants etc. And many technologies are fast emerging. Understand the maturity and adoption rates of these technologies to make an informed decision.
Today, we are seeing organizations use technologies such as chatbots and modern intranets extensively in order to enhance employee experience and reduce costs. Chatbots which are one of the most prominent applications of AI, are being used at different stages of an employee’s life cycle — right from recruitment and onboarding to engaging the employee, fostering retention or offboarding. Chatbots provide self-service to employees and help them complete HR tasks like applying for PTO, access HR policy documents, get answers to their questions and more.
Read more: How Chatbots are Revolutionizing The HR Department
Modern intranets too are finding their way into the workplace, changing the ways in which employees can communicate and collaborate with each other. Mesh, an intranet accelerator solution by Acuvate, can be used by organizations to build an intranet that specifically fits their needs. It comes with a host of different features for communication, collaboration, authoring etc. and can be directly deployed on Office 365 and SharePoint Online. It also comes with a companion bot named “MeshBOT” that can provide employees with a rich self-service user experience.
According to Gartner, the emerging technology trends that HR heads must be aware of include:
Internal Talent Marketplace — Uses marketplace principles to match internal employees, alumni, and contingent workers to short-term projects and other work opportunities, without any intervention from a recruiter.
— Uses marketplace principles to match internal employees, alumni, and contingent workers to short-term projects and other work opportunities, without any intervention from a recruiter. Voice of the Employee (VoE) — Uses VoE technology to collect and analyze the opinions, perceptions and feelings of employees and workers.
Uses VoE technology to collect and analyze the opinions, perceptions and feelings of employees and workers. Virtual Assistants (VAs) Conversational interfaces that are tightly integrated with the HCM suite and other HR applications.
Conversational interfaces that are tightly integrated with the HCM suite and other HR applications. Platform as a Service (PaaS) — An application toolkit provided by HR software vendors that includes development tools, multiple APIs and frameworks, enabling customers to extend an application beyond its delivered configuration options.
— An application toolkit provided by HR software vendors that includes development tools, multiple APIs and frameworks, enabling customers to extend an application beyond its delivered configuration options. Worker Engagement Platforms (WEPs) that are designed to boost employee engagement by providing positive experiences at work.
that are designed to boost employee engagement by providing positive experiences at work. Machine learning capabilities that provide analysis and recommendations to improve processes through the identification of trends and patterns.
5. Agile Product Development and Gamification
According to a report by Gartner, the two HR capabilities that CHROs and HRIT managers must adopt for the future of work are Agile product development and Gamification. While less than 30% of HR functions are estimated to have adopted either, Gartner believes that agile product development is a way to quickly deliver HR solutions in response to ever-changing employee needs. Gamification, on the other hand must not be adopted as a means to make HR processes more entertaining. Rather, HR heads must only gamify those processes from which a unique value is to be achieved that couldn’t be achieved with the help of other tech avenues.
6. Partner With The Right Vendors
Understand your business requirements and shortlist them based on priority. Take inputs from all departments including IT and legal. Consider your workforce needs, culture challenges and characteristics Interact with your peers and HR professionals who work in your industry Shortlist 2–3 vendors and request for a demo. Ask them to provide a sandbox environment which your team can use to experience the solution’s features. Consider asking for client references.
In order to ensure that digitalization helps accomplish the organizational goals, HR heads must not only implement the most promising technologies but also, optimize, manage and measure them based on business outcomes. Partnering with the right vendor is also the key to success.
If you need help in devising your HR technology strategy or exploring new technologies, please feel free to get in touch with one of our HR technology experts for a personalized consultation. | https://medium.com/@poonam-chug/6-tips-for-a-powerful-hr-technology-strategy-e87072b8ff81 | ['Poonam Chug'] | 2020-12-16 12:14:06.704000+00:00 | ['Hr Technology', 'Hr Strategy', 'Hr Intranet', 'Remote Work'] |
Bitcoin Technical Analysis | As you can see in the chart below there are clear divergences visible in the RSI (Relative Strength Index) which tells the momentum of the trend and Stochastic RSI. The price is making a higher high but the RSI is making a lower low which is a clear indication of bearish divergence. Also, we can count a 5 Wave impulse upwards.
Price will most probably fall to the indicated blue box(0.382 and 0.236 fib levels).
As you can see in the chart below there are clear divergences visible in the RSI (Relative Strength Index) which tells the momentum of the trend and Stochastic RSI. The price is making a higher high but the RSI is making a lower low which is a clear indication of bearish divergence. Also, we can count a 5 Wave impulse upwards. | https://medium.com/ledgerfund/bitcoin-analysis-1b9f7498ab48 | ['Ledgerfund Technical Analysis'] | 2018-03-21 13:24:44.789000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin'] |
Automate executing AWS Athena queries and moving the results around S3 with Airflow: a walk-through | Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash
If you happen to store structured data on AWS S3, chances are you already use AWS Athena. It is a hosted version of Facebook’s PrestoDB and provides a way of querying structured data (stored in say .csv or .json files) using standard ANSI SQL. Given its competitive pricing structure (5 USD for 1 TB of scanned data), it currently seems to be the best tool for digging through data saved in “cold storage” in S3 (as opposed to “hot storage” in for instance Amazon Redshift or some other analytical or transactional database).
Athena has some very nice features. It not only provides the query results in the AWS Console or as a response to an API request, but it also automatically saves them as a .csv file in S3. There is only one small caveat: although you can specify the path on S3, the actual filename will be a random Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID). This is a double edged sword as on the one hand it prevents overwriting query results by mistake, but on the other it means that saving query results to specific locations on S3 with specific file names cannot be done by Athena alone. Thankfully, Apache Airflow can help us with that.
In this quick post we will see how to:
Execute an Athena query Wait until it successfully completes Move the query results to a specific location on S3
All of that can be easily done using community-supplied Airflow operators,
very little code and some knowledge of Airflow — most of which you can find in the following sections.
Note: The following sections assume you already have Airflow installed and set up. If you do not, it may be a good idea to do that first, for instance by following the steps outlined in this blog post.
Executing Athena queries in Airflow
One of the great things about Apache Airflow is that just as in any other framework, the most common use cases are already covered, tested and ready to be used. Executing AWS Athena queries is no exception, as the newer versions of Airflow (at least 1.10.3 and onward) come pre-installed with a specific operator that covers this use case. You can easily spot it in the big list of Airflow operators by its “uninspiring” name: AWSAthenaOperator.
The AWSAthenaOperator only requires us to specify three parameters:
query : the Presto query to run
: the Presto query to run database : the database to run the query against
: the database to run the query against output_location: the S3 path to write the query results into
Armed with that information, we can put together a small Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), using a few Airflow modules. With a bit of imagination it may look as follows:
A very simple DAG with a single task in it: an execution of AWS Athena query.
So what exactly is happening in this DAG? As we can see on lines 5 to 7, the DAG we defined is really minimal: all it has specified are the start date and the schedule interval (set to None , meaning this DAG will not be scheduled). Line 11 is a bit more interesting: it specifies the Athena/Presto query we would like to run. In our case that would be
SELECT * FROM UNNEST(SEQUENCE(0, 100))
It may look quite scary at the first sight but it really is not — it just lists numbers from 0 to 100 using Presto’s sequence function.
There really is not much else happening here, so provided we specified the database and output_location parameters correctly, we can just take this DAG and specifically the run_query task for a test run. In order to do so, however, Airflow needs to have a connection to AWS set up properly.
Intermezzo: Setting up connection to AWS with Airflow
To connect to AWS services from within Airflow, we need to obtain two values from AWS:
AWS_CLIENT_ID
AWS_CLIENT_SECRET
You can get both by creating your own IAM user access keys — a process nicely described in the AWS Docs.
Once we have both of these values, they need to be somehow passed to Airflow so that it can use them to authenticate requests to the AWS API. Although one can just fill them in a form inside Airflow’s Admin interface ( Menu -> Admin -> Connections -> aws_default ), it may be easier to pass these values to Airflow by exporting the AIRFLOW_CONN_AWS_DEFAULT environment variable. In our case, this may amount to executing the following command inside the terminal, from which we will execute all the other Airflow commands later on:
Note that in the command above, $AWS_CLIENT_ID and $AWS_CLIENT_SECRET should be replaced with the actual values obtained from the AWS Console. The $AWS_REGION should be changed to the region where the S3 bucket and the Athena instance you are trying to query reside.
Sadly, this sometimes may not be enough, in which case it seems that the safest approach is to just export all the relevant environment variables separately:
export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=$AWS_REGION
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=$ AWS_CLIENT_ID
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=$ AWS_CLIENT_SECRET
Just as in the other option, the variables (the right hand side) in these commands should be replaced with actual values obtained from the AWS Console.
Once that has been taken care of, we can run the test by executing:
airflow test simple_athena_query run_query 2019–05–21
The test command will start the specified task (in our case run_query ) from a given DAG ( simple_athena_query in our example). The output will provide some useful details, such as what task is being executed, which connection details are being used and how is the task progressing.
Looking at the command above, we can see that we not only specified the DAG name and the ID of the task to run, but also the execution date ( 2019–05–21 ). Our run_query task definition does not make use of it, but we can very easily change that: the query parameter is templated and the execution date is exposed via the ds variable. Our updated DAG may then look as follows:
The DAG from above, featuring a ‘templated query’.
Not much has changed, only the line 11 now looks really scary:
SELECT * FROM UNNEST(SEQUENCE(DATE(‘2019–05–01’), DATE_TRUNC(‘day’, DATE(‘{{ ds }}’)), INTERVAL ‘1’ DAY))
This seems to be mostly due to the fact that the whole query is a complex oneliner — split into multiple lines the query looks at least a bit more readable:
SELECT
*
FROM UNNEST(SEQUENCE(DATE(‘2019–05–01’),
DATE_TRUNC(‘day’, DATE(‘{{ ds }}’)),
INTERVAL ‘1’ DAY))
Upon closer examination, we can see that what the query does is actually quite straightforward: it lists all dates starting from 1st of May, 2019 until the date when the task got executed (that is what {{ ds }} will be replaced with). In practical terms, this means that once we execute
airflow test simple_athena_query run_query 2019–05–21
and then look at the S3 location we specified in the task’s parameters ( s3://my-bucket/my-path/ in our case), we should find a .csv file with 21 lines in it: one for each day between the 1st and 21st of May, 2019.
The ability to condition task execution on external parameters (such as the
execution date for instance) is quite powerful. Considering just our
small example, we are now able to create a list of days until the end of
the month without changing a single line of code in our DAG. All we need to do is to run
airflow test simple_athena_query run_query 2019–05–31
and then head to the same S3 path as before. We should be able to find a .csv file with 31 lines there.
This really only scratches the surface of the capabilities of Airflow’s “templated strings” — you can read much more about their more advanced features in the docs. | https://medium.com/slido-dev-blog/automate-executing-aws-athena-queries-and-moving-the-results-around-s3-with-airflow-dd3603dc611d | ['Marek Šuppa'] | 2019-06-19 05:55:44.741000+00:00 | ['AWS', 'Airflow', 'Data Engineering', 'Data Science', 'Pipeline'] |
Our Year in Review | Our Year in Review
May is donor reporting month at Open Cities Lab and our Founder and CEO, Richard Gevers, took some time to reflect on our 20/21 year. Open Cities Lab Follow May 10 · 3 min read
“Open Cities Lab (OCL) had a year of remarkable growth in all areas, which is a strange sentence to write with the backdrop of the global pandemic.
We experienced being pushed to the limit by the instability and unpredictability of the year. Both personally and professionally, the team and our partners experienced significant difficulties and challenges. Despite that, we were well placed to intervene directly in supporting our communities in the pandemic across our impact pillars.
In terms of building government capacity, we were able to work intensively with eThekwini and Cape Town in many areas of COVID-19 planning and implementation. We directly supported informal settlement communities through our work in Check-IT with VPUU, and assisted IBP in digitisation and data analysis in the Asivikelane project in terms of empowering citizens. We also kicked off a critical trust and accountability initiative in the Africa Data Hub, which is OCL’s first continental-focussed project.
In addition to this, our normal work continued and the organisation resumed its role in the Future Cities South Africa project. The work with them allows for deep and extensive interventions in key areas in the eThekwini and Cape Town municipalities. This meant that OCL continued to experience substantial growth in terms of our impact and initiatives due to our budget growing over four times to around R19 million. As well as our focus and region of impact growing to be continental, our team and partners needed to grow substantially to meet the demand. Through this growth, our focus has been on strategy and ensuring our team is cared for, that our processes are able to handle this growth and translate into impact, and that we grow leaders and capabilities across our ecosystem. This is in keeping with our principle of building the kingdoms around us and letting them, in turn, build ours.
This year certainly took its toll on our team with serious personal and professional challenges across the board. Disrupted ways of working, general tensions in partners from the stress of the state of affairs, and so many video calls exerted immense pressure on everyone in many ways. A major focus for us has been team care, ensuring we have mechanisms for team members to access counselling, support for emotional, physical and mental health and wellness, and trying to encourage breaks and adapting our ways of working to reduce the load on everyone. We are blessed with an amazing team and are extremely grateful for the support we have received from all of our funders and supporters over the course of the year. | https://medium.com/open-data-durban/our-year-in-review-258d40c2d84f | ['Open Cities Lab'] | 2021-05-10 08:05:28.200000+00:00 | ['Civictech', 'Looking Back', 'Mission', 'Impact', 'Year In Review'] |
3 Quotes by Warren Buffet That Teach You How Money Works | “Read 500 pages every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up like compound interest.”
All the great investors of the world have one thing in common. They read a lot. They read everything. They spend their life reading, investing and socializing with their family and friends. That’s it.
You can’t learn by sitting in front of the PC watching all the YouTubers talking about the stock market. You can entertain yourself with that stuff. Some of them are funny people. Some of them even know something about investing. Others even know a lot about investing.
Yet, everything is in the books. Things never told in public. Thoughts never shared with the audience. Those little words that make the difference are in the books. Not in a fucking screen.
So, knowledge was always the first principle Warren applied to.
If you see some documentaries about his life, you watch him reading, or socializing. But the only image I have in my mind about Buffett is of him, sitting in his office, with a journal in his hands.
Reading.
Compound interest
“Those who understand them earn them, and those who do not understand, pay them.” — Albert Einstein
Through humorous stories throughout letters he sent to his shareholders, Buffett teaches investors that the power of compound interest cannot be compared to any other factor in producing wealth through investment.
Using the compound interest regime throughout an investment program and throughout life is your best strategy, without exception.
How to apply it:
You have to be patient. And patience is something hard to achieve. When I first invested my money, I was watching the screen every 5 minutes. The numbers were there, without moving, but I was so excited about the decision I made of putting my money in an investment fund, that I thought it would be an exciting activity.
Let me be frank with you. It’s not. To be honest, it’s boring!
“The compound interest regime derives its power from its parabolic nature; the longer it lasts, the more impact it has.” — Jeremy Miller in Warren Buffet’s Ground Rules
Jeremy Miller complements it by saying: However, it does require an amount of time to reach a sufficient size to become an obvious driver within an investment program.
I guess that’s the real problem with investing. The lack of patience we generally have.
With the new tech applications on a single smartphone, you can have pure adrenaline investing every day. Buy and sell. Buy and sell.
If you read Jaime Rogozinski's book ‘WallStreetBets’, you will understand the subworld of betting in the stock market. You’d be amazed by the power of interaction between these kids. They created a culture within the subworld of investments. (On Reddit, he’s “World Caos”, a high-schooler who turned $900 into $55,000 in just 12 days.)
This culture is the anti-Buffett. It does the opposite of what Warren always taught us.
But it’s a reality. And as much as you think you will fall to Warren’s side, make sure you’re strong. Because temptation exists. Adrenaline is like a drog.
And it’s definitely more powerful than patience. | https://medium.com/the-ascent/3-quotes-by-warren-buffet-that-teach-you-how-money-works-c720b87e84c5 | ['Nuno Fabiao'] | 2020-12-09 22:02:16.952000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Quotes', 'Portfolio', 'Investment', 'Warren Buffett'] |
Data Science 101 | Photo by Franki Chamaki on Unsplash
Data Science 101
What is data science?
Well, if you have just woken up from a 10-year coma and have no idea what is data science, don’t worry, there’s still time. Many years ago, statisticians had some pretty good ideas for analysing data and getting insights from it, but they lacked the computational power to do it, so their hands were tied. Until one day, when computers managed to catch up with those guys, and made all their dreams come true. All of a sudden, we not only had more data available than ever in history, but we also had powerful machines to perform heavy calculations on this data, allowing statisticians to try out all these new algorithms. Data science is the hip daughter born from this marriage between statistics and computer science. In other words, it is the science of extracting useful patterns from data sets by use of computer power.
What is it used for?
One of the reasons data science is so popular nowadays is the number of possible applications that are emerging.
Marketing and sales
A typical use case for data science in marketing is product recommendation. When you check out a product on Amazon and they tell you there’s another product you might like, there is an algorithm behind that recommendation that thinks you will like those products based on what other customers who also saw that product actually bought.
Finance
The most common way that banks use data science methods is for credit risk analysis: back in the day, when someone asked for a loan, usually the banker took a good look at their financial record to decide whether to do it or not. Nowadays, there are sophisticated statistical models that are constantly updated and give a good estimated probability of default, making the whole process a lot faster and more reliable.
Healthcare
Healthcare is one of the most promising industries when it comes to data science. There is a lot of data being generated by connected wearables such as smartwatches, including calories spent, miles walked and heartbeats. One of the possible applications is tracking variables that can help explain some diseases, and even remind you to go see a doctor if you present a behavior that might indicate a health issue.
What questions does it answer?
We can split data science tasks into two main groups: supervised vs. unsupervised learning
Illustration of a linear regression for one explanatory variable. (Image by author)
Supervised learning
Supervised learning comprises all tasks for which we have a target variable, that is, some feature in our data that we already know we want to predict. For example, if we want to explain house prices based on their characteristics (such as number of rooms and floors), or if we want to predict the likelihood that a customer will stop using our services.
Unsupervised learning
These are the tasks for when we are not sure of the question we are asking. A typical case is clustering tasks, when we just want to find patterns in the data, not necessarily related to one specific variable (customer segmentation, for instance).
Who does it?
Besides the knowledge required in statistics and computer science, data science also calls for business awareness: no matter how good your algorithms are, they will be useless if they are not applicable in that domain. People who work with data usually fall into three categories, depending on which one of those three areas of expertise they are more focused on:
Data analyst
Sometimes also called business analyst, this guy knows how to talk to people who don’t work directly with data. He’s usually in charge of translating business needs into data requirements (and data insights into business recommendations). He has an overall understanding of the main data science algorithms, and usually has really good skills in data visualization.
Data engineer
This is the person who makes sure the data is collected from all its sources, integrated almost seamlessly into the company’s tech environment and that all the algorithms developed turn well and fast. They almost always come from a tech background, and sometimes have to create dedicated tools to display the data processes, especially if they are to be shared with other stakeholders in the company.
Data scientist
As you can guess from the name, this guy has a deeper understanding of the way most algorithms operate, and which are the best ones for each situation. They probably know more about statistics than the data analyst and the data engineer, but less about the ins and outs of the business or of the process industrialisation. Some companies prefer to hire PhD’s for this position, but it is not always the case.
Where is it going?
In the next few years, we will see much progress in many different domains. By using data, cities will be able to better manage their traffic, their energy consumption and even their police units allocation. By the use of wearables, we’ll be able to exercise, eat and sleep better. And there might be many other possibilities of which we haven’t even thought of.
However, we will also find out that not everything can be improved with data, and we will soon find out where this limit lies. There will always be an important random component in every human activity or natural phenomenon that will never be tracked by any machine learning algorithm, no matter how sophisticated it is.
This data-driven culture might also cause some important behavioural changes. People are starting to realize how much of their personal lives is being tracked by big companies and the government, and most do not seem to enjoy it. This might lead people to voluntarily downgrade their tech devices, use tools to prevent data collection, and even reduce their overall technology usage. Governments are already aware of these concerns, and regulation is getting stricter all over the world when it comes to people’s privacy. Let’s see in the years to come how this will shape society (the Black Mirror series offer interesting insights into these possibilities).
How to do it?
If you want to learn more about it, I recommend the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series book “Data Science”, by John D. Kelleher and Brendan Tierney. It is a very good introduction to the subject, without getting too technical, to help you see if data science is really for you.
Next in line is “Data Science for Business” by Foster Provost and Tom Fawcett. This one is more focused on business applications and it goes deeper into the details of the algorithms. It will give you a really good grasp of all the possibilities enabled by data-driven decision making.
Then, once you got the basics covered, it’s time to study for real: you will almost certainly need to learn to code (if you don’t know it already). The main languages you should focus on are SQL and R or Python. The first one is used to querying databases to extract the data you need, in the right shape. The other two are used for applying the algorithms and creating plots. R was created with a focus on statistics, whereas Python is a more general programming language. To start with, just choose one of the two to concentrate your efforts and, if needed, learn the other one later on.
A good way to start practicing your skills is Kaggle.com, where you can play with toy datasets and take part into real competitions. It will help you put your knowledge to test and also build a portfolio of your own. However, keep in mind that eventually, you will need to work with real-life cases, it’s a different beast.
