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2,100 | 4 Reasons Design in Marketing Matters More Than You Think | Here are 4 ways design can be used to better market your business.
1. Creating a Connection
Your logo and how you represent yourself online can help tell your story, even to those who have never heard of you. Your logo is often the first thing potential customers see, so use the opportunity to make a good first impression and say a little bit about yourself.
2. Building Trust
Everyone can tell the difference between a website that has been done properly and one that was created in a rush, even if they don’t know anything about design. A well-done website helps inspire confidence in your customers; not only because it looks professional, but also because it shows that you care about every detail — like the experience your customers are having online.
3. Showing Authenticity
Your brand should reflect your business, not the other way around. When making design decisions, focus on what sets you apart from your competition, and you could use this to represent your business authentically in your branding.
4. Creating Consistency
Make sure your business is represented consistently, be it on your website, business cards, or Facebook cover photo. Pay attention to details, especially the language you use online. If your business has a friendly tone, make sure it’s consistent on every page of your website. Lastly, remember the importance of design. Think of your branding as an outfit that your business wears. It tells a lot about you. Imagine a job interview. Even if you are the most qualified person for the job, dressing or representing yourself poorly might just be the reason that you don’t get the job. I hope that helps. Now let’s get designing!
“Think of your branding as an outfit. It tells a lot about you. Even if you’re the most qualified person for a job, if you dress poorly for an interview, you might not get the job.”
— Alborz Heydaryan, UX, The Incubator
What does your visual branding say about you? Book a complimentary consultation with one of our specialists. [email protected] or call 1–888–713–2826 to get started. | https://medium.com/insights-from-the-incubator/4-reasons-design-in-marketing-matters-more-than-you-think-c26bb65c526c | ['The Incubator'] | 2016-09-13 22:04:00.352000+00:00 | ['Branding', 'UI', 'UX', 'Marketing', 'Design'] | Title 4 Reasons Design Marketing Matters ThinkContent 4 way design used better market business 1 Creating Connection logo represent online help tell story even never heard logo often first thing potential customer see use opportunity make good first impression say little bit 2 Building Trust Everyone tell difference website done properly one created rush even don’t know anything design welldone website help inspire confidence customer look professional also show care every detail — like experience customer online 3 Showing Authenticity brand reflect business way around making design decision focus set apart competition could use represent business authentically branding 4 Creating Consistency Make sure business represented consistently website business card Facebook cover photo Pay attention detail especially language use online business friendly tone make sure it’s consistent every page website Lastly remember importance design Think branding outfit business wear tell lot Imagine job interview Even qualified person job dressing representing poorly might reason don’t get job hope help let’s get designing “Think branding outfit tell lot Even you’re qualified person job dress poorly interview might get job” — Alborz Heydaryan UX Incubator visual branding say Book complimentary consultation one specialist Emailhellotheincubatorio call 1–888–713–2826 get startedTags Branding UI UX Marketing Design |
2,101 | The only shortcut to success… | Is to show up every single day.
And if you can’t show up every single day, try to show up more than anybody else in your industry, field, niche or whatever.
This is the only shortcut to success.
That’s the only way to hack the learning curve.
That’s the only real growth hack you need to know.
While others write one book, try to write 3 books.
While others record one song, try to record 4 songs.
While others shoot one video, try to shoot 5 videos.
While others give one talk, try to give 6 talks…
But what about quality?
Quantity leads to quality… | https://medium.com/thought-pills/the-only-shortcut-to-success-3d5490272ddc | ['Yann Girard'] | 2017-09-16 19:49:26.841000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Writing', 'Life', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Poetry'] | Title shortcut success…Content show every single day can’t show every single day try show anybody else industry field niche whatever shortcut success That’s way hack learning curve That’s real growth hack need know others write one book try write 3 book others record one song try record 4 song others shoot one video try shoot 5 video others give one talk try give 6 talks… quality Quantity lead quality…Tags Life Lessons Writing Life Entrepreneurship Poetry |
2,102 | Defamiliarization | The Reflective Eclectic
Defamiliarization
See with new eyes what you thought you knew
Image of the Korean War Memorial, Washington DC, by the author
One of the advantages of being a reflective eclectic is I can borrow techniques from other fields and apply them to my own, psychotherapy. Some of these techniques come from surprising sources. Today I’d like to talk about something I learned from being a photographer: defamiliarization.
Photography can be a simple reproduction of the object photographed, or it can be art. When I get all artsy-fartsy with my pictures, I’m trying to enable the viewer to see something in an object that belongs to the object but she has never seen before. I‘m trying to cut through an overfamiliarity with the world that numbs us of delight and creativity.
The easiest way to do this in photography is often to shoot in black and white. When you look at a black and white photo of a familiar colored object, you can usually recognize the object, but it’s presented in a new way. This unforeseen appearance causes you to look closer and become more mindful of seeing. Suddenly new possibilities come to view. You might enjoy the play of shadows, the gradations of gray, and the stark contrasts that a black and white photo bring out. It’s funny how stripping things down to basics can enrich them.
Unfortunately, if you have seen a lot of black and white photos you can become immune to them. Black and white can become too familiar. Photographers have always got to come up with something new to stop people in their tracks. They crank up the saturation levels, adjust the tint, blow out the background, make something fuzzy or sharp, or find a new camera angle and frame things in a different way. However, they can’t make the new images so strange that the viewer cannot understand them. The art photographer has got to fit into a small window: familiar enough to be understood and strange enough to be intriguing.
It’s not hard to see defamiliarization at work in all the arts. The term itself comes from literature. The plot of a typical novel can be summed up in a few lines: boy meets girl, they fall in love, boy loses girl, they make up, and live happily ever after; so ordinary, you can see it happening every day. You’ll read a novel with that plot for 363 pages because the novelist has made it original. He’s added sparkling dialogue, unexpected twists, and quirky characters, all to keep you guessing. When you finish a good novel, you will have gained an understanding of the course of love as you have never understood it before.
Poetry and song do the same thing by putting in meter, verse, and startling vocabulary, thoughts you’ve had a million times before. This is why the same song is better in concert than it was when you heard it in your CD. The concert experience adds something new. For that matter, have you ever wondered why a singer or a musical instrumentalist doesn’t sing or play a well-known piece straight up, as it was originally written? He’s trying to make it fresh, so you can hear it as people first heard it when it just came out.
Have you ever wondered why some people, like me, prefer to live in a place like Rochester, New York, where the weather changes every day, from one extreme to another? There’s nothing like a new blanket of snow to make the world refreshed. Then we get sick of the same snow in February that we enjoyed in December. It’s gotten so familiar that we can no longer find the joy we once had in it.
Did you ever wonder why this person who you once fell in love with can do nothing but annoy you now? She’s gotten too familiar. Did you ever wonder why you get along so well when you’re on vacation? Just enough changes then that the relationship is renewed.
When you come to therapy and tell me something you’ve been thinking a million times before, you might think that going over it once more might not do you much good. Oh, but it does. Just hearing your voice say it, rather than your thoughts think it, may be just defamiliarizing enough to you that it enables you to look at the situation a whole new way. Then when I respond, you get another shot of defamiliarization. You see how that happens? The whole purpose is to wake you up.
To understand how defamiliarization works, you have to understand what’s happening when the opposite occurs. When you are familiarizing yourself with something, you’re taking it in and making it your own, making it part of the family. You’re fitting it in comfortably in your schema or world view. Once you have familiarized yourself, you no longer can do anything more with it. It’s become too close to you. You’ve lost objectivity. Defamiliarization gives you some distance, so you can see it more clearly and notice things you have not noticed before or have forgotten. When familiarization happens all over again, perhaps you fit it in a new place or have allowed it to change your schema. Generally, your world view becomes a little bigger then. You have more choices and more ways you can look at things.
There’s a saying in medicine: the thicker the chart, the worse the prognosis. That’s often true in therapy, too. The longer the person has been in therapy, the less likely a single session will do him much good. Therapy also can get too familiar. That’s another reason I’m a reflective eclectic. I have a big bag of tricks, so that when one method starts to get old, I can try another.
In the interest of defamiliarization, let me conclude in a way I don’t usually. I’d like to quote from the master of making the familiar fresh, J.R.R. Tolkien, from his lecture titled: On Fairy-Stories. You probably know Tolkien as the author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In this lecture, he surprisingly talked about recovery.
Recovery (which includes return and renewal of health) is a re-gaining — regaining of a clear view… as things apart from ourselves. We need, in any case, to clean our windows; so that the things seen clearly may be freed from the drab blur of triteness or familiarity — from possessiveness…This triteness is really the penalty of “appropriation”: the things that are trite, or (in a bad sense) familiar, are the things that we have appropriated, legally or mentally. We say we know them. They have become like the things which once attracted us by their glitter, or their colour, or their shape, and we laid hands on them, and then locked them in our hoard, acquired them, and acquiring ceased to look at them.
Since Tolkien’s thing was building fantasy worlds, he puts in a plug for his way of writing as the best defamiliarizing agent since sliced bread.
Creative fantasy, because it is mainly trying to do something else (make something new), may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds. The gems all turn into flowers or flames, and you will be warned that all you had (or knew) was dangerous and potent, not really effectively chained, free and wild; no more yours than they were you. | https://medium.com/passive-asset/defamiliarization-9e347e408d1b | ['Keith R Wilson'] | 2020-12-14 18:51:15.398000+00:00 | ['Psychology', 'Psychotherapy', 'Photography', 'Mental Health'] | Title DefamiliarizationContent Reflective Eclectic Defamiliarization See new eye thought knew Image Korean War Memorial Washington DC author One advantage reflective eclectic borrow technique field apply psychotherapy technique come surprising source Today I’d like talk something learned photographer defamiliarization Photography simple reproduction object photographed art get artsyfartsy picture I’m trying enable viewer see something object belongs object never seen I‘m trying cut overfamiliarity world numbs u delight creativity easiest way photography often shoot black white look black white photo familiar colored object usually recognize object it’s presented new way unforeseen appearance cause look closer become mindful seeing Suddenly new possibility come view might enjoy play shadow gradation gray stark contrast black white photo bring It’s funny stripping thing basic enrich Unfortunately seen lot black white photo become immune Black white become familiar Photographers always got come something new stop people track crank saturation level adjust tint blow background make something fuzzy sharp find new camera angle frame thing different way However can’t make new image strange viewer cannot understand art photographer got fit small window familiar enough understood strange enough intriguing It’s hard see defamiliarization work art term come literature plot typical novel summed line boy meet girl fall love boy loses girl make live happily ever ordinary see happening every day You’ll read novel plot 363 page novelist made original He’s added sparkling dialogue unexpected twist quirky character keep guessing finish good novel gained understanding course love never understood Poetry song thing putting meter verse startling vocabulary thought you’ve million time song better concert heard CD concert experience add something new matter ever wondered singer musical instrumentalist doesn’t sing play wellknown piece straight originally written He’s trying make fresh hear people first heard came ever wondered people like prefer live place like Rochester New York weather change every day one extreme another There’s nothing like new blanket snow make world refreshed get sick snow February enjoyed December It’s gotten familiar longer find joy ever wonder person fell love nothing annoy She’s gotten familiar ever wonder get along well you’re vacation enough change relationship renewed come therapy tell something you’ve thinking million time might think going might much good Oh hearing voice say rather thought think may defamiliarizing enough enables look situation whole new way respond get another shot defamiliarization see happens whole purpose wake understand defamiliarization work understand what’s happening opposite occurs familiarizing something you’re taking making making part family You’re fitting comfortably schema world view familiarized longer anything It’s become close You’ve lost objectivity Defamiliarization give distance see clearly notice thing noticed forgotten familiarization happens perhaps fit new place allowed change schema Generally world view becomes little bigger choice way look thing There’s saying medicine thicker chart worse prognosis That’s often true therapy longer person therapy le likely single session much good Therapy also get familiar That’s another reason I’m reflective eclectic big bag trick one method start get old try another interest defamiliarization let conclude way don’t usually I’d like quote master making familiar fresh JRR Tolkien lecture titled FairyStories probably know Tolkien author Lord Rings trilogy lecture surprisingly talked recovery Recovery includes return renewal health regaining — regaining clear view… thing apart need case clean window thing seen clearly may freed drab blur triteness familiarity — possessiveness…This triteness really penalty “appropriation” thing trite bad sense familiar thing appropriated legally mentally say know become like thing attracted u glitter colour shape laid hand locked hoard acquired acquiring ceased look Since Tolkien’s thing building fantasy world put plug way writing best defamiliarizing agent since sliced bread Creative fantasy mainly trying something else make something new may open hoard let locked thing fly away like cagebirds gem turn flower flame warned knew dangerous potent really effectively chained free wild youTags Psychology Psychotherapy Photography Mental Health |
2,103 | The Pros and Cons of Trying to Find Your Passion | Why Trying to Find Your Passion is Dangerous and Counterproductive
You can’t eat passion. Passion doesn’t pay your bills. You can’t enter “finding your passion” into an application for medical assistance. Passion doesn’t keep the circumstances that affect your life at bay — the economy, politics, personal traits that negatively affect you, etc.
Who the hell are these millennials with no life experience to be telling you how to find your passion and live your bliss? They don’t know what they’re talking about.
Someone has to wash the dishes, haul the garbage, do your accounting, construct your roads, and wait your tables. The world spins because of people who don’t follow their passion. On top of that, finding your passion is all good and well until it doesn’t work. You can waste a lot of time and energy trying to find it only to get zero tangible results.
Again, there a ton of people like this who follow self-improvement advice without doing anything about it. In the search of finding their passion, they waste time doing a half dozen side hustles that never work. Then, because they have an entitled mindset, they never quite understand what real work ethic means.
If that wasn’t enough cold water splashed on your dreams, here comes the tidal wave: focusing on your passion doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because it comes with a poor underlying assumption. The assumption is that your level of love dictates how dedicated you’ll be to the journey. You think that once you find that ultimate passion, things will fall into place, and you’ll do the work necessary to succeed. This is backward.
In reality, you don’t find passion until you get good at something. When you develop competence in something you enjoy, you build more confidence to help you tackle larger challenges, and you continue to grow, which fuels more passion to repeat the process.
Most people want the results without the effort. They want passion to fall in their lap. You shouldn’t chase or seek your passion because that means it’s trying to evade you. Often, you’ll end up chasing your own tail, running on the advice treadmill, and making no progress toward building a life you love.
Passion is for the birds. Do your job, be thankful you have a roof over your head in the first place, and stop being so entitled. | https://medium.com/mind-cafe/the-pros-and-cons-of-trying-to-find-your-passion-fe7f3bc8c5c0 | ['Ayodeji Awosika'] | 2020-12-25 14:11:32.794000+00:00 | ['Productivity', 'Psychology', 'Self Improvement', 'Advice', 'Life Lessons'] | Title Pros Cons Trying Find PassionContent Trying Find Passion Dangerous Counterproductive can’t eat passion Passion doesn’t pay bill can’t enter “finding passion” application medical assistance Passion doesn’t keep circumstance affect life bay — economy politics personal trait negatively affect etc hell millennials life experience telling find passion live bliss don’t know they’re talking Someone wash dish haul garbage accounting construct road wait table world spin people don’t follow passion top finding passion good well doesn’t work waste lot time energy trying find get zero tangible result ton people like follow selfimprovement advice without anything search finding passion waste time half dozen side hustle never work entitled mindset never quite understand real work ethic mean wasn’t enough cold water splashed dream come tidal wave focusing passion doesn’t work doesn’t work come poor underlying assumption assumption level love dictate dedicated you’ll journey think find ultimate passion thing fall place you’ll work necessary succeed backward reality don’t find passion get good something develop competence something enjoy build confidence help tackle larger challenge continue grow fuel passion repeat process people want result without effort want passion fall lap shouldn’t chase seek passion mean it’s trying evade Often you’ll end chasing tail running advice treadmill making progress toward building life love Passion bird job thankful roof head first place stop entitledTags Productivity Psychology Self Improvement Advice Life Lessons |
2,104 | Doing the Dishes Can Help You Become a Better Achiever | How Will Washing Dishes Make Me a Better Achiever?
1.A sense of achievement
When the dishes move entirely from the sink to the rack I have a sense of having sorted something; a diluted feeling of having achieved something good. It is like a small trigger that goes to my brain saying ‘I can do it’.
Takeaway:
Our mind requires motivation in small doses all the time. According to Ralph Ryback in Psychology today,
“The satisfaction of ticking off a small task is linked with a flood of dopamine. Each time your brain gets a whiff of this rewarding neurotransmitter, it will want you to repeat the associated behavior”
And every time the brain tastes this, it would want more of it. So it translates into actions leading to completing a task and relishing this feel-good emotion of achieving that.
2. Control over things
Everyone is repulsed by the scene of a sinkful of dirty dishes many times. Sometimes, the brain finds the easiest route to resolve that — not to do it. And one thing leads to another and one loses control over other associated chores as well, like cooking.
Doing the dishes not only gives me the message-I am in control of things, but it also prevents me from feeling daunted by other factors. Rather than letting them change my course, I tend to think about ways to tackle them.
Takeaway:
In our jam-packed schedules losing control is quite easy, leading to feelings of anxiety and overwhelmedness.
Alicia H. Clark, Psy.D., a licensed clinical psychologist and author of Hack Your Anxiety: How to Make Anxiety Work for You, in Life, Love, and All That You Do talks about how she advises her patients to do cleaning exercises. She goes on to explain that doing these things give us a feeling of control over things, which when practiced consciously, reflects on other aspects of our lives.
3. Deal with procrastination
In order to avoid a pile of dishes, the best way I have figured out is to sneak in some time and just do a bit of it. This avoids falling into the procrastination trap once it appears too much to handle.
Takeaway:
Rather than viewing every task in its entirety, it can be broken down into smaller parts, doable one at a time. I use it in every phase of my life; be it cooking, managing the house chores, or at the office. I have a ‘sinkful of jobs’ and pick a bit and do it whenever I can.
4. Just start; end eventually follows
The toughest part of a job is starting it. Everyone agrees to this. But, I have observed that if I just clean one dish, I end up cleaning the whole lot. It seems like an orchestrated act my mind and body follow.
Takeaway:
Who doesn’t relate to the pain of starting. Like Kendra Evin says in Psychology Today, it happens because of a mental leap that can sometimes be challenging: forcing ourselves to disconnect from what we are doing right now (which might be enjoyable) and do something that, at least initially, may not be enjoyable. Cutting the long story short —
You have to do that first dish.
I have conditioned my brain into linking every job to this simple act of washing dishes which may look so daunting but is sorted once you start with the first dish.
5. Increased mindfulness
Washing dishes engages a lot of senses- the temperature of the water, the smell of the soap, touching and seeing the dishes.
Takeaway:
Just as Thich Nhat Hanh has claimed, it is a conscious way to train the mind to be in the present. Going by the Buddhist zen beliefs, like muscle memory, the mind can be trained to behave in a certain way.
Today there is no debate over the effect of mindfulness on the outcome of a desired effect. Social relationships to corporate engagements, everyone is aware of the significance of ‘being there’. It not only increases the focus on the task but also brings about better problem-solving environments. | https://medium.com/narrative/doing-the-dishes-can-help-you-become-a-better-achiever-38e62a221a0e | [] | 2020-12-21 09:14:48.734000+00:00 | ['Self-awareness', 'Mindfulness', 'Self Improvement', 'Motivation'] | Title Dishes Help Become Better AchieverContent Washing Dishes Make Better Achiever 1A sense achievement dish move entirely sink rack sense sorted something diluted feeling achieved something good like small trigger go brain saying ‘I it’ Takeaway mind requires motivation small dos time According Ralph Ryback Psychology today “The satisfaction ticking small task linked flood dopamine time brain get whiff rewarding neurotransmitter want repeat associated behavior” every time brain taste would want translates action leading completing task relishing feelgood emotion achieving 2 Control thing Everyone repulsed scene sinkful dirty dish many time Sometimes brain find easiest route resolve — one thing lead another one loses control associated chore well like cooking dish give messageI control thing also prevents feeling daunted factor Rather letting change course tend think way tackle Takeaway jampacked schedule losing control quite easy leading feeling anxiety overwhelmedness Alicia H Clark PsyD licensed clinical psychologist author Hack Anxiety Make Anxiety Work Life Love talk advises patient cleaning exercise go explain thing give u feeling control thing practiced consciously reflects aspect life 3 Deal procrastination order avoid pile dish best way figured sneak time bit avoids falling procrastination trap appears much handle Takeaway Rather viewing every task entirety broken smaller part doable one time use every phase life cooking managing house chore office ‘sinkful jobs’ pick bit whenever 4 start end eventually follows toughest part job starting Everyone agrees observed clean one dish end cleaning whole lot seems like orchestrated act mind body follow Takeaway doesn’t relate pain starting Like Kendra Evin say Psychology Today happens mental leap sometimes challenging forcing disconnect right might enjoyable something least initially may enjoyable Cutting long story short — first dish conditioned brain linking every job simple act washing dish may look daunting sorted start first dish 5 Increased mindfulness Washing dish engages lot sens temperature water smell soap touching seeing dish Takeaway Thich Nhat Hanh claimed conscious way train mind present Going Buddhist zen belief like muscle memory mind trained behave certain way Today debate effect mindfulness outcome desired effect Social relationship corporate engagement everyone aware significance ‘being there’ increase focus task also brings better problemsolving environmentsTags Selfawareness Mindfulness Self Improvement Motivation |
2,105 | When ‘Being’ Brings True Happiness | When ‘Being’ Brings True Happiness
1.3m steps later, I had reached an unintended destination
The work of Samy Benmayor, at La Galería Gabriela Mistral de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago de Chile in March 2017
I conquered over 1 million steps in May 2018. After issuing myself with an even greater challenge, I ended up walking nearly 1.3 million steps the following month.
However, it all came to a sudden stop. On July 1st, I woke up and I could not walk. I had sprained my right foot.
I felt a sense of deflation, almost anger because I had been actively pushing myself to a place that was high on the ladder of ambition. What was I going to do now?
I then realised that whilst it was a great thing to have on my resume of life (to have walked 1,000km+ in 30 days) everything in life needed to be in moderation, even something as fulfilling as completing 7+hours of walking spread out though the day, resulting in around 30k+ steps every 24 hours.
I’m settling back in to walking 10k steps a day
Being able to accomplish something like this, came with a great sense of achievement. It was amazing, but it ended on that one Sunday morning when I woke up, and I couldn’t put my right foot flat on the ground.
I was not forced to stay at home, but I had made it a choice. Instead of spending so much time outdoors in the parks that I had grown to love, I was now mostly inside, choosing to be between the garden and the kitchen. And this prompted me to start looking closely into my living environment inside.
It’s the one place that I had not been taking notice of, for some time. I found how interesting it was, that I allowed myself to get used to the unconscious ways of the surroundings I had created, choosing to buy and have more of everything, as I fell back safely on cupboards and wardrobes as my ‘safe places’ to bury my life in.
A few months ago, I started to undo that cycle of clutter. It all stemmed from the first Audible audio-book I ever bought, ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying’ by Marie Kondo on February 2nd 2017. The British narrator brought to life in great, yet relatable details the KonMari method™ that Marie had developed.
I listened attentively and started to learn that, in the midsts of everything that I had collected and stored over many years, the majority of it did not have any meaning or purpose anymore. Their time had passed, so why was I still choosing to live in that time?
I could live without 95% of it, to be honest. As nothing lasts forever, no-one needs to keep everything forever. So, I bravely took the decision to re-start my de-cluttering and elimination exercise on a grand scale. I chose to be aware — of the need to clear up, and of my bad foot. | https://ashluchmun.medium.com/when-being-brings-true-happiness-6e249971f2ef | ['Ash Luchmun'] | 2018-07-12 07:17:02.694000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Self Improvement', 'Wellness', 'Happiness', 'Mental Health'] | Title ‘Being’ Brings True HappinessContent ‘Being’ Brings True Happiness 13m step later reached unintended destination work Samy Benmayor La Galería Gabriela Mistral de Arte Contemporáneo Santiago de Chile March 2017 conquered 1 million step May 2018 issuing even greater challenge ended walking nearly 13 million step following month However came sudden stop July 1st woke could walk sprained right foot felt sense deflation almost anger actively pushing place high ladder ambition going realised whilst great thing resume life walked 1000km 30 day everything life needed moderation even something fulfilling completing 7hours walking spread though day resulting around 30k step every 24 hour I’m settling back walking 10k step day able accomplish something like came great sense achievement amazing ended one Sunday morning woke couldn’t put right foot flat ground forced stay home made choice Instead spending much time outdoors park grown love mostly inside choosing garden kitchen prompted start looking closely living environment inside It’s one place taking notice time found interesting allowed get used unconscious way surroundings created choosing buy everything fell back safely cupboard wardrobe ‘safe places’ bury life month ago started undo cycle clutter stemmed first Audible audiobook ever bought ‘The LifeChanging Magic Tidying’ Marie Kondo February 2nd 2017 British narrator brought life great yet relatable detail KonMari method™ Marie developed listened attentively started learn midst everything collected stored many year majority meaning purpose anymore time passed still choosing live time could live without 95 honest nothing last forever noone need keep everything forever bravely took decision restart decluttering elimination exercise grand scale chose aware — need clear bad footTags Life Lessons Self Improvement Wellness Happiness Mental Health |
2,106 | 6 design elements that encourage visitors to convert | Perhaps the most important aspect of online marketing today is conversion. Getting a visitor to convert to your brand is just as important as earning new clients, as it seems everyone already has a preference and align themselves with another company. It’s always a tight race and competition is fierce.
This means a good website — one that is eye-catching and piques the interest of a visitor — plays a pivotal role in business success.
Want more branding & design tips in your day? Subscribe to Lucidpress, right here on Medium.
In a study conducted at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, it was observed that users only take two-tenths of a second to form an opinion about the websites they visit, and the chance they will click away decreases immensely after the first 30 seconds.
If you want to attract and keep visitors on your website longer, here are 6 design elements that will encourage visitors to convert to your brand.
1. Keep it fresh
A fresh new layout is bound to capture a visitor’s attention, whether she is new to the site or has been a regular. Take CloudSponge as an example. They had an outdated and old-fashioned website, but once they upgraded to a newer, more up-to-date version, their conversion rate increased by 33%.
Basically, the more frequently you change the style or layout of your website, the more opportunities your conversion rate has to grow. It’s like buying fruit — the fresher it is, the more people want to buy it.
2. Have catchy headlines & calls-to-action
The first things that attract a visitor’s attention when she lands on your home page are the headline and call-to-action. Not the contact info, articles or product specs, but these two elements. For this reason, the more action-oriented your headline and CTA are, the higher your chances of success rise.
CTAs are designed to incite an immediate response from a customer. That’s why clear, concise CTAs are more effective. One software company reported that their site’s conversion rate increased by 106% after it got a makeover that included a clear, direct call-to-action.
3. Make it visually appealing
Visual appeal doesn’t mean over-crowded or complicated pages. Increase conversion rates by keeping your landing pages simple and appealing. Your page should show the customer what your company does without making them read a lot of content. One way to achieve this easily is by adding videos or image sliders. This also has the benefit of prolonging the time a visitor spends on your site.
Device Magic, a mobile software company, conducted an A/B test using VWO to determine whether an image slider would improve conversion rates for their website. The results indicated that the image slider increased completed sign-ups by 31%.
4. Don’t ask for too much information
People are usually very skeptical about sharing personal information with a new website. If you want people to subscribe to your site or services, it’s best not to ask for too much information up front.
Dropbox, one of the leading data storage platforms, has an incredibly simple sign-up form. It asks new users for nothing more than their name, email and a password. It doesn’t even ask you to re-enter the password.
When looking for new subscribers, it’s important to remember that new visitors aren’t familiar with your company or product. Gain their trust by giving them some incentive for free. It could be an eBook, a discount or something else. This tactic works like a hook, so that when they are looking to buy, they’ll seek you out.
5. Floating sidebars and drop-down menus
It’s very frustrating for users to have to move all the way to the top or bottom of a page to navigate the site. What many websites have now are floating menus: menus that move along the top or side of the screen as you scroll, making navigation a lot easier.
AMD, a giant in the computer hardware business, uses floating “share” buttons that visitors can use to share the content they find interesting across a variety of social sites like Twitter and Facebook. This helped AMD drive a whopping 3600% increase in social sharing, as more and more people found and shared their pages.
6. Establish contact
Creating a dialogue between you and the prospective clients is essential. If a user inquires about your service or product and gets a response quickly, the probability that they will buy from you increases immensely. Keep in mind that a customer is less likely to stick around if they don’t get the desired response in time.
Sending quick responses to customer inquiries can be simplified with CRM software. This is because CRM software segments and then converts leads from various channels. These leads can be segmented and organized to receive automated responses that save your time and energy — while improving conversion rates.
Getting people to convert to your brand is no small feat, but rest assured, the 6 design elements mentioned here will definitely give you some headway towards that goal.
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About Erica Silva
Erica Silva is a blogger by choice. She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries and express herself through her blogs. Currently, she is associated with airG for development work. Check out her firm’s performance reviews. Find her on Twitter: @ericadsilva1. | https://medium.com/lucidpress/6-design-elements-that-encourage-visitors-to-convert-64796210db9d | [] | 2017-05-24 18:38:48.758000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Web Design', 'Digital Marketing', 'Conversion Optimization', 'Marketing'] | Title 6 design element encourage visitor convertContent Perhaps important aspect online marketing today conversion Getting visitor convert brand important earning new client seems everyone already preference align another company It’s always tight race competition fierce mean good website — one eyecatching pique interest visitor — play pivotal role business success Want branding design tip day Subscribe Lucidpress right Medium study conducted Missouri University Science Technology observed user take twotenths second form opinion website visit chance click away decrease immensely first 30 second want attract keep visitor website longer 6 design element encourage visitor convert brand 1 Keep fresh fresh new layout bound capture visitor’s attention whether new site regular Take CloudSponge example outdated oldfashioned website upgraded newer uptodate version conversion rate increased 33 Basically frequently change style layout website opportunity conversion rate grow It’s like buying fruit — fresher people want buy 2 catchy headline callstoaction first thing attract visitor’s attention land home page headline calltoaction contact info article product spec two element reason actionoriented headline CTA higher chance success rise CTAs designed incite immediate response customer That’s clear concise CTAs effective One software company reported site’s conversion rate increased 106 got makeover included clear direct calltoaction 3 Make visually appealing Visual appeal doesn’t mean overcrowded complicated page Increase conversion rate keeping landing page simple appealing page show customer company without making read lot content One way achieve easily adding video image slider also benefit prolonging time visitor spends site Device Magic mobile software company conducted AB test using VWO determine whether image slider would improve conversion rate website result indicated image slider increased completed signups 31 4 Don’t ask much information People usually skeptical sharing personal information new website want people subscribe site service it’s best ask much information front Dropbox one leading data storage platform incredibly simple signup form asks new user nothing name email password doesn’t even ask reenter password looking new subscriber it’s important remember new visitor aren’t familiar company product Gain trust giving incentive free could eBook discount something else tactic work like hook looking buy they’ll seek 5 Floating sidebar dropdown menu It’s frustrating user move way top bottom page navigate site many website floating menu menu move along top side screen scroll making navigation lot easier AMD giant computer hardware business us floating “share” button visitor use share content find interesting across variety social site like Twitter Facebook helped AMD drive whopping 3600 increase social sharing people found shared page 6 Establish contact Creating dialogue prospective client essential user inquires service product get response quickly probability buy increase immensely Keep mind customer le likely stick around don’t get desired response time Sending quick response customer inquiry simplified CRM software CRM software segment convert lead various channel lead segmented organized receive automated response save time energy — improving conversion rate Getting people convert brand small feat rest assured 6 design element mentioned definitely give headway towards goal Want branding design tip day Subscribe Lucidpress right Medium Erica Silva Erica Silva blogger choice love discover world around like share discovery express blog Currently associated airG development work Check firm’s performance review Find Twitter ericadsilva1Tags Design Web Design Digital Marketing Conversion Optimization Marketing |
2,107 | 3 Reasons Your Business Should NOT Go Digital | 3 Reasons Your Business Should NOT Go Digital
Make sure digital marketing is right for your business before committing
Our content manager is going to hate me.
He told me to write an article about why all small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) should go digital to market their product/services. But instead, I’m using this article to tell you the exact opposite.
While utilizing digital channels such as social media, ecommerce sites, and blogs can be extremely helpful for increasing reach and revenue for most businesses, digital channels are by no means a silver bullet that can solve all business problems.
In fact, being successful in the digital marketing world requires not only a coherent, well-constructed digital strategy, but also committed team members in your business who are constantly optimizing multiple channels according to this digital strategy.
In short, while digital marketing is an extremely attractive marketing method, it requires significant investment in time and resources to get it to work for your business.
For this reason, before investing time and money into digital marketing, it is absolutely crucial for all businesses to carefully examine whether digital channels are a good fit for their current objectives and commitment level.
Don’t waste time with channels that don’t fit your business. Image via Bob Lee Says.
Otherwise, you risk not only wasting money and effort, but precious time that is essential for your company’s survival.
During my time as a consultant and as cofounder of Humanlytics, I have run into this exact situation countless time. That’s why in this article, I will show you three of the most common cases I’ve encountered of a digital strategy mismatch, to prevent it from happening to you.
Case 1: When going digital does not magnify your “core competency”
A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from one of my clients in China, who runs a weight-loss chain with over 200 stores across the country. The client told me, “Bill, I want to create a product line for digital channels such as TaoBao and Jingdong because there are so many opportunities there!”.
TaoBao and Jingdong are popular Chinese ecommerce sites.
While it sounded like an attractive venture, I strongly advised against it. Why? For one important reason — selling online is not the core competency of their company.
A “core competency” is the key capability or resource that makes a company successful. In my client’s case, it includes their customers (which are mostly concentrated in one city), their service expertise, and their vast experience in weight loss coaching. It is these core competencies that make them so good at what they do — making sure each person that comes through the door finds a weight loss solution that works.
If they were to enter the fierce ecommerce space, they would not able to leverage their core competency in service expertise and coaching experience. Ecommerce would therefore take a significant amount of energy away from their core business, instead of contributing to it.
Given the competitiveness of the weight-loss related ecommerce market in China, combined with the lack of human resources and capital to launch this brand new e-commerce division, the future does not look so bright for my client’s ecommerce venture.
Instead, I recommended that they instead launch an online personal weight-loss coaching service. This service will leverage their vast experience that they have in helping people losing weight, along with the expertise that helped them excel in weight loss.
In addition, this service will also help my client use their underutilized therapists and consultants more effectively, and improve the quality of service they can offer to their customers.
How does this case apply to you?
When you are deciding to go digital, don’t simply pursue the most popular method on the market. Don’t just follow the method that your friends or competitors have succeeded with either.
Instead, look inside your company, and ask yourself, “what is the ‘core competency’ that makes my company successful?” Then build a digital strategy around magnifying that core competency.
Only this way can you have your new digital strategy working with, instead of against, your current business to achieve greater success for your business.
If you don’t think any digital strategy will help you leverage your “core competency,” then digital might simply not be the correct channel for you at the moment. That’s completely okay — I have seen many companies succeed over the years with minimal digital presence.
Case 2: You’re growing fast without a digital presence
If you see me speaking at a conference, or pitching a client, I will usually tell them “having a digital presence is extremely crucial to the success of your business, as over 50% of companies now advertise via digital channels.”
Just because digital is surpassing other ad channels, doesn’t mean it’s right for your business. Image via eMarketer.
While I strongly stand by every one of these words, I admit that I omitted a little fact — almost 50% of businesses still do not advertise through digital, and many of them are doing okay.
A recent experience with a potential client illustrated this case perfectly.
At Humanlytics, while we are developing our AI marketing analytics product, we are looking for companies who will help us test our product as focused beta testers. In return we help them with their digital strategy and analytics (if you are interested, email @[email protected]. You get the point :D).
We pitched this idea to a very fast-growing organic pasta company within our personal network, trying to convince them to come on board with this beta testing program. They said no, and they are smart to do so. | https://medium.com/analytics-for-humans/3-reasons-your-business-should-not-go-digital-5df3836a9726 | ['Bill Su'] | 2018-06-08 19:55:52.616000+00:00 | ['Digital Strategy', 'Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'Startup', 'Critical Thinking'] | Title 3 Reasons Business Go DigitalContent 3 Reasons Business Go Digital Make sure digital marketing right business committing content manager going hate told write article small medium sized business SMBs go digital market productservices instead I’m using article tell exact opposite utilizing digital channel social medium ecommerce site blog extremely helpful increasing reach revenue business digital channel mean silver bullet solve business problem fact successful digital marketing world requires coherent wellconstructed digital strategy also committed team member business constantly optimizing multiple channel according digital strategy short digital marketing extremely attractive marketing method requires significant investment time resource get work business reason investing time money digital marketing absolutely crucial business carefully examine whether digital channel good fit current objective commitment level Don’t waste time channel don’t fit business Image via Bob Lee Says Otherwise risk wasting money effort precious time essential company’s survival time consultant cofounder Humanlytics run exact situation countless time That’s article show three common case I’ve encountered digital strategy mismatch prevent happening Case 1 going digital magnify “core competency” couple week ago got call one client China run weightloss chain 200 store across country client told “Bill want create product line digital channel TaoBao Jingdong many opportunity there” TaoBao Jingdong popular Chinese ecommerce site sounded like attractive venture strongly advised one important reason — selling online core competency company “core competency” key capability resource make company successful client’s case includes customer mostly concentrated one city service expertise vast experience weight loss coaching core competency make good — making sure person come door find weight loss solution work enter fierce ecommerce space would able leverage core competency service expertise coaching experience Ecommerce would therefore take significant amount energy away core business instead contributing Given competitiveness weightloss related ecommerce market China combined lack human resource capital launch brand new ecommerce division future look bright client’s ecommerce venture Instead recommended instead launch online personal weightloss coaching service service leverage vast experience helping people losing weight along expertise helped excel weight loss addition service also help client use underutilized therapist consultant effectively improve quality service offer customer case apply deciding go digital don’t simply pursue popular method market Don’t follow method friend competitor succeeded either Instead look inside company ask “what ‘core competency’ make company successful” build digital strategy around magnifying core competency way new digital strategy working instead current business achieve greater success business don’t think digital strategy help leverage “core competency” digital might simply correct channel moment That’s completely okay — seen many company succeed year minimal digital presence Case 2 You’re growing fast without digital presence see speaking conference pitching client usually tell “having digital presence extremely crucial success business 50 company advertise via digital channels” digital surpassing ad channel doesn’t mean it’s right business Image via eMarketer strongly stand every one word admit omitted little fact — almost 50 business still advertise digital many okay recent experience potential client illustrated case perfectly Humanlytics developing AI marketing analytics product looking company help u test product focused beta tester return help digital strategy analytics interested email billhumanlyticsco get point pitched idea fastgrowing organic pasta company within personal network trying convince come board beta testing program said smart soTags Digital Strategy Marketing Digital Marketing Startup Critical Thinking |
2,108 | Why Learning Java is a Starting Point For Big Data Developers Of The Future | Why Learning Java is a Starting Point For Big Data Developers Of The Future
Java is a big friend to Big Data scientists and developers. Here I am going to tell you why is that so
Photo by Franki Chamaki on Unsplash
Considering the impressive pace of big data growth over the last 2–4 years, it’s clear that this subset of data science will dominate the future tech. In this post, I decided to take a closer look at the technologies that are widely used for big data projects.
Java is a leading language when it comes to handling big data projects. Here’s why and how a beginning developer can learn Java for handling complex BD tasks.
A Few Words About Big Data Objectives
Before discussing the impact of Java in the big data of the future, let’s take a look at what types of projects data scientists will be focused on in the next 3–5 years. Here’s my personal take on what big data will mature into in the near future.
1. It’s going to converge with analytics
Now that businesses can gather terabytes of data on every user, tracking on-site behavior, communication preferences, and other relevant metrics, companies are more encouraged to invest in analytics than ever.
Gartner, for one, predicts that, if a business owner doesn’t invest in reporting tools by the end of the year, the company will no longer be competitive by the end of 2021.
Adopting big data algorithms will improve the precision of analytics and give business owners a big-picture view of brand reputation and customer relationships. The introduction of decision trees, linear regression, and other visualization and prognosis methods will help business owners anticipate customers’ needs and increase the quality of brand interactions.
2. Big data will help fight climate change
Although the impact of climate change is real, scientists lack the understanding of the most immediate threats humanity will face in the next 20 years. Big data is a way for the researching community to consolidate their efforts and stay connected via a stream of reliable real-time insights.
Needless to say, the ability of big data tools to process large datasets will improve the precision of approximations and the efficiency of contingency plans people can build based on these insights.
3. The impact of data cloud will grow but not dominate
According to statistics, the value of the global cloud computing market is expected to exceed $623 billion by the end of 2021. Right now, an increasing number of companies are switching to cloud from on-premise solutions.
Having said that, fully migrating to the cloud is a complex process, not to mention the security concerns that come along with trusting online third-party vendors with huge datasets.
In the big data environment, hybrid environments are a common solution, with cloud tools used to host dynamic datasets and on-premise storages used to keep track of the static ones.
Why is Java Still The Best Choice For Big Data Projects?
If you are a software developer considering a career in big data, learning Java should be your starting point. Let’s take a look as to why saying “Java is Big Data” wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
1. Big Data tools for Java are accessible
When considering big data implementation, most business owners are looking for the cheapest tech stack possible. Since most Java tools used in big data (Hadoop, Spark, Mahout) are open-source, such a tech stack is free and highly flexible. As a result, most employees looking for big data engineers will focus on Java proficiency and the working knowledge of the tools that use the language.
2. Java is Type-Safe
Almost every data scientist out there would confirm that being able to understand what types of data you are dealing with when working on a project is crucial when the set of information to process is huge. Being a type-safe language, Java is a first-choice for a fair share of developers and business owners since type-safety allows spending less time on unit testing and facilitates codebase maintenance.
3. Java is scalable
Most projects big data professionals work on are ambitious, designed with upscaling in mind. Thanks to its robustness, wide toolkit, huge community, and cross-platform compatibility, Java is unmatched by other languages in terms of scalability and makes a perfect fit for designing complex big data infrastructures.
4. Wide range of built-in features (not to mention libraries and frameworks)
If most of the other languages are only beginning to acknowledge the importance of machine learning and data science, Java was the first one to jump on the bandwagon. As a result, it has more tools for DS project than most alternatives, to name a few:
Other than libraries, the language becomes more suited to data science with every new release. Say, Java 8’s Lambdas help to make the code to-the-point and concise, the ninth version re-introduced REPL that made iterative development faster and more efficient.
Whether you prefer Hadoop or Spark, knowing Java will be crucial to be proficient in either platform. To make the most out of BD tools, developers often need to add new features to the source code — that’s where Java knowledge is essential.
Reviewing Top 5 Java Tools For Big Data Projects
After having explained the benefits business owners get from choosing Java for big data projects and the reasons why developers should mark the starting point of a data science career with ensuring Java proficiency, let’s take a look at the most widely used Java tools in big data projects.
1. Apache Hadoop
Hadoop Ecosystem and Their Components by Data-flair.training
Hadoop is a go-to big data processing technologies for most business owners — there are dozens of libraries and tools dedicated to sorting through and storing large datasets. Despite its popularity, among talent managers, Hadoop development job openings are known as the hardest ones to fill in since most developers lack an in-depth understanding of MapReduce.
Although Hadoop is one of the most complex technologies out there, the gain of becoming proficient in it is definitely worth the pain. According to statistics, the median yearly salary of a Hadoop developer is $103, 000.
2. Spark
Spark is a common Hadoop alternative that is attractive to developers thanks to its high speed, agility, and smooth learning curve. Typically, Spark is preferred over Hadoop for large-scale SQL projects, data streaming, and machine learning tasks.
It’s worth mentioning that Spark isn’t fully written in Java but in Scala — however, the interfaces of both languages are similar (as a proficient Java developer, you will not need a lot of time to get the hang of Scala).
As for workplace opportunities, Spark is a lucrative technology to master since some of the biggest names in tech are looking for professionals in the field — Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, or IBM.
3. Mahout
From the Bauman National Library wiki
Since big data projects are closely intertwined with machine learning, big data developers often cross paths with Mahout — an open-source, Java-based library of ML tools. Mahout gained a tremendous following thanks to its scalability and a large data processing toolset.
Typically, developers start learning Apache Mahout after understanding the functionality of Hadoop, which makes sense (a fair share of the library’s infrastructure is made up of repurposed Hadoop code).
4. Storm
Compared to Hadoop or Spark, Apache Storm is a narrower toolset of big data tools, focused predominantly on enabling real-time distributed data streaming. Equipped to deal with high-volume and velocity data, the platform is repeatedly praised for its high scalability and fault tolerance.
Other than that, Storm’s compatibility with most popular queuing and database systems makes learning how to use the platform a must-have for a beginning big data developer.
5. Deeplearning4j
Deeplearning4j is a Java-based tool neural network developers swear by. This platform is well-done on so many levels, from the ease of use to the quality of documentation. Deeplearning4j is scalable — you can integrate it with Apache Spark or run the platform on GPUs. The tool supports microservice projects as well — it’s one of the few platforms out there with a robust microservice infrastructure.
List of Resources to Learn Java For Big Data
If you are planning to build a career in big data, becoming proficient in Java is essential. However, since there are so many language learning resources around, developers often struggle to distinguish between the good and the bad ones.
Here’s the list of resources I compiled for my students over the years — in my opinion, these are all the tools you need to get from a newbie to a professional in Java.
Coding Games and Courses:
Codegym is a gamified platform for beginning and advanced Java learners. Using gamification and practical tasks to explain the core concepts of the language, this tool is your way to start coding from day one. My students repeatedly complimented the platform, saying it improves knowledge retention and gives a clear idea of how the concepts they learn are useful in the workplace.
Although Code Combat doesn’t offer programming learners a solid theoretical framework, the tool is perfect for using your skills to complete real-life tasks. Combined with high-quality graphics and an intelligent plot, Code Combat is an enjoyable RPG you wouldn’t mind spending your weekends with.
Being a data scientist, as well as a programmer, is about collaboration and teamwork. If you are anxious about coordinating with peers at the office, check Coding Game out. The idea behind the product is both simple and ambitious — uniting developers from all over the world to build a game together.
When it comes to learning from the best Java developers and getting noticed by top-notch employees, CodingGame is a decent resource.
This retro-style game might seem basic at the first glance — yet, there’s more to this robot battle than it lets show. Personally, I like this platform exactly because of how raw and stripped down it is. Other than enjoying robot battles, you can join hardcore challenges and chat with fellow developers via a dedicated forum.
Online courses
Learn Java For Big Data:
Books
Learning the basics of Java
Learning Java For Big Data:
Forums and social media
Learning Java for Big Data:
Conclusion
Personally for me, Java and big data always came together. Although I acknowledge the potential of Python as well, in my experience, a successful data scientist shouldn’t choose one over the other — rather, you learn how to handle both languages and draw on their respective strengths.
Since Java is one of the best-taught languages online, I am confident that, with enough determination and the understanding of basic programming concepts, you can be good at using its tools for DS projects.
Hopefully, the resources I linked above will be a good starting point to fuel a beginner developer’s journey. Good luck discovering the full potential of Java and using the language in your projects. | https://towardsdatascience.com/why-learning-java-is-a-starting-point-for-big-data-developers-of-the-future-9a9b6d240dea | ['John Selawsky'] | 2020-06-12 16:02:14.882000+00:00 | ['Big Data', 'Data Science', 'Java', 'Big Data Analytics'] | Title Learning Java Starting Point Big Data Developers FutureContent Learning Java Starting Point Big Data Developers Future Java big friend Big Data scientist developer going tell Photo Franki Chamaki Unsplash Considering impressive pace big data growth last 2–4 year it’s clear subset data science dominate future tech post decided take closer look technology widely used big data project Java leading language come handling big data project Here’s beginning developer learn Java handling complex BD task Words Big Data Objectives discussing impact Java big data future let’s take look type project data scientist focused next 3–5 year Here’s personal take big data mature near future 1 It’s going converge analytics business gather terabyte data every user tracking onsite behavior communication preference relevant metric company encouraged invest analytics ever Gartner one predicts business owner doesn’t invest reporting tool end year company longer competitive end 2021 Adopting big data algorithm improve precision analytics give business owner bigpicture view brand reputation customer relationship introduction decision tree linear regression visualization prognosis method help business owner anticipate customers’ need increase quality brand interaction 2 Big data help fight climate change Although impact climate change real scientist lack understanding immediate threat humanity face next 20 year Big data way researching community consolidate effort stay connected via stream reliable realtime insight Needless say ability big data tool process large datasets improve precision approximation efficiency contingency plan people build based insight 3 impact data cloud grow dominate According statistic value global cloud computing market expected exceed 623 billion end 2021 Right increasing number company switching cloud onpremise solution said fully migrating cloud complex process mention security concern come along trusting online thirdparty vendor huge datasets big data environment hybrid environment common solution cloud tool used host dynamic datasets onpremise storage used keep track static one Java Still Best Choice Big Data Projects software developer considering career big data learning Java starting point Let’s take look saying “Java Big Data” wouldn’t exaggeration 1 Big Data tool Java accessible considering big data implementation business owner looking cheapest tech stack possible Since Java tool used big data Hadoop Spark Mahout opensource tech stack free highly flexible result employee looking big data engineer focus Java proficiency working knowledge tool use language 2 Java TypeSafe Almost every data scientist would confirm able understand type data dealing working project crucial set information process huge typesafe language Java firstchoice fair share developer business owner since typesafety allows spending le time unit testing facilitates codebase maintenance 3 Java scalable project big data professional work ambitious designed upscaling mind Thanks robustness wide toolkit huge community crossplatform compatibility Java unmatched language term scalability make perfect fit designing complex big data infrastructure 4 Wide range builtin feature mention library framework language beginning acknowledge importance machine learning data science Java first one jump bandwagon result tool DS project alternative name library language becomes suited data science every new release Say Java 8’s Lambdas help make code tothepoint concise ninth version reintroduced REPL made iterative development faster efficient Whether prefer Hadoop Spark knowing Java crucial proficient either platform make BD tool developer often need add new feature source code — that’s Java knowledge essential Reviewing Top 5 Java Tools Big Data Projects explained benefit business owner get choosing Java big data project reason developer mark starting point data science career ensuring Java proficiency let’s take look widely used Java tool big data project 1 Apache Hadoop Hadoop Ecosystem Components Dataflairtraining Hadoop goto big data processing technology business owner — dozen library tool dedicated sorting storing large datasets Despite popularity among talent manager Hadoop development job opening known hardest one fill since developer lack indepth understanding MapReduce Although Hadoop one complex technology gain becoming proficient definitely worth pain According statistic median yearly salary Hadoop developer 103 000 2 Spark Spark common Hadoop alternative attractive developer thanks high speed agility smooth learning curve Typically Spark preferred Hadoop largescale SQL project data streaming machine learning task It’s worth mentioning Spark isn’t fully written Java Scala — however interface language similar proficient Java developer need lot time get hang Scala workplace opportunity Spark lucrative technology master since biggest name tech looking professional field — Facebook Microsoft Apple IBM 3 Mahout Bauman National Library wiki Since big data project closely intertwined machine learning big data developer often cross path Mahout — opensource Javabased library ML tool Mahout gained tremendous following thanks scalability large data processing toolset Typically developer start learning Apache Mahout understanding functionality Hadoop make sense fair share library’s infrastructure made repurposed Hadoop code 4 Storm Compared Hadoop Spark Apache Storm narrower toolset big data tool focused predominantly enabling realtime distributed data streaming Equipped deal highvolume velocity data platform repeatedly praised high scalability fault tolerance Storm’s compatibility popular queuing database system make learning use platform musthave beginning big data developer 5 Deeplearning4j Deeplearning4j Javabased tool neural network developer swear platform welldone many level ease use quality documentation Deeplearning4j scalable — integrate Apache Spark run platform GPUs tool support microservice project well — it’s one platform robust microservice infrastructure List Resources Learn Java Big Data planning build career big data becoming proficient Java essential However since many language learning resource around developer often struggle distinguish good bad one Here’s list resource compiled student year — opinion tool need get newbie professional Java Coding Games Courses Codegym gamified platform beginning advanced Java learner Using gamification practical task explain core concept language tool way start coding day one student repeatedly complimented platform saying improves knowledge retention give clear idea concept learn useful workplace Although Code Combat doesn’t offer programming learner solid theoretical framework tool perfect using skill complete reallife task Combined highquality graphic intelligent plot Code Combat enjoyable RPG wouldn’t mind spending weekend data scientist well programmer collaboration teamwork anxious coordinating peer office check Coding Game idea behind product simple ambitious — uniting developer world build game together come learning best Java developer getting noticed topnotch employee CodingGame decent resource retrostyle game might seem basic first glance — yet there’s robot battle let show Personally like platform exactly raw stripped enjoying robot battle join hardcore challenge chat fellow developer via dedicated forum Online course Learn Java Big Data Books Learning basic Java Learning Java Big Data Forums social medium Learning Java Big Data Conclusion Personally Java big data always came together Although acknowledge potential Python well experience successful data scientist shouldn’t choose one — rather learn handle language draw respective strength Since Java one besttaught language online confident enough determination understanding basic programming concept good using tool DS project Hopefully resource linked good starting point fuel beginner developer’s journey Good luck discovering full potential Java using language projectsTags Big Data Data Science Java Big Data Analytics |
2,109 | What Rainbows Can Teach Us About Philosophy | Rainbows are a consequence of real things happening in the world, but they are not quite real themselves. You can see them, but you can’t touch them.
A rainbow is caused by a chance combination of light, a downpour, and being in the right place to see it — with your back turned to the light.
Human beings see different coloured bands in the rainbow but in reality the rainbow is a seamless spectrum of colour. The coloured bands are a product of human “colour vision” — the way we as a species see colour. The hardware of our eyes and brain makes sense of the world in a particular way and the bands of the rainbow show that.
We can all see a rainbow when one appears but no one person sees the same rainbow. This is because what you see is an optical illusion that exists in relation to where you are looking from. Rainbows look different to every eye beholding them.
Concepts are the same. What do I mean by concepts? Freedom, love, happiness, wisdom, gender and ethics — these are all concepts.
They exist only in so much that we speak about them. If we didn’t speak or write about these things they wouldn’t exist. And I would wager that if every single person in the world were asked to write an essay about love, they would have a different idea about what love is.
That’s why concepts are just like rainbows. They are not real, but caused by real things happening. You can speak about them, but you can’t touch them. They exist differently to every beholder, yet we also have a shared sense for them in the same way we see rainbows in that distinctly-human colour band way.
A dog would have no understanding of love in the way we do. Sure, a dog can show affection, form relationships and rear puppies and such like, but “love” is a human idea that we understand only on our own terms.
One of the biggest misconceptions about philosophy is that it’s a body of knowledge, that you have to study for years to understand it. People think you have to learn about philosophers: those long-dead pale males who wrote sleep-inducing texts with long words.
But you don’t. Philosophy is in fact an activity. It’s something everybody does, even if they don’t know it.
We spend most of our lives thinking directly about our lives and the world. We think about relationships, work, politics and a whole assortment of our experiences directly. We think about people we love, we think about our tax bills, work, death and jealousy.
Think about all the concepts that make emotions well-up inside you. Happiness, love, evil, duty, justice and honour. These are complicated concepts that cause us sleepless nights because they are concepts that imbue the thoughts that occupy us.
But sometimes we level up our thinking, we ask ourselves questions like, what really is “love”? Or — are we really “free” if we need to work to survive? Or — is paying tax a moral obligation? Or — why don’t I feel “happy” when all the signs say I should be?
We suddenly consider these things we think about in our everyday lives from a conceptual standpoint. That is what philosophy is. It’s thinking about thinking.
Philosophy is the craft of concepts — it is our means of making and moulding concepts. Philosophical contemplation is higher level thinking. We all do it, but more rarely than we ought to.
It allows us to better understand all these confusing concepts that cause us sleepless nights.
If we do it, and we talk (and write) about it, we start to better shape the world we live in. We can compare the way we understand these concepts. We can make sense of it a little more together.
We can chase rainbows together.
In doing so, we can be more empathetic, since we know more about each other. We can also feel less aggravated by our own limited understanding of the concepts that weigh so heavily on our lives, yet only exist in our minds.
Have a great Christmas. | https://medium.com/curious/what-rainbows-can-teach-us-about-philosophy-94ee97a2705a | ['Steven Gambardella'] | 2020-12-25 23:08:25.974000+00:00 | ['Philosophy', 'Culture', 'Psychology', 'Self Improvement', 'Science'] | Title Rainbows Teach Us PhilosophyContent Rainbows consequence real thing happening world quite real see can’t touch rainbow caused chance combination light downpour right place see — back turned light Human being see different coloured band rainbow reality rainbow seamless spectrum colour coloured band product human “colour vision” — way specie see colour hardware eye brain make sense world particular way band rainbow show see rainbow one appears one person see rainbow see optical illusion exists relation looking Rainbows look different every eye beholding Concepts mean concept Freedom love happiness wisdom gender ethic — concept exist much speak didn’t speak write thing wouldn’t exist would wager every single person world asked write essay love would different idea love That’s concept like rainbow real caused real thing happening speak can’t touch exist differently every beholder yet also shared sense way see rainbow distinctlyhuman colour band way dog would understanding love way Sure dog show affection form relationship rear puppy like “love” human idea understand term One biggest misconception philosophy it’s body knowledge study year understand People think learn philosopher longdead pale male wrote sleepinducing text long word don’t Philosophy fact activity It’s something everybody even don’t know spend life thinking directly life world think relationship work politics whole assortment experience directly think people love think tax bill work death jealousy Think concept make emotion wellup inside Happiness love evil duty justice honour complicated concept cause u sleepless night concept imbue thought occupy u sometimes level thinking ask question like really “love” — really “free” need work survive — paying tax moral obligation — don’t feel “happy” sign say suddenly consider thing think everyday life conceptual standpoint philosophy It’s thinking thinking Philosophy craft concept — mean making moulding concept Philosophical contemplation higher level thinking rarely ought allows u better understand confusing concept cause u sleepless night talk write start better shape world live compare way understand concept make sense little together chase rainbow together empathetic since know also feel le aggravated limited understanding concept weigh heavily life yet exist mind great ChristmasTags Philosophy Culture Psychology Self Improvement Science |
2,110 | Branding Your Own Startup | This article starts by covering some of my process and thinking when it came to branding a startup I co-founded earlier this year. It then goes on to look at the visual results with images of the key assets and an example of the brand in action.
Designing For Others
I’ve spent a large part of my career working on or creating brands for other people. At the beginning of this year I co-founded a startup, Akord, and had the unusual experience of being my own client, as it were. Creative freedom with no one telling you to make the logo bigger, this is every designer’s dream, right? Well, I won’t lie, it was pretty great.
Initially, though, I was almost dreading undertaking the work and considered outsourcing it. It felt like it would be too much pressure, that I would be too closely invested to be able to step back and make good decisions.
When you create a brand for another company, even though your name will be attached to that work and you strive for the best outcome, you won’t have to work with that brand day in and day out for potentially many years to come. In that sense, there’s a liberating distance from your work. When it’s a company you’ve co-founded and now you’re designing the brand you’ll have to work with on a daily basis, there’s suddenly a lot more pressure to get it right.
I started to think of the ‘client’ as our small team, which helped reframe the project. I work with three others and part of the unwritten brief to myself was to create a brand we could all be proud of and that captured our values. I also imagined working for future team members, knowing how powerful a strong brand is in attracting talented people to a company, and how it can give people a sense of pride to be part of that story.
I’ve always felt that when I was consciously designing for others, telling myself things like, ‘I’m doing this to help this person achieve this goal’, as opposed to feeling, ‘I’m doing this to advance my career/portfolio/bank balance’, that the design process became a lot more enjoyable, freer easier because of it.
Branding at a Startup
An early-stage startup can go through brands like a snake shedding skins. I don’t mean to suggest these startups are somehow devious or ‘snakey’ by doing this, but like the snake shedding its skin it’s a naturally occurring event when something has served its purpose.
When branding is superficial it truly is like a skin — an outer layer that doesn’t really have too much to do with the real inner workings, the heart of the operation. When branding is done right it be a visual representation of the product, values and mission, but also manifest itself through all the company’s interactions with employees, customers, partners and the outside world in general.
The reality of a startup is that the first few years will inevitably be an unpredictable rollercoaster, where carefully considered business plans will be torn up, the product will pivot, and the ideal customer will change as the company is trying to figure out its product market fit. Even those startups who hire professional designers to work on the first version of their brand will find it hard to feel like they haven’t outgrown it within a few years.
With that in mind, I believe the most effective strategy for branding an early-stage startup is to focus on the core values and mission to create a strong set of foundational branding assets. These foundational assets I define as logo, colours, typography and graphics (or illustrations). Other elements, such as tone of voice, I believe are better developed later on when product market fit is closer or already achieved.
These foundational assets should be broadly and simply defined, starting with a few simple rules to ensure a solid coherence runs through all work. This will allow for a certain amount of room for these assets to evolve, with the aim that the brand can adapt rather than be overhauled as the company goes through its growing pains.
Our Values
Everything in a brand should stem from its values, because that’s where the vision, product and company itself ultimately all come from. The values are often the thing about a company everyone thinks they know, but when the question is posed you never get two answers that are the same. It isn’t necessarily that people aren’t aligned, but that there are so many different ways to describe something so subjective. People can also end up listing an endless amount of values, so it’s worth prioritising or distilling a company’s values down to a core set that really captures the soul.
At Akord we’ve captured our values in the following three points.
Commitment & Caring
We’re committed to our mission, the fundamental right to privacy, and to building a company that adds real value to the world with an exemplary culture. We’re committed to operating as carbon negative and creating an equitable company, caring for our working environment as well as the world outside. We are a small committed team that cares about what we do. Quality & Craft
We aim to produce a quality product and constantly sweat the details. We adopt a learning attitude, continuously looking to improve. We believe in the power of new technologies and design — the tools of our craft. Conviction & Confidence
We have strong beliefs. And while those beliefs mean sometimes doing things the hard way, it’s also where we derive our conviction, knowing that our mission and our product will add value to people’s lives. We want people to feel confident in owning their data. We want our customers to have confidence in us.
The Brand Concept: Lock & Flow
The Lock & Flow concept represented in the Akord graphics.
As well as the company values, the visual elements of the brand are also focused around a concept I named, Lock & Flow. I like paradoxical ideas, and these two seemingly opposed forces, locking and flowing, nicely capture the core of what we are trying to achieve with Akord.
We want to secure data, keep that sensitive information safely locked down, and at the same time we believe that work, or processes in general, can only truly flow when you have confidence that you’re in a secure context. When you don’t trust your tools, you never feel at ease, second-guessing what’s right and using convoluted methods to try and make an effort to cover your bases.
The main graphics used throughout the marketing site and at points in the product are intended to capture the Lock & Flow idea, as well as a modern feel overall that’s relevant to the technology we’re working with.
We use flowing organic shapes that can morph from solid gradient colour to fine lines, as a visual representation of dynamic flow. Occasionally overlaid and for separate use, we have crosses, squares and triangles that evoke a more machine like process of locking in (as well as tracking and mapping), which relates to our encryption and internal blockchain.
The Logo
The Akord logo and breakout branding elements.
The padlock iconography has multiple meanings. As a standard representation of encryption, it’s a clear, easily easily understood and constant reminder that wherever you have Akord you have encryption, end to end. We also want you to feel secure and confident whenever you interact with our product or the company in general. That little padlock on a browser tab is your marker, telling you, ‘OK, here you’re safe’.
The padlock has a small stylistic twist, mirroring the triangle from inside the capital ‘A’ as the keyhole in the padlock. This upwards pointing mark is another reminder to keep pushing onwards and upwards with everything we do. When we use just the A and padlock together, it becomes like an asterisk or star, that brings to mind an A* grade — symbolic of the standard we hold ourselves to.
The padlock is relatively small, a mark at the end of Akord, as a reference to the fact our encryption, while ever present, should never get in the way of the other product features.
The Colours
Akord brand colour palettes.
Our brand leads with a dark-mode aesthetic, which lends itself to a contemporary feeling of security and a technologically-focused product. We offset that dark mode with a bright red-orange, or ‘redange’, as our primary brand colour.
The secondary palette is a set of vibrant colours carefully chosen for a dual purpose. First, we assign different colours to members of a data room, and these colours are used for elements such as the speech bubbles used for when people post messages. Second, the colours capture the creativity and collaboration element of Akord, as well as enabling us to make the product more visually striking.
We also have 9 greys that range from almost black to almost white. Having a wide range of greys to draw on for product design is incredibly useful. They allow you to create subtle effects of depth and get contrast right when choosing borders and backgrounds, as well as providing another dimension to create type hierarchy. I never use opacity to create greys as you will encounter issues when elements are overlaid on colours other than white. I also like to give grey colours a slight tint of the brand colour, so they’re not pure monochrome, giving them a warmer more cohesive feel with the whole product.
The Typography
Type hierarchy and specimen examples for Akord’s typography.
For the product and marketing website I set basic type hierarchies covering just what I need. I normally get some way into the designs before cycling back to set this hierarchy. This way I have a clear idea of what I need, then I create some framework for consistency. Setting type hierarchy before you have an idea of the needs are always seemed to me like an illusion of efficiency and an unnecessary hindrance to getting going.
I use Larsseit as the main typeface for the brand. It’s a sans-serif but it has enough quirks with the double-storey lowercase ‘g’, ‘a’ and the compact ‘s’, for example, to not have a completely cold and machine-like feel that many popular modern geometric sans-serifs have. I wanted Akord to feel current but personable at the same time.
Larsseit is supported with Everett Mono, a contemporary and versatile grotesque mono-spaced font. It’s only available to purchase by contacting the designer, which is nice to know that this element of the brand is not going to be ubiquitous. The ‘A’ in the Akord logo is redrawn along the same lines as the Everett font. I’m in discussions with the type designer of Everett to work on a custom drawing of the Akord logotype, and this will most likely be one evolution of the brand in 2021.
The First Evolution
All the core brand assets in action on the homepage of the Akord website.
The nature of a tech startup means we could, and probably will, be in a very different place in a few years from now. In the context of a startup it’s wise to establish a solid foundation for your brand but not to attempt to construct something on the level of corporate guidelines. We need to be nimble in our product development and the brand needs to be able to flex and pivot alongside if necessary.
Hopefully these core elements are strong and yet flexible enough to last longer than a few years. The relative simplicity of the logo is an attempt to hold its relevance through the early years. Likewise the concept for the graphics is sufficiently open whereby we can add and evolve those elements to keep the brand fresh and relevant.
I hope this first expression of our values and product is the first step in a meaningful relationship with our brand for our customers. | https://uxplanet.org/branding-your-own-startup-c10a16e8dfdd | ['Pascal Barry'] | 2020-12-15 20:41:26.318000+00:00 | ['Branding', 'Startup', 'Visual Design', 'Design', 'Design Process'] | Title Branding StartupContent article start covering process thinking came branding startup cofounded earlier year go look visual result image key asset example brand action Designing Others I’ve spent large part career working creating brand people beginning year cofounded startup Akord unusual experience client Creative freedom one telling make logo bigger every designer’s dream right Well won’t lie pretty great Initially though almost dreading undertaking work considered outsourcing felt like would much pressure would closely invested able step back make good decision create brand another company even though name attached work strive best outcome won’t work brand day day potentially many year come sense there’s liberating distance work it’s company you’ve cofounded you’re designing brand you’ll work daily basis there’s suddenly lot pressure get right started think ‘client’ small team helped reframe project work three others part unwritten brief create brand could proud captured value also imagined working future team member knowing powerful strong brand attracting talented people company give people sense pride part story I’ve always felt consciously designing others telling thing like ‘I’m help person achieve goal’ opposed feeling ‘I’m advance careerportfoliobank balance’ design process became lot enjoyable freer easier Branding Startup earlystage startup go brand like snake shedding skin don’t mean suggest startup somehow devious ‘snakey’ like snake shedding skin it’s naturally occurring event something served purpose branding superficial truly like skin — outer layer doesn’t really much real inner working heart operation branding done right visual representation product value mission also manifest company’s interaction employee customer partner outside world general reality startup first year inevitably unpredictable rollercoaster carefully considered business plan torn product pivot ideal customer change company trying figure product market fit Even startup hire professional designer work first version brand find hard feel like haven’t outgrown within year mind believe effective strategy branding earlystage startup focus core value mission create strong set foundational branding asset foundational asset define logo colour typography graphic illustration element tone voice believe better developed later product market fit closer already achieved foundational asset broadly simply defined starting simple rule ensure solid coherence run work allow certain amount room asset evolve aim brand adapt rather overhauled company go growing pain Values Everything brand stem value that’s vision product company ultimately come value often thing company everyone think know question posed never get two answer isn’t necessarily people aren’t aligned many different way describe something subjective People also end listing endless amount value it’s worth prioritising distilling company’s value core set really capture soul Akord we’ve captured value following three point Commitment Caring We’re committed mission fundamental right privacy building company add real value world exemplary culture We’re committed operating carbon negative creating equitable company caring working environment well world outside small committed team care Quality Craft aim produce quality product constantly sweat detail adopt learning attitude continuously looking improve believe power new technology design — tool craft Conviction Confidence strong belief belief mean sometimes thing hard way it’s also derive conviction knowing mission product add value people’s life want people feel confident owning data want customer confidence u Brand Concept Lock Flow Lock Flow concept represented Akord graphic well company value visual element brand also focused around concept named Lock Flow like paradoxical idea two seemingly opposed force locking flowing nicely capture core trying achieve Akord want secure data keep sensitive information safely locked time believe work process general truly flow confidence you’re secure context don’t trust tool never feel ease secondguessing what’s right using convoluted method try make effort cover base main graphic used throughout marketing site point product intended capture Lock Flow idea well modern feel overall that’s relevant technology we’re working use flowing organic shape morph solid gradient colour fine line visual representation dynamic flow Occasionally overlaid separate use cross square triangle evoke machine like process locking well tracking mapping relates encryption internal blockchain Logo Akord logo breakout branding element padlock iconography multiple meaning standard representation encryption it’s clear easily easily understood constant reminder wherever Akord encryption end end also want feel secure confident whenever interact product company general little padlock browser tab marker telling ‘OK you’re safe’ padlock small stylistic twist mirroring triangle inside capital ‘A’ keyhole padlock upwards pointing mark another reminder keep pushing onwards upwards everything use padlock together becomes like asterisk star brings mind grade — symbolic standard hold padlock relatively small mark end Akord reference fact encryption ever present never get way product feature Colours Akord brand colour palette brand lead darkmode aesthetic lends contemporary feeling security technologicallyfocused product offset dark mode bright redorange ‘redange’ primary brand colour secondary palette set vibrant colour carefully chosen dual purpose First assign different colour member data room colour used element speech bubble used people post message Second colour capture creativity collaboration element Akord well enabling u make product visually striking also 9 grey range almost black almost white wide range grey draw product design incredibly useful allow create subtle effect depth get contrast right choosing border background well providing another dimension create type hierarchy never use opacity create grey encounter issue element overlaid colour white also like give grey colour slight tint brand colour they’re pure monochrome giving warmer cohesive feel whole product Typography Type hierarchy specimen example Akord’s typography product marketing website set basic type hierarchy covering need normally get way design cycling back set hierarchy way clear idea need create framework consistency Setting type hierarchy idea need always seemed like illusion efficiency unnecessary hindrance getting going use Larsseit main typeface brand It’s sansserif enough quirk doublestorey lowercase ‘g’ ‘a’ compact ‘s’ example completely cold machinelike feel many popular modern geometric sansserifs wanted Akord feel current personable time Larsseit supported Everett Mono contemporary versatile grotesque monospaced font It’s available purchase contacting designer nice know element brand going ubiquitous ‘A’ Akord logo redrawn along line Everett font I’m discussion type designer Everett work custom drawing Akord logotype likely one evolution brand 2021 First Evolution core brand asset action homepage Akord website nature tech startup mean could probably different place year context startup it’s wise establish solid foundation brand attempt construct something level corporate guideline need nimble product development brand need able flex pivot alongside necessary Hopefully core element strong yet flexible enough last longer year relative simplicity logo attempt hold relevance early year Likewise concept graphic sufficiently open whereby add evolve element keep brand fresh relevant hope first expression value product first step meaningful relationship brand customersTags Branding Startup Visual Design Design Design Process |
2,111 | The Importance of Keeping Your Promise | Wellington : Night or the Prussian Must Come
Meeting of Wellington and Blücher, from The Wars of Wellington. The British Libary.
Two days prior to the Battle of Waterloo, General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prince of Wahlstatt, commander of the Prussian army was on his backfoot, retreating, having been defeated at the Battle of Ligny. Hot on his heels was Marshall Grouchy , with a third of Napoleon’s army, brimming with confidence in the earlier victory. Grouchy had been ordered by Napoleon to pursue the Prussians “with your swords on their backs”,which history would tell us, Grouchy, unfortunately followed stubbornly to the letter. Grouchy was eventually led by the Prussian’s rearguard to a minor battle at Wavre which he won but too far to return to aid Naploeon at Waterloo.
Grouchy had refused to listen to his subordinate’s General Gérard’s advice to “march to the sounds of the guns”
With his ally in full retreat, the Duke of Wellington, himself, was in no better shape. Wellington was also defeated at the Battle of Quatre Bras two days earlier and his motley crew of the “Seventh Coalition” of United Kingdom, Netherlands, Prussia, Hanover, Nassau, and Brunswick was about to be driven to the sea!
Wellington was also outgunned and his army, in his own words, “was an infamous army, very weak and ill-equipped, and a very inexperienced Staff”. Defeat was imminent. In fact, Napoloen was so confident of victory that he had had the time and peace of mind, to dine in silverware for breakfast on the fateful Sunday June 18, 1815 at Le Caillou, Waterloo.
History, would tell us that Waterloo was Napoleon’s last and final attempt at glory; to restore his Emperorship and the French Empire. Wellington and the rest of the continent must yield to France and France only. When the dust settled, 41,000 Frenchmen, two third of Napoleon’s finest including the undefeated Imperial Guards laid dead, wounded, captured or missing.
The Battle of Waterloo remains the most studied battle in history by military strategists and all who seek the answer as to how, Napoleon’s Armée du Nord, comprising the finest and most professional soldiers of their time were soundly defeated.
What was the key that unraveled the briliance and the might of Napoleon’s army?
Blucher kept his promise
“Night or the Prussians must come,” Wellington at Waterloo
A promise kept made the difference. Blucher, had made a promise to Wellington that he would come to his aid, not with one or two corps but his entire army even though he is on a full retreat. Whilst Napoloen had grossly underestimated the conviction of the Prussian, Wellington has put his overwhelming faith on the promise of a friend and an old warrior. Wellington would proceed to retreat to a ridge at Mont St. Jean, two and a half miles south of the village Waterloo and face the might of Naploeon’s army, betting all on a promise made.
“It was apparent to Wellington, as he was dispatched back to London after the war, that the Prussians were the deciding factor that won the epic battle in Waterloo. When Prussians came to his aid at the 11th hour, most of Wellington’s lieutenants were either killed or wounded. And he was trapped in an infantry square, a defensive position. Wellington’s center was about to be smashed, and with no reserves at hand, defeat was imminent if not for Blücher, keeping his word in coming to Wellington’s aid. After the battle of Ligny the Prussians had crucially retreated northwards, parallel to Wellington’s line of march allowing them to continue to support Welling- ton throughout, instead of going east and back toward their supply line.” (Yong & Lee, 2019)
The rest from that point was history. Many would know Waterloo as Napoleon’s final defeat but few would know about the promise of Blucher to Wellington and how based on that single conviction, history was written.
In today’s culture of broken promise and trust, we need to reach back to the past and cultivate amongst us that our word is our honor. The business world today needs to build on trust and the popular concept of authentic leadership is in its essence, keeping ones promise.
References
Yong and Lee. 2019. Department of Startup: Why Every Fortune 500 Should Have One. Business Expert Press. New York | https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/wellington-night-or-the-prussian-must-come-4c80ad18741d | ['Ivan Yong Wei Kit'] | 2020-09-10 08:34:16.833000+00:00 | ['Human Resources', 'History', 'Leadership', 'Trust', 'Startup'] | Title Importance Keeping PromiseContent Wellington Night Prussian Must Come Meeting Wellington Blücher Wars Wellington British Libary Two day prior Battle Waterloo General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher Prince Wahlstatt commander Prussian army backfoot retreating defeated Battle Ligny Hot heel Marshall Grouchy third Napoleon’s army brimming confidence earlier victory Grouchy ordered Napoleon pursue Prussians “with sword backs”which history would tell u Grouchy unfortunately followed stubbornly letter Grouchy eventually led Prussian’s rearguard minor battle Wavre far return aid Naploeon Waterloo Grouchy refused listen subordinate’s General Gérard’s advice “march sound guns” ally full retreat Duke Wellington better shape Wellington also defeated Battle Quatre Bras two day earlier motley crew “Seventh Coalition” United Kingdom Netherlands Prussia Hanover Nassau Brunswick driven sea Wellington also outgunned army word “was infamous army weak illequipped inexperienced Staff” Defeat imminent fact Napoloen confident victory time peace mind dine silverware breakfast fateful Sunday June 18 1815 Le Caillou Waterloo History would tell u Waterloo Napoleon’s last final attempt glory restore Emperorship French Empire Wellington rest continent must yield France France dust settled 41000 Frenchmen two third Napoleon’s finest including undefeated Imperial Guards laid dead wounded captured missing Battle Waterloo remains studied battle history military strategist seek answer Napoleon’s Armée du Nord comprising finest professional soldier time soundly defeated key unraveled briliance might Napoleon’s army Blucher kept promise “Night Prussians must come” Wellington Waterloo promise kept made difference Blucher made promise Wellington would come aid one two corp entire army even though full retreat Whilst Napoloen grossly underestimated conviction Prussian Wellington put overwhelming faith promise friend old warrior Wellington would proceed retreat ridge Mont St Jean two half mile south village Waterloo face might Naploeon’s army betting promise made “It apparent Wellington dispatched back London war Prussians deciding factor epic battle Waterloo Prussians came aid 11th hour Wellington’s lieutenant either killed wounded trapped infantry square defensive position Wellington’s center smashed reserve hand defeat imminent Blücher keeping word coming Wellington’s aid battle Ligny Prussians crucially retreated northward parallel Wellington’s line march allowing continue support Welling ton throughout instead going east back toward supply line” Yong Lee 2019 rest point history Many would know Waterloo Napoleon’s final defeat would know promise Blucher Wellington based single conviction history written today’s culture broken promise trust need reach back past cultivate amongst u word honor business world today need build trust popular concept authentic leadership essence keeping one promise References Yong Lee 2019 Department Startup Every Fortune 500 One Business Expert Press New YorkTags Human Resources History Leadership Trust Startup |
2,112 | How I Managed to Save A Stalled Story | Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash
My SF novel Hunter began life as 15 ‘seat of the pants’ chapters. I created a complete outline and knew my characters. I knew what the story was, where it was supposed to go and exactly how it ended.
And then I got to chapter 16 and everything fell apart. I tried for several weeks to restart the story but each attempt failed. I tried the trusty advice of letting the manuscript sit for more than a month but that didn’t help either.
Then I made a horrifying realization — I’d stalled because I had no idea what was supposed to happen next.
That was 10 years ago.
I have scrivener folders full of projects like that…
Recently I looked over Hunter with fresh eyes. I recognized that, despite the flaws, I have a start on a salable book.
The premise — alien invasion — is old hat. I added my own spin in an attempt to take the story in an original direction.
I believe the story is salvageable. It’ll take time and effort to fix but so what? That’s what writing costs.
Blowing 5 years of dust off of the manuscript was enlightening. At first I didn’t realize how long I’d let this story sit. But when I began my re-read I realized that its easy to allow years to slip by with an unfinished project. It was as disheartening as is was eye opening.
I decided that I was going to apply some of the new stuff I’ve learned my writing coaches to see if I could save this one.
Sitting down with a hand full of 3x5 cards and my favorite Mind Mapping program I turned the myself loose on the story.
The premise is simple and solid. After aliens invade earth a rag tag team of military types investigate the ruins of Seattle to see what the aliens are up to.
The humans are hilariously outgunned and desperate for answers. The aliens have devastated the world in a few short days but have never once communicated or even been seen. They just showed up and started wrecking shit.
As I reread through the story the problems became obvious.
Not only had I written myself into a corner, the story was boring. There were three main problems -
1. At 15 chapters in, nothing significant had happened. Sure some minor incidents occurred, but it wasn’t enough to pull the reader in and keep them reading.
2. The story wasn’t alive in my mind. I was writing it but it wasn’t moving me. If the story doesn’t have a pulse, it will show in print.
3. I’d picked the wrong protagonist. The story contained two protagonists, a powerful antagonist and a bunch of individuals all trying to do their own thing. There was no real ‘hero’ to root for or care about.
4. In my desire to write a ‘blockbuster’ I was doing too much. I tried to throw in everything including the kitchen sink right off the bat.
The story was muddy and had no direction.
A story like Hunter should be linear and simple:
Basically — Something horrible has happened. People have no choice but to respond. They discover things are much worse than they thought. Now they have to make dangerous choices without knowing if things will get better.
Linear yes, BUT written properly, not boring at all.
I don’t how it works for you, but my stories appear on a giant movie screen in my head. All I do is write what I’m seeing.
Hunter stalled when I made the story more difficult than necessary. The screen image in my head had more blank or missing moments than visible moments.
I was trying to do too much.
There’s a natural ebb and flow to the process. The story almost never pops out whole. Some of the dark screen moments occur because that part of the ‘movie’ hasn’t been ‘shot’ yet.
Nothing to show = blank image.
That’s normal because it takes time to develop what you’re trying to say.
What happened here was different. The blank moments existed because I wasn’t connecting with the story. It was too complex and my brain backed away from it.
If you’re having trouble with ‘imaging’ your story and getting onto paper I’d like to suggest slowing things down and making it less complex.
I use the analogy of the human body to help me think through the process. A body starts with the skeleton. Everything else, from placement of the organs to the operation of muscles and tendons is dependent on the skeleton to give it form and foundation. No skeleton = no body - or at least a form unrecognizable as human.
The basic through-line of your story is your skeleton.
The moment to moment of your story occurs within the skeleton framework. Without the framework you end up with what I had, a hot mess of people running around without a clue.
Create the skeleton in the simplest possible terms. You don’t need to know every single bone in the body to create your skeleton. Even if you know it’s called a femur (example — your character works at a job for some multinational company selling widgets to polar bears) call it a bone during your draft (your character has a job).
Later (after you get the entire story out) you can go back and explain that the bone is actually a femur, two inches around and 8 inches long with tendons and ligaments and marrow — get the idea? This is how I keep myself from bogging down on the details.
I overthink things. It’s how my brain is wired and I have to guard against getting carried away with adding too many details at the outset. Once that happens I vapor lock and stall.
It doesn’t matter what the first draft looks like, they’re usually hot garbage at first anyway. If you have to sit there and type ‘Wayne walked down the freaking driveway like he’d done thousands of times blah blah blah’ (And I MEAN adding the blah blah blah) just to get the words out of your head then please don’t hesitate to do so.
Don’t worry about the color of the driveway or what kind of car is sitting there or if its raining or if Wayne’s hair is on fire. At least not initially.
Starting a story from scratch or saving one that is worth saving is really that simple. Leave in all of the um’s and ahs and sections that aren’t even from this story until AFTER you get the rough draft out.
Don’t even let yourself stop because what you wrote doesn’t make sense. Worry about that later.
Every time I sit down to write I’m reminded of a line from a western I saw years ago. Robert Culp and Raquel Welch in Hannie Caulder.
After Raquel’s character is attacked and her husband murdered she hires Robert Culp to teach her how to shoot so she can get revenge. She’s VERY motivated and wants to do everything in fast.
As a way to slow her down and keep her on track he utters a line that has since become part of my soul — ‘First comes right, then comes fast.’
To me that line symbolized getting the story out of me and on paper (First comes right) and later I can fill in the blanks, add the blue sky and make it awesome (Then comes fast).
I hope that helps anyone who may be stuck somewhere in a story or considering tossing one to the side. Not ever story is worth the effort, but if you feel that you have a shot then why not?
Good luck!
You just read another exciting post from the Book Mechanic: the writer’s source for creating books that work and selling those books once they’re written.
If you’d like to read more stories just like this one tap here to visit | https://medium.com/the-book-mechanic/how-i-managed-to-save-a-stalled-story-45a5d3d261e6 | ['Ronn Hanley'] | 2019-08-21 13:47:07.230000+00:00 | ['Rescue Story', 'Storytelling', 'Writing', 'Stalled Story', 'Fix Story'] | Title Managed Save Stalled StoryContent Photo Tim Gouw Unsplash SF novel Hunter began life 15 ‘seat pants’ chapter created complete outline knew character knew story supposed go exactly ended got chapter 16 everything fell apart tried several week restart story attempt failed tried trusty advice letting manuscript sit month didn’t help either made horrifying realization — I’d stalled idea supposed happen next 10 year ago scrivener folder full project like that… Recently looked Hunter fresh eye recognized despite flaw start salable book premise — alien invasion — old hat added spin attempt take story original direction believe story salvageable It’ll take time effort fix That’s writing cost Blowing 5 year dust manuscript enlightening first didn’t realize long I’d let story sit began reread realized easy allow year slip unfinished project disheartening eye opening decided going apply new stuff I’ve learned writing coach see could save one Sitting hand full 3x5 card favorite Mind Mapping program turned loose story premise simple solid alien invade earth rag tag team military type investigate ruin Seattle see alien human hilariously outgunned desperate answer alien devastated world short day never communicated even seen showed started wrecking shit reread story problem became obvious written corner story boring three main problem 1 15 chapter nothing significant happened Sure minor incident occurred wasn’t enough pull reader keep reading 2 story wasn’t alive mind writing wasn’t moving story doesn’t pulse show print 3 I’d picked wrong protagonist story contained two protagonist powerful antagonist bunch individual trying thing real ‘hero’ root care 4 desire write ‘blockbuster’ much tried throw everything including kitchen sink right bat story muddy direction story like Hunter linear simple Basically — Something horrible happened People choice respond discover thing much worse thought make dangerous choice without knowing thing get better Linear yes written properly boring don’t work story appear giant movie screen head write I’m seeing Hunter stalled made story difficult necessary screen image head blank missing moment visible moment trying much There’s natural ebb flow process story almost never pop whole dark screen moment occur part ‘movie’ hasn’t ‘shot’ yet Nothing show blank image That’s normal take time develop you’re trying say happened different blank moment existed wasn’t connecting story complex brain backed away you’re trouble ‘imaging’ story getting onto paper I’d like suggest slowing thing making le complex use analogy human body help think process body start skeleton Everything else placement organ operation muscle tendon dependent skeleton give form foundation skeleton body least form unrecognizable human basic throughline story skeleton moment moment story occurs within skeleton framework Without framework end hot mess people running around without clue Create skeleton simplest possible term don’t need know every single bone body create skeleton Even know it’s called femur example — character work job multinational company selling widget polar bear call bone draft character job Later get entire story go back explain bone actually femur two inch around 8 inch long tendon ligament marrow — get idea keep bogging detail overthink thing It’s brain wired guard getting carried away adding many detail outset happens vapor lock stall doesn’t matter first draft look like they’re usually hot garbage first anyway sit type ‘Wayne walked freaking driveway like he’d done thousand time blah blah blah’ MEAN adding blah blah blah get word head please don’t hesitate Don’t worry color driveway kind car sitting raining Wayne’s hair fire least initially Starting story scratch saving one worth saving really simple Leave um’s ahs section aren’t even story get rough draft Don’t even let stop wrote doesn’t make sense Worry later Every time sit write I’m reminded line western saw year ago Robert Culp Raquel Welch Hannie Caulder Raquel’s character attacked husband murdered hire Robert Culp teach shoot get revenge She’s motivated want everything fast way slow keep track utters line since become part soul — ‘First come right come fast’ line symbolized getting story paper First come right later fill blank add blue sky make awesome come fast hope help anyone may stuck somewhere story considering tossing one side ever story worth effort feel shot Good luck read another exciting post Book Mechanic writer’s source creating book work selling book they’re written you’d like read story like one tap visitTags Rescue Story Storytelling Writing Stalled Story Fix Story |
2,113 | Protecting Peru’s natural heritage — permanently | In Peru, we’re proud of our cultural heritage and world-famous cuisine. But alongside Machu Picchu and ceviche, nature is right up there as part of our national identity. From the Pacific coast to the Andes to the Amazon, we’re blessed with an amazing natural heritage, much of which remains unspoilt.
After Brazil, Peru holds the second largest area of the Amazon rainforest. We rank number one in the world for our variety of butterflies and freshwater fish, second for birds, fourth for amphibians and fifth for mammals and reptiles. The whole planet benefits from the vast amount of carbon stored within the Peruvian Amazon, and its ecosystems help guard against both droughts and floods, which appear to be intensifying in Peru as result of climate change.
But we need to look after these natural treasures. As the economy expands, our nature is coming under increasing pressure. We’re losing more than 150,000 hectares of forest every year to agriculture, and (often illegal) gold mining and logging, and the roads built to reach these developments. Deforestation also accounts for half of Peru’s greenhouse gas emissions.
One important way of conserving nature and benefiting people who depend upon them is through protected areas like national parks. For every $1 invested in the effective management of natural resources in protected areas, we get $100 worth of value in benefits for people — in the form of clean water, food, natural medicines and more. Peru has a good network of 76 protected areas. Half of these are in the Amazon. But for protected areas to really be effective, they need to be well managed and properly funded over the long term.
While there’s been increased government support over the last decade, there remains a large gap between current spending levels and the funding actually needed for an effective protected area network — from the costs of staffing and equipment, to infrastructure, wildlife monitoring and engaging local communities.
© Hugh M. Smith
But a solution is in sight in the shape of Patrimonio Natural del Peru (PdP), known in English as “National Parks: Peru’s Natural Legacy.” This innovative public-private partnership led by the Peruvian government aims to provide funding to ensure the long-term stability of the country’s protected areas, using a mechanism called Project Finance for Permanence. WWF is one of several partners involved.
It works like this. Together, the partners agree on a long-term vision and plan for managing the whole protected area network, and work out how much it will all cost. Donors from the public and private sector, including international development agencies, foundations and businesses, contribute funds to cover the shortfall, on the condition that after an agreed period of time, the country’s government will take on all the costs itself. It’s an approach that’s being used successfully in a growing number of countries — WWF has previously helped set up similar programmes in Brazil and Bhutan.
This month, the PdP project celebrated a major milestone — a commitment of US$140 million in funding from international donors and the Peruvian government, to strengthen and expand Peru’s protected areas network, starting in the Amazon.
This is a huge cause for celebration. It means we can pursue a unified, integrated vision for Peru’s protected areas for the long term with agreed plans and priorities. Rather than funding being insufficient and piecemeal, guaranteed revenue streams will be available where they are needed. This will allow us to build a stable structure and a strong system for conserving Peru’s natural heritage.
Better management of our protected areas will also bring greater benefits for people living in or near them. One of the PdP conditions is that all protected areas should have a management committee that represents local communities and other stakeholders. A long-term aim is to create more opportunities for local people to benefit from the sustainable use of natural resources, including nature tourism.
© Jeffrey Dávila _ WWF Peru
It’s my hope that PdP will lead to a greater appreciation of the importance of our protected areas. I would love to see more Peruvians as well as international travellers visiting protected areas in the Amazon. And for a country that cares passionately about food, we should remember how many of our fish, fruits, nuts and wild crops originate from protected areas — we need them to continue to produce the flavours we love and that are unique worldwide.
And this is a milestone not just for Peru but for the whole Amazon. PdP follows in the footsteps of the ARPA for Life programme, which secured US$215 million for 60 million hectares of protected areas across the Brazilian Amazon. And WWF is currently partnering in a similar effort in Colombia, where the next largest area of Amazon rainforest is found.
