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Build Your First Chatbot With Python and Integrate It on Telegram | NLTK
NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit) is the primary platform for building Python projects to work with human language information. It gives simple-to-utilize interfaces to more than 50 corpora and lexical resources, for example, WordNet, alongside the setup of text-handling libraries for classification, tokenization, stemming, tagging, parsing, and semantic thinking, and wrappers for industrial-strength NLP libraries.
Downloading and installing NLTK
Install NLTK: run pip install nltk Test installation: run python then type import nltk
For platform-specific instructions, read the NLTK documentation.
Installing NLTK packages
In your Python interpreter, run the following commands:
import nltk and run nltk.download() .This will open the NLTK downloader from where you can choose the corpora, models, and other data packages to download. You can also download all packages at once, or you specify the package you need as an argument in nltk.download() .
Text pre-processing with NLTK
The principle issue with text information is that it is all in strings (a group of text). However, machine learning calculations need a type of numerical element vector to perform the task. So before we start with any NLP project, we have to pre-process it to make it perfect for work. Fundamental text pre-handling incorporates:
Changing over the whole content into uppercase or lowercase , with the goal that the calculation doesn’t treat the same words in different contexts.
, with the goal that the calculation doesn’t treat the same words in different contexts. Tokenization is a process in which the text of strings is converted into a list of tokens. There is a sentence tokenizer that can be used to find the list of sentences and word tokenizer that can be used to find the list of words in strings.
is a process in which the text of strings is converted into a list of tokens. There is a sentence tokenizer that can be used to find the list of sentences and word tokenizer that can be used to find the list of words in strings. Removing noise will remove everything that isn’t a standard letter or number, like a punctuation mark, extra spaces, etc.
will remove everything that isn’t a standard letter or number, like a punctuation mark, extra spaces, etc. Removing stop words: Stop words are words that are commonly used (such as the, a, an, in, etc.) that have little value in selecting the matching phrase according to a user query.
Stop words are words that are commonly used (such as the, a, an, in, etc.) that have little value in selecting the matching phrase according to a user query. Stemming: It is a process of reducing a derived form of a word to its stem, base, or root form. For example, if we stem the following words: walks, walking, walked, then the stem word would be a single word, walk.
It is a process of reducing a derived form of a word to its stem, base, or root form. For example, if we stem the following words: walks, walking, walked, then the stem word would be a single word, walk. Lemmatization: A transformed version of stemming is lemmatization. The significant difference between these is that stemming operates on a single word without the knowledge of the context and can often create a non-existing word. In contrast, after lemmatization, we will get a valid word that has meaning in the dictionary. Lemmatization is based on the part of speech of a word that should be determined to get the correct lemma of the word. An example of lemmatization is that is, am, and are are forms of the verb to be; therefore, their lemma is be.
Bag of words
After the initial cleaning and processing phase, we need to transform the text into a meaningful vector (or cluster) of numbers. According to A Gentle Introduction to the Bag-of-Words Model by Jason Brownlee,
“The bag of words is a representation of text that describes the occurrence of words inside a document. It includes two things: 1. A vocabulary of known words 2. A measure of the presence of all the known words”
In the bag-of-words model, a text (such as a sentence or a document) is represented as the bag of its words, disregarding grammar and even word order but keeping multiplicity. The main reason behind using it is to check whether the sentence is similar in content or not with the document.
Suppose the vocabulary contains the words: {knowing, must, do, enough}. And we have the following sentence: “Knowing is not enough; we must apply.” Then bag-of-words representation for this would have the resulting vector: [1, 1, 0, 1].
TF-IDF approach
The main disadvantage of using the bag-of-words model is that it leads to a high dimensional feature vector due to the large size of vocabulary, which leads to a highly sparse vector as there is non-zero value in dimensions corresponding to words that occur in the sentence.
To overcome the disadvantage of bag of words, we perform normalization on the frequency value. A new approach, TF-IDF (term frequency-inverse document frequency), was invented for document search and similarity, and information retrieval. So, words that are common in every document (such as this, what, and if) rank low even though they may appear many times since they don’t mean much to that document in particular.
TF (Term Frequency): is scoring of how frequently a word occurs in the current document.
TF = (Number of times term t appears in a document)/(Number of terms in the document)
Inverse Document Frequency: is a scoring of how frequently the word occurs across the documents.
IDF = log(N/n), where, N is the total number of documents and n is the number of documents a term t has appeared in.
Finally, by taking a multiplicative value of TF and IDF, we get the TF-IDF score.
TF-IDF = TF * IDF
Let’s take an example where we have a document of four words, and best occurs one time in it. Therefore, the TF for the word best is then(1/4) = 0.25.
Now assume, we have five documents, and the word best occurs in two of them. Then the IDF is calculated as log(5/2) = 0.39. Thus the TF-IDF is the product of these quantities: 0.25 * 0.39 = 0.0975.
Cosine similarity
We applied TF-IDF to transform the text of the document into a real-valued vector in vector space. We can obtain a cosine similarity to determine how similar the vectors are irrespective of their size. We can then get the cosine similarity of any pair of vectors by taking their dot product and dividing that by the product of their norms. That yields the cosine of the angle between the vectors. Using the following formula, we can find out the similarity between any two document d1 and d2, where d1, d2 are two non-zero vectors. | https://medium.com/better-programming/build-your-first-chatbot-with-python-and-integrate-it-on-telegram-39d7e058b709 | ['Shubham Sood'] | 2020-09-28 13:14:28.098000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Python', 'NLP', 'Chatbot', 'Programming'] |
Updated Submission Guidelines For Passive Asset | Updated Submission Guidelines For Passive Asset
Must read guidelines about tags use with exemplary stories
We are accepting all the following content with no hassle of waiting. We are offering you what you are looking for “the best publication for your content”.A publication is said to be the best when it is beneficial to its writers and readers regarding learning the skills of writing and reading good stuff.
Photo by NMG Network on Unsplash
Without wasting your time, come to the list of topics we are expecting from you.
Health Relationship Love Poetry Fiction Personal Growth Travel
Above are the major topics with high ranked tags and vast subject of content writing. We also accept Business and lifestyle content but good one content is appreciated.
The rules of Passive Asset are according to the rules of the medium guidelines. Unlike other medium publications, we offer some extra for new medium writers or people who are in the learning phases.
Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash
Passive Asset has its own growth platform on other social media platforms available for stories. We prefer to promote the trending stories on these platforms. We will promote persistent, creative, and determined writers preferably You will be informed about the new tools or apps Tips for you on public or private email services will be provided Conduction of Analysis for writers to be promoted as editor Be sure your draft will be accepted as early as possible Already publication writers don't need to renew their membership for medium If any writer can't do well on medium, he can seek help from editors As per request and demand, navigation and tags can be changed on publication
How to Join Passive Asset?
The way is simple just write in response
I want to be added as a writer
guidelines about Tags
Health
People interested in writing for health are directed here to cite the source of your article regarding health, disease, or home remedies. For example, if your article is taken from mayo clinic, you will have to cite it via reference link. If you attribute a research article to yourself, it will be actually an abuse of the real researcher. We will not accept such a submission. So be careful and don't forget to mention the reference.
Relationship
A wide and diverse topic of interest. You can share here your life experiences regarding relationships. Social issues and awareness to help people can be spread through the tags. mind it social factors or other logical factors should be related to the relationship. For example, 10 Reasons for My break up
Love
Love story of personal experience or quoted from tales must be clear in meanings. It should not carry any weightage of promoting sexualism or any mislead to the people.
Poetry
Poetry is the essence of a publication. If you are interested in making money via poetry sharing then you must add some incident or motive to the poetry. It will make your story lengthy and worthy.
Fiction
I would like to say that you must tag fiction if you wrote a story about fiction. I found many writers writing the story about fiction but forget to tag it as fiction.
Personal Growth
Write your experiences about writing a story, improving your skills, embedding proofs of your experiences, and your journey to your goal. Personal growth is one of the finest tags. Example story of personal growth
Travel Story
Always choose this tag only when you have expertise in capturing scenes and describing it as the reader does not just enjoy rather he is accompanying you. The best travel story for you here is
This was all about Passive Asset. You[writers and readers] are an asset of Passive Asset. Happy writing! | https://medium.com/passive-asset/updated-submission-guidelines-for-passive-asset-bb1c2e79ca4c | ['Em Hoccane'] | 2020-12-07 14:51:48.157000+00:00 | ['Submission', 'Personal Development', 'Writing', 'Writing Tips', 'Personal Growth'] |
Improving SEO and UX using Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages with Next JS | A Note on Contemporary Performance Expectations (UX & SEO)
There are series of expectations when it comes to both contemporary browsing experience and site performance for search engines. While Google reports 50% user drop-off rates if the site took longer than 3s to load (TTI) 😱, the search engines too prioritise sites that exhibit blazingly fast loading times (among a list of other qualities).
Here is an example of common minimum expectations when it comes to site performance
Here is an excellent article on Incorporating Performance Budgets into the build that discusses the best practices and user expectations as well as the techniques to aid in developments towards the set performance budgets.
Consider also checking out this presentation I’ve put together for the Front-end development, where it goes into detail on how the browsers parse bundled code and translate it into pixels on screen. The distinctions help understand which parts of the process can and should be optimised to achieve blazingly fast performance!
Improving Metrics with AMP & Next JS
Here is an example of 2 Sites , one that wasn’t developed with acute performance optimisation in mind (on the left) and it’s successor re-build developed using Next.js with Google’s AMP components.
Take note of both Time To Interactive (TTI) and overall performance scores which indicate how good the user experience would be and how high the search engines might rank the page | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/improving-seo-and-ux-using-googles-accelerated-mobile-pages-with-next-js-e22320bd331 | [] | 2020-06-27 08:26:42.394000+00:00 | ['Web Development', 'React', 'UX', 'Programming', 'SEO'] |
Why Do Incompetent Managers Get Promoted? | Why Do Incompetent Managers Get Promoted?
Two books — 45 years apart — explain it. If you want to get ahead, it’s time to face the facts.
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash
In 1969, a book called “The Peter Principle” was published. It was written by Raymond Hull, based on the research of Dr. Laurence J. Peter.
Dr. Peter found that “an employee is promoted based on their success in previous jobs, until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.”
He further theorized that given enough time and positions, “Every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties.”
Hence you end up with a whole bunch of incompetent managers on top.
I find the first point to be especially true when managers are hired in from other companies. Most corporate HR tend to put a lot of weight on a person’s CV and their past accomplishments when hiring for senior positions. Personally I think too little consideration is put into thinking about how the person will perform in future, especially if they’re changing industries or roles.
On the second point, I’m not sure if every post will end up being occupied by an incompetent manager, but I do think when a lot of managers realized they’ve hit their peak or comfort level, they then start to focus on playing politics instead of delivering results to hold onto their position. These are also the kind of managers who would only hire people less capable than them, for fear of being replaced. | https://medium.com/better-programming/why-do-incompetent-managers-get-promoted-815165a03bee | ['Lance Ng'] | 2020-02-18 14:40:18.667000+00:00 | ['Management', 'Books', 'Careers', 'Work', 'Programming'] |
Anti-maskers Pushing for Herd Immunity Just Want Minorities Gone | They just want minorities gone
Among the minorities affected, asians are the ones least likely to die from COVID-19. However, the pandemic has affected them in other significant ways as well. Countless asian-owned businesses are closing due to the stigma connected to the coronavirus having originated from asia with Chinese restaurants taking the full brunt of the devastation. This comes as Donald trump having repeatedly called the coronavirus, the “China virus”, or in some cases the “kung flu”. There is also an increase in on-asian assaults following the start of the pandemic with some individuals being spat at while others were violently assaulted. In California, an elderly man of asian descent was attacked with an iron bar.
The core of right-wing politics, white nationalism, xenophobia — whatever you wanna call them — in this modern era are the age-old notions of race hierarchies and victimhood. It is for them, unacceptable that endearing stereotypes of some races being inferior are now being dis-proven, and that these people of color are — in fact actually capable of leading large corporations, being famous celebrities and assuming major roles in politics. It is their belief that for some reason, immigrants are “stealing” jobs that are rightfully theirs, that some businesses have no right to operate, that this virus is a “direct attack” from “the great other”. That it’s always “us against them”. This is why they don’t wear masks, this is why they keep on pushing to reopen as soon as possible like nothing is happening, because they have this illusion that this doesn’t affect them. The sole reason this doesn’t affect them is because they are shielded, shielded by the efforts of scientists and people who are still operating to make sure there is food in everybody’s plate or that there are no empty chairs at the dinner table. With a good number of these front-line workers being minorities.
But the rallies still continue, the anti-mask rhetoric is still in full swing. As of October 4, Donald Trump supporters — with no masks, mind you — have flocked the white house to cheer on their leader as he recklessly ventures out in a motorcade just to absorb those precious praise and cheers that fill up his depleted narcissistic battery. All the people directly with him in the vehicle with only N95 masks as PPE, are now to self-quarantine. People who actively participate in these rallies and push for a nationwide reopening, whether they know it or not, are encouraging herd immunity at the cost of minorities.
More people are still gonna die. On a September 30 forecast by the CDC, their model predicts a total of 219,000 to 232,000 COVID-19 deaths to be reported by October 24th. Presumably, a good number of these will be minorities.
With all these in line, this just sends a clear message: they want the minorities gone. | https://medium.com/discourse/anti-maskers-who-constantly-push-for-herd-immunity-simply-want-minorities-gone-48a7e5c0471b | ['Henner Townlove'] | 2020-10-16 08:21:23.109000+00:00 | ['Minorities', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Racism', 'Herd Immunity', 'Coronavirus'] |
Are You Ready to be a Leader? Here’s How to Know | Libraries have always felt like home. As a 12-year-old, I preferred reading to kickball. Getting lost in stories helped me escape to worlds beyond my suburb that abutted Detroit. The weekly trip to the library was my favorite. I consumed every book I could tearing through the stacks at a ferocious pace. I read it all — I even read the encyclopedia. One day I discovered a new shelf. Tucked all the way in the corner by the window, it held a treasure trove of books on great leaders. Each week I’d race over to that sunny corner to explore their lives: Martin Luther King Jr, Abraham Lincoln, JFK, Susan B. Anthony. I wanted to understand how they led movements, made important decisions and what drove them to serve others. I wanted to be like them — making a difference in the lives of others.
In college, my obsession with leadership led me to study psychology, sociology and organizational strategy. I was sure I knew what it meant to be a leader. I did not. Books about leaders are quite different than the experience.
In my career, that desire to be of service led me to take on more responsibility, often being promoted quickly. Eventually this culminated in a role as a COO. I got a few things right but wow did I get others so wrong. Later when interviewing other leaders, I learned that like me, most found the reality much different. We weren’t prepared for the reality of making hard decisions, juggling numerous priorities and running an obstacle course of human behavior every day. We didn’t understand what it really meant to be a leader and the cost it can exact. We knew it will be challenging, but don’t anticipate how hard or the ways in which it’s hard.
Leadership can be a meat grinder, just not always in the ways you expect. The hardest stuff isn’t always tangible things that show up on spreadsheets. The most challenging part revolves around human nature. Despite a desire to add value, leadership can be an energy sucking vampire. It can push edges you didn’t even know you had. Leading can also be incredibly fulfilling. If you’re considering a career leap, here are five things you want to consider.
Five ways to know you’re ready for leadership
You’re willing to battle imposter syndrome
People are often promoted because of their performance but leadership is not more of the same. Up to this point you’ve been rewarded for getting the work done. It’s such a well worn muscle it’s automatic. A problem crops up, you dig in to solve it. Rather than the fuel that drives the core engine, as a leader you’re accelerant. Shifting from execution to influencing at a strategic level is tough for most. This sounds small, it’s not. Focusing on execution can actually get you fired. To be effective, leaders have to know how to influence, what to delegate, how to empower, and build capacity in the team. For most, these are completely new skill sets. Learning something new is uncomfortable for everyone — even for the experienced. Imposter syndrome lurks at the corner of every new learning opportunity. While it might seem counter-intuitive, most leaders have battled imposter syndrome, especially during their first year or two in the role.
Are you uncomfortable learning new skills, especially in front of an audience? This should give you pause. If you are willing to face the discomfort of failing while you master new skills, leadership just might be for you. Imposter syndrome is sure to arise— have a strategy to handle it.
You’re ok with imperfect decisions
Be prepared to make a dizzying array of decisions. Sometimes the decisions come easily. Other times chaos reigns, especially as you sort through the variables and possible routes. You have to know how navigate perfectionist tendencies to avoid analysis paralysis that threatens to delay decision making. Be prepared for sleepless nights wondering if you made the right choice. You might even hope for a fabled time machine to go back and make a new one. Complicating it, when you become a leader you join another team made up of peers. Decision making becomes more complex. You have to consider multiple points of views and the business as a whole. Working across areas requires a different kind of skills and understanding. The best decision for the company might add strain to your team. Sometimes the leadership team gets it wrong, having a negative effect on the whole company. Regret might follow, the team might start questioning your choices. You have to accept imperfect decisions — they’re just are part of leadership.
Don’t mind making imperfect decisions? OK knowing you’ll get it wrong sometimes? If so, you might find the role fulfilling.
You can put the team first
If your ego needs oxygen like you need air to stay alive, leadership will be tough. Centering your needs might work…for a while. Sooner or later this breaks down as the team struggles to get their needs met. Rather than a ruler or monarch, leaders find themselves more like facilitators, sometimes even feeling like a therapist to the team. When the team struggles with changes or uncertainty, it falls on you to create a conducive environment. This might not be easy when you’re facing your own challenges or doubts. To lead others means putting others first more often than yourself. This requires tremendous amounts of self management. Emotion management is draining, especially without good boundaries or support. When working with people, you have to put your ego aside — over and over. Trying to be right or insisting on your way creates friction, draining everyone. Eventually those speed bumps ground everyone to a halt, a death knell in business.
Like working to solve thorny people problems that don’t have easy answers? Leadership is likely a good fit. If you find people problems draining, you might want to reconsider. Look at a senior individual contributor role instead. You’ll still have influence but have much less people management tasks.
You’re prepared for scrutiny
Leadership is like constantly being on stage. The microphone live, the spotlight always on you. Every move you make observed. Your day flooded with decisions, you won’t always get them right. People won’t like your decisions — count on that. They may think you’re heartless, or incompetent. They might believe power has gone to your head, that you’ve become selfish. In leadership, praise is often scarce, criticism abundant. Making reviled decisions can make you doubt yourself and cause stress, especially if you want people to like you. It’s hard when the team criticizes your mistakes or gossips about you. Leaders aren’t so different from others, they want to be liked too. To get through the pressure gauntlet, you have to have a thick skin. You have to learn how to put distance between the team’s opinion of you and your opinion of you — without completely detaching from them emotionally. It’s far trickier to do that it sounds.
Do you struggle with criticism? If so, the role will likely be stressful. Your decisions will be analyzed to your face, but also in DMs and in closed slack channels. Yes, it will happen no matter what you do. If you’re ready to get better at handling criticism and scrutiny leadership is a good choice, your growth will accelerate rapidly. Just be prepared for gossip and criticism crush you when it comes. Embrace the lessons and leave the rest.
You don’t mind meetings
Leaders are well-known for schedules with back-to-back meetings. It’s an obstacle most can’t seem to get around. Some companies have been successful at curbing the meeting habit, even reducing it to less than 10 hours a week. Most leads spend the better part of their weeks in meetings, some even more than 25 hours a week. It’s true most companies need to seriously curb the meeting habit. Still, if you want to be a leader, you have to tolerate meetings. More importantly, you have to be deft at finding time for the deep thinking required for strategic planning and departmental level deliverable work. This might sound like a fun problem to have — it’s not. Meetings are draining for everyone. Packed schedules mean working extra hours to focus on critical strategic issues, pushing leads closer to becoming workaholics damaging themselves and the team. Worse, these days most are done via Zoom, requiring even more energy than in-person meetings.
Do you loathe meetings? This role will be difficult unless you find a company rigorous about reducing the meeting load. Even if you’re ok with meetings, make sure the company’s expectations match your own. Ask questions about the primary mode of company communication, the average number of meetings and the expectations of leaders.
Two reasons not become a leader
If you answered yes to all or most of these, you’re ready for a leadership role. Now go get that promotion or land that new job. But first, let’s talk about two reasons you might want to reconsider taking on more responsibility.
You want to make more money
If you want to make more money and you enjoy messy people stuff, great! Leadership is a good choice for you. If you come into the role expecting to have less people problems you’ll be disappointed. If you dislike messy people stuff, more money might not be enough. To get results, leaders need to work closely with the team and across the company. Leading requires tremendous amounts of influence, collaboration and self management — all which require deep people skills. People can be inconsistent, irrational, have lots of feelings, be resistant if they don’t like a decision, struggle with change. Every day is an obstacle course around human behavior. If you don’t love working through people problems, you’re likely to be miserable in the role, despite the extra cash. That misery will eventually translate to the team and multiply. Be very careful if money is the sole reason for wanting a leadership role.
You want more control
Being the boss sounds like you’ll have loads of control. As a leader, control is a mirage. Sure, there will be some decisions under your control but less than you think. You have to be willing to let go of dominating. High performing teams dislike command and control forms of leadership. Faced with lack of autonomy and a plethora of other choices, the team flees. Lack of control also translates to your peers. Running a business requires high amounts of collaborative work with other areas, diminishing full autonomy further. Too many stalemates at this level slows decision making, stalling the team, making it impossible to keep up with the market. Sure, you can make a play for more power. It probably won’t turn out well with your fellow leaders and most assuredly with your team. Unless you are the CEO, your quest for control will disappoint. Resist the urge, it doesn’t end well.
Seeking power is a pit of quicksand. You sink faster than you can get to the top.
If you have control issues and still want to be a leader, get a good therapist or coach immediately. It’s a must. Letting go of control reduces friction with the team and your peers — making everything easier. If you can learn to work with your peers you can create something marvelous, maybe even extraordinary.
P.S. If you want a leadership role to impress others, be careful. The title can lend credibility and open future career doors. Still, there are downsides to consider. That desire can be career fuel, just be sure it’s not the only reason. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/are-you-ready-for-a-leadership-role-heres-how-to-know-5dc5dcdd2faf | ['Suzan Bond'] | 2020-10-18 11:55:02.800000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Startup', 'Work', 'Careers', 'Management'] |
This Will Make You Airbnb in Boston Efficiently. | Which neighbourhood to pick while in Boston?
Mission Hill is the most popular neighbourhood in Boston among Airbnb rentees, while the least popular area is Leather District, which has only 50 reviews against 400 of Mission Hill, having an average price of $250 per night versus $120 at Mission Hill.
There are three features we will use to examine whether the given area in Boston is popular among the visitors or not: average price, number of reviews left, and the annual availability of properties in each neighbourhood.
Figure 4. Number of reviews by neighbourhood
According to the fig. 4, the Mission Hill area has the maximum numbers of reviews, over 400. Following by East Boston and Back Bay areas with 350 and 310 reviews, respectively.
It is important to note that the number of reviews was not split for negative and positive, according to Trustpilot research (2018) the top three reasons customers write reviews are:
· to help others make a better buying decision
· to share an experience, or
· to reward a company for good performance.
Given the research outcome above, it was decided that both negative and positive reviews would be beneficial for our analysis.
Figure 5. Annual availability by neighbourhood
The fig.5 gives us more evidence to support our initial findings of Mission Hill, as the properties in that particular area available on average 50 days a year, which is the lowest availability ratio among other areas in Boston.
While the Leather District neighbourhood is the least popular according to the number of reviews and the availability ratio, with 50 reviews and is available 365 days a year.
The price wise: the Leather District (over $250) is one of the highest charging neighbourhood among the South Boston Waterfront (over $300) and Bay Village($270). The high price can evidence the lack of demand in these areas among rentees and this is also evidenced by the small number of reviews.
While Mission Hill has an average price of $120, which is more than twice less than the areas mentioned above, making the area attractive among visitors. | https://medium.com/swlh/this-will-make-you-airbnb-in-boston-efficiently-d9ec76e6dfb0 | ['Gyuzala Muzafarova'] | 2020-12-24 22:34:53.306000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Airbnb Data', 'Programming'] |
In praise of thoughtlessness: A strategy for coping | MIT Sloan
In his 1973 Pulitzer prize winning book, The Denial of Death, cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker maintains that we live life as a constant struggle to control our basic anxiety: the fear of death. “This is the terror: To have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating yearning for life and self-expression — and with all this to die.”
What this means is significant: All we ever think about — what we constantly struggle with — is how to assert our existence; unconsciously, and at every moment, we fight, deny, ignore, or attempt to transcend the fear of the inevitable, final extinguishing. And, since the mind is nothing but a continuous stream of those (death-defying) thoughts, you could further say that the mind’s sole preoccupation, though it is a barely acknowledged undercurrent, is “how to survive,” both in body and spirit.
Bodily survival is no longer a matter of outrunning prehistoric predators, but there is always the danger of an accident, of encountering violent crime, of catching a disease, or even of being randomly gunned down — sometimes even by the police — for that matter. The fear of physical death is a focused fear. It arises out of an imminent, identifiable danger. Our sympathetic nervous system — the flight or fight response — kicks in automatically. But once the danger has passed, we don’t think about it that much.
Survival of the spirit is another matter altogether. Since physical survival does not consume too much of our mental bandwidth, we lavish attention on matters of the spirit; our biological survival instinct has gradually deformed into a protective, but porous shell over our sense of self. Deep down, our thoughts are all about sustaining our self-image; self-esteem is what we cherish above all else. It is existence itself.
Unlike the focused fear of physical death, the fear of spiritual death — the loss of self-esteem — is more diffuse. It manifests as a persistent, omnidirectional anxiety. The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard called anxiety “an unfocused fear.” Anxiety, Becker reminds us, is “the peculiar sentence of Man alone in the animal kingdom.” That’s because it’s an inevitable byproduct of Man’s unique ability to think about himself.
In daily life we don’t acknowledge this of course. We may think ourselves to be noble, altruistic, empathetic or devotional, we may assign the highest motives to our thoughts, but in every case a subconscious quid pro quo is at work: We expect to reap some benefit to our self-esteem in exchange for our perceived generosity of spirit. Says Becker, ”Man is capable of the highest generosity and self-sacrifice. But he has to feel and believe that what he is doing is truly heroic, timeless and supremely meaningful.”
Whether in anxieties or in aspirations, whether we know it or not, we seek always to protect our self-image, or to burnish it. The throbbing ache for self-esteem is, in fact, the background thrum of existence. We are all narcissists, hopelessly absorbed with ourselves.
Recorded history, it could be said, is the account of the human mind’s machinations, through the ages, in service of Man’s self-esteem.
But even more than the content of our thoughts, it is the act of thinking itself that most reinforces our existence. “Cogito, ergo sum,” (I think therefore I am) perhaps the most clichéd expression in philosophy, resonates with us instinctively. It speaks, aloud, what we fear the most: To stop thinking is to die. We can live without a limb or an organ, but insentience is inconceivable. We need the mind to keep conducting this chorus of voices and images.
Or do we?
There’s one thing we know: Our minds may reaffirm our existence, but they also lead us into dark places.
Our “monkey minds,” as the Buddhists term them, restless, dissatisfied and confused, jump about constantly seeking new distractions from the impending doom. And sometimes the deep jungle beckons. Anxiety and its extreme manifestations, depression and schizophrenia, to say nothing of a whole host of other troubles of the mind, are the results of our thoughts run amok. In fact, a little reflection shows that all of the problems addressed by psychoanalysis can be interpreted as reactions of the body-mind to its failures at triumphing over our quotidian existential fears. The fear of death (of the spirit more so than of the body), is Man’s constant and greatest anxiety. “Samsara is dukkha,” taught the Buddha, a statement which I will interpret as “mundane existence is pervaded by infinite dissatisfaction.”
Are we cursed with eternal restlessness? Is incessant mental turmoil a necessary, evolutionary condition for being?
No, it cannot be. Intimations of an abiding inner peace abound in everyday life. We stumble across them, serendipitously. And, in every such experience, peace seeps in as mental activity subsides or ceases. Turns out that you don’t cease to exist if you cease to think. In fact, it may be just the opposite — a state of near thoughtlessness can be enlivening. It may even be worth cultivating.
Most commonly, such experiences can be found in the phenomenon of “flow.” A flow state, also known as “being in the zone,” is the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully engrossed, sharply focused and enjoys the process. A state of flow can be experienced in a variety of activities such as painting, drawing, writing, playing a musical instrument, or in any work that requires some expertise. An expert mechanic feels no pain in his arthritic wrists as he plies his skill. For a while, the looming dread recedes. Time passes delightfully quickly.
Another common experience is the so-called runner’s high: A long bout of aerobic exercise, or any kind of repetitive, rhythmic physical activity can induce a feeling of euphoria coupled with reduced anxiety and a lessened ability to feel pain.
In both these cases, the mind focused on a narrow spectrum of thoughts — or even a single one — ceases its desperate and erratic reactions to threats, either real or imagined. The need to boost our self-esteem recedes into the background, if only temporarily. Our anxieties are on hold.
The benefits of letting thoughts subside are well established in meditative practices, of course. Concentration is the basis of many schools of meditation. Focusing one’s thoughts on one’s breath or on an external object, noticing other thoughts as they arise, bringing the attention back to the object of focus induces a deep experience of peace, reflected also in changes in physiological markers.
In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the 2500-year old foundational text of the Yoga philosophy of the Hindus, the first injunction is “Chitta-vritti nirodha,” which roughly translates to, “cease the modifications of the mind.” Stop thinking, in other words.
Another example of an ancient practice is the “koan” — a succinct but logically paradoxical statement — a device used by the Zen Buddhists of Japan. The effort to “solve” a koan is intended to exhaust the thought-generating process; as thoughts subside deeper experiences rise to the surface. (An aside: Since the political discourse of the day teems with logical paradoxes, Koan effects may have become commonplace.)
Indeed, Buddhists and yogis cultivate a state of thoughtlessness as a spiritual practice. Stilling the mind is said to reveal one’s true nature, a vision of the divine hidden behind the fog of thoughts. Western religions, too, endorse thoughtlessness as a path to realization: What is to be stilled in the biblical exhortation, “Be still and know that I am God,” is thinking itself.
Metaphysical concerns aside, it is widely accepted that a cultivated thoughtlessness, regularly practiced, can be an effective tool to keep at bay that most dreadful of existential fears: Anxiety, the diffuse but futile fear of spiritual death. Today, meditation is frequently prescribed as therapy for chronic anxiety, though Otto Rank, the noted Austrian psychologist, contemporary of Freud, once maintained that anxiety could not be overcome therapeutically because “it is impossible to stand up to the terror of one’s condition without anxiety.”
In the end the Bible asks what might be the most pertinent of questions on the subject of anxiety: “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Matthew 6:27).
On the other hand, not thinking so much may add years. | https://girishmhatre.medium.com/in-praise-of-thoughtlessness-a-strategy-for-coping-3234d75b6395 | ['Girish Mhatre'] | 2020-07-22 15:56:10.496000+00:00 | ['Meditation', 'Consciousness', 'Coping Mechanisms', 'Coping', 'Psychology'] |
How DoorDash Built the Most Incredible Go-to-market Playbook Ever | A LESSON IN STRATEGY & EXECUTION
How DoorDash Built the Most Incredible Go-to-market Playbook Ever
Sifting through the DoorDash S-1: Building an economic moat by combining execution with data and intelligence.
There’s plenty of financial analysis of the DoorDash S-1 out there. But no analysis so far has focused on how exactly DoorDash went from last to first in a super competitive market — and the answer includes “by using data”.
DoorDash interlocked its operating model with their technology platform, making execution driven by data the key drivers that propelled DoorDash from 17% to 50% marketshare between January 2018 and October 2020.
I think there are three distinct factors that make up for DoorDash’s success:
A clear strategy and operating model
A relentless focus on execution — 1% better every day
A data platform that drives intelligence and automation
It’s the 3rd factor that I think gets too little attribution — data. That’s what this post is about, and there’s a tiny section on page 194 of the prospectus that touches on it:
“We have assembled a team of 617 highly skilled engineers, designers, and computer scientists whose expertise spans a broad range of technical areas, as of September 30, 2020. We organize our team with a full-stack development model, integrating product management, engineering, analytics, data science, and design.”
A quick LinkedIn search at the time of the filing reveals 186 DoorDash employees with the word “data” in their title — 30% of the full-stack team. That’s a lot, in the range of 2–3x higher than what I see with other engineering organizations. Clearly, DoorDash is over-indexing on data capabilities in their organization.
Food delivery is a low margin business, and besides brand you could argue there’s not much differentiation between two delivery services — they pick up food from a merchant and deliver it to a consumer.
By using data, DoorDash has been squeezing out the smallest inefficiencies out of its operating model, increasing customer / Dasher / merchant satisfaction, marketplace gross order volume (“GOV”) and customer lifetime value.
Yes, others are using data too. At my previous company intermix.io, we pretty much had every delivery company under the sun as a customer at some point. Postmates, Takeaway.com, Delivery Hero, Glovo, Deliveroo — you name it. All with excellent data engineering teams.
But DoorDash takes the cake in my opinion. With data from the over 900 million orders that have been completed through the platform since founding, they’ve made it more efficient and profitable to deliver food from A to B than anybody else.
If you don’t have the time to read the full post — I also write a weekly-ish newsletter where I share the lessons learned from all the start-up that I come across. 👇
A Clear Strategy and Operating Model
The DoorDash operating model aka “Flywheel” connects — at the point of the publication of the S-1 — the three marketplace constituencies:
390,000 merchants
18 million consumers
1 million dashers
What’s remarkable that this model has both network effects and economies of scale.
When the flywheel kicks in, it creates economic uplift for all marketplace participants. The image below shows that the economics of a single order can look like.
Everybody wins with more order volume on the platform. That makes the strategy and its key activities clear:
acquire more merchants, and empower them with more merchant services that help them grow their business.
acquire more customers, and offer them a restaurant selection and services that drive up engagement and retention.
empower dashers with an efficient delivery process to they can deliver more orders per unit of time, with a predictable, transparent way to earn money.
And looking at Marketplace GOV, clearly that flywheel has worked, with $7.3 billion in in GOV in Q3 2020 alone.
Conventional wisdom in the food delivery business suggests that the biggest markets are in high-density metropolitan areas. Because of their high density, you have more restaurant choice, shorter distance to the consumer, and a higher number of single young professionals with a high amount of disposable income that they prefer to spend on ordering dinner, not cooking it.
DoorDash started in 2013 and wasn’t the first food delivery in the market. Postmates started in 2011. Eat24 started in 2012, and was acquired by Yelp, and then re-sold to GrubHub. GrubHub itself started in 2004. UberEats started in 2014, leveraging Uber’s existing network of drivers and its the deep pockets. So there was plenty of well-funded, existing competition.
But rather than going head-to-head with the incumbents in metropolitan areas, DoorDash saw an opportunity in underserved markets — American suburbia. From the S-1:
“We believe that suburban markets and smaller metropolitan areas have experienced significantly higher growth compared to larger metropolitan markets because these smaller markets have been historically underserved by merchants and platforms that enable on-demand delivery. Accordingly, residents in these markets are more acutely impacted by the lack of alternatives and the inconvenience posed by distance and the need to drive to merchants, and therefore, consumers in these markets derive greater benefit from on-demand delivery. Additionally, suburban markets are attractive as consumers in these markets are more likely to be families who order more items per order. Lighter traffic and easier parking also mean that Dashers can serve these markets more efficiently. “
Turn’s out DoorDash’s Ideal Customer Profile wasn’t just the “Millennial Young Professional in the City”, but also the “All-American Family in Suburbia” where both parents are working and don’t have much time (or desire) to cook.
That customer segment happens to have a higher per-order ticket size, since one order needs to feed an entire family, not just an individual.
The lower density of suburban areas turns out to be an advantage, because of less traffic and better parking. DoorDash says they have a 58% market share in the suburbs, higher than their overall market share.
Because of less choice in those markets, customers also stick around with DoorDash and don’t churn to other delivery services. As you can see from the image below, repeat purchase from existing customers drove 85% of GOV in Q3.
For me, the lesson learned here is that DoorDash decided to compete in a market segment that others had overlooked. And that segment happened to come with some interesting economics:
lower customer acquisition cost, as there’s less competition in these markets
higher GOV on a per order basis, as families spend more with more mouths to feed.
higher retention, as customers don’t have an alternative to switch to (and actually enjoy the service)
Maybe that strategy was intentional, maybe they stumbled on it. Probably a bit of both. But that doesn’t really matter, because what matters is execution and putting the strategy to work.
A relentless focus on execution
We already covered Marketplace GOV above. Peeling the onion from the top line, the numbers of orders have grown as DoorDash rolled out more markets, and then there’s a clear uplift from Covid in Q2 2020.
I plotted the number of orders vs. GOV below. The average order value has fluctuated within a narrow band, between $29.90 and $31.20. That makes intuitive sense, as people can only eat that much.
The insight here I think is that it will be hard if not impossible to grow the business by increasing the average order size, e.g. via marketing, promotions, etc. It’s a fixed amount that may grow with inflation, but that’s it. Apart from new products, that means there only three ways to grow the top- and bottom-line of the business:
roll out more markets
increase order volume per market and customer
make each market and order more efficient.
And that’s exactly what DoorDash has done.
Roll out more markets
DoorDash developed an “operational playbook” to launch, run and scale their local markets. Most of that responsibility sits within the Strategy & Operations team.
DoorDash runs seven regions across the U.S. and Canada. Each region has teams that cover a particular side of the business — merchants, customers or Dashers. Their goal is to scale all three at the same rate. The combination of regional experts and focus on each side of the business ensures that local marketplaces within the regions are growing and running smoothly.
Within the Strategy & Operations team, DoorDash has a team of “Launchers“ that work with all three sides of the platform to roll out a new market:
recruit restaurants as partners
kick off marketing efforts to bring in customers
run orientations for new Dashers.
Before launching, the team of Launchers conducts demographic research in that market, and will literally go door-to-door to engage with merchants. Based on their research, they bring on the most desirable merchants. The whole process takes six to eight weeks.
Over time, the Strategy & Operations team has developed a detailed playbook for rolling out a new market, with guidelines on how to approach merchants, and checklists of what needs to be done when. From there, DoorDash also provides education for merchants, e.g. how to optimize their dishes for delivery and pick-up, or what to do to attract new customers.
The Launchers walk the talk — they do deliveries themselves. As does the entire DoorDash organization. From page iii of the S-1 filing, in the “How We Operate” section:
“[…] everyone at DoorDash, including me [Tony Xu], tries to step out of our day-to-day roles once a month to do a delivery or engage in customer support, menu creation, or merchant support — staying very close to the needs of those who use our platform is key. We attribute our category-leading spend retention and capital efficiency, in part, to this obsession
Increase order volume per market and customer
Most of the customer and Dasher acquisition seems to come from performance-based marketing. There’s a dedicated Customer Acquisition Team with a business leader.
Apart from local restaurants, DoorDash also has partnerships with national and regional chains such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell and WingStop. Other initiatives include co-marketing deals with e.g the NBA.
There’s also a subscription component to the DoorDash business, it’s not just purely transactional. With “DashPass”, customers pay a flat monthly delivery fee (today $9.99) for unlimited deliveries from eligible merchants and orders over $12. Amazon Prime and a Costco membership come to mind, for a comparison. As of September 30, 2020, DoorDash had over five million consumers on DashPass, meaning they generate $50M+ in monthly subscription revenue, without having delivered a single meal yet. Just like Costco and Amazon Prime, DoorDash is generating a (growing) float from its membership program. But more so — DashPass takes friction of the ordering process, as there’s no additional delivery fee. It makes people order more.
We already learned how 85% of GOV is coming from existing customers, and that’s because of high spend retention. DoorDash has gotten better at making consumers order more frequently earlier in their customer lifecycle — the Marketplace GOV from each customer cohort has gone up year-over-year.
You can see how cohorts consistently increase their spend on DoorDash.
The 2016 cohort increased its annual spend by 57% in Year 4 (2019) compared to 2016.
The 2018 cohort increased its annual spend by 65% in Year 2 (2019)
In other words, the 2018 cohort has higher spend after Year 1 than the 2016 cohort after Year 4. The compounding impact on the business is tremendous, because DoorDash is generating organic growth without spending more on customer acquisition.
If you assume an average of 1.6x across the three cohorts [(1.57 + 1.62 + 1.65) / 3 = 1.61] for the next three years, that means we’ll be looking at 4.1x cumulative GMV. That’s a ton of operating leverage and drives up the LTV / CAC ratio.
Make each market and order more efficient
Another interesting part from the “How We Operate” Section is the “Get 1% better every day” mantra.
We are only as good as our next order. […] we must perennially improve our products, create more customer value, and launch new services to meet the needs and expectations of our three constituencies. […] While it might seem small in isolation, our daily work — be it on reducing delivery times, increasing efficiency, or improving personalization — is about compounding incremental improvements that drive significant value over time.
“Compounding incremental improvements” — looking at the evolution of the business, that approach seems to have worked for DoorDash, by looking at aggregate numbers.
First off, Gross Margin grew from 23% in Q1 2019 to 53% in Q3 2020.
Then, Contribution Margin went from deep red in Q1 2019 (-71%) into the black in Q1 2020 and is now in the 24% range at the the end of Q3 2020. Same story for Contribution Profit.
So why is that? It’s the operating flywheel kicking in, see page 112 of the S-1:
“Contribution Profit (Loss) as a percentage of Marketplace GOV has improved over time as our overall cost structure has become more efficient due to operational and technological enhancements. These enhancements have focused on improving Dasher efficiency, which enables Dashers to complete more deliveries per hour worked, and the quality of the experience of merchants, consumers, and Dashers, which has led to lower cost of refunds, credits, and adjusted cost of revenue, in the aggregate, as a percentage of Marketplace GOV.”
So there you go. More deliveries per hour worked, better experience, less loss.
That’s the aggregate picture. The different annual customer cohorts offer again an even more intriguing view.
DoorDash spends between 7% (2017 Cohort) and 10% (2018 Cohort) of Marketplace GOV on customer acquistion in Year 1. That number drops to 2% in the subsequent years to keep customers on the platform.
Looking at the Contribution Profit by Cohort, we can see how “due to the adjusted sales and marketing and promotions spend required to acquire the consumers in the cohort and encourage their repeat use of our platform”, we see a Contribution Loss in Year 1, between 5% (2017 Cohort) and and 9% (2018 Cohort).
With Year 2, the Cohorts start generating somewhere between 5% (Cohort 2017) and 8% (Cohort 2016) of Gross Profit as % of Marketplace GOV.
In summary, here are the things we know:
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is between 7–10% of GOV in Year 1. Let’s assume 8% for simpler math.
Contribution Profit (CP) is around 5–8% of GOV for the following years. Again, let’s assume 8% for simpler math.
Customers stick around for at least 3 years, with spend growing to 1.6x
Since all these metrics are expressed as a function of GOV, we can calculate a few metrics:
12 months payback period . If you divide the customer acquisition cost of Year 1 by the contribution profit of Year 2, you get a payback period of 12 months → 8% / 8% = 1.
. If you divide the customer acquisition cost of Year 1 by the contribution profit of Year 2, you get a payback period of 12 months → 8% / 8% = 1. 24% of GOV Customer Lifetime Value. If you assume a customer lifetime of 3 years, you get 3 x 8% = 24% of GOV in Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
If you assume a customer lifetime of 3 years, you get 3 x 8% = 24% of GOV in Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). 3x CLV / CAC Ratio. → 24% / 8% = 3x
These metrics are only expressed in a percentage of GOV. Because of the 1.6x increase in spend, the absolute numbers for lifetime value go up, and contribute in cash to the bottom line. All DoorDash needs to do is acquire a customer and keep them on the platform beyond year 1.
I know there’s a bit of wiggle room in the math since we rounded the numbers a bit, but overall this looks like a pretty damn good business to me.
So how exactly are they doing this? This is where their technology platform comes into play.
A data platform that drives intelligence and automation
DoorDash has built an incredible analytics machine that allows granular optimization experiments on the tiniest little things across the food delivery lifecycle. At DoorDash, data is what drives the “Get 1% better every day” goal.
From the S-1:
Our local logistics platform is powered by our proprietary technology that carefully optimizes the many interactions between merchants, consumers, and Dashers to make the end-to-end experience seamless and delightful. Each order on our local logistics platform provides a broad range of information that is analyzed by our machine learning algorithms to improve the quality and performance of our platform. From presenting personalized, curated content to consumers that takes into account cuisine and dietary preferences to providing information that enables Dashers to maximize their earnings opportunities, our machine learning algorithms continuously improve the experiences of our three constituencies and make our local logistics platform more intelligent and efficient with every order.