Conclusion
Now that you know some of the data science lingo, you are able to go out there and do your own research. The amount of available resources is pretty much endless, and there’s new information coming out every day, so make sure you are always up to date on the new methods and possibilities. | https://towardsdatascience.com/data-science-101-99e34bea86c | ['Arthur Mello'] | 2020-08-14 16:09:47.514000+00:00 | ['Data', 'Data Science', 'Supervised Learning', 'Science', 'Analytics'] |
How should we decide? | As practitioners of participatory decisionmaking, we often consider how to apply different decisionmaking mechanisms in different contexts, especially when we work to disrupt or dismantle power dynamics within a group and or as part of the participatory decisionmaking journey. While classical models that analyze approaches to decisionmaking may be useful, they often over-emphasize individual leadership in decisionmaking or prioritize values like efficiency over the inherent value of group decision-making and collective power-building.
Let’s look at a continuum of approaches arranged by their general effectiveness at distributing power within a decisionmaking group. On one side are the decisionmaking approaches that generally distribute power to more participants within the group. On the other side of the continuum are approaches that tend to concentrate power in the hands of one individual, a few individuals, or even remove power from the group entirely.
Does this mean that unanimity is always a better approach than consensus? Does this mean that autocratic or stochastic mechanisms don’t have a place in legitimate participatory processes? In both cases, the answer is “No!”
The Vroom-Yetton model is a classical model for selecting a decisionmaking approach that is sometimes employed by project managers. One thing that is useful about this model is that it encourages us to analyze the nature of the decision we need to make and the circumstances surrounding our decision in order to select the approach that works best. These questions are similar to those proposed by Vroom, Yetton, and Jago, but with a participatory lens:
Is it important that the mechanism distributes power throughout the group? How important is legitimacy? Does this decision require special knowledge, or is it important that the decision is accurate and/or precise? What time and resources are available to make the decision?
Using these questions as a guide, the model below presents an overview of some common decisionmaking approaches used by groups. When designing a participatory decisionmaking process, we often employ several of these mechanisms at different points in the process to maximize their benefits and minimize trade-offs. They are all important tools in our participatory decisionmaking toolbox. Use this model the next time you consider the question, “How should we decide?” | https://medium.com/@winifred-olliff/how-should-we-decide-8d661fc823ae | ['Winifred Olliff'] | 2020-12-04 18:17:58.986000+00:00 | ['Participatory Design', 'Philanthropy', 'Group Dynamics', 'Project Management', 'Decision Making'] |
25 of the Most Beautiful Wildflowers in Georgia | Fewflower Milkweed (Asclepias lanceolata) — Camden County
Georgia owes its diversity of wildflowers in part to its range of habitats, from the mountains of the southern Appalachians, down through the hilly piedmont region, into the flat coastal plain, and then finally to the swampy coast. If you visit enough of these places at the right time, it soon becomes apparent that the state contains many beautiful species of wildflowers. This set of 25 photos is a sampling of some of my favorite species from the state of Georgia.
Red-ring Milkweed (Asclepias variegata) — Cobb County
Yellow Colic Root (Aletris lutea) — Camden County
Scarlet Calamint (Clinopodium coccineum) — Emanuel County
Pink Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum) — Bartow County
Eastern Shooting Star (Dodecatheon meadia) — Catoosa County
Showy Orchid (Galearis spectabilis) — Union County
Bowman’s Root (Gillenia trifoliata) — Lumpkin County
Common Bluet (Houstonia caerulea) — Douglas County
Dwarf Crested Iris (Iris cristata) — Union County
Dwarf Violet Iris (Iris verna) — Walker County
Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) — Glynn County
Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) — Walker County
Smooth Phlox (Phlox glaberrima) — Appling County
Maryland Meadow Beauty (Rhexia mariana) — Charlton County
Piedmont Azalea (Rhododendron canescens) — Walker County
Rose of Plymouth (Sabatia stellaris) — McIntosh County
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) — Cobb County
Fire Pink (Silene virginica) — Cobb County
Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica) — Appling County
Star Chickweed (Stellaria pubera) — Paulding County
Celadine Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) — Walker County
Catesby’s Trillium (Trillium catesbaei) — Dawson County
Vasey’s Trillium (Trillium vaseyi) — Union County
Bird’s Foot Violet (Viola pedata) — Walker County
If you enjoyed this article, then please click the heart icon below! | https://medium.com/the-philipendium/25-of-the-most-beautiful-wildflowers-in-georgia-3908a0af7446 | ['R. Philip Bouchard'] | 2016-09-20 15:04:58.556000+00:00 | ['Nature', 'Georgia', 'Flowers', 'Photography', 'Wildflowers'] |
Strategic | A newsletter about creative process.
Welcome to STRATEGIC a newsletter about creative process. For any artist, in any medium, from any background. Filled with examples and explanations of process, craft, and ritual to help you create more often and finish sooner.
David Negrin is a Professor, Screenwriter, Game Designer, VR Creator, Arts Non-Profit Founder, and Host of #TheScriptPodcast.
SUBSCRIBE here! http://blog.DavidNegrin.com | https://medium.com/strategic-from-david-negrin/strategic-94bb9f3c4566 | ['David Negrin'] | 2020-12-16 19:34:40.344000+00:00 | ['Screenwriting', 'Game Design', 'Creative Process', 'Writing Tips', 'Filmmaking'] |
Plagiarism and Cheating | I’ve never cheated in exams. Except on two occasions.
My networks professor gave us a pop quiz. I think it was a problem on Thevenin’s circuit. I am embarrassed to admit it — I hadn’t understood the concept well enough to apply it. So I sat there blank. Looking at the board. The dude next to me nudged me and asked me to copy.
I was bamboozled.
I’ve never done this before. But the dude expected me to scurry and so I did and submitted it. That’s how I lost my copyginty.
I think I got through the Kerala Engineering Entrance Exam because I’m super fast at computational math. Engineering problems arent about computation. They are about using mathematical systems to frame problems and approach them in a new light. Now as I look back, It is only natural that I failed.
I grew up in an atmosphere relatively okay with failure.
I used to participate a lot in events at school. I used to fail singing competitions, poetry, elocution. The list goes on. But here is the thing. I feel strange when I use the word fail.
That is not the schooling culture I grew up in. Fail is used as a loaded word. It is mostly used to devalue people and their effort.
Then there was the second time, in college.
You see I wanted to join a University. Do Liberal Arts. Learn to write. The dreams of a middle-class kid who watched too many Harward lectures on Youtube. Live a poor life, at the cost of living an examined life.
But I got a government Engineering college. Government Engineering Colleges was trending then. The first rule of college. You have to appropriate the dreams of your college peers if you need to survive.
I glided across my semesters living the Liberal Arts dream. I read a lot. I learned to play the guitar. I learned to edit videos. I read more and more. I wrote.
And so exams were terrible. I would barely pass.
And then there was this exam, and I would have failed. Failure becomes a horrible thing because, if you fail you don’t get placed.
School → Class 10 →Class 12 →Entrance exam → College →GPA →Graduation →Placement →Marriage →Children .
The race then repeats. I would be left out if I fail. For years I secured my copyginity. I’ve seen copy-orgies. I’ve seen copy-rapes. I’ve seen Causal-copying.
But I’ve never. And then for the eventful lab exam, My machine failed to give me the desired results. I was frustrated.
So I ‘tssk…’ ed the guy sitting next to me and asked him to help.
He helped. Though he was initially shocked because I was acting like a drug peddler.
But I couldn’t sleep that day, or for the next few days.
That’s it.
So far I’ve found only one friend who hasn’t ever cheated in an exam.
It irks me to think of copying.
Examinations are a game you play. You have to play nice in the games. You have to play by the rules. But what if every other player agrees to sabotage the rules? | https://medium.com/@overanalyzing/plagiarism-and-cheating-4b4844494649 | [] | 2019-06-17 15:17:58.702000+00:00 | ['Cheating', 'Education', 'Examination', 'Plagiarism'] |
Dogecoin Genesis | Dogecoin is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies, being used by cryptocurrency enthusiasts all over the world for over six years. Dogecoin was a part of a mini alt-coin boom that was created in the wake of a huge Bitcoin bull run in 2013. Whenever a technology, company, or person has success you can almost guarantee there will be a round of copy cats trying to capture a part of that success.
The first altcoin was Namecoin, next came Litecoin, then came our beloved alt-coin boom in 2013 that bequeathed us Dogecoin. Much wow. Much riches.
Many alt-coins in the early boom were simple copies of Bitcoin with a few parameter changes. For instance, almost all of the early alt-coins were using proof of work as their consensus mechanism, were trying to be internet currencies, and the protocols themselves were written in C++ just like Bitcoin. In contrast to today, we have a wide variety of digital assets with very different purposes and thus very different architectures compared to Bitcoin and the early alt-coin booms.
But what’s important about the early alt-coin boom, even though the early alt-coins aren’t much different than bitcoin, they’ve proven that you could be different than bitcoin and still play a role in the crypto-ecosystem.
Billy Markus & Jackson Palmer
Billy Markus, a programmer and early cryptocurrency enthusiast, wanted to make digital currency more friendly and help it shed its shady perception, created by the media at large, and financial media more specifically. From 2011–2013 the little press bitcoin received was usually in a negative tint, only focusing on the ways people might use it for illicit purposes and hardly ever taking the time to actually understand this new technology and the community around it.
Jackson Palmer, also a developer and another cryptocurrency enthusiast, also wanted to make the cryptocurrency space more friendly and give it more mainstream appeal. He ended up buying the domain name dogecoin.com, naming his potential coin after the famous internet meme of a dog photographed by its Japanese owner. Jackson, an internet native, thought it would be fun to have the doge meme as the symbol of his didn’t think a lot of his registration of dogecoin.com at the time, and has stated many times that creating dogecoin was something fun to do.
Markus and Palmer eventually joined forces and created the dogecoin cryptocurrency on December 6, 2013. Since then the crypto community has picked it up and ran with it, growing way past its founders who don’t have much if any role in the network currently. The doge community has always presented itself and shown itself to be a very funky, funny, and welcoming community, staying true to the meme it chose as its symbol.
Not many people know this or remember this, but the Doge community, true to form, raised $30,000 USD for the Jamaican bobsled team in 2014. If that isn’t good humor put to good use we don’t know what is.
Parameter Changes: Inflation, Blocktimes, & Merge-mining
Markus, Palmer, and other dogecoin devs created a similar cryptocurrency to Litecoin and Bitcoin, but it was still unique:
Doge has always had faster block times (1 minute) than Bitcoin (10 minutes) and Litecoin (2 minutes). Palmer originally capped the DOGE token supply at 100 billion DOGE. But in February 2014, the cap was abolished and an unlimited amount of DOGE can be created overtime, shifting the cryptocurrency from a deflationary to an inflationary supply model. The block reward is now fixed at 10,000 DOGE per block, with one block being mined every one minute. Doge is an inflationary currency in the sense that 10,000 Doge will be created in each valid block, but its inflation rate is diminishing with each block just like in Bitcoin and Litecoin. The difference between Doge and neworks like BTC and LTC, is that Dogecoin has no ultimate end to the 10,000 doge per block inflation rate, otherwise known as “Doge-flation”. The Doge-flation rate will approach but never hit zero like it will with BTC and LTC. Dogecoin launched with the proof of work algorithm scrypt, which was used by the Litecoin network at the time as well. The reasoning behind using algorithms like scrypt usually seemed to be twofold: bitcoin miners, who run sha-256, can attack your chain with their equipment if you ran the same hashing algorithm and some developers thought that scrypt would help ward off ASICs that had come to dominated Bitcoin mining. More interestingly in September 2014, Dogecoin became one of the few chains to successfully implement merge-mining. Merge mining refers to the use of the work done for one blockchain (i.e., parent blockchain) on other smaller child blockchains. Put simply, the work that Litecoin miners put into mine LTC is considered valid work on the Dogecoin network as well. So Litecoin miners that are merge-mining LTC and DOGE get both LTC and DOGE rewards for the same mining work. Litecoin miners were both threats and competitors to DOGE mining at one time, but in true Doge spirit they’ve been able to utilize the strength of Litecoin miners and turn them into friends. For the time being. Much friendship.
Meme Sorcery
Dogecoin started as a kind of silly project, with an internet meme as its symbol, but underneath the meme, the Dogecoin network itself has been used for over six years with no end in sight, loved by scores of people all over the world.
Dogecoin, symbolized by a funny, global meme has been useful for years as a reliable trading pair on crypto-exchanges and has been a fast, cheap payment rail in crypto markets all over the world, accounting for a considerable amount of economic activity in crypto-land.
Coda
Doge has stood the test of time and we’re proud to support so much wow for so long. The Dogecoin community is a great reminder to not take yourself, life, and money too seriously and that it’s very possible to be serious and have fun at the same time.
Download Edge on iOS
Download Edge from the Play Store
Android APK Direct Download | https://medium.com/edgewallet/dogecoin-genesis-bf5a95a6fab | ['Brett Maverick Musser'] | 2020-12-08 21:44:28.252000+00:00 | ['Dogecoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Merged Mining', 'Altcoins'] |
Baby Sleep Miracle-Baby Sleep Miracle Method | Everything about baby sleep can seem frighteningly high-stakes at 3 A.M. in the morning.
Make one tiny mistake in his or her training and your child’s development will be seriously affected: he’ll either end up waking in the night well into his high school years, or worse, develop anxiety, depression, or mood swings.
And with every sleep expert offering slightly different advice on the ideal timing and method for sleep training you may be unsure about who to believe, how to proceed, or which sleep training method you should follow.
That’s where this article fits in — I’m going to help you separate sleep fact from sleep fiction by zeroing in on 6 science-backed strategies that have been proven to promote healthy sleep habits in babies and young children.
Strategy #1 — Learn to Spot Your Child’s Sleep Cues
Like the rest of us, your child has a sleep window of opportunity, a period of time when he is tired, but not too tired.
If that window closes before you have a chance to tuck your child into bed, his body will start releasing chemicals to fight the fatigue and it will be much more difficult for you to get him to go to sleep. So how can you tell if your baby is getting sleepy? It’s not as if your one-month-old can tell you what he needs. Here are some sleep cues that your baby is ready to start winding down for a nap or for bedtime:
Get Your Baby Sleep Miracle Method Here.
Your baby is calmer and less active — this is the most obvious cue that your baby is tired and you need to act accordingly.
-Your baby may be less tuned-in to his surroundings — his eyes may be less focused and his eyelids may be drooping.
-Your baby may be quieter — if your baby tends to babble up a storm during his more social times of the day, you may notice that the chatter dwindles off as he starts to get sleepy.
-Your baby may nurse more slowly — instead of sucking away vigorously, your baby will tend to nurse more slowly as he gets sleepy. In fact, if he’s sleepy enough, he may even fall asleep mid-meal.
Your baby may start yawning — if your baby does this, well, that’s a not-so-subtle sign that he’s one sleepy baby.
When your baby is very young, you should start his wind-down routine within one to two hours of the time when he first woke up.
If you miss his initial sleep cues and start to notice signs of overtiredness — for instance, fussiness, irritability, and eye-rubbing, simply note how long your baby was up this time around and then plan to initiate the wind-down routine about 20 minutes earlier the next time he wakes up. (The great thing about parenting a newborn is that you get lots of opportunities to practice picking up on those sleep cues — like about six or seven times a day!)
Learning to read your baby’s own unique sleep cues is the first step to a more rested and more content baby.
Here’s something else you need to know about babies’ sleep cues, something that can toss you a major curve ball if you’re caught off guard:
Babies tend to go through an extra-fussy period when they reach the six-week mark. The amount of crying that babies do in a day tends to increase noticeably when babies are around six weeks of age.
Get Your Baby Sleep Miracle Method Here.
You aren’t doing anything wrong and there isn’t anything wrong with your baby. It’s just a temporary stage that babies go through.
If your child becomes overtired, your child is likely to behave in one or more of the following ways (results may vary, depending on his age and personality):
Your child will get a sudden burst of energy at the very time when you think she should be running on empty.
-You’ll start seeing “wired” and hyperactive behavior, even if such behavior is totally out of character for your child at other times of the day.
-Your toddler or preschooler will become uncooperative or argumentative.
-Your child will be whiny or clingy or she’ll just generally fall apart because she simply can’t cope with the lack of sleep any longer.
Get Your Baby Sleep Miracle Method Here.
You will probably find that your child has his or her own unique response to being overtired. Some children start to look pale. Some young babies start rooting around for a breast and will latch on to anything within rooting distance, including your face or your arm! When nothing seems to be wrong (he’s fed and clean), but he’s just whining about everything and wants to be held all day, he’s overtired and needs help to get to sleep.
Learning to read your baby’s own unique sleep cues is the first step to a more rested and happier baby.
Strategy #2 — Teach Your Baby to Distinguish between Night and Day
Because our circadian rhythm (our internal time clock) operates on a 24-hour and 10-minute to 24 hour and 20-minute cycle (everyone’s body clock ticks along at a slightly different rhythm) and all of our rhythms are slightly out of sync with the 24-hour clock on which the planet operates, we have to reset our internal clocks each and every day — otherwise, we’d slowly but surely stay up later and sleep in later each day until we had our cycles way out of whack.
Daylight is one of the mechanisms that regulate our biological cycles.
Being exposed to darkness at night and daylight first thing in the morning regulates the body’s production of melatonin, a hormone that keeps our bodies’ internal clock in sync to that we feel sleepy and alert at the appropriate times.
By exposing your baby to daylight shortly after he wakes up in the morning and keeping his environment brightly lit during his waking hours, you will help his circadian rhythm to cue him to feel sleepy at the right times.
Moreover, he’ll start to associate darkness with sleep time and bright light with wake-up time — you’ll find that it works best to take advantage of sunlight (as opposed to artificial light) whenever possible.
Studies have shown that exposing your baby to daylight between noon and 4:00 P.M. will increase the odds of your baby getting a good night’s sleep.
Strategy #3 — Let Your Baby Practice Falling Asleep on His Own
Some sleep experts recommend that you put your baby to bed in a sleepy-but-awake state whenever possible from the newborn stage onwards so that he can practice some self-soothing behaviors.
Others say that you should give your baby at least one opportunity to try to fall asleep on his own each day.
Lastly, some others say that there’s no point even bothering to work on these skills until your baby reaches that three-to-four month mark (when your baby’s sleep-wake rhythm begins to mature so that some sleep learning can begin to take place).
Sleep experts claim that the sleep-association clock starts ticking at around six weeks. They claim that this is the point at which your baby begins to really tune into his environment as he’s falling asleep.
So if he gets used to falling asleep in your arms while your rock him and sing to him, he will want you to rock him and sing to him when he wakes up in the middle of the night — that’s the only way he knows on how to fall asleep.
This is because he has developed a sleep association that involves you — you have become a walking, talking sleep aid.
Some parents decide that it makes sense to take a middle-of-the-road approach to sleep associations during the early weeks and months of their baby’s life — they decide to make getting sleep the priority for themselves and their babies and to take advantage of any opportunities to start helping their babies to develop healthy sleep habits.
Regardless of when you start paying attention to the types of sleep associations your baby may be developing, at some point you will want to consider whether your baby could be starting to associate any of the following habits or behaviors with the process of falling asleep:
Falling asleep during bottle-feeding
-Being rocked to sleep
-Having you rub or pat his back, sing a lullaby, or otherwise play an active role in helping your baby to fall asleep
-Having you in the room until your baby falls asleep
-Relying on a pacifier
Here’s something important to keep in mind, particularly since we tend to fall into an all-or-nothing trap when we’re dealing with the subject of sleep.
You can reduce the strength of any particular sleep association by making sure it is only present some of the time when your baby is falling asleep.
If, for example, you nurse your baby to sleep some of the time, rock your baby to sleep some of the time, and try to put your baby to bed just some of the time when he’s sleep but awake, he’ll have a hard time getting hooked on any sleep association.
Sleep experts stress that the feeding-sleep association tends to be particularly powerful, so if you can encourage your baby to fall asleep without always needing to be fed to sleep, your baby will have an easier time learning how to soothe himself to sleep when he gets a little older.
Get Your Baby Sleep Miracle Method Here.
Most babies are ready to start practicing these skills around the three- to the four-month mark.
Strategy #4 — Make Daytime Sleep a Priority: Children Who Nap Sleep Better
Scientific research has shown that babies who nap during the day sleep better and longer at nighttime. While you might think that skipping babies’ daytime naps might make it easier to get them off to bed at evening, babies typically end up being so overtired that they have a very difficult time settling down at bedtime and they don’t sleep particularly well at night.
And rather than sleeping in so that they can catch up on the sleep they didn’t get the day before, they tend to start the next day too early and they have a difficult time settling down for their naps, as well.
Simply put, it is important to make your child’s daytime sleep a priority, just as you make a point of ensuring that he receives nutritious meals and snacks on a regular basis — your child needs nutritious sleep snacks during the day in addition to his main nighttime sleep meal in order to be at his very best.
Get Your Baby Sleep Miracle Method Here.
In addition, babies, toddlers, and preschoolers who nap are generally in a better mood and have an improved attention span as compared to their age-mates who don’t nap.
Strategy #5 — Know When Your Baby No Longer Needs to Be Fed At Night
Your baby may continue to wake up in the night out of habit even when he’s outgrown the need for a middle-of-the-night feeding.
If your baby is going without that nighttime feeding some of the time or doesn’t seem particularly interested in nursing once he gets up in the night, it might be time to eliminate that nighttime feeding and use non-food methods to soothe him back to sleep.
Eventually, of course, you’ll want to encourage him to assume responsibility for soothing himself to sleep, but the first hurdle is to work on breaking that powerful food-sleep association.
With some children, it happens quickly. With other children, it’s a much slower process.
Once you break that association, he may stop waking as often in the night and may be ready to start working on acquiring some self-soothing skills.