Combined, ARPA, PdP and Heritage Colombia will ensure permanent protection of around 12 per cent of the whole Amazon biome. That’s something we can all be proud of. | https://medium.com/wwftogetherpossible/protecting-perus-natural-heritage-permanently-42eea7fc8fc8 | [] | 2019-06-03 02:26:23.666000+00:00 | ['Nature', 'Environment', 'Amazon', 'WWF', 'Forest'] | Title Protecting Peru’s natural heritage — permanentlyContent Peru we’re proud cultural heritage worldfamous cuisine alongside Machu Picchu ceviche nature right part national identity Pacific coast Andes Amazon we’re blessed amazing natural heritage much remains unspoilt Brazil Peru hold second largest area Amazon rainforest rank number one world variety butterfly freshwater fish second bird fourth amphibian fifth mammal reptile whole planet benefit vast amount carbon stored within Peruvian Amazon ecosystem help guard drought flood appear intensifying Peru result climate change need look natural treasure economy expands nature coming increasing pressure We’re losing 150000 hectare forest every year agriculture often illegal gold mining logging road built reach development Deforestation also account half Peru’s greenhouse gas emission One important way conserving nature benefiting people depend upon protected area like national park every 1 invested effective management natural resource protected area get 100 worth value benefit people — form clean water food natural medicine Peru good network 76 protected area Half Amazon protected area really effective need well managed properly funded long term there’s increased government support last decade remains large gap current spending level funding actually needed effective protected area network — cost staffing equipment infrastructure wildlife monitoring engaging local community © Hugh Smith solution sight shape Patrimonio Natural del Peru PdP known English “National Parks Peru’s Natural Legacy” innovative publicprivate partnership led Peruvian government aim provide funding ensure longterm stability country’s protected area using mechanism called Project Finance Permanence WWF one several partner involved work like Together partner agree longterm vision plan managing whole protected area network work much cost Donors public private sector including international development agency foundation business contribute fund cover shortfall condition agreed period time country’s government take cost It’s approach that’s used successfully growing number country — WWF previously helped set similar programme Brazil Bhutan month PdP project celebrated major milestone — commitment US140 million funding international donor Peruvian government strengthen expand Peru’s protected area network starting Amazon huge cause celebration mean pursue unified integrated vision Peru’s protected area long term agreed plan priority Rather funding insufficient piecemeal guaranteed revenue stream available needed allow u build stable structure strong system conserving Peru’s natural heritage Better management protected area also bring greater benefit people living near One PdP condition protected area management committee represents local community stakeholder longterm aim create opportunity local people benefit sustainable use natural resource including nature tourism © Jeffrey Dávila WWF Peru It’s hope PdP lead greater appreciation importance protected area would love see Peruvians well international traveller visiting protected area Amazon country care passionately food remember many fish fruit nut wild crop originate protected area — need continue produce flavour love unique worldwide milestone Peru whole Amazon PdP follows footstep ARPA Life programme secured US215 million 60 million hectare protected area across Brazilian Amazon WWF currently partnering similar effort Colombia next largest area Amazon rainforest found Combined ARPA PdP Heritage Colombia ensure permanent protection around 12 per cent whole Amazon biome That’s something proud ofTags Nature Environment Amazon WWF Forest |
2,114 | 6 Tips for Developers to Handle Imposter Syndrome | 6 Tips for Developers to Handle Imposter Syndrome
The things that worked well for me
“Every one of my successes is no big deal and due to luck.”
“I feel like a fake because I still don’t know [xxx].”
“Every failure is due to my lack of expertise and I should give up.”
“I’m lacking experience in that topic, I better keep my mouth shut.”
Hi! You are not alone… I went through that also and a lot of developers suffer from the imposter syndrome too! I will be honest with you. It took me more than a year to endorse the job title of developer.
During my first year of employment as a developer, I’d never felt more of a fraud than ever before. Even though I had my share of knowledge, of course, every developer around me felt like they were way more talented than me.
Which is a problem when you constantly try to compare yourself to others. Everyone seems better than you. By respecting my coworkers, my feeling was that I was not deserving of that title yet.
How many days did I go home feeling like a fraud? A lot.
Was it justified, at least once? Nope.
Remembering this today really seems absurd. What was I thinking? Just because I don’t have the same expertise as they do, does it make me a fraud?
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash
Today, I feel way better about my knowledge. I’m fine with my current expertise, my learning curve, and don’t punish myself when I don’t know something.
Here are some tips that helped me to overcome the imposter syndrome and I hope you find them interesting and helpful! | https://medium.com/better-programming/6-tips-for-developers-to-handle-imposter-syndrome-7473ea7924f6 | ['Thomas Guibert'] | 2020-01-28 19:42:52.129000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Technology', 'Imposter Syndrome', 'Startup', 'Software Engineering'] | Title 6 Tips Developers Handle Imposter SyndromeContent 6 Tips Developers Handle Imposter Syndrome thing worked well “Every one success big deal due luck” “I feel like fake still don’t know xxx” “Every failure due lack expertise give up” “I’m lacking experience topic better keep mouth shut” Hi alone… went also lot developer suffer imposter syndrome honest took year endorse job title developer first year employment developer I’d never felt fraud ever Even though share knowledge course every developer around felt like way talented problem constantly try compare others Everyone seems better respecting coworkers feeling deserving title yet many day go home feeling like fraud lot justified least Nope Remembering today really seems absurd thinking don’t expertise make fraud Photo Brooke Cagle Unsplash Today feel way better knowledge I’m fine current expertise learning curve don’t punish don’t know something tip helped overcome imposter syndrome hope find interesting helpfulTags Programming Technology Imposter Syndrome Startup Software Engineering |
2,115 | The brain is not lazy it’s a survival mechanism. | Brandt and Berge both explain a lot of human (marketing related) behavior with the core message: “The brain is lazy”. Although the brains ability to ignore information is an important feature, it doesn’t explain all marketing related scenarios, and it doesn’t explain WHY it is lazy.
If the brains end state is that it its lazy, then why does it stress itself to find a reason for a purchase when it was impulse and emotional (not rational)?:
“In the choice between changing one’s mind and proving there’s no need to do so, most people get busy on the proof”.
- John Kenneth Galbraith, http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?EventId=512&PageId=108
If the brain is lazy, then why is it extreme at detecting minute changes in everything from graphic detail, objects in motion in the distance or unexpected outcomes of events?
“The human brain is a difference detector”
- Stephen M. Kosslyn, http://io9.com/357063/how-cognitive-science-can-improve-your-powerpoint-presentations
Looking at a lot of references we can see that the brain doesn’t relax in order to not get “overheated”, it relaxes in order to conserve energy in case something unexpected happens. The brain does everything it can to stay in control of its surroundings (so that it can stay alive longer).
If one starts looking at the behaviors of the brain from the perspective of it’s in built ability to survive, it makes a lot more sense:
Our ability to conserve and focus energy in order to stay alive:
Gladwell writes in his book Blink about our ability to “shut of” some senses in extreme situations in order to concentrate all our energy on the important ones. His example is of police officers remembering seeing the trajectory of the bullet they fired, but can’t remember any sound. Chip and Dan Heath writes in their book Made to Stick about how humans react when they are surprised, eyebrows lift in order to open the eyes to the maximum for larger vision, at the same time the jaw drops, and mouth opens so that no processing is needed to maintain that function. The dog often does everything it can to avoid trouble (often misunderstood by humans because of difference in sign systems). In order to avoid a fight it barks to say “stay of my territory” and it goes to a great length to show submission.
At the same time we can see that the brain does everything to remain in a constant (and safe) status quo:
We naturally reject change as it will force us to use energy in order to redefine our present stand. If being bullied we will invent reasons to make the bullies comments become untrue. The same thing does not happen if it is a friend being bullied, which is why we feel worse when being a spectator to bullying. (Gilbert) We synthesize happiness in order to be happy. People who lost a leg rate themselves as just as happy as lottery winners a year later. (Gilbert) On the other hand we look up to risk takers and embrace novelty, the reason being Darwinism. In order to survive we know that it is the species more adaptable by change that will survive. Therefore, even though most people are focused on just remaining in the status quo, we admire and adore risk averse people, as they are the ones who will take the species forward.
On control and discovery in order to control the surroundings to stay alive:
According to Gilbert the brain wants to exceed control, not for anything other than control itself. People who are given control are better of, people who loose control are worse of than not having had control at all. Instinctively we want to figure out how things work, in order to predict its outcome (Godin). Children can watch the same TV-programs over and over again — because they want to be able to accurately predict what is going to happen. Adults are the same, if we are exposed to something new, we try to figure it out in order to being able to aanticipate it’s outcome. We bet more money on the outcome when we throw the dice ourselves and before the dice has been thrown. The only people who don’t are the manically depressed. (Gilbert)
The brain uses a lot of energy when something disrupts the existing “real”.
In order to use as little energy as possible, the brain creates “schemas”. These are predefined interpretations of stimulus from the senses and are stored in Wernickes triangle. As soon as new information from the senses reach this part of the brain it is recognized and puzzled together to create a response. Most processing capacity in the brain is done by almostsubconscious “puzzling”. (Eisenberg) But, every time the puzzling is disrupted by unexpected pieces, the brain turns on it’s attention in order to understand, and create a new predictable schema.
My statement is that although the brain often acts as lazy, the reason for this is that it conserves energy when it can in order to have the reserves available when something new or unexpected happens — so that it can invest in figuring it out, predicting and controlling it — which it does to a great extent.
So the brain is not lazy, it is a very selective energetic survival mechanism… | https://medium.com/137-jokull/the-brain-is-not-lazy-its-a-survival-mechanism-d361a89ce890 | ['Helge Tennø'] | 2017-01-21 05:07:47.283000+00:00 | ['Psychology', 'Marketing', 'Research'] | Title brain lazy it’s survival mechanismContent Brandt Berge explain lot human marketing related behavior core message “The brain lazy” Although brain ability ignore information important feature doesn’t explain marketing related scenario doesn’t explain lazy brain end state lazy stress find reason purchase impulse emotional rational “In choice changing one’s mind proving there’s need people get busy proof” John Kenneth Galbraith httpwwwgreshamacukeventaspEventId512PageId108 brain lazy extreme detecting minute change everything graphic detail object motion distance unexpected outcome event “The human brain difference detector” Stephen Kosslyn httpio9com357063howcognitivesciencecanimproveyourpowerpointpresentations Looking lot reference see brain doesn’t relax order get “overheated” relaxes order conserve energy case something unexpected happens brain everything stay control surroundings stay alive longer one start looking behavior brain perspective it’s built ability survive make lot sense ability conserve focus energy order stay alive Gladwell writes book Blink ability “shut of” sens extreme situation order concentrate energy important one example police officer remembering seeing trajectory bullet fired can’t remember sound Chip Dan Heath writes book Made Stick human react surprised eyebrow lift order open eye maximum larger vision time jaw drop mouth open processing needed maintain function dog often everything avoid trouble often misunderstood human difference sign system order avoid fight bark say “stay territory” go great length show submission time see brain everything remain constant safe status quo naturally reject change force u use energy order redefine present stand bullied invent reason make bully comment become untrue thing happen friend bullied feel worse spectator bullying Gilbert synthesize happiness order happy People lost leg rate happy lottery winner year later Gilbert hand look risk taker embrace novelty reason Darwinism order survive know specie adaptable change survive Therefore even though people focused remaining status quo admire adore risk averse people one take specie forward control discovery order control surroundings stay alive According Gilbert brain want exceed control anything control People given control better people loose control worse control Instinctively want figure thing work order predict outcome Godin Children watch TVprograms — want able accurately predict going happen Adults exposed something new try figure order able aanticipate it’s outcome bet money outcome throw dice dice thrown people don’t manically depressed Gilbert brain us lot energy something disrupts existing “real” order use little energy possible brain creates “schemas” predefined interpretation stimulus sens stored Wernickes triangle soon new information sens reach part brain recognized puzzled together create response processing capacity brain done almostsubconscious “puzzling” Eisenberg every time puzzling disrupted unexpected piece brain turn it’s attention order understand create new predictable schema statement although brain often act lazy reason conserve energy order reserve available something new unexpected happens — invest figuring predicting controlling — great extent brain lazy selective energetic survival mechanism…Tags Psychology Marketing Research |
2,116 | Can Social Media Help Us Overcome Our Social Anxiety and Become Better Marketers? | The world has become a noisy place
Maybe it is easier now to make a name for yourself as a writer. But there are so many of us, it’s hard to find an audience in the middle of all the creative souls scattering their words to the four winds.
This all seems so awesome in theory.
The shattering of the glass ceiling, the downfall of the middlemen, the easy access to free and powerful means of communication.
There are no obstacles anymore… except for the ones we’ve built for ourselves in this new world.
In the land of opportunities, attention has become the world’s most coveted currency. Clickbait, fake news and “get rich quick” courses keep popping up all over our social media feeds like mushrooms after a heavy storm.
But I have to wonder if we didn’t end up where we started?
Aren’t the middlemen algorithmic entities who scavenge our feeds looking for valuable content? Aren’t our glass ceilings our social media stats? Aren’t our powerful and free channels crowded with noise?
And what does this mean for introverts like us?
Marketing for introverts — it’s not what you think
Some days I feel I’m 10 years old and back at school.
I feel the same paralysis I once felt when I looked around me and saw my classmates chatting happily and expressing their views freely in front of the entire class.
As for me, it terrified me even to think the teacher would remember I was there.
So my mouth remained shut. And my shoulders bent. But my eyes and ears were wide open capturing every single excruciating detail so I could write all about it when I got home.
Most of my teachers thought there was something wrong with me. Most of them would take pleasure in mocking me and my red cheeks in front of the entire class.
For a long time, I thought there was something wrong with me too. I wanted to be like everybody else… but I couldn’t.
I always stood out like an awkward moment of silence at a dinner party.
I knew I was different, but I would only find out about introversion a decade later. I first heard about it from the lips of Susan Cain, an introvert like me. And at that point, I’d completely forgotten which had started first: my introversion or my social anxiety.
Did I become anxious in social settings because my colleagues and teachers mocked me for being an introvert? Or was my social anxiety there all along?
I can’t remember at all.
Social media was supposed to make things easier. But it hasn’t. Not in the slightest.
Most days I feel I’ve been stuck in a giant classroom with thousands of people screaming at each other at the top of their lungs and ignoring everyone else around them.
To be honest, I feel the same fear and insecurity I once felt. I feel ignored and heartbroken. I feel just as powerless as before.
But there’s a quiet and solid strength to introverts that hardly anybody cares to recognize.
We’re good at creating comfortable and intimate environments around us.
Sure it might take us a while to adapt to new people and new circumstances. But once we start building bridges towards others, we’ll always make sure to keep our foundations strong.
We work at a different speed and start our journeys from unusual places.
But we know where we stand and we know what we want because… while others were screaming for attention, we were searching for our dreams and strengths deep within our souls.
How we can use introversion to become good marketers
Does this mean we’ll be bad at social media? Probably. Or at least we’ll suck at social media for a while.
But don’t let this discourage you. We’ll be bad because we need to learn how to express ourselves in this new medium in a way that’s lined up with our vision and our strengths.
We can’t do social media the same way everybody else is doing. The same way we can’t scream for attention in a crowded room.
But this doesn’t mean we can’t achieve the same or better results as natural extroverts. In the end, it’s all about the conversion and the engagement rates, not the number of fans, likes or comments.
To understand how our particular personality can help us become better marketers, we need to understand what marketing is all about.
Real marketing
Real marketing is about people. And it’s about change.
Seth Godin said it himself. Marketing is about foresting change. And change starts by creating a relationship with others. And a relationship starts by listening to what others have to say.
Good marketing it’s about going the extra mile for our clients and collaborators.
It’s not about standing out in a crowded and noisy room. It’s about knowing how to find the little and quiet rooms and building something valuable in there and making sure it is found by the right people.
Real marketing starts in one-on-one conversations.
Photo by Joshua Ness on Unsplash
As introverts, we may hate crowds, but we can understand others just as well as we understand ourselves. So don’t try to grab a microphone and scream into a room full of people. Grab a single person and listen to what she has to say.
Big changes can start small. They don’t need to go viral in the first hour. They don’t need to have millions of fans.
Social media has created the illusion of effortlessness success. But there is nothing easy about good marketing.
You can try all those shortcuts splashed all over the internet. You can choose to do what everybody else is doing. Or you can try to be different and try to find ways to go the extra mile.
The extra mile is where you should be. Find what everybody else is doing and do something else, something harder, something unscalable, something that cannot be replicated by others.
I’m still discovering what this means for writers. But as a web marketer I start to understand that the real opportunities are not on short posts on our social media accounts… but in genuine human interaction and collaboration.
Go out there. Get out of your feed and try to look for opportunities in the real world. Literary cafes, workshops, conferences, art exhibits…
Pick up that phone and start talking to people, interviewing them, creating collaborative content.
In the end, you can have a beautiful Instagram feed and hilarious tweets. You may have the numbers and the stats and the social proof.
But if you don’t have the relationships, if you don’t have a network, none of it will matter in the long run. | https://medium.com/the-ascent/can-social-media-help-us-overcome-our-social-anxiety-and-become-better-marketers-2d3d5f9af274 | ['Ana C. Reis'] | 2019-09-23 15:17:37.732000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'Writing', 'Marketing', 'Social Anxiety', 'Introvert'] | Title Social Media Help Us Overcome Social Anxiety Become Better MarketersContent world become noisy place Maybe easier make name writer many u it’s hard find audience middle creative soul scattering word four wind seems awesome theory shattering glass ceiling downfall middleman easy access free powerful mean communication obstacle anymore… except one we’ve built new world land opportunity attention become world’s coveted currency Clickbait fake news “get rich quick” course keep popping social medium feed like mushroom heavy storm wonder didn’t end started Aren’t middleman algorithmic entity scavenge feed looking valuable content Aren’t glass ceiling social medium stats Aren’t powerful free channel crowded noise mean introvert like u Marketing introvert — it’s think day feel I’m 10 year old back school feel paralysis felt looked around saw classmate chatting happily expressing view freely front entire class terrified even think teacher would remember mouth remained shut shoulder bent eye ear wide open capturing every single excruciating detail could write got home teacher thought something wrong would take pleasure mocking red cheek front entire class long time thought something wrong wanted like everybody else… couldn’t always stood like awkward moment silence dinner party knew different would find introversion decade later first heard lip Susan Cain introvert like point I’d completely forgotten started first introversion social anxiety become anxious social setting colleague teacher mocked introvert social anxiety along can’t remember Social medium supposed make thing easier hasn’t slightest day feel I’ve stuck giant classroom thousand people screaming top lung ignoring everyone else around honest feel fear insecurity felt feel ignored heartbroken feel powerless there’s quiet solid strength introvert hardly anybody care recognize We’re good creating comfortable intimate environment around u Sure might take u adapt new people new circumstance start building bridge towards others we’ll always make sure keep foundation strong work different speed start journey unusual place know stand know want because… others screaming attention searching dream strength deep within soul use introversion become good marketer mean we’ll bad social medium Probably least we’ll suck social medium don’t let discourage We’ll bad need learn express new medium way that’s lined vision strength can’t social medium way everybody else way can’t scream attention crowded room doesn’t mean can’t achieve better result natural extrovert end it’s conversion engagement rate number fan like comment understand particular personality help u become better marketer need understand marketing Real marketing Real marketing people it’s change Seth Godin said Marketing foresting change change start creating relationship others relationship start listening others say Good marketing it’s going extra mile client collaborator It’s standing crowded noisy room It’s knowing find little quiet room building something valuable making sure found right people Real marketing start oneonone conversation Photo Joshua Ness Unsplash introvert may hate crowd understand others well understand don’t try grab microphone scream room full people Grab single person listen say Big change start small don’t need go viral first hour don’t need million fan Social medium created illusion effortlessness success nothing easy good marketing try shortcut splashed internet choose everybody else try different try find way go extra mile extra mile Find everybody else something else something harder something unscalable something cannot replicated others I’m still discovering mean writer web marketer start understand real opportunity short post social medium accounts… genuine human interaction collaboration Go Get feed try look opportunity real world Literary cafe workshop conference art exhibits… Pick phone start talking people interviewing creating collaborative content end beautiful Instagram feed hilarious tweet may number stats social proof don’t relationship don’t network none matter long runTags Social Media Writing Marketing Social Anxiety Introvert |
2,117 | How much can one make with Airbnb in Bristol, UK: an exploratory analysis | Airbnb has changed the way we travel, with more affordable values for guests, who can know real local customs while choosing the most appropriate option. Hosts also benefit from an increase in their revenues.
In July 2019 I visited the city of Bristol, UK. Bristol is the largest economic, cultural and educational center of southwest England. Historically the city’s development was linked to seaports, and more recently the economy has relied more on electronic and aerospace media creation, and the docks and ports in the city center have become historical and cultural heritage (https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol). This trip made me excited to analyze some data about Airbnb in Bristol.
Airbnb makes listing, reviews and calendar data available to download (http://insideairbnb.com/get-the-data.html) which is an interesting source to use in data science toy projects. The data was used to try to answer relevant business questions. The data was cleared using the pandas library on python. Columns with more than 60% missing data have been removed, categorical data has been transformed into dummy variables. Further details can be found on https://github.com/LPontes/Udacity_DSND.
Estimating income per month
Airbnb guests may leave a review after their stay, and these can be used as an indicator of Airbnb activity. A conservative estimate of monthly earnings can be obtained by multiplying the number of monthly reviews, minimum nights and price. However, the review rate is estimated to be between 50 e 72% (http://insideairbnb.com/about.html#disclaimers).
Figure 1. Histogram for minimum income per month, estimated with price, number of reviews and minimum nights.
Figure 1. Histogram for minimum income per month, estimated with price, number of reviews and minimum nights.
Figure 1 presents the histogram for the estimated income per month that is less than £ 2,000.00. It shows a right-skewed distribution, which means that there are much more properties with a small income and a few with higher income. The mean and maximum income per month is £ 236.58 and £ 4950.0 respectively.
Another interesting question is about the seasonality of Airbnb activity, which can be seen in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Number of reviews per month
From Figure 2 it is possible to observe that between December and February the number of reviews is lower than the other months, that is a good indicator of the Airbnb activity. This activity pattern should be related to the winter season.
Which neighborhoods have the highest income?
In Figure 3 we can observe the estimated income per month for each neighborhood.
Figure 3. The income per month for each neighborhood in Bristol, UK.
The neighborhood with the higher income is Hotwells and Harbourside which have a relatively high price (£ 92.7) and a reviews rate of 2 per month. On the other hand, Hartcliffe & Withywood has lower-income.
Figure 4, generated with the folium package on python, shows the heatmap of income per month, where red colors indicate higher income while blue means lower income.
Figure 4. Heatmap of income per month in Bristol, UK.
Figure 4. Heatmap of income per month in Bristol, UK.
Which features indicate greater income?
Besides neighborhood, which others can be related to income? This is an important question to identify the reasons that determine income amount, and to support feature selection to be used on machine learning models.
Initially I had considered using spearman correlation score, however, some of the dataset variables are categorical. Therefore, for categorical data bar graphs will be used and for numerical variables correlation indices.
As categorical variables we will consider the rent and property type, and if the host is a super host.
Airbnb enables two main types of rent: the entire home and private room. This is the main characteristic that defines the income per month, i.e. entire home type provides higher income (Figure 5).
Figure 5. The mean income per month for each room type.
Another relevant categorical feature is the property type (Figure 6).
Figure 6. The income per month by property type.
Super hosts seem to have a higher income than non super hosts (Figure 7).
Figure 7. The income per month for superhosts and non superhosts.
Amenities are another feature that is interesting to analyze, however, it will be addressed in a next post where I will use machine learning models that enables feature selection, such as random forest.
For numerical variables, it was used a log transformation to normalize the data and then the Spearman correlation score was calculated (Figure 7).
Figure 7. Spearman correlation for the normalized numerical features and income per month.
It is also possible to visualize the correlation between each numerical feature by using a matrix correlation heatmap (Figure 8).
Figure 8.
In this way, it is possible to conclude that the main features that are related to income per month are the rent type (entire apartment or private room), the property type, if the host is a superhost, the number os beds and bedrooms.
Are you an Airbnb host at Bristol? If so this information is accurate? How it can help you to improve your income? | https://medium.com/how-much-can-one-make-with-airbnb-in-bristol-uk-an/how-much-can-one-make-with-airbnb-in-bristol-uk-an-exploratory-analysis-7363f2f6452 | ['Lucas Machado Pontes'] | 2019-08-31 15:19:20.926000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Data Science', 'Exploratory Data Analysis', 'Airbnb'] | Title much one make Airbnb Bristol UK exploratory analysisContent Airbnb changed way travel affordable value guest know real local custom choosing appropriate option Hosts also benefit increase revenue July 2019 visited city Bristol UK Bristol largest economic cultural educational center southwest England Historically city’s development linked seaport recently economy relied electronic aerospace medium creation dock port city center become historical cultural heritage httpsptwikipediaorgwikiBristol trip made excited analyze data Airbnb Bristol Airbnb make listing review calendar data available download httpinsideairbnbcomgetthedatahtml interesting source use data science toy project data used try answer relevant business question data cleared using panda library python Columns 60 missing data removed categorical data transformed dummy variable detail found httpsgithubcomLPontesUdacityDSND Estimating income per month Airbnb guest may leave review stay used indicator Airbnb activity conservative estimate monthly earnings obtained multiplying number monthly review minimum night price However review rate estimated 50 e 72 httpinsideairbnbcomabouthtmldisclaimers Figure 1 Histogram minimum income per month estimated price number review minimum night Figure 1 Histogram minimum income per month estimated price number review minimum night Figure 1 present histogram estimated income per month le £ 200000 show rightskewed distribution mean much property small income higher income mean maximum income per month £ 23658 £ 49500 respectively Another interesting question seasonality Airbnb activity seen Figure 2 Figure 2 Number review per month Figure 2 possible observe December February number review lower month good indicator Airbnb activity activity pattern related winter season neighborhood highest income Figure 3 observe estimated income per month neighborhood Figure 3 income per month neighborhood Bristol UK neighborhood higher income Hotwells Harbourside relatively high price £ 927 review rate 2 per month hand Hartcliffe Withywood lowerincome Figure 4 generated folium package python show heatmap income per month red color indicate higher income blue mean lower income Figure 4 Heatmap income per month Bristol UK Figure 4 Heatmap income per month Bristol UK feature indicate greater income Besides neighborhood others related income important question identify reason determine income amount support feature selection used machine learning model Initially considered using spearman correlation score however dataset variable categorical Therefore categorical data bar graph used numerical variable correlation index categorical variable consider rent property type host super host Airbnb enables two main type rent entire home private room main characteristic defines income per month ie entire home type provides higher income Figure 5 Figure 5 mean income per month room type Another relevant categorical feature property type Figure 6 Figure 6 income per month property type Super host seem higher income non super host Figure 7 Figure 7 income per month superhosts non superhosts Amenities another feature interesting analyze however addressed next post use machine learning model enables feature selection random forest numerical variable used log transformation normalize data Spearman correlation score calculated Figure 7 Figure 7 Spearman correlation normalized numerical feature income per month also possible visualize correlation numerical feature using matrix correlation heatmap Figure 8 Figure 8 way possible conclude main feature related income per month rent type entire apartment private room property type host superhost number o bed bedroom Airbnb host Bristol information accurate help improve incomeTags Python Data Science Exploratory Data Analysis Airbnb |
2,118 | [Chapter-1] The Machine Learning Landscape — Part-1🧙🏻♂️ | When most people hear “Machine Learning” or “Artificial Intelligence”, they imagine a robot: a deadly Terminator. But Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence is not futuristic fantasy. By the way most people do not know that Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence is not the same, Machine Learning is subset of Artificial Intelligence domain.
So, let’s start with the term definition…
What is Machine Learning? 🤖
Machine Learning is the science and we can say art also of programming computers so they can learn from data.
More of general definition
[Machine Learning is the] field of study that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed.
— Arthur Samuel, 1959
And this is more of engineering-oriented one:
A computer program is said to learn from experience E with respect to some task T and some performance measure P, if its performance on T, as measured by P, improves with experience E.
— Tom Mitchell, 1997
The examples that the system uses to learn are called the training set. Each training example is called a training instance (or sample). In this case, the task T is to flag spam for new emails, the experience E is the training data, and the performance measure P needs to be defined; for example, you can use the ratio of correctly classified emails. This particular performance measure is called accuracy and it is often used in classification tasks. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/chapter-1-the-machine-learning-landscape-part-1-3590ede2d034 | ['Vishvdeep Dasadiya'] | 2020-12-28 16:38:27.810000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Deep Learning', 'Data Science'] | Title Chapter1 Machine Learning Landscape — Part1🧙🏻♂️Content people hear “Machine Learning” “Artificial Intelligence” imagine robot deadly Terminator Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence futuristic fantasy way people know Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning subset Artificial Intelligence domain let’s start term definition… Machine Learning 🤖 Machine Learning science say art also programming computer learn data general definition Machine Learning field study give computer ability learn without explicitly programmed — Arthur Samuel 1959 engineeringoriented one computer program said learn experience E respect task performance measure P performance measured P improves experience E — Tom Mitchell 1997 example system us learn called training set training example called training instance sample case task flag spam new email experience E training data performance measure P need defined example use ratio correctly classified email particular performance measure called accuracy often used classification tasksTags Machine Learning Python Artificial Intelligence Deep Learning Data Science |
2,119 | 5 Steps to Becoming the Face of Your Company | Photo by Kazuky Akayashi on Unsplash
Being the “face” of a company is an intimidating role, and as a result, many CEOs and founders shy away from the spotlight. They either consider it a move toward humility or personal protection against possible future embarrassments — either way, it’s a safer play, but it forces their company to exist without a personal brand at the head of the organization.
In today’s world, having a strong personal brand leading your company is radically important — some would even argue essential. Consumers are becoming more and more distrustful of corporate brands and advertising, yet always inherently trust people to a higher degree. Case studies show that just the presence of a human face can increase conversion rates, and personal brands on social media always have an easier time attracting and communicating with followers.
If executed properly, your personal brand can provide a secondary outlet of traffic to your site, increase the influence and authority of your brand, and improve your consumer-brand relationships all at the same time. Still, becoming the “face” of your company isn’t a straightforward or easy process, and it’s going to take a lot of time. When you’re ready, get started with these five steps and move your company toward a more personal future:
1. Feature Yourself on Your Company Website. The first step is also the simplest. All you have to do is create a miniature profile for yourself on your company website. Include your name and a brief biography on your About or Team page, and include links out to your social media profiles (Twitter and LinkedIn are musts, as is a professional Facebook page for your personality — don’t just accept friend requests on your personal page). You can (and should) also set yourself up as an author on your company blog if you aren’t there already, and be sure to include your headshot. People prefer seeing faces to bland descriptions.
2. Publish Content — As Yourself. Next, start publishing content regularly, under your own name — not your brand’s. Stick to industry topics, and always write in the first-person perspective. Reveal bits of your personality throughout your writing process so people get to know you through your material. Aim for at least one new post every week, either on your company’s blog page or on a separate, personal blog that you’ve set up. A separate personal blog will be more effective in the long run, serving as an additional opportunity for conversions, but if you’re not ready for that step, stick with what you have.
3. Get Active on Social Media — as Yourself. Next, start posting more frequently on social media. Be sure to syndicate all your new posts, and work your old posts into a recurring rotation. Respond to anyone who reaches out to you, and thank people when they like or share your posts. You should also get involved in your industry by jumping into existing conversations and engaging with other influencers. The more you post on social media, the more visibility you’ll earn — again, just stay within the industry you want to be known for.
4. Network Frequently and Take Advantage of PR Opportunities. Whether in-person at professional networking events or online through LinkedIn Groups and one-off webinars, work to increase your network of contacts. Attract more followers to your personal social media profiles, and keep a running list of contacts handy for when you want to market a webinar or seminar or your own. Take advantage of any PR opportunities you can find, too — submit press releases, speak at events, or host free workshops to people in your area. It will attract a great deal of attention to your personal profiles.
5. Casually Layer in References to Your Company. When you start building a reputation, start making more references to your company. List it on all your social profiles for sure, and mention your company whenever you network or attend speaking events. You can even use your company as a major point of reference for examples and case studies as you start writing more content. Your goal here isn’t to advertise your company, but to make the association clear — remember, people trust you, and they’ll naturally trust whatever you’re associated with as long as you don’t try to jam it down their throats.
Building and managing a personal brand is an ongoing process that demands continued upkeep and dedication. The more time and effort you invest in this strategy, the more it’s going to pay off for you in the long run. As long as you maintain the quality of your content, respond appropriately to your followers, and keep reaching out to new people, you should be able to accumulate tens of thousands of followers and earn a line of new, relevant traffic to your corporate site. It comes with a bit of extra pressure, and one new thing to manage, but you’ll likely find that it’s well worth the effort. | https://jaysondemers.medium.com/5-steps-to-becoming-the-face-of-your-company-e1ac59973e32 | ['Jayson Demers'] | 2020-11-09 23:41:14.348000+00:00 | ['Branding', 'Personal Branding', 'Brand Strategy', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup'] | Title 5 Steps Becoming Face CompanyContent Photo Kazuky Akayashi Unsplash “face” company intimidating role result many CEOs founder shy away spotlight either consider move toward humility personal protection possible future embarrassment — either way it’s safer play force company exist without personal brand head organization today’s world strong personal brand leading company radically important — would even argue essential Consumers becoming distrustful corporate brand advertising yet always inherently trust people higher degree Case study show presence human face increase conversion rate personal brand social medium always easier time attracting communicating follower executed properly personal brand provide secondary outlet traffic site increase influence authority brand improve consumerbrand relationship time Still becoming “face” company isn’t straightforward easy process it’s going take lot time you’re ready get started five step move company toward personal future 1 Feature Company Website first step also simplest create miniature profile company website Include name brief biography Team page include link social medium profile Twitter LinkedIn must professional Facebook page personality — don’t accept friend request personal page also set author company blog aren’t already sure include headshot People prefer seeing face bland description 2 Publish Content — Next start publishing content regularly name — brand’s Stick industry topic always write firstperson perspective Reveal bit personality throughout writing process people get know material Aim least one new post every week either company’s blog page separate personal blog you’ve set separate personal blog effective long run serving additional opportunity conversion you’re ready step stick 3 Get Active Social Media — Next start posting frequently social medium sure syndicate new post work old post recurring rotation Respond anyone reach thank people like share post also get involved industry jumping existing conversation engaging influencers post social medium visibility you’ll earn — stay within industry want known 4 Network Frequently Take Advantage PR Opportunities Whether inperson professional networking event online LinkedIn Groups oneoff webinars work increase network contact Attract follower personal social medium profile keep running list contact handy want market webinar seminar Take advantage PR opportunity find — submit press release speak event host free workshop people area attract great deal attention personal profile 5 Casually Layer References Company start building reputation start making reference company List social profile sure mention company whenever network attend speaking event even use company major point reference example case study start writing content goal isn’t advertise company make association clear — remember people trust they’ll naturally trust whatever you’re associated long don’t try jam throat Building managing personal brand ongoing process demand continued upkeep dedication time effort invest strategy it’s going pay long run long maintain quality content respond appropriately follower keep reaching new people able accumulate ten thousand follower earn line new relevant traffic corporate site come bit extra pressure one new thing manage you’ll likely find it’s well worth effortTags Branding Personal Branding Brand Strategy Entrepreneurship Startup |
2,120 | Observing | Sign up for American Haiku Steamship To Writing History
By American Haiku
Writing takes practice. American Haiku is a great way to put your words from your fingers to your piece of paper. Don't quit, you can do it. Take a look | https://medium.com/american-haiku/observing-c285952ff1bf | ['Sean Zhai'] | 2020-12-19 14:44:30.804000+00:00 | ['Growth', 'Poetry', 'Mental Health', 'Psychology', 'Programming'] | Title ObservingContent Sign American Haiku Steamship Writing History American Haiku Writing take practice American Haiku great way put word finger piece paper Dont quit Take lookTags Growth Poetry Mental Health Psychology Programming |
2,121 | What is Product-Market Fit and Why Achieving It is Essential For Your Startup | Product-Market Fit and Startups
What is Product-Market Fit and Why Achieving It is Essential For Your Startup Madhur Dixit Follow Jun 13 · 5 min read
Image by Syda Productions
Failing to achieve a product-market fit is a major reason why 9 out of 10 start-ups fail. For a startup to be successful, it is essential to embrace the value of this least understood concept.
When customers are willing to stand in lines for hours outside a store to buy your product, or when your product runs out of availability on online stores, i.e., when you as a brand are unable to match customer expectations (demand) with the supply of your product, you have achieved a product-market fit.
Achieving product-market fit starts with understanding your customers, their needs, how they feel about your product, and whether they believe that hiring your product would help them with their job at hand (as I mentioned in my article on Jobs To Be Done Framework: https://medium.com/swlh/incorporate-jobs-to-be-done-framework-with-buyer-personas-up-your-marketing-game-f5b0414bd878 ).
Designing a product that no one needs is a sure short recipe of failure. That is why it is very important to divide your time equally between product development, customer research, collecting feedbacks and identifying key traction channels.
To get to a product-market fit it is essential to start with a ‘Minimum Viable Product’ as explained by Eric Ries in his book “The Lean Startup”. A minimum viable product is the very first draft of what you actually want to put out in the market. Testing this product with your customers, asking them for feedback and collecting all the meaningful data on how this product could be improved is the best practice that would lead you to create products which your customers actually want.
Achieving this product-market fit i.e. designing products that would blow your customers’ minds away is not a task limited to your business’s design or product development team. This task requires the product development team, design team and the marketing team to join hands and work on it collaboratively.
Another important thing to remember is that achieving a product-market fit does not mean that you cannot lose it. This changes as the market changes and therefore, constant upgrades must be made to your product in order to be well received by the market. In order to be able to make these upgrades, constant testing, iterations and analyses of both the product and customers’ needs is of high importance. In other, words it is a constant loop of gathering information and data and then validating your product based on this information via constant iterations and testing.
Image by Bruce Mars
Let us take a look at how one of the most loved apps was born and how it achieved a product-market fit. Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzen were two close friends from Sweden who were frustrated with the limitations of finding and listening to music using a computer. The year was 2006, and the music industry was in a crucial state of flux with two extremes in the market. At one extreme was Sean Parker’s Napster which was highly popular but was suffering from tons of thousands of copyright infringements. At the other extreme was Apple’s iTunes which charged users as much as $2 per track. Ek and Lorentzon identified and carved out a niche between these two extremes and as a result, Spotify was born. Ek and Lorentzon believed in testing their product and started out by developing a peer to peer music sharing service like Napster. However, from their constant testing and feedback loop, they identified that piracy’s limitations existed beyond illegality (infringements): It took several minutes to download a single song. The audio quality of pirated tracks varied wildly. Even popular torrents were infested with viruses and malware.
What made Spotify so brilliant was that it, at its core, improved on the Napster experience in every way. Spotify delivered music instantly, with high-quality audio, no downloads, and completely legally. Ek and Lorentzon invested heavily in engineering to nail down every aspect of Spotify’s user experience.
“We spent an insane amount of time focusing on latency when no one cared because we were hell bent on making it feel like you had all the world’s music on your hard drive. Obsessing over small details can sometimes make all the difference. That’s what I believe is the biggest misunderstanding about the minimum viable product concept. That is the V in the MVP.” — Daniel Ek
Ek was obsessed with making the Spotify user experience so good that users would happily pay $10 per month and would not turn to the free music that existed out there. What both Ek and Lorentzen created with continuous testing and an insane focus on MVP and user experience is what we know as Spotify; the most loved and used music app worldwide.
Image by Omid Armin
Being open to feedback, asking customers questions and using data to create meaningful insights is a key for your startup to get to a product-market fit.
Change is possible, but for that you as a startup need to be open, flexible and willing to iterate and reiterate.
To conclude, let us view product-market in a very simple scenario. Imagine a kid trying to sail her paper boat in a river. The product market fit could be seen as the boat actually sailing with the flowing water. The paper boat here would be the product and the water current would be the market. This boat sails if it could withstand the water current (market). If it does, the kid reaches a product-market fit for her boat. If not, the boat sinks! | https://medium.com/cornertechandmarketing/what-is-product-market-fit-and-why-achieving-it-is-essential-for-your-startup-bd7cbe239359 | ['Madhur Dixit'] | 2020-06-16 00:29:07.679000+00:00 | ['Product Market Fit', 'Digital Marketing', 'Growth Marketing', 'Startup', 'Marketing'] | Title ProductMarket Fit Achieving Essential StartupContent ProductMarket Fit Startups ProductMarket Fit Achieving Essential Startup Madhur Dixit Follow Jun 13 · 5 min read Image Syda Productions Failing achieve productmarket fit major reason 9 10 startup fail startup successful essential embrace value least understood concept customer willing stand line hour outside store buy product product run availability online store ie brand unable match customer expectation demand supply product achieved productmarket fit Achieving productmarket fit start understanding customer need feel product whether believe hiring product would help job hand mentioned article Jobs Done Framework httpsmediumcomswlhincorporatejobstobedoneframeworkwithbuyerpersonasupyourmarketinggamef5b0414bd878 Designing product one need sure short recipe failure important divide time equally product development customer research collecting feedback identifying key traction channel get productmarket fit essential start ‘Minimum Viable Product’ explained Eric Ries book “The Lean Startup” minimum viable product first draft actually want put market Testing product customer asking feedback collecting meaningful data product could improved best practice would lead create product customer actually want Achieving productmarket fit ie designing product would blow customers’ mind away task limited business’s design product development team task requires product development team design team marketing team join hand work collaboratively Another important thing remember achieving productmarket fit mean cannot lose change market change therefore constant upgrade must made product order well received market order able make upgrade constant testing iteration analysis product customers’ need high importance word constant loop gathering information data validating product based information via constant iteration testing Image Bruce Mars Let u take look one loved apps born achieved productmarket fit Daniel Ek Martin Lorentzen two close friend Sweden frustrated limitation finding listening music using computer year 2006 music industry crucial state flux two extreme market one extreme Sean Parker’s Napster highly popular suffering ton thousand copyright infringement extreme Apple’s iTunes charged user much 2 per track Ek Lorentzon identified carved niche two extreme result Spotify born Ek Lorentzon believed testing product started developing peer peer music sharing service like Napster However constant testing feedback loop identified piracy’s limitation existed beyond illegality infringement took several minute download single song audio quality pirated track varied wildly Even popular torrent infested virus malware made Spotify brilliant core improved Napster experience every way Spotify delivered music instantly highquality audio downloads completely legally Ek Lorentzon invested heavily engineering nail every aspect Spotify’s user experience “We spent insane amount time focusing latency one cared hell bent making feel like world’s music hard drive Obsessing small detail sometimes make difference That’s believe biggest misunderstanding minimum viable product concept V MVP” — Daniel Ek Ek obsessed making Spotify user experience good user would happily pay 10 per month would turn free music existed Ek Lorentzen created continuous testing insane focus MVP user experience know Spotify loved used music app worldwide Image Omid Armin open feedback asking customer question using data create meaningful insight key startup get productmarket fit Change possible startup need open flexible willing iterate reiterate conclude let u view productmarket simple scenario Imagine kid trying sail paper boat river product market fit could seen boat actually sailing flowing water paper boat would product water current would market boat sail could withstand water current market kid reach productmarket fit boat boat sinksTags Product Market Fit Digital Marketing Growth Marketing Startup Marketing |
2,122 | AliExpress: Is Amazon under Siege in Europe? | AliExpress: Is Amazon under Siege in Europe?
AliExpress is attacking the uncontested market leader in Europe. Brands and sellers benefit by listing and advertising on the platform.
While most of the Covid-impacted Europeans have been home-shopping on Amazon, AliExpress has continued to silently yet aggressively grow into the market. AliExpress is a subsidiary of the Chinese behemoth, Alibaba Group. On the surface its marketplace allows consumers to buy mainly cheap Chinese merchandise. Its appearance is colorful and noisy to unaccustomed eyes.
There is more to the story. Up and coming Chinese brands, like Xiaomi, offer what might be called a brand experience to European taste. Products of first European brands that sell direct, like Kimbo Coffee in Italy and more than 10,000 mostly smaller Spanish companies, are selling on AliExpress. [1]
A lot seems like this is just an MVP, a minimum viable product, by a startup: Only sellers registered in Spain, Italy, France, Russia, or Turkey can list their products. Most features for merchants are still free or very cheap. Functionality is obviously not fine-tuned to the European consumer. Rather the lowest possible price is mostly the core differentiator. Consumers have to tolerate longer shipping times and the somewhat awkward user experience. Consequently, AliXBlog, features numerous articles on getting the best prices, cheapest products, and how to deal with issues of the platform. [2]
But when you hear there is a partnership with El Corte Inglés, the gigantic Spanish department store chain, this might get us thinking.
“Collaboration with AliExpress is a lever to boost online sales, and especially expansion in the international market. For its part, AliExpress will be able to take advantage of our logistics infrastructure in Spain.” — Eduardo Sotillos, Purchasing Director at El Corte Inglés [3]
More than a startup
Sales figures for AliExpress are hard to come by. Typical statistics only show Alibaba Group. This only gives a sense of the deep pockets behind AliExpress but no clue as to how big it really is.
Analysts expect AliExpress sales in Russia at $6bn in 2020. [4] It has been the number one e-commerce site in Russia for years. In November 2019, AliExpress was number two in Spain. [5] We know that compares to $2.6bn sales on amazon.es in Spain 2018. [6] Note, the two countries have about a similar GDP, although Russia has 3x more inhabitants.
In July 2019 AliExpress was already the number three marketplace in Italy — only weeks after allowing Italian companies to sell on its platform for the first time. Amazon, the number one, was almost 20 times as big. [7] Even without newer figures, it is clear AliExpress has left a considerable footprint in Italy in the meantime.
Disruption at work
Economically speaking, we are facing a disruption scenario. [8] AliExpress targets people who cannot afford to be choosy. More than 60% of its customers are under 35 years old. [9] They do not have a lot of money — a superficially unattractive target group. But these individuals will put up with long delivery times, an unknown platform, difficult search, etc. As AliExpress is gaining a foothold, it is learning about the market, improving the platform, and drawing more brands that are excited about the target group.
AliExpress has chosen the countries in Europe which are still expecting stronger e-commerce growth rather than those with a higher e-commerce penetration, such as Germany and the U.K. [10] It is always easier to grow in an expanding market. This is only the opening act.
“Given the popularity of the AliExpress marketplace in Spain, the Alibaba Group is using Spain as the jumping-off point to grow its marketplace in Western Europe.” — Peter Vahle, forecasting analyst at eMarketer. [11]
Curtains on the second act are already being lifted. E-commerce decision-makers at major European brands said that AliExpress is in talks with them to bring them onto the platform. Similarly, an AliExpress Russia spokesperson said it wanted to increase the share of local sellers to 50% by 2022–2023. And it is working to cut delivery times from China from 20 to 10 days. [4]
Initially, all this is likely not a (very) profitable endeavor for AliExpress, but the company can fight this. It has resources. Alibaba Group owns 58.2% of all retail e-commerce in China [12], contributing $49bn to its $75bn overall sales in fiscal 2020 (ending March 2020). [13] Alibaba has stated the intent to invest $15bn into its global expansion within the next 5 years. [14]
More important they are used to a competitive market, while Amazon is used to be the leader. A leader with a dent in its pride, as Amazon had to withdraw from China in 2019. [15]
“Our ambition is to always be the leader, although we do not see this as a competition. We believe the market is large enough for there to be two, three or more large companies of ecommerce.” — William Wang, CEO of AliExpress in Spain and Portugal [5]
The real play will be on sooner than we think. AliExpress has built access to a highly cost-conscious consumer base across Europe, it is adding major brands and driving higher spending to the platform. At the same time, the platform is continuously innovating and gradually gearing more towards local tastes.
Wang Mingqiang, President of AliExpress announced she intends to grow its global seller base 14fold until 2024. Expect her to follow through. [9]
The Perfect 10: AliExpress marketing
To get your products on stage and to turn the spotlights on, AliExpress offers a growing number of marketing tools. They show their heritage in Chinese e-commerce culture. Therefore, they look and feel different to Amazon and other familiar Western marketplaces. While this presents an entry barrier to some, it is also a great opportunity for everyone willing to try. It is easy.
1. Free Storefront
In China brands usually do not have their own online shops but rely on trusted marketplaces, e.g., Tmall or TaoBao. Like malls, some of those marketplaces offer individual stores.
AliExpress has a similar offering. Selling your products on AliExpress, therefore, is a lot more like creating your own website than just listing products. While this certainly means more effort, it also allows a brand to display itself. On AliExpress a brand is more than an item on a shelf. It is a message, value, content, and lastly, solution, i.e., product. | https://medium.com/swlh/aliexpress-is-amazon-under-siege-in-europe-f2de6e177474 | ['Jan Dominik Gunkel'] | 2020-11-11 17:02:39.968000+00:00 | ['Strategy', 'Ecommerce', 'Amazon', 'Aliexpress', 'Marketing'] | Title AliExpress Amazon Siege EuropeContent AliExpress Amazon Siege Europe AliExpress attacking uncontested market leader Europe Brands seller benefit listing advertising platform Covidimpacted Europeans homeshopping Amazon AliExpress continued silently yet aggressively grow market AliExpress subsidiary Chinese behemoth Alibaba Group surface marketplace allows consumer buy mainly cheap Chinese merchandise appearance colorful noisy unaccustomed eye story coming Chinese brand like Xiaomi offer might called brand experience European taste Products first European brand sell direct like Kimbo Coffee Italy 10000 mostly smaller Spanish company selling AliExpress 1 lot seems like MVP minimum viable product startup seller registered Spain Italy France Russia Turkey list product feature merchant still free cheap Functionality obviously finetuned European consumer Rather lowest possible price mostly core differentiator Consumers tolerate longer shipping time somewhat awkward user experience Consequently AliXBlog feature numerous article getting best price cheapest product deal issue platform 2 hear partnership El Corte Inglés gigantic Spanish department store chain might get u thinking “Collaboration AliExpress lever boost online sale especially expansion international market part AliExpress able take advantage logistics infrastructure Spain” — Eduardo Sotillos Purchasing Director El Corte Inglés 3 startup Sales figure AliExpress hard come Typical statistic show Alibaba Group give sense deep pocket behind AliExpress clue big really Analysts expect AliExpress sale Russia 6bn 2020 4 number one ecommerce site Russia year November 2019 AliExpress number two Spain 5 know compare 26bn sale amazones Spain 2018 6 Note two country similar GDP although Russia 3x inhabitant July 2019 AliExpress already number three marketplace Italy — week allowing Italian company sell platform first time Amazon number one almost 20 time big 7 Even without newer figure clear AliExpress left considerable footprint Italy meantime Disruption work Economically speaking facing disruption scenario 8 AliExpress target people cannot afford choosy 60 customer 35 year old 9 lot money — superficially unattractive target group individual put long delivery time unknown platform difficult search etc AliExpress gaining foothold learning market improving platform drawing brand excited target group AliExpress chosen country Europe still expecting stronger ecommerce growth rather higher ecommerce penetration Germany UK 10 always easier grow expanding market opening act “Given popularity AliExpress marketplace Spain Alibaba Group using Spain jumpingoff point grow marketplace Western Europe” — Peter Vahle forecasting analyst eMarketer 11 Curtains second act already lifted Ecommerce decisionmakers major European brand said AliExpress talk bring onto platform Similarly AliExpress Russia spokesperson said wanted increase share local seller 50 2022–2023 working cut delivery time China 20 10 day 4 Initially likely profitable endeavor AliExpress company fight resource Alibaba Group owns 582 retail ecommerce China 12 contributing 49bn 75bn overall sale fiscal 2020 ending March 2020 13 Alibaba stated intent invest 15bn global expansion within next 5 year 14 important used competitive market Amazon used leader leader dent pride Amazon withdraw China 2019 15 “Our ambition always leader although see competition believe market large enough two three large company ecommerce” — William Wang CEO AliExpress Spain Portugal 5 real play sooner think AliExpress built access highly costconscious consumer base across Europe adding major brand driving higher spending platform time platform continuously innovating gradually gearing towards local taste Wang Mingqiang President AliExpress announced intends grow global seller base 14fold 2024 Expect follow 9 Perfect 10 AliExpress marketing get product stage turn spotlight AliExpress offer growing number marketing tool show heritage Chinese ecommerce culture Therefore look feel different Amazon familiar Western marketplace present entry barrier also great opportunity everyone willing try easy 1 Free Storefront China brand usually online shop rely trusted marketplace eg Tmall TaoBao Like mall marketplace offer individual store AliExpress similar offering Selling product AliExpress therefore lot like creating website listing product certainly mean effort also allows brand display AliExpress brand item shelf message value content lastly solution ie productTags Strategy Ecommerce Amazon Aliexpress Marketing |
2,123 | How can brands keep customers engaged with science? | How can brands keep customers engaged with science?
The coronavirus pandemic has catapulted science into the cultural lexicon, shining a light on it like never before. You could even argue that it’s one of the few silver linings born out of Covid-19, as we place more emphasis on understanding how to separate information from misinformation.
Businesses find themselves in a similar boat, needing to offer authenticity and trust at a time where both are lacking severely. These traits have become just as important as shiny new product features, with the consumer experience evolving from mere A-B interactions.
Now, customers want more engagement from the brands they spend their money with. But that interaction only comes if it’s worthwhile, which means brands need to continue being relevant and find new ways to add value to the customer lifecycle.
Which leaves the question: how can brands keep customers engaged, and what role does science have to play? This is a story about brands and how they can improve relationships with customers through engaging, science-led content.
Why is customer engagement important for businesses with a web presence?
Everything about a brand comes down to the value it offers, and not just from a monetary point of view. Social media has blurred the lines for businesses, with customers expecting brands to get more involved in conversations.
Forty-four percent of consumers said they feel more connected to a brand when it creates and participates in conversations online. The more engaged a customer, the more they are likely to spend money on your company.
Brands should embrace this desire for connection, especially as they have an ability to create a tribal feeling amongst their audiences. You only need to look at Apple and Samsung to see how brand allegiances are forged.
That’s not to say you need to start a culture war with your competitors. But regularly engaging online with customers can lead to higher loyalty and a better bottom line.
What are the most common customer engagement mistakes businesses make?
With more than half the planet using the internet, reach has never been an issue for businesses online. Instead, it’s often a case of oversaturation. Too many options available for communication often leads to common customer engagement mistakes.
It’s a bit like logging onto Netflix, spending 15 minutes trying to find something to watch, only to end up doing something else entirely. There isn’t a lack of great shows; the problem lies with the sheer amount of options available.
Brands face similar problems online. You’re constantly being told you need to communicate on social media, send out regular email marketing newsletters, create on-site content, write an ebook, and it can all become a little overwhelming.
The result is often disjointed messages, as the focus on conquering the entire sphere of digital marketing, rather than excelling in one or two areas at a time, can leave muddled messages.
Data from multiple channels often doesn’t align and, consequently, the result is poor analysis, hasty decision making and a lack of customer engagement as you struggle to create content that resonates.
How to fix engagement issues with AI chatbots, customer intelligence and science content marketing tools
One of the primary issues around customer engagement comes from trying to understand just what it is that consumers want to see and interact with. And improving technology means there are smarter ways to hone your message. Take chatbots, for example…
Why AI Chatbots help with engagement
By 2021, it’s expected that chatbots will handle 85% of customer interaction. And 64% of internet users favour an approach that provides a 24/7 service — something you get with an automated chatbot.
AI chatbots are helping to resolve engagement issues, acting as the first port of call to decipher a customer’s needs. It’s a form of automation that leads to improved service from humans, who then take on the customer role at a more defined stage in the process.
How customer intelligence can help you better understand your audience
A chatbot can collect customer intelligence, such as data and valuable insights to their behaviours. Data is a primary source for brands to understand their target market better, and having insights on your customers from chatbots will help refine marketing approaches.
Why Science marketing tools provide compelling content
If you’re a brand who relies heavily on science, a chatbot can provide engaging, science-based content that captures your audience’s attention with informative, factual-led information. You can also use the data received from customers to create better content.
Use insights to craft compelling content in the form of emails, blog posts and reports in a much more concise way than if you were trying different marketing approaches across several channels. With the right data points, everything ties together more seamlessly.
How to convert website visitors into leads
Chatbots are proving their worth for customer engagement, helping move consumers to the next stage in the pipeline. But they can also act as a conversion tool, boosting revenues and increasing customer count.
Find out more about our Science Chatbots here. | https://medium.com/sparrho/how-can-brands-keep-customers-engaged-with-science-312a2bdfcf31 | [] | 2020-08-20 15:24:33.955000+00:00 | ['Science', 'B2B', 'Brand Strategy', 'Healthcare', 'Marketing'] | Title brand keep customer engaged scienceContent brand keep customer engaged science coronavirus pandemic catapulted science cultural lexicon shining light like never could even argue it’s one silver lining born Covid19 place emphasis understanding separate information misinformation Businesses find similar boat needing offer authenticity trust time lacking severely trait become important shiny new product feature consumer experience evolving mere AB interaction customer want engagement brand spend money interaction come it’s worthwhile mean brand need continue relevant find new way add value customer lifecycle leaf question brand keep customer engaged role science play story brand improve relationship customer engaging scienceled content customer engagement important business web presence Everything brand come value offer monetary point view Social medium blurred line business customer expecting brand get involved conversation Fortyfour percent consumer said feel connected brand creates participates conversation online engaged customer likely spend money company Brands embrace desire connection especially ability create tribal feeling amongst audience need look Apple Samsung see brand allegiance forged That’s say need start culture war competitor regularly engaging online customer lead higher loyalty better bottom line common customer engagement mistake business make half planet using internet reach never issue business online Instead it’s often case oversaturation many option available communication often lead common customer engagement mistake It’s bit like logging onto Netflix spending 15 minute trying find something watch end something else entirely isn’t lack great show problem lie sheer amount option available Brands face similar problem online You’re constantly told need communicate social medium send regular email marketing newsletter create onsite content write ebook become little overwhelming result often disjointed message focus conquering entire sphere digital marketing rather excelling one two area time leave muddled message Data multiple channel often doesn’t align consequently result poor analysis hasty decision making lack customer engagement struggle create content resonates fix engagement issue AI chatbots customer intelligence science content marketing tool One primary issue around customer engagement come trying understand consumer want see interact improving technology mean smarter way hone message Take chatbots example… AI Chatbots help engagement 2021 it’s expected chatbots handle 85 customer interaction 64 internet user favour approach provides 247 service — something get automated chatbot AI chatbots helping resolve engagement issue acting first port call decipher customer’s need It’s form automation lead improved service human take customer role defined stage process customer intelligence help better understand audience chatbot collect customer intelligence data valuable insight behaviour Data primary source brand understand target market better insight customer chatbots help refine marketing approach Science marketing tool provide compelling content you’re brand relies heavily science chatbot provide engaging sciencebased content capture audience’s attention informative factualled information also use data received customer create better content Use insight craft compelling content form email blog post report much concise way trying different marketing approach across several channel right data point everything tie together seamlessly convert website visitor lead Chatbots proving worth customer engagement helping move consumer next stage pipeline also act conversion tool boosting revenue increasing customer count Find Science Chatbots hereTags Science B2B Brand Strategy Healthcare Marketing |
2,124 | Breakout Startups #20- Clarisights | About
Clarisights helps performance marketing teams by —
Unifying reporting — Modern marketers want to unify isolated data into a consistent structure. With Clarisights, they can centralize all of their marketing data from different sources (not only their advertising but analytical, attribution as well as custom internal sources) in one place which increases transparency, reduces manual effort and eventually helps them make better-informed decisions on their marketing initiatives. Granularity — One of the biggest advantages Clarisights has over all its competitors is the power to drill down the data until the maximum granularity level (even the ad creative level). Marketers can compare and see which creatives worked for them and which didn’t — all of these in real-time. Integration — Joining data from different analytics channels with advertising channels and backend data to give marketers a complete funnel view of their marketing enabling them to understand where they’re spending the money and what kind of ROI they get from their money spent.
Product
Currently, an enterprise Performance Marketing team relies on their Business Intelligence and Engineering team to get their analysis done —
Data Collection — The engineering team either does API integrations with the channels where the marketing team is running advertisements on or uses tools such as Supermetrics, StichData, Funnel.io to build the data pipeline. Once the data starts coming in, they store and transform this data in a data-warehouses such as Google BQ, Amazon Redshift Data Visualisation — And finally they use a generic Business Intelligence platform to build dashboards like Tableau (acquired by Salesforce for $15.3B), Looker (acquired by Google for $2.6B), etc
The main problem with this is that the marketing teams do not own their data. They need to be dependent upon either the analysts or the engineering team to get their data or even to maintain the dashboards. To top that, the dashboards on generic BI tools lack marketing context and require users to learn and understand SQL to use them properly.
Clarisights unifies all these features together in one platform for marketing teams so that they can get answers to all of their questions instantly without wrangling Excel scripts or depending upon an analyst.
Founding Team
The Clarisights Founding team comes with an immense amount of experience in working with Ad Products from teams such as Facebook, Google, and Walmart.
Arun Srinivasan — Founder and CEO, Clarisights. Marketer with more than 12 years of experience. Ex- Hostelworld, and Zivame. He was also behind the first-ever ad placed on Facebook. Ankur Gupta — Co-Founder of Clarisights. Ex-Google, Walmart. He holds multiple patents for his work in MarTech. Ashu Pachauri — CTO of Clarisights, Ex-Rocket Fuel, Facebook. He was a part of the DB and Scalability team at Facebook.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Clarisights is a result of the insights they developed and the problems they faced during their work. This very much makes them the ideal team to build a product such as Clarisights.
If you want to understand more about what the team’s motivation behind the product is, I would highly recommend reading this blog post 😄
Funding
To date, Clarisights has raised a total of $2.3 Million in seed funding and is backed by marquee European VCs including Signals Venture Capital, Cavalry Ventures and Techstars Ventures along with an incredible group of Angels. Additionally, they were 1 of 10 startups in the 2018 class of the SAP.iO Foundry, powered by Techstars Accelerator in Berlin. Their investors have invested in companies like Delivery Hero, DigitalOcean, SendGrid, Zalando, Algolia, and many more.
Clarisights in the Market Landscape
If you look around, the market space is extremely crowded with the likes of Nugit, Stichdata, Supermetrics, Funnel.io but no one is trying to solve the entire problem of reporting at once.
The company has been able to onboard big-ticket customers such as Delivery Hero (with a marketing budget of more than $300M) and high-growth startups (like About You, Mindvalley, Livspace) paying thousands of dollars monthly.
This blog post is a good read if you want to see how the product has evolved.
At this point, the company deals with an almost unbelievable amount of data for an early-stage startup.
The Marketing Analytics Industry has blown up in the past few years. We are seeing a new wave of tools ranging from Mixpanel to Looker(acquired by Salesforce), however, there has not been that many developments in how marketing reports are made.
Clarisights is looking to fill in on that gap in the ecosystem. This is what makes them the perfect rocketship to be at if you are looking to break into tech 🚀
Jobs at Clarisights
Clarisights currently is a 32 Member strong team and is actively hiring across Engineering, Product and Design Roles. | https://medium.com/the-spectrum/breakout-startups-20-clarisights-43f3077acc34 | ['Ankit Kumar Singh'] | 2019-11-22 19:24:15.966000+00:00 | ['Clarisights', 'Startup', 'Breakout Startups', 'Marketing'] | Title Breakout Startups 20 ClarisightsContent Clarisights help performance marketing team — Unifying reporting — Modern marketer want unify isolated data consistent structure Clarisights centralize marketing data different source advertising analytical attribution well custom internal source one place increase transparency reduces manual effort eventually help make betterinformed decision marketing initiative Granularity — One biggest advantage Clarisights competitor power drill data maximum granularity level even ad creative level Marketers compare see creatives worked didn’t — realtime Integration — Joining data different analytics channel advertising channel backend data give marketer complete funnel view marketing enabling understand they’re spending money kind ROI get money spent Product Currently enterprise Performance Marketing team relies Business Intelligence Engineering team get analysis done — Data Collection — engineering team either API integration channel marketing team running advertisement us tool Supermetrics StichData Funnelio build data pipeline data start coming store transform data datawarehouses Google BQ Amazon Redshift Data Visualisation — finally use generic Business Intelligence platform build dashboard like Tableau acquired Salesforce 153B Looker acquired Google 26B etc main problem marketing team data need dependent upon either analyst engineering team get data even maintain dashboard top dashboard generic BI tool lack marketing context require user learn understand SQL use properly Clarisights unifies feature together one platform marketing team get answer question instantly without wrangling Excel script depending upon analyst Founding Team Clarisights Founding team come immense amount experience working Ad Products team Facebook Google Walmart Arun Srinivasan — Founder CEO Clarisights Marketer 12 year experience Ex Hostelworld Zivame also behind firstever ad placed Facebook Ankur Gupta — CoFounder Clarisights ExGoogle Walmart hold multiple patent work MarTech Ashu Pachauri — CTO Clarisights ExRocket Fuel Facebook part DB Scalability team Facebook wouldn’t wrong say Clarisights result insight developed problem faced work much make ideal team build product Clarisights want understand team’s motivation behind product would highly recommend reading blog post 😄 Funding date Clarisights raised total 23 Million seed funding backed marquee European VCs including Signals Venture Capital Cavalry Ventures Techstars Ventures along incredible group Angels Additionally 1 10 startup 2018 class SAPiO Foundry powered Techstars Accelerator Berlin investor invested company like Delivery Hero DigitalOcean SendGrid Zalando Algolia many Clarisights Market Landscape look around market space extremely crowded like Nugit Stichdata Supermetrics Funnelio one trying solve entire problem reporting company able onboard bigticket customer Delivery Hero marketing budget 300M highgrowth startup like Mindvalley Livspace paying thousand dollar monthly blog post good read want see product evolved point company deal almost unbelievable amount data earlystage startup Marketing Analytics Industry blown past year seeing new wave tool ranging Mixpanel Lookeracquired Salesforce however many development marketing report made Clarisights looking fill gap ecosystem make perfect rocketship looking break tech 🚀 Jobs Clarisights Clarisights currently 32 Member strong team actively hiring across Engineering Product Design RolesTags Clarisights Startup Breakout Startups Marketing |
2,125 | Is It Game Over for the x86 ISA and Intel? | Now ironically the PC itself and Intel have become the new RISC workstations. They may hold the performance crown for now.
However smart phones, tablets and all sorts of other embedded devices is where the volume is at. Chip makers such as TSMC, is in large part due to ARM getting such volume that they are able to outspend Intel.
Now Intel are the ones trailing behind in the nano-meter race. A game they used to totally own, because they could outspend everybody else.
Does Intel Even Have a Performance Advantage?
It has become a truthism that ARM chips are weak. Yet in the laptop space we saw that Apple’s iPad Pro when they came out beat most of their own intel based laptops on performance. That was insane as those ARM chips cost a fraction of the Intel chips used in their laptops. Not to mention they where passively cooled.
That makes you wonder what performance you could get from an ARM chip with the same power/watt budget as an intel chip an an Apple laptop.
I don’t think it is a stretch to imagine that Apple’s ARM laptops will outperform Intel laptops. It depends a bit on what they aim for. Perhaps they only seek to match Intel performance but give superior battery life time. Either way, Intel laptops will likely have a hard time competing with ARM laptops in the future.
So what you say “Intel gets most of their income from Cloud Data Centers. Apple laptops are a drop in the ocean!” Ok not totally, but a very large and growing portion of their revenue.
Except this Intel stronghold is under siege by multiple ARM armies.
Amazon AWS has with the custom Graviton2 chips completely demolished intel on price/performance:
If you’re an EC2 customer today, and unless you’re tied to x86 for whatever reason, you’d be stupid not to switch over to Graviton2 instances once they become available, as the cost savings will be significant.
Ampere is coming out with 128-core ARM beast for cloud computing, twice the number of cores of any x86 offerings.
Yes they may not outperform x86 in every setting, but threat of ARM is at this point no longer a joke. x86 is being assaulted on home turf.
This process will begin to work in lockstep. As more people are seeing cost savings going with ARM cloud solutions, they are also going to want to have ARM laptops to develop on.
Running and testing on the same hardware platform locally as you deploy on is always an advantage. To quote Linus Torvalds:
That’s bull***t. If you develop on x86, then you’re going to want to deploy on x86, because you’ll be able to run what you test “at home” (and by “at home” I don’t mean literally in your home, but in your work environment).
With ARM based laptops Apple provide that final piece of the puzzle that threatens the x86 server dominance. As Linus points out, once you got viable ARM laptops, ARM in the server room starts to make sense:
my argument wasn’t that ‘ARM cannot make it in the server space’ like some people seem to have read it. My argument was that ‘in order for ARM to make it in the server space, I think they need to have development machines.’
This is where the advantage of ARM based Mac laptops really start to come together. Let us look at that in more detail.
The Triple Advantage of ARM Mac Laptops for Professionals
When I worked as a consulted doing mobile app development, we often used Mac for the simple reason that it meant that we had one computer which could be used for Java server development, Android and iOS development.
This advantage will simply be amplified with ARM. An ARM based Mac will be able to run both Android and iOS applications natively. There is no need for emulators, simulators or whatever. Mobile App developers are going to like that.
When you can throw in that the same laptop can also be used to test solutions for the AWS solution with best bang for the buck, the proposition only gets stronger.
But we are not done yet. These laptops will also likely have the best battery life.
Why on earth would you then go with a PC laptop to run Windows? Windows for ARM will most likely be available anyway. Sure it may not run every Windows app, but so what? The money for developers is not in making Windows desktop apps. The money is in cloud deployment and mobile Apps. Both areas where ARM will dominate.
How Apple Will Get the Ball Rolling
This is the point where you should realize that laughing at the importance of Apple’s 9–10% marketshare impact is premature.
They have a big part of the profitable premium segment. It is like their phones. They have a relative small part of the market but has 66% of the profit of the smartphone market. Apple gets 60% of the PC hardware profits, despite only selling 7.5% of computers. It is easy to forget just how big Apple is by just looking at marketshare.
With these advantages Apple will be able to crush the remaining competition in the premium segment and steal ever more of the total profits in the laptop market.
Not to mention anybody who want to run a Windows for ARM on higher performance hardware will have to get a Mac, as Microsoft’s ARM offerings have been pathetic.
Once this trend develops PC makers and Microsoft are going to start throwing bucket loads of cash at an ARM transition to make sure they are not experiencing an iPod or iPhone moment for the second/third time.
This will only further increase the ARM spending advantage over x86.
ARM is doing to x86 what PC did to everybody else in the 90s. By being an open platform with multiple chip makers you got fierce competition which will drive prices down and boost innovation.
x86 is Outgunned
ARM is coming at x86 from all corners. There is a wave of different companies throwing money at the problems. x86 is getting outgunned and like RISC workstations in the 1990s there simply is no quick fix or silver bullet to get out of this predicament.
If they try to become another ARM maker they will have to sacrifice way too much profit. Hence they face the same predicament NOKIA faced when deciding on whether to become an Android maker or not.
They didn’t want to take the hit, but the end result was that the whole company collapsed. Intel may risk the same if they double down on x86 instead of doing a strategic withdrawal and regrouping.
What About AMD?
AMD enjoys a certain niche dominance on game consoles and gaming rigs. I don’t see any ARM guys coming after that market any time soon.
Also AMD has the benefit of not manufacturing their own chips. They can utilize the big chip makers.
Thus in many ways AMD may survive longer than Intel. But it is a tough call to make. Intel sits on a large pile of cash and can sustain quite a lot of losses for some time. | https://medium.com/swlh/is-it-game-over-for-the-x86-isa-and-intel-5ce1b00fbd1 | ['Erik Engheim'] | 2020-12-20 11:47:27.525000+00:00 | ['Cloud Computing', 'Amd', 'Apple', 'Arm', 'Intel'] | Title Game x86 ISA IntelContent ironically PC Intel become new RISC workstation may hold performance crown However smart phone tablet sort embedded device volume Chip maker TSMC large part due ARM getting volume able outspend Intel Intel one trailing behind nanometer race game used totally could outspend everybody else Intel Even Performance Advantage become truthism ARM chip weak Yet laptop space saw Apple’s iPad Pro came beat intel based laptop performance insane ARM chip cost fraction Intel chip used laptop mention passively cooled make wonder performance could get ARM chip powerwatt budget intel chip Apple laptop don’t think stretch imagine Apple’s ARM laptop outperform Intel laptop depends bit aim Perhaps seek match Intel performance give superior battery life time Either way Intel laptop likely hard time competing ARM laptop future say “Intel get income Cloud Data Centers Apple laptop drop ocean” Ok totally large growing portion revenue Except Intel stronghold siege multiple ARM army Amazon AWS custom Graviton2 chip completely demolished intel priceperformance you’re EC2 customer today unless you’re tied x86 whatever reason you’d stupid switch Graviton2 instance become available cost saving significant Ampere coming 128core ARM beast cloud computing twice number core x86 offering Yes may outperform x86 every setting threat ARM point longer joke x86 assaulted home turf process begin work lockstep people seeing cost saving going ARM cloud solution also going want ARM laptop develop Running testing hardware platform locally deploy always advantage quote Linus Torvalds That’s bullt develop x86 you’re going want deploy x86 you’ll able run test “at home” “at home” don’t mean literally home work environment ARM based laptop Apple provide final piece puzzle threatens x86 server dominance Linus point got viable ARM laptop ARM server room start make sense argument wasn’t ‘ARM cannot make server space’ like people seem read argument ‘in order ARM make server space think need development machines’ advantage ARM based Mac laptop really start come together Let u look detail Triple Advantage ARM Mac Laptops Professionals worked consulted mobile app development often used Mac simple reason meant one computer could used Java server development Android iOS development advantage simply amplified ARM ARM based Mac able run Android iOS application natively need emulator simulator whatever Mobile App developer going like throw laptop also used test solution AWS solution best bang buck proposition get stronger done yet laptop also likely best battery life earth would go PC laptop run Windows Windows ARM likely available anyway Sure may run every Windows app money developer making Windows desktop apps money cloud deployment mobile Apps area ARM dominate Apple Get Ball Rolling point realize laughing importance Apple’s 9–10 marketshare impact premature big part profitable premium segment like phone relative small part market 66 profit smartphone market Apple get 60 PC hardware profit despite selling 75 computer easy forget big Apple looking marketshare advantage Apple able crush remaining competition premium segment steal ever total profit laptop market mention anybody want run Windows ARM higher performance hardware get Mac Microsoft’s ARM offering pathetic trend develops PC maker Microsoft going start throwing bucket load cash ARM transition make sure experiencing iPod iPhone moment secondthird time increase ARM spending advantage x86 ARM x86 PC everybody else 90 open platform multiple chip maker got fierce competition drive price boost innovation x86 Outgunned ARM coming x86 corner wave different company throwing money problem x86 getting outgunned like RISC workstation 1990s simply quick fix silver bullet get predicament try become another ARM maker sacrifice way much profit Hence face predicament NOKIA faced deciding whether become Android maker didn’t want take hit end result whole company collapsed Intel may risk double x86 instead strategic withdrawal regrouping AMD AMD enjoys certain niche dominance game console gaming rig don’t see ARM guy coming market time soon Also AMD benefit manufacturing chip utilize big chip maker Thus many way AMD may survive longer Intel tough call make Intel sits large pile cash sustain quite lot loss timeTags Cloud Computing Amd Apple Arm Intel |
2,126 | Covid-19 May Have Started Before Dec 2019, Increasing Evidence Shows | Covid-19 May Have Started Before Dec 2019, Increasing Evidence Shows
It may also explain its unusual early adaptation to humans, unlike other coronaviruses.
Home vector created by freepik — www.freepik.com
The first global identified case of Covid-19 was on December 26 in the Wuhan Hospital in China, where a respiratory physician suspected a new infectious disease owing to his previous experiences with the 2003 SARS outbreak. Then on December 31, Chinese authorities informed the WHO of pneumonia with an unknown cause.
But as more data is collected over the year, increasingly more evidence suggests that Covid-19 might have started much earlier than December.
The new CDC study in the U.S.
The U.S. surveillance team detected the first case of Covid-19 on January 19: a 35-year-old man who returned from China. But even this was not the actual first emergence of Covid-19. In the next sample of 12 early cases of Covid-19 in the U.S., two of them had symptoms that started on January 14. Taking into account the incubation period — the time gap between virus infection and symptom appearance — of about 5–6 or 14 days, the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 might have been circulating in the U.S. earlier than January 14.
SARS-CoV-2 antibodies take 1–3 weeks to form following infection encounter…So, the true infection encounter in the CDC study might have even been three weeks before December 13.
Maybe even as early as November, hinted a study from the CDC published a few days ago in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, titled “Serologic testing of U.S. blood donations to identify SARS-CoV-2-reactive antibodies: December 2019-January 2020.” In this study, researchers collected leftover sera from 7,389 donated blood samples from donors without suspected viral or bacterial respiratory infection.
The CDC then performed antibody testing — with validated sensitivity and specificity — on the blood sera. Results detected antibodies specific for the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 in 1.43% (106 out of 7,389) of samples. Of these 106 cases, 39 belonged to blood samples collected between December 13–16 from California, Oregon, and Washinton. The other 67 cases were sampled from December 30 to January 17.
However, the study cautioned that none of the 106 infections qualifies as true positives or true Covid-19 cases, which can only be confirmed via a positive RT-PCR test on respiratory specimens. Another caveat is that whether these 106 infections were transmitted by traveling or community spread is unknown. Nonetheless, “The findings of this report suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infections may have been present in the U.S. in December 2019, earlier than previously recognized,” the study concluded.
A concern the paper did not address is that SARS-CoV-2 antibodies take 1–3 weeks to form following infection encounter — the window period. This is because antibodies are made by B-cells that belong to the immune system’s adaptive arm, the second line of defense that requires time to activate. So, the true infection encounter in the CDC study might have even been three weeks before December 13. But this may be relatively rare given that the median window period for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies is 10 days.
Looking at other countries
Based on China government data the South China Morning Post examined, the earliest detected Covid-19 case is on November 17 in a 55-year-old person in Hubei. By the end of November, there were nine cases of Covid-19. This data corroborates a study published in The Lancet that describes a Covid-19 patient with symptom onset dated December 1 in China. But even in those nine Covid-19 cases in November, there’s insufficient evidence to pinpoint patient zero — the first carrier of the Covid-19 outbreak. So, it’s still possible that there were undetected cases of Covid-19 before 17 November 2019.
Researchers in Lombardy, Italy also did a similar study as the CDC, which was published in the Tumori Journal with the title, “Unexpected detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the prepandemic period in Italy.” Herein, the study caught antibodies specific for the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) in 11.6% (111 out of 959 persons) of blood samples, of which 14% were sampled during September 2019. This interests the WHO, who has contacted the authors for further investigation.
Thus, “SARS-CoV-2 might have cryptically circulated within humans for years before being discovered,” researchers suspect.
There’re two pre-prints analyzing wastewater samples for traces of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material. One pre-print from Santa Catalina, Brazil, found SARS-CoV-2 RNA in two independent sewage samples collected on 27 November 2019. This data implies that people in Brazil might have been infected and shed the virus before December. The other pre-print is even more outrageous: Researchers from Barcelona, Spain, detected SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a sewage sample gathered on 12 March 2019. But note that preprints are not peer-reviewed, and there’s a critique that contamination may have occurred during sewage sampling and analyses.
Explaining the evolutionary leap
The early SARS-CoV-2 circulation theory also helps explain many odd facets of the pandemic. For one, SARS-CoV-2 binds to the ACE2 receptor with efficiency at least 10-times higher than SARS-1. This is despite that SARS-CoV-2 genomes have been relatively stable in early 2020 with low mutation rates. In contrast, rapid genetic changes happened in the genomes of SARS and MERS when they first spillover into the human population, which stabilize overtime.
Thus, “SARS-CoV-2 might have cryptically circulated within humans for years before being discovered,” researchers suspect. If this suspicion is correct, then SARS-CoV-2 may have completed its host-switching adaption in humans before December. This also explains why SARS-CoV-2 already has a very stable genome in early 2020 and why SARS-CoV-2 has an unusual binding efficiency for the human ACE-2 receptor.
And it may also explain why attempts to pinpoint the intermediate host of SARS-CoV-2 have failed so far, given that the real intermediate host (if it exists) might not be among animals sampled in December or early 2020.
Short abstract
A new study from the U.S. CDC found SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in donated blood samples between December 13–16. Given that SARS-CoV-2 antibodies take 1–3 weeks to form, the actual infection in this study may be earlier than December 13. Indeed, recent government data detected Covid-19 cases from November 17 onwards in China. Further, a study from Italy has also found SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in blood samples sampled from September. Using wastewater samples, two preprints have also found traces of SARS-CoV-2 genes in samples collected in November in Brazil and March in Spain.
These data suggest that Covid-19 may have jumped to humans before December. In fact, the theory of early SARS-CoV-2 circulation in humans helps explain some oddities of the pandemic. For instance, SARS-CoV-2 genomes were already stable in early 2020, which also enables highly efficient binding to the human ACE2 receptor. In contrast, SARS and MERS genomes underwent drastic genetic changes when they first adapt to humans. In sum, increasing clinical and theoretical evidence indicates that Covid-19 may have emerged earlier than presumed. | https://medium.com/microbial-instincts/covid-19-may-have-started-before-december-increasing-evidence-shows-61e280b0842f | ['Shin Jie Yong'] | 2020-12-17 00:15:14.198000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Coronavirus', 'Ideas', 'Science', 'Technology'] | Title Covid19 May Started Dec 2019 Increasing Evidence ShowsContent Covid19 May Started Dec 2019 Increasing Evidence Shows may also explain unusual early adaptation human unlike coronaviruses Home vector created freepik — wwwfreepikcom first global identified case Covid19 December 26 Wuhan Hospital China respiratory physician suspected new infectious disease owing previous experience 2003 SARS outbreak December 31 Chinese authority informed pneumonia unknown cause data collected year increasingly evidence suggests Covid19 might started much earlier December new CDC study US US surveillance team detected first case Covid19 January 19 35yearold man returned China even actual first emergence Covid19 next sample 12 early case Covid19 US two symptom started January 14 Taking account incubation period — time gap virus infection symptom appearance — 5–6 14 day novel coronavirus SARSCoV2 might circulating US earlier January 14 SARSCoV2 antibody take 1–3 week form following infection encounter…So true infection encounter CDC study might even three week December 13 Maybe even early November hinted study CDC published day ago Clinical Infectious Diseases journal titled “Serologic testing US blood donation identify SARSCoV2reactive antibody December 2019January 2020” study researcher collected leftover serum 7389 donated blood sample donor without suspected viral bacterial respiratory infection CDC performed antibody testing — validated sensitivity specificity — blood serum Results detected antibody specific spike protein SARSCoV2 143 106 7389 sample 106 case 39 belonged blood sample collected December 13–16 California Oregon Washinton 67 case sampled December 30 January 17 However study cautioned none 106 infection qualifies true positive true Covid19 case confirmed via positive RTPCR test respiratory specimen Another caveat whether 106 infection transmitted traveling community spread unknown Nonetheless “The finding report suggest SARSCoV2 infection may present US December 2019 earlier previously recognized” study concluded concern paper address SARSCoV2 antibody take 1–3 week form following infection encounter — window period antibody made Bcells belong immune system’s adaptive arm second line defense requires time activate true infection encounter CDC study might even three week December 13 may relatively rare given median window period SARSCoV2 antibody 10 day Looking country Based China government data South China Morning Post examined earliest detected Covid19 case November 17 55yearold person Hubei end November nine case Covid19 data corroborates study published Lancet describes Covid19 patient symptom onset dated December 1 China even nine Covid19 case November there’s insufficient evidence pinpoint patient zero — first carrier Covid19 outbreak it’s still possible undetected case Covid19 17 November 2019 Researchers Lombardy Italy also similar study CDC published Tumori Journal title “Unexpected detection SARSCoV2 antibody prepandemic period Italy” Herein study caught antibody specific SARSCoV2 receptorbinding domain RBD 116 111 959 person blood sample 14 sampled September 2019 interest contacted author investigation Thus “SARSCoV2 might cryptically circulated within human year discovered” researcher suspect There’re two preprints analyzing wastewater sample trace SARSCoV2 genetic material One preprint Santa Catalina Brazil found SARSCoV2 RNA two independent sewage sample collected 27 November 2019 data implies people Brazil might infected shed virus December preprint even outrageous Researchers Barcelona Spain detected SARSCoV2 RNA sewage sample gathered 12 March 2019 note preprints peerreviewed there’s critique contamination may occurred sewage sampling analysis Explaining evolutionary leap early SARSCoV2 circulation theory also help explain many odd facet pandemic one SARSCoV2 bind ACE2 receptor efficiency least 10times higher SARS1 despite SARSCoV2 genome relatively stable early 2020 low mutation rate contrast rapid genetic change happened genome SARS MERS first spillover human population stabilize overtime Thus “SARSCoV2 might cryptically circulated within human year discovered” researcher suspect suspicion correct SARSCoV2 may completed hostswitching adaption human December also explains SARSCoV2 already stable genome early 2020 SARSCoV2 unusual binding efficiency human ACE2 receptor may also explain attempt pinpoint intermediate host SARSCoV2 failed far given real intermediate host exists might among animal sampled December early 2020 Short abstract new study US CDC found SARSCoV2specific antibody donated blood sample December 13–16 Given SARSCoV2 antibody take 1–3 week form actual infection study may earlier December 13 Indeed recent government data detected Covid19 case November 17 onwards China study Italy also found SARSCoV2 antibody blood sample sampled September Using wastewater sample two preprints also found trace SARSCoV2 gene sample collected November Brazil March Spain data suggest Covid19 may jumped human December fact theory early SARSCoV2 circulation human help explain oddity pandemic instance SARSCoV2 genome already stable early 2020 also enables highly efficient binding human ACE2 receptor contrast SARS MERS genome underwent drastic genetic change first adapt human sum increasing clinical theoretical evidence indicates Covid19 may emerged earlier presumedTags Life Coronavirus Ideas Science Technology |
2,127 | A “Historic Week” on Nightingale | A “Historic Week” on Nightingale
Well, historic in the sense that we published some amazing history-themed content.
Olivia Vane wrote “Strange Times: Visualising the Oddities of Time Data” which builds upon her experience visualizing museum collections and dives into the unique challenges of working with historic objects and data. So often, temporal data is inexact, uncertain, or inaccurate, which raises tricky questions for practitioners. This article covers some of these situations as well as the strategies designers can take to either conceal or expose gaps in data.
Attila Bátorfy analyzed political cartoons from communist-era postwar Hungary in “The Imperialist Dogs Bark, But The Communist Graph Goes On.” Charts were an important part of the communist regime, used as data-based evidence of skyrocketing production and efficient social programs, and they were a powerful tool for information warfare between the communist government and its enemies.
Additionally, Nightingale was proud to publish an excerpt from Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein’s upcoming book, Data Feminism, about two different maps of Detroit. One map stems from the racist and discriminatory practice of Redlining, and the other, “Where Commuters Run Over Black Children on the Pointes-Downtown Track,” was created by community members to shed light on the city’s inequality.
Where these pieces look back at historical moments in time, Stephen Spiewak’s piece looks back on a timeless moment: Super Bowl LIV. When it comes to Super Bowl tickets, price is probably the first data point you’ll want to know. But if we look deeper, there’s a hidden data point that can tell a much more compelling story. At Vivid Seats, they’ve developed a metric that has accurately predicted the last five Super Bowl winners based on ticket sales.
One of the main goals of looking to the past is understanding where we are headed. So naturally, Allen Hillery’s ongoing series on the future of BI was a fitting way to close the week. Allen spoke with Duncan Clark, the founder of Flourish, about his winding career path, data journalism vs. data storytelling, and Talkies!
As always, if you are interested in writing for Nightingale, please contact one of our editors or write to us at [email protected]. We are always looking for new writers and open to exploring new ideas, and we encourage you to get in touch! | https://medium.com/nightingale/a-historic-week-on-nightingale-baee70c7715 | ['Isaac Levy-Rubinett'] | 2020-02-14 20:27:29.764000+00:00 | ['Design', 'History', 'Information Design', 'Political Cartoons', 'Mapping'] | Title “Historic Week” NightingaleContent “Historic Week” Nightingale Well historic sense published amazing historythemed content Olivia Vane wrote “Strange Times Visualising Oddities Time Data” build upon experience visualizing museum collection dive unique challenge working historic object data often temporal data inexact uncertain inaccurate raise tricky question practitioner article cover situation well strategy designer take either conceal expose gap data Attila Bátorfy analyzed political cartoon communistera postwar Hungary “The Imperialist Dogs Bark Communist Graph Goes On” Charts important part communist regime used databased evidence skyrocketing production efficient social program powerful tool information warfare communist government enemy Additionally Nightingale proud publish excerpt Catherine D’Ignazio Lauren F Klein’s upcoming book Data Feminism two different map Detroit One map stem racist discriminatory practice Redlining “Where Commuters Run Black Children PointesDowntown Track” created community member shed light city’s inequality piece look back historical moment time Stephen Spiewak’s piece look back timeless moment Super Bowl LIV come Super Bowl ticket price probably first data point you’ll want know look deeper there’s hidden data point tell much compelling story Vivid Seats they’ve developed metric accurately predicted last five Super Bowl winner based ticket sale One main goal looking past understanding headed naturally Allen Hillery’s ongoing series future BI fitting way close week Allen spoke Duncan Clark founder Flourish winding career path data journalism v data storytelling Talkies always interested writing Nightingale please contact one editor write u pitchnightingalegmailcom always looking new writer open exploring new idea encourage get touchTags Design History Information Design Political Cartoons Mapping |
2,128 | 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'] | Title Easily Write 1–3 Articles Every DayContent Here’s First sit get new document open start writing topic head start writing everything think get flow state important writing find get going get flow stay long enough make dent article turn inner editor judge make sure let know turn yet allow everything need come come try interfere make spelling mistake grammar error story might make total sense point that’s okay doesn’t get creative intellectual purge everything spill page I’m okay know I’ll back later clean go back straight away start editing don’t take break get right straight away first thing go “correctness” mistake get underlined red go correct everything highlighted red don’t even read Grammarly work two way either click word text take correction click list correction click either way point go correct obvious spelling grammar mistake love part feel like game detect correct don’t even think get much done quickly correction used head minutia comma semicolon Figuring end runon sentence finding every little needle haystack tense Grammarly find suggests correction click go back green line engagement read single sentence correct suggestion Sometimes they’re right sometimes idea don’t make sense pay attention Make sure word make sense context sentence time around look purple line delivery lot taking extraneous word seem use word “just” lot purple correction prompt take many word writing concise confident sounding correction also fast easy blue line clarity correction help make thing concise point runon sentence help identify passage awkward long wordy seem get lot biggest problem go back break make sentence work correction take break feel start real editing begin reread Making correction first allows avoid engaging inner critic take lot emotional charge process clicking revising small part get bulk work done effortlessly unemotionally like process take emotional charge thing find usually hold u back getting thing done feeling overwhelmed knowing start find way bypass feeling everything attainable work done walk away take break come back later fresh eye I’m able cut everyone say cut crap point every time read read aloud hear sound Ashley Nicole written wonderfully helpful article called “Measure twice cut guide thoroughly selfediting writing” quick read jampacked sound advice editing That’s bible editing beyond point read reread cut cut cut try make clear concise point let inner judge critic loose let go give free rein importantly listen It’s easier let loose point already far better product started it’s scary critic judge handy helper point welcome input rather fearing can’t tell say exactly you’re going say unique voice experience you’ve found compelled write something share goal get thought organized share practice every day method definitely help hope article help get word head onto page efficiently possible start uplifting reader shining light worldTags Time Management Self Improvement Writing Writing Tips Productivity |
2,129 | Let’s Make REST Into a Protocol | What is a Protocol?
HTTP 1.1 is a Protocol.
If you want to use HTTP 1.1 you simply use a component like an HTTP 1.1 Web Server to serve your content. Then you use an HTTP 1.1 Browser to consume your content. Did you have to code HTTP 1.1 to do any of this? Nope. HTTP 1.1 as a protocol was coded for you by someone or likely a number of someone you never met. This is the beauty of using an existing Protocol. It just works. And you get to use it. And by now it has been accepted by everyone.
Why has REST never achieved this same status?
Why are so many programmers blindly coding all that REST Interface goop over and over and over?
Every single part of every single REST API is 100% the same except for the function dangling at the end of each and every RESTful Endpoint. And still in 2020 REST has not been elevated into being just a Protocol like HTTP 1.1, for instance. Why ? Or better, Why not?
Introducing the Dynamic Pluggable Microservice Framework !
This is a pre-coded Framework you can use, right now, to publish all your Microservices or Web Services with very little effort and very little code.