Any industry has a key transaction that measures the exchange of value. Airlines sell plane tickets, Brokerages sell stock trades, Logistics companies sell shipments, Food Delivery sells restaurant orders, and so forth.
Analytics teams “instrument” each transaction to collect data that helps answer basic questions about the business. For airlines, that may be “how many tickets did we sell in March?”. In food delivery that could be “how many orders did we sell yesterday?” or “which is the the most popular restaurant in Austin in July vs. December?”
Over time, analytics teams collect more data points, incl. from the events that happen pre- and post-transaction. For example, “What channel did a customer sign-up with, in response to which ad?”, “what type of phone do they use?”, or “what type of credit card do they use to pay?”
Good analytics teams collect that data in a way so that they can slice and dice that data in any possible way. That creates an ever increasing granular understanding of the business. Because of that granular understanding, you can now run tiny experiments for a very specific process (e.g. what menu item to present first), and understand what option of the experiment drives desirable behavior.
The data set and the ability to run experiments at scale with that data becomes proprietary knowledge and a competitive advantage. Your platform becomes intelligent.
An A/B Test for testing different layouts and photos DoorDash Customer Acquisition Ads.
DoorDash has done exactly that. Their data platform is a growth engine that powers experimentation across the food delivery lifecycle — ad images, menu presentation and pick-up time for Dashers by market, down to the single minute depending on weekday and time of the day.
Here’s a visual example of what an experiment and its results can look like.
Running experiments for average delivery duration. Source: https://doordash.engineering/2019/02/20/experiment-rigor-for-switchback-experiment-analysis/ by Carla Sneider and Yixin Tang
You can read up on everything DoorDash is doing with data on their Engineering Blog. A few examples.
Optimizing Dasher dispatch
One of the biggest levers for a profitable delivery business is driver dispatch — which dasher is best suited to fulfill a delivery. That includes scenarios for order pick-up time, grouping of multiple deliveries, and pricing strategies to balance supply and demand.
Generating possible routes for each order, and choosing the best route to assign in real-time. Source: https://doordash.engineering/2018/02/13/switchback-tests-and-randomized-experimentation-under-network-effects-at-doordash/ by David Kastelman and Raghav Ramesh
Clearly, it makes a difference if a whole delivery cycle takes e.g. 30 min or 20 minutes — a Dasher can deliver more orders per hour, and also makes more money. Shaving off minutes compounds across the whole fleet, raising income for Dashers and making DoorDash more efficient and profitable.
Online delivery menu best practices
The “ticket size” of an order obviously matters as the restaurant generates more revenue, and DoorDash gets a larger commission, which they can re-invest into the business.
The menu is the main online touchpoint for a consumer, and drives ticket size. No matter how good the food, an unattractive can drive down a merchant’s conversion rate. , regardless of the quality of the food. If a merchant does not design its menu correctly, customers won’t be as attracted to their online offerings and will not buy as often. In order to succeed online, merchants need to utilize a set of menu-building best practices to attract new customers.
Merchant “Pho888” includes multiple extra options for each pho item. Merchant “Avec” has a $30 option to add lobster to its paella dish. Presenting these extra options in the right way to a consumer can provide a massive uplift to the ticket size of the order. Source: https://doordash.engineering/2020/11/10/uncovering-online-delivery-menu-best-practices-with-machine-learning/ by Finn Qiao
DoorDash uses machine learning (ML) to analyze thousands of merchant menus, and has seen hefty improvement in menu performance from experiments involving header photos and more information about the restaurant.
Real-time prediction service — “Sybil”
The best data is useless when you can’t put it to action. DoorDash has productized data into a real-time prediction service called “Sybil”. Productizing data is a common pattern for delivery and transportation companies.
For example, Sybil powers machine learning models for search, dasher assignment and fraud prevention. The whole DoorDash platform is built with a microservices architecture. Consider a prediction a data microservice that any DoorDash app can call, and automate decisions based on real-time data, vs. static rules.
DoorDash has again a competitive advantage here — they have more customers and orders, across more markets, hence they have a better data set to power their machine learning algorithms. As a result, much of the DoorDash marketplace is now driven by data. Data makes the DoorDash ”local logistics platform more intelligent and efficient with every order”. It’s a huge competitive data moat.
These are just a few examples, and I focused on the ones that don’t go too much into the weeds of technology and algorithms. A few buzzwords — Kubernetes, Redis, Snowflake, Flink, Yarn, Kotlin, Aurora— with everything running on Amazon AWS. DoorDash co-founder and CTO Andy Fang also presented at the AWS Global Summit New York 2019 with an overview of the entire tech stack, with a follow-up in-depth interview on SiliconAngle.
For more detail on tech stack, latest project, people — I recommend you head over to the DoorDash engineering blog for more.
Lessons learned
There are three distinct lessons learned from the DoorDash S-1.
You don’t need to be first-to-market. It’s much more important to find a segment with an unmet need that you can serve with a better product, expanding the market. For DoorDash, that were families in the suburban markets. Serving that segment allowed DoorDash to grow, build a brand and gain overall market share. Find a repeatable model. The first deliveries were done by the founders. From there, they industrialized the delivery process, with a clear operating model and understanding of their customer economics. The operating model produces a predictable lifetime value for each incremental $1 of customer acquisition spent. That allowed DoorDash to raise more money than anyone of their competitors, and use that funding to outrun everybody else. Build an economic moat with data. Food delivery is a commodity business and highly competitive. That’s why all delivery companies try building a brand, incl. DoorDash. But DoorDash also generated a huge proprietary data set that they used to make their operations more efficient, generate more marketplace transaction volume and create economic lift for all marketplace participants — merchants, Dashers and consumers. The secret is less in using data, but the decision to dedicate almost a third of all engineering resources to working with data.
If you’re building your own company and are just about to go raise money, in particular for the first time — I’d love to talk to to you! You can best reach me on LinkedIn.
Finally, I also write a weekly-ish newsletter where I share the lessons learned from all the start-up that I come across. 👇 | https://larskamp.medium.com/how-doordash-built-the-most-incredible-go-to-market-playbook-ever-5e8f1d58f6cd | ['Lars Kamp'] | 2020-11-28 16:40:43.788000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Venture Capital', 'Operating Models', 'Data Science', 'Strategy'] |
Beyond Coding: Watson Assistant Entities — Part 3, System Entities | Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash
In the first two articles, we examined the part entities play in an assistant and the difference between entities as synonyms versus entities as patterns.
In this article, we’ll be looking at system entities and how they differ from user-generated entities. We’ll also examine some helpful tips on how to avoid potential pitfalls to make sure you’re getting the best out of system entities.
User Generated Entities vs System Entities
As we’ve seen, user-generated entities allow you to create your own custom entities — either as synonyms or patterns. But what about those times when we want to identify a number? What do we do when we want to understand the user is talking about a date? Surely we don’t want to create and import these common entities every time we build an assistant!
This is where system entities can be used. System entities are a special type of entity which uses patterns and synonyms, but they are a part of the Watson system. This means we can implement them in our system for every skill and they will work the same way for every build.
However, it’s important to note you cannot modify these entities. They are available for use in all assistants, but the definitions — the synonyms and patterns — behind each entity exists within the Watson Assistant code and is not exposed to users.
To find the list of system entities you need to log in to your Watson Assistant, then click on Entities. You will then see two entity options — My entities and System entities. Click on System entities to display the list of available entities.
System entities location
The first thing you should notice is the naming convention of system entities. All system entities start with the prefix “sys-”. This allows Watson Assistant to differentiate between an entity created by a user and those available to all users.
List of System entities
What this means is you cannot create a user-generated entity which starts with the prefix “sys-”.
User-generated entities naming limitation
Let’s look at each system entity to get a better understanding of what they can do. We’ll focus on the non-Beta system entities for this article.
The Currency System Entity
Photo by Ethan McArthur on Unsplash
As the name suggests, this system entity is used to detect a currency value. If the user mentions a currency and a dollar value Watson Assistant detects the currency type and the number mentioned.
For example, a customer may say “I want to withdraw $50 from my account”. The assistant will recognize that a currency has been mentioned (dollar symbol) and the amount (in this case 50).
But what if the customer were to say “I want to withdraw fifty dollars from my account”? No problem! Watson Assistant recognizes a currency is mentioned as well as a number, even though digits weren’t used.
The Currency system entity identifies the type of currency used by the customer:
• “I want to withdraw fifty pounds from my account” would be identified as Great British Pounds (GBP)
• “I want to withdraw fifty euro from my account” would be identified as Euro (EUR)
• “I want to withdraw fifty Japanese yen from my account” would be identified as Yen (JPY)
But what happens if you’re in a country where the currency indicator is “dollars”? When Watson Assistant detects the currency type as “dollar”, or the dollar symbol (“$”), the default is USD. For any other currency which uses the terminology “dollar”, the user will have to state the specific type — such as “I want to withdraw fifty Australian dollars from my account”.
If the currency type is irrelevant to your build, you can ignore this aspect. Otherwise, you will need to take this into account when trying to determine which “dollar” currency is referenced.
It’s also important to understand if the customer’s interaction doesn’t include a currency indicator (dollars, $, etc) the assistant will not identify the number. For example, “I want to withdraw 50 from my account” will not be identified as a currency. Instead, you would need to use the Number system entity (discussed further on).
The Date System Entity
Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash
This system entity detects dates mentioned by a customer. It recognizes different types of dates and date formats (such as DD/MM/YY, MM/DD/YY, and YYYY-MM-DD).
For example, a customer could mention “Book an appointment for 13/1/2022”. The system entity detects the date is the 13th of January, of the year 2020. The statement “Book an appointment for 1/13/2022” would produce the same result.
But it can also detect the same date if the customer were to say any of the following:
• “Book an appointment for 13th January 2022”
• “Book an appointment for January 13, 2022”
• “Book an appointment for 13 Jan 2022”
It should be noted that the system entity is not case sensitive — thus January and January are the same things.
You should also be aware of the pitfall which applies to English language assistants only. The default date detection for English assistants is MM/DD/YYYY. In other words, 1/4/2022 is detected as 4th January, 2022. The assistant detects a date as DD/MM/YYYY only when the first number is greater than 12.
This is why “Book an appointment for 13/1/2022” and “Book an appointment for 1/13/2022” produce the same result — 13th January, 2022. However, the statement “Book an appointment for 1/4/2022” would be detected as 4th January, 2022. Again, this is for English language assistants only. In future articles, we will examine how to account for this and correct the information, but for now, you should be aware of this pitfall for English language assistants only.
The previous example deals with explicit dates mentioned in the customer’s interaction. But what if the customer didn’t know the specific date? What if they just knew they were available next Tuesday? Watson Assistant handles that for you!
The customer could say “Book an appointment for next Tuesday”. Watson Assistant understands that the user is referencing a date (Tuesday) and the future (next). In this case, the assistant would detect that the customer is talking about the first Tuesday after today.
This doesn’t mean the Tuesday next week, it means the first Tuesday which occurs after the current date. It’s important to understand the distinction.
For example, if a customer is interacting with your assistant on a Monday afternoon they may mean the Tuesday occurring next week (in approx. 8 days time). Watson Assistant will interpret “Book an appointment for next Tuesday” as tomorrow (in less than 24 hours time). This is because the system entity is looking for the first instance of Tuesday after today (Monday).
The same applies to the detection of previous days mentioned — such as “I had a booking last Tuesday”. If the customer is interacting with the assistant on a Wednesday, it detects the date as yesterday (the first Tuesday before the current date), rather than the Tuesday approx. 8 days ago.
This pitfall applies to all assistants, not only English language assistants. We will also look at ways to work around this pitfall in future articles.
The final aspect of the Date system entity is that it can detect date ranges. This means if a customer were to say “I need to make a booking next month”, the system will detect a date range within the interaction (first of next month to the last of next month). The same applies to date ranges such as “next week”, “next year” etc. While the system entity wouldn’t pinpoint a specific date, it does provide the understanding that a range of dates is applicable.
The Number System Entity
Photo by Antoine Dautry on Unsplash
As the name suggests, this system entity detects numbers used in the customer’s interactions. The entity can detect cardinal numbers (and cardinal number words), such as 1, 2, three, four, etc. But it cannot detect ordinal numbers, such as 1st, 2nd, third, etc.
While this system entity is simple to understand, when used in conjunction with the Currency system entity you have a powerful set of tools. For example, a customer might be in a rush and decides to say “I want to withdraw 50 from my account”. There aren’t any currency indicators in the sentence which means the Currency system entity will not trigger. But with the Number system entity, your Assistant can identify the numeric value.
The Number system entity will also detect numbers used as part of a currency. For example, “I want to withdraw $50 from my account” would trigger both the Currency and Number system entities.
In future articles, we’ll examine situations where you might prefer to use the Number system entity versus the Currency system entity.
The Percentage System Entity
Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash
The Percentage system entity detects whether a percentage has been mentioned in the customer’s statement. For example, if the customer were to say “I want 30% of my account transferred”, the assistant would detect that a percentage had been mentioned. The same would apply if the customer had said: “I want 30 percent of my account transferred”.
It should be noted that a percentage range would also be detected. For example, “I want 25–30 percent of my account transferred”, would trigger the Percentage system entity indicating that the percentage mentioned was 25 and 30.
Also note that the percentage in the sentence “I want 25 to 30 percent of my account transferred” would produce a different trigger. Only the number adjacent to the word “perfect” (or the % sign) (in this case “30”) is detected as a percentage.
The Percentage system entity overlaps with the Number system entity. A percentage trigger will also trigger detection from the Number system entity. This would allow for a combination to compensate for any pitfalls, such as the percentage example above where only the “30” is detected.
The Time System Entity
Photo by Djim Loic on Unsplash
This system entity detects times mentioned by a customer. This system entity typically works in conjunction with the Date system entity, but they do function independently.
For example, a customer might say “Book an appointment for 3pm”. The Time system entity will detect that a time (3pm) has been mentioned. But what if the customer didn’t think to mention the am/pm indicator, but instead said “Book an appointment for 3”. The Time entity will not detect a time in this case since we can’t be sure the customer doesn’t mean book an appointment for 3 people. But, if the sentence had been “Book an appointment at 3”, the entity detects a time (“at 3”), but detects the time as 3am!
The Time entity can also detect implied times. For example, “Book an appointment in 3 hours”. The entity would interpret this as a time 3 hours into the future from the time the interaction occurred. The great thing is that the Date system entity detects that the user is talking about a date as well and automatically calculates the date discussed.
The other feature the Time system entity shares with the Date system entity is the ability to detect ranges. For example, “Book an appointment for 2pm to 3pm” is detected as a range starting at 2pm and ending at 3pm. But, “Book an appointment for 2–3pm” would be detected as a time range starting at 2am and ending at 3pm. There are techniques we can use to navigate around these pitfalls, which will be discussed in future articles.
It’s important to understand the subtleties of this system entity, as what we might expect may not be what the system has detected. By understanding these nuances, we can anticipate, and account for, pitfalls.
System Entity Benefits
Now that we’ve looked at each of the system entities why would we use them if we have the freedom to generate our own? One reason is re-usability. We can implement system entities across multiple assistants and they function the same way in every build.
But, beyond identifying information, system entities allow us to extract the information for later use — without creating Regular Expression patterns. The patterns are built into the system entity and we can easily extract the identified value!
So, with system entities, we have a great package where we can easily detect and, if required, extract data. The added benefit is that we can control whether to use them for our assistant. Unlike user-generated entities, we can turn system entities on or off. This means we can either use the pre-packaged system entity or if we prefer, create our own version.
System entities are a great solution to commonly used concepts and they are always available. They help to speed up our build time and get the assistant up and running that much faster!
Photo by Leo Rivas on Unsplash
More About Entities
Now we’ve taken look at system entities we’ll be taking a closer look at implementing entities in general. In future articles, we will examine:
How to use entities
• How to determine which entities we need
• Entity Best Practices
Stay tuned for future updates! | https://medium.com/ibm-watson/beyond-coding-watson-assistant-entities-part-3-system-entities-16d7351a94c4 | ['Oliver Ivanoski'] | 2019-08-28 20:33:31.215000+00:00 | ['Watson Assistant', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Wa Editorial', 'Chatbots', 'Editorial'] |
Communion #3 | Communion #3
D’s Communion
One time when I was a young man
I caught the scent of the priest
Through the tannins of the communion wine.
He smelled like my father
On the morning that he buried my mother.
I had just married. My new wife
Kept two paces behind me
In the communion line.
Taking the host was still a new thing for her.
Father kept the cologne on a shelf by the toilet.
He was particular in his things.
Mother was more disorderly.
The scent made me think of Mother
As an angel. I could sense God’s love,
Even though he punished her in life.
My hand sometimes strays to my lips
As I wait in line to take the body and blood
To prepare my flesh for a sacred passage
That is a path to absolution. Father said Grace
Was given to the worthy in a tone
That bespoke confidence. I am replete
With sin.
Feb 2010 | https://medium.com/drmstream/communion-3-30a6892c9e37 | ['Dan Mccarthy'] | 2016-11-10 02:25:42.650000+00:00 | ['Religion', 'Writing', 'Poems', 'Communion', 'Grace Was'] |
Advancing Customer Experience | Interactions with customers via call centers have become more sensitive than in the past and expectations are gaining new heights by the day. Customers want exceptional relations with your company beyond good pricing and product quality. They are expecting a rewarding experience from personalized and consistent interactions with your firm.
In this article, we are taking a look at the recent contact center trends salvaging the decline of customer experience.
1. Advanced Analytics Using AI & ML
AI and Machine learning are finding a way into everything we do and how we do it. Their application is also easing and making the customer experience at call centers more exciting.
We have seen efforts of chatbots and virtual assistants as an elevation for customer service. Times are changing fast, therefore better methods and innovations should be implemented.
The use of AI call analytics and real-time speech-to-text transcription solutions, in this case, can be a good example of improving contact center efficiency.
AI and Machine learning can also enhance flagging characteristics for actions in calls, messages, and other communication types, real-time and post-call.
Data harvested through feedback from customers, surveys, calls-resolved, and emails can be used for quality assurance. Special analytic software can be deployed to understand customer behavior, identify or predict problems. They can also help to fine-tune the work process and derive more competent business methods.
Such integrated solutions mentioned above can facilitate sales performance, compliance, and better customer experience. Business growth will be data-driven as there will be analytics to measure call agent performance.
2. Omnichannel Communications and UCC
For companies to stay ahead, they must be able to transform their business environment timely to stay relevant. Customers should enjoy proactive services, hence business owners must provide the most effective communication channels with full customer data and context.
The use of unified omnichannel tools gives the room for possible communication with a customer at different channels simultaneously. Information can be sent to a customer from one channel, while valuable insights with feedback response can be received at another channel. This gives the advantage of convenience and speed.
Unified communications and collaboration tools such as team collaboration applications will be an ace for contact centers. Team members of a workplace will be able to have common leverage on collective business intelligence and information.
The use of CRM can be more valuable if integrated with omnichannel communications or UCC tools. Such integration will engage customer interactions with personality and empathy, which are essential for new era customers who expect convenience, speed, and consistency.
3. Moving to the Cloud
Cloud communication is a standard for most growing service providers including call centers. It covers effective communications for partners in business, employees, and customers. With cloud communications, you provide your team with a single platform for voice and video calls, SMS, instant messaging, etc.
Some advantages of cloud communications are as follows:
Provide your team with effective communication tools and enhance mobility.
Save space as on-site infrastructure is minimal for cloud communications.
Have an effective and predictable cost.
Enable integration with other cloud services.
Regularly updated with new features and functionality.
Easy scalable with an open option for managing resources, network capacity, and features.
Hiring remote professionals and supporting virtual offices is a new trend today followed by many organizations. Considering the advantages stated above, remote workspaces and workforce are implementable with easy maintenance. The use of cloud-based platforms and project management tools are effective facilitators for this.
Migration to the cloud is a sensitive process, and thus it is better to engage the service of a vendor that specializes in providing cloud solutions, their implementation, and customization. It is advisable to make the transition process to cloud in phases and at your own pace.
4. Implementation of Recall Technology
Human errors while sending written messages are unavoidable even at call centers. The transition time of interaction when sending a message is essential, but additional seconds to this time for correction is not a loss. The use of a delay-recall mechanism can save contact centers lots of trouble with writing and sending messages online.
On Second Thoughts (OST) or Recall Technology can allow aborting messages, resolving errors, or any form of miss information. Besides correcting errors, saving time, and money, it does not interrupt the customer service experience.
Call center agents can be of the advantage by being able to undo or edit written messages in real-time and still maintain conversational flow. It is convenient and still enhances the customer experience at the same time.
5. Advance Service Methods
The use of self-service tools makes solving some issues to be fast, and it reduces the workload at call centers. It enables the client to have the “you can do it all by yourself feeling”.
Some Customers prefer to go for self-service other than contacting or consulting a call support agent. The use of FAQ, virtual agents, and videos can make customers be able to solve problems faster with less dependence on center agents.
Implementation of a resource library for customers is another enhancement for better Customer Experience. It provides round the clock services and complements the live agents making CX more comprehensive and convenient.
The Way to Superior CX
The needs for today’s business operations can be complex and make the work of call agents to be cumbersome. Call agents should have all the appropriate enhancement and support to deliver in a single interaction.
Services and their corresponding technologies will always evolve together with client demands. Well-customized, agile, and nimble technological tools will create flexibility, and help a business to adapt to the rising challenges.
iTwis provides the development of web scrapers of Apps, business automation, and various IT services using laser-focused technologies. Contact us today for your IT projects. | https://medium.com/itwis/advancing-customer-experience-9a0e23c821fa | ['Ayo Oladele'] | 2020-10-22 10:49:25.978000+00:00 | ['Mobile App Development', 'Web App Development', 'Customer Experience', 'Web Development', 'Product Management'] |
How to Get Data from APIs with Python 🐍 | It’s a bit of a cliche to say that data is the new oil. I like to think of it more as a renewable resource like wind.💨 Whatever energy source you choose as your metaphor, you want to harness some of its power! ⚡️
Ideally, you have direct access to the data you want in a file or a database you control. When that’s not the case, if you’re lucky, the data will be available through a public-facing an API. ☘️
In this article, I’ll show you the steps to get the data from a public API using Python. 🐍 First I’ll show you how and where to look for a Python API wrapper and share the largest repository of Python API wrappers. 🎉
Then I’ll show you how to use the requests library to get the data you want from an API that doesn’t have a Python wrapper.
If the data you want is on a website, but not available through a public-facing API, there are several options for scraping it. When to use which scraping package is a whole other article I have in the works. Follow me to make sure you don’t miss it! 😁
Let’s drill down!
Already drilled. Source: pixabay.com
APIs
An external facing Application Programming Interface (API) is often intended to provide data in large chunks. You just need to know how to work with the API.
An organization creates a public-facing API with the intent that you use it. Their motivations vary from idealistic to mercenary and might include the following:
Hoping you’ll build something that will improve the world. 🌍 Hoping you’ll use their free plan and then need so much data or need the data so frequently you’ll pay them for access to more data. 💵 Figuring you’ll scrape the data from the website if they don’t give you a direct line to it, so they might as well reduce their server overhead and make your experience better. 😀
APIs can be documented well, poorly, or somewhere in between. If you’re lucky, they are well-documented. If you’re really lucky there is a Python wrapper for the API that works and is well documented. 🎉
Finding Python API Wrappers
It can be tricky to find Python wrappers for the API you need. Here’s my suggested approach.
List of Python API Wrappers
I am maintaining what I believe is the largest list of Python API wrappers over at GitHub. Real Python made a nice list that was forked and updated by johnwmiller. I cleaned the list up a bit and then, given that coronavirus quarantine ended my children’s ability to earn money from soccer refereeing ⚽️ and cat sitting 🐈, I paid them to help improve the list. We updated and augmented this outdated list because I couldn’t find a good list of functioning API wrappers elsewhere. 😀
If you find a Python API wrapper that is missing from the list, please edit the ReadMe file and submit a pull request. Here’s a quick guide to editing GitHub Markdown files in the GUI, if you’re new to this:
Click the pencil icon in the right corner and make changes (here’s a lovely Markdown tutorial if you need it). Then click the green Propose file change button at the bottom of the page. Then click on the green Create pull request button, summarize the changes, and click on the green Create pull request button at the bottom. Thank you! 🎉
FYI, I often highlight Python packages on my Data Awesome mailing list. In the next installment I’ll be highlighting yfinance by Ran Aroussi. yfinance wraps the Yahoo Finance API. You can use it to read stock market data into a pandas DataFrame with one line of code. 🚀
If the Python API wrapper list doesn’t have what you need, I suggest you use the usual method for finding things on the interwebs. 🕸
Google it
A good search engine is a developer or data scientist’s best friend 😁
Specifically, I would search for Python wrapper the_name_of_the_api_I’m_looking_for. GitHub links are likely to be the most fruitful. If a repo hasn’t been updated in the past several years or has been archived, your odds of being able to successfully use the wrapper aren’t high. In that case, I suggest you keep looking. 👓
Check the API website
If you’re lucky, the website for the API you are using might list wrappers available in various programming languages. It’s worth a try. 😃
Using an API Directly
When there isn’t an API wrapper, you have toto query the API directly. I suggest you use the Python requests library.
Use Requests
The venerable requests library is the battle-tested way to get information from an API. Requests was created by Kenneth Reitz and is protected by the Python Software Foundation. It’s the most downloaded Python package as of this writing. 👍
Install requests into your environment from the command line with pip install requests
Then import it and use it. Use the HTTP verbs get and post as methods to return the information you desire. Mostly, you’ll use get. Here’s how to query the GitHub API:
import requests r = requests.get('https://api.github.com/events')
You can pass parameters to the get method as a dictionary. Here’s the quick start guide.
You’ll often get back JSON when you make a get request. You can use the requests .json() method to change JSON into a dictionary quickly.
my_dict = r.json()
Refining data queries with requests is much faster than refining oil 😀Source: pixabay.com
Requests uses the urllib3 library under the hood and enhances it. There are other libraries you could use, but requests is super solid, is nice to use, and is familiar to most Python coders. I suggest you use requests whenever you want to make an API call and the API doesn’t have a Python wrapper.
Speaking of which, if your favorite API doesn’t have a Python wrapper, I encourage you to considering making one. 👍
Making a Python API Wrapper 🛠
Making a an API wrapper is a great way to learn Python packaging skills. Here’s a guide I wrote to get you started with making a Python package and releasing it on PyPi.
I created Pybraries, a Python wrapper for the Libraries.io API. Making it was a great learning experience, and it was cool to give back to the open source community that I’ve benefited from. 🚀
Other Things You Should Know abut APIs
API keys, rate limits, and cURL are three other terms you should be familiar with.
API keys 🗝
You’ll often need an API key to query the API. The API docs should make it clear how you can procure a key. Most of the time, you can get one for free by signing up at the website of the organization whose data you want. If you want a lot of data or want it frequently, you might have to pay for the privilege.
Keys. Source: pixabay.com
You can store your API key in an environment variable. Here’s a guide for setting up environment variables on Mac, Linux, and Windows. Environment variable names are ALL CAPS by convention. Speaking of all caps:
⚠️ DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, STORE AN API KEY IN GITHUB OR ANOTHER PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE ONLINE VERSION CONTROL SYSTEM. ⚠️
Your key could get stolen and abused — especially if your account has a credit card attached to it. ☹️
To access the environment variable that holds your API key in Python, import the os module and get the value from the dictionary with the key that matches the name of your environment variable. For example:
import os os.environ.get('MYENVIRONMENTVARIABLE')
This code returns the value of your MYENVIRONMENTVARIABLE environment variable.
If you will be using your key in applications on the cloud, you should look into secrets management, as discussed here.
Speaking of staying out of trouble, let’s discuss rate limits.
Rate Limits
Need to limit it. 😲Source: pixabay.com
Many APIs limit how many times you can ping them in a given amount of time to avoid needing to pay for lots of extra servers. To avoid going over these limits, you can use the Python time library and put your request into a loop. For example, here’s a brief snippet of code that waits for five seconds between requests.
import time
import requests t = 0
my_url = 'https://example.com' while t < 100:
r = requests.get(my_url)
time.sleep(5) # wait five seconds
t += 1
print(r.json())
The point of this code is to show you how you can use time.sleep() to avoid nonstop API endpoint pings that might push you over a rate limit. In a real use case, you would probably want to save your data in some way and use a try…except block.
cURL
This is a guide for using Python with APIs, but you should know that you can query an API from the command line with the popular cURL program. cURL is included on Macs and machines running recent Windows 10 versions by default. If you want to learn cURL, I suggest you check out the free ebook Conquering the Command Line, by Mark Bates. 🚀
Recap
If you want to get data from an API, try to find a Python wrapper first. Check out the list of Python wrappers here. Google search if that fails, and check out the API website. If you find a Python wrapper missing from my list on GitHub please add it. 😀
If there isn’t a Python wrapper for an API, use the requests library. If you have the time, consider creating a wrapper so all Python users can benefit. ❤️
Don’t forget to keep your API keys safe and avoid hitting rate limits. 🔑
Wrap
You’ve learned a workflow for finding and using APIs with Python. You’re on your way to getting the data you need to do awesome things! 🚀
I hope you found this guide to using APIs with Python useful. If you did, please share it on your favorite social media so other folks can find it, too. 👍
I write about Python, SQL, Docker, data science, and other tech topics. If any of that’s of interest to you, follow me and read more here. 😀 | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-get-data-from-apis-with-python-dfb83fdc5b5b | ['Jeff Hale'] | 2020-05-03 12:36:42.933000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Programming', 'Towards Data Science'] |
Best Practices With JavaScript Promises | Converting Non-Promise Async Code to Promises
We can convert the non-promise async code to promises with the util.promisify() method. This lets us convert many functions with async callbacks with the signature of the form (err, res) , where err is an object with errors and res has the results of the async code.
Any function that has a promising form defined for it can also use this utility to return the promise form. As long as the promise version is stored as the value of the symbol property util.promisify.custom , we can get the promise version.
For instance, since setTimeout has a promise-based version in the standard library of Node.js, we can convert it to a promise as follows:
const util = require('util');
const sleep = util.promisify(setTimeout); (async () => {
await sleep(1000);
console.log('slept');
})() | https://medium.com/better-programming/javascript-best-practices-promises-45928fbfebe2 | ['John Au-Yeung'] | 2020-04-17 17:58:24.165000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'JavaScript', 'Promises', 'Nodejs', 'React'] |
Twitter’s Redesign Isn’t About You | Something unusual happened this week: Twitter got a major redesign, and people hardly freaked out at all. That might be because most of the updates appeared cosmetic, even trivial. But the project’s true aim — according to its lead designer Ashlie Ford — was to make Twitter easier for Twitter to use. And that, in turn, could mean a better Twitter for everyone, eventually.
The long-awaited revamp of Twitter.com rebuilt the desktop website from the bottom up as a progressive web app and merged it with the former mobile website. The makeover was met with a collective shrug, and scattered snorts of derision. (Did they get rid of the Nazis yet? Still no?) But the updates start to make more sense when you realize that they aren’t really about changing how people use Twitter — at least, not immediately. They’re about changing the company’s internal culture, and in doing so, paving the way for Twitter to fix all kinds of problems, large and small, in the future.
Twitter, as a company, seems to spend most of its time in various stages of existential crisis. Lately it has been rethinking everything as it tries to figure out how to address rampant harassment and hate speech and how to make its platform more conducive to civil, human conversation as opposed to dunking, trolling, and general cacophony. So one would expect that the first overhaul of its website in seven years might try to tackle these problems in substantive ways. After all, a platform’s design draws the boundaries for its use.
Instead, we got a series of seemingly surface-level tweaks that passed with surprisingly little notice, given the long history of Twitter’s loyal users reacting with nearly comical outrage to almost any significant change to the platform. (Remember the fury over threaded replies? The algorithmic timeline? The move to 280 characters?) Among the updates: The main navigation bar moved from the top of the page to the side, there are a handful of new buttons and features ported from the mobile app, and the site as a whole became cleaner and more responsive.
The changes are modest, including minor features that could prove useful, like making it easier to find lists and bookmarks, navigate direct messages, or toggle between your algorithmic and chronological timelines. But the redesign is more consequential than it appears. It might even mark a quiet turning point for a social network that has long lagged behind rivals in improving and building on its core product.
The company rebuilt the technology underpinning the website because the old one had become kludgy and outdated on the back end, making every change an exercise in bureaucracy and frustration for the company’s own software engineers.
“The legacy site was built on an old tech stack,” Ford told me in a phone interview. “It was really hard to update, and because of that, it didn’t get updated very often.” The new site, she said, “was built entirely from the ground up, and so it is much faster to prototype, experiment, and roll out new features.” It is now what’s called a progressive web app, loading faster and adapting readily to different devices and screen sizes.
In the process, it has become much more similar to Twitter’s native mobile apps, which makes it easier for designers and product managers to sketch out how an idea would work on each. Previously, the company’s changes tended to come first to its mobile apps, migrating to the web only much later. A post on Twitter’s engineering blog underscored that the redesign’s number one priority was to “make it easier and faster to develop new features for people worldwide.”
Ford said the company hopes the rebuild will not only make life easier on existing employees, but help to attract new ones. That can be critical for Silicon Valley tech firms, which compete intensely for the most capable software developers.
If they work as promised, the changes could help Twitter shed its reputation for moving like molasses while its competitors seem to be in hyperdrive. The social media reporter Casey Newton observed in 2017 that Twitter couldn’t figure out how to build an edit button, while Facebook was working on ways to let you type with your mind and hear with your skin.
Of course, the inability to rapidly test and ship changes hasn’t been Twitter’s only problem. The company has also been notoriously slow to make hard decisions, which can be a virtue, but starts to look more like negligence when users have been suffering the consequences of its inaction on the same problems for years. Empowering the company’s workers to test out ideas will only help if Twitter’s top management is willing to give some of them the green light.
Twitter has already been toying with some interesting ideas in its mobile apps. While the desktop app makes lists more accessible, a current test version of the iOS app goes even further to make them an integral part of the platform: Swiping right from the home timeline toggles between a series of “pinned” lists, making Twitter feel more like its power-user-oriented subsidiary, TweetDeck.
Twitter wouldn’t say if or when it might make that change for all users, though Ford told me the company is interested in boosting list usage, and has already seen an uptick from the desktop redesign. That shift could help to make Twitter less of a single-room shouting match and more of an interest-based network — or it could backfire by encouraging people to circulate lists intended to doxx, intimidate, or harass. Either way, the back-end changes will make it easier for Twitter to quickly test out and implement these sorts of ideas for a wider range of users, without requiring people to download beta versions of the app.
In a similar vein, the new desktop site has incorporated a change pioneered in the mobile app that allows a user to switch between multiple accounts from their home timeline. Twitter told Wired that was motivated partly by users in Japan, where it has become common to create different accounts for different interests and purposes.
Some other changes previously tested in mobile apps, such as removing reply and like counters from certain views, have not been brought into the desktop redesign thus far. But there is one change in that general direction: The website no longer displays your follower count on your home timeline, forcing you to navigate to your profile page if you want to see how you’re faring in the great popularity contest.
Critics who point out that Twitter’s big redesign has done nothing to fix its fundamental problems are correct. But it should at least make the company a little lighter on its feet from now on — so it can move on to making the sorts of substantive changes that could really make a difference. Or at least really piss people off. | https://onezero.medium.com/twitters-redesign-isn-t-about-you-3dd710b0f9e0 | ['Will Oremus'] | 2019-08-27 01:14:15.160000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Tech', 'Twitter', 'Digital Life', 'Social Media'] |
Resources For Writers | Sign up for Yapjaw
By Slackjaw
Yapjaw is Medium's #1 newsletter for all things humor, and we're sorry to say you'll only receive it a few times a month. Take a look | https://medium.com/slackjaw/resources-for-writers-6e3096e539ff | [] | 2020-09-24 19:42:00.408000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Satire', 'Comedy Writing', 'Writing Resources', 'Writing'] |
Building a Content Based Recommender System for Hotels in Seattle | Building a Content Based Recommender System for Hotels in Seattle
How to use description of a hotel to recommend similar hotels.
The cold start problem is a well known and well researched problem for recommender systems, where system is not able to recommend items to users. due to three different situation i.e. for new users, for new products and for new websites.
Content-based filtering is the method that solve this problem. Our system first uses the metadata of new products when creating recommendations, while visitor action is secondary for a certain period of time. And our systems recommend a product to a user based upon the category and description of the product.
Content-based recommendation systems may be used in a variety of domains ranging from recommending web pages, news articles, restaurants, television programs, and hotels. The advantage of content-based filtering is that it doesn’t have a cold-start problem. If you just start out a new website, or any new products can be recommended right away.
Let’s assume we are starting a new online travel agency (OTA), and we have signed up thousands of hotels that are willing to sell on our platform, and we start seeing traffic coming from our website users, but we don’t have any users history, therefore, we are going to build a content-based recommendation systems to analyze hotel descriptions to identify hotels that are of particular interest to the user.
We would like to recommend hotels based on the hotels that a user has already booked or viewed using the cosine similarity. We would recommend hotels with the largest similarity to the ones previously booked or viewed or showed interest by the user. Our recommender system is highly dependent on defining an appropriate similarity measure. Eventually, we select a subset of hotels to display to the user or to determine an order in which to display the hotels.
The Data
It’s very hard to find public available hotel description data, therefore, I collected them by myself from each hotel’s homepage for over 150 hotels in Seattle area, that includes downtown business hotels, boutique hotels and bed and breakfast, airport business hotels, inns near the universities, motels in the middle of nowhere, and so on. The data can be found here. | https://towardsdatascience.com/building-a-content-based-recommender-system-for-hotels-in-seattle-d724f0a32070 | ['Susan Li'] | 2019-04-24 20:57:46.897000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Python', 'NLP', 'Data Science', 'Recommender Systems'] |
NaNoWriMo Done? Or Just the Beginning? | Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel, I made it out of clay!
December, what a let down. It’s just eggnog and tinsel and dreidels now. Gone is the heady rush of November’s National Novel Writing Month! Are you having a tough time pivoting into the “joyous” holiday season? Do you wish the rule was do a word sprint if you find yourself beneath the mistletoe? Have you silently renamed the reindeer after your favorite authors? Now Dashiell, Now Faulkner! Now Christie and Dickens! On Carroll, On Kafka On Doyle and Grisham!
When the bank building gets into the holiday spirit
Maybe you freakin’ WON NaNoWriMo with your stunningly crafted 50,000 or more words? (There’s been a crazeeee club among us who do a 50,000k Weekend over Thanksgiving!) Maybe you didn’t write all but you darn sure wrote some! I am proud of my halfsies finish. If NaNo is a marathon I wrote for 13 miles. I pantsed it all the way, too, discovering stupefying revelations about my characters and their world.
Maybe you didn’t write all but you darn sure wrote some!
For instance, I killed the wrong person. That’s right. I realized it in one of those whammo shower cognitions, soap in my armpit, that I axed an old man when I should’ve bumped off a young woman. Woopsie! I fixed it — someone has been resurrected (Welcome back Rabbi Desuvio “El Mensch” Hernandez!) and someone else, well, she shouldn’t have told her best friend about the map. C’est la vie of me.
A common sight in Texas round about this time of year y’all
There’s no way I can stop now that I’ve got this momentum. November 30 might be the last official day of NaNoWriMo, but for me December 1 is just another day of write, reflect, reach for Oreos, repeat.
What about you? Are you gonna give your carpal tunneled hands a break or are you powering through? Are you hoping your writing group won’t mind reading 50,000 words this week? Does your agent expect 150-ish pages every Kwanzaa? Is it time to crawl out of your subterranean NaNo bunker and greet your family for the first time since Daylight Savings started?
Last year I flew on Christmas Eve and it was very festive
Whatever you did, whichever quantity or quality, however planner or pantser, pen and paper or laptop, on your bed or on a park bench, YOU DID IT. Especially this year of all years when everyday life became an intense psychodrama full of shocking plot twists and relentless suspense. How’d it feel to be a character someone else was writing? Horrible right? So be kind to your characters this Christmas. Just kidding — give ’em the works!
Who’s ready for 8 crazy December nights?
Oy, this NaNo was definitely one for the books, heh. See you on the bestseller list!
Stephanie
❤ NaNoWriMo Board Member since 2019, participant since 2011 ❤
Please consider donating to NaNoWriMo on Giving Tuesday. Just $25 lends novel-writing support to two community centers. And $50 provides three classroom kits to educators in high-need schools. Thank you! | https://medium.com/nanowrimo/nanowrimo-done-or-just-the-beginning-71dde0bbc4c | ['Stephanie Block'] | 2020-11-29 14:02:19.205000+00:00 | ['Nonprofit', 'NaNoWriMo', 'Fiction', 'Holidays', 'Writing'] |
Theta vs. Reiki: What’s Good? | Theta vs. Reiki: What’s Good?
A comparison between the healing properties of Theta Healing and Reiki Healing
Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash
Theta and Reiki can be both highly effective healing practices that work with your energy and the energy of the Universe, All that Is, God, etc. Theta is a practice by which one uses the power of All That Is to command, observe, and co-create new beliefs and manifestations in one’s own life. Reiki can be used to shift energy, through the connection with God and humanity, so that both can work in tandem, to create harmony. Both practices are a transmutation of energy. Both are alchemic in their own right. As someone who has used these practices at various points of healing in my life; both have varying affects and effects. This article is a compare and contrast of the healing modalities. Particularly, as they apply to my own experiences, as someone who has suffered from anxiety over the years.
Reiki
Reiki healing is a form of attunement. It attunes the chakras, particularly the main seven energy forces in the body. It also attunes the body’s energy with God. Reiki is a 2500 year old Tibetan / Buddhist healing practice. It is a process by which the practitioner lays hands on / over the body, focusing on the seven main chakras to bring harmony back into them. The practitioner works there way down through the body, starting with the crown and third eye chakras. These are located at the top of one’s head and forehead respectively. They tend to finish at the feet, providing the energy of groundedness.
Positives
Reiki is incredibly relaxing; and can make one feel light and airy after a session. It removes energetic imprints of trauma and pain. It can be a good healing practice used whilst one is attending therapy. Whilst it is great to speak to a licensed psychologist / psychiatrist; the energy of the pain and trauma one experienced can still be residing deep inside the body. Once the suffering is identified, or the dirt pulled up from the carpet, aka the mind; Reiki can be used as the vacuum that removes that dirt, from the body. Reiki can balance one’s chakras. This can give a feeling of inner balance and peace.
Negatives
Reiki requires maintenance and practice. Once one interacts with the world, whether it is through the stress from personal situations and/ or dealing with others, one’s chakras can get misaligned. Reiki is a good practice, if one would like to get your Reiki attunement and start healing yourself. If one relies on a practitioner solely, I would suggest regular ‘Reiki top ups’. Reiki can remove energies rooted from trauma; but, does not give one the understanding of how the trauma began. Nor does it give one an understanding of the thoughts and belief systems deriving from negative experiences they have personally lived through or inherited. Reiki is a great healing practice; however, I believe it can be most effective with other forms of healing. I experienced Reiki after I underwent therapy. I had already identified a lot of where my trauma had stemmed from. However, a few days after my sessions, my anxiety would return, and I did not understand why. I understood on a conscious level where it was all stemming from. However, I did not know how to remove those limiting beliefs that resided deep in my subconsciousness, continuing to fuel my anxiety.
Photo by Tayla Jeffs on Unsplash
Theta Healing
Theta Healing is a form of awakening. It awakens and activates one’s own theta brain waves, utilised within a deep relaxed state. Theta healing identifies four levels of beliefs one accumulates over lifetimes. Core beliefs are those that start from birth to 7 years old. These tend to be from your parents; and, they can transfer from one’s mother, whilst in the womb. Genetic beliefs are those that can be programmed through one’s genes. They can be passed down through ancestry. Historical beliefs are those that can be passed down through past lives. Soul beliefs are those beliefs that represent who we are at the core. They can be beliefs we hold close to our hearts. Through a process of connecting up through the seven planes of existence (humans and other lifeforms, as we know them, reside on the 3rd); we can command Source, or the Creator of all that is, to identify limiting beliefs and extract them from our DNA. Through observing the changes within us; limiting beliefs and negative thoughts can be cancelled, and transmuted into healing energy.