Strategy #6 — Remain as Calm and Relaxed as Possible about the Sleep Issue
If you are frustrated and angry when you deal with your child in the night, your child will inevitably pick up your vibes, even if you’re trying hard to hide your feelings.
Get Your Baby Sleep Miracle Method Here.
Accepting the fact that some babies take a little longer to learn the sleep ropes and feeling confident that you can solve your child’s sleep problems will make it easier to cope with the middle-of-the-night sleep interruptions.
Scientific studies have shown that parents who have realistic expectations about parenthood and who feel confident in their own abilities to handle parenting difficulties find it easier to handle sleep challenges.
Baby Sleep Miracle-Baby Sleep Miracle Method | https://medium.com/@bruce89610/baby-sleep-miracle-baby-sleep-miracle-method-cd03d291b30f | ['Bruce Shorter'] | 2021-03-11 16:09:33.741000+00:00 | ['Baby Sleep Training', 'Baby Sleep Strategies', 'Baby Sleep Miracle', 'Baby Sleep Method', 'Baby Sleep'] |
The Most Overlooked Copywriting Superpower | Photo by Kelly Lacy from Pexels
Empathy is a copywriting superpower.
It’s caught, not taught.
And it’s caught by intentionally spending time with other people.
Never forget there is another human on the other side of the words you write.
Human beings aren’t algorithms. We’re a unique combination of fears, worries, hopes, dreams, and perspectives on the world.
So if you’re feeling stuck on how to communicate to a particular audience, go spend time with those people.
Yes, even if you’re an introvert.
(As a writer, it’d do you good to get out of the house anyway.)
Because like I said, empathy is caught, not taught.
And to catch it, you need to step outside yourself.
What are you waiting for? Your copywriting superpower is waiting outside. | https://medium.com/@copywritercreative/the-most-overlooked-copywriting-superpower-dceae9845d8e | ['Matt Snyder'] | 2020-11-05 11:03:20.576000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Writing Tips', 'Empathy', 'Copywriting', 'Copywriting Tips'] |
How I plan to Detox My Emotions | My phone beeped. I ran towards it to check the notification.
I was in the bathroom, and again the phone beeped. I hurried towards my phone to attend to it. My entire last week went like that.
I didn’t know how I got addicted to my phone. In addition to that, my behavior literally changed. I got so irritated on trivial matters. I couldn’t concentrate. I felt chaos inside. So, I realized soon that I needed to change it.
I could see the direct effect of digital media on my emotional health. Breaking things down, I realized my mistakes.
I started to realize that the source of my poor emotional health was my thoughts.
I asked myself, “from where did I get these negative thoughts?”
Soon I had an answer “last night, the movie that I watched was a disturbing one.”
The vivid images, the cruelty portrayed, and the extreme violence had impacted my mind.
“Just as food nourishes the body, information nourishes the mind. “ — Darshak Rana
I realized that I consumed a lot of negative information that I could not process. My mind shifted from calm to chaos. The more I craved information, the more I became unstable. | https://medium.com/spiritual-secrets/how-i-plan-to-detox-my-emotions-8501b38e904 | ['Darshak Rana'] | 2020-12-15 15:59:41.337000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Spirituality', 'Mental Health', 'Letters', 'Spiritual Secrets'] |
Lossless ElasticSearch data migration | Academic data warehouse design recommends keeping everything in a normalized form, with links between. Then the roll forward of changes in relational math will provide a reliable repository with transaction support. Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability — that’s all. In other words, the storage is explicitly built to safely update the data. But it is not optimal for searching, especially with a broad gesture on the tables and fields. We need indices, a lot of indices! Volumes expand, recording slows down. SQL LIKE can not be indexed, and JOIN GROUP BY sends us to meditate in the query planner.
The increasing load on one machine forces it to expand, either vertically into the ceiling or horizontally, by purchasing more nodes. Resiliency requirements cause data to be spread across multiple nodes. And the requirement for immediate recovery after a failure, without a denial of service, forces us to set up a cluster of machines so that at any time any of them can perform both writing and reading. That is, to already be a master, or become them automatically and immediately.
The problem of quick search was solved by installing a number of second storage optimized for indexing. Full-text search, faceted and stemming. The second store accepts records from the first table as an input, analyzes and builds an index. Thus, the data storage cluster was supplemented with another cluster for solely for searching purposes. Having similar master configuration to match the overall SLA. Everything is good, business is happy, admins sleep at night… until the machines in the master-master cluster become more than three.
Elastic
The NoSQL movement has significantly expanded the scaling horizon for both small and big data. NoSQL cluster nodes are able to distribute data among themselves so that the failure of one or more of them does not lead to a denial of service for the entire cluster. The cost for the high availability of distributed data was the impossibility of ensuring their complete consistency on the record at each point in time. Instead, NoSQL promotes the eventual consistency. That is, it is believed that once all the data will disperse across the cluster nodes, and they will become consistent eventually.
Thus, the relational model was supplemented with a non-relational one and gave power to many database engines that solve the problems of the CAP triangle with one success or another. Developers got into the hands modern tools to build their own perfect persistence layer — for every taste, budget and profile of the load.
ElasticSearch is a NoSQL cluster with RESTful JSON API on the Lucene engine, open-source, written in Java, that can not only build a search index, but also store the original document. This trick helps to rethink the role of a separate database management system for storing the originals, or even completely abandon it. The end of the intro.
Mapping
Mapping in ElasticSearch is something like a schema (table structure, in terms of SQL), which tells you exactly how to index incoming documents (records, in terms of SQL). Mapping can be static, dynamic, or absent. Static mapping does not allow the schema to change. Dynamic allows you to add new fields. If mapping is not specified, ElasticSearch will make it automatically, receiving the first document for writing. It analyzes the structure of fields, makes some assumptions about the types of data in them, skips through the default settings and writes down. At first glance, this schema-less behavior seems very convenient. But in fact, its more suitable for experiments than for surprises in production.
So, the data is indexed, and this is a one-directional process. Once created, the mapping cannot be changed dynamically as ALTER TABLE in SQL. Because the SQL table stores the original document to which you can attach the search index. And vice-versa in ElasticSearch. ElasticSearch is a search index to which you can attach the original document. That is why the index scheme is static. Theoretically, you could either create a field in the mapping or delete it. But in practice, ElasticSearch only allows you to add fields. An attempt to delete a field leads to nothing.
Alias
The alias is an optional name for the ElasticSearch index. Aliases can be many for a single index. Or one alias for many indices. Then the indices seem to be logically combined and look the same from the outside. Alias is very convenient for services that communicate with the index throughout its lifetime. For example, the pseudonym of products can hide both products_v2 and products_v25 behind, without the need to change the names in the service. Alias is handy for data migration when they are already transferred from the old scheme to the new one, and you need to switch the application to work with the new index. Switching an alias from index to index is an atomic operation. It is performed in one step without data loss.
Reindex API
The data scheme, the mapping, tends to change from time to time. New fields are added, unnecessary fields are deleted. If ElasticSearch plays the role of a single repository, then you need a tool to change the mapping on the fly. For this, there is a special command to transfer data from one index to another, the so-called _reindex API. It works with created or empty mapping of the recipient index, on the server side, quickly indexing in batches of 1000 documents at a time.
The reindexing can do a simple type conversion of the field. For example, long to text and back to long, or boolean to text and back to boolean. But -9.99 to boolean is no longer able, this is not PHP. On the other hand, type conversion is an insecure thing. Service written in a language with dynamic typing may forgive such sin. But if the reindex cannot convert the type, the whole document will not be saved. In general, data migration should take place in 3 stages: add a new field, release a service with it, remove the old field.
A field is added like this. Take the scheme of the source-index, insert new property, create empty index. Then, start the reindexing:
{
"source": {
"index": "test"
},
"dest": {
"index": "test_clone"
}
}
A field is removed like this. Take the scheme of the source-index, remove the field, create empty index. Then, start the reindexing with the list of fields to be copied:
{
"source": {
"index": "test",
"_source": ["field1", "field3"]
},
"dest": {
"index": "test_clone"
}
}
For convenience, both cases were combined into the cloning function in Kaizen, a desktop client for ElasticSearch. Cloning can recognize the mapping of the recipient index. The example below shows how a partial clone is made from an index with three collections (types, in terms of ElasticSearch) act, line, scene. The clone contains line with two fields, static mapping is enabled, and the speech_number field text becomes long .
Migration
The reindex API has one unpleasant feature — it does not know how to monitor possible changes in the source index. If after the start of reindexing something changed, then the changes are not reflected in the recipient index. To solve this problem, ElasticSearch FollowUp Plugin was developed, that adds logging commands. The plugin can follow the index, returning the actions performed on the documents in chronological order, in JSON format. The index, type, document ID and operation on it — INDEX or DELETE — are logged. The FollowUp Plugin is published on GitHub and compiled for almost all versions of ElasticSearch.
So, for the lossless data migration, you will need FollowUp installed on the node on which the reindexing will be launched. It is assumed that the alias index is already available, and all applications run through it. Before reindexing the plugin must be turned on. When reindexing is complete, the plugin is turned off, and alias is transferred to a new index. Then, the recorded actions are reproduced on the recipient index, catching up with its state. Despite of the high speed of the reindexing, two types of collisions may occur during playback:
in the new index there is no more document with such _id. This means, that the document has been deleted after switching of the alias to the new index.
in the new index there is a document with the same _id, but with the version number higher than in the source index. This means, that the document has been updated after switching of the alias to the new index..
In these cases, the action should not be reproduced in the recipient index. The remaining changes are reproduced.
Happy coding! | https://medium.com/@oleg-kunitsyn/lossless-elasticsearch-data-migration-555c5c72d38e | ['Oleg Kunitsyn'] | 2020-08-09 07:56:28.441000+00:00 | ['Elasticsearch', 'Data Migration', 'DevOps', 'NoSQL', 'Tutorial'] |
Turning a Tagline Into a Deeper Rebrand Through Blogging and Social Ads | Turning a Tagline Into a Deeper Rebrand Through Blogging and Social Ads Ideometry Follow Oct 20, 2017 · 2 min read
Charles River Labs started in 1947 as a one-man operation, but has since grown into a billion-dollar corporation with almost 9,000 employees and offices around the globe. They aim to guide pharmaceutical companies through the entire drug development cycle, from conception to FDA approval.
The Problem
For decades, Charles River Labs was known for assisting with one specific aspect of drug development, but recent acquisitions made their service offerings much more robust. Not only was awareness of this change lacking amongst the general public but among Charles River Labs employees as well.
The Solution
Knowing overall awareness was their biggest issue, Charles River Labs tried to be proactive by creating the tagline “Every Step of the Way.” However, they knew that the creation of a tagline is not the same as a true rebranding campaign. In order to turn it into one, Ideometry collaborated with Charles River Labs to attach a greater context to the new tagline by way of blog posts.
Ideometry created a series of social media ads that employed the tag “Every Step of the Way.” These ads linked to various blog posts on the Charles River Labs website, and each blog spoke to a different category of services, be it Drug Discovery or Safety Assessment.
This not only drove traffic to the website; it generated millions of meaningful brand impressions that resulted in high-quality leads that drove new business and fueled their sales teams with more deep funnel opportunities.
***
If you liked what you saw here, check out some of the other branding and creative campaigns we’ve done for a major credit union and a BBQ catering startup.
Need help creating an amazing brand? Get in touch with us today. | https://medium.com/ideometry/turning-a-tagline-into-a-deeper-rebrand-through-blogging-and-social-ads-4548882eaf5c | [] | 2017-10-24 14:37:12.565000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Branding', 'Blogging', 'Healthcare', 'Social Media Marketing'] |
A Reboot Of ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’ Is Coming to Disney+ | A Reboot Of ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’ Is Coming to Disney+
Disney is in early development on a reboot to Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Now you may be shocked that a film that is from 2014 is already receiving a reboot. The reboot is in the early stages of development.
The reboot’s plot is currently unknown and it is unclear if it will adapt story elements from Judith Viorst's children’s book which was the basis for the 2014 film. Screenwriter Matt Lopez will be penning the script and the story will be about a multigenerational Latinx family. Lopez is also working on a Father of The Bride reboot for Warner Bros. from the perspective of a Latinx family.
21 Laps and Jim Henson Company, who produced the 2014 film, will return as producers. The film will be developed for Disney+. As for Lopez, this will mark a return to Disney. Lopez began his career in Disney’s Writing Program. Lopez has also written three films for Disney; Bedtime Stories, Race to Witch Mountain, and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
This marks another new film in development for Disney+.
Zach Perilstein is the Editor-in-Chief of the Boardwalk Times | https://boardwalktimes.net/a-reboot-of-alexander-and-the-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-day-is-coming-to-disney-6e5976462595 | ['Zach Perilstein'] | 2020-12-09 00:10:18.173000+00:00 | ['News', 'Disney Plus', 'Screenwriting', 'Film', 'Disney'] |
Three Meeting Shifts That Will Change Your Leadership Productivity | Photo by Karim MANJRA on Unsplash
The switch
If meetings run too long, back to back, and don’t deliver required outcomes. What can you do differently?
There are some tips you can bring across from a different mindset. The agile mindset. It decreases sporadic lengthy meetings for updates with shorter daily ‘stand-ups’, and removes status meetings altogether. The only time meetings are scheduled are for planning or problem solving.
Here is the how you switch.
Meetings take three forms; Planning, Status and Problem.
Planning horizons
Planning meetings generally occur once a year for a business and then each team is given their targets and goals. Or if you are working in a project, they will occur at the beginning and define the goals and assign the tasks.
But nothing ever changes during the year, or during the project, right?
In an ideal world, the plan is always current and the assigned tasks are always relevant, but it never works out that way.
A better method is to do this;
Plan at the start of the year in three horizons; the next 3 months, 3 to 9 months and 9 to 18 months.
What do you want to achieve in the next three months, plan this in detail with the leadership team. Be specific, set targets and goals and identify areas of change to focus on.
Then think about the six months following that, what are the themes you’d like to attack in that period, how do you need to position the workforce and the company. Does any of that change your first three month priorities? You do not need the same detailed requirements, but you should be able to explain each of them and how your current work moves the business in that direction.
Then think about the longer term strategy for the business. What is the direction you need to take to move the company in line with those longer term goals. What are the areas in which your company can establish itself in the market and create a workplace that energises the workforce to achieve it?
Once you have planned out your three horizons with all the input of the leadership team, you get the input from the workforce to refine the three month view. They need to be involved and work out if they can achieve the required goals in that time, or if there are any blockers to achieving it.
Then, every month, you do the whole thing again, but you just adjust it on the latest information you have. Input from the environment, input from the teams and input from the longer range plans to bring one more months worth of work into the team.
This makes your plan always relevant and always briefed and designed with the team. You plan more frequently, but in smaller chunks. You need to be diciplined to achieve this.
Status
Status meetings are the worst, one person speaks and everyone else listens in turns. Normally weekly for up to an hour depending on the team size, and on average you get 10 minutes of value from that meeting. That 10% efficiency.
With everyone involved in the planning meetings once a month, then there is no need to update them on that. Status meetings can be removed altogether for more frequent but shorter update and blocker meetings.
Borrowing from the agile processes of daily standups, a 15-minute meeting that everyone uses to identify their task/s for the day and if there are any things they require to progress their tasks (any blockers to progress) is a more efficient way of statusing work.
Everyone gets a few minutes to identify with their boss the help they need, it gives everyone explicit permission to ask for help on something.
Kill the weekly status update by better visibility of the planning and then looking to maximise progress by removing any blockers for your team.
Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash
Problems
Your team and the business will run into problems, you traditionally become aware of them during those weekly meetings where you go around the table. Now you will learn of them when blockers are identified.
In the scenario where you need support from other teams you need to convene a problem solving session — not a meeting.
You set one specific goal, to solve the problem, work needs to be done before the meeting to investigate the root cause. Get use to doing the five why’s investigative approach (asking why five times to get to the root of the problem).
Your team needs to know that the problem needs to be solved, in line with achieving the tasks. If there are any things outside of the control of the teams invited, it needs to be escalated to the leadership as a risk.
This is the most important of the meetings and needs the most curation, preparation and discipline in execution. You need to continually focus the attendees on the problem, even if others are identified along the way. | https://medium.com/sparks-publication/three-meeting-shifts-that-will-change-your-leadership-productivity-6eb3749eb2f6 | ['Leon Purton'] | 2020-09-24 11:09:12.153000+00:00 | ['Self', 'Work', 'Meetings', 'Leadership', 'Productivity'] |
When the Mountains Hide | I’ve never trusted places without mountains; flat plains, farm land, middle of the country, nothingness;
however, even in places with the most magnificent of peaks,
they seem to disappear in clouds of grey.
On the coast, thick heavy fog covers the tops, sometimes the only distinction is a slight difference is the shade of grey in the sky;
back at home, the yearly purge of fire scours the mountainside, and with
the sky a horrendous orange, the peaks slink behind clouds of smoke that
coats your lungs and saddens your mind.
It’s another love hate relationship, where the raw image of grey wisps floating around the peaks makes my chest beat a little faster,
god, there’s just something about me and mountains, but the
fog or the smoke gets too thick, so thick you could choke on it,
the mountains disappear.
Either from view, thanks to the fog, which covers the entirety of the coast and leaves you
locked in, trapped, safe
or they disappear entirely, and when the smoke clears the charred trees and ashy grounds don’t give off the same spark,
dampened by the forces of nature.
Even when they stand tall and stand their ground, they still require their time away ,
from prying eyes and flashes of cameras,
maybe the mountains are shy,
maybe they’re getting too old for this,
sometimes they just need to hide away. | https://medium.com/scuzzbucket/when-the-mountains-hide-dd2346b45454 | ['Kae Smith'] | 2020-12-22 00:03:18.142000+00:00 | ['Prose', 'Mountains', 'Nature', 'Poetry', 'Scuzzbucket'] |
Unsolicited Advice For Pregnant Women | Illustration by Lili Michelle
Did you know that caffeine is bad for the baby? I saw you holding a coffee cup and just wanted to let you know that you should keep it to under 200 mg a day. I know a friend of a friend that drank too much coffee and her baby’s first words were: “Can you watch my laptop while I use the bathroom?”
Did you know alcohol is bad for the baby? I saw you gazing longingly at your husband’s glass of wine at dinner. Don’t even think about it. I know a friend of a friend that took one sip of a mimosa during her third trimester and now the only thing her baby will eat is $22 avocado toast.
Did you know that sushi, raw eggs, undercooked beef, deli meat, and soft cheese are bad for the baby? I couldn’t help but notice you at the grocery store eyeing these items. I know a friend of a friend that had a bite of a brie and jambon baguette sandwich when she was pregnant and her baby was born with a beret glued to its head. She tried everything to get it off but the baby just kept screaming “Non, mademoiselle” and singing Celine Dion hits.
Did you know being around chemicals is bad for the baby? It has come to my attention that you were perusing paint samples at the hardware store. I know a friend of a friend that walked into her baby’s nursery for thirty seconds before the paint on the walls had dried and now her baby is addicted to HGTV home improvement shows. Every time the baby burps it makes a face like the Property Brothers. Both of them.
Did you know that lack of sleep is bad for the baby? I was recently made aware that you yawned twice this month. You must get plenty of rest! Just be sure not to lie down on your back or stomach or in a bucket of glass, those things are also bad for the baby. Sleeping on your side is best. I know a friend of a friend who slept on her stomach and it pushed the fetus so far back into her body she had to give birth out of her butt.
Did you know gaining too much weight is bad for the baby? There’s a rumor going around that you were chowing down pretty hard the other night. I get it, you’re “eating for two,” but one of those two is the size of a fist and last I checked a fist doesn’t need to consume a pound of tater tots. I know a friend of a friend that ate so much when she was pregnant that when her “water” broke, 16 ounces of Mountain Dew poured out.
Did you know that not gaining enough weight is bad for the baby? I got the call that you only ate half of your lunch yesterday. Fulfill those cravings girl! Hashtag body positive! Hashtag goddess mama! Hashtag yaaaas belly! I know a friend of a friend that ate so little when she was pregnant that when her “water” broke, 16 ounces of Slim-Fast poured out.
Did you know that pregnancy is bad for the baby? When you told me you were pregnant I wasn’t sure if you knew that you made a huge mistake. Have you read the news? Thanks to climate change, the earth probably won’t last another twenty years, our democracy is being challenged, and don’t even get me started on global pandemics. Honestly, I don’t know why anyone would bring a child into this world right now. I know a friend of a friend who had a baby recently and after watching the news for 72 hours straight she attempted to shove the baby back into her womb.
Did you know that having a baby is bad for the baby? | https://medium.com/slackjaw/unsolicited-advice-for-pregnant-women-59c5f3b26769 | ['Giulia Rozzi'] | 2020-12-07 13:17:33.302000+00:00 | ['Pregnancy', 'Humor', 'Parenting', 'Pregnant', 'Satire'] |
Abolition is Necessary in Menstrual Health for People of All Genders | Abolition is Necessary in Menstrual Health for People of All Genders
// What’s 1 issue surrounding menstrual health that you’d like to shine a brighter spotlight on?
For me, it’s not so much a question of “What issue is there?” but, “How do I pick only one?” Menstrual health today cannot be diluted to one flaw with its treatment and presence in modern society. A neoliberal or individualist approach might encourage me to reiterate a year’s-old line about how it isn’t just cis women who menstruate, but I believe allowing cis people to claim ignorance and focus the conversation on bare minimums is what contributes to people thinking fighting over the basics will be productive.