This Dynamic Pluggable Microservice Framework could make REST into a full-fledged Protocol !
Why waste all that time coding URL Specs?
What is a URL Spec? Huh?
This is a typical set of URL Specs for one of the more popular Web Frameworks known as Django:
from django.urls import include, path
urlpatterns = [
path('index/', views.index, name='main-view'),
path('bio/<username>/', views.bio, name='bio'),
path('articles/<slug:title>/', views.article, name='article-detail'),
path('articles/<slug:title>/<int:section>/', views.section, name='article-section'),
path('weblog/', include('blog.urls')),
...
]
Now if you had a bunch of REST Web Services to publish you would have to code one of these “path” statements for each and every endpoint, each and every function you wanted to expose to the REST Protocol. This might be a lot of work to code and maintain. How well do you know regex, anyway? Is this how you want to spend your professional time as a programmer? Is this where you want to spend your money as an Organization or Company? This is only part of the work required to get your REST Web Services up and running.
But wait, there’s more code to write.
Consider the following blob of code:
@api_view(['GET', 'POST', 'DELETE'])
def tutorial_list(request):
# GET list of tutorials, POST a new tutorial, DELETE all tutorials
@api_view(['GET', 'PUT', 'DELETE'])
def tutorial_detail(request, pk):
# find tutorial by pk (id)
# GET / PUT / DELETE tutorial
@api_view(['GET'])
def tutorial_list_published(request):
# GET all published tutorials
These are actual functions that could be exposed to REST but so far you have not even begun to head in that direction yet. There is so much more to do when coding a RESTful Interface. So much to do and so little time.
There is an easier way to do this !
You could use the Dynamic Pluggable Microservice Framework.
Take a look at a simpler way to get your functions exposed to REST by clicking here.
Sample code:
Step 1: Import the Python decorator.
from vyperlogix.decorators import expose
Step 2: Expose your function as a REST endpoint.
@expose.endpoint(method=’GET|PUT|POST’.split(‘|’), API=’hello-world’) def foo(*args, **kwargs): return {‘response’: ‘hello-world’}
This makes the function “foo” into a REST endpoint via the “GET, PUT and POST” HTTP 1.1 Methods. The “foo” function will be accessed via the API name of “hello-world” rather than the name “foo” however both can be used interchangeably. The function “foo” will return some data that will be magically turned into JSON for you with no need to be concerned about serializations. You will, however need to ensure all the data you want to return via JSON is composed of simple data types but this is how JSON works.
Step 3: Plug-in your Python Module.
Take a look at the plugins directory here.
There is no need to restart the web server when you plugin a new Module. This is all 100% dynamic. This means you can deploy a Development REST Server so you can do your development work. Then deploy a Staging REST Server where you can test your deployable REST APIs. Then deploy a Production REST Server where your customers will consume your REST API. Your CI/CD Pipeline will simply copy your Python Modules into the “plugins” directory for each environment and you can immediately test or use your exposed APIs with no downtime. Easy, huh?
How do I use this newly exposed REST endpoint, anyway?
Take a look at the sample unit tests for this framework by clicking here.
Take a look at a simpler test environment by clicking here. This “rest.http” file is more useful when you use vscode and the REST Client extension. And “yes” vscode extensions are dynamic plugins. See how useful modern programming techniques can be in the 21st Century? Even Microsoft knows how to leverage dynamic pluggable frameworks which is exactly what vscode is.
Get a directory of your plugins.
Notice that the URL Spec of “/rest/services/__dir__/” is baked into this framework.
What you get from this is some nice-looking JSON that shows you everything you need to know about your plugins.
Let’s use one of our sample APIs from the framework distro.
This calls the “/hello-world” API that has been exposed via the “foo” function.
Notice the URL Parameters “/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/”. These parameters are elastic and configurable with either default names, configurable names or mappable names. Do some of your REST APIs use up to 1000 Parameters? No problem, this framework handles all that.
Notice the Query Parameters “a=1&b=2&c=3&d=4”. These parameters are also elastic which means you can issue any number of them but this is built into the HTTP 1.1 Protocol.
How do these Parameters get into your function “foo” ? This is done via the **kwargs. In Python “**kwargs” is a dictionary of keys and values. All those named URL Parameters and Query Parameters get mixed into a single dictionary and you can consume them at runtime via the “**kwargs”. Take care not to reuse the same Parameter names in the form of Query Parameter names or you may lose some values but again, this is how this framework works.
Module Aliases and API Versioning
The following issues the very same REST API call using the Module Alias for module1.py:
This is the same as the following:
This means you can build and deploy versioned APIs for your users. The Module Alias can be a version identifier or the module files name can be a version identifier.
URL Parameter Mapping
This only works for HTTP 1.1 Methods other than “Get”.
This remaps the first 10 URL Parameters to use a dynamic set of names at runtime. Again this is configurable. This means you can use your own sets of URL Parameter names for your specific APIs the way you want to use them. This also makes your exposed modules more self-documenting especially if you were to add a docstring to each exposed function. Now you can generate programmer’s docs for your modules using existing Python tools. Self-documenting code.
Private Functions or Private Variables
What if you want to embed private functions in your exposed modules?
Easy.
Private functions are those beginning with “__” or those that are not exposed via the “expose.endpoint” decorator.
Python classes and variables are not exposed and not exposable unless you do so via an exposed endpoint.
You can also build and deploy your own Python Packages and put them on your own Python Path and then use them from your exposed endpoints using this Framework. You could plugin Modules that do not expose endpoints but doing so is not beneficial.
Want to read more… ?
Click here to read more.
REST has become a Protocol
You should be able to see how REST has become a Protocol much like HTTP 1.1 became a Protocol.
Automate your RESTful APIs by using this Dynamic Pluggable Microservice Framework.
Automate your URL Specs. Don’t waste your time coding them.
Automate JSON. Don’t waste your time using JSON Libraries, this has been done for you.
Automate API Versioning. Don’t waste your time building this code yourself.
Want to see this framework in action via a Docker Container? Click here.
docker pull raychorn/microservices-framework:0.7.0
This container has all the required modules. Update the git clone and give it a whirl.
Add functionality to this framework.
Become a sponsor and make new feature requests. | https://medium.com/swlh/lets-make-rest-into-a-protocol-76d8deddcd79 | [] | 2020-12-15 01:59:41.596000+00:00 | ['Microservices', 'Functional Programming', 'Dynamic Programming', 'Python', 'Django Rest Framework'] | Title Let’s Make REST ProtocolContent Protocol HTTP 11 Protocol want use HTTP 11 simply use component like HTTP 11 Web Server serve content use HTTP 11 Browser consume content code HTTP 11 Nope HTTP 11 protocol coded someone likely number someone never met beauty using existing Protocol work get use accepted everyone REST never achieved status many programmer blindly coding REST Interface goop Every single part every single REST API 100 except function dangling end every RESTful Endpoint still 2020 REST elevated Protocol like HTTP 11 instance better Introducing Dynamic Pluggable Microservice Framework precoded Framework use right publish Microservices Web Services little effort little code Dynamic Pluggable Microservice Framework could make REST fullfledged Protocol waste time coding URL Specs URL Spec Huh typical set URL Specs one popular Web Frameworks known Django djangourls import include path urlpatterns pathindex viewsindex namemainview pathbiousername viewsbio namebio patharticlesslugtitle viewsarticle namearticledetail patharticlesslugtitleintsection viewssection namearticlesection pathweblog includeblogurls bunch REST Web Services publish would code one “path” statement every endpoint every function wanted expose REST Protocol might lot work code maintain well know regex anyway want spend professional time programmer want spend money Organization Company part work required get REST Web Services running wait there’s code write Consider following blob code apiviewGET POST DELETE def tutoriallistrequest GET list tutorial POST new tutorial DELETE tutorial apiviewGET PUT DELETE def tutorialdetailrequest pk find tutorial pk id GET PUT DELETE tutorial apiviewGET def tutoriallistpublishedrequest GET published tutorial actual function could exposed REST far even begun head direction yet much coding RESTful Interface much little time easier way could use Dynamic Pluggable Microservice Framework Take look simpler way get function exposed REST clicking Sample code Step 1 Import Python decorator vyperlogixdecorators import expose Step 2 Expose function REST endpoint exposeendpointmethod’GETPUTPOST’split‘’ API’helloworld’ def fooargs kwargs return ‘response’ ‘helloworld’ make function “foo” REST endpoint via “GET PUT POST” HTTP 11 Methods “foo” function accessed via API name “helloworld” rather name “foo” however used interchangeably function “foo” return data magically turned JSON need concerned serialization however need ensure data want return via JSON composed simple data type JSON work Step 3 Plugin Python Module Take look plugins directory need restart web server plugin new Module 100 dynamic mean deploy Development REST Server development work deploy Staging REST Server test deployable REST APIs deploy Production REST Server customer consume REST API CICD Pipeline simply copy Python Modules “plugins” directory environment immediately test use exposed APIs downtime Easy huh use newly exposed REST endpoint anyway Take look sample unit test framework clicking Take look simpler test environment clicking “resthttp” file useful use vscode REST Client extension “yes” vscode extension dynamic plugins See useful modern programming technique 21st Century Even Microsoft know leverage dynamic pluggable framework exactly vscode Get directory plugins Notice URL Spec “restservicesdir” baked framework get nicelooking JSON show everything need know plugins Let’s use one sample APIs framework distro call “helloworld” API exposed via “foo” function Notice URL Parameters “12345678910” parameter elastic configurable either default name configurable name mappable name REST APIs use 1000 Parameters problem framework handle Notice Query Parameters “a1b2c3d4” parameter also elastic mean issue number built HTTP 11 Protocol Parameters get function “foo” done via kwargs Python “kwargs” dictionary key value named URL Parameters Query Parameters get mixed single dictionary consume runtime via “kwargs” Take care reuse Parameter name form Query Parameter name may lose value framework work Module Aliases API Versioning following issue REST API call using Module Alias module1py following mean build deploy versioned APIs user Module Alias version identifier module file name version identifier URL Parameter Mapping work HTTP 11 Methods “Get” remaps first 10 URL Parameters use dynamic set name runtime configurable mean use set URL Parameter name specific APIs way want use also make exposed module selfdocumenting especially add docstring exposed function generate programmer’s doc module using existing Python tool Selfdocumenting code Private Functions Private Variables want embed private function exposed module Easy Private function beginning “” exposed via “exposeendpoint” decorator Python class variable exposed exposable unless via exposed endpoint also build deploy Python Packages put Python Path use exposed endpoint using Framework could plugin Modules expose endpoint beneficial Want read more… Click read REST become Protocol able see REST become Protocol much like HTTP 11 became Protocol Automate RESTful APIs using Dynamic Pluggable Microservice Framework Automate URL Specs Don’t waste time coding Automate JSON Don’t waste time using JSON Libraries done Automate API Versioning Don’t waste time building code Want see framework action via Docker Container Click docker pull raychornmicroservicesframework070 container required module Update git clone give whirl Add functionality framework Become sponsor make new feature requestsTags Microservices Functional Programming Dynamic Programming Python Django Rest Framework |
2,130 | Startup Spotlight Q&A: Evolve Energy | Michael Lee is the CEO and Co-Founder of Evolve Energy. He’s worked in renewable energy for the past 10 years and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. In 2018, Michael founded Evolve Energy to help consumers save on energy costs while also laying the groundwork for the energy infrastructure of the future. Evolve recently won Grind Startup of the Year award at Global 2020, an honor well-deserved by Michael and the Evolve team. Check out what Michael had to share about Evolve’s biggest moments, advice for founders, and what’s coming up next for Evolve.
— In a sentence, what does Evolve Energy do?
Evolve helps customers cut their electricity bill by 50% and decarbonize their footprint by unlocking the value of smart home products.
— What makes Evolve different in this market?
Other companies sell “fixed priced power,” which means every hour of the day is the same price. We sell wholesale power — this electricity is very cheap, but changes price every few minutes based on grid conditions. We then pair these signals with IOT-enabled products (EVs, smart thermostats, appliances, smart plugs) and optimize the timing they use electricity to align with the cheapest times.
— How did Evolve came to be? What was the problem you found and the ‘aha’ moment?
I’ve been helping build renewable energy projects for the past 10 years. I’ve seen these projects have a 70% reduction in cost over this period — but electricity prices that we all pay haven’t decreased as much. I realized the reason is that renewables create massive surplus and shortage of electricity on the grid. We could easily fix this if devices could respond to these wholesale prices.
— What milestone are you most proud of so far?
Getting to market and selling electricity is very challenging for startups. It traditionally requires large pools of capital for creditworthiness. We have a unique workaround to bypass this through a partnership with a large energy company. Finding the right type of partnership with established players is important to enable scale for startups. But it requires that one knows the nuance of the industry landscape since some of these partners could be competitors.
— What are people most excited by when it comes to using Evolve?
Customers will call thinking that we made a billing mistake and didn’t charge them enough. Yea, we can save people that much money that they think it’s an error how little they pay. Those are the best conversations.
— Have you pursued funding and if so, what steps did you take?
We raised a pre-seed. We’re loosely related to the “climatetech” investment trend since the lowest electricity times are when renewables are abundant. And so we’re effectively decarbonizing footprints without customers knowing. Raising a seed can be challenging — investors want to pattern match and we don’t fall under any existing patterns. The most important part is to get in front of investors and have a two-way conversation. Capital raising is a full-time process.
— What KPIs are you tracking that you think will lead to revenue generation or growth for Evolve?
We already have customers and so retention/renewal rate is an important KPI. It influences our LTV and decreases our CAC (through referrals) at the same time.
— What is one thing every founder should ask themselves before walking into a meeting with a potential investor?
Founders should ask “Does this investor have any companies in their portfolio that look like our model?” I’m not saying it needs to be the same company in the same industry. But if you’re a B2C company and the investor only has B2B in their portfolio, it’s going to be a short meeting. Create a spreadsheet CRM to track your conversations. It’s added work but helpful in the long-run.
— How do you build and develop talent on your team?
Finding great people is the first step. Look for people who are great at what they do yet open to new ideas. Specialists know their craft well and can limit your headaches down the road because you can trust them to make great decisions independently. Having a product that has positive externalizes (carbon reduction in our case) helps keep employees excited about what we’re all building.
— How do you manage growth vs sustainability?
Burnout is a risk for any startup. But growth while the window is open is also really important too. Having KPIs and goals helps keep the team focused on what they can control. The leader’s role is to push the team to achieve something that may feel just out of reach while also managing relationships of investors and stakeholders.
— What are the biggest challenges for the Evolve team?
By definition, in a startup all resources are scarce. The challenge is always about doing more with just enough resources. This is why rapid lean testing is so important — you don’t want to overspend just to find out it was the wrong path.
— What advice would you give to other founders?
Mental health is important. Eat healthy. Get a workout. Get some sleep. Doing this will enable you to ride through the highs and lows without the extremes.
— Have you been or are you part of a corporate startup program or accelerator? If so, which ones and what have been the benefits?
Urban-X (Brooklyn, NY).
— Anything else you’d like to share?We’re thrilled to win the “Grind Startup of the Year” award. We see a new wave of companies that are using capitalism to unlock benefits for society. Carbon reduction is the next trillion dollar industry and startups have a huge role in this! | https://medium.com/startup-grind/startup-spotlight-q-a-evolve-energy-aa055e834707 | ['The Startup Grind Team'] | 2020-06-03 18:43:28.193000+00:00 | ['Energy', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup Spotlight', 'Startup', 'Startup Lessons'] | Title Startup Spotlight QA Evolve EnergyContent Michael Lee CEO CoFounder Evolve Energy He’s worked renewable energy past 10 year earned MBA Harvard Business School 2018 Michael founded Evolve Energy help consumer save energy cost also laying groundwork energy infrastructure future Evolve recently Grind Startup Year award Global 2020 honor welldeserved Michael Evolve team Check Michael share Evolve’s biggest moment advice founder what’s coming next Evolve — sentence Evolve Energy Evolve help customer cut electricity bill 50 decarbonize footprint unlocking value smart home product — make Evolve different market company sell “fixed priced power” mean every hour day price sell wholesale power — electricity cheap change price every minute based grid condition pair signal IOTenabled product EVs smart thermostat appliance smart plug optimize timing use electricity align cheapest time — Evolve came problem found ‘aha’ moment I’ve helping build renewable energy project past 10 year I’ve seen project 70 reduction cost period — electricity price pay haven’t decreased much realized reason renewables create massive surplus shortage electricity grid could easily fix device could respond wholesale price — milestone proud far Getting market selling electricity challenging startup traditionally requires large pool capital creditworthiness unique workaround bypass partnership large energy company Finding right type partnership established player important enable scale startup requires one know nuance industry landscape since partner could competitor — people excited come using Evolve Customers call thinking made billing mistake didn’t charge enough Yea save people much money think it’s error little pay best conversation — pursued funding step take raised preseed We’re loosely related “climatetech” investment trend since lowest electricity time renewables abundant we’re effectively decarbonizing footprint without customer knowing Raising seed challenging — investor want pattern match don’t fall existing pattern important part get front investor twoway conversation Capital raising fulltime process — KPIs tracking think lead revenue generation growth Evolve already customer retentionrenewal rate important KPI influence LTV decrease CAC referral time — one thing every founder ask walking meeting potential investor Founders ask “Does investor company portfolio look like model” I’m saying need company industry you’re B2C company investor B2B portfolio it’s going short meeting Create spreadsheet CRM track conversation It’s added work helpful longrun — build develop talent team Finding great people first step Look people great yet open new idea Specialists know craft well limit headache road trust make great decision independently product positive externalizes carbon reduction case help keep employee excited we’re building — manage growth v sustainability Burnout risk startup growth window open also really important KPIs goal help keep team focused control leader’s role push team achieve something may feel reach also managing relationship investor stakeholder — biggest challenge Evolve team definition startup resource scarce challenge always enough resource rapid lean testing important — don’t want overspend find wrong path — advice would give founder Mental health important Eat healthy Get workout Get sleep enable ride high low without extreme — part corporate startup program accelerator one benefit UrbanX Brooklyn NY — Anything else you’d like shareWe’re thrilled win “Grind Startup Year” award see new wave company using capitalism unlock benefit society Carbon reduction next trillion dollar industry startup huge role thisTags Energy Entrepreneurship Startup Spotlight Startup Startup Lessons |
2,131 | End of Day ceremonies: the key to sleeping better and staying focused during quarantine | End of Day ceremonies: the key to sleeping better and staying focused during quarantine Joshua Mauldin Follow May 18 · 3 min read
Remember the last time you couldn’t get something out of your head and you woke up thinking about it in the middle of the night? The last few weeks of quarantine have been one continuous stretch of undifferentiated time and it’s become hard to turn things off. So I’ll share what I did about it in hopes of it helping you too. After putting this self-care routine into practice, I’ve been much more effective and focused during the day. In these times, self care is key.
I had been waking up every night at 2:30am thinking about something going on at work, the industry, my family, or the world we’ll be living in after this passes. It’s not that what’s going on is bad necessarily; it’s that I can’t shut it off.
I hoped if I could take a few minutes at the end of each day to shut my brain down, I’d be able to sleep better. So I came up with an experiment: an End Of Day ceremony where I empty out my head so there’d be room to sleep. Experiment #1: journaling.
Here’s what I write about
Anything notable from today How’ve I’ve been feeling What I’ve been wondering about What I need to do next
I write about the good, the not so good, the seemingly banal (because that’s the stuff that’s caught in my head in the middle of the night). If it’s in my head, it’s going to become text in this journal entry.
Here’s how to set it up
Find a journaling tool.
Invest no more than 20 minutes here. It’s important that your choice of software gets out of your way and makes writing pleasant. I use Day One (but something as simple as Google Docs or Notes could be enough to get you started.
Set up a reminder each day at 5 PM to write.
Day One, thankfully, handles that for me.
Create a template that includes all the topics you want to cover.
If you’re a director like me, this could be how your direct reports are doing, or initiatives you need to track. If you aren’t, some ideas could be tracking how you’re feeling, or noting tiny wins you’ve achieved. Just keep it simple.
Ten minutes later, I’ve emptied out my mind, leaving me free to enjoy a more relaxed sleep.
Delightful Surprises
This approach already yielded a few unexpected gems.
The first is that every morning I can start off knowing exactly what I need to focus on. I don’t spend any time looking for anything to do because Yesterday-Josh already figured that out and kindly set it in front of Today-Josh. It’s a huge boost to my focus.
Another bonus is the record of what I’ve been up to. It’s much easier to recall interesting insights from a project or decisions that I made so I don’t have to backtrack.
And finally, it helps me be more intentional about setting and accomplishing my goals.
In closing
After two weeks of this End of Day ceremony, my experiment in self-care did exactly what I wanted it to: I sleep much better than before. My brain is a little less frenetic and I’m able to focus more at work. Turns out, just taking time to purge my brain was the key to it all.
—
Photo by Alejandro Escamilla on Unsplash | https://medium.com/thisisartium/end-of-day-ceremonies-the-key-to-sleeping-better-and-staying-focused-during-quarantine-7902b8e01339 | ['Joshua Mauldin'] | 2020-05-18 16:37:52.778000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Productivity', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Advice'] | Title End Day ceremony key sleeping better staying focused quarantineContent End Day ceremony key sleeping better staying focused quarantine Joshua Mauldin Follow May 18 · 3 min read Remember last time couldn’t get something head woke thinking middle night last week quarantine one continuous stretch undifferentiated time it’s become hard turn thing I’ll share hope helping putting selfcare routine practice I’ve much effective focused day time self care key waking every night 230am thinking something going work industry family world we’ll living pass It’s what’s going bad necessarily it’s can’t shut hoped could take minute end day shut brain I’d able sleep better came experiment End Day ceremony empty head there’d room sleep Experiment 1 journaling Here’s write Anything notable today How’ve I’ve feeling I’ve wondering need next write good good seemingly banal that’s stuff that’s caught head middle night it’s head it’s going become text journal entry Here’s set Find journaling tool Invest 20 minute It’s important choice software get way make writing pleasant use Day One something simple Google Docs Notes could enough get started Set reminder day 5 PM write Day One thankfully handle Create template includes topic want cover you’re director like could direct report initiative need track aren’t idea could tracking you’re feeling noting tiny win you’ve achieved keep simple Ten minute later I’ve emptied mind leaving free enjoy relaxed sleep Delightful Surprises approach already yielded unexpected gem first every morning start knowing exactly need focus don’t spend time looking anything YesterdayJosh already figured kindly set front TodayJosh It’s huge boost focus Another bonus record I’ve It’s much easier recall interesting insight project decision made don’t backtrack finally help intentional setting accomplishing goal closing two week End Day ceremony experiment selfcare exactly wanted sleep much better brain little le frenetic I’m able focus work Turns taking time purge brain key — Photo Alejandro Escamilla UnsplashTags Self Improvement Productivity Entrepreneurship Advice |
2,132 | 8 Tips For Writing A Fantasy Novel | Photo by Tim Rebkavets on Unsplash
I’m no expert when it comes to writing in the fantasy genre. In fact, I write and read mostly in the mystery department. I do love a good fantasy now and then and have even written a few stories myself in the fantasy genre.
When I think of fantasy, a few things pop into my head.
The Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter
Marvel and DC comics
Dungeons & Dragons
These are vastly different from one another, don’t you think? Yet, they all have quite a few things in common. Magic, adventure, mythical creatures, superpowers, and more. Fantasy is a world we can only find in our wildest dreams.
Yet, we all want it to be real. Who doesn’t want superpowers? Who is still waiting for their Hogwarts letter to arrive? At this point, I’m waiting for Gandalf to knock on my door.
Everyone has a different definition of fantasy. If you can make it up and have the world and rules make some sort of sense to your readers, then congrats. You’re a fantasy writer.
Whether you’re writing superheroes or magical begins going on a quest, here are a few things to keep in mind.
1. Keep it “real”
Fiction is fake and fantasy is out of this world. There’s still a little bit of truth in everything we write. We base characters off of ourselves or someone else we know — even if only slightly. We take real-life places we know and love and put a spin on them making them fantastical.
Sometimes ideas come out of thin air, but most of the time you find inspiration in something or someone else. Take what you already know — a person, place, thing, or even another story — and add a twist to it.
It won’t be non-fiction and yet, there will be something familiar about it to your readers.
2. Mythical creatures
In addition to my first point, you can do a lot with real-life people, places, and creatures. Unicorns and dragons don’t exist, but they do in the fantasy world. Where did they come from? Unicorns are horses with a horn slapped on their forehead. Boom. Cool mythical creature.
You can take animals you know and love from the real world and turn them into your own. You can even take mythical creatures and turn them into your own as well. Look up the lore behind some creatures and do some research on real-life animals. Make your own lore behind the creatures in your story.
Did you know mermaids are not actually like Ariel in The Little Mermaid? They’re actually quite nasty. Your childhood may be shattered, but that’s some interesting information to use to your advantage.
3. Magic
Magic is everywhere. The spells in Harry Potter are derived from the Latin language. J.K. Rowling twisted a well-known language into something magical.
I’m not saying you need to create a magic system like Rowling did. You can name your spells and potions whatever you want. However, if there’s going to be magic in your story, keep a few things in mind.
It should have rules
It’s no fun when everyone can use magic for everything all the time. Magic should have some sort of boundaries. Can only certain people use magic? Does it need to be learned or are people born with the ability? Can spells be said in your head or do you need to speak it out loud? Can do you snap your fingers or do you need to use a wand?
If there are no rules to your magic, it’s not going to make sense to the readers. Fantasy is all about not making sense, but there a line needs to be drawn somewhere.
It should be easy to pronounce
Spells and types of magic are often weird words. At least, to us. They don’t need to be super long to make it seem fantastical. They also don’t need to have a jumble of letters to make it sound important. You can do whatever you want as long as readers can pronounce it. Or else, they’re not going to understand what it means.
4. Create character names that can be easily read and pronounced
How do you pronounce Flbergsted? What about Hyckls? Or Abcdef?
Yeah, I don’t know either. Like with the magic system, have your characters and places be easy to read and pronounce. No one wants to get stuck halfway down a page because they’re trying to pronounce the protagonist’s name.
There are plenty of fantasy name generators out there. My personal favorite? Fantasy Name Generators. That website has all the generators you could ask for.
Or, you can make something up yourself, but use your vowels wisely. Jumble letters around from already existing names. For example, my name is Rachel and I often use the fantasy name Lehcar because that’s my name backward. Some names won’t be easy to pronounce like mine, but you can move letters around. Work with what you have.
5. Know your world inside and out
If you’re creating a fantastical world, then you need to know it inside and out. You need to see it as though you’ve traveled there before. You need to know it like the back of your hand as though you’ve lived there your whole life.
Figure out the logistics of how the world works. Ask yourself a lot of questions you already know about the world we live in.
What language(s) do they speak? How do they communicate?
What sort of currency do they have?
What foods do they eat?
Are there different biomes? Do they have the four seasons?
There are a lot of other questions to be asked, but these are just a few. You may not need to know all the answers, but it’s helpful to figure out anyway. You need to know your world better than your readers.
6. Use a map
Piggybacking off the previous tip, use a map. Maps are important. Your novel may not need a map in the front of the book and your readers may not necessarily need to see it, but it’ll be helpful for you in any case.
You’ll be able to keep track of where your characters go, especially if they’re on an adventure and split up. Plus, it’s a handy list of all the place names in your world and which place is next to another.
7. Know your fantasy genre and subgenre
Fantasy is a vast genre and there are so many sub-genres to it. The Lord of the Rings and X-Men are totally different from one another. Are you writing superheroes saving the world or talking about a Hobbit going on an adventure?
Research different sub-genres of fantasy and know which one your story falls under. This will not only allow you to understand your novel better, but it’ll help you with your target audience as well.
8. Do your research
Research never hurts. There are a lot of fantasy writing craft books out there. The Internet is a vast place. No, unicorns are not real, but there is information about them in various places.
Read other fantasy books in your genre and sub-genre. What do those authors do? How do they handle their magic system or how do they portray unicorns?
Brush up on your fantasy knowledge. There’s no wrong way to write a book and, in the end, the story is yours. But it never hurts to be prepared.
Overall, writing a fantasy novel is a lot of fun. I’ve written Dungeons & Dragons-like stories and I’ve also written about a team of superheroes in Marvel fashion.
It’s fun to dabble in all these sub-genres, though writing fantasy is not a walk in the park. It’s a fun challenge and always a good idea to immerse yourself in a brand new world you created.
This article has been updated and was originally published on RachelPoli.com. | https://medium.com/swlh/8-tips-for-writing-a-fantasy-novel-133d9e7c8a9f | ['Rachel Poli'] | 2020-06-15 14:25:31.049000+00:00 | ['Novel Writing', 'Books', 'Writing', 'Fantasy', 'Writing Tips'] | Title 8 Tips Writing Fantasy NovelContent Photo Tim Rebkavets Unsplash I’m expert come writing fantasy genre fact write read mostly mystery department love good fantasy even written story fantasy genre think fantasy thing pop head Lord Rings Harry Potter Marvel DC comic Dungeons Dragons vastly different one another don’t think Yet quite thing common Magic adventure mythical creature superpower Fantasy world find wildest dream Yet want real doesn’t want superpower still waiting Hogwarts letter arrive point I’m waiting Gandalf knock door Everyone different definition fantasy make world rule make sort sense reader congrats You’re fantasy writer Whether you’re writing superheroes magical begin going quest thing keep mind 1 Keep “real” Fiction fake fantasy world There’s still little bit truth everything write base character someone else know — even slightly take reallife place know love put spin making fantastical Sometimes idea come thin air time find inspiration something someone else Take already know — person place thing even another story — add twist won’t nonfiction yet something familiar reader 2 Mythical creature addition first point lot reallife people place creature Unicorns dragon don’t exist fantasy world come Unicorns horse horn slapped forehead Boom Cool mythical creature take animal know love real world turn even take mythical creature turn well Look lore behind creature research reallife animal Make lore behind creature story know mermaid actually like Ariel Little Mermaid They’re actually quite nasty childhood may shattered that’s interesting information use advantage 3 Magic Magic everywhere spell Harry Potter derived Latin language JK Rowling twisted wellknown language something magical I’m saying need create magic system like Rowling name spell potion whatever want However there’s going magic story keep thing mind rule It’s fun everyone use magic everything time Magic sort boundary certain people use magic need learned people born ability spell said head need speak loud snap finger need use wand rule magic it’s going make sense reader Fantasy making sense line need drawn somewhere easy pronounce Spells type magic often weird word least u don’t need super long make seem fantastical also don’t need jumble letter make sound important whatever want long reader pronounce else they’re going understand mean 4 Create character name easily read pronounced pronounce Flbergsted Hyckls Abcdef Yeah don’t know either Like magic system character place easy read pronounce one want get stuck halfway page they’re trying pronounce protagonist’s name plenty fantasy name generator personal favorite Fantasy Name Generators website generator could ask make something use vowel wisely Jumble letter around already existing name example name Rachel often use fantasy name Lehcar that’s name backward name won’t easy pronounce like mine move letter around Work 5 Know world inside you’re creating fantastical world need know inside need see though you’ve traveled need know like back hand though you’ve lived whole life Figure logistics world work Ask lot question already know world live language speak communicate sort currency food eat different biome four season lot question asked may need know answer it’s helpful figure anyway need know world better reader 6 Use map Piggybacking previous tip use map Maps important novel may need map front book reader may necessarily need see it’ll helpful case You’ll able keep track character go especially they’re adventure split Plus it’s handy list place name world place next another 7 Know fantasy genre subgenre Fantasy vast genre many subgenres Lord Rings XMen totally different one another writing superheroes saving world talking Hobbit going adventure Research different subgenres fantasy know one story fall allow understand novel better it’ll help target audience well 8 research Research never hurt lot fantasy writing craft book Internet vast place unicorn real information various place Read fantasy book genre subgenre author handle magic system portray unicorn Brush fantasy knowledge There’s wrong way write book end story never hurt prepared Overall writing fantasy novel lot fun I’ve written Dungeons Dragonslike story I’ve also written team superheroes Marvel fashion It’s fun dabble subgenres though writing fantasy walk park It’s fun challenge always good idea immerse brand new world created article updated originally published RachelPolicomTags Novel Writing Books Writing Fantasy Writing Tips |
2,133 | Can Your Partner Be Your Best Friend? | Relationships
Can Your Partner Be Your Best Friend?
I didn’t think so. And then I did. And now I don’t.
Photo by Kirill Vasilev on Unsplash
In my first marriage, my husband and I told each other we were best friends. I felt like such a liar. Was I lying? I wanted it to be true. I really did. Your husband is supposed to be your best friend, right?
But he did things and said things to me that none of my friends ever would have. I remember some of our fights where I was sitting there just sobbing and saying, “You’re not my friend. You’re not even close.” He’d just call me a drama queen.
I remember feeling (somewhat) relieved when some sort of “expert" would say that “Your husband is not meant to be your best friend, ladies. That’s what your girlfriends are there for.”
One even said, “Your husband’s only obligations to you are food, shelter and clothing. Everything else is a bonus.” Fuck you, too, sir. You’re an asshole. My only obligation is to get my ass out of there, because I am his bonus.
But honestly, at the time, I took that man’s words to heart. I used his words to keep me going in my marriage and tell myself that what was happening was okay.
I became fine with him not being my best friend. I didn’t even hope for that anymore. And every time he said things that cut me, I told myself, He’s only obligated to provide for me. And obviously, since I refer to him as my first husband, I left him…after 21 years.
My current husband I love more than I ever thought I could love a man. And I truly felt we were best friends. The reason is, because I trusted him with more of myself than I ever have with anyone, ever, even after I decided to never trust anyone with that part of me again.
This is also the reason why I now do not believe your husband or partner can be your best friend.
Because I trusted him with more of myself than I ever have with anyone. He held that in his hands. It was sacred.
Your best friend — you don’t have that fragile piece of the puzzle. That’s why you’re still best friends after 43 years. With something that sacred, when it’s fucked with, the scars are great and deep.
Photo by Yannick Menard on Unsplash
And if you stay together after that one person shattered that fragile piece, and it’s because you truly do love that person, and not out of obligation or because you’re scared to leave, but because you forgive the fact that you couldn’t trust them, that takes incredible strength. That’s a shitload of pain and vulnerability on both parts.
No, you’re not best friends. You’re so much more. There is so much more at stake. Best friends are amazing and soul-deepening. You add the kind of intimacy that comes with being together as life partners and it’s a whole other level.
For an “expert” to simplify it the way he did by saying, “Your husband was never meant to be your best friend,” and, “his only obligation is food, shelter and clothing,” and we should be grateful for anything else — I feel sorry for them.
And I feel sorry for anyone who accepted that and never went looking for more. I hope they somehow got the chance to experience something deeper. As much as it can hurt, I think it’s better than not knowing. | https://medium.com/survivors/can-your-partner-be-your-best-friend-9bf3c53b213b | ['Tracy Busby'] | 2020-10-04 01:53:19.582000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Life Lessons', 'Psychology', 'Relationships', 'Mental Health'] | Title Partner Best FriendContent Relationships Partner Best Friend didn’t think don’t Photo Kirill Vasilev Unsplash first marriage husband told best friend felt like liar lying wanted true really husband supposed best friend right thing said thing none friend ever would remember fight sitting sobbing saying “You’re friend You’re even close” He’d call drama queen remember feeling somewhat relieved sort “expert would say “Your husband meant best friend lady That’s girlfriend for” One even said “Your husband’s obligation food shelter clothing Everything else bonus” Fuck sir You’re asshole obligation get as bonus honestly time took man’s word heart used word keep going marriage tell happening okay became fine best friend didn’t even hope anymore every time said thing cut told He’s obligated provide obviously since refer first husband left him…after 21 year current husband love ever thought could love man truly felt best friend reason trusted ever anyone ever even decided never trust anyone part also reason believe husband partner best friend trusted ever anyone held hand sacred best friend — don’t fragile piece puzzle That’s you’re still best friend 43 year something sacred it’s fucked scar great deep Photo Yannick Menard Unsplash stay together one person shattered fragile piece it’s truly love person obligation you’re scared leave forgive fact couldn’t trust take incredible strength That’s shitload pain vulnerability part you’re best friend You’re much much stake Best friend amazing souldeepening add kind intimacy come together life partner it’s whole level “expert” simplify way saying “Your husband never meant best friend” “his obligation food shelter clothing” grateful anything else — feel sorry feel sorry anyone accepted never went looking hope somehow got chance experience something deeper much hurt think it’s better knowingTags Life Life Lessons Psychology Relationships Mental Health |
2,134 | The gentle cycle’s hidden menace: Or why how you do laundry matters to the earth | The gentle cycle’s hidden menace: Or why how you do laundry matters to the earth
Micro-plastics in highly unusual places
First it was the tea bags, and now…. the gentle cycle?
Researchers at Newcastle University ran tests with full-scale machines to show that a delicate wash, which uses up to twice as much water as a standard cycle, releases on average 800,000 more microfibres than less water-hungry cycles. “Our findings were a surprise,” said Prof Grant Burgess, a marine microbiologist who led the research. “You would expect delicate washes to protect clothes and lead to less microfibres being released, but our careful studies showed that in fact it was the opposite.”
Colour me suitably bleached. Assuming bleach adds colours, which, given the state of laundry research, it just might.
Apparently what makes the difference is the amount of water used. The more water, the worse the effect on clothes, as far as microplastics are concerned.
Well, damn. I don’t own my washing machine. It comes with the apartment I rent. It’s a small, apartment-sized stacked unit. It has one setting for water level. Full. I’m stymied.
Are you, like me, wondering where plastics in the clothes come from?
The clothing industry produces more than 42m tonnes of synthetic fibres every year. The vast majority, about 80%, are used to make polyester garments. Previous tests have found that washing synthetic items can release between 500,000 and 6m microfibres per wash. Because many washing machines lack filters that can remove microplastics from their wastewater, the fibres are carried into water treatment plants and can eventually reach the seas. The particles, which come from a variety of sources, are now ubiquitous in the environment, from the deepest marine trench in the Pacific Ocean to the pristine wilderness of Antarctica. Scientists have found the plastics in organisms at every level of the food chain from plankton to marine mammals.
Gah.
Washing in small amounts of water (or waiting until I have enough dirty clothes for a full load), then, and not use the delicate cycle. What else?
Thankfully, the New York Times came up with some fine eco-laundry tips, and a few scary stats. U.S. households do on average 300 loads of laundry a year. This amounts to 179 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, equal to the total annual energy use of more than 21 million homes.
They say you should use cold water because “about 90 percent of the energy a washing machine uses goes toward heating water.” For reasons that are explained but that I still don’t understand, using cold water counter-intuitively involves water heating (I know, I know) so if your machine has a “tap cold” setting on it, use that.
Mine does, yay!
Not only will you save money using tap cold water to wash most of your laundry, but you’ll help save the planet, too:
One calculation from the cleaning institute, using Energy Star data, estimated that a household could cut its emissions by 864 pounds of carbon per year by washing four out of five loads in cold water.
Using cold water also apparently – bingo, full circle – helps with the microplastics thing. As for drying the clothes, you already know that, the best way to save on energy and carbon emissions is to air dry as much as possible. | https://brigittepellerin.medium.com/the-gentle-cycles-hidden-menace-or-why-how-you-do-laundry-matters-to-the-earth-bd4b68d1f0a4 | ['Brigitte Pellerin'] | 2019-10-29 22:44:21.507000+00:00 | ['Driving', 'Sustainability', 'Laundry', 'Environment', 'Microplastic'] | Title gentle cycle’s hidden menace laundry matter earthContent gentle cycle’s hidden menace laundry matter earth Microplastics highly unusual place First tea bag now… gentle cycle Researchers Newcastle University ran test fullscale machine show delicate wash us twice much water standard cycle release average 800000 microfibres le waterhungry cycle “Our finding surprise” said Prof Grant Burgess marine microbiologist led research “You would expect delicate wash protect clothes lead le microfibres released careful study showed fact opposite” Colour suitably bleached Assuming bleach add colour given state laundry research might Apparently make difference amount water used water worse effect clothes far microplastics concerned Well damn don’t washing machine come apartment rent It’s small apartmentsized stacked unit one setting water level Full I’m stymied like wondering plastic clothes come clothing industry produce 42m tonne synthetic fibre every year vast majority 80 used make polyester garment Previous test found washing synthetic item release 500000 6m microfibres per wash many washing machine lack filter remove microplastics wastewater fibre carried water treatment plant eventually reach sea particle come variety source ubiquitous environment deepest marine trench Pacific Ocean pristine wilderness Antarctica Scientists found plastic organism every level food chain plankton marine mammal Gah Washing small amount water waiting enough dirty clothes full load use delicate cycle else Thankfully New York Times came fine ecolaundry tip scary stats US household average 300 load laundry year amount 179 million metric ton carbon dioxide equal total annual energy use 21 million home say use cold water “about 90 percent energy washing machine us go toward heating water” reason explained still don’t understand using cold water counterintuitively involves water heating know know machine “tap cold” setting use Mine yay save money using tap cold water wash laundry you’ll help save planet One calculation cleaning institute using Energy Star data estimated household could cut emission 864 pound carbon per year washing four five load cold water Using cold water also apparently – bingo full circle – help microplastics thing drying clothes already know best way save energy carbon emission air dry much possibleTags Driving Sustainability Laundry Environment Microplastic |
2,135 | 3 Existentialist Lessons to Help You Deal With COVID-19 | 1) Don’t waste time searching for a “meaning”, there isn’t any.
On social media, you surely have encountered people trying to make sense of the situation. Whether it is Earth taking its revenge on polluters, God punishing us for our sins, or Capitalism finally collapsing, everyone seems to come up with their explanation to the events of these last weeks. You certainly are trying to make sense of the situation yourself, either by adhering to one of the aforementioned ideas, or by coming up with your own. And it is normal to act that way: to quote Camus, “Plagues are a common thing, but you hardly believe in plagues when they fall on your head”[2].
You thus want to understand it and that search for meaning is a perfectly human mechanism — but is it what you should spend time on? No, existentialists would tell you.
Indeed, one of the first existentialist postulates is that there is strictly no sense to our world. God, destiny or whatever you may call it — there are no such things. No superior entity is driving your life and giving it meaning. We, humans, are truly left by ourselves in a world that is thus absurd. Hence, the first existentialist lesson on how to deal with the pandemic is to stop wasting time searching for its meaning, since there isn’t any to anything anyway.
Quite destabilizing, isn’t it? The feeling caused by the realization of the world’s absurdity is what Sartre would call the Nausea — but don’t worry, you’ll overcome it thanks to the second existentialist lesson.
2) You’re completely free, be responsible with that liberty.
Existentialism just freed you from the search for meaning in which you were stuck. But the meaninglessness of the world should not lead you to extremes — such as suicide, which Camus tackles in Sisyphus Myth [3]. On the contrary, as explained by Camus in the same book, you should enjoy the fact that this absurdity gives you complete freedom. Indeed, because the world is absurd, you are completely free to act according to your own will!
However, does this mean you should do anything you want? In the present day, disrespect confinement rules, hang out with your friends, and ransack the toilet paper stocks of your local shop? No. True existentialism means acting as you would like others to act: in a way that enables society to function. So, even though you are free to do all the things mentioned previously, you should consider not doing them, as they would cause the virus to spread and shortages with it.
Think of the Kantian categorical imperative: you should act only as if your action was to become a universal rule!
The strength of existentialism is thus to stress how each one of us is responsible for their action. As the existentialist thinker Jean-Paul Sartre puts it [3], “man is nothing but what he does of himself” and is thus “entirely responsible for what he is”. Yes, you are free to act, but it should be in a conscious way. Because by acting in a certain way, one agrees with the values behind their action. The existentialist man is thus also “responsible of all men”: the values he defends through his actions are ones he would accept to become universal.
Hence during this pandemic, you are free to act. But bear in mind that all your actions are impactful. And they reflect the values you defend: either you help the virus to spread, or you fight against it.
3) You have the power to act, use it.
That is why, by confronting us with our responsibility, existentialism might be frightening. The burden of our total liberty can seem unbearable, creating anguish in ourselves. “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom”, says the existentialist pioneer Kierkegaard. However, existentialism needs to be rather understood as a philosophy of empowerment; something particularly helpful during the current sanitary crisis.
In The Plague, written by Camus during his existentialist phase or “cycle of revolt”, the doctor Rieux indeed keeps trying to heal people that will die from the disease, even though it is meaningless and absurd. He does what he believes to be right and fights for it at all costs. Going back to existentialism at the time of COVID-19 can thus help you find the strength to fight for what you think is fair. Even though you do not need to be as brave as Rieux, there are some small actions you can do. If you want the end of this pandemic, of its deaths, isolation and constant fear, you should act accordingly. | https://medium.com/inspired-writer/dealing-with-coronavirus-three-lessons-from-existentialism-7a1e3865d08b | ['Jeanne Briatte'] | 2020-06-12 11:29:01.467000+00:00 | ['Albert Camus', 'Existentialism', 'Covid 19', 'Psychology', 'Coronavirus'] | Title 3 Existentialist Lessons Help Deal COVID19Content 1 Don’t waste time searching “meaning” isn’t social medium surely encountered people trying make sense situation Whether Earth taking revenge polluter God punishing u sin Capitalism finally collapsing everyone seems come explanation event last week certainly trying make sense situation either adhering one aforementioned idea coming normal act way quote Camus “Plagues common thing hardly believe plague fall head”2 thus want understand search meaning perfectly human mechanism — spend time existentialist would tell Indeed one first existentialist postulate strictly sense world God destiny whatever may call — thing superior entity driving life giving meaning human truly left world thus absurd Hence first existentialist lesson deal pandemic stop wasting time searching meaning since isn’t anything anyway Quite destabilizing isn’t feeling caused realization world’s absurdity Sartre would call Nausea — don’t worry you’ll overcome thanks second existentialist lesson 2 You’re completely free responsible liberty Existentialism freed search meaning stuck meaninglessness world lead extreme — suicide Camus tackle Sisyphus Myth 3 contrary explained Camus book enjoy fact absurdity give complete freedom Indeed world absurd completely free act according However mean anything want present day disrespect confinement rule hang friend ransack toilet paper stock local shop True existentialism mean acting would like others act way enables society function even though free thing mentioned previously consider would cause virus spread shortage Think Kantian categorical imperative act action become universal rule strength existentialism thus stress one u responsible action existentialist thinker JeanPaul Sartre put 3 “man nothing himself” thus “entirely responsible is” Yes free act conscious way acting certain way one agrees value behind action existentialist man thus also “responsible men” value defends action one would accept become universal Hence pandemic free act bear mind action impactful reflect value defend either help virus spread fight 3 power act use confronting u responsibility existentialism might frightening burden total liberty seem unbearable creating anguish “Anxiety dizziness freedom” say existentialist pioneer Kierkegaard However existentialism need rather understood philosophy empowerment something particularly helpful current sanitary crisis Plague written Camus existentialist phase “cycle revolt” doctor Rieux indeed keep trying heal people die disease even though meaningless absurd belief right fight cost Going back existentialism time COVID19 thus help find strength fight think fair Even though need brave Rieux small action want end pandemic death isolation constant fear act accordinglyTags Albert Camus Existentialism Covid 19 Psychology Coronavirus |
2,136 | This is One of the Rare Habits That Profoundly Changed My Life | This is One of the Rare Habits That Profoundly Changed My Life
And is responsible for much of my success
Every single day, you see approximately 1,023,872 articles about habits that will make you more successful.
These articles aren’t bad, per se, but most of them miss the fundamental point in writing articles about habits.
Habits in and of themselves will never make your life better. If you become the type of person who adopts habits just to become Mr or Ms. Habit then you’ll never move the needle in your life when it comes to your actual goals.
You can use certain habits as a means to an end.
The habit I’m about to share with you has helped me build a life and business I love.
It helped me overcome major challenges in my life. And I credit much of the ‘wisdom’ I’ve accumulated to this habit.
I won’t buy the lede here. Keeping a personal journal has had a more profound impact than most of the other habits I’ve ever tried or adopted.
Why Journaling is So Effective
They say if you want to reach your goals, write them down.
If you want to remember something, write it down.
If you want to discover what’s really going on in your mind, write it down.
I use journaling to serve all three of those purposes.
I don’t know the science behind journaling, but there seems to be something special about the connection between your brain and your hand physically writing something down.
Also, if you’re looking for new ideas or you want to get to the bottom of something that’s bothering you, journaling helps you tap into your subconscious and discover some of the issues that were in your blindspot.
The act of journaling — having to move a part of your body — seems to signal a real effort toward the end you want it to serve. It’s a step above thinking and daydreaming.
And if you can turn it into a habit, you’re subtly telling yourself, “I have committed to doing something.”
Commitments build confidence, self-esteem, and make it more likely to reach whatever goals you have.
Each positive little commitment or habit you adopt, you’re saying “I trust myself.” That’s key. That’s huge. It’s pretty much what self-help boils down to.
How you journal doesn’t matter much but here are some ideas if you’re feeling stuck.
My Journaling Routine
My routine is pretty simple.
Every morning, I write down three things I’m grateful for. I do this because I’m very ambitious and have a hard time being content with my progress. I use this gratitude exercise to realize how many good things have happened in my life. It keeps me grounded — for about a day — then I have to do it all over again to refocus. It helps.
Then I use James Altucher’s idea-generating technique.
Here’s how it works. You write down 10 ideas per day. These ideas can be about anything you want. You can create ideas to improve your own life.You can also create ideas for other peoples lives and businesses. James says he often uses his ideas as a networking technique. He’ll create ideas for others and send them (tactfully) as suggestions.
I usually write ideas for articles, books, and ways to reach some of the goals I have.
You can use this technique to build your “idea muscle.” Most of your ideas will be bad, but some will be good. If you do this every day for a year, you’re bound to have a great idea or two out of 3,650 tries.
For those of you looking for a journaling routine you can use without having come up with everything yourself, there are authors and entrepreneurs who’ve created journals with pre-defined sections you can use to improve your life.
The Daily Stoic Journal
Ryan Holiday is famous for bringing the ancient philosophy of stoicism into the modern mainstream. His book, The Daily Stoic, teaches one lesson per day from stoicism and uses examples from the real world to illustrate them.
What is stoicism? It’s the art of keeping yourself sane in an unfair and chaotic world.
The Daily Stoic comes with a companion, The Daily Stoic Journal, which has an accompanying section for each lesson where you can write down your own thoughts.
If you’re feeling stuck, anxious, or afraid and full of doubt, this is the journal for you.
The Self Journal
The Self Journal, created by Cathryn Lavery and Allen Brouwer, helps you reach your goals and come up with cool ideas.
It provides a systematic approach for both setting goals and tackling them.
It includes items like:
Major goals
Daily targets
Lessons learned
Daily activities
Morning gratitude
Evening gratitude
Daily quote
You can even get a pdf version of the journal for free right here.
These are the ones I’m familiar with, but there are many more you can find online.
Famous Journaling Routines
Julia Cameron, author of The Artist Within, created an extremely popular morning routine called morning pages.
Morning pages involve free-writing for three full pages about anything you want. Free-writing that number of pages usually elicits creativity. Also, many have attested to the routine leading to major emotional breakthroughs.
It makes sense. If you’re feeling a little bit down but don’t know why and free-write about it for three pages, somethings going to come up.
Try it and see if you like it. I’ve done it before, but I like my short and concise routine.
Benjamin Franklin — one of the original self-help gurus — created a ‘virtues journal.’ It contained thirteen virtues charted on the page for each day.
He’d focus on one virtue per day and try to maintain the others as well. If he failed to be virtuous in one area, he marked an x on the cart.
In the beginning, the chart was filled with x’s. After a time, there were less. He credits the journaling technique for making him a better person:
Tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.
With Journaling, the Possibilities Are Endless
Certain habits and routines get promoted too much, like journaling and reading, but I don’t mind because they’re life-changing habits that I hope people adopt.
You can structure your journal any way you want. Keep a journal for six months and I bet you’ll improve your life in some shape or form.
Why is it so powerful?
Again, the commitment alone builds credibility with yourself. Also, there’s power in monitoring yourself on a daily basis.
A great example of the power of monitoring — one of the best ways to eat less is to start tracking your food. Don’t even try to change your habits at first, just track what you’re putting into your body and it might inspire you.
The same goes for your finances…
…and your goals.
…your happiness.
…your life.
If anything, journaling helps you address what’s going on in your life. That’s a start. A great start. | https://medium.com/curious/this-is-one-of-the-rare-habits-that-profoundly-changed-my-life-67e4894c344c | ['Ayodeji Awosika'] | 2020-10-08 20:01:34.975000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Psychology', 'Productivity', 'Advice'] | Title One Rare Habits Profoundly Changed LifeContent One Rare Habits Profoundly Changed Life responsible much success Every single day see approximately 1023872 article habit make successful article aren’t bad per se miss fundamental point writing article habit Habits never make life better become type person adopts habit become Mr Ms Habit you’ll never move needle life come actual goal use certain habit mean end habit I’m share helped build life business love helped overcome major challenge life credit much ‘wisdom’ I’ve accumulated habit won’t buy lede Keeping personal journal profound impact habit I’ve ever tried adopted Journaling Effective say want reach goal write want remember something write want discover what’s really going mind write use journaling serve three purpose don’t know science behind journaling seems something special connection brain hand physically writing something Also you’re looking new idea want get bottom something that’s bothering journaling help tap subconscious discover issue blindspot act journaling — move part body — seems signal real effort toward end want serve It’s step thinking daydreaming turn habit you’re subtly telling “I committed something” Commitments build confidence selfesteem make likely reach whatever goal positive little commitment habit adopt you’re saying “I trust myself” That’s key That’s huge It’s pretty much selfhelp boil journal doesn’t matter much idea you’re feeling stuck Journaling Routine routine pretty simple Every morning write three thing I’m grateful I’m ambitious hard time content progress use gratitude exercise realize many good thing happened life keep grounded — day — refocus help use James Altucher’s ideagenerating technique Here’s work write 10 idea per day idea anything want create idea improve lifeYou also create idea people life business James say often us idea networking technique He’ll create idea others send tactfully suggestion usually write idea article book way reach goal use technique build “idea muscle” idea bad good every day year you’re bound great idea two 3650 try looking journaling routine use without come everything author entrepreneur who’ve created journal predefined section use improve life Daily Stoic Journal Ryan Holiday famous bringing ancient philosophy stoicism modern mainstream book Daily Stoic teach one lesson per day stoicism us example real world illustrate stoicism It’s art keeping sane unfair chaotic world Daily Stoic come companion Daily Stoic Journal accompanying section lesson write thought you’re feeling stuck anxious afraid full doubt journal Self Journal Self Journal created Cathryn Lavery Allen Brouwer help reach goal come cool idea provides systematic approach setting goal tackling includes item like Major goal Daily target Lessons learned Daily activity Morning gratitude Evening gratitude Daily quote even get pdf version journal free right one I’m familiar many find online Famous Journaling Routines Julia Cameron author Artist Within created extremely popular morning routine called morning page Morning page involve freewriting three full page anything want Freewriting number page usually elicits creativity Also many attested routine leading major emotional breakthrough make sense you’re feeling little bit don’t know freewrite three page somethings going come Try see like I’ve done like short concise routine Benjamin Franklin — one original selfhelp guru — created ‘virtues journal’ contained thirteen virtue charted page day He’d focus one virtue per day try maintain others well failed virtuous one area marked x cart beginning chart filled x’s time le credit journaling technique making better person Tho’ never arrived perfection ambitious obtaining fell far short yet endeavour better happier man otherwise attempted Journaling Possibilities Endless Certain habit routine get promoted much like journaling reading don’t mind they’re lifechanging habit hope people adopt structure journal way want Keep journal six month bet you’ll improve life shape form powerful commitment alone build credibility Also there’s power monitoring daily basis great example power monitoring — one best way eat le start tracking food Don’t even try change habit first track you’re putting body might inspire go finances… …and goal …your happiness …your life anything journaling help address what’s going life That’s start great startTags Self Improvement Life Lessons Psychology Productivity Advice |
2,137 | My data science template for Python | I’ve been learning data science and AI for the past year, during this time my way of working was to search for the code I needed at every step of my data science projects, copy-paste it and adapt it to my project. I thought it would be really useful for me to have some kind of template containing all the code I could need for a data science project.
In this post I will show my data science template. It is a Python file with most of the code needed for a data science project, structured in a way that makes it super easy to follow through.
Let’s begin by the ending part. You can find this template in my Github:
Now that you have easy access to the code, I’ll explain you how it is structured. Keep in mind that I’ll keep updating this template on Github but I won’t update this medium article, some parts of what I write here might become outdated.
First of all, I followed the structure for a data science project that you can find on the Appendix B of the book Hands-on Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn and TensorFlow by Aurelien Geron (https://amzn.to/2WIfsmk)
After creating an empty file, following the structure outlined on the book and adding most of the text on Appendix B as comments to structure the code, I started filling every part of the document with relevant code snippets (still working on it). The snippets come from many different sources, from code I wrote for competitions I participated, from friends, from examples on the internet, from books, etc.
While making it I was participating on the CareerCon 2019 — Help Navigate Robots Kaggle competition. While doing my first tests, i decided to go for the fast.ai strategy of launching a model as quick as possible and getting a baseline metric. While doing that I tested a random forest model and got a 39% accuracy. Then I started following this template and achieved a 65%!!!
Right now I’m looking to add even more snippets to the template and make it useful for different kinds of data (right now it only has code for tabulated data).
Let’s dive deeper into the code.
This is intended to be a summary of the structure, commenting the most important parts:
As always, we’ll begin with the necessary imports:
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns
from tqdm import tqdm
sns.set()
Most of them are the typical data science imports. The ones it’s worth talking about are seaborn which is a data visualization library which works on top of matplotlib, adding extra functionality to it, different kinds of plots and overall prettier visuals. Also it’s worth noting tqdm, a library which gives you progression bars so you can see how much your functions are taking to run.
A quick tqdm example
Then we load our data, there can be many variations of it depending on how your data is structured, we won’t cover those here.
df = pd.read_csv(‘file.csv’)
Now we visualize our data in order to get a quick glimpse of what we have in our hands:
#Visualize data
df.head()
df.describe()
df.info()
df.columns
#For a categorical dataset we want to see how many instances of each category there are
df['categorical_var'].value_counts() #Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)
sns.pairplot(df)
sns.distplot(df['column'])
sns.countplot(df['column'])
Example of a pairplot result
Data pre-processing
The first step after loading and visualizing the data is to pre-process it and give it an appropriate format for passing it to the machine learning models.
First let’s check for errors in our dataset and fix them, let’s check for NaN’s, infinite numbers, duplicated values, etc.
#Fix or remove outliers
plt.boxplot(df['feature1'])
plt.boxplot(df['feature2']) #Check for missing data
total_null = df.isna().sum().sort_values(ascending=False)
percent = (df.isna().sum()/df.isna().count()).sort_values(ascending=False)
missing_data = pd.concat([total_null, percent], axis=1, keys=['Total', 'Percent']) #Generate new features with missing data
df['feature1_nan'] = df['feature1'].isna()
df['feature2_nan'] = df['feature2'].isna()
#Also look for infinite data, recommended to check it also after feature engineering
df.replace(np.inf,0,inplace=True)
df.replace(-np.inf,0,inplace=True) #Check for duplicated data
df.duplicated().value_counts()
df['duplicated'] = df.duplicated() #Create a new feature #Fill missing data or drop columns/rows
df.fillna()
df.drop('column_full_of_nans')
df.dropna(how='any')
Then we pass to a feature engineering phase. I’m not going to copy any code here because this section will be totally different for every project you work on, in the template there are all the feature engineering stuff I’ve used in previous projects, of course there are only a few examples of feature engineering since the amount of different feature engineering that can be done is almost infinite and will vary completely depending on your project and kind of data.
Model selection and evaluation
After data pre-processing is done and we have the data in the required format, we can start working with models.
We must define a validation strategy like K-Fold Cross Validation or dividing the dataset in train/validation sets. Depending on your dataset and your objectives you might opt for one option or other. Here’s the code for some of them:
#Define Validation method
#Train and validation set split
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
X = df.drop('target_var', inplace=True, axis=1)
y = df['column to predict']
X_train, X_val, y_train, y_val = train_test_split(X, y, test_size = 0.4, stratify = y.values, random_state = 101) #Cross validation
from sklearn.model_selection import cross_val_score
cross_val_score(model, X, y, cv=5) #StratifiedKFold
from sklearn.model_selection import StratifiedKFold
skf = StratifiedKFold(n_splits=5, random_state=101)
for train_index, val_index in skf.split(X, y):
X_train, X_val = X[train_index], X[val_index]
y_train, y_val = y[train_index], y[val_index]
Finally we jump to the model fitting section, we can try many different models and evaluate their performance comparing them to one another and so we can choose the most promising ones. On the template there are shown implementations of many different algorithms. I’m not gonna show them all here since that would be 100+ lines of code. However I will show as an example the implementation of Random Forest which is one of the most versatile algorithms used in Machine Learning.
#########
# Random Forest
#########
from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestRegressor
rfr = RandomForestRegressor(n_estimators=200, random_state=101, n_jobs=-1, verbose=3)
rfr.fit(X_train, y_train) #Use model to predict
y_pred = rfr.predict(X_val) #Evaluate accuracy of the model
acc_rf = round(rfr.score(X_val, y_val) * 100, 2) #Evaluate feature importance
importances = rfr.feature_importances_
std = np.std([importances for tree in rfr.estimators_], axis=0)
indices = np.argsort(importances)[::-1]
feature_importances = pd.DataFrame(rfr.feature_importances_, index = X_train.columns, columns=['importance']).sort_values('importance', ascending=False)
feature_importances.sort_values('importance', ascending=False) plt.figure()
plt.title("Feature importances")
plt.bar(range(X_train.shape[1]), importances[indices], yerr=std[indices], align="center")
plt.xticks(range(X_train.shape[1]), indices)
plt.xlim([-1, X_train.shape[1]])
plt.show()
We should decide what performance metrics we will use to evaluate the model. There are many different metrics and as always, depending on your problem, you might choose one or another or maybe many of them. I won’t post any code here since there is a huge amount of them.
To end up with a great algorithm, we can add hyper-parameter tuning on top of the chosen algorithms. Here’s an example of doing so by using a Grid Search algorithm.
from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV
param_grid = {'C':[0.1,1,10,100,1000], 'gamma':[1,0.1,0.01,0.001,0.0001]}
grid = GridSearchCV(model, param_grid, verbose = 3)
grid.fit(X_train, y_train)
grid.best_params_
grid.best_estimator_
Conclusion
With this I’ve covered all the steps you’ll need for most of your data science projects. Every section should be expanded with code to treat your specific dataset and you should use your expertise to decide which steps you should follow and which steps you shouldn't. | https://medium.com/saturdays-ai/my-data-science-template-for-python-59a67cba4290 | ['Albert Sanchez Lafuente'] | 2019-04-14 21:16:54.029000+00:00 | ['Kaggle', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Python', 'Technology'] | Title data science template PythonContent I’ve learning data science AI past year time way working search code needed every step data science project copypaste adapt project thought would really useful kind template containing code could need data science project post show data science template Python file code needed data science project structured way make super easy follow Let’s begin ending part find template Github easy access code I’ll explain structured Keep mind I’ll keep updating template Github won’t update medium article part write might become outdated First followed structure data science project find Appendix B book Handson Machine Learning ScikitLearn TensorFlow Aurelien Geron httpsamznto2WIfsmk creating empty file following structure outlined book adding text Appendix B comment structure code started filling every part document relevant code snippet still working snippet come many different source code wrote competition participated friend example internet book etc making participating CareerCon 2019 — Help Navigate Robots Kaggle competition first test decided go fastai strategy launching model quick possible getting baseline metric tested random forest model got 39 accuracy started following template achieved 65 Right I’m looking add even snippet template make useful different kind data right code tabulated data Let’s dive deeper code intended summary structure commenting important part always we’ll begin necessary import import numpy np import panda pd import matplotlibpyplot plt import seaborn sn tqdm import tqdm snsset typical data science import one it’s worth talking seaborn data visualization library work top matplotlib adding extra functionality different kind plot overall prettier visuals Also it’s worth noting tqdm library give progression bar see much function taking run quick tqdm example load data many variation depending data structured won’t cover df pdreadcsv‘filecsv’ visualize data order get quick glimpse hand Visualize data dfhead dfdescribe dfinfo dfcolumns categorical dataset want see many instance category dfcategoricalvarvaluecounts Exploratory Data Analysis EDA snspairplotdf snsdistplotdfcolumn snscountplotdfcolumn Example pairplot result Data preprocessing first step loading visualizing data preprocess give appropriate format passing machine learning model First let’s check error dataset fix let’s check NaN’s infinite number duplicated value etc Fix remove outlier pltboxplotdffeature1 pltboxplotdffeature2 Check missing data totalnull dfisnasumsortvaluesascendingFalse percent dfisnasumdfisnacountsortvaluesascendingFalse missingdata pdconcattotalnull percent axis1 keysTotal Percent Generate new feature missing data dffeature1nan dffeature1isna dffeature2nan dffeature2isna Also look infinite data recommended check also feature engineering dfreplacenpinf0inplaceTrue dfreplacenpinf0inplaceTrue Check duplicated data dfduplicatedvaluecounts dfduplicated dfduplicated Create new feature Fill missing data drop columnsrows dffillna dfdropcolumnfullofnans dfdropnahowany pas feature engineering phase I’m going copy code section totally different every project work template feature engineering stuff I’ve used previous project course example feature engineering since amount different feature engineering done almost infinite vary completely depending project kind data Model selection evaluation data preprocessing done data required format start working model must define validation strategy like KFold Cross Validation dividing dataset trainvalidation set Depending dataset objective might opt one option Here’s code Define Validation method Train validation set split sklearnmodelselection import traintestsplit X dfdroptargetvar inplaceTrue axis1 dfcolumn predict Xtrain Xval ytrain yval traintestsplitX testsize 04 stratify yvalues randomstate 101 Cross validation sklearnmodelselection import crossvalscore crossvalscoremodel X cv5 StratifiedKFold sklearnmodelselection import StratifiedKFold skf StratifiedKFoldnsplits5 randomstate101 trainindex valindex skfsplitX Xtrain Xval Xtrainindex Xvalindex ytrain yval ytrainindex yvalindex Finally jump model fitting section try many different model evaluate performance comparing one another choose promising one template shown implementation many different algorithm I’m gonna show since would 100 line code However show example implementation Random Forest one versatile algorithm used Machine Learning Random Forest sklearnensemble import RandomForestRegressor rfr RandomForestRegressornestimators200 randomstate101 njobs1 verbose3 rfrfitXtrain ytrain Use model predict ypred rfrpredictXval Evaluate accuracy model accrf roundrfrscoreXval yval 100 2 Evaluate feature importance importance rfrfeatureimportances std npstdimportances tree rfrestimators axis0 index npargsortimportances1 featureimportances pdDataFramerfrfeatureimportances index Xtraincolumns columnsimportancesortvaluesimportance ascendingFalse featureimportancessortvaluesimportance ascendingFalse pltfigure plttitleFeature importance pltbarrangeXtrainshape1 importancesindices yerrstdindices aligncenter pltxticksrangeXtrainshape1 index pltxlim1 Xtrainshape1 pltshow decide performance metric use evaluate model many different metric always depending problem might choose one another maybe many won’t post code since huge amount end great algorithm add hyperparameter tuning top chosen algorithm Here’s example using Grid Search algorithm sklearnmodelselection import GridSearchCV paramgrid C011101001000 gamma101001000100001 grid GridSearchCVmodel paramgrid verbose 3 gridfitXtrain ytrain gridbestparams gridbestestimator Conclusion I’ve covered step you’ll need data science project Every section expanded code treat specific dataset use expertise decide step follow step shouldntTags Kaggle Machine Learning Data Science Python Technology |
2,138 | The Mystery of Madness Throughout the Ages | Madness can never be truly understood, and madness is something that is still very mysterious, unique, and belonging to the other world, a world that only few of us have access to.
By Ekaterina Netchitailova, PhD
It was Michel Foucault, a French philosopher, who claimed that madness is a social construction, and that how we look at it is a direct result of the social forces at any given time.
Thus, during the Renaissance period, according to Foucault, madness was sometimes perceived as possession of a different kind of wisdom, where the mad were viewed as interesting people, deemed of admiration by some artists.
The famous painting by Bosch, The Ship of Fools, or The Satire of the Debauched Revelers, clearly shows this different view on madness.
In it we can see the debauchery caused by some distinguished members of society. The two figures in front are a Franciscan friar and a nun, quite unthinkable at the time of the painting (1490–1500).
But this painting, in particular, has an additional meaning. The ship itself holds the biggest symbolism. Because it was on this kind of ship that the mad were put and sent into the fools’ paradise (into nowhere) in the Middle Ages.
In this painting, however, there is only one fool, who is put there with a purpose: to remind the viewers that it is the ship of fools indeed which is depicted. But by placing other characters, so called ‘sane’ members of the society in it, Bosch made his view on madness quite clear:
It is not the mad who should be sent away or treated but all the hypocritical members of the society who harm others in the name of God.
Moving from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment, the view of madness started to change. The Age of Enlightenment was characterised by the predominance of reason, where all manifestations of weirdness started to be frowned upon. During the Enlightenment mad people started to be institutionalised, put away in secure facilities but still depicted as curiosities, where the public seeking entertainment could get it through the visits to asylums. In asylums the ‘normals’ could watch the mad, laugh at them, and think perhaps that they were lucky to have escaped such a predicament.
The art of that time still shows though the dilemma of madness, where the artists can be seen to reflect on the existential question: “Should we lock away these people, or should we instead admit the possibility of being different, look at it as something mysterious, something which can never be understood?”
One such painting by Tony Robert-Fleury depicts this puzzle of the question of madness, called La Salptrière (1795):
In this painting we can see a famous clinician, Philippe Pinnel, who was a chief physician at the famous Hospice de la La Salpȇtrière, an asylum for the insane in Paris. Philippe Pinnel advocated a more humanistic approach to the treatment of psychiatric patients, and there are some rumours that he even managed to liberate some inmates from their ordeal.
In this painting the artist shows how Pinnel orders the chains to be removed from a patient, which also demonstrates the growing power of psychiatry. Give the chains to one kind man in power, and he will liberate the oppressed. Give it to someone who wants to abuse the same power, and you are chained for life.
Moving back to the modern age, we don’t see psychiatric patients in physical chains anymore, but the power is still strongly in the hands of the psychiatrists, who can, by the act of simple words, deny a person of his freedom, independence, and joy of living. There are no physical chains, but there are still walls: walls of the psychiatric hospitals, walls of the forced injections, walls of diagnoses which create stigma and put a mental burden on one’s mind.
The story of modern psychiatry really begins in the middle of the last century, but its roots go back to the age of reasoning when madness was reduced by scientists to an ‘object’ of mind — an object which could be studied, analysed, and as some of them claim nowadays, even understood.
We can see it in the famous painting by Pierre Aristide André Brouillet (1887), called A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière. In it we can witness a clinical demonstration given to postgraduate students by the famous neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot.
The patient, who is being studied, is depicted as an object and nothing more. She is there for demonstration purposes, reduced from being a person to an object of curiosity, an artefact on display. Her name is Blanche, and it is only the field of academic studies called ‘mad studies’ which calls for attention to her. The academics in this area want to know about Blanche, they are not interested in what Charcot tries to say.
Modern psychiatry reduces all humans coming under its attention to these objects of study, entities which are lost in the background behind the diagnoses assigned to them. Nowadays they are called ‘bipolar’, ‘schizophrenics’ or ‘schizoids’ and it is only when the individuals behind these labels start to speak that we see a person. We can learn then that every ‘bipolar’ is a different ‘bipolar’, that ‘schizophrenia’ and ‘bipolar disorder’ are almost the same thing, and that behind the diagnoses there are fascinating lives, spiritual journeys, but also confinements to psychiatric hospitals for life.
Psychiatry reduces us to objects of study, to victims of some mysterious ‘brain disease’, by its narrative of ‘mental illness’ which claims that “mental illness is like any other illness.” Not only does this make madness a purely scientific domain, deprived of its mystery, it also makes it extremely boring.
But madness is never boring. And it shouldn’t be boring. By reducing it to purely biological explanations (for which psychiatry has failed so far to provide any concrete proof), it removes the personal narratives behind it. It reduces Blanche to an object, it gives Beethoven and Gogol a diagnosis, it sees the whole oeuvre of Van Gogh as a battle of ‘mental illness’.
But as a mad person myself, as a person who doesn’t believe in the narrative of ‘mental illness’, I am interested in Blanche. I want to hear her story. I see the paintings of Van Gogh as the paintings of a true genius. I hear in the music of Beethoven the glory of an unusual and incredibly beautiful mind. I read Nietzsche with curiosity at the marvels of his unique mind and perception, and I devour Gogol for what he truly was, a talented writer, one of the best.
They say today that these artists would have a better life if they were on the medications that are available now — that they would enjoy better health if they had access to modern ‘treatment’.
But it is a big question whether they would be better off. From my personal experience, I know that under the medication that psychiatrists prescribe, one can’t really function, let alone create, write or paint. All the artists I know actively refuse the treatment on offer. Or they actively re-negotiate the terms and conditions of its use.
Would these marvelous people leave us the works of their genius minds if under a heavy dose of ‘antipsychotics’?
They would probably go less mad, but I doubt that we would then enjoy so many paintings of Van Gogh, or listen to Beethoven.
It is without a doubt that many people say medication made their lives better. Some welcome even their ‘diagnoses’ because it gives some explanation, it gives a reassurance.
But behind the diagnoses, and the narrative of ‘mental illness’, continues to lie the mystery of madness. Psychiatrists can resort to their ‘medical’ explanations as much as they want, but the truth remains the same as in the previous centuries.
Madness can never be truly understood, and madness is something that is still very mysterious, unique, and belonging to the other world, a world that only few of us have access to. | https://medium.com/mad-in-america/the-mystery-of-madness-throughout-the-ages-29370ad1c485 | ['Mad In America'] | 2019-01-02 22:21:14.041000+00:00 | ['Bipolar', 'Psychology', 'Depression', 'Medicine', 'Mental Health'] | Title Mystery Madness Throughout AgesContent Madness never truly understood madness something still mysterious unique belonging world world u access Ekaterina Netchitailova PhD Michel Foucault French philosopher claimed madness social construction look direct result social force given time Thus Renaissance period according Foucault madness sometimes perceived possession different kind wisdom mad viewed interesting people deemed admiration artist famous painting Bosch Ship Fools Satire Debauched Revelers clearly show different view madness see debauchery caused distinguished member society two figure front Franciscan friar nun quite unthinkable time painting 1490–1500 painting particular additional meaning ship hold biggest symbolism kind ship mad put sent fools’ paradise nowhere Middle Ages painting however one fool put purpose remind viewer ship fool indeed depicted placing character called ‘sane’ member society Bosch made view madness quite clear mad sent away treated hypocritical member society harm others name God Moving Renaissance Age Enlightenment view madness started change Age Enlightenment characterised predominance reason manifestation weirdness started frowned upon Enlightenment mad people started institutionalised put away secure facility still depicted curiosity public seeking entertainment could get visit asylum asylum ‘normals’ could watch mad laugh think perhaps lucky escaped predicament art time still show though dilemma madness artist seen reflect existential question “Should lock away people instead admit possibility different look something mysterious something never understood” One painting Tony RobertFleury depicts puzzle question madness called La Salptrière 1795 painting see famous clinician Philippe Pinnel chief physician famous Hospice de la La Salpȇtrière asylum insane Paris Philippe Pinnel advocated humanistic approach treatment psychiatric patient rumour even managed liberate inmate ordeal painting artist show Pinnel order chain removed patient also demonstrates growing power psychiatry Give chain one kind man power liberate oppressed Give someone want abuse power chained life Moving back modern age don’t see psychiatric patient physical chain anymore power still strongly hand psychiatrist act simple word deny person freedom independence joy living physical chain still wall wall psychiatric hospital wall forced injection wall diagnosis create stigma put mental burden one’s mind story modern psychiatry really begin middle last century root go back age reasoning madness reduced scientist ‘object’ mind — object could studied analysed claim nowadays even understood see famous painting Pierre Aristide André Brouillet 1887 called Clinical Lesson Salpêtrière witness clinical demonstration given postgraduate student famous neurologist JeanMartin Charcot patient studied depicted object nothing demonstration purpose reduced person object curiosity artefact display name Blanche field academic study called ‘mad studies’ call attention academic area want know Blanche interested Charcot try say Modern psychiatry reduces human coming attention object study entity lost background behind diagnosis assigned Nowadays called ‘bipolar’ ‘schizophrenics’ ‘schizoids’ individual behind label start speak see person learn every ‘bipolar’ different ‘bipolar’ ‘schizophrenia’ ‘bipolar disorder’ almost thing behind diagnosis fascinating life spiritual journey also confinement psychiatric hospital life Psychiatry reduces u object study victim mysterious ‘brain disease’ narrative ‘mental illness’ claim “mental illness like illness” make madness purely scientific domain deprived mystery also make extremely boring madness never boring shouldn’t boring reducing purely biological explanation psychiatry failed far provide concrete proof remove personal narrative behind reduces Blanche object give Beethoven Gogol diagnosis see whole oeuvre Van Gogh battle ‘mental illness’ mad person person doesn’t believe narrative ‘mental illness’ interested Blanche want hear story see painting Van Gogh painting true genius hear music Beethoven glory unusual incredibly beautiful mind read Nietzsche curiosity marvel unique mind perception devour Gogol truly talented writer one best say today artist would better life medication available — would enjoy better health access modern ‘treatment’ big question whether would better personal experience know medication psychiatrist prescribe one can’t really function let alone create write paint artist know actively refuse treatment offer actively renegotiate term condition use Would marvelous people leave u work genius mind heavy dose ‘antipsychotics’ would probably go le mad doubt would enjoy many painting Van Gogh listen Beethoven without doubt many people say medication made life better welcome even ‘diagnoses’ give explanation give reassurance behind diagnosis narrative ‘mental illness’ continues lie mystery madness Psychiatrists resort ‘medical’ explanation much want truth remains previous century Madness never truly understood madness something still mysterious unique belonging world world u access toTags Bipolar Psychology Depression Medicine Mental Health |
2,139 | Middle East tech: What does 2019 have in store? | via ZDNet | Jawad Abbassi, head of Middle East and North Africa region, GSMA
The Gulf states are set to be global leaders in the deployment of 5G networks, with many expected to launch commercial 5G services in 2019. According to a recent GSMA Intelligence report, 5G will account for 16 percent of mobile connections across the six Gulf states by 2025 — slightly ahead of the global average.
Early 5G offerings in the region are likely to focus on enhanced mobile broadband services and 5G-based fixed-wireless — especially in regions with limited fiber penetration.
However, there is also an opportunity to use 5G to drive developments in immersive reality, e-sports, and enhanced in-venue digital entertainment.
On the enterprise side, 5G will enable operators and governments to collaborate on smart city initiatives, focused, for example, on addressing population-related challenges. Oil and gas, mining, and tourism — each particularly relevant to the region’s economy — could also benefit from 5G networks.
Key to success will be the availability of the right type of harmonized 5G spectrum. The recent decision by the Arab Spectrum Management Group (ASMG) to release the use of the 3.3GHz to 3.8GHz band for mobile broadband was therefore an important step in accelerating 5G rollout across the region.
Encouraging investment at home and abroad
Sevag Papazian, partner at Strategy&, part of the PwC network
Last year, the region experienced several developments, especially in terms of setting the foundations of its national digital transformation. Some examples include:
Investments in infrastructure — Saudi Arabia deploying fiber broadband to more than 700,000 new households; 5G deployment in Saudi and UAE. In Saudi, Al Khobar was the first city in the region to test a 5G network.
Investments in talent — Misk Foundation’s ‘Saudi codes’ program training and Dubai’s ‘One million coders’ initiative. The Hajj hackathon has broken the Guinness World Record for the highest number of software developers in a single location.
Government digital transformation — Abu Dhabi launched the TAMM platform to offer omni-channel government services across digital and physical channels. Several end-to-end journeys are being redesigned to improve the user experience.
However, to enable large-scale socio-economic transformations, the region needs to see inorganic growth by having the large players invest in the region.
The region is investing abroad, for example, the Vision Fund — a partnership between Saudi’s Public Investment Fund and Softbank — has invested in more than 65 companies including $4.4bn in WeWork, and $2.5bn in Flipkart. But the region needs to use such investments to establish capabilities in-country, to expand operational, R&D and innovation capabilities.
There were initial discussions last year with large tech multinationals, such as Google and Amazon. These have slowed down lately because of the geo-political situation. They will have to resume, as the region needs new types of capabilities that can help it step up services and solutions at large scale, and help drive the innovation agenda.
Dawn of digital payments
Racha Ghamlouch, Innovation and Business Adviser
2018 saw the dawn of online payments in the UAE, Saudi and Egypt. Even countries like Morocco and Jordan are witnessing a fintech awakening.
Financial technology sandboxes in Abu Dhabi, Manama, Dubai, and Doha have allowed for experiments with the possibilities and limitations of financial technology, easing regulators into legalizing previously banned services.
Global partnerships have also been aiding this growth, such as: Dubai’s Fintech Hive’s partnership with Cyberport, Hong Kong; and Bahrain’s BEDB partnership with the Maharashtra government in India.
While Saudi Arabia doesn’t have a similar sandbox, Mada — governed by Saudi Arabia’s Monetary Authority — has been working to get SpuxeApple Pay into the kingdom, which is already launched in the UAE, and has launched a Mada-supported payment gateway to ease previously banned online payments.
SEE: Digital transformation: A CXO’s guide (ZDNet special report) | Download the report as a PDF (TechRepublic)
In turn, this move has stimulated the private sector. Jordan’s Al Ahli bank fintech accelerator and Arab Bank launched a fund and public API, followed by UAE’s Emirates NBD launch of a public API.
Emirates NBD announced support for Fitbit and Garmin Pay, shortly after Google Pay launched in the UAE supported by UAE’s Network International, whom in turn now supports AliPay, an indicator of the increased Chinese footfall in the country,.
Egypt’s tech sector is being revitalized. Its central bank has rolled out support for online payments via the locally issued Meeza card, followed by a supporting payment solution. Egypt is also getting its own Startupbootcamp fintech accelerator.
The real relief the region has been waiting for is P2P payments: Saudi Telecom Company (STC) STCPay is a digital payment and P2P wallet, a regional first. However the real winner is Careem, by launching CareemPay which allows users to send P2P credit, given its mass scale, it is effectively the first cross-border P2P wallet in the region
The competition is fierce and the players are ready for 2019, so it will be exciting to watch.
AI, Cloud and plugging the skills gap
Jaime Galviz, COO and CMO at Microsoft Middle East and Africa
Over the past year, we’ve seen tremendous growth of intelligent cloud and AI solutions across the region. In fact, it’s predicted that AI could further increase the UAE’s GDP by $96bn by 2030.
However, 2018 was the year that not only demonstrated the infinite applications for AI in the Middle East but also highlighted the need for more qualified workers in the field. Indeed, 2018 was also the year that showed us how advanced technologies are creating new and different jobs, rather than eliminating jobs as many feared.
According to recent research conducted by IDC and Microsoft, cloud computing will potentially generate more than 515,000 jobs across key markets in the Middle East and Africa between 2017 and 2022, and these are not confined only to the IT profession.
Moving forward into 2019 and beyond, we must continue to take an active role in equipping the region with the skills needed to fill these jobs and evolve along with the new world of work.
This goal requires collaboration at national and regional levels to encourage governments and schools to provide all students with access to computer-science education to ensure that they are adequately prepared for jobs of the future.
SEE: IT jobs in 2020: A leader’s guide (ZDNet special report) | Download the report as a PDF (TechRepublic)
For example, in the UAE, the One Million Arab Coders initiative is helping a million young Arab programmers develop digital and coding skills in areas like AI, robotics, cognitive and biological sciences, and programming.
Recognizing the unprecedented opportunity for digital transformation in the region, in 2018 we also announced plans to open data centers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the first in the Middle East, empowering organizations, governments, and businesses to achieve more.
This announcement marked the second data center expansion for Microsoft in the Middle East and Africa in less than a year. We see enormous opportunity in the region for cloud technology to be the key driver of economic development, while providing sustainable solutions to many pressing issues such as youth employability, skills development, education and healthcare.
We will continue to work with governments and organizations across the region to equip the workforce with the skills needed to accelerate digital adoption, and we are excited about the role these new data centers will play in this transformation.
Middle East’s startup scene continues to expand and mature
Christopher Schroeder, co-founder Next Billion Ventures and author of Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East
This has been a fascinating year in startups in the Middle East. More money has entered the early stages with angel networks like Dubai Angels expanding and deploying, and 500 startups closing their fund and aggressively investing.
The region’s anchors, Wamda, Beco, MEVP, have deployed most of their capital and are raising and warehousing in parallel; STV (Saudi Telecom Ventures) has made a big splash in the size of their ability to fund later stages, and serious investments, most recently in Careem, Unifonic and Vezeeta, among others.
Rapidly growing companies, like Property Finder and Swvl in Egypt, have found interest from global investors. Growth capital — B rounds and later — remain a need. Saudi Arabia, always a coveted market, is the great question as some very interesting startups, and investment capital, are rising there as well.
Entrepreneurs have become more sophisticated, based on five to seven years’ experience and the combination of greater access to the newest technologies in blockchain and AI, solving problems not only for the region but for nearby rising markets.
And investment is crossing borders, such as Wamda’s investment in Nairobi logistic tech company Twiga, not only as these markets grow, but such companies will also seek opportunities in the region’s markets with time.
Similarly, China has begun to look closely at tech startups in the region. E-commerce juggernaut Jolly Chic has had a significant value as a customer and investor in Fetchr, and Chinese venture capital has come to tour the UAE and more. Beyond Amazon’s acquisition of Souq, AWS and other cloud providers have made real inroads in the region.
The story remains success breeding success and the significant market and massive mobile penetration attracting investment from within the region, with more global tech companies exploring ways to enter.
Previous and related coverage
Middle East youth and tech: What’s happened since the Arab Spring?
The Arab Spring showed the potential of young people in the Middle East armed with technology. But the picture since then has been patchy.
Google, YouTube, Samsung are world’s top brands, but how do they do in Middle East?
Although tech brands dominate everywhere, in the Middle East there are some key differences from the global picture.
Mobile in Sub-Saharan Africa: Can world’s fastest-growing mobile region keep it up?
Sub-Saharan Africa has led the world in mobile take-up growth in the past few years, but a range of issues now threaten that momentum.
Where next for mobile in the Middle East? Big changes are coming
The Middle East and North Africa is a complex region, but mobile usage and services are changing fast.
What’s driving Middle East’s rush to social media?
The rise of visually orientated social networks, video, and messaging apps is helping shape usage.
Cybercrime: Why can’t the Middle East get to grips with the threats?
The region’s been investing heavily in tackling cybercrime but remains disproportionately affected.
Skype banned, WhatsApp blocked: What’s Middle East’s problem with messenger apps?
Some Middle Eastern countries seem to have a difficult relationship with VoIP services and messenger apps.
Get ready for Africa to emerge as a cybersecurity powerhouse TechRepublic
Africa’s growing technology adoption and economy means increased potential for impactful cyberevents, says IBM Security’s Caleb Barlow.
New Google Go app tackles slow internet speeds in Africa CNET
Google Go reduces the amount of data needed to display search results by 40 percent. | https://medium.com/damian-radcliffe/middle-east-tech-what-does-2019-have-in-store-zdnet-b4acbd9c0d91 | ['Damian Radcliffe'] | 2020-01-13 19:18:57.800000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Damianradcliffe', 'Journalism', 'Zdnet', 'Startup'] | Title Middle East tech 2019 store via ZDNetContent Jawad Abbassi head Middle East North Africa region GSMA Gulf state set global leader deployment 5G network many expected launch commercial 5G service 2019 According recent GSMA Intelligence report 5G account 16 percent mobile connection across six Gulf state 2025 — slightly ahead global average Early 5G offering region likely focus enhanced mobile broadband service 5Gbased fixedwireless — especially region limited fiber penetration However also opportunity use 5G drive development immersive reality esports enhanced invenue digital entertainment enterprise side 5G enable operator government collaborate smart city initiative focused example addressing populationrelated challenge Oil gas mining tourism — particularly relevant region’s economy — could also benefit 5G network Key success availability right type harmonized 5G spectrum recent decision Arab Spectrum Management Group ASMG release use 33GHz 38GHz band mobile broadband therefore important step accelerating 5G rollout across region Encouraging investment home abroad Sevag Papazian partner Strategy part PwC network Last year region experienced several development especially term setting foundation national digital transformation example include Investments infrastructure — Saudi Arabia deploying fiber broadband 700000 new household 5G deployment Saudi UAE Saudi Al Khobar first city region test 5G network Investments talent — Misk Foundation’s ‘Saudi codes’ program training Dubai’s ‘One million coders’ initiative Hajj hackathon broken Guinness World Record highest number software developer single location Government digital transformation — Abu Dhabi launched TAMM platform offer omnichannel government service across digital physical channel Several endtoend journey redesigned improve user experience However enable largescale socioeconomic transformation region need see inorganic growth large player invest region region investing abroad example Vision Fund — partnership Saudi’s Public Investment Fund Softbank — invested 65 company including 44bn WeWork 25bn Flipkart region need use investment establish capability incountry expand operational RD innovation capability initial discussion last year large tech multinationals Google Amazon slowed lately geopolitical situation resume region need new type capability help step service solution large scale help drive innovation agenda Dawn digital payment Racha Ghamlouch Innovation Business Adviser 2018 saw dawn online payment UAE Saudi Egypt Even country like Morocco Jordan witnessing fintech awakening Financial technology sandbox Abu Dhabi Manama Dubai Doha allowed experiment possibility limitation financial technology easing regulator legalizing previously banned service Global partnership also aiding growth Dubai’s Fintech Hive’s partnership Cyberport Hong Kong Bahrain’s BEDB partnership Maharashtra government India Saudi Arabia doesn’t similar sandbox Mada — governed Saudi Arabia’s Monetary Authority — working get SpuxeApple Pay kingdom already launched UAE launched Madasupported payment gateway ease previously banned online payment SEE Digital transformation CXO’s guide ZDNet special report Download report PDF TechRepublic turn move stimulated private sector Jordan’s Al Ahli bank fintech accelerator Arab Bank launched fund public API followed UAE’s Emirates NBD launch public API Emirates NBD announced support Fitbit Garmin Pay shortly Google Pay launched UAE supported UAE’s Network International turn support AliPay indicator increased Chinese footfall country Egypt’s tech sector revitalized central bank rolled support online payment via locally issued Meeza card followed supporting payment solution Egypt also getting Startupbootcamp fintech accelerator real relief region waiting P2P payment Saudi Telecom Company STC STCPay digital payment P2P wallet regional first However real winner Careem launching CareemPay allows user send P2P credit given mass scale effectively first crossborder P2P wallet region competition fierce player ready 2019 exciting watch AI Cloud plugging skill gap Jaime Galviz COO CMO Microsoft Middle East Africa past year we’ve seen tremendous growth intelligent cloud AI solution across region fact it’s predicted AI could increase UAE’s GDP 96bn 2030 However 2018 year demonstrated infinite application AI Middle East also highlighted need qualified worker field Indeed 2018 also year showed u advanced technology creating new different job rather eliminating job many feared According recent research conducted IDC Microsoft cloud computing potentially generate 515000 job across key market Middle East Africa 2017 2022 confined profession Moving forward 2019 beyond must continue take active role equipping region skill needed fill job evolve along new world work goal requires collaboration national regional level encourage government school provide student access computerscience education ensure adequately prepared job future SEE job 2020 leader’s guide ZDNet special report Download report PDF TechRepublic example UAE One Million Arab Coders initiative helping million young Arab programmer develop digital coding skill area like AI robotics cognitive biological science programming Recognizing unprecedented opportunity digital transformation region 2018 also announced plan open data center Dubai Abu Dhabi first Middle East empowering organization government business achieve announcement marked second data center expansion Microsoft Middle East Africa le year see enormous opportunity region cloud technology key driver economic development providing sustainable solution many pressing issue youth employability skill development education healthcare continue work government organization across region equip workforce skill needed accelerate digital adoption excited role new data center play transformation Middle East’s startup scene continues expand mature Christopher Schroeder cofounder Next Billion Ventures author Startup Rising Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking Middle East fascinating year startup Middle East money entered early stage angel network like Dubai Angels expanding deploying 500 startup closing fund aggressively investing region’s anchor Wamda Beco MEVP deployed capital raising warehousing parallel STV Saudi Telecom Ventures made big splash size ability fund later stage serious investment recently Careem Unifonic Vezeeta among others Rapidly growing company like Property Finder Swvl Egypt found interest global investor Growth capital — B round later — remain need Saudi Arabia always coveted market great question interesting startup investment capital rising well Entrepreneurs become sophisticated based five seven years’ experience combination greater access newest technology blockchain AI solving problem region nearby rising market investment crossing border Wamda’s investment Nairobi logistic tech company Twiga market grow company also seek opportunity region’s market time Similarly China begun look closely tech startup region Ecommerce juggernaut Jolly Chic significant value customer investor Fetchr Chinese venture capital come tour UAE Beyond Amazon’s acquisition Souq AWS cloud provider made real inroad region story remains success breeding success significant market massive mobile penetration attracting investment within region global tech company exploring way enter Previous related coverage Middle East youth tech What’s happened since Arab Spring Arab Spring showed potential young people Middle East armed technology picture since patchy Google YouTube Samsung world’s top brand Middle East Although tech brand dominate everywhere Middle East key difference global picture Mobile SubSaharan Africa world’s fastestgrowing mobile region keep SubSaharan Africa led world mobile takeup growth past year range issue threaten momentum next mobile Middle East Big change coming Middle East North Africa complex region mobile usage service changing fast What’s driving Middle East’s rush social medium rise visually orientated social network video messaging apps helping shape usage Cybercrime can’t Middle East get grip threat region’s investing heavily tackling cybercrime remains disproportionately affected Skype banned WhatsApp blocked What’s Middle East’s problem messenger apps Middle Eastern country seem difficult relationship VoIP service messenger apps Get ready Africa emerge cybersecurity powerhouse TechRepublic Africa’s growing technology adoption economy mean increased potential impactful cyberevents say IBM Security’s Caleb Barlow New Google Go app tackle slow internet speed Africa CNET Google Go reduces amount data needed display search result 40 percentTags Tech Damianradcliffe Journalism Zdnet Startup |
2,140 | Personality Traits, Introverts, Extroverts and Everything in Between | Personality Traits, Introverts, Extroverts and Everything in Between
How to build your own recharge ritual and learn to choose yourself
From a young age, we are taught how to be kind, how to love and how to show up… for everyone but ourselves. We are taught that putting ourselves first is selfish. For some reason we are not taught to build a relationship with ourselves, to get to know yourself so deeply that we know what we want and more importantly, what we need.