Positives
Theta Healing is probably one of the most rewarding healing experiences. One connects into a theta state by accessing the deepest of one’s own subconscious. Therefore, when one has experienced trauma that has lead to embedded limiting beliefs, one can access them and watch the healing take place. I experienced where, on a conscious level, I had rationalised my feelings about a traumatic situation that happened in childhood. My conscious mind was healed and was no longer suffering. When I went into theta, and went through a process of muscle testing, (a body test to check one’s subconscious beliefs), I was not over my past trauma. Through the healing I was able to completely cancel / delete the beliefs associated with the trauma of my childhood. They were then replaced with more positive beliefs. With theta healing, one can access all aspects of one’s own body. It can provide healing to sicknesses and chronic ailments. A lot of sicknesses stem from belief systems that feed the sickness. I suffered from a digestive disease that stemmed from limiting beliefs around eating and how I looked to others. The healing reversed the need to rely on that sickness; and the sickness dissipated. Theta gives a deeper understanding for: one’s own beliefs, where they come from, and teaches us to cancel + delete negative beliefs. From this type of healing, one can better achieve a life they desire; free from the mental constraints we have put on ourselves.
Negatives
Theta requires practice and further study, as a beginner. Working with an experienced theta healer, who knows how to counsel one through a session, is advisable. One can work on themselves and shift their own belief systems once they have connected up. However, asking the right questions and getting to the root of the belief is difficult without proper guidance from an experienced healer. Though, with time, one is capable of identifying these limiting beliefs with more ease. This does take continuous and diligent practice.
By now, you can guess that I highly recommend Theta Healing. Particularly, for a more holistic approach to healing past trauma. The practice digs deep into one’s own history, genetics, core, and soul to understand themselves. It pinpoints the beliefs that one can’t understand with their conscious mind and plucks them away. It is like a reset button. Where Reiki is the vacuum to the body and mind; Theta is the carpet cleaner. It penetrates your energy and removes it completely. For anyone who has undergone both or either forms of healing, I would love to hear your views and experiences.
[I have received my Reiki attunement and Theta DNA Level 1.] | https://thoughtfulthorough.medium.com/theta-vs-reiki-whats-good-d7ca955a05b6 | ['Thoughtful Thorough'] | 2020-11-13 09:29:52.264000+00:00 | ['Self Care', 'Reiki', 'Thetahealing', 'Wellness', 'Spirituality'] |
My experience with the Entrepreneurial Challenge in the Catalyst Programme | When I started the Catalyst Programme at The Shortcut I wasn’t sure what to expect. After my first week, it already felt like I belong there. I didn’t know much about the startup ecosystem here in Finland and with my background in science, everything that I heard through our sessions, was pretty much new to me.
In the beginning, it was a little overwhelming and even intimidating. After a few days, listening to inspiring people and their stories, I knew that I am in the right place. I started to let go of my fears and opened up to new challenges. By the end of the second week, we had the Entrepreneurial Challenge. It was designed to test our entrepreneurial skills. This challenge seemed a little scary to me, even though I was thinking about entrepreneurship for some time now, but really trying it put me way out off my comfort zone.
The Two-Day Challenge
The Entrepreneurial Challenge was a two-day challenge. The challenge had several tasks that we, as a group, had to finish. Its purpose was to see how we approach and how we deal with tasks (minor challenges), without really focusing on how many of them we can achieve. Our tasks were:
Develop and launch a social media campaign to inspire Helsinki youth to become entrepreneurs
Host an event for as many people as possible
Meet with a celebrity or public figure that you admire
Perform an act of kindness
Pitch your business concept to investors
Visit another startup hub and interview an entrepreneur
After some brainstorming, my team and I decided to combine some of these tasks with an idea that they can together be used as part of our first task: Develop and launch a social media campaign to inspire Helsinki youth to become entrepreneurs.
For our campaign, we created two hashtags: #BuildYourOwnFuture and #whoispowerful. From there we created our Facebook group and connected it to an Instagram account.
In our campaign, we included the “Act of kindness” task. My team and I looked at this task as if the main purpose of it was to motivate young people to be more confident and to believe in themselves by asking them a question: Who is the most powerful person in your life? After that, we would hand out a little gift. The gift was an answer to the question, which actually turned out to be a mirror. People’s reactions were really positive and while doing this task we had a lot of fun. One of my roles included filming those reactions and creating a video for our campaign.
The next thing that we did was an interview with a young entrepreneur. We did a couple of them. One interview was with Ruby Nguyen from Astrid Concept House. Her idea of owning her own container cafe came since she was in High School. Ruby decided to quit her job at the restaurant, and even with some obstacles along the way, she started her company. She is now happy with her freedom of creativity inside her own business.
The other interview was with Jesse Ellonen from DieNo Games. The interview was broadcasted live in our Facebook group. He talked about the problem he is facing when people are not taking him or his idea seriously from the start. He pointed out the importance of networking. From his experience, talking to people face to face has a bigger impact than sending a nicely polished email. His advice is to take small goals as small steps one at a time and to be ready to accept failure since most of the people do not succeed from the first time.
What was interesting to me is that people were ready and open to sharing their stories, with a great desire to inspire others. They had some good advice for young people who were thinking about starting something on their own but had many concerns about their journey.
Teamwork
Even though we were a group of skilled individuals we had some communication difficulties and some differences showed when we started approaching the problem. But, our creativity and dedication helped us overcome our issues and in the end, we worked well together.
I had a great time doing the Entrepreneurial Challenge. Once I stepped out of my comfort zone I actually started learning and that is how entrepreneurship works. I had an amazing and inspiring team: Anette, Ashwini, Alejandra, Gonzalo and Yicci. Given the short time we had, I think we did a good job.
Can entrepreneurship be learned?
During the Challenge, we also had an assignment to think about the question in the title. One of the biggest traits of an entrepreneur is having the growth mindset and according to psychologist Carol Dweck growth mindset can be learned.
You can learn and be taught, and you can teach entrepreneurship. This is the “Growth Mentality”.
Dweck’s research challenges the common belief that intelligent people are born smart. In her book “Mindset” she argues about different approaches to learning and explains the differences between growth and a fixed mindset.
Having a growth mindset and confidence are the most important factors in becoming an entrepreneur. With this Challenge, I have learned that you cannot become an entrepreneur if you actually do not try to become one. As Jesse Ellonen said in his interview, you are learning by doing it.
For reading more about The Shortcut and their Catalyst Programme, follow them on Facebook or subscribe to their newsletter. | https://medium.com/the-shortcut/my-experience-from-entrepreneurial-challenge-within-catalyst-programme-71e7371ff055 | ['Marija Stanic'] | 2018-09-21 09:00:10.349000+00:00 | ['Challenge', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Entrepreneur', 'Events', 'Education'] |
The Latest: How COVID-19 is impacting media, from increases in traffic to layoffs (Mar. 31, 2020) | The Latest: How COVID-19 is impacting media, from increases in traffic to layoffs (Mar. 31, 2020)
Subscribe to The Idea, a weekly newsletter on the business of media, for more news, analysis, and interviews.
THE NEWS
88% of publishers expect to miss their 2020 forecasts this year “because of canceled events, declining ad sales and difficult-to-monetize COVID-19 coverage,” according to a Digiday survey.
Rather than share one particular challenge or success from the past week in this space, we’re going broad and trying our best to summarize the many ways in which the pandemic has impacted the media industry in recent days. Let us know what else you would find useful as the pandemic’s ramifications continue to manifest.
Traffic, engagement, and viewership are up.
Web traffic: Parse.ly found that pageviews increased by 61% in the last two weeks compared to the past seven weeks for sites in its network. As of last week, pageviews increased by an average of 122% at metro newspapers. According to Bloomberg’s CEO, coronavirus coverage is responsible for 30% of its traffic.
Interactions with news stories on social media “increased 56% over the last two weeks, compared to the rest of the year” for 10 major publishers tracked by Newswhip.
News app downloads are up — for news aggregators and digital, radio, and TV news outlets alike, according to Apptopia.
News podcast downloads are generally up — Vox Media’s podcasts and Slate’s podcasts are both being downloaded about 50% more than usual. Daily news podcasts in particular are doing well — Vox’s Today, Explained has seen the biggest increase of all its podcasts. Overall podcast downloads are down about 10% while total unique listeners are down about 20% since the beginning of March, disproportionately impacting true crime podcasts, according to Podtrac.
TV ratings: Both broadcast newscasts and cable news networks have experienced viewership surges, the latter of more than 50%.
Subscriptions are up.
Subscriptions to both U.S. and European publishers rose last week compared to the same time last year, by 63% and 267% respectively, according to Piano. Publishers who have taken down meters for coronavirus coverage have also seen subscriber growth, like The Atlantic and Bloomberg, which had their “single best week[s] of subscriber growth.”
Local news outlets — like The Seattle Times, The Tampa Bay Times, and The Denver Post — also saw between a 2–4x bump in subscriptions. Many of these new subscribers are subscribing before hitting the paywall, and at least one publication has seen churn decrease significantly.
Ad revenues are down.
Digital ad revenue is expected to decline 10% in Q1 at The New York Times compared to 2019. The company expects overall ad declines to be in “the mid-teens.”
Ad-blacklisting for COVID-19 keywords has led to more than two million blocked ads for The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, and The Washington Post.
Events businesses are responding by pivoting to virtual events (like Politico, Axios, Slate, and Bloomberg) and moving out of the live events business entirely, as in the case of O’Reilly Media.
Furloughs, layoffs, and closures are becoming widespread.
Closures/Suspensions: Diocese of Pittsburgh, a 166-year old weekly in Pittsburgh, permanently closed, as did The Waterbury Record, a newspaper in Vermont. Publications like The Stranger in Seattle and The Sacramento News & Review have suspended print publishing.
Print reductions: The Tampa Bay Tribune has reduced print publication days to only Sunday and Wednesday; three newspapers in Vermont have also reduced print frequency.
Layoffs: Nieman Lab counted around 100 local newsroom layoffs as of mid-March, in newsrooms like The Tampa Bay Times and VTDigger. Maven has laid off 31 people, which amounts of roughly 9% of total staff. According to a Digiday survey, 38% of publishers said that they expect layoffs at their publication.
Furloughs: Gannett announced that many staffers would be furloughed through June. iHeartMedia also announced that an unspecified number of employees would be furloughed for 90 days. Lee Enterprises announced employees not subject to pay reductions would be furloughed for the equivalent of two weeks’ pay.
Pay reductions: Publishers including Gannett, Maven Media, Disney, BuzzFeed, Vice Media, Group Nine, Lee Enterprises, and iHeartMedia announced cuts to salaries and benefits.
Executive pay cuts: Vice, Disney, Group Nine, BuzzFeed, Maven, and Lee Enterprises announced that executives would be taking pay cuts or foregoing salaries.
Conversely, BBC News has paused plans to cut 450 jobs, as it had announced in January, given the heightened demands of covering the pandemic.
Governments are taking measures to support the industry.
In the United States, Congress passed a $2.2. trillion CARES Act, enabling outlets with under 1,000 staff to apply to a $300 billion fund.
In Canada, the government is planning to buy $30 million worth of ads to support struggling media businesses.
LOOK FOR
Given the decline in programmatic revenue, how long will publishers who have taken down paywalls around coronavirus coverage keep them down? For example, McClatchy’s per-view rate of revenue “dropped by more than 15% in a single week,” leading it to re-paywall some coverage “as it aims to balance its duty [to] keep people informed with its need to bolster subscriptions.”
How sustainable are the traffic increases? Exhausted audiences might begin avoiding the news — according to Reuters, news avoidance affected a third of people even before the deluge of pandemic coverage.
What other action, if any, will governments take to support news organizations? Some, like Craig Aaron in CJR, have proposed journalism-specific stimulus packages, including direct support for daily and weekly newsrooms and increased funds for public media. Steven Waldman, co-founder of Report for America, and Charles Sennott, CEO of The GroundTruth Project, proposed a public-health ad spending measure like Canada’s of $500 million in The Atlantic. | https://medium.com/the-idea/the-latest-how-covid-19-is-impacting-media-from-increases-in-traffic-to-layoffs-mar-31-2020-1bda8bb5eb7d | ['Saanya Jain'] | 2020-03-31 21:17:46.482000+00:00 | ['Journalism', 'Covid 19', 'Media', 'Podcast', 'The Latest'] |
An Easy Trick to Instantly Improve Your Well-Being | An Easy Trick to Instantly Improve Your Well-Being
Just express gratitude with three questions:
Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash
I write this to share a trick that works for me; it will let you easily and instantly improve your well-being. You just have to express gratitude with this simple daily routine: spend 10 minutes thought, and answer those three questions:
Remember something that made you laugh or smile today.
Thought to a task, a job, or some specialty that you master (your work, a passion…), and express gratitude for this.
Finally, express gratitude for a thing you acquire those last years, something useful that positively impacts your well-being or maybe thought to a special person who had appeared recently in your life and makes it happier.
You can use a journal to write your answers, or not. Find a way and a comfortable time for you (mornings or before going to bed is better). Try this routine for some days, and you will instantly notice a huge difference in your life. You’ll gain in happiness, well-being, self-confidence, sociability, and productivity. | https://medium.com/writers-blokke/an-easy-trick-to-instantly-improve-your-well-being-99d52a55e3c6 | ['Rachid Meharich'] | 2020-12-25 03:38:30.600000+00:00 | ['Self-awareness', 'Wellbeing', 'Hapiness', 'Life', 'Short Story'] |
The Analytics Guide: Getting Started | Over the past year, we have worked with many startups to kickstart their analytics efforts. We know that getting started with analytics can be daunting at first. There are so many options that it makes it difficult to understand what is the right approach to build a proficient analytics department.
Technical implementation is often when things start to go wrong. Any single mistake will add an increased burden over time on your analytics department. At 173tech, we have seen the highs of analytics, but we have also seen the lows. We know the traps most companies fall into. If you want to ensure your analytics team focuses on value generating tasks (i.e. finding actionable business insights) as opposed to fixing bugs and infrastructure, then read on! This guide provides clear guidelines to get started with analytics and outlines the analytics priorities at each stage along the way.
The Beginnings: I Want Numbers, Quick!
You are getting started, your efforts are certainly almost exclusively focused on getting your product right and fueling growth. You have limited time and resources to get fancy with analytics — and this is fine for now. What you need is simple: a good overview of where the business is heading, quickly and at little cost. The following will get you started with analytics whilst minimising the amount of time and resources invested. However, as you scale, you will quickly come to face the limitations of this setup and need to switch to a setup optimised for scale.
Analytics Priorities:
I. Implement a product analytics solution (e.g. Google Analytics, Amplitude, Heap, Mixpanel) in order to track key metrics (e.g. registrations, retention, etc.).
II. Use the reporting UIs of the various out-of-the-box tools you choose.
III. If you are going big on marketing, track all sources with UTMs for web and use a mobile measurement partner for mobile (e.g. Adjust, AppsFlyer).
IV. You can use tagging solutions such as Google Tag Manager to relieve your development team from being the bottleneck of implementing a lot of tracking.
V. If you need raw event collection, you can also consider using a Customer Data Platform (e.g. Segment, mParticle). However, your product analytics solution should suffice for now.
Limitations at scale:
I. No / Limited data ownership. With product analytics solutions, you do not fully own your data. Some product analytics solutions will ask you to move to paying tiers to access your raw event data. In addition, you might need to have to pay for data retention over time.
II. Limited analysis possibilities (hence limited value extracted from your data). Those solutions will never be as flexible as SQL/Python based analytics where you can crunch the data as desired. In addition, if you want to do more sophisticated segmentation, you might have to move to a paying tier depending on the provider.
III. No single customer view. Because you have segmented tools for analytics, it will be almost impossible to join data from different business areas (e.g. understanding the impact of emailing on user retention).
IV. Cost inefficient at scale. As your business grows, so will your data volume. Your product analytics and customer data platform tools can become really expensive!
If you want to avoid those limitations from the very beginning, you can decide to get started with the longer-term solution directly (next section). However, this will require more involvement to set up and maintain — especially as the structure of your data in the early days might be unstable.
Modern Analytics: An Agile and Scalable Analytics Solution
You are experiencing significant growth and your team now has more than 20 people. You find yourself increasingly limited by the capabilities of your out-of-the-box solutions as the need to better understand and optimise customer journey intensifies. On top of all this, your tools are becoming more and more expensive as you scale. This is when transitioning to a modern analytics tool stack becomes critical. This solution is infinitely scalable, ensures full data ownership, enables connection to all your data sources (i.e. product, marketing, CRM, etc.) and fast-tracks your business to growth intelligence.
Modern analytics stacks rely on a centralised data warehouse (the repository of the Single Customer View) where data is loaded and modelled. This is then complemented with a BI reporting tool.
Analytics Priorities:
Focus on laying robust data foundations. Everything you do at this stage will directly impact the success of your future data projects — a messy infrastructure setup will lead to many headaches!
I. Create your “Single Customer View” in a data warehouse. This will enable you to load data from all sources in a central location and be infinitely scalable cost efficiently:
Choose a data warehouse (e.g. Redshift, Snowflake, BigQuery, Exasol). Stay away from operational databases such as PostgreSQL for analytics, they do not optimise and scale well. Automate data extraction as much as you can (e.g. Stitch, Fivetran). Use a data processing and modelling framework which supports both SQL and Python (e.g. SAYN — open source and developed with love by us @ 173tech). It is important to ensure you have the flexibility to use both languages to keep your data processes agile — especially for data science or complementing your automated data extraction tool. Implement a reporting solution for self-service BI (e.g. Metabase, Looker). Metabase is great to start with as it is open source and free. Looker has more muscles as you grow.
II. Organise data processes and workflows in your analytics team:
Make sure your analytics team uses version control (Git). This will facilitate analytics code maintenance and QA as it grows. Implement a data QA process and code reviews. Ensure all data modelling is reconciled against its source of truth for accuracy. Code reviews minimise mistakes and facilitate knowledge sharing across the team. Prioritise your tracking efforts. Make sure that you cover all core metrics across the business accurately first. More tracking means more engineering effort and you will typically find that 90% of the business questions can be covered with 10% of your data estate.
III. Automate reporting across the business and save (a lot of!) time. Creating one master dashboard for the business overview and one core dashboard per department is a good start.
IV. Create documentation for events and metrics. Build a data dictionary which business users can refer to quickly for definitions of metrics.
Setting up such an infrastructure can take as little time as 8 weeks depending on the current state of your data ecosystem — if you want more detail on this stage you can refer to my article series “Building World-Class Analytics For Startups”.
Growth Intelligence: Mining Data Value
Now you have an agile and scalable data infrastructure to facilitate infinite growth. It is time to generate unlimited value out of your data! This is what we call “Growth Intelligence” and is all about applying data to maximise your business’ performance.
Analytics Priorities:
I. Set up a process for ad hoc analyses. These are one-off business requests aimed at quick insights and creating an automated dashboard is not necessary. Use Jupyter notebooks with Python / R for this.
II. There is a lot of value in descriptive analytics — so make sure your analysts review the data before getting fancy!
III. Identify high ROI data science projects. Some examples of our frequent and top winners:
Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) prediction coupled with marketing data to optimise digital spend. If you are a big marketing spender, a lot of value lies there! Churn prediction to help improve retention. A/B test results automation. Natural Language Processing (NLP) at scale on text data such as customer reviews and tweets for instant product feedback and competitor insights.
IV. Look into building robust event tracking. Define your event taxonomy and check out Snowplow for implementation. It is open source and you can deploy it on your own infrastructure — meaning no huge 3rd party bills at scale.
Where Next?
This guide hopefully brought you some clarity on how to get started with analytics. If you follow the above, you will be in a good position to have a proficient analytics department and unlock a lot of business value from your data. “Growth Intelligence” is only a few weeks away! | https://medium.com/173tech/the-analytics-guide-getting-started-5d41dc86a7d9 | ['Robin Watteaux'] | 2020-09-15 13:46:04.871000+00:00 | ['Growth', 'Analytics', 'Data Science', 'Startup'] |
DIY: Apache Spark & Docker | Introduction
Two technologies that have risen in popularity over the last few years are Apache Spark and Docker.
Apache Spark provides users with a way of performing CPU intensive tasks in a distributed manner. It’s adoption has been steadily increasing in the last few years due to its speed when compared to other distributed technologies such as Hadoop. In 2014 Spark won the Gray Sort Benchmark test in which they sorted 100TB of data 3x faster using 10x fewer machines then a Hadoop cluster previously did.
Docker on the other hand has seen widespread adoption in a variety of situations. Docker provides users the ability to define minimal specifications of environments meaning you can easily develop, ship, and scale applications. Furthermore, due to its use of linux containers users are able to develop Docker containers that can run be run simultaneously on a single server whilst remaining isolated from each other. Finally, Docker provides an abstraction layer called the Docker Engine that guarantees compatibility between machines that can run Docker solving the age-old headache of “it works on my machine, I don’t know why it doesn’t on yours”.
With the rise of Big Data these two technologies are a matched made in heaven. Apache Spark providing the analytics engine to crunch the numbers and Docker providing fast, scalable deployment coupled with a consistent environment.
Prerequisites
I assume knowledge of Docker commands and terms as well as Apache Spark concepts. Therefore, I do not recommend this article if either of these two technologies are new to you. With considerations of brevity in mind this article will intentionally leave out much of the detail of what is happening. For a full drawn out description of the architecture and a more sequential walk through of the process I direct the reader to my github repo.
I also assume that you have at least basic experience with a cloud provider and as such are able to set up a computing instance on your preferred platform. | https://towardsdatascience.com/diy-apache-spark-docker-bb4f11c10d24 | ['Shane De Silva'] | 2020-05-07 14:15:59.996000+00:00 | ['Big Data', 'Docker', 'Data Science', 'Spark'] |
Building Your Non-Profit Camera Kit | Building Your Non-Profit Camera Kit
Photography (and video!) tips for non-profits, community colleges, and other organizations on a budget.
Scroll through any blog about or marketing, and you’ll likely find advice somewhere about “niching down.” Brands with the strongest audiences stick to a message and seek to answer questions and solve problems for the people that follow them. Specializing in something is at the crux of creating and maintaining an engaged audience.
Unfortunately, this mentality can drip into the content creation side of the business, especially at the local level. Non-profit organizations or community colleges are often strapped for cash when it comes to hiring power. This means staff must stay up to date on a variety of skills to ensure the organization can have an effective presence across all platforms. Ad runners need to know some web development. Writers need to shoot some video.
Most of these skills are honed as simply as downloading a new program like Notepad++ or remembering to hold phones horizontally over vertically for certain shots. But when it comes to creating compelling content for social media, shooting on a phone might not cut it.
Learning digital photography doesn’t have to be daunting. Arguably the hardest part is figuring out which gear to use, and how not to break the bank in the process. With just a few pieces, you can start producing high-quality social photos and videos sure to wow your audience.
The Camera
Full disclosure: I’m a Canon fan. I got my start shooting on Canon’s and continue to do so now. That said the camera body you choose might be the least important part about your gear. Don’t get me wrong, depending on your budget, you can see noticeable differences between camera bodies. But I’ve found that knowing the gear you have is infinitely more useful than splurging on a $10,000 piece of rubberized plastic.
For smaller organizations looking to conquer both photography and video, a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera is the way to go. Having the option to both take stills and videos in one package is essential for budget conscious users, as well as those looking to keep their gear bags light.
The Canon EOS Rebel SL3 clocks in at a $599 MSRP — which means used bodies can be found cheaper. It’s intended to be one of Canon’s beginner focused models, capable of both 4k video in the brand’s smallest package to date.
Helping to keep costs down in the SL3 is the crop sensor. Essentially, DSLRs are marketed with three types of image sensors: full frame, crop, and mirrorless. Full frame sensors are the largest and are often geared towards professional or “prosumer” users. They provide a wider field of view and better low light performance.
Mirrorless cameras are relatively new. Rather than using a mirror to reflect what the image sensor sees into a viewfinder, mirrorless cameras use a panel on the back of the camera to display their images. This format has earned notoriety for being lightweight, cost friendly and great for video, at the expense of having fewer options for lenses and accessories.
Crop sensors then, are a personal favorite of mine and one that bridges the gap between full frame and mirrorless. Unlike mirrorless cameras, crop bodies like the SL3 have access to a larger range of lenses. In Canon’s case, that means using both EF (original line) and EF-S (crop sensor) lines of lenses.
For a media team at, say, a community college, a crop sensor camera can be effective for a variety of shooting situations. The smaller size of the crop sensor technically increases the focal length of lenses. In the case of the SL3 and the rest of Canon’s crop lineup, the sensor introduces a magnification factor of 1.6. Thus, a 50mm lens becomes an 80mm, a 200mm becomes a 320mm.
So, depending on which lenses you choose (more on that later), you can potentially streamline your gear for more situations, including sports, events, portraits, or landscapes.
The Camera: What to Look For
One of the key metrics to look for in picking a camera is the autofocus system. The SL3 features a 9-point system, with eye detection in video mode. This means that you can ensure that your video will stay sharp even without an innate sense for manually focusing.
Other considerations include the camera’s frame rate, measured in frames per second (FPS), which determines how many stills per second it can take. Something like the SL3 can manage five FPS, which should suffice for most situations. Depending on your niche, sports and wildlife might prove more challenging, with fast moving subjects requiring a higher FPS, but learning to follow the action can supplement any limitations set by the camera.
Beyond the SL3, Sony’s α68 and Nikon’s D5600 also feature solid performance at a sub $1,000 price tag. Personally, I’ve taken to shooting on the older, Canon 7D Mark II (discontinued in 2019), which features a 65-point autofocus system (I shoot a lot of sports).
Lastly, there is NO shame in renting or buying used camera bodies. Depending on your organizations needs and strategy, renting could prove useful, cutting costs when projects demand certain gear while ensuring they don’t rust away in a cabinet.
Canon EOS Rebel SL3: $599
Sony’s α68: $599
Nikon’s D5600: $599
Which Lenses Should You Pick?
Lenses are where the bulk of your investment in photo and video lay. High-end glass can easily rival the cost of the camera body. (Check out Canon’s $13,000 800mm lens that you could plop on to your $600 camera body).
There are features that can impact the cost of your lens, with many manufacturers offering higher and lower tiers depending on your price point.
First, the focal length of the lens, indicated by millimeters (mm) is the basis for your lens purchasing. Essentially, the higher the number, the longer the lens’ range. Images shot on a 200mm lens will appear closer than those shot from the same location on a 50mm lens. (We can get more complicated but that’s not important for now).
Next, let’s talk aperture. The aperture of a lens, represented by a whole or decimal number, denotes how much light is let into the sensor. Specifically, it is a ratio of the lens’ focal length to the diameter of its optical opening.
Essentially a lower number means the opening is wider, which lets more light into the camera and allows for a shallower depth of field. This impacts things like the blurring the background (or the effect “portrait mode” on phones creates) as well as improving low light performance.
The top image was taken at f/1.8 while the bottom was snapped at f/8. Notice the background of the upper image is blurrier than that of the lower.
When buying a lens, you’ll see the number displayed in one of two ways:
f/3.5
f/3.5–5.6
The former is reserved for prime lenses, which are set at single focal length, or zoom lenses with a fixed aperture (Like the Canon 70–200mm f/2.8)
The latter designates the aperture over the lens’ range of focal lengths. For example, Sony’s 28–70mm f/3.5–5.6 has an aperture of 3.5 at 28mm and 5.6 at 70mm. The lowest setting for the focal lengths in between those end points will be somewhere between 3.5 and 5.6.
Beyond focal length and aperture, you might also consider features like the type of motor in the lens, or whether it features image stabilization. These can be important considerations, but for a standard kit, I find covering a range of focal lengths is key.
In my experience in higher education, in which my photographic assignments range from headshots to lowlight events and sports, I’ve found three focal lengths that travel in my bag no matter what.
First, the EF 50mm F/1.8 has been my go-to for shooting company portraits for employees and athletes. At $125, its f/1.8 aperture is great for separating my subject from the background.
Next is the EF 24–70mm F/4, which I use whenever I need a catch all solution. The 24–70mm range gives me options for wide, group shots, as well as a modest zoom for podium close ups and candid photos. The F/4 aperture performs great during well-lit events and is half the price of the F/2.8 variant. (Lowlight performance could be better, but that is a consideration to make based on your shooting space.)
Finally, the EF 70–200mm F/2.8 IS II USM is the monster of the group, performing outstandingly for both athletics and night or theater photography. This is the priciest of the bunch, coming in at $1,800 new, though alternatives made by licensed manufacturers like Tamron or Sigma can drop that price significantly (more so if you buy used)!
You may have noticed some letters at the end of that last lens. With Canon lenses, IS refers to image stabilization, while USM refers to the UltraSonic Motor. Depending on your shooting conditions, image stabilization can be a worthwhile investment, particularly if you shoot in darker areas or are unable to use a tripod or monopod.
USM, which further raises a lens’ cost, increases its autofocus speed. Again, if sports and wildlife are your forte, a true ring USM lens can be worth the price of admission.
Alternatively, for video, STM lenses, which stands for Stepper Motor, are a solid choice for their smoother and near-silent autofocus. If you are shooting video with the camera’s on-body microphone, an STM lens like the EF-S 18–55mm F/3.5–5.6 can be an affordable option for video heavy departments.
Tripods
Have you ever heard that saying, “don’t cheap out on anything that separates you from the floor”? Well, think of your tripod like that, just for your camera.
My daily driver is this 61-inch Manfrotto tripod. It features a hybrid head, allowing me to mount either a digital camera or a phone with the swappable, snap-in foot.
Though a tripod is essential for most organizational video situations — you probably don’t want to handhold a series of testimonials or an address from your company president — there are options depending on both your budget and needs.
Flexible tripods, like the Joby GorillaPod, provide opportunities to mount your lightweight cameras in a variety or positions. These are great for shooting in small spaces, or when you to photograph something steadily from an unconventional angle.
You can also invest in gimbal head tripods, which are preferred for action or wildlife photography and do wonders (or physics) when balancing larger, more expensive lenses.
What’s key is that you know just how much your gear weighs, and whether your preferred tripod can support it!
Sound
What would be worse than shooting an incredible video and having tinny or flat-out incomprehensible sound?
Coordinating your microphone with your DSLR and video plans opens up a world of choices. For most situations that involve a talking head that you can be within feet from, a lavalier mic, pinned to the subject’s collar is an effective way to record uninterrupted audio.
Though you can spend big on digital recorders to accompany a lav, one of the cheapest options is sitting in your pocket. Some lavaliers, like this $20 model from PopVoice plug right into the 3.5mm jack on your phone (or into the dongle that plugs into your charge port) to record audio without the extra equipment. While some functionality, like monitoring sound levels might be limited, this is a simple and cost effective option to jumping into audio.
But what about when you’re moving about? Shotgun mics, which mount right on the hotshoe of your camera, are great for picking up sound in specific directions. During a podium speech or outdoors on site, a shotgun mic aimed at your subject can cut away much of the ambient noise allowing for crisp sound production. If you plan on shooting outdoors often, a mic with a deadcat or windscreen like on this Boya model can cut away blustery wind noise to ensure quality audio.
Backpack
The final piece of your inaugural camera set up won’t be helping you capture visuals or audio at all! There are plenty of styles of bag — duffle, messenger, fanny pack — but I’ve found a simple, compartmental backpack to be the way to go.
For the solo photographer, the $42 Estarer backpack can be a perfect fit for jaunting between photo jobs. It’s segmented interior provides flexible options depending on your personal gear set up, while the rear pouch is perfect for storing an editing laptop and reporting or idea notebook. Drawstrings on the sides can support a tripod (including the 61-inch Manfrotto from before!) an there’s even a handy pouch for water. Because you will get thirsty.
While some messenger bags might provide a bit more padding or protection than a backpack, being able to strap all of your gear to your back and move freely while shooting is an underrated feature that backpacks provide.
At the end of the day, the best way to figure out your gear set up is through trial and error. Sure, it’ll sting when you forget to pack your zoom lens, but the pain of experience will help you shape your set up to your liking. | https://abrandbox.medium.com/building-your-non-profit-camera-kit-7a40868d503c | ['Brandon Johnson'] | 2020-05-31 17:38:12.981000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Video Production', 'Canon', 'Social Media', 'Photography'] |
Stop Defining “There,” “They’re,” and “Their” | GRAMMAR | WRITING | WRITING TIPS | READING |PROOFREADING
Stop Defining “There,” “They’re,” and “Their”
Mistakes with the “T” Words Happen Frequently, and It’s Not Because We Don’t Know What They Mean
Licensed from 123RF; copyright, Lamai Prasitsuwan
Rules, explanations, and definitions of “there,” “their,” and they’re” seem to be growing exponentially. They pop often in articles about how to write and memes on Facebook.
At least 325 pins appear on Pinterest for the “T” words, including the words printed on coffee cups and t-shirts. (I was too lazy to count the pins, so multiplied uneven columns by uneven rows making my final number approximate.)
Stop Telling Us What These Words Mean. We Know What They Mean!
By now, most literate adults understand the meanings of the “T” words. The few that don’t probably won’t get it by looking at memes. And they probably don’t do much writing or consider themselves writers.
The question isn’t another meme or explanation on Facebook. It’s understanding why so many of us who are writers often make these mistakes when we know better.
It’s Your Ears’ Fault
You may not realize it, but our brains “hear” words as we type. When one word sounds like another word, it’s easy to use the wrong word.
Yesterday, I typed “hear” when I meant to type “here.” Obviously, I don’t need some grammar nerd to explain the difference between “hear” and “here.” (Just in case you’re wondering, words that sound alike are called “homonyms.”)
If you’re on a roll, inspired by what you’re writing, and going lickety-split on your keyboard, don’t be surprised if you make mistakes with words that sound alike.
Caveat: Yes, some words that sound alike aren’t common. Did you mean “horde” or “hoard?” You might not know the difference. That’s why we have on-line dictionaries.
The Solution
Proofread. Have someone else proofread for you. Read your writing out loud. Did I mention proofread?
Sadly with all that proofreading, you can still miss words that sound the same. If you know the words that you most commonly get wrong, use search and replace.
Put your story in a Word doc. Type “there” into the search box. Or “they’re.” or another “T” word. The word pops up in your text. You read the sentence and find you’ve used the wrong word. You fix it on the spot. You can type in each T word separately if you know you often use the wrong one.
Perhaps this seems like a nuisance. But it’s a small price for messing up a “T” word and having some holier-than-thou grammar freak correct you. And then feel compelled to teach you about the “T” words.
That’s how simple it is. Now you don’t have to worry about botching up the “T” words. No worries about the grammar gods coming after you. | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/stop-defining-there-theyre-and-their-1099c0d47bad | ['Maryjo Wagner'] | 2020-10-15 15:47:25.122000+00:00 | ['Writing Tips', 'Proofreading', 'Reading', 'Grammar', 'Writing'] |
7 Shortcuts to Build Early Visibility for Your Brand | Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash
Visibility is everything when you’re trying to build a company from the ground up. Visibility earns you traffic. Visibility gets you exposure. Visibility helps you build a reputation. And without it, even the best company, offering the best value, can go unnoticed by the masses.
The central problem with visibility isn’t awareness of its importance, however; it’s finding a way to achieve visibility without investing significant time or effort. Most marketing and advertising strategies either take months to fully kick in, or cost tens of thousands of dollars that your small business probably doesn’t have to throw around.
Fortunately, there are some shortcuts you can use to build early visibility for your brand, without demanding much in the way of time or money:
1. An endorsement. First, you could try to get an endorsement from a trusted authority or highly visible source. For example, if you make a specific product, you could get it in the hands of a celebrity or a niche product reviewer, and hope they make reference to it on one of their social media profiles. Assuming they have a respectable audience, any mention could instantly put you in front of thousands of new people, and earn some second-hand trust for your brand along the way. You don’t have to go as far as Nike getting LeBron James or Heineken Light getting Neil Patrick Harris, but anyone with authority and some relevance to your brand will be valuable.
2. Viral content. This one’s a bit of a long shot. Viral content is an art and a science that requires luck and timing to pull off successfully — but if it lands, it could propel you into the public eye. Viral content is content that’s shared early and often; it passes hands quickly, and can sometimes accumulate millions of views because every new share puts it in front of an audience of new people. The trouble is producing content that’s practical, exciting, novel, and timed appropriately all at the same time. If you’re looking for inspiration, take a gander at Dollar Shave Club’s ads, touting their blades as “f***ing great.” The main video was surprising, funny, and offered good information about the brand — and it ended up with nearly 25 million views.
3. Influencer co-ops. Similar to receiving an endorsement, you could get a jumpstart in visibility by working one-on-one with a known influencer in your industry. Influencers are authoritative sources with significant followings, and they’re likely to share any content they’ve had a hand in producing. If you produce a piece of content together, like a piece of original research or a collective interview, your name could get introduced to an audience of thousands of new people. A couple years back, two powerhouses in the content marketing game — Moz and BuzzSumo — teamed up to write an awesome piece about the nature of links and shares with this approach.
4. Local SEO. If you’ve read any of my work, you know I’m a major proponent of search engine optimization (SEO). It’s an ideal long-term strategy for attracting traffic and building your reputation, but its biggest downside makes it hard for new businesses to adopt; it takes many months to build the momentum necessary to see its full value. However, if you instead narrow your focus to local SEO by targeting localized keywords (and earning a spot in the local 3-pack), you’ll be able to build rankings faster — and simultaneously set yourself up for a stronger national strategy when you grow larger.
5. Social media contests. Social media marketing has almost no barrier to entry, since anybody can create an account and start posting for free. However, if you want to build a substantial audience, you’ll need to post and engage with an audience consistently for months to years. You don’t have that kind of time, but you can generate an audience relatively quickly by introducing a contest. Offer a valuable reward, such as an entry into a giveaway or a smartwatch for the top contestant, and encourage your followers to post content with a specific hashtag to mark their entries. Contests tend to spread like wildfire if you offer the right prize at the right time; for example, Qwertee gave away 1,000 T-shirts every week as part of an ongoing giveaway/contest, which is a steep cost — but they ended up with more than 100,000 Facebook likes.
6. PPC ads. I don’t generally recommend pay-per-click (PPC) ads as a long-term strategy, since they have a flat curve of return on investment (ROI). However, if used to generate significant volumes of new traffic to a site in its earliest stages, PPC ads can be cost-effective. You’ll only pay for the traffic you receive, and if you target your audience correctly, and optimize your landing pages and conversion rates, every new visitor will yield some value for your brand.
7. Controversy. Finally, you can try to stir up controversy. Controversial subjects tend to attract lots of commenters, and lots of comments and reactions tend to rank pieces of content higher in SERPs and individual users’ newsfeeds. Obviously, you’ll need to be careful here; getting political can be risky, and getting antagonistic can destroy your brand. Instead, make a case for an unpopular, but tolerable opinion, and don’t be afraid to fight for it. Adobo toed this line carefully when it released a study analyzing the most PC and most politically outspoken/controversial areas of the United States; it stirred up a heated debate, and ended up getting 67,000 social shares.
These shortcuts aren’t going to propel your business to success by themselves. Some of them are only practical during the early stages of your development, and others are meant to serve as segues into bigger, better strategies.
Still, if you’re struggling to get more visibility for your brand early on and you don’t have the budget to support a full-scale advertising campaign, these are solid tactics to fall back on. | https://jaysondemers.medium.com/7-shortcuts-to-build-early-visibility-for-your-brand-e3aa79dc316 | ['Jayson Demers'] | 2020-10-19 21:19:48.747000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Content Marketing', 'SEO', 'Content Strategy', 'Online Marketing'] |
“Home” as a season, not a place | Painted Lady butterfly, bg: California Poppies
The other day (May 24, 2019), I saw a Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) near the town of Dinsmore, California. That’s in the northeast corner of Humboldt County, near the Trinity County line, just off the 36, on the edge of Six Rivers National Forest. The terrain is hilly, fairly steep and treed with Firs and Oaks of various species. Though this spot was only a little over 50 miles from the 101 to the west, it takes close to an hour and a half to drive there, due to tight curves and steep climbs. It’s out in the boonies for sure.
The butterfly had seen better days. One of their lower wings was over half gone and the others a bit raggedy-edged. Earlier this year, in southern California — specifically in Anza-Borrego State Park — I had seen thousands of them every day for weeks. There had been a bigger-than-usual migration (see here, here and here). For awhile there, I couldn’t drive anywhere without my windshield getting streaked with yellow and my grill filling up with dead bodies. Try as I might, it just wasn’t possible to avoid hitting them, there were so many. I felt a little less bad about it one day when I came out of a store and saw a couple of small birds on my bumper, gorging on the corpses.
Other times, sitting in the desert, a cloud of them would pass through, literally hundreds a minute, alighting on the many, many flowers and passing on. (A “superbloom” was in effect too.) For as many as there were, it was tricky to get good photos. They were shy of close human presence and never landed in one place for long. What I had to do was a pick a good spot and sit still with my camera turned on and pointed, waiting for one to flutter within focusing distance.
Painted Lady on Orange blossom, southern California, March 2019
Now, months later, I wondered idly if I had actually seen this particular butterfly before, hundreds of miles away in, so I stopped in my tracks and asked.
“Hello friend,” I said. “Have we met?”
I didn’t detect an answer to the question, though that doesn’t mean one wasn’t offered. Then, as I ruminated on the idea that this butterfly might have followed the weather the southern desert to the northern forests, I suddenly saw a picture. It came and went like a flash, but conveyed a tremendous amount.
One could term such a moment an “epiphany.” Like others I’ve been blessed with, this one was about comprehension, not facts. It was an, “Oh, I see” moment, and it was a personal moment. As such, I cannot share it with you in its entirety, only those aspects of it that translate easily into English words. If you have ever had an epiphany yourself, you know what I mean. If you haven’t — well, I don’t know if I believe that anyone hasn’t, but some people seem more likely than others to catch them when they’re thrown, so to speak, while others can get hit upside the head — again, in a manner of speaking — but not know what happened, and not be enriched by it.
Anyway, that part of the message that I’m able to share with you here goes something like this:
“Home” for some creatures is not a place but a set of conditions on the move; what could be called a “season.” The season is like a wave rippling across a landscape. The scale can range in size from a single mountain slope to an entire continent. Though certain characteristics of a season can be measured — such as temperature and humidity — as a home it is a form of consciousness. One is carried by it and also carries it within. Far more than a mere worldview, it is in fact a world. The world for the many, many creatures who live there full-time.
Like a sound, a season has an attack and a decay. Some are soft, others sudden.
As a wave rolls through an area, multi-faceted relationships are sparked, smothered or unaffected. An insect hatches from a chrysalis or a flower blossoms. With other waves, a caterpillar spins a cocoon or a plant dies back to its root.
A season has no hard-edged beginning or end. Nonetheless, it is clear and unmistakable.
In any given solar year, the exact timing of a season relative to the calendar will vary, but the season is the one with real significance. Just as the map is not the territory, the calendar is not the time. A gardener or farmer who plants by dates and not by signs isn’t paying real attention.
The particular (and peculiar) location-centered view of most contemporary humans is totally at odds with seasonal living; in fact, the two are mutually exclusive. We spend so much effort acquiring a domicile for ourselves and such a substantial percentage of our time working to keep it and we are culturally required to do so because nearly everything is owned rather than common. We must buy our right to have someplace to breathe, eat and sleep. We are paying rent to live. It’s obscene. And the system that upholds it is ecocidal.
The day after I saw the butterfly, I drove south into Mendocino County. I passed through several zones, starting from a spot that is definitely on the chilly side for the greater area — elevation and longitude hold it cooler and wetter — and ended in one that is noticeably warmer and drier.
Most of my journey followed the 101, which alternates between two-lane roads with curves posted at 30mph or less and four-lane freeways where the traffic roars through at 70+. It’s all valleys, some narrow and overhung with trees, others wide and tilled for crops. Redwood remnants pop up occasionally, including the well-known (and once again — unbelievably! — threatened) Richardson Grove.
When I descended into the valley where Laytonville sits, surrounded by agricultural land, the California Poppies were popping. Though a few have been blossoming for the last month and a half here and there, this was now a full-on event — an obvious season. The density of flowers had undeniably increased from 10 days previously, the last time I drove through the area, south to north.
Cal Poppies on the roadside, Hwy 101, May 2019
My thoughts traveled to SoCal back in March and April, when the Poppies were peaking there, in the basins, on the slopes, and in the meadows. Now it was happening here. Their season had arrived. In this place, which was farmland rather than desert, the flowers were limited to the roadsides. The fields were either filled with other things or had been mowed short, which is too much disruption even for this genus of plants, who definitely has an affinity for disturbed sites. (A roadside is a textbook example of a disturbed site, continually so.)
Cal Poppies in Anza-Borrego State Park, March 2019
California Poppies are in the genus Eschscholzia, which contains at least a score of species and subspecies. According to botanist Michael L. Charters, this mouthful of a word is derived from the name of “Dr. Johann Friedrich Gustav von Eschscholtz (1793–1831), a Latvian or Estonian surgeon, entomologist and botanist who came with the Russian expeditions to the Pacific coast in 1816 and 1824.” I mention this because the Western habit of naming plants, animals or locations after people is a) a form of colonization, b) an expression of the out-of-balance ego of European culture and c) not at all helpful in telling us anything about the thing named. How none of this is “scientific” is a topic for another essay, but suffice it to say now that such methodology is another way of severing us from living reality.