It is a fact that trans men, gender-variant, non-cis, and nonbinary trans people such as myself menstruate.
My issue with the state of menstrual health (or more accurately — menstrual healthcare) is holistic and cannot be summarized without looking at it from my communist analysis. It’s not just that the medical understanding of and regard for menstruation is abysmal in multiple ways, but that all of society does not understand that biological sex is a concept quantified and created by colonialist western medicine not out of medical accuracy but out of justification for subjugating any person who was not a part of the cis white patriarchy.
This is also true of the construction of race as a biological difference to justify racism. The result has created a society where even those affected by gendered marginalization and/or racism have thoroughly been taught to believe that their bodies have fundamental inherent biological differences that define who and what you are and how your body works. When that is coupled with a capitalist society where medicine is an industry — as opposed to helping people who need treatment — and the academy educates a workforce of primarily non-Black and cis doctors to uphold white supremacy and colonialism via medicine, you create a monster that kills patients.
Capitalism is also present in the environmental damage done by the production and disposal of menstrual products.
By protecting corporate interests, the logic of the free-market allows profit to take precedence over preventing environmental collapse. Corporations inform, lobby, and control huge portions of lawmaking in America. A non-profit politicians and corporations partner with — ALEC—protects corporations from environmental responsibility and works to restrict the vote to keep their legislators in power. Major corporations have also partnered with ALEC over the decades to create, boost, and preserve the Prison Industrial Complex as a way to legally utilize slave labor in the US.
By increasing criminalization and focusing on neoliberal feminist messages around girl power and pussies over abolitionist feminism, the rate of incarceration for cis women has risen 750% between 1980 and 2017.
Black cis women are incarcerated twice as frequently as white cis women, Native American cis girls are incarcerated four times as much as white cis girls, and Black cis girls three-and-a-half times as much. The more prisoners you have, the more people you have to farm Idaho potatoes, make jeans in Oregon, furniture in Georgia, Victoria’s Secret underwear, and many other products including Microsoft and Boeing electronics.
If the fact that some prisons publicly boast about the products their prisoners make on their websites wasn’t insidious enough, women’s prisons and jails are abysmal when it comes to providing menstrual products to their prisoners who menstruate.
Regardless of legislature passed, American facilities still debate whether or not menstrual products are a basic need.
Prisons also have a history of using women of color as subjects for experiments without their knowledge or consent and are still forcibly sterilizing inmates while posturing it as ‘voluntary’. When you realize that prisons and contractors don’t see themselves as rehabilitators but employers and industries allowed to abuse their workforce to boost their own profits, you begin to see that a society constructed around industries will never care about human beings. Menstrual products are a 15 billion dollar industry themselves. You can petition against the “pink-tax” all you want, but as long as industries exist they’re never going to allow people to access basic needs for free.
“Brands” and “companies” will not and should not ever be a hero to people who desire genuine menstrual care for people of all genders.
These same groups are the exact sort of people who send defective menstrual products to African countries because it makes them money. It doesn’t matter to them that these defective products burn people’s skin and cause terrible rashes, because manufacturers and providers only care about their bottom line.
People point to Always as “progressive” for removing the female gender symbol from packaging while this same company accounts for 62% of these burning pads in Kenya. (Where only 65% of people who menstruate do not have access to menstrual products at all). If recognition that menstrual products are not for cis women only nor are they “feminine care” must come at the cost of the health and safety of people in the global south, I don’t fucking want that. Corporations are a major contributor to the entire problem of why menstrual care sucks. They need to go, and prisons do too.
It was never designed to keep people safe or rehabilitate perpetrators. Prisons were designed to legalize slavery, strengthen police forces, encourage and increase decimation of Black communities, protect private property and corporations, and uphold white supremacy. They torture people to make money for anyone who knows how to cash in on the industry of imprisonment and do nothing to provide real justice for everyone.
Reformists will tell you improving menstrual health for people of all genders within prisons and without is a matter of passing the right laws, allocating more funding, or using the system to enact policies. Reforms cannot change the fact that imprisoning people is not an aspect of life which should be kept.
If we care about menstrual health for people of all genders, we have to abolish racism and patriarchy. We have to abolish transmisogyny and transphobia. None of those things can be abolished without abolishing capitalism and capitalism cannot be abolished without abolishing prisons and prisons cannot be abolished without abolishing capitalism.
When you watch or read science fiction, you will eventually come across someone giving birth and experiencing severe pain or even dying.
Did you know Black people who give birth are 243% more likely to die from childbirth-related issues? The futures writers imagine depict that in 400 years time we will be able to perform non-existent intensive neurosurgeries no problem, but childbirth?
Well, only women do that (false) and there’s just no way medicine will ever be able to improve sexual health. They often pretend menstruation and birth control don’t even exist. Not only that, but fictional and nonfictional analysis alike both refuse to acknowledge the lethal education built into the fabric of medicine, science, and the academy.
I see a doctor or nurse getting exposed as a racist or general bigot almost every day. The people meant to take care of everyone have been taught to believe that Black people feel less pain than white people do. Famous scientists and doctors often support population control (aka eugenics) as a way to save the Earth. These institutions are not without issues simply because they purport to be helping others and working to do the right thing. | https://medium.com/@periodfutures/abolition-is-necessary-in-menstrual-health-for-people-of-all-genders-4806894a713a | ['Period Futures'] | 2020-12-17 14:15:40.687000+00:00 | ['Gender Equality', 'Inclusion', 'Health', 'Menstruation', 'Menstrual Equity'] |
Learn how our newest ERG, enABLE, can support all Dropboxers with Technical Program Manager Michael Palmer | Learn how our newest ERG, enABLE, can support all Dropboxers with Technical Program Manager Michael Palmer Dropbox Follow Oct 22, 2020 · 6 min read
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and this year, we’re excited to honor it with our newest ERG: enABLE. enABLE is a group for Dropboxers who identify as having a disability, who support a family member or loved one who has a disability, or who feel an allyship with those who fit either one of those descriptions. We chatted with Technical Program Manager and enABLE Communications Lead Michael Palmer about his passion for keeping Dropbox accessible, his WFH experience, and how he thinks enABLE can help all Dropboxers live healthier lives.
What is your role at Dropbox, and your role within the enABLE ERG?
I am a Technical Program Manager (TPM), and I’m responsible for managing the accessibility program at Dropbox. I work to ensure all the products and services we offer are accessible for people with disabilities. Within the enABLE ERG, I am the communications lead.
How long have you been working for Dropbox?
I was a contractor for one year, and now I’ve been an employee for a year, so two years all together.
Where are you located?
Seattle, WA.
Can you tell us about a project that you’ve been part of that you’re particularly proud of?
For the first time in Dropbox history, we have an accessibility page on dropbox.com that contains information about our accessibility program, as well as accessibility compliance for our products. If someone has a disability and wants to know if Dropbox products will work for them, it’s a great place to start to find out more information.
Meeting Nyle DiMarco when I was a speaker at the Disability:IN Conference
What is one thing that’s exciting you or challenging you at work right now?
I have five kids and a working wife, and one of my children has special needs. In a normal school environment, he has more support from teachers and special educators, whereas at home we have to make sure he’s logged into Zoom and manage that while also trying to do our jobs and attend our meetings. It presents a very challenging situation as a parent, wanting to also make sure your job is your focus during working hours. I also have another daughter who struggles with depression, and this was her first year she was supposed to be in college, but instead she’s stuck at home with her parents when she should be off on campus enjoying being a college kid. So I’m also trying to make sure she feels understood and supported as she struggles with her depression.
Celebrating the holidays with the family (my family is tall, I am 6’2 and my wife is 6’1)
What’s your favorite thing about the enABLE ERG?
We just launched enABLE this year. It was fortuitous timing, because of the pandemic. I know I’m not the only one struggling with mental health, and one of the things I really appreciate is that our sponsor Timothy has been so outspoken about making sure we’re taking our mental health seriously. One of our goals is making sure people are aware of the great services Dropbox offers, including mental health benefits and free counseling, which has now been upped to eight sessions a year. It’s fantastic that leadership has really recognized this, and enABLE has really been able to spread the message around that.
What event or experience are you most looking forward to during National Disability Employment Awareness Month?
I’m really excited for the speaker from Pixar (who will be screening and speaking about his 2019 short Float.) That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about Pixar: going to those movies and seeing them appealing to children, but also having a message that really resonates with parents. Being able to hear the filmmaker talk about that balancing act and the way they were able to convey a serious message within a fun short film really fascinates me, and I look forward to hearing them talk about that.
What’s one of your favorite Dropbox memories/events?
I was lucky enough as a contractor to speak at an All Hands, our company-wide gatherings, about accessibility. I was the only member from my team in Seattle, but everyone up there had been so nice and so welcoming to me. So when I got to the All Hands, I gave a shout out to Seattle, because I’d been so appreciative of the office. When I came back, I was told that when I gave the shout out, the whole office exploded in applause. I want them to know how much I appreciate their support!
Where’s the first place you want to travel when quarantine is over?
Universal Studios Orlando. I recently went there with two of my daughters, but not my youngest son, and I hear from him every day about how he didn’t get to go and they did. So I want to go again — partially because I love amusement parks, but partially so my son will stop complaining to me.
Visiting Orlando Studios right before the pandemic
Are there any new hobbies you’ve been exploring during quarantine?
Watching anime. One of my daughters is very much into it, and she’s been pestering me. It’s not a huge stretch for me; people in Seattle already know I have a huge affection for Korean films, so jumping into anime was like, sure, why not?
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (TV Series 2009–2012) — IMDb
What’s your go-to WFH lunch?
It’s something not proud of, but it’s my go-to: Chipotle! It’s close and it’s fast. I’m one of those people who hates chocolate, like the smell of chocolate makes me ill — but what doesn’t make me ill is tortilla chips. I could eat a whole bag in one sitting, no problem — and I think I have, which contributes to the COVID-20, as I call it.
What’s your favorite thing about working from home?
I don’t miss the traffic, but I do miss listening to my podcasts and my music all the time. I really got into audiobooks, and not having that drive to work has kind of eliminated that, so I have to make up for it in other ways.
My wife and I at our local golf course since we can social distance on the course!
What do you want other Dropboxers to know about the enABLE ERG?
It’s about sharing your story. No matter whether you have a hidden or visible disability, there are other people that struggle with the same challenges that you do. You don’t have any reason to be embarrassed about it. You’re not a bad parent, you’re not a bad worker, if you are struggling at times. One of the things I love about Dropbox is that they understand that, and that there are resources and managers you can talk to to get help.
The other thing we’re really looking forward to is partnering with other ERGs, because we’re not the only ERG that struggles with mental health. We want to show that this affects everyone; we want to be a service to all Dropboxers.
Our ERGs are the backbone of our culture at Dropbox. You can learn more about how they support Dropboxers of all backgrounds here. | https://medium.com/life-inside-dropbox/learn-how-our-newest-erg-enable-can-support-all-dropboxers-with-technical-program-manager-1b58fd5ee20c | [] | 2020-10-22 01:22:58.952000+00:00 | ['Diversity', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Dropbox', 'Disability', 'Diversity In Tech'] |
Where’s Your Voice | Where’s Your Voice
Where’s your voice
Here’s your choice
Make some fucking noise
Finally, I can see, what you really mean to me
What’s your name
Play the game
All the fucking same
Finally, I can see, what you really mean to me
When you lose
You can choose
The size of your noose
Finally, I can see, what you really mean to me
In the end it’s all an illusion
In the end there is no confusion
In the end we are the solution
In the end we’re the revolution
What’s your choice
Find your voice
Make some fucking noise
Finally, I can see, who you really mean to be
Scream your name
End this game
No more fucking shame
Finally, I can see, who you really mean to be
You won’t lose
You will choose
To untie the noose
Finally, I can see, who you really mean to be
In the end it’s all an illusion
In the end there is no confusion
In the end we are the solution
In the end we’re the revolution | https://medium.com/emotional-freedom-lyricism/wheres-your-voice-766ecc176cec | ['Morten Jensen'] | 2020-09-05 20:50:06.510000+00:00 | ['Voices', 'Politics', 'Lyrics', 'Revolution', 'Vote'] |
Don’t Miss your Flight! 7 ways to avoid missing your flight: | Imagine you are all prepared to travel the other part of the globe to enjoy your holidays or to attend the most important business meeting, but you fail to make it up to the airport and eventually miss your flight. This is the worst scenario that can happen to anyone and can give you real stress especially if you miss your important meeting.
You can miss the flights due to the several reasons, but the most common reason is getting late to the airport that results in missing the flights. This is the quite a disturbing situation, and no one will ever like to face this situation ever in their life. In this article, we are going to discuss some useful tips that will help you to avoid missing your flight and be on time.
1. Book a Shuttle to Reach Airport:
Reaching the airport on time is one of the most important things that will help you in getting your flight. There are several shuttle services that operate for this specific purpose that is; to get you to the airport on time so that you don’t miss your flight. You can book the service online in advance to avoid any risk.
Out of many shuttle services, I would like to share my experience with one of the best shuttle services. While visiting London I used this amazing shuttle service known as The Airport Transport Centre. This service is mindblowing, very easy to book, reached on time and provided the best favorable outcome at the most reasonable cost. I was extremely satisfied with my experience and till this day I recommend this service to all my loved ones who are living in the UK or planning to visit the UK.
2. Online Check-in:
With the technology advancements, everything has improved vastly and traveling is one of the major elements that has been drastically enhanced. Now you can not only do the online booking of your tickets but you can also check-in easily. Web check-in will help you in saving a lot of time after reaching the airport. This will probably help you in catching up the flight on time.
3. Weigh your luggage before leaving for the airport:
Passengers waste most of their times at the airport due to weighing luggage and then managing the extra luggage at the airport. This is an easy step and can easily be done at your own home. You can use the weighing scale for that purpose, these scales are inexpensive and easy to use. This step will definitely help you in saving a lot of time and you will not miss the flight.
4. Get Yourself Prepared for the Security Line:
It is very important to pack all of your luggage in the correct manner. Pack all of the toiletries in the TSA approved containers. Use clear bags so that it is easily manageable for the security to check. Don’t wear shoes that are needed to be tied again and again, keep your electronics easily accessible for security purposes. If you follow this step it will save a lot of your time and you will get out of security checking easily and never miss your flight.
5. Stay calm:
Last but not least, the most important and helpful tip for you is to stay calm and do not panic. There are several problems that can cause you in arriving late at the airport and if you panic you will lose all of the time. One major key to avoid this difficult situation is to stay calm and go with the flow, be confident, and get yourself prepared to board on a plane.
Bottom Line:
In this article, we have discussed the important useful tips that will help you to save your time, manage your time and avoid missing your flights. | https://medium.com/@javeriyasheikh/dont-miss-your-flight-7-ways-to-avoid-missing-your-flight-192351d555e4 | ['Javeriya Sheikh'] | 2019-02-04 05:21:03.539000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Airport Limo', 'Airport Transfers', 'London', 'Shuttleservices'] |
Spring Boot — Dynamically ignore fields while serializing Java Object to JSON | Lets consider we have a RestController class which has two endpoints to expose User & List<User>
User & UserController class
Since id & dob fields in User object are sensitive, we don’t want to expose them in our endpoints.
Jackson library provides @JsonIgnore & @JsonIgnoreProperties annotations to ignore fields while serializing
Here is a sample code
One catch with @JsonIgnore & @JsonIgnoreProperties annotations are — They expect field names in compile time itself. But what if our consumer want to ignore few fields dynamically based on their input ?
We can use MappingJacksonValue class to achieve the above requirement
Here is the sample code
Sample which uses MappingJacksonValue
Remember the below points
Properties which are to be ignored is supplied to SimpleBeanPropertyFilter.serializeAllExcept(“id”, “dob” ). This can be easily made dynamic based on user input
). This can be easily made dynamic based on user input Filter name mentioned in SimpleFilterProvider() .addFilter(“ userFilter ”, simpleBeanPropertyFilter) has to match filer name provided in @JsonFilter( “userFilter” ) annotation on User class
”, simpleBeanPropertyFilter) has to match filer name provided in @JsonFilter( ) annotation on User class We need to return MappingJacksonValue instance instead of User or List<User> (Refer line 19 & line 34)
Thats all folks !
Follow me on Twitter - @IamVickyAV | https://medium.com/@iamvickyav/spring-boot-dynamically-ignore-fields-while-converting-java-object-to-json-e8d642088f55 | ['Vicky Av'] | 2020-07-28 09:18:14.949000+00:00 | ['Spring Boot', 'Json', 'Jackson'] |
9 new things you can do with Mapbox Streets | By: Clare Trainor
Mapbox Streets lets you create beautiful, custom map styles. This global tileset includes data for features like streets, buildings, and places. Take a look at some key features available in the latest version of our vector tiles:
Better data with new data providers: Our vector tiles use a combination of data sources. Our latest update extends Mapbox Streets with data from vendors such as Zenrin in Japan, PSMA in Australia, and Visicom in the UAE.
Our partnership with Zenrin, the leading provider of Japanese location data, has made enhanced map data in Japan available to all of our developers. Zenrin has more than 70 years of experience mapping Japan, with data covering nearly 99% of all Japanese roads and neighborhoods, plus floorplans and indoor POIs for important transit stations.
Three indoor floors of Tokyo Station
150 million new buildings: We added more than 150 million buildings in the United States, Canada, Australia, UAE, Tanzania, and Uganda to our map, a 360% increase for our building coverage.
New buildings in Sydney, Australia are shown in green.
Our new building data dramatically improves coverage in cities that previously only had building data in urban cores. Here’s a look at Minneapolis, Minnesota before and after this new data:
Simplified map editing with components: Our Mapbox Streets tileset powers styles built with Components. Style Components in Studio manage complex hierarchies like the road network, color palettes, and typography properties. They provide quick opportunities for customization by optimizing the most common property changes for styles.
Dynamically change disputed national borders: Change geopolitical borders by setting the worldview property to either CN, IN, JP, or US to show China’s, India’s, Japan’s, or the US’s opinions of global and disputed borders, respectively. This feature allows companies with international user bases to represent a worldview that is relevant to the user locale or device location.
Use language fallbacks and new language options: If a label isn’t available in a selected language, you can specify the fallback language, rather than defaulting to the local language. For a Chinese traveler in Spain, if Traditional Chinese isn’t available, you can choose to display labels in Simplified Chinese or English, rather than falling back to Spanish. Italian and Vietnamese are also available as new language options.
Customize each feature on the map depending on the country or state: All labels, buildings, and roads in Mapbox Streets now have a country and state-level ISO code. Using expressions, you can choose to display a feature in one area of the world completely different than another. Style highways blue and green in Great Britain, but orange and yellow for the rest of the world.
Add county and district level boundaries: We recently included second-level administrative boundaries globally to our Mapbox Streets v8 tileset, unlocking the potential to style maps with county and district level boundaries. Previously, these were only available in our Boundaries product.
Expanded maki icons: The maki field in Mapbox Streets makes it easy to assign unique icons to point of interest labels. You can use your own icon with a similar naming scheme or icons from our open source map icon set, Maki. We have added many new maki values for POIs like beaches, fitness centers, parking lots, pizza restaurants, and tennis courts.
Utilize bike lane data: Start creating a micromobility map style by adding bike lanes. Show cycle enthusiasts and commuters where they can find roads with bike lanes in their city.
Bike lanes in Washington, D.C.
Getting Started
Create a new style in Mapbox Studio to use Style Components and quickly customize your map style with simple drop-down options, sliders, and toggles. All new styles created use our latest tileset, Mapbox Streets v8.
If you already have a style on Mapbox Streets v7, use our new automated tool in Studio to easily upgrade your maps from v7 to v8 with a few clicks. On March 1st, 2021, maps using Streets v7 styles will continue to work, but Street v7 will stop receiving map data updates. You can read about the differences in data sources in our documentation. | https://blog.mapbox.com/9-new-things-you-can-do-with-mapbox-streets-4a61d0f54348 | [] | 2020-09-22 21:34:43.052000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Maps', 'Product', 'Data', 'Mapbox Streets'] |
Welcome Salesforce Data Classification | Update : 25/8/2019
Manage Salesforce scheme can be hard task
Create new fields is a click & point task and so, most organisations have tons of unknown fields that were created sometime per someone request or need. The ability to track salesforce scheme got huge improvement (Spring19 release) Salesforce Data Classification’
Welcome Data Classification (the new feature)
With this new feature you can finally Track and Maintain, internally in salesforce every field : Business Owner ,Business Status and Security Classification .
This attributes available only after enable the feature (still in beta) and it include both Standard Object fields and Custom Object fields.
This is a good solution to many use cases where fields need to be mark as:
Internal Fields for administrator/integration use only ‘Management’ Fields Code related helper Fields Formula helper fields for report filters
Fields are pick-list in order to make it simpler to use and report on.
Enable Data Classification in my Salesforce
Go to Setup Enter Data Classification in the Quick Find box Select Data Classification. Select Enable data classification metadata fields and save.
Now go to any object field and see the new 3 attributes, See example in Account Site in the screenshot below.
Account Site standard Field
At this point mass update and export are limited , hopefully salesforce will improve it in the upcoming releases .
You can create reports on your data (stating Winter ’20 Release) :
Create a custom report type with Entity Definition as the primary object. Select Field Definition as a child object. You can include the Data Owner, Data Sensitivity Level, Compliance Categorization, and Field Usage metadata fields in your report. | https://medium.com/@idanblich/welcome-salesforce-data-classification-1703126e7ba7 | ['Idan Bliech'] | 2019-08-25 11:29:14.060000+00:00 | ['Salesforce Admin', 'Salesforce'] |
AI “Stealing” Our Jobs is a Good Thing | Technology is a lever. It magnifies work. And the lever not only grows increasingly long, but the rate at which it grows is itself increasing. - Paul Graham
Buckle up. We are going to be looking at a cliched, overly discussed topic: AI vs Jobs.