At the age of sixteen we are asked to make a decision on what we want to do for the rest of our lives, and not knowing is not an option. This is usually the first time we are asked to make a decision for ourselves, by ourselves, that will shape the rest of our lives — and wow, what a heavy decision it is.
I see the world fundamentally different from other people, for many reasons. What people say and how they interact has always intrigued me. I have known from an extremely young age what my passion is, what I need as a person to thrive and recharge. Still, being headstrong and adamant, at the age of sixteen I had to go against everything I had been taught and fight for my choices, and for myself. I had studied design and psychology from a young age, in and out of school and wanted to go into design as a career, which at the time I didn’t know would progress into UX - but my school had other ideas. I had to have meetings upon meetings with my parents and my school to fight to do the subjects that I wanted to do, as they saw it as an unstable career… if I even manage to get a job at all.
It’s worth adding that I didn’t have a bad school, however, they are taught to make sure that the students are vaguely equipped to go into the world and have a fighting chance. This is a lesson to be learnt — most people that try to stop you in life have their own set of reasons. Realistically, they should have done their research on me and the career I knew I was going into, and educated me on the statistics and work required to succeed instead of brushing it off as high school arrogance and ego. This wouldn’t have changed the outcome for me, but it would have for a lot of my fellow students.
I was brought up with strong female and male role models, my Mum and my older brother raised me to a teen, when my Dad* stepped in and continued to raise a headstrong female without the constraints of gender stereotypes. I was well equipped with the skills I needed to know myself, to know what I wanted, what I needed and know that I was able to fight for it. And no, I didn’t have a ‘perfect’ childhood, but the resilience in my role models through uncertain times taught me to be stronger and love myself no matter how hard it might seem.
Okay, so I want to add that my Dad mentioned is my technically my step Dad, or as I like to say… my chosen Dad. I am a firm believer that DNA doesn’t give you the right to be in someone’s life. If someone is a toxic influence or detrimental to your self-love, they don’t deserve you. Likewise if someone in a genuinely amazing person and a positive influence, you can choose them. If you learn one thing when learning to love yourself, let it be that.
A mother who radiates self-love and self-acceptance actually vaccinates her daughter against low self-esteem - Naomi Wolf
Self-worth comes from within and we cannot rely on others to validate us, but self-love needs to be nurtured at a young age to blossom. It takes time to realise your worth for yourself, not just because someone else has said it. Self-love means getting to know yourself as well as you know other people — which may seem silly but you would be surprised how much there is that you don’t know or realise about yourself.
When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel. - Eleanor Brown
One of the most important things to remember when you are learning self-validation is that, most people are faking it. Yep, that’s right, most people aren’t as confident as you see them to be. This is one of the main reasons that you can’t compare or validate yourself against other people — you are only seeing what they are showing.
Personality traits
According to psychologists, there are five main underlying traits that define personality, including:
Openness — Which indicates how open-minded a person is.
— Which indicates how open-minded a person is. Conscientiousness — A person scoring high in conscientiousness usually has a high level of self-discipline. These individuals prefer to follow a plan, rather than act spontaneously.
— A person scoring high in conscientiousness usually has a high level of self-discipline. These individuals prefer to follow a plan, rather than act spontaneously. Introversion/Extraversion — These personality traits cover how outgoing, talkative and energetic, or reserved and solitary a person is and how they recharge and relax.
— These personality traits cover how outgoing, talkative and energetic, or reserved and solitary a person is and how they recharge and relax. Agreeableness — This trait usually indicates how warm, friendly, and tactful a person is.
— This trait usually indicates how warm, friendly, and tactful a person is. Neuroticism — A person who has a high level of neuroticism is more likely to be moody and to experience such feelings as anxiety, worry, fear, anger, frustration, envy, jealousy, guilt, depressed mood, and loneliness.
Personality traits are, for the most part, categorised into introversion and extroversion. The thing to remember about introversion and extroversion is that it’s not black or white, one or the other — it’s a spectrum in which you can sit anywhere in-between. There are plenty of tests you can take online to tell you if you are an introvert or extrovert, remembering that these are very generalised and don’t show the spectrum. For example, the Psychologies test has 14 basic questions to answer — I didn’t really connect with a few of them and just ended up picking answers randomly, and at the end was told I am more of an Introvert.
Some of the traits associated with being an introvert and extrovert are:
Extrovert
Recharges and gains energy in social situations
Makes quick impulsive decisions
Can be seen as outgoing and enthusiastic
Thrives in a team setting
Introvert
Enjoys spending time alone to recharge
Thinks before speaking and acting
Can be seen as more reserved
Prefers working independently
I am technically an extroverted introvert, I have strong traits from both ends of the scale. These traits apply to everyone who isn’t in my select group of friends and family that actually recharges me. Some of these traits include:
Generally finding people both intriguing and exhausting — in equal measures
Interactions with new people in new situations completely drain me mentally and physically
I am very selectively social
I have absolutely no interest in trying to stand out in a crowd, and not because I am shy
People tend to assume I am an extrovert
I constantly feel the need to do something
I need nature to feel grounded
I see the world in a fundamentally different way to other people — or so I am told
Self-care routine
Building a personalised self-care routine is the most important thing that we just aren’t taught to do at a young age. In fact, for a lot of people, they are told that they shouldn’t ‘spend so much time alone’ or ‘focus so much on their friends’. Most people are taught a routine, but it’s someone else’s and doesn’t work for them. As an example I hate running, like seriously… hate! But as a young teen, that’s what I was taught will help me recharge, as that’s the experience other people have.
The way that I am means that my brain doesn’t stop, I don’t shut down my work self at the end of the day. I don’t stop feeling driven when I am at home ‘chilling’. I can’t just switch off. My brain is always firing 1000 thoughts and it’s a lot. When I am around people my brain is on fire — it’s attention is drawn to micro-expressions, body language, word analysis, taking in every morsel of visual stimulant… as well as being constantly over aware of all of my surroundings. While being so intently focussed on what’s directly in front of me, my brain consumes itself with simultaneously tracking how close people are, what’s going on around me and the surrounding structures. Sometimes I struggle to hold a conversation or even hear someone talking — my brain is simply overwhelmed by the number of stimulants.
Breathe
I was around 17 when I passed my driving test and this for me was a big step towards finding my self-care routine. It opened up experiences I couldn’t have before and I quickly found that one of the things that made me recharge was being alone, truly alone.
I found my happy place, my solitude, the place I could breathe again. I found this about a 20 minute drive from where I lived and visited it regularly for around 6 years.
Over the years I added a few places, mostly spots to take my labrador, Bracken — and then I moved to Wales. Well, Wales is not short of blissful solitude. My favourite of which is Moel Famau in the colder months, pictured here. You can walk for miles or drive to the top car park, walk 5 minutes and find a bench right on the edge of a hill where you can sit and watch the world pass by.
Things change
I have always been a person who doesn’t have a large group of friends — and that’s fine. I always end up with single friends from different aspects of my life, and they are mostly male. My personality just seems to mesh more with the male personality and always has, it may be because I grew up with brothers or that’s just the way I am. This seems like an issue to a lot of people — even in my school reports from primary school my friendships were mentioned as being odd and not with girls which seems to stem from the strong gender role stereotypes forced upon people. I am inclined to believe this even more as my female friends have this ‘male’ persona as a strong part of their personality.
I can say with ease and content that I am extremely lucky with the few true friends I have, and this changed me as I grew up. I was always the type to need time on my own to recharge, finding excuses to avoid social interactions — which played a big part in my relationships. I find adults completely draining mentally and psychically. While this hasn’t changed for the most part, there are certain people I can breathe around. When I say ‘can breathe’ that’s literally how I feel around these truly amazing people.
I was never the type to go out drinking all of the time, and honestly, this is mostly because of the people I was with. For me any experience being a positive one, including a night out, 100% depends on the people I am with. Around these people, I am honestly a completely different person, with a completely different energy. It’s not about how long I have known someone or how much time I spend with them, or even how much we have in common — it’s solely the connection. Once I connect to people that connection will always be there, it doesn’t depend on how often I see them, how many good or bad times we have had or how much time I spend talking to them each day.
Learn to breathe
We all work differently, relax differently and recharge differently. The things that make us happy may not be the things that recharge us. The people we love may not recharge us and that’s okay! You have to figure out what it is that recharges you, this may mean trying something new. Be okay with the fact that the things you do to take care of yourself may change, they may evolve, they may include people or not.
If you don’t know what makes you happy — why not try some self-care tips from Women’s Health for 30 days to build yourself a new routine. You will soon realise what works for you and what doesn’t.
Try 30 days of improving your mental and psychical health by
Drinking some water first thing in the a.m.
Write down five things every day that didn’t totally suck
Meal plan! Make a menu for the week
Try that new yoga/gym/boxing class
Have a mini dance party every day!
Move for at least 30 minutes a day
Sleep 8 hours a day
Start a journal and write down everything that happened that day
Sit up straight (no, really)
Plan a workout date with a friend
If you don’t like kale… don’t eat kale!
Exercise your right to say no!
Learn what helps you breathe and choose yourself | https://medium.com/curious/personality-traits-introverts-extroverts-and-everything-in-between-6ad25beec668 | [] | 2020-11-28 03:55:16.655000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Self Love', 'Mental Health Awareness', 'Personality', 'Psychology'] | Title Personality Traits Introverts Extroverts Everything BetweenContent Personality Traits Introverts Extroverts Everything build recharge ritual learn choose young age taught kind love show up… everyone taught putting first selfish reason taught build relationship get know deeply know want importantly need age sixteen asked make decision want rest life knowing option usually first time asked make decision shape rest life — wow heavy decision see world fundamentally different people many reason people say interact always intrigued known extremely young age passion need person thrive recharge Still headstrong adamant age sixteen go everything taught fight choice studied design psychology young age school wanted go design career time didn’t know would progress UX school idea meeting upon meeting parent school fight subject wanted saw unstable career… even manage get job It’s worth adding didn’t bad school however taught make sure student vaguely equipped go world fighting chance lesson learnt — people try stop life set reason Realistically done research career knew going educated statistic work required succeed instead brushing high school arrogance ego wouldn’t changed outcome would lot fellow student brought strong female male role model Mum older brother raised teen Dad stepped continued raise headstrong female without constraint gender stereotype well equipped skill needed know know wanted needed know able fight didn’t ‘perfect’ childhood resilience role model uncertain time taught stronger love matter hard might seem Okay want add Dad mentioned technically step Dad like say… chosen Dad firm believer DNA doesn’t give right someone’s life someone toxic influence detrimental selflove don’t deserve Likewise someone genuinely amazing person positive influence choose learn one thing learning love let mother radiates selflove selfacceptance actually vaccinates daughter low selfesteem Naomi Wolf Selfworth come within cannot rely others validate u selflove need nurtured young age blossom take time realise worth someone else said Selflove mean getting know well know people — may seem silly would surprised much don’t know realise take time replenish spirit allows serve others overflow cannot serve empty vessel Eleanor Brown One important thing remember learning selfvalidation people faking Yep that’s right people aren’t confident see one main reason can’t compare validate people — seeing showing Personality trait According psychologist five main underlying trait define personality including Openness — indicates openminded person — indicates openminded person Conscientiousness — person scoring high conscientiousness usually high level selfdiscipline individual prefer follow plan rather act spontaneously — person scoring high conscientiousness usually high level selfdiscipline individual prefer follow plan rather act spontaneously IntroversionExtraversion — personality trait cover outgoing talkative energetic reserved solitary person recharge relax — personality trait cover outgoing talkative energetic reserved solitary person recharge relax Agreeableness — trait usually indicates warm friendly tactful person — trait usually indicates warm friendly tactful person Neuroticism — person high level neuroticism likely moody experience feeling anxiety worry fear anger frustration envy jealousy guilt depressed mood loneliness Personality trait part categorised introversion extroversion thing remember introversion extroversion it’s black white one — it’s spectrum sit anywhere inbetween plenty test take online tell introvert extrovert remembering generalised don’t show spectrum example Psychologies test 14 basic question answer — didn’t really connect ended picking answer randomly end told Introvert trait associated introvert extrovert Extrovert Recharges gain energy social situation Makes quick impulsive decision seen outgoing enthusiastic Thrives team setting Introvert Enjoys spending time alone recharge Thinks speaking acting seen reserved Prefers working independently technically extroverted introvert strong trait end scale trait apply everyone isn’t select group friend family actually recharges trait include Generally finding people intriguing exhausting — equal measure Interactions new people new situation completely drain mentally physically selectively social absolutely interest trying stand crowd shy People tend assume extrovert constantly feel need something need nature feel grounded see world fundamentally different way people — told Selfcare routine Building personalised selfcare routine important thing aren’t taught young age fact lot people told shouldn’t ‘spend much time alone’ ‘focus much friends’ people taught routine it’s someone else’s doesn’t work example hate running like seriously… hate young teen that’s taught help recharge that’s experience people way mean brain doesn’t stop don’t shut work self end day don’t stop feeling driven home ‘chilling’ can’t switch brain always firing 1000 thought it’s lot around people brain fire — it’s attention drawn microexpressions body language word analysis taking every morsel visual stimulant… well constantly aware surroundings intently focussed what’s directly front brain consumes simultaneously tracking close people what’s going around surrounding structure Sometimes struggle hold conversation even hear someone talking — brain simply overwhelmed number stimulant Breathe around 17 passed driving test big step towards finding selfcare routine opened experience couldn’t quickly found one thing made recharge alone truly alone found happy place solitude place could breathe found 20 minute drive lived visited regularly around 6 year year added place mostly spot take labrador Bracken — moved Wales Well Wales short blissful solitude favourite Moel Famau colder month pictured walk mile drive top car park walk 5 minute find bench right edge hill sit watch world pas Things change always person doesn’t large group friend — that’s fine always end single friend different aspect life mostly male personality seems mesh male personality always may grew brother that’s way seems like issue lot people — even school report primary school friendship mentioned odd girl seems stem strong gender role stereotype forced upon people inclined believe even female friend ‘male’ persona strong part personality say ease content extremely lucky true friend changed grew always type need time recharge finding excuse avoid social interaction — played big part relationship find adult completely draining mentally psychically hasn’t changed part certain people breathe around say ‘can breathe’ that’s literally feel around truly amazing people never type go drinking time honestly mostly people experience positive one including night 100 depends people Around people honestly completely different person completely different energy It’s long known someone much time spend even much common — it’s solely connection connect people connection always doesn’t depend often see many good bad time much time spend talking day Learn breathe work differently relax differently recharge differently thing make u happy may thing recharge u people love may recharge u that’s okay figure recharges may mean trying something new okay fact thing take care may change may evolve may include people don’t know make happy — try selfcare tip Women’s Health 30 day build new routine soon realise work doesn’t Try 30 day improving mental psychical health Drinking water first thing Write five thing every day didn’t totally suck Meal plan Make menu week Try new yogagymboxing class mini dance party every day Move least 30 minute day Sleep 8 hour day Start journal write everything happened day Sit straight really Plan workout date friend don’t like kale… don’t eat kale Exercise right say Learn help breathe choose yourselfTags Mental Health Self Love Mental Health Awareness Personality Psychology |
2,141 | Dear writers, stop pinning your stories on Medium! | Dear writers, stop pinning your stories on Medium! I noticed while browsing through some profiles I am unable to find the newest pieces. When a writer posts new content, Medium provides a notification to the reader on their homepage. When the reader clicks on a writer’s picture, it leads the reader to the writer’s profile. However, the reader has to scroll past many pinned stories until the user finally reaches the article published a few hours ago. The more pinned stories you have, the more a reader struggles to find your newest content when viewing your profile. I encourage writers not to pin more than one story, whether it is your most-read story or the one you are proud of the most. Remember, writers should provide a simple user interface for readers to find the newest content. Keep it minimalist and clean!
Photo by Philipp Berndt on Unsplash | https://medium.com/illumination/dear-writers-stop-pinning-your-stories-on-medium-e1bba4eed668 | ['Aj Krow'] | 2020-12-28 08:12:34.043000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Writing', 'Advice', 'Ideas', 'Design'] | Title Dear writer stop pinning story MediumContent Dear writer stop pinning story Medium noticed browsing profile unable find newest piece writer post new content Medium provides notification reader homepage reader click writer’s picture lead reader writer’s profile However reader scroll past many pinned story user finally reach article published hour ago pinned story reader struggle find newest content viewing profile encourage writer pin one story whether mostread story one proud Remember writer provide simple user interface reader find newest content Keep minimalist clean Photo Philipp Berndt UnsplashTags Self Improvement Writing Advice Ideas Design |
2,142 | Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make While Pitching via Email | Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make While Pitching via Email
Avoidable mistakes that made you lose a potential customer
According to DMR Business Statistics, we send and receive 121 emails every day — that’s about 15 emails in an eight-hour working day. Indeed, the number is more significant if a person has more authority and responsibility in an organization.
This is why attracting someone’s attention with an email sales pitch has been becoming harder and harder. Especially nowadays, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, where everyone is desperate to make sales and email remains the most reliable option to engage with your audience.
Every morning I come to the office to at least 40–50 new emails. These can be newsletters to publications that I subscribe to, meeting invitations, internal email correspondence, invitations to events, awards, or other activities, and some of them are also random sales pitches from other companies that try to offer their solution to my company.
I noticed that COVID-19 had brought more of the sales pitches than usual. No doubt, the easiest way to connect now is via email. Also, many companies lose clients due to budget cuts, and they still need to sustain their business. Thus, they are looking for new clients. All normal, as expected.
However, what is astonishing is the quality of the email sales pitches that I’ve been receiving. By all means, I’m not an expert in pitching, but here are some examples of what to avoid. | https://medium.com/better-marketing/mistakes-you-shouldnt-make-while-pitching-via-email-5ef502e8eef6 | ['Edgaras Katinas'] | 2020-10-21 19:13:44.755000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Email Marketing', 'Sales', 'Startup', 'Enterpreneurship'] | Title Mistakes Shouldn’t Make Pitching via EmailContent Mistakes Shouldn’t Make Pitching via Email Avoidable mistake made lose potential customer According DMR Business Statistics send receive 121 email every day — that’s 15 email eighthour working day Indeed number significant person authority responsibility organization attracting someone’s attention email sale pitch becoming harder harder Especially nowadays due COVID19 pandemic everyone desperate make sale email remains reliable option engage audience Every morning come office least 40–50 new email newsletter publication subscribe meeting invitation internal email correspondence invitation event award activity also random sale pitch company try offer solution company noticed COVID19 brought sale pitch usual doubt easiest way connect via email Also many company lose client due budget cut still need sustain business Thus looking new client normal expected However astonishing quality email sale pitch I’ve receiving mean I’m expert pitching example avoidTags Marketing Email Marketing Sales Startup Enterpreneurship |
2,143 | A Basic Perceptron Model Using Least Squares Method | Just like the billions of neurons that make up the human nervous system, the perceptron is the basic unit of artificial intelligence. Every thought, action, emotion or decision that we make reflect the activities of the nervous system which is a master system that controls and communicates with every part of your body. Biological intelligence relies on this complex mechanism of billions of neurons organized in different layers that communicate with one another through electrical and chemical signals.
To understand how biological intelligence is produced, it's important to understand how the basic building block called neuron functions.
The biological neuron has 3 main functions:
Sensory input. The neuron uses its dendrites (receptive regions) to monitor changes occurring both inside and outside the body. The information gathered is called sensory input. Integration: The cell body system processes and interprets sensory input and decides what should be done at each moment, a process called integration. If sensory input is below a certain threshold, the sensory signal is not activated. Motor output. If the sensory input signal is above a certain threshold, the neuron produces an output that is transmitted via synaptic gaps by neurotransmitters. The neurotransmitters will either excite or inhibit a nearby neuron.
Similar to biological intelligence, artificial intelligence is produced by a complex network of basic building blocks called perceptron. The perceptron functions using the same principle as a neuron:
Input Integration Output
We shall focus here on how to build a basic perceptron model using python. This knowledge is fundamental for understanding more advanced models such as neural networks, which are complex systems of thousands and billions of perceptrons, with the capability of producing artificially intelligent systems such as self-driving cars.
Basic Perceptron Model
Python’s sklearn package contains several classifiers such as the Perceptron, SupportVectorClassifier, LogisticRegressionClassifer, DecisionTreeClassifier, RandomForestClassifier, and KNN classifier. While it is important to use these ready-made machine learning algorithms, every beginner in the field must master the basics of how these algorithms work. A good place to start your journey into neural networks and deep learning models is by considering the perceptron.
In this example, we build a simple perceptron model in which the learning weights are calculated using the least-squares method.
The perceptron model has the following four main steps:
Training Activation Quantization Prediction
X represents the attribute or predictor matrix, and y represents the class. We shall illustrate our model using the Iris dataset. The dataset contains the following attribute information:
sepal length in cm sepal width in cm petal length in cm petal width in cm
The three classes are
Iris Setosa Iris Versicolor Iris Virginica
For simplicity, we perform binary classification. We use the two flower classes Setosa and Versicolor for practical reasons. However, the perceptron algorithm can be extended to multi-class classification — for example, through the One-vs.-All technique.
Model Implementation Using Python
This code applies the perceptron classification algorithm to the iris dataset. The weights used for computing the activation function are calculated using the least-squares method. This method is different from Rosenblatt’s original perceptron rule where the weights are calculated recursively. For more information about the implementation of Rosenblatt’s perceptron algorithm, see the following book: “Python Machine Learning” by Sebastian Raschka.
Import Necessary Libraries
import pandas as pd import numpy as np import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
Define Perceptron Classifier Object
class Perceptron(object):
"""Perceptron classifier using least-square method to calculate weights.
Attributes
-----------
w : 1d-array
Weights after fitting.
"""
def fit(self, X, y):
"""Fit training data.
Parameters
----------
X : {array-like}, shape = [n_samples, n_features]
Training vectors, where n_samples is the number of samples and n_features is the number of features.
y : array-like, shape = [n_samples]
Target values.
Returns
-------
self : object
"""
self.w = np.dot(np.linalg.inv(np.dot(X.T,X)),np.dot(X.T,y))
return self
def predict(self, X):
"""Return class label after unit step"""
return np.where(np.dot(X,self.w) >= 0.0, 1, -1)
Import Iris Dataset
df = pd.read_csv('iris.data.csv', header=None)print(df.tail())
y = df.iloc[0:100, 4].values
y = np.where(y == 'Iris-setosa', -1, 1)
X = df.iloc[0:100, 0:4].values plt.scatter(X[:50, 0], X[:50, 2],color='red', marker='o', label='setosa') plt.scatter(X[50:100, 0], X[50:100, 2],color='blue', marker='x', label='versicolor') plt.xlabel('sepal length (cm)')
plt.ylabel('petal length (cm)')
plt.legend(loc='upper left')
plt.show()
Training, Testing, and Evaluation
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, test_size=0.2, random_state=21, stratify=y)
ppn = Perceptron()
ppn.fit(X_train,y_train)
y_pred=ppn.predict(X_test)
accuracy = 100*np.sum(y_pred==y_test)/len(y_test)
print("accuracy of the model:= " + str(accuracy))
In summary, we have demonstrated how a basic perceptron model can be built in python using the least-squares method for calculating weights that are then used for calculating the activation function. The perceptron model is the basic building block for more advanced neural network systems. Every beginner in the field of deep learning and artificial intelligence should master the basics of the perceptron model.
The code and dataset for this article can be downloaded from this Github repository: https://github.com/bot13956/perceptron_classifier. | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/basic-perceptron-model-using-least-squares-method-17900e0d1eff | ['Benjamin Obi Tayo Ph.D.'] | 2019-09-16 15:45:27.320000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Perception', 'Neural Networks', 'Artificial Intelligence'] | Title Basic Perceptron Model Using Least Squares MethodContent like billion neuron make human nervous system perceptron basic unit artificial intelligence Every thought action emotion decision make reflect activity nervous system master system control communicates every part body Biological intelligence relies complex mechanism billion neuron organized different layer communicate one another electrical chemical signal understand biological intelligence produced important understand basic building block called neuron function biological neuron 3 main function Sensory input neuron us dendrite receptive region monitor change occurring inside outside body information gathered called sensory input Integration cell body system process interprets sensory input decides done moment process called integration sensory input certain threshold sensory signal activated Motor output sensory input signal certain threshold neuron produce output transmitted via synaptic gap neurotransmitter neurotransmitter either excite inhibit nearby neuron Similar biological intelligence artificial intelligence produced complex network basic building block called perceptron perceptron function using principle neuron Input Integration Output shall focus build basic perceptron model using python knowledge fundamental understanding advanced model neural network complex system thousand billion perceptrons capability producing artificially intelligent system selfdriving car Basic Perceptron Model Python’s sklearn package contains several classifier Perceptron SupportVectorClassifier LogisticRegressionClassifer DecisionTreeClassifier RandomForestClassifier KNN classifier important use readymade machine learning algorithm every beginner field must master basic algorithm work good place start journey neural network deep learning model considering perceptron example build simple perceptron model learning weight calculated using leastsquares method perceptron model following four main step Training Activation Quantization Prediction X represents attribute predictor matrix represents class shall illustrate model using Iris dataset dataset contains following attribute information sepal length cm sepal width cm petal length cm petal width cm three class Iris Setosa Iris Versicolor Iris Virginica simplicity perform binary classification use two flower class Setosa Versicolor practical reason However perceptron algorithm extended multiclass classification — example OnevsAll technique Model Implementation Using Python code applies perceptron classification algorithm iris dataset weight used computing activation function calculated using leastsquares method method different Rosenblatt’s original perceptron rule weight calculated recursively information implementation Rosenblatt’s perceptron algorithm see following book “Python Machine Learning” Sebastian Raschka Import Necessary Libraries import panda pd import numpy np import matplotlibpyplot plt sklearnmodelselection import traintestsplit Define Perceptron Classifier Object class Perceptronobject Perceptron classifier using leastsquare method calculate weight Attributes w 1darray Weights fitting def fitself X Fit training data Parameters X arraylike shape nsamples nfeatures Training vector nsamples number sample nfeatures number feature arraylike shape nsamples Target value Returns self object selfw npdotnplinalginvnpdotXTXnpdotXTy return self def predictself X Return class label unit step return npwherenpdotXselfw 00 1 1 Import Iris Dataset df pdreadcsvirisdatacsv headerNoneprintdftail dfiloc0100 4values npwherey Irissetosa 1 1 X dfiloc0100 04values pltscatterX50 0 X50 2colorred markero labelsetosa pltscatterX50100 0 X50100 2colorblue markerx labelversicolor pltxlabelsepal length cm pltylabelpetal length cm pltlegendlocupper left pltshow Training Testing Evaluation Xtrain Xtest ytrain ytest traintestsplitX testsize02 randomstate21 stratifyy ppn Perceptron ppnfitXtrainytrain ypredppnpredictXtest accuracy 100npsumypredytestlenytest printaccuracy model straccuracy summary demonstrated basic perceptron model built python using leastsquares method calculating weight used calculating activation function perceptron model basic building block advanced neural network system Every beginner field deep learning artificial intelligence master basic perceptron model code dataset article downloaded Github repository httpsgithubcombot13956perceptronclassifierTags Machine Learning Python Perception Neural Networks Artificial Intelligence |
2,144 | Don't be Digital-Only. | When and How you Should Go Physical
Oversized Burn Down Chart
Here’s something you’re probably surprised to hear a Director of Product at a tech startup say: Digital isn’t always the answer.
How can it be?
Technological Progress = Digital, right? Everything must be faster, more integrated, more automated, and less physical!
Not true.
In a world of never-ending Slack messages, a smartphone that you check over 200 times per day, and screens everywhere you look (literally!), physical has regained a LOT of power to attract our limited attention.
5 Powerful Ways to Leverage Physical
There are many simple ways to leverage the uniqueness and attention-grabbing nature of physical today.
Here are 5 easy (and powerful) ways you can leverage physical for your startup, company, and personal life.
Handwritten Thank You’s: At Upside Travel, we’ve been doing handwritten thank you’s since we started and they have had an incredible impact on our customer’s experience with us!
Even better, handwritten notes have a 3–4x open rate compared to form letters, which makes the time creating them well worth it.
(http://www.digitaldogdirect.com/handwritten-mail-and-direct-mail/)
Handwritten Thank You’s FTW!
Add swag for a +1!
Don’t have time to write the notes yourself?
No problem, check out these sites for affordable help with handwritten notes:
https://www.handwrytten.com
2. Oversized Physical “Demos”: Are you working on something digital that can be represented physically? I’ve found that by making an oversize physical “demo” of your digital product, you can keep what you’re working on top of mind with your coworkers and tap into their collective creativity.
One recent physical demo we built at Upside was of the new home screen for our iOS and Android apps. You can pull off the “cards” in the feed section of the homepage, rearrange them, add new ones, and even create cards of your own, all thanks to the magic of Velcro!
This demo has already helped us collect more than 20 ideas for new “cards” that can be added to the Upside app home feed. | https://medium.com/startup-frontier/dont-be-digital-only-52810a885a0c | ['Alex Mitchell'] | 2018-08-18 11:03:26.768000+00:00 | ['Product Management', 'Marketing', 'Startup', 'Tech', 'Digital Marketing'] | Title Dont DigitalOnlyContent Go Physical Oversized Burn Chart Here’s something you’re probably surprised hear Director Product tech startup say Digital isn’t always answer Technological Progress Digital right Everything must faster integrated automated le physical true world neverending Slack message smartphone check 200 time per day screen everywhere look literally physical regained LOT power attract limited attention 5 Powerful Ways Leverage Physical many simple way leverage uniqueness attentiongrabbing nature physical today 5 easy powerful way leverage physical startup company personal life Handwritten Thank You’s Upside Travel we’ve handwritten thank you’s since started incredible impact customer’s experience u Even better handwritten note 3–4x open rate compared form letter make time creating well worth httpwwwdigitaldogdirectcomhandwrittenmailanddirectmail Handwritten Thank You’s FTW Add swag 1 Don’t time write note problem check site affordable help handwritten note httpswwwhandwryttencom 2 Oversized Physical “Demos” working something digital represented physically I’ve found making oversize physical “demo” digital product keep you’re working top mind coworkers tap collective creativity One recent physical demo built Upside new home screen iOS Android apps pull “cards” feed section homepage rearrange add new one even create card thanks magic Velcro demo already helped u collect 20 idea new “cards” added Upside app home feedTags Product Management Marketing Startup Tech Digital Marketing |
2,145 | 5 Lessons Child Abuse Taught Me | Lesson #1- Abuse Is Like Losing A Limb
Child abuse, indeed, any abuse, whether sexual, emotional, physical, or financial, permanently cripples.
People don’t easily forget negative experiences, especially ones that happened during their formative years. Chronic trauma stunts an individual’s growth and sentences them to solitary confinement… the story of my life! If you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, the frog will reflexively leap out.
If you gently drop a frog in a pot of water and gradually raise its temperature, the frog will not jump out.
If you were constantly torn down and beaten as a kid, that burned tissue never fully heals.
Looking back, it wasn’t a handful of “acts of passion” that crippled me- but a schedule of violence that compounded over 15+ years.
No matter where you are, you cannot escape your past. Sometimes, a mind can move faster than a person’s body can handle; other times, the two hemispheres play “emotional ping pong” with each other.
Years of speaking with people makes you realize pieces of your puzzle are missing. You can feel their edges but don’t know what’s inside. You possess low behavioral control because that’s how you received attention. You can’t interpret certain thoughts or emotions, life is dreary, and probably, you harbor anger 24/7… Ad Infinitum.
But that does not mean you can’t find that missing link.
Although such crippling is daunting to rehabilitate, a person can still lead a happy and fulfilled life if he/she learns how to compensate with their remaining limbs.
Lesson #2- Be Grateful
Regardless of how “bad” you deem your situation- be grateful.
A simple mantra is easy to say but hard to do. However, a simple writing exercise every single day can help ease the process. Write 3 things you are grateful for because you need to build that resilience… I started building that resilience.
I get it. Maybe, you did not have the ideal upbringing, but you aren’t without kindred spirits in the world.
There’s no need to go float above your pain. There is someone, something, or an activity you love that will make you grounded- so keep your feet planted on firm soil.
Be grateful that although you were raised as a whipping boy or girl, that you were housed and fed. And if you weren’t housed and fed, be thankful you are alive.
According to Jocko Willink (retired Navy Seal officer), if you are alive and breathing, you still have some fight left inside you. My Okinawan great grandparents would say, “Ganbatte!”
Fight On.
As for me, I’m the “Wandering Warrior Poet” and found friends, acquaintances, and positive influences around the globe. Those interactions taught me to count my blessings- always to be grateful that I had food on the table and heat during the winter.
Every day I wake up, I train Martial Arts, write a little bit, travel a little, and do what I love- what more could I ask for? Happiness is in the eye of the beholder. My ancestors would say, “Ikigai!”
I’m trying to be grateful for the good moments right now. One day, my body will slow down, my brain will become mush, and my heart will malfunction.
Lesson #3- Don’t Pick Your Scabs
Sometimes, it’s okay to risk reinfection from the aliens (using an analogy) of the world… other times; it’s best to ward off evil.
Sometimes, it’s okay to be the assault victim that returns to berate the assailant- Other times, the fighter that fights and runs away lives to fight another day.
(This is a lesson; I continue to struggle with…. We all have our weaknesses, and that’s okay.)
People tend to be the moth that returns to the flame. Many individuals never break the cycle- It’s a challenging task. Especially when you love pitying yourself, you have blurred vision, and your aura is repellant.
I get it.
It’s more convenient to retrace the well-trod path of that abusive boyfriend, parent, friend, or toxic work. Please don’t do it.
Life is about getting better, so “progredire.”
These people wounded you, but when you scratch your scabs, you prolong their healing. I strive to break my cycle, so I prune my diseased tree’s rotten roots and branches to stimulate new growth.
Lesson #4- Many People Won’t Understand You- Let It Go
“Calm down. It’s not hard.”
“Can’t you control yourself?”
“Just forgive them already.”
“You had money; you don’t know what REAL abuse is.”
“There are people who have it tougher. Stop whining.”
“This guy’s complaining. He doesn’t know how bad it can get.”
Ad Infinitum.
People who have never been through abuse cannot understand your situation and feelings. Likewise, people who have been abused share your coping mechanisms but may be extremist and assert this is a battle you must WIN- therefore, they will chastise you.
Often, you will hear such seemingly well-intentioned or placatory statements. Many people will give you a neutral response to avoid confrontation OR challenge you to dismiss your feelings.
For better or worse, this is a world where each person’s situations, geographic location, and type of abuse are unique but share a common outcome- survivors of violence.
For example, my two older brothers always emphasized I had it “easier.” Maybe, their memories were and are far more carcinogenic than mine- I don’t know.
But you can’t agree: “Oh, maybe you’re right, I have it easier” because it never feels that way. So, let such comments be water passing under your bridge.
COLEY GELSIN.
Lesson #5- Lose The Battle, But Don’t Lose The War
Trauma is a tug of war between you (the victim) and your abuser.
But keep in mind, the tug of war of such family ties is not necessarily a Sisyphean struggle. You can go two steps forward and one step back, but as long as you don’t fall backward, you will eventually break the cycle.
The abuser is a vampire that wins if she or he infects and thereby creates more vampires. Remember, hurt people (tend to) hurt people- so tread with caution with a stake in hand.
It’s okay to lose a few battles, but don’t lose the war.
(It’s hard, I just lost my 4th battle, but I’m going to win the 100-year war.) | https://medium.com/wholistique/5-lessons-child-abuse-taught-me-ed9458ec1e00 | ['Max Takaesu Hsu'] | 2020-12-13 19:38:41.446000+00:00 | ['Personal Development', 'Personal Growth', 'Mental Health', 'Self-awareness', 'Mental Health Awareness'] | Title 5 Lessons Child Abuse Taught MeContent Lesson 1 Abuse Like Losing Limb Child abuse indeed abuse whether sexual emotional physical financial permanently cripple People don’t easily forget negative experience especially one happened formative year Chronic trauma stunt individual’s growth sentence solitary confinement… story life throw frog pot boiling water frog reflexively leap gently drop frog pot water gradually raise temperature frog jump constantly torn beaten kid burned tissue never fully heals Looking back wasn’t handful “acts passion” crippled schedule violence compounded 15 year matter cannot escape past Sometimes mind move faster person’s body handle time two hemisphere play “emotional ping pong” Years speaking people make realize piece puzzle missing feel edge don’t know what’s inside posse low behavioral control that’s received attention can’t interpret certain thought emotion life dreary probably harbor anger 247… Ad Infinitum mean can’t find missing link Although crippling daunting rehabilitate person still lead happy fulfilled life heshe learns compensate remaining limb Lesson 2 Grateful Regardless “bad” deem situation grateful simple mantra easy say hard However simple writing exercise every single day help ease process Write 3 thing grateful need build resilience… started building resilience get Maybe ideal upbringing aren’t without kindred spirit world There’s need go float pain someone something activity love make grounded keep foot planted firm soil grateful although raised whipping boy girl housed fed weren’t housed fed thankful alive According Jocko Willink retired Navy Seal officer alive breathing still fight left inside Okinawan great grandparent would say “Ganbatte” Fight I’m “Wandering Warrior Poet” found friend acquaintance positive influence around globe interaction taught count blessing always grateful food table heat winter Every day wake train Martial Arts write little bit travel little love could ask Happiness eye beholder ancestor would say “Ikigai” I’m trying grateful good moment right One day body slow brain become mush heart malfunction Lesson 3 Don’t Pick Scabs Sometimes it’s okay risk reinfection alien using analogy world… time it’s best ward evil Sometimes it’s okay assault victim return berate assailant time fighter fight run away life fight another day lesson continue struggle with… weakness that’s okay People tend moth return flame Many individual never break cycle It’s challenging task Especially love pitying blurred vision aura repellant get It’s convenient retrace welltrod path abusive boyfriend parent friend toxic work Please don’t Life getting better “progredire” people wounded scratch scab prolong healing strive break cycle prune diseased tree’s rotten root branch stimulate new growth Lesson 4 Many People Won’t Understand Let Go “Calm It’s hard” “Can’t control yourself” “Just forgive already” “You money don’t know REAL abuse is” “There people tougher Stop whining” “This guy’s complaining doesn’t know bad get” Ad Infinitum People never abuse cannot understand situation feeling Likewise people abused share coping mechanism may extremist assert battle must WIN therefore chastise Often hear seemingly wellintentioned placatory statement Many people give neutral response avoid confrontation challenge dismiss feeling better worse world person’s situation geographic location type abuse unique share common outcome survivor violence example two older brother always emphasized “easier” Maybe memory far carcinogenic mine don’t know can’t agree “Oh maybe you’re right easier” never feel way let comment water passing bridge COLEY GELSIN Lesson 5 Lose Battle Don’t Lose War Trauma tug war victim abuser keep mind tug war family tie necessarily Sisyphean struggle go two step forward one step back long don’t fall backward eventually break cycle abuser vampire win infects thereby creates vampire Remember hurt people tend hurt people tread caution stake hand It’s okay lose battle don’t lose war It’s hard lost 4th battle I’m going win 100year warTags Personal Development Personal Growth Mental Health Selfawareness Mental Health Awareness |
2,146 | 30 Magical Python Tricks to Write Better Code | Python is quite a popular language among others for its simplicity and readability of the code. It is one of the simplest languages to choose as your first language. If you are a beginner with the basic concepts of python then this is the best time to learn to write better codes.
There are a lot of tricks in python that can improve your program better than before. This article will help you to know various tricks and tips available in python. Practice them continuously until it becomes a part of your programming habit.
Trick 01 - Multiple Assignment for Variables
Python allows us to assign values for more than one variable in a single line. The variables can be separated using commas. The one-liners for multiple assignments has lots of benefits. It can be used for assigning multiple values for multiple variables or multiple values for a single variable name. Let us take a problem statement in which we have to assign the values 50 and 60 to the variables a and b. The usual code will be like the following.
a = 50
b = 60
print(a,b)
print(type(a))
print(type(b))
Output
50 60
<class 'int'>
<class 'int'>
Condition I - Values equal to Variables
When the variables and values of multiple assignments are equal, each value will be stored in all the variables.
a , b = 50 , 60
print(a,b)
print(type(a))
print(type(b))
Output
50 60
<class 'int'>
<class 'int'>
Both the programs gives the same results. This is the benefit of using one line value assignments.
Condition II - Values greater than Variables
Let us try to increase the number of values in the previous program. The multiple values can be assigned to a single variable. While assigning more than one value to a variable we must use an asterisk before the variable name.
a , *b = 50 , 60 , 70
print(a)
print(b)
print(type(a))
print(type(b))
Output
50
[60, 70]
<class 'int'>
<class 'list'>
The first value will be assigned to the first variable. The second variable will take a collection of values from the given values. This will create a list type object.
Condition III - One Value to Multiple Variables
We can assign a value to more than one variable. Each variable will be separated using an equal to symbol.
a = b = c = 50
print(a,b,c)
print(type(a))
print(type(b))
print(type(c))
Output
50 50 50
<class 'int'>
<class 'int'>
<class 'int'>
Trick 02 - Swapping Two Variables
Swapping is the process of exchanging the values of two variables with each other. This can be useful in many operations in computer science. Here, I have written two major methods used by the programmer to swap the values as well as the optimal solution.
Method I - Using a temporary variable
This method uses a temporary variable to store some data. The following code is written with temporary variable name.
a , b = 50 , 60
print(a,b)
temp = a+b #a=50 b=60 temp=110
b = a #a=50 b=50 temp=110
a = temp-b #a=60 b=50 temp=110
print("After swapping:",a,b)
Output
50 60
After swapping: 60 50
Method II - Without using a temporary variable
The following code swaps the variable without using a temporary variable.
a , b = 50 , 60
print(a,b)
a = a+b #a=110 b=60
b = a-b #a=110 b=50
a = a-b #a=60 b=50
print("After swapping:",a,b)
Output
50 60
After swapping: 60 50
Method III - Optimal Solution in Python
This is a different approach to swap variables using python. In the previous section, we have learned about multiple assignments. We can use the concept of swapping.
a , b = 50 , 60
print(a,b) a , b = b , a
print("After swapping",a,b)
Output
50 60
After swapping 60 50
Trick 03 - Reversing a String
There is an another cool trick for reversing a string in python. The concept used for reversing a string is called string slicing. Any string can be reversed using the symbol [::-1] after the variable name.
my_string = "MY STRING"
rev_string = my_string[::-1]
print(rev_string)
Output
GNIRTS YM
Trick 04 - Splitting Words in a Line
No special algorithm is required for splitting the words in a line. We can use the keyword split() for this purpose. Here I have written two methods for splitting the words.
Method I - Using iterations
my_string = "This is a string in Python"
start = 0
end = 0
my_list = [] for x in my_string:
end=end+1
if(x==' '):
my_list.append(my_string[start:end])
start=end+1
my_list.append(my_string[start:end+1])
print(my_list)
Output
['This ', 'is ', 'a ', 'string ', 'in ', 'Python']
Method II - Using split function
my_string = "This is a string in Python"
my_list = my_string.split(' ')
print(my_list)
Output
['This ', 'is ', 'a ', 'string ', 'in ', 'Python']
Trick 05 - List of words into a line
This is the opposite process of the previous one. In this part we are going to convert a list of words into a single line using join function. The syntax for using join function is given below.
Syntax: “ ”.join(string)
my_list = ['This' , 'is' , 'a' , 'string' , 'in' , 'Python']
my_string = " ".join(my_list)
Output
This is a string in Python
Trick 06 - Printing a string multiple times
We can use the multiplication operator to print a string for multiple times. This is a very effective way to repeat a string.
n = int(input("How many times you need to repeat:"))
my_string = "Python
"
print(my_string*n)
Output
How many times you need to repeat:3
Python
Python
Python
Trick 07 - Joining Two strings using addition operator
Joining various strings can be done without using the join function. We can just use the addition operator (+) to do this.
a = "I Love "
b = "Python"
print(a+b)
Output
I Love Python
Trick 08 - More than one Conditional Operators
Two combine two or more conditional operators in a program we can use the logical operators. But the same result can be obtained by chaining the operators. For example, if we need to do print something when a variable has the value greater than 10 and less than 20, the code will be something like the following.
a = 15
if (a>10 and a<20):
print("Hi")
Instead of this we can combine the conditional operator into single expression.
a = 15
if (10 < a < 20):
print("Hi")
Output
Hi
Learn more about operators in the following article.
Trick 09 - Find most frequent element in a list
The element which occurs most of the time in a list then it will be the most frequent element in the list. The following snippet will help you to get the most frequent element from a list.
my_list = [1,2,3,1,1,4,2,1]
most_frequent = max(set(my_list),key=my_list.count)
print(most_frequent)
Output
1
Trick 10 - Find Occurrence of all elements in list
The previous code will give the most frequent value. If we need to know the occurrence of all the unique element in a list, then we can go for the collection module. The collections is a wonderful module in python which gives great features. The Counter method gives a dictionary with the element and occurrence pair.
from collections import Counter
my_list = [1,2,3,1,4,1,5,5]
print(Counter(my_list))
Output
Counter({1: 3, 5: 2, 2: 1, 3: 1, 4: 1})
Trick 11 - Checking for Anagram of Two strings
Two strings are anagrams if one string is made up of the characters in the other string. We can use the same Counter method from the collections module.
from collections import Counter
my_string_1 = "RACECAR"
my_string_2 = "CARRACE" if(Counter(my_string_1) == Counter(my_string_2)):
print("Anagram")
else:
print("Not Anagram")
Output
Anagram
Trick 12 - Create Number Sequence with range
The function range() is useful for creating a sequence of numbers. It can be useful in many code snippets. The syntax for a range function is written here.
Syntax: range(start, end, step)
Let us try to create a list of even numbers.
my_list = list(range(2,20,2))
print(my_list)
Output
[2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18]
Trick 13 - Repeating the element multiple times
Similar to the string multiplication we can create a list filled with an element multiple times using multiplication operator.
my_list = [3]
my_list = my_list*5
print(my_list)
Output
[3, 3, 3, 3, 3]
Trick 14 - Using Conditions in Ternary Operator
In most of the time, we use nested conditional structures in Python. Instead of using nested structure, a single line can be replaced with the help of ternary operator. The syntax is given below.
Syntax: Statement1 if True else Statement2
age = 25
print("Eligible") if age>20 else print("Not Eligible")
Output
Eligible
Trick 15 - List Comprehension with Python
List comprehension is a very compact way to create a list from another list. Look at the following codes. The first one is written using simple iteration and the second one is created using list comprehension.
square_list = []
for x in range(1,10):
temp = x**2
square_list.append(temp)
print(square_list)
Output
[1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81]
Using List Comprehension
square_list = [x**2 for x in range(1,10)]
print(square_list)
Output
[1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81]
Trick 16 - Convert Mutable into Immutable
The function frozenset() is used to convert mutable iterable into immutable object. Using this we can freeze an object from changing its value.
my_list = [1,2,3,4,5]
my_list = frozenset(my_list)
my_list[3]=7
print(my_list)
Output
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 3, in <module>
TypeError: 'frozenset' object does not support item assignment
As we applied the frozenset() function on the list, the item assignment is restricted.
Trick 17 - Rounding off with Floor and Ceil
Floor and Ceil are mathematical functions can be used on floating numbers. The floor function returns an integer smaller than the floating value whereas the ceil function returns the integer greater than the floating value. To use this functions we have to import math module.
import math
my_number = 18.7
print(math.floor(my_number))
print(math.ceil(my_number))
Output
18
19
Trick 18 - Returning Boolean Values
Some times we have to return a boolean value by checking conditions of certain parameters. Instead of writing if else statements we can directly return the condition. The following programs will produce the same output.
Method I - Using If Else Condition
def function(n):
if(n>10):
return True
else:
return False
n = int(input())
if(function(n)):
print("Eligible")
else:
print("Not Eligible")
Method II - Without If Else Condition
def function(n):
return n>10 n = int(input())
print("Eligible") if function(n) else print("Not Eligible")
Output
11
Eligible
Trick 19 - Create functions in one line
Lambda is an anonymous function in python that creates function in one line. The syntax for using a lambda function is given here.
Syntax: lambda arguments: expression
x = lambda a,b,c : a+b+c
print(x(10,20,30))
Output
60
Trick 20 - Apply function for all elements in list
Map is a higher order function that applies a particular function for all the elements in list.
Syntax: map(function, iterable)
my_list = ["felix", "antony"]
new_list = map(str.capitalize,my_list)
print(list(new_list))
Output
['Felix', 'Antony']
Trick 21 - Using Lambda with Map function
The function can be replaced by a lambda function in python. The following program is created for creating square of list of numbers.
my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
new_list = map(lambda x: x*x, my_list)
print(list(new_list))
Output
[1, 4, 9, 16, 25]
Learn more about higher order functions here.
Trick 22 - Return multiple values from a function
A python function can return more than one value without any extra need. We can just return the values by separating them by commas.
def function(n):
return 1,2,3,4
a,b,c,d = function(5)
print(a,b,c,d)
Output
1 2 3 4
Trick 23 - Filtering the values using filter function
Filter function is used for filtering some values from a iterable object. The syntax for filter function is given below.
Syntax: filter(function, iterable)
def eligibility(age):
return age>=24
list_of_age = [10, 24, 27, 33, 30, 18, 17, 21, 26, 25]
age = filter(eligibility, list_of_age)print(list(age))
Output
[24, 27, 33, 30, 26, 25]
Trick 24 - Merging Two Dictionaries in Python
In python, we can merge two dictionaries without any specific method. Below code is an example for merging two dictionaries.
dict_1 = {'One':1, 'Two':2}
dict_2 = {'Two':2, 'Three':3}
dictionary = {**dict_1, **dict_2}
print(dictionary)
Output
{'One': 1, 'Two': 2, 'Three': 3}
Trick 25 - Getting size of an object
The memory size varies based on the type of object. We can get the memory of an object using getsizeof() function from the sys module.
import sys
a = 5
print(sys.getsizeof(a))
Output
28
Trick 26 - Combining two lists into dictionary
The zip unction has many advantages in python. Using zip function we can create a dictionary from two lists.
list_1 = ["One","Two","Three"]
list_2 = [1,2,3]
dictionary = dict(zip(list_1, list_2))
print(dictionary)
Output
{'Two': 2, 'One': 1, 'Three': 3}
Trick 27 - Calculating execution time for a program
Time is another useful module in python can be used to calculate the execution time.
import time
start = time.clock()
for x in range(1000):
pass
end = time.clock()
total = end - start
print(total)
Output
0.00011900000000000105
Trick 28 - Removing Duplicate elements in list
An element that occurs more than one time is called duplicate element. We can remove the duplicate elements simply using typecasting.
my_list = [1,4,1,8,2,8,4,5]
my_list = list(set(my_list))
print(my_list)
Output
[8, 1, 2, 4, 5]
Trick 29 - Printing monthly calendar in python
Calendar module has many function related to the date based operations. We can print monthly calendar using the following code.
import calendar
print(calendar.month("2020","06"))
Output
June 2020
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
Trick 30 - Iterating with zip function
The zip functions enables the process of iterating more than one iterable using loops. In the below code two lists are getting iterated simultaneously.
list_1 = ['a','b','c']
list_2 = [1,2,3]
for x,y in zip(list_1, list_2):
print(x,y)
Output
a 1
b 2
c 3
Closing Thoughts
I hope you enjoyed this article. As an end note, you have to understand that learning the tricks is not a must. But if you do so, you can stand unique among other programmers. Continuous practice is must to become fluent in coding. Thank you for reading this article. You can follow me on medium.
Happy Coding! | https://towardsdatascience.com/30-magical-python-tricks-to-write-better-code-e54d1642c255 | ['Felix Antony'] | 2020-06-17 15:10:33.504000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Data Science', 'Programming'] | Title 30 Magical Python Tricks Write Better CodeContent Python quite popular language among others simplicity readability code one simplest language choose first language beginner basic concept python best time learn write better code lot trick python improve program better article help know various trick tip available python Practice continuously becomes part programming habit Trick 01 Multiple Assignment Variables Python allows u assign value one variable single line variable separated using comma oneliners multiple assignment lot benefit used assigning multiple value multiple variable multiple value single variable name Let u take problem statement assign value 50 60 variable b usual code like following 50 b 60 printab printtypea printtypeb Output 50 60 class int class int Condition Values equal Variables variable value multiple assignment equal value stored variable b 50 60 printab printtypea printtypeb Output 50 60 class int class int program give result benefit using one line value assignment Condition II Values greater Variables Let u try increase number value previous program multiple value assigned single variable assigning one value variable must use asterisk variable name b 50 60 70 printa printb printtypea printtypeb Output 50 60 70 class int class list first value assigned first variable second variable take collection value given value create list type object Condition III One Value Multiple Variables assign value one variable variable separated using equal symbol b c 50 printabc printtypea printtypeb printtypec Output 50 50 50 class int class int class int Trick 02 Swapping Two Variables Swapping process exchanging value two variable useful many operation computer science written two major method used programmer swap value well optimal solution Method Using temporary variable method us temporary variable store data following code written temporary variable name b 50 60 printab temp ab a50 b60 temp110 b a50 b50 temp110 tempb a60 b50 temp110 printAfter swappingab Output 50 60 swapping 60 50 Method II Without using temporary variable following code swap variable without using temporary variable b 50 60 printab ab a110 b60 b ab a110 b50 ab a60 b50 printAfter swappingab Output 50 60 swapping 60 50 Method III Optimal Solution Python different approach swap variable using python previous section learned multiple assignment use concept swapping b 50 60 printab b b printAfter swappingab Output 50 60 swapping 60 50 Trick 03 Reversing String another cool trick reversing string python concept used reversing string called string slicing string reversed using symbol 1 variable name mystring STRING revstring mystring1 printrevstring Output GNIRTS YM Trick 04 Splitting Words Line special algorithm required splitting word line use keyword split purpose written two method splitting word Method Using iteration mystring string Python start 0 end 0 mylist x mystring endend1 ifx mylistappendmystringstartend startend1 mylistappendmystringstartend1 printmylist Output string Python Method II Using split function mystring string Python mylist mystringsplit printmylist Output string Python Trick 05 List word line opposite process previous one part going convert list word single line using join function syntax using join function given Syntax “ ”joinstring mylist string Python mystring joinmylist Output string Python Trick 06 Printing string multiple time use multiplication operator print string multiple time effective way repeat string n intinputHow many time need repeat mystring Python printmystringn Output many time need repeat3 Python Python Python Trick 07 Joining Two string using addition operator Joining various string done without using join function use addition operator Love b Python printab Output Love Python Trick 08 one Conditional Operators Two combine two conditional operator program use logical operator result obtained chaining operator example need print something variable value greater 10 le 20 code something like following 15 a10 a20 printHi Instead combine conditional operator single expression 15 10 20 printHi Output Hi Learn operator following article Trick 09 Find frequent element list element occurs time list frequent element list following snippet help get frequent element list mylist 12311421 mostfrequent maxsetmylistkeymylistcount printmostfrequent Output 1 Trick 10 Find Occurrence element list previous code give frequent value need know occurrence unique element list go collection module collection wonderful module python give great feature Counter method give dictionary element occurrence pair collection import Counter mylist 12314155 printCountermylist Output Counter1 3 5 2 2 1 3 1 4 1 Trick 11 Checking Anagram Two string Two string anagram one string made character string use Counter method collection module collection import Counter mystring1 RACECAR mystring2 CARRACE ifCountermystring1 Countermystring2 printAnagram else printNot Anagram Output Anagram Trick 12 Create Number Sequence range function range useful creating sequence number useful many code snippet syntax range function written Syntax rangestart end step Let u try create list even number mylist listrange2202 printmylist Output 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 Trick 13 Repeating element multiple time Similar string multiplication create list filled element multiple time using multiplication operator mylist 3 mylist mylist5 printmylist Output 3 3 3 3 3 Trick 14 Using Conditions Ternary Operator time use nested conditional structure Python Instead using nested structure single line replaced help ternary operator syntax given Syntax Statement1 True else Statement2 age 25 printEligible age20 else printNot Eligible Output Eligible Trick 15 List Comprehension Python List comprehension compact way create list another list Look following code first one written using simple iteration second one created using list comprehension squarelist x range110 temp x2 squarelistappendtemp printsquarelist Output 1 4 9 16 25 36 49 64 81 Using List Comprehension squarelist x2 x range110 printsquarelist Output 1 4 9 16 25 36 49 64 81 Trick 16 Convert Mutable Immutable function frozenset used convert mutable iterable immutable object Using freeze object changing value mylist 12345 mylist frozensetmylist mylist37 printmylist Output Traceback recent call last File string line 3 module TypeError frozenset object support item assignment applied frozenset function list item assignment restricted Trick 17 Rounding Floor Ceil Floor Ceil mathematical function used floating number floor function return integer smaller floating value whereas ceil function return integer greater floating value use function import math module import math mynumber 187 printmathfloormynumber printmathceilmynumber Output 18 19 Trick 18 Returning Boolean Values time return boolean value checking condition certain parameter Instead writing else statement directly return condition following program produce output Method Using Else Condition def functionn ifn10 return True else return False n intinput iffunctionn printEligible else printNot Eligible Method II Without Else Condition def functionn return n10 n intinput printEligible functionn else printNot Eligible Output 11 Eligible Trick 19 Create function one line Lambda anonymous function python creates function one line syntax using lambda function given Syntax lambda argument expression x lambda abc abc printx102030 Output 60 Trick 20 Apply function element list Map higher order function applies particular function element list Syntax mapfunction iterable mylist felix antony newlist mapstrcapitalizemylist printlistnewlist Output Felix Antony Trick 21 Using Lambda Map function function replaced lambda function python following program created creating square list number mylist 1 2 3 4 5 newlist maplambda x xx mylist printlistnewlist Output 1 4 9 16 25 Learn higher order function Trick 22 Return multiple value function python function return one value without extra need return value separating comma def functionn return 1234 abcd function5 printabcd Output 1 2 3 4 Trick 23 Filtering value using filter function Filter function used filtering value iterable object syntax filter function given Syntax filterfunction iterable def eligibilityage return age24 listofage 10 24 27 33 30 18 17 21 26 25 age filtereligibility listofageprintlistage Output 24 27 33 30 26 25 Trick 24 Merging Two Dictionaries Python python merge two dictionary without specific method code example merging two dictionary dict1 One1 Two2 dict2 Two2 Three3 dictionary dict1 dict2 printdictionary Output One 1 Two 2 Three 3 Trick 25 Getting size object memory size varies based type object get memory object using getsizeof function sys module import sys 5 printsysgetsizeofa Output 28 Trick 26 Combining two list dictionary zip unction many advantage python Using zip function create dictionary two list list1 OneTwoThree list2 123 dictionary dictziplist1 list2 printdictionary Output Two 2 One 1 Three 3 Trick 27 Calculating execution time program Time another useful module python used calculate execution time import time start timeclock x range1000 pas end timeclock total end start printtotal Output 000011900000000000105 Trick 28 Removing Duplicate element list element occurs one time called duplicate element remove duplicate element simply using typecasting mylist 14182845 mylist listsetmylist printmylist Output 8 1 2 4 5 Trick 29 Printing monthly calendar python Calendar module many function related date based operation print monthly calendar using following code import calendar printcalendarmonth202006 Output June 2020 Mo Tu Th Fr Sa Su 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Trick 30 Iterating zip function zip function enables process iterating one iterable using loop code two list getting iterated simultaneously list1 abc list2 123 xy ziplist1 list2 printxy Output 1 b 2 c 3 Closing Thoughts hope enjoyed article end note understand learning trick must stand unique among programmer Continuous practice must become fluent coding Thank reading article follow medium Happy CodingTags Machine Learning Python Artificial Intelligence Data Science Programming |
2,147 | 10 Ways To Find Unicorn Content | The infographic shows some of the most effective ways of finding the best unicorn content.
See Content From Top Performing Facebook Pages
Check the Tops From Relevant Subreddits
Mind Quora for FAQ
Use Medium To Follow Your Interests
Find Great Video Inspiration From YouTube and Vimeo
Subscribe To Relevant Industry Blogs
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Repurpose Your Unicorn Content | https://medium.com/marketing-and-entrepreneurship/10-ways-to-find-unicorn-content-b5937c9a515 | ['Larry Kim'] | 2020-12-01 01:58:00.825000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Content Marketing', 'Marketing', 'Content', 'Entrepreneurship'] | Title 10 Ways Find Unicorn ContentContent infographic show effective way finding best unicorn content See Content Top Performing Facebook Pages Check Tops Relevant Subreddits Mind Quora FAQ Use Medium Follow Interests Find Great Video Inspiration YouTube Vimeo Subscribe Relevant Industry Blogs Follow Hashtags Instagram Twitter Tap User Generated Content See Top Performing Posts Pinterest Repurpose Unicorn ContentTags Self Improvement Content Marketing Marketing Content Entrepreneurship |
2,148 | Introduction to Istio Traffic Management | Introduction to Istio Traffic Management
Traffic Routing with Istio by Example
What is Istio?
The continued adoption of microservices architectures and the move toward complex distributed applications composed of decoupled components that communicate via APIs introduces various new challenges for developers. While these types of applications help us to encapsulate, reuse, and efficiently scale discrete components of business logic, they also require a lot more network traffic between services, which makes the need for reliable, secure, and observable channels of communication all the more important.
This is where Istio comes in. Istio is an open-source Service Mesh that helps to simplify the communication between microservices in distributed applications. The core features of Istio generally fall into one of three categories:
Traffic Management: Istio’s Traffic Management capabilities include support for resilience patterns like Retry Policies and Circuit Breakers, as well as request routing capabilities to support scenarios like A/B Testing and Canary Deployments. The Traffic Management components of Istio are what we are going to focus on primarily in the article.
Istio’s Traffic Management capabilities include support for resilience patterns like Retry Policies and Circuit Breakers, as well as request routing capabilities to support scenarios like A/B Testing and Canary Deployments. The Traffic Management components of Istio are what we are going to focus on primarily in the article. Observability: When applications are running in the service mesh, Istio provides out-of-the-box Metrics, Traces, and Logs to provide engineers with observability of service health and behavior. We will see shortly how Istio is able to generate this telemetry without any additional work from the application developers.
When applications are running in the service mesh, Istio provides out-of-the-box Metrics, Traces, and Logs to provide engineers with observability of service health and behavior. We will see shortly how Istio is able to generate this telemetry without any additional work from the application developers. Security: By default, Istio provides encrypted communication channels between microservices in our application, as well as support for various types of authentication and authorizations policies that can be applied to different components of our application.
Note: While Istio is a platform-independent technology, we will be running Istio on Kubernetes for the purposes of the examples below. This writing assumes a basic understanding of how Kubernetes works.
How does Istio Work?
At a high level, Istio works by deploying a proxy alongside each service in your application. This Envoy Proxy, which is often referred to as a sidecar, intercepts all traffic to and from the service, generates telemetry for this traffic, and can be configured to enable the various Authentication, Authorization, and Traffic Management functions described above.
The two diagrams below illustrate the difference between service communication without Istio and the Envoy Proxies (top), and communication within an Isito service mesh, where traffic is routed through the proxies (bottom).
Basic communication between two services without Istio.
Communication between two services in an Isito service mesh.
Note: In Kubernetes terms, the Proxy and its corresponding Service (e.g. the Proxy on the left and Service A above) are two containers running in the same pod.
Istio Components
One of the great things about Istio is that it is highly configurable; however, this flexibility means that there are several different components that we need to understand in order to configure traffic routing for our services.
Here is a bird’s eye view of all of the components involved in a single request to a service within an Istio service mesh running on Kubernetes.
Overview of Istio Components
Let’s break down each component involved in this request flow:
Load Balancer: This is an external load balancer that exposes a public IP address from which external traffic is routed into our Kubernetes cluster. This is not specific to Istio, this kind of load balancer is provisioned by your cloud provider (e.g. AWS or GCP) any time a service of type LoadBalancer is deployed to you cluster. If you’re running Kubernetes on-prem, there are options such as MetalLB that allow you to provision your own external load balancer.
This is an external load balancer that exposes a public IP address from which external traffic is routed into our Kubernetes cluster. This is not specific to Istio, this kind of load balancer is provisioned by your cloud provider (e.g. AWS or GCP) any time a service of type is deployed to you cluster. If you’re running Kubernetes on-prem, there are options such as MetalLB that allow you to provision your own external load balancer. Gateway Proxy: This is a Kubernetes service of type LoadBalancer that we can configure to customize how traffic entering the cluster is routed to our services. By default, Istio deploys a Gateway Proxy called istio-ingressgateway in the istio-system namespace (we’ll use this in our examples applications), but you can also deploy and configure your own Gateway Proxy if needed.
This is a Kubernetes service of type that we can configure to customize how traffic entering the cluster is routed to our services. By default, Istio deploys a Gateway Proxy called in the namespace (we’ll use this in our examples applications), but you can also deploy and configure your own Gateway Proxy if needed. Gateway Configuration: This is one of the more confusing Istio resources we’ll encounter, as it is often called simply called a Gateway in Istio documentation and can easily be confused with the Gateway Proxy described above. In fact, when we create one of these resources (which we will do shortly), we provide a value of Gateway to the kind property of the resource; however, I’ve chosen to call this resource a Gateway Configuration in the above diagram, as I feel that better describes its function. The Gateway Configuration configures the Gateway Proxy, specifying which ports are exposed and which protocols can be used by ingress traffic. The Gateway Configuration operates only on properties of OSI layers 4–6. You can’t configure application-layer routing rules here (this is what Virtual Services are for).
This is one of the more confusing Istio resources we’ll encounter, as it is often called simply called a in Istio documentation and can easily be confused with the Gateway Proxy described above. In fact, when we create one of these resources (which we will do shortly), we provide a value of to the kind property of the resource; however, I’ve chosen to call this resource a Gateway Configuration in the above diagram, as I feel that better describes its function. The Gateway Configuration configures the Gateway Proxy, specifying which ports are exposed and which protocols can be used by ingress traffic. The Gateway Configuration operates only on properties of OSI layers 4–6. You can’t configure application-layer routing rules here (this is what Virtual Services are for). Virtual Service: A Virtual Service defines a set of request routing rules that can be used to distribute traffic to different destinations in the service mesh. Specifically, Virtual Services define application-layer traffic routing rules, meaning that HTTP requests can be routed to different destinations based on properties like URI, request method, and headers. Similar to Gateway resources discussed above, VirtualService resources are not standalone services running on their own set of pods, instead they are simply configuration that is applied to the proxies in the mesh that actually accept and send requests. Virtual Services can be applied either to the Gateway Proxy, or to the sidecar Envoy proxies that run alongside the services for your application that are running in the mesh.
A Virtual Service defines a set of request routing rules that can be used to distribute traffic to different destinations in the service mesh. Specifically, Virtual Services define application-layer traffic routing rules, meaning that HTTP requests can be routed to different destinations based on properties like URI, request method, and headers. Similar to resources discussed above, resources are not standalone services running on their own set of pods, instead they are simply configuration that is applied to the proxies in the mesh that actually accept and send requests. Virtual Services can be applied either to the Gateway Proxy, or to the sidecar Envoy proxies that run alongside the services for your application that are running in the mesh. Destination Rule: Destination Rules define routing policies applied to traffic that has already been routed to a particular service. Additionally, we can use Destination Rules to define service subsets, which allow us to group the instances of our service by version, giving us the ability to route traffic intelligently between multiple active versions of a service without changing anything in our service code.
Destination Rules define routing policies applied to traffic that has already been routed to a particular service. Additionally, we can use Destination Rules to define service subsets, which allow us to group the instances of our service by version, giving us the ability to route traffic intelligently between multiple active versions of a service without changing anything in our service code. MyApplication Sidecar: This is the Envoy Proxy that runs alongside each instance of your deployed service. Traffic to and from your service is intercepted by this proxy.
This is the Envoy Proxy that runs alongside each instance of your deployed service. Traffic to and from your service is intercepted by this proxy. MyApplication Service: This is our application, deployed to a Kubernetes cluster as a standard Kubernetes service. Instances of this service run in pods alongside instances of the MyApplication Sidecar proxy.
This is a lot to wrap your head around, so if it doesn’t completely make sense yet, it’s okay. Hopefully the purpose of each of these Istio components will become clearer when we start to see them in action with some example services and traffic routing configurations.
Istio Traffic Management in Action
To follow along with these examples, you’ll need a running Kubernetes cluster. I’ll be using GKE on Google Cloud, but the equivalent offerings on AWS and Azure will work fine as well.
Downloading Istio
Run the following command to download Istio:
curl -L https://istio.io/downloadIstio | ISTIO_VERSION=1.7.3 TARGET_ARCH=x86_64 sh -
This will download, among other things, the istioctl command line tool which we will use to install Istio on our Kubernetes cluster.
Note: I’m using version 1.7.3 in these examples, but the latest version of Istio is likely higher by the time you read this.
Installing Istio on Kubernetes
Run this command to install Istio on your cluster using the demo configuration profile:
istio-1.7.3/bin/istioctl install --set profile=demo
Note: The path to istioctl may be slightly different on your machine if you’re using a different version of Istio.
Sample Application
The application that we will be running in the service mesh to illustrate Istio’s traffic routing capabilities will be a super simple blog website using Node.js and Express.
Our website will simply display a static html page with some example text.
Here is what the site will look like when we navigate to it (I know, pretty spectacular):
Next, we’ll need to containerize this website in order to run it on our Kubernetes cluster. Here is a Dockerfile defining a container image for the application:
Creating the Istio Components
Now let’s start creating the Istio components described earlier.
Example 1: Simple Routing
The first scenario we will demonstrate will be as simple as it gets: routing requests directly to the blog site. For this example, we will need a Gateway Configuration and a Virtual Service. We’ll define these components in a YAML manifest file:
Let’s break this down:
The first resource defined in this file (lines 1–14) is the Gateway Configuration, as specified by kind: Gateway
By using the selector app: istio-ingressgateway we’re saying that this Gateway Configuration should be applied to the istio-ingressgateway gateway proxy. If you wanted to use your own gateway proxy, you would modify this line to match your own labels.
we’re saying that this Gateway Configuration should be applied to the gateway proxy. If you wanted to use your own gateway proxy, you would modify this line to match your own labels. The server field contains the meat of the Gateway Configuration. Here we specify a list of Server Specifications, which is essentially an open port, an expected protocol, and a set of hosts that can accessed through this port. If we wanted to set up TLS or Mutual TLS (MTLS), we would configure that at the Server Specification level as well. For this simple example, we’re just exposing port 80 for HTTP traffic, and stating that all hosts are accessible through this gateway by using the wildcard "*"
field contains the meat of the Gateway Configuration. Here we specify a list of Server Specifications, which is essentially an open port, an expected protocol, and a set of hosts that can accessed through this port. If we wanted to set up TLS or Mutual TLS (MTLS), we would configure that at the Server Specification level as well. For this simple example, we’re just exposing port 80 for HTTP traffic, and stating that all hosts are accessible through this gateway by using the wildcard The second resource defined is the Virtual Service (lines 16–35).
We provide fakeblog.com in the hosts field to specify that this Virtual Service handles traffic going to the fakeblog.com domain (on my local machine, I’ve mapped the IP address of my Kubernetes cluster’s external load balancer to the domain name fakeblog.com. You could also use the public IP address instead of a domain name, or you could use the wildcard "*" to allow this Virtual Service to handle traffic meant for any host).
in the field to specify that this Virtual Service handles traffic going to the fakeblog.com domain (on my local machine, I’ve mapped the IP address of my Kubernetes cluster’s external load balancer to the domain name fakeblog.com. You could also use the public IP address instead of a domain name, or you could use the wildcard to allow this Virtual Service to handle traffic meant for any host). In the gateways field, we’re using the name of the Gateway Configuration defined in this same file. This applies the Virtual Service’s routing rules to traffic entering the mesh through this gateway.
field, we’re using the name of the Gateway Configuration defined in this same file. This applies the Virtual Service’s routing rules to traffic entering the mesh through this gateway. The http field is where we specify our Virtual Service’s routing logic. Lines 26–28 define a match condition for the following routing actions, namely that the URI begins with /myblog . Lines 29–30 describe a URI rewrite rule that replaces the URI with / (this is done so that, when the request is ultimately sent to the blog website, it will be sent to the root of the site). Lines 31–35 contain the action to be taken if the match condition is met and after the rewrite rule has been applied: the request will be routed to a service named myblog on port 80.
With our Istio routing configuration created, we now need to actually deploy the blog website to our Kubernetes cluster. Since this next YAML file contains only standard Kubernetes resources (nothing Istio-specific), we won’t go into a line-by-line breakdown, but there are a few points worth noting.
Notice the name given to the service on line 4 above. This must match the value given to the host field (line 35 in the previous file) in the Virtual Service definition.
given to the service on line 4 above. This must match the value given to the field (line 35 in the previous file) in the Virtual Service definition. On line 32, the image we’re using for this service is gnovack/my-blog:v1 . This is a public Docker image repository on Docker Hub to which I pushed the blog website image defined in the Dockerfile from earlier.
For convenience, I’ve created both of the above YAML files in the same directory like so:
1_simple_access/
├── myblog-gateway.yaml
└── myblog.yaml
Assuming you’ve followed this pattern, you can create all of the resources for this example on your cluster with the following command:
kubectl apply -f 1_simple_access/
Now, we can go check out our underwhelming blog website by navigating to http://fakeblog.com/myblog (assuming the domain name fakeblog.com has been mapped to the public IP address of the Kubernetes cluster external load balancer, if not, you can simply use the public IP).
So, this proves that we can access the blog website through Istio’s components, but that isn’t really all that exciting. Let’s take a look at something a little more interesting in the next example.
Example 2: Weighted Routing
In this example, we’re going to deploy a second version of the blog website, then use Istio’s traffic management capabilities to perform weighted traffic routing between both versions.
First, we’ll need to create a new version of the blog website. To keep it simple, all we’re going to change is the header color; version 2 will have a blue header.
Next, we’ll push a container image for the new website version to the same Docker image repository used previously, meaning we will now have both a v1 and v2 version of the image.
Now let’s reconfigure the Istio components created earlier to enable weighted routing. We’re going to run both versions of the blog website (red & blue) in the Kubernetes cluster, then use Istio to route 75% of requests to the original version, and 25% to the new version.
Since the Istio Gateway Configuration is just concerned with exposing ports and protocols, we won’t need to make any changes to it to support the weighted routing scenario; however, we will need to modify the Virtual Service created earlier.
Here is the new Virtual Service definition for our weighted routing setup:
A lot of this (lines 1–16) is the same as before. We’re still using the same hostname, Gateway Configuration, match condition, and URI rewrite rule. The difference is in the route field, that is, the action taken if the match condition is met. Whereas before we were simply routing the request to the myblog service on port 80, now we have two different destinations defined. They both use port 80, and both ultimately send the request to the myblog service (lines 20 & 26), but they are distinguished by the values of the subset and weight fields. Weight is fairly self-evident; this is the proportion of total traffic that will be sent to that particular destination (75% goes to the first destination and 25% goes to the second destination in the example above). But what is a subset?
Subset is a property of Istio Destination Rules. We mentioned Destination Rules earlier, but didn’t need to use them for the first example. Destination Rules allow us to create routing policies to apply to traffic bound for a particular service, and to logically group instances of that service into subsets.
Let’s define a Destination Rule now that groups the instances of our service into v1 and v2 subsets based on whether they are running version 1 (red) or version 2 (blue) of the blog website.
This Destination Rule should be pretty easy to make sense of. We’re giving it a name (line 4), specifying that it applies to the myblog service (line 6), and then defining two subsets (v1 & v2; these names must match the value of the subset field in the Virtual Service) of our blog service (lines 7–13). The real question is, “How does this Destination Rule know which instances of the blog service are running version 1 and which are running version 2?”. This is accomplished by the labels field in each subset. The Destination Rule will group particular pods running the myblog service into it’s subsets based on the labels assigned to those pods. For example, any pod with the label version:v1 will be considered part of the v1 subset.
So now the last thing to do is to redeploy the blog website, this time with some pods running version 1, and other pods running version 2, ensuring that the appropriate labels are assigned to each.
Here is the same definition from earlier for the myblog service, although this time with a separate deployment for each version of the website (notice that the deployments assign different labels and make use of different container images).
Now, if we deploy the resources to the cluster and navigate back our blog site at http://fakeblog.com/myblog we will see, after refreshing the page several times, that we are shown the red blog page about 75% of the time, and the blue blog page the other 25%.
By using Istio’s routing capabilities, we were able to set up a simple A/B test where a certain portion of our customers are shown a new experience, without making any modification to our application code to enable this. If the new version isn’t a success, we can easily modify the routing configuration to send all requests back to the original version, or if we feel we need more data on the new version, we can just as easily modify the weights in our Virtual Service to make this happen.
Example 3: Routing with Request Parameters
Another common scenario where we can leverage Istio Traffic Management is when we want to expose a new version of our service to only a specific set of users, such as internal users or beta testers. Let’s look at one way to accomplish this using Istio.
Instead of simply routing a specified percentage of traffic to each version of our service, Istio also allows us to configure routing based on properties of each HTTP request. In this example, we’ll modify our Virtual Service to route traffic based on the value of a query string parameter, specifically if the user query parameter has a value of internal, we will route the request to version 2, otherwise the request will go to version 1 (I chose to use query string parameters since these are easy modify directly in the browser, but you can also use other properties like URI or headers. A full list of properties that can used to match a request to a destination can be found in the Istio reference docs: HTTPMatchRequest).
Let’s see how to do this with our updated Virtual Service definition:
As you can see, we now have 2 different match conditions. When multiple match conditions are provided, they are evaluated sequentially, and the first route for which the request satisfies the match condition is chosen. For the Virtual Service above, this means that the request is first evaluated against the first match condition (i.e. does the URI begin with /myblog AND does the request have a user query string parameter with a value of internal?). If the request satisfies these conditions, then it is routed to version 2, of not, then it is checked against the next match condition (and so on, if there are more than 2 match conditions).
If we redeploy the Virtual Service with this definition, we will be able to reach the new version of the service by navigating to http://fakeblog.com/myblog?user=internal; all other requests will continue to be routed to the old version. In a real-world scenario, you might add this parameter programmatically based on on the IP address of the user, or based on some kind of user identifier if your application is one that requires users to log in.
Conclusion
We’ve looked at just a few of the myriad use cases where Istio Traffic Management can be leveraged to simplify the development and deployment of microservices. Specifically, we saw how to intelligently route between different versions of a service by using either weights or request parameters to support processes like A/B testing or beta releases; and, most importantly, we accomplished this by simply configuring and reconfiguring our Istio components rather than creating (and probably later removing) custom logic in our application to support these scenarios.
We didn’t have a chance to look into many of the great features that Istio offers (maybe next time), such as Fault Injection, Retry Policies, and Mirroring, but hopefully this article helped establish an understanding of the foundational concepts of Istio that can help you start exploring its many other capabilities and components on your own.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to reach out with any questions or comments.
Source Code
All of the code used in the examples can be found here: https://github.com/gnovack/istio-routing
References | https://medium.com/swlh/introduction-to-istio-traffic-management-6b62c86f8cb4 | ['George Novack'] | 2020-12-12 00:43:21.051000+00:00 | ['Kubernetes', 'Istio', 'Service Mesh', 'Microservices'] | Title Introduction Istio Traffic ManagementContent Introduction Istio Traffic Management Traffic Routing Istio Example Istio continued adoption microservices architecture move toward complex distributed application composed decoupled component communicate via APIs introduces various new challenge developer type application help u encapsulate reuse efficiently scale discrete component business logic also require lot network traffic service make need reliable secure observable channel communication important Istio come Istio opensource Service Mesh help simplify communication microservices distributed application core feature Istio generally fall one three category Traffic Management Istio’s Traffic Management capability include support resilience pattern like Retry Policies Circuit Breakers well request routing capability support scenario like AB Testing Canary Deployments Traffic Management component Istio going focus primarily article Istio’s Traffic Management capability include support resilience pattern like Retry Policies Circuit Breakers well request routing capability support scenario like AB Testing Canary Deployments Traffic Management component Istio going focus primarily article Observability application running service mesh Istio provides outofthebox Metrics Traces Logs provide engineer observability service health behavior see shortly Istio able generate telemetry without additional work application developer application running service mesh Istio provides outofthebox Metrics Traces Logs provide engineer observability service health behavior see shortly Istio able generate telemetry without additional work application developer Security default Istio provides encrypted communication channel microservices application well support various type authentication authorization policy applied different component application Note Istio platformindependent technology running Istio Kubernetes purpose example writing assumes basic understanding Kubernetes work Istio Work high level Istio work deploying proxy alongside service application Envoy Proxy often referred sidecar intercept traffic service generates telemetry traffic configured enable various Authentication Authorization Traffic Management function described two diagram illustrate difference service communication without Istio Envoy Proxies top communication within Isito service mesh traffic routed proxy bottom Basic communication two service without Istio Communication two service Isito service mesh Note Kubernetes term Proxy corresponding Service eg Proxy left Service two container running pod Istio Components One great thing Istio highly configurable however flexibility mean several different component need understand order configure traffic routing service bird’s eye view component involved single request service within Istio service mesh running Kubernetes Overview Istio Components Let’s break component involved request flow Load Balancer external load balancer expose public IP address external traffic routed Kubernetes cluster specific Istio kind load balancer provisioned cloud provider eg AWS GCP time service type LoadBalancer deployed cluster you’re running Kubernetes onprem option MetalLB allow provision external load balancer external load balancer expose public IP address external traffic routed Kubernetes cluster specific Istio kind load balancer provisioned cloud provider eg AWS GCP time service type deployed cluster you’re running Kubernetes onprem option MetalLB allow provision external load balancer Gateway Proxy Kubernetes service type LoadBalancer configure customize traffic entering cluster routed service default Istio deploys Gateway Proxy called istioingressgateway istiosystem namespace we’ll use example application also deploy configure Gateway Proxy needed Kubernetes service type configure customize traffic entering cluster routed service default Istio deploys Gateway Proxy called namespace we’ll use example application also deploy configure Gateway Proxy needed Gateway Configuration one confusing Istio resource we’ll encounter often called simply called Gateway Istio documentation easily confused Gateway Proxy described fact create one resource shortly provide value Gateway kind property resource however I’ve chosen call resource Gateway Configuration diagram feel better describes function Gateway Configuration configures Gateway Proxy specifying port exposed protocol used ingres traffic Gateway Configuration operates property OSI layer 4–6 can’t configure applicationlayer routing rule Virtual Services one confusing Istio resource we’ll encounter often called simply called Istio documentation easily confused Gateway Proxy described fact create one resource shortly provide value kind property resource however I’ve chosen call resource Gateway Configuration diagram feel better describes function Gateway Configuration configures Gateway Proxy specifying port exposed protocol used ingres traffic Gateway Configuration operates property OSI layer 4–6 can’t configure applicationlayer routing rule Virtual Services Virtual Service Virtual Service defines set request routing rule used distribute traffic different destination service mesh Specifically Virtual Services define applicationlayer traffic routing rule meaning HTTP request routed different destination based property like URI request method header Similar Gateway resource discussed VirtualService resource standalone service running set pod instead simply configuration applied proxy mesh actually accept send request Virtual Services applied either Gateway Proxy sidecar Envoy proxy run alongside service application running mesh Virtual Service defines set request routing rule used distribute traffic different destination service mesh Specifically Virtual Services define applicationlayer traffic routing rule meaning HTTP request routed different destination based property like URI request method header Similar resource discussed resource standalone service running set pod instead simply configuration applied proxy mesh actually accept send request Virtual Services applied either Gateway Proxy sidecar Envoy proxy run alongside service application running mesh Destination Rule Destination Rules define routing policy applied traffic already routed particular service Additionally use Destination Rules define service subset allow u group instance service version giving u ability route traffic intelligently multiple active version service without changing anything service code Destination Rules define routing policy applied traffic already routed particular service Additionally use Destination Rules define service subset allow u group instance service version giving u ability route traffic intelligently multiple active version service without changing anything service code MyApplication Sidecar Envoy Proxy run alongside instance deployed service Traffic service intercepted proxy Envoy Proxy run alongside instance deployed service Traffic service intercepted proxy MyApplication Service application deployed Kubernetes cluster standard Kubernetes service Instances service run pod alongside instance MyApplication Sidecar proxy lot wrap head around doesn’t completely make sense yet it’s okay Hopefully purpose Istio component become clearer start see action example service traffic routing configuration Istio Traffic Management Action follow along example you’ll need running Kubernetes cluster I’ll using GKE Google Cloud equivalent offering AWS Azure work fine well Downloading Istio Run following command download Istio curl L httpsistioiodownloadIstio ISTIOVERSION173 TARGETARCHx8664 sh download among thing istioctl command line tool use install Istio Kubernetes cluster Note I’m using version 173 example latest version Istio likely higher time read Installing Istio Kubernetes Run command install Istio cluster using demo configuration profile istio173binistioctl install set profiledemo Note path istioctl may slightly different machine you’re using different version Istio Sample Application application running service mesh illustrate Istio’s traffic routing capability super simple blog website using Nodejs Express website simply display static html page example text site look like navigate know pretty spectacular Next we’ll need containerize website order run Kubernetes cluster Dockerfile defining container image application Creating Istio Components let’s start creating Istio component described earlier Example 1 Simple Routing first scenario demonstrate simple get routing request directly blog site example need Gateway Configuration Virtual Service We’ll define component YAML manifest file Let’s break first resource defined file line 1–14 Gateway Configuration specified kind Gateway using selector app istioingressgateway we’re saying Gateway Configuration applied istioingressgateway gateway proxy wanted use gateway proxy would modify line match label we’re saying Gateway Configuration applied gateway proxy wanted use gateway proxy would modify line match label server field contains meat Gateway Configuration specify list Server Specifications essentially open port expected protocol set host accessed port wanted set TLS Mutual TLS MTLS would configure Server Specification level well simple example we’re exposing port 80 HTTP traffic stating host accessible gateway using wildcard field contains meat Gateway Configuration specify list Server Specifications essentially open port expected protocol set host accessed port wanted set TLS Mutual TLS MTLS would configure Server Specification level well simple example we’re exposing port 80 HTTP traffic stating host accessible gateway using wildcard second resource defined Virtual Service line 16–35 provide fakeblogcom host field specify Virtual Service handle traffic going fakeblogcom domain local machine I’ve mapped IP address Kubernetes cluster’s external load balancer domain name fakeblogcom could also use public IP address instead domain name could use wildcard allow Virtual Service handle traffic meant host field specify Virtual Service handle traffic going fakeblogcom domain local machine I’ve mapped IP address Kubernetes cluster’s external load balancer domain name fakeblogcom could also use public IP address instead domain name could use wildcard allow Virtual Service handle traffic meant host gateway field we’re using name Gateway Configuration defined file applies Virtual Service’s routing rule traffic entering mesh gateway field we’re using name Gateway Configuration defined file applies Virtual Service’s routing rule traffic entering mesh gateway http field specify Virtual Service’s routing logic Lines 26–28 define match condition following routing action namely URI begin myblog Lines 29–30 describe URI rewrite rule replaces URI done request ultimately sent blog website sent root site Lines 31–35 contain action taken match condition met rewrite rule applied request routed service named myblog port 80 Istio routing configuration created need actually deploy blog website Kubernetes cluster Since next YAML file contains standard Kubernetes resource nothing Istiospecific won’t go linebyline breakdown point worth noting Notice name given service line 4 must match value given host field line 35 previous file Virtual Service definition given service line 4 must match value given field line 35 previous file Virtual Service definition line 32 image we’re using service gnovackmyblogv1 public Docker image repository Docker Hub pushed blog website image defined Dockerfile earlier convenience I’ve created YAML file directory like 1simpleaccess ├── mybloggatewayyaml └── myblogyaml Assuming you’ve followed pattern create resource example cluster following command kubectl apply f 1simpleaccess go check underwhelming blog website navigating httpfakeblogcommyblog assuming domain name fakeblogcom mapped public IP address Kubernetes cluster external load balancer simply use public IP prof access blog website Istio’s component isn’t really exciting Let’s take look something little interesting next example Example 2 Weighted Routing example we’re going deploy second version blog website use Istio’s traffic management capability perform weighted traffic routing version First we’ll need create new version blog website keep simple we’re going change header color version 2 blue header Next we’ll push container image new website version Docker image repository used previously meaning v1 v2 version image let’s reconfigure Istio component created earlier enable weighted routing We’re going run version blog website red blue Kubernetes cluster use Istio route 75 request original version 25 new version Since Istio Gateway Configuration concerned exposing port protocol won’t need make change support weighted routing scenario however need modify Virtual Service created earlier new Virtual Service definition weighted routing setup lot line 1–16 We’re still using hostname Gateway Configuration match condition URI rewrite rule difference route field action taken match condition met Whereas simply routing request myblog service port 80 two different destination defined use port 80 ultimately send request myblog service line 20 26 distinguished value subset weight field Weight fairly selfevident proportion total traffic sent particular destination 75 go first destination 25 go second destination example subset Subset property Istio Destination Rules mentioned Destination Rules earlier didn’t need use first example Destination Rules allow u create routing policy apply traffic bound particular service logically group instance service subset Let’s define Destination Rule group instance service v1 v2 subset based whether running version 1 red version 2 blue blog website Destination Rule pretty easy make sense We’re giving name line 4 specifying applies myblog service line 6 defining two subset v1 v2 name must match value subset field Virtual Service blog service line 7–13 real question “How Destination Rule know instance blog service running version 1 running version 2” accomplished label field subset Destination Rule group particular pod running myblog service it’s subset based label assigned pod example pod label versionv1 considered part v1 subset last thing redeploy blog website time pod running version 1 pod running version 2 ensuring appropriate label assigned definition earlier myblog service although time separate deployment version website notice deployment assign different label make use different container image deploy resource cluster navigate back blog site httpfakeblogcommyblog see refreshing page several time shown red blog page 75 time blue blog page 25 using Istio’s routing capability able set simple AB test certain portion customer shown new experience without making modification application code enable new version isn’t success easily modify routing configuration send request back original version feel need data new version easily modify weight Virtual Service make happen Example 3 Routing Request Parameters Another common scenario leverage Istio Traffic Management want expose new version service specific set user internal user beta tester Let’s look one way accomplish using Istio Instead simply routing specified percentage traffic version service Istio also allows u configure routing based property HTTP request example we’ll modify Virtual Service route traffic based value query string parameter specifically user query parameter value internal route request version 2 otherwise request go version 1 chose use query string parameter since easy modify directly browser also use property like URI header full list property used match request destination found Istio reference doc HTTPMatchRequest Let’s see updated Virtual Service definition see 2 different match condition multiple match condition provided evaluated sequentially first route request satisfies match condition chosen Virtual Service mean request first evaluated first match condition ie URI begin myblog request user query string parameter value internal request satisfies condition routed version 2 checked next match condition 2 match condition redeploy Virtual Service definition able reach new version service navigating httpfakeblogcommybloguserinternal request continue routed old version realworld scenario might add parameter programmatically based IP address user based kind user identifier application one requires user log Conclusion We’ve looked myriad use case Istio Traffic Management leveraged simplify development deployment microservices Specifically saw intelligently route different version service using either weight request parameter support process like AB testing beta release importantly accomplished simply configuring reconfiguring Istio component rather creating probably later removing custom logic application support scenario didn’t chance look many great feature Istio offer maybe next time Fault Injection Retry Policies Mirroring hopefully article helped establish understanding foundational concept Istio help start exploring many capability component Thanks reading Feel free reach question comment Source Code code used example found httpsgithubcomgnovackistiorouting ReferencesTags Kubernetes Istio Service Mesh Microservices |
2,149 | Does Being an Author Change How You Read Novels? | The Negatives
The bad part of all this studying is, of course, the constant detection of even the tiniest errors. There are books which I read from start to finish in a state of immersion and suspended disbelief, and even though there are errors here and there, I know they’re made on purpose because their strict, grammatically correct counterparts would destroy the flow of the prose. So, even though I detect these errors, I don’t care about them and they disappear from my mind seconds later.