Unlike the Painted Ladies, who moved with the wave, the Poppies are stationary, reacting as the wave washes over them. How different is it, though? It struck me that all/every Eschscholzia might inhabit a collective consciousness that undulates as the season passes through it, like when you feel a tingle pass through your body from head to toe. Perhaps this consciousness operates as a “we,” but a we with no “I”s. That is, California Poppy is awake and aware of itself as a single vast selfless selfness whether blooming in a weed-filled ditch outside the town of Willits in Mendo in May or in a sandy wash at Mountain Palms Springs campground in Anza-Borrego in March. That makes the experienced “home” of Cal-Poppy-in-flower a migratory event of sorts; a “season” that is independent of place, though individual plants are literally rooted in particular chunk of soil.
In the town of Willits, the explosion of blossoms was even more showy. There, they are weeded and watered, though they excel at taking their own space when its their moment. Along the sidewalks and driveways, their bright orange and yellow faces were reminders of the world outside civilization, of the timing separate from clocks.
Cal Poppies in the town of Willits, May 2019
So caught up are most of us in our efforts just to survive here — to establish our place — that we forget that other ways of living exist. Yet once upon a time, before the Agricultural revolution, and for many, many millennia, we too lived and thrived more in season. We were more like the Painted Lady, moving with changing conditions. If the examples of gatherer-hunter humans are any indication, we did not make as sharp of a distinction between ourselves and other living creatures in those days, nor between internal and external. We were far more collective than individual. We named things for their own characteristics.
Injured Painted Lady found by side of Hwy 111, near the Salton Sea
The project of civilization has taken us very far from all of that, to the edge of a cliff where we are now surveying the possibility of our own extinction. Not merely our actions need to change, and not only our worldview, but our very state of consciousness. That’s way beyond the realm of politics and even philosophy. We must stop what we’re doing, look deeply, and find that within us which can still ride the wind and open to the sky in tune with life. | https://kollibri1969.medium.com/home-as-a-season-not-a-place-4cc91d1ed641 | ['Kollibri Terre Sonnenblume'] | 2019-05-27 01:25:53.581000+00:00 | ['Nature', 'Butterfly', 'Consciousness', 'Environment', 'Flowers'] |
Diamonds Aren’t Forever | Is it time to ditch the diamond engagement ring?
For most men in the U.S. preparing to “pop the question,” one question that is not considered is whether or not to purchase a diamond engagement ring to accompany the proposal. Indeed, diamond engagement rings are the norm, with over 80% of brides sporting a gem. This is, of course, “tradition!” Men spend 2–4x their monthly salary on engagement rings because that’s “what you’re supposed to do,” and women similarly expect the gesture, even if most brides are unhappy with the diamond ring their future spouse gifts them.
To an outsider, this tradition may seem silly. Just as many Americans find the concepts of dowries, bride prices, and dowers unpalatable — the practice of men gifting women an exorbitantly expensive (and inherently useless) gift while asking them to spend the rest of their lives together sounds a little insane from first principles. Of course, like dowries and dowers, diamond engagement rings have a rich cultural history stretching back hundreds of years, right?
Not exactly.
It’s not such a well kept secret that the diamond engagement ring tradition is less than a century old and was manufactured by a marketing campaign commissioned by De Beers Corporation, who conveniently held a monopoly on the diamond trade. For those who haven’t heard the story, here’s a quick recap:
To summarize: the diamond engagement ring tradition exists because of wide-spread propaganda capitalizing on envy and conspicuous consumption commissioned by a cartel. It ain’t “love.”
Clearly, the propaganda worked. By 1990, 80% of brides in the United States had a diamond engagement ring — up from only 10% in 1940.
Sure, some people will acknowledge the dubious genesis of diamond engagement rings before saying that despite this, the tradition is meaningful today. The narrative goes something like this:
It’s the promise of marriage from a man to a woman!
It shows the man is serious enough about the relationship to save up for the ring!
It shows others that a woman is no longer available!
In 2019, I think it’s time that couples have a conversation about these outdated justifications fueled by consumerism, marketing, and envy.
First thing’s first: equating love with money is probably unhealthy for the longterm viability of a relationship. If your potential lifelong partner turns down your marriage proposal because the ring you purchased isn’t big or expensive enough, the odds of a successful marriage were likely slim to begin with. What if instead of marrying someone who values material things over you as a human, you found a partner who would spend their life with you regardless of material wealth and possession?
Second, society is just starting to grasp what gender equality means across contexts, yet wedding culture has largely been excluded from this conversation. Why is this a one-sided bribe? Shouldn’t women be compelled to buy something equally expensive and useless for their partner to “prove that they are serious” about the relationship? Further, the idea of signaling that a woman is no longer available, or “marking property” is insulting. Should men be marked as “taken” as well? Funny enough, De Beers launched a campaign with this very concept in the 1980’s in an attempt to double the diamond market. The campaign for a “Man’s Diamond” did not take off. It seems women weren’t falling for this charade…
In the 1980’s, Ayers / De Beers tried to convince women to buy diamond rings for men. They didn’t fall for it.
The justifications around engagement rings representing a promise to marry, or a partner being “serious enough” are also insulting, essentially arguing that the man’s word is not trustworthy unless he backs it up with his bank account.
Perhaps the most concrete argument against diamond engagement rings is the needlessly wasteful spending. As of 2017, the average engagement ring costs over $6,000, with this value immediately dissolving once purchased. Taken into context — most Americans don’t have $500 saved for a financial emergency — this expenditure is irresponsible. Thankfully, younger generations seem to be less materialistic than their parents and grandparents, opting to spend their money on experiences and practical purchases over goods signaling wealth and status. In the wedding world, this has become most evident with wedding registries. What was once an opportunity to collect an abundance of consumer goods has expanded into opportunities to travel (Honeyfund) or collect savings for practical use (Newlywed Fund). What if the money used to purchase an engagement ring was instead invested in longterm, appreciating assets to be enjoyed by a happy married couple for years to come, such as a down payment on a home?
If we were to do away with the diamond engagement ring tradition, what would we replace it with? One option is simple: nothing. Another option practiced in other countries such as Brazil may present an easier transition: both men and women wear a simple band on their right hand while engaged and switch the ring to their left hand once married. Signaling commitment while embracing equality and forgoing reckless spending — what a concept!
For my part, I’m adding “diamond engagement rings” to my list of 25 Things that Won’t Exist in 25 Years.
[Note to all potential suitors: I accept that I’ll likely end up purchasing an engagement ring for my future wife. I just want to be sure we’re on the same page about the ridiculousness of it…] | https://medium.com/the-raabithole/diamonds-arent-forever-34e992952cde | ['Mike Raab'] | 2019-07-19 05:32:03.770000+00:00 | ['Controversial', 'Relationships', 'Self', 'Psychology', 'Philosophy'] |
Open Your Heart Inhaling the Moment | Always by wonder
Loving moments
Coils your world
Enchantingly
Fetching your beauty
After blow whiplashes
Mounting your head high
Calmly breathing
Open your heart
Inhaling the moment
Francine Fallara, 2020 | https://medium.com/blueinsight/open-your-heart-inhaling-the-moment-af0009546014 | ['Francine Fallara'] | 2020-12-02 13:43:57.853000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Self Improvement', 'Motivation', 'Blue Insights', 'Inspiration'] |
Creating Your First Blockchain with Java. Part 2 — Transactions. | We generate our private and public keys in a KeyPair. We will use Elliptic-curve cryptography to Generate our KeyPairs. Let’s append a generateKeyPair() method to our Wallet class and call it in the constructor:
All you need to understand about this method is it uses Java.security.KeyPairGenerator to generate an Elliptic Curve KeyPair. This methods makes and sets our Public and Private keys. Nifty.
Now that we have the outlines of our wallet class let’s have a look at transactions.
NoobCoin > Cash ? :D
2. Transactions & Signatures
Each transaction will carry a certain amount of data:
The public key(address) of the sender of funds.
The public key(address) of the receiver of funds.
The value/amount of funds to be transferred.
Inputs, which are references to previous transactions that prove the sender has funds to send.
Outputs, which shows the amount relevant addresses received in the transaction. ( These outputs are referenced as inputs in new transactions )
A cryptographic signature, that proves the owner of the address is the one sending this transaction and that the data hasn’t been changed. ( for example: preventing a third party from changing the amount sent )
Let’s create this new Transaction class:
We should also create empty TransactionInput and TransactionOutput classes, don’t worry we can fill them in later.
Our transaction class will also contain relevant methods for generating/verifying the signature and verifying the transaction.
But wait…
What is the purpose of signatures and how do they work ?
Signatures perform two very important tasks on our blockchain: Firstly, they allow only the owner to spend their coins, secondly, they prevent others from tampering with their submitted transaction before a new block is mined (at the point of entry).
The private key is used to sign the data and the public key can be used to verify its integrity.
For example: Bob wants to send 2 NoobCoins to Sally, so their wallet software generates this transaction and submits it to miners to include in the next block. A miner attempts to change the recipient of the 2 coins to John. However, luckily, Bob had signed the transaction data with his private key, allowing anybody to verify if the transaction data has been changed using Bob’s public key (as no other persons public key will be able to verify the transaction).
We can see (from the previous code block,) that our signature will be a bunch of bytes, so let’s create a method to generate them. First thing we will need are a few helper functions in StringUtil class :
Don’t worry too much about understanding the contents of these methods. All you really need to know is : applyECDSASig takes in the senders private key and string input, signs it and returns an array of bytes. verifyECDSASig takes in the signature, public key and string data and returns true or false if the signature is valid. getStringFromKey returns encoded string from any key.
Now let’s utilize these signature methods in our Transaction class, by appending a generateSignature() and verifiySignature() methods:
In reality, you may want to sign more information, like the outputs/inputs used and/or time-stamp ( for now we are just signing the bare minimum )
Signatures will be verified by miners as a new transaction are added to a block.
We also can check signatures, when we check the blockchain’s validity
3.Testing the Wallets and Signatures:
Now we are almost halfway done Let’s test a few things are working. In the NoobChain class let’s add some new variables and replace the content of our main method :
be sure to remember to add boncey castle as a security provider.
We created two wallets, walletA and walletB then printed walletA’s private and public keys. Generated a Transaction and signed it using walletA’s private key. ̶F̶i̶n̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶w̶e̶ ̶c̶r̶o̶s̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶g̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶h̶o̶p̶e̶d̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶.̶
Your output should look something like this :
‘Is signature verified’ should be true. Hopefully.
Time to pat your self on the back. Now we just need to create/verify the outputs and inputs and then store the transaction in the Blockchain.
4. Inputs & Outputs 1: How crypto currency is owned…
For you to own 1 bitcoin, you have to receive 1 Bitcoin. The ledger doesn’t really add one bitcoin to you and minus one bitcoin from the sender, the sender referenced that he/she previously received one bitcoin, then a transaction output was created showing that 1 Bitcoin was sent to your address. (Transaction inputs are references to previous transaction outputs.).
Your wallets balance is the sum of all the unspent transaction outputs addressed to you.
From this point on we will follow bitcoins convention and call unspent transaction outputs: UTXO’s.
So let’s create a TransactionInput Class:
This class will be used to reference TransactionOutputs that have not yet been spent. The transactionOutputId will be used to find the relevant TransactionOutput, allowing miners to check your ownership.
And a TransactionOutputs Class:
Transaction outputs will show the final amount sent to each party from the transaction. These, when referenced as inputs in new transactions, act as proof that you have coins to send.
5. Inputs & Outputs 2: Processing the transaction…
Blocks in the chain may receive many transactions and the blockchain might be very, very long, it could take eons to process a new transaction because we have to find and check its inputs. To get around this we will keep an extra collection of all unspent transactions that can be used as inputs. In our NoobChain class add this collection of all UTXOs:
HashMaps allow us to use a key to find a value, but you will need to import java.util.HashMap;
Okay, time to get down to the nitty gritty…
Let’s put everything together to process the transaction with a processTransaction boolean method in our Transaction Class:
we also added a getInputsValue float method.
…With this method we perform some checks to ensure that the transaction is valid, then gather inputs and generating outputs. (See commented lines in the code for more insight).
Importantly, towards the end, we discard Inputs from our list of UTXO’s, meaning a transaction output can only be used once as an input… Hence the full value of the inputs must be used, so the sender sends ‘change’ back to themselves. | https://medium.com/programmers-blockchain/creating-your-first-blockchain-with-java-part-2-transactions-2cdac335e0ce | [] | 2020-07-25 17:33:22.236000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Tutorial', 'Java', 'Programming', 'Bitcoin'] |
How to Create Your First Minimum Viable Product | If you have a great idea brewing in your head for a new piece of software, an app or a service, one of the best ways to start developing it is with a Minimum Viable Product or MVP. You can think of an MVP as an initial version of your new software that is built with only the core features you have in mind so that it can be properly tested by a small group of users.
When creating an MVP, you don’t need to come up with all the solutions in one go. Since not all startups and even established businesses have unlimited resources to throw at every idea, an MVP allows you to focus on the most important things first so that you can have a working product in the shortest amount of time.
Once your MVP is up and running, you can have a small group of users or early adopters to test it out so you can get feedback on how to further improve it. An MVP allows you to learn what your audience or target market really wants, which then lets you fine tune your final product into something that will truly add value to people’s lives.
You’ll likely go through several iterations after your building out your first MVP before having a final product that’s ready to release to the general public. You’ll also have to be ready to scrap features and create new solutions as you continue to test the MVP and figure out what your customers want. An MVP is merely a tool and part of a process that will allow you to test what works and what doesn’t.
An MVP is not a mockup
Even though the term MVP is thrown around a lot, it’s important to remember that just because it’s a very early version all the features you include should still be fully functional. Once you release it for testing, every button should work. Don’t include buttons that only act as a placeholder for a feature you didn’t have the time or capacity to implement. A lot of times, people tend to get too focused on the ‘minimum’ aspect of the MVP and forget that it also has to be ‘viable’ for it to be truly effective.
First steps to building an MVP
Before you go out and tell your team to build the next Facebook or Twitter, you’ll need to establish some ground rules and define parameters for the features that you want to include in your MVP.
The first thing you want to figure out is who your target audience is. If you can streamline your MVP to make sure it provides value to your ideal customer, you’ll have a much better chance of success since you can focus on making the experience as close to perfect for that one person.
Along with identifying your audience, your MVP should be designed around user stories. This means identifying what the user wants to accomplish and why. User stories allow you to define feature requirements in non-technical terms from the perspective of your customer, which in turn gives better context to the system that you are creating.
It’s also important to establish a budget and timeframe for your MVP. Since the goal of the MVP is to determine the viability of your idea and learn from user feedback, it will be a more effective tool if you can launch it as quickly as possible. You don’t want to waste time and money developing features and functionality only to find out that users will barely use it during the testing phase.
During the development phase, you should also have a clear goal for your MVP. Is your end goal to make money from its use? Is it a demo so you can raise additional funding? Are you trying to grow a user base? Or do you simply want to test a hypothesis?
Finally, before moving forward with your MVP, you may want to consider if a Riskiest Assumption Test or RAT is more useful for your situation. Ever since the concept of the MVP was introduced a lot of people seem to think that it is the only way to prove their idea will work. Many people have gone through the process of building and testing their MVP only to find out that it’s not the solution people are looking for.
When building an MVP, you’re usually working with untested assumptions. A Riskiest Assumption Test (RAT) will let you know beforehand if that assumption is even valid and if customers are interested in using your product or service using simpler testing and research methods.
Which features should I include in my MVP?
During the design phase of an MVP, it’s important to determine a feature set or list of features you want to include in your MVP so you can establish the scope of the project. A feature set gives you a clearer vision of what you want to accomplish with your MVP which is helpful for your team, your developers, your investors and your target audience.
Prioritising the features to include in your MVP is a crucial step that requires a lot of thought and deliberation. It’s a collaborative process that requires input from all interested parties such as your development team, your stakeholders and your target audience.
Just because you have a clear vision of what your MVP should look like doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the only option to go with. You have to consider if your team can implement these features properly, as well as the time and resources to make it work upon release.
To make prioritisation easier, make a list of all the features you want to include then organise them into feature buckets.
Your feature buckets can be as simple as:
Must have features
Nice to have features
Unnecessary features
In addition to these feature buckets, you can categorise features based on impact and cost, or its effort vs. value ratio. For example, a must have feature that offers a high impact on the customer experience and comes with a low cost to implement should easily get the green light. But a must have feature that has a high impact but is prohibitively expensive to implement can be dropped into the ‘nice to have’ bucket instead. Likewise, a low impact and high cost feature should definitively go into the ‘unnecessary’ feature bucket.
What happens next?
Once you’ve agreed on your MVP’s feature set, you can proceed with the development phase and make it ready to go live as soon as possible. A lot of startups get really excited once their MVP is ready but don’t really know what to do with it once it’s done.
It’s important to remember that an MVP is not a product and not a process. The faster it goes live and is released to your customers, the faster you can validate your assumptions. The user feedback generated after releasing your MVP is even more valuable that the MVP itself.
Use as much time and effort as you did in creating the MVP to study and analyse the user feedback so you can further refine your next MVP release. This creates a feedback loop of ‘build-measure-learn’ that has proven to be a game changing approach that helps businesses design products that customers cannot live without. Using MVPs as a learning tool lets you incorporate incremental improvements into your product using real knowledge validated by actual data and not just assumptions.
Final words
It’s been proven time and again that an MVP is an effective tool that can turn a simple idea into something truly amazing. It is especially useful in the early stages of product development and provides you with invaluable data that you simply cannot get anywhere else. An MVP will help your business save valuable time and resources that can easily be wasted on a fully-fledged product that nobody wants to use.
However, when dealing with an MVP you should set your expectations appropriately and be prepared to make radical changes or completely pivot away from your original concept into an entirely new direction to create something of real value. Bad news and failures and are part of the process, so you should be fully committed to the feedback loop and have the flexibility to learn and grow from your misconceptions and mistakes.
Want to learn more? We go into much greater detail in our Startup Series articles. | https://danboterhoven.medium.com/how-to-create-your-first-minimum-viable-product-bfabc36ff06d | ['Daniel Boterhoven'] | 2018-09-12 00:35:09.637000+00:00 | ['Product Development', 'Startup', 'MVP'] |
Our Journey From Heroku To Kubernetes [Part-1] | Our client was running their infrastructure in Heroku. As a PaaS, Heroku is awesome and you can sleep good while your application is being taken care by the best trained infra professionals.
But this happiness comes with some caveats:
You have to pay for it. You don’t have enough freedom to play with it. You have to follow their book and they will guarantee it will just work. It doesn’t allow you to implement complex deployment process. Multiple environment management sometimes can be very cumbersome and tricky. Every time you switch your infrastructure you have to start from scratch. Micro-service based applications are not well suited in this kind of environment. Limited monitoring tools (sometimes). It’s hard to achieve true infrastructure as code.
While the first reason seems to not be an issue when you start small. As you grow, your cost can significantly hurt you in the long run. For us, the second reason was the biggest issue; even if we somehow achieved it, the first reason seemed to dawn on us.
Anyway, we decided for a change. A change will take us a long long way from here, without having to break our money bank and also it gives us just enough room to expand for the unknown future.
Moreover, our application had to achieve some very strict checks before it was deployed to new versions. The checks were:
We take backups of that target environment databases. For testing convenience, we restored production database (excluding user and sensitive information) onto staging database, to conveniently check if anything was breaking on the real world data. It gave us confidence that our newly added application is working as expected.
Our application was a Ruby On Rails application. It was just a medium sized monolith with having some moving parts (which we will see as we go forward).
So when we decided to go for IaaS, there were a bunch of choices we could have made. But we decided to use DigitalOcean. Although AWS may seem to be the obvious choice, we decided to go for DO because:
It provides one of the cheapest hardware/spec per dollar. It provides managed Kubernetes. It has very easy and developer friendly documentation, tutorials and a great community. Although it has some shortcomings now but it seems to be promising in the upcoming days. It also has managed cheap Postgres Database, Load Balancer and S3 compatible storage option, which are must needs for our project.
In terms of cost optimisation, on Heroku we had this following setup
Staging
Application: Standard-1X = $25 Background Processing: Standard-1X = $25 Postgres: Standard-0 = $50
Production
Application: 3 Standard-2X = $150 Background Processing: Standard-1X = $25 Scheduler: Standard-1X = $25 Postgres: Standard-0 = $50
We had cost around $350-$400 every month.
As we moved to k8s on DO, lets see what we achieved,
Kubernetes On DigitalOcean:
Node Pool 1(5 instance): 1vcpu + 2Gb Ram => $10 * 5 = $50
Node Pool 2(3 instance): 2vcpu + 4Gb Ram => $20 * 3 = $60
In these two node pools we separated our environment specific nodes by tags(don’t worry I will explain later about these terms later). Now see what we were able to achieve in these two node pools. I know some of the terms in below may be unknown to you, so for now just skip them:
1 Cert Manager (for proving and renewing lets-encrypt free SSL for all applications)
1 Cert manager cainjector
1 Cert manager webhook
1 Docker registry (Backed by DigitalOcean Space)
1 CI/CD instance
1 Staging Postgres database(Using Kubedb) with HA.
1 tiller instance(For using Helm Package manager)
1 Docker registry UI
1 nginx ingress pod
1 auto job cleaner (for all namespace)
1 DB auto backup task runner for staging
1 DB auto backup task runner for production
Staging application(2x)
Staging Background Job Runner(1x)
Production database with HA. 1 primary, 1 slave and 1 standby
PostgresAdmin UI.
Linkerd Service Mesh for monitoring.
As you can see it’s a pretty long list. Additionally we now also have freedom to add any custom task runner anytime. Anyway, the primary goal is already achieved and we were able to cut down our infra cost like one-third. We had some additional cost apart from k8s clusters like:
Load Balancer: While we used ingress controller, we had to just use one load balancer for all.
S3 storage: Some objects were already hosted in AWS s3, we decided to keep as it is. As new elements has been added in the equation like hourly database backup, new docker images etc, we planned to go for s3 compatible DO solution space.
NewRelic APM.
Mail solution cost.
But these cost were there in Heroku too and is platform and infrastructure independent. So I excluded them out the equation at first.
Additionally, we have used Helm to package our application to the cluster and used Drone to automate the CI/CD pipeline, which is hosted into our kubernetes pipeline itself. Naturally I guess CI/CD pipeline meant to be running into your cluster. Whenever a new deployment happens it creates new pods and jobs, whenever a deployment completes it frees the resources. Helm was meant to handle complex deployment process and it integrates with CI/CD very easily. If your deployment takes a lot of juice then you can autoscale your cluster and can use some nodes dedicatedly for build and deployment stuff only. | https://medium.com/monstar-lab-bangladesh-engineering/our-journey-from-heroku-to-kubernetes-part-1-116f4bdc44a4 | ['Md. Mazharul Islam'] | 2019-09-23 11:07:09.018000+00:00 | ['Ruby on Rails', 'Digitalocean', 'Heroku', 'Kubernetes'] |
How Cloud Services Empowers Businesses with Data Security? | The advent of cloud services has brought a big boon for businesses all over the world. With advanced technologies like machine learning, data science, artificial intelligence, the data security of the corporate world is hindered to a great extent. And now, the organizations are looking for securing their data to keep it private and confidential.
In such a dilemma on how to keep data secured, cloud computing services have served a great purpose. Cloud computing is going to all places. Even if you are a freelancer, you can store your data up in the cloud.
When you are employing cloud computing services, you should be well aware of its vulnerabilities. Cloud computing services come with their own limitations and possibilities. One should consider all the constraints carefully and deploy services accordingly.
The best of corporates these days are using their own server for keeping their data secure with the private cloud facilities. Businesses of small scale, instead, are opting for public or hybrid clouds due to the commercial benefits offered. Let’s begin with gathering an understanding of what all you can do with Cloud Computing Services.
How Cloud Computing Secures your Business Data?
• If you send your data to the cloud, only you and the people you authorized can see the data. The best part is you can view your data anywhere with your phone. Gone are the days of carrying hundreds of external hard disks around to access the previous data.
• With cloud services, you can reduce the cost spent on securing data. You can also easily mobilize and give easier scalability.
• Also, newer technologies such as SaaS (software as a service) providers like Dropbox and Evernote are thriving.
• Cloud Services are the best for securing and storing data from various organizations.
These days, there are a lot of threats and attacks on data security. In fact, a lot of cases have already been reported about how hackers hack the systems and steal valuable information. This is hazardous to the organization’s data security. Therefore, it has become very vital for companies to secure their data. With these repetitive case, you need to find a good company like AWS which can offer you maximum data security.
With the help of professionals who have the AWS Developer certification, a lot of small businesses can secure their data. Now, the cloud computing platforms are offering advanced services to their clients so that the organization’s data is more secure and safe. Here are some more benefits of the cloud computing services which help in making your businesses strong:
- DOS attacks are very prevalent these days. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks is the threat to the cloud data of vulnerable companies. Attack to the data can be a loss for the company. Therefore, to subdue these attacks, cloud computing security platforms come up with solutions that help combat these situations.
- Just like DDoS attacks, data breaching is very common too. The servers are now quite vulnerable to the cybercriminals. Therefore, SaaS companies like Dropbox, Evernote, and AWS are providing advanced tools to protect sensitive data.
- Compliance. The cloud computing services make sure that the cloud storage space which is allotted to a company has to be compliant to keep the data safe. Safety features are the main services which the SaaS companies have to provide. The source code below describes how the AWS programming makes data appear in a more compiled manner.
Image Source: Infra talk
- Cloud computing services offer the flexibility feature. You can access your data from anywhere and anytime. Also, if you are having a security server crash, you can completely avoid it. And once you know that the server is not used by many people, you can scale back. This will help in cutting the costs.
- Another main thing about cloud computing services are, they give you support constantly. There is the service of 24/7 service. If you are a user of a particular cloud computing service, you can also monitor your data whenever you want. Also, the SaaS companies usually provide constant support so as to avoid a data breach and security attacks.
How Amazon Web Services Benefits your Business?
AWS is just like SaaS and it is a secure cloud computing platform offering compute power, database storage, and other detailed services to help the businesses grow. Amazon has this very useful certification called AWS developer certification which helps in understanding the practicalities of the data security systems. This AWS Developer Certification helps all those security professionals to secure the AWS platform. The professional is supposed to take an exam to get this certification. This certification also goes by the name of AWS Certified security specialty.
The certification will help one understand the classified data classifications and data protection methods. Also, it will help in comprehending what is data encryption and internet protocols. As a matter of fact, cloud computing helps greatly in cutting costs, AWS certification also teaches its subscribed students to make decisions regarding the cost, security and other complexities. Students are trained on how to handle the security operations and the risk involved in this.
Now, what are the prerequisites if you want to take the getting this Certification?
The first prerequisite is that you need to have a minimum of 5 years in the IT security domain. You should be able to design and implement the solutions to the risks and the threats faced. You should also have some good hands-on experience in securing the AWS work. The best part of this AWS Developer Certification is that it is available in different languages: like English, Korean, Japanese and Chinese.
Conclusion
Aforementioned are the different ways in which the Cloud Services companies help empowering the businesses in the field of data security. If you are a company who is in need of cloud computing services and you are seeking the solutions for your threats, then you should make sure that the company you are choosing is the right one.
A Perfect company for you should offer you all the updated and the recent cloud computing services. Also, they should be reliable, available and provide maximum security. They should also have the techniques of providing advanced cyber security and comprehensive and easy solutions for your data. | https://medium.com/initium/how-cloud-services-empowers-businesses-with-data-security-b79d5227e0d | ['Swati Kadam'] | 2020-04-19 07:15:34.669000+00:00 | ['Cloud Computing'] |
Last Moment of Inertia | I feel the edge of grief come for me
like corroding the polish of daylight
A polestar drawing its circle away,
past the last moment of inertia
shifting deficit, axis out of place
I cling, I grip trenchant line
lest the shadow overtake
Again with sliced hand,
sharp and bright,
bleed on dark margin
I quiet the atoms, I hold still
and defer the rim of night
I accept it as a lesson
and refuse the fallen orbit
Jessica Lee McMillan | https://medium.com/scrittura/last-moment-of-inertia-3f7688e951f3 | ['Jessica Lee Mcmillan'] | 2020-10-15 10:02:20.098000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Struggle', 'Life', 'Psychology', 'Positivity'] |
Will 10,000 Hours of Practice Make You World-Class? | Image by Jorge Guillen from Pixabay
Will 10,000 Hours of Practice Make You World-Class?
The 10,000 Hour Rule Explained and Revisited
Malcolm Gladwell popularised the idea that 10 000 hours of practice can make you world-class. The 10 000 hour rule states that it takes a minimum of ten years and approximately ten thousand hours of deliberate practice to become world-class in any complex skill.
But ‘the rule’ is often misunderstood and misapplied. One such misconception is that 10 000 hours of practice is the ‘magical number of greatness’, and that if you just put in the hours you will become world-class.
The basis of the rule
In a study of chess masters and grandmasters, Simon and Chase drew one of the most famous conclusions in expertise research. There are no naturals that achieve mastery in a short time. They estimated that all the masters in their study had spent between ten and fifty thousand hours practising chess.
Since then, researchers have arrived at the same conclusion time after time in all types of domains. It takes at least ten years to master any complex skill.
The key study that the 10 000 hour rule is based upon involved violinists at the Music Academy of West Berlin. Anders Ericsson, a world-leading researcher in expertise development, found that the best players in the orchestra had spent an average of 10 000 hours of deliberate practice to reach their expert level.
In the study group, Ericsson included those who had the potential to become international violin soloists. Ericsson compared them with groups of ‘good violinists’ and ‘music teachers’. The main contributing factor to the expertise level between the groups was the amount of deliberate practice they had achieved. Deliberate practice is well-designed and means intense practice on essential aspects of the task being mastered.
When they were 18 years-old, the ‘international soloists’ had an average of 7410 hours of practice, the ‘good players’ had an average of 5301 hours and the ‘music teachers’ had an average of 3420 hours. It was estimated that the ‘international soloists’ would reach approximately 10 000 hours of deliberate practice by the age of 20. This is where the number for the 10 000 hour rule comes from.
At this point, the talented violinists were destined to become world-class, but they were not there yet. It’s estimated that they needed at least 10 000 more hours before they would reach the peak of their careers, which for violinists typically occurs in their early thirties.
Overall, the most common finding in expertise research is that there are no naturals and that you can’t reach a world-class level in complex skills without a lot of practice. It’s the amount of deliberate practice that has the greatest influence on whether you get there or not.
Ten thousand hours is just the average
There’s nothing magical about the number 10 000 however. Some people improve faster, and some people barely improve at all. In another study of chess players by Campitelli and Gobet, they found that the average time to become a master was 11 000 hours, but some did it in 3000 hours, and some still hadn’t managed to become a master after 25 000 hours of practice. They concluded that deliberate practice is necessary, but not sufficient.
Rather than just counting the hours, it’s how you practice that makes the largest difference. Some people learn and improve a lot faster than others. How you design your practice and how focused you stay during practice are two factors that significantly affect how quickly you learn.
Responsiveness to practice is one of the main attributes that influence whether someone has the potential to reach world-class levels. A person who can improve their skills to the same level in 3 000 hours that others need 10 000 hours to achieve has a considerable advantage.
In psychological research, it’s common to measure and discuss averages. But to understand what’s possible it can be much more revealing to study those that become very good in a shorter amount of time. By studying the way they practice, we can start to understand what they’re doing differently and why they’re so good. And by implementing their ways of learning, anyone can dramatically improve their rate of learning.
The competition
How fast you become world-class depends a lot upon the level of the competition. If there are thousands of people who have put in 10 000 hours of practice in a domain, you’re not guaranteed to be among the best just because you do it as well.
In domains such as music, chess and sports, it’s common to put in thousands of hours of practice. The higher the level in a given skill, the more hours of quality practice is required to become world-class.
But how do we compare domains, and where is it easiest to become world-class? How do you compare the expertise of a chess player, violinist and a chef? Maybe there are 2000 chess players who have reached the same level of expertise as the top five chefs in the world. Or perhaps it’s the other way around.
If you want to become the best in the world at something, the easiest way to do it is to start practising an uncommon skill with great determination. Paper plane building, potato speed peeling or a new card game where only you know the rules.
In between the extremely competitive domains and the obscure new game where only you know the rules — and are therefore the best in the world — we find everything else. Exactly how many hours it takes to master and become world-class at these skills is hard to say, but it’s usually way less. Just keep in mind that it’s always possible to become better, even when you’re the best in the world, and if you don’t keep practising, someone may overtake you.
Ten thousand hours is not necessary to become skilled
The 10 000 hour rule may have had some undesirable consequences. As people heard about this research, some gave up on their goals as they seemed so far away.
You don’t need to practice 10 000 hours to become very good at a skill. The expertise research only suggests that it takes a long time to become world-class in very complex skills. From my personal experience, you can achieve a lot of improvement by putting in 100 hours of practice in any skill. You can reach a level where you enjoy what you’re doing in a meaningful way. After you have reached 100 hours of practice, you can decide if that’s enough and move on to other skills or you may get hooked and start down the path towards world-class levels.
Take home message
To master any complex skill requires an enormous amount of time, practice and effort. In most fields where the level of competition is high, it will take a minimum of 10 years and 10 000 hours of quality practice.
There is nothing magical about the number 10 000 however. Sometimes it requires less practice to become world-class, and sometimes it requires a lot more. The main point, perhaps not so surprisingly, is that it takes a lot of time to become the best in the world at anything.
The amount of practice it takes depends a lot upon the level of competition and the complexity of the skill. The more complex the skill is, the more situations you need to train yourself to see and the longer it takes to master.
To become very good at any skill can be done a lot faster, however. In my 100-hour challenge projects, I’ve experienced that you can see a significant improvement in only 100 hours, in any skill you choose to learn.
Whether you want to enjoy a skill as a hobby or compete at the highest level, the improvement always happens one hour at a time.
Thanks for reading, sharing, and following! :)
If you enjoyed reading this, you may also like: | https://medium.com/skilluped/will-10-000-hours-of-practice-make-you-world-class-152bbad64078 | ['Erik Hamre'] | 2020-05-18 10:05:38.156000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Learning', 'Psychology', 'Education', 'Inspiration'] |
Getting started with Git and GitHub: the complete beginner’s guide | Looking to get started with Git and GitHub? Do you need to collaborate with a team? Are you working on a project? Have you recently discovered that you pretty much need to be on GitHub if you want anyone to take you seriously in tech?
…do you really just want to contribute to your first open source project?
This one’s for you!
Photo by Greyson Joralemon on Unsplash
It’s totally easy to get started with Git. If you’re a fast reader (and you don’t take a lot of time with sign up and installation), you can be up and running on GitHub about ten minutes from right now.
If you go all the way through the article, you can practice cloning an existing repository, creating a branch, making changes, and creating a pull request. Along the way, you might also learn how to find your terminal, use terminal commands, and edit a markdown (.md) file!
If you do all that, congratulations!
You will have contributed to your first open source project — the GitHub Welcome Wall! (If you want to go straight to the open source contribution part, scroll down until you hit the section called, “Let’s do this!”)
This article will get you up and running with the basics. There’s a lot of stuff to learn if you want to use Git and GitHub like a pro, of course. You can go way beyond this introductory information! We’re going to leave the next-level stuff for another time, though.
Let’s get started!
What is Git? What’s GitHub?
Git is the version control tech of choice for basically everybody right now, from developers to designers. GitHub is the social code-hosting platform that’s currently used more than any other. It’s a place where you can play and experiment. It’s a place where you can find (and play around with) the most incredible open-source information, emerging technologies, features, and designs. It’s a place to learn and it’s a place to get involved. You can keep code there for work or for school, and you can grab some sweet code that you want to explore further. You can even host websites for free directly from your repository! (If you want to know how to do that, check out this article!)
Photo by Jamie Haughton on Unsplash
There are a ton of ways to use Git and GitHub, but getting started with GitHub doesn’t have to be overwhelming. You don’t need to be some kind of master coder or anything. You can even do the most important things right on the GitHub website!
That being said, it’s a good idea to find your terminal and get just the tiniest bit comfortable with it. Terminal commands make things so much faster! I’ll definitely show you how to get started using the GitHub website. I’ll also show you some terminal commands that you might want to use to make your life just a little bit nicer.
Any time you see a command in this article that includes these marks: < > , you want to delete those marks and replace what’s between them with your own information. Let’s say you see something like git add <filename> . That means that you would type, for example, git add hello_world.py if you wanted to add a file named “hello_world.py” to your GitHub repository.
I’m going to give you a lot of explanation here, but these are all the terminal commands that you really need to know to get started:
git clone
git status
git add
git commit -m “ “
git push
That’s it! Those are the big ones! If you have a handle of those, you’re good to go. You can start working on your projects immediately!
Photo by Delaney Dawson on Unsplash
We’ll also talk about
git init
git branch
git merge
git checkout
You might be working with other people, or you might want to make changes and test them out before you really commit them. The commands above are what you need to get started with collaboration.
git help
is also seriously useful if you’re just starting out! We’ll discuss that too.
(If you’re on a Mac, you already have a terminal! You can search for it by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the upper right-hand corner of your screen and searching for the word “terminal.” )
Step 1: Sign up and installation!
Go to GitHub and sign up for an account. You could just stop there and GitHub would work just fine. It’s a good idea, though, to install Git if you haven’t already. You can absolutely get started without it, but if you want to work on your local computer, then you want to have Git installed. You can download it or install it via your package manager instead.
Now go to your terminal and introduce yourself to Git! To set your username for every repository on your computer, type
git config --global user.name "<your_name_here>"
replacing “<your name here>” with your own name in quotations. You can use any name or handle you want. If you want to set your name for just one repository, leave out the word “global.”
Now you can tell Git your email, and make sure it’s the same email you used when you signed up for GitHub
It’s easy to keep your email private, and you can find those instructions in this article. You only need to check two boxes in your GitHub account.
Now you’re ready to start using Git on your computer!
Photo by Matty Adame on Unsplash
To get started, you can create a new repository on the GitHub website or perform a git init to create a new repository from your project directory.
The repository consists of three ‘trees.’ First is the working directory, which holds the actual files. The second one is the index or the staging area. Then there’s the head, which points to the last commit you made.
I’m already comfortable with the terminal (Option 1)
Here’s how you can get started right from the terminal:
If you have a project directory, just go to your terminal and in your project directory run the command
git init
If you want to initialize your project with all of the files in your project directory, run
git init .
to include everything.
Let’s say you have a folder for your project called “new_project.” You could head on over to that folder in your terminal window and add a local repository to it by running
cd new_project
git init
Now you have a new hidden directory called .git in your project directory. This is where Git stores what it needs so that it can track your project. Now you can add files to the staging area one by one with
git add <filename_one>
or run
git add .
to add all of your files to the staging area. You can commit these changes with the command
git commit -m "<add a commit message here>"
and if you’re happy with your changes, you can run
git push
to push your changes through. You can check whether or not you have changes to push through any time by running
git status
If you made some changes, you can update your files on at a time with
git add <filename>
or
git add --all
Then commit them with your commit message and push them through.
That’s it! You can now initialize a repository, commit files, commit changes, and push them through to the master branch.
If you’ve got this, just scroll down to “Learning to work with others” to move on to branching and collaboration!
Photo by Jonathan Daniels on Unsplash
I don’t know what you just said (Option 2)
I’m going to assume that anyone who’s interested in option 2 is brand new to all of this and maybe has a folder full of files (or you plan to have one) that you want to put on GitHub and you just don’t know how to do that.
Let’s make that happen!
Say you want to create a new repository. (You probably do! That’s where your project will live. If you aren’t going to create a new repository, you probably want to clone an existing repository. We’ll talk about that next, but that’s how you grab someone else’s project and information that you need for your job or the course you’re taking.)
Your repository is where you’ll organize your project. You can keep folders, files, images, videos, spreadsheets, Jupyter notebooks, data sets, and anything else your project needs. Before you can work with Git, you have to initialize a repository for your project and set it up so that Git will manage it. You can do this right on the GitHub website.
It’s a smart idea to include a README file with information about your project. You can create one at the same time that you create your repository with the click of a checkbox.
Go to the GitHub website, look in the upper right corner, and click the + sign and then click “New repository.”
Name the repository, and add a quick description.
Decide whether you want this to be a public or a private repository
Click “Initialize this repository with a README” if you want to include the README file. (I definitely recommend doing this! It’s the first thing people are going to look at when they check out your repository. It’s also a great place to put information that you need to have in order to understand or run the project.)
New repository
Creating your new repository
You can totally start working right from this point if you want to! You can upload files, edit files, and so on right from your repository on the GitHub website. However, you might not be satisfied with only this option.
There are two ways to make changes to your project. You can make changes in your files/notebooks on your computer and you can also make changes right on GitHub.
Let’s say you want to make some changes to your README file right on GitHub.
First, go to your repository.
Click the name of the file to bring up that file (for example, click “README.md” to go to the readme file).
Click the pencil icon in the upper right corner of the file and make some changes.
Write a short message in the box that describes the changes you made (and an extended description if you want).
Click the “Commit changes” button.
Editing your file on GitHub
Committing your changes
Now the changes have been made to the README file in your new repository! (I quickly want to draw your attention to the little button you can check in the image above that will let you create a new branch for this commit and start a pull request. We’ll talk about this later!)
Pretty easy, right?
I prefer to work with files on my local computer rather than try to make everything work from the GitHub website, so let’s set that up now.
Gimmie that project!
You might want to clone your new repository so that you can work on it on your local computer, or you might have an existing repository that you want to clone. (That’s something you might need to do that for a project or course.)
In order to clone a repository onto your computer, go to the repository on the GitHub website and click the big green button that says “Clone or download.” (You can definitely download the repository right there and skip the terminal stuff if you just can’t deal with it. But I believe in you, so keep going!) Make sure it says “Clone with HTTPS.” Now click the clipboard icon to copy and paste it to your clipboard (or highlight that link and copy it).
Clone or download a repository
Now you’ll open up your terminal and get yourself to the place where you want that repository to land. You might be able to, for instance, type
cd Desktop
to get onto the desktop. Then clone your repository right there to make it easy to find. To clone the repository, you type
git clone <that_thing_you_just_copied>
Simple! (Don’t forget to change the information between the < > marks to that string of letters and numbers you just copied! Also, make sure you delete the < > .)
If you haven’t moved around in your terminal before, you can move around slowly with the cd command until you get where you want to go. For example, open up your terminal and type ls to list the choices of where you might go next. You might see “Desktop” listed, and you could just type cd Desktop to get to your desktop. Then you can run the git clone command above to clone your repository right onto your desktop. You might see some user names instead of choices like “Desktop.” In that case, you need to choose a user before you see “Desktop,” so choose the user with cd <user> (replacing <user> with the user name) and then type ls again to see your choices. There’s a very good chance you’ll see “Desktop” now. You’ll type cd Desktop if you see the Desktop listed. Now go ahead with that git clone! If you ever want to move back a step in your terminal, just type cd ..
Now you have a new GitHub repository that you can work with cloned right on your desktop! That command pulled in a complete copy of the repository right to your system where you can work on it, make changes, stage the changes, commit the changes, and then push the changes back to GitHub.
You don’t need to put the repository on your desktop if you don’t want to. You can clone it anywhere. You can even run the git clone command as soon as you open up your terminal. I will say, though, that if you aren’t really comfortable navigating around your computer, it’s not a bad idea to have your project sitting right on your desktop where you can see it…
If you ever want to just play with a project on your own, you can fork it on the GitHub website instead of cloning it. Look up near the top right corner of the screen for the “fork” button and click it. This will make a copy of the repository in your repositories for you to play with on your own without doing anything to the original.
Now it’s time to add some files to your project!
Photo by Nadim Merrikh on Unsplash
This is all we’re about to do:
git status
git add
git commit -m " "
git push
Nothing to worry about!
I’m thinking you probably have some files that you want to put in your new repository. Go ahead and find your files and drag and drop them into the new folder for the repository that you created on your desktop, just like you normally would with any set of files you might want to move into a folder.
Now, check out the status of your project!
Go to your terminal and get yourself into the folder for your repository. Then run
git status
to see if everything is up to date. (If you just dragged some files into your project folder, it definitely isn’t!) To add one of your files to the repository, you would run
git add <fileneame>
Otherwise, you can add everything with
git add --all
or even
git add .
These are your proposed changes. You can do this exact same thing with brand new files and with files that are already in there but have some changes. You aren’t actually adding anything just yet. You’re bringing new files and changes to Git’s attention.