Source: Internet
We will look at this in three parts — Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI), followed by some overarching arguments.
1. Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI)
ANI is AI applied to specific tasks such as playing chess and driving a car. Their scope is limited — an ML model trained to play chess can only be good at playing chess; anything outside of chess is out of its scope.
Gary Kasparov facing off against Deep Blue in 1997 | Source: The World
ANI can perform repetitive, resource-intensive tasks far better than humans can. As a result, they threaten to take over humans in jobs like data entry, customer support, driving taxis, and assembly line to name a few. But this is not a cause for concern, for, this is not the first time technology is replacing humans.
Consider lamplighters — they were men specifically employed to light and maintain candles or, later, gas street lights.
A lamplighter doing his job | Source: Wikipedia
Yep, this was a job before electrical systems were invented. When electrical systems and electrical lamps were installed, lamplighters went out of jobs.
When cars became popular, many blacksmiths and farriers went out of jobs because the dawn of cars meant the decline of horse-drawn vehicles. So blacksmiths who were producing horseshoes and farriers who were caring for horses’ hooves lost their jobs.
A horse tram in Germany | Source: Wikipedia
The agriculture industry saw huge job losses due to the proliferation of agricultural equipment and machinery like tractors.
The decline of human labor in Agriculture | Source: Our World In Data
These examples demonstrate how technology has always stolen jobs. In fact, it only makes sense that it steals our jobs because technology is meant to solve problems for us.
To understand this better, one needs to look no further than elevators. Elevators today are fast, powered by hydraulics & electricity, and require no human intervention.
Modern Elevators | Source
But elevators did not always look this fancy. The elevators from the pre-industrial era were powered by men or animals and they looked like this:
Pre-industrial elevators powered by animals | Source: Google Sites
One could claim that hydraulics caused job losses since it replaced human labor. But this is true for any piece of technology. We do things manually until a piece of technology comes along and takes us out of the equation.
So, does technology steal jobs? Yes, but, only in the parochial sense. We do get removed from the equation but by doing so, it frees us up to think about and work on more complex problems. Hence, jobs don’t get stolen, they evolve. Blacksmiths of the past are assembly-line workers of a car manufacturer today; lamplighters of the past are electricians today and so on.
What is ANI, really? In a broad sense, it is a piece of technology and technology has always stolen jobs. Previously, it was tractors, cars, and electrical grids; this time, it is ANI.
2. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
AGI is an agent that has the ability to replicate the intellectual capability of humans. Unlike ANI, an AGI can learn to do anything. What exactly constitutes “human intelligence”, you ask? Here is how Wikipedia defines it:
There is wide agreement among artificial intelligence researchers that intelligence is required to do the following: - reason, use strategy, solve puzzles, and make judgments under uncertainty; - represent knowledge, including commonsense knowledge; - plan; - learn; - communicate in natural language; - and integrate all these skills towards common goals.
Unquestionably, if we have such an AGI, we will face large-scale job loss. But, this is a good thing.
Let me explain.
If we have robots that can do most of our work, then humans can outsource earning money to them. We would no longer have to work to get paid; robots would do the work on our behalf and would earn money for us. This transformation is coming. As Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, put it:
This technological revolution is unstoppable. And a recursive loop of innovation, as these smart machines themselves help us make smarter machines, will accelerate the revolution’s pace. Three crucial consequences follow - This revolution will create phenomenal wealth. The price of many kinds of labor (which drives the costs of goods and services) will fall toward zero once sufficiently powerful AI “joins the workforce.” - The world will change so rapidly and drastically that an equally drastic change in policy will be needed to distribute this wealth and enable more people to pursue the life they want. - If we get both of these right, we can improve the standard of living for people more than we ever have before.
Just because it is unstoppable, does not mean we will get it right. We should think really hard about what we are going to do with the wealth generated by AGI: is it going to be concentrated at the hands of the CEOs of private sector companies? Or is it going to be distributed? If so, how will it be distributed? Even if we could build an ethical, benign, and cooperative AGI, we would still collapse if we do not have the right policies in place. Once again, here is Sam:
We need to design a system that embraces this technological future and taxes the assets that will make up most of the value in that world–companies and land–in order to fairly distribute some of the coming wealth. Doing so can make the society of the future much less divisive and enable everyone to participate in its gains.
One commonly discussed method to distribute wealth is Universal Basic Income:
Universal basic income (UBI) is a sociopolitical financial transfer concept in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive a legally stipulated and equal financial grant paid by the government without a means test. A basic income can be implemented nationally, regionally, or locally.
AI generates wealth and that gets distributed to people. Sam in his blog proposes something similar, yet radically different. He calls it Capitalism for Everyone. However, I am not going to dive into the details in this post; I will leave it to you as homework.
Bottom line: if we have an AGI, then we wouldn’t have to worry about job losses as we would outsource wealth creation to this AGI.
3. Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI)
An AGI agent is incapable of things like empathy, perception, manipulation, creativity, and social skills. In order to develop those skills, it requires the following (again, from Wikipedia):
consciousness : To have subjective experience and thought.
: To have subjective experience and thought. self-awareness : To be aware of oneself as a separate individual, especially to be aware of one’s own thoughts.
: To be aware of oneself as a separate individual, especially to be aware of one’s own thoughts. sentience : The ability to “feel” perceptions or emotions subjectively.
: The ability to “feel” perceptions or emotions subjectively. sapience: The capacity for wisdom.
An ASI is something that is capable of all the above. To engineer an ASI, we need to codify human consciousness. This is incredibly hard. Although I am a techno-optimist, I believe there is still a long time for us to hit the singularity. Until then, humans will remain indispensable.
Once we do hit it, it would be really hard to keep a sentient being under control. In fact, if it was sentient, would it even be ethical to keep it “under control”? Why are humans entitled to free will but robots that are self-aware, and have feelings denied free will? It would be discriminatory to try to control consciousness just because it is made up of bits instead of atoms. But, that is a topic for another day.
There are two probable scenarios once we create an ASI: we go on an all-out war with each other or we collaborate and solve problems together. Let us look at each of them.
3.1 The Robocalypse
Robots on a rampage in Terminator 2 | Source: Tristar Pictures
A war against robots would likely result in two outcomes: one where humans become extinct and one where they don’t. Either way, will we care much about job losses when our survival itself is doubtful?
If we become extinct, then we would have permanently solved the problem of job takeovers.
If we manage to survive, then it either means we managed to delete/corrupt the source code of the robot army (so that they malfunction and stop), or we were able to strike a peace deal with them. The first one means that we can stop worrying about ASI taking over jobs, but the second one is a bit more complicated. Striking a peace deal would be similar to scenario 3.2 which I outline below.
3.2 Co-Exist
If we are to co-exist, it would require a degree of cooperation between the two species. An attempt to cooperate and co-exist with another conscious, sentient species would make our world infinitely more complicated.
Today, different nations co-exist. Look at how much complexity it has brought into existence — it has led to the creation of many new jobs and domains such as international trade, foreign laws, international regulations & policies, data residency and privacy laws, international bodies such as the UN, peace agreements, and so on.
With the emergence of ASI, we would have to coordinate and collaborate with an entirely new species. Each nation would have its own agreements and treaties with the ASIs. They would have their own trade deals and shared economies. Each nation would have agreements with other nations about what kind of deals one can strike with the ASIs. Universities would offer “Human-AI geopolitics” courses where professors would be teaching students while doing PhDs in this field. In the anticipation of a doomsday scenario wherein we get into a species-war (a World War V? Or an Interplanetary War II?), we would develop super-soldiers with bulletproof skin, superhuman strength, and other extraordinary abilities. Perhaps such abilities won’t be restricted to soldiers; even your average Joe would be retrofitted with biotech implants and augmentations. This would not be possible without large-scale biotech manufacturing and R&D that would employ millions of people directly and indirectly. We would have blue teams who will try to shield humans from ASI hackers and red teams who will try to attack ASI systems. The possibilities are immense.
Do you think someone from the 1500s would be able to predict the kind of jobs we have today? They would have no idea what a car or a computer is, and consequently, would make incorrect predictions (through no fault of their own) about the jobs that would exist in the 2000s.
Similarly, trying to predict the job market in a world where ASI exists is futile because the such a future would look unfathomably different than today. So, let us rule out the ASI scenario from the AI vs Jobs arguments.
4. Closing Arguments
If you think that we will run out of jobs because of AI, you are underestimating the number of problems we have. As we saw in “There is no destination, there is only the journey”, problems are infinite. AI will help us unearth and solve problems we could never think about solving before. ANI will just be a new tool in our arsenal, AGI will just be additional human resource capital for us to work with and ASI will lead to the creation of more problems and professions.
If you ask the people who are at the risk of getting their jobs replaced by robots if they would want their kids to be doing the same kind of job, they would say no. Marc Andressen, a famous VC, talks about this in a podcast:
Ask a parent who works at a blue collar profession. Ask a parent who works on an assembly line or works in the frontline of manual labor, the harder work. “Would you like your kid to have the same job you do, or would you like them to have a better and different job, a different experience? Do you want your kid to be doing that, or would you rather your kid be a software developer or an artist or a job in which you’re in a very comfortable physical environment. You’re not running the risk of workplace accidents and so forth; you are paid higher, and are able to provide better for your kid’s family and ultimately, for your grandchildren.” And virtually all parents will say that they are in favor of that. This is progress. This is how it happens.
AI will help us solve bigger problems than we do today while making our jobs far safer and more challenging (in a good way).
We should appreciate having one more tool with which we can solve problems than one less. For, we will always have problems to work on. | https://medium.com/geekculture/ai-stealing-our-jobs-is-a-good-thing-18e7b42bbc98 | ['Raghul Chandrasekar'] | 2021-09-15 04:02:21.480000+00:00 | ['Progress', 'Jobs', 'Universal Basic Income', 'AI', 'Technology'] |
A Doctor Refused to Believe My Virginity | A Doctor Refused to Believe My Virginity
Why do health care professionals dismiss women?
Photo by Daan Stevens/Unsplash
A few years ago a bad reaction to a new medication landed me in the Emergency Room. My hands had swelled. My face looked bloated. It felt like the flu times three.
I told my manager at work. I knew something was definitely wrong. She didn’t care.
“We’ll see how long you last,” she texted me. I lasted 10 minutes.
Out of fear of losing my job, I went to work. I’m still not sure how I managed the 15-mile drive.
I sat at my desk. It didn’t take long before the whole world went topsy-turvy and I blacked out, landing on the floor. Coworkers called Mom, who came to my work and drove me to the ER. Nurses immediately brought me back to a room.
I knew the problem had been the new medication. Even a simple Google search could’ve told you that. Several others had had a similar reaction to the same pills. But I knew tests were necessary — blood, urine, so on — to rule out anything else.
When the doctor came in, I remember distinctly the way he looked at me. His face twisted in irritation. Impatience radiated off him. He had things to do, that aura said. Things more important than examining me.
I felt like a burden as I lay ill in the hospital bed.
I answered a few basic questions. I explained the new medication and the bad reaction I was having. Although a Google search is far beyond refutable proof of it being the exact cause of my issue, I explained others had had similar reactions and it seemed like the most logical reason.
He appeared to consider it, at first at least, before his questions began again.
The doctor asked, “Have you considered you might be pregnant?”
Pregnant?
“No, that’s not possible,” I said. I had never had sex. Mom, who sat diligently by my bed, almost laughed. She also knew I had never had sex. As an added bonus, I didn’t like men sexually.
“How can you be sure?” The doctor said.
“Because I’m a virgin,” I answered.
His eyes narrowed. It felt angry and demeaning. The hostility made me feel bad for seeking help at all. He didn’t believe me.
“You don’t have to lie to me because your mother is here,” he said.
I sat shocked. Lie? Here I was in my mid-twenties — a full-grown, independent adult. I wasn’t a scared teenage girl hiding her sexual history from Mommy. I had no reason to lie.
“I’m not lying,” I said. “I have never had sex.”
Mom chipped in next. She looked like she might laugh at the whole thing.
“It’s true,” Mom said. “She hasn’t.”
Photo by Olga Kononenko/Unsplash
He refused to believe either of us. The doctor demanded a urine panel. I expected a urine test as part of a normal workup, but the doctor demanded to specifically check if I was pregnant. It felt humiliating.
I must have been lying, he decided. Why would I tell the truth?
All my problems, he decided, were based on his one notion that I probably got knocked up and either was hiding it or didn’t want to believe I was pregnant.
It wasn’t until my urine cleared me of pregnancy did the doctor care to tend to my actual sickness. I lay in that hospital bed for hours upon hours in agony — my misery prolonged — before he even dared consider anything else could be wrong.
I fell in and out of sleep, so sick it hurt to move. I ended up staying in the ER for over eight hours, with far too many of those hours going without any treatment. I feared at one point I would die due to his inaction.
Eventually, he ordered some sort of medicine in an IV once his initial diagnosis fell through. I never saw him again that night.
Should I always expect that level of hostility? I wondered. Was this just part of being a woman? | https://cassiuscorbin.medium.com/a-doctor-refused-to-believe-my-virginity-57edb600eb82 | ['Cassius Corbin'] | 2020-02-03 21:02:53.302000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Sexuality', 'Equality', 'Healthcare', 'Health'] |
The Unforgettable Fire — The 80s were my rebel years! | Photo courtesy of PH Romao on UnSplash
The Unforgettable Fire — The 80s were my rebel years!
Well, I hope you enjoyed my little nostalgic trip down memory lane and my first encounters with a band called U2. My life in the seventies was slightly different to those entering their teens, but I loved and appreciated the freedom and trust provided by my Dad.
The eighties were different for me too, or do I just think that? They were my rebel years, lets put it this way, black was my favorite color to wear, arguing with my parents was a common pastime and a few jaunts working abroad was a regular summer habit.
As U2 evolved from a post-punk band of the late seventies to commercially viable rock demi-Gods in the eighties, I too grew from a rebellious teenager to a married woman in her early twenties, at the end of the 80s decade.
As I wrote about my second U2 concert in the RDS Main Hall, we’ll move on to my next encounter and their first concert in the “hallowed” grounds of Croke Park, Dublin. I actually can’t believe it was 35 years ago!
U2 was becoming one of the few bands to show interest in making great albums as well as hit singles. There were many bands out there that produced an album with say one or two hit songs, but with U2 each song on their albums released that decade, was guaranteed a hit if they chose to release it. Not many bands could keep up.
In Croke Park that sunny June day, the support acts included REM — yes, REM were U2’s support act and attempting to break Europe.
I decided early on to stand back at the lighting/sound stand (unsure of the technical name) which was based in the centre of the pitch. As I was of short stature, only 5’5”, and unable to wear heels on the grass pitch, I knew this crowd of 57,000 was bigger than any concert I was lucky enough to attend. So, I decided the stand would be safer, providing a clear view of the stage. My friends decided to wander around for a better view, but I was happy with my find. Little did I know that my future husband was somewhere in that crowd too, maybe I should’ve wandered around the pitch more…
As the support acts finished you could feel the atmosphere building, there was no such thing as recording the concert on your smartphone, etc. You actually needed to watch the stage and listen — in the early days of U2 concerts, there were no large screens either so the stage contained all the action.
Rolling Stone called U2 the “Band of the 80s” just a month or so previous, the crowd knew they going to watch something special, their band was home and in the hallowed grounds of the GAA — the headquarters of our national sport. I’m unsure if Larry played with the Artane Boys Band there, as a young boy he was a member. But I know it was his preference to play in those grounds for their first, major concert in Ireland, returning to their hometown as they rose to fame and success on the world stage.
Once U2 arrived on stage, the roar of the crowd for their opening song 11 O’Clock Tick Tock was deafening, the sway of the crowd before me, enthralling. “And the boys and girls collide to the music in my ear”, these lyrics from the song rang true as I watched the crowd. Everyone was familiar with the lyrics — I watched the electrifying atmosphere continue to rise as the crowd waved from side to side and moved closer to me. The wave spread quickly and suddenly I was caught with the steel barrier sticking into my back.
It was scary and I’d say that emotion was written all over my face. I felt a tap on my shoulder, turned my head to be greeted with strong arms lifting me across the barriers. The kind security guard just smiled and said “stay there until it’s calmed down a bit.” I wasn’t going to argue the point with him as he walked away.
But the story doesn’t end there — as I enjoyed the song from the safety of my new little haven, I kept hearing a man shouting a name. I turned to see where his voice was coming from, I didn’t see anything unusual but could still hear a loud, panicked voice screaming someone’s name. So, I walked around the stand to the back section, to my horror there was a second security guy struggling to keep one of the barriers up. Where he got the strength from is beyond me!
I ran back looking for my rescuer to find him in the opposite corner getting people to stop pushing against the barrier. I grabbed him, pointing to where his colleague was, of course he didn’t understand but then I screamed, “The barrier is coming down!” We both ran around the stand, by then another guy from the crowd was helping and the three of them soon got the barrier back in place.
It looked extreme as there were still people who couldn’t find their balance to get up, but the three guys got there, ensuring the barrier was now properly secured to the others.
By the time, everything was sorted and I was back in my little corner, U2 were finishing their third song “Seconds” — I couldn’t believe such time had passed, missing part of the first and the full second song, the whole incident felt like seconds.
The crowd soon settled and the remainder of the concert, thankfully, was uneventful. I could enjoy and sing along with our homecoming heroes U2. Bono was enthralling, The Edge — well what can I say, each time I heard his guitar his growth in his play just made me want to try to learn guitar (again!) and maybe just achieve the ability to play their music. That never happened — Ahh well, it took my teen son’s musical ability to garner that interest again.
It would take a few more years before I would experience U2 live in concert again — marriage, children and a few house moves tended to get in the way. It was how I chose to live my life.
Throughout the nineties, I missed a lot of concerts, getting only to see my favorite bands on video or live concerts on TV. But I didn’t mind, it was the way of life and my growing family. The one steadfast was my parent’s house on a certain Cedarwood Road, but that’s another story to be told…
If you appreciate this article, please feel free to follow me here on Medium and comment, recommend or share my posts. You can find me at @authorljryan on Twitter, https://www.facebook.com/authorlj.ryan, on Instagram at lj_ryan07 | https://medium.com/@lorrj07/the-unforgettable-fire-the-80s-were-my-rebel-decade-392490ba4165 | ['Lj Ryan'] | 2020-12-23 16:23:52.583000+00:00 | ['Lifestyle', 'Growing Up', 'Life Lessons', 'U2', 'Music'] |
My Spiritual Journey — 9 — Humility and Pride | The more I read books to make sense of my spiritual awakening, the more I find, everywhere, the repeated insistence on putting the ego aside and practice humility.
I’ve long struggled with these notions. So far, my personal beliefs was that one should practice a feeling of equality and respect towards everything and everyone: neither inferior nor superior, but equal in every way.
The story of one Buddhist monk got me thinking. In his experience, he narrates how his master asked him, being the most “junior” monk in the shrine, to bow to all other monks. At first, it felt weird, especially since he was in his 50s and many monks were teenagers which, even if they arrived before him, were no farther down the spiritual road then he was. In fact, he had much more experience with all things spiritual, and many of these teenagers were there because their parents sent them and they had no intention of ever becoming a monk or taking any of the meditation and ritual practices seriously. But then he sort of took a liking towards “bowing” to everything, even his evening dinner, his bed, the toilet seat etc.
This story makes me think that we got it all wrong: practicing humility is just the only way that we can initiate the path towards spiritual awakening and get closer to God. Imagine if God was a painter, and you were one brush stroke inside his painting. Ego and misplaced pride would have you think that you are superior to other brush strokes. At this point, you are stuck in your “human” egotistic self. Indeed, this perception will never get you closer to God. It might get you rich, famous, powerful, and many other things, but it will close all spiritual paths to enlightenment.
Feeling equal to everything may be the ideal, but it is far from our reach. Our ego has been so hyper-active that we stumble into misplaced pride and feeling of being more important than someone/something else the moment we stop paying attention. Try walking down the street and genuinely feel “equal” to a shit in the gutter, a smelly cigarette bud left in the dirt, or any random individual which acts in ways which are offensive to you.
Humility is thus the only way to counter-balance our overly developed sense of ego and misplaced pride. In fact, I came to realize that humans will always have misplaced pride for pride is a feeling reserved to God himself. When God feels proud, it is the same kind of pride that a painter experiences when looking at his painting: a pride which extends to each and every brush stroke, regardless of what it represents (a man, a plant, an animal, a piece of shit, garbage or monster…) In the case of God, it’s even more than that! Pride extends to the painter himself, for there is no painter, there is only the painting, which “paints itself”… So God can feel a pride which encompasses all that he/she/it IS. All of existence, all of the Universe and beyond, past, present and future. That kind of pride is completely out of reach for a human.
Humility, on the other hand, takes us down the right path: acknowledging that we are merely one brush stroke of no lesser importance than any other brush stroke, and especially, that there are no objective ways to assess which brush stroke is more or less important than any other (which explains also why so many esoteric readings talk about the importance of non-judgement).
It also explains the insistence on focusing our attention to the present. The “Power of Now” as Eckhard Tolle’s book underlines. Become a sort of “witness” of each and every present moment, a spectator, without exerting any form of judgement. This is how a painter would examine his paintings as he would paint them one by one: as a spectator, enjoying the “view”.