But then there are stories I don’t find engrossing to begin with. The errors in these stories completely pull me out of the immersion. The kind of errors I’m talking about are perhaps not too irksome to everyone. But they’re as annoying to an author as they would be to a chef who has to consume food he knows he could’ve prepared better. I’ll give you an example from this article itself —
Do they employ short chapters which end on cliffhangers, like Dan Brown…
If there were no comma after “cliffhangers”, it would imply Dan Brown is a kind of cliffhanger. Once you learn these little nuances, reading becomes an entirely different experience. You start reading a book, and while it doesn’t blow your mind away at the beginning, it’s a solid read. You’re just starting to get immersed in the story when you spot a mistake like the one I mentioned above. Your immersion is immediately broken. Sighing, you check the time and decide to do something else instead.
That book might have turned out much better had you kept on with it. But now you’ll never know, and it’ll be just another book you started and never finished. That’s been my experience. I’ve lost track of the number of books I’ve begun reading only to abandon fifteen minutes later because my immersion kept getting broken.
Examining novels to improve your own writing is good, but I take it too far. The number of books in my discarded pile is proof of that. | https://medium.com/books-are-our-superpower/does-being-an-author-change-how-you-read-novels-6724250c335e | ['Chandrayan Gupta'] | 2020-12-06 21:52:48.496000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Writing', 'Advice', 'Reading', 'Books'] | Title Author Change Read NovelsContent Negatives bad part studying course constant detection even tiniest error book read start finish state immersion suspended disbelief even though error know they’re made purpose strict grammatically correct counterpart would destroy flow prose even though detect error don’t care disappear mind second later story don’t find engrossing begin error story completely pull immersion kind error I’m talking perhaps irksome everyone they’re annoying author would chef consume food know could’ve prepared better I’ll give example article — employ short chapter end cliffhanger like Dan Brown… comma “cliffhangers” would imply Dan Brown kind cliffhanger learn little nuance reading becomes entirely different experience start reading book doesn’t blow mind away beginning it’s solid read You’re starting get immersed story spot mistake like one mentioned immersion immediately broken Sighing check time decide something else instead book might turned much better kept you’ll never know it’ll another book started never finished That’s experience I’ve lost track number book I’ve begun reading abandon fifteen minute later immersion kept getting broken Examining novel improve writing good take far number book discarded pile proof thatTags Self Improvement Writing Advice Reading Books |
2,150 | The First Time I Killed My Little Darlings | Who wrote that ridiculous rule? I’d bet it wasn’t Stephen King, Master of Doorstops!
(Never mind how Carrie was 60,000 words.)
Anyone ever heard of Margaret Mitchell? Gone With The Wind! 418,000! (FIRST AND ONLY!)
Okay, okay, that was like seventy years ago. But hey, look at this, Miss Snark! A DEBUT NOVEL about vampire librarians (yes, you read that right) just came out and it’s 240,000 words!
So yeah, you can have a debut novel thicker than a grilled cheese sandwich!
(It sucked. Torturous.)
Yah sure, mine’s still longer — I’ll bet I could whack it down to 240,000. And it definitely doesn’t suck!
Miss Snark begged to differ. She listed the literary sins of the wannabe novelist’s first effort: Too many characters; subplots that go nowhere; too many useless words; too much description (especially settings); too-long-too-graphic sex scenes; plots that sag in the middle or lack dramatic tension.
Her annoying list nagged me like a persistent pet demanding attention when I had more important things to do. I pushed it away but it kept throwing its paws in my lap.
Maybe 300,000 words was too long for a debut novel, today.
Other, better writers got away with these crimes in the past but maybe longer novels were best left to the pros. She was right. Stephen King I ain’t.
Then again, Stephen King wasn’t Stephen King, either. I felt IT could have been pared down by about a quarter to a third. Having read even heavier doorstops since then, I’m done with Stephen King until some brave editor goes Freddie Krueger on every work over 100,000 words and slashes them down to Abridged.
Better writers than the King and I had committed these many sins.
Too many characters: Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy.
Subplots going nowhere: J.R.R. Tolkien.
Plots without dramatic tension: Jules Verne
Not knowing when the story ends: Tolkien again, and King’s Rose Madder.
Too many useless words: Every Victorian writer. And Tolstoy.
Too much description, especially of settings: Tolkien again. Tolstoy — farming.
Too-long, too-graphic sex scenes: Every novel written since 1980, until, I guess, 2005. Although I happily cut my 10-page orgasm down to his slipping his hand under her halter top and ending, “I arched my back, abandoning myself.”
Stories sagging in the middle: Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End. I’ve half-read it twice and he loses me after the aliens reveal themselves.
They’d all broken Miss Snark’s One Blog Tip To Rule Them All: Kill your darlings. | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/the-first-time-i-killed-my-little-darlings-64d84d8f81a1 | ['Nicole Chardenet'] | 2020-12-26 04:34:27.232000+00:00 | ['Editing', 'Books', 'Fiction', 'Advice', 'Writing'] | Title First Time Killed Little DarlingsContent wrote ridiculous rule I’d bet wasn’t Stephen King Master Doorstops Never mind Carrie 60000 word Anyone ever heard Margaret Mitchell Gone Wind 418000 FIRST Okay okay like seventy year ago hey look Miss Snark DEBUT NOVEL vampire librarian yes read right came it’s 240000 word yeah debut novel thicker grilled cheese sandwich sucked Torturous Yah sure mine’s still longer — I’ll bet could whack 240000 definitely doesn’t suck Miss Snark begged differ listed literary sin wannabe novelist’s first effort many character subplots go nowhere many useless word much description especially setting toolongtoographic sex scene plot sag middle lack dramatic tension annoying list nagged like persistent pet demanding attention important thing pushed away kept throwing paw lap Maybe 300000 word long debut novel today better writer got away crime past maybe longer novel best left pro right Stephen King ain’t Stephen King wasn’t Stephen King either felt could pared quarter third read even heavier doorstop since I’m done Stephen King brave editor go Freddie Krueger every work 100000 word slash Abridged Better writer King committed many sin many character Jane Austen Leo Tolstoy Subplots going nowhere JRR Tolkien Plots without dramatic tension Jules Verne knowing story end Tolkien King’s Rose Madder many useless word Every Victorian writer Tolstoy much description especially setting Tolkien Tolstoy — farming Toolong toographic sex scene Every novel written since 1980 guess 2005 Although happily cut 10page orgasm slipping hand halter top ending “I arched back abandoning myself” Stories sagging middle Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End I’ve halfread twice loses alien reveal They’d broken Miss Snark’s One Blog Tip Rule Kill darlingsTags Editing Books Fiction Advice Writing |
2,151 | A Website without Email Marketing Is Like a House with No Roof | Image by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
I had a difficult conversation again last week with an online retailer who was struggling with the high acquisition costs of selling via online marketplaces (eBay, Amazon, etc.) but not putting the time and effort into his own site because it hadn’t generated enough sales.
He’d given up on expensive paid search marketing, could never find the time to promote new products on social media and — the ultimate sin — never even considered email marketing.
The little traffic he did generate came from affiliate partners — although much of this came from price comparison sites, which meant most sales were based on a strategy of heavy discounting and wafer-thin margins.
No Relationships
In short, the online retailer had no real relationships with his customers — their loyalty was with the online marketplaces and affiliate sites, and he only picked up the crumbs because he fought hard to be the cheapest. While this is a common business strategy for many online retailers, it’s not an easy or very lucrative path to success.
Note: Volume sales, if not managed correctly, can be incredibly expensive. The more you sell, the more staff you need to pick and pack, the more warehouse space you need, and the more costs add up and squeeze those tiny margins.
Acquisition vs. Retention
The online retailer had thrown all his marketing eggs into one strategic basket and focused his efforts entirely on the acquisition, with nothing on retention.
Note: Acquisition marketing is always more expensive than retention marketing.
The retailer had two options:
Continue down the same path and hope his competition would allow him the space to make a decent margin on a higher volume of sales (he worked in an incredibly competitive space, so this wasn’t likely to happen). Start looking at a strategy to retain and grow his own-site sales — yep, you’ve guessed it — through email marketing.
Start Small and Build
Even though sales via his site were limited, every customer engagement gave him the opportunity to build a potentially lucrative relationship and increase his margins by bypassing those expensive acquisition costs.
Note: Too many online businesses believe they have to have a substantial list in order to start email marketing. To the contrary, if you have a handful of customers, you have enough people to start marketing to. They have already made a commitment to your business, so why would you ignore them?
Insulate Your Business
Think of email marketing as insulation for your business. Like a roof on a house, it traps the heat (cash flow) inside a business and prevents the rain (unwarranted expenses) from coming in.
You wouldn’t build a house without a roof, so why would you build a website without email marketing?
How have you used email marketing to build relationships and take ownership of your business and its profits? Share your comments below: | https://john-w-hayes.medium.com/a-website-without-email-marketing-is-like-a-house-with-no-roof-2e0f1be65598 | ['John W Hayes'] | 2018-09-17 08:46:04.753000+00:00 | ['Ecommerce', 'Email Marketing', 'Marketing', 'Amazon'] | Title Website without Email Marketing Like House RoofContent Image Annie Spratt Unsplash difficult conversation last week online retailer struggling high acquisition cost selling via online marketplace eBay Amazon etc putting time effort site hadn’t generated enough sale He’d given expensive paid search marketing could never find time promote new product social medium — ultimate sin — never even considered email marketing little traffic generate came affiliate partner — although much came price comparison site meant sale based strategy heavy discounting waferthin margin Relationships short online retailer real relationship customer — loyalty online marketplace affiliate site picked crumb fought hard cheapest common business strategy many online retailer it’s easy lucrative path success Note Volume sale managed correctly incredibly expensive sell staff need pick pack warehouse space need cost add squeeze tiny margin Acquisition v Retention online retailer thrown marketing egg one strategic basket focused effort entirely acquisition nothing retention Note Acquisition marketing always expensive retention marketing retailer two option Continue path hope competition would allow space make decent margin higher volume sale worked incredibly competitive space wasn’t likely happen Start looking strategy retain grow ownsite sale — yep you’ve guessed — email marketing Start Small Build Even though sale via site limited every customer engagement gave opportunity build potentially lucrative relationship increase margin bypassing expensive acquisition cost Note many online business believe substantial list order start email marketing contrary handful customer enough people start marketing already made commitment business would ignore Insulate Business Think email marketing insulation business Like roof house trap heat cash flow inside business prevents rain unwarranted expense coming wouldn’t build house without roof would build website without email marketing used email marketing build relationship take ownership business profit Share comment belowTags Ecommerce Email Marketing Marketing Amazon |
2,152 | Use BIRT to generate reports from CSV | If you achieve data from CSV or other types of flat files in BIRT, you can s use Flat File Data Source. If you generate a dynamic parameter report, you can create a second dataSet to use the parameter and filter the original dataSet. If you use the Unformatted CSV file as a data source and produce the report, you need to implement Scripted Data Source to bring the data in. How can we query data and create a dynamic parameter report as SQL does with flat files? How can we use a simple and easy way replacing Scripted Data Source? How can we process the flat files all in one? The answer is using esProc in Birt.
Let’s take an example to introduce the implementation process:
In this example, employee sales information is stored in sale.csv, and employee information with dates greater than 2015–03–02 needs to be queried based on input parameters.
sale.csv data are as follows：
userName,date,saleValue,saleCount
Rachel,2015-3-1,4500,9
Rachel,2015-3-3,8700,4
Tom,2015-3-2,3000,8
Tom,2015-3-3,5000,7
Tom,2015-3-4,6000,12
John,2015-3-2,4000,3
John,2015-3-2,4300,9
John,2015-3-4,4800,4 userName,date,saleValue,saleCount
Rachel,2015-3-1,4500,9
Rachel,2015-3-3,8700,4
Tom,2015-3-2,3000,8
Tom,2015-3-3,5000,7
Tom,2015-3-4,6000,12
John,2015-3-2,4000,3
John,2015-3-2,4300,9
John,2015-3-4,4800,4
userName,date,saleValue,saleCount
Rachel,2015-3-1,4500,9
Rachel,2015-3-3,8700,4
Tom,2015-3-2,3000,8
Tom,2015-3-3,5000,7
Tom,2015-3-4,6000,12
John,2015-3-2,4000,3
John,2015-3-2,4300,9
John,2015-3-4,4800,4 userName,date,saleValue,saleCount
Rachel,2015-3-1,4500,9
Rachel,2015-3-3,8700,4
Tom,2015-3-2,3000,8
Tom,2015-3-3,5000,7
Tom,2015-3-4,6000,12
John,2015-3-2,4000,3
John,2015-3-2,4300,9
John,2015-3-4,4800,4
Here we show how to use parameters for CSV data source in birt.
The integration of BIRT with esProc is not introduced here. Please refer to How to Call an SPL Script in BIRT.
Step 1: Add an esProc JDBC data source.
Step 2: Add the dataset and write the SQL query CSV file directly.
Query text：
Report parameter：
Set dataset parameters and link them to report parameters:
Step 3: Create a report
The report is designed as follows:
Step 4: WEB preview, input parameters, preview results:
（1）input parameter：Date 2015–03–02
For more examples, procedure text files refer to the following Structured Text Computing. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/use-birt-to-generate-reports-from-cvs-e8e9e5972992 | ['Easily Simplify Data Processing'] | 2019-11-24 09:57:35.795000+00:00 | ['Report', 'Big Data', 'Analytics', 'Visualization'] | Title Use BIRT generate report CSVContent achieve data CSV type flat file BIRT use Flat File Data Source generate dynamic parameter report create second dataSet use parameter filter original dataSet use Unformatted CSV file data source produce report need implement Scripted Data Source bring data query data create dynamic parameter report SQL flat file use simple easy way replacing Scripted Data Source process flat file one answer using esProc Birt Let’s take example introduce implementation process example employee sale information stored salecsv employee information date greater 2015–03–02 need queried based input parameter salecsv data follows： userNamedatesaleValuesaleCount Rachel20153145009 Rachel20153387004 Tom20153230008 Tom20153350007 Tom201534600012 John20153240003 John20153243009 John20153448004 userNamedatesaleValuesaleCount Rachel20153145009 Rachel20153387004 Tom20153230008 Tom20153350007 Tom201534600012 John20153240003 John20153243009 John20153448004 userNamedatesaleValuesaleCount Rachel20153145009 Rachel20153387004 Tom20153230008 Tom20153350007 Tom201534600012 John20153240003 John20153243009 John20153448004 userNamedatesaleValuesaleCount Rachel20153145009 Rachel20153387004 Tom20153230008 Tom20153350007 Tom201534600012 John20153240003 John20153243009 John20153448004 show use parameter CSV data source birt integration BIRT esProc introduced Please refer Call SPL Script BIRT Step 1 Add esProc JDBC data source Step 2 Add dataset write SQL query CSV file directly Query text： Report parameter： Set dataset parameter link report parameter Step 3 Create report report designed follows Step 4 WEB preview input parameter preview result （1）input parameter：Date 2015–03–02 example procedure text file refer following Structured Text ComputingTags Report Big Data Analytics Visualization |
2,153 | You’re Not Weird If You Think Trees Have Conversations | More Than What You See
Photo by Rishi Deep on Unsplash
“A forest is much more than what you see…underground there is this other world, a world of infinite biological pathways that connect trees and allow them to communicate…and allow the forest to behave as though it’s a single organism. It might remind you of a sort of intelligence.” — Suzanne Simard, forest ecologist, 2016 Ted Talk
Harris references a book called “What A Plant Knows” by plant geneticist Daniel Chamovitz. In his book Chamovitz explains that plants can react to outside stimuli in ways that are startling and mainly go unnoticed. In particular, plants can sense touch and also show indications that they have memory.
Chamovitz explains that vines can change the rate and the direction of their growth when it senses by touch something to grow around. Venus fly traps can also tell the difference between the touch of wind and rain versus the pressure from the touch of an insect or animal.
He also explains that plants show some form of memory. For instance, venus fly traps have hairs on them that when touched will close their leaves around an insect. Two hairs need to be touched before they will close. So, it ‘remembers’ that the first hair is touched before the second hair triggers the closing. Similarly, Chamovitz explains that wheat seedlings ‘remember’ they’ve gone through a winter before flowering.
Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard believes trees can communicate with each other. In her 2016 Ted Talk, she details experiments she’s done over 30 years that she says prove this.
In her first study to prove her hypothesis, she took Paper Birch and Douglas Fir trees and planted them together. She used tracer elements of carbon 14 gas and carbon 13 gas. She bagged the trees and put an individual gas in the bags with each individual species of tree. After sitting for an hour, she removed the bags and found that the birch and fir trees were passing the carbon back and forth when she analyzed them with a geiger counter.
In this particular experiment, the birch sent carbon to the fir, which she covered with a blanket and shielded from light exposure. In other instances she found the fir sending carbon to the birch trees.
Mycorrhizal Networks — Drawing By Nefronus Via Wikipedia Creative Commons
Simard explains that this carbon is being passed through mycorrhizal networks that originate from fungi. The top mushroom part of the fungus you see has threads called mycelium coming out of the bottom of it that interconnect with the roots of trees. The fungus and tree exchange nutrients and products from photosynthesis this way.
This network can also be used to trade carbon between trees and also information. For instance, trees can alert other trees of harmful insects. The network can be so dense that there can be hundreds of kilometers of mycelium under your feet.
In further experiments, Simard also found that ‘mother trees’ can recognize their ‘offspring’. Through monitoring isotope exchanges, she found that the parent tree will give more carbon to trees that were its ‘children’. The parent tree will also reduce their root competition with the related tree as well. Defense signals were also sent from ‘parent’ to ‘child’.
It appears this mycorrhizal network functions as a plant internet of sorts. Some even call it the wood wide web. | https://medium.com/discourse/youre-not-weird-if-you-think-trees-have-conversations-35c888a2002f | ['Erik Brown'] | 2019-09-23 10:21:01.161000+00:00 | ['Nature', 'Life Lessons', 'Environment', 'Technology', 'Science'] | Title You’re Weird Think Trees ConversationsContent See Photo Rishi Deep Unsplash “A forest much see…underground world world infinite biological pathway connect tree allow communicate…and allow forest behave though it’s single organism might remind sort intelligence” — Suzanne Simard forest ecologist 2016 Ted Talk Harris reference book called “What Plant Knows” plant geneticist Daniel Chamovitz book Chamovitz explains plant react outside stimulus way startling mainly go unnoticed particular plant sense touch also show indication memory Chamovitz explains vine change rate direction growth sens touch something grow around Venus fly trap also tell difference touch wind rain versus pressure touch insect animal also explains plant show form memory instance venus fly trap hair touched close leaf around insect Two hair need touched close ‘remembers’ first hair touched second hair trigger closing Similarly Chamovitz explains wheat seedling ‘remember’ they’ve gone winter flowering Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard belief tree communicate 2016 Ted Talk detail experiment she’s done 30 year say prove first study prove hypothesis took Paper Birch Douglas Fir tree planted together used tracer element carbon 14 gas carbon 13 gas bagged tree put individual gas bag individual specie tree sitting hour removed bag found birch fir tree passing carbon back forth analyzed geiger counter particular experiment birch sent carbon fir covered blanket shielded light exposure instance found fir sending carbon birch tree Mycorrhizal Networks — Drawing Nefronus Via Wikipedia Creative Commons Simard explains carbon passed mycorrhizal network originate fungi top mushroom part fungus see thread called mycelium coming bottom interconnect root tree fungus tree exchange nutrient product photosynthesis way network also used trade carbon tree also information instance tree alert tree harmful insect network dense hundred kilometer mycelium foot experiment Simard also found ‘mother trees’ recognize ‘offspring’ monitoring isotope exchange found parent tree give carbon tree ‘children’ parent tree also reduce root competition related tree well Defense signal also sent ‘parent’ ‘child’ appears mycorrhizal network function plant internet sort even call wood wide webTags Nature Life Lessons Environment Technology Science |
2,154 | Draw insights from fiction books with Text Mining | Getting Started
What you’ll need: book in PDF or TXT format
Programming language and IDE: R and the IDE of your choice
Packages we’re gonna use: tm, stopwords, tidytext, tidyverse, wordcloud2, ggplot2, and others.
The book I have chosen to analyze this time is Carrie, by Stephen King. While it’s actually not my favorite book, it was written by my favorite author of all time, Mr. Stephen King. The story of the young girl Carrie is known by many people, perhaps more than any other of his books — and that’s saying something, coming from someone who wrote It, The Shining, The Dark Tower, Under the Dome, and many other masterpieces.
Carrie, by Stephen King
In addition to that, it has the added benefit of being very short, especially for King’s standards, with less than 200 pages and around 60K words.
Loading the book and preparing the data
Basically, 80% of the time you spend doing Text Mining and NLP will be actually dedicated to obtaining, transforming, and preparing the data so it can be used with the methods you’re gonna use — and that’s basically the way doesn’t matter the method and function you choose.
First, we use readLines to import our book in TXT format and load it into a vector of 4500+ strings of characters, each string containing a paragraph.
carrie <- readLines("carrie.txt",skipNul = T,encoding = "UTF-8")
If your book is in PDF file format — way more common than TXT— you can use package pdftools, which would help you load the text fairly easily into your R environment. The command is pretty simple and it would look like this:
carrie <- pdf_text("carrie.pdf")
Next, we create an object called corpus — a collection of text documents. Some additional steps take as input that corpus we just created and that are necessary to transform and prepare the data. They are explained in more detail in the source code for this article, which you can find on my Github page. Some of those include:
filtering out the cover, dedicatory, preface, footnotes, etc. if your file has those sections.
removing undesired characters /, “, ”, — and others.
transforming the text to lowercase.
removing numbers, punctuation, etc.
For those transformations and others, I’ve used the package tm, which provides methods for data import, corpus handling, preprocessing, metadata management, and creation of term-document matrices. Another step you can’t miss while preparing your book for analysis is removing any stopwords.
Stopwords are mainly articles, pronouns, and prepositions such as “the”, “my”, “he”, “she”, “for”, etc. that usually don’t add any value themselves to the text, they’re there to connect other types of words. We use a well-established database of stopwords for the English language obtained from package stopwords, which has 5 different sources of stopwords for more than 40 languages.
stopwords::stopwords("en", source = "stopwords-iso")
Some of the words considered “stopwords” for the English language
When crossing the dataframe of 1298 stopwords with our corpus of 4500+ paragraphs, we end up with only words important for a thorough but meaningful analysis of the book.
Last but not least, we perform a procedure called tokenization, which breaks the text into words so then we can analyze them individually. There are other types of tokenization: by sentence, by paragraph, and others, check more about it here.
carrie %>% unnest_tokens(input = text, output = word)
text tokenized by word
Now we got something that looks promising to really begin our analysis.
Part 2: The fun stuff
The most basic step when analyzing a book, in my opinion, is looking into the most frequent words contained in the text. Let’s plot the top 10.
A few observations:
Carrie : it’s common and obvious that the main character’s name is the most mentioned word of the book. If you feel that word doesn’t add any value to your analysis, it’s possible (and easy) to remove it so it doesn’t appear in your plots.
: it’s common and obvious that the main character’s name is the most mentioned word of the book. If you feel that word doesn’t add any value to your analysis, it’s possible (and easy) to remove it so it doesn’t appear in your plots. Momma : pretty indicative of how messed up the relationship between Carrie and her mom was and how violent were their interactions.
: pretty indicative of how messed up the relationship between Carrie and her mom was and how violent were their interactions. White : “of course, it’s their last name” you might say since the last name of the two main characters is bound to appear a lot. But one of the most memorable and impressive things about this book is the contrast between white (purity) and red (love, anger, danger) and I have no question at all that the surname and the number of times the word appear are no coincidence at all.
: “of course, it’s their last name” you might say since the last name of the two main characters is bound to appear a lot. But one of the most memorable and impressive things about this book is the contrast between white (purity) and red (love, anger, danger) and I have no question at all that the surname and the number of times the word appear are no coincidence at all. Blood: I personally thought this word was going to be mentioned a bit more, but it makes sense since there are only two main events in which blood is involved (the very beginning and the very ending of the book). But don’t get me wrong, this is a bloody/gory story.
Analyzing only single words makes it easy to overlook important relations, so another way of aiding your analysis is breaking the text down into pairs of words, what we’ll call bigrams. In doing that it’s possible to see better how words are related and identify common pairs, amongst other things.
Looking past the obvious “Carrie White” and “Margaret White” combinations, the third bigram shows a very interesting phenomenon common in books written by Stephen King:
Creepy writing style (but that’s one of the reasons we love him)
If you ever read a book by Stephen King, especially the ones belonging to the horror genre, you probably remember a part like this where he pauses the story for a bit to give us an often creepy look into what the character’s thinking or feeling. Stephen King at his best!
Word Cloud
Another way of visualizing text is a Word Cloud. Although there are several authors now advocating against it — and for good reasons, it is consensus that a Word Cloud is still very useful. I usually like to construct a Word Cloud when working with text since 1.it is easy 😅 and 2. it shows unmistakenly the most frequent and important words in the text.
Using package wordcloud2 and our dataframe of frequent words, we plot 200 words of those. The intensity of the red color and the size of the font are greater for more frequent words.
wordcloud::wordcloud2(data = words[1:200,], size = 1.6,
shape = "oval",
rotateRatio = 0.5,
color= rev(cartography::carto.pal("red.pal",n1=20))
)
Word Cloud of the most frequent words of the book
Correlation between words
Now we want to determine the most relevant correlations between our 10 most frequent words and any other words of the book. For that, we take a few steps.
First, we find associations of words with correlation greater than 0.15 for our 10 words. Then we select the top 5 most correlated words to our 10.
wordassociation=findAssocs(x=dtm,terms= head(words$word,10),corlimit = 0.15) association = as.data.frame(unlist(wordassociation)) %>%
tibble::rownames_to_column(var = "word") %>%
rename(corr = `unlist(wordassociation)`) %>%
tidyr::separate(col=word,sep="([.])",into=c("word1","word2")) %>%
mutate(word1 = factor(word1,levels=head(words$word,10)),wordno = as.numeric(word1)) %>%
group_by(word1) %>%
slice(seq_len(5)) %>%
arrange(word1, desc(corr)) %>%
mutate(row = row_number()) %>%
ungroup() ggplot(association, aes(corr, reorder(word2,corr),fill=word1)) +
geom_col(show.legend = FALSE) +
facet_wrap(~word1,scales="free_y")+
theme(panel.grid.major.x = element_blank(),plot.title = element_text(hjust = 0.5)) +
ggtitle("Relationship of top words") + xlab("Correlation") + ylab("Words")+ scale_fill_manual(values = cores)
Words more correlated with our top 10 most frequent words
For instance, the word “blood”, relates more strongly with “expiate”, “pig”, “pour”, “coppery” and “awful”. All of those make sense based on the story of the book and the properties of the blood itself, so we’re doing well. 😀
Network of bigrams
Another intuitive and eye-popping way of visualizing bigrams is a network plot, which you can make with ggraph package.
bigram_graph <- carrie_bigrams %>%
filter(n > 5) %>%
graph_from_data_frame()
ggraph(bigram_graph,layout = "fr") +
geom_edge_link(color="red") +
geom_node_point(color="red") +
geom_node_text(aes(label = name), vjust = 1, hjust = 1)
Network graph of the relationships between pairs of words
This method takes as input our dataframe of tokenized bigrams (pairs) and links those pairs of words that have a high correlation. For instance, “carrie” is directly linked with screamed, white, looked, and “tommy ross”, all of those words that appear many times in the book next to it.
Other relationships are pretty apparent and make a lot of sense, such as “police x station”, “root x beer”, “dance x floor”, since those are pairs that appear several times together in the text.
Final remarks
That concludes our first part of the analysis with methods and comments on how to prepare your data, visualize the text in a more general way, and look for relationships within the data.
There are certainly many other ways of analyzing and visualizing text but those were some of the most interesting I wanted to try for this book. Stay tuned for the next articles and analysis of more books.
People don’t get better, they just get smarter. When you get smarter you don’t stop pulling the wings off flies, you just think of better reasons for doing it. Stephen King.
Shoutout to the great people that wrote these articles. I definitely couldn’t have done it without those amazing pieces of information. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/drawing-insights-from-any-book-with-text-mining-in-r-part-1-ffc9788d4cf2 | ['Rafael Belokurows'] | 2020-12-28 16:40:20.429000+00:00 | ['R Programming', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'R', 'Data Science', 'Books'] | Title Draw insight fiction book Text MiningContent Getting Started you’ll need book PDF TXT format Programming language IDE R IDE choice Packages we’re gonna use tm stopwords tidytext tidyverse wordcloud2 ggplot2 others book chosen analyze time Carrie Stephen King it’s actually favorite book written favorite author time Mr Stephen King story young girl Carrie known many people perhaps book — that’s saying something coming someone wrote Shining Dark Tower Dome many masterpiece Carrie Stephen King addition added benefit short especially King’s standard le 200 page around 60K word Loading book preparing data Basically 80 time spend Text Mining NLP actually dedicated obtaining transforming preparing data used method you’re gonna use — that’s basically way doesn’t matter method function choose First use readLines import book TXT format load vector 4500 string character string containing paragraph carrie readLinescarrietxtskipNul Tencoding UTF8 book PDF file format — way common TXT— use package pdftools would help load text fairly easily R environment command pretty simple would look like carrie pdftextcarriepdf Next create object called corpus — collection text document additional step take input corpus created necessary transform prepare data explained detail source code article find Github page include filtering cover dedicatory preface footnote etc file section removing undesired character “ ” — others transforming text lowercase removing number punctuation etc transformation others I’ve used package tm provides method data import corpus handling preprocessing metadata management creation termdocument matrix Another step can’t miss preparing book analysis removing stopwords Stopwords mainly article pronoun preposition “the” “my” “he” “she” “for” etc usually don’t add value text they’re connect type word use wellestablished database stopwords English language obtained package stopwords 5 different source stopwords 40 language stopwordsstopwordsen source stopwordsiso word considered “stopwords” English language crossing dataframe 1298 stopwords corpus 4500 paragraph end word important thorough meaningful analysis book Last least perform procedure called tokenization break text word analyze individually type tokenization sentence paragraph others check carrie unnesttokensinput text output word text tokenized word got something look promising really begin analysis Part 2 fun stuff basic step analyzing book opinion looking frequent word contained text Let’s plot top 10 observation Carrie it’s common obvious main character’s name mentioned word book feel word doesn’t add value analysis it’s possible easy remove doesn’t appear plot it’s common obvious main character’s name mentioned word book feel word doesn’t add value analysis it’s possible easy remove doesn’t appear plot Momma pretty indicative messed relationship Carrie mom violent interaction pretty indicative messed relationship Carrie mom violent interaction White “of course it’s last name” might say since last name two main character bound appear lot one memorable impressive thing book contrast white purity red love anger danger question surname number time word appear coincidence “of course it’s last name” might say since last name two main character bound appear lot one memorable impressive thing book contrast white purity red love anger danger question surname number time word appear coincidence Blood personally thought word going mentioned bit make sense since two main event blood involved beginning ending book don’t get wrong bloodygory story Analyzing single word make easy overlook important relation another way aiding analysis breaking text pair word we’ll call bigram it’s possible see better word related identify common pair amongst thing Looking past obvious “Carrie White” “Margaret White” combination third bigram show interesting phenomenon common book written Stephen King Creepy writing style that’s one reason love ever read book Stephen King especially one belonging horror genre probably remember part like pause story bit give u often creepy look character’s thinking feeling Stephen King best Word Cloud Another way visualizing text Word Cloud Although several author advocating — good reason consensus Word Cloud still useful usually like construct Word Cloud working text since 1it easy 😅 2 show unmistakenly frequent important word text Using package wordcloud2 dataframe frequent word plot 200 word intensity red color size font greater frequent word wordcloudwordcloud2data words1200 size 16 shape oval rotateRatio 05 color revcartographycartopalredpaln120 Word Cloud frequent word book Correlation word want determine relevant correlation 10 frequent word word book take step First find association word correlation greater 015 10 word select top 5 correlated word 10 wordassociationfindAssocsxdtmterms headwordsword10corlimit 015 association asdataframeunlistwordassociation tibblerownamestocolumnvar word renamecorr unlistwordassociation tidyrseparatecolwordsepintocword1word2 mutateword1 factorword1levelsheadwordsword10wordno asnumericword1 groupbyword1 sliceseqlen5 arrangeword1 desccorr mutaterow rownumber ungroup ggplotassociation aescorr reorderword2corrfillword1 geomcolshowlegend FALSE facetwrapword1scalesfreey themepanelgridmajorx elementblankplottitle elementtexthjust 05 ggtitleRelationship top word xlabCorrelation ylabWords scalefillmanualvalues core Words correlated top 10 frequent word instance word “blood” relates strongly “expiate” “pig” “pour” “coppery” “awful” make sense based story book property blood we’re well 😀 Network bigram Another intuitive eyepopping way visualizing bigram network plot make ggraph package bigramgraph carriebigrams filtern 5 graphfromdataframe ggraphbigramgraphlayout fr geomedgelinkcolorred geomnodepointcolorred geomnodetextaeslabel name vjust 1 hjust 1 Network graph relationship pair word method take input dataframe tokenized bigram pair link pair word high correlation instance “carrie” directly linked screamed white looked “tommy ross” word appear many time book next relationship pretty apparent make lot sense “police x station” “root x beer” “dance x floor” since pair appear several time together text Final remark concludes first part analysis method comment prepare data visualize text general way look relationship within data certainly many way analyzing visualizing text interesting wanted try book Stay tuned next article analysis book People don’t get better get smarter get smarter don’t stop pulling wing fly think better reason Stephen King Shoutout great people wrote article definitely couldn’t done without amazing piece informationTags R Programming Artificial Intelligence R Data Science Books |
2,155 | A Comprehensive Guide To Genetic Algorithms — The ELI5 Way | Genetic Algorithms are based on Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection and are often used to solve problems in research and machine learning.
In this article, we’ll be looking at the fundamentals of Genetic Algorithms (GA) and how to solve optimization problems using them.
What are Genetic Algorithms?
Genetic algorithms were developed by John Henry Holland and his students and collaborators at the University of Michigan in the 1970s and 1980s.
It is a subset of evolutionary algorithms, and it mimics the process of natural selection in which the fittest individuals survive and are chosen for cross-over to reproduce offsprings of the next-generation.
The natural selection process also involves the addition of small randomness to the offsprings in the form of mutation. This will result in a new population of individuals with mixed fitness.
But only the fittest individuals are chosen for reproduction, and the fitness is improved consistently over generations. | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/a-comprehensive-guide-to-genetic-algorithms-the-eli5-way-fcc8940ae9a4 | [] | 2020-12-15 01:03:18.877000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Python', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Technology'] | Title Comprehensive Guide Genetic Algorithms — ELI5 WayContent Genetic Algorithms based Charles Darwin’s theory natural selection often used solve problem research machine learning article we’ll looking fundamental Genetic Algorithms GA solve optimization problem using Genetic Algorithms Genetic algorithm developed John Henry Holland student collaborator University Michigan 1970s 1980s subset evolutionary algorithm mimic process natural selection fittest individual survive chosen crossover reproduce offspring nextgeneration natural selection process also involves addition small randomness offspring form mutation result new population individual mixed fitness fittest individual chosen reproduction fitness improved consistently generationsTags Programming Python Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Technology |
2,156 | How to Conquer Writer’s Block Today: 5 ways | After moving to another city with my wife I am trying to get my life back on track, and also my writing… Last few weeks were very stressful due to the reason why we moved, and I found it very difficult to start writing again, I had a severe case of writer’s block. After staring at my screen for a few hours (again) one day, I decided to search for ways to get rid of my writer's block. Some ways are just plain dumb, but some ways do really work wonders for me!
Below I will share 5 ways that work for me. I would love to hear how you tackle this nasty state of mind. Feel free to leave a comment below since we can all learn from each other. I would appreciate it very much!
What is it and what are the most common causes?
Fear: Many writers have problems with sharing their ideas with the world. ‘What if they don’t like it?’. Many writers are struggling with the fact that not everyone will like their articles, and some people will even criticize your writing. But it is nothing personal. And this is a big reason that a lot of aspiring writers never make it to where they want to be.
Timing: Some ideas need more time to develop, sometimes it’s a good idea to go for a long walk and read your draft again and improve it. There is always something to improve before the article is ready for publication.
It has to be perfect: At least, that is what you believe. But I disagree with you on this, I believe it is better to finish and stop making 50 changes. ‘When do you decide the article is good?’. Your article will never be perfect, this sucks to hear maybe, but I am here to help you and not kick you down.
So how do we put this enemy down?
The answer to this question is not an easy one or a short one to be completely fair. Simply because I have handled this enemy in different ways with different outcomes.
There are no ‘5 easy ways to conquer writer’s block’, which is a shame but it also gives us plenty of space to experiment and find out what works best for us.
Creative ways to kick writer’s block in the b@lls
Stretch your legs
I can almost hear you think ‘duh’ the whole world knows this, but did you know why walking improves your writing? Please allow me to explain.
A different desk brings different words
Change your working environment, go to the local coffee shop, or try out that new restaurant with their super-fast wifi. I and my wife (who also works from home, not a writer btw) try to change our home-offices at least once a week for a new inspiring place. We love to work in our local coffee-shop, it is always busy with tourists and other interesting coffee-lovers. I love to write while watching people and imagine how their holidays are going and what kind of tourist they are. ‘Are they the fancy kind that only tries out the best food in town, or are they the kind of backpackers that wants to feel part of the community?’.
Seeing different people and different places sparks my creativity which will often give me a different view on things. And this helps me to not be judgemental about the subject I’m writing about.
Stay in the zone, the ‘writing zone’
It’s very nice, having your own home office. You have everything at hand, and the coffee is always fresh. Sounds great, but there are also a few downsides. Imagine having several children running around the house and making a mess everywhere they go. Would they distract you up to the point that you cannot focus anymore? And how about other things like noise?
Does your friendly neighbor upstairs wear her high-heels on her beautiful dark-brown oak-floor? Or is there a lot of heavy traffic in the street you live? These are just a few examples of some things that can make your writing-life a living hell. So try to find a calm place to work, without any distractions like loud noises and children.
And, do not forget to turn off notifications on your phone. Once you are in ‘the zone’ you should keep going, if you need to search for things on Google to support your content, don’t! You can do this later, keep writing for now. Just put notes in your draft describing the searches you need to do.
Pump it up!
Getting your heart rate going is a good way to get those creative juices flowing, I know I know.. That saying might be lame, but I do believe it’s true for us creative artists.
For example, go for a run in the morning before taking the kids to school, or ride your bike to the park an enjoy a long break. There are many ways to get your blood flowing and I suggest regular exercise to keep your body healthy and your mind creative.
Make your inner child happy
Every person should be able to let their inner child out once in a while, to play with Lego or play video games for example. Life is serious enough and playing is a good way to get away from the hustle and bustle of being a business owner. So embracing your inner child is the perfect way to balance life and pleasure if you ask me.
Let’s look at my working-days as an example: I wake up at 7.30 AM and have breakfast with my wife. After that, I check my inbox and answer requests from project managers and questions from clients.
After getting the most urgent needs out of my way, I tackle the other tasks of the day. My tasks range from improving my LinkedIn profile to writing articles about financial issues like how to get all your employees ready for the next big change in your call center? for some of my regular clients. It takes up between 3 and 7 hours a day depending on my clients’ needs. But after working for 2 or 3 hours I usually take a long break by having lunch, playing video games, or going for a walk.
In the afternoon, I tend to finish the tasks I started for the day and I tend to be finished at 17.30. After that, I have time to relax, have some food and watch a movie (or two). For me, working like this is perfect because I take the time to real y take my time to deliver the quality my clients deserve, and I take the time to make myself happy including my inner child.
How do you handle the responsibility of everyday life, how do you relax after a long day at the (home) office?
Once you found what works for you, keep on it and follow this road. Once you have mastered this way of working, writer’s block will be a thing of the past. You are able to write more and write better, enjoy your improvements ☺
Just for laughs, I made a list of things not to do…
How to let writer’s block ruin your life:
Refuse to write when you feel blocked and wait until you get Inspired.
Feel sorry for yourself, blame the whole world and f#ck the deadlines.
Binge watch your favorite TV series and ignore the needs of your clients, they can wait.
Read every article there is about how to overcome writer’s block.
Just wait a few hours more until you cannot find any more excuses, it is not your fault that you’re stuck, right?
If all else fails:
If you still do not feel like writing, then it is time to face the truth, what needs to be done need to be done. It is time to swallow that bitter pill and get on with it... You know what I mean.
Just start with it, if I cannot convince you if you cannot convince yourself.. Then it’s time to just start writing no matter how you feel…
I did not feel like writing today, to be honest, after taking my neighbor to the hospital with a dangerous infection in her mouth. But now I am waiting outside the first help area, thinking how even this situation could be turned around into something less negative by letting my thoughts lead my fingers while writing these words.
The point that I’m trying to make is that no matter how uninspiring the situation is, there is always a moment to start writing or continue writing. There is never a reason why you should not enjoy writing, after all, most of us started writing because it is fun! So whenever you really feel like you cannot write, just write down a few sentences and maybe leave it like that. You might feel instantly inspired to edit, rewrite or write some more after you took this step. And if not, just leave it at that for the time being and you will enjoy writing again at a later time.
I would love to hear how you tackle this nasty state of mind. Feel free to leave a comment below since we can all learn from each other. I would appreciate it very much!
#writerslife #writersblock #entrepreneur #kickwritersblockintheb@lls The Startup Writer’s Relief Let's get writing! Entrepreneur Magazine | https://medium.com/swlh/five-ways-to-conquer-writers-block-today-2609b50cece2 | ['Eric Jan Huizer'] | 2019-11-07 20:03:58.874000+00:00 | ['Love', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Writing', 'Conquer', 'Writing Tips'] | Title Conquer Writer’s Block Today 5 waysContent moving another city wife trying get life back track also writing… Last week stressful due reason moved found difficult start writing severe case writer’s block staring screen hour one day decided search way get rid writer block way plain dumb way really work wonder share 5 way work would love hear tackle nasty state mind Feel free leave comment since learn would appreciate much common cause Fear Many writer problem sharing idea world ‘What don’t like it’ Many writer struggling fact everyone like article people even criticize writing nothing personal big reason lot aspiring writer never make want Timing idea need time develop sometimes it’s good idea go long walk read draft improve always something improve article ready publication perfect least believe disagree believe better finish stop making 50 change ‘When decide article good’ article never perfect suck hear maybe help kick put enemy answer question easy one short one completely fair Simply handled enemy different way different outcome ‘5 easy way conquer writer’s block’ shame also give u plenty space experiment find work best u Creative way kick writer’s block blls Stretch leg almost hear think ‘duh’ whole world know know walking improves writing Please allow explain different desk brings different word Change working environment go local coffee shop try new restaurant superfast wifi wife also work home writer btw try change homeoffices least week new inspiring place love work local coffeeshop always busy tourist interesting coffeelovers love write watching people imagine holiday going kind tourist ‘Are fancy kind try best food town kind backpacker want feel part community’ Seeing different people different place spark creativity often give different view thing help judgemental subject I’m writing Stay zone ‘writing zone’ It’s nice home office everything hand coffee always fresh Sounds great also downside Imagine several child running around house making mess everywhere go Would distract point cannot focus anymore thing like noise friendly neighbor upstairs wear highheels beautiful darkbrown oakfloor lot heavy traffic street live example thing make writinglife living hell try find calm place work without distraction like loud noise child forget turn notification phone ‘the zone’ keep going need search thing Google support content don’t later keep writing put note draft describing search need Pump Getting heart rate going good way get creative juice flowing know know saying might lame believe it’s true u creative artist example go run morning taking kid school ride bike park enjoy long break many way get blood flowing suggest regular exercise keep body healthy mind creative Make inner child happy Every person able let inner child play Lego play video game example Life serious enough playing good way get away hustle bustle business owner embracing inner child perfect way balance life pleasure ask Let’s look workingdays example wake 730 breakfast wife check inbox answer request project manager question client getting urgent need way tackle task day task range improving LinkedIn profile writing article financial issue like get employee ready next big change call center regular client take 3 7 hour day depending clients’ need working 2 3 hour usually take long break lunch playing video game going walk afternoon tend finish task started day tend finished 1730 time relax food watch movie two working like perfect take time real take time deliver quality client deserve take time make happy including inner child handle responsibility everyday life relax long day home office found work keep follow road mastered way working writer’s block thing past able write write better enjoy improvement ☺ laugh made list thing do… let writer’s block ruin life Refuse write feel blocked wait get Inspired Feel sorry blame whole world fck deadline Binge watch favorite TV series ignore need client wait Read every article overcome writer’s block wait hour cannot find excuse fault you’re stuck right else fails still feel like writing time face truth need done need done time swallow bitter pill get know mean start cannot convince cannot convince it’s time start writing matter feel… feel like writing today honest taking neighbor hospital dangerous infection mouth waiting outside first help area thinking even situation could turned around something le negative letting thought lead finger writing word point I’m trying make matter uninspiring situation always moment start writing continue writing never reason enjoy writing u started writing fun whenever really feel like cannot write write sentence maybe leave like might feel instantly inspired edit rewrite write took step leave time enjoy writing later time would love hear tackle nasty state mind Feel free leave comment since learn would appreciate much writerslife writersblock entrepreneur kickwritersblockintheblls Startup Writer’s Relief Lets get writing Entrepreneur MagazineTags Love Entrepreneurship Writing Conquer Writing Tips |
2,157 | Linear Regression To Solve Advertising Problems | The purpose of this tutorial is to get a clear idea on how a linear regression can be used to solve a marketing problem, such as selecting the right channels to advertise a product.
This time, we will use Google’s Tensorflow on a Docker container. TensorFlow is an open-source software library for machine learning across a range of tasks. It is a system for building and training neural networks to detect and decipher patterns and correlations, analogous to (but not the same as) human learning and reasoning.
What is a Linear Regression?
A linear regression model is one of the simplest regression models. It assumes linear relationship between X and Y.
The output equation is defined as follows:
How to Install Docker and run Tensorflow Notebook image on your machine
As we mentioned on our post “Learning to paint the Mona Lisa with Neural Networks” the best way to run the TensorFlow is to use a Docker container. There’s full documentation on installing Docker at docker.com, but in a few words, the steps are:
Go to ``docs.docker.com`` in your browser.
Step one of the instructions sends you to download Docker.
Run that downloaded file to install Docker.
At the end of the install process a whale in the top status bar indicates that Docker is running, and accessible from a terminal.
Click the whale to get Preferences and other options.
and other options. Open a command-line terminal, and run some Docker commands to verify that Docker is working as expected. Some useful commands to try are docker version to check that you have the latest release installed.
to check that you have the latest release installed. Once Docker is installed, you can download the image which allows you to run Tensorflow on your computer.
In a terminal run: docker pull 3blades/tensorflow-notebook
MacOS & Linux: Run the deep learning image on your system: docker run -it -p 8888:8888 -p 6006:6006 -v /$(pwd):/notebooks 3blades/tensorflow-notebook
Windows: Run the deep learning image on your system: docker run -it -p 8888:8888 -p 6006:6006 -v C:/your/folder:/notebooks 3blades/tensorflow-notebook
Once you have completed these steps, you can check the installation by starting your web browser and introducing this URL: http://localhost:8888
Our Advertising Dataset
The Advertising data set we are going to use is from “An Introduction to Statistical Learning”, textbook by Gareth James, Robert Tibshirani, and Trevor Hastie, which consists of the sales of a product in 200 different markets, along with advertising budgets for the product in each of those markets for three different media: TV, radio, and newspaper.
Our Objetive
By training an inference model, a series of mathematical expressions we want to apply to our data that depends on a series of parameters. The values of parameters change through training in order for the model to learn and adjust its output.
The training loop consists in the following steps:
First, we need to initialize the model parameters to some random values.
Second, we need to read the training data -for each example, and possibly using randomization strategies in order to assure that training is stochastic.
Third, we need to execute the inference model on the training data, getting for each training example the model output with the parameter values.
Four, we compute the loss.
And last, we adjuts the model parameters.
We need to repeat this process several times, according to the learning rate. After the training of the model is done we need to apply an evaluation phase.
Reading the data
The first thing we need to do is load our dataset and define our training set.
# load libraries
import warnings; warnings.simplefilter('ignore')
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import pandas as pd
import seaborn as sns
%matplotlib inline # Load data.
data = pd.read_csv('data/Advertising.csv',index_col=0) # visualize our data set
data.head()
# Define our train dataset
train_X = data[['Radio']].values
train_Y = data.Sales.values
train_Y = train_Y[:,np.newaxis]
n_samples = train_X.shape[0] #print training samples for Radio values
print "Number of samples:", n_samples
print train_X.shape, train_Y.shape
Number of samples: 200
(200, 1) (200, 1)
Let’s now visualize our data set
# visualize our results
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, 1)
ax.set_ylabel('Results',
rotation=0,
ha='right', # horizontal alignment
ma='left', # multiline alignment
)
ax.set_xlabel('Radio')
ax.plot(train_X, train_Y, 'o', color=sns.xkcd_rgb['pale red'], alpha=0.7,label='Original data')
plt.show()
# import tensor flow library
import tensorflow as tf # problem: Solve ŷ = WX + b tf.reset_default_graph() # Set up our training parameters
# ------------------------------
# learning rate
lr = 0.01
# training epochs
t_epochs = 10000 # Define TensorFlow Graph Inputs
X = tf.placeholder("float",[None,1])
y = tf.placeholder("float",[None,1]) # Create model variables
# ----------------------
# Set model weights
W = tf.Variable(np.random.randn(), name="weight")
b = tf.Variable(np.random.randn(), name="bias") # Construct a linear model
y_pred = tf.add(tf.mul(X, W), b) # Minimize the squared errors
# we will use L2 loss
cost = tf.reduce_sum(tf.pow(y_pred - y,2))/(2*n_samples) # Define the optimizer
'''Adam is an optimization algorithm that can used instead of the classical
stochastic gradient descent procedure to update network weights iterative
based in training data.'''
optimizer = tf.train.AdamOptimizer(lr).minimize(cost) # Initiate the variables
init = tf.initialize_all_variables() # Launch the graph
with tf.Session() as sess:
sess.run(init)
cost_plot = []
# Fit all training data
for epoch in range(t_epochs):
sess.run(optimizer,
feed_dict={X: train_X, y: train_Y})
cost_plot.append(sess.run(cost,
feed_dict={X: train_X, y:train_Y}))
print ""
print "Optimization Finished!"
print "cost=", sess.run(cost,
feed_dict={X: train_X, y: train_Y}), "W=", sess.run(W), "b=", sess.run(b)
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, 1)
ax.set_ylabel('Results',
rotation=0,
ha='right', # horizontal alignment
ma='left', # multiline alignment
)
ax.set_xlabel('Radio')
ax.plot(train_X,
train_Y, 'o',
color=sns.xkcd_rgb['pale red'],
alpha=0.7,label='Original data')
plt.plot(train_X,
sess.run(W) * train_X + sess.run(b),
label='Fitted line')
plt.show()
x = range(len(cost_plot))
plt.plot(x, np.sqrt(cost_plot))
plt.show()
print cost_plot[-1]
Optimization Finished!
Cost= 9.0462
W= 0.202496
b= 9.31162
Let’s try it now with all 3 variables, Radio, Tv and Newspaper.
Using all 3 values as input, it becomes a multiple linear regression problem, but the process is similar.
# reset our graph to work with the new data
tf.reset_default_graph() # We read our data set
data = pd.read_csv('data/Advertising.csv',index_col=0) # Set up our training parameters
# ------------------------------
# learning rate
lr = 0.01
# training epochs
t_epochs = 10000 # Define our train dataset
# ------------------------
# we set all our variables as input vectors
train_X = data[['TV','Radio','Newspaper']].values
train_Y = data.Sales.values
train_Y = train_Y[:,np.newaxis]
n_samples = train_X.shape[0] # Print our samples
print "Number of samples:", n_samples
print train_X.shape, train_Y.shape
Number of samples: 200
(200, 3) (200, 1)
# Define TensorFlow Graph Inputs
# ------------------------------
# we need to change our dimensions since we now have 3 inputs
X = tf.placeholder("float",[None,3])
y = tf.placeholder("float",[None,1]) # Create model variables
# ----------------------
# Set model weights
# our W changes due to our new dimension
W = tf.Variable(tf.zeros([3, 1]),name="bias")
b = tf.Variable(np.random.randn(), name="bias") # Construct a multidimensional linear model
y_pred = tf.matmul(X, W) + b # Minimize the squared errors
# we will use L2 loss
cost = tf.reduce_sum(tf.pow(y_pred - y,2))/(2*n_samples) # Define the optimizer
'''Adam is an optimization algorithm that can used instead of the classical
stochastic gradient descent procedure to update network weights iterative
based in training data.'''
optimizer = tf.train.AdamOptimizer(lr).minimize(cost) # Initiate the variables
init = tf.initialize_all_variables() # Set up a display step for epoch log visualization
display_step = 1000 # Launch the graph
with tf.Session() as sess:
sess.run(init)
cost_plot = []
# Fit all training data
for epoch in range(t_epochs):
sess.run(optimizer,
feed_dict={X: train_X, y: train_Y})
cost_plot.append(sess.run(cost,
feed_dict={X: train_X, y:train_Y}))
#Display logs per epoch step
if epoch % display_step == 0:
print "Epoch: ", '%04d' % (epoch+1), "
Cost= ", sess.run(cost, feed_dict={X: train_X, y: train_Y}), \
"
W= ", sess.run(W), "
b= ", sess.run(b), "
"
print ""
print "Optimization Finished!"
print "cost=", sess.run(cost,
feed_dict={X: train_X, y: train_Y}), "W=", sess.run(W), "b=", sess.run(b) Epoch: 0001
Cost= 68.7282
W= [[ 0.01]
[ 0.01]
[ 0.01]]
b= 1.15629 Epoch: 1001
Cost= 1.404
W= [[ 0.04686551]
[ 0.19321483]
[ 0.00140966]]
b= 2.53457 Epoch: 2001
Cost= 1.39207
W= [[ 0.04579829]
[ 0.18867318]
[-0.00096271]]
b= 2.92653 Epoch: 3001
Cost= 1.39206
W= [[ 0.0457647 ]
[ 0.18853027]
[-0.00103737]]
b= 2.93887 Epoch: 4001
Cost= 1.39206
W= [[ 0.04576467]
[ 0.18853012]
[-0.00103745]]
b= 2.93888 Epoch: 5001
Cost= 1.39206
W= [[ 0.04576465]
[ 0.18853007]
[-0.00103747]]
b= 2.93888 Epoch: 6001
Cost= 1.39206
W= [[ 0.04576106]
[ 0.18852659]
[-0.00104105]]
b= 2.93889 Epoch: 7001
Cost= 1.39207
W= [[ 0.04577899]
[ 0.18854418]
[-0.00102315]]
b= 2.9389 Epoch: 8001
Cost= 1.39206
W= [[ 0.04576319]
[ 0.18852855]
[-0.00103896]]
b= 2.93889 Epoch: 9001
Cost= 1.39206
W= [[ 0.04576985]
[ 0.18853523]
[-0.00103229]]
b= 2.93889
Optimization Finished!
Cost= 1.39206
W= [[0.04576455] [0.18852994] [-0.00103758]]
b= 2.93889 | https://medium.com/3blades-blog/linear-regression-to-solve-advertising-problems-7e4fb96c881a | ['Samuel Noriega'] | 2017-10-31 20:55:07.547000+00:00 | ['Big Data', 'Deep Learning', 'Marketing', 'Marketing Technology', 'Machine Learning'] | Title Linear Regression Solve Advertising ProblemsContent purpose tutorial get clear idea linear regression used solve marketing problem selecting right channel advertise product time use Google’s Tensorflow Docker container TensorFlow opensource software library machine learning across range task system building training neural network detect decipher pattern correlation analogous human learning reasoning Linear Regression linear regression model one simplest regression model assumes linear relationship X output equation defined follows Install Docker run Tensorflow Notebook image machine mentioned post “Learning paint Mona Lisa Neural Networks” best way run TensorFlow use Docker container There’s full documentation installing Docker dockercom word step Go docsdockercom browser Step one instruction sends download Docker Run downloaded file install Docker end install process whale top status bar indicates Docker running accessible terminal Click whale get Preferences option option Open commandline terminal run Docker command verify Docker working expected useful command try docker version check latest release installed check latest release installed Docker installed download image allows run Tensorflow computer terminal run docker pull 3bladestensorflownotebook MacOS Linux Run deep learning image system docker run p 88888888 p 60066006 v pwdnotebooks 3bladestensorflownotebook Windows Run deep learning image system docker run p 88888888 p 60066006 v Cyourfoldernotebooks 3bladestensorflownotebook completed step check installation starting web browser introducing URL httplocalhost8888 Advertising Dataset Advertising data set going use “An Introduction Statistical Learning” textbook Gareth James Robert Tibshirani Trevor Hastie consists sale product 200 different market along advertising budget product market three different medium TV radio newspaper Objetive training inference model series mathematical expression want apply data depends series parameter value parameter change training order model learn adjust output training loop consists following step First need initialize model parameter random value Second need read training data example possibly using randomization strategy order assure training stochastic Third need execute inference model training data getting training example model output parameter value Four compute loss last adjuts model parameter need repeat process several time according learning rate training model done need apply evaluation phase Reading data first thing need load dataset define training set load library import warning warningssimplefilterignore import numpy np import matplotlibpyplot plt import panda pd import seaborn sn matplotlib inline Load data data pdreadcsvdataAdvertisingcsvindexcol0 visualize data set datahead Define train dataset trainX dataRadiovalues trainY dataSalesvalues trainY trainYnpnewaxis nsamples trainXshape0 print training sample Radio value print Number sample nsamples print trainXshape trainYshape Number sample 200 200 1 200 1 Let’s visualize data set visualize result fig ax pltsubplots1 1 axsetylabelResults rotation0 haright horizontal alignment maleft multiline alignment axsetxlabelRadio axplottrainX trainY colorsnsxkcdrgbpale red alpha07labelOriginal data pltshow import tensor flow library import tensorflow tf problem Solve ŷ WX b tfresetdefaultgraph Set training parameter learning rate lr 001 training epoch tepochs 10000 Define TensorFlow Graph Inputs X tfplaceholderfloatNone1 tfplaceholderfloatNone1 Create model variable Set model weight W tfVariablenprandomrandn nameweight b tfVariablenprandomrandn namebias Construct linear model ypred tfaddtfmulX W b Minimize squared error use L2 loss cost tfreducesumtfpowypred y22nsamples Define optimizer Adam optimization algorithm used instead classical stochastic gradient descent procedure update network weight iterative based training data optimizer tftrainAdamOptimizerlrminimizecost Initiate variable init tfinitializeallvariables Launch graph tfSession sess sessruninit costplot Fit training data epoch rangetepochs sessrunoptimizer feeddictX trainX trainY costplotappendsessruncost feeddictX trainX ytrainY print print Optimization Finished print cost sessruncost feeddictX trainX trainY W sessrunW b sessrunb fig ax pltsubplots1 1 axsetylabelResults rotation0 haright horizontal alignment maleft multiline alignment axsetxlabelRadio axplottrainX trainY colorsnsxkcdrgbpale red alpha07labelOriginal data pltplottrainX sessrunW trainX sessrunb labelFitted line pltshow x rangelencostplot pltplotx npsqrtcostplot pltshow print costplot1 Optimization Finished Cost 90462 W 0202496 b 931162 Let’s try 3 variable Radio Tv Newspaper Using 3 value input becomes multiple linear regression problem process similar reset graph work new data tfresetdefaultgraph read data set data pdreadcsvdataAdvertisingcsvindexcol0 Set training parameter learning rate lr 001 training epoch tepochs 10000 Define train dataset set variable input vector trainX dataTVRadioNewspapervalues trainY dataSalesvalues trainY trainYnpnewaxis nsamples trainXshape0 Print sample print Number sample nsamples print trainXshape trainYshape Number sample 200 200 3 200 1 Define TensorFlow Graph Inputs need change dimension since 3 input X tfplaceholderfloatNone3 tfplaceholderfloatNone1 Create model variable Set model weight W change due new dimension W tfVariabletfzeros3 1namebias b tfVariablenprandomrandn namebias Construct multidimensional linear model ypred tfmatmulX W b Minimize squared error use L2 loss cost tfreducesumtfpowypred y22nsamples Define optimizer Adam optimization algorithm used instead classical stochastic gradient descent procedure update network weight iterative based training data optimizer tftrainAdamOptimizerlrminimizecost Initiate variable init tfinitializeallvariables Set display step epoch log visualization displaystep 1000 Launch graph tfSession sess sessruninit costplot Fit training data epoch rangetepochs sessrunoptimizer feeddictX trainX trainY costplotappendsessruncost feeddictX trainX ytrainY Display log per epoch step epoch displaystep 0 print Epoch 04d epoch1 Cost sessruncost feeddictX trainX trainY W sessrunW b sessrunb print print Optimization Finished print cost sessruncost feeddictX trainX trainY W sessrunW b sessrunb Epoch 0001 Cost 687282 W 001 001 001 b 115629 Epoch 1001 Cost 1404 W 004686551 019321483 000140966 b 253457 Epoch 2001 Cost 139207 W 004579829 018867318 000096271 b 292653 Epoch 3001 Cost 139206 W 00457647 018853027 000103737 b 293887 Epoch 4001 Cost 139206 W 004576467 018853012 000103745 b 293888 Epoch 5001 Cost 139206 W 004576465 018853007 000103747 b 293888 Epoch 6001 Cost 139206 W 004576106 018852659 000104105 b 293889 Epoch 7001 Cost 139207 W 004577899 018854418 000102315 b 29389 Epoch 8001 Cost 139206 W 004576319 018852855 000103896 b 293889 Epoch 9001 Cost 139206 W 004576985 018853523 000103229 b 293889 Optimization Finished Cost 139206 W 004576455 018852994 000103758 b 293889Tags Big Data Deep Learning Marketing Marketing Technology Machine Learning |
2,158 | Top Writer in Fiction? | Update on 1/10/20 — I’m now a Top Writer in Movies, Travel, Reading AND Fiction now. W.T.F.?
I’ve been writing fiction since I could hold a crayon. By the time I stumbled upon Medium I’d accumulated a nice fat folder of short stories, flash fiction, long-form fiction, and three novels. I’ve had six short stories published over the course of thirty years and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2011 and was interviewed by the editor who nominated me.
I never made a penny from my fiction
Then I found Medium. You’ve heard this one before. You may very well have experienced this yourself. Readers! I found readers for my stories.
Amazing!
If you’re writing on Medium you know that you have to feed the beast daily. It’s not just Medium. The entire digital world is one big, ravening maw that needs fresh content to devour daily. Once you start down this road be ready to move and move fast.
About three months ago I was thrilled and delighted to discover that Medium had seen fit to pat my head and award me Top Writer in Fiction status.
WoooHOOOOOOOOOO!
My secret? I’ve been mining my folders filled with thirty, forty years of fiction.
Literally Literary, The Non-Conformist, The Narrative, Plan B Vibe , London Literary Review, and For Members Only have all published my fiction over the past year (a humble and heartfelt thank you!). Some of that work was finished, polished, perfect and beautiful when I submitted it but a lot of it was rough and sketchy. Thanks to Medium, to the editors of these publications and to readers, I had the opportunity to work on those half-formed stories and bring them to life.
Again, thank you.
In those folders on my hard drive, there also existed a number of half-formed personal essays that I’d never bothered to complete because there was no way those were ever going to find publishers.
Here on Medium and thanks to the publishers of The Ascent, Live Your Life on Purpose, P.S., I Love You, Candour, and Tenderly I have found readers for my non-fiction work. Again…….wow!
But I’m certainly going to lose my Top Writer in Fiction status because I’ve exhausted my store of fiction.
Writing fiction takes time and concentration and, for me, it’s kind of hit or miss. I can’t tell if a story is going to work while I’m in it and there are numerous times when I have to backtrack and find my way again. It’s a process that does not lend itself to daily publication. I’m sure there are fiction writers who can and do slam new stories out and are able to publish daily.
It ain’t me, babe
Meanwhile, my mind teems with new ideas for essays. If I’m awake, I’m percolating multiple story ideas and my draft folder is filled with outlines and titles of pieces you’ll be reading tomorrow and next week and next month.
I absolutely can and do manage nearly daily publication of my essays and thanks to being an editor on The Partnered Pen and Plan B Vibe, I have the luxury of being able to immediately publish my work in widely-read publications. Huzzah!
However, even in non-fiction, I’m probably not going to nail top writer status in anything.
I can’t be bothered with niches or SEOs or killer keywords. I’m never going to even try to limit or redirect or tame that bubbling froth of ideas that fills my brain and zip out across the keyboard every day.
Nothing lasts forever, not even Medium, so the day will come when I reclaim the time, the concentration, the hunger to immerse myself in making shit up again (aka fiction writing). In the meantime, however, I’m not worried that I can’t write fiction anymore, that I’ll lose my “touch” and will only be able to slam out these ponderings and memoir lite pieces.
I may even figure out how to manage my time so that I can block off writing time for fiction in addition to writing pieces like these and promoting them across the social media spectrum. It could happen.
But here we are poised to start 2020 and I’ve renewed my subscription to Medium for another year. I’ll be reading your work and writing, publishing, and promoting my work at the kind of clip being unemployed allows. Thank you for reading my work. Thank you for responding, for highlighting, for clapping and, most of all, (to my fellow Medium writers) thanks for continuing to enrich my reading life with your work.
Onward!
© Remington Write 2019. All Rights Reserved
Here’s the first chapter of my most recent novella, “Graceless”, which I published as a series on Medium. It’s accompanied by my partner’s photography. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/top-writer-in-fiction-aa6f5e811cc7 | ['Remington Write'] | 2020-01-10 22:21:10.124000+00:00 | ['Writers On Writing', 'Nonfiction', 'Fiction Writing', 'Writing', 'Reading'] | Title Top Writer FictionContent Update 11020 — I’m Top Writer Movies Travel Reading Fiction WTF I’ve writing fiction since could hold crayon time stumbled upon Medium I’d accumulated nice fat folder short story flash fiction longform fiction three novel I’ve six short story published course thirty year nominated Pushcart Prize 2011 interviewed editor nominated never made penny fiction found Medium You’ve heard one may well experienced Readers found reader story Amazing you’re writing Medium know feed beast daily It’s Medium entire digital world one big ravening maw need fresh content devour daily start road ready move move fast three month ago thrilled delighted discover Medium seen fit pat head award Top Writer Fiction status WoooHOOOOOOOOOO secret I’ve mining folder filled thirty forty year fiction Literally Literary NonConformist Narrative Plan B Vibe London Literary Review Members published fiction past year humble heartfelt thank work finished polished perfect beautiful submitted lot rough sketchy Thanks Medium editor publication reader opportunity work halfformed story bring life thank folder hard drive also existed number halfformed personal essay I’d never bothered complete way ever going find publisher Medium thanks publisher Ascent Live Life Purpose PS Love Candour Tenderly found reader nonfiction work Again……wow I’m certainly going lose Top Writer Fiction status I’ve exhausted store fiction Writing fiction take time concentration it’s kind hit miss can’t tell story going work I’m numerous time backtrack find way It’s process lend daily publication I’m sure fiction writer slam new story able publish daily ain’t babe Meanwhile mind teems new idea essay I’m awake I’m percolating multiple story idea draft folder filled outline title piece you’ll reading tomorrow next week next month absolutely manage nearly daily publication essay thanks editor Partnered Pen Plan B Vibe luxury able immediately publish work widelyread publication Huzzah However even nonfiction I’m probably going nail top writer status anything can’t bothered niche SEOs killer keywords I’m never going even try limit redirect tame bubbling froth idea fill brain zip across keyboard every day Nothing last forever even Medium day come reclaim time concentration hunger immerse making shit aka fiction writing meantime however I’m worried can’t write fiction anymore I’ll lose “touch” able slam ponderings memoir lite piece may even figure manage time block writing time fiction addition writing piece like promoting across social medium spectrum could happen poised start 2020 I’ve renewed subscription Medium another year I’ll reading work writing publishing promoting work kind clip unemployed allows Thank reading work Thank responding highlighting clapping fellow Medium writer thanks continuing enrich reading life work Onward © Remington Write 2019 Rights Reserved Here’s first chapter recent novella “Graceless” published series Medium It’s accompanied partner’s photographyTags Writers Writing Nonfiction Fiction Writing Writing Reading |
2,159 | Not As Easy As ABC | Not As Easy As ABC
A review of Judith Flanders’ unconventional history of alphabetical order, *A Place For Everything*
When I was in high school, one of my favorite things to do was to come up with “unanswerable” questions. I thought they were unanswerable because no one had Google at their fingertips quite yet, and high schoolers’ internet searching skills were and still are truly hideous. One of those questions was “Which came first, the color ‘orange’ or the fruit ‘orange’? (It turns out the fruit was named first in English.) The other one, which is a little bit more unanswerable but I still never bothered to do an internet search for: “Why is the alphabet in the order that it is, and who decided it?” Well, that’s a big reason why I picked up Judith Flanders’ new book, A Place For Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order. As you can imagine if you think of how little sourcing there would be for such a historical query, that is not exactly what the book is about (although I did get an answer to that question in my interview with Flanders). However, the book is a wonderful example of great microhistory, following the development and use of alphabetical order over time and place.
You may be thinking, like me, that alphabetical order is pretty natural and doesn’t require a lot of development. It probably just happened naturally. But at some point, you had to learn how to put things (or find things) in alphabetical order, and it probably didn’t come very naturally at first. Most likely, someone taught you how it worked. Alphabetical order’s need for development becomes clear in an excerpt from Giovanni Balbi’s Catholicon (a compendium of grammar) where he explains in minute detail how Balbi uses alphabetical order. Flanders explains:
Balbi’s long explanation brings into focus the work that goes into dictionaries, which, when we use them, seem straightforward, as though the dictionary maker has simply had to perform a mechanical task: Ab before Ac, and so on. For while alphabetical order is the most useful tool to find a word in a dictionary that has so far been devised, it is by no means the easiest tool to create a dictionary. Grouping words by type (slang, or technical words, or fields of knowledge), or by entry size (words like “go” and “run,” which require lengthy definitions and have a large number of meanings), or grammatically (verbs, nouns, adjectives) are all far easier for the dictionary writer to implement. In addition, endless decisions are required to alphabetize usefully. Where do abbreviations get placed? — does DIY go under “di,” or under “do” for “do it yourself ’? What about compound or hyphenated words? Post / Postilion / Post office, or Post / Post office / Postilion? What about words that have no letters, like 9/11? What happens to words with accents? Are those letters treated as though there is no accent, or are they ordered as though the accented letter is a separate entity? Alphabetization is easier to use than to produce, as Balbi’s explanation made clear.
In other portions of the book, Flanders also notes that absolute alphabetical order was not exclusively used until relatively recently, meaning that putting “Nesbitt” before “Nathan” would be just as correct as vice versa. It’s only later that there is a correct way to order “Nash” and “Nathan”, much less “Nat”, “Nathan” and “Nathaniel”.
Most of Flanders’ published work explores the Victorian era, so it is impressive that she delves deep into almost 5000 years of history all over the world with seeming ease. She even refuses to make the ultra-common mistake of starting the story of the development of printing with Johannes Gutenberg, choosing instead to trace the origins of movable type in China through its spread and modification in Korea before Gutenberg stole ideas from about fifteen different people to develop the movable type printing press. It’s details like this that give me confidence in a historian’s process, and Flanders exhibits fitness for that confidence throughout the book.
Alphabetical order, like any technology, had its detractors. Devotees to various faiths considered it a vice and a shortcut to the more meaningful memorization of locations and even ideas. Flanders relays a get-off-my-lawn-style rant against “kids these days” who used alphabetization:
The barrister Abraham Fraunce (c. 1559 — c. 1592/3), whose greater fame was as a poet under the patronage of Philip Sidney, trumpeted his discontent in an I-had-to-learn-the-hard-way-so-you-youngsters-should-too outburst: “I could heartily wish the whole body of our law to be rather logically ordered, than by alphabetical breviaries torn and dismembered. If any man say it cannot be . . . then I do not so much envy his great wisdom, as pity his rustical education, who had rather eat acorns with hogs, than breed [bread] with men, and prefer the loathsome tossing of an A.B.C. abridgement, before the lightsome perusing of a methodical coherence of the whole common law.”
In other ways, however, the use of alphabetical order does legitimately mark “a transition in worldview”. That seems so silly to say of what seems to most a benign innovation, but by the time you reach this point in A Place For Everything, you will see that alphabetization is not a neutral conduit. Flanders writes:
Just as the spread of alphabetically organized dictionaries and indexes had indicated a shift from seeing words purely as meaning to seeing them as a series of letters, so too the arrival of alphabetically ordered encyclopedias indicated a shift from seeing the world as a hierarchical, ordered place, explicable and comprehensible if only a person knew enough, to seeing it as a random series of events and people and places.
You may, like me, find that change in worldview nauseating. I would hate for my students to think world history is a “random series of events and people and places”. I would rather my students see it as “explicable and comprehensible if only a person knew enough”. But then again, that’s why I don’t arrange my world history class in alphabetical order. Doing so would be silly. And that’s where Flanders is spot on in her evaluation of the merits or demerits of alphabetization:
Alphabetical order is a means, not an end in itself. It is a system that permits us to organize large quantities of information, and to make it available to others whom we do not know, and who have no information regarding the people or ideas or intentions of those who originally produced and arranged it. There continue to be many ways of organizing, storing, and retrieving information, sometimes in the same way it originated, sometimes in a way that transforms it. Linnaeus’s taxonomy, and the periodic tables, are naming and classifying systems. The Dewey decimal system classifies, but does not name. Most museum exhibits are organizing, classifying, and displaying systems. Maps are displaying and also transforming systems, as are graphs and pie and bar charts. The importance is not the method, but a method, any method. “The human mind works by internalizing such arbitrary and useful tools, as a kind of grid onto which knowledge can be arranged, and from which it can be retrieved,” wrote the novelist A. S. Byatt. We think, therefore we sort.
In any sorting decision, there are going to be better and worse means of ordering. Some social scientists have provided evidence that the alphabetization of student names is discriminatory. In some cases, like a dictionary or encyclopedia, it may be the proper sorting technique. The key is to find a sorting means that helps you meet your ends. (You didn’t think a review of a book about alphabetical order could get this serious, did you?)
Flanders’ A Place For Everything is skilled in its job of telling a unique history through a means that is both interesting and historically sound. If such quirks of history enrapture you, I would heartily recommend this book. And if you haven’t already, check out my interview with Judith Flanders for more about how she came to the topic, the process of writing history, and more.
I received a review copy of A Place For Everything courtesy of Basic Books and NetGalley, but my opinions are my own. | https://medium.com/park-recommendations/not-as-easy-as-abc-6bfce7244f63 | ['Jason Park'] | 2020-10-19 10:25:01.733000+00:00 | ['History', 'Nonfiction', 'Microhistory', 'Books', 'Reading'] | Title Easy ABCContent Easy ABC review Judith Flanders’ unconventional history alphabetical order Place Everything high school one favorite thing come “unanswerable” question thought unanswerable one Google fingertip quite yet high schoolers’ internet searching skill still truly hideous One question “Which came first color ‘orange’ fruit ‘orange’ turn fruit named first English one little bit unanswerable still never bothered internet search “Why alphabet order decided it” Well that’s big reason picked Judith Flanders’ new book Place Everything Curious History Alphabetical Order imagine think little sourcing would historical query exactly book although get answer question interview Flanders However book wonderful example great microhistory following development use alphabetical order time place may thinking like alphabetical order pretty natural doesn’t require lot development probably happened naturally point learn put thing find thing alphabetical order probably didn’t come naturally first likely someone taught worked Alphabetical order’s need development becomes clear excerpt Giovanni Balbi’s Catholicon compendium grammar explains minute detail Balbi us alphabetical order Flanders explains Balbi’s long explanation brings focus work go dictionary use seem straightforward though dictionary maker simply perform mechanical task Ab Ac alphabetical order useful tool find word dictionary far devised mean easiest tool create dictionary Grouping word type slang technical word field knowledge entry size word like “go” “run” require lengthy definition large number meaning grammatically verb noun adjective far easier dictionary writer implement addition endless decision required alphabetize usefully abbreviation get placed — DIY go “di” “do” “do ’ compound hyphenated word Post Postilion Post office Post Post office Postilion word letter like 911 happens word accent letter treated though accent ordered though accented letter separate entity Alphabetization easier use produce Balbi’s explanation made clear portion book Flanders also note absolute alphabetical order exclusively used relatively recently meaning putting “Nesbitt” “Nathan” would correct vice versa It’s later correct way order “Nash” “Nathan” much le “Nat” “Nathan” “Nathaniel” Flanders’ published work explores Victorian era impressive delf deep almost 5000 year history world seeming ease even refuse make ultracommon mistake starting story development printing Johannes Gutenberg choosing instead trace origin movable type China spread modification Korea Gutenberg stole idea fifteen different people develop movable type printing press It’s detail like give confidence historian’s process Flanders exhibit fitness confidence throughout book Alphabetical order like technology detractor Devotees various faith considered vice shortcut meaningful memorization location even idea Flanders relay getoffmylawnstyle rant “kids days” used alphabetization barrister Abraham Fraunce c 1559 — c 15923 whose greater fame poet patronage Philip Sidney trumpeted discontent Ihadtolearnthehardwaysoyouyoungstersshouldtoo outburst “I could heartily wish whole body law rather logically ordered alphabetical breviary torn dismembered man say cannot much envy great wisdom pity rustical education rather eat acorn hog breed bread men prefer loathsome tossing ABC abridgement lightsome perusing methodical coherence whole common law” way however use alphabetical order legitimately mark “a transition worldview” seems silly say seems benign innovation time reach point Place Everything see alphabetization neutral conduit Flanders writes spread alphabetically organized dictionary index indicated shift seeing word purely meaning seeing series letter arrival alphabetically ordered encyclopedia indicated shift seeing world hierarchical ordered place explicable comprehensible person knew enough seeing random series event people place may like find change worldview nauseating would hate student think world history “random series event people places” would rather student see “explicable comprehensible person knew enough” that’s don’t arrange world history class alphabetical order would silly that’s Flanders spot evaluation merit demerit alphabetization Alphabetical order mean end system permit u organize large quantity information make available others know information regarding people idea intention originally produced arranged continue many way organizing storing retrieving information sometimes way originated sometimes way transforms Linnaeus’s taxonomy periodic table naming classifying system Dewey decimal system classifies name museum exhibit organizing classifying displaying system Maps displaying also transforming system graph pie bar chart importance method method method “The human mind work internalizing arbitrary useful tool kind grid onto knowledge arranged retrieved” wrote novelist Byatt think therefore sort sorting decision going better worse mean ordering social scientist provided evidence alphabetization student name discriminatory case like dictionary encyclopedia may proper sorting technique key find sorting mean help meet end didn’t think review book alphabetical order could get serious Flanders’ Place Everything skilled job telling unique history mean interesting historically sound quirk history enrapture would heartily recommend book haven’t already check interview Judith Flanders came topic process writing history received review copy Place Everything courtesy Basic Books NetGalley opinion ownTags History Nonfiction Microhistory Books Reading |
2,160 | My Journey To Fear-Less: An Act of Self-Care & Survival | I am tired of being afraid.
That is what I definitively stated, out loud while sitting in a corner of the verandah while at home in Jamaica in November 2015. I had just completed my Master’s program in England, birthed from a longtime dream to see a side of the world that I never have before, and a fear that I may never have the opportunity to do so again. At this point, I could feel the stirrings of the anxiety and panic that I have spent the majority of my years on Earth battling with. They were fighting the good fight to bubble to the surface, and I can’t really blame them, because I was inviting them with my own negative energy and self-doubt, considering my “What’s next?”.
The fear of embarrassment. The fear of disappointing myself. The fear of making myself seen and/or heard. The fear of not being successful. The fear of disappointing others. The fear of not living up to my full potential. The fear of rejection. The fear of not living up to all the expectations that others have of me.
These were the main players playing catch with my mind, while deep at the very core of my soul, my spirit, my essence, I knew that pursuing a conventional, sit-in-a-cubicle-under-fluorescent-lights job/career was the last thing that I wanted to pursue. And that scared the daylights out of me. It made me uncomfortable to go against what has always been expected and seen as the norm, so the initial hesitation was rampant. To be honest, when I look back through the snapshots of my childhood and beyond, my life has been inundated with “supposed to”. I lived my life as a shell of myself, because I never felt that I could be more than what was expected of me.
The seeds of fear have been sprouting for far too long, taking a hold of my life while I went through the motions that it directed me to. I can’t say what the exact moment was that I made that decision, but I decided that fear was not going to be the driver of my life any longer. My life may now be in what may seem to many as a never-ending period of transition, but what is at my core, burning so brightly, just waiting to come out and show its full potential for illumination, trumps any self-doubt that may sneak its way in.
The idea of fearing less has been my most effective catalyst for growth. Admitting to myself that I was tired of being afraid, and committing myself to live a life being fulfilled by helping others to realize the greatness within themselves, has led me down a path of educational, and many times emotional, twists and turns.
Committing yourself to fearing-less will mean that sometimes (more often than not), your ways of perceiving the world, your energies, and your vision will not align with that of others, even those that you hold close.
The manifestations of fearing-less can look like any number of things on any given day, but the roots remain the same. These are some of the foundational principles of fear-less-ness:
Create opportunities for self-fulfillment in all situations.
Be okay with saying “No” to what does not serve you.
Find peace in the fact that letting go is at times the greatest necessity to keep moving forward.
Trust your gut.
Being committed to this #JourneyToFearLESS has opened up new doors to what it means to be unapologetically me. It has allowed me to overcome my tendency to shrink myself, whether figuratively or literally, to make the world more comfortable with my existence. I now understand more clearly that my space in this world is unique and necessary. I do not need to extinguish my own fire in order to help others keep their own blazing. Instead of ruminating about unanswered job applications for roles that do not serve me, I am focusing on consistently unearthing my own opportunities for growth, side-tracking self-doubt to find the greatness in all things, all paths, and all possibilities.
Being on a journey of fear-less-ness, with the journey being treasured and no destination in sight, has brought me to a place where I remind myself each day of my own greatness, which needs no definition other than the one that I give to it myself. So, would I say that I am 100% settled in a position as a leader of fear-less-ness? Maybe not. I will not say that I’m not yet where I want to be, but I will say that I am right where I am meant to be, and that is making sure I am at the forefront of my own mind, seeing me, filling my own cup, nourishing all that is within me while on this journey to living a life of purpose and fulfillment, fearlessly.
__________
Thank you for taking the time to read the words that have been spilling from my heart onto the screen in front of you.
We get vulnerable around these parts, and it’s no easy task finding the strength it takes to reveal your truths (whether through writing or just reading a piece). | https://shanicejdouglas.medium.com/my-journey-to-fear-less-an-act-of-self-care-survival-ac9a97bc08fc | ['Shanice J. Douglas'] | 2018-08-07 18:56:35.624000+00:00 | ['Personal Growth', 'Life Lessons', 'Mental Health', 'Fear', 'Psychology'] | Title Journey FearLess Act SelfCare SurvivalContent tired afraid definitively stated loud sitting corner verandah home Jamaica November 2015 completed Master’s program England birthed longtime dream see side world never fear may never opportunity point could feel stirring anxiety panic spent majority year Earth battling fighting good fight bubble surface can’t really blame inviting negative energy selfdoubt considering “What’s next” fear embarrassment fear disappointing fear making seen andor heard fear successful fear disappointing others fear living full potential fear rejection fear living expectation others main player playing catch mind deep core soul spirit essence knew pursuing conventional sitinacubicleunderfluorescentlights jobcareer last thing wanted pursue scared daylight made uncomfortable go always expected seen norm initial hesitation rampant honest look back snapshot childhood beyond life inundated “supposed to” lived life shell never felt could expected seed fear sprouting far long taking hold life went motion directed can’t say exact moment made decision decided fear going driver life longer life may may seem many neverending period transition core burning brightly waiting come show full potential illumination trump selfdoubt may sneak way idea fearing le effective catalyst growth Admitting tired afraid committing live life fulfilled helping others realize greatness within led path educational many time emotional twist turn Committing fearingless mean sometimes often way perceiving world energy vision align others even hold close manifestation fearingless look like number thing given day root remain foundational principle fearlessness Create opportunity selffulfillment situation okay saying “No” serve Find peace fact letting go time greatest necessity keep moving forward Trust gut committed JourneyToFearLESS opened new door mean unapologetically allowed overcome tendency shrink whether figuratively literally make world comfortable existence understand clearly space world unique necessary need extinguish fire order help others keep blazing Instead ruminating unanswered job application role serve focusing consistently unearthing opportunity growth sidetracking selfdoubt find greatness thing path possibility journey fearlessness journey treasured destination sight brought place remind day greatness need definition one give would say 100 settled position leader fearlessness Maybe say I’m yet want say right meant making sure forefront mind seeing filling cup nourishing within journey living life purpose fulfillment fearlessly Thank taking time read word spilling heart onto screen front get vulnerable around part it’s easy task finding strength take reveal truth whether writing reading pieceTags Personal Growth Life Lessons Mental Health Fear Psychology |
2,161 | Principal Components Analysis (PCA), Fundamentals, Benefits & Insights for Industry | The intuition behind the dimension reduction
Let’s start with a very simple example where the 3 features of a dataset (x, y and z) are displayed in the 3D space below (code below):
Original dataset displayed around x, y and z axis.
You can easily notice that despite having 3 dimensions, the scatter plot is mostly spread around “y” and “z”; the variation around the “x” axis is quite low.
Should we had to model this dataset, how important the “x” dimension would be in comparison with “y” and “z”? Probably not that much!
So, instead of using 3 coordinates [x, y, z] to identify one dot within this 3D space, [y, z] might already be a good indication of where this dot is. Isn’t it?
We could even go further and imagine a 2D plan following the alignment of dots along the x-axis and designating the dots’ positions with only 2 coordinates according to this plan! That would probably look like this:
Original dataset with a possible 2D reduction plan
Thanks to this red 2D plan and its two corresponding vectors, we only need two coordinates to identify accurately the position of each dot.
Obviously, we are losing some information regarding the “depth” of each dot according to the original x-axis but this is a risk we are willing to take!
If you got this example right, you know what dimension reduction is! | https://towardsdatascience.com/principal-components-analysis-pca-fundamentals-benefits-insights-for-industry-2f03ad18c4d7 | ['Pierre-Louis Bescond'] | 2020-05-31 21:45:11.927000+00:00 | ['Dimensionality Reduction', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Python'] | Title Principal Components Analysis PCA Fundamentals Benefits Insights IndustryContent intuition behind dimension reduction Let’s start simple example 3 feature dataset x z displayed 3D space code Original dataset displayed around x z axis easily notice despite 3 dimension scatter plot mostly spread around “y” “z” variation around “x” axis quite low model dataset important “x” dimension would comparison “y” “z” Probably much instead using 3 coordinate x z identify one dot within 3D space z might already good indication dot Isn’t could even go imagine 2D plan following alignment dot along xaxis designating dots’ position 2 coordinate according plan would probably look like Original dataset possible 2D reduction plan Thanks red 2D plan two corresponding vector need two coordinate identify accurately position dot Obviously losing information regarding “depth” dot according original xaxis risk willing take got example right know dimension reduction isTags Dimensionality Reduction Data Science Machine Learning Python |
2,162 | Revisiting six memos | A lost memory from my childhood Christmas TV schedule, also lost in 2015
Back in January I proposed Six memos for 2015, in which I suggested six ideas that I believed would be popular or at least interesting in 2015. They were: Resilience, Ambient persuaders, Ambiguity, Mavens, Emotional sensing and Personal data rights. The thing about these sort of clickbait ‘predictions’ is that people don’t tend to revisit them, they just push out a new set every year — as if the list itself is it’s very own medium. So to break with that tradition, I’m not publishing a new list, instead I’m going look at how much traction they got last year and explore some of the ideas that surround them.
First up, Resilience.
As a concept for business it didn’t really take off in 2015. Overall it increased in use only slightly (according to Google Trends). Mostly the notion of resilience is still focussed squarely on the environment and climate change or our personal psychological state and ability to deal with stressful situations. Of course both of those things do impact the business world, whether that’s at a strategic level or personal work/life activities. I think one of the issues with idea of resilience is that it’s about ‘weathering the storm’ — it’s about coping with the bad things, the stressful things, the negative events. It doesn’t fit the upbeat, peppy business talk, where we are agile, responsive, adaptive, lean, growth hacking super bros (especially in the US). I still like it as an idea for thinking about business and design, and there‘s plenty of writing in relation to investment risk and volatility (eg: FM Global’s Resilience Report which is at a macro economic level). I’ve recently been reading Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and I think his notion of “antifragile” over the idea of resilience is rather brilliant. It helps get past “weathering the storm” to the slightly more positive position of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. For him an antifragile system is one with the ability to gain or benefit from those things that diminish or harm fragile systems. And he describes those things as “The Extended Disorder Family”.
The Extended Disorder Family from Antifragile
Resilience is important in dealing with the effects of things mentioned above, but I think that I missed the subtlety in the meaning of ‘resilience’ before. It’s important for us not to simply rebound from adversity but to learn from it and come back stronger. I still think we are going to hear a lot more about resilience in the coming years and most likely without the nuanced understanding that ‘antifragile’ brings to the table. I believe this because our exposure to the ‘disorder family’ will grow, thanks to climate, economic, social, technological and cultural change in the coming years. Ultimately understanding and creating ‘antifragile’ systems will be the key to dealing with that change but this will start from a standpoint of being resilient.