To commit the changes, you will start the process by running
git commit -m “<commit message>”
You’re committing the changes to the HEAD, but not to the remote repository. (Make sure you replace that message in quotes with your own.) After you make a change, you take a “snapshot” of the repository with the “commit” command. You‘ll include a message on that “snapshot” with -m.
When you save a change, that’s called a commit. When you make a commit, you’ll include a message about what you changed and/or why you changed it. This is a great way to let others know what you’ve changed and why.
Now your changes are in the head of your local working copy. To send the changes to your remote repository, run
git push
to push your changes right into your repository. If you’re working on your local computer and you want your commits to be visible online too, you would push the changes up to git hub with the git push command.
You can see if everything is up to date any time by running the git status command!
So now you have a GitHub repository and you know how to add files and changes to it!
Congratulations!!!
Learning to work with others
Collaboration is the name of the game on GitHub!
Photo by Quinten de Graaf on Unsplash
GitHub flow
Let’s say you have a project going and you maybe have a lot of different ideas and features in mind at any given time. Some features might be ready to go, but some might not. Maybe you’re working with other people who are all kind of doing their own thing. This is where branching comes in!
A branch is a separate space where you can try out new ideas. If you change something on a branch, it doesn’t affect the master branch until you want it to. This means that you can do whatever you want to do on that branch until you decide it’s time to merge it.
The only branch that’s going to permanently change things is the master branch. If you don’t want your changes to deploy immediately, then make your changes on a separate branch and merge them into the master branch when you’re ready.
If you’re working with others and want to make changes on your own, or if you’re working on your own and want to make changes without affecting the master branch, you want a separate branch. You can create a new branch at any time.
It’s also pretty simple to create a branch named “new_feature” in your terminal and switch to it with
git checkout -b new_feature
Once you create a branch, you can make changes on that branch. This makes it easy to see what you’ve changed and why you’ve changed it. Every time you commit your changes, you’ll add a message that you can use to describe what you’ve done.
Let’s talk about checkout!
git checkout
lets you check out a repository that you’re not currently inside of. You can check out the master branch with
git checkout master
or look at the “new_feature” branch with
git checkout new_feature
When you’re done with a branch, you can merge all of your changes back so that they’re visible to everyone.
git merge new_feature
will take all of the changes you made to the “new_feature” branch and add them to the master.
In order to create an upstream branch so that you can push your changes and set the remote branch as upstream, you will push your feature by running
git push --set-upstream origin new_feature
After you make some changes and decide you like them, you open a pull request. If you’re on a team, this is when other people on your team can start checking out your changes and discussing them. You can open a pull request at any point, whether it’s to have people look over your final changes or ask for help because you’re stuck on something.
Ummmmm…what? Can I do that on the website?
You can!
GIF via GIPHY
One way to do this is simply by checking that button that we mentioned earlier when we were editing the README file. Super easy!
You can also create a new branch any time right on the website by going to your repository, clicking the drop-down menu near the left-middle side of your screen that says “Branch: master,” typing a branch name, and selecting the “Create branch” link (or hitting enter on your keyboard). Now you have two branches that look the same! This is a great place to make changes and test them out before you want to make them affect the master branch.
Creating a branch
If you’re working on a separate branch, your changes only affect that branch.
If you’re happy with your changes and you want to merge your changes to the master branch, you can open a pull request. This is how, if you were on a team, you would propose your changes and ask someone to review them or pull in your contribution and merge them into their branch.
You can open a pull request as soon as you make a commit, even if you haven’t finished your code. You can do this right on the website if you’re more comfortable with that. If you’ve made some changes on your branch and you want to merge them, you can
Click the pull request tab near the top center of the screen
Click the green “New pull request” button
Go to the “Example Comparisons” box and select the branch you made to compare with the original branch.
Look over your changes to make sure they’re really what you want to commit.
Then click the big green “Create pull request” button. Give it a title and write a brief description of your changes. Then click “Create Pull Request!”
New pull request
Create pull request
Now if this is your repository, you can merge your pull request by clicking the green “Merge pull request” button to merge the changes into master. Click “Confirm merge,” then delete the branch after your branch has been incorporated with the “Delete branch” button in the purple box.
If you’re contributing to a project, people on the team (or the reviewer) might have questions or comments. If you need to change something, this is the time! If everything is good to go, they can deploy the changes right from the branch for final testing before you merge it. And you can deploy your changes to verify them in production.
If your changes have been verified, you can go ahead and merge your code into the master branch. The pull requests will preserve a record of your changes, which means that you can go through them any time to understand the changes and decisions that have been made.
Update and merge
If you’re working on your computer and want the most up-to-date version of a repository, you’d pull the changes down from GitHub with the git pull command. To update your local repository to the newest commit, run
git pull
in your working directory.
To merge another branch into your active branch, use
git merge <branch_name>
Git will try to auto-merge changes, but this isn’t always possible. Conflicts might arise. If they do, you’ll need to merge the conflicts manually. After changing them, you can mark them as merged with git add <filename> . You can preview your changes before you merge them with
git diff <source_branch> <target_branch>
You can switch back to to the master branch with
git checkout master
You’ll make your changes and then delete the branch when you’re done with
git branch -d new_feature
This branch isn’t available to anyone else unless you push the branch to your remote repository with
git push origin <branch>
Other helpful commands
First of all, this is my favorite GitHub cheatsheet. Check it out for all of the most useful Git commands!
You can see the commit history of the repository if you run
git log
You can see one person’s commits with
git log --author=<name>
You can see what has been changed but not staged yet with
git diff
Need help remembering what command you’re supposed to run? Try
git help
to see the 21 most common commands. You can also type something like
git help clone
to figure out how to use a specific command like “clone.”
Let’s do this!
Photo by Mervyn Chan on Unsplash
Why not leave your mark and welcome everyone who’s here to learn about Git and GitHub? We’re going to create a simple welcome wall with notes from everyone who wants to try out Git and GitHub and contribute to their first open-source project.
You can add whatever you want to the welcome wall, as long as you keep it warm and encouraging. Add a note, add an image, whatever. Make our little world better in whatever way makes you happy. (If you’re an overthinker (I see you ❤️), I have a pre-written message in the README file that you can just copy and paste.)
Clone the repository, either on the GitHub website or by running
Create a new branch and add a welcoming and encouraging thought to the “welcome_wall.md” file. You can do this on the website, but I really encourage you to try cloning the repository to your computer, opening the file with your favorite text editor, and adding your message there. It’s just good learning!
Create a pull request.
Write a quick note describing your change and click the green button to create your pull request.
That’s it! If it’s a decent message, thought, image, or idea, I’ll merge your request and you will have successfully contributed to an open-source project.
Congratulations!!! You did it!
GIF via GIPHY
As always, if you do anything awesome with this information, I’d love to hear about it! Leave a message in the responses section or reach out any time on Twitter @annebonnerdata.
Thanks for reading!
If you want to reach out or find more cool articles, please come and join me at Content Simplicity! | https://towardsdatascience.com/getting-started-with-git-and-github-6fcd0f2d4ac6 | ['Anne Bonner'] | 2019-09-03 06:57:05.206000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Technology', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Data Science', 'Programming'] |
Have a Heart | Have a Heart
a brief interlude
Photo by LB
Years ago, I was filling up my car at a gas station. Suddenly, a frantic looking woman wandered up to me, already in the middle of a sentence. She shared some legal woes and confessed she was at her wit’s end.
I wasn’t sure what to say but I stayed engaged in the conversation. She told me her son was going to jail in three days, unless she could find a lawyer ‘made outta magic’. What she said next always stuck with me.
“I ain’t got no magic. I’m looking. My son’s the good one. When he does something, he admits it. When I asked him if he did it, he told me. He said, ‘Yeah mama, I killed that guy. But at least I’m honest’. And he’s right! Doesn’t that count for something? I’ll say it the judge! I’ll say, ‘Look at my son, look at him! He knows what he did. He’s not lying to you. So, c’mon. Have a heart!’ That’s all I’m saying.”
At that point, I smiled and wished her the best of luck. She thanked me for listening. As I drove away, I could see her approach the next car. Hopefully this one had a magic lawyer behind the wheel. | https://medium.com/chance-encounters/have-a-heart-a627960b785b | [] | 2020-10-21 16:56:48.981000+00:00 | ['Nonfiction', 'Life Lessons', 'Chance Encounters', 'This Happened To Me', 'Photography'] |
Deconstructing Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles For Good Design–Part 3 | This is the final part in a series of three articles that critically examines Dieter Rams’ ten principles for good design. This article covers principles 8–10 and contains a conclusion. If you haven’t read the other articles, you can check out part one here, and check out part two here.
8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail
Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the user.
This principle speaks to me as a designer the most out of all ten principles. However, when considering digital, I would probably phrase this as, “Exceptional design is thorough down to the last detail.” The reality is the vast majority of digital products we use have not been thorough down to the last detail. And many of those products I would still be comfortable calling “good design”. They have not necessarily been disrespectful towards the user. Rather, those details left unconsidered are usually the result of an iterative approach to building digital products.
Still, I find this principle inspiring and a compelling reminder of the mentality designers should approach their work with. The foundations of truly exceptional design is the culmination of countless carefully considered details and decisions. Even if those details are not consciously appreciated by the user, their collective impact leaves an unmistakable impression. Using a wonderfully designed product there is the ever present feeling that this is a work of high quality; it exudes the feeling that it has been crafted with skill and great care.
Caring about the details is often where you can delight users the most, as it’s in the details where your users are least expecting to be surprised. While your core features are your most important, and rightly deserve the most attention, it’s still the little touches in the unexpected places that will most likely make your product remembered and create talking points.
In digital product design we can often create these talking points and delight users when it comes to animations and interaction design. People are often not expecting to be given an experience when simply moving from one page or task to another.
Many details have been considered in this wonderful UI Interaction by Anton Skvortsov
9. Good design is environmentally-friendly
Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
As design is mostly employed as an instrument of business, its ethics are often lost in the concerns of finance, marketing and sales. But ethical design, in terms of being sustainable and environmentally friendly, is no longer bad business. We’re now at a point where being ethical can give you the competitive edge. But ultimately ethics must be divorced from business. We must do things because they are right, not because they make good business sense and just so happen to have the bonus of being ethical.
Dieter Rams became conscious of the materials his products were using towards the end of his career. Many of his products used plastics and materials that cannot be easily recycled, and will ultimately pollute the environment for many years to come. However, he was designing in a time where few people were questioning the life cycle and environmental impact of these relatively new man-made materials. To arrive where he did illustrates a progressive attitude; a desire to question and improve his practice throughout his career, which is something we should all aspire to do.
My only issue with this principle is that it does not go far enough, and it should be updated to address our current reality. I believe we must consider the design of physical products within the context of a circular economy, where all materials and processes are selected with an understanding of how they will be reused and the energy they will consume.
Design should not be left off the hook with just making “an important contribution”, but charged with leading the way in new sustainable methods of production. We can look to studios like The Agency of Design and their Design Out Waste project for inspiring examples of different strategies to create “circular material flows”.
The Optimist Toaster, designed to last for generations. With permission from The Agency of Design.
In the world of digital product design we are only just beginning the conversation around the physical impact of the products we design.
Digital is physical. Digital is not green. Digital costs the Earth. Those data centers are not in the Cloud. They’re on land in massive physical buildings packed full of computers hungry for energy.
~ World Wide Waste, Gerry McGovern
When it comes to digital, building performant products that use, collect and store as little data as possible should be a clear requirement for how we understand good design.
10. Good design is as little design as possible
Less, but better — because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.
This principle aligns in many ways to the philosophical idea of via negativa. That is, in action it is much better to subtract than to add. From personal experience, simplicity within design often comes through iteration. We start by over designing and then through subtraction and simplification we gain a cleaner, more usable solution.
I tend to push for simplicity within my design work, but I’m always aware of its limitations. Like many overly-hyped design trends that are better understood as movements, simplicity and minimalist design is pursued as if there are no possible negative consequences; and that it can be continuously pushed further and applied regardless of context.
Rams’ final principle is inspired by minimalism, a design aesthetic that when seen at scale and followed to its extreme can be argued to result in monotonous, cold and same-ish designs that collectively appear as a failure of imagination. Braun was able to build a brand around minimalist simplicity at at a time when that approach was perceived as new and fresh. When minimalism is popular, this design and branding strategy proves less distinctive, striking and effective.
Yawn or Brawn? A collection of homepages from minimalist websites.
Describing simplicity as ‘pure’ is problematic on a number of levels. It suggests complexity is impure, but clearly it can be necessary, even desirable. Some complexity, designed and integrated with empathy for the user, can add depth and an extra level of value to a product, especially when we consider products aimed at professional use. Simplicity viewed as purity by deduction implies a value, even moralistic, judgment of decorative and eclectic design traditions.
Simpler is not necessarily better. As mentioned in part one of the series, under the third principle, “Good design is aesthetic”, there are many designers who reject the less is better ideal outright and advocate “more is more” — a maximalist approach to design.
Rams’ position is a distinctly modernist, western view and should be understood as a narrow definition of good design bound by a specific culture and time. Designers working in different contexts and cultures at different times, producing very different work, should not be held to the this subjective ideal of good design. As described in the exhibition, Less Is a Bore: Maximalist Art & Design:
Encouraged by the pluralism permeating many cultural spheres at the time, these artists [exhibiting work] accommodated new ideas, modes, and materials, challenging entrenched categories that marginalized non-Western art, fashion, interior design, and applied art.
~ Less Is a Bore: Maximalist Art & Design
Conclusion
Dieter Rams’ ten principles for good design should be understood, and appreciated, with an awareness of a number of factors.
Primo, Dieter Rams was an industrial designer working on products for the home. His principles would be better understood as “ten principles for good industrial design (of homeware)”. If you are not an industrial designer, you must consider the differences between this field and your own. We have seen Dieter Rams’ influence particularly in the graphic design world and follow through to digital design. Repeatedly through deconstructing the principles we’ve seen how many of the principles do not entirely hold up within the different requirements of these design fields.
Secundo, Rams’ principles must be understood as subjective. They are a product of a specific culture and time, and as soon as we start thinking about them as objective rules that we can follow at any time, in any place, we have become ignorant of another world of possibility and practice.
Tertio, there’s much wisdom and experience packed into Dieter Rams’ ten principles for good design, but beware of blindly following the ideas of others. By being aware of the weaknesses and inconsistencies of these ten principles, we’re actually in a better place to make use of all they have to teach of us. Like any rules or principles handed down to us from another time, we have to appreciate that they represent the collected experience and knowledge of that individual’s life work. You are living and working in a different time, with different clients, different products, different users, and faced with a different world. Take what speaks to you, understand its limitations and evolve the ideas to your practice. And then you will find what good design means for you. | https://uxplanet.org/deconstructing-dieter-rams-ten-principles-for-good-design-part-3-6be4e9336a19 | ['Pascal Barry'] | 2020-12-08 09:13:11.366000+00:00 | ['Dieter Rams', 'Design', 'UX', 'Product Design', 'Design Process'] |
I Woke Up at 5 a.m. for a Week to See if It Would Change My Life | Learnings
My friend and I called on Saturday for a debriefing. We both loved the experiment. After our call, I came up with a list of all the learnings we had talked about.
The power of accountability is huge
When you have to report to someone about your progress, about following through on what you said, your commitment will increase in most cases.
The American Society of Training and Development did a study on accountability. They found out that being accountable to someone bumped up your likeliness to succeed to 65%. If you hold a specific accountability appointment with someone, your chances jump all the way up to 95%. That’s huge.
For me, the power of accountability really showed on Tuesday morning. When my alarm went off, I was going to stay in bed, to sleep an extra hour or two. But then, I thought of this picture of my watch I had to send to my friend, within the next 10 minutes. I didn’t want to let him down, and I didn’t want to disappoint myself by losing the challenge only two days in. So I got up, took a picture, and went on with my day.
A routine is primordial
“To go on with the day” can be a pretty vague notion at 5 a.m. That’s why a clear routine and agenda are necessary in the early hours. Without a clear plan of what to do, there’s literally no use in waking up early.
I remember over a year ago when I started waking up early to work on my blog. I would literally wake up at 6 a.m., have breakfast, sit at my desk, and stare at my computer screen without knowing what to do. I didn’t have a plan.
I already explained my routine earlier on. The idea is to find what works for you, and to be as precise as possible. My routine is somewhat split in 30-minute intervals. If you need 10-minutes intervals to be able to keep the momentum, then do that. Just know that if you don’t have a reason to wake up this early, you’ll go back to bed, or you won’t even get out of it.
The time you gain is insane
I was honestly shocked by how much time I had. I would stretch, go for a walk, work for almost two hours, and then I would start making breakfast, thinking to myself “I need to hurry, I’m going to be late for work.” Then I would check the time: 7:30 a.m. I still had over an hour before having to leave the house.
I was surprised by this gain of time because I didn’t think one hour was going to make that much of a difference. But it did.
There are two reasons for that:
From 5:00 to 8:30 a.m., that’s three and a half hours that I fully own. This time is mine. I can fit a lot more things in that timeframe than I can when I wake up around 6:15. Because of the accountability I had with my friend, there was no lingering in bed. For the past month, I’ve been gradually staying in bed a little longer. My alarm goes off at 6 but I’ll actually get out of bed around 6:15, 6:20. Then I will stretch and take a while to get ready, have breakfast… by the time I get to work, it’s actually 6:45–7 a.m.. So in reality, I only have one hour to work. With this challenge, I had to get out of bed at 5 sharp to have time to get dressed and send a picture to my friend before 5:10 a.m. Needless to say, pictures in bed were not allowed.
If you do everything in the morning, what do you do at night?
Gaining time is awesome. But I did notice that my afternoons were a lot less productive than they had been before. Before the challenge, I would work on my blog in the morning, go to the office, and then clock in another 1-2 hours on my blog once I was back home. This week, it was a lot harder to work after being back from the office.
Again, two reasons for that:
My energy died down very fast in the afternoon, from 3 to 4. When you have less energy, it becomes harder to get things done. I had already done so much in the morning, I actually didn’t have much less to do at the end of the day. The rest was for the day after. All of my most important tasks were done.
I ended up being in this weird zone where I was too tired to keep working, but I also didn’t want to watch Youtube from 6 p.m. until bedtime. I still had two of my main hobbies: reading and playing chess online. I tried to work a little under an hour. But a lot of that time was spent relaxing.
It’s interesting to note that even though I now had a lot more time, the total amount I spent working was around the same as before. That being said, the quality of the work done in the morning was much higher than my daily average performance outside of the challenge.
So what do you do when you’ve done all your work by 5 p.m.? You relax, work just a bit more, and exercise.
On morning exercise
I only ran one time in the morning, on Monday when I felt psyched about the first day of the experiment. I ran one mile in ten minutes. Because I was exhausted at the end of my days, I didn’t actively exercise for the rest of the week. I went for walks, but nor for runs.
I’m always tired when I get back from work anyway, but I usually find the motivation to do some sort of exercise. This time, it was different. I was drained. I was thinking to myself: “If had I exercised in the morning, I wouldn’t have to worry about it now that I’m feeling sorry for myself.”
That’s also a big part of the reason people wake up insanely early. To work out. The best time of the day to work out is the time where you feel your best, you’re the most likely to be consistent and compliant. If I wake up early, then mornings are also the best time for me to exercise. | https://medium.com/better-humans/i-woke-up-at-5-a-m-for-a-week-to-see-if-it-would-change-my-life-8205f7645320 | ['Joseph Mavericks'] | 2020-06-18 17:54:00.476000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Work', 'Self', 'Morning Routines', 'Productivity'] |
How to Spot Hidden Missing Values With Python | How to Spot Hidden Missing Values With Python
Know the signs that indicate that your data set still contains missing values.
Image by lpittman from Pixabay
Missing values are a common issue in real-world data. They occur when no information is available for one or more variables in an observation.
Errors in data entry, information not available at the time of data collection and corrupted records are only a few sources of missing values.
Independently of their origin, missing values can introduce bias in the analysis, reduce the power of machine learning models and overall affect the validity of our conclusions. For these reasons, handling missing values is a critical step in data cleaning.
In this post for beginners, we will focus on how to detect missing values.
I created a small dataset called health, which contains four variables.
gender: male; female
male; female min_pressure: blood pressure between heartbeats
blood pressure between heartbeats max_pressure: blood pressure during heartbeats
blood pressure during heartbeats body mass index (BMI): underweight; normal weight; overweight; obese
We will apply techniques commonly used to detect missing values to the health dataset and then see how to spot the missing values that are not detected by these techniques.
Let’s import the necessary libraries.
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
Load and explore the dataset.
health = pd.read_csv('health.csv') health.shape
The dataset has fifty rows and four columns. Let’s print the first and the last five rows, as well as five rows selected at random.
health.head()
health.tail()
health.sample(5)
The dataset has no visible missing values.
When working on a new dataset, we must gain familiarity with the variables and understand what values to expect in them (i.e. data type and range). Knowing the variables can help us identify anomalies that may indicate that the dataset is not yet ready for the analysis.
Once we understand the dataset, we can start cleaning the data.
Detecting missing values
Pandas isnull() and isna() are two functions commonly used to detect missing values. They return the boolean value True if the cell contains a missing value and False if the cell contains a normal value.
health.isnull().head()
notnull() and notna() work in the opposite way of isnull() and isna(). They return True when the value is not missing and False when the value is missing.
health.notnull().head()
Here I will use isnull() and notnull(), but isna() and notna() would produce the same results.
isnull().sum().any() returns True if the dataset contains at least one missing value and False if it contains no missing values.
health.isnull().sum().any()
isnull().any() returns True if a column contains at least one missing value.
Gender is the only variable with missing values.
isnull().sum().sum() returns the number of missing values in the dataset.
isnull().sum().sum()
isnull().sum() returns the number of missing values in each column.
health.isnull().sum()
The dataset has 3 missing values in the variable gender.
If we prefer to visualize the missing values, we can use the missingno library.
import missingno as mso
The matrix and the bar chart are the two plots in missingno used to display missing values.
plt.figure(figsize = (16, 5)) ax0 = plt.subplot(1,2,1)
ax1 = plt.subplot(1,2,2) mso.matrix(health, ax = ax0, sparkline = False, fontsize = 12)
mso.bar(health, ax = ax1, fontsize = 12) plt.subplots_adjust(wspace = 0.3)
In the matrix, the white lines represent the position of missing values. This plot makes it easy to see if an observation has multiple missing values or if the missing values in the dataset follow a pattern.
In the bar plot, the length of the bars is proportional to the number of non-null values.
Visualizing missing values is particularly useful when working with a high number of columns.
How do isnull() and notnull() identify missing values?
From the documentation of isnull(), we can see that the function identifies the following labels:
NaN in numeric arrays
NaN, None in object arrays
NaT in datetime
notnull() does the opposite: it recognizes values not labelled as NaN, None or NaT.
So for isnull() and notnull() to work, the missing values must have specific labels.
Does this mean that we can only use NaN or None to indicate missing values in our datasets? Not exactly.
From the documentation of read_csv(), we can see that the following labels are automatically interpreted as NaN when loading a dataset: ‘’, ‘#N/A’, ‘#N/A N/A’, ‘#NA’, ‘-1.#IND’, ‘-1.#QNAN’, ‘-NaN’, ‘-nan’, ‘1.#IND’, ‘1.#QNAN’, ‘<NA>’, ‘N/A’, ‘NA’, ‘NULL’, ‘NaN’, ‘n/a’, ‘nan’, ‘null’.
The labels above, however, are not the only ones used to indicate missing values. Other common labels include ?,- and 0, which are not automatically converted into NaN by read_csv(), and are not recognized by isnull() and notnull().
But if isnull() and notnull() cannot identify these labels, and we do not see them when exploring the dataset (hidden), how can we spot these missing values? The answer is that we can follow the clues they leave behind.
Detecting hidden missing values
Pay attention to the info() function
The info() function returns general information about the dataset including the number of observations, column names, count of non-null values, data type and memory usage.
health.info()
The variable max_pressure has an object data type even though it contains integers. Pandas assigns the object data type to columns with text or mixed data (numeric and non-numeric). So max_pressure must contain at least one cell with mixed or non-numeric values.
To spot non-numeric values in a Series, we can use the Series.str.isnumeric() function, which checks if all characters in each string of the Series are numeric.
Using the code below, we can filter out the observations with non-numeric values in max_pressure.
non_numeric = health[health["max_pressure"].str.isnumeric() == False]
We can now count the number of these observations using len(), and print the non-numeric values using unique().
print(f"Count non-numeric : {len(non_numeric)}")
print(f"Non numeric values: {non_numeric['max_pressure'].unique()}")
Four observations contain either ? or - in the max_pressure column.
We can replace ? and - with NaN using replace().
health['max_pressure'].replace(['?', '-'], np.NaN, inplace = True)
Checking again for missing values.
health.isnull().sum()
Pay attention to the summary statistics
Summary statistics, created using the describe function, can also help identify missing values.
health.describe()
min_pressure is the blood pressure between heartbeats. In this variable, a min value of 0 does not make any sense, and it likely indicates missing values.
Check how many entries have a value of 0 in min_pressure.
(health['min_pressure'] == 0).sum()
Two observations have a 0 value in min_pressure. We can replace the 0s with NaN.
health['min_pressure'].replace(0, np.NaN, inplace = True)
By default, describe() returns the summary statistics of numeric variables, but we can use the include argument to display other data types such as object or categorical.
Here I will set the include argument to object.
health.describe(include = ‘object’).T
The number of unique values in both gender and bmi does not seem correct. Let’s print the unique values in both variables.
for column in health[['gender', 'bmi']]:
print(f"{column}: {health[column].unique()}")
The variable gender contains missing values as - and 0, as well as the NaN previously identified using isnull(), while bmi contains missing values as ? and ‘ ‘.
Notice that ‘ ‘ was not converted into NaN by read_csv() because, unlike ‘’, it is not an empty string but a string containing a space.
Now we can replace the missing values with NaN.
health.replace({’gender’:[’-’, 0], 'bmi’: [’?’, ' ']}, np.NaN, inplace = True)
Applying isnull().sum() again, we will have the number of missing values in each column.
health.isnull().sum()
Only a few steps back, we were confident that our dataset had only 3 missing values, but by paying attention to the right parameters, we spotted 11 missing values that were not detected by isnull() or notnull().
If 11 missing values can go undetected in a small dataset like this, imagine what could happen in a dataset with hundreds of thousands of rows and hundreds of columns, and how this could affect our conclusions. | https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-spot-hidden-missing-values-with-python-4498d74d45bb | ['Giulio Laurenti'] | 2020-11-11 05:54:14.196000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Missing Data', 'Data Cleaning', 'Data Science', 'Pandas'] |
Let’s Start an Anti-Resolution-Revolution | How many of us spend the last quarter of every year justifying every bad decision by promising to ‘be good’ once the new year comes? I’ve been guilty of it too many times to count — in fact, I’m being guilty of it right now!
We make promises to ourselves, and sometimes even go as far as telling other people because we read somewhere that telling another person makes you more prone to sticking to it. We plaster our #NYR all over social media, with these grandiose aspirations and motivational quotes. We’re fired up, man! Raring to go — bring on the new year!!
And then January comes and we’re all in, for about a week. And then all that conviction, all that drive we had in the middle of December somehow fades away. The novelty wears off real fast, and before we know it, we’re back to doing exactly what we were doing a few months before. …oh well, there’s always next January!
“New Year — New You!”
I hate that saying. We don’t need to reinvent ourselves just because the calendar page flipped. We’re constantly growing and evolving as human beings, and one specific date shouldn’t have any bearing on our journey of personal growth.
You may want to lose fifty pounds this year, or gain ten thousand dollars in your savings account, or maybe you’re finally going to figure out what you want to do with your life. Those are all wonderful things, and if they’re your goals then by all means, work your ass off to achieve them! Just don’t do it because the calendar dictates it.
Every single day that you wake up on this side of the dirt is another opportunity for you to chase your dreams with everything you have, and to work on becoming the absolute best version of yourself. Don’t take these sunrises and opportunities for granted, because you never know how many of them you have left! Instead of ‘new year, new you’, how about ‘new day, new chance’?
Show Yourself Integrity
A while back, I was obsessed with watching “Extreme Weight Loss” with Chris and Heidi Powell (I mean…have you seen the guy??) Seeing the way people’s lives were transformed with hard work, tenacity, and consistency just blew my mind, and I admit it, I cried like a baby at every episode.
What really stuck with me through all of it, however, is something Heidi said about integrity. And I’m paraphrasing here, but it’s something along these lines: We have no problem making promises to other people, and keeping them. But when it comes to ourselves, we don’t think twice about breaking those promises. In order to change, we need to shift that mindset and start showing ourselves the same integrity we would a friend, by keeping the promises we make to ourselves.
Start showing up for yourself!
You show up for other people all the time, but what about you? You show up for your boss, putting in your nine to five, and often much more. You show up for your partner and your family. You show up for your friends…you even show up for your pets, but not for yourself.
We’re Hopelessly Attracted to Structure
Even those of us who claim to hate routine (guilty!) are somehow still drawn in like a magnet when it comes to structuring our lives. Don’t believe me? When’s the last time you started a new diet or exercise plan? I’d be willing to bet money it was on a Monday. How about a new savings regime…it was on a Friday, right? (Don’t lie, Santa’s watching!)
There’s actually nothing wrong with structure, just as long as we don’t use it as an excuse for procrastination.
If you’re looking to integrate a new habit into your life, whether it be related to health, finance, personal growth, business, relationships, or anything else… my advice is: just start! Don’t wait for Monday, or Friday, or your birthday, or New Year’s Day. If you need a focused starting-point, you’ve got a brand new sunrise coming up tomorrow! And if you want to be a rebel and say ‘screw structure’…there’s always right now! (Well…once you’re done reading this because I’d really love for you to stick around until the end…please.)
Make the Plans — Ditch the Resolutions
If you’re looking at the last eleven months, and the next twelve, and find yourself wondering if you’re ever going to stop planning and start doing, now is the time. Right now. …if you’re like me and looking for a ‘special time’, there’s one just around the corner. The December full moon is actually coming on the 12th, at 12:12 AM Eastern Standard time. Yep. That’s 12/12 12:12. Get ready!
In all seriousness, you’ve been dreaming your whole life. Now’s the time to start planning and then put those plans in action.
“There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.”
– Douglas H. Everett
I love that quote by Douglas Everett because it makes me think. All of my life, I’ve been living in a dream world. I’ve never been one to want to face reality — I mean, I do, of course, it’s called adulting, but I don’t like to. I prefer to stay in my cozy little dream world where everything is just as I like it. …but what if…
What if I can become one of those people who turn one into the other? …what if you can be, too?
So, I propose a revolution. An Anti-Resolution-Revolution!
Make every day a reason to chase your dreams, and turn them into your new reality. Who’s with me!?? | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/lets-start-an-anti-resolution-revolution-d42656aeb642 | ['Edie Tuck'] | 2019-12-11 04:54:29.354000+00:00 | ['Plans', 'Resolutions', 'Productivity', 'Dreams', 'New Year Resolution'] |
Making Friends with a Cockatoo | Maybe kookaburra or two
Cockie (image by author)
I’ve got a new mate. His name is Mate, as in G’day Mate, and I’m making use of my home holiday to tame him, or at least get him to eat out of my hand and maybe sit on my shoulder and poo down my back.
He’s a sulphur-crested cockatoo, a bit of a pest around here, actually, and if you’re wondering how I know his gender, it’s not that my eyesight is super keen, but that Wikipedia tells me the males have black eyes, and the ladies red or brown.
This guy definitely has black eyes, and they switch between me and his tucker. He eats parrot mix, but he prefers the sunflower seeds, which he picks out and crunches up, extracting the insides and discarding the husk, before moving on to the next one.
And, hehehehe, closer to me.
It’s a bit of a thrill to have such a large bird so close, almost eating out of my hand. I’ve known this one for a while, and I don’t know who’s training who.
Pavlov’s Britni
I have a bird feeder outside my window, and I’ll fill it with birdseed or water, depending on the season. I get a selection of wild birds, but I also get introduced pests such as pigeons or Indian mynahs.
Yes, I know, they are all God’s creatures, and should be cherished, but the pigeons are churlish and unlovely, compared to the glorious colours of the rosellas and king parrots.
“My” bird would land on the bird feeder, and if it was empty, look towards the window, and give out a screech. If you have ever heard a flock of cockatoos conversing together, it is a noisy business. I would look up, we’d make eye contact, and either I would rush outside to fill the feeder, or he would get more and more interested in me until I did, like moving closer until he was perched on the window sill and yelling into my ear.
Now, if he cannot spot me in my home office, he sits in the elm tree outside and waits until he can see me in one of the windows facing that way. Often the kitchen, where I wander in to make a cup of coffee.
Then he sits on the back porch and waits until I forget about coffee and sprinkle a trail of seeds for him to follow.
He’s a little flighty still, and the appearance of Princess Fluffypants at the cat flap will spook him. God knows why: he’s bigger than she is, and has the beak and talons of an eagle.
I’ve gotten to the stage where he will tolerate me sitting on the porch with an iPad, taking his photo from close range.
Stay tuned for more about my cockatoo.
Britni | https://medium.com/grab-a-slice/cockatoo-4a82d94cb45d | ['Britni Pepper'] | 2020-03-29 10:36:54.707000+00:00 | ['Isolation', 'Nonfiction', 'Cockatoo', 'Covid 19', 'Australia'] |
Guidelines for Slackjaw Submissions | Welcome Writer,
As the #1 destination on Medium for all-things humor, and think-pieces on cats, Slackjaw wouldn’t be what it is without you, High Warlock of Funny Ideas. That said, we do accept submissions from humor writers of all backgrounds and extraterrestrial lifeforms.
Slackjaw is closed to new submissions from Dec. 20 - Jan 3.
Team Slackjaw will be resting for this period and decorating a single, very large, extremely beautiful Xmas ornament. We will re-open to new submissions on Monday, Jan. 4. Happy new year! | https://medium.com/slackjaw/guidelines-for-slackjaw-submissions-f720ea4e1dfe | [] | 2020-12-18 23:22:36.369000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Writing', 'Satire', 'Submission Guidelines', 'Funny'] |
Automating Machine Learning | Automating Machine Learning
Using H2O AutoML to automate machine learning
Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are the most used terms nowadays. Everyone nowadays wants to learn and experiment with Machine Learning but it doesn’t seem easy, because you need to learn a lot about different concepts of machine learning and how to implement them.
There are many learning interfaces in the market that makes machine learning an easy task for non-experts but still, you need knowledge of data science and different machine learning models.
H2O AutoML is an easy to use machine learning interface which automates the whole process of Machine Learning model selection by automatically training and tuning the model in a stipulated time limit.
A user just needs the dataset, should know the target variable and set a time limit, with all this he can test different machine learning model and select the best model with results.
Let us now explore how we can use H2O AutoML and automate the Machine Learning journey.
Installing H2O AutoML
Like any other python library, we can install H2O AutoML using pip install command given below.
pip install h2o
Importing necessary Libraries and loading dataset
The dataset we will be using here is an advertising dataset which contains the sales of a company as the dependant variable with features like ‘Radio’, ‘TV’ and ‘Newspaper’.
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
df = pd.read_csv('Advertising.csv')
df.head()
Advertising Dataset
Importing H2O and Initializing it
Here we will H2O library and initialize the H2O instance. It checks whether an instance is already running or not. Also displays several other details which you will see below in the image of the output.
import h2o
h2o.init()
Initializing the H2O Library
Pass dataset to H2OFRAME
This will create an H2OFrame similar to that of a data frame but with some more properties.
adver_df = h2o.H2OFrame(df)
adver_df.describe()
Statistical Properties of the H2OFrame
Splitting the Training and Test Data
Here we will split data into 50% training and 50% test dataset. Also, we will define our target value from the dataset and features o which it depends.
train, test = adver_df.split_frame(ratios=[.50])
x = train.columns
y = "Sales"
x.remove(y)
Run the H2O AutoML Model
We will import the H2O AutoML and run it.
from h2o.automl import H2OAutoML
aml = H2OAutoML(max_runtime_secs=600,
seed=1,
balance_classes=False,
project_name='Advertising'
)
%time aml.train(x=x, y=y, training_frame=train)
This code will render the data through different machine learning models in the stipulated time limit which we have taken as 600 Seconds, in this time it will store the performance of all the models through which data is passed.
Now we will check out the leaderboard of the model performance and find out which model performance is the best i.e. which model has the lowest error and highest accuracy.
lb = aml.leaderboard
lb.head()
Model Performance Leaderboard
Next, we will take the best performing model and find the variable which is important for the dependent variable.
se = aml.leader
#Loading Stack Ensambled Metelearner model metalearner = h2o.get_model(se.metalearner()['name']) metalearner.varimp()
Best Performing Model
Now we will analyze the best model we have got.
model = h2o.get_model('DeepLearning_grid__1_AutoML_20200731_222821_model_1') model.model_performance(test)
Model Performance
Visualizing the importance of features.
model.varimp_plot(num_of_features=3)
Variable Importance
Here we can clearly see that ‘TV’ is the most important feature in ‘Sales’ prediction. Let us visualize its dependence on Sales.
model.partial_plot(train, cols=["TV"], figsize=(5,5));
‘TV’ Dependence
H2O AutoML also allows you to save your model and use it later when required.
model_path = h2o.save_model(model=model, path='C:/Users/advert',
force=True)
Conclusion
In this article, we saw how we can use H2O AutoML to automate the whole process of Machine Learning and save a lot of time and effort.
Before You Go
Thanks for reading! If you want to get in touch with me, feel free to reach me on [email protected] or my LinkedIn Profile. You can also view my Github profile for different projects on data science. | https://medium.com/swlh/automating-machine-learning-a486d365e423 | ['Himanshu Sharma'] | 2020-12-17 12:02:38.350000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Automation', 'Automl', 'Data Science'] |
Revisiting Children’s Books as an Adult | I remember the first time I read the Mysterious Benedict’s Society. For my 9th birthday, I visited the local Border’s bookstore (back when they still existed, remember that? Mine’s a gourmet coffee shop now) and was allowed to pick out one book for my present. Wandering around the store, which seemed grand from my point of view, with light streaming in from the magnificent arched windows, lighting up the dark wood shelves and crisp, brand-new books; it was heaven to me.
Wanting to get the most bang for my buck, I chose the largest book that was showcased on the table of recommended books. The huge volume I chose was $10 for several afternoons reading on the couch, adventuring with Reynie, Kate, Constance, and Sticky as they solved puzzles and tricks to fight the evil Ledroptha Curtain. I spent several afternoons in my childhood like that, reading on the couch after school, imagining wild adventures through the pages.
Aside from the book I got for my birthday, I frequented my local library for sacks of books that I brought home to consume, voraciously. I lived my best teenage-spy life through the Alex Rider series, journeyed through YA dystopias such as Divergent and The Hunger Games, and imagined life as a cat (Warriors), mouse (Geronimo Stilton), and medieval apprentice (The Ranger’s Apprentice).
But as I grew older, and more responsibilities and work piled up, I no longer had free afternoons to read to my heart’s content. Eventually, I gave up reading as a pastime altogether except for assigned class readings.
With all this free time during the pandemic, I’ve tried getting back into reading. I’ve tried reading Game of Thrones, but it was too long (the TV show looks pretty cool, though) and I’ve tried reading memoirs and classics, to no avail. Then, while browsing Overdrive for books, I noticed that there was a fourth installment to the Mysterious Benedict’s Society series. Excited, I borrowed it immediately and finished it that day.
Piqued, I looked into other series I read years ago and found that Alex Rider, The Ranger’s Apprentice, and The Hunger Games, all had new installments, which I quickly read through, then re-read the series just for the fun of it. Unlike the more “challenging” adult books that were a slog to get through, these were engaging and I truly enjoyed reading through them.
After re-reading all those series, I went back to re-reading the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series along with all the spin-offs, which was particularly interesting as I was taking a Greek Mythology course at the time. Searching through the YA section of Overdrive, I also discovered new series like Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series, which was so much fun to read through.
In the end, my journey back to reading books I’ve enjoyed years ago brought back fond memories of simple yet joyful afternoons spent on the couch reading, as a child.
It’s nostalgic, yet invigorating to discover books that I’ve enjoyed in the past and now in the present. I’ve been thinking about this quote:
“A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” C.S. Lewis
And I think it’s absolutely true. Book genres don’t exist to box you into certain groups but allow you to explore ideas and life from different viewpoints.
So if you’re an adult, searching for a good book to read, consider looking past the adult section into the YA/children’s bookshelves. You might find something you’ll enjoy. | https://medium.com/the-open-bookshelf/revisiting-childrens-books-as-an-adult-327220007391 | ['Christine Tu'] | 2020-12-28 21:30:45.006000+00:00 | ['Childhood', 'Books', 'Reading', 'Childrens Books', 'Life'] |
I Love… | I love the way you sleep.
I love the way you play with your hair
when you are thinking so deep. | https://medium.com/3-lines-story/i-love-c9b6ea2fab6e | ['Pawan Kumar'] | 2020-06-15 09:54:27.358000+00:00 | ['Storytelling', 'Poetry', 'Relationships', 'Dating', 'Love'] |
Searching for the Gothic in Ikea | Like the 19th century bourgeoisie, we have a love of the perfect and the orderly. The differences in each of Ikea’s ‘Billy’ bookshelves lie at the molecular level; a Big Mac in Paris is a Big Mac in Istanbul. Where we perhaps differ from the Victorians is that we also expect evidence of humanness in what we consume. We carry a vague nostalgia for the artisanal: for stripped back wood and chipped pottery, for a time when Sunday markets were necessary and not an ornamental feature of our week. Sometimes we find these pangs attended to in the studied messiness of the otherwise perfect. The handwritten chalk messages in the world’s Starbucks, for instance, mean that for a moment we feel like we are consuming something that is not governed by corporate policy. Likewise, the woman at the till in McDonalds smiles at you, and posters on the walls make it clear that to consume a Big Mac is to also consume friendship.
Despite what the mismatched cutlery and whimsical cocktails would lead you to believe, the hands making a hamburger in an international chain are governed by a set of procedures. The hands making our phones move in the same ‘exquisitely timed palsy’ ⁶ of Ruskin’s bead makers, and the bodies filling orders at ‘fulfilment centres’ move with a dead-eyed mania. In heavy prose Ruskin admonished 19th century Britain for allowing their love of the perfect to cauterize the noblest parts of human nature. Even though we quietly nurture a love for measured idiosyncrasies, we too expect standardised perfection. When real humanness rudely ignores the charade and tumbles into our lives, however, we are the first to be indignant. We become flushed when there is no one day delivery option, for instance, or when the coffee comes a bit too hot, or the sales assistant is bit too brusque in her replies.
‘You must either make a tool out of the creature, or a man. You cannot make both’ ⁷
I am a hypocrite to write this. My apartment is strewn with the fruits of Ikea and Habitat: flicking through images of sultry-lit lifestyle porn is its own sugary rush. I find the standardised haloumi wraps of ‘Leon’ reassuring, and I am at once cynical and appreciative of their self-referentially authentic décor. You will also find two modern versions of Thonet’s chair at my kitchen table. We should be outraged about things like the working conditions of sweatshops or the pay of fast foods workers. At the same time, we should reflect on what should be valued in work. If we are to learn anything from Ruskin, Morris, Marx, or any of those who wrote in the bawling infancy of industrial society, it is to value human imperfection over mechanical perfection. To search for the signs of deliberation: the small window in the tower or the misshapen gargoyle. To not be content by displays of humanness but to insist on the thing itself in all its brashness. | https://medium.com/swlh/searching-for-the-gothic-in-ikea-6fd46000dc3a | ['Tommy Boon'] | 2019-10-31 17:43:48.704000+00:00 | ['John Ruskin', 'Sustainability', 'Consumerism', 'Modern Life', 'Architecture'] |
The #1 Biggest Mistake I Still Make When I Write | What do you want?
I’ve been busy looking back through the articles I’ve posted on Medium since I began back in July.
Again, when I started in July, I posted things that I wanted to read and couldn’t for the life of me understand why no-one else wanted to read it.
The articles that have performed best for me and by ‘best’, I must stress, it’s all relative. I haven’t had an article ‘go viral’. I am still very much a struggling writer on this platform, trying as best I can to offer whatever wisdom I can from my own mistakes, so you don’t go out and make the same ones.
I wrote some articles that I thought were really clever, ‘What Your Satnav Can Teach You About Life’ for one. It was very existential. Who cared? Not many.
My biggest turkey was writing about my daily routine on my phone and what it says about me. I enjoyed writing it and I wish I could say that you enjoyed reading it.
You didn’t.