Ironically, this is why a spiritual awakening can be so overwhelming, bathing in pure love and joy. Practicing humility towards all of Creation opens you the door to the feeling of Ultimate Pride and Joy of the Creator for his Creation (for himself), the kind of Self-Love that is unachievable at our human level, but in which we would gladly stay forever if we could: a true Paradise.
Humility is not a mark of inferiority, it is the signal that we have understood that we are just a part of the Whole, no more no less, and it opens us the door to our spiritual awakening.
Other articles from this series:
My Spiritual Journey — 1 — a shaky start
My Spiritual Journey — 2 — Perfect Symmetry and Transcendence
My Spiritual Journey — 3 — The Nature of Reality
My Spiritual Journey — 4 — Why Consciousness is in Everything
My Spiritual Journey — 5 — Hardships as Opportunities to Act like a God
My Spiritual Journey — 6 — Beyond Good and Evil
My Spiritual Journey — 7 — Everything is Perfect
My Spiritual Journey — 8 — The Power of Collective Thoughts and Beliefs
My Spiritual Journey — 10 — Technology and Spirituality
My Spiritual Journey — 11 — To Awaken or not to Awaken
My Spiritual Journey — 12 — The Event, Full Disclosure, UFOs, Aliens, the Cabale, the Alliance, QAnon…
My Spiritual Journey — Light story 1 — It’s the story of God walking into a bar and…
My Spiritual Journey — Light story 2 — Shhhh, God is sleeping
My Spiritual Journey — Light story 3 — The Meaning of Life
My Spiritual Journey — Light Story 4 — God’s Light and the Droplet of Water
My Spiritual Journey — Light Story 5 — A Human Tale | https://marma-developer.medium.com/my-spiritual-journey-9-humility-and-pride-677d6e25a28f | [] | 2018-11-08 08:08:09.448000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Religion', 'Humility', 'Awakening', 'Prayer'] |
How to Talk Abortion at the Dinner Table | Photo by Libby Penner on Unsplash
by Max Mapes (they/them)
It’s the holiday season bb! That means a lot of us will be spending more time than usual with our family (hopefully virtually or socially distanced). Unfortunately, our family doesn’t always share our values and sometimes they say wack shit. While it can be tempting to bite your tongue, it’s important to challenge harmful behavior and beliefs whenever you can. But that’s a lot easier said than done, so we’re here to give you a few tips and tricks to talk about abortion at the dinner table.
Safety First
First things first — you should only engage in conversations (of any kind) if it’s safe (physically and emotionally) to do so. You also don’t want to make people from oppressed communities feel uncomfortable. If you’re bringing someone from an oppressed community to a family gathering, ask them how you can best support them if something happens.
Tips & Tricks
Remember: You Are Not the Problem
Often when we confront harmful behavior, we are accused of being rude, aggressive, or making everything about race, gender, etc. Remind yourself that whoever was being harmful is the rude, aggressive one who always brings up race, gender, etc. You are simply engaging in a conversation that they started.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Talking about social issues and managing conflict is a skill like any other and requires practice. Practice can look like listening to other people talk about social issues; engaging in low-stake arguments with friends who share your social values, but maybe disagree with your philosophy; or roleplaying with friends playing devil’s advocate (the only time anyone should play devil’s advocate).
Knowledge is Power
Knowledge is your best friend when it comes to arguments so being familiar with facts and figures around social issues is a must. “Abortion is a lot more common than we think” is more compelling when you add “1 in 4 women have an abortion before they’re 45.”
Ask Questions
Lecturing someone only gets you so far. Try asking questions too. For example, “Do you think individuals and their healthcare providers should make healthcare decisions or do you think the government should?” Sometimes the best person to convince someone they’re wrong is themself.
Know When to Hold and When to Fold
You can only get so far during a three-hour dinner, so set a reasonable goal. The amount of time you put into a conversation should vary depending on how different their values are. Sometimes just calling someone out is enough to get them to rethink their beliefs or at least never repeat them out loud.
Myth Busting 101
CW: RACIAL VIOLENCE, ANTI-BLACKNESS
Myth: Abortion is genocide / the most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb
Busted: Comparing abortion to genocide is offensive and infantilizing. It suggests Black women and other people of color with uteruses do not know what is best for their lives, their families, and their communities and shows a blatant disregard for and understanding of the very real systemic violence that Black people face every day.
CW: CLASSISM, RACISM, AGEISM
Myth: I support abortion, but I don’t think poor, Latinx and Black teenagers should use it as birth control.
Busted: Only 5% of abortion patients are below 18. The majority of abortion patients are white, 20 something, who already have children, and are using contraception. While poor people are more likely to get abortions than rich people, poor people are also less likely to be educated on or have access to contraception because of social circumstances.
Myth: I support abortion, but you shouldn’t be able to get a late-term abortion.
Busted: First, late-term abortion is a term coined by the anti-abortion movement, not the scientific community and has no scientific basis. Second, according to the CDC, only 1% of abortions happen after 21 weeks. People who have abortions after 21 weeks usually (1) find out about a fetal or maternal health concern that wasn’t or couldn’t be detected earlier in the pregnancy or (2) did not have access to abortion before 21 weeks due to legal, financial, or logistical barriers — this is especially true for poor people and people of color.
Myth: I support other people getting abortions, but I would never get one because they’re not safe
Busted: Abortion is one of the safest medical procedures performed in the United States. According to the CDC, 99% of abortions have no health complications. In those rare cases when complications do occur, they are similar to those that may occur from miscarriage, which ob-gyns and other health care professionals treat every day.
Myth: I support other people getting abortions, but I want to get pregnant someday / breast cancer runs in my family / I already have mental health problems
Busted: There is no scientific evidence that abortion negatively impacts fertility, risk of breast cancer, or mental health. In fact, the most common feeling after getting an abortion is relief. Most of the shame and guilt that some people feel comes from stigma, not their decision and to get an abortion.
Resources
Whew…that was a lot of information. But hopefully, you feel prepared to talk to grandpa about abortion now! If you don’t, I have good news: the internet exists. Here are a couple more resources for talking about abortion.
Abortion Conversations for the Holidays
Abortion Messaging Guide ← this is very long but very helpful
How to Talk About Abortion
Planned Parenthood: Abortion Fact Sheets & Reports
Guttmacher Institute: Abortion in the United States | https://medium.com/the-brazen-project/how-to-talk-abortion-at-the-dinner-table-c32131f94898 | ['Max Mapes'] | 2020-12-18 19:03:34.357000+00:00 | ['Holidays', 'Reproductive Rights', 'Abortion', 'Family', 'Dialogue'] |
Tools You Should be Using as a Brand Manager | Like the world in which they live, brand managers have to be in constant motion. They’re staying consistent across all channels and deliverables, keeping up on social media, nurturing relationships with customers, collaborating with business partners and agencies, keeping a close eye on the competition and market trends to managing brand reputation, it is a complex journey.
If you’re a brand manager, then you’ll know that consumers, politics, economics, competitors and technology affect everything you do — it’s an exciting yet complicated playing field!
It’s crucial, therefore, to have an arsenal of resources to stay on top of what’s going on in the world, what’s being done by other brands, and how ideas are being presented. We’ve put together a list of the best sites you can use to stay on top of your game.
When it comes to brand consistency, brand visuals say a lot. It concerns questions like, what images are being shared about and related to your brand? Is your logo consistent across all channels and affiliates? Image Raider goes beyond the realm of Google Image Search, by tracking the use of your brand visuals across the web. You can just upload an image and see where — and where not — it’s currently used.
2. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing service providers in the world primarily because they offer a forever free email marketing service plan which allows you to send 12,000 emails for up to 2,000 subscribers. This plan is fairly limited because you don’t get features like send-time optimization, advanced segmentation, multi-variate testing, etc. You are also required to display their branding in your email. It comes with an easy drag-and-drop email builder, autoresponders, segmenting contacts into groups, and simple tracking for analytics. It also allows you to setup delivery times based on user’s timezones, and you can setup segmenting based on geolocation.
3. The Writer
A language consultancy obsessed with how you write what you write, The Writer makes you think about your voice. Their blog posts will give you handy tips on how best to speak in order to resonate with your audience. There are style guides, grammar tips, and even a Readability Checker to see how readable your content is.
4. Brand24
Brand24 is a great tool for monitoring all your brand’s online mentions — across industries, sites, social media, and more. Regardless of your business size or content distribution, you have access to your brand’s reputation: news sites, blogs, big-name review sites, and more. Not only does the tool alert you to new mentions, but it also helps you analyze who is talking about your brand, where they’re discussing it, and whether they’re an influencer.
5. Google Alerts
Google Alerts is an great reputation management tool. Even if your brand is ranking well for all your targeted searches, you still need to know what else about your brand lives online. Once you set up an alert, you can choose your frequency: real-time alerts, daily alerts, weekly alerts — whatever works for a particular search.
6. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a cloud-hosted social media management tool that allows you to manage your marketing routines and audience interactions. The main features include social media analytics, social content management, conversation tracking, and automated publishing.
The software’s social media publishing feature helps you automate the job of scheduling content on social channels and approve the content prior to publishing. You can also use the platform’s analytics and reporting functionalities to track the performance of your brand across popular social media channels.
7. Unbounce
Unbounce is an amazing tool for quickly building, tweaking and publishing new landing pages to test. One of the most fantastic features of Unbounce is how easy it is to use the platform to create brand new pages. Even if you’re not much of a designer, you can use some of the templates available as a jumping off point, then tweak them to fit your style.
8. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the gold standard for most websites these days. Google has advanced analytics that shed light on a variety of your website information, including who your visitors are, how they make their way through your sales funnel and what they do on your website in real-time. | https://medium.com/@pragatimehra/tools-you-should-be-using-as-a-brand-manager-174a3397505c | ['Pragati Mehra'] | 2020-12-20 20:21:48.129000+00:00 | ['Brands', 'Marketing Strategies', 'Branding', 'Brand Strategy'] |
Install gcloud/gsutil on Ubuntu | In this article, I shall show how to install gcloud/gsutil in very minimum steps on ubuntu although a same tutorial is provided here on official google docs but that is very heavily documented so I shall discuss only important commands here that are required to install. It will save lot of time.
So the purpose of this article is to show the commands that will be used to install gsutil and thus it will save time, so open terminal and let’s start-
a) Install apt-transport-https
sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg
b) Add the Cloud SDK distribution URI as a package source
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list
OR (if above not supported)
echo "deb https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list
c) Import the Google Cloud public key
curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg add -
OR (if above not worked)
curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
d) Update and install the Cloud SDK
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-cloud-sdk
e) Run any command as you wish
sudo apt-get install google-cloud-sdk-app-engine-java
OR
sudo apt-get install google-cloud-sdk-app-engine-python
OR
sudo apt-get install google-cloud-sdk-app-engine-go
f) Start gcloud
gcloud init
g) After starting gcloud it will prompt for logging in so if you want to do so then type “Y” and then it will redirect you to login page in order to login confirmation of google cloud account.
THE END : That’s it now you have successfully installed gcloud/gsutil. Now you can access all the functionality of google cloud from your terminal.
THANKYOU
Reference:
https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/gsutil_install | https://medium.com/@pandeynandancse/install-gcloud-gsutil-on-ubuntu-b3d39e18f94 | ['Nandan Pandey'] | 2021-08-03 18:10:54.671000+00:00 | ['Gcp', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Ubuntu', 'Gsutil', 'Cloud'] |
Football With No Fans is Bad for Home Teams: But not how you Expect | The narrative of home support in football is in its power to push their teams to score more goals and hence lead to victories. But what does the data from the experiment of football with no fans show us?
Project Restart of the English Premier League led to the 2019–20 season resuming on Thursday 17th June 2020. The relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions in England from the 2nd of December meant that a handful of venues started allowing fans. However, the return of the new covid-19 strain and the increased restrictions across England means that we are set to see no fans at almost all but 2 stadiums for quite a while. This would be the right time to have a look at how the absence of home fans affected home performances of Premier League clubs since the restart of the 2019–20 season.
There were 192 matches, across two seasons, between these two days of 17th of June and 2nd of December. Therefore, I selected an equal number of matches that took place before the 2019–20 season was stopped due to the pandemic. I will call the first set, Football With No Fans (FWNF) and the second set, Football With Fans (FWF). Let us first compare the distributions in match results, i.e. in terms of home wins, draws or losses, between these two groups of matches.
Immediately, you can notice how the away wins have gone up considerably during FWNF. This is understandable, considering the intuition that the home advantage is limited without fans. Let us also look at the goals scored.
Naturally, the away goals are higher during FWNF than FWF. However, for an increase of 12 away wins, the away goals went up by 34. That is almost 3 goals a game. Partly, this increase could be down to the mad first few weeks, when teams were adjusting to the new scenario and football was madcap affairs. Still, I feel this is too large an increase across 192 matches. Moreover, though there was a decrease in home wins during FWNF compared to FWF, the total number of home goals remained almost the same.
Though there was a decrease in home wins during FWNF compared to FWF, the total number of home goals remained almost the same.
The jubilant fans witnessing wins through last-minute goals are the mainstays in highlight reels of any football season. During FWNF, did fans in fact miss such moments? Have a look at the goals scored after 80 mins in the matches during FWNF and FWF.
Well.. well.. well! The increase in away goals after 80 mins is remarkable for FWNF. Though, you see no drop at all in home goals after 80! Does it mean that the legend of home fans pulling the ball towards their opponent’s goal is a myth? The absence of home fans seem to help the away teams score more towards the end of matches rather than reduce the goals home teams score during the same period.
I have to add the caveat that 192 matches are not a large sample to draw such conclusion. However, since the comparison was between equal number of matches, I don’t believe it to be unfair. Now, with the return of stricter restrictions, FWNF is here to stay. And that is not great for home teams. | https://medium.com/@ituralde/football-with-no-fans-is-bad-for-home-teams-but-not-how-you-expect-63ee1c7d036d | ['Abhijith Mundanad Narayanan'] | 2020-12-26 14:33:37.878000+00:00 | ['Premier League', 'Data Science', 'Soccer', 'Analytics'] |
A great article, an enjoyment to read. | A great article, an enjoyment to read.
I remember many of the moments you have described. So this feels like a lovely Christmas gift to me. Thank you, Karmen. :)
I have a story about "overdoing the reading" and “integrating knowledge” too.
Many years ago, I listened to a Feng Shui expert talk about not keeping books in the relationship bagua (area) in the home and not letting unread or read materials pile up beside the bed. Apparently, that broadcasts to your subconscious that you are in a relationship with books.. instead of your, or a partner.
When I looked around my bed room, I started to laugh.
I took all the books out and stored them in a different place.
I could not convince other members of the household to keep the books in a contained place.. and not around the bed.
But at least I got aware of my own tendencies and changed what I could change. | https://medium.com/@nandajurela/a-great-article-an-enjoyment-to-read-e037805a2833 | ['Nanda Jurela'] | 2020-12-25 12:38:18.758000+00:00 | ['Knowledge', 'Books', 'Subconscious', 'Integration', 'Reading'] |
The Myth of Innocence | Painting by Maxfield Parrish
“The myth of innocence and violence is a dominant theme of the culture of the United States, innocence and violence and the constant movement back and forth between the two….
So we have an increasing volume of violence in the culture, no one can understand why, everyone gives sociological explanations of it, and they are all valid by the way, the poverty and the oppression and the racism and the decline of education, the sociological reasons are absolutely valid, I’m not decrying them, but there’s a myth also in here.
We came to America, the Pilgrims and the Puritans and all the rest because it was a new paradise, we came with innocence in mind, the innocence of the lamb, these are mythical motifs, and our movements were full of violence, the earth of the United States is filled with the blood of what we killed in order to make it our paradise, the buffalo blood, the tribal blood, the animal bloods, the bloods of the African American slaves, that’s what’s in the soil. And other peoples are very aware of what’s in the soil, but innocence keeps us from even looking at it, until very recently, we begin to look at it. Those of you who went to school in my generation, or at least lets say ten years less.. the story of the Indians was something you saw on TV.. you played Cowboys and Indians, ‘the only good Indian is a dead Indian’, and you know, it was built in, they were just irrelevant. That’s our ground, that’s our soil, and in the Greek perspective what’s in the soil is constantly working at you, constantly affecting you. They would call it “Blood Guilt.” — James Hillman
Leaving America, I was an innocent abroad for many years. I had been planted in Texas but my real growing up happened in Europe. It proved to be impossible to return to my original culture. I tried and failed more than once. My roots in my family of origin became more and more tenuous.
I was embarrassed to be treated like the clueless monolingual American that I was in my twenties, but I’m glad I was able to get the inevitable culture shock out of the way early. If you wait to leave the country until you’re retired, it’s probably too late. Your “innocence” is baked in. America seems to have an impenetrable bubble over it that prevents real news from entering. We’re very proud of our free exchange of ideas so we don’t see the range of things that are excluded. The system of exclusion is very effective.
The connection of innocence to violence that Hillman makes is astute. He puts his finger on the thing that is never visible to us Americans who swim in those waters from childhood. In one of my attempts to live in Texas again, I worried about the safety of visiting French friends who had no idea that people are armed and might shoot you if you come on their land without notice. They refused to believe it. The idea was just too crazy to entertain.
How will America grow up and grow out of these myths of innocence? The reality of life as a person of color is invisible to people who call themselves “white.” The secret life of America hides a lot of injustice and loneliness. We have a strange feeling of disconnection from each other and from nature. We think in terms of utility. The peoples and land we use to get ahead have a long history we’d rather not see. We go blithely on, ignoring our own implication in crimes that are building a heavy load of karma.
America has a personality, a character. It could use some introspection and some truth-telling. Growing up is hard to do. That unconscious innocence needs to be confronted because of its links to a violence that keeps growing. Keeping a lid on it is a failing strategy. Not only that, we export that violence around the world.
Caring is fundamentally different from seeing potential profit. If we see the world in terms of tools to make money, we’ll mistreat and decimate nature and the web of life. We are now close to the point of no return. It’s time to confront the cultural blindness we all participate in. We’re circling the drain. | https://medium.com/@davidprice-26453/the-myth-of-innocence-16680a7b6f7d | ['David Price'] | 2020-12-01 12:02:54.675000+00:00 | ['Personal Growth', 'Innocence', 'Life Lessons', 'Culture', 'Violence'] |
Advent Gratitude December 14 | Today I stayed inside, worked, drank a lot of tea, watched the rain come in. It was a Monday kind of day.
My husband made rice pilaf. My daughter made banana bread. Both were delicious. But the highlight of the day was at the end: a hot bath.
My mother used to say – “Catherine the Great herself couldn’t imagine the luxury of hot water from a tap, or how easy it could be to enjoy the pleasure of a hot bath.”
Hot bath, warm house. I don’t take it for granted. I feel grateful. | https://medium.com/@catherinetemma71/advent-gratitude-december-14-a406c7c93d5 | ['Catherine T Davidson'] | 2020-12-15 14:14:22.270000+00:00 | ['Gratitude', 'Advent'] |
Using JavaScript in Flutter Web | Is there a hot JavaScript library that you want to use in Flutter Web but there is no equivalent for it in Dart? You are in luck! Dart was originally a language for internet browsers to begin with so they have this sweet Dart package called the js which you can use to interop between JavaScript and Dart.
To provide an example, we want to access this TypeScript class on the Flutter side. Let’s create a Dog.ts file as shown below. We have
A constructor Properties of name and age of type string and number respectively. Getters and Setters for name and age . A bark method A jump method that receives a function parameter that takes in height of type number A sleep method that takes in an object .
// Dog.ts class Dog {
private _name: string;
private _age: number; constructor(name: string, age: number) {
this._name = name;
this._age = age;
} get name(): string {
return this._name;
} get age(): number {
return this._age;
} bark() {
console.log(`${this._name}:${this._age}:: Woof!`)
} jump(func: (height: number)=>void){
func(20)
} sleep(options: {bed: boolean, hardness: string}){
if (options.bed){
console.log(`${_name} is sleeping on a ${options.hardness} bed.`)
} else {
console.log(`${_name} is sleeping on the floor. :(`)
}
}
}
Afterwards, we’ll convert this TypeScript file into JavaScript file with
tsc --target ES5 Dog.ts . With this done we’ll have a Dog.js file alongside Dog.ts .
Note that --target ES5 is required as according to the answer provided in the Stackoverflow post here:
“Normally JS interop would rely on function hoisting to ensure that an old-style JS class was in scope. ES6 classes however aren’t hoisted and aren’t available where Dart expects them to be. ”
We’ll leave this aside for now and we’ll create an empty Flutter project and import the js library in the pubspec.yaml like so:
dependencies:
flutter:
sdk: flutter
js: ^0.6.1
Note: Use Flutter Beta to enable the development of Flutter Web.
We’ll create an empty Dart file called Dog.dart . Inside this Dog.dart class, we’ll have our Dart <-> JS interop code.
@JS()
library dog;
// The above two lines are required import 'package:js/js.dart'; @JS()
class Dog {
external Dog(String name, int age);
external String get name;
external int get age;
external void bark();
external void jump(Function(int height) func);
external void sleep(Options options); } @JS()
@anonymous
class Options {
external bool get bed;
external String get hardness;
external factory Options({bool bed, String hardness});
}
the @JS() annotation comes with the js package which annotates our Dog class in Dart to interop with the JavaScript’s Dog class. The external is put in front of the constructors , methods as well as the getter and setters .