Ambient persuaders
This was also a bit of a misnomer. The focus has continued to be about ‘nudging’ and thankfully, with a lot more being written about the ethics of nudges and how people react to being nudged. Although behavioural economics continued to be a hot topic this year, not much was said about the tactical side, about the manifestation of the nudge or indicator, about the ambient signifier (with the exception of sites like ambient-accountability.org and Dan Lockton’s work). When we did hear about these techniques most was around climate action, governmental policy change and wearable devices, especially regarding health. I chose the phrase ‘ambient persuader’ because for me a ‘nudge’ is an action and I wanted to point out the manifestation, the thing that leads to the action. I wanted to find a way to talk about those designed elements whose purpose was to nudge. In the ’50s Vance Packard wrote about The Hidden Persuaders in advertising and PR. For me much of nudging comes from those ideas. The creation of devices that trigger psychological states that nudge people towards certain actions. The ambient idea is really about separating them from the dark patterns of MadMen. These aren’t the subliminal messages telling me I’m worthless because I don’t have the latest gadget, but rather background signals that indicate to me that I’m making a good decision or that I need to change what I’m doing to help improve my life or the life of others. Ambient persuaders can also be hints to mindfulness and connectedness eg. even that my partner, although thousands of miles away, is there thinking about me, alive, and in tune. This year we saw the Apple watch and the ability to simply tap a friend on the wrist from afar and even this Kickstarter for a connected pillow to hear your partner’s heartbeat. They both are about reminding or remaining intimately connected, to ensure the other person is ‘in mind’. They aren’t strictly ambient or persuasive but they are less intrusive than the tyranny of notifications that overt nudges bring, where the contemporary manifestation of MS Office Clippy could permeate our world. Here’s a brilliant, if a little dystopian glimpse from Superflux at what that could be like.
That’s why I believe there’s still a lot more discussion to have around ambient persuaders. We need to investigate how they can be used to hint, guide and show the way, rather than overtly nag us. We need to talk openly about the techniques employed, the ways in which they manifest and the impact they may have on our already very noisy lives. So let’s see what happens in 2016. One thing already to look forward to is Dan Lockton’s book Design with Intent for O’Reilly later this year.
Ambiguity
This year we saw a lot about deep learning and attempts to teach AIs to handle nuance. Ultimately how an intelligent machine deals with ambiguity will be the key to their usefulness and thus how deeply we allow them into our lives. Researchers are beginning to understand more about the types of ambiguities that arise with machines and how they can be very different to those of humans. Image content processing and understanding is an area where we’ve seen a lot written about this year. The horrendous classification mistake by Google’s Photos App wasn’t a decision that would have even registered as ambiguous to humans, we would have classified correctly (unless deliberately making a racist slur). But the machine made a terrible mistake, one that rightly caused a lot of hard questions to be asked of the engineers. But that’s where I think the big problems lay for AI, what it may be ‘certain’ about could be an area of ambiguity for humans and things we are certain about may be very ambiguous for the machine, and in ways that don’t match what we understand about ourselves. How we ‘see’ and ‘understand’ an image, is very specific and it doesn’t mean that a machine when taught to ‘see’ and to ‘understand’ images will do it in exactly the same way we do — we don’t know enough about ourselves to truly model like for like. Ultimately the machine thinks differently and what it finds ambiguous can also be different — here’s a great piece in Nautilus on exactly that.
The other side of ambiguity is the need to embrace it, as it makes us the interesting nuanced creatures we are. And that also came up a lot this year. Mostly in reaction to Big Data. Mushon Zer-Aviv in a presentation for the HKW 100 Years Project talked about the desire for ‘disambiguation’. He speaks of how we look to big data as a perfect representation of the real world and how we employ reductive approaches to ‘disambiguated’ and create a common point of understanding. But how in doing so we lose all that is real, human and valuable. He rejects this and calls for a ‘reambiguation’ of things. Which reminds me of the Swiss historian, Jacob Burckhardt and his idea that “the essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity”. That’s from the late 1800’s when he feared the “terribles simplificateurs [simplifiers]”; the employment of generalization and abstraction to divide and categorise and ultimately remove individual agency. This reflects the fear of being analytically excluded through blunt categorization and normalisation of populations (without the nuances that come with ambiguities).
So in one form or another ambiguity was a big topic this year, and I believe next year we will see this debate focus further, driven by questions about how machines can accurately and safely make decisions that impact our lives.
Mavens
I don’t think there’s any escape form these lone wolves, isolated experts, and crazed egos, especially as even more is being said about the trials of working collaboratively and Collaborative Overload. However there were a few glimmers of hope. Mostly these take the form of opening up debate and questioning those who speak as authorities. We started seeing the beginning of this with people questioning the position of the storyteller (especially in data presentation). People revealing the mechanics, the tricks and role of the unreliable narrator. One of the keys to challenging these mavens is in opening up dialogue and enabling collaborative discourse. Not closed ‘truths’ (to be accepted) but data and facts open to secondary investigation — open to all of Carl Sagan’s BS detection.
In a great piece by Catherine D’Ignazio she asks What Would Feminist Data Visualisation Look Like? One point that particularly resonated with me, especially in regards to ‘mavens’ was that we “Make dissent possible”.
… one way to re-situate data visualization is to actually destabilize it by making dissent possible. How can we devise ways to talk back to the data? To question the facts? To present alternative views and realities? To contest and undermine even the basic tenets of the data’s existence and collection? A visualization is often delivered from on high. An expert designer or team with specialized knowledge finds some data, does some wizardry and presents their artifact to the world with some highly prescribed ways to view it. Can we imagine an alternate way to include more voices in the conversation? Could we effect visualization collectively, inclusively, with dissent and contestation, at scale?
So let’s keep tugging at the curtain and revealing the reality of these wizards, let’s ensure that their ‘facts’ are not blindly accepted but rather points for discussion and where necessary, dissent.
Emotional sensing
The use of emotional sensing for UX and experience research has continued to rise, but it’s not as prevalent or talked about as I expected. Much is still focussed on simply measuring the ‘effect’ of a design and other forms of evaluative research. In fact we are still battling over the use of empathy in business and battling even harder to convince many organisations to treat people with respect. There are many that still hold the belief that empathy has no place in business, economics, data or science and that it must always be a case of pure objective scientific detachment or left to the market to sort out. Personally I believe those people are deluded if they truly believe they can dehumanise themselves and the systems they create (I know, not a very empathetic thing to say). But emotional sensing isn’t really about a generalised idea of empathy, it’s probably more closely aligned to cognitive empathy. Cognitive empathy is about recognising and understanding another’s emotional state, sometimes know also as ‘perspective taking’ (Check out Indi Young for a practical guide to it’s use in design and business research).
It’s this kind of emotional sensing and cognitive empathy that’s been on my radar this year. There have been a lot articles about machines being able to recognise emotions. First up there’s a burgeoning category of applications or systems that analyse behaviour to access emotional state such as the use your smart phone behaviour to derive whether you may be suffering from depression. This is indirect emotional sensing. It’s machine learning, big data, pattern analysis after the fact and a form of diagnostic recognition. Not really about understanding the person, more just about profile matching in the model. However, there’s also been a fair amount written about the recognition of human emotions by machines in human machine exchanges. This opens up the interesting part, machines applying cognitive empathy, where they understand the emotions in the exchange and modify of their behaviour based on the emotional responses from the human. And that is key to ‘authentic’ feeling, human/machine exchanges and our acceptance of robot helpers, assistances and nurses. But it’s an area full of ambiguity and difficulty as often humans aren’t particular good at it either. The field is called ‘affective computing’. On one side you have companies like Affectiva who are building deep datasets for real-time recognition of “emotional responses to digital media”. Which does feel a little horrifying as linked closely to the Advertising world. On the other we have Microsoft and Azure recognising emotions in pictures. Many of the underlying techniques are being incorporated into services and technology right now, so I expect to hear a lot more about emotionally aware and emotionally responsive services, interfaces and systems this year. Mostly from the robotics domain as the costs for consumers are coming down, fancy one of these? — https://www.autonomous.ai/personal-robot.
But of course all this talk of emotions came in the year we had the brilliant Inside Out from Pixar. A film that squarely focussed our attention on an animated child’s emotional development.
Personal data rights
So that brings me to the last of my memos from 2015; Personal data rights. When I wrote about personal data rights I was thinking about the need for a shift in ownership. A model where the individual held (by default) the right of use and access to any data about them and more importantly created from or by them. There’s a great piece on data ownership here via the Quantified Self blog, but not much else out there.
However, back in June I visited QS15 (The Quantified Self Conference in San Francisco) and it opened my eyes to the sort of data people are collecting and sharing. It was incredible, and much of it was essentially people trying the hack their health and understand their minds or bodies better. Many of us share our steps, running and fitness data with the likes of Apple, Fitbit and RunKeeper but what about those other data sets from the body. At QS15 there were some amazing individuals willing to share their journeys collecting and analysing very personal data (great set of videos of the talks available here). People are tracking all manner of things, from the standard fare of location and activity, through to sleep, heart rate, blood pressure and heart rate variability (great resource for HRV analysis on Paul LaFontaine’s blog), and on to microbiome (and not just the gut), brain activity, detailed aspects of their menstrual cycle, blood markers, glucose and even building custom hardware for controlling diabetes, or monitoring the electromagnetic fields in their apartment. A lot of this was very individual and personal, often spreadsheets and notebooks and done to help with an existing condition or to try and improve performance or quality of life. But it has a very active community feel, with people sharing, helping and supporting each others’ efforts to arrive at techniques and best practices. In some cases services and companies have stepped in to support this, most notably uBiome that offers a simple and fairly cheap way to get you microbiome sequence. And a lot more are coming. Some linked directly to sensors and devices or focused on specific issues or data. Others are looking broader and at the use of self collected data to inform on mass, as more and more people start to see the benefits from experimentation, small group analysis and sharing multiple types of data to further understand very specific issues. One company that is making a play for this collaborative personal data space is We Are Curious (not public as of writing). They promise a way to pool your data and use it to ask questions about your well being and health and it’s CEO is Linda Avey (co-founder of 23andme the consumer DNA profiling company). These are all outside of the mainstream health industry and still (mostly) have a hacker or DIY ethos driving them. One of the conversations I sat in on at QS15 was concerned with the use of personal data by corporations and organisation to exclude people. The main concern was with how a deep but partial view of an individually means that they may be categorised as ‘abnormal’ essentially outside of the standard deviation for this of that measure (could be blood pressure), and thus flagged as higher risk. The fear many had was that this information may be used or shared without consent and thus end up being used to inform other machine driven scoring systems like health insurance costs or even access to resources. The problem here is that the ‘population’ is that you are measured against and those who already feel like outsiders fear further marginalisation and see this as an acute issue. And it’s not quite as paranoid as it sounds, if we think about how IBM’s Watson focus of late has been heavily on its use in health care (here’s XKCD’s thoughts on that) or the fact that Health and Life insurance is a $644 billion industry in the US. In fact insurance companies are leading the charge here. NPR ran an article in April on how John Hancock Insurers want you to trade data for discounts and in the auto insurance market, data on how you drive is quickly becoming the new model for how your premiums are calculated.
Ultimately that’s the key question, what do you get in return for sharing your data? Unfortunately that in itself can be a little short sighted as it focusses on the immediate one-to-one exchange, nothing is said of how that data will be used later. Often we have no transparency regarding how it will be mined for patterns, aggregated, deep learned and modelled, providing the as yet unknown insights and decisions to shape the business or organisation that wields it. The belief is that by understanding this big data they will be able to hold a mirror up to reality and judge your part in it. Those who are good and ‘play by the rules’ will be rewarded and those who don’t, punished by higher costs or exclusion. All driven by the algorithm, automated and no longer subject to human error or ambiguity. But as I mentioned before ‘ambiguity’ means that machines don’t always get things right and we must be careful not to simply yield to the idea of the perfect model, as the statistician George E. P. Box put it:
“The most that can be expected from any model is that it can supply a useful approximation to reality: All models are wrong; some models are useful”.
We are generating richer, more detailed, more specific and more personal data than ever before. Sharing it can be very beneficial but what will be the cost of blindly feeding the model? For me there’s still a lot that needs to be discussed about this secondary use of the data we share (whether or not it’s anonymised). I expect to see more this year on where this secondary use of data is seen as invasive or unethical and debate about who really owns it. | https://medium.com/design-strategy-data-people/revisiting-six-memos-dd2cd9e292a0 | [] | 2016-01-14 22:12:58.298000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Design', 'Mgm Oldies'] | Title Revisiting six memosContent lost memory childhood Christmas TV schedule also lost 2015 Back January proposed Six memo 2015 suggested six idea believed would popular least interesting 2015 Resilience Ambient persuader Ambiguity Mavens Emotional sensing Personal data right thing sort clickbait ‘predictions’ people don’t tend revisit push new set every year — list it’s medium break tradition I’m publishing new list instead I’m going look much traction got last year explore idea surround First Resilience concept business didn’t really take 2015 Overall increased use slightly according Google Trends Mostly notion resilience still focussed squarely environment climate change personal psychological state ability deal stressful situation course thing impact business world whether that’s strategic level personal worklife activity think one issue idea resilience it’s ‘weathering storm’ — it’s coping bad thing stressful thing negative event doesn’t fit upbeat peppy business talk agile responsive adaptive lean growth hacking super bros especially US still like idea thinking business design there‘s plenty writing relation investment risk volatility eg FM Global’s Resilience Report macro economic level I’ve recently reading Antifragile Nassim Nicholas Taleb think notion “antifragile” idea resilience rather brilliant help get past “weathering storm” slightly positive position “what doesn’t kill make stronger” antifragile system one ability gain benefit thing diminish harm fragile system describes thing “The Extended Disorder Family” Extended Disorder Family Antifragile Resilience important dealing effect thing mentioned think missed subtlety meaning ‘resilience’ It’s important u simply rebound adversity learn come back stronger still think going hear lot resilience coming year likely without nuanced understanding ‘antifragile’ brings table believe exposure ‘disorder family’ grow thanks climate economic social technological cultural change coming year Ultimately understanding creating ‘antifragile’ system key dealing change start standpoint resilient Ambient persuader also bit misnomer focus continued ‘nudging’ thankfully lot written ethic nudge people react nudged Although behavioural economics continued hot topic year much said tactical side manifestation nudge indicator ambient signifier exception site like ambientaccountabilityorg Dan Lockton’s work hear technique around climate action governmental policy change wearable device especially regarding health chose phrase ‘ambient persuader’ ‘nudge’ action wanted point manifestation thing lead action wanted find way talk designed element whose purpose nudge ’50s Vance Packard wrote Hidden Persuaders advertising PR much nudging come idea creation device trigger psychological state nudge people towards certain action ambient idea really separating dark pattern MadMen aren’t subliminal message telling I’m worthless don’t latest gadget rather background signal indicate I’m making good decision need change I’m help improve life life others Ambient persuader also hint mindfulness connectedness eg even partner although thousand mile away thinking alive tune year saw Apple watch ability simply tap friend wrist afar even Kickstarter connected pillow hear partner’s heartbeat reminding remaining intimately connected ensure person ‘in mind’ aren’t strictly ambient persuasive le intrusive tyranny notification overt nudge bring contemporary manifestation MS Office Clippy could permeate world Here’s brilliant little dystopian glimpse Superflux could like That’s believe there’s still lot discussion around ambient persuader need investigate used hint guide show way rather overtly nag u need talk openly technique employed way manifest impact may already noisy life let’s see happens 2016 One thing already look forward Dan Lockton’s book Design Intent O’Reilly later year Ambiguity year saw lot deep learning attempt teach AIs handle nuance Ultimately intelligent machine deal ambiguity key usefulness thus deeply allow life Researchers beginning understand type ambiguity arise machine different human Image content processing understanding area we’ve seen lot written year horrendous classification mistake Google’s Photos App wasn’t decision would even registered ambiguous human would classified correctly unless deliberately making racist slur machine made terrible mistake one rightly caused lot hard question asked engineer that’s think big problem lay AI may ‘certain’ could area ambiguity human thing certain may ambiguous machine way don’t match understand ‘see’ ‘understand’ image specific doesn’t mean machine taught ‘see’ ‘understand’ image exactly way — don’t know enough truly model like like Ultimately machine think differently find ambiguous also different — here’s great piece Nautilus exactly side ambiguity need embrace make u interesting nuanced creature also came lot year Mostly reaction Big Data Mushon ZerAviv presentation HKW 100 Years Project talked desire ‘disambiguation’ speaks look big data perfect representation real world employ reductive approach ‘disambiguated’ create common point understanding lose real human valuable reject call ‘reambiguation’ thing reminds Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt idea “the essence tyranny denial complexity” That’s late 1800’s feared “terribles simplificateurs simplifiers” employment generalization abstraction divide categorise ultimately remove individual agency reflects fear analytically excluded blunt categorization normalisation population without nuance come ambiguity one form another ambiguity big topic year believe next year see debate focus driven question machine accurately safely make decision impact life Mavens don’t think there’s escape form lone wolf isolated expert crazed ego especially even said trial working collaboratively Collaborative Overload However glimmer hope Mostly take form opening debate questioning speak authority started seeing beginning people questioning position storyteller especially data presentation People revealing mechanic trick role unreliable narrator One key challenging maven opening dialogue enabling collaborative discourse closed ‘truths’ accepted data fact open secondary investigation — open Carl Sagan’s BS detection great piece Catherine D’Ignazio asks Would Feminist Data Visualisation Look Like One point particularly resonated especially regard ‘mavens’ “Make dissent possible” … one way resituate data visualization actually destabilize making dissent possible devise way talk back data question fact present alternative view reality contest undermine even basic tenet data’s existence collection visualization often delivered high expert designer team specialized knowledge find data wizardry present artifact world highly prescribed way view imagine alternate way include voice conversation Could effect visualization collectively inclusively dissent contestation scale let’s keep tugging curtain revealing reality wizard let’s ensure ‘facts’ blindly accepted rather point discussion necessary dissent Emotional sensing use emotional sensing UX experience research continued rise it’s prevalent talked expected Much still focussed simply measuring ‘effect’ design form evaluative research fact still battling use empathy business battling even harder convince many organisation treat people respect many still hold belief empathy place business economics data science must always case pure objective scientific detachment left market sort Personally believe people deluded truly believe dehumanise system create know empathetic thing say emotional sensing isn’t really generalised idea empathy it’s probably closely aligned cognitive empathy Cognitive empathy recognising understanding another’s emotional state sometimes know also ‘perspective taking’ Check Indi Young practical guide it’s use design business research It’s kind emotional sensing cognitive empathy that’s radar year lot article machine able recognise emotion First there’s burgeoning category application system analyse behaviour access emotional state use smart phone behaviour derive whether may suffering depression indirect emotional sensing It’s machine learning big data pattern analysis fact form diagnostic recognition really understanding person profile matching model However there’s also fair amount written recognition human emotion machine human machine exchange open interesting part machine applying cognitive empathy understand emotion exchange modify behaviour based emotional response human key ‘authentic’ feeling humanmachine exchange acceptance robot helper assistance nurse it’s area full ambiguity difficulty often human aren’t particular good either field called ‘affective computing’ one side company like Affectiva building deep datasets realtime recognition “emotional response digital media” feel little horrifying linked closely Advertising world Microsoft Azure recognising emotion picture Many underlying technique incorporated service technology right expect hear lot emotionally aware emotionally responsive service interface system year Mostly robotics domain cost consumer coming fancy one — httpswwwautonomousaipersonalrobot course talk emotion came year brilliant Inside Pixar film squarely focussed attention animated child’s emotional development Personal data right brings last memo 2015 Personal data right wrote personal data right thinking need shift ownership model individual held default right use access data importantly created There’s great piece data ownership via Quantified Self blog much else However back June visited QS15 Quantified Self Conference San Francisco opened eye sort data people collecting sharing incredible much essentially people trying hack health understand mind body better Many u share step running fitness data like Apple Fitbit RunKeeper data set body QS15 amazing individual willing share journey collecting analysing personal data great set video talk available People tracking manner thing standard fare location activity sleep heart rate blood pressure heart rate variability great resource HRV analysis Paul LaFontaine’s blog microbiome gut brain activity detailed aspect menstrual cycle blood marker glucose even building custom hardware controlling diabetes monitoring electromagnetic field apartment lot individual personal often spreadsheet notebook done help existing condition try improve performance quality life active community feel people sharing helping supporting others’ effort arrive technique best practice case service company stepped support notably uBiome offer simple fairly cheap way get microbiome sequence lot coming linked directly sensor device focused specific issue data Others looking broader use self collected data inform mass people start see benefit experimentation small group analysis sharing multiple type data understand specific issue One company making play collaborative personal data space Curious public writing promise way pool data use ask question well health it’s CEO Linda Avey cofounder 23andme consumer DNA profiling company outside mainstream health industry still mostly hacker DIY ethos driving One conversation sat QS15 concerned use personal data corporation organisation exclude people main concern deep partial view individually mean may categorised ‘abnormal’ essentially outside standard deviation measure could blood pressure thus flagged higher risk fear many information may used shared without consent thus end used inform machine driven scoring system like health insurance cost even access resource problem ‘population’ measured already feel like outsider fear marginalisation see acute issue it’s quite paranoid sound think IBM’s Watson focus late heavily use health care here’s XKCD’s thought fact Health Life insurance 644 billion industry US fact insurance company leading charge NPR ran article April John Hancock Insurers want trade data discount auto insurance market data drive quickly becoming new model premium calculated Ultimately that’s key question get return sharing data Unfortunately little short sighted focus immediate onetoone exchange nothing said data used later Often transparency regarding mined pattern aggregated deep learned modelled providing yet unknown insight decision shape business organisation wields belief understanding big data able hold mirror reality judge part good ‘play rules’ rewarded don’t punished higher cost exclusion driven algorithm automated longer subject human error ambiguity mentioned ‘ambiguity’ mean machine don’t always get thing right must careful simply yield idea perfect model statistician George E P Box put “The expected model supply useful approximation reality model wrong model useful” generating richer detailed specific personal data ever Sharing beneficial cost blindly feeding model there’s still lot need discussed secondary use data share whether it’s anonymised expect see year secondary use data seen invasive unethical debate really owns itTags Technology Artificial Intelligence Design Mgm Oldies |
2,163 | Want to work in UX? Pay attention in English class. | Want to work in UX? Pay attention in English class.
With special guest Andy Welfle, Adobe Senior Content Strategist Lead
Building the Perfect Designer
There seems to be a bit of an arms race to standardize the skill sets that are required by employers when it comes to UX-ers, digital product designers, UI designers, or whatever you want to call “us”. I’m acutely aware of this arms race specifically, because I’m in it. Over the past few years we (Adobe and myself) have been working with the University of Utah on developing curriculum for their Digital Product Design program. The core question driving most of our decisions has been a simple one:
What do we want the designers that we hire in the future to look like?
Some of the answers to that question have been pretty straight forward. We need Adobe designers to have a strong understanding of design thinking principles. We need Adobe designers to have a process for discovering problems. We need them to be able to work through those problems with that process to deliver designs that improve the user’s experience. We need those designs to be visually compelling and thoroughly tested using best practices. We need those designers to be able to pitch those ideas through presentations to cross-functional stakeholders.
There’s a lot we need from our designers.
Being that this has been a topic that has been so top of mind for me, I’m constantly looking at parts of my day-to-day process and trying to incorporate the skills needed to complete those things into the curriculum we’re developing. And that’s when I had the “aha” moment a few days ago. There was one aspect of my job responsibilities that touches every single step of the process that we hadn’t accounted for: writing.
Sharpen Your Pencils
Want to set up user testing? You’re going to need to write an email. Are you defining a persona? You better write that thing up. What’s the user’s journey that you’re shooting for? You’re probably going to need to write a narrative. Need to sell some stakeholders on a design? You’re definitely going to be writing up a presentation.
However, if writing isn’t one of our strong suits, it can leave us in a bit of a quandary. So I pinged a colleague of mine, Andy Welfle, who is Senior Content Strategist Lead here at Adobe on the design team. He also happens to be a super awesome guy willing to bestow some of his writing knowledge on us. I asked him a few questions about writing in the UX world and he had some incredibly valuable insights not only just in terms of writing, but specifically for writing in a UX context.
Andy Welfle
As a UX content writer, what similarities have you observed between writing and digital product design?
It’s obvious when it’s pointed out, but a lot of times, designers don’t think about words being part of the user experience. At best, they blend seamlessly with the visuals and the UI, and at worst, they’re jarringly noticeable.
UX content strategy has a lot of parallels with UX design. In fact, when designers ask me what I do, I tell them that I write using design thinking. Instead of traditional copywriting which is usually very linear and finite (and often comes much later in the software development process), UX writing happens at or near the same time UX design does. We iterate alongside designers, and think about the system of language as they think about the visual system.
Here are a few similarities I see in our disciplines: | https://medium.com/thinking-design/want-to-work-in-ux-pay-attention-in-english-class-53245944cc30 | ['Kris Paries'] | 2018-05-21 18:03:33.369000+00:00 | ['User Experience', 'Creative Career', 'Writing', 'UX', 'Design'] | Title Want work UX Pay attention English classContent Want work UX Pay attention English class special guest Andy Welfle Adobe Senior Content Strategist Lead Building Perfect Designer seems bit arm race standardize skill set required employer come UXers digital product designer UI designer whatever want call “us” I’m acutely aware arm race specifically I’m past year Adobe working University Utah developing curriculum Digital Product Design program core question driving decision simple one want designer hire future look like answer question pretty straight forward need Adobe designer strong understanding design thinking principle need Adobe designer process discovering problem need able work problem process deliver design improve user’s experience need design visually compelling thoroughly tested using best practice need designer able pitch idea presentation crossfunctional stakeholder There’s lot need designer topic top mind I’m constantly looking part daytoday process trying incorporate skill needed complete thing curriculum we’re developing that’s “aha” moment day ago one aspect job responsibility touch every single step process hadn’t accounted writing Sharpen Pencils Want set user testing You’re going need write email defining persona better write thing What’s user’s journey you’re shooting You’re probably going need write narrative Need sell stakeholder design You’re definitely going writing presentation However writing isn’t one strong suit leave u bit quandary pinged colleague mine Andy Welfle Senior Content Strategist Lead Adobe design team also happens super awesome guy willing bestow writing knowledge u asked question writing UX world incredibly valuable insight term writing specifically writing UX context Andy Welfle UX content writer similarity observed writing digital product design It’s obvious it’s pointed lot time designer don’t think word part user experience best blend seamlessly visuals UI worst they’re jarringly noticeable UX content strategy lot parallel UX design fact designer ask tell write using design thinking Instead traditional copywriting usually linear finite often come much later software development process UX writing happens near time UX design iterate alongside designer think system language think visual system similarity see disciplinesTags User Experience Creative Career Writing UX Design |
2,164 | Pickyourtrail, a self-service platform that lets travellers create, customise and book international vacations | Pickyourtrail has raised $3M in total. We talked with its co-founders Hari Ganapathy and Srinath Shankar.
How would you describe Pickyourtrail in a single tweet?
Pickyourtrail is a self-service platform that lets travellers create, customise and book international vacations in a jiffy.
How did it all start and why?
Pickyourtrail began as an attempt to break how vacations are currently been planned and booked by travellers. At our very heart, we want to create happiness and not sell packages. The seed to all this began in August 2012 when co-founders — Hari & Srinath went on a Europe trip.
Ardent travellers themselves, the duo had put in more than 2 months to fully craft their vacation. This included planning end-end, bookings, and visa processing. It was during their trip they stumbled upon fellow travellers who were all on packaged tours. Interacting with them, Hari & Srinath understood they were literally rushed between destinations and their urge to discover new experiences wasn’t fulfilled. The travellers, on the other hand, were amazed to see the flexibility Hari and Srinath had in their itinerary and that piqued their interest.
Once back home, the duo was bombarded with pings asking for details on how they went about planning the entire trip. These interactions slowly multiplied and this lead to an idea that will forever change their career roadmaps!
What have you achieved so far?
We have been growing 80% YoY. And aim to grow 5X over the next 2–3 years.
Products: http://pickyourtrail.com — our website | https://apple.co/2mBMqI0 — our mobile app for travel concierge.
We have had about 15,000+ travellers who have planned their dream vacation with us in the Free Independent traveller segment.
We are currently a team of 185 members.
What do you plan to achieve in the next 2–3 years?
Broadly 3–4 things we would be focusing on, one obviously acquire more customers on the digital medium, try and build you know our own digital acquisition channel that’s number 1.
Number 2 is you know on tier 2- tier 3 towns where digital penetration is still not very high but still there is a significant amount of people taking trips out there, how do we go to that audience and become top of mind for that audience, So if you look at it audience wise the digital-first audience is what we want to capture and then tier 2- tier 3 towns.
The next focus is on beefing up the tech team and overall tech capabilities. how do we ensure that our product innovation efforts continue to be one of the best in the industry?
There is also a larger focus on taking this product global. End of the day there is a European going to the US or an Australian going to Bali and the product is suitable even for them. We also want to try and understand what it takes to build traction in those markets.
While all this may not be possible in the next 6–10 months but this is the broad themes we want to focus and kind of drive over the next 2–3 years. | https://medium.com/petacrunch/pickyourtrail-a-self-service-platform-that-lets-travellers-create-customise-and-book-143c7a380cc6 | ['Kevin Hart'] | 2019-10-03 11:19:40.368000+00:00 | ['India', 'Planning', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup', 'Travel'] | Title Pickyourtrail selfservice platform let traveller create customise book international vacationsContent Pickyourtrail raised 3M total talked cofounder Hari Ganapathy Srinath Shankar would describe Pickyourtrail single tweet Pickyourtrail selfservice platform let traveller create customise book international vacation jiffy start Pickyourtrail began attempt break vacation currently planned booked traveller heart want create happiness sell package seed began August 2012 cofounder — Hari Srinath went Europe trip Ardent traveller duo put 2 month fully craft vacation included planning endend booking visa processing trip stumbled upon fellow traveller packaged tour Interacting Hari Srinath understood literally rushed destination urge discover new experience wasn’t fulfilled traveller hand amazed see flexibility Hari Srinath itinerary piqued interest back home duo bombarded ping asking detail went planning entire trip interaction slowly multiplied lead idea forever change career roadmaps achieved far growing 80 YoY aim grow 5X next 2–3 year Products httppickyourtrailcom — website httpsappleco2mBMqI0 — mobile app travel concierge 15000 traveller planned dream vacation u Free Independent traveller segment currently team 185 member plan achieve next 2–3 year Broadly 3–4 thing would focusing one obviously acquire customer digital medium try build know digital acquisition channel that’s number 1 Number 2 know tier 2 tier 3 town digital penetration still high still significant amount people taking trip go audience become top mind audience look audience wise digitalfirst audience want capture tier 2 tier 3 town next focus beefing tech team overall tech capability ensure product innovation effort continue one best industry also larger focus taking product global End day European going US Australian going Bali product suitable even also want try understand take build traction market may possible next 6–10 month broad theme want focus kind drive next 2–3 yearsTags India Planning Entrepreneurship Startup Travel |
2,165 | How I Build Machine Learning Apps in Hours… and More! | How I Build Machine Learning Apps in Hours… and More!
What is new in the AI world, the release of our book, and our monthly editorial picks
If you have trouble reading this email, see it on a web browser.
Happy Monday, Towards AI family! To start your week with a smile, we recommend you to check out “Superheroes of Deep Learning Vol 1: Machine Learning Yearning” by Falaah Arif Khan and Professor Zachary Lipton, an exciting, hilarious, and educational comic for everyone who is or has worked with data in the past.
If you are into research, NeurIPS recently posted its findings during the 2020 paper reviewing process, with some insights on the submission and historical data on primary subject areas, acceptance rate, ratings, and so on for the past two years.
Next, if you have a Ph.D. and you are in the job market for a faculty position, we recommend you to check out the faculty openings in the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon. They currently have multiple tenure track and teaching track opportunities for you researchers out there!
If you are into tinkering with data and you are interested in forecasting epidemics (specifically COVID-19 in this case). We recommend you to check out this post by Kathryn Mazaitis and Alex Reinhart on how to access COVIDcast’s Epidata API, which provides freely available data to CMU Delphi’s COVID-19 surveillance streams.
📊 For a limited time, we are taking discounted pre-orders on our book “Descriptive Statistics for Data-driven Decision Making with Python” — a guide to straightforward, data-driven decision making with the help of descriptive statistics. Ordering our book also gives you access to any future updates made to it — support Towards AI’s efforts and help us improve to provide you with better content. 📊 | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/how-i-build-machine-learning-apps-in-hours-and-more-486955768aa1 | ['Towards Ai Team'] | 2020-11-12 21:32:15.603000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Innovation', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Education', 'Science'] | Title Build Machine Learning Apps Hours… MoreContent Build Machine Learning Apps Hours… new AI world release book monthly editorial pick trouble reading email see web browser Happy Monday Towards AI family start week smile recommend check “Superheroes Deep Learning Vol 1 Machine Learning Yearning” Falaah Arif Khan Professor Zachary Lipton exciting hilarious educational comic everyone worked data past research NeurIPS recently posted finding 2020 paper reviewing process insight submission historical data primary subject area acceptance rate rating past two year Next PhD job market faculty position recommend check faculty opening Machine Learning Department Carnegie Mellon currently multiple tenure track teaching track opportunity researcher tinkering data interested forecasting epidemic specifically COVID19 case recommend check post Kathryn Mazaitis Alex Reinhart access COVIDcast’s Epidata API provides freely available data CMU Delphi’s COVID19 surveillance stream 📊 limited time taking discounted preorders book “Descriptive Statistics Datadriven Decision Making Python” — guide straightforward datadriven decision making help descriptive statistic Ordering book also give access future update made — support Towards AI’s effort help u improve provide better content 📊Tags Technology Innovation Artificial Intelligence Education Science |
2,166 | Five Ways to Eliminate Writing Goofs | When competition is stiff—as it is in freelance writing, publishing, and marketing consultation—the losers can be doomed by details as small as apostrophes in the wrong place.
In fact, over my years of hiring writers and marketing support, attention to detail has consistently separated the strong from the weak. That means copy that’s free from grammar or punctuation errors and typos.
But the key is not being perfect. It’s knowing your weaknesses and having reliable tricks for compensating. Here’s how to come out a winner.
Where details still matter
You may think proper punctuation and the correct use of tricky combos like effect and affect or it’s and its don’t matter as much in these days of automated grammar checkers and, for instance, online news publications that prioritize quick content over editing.
But plenty of people who hire writers or marketers still care. Why? Because in many industries, details still matter. Try convincing a customer that your programmers can compile a million lines of error-free code when even your website displays glaring mistakes.
As a result, many corporate decision-makers are sticklers. A colleague of mine once rejected a writing candidate because his cover letter said, “I’m anxious to meet you,” rather than “I’m eager to meet you.”
“He should know the difference in the implications,” she explained. Since we often had to finesse fine shades of meaning, she had a point.
Many New York editors say their desks are so stacked with worthy manuscripts that acquisition decisions can be swayed by which require the least editorial work.
I’ve never been that militant, but I have deep-sixed résumés from freelance candidates and marketing support teams whose work had too many typos. Their skills couldn’t outweigh the extra work of policing their copy.
As a published novelist, I’ve also spoken with many New York editors who say that acquisition decisions can be swayed by which of several worthy manuscripts require the least editorial muscle. That matters if you’re working on publishing nonfiction in your business area of expertise. (Not to mention fiction, which is even more competitive.)
Five ways to look better
I know four good ways and one great one to find and fix slip-ups that otherwise might sink your chances:
Become familiar with the most frequent errors. Some are so common you may not know they’re wrong. Search for “tricky grammar mistakes;” this list and this one are a good start.
A key item on such lists: common verbal expressions that may fool your ear when it’s time to write them. One egregious example: “should of,” as in, “That writer should of had an editor.” It’s should have, but this goof is common.
The mistake is not being lousy at spelling or punctuation — it’s being unaware you need help from someone who isn’t.
2. Know your common troublemakers, such as it’s and its. (This combo defies even those who know the difference.) Using a search function to find them in the drafts. Thus isolated, they’re easier to reconsider and, if necessary, correct.
3. Change the look of your text to proofread it. Move it from your phone to computer or vice versa, or at least change its font, size, and color. Better yet, print it; putting it on paper or into a larger font often makes errors jump out.
4. Read your draft backward, one sentence or phrase at a time. Thus breaking the flow of what you thought you wrote makes errors more likely to show.
5. Best: Team up with a member of the Grammar Police—or at least a cold reader with copyediting savvy. (This is also the best way to identify your personal troublemakers.)
Remember, the mistake is not being lousy at spelling or punctuation — it’s being unaware you need help from someone who isn’t. Either team up with a colleague to find and correct your goofs or hire someone who can.
You don’t want to be embarrassed by your work, and neither do freelance writing clients. But you’d be shocked by how many upper managers delight in marking even dubious text errors in drafts meant only for content approval. (You’d think they had enough work running their companies, but this is so widespread I can only conclude that they don’t.)
It’s an ego game for them. But for you, writing—or selling your services as an entrepreneur—is a livelihood or identity, right? Use my five tips to find and fix more of your own typos this year, and you’re more likely to achieve success.
Plus you’ll delight Apostrophe Inspectors like me. | https://medium.com/swlh/five-ways-to-eliminate-writing-goofs-406012fa349 | ['Joni Sensel'] | 2020-01-01 12:40:58.384000+00:00 | ['Writing Tips', 'Writing', 'Entrepreneur', 'Startup', 'Freelancing'] | Title Five Ways Eliminate Writing GoofsContent competition stiff—as freelance writing publishing marketing consultation—the loser doomed detail small apostrophe wrong place fact year hiring writer marketing support attention detail consistently separated strong weak mean copy that’s free grammar punctuation error typo key perfect It’s knowing weakness reliable trick compensating Here’s come winner detail still matter may think proper punctuation correct use tricky combo like effect affect it’s don’t matter much day automated grammar checker instance online news publication prioritize quick content editing plenty people hire writer marketer still care many industry detail still matter Try convincing customer programmer compile million line errorfree code even website display glaring mistake result many corporate decisionmakers stickler colleague mine rejected writing candidate cover letter said “I’m anxious meet you” rather “I’m eager meet you” “He know difference implications” explained Since often finesse fine shade meaning point Many New York editor say desk stacked worthy manuscript acquisition decision swayed require least editorial work I’ve never militant deepsixed résumés freelance candidate marketing support team whose work many typo skill couldn’t outweigh extra work policing copy published novelist I’ve also spoken many New York editor say acquisition decision swayed several worthy manuscript require least editorial muscle matter you’re working publishing nonfiction business area expertise mention fiction even competitive Five way look better know four good way one great one find fix slipups otherwise might sink chance Become familiar frequent error common may know they’re wrong Search “tricky grammar mistakes” list one good start key item list common verbal expression may fool ear it’s time write One egregious example “should of” “That writer editor” It’s goof common mistake lousy spelling punctuation — it’s unaware need help someone isn’t 2 Know common troublemaker it’s combo defies even know difference Using search function find draft Thus isolated they’re easier reconsider necessary correct 3 Change look text proofread Move phone computer vice versa least change font size color Better yet print putting paper larger font often make error jump 4 Read draft backward one sentence phrase time Thus breaking flow thought wrote make error likely show 5 Best Team member Grammar Police—or least cold reader copyediting savvy also best way identify personal troublemaker Remember mistake lousy spelling punctuation — it’s unaware need help someone isn’t Either team colleague find correct goof hire someone don’t want embarrassed work neither freelance writing client you’d shocked many upper manager delight marking even dubious text error draft meant content approval You’d think enough work running company widespread conclude don’t It’s ego game writing—or selling service entrepreneur—is livelihood identity right Use five tip find fix typo year you’re likely achieve success Plus you’ll delight Apostrophe Inspectors like meTags Writing Tips Writing Entrepreneur Startup Freelancing |
2,167 | How To Send Images Into Flask API via URL | After a little introduction, let’s start our project without wasting time. First of all, we will need some Python libraries to do our operations.
pip install Flask pip install pillow
After installing the necessary libraries, let’s design an API endpoint that will take as a input the image URLs with the HTTP-POST method.
By using the “<path:url>” specifier, we ensure that the string that will come after “send-image/” is taken as whole.
If you run this script and test it on your browser, the result will be as follows. | https://medium.com/python-in-plain-english/how-to-send-images-into-flask-api-via-url-7d4be51e8130 | ['Burak Şenol'] | 2020-12-18 19:07:16.123000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Python', 'Flask', 'Image Processing', 'API'] | Title Send Images Flask API via URLContent little introduction let’s start project without wasting time First need Python library operation pip install Flask pip install pillow installing necessary library let’s design API endpoint take input image URLs HTTPPOST method using “pathurl” specifier ensure string come “sendimage” taken whole run script test browser result followsTags Programming Python Flask Image Processing API |
2,168 | 7 Painful Reasons all Women Should be Angry | 1. They shame our powerful sexuality.
Women shine as glorious sexual beings, and when they diminish our sexuality, they reduce our humanity.
Judith Duerk, author of “Circle of Stones,” describes “the gift of sexual love” as being “the most sacred of the gifts bestowed by the Goddess.”
Far from celebrating the beautiful energy inside me, my brother called me a “whore” when I began wearing makeup at 13 years old. I didn’t understand this gross derogatory term people use for sexually-liberated women or the insecurity behind it. I just knew there must be something wrong with me.
2. They gaslight, causing us to question our reality.
A former sports doctor sexually abused over 260 young gymnasts over several decades. Several women were brave enough to share their stories earlier, only to be questioned and shamed by their families and communities. People accused these women of being attention-seekers and were unwilling to doubt the doctor’s reputation.
Women are not “crazy.” We’re intuitive and insightful. We’re brave enough to be vulnerable and real with our emotions. At an early age, we learn that our feelings are wrong. No wonder we struggle with codependency and self-trust.
This emotional abuse is not okay.
3. They belittle feminine values.
Patriarchal culture preaches the virtue of logic over emotion. Even today, men and masculine values overwhelmingly outnumber women as government officials, high school reading list authors, noble prize winners, and leaders.
We’re not promoted at work for being great team players, acting supportive, or nurturing team morale. They promote us when we boost numbers or hit business goals.
4. They teach us to be silent.
“Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” — 1 Timothy 2:11–12 (the Bible).
I grew up in a religious environment. No wonder I struggled to set boundaries and went on to be sexually abused, then felt guilty about it. After years of leaving the church and months in trauma therapy, I can’t read this verse without my entire body tensing with anger and my teeth gritting.
With or without the glaring religious sexism, women learn to make themselves smaller for fear of criticism. Have you ever been told that women talk too much? Being told to shut up is harsh, dismissive, and destructive. No wonder we struggle with self-worth.
What if someone told you that it’s healthy to have a strong voice and opinion, even when you’re angry?
5. We can’t win at work.
Have you worked in a male-dominated environment? Did you feel like men took the time to understand you and your values? Or did you feel like you were speaking in another language, struggling to earn respect?
On top of struggling to fit into a masculine structure, they treat us like idiots, talking over us or “mansplaining.” Is something wrong with me? I didn’t know, so I worked pushed myself to work harder, afraid of criticism.
Men far outnumber women in leadership roles, yet women score higher in essential leadership skills. And even when we are somehow successful in this environment, we become less likable. No wonder we’re stressed out.
6. They blame women for provoking abuse.
Most men believe that women who wear revealing clothes increase their chances of being harassed or assaulted, according to a 2019 study in the UK. This widespread myth causes women so much trauma. On top of being abused, we feel ashamed, embarrassed, and afraid that we are responsible.
Women who wear sexy clothes are not asking for harassment or assault, and we are not responsible for others’ behaviors.
Women’s wardrobes have long been used as an excuse for sex crimes, however, when you look at the data on why people rape, that doesn’t hold up. These are arguments are for transfering the responsibility of control and power from the perpetrator to the victim. — Sandra Shullman, Ph.D., a psychologist who specializes in harassment.
7. Our bodies are never enough.
They put us into a beauty competition we never asked to join. I grew up knowing that I could never gain weight because of all the judgment I heard. But guess what? I couldn’t be too thin either because they criticized me for that too. I learned to feel anxious about my body and skin, even with a healthy, culturally-pleasing body shape. Women cannot win at this game. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/7-painful-reasons-all-women-should-be-angry-6e06102358ff | ['Allison Crady'] | 2020-12-25 19:51:56.292000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Mental Health', 'Anger', 'Psychology', 'Woman'] | Title 7 Painful Reasons Women AngryContent 1 shame powerful sexuality Women shine glorious sexual being diminish sexuality reduce humanity Judith Duerk author “Circle Stones” describes “the gift sexual love” “the sacred gift bestowed Goddess” Far celebrating beautiful energy inside brother called “whore” began wearing makeup 13 year old didn’t understand gross derogatory term people use sexuallyliberated woman insecurity behind knew must something wrong 2 gaslight causing u question reality former sport doctor sexually abused 260 young gymnast several decade Several woman brave enough share story earlier questioned shamed family community People accused woman attentionseekers unwilling doubt doctor’s reputation Women “crazy” We’re intuitive insightful We’re brave enough vulnerable real emotion early age learn feeling wrong wonder struggle codependency selftrust emotional abuse okay 3 belittle feminine value Patriarchal culture preaches virtue logic emotion Even today men masculine value overwhelmingly outnumber woman government official high school reading list author noble prize winner leader We’re promoted work great team player acting supportive nurturing team morale promote u boost number hit business goal 4 teach u silent “Let woman learn quietly submissiveness permit woman teach exercise authority man rather remain quiet” — 1 Timothy 211–12 Bible grew religious environment wonder struggled set boundary went sexually abused felt guilty year leaving church month trauma therapy can’t read verse without entire body tensing anger teeth gritting without glaring religious sexism woman learn make smaller fear criticism ever told woman talk much told shut harsh dismissive destructive wonder struggle selfworth someone told it’s healthy strong voice opinion even you’re angry 5 can’t win work worked maledominated environment feel like men took time understand value feel like speaking another language struggling earn respect top struggling fit masculine structure treat u like idiot talking u “mansplaining” something wrong didn’t know worked pushed work harder afraid criticism Men far outnumber woman leadership role yet woman score higher essential leadership skill even somehow successful environment become le likable wonder we’re stressed 6 blame woman provoking abuse men believe woman wear revealing clothes increase chance harassed assaulted according 2019 study UK widespread myth cause woman much trauma top abused feel ashamed embarrassed afraid responsible Women wear sexy clothes asking harassment assault responsible others’ behavior Women’s wardrobe long used excuse sex crime however look data people rape doesn’t hold argument transfering responsibility control power perpetrator victim — Sandra Shullman PhD psychologist specializes harassment 7 body never enough put u beauty competition never asked join grew knowing could never gain weight judgment heard guess couldn’t thin either criticized learned feel anxious body skin even healthy culturallypleasing body shape Women cannot win gameTags Culture Mental Health Anger Psychology Woman |
2,169 | Everything Is Marketing is Everything | If you wait long enough, everything seems to evolve into a crab. Biologists call this “carcinisation”. On the internet, sooner or later everything seems to evolve into a marketing platform. In this article, I will show you how that happens, what consequences it has, and what it might mean for you.
Let’s start with some examples.
Facebook is an obvious one — a platform started basically as a clone of Hot-Or-Not, a platform for rating the attractiveness of your school mates — evolving into an easy way to build a personal blog/website, struggling to find its business plan even as it had millions of users. It finally found it: it is now one of the top advertising platforms worldwide, topped only by Google.
Google is, of course, known for its search engine — so much so, that “to google” is now a verb synonymous with online search. But what is their main revenue? It is advertising, plain and simple. Most of it comes directly from the search engine (“Google AdWords”), 10% or so comes from google affiliates that post the ads on their websites, and similar. And an ever-increasing part comes from Google-owned YouTube.
YouTube is a platform to upload and watch videos. For many, it has now become the main entertainment/infotainment channel, replacing traditional TV. How does it make money? By advertising of course. Just like “traditional” TV channels did before it.
So much for the obvious examples. How about this one: it started as an online bookshop, deemed by many to be a crazy idea. Now it sells everything and the kitchen sink (literally) and is arguably putting brick-and-mortar stores out of business. But did you know that Amazon makes a full 10 billion a year from advertising, taking the third place behind Facebook and Google? That, of course, apart from the fact that it serves as a major online marketplace, a logistics provider, an IT infrastructure provider, and more.
It is no surprise that “Yahoo!”, known mainly for its search engine, makes its revenue through advertising — see google — but did you know that Apple — yes, the iPhone manufacturer — has an advertising network and is making 2 billion a year from that?
This phenomenon is not limited to websites: the predominantly Asian mobile chat platforms WeChat and LINE are not only messenger apps like WhatsApp, they are also advertising platforms. And literally everything else: ride and delivery services platforms (like Uber or Grab), online market places, and, of course e-wallets, aka payment services.
By the way of Grab, the South-Asian Uber competitor: of course you can order delivery on Grab now. And Groceries. And book hotels. And coupons. In short, something that started as a ride-share application is now also quickly evolving into a crab, err, a general-purpose advertising platform. Payable, of course, via a built-in e-wallet. (Yes, Libra is coming quite a bit too late into the game. I have my suspicions as to why.)
Why does it happen?
One word: exposure.
Every platform that is used by many people daily has those people’s attention. Take Amazon, and its dozens of competitors (eBay, Lazada, Shopee, …). People go there to buy things — and do so regularly. People search for things there. People rate things there. These are all obvious points to insert advertising and targeting algorithms. After all, Amazon knows everything about your online shopping habits. Who is paying for the ads? Why, Amazon users who sell their products there, because Amazon is also an online marketplace: most products on Amazon are sold by people like you and me, who have to compete with one another in an attempt to gain exposure. Unlike Amazon, that also actually sells its own products, its competitors Ebay, Lazada, Shopee et al, are nothing but online marketplaces.
A lot of those things are true for Facebook — people go there to talk to their relatives and friends, but stay to click on articles about tagged and analyzed topics. It includes a chat application that you use to stay in touch with your friends and relatives — which of course knows the general topics that you are chatting about. Even if it does not understand the exact content of your chats yet, it can easily scan your conversations for keywords, and knows if you need to buy kitty litter once again, and allows some affiliate marketer to hand you a sponsored link. Though by now, it also has groups dedicated to trading things, ie, it, too, has become an online marketplace. Like the aforementioned LINE and WeChat.
Something similar is true for Twitter — you might not reveal some of your more private topics on there — some people do — and probably not going to buy things directly on there, but you reveal enough about your interests that the information is useful for advertisers, who will happily take you off Twitter to some darker corner to present you with their selection of watches.
And while you will probably not reveal quite as much to a ride-share service, you are still looking at that app every single day if you commute to- or from work, so it can sell you stuff. Two more words: captive audience. In fact, the same is true for any well-run, well-visited portal, as long as it actually provides an additional value to the user that he can’t easily get elsewhere. The latter is important:
If a portal serves no purpose but to gather clicks and ad views, it might do so, but it is going to be a lot less successful than pretty much any actual service. If the news site you visit is just going to dump ads on you, you are not going to visit it for very long, especially if there is an equivalent site that doesn’t.
This, coincidentally, also happens if you do offer a useful service — as soon as someone else has better exposure than you do. For example, Uber is close to useless in Thailand, because both Grab and LINE are better known and thus it is far easier to get a ride with one of those.
Wait… LINE? Isn’t that a Chat app? What do they have to do with Uber?… Yes, LINE is the dominant chat application in Thailand — dominant to the point where almost everyone has it, and almost no-one has anything else. They have a merchandise store with enormous teddybears and rabbits in the middle of Bangkok. Thais use it obsessively. You can’t walk very far without someone’s phone screaming “LLLine!” at you. Which means, the app gets incredible amounts of exposure. Which it, in turn, used to slowly grow to include everything — including a market place, an e-wallet that is now officially accepted by the BTS Skytrain system in Bangkok, and — a ride sharing and delivery plug-in that is slowly displacing a number of competing services. Including Uber.
Similar things are happening in other markets as well: for example, you can follow the jostling between Booking.com and AirBnB. You might think that they really cater to different markets — hotels vs. private people — but there are hotels that offer some rooms on AirBnB, and private people offering their one room on both. Both sites have ads for more than just rooms for rent — Booking.com will offer you everything from flights over airport taxi to guided tours and travel insurance, whereas AirBnB will also sell you packaged “experiences” at your destination. Which sometimes are also guided tours. In the end, both are simply niche advertising websites with some extra features and a lot of exposure. What they really charge the host for, is the exposure, because everything else they offer is relatively easy to imitate, and therefore easy to compete with.
Which is why there are firms like Agoda that successfully compete with both.
And why Uber spent almost 4 Billion (!!!) on marketing before its IPO.
What do we learn from this?
Everything online that has exposure has the potential to become a marketing platform, but — unless it is truly a household name, or has a truly unique product that allows it to rely on word of mouth— it needs to put effort into maintaining exposure, and one of ways to do this, is marketing. It seems, marketing is an ouroboros, a snake consuming itself.
Ouroboros (image: Alchemy UK)
What does it mean for a Startup?
Here is where things get unpleasantly fuzzy. Remember that 90% of all new online businesses fail within the first 120 days, and one of the largest reasons for this is lack of exposure — be it lack of marketing, or hundreds of competing products that all vie for people’s eyes. If you don’t make yourself visible, it doesn’t matter how superior your technology, or how good your product is, nobody will find you: there are literally millions of websites and millions of apps to chose from.
But it is good to remember that marketing and exposure are not the same thing, and sometimes don’t translate well into one another — for example, the above-mentioned Uber discovered to their chagrin that 80% of their marketing spending was apparently for nothing. On the flip side, some companies excel at creating exposure without any marketing whatsoever. One of the masters of this is Elon Musk, who maintains presence in the media by creating large amounts of controversy, just like some media stars used to do before him. But you don’t need a million Twitter followers to be able to do this. For example, a little-known German company called Teekampagne — that is the world’s largest importer and one of the largest distributors of Darjeeling tea — was started by a German university professor, who created their original exposure simply by announcing their business plan in a newspaper. The business plan was completely outrageous for its time, and was picked up and torn apart by the press: Imagine that — a mail-order tea store, one that even sells one single brand of tea! — which of course announced the Teekampagne, and their entire one-item catalogue, to the whole of Germany, 80 million people — entirely for free. In contrast, check and see how much you would pay for 80 million views of your online ad.
At the same time, if your company manages to grab eyes, you might limit yourself to selling online ads from different platforms, like millions of entrepreneurs before you — or you might expand your own offering to provide people with what they might also need while they are here. You could rely on Google AdSense, or you might offer your customers the opportunity to advertise to your other customers. To sell something. You, too, could become an Ad-ridden app, a marketing platform — or an online marketplace for goods and services, like WeChat, LINE, or, yes, Grab.
Because in the end, on the internet, everything evolves into a Grab. | https://medium.com/swlh/everything-is-marketing-is-everything-89a71a2d41dd | ['J. Macodiseas'] | 2020-11-15 18:11:05.399000+00:00 | ['Advertising', 'Marketplaces', 'Market', 'Startup', 'Marketing'] | Title Everything Marketing EverythingContent wait long enough everything seems evolve crab Biologists call “carcinisation” internet sooner later everything seems evolve marketing platform article show happens consequence might mean Let’s start example Facebook obvious one — platform started basically clone HotOrNot platform rating attractiveness school mate — evolving easy way build personal blogwebsite struggling find business plan even million user finally found one top advertising platform worldwide topped Google Google course known search engine — much “to google” verb synonymous online search main revenue advertising plain simple come directly search engine “Google AdWords” 10 come google affiliate post ad website similar everincreasing part come Googleowned YouTube YouTube platform upload watch video many become main entertainmentinfotainment channel replacing traditional TV make money advertising course like “traditional” TV channel much obvious example one started online bookshop deemed many crazy idea sell everything kitchen sink literally arguably putting brickandmortar store business know Amazon make full 10 billion year advertising taking third place behind Facebook Google course apart fact serf major online marketplace logistics provider infrastructure provider surprise “Yahoo” known mainly search engine make revenue advertising — see google — know Apple — yes iPhone manufacturer — advertising network making 2 billion year phenomenon limited website predominantly Asian mobile chat platform WeChat LINE messenger apps like WhatsApp also advertising platform literally everything else ride delivery service platform like Uber Grab online market place course ewallets aka payment service way Grab SouthAsian Uber competitor course order delivery Grab Groceries book hotel coupon short something started rideshare application also quickly evolving crab err generalpurpose advertising platform Payable course via builtin ewallet Yes Libra coming quite bit late game suspicion happen One word exposure Every platform used many people daily people’s attention Take Amazon dozen competitor eBay Lazada Shopee … People go buy thing — regularly People search thing People rate thing obvious point insert advertising targeting algorithm Amazon know everything online shopping habit paying ad Amazon user sell product Amazon also online marketplace product Amazon sold people like compete one another attempt gain exposure Unlike Amazon also actually sell product competitor Ebay Lazada Shopee et al nothing online marketplace lot thing true Facebook — people go talk relative friend stay click article tagged analyzed topic includes chat application use stay touch friend relative — course know general topic chatting Even understand exact content chat yet easily scan conversation keywords know need buy kitty litter allows affiliate marketer hand sponsored link Though also group dedicated trading thing ie become online marketplace Like aforementioned LINE WeChat Something similar true Twitter — might reveal private topic — people — probably going buy thing directly reveal enough interest information useful advertiser happily take Twitter darker corner present selection watch probably reveal quite much rideshare service still looking app every single day commute work sell stuff Two word captive audience fact true wellrun wellvisited portal long actually provides additional value user can’t easily get elsewhere latter important portal serf purpose gather click ad view might going lot le successful pretty much actual service news site visit going dump ad going visit long especially equivalent site doesn’t coincidentally also happens offer useful service — soon someone else better exposure example Uber close useless Thailand Grab LINE better known thus far easier get ride one Wait… LINE Isn’t Chat app Uber… Yes LINE dominant chat application Thailand — dominant point almost everyone almost noone anything else merchandise store enormous teddybears rabbit middle Bangkok Thais use obsessively can’t walk far without someone’s phone screaming “LLLine” mean app get incredible amount exposure turn used slowly grow include everything — including market place ewallet officially accepted BTS Skytrain system Bangkok — ride sharing delivery plugin slowly displacing number competing service Including Uber Similar thing happening market well example follow jostling Bookingcom AirBnB might think really cater different market — hotel v private people — hotel offer room AirBnB private people offering one room site ad room rent — Bookingcom offer everything flight airport taxi guided tour travel insurance whereas AirBnB also sell packaged “experiences” destination sometimes also guided tour end simply niche advertising website extra feature lot exposure really charge host exposure everything else offer relatively easy imitate therefore easy compete firm like Agoda successfully compete Uber spent almost 4 Billion marketing IPO learn Everything online exposure potential become marketing platform — unless truly household name truly unique product allows rely word mouth— need put effort maintaining exposure one way marketing seems marketing ouroboros snake consuming Ouroboros image Alchemy UK mean Startup thing get unpleasantly fuzzy Remember 90 new online business fail within first 120 day one largest reason lack exposure — lack marketing hundred competing product vie people’s eye don’t make visible doesn’t matter superior technology good product nobody find literally million website million apps chose good remember marketing exposure thing sometimes don’t translate well one another — example abovementioned Uber discovered chagrin 80 marketing spending apparently nothing flip side company excel creating exposure without marketing whatsoever One master Elon Musk maintains presence medium creating large amount controversy like medium star used don’t need million Twitter follower able example littleknown German company called Teekampagne — world’s largest importer one largest distributor Darjeeling tea — started German university professor created original exposure simply announcing business plan newspaper business plan completely outrageous time picked torn apart press Imagine — mailorder tea store one even sell one single brand tea — course announced Teekampagne entire oneitem catalogue whole Germany 80 million people — entirely free contrast check see much would pay 80 million view online ad time company manages grab eye might limit selling online ad different platform like million entrepreneur — might expand offering provide people might also need could rely Google AdSense might offer customer opportunity advertise customer sell something could become Adridden app marketing platform — online marketplace good service like WeChat LINE yes Grab end internet everything evolves GrabTags Advertising Marketplaces Market Startup Marketing |
2,170 | How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Writing | I’ve always loved writing, but I’ve been afraid of writing, too.
Because I love it. Because it’s important to me. Because it’s a core expression of who I am, so I don’t want to mess it up.
Most of my life, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with writing.
Actually, more of a love-fear, dread, avoid, obsess over relationship. In other words, not a healthy one.
And I know exactly why.
Our Unhealthy Beginnings
My relationship with Writing was sporadic, strained, and codependent. I was like a fangirl trying to date a superstar.
We’d go out, me and Writing. I’d be nervous and tongue-tied, awkward and unsure, and totally not myself. After the date, I’d feel miserable and stupid; I’d go over every single thing I did and said wrong. I relived each error, each embarrassment. And I’d swear that Writing was not for me. I’d avoid the phone calls. I wouldn’t answer the texts.
Then, after a few weeks, the memory would fade. I’d get the flutters and jitters and all those infatuated feelings. I’d agree to another date, certain it would go better this time.
And, of course, it would be the same story.
I was infatuated with Writing and thought I was in love. But I was also anxious, star-struck, and uncomfortable.
Of course, I couldn’t relax and be myself and have a good time with Writing. I was way too nervous.
When Things Changed
Things changed for me and Writing when I decided I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to break up, once and for all, but the idea broke my heart. So, instead, I decided to commit to something more serious. More regular.
We started seeing each other every week.
Then it was every day.
At first, I was as uncomfortable and awkward as ever. I felt like every date was a complete waste of time. I was always sure Writing wouldn’t call back.
Slowly, though, something changed. I changed.
Sheer repetition creates familiarity, and guess what familiarity does? It takes away the discomfort.
The more I hung out with Writing, the less nervous and unsure I became. The more I realized that Writing wasn’t some god, some unreachable pinnacle, some flawless wonderland. Writing was sometimes complex, challenging, and intimidating, but, just as often, simple, open, and fun.
Finding Mutual Love
The more I got to know Writing, the less intimidated I was. And I began to see another side to our relationship: as much as I wanted things to work out with Writing, Writing wanted the same.
I needed Writing; Writing also needed me.
We’re in a good place now, me and Writing. We have a committed relationship. We have our bad days, sure. Sometimes Writing frustrates the crap out of me, and I’m sure I do the same. We have conflicts, but we work them out.
I’ve learned that a healthy relationship doesn’t mean you always feel good, but it does mean you don’t feel scared.
Sometimes I’m not feeling it, so we take a break. But we never take a break for very long. Spending time together and communicating regularly is what makes our relationship work.
We’re a Work In Progress
Whenever we drift apart, I start feeling like I don’t know Writing anymore. Then I start feeling nervous and unsure about our relationship again.
It’s taken me a long time to realize that those fears don’t come from Writing; they come from me. And that’s okay, too.
It’s like any worthwhile thing; you have to work at it. But the more you work at it, the better it gets. The work turns into play. You move from frustration to flow. And one day you look up and realize you’ve got a good thing going. | https://anniemueller.medium.com/how-to-have-a-healthy-relationship-with-writing-55ec104bbc05 | ['Annie Mueller'] | 2020-03-05 15:17:31.229000+00:00 | ['Writers On Writing', 'Writing', 'Psychology', 'Writing Tips', 'Writing Life'] | Title Healthy Relationship WritingContent I’ve always loved writing I’ve afraid writing love it’s important it’s core expression don’t want mess life I’ve lovehate relationship writing Actually lovefear dread avoid ob relationship word healthy one know exactly Unhealthy Beginnings relationship Writing sporadic strained codependent like fangirl trying date superstar We’d go Writing I’d nervous tonguetied awkward unsure totally date I’d feel miserable stupid I’d go every single thing said wrong relived error embarrassment I’d swear Writing I’d avoid phone call wouldn’t answer text week memory would fade I’d get flutter jitter infatuated feeling I’d agree another date certain would go better time course would story infatuated Writing thought love also anxious starstruck uncomfortable course couldn’t relax good time Writing way nervous Things Changed Things changed Writing decided couldn’t take anymore wanted break idea broke heart instead decided commit something serious regular started seeing every week every day first uncomfortable awkward ever felt like every date complete waste time always sure Writing wouldn’t call back Slowly though something changed changed Sheer repetition creates familiarity guess familiarity take away discomfort hung Writing le nervous unsure became realized Writing wasn’t god unreachable pinnacle flawless wonderland Writing sometimes complex challenging intimidating often simple open fun Finding Mutual Love got know Writing le intimidated began see another side relationship much wanted thing work Writing Writing wanted needed Writing Writing also needed We’re good place Writing committed relationship bad day sure Sometimes Writing frustrates crap I’m sure conflict work I’ve learned healthy relationship doesn’t mean always feel good mean don’t feel scared Sometimes I’m feeling take break never take break long Spending time together communicating regularly make relationship work We’re Work Progress Whenever drift apart start feeling like don’t know Writing anymore start feeling nervous unsure relationship It’s taken long time realize fear don’t come Writing come that’s okay It’s like worthwhile thing work work better get work turn play move frustration flow one day look realize you’ve got good thing goingTags Writers Writing Writing Psychology Writing Tips Writing Life |
2,171 | C# Design Patterns — Singleton. Providing one instance for the whole… | C# Design Patterns
C# Design Patterns — Singleton
Providing one instance for the whole application
Photo by Hitesh Choudhary on Unsplash
Design patterns are common coding practices defined to solve common software development problems.
The Singleton pattern was developed to provide a common way of providing a single instance of an object throughout the whole application lifetime. So, as long as the application is not restarted, this instance must be the same regardless of how many times you instantiate it.
Usage and Drawbacks
Examples
Some examples of singletons are objects that need to share resources between classes or threads, like:
Global state management
Logging service
.NET Core AppSettings
And others…
Drawbacks
Sometimes, with poor implementation, the Singleton pattern can actually become an anti-pattern , the reasons are:
It is really difficult to test if you are not using Dependency Injection , because it is statically created, so you can’t manually control it, as a result, you can’t mock it.
, because it is statically created, so you can’t manually control it, as a result, you can’t mock it. It can lead to memory leaks if dependencies are not properly disposed after usage
Let’s build it
Let’s imagine that we have a service interface IGreetingService.cs :
Now it was required that this service should not change throughout the whole application.
The classic approach
There are many ways to implement the Singleton pattern in C#.
Here I’ll show you three approaches and which one I would use.
Double-Checked Locking
I didn’t consider showing this approach without thread lock because it is very unsafe to use in multithreaded applications that way.
Here we have
Two private variables: a static variable that is the service instance, a read-only object that is going to work as the thread lock.
instance, a read-only object that is going to work as the thread lock. A private constructor to prevent a new service from being manually instantiated.
constructor to prevent a new service from being manually instantiated. A public and static property that is how we can access our singleton instance.
You can note that we have two null checks. The inner check is to prevent the instance from being recreated and the outer null check is for preventing lock every time we need to access the instance, thus increasing performance.
Also, we have the lock for preventing this code from being run by more than one thread at the same time, making it thread-safe .
Now if you execute it like this:
IGreetingService service = DoubleCheckedLockingGreetingService.Instance;
IGreetingService service_2 = DoubleCheckedLockingGreetingService.Instance; service.Greet("Singleton");
service_2.Greet("Singleton");
You will get the same output for both methods.
Lazy<T>
A second approach is letting the instance be created for the first time it is requested.
.NET has the Lazy<T> class, which provides a lazy initialization of objects for us.
Now if you execute it like this:
IGreetingService service = LazyObjectGreetingService.Instance;
IGreetingService service_2 = LazyObjectGreetingService.Instance; service.Greet("Singleton");
service_2.Greet("Singleton");
You will get the same output for both methods.
Object Eager Initialization
In C# there’s an option of assigning the instance for the static variable, making it possible for the object to be initialized when it is first needed.
We can go even further and not use a private variable anymore and use Auto-Property , which assigns a value for the property if it doesn’t have a value yet.
Note the static constructor. This is needed so the C# compiler will not mark the type as beforefieldinit . This will guarantee the class laziness.
Now if you execute it like this:
IGreetingService service = SimpleGreetingService.Instance;
IGreetingService service_2 = SimpleGreetingService.Instance; service.Greet("Singleton");
service_2.Greet("Singleton");
You will get the same output for both methods.
Modern .NET Dependency Injection
Modern .NET/.NET Core applications already come with a built-in dependency injection mechanism that automatically injects services with the respective life-cycle they need.
Transient — Injects a new instance every time it is created and lives as long as the parent
Scoped — Injected once per request and lives as long as the request lives
Singleton — Injected once per application and lives as long as the application lives
So, in a .NET Core WebAPI, for example, you only need to register the IGreetingService with the GreetingService as a Singleton in the ConfigureServices method in your Startup.cs file. Like:
services.AddSingleton<IGreetingService,GreetingService>();
And for the implementation of this service we have:
Note that we don’t need an Instance accessor property to access our singleton. This happens because we delegate the job of assigning this instance to the framework, so all you need to do is inject the IGreetingService where you need it and .NET will provide you the only instance it created. For example:
public MyClass (IGreetingService service)
{
// Do something or assign to a class member
}
Conclusion
You could see how easy is to implement the Singleton pattern from scratch with C#. Even though it is a pattern and has its applicabilities, it needs to be used with care because it can lead to many system issues like memory leaks. Also, due to many drawbacks, it is often recommended to not use the Singleton pattern because it can become an anti-pattern.
Thankfully, with the .NET dependency injection mechanism, many drawbacks can be avoided, like the difficulty of implementing unit tests.
I uploaded the code for the normal implementation in this repository. | https://medium.com/swlh/c-design-patterns-singleton-36d746bd7b6e | ['Andre Lopes'] | 2020-08-05 16:32:18.660000+00:00 | ['Singleton', 'Dotnet Core', 'Dotnet', 'Csharp', 'Design Patterns'] | Title C Design Patterns — Singleton Providing one instance whole…Content C Design Patterns C Design Patterns — Singleton Providing one instance whole application Photo Hitesh Choudhary Unsplash Design pattern common coding practice defined solve common software development problem Singleton pattern developed provide common way providing single instance object throughout whole application lifetime long application restarted instance must regardless many time instantiate Usage Drawbacks Examples example singleton object need share resource class thread like Global state management Logging service NET Core AppSettings others… Drawbacks Sometimes poor implementation Singleton pattern actually become antipattern reason really difficult test using Dependency Injection statically created can’t manually control result can’t mock statically created can’t manually control result can’t mock lead memory leak dependency properly disposed usage Let’s build Let’s imagine service interface IGreetingServicecs required service change throughout whole application classic approach many way implement Singleton pattern C I’ll show three approach one would use DoubleChecked Locking didn’t consider showing approach without thread lock unsafe use multithreaded application way Two private variable static variable service instance readonly object going work thread lock instance readonly object going work thread lock private constructor prevent new service manually instantiated constructor prevent new service manually instantiated public static property access singleton instance note two null check inner check prevent instance recreated outer null check preventing lock every time need access instance thus increasing performance Also lock preventing code run one thread time making threadsafe execute like IGreetingService service DoubleCheckedLockingGreetingServiceInstance IGreetingService service2 DoubleCheckedLockingGreetingServiceInstance serviceGreetSingleton service2GreetSingleton get output method LazyT second approach letting instance created first time requested NET LazyT class provides lazy initialization object u execute like IGreetingService service LazyObjectGreetingServiceInstance IGreetingService service2 LazyObjectGreetingServiceInstance serviceGreetSingleton service2GreetSingleton get output method Object Eager Initialization C there’s option assigning instance static variable making possible object initialized first needed go even use private variable anymore use AutoProperty assigns value property doesn’t value yet Note static constructor needed C compiler mark type beforefieldinit guarantee class laziness execute like IGreetingService service SimpleGreetingServiceInstance IGreetingService service2 SimpleGreetingServiceInstance serviceGreetSingleton service2GreetSingleton get output method Modern NET Dependency Injection Modern NETNET Core application already come builtin dependency injection mechanism automatically injects service respective lifecycle need Transient — Injects new instance every time created life long parent Scoped — Injected per request life long request life Singleton — Injected per application life long application life NET Core WebAPI example need register IGreetingService GreetingService Singleton ConfigureServices method Startupcs file Like servicesAddSingletonIGreetingServiceGreetingService implementation service Note don’t need Instance accessor property access singleton happens delegate job assigning instance framework need inject IGreetingService need NET provide instance created example public MyClass IGreetingService service something assign class member Conclusion could see easy implement Singleton pattern scratch C Even though pattern applicability need used care lead many system issue like memory leak Also due many drawback often recommended use Singleton pattern become antipattern Thankfully NET dependency injection mechanism many drawback avoided like difficulty implementing unit test uploaded code normal implementation repositoryTags Singleton Dotnet Core Dotnet Csharp Design Patterns |
2,172 | How To Use Analytics To Identify The Business Value of Your Website | How To Use Analytics To Identify The Business Value of Your Website
3 simple steps to setup and track business objectives on your website
You just finished designing the new website for your business.
You loved everything about it — the layout, the information, the type… It’s perfect.
However, while admiring the new design, you can’t help but think:
“I love this website, but how do I know if my customer and audiences love it as much as I do? Also, how do I know if this website is truly useful for my company? How do I know if it will really increase my revenue and traction after its launch?”
These are the questions you can answer with web analytics.
Today, we are going to lead you through a simple, 3-step exercise to setup the most basic analytics for your website, so that you can:
Understand the true business objectives of your website. Access key metrics to demonstrate the effectiveness of your new website. Measure whether the new website helped you achieve your business objectives.
Step 1 — Define the business objectives of your website
Your website is like “functional art.” It must serve a purpose for your business, whether that’s creating sales, generating leads, or getting traction for your brand.
Your mission in this step, should you choose to accept it, is to identify one or two concrete business objectives for your website.
If you are an ecommerce company, this objective is most likely increasing the number of customers who complete checkout. For a B2B company, it may be submitting a lead form. For a SaaS company, it’s probably signing up for free trial, etc.
When selecting these objectives, there are two important points that deserve your attention.
First of all, you should only select one or two objectives.
One of the biggest analytics problems for business owners is having too many objectives for their website. That’s why two business objectives should be the maximum.
Having too many objectives is bad for two primary reasons.
First of all, it creates a crammed website.
It is very hard to put enough information on your website that serves all of your objectives artfully without confusing your users. That’s why it is always better to be a specialist in one or two objectives than to be a master of none.
Secondly, too many objectives makes generating insights from analytics extremely difficult.
Very often, you will take action steps that make progress on one objective while setting you back in another, and too many objectives will make these trade-off calculations immensely complex.
As an added benefit, the exercise of condensing many goals to only two key objectives can also help you prioritize and truly understand what is important for your business. This makes executing your digital strategy much easier and more efficient.
Let’s go back to your mission for this step.
In addition to having a maximum of two goals, the second principle for setting goals is that they should also be “concrete”.
By concrete, I specifically mean that you should choose a goal that you can envision clearly and measure with ease.
For example, one of your objectives may be “gaining traction.” But what does that really mean?
In the context of your website, gaining traction could mean many things ranging from viewing your ads to signing up for a newsletter on your website.
Therefore, you should narrow down that goal by asking yourself what you mean by “gaining traction.” Then, define a clear action that your users can take that you will count as a goal completion.
This will help you not only avoid goals that do not have any concrete meaning, but also make setting up goals in your analytics tools (e.g. Google Analytics) easier down the line (see Step 2).
Here is an article we wrote if you want to learn more about how to choose the right business objectives for your website.
Step 2 — Setup Google Analytics (or Other Tools) to Access Key Metrics
Now that you have your business objectives defined, it’s time to set up the tools to actually measure how well you are doing on these business objectives.
There are multiple tools on the market that can help you analyze various aspects of your website traffic. These include your traffic statistics (Google Analytics), your search engine performance (Moz), and where people tend to click on your website (Hotjar).
A good overview of all those tools are displayed in the graphic below (credit to analytics legend Avinash Kaushik).
Out of all these options, I would always recommend starting your analytics journey with a web traffic (or clickstream) analytics tool such as Google Analytics. This is because 1) they are usually free or very cheap, and 2) it can give you a general idea of how other services fit into the big picture for your analytics (and what services you should use next).
Google Analytics is our go-to clickstream analytics tool not only because it is one of the most popular free tools out there with robust functionality, but also because it integrates very well with common analytics and advertising platforms such as Google Optimize and Google Adwords.
We have written a whole article about how to setup Google Analytics, so I won’t go in depth here, but it is a very easy and painless experience that can be done in as little as 10 minutes.
Just by setting up Google Analytics, you will already have access to a lot of information about your website including:
Who your users are, and how many there are What sources they are coming from How they are interacting with your website Which pages are performing best, and more
For a more detailed overview of all business questions that can be answered by Google Analytics please reference our 4 Business Questions framework below.
However, while all of this information is already very helpful to measure the functional success of your website, we can go a step further. The next step is to understand whether your website is meeting the specific business objectives you chose in Step 1.
Step 3 — Configure Conversion Goals To Measure The Effectiveness Of Your Website
No matter how well-designed your website is, no matter how much traffic you get, if no one “converts” (i.e. completes the business objectives of your website), your website is not useful for your business.
Therefore, if you were only to measure one metric about your website, you should measure “conversions.” Conversions define how well your website meets your business objectives defined in Step 1.
Luckily, Google Analytics offers a very easy way to track conversions on your website through its “Goals” feature, and you only need to go through two simple actions to set it up.
Firstly, you need to “operationalize” your business objective by defining a concrete user action that signifies the completion of that objective.
For example, for the business objective of “completing ecommerce purchase”, a very common way to track this objective is tracking how many users visit the thank you page after checkout, since it is only accessible after a successful checkout by a user.
Therefore, if you were only to measure one metric about your website, you should measure “conversions.”
After you have identified that specific action, all you need to do is setup a Google Analytics Goal to track that specific action as a “goal completion.”
You can find a tutorial on how to accomplish that in Google Analytics below. In short, you need to go to the “Goals” section of your Google Analytics Admin and simply create a goal that corresponds to that user action you chose.
With that, you are ready to track your business objectives!
Final Thoughts
With all the action steps explained in this article, you should have a simple but robust analytics system configured on your website to track how effective it is in adding value to your business.
In fact, in each of these three steps, you may have already found actions you can take to further improve the experiences of your website users. Now it is just a matter of implementing these action steps with a systematic plan.
As you are taking these actions, it is essential to keep track of relevant metrics on a weekly basis to make sure your actions are actually creating meaningful improvements for your website.
And with these incremental improvements, you will eventually create a website that is an engine of growth for your business.
At Humanlytics, we create tools that automate the processes explained in this article to make actionable analytics accessible in only a couple of clicks.
We are looking for beta testers to test our newest “conversion goal setting” tool that will automatically setup your Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel goals without complicated configurations and monitoring. | https://medium.com/analytics-for-humans/how-to-use-analytics-to-identify-the-business-value-of-your-website-c13f9c9675c7 | ['Bill Su'] | 2018-06-08 19:54:43.929000+00:00 | ['Critical Thinking', 'Google Analytics', 'Digital Marketing', 'Startup', 'Marketing'] | Title Use Analytics Identify Business Value WebsiteContent Use Analytics Identify Business Value Website 3 simple step setup track business objective website finished designing new website business loved everything — layout information type… It’s perfect However admiring new design can’t help think “I love website know customer audience love much Also know website truly useful company know really increase revenue traction launch” question answer web analytics Today going lead simple 3step exercise setup basic analytics website Understand true business objective website Access key metric demonstrate effectiveness new website Measure whether new website helped achieve business objective Step 1 — Define business objective website website like “functional art” must serve purpose business whether that’s creating sale generating lead getting traction brand mission step choose accept identify one two concrete business objective website ecommerce company objective likely increasing number customer complete checkout B2B company may submitting lead form SaaS company it’s probably signing free trial etc selecting objective two important point deserve attention First select one two objective One biggest analytics problem business owner many objective website That’s two business objective maximum many objective bad two primary reason First creates crammed website hard put enough information website serf objective artfully without confusing user That’s always better specialist one two objective master none Secondly many objective make generating insight analytics extremely difficult often take action step make progress one objective setting back another many objective make tradeoff calculation immensely complex added benefit exercise condensing many goal two key objective also help prioritize truly understand important business make executing digital strategy much easier efficient Let’s go back mission step addition maximum two goal second principle setting goal also “concrete” concrete specifically mean choose goal envision clearly measure ease example one objective may “gaining traction” really mean context website gaining traction could mean many thing ranging viewing ad signing newsletter website Therefore narrow goal asking mean “gaining traction” define clear action user take count goal completion help avoid goal concrete meaning also make setting goal analytics tool eg Google Analytics easier line see Step 2 article wrote want learn choose right business objective website Step 2 — Setup Google Analytics Tools Access Key Metrics business objective defined it’s time set tool actually measure well business objective multiple tool market help analyze various aspect website traffic include traffic statistic Google Analytics search engine performance Moz people tend click website Hotjar good overview tool displayed graphic credit analytics legend Avinash Kaushik option would always recommend starting analytics journey web traffic clickstream analytics tool Google Analytics 1 usually free cheap 2 give general idea service fit big picture analytics service use next Google Analytics goto clickstream analytics tool one popular free tool robust functionality also integrates well common analytics advertising platform Google Optimize Google Adwords written whole article setup Google Analytics won’t go depth easy painless experience done little 10 minute setting Google Analytics already access lot information website including user many source coming interacting website page performing best detailed overview business question answered Google Analytics please reference 4 Business Questions framework However information already helpful measure functional success website go step next step understand whether website meeting specific business objective chose Step 1 Step 3 — Configure Conversion Goals Measure Effectiveness Website matter welldesigned website matter much traffic get one “converts” ie completes business objective website website useful business Therefore measure one metric website measure “conversions” Conversions define well website meet business objective defined Step 1 Luckily Google Analytics offer easy way track conversion website “Goals” feature need go two simple action set Firstly need “operationalize” business objective defining concrete user action signifies completion objective example business objective “completing ecommerce purchase” common way track objective tracking many user visit thank page checkout since accessible successful checkout user Therefore measure one metric website measure “conversions” identified specific action need setup Google Analytics Goal track specific action “goal completion” find tutorial accomplish Google Analytics short need go “Goals” section Google Analytics Admin simply create goal corresponds user action chose ready track business objective Final Thoughts action step explained article simple robust analytics system configured website track effective adding value business fact three step may already found action take improve experience website user matter implementing action step systematic plan taking action essential keep track relevant metric weekly basis make sure action actually creating meaningful improvement website incremental improvement eventually create website engine growth business Humanlytics create tool automate process explained article make actionable analytics accessible couple click looking beta tester test newest “conversion goal setting” tool automatically setup Google Analytics Facebook Pixel goal without complicated configuration monitoringTags Critical Thinking Google Analytics Digital Marketing Startup Marketing |
2,173 | Your Emotions Are Not Your Own | Whenever you are visited by an emotion, the emotion comes to you as a teacher and a guide. The emotion is guiding you to a part of yourself that needs attention and love. Not “healing” or “fixing” or “getting rid of.” Just attention and love.
These emotional guides often show up in the form of your child self, pulling on your sleeve until you look at them. And when you look at them, when you finally give them the attention they need, the attention you need, they will only ask one question,
“Am I okay?”
You see, this is the only question children are ever really asking. This is the only question your heart has ever really asked.
“Am I okay, Mommy?”
“Is it okay to be feeling the way I feel right now, Daddy?”
Perhaps you had parents that reflected your okay-ness back at you, or perhaps you had parents that implied or explicitly said, “No, you are not okay. It is not okay to feel that way,” or perhaps you had parents that left you with only a resounding silence.
Either way, it is your job to learn how to be your own parent, now. It is your job to turn toward every emotional archetype that pays you a visit and say,
“Yes, love. You are okay. It is okay that you are here right now. Stay as long as you’d like.”
When an emotion pays you a visit, it is an indication that there is a part of you in need of loving attention, nothing more. It does not mean you are faulty or you are going backwards, it means you are being led deeper.
“Deeper into what?” you ask?
Yourself, love.
Yourself.
It’s only all you’ve ever been looking for. | https://medium.com/just-jordin/your-emotions-are-not-your-own-258bf8b90e97 | ['Jordin James'] | 2019-09-11 15:41:42.879000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Life', 'Mental Health', 'Psychology', 'Life Lessons'] | Title Emotions OwnContent Whenever visited emotion emotion come teacher guide emotion guiding part need attention love “healing” “fixing” “getting rid of” attention love emotional guide often show form child self pulling sleeve look look finally give attention need attention need ask one question “Am okay” see question child ever really asking question heart ever really asked “Am okay Mommy” “Is okay feeling way feel right Daddy” Perhaps parent reflected okayness back perhaps parent implied explicitly said “No okay okay feel way” perhaps parent left resounding silence Either way job learn parent job turn toward every emotional archetype pay visit say “Yes love okay okay right Stay long you’d like” emotion pay visit indication part need loving attention nothing mean faulty going backwards mean led deeper “Deeper what” ask love It’s you’ve ever looking forTags Spirituality Life Mental Health Psychology Life Lessons |
2,174 | You’re Not Writing Enough… And That’s Okay Right Now | It’s Day… Whatever of Lockdown. Everywhere around me people are reaching outside of their comfort zones, trying to adjust to the New Normal. Going above and beyond to try and stay healthy and connected during this confusing time. Probably using features and apps in ways you hadn’t ever planned on. (I, for one, never expected to receive a Zoom invite from my dad.)
What I’ve found to help me is to stick to some kind of loose morning routine. To have a sleep schedule. I’ve been trying to move throughout the day and get some sunlight if I can. But because of social distancing, there’s a lot more literal and figurative space in my life. Most likely, in all of our lives.Which — as a people-loving, introverted writer — is both a boon and a burden for me.
I don’t think I have to explain the burden. But the boon? Suddenly, I’m ordered to stay home. Automatically ridding my life of a whole lotta distraction. Which makes me excited. Because maybe I can finally sit down, organize all of the projects I want to work on and then start working on them.
Because, whether you’re conscious of it or not, we’re wired to believe that any amount of “free” time is — and should be — opportunity to “be productive.” And in a capitalist society like ours (don’t worry; I’m not going to launch into a civics lesson), we’re conditioned for “not enough.” So this pressure to constantly be getting more done. Which can be exhausting.
Brené Brown describes this in her book Daring Greatly:
[F]or many of us, our first waking thought of the day is “I didn’t get enough sleep.” The next one is “I don’t have enough time.” …Before we even sit up in bed… we’re already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds are racing with a litany of what we didn’t get, or didn’t get done, that day.
Sound familiar? Have you been plagued with a niggling sense of guilt recently, ever since social distancing? That you could be — and should be — doing more?
There’s no excuse, right? Many of us have been “gifted” with this extra space and time. We should be the most productive we’ve ever been! We should be writing multiple stories a day! We should clean the entire house! We should be crafting and cooking and figuring out what else we can broadcast ourselves doing!
Well… not exactly. See, the thing is, there is an excuse. There are several excuses. Why? Because we’re living through a pandemic, people. An experience that obviously threatens people’s physical wellbeing but also their emotional, mental, and psychological health.
And as someone who has lived with mental illness for the past 11 years, I’m well aware that all of the invisible hardships we’re being put through are most certainly taking their toll. It takes energy to process what the world is going through. It takes effort to change your life for the good of the community.
It’s all work.
While we’re all probably feeling some sort of pressure to be productive during this time, it seems that writers might be feeling it more acutely. Because it seems whenever a writer has any time on their hands, they’re expected to write. If they’re truly “serious” about being a writer. We could be working to put a new story out there. Update our blog. Work on our ever-looming book.
We put this special pressure on ourselves that if we have time and aren’t writing, then that’s time wasted. It comes from capitalism, sure, but also from one of the truest (and most annoying ) pieces of advice ever:
Wanna be a better writer? Fucking write, already!
Again, it’s true! As it’s true of most forms of art or skill. But for whatever reason, writers are plagued more by this truism than others. Maybe it’s because no matter where we are, we should be able to write. Notebook, phone, computer — it’s all portable. We really have no excuse. It’s not like we need special clothing or equipment. Get inspired on the beach? Start writing in the sand! Get inspired while locked in an empty room? Start writing on the walls in blood!
And maybe some of you out there have been able to use this time in a way that supports your writing. Maybe you’ve been able to attend online writing classes or have been able to practice your craft.
But if your writing productivity hasn’t exploded, that is okay! If you haven’t been able to write at all, that also is okay.
Did you hear me? It’s okay if you haven’t been writing more. The most important thing is keeping yourself, those around you, and your community healthy. To help prevent the spread of Covid-19. Writing can wait. It’ll be there whenever you’re ready. | https://medium.com/swlh/youre-not-writing-enough-and-that-s-okay-right-now-dcc51c62a13a | ['Rachel Drane'] | 2020-03-26 17:45:56.363000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Writing', 'Inspiration', 'Mental Health', 'Covid 19'] | Title You’re Writing Enough… That’s Okay Right NowContent It’s Day… Whatever Lockdown Everywhere around people reaching outside comfort zone trying adjust New Normal Going beyond try stay healthy connected confusing time Probably using feature apps way hadn’t ever planned one never expected receive Zoom invite dad I’ve found help stick kind loose morning routine sleep schedule I’ve trying move throughout day get sunlight social distancing there’s lot literal figurative space life likely livesWhich — peopleloving introverted writer — boon burden don’t think explain burden boon Suddenly I’m ordered stay home Automatically ridding life whole lotta distraction make excited maybe finally sit organize project want work start working whether you’re conscious we’re wired believe amount “free” time — — opportunity “be productive” capitalist society like don’t worry I’m going launch civics lesson we’re conditioned “not enough” pressure constantly getting done exhausting Brené Brown describes book Daring Greatly many u first waking thought day “I didn’t get enough sleep” next one “I don’t enough time” …Before even sit bed… we’re already inadequate already behind already losing already lacking something time go bed night mind racing litany didn’t get didn’t get done day Sound familiar plagued niggling sense guilt recently ever since social distancing could — — There’s excuse right Many u “gifted” extra space time productive we’ve ever writing multiple story day clean entire house crafting cooking figuring else broadcast Well… exactly See thing excuse several excuse we’re living pandemic people experience obviously threatens people’s physical wellbeing also emotional mental psychological health someone lived mental illness past 11 year I’m well aware invisible hardship we’re put certainly taking toll take energy process world going take effort change life good community It’s work we’re probably feeling sort pressure productive time seems writer might feeling acutely seems whenever writer time hand they’re expected write they’re truly “serious” writer could working put new story Update blog Work everlooming book put special pressure time aren’t writing that’s time wasted come capitalism sure also one truest annoying piece advice ever Wanna better writer Fucking write already it’s true it’s true form art skill whatever reason writer plagued truism others Maybe it’s matter able write Notebook phone computer — it’s portable really excuse It’s like need special clothing equipment Get inspired beach Start writing sand Get inspired locked empty room Start writing wall blood maybe able use time way support writing Maybe you’ve able attend online writing class able practice craft writing productivity hasn’t exploded okay haven’t able write also okay hear It’s okay haven’t writing important thing keeping around community healthy help prevent spread Covid19 Writing wait It’ll whenever you’re readyTags Life Writing Inspiration Mental Health Covid 19 |
2,175 | How to Find Your Voice as a Writer | Photo by Gian Cescon on Unsplash
How to Find Your Voice as a Writer
And say what you have to say.
I’ve been writing for a living for close to 2 years now. While it often feels like living the dream, it sometimes feels like I’ve completely drained myself and have nothing more to give.
You’ve probably heard that writers are supposed to do just that, bleed on the page. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing.
And in the process of bleeding myself dry, I’ve also discovered something quite wonderful: I’ve found my voice.
I’ve honed in my writing style, and what I have to say, the message I’d like to be known for. I’s been a painful, joyful, wonderful process.
This is how you can find your writing voice, too:
Set your voice free, and forgive it for what it has to say
Sometimes I look back at my writing and realize my voice has perhaps said things out loud I shouldn’t have let it.
That’s too much detail, I think. Too much information that matters the world to me and absolutely nothing to everyone else.
Thoughts flow through my head:
This is too personal. Who cares? It adds nothing to the story. It sounds bitter.
These thoughts set me against my own voice, the spontaneous version of it, the version I have let unbounded, free to tell the stories it feels it needs to tell.
In the process of finding my voice, I had to learn to set itself free, and forgive it for what it has to say. It’s when I let my voice speak freely that I come up with my most authentic work, and when I try to curb or polish what it has to say that I come up with my most uninspired writing.
The more personal, the more readers relate
The more you set your voice free, the more personal your stories will get.
It’s scary at first, to be this vulnerable in front of so many people, but once you do it, you quickly discover the more vulnerable you are, the more readers relate.
There’s no better feeling than receiving feedback on your writing along the lines of “I could see myself in your story. Thank you for telling it.”
Your story and your voice complement each other
What does that even mean?
It means my story so far builds my voice, and my voice shapes the story I’m telling from now on.
I understand my voice as a writer is still developing itself, and that it will undoubtedly change — heck, I’m looking forward to seeing it evolve — but now my voice feeds of my story, it draws from my struggles, and I couldn’t appreciate that more.
My voice will never cease to develop and change.
At least I hope not.