It got hardly any views and looking back now, I can understand why.
The minute I started talking about what apps I check on my phone on a daily basis I can almost hear the click of people switching off and moving on to another piece.
So please, dear reader, if you want to see your work up there with your name alongside it, then go ahead. Write your heart out.
But if you want to succeed as writer and make some sort of money from this platform then find out what your readers problems are and offer them a solution to that problem and if you do it well enough, then they will beat a path to your door. | https://medium.com/an-idea/the-1-biggest-mistake-i-still-make-when-i-write-a1a413c3ca1d | ['Glyn Bawden'] | 2020-12-29 12:13:36.002000+00:00 | ['Solutions', 'Opinion', 'Writing', 'Problem Solving', 'Writing Tips'] |
Top 3 conversion strategies for more qualified leads | If you’re running an agency or a startup, one of your most important tasks is attracting more qualified leads. Easier said than done. How hard can it be to reach your prospects when there are 3.6 billion internet users out there — nearly half the world’s population? Very, as a recent survey reveals that high-quality lead generation is still the top challenge for 61% of B2B marketers.
This is compounded by the fact that only around 5–10% of leads convert successfully. We live in an age of information overload when it’s hard to stand out and get noticed. Fortunately, by tapping into the power of conversion, it’s possible to generate more qualified leads. Here are 3 conversion strategies you can use to do just that.
And if you like what you read, go ahead and subscribe to Lucidpress — right here on Medium.
Are you content with your content?
The famous Bill Gates quote, “Content is king,” came from his 1996 article, in which he predicted the future of marketing on the internet. Two decades later, this statement still rings true, but the concept of content has evolved. One thing’s certain: your content strategy has to be stellar if you want to see its actual benefits.
First, your content should be compelling and helpful. Provide your visitors with relevant, educational articles that help them solve their problems. By offering unique, valuable info that addresses your target audience’s concerns, you’ll drive new leads towards your sales funnel. Plus, publishing lots of high-quality content over time will establish you as a credible authority in your industry.
Brands that publish at least 16 blog posts a month get almost 3.5x more traffic than brands that publish 4 or fewer. [Click to tweet] Apart from on-site content, off-site content should be high on your priority list. If you publish your articles on other sites, you’ll increase brand visibility and expand your reach. Major publications, such as Forbes or Entrepreneur, can do wonders for your inbound marketing.
And it’s not just written content you should focus on. 4x as many customers would rather watch a video than read about a product. Video content is riding a wave right now, and it should be an integral part of your strategy.
Did you know? Lucidpress supports rich media, which means you can include videos from YouTube, Vimeo & more in your documents.
Get funded, then get social
Several research studies say it’s somewhere between 5 and 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to retain an existing one — numbers that clearly emphasize the importance of customer retention. However, startups first have to build and grow their customer base.
Lead generation is a costly but necessary process. It’s essential to be organized and to get meticulous when it comes to finances. Keeping track of all your incomes and expenses, especially if you have business loans, is extremely important. If needed, you can check out a useful budget planning calculator to make things easier.
Still, there’s no need to panic that you’ll have to spend your entire budget on lead generation. Social media can be your cost-effective ally; research has shown that it reduces costs for 45% of businesses while increasing revenue by 24%. Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter can be powerful marketing channels that help you leverage social proof.
Brands use social media to connect with prospective customers all around the world and, in a way, humanize their image. By syndicating your content across various social media channels, you can drive traffic to your website and boost brand awareness.
You’ve got mail
Surprised to see email marketing on this list? If so, remember: we’re talking about generating qualified leads, and that requires more than just gathering a bunch of email addresses. What’s the use of obtaining leads if you don’t nurture them?
If you want this strategy to work, you have to master the art of creating irresistible subject lines that your prospects can’t help but click on. Bear in mind that, today, people usually open emails on their mobile devices, so your main message should be placed above the fold. Your CTA (call-to-action) should be clear and easy to follow.
Finally, if you want to boost your open rates, put incentives in your subject lines. For example, an online survey revealed that 93% of people would buy more items if a retailer offered free shipping. The key is offering your prospects something of value right there in the subject line.
These strategies will help you drive up conversion rates, leading to a steady stream of qualified leads. Your sales team will be happy, your boss will be happy, and you’ll be happy. Everyone wins!
About Raul Harman
Raul Harman is an IT consultant and writer experienced in innovation, digital technology and online marketing. IoT and mobile devices have been his focus in recent years. Raul is a passionate runner and adventure seeker; he loves spending every spare moment in nature. He is a regular contributor on the Technivorz blog. | https://medium.com/lucidpress/top-3-conversion-strategies-for-more-qualified-leads-3a0b22c89fea | [] | 2017-08-07 17:49:15.067000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Content Marketing', 'Lead Generation', 'Conversion Optimization', 'Digital Marketing'] |
Five Ways to Find Success When Mental Illness Gets in the Way | Most of the time when we set our life goals, things we want to be when we grow up, it‘s attainable. Okay — not always, I was never going to be a woman playing in the NBA as I planned — but some kids dream of being a doctor, so they go to school for a billion years, and some want to become an actress, so they move to LA and meet with directors and producers. It’s difficult but possible.
When you are working for yourself, and you’re suffering from a mental illness, you are often faced with a much larger obstacle than most will experience.
Back in fourth grade, my mom, brother, sister, and I started to attend family therapy sessions right after my parents separated. It’s odd to me that I cannot remember a lick of what those sessions were like, but soon enough those sessions turned into a one-on-one between me and the psychologist. It became apparent that my reaction to the separation went well beyond what was normal for a child my age. Depression and anxiety, and later on OCD, was the diagnosis that would affect me to this day.
I have never been the person to share overly personal details about my life, but shout out to my psychologists and psychiatrists over the years, you have heard it all.
All through my life as a student, I would often go to bed super early or take two-three hour naps right after school. My sleepiness was often mistaken for laziness and me just being unmotivated, and it has taken a full decade to realize that it wasn’t laziness at all. I was — and in some ways still am — an athlete. I have always been enthusiastic, adventurous in many aspects of my life, and a high achiever as a student, but when it came down to pursuing things that I was/am passionate about, I would often find myself taking a loooong nap when I could be getting shit done.
I still want to get stuff done. Live my dream life. Push myself to become successful (whatever that means), but without fail every time I set out to start a new venture, often ends in the afternoon nap or accepting my boyfriend’s invitation to going to the beach in the morning, when I could be putting in work.
It’s a downward spiral. First, you put off productivity, and then you feel an overwhelming sense of guilt that you didn’t work, which leads to anxiety and then feeling like a crap human being, and that just leads to a complete shutdown. So long future productivity!
As I have been figuring out how to be my own self-starter, I am continually learning how to be a productive individual while dealing with anxiety and depression. Here are a few things that I have learned so far:
Set a schedule, and let people know it.
It is easy to be feeling a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) if your partner, your friends, your family are asking you to do something that could draw you away from your work. They don’t know any better, they just want to include you in their plans. You are torn in two directions: you can say “yes”, and blame yourself for not working, or you can say “no,” and feel like you are missing out on something important or fun. Both options make you feel like doggy doo-doo.
If you are constantly drawn away from your work by specific people in your life (*cough cough… your boyfriend*), you need to let them know that you will be putting in work from 7 am-12 pm, 3 pm-8 pm, etc. and tell them that you would really appreciate them to be considerate of those hours, that is the time that you need to be left alone. Most of the time, they will respect you enough to honor that schedule.
If you are able to stick to a schedule, the guilt of skipping out of working will subside. When you eliminate that guilt, you will often eliminate a lot of anxiety in your life.
Allow yourself the freedom to take breaks.
While some people may be able to sit for 8 hours at a time and crank out a ton of very focused work, many of us will need to figure in breaks to get through the day. This should come with setting your schedule. Maybe your workday will be:
6 am-8 am: Work.
8 am-10 am: Workout, eat, shower.
10 am-1 pm: Work.
1 pm-3 pm: Nap.
3 pm-5 pm: Work.
You’re still able to get a full workday in, and you allow yourself the time to rest your mind. And hopefully with each break, comes a renewed ambition to get more shit done!
Give yourself something to look forward to with each accomplishment.
Maybe you are setting up your own website. Maybe you are writing a story and publishing it. Whenever you hit a milestone, do something for yourself that you enjoy. I will have a glass of wine and eat some frosted animal crackers once I publish this. Get creative, and make the reward sweet!
It’s like training your cat to do something; if he sits really still and behaves while you're brushing him, he gets a treat. Soon he will start liking his daily brushes(as long as a treat is ALWAYS involved). The more you’re treating yourself after a job well done, the more you will look forward to the next time you need to get to work.
Put yourself in the right environment.
Sometimes this means putting on the same soundtrack every day. Or it could be sitting in the same chair to get stuff done. However you work best, do it.
For instance, I tend to work my best when I walk down to the coffee shop, get some coffee and a pastry, park my butt in a seat with my back facing the window, and go to town on my laundry list of tasks to accomplish. Coffee shops are still closed at the moment (!!!sensitive topic warning!!! COVID-19 #wearamask), but I am managing by sitting where ever my boyfriend and cats are not (#thenewnormal).
Remove stressors and distractions from your workspace, and thank me later.
Forgive yourself from slipping up, and move on.
No one is perfect, sometimes you will start the day with every intention of getting work done, but no matter what you do, you cannot put yourself in the right mental space to focus on your work. It’s okay. Do what you can, if anything. If you can’t, tomorrow is another day!
All of us will struggle at some point, but it is often people like me, who suffer from anxiety and depression, that let one little failure become an overwhelming presence in your mind. If you have a few days, where you are really struggling to get work done, and that is causing you extreme anxiety and depression, seek help. Talk to a professional, whether that is a faith and community leader (pastor, rabbi, etc.), a therapist/psychologist/psychiatrist, or National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1–800–273-TALK (8255)), your mental health is important!
Being successful as a self-starter is possible for everyone, even if you are a person who struggles with their mental health. It might be a slightly longer road with a lot more obstacles, but if you strategize and prepare yourself to get over those hurdles in advance, you will find that it is something that is attainable for you too. | https://medium.com/the-ascent/five-ways-to-find-success-when-mental-illness-gets-in-the-way-9fc5e7a9f319 | ['Leanne Lamalia'] | 2020-08-17 21:31:00.822000+00:00 | ['Personal Development', 'Work', 'Advice', 'Mental Health', 'Mental Illness'] |
Where Bluebirds Fly | Where Bluebirds Fly
Creating and releasing your art.
Photo by Johannes Plenio from Pexels
Releasing your art into the universe is a delicate thing. But the act of creating art is something entirely different.
You wade through the brutish, clunky, elementary swamp of impulse with your minnow-fine nets. Only then to dump it all out in front of you — a heap of potential possibility — more scavenging.
A collage emerges — bits of symbology, logic, theory, hurts and curiosities.
The incubation period for your art is a critical element and deeply connected to how easily goes your birthing it. The longer you labor, the more difficult the delivery.
Yet deliver, you must. You are an artist. | https://medium.com/flicker-and-flight/where-bluebirds-fly-f791c6462115 | ['Wendy S. Bradfield'] | 2020-10-31 09:52:26.874000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Artist', 'Self-awareness', 'Creative Process'] |
Book Review: Ashley Bell by Dean Koontz | BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Book Review: Ashley Bell by Dean Koontz
Ashley Bell is an excellent read, a book I could not put down. As cliché as that sounds it is true. I was a little confused at first, but that cleared up quickly.
The Ashley Bell Book Cover from the Author’s bookshelf. Created with PowerPoint
Although I was a little confused at first by what was happening, I was hooked right from the very beginning. When things cleared up, and I became familiar with the characters, I was compelled to keep reading.
Not only does it keep you on the edge of your seat, waiting for what is going to happen next, but you will also have genuine compassion for the characters. You will feel like you are right there with them.
Note: This review contains affiliate links, which allow me to make a small commission on approved sales. Read my disclosure statement for additional information.
The Introduction
I will detail (hopefully, without too many spoilers) an excellent read in a long line of spine-tingling thrillers, which readers like you have come to enjoy from Dean Koontz, title after title. Such as Final Hour, Last Light, The City, Watchers, Whispers, Odd Thomas the series, and most recently, Elsewhere. All page-turners to keep any reader riveted.
The book provides the background of ten-year-old Bibi Blair, who lived under a grim vault of sorrow each day in Southern California, at least until her grandfather (whom she called “Captain”) came to live in the loft of their garage.
She wanted to marry a hero someday, yet her mind was always spinning. Just how this little girl imagined her life at a tender age. In the long run, this may turn out to be a bit too much for her.
The Protagonist
I loved Bibi from the minute she was introduced in the book. What a charismatic young lady. Even from her childhood, you couldn’t help but feel love for her character.
The book ends up taking quite a turn when Bibi gets terminal brain cancer and believes that she did not die because she was meant to save someone else’s life, that someone was Ashley Bell.
At the time of the book, she is currently living in Southern California. To be exact, a small bungalow in Corona del Mar. There was no ocean view, despite being three blocks away from the Pacific. She wrote short stories and kept a diary.
The Plot
Starting with Bibi’s hunt for Ashley, things get crazier than ever as Bibi gets involved in another world in her mind. Her brain tumor puts her in a coma that the doctors cannot understand because the brain activity is as active and as vibrant as if she were fully awake and functioning.
There are many conspiracies and crimes within the story. This story is brimming with themes of both innocence and evil.
The girl that Bibi feels she is meant to save, Ashley Bell, whom she has never met, was a character in a book she read as a child. Ashley Bell was a Holocaust survivor who grows up to become a brain surgeon. Bibi’s strong desire to save her is what consumes her after her close encounter with death.
Bibi has quite a knack for forgetting bad experiences in her life; however, to save Ashley Bell, she must open a deeper part of her mind of forgotten incidences. These recollections could be crucial to her rescuing Ashley.
The Characters
Another thing that is great about this story is that you can see the characters as real people.
Bibi’s mom and dad are a stereotypical Liberal surfer couple from California if there ever was one.
There’s Pax, her Navy Seal BF, who is currently somewhere unknown to her because of national security concerns.
There’s the Captain, her mother’s father, and Bibi’s childhood confidant, and many others, you will grow to love, and some you will hate tremendously. There isn’t anything that makes you think these are just some made-up people in a story.
The way Koontz describes his characters you will feel their happiness, their anger, their love, their sadness, and their pain.
Recommendation & Summary
The book itself is quite long; however, you won’t even notice it because of the short chapters. You will feel like you are getting through the book quite quickly.
Any mystery lover will enjoy this book and will undoubtedly be content with the plot. This book is a must-read that I give 5 out of 5 stars. Those who are not Dean Koontz fans might be after reading this novel.
While this book review cannot give too much away, Bibi’s ordeal is unique and worth a read.
A Comparison to Other Koontz Novels
From the standpoint of this book review, it is a more personal and character-driven story than, say Koontz’ novel Breathless. A novel that is basically a high tech and plot-driven retelling of Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein.
However, the personal focus and heartfelt emotions make Ashley Bell stand out among his works. This book is not the usual Koontz thriller; it is a cut above showing what an author can do when he digs deep into a character’s mind and soul.
Conclusion
Ashley Bell is an excellent read that you will not want to miss. I hope you liked my little book review, and I hope I didn’t give away too much .
By the way, if you have not read Final Hour and Last Light, though it is not necessary to the Ashley Bell story, some of the character lead-ins begin in these novellas, which you can get free with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. Thanks.
Buy it now for your Kindle: https://amzn.to/2O3q8dY
About the Author Photo by Jean Springs from Pexels
Stephen Dalton is a retired US Army First Sergeant with a degree in journalism from the University of Maryland and a Certified US English Chicago Manual of Style Editor. Top Writer in Short Story, VR, Design, & Creativity. Editor of Pop Off, Top Dalton’s Blog, 100WordStory, and SportsShorts100WordsOnly
You can see his portfolio here. Email [email protected]
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Reddit | Ko-fi | https://medium.com/illumination/book-review-ashley-bell-by-dean-koontz-5c08195ccfaf | ['Stephen Dalton'] | 2020-10-16 16:20:45.811000+00:00 | ['Book Recommendations', 'Books And Authors', 'Books', 'Fiction', 'Book Review'] |
Typescript Decorators in Examples | 1. Prerequisites
Before we start exploring Typescript Decorator examples, I’ll be using an empty Node.js typescript project with no additional packages, lints, etc.
All we will need is a typescript in our dev dependencies in the package.json file:
First, create an empty folder:
Next, initialize npm project by running npm init -y in the root dir of your empty project: ( -y flag means that you are answering yes to all npm questions)
Next, we will need to add typescript npm package to our dev dependencies:
yarn add typescript -D | https://medium.com/swlh/typescript-decorators-in-examples-c3afcd3c7ff8 | ['Artem Diashkin'] | 2020-11-23 08:18:32.280000+00:00 | ['Typescript', 'Decorators', 'Class', 'Property', 'Methods'] |
Gödel’s Constitutional Quarrel | “The examiner was intelligent enough to quickly quieten Gödel and say ‘Oh god, let’s not go into this’ and broke off the examination at this point, greatly to our relief” — Oskar Morgenstern
Kurt Gödel (1906–1978) was the greatest logician who ever lived. At the age of 24, he revolutionized our understanding of the limits of epistemology — the theory of knowledge—by proving mathematically that all formal systems of logic are inherently incomplete. In a highly technical paper of 26 pages, Gödel showed how, no matter how comprehensive a system of rules, laws or axioms we devise, there will always be true and false statements which ‘fall through the cracks’, meaning they cannot be shown rigorously to belong to either classification. The consequences of his discovery spanned not only the foundations of mathematics, logic and philosophy, but indeed also spurred the development of the then-nascent fields of computer science, information theory and artificial intelligence.
Gödel’s Brilliant Madness
A meticulous man, perhaps the most meticulous man, Gödel arrived at his proof in the same way he arrived at most of his beliefs, by a combination of deep skepticism, rigor and, some say, pathological pessimism. Gödel would indeed spend the whole of his life in a battle against his two fiercest enemies: a morbid obsession with illness and death and, as a result, a poor physical health. A lifelong iophobe, Gödel feared nothing more than being poisoned, and so made sure to only eat foods prepared for him and tasted by his wife Adele. Having grown up in apartments in Vienna heated by coal and coke, he obsessed over what he called “bad air” and “gases”, packing up and moving several times and refusing for most of his life to sleep in places warmed by central heating.
Gödel had fled the Nazi regime in Austria in 1940 following Hitler’s Anschluss of his native country. A visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, he spent the war years contemplating what he had experienced in Europe in an eternal — often times losing — battle against his own mind and its appetite for paranoid, cynical interpretations of reality.
Becoming an American Citizen
When the time came for Gödel to become an American citizen, he invited his friends Oskar Morgenstern and Albert Einstein to come along as witnesses to his citizenship hearing. A “very thorough man” according to his close friend Morgenstern, Dr. Gödel spent the months leading up to this hearing “informing himself about the history of North America by human beings”. For Gödel, such an inquiry would never have been complete without a sufficiently thorough study of all matters of American history, including the history of Native Americans, their tribes, the early settlers, the Civil War, Princeton, New Jersey, where “the borderline was between borough and the township”, “how the Borough Council was elected, the Township Council, who the Mayor was, how the Township Council functioned” and so on.
“I tried, to explain that all of this was totally unnecessary, of course, but with no avail”, Morgenstern later recalled in a memorandum. Gradually, as the months wore on, Gödel “proceeded to study American history, concentrating in particular on matters of constitutional law”. Morgenstern (who himself was an immigrant and took the same examination in 1944) “tried to convince him that such questions never were asked, that most questions were truly formal and that he would easily answer them; that at most they might ask what sort of government we have in this country or what the highest court is called”. Gödel nonetheless persisted, immersing himself deeper and deeper in his study of the American Constitution.
Oskar Morgenstern (left) and Kurt Gödel (right) in Princeton, New Jersey. Photograph likely taken by Albert Einstein (Photos: Courtesy of the IAS Archive)
A scientist held in the highest possible esteem by colleagues, Gödel was in the 1930s and 40s part of a close-knit community of scholars in Princeton, the likes of which the world has likely never seen before or since. The most famous scientist in the world, Albert Einstein, had arrived in 1933. He was closely followed by a group of Hungarian geniuses lead by John von Neumann (1903–1957), sometimes referred to simply as ‘the smartest person who has ever lived’. The assembly of European emigres in Princeton in the 1930s and 40s was indeed so dense that the resultant mixture of accents spoken around Princeton University would be colloquially known as Fine Hall English, for the building the department of mathematics was housed in at the time. All of them looked up to Gödel, perhaps even more so than to anyone else. Before his death, Albert Einstein (1879–1955) himself told Morgenstern that even though “my own work no longer meant much, that he came to the Institute merely … to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel”. von Neumann, who had been in the audience when Gödel presented his breakthrough 1931 paper, called him “absolutely irreplaceable”, “in a class by himself”, asking later — upon von Neumann’s nomination to full professor — “How any of us can be called professor when Gödel is not?”
The Hearing
Still several months ahead of his citizenship examination in 1947, Gödel was conferring with his friend Morgenstern with increasing frequency, when “then came an interesting development”. As Morgenstern later recalled, “He rather excitedly told me that in looking at the Constitution, to his distress, he had found some inner contradictions, and that he could show how in a perfectly legal manner it would be possible for somebody to become a dictator and set up a Fascist regime, never intended by those who drew up the Constitution.”
The Clarkson S. Fisher Federal District Court Building in Trenton, New Jersey
With him to the citizenship hearing he asked his two closest friends, Einstein and Morgenstern. His examiner was Judge Phillip Forman. As Morgenstern later recalled in a draft of a Memorandum from Mathematica entitled History of the Naturalization of Kurt Gödel (dated September 13th 1971):
Examiner: "Now, Mr. Gödel, where do you come from?"
Gödel: "Where I come from? Austria."
Examiner: "What kind of government did you have in Austria?"
Gödel: "It was a republic, but the constitution was such that it finally was changed into a dictatorship."
Examiner: "Oh! This is very bad. This could not happen in this country."
Gödel: "Oh, yes. I can prove it."
As Morgenstern writes, “Einstein and I were horrified during this exchange; The examinor was intelligent enough to quickly quieten Gödel and say “Oh god, let’s not go into this” and broke off the examination at this point, greatly to our relief”. Morgenstern’s notes from the day are included below: | https://medium.com/cantors-paradise/g%C3%B6dels-constitutional-quarrel-1c154d48e80a | ['Jørgen Veisdal'] | 2020-12-24 01:11:09.518000+00:00 | ['Math', 'History', 'Law', 'Science', 'Philosophy'] |
The Ultimate Guide to Brochure Design | Let’s talk about brochure design.
As business owners, you’re always looking for ways to advertise your products and services in a way that will appeal to your ideal customers. And as you know, a brochure is a timeless marketing staple.
For example, if you go to a conference or a trade fair, you’ll walk out with piles of brochures. But which ones will you keep? Only the ones that truly catch your eye! That’s where brochure design comes in.
When I think of brochures, I envision wooden displays in hotels full of colorful brochures of tours and activities in the area. Or the waiting area in banks with a wall of brochures for different types of credit card plans.
Things are a little different now and hotels offer electronic tour catalogs on Ipads and banks have flat-screen TVs. But a brochure is still a brochure and they still work!
In fact, now that we do so more advertising online, an appealing physical brochure has a better chance of being pinned to a corkboard or put under a fridge magnet.
If you’ve been thinking of creating a brochure for your business, you’ve come to the right place. This ultimate guide to brochure design has everything you need to get you started. From visual inspiration to preliminary work and finally the actual brochure design steps.
What is a Brochure?
Simply put, a brochure is a visual marketing asset that showcases a company’s services or products. It’s a common resource for businesses that want to attract potential customers.
Brochures are usually printed and given to customers at events, other local associated businesses or as a reminder of a visit to an open house. There is no limit as to how a brochure is distributed.
It’s no hard and fast rule that a brochure must be printed. You can technically also create a pdf brochure to send over email. But a classic brochure is the printed kind.
What’s the Difference Between a Brochure, a Pamphlet and a Flyer?
It’s common to hear the terms brochure and pamphlet interchangeably. It’s true, they can look the same but there’s a difference in terms of content and purpose.
A brochure’s purpose is to entice, convince and ultimately sell a company’s products or services. A pamphlet, on the other hand, is about relaying information about a specific topic, but not to sell it.
For example, if a museum wants to tell the story of their journey and share it with visitors, that would be a pamphlet. If a local school wants to offer summer camp courses to the community, they’d need a brochure.
When it comes to brochures and flyers, the difference is both visual and in purpose. A flyer is an unfolded page, printed on one side or both, that promotes a specific event or sale. There tends to be less information on a flyer than on a brochure.
Customize this brochure template and make it your own! Edit and download here.
What Do Brochures Look Like?
The most common layout for a brochure is called tri-fold. This is a horizontal page printed on both sides. It has two folds that create three two-sided sections, providing plenty of space to display visuals and information in an appealing way.
Take a look at some of the brochure designs in our template library to get an idea of what these look like.
It’s true that most brochures are tri-fold, but in fact, you can create a brochure in a few other formats as well.
For example:
Z-fold: This style is similar to the tri-fold but instead of folding inwards, the fold creates a z shape.
Gate-fold: Another brochure design with two inward folds, but these don’t overlap. They create a “gate” effect.
Two-fold: One horizontal page folded over in the middle creating four equal areas.
Multi-page two-fold and stapled: Like above but with more pages.
Multi-page and bound: This style looks like a booklet and can have many pages.
Die-cut: These are brochures of any folded style with a unique cut out design on the pages.
Unique folds: Some brochures are created with unique folds, making them more memorable and appealing to the eye.
Create a customized brochure from this design. Edit and Download here.
Brochure Design Inspiration
Our brochure templates are enough inspiration to get you started with a tri-fold brochure design. But here are some other types of brochures that your audience might love.
Folded Brochure Design
The standard fold for a brochure is the tri-fold. The z-fold is a variation of the same fold. This can be achieved with the same template as the tri-fold, you just have to make sure you understand which panel ends up at the back.
Create a custom design using this template. Find one here and edit it.
This is a classic two-fold brochure design. It has four large content spaces and looks like a simple booklet.
Multi-Page Brochure Design
Brochures with multiple pages can be stapled or bound. These are great for showcasing many services in one go. Technically it’s almost like a web page on paper. Businesses that might need a brochure like this are hotel spas, wholesalers and realtors.
Unique Fold and Cut Brochure Design
Some printing shops offer unique folds and cuts for brochure design. If you want your brochure to really stand out, try a completely different style. You might need help from a printer to achieve this type of brochure but you can still design the visuals with Visme.
Keep in mind that these specialty styles are much more expensive than regular tri-fold. If what you are looking for is affordability, stick to the standard brochure design and keep these in mind for when your business is much bigger and super successful.
How to Design a Brochure in 7 Steps With Visme
Now that we’ve got all that out of the way, let’s go through the steps to create a brochure for your business.
If you’ve read any of our how-to guides, you’ll remember that every design project needs a certain amount of preparation. All the content needs to be ready before you start designing. Plus, you must also prepare the message you want to relay before putting it all together.
Our suggestion is to always do the preliminary work instead of jumping straight into designing. You’ll thank us later.
Moving on, let’s dive in.
1. Define Your Purpose
The first step to creating a successful brochure is to define its purpose. Do you want to promote a particular service? Sell a new product? Showcase your best offers?
No matter what purpose you decide to give your brochure, keep it simple. You don’t want to overwhelm people. Even if you need to include a lot of information, use visuals to break down the content and make it snackable.
When possible, create your own imagery. If you don’t have your own photos, there are plenty of free images to choose from inside the Visme editor.
In some cases, a brochure is part of a bigger marketing campaign. This can include any number of visual assets, from the brochure itself to social graphics, landing pages and more. Consider how the brochure fits into the campaign and what to include as a call to action.
More of than not, a brochure’s purpose is to gather new clients. Use the opportunity to invite them to follow you on social media or sign up for something via a landing page URL.
If this is true for you, put together a guideline for all the visual assets. Use the same images, fonts, colors and copy. All assets, including the brochure design, must fit into the campaign and look like they belong together.
Customize this brochure template and make it your own! Edit and Download this.
2. Consider Your Clientele
As always, think of the intended audience when preparing your brochure design.
Who is the brochure for? Who is it directed at?
For example, a brochure for a summer camp for middle schoolers is directed at both potential students and their parents. If on the other hand, in a brochure for a Master’s degree program, the messaging is directed at people who have already graduated from college.
The design for a brochure for a yoga studio that will be displayed in hair salons, coffee shops and sports clothing stores, needs to be inviting and inspirational. How will your design stand out and grab the attention of your intended audience?
Your brochures are most likely not the only ones on display. Consider how yours will look alongside others.
Collect brochures from places that display brochures for businesses like yours. Ask the employees to tell you which brochures are picked up the most and which ones not so much.
Take notes and do some research. Ask your friends and colleagues what makes them pick up a brochure over another? Find out what types of brochures they keep and which ones they end up throwing away.
Customize this brochure template and make it your own! Edit and download here.
3. Create the Content
Now it’s time to create the content for your brochure. This where your copywriting skills come in. Taking into account the brochure’s purpose and the intended audience, start drafting some ideas for the cover title and think of different ways it can be worded.
Put together an outline that is separated into sections. What goes into each section depends on what your brochure will showcase.
Craft the message in a way that will entice the reader to act. Calls to action in a brochure are not as easy as they are on a website or landing page.
You have to convince them to find you on their phone or laptop after seeing your brochure. Or to call or add you to WhatsApp in order to get in touch. Consider adding a QR code for easier access to your web page or social media accounts.
This is your chance to put your value proposition front and center. There’s no room for fluff here. Speak directly to your client, tell them how your products and services will solve their problem. Explain in a few words why your business is better than competitors.
When putting together the content, remember that you have to lay it out on the design. Make the paragraphs short and choose your words well. You have to think about the space that the text will take up.
These are the elements every brochure must have:
Brand assets: logo, colors, fonts
A catchy title
Subtitle or slogan that explains how you solve a problem
Visually separate sections with titles, subtitles and body text
Contact details; phone number, website, email, social media
Appropriate visuals
4. Choose a Template and Input Your Content
Now that you have the content ready, it’s time to find the perfect brochure design template in the Visme template library.
For a Printed Tri-Fold or Z-Fold Brochure
Select the tri-fold brochure template that sparks your curiosity most or the one that best matches your industry.
Take a look at both sides of the template to see the different panels and how your content can fit into the placeholder design.
But don’t worry — if you pick a template and then it doesn’t really work for your content, you can easily change it later.
Create your brochure from this template. Edit and download here.
Folded brochures are designed with the folds in mind. Thankfully, your Visme editor includes a grid view option to mark the folds as you design.
Our brochure templates have the industry-standard “letter” size. In pixels, this translates as 1100 pixels wide and 850 pixels tall. Use the grid view to add the fold lines and design accordingly.
These are the grid view measurements for a tri-fold or z-fold brochure.
Width: 366px
Height: 850 px
Opacity: 30% or whatever works best for you
To apply the grid view in your editor, click on the hamburger menu on the top left of your screen and click on “view options.”
For a Digital Brochure
If you want to create a digital brochure, you can either use the regular brochure template or any other size you like. Once you’re done with the design, you’ll save it as a PDF to send via email or publish it to the web and share it with a link.
The added plus to a digital brochure published to the web and shared with a link is that you can make it interactive! Visme offers several different styles of interactivity and animation to make your digital brochure unforgettable.
You’ll have to lay out the elements a little differently than a folded brochure because you won’t be folding it. Click here for some visual design tips in a guide we published about creating social media graphics.
5. Stay on Brand
As you are designing your brochure, remember to stay on brand. Always use your fonts, colors and brand visuals. This is especially important if the brochure is part of a bigger campaign with more visual assets involved.
If you have a premium plan, set up your Brand Kit. This will help you stay on brand every time you design something. Not just a brochure.
Don’t forget to include your logo in the design!
6. Adjust the Layout for Hierarchy, Balance and Flow
Now that you have all the content and images in the layout, you’ve made sure that everything is on brand and that there are no typos, it’s time to get a bit nitpicky with the design.
If you used a template, it’s likely that some of the placeholder elements got moved around, text boxes got bigger or smaller, colors changed and fonts were switched.
Our designers create the templates so that they’re ready to go with a clear hierarchy, balance and flow. But we know that not everyone’s content is the same and things do change along the way.
So now it’s time to review the overall design and see if it still works as it should. Ask yourself the following questions:
Does the content have a visual and contextual hierarchy?
Are the titles a bit bigger than the subtitles? Are the subtitles a little bigger than the body text? Is there clear separation and order between blocks of text?
Are the elements aligned and balanced?
Are the text blocks aligned with each other? If you’re using a nonaligned design, are the placements in balance with one another? Double-check that there are no text blocks in the area of the folds. It’s ok to have an image with a fold in it, but not someone’s face.
Do the visuals and content have a clear and easy-to-follow flow?
Is it easy to understand what information is to be seen first and what comes after? Is the content easy to read? Is the font readable? Is the color of the background competing with the foreground? If so, adjust to make sure the text is easy to read.
Are there enough areas of empty space to let the content breathe?
The elements on a brochure design need a bit of air around them so the viewer can scan the content and see the big picture. Use margins so the text isn’t touching the borders, separate titles from body text and leave enough space between contact details so it’s easy to read.
7. Review and Test Your Brochure Design
Before finalizing the design of your brochure, you need to test it. Have your team members or peers take a look at it. If you’re creating a digital brochure, share it with them using a Visme link.
For a brochure to be printed professionally, print out one copy on your home printer. Once printed, fold it and see if the sections are aligned how they’re meant to.
If one of the sections has a full color that’s different from the section next to it, you need to make sure that the fold is right on the line where the color changes.
Review the folding parameters we showed you above. Make any changes and get ready to print.
8. Print Your Brochure
Before you print, there are a couple of things you’ll need to do.
If you’re using images, colors, shapes or graphics that reach the edges of the page, make them a little larger so they overflow the borders. A couple of millimeters will do. This will prevent any white edges when the brochure is printed and cut.
Download the design as a PDF with bleed marks, this will show the printers where the brochure must be cut.
Use a service like Vistaprint to print your brochure. You can upload your design to their system and they will print and fold all your brochures.
9. Share Your Digital Brochure
If you decided to create a digital brochure, you can share it in two different ways. If you designed it as a static design, download it as a jpeg and share it anywhere you’d like; social media, email, your website.
For an interactive and animated design, publish it to the web. It will then be hosted on the Visme servers and you can share it with a link. Add the link to social media or emails. You can also embed it on your website.
Things to Consider When Printing Your Brochure
For those of you sending your brochure out to be printed with Vistaprint or your printer of choice, there are a few things to consider. These are things that will change the cost of the printing so it’s best to know your choices.
Type of Paper
Brochures are generally printed on light glossy paper but you can ultimately choose your type of paper. Paper that’s a little heavier will make the brochure look more sturdy and will last longer.
Your printer will give you options, they know which paper is easiest to fold and which will be more affordable.
Who Will Fold the Brochures
Printers generally offer folding services in their price packages. But always ask first. Some printers have price ranges with and without a folding service. Most often than not, paying for the folding is definitely worth it since you know they’ll get it right.
The Higher the Number of Brochures, the Lower the Cost Per Brochure
Like everything that’s printed, the more copies you print, the lower the cost will be per unit. Print the minimal largest number possible that fits with your budget.
For this same reason, it’s of grave importance that you spell check and double check everything before sending to print.
Having a thousand printed brochures with the wrong phone number can be a disaster.
Ask For a Color Test
Your printer might ask you to send the design in a CMYK color space. Ask if they can convert it for you. Ask if a PDF file with bleed marks is okay — it usually will be.
Before printing the full lot, the printers usually do a color test, but in some cases, this might cost a little extra.
If your brochure’s colors are extremely important and you can’t afford to have it look any different to how you see it on screen, ask for a color test.
Make this brochure template your own. Customize it here.
Tips to Make your Brochure Land in Your Ideal Customer’s Hands
Success! You’ve now got a pile of brochures ready to attract customers and clients. How will you make sure they see them? Here are some marketing tips and tricks.
Leave brochures in local businesses where your ideal client hangs out.
Take your brochures around town and leave a bunch in places where your clients spend their time. The #1 rule, in this case, is to not leave your brochure in your competitor’s shops, only locales that are a complement to yours.
For example if your brochure is for music lessons, leave the brochure in places where they teach art or dance. In coffee shops, book stores and most definitely the local instrument store.
Use brochure holders that match your design and don’t cover the text.
When you leave your brochures in places, don’t just lay them down, use a transparent stand. Some shops will grant you space on their counter and others will have a wall or table especially for bulletin boards and brochures.
Hand your brochures out in fairs and conferences.
When you attend fair and conferences that have to do with your industry, take a bunch of brochures and hand them out. If at any time you can start a conversation with someone about your business, do so!
If you have a stand in a fair, show the different offers inside the brochure to your visitors.
Send brochures in the mail.
Send your brochures to potential clients in your area through the mail. Use a service like this one from the USPS to create a strategy of addresses and homes where you’d like to send your brochure.
Add brochures to gift packages.
If you’re sending customers gift packs with products, include a brochure of your other products or services.
Insert brochures in welcome packs.
Realtors, universities and many other businesses have welcome packs. These are folders with lots of information about the neighborhood or the area. Approach businesses like these to see if they will include your brochure in their welcome packs.
Include brochures in deliveries.
If you have a delivery service of any kind, include your new brochure along with the delivery. For an added marketing angle, include a magnet along with it as well.
Customize this brochure for your next project. Edit and download here.
High Five on Mastering Your Brochure Design
What a ride!
We looked at what a brochure is, what it’s purpose is, the different types of brochures out there and some inspiration to get your creative juices flowing.
Then we went through the steps of creating a brochure and what to consider when printing. Finally we reviewed some tips on how to get your brochures in the right hands.
Now you know everything there is to know about brochure design and how to use it for your marketing strategies. Are you ready to create your own?
Regardless if you choose to create a printable brochure or digital brochure, we hope you’ll choose Visme as your trusted design partner.
Log in to your Visme dashboard and get started with your brochure design today! | https://medium.com/sketch-app-sources/the-ultimate-guide-to-brochure-design-f932dae388b4 | ['Payman Taei'] | 2020-08-18 18:37:52.848000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Designer', 'Marketing Design', 'Brochure Design', 'Brochure'] |
Python: How to Connect to, and Manage a Database with SqlAlchemy and Pandas | Photo by panumas nikhomkhai from Pexels
This is an extension to a previous article 👀 that covers the low-level methods of establishing a connection to a SQL database and executing queries. We cover here the equivalent high-level methods in SqlAlchemy and Pandas to do the same in fewer lines of code
TL;DR: full code
Prerequisites
Install pyodbc, sqlalchemy and pandas using your preferred package manager
You might want to create a virtual environment first
Then, install the required driver for the DBMS-database you want to connect to. For example, if you want to connect to a Microsoft SQL Server-Database, you need to download and install the driver from Microsoft, after choosing your operating system
For more details on pyodbc (Open DataBase Connectivity for Python) and DBMS (Database management system), 👀 the previous article
Creating a SqlAlchemy engine 🚒
While SqlAlchemy is an Object Relational Mapper, it also offers a SQL toolkit. To connect to the Server, we first create an engine object based on a URL in the format:
Docs for engine configuration and supported databases
For Microsoft SQL Server-Database, dialect is mssql , and the driver is pyodbc . Then, we pass the URL to the create_engine method:
A common mistake is to forget to download the required driver
Establishing a connection 🔗
We can easily now use the connect method of the engine to return a connection object cnxn , which is automatically closed when used with a context manager:
Docs for connect
Executing a query using Pandas 🐼
Let’s assume that the database we are connected to has the following 2 tables T_CUSTOMERS and T_ADDRESSES :
And we would like to execute the query in get_customer_details.sql
get_customer_details.sql
Pandas can read a SQL statement/file directly into a DataFrame if given a connection using the read_sql method. We also use the text method to compose a textual statement that is passed to the database mostly unchanged:
Docs for read_sql, text
That was neat! few lines of code to connect and execute a query into a DataFrame 🙇
Executing a parameterized query 🐼❔
What if we would like to use the same query for a different customer? We could change it, but instead, we can use a parameterized query to make it accept any customer!
Simply replace the customer name in the query with a :param_name for example :lname :
get_customer_details_param.sql
We run the new query exactly as before, but pass a new argument params which is a dictionary of param_name: param_value :
You can pass as many parameters as you want as long as you have defined them in the query
What is next?
Start using Docker 🐋 for Python and learn how to create a Python requirements file 📄 using pipenv.
Happy coding! | https://medium.com/python-in-plain-english/python-how-connect-to-and-manage-a-database-with-sqlalchemy-and-pandas-cc6cd1e261e8 | ['Gabriel Harris Ph.D.'] | 2020-09-27 11:01:13.849000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Database', 'Sql', 'Programming', 'Pandas'] |
The Mysteries of the Solar Plasma | The Mysteries of the Solar Plasma
How new experiments in plasma physics, and the Parker Solar Probe, might unlock the Sun’s secret source of power.
Beautiful arcs above the solar surface called coronal loops that emit in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV).
Much of the luminous universe — not counting ‘dark’ stuff — is hydrogen, at millions of degrees, and billions of atmospheres, crushed inside stars. Electrons are splitting off atoms and emitting light in the process. This state of matter is called a plasma.
In August of last year, NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe. In a series of ellipsoidal passes, it will fly through the solar corona — the sun’s atmosphere — capturing data. Like a child sticking his finger into a jar, poking something is usually the first step toward unraveling a scientific mystery.
I had the joy of getting a good look at the corona in 2017. The corona is what you see when an eclipse reaches totality, the beautiful luminous arms of light that reach out in all directions; the result of a cloud of fast-moving electrons scattering light as it diffuses out into space.
The Parker probe will fly through these arms, and scientists hope that it will begin to address the huge gaps in our understanding of the sun.
The corona is observed to be hot. This might not surprise you. But it actually rises in temperature from six thousand degrees at the surface to millions of degrees in the corona. That’s weird. We would expect the atmosphere to fall in temperature as you get farther from the heat source, and the pressure drops, and heat is radiated out to space.
The energy needed to supply this missing heat is only .01% of the total solar power output, but scientists have not completely explained how the energy gets from point A to B. Energy typically flows from hot to cold; not from cold to hot.
The best theories suggest that powerful electric and magnetic fields transport energy from the interior to the far reaches of the atmosphere. Exactly how this works is not fully clear.
For the purpose of aiding in the resolution of this mystery, Stuart Bale from UC Berkeley has equipped the probe with a series of magnometers and sensors to directly read the magnetic fields inside the corona.
There are also instruments to detect the particles whizzing by as the probe plummets through the corona. The probe will be able to identify electrons, protons, various ions, and isotopes of helium. These particles start off in the corona, but end up as a solar wind, expanding into space.
Eugene Parker, for whom the probe was named, first suggested that the corona must be undergoing constant supersonic expansion into the vacuum of space. Scientists confirmed this, but found fast particles traveling more quickly than expected. Something is accelerating them; and whatever it is seems to have something to do with solar activity.
Galileo was the first to observe the sun and notice spots on the surface. We now know the Sun is a tumultuous place, with incredibly strong magnetic field lines laced among explosions, giant arcs (coronal loops), dark spots (coronal holes), mass ejections, and flares that emit everything from radio waves to gamma rays while sending shocks that ripple across the entire solar disk. ‘Fast’ solar wind is often correlated with these events, but little is known about what causes the events themselves.
These are some of the mysteries the Parker probe hopes to answer. | https://medium.com/discourse/the-mysteries-of-the-solar-plasmasphere-3a2c31fdefb5 | ['Brett Holverstott'] | 2020-02-23 00:07:47.213000+00:00 | ['Plasma', 'Sun', 'Astronomy', 'Hydrogen', 'Science'] |
Got (non-dairy) milk? What to think about when choosing a plant-based milk | Got (non-dairy) milk? What to think about when choosing a plant-based milk
When deciding whether to stop drinking dairy milk, there are more things to consider than just the well-being of cows.
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
I was never a big milk person. Growing up, I could stomach it just enough to prevent my cereal from becoming a chocking hazard. The thought of a tall, cold glass of milk would make me gag as a child, and I never really saw the appeal in ruining a perfectly good cookie by dunking it into beverage that could supposedly leave a ‘milk mustache’ above one’s top lip.
Although my tolerance for milk has improved with age, our society’s attachment to cow’s milk has began to wane. Thanks to more information on our environment and our bodies, many people have decided to turn away from dairy to find milk alternatives. Over the past few years, non-dairy milks have become more popular and choosing oat milk over semi-skimmed for your morning coffee is the new norm.