If we want to have a custom name for the class in the Dart side. we can name it differently if we add a string as a parameter in the JS() annotation like shown below, although it is discouraged according to the comments in the js package .
@JS("Dog")
class DartDog {
...
}
JavaScript objects as a parameter
To pass a JavaScript object as a parameter. We’ll need to create a class and annotate it with @JS() and @anonymous . We will use the Options class as the example shown below.
@JS()
@anonymous
class Options {
external bool get bed;
external String get hardness;
external factory Options({bool bed, String hardness});
}
And with that, we can pass the Options class to the sleep method like so
@JS()
class Dog {
...
external void sleep(Options options);
}
Passing Functions to JavaScript
For the function parameter, we’ll need to wrap our Function with allowInterop like this
dog.jump(allowInterop((int height){
print(height);
}));
Hooking things up
To make this work, copy the generated Dog.js from the TypeScript file into the web folder of the Flutter project alongside index.html . Next, open up index.html and add this line before the import main.dart.js script tag.
<script src="Dog.js" type="application/javascript"></script>
A full example of the index.html is shown below:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta content="IE=Edge" http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible">
<meta name="description" content="A new Flutter project."> <!-- iOS meta tags & icons -->
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes">
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="black">
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-title" content="ts_app">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="icons/Icon-192.png"> <!-- Favicon -->
<link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/png" href="favicon.png"/>
<link rel="manifest" href="manifest.json">
</head>
<body>
<!-- This script installs service_worker.js to provide PWA functionality to
application. For more information, see:
<script>
if ('serviceWorker' in navigator) {
window.addEventListener('load', function () {
navigator.serviceWorker.register('flutter_service_worker.js');
});
}
</script> ts_app if ('serviceWorker' in navigator) {window.addEventListener('load', function () {navigator.serviceWorker.register('flutter_service_worker.js');}); <!-- Add the import Dog.js script tag here here -->
<script src="Dog.js" type="application/javascript"></script>
<script src="main.dart.js" type="application/javascript"></script>
</body>
</html>
We are nearly there, create a widget with a button in the centre of the screen which will use the Dog class.
class SomeWidget extends StatelessWidget {
@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(title: Text("Flutter2JS"),),
body: Center(
child: RaisedButton(
onPressed: (){
var dog = new Dog("Bear", 12);
dog.bark();
print(dog.age);
print(dog.name);
dog.jump(allowInterop((int height){
print(height);
}));
dog.sleep(Options(bed: true, hardness: "Soft"));
},
),
),
);
}
}
After that, we can create and call our JavaScript Dog class in Flutter Web!
We can see the Dog class is printing out in the console log.
Thank you for reading! | https://liewjuntung.medium.com/use-javascript-in-flutter-web-a6eed3efb9a0 | ['Jt Liew'] | 2020-04-19 03:35:03.810000+00:00 | ['Flutter Web', 'Flutter', 'JavaScript'] |
COVID Romance Will End With a Fizzle and an Urp | I recently read a piece by a young Medium writer about how different romance is these days (https://medium.com/the-haven/from-phone-calls-to-booty-calls-86eb64046dd0). She elaborated about how my generation met in person and now they meet online. It’s worth a read.
My grandma once told me, “Some of your greatest loves are not necessarily your longest.” I didn’t think about the source at the time, a woman who had been married for half of a century.
The fact is that romance is weird, love is crazy and all of it has to do with the where, what, why, when and how of it.
My zayde and bubbe partially tied the knot because of how far away their New York train stops were from one another. And, yet, they were in love. Arranged marriages often end up like love stories. You sit next to someone in class, boom grandchildren. Like Lorrie Moore once wrote, “Life is hard. Here is someone.”
The COVID romance, where people have met online during the pandemic, has its own quirks.
The COVID romance is like the movie where the person runs through the airport yelling, “Stop that plane,” but that’s the whole movie. Just the running through the airport, yelling. That would get you tackled and maybe shot in real life. You can’t even raise your voice to the check-in people anymore without getting cuffed.
The COVID romance is like the tv series, where the series is kept alive until the final episode where the kiss finally is finally planted. In post-COVID, one of the people might say “Dude, I’m seeing someone in real life.”
The COVID romance is the musical that breaks out into song instead of slutty lust. But in real life, when you finally meet after COVID, one of you might say “Um. I’m not super interested in dating someone who’s that into musicals.”
The COVID romance is doomed. Its constraints are too specific. How will real-life romance live up to COVID romance?
You’ve been meeting online. You’re both lonely, bored, more flaw-accepting than your usual. Maybe you’re not even really available. Be honest. You’re sexually frustrated. All that not-touching. It feels like love. All that, “If only we could be together.”
The vaccine is almost here.
The end is in sight.
One day soon, the COVID romancers will be in the same room, allowed to finally, feverishly connect.
Love cannot survive outside the COVID bubble. Ask any ending from a James Bond film. There is just the one hook up after the extended life and death chase scene. Then the credits play. You don’t think, “Boy! Those two are going to have attractive children.” You think, “Well, that was hot.” She goes back to her place. He goes back to his place.
And scene. Like COVID romance.
The COVID romance has an expiration date. It will occur immediately after the one-time hook-up. Then back to real life. Back to Tinder. Back to SilverSingles. Back to eHarmony. No one can live up to their COVID romance. It’s like you met in space and now you’re on earth. The gravity is all wrong.
Perhaps, if you would like to keep your COVID romance alive, you should never meet. You should ghost each other as soon as you can go outside without a mask. Then, you can compare everyone you meet in real-time to the person you never met. That would be beautifully romantic and totally destructive. Like love. | https://medium.com/the-haven/covid-romance-will-end-with-a-fizzle-and-an-urp-91eb51131baa | ['Amy Culberg'] | 2020-12-11 20:50:47.203000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Self Love', 'Covid 19', 'Romance', 'Love'] |
Prioritization and Big Data? Think Human Nature | On to project portfolio management. Just as waterfall was copy-pasted from industrial production and turned into Rational Unified Process for the sake of software development, in the same fashion, project portfolio management has its roots in the financial investment industry. As always, there’s a human need behind it. Someone must have been tired of looking for the ways to manage risks in software development projects and resorted to what seemed the closest available counterpart: financial investment. But if we look deeper, would there be any difference between financial investment and following through many projects to completion, at a software development organization? For sure, yes. First of all, projects are not shares. In investment management we want: a) to lower the risks and b) to optimize the financial gain as we compile our investment portfolio. Only that and nothing else. An average private investor is not strategically involved with a public company whose stock they’re buying.
It’s far more complicated when we deal with projects, and especially with software development projects. One key difference is that the projects are meant to be followed through to completion. Let’s take this statement as a premise. Of course, tech projects are being shuffled similarly to investment stock in giant corporations. I’m concerned with those tech companies, however, that have less leeway in taking up or dropping their projects, for one reason or another.
In the finance industry the only value indicator is ROI, while there are many more value indicators in software development. Usually, the question is not just whether the project should be picked up or given up. The questions are:
1. How are we doing in terms of budget? Do we need a safety margin to complete our projects?
2. Are we lax in terms of time? Do we need to skip on some parts of the project so as to ship a workable software in time?
3. How about people? Are they all balanced well throughout the projects? Have we made sure that the team’s collective energy is channeled into the right direction?
4. This one is the closest to where it comes with the similarities to stock portfolio management. Let’s say you work at a large organization and you oversee many projects or products. Or, at a smaller org, or at a division, one might have this multitude not with projects per se, but with what we refer to as “product or app features”. We have to prioritize and decide whether to skip this or that feature or to follow through.
On all of those 4 levels, it’s about prioritization. That’s what it’s all about. Prioritization is the toughest job of all in the world, be it in personal life, or at work. Sacrificing is the most daunting challenge, and it imposes a huge load on a person or a group of people who are supposed to decide and prioritize. By now, the buzz in the industry says that the concept of “project portfolio management” has something missing in it. The tools for multi-project prioritization are not universal, and they don’t do the magic instead of this tired human being. Either the tools have to be customized (at big costs), or they miss some instrument that is crucial for this particular organization. In a nutshell, the project portfolio management concept has outlived itself for effective prioritization, just as RUP had outlived itself previously, and was replaced by agile as a methodology in software development. But still, as a product owner, or a project manager you need to have a birds-eye view on all the risks. Still, you want to lay this burden down, and finally get a tool do the bulk of the prioritization for you, since this is the hardest job. What happens usually when some methodology is not working out as expected for those human beings? Right. They’re on the lookout for new, better — and what’s most important — easier ways to prioritize.
Voila: enter Big Data. There’s hardly an organization who does not do Big Data these days, as BI or in some other form. By now Big Data has cemented itself as an incumbent, because — supposedly — it provides a productivity breakthrough for prioritization and decision-making. If we draw a parallel with the previous occurrences of groundbreaking phenomena (like, the way agile appeared in software development, or how people resorted to Kanban within the agile paradigm, or how they looked to use investment portfolio methods for project management), prioritization seems to be the hardest job that tech professionals want to make easier for themselves, intrinsically.
Big Data is a trend that can be briefly described as follows: all the huge data about past performance and work is stored, and can be retrieved at a later time to see how past trends can recur in the present trends, thus helping decide and prioritize. Considering the meta-law of things developing in cycles, this might work, to some extent. There is a certain probability that past trends would help one prioritize efficiently in the present. There’s some financial software developed that calculates those trends. But, as far as I’ve been able to see, the big fish and the big gain in stock usually come at random. This all boils down to the intuitive feeling. Something outside data and calculations. This is not to diminish the importance of data analysis. Any data is a huge asset. Even more this is an asset as we live in the age of information, and we need to learn to get the best of those assets. But, just as the term “project portfolio” has the trace of hope instilled in copying this practice from financial investment to software development, in that it would set us free from prioritization problems, there’s something to watch out with the Big Data trend. Yes, we always strive to put burdens off of our shoulders, as Homo Sapiens, and that’s why we started with sticks as tools, then shovels, and on. Same with the heavy-duty prioritization and Big Data. To a certain extent, we can be sure that it would help us move forward, and give more sophisticated tooling for effective prioritization. But ultimately, there’s something even beyond Big Data. Some other info-tech miracle. All in all, not that we should lose hope in freeing ourselves from prioritization work altogether, but I don’t think that even Big Data would become the silver bullet for prioritizing choices. We will carry personal responsibility all the same. But the data-driven approach definitely counts as a step ahead in the evolution of methods and tools for effective prioritization across many projects and initiatives.
Related:
Back to the Future of Agile Software Development
The Origins of the Big Data Trend | https://medium.com/quandoo/prioritization-and-big-data-think-human-nature-9f0c9b5ecb88 | ['Olga Kouzina'] | 2019-05-17 12:28:25.066000+00:00 | ['Agile', 'Essay', 'Leadership', 'Prioritization', 'Big Data'] |
I’m So Glad You Don’t Follow Me On Instagram | I’m So Glad You Don’t Follow Me On Instagram
Photo by Erik Lucatero on Unsplash
I’m so glad you don’t follow me on Instagram
I’d hate for you to scroll through your feed
and see my freshly healed scar
from the surgery you didn’t know I had
I’d hate to get that 9-month overdue text:
I’m so sorry
I had no idea
How are you?
I wouldn’t have to craft
a response that reads like a paper-cut;
It doesn’t hurt in the moment
but it will sting later
I wouldn’t have to tell you how it went:
a fresh cut
on top of an old scar
is always messier
I now have four new scars
that you’ve never seen
will never see
will never kiss
but you didn’t kiss my old scars, did you
maybe you always avoided
the distorted pale seam in my chest
maybe I chose not to notice
Though I couldn’t help but notice
how your kisses always felt obligatory
your lips on my skin a means to an end,
not an act of affection
maybe my scar wasn’t the only thing
you found unappealing
— but who likes scars anyway?
I do
where you see frayed knotted flesh
I see all the ways I’m stronger than you | https://medium.com/blueinsight/im-so-glad-you-don-t-follow-me-on-instagram-908f7d112603 | ['Clare Almand'] | 2020-12-20 06:54:05.251000+00:00 | ['Heartbreak', 'Strength', 'Heart Surgery', 'Poetry', 'Blue Insights'] |
King Abdullah meets Abbas, stretches out help to Palestinians rights | Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday met Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman, in front of the last’s true visit to Washington to meet US President Joe Biden. During the gathering, King Abdullah expanded Jordan’s help towards the privileges of Palestinians to build up their “free, sovereign, and practical state on the June 4, 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
As per Jordan’s news organization Petra, King Abdullah likewise required a lasting truce in Gaza to give truly necessary rights to Palestinians. Voicing a call for harmony dependent on a two-state arrangement, the Jordanian Monarch requested Israel to stop illicit measures and assaults in the Palestinian domains.
“His Majesty focused on the need to escalate worldwide endeavors to accomplish an equitable and extensive harmony dependent on the two-state arrangement, and to protect the legitimate and verifiable the norm in Jerusalem, notice that Israel should stop all assaults and unlawful measures in the Palestinian domains,” an assertion gave by the Jordanian news office said.
Besides, President Abbas underlined Jordan’s vital part in safeguarding Palestinians’ privileges in the worldwide local area. An assertion gave by Palestine’s true news office Wafa noticed that the two chiefs talked about the most recent political advancements in Palestine alongside respective relations and issues of shared concern.
“President Abbas certified continuous coordination with Jordan on the interest of the Arab country and its normal causes, basically the Palestinian reason,” the assertion added.
According to reports, the two chiefs held a private one-on-one gathering on different main points of contention. After this gathering, an all-inclusive gathering occurred within the sight of senior designations from the two sides. From Palestine, Foreign Minister Riyad Malki, Intelligence administration boss Majed Faraj, senior Fatah official Hussein Sheik went to the gathering alongside senior conciliatory guide Majdi Khalidi.
Then again, the Jordanian appointment incorporated Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein, Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, General Intelligence Director Ahmad Hosni and other senior authorities.
In the interim, Jordan’s King left for his three-week visit to the US on Thursday. Prominently, he will be the primary Arab pioneer to hold a gathering with President Joe Biden since he got down to business. According to political specialists, Abdullah’s US visit can offer help to Palestine and Abbas’ endeavors to acquire rights for the country when the Biden organization is unsure on its way to deal with resolve the long-running Palestinian struggle. | https://medium.com/@benjaminrichards707/king-abdullah-meets-abbas-stretches-out-help-to-palestinians-rights-f02fe7b44c70 | ['Benjamin Richards'] | 2021-07-02 10:06:45.965000+00:00 | ['Palestine', 'Jordan'] |
The Analogy of Love | The Analogy of Love
Photo by Krishh on Unsplash
Love is a lily
that blooms to give joy
Love is a pause
that helps you repose
many thoughts flood my mind
when I think of Love
why shouldn’t be?
Love is so kind
that it makes
me forget & forgive
Love is a blessing
for all those who receive it
do not take this boon lightly
instead, cherish it
you will feel elated
you will become a lily
that blooms to give joy
© Aliasger Yusuf all right reserved
Ali Yusuf is a content specialist who deals in words so that you can crack every deal. Hire him to get error-free, stylistic, timely, targeted content that speedily increases your SEO and social media visibility at competitive rates.
Read more of Ali Yusuf’s articles on Digital Marketing at contentsculptor.com | https://medium.com/weeds-wildflowers/the-analogy-of-love-68dd65ead659 | ['Aliasger Yusuf'] | 2020-12-19 20:27:29.671000+00:00 | ['Romance', 'Joy', 'Feelings', 'Poetry', 'Love'] |
Practice Makes Person | MFA@CIIS graduate Heidi Kraay describes the creative process that has supported her for years.
Playwright, writer, and theater-maker Heidi Kraay. Photo by Chaz Gentry
The creative process I can count on listens to the underbelly of my mind, taking myself apart and putting me back together. Later I pick up the pieces and type what resonates, but more important is holding a pen, tracing each blue line: the physical act of writing. I inspect my insides, relearning how my brain is connected to my body, my body to the world around me and what I see, dream, imagine, sense, fear, remember, desire, and how these thoughts, feelings and images link me with all sentient beings across the universe.
I pursued daily writing before starting the MFA program at CIIS in 2014, but kept at it blindly, ravaging everything I saw. Through mentorship from faculty, I learned to let go of what I didn’t need, reflect on what works and continue on that course with curiosity. When I traveled between Boise and San Francisco six times a semester for classes, daily practice kept me grounded. If I got stuck on an assignment one night, I knew in the morning I’d run my hand across the page. My second year, twice a day I knew I’d lie on the floor in Alexander Technique — the art of not doing, as professor Anne Bluethenthal called it.
Ink stains Heidi’s fingers as she flips to a new page. Photo by Chaz Gentry
My practice writing started eleven years ago, rereading Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind. I lived in what I later named The Gulag House, a musty three-room shack in Eagle, Idaho with grey slab walls, pungent fly spray odor and thin carpeting on concrete floors. My partner filled the rooms with smoke. We had nothing but his pipe dreams, erratic behavior and violent tantrums. My parents helped keep me alive, wishing I’d wake up and leave him, but it was me writing everyday — ten minutes here and there before he took me to help with a house painting job or convinced me to return groceries for cash — that allowed me to smell the surrounding garbage. Until I read through my previous fall and winter in those notebooks, I was blind to the ugliness. Since then I’ve continued pouring out my life, reckoning with a past seeped in abuse, self-harm, and trouble with reality. I work on a play or this article in the same way, keeping my hand moving, going for the jugular — then circling back to find what has heat. I see with fascination what my world was then. A form of time travel.
Before The Gulag House, my writing was more like editing, agonizing over every word, tiny phrases progressing into five line poems I could stand enough to leave on the page. I wrote scripts like that too, school essays, an occasional short story. All the time frustrated with end results, I trudged along the same painful avenue, censoring sentences before they landed. Now I realize it’s the time I spend setting one word in front of the other in order to find my soul that matters, trampling my monkey mind before her paws squash my fingers. This is how I want to make everything, like leaping out of skin.
Some of Heidi’s notebooks. Photo by John Webster
I spend anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours a day this way. Scrawling them doesn’t feel like work but like playing, stretching, or taking my temperature. Each day also includes body movement and meditation to get out of my brain. This is a way of building a life. When I’m despairing or spinning to oblivion, one page still accumulates after another. It takes time to go back and comb through underlined chunks that radiate fire. Stacks of notebooks wait for me to type fragments. They might become poems, essays or fiction pieces, I might post them on my blog or save them for submission, might be the backbone of a play.
Whether I’m juggling five projects at once or in a sea of cancellations, I rely on this path. When I started teaching at Boise State University, finding a spare corner to create something new seemed my ultimate challenge. I knew I’d at least have this practice. During the pandemic, with months stretching to a year of theater closings, motivation to start a new script gets challenging to cultivate. So I explode on the page and remember patience, endurance, resilience. I move through sun salutations, lie on my back, follow air flowing through nostrils. When I wonder if these exercises are wasted investments, I remember they formed my persistence, creativity, spaciousness. The nature of my process may change but I know I need this dailiness.
Whatever this practice produces, it steadies me, helping me live through the ordinary, extraordinary, heavy, light, terrifying, wondrous, and everywhere between. Whatever happens, I’m here for the ink. | https://medium.com/@ciismfasocial/practice-makes-person-edbe7b4c0b1e | ['Mfa Ciis'] | 2020-11-27 18:11:46.414000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Graduate School', 'San Francisco', 'MFA', 'Art'] |
On Academic Bullying | @ a-poselenov
“WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?” he yelled at me over the phone. I was standing in an airport with a luggage bag weighing down my shoulder, as indecipherable loudspeaker announcements repeatedly jostled with the drone of bustling travelers swarming through the terminal. The man on the other end of the phone had sent me an email with the words “Please call me.” I assumed it was regarding a sticking point we were trying to work through involving our respective human subjects institutional review boards, which were not in agreement about the language to include in a consent form for survey participants. As proxies in this disagreement, we had been relaying feedback from our IRBs back and forth to each other over the last few weeks, and it had been frustrating for both of us. I was alone, on my way home from a conference. I thought, I’ll give him a quick call to keep the process moving. I figured he had more information to share or an additional question.
“Hi Doug!” I greeted him when he answered. (Not his real name, by the way). He returned with his rage-y, shouted question. For more than a moment, I was completely disoriented. Not only was I not expecting this from him, but I had never experienced anything like it in my entire life. I had no cognitive schemas to activate for conjuring up a reaction. So I stood mute while he verbally attacked me for 8 solid minutes. I was “unprofessional,” “hostile,” “combative,” and “disrespectful,” and I should have “my senior colleagues educate me on how to be collaborative.” (No matter that I was a senior colleague in my school — but that’s really beside the point). When he was finished with his tirade, all I could think to do was apologize. It is one of the single biggest regrets of my career. I assumed, on autopilot, that because this loud, obnoxious, condescending man, perhaps a decade older than me, was feeling slighted by my interactions with him, that I must have done something wrong.
After hanging up, I called my husband and with voice shaking, recounted the whole thing. And then I spent the next 40 minutes poring over my emails to and from “Doug” looking for any evidence I could find that I had been out of line. I next sent these email exchanges to a few trusted colleagues and asked them to review them and tell me honestly whether my “tone”, as I’d been accused of having, was in any way unprofessional. I didn’t see it. They didn’t see it. Some of my responses in longer back-and-forth exchanges were brief and to the point, to be sure. But nothing, nothing was deserving of the loud, hostile, aggressive attack I had just experienced.