I hope I never cease to grow and develop as a person. I have embraced change as a positive aspect of life a long time ago, and I look forward to seeing it manifest and carry me on. I’d rather keep going than stand still, paralyzed by fear.
My voice isn’t perfect — and I’m sure it will never be. I feel I have as much to learn from it as it has from me.
My voice isn’t exactly me, it’s both part of me and an independent manifestation of my mind that often acts despite myself.
We complement each other, my voice and me. That’s why I have to forgive it for sometimes speaking of things that might not be entirely appropriate, for lacking in style, for not always knowing what to say — and that’s why you have to forgive your voice for saying what it has to say.
Censoring yourself is not how you discover what kind of writer you are. Only by letting your voice say what it feels important to say can you grow in this field.
It takes opening your metaphorical veins and letting them bleed freely on the page. | https://medium.com/sunday-morning-talks/how-to-find-your-voice-as-a-writer-20c1d1b9cb46 | ['Tesia Blake'] | 2020-08-25 16:50:14.597000+00:00 | ['Writing Tips', 'Self', 'Productivity', 'Life Lessons', 'Writing'] | Title Find Voice WriterContent Photo Gian Cescon Unsplash Find Voice Writer say say I’ve writing living close 2 year often feel like living dream sometimes feel like I’ve completely drained nothing give You’ve probably heard writer supposed bleed page That’s exactly I’ve process bleeding dry I’ve also discovered something quite wonderful I’ve found voice I’ve honed writing style say message I’d like known I’s painful joyful wonderful process find writing voice Set voice free forgive say Sometimes look back writing realize voice perhaps said thing loud shouldn’t let That’s much detail think much information matter world absolutely nothing everyone else Thoughts flow head personal care add nothing story sound bitter thought set voice spontaneous version version let unbounded free tell story feel need tell process finding voice learn set free forgive say It’s let voice speak freely come authentic work try curb polish say come uninspired writing personal reader relate set voice free personal story get It’s scary first vulnerable front many people quickly discover vulnerable reader relate There’s better feeling receiving feedback writing along line “I could see story Thank telling it” story voice complement even mean mean story far build voice voice shape story I’m telling understand voice writer still developing undoubtedly change — heck I’m looking forward seeing evolve — voice feed story draw struggle couldn’t appreciate voice never cease develop change least hope hope never cease grow develop person embraced change positive aspect life long time ago look forward seeing manifest carry I’d rather keep going stand still paralyzed fear voice isn’t perfect — I’m sure never feel much learn voice isn’t exactly it’s part independent manifestation mind often act despite complement voice That’s forgive sometimes speaking thing might entirely appropriate lacking style always knowing say — that’s forgive voice saying say Censoring discover kind writer letting voice say feel important say grow field take opening metaphorical vein letting bleed freely pageTags Writing Tips Self Productivity Life Lessons Writing |
2,176 | Buying Eco-Friendly Is Not Always Sustainable | If you’re looking for a sign to purchase those items in your shopping cart, chances are, you don’t even need them. And by need, I mean, it is neither a necessity nor something you really really, really want.
Each passing day, a new product, an innovation, no matter how trivial, is out in the market and aims to provide relief to humans’ unending thirst for convenience and satisfaction. The capitalist industry feeds on this human instinct of purchasing what we feel is needed. And factors more than the environment suffer the consequences of the now reversed ideology of “necessity is the mother of invention” — necessity has become the child.
Despite the growing measures to combat the effects of our likewise increasing consumption, we may be — in fact, we already are, doing the opposite.
The Perfect Marketing Recipe…You Shouldn’t Fall For
Consider trends in buying sustainable products.
Most of the time, these are marketed to the public, guilting people into buying the products, facing them with how their previous practices hurt the environment. Add to this, the consumer’s urge to fit in with trends, and a business has got the perfect recipe to increase their sales.
However, as a responsible buyer, you should be reviewing and assessing how purchases could affect not only you but all other factors of the world you live in, such as the environment and society.
If you think buying that bamboo utensil set is a step towards sustainability, think again.
So, Should I Hop on the Minimalist Lifestyle Trend?
The true essence of sustainability is somehow synonymous with minimalism. Only get what you need. And get what would last you for as long as you need it.
Buying those wooden utensils is not a step towards an eco-friendlier life, especially if you already have utensils at home that you can pack for outside-home errands — and I highly doubt it if you claim not to have spoons and forks at home. Buying the set defeats its purpose of being sustainable because you never needed them in the first place.
If you weigh the benefits of consumerism against its many cons, well, you don’t even have to because the cons would easily outweigh the pros.
Consumerism does big things for a region’s economic growth — there’s no doubt in that. And what keeps the market growing is the innovative and creative minds of entrepreneurship. However, as individuals, being consumed by consumerism brings more damage to the singular than what it does good to the collective.
The Pursuit of Conscious Consumerism
This generation has been treading towards conscious consumerism, one step at a time. However, society and the market should respectively understand and inform how conscious consumerism is not synonymous with purchasing “environmental” products.
Instead, it should be focused on how both the consumers and the market can bring change to their previous and rather destructive practices by giving more attention to the impacts of buying and the behind-the-scenes in manufacturing consumer products.
Being a member of both ends of consumerism, I believe I have a big responsibility and power to give light to more sustainable practices that should be well-disseminated to the bigger public.
How to be a Smart and Sustainable Consumer
As a consumer, you should be knowledgeable enough about how certain products came to be and what these have in store for you as a shopper.
In choosing from a wide array of selections, you should analyze first if the products can be used for long — and if it is even going to be used — before questioning yourself of its quality, cost, ingredients, and convenience. After all, what would examining these factors do if you will not even be maximizing the product’s purpose?
To specify this, take that pending “sustainable” utensil set purchase into account again. From what I can observe and conclude, buying such would be impractical now that we’re in the middle of a pandemic. Why? Well, for one, you will not be using it since we are mostly in a work-from-home situation.
Secondly, do you seriously not have utensils at home? You can just pack what you already have — make it portable for whenever you are prompted to leave the house.
Or lastly, but most probably, were you just enticed by how the packaging and marketing were presented? The same can be said when purchasing other merchandise. And since we’re on the topic anyway, I strongly urge you to start thrifting. If you want unique, thrift and vintage stores are a haven for the one-of-a-kind. | https://medium.com/climate-conscious/buying-eco-friendly-is-not-always-sustainable-82468bb0444 | ['Naddine Luci'] | 2020-12-21 14:03:07.080000+00:00 | ['Lifestyle', 'Sustainability', 'Minimalism', 'Activism', 'Environment'] | Title Buying EcoFriendly Always SustainableContent you’re looking sign purchase item shopping cart chance don’t even need need mean neither necessity something really really really want passing day new product innovation matter trivial market aim provide relief humans’ unending thirst convenience satisfaction capitalist industry feed human instinct purchasing feel needed factor environment suffer consequence reversed ideology “necessity mother invention” — necessity become child Despite growing measure combat effect likewise increasing consumption may — fact already opposite Perfect Marketing Recipe…You Shouldn’t Fall Consider trend buying sustainable product time marketed public guilting people buying product facing previous practice hurt environment Add consumer’s urge fit trend business got perfect recipe increase sale However responsible buyer reviewing assessing purchase could affect factor world live environment society think buying bamboo utensil set step towards sustainability think Hop Minimalist Lifestyle Trend true essence sustainability somehow synonymous minimalism get need get would last long need Buying wooden utensil step towards ecofriendlier life especially already utensil home pack outsidehome errand — highly doubt claim spoon fork home Buying set defeat purpose sustainable never needed first place weigh benefit consumerism many con well don’t even con would easily outweigh pro Consumerism big thing region’s economic growth — there’s doubt keep market growing innovative creative mind entrepreneurship However individual consumed consumerism brings damage singular good collective Pursuit Conscious Consumerism generation treading towards conscious consumerism one step time However society market respectively understand inform conscious consumerism synonymous purchasing “environmental” product Instead focused consumer market bring change previous rather destructive practice giving attention impact buying behindthescenes manufacturing consumer product member end consumerism believe big responsibility power give light sustainable practice welldisseminated bigger public Smart Sustainable Consumer consumer knowledgeable enough certain product came store shopper choosing wide array selection analyze first product used long — even going used — questioning quality cost ingredient convenience would examining factor even maximizing product’s purpose specify take pending “sustainable” utensil set purchase account observe conclude buying would impractical we’re middle pandemic Well one using since mostly workfromhome situation Secondly seriously utensil home pack already — make portable whenever prompted leave house lastly probably enticed packaging marketing presented said purchasing merchandise since we’re topic anyway strongly urge start thrifting want unique thrift vintage store oneofakindTags Lifestyle Sustainability Minimalism Activism Environment |
2,177 | How Do I Stop Being Lazy and Procrastinating ? | Photo of Person Holding Alarm Clock
So you wake up in the morning, have your morning coffee, sit down on your desk, determined to work, slug it out, switch on your computer, and just as you are about to sort out your day’s activities, your mind wanders to Twitter, Facebook or Youtube.
Today is the morning after the elections for the President of the United States, and the entire day, I had multiple tabs open in my computer browser of various News outlets, multiple YouTube videos who are live streaming the possible results of the presidential elections, simultaneously checking out the trends in Twitter and Facebook like a maniac, I literally got “ZERO WORK DONE”.
How did I go from “Just gonna quickly check out what’s going on with the elections and then get back to work” to spending hours of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter!?
Brain
Dopamine, its the hormone that is released when we check out our notifications in Facebook or Twitter. Its these little bursts of dopamine which gets released in our brain, which makes us feel good. It’s the same hormone which is released every time we have sex, eat fast food or play video games. Our brain has several prominent dopamine pathways, that light up the moment we indulge in such activities. These pathways are called reward centers. Our brain constantly craves this “Feel Good” hormone, to the point it becomes an obsession. Dopamine is also released by taking drugs like amphetamines, cocaine, heroine etc. The obsession for this feel good hormone is so extreme, that a habitual drug user literally finds it difficult to stop taking these harmful drugs, the reward centers which gets activated(The HIGH) is far too great, that the individual is willing to go homeless in his pursuit to get that high using drugs. The reward behavior pattern where the dopamine pathways light up every time a drug user uses drugs compels the user to seek those drugs without any consequences whatsoever. This is the same hormone which makes us constantly crave for sex, drugs, fast food, indulging in gambling, basically any Instant gratification activity that leads to the release of this hormone.
Researchers were surprised when they studied the brains of drug addicts and social media users, to find out that the same reward centers which were activated in social media users also gets activated in the drug addicts. This need for “Quick fix” or “instant gratification” is one of the reasons why we frequently check out Facebook and Twitter, the moment we get up in the morning. If left unchecked, this could also lead to a significant change in human behavior where there is a constant need to get that quick burst of dopamine, thus hampering your productivity. In my case, I found myself checking out Twitter and Youtube every 5 minutes. This is not a unique phenomenon at all. A colleague of mine literally had to uninstall his Instagram App every day, before coming to the office(Those were the days when we didn’t have covid or “work from home” policy) because he found out that he was constantly checking his Instagram at work, leading to a precipitous fall in his performance. He says he uninstalls the app in the morning before coming to the office and installs it as he leaves the office. It’s really fascinating and harrowing at the same time to see how this simple hormone called dopamine literally has such control in our lives.
So How do you self control ?
Identify the problem:
It’s really important to understand why you are procrastinating in the first place. Not every one has the same “social media” problem as I do. It maybe as mundane as “Today’s weather is not good, I don’t feel like working” to “I want everything PERFECT, but I don’t have my lucky pen, so I will work on it tomorrow”. This happens especially in jobs that requires “creativity”. Especially if you are a composer, painter, copywriter, artist etc. Identify the problem, actively recognize that you are procrastinating and work on it.
2. Incentives:
Train your brain in such a way that if you complete a certain portion of your work within a given deadline or work continuously for 2 hours(Set a timer) then you are going to reward yourself. The reward can be as benign as eating a chocolate chip cookie or playing a quick game of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This acts similarly to the reward centers which lights up when we check our notifications in Facebook or Twitter. This trains the brain and your mind to delay the urge for “Instant Gratification” and instead work for it and get the sweet cookie at the end of the day/work. This technique works great especially if you have something that needs to be done quickly. This reward incentivized behavior is how exactly companies motivate their employees to work harder for increase in their salaries or bonuses.
3. Con Your Brain:
This technique worked wonders for me. So how do you lie to your own brain? I found that as soon as I started my project, I somehow didn’t lose my concentration and really focused on the job till it got completed. Upon introspection, I realized the trigger point was doing an “easy” part of the project first.
You see, I am a programmer, and I was working on a certain app that I wanted to build. I was stuck somewhere (I won’t bore you with the details). I literally procrastinated for a week, every time I sat on the desk, my mind literally built obstacles, imagining how it would take me days before I could solve that particular problem. And then one day, as I was going through the code, I simply came across a function that I wanted to improve in the app, and Voilà , suddenly I am typing away and actually doing my work. Our minds are notorious for building and propping up obstacles, we delay starting that blog or that YouTube channel simply because we look at the end result(where we want to be) and focus on that instead of taking the first baby step. We are too engrossed on that 1 million subscriber channel and awed by the guy with six packs to realize that it all began with that one random video you shot in your iPhone or that first pushup. We look at the peak of the Himalayas and instantly begin building up obstacles and delaying instead of taking that one small step in front of you.
Take the first baby step, work on that one simple part of the problem or take that one simple step, and before you even realize, you’d be working on that project that you delayed for days.
4. Take a break:
Research recommends that people who took a 5 min break every 2 hours are more productive than people who continuously worked for 5/10 hours. Taking a break or a simple stroll really releases your creative juices. Steve Jobs would often take a stroll in the park every time he felt he was stuck in a problem. It cleared up his mind. Going out, taking a simple break and tuning off would do wonders to your productivity. Every time you feel like procrastinating, I would recommend you go outside, breathe in some fresh air or just simply close your eyes and meditate, it frees your mind and rejuvenates your brain to take on those obstacles that you were finding difficult to overcome.
5. Tune everything off:
If you feel you are wasting too much time checking out what Sam is up to in his vacation in Maldives or you catch yourself browsing Cat videos in the middle of day for no reason whatsoever then switch off your phone. Eliminate every distraction that puts you off course. Set a timer, it may be a three hour interval or two hour, and reserve that time exclusively for “Work”, where you are not distracted by the sounds of those pesky notifications from your mobile phone. Switch off all your electronic gadgets during that interval and just focus on your work.
I just want to end by saying its ultimately your attitude that plays a critical role, if you are uninterested in your work or not passionate about it, no amount of tips or techniques is going to work for you.
Finally I just wanna sign off by quoting a prominent ancient Indian philosopher, economist and strategist called Chanakya, | https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/how-do-i-stop-being-lazy-and-procrastinating-f47ec0765253 | ['Jacob Daniel'] | 2020-12-17 16:58:40.916000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Procrastination', 'Productivity', 'Motivation', 'Techniques'] | Title Stop Lazy Procrastinating Content Photo Person Holding Alarm Clock wake morning morning coffee sit desk determined work slug switch computer sort day’s activity mind wanders Twitter Facebook Youtube Today morning election President United States entire day multiple tab open computer browser various News outlet multiple YouTube video live streaming possible result presidential election simultaneously checking trend Twitter Facebook like maniac literally got “ZERO WORK DONE” go “Just gonna quickly check what’s going election get back work” spending hour YouTube Facebook Twitter Brain Dopamine hormone released check notification Facebook Twitter little burst dopamine get released brain make u feel good It’s hormone released every time sex eat fast food play video game brain several prominent dopamine pathway light moment indulge activity pathway called reward center brain constantly craves “Feel Good” hormone point becomes obsession Dopamine also released taking drug like amphetamine cocaine heroine etc obsession feel good hormone extreme habitual drug user literally find difficult stop taking harmful drug reward center get activatedThe HIGH far great individual willing go homeless pursuit get high using drug reward behavior pattern dopamine pathway light every time drug user us drug compels user seek drug without consequence whatsoever hormone make u constantly crave sex drug fast food indulging gambling basically Instant gratification activity lead release hormone Researchers surprised studied brain drug addict social medium user find reward center activated social medium user also get activated drug addict need “Quick fix” “instant gratification” one reason frequently check Facebook Twitter moment get morning left unchecked could also lead significant change human behavior constant need get quick burst dopamine thus hampering productivity case found checking Twitter Youtube every 5 minute unique phenomenon colleague mine literally uninstall Instagram App every day coming officeThose day didn’t covid “work home” policy found constantly checking Instagram work leading precipitous fall performance say uninstalls app morning coming office installs leaf office It’s really fascinating harrowing time see simple hormone called dopamine literally control life self control Identify problem It’s really important understand procrastinating first place every one “social media” problem maybe mundane “Today’s weather good don’t feel like working” “I want everything PERFECT don’t lucky pen work tomorrow” happens especially job requires “creativity” Especially composer painter copywriter artist etc Identify problem actively recognize procrastinating work 2 Incentives Train brain way complete certain portion work within given deadline work continuously 2 hoursSet timer going reward reward benign eating chocolate chip cookie playing quick game CounterStrike Global Offensive act similarly reward center light check notification Facebook Twitter train brain mind delay urge “Instant Gratification” instead work get sweet cookie end daywork technique work great especially something need done quickly reward incentivized behavior exactly company motivate employee work harder increase salary bonus 3 Con Brain technique worked wonder lie brain found soon started project somehow didn’t lose concentration really focused job till got completed Upon introspection realized trigger point “easy” part project first see programmer working certain app wanted build stuck somewhere won’t bore detail literally procrastinated week every time sat desk mind literally built obstacle imagining would take day could solve particular problem one day going code simply came across function wanted improve app Voilà suddenly typing away actually work mind notorious building propping obstacle delay starting blog YouTube channel simply look end resultwhere want focus instead taking first baby step engrossed 1 million subscriber channel awed guy six pack realize began one random video shot iPhone first pushup look peak Himalayas instantly begin building obstacle delaying instead taking one small step front Take first baby step work one simple part problem take one simple step even realize you’d working project delayed day 4 Take break Research recommends people took 5 min break every 2 hour productive people continuously worked 510 hour Taking break simple stroll really release creative juice Steve Jobs would often take stroll park every time felt stuck problem cleared mind Going taking simple break tuning would wonder productivity Every time feel like procrastinating would recommend go outside breathe fresh air simply close eye meditate free mind rejuvenates brain take obstacle finding difficult overcome 5 Tune everything feel wasting much time checking Sam vacation Maldives catch browsing Cat video middle day reason whatsoever switch phone Eliminate every distraction put course Set timer may three hour interval two hour reserve time exclusively “Work” distracted sound pesky notification mobile phone Switch electronic gadget interval focus work want end saying ultimately attitude play critical role uninterested work passionate amount tip technique going work Finally wanna sign quoting prominent ancient Indian philosopher economist strategist called ChanakyaTags Work Procrastination Productivity Motivation Techniques |
2,178 | The Price We Pay To Fit In | Hi, my sweet lonely feeling.
Hi, sweet Jordin. I’m here again.
Yes, you are. How come? Tell me more.
Well, I come to visit you any time you’re pursuing fitting in rather than belonging.
Oh shit. That’s deep.
It is everything. Belonging is everything. You crave it so much — all parts of you in here long to feel like they belong. I show up when some parts of you don’t feel like they belong.
[As I was writing this, I realized this part had some important things to say to me and I listen better to them when I journal with them instead of type it out. So at the point of the conversation, I moved to my journal].
Okay, lonely part, I can hear you better now. What were you saying?
I am a part of you that feels like it doesn’t belong. So I give you a lonely feeling to let you know I am in distress.
I’m so sorry you don’t feel like you belong. I know it is something I am doing and how our internal system is being run right now. So I want to make it better. Tell me more.
Well when you go see these friends, a bunch of your other parts jump in and push me aside. They are the parts that jump in and try to impress other people. When those parts are in charge, you become more interested in fitting in that including all of us. That makes those of us not included feel lonely. It makes us feel like like you did when you were alone in your room listening to the cool kids plan the game outside that you weren’t invited to play with them.
Oh, sweetie. I know that feeling. Wow. I am so sorry. What do you need from me to feel included?
I need you to not hide away parts of yourself, including me, in order to fit in. I need you to care less about fitting in with other people and more about belonging to yourself.
Damn. Yes. Thank you for framing it this way. Wow this is a huge realization. So what does that look like?
I guess it looks like checking in wtih the parts like me who feel lonely and hearing our voices, including us in the game or party, not trying to hide us away but taking the time to get to know us. We are important parts of you, too.
You are. I’m sorry — another part of me in here is jumping in saying there isn’t enough time one sec.
[Another part of me kept jumping in and reminding me of the time, worried I won’t have enough time to go into too much detail with this part. It also kept reminding me that my boyfriend wanted to spend time with me this morning and so I better hurry up and make sure I do that. I tried to get this part to step back so I could talk to my lonely part more but this part refused and kept getting louder. There is more work to do with this part but since I was short on time, I just had to be honest and start bringing the conversation with my lonely part to a close.]
Okay, this part is insistant and not stepping back. I bet this makes you feel even lonelier that this part is trying to drag me away from talking with you.
Yeah it used to make me feel lonelier but now I know not to take it so personally. I know this part is just trying to protect you also. What I’ve shared with you is enough for now. I’ll keep speaking up through loneliness if you’re out of alignment with belonging to yourself. But for now can you just check in with me when we’re at the party? That would really make me feel like you understand and are working to help us all in here feel like we belong together.
Yes of course. Thank you so much for being so tender and understanding and wise. I will check in with you tonight when I have some moments to myself. Give you a hug or a high-five!
That would be great, thank you! Thank you for stopping to talk with me even. I already feel like I belong more!
Great! Yay! Yeah, this is new for me so thank you for being my teacher. I know this conversation doesn’t solve the root of it and there is still much to discuss but I am committed to taking these small baby steps toward an inner system where all my parts feel like they belong.
Love it. Muah! Now let’s go have some fun! | https://medium.com/just-jordin/the-price-we-pay-to-fit-in-8d35aecb0d53 | ['Jordin James'] | 2020-10-31 16:52:07+00:00 | ['Psychology', 'Inspiration', 'Spirituality', 'Mental Health', 'Self'] | Title Price Pay Fit InContent Hi sweet lonely feeling Hi sweet Jordin I’m Yes come Tell Well come visit time you’re pursuing fitting rather belonging Oh shit That’s deep everything Belonging everything crave much — part long feel like belong show part don’t feel like belong writing realized part important thing say listen better journal instead type point conversation moved journal Okay lonely part hear better saying part feel like doesn’t belong give lonely feeling let know distress I’m sorry don’t feel like belong know something internal system run right want make better Tell Well go see friend bunch part jump push aside part jump try impress people part charge become interested fitting including u make u included feel lonely make u feel like like alone room listening cool kid plan game outside weren’t invited play Oh sweetie know feeling Wow sorry need feel included need hide away part including order fit need care le fitting people belonging Damn Yes Thank framing way Wow huge realization look like guess look like checking wtih part like feel lonely hearing voice including u game party trying hide u away taking time get know u important part I’m sorry — another part jumping saying isn’t enough time one sec Another part kept jumping reminding time worried won’t enough time go much detail part also kept reminding boyfriend wanted spend time morning better hurry make sure tried get part step back could talk lonely part part refused kept getting louder work part since short time honest start bringing conversation lonely part close Okay part insistant stepping back bet make feel even lonelier part trying drag away talking Yeah used make feel lonelier know take personally know part trying protect also I’ve shared enough I’ll keep speaking loneliness you’re alignment belonging check we’re party would really make feel like understand working help u feel like belong together Yes course Thank much tender understanding wise check tonight moment Give hug highfive would great thank Thank stopping talk even already feel like belong Great Yay Yeah new thank teacher know conversation doesn’t solve root still much discus committed taking small baby step toward inner system part feel like belong Love Muah let’s go funTags Psychology Inspiration Spirituality Mental Health Self |
2,179 | I Took On 10 Projects at the Same Time, Here’s What I Learned | An exact explanation of what I did
Before I start, I want to elaborate that being in 10 projects at once does not mean that you would be doing it yourself. On the contrary being on 10 projects at once should help you to do the exact opposite. The things I did might sound unbelievable (or believable depending on who you are). But, if people like Elon Musk can do the things he does, I don’t see a reason why I can’t.
I am by no means comparable to Elon Musk, but I honestly look up to him and he is one of the inspiring figures I strive to be. Managing chaos is such an interesting thing. A project can equate to chaos because it can go wrong unexpectedly in a multitude of ways.
What kind of projects did you do?
Some software engineers reading this might be thinking, “this guy is lying no way he did so many things in one fell swoop”. Well, let me explain the projects then. I handled a project to integrate an existing application to a certain online video communication service, and I initiated a project to make a custom code generator because my office has a custom design pattern. The library I helped maintain was for the custom design pattern I mentioned previously. Because this was part of my full-time job, I worked on these projects 7–8 hours a day.
Lastly, I was the project manager for a learning management system (LMS). The LMS project required me to review code, and lead meetings about 3–4 hours a week depending on the work.
As for the other things I did. I am writing my thesis is for my bachelor’s degree, with a team of three. We have occasional meetings three times a week with a total of 11–15 hours. The academic paper I wrote required about the same amount of 11–13 hours a week.
I was selected as a soft skills trainer for University students on my campus, I have been volunteering to share my experiences for almost two years now. As for the TEDx event, I was the project manager. I had a team of course. My commitment to the TEDx event was about 4–6 hours a week in a span of 4 months, and that includes the meetings.
That explains what I did exactly. Now here is what I learned from this experience. | https://medium.com/the-ascent/i-took-on-10-projects-at-the-same-time-heres-what-i-learned-be8074310879 | ['Agustinus Theodorus'] | 2020-12-07 20:07:20.688000+00:00 | ['Productivity', 'Self', 'Opinion', 'Self-awareness', 'Project Management'] | Title Took 10 Projects Time Here’s LearnedContent exact explanation start want elaborate 10 project mean would contrary 10 project help exact opposite thing might sound unbelievable believable depending people like Elon Musk thing don’t see reason can’t mean comparable Elon Musk honestly look one inspiring figure strive Managing chaos interesting thing project equate chaos go wrong unexpectedly multitude way kind project software engineer reading might thinking “this guy lying way many thing one fell swoop” Well let explain project handled project integrate existing application certain online video communication service initiated project make custom code generator office custom design pattern library helped maintain custom design pattern mentioned previously part fulltime job worked project 7–8 hour day Lastly project manager learning management system LMS LMS project required review code lead meeting 3–4 hour week depending work thing writing thesis bachelor’s degree team three occasional meeting three time week total 11–15 hour academic paper wrote required amount 11–13 hour week selected soft skill trainer University student campus volunteering share experience almost two year TEDx event project manager team course commitment TEDx event 4–6 hour week span 4 month includes meeting explains exactly learned experienceTags Productivity Self Opinion Selfawareness Project Management |
2,180 | Four Analytics Trends To keep an eye on in 2018 | Courtesy:Flickr
What gets you out of bed in the morning when you think of analytics in 2018? Is it the prominence of AI in our lives, democratization of data or advanced analytics that keeps you excited? Let’s accept it, last year was quite an eventful year, with the rise of self-service analytics, IoT analytics and of course chatbots becoming smarter. Having sensed these developments, 2018 should become another year of accelerated innovation in analytics industry- with some expected and unexpected disruptions of course! Excited? Without much ado read on our top four analytics trends to watch out for in 2018!
AI chatbots are no more the ‘’newbie’’ in the town, soon to become major drivers of all operations!
“Siri, which movie should I watch tonight? Or ‘’Google, show me the best route to reach office’’ Familiar with these everyday conversations? Just imagine your life without them! Can you? Not quite possible right? considering their impact on our busy lives. In 2017, there was so much noise around smart recommendation, with AI chatbots identifying our emotions and respond to us accordingly. Not only about the updates of weather or traffic congestion, chatbots will evolve and might also help in scouring financial operational metrics or getting answers to ‘why’ and ‘what if’ questions, thereby enabling the transformation of business as well as consumer space. Although this might take a couple of years to mature, we can anticipate few success stories in 2018 as well.
Augmented Reality: From reel to real, Augmented reality is and will be changing the world around us
Remember in July 2016, how millions of people crashed through parks, walked over people’s graves and entered churches to hunt for augmented-reality versions of Pokémon characters. Still fresh in the memory, right? Although the Pokemon frenzy has faded, augmented reality hasn’t and we can see some more advanced and dynamic mode of AR in 2018. The human-machine interaction will boost up as businesses are already employing AR to enhance manufacturing and research processes or to offer new customer experiences. And, why does it matter to analytics industry? Well, according to Gartner’s VP David Cleary, “Augmented analytics is a particularly strategic growing area that uses machine learning for automating data preparation, insight discovery and insight sharing for a broad range of business users, operational workers, and citizen data scientists.” So, yes in few years all the resource draining and time sensitive analysis will significantly become easy and smooth with augmented analytics!
IoT Analytics: A silver bullet for every industry, in 2018?
2017, was a year of huge gains in ‘’connectivity’’. There were a lot of investments and adoptions around IoT, despite security issues galore. How about 2018? Will be as exciting as 2017 for IoT analytics? Not to ignore, IoT will continue to expand this year too, with more and more devices getting connected, almost every second. Although retail, healthcare, and industrial/supply chain industries have been using IoT to boost ROI, this year we can see an increasing number of companies use IoT for more personalized marketing efforts. Additionally, Business Insider predicts business spending on IoT solutions will hit $6 trillion by 2021. Going by this predictions, we will see many venture capitalists continue pouring funds into the promise of IoT — underscoring its potential to improve customer experience in almost every industry!
Block Chain Technology: Enabling new forms of data monetization
2017 was a year of tremendous growth for block chain, all agree? Many believe we are already in the “early majority” phase of adoption, and that we are on the aligned towards full adoption of blockchain. And as with any new technology, the importance of the data grows. This year we might see blockchain going more mainstream with sectors such as healthcare & retail also starting to use it to handle data to prevent hacking & data leaks. According to Bill Schmarzo, CTO of Dell EMC Services, blockchain technology also “has the potential to democratize the sharing and monetization of data and analytics by removing the middleman from facilitating transactions.” So, yes organizations will accelerate their data analysis process on these virtual currencies to unmask strong trends, frauds and insights and make informed decisions!
How to ride the Virtual currency rally? Read on to know more.
Though it is hard to say how fast these analytics trends will manifest in our lives, we are confident that 2018 will yet again be another eventful year. There will be issues around security, governance and most importantly consumer’s ability to accept and adapt these innovations and changes. The only thing that can be assured of is this year the future will be different and very promising! So stay tuned! | https://towardsdatascience.com/four-analytics-trends-to-keep-an-eye-on-in-2018-854646e390f6 | ['Karishma Borkakoty'] | 2018-03-16 06:44:30.904000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Analytics', 'Big Data', 'IoT', 'Bitcoin'] | Title Four Analytics Trends keep eye 2018Content CourtesyFlickr get bed morning think analytics 2018 prominence AI life democratization data advanced analytics keep excited Let’s accept last year quite eventful year rise selfservice analytics IoT analytics course chatbots becoming smarter sensed development 2018 become another year accelerated innovation analytics industry expected unexpected disruption course Excited Without much ado read top four analytics trend watch 2018 AI chatbots ‘’newbie’’ town soon become major driver operation “Siri movie watch tonight ‘’Google show best route reach office’’ Familiar everyday conversation imagine life without quite possible right considering impact busy life 2017 much noise around smart recommendation AI chatbots identifying emotion respond u accordingly update weather traffic congestion chatbots evolve might also help scouring financial operational metric getting answer ‘why’ ‘what if’ question thereby enabling transformation business well consumer space Although might take couple year mature anticipate success story 2018 well Augmented Reality reel real Augmented reality changing world around u Remember July 2016 million people crashed park walked people’s graf entered church hunt augmentedreality version Pokémon character Still fresh memory right Although Pokemon frenzy faded augmented reality hasn’t see advanced dynamic mode AR 2018 humanmachine interaction boost business already employing AR enhance manufacturing research process offer new customer experience matter analytics industry Well according Gartner’s VP David Cleary “Augmented analytics particularly strategic growing area us machine learning automating data preparation insight discovery insight sharing broad range business user operational worker citizen data scientists” yes year resource draining time sensitive analysis significantly become easy smooth augmented analytics IoT Analytics silver bullet every industry 2018 2017 year huge gain ‘’connectivity’’ lot investment adoption around IoT despite security issue galore 2018 exciting 2017 IoT analytics ignore IoT continue expand year device getting connected almost every second Although retail healthcare industrialsupply chain industry using IoT boost ROI year see increasing number company use IoT personalized marketing effort Additionally Business Insider predicts business spending IoT solution hit 6 trillion 2021 Going prediction see many venture capitalist continue pouring fund promise IoT — underscoring potential improve customer experience almost every industry Block Chain Technology Enabling new form data monetization 2017 year tremendous growth block chain agree Many believe already “early majority” phase adoption aligned towards full adoption blockchain new technology importance data grows year might see blockchain going mainstream sector healthcare retail also starting use handle data prevent hacking data leak According Bill Schmarzo CTO Dell EMC Services blockchain technology also “has potential democratize sharing monetization data analytics removing middleman facilitating transactions” yes organization accelerate data analysis process virtual currency unmask strong trend fraud insight make informed decision ride Virtual currency rally Read know Though hard say fast analytics trend manifest life confident 2018 yet another eventful year issue around security governance importantly consumer’s ability accept adapt innovation change thing assured year future different promising stay tunedTags Artificial Intelligence Analytics Big Data IoT Bitcoin |
2,181 | The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick [Book Summary PDF] | Here are 3 simple rules to help you. They are collectively called (drumroll) The Mom Test:
Talk about their life instead of your idea Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or opinions about the future Talk less and listen more.
The questions to ask are about your customers’ lives: their problems, cares, constraints, and goals. You humbly and honestly gather as much information about them as you can and then take your own visionary leap to a solution. Once you’ve taken the leap, you confirm that it’s correct through Commitment & Advancement.
Avoiding bad data
There are three types of bad data:
Compliments Fluff (generics, hypotheticals, and the future) Ideas
Sometimes we invite the bad data ourselves by asking the wrong questions, but even when you try to follow The Mom Test, conversations still go off track. It could happen because you got excited and started pitching.
Asking Important questions
In addition to ensuring that you aren’t asking trivialities, you also need to search out the world-rocking scary questions you’ve been unintentionally shrinking from. The best way to find them is with thought experiments. Imagine that the company has failed and ask why that happened. Then imagine it as a huge success and ask what had to be true to get there. Find ways to learn about those critical pieces.
Pre-plan the 3 most important things you want to learn from any given type of person (e.g. customers, investors, industry experts, key hires, etc). Update the list as your questions change. Your 3 questions will be different for each type of person you’re talking to. If you have multiple types of customers or partners, have a list of each.
Don’t stress too much about choosing the “right” important questions. They will change. Just choose whatever seems murkiest or most important right now. Answer those will give you firmer footing and a better sense of direction for your next 3.
You might get answers 1–3 from customer A, answer 4 from customer B, answers 5–7 from customer C. There’s overlap and repetition, but you don’t need to repeat the full set of questions with every participant. Your time is valuable: don’t feel obligated to repeat questions you already have solid data on. Pick up where you left off and keep filling in the picture. | https://medium.com/bookcademy/the-mom-test-by-rob-fitzpatrick-book-summary-pdf-b0deeef61092 | ['Daniel Morales'] | 2019-10-08 19:50:47.711000+00:00 | ['The Mom Test', 'Summary', 'Pdf Book', 'Books', 'Startup'] | Title Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick Book Summary PDFContent 3 simple rule help collectively called drumroll Mom Test Talk life instead idea Ask specific past instead generic opinion future Talk le listen question ask customers’ life problem care constraint goal humbly honestly gather much information take visionary leap solution you’ve taken leap confirm it’s correct Commitment Advancement Avoiding bad data three type bad data Compliments Fluff generic hypothetical future Ideas Sometimes invite bad data asking wrong question even try follow Mom Test conversation still go track could happen got excited started pitching Asking Important question addition ensuring aren’t asking triviality also need search worldrocking scary question you’ve unintentionally shrinking best way find thought experiment Imagine company failed ask happened imagine huge success ask true get Find way learn critical piece Preplan 3 important thing want learn given type person eg customer investor industry expert key hire etc Update list question change 3 question different type person you’re talking multiple type customer partner list Don’t stress much choosing “right” important question change choose whatever seems murkiest important right Answer give firmer footing better sense direction next 3 might get answer 1–3 customer answer 4 customer B answer 5–7 customer C There’s overlap repetition don’t need repeat full set question every participant time valuable don’t feel obligated repeat question already solid data Pick left keep filling pictureTags Mom Test Summary Pdf Book Books Startup |
2,182 | Kicked Out of Your Own Company: What To Do | Kicked Out of Your Own Company: What To Do
It happens more than we admit: Entrepreneurs get kicked out of their own companies. Susan Strausberg shares what to do when it happens to you.
As the co-founder and CEO of EDGAR Online, I ran the company for thirteen years. For the vast majority of that time I was fully focused on the development and growth of the company, and firmly committed to remaining the CEO until I felt we’d achieved our vision. But after a very desirable acquirer backed out, my investors grew restless and pushed for a succession plan. Two months later, I was informed by the board that the succession plan had been accelerated and that our President would now be the CEO.
This sort of scenario happens far more often than either entrepreneurs or investors like to admit. Here’s how, when the time comes, you can be prepared:
Write Your Succession Plan
Whether your company is public or private, make sure you have a succession plan and that your interests are protected. Assume that your separation agreement will have a non-compete clause, and make sure you understand the terms of it. The non-compete should related to your company’s business specifically, and should not prohibit you from other types of ventures. Even if you live in California, where most non-competes are unenforceable, you don’t want to be heading to court just as you’re being ousted.
My non-compete restricted me from engaging in ventures in financial information, which I thought was reasonable. Since I had significant stock ownership in my company it would have been bizarre for me to try to complete with a company that I was hoping would help me realize a significant payout. In reality, broad or overly general non-competes rarely hold up in court, so it is in both parties’ interests to be clear and fair.
Keep a Stiff Upper Lip
When the rug gets pulled out from under you, you have to somehow keep it together. You have to immediately come to terms with the decision and behave with extreme dignity that befits the legacy you plan to leave. Above all, as unpleasant as it can be, you need to understand that you had anticipated this and had participated in the succession process.
When it happened to me, I called a trusted advisor for input and sympathy. His first question was, “Did you cry?” I said, “No,” and he congratulated me, saying that is the thing people fear most about woman CEOs. (Great.) His next question was, “Are you going to stay on the board?” That’s an important question, because as long as you remain on the board, you are subject to regulations concerning purchases or sales of stock in the company. You’re also setting yourself up for some pretty uncomfortable meetings. I remained on the board until it became absolutely clear that my input would either be ignored or worse.
Get Out of Dodge — At Least Mentally
You need to get a new perspective immediately. A fresh start will give you a sense of relief, which you will desperately need. I started a new venture, and we decided that New York was not the right place to do that. The conditions of my non-compete, plus my pride in EDGAR Online, made it impossible to engage my original founding team. We moved to Austin, Texas where we felt the environment would be more supportive.
Yes, You Could Do Better. Forget It.
Don’t stress over the problems of your former company. Maybe the stock is tanking and the new management is clearly clueless. You can’t do anything about it. Think about it this way: You want to concentrate on the new company, in which there are a myriad of things you actually can control.
Ask yourself this: Are you as passionate about your next innovation as you were about the previous one(s)? Are you driven to look forward, not back? Can you apply everything you learned at that earlier company to make your next one even more successful? The opportunity to feel the rush of a start-up is not limited to your first company. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Susan Strausberg is the co-founder of 9W Search, a next generation financial search engine aimed primarily at a mobile audience. 9W Search partners with IBM Watson. In 1995 Susan co-founded EDGAR Online, Inc. She served for 13 years as CEO until 2007, and additionally as President from 2003 to 2007. EDGAR Online is the first commercial internet distributor of SEC-based financial information. The company was a pioneer in the information industry revolution using cutting edge technology to bring high value to publicly available data and to democratize access to information that was formerly unavailable to non-professionals. EDGAR Online was acquired by RR Donnelley in 2012. Susan is an active member of the Austin technology community and participates in panels and programs focused on entrepreneurship. | https://medium.com/been-there-run-that/kicked-out-of-your-own-company-what-to-do-b3713a3a8c1a | ['Springboard Enterprises'] | 2018-10-02 15:01:01.117000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Startup', 'Women Entrepreneurs', 'Business Development'] | Title Kicked Company DoContent Kicked Company happens admit Entrepreneurs get kicked company Susan Strausberg share happens cofounder CEO EDGAR Online ran company thirteen year vast majority time fully focused development growth company firmly committed remaining CEO felt we’d achieved vision desirable acquirer backed investor grew restless pushed succession plan Two month later informed board succession plan accelerated President would CEO sort scenario happens far often either entrepreneur investor like admit Here’s time come prepared Write Succession Plan Whether company public private make sure succession plan interest protected Assume separation agreement noncompete clause make sure understand term noncompete related company’s business specifically prohibit type venture Even live California noncompetes unenforceable don’t want heading court you’re ousted noncompete restricted engaging venture financial information thought reasonable Since significant stock ownership company would bizarre try complete company hoping would help realize significant payout reality broad overly general noncompetes rarely hold court parties’ interest clear fair Keep Stiff Upper Lip rug get pulled somehow keep together immediately come term decision behave extreme dignity befits legacy plan leave unpleasant need understand anticipated participated succession process happened called trusted advisor input sympathy first question “Did cry” said “No” congratulated saying thing people fear woman CEOs Great next question “Are going stay board” That’s important question long remain board subject regulation concerning purchase sale stock company You’re also setting pretty uncomfortable meeting remained board became absolutely clear input would either ignored worse Get Dodge — Least Mentally need get new perspective immediately fresh start give sense relief desperately need started new venture decided New York right place condition noncompete plus pride EDGAR Online made impossible engage original founding team moved Austin Texas felt environment would supportive Yes Could Better Forget Don’t stress problem former company Maybe stock tanking new management clearly clueless can’t anything Think way want concentrate new company myriad thing actually control Ask passionate next innovation previous one driven look forward back apply everything learned earlier company make next one even successful opportunity feel rush startup limited first company It’s gift keep giving Susan Strausberg cofounder 9W Search next generation financial search engine aimed primarily mobile audience 9W Search partner IBM Watson 1995 Susan cofounded EDGAR Online Inc served 13 year CEO 2007 additionally President 2003 2007 EDGAR Online first commercial internet distributor SECbased financial information company pioneer information industry revolution using cutting edge technology bring high value publicly available data democratize access information formerly unavailable nonprofessionals EDGAR Online acquired RR Donnelley 2012 Susan active member Austin technology community participates panel program focused entrepreneurshipTags Entrepreneurship Startup Women Entrepreneurs Business Development |
2,183 | What Product Marketers Can Learn from Product Management | The gospel we preach is clear and unchanging: “Deliver the right message to the right people at the right time.” As a product marketer, you possess a deep understanding of strategic positioning, the nuances of messaging, and the wants and needs of your customer.
You strategize your approach to pricing, ad copy, website content, tone of voice, and your product’s unique value proposition. You also leverage that holistic grasp on your customer’s profile to inform the product roadmap, and your approach to solving customer problems. Your daily conversations shift from “how do we run the show” to “what stage do we perform on, and who will sit in the audience?”
The best product marketers not only wear the hat of marketing wizard and all things internal team enablement, they can also slip effortlessly into the role of full-fledged product owner. And while product marketing and product management have tons of overlap in their day-to-day, there are a few key areas of PM expertise that we can benefit from.
1. Always be listening
Traditionally, product marketers communicate value to the market. They have a hyper-detailed knowledge of the competitive landscape, and can strategize about how it fits into the bigger picture. They define competitive messaging and strategic positioning based on the problems a product manager commits to solving.
It’s all about alignment for product marketers. Gluing together sales, product, support, engineering, and leadership with market/price fit, channel partnerships, and happy customers.
Product managers often manage the strategy behind the roadmap — marrying together raw customer feedback, stakeholder needs, and developer resources to ship the right product. The core skill here is a simple one: they are always listening.
Product managers are exceptional at gathering information. And while product marketers and product managers both involve collecting customer feedback, the two roles work to solve different problems. Product marketers and managers both communicate with the market to balance necessity and desire; what they do with the findings distinguishes the two roles.
The best product managers are constantly sourcing and learning from their target customers to ensure that the product they’re building addresses the most painful, and real, customer problems.
There’s a ton of information out there from product managers on how to get the right information out of customers, how to influence stakeholders and reach consensus across teams. But this TEDxVienna talk by Michael Stevens offers an excellent starting point for learning how we, as product marketers, can listen more and ask our customers better questions.
Further, if little to no relationship exists between PMs and PMMs within an organization, there exists an opportunity for those two functions to team up, share customer development techniques, and collaborate in research to power up their collective impact.
2. Always be testing, especially your own assumptions
A large part of what product managers do is decide what to build by testing assumptions and validating hypotheses.
In short, all marketers must adapt to taking this approach to planning. It’s too easy and too common for marketers to, say, hire a PR agency and promise stakeholders lofty placements in Business Insider or Huffington Post. We mean well, but failure to meet those expectations yields disappointment across the board, and perpetuates stereotypes of marketers being filled with hot air.
When marketers overpromise and underdeliver, it’s not always directly tied to positive or negative end results. It’s the failure to meet expectations. And there are things we can do to set better, clearer, and more realistic expectations for ourselves.
For example, at Kayako, I knew talk had swirled within the organization for years around introducing PR as a way for us to gain targeted awareness for our top of funnel initiatives such as our live chat statistics report. I wanted to try it once and for all, but I had zero information telling me that this would be a surefire way for us to achieve our goal of increased mindshare for key audiences.
So, I treated it like an experiment…
I explicitly defined three tiers of goals (indicating ideal, acceptable, poor results) for the outcome of a finite, 4-month contract with an agency I hired via personal recommendation under the condition that if we gained even a low level of early traction, we would continue working together.
Instead of getting the leadership team excited about finally introducing PR to the mix, I candidly and repeatedly positioned our venture into PR as an experiment with a defined hypothesis, goals articulated, and a course of action in place for every possible outcome — with failure as no exception.
When our 4-month trial campaign yielded very low quantifiable results, we were able to walk away still feeling proud of the experiment because it still yielded interesting results. We learned that PR actually plays a longer game, and a 4-month trial was insufficient for determining whether or not PR can actually work for us (a few bites actually trickled in months after the contract ended). Despite all this, the stakeholders were impressed with our scientific and proactive approach to solving this problem, and the experiment was considered a net success.
Photo cred: Furthermore UX Experts
This is the approach that all product managers take when trying to fix the problems they’re working to solve. Framing every statement, whether it be personal belief or widely accepted truths, must be poked, prodded, questioned, and proven to be true if it is intended to drive action.
3. Lean into deeper, more technical product conversations
It may not always feel second nature for us, but product marketers can, and should, take on the task of participating in more technical product development conversations, and back up input with findings from Voice of the Customer interviews. If you have the chance to own a customer development program, you create an opportunity to build and manage feedback loops at scale, as well as structuring process around crafting user stories and development direction.
Deepening your contribution to product-shaping conversations means you can better champion your customers both within your organization and across your communities.
As an added tip from my personal experience (or rather, something I’m actively working on in my own role as a PMM at Kayako), product marketers will benefit from developing a deep, detailed, and comprehensive understanding of competitive products as well as related technologies.
In the same way that an account executive with a strong technical understanding of their product might blow you away on a sales demo, the same goes for marketers with encyclopedic knowledge of the competition’s product offering. If you can bring this kind of deep competitor knowledge to the table, you could have a great impact on product decisions, and a chance to thicken the glue that binds your business.
While product managers still own the product development process and the roadmap in its entirety, there is an opportunity for product marketers to contribute to and influence the direction of business at a core level.
4. Put the customer at the heart of your role, at the core of every decision
Both product marketers and product managers work best by putting customers at the heart of their decisions. And it is worth our time, as product marketers, to collaborate with existing product managers across the business with a common goal of leveraging real, tangible customer insight to drive product direction. If no product manager exists at your business yet, it’s even better if you can bring this to the table yourself.
Focus on anything that puts your customer at the heart of your decisions, and you, and the business, will feel the benefit from customer happiness ratings to the bottom line. | https://medium.com/we-are-product-marketing/what-product-marketers-can-learn-from-product-management-2421cb77b45 | ['Alicia Carney'] | 2018-02-28 17:40:56.067000+00:00 | ['Product Management', 'Startup Marketing', 'Marketing', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Product Marketing'] | Title Product Marketers Learn Product ManagementContent gospel preach clear unchanging “Deliver right message right people right time” product marketer posse deep understanding strategic positioning nuance messaging want need customer strategize approach pricing ad copy website content tone voice product’s unique value proposition also leverage holistic grasp customer’s profile inform product roadmap approach solving customer problem daily conversation shift “how run show” “what stage perform sit audience” best product marketer wear hat marketing wizard thing internal team enablement also slip effortlessly role fullfledged product owner product marketing product management ton overlap daytoday key area PM expertise benefit 1 Always listening Traditionally product marketer communicate value market hyperdetailed knowledge competitive landscape strategize fit bigger picture define competitive messaging strategic positioning based problem product manager commits solving It’s alignment product marketer Gluing together sale product support engineering leadership marketprice fit channel partnership happy customer Product manager often manage strategy behind roadmap — marrying together raw customer feedback stakeholder need developer resource ship right product core skill simple one always listening Product manager exceptional gathering information product marketer product manager involve collecting customer feedback two role work solve different problem Product marketer manager communicate market balance necessity desire finding distinguishes two role best product manager constantly sourcing learning target customer ensure product they’re building address painful real customer problem There’s ton information product manager get right information customer influence stakeholder reach consensus across team TEDxVienna talk Michael Stevens offer excellent starting point learning product marketer listen ask customer better question little relationship exists PMs PMMs within organization exists opportunity two function team share customer development technique collaborate research power collective impact 2 Always testing especially assumption large part product manager decide build testing assumption validating hypothesis short marketer must adapt taking approach planning It’s easy common marketer say hire PR agency promise stakeholder lofty placement Business Insider Huffington Post mean well failure meet expectation yield disappointment across board perpetuates stereotype marketer filled hot air marketer overpromise underdeliver it’s always directly tied positive negative end result It’s failure meet expectation thing set better clearer realistic expectation example Kayako knew talk swirled within organization year around introducing PR way u gain targeted awareness top funnel initiative live chat statistic report wanted try zero information telling would surefire way u achieve goal increased mindshare key audience treated like experiment… explicitly defined three tier goal indicating ideal acceptable poor result outcome finite 4month contract agency hired via personal recommendation condition gained even low level early traction would continue working together Instead getting leadership team excited finally introducing PR mix candidly repeatedly positioned venture PR experiment defined hypothesis goal articulated course action place every possible outcome — failure exception 4month trial campaign yielded low quantifiable result able walk away still feeling proud experiment still yielded interesting result learned PR actually play longer game 4month trial insufficient determining whether PR actually work u bite actually trickled month contract ended Despite stakeholder impressed scientific proactive approach solving problem experiment considered net success Photo cred Furthermore UX Experts approach product manager take trying fix problem they’re working solve Framing every statement whether personal belief widely accepted truth must poked prodded questioned proven true intended drive action 3 Lean deeper technical product conversation may always feel second nature u product marketer take task participating technical product development conversation back input finding Voice Customer interview chance customer development program create opportunity build manage feedback loop scale well structuring process around crafting user story development direction Deepening contribution productshaping conversation mean better champion customer within organization across community added tip personal experience rather something I’m actively working role PMM Kayako product marketer benefit developing deep detailed comprehensive understanding competitive product well related technology way account executive strong technical understanding product might blow away sale demo go marketer encyclopedic knowledge competition’s product offering bring kind deep competitor knowledge table could great impact product decision chance thicken glue bind business product manager still product development process roadmap entirety opportunity product marketer contribute influence direction business core level 4 Put customer heart role core every decision product marketer product manager work best putting customer heart decision worth time product marketer collaborate existing product manager across business common goal leveraging real tangible customer insight drive product direction product manager exists business yet it’s even better bring table Focus anything put customer heart decision business feel benefit customer happiness rating bottom lineTags Product Management Startup Marketing Marketing Entrepreneurship Product Marketing |
2,184 | Learn From Your Mistakes If You Want to Find Your Version of Success | Learn From Your Mistakes If You Want to Find Your Version of Success
It is possible to build a business or career despite hurdles and challenges like a mental or physical illness
Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash
I would blame my failure to stay focused this past week on the election, but the deeper I overthink the mystery, the more I see it’s the nature of who I have been in life that threw me for a loop.
I tend to jump from one thing to another, which has been a significant problem for me.
Take the last week, for instance.
Do you notice that I often write about my mental health? It is only because my illness’s severity keeps it top of mind. Here I am writing a book during NaNoWriMo about blogging by finishing an essay or article per day. More often than not, I’m writing about how illness makes it difficult to complete anything.
I intended to have a central theme where I would talk about the business of blogging and create a timeline that lasted two months through the end of December 2020. It would outline the rise or fall of my writing and blogging business as I push myself to find the success that eludes me.
But I find I want to talk more to the many people who follow me for one specific reason.
Many of you are so much like me that it’s scary. You battle illness daily, whether it be the horror of diabetes or the pain and fear you get from depression and anxiety. I have people who write to me with PTSD and OCD, which are debilitating, and they find writing almost an impossibility.
I find I want to talk more about building a writing or blogging business when you have too many challenges to mention. What about those who have to push themselves to produce and have to somehow find a way to focus when demons are dancing on their Medulla Oblongata?
I am figuring out that a more interesting book I could write would exist to help people with mental or physical challenges build a business and find success, whatever our definition of that word is.
The problem is that I jump from thing to thing, and I don’t want to waste any more of my valuable time spinning my wheels if I can help it. I’ve learned that if I want to be successful at anything, I have to stick with one thing and focus.
Why am I like this? | https://medium.com/free-thinkr/learn-from-your-mistakes-if-you-want-to-find-your-version-of-success-83345fa28893 | ['Jason Weiland'] | 2020-11-08 18:11:27.730000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Mental Health', 'Success', 'Failure', 'Mistakes'] | Title Learn Mistakes Want Find Version SuccessContent Learn Mistakes Want Find Version Success possible build business career despite hurdle challenge like mental physical illness Photo krakenimages Unsplash would blame failure stay focused past week election deeper overthink mystery see it’s nature life threw loop tend jump one thing another significant problem Take last week instance notice often write mental health illness’s severity keep top mind writing book NaNoWriMo blogging finishing essay article per day often I’m writing illness make difficult complete anything intended central theme would talk business blogging create timeline lasted two month end December 2020 would outline rise fall writing blogging business push find success eludes find want talk many people follow one specific reason Many much like it’s scary battle illness daily whether horror diabetes pain fear get depression anxiety people write PTSD OCD debilitating find writing almost impossibility find want talk building writing blogging business many challenge mention push produce somehow find way focus demon dancing Medulla Oblongata figuring interesting book could write would exist help people mental physical challenge build business find success whatever definition word problem jump thing thing don’t want waste valuable time spinning wheel help I’ve learned want successful anything stick one thing focus like thisTags Writing Mental Health Success Failure Mistakes |
2,185 | Image Compression using K-Means Clustering | What is K-Means Clustering?
K-Means algorithm is a centroid based clustering technique. This technique cluster the dataset into k different clusters. Each cluster in the k-means clustering algorithm is represented by its centroid point.
Left Image: Plot of the dataset, Right Image: Plot of the result of 3-means clustering, (Image 1)
The above image (image 1) describes how 3 clusters are formed for a given dataset using the k-Means clustering algorithm with the value of k=3.
Further, read this article to know more about the k-Means Clustering algorithm.
How does the K-Means Clustering technique compress the image?
In a colored image, each pixel is of size 3 bytes (RGB), where each color can have intensity values from 0 to 255. Following combinatorics, the total number of colors which can be represented is 256*256*256 ( equal to 16,777,216). Practically, we can visualize only a few colors in an image very less than the above number. So the k-Means Clustering algorithm takes advantage of the visual perception of the human eye and uses few colors to represent the image. Colors having different values of intensity that are RGB values seem the same to the human eye. The K-Means algorithm takes this advantage and clubs similar looking colors (which are close together in a cluster). Here’s an illustration of how this works:
Choosing some pixels from the input image, (Image 2)
In the above image (Image 2), few pixels are picked and expanded in the further images to continue the illustration.
Left: A maximized image of above-picked pixels, Right: Two nearby pixels x and y, (Image 3)
The pixels picked in (Image 2) from an input image is expanded in the left part of (Image 3). In the right part of (Image 3) two nearby pixels are picked (names as ‘x’ and ‘y’).
If the RGB value of ‘x’ and ‘y’ pixel is (130, 131, 140) and (127, 132, 137) respectively, then below is the illustration of how these two-pixel colors are visible to a human eye. The below illustration of RGB intensity to color is prepared from w3schools.
Above Image: Color for RGB(130, 131, 140), Below Image: Color for RGB(127, 132, 137), (Image 4)
In the above image (Image 4), it is observed that for some amount of changes in the RGB values the color resembles the same to a human eye. So k-Means clustering can club these two colors together and can be represented by a centroid point that has almost the same resemblance to a human eye.
The initial dimension of an image is 750*1000 pixels. For each pixel, the image has 3-dimension representing RGB intensity values. The RGB intensity values range from 0 to 255. Since intensity value has 256 values (2**8), so the storage required to store each pixel value is 3*8 bits.
Finally, the initial size of the image is (750*1000*3*8) bits.
Total number of color combination equals (256*256*256) ( equal to 16,777,216). As the human eye is not able to perceive so many numbers of colors at once, so the idea is to club similar colors together and use less number of colors to represent the image.
We will be using k-Means clustering to find k number of colors which will be representative of its similar colors. These k-colors will be centroid points from the algorithm. Then we will replace each pixel values with its centroid points. The color combination formed using only k values will be very less compared to the total color combination. We will try different values of k and observe the output image.
If k=64 then the final size of the output image will be (750*1000*6 + 64*3*8) bits, as intensity value ranges to 2**6.
If k=128 then the final size of the output image will be (750*1000*7 + 128*3*8) bits, as intensity value ranges to 2**7.
Hence it is observed that the final size of the image is reduced to a great extent from the original image. | https://towardsdatascience.com/image-compression-using-k-means-clustering-aa0c91bb0eeb | ['Satyam Kumar'] | 2020-06-17 20:53:37.475000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Towards Data Science', 'Image Processing', 'Data Science'] | Title Image Compression using KMeans ClusteringContent KMeans Clustering KMeans algorithm centroid based clustering technique technique cluster dataset k different cluster cluster kmeans clustering algorithm represented centroid point Left Image Plot dataset Right Image Plot result 3means clustering Image 1 image image 1 describes 3 cluster formed given dataset using kMeans clustering algorithm value k3 read article know kMeans Clustering algorithm KMeans Clustering technique compress image colored image pixel size 3 byte RGB color intensity value 0 255 Following combinatorics total number color represented 256256256 equal 16777216 Practically visualize color image le number kMeans Clustering algorithm take advantage visual perception human eye us color represent image Colors different value intensity RGB value seem human eye KMeans algorithm take advantage club similar looking color close together cluster Here’s illustration work Choosing pixel input image Image 2 image Image 2 pixel picked expanded image continue illustration Left maximized image abovepicked pixel Right Two nearby pixel x Image 3 pixel picked Image 2 input image expanded left part Image 3 right part Image 3 two nearby pixel picked name ‘x’ ‘y’ RGB value ‘x’ ‘y’ pixel 130 131 140 127 132 137 respectively illustration twopixel color visible human eye illustration RGB intensity color prepared w3schools Image Color RGB130 131 140 Image Color RGB127 132 137 Image 4 image Image 4 observed amount change RGB value color resembles human eye kMeans clustering club two color together represented centroid point almost resemblance human eye initial dimension image 7501000 pixel pixel image 3dimension representing RGB intensity value RGB intensity value range 0 255 Since intensity value 256 value 28 storage required store pixel value 38 bit Finally initial size image 750100038 bit Total number color combination equal 256256256 equal 16777216 human eye able perceive many number color idea club similar color together use le number color represent image using kMeans clustering find k number color representative similar color kcolors centroid point algorithm replace pixel value centroid point color combination formed using k value le compared total color combination try different value k observe output image k64 final size output image 75010006 6438 bit intensity value range 26 k128 final size output image 75010007 12838 bit intensity value range 27 Hence observed final size image reduced great extent original imageTags Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Towards Data Science Image Processing Data Science |
2,186 | “Everything is Copy”- Nora Ephron | Taylor Swift quoted writer Nora Ephron the other night. “Everything is Copy” meaning: Every single thing that happens to us can be used as creative fodder.
I think we all know this as writers.
This is great news.
Yes. Every damn thing that happens to us can be a story.
I want to embrace this thought again.
I want to do what I’ve always done, which is write about it ALL.
The good
The bad and the ugly
The confusion
The scary shit
The humiliations
The sorrow
The joy
All of it. Not just the good stuff.
Oh, how boring it would be if writers only wrote happy fluffy bunny stories. lol. I know I cant relate to those writers much honestly.
I want to write about:
1. The fact that my fingers and brain haven’t been working well lately and for some reason I couldn’t write for over a month (after writing steadily for years).
2. The fact that my brain has never felt this overloaded — with family stresses, financial uncertainties, confusions in my creative life, and of course the insanity of the world.
3. The fact that my dad is dying and I don’t feel like talking to him or interact with him anymore.
4. The fact that I’m scared shitless sometimes that my boyfriend of over 24 years will drop dead (because he has some very serious health problems lately) and that I might end up a homeless bag lady with 4 cats on the side of the road holding a sign that reads:
“Homeless Artist/Writer/Musician will Work for food!”
5. The fact that while interviewing my mom for my Memoir recently she revealed some horrible unexpected family secrets about my dad, out of the blue, that spooked me to my core. This has been super hard to process. | https://medium.com/writing-heals/everything-is-copy-nora-ephron-65e812511f3 | ['Michelle Monet'] | 2019-04-27 04:23:41.765000+00:00 | ['Grief', 'Writing', 'Writing Tips', 'Productivity', 'Writing Life'] | Title “Everything Copy” Nora EphronContent Taylor Swift quoted writer Nora Ephron night “Everything Copy” meaning Every single thing happens u used creative fodder think know writer great news Yes Every damn thing happens u story want embrace thought want I’ve always done write good bad ugly confusion scary shit humiliation sorrow joy good stuff Oh boring would writer wrote happy fluffy bunny story lol know cant relate writer much honestly want write 1 fact finger brain haven’t working well lately reason couldn’t write month writing steadily year 2 fact brain never felt overloaded — family stress financial uncertainty confusion creative life course insanity world 3 fact dad dying don’t feel like talking interact anymore 4 fact I’m scared shitless sometimes boyfriend 24 year drop dead serious health problem lately might end homeless bag lady 4 cat side road holding sign read “Homeless ArtistWriterMusician Work food” 5 fact interviewing mom Memoir recently revealed horrible unexpected family secret dad blue spooked core super hard processTags Grief Writing Writing Tips Productivity Writing Life |
2,187 | How To Turn a $12k Investment Into $1 Million | How To Turn a $12k Investment Into $1 Million
When Albert Einstein once said that humanity’s greatest invention is “Compound interest.”
The biggest excuse for not investing I hear is: “I have no money to invest.”
Part of the reason why people think they should hold back from investing until they have more money is that they think it’s risky.
They don’t know when to buy, what to buy, or sometimes how to buy.
Here is the main issue with that.
Nobody knows when a market goes up, down, sideways. Anyone who tells you they do is either lying, foolish, or both.
And having tons of cash will not give you that kind of expertise.
Solution?
Instead of striking one magical moment, buy regularly and consistently over a long period.
The fancy name for this is “compound interest.”
When Albert Einstein once said that humanity’s greatest invention is “Compound interest.”
He also called compound interest the “eighth wonder of the world” and stated that “He who understands it earns it; he who doesn’t, pays it.”
Compound interest is basically “interest on interest.”
It simply means saving early and letting investment compound over a more extended period.
It’s quite a liberating strategy, and it takes the pressure off needing to pick the right instant to buy.
In my view, it’s as close to financial magic as you can.
And on top of that, with this strategy, you are almost sure to put $1 million in your pocket.
The magic is in the simplicity of this strategy. It’s all about investing repeatedly and long enough to ignite the miracle of the compound effect.
For example, assume you put $100 per month into Bitcoin.
In 10 short years, your $12,000 invested will be worth $1.163 million. Yes, that’s million, with six zeros. Check out the compound calculator and play around with the numbers for yourself.
But are these expected returns realistic?
Based on historical data, they sure are.
Cathie Wood and her ARK is the most successful fund in the last five years. According to their research, Bitcoin’s return in the previous seven years was 90 percent. It’s one of the best-performing assets in a decade.
Yes, it’s that simple.
And you don’t need a big pile of cash to invest. With this strategy, you can dip your toes into the water and learn as you go.
This passive form of investing means you don’t try to buy or sell based on your research. Also, you never panic when the market crashes, but you’ll only lock in your temporary losses.
The magic is not in the complexity; the magic is in the doing of simple things repeatedly and long enough to ignite the miracle of the compound effect.
But as Jim Rohn would say, “What’s simple to do is also simple not to do.”
You have to take action. You’ve got to invest money to make money.
Because the biggest difference between successful investors and unsuccessful investors is successful investors are willing to do what unsuccessful avoid. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/you-dont-need-millions-to-start-investing-d6cfd5016acb | ['Ras Vasilisin'] | 2020-11-12 17:28:26.004000+00:00 | ['Innovation', 'Investing', 'Money', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup'] | Title Turn 12k Investment 1 MillionContent Turn 12k Investment 1 Million Albert Einstein said humanity’s greatest invention “Compound interest” biggest excuse investing hear “I money invest” Part reason people think hold back investing money think it’s risky don’t know buy buy sometimes buy main issue Nobody know market go sideways Anyone tell either lying foolish ton cash give kind expertise Solution Instead striking one magical moment buy regularly consistently long period fancy name “compound interest” Albert Einstein said humanity’s greatest invention “Compound interest” also called compound interest “eighth wonder world” stated “He understands earns doesn’t pay it” Compound interest basically “interest interest” simply mean saving early letting investment compound extended period It’s quite liberating strategy take pressure needing pick right instant buy view it’s close financial magic top strategy almost sure put 1 million pocket magic simplicity strategy It’s investing repeatedly long enough ignite miracle compound effect example assume put 100 per month Bitcoin 10 short year 12000 invested worth 1163 million Yes that’s million six zero Check compound calculator play around number expected return realistic Based historical data sure Cathie Wood ARK successful fund last five year According research Bitcoin’s return previous seven year 90 percent It’s one bestperforming asset decade Yes it’s simple don’t need big pile cash invest strategy dip toe water learn go passive form investing mean don’t try buy sell based research Also never panic market crash you’ll lock temporary loss magic complexity magic simple thing repeatedly long enough ignite miracle compound effect Jim Rohn would say “What’s simple also simple do” take action You’ve got invest money make money biggest difference successful investor unsuccessful investor successful investor willing unsuccessful avoidTags Innovation Investing Money Entrepreneurship Startup |
2,188 | Apple Might Make a Big Jump | Apple is another name for Innovation! Be it Newton’s law of universal gravitation or Steve Jobs multinational technology firm Apple Inc. the roleplay of innovation has broadened the expanse of discovery.
For thousands of years, the most dramatic events centrally focus on human development through experimental analysis.
On comparing the previous history, there is a transcendental shift in human progress at personal fronts and a technological level. The reason for this progressive advancement is the “Think Different” and “Be Creative” approach.
In the information age, the individual’s approach to seeking knowledge, resolving queries, disseminating information, and communicating has touched the roots of modernization, especially through digital developments.
The technological company Apple Inc.’s growth boom in designing, developing and selling consumer electronics, computer software, and other online services centrally rest on thinking differently.
With this innovative and creative impulse, Steve Jobs managed to change the world of technology and design far beyond anyone’s imagination. And the company’s pace is speeding up with time, emerging as a fierce competitor and challenging the global markets.
This time Apple might make a potential-jump as a search engine giving competition to Google.
This came as no thunderbolt to me. Somewhere down the line, people might have considered the possibility of other search engines. But, precisely when was the uncertainty. Apple certainly has turned our probable analysis into reality. With technological advancements accelerating at a rapid pace, it is natural for the market to become competitive.
According to the Financial Times report — Apple has accelerated work to develop its own search engine that would allow the iPhone maker to offer an alternative to Google. For context, this behavior has been witnessed for a while as people have been observant about the feature popping up in beta versions of iOS. Jon Henshaw of Coywolf had noted back in August that the search volume is rising incredibly from Apple’s crawler.
As per the Financial Times, Apple is developing its own search engine technology as the United States antitrust authorities threaten multi-billion dollar payments, which Google makes to be the iPhone’s primary engine. As per the lawsuit, the tech giant misuses its power to shut down its competitor in search ads.
While Apple has been earlier focussing on its in-house search development, the lawsuit against Google made it explore the opportunity. To discover the opportunity requires critical analysis, market survey, taking calculated risks, and of course, thinking differently.
The Founder Steve Jobs greatly inherited these skills, and the legacy is transferred thereafter. He quoted in the Apples “Think Different” campaign:
“Here’s to the crazy ones — the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
Thus, Apple’s success with progressing times is an eye-opener towards grabbing the right opportunities with creative thinking.
Presently delving into search engine technology, reports mentioned that Apple two years ago hired Google’s head of search, John Giannandrea, in a move designed to improve artificial intelligence capabilities and its Siri virtual personal assistant incorporated as a feature of Apple iPhones.
Siri’s increase in search activity could be explained by getting more search queries and acting as an interlocutor between Apple and other search services like Google or Microsoft’s Bing. Previously, Google began this disintermediation, had modified and expanded over the years to combat a similar kind of behavior from Siri.
As of now, unclarity resides in how Apple will execute its search engine application. It also becomes tumultuous because of Google’s global dominance in the technology industry and people’s trustworthiness.
The matter has taken a point of discussion with no conclusion. Some reports claim that Apple will compete with Google and have its own websites and apps for phones. Contrarily, other reports mentioned that it would just be a feature to boost iOS devices’ spotlight.
So let’s collectively reason out about the search engine happening, digesting, and analyzing the latest developments. Because as Steve Jobs rightly said — | https://medium.com/discourse/apple-might-make-a-big-jump-c5625634cfcd | ['Swati Suman'] | 2020-11-19 15:27:14.495000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Innovation', 'World', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Startup'] | Title Apple Might Make Big JumpContent Apple another name Innovation Newton’s law universal gravitation Steve Jobs multinational technology firm Apple Inc roleplay innovation broadened expanse discovery thousand year dramatic event centrally focus human development experimental analysis comparing previous history transcendental shift human progress personal front technological level reason progressive advancement “Think Different” “Be Creative” approach information age individual’s approach seeking knowledge resolving query disseminating information communicating touched root modernization especially digital development technological company Apple Inc’s growth boom designing developing selling consumer electronics computer software online service centrally rest thinking differently innovative creative impulse Steve Jobs managed change world technology design far beyond anyone’s imagination company’s pace speeding time emerging fierce competitor challenging global market time Apple might make potentialjump search engine giving competition Google came thunderbolt Somewhere line people might considered possibility search engine precisely uncertainty Apple certainly turned probable analysis reality technological advancement accelerating rapid pace natural market become competitive According Financial Times report — Apple accelerated work develop search engine would allow iPhone maker offer alternative Google context behavior witnessed people observant feature popping beta version iOS Jon Henshaw Coywolf noted back August search volume rising incredibly Apple’s crawler per Financial Times Apple developing search engine technology United States antitrust authority threaten multibillion dollar payment Google make iPhone’s primary engine per lawsuit tech giant misuse power shut competitor search ad Apple earlier focussing inhouse search development lawsuit Google made explore opportunity discover opportunity requires critical analysis market survey taking calculated risk course thinking differently Founder Steve Jobs greatly inherited skill legacy transferred thereafter quoted Apples “Think Different” campaign “Here’s crazy one — misfit rebel troublemaker round peg square hole one see thing differently — they’re fond rule quote disagree glorify vilify thing can’t ignore change thing push human race forward may see crazy one see genius one crazy enough think change world one do” Thus Apple’s success progressing time eyeopener towards grabbing right opportunity creative thinking Presently delving search engine technology report mentioned Apple two year ago hired Google’s head search John Giannandrea move designed improve artificial intelligence capability Siri virtual personal assistant incorporated feature Apple iPhones Siri’s increase search activity could explained getting search query acting interlocutor Apple search service like Google Microsoft’s Bing Previously Google began disintermediation modified expanded year combat similar kind behavior Siri unclarity resides Apple execute search engine application also becomes tumultuous Google’s global dominance technology industry people’s trustworthiness matter taken point discussion conclusion report claim Apple compete Google website apps phone Contrarily report mentioned would feature boost iOS devices’ spotlight let’s collectively reason search engine happening digesting analyzing latest development Steve Jobs rightly said —Tags Technology Innovation World Artificial Intelligence Startup |
2,189 | A student’s journey to one of the world’s coolest entrepreneurship events | What do you do to lighten up Helsinki in November? I got to take part in the world’s biggest tech event, Slush. I was a volunteer there and I want to tell you about my journey within Finland’s big startup community. I am studying in one of the most stimulating startup hotbeds in the world and I explored the event like a hungry learner. The first and foremost thing I took along was my entrepreneurial spirit. It’s not just about business opportunities, but about being part of the startup ecosystem. Here’s where you should dare to knock on doors that can lead to exciting, new things.
The volunteering experience of a lifetime
All volunteers had fun and got set to rock at Slush 2017 (Photo: Otto Jahnukainen — Slush Media)
Volunteering at Slush brought me to the event and more than that. Indeed, I got access to one of the world’s leading startup events where a bunch of opportunities awaited. The experience is valuable because we feel appreciated. Volunteer Day was held prior to the main event for those who were about to get their hands dirty for Slush. There were various activities that helped making teams stronger while contributing to their cohesiveness.
That’s the spirit!
People including entrepreneurs, investors, journalists all gathered in the darkest time of Helsinki just to celebrate entrepreneurship.
“Nothing normal ever changed a damn thing!” Just like this motto, the atmosphere at Slush blew my mind. People were open to talk, to share and to learn. At Slush, I felt a strong curiosity. Nobody can resist the temptation of knowledge. Gladly, this temptation was satisfied by all the great talks given by inspiring speakers. Even a field I had never been interested in is now stuck in my mind. The stories I heard at Slush are now echoing in my heart.
The Fireside Stage (Photo: Jussi Ratilainen — Slush Media)
What is greater than being surrounded by tons of technology startups? It wasn’t just about testing the latest tech gear and checking the latest products and software. Jumping into the valley of startups was like bungee jumping. You could never know what to expect, how far you would go and how much you would see from these innovative entrepreneurs.
They told me about their stories and motivations, which truly stimulated my entrepreneurial enthusiasm. They want to give a hand to medical and social health. They want to enhance travel experience. They want to help marketers increase productivity and save more time. They want to support children with learning languages in a more creative and interesting way.
All of them, with different colors and shapes, were creating an awesome entrepreneurial celebration that inspired and appealed a foreign student like me.
(Cre: Sami Heiskanen — Slush Media)
As a volunteer, it was amazing to know that I was contributing to build up the strong entrepreneurship community. We helped each other, supported attendees, made the stage run smoothly. We all delivered the spirit and values of Slush. I felt that I was a piece in the puzzle that forms this community.
It was the experience of a lifetime! | https://medium.com/the-shortcut/a-students-journey-to-one-of-world-s-coolest-entrepreneurship-events-63bd75fd9aa6 | ['Trinh Tran'] | 2017-12-13 14:00:48.166000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Volunteer', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Slush', 'Startup'] | Title student’s journey one world’s coolest entrepreneurship eventsContent lighten Helsinki November got take part world’s biggest tech event Slush volunteer want tell journey within Finland’s big startup community studying one stimulating startup hotbed world explored event like hungry learner first foremost thing took along entrepreneurial spirit It’s business opportunity part startup ecosystem Here’s dare knock door lead exciting new thing volunteering experience lifetime volunteer fun got set rock Slush 2017 Photo Otto Jahnukainen — Slush Media Volunteering Slush brought event Indeed got access one world’s leading startup event bunch opportunity awaited experience valuable feel appreciated Volunteer Day held prior main event get hand dirty Slush various activity helped making team stronger contributing cohesiveness That’s spirit People including entrepreneur investor journalist gathered darkest time Helsinki celebrate entrepreneurship “Nothing normal ever changed damn thing” like motto atmosphere Slush blew mind People open talk share learn Slush felt strong curiosity Nobody resist temptation knowledge Gladly temptation satisfied great talk given inspiring speaker Even field never interested stuck mind story heard Slush echoing heart Fireside Stage Photo Jussi Ratilainen — Slush Media greater surrounded ton technology startup wasn’t testing latest tech gear checking latest product software Jumping valley startup like bungee jumping could never know expect far would go much would see innovative entrepreneur told story motivation truly stimulated entrepreneurial enthusiasm want give hand medical social health want enhance travel experience want help marketer increase productivity save time want support child learning language creative interesting way different color shape creating awesome entrepreneurial celebration inspired appealed foreign student like Cre Sami Heiskanen — Slush Media volunteer amazing know contributing build strong entrepreneurship community helped supported attendee made stage run smoothly delivered spirit value Slush felt piece puzzle form community experience lifetimeTags Tech Volunteer Entrepreneurship Slush Startup |
2,190 | 10 Practical Tips for Effective Cross-Team Collaboration | 10 Practical Tips for Effective Cross-Team Collaboration
Actionable tips that you can apply to your multi-team projects
Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash
It is not easy to be part of a project requiring multiple teams to work together to complete. If mismanaged, it can cost you and your organization valuable manhours and resources.
Throughout my career as a senior software engineer and engineering manager, I’ve had the privilege to lead the development of medium- to large-scale software that needs coordination between multiple teams and stakeholders. The ups and downs that I’ve experienced along the way have taught me a lot about leading cross-team initiatives — and I took notes and journaled about what I’ve learned. I thought it would good to share the common themes and what we did to minimize the chances of project delays and failures.
The tips here are not limited to teams within the same company. They could also apply to working with third-party teams; for example, your team needs to work on API integration with a team from a software service provider.
You don’t need to follow all the tips here. Pick and choose what you will need depending on the nature of your project. By the way, in this article, the word “project” could refer to a new product feature, a third-party integration, or any large piece of work that multiple teams in a company need to complete within a specific timeframe. Let’s get started. | https://medium.com/better-programming/10-practical-tips-for-an-effective-cross-team-collaboration-600fcd4e4143 | ['Ardy Dedase'] | 2020-11-11 18:09:13.408000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Technology', 'Leadership', 'Productivity', 'Programming'] | Title 10 Practical Tips Effective CrossTeam CollaborationContent 10 Practical Tips Effective CrossTeam Collaboration Actionable tip apply multiteam project Photo Marvin Meyer Unsplash easy part project requiring multiple team work together complete mismanaged cost organization valuable manhours resource Throughout career senior software engineer engineering manager I’ve privilege lead development medium largescale software need coordination multiple team stakeholder ups down I’ve experienced along way taught lot leading crossteam initiative — took note journaled I’ve learned thought would good share common theme minimize chance project delay failure tip limited team within company could also apply working thirdparty team example team need work API integration team software service provider don’t need follow tip Pick choose need depending nature project way article word “project” could refer new product feature thirdparty integration large piece work multiple team company need complete within specific timeframe Let’s get startedTags Startup Technology Leadership Productivity Programming |
2,191 | How Social Distancing Can Help You Live More Sustainably | How Social Distancing Can Help You Live More Sustainably
While living more simply, you’re also being more sustainable — which is good for you, and good for the planet
Let’s get one thing straight. Social distancing is not fun. A global pandemic is anything but peachy. Still, there’s nothing wrong with finding a silver lining in the clouds. As an environmental advocate who’s slowing down for the sake of all of us, sustainability is it. As it turns out, sustainability and social distancing interact in some compelling ways.
Using what we have
When we think about what’s really essential and what’s just nice to have, we tend to shop less and use what we have more. This goes for the can of vegetables in the dark recesses of the pantry just as much as the forgotten trousers in the closet. Simpler recipes reign, and yesterday’s styles reignite.
Bringing our own bags
Prepping for a trip to the grocery store now feels like preparing for battle. We’ve got the gloves, the mask (albeit homemade) and the sanitizer, just in case. We’ve got the credit card in our pocket and a pen for touching the keypad. Most importantly, we’ve got our own bags, which we’ll fill ourselves whenever possible. No one else needs to touch them.
Patching holes
We don’t need new jeans. We need a nice denim patch to iron on the inside. We need to fix what we have, not replace what could have easily been repaired. Going out is no longer the simple, convenient route. Repairing is.
Keeping a conservationist mindset
When there is only so much toilet paper to be had, we use less — or switch to a paperless bidet altogether. When there is only so much bread, we make our own, no production lines or plastic bags required. We are conservationists when we need to be.
Pivoting toward food growth and preservation
I write this with my spinach seeds planted and my cabbage on the road to fermentation. I write this with my granola freshly baked and jarred. Today, we are reminded of the importance of growing our own food and preserving what we have. We are reminded of the value of produce, and we must honor it.
The age of DIY
We can’t access masks, so we make them ourselves (or, in my case, we pay a teenage girl in the neighborhood who’s saving up for college to make them for us). We can’t go out just because we ran out of lens wipes, so we make our own cleaning spray. We sew reusable cotton rounds instead of buying a fresh bag of disposable ones. We do it ourselves, boldly and with gusto.
A smaller, gentler footprint
By driving less and walking more, our carbon footprint slims to stunning proportions. By staying within just a few miles of home, we make space for flora and fauna to thrive. We walk with calloused toes on living mulch with space for pores to breathe.
Building habits now for a more sustainable future
Habits are easier built than broken. As I return to my sustainable roots, I aim to use that to my advantage. By using this time of social distancing to make sustainability my norm, I hope to redefine my future — our future — beyond convenience. | https://medium.com/tenderlymag/how-social-distancing-can-help-you-live-more-sustainably-756fc1b5cc7e | ['Rachel Lewis Curry'] | 2020-05-22 16:01:00.984000+00:00 | ['Self', 'Environment', 'Lifestyle', 'Sustainability', 'Social Distance'] | Title Social Distancing Help Live SustainablyContent Social Distancing Help Live Sustainably living simply you’re also sustainable — good good planet Let’s get one thing straight Social distancing fun global pandemic anything peachy Still there’s nothing wrong finding silver lining cloud environmental advocate who’s slowing sake u sustainability turn sustainability social distancing interact compelling way Using think what’s really essential what’s nice tend shop le use go vegetable dark recess pantry much forgotten trouser closet Simpler recipe reign yesterday’s style reignite Bringing bag Prepping trip grocery store feel like preparing battle We’ve got glove mask albeit homemade sanitizer case We’ve got credit card pocket pen touching keypad importantly we’ve got bag we’ll fill whenever possible one else need touch Patching hole don’t need new jean need nice denim patch iron inside need fix replace could easily repaired Going longer simple convenient route Repairing Keeping conservationist mindset much toilet paper use le — switch paperless bidet altogether much bread make production line plastic bag required conservationist need Pivoting toward food growth preservation write spinach seed planted cabbage road fermentation write granola freshly baked jarred Today reminded importance growing food preserving reminded value produce must honor age DIY can’t access mask make case pay teenage girl neighborhood who’s saving college make u can’t go ran lens wipe make cleaning spray sew reusable cotton round instead buying fresh bag disposable one boldly gusto smaller gentler footprint driving le walking carbon footprint slims stunning proportion staying within mile home make space flora fauna thrive walk calloused toe living mulch space pore breathe Building habit sustainable future Habits easier built broken return sustainable root aim use advantage using time social distancing make sustainability norm hope redefine future — future — beyond convenienceTags Self Environment Lifestyle Sustainability Social Distance |
2,192 | Using Machine Learning to Predict Subscription to Bank Term Deposits for Clients with Python | Using Machine Learning to Predict Subscription to Bank Term Deposits for Clients with Python
Bank Marketing with Machine Learning using Scikit-Learn
“No great marketing decisions have ever been made on qualitative data.” — John Sculley (CEO of Apple Inc.)
Credit: wpforms.com/best-google-analytics-plugins-for-wordpress/
Introduction
Marketing to potential clients has always been a crucial challenge in attaining success for banking institutions. It’s not a surprise that banks usually deploy mediums such as social media, customer service, digital media and strategic partnerships to reach out to customers. But how can banks market to a specific location, demographic, and society with increased accuracy? With the inception of machine learning - reaching out to specific groups of people have been revolutionized by using data and analytics to provide detailed strategies to inform banks which customers are more likely to subscribe to a financial product. In this project on bank marketing with machine learning, I will explain how a particular Portuguese bank can use predictive analytics to help prioritize customers which would subscribe to a bank term deposit.
In this project I will demonstrate how to build a model predicting clients subscribing to a term deposit using the following steps -
Project definition
Data exploration
Feature engineering
Building training/validation/test samples
Model selection
Model evaluation
You can see my code in the Jupyter Notebook provided on my GitHub (https://github.com/emekaefidi/Bank-Marketing-with-Machine-Learning).
This project was inspired by Andrew Long!(check him out- https://towardsdatascience.com/@awlong20).
Project Definition
Predict if a client will subscribe (yes/no) to a term deposit — this is defined as a classification problem.
Data Exploration
The data that is used in this project originally comes from the UCI machine learning repository (link). The data is related with over 40,000 direct marketing campaigns of a Portuguese banking institution from May 2008 to November 2010. The marketing campaigns were based on phone calls. Often, more than one contact to the same client was required, in order to access if the product (bank term deposit) would be (‘yes’) or not (‘no’) subscribed.
In this project, we are going to utilize python to develop a predictive machine learning model! Let’s begin by loading our data and exploring the columns.
Looking briefly at the data columns, we are can see that there are various numerical and categorical columns! These columns can be explained in more details below:
The most important column here is y , which is the output variable (desired target): this will tell us if the client subscribed to a term deposit(binary: ‘yes’,’no’).
Now let’s define an output variable to use for our binary classification. We will try to predict if a client is likely to subscribe to a term deposit.
Let’s define a function in order to calculate the prevalence of population that subscribes to a term deposit.
Here we see that around 11% of the population has a term deposit. This is known as an imbalanced classification problem so we will address that below.
From digging deeply to analyze the columns, we see there are a mix of categorical (non-numeric) and numerical data. A few things to note —
All the data inputted are non-null values, meaning that we have a value for every column
age, duration, campaign, pdays, previous, emp.var.rate, cons.price.idx, cons.conf.idx, euribor3m and nr.employed are numerical variables
default, housing and loan have 3 values each (yes, no and unknown)
Output (y) has two values: “yes” and “no”
We are discarding duration. This attribute highly affects the output target (e.g., if duration=0 then y=’no’). Yet, the duration is not known before a call is performed. Also, after the end of the call y is obviously known. Thus, this input should only be included for benchmark purposes and should be discarded if the intention is to have a realistic predictive model
Feature Engineering
In this section, We are going to create features for our machine learning model. In each section, we will add new variables to the dataframe and keep track of which columns of the dataframe we are going to engage as part of the features for the predictive model. We will divide this section into numerical and categorical features.
Numerical Features
These are numeric data. The numerical columns that we will use can be seen below:
Now, let’s check if there are any missing values in the numerical data.
Categorical Features
Categorical variables are non-numeric data such as job and education. To turn these non-numerical data into variables, the simplest thing is to use a technique called one-hot encoding, which will be explained below.
The first set of categorical data we will work on are these columns:
In one-hot encoding, we will create a new column for each unique value in that column. Now, the value of the column is 1 if the sample has that unique value or else 0 . For example, for the column job, we would create new columns (“job_blue-collar”, “job_entrepreneur”, etc). If the client’s job is blue-collar, the client gets a 1 under ‘job_blue-collar’ and 0 under the rest of the job columns. To create these one-hot encoding columns, we will utilize the get_dummies function provided by pandas.
A problem that arises is by creating a column for each unique value, we have correlated columns. That is to say, the value in one column can be figured out by looking at the rest of the columns. For example, if marital is not “married”, “single”, or “divorced”, it must be “unknown”. In order to fix this, we can use the drop_first option, which will drop the first categorical value for each column. Now we are ready to make all of our categorical features.
In order to add the one-hot encoding columns to the dataframe, we use the concat function. axis = 1 is used to add the columns.
Let’s now save the column names of the categorical data to keep track of them.
Feature Engineering: Summary
Through this process we created 62 features for the machine learning model! We separated the features to the following:
9 numerical features
53 categorical features
We will create a new dataframe that only has the features and the OUTPUT_LABEL
Building Training/Validation/Test Samples
Till this very point we have explored our data and created features from the categorical data. Now, It is now time for us to split our data. The reason why we split the data is so that you can measure how well your model would do on unseen data. We split into three parts:
Training samples: these samples are used to train the model
Validation samples: these samples are held out from the training data and are used to make decisions on how to improve the model
Test samples: these samples are held out from all decisions and are used to test (measure) the generalized performance of the model
In this project, we will split into 70% train, 15% validation, and 15% test!
Let’s shuffle the samples using sample in case there was some order (e.g. all positive samples on top). Here n is the number of samples. random_state is just specified so the project is reproducible.
We can use sample again to extract 30% (using frac ) of the data to be used for validation and test splits. An important note is that the validation and test come from similar distributions and this technique is one way to do it.
And now we can split into test and validation using 50% fraction.
The .drop function just drops the rows from df_test to get the rows that were not part of the sample. We can use this same idea to get the training data.
At this junction, let’s check what percent of our groups are likely to subscribe to a term deposit. This is known as prevalence. Ideally, all three groups would have similar prevalence.
Now we can see that the prevalence is about the same for each group.
At this point, we might suggest dropping the training data into a predictive model and see the outcome. However, if we do this, there’s a chance that we will get back a model that is 89% accurate. But wait, we never caught any of the clients that will subscribe to a term deposit(recall= 0%). How can this be possible?
What is happening is that we have an imbalanced dataset where there are much more negatives than positives, therefore the model might just assign all samples as negative.
Typically, it is best practice to balance the data in some way to give the positives more weight. There are 3 techniques that are typically utilized:
sub-sample the more dominant class: using random subset of the negatives
over-sample the imbalanced class: using the same positive samples multiple times
create synthetic positive data
Usually, you will want to use the latter two methods if you only have a handful of positive cases. Since we have a few thousand positive cases, let’s use the sub-sample approach. Here, we will create a balanced training, validatoin and test data set that has 50% positive and 50% negative. You can also try tweaking this ratio to see if you can get an improvement.
Most machine learning packages like to implement an input matrix X and output vector y, so let’s create those:
There can be troubles in machine learning models when the variables are of different size (0–100, vs 0–1000000). To combat this, we can scale the data. Here we will use scikit-learn’s Standard Scaler which removes the mean and scales to unit variance. Here I will create a scaler using all the training data, but you could also use the balanced one if you wanted.
We are going to need this scaler for the test data, so let’s save it using a package called pickle .
Now we can go ahead and transform our data matrices:
We won’t transform the test matrix yet, to prevent us from being tempted to look at the performance until we are done with model selection.
Model Selection
Fantastic! We had to do a lot of work to prep the data! Which is the norm in data science. You can spend up to 90% cleaning and preparing data before analyzing!
In this section, we train a few machine learning models and use a few techniques for optimizing them. We will then select the best model based on performance on the validation set.
We will utilize the following functions to evaluate the performance of the model — AUC (Area Under the ROC Curve), Accuracy, Recall, Precision, Specificity and F1!
Since we have a balanced training data, let’s set our threshold at 0.5 to label a predicted sample as positive.
Model Selection: Baseline models
In this section, we will first compare the model performance of the following 7 machine learning models using default hyperparameters:
K-Nearest Neighbors
Logistic Regression
Stochastic Gradient Descent
Naive Bayes
Decision Tree
Random Forest
Gradient Boosting Classifier
K Nearest Neighbors (KNN)
KNN is one the simplest machine learning models. KNN looks at the k closest datapoints and probability sample that has positive labels. This model is very easy to understand, versatile, and you don’t need an assumption for the data structure. KNN is also good for multivariate analysis. A caveat with this algorithm is being sensitivity to K and takes a long time to evaluate if the number of trained samples is large. We can fit KNN using the following code from scikit-learn:
We can evaluate the model performance with the following code:
To be brief, we will exclude the evaluation from the remaining models and only show the aggregated results below.