Why the switch?
People switch from dairy to plant milk for various reasons, which are often individual to them: lactose intolerance, veganism, health concerns etc. Despite several claims on the health benefits of cow’s milk, more research suggests that consuming dairy might not be as beneficial to one’s health as previously thought.
I’m sure that many of us have been told that milk has the calcium we need for strong bones. However, it turns out that dairy might not be the best source of calcium — if it was the countries in the world with the highest dairy consumption would not also be world leaders in rates of osteoporosis.
Dairy consumption has also been linked to increased rates of acne and hormones that are also believed to increase the risk of certain cancers — particularly prostate cancer.
A few years ago, if you decided to move away from cow’s milk for diet, health or simply taste reasons, you may have been limited in options. More recently, however, a wider selection of non-dairy milks are available at your local grocery stores and cafes. Research shows that spending on these alternative milks has risen while consumption of cow’s milk has dropped. Popular alternatives include soy, almond, oat and coconut, which all have pros and cons depending on their use and what your nutritional needs are.
Photo by Jo-Anne McArthur on Unsplash
There are of course big ethical reasons to make the switch as well. Animal rights activists, sustainability experts, and the public have become increasingly vocal of their concerns regarding the industrialization of dairy farms; citing poor animal welfare and the environmental impact of dairy farming including air pollution, and water usage and contamination. Thanks to their lower impact on the environment and the lack of animals to potentially exploit, plant milks have seemingly become an ideal alternative option.
What to consider when choosing a non-dairy milk
Plant-based milks are not made equal and there are a lot of things to consider when finding the right one for you. Depending on the flavor, nutrition, cost, allergies, and availability, your individual preferences and needs will determine which milk will work best. But there’s more to making milk than soaking some nuts in water. Non-dairy milk is a billion dollar industry and like all big industries it has an impact on the communities and eco-systems that sustains it.
When finding the right milk, you might want to consider some of the following:
Look into the company behind the brand. Depending on your reasonings for going non-dairy, you might want to do a bit of research into the company making the plant-based milk. Some also make dairy products, and if you’re vegan or don’t want to support the production of dairy, then you may not want to support them. There are also some brands who have been found to have questionable practices (like forcing monkeys to pick coconuts) and poor conditions for workers.
In 2011, a Human Rights Watch report exposed the severe conditions of the cashew processing industry in Vietnam. Some patients within the country’s drug therapy camps were forced to be laborers, processing cashews by hand and being subject to electroshock and solitary confinement if they refused.
Due to the the nuts’ uneven and awkward shape, shelling was done by hand which made the work hazardous as cashew resins and dust can burn the skin, and can also irritate the lungs. Human Rights Watch found that protective gear was often not provided and workers were even charged for gloves and masks.
Thanks to this report and media attention, backlash ensued. Human rights groups and the large retailers that were purchasing these cashews (most located in Europe and North America) demanded the inhumane practices come to an end. Unfortunately, due to a lack in transparency and traceability within the supply chain, it’s difficult to know for sure whether your cashew milk (or another nut milk) is the result of humane and fair working conditions. Doing your research and demanding accountability from companies is one step towards ensuring that questionable and unsafe practices are eliminated.
Consider water consumption in the production process. It takes a lot of water to make dairy milk and factoring in the amount needed to feed and raise cows, it takes 976 gallons of water to produce one gallon of milk. Surprisingly, almond milk not too far behind at 920 gallons of water to make one gallon.
Currently, 82 percent of the world’s almonds come from California — the only state in the US that produces almonds commercially. California is also known for its water crisis. While demand for water is high and wildfires are sweeping across the northern part of the state, almond trees account for almost 10 percent of California’s annual agricultural water use — which is more than what the entire population of Los Angeles and San Francisco use in a year.
While drinking almond milk means that calves won’t be separated from their mothers within days of being born, it’s also important to consider the impact of large-scale agriculture on the local environment. If an industry has grown to the point of being unsustainable, should we not prioritize restoring balance to the local environment over making a profit? Water is essential not only for growing almonds but also to sustain communities, and during a crisis people should always be prioritized over a glass of milk.
Find out if farmers are being compensated fairly and whether there are any fair trade options. Depending on the milk, the people farming the product may not be earning a fair wage. Just because a product is popular and prices increase in the retail sector, does not necessarily equate to a higher wage for farmers.
In countries like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Philippines, coconut farmers often grow mono-crops, making them susceptible to environmental change. It’s common for farmers to sell their product to middlemen, who then resell them for 50 percent more to processing factories. According to Fair Trade USA, farmers receive about $0.12 — $0.25 per nut, while the average serving of coconut water from one nut sells for $1.50 in the U.S.
The Asian Pacific Coconut Community reports that coconut farms across Asia are experiencing very little growth and, in some cases, are getting smaller as farmers are forced to sell off land in order to switch to more profitable crops like palm. By ensuring your preferred brand of non-dairy milk subscribes to a fair trade ethos (even if the fair trade label isn’t on the packaging), you can be assured that everyone in the supply chain is benefiting from a more equitable and sustainable business. | https://sholapowell.medium.com/got-non-dairy-milk-fd45ec15ab16 | ['Shola Powell'] | 2020-12-21 14:02:28.397000+00:00 | ['Plant Based', 'Ethical Consumerism', 'Sustainability', 'Milk', 'Environmental Impact'] |
How to verify if you are on the correct Chain? | Introduction
There are several possible reasons for a network split, which can cause some wallets to move off chain. If you want to know more about how the network basics work, read my previous article. We will only cover ways to ensure you are on the right chain here.
GUI Wallet
The GUI wallet is your graphical user interface. If you have a staking wallet and suddenly receive a tremendous amount of stakes you weren’t getting before, then this is your first indicator you are on a side-chain. Under the “tools” option you will find helpful options we will use now.
The two marked options will be used most commonly if you have a wallet problem
Verify the Chain with Debug Console
To verify you are on the right chain go to the explorer and click on one of the last 3 generated blocks
Just click on the block number of one of the lastest blocks
Now copy the long blockhash (only the very long string) and open the debug console
The getblock command will give you information about the block with the hash you entered. If it looks like the above, you are on the chain that the block explorer is on, which is in most cases the majority and therefore correct chain.
If you see this you are not on the correct chain!
Getting back to the correct chain with a Bootstrap
A Bootstrap is an archive which includes the chain files every wallet writes. It is normaly faster to apply a bootstrap than to resync from scratch (see next part). You will first have to download the file, which you can always find in our discord under #links -> latest bootstrap
Download the file here.
Now stop your wallet and locate the files of the wallet. Open your file browser and put %appdata%\Roaming\BitcoinGreen into the address line and hit enter.
You will find all the files you need in this folder. The wallet.dat includes all your coins. Never lose it or give anyone access!
The bootstrap you just downloaded contains the two folders “chainstate” and “blocks”. Delete those from your folder and put the files from the archive into the folder.
If you restart your wallet now it will sync to the latest blocks. If it is finished syncing, try again if you are on the right chain. If your are not on the right chain, try again. If that does not work, ask for help in the help rooms or try the next possible way. NEVER ANSWER ANYONE WHO DIRECT MESSAGES YOU! THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE TRYING TO STEAL COINS!
Resyncing from scratch
Resyncing from scratch takes a little longer and there are 2 ways to do it. One is to delete the following files manually (Close your wallet before). This way also works for most wallet problems if the chain is somehow corrupted so that you cannot open your wallet.
Leave all .conf, wallet.dat, peers.dat and the backups folder
For the second way, we open the wallet repair tab from tools (see above)
Just click the marked button and your wallet will restart shortly after-
Now just wait for it to resync. This can take a while. If it is finished verify you are on the correct chain!
Verify your Masternodes
The process is pretty much the same but we need to use the CLI (Command line interface) in order to do this now. First log in to your VPS with putty or what ever you like the most. As before, get a blockhash and we will try to find the block in our masternode wallet.
bitcoingreen-cli_ALIAS.sh getblock <blockhash>
My masternode aliases are just numbers 01, 02, 03 etc. If you followed the offical guide then this will be mn1, mn2, mn3,… for you or anything you typed in when it asked you (Its always lower case — if you typed MN1 its mn1).
If you get something similar to the above, this node is fine. You will have to do this for ALL your nodes because they all have an individual blockchain even if they’re on the same server.
If you get an error like this you are on the wrong chain:
Resync the CLI-Wallet
In case you are on the wrong chain now you will have to resync and stop your wallet first, and restart it with the -resync option:
Use the “stop” wallet command and wait 10 seconds before you proceed
Start the wallet now with the “-resync” option attached. Note that you use the bitcoingreend_alias.sh now and not the cli. The cli is just an interface to access the daemon. To start it, the above command is needed.
You have to wait till it is resynced now. This takes some time. You can see the blockcount with “getinfo.” Wait till it matches the blockexplorer.
After resync it MIGHT be necessary to restart the masternode on the gui, but it’s not always so. Just wait some hours and see if the status of your masternode goes missing in the gui. If you restart it on the gui and check the status on VPS:
Use the “masternode status” wallet command to see if your masternode is started.
Warning:
So folks, a final warning. If you have any problems, visit the discord and ask your questions in the help channels. For your own sake and safety, keep discussions in the help channels. It is really easy to impersonate other people, like, everywhere. In emails, discord, telegram.
You can never be sure to who you’re talking to and therefore shouldn’t answer anyone offering help in your direct messages. In Bitcoin Green, all admins are green or blue. If they DM you, then you cannot see if they are green or blue anymore and it’s well possible it’s not who you think. You can change your name to anything you want, even to a name that another one already has. So please use the help channels. They’re also the fastest way to get help.
DON’T PUT THE walletdump COMMAND IN YOUR DEBUG CONSOLE AND SEND THE OUTPUT ANYWHERE! YOU WILL LOSE YOUR COINS! | https://medium.com/bitgreen/how-to-verify-you-are-on-the-correct-chain-d14c5f0ef16 | [] | 2018-11-07 04:48:11.095000+00:00 | ['Proof Of Stake', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Sustainability', 'Bitcoin'] |
7 easy ways to track your competitors | Want to to know what your competitors are up to? Here are 7 simple ways to keep an eye on them!
Competitors play a major role in every business. If you know what your competitors are offering and at what range, it helps you place your products in the market. Understanding your competitors hence plays an important role in your business. Studying the competitor pricing strategy gives you an idea on how you should set the prices of your products. This helps you make your product stand out in the market place.
How can you achieve that? Follow these simple ways
1. KYC:
Well here it does not mean knowing your customer but your competitors. Identify your competitor well.
2. SWOT:
Every business has its own strengths and weakness. An effective SWOT analysis helps you in this case.
So now what is SWOT analysis?
SWOT analysis, alternatively known as SWOT matrix is an acronym for strengths,weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a company, product, place, industry, or person. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective.
Strengths:- characteristics of the business or project that give it an advantage over others
Weaknesses:- characteristics that place the business or project at a disadvantage relative to others
Opportunities:- elements that the business or project could exploit to its advantage
Threats:- elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business or project.
SWOT analysis for both your company as well as the competitor must be performed. This gives you a clear idea on to what to be prioritized according to competition.
3. Sign up for Google Alerts:
Google alerts are absolutely free in case you want to get updated on the competitor’s activity. It is easy to perform. You just have to type the name of your competitor in the search query and select the option which you want to be notified about and Google sends you all the updates daily or weekly.
4. Enroll in your competition’s mailings and promotions:
Get to know about your competitors through signing up for their campaigns etc.
5. Become a secret shopper:
Conduct shopping trips to try out your competitors’ customer experience, both on-line and in-store.
6. Connect with competitors on social media:
“Like” and “follow” your competition on social media and track their work. This helps you analyze their popularity on social media which shows whether their presence in social media helps them grow and plan your strategy accordingly.
7. Monitor your competitors’ websites:
You can learn a lot about your competition by keeping an eye on their website.
Why track?
The main aim is to learn and utilize the learning to grow. It gives a deeper understanding of your work and how you can grow using some tactics of the competitors which has helped them or neglect those which has a negative impact. It helps determine the most effective ways to engage your customers.
The goal here is to make sure all the marketing elements that form your brand experience are better than those of your competitors. If you see something that doesn’t seem to be working, could the same be said of your marketing? Adjust accordingly. Determine the most effective ways to engage your customers.
Observing and learning more about your competition will help you understand all the marketing messages directed at your customers. Only then can you stay in a better or maybe in the top position in the market.
So keep a close eye on what everyone is doing around you.. after all, good observation and execution makes you an achiever! | https://medium.com/apptuse-magazine/7-easy-ways-to-track-your-competitors-c5dc0d404a70 | ['Nameet Potnis'] | 2016-11-14 10:29:19.519000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Business Strategy', 'All Posts', 'Mobile'] |
Stack Overflow’s 2019 Developers Survey Review — Episode 002 | Black holes are one of the strangest phenomenon on the universe and very little is known about them, but in early April, images were captured using a combination of eight radio observatories spread out along four continents, creating what MIT refers to as a “virtual, Earth-sized telescope. This is the black hole deep inside the Messier 87, a galaxy located in the Virgo cluster some 55 million light years away. It may seem underwhelming at first, but it’s one of four images of the supermassive spacetime deforming structure — marking the first time such an object has been photographed. We discuss the discovery, the conspiracy theories around black holes and how important it is for scientists.
Have a listen to the episode, and leave a comment. Enjoy! | https://medium.com/tech-for-granted/tech-for-granted-podcast-episode-002-stack-overflow-developer-survey-2019-review-4102a607aa07 | ['Tech For Granted'] | 2019-07-02 09:25:38.028000+00:00 | ['African Startup', 'Black Holes', 'Podcasting', 'Science', 'Tech For Granted'] |
3 Reasons to Switch to FastAPI | Async
The async/await syntax is something that was recently introduced in Python. Most programmers think this will speed everything up. That’s not quite true, as synchronous code is the way to go in most scenarios. Async/await is a way to write asynchronous code in a very convenient way.
In terms of API programming, this is very interesting. We see a rising need for asynchronous tasks like queuing, WebSockets, etc. Unlike Flask, FastAPI is implemented on ASGI and allows you to create both asynchronous and synchronous applications natively.
Imagine you’re writing an endpoint that retrieves pictures of animals. Every request can take some time. In the background, you might be doing some predictions based on the text and HTTP calls for pictures. Most of the time, your thread is waiting on some operation to be finished.
In the synchronous world, the following snippet would first get a picture of a cat, then a picture of a dog, and finally a picture of a bat. One after the other. Simple and easy — programming as we’ve known it for a long time.
get('A picture of a cat') // first
get('A picture of a dog') // second
get('A picture of a bat') // third
However, imagine that this API is exposed to the world and users are using it. Imagine every request that is fired takes 300 milliseconds to process. When 50 requests are sent at the same time in a synchronous world, it will take 15 seconds for the last request to be finished.
All of a sudden, your API is called slow. You can scale it up using multiple threads and stuff, but only so much. In the end, this gets complex pretty fast. Essentially, every thread taking up this task is spending 300 milliseconds waiting for nothing.
Asynchronous programming offers improvement. Asyncio allows you to wait for a process to be finished and perform some other calculations with the same thread in the meantime. No more waiting! 50 requests? No problem. We’re sending them all out, one after the other. You can see it as one single thread that has multiple call stacks.
As long as the underlying infrastructure can handle it, we’re good to go. In this extreme case, we can even reduce the waiting time to only a bit more than 300 milliseconds for all requests. Do you get it? If not, watch this tutorial.
Big warning: If you cannot handle a large number of requests, make sure you queue incoming requests at a rate you can handle. It’s possible to write code that is so fast that it will destroy an entire Kubernetes cluster. During the recent online Machine Learning conference, Carmine Paolino mentioned that you have to keep this in mind when you move your application into production. Make sure you can handle lots of simultaneous requests being sent at the same time. | https://medium.com/better-programming/3-reasons-to-switch-to-fastapi-f9c788d017e5 | ['Dieter Jordens'] | 2020-08-17 16:02:41.861000+00:00 | ['API', 'Python', 'Programming', 'Fastapi', 'Flask'] |
The First Time Every Spice Girl Killed an Animal, in Verse | Emma “Baby Spice”
“I had a baby bird once
and my mum told me to feed it
while she went away.
Unfortunately, I’d spent all my money going out the night before,
so I fed it some of my nan’s bird food instead — only her bird is a parrot.
When I came in
the next morning
it was on its back,
I felt terrible.
It must have choked to death —
horrible!”
Mel B. “Scary Spice”
“My mum and sister
thought that I actually killed my guinea pig,
but I didn’t.
I used to kill spiders
all the time,
but nothing else.”
Mel C. “Sporty Spice”
“I used to kill flies
by snapping them with elastic bands.
One time I killed a really big bluebottle and felt guilty for weeks
because it was really big
— not just a fly, but a proper creature.
I kept having dreams about this fly’s family
attacking me while I was asleep.
I was also really worried about God being angry with me.”
Victoria “Posh Spice”
“I used to collect worms
and lay them out on a slate,
chop them up
and watch them go their separate ways.
Then I’d put all the bits in a jam jar.”
Geri “Ginger Spice”
“My brother and I were in a gang
and we used to lift up the tiles in the back garden
and pour petrol on the woodlice underneath,
set light to them
and burn them.” | https://medium.com/the-hairpin/the-first-time-every-spice-girl-killed-an-animal-in-verse-56d02f37af07 | ['Rebecca Mccarthy'] | 2016-08-08 19:35:26.794000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'The Spice Girls', 'Books', 'Girl Power'] |
Edie’s Three | “Top 3 is a publication where Medium writers support other Medium writers by promoting each other’s work. Medium members are encouraged to post three stories from other writers that they enjoyed reading.” — Daryl Bruce
With the new changes from Medium, please read the stories below and support your fellow writers! :)
We Aren’t Breaking Up, But Thanks For Insisting
By: Fiona Sommer
It takes some serious guts to open up so publicly about the parts of us that aren’t so great. This new writer blew me away with this story, and because of it, I went on to read all of her other pieces published so far. She’s an immensely talented writer.
I had heard about BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) in the past but had never really known what it was all about. You can hear of things, do a lot of assuming — which we all know only makes an ass out of you and me — or you can be open to learning about it. Just as Fiona has been open about sharing about it, and I’m so glad she did. An extremely informative article, and exceptionally well-written. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did!
I Fell Out Of Love With Medium
By: Jon Peters
I think many of us can relate to the reasons Jon talks about in this witty article about how he fell out of love with Medium. Every so often, it seems the site is inundated with articles about how much someone made in a month, fool-proof methods on how to achieve success or listicles about what to do or not to do to make big bucks on Medium.
Don’t get me wrong — some of those articles can be extremely helpful, especially for new writers just coming on board. But the truth is, the vast majority of them are basically the same article written in a different hand, and there are just so many of those a person can read.
I love reading a diverse range of topics, and I have to say, I’m really glad Jon decided to give his relation with Medium another shot!
Don’t Make New Year’s Resolutions
By: Luke Wiese
Okay, we are all guilty of making a New Year’s resolution at one point or another, and promptly breaking it within a week or two (sometimes even less than a day!) And why do we do that to ourselves? Because someone started this strange tradition at some point in time, and now we all feel the need to make some life-altering change in our lives precisely at the stroke of midnight on January 1st?
We should be striving every single day to be the best versions of ourselves. Waiting for the first of the year just gives us reasons (excuses?) to justify not being our best selves “until then.”
We should love and respect ourselves enough to want to be the best we can all year long. Changes are implemented over long periods of time, so if you want to make a change in your life, start now and give yourself the best chance at success! | https://medium.com/top-3/edies-three-463445cb0db0 | ['Edie Tuck'] | 2019-11-14 23:53:15.788000+00:00 | ['Top 3', 'Mental Health', 'Resolutions', 'Medium Writers', 'Life Lessons'] |
field of depth | Ethan I. Bennett | METATOOL | Columbia GSAPP | Fall 2019
The intent of this tool is to reconsider authorship (in this instance, of architectural line drawings) as a negotiation between the work’s creator and its eventual audience.
This project is intended as
a) a new tool for the production of perspective line drawings
The script automatically computes lineweight and stroke color (along user-controllable domains) as a function of distance from an established camera location, including variable width and color gradient for lines that approach vanishing points.
b) an opportunity to apply a rapid-prototyping approach to the production of architectural drawings
By enabling simple parametric control of aesthetic choices, the drawings’ creator can quickly produce an expansive catalog of options for the same image, many of which may not have been considered otherwise.
c) an interactive means of engaging the viewer with the drawings produced
By empowering the audience to adjust the drawing based on their physical location in space, the tool establishes a collaborative link between the creator’s intent and the viewer’s experience.
Using the Make2D command in Rhino, the selected geometry is converted to a flat hidden-line drawing, before being remapped to the projection plane of the established camera.
Once the drawing is precisely superimposed over its parent objects, the curves are subdivided to produce a point cloud. These points are projected back onto the original geometry to produce a measurable distance from every point in the projection plane to every to every parent object.
These distances are the fundamental data that drives the tool’s output.
Inputs + outputs
using OSCulator in conjunction with Grasshopper, the 3D Connexion Space Mouse — normatively used for 3d modeling — can be used to manipulate 2D lineweight intensity, color palette, and opacity based on distance from a static camera location
likewise, the Kinect empowers the viewer to adjust the static image by changing their position within the viewing space; lateral movement adjusts the drawing’s color palette, while fore/aft movement adjusts lineweight and reveals additional detail
Findings + next steps
In its current state, the project is extremely resource-intensive, to the point that it is not usable for any practical application. However, if the script was rewritten more elegantly (and perhaps with other input devices), it could be a powerful tool for uniting the creator with their audience.
Future iterations of this tool will include a) increasing levels of detail for the viewer in the fore/aft direction; ideally the drawing would be understood as a mostly typical perspective from a distance, but closer inspection would reveal more information, including construction details, furniture, entourage, and even interaction between a project’s inhabitants, and b) more aesthetic parameters like opacity, fill options, and dashed/offset paths.
Thank you!
Many thanks to Dan and Adam for being so enthusiastic about the course (and available to help), and to all the members of this semester’s class for their exceptional and inspiring work. | https://medium.com/metatool/field-of-depth-e3c092b6b02e | ['Adam Vosburgh'] | 2019-12-14 00:02:46.307000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Design', 'Fa19'] |
One secret that all great technology branding strategies have in common | “When I first started my career in high-tech B2B marketing, I didn’t know what branding was,” said Juliette Rizkallah, CMO at SailPoint. “I was trained in product management and product marketing, and in my mind if the product was good, that was all the company needed.”
The same mistake is common in Silicon Valley, where it’s easy to “think that the best product will beat out all of the competition,” said Samantha Warren, Experience Design Manager at Adobe Stock + Typekit. Problem is, the best products don’t always make the most successful companies, Warren said.
In fact, according to entrepreneur Larry Alton, “not having a brand” tops the list of mistakes that tech startups are prone to make.
Your technology branding strategy deserves at least as much attention as the evolution of your tech. Strategically, it’s the foundation that supports everything you aspire to do — so how to make it a good one?
To answer that question, let’s see what we can learn from some of the strongest technology branding strategies out there. Microsoft, Google, and AT&T are counted among the top 25 “biggest technology brands of the world.” They each invest significant energy in their branding, using it to unite many disparate offerings into a coherent family while expressing a focused emotional undercurrent that draws customers to their door.
There are many aspects of the example they set that we could highlight — but one secret they all have in common is simply this:
Their brand promise is unmistakably clear
A brand promise is one, at most two, core concepts that express your basic value proposition and sum up why your customers choose your brand.
These promises look simple, right? And so they should. A brand promise needs to represent a clear, simple idea that’s easy to wrap your mind around.
But defining a promise of your own is usually harder than it looks. Working with technology firms at the MAC, we’ve found that when you’re deep in the weeds in product development and internal company dynamics, it’s not easy to zoom in on the one true idea that effectively distills your identity into a few words — the core, unifying, emotionally-resonant promise that’s strong enough, important enough, and authentic enough to provide a lasting foundation for your brand.
Nonetheless, it’s a challenge that all technology branding strategies must overcome in order to succeed. Following are a few tips to get you moving in the right direction.
1. Your brand promise originates from your vision
Our client Shadowserver is a nonprofit organization working quietly behind the scenes to make the Internet more secure for everyone. Their vision of “a more secure Internet” provides focus for everything they do. Thanks to the altruism that drives it, Shadowserver has built credibility with cyber security teams across the globe and pioneered a radical shift toward collaboration and transparency in their field.
That’s the power of a vision. If you know what you’re aiming for and why, your tactical efforts can converge upon a goal that not only makes you more effective internally, but gives your external audiences a reason to rally with you.
Ask yourself this: how does your company vision benefit your audience? Articulate the answer, and you’ll be one step closer to a strong brand promise.
2. Your brand promise communicates your USP
What are you doing well, that no one else is doing at all?
Your unique selling proposition (or USP) is a fundamental component of your brand. It defines who your audience is and why they care about you: vital information when claiming your position in the heavily saturated technology market.
Defining your USP is a principal goal of our discovery process at the MAC. We unearth it through a thorough competitive analysis, informed by extensive interviews with internal and external stakeholders. Once we’ve defined your USP, we build on that with your visual identity and essential messaging components — not the least of which is your brand promise.
3. Your brand promise translates to a story
When a customer purchases your product, does it give them the power of a magician to transform reality? That’s the storyline behind the Apple brand, and it’s a good one.
Does it turn them into a rebel, subverting expectations and rewriting the rules? In past decades, Apple tried that story on for size, too.
Does it make your customer a creator who reenvisions the world around them? Sony told that story when advertising its cameras.
There are many ways to tell a compelling story with your brand. The point is, all great technology branding strategies tell one.
Think of it this way. If your brand story defines the relationship between your company and your audience (who are you to them? who do you help them become?), your brand promise drives the plot. It’s the kernel at the center, around which the rest of the story spins. | https://medium.com/madison-ave-collective/one-secret-that-all-great-technology-branding-strategies-have-in-common-8125ac1b4c8b | ['Elisabeth Mccumber'] | 2018-03-28 14:01:16.192000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Brand Strategy', 'Technology', 'Technology Brand Strategy'] |
Factoring Quadratics With Python | We are going to write a Python program that takes a quadratic of the form ax²+bx+c and puts it into factored form a(bx+c)(dx+e). Our program will only factor problems where the roots are integers or a rational fraction e.g 3/4.
we will start off by making our program take the 3 variables as inputs and coverting the inputs to float numbers.
Now we are going to preform the first step of factoring, finding the greatest common denominator between our three terms. We will be writing our own GCD function together our function will in essence swap the two numbers making the new first number(a) equal to b and the new b equal to b modulus a. and it will keep doing this until b is zero.
Since our function can only take the GCD of two numbers at a time we will call our gcdCalc function twice once with the first two numbers and once again with the previous result and the last number.
Now that we have found the GCD we are capable of factoring quadratics of the simplest form. Ones where the constant c is equal to zero. All we have to do is factor out the GCD and an x term and output the result.
Our code up untill this point should look like the following:
We can now factor any quadratic where the constant is zero:
But we want to be able to factor all sorts of quadratics. so we are going to add an else statement to our c==0 statement we wrote above and we are going to start off by finding the two possible solutions using the quadratic equation.
Note: Both solutions in the quadratic equation have the same denominator which I have calculated separately.
We are now going to check if any of our 3 values are non-integer. If so we know that we wont have a “clean” factorization of all integers so we want to abort the factorization proccess.
Our last step will be to find the GCD between our numerator and denominator so that we can reduce our fractions down.
We now want to generate the numerators/denominators of our solution, note that we will be taking the negative of the numerator because the quadratic formula gives us the roots x=x_1 or x_2 but we want to put it in the form x-x_1=0 or x-x_2=0 so we will be taking the negative of our numerators.
We will now print out our factored quadratic
Note that we are multiplying gcd by a/abs(a) to ensure that we get the same sign as a.
Our finished code now looks like the following:
We can now test it out:
We can also try out some other quadratic:
But the +- kind of bothers me so im going to write a function that will display the correct sign:
Now I'm going to modify my two print statement to make use of my function:
Now our outputs look like the following:
Heres a copy of the code we have written together: | https://medium.com/swlh/python-factoring-quadratics-b1e0fd4b587e | ['Mohammad-Ali Bandzar'] | 2020-05-25 10:29:42.537000+00:00 | ['Math', 'Python', 'Factoring', 'Quadratic Equation', 'Programming'] |
#NaNoWriMo Update — Week One.. It’s going well so far but it’s still… | I prepared as best I could but I am finding that my characters have now taken over and are writing their own story. I am working off my outline but the story is moving differently and some things are being left behind and other things, which I couldn’t have imagined in advance of this experience, are coming into the mix. It’s exciting for me as a first timer! The challenge to meet my daily target of 2000 words is pushing me on and also, having a bigger than usual container, ie. 50,000 words, means there aren’t the usual boundaries either and, since that is the minimum requirement, it’s merely a guideline and not a final limit. I don’t think I’ll be pushing myself to 80 or 100,000 words on my first attempt but never say never!
It is an adventure in itself to explore the way dialogue develops and how characters interact with each other. As I write, new ideas come to me which far exceed the scope of my initial outline and the post-it note prompts which I wrote for myself, to ensure I never arrived to sit at my desk with a blank page and a blank mind. They are especially helpful to fall back on when the writing doesn’t flow quite so smoothly and I need a little nudge. Some days the scenes unfold such that my typing fingers can’t keep up with my brain and others are a little more stilted or I need to refer back to my outline or my prompts. I wrote some of each for individual characters, themes and scenes (on different colored notes!) so I can either choose a specific focus or pick randomly.
There is no time deadline inbuilt within the challenge itself for daily writing but, like everyone I’m sure, I have days in my week where I have more free time and some where I have found it challenging to squeeze in an hour. The least amount of words I was able to write on a day so far is 1085 but I am ahead against the total so have a bit of leeway built in and therefore refuse to beat myself up over it. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/nanowrimo-update-week-one-5a21c8349d04 | ['Kerry Jane Rider'] | 2020-11-07 14:38:33.355000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Fiction Writing', 'NaNoWriMo', 'Life', 'Creative Writing'] |
The Why, When, and How of Using Python Multi-threading and Multi-Processing | A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….
A wise and powerful wizard lives in a small village in the middle of nowhere. Let’s call him Dumbledalf. Not only is he wise and powerful, but he’s also happy to help anyone who asks and this means that people come from far and wide to ask the wizard for aid. Our story begins when on one fine day, a young traveler brings a magical scroll to the wizard. The traveler has no idea what the scroll contains, but he knows that if anyone can decipher the secrets of the scroll, it would be the great wizard, Dumbledalf.
Chapter 1: Single-threaded, single-process
If you haven’t guessed already, my rather soppy analogy is talking about a CPU and its functions. Our wizard is the CPU and the magical scroll is a list of URLs which leads to the power of Python and the knowledge to wield that power.
The wizard’s first thought, having deciphered the scroll without too much trouble, was to send his trusted friend (Haragorn? I know, I know, that’s terrible) to each of the locations given in the scroll to see and bring back what he can find.
As you can see, we are simply plodding through the URLs one by one using a for loop and reading the response. Thanks to %%time the magic from IPython, we can see that it takes about 12 seconds with my deplorable internet.
Chapter 2: Multi-threading
Not for naught was the wizard’s wisdom famed across the land, and he quickly comes up with a much more efficient method. Instead of sending one person to each of the locations in order, why not get together a bunch of (trustworthy) people and send them separately to each of the locations, at the same time! The wizard can simply combine everything they bring once they all come back.
That’s right, instead of looping through the list one by one, we can use multithreading to access multiple URLs at the same time.
Much better! Almost like.. magic. Using multiple threads can significantly speed up many tasks that are IO-bound. Here, the vast portion of the time taken to read the URLs is due to the network delay. IO-bound programs spend most of their time waiting for, you guessed it, input/output (Similar to how the wizard needs to wait for his friend/friends to go to the locations given in the scroll and come back). This may be I/O from a network, a database, a file, or even a user. This I/O tends to take a significant amount of time, as the source itself may need to perform its own processing before passing on the I/O. For example, the CPU works much, much faster than a network connection can shuttle data (Think Flash vs your grandma).
Note: Multithreading can be very useful in tasks like web scraping.
Chapter 3: Multi-processing
As the years rolled on and our wizard’s fame grew, so did the envy of one rather unpleasant dark wizard (Sarudort? Voldeman?). Armed with devious cunning and driven by jealousy, the dark wizard performed a terrible curse on Dumbledalf. As soon as the curse settled, Dumbledalf knew that he had mere moments to break it. Tearing through his spellbooks in desperation, he finds a counter-spell that looks like it might do the trick. The only problem is that it requires him to calculate the sum of all prime numbers below 1000000. Weird spell, but it is what it is.
Now, the wizard knows that calculating the value will be trivial given enough time but time is not a luxury that he has. Wizard though he is, even he is limited by his humanity and he can only calculate one number at a time. If he were to sum up the prime numbers one by one, it would take far too long. With seconds left to reverse the curse, he suddenly remembers the multiprocessing spell he learned from the magic scroll years ago. This spell would allow him to make copies of himself, and splitting up the numbers between his copies would allow him to check if multiple numbers are primes, simultaneously. Finally, all he has to do is add up all the prime numbers that he and his copies discover.
With modern CPU’s generally having more than a single core, we can speed up CPU bound tasks by using the multiprocessing module. CPU bound tasks are programs that spend most of their time performing calculations in the CPU (mathematical computations, image processing, etc.). If the calculations can be performed independently of each other, we can split them up among the available CPU cores thereby gaining a significant boost to processing speed.
All you have to do is;
Define the function to be applied Prepare a list of items that the function is to be applied on Spawn processes using multiprocessing.Pool . The number passed to Pool() will be the number of processes spawned. Embedding inside a with statement ensures that the processes are killed after finishing execution. Combine the outputs using the map function of a Pool process. The inputs to the map function are the function to be applied to each item, and the list of items.
Note: The function can be defined so as to perform any task that can be done in parallel. For example, the function may contain code to write the result of a computation to a file.
So, why do we need separate multiprocessing and multithreading ? If you tried to use multithreading to improve the performance of a CPU bound task, you might notice that what you actually get is a degradation in performance. Heresy! Let’s see why this happens.
Much like the wizard being limited by his human nature and only being able to calculate one number at a time, Python comes with something called the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL). Python will happily let you spawn as many threads as you like, but the GIL ensures that only one of those threads will ever be executing at any given time.
For an IO-bound task, that is perfectly fine. One thread fires off a request to a URL and while it is waiting for a response, that thread can be swapped out for another thread that fires another request to another URL. Since a thread doesn’t have to do anything until it receives a response, it doesn’t really matter that only one thread is executing at a given time.
For a CPU bound task, having multiple threads is about as useful as nipples on a breastplate. Because only one thread is being executed at a time, even if you spawn multiple threads with each having their own number to be checked for prime-ness, the CPU is still only going to be dealing with one thread at a time. In effect, the numbers will still be checked one after the other. The overhead in dealing with multiple threads will contribute to the performance degradation you may observe if you use multithreading in a CPU bound task.
To get around this ‘limitation’, we use the multiprocessing module. Instead of using threads , multiprocessing uses, well, multiple processes . Each process gets its own interpreter and memory space, so the GIL won’t be holding things back. In essence, each process uses a different CPU core to work on a different number, at the same time. Sweet!
You may notice that CPU utilization goes much higher when you are using multiprocessing compared to using a simple for loop, or even multithreading . That is because multiple CPU cores are being used by your program, rather than just a single core. This is a good thing!
Keep in mind that multiprocessing comes with its own overhead to manage multiple processes , which typically tends to be heavier than multithreading overhead. ( Multiprocessing spawns a separate interpreter, and assigns a separate memory space for each process , so duh!). This means that, as a rule of thumb, it is better to use the lightweight multithreading when you can get away with it (read: IO-bound tasks). When CPU processing becomes your bottleneck, it’s generally time to summon the multiprocessing module. But remember, with great power comes great responsibility.
If you spawn more processes than your CPU can handle at a time, you will notice your performance starting to drop. This is because the operating system now has to do more work swapping processes in and out of the CPU cores since you have more processes than cores. The reality might be more complicated than a simple explanation, but that’s the basic idea. You can see a drop-off in performance on my system when we reach 16 processes . This is because my CPU only has 16 logical cores.
Chapter 4: TLDR;
For IO-bound tasks, using multithreading can improve performance.
tasks, using can improve performance. For IO-bound tasks, using multiprocessing can also improve performance, but the overhead tends to be higher than using multithreading .
tasks, using can also improve performance, but the overhead tends to be higher than using . The Python GIL means that only one thread can be executed at any given time in a Python program.
can be executed at any given time in a Python program. For CPU bound tasks, using multithreading can actually worsen the performance.
tasks, using can actually worsen the performance. For CPU bound tasks, using multiprocessing can improve performance.
tasks, using can improve performance. Wizards are awesome! | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/the-why-when-and-how-of-using-python-multi-threading-and-multi-processing-afd1b8a8ecca | ['Thilina Rajapakse'] | 2020-06-11 16:47:24.296000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Featured', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Data Science', 'Programming'] |
A Simple Way to Make You Unstoppable in Sharing Your Faith | It’s said that not everyone is called to be an Evangelist but I don’t believe that anyone is called to be a secret follower of Jesus. You have a sphere of influence that no Evangelist can reach better than you. However, this should not be intimidating or uncomfortable!
I discovered this simple recipe that is able to accomplish victory in your personal evangelism:
Passion + faithfulness + the blessing of God = success in reaching those who don’t believe yet.
Passion can only be found in freedom
I love the fact that we have the freedom in sharing the Gospel. We can find our way of expressing the Good News or attracting people’s attention to God. There are no bounds to just speaking. Nonetheless, we should always be able to explain the Gospel in a conversation because it is the best way to communicate it.
Jesus gave a clear mission but it’s up to you how you go about it. You can always think outside the box. Be creative. Find a way you enjoy and have passion for. Use your talents and unique character because that’s what will stand out to everyone that encounters you.
Mr. Eternity
One preacher spoke passionately about his desire to shout ‘Eternity’ in the streets. A man in the crowd named Arthur Stace was deeply inspired and set free in discovering that he can point people to God by the word eternity. He became known as Mr. Eternity. He was going about by writing the word eternity on the streets of Sidney every day.
He did a lot with the small he had and God multiplied his fame all around.
Arthur Stace didn’t preach on the street or hand out flyers but found a way he liked to direct people to God and left a footstep in the history. Today, more than 50 years after his death, artists made paintings and sculptures, politicians named places in the city to preserve the legend of the Eternity man.
I’m not sure if it’s completely true but I’ve heard that Arthur Stace was illiterate. The only word he knew how to write well was ‘eternity’.
Everyone flees the uncomfortable atmosphere
The example of Arthur Stace shows that nothing is too silly. We’ve all been given different gifts, abilities, and talents to contribute to the mission. It’s fair to execute strengths uniquely in sharing the Good News.
However, if you seem uncomfortable with what you do, others will notice. If you don’t feel excited about the activity, it won’t last long.
Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash
Perhaps, you’re trying to copy someone else and criticize yourself for not being as good as that other person? Don’t forget that the person you admire and look up to has many years of experience, made the countless amount of failures, and found one way that works.
You’re a unique person with a unique set of abilities and mindset that cannot be found in anyone else. You can find a way to share your faith that works for you but won’t work for anybody else.
The more you try to pretend to be someone else the more time you waste on the wrong path because you don’t get to know your strengths and weaknesses. Free yourself and don’t try to push your manner into any kind of box you believe you should be in. Find what works for you, in what area you're better than others, and take a step to apply it in reaching out to people.
The power of moving in ‘the flow’
One day as I was leaving a shopping mall one lady stood by the exit. She gave me a flyer and wished ‘Happy holidays!’ as it was a week left until Easter. I didn’t say anything apart from ‘Thank you!’ because the lady was obviously shy and not up for a conversation.
When I came back home I looked at the flyer. The lady was a Christian and on the paper, she communicated the meaning behind Easter, the Gospel, and shared a testimony. Her testimony was the part that stood out the most for me even though it was only a couple of lines that didn’t seem more important. It was a story about her being healed from cancer.
A couple of years passed by and I was brainstorming ideas for my own outreach. God reminded me of the testimony I received and how deeply it touched me. I compiled a few really encouraging stories about the things God did in my life. With some help from my friends, I was able to make it into a booklet and print it out.
The photo was taken by Albert Allema
Little did I knew how powerful this tool would be for my personal use in evangelism! I wasn’t charging money for the booklet but giving out as a gift to someone I spoke with and hadn't had time to share my experiences. It was well made and looked expensive so I was proud to give it to someone. When anyone asked anything about my life I was able to offer my written story of the most amazing things in my life.
I didn’t realize how creative I could be in my suggestions to give the book. After I presented it, I was comfortable to ask about their faith and then share what I believe.
No seed too little because God multiplies
I’m not trying to show off my achievements but only to clarify: God made my booklet to spread into every continent of the world! It took only a couple of months of work in a busy hostel and God helped me to reach so much with the little I had.
Start acting on the little you have and watch God give you more and more everyday! (‘So You Think Your Mind is Renewed’ by Cornel Marais)
I would encourage you to think bigger and freer in sharing your faith. There are countless ways you can do it.
Nothing is too small for God to multiply and grow.
Let’s say you reach your neighbor Tom and he gets born again. After some time Tom ministers to his grandma that you would never be able to connect with. It’s already two people by now!
But wait!
The grandma falls in love with Jesus and visits every friend she has… It quickly goes out of your sight and ability to know how many people are being impacted by the ripple effect you started with a small rock.
God didn’t make anything to operate in principle of addition. He made things to have the ability to multiply.
There is no place for discouragement when you do things you’re enjoying and notice even small growth. It is growth nonetheless! When God sees your faithfulness and pure heart in reaching people He makes it multiply to the extents you never thought possible.
Image by Kranich17 from Pixabay.
Open your mind and don’t limit yourself in one way only. Maybe you like to cook and want to invite your neighbors for dinner which will end in a simple comment made by you: I really feel loved by Jesus and I felt that I wanted to invite you all for dinner... Perhaps you would love to write a short encouraging note to someone you know with an open invitation for coffee? | https://medium.com/koinonia/a-simple-way-to-make-you-unstoppable-in-sharing-your-faith-b443c8c1bf82 | [] | 2020-07-22 14:16:02.942000+00:00 | ['Self-awareness', 'Jesus', 'Christianity', 'Evangelism', 'Freedom'] |
6 Reasons Why Elixir Is Better Than Ruby | 1. Development Velocity
Let’s be honest — we’re excited about Elixir’s effortless handling of concurrency, but it’s not the main reason we stick with it. Elixir is a highly productive language. Here are some reasons for that claim:
Simplified development setup — Utilizing the BEAM virtual machine, one can expect to have a consistent development experience on almost any machine — even Windows. While this can also be true for Ruby, as a project progresses, a typical web application in Ruby accumulates more dependencies that make it increasingly difficult to get it up and running, while an Elixir web application would remain relatively easy to set up.
Predictable codebase — Elixir enforces true lexical scoping and encourages explicit codes. What this means at the code level is Elixir makes data transformations, code organizations, and application interfaces much more predictable and easier to reason with — thus saving a lot of development time.
Lightweight and fast testing — This is probably the most undermentioned yet powerful benefits of using Elixir. Elixir provides developers access to super-fast, concurrent testing with relatively minimal impact on hardware performance. Ruby testing, on the other hand, can be painfully slow and hardware-intensive — to the point it could bog down the whole system for those with underperforming machines. Elixir completely takes away the headache by making tests faster.
Useful built-in features — We‘ ha’ve used Elixir to build a quick MVP project to building large-scale projects. In both scenarios, Elixir provides powerful built-in features to satisfy the requirements for a typical modern web application, such as caching, background processing, and process monitoring. On a platform such as Ruby on Rails, these solutions usually come with tightly coupled dependencies on services, such as Redis, Resque, and Foreman.
I’ll admit, at first, I was extremely frustrated with Elixir.
I struggled with pattern matching, which was touted as this revolutionary new concept. After getting used to it and all of the other advantages of Elixir, though, I’ve found myself coding with less effort and frustration to achieve the same exact output as Ruby. There are two reasons for this.
It’s a functional language
Functional languages, as opposed to object-oriented languages like Ruby, are beautiful and simplify programming. I greatly favor functional languages for several reasons:
They lead to coding faster and more predictably
No state to keep track of. States make it extremely difficult to track down problems. There are no reference errors. Everything is a pure function, which is wonderful.
It has pattern matching
One of the biggest advantages and differentiators of Elixir is pattern matching. Pattern matching comes from its Erlang roots and is one of those things you wish was also incorporated into other languages.