The next day, there was a planned project phone call involving me, Doug, a colleague of his and several of my colleagues, all of whom I had apprised of the episode. In a pre-meeting meeting, I shared that I wanted to address what had happened with Doug as a group. Although my colleagues were sympathetic and appalled by his behavior, they didn’t want to jeopardize the contributions that this man’s organization was bringing to our project. I reluctantly agreed to do or say nothing. Frankly, their lack of action-oriented support was even more hurtful than the episode itself. I couldn’t imagine, if the tables had been turned and one of them had been victimized in this way, that I would be in favor of sweeping it under the rug.
When the project meeting began, Doug started off by asking to “apologize for yesterday.” He’d been told by another colleague during a phone conversation, which had apparently occurred after ours, that the volume on his phone was too loud. ?? He thought perhaps that had been the case in our phone exchange, and he wanted to make sure I knew about the technology malfunction. I said nothing in response. He then said, I kid you not, “I’m glad we all know how to behave going forward.” I was seething, but still said nothing. Nor did my colleagues.
Flash forward to two and half years later. I had made a point since that earlier attack to never be on the phone alone with Doug. And then out of the blue, he sent an email and asked if we could schedule a call. I told him yes, but that I wanted to include one of my colleagues on the project. But he kept insisting on a private call. I made excuses, and eventually just asked him directly about the purpose of it. He replied, “It’s about an apology I owe you.”
I decided to go through with the phone call. Not because I needed anything from him at that point. The damage had been done and I had long since moved on. I’d shared the story with several close friends and colleagues in our research area in the months after the initial episode. I’d processed the experience to death. I had no more energy to give to it or to this man. I took the call motivated more by sheer curiosity. What could he possibly say to apologize for his completely unacceptable, bullying behavior? I sat in my den at home, the call on speaker, with my husband by my side for moral support in case it was needed. Doug’s apology was a mixture of contrition and rationalization. He was going through something at the time. I listened. I accepted his apology. For a moment, he seemed to want to make it about me, too. By then, I’d had plenty of time to reflect on everything and had engaged in many conversations in my head about what I wished I had done and said differently that day in the airport. I simply reminded him that I had done nothing wrong, and he quickly agreed.
So, why do I tell this story? In part, because I think stories like this are quite common, and perhaps for reasons like those of my project colleagues, or more likely, power imbalances that create legitimate fear for one’s position in academia, they go untold. The most bothersome thing about the experience was that I let it shake my confidence, if only for a brief time. For a much longer time, though, it occupied my head space and I expended emotional energy reliving and replaying it. It wasted my time. It took away from the things I needed to be doing in my career. My experience involved a single episode, for the most part. But for many others, victimization is ongoing and the compounded toll of a pattern of bullying is something I can easily imagine derailing or diminishing a career. Whether from the psychological toll, the real and potential consequences for promotion and progression in one’s success, or both.
Academia must take professional bullying very seriously and ensure that there are meaningful and effective supports for those who experience it. I have no doubt that there was a gendered component to my own experience. But I’m also a White, cisgender, not young woman, who has (and had at the time) tenure and seniority in my field. I’ve heard about and read countless stories of BIPOC, LGBTQ and gender non-conforming academics’ experiences of being bullied or harassed that are much more egregious than my own, with much more devastating consequences. I tell my story only to illustrate how even one episode of victimization by a bully can have an enormous impact, and to stress the importance of collegial support when bullying occurs.
My mother used to say, “Be part of the solution, not the problem”. I’ve made this part of my own lexicon as a parent. It has been said frequently enough in my household that the reaction from my kids is now exasperated groaning. Now that they are a bit older, I’ve taken to using another version of it: “Don’t be an asshole, and don’t let others be an asshole either.” I think this transfers to academia quite seamlessly. | https://medium.com/@ksslack1/on-academic-bullying-bdacbc722fb3 | ['Kristen Slack'] | 2020-12-27 15:03:53.188000+00:00 | ['Higher Ed', 'Academia', 'Bullying'] |
Glimpse of Destiny | It was a late night when the owls began their song, leaving asleep the city.
The merciless cold wind blew in through the open windows, sending chills through my spine.
All the memories I had hid for all these years were streaming in every second I closed my eyes.
I was a Liar. A Thief. A Bad son. A Wicked man.
I was wide awake, trembling with fear.
I witnessed a tiny flame in the middle of the room.
It grew rapidly, as bright as a star and radiated power and strength.
It was nothing like I had ever seen before.
The flame began to dim, but my heartbeat raced.
Emerged from it was a dangerously glorious woman.
Beneath colorless gown, her skin glowed unearthly.
Her pale face was expressionless.
But her deep brown eyes dug deep into my soul.
Every step she took towards me caused intense sorrow.
I screamed, but she stole my voice.
I was deafened by the voices of all the mistake I had made.
All the misery I had caused.
Her long cruel fingers touched my forehead.
I felt infinite pain.
It was torture.
I felt like I was being burned alive.
She draining something from me; a part of me.
A sparkling blue flame materialized from my forehead.
It stood there lifeless in her hand as I breathed heavily.
She smiled her cruel smile and vanished into the flame,
taking with her all I had.
All I had worked for was wasted. | https://medium.com/literally-literary/glimpse-of-destiny-aa915f4c413d | [] | 2019-05-06 15:07:59.148000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Poetry', 'Arrogance', 'Destiny', 'Pride'] |
How to Easily Write 1–3 Articles Every Day | Here’s What I Do
First, I sit down, and I get a new document open, and I start writing
I have my topic in my head, and I start writing everything I can think of.
This is how I get into the flow state that is so important when writing. I find that if I can get going, I can get into a flow and stay there long enough to make a dent in the article.
I turn off my inner editor and judge, I make sure I let them know that they will have their turn but just not yet.
I allow everything that needs to come out, come out, and I try not to interfere. I make spelling mistakes, grammar errors, and the story might not make total sense at this point, but that’s okay for now, it doesn’t have to. I get it all out, a creative, intellectual purge where everything that was in there spills out all over the page, and I’m okay because I know that I’ll be back later to clean it up.
Once I do that, I go back straight away and start editing
I don’t take a break, I get right in there.
I can do it straight away because the first thing I do is go through all of the “correctness” mistakes. These get underlined in red.
I go through and correct everything highlighted in red. I don’t even read it. Grammarly works two ways, you can either click on the word in the text, and it will take you to the correction that you have to click on or you can to the list of corrections and click on there, either way at this point I go through and correct the obvious spelling and grammar mistakes.
I love this part because it feels like a game, detect, and correct. You don’t even have to think about it, and you can get so much done quickly.
These corrections used to do my head in; the minutiae of all the commas, and semicolons. Figuring out where to end run-on sentences and finding every little needle in the haystack of tenses. Grammarly finds and suggests corrections for you on these, all you have to do is click.
After that, I go back to the green lines; these are engagement
I read the single sentences and correct these suggestions.
Sometimes they’re right, and sometimes the ideas don’t make sense, so you do have to pay attention. Make sure the words makes sense in the context of the sentence this time around.
After that, I look at the purple lines, which are delivery
A lot of this is taking out the extraneous words.
I seem to use the word “just” a lot. The purple corrections prompt you to take out many of these words, so your writing is more concise and confident sounding. These corrections are also fast and easy.
Then the blue lines, for clarity
This correction helps make things more concise. It points out run-on sentences and helps identify passages that are awkward or too long and wordy. I seem to get a lot of these. That is my biggest problem. So I go back, break them up, and make those sentences work.
After I do all of those corrections, I take a break, or if I feel up to it, I start the real editing
I begin my re-read after all that.
Making those corrections first allows me to avoid engaging my inner critic, which takes a lot of the emotional charge out of the process because I am just clicking and revising small parts.
It gets the bulk of the work done effortlessly and unemotionally.
I like processes that take the emotional charge out of things. I find that what usually holds us back from getting things done is the feeling of being overwhelmed or not knowing where to start. If you find a way to bypass those feelings, everything is more attainable.
With all of that work done, I can walk away and take a break.
I come back to it later with fresh eyes, and I’m able to cut it down.
Then I do what everyone says to do, which is to cut the crap out of it. At this point, every time I read it, I read aloud to hear how it sounds
Ashley Nicole has written a wonderfully helpful article called: “Measure twice, cut once: My guide to thoroughly self-editing your writing.” It is a quick read jam-packed with sound advice for editing. That’s my bible for editing beyond this point.
After that, I just read and re-read and cut cut cut.
I try to make it as clear and concise as I can. At this point, I let my inner judge and critic loose. I let them go, give them free rein, and, most importantly, listen to them. It’s easier to let them loose at this point because I already have a far better product than when I started, so it’s not as scary.
Your critic and judge can be handy helpers at this point if you welcome their input rather than fearing it
I can’t tell you how to say exactly what you’re going to say. You have your own unique voice and experience, but if you’ve found yourself compelled to write, then you have something to share. The goal is to get your thoughts organized so you can share them, and then practice every day. My method can definitely help with that.
I hope this article helps you get the words out of your head and onto the page as efficiently as possible so you can start uplifting your readers and shining your light out into the world. | https://medium.com/better-marketing/how-i-easily-write-1-to-3-articles-every-day-this-could-change-how-you-write-8726b14f0649 | ['Erin King'] | 2020-04-29 16:55:28.578000+00:00 | ['Time Management', 'Self Improvement', 'Writing', 'Writing Tips', 'Productivity'] |
Instagram Influencers Have More “Influence” Than We Think | Instagram Influencers Have More “Influence” Than We Think
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
“Digital identity” has often been used in reference to social media users and how they portray themselves online. Sometimes users use social media as a way to intensify their “real life” identity. Other times, users can take on a completely new identity, completely separate from their “real life” identity. Either case, both can be intentional or unintentional.
Much of the conversations that already exist around digital identity discuss the identity of those social media users that are in complete control of how their content is depicted. User’s such as Instagram “influencers”, still follow under this category. Although they may be getting sponsored from a particular company to share a certain post, at the end of the day the influencer is the one that agrees to partner up with the company.
Most of the time (or so we like to believe), an Instagram influencer tends to partner with a company if they 1) already have a relationship with their brand or 2) they positively view and believe in the brand and their products.
This company to Instagram influencer relationship is known as Influencer Marketing. (Want to know more about who are influencers? Read about it here!) Content marketing, as we see on Instagram, has even before social media platforms, evolved from a consumer demand for authenticity.
Instagram allowed influencers to become a new part of the wave of authorities who presented content with what their audience/followers considered to be, trustworthy information. Companies that use this strategy of marketing, find and partner up with influencers that they believe already have outreach to their brand’s target audience.
So while a company can perceive their target audience through the means of an influencers’ network, can the audience (consumers) observe a company’s whole identity through the means of an influencer’s activity?
Besides the sole view of the product or service being promoted, does the audience think of a company in a certain way, through the means of an influencers’ interaction with a company’s brand? In other words,
Is the digital identity of a company’s brand shaped by how consumers perceive an Instagram influencers’ partnership with that company?
I’d say so. How? According to my own research, the digital identity of a company’s brand can be perceived based on two factors that vary per Instagram influencer:
Previous/other brands and companies the influencer already has, or has had a partnership with How loyal the influencer is to the brand/company; where loyalty is valued by how much a product/service is put into use
The outcomes of two individual investigations I conducted, demonstrate how the digital identity of two separate companies can be perceived differently, based on the same two factors. Common to the identities of both companies however, was that both were formed based on a holistic evaluation of the relationship between the influencer and the brand’s product or service.
Nike: Partnership with Bella Hadid
During an interview, 22-year old female, Alexandra, stated that her impression of Instagram influencer and model, Bella Hadid, “did not change based on the brands/companies Bella had a partnered sponsorship with”. If anything, as an Instagram consumer that follows Bella because of her unique beauty, fashion, relatable style, and sense of authenticity, Alexandra stated that “her partnership with most brands has actually added to Bella’s authenticity”.
One of Bella Hadid’s first partnerships was with Dior. Particularly promoting their luxurious makeup and apparel brand. This partnership intensified Bella’s authenticity online because while her relationship with Dior opened up many doors for her, to partnerships with other luxurious and couture brands, she still remained loyal to Dior over the years.
When I asked Alexandra, if Bella’s loyalty to Dior increased the credibility of Dior’s brand and as a company, she disagreed.
“Dior was already seen as a luxurious brand. Their makeup brand for example is one that you only see used for weddings because it is that special”.
To Alexandra, Dior’s digital identity has not necessarily been shaped by its partnership with Bella Hadid. The company’s digital identity as a luxurious brand, on the other hand, has helped shape Bella’s digital identity. Alexandra identifies Bella as “an Instagram influencer for luxurious brands, and luxurious brands only.”
A few years ago, Bella signed a partnership with Nike. Her older sister, also an Instagram influencer and model, Gigi Hadid, at the same time, signed a partnership with competing company, Reebok. Alexandra brought Nike’s partnership with Bella to attention during our interview in particular, because she did not expect it.
She said that, she “always perceived Nike to be a more casual brand for competitive athletes only”. She initially thought that “Bella did not fit well with Nike’s identity as a casual athletic brand”.
However it was because of this “out of the ordinary” partnership with Nike that changed Alexandra’s view of Nike’s digital identity. For one, Nike’s choice to partner up with Bella, the younger sister, and not Gigi, framed Nike to be the “newer” brand; the “fresher” brand. What had a larger impact on Alexandra’s new perception of Nike, was Bella’s previous history with other companies. She had partnered up with several other high-end fashion brands.
Since Alexandra knows Bella as “having only interacted with luxurious brands”, Bella’s reputable identity influenced Nike’s digital identity accordingly. Her partnership influenced Alexandra to identify Nike as a “luxurious-athletic brand, rather than a casual-athletic brand”.
Bella’s promotional posts of Nike have similar artistic elements as her other posts that promote other high-end brands. In addition to the quality of the post itself, Alexandra noted that Bella’s use of Nike’s products outside promotional purposes, has “become a part of the influencer’s luxurious lifestyle.” It’s these type of posts that lead Alexandra to believe in Bella’s loyalty to the company.
Inevitably, Nike has benefitted from Bella’s reputation with other partnerships that identify as luxurious brands. Her identity as an influencer has intensified Nike’s digital identity. To Alexandra, perceiving Nike under this higher status, did increase Nike’s credibility.
Influencer marketing works because the target audience (the influencer’s followers), often look up to the influencer. Their followers are inspired by the them. In many cases, the audience wishes they could live a life like the Instagram influencer.
Summer Friday: Partnership with Influencers Only
Summer Friday, is a skincare company that “sets out to create formulas with good-for-you ingredients and covetable results”. They’re a company that has purposely (and successfully) aimed to form their digital identity through Instagram influencers.
During an interview with 22-year old female, Carly, Carly stated that she became familiar with Summer Friday on Instagram.
“I started noticing several of the Instagram influencers’ I follow posting Instagram stories using Summer Friday products. Many of them, posted at the same time.”
Two of these influencers she follows and that made these posts were fashion influencer and founder of the Something Navy brand, Arielle Charnas, and model and Co Creator of A Bikini A Day and Monday Swimwear, Devin Brugman.
Both Arielle and Devin posted one of Summer Friday’s most known (and first) products, the Jet Lag mask, on their Instagram stories. Implied in the name, the mask’s formula is meant to rejuvenate one’s tired and dried out skin after hours (or in the case of an influencer, days) of traveling.
Carly identifies Devin Brugman not only as a model, entrepreneur, and Instagram influencer. She also views Devin as an “avid skincare user that values and commits to a product when it produces positive results”. When I asked Carly how Devin’s identity shaped her perception of the products she shares, Carly stated that she views them as,
“high quality products, since Devin continuously posts the same products and brands that she uses in her skin care routine. She makes it clear that the products she uses actually work.”
As a follower, Carly see’s Devin constantly traveling because of her work. The influential figure is always posting from one destination to the next and stresses the need to continuously take care of her skin, especially when she is on the go.
In an Instagram story, Devin nicely displayed the products in her skin care routine, while on an airplane. Among those products was Summer Friday’s, Jet Lag mask.
When Carly brought Devin’s story to my attention, I asked her if there were any elements of the story that influenced or changed her perception of the product. In regards to Summer Friday’s product, she said that “including the products as part of her “skin care necessities” got my attention and lead me to look further into the product and Summer Friday.”
Yet because of Devin’s years of experience with skin care, investing in certain skin care brands (Caudalíe for example) and showcasing her facials, Carly already had an initial perception of Summer Friday: “Relevant”.
The company’s digital identity, to Carly, was initially a brand that produces effective results. Being a full-time student, Carly had difficulty identifying and relating with the company because of her steady schedule. “I do not travel near as much as Devin does”, said Carly. She couldn’t relate to the constant jet lag and consequently, did not feel inclined to invest in the Jet Lag mask because of this connection gap with the company.
Not too long after (literally a few seconds after since it was the following story Devin posted), Carly’s view of Summer Friday’s digital identity, changed. Devin posted a video of herself putting the Jet Lag mask on her face, mid-flight.
In a survey conducted by Olapic, “44% of female respondents noted seeing a product in use, as a reason to trust an influencer’s post”. Carly mentioned that seeing Devin actually spread the mask on her face added to the company’s trustworthiness.
What developed Summer Friday’s digital identity even further, for Carly, was the implication that the Jet Lag mask was used by other Instagram influencers. This is implied by Devin’s text on her story: “Are you even an influencer if you don’t apply @summerfridays jet lag mask in flight?”.
The same day, Arielle Charnas, posted an Instagram story showcasing the same mask and other Summer Friday products. Arielle showed what the mask’s substance actually looked like. She also discussed some of the differentiating characteristics between the masks.
To Carly, Summer Friday’s digital identity now became a skincare brand made for Instagram influencers. While she couldn’t necessarily find herself to put the Jet Lag mask to use anytime soon, the influencers’ loyalty to the brand added to the company’s authenticity.
“Every influencer uses this brand for a face mask so I immediately wanted to learn about their other products. Perhaps ones that I could relate to more and also have that ‘influencer quality’”.
In her video, Arielle directly mentioned one of Summer Friday’s founders, Marian Hewitt. She had mentioned Mariann verbally and tagged her Instagram handle in the story with text. To Carly, this personal connection between Arielle and Mariann was unquestionably trusting of the company’s success.
During the interview, Carly mentioned how this made her view Arielle as an influencer that only promotes products from companies that 1) she actually uses and 2) she has strong and authentic relationships with.
When I asked Carly if this affected her perception of Summer Friday, she said how “Arielle’s relationships with previous partnerships, in which she has been committed to promoting products she actually uses and believes in, influenced how [she] viewed her relationship with Summer Friday.” Promoting the products of a company she so clearly has a strong relationship with, contributed to the authenticity of Summer Friday’s digital identity. To Carly, the skincare company became a credible brand.
Evaluating these two different relationships with the same brand, through the lens of two Instagram influencers, shifted Carly’s perception of Sunday Friday’s digital identity as a company. In what was perhaps two minutes, Carly went from identifying Sunday Friday as just a successful company, in regards to their product’s effectiveness. Moments later, she identified them as a trustworthy and credible company whose products follow the standards of influencers — a set of high standards that others (their followers) strive to hold. | https://medium.com/@sofiamartinezguasch/instagram-influencers-have-more-influence-than-we-think-c2d156c6673e | ['Sofia M. Guasch'] | 2019-03-01 17:45:31.720000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'Consumerism', 'Instagram', 'Influencer Marketing', 'Social Media Marketing'] |
How to Enjoy Online PVP Games Such As “Warzone” More. | In the late 2000s and early 2010s, online gaming started becoming more mainstream with games like Call of Duty and Halo taking online gaming to new heights. Hackers and try-hard’s ruin the fun of casual gaming where most log on after a hard and stressful day to wind down or just do it as a hobby. This can ruin the fun of getting a nice rewarding victory and can get people angry and frustrated. Here are some ways to actually enjoy gaming online.
5. Drop Out The Server If You Spot a Hacker
Even though this can be an inconvenience to you and your friends, it will save you from getting angry and therefor enjoying the game more. It’s very unlikely that you will run into the same people again in the next game. Dropping out is easy, you just have to leave. But some games do have a penalty which can be unavoidable and frustrating.
(it’s best to report hackers that you can prove are hacking).
4. Don’t Play The Most Popular Games.
Even though the most popular games can be the best most of the time, they’re not. I’ve found that even the most unheard of games can be equally or more fun than the more popular games. This can keep you away from hackers and you could end up with a new crowd of friends as well.
3. Use The In Game Voice Chat
You can meet so many funny people using the in game chat. Games like VR Chat and Arma 3 are great games to meet funny people on. You can run into funny situations and meet really interesting people in these types of games. I thought I met an Indian man in voice chat and did an accent and asked for some curry. It ended up being a 6 year old kid and my federal prison speed run came to a quick close.
2. Play With Friends
Stating the obvious here, but playing with friends is really fun, so fun in fact I very rarely play without people I know. You can have chats about your friends days to begin with, but you guys all know you’ll be talking about stranger topics later into the night. If you have some really funny people in your party things can get hilarious. It can make stressful situations very funny and relaxing.
1. Just Don’t Play PVP Games
It’s got to the point where gaming has got so competitive no one can have fun anymore so i recommend just playing PVE games like Stardew Valley, the Destiny Series’ PVE, Warframe, Portal 2, Terraria and many others are very good.
Thanks For Reading. A clap would be appreciated. | https://medium.com/@dazybro/how-to-enjoy-online-pvp-games-such-as-warzone-more-82bcfc405dd6 | ['Daniel Johnston'] | 2020-08-20 19:53:04.775000+00:00 | ['Online', 'Friends', 'Gaming', 'Electronics', 'PC'] |
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