Logistic Regression
Logistic regression is a traditional machine learning model that fits a linear decision boundary between the positive and negative samples. Logsitic regression uses a line (Sigmoid function) in the form of an “S” to predict if the dependent variable is true or false based on the independent variables. One advantage of logistic regression is the model is interpretable — we know which features are important for predicting positive or negative. Take note that the modeling is sensitive to the scaling of the features, so that is why we scaled the features above. We can fit logistic regression using the following code from scikit-learn.
Stochastic Gradient Descent
Stochastic gradient descent is similar to logistic regression. Stochastic Gradient Descent analyzes various sections of the data instead of the data as a whole and predicts the output using the independent variables. Stochastic Gradient Descent is faster than logistic regression in the sense that it doesn’t run the whole dataset but instead looks at different parts of the dataset. We can fit stochastic gradient descent using the following code from scikit-learn.
Naive Bayes
Naive Bayes is a model traditionally used in machine learning. This algorithm uses Bayes rule which calculated the probability of an event related to previous knowledge of the variables concerning the event. The “Naive” part is that the model assumes that all variables in the dataset are independent of each other — meaning there are no dependent variables or output. This works well for robotics and computer vision, but we can also try it here! We can fit Naive Bayes with the following code.
Decision Tree
Another class of popular machine learning models is tree-based methods. The simplest tree-based method is known as a decision tree. The goal of using a Decision Tree is to create a training model that can use to predict the class or value of the target variable by learning simple decision rules gotten from training data. In Decision Trees, for predicting a class label for a record we start from the root of the tree. One advantage of tree-based methods is that they have no assumptions about the structure of the data and are able to pick up non-linear effects if given sufficient tree depth. We can fit decision trees using the following code.
Random forest
One disadvantage of decision trees is that they tend overfit very easily by memorizing the training data. Overfitting occurs when a model learns the detail and noise in the training data to the extent that it negatively impacts the performance of the model on new data. Random forests were created to reduce the overfitting. In random forest models, multiple trees are created and the results are aggregated. The trees in a forest are decorrelated by using a random set of samples and random number of features in each tree. In most cases, random forests work better than decision trees because they are able to generalize more easily. To fit random forests, we can use the following code.
Gradient Boosting Classifier
Boosting is a technique that builds a new decision tree algorithm that focuses on the errors on the dataset to fix them. This learns the whole model in other to fix it and improve the prediction of the model. A model that uses this technique combined with a gradient descent algorithm (controlling learning rate) is known as gradient boosting classifier. One advantage is the XGBoost library is the determining factor in winning a lot of Kaggle data science competitions! To fit the gradient boosting classifier, we can apply the following code.
Analysis of Baseline Models
The next step is to make a dataframe with the results of all the baseline models and plot the outcomes using a package called seaborn . We will utilize the AUC to evaluate the best model. This is a good data science performance metric for picking the best model since it captures the trade off between the true positive and false positive and does not require selecting a threshold.
As we can see most of the models (except decision tree) have similar performance on the validation set. There is some overfitting as noted by the drop between training and validation. Let’s check if we can improve this performance using a few more techniques.
Model Selection: Learning Curve
In this section, we can diagnose how our models are doing by plotting a learning curve. In this section, we will make use of the learning curve code from scikit-learn’s website with a small change of plotting the AUC instead of accuracy.
In the case of random forest, we can see the model has high variance because the training and cross-validation scores show data points which are very spread out from one another. High variance would cause an algorithm to model the noise in the training set (overfitting).
Depending on the learning curve, there are a few strategies we can employ to improve the models
High Variance:
- Reduce number of features
- Decrease model complexity
- Add regularization
- Add more samples
High Bias:
- Add new features
- Increase model complexity
- Reduce regularization
- Change model architecture
Model Selection: Feature Importance
A way of improving your models to understand what features are important to your models. This can usually only be investigated for simpler models such as Logistic Regression or Random Forests. This analysis can help in certain areas:
— inspire new feature ideas : assists with both high bias and high variance
— obtain a list of the top features to be used for feature reduction: helps with high variance
— point out errors in your pipeline: helps with robustness of model
We can get the feature importance from logistic regression using the below.
We can take a look at the top 50 positive and top 50 negative coefficients to get some insight.
After reviewing these charts, I realized the features that have more impact on the predictive outcomes of the model are cons.price.idx, and euribor3m due to their high importance score. cons.price.idx is the consumer price index which measures changes in the price level of a weighted average market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. A lower the price index will encourage clients to subscribe to a term deposit. Similarly, euribor3m is the Euribor (Euro InterBank Offered Rate) which is the average interest rate banks provide on short term loans (3 months). This is a metric that shows clients’ ability to pay off short terms loans.
In a high variance situation, a technique that can be used is to reduce the number of variables to minimize overfitting. After this analysis, you could apply the top N positive and negative features or the top N important random forest features. You might need to adjust N so that your performance does not drop drastically. An example is only using the top feature will likely drop the performance by a lot.
Feature importance plots may also alert errors in your predictive learning model. You may have some data leakage in the cleaning process. Data leakage can be explained as the process of accidentally including something in the training that allows the machine learning algorithm to artificially cheat. Similar things can also happen when you combine datasets. Supposing when you merged the datasets one of the classes ended up with nan for some of the variables.
Model Selection: Hyperparameter Tuning
Hyperparameter Tuning is the process of searching for the ideal model architecture. These are parameters which define the model architecture. We are only going to optimize the hyper parameters for stochastic gradient descent, random forest, and gradient boosting classifier. We will not optimize KNN since it took a while to train. We will not optimize logistic regression since it performs similarly to stochastic gradient descent. Similarly, We will not optimize decision trees since they tend to overfit and perform worse that random forests and gradient boosting classifiers.
A good tool for hyperparameter tuning is Grid search — where grid values are tested using all possible combinations. This is a computationally intensive method. Another option is to randomly test a permutation of them. This technique is called Random Search and is also deployed in scikit-learn.
Now, we can create a grid over the random forest hyperparameters.
To implement the RandomizedSearchCV function, we need something to score or evaluate a set of hyperparameters. Here we will use the AUC.
The three important parameters of RandomizedSearchCV are
scoring = evaluation metric used to pick the best model
n_iter = number of different combinations
cv = number of cross-validation splits
Note that increasing the last two of these will increase the run-time, but will decrease chance of overfitting. The number of variables and grid size also influences the runtime. Cross-validation is a method for splitting the data multiple times to get a better estimate of the performance metric. For the purposes of this project, we will limit to 2 CV to reduce the time.
Let’s fit our Randomized Search random forest with the following code.
We can analyze the performance of the best model compared to the baseline model.
In the same way,we can optimize the performance of stochastic gradient descent and gradient boosting classifiers.
Here We can aggregate the results and compare to the baseline models on the validation set.
Looking at the results, we can see that the hyperparameter tuning improved the models, but not by much. This is most likely due to the fact that we have a high variance situation.
Model Selection: Best Classifier
In this phase, we will chose the gradient boosting classifier since it has the best AUC on the validation set. You won’t want to train your best classifier every time you want to run new predictions. Therefore, we need to save the classifier. We will use the package pickle .
Model Evaluation
Now that we have chosen our best model (optimized gradient boosting classifier). Let’s evaluate the performance of the test set.
Lastly, The final evaluation is shown below!
Additionally, We can create the ROC curve for the 3 datasets as shown below:
Conclusion
Through this project, we created a machine learning model that is able to predict how likely clients will subscribe to a bank term deposit. The best model was gradient boosting classifier with optimized hyperparameters. Our model’s test performance (AUC) is 79.5%. A precision of 0.82 divided by a prevalence of 0.50 gives us 1.6, which means the model helps us 1.6 times better than randomly guessing. The model was able to catch 62% of customers that will subscribe to a term deposit. We should focus on targeting customers with high cons.price.idx (consumer price index) and euribor3m (3 month indicator for paying off loans) as they are high importance features for the model and business. Therefore, we save time and money knowing the characteristics of clients we should market to and that will lead to increased growth and revenue.
References
S. Moro, P. Cortez and P. Rita. A Data-Driven Approach to Predict the Success of Bank Telemarketing. Decision Support Systems, Elsevier, 62:22–31, June 2014
A. Long. Using Machine Learning to Predict Hospital Readmission for Patients with Diabetes with Scikit-Learn. October 2018 | https://medium.com/swlh/using-machine-learning-to-predict-subscription-to-bank-term-deposits-for-clients-with-python-aec8a4690807 | ['Emeka Efidi'] | 2020-06-15 02:10:24.324000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Python', 'Machine Learning', 'Marketing', 'Scikit Learn'] | Title Using Machine Learning Predict Subscription Bank Term Deposits Clients PythonContent Using Machine Learning Predict Subscription Bank Term Deposits Clients Python Bank Marketing Machine Learning using ScikitLearn “No great marketing decision ever made qualitative data” — John Sculley CEO Apple Inc Credit wpformscombestgoogleanalyticspluginsforwordpress Introduction Marketing potential client always crucial challenge attaining success banking institution It’s surprise bank usually deploy medium social medium customer service digital medium strategic partnership reach customer bank market specific location demographic society increased accuracy inception machine learning reaching specific group people revolutionized using data analytics provide detailed strategy inform bank customer likely subscribe financial product project bank marketing machine learning explain particular Portuguese bank use predictive analytics help prioritize customer would subscribe bank term deposit project demonstrate build model predicting client subscribing term deposit using following step Project definition Data exploration Feature engineering Building trainingvalidationtest sample Model selection Model evaluation see code Jupyter Notebook provided GitHub httpsgithubcomemekaefidiBankMarketingwithMachineLearning project inspired Andrew Longcheck httpstowardsdatasciencecomawlong20 Project Definition Predict client subscribe yesno term deposit — defined classification problem Data Exploration data used project originally come UCI machine learning repository link data related 40000 direct marketing campaign Portuguese banking institution May 2008 November 2010 marketing campaign based phone call Often one contact client required order access product bank term deposit would ‘yes’ ‘no’ subscribed project going utilize python develop predictive machine learning model Let’s begin loading data exploring column Looking briefly data column see various numerical categorical column column explained detail important column output variable desired target tell u client subscribed term depositbinary ‘yes’’no’ let’s define output variable use binary classification try predict client likely subscribe term deposit Let’s define function order calculate prevalence population subscribes term deposit see around 11 population term deposit known imbalanced classification problem address digging deeply analyze column see mix categorical nonnumeric numerical data thing note — data inputted nonnull value meaning value every column age duration campaign pdays previous empvarrate conspriceidx consconfidx euribor3m nremployed numerical variable default housing loan 3 value yes unknown Output two value “yes” “no” discarding duration attribute highly affect output target eg duration0 y’no’ Yet duration known call performed Also end call obviously known Thus input included benchmark purpose discarded intention realistic predictive model Feature Engineering section going create feature machine learning model section add new variable dataframe keep track column dataframe going engage part feature predictive model divide section numerical categorical feature Numerical Features numeric data numerical column use seen let’s check missing value numerical data Categorical Features Categorical variable nonnumeric data job education turn nonnumerical data variable simplest thing use technique called onehot encoding explained first set categorical data work column onehot encoding create new column unique value column value column 1 sample unique value else 0 example column job would create new column “jobbluecollar” “jobentrepreneur” etc client’s job bluecollar client get 1 ‘jobbluecollar’ 0 rest job column create onehot encoding column utilize getdummies function provided panda problem arises creating column unique value correlated column say value one column figured looking rest column example marital “married” “single” “divorced” must “unknown” order fix use dropfirst option drop first categorical value column ready make categorical feature order add onehot encoding column dataframe use concat function axis 1 used add column Let’s save column name categorical data keep track Feature Engineering Summary process created 62 feature machine learning model separated feature following 9 numerical feature 53 categorical feature create new dataframe feature OUTPUTLABEL Building TrainingValidationTest Samples Till point explored data created feature categorical data time u split data reason split data measure well model would unseen data split three part Training sample sample used train model Validation sample sample held training data used make decision improve model Test sample sample held decision used test measure generalized performance model project split 70 train 15 validation 15 test Let’s shuffle sample using sample case order eg positive sample top n number sample randomstate specified project reproducible use sample extract 30 using frac data used validation test split important note validation test come similar distribution technique one way split test validation using 50 fraction drop function drop row dftest get row part sample use idea get training data junction let’s check percent group likely subscribe term deposit known prevalence Ideally three group would similar prevalence see prevalence group point might suggest dropping training data predictive model see outcome However there’s chance get back model 89 accurate wait never caught client subscribe term depositrecall 0 possible happening imbalanced dataset much negative positive therefore model might assign sample negative Typically best practice balance data way give positive weight 3 technique typically utilized subsample dominant class using random subset negative oversample imbalanced class using positive sample multiple time create synthetic positive data Usually want use latter two method handful positive case Since thousand positive case let’s use subsample approach create balanced training validatoin test data set 50 positive 50 negative also try tweaking ratio see get improvement machine learning package like implement input matrix X output vector let’s create trouble machine learning model variable different size 0–100 v 0–1000000 combat scale data use scikitlearn’s Standard Scaler remove mean scale unit variance create scaler using training data could also use balanced one wanted going need scaler test data let’s save using package called pickle go ahead transform data matrix won’t transform test matrix yet prevent u tempted look performance done model selection Model Selection Fantastic lot work prep data norm data science spend 90 cleaning preparing data analyzing section train machine learning model use technique optimizing select best model based performance validation set utilize following function evaluate performance model — AUC Area ROC Curve Accuracy Recall Precision Specificity F1 Since balanced training data let’s set threshold 05 label predicted sample positive Model Selection Baseline model section first compare model performance following 7 machine learning model using default hyperparameters KNearest Neighbors Logistic Regression Stochastic Gradient Descent Naive Bayes Decision Tree Random Forest Gradient Boosting Classifier K Nearest Neighbors KNN KNN one simplest machine learning model KNN look k closest datapoints probability sample positive label model easy understand versatile don’t need assumption data structure KNN also good multivariate analysis caveat algorithm sensitivity K take long time evaluate number trained sample large fit KNN using following code scikitlearn evaluate model performance following code brief exclude evaluation remaining model show aggregated result Logistic Regression Logistic regression traditional machine learning model fit linear decision boundary positive negative sample Logsitic regression us line Sigmoid function form “S” predict dependent variable true false based independent variable One advantage logistic regression model interpretable — know feature important predicting positive negative Take note modeling sensitive scaling feature scaled feature fit logistic regression using following code scikitlearn Stochastic Gradient Descent Stochastic gradient descent similar logistic regression Stochastic Gradient Descent analyzes various section data instead data whole predicts output using independent variable Stochastic Gradient Descent faster logistic regression sense doesn’t run whole dataset instead look different part dataset fit stochastic gradient descent using following code scikitlearn Naive Bayes Naive Bayes model traditionally used machine learning algorithm us Bayes rule calculated probability event related previous knowledge variable concerning event “Naive” part model assumes variable dataset independent — meaning dependent variable output work well robotics computer vision also try fit Naive Bayes following code Decision Tree Another class popular machine learning model treebased method simplest treebased method known decision tree goal using Decision Tree create training model use predict class value target variable learning simple decision rule gotten training data Decision Trees predicting class label record start root tree One advantage treebased method assumption structure data able pick nonlinear effect given sufficient tree depth fit decision tree using following code Random forest One disadvantage decision tree tend overfit easily memorizing training data Overfitting occurs model learns detail noise training data extent negatively impact performance model new data Random forest created reduce overfitting random forest model multiple tree created result aggregated tree forest decorrelated using random set sample random number feature tree case random forest work better decision tree able generalize easily fit random forest use following code Gradient Boosting Classifier Boosting technique build new decision tree algorithm focus error dataset fix learns whole model fix improve prediction model model us technique combined gradient descent algorithm controlling learning rate known gradient boosting classifier One advantage XGBoost library determining factor winning lot Kaggle data science competition fit gradient boosting classifier apply following code Analysis Baseline Models next step make dataframe result baseline model plot outcome using package called seaborn utilize AUC evaluate best model good data science performance metric picking best model since capture trade true positive false positive require selecting threshold see model except decision tree similar performance validation set overfitting noted drop training validation Let’s check improve performance using technique Model Selection Learning Curve section diagnose model plotting learning curve section make use learning curve code scikitlearn’s website small change plotting AUC instead accuracy case random forest see model high variance training crossvalidation score show data point spread one another High variance would cause algorithm model noise training set overfitting Depending learning curve strategy employ improve model High Variance Reduce number feature Decrease model complexity Add regularization Add sample High Bias Add new feature Increase model complexity Reduce regularization Change model architecture Model Selection Feature Importance way improving model understand feature important model usually investigated simpler model Logistic Regression Random Forests analysis help certain area — inspire new feature idea assist high bias high variance — obtain list top feature used feature reduction help high variance — point error pipeline help robustness model get feature importance logistic regression using take look top 50 positive top 50 negative coefficient get insight reviewing chart realized feature impact predictive outcome model conspriceidx euribor3m due high importance score conspriceidx consumer price index measure change price level weighted average market basket consumer good service purchased household lower price index encourage client subscribe term deposit Similarly euribor3m Euribor Euro InterBank Offered Rate average interest rate bank provide short term loan 3 month metric show clients’ ability pay short term loan high variance situation technique used reduce number variable minimize overfitting analysis could apply top N positive negative feature top N important random forest feature might need adjust N performance drop drastically example using top feature likely drop performance lot Feature importance plot may also alert error predictive learning model may data leakage cleaning process Data leakage explained process accidentally including something training allows machine learning algorithm artificially cheat Similar thing also happen combine datasets Supposing merged datasets one class ended nan variable Model Selection Hyperparameter Tuning Hyperparameter Tuning process searching ideal model architecture parameter define model architecture going optimize hyper parameter stochastic gradient descent random forest gradient boosting classifier optimize KNN since took train optimize logistic regression since performs similarly stochastic gradient descent Similarly optimize decision tree since tend overfit perform worse random forest gradient boosting classifier good tool hyperparameter tuning Grid search — grid value tested using possible combination computationally intensive method Another option randomly test permutation technique called Random Search also deployed scikitlearn create grid random forest hyperparameters implement RandomizedSearchCV function need something score evaluate set hyperparameters use AUC three important parameter RandomizedSearchCV scoring evaluation metric used pick best model niter number different combination cv number crossvalidation split Note increasing last two increase runtime decrease chance overfitting number variable grid size also influence runtime Crossvalidation method splitting data multiple time get better estimate performance metric purpose project limit 2 CV reduce time Let’s fit Randomized Search random forest following code analyze performance best model compared baseline model waywe optimize performance stochastic gradient descent gradient boosting classifier aggregate result compare baseline model validation set Looking result see hyperparameter tuning improved model much likely due fact high variance situation Model Selection Best Classifier phase chose gradient boosting classifier since best AUC validation set won’t want train best classifier every time want run new prediction Therefore need save classifier use package pickle Model Evaluation chosen best model optimized gradient boosting classifier Let’s evaluate performance test set Lastly final evaluation shown Additionally create ROC curve 3 datasets shown Conclusion project created machine learning model able predict likely client subscribe bank term deposit best model gradient boosting classifier optimized hyperparameters model’s test performance AUC 795 precision 082 divided prevalence 050 give u 16 mean model help u 16 time better randomly guessing model able catch 62 customer subscribe term deposit focus targeting customer high conspriceidx consumer price index euribor3m 3 month indicator paying loan high importance feature model business Therefore save time money knowing characteristic client market lead increased growth revenue References Moro P Cortez P Rita DataDriven Approach Predict Success Bank Telemarketing Decision Support Systems Elsevier 6222–31 June 2014 Long Using Machine Learning Predict Hospital Readmission Patients Diabetes ScikitLearn October 2018Tags Data Science Python Machine Learning Marketing Scikit Learn |
2,193 | The Brave Writer Submission Guidelines | How to become a writer?
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Check it out here. | https://medium.com/the-brave-writer/write-for-us-8d2e05a028d5 | ['Maria Angel Ferrero'] | 2020-12-29 11:14:28.471000+00:00 | ['Writing Tips', 'Write For Us', 'Self Improvement', 'Writing', 'Marketing'] | Title Brave Writer Submission GuidelinesContent become writer post ready submit via form add writer within 48 hour Requests contribute via email Facebook message mean ignored added contributor able submit draft Brave Writer directly Medium Profile don’t know read Medium guide don’t hear back u within three business day please assume kindly passed submission improve chance getting approved writer following guideline also take look Editor’s Notes Column column editor share advice edit piece pitch story improve chance work accepted publication Check hereTags Writing Tips Write Us Self Improvement Writing Marketing |
2,194 | Apple Once Passed on Acquiring Tesla | When notes leaked that Apple was planning to begin production of an electric “iCar” by 2025, Elon Musk responded. At first, he questioned Apple’s tactics for producing safe and efficient batteries and whether they actually gave the company a competitive advantage over Tesla.
Then, he dropped this bomb:
In 2017, perhaps the time period in which Musk is referring, Tesla wasn’t far from death. On “Axios on HBO,” Musk said his company was “within single-digit weeks” of folding as they struggled to ramp-up Model 3 mass production.
Musk also said he “personally redesigned the whole battery pack production line and ran it for three weeks,” trying to paint the picture of how dire the company’s situation was.
Musk said the amount of work he put in to save the company hurt his brain and his heart and that no one should put in the amount of work he did.
These reflections explain why Musk reached out to Apple. The company was bleeding money, as Musk said. While Tesla probably wouldn’t have actually died in 2017, it would have had to get money from somewhere.
An acquisition from a large-cap company like Apple would have taken all that stress off of Musk. He would have the financial backing that could keep Tesla afloat.
In a separate interview in 2018, Musk said ramping up the Model 3 production was a “bet-the-company” situation — a situation he didn’t see Tesla being in again.
Two years later, Tesla is worth over $612 billion, making it the most valuable car company in the world — more valuable than the next six car companies combined, mainly due to its stock market returns.
Musk said Apple would have acquired Tesla at 1/10 of its current valuation, meaning around $60 billion. Hindsight is 20/20, but that is obviously a huge miss for Apple.
Apple CEO Tim Cook passing on the meeting doesn’t make much sense. Tesla, a car manufacturer, is obviously in a much different space than Apple is with its technology. But part of what makes Tesla so unique is that it is, too, a technology company.
And, according to the Reuters “iCar” report, the two companies seem to now have similar goals.
The report states that Apple’s new car plans, referred to as “Project Titan,” have been on-and-off since 2014 when the company originally planned to produce a vehicle. Apple eventually stepped away from the plan but reignited it in 2018 by re-hiring veteran employee Doug Field, who returned after working at Tesla, to head the project.
After more than a year of building a team behind the scenes, Apple now feels comfortable moving forward with making a consumer product — an electric, self-driving vehicle.
There is doubt within the report, however, that Apple could see a profit on vehicle production in any reasonable timeframe. It took Tesla 17 years to become profitable. As discussed earlier with Tesla, mass-producing these types of vehicles can become a money pit.
Apple will supposedly not begin production until 2025, giving them plenty of time to find suppliers of technology and manufacturers for the car. By that time, though, every other company working to produce electric and autonomous vehicles will be miles and miles ahead of Apple.
“As we see with Tesla and the legacy auto companies, having a very complex manufacturing network around the globe doesn’t happen overnight,” Trip Miller, managing partner at Gullane Capital Partners, said in the report.
In 2020, Musk became the second-richest person in the world thanks to Tesla’s extreme success in the stock market — returning nearly 700% in the past year.
Had the company been sold to Apple three years ago, Musk would not be in the position he is in now and Tesla might not be either.
Apple is doing just fine with a valuation of over $2.2 trillion. Moving forward, though, it has to try to find a way to compete with the tech-auto giant that it could have had a stake in. | https://medium.com/swlh/apple-once-passed-on-acquiring-tesla-d78b2f58d389 | ['Dylan Hughes'] | 2020-12-24 22:33:20.102000+00:00 | ['Transportation', 'Technology', 'Apple', 'Sustainability', 'Tesla'] | Title Apple Passed Acquiring TeslaContent note leaked Apple planning begin production electric “iCar” 2025 Elon Musk responded first questioned Apple’s tactic producing safe efficient battery whether actually gave company competitive advantage Tesla dropped bomb 2017 perhaps time period Musk referring Tesla wasn’t far death “Axios HBO” Musk said company “within singledigit weeks” folding struggled rampup Model 3 mass production Musk also said “personally redesigned whole battery pack production line ran three weeks” trying paint picture dire company’s situation Musk said amount work put save company hurt brain heart one put amount work reflection explain Musk reached Apple company bleeding money Musk said Tesla probably wouldn’t actually died 2017 would get money somewhere acquisition largecap company like Apple would taken stress Musk would financial backing could keep Tesla afloat separate interview 2018 Musk said ramping Model 3 production “betthecompany” situation — situation didn’t see Tesla Two year later Tesla worth 612 billion making valuable car company world — valuable next six car company combined mainly due stock market return Musk said Apple would acquired Tesla 110 current valuation meaning around 60 billion Hindsight 2020 obviously huge miss Apple Apple CEO Tim Cook passing meeting doesn’t make much sense Tesla car manufacturer obviously much different space Apple technology part make Tesla unique technology company according Reuters “iCar” report two company seem similar goal report state Apple’s new car plan referred “Project Titan” onandoff since 2014 company originally planned produce vehicle Apple eventually stepped away plan reignited 2018 rehiring veteran employee Doug Field returned working Tesla head project year building team behind scene Apple feel comfortable moving forward making consumer product — electric selfdriving vehicle doubt within report however Apple could see profit vehicle production reasonable timeframe took Tesla 17 year become profitable discussed earlier Tesla massproducing type vehicle become money pit Apple supposedly begin production 2025 giving plenty time find supplier technology manufacturer car time though every company working produce electric autonomous vehicle mile mile ahead Apple “As see Tesla legacy auto company complex manufacturing network around globe doesn’t happen overnight” Trip Miller managing partner Gullane Capital Partners said report 2020 Musk became secondrichest person world thanks Tesla’s extreme success stock market — returning nearly 700 past year company sold Apple three year ago Musk would position Tesla might either Apple fine valuation 22 trillion Moving forward though try find way compete techauto giant could stake inTags Transportation Technology Apple Sustainability Tesla |
2,195 | Achieving material efficiency | A new economic model which puts the emphasis on the recycling and reusing of materials and products is emerging, as concerns for the environment escalate. The circular economy calls for a radical shift in production and consumption. Continual cycles recover and restore products, components and materials through strategies such as reuse, repair, remanufacture and, ultimately, recycling.
Material efficiency is an essential part of the circular economy. It consists of the preservation of materials by making products more durable and repairable. It also facilitates the recovery and recycling of material at the end of the product life. The ultimate objective of material efficiency is to keep materials in use for as long as possible — and potentially forever.
Material efficiency can be placed into a hierarchy during a product’s use and waste phases. The most favourable strategies call for the design of products associated with a longer product life using the least amount of natural resources, while the least favourable strategies represent the loss of a material resource by incinerating the material and recovering its energy. In a truly circular economy, landfills are not an acceptable option.
Hierarchy in the make and use phases
The highest value is given to strategies associated with longer product life and the minimal use of natural resources. Products should be constructed to consume the least amount of resources and be designed to last for very long periods of time. In the use phase, strategies are identified to keep materials in use by extending the lifetime of a product.
Strategies associated with making the product can be extending the lifetime of products or using less raw materials. This is possible by designing products that make use of fewer raw materials and that can last for very long periods of time.
Strategies associated with the use phase of the products are developed such that the lifetime can be extended through for example, reuse, repair and upgrades, as well as refurbishment and the remanufacture of products. However, repair is preferred over refurbishment since the product is only minimally changed and thus fewer resources and energy are needed. With a repair, the product provides the same function, and resources are only used to bring it back to working condition. With refurbishment, however, additional resources are needed to bring the product to its original condition in addition to the resources needed for the resale, delivery and installation of the product.
Hierarchy in the waste phase
When a product reaches the waste phase, much of the value of the material has already been lost since the product is no longer in use.
While it is possible to keep the materials of the product in use through recycling, a significant loss in the value of the product has occurred. Recycling should therefore be viewed as an option of last resort since significant amounts of resources and energy will be necessary not only to recycle the materials themselves, but also to make a new product from the recycled materials.
As can be expected, the greatest loss of materials occurs when the material is incinerated and the energy recovered, or when it is disposed in a landfill since it is no longer in use: the circular cycle is broken.
Designing products for material efficiency
Manufacturers can address material efficiency when designing their products. Each stage of the use and waste phases of a product should be taken into consideration to allow for material efficiency to be facilitated.
In the design phase, manufacturers should consider the materials used in the construction of a product. For example, they can try to reduce the amount of materials used by optimizing the product design, and by selecting recycled materials or reused components. Focusing on the use phase, products should be designed in such a way that their lifetime can be extended by making them easy to repair and upgrade or reuse. Since products will be reused (including refurbishment or remanufacture), and thus have multiple owners, manufacturers should also facilitate upgrades of soft- and hardware and the removal of sensitive data. Also, parts should be designed to endure multiple cleaning and dis- and reassembly cycles.
Products should be designed for an efficient end-of-life. This means that useful materials and components can be easily and safely recuperated by, for instance, making the product easy to disassemble.
How standards can help
The IEC is examining the requirements for material efficiency.
To facilitate products to last longer, standards are needed to ensure that, amongst others, product safety, performance and reliability are sufficiently taken into account. Issues such as data removal and security must also be considered as products are reused and change ownership. Moreover, a holistic approach is needed to ensure that the protection of the environment is not detrimental to areas such as product safety, EMC and performance.
Legislation is expected to require the increased use of used parts as well as products that can more easily be repaired or remanufactured. We will need standardized methods and tools to assess aspects such as the proportion of reused components or recycled content in a product, and how to assess the ease (or difficulty) with which a product can be repaired or remanufactured. Also, standards will be needed to guarantee the properties of the used material, as well as to define the requirements for parts reliability.
Within the IEC, several committees have developed standards that support material efficiency for electrical and electronic products. Some examples include:
IEC TR 62635 with information on product end of life, including the recyclability rate calculation.
IEC TR 62824 with guidance about material efficiency considerations in the eco-design of products.
IEC 62309 which examines the dependability of products containing used parts.
IEC 63077 which specifies the process for ensuring the performance and safety of refurbished medical imaging equipment.
Additional standards are currently under development. For example, in TC 111 a proposal for a new standard to assess the proportion of reused components in products is currently under vote. TC 111 is also preparing a standard covering principles of product circularity in environmental conscious design while TC 62 and TC 2 are developing standards on the refurbishment of medical equipment and rotating machinery, respectively.
New standards covering requirements for material efficiency in the design of products, such as circular ready design, are needed and plans are underway to start such standardization work in the IEC. | https://medium.com/e-tech/achieving-material-efficiency-7c31a426aac0 | [] | 2020-04-08 10:23:54.563000+00:00 | ['Economy', 'Environment', 'Circular Econonomy', 'Material Efficiency', 'Sustainability'] | Title Achieving material efficiencyContent new economic model put emphasis recycling reusing material product emerging concern environment escalate circular economy call radical shift production consumption Continual cycle recover restore product component material strategy reuse repair remanufacture ultimately recycling Material efficiency essential part circular economy consists preservation material making product durable repairable also facilitates recovery recycling material end product life ultimate objective material efficiency keep material use long possible — potentially forever Material efficiency placed hierarchy product’s use waste phase favourable strategy call design product associated longer product life using least amount natural resource least favourable strategy represent loss material resource incinerating material recovering energy truly circular economy landfill acceptable option Hierarchy make use phase highest value given strategy associated longer product life minimal use natural resource Products constructed consume least amount resource designed last long period time use phase strategy identified keep material use extending lifetime product Strategies associated making product extending lifetime product using le raw material possible designing product make use fewer raw material last long period time Strategies associated use phase product developed lifetime extended example reuse repair upgrade well refurbishment remanufacture product However repair preferred refurbishment since product minimally changed thus fewer resource energy needed repair product provides function resource used bring back working condition refurbishment however additional resource needed bring product original condition addition resource needed resale delivery installation product Hierarchy waste phase product reach waste phase much value material already lost since product longer use possible keep material product use recycling significant loss value product occurred Recycling therefore viewed option last resort since significant amount resource energy necessary recycle material also make new product recycled material expected greatest loss material occurs material incinerated energy recovered disposed landfill since longer use circular cycle broken Designing product material efficiency Manufacturers address material efficiency designing product stage use waste phase product taken consideration allow material efficiency facilitated design phase manufacturer consider material used construction product example try reduce amount material used optimizing product design selecting recycled material reused component Focusing use phase product designed way lifetime extended making easy repair upgrade reuse Since product reused including refurbishment remanufacture thus multiple owner manufacturer also facilitate upgrade soft hardware removal sensitive data Also part designed endure multiple cleaning dis reassembly cycle Products designed efficient endoflife mean useful material component easily safely recuperated instance making product easy disassemble standard help IEC examining requirement material efficiency facilitate product last longer standard needed ensure amongst others product safety performance reliability sufficiently taken account Issues data removal security must also considered product reused change ownership Moreover holistic approach needed ensure protection environment detrimental area product safety EMC performance Legislation expected require increased use used part well product easily repaired remanufactured need standardized method tool ass aspect proportion reused component recycled content product ass ease difficulty product repaired remanufactured Also standard needed guarantee property used material well define requirement part reliability Within IEC several committee developed standard support material efficiency electrical electronic product example include IEC TR 62635 information product end life including recyclability rate calculation IEC TR 62824 guidance material efficiency consideration ecodesign product IEC 62309 examines dependability product containing used part IEC 63077 specifies process ensuring performance safety refurbished medical imaging equipment Additional standard currently development example TC 111 proposal new standard ass proportion reused component product currently vote TC 111 also preparing standard covering principle product circularity environmental conscious design TC 62 TC 2 developing standard refurbishment medical equipment rotating machinery respectively New standard covering requirement material efficiency design product circular ready design needed plan underway start standardization work IECTags Economy Environment Circular Econonomy Material Efficiency Sustainability |
2,196 | Spring Boot Microservices — Implementing Circuit Breaker | Spring Boot Microservices — Implementing Circuit Breaker
In this article, we will learn the fundamentals of one of the must pattern in the Microservices world — Circuit Breaker. We will do the sample implementation based on Spring Boot, Spring Cloud & Resilience4j. This is the sixth part of our Spring Boot Microservices series.
What is Circuit Breaker?
As the name suggests, the pattern derives its inspiration from the electrical switches, which are designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage, caused by excess current from an overload.
When a particular microservice or resource is not responding, this pattern helps in registering the fault, switching off the communication, and restoring it back when the service is ready to serve the requests. This helps the microservice ecosystem in multiple ways —
It handles the service failure and exits gracefully It helps in reducing the overload on the service, which is already stressed It stops the spread of failure across other services
Let's try to understand the pattern with a real world example. We are working in the e-commerce domain and our system is built on Microservices Architecture. For simplicity, let's consider two services.
The first is Product Catalog Service, responsible to manage product lifecycle through — create, update, delete, and get operations. And the second is Product Inventory Service, responsible to manage product inventory through add, update, and get operations.
Get Product Details — Api
Here’s the typical call from our e-commerce store. It calls the Product Catalog Service to get the product details. It has the basic product information including title, description, price but not the available quantity. To get the quantity, it calls the Product Inventory Service.
What if the Product Inventory Service is down? If you don’t handle this scenario, it will result in the failure of Product Catalog Service too. The situation can get worse if the Product Inventory Service is slow in responding. This means it's already consuming resources to its limit.
Let's say, another service called Order Management Service is consuming the Product Inventory Service at this point in time. If the Inventory Service is bombarded with multiple calls from Product Catalog Service, at the same time, it will result in the failure of Order Management Service too.
This is an example of cascading failure, which can propagate to the whole system if not handled correctly. Simple exception handling is not good enough in this case. The Circuit Breaker pattern provides an elegant, maintainable, and flexible approach to handle such failures.
How does the pattern work?
Resilience4j has done a good job in explaining how the pattern works. The Circuit Breaker pattern is implemented with three states: CLOSED, OPEN and HALF-OPEN.
Circuit Breaker — An Illustration
The Circuit Breaker sits right in the middle of the call to external service/resource. In our case when Product Catalog Service calls the Product Inventory Service, the call will go through the Circuit Breaker component.
Circuit Breaker will be in a CLOSED state by default. Let's say the configured threshold is 10%. This means if 10 out of 100 requests are failed, it will be assumed that the failure threshold is reached. At this point, the circuit breaker will move to the OPEN state. After a while, it will move to the HALF-OPEN state to check the status of the Product Inventory Service. At this point, it will open the communication channel at a limited rate. If the rate of failure continues to be above the threshold value (10%), it will move to the OPEN state again. If not, it will move to the CLOSED state and the expected communication will be resumed.
With this pattern in place, you can always exit gracefully and control the rate of transaction flows as per the service availability.
Sample Implementation
Let's do the sample implementation to see how it works on the ground. We will be doing the implementation based on Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, and Resilience4j. This implementation is also based on Project Reactor, which means we will be using Spring Web flux and Spring Cloud Reactive Circuit Breaker. I have divided the exercise into three following parts.
Building Product Inventory Service — We will implement add, update, and get inventory APIs of this service. Building Product Catalog Service — We will implement create, update, delete, and get product APIs of this service. Our primary focus will be on GET API though. Implementing Circuit Breaker — We will implement the circuit breaker in the get Product Details API of Product Catalog Service.
Also, please ensure that you have Java 11 and Maven 3.x. Any version of Java beyond 1.8 should work but I did not validate for other versions.
Building Product Inventory Service
As discussed our Product Inventory Service will consist of addProductInventory, updateProductInventory, and getProductInventory APIs. We will use MongoDB for data persistence. Let's go to the spring initializer and generate the project structure.
Add Spring Reactive Web, Spring Data Reactive MongoDB as dependencies. Generate, download, and unpack the archive at your local system.
spring initializer — product-inventory service
Let's implement the restful APIs in ProductInventoryService.java . Update the file with the following code.
@RestController
public class ProductInventoryService { public class ProductInventoryService { @Autowired
private ReactiveMongoTemplate mongoTemplate; private ReactiveMongoTemplate mongoTemplate;
public Mono < ProductInventory > addProductInventory(
return mongoTemplate.insert(product);
} @PostMapping ("/inventory")public Mono < ProductInventory > addProductInventory( @RequestBody ProductInventory product) {return mongoTemplate.insert(product);
public Mono < ProductInventory > updateProductInventory(
return mongoTemplate.save(product);
} @PutMapping ("/inventory")public Mono < ProductInventory > updateProductInventory( @RequestBody ProductInventory product) {return mongoTemplate.save(product);
public Mono < ProductInventory > getProductInventory(
return mongoTemplate.findById(id, ProductInventory.class);
} @GetMapping ("/inventory/{id}")public Mono < ProductInventory > getProductInventory( @PathVariable String id) {return mongoTemplate.findById(id, ProductInventory.class); }
We are using ProductInventory as the data object, so let's create another class for this — ProductInventory.java
@Id
private String productId;
private int quantity; public class ProductInventory {private String productId;private int quantity; //getters and setters ... }
We will be running this service on port 8082. Update src/main/resources/application.properties file with the server port and MongoDB connection details. I am using the hosted MongoDB instance, available as part of the free trial from MongoDB. You can choose any other MongoDB instance, as per your choice.
server.port=8082
spring.data.mongodb.uri=mongodb+srv://xxx-user:[email protected]/ecommerce
Our Product Inventory Service is ready to function now. Start the service with the maven command mvn spring-boot:run . You can use addProductInventory API to insert some sample records. Here is the sample post request I used.
{
"productId": "test-product-123",
"quantity": 30
}
Building Product Catalog Service
Similar to the Product Inventory Service, create the Product Catalog Service. We are going to add two more dependencies — Spring Cloud Circuit Breaker (with Resilience4j), and Spring Boot Actuator (optional).
spring initializer — Product Catalog Service
Let's create the class ProductCatalogService.java to implement our restful APIs as below.
@RestController
public class ProductCatalogService { public class ProductCatalogService { @Autowired
private ReactiveMongoTemplate mongoTemplate; private ReactiveMongoTemplate mongoTemplate; @Autowired
private WebClient webClient; private WebClient webClient; @Autowired
private ReactiveCircuitBreakerFactory cbFactory; private ReactiveCircuitBreakerFactory cbFactory;
public Mono < ProductDetails > getProductDetails( @GetMapping ("/product/{id}")public Mono < ProductDetails > getProductDetails( @PathVariable String id) { Mono < ProductDetails > productDetailsMono = mongoTemplate.findById(id, ProductDetails.class); Mono < ProductInventory > inventoryMono = webClient.get().uri("http://localhost:8082/inventory/" + id).retrieve()
.bodyToMono(ProductInventory.class); Mono < ProductDetails > mergedProductDetails = Mono.zip(productDetailsMono, inventoryMono,
(productDetails, inventory) - > {
productDetails.setInventory(inventory);
return productDetails;
}); return mergedProductDetails;
} @PostMapping("/product")
public Mono<Product> addProduct(@RequestBody Product product){
return mongoTemplate.insert(product);
}
... }
If you take a close look at the getProductDetails API, we are first getting the basic product details and then calling the Product Inventory Service (running at port 8082) to get the inventory details. We are combining both the results before returning the response.
Update the src/main/resources/application.properties with the MongoDB connection details as discussed above. Start the service with mvn spring-boot:run command. The Product Catalog Service is ready for use now.
Insert the sample product records with the createProduct API. Here is the sample post request, I used.
{
"id":"test-product-123",
"title":"test-product-1",
"desc":"test product 1",
"imagePath":"gc://image-path",
"unitPrice":10.00
}
Let's call the getProductDetails API by accessing http://localhost:8080/cb/product/test-product-123 . We should get the result something like —
{
"id":"test-product-123",
"title":"test product for circuit breaker",
"desc":"test product updated",
"imagePath":"gc://image-path",
"unitPrice":10.0,
"inventory":{
"productId":"test-product-123",
"quantity":30
}
}
Great! So our base platform is set. Both the services are working perfectly as expected. It's time to implement the Circuit Breaker pattern.
Implementing Circuit Breaker
Before implementing this pattern, let's turn down the Product Inventory Service and see how it impacts. While this service is not running, access the getProductDetails API of Product Catalog Service, browsing the page at http://localhost:8081/cb/product/test-product-123 . You will see an error, somewhat similar to this —
[70118947-6] There was an unexpected error (type=Internal Server Error, status=500).
This will be the result if we do not handle the service failures. With the Circuit Breaker pattern, we will be implementing a fallback mechanism. In our case, it's going to be “returning a blank object”. With this, the store can still display the product details, with no availability and we will be handling the worst-case scenario gracefully.
Let's update the getProductDetails API as below.
@RestController
public class ProductCatalogService {
@Autowired
private ReactiveCircuitBreakerFactory cbFactory; public class ProductCatalogService {
public Mono < ProductDetails > getProductDetailsV2(
Mono < ProductDetails > productDetailsMono = mongoTemplate.findById(id, ProductDetails.class); @GetMapping ("/product/{id}")public Mono < ProductDetails > getProductDetailsV2( @PathVariable String id) {Mono < ProductDetails > productDetailsMono = mongoTemplate.findById(id, ProductDetails.class);
.uri("
.retrieve()
.bodyToMono(ProductInventory.class)
.transform(
it - > cbFactory.create("inventory-service")
.run(it,
throwable - > {
return Mono.just(new ProductInventory());
}
)
); Mono < ProductInventory > inventoryMono = webClient.get().uri(" http://localhost:8082/inventory/ " + id).retrieve().bodyToMono(ProductInventory.class) Mono < ProductDetails > mergedProductDetails = Mono.zip(productDetailsMono, inventoryMono, (productDetails, inventory) - > {
productDetails.setInventory(inventory);
return productDetails;
}); return mergedProductDetails;
} }
In the highlighted code, we are updating the call for Product Inventory Service with the following behavior change —
When the exception occurs in the call, its returning blank ProductInventory object.
With the help of ReactiveCircuitBreakerFactory , we are creating the Circuit Breaker instance based on inventory-service configuration. We need to include the following configuration in src/main/resources/application.yml —
resilience4j.circuitbreaker:
instances:
inventory-service:
failureRateThreshold: 50
minimumNumberOfCalls: 20
slidingWindowType: TIME_BASED
slidingWindowSize: 10
waitDurationInOpenState: 50s
permittedNumberOfCallsInHalfOpenState: 3
We will touch upon all these attributes in a while. Before that, let's restart our Product Catalog Service and access the getProductDetails API. Voila! you got the product details even though the product inventory service is down.
{
"id": "test-product-123",
"title": "test-product-123_1",
"desc": "test product updated",
"imagePath": "gc://image-path",
"unitPrice": 10,
"inventory": {
"productId": null,
"quantity": 0
}
}
Though Spring Cloud and Resilience4j made it look easy, a lot of magic is happening behind the scenes, to make the pattern work.
As discussed earlier, the Circuit Breaker will be in a CLOSED state initially. As we hit the getProductDetails API first time and Product Inventory Service is not available, it executes the fallback operation — to return the blank object. Let's see how each of the attributes are defined in application.yml are helping us.
failureRateThreshold —The circuit breaker will continue to be in a CLOSED state till the failure rate threshold reaches. In our case, this value is 50%, which means if 5 out of 10 requests are failed, the threshold will be reached. This will move the circuit breaker in an OPEN state, which means it will stop the unnecessary network calls to call Product Inventory Service.
minimumNumberOfCalls — This attribute ensures the failure rate is calculated once a minimum number of calls are executed. In our case, 20 requests must be catered for before the failure rate calculation starts.
— This attribute ensures the failure rate is calculated once a minimum number of calls are executed. In our case, 20 requests must be catered for before the failure rate calculation starts. slidingWindowType — This attribute configures the failure rate calculation mechanism. The failure rate can be either calculated based on time or the count of requests. For instance, we can say consider the request in the last 5 minutes or consider the last 50 requests. In our case, we are defining the time-based window — TIME_BASED
— This attribute configures the failure rate calculation mechanism. The failure rate can be either calculated based on time or the count of requests. For instance, we can say consider the request in the last 5 minutes or consider the last 50 requests. In our case, we are defining the time-based window — slidingWindowSize — With this attribute, we are defining the window size, which is 10 seconds in our case. If the 10 requests processed in the 10-second window and 4 of them are failed, the failure rate will be 40%.
— With this attribute, we are defining the window size, which is 10 seconds in our case. If the 10 requests processed in the 10-second window and 4 of them are failed, the failure rate will be 40%. permittedNumberOfCallsInHalfOpenState — Once the circuit breaker moves to OPEN state, after a while it moves to HALF-OPEN state. In this state, it communicates with the product inventory service in a limited manner. This attribute defines this limit. In our case, the limit is 3, which means only 3 requests will be processed in a 10-second window.
Hurray! We just implemented a real-life example of the Circuit Breaker pattern. What next …?
Next Steps
The primary objective of this article is to develop a high-level understanding of how the Circuit Breaker pattern works. The article covered the basic implementation of this pattern but as you adopt it in your services, you might need to customize it from multiple aspects.
We just used one of the modules of the Spring Cloud Circuit Breaker library. It supports other implementations too including Netflix Hystrix, Sentinel, and Spring Retry. Check out the Spring Cloud Circuit Breaker documentation for more details.
Our implementation was based on reactive code, but Spring Cloud supports non-reactive implementations (for e.g Spring MVC) as well. You can again find more details on this at Spring Cloud Circuit Breaker page.
Resilience4j provides a configurable and cleaner option to implement a Circuit Breaker for java based applications. We used only a few of the attributes for configuration. You can refer to the complete list of attributes, available with Resilience documentation.
Also, Circuit Breaker is just one feature offered by the library. It also offers RateLimiter, Retry, Bulkhead, Time Limiter, and Cache decorators. You can combine multiple decorators to make the service calls. For instance Bulkhead, RateLimiter, and Retry decorator can be combined with the CircuitBreaker decorator. For more details visit the documentation here. | https://medium.com/swlh/spring-boot-microservices-implementing-circuit-breaker-16018781ce70 | ['Lal Verma'] | 2020-12-07 00:58:30.597000+00:00 | ['Microservices', 'Spring Boot', 'Circuit Breaker', 'Spring Cloud', 'Software Engineering'] | Title Spring Boot Microservices — Implementing Circuit BreakerContent Spring Boot Microservices — Implementing Circuit Breaker article learn fundamental one must pattern Microservices world — Circuit Breaker sample implementation based Spring Boot Spring Cloud Resilience4j sixth part Spring Boot Microservices series Circuit Breaker name suggests pattern derives inspiration electrical switch designed protect electrical circuit damage caused excess current overload particular microservice resource responding pattern help registering fault switching communication restoring back service ready serve request help microservice ecosystem multiple way — handle service failure exit gracefully help reducing overload service already stressed stop spread failure across service Lets try understand pattern real world example working ecommerce domain system built Microservices Architecture simplicity let consider two service first Product Catalog Service responsible manage product lifecycle — create update delete get operation second Product Inventory Service responsible manage product inventory add update get operation Get Product Details — Api Here’s typical call ecommerce store call Product Catalog Service get product detail basic product information including title description price available quantity get quantity call Product Inventory Service Product Inventory Service don’t handle scenario result failure Product Catalog Service situation get worse Product Inventory Service slow responding mean already consuming resource limit Lets say another service called Order Management Service consuming Product Inventory Service point time Inventory Service bombarded multiple call Product Catalog Service time result failure Order Management Service example cascading failure propagate whole system handled correctly Simple exception handling good enough case Circuit Breaker pattern provides elegant maintainable flexible approach handle failure pattern work Resilience4j done good job explaining pattern work Circuit Breaker pattern implemented three state CLOSED OPEN HALFOPEN Circuit Breaker — Illustration Circuit Breaker sits right middle call external serviceresource case Product Catalog Service call Product Inventory Service call go Circuit Breaker component Circuit Breaker CLOSED state default Lets say configured threshold 10 mean 10 100 request failed assumed failure threshold reached point circuit breaker move OPEN state move HALFOPEN state check status Product Inventory Service point open communication channel limited rate rate failure continues threshold value 10 move OPEN state move CLOSED state expected communication resumed pattern place always exit gracefully control rate transaction flow per service availability Sample Implementation Lets sample implementation see work ground implementation based Spring Boot Spring Cloud Resilience4j implementation also based Project Reactor mean using Spring Web flux Spring Cloud Reactive Circuit Breaker divided exercise three following part Building Product Inventory Service — implement add update get inventory APIs service Building Product Catalog Service — implement create update delete get product APIs service primary focus GET API though Implementing Circuit Breaker — implement circuit breaker get Product Details API Product Catalog Service Also please ensure Java 11 Maven 3x version Java beyond 18 work validate version Building Product Inventory Service discussed Product Inventory Service consist addProductInventory updateProductInventory getProductInventory APIs use MongoDB data persistence Lets go spring initializer generate project structure Add Spring Reactive Web Spring Data Reactive MongoDB dependency Generate download unpack archive local system spring initializer — productinventory service Lets implement restful APIs ProductInventoryServicejava Update file following code RestController public class ProductInventoryService public class ProductInventoryService Autowired private ReactiveMongoTemplate mongoTemplate private ReactiveMongoTemplate mongoTemplate public Mono ProductInventory addProductInventory return mongoTemplateinsertproduct PostMapping inventorypublic Mono ProductInventory addProductInventory RequestBody ProductInventory product return mongoTemplateinsertproduct public Mono ProductInventory updateProductInventory return mongoTemplatesaveproduct PutMapping inventorypublic Mono ProductInventory updateProductInventory RequestBody ProductInventory product return mongoTemplatesaveproduct public Mono ProductInventory getProductInventory return mongoTemplatefindByIdid ProductInventoryclass GetMapping inventoryidpublic Mono ProductInventory getProductInventory PathVariable String id return mongoTemplatefindByIdid ProductInventoryclass using ProductInventory data object let create another class — ProductInventoryjava Id private String productId private int quantity public class ProductInventory private String productIdprivate int quantity getters setter running service port 8082 Update srcmainresourcesapplicationproperties file server port MongoDB connection detail using hosted MongoDB instance available part free trial MongoDB choose MongoDB instance per choice serverport8082 springdatamongodburimongodbsrvxxxuserxxxpwdYcluster0nrsv6gcpmongodbnetecommerce Product Inventory Service ready function Start service maven command mvn springbootrun use addProductInventory API insert sample record sample post request used productId testproduct123 quantity 30 Building Product Catalog Service Similar Product Inventory Service create Product Catalog Service going add two dependency — Spring Cloud Circuit Breaker Resilience4j Spring Boot Actuator optional spring initializer — Product Catalog Service Lets create class ProductCatalogServicejava implement restful APIs RestController public class ProductCatalogService public class ProductCatalogService Autowired private ReactiveMongoTemplate mongoTemplate private ReactiveMongoTemplate mongoTemplate Autowired private WebClient webClient private WebClient webClient Autowired private ReactiveCircuitBreakerFactory cbFactory private ReactiveCircuitBreakerFactory cbFactory public Mono ProductDetails getProductDetails GetMapping productidpublic Mono ProductDetails getProductDetails PathVariable String id Mono ProductDetails productDetailsMono mongoTemplatefindByIdid ProductDetailsclass Mono ProductInventory inventoryMono webClientgeturihttplocalhost8082inventory idretrieve bodyToMonoProductInventoryclass Mono ProductDetails mergedProductDetails MonozipproductDetailsMono inventoryMono productDetails inventory productDetailssetInventoryinventory return productDetails return mergedProductDetails PostMappingproduct public MonoProduct addProductRequestBody Product product return mongoTemplateinsertproduct take close look getProductDetails API first getting basic product detail calling Product Inventory Service running port 8082 get inventory detail combining result returning response Update srcmainresourcesapplicationproperties MongoDB connection detail discussed Start service mvn springbootrun command Product Catalog Service ready use Insert sample product record createProduct API sample post request used idtestproduct123 titletestproduct1 desctest product 1 imagePathgcimagepath unitPrice1000 Lets call getProductDetails API accessing httplocalhost8080cbproducttestproduct123 get result something like — idtestproduct123 titletest product circuit breaker desctest product updated imagePathgcimagepath unitPrice100 inventory productIdtestproduct123 quantity30 Great base platform set service working perfectly expected time implement Circuit Breaker pattern Implementing Circuit Breaker implementing pattern let turn Product Inventory Service see impact service running access getProductDetails API Product Catalog Service browsing page httplocalhost8081cbproducttestproduct123 see error somewhat similar — 701189476 unexpected error typeInternal Server Error status500 result handle service failure Circuit Breaker pattern implementing fallback mechanism case going “returning blank object” store still display product detail availability handling worstcase scenario gracefully Lets update getProductDetails API RestController public class ProductCatalogService Autowired private ReactiveCircuitBreakerFactory cbFactory public class ProductCatalogService public Mono ProductDetails getProductDetailsV2 Mono ProductDetails productDetailsMono mongoTemplatefindByIdid ProductDetailsclass GetMapping productidpublic Mono ProductDetails getProductDetailsV2 PathVariable String id Mono ProductDetails productDetailsMono mongoTemplatefindByIdid ProductDetailsclass uri retrieve bodyToMonoProductInventoryclass transform cbFactorycreateinventoryservice runit throwable return Monojustnew ProductInventory Mono ProductInventory inventoryMono webClientgeturi httplocalhost8082inventory idretrievebodyToMonoProductInventoryclass Mono ProductDetails mergedProductDetails MonozipproductDetailsMono inventoryMono productDetails inventory productDetailssetInventoryinventory return productDetails return mergedProductDetails highlighted code updating call Product Inventory Service following behavior change — exception occurs call returning blank ProductInventory object help ReactiveCircuitBreakerFactory creating Circuit Breaker instance based inventoryservice configuration need include following configuration srcmainresourcesapplicationyml — resilience4jcircuitbreaker instance inventoryservice failureRateThreshold 50 minimumNumberOfCalls 20 slidingWindowType TIMEBASED slidingWindowSize 10 waitDurationInOpenState 50 permittedNumberOfCallsInHalfOpenState 3 touch upon attribute let restart Product Catalog Service access getProductDetails API Voila got product detail even though product inventory service id testproduct123 title testproduct1231 desc test product updated imagePath gcimagepath unitPrice 10 inventory productId null quantity 0 Though Spring Cloud Resilience4j made look easy lot magic happening behind scene make pattern work discussed earlier Circuit Breaker CLOSED state initially hit getProductDetails API first time Product Inventory Service available executes fallback operation — return blank object Lets see attribute defined applicationyml helping u failureRateThreshold —The circuit breaker continue CLOSED state till failure rate threshold reach case value 50 mean 5 10 request failed threshold reached move circuit breaker OPEN state mean stop unnecessary network call call Product Inventory Service minimumNumberOfCalls — attribute ensures failure rate calculated minimum number call executed case 20 request must catered failure rate calculation start — attribute ensures failure rate calculated minimum number call executed case 20 request must catered failure rate calculation start slidingWindowType — attribute configures failure rate calculation mechanism failure rate either calculated based time count request instance say consider request last 5 minute consider last 50 request case defining timebased window — TIMEBASED — attribute configures failure rate calculation mechanism failure rate either calculated based time count request instance say consider request last 5 minute consider last 50 request case defining timebased window — slidingWindowSize — attribute defining window size 10 second case 10 request processed 10second window 4 failed failure rate 40 — attribute defining window size 10 second case 10 request processed 10second window 4 failed failure rate 40 permittedNumberOfCallsInHalfOpenState — circuit breaker move OPEN state move HALFOPEN state state communicates product inventory service limited manner attribute defines limit case limit 3 mean 3 request processed 10second window Hurray implemented reallife example Circuit Breaker pattern next … Next Steps primary objective article develop highlevel understanding Circuit Breaker pattern work article covered basic implementation pattern adopt service might need customize multiple aspect used one module Spring Cloud Circuit Breaker library support implementation including Netflix Hystrix Sentinel Spring Retry Check Spring Cloud Circuit Breaker documentation detail implementation based reactive code Spring Cloud support nonreactive implementation eg Spring MVC well find detail Spring Cloud Circuit Breaker page Resilience4j provides configurable cleaner option implement Circuit Breaker java based application used attribute configuration refer complete list attribute available Resilience documentation Also Circuit Breaker one feature offered library also offer RateLimiter Retry Bulkhead Time Limiter Cache decorator combine multiple decorator make service call instance Bulkhead RateLimiter Retry decorator combined CircuitBreaker decorator detail visit documentation hereTags Microservices Spring Boot Circuit Breaker Spring Cloud Software Engineering |
2,197 | SaaS Leaders’ Top 9 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2017 | Sangram Vajre
8. Storytelling and the Value of In-Person Connections
In-person events and conferences
I have a renewed appreciation, value, and understanding for what in-person events can do for companies. And it doesn’t need to be on the scale of Dreamforce — companies should be doing their own events whether there are 20 attendees, 200 attendees, or 20,000 attendees. At Terminus, we have put on the FlipMyFunnel roadshow conference almost 10 times and created a massive conference with over 25 sponsors and 35 speakers in Atlanta last December. We focused entirely on thought leadership and the concept of FlipMyFunnel and account-based marketing (ABM), not on pitching Terminus products. We focus on the problem and attendees know where to find a solution.
We were able to do all of this with a small marketing team and when Terminus was still very young. I can’t stress enough the importance of being in-person with your customers and the people you want to be your customers.
Storytelling
Every 5 years, we have seen a major shift in the marketing landscape. 2000 was the year of email marketing and marketing automation became the new shiny object around 2005. In 2010, we started to have lead overload, so predictive lead scoring became the new thing. Now in 2017, you look at all of this innovation and we’re still engaging with people over email and phone calls. ABM has become the new marketing technology and strategy because we now know what accounts to go after and we are being smart about engaging people “on their terms” through traditional and emerging channels.
I believe in the future, though, we will go back to the Mad Men era of marketing that focused on storytelling. Your marketing is not going to work if you’re not putting the right message in front of the right person with the right story.
Storytelling will become the main job of the marketer.
Sangram Vajre
CMO & Co-Founder, Terminus | https://medium.com/high-alpha/saas-leaders-top-9-marketing-trends-to-watch-in-2017-5ca907e2cac9 | ['Drew Beechler'] | 2020-02-11 21:29:26.767000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Marketing', 'Venture Capital', 'Startup', 'SaaS'] | Title SaaS Leaders’ Top 9 Marketing Trends Watch 2017Content Sangram Vajre 8 Storytelling Value InPerson Connections Inperson event conference renewed appreciation value understanding inperson event company doesn’t need scale Dreamforce — company event whether 20 attendee 200 attendee 20000 attendee Terminus put FlipMyFunnel roadshow conference almost 10 time created massive conference 25 sponsor 35 speaker Atlanta last December focused entirely thought leadership concept FlipMyFunnel accountbased marketing ABM pitching Terminus product focus problem attendee know find solution able small marketing team Terminus still young can’t stress enough importance inperson customer people want customer Storytelling Every 5 year seen major shift marketing landscape 2000 year email marketing marketing automation became new shiny object around 2005 2010 started lead overload predictive lead scoring became new thing 2017 look innovation we’re still engaging people email phone call ABM become new marketing technology strategy know account go smart engaging people “on terms” traditional emerging channel believe future though go back Mad Men era marketing focused storytelling marketing going work you’re putting right message front right person right story Storytelling become main job marketer Sangram Vajre CMO CoFounder TerminusTags Digital Marketing Marketing Venture Capital Startup SaaS |
2,198 | How To Build a Payments Data Team | Paying with Apple Pay on a Square Device
In the last couple of years, we have seen a growing number of acquisitions in the Payments Industry. From large investors buying established global companies, like San Francisco Partners -> Verifone, to strategic acquisitions for capabilities, geo-expansion or consolidation purposes, like ING -> PayVision, WorldFirst -> Wyre or Worldline -> SIX. However, the companies that don’t seem to be bought up just yet, are the ones who have made leveraging their Data a key strategic objective. In this blog, I share how Payments (applies to other FinTech’s and Tech as well) companies, can build a Data Team and outperform their competitors.
Necessity vs. Luxury
To be fair, the payments industry has changed drastically in the last ten years, and like all changes this wasn’t because of the large enterprise companies, but because of lean startups innovating and finding new ways to include payments in their product and process. The enterprise “startups”, we look up to now, including Facebook, Spotify, Uber and Netflix, have been extremely crucial in defining new E-Commerce categories, that didn’t exist ten+ years ago. The major thing these new enterprises bring, is their data-driven way of working.
Instead of focussing on how much revenue was being processed, these companies focused more on the efficiency of their overall platform. From conversion rates to authorisation rates. Using their data-driven way of working, they influenced a lot of the “new” payments companies, to provide as much data as possible. As these new companies are overtaking some the older companies, Payments companies both old and new have to adapt and continuously provide data.
Building a Payments Data Team
Payments is a technical product, which means that especially in the beginning of building a Gateway or Acquirer, the Development team calls the shot. If I were to build a new payments company today, that wouldn’t be very different. However, by keeping in mind that at one point Business Users are going to start asking questions, it is best to start with an infrastructure that will be able to retrieve the data and insights necessary to answer those questions.
1 . Hire a Manager of Data (Head of Data, VP of Data, etc.), preferably with experience in Payments.
Because the business is going to have to transition from Development focus to Business focus, you need a Manager of Data, who understands both sides, knows how to communicate with both and is able to assemble a team to execute on the strategy and vision. The beginning period of a Manager of Data, is spend with both management and business users. Understanding the business and what management wants to achieve, while also having conversations with the business users, to understand what they need to do their job. Having gathered all the requirements, the Manager should develop a Data Strategy, which should be the vision for the business to build on.
2. Hire a Data Architect
Too often companies try to run before they can walk. The reason you hire a Data Architect, is because the infrastructure that is in place, has been build for the Development side of the business. Payments has for a long time, been very structured in it’s data, however due to E-Commerce, M-Commerce and IoT-Commerce, an increasing size of data is becoming more unstructured. That is why if you want to retrieve data and derive insights, you need to build a separate Data Infrastructure. A Data Architect, will be able to review the current infrastructure, leverage existing parts, and design an infrastructure that does not interfere with the existing infrastructure, while at the same time give the Data Team the resources necessary to support the organisation.
I often get the question, why can’t I just let my Data Engineer design the infrastructure, to which I reply, if you are building a house would you hire an architect first or a builder. The Architect makes the plan, takes into consideration all the pro’s and con’s, uses his experience (mostly as a Data Engineer), to design an infrastructure that works in the short-term and can be build upon in the long-term.
3. Hire a Data Engineer
A great Data Engineer, is up-to-date with the latest Cloud-Technologies, and at least a master in SQL and Python. Most Data Engineers will prefer working in AWS, as this is the most technology driven platform, which has been around the longest. However, with the increase in more Modern Cloud Technologies like Matillion & Fivetran for ETL’ing (Extract, Transform & Loading) and Snowflake and Google BigQuery for Data-Warehousing-as-a-Service, a lot of infrastructures are becoming less about complexity but more about speed, agility and quickness. With the rapid change of data in its volume, velocity and variety, Data Engineers who know how to find the right tool for the job, get more done and help get your team the right results.
4. Hire a Data Analyst and or BI Analyst
After some time designing and building, the next hire should be a Data Analyst, who preferably has some business background, but is far more advanced in using Databases and querying hard to retrieve data. Using programming languages like R or Python, to do more complex Data Analysis than Excel is able to do. Another reason you want a Data Analyst with at least some programming skills, is that in most cases the data could use some cleaning and transformation, before it becomes the type of data that can be analysed by either the Data Analyst or Business User.
As the capabilities of this team will continue to grow and the number of similar query requests increases, the Data Analyst will be key in transforming his queries into Dashboards, which can be distributed throughout the organisation. By translating the language of the business into a Modelling Layer and using a Data Platform like Looker, the role of the Data Team will start to shift from controller to liberator of the data, by giving all Business Users the ability to ask as many questions as they want and the freedom to explore the data, how they see fit.
5. Hire a Data Scientist
Only when the previous four hires have been successful in developing a Self-Serve Data Platform, is when the Data Scientist can come in and help the organisation become truly Data-Driven. A great Data Scientist, can focus on working with teams to develop Data-Driven Applications. In the Payments Industry, that could mean developing Predictive Applications like Acquiring Routing (based on historical data and weights, select the optimal route), Dynamic Authorisation (inputting or removing data, before submitting a transaction) or building a Fraud Engine, that is able to predict which transactions are fraudulent and which are not.
Have you build your Data Team yet?
If you are a business owner or data falls under your responsibilities, you might be wondering, if this is actually worth it. If we look at companies like Facebook, Uber, Netflix and Spotify, we can see that being in control of your data, doesn’t just lead to better decisions and improved operations, but it can actually make you more money. For the payments industry that is no different, leaders in the space include Stripe, Square, Transferwise and Plaid, the common denominator, they use Data better than all their competitors.
So, have you build your Data Team yet?
Thanks for reading ;) , if you enjoyed it, hit the applause button below, it would mean a lot to me and it would help others to see the story. Let me know what you think by reaching out on Twitter, Linkedin or at DataBright. Or follow me to read my posts on Data Science, Payments and Product Management. | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-build-a-payments-data-team-8c76e0048e0 | ['Dwayne Gefferie'] | 2019-06-19 11:54:38.940000+00:00 | ['Analytics', 'Data Science', 'Payments', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Startup'] | Title Build Payments Data TeamContent Paying Apple Pay Square Device last couple year seen growing number acquisition Payments Industry large investor buying established global company like San Francisco Partners Verifone strategic acquisition capability geoexpansion consolidation purpose like ING PayVision WorldFirst Wyre Worldline SIX However company don’t seem bought yet one made leveraging Data key strategic objective blog share Payments applies FinTech’s Tech well company build Data Team outperform competitor Necessity v Luxury fair payment industry changed drastically last ten year like change wasn’t large enterprise company lean startup innovating finding new way include payment product process enterprise “startups” look including Facebook Spotify Uber Netflix extremely crucial defining new ECommerce category didn’t exist ten year ago major thing new enterprise bring datadriven way working Instead focussing much revenue processed company focused efficiency overall platform conversion rate authorisation rate Using datadriven way working influenced lot “new” payment company provide much data possible new company overtaking older company Payments company old new adapt continuously provide data Building Payments Data Team Payments technical product mean especially beginning building Gateway Acquirer Development team call shot build new payment company today wouldn’t different However keeping mind one point Business Users going start asking question best start infrastructure able retrieve data insight necessary answer question 1 Hire Manager Data Head Data VP Data etc preferably experience Payments business going transition Development focus Business focus need Manager Data understands side know communicate able assemble team execute strategy vision beginning period Manager Data spend management business user Understanding business management want achieve also conversation business user understand need job gathered requirement Manager develop Data Strategy vision business build 2 Hire Data Architect often company try run walk reason hire Data Architect infrastructure place build Development side business Payments long time structured it’s data however due ECommerce MCommerce IoTCommerce increasing size data becoming unstructured want retrieve data derive insight need build separate Data Infrastructure Data Architect able review current infrastructure leverage existing part design infrastructure interfere existing infrastructure time give Data Team resource necessary support organisation often get question can’t let Data Engineer design infrastructure reply building house would hire architect first builder Architect make plan take consideration pro’s con’s us experience mostly Data Engineer design infrastructure work shortterm build upon longterm 3 Hire Data Engineer great Data Engineer uptodate latest CloudTechnologies least master SQL Python Data Engineers prefer working AWS technology driven platform around longest However increase Modern Cloud Technologies like Matillion Fivetran ETL’ing Extract Transform Loading Snowflake Google BigQuery DataWarehousingasaService lot infrastructure becoming le complexity speed agility quickness rapid change data volume velocity variety Data Engineers know find right tool job get done help get team right result 4 Hire Data Analyst BI Analyst time designing building next hire Data Analyst preferably business background far advanced using Databases querying hard retrieve data Using programming language like R Python complex Data Analysis Excel able Another reason want Data Analyst least programming skill case data could use cleaning transformation becomes type data analysed either Data Analyst Business User capability team continue grow number similar query request increase Data Analyst key transforming query Dashboards distributed throughout organisation translating language business Modelling Layer using Data Platform like Looker role Data Team start shift controller liberator data giving Business Users ability ask many question want freedom explore data see fit 5 Hire Data Scientist previous four hire successful developing SelfServe Data Platform Data Scientist come help organisation become truly DataDriven great Data Scientist focus working team develop DataDriven Applications Payments Industry could mean developing Predictive Applications like Acquiring Routing based historical data weight select optimal route Dynamic Authorisation inputting removing data submitting transaction building Fraud Engine able predict transaction fraudulent build Data Team yet business owner data fall responsibility might wondering actually worth look company like Facebook 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2,199 | Logs in Kubernetes: expectations vs reality | It’s 2020 already, and there is still no common solution for aggregating logs in Kubernetes. In this article, we would like to share our ideas, problems encountered, and solutions — all these with the help of real-life examples. Generally speaking, most of the things described here can be applied not just to Kubernetes but any kind of modern infrastructure…
For a start, I’d like to note that there are radically different ideas of what logging is:
someone would like to see security and audit logs only;
someone else prefers the centralized logging of the entire infrastructure;
while the other one wants to see the application logs excluding, for example, load balancers.
Here is how we have implemented different functionality and overcome various constraints. However, let’s start with a brief theory.
A bit of theory: Logging tools
Origins of the components of the logging system
Logging as a discipline boasts an eventful and rich history. In the end, we have got the methodology for collecting and analyzing logs that is actively used today. Back in the 1950s, the analogue of standard input/output streams was introduced in Fortran that helped programmers debug their programs. These were the first attempts at logging, and these tools made life easier for programmers of those days. Today we consider them one of the earliest components of the logging system — the source, or “producer” of logs.
Meanwhile, computer science continued to evolve: computer networks and first clusters have emerged… The first complex systems consisting of several machines have been introduced. Now, system administrators were forced to collect logs from multiple machines, and in some particular cases, they could even accumulate OS kernel messages to investigate a system failure. In the early 2000s, RFC 3164 was introduced. It standardized remote_syslog and provided the basis for defining centralized logging systems. That is how another essential component — the collector of logs and a mechanism to store them — has emerged.
The growing volume of logs and the widespread adoption of web technologies have led to the question of how to present logs to the user in the most accessible form. Simple console tools (awk/sed/grep) were replaced by more advanced log viewers. It was the third component of the modern logging system.
The increasing amount of logs made it clear: we need logs, but not all of them. Moreover, it turned out that different types of logs have varying levels of importance: some can be deleted the next day, while others need to be stored for five years or more. Thus, the logging system has acquired the data filtering and routing component; we will call it a filter.
The storage has also seen numerous improvements: regular files were replaced by relational databases, and later, by the document-oriented storages (e.g., Elasticsearch). As a result, the storage has been separated from log collecting.
In the end, the concept of the log itself has been broadened to some abstract stream of events that we would like to save for history, or rather, keep it in the case we need to conduct an investigation or make some analytical report.
Eventually, in a relatively short time, logging turned into a rather important subsystem that might be rightfully classified as Big Data.
In the past, you could implement a “logging system” with simple prints. The situation has dramatically changed today.
Kubernetes and logging
When Kubernetes became a part of modern infrastructure, the problem of collection of logs manifested itself with renewed vigor: the management of the infrastructure platform was both streamlined and made harder at the same time. Many established services started migrating to microservices approach. Regarding logging, this resulted in a growing number of log sources, their unique life cycle, and the need to track interactions of all system components via logs.
Looking ahead, I would like to note that currently there is no standardized logging option for Kubernetes that stands above the rest of the pack. Here are the most popular schemes sought by the community:
deploying an EFK stack (Elasticsearch, Fluentd, Kibana);
stack (Elasticsearch, Fluentd, Kibana); using the recently released Loki or the Logging operator;
we (perhaps, some others as well) prefer our own tool, loghouse.
In Flant, we tend to use the following bundles in K8s clusters for self-hosted solutions:
I am not going to tell you how to install and configure them. Instead, I will focus on their shortcomings and the situation with logs in general.
Logging routines in K8s
Day-to-day logging explained…
Centralized logging of a large infrastructure requires considerable resources that will be spent on collecting, storing, and processing data. While operating a diverse range of applications & platforms, we have to satisfy various requirements and deal with operating problems arising from them.
Case study: ClickHouse
Let’s consider centralized storage in the case of an application that generates a lot of logs: say, over 5000 lines per second. We will be using ClickHouse to process them.
While attempting to ensure real-time collection, we would run into the problem: it turns out that the 4-core server running ClickHouse cannot handle such a load, and its disk subsystem is severely overloaded:
The high load is caused by the fact that we are trying to perform writing into ClickHouse as fast as possible. The database responds with the increased disk load, which can cause errors such as:
DB::Exception: Too many parts (300). Merges are processing significantly slower than inserts
The fact is that MergeTree tables in Click House (where logs are stored) have their own complications when writing is performed. The inserted data generates a temporary partition that is later merged with the main table. As a result, writing tasks tend to be very disk-demanding. Hence the error represented above: no more than 300 sub-partitions can be merged per second — that’s 300 inserts per second.
To avoid such complexities, we should use as large chunks as possible when writing into ClickHouse while at the same time decreasing the frequency of writes to one time per two seconds, at least. However, writing in large batches brings another risk: the risk of buffer overflow and loss of logs. The obvious solution is to increase the Fluentd buffer. However, in this case, memory consumption will increase.
Note: Another problem of the ClickHouse-based solution mentioned here was that in our case (loghouse), partitioning was implemented via external tables linked by a Merge table. When selecting long time intervals, excessive amounts of RAM are consumed, since the meta-table scans all partitions — even those that are known not to contain the necessary data. However, for ClickHouse versions starting with 18.16, this approach has become obsolete.
Thus, it becomes clear that ClickHouse-based real-time logging solution can be resource demanding and won’t be a reasonable option for many applications. Also, you will need an accumulator (more about it later). The case we describe here is based on our real-life experience. At that time, we could not find a reliable and stable solution for collecting logs with a minimum delay that would have suited the customer.
What about Elasticsearch?
Elasticsearch is known to handle high loads. Let’s try it for the same application. Now, the load looks like this:
Elasticsearch has successfully digested the data flow. However, the process has been very CPU-demanding. It is not a problem from a technical standpoint — you can solve it by reorganizing the cluster. But we end up using a whopping 8 cores for a mere log collection and getting an additional highly loaded component in the system.
To sum it up, such an approach is quite viable in case of a large project and if the customer is ready to spend significant resources on a centralized logging system.
Then it’s fair to ask:
What logs do we really need?
What if we reframe the task itself? Say, logs must be informative and cover only the required events.
Suppose we have a thriving and successful online store. What logs do we need? We need as much information as possible from a payment gateway, obviously. Wherein, the service for showing images in the product catalog is not so critical: we can limit logging to errors and overall monitoring (for example, the percentage of 500’s errors that this component generates).
The main takeaway is that centralized logging does not always make sense. Often, the customer wants to accumulate all logs in a single place, although, say, only 5% of the messages have any relevance (only those that are critically important for business):
Sometimes it is as simple as, say, configuring the log size and an error collector (e.g., Sentry).
Often, error alerts and a comprehensive local log are enough to investigate incidents.
We have had projects that used functional tests and error collection systems only. Developers did not need logs at all — they used error traces to figure out what’s happening.
Real-world example
Here is another great example. One day, we received a request from the security team of one of our customers. This client had some commercial solution that had been developed long before implementing Kubernetes.
They wanted us to integrate a centralized log collection system with security information and event management tool, QRadar. This tool receives logs using the syslog protocol and collects them from the FTP server. However, our attempt at integrating it with the remote_syslog plugin for fluentd did not work out (as it turned out, we were not unique in this). Problems with configuring QRadar were on the side of the customer’s security team.
As a result, part of the logs critical to the business was uploaded to QRadar FTP, while the other part was redirected directly from the nodes via remote syslog. To do this, we have even created a basic chart (it could be useful for someone else). Thanks to the implemented flow, the customer has been able to receive and analyze critical logs (using its favorite tools), and we have been able to reduce costs related to the logging system by keeping data for the last month only.
Here is another example of what you shouldn’t do. One of our clients implemented a multi-line unstructured output of data to the log for every user-related event. As you can easily guess, it was challenging to store and analyze these logs.
Requirements for logs
The above examples lead us to the conclusion that besides choosing the log collecting system, we also have to define the standard for logs themselves! What are the requirements?
Logs must be in a machine-readable format (e.g., JSON).
Logs must be compact and support the ability to adjust the level of logging to debug potential problems. Accordingly, in production environments, a logging level such as Warning or Error must be set by default.
Logs must be normalized, meaning that all lines in the log object must have the same field type.
The unstructured logs might lead to problems with loading logs into the storage and a halt in their processing. To illustrate, here is an example with a 400 error (which, I believe, many of our readers have encountered in the fluentd logs):
2019-10-29 13:10:43 +0000 [warn]: dump an error event: error_class=Fluent::Plugin::ElasticsearchErrorHandler::ElasticsearchError error="400 - Rejected by Elasticsearch"
The above error means that you are sending a field with an unstable type to an index with defined mapping. A prime example of that is a field in the nginx log containing the $upstream_status variable. This variable can contain either a number or a string. For example:
{ "ip": "1.2.3.4", "http_user": "-", "request_id": "47fe42807f2a7d8d5467511d7d553a1b", "time": "29/Oct/2019:16:18:57 +0300", "method": "GET", "uri": "/staff", "protocol": "HTTP/1.1", "status": "200", "body_size": "2984", "referrer": "-", "user_agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/78.0.3904.70 Safari/537.36", "request_time": "0.010", "cache_status": "-", "upstream_response_time": "0.001, 0.007", "upstream_addr": "10.100.0.10:9000, 10.100.0.11:9000", "upstream_status": "404, 200", "upstream_response_length": "0, 2984", "location": "staff"} { "ip": "1.2.3.4", "http_user": "-", "request_id": "17ee8a579e833b5ab9843a0aca10b941", "time": "29/Oct/2019:16:18:57 +0300", "method": "GET", "uri": "/staffs/265.png", "protocol": "HTTP/1.1", "status": "200", "body_size": "906", "referrer": " https://example.com/staff ", "user_agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/78.0.3904.70 Safari/537.36", "request_time": "0.001", "cache_status": "-", "upstream_response_time": "0.001, 0.007", "upstream_addr": "127.0.0.1:9000", "upstream_status": "200", "upstream_response_length": "906", "location": "staff"}{ "ip": "1.2.3.4", "http_user": "-", "request_id": "47fe42807f2a7d8d5467511d7d553a1b", "time": "29/Oct/2019:16:18:57 +0300", "method": "GET", "uri": "/staff", "protocol": "HTTP/1.1", "status": "200", "body_size": "2984", "referrer": "-", "user_agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/78.0.3904.70 Safari/537.36", "request_time": "0.010", "cache_status": "-", "upstream_response_time": "0.001, 0.007", "upstream_addr": "10.100.0.10:9000, 10.100.0.11:9000", "upstream_status": "404, 200", "upstream_response_length": "0, 2984", "location": "staff"}
Logs show that the 10.100.0.10 server responded with a 404 error, and the request was redirected to another content storage. As a result, we have got the following value in the logs:
"upstream_response_time": "0.001, 0.007"
This problem is so widespread that it was even awarded a special mention in the documentation.
What about reliability?
There are cases when all logs are equally vital. Typical approaches for collecting logs in K8s discussed above have some problems with this.
For example, fluentd cannot collect logs from short-lived containers. In one of our projects, the container with a database migration has run for less than 4 seconds, and then it has been deleted according to the respective annotation:
"helm.sh/hook-delete-policy": hook-succeeded
Because of this, the log for running a migration has never made it into the storage (the before-hook-creation policy might help in this case).
Another example is Docker’s log rotation. Suppose there is an application that is writing to the logs intensely. In normal conditions, we can process all the logs. However, when some problem arises — like the problem with the wrong format described above — processing halts, and Docker rotates the file. As a result, business-critical logs can be lost.
That’s why it is important to split streams of logs so that the most valuable logs would go directly to the application, ensuring their preservation. You can also create some kind of a log accumulator — it would preserve critical messages if the storage is briefly unavailable.
Finally, we should not forget that every subsystem needs thorough monitoring. Otherwise, it is easy to encounter a situation when fluentd ends up in the CrashLoopBackOff state and stops sending logs, which can lead to the loss of valuable information.
Takeaways
As you can see, we leave aside SaaS solutions such as Datadog. Many of the problems we have touched upon have already been solved by commercial companies that specialize in log collecting. However, SaaS solutions are not suitable for all for various reasons (such as high costs or legal considerations in some countries).
At first glance, the centralized collection of logs looks like an easy task, but it isn’t. Here are a few considerations to remember:
The detailed logging is justified for critical components only. For other systems, you can set up monitoring along with the error collection.
In production, it makes sense to minimize logging to avoid an excessive burden on the system.
Logs must have a machine-readable, normalized, and strict format.
A separate and autonomous stream should be used for critically important logs.
The idea of a log accumulator looks promising. It can help you in case of load spikes and would make the load on the storage more uniform.
These simple rules, if applied wherever appropriate, allow the approaches described above to work smoothly, even if they lack some critical elements, such as a log accumulator.
Those who feel that these principles are excessive might find themselves in a situation when another highly loaded and inefficient component emerges in the system: the logging.
This article has been originally written by our engineer Nikolay Bogdanov. Follow our blog to get new excellent content from Flant! | https://medium.com/flant-com/kubernetes-logging-challenges-aad3f45d8eed | ['Flant Staff'] | 2020-02-01 03:52:12.226000+00:00 | ['Logging', 'Microservices', 'Fluentd', 'Loghouse', 'Kubernetes'] | Title Logs Kubernetes expectation v realityContent It’s 2020 already still common solution aggregating log Kubernetes article would like share idea problem encountered solution — help reallife example Generally speaking thing described applied Kubernetes kind modern infrastructure… start I’d like note radically different idea logging someone would like see security audit log someone else prefers centralized logging entire infrastructure one want see application log excluding example load balancer implemented different functionality overcome various constraint However let’s start brief theory bit theory Logging tool Origins component logging system Logging discipline boast eventful rich history end got methodology collecting analyzing log actively used today Back 1950s analogue standard inputoutput stream introduced Fortran helped programmer debug program first attempt logging tool made life easier programmer day Today consider one earliest component logging system — source “producer” log Meanwhile computer science continued evolve computer network first cluster emerged… first complex system consisting several machine introduced system administrator forced collect log multiple machine particular case could even accumulate OS kernel message investigate system failure early 2000s RFC 3164 introduced standardized remotesyslog provided basis defining centralized logging system another essential component — collector log mechanism store — emerged growing volume log widespread adoption web technology led question present log user accessible form Simple console tool awksedgrep replaced advanced log viewer third component modern logging system increasing amount log made clear need log Moreover turned different type log varying level importance deleted next day others need stored five year Thus logging system acquired data filtering routing component call filter storage also seen numerous improvement regular file replaced relational database later documentoriented storage eg Elasticsearch result storage separated log collecting end concept log broadened abstract stream event would like save history rather keep case need conduct investigation make analytical report Eventually relatively short time logging turned rather important subsystem might rightfully classified Big Data past could implement “logging system” simple print situation dramatically changed today Kubernetes logging Kubernetes became part modern infrastructure problem collection log manifested renewed vigor management infrastructure platform streamlined made harder time Many established service started migrating microservices approach Regarding logging resulted growing number log source unique life cycle need track interaction system component via log Looking ahead would like note currently standardized logging option Kubernetes stand rest pack popular scheme sought community deploying EFK stack Elasticsearch Fluentd Kibana stack Elasticsearch Fluentd Kibana using recently released Loki Logging operator perhaps others well prefer tool loghouse Flant tend use following bundle K8s cluster selfhosted solution going tell install configure Instead focus shortcoming situation log general Logging routine K8s Daytoday logging explained… Centralized logging large infrastructure requires considerable resource spent collecting storing processing data operating diverse range application platform satisfy various requirement deal operating problem arising Case study ClickHouse Let’s consider centralized storage case application generates lot log say 5000 line per second using ClickHouse process attempting ensure realtime collection would run problem turn 4core server running ClickHouse cannot handle load disk subsystem severely overloaded high load caused fact trying perform writing ClickHouse fast possible database responds increased disk load cause error DBException many part 300 Merges processing significantly slower insert fact MergeTree table Click House log stored complication writing performed inserted data generates temporary partition later merged main table result writing task tend diskdemanding Hence error represented 300 subpartitions merged per second — that’s 300 insert per second avoid complexity use large chunk possible writing ClickHouse time decreasing frequency writes one time per two second least However writing large batch brings another risk risk buffer overflow loss log obvious solution increase Fluentd buffer However case memory consumption increase Note Another problem ClickHousebased solution mentioned case loghouse partitioning implemented via external table linked Merge table selecting long time interval excessive amount RAM consumed since metatable scan partition — even known contain necessary data However ClickHouse version starting 1816 approach become obsolete Thus becomes clear ClickHousebased realtime logging solution resource demanding won’t reasonable option many application Also need accumulator later case describe based reallife experience time could find reliable stable solution collecting log minimum delay would suited customer Elasticsearch Elasticsearch known handle high load Let’s try application load look like Elasticsearch successfully digested data flow However process CPUdemanding problem technical standpoint — solve reorganizing cluster end using whopping 8 core mere log collection getting additional highly loaded component system sum approach quite viable case large project customer ready spend significant resource centralized logging system it’s fair ask log really need reframe task Say log must informative cover required event Suppose thriving successful online store log need need much information possible payment gateway obviously Wherein service showing image product catalog critical limit logging error overall monitoring example percentage 500’s error component generates main takeaway centralized logging always make sense Often customer want accumulate log single place although say 5 message relevance critically important business Sometimes simple say configuring log size error collector eg Sentry Often error alert comprehensive local log enough investigate incident project used functional test error collection system Developers need log — used error trace figure what’s happening Realworld example another great example One day received request security team one customer client commercial solution developed long implementing Kubernetes wanted u integrate centralized log collection system security information event management tool QRadar tool receives log using syslog protocol collect FTP server However attempt integrating remotesyslog plugin fluentd work turned unique Problems configuring QRadar side customer’s security team result part log critical business uploaded QRadar FTP part redirected directly node via remote syslog even created basic chart could useful someone else Thanks implemented flow customer able receive analyze critical log using favorite tool able reduce cost related logging system keeping data last month another example shouldn’t One client implemented multiline unstructured output data log every userrelated event easily guess challenging store analyze log Requirements log example lead u conclusion besides choosing log collecting system also define standard log requirement Logs must machinereadable format eg JSON Logs must compact support ability adjust level logging debug potential problem Accordingly production environment logging level Warning Error must set default Logs must normalized meaning line log object must field type unstructured log might lead problem loading log storage halt processing illustrate example 400 error believe many reader encountered fluentd log 20191029 131043 0000 warn dump error event errorclassFluentPluginElasticsearchErrorHandlerElasticsearchError error400 Rejected Elasticsearch error mean sending field unstable type index defined mapping prime example field nginx log containing upstreamstatus variable variable contain either number string example ip 1234 httpuser requestid 47fe42807f2a7d8d5467511d7d553a1b time 29Oct2019161857 0300 method GET uri staff protocol HTTP11 status 200 bodysize 2984 referrer useragent Mozilla50 Windows NT 100 Win64 x64 AppleWebKit53736 KHTML like Gecko Chrome780390470 Safari53736 requesttime 0010 cachestatus upstreamresponsetime 0001 0007 upstreamaddr 101000109000 101000119000 upstreamstatus 404 200 upstreamresponselength 0 2984 location staff ip 1234 httpuser requestid 17ee8a579e833b5ab9843a0aca10b941 time 29Oct2019161857 0300 method GET uri staffs265png protocol HTTP11 status 200 bodysize 906 referrer httpsexamplecomstaff useragent Mozilla50 Windows NT 100 Win64 x64 AppleWebKit53736 KHTML like Gecko Chrome780390470 Safari53736 requesttime 0001 cachestatus upstreamresponsetime 0001 0007 upstreamaddr 1270019000 upstreamstatus 200 upstreamresponselength 906 location staff ip 1234 httpuser requestid 47fe42807f2a7d8d5467511d7d553a1b time 29Oct2019161857 0300 method GET uri staff protocol HTTP11 status 200 bodysize 2984 referrer useragent Mozilla50 Windows NT 100 Win64 x64 AppleWebKit53736 KHTML like Gecko Chrome780390470 Safari53736 requesttime 0010 cachestatus upstreamresponsetime 0001 0007 upstreamaddr 101000109000 101000119000 upstreamstatus 404 200 upstreamresponselength 0 2984 location staff Logs show 10100010 server responded 404 error request redirected another content storage result got following value log upstreamresponsetime 0001 0007 problem widespread even awarded special mention documentation reliability case log equally vital Typical approach collecting log K8s discussed problem example fluentd cannot collect log shortlived container one project container database migration run le 4 second deleted according respective annotation helmshhookdeletepolicy hooksucceeded log running migration never made storage beforehookcreation policy might help case Another example Docker’s log rotation Suppose application writing log intensely normal condition process log However problem arises — like problem wrong format described — processing halt Docker rotates file result businesscritical log lost That’s important split stream log valuable log would go directly application ensuring preservation also create kind log accumulator — would preserve critical message storage briefly unavailable Finally forget every subsystem need thorough monitoring Otherwise easy encounter situation fluentd end CrashLoopBackOff state stop sending log lead loss valuable information Takeaways see leave aside SaaS solution Datadog Many problem touched upon already solved commercial company specialize log collecting However SaaS solution suitable various reason high cost legal consideration country first glance centralized collection log look like easy task isn’t consideration remember detailed logging justified critical component system set monitoring along error collection production make sense minimize logging avoid excessive burden system Logs must machinereadable normalized strict format separate autonomous stream used critically important log idea log accumulator look promising help case load spike would make load storage uniform simple rule applied wherever appropriate allow approach described work smoothly even lack critical element log accumulator feel principle excessive might find situation another highly loaded inefficient component emerges system logging article originally written engineer Nikolay Bogdanov Follow blog get new excellent content FlantTags Logging Microservices Fluentd Loghouse Kubernetes |
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