One of our very talented engineers put together a code-sample comparison between Elixir and Ruby using a simple ranking example.
In that example, pattern matching makes the code more elegant, expressive, and easier to read. It may seem like a small thing, but I find myself using pattern matching any chance I get. | https://medium.com/better-programming/6-reasons-why-elixir-is-better-than-ruby-8f5ef8edc40e | ['Foxbox Digital'] | 2020-01-21 09:55:06.721000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Ruby', 'Elixir', 'Software Engineering', 'DevOps'] |
220+ Material Inspired Icons for Great User Experience | Icons have always been important in enhancing the user experience, not only for navigating easily through the information in your app or on your web site but also in increasing the readability of the content by summarizing it, making it exciting and drawing the user’s attention to the most important parts of your web projects. They save space in toolbars and palettes and there is no need to translate icons for international users.
While working on different samples and apps at Infragistics our design team has always found Google’s material icons great for user interface design, but kind of limited — especially in areas like Finance and Health. So, after some discussions we decided to extend the official Material Design Icon set provided by Google with an unofficial subset of 5 categories of icons that will be valuable not only for us but for the great people that use our products.
Being a product designer working from home for a couple of months due to a worldwide pandemic and taking care of a family at the same time is no easy task. Especially when you have a curious 6-year-old boy who wants to know more about your work and why it is more important than playing Monopoly or football for example.
I saw this as an opportunity to spend the time together and since my son really likes to draw, I decided to achieve this by enjoying some collaborative hours during the next days in sketching ideas for the five categories our design team has decided to start with.
Sketches my 6-year-old son did for some of the material inspired icons
We sat together with pencils in our hands and I tried to explain some design concepts. We thought about proper metaphors and real-world objects, wrote down some of the associations for possible symbols that we had in mind and then drew up some prototypes of what later would have become the new sets of material inspired icons that I designed.
My son often had questions and tried to implement what he heard in his sketches. Don’t ask me how I explained the meaning of some of the icons like fertilization and contraception since one’s understanding of an icon is based mostly on previous experience. I did not. Those symbols I kept for my eyes only. Respirator masks and viruses were far more easier to grasp (and to discuss without difficult questions) because of the challenging times we all face. The interaction with my son actually encouraged me to develop and validate my ideas even further. I now think if you can make icons memorable for a 6-year-old then you’ve done a great job.
What a valuable and productive time it was! | https://medium.com/ignite-ui/220-material-inspired-icons-for-great-user-experience-45f7279058c8 | ['Svilen Dimchevski'] | 2020-10-26 02:50:01.118000+00:00 | ['UI', 'Design', 'UX Design', 'Ignite Ui', 'Icons'] |
Why I Didn’t Tell Most People I Was a Stripper | I never planned to become a stripper. I’m not sure very many young girls dream of one day becoming an exotic dancer at a gentlemen’s club. And I can’t say I’ve ever met someone who called stripping their “ultimate dream job” — certainly not anyone from my hometown.
I come from a religious and conservative family; the people around me growing up were never afraid to vocalize their disgust of sexually liberated individuals who were so “sinfully irresponsible” with their naked bodies that they sold themselves for money.
When I was nearly finished with my MBA program and before I became a stripper, I took a trip to visit my parents back home.
There was a buzz at my parent’s house around which company I was going to work for when I finished the program. But I had one foot out the door.
Unbeknownst to my friends and family, I had reached out through Facebook to a college friend of mine who I knew was a stripper. I wanted to know more about how she started dancing, what it was like to audition for the first time, and how much money she really made. She shared herself openly, and it was because of her that the world of sex work became a tangible option for me.
The wheels were already turning in my mind about leaving my corporate life and finding myself through stripping.
After dinner with my parents, I went out with my high school friends for a night out in the city. We were sitting in the backseat of a ride-share when my friend Kayla pointed out a strip club around the corner.
Deja Blue Gentlemen’s Club was lit up with fluorescent lighting — long lines of lively customers poured onto the sidewalk, waiting to be let into the massive building.
“Is this my future?” I thought excitedly.
As the club disappeared in our rear view, Kayla said drunkenly, “I heard someone from high school works there. So embarrassing. When a girl hits rock bottom, that’s where they go.”
Everyone in the car laughed and asked horrible follow-up questions like:
“Is it Sarah M.? Or Ashley K.? She was the biggest slut during our senior year, remember?” “Can you imagine going to private school just to become a stripper?”
I stayed silent. I wanted to say so many things, but I didn’t want to out myself. And by not speaking up, I felt guilty for not supporting sex workers. I mean, I was thinking of becoming one.
I wondered what I was going to say to people like Kayla when they asked me what I did for a job if I became a stripper. I realized revealing myself to be a sex worker would sour my personal relationships and taint my corporate reputation.
That’s the reality of living in a world where sex workers aren’t “normal” people — we lose friends, family, and job opportunities because of the stigma surrounding sex work.
And that’s why so many of us lie about our jobs. It isn’t because we’re ashamed. Trust me, we’re damn empowered by this job when we’re working. We lie because people cease to see us as we are and file us away in their minds as someone who has hit rock bottom without, not even for a second, trying to understand. | https://medium.com/sexography/the-hard-truth-about-being-a-secret-stripper-94106c6c4b54 | ['Erin Taylor'] | 2020-11-10 21:55:06.895000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Relationships', 'Sexuality', 'Sex Work', 'Psychology'] |
This Is How Machines Learn! Supervised Learning (Part 2) | For many children, a dog is the animal they ever encounter (“a bow-wow”). Initially, a child will apply this term to other animals as well, such as cats and cows. Through further encounters, the child will then learn that these other animal species have distinct names and it will soon be able to identify the animals by their individual characteristics, even without explicit description.
Underlying Idea
Supervised learning algorithms function similarly. A series of data with corresponding labels is given as input. The goal is to find a pattern by which the correct labels can be assigned to the data. Subsequently, this pattern, stored in a model, can be applied to new data.
The steps below describe the activities in the figure.
Supervised Learning visualized by a robot (CC-BY Seegerer, Michaeli, Jatzlau).
① The availability of labeled data, also called training data, is crucial for the use of supervised learning. This data can take the form of bricks labeled “A”, “B”, “C” or “D”, like in the example, or photos labeled “cat” or “dog”. Sometimes existing data sets can be used. If this is not the case, data needs to be labeled manually.
② Using this labeled data, the algorithm establishes its own pattern that uses the features of the data (e.g. the shape and color of bricks) to assign a label (e.g. “A”). For images, for example, clever techniques can be used to identify simple geometric shapes that serve as features. Since the labels of the training data are known, the learning process can be “supervised”: The procedure receives feedback as to what extent the pattern labeled the data correctly. Based on this feedback, the pattern is gradually refined to achieve better and better results. This step is also called training phase. The model (the wooden stencil, in the case of our robot) represents the pattern, which should ensure the input data is given the correct label. This pattern could be represented explicitly as a decision tree, or implicitly as the parameters of a neural network. In practice, satisfactory results usually require a large amount of training data, e.g. several thousand images of animals, each labeled “cat” or “dog”.
③ Once the training is complete, the model can be used to label new (similar) data. The robot can now, for example, use its wooden stencil to assign the label A or B to other bricks. A supervised learning model trained to distinguish cats from dogs in photos can now also be used to label unknown images of dogs or cats, even if the viewing angle or lighting conditions differ from those in the training set. However, before such a model can be used, its performance, i.e. its accuracy, should be determined. For this purpose, retaining some of the labeled data as “test data” would be a good idea. This allows us to test how well the algorithm labels data that has not been involved in training. The accuracy required will vary according to the intended application. In order to predict whether a customer will click on personalized advertising, 60% correctly labeled test data might be sufficient, while for the recognition of images, an accuracy of 90% and more would be desirable.
Even if the algorithm can generalize from the specific examples provided, it is still not prepared for all eventualities. Our robot, for example, would give a semicircular brick the same label as a circular one. How could the robot be expected to know that a semicircle should have a different label if it has never seen a semicircle before?
Application Areas
A large number of commercially-used AI applications are based on supervised learning. Common application areas of this learning paradigm include classification and regression problems.
Classification problem.
In the case of classification problems, the algorithm learns, like in our robot and image recognition example, to sort data into different (predefined) categories, i.e. to assign a label to them. Typical areas of application include: Does a photo show a cat, a dog or a bird? What risk category does a debtor fall into? Is an e-mail to be classified as spam or not?
Regression problem.
Supervised learning is also used when data should be assigned a numerical value rather than a predefined label. In so-called regression problems, the algorithm determines the relationship between data points and labels provided as numerical values. Regression is therefore used to address questions like: How many weeks until a user cancels his or her video subscription? What price can we sell the house for? What will be the share price gain?
This concludes part 2 of our series. Thank you for reading. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.
Go to part 3. | https://medium.com/swlh/this-is-how-machines-learn-supervised-learning-part-2-55eb1dd0b9e9 | ['Stefan Seegerer'] | 2020-11-20 10:13:29.798000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Child Friendly', 'Computing Education', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
Why We Love to Hate Comic Sans | “Dogs don’t talk in Times New Roman.” With these immortal words, Microsoft font designer Vinnie Connare unleashed Comic Sans on the world. A font so revolutionary, so disruptive, that we’re still reconciling its existence 25 years later. People tend to hate Comic Sans, and no one with more wrath than designers. To a designer, Comic Sans is always a bug, never a feature. It is impossible to customize. It is irredeemably unprofessional. It has no place in modern design and should be banished from this earth.
But this opinion ignores a complex heritage. Back when font choices — and the supporting technology — were limited, Comic Sans was the first glimmer of expressive design for the masses. It called upon the natural feel of handwriting, the rounded shape of a fat marker on construction paper. It spoke to being young with a comic book under a flashlight. And more intentionally: its designers built it to be exceedingly legible on the web. Comic Sans has every right to make a comeback. But first: a little history.
The fun begins
It starts with Microsoft Bob in 1994. We were ready to launch Windows 95 — what would become the paradigm for the home computer. Microsoft Bob was a native application that introduced people to the newfangled concept of an operating system. “It’s like a house!” we said, triumphant. “An operating system is like exploring different rooms!”
Rover, star of the Microsoft Bob application circa 1994
During Bob’s beta release, Vinnie got a glimpse of the interface. The first thing Vinnie noticed was Rover, the friendly cartoon dog who trots around the app as your guide. Rover’s pretty cute. But his speech balloons hosted Times New Roman. Ultimately there was no time for a fix before Microsoft Bob launched, but it did not sit well with Vinnie.
“I’m not going to try to get in his head, but overall we got the green light to have Vinnie work on a comic type for the team,” said Greg Hitchcock. Dogs don’t talk in Times New Roman.
Greg has been an engineer at Microsoft for 33 years (33 years!) and holds these kinds of memories like a vault. He’s the self-proclaimed tech person on the original team of Microsoft font designers, deciphering technical issues and navigating the complexities of font development. His office is stacked with factory-sealed boxes of software like Microsoft Plus! 95 (emphasis ours, as was the fashion of the day), which included extra goodies like screen savers, Internet Explorer 1.0, and of course, font packs. This is where Comic Sans broke through to our hearts and homes.
Greg Hitchcock, 33-year font veteran at Microsoft
“Windows 3.1 had no fonts,” said Greg. “All documents had to be this Helvetica-ish font or Times New Roman. That was it. So we bring this new font system in and make all these fonts available in Plus!, and people just ate it up.”
Hidden among the goodies in Plus! 95 was our dear friend Comic Sans. “I remember summer of ’95, emails in the company started popping up with Comic Sans, and people would say, ‘I love this font.’ It had a very casual feel to it, which I think was attractive to people. You could send a fun email to someone else, and comic type conveyed that fun.”
And there it is, the contentious aesthetic of Comic Sans: it’s fun.
Playful with a purpose
Ask any designer today how they feel about Comic Sans, and you’ll get an involuntary “ugh,” maybe a laugh if they’re feeling generous. The reason behind the disdain comes down to the comical nature of it all.
“It has its place,” said Emily Johnson, Art Director for the Edge browser. “But it’s not something I would use in 99% of the ways it’s actually used today.” This is the crux of Comic Sans’s demise. As a respected font, its heyday quickly spurred its rejection due to sheer overuse.
“It’s kind of like when you hear the same song on the radio like 50 times a week,” Emily said. “It just gets overdone.”
This is no one’s fault, and it’s certainly not the font’s fault. We loved it too hard and then immediately turned our backs.
“When people use it in a correct way, or even just looking at it — it is playful,” said Ryan Vulk, Senior Designer on Windows. “There are some qualities to it that are very jovial. It kind of lightens the mood, even when it’s used incorrectly.” | https://medium.com/microsoft-design/why-we-love-to-hate-comic-sans-bbbd9386313a | ['Danielle Mcclune'] | 2019-10-21 21:02:50.427000+00:00 | ['Microsoft', 'Design', 'Creators', 'Accessibility', 'Typography'] |
Don’t Put Your Happiness in Someone Else’s Pocket | I know it’s easier said than done, as are many things. Most of the time, we don’t even realize we’re doing it, but we all have. I’ve been guilty of it, and I still catch myself doing it more often than I’d like to admit. We allow the words and actions of others to dictate our happiness, or the lack thereof.
We have to stop giving others that much power over us. We wouldn’t want to be responsible for someone else’s happiness, so why do we give so much unwanted responsibility to others?
Happiness is Something We Create
I’ve become a firm believer that we’re the designer of our own lives and the creators of our own happiness.
So how do you stop putting so much weight on what others think of you, how they act towards you, speak to you or about you, and ultimately make you feel? You flip the switch. It’s not easy, I won’t lie. But it’s necessary. You must become the most important person in your life. You must learn to fall in love with yourself.
Self-love is more than just a trendy term; it’s a way of life. Think about it. When you love someone, you do everything in your power to make sure they’re happy and well-taken care of, that they’re not lacking for anything. You show them affection, you care for their well-being, speak nicely to them. You probably even spoil them a little. And usually, if they’re a decent human, they respond in kind.
So then why, do we treat ourselves so differently? Far too often, we put ourselves last. Why do we speak badly to ourselves in the mirror, and in our minds where we think nobody can hear us? We can hear us!
Why do we fear the solitude of our own company — who decides that we’re a failure if we’re not paired up? If we’re not in a romantic relationship, or even at least a sexual one?
It’s not another person’s job to make sure you’re happy. It’s yours.
We have to stop searching for that elusive secret to happiness and start focusing on creating it.
“Y ou will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”― Albert Camus
Be your own best friend.
What is Your Dream Life
Our minds and our emotions can get so confused and chaotic. Thoughts get jumbled. Feelings pile up, overlap and get all mixed up. It becomes an overwhelming hot mess, without the hot.
Take a step back for a minute. Remove the noise from your brain, press the mute button.
Without taking any other person but yourself into consideration, what would you like your life to look like? What kind of work would make you happy? Where do you want to go in life, both physically and figuratively? Does your home make you feel good when you walk in? What about your job; do you dread going in every day, or do you look forward to it? And most importantly, how do you feel about yourself?
The home and the work are just the fluff in the grand scheme of things. The ‘self’, is the part that really matters. How you feel about yourself.
There’s a line that separates self-love and narcissism. Don’t cross that line. But it’s so important to love yourself — if you can’t love yourself, how can you ever expect another person to love you? If you’re convinced that you’re unlovable, you’re going to put out that vibe whether you mean to or not, and those around you will feel it.
Start with you — start with acknowledging all that you are. Find your qualities, quirks, flaws, and decide that you’re going to love all of it because they make you who you are. Own who you are, unapologetically. Be proud of the person you’ve grown to be, with your ideas, your goals and dreams, and accomplishments.
When you create the life you want to live for yourself, rather than to try to mold yourself in something you’re not in order to attract another person or to find that idea of perceived happiness, you’ll be setting yourself up for success. Living your truth every day, and doing so proudly, will, in turn, attract the same in kind.
You will attract people who want the same things, and who will ultimately know you and love you for the person you are, not the person you pretend to be. But it starts with you.
“Work on being in love with the person in the mirror who has been through so much but is still standing.” — Unknown
Relationship counseling
We’ve been conditioned by society to expect perfection from ourselves, and from others. So when we fall dramatically short of that mark, there must be something wrong with us. We must be a sub-par human, destined for failure at every turn. We’ll never succeed because we’re not smart enough, fit enough, wealthy enough, beautiful enough, loveable enough…
Stop.
If a partner were to be treating you this way, you’d get angry. And if you wanted to fix the relationship, you would do everything in your power to do so. Get to the root of the issues. Talk it out. Maybe sign up for couple’s therapy.
Well, with yourself, you really don’t have a choice — we don’t get to break up with ourselves. We’re in this for the long haul. That doesn’t mean have to keep going the way you are. If you want to fix your relationship with yourself but you feel it’s just too far gone, then maybe you need a little help. Some assistance from someone on the outside looking in.
Just like a marriage turned sour, you’re going to need to dig up the roots of why you feel the way you do about yourself. In order to move forward in a place of acceptance, love, and gratitude, you first need to find the source of the problems so you can work on them.
You need to ask yourself some difficult questions. Like why do you have issues with confidence? With believing in yourself? Why do you have trouble in relationships? Why are you constantly plagued with self-doubt? And most importantly, why don’t you like yourself?
It all comes from somewhere, and often times we think we know where, but we’re wrong. Getting to the source of the problem is the only path to finding the solution. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/dont-put-your-happiness-in-someone-else-s-pocket-f8169e6852b5 | ['Edie Tuck'] | 2020-01-14 15:54:21.677000+00:00 | ['Self-awareness', 'Love', 'Life Lessons', 'Happiness', 'Self Love'] |
Painting of Home | Having for so long traversed the hills and the gullies of bodies along the way, listening for the thunder of eyelashes, immersing myself in shoulder smells, I remember now for what reason I came.
Such words, one might believe, could become a poem, a painting, a song, every word accompanied by a continual desire to share such rare beauty — all because, one day, the sun awoke and shone down hope, inducing deliriums of sweet indolence. The fermentations of the shadows and the ancient curves of romance have recorded a lifelong caress of the innocent, surging and dying away with each kiss.
My evenings now, sprinkled with laughter, angled and leaning in through the lattice fence outside the window, form diamonds of light on the study wall. I think about these diamonds as people vanished from my childhood. They shine still. I was stupid and young, but had devoted parents. I was not sure how I would create myself, standing so often mid-stream, balanced on stones, thumbs in belt loops, so young and so naïve. I’d get into bed while it was still light, pushing away the covers, hearing older children in the field playing soccer, or on the swings in the field, but I had my room, and a mother who read to me every night, long enough to provide a feeling of stability, comfort, peace and well-being.
It is not a poem, or a song, it is a painting of home. | https://medium.com/literally-literary/painting-of-home-6d89da8491ed | ['Harry Hogg'] | 2020-07-06 04:23:28.936000+00:00 | ['Nonfiction', 'Prose', 'Love', 'Scotland', 'Home'] |
Pranking Driverless Cars, Dangerously Foolish Acts | Dr. Lance B. Eliot, AI Insider
Pedestrians pranking self-driving cars is arising and dangerously foolish
When you do a prank on someone, it hopefully is done in jest and with no particular adverse consequences.
Some would say that pranks are fun, interesting, and not a big deal. Even those that pull pranks would likely reluctantly admit that you can take things too far. A good friend of mine got hurt when someone with them at a bar opted to suddenly pull their chair away from the table when they had gotten up, and the friend upon trying to sit back down, unknowingly and shockingly went all the way to the floor. The impact to the floor hurt their back, neck, and nearly caused a head concussion. My friend went to the local emergency room for a quick check-up. A seemingly “fun” joke that was meant to be harmless, turned out to have serious consequences.
Of course, pranks can be purposely designed to be foul.
Let’s shift attention from the notion of pranks to something similar to a prank, but we’ll recast it in different terms.
What does this have to do with AI self-driving cars?
At the Cybernetic AI Self-Driving Car Institute, we are developing AI systems for self-driving cars. One of the concerns currently about AI self-driving cars is that some people are trying prank them.
The AI of today’s self-driving cars is still quite crude in comparison to where we all hope to be down-the-road. Generally, you can consider the AI to be a very timid driver.
You need to be aware that there are various levels of AI self-driving cars. The topmost level is referred to as Level 5. A Level 5 self-driving car is one that is supposed to be able to drive the car without any human driver needed. Thus, the AI needs to be able to drive the car as though it was as proficient as a human driver. This is not easy to do.
For self-driving cars less than a Level 5, it is assumed and required that a human driver be present. Furthermore, the human driver is considered responsible for the driving task, in spite of the aspect that the driving is being co-shared by the human driver and the AI system.
Early AI Self-Driving Cars Cautious Like Teenage Drivers
So, imagine that you’ve got an AI system that drives a Level 5 self-driving car in the simplest of ways, being at times akin to a teenage driver (though, don’t over ascribe that analogy; the AI is not at all “thinking” and thus not similar to a human mind, even that of a teenager!). The AI is driving the self-driving car and taking lots of precautions. This makes sense in that the auto makers and tech firms don’t want an AI self-driving car to be driving in a manner that could add risk to having an incident occur.
You’ve got a kind of grand convergence in that some people have figured out how timid these AI self-driving cars are, and of those people, there are some that have opted to take advantage of the circumstances. As I’ll emphasize in a moment, more and more people are going to similarly opt to “prank” AI self-driving cars.
When AI self-driving cars first started appearing, it was considered a novelty and most people kept clear of an AI self-driving car. They did so because they were surprised to even encounter one.
In addition, most of the time, the AI self-driving cars were being tried out on public roads in relatively high-tech areas. Places like Sunnyvale, California and Palo Alto. These are geographical areas that are dominated by tech firms and tech employees.
One of the early-on stories about how the AI reacts in a timid manner consisted of the now famous four-way stop tale. It is said that an AI self-driving car would come to a four-way stop, and do what’s expected, namely come to a full and complete stop. Do humans also come to a full and complete stop? Unless you live in some place that consists of rigorously law-abiding human drivers, I dare say that many people do a rolling stop. They come up to the stop sign and if it looks presumably safe to do so, they continue rolling forward and into the intersection.
In theory, we are all supposed to come to a complete stop and then judge as to which car should proceed if more than one car has now stopped at the four-way stop.
Well, the AI self-driving car detected that other cars were coming up to or at the stop sign on the other sides of the four-way stop. The AI then calculated that it should identify what those other cars are going to do. If a human inadvertently misreads a stop sign and maybe doesn’t even realize it is there, and therefore barrels into an intersection, you would certainly want to have the AI self-driving car not mistakenly enter into the intersection and get into an untoward incident with that ditsy human driver. Crash, boom.
But, suppose those human drivers weren’t necessarily ditsy and were just driving as humans do. They came up to the stop sign and did a traditional rolling stop. The AI of the self-driving car would likely interpret the rolling stop as an indicator that the other car is not going to keep the intersection clear. The right choice then would be for the AI to keep the self-driving car at the stop sign, waiting until the coast is clear.
Suppose though that human driven cars, one after another, all did the same rolling stop. The AI, being timid or cautious, allegedly sat there, waiting patiently for its turn.
Was it coincidental that the other cars, the human driver cars, proceeded each to do a rolling stop? It could be. But, it could also be that they noticed that the other car waiting at the stop sign was an AI self-driving car.
Is this a prank then by those human drivers upon an AI self-driving car?
I suppose you might argue with the use of the word “prank” in this case. Were those humans trying to pull away the seat of someone before they sat down? Were these humans messing with someone’s experiment as a means to get revenge? In one sense, you could argue that they were pranking the AI self-driving car, and doing so to gain an advantage over the AI self-driving car (didn’t want to wait at a four-way stop). You could also argue that it wasn’t a prank per se, but more like a maneuver to keep traffic flowing (in their minds they might have perceived this), and perhaps it is like a feint in a sport.
Imagine if the human driver coming up to the four-way stop tried to do a rolling stop, but meanwhile another human driven car did the same thing. You’d likely end-up with a game of chicken. Each would challenge the other. If you dare to move forward, I will too. The other driver is thinking the same.
The four-way stop example showcases the situation of an AI self-driving car and its relationship to human driven cars. There’s also the circumstances of a pedestrian messing around with an AI self-driving car.
Pedestrians Likely to Mess with Self-Driving Cars
Depending upon where you live in the world, you’ve probably seen pedestrians that try to mess with human drivers of conventional cars. In New York, it seems an essential part of life to stare down human drivers when you are crossing the street, especially when jaywalking.
There is no ready means to do a traditional stare down with an AI self-driving car. Presumably, a pedestrian would then be mindful to be less risky when trying to negotiate the crossing of a street. They can no longer make the eye contact that says don’t you dare drive there and get in my pedestrian way. Instead, the AI self-driving car is going to be possibly do whatever it darned well pleases to do.
I’d gauge that most pedestrians right now are willing to give an AI self-driving car a wide berth, but this is only if they even realize it is an AI self-driving car. There are many AI self-driving cars that are easily recognizable because they have a conehead shape on the top of the self-driving car (usually containing the LIDAR sensor). Once again fitting into the “amazement” category, pedestrians are in awe to see one drive past them. Give it room, is the thought most people likely have.
But, if you see them all the time and instantly recognize them, the awe factor is gone.
In a manner similar to the four-way stop, you can often get an AI self-driving car to halt or change its course, doing so by some simple trickery. The AI is likely trying to detect pedestrians that appear to be a “threat” to the driving task. If you are standing on the sidewalk and a few feet from the curb, and you are standing still, you would be likely marked as a low threat or non-threat. If you instead were at the curb, your threat level increases. If you are in-motion and going in the direction of the street and where the AI self-driving car is headed, your threat risk increases further.
Knowing this, you can potentially fool the AI into assuming that you are going to jaywalk. Given the timid nature of the AI, it will likely then calculate that it might be safer to come to a stop and let you do so, or maybe swerve to let you do so. If you have one pedestrian try this, and it works to halt the AI self-driving car, and if there are more pedestrians nearby that witness this, they too will likely opt to play the same trick.
You don’t need an AI self-driving car to see this same kind of phenomena occurring. Drive to any downtown area that is filled with pedestrians. If those pedestrians’ sense that you are a sheep, they will take advantage of the situation. As we increasingly have more AI self-driving cars on our roadways, I’ll predict that the “amazement” category will fade and instead will be replaced with the “prank” an AI self-driving car mindset.
Some AI developers that are working on AI self-driving cars are dumbfounded when I make such a prediction. They believe fervently in the great value to society that AI self-driving cars will bring. They cannot fathom why people would mess around with this.
Why would people mess around with AI self-driving cars in this “prank” kind of way?
Here’s some of the likely reasons:
Why did the chicken cross the road, in order to get to the other side. If humans, whether as drivers or pedestrians, perceive that an AI self-driving car is essentially in their way, some of those humans are going to find a means to keep it from getting in their way. These humans will simply outmaneuver the AI self-driving car, as such, one of the easiest means will be to do a feint and the AI self-driving car will do the rest for the human.
Humans at times like to show that they are as smart or even smarter than automation. What can be more ego boosting than to outwit a seemingly supreme AI system that’s driving a car?
Some humans are frankly show-offs. Watch me, a pedestrian says to anyone nearby, as I trick a human driver into thinking I’m going to jump into the street and that driver will freak out. Equally treasured if it’s an AI system that gets freaked out.
Humans love sports. They invent new sports all the time. Remember planking? Well, one brand new sport will be pranking an AI self-driving car. Imagine the YouTube videos and the number of views for the most outlandish pranks that successfully confounded an AI self-driving car.
They say that curiosity killed the cat. Don’t know about that. A human though is likely to be curious about AI self-driving cars and what makes them tick. Wouldn’t you be tempted to as a pedestrian wave your arms in the air and see if it causes an AI self-driving car to react? Of course, you would.
There are some that believe AI is a potential doomsday path for society. In that case, you’d want to provide tangible examples of how AI can get things goofed-up. Making an AI self-driving car do something that we would not expect a human driven car to do, or that shows how much less capable the AI is than a human, it’s a likely gold star for anyone aiming to take down AI.
Some Likely to Envision Their Pranks Are Helpful
There could be some people that will ponder whether they might somehow help AI self-driving cars by purposely trying to prank them. If you come up behind your friend and say boo, the next time someone else does it, they’ll hopefully be better prepared. Some people will assume that if they prank an AI self-driving car, it will learn from it, and then no longer be so gullible. They might be right, or they might be mistaken to believe that the AI will get anything out of it (this depends on how the AI developers developed the AI for the self-driving car).
There you have it, a plethora of reasons that people will be tempted to prank an AI self-driving car. I can come up with more reasons, but I think you get the idea that we are heading toward a situation wherein a lot of people will be motivated to undertake such pranks.
What’s going to stop these pranksters?
Some auto makers and tech firms, and especially some AI developers, believe that we should go the root of the problem. What is that root? In their minds, it’s the pesky and bothersome human that’s the problem.
As such, such advocates say that we should enact laws that will prevent humans from pranking AI self-driving cars.
In this view, if you have tough enough penalties, whether monetary fines or jail time, it will make pranksters think twice and stop their dastardly ways. Overall, it’s not clear that a regulatory means of solving the problem will be much help in the matter. I’m sure that law abiding people will certainly abide by such a new law. Lawbreakers would seem less likely, unless there’s a magical way to readily catch them at their crime and prosecute them for it.
If we go down that rabbit hole, how exactly are we to ascertain that someone was carrying out a prank? Maybe the person was waving their arms or making their way into the street, and they had no idea an AI self-driving car was there. Also, are we going to outlaw the prankster doing the same thing to a human driver? If not, could the prankster claim they were making the motions toward a human driver and not the AI?
I’d say that the legal approach would be an untenable morass.
There are some though that counter-argue that when trains first became popular, people eventually figured out to not prank trains. It was presumably easy for someone to stand in the train tracks and possibly get an entire train to come to a halt. But, this supposedly never took root. Some say there are laws against it, depending upon which geographical area you are in. Certainly, one could also say that there are more general laws that could apply in terms of endangering others and yourself.
Some say that we should have a consumer education campaign to make people aware of the limitations of AI self-driving cars. Perhaps the government could sponsor such a campaign, maybe even making it mandatory viewing by government workers. It could be added into school programs. Businesses maybe would be incentivized to educate their employees about fooling around with pranking of AI self-driving cars.
Some are a bit more morbid and suggest that once a few people are injured by having pranked an AI self-driving, and once some people are killed, it will cause people generally to realize that doing a prank on an AI self-driving car has some really bad consequences. People will realize that it makes no sense to try and fool AI self-driving cars since it can cause lives to be lost.
These and similar arguments are all predicated on the same overarching theme, namely that the AI is the AI, and that the thing that needs to be changed is humans and human behavior.
I’d be willing to wager a bet that people will not be willing to accept an AI system that can be so readily pranked.
I know that this disappoints many of those AI developers that are prone to pointing the finger at the humans, and in their view it’s better, easier, faster to change human behavior. I would suggest that we ought to be looking instead at the AI and not delude ourselves into believing that mediocre AI will carry the day and force society to adjust to it.
I realize there are some that contend that people won’t somehow figure out that they can prank AI self-driving cars. Maybe only a few people here or there will do so, but it won’t be a mainstream activity.
I’d like to suggest we burst that bubble. I assure you that once AI self-driving cars start becoming prevalent, people will use social media to share readily all the ways to trick, fool, deceive, or prank an AI self-driving car. Word will spread like wildfire.
You know how some software systems have hidden Easter eggs? In a manner of speaking, the weaknesses of the AI systems for self-driving cars will be viewed in the same light. People will delight in finding these eggs. Say, did you hear that the AI self-driving car model X will pull over to the curb if you run directly at it while the self-driving car is going less than 5 miles per hour?
Look Forward to Being Duped by a False Prank
This though is also going to create its own havoc. The tips about how to prank an AI self-driving car will include suggestions that aren’t even true. People will make them up out-of-the-blue. You’ll then have some dolt that will try it on an AI self-driving car, and when the self-driving car nearly hits them, they’ll maybe realize they were duped into believing a false prank.
It could be that true prank tips might also no longer work on an AI self-driving car. As mentioned earlier, there is a chance that the Machine Learning (ML) of the AI might catch onto a prank and then be able to avoid falling victim to it again. There’s also the OTA (Over The Air) updating of AI self-driving cars, wherein the auto maker or tech firm can beam into the AI self-driving various updates and patches. If the auto makers or tech firm gets wind of a prank, they might be able to come up with a fix and have it sent to the AI self-driving cars.
This though has its own difficulties. People may not yet realize that the AI self-driving cars are not homogenous and that the nature of the AI systems differs by the auto maker or tech firm.
In short, though I am not one to say that a technological problem must always have a technological solution, I’d vote in this case that there should be more attention toward having the AI be good enough that it cannot be readily pranked.
We need to focus on anti-pranking capabilities for AI self-driving cars.
I say this and realize that in so doing that I am laying down a gauntlet for others to help pick-up and run with. We are doing the same.
This is a difficult problem to solve and not one that lends itself to any quick or easy solution. I know that some of you might say that an AI self-driving car needs to shed its tepidness. By being more brazen, it would be able to not only overcome most pranks, it would create a reputation that says don’t mess with me, I’m AI that’s not be played for a fool.
Here’s an example of why that’s not so easy to achieve. A pedestrian walks into the middle of the street, right in front of where an AI self-driving car is heading. Let’s assume we don’t know whether it’s a prank. Maybe the pedestrian is drunk. Maybe the pedestrian is looking at their smartphone and is unaware of the approaching car. Or, maybe it is indeed a prank.
What would you have the AI do? If it was a human driver, we’d assume and expect that the human driver will try to stop the car or maneuver to avoid hitting the pedestrian. Is this because the human is timid? Not really. Even the most brazen of human drivers is likely to take evasive action. They might first honk the horn, and maybe shine their headlights, and do anything they can to get the human to get out of the way, but if it comes down to hitting the pedestrian, most human drivers will try to avoid doing so.
Indeed, for just the same reasons, I’m a strong proponent of having AI self-driving cars become more conspicuous in such circumstances. My view is that an AI self-driving car should use the same means that humans do when trying to warn someone or draw attention to their car. Honk the horn. Make a scene. This is something that we’re already working on and urge the auto makers and tech firms to do likewise.
Nonetheless, if that human pedestrian wont budge, the car, whether human driven or self-driving, will have to do something to try and avoid the hitting of the pedestrian.
That being said, some humans play such games with other humans, by first estimating whether they believe the human driver will back-down or not. As such, there is some credence to the idea that the AI needs to be more firm about what it is doing. If it is seen as a patsy, admittedly people will rely upon that. This doesn’t take us to the extreme posture that the AI needs to therefore hit or run someone down to intentionally prove its mettle.
In the case of the four-way stop situation, I’ve commented many times that if the other human drivers realized that the AI self-driving car was willing to play the same game of doing a rolling stop, it would cause those human drivers to be less prone to pulling the stunt of the rolling stop to get the AI self-driving car into a bind. I’ve indicated over and over that AI self-driving cars are going to from time-to-time be “illegal” drivers. I know this makes some go nuts since they are living in a Utopian world whereby no AI self-driving car ever breaks the law, but that’s not so easily applied in the real-world of driving.
Some say too that two illegal acts, one by the human driver and one by the AI, does not make a right. I’d agree with that overall point, but also would like to note that there are “small” illegal driving acts happening every day by every human driver. I know its tempting to say that we should hold AI self-driving cars to a higher standard, but this does not comport with the realities of driving in a world of mixed human driving and AI driving. We are not going to have only and exclusively AI self-driving cars on our roadway, and no human driven cars, for a very long time.
There’s also the viewpoint that AI self-driving cars can team-up with each other to either avoid pranks or learn from pranks on a shared basis. With the advent of V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle communications), AI self-driving cars will be able to electronically communicate with each other. In the case of a prank, it could be that one self-driving car detects a prankster trying a prank on it, and then the AI shares this with the next self-driving cars coming down that same street. As such, then all of those AI self-driving cars might be ready to contend with the prank.
Unfortunately, there’s also another side of that coin. Suppose the AI of a self-driving car inadvertently misleads another AI self-driving car into anticipating a prank when in fact there isn’t one coming up. It’s a false positive. This could readily occur. The forewarned AI self-driving car has to be savvy enough to determine what action to take, or not to take, not simply by the word shared with it from other AI self-driving car.
If you introduced a slew of teenage drivers into our roadways, doing so all at once, what would happen? Presumably, you’d have tons of timid human drivers that would not take the kinds of shortcuts that more seasoned human drivers have learned over time. Some hope or believe that the AI self-driving cars will do the same. In essence, over time, with the use of Machine Learning and via OTA updates by the AI developers, the AI self-driving cars will get better at more “brazen” driving aspects.
Depending upon the pace at which AI self-driving cars are adopted, some think that maybe the initial small population of AI self-driving cars will take the brunt of the pranking and this will then be overcome by those AI self-driving cars getting us to the next generation of AI self-driving cars. It will be a blip that people at one time pranked the AI self-driving cars in their early days of roadway trials (remember when you could stick out your leg and pretend you were kicking toward an AI self-driving car, and it would honk its horn at you — what a fun prank that was!).
I’d suggest we need to take a more overt approach to this matter and not just hope or assume that the “early day” AI self-driving cars will come through on getting better at dealing with pranks. We need to be building anti-pranking into AI self-driving cars. We need to be boosting the overall driving capabilities of AI self-driving cars to be more human-like. Having AI self-driving cars on our roadways that can too easily fall for a feint attack or a feint retreat, well, those kinds of AI self-driving cars are going to potentially spoil the public’s interest and desire in having AI self-driving cars on our roadways. There will always be human pranksters, it’s likely in the human DNA. Face reality and let’s make sure the “DNA” of AI self-driving cars is anti-prank encoded.
For free podcast of this story, visit: http://ai-selfdriving-cars.libsyn.com/website
The podcasts are also available on Spotify, iTunes, iHeartRadio, etc.
More info about AI self-driving cars, see: www.ai-selfdriving-cars.guru
To follow Lance Eliot on Twitter: @LanceEliot
Copyright 2018 Dr. Lance Eliot | https://lance-eliot.medium.com/pranking-driverless-cars-dangerously-foolish-acts-3acaecc80b5e | ['Lance Eliot'] | 2019-04-01 17:21:38.091000+00:00 | ['Driverless Cars', 'Autonomous Cars', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Autonomous Vehicles', 'Self Driving Cars'] |
Sprouting Nightmares Taking Early Root | He grabbed her on their tan, microfiber couch and hugged her close. Dad was a hugger, a bear of a man but kind to a fault. Robyn anticipated his next moves because when she returned from Pre-K, Dad expressed his exuberance the same way nearly every day. He couldn’t wait to see her and embrace her, then kiss her and ask,
“What did you learn at school today?”
Robyn’s answers ranged from “Nothing Dad” to describing the arithmetic and words they were learning. There were days Dad danced with her while they played music on the TV through a YouTube app, but Mom always screamed from the office,
“Turn that noise down!”
After picking Robyn up at Little Princess and Lord Learning Academy, Trisha Mwezi returned to remote work in their office, a converted spare bedroom. Mom was busy managing her company’s advertising budget and overseeing operating expenses until five or six in the afternoon. She couldn’t stand loud sounds disrupting her work.
Robyn loved Dad’s attention, but he sometimes didn’t know when to stop his tickle attacks. He started with her knees and knew just where to squeeze on the sides to make her explode with laughter. Then he would pretend he was finished, but after letting her catch her breath, Dad ambushed her underarms. Results produced devastating giggles.
Today Dad would not relent. Three days passed since her fourth birthday, and when she returned from Pre-K, Dad said,
“I forgot to give you your birthday tickle.”
Robyn attempted to escape, but Dad was strong and pinned her to their tan couch. Tickles began. At first, Robyn screamed with delight. She howled and chuckled. But the tickling went on and on. The torture of laughter lasted too long, and Robyn began to run out of air. She told Dad through hiccups,
“Stop. I can’t breathe. Dad, please…”
But Dad didn’t understand her raspy, soft voice. Robyn closed her eyes and hoped he would quit tickling her. She stopped laughing and then felt her body shiver. Robyn no longer felt the tickles but saw in the darkness. Her imagination illuminated in a red aura shimmering around black stones similar to her smooth black obsidian she always kept in her hand or pocket.
Since Mom gave her the 2-inch long piece of rock, she made sure to have it near. Her obsidian was a place of comfort and safety to help her anytime she felt nervous or unsure about anything. Mom told her,
“Rub the stone whenever your Dad and I aren’t near, and you’ll remember our love is always with you. The obsidian will help you be brave!” Robyn knew of no better present she could get for her third birthday besides the new neon pink bike dad gave her.
In her waking dream, the black rocks sprouted into glimmering, black flowers. And, their heart-shaped petals began to spasm in tremors. Robyn found them beautiful, and they spoke to her without words, saying, “We understand.”
She was part of the ‘We’ and felt one with the flowers. When the flowers began to sprout new flowers on top of themselves, Robyn felt a jolt and opened her eyes. Dad was not tickling her anymore. Where was he? Robyn searched the length of the couch and scanned the family room around her.
Dad was on the ground beside the couch. He looked unusual and was silent, but his mouth was open and his eyes focused upward. He didn’t blink, and Robyn watched him lie perfectly still for a minute before she said,
“Dad, are you faking again?”
Robyn smiled when she saw her obsidian had fallen out of her clenched fist and landed on her Dad’s chest. She grabbed her stone and said,
“Dad, you can’t have my stone. It’s magic. It can grow shiny, black flowers. I’m gonna tell Mom on you. You’re playing too much. Mom’s going to tickle you for freaking me out.”
Robyn went to her room and played with her obsidian, then colored a picture of trees, vibrant flowers, and a river under a bright yellow sun. She drew one black flower sprouting from a black stone in the green grass under the tree. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/sprouting-nightmares-taking-early-root-1339d35b133c | ['Greg Prince'] | 2020-10-24 19:17:06.478000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Fantasy', 'Storytelling', 'Fiction', 'Horror'] |
Implementing different CNN Architectures on Plant Seedlings Classification dataset — Part 1 (LeNet) | As a beginner in Data Science, I was really intrigued by Computer Vision, this was because, the work done in Computer Vision was easily visible (through applications by Facebook and Google, ex., Google Lens) and we, as humans always have the tendency to go after what glitters. Even though, a lot of work has been done in the field of traditional Machine Learning and even NLP, we still find Computer Vision, more interesting. After going through the initial concepts of Neural Networks, I started exploring CNN and I immediately knew that , understanding all of this theoretically is very important but the practical implementation is equally important as well. Some of the most common datasets that we have worked on, are, MNIST, CIFAR-10, CAT-DOG breed classification etc.
But these datasets were well curated for theoretical purposes. I knew that I had to come up with a dataset with which, I could do everything from scratch, which means, getting the data, reshaping it, splitting the data, implementing the different CNN architectures from scratch and then finally building my own custom model and testing it for efficiency. Now, in order to get a multi-class image dataset, I went to Kaggle and there, I got the plant seedlings dataset.
This dataset was a playground prediction competition where, I could create a model, use that to get some predictions and then test them by uploading the results on the Kaggle platform. I thought this was a good way to test all the different CNN architectures including my own custom model.
This was a good iterative way of studying the architecture and implementing it from scratch.
The exercise that I used to follow was to read the CNN architecture research papers and then implement them from scratch on the plant seedlings dataset. I have a MSI GF-65 laptop with 16 GB of memory and my GPU is 6 GB Nvidia 1660ti (which was still not enough…:-)).
The various architectures that I implemented were as follows:
LeNet Alexnet VGG Inception Custom Model
Let’s start with implementing the different architectures:
I first downloaded the data, which was a zip file and then extracted the content. I saw that there were three folders: ‘train’, ‘test’ and ‘sample submission.csv’.
Plant Seedling Data
I then checked the ‘train’ data folder and saw that there were 12 different classes.
Different Classes inside Plant Seedlings Data
I manually checked to see the different items in every folder and saw that some classes had more images as compared to the other.
This was alarming since I knew that the model would get biased to the images which are more in number.
In order to fix that, I created a new train folder where, I copied 200 images from every class.
I then created a validation set which had 20 images from every class. This way, I was preventing the unnecessary bias that would creep inside the model.
Now since the train and validation data was prepared, I started with implementing the different models.
LeNet: I started with the LeNet architecture, I read the research paper and implemented the code in Keras.
I first imported all the packages. I am using Tensorflow-gpu 1.15 and Keras 2.3.1
Importing all the packages
I then use the Image Data Generator to create my train and validation set. This will take care of all the pre-processing steps required for the data to be trained and the labels. This includes normalization, adding some shear and zoom range to create certain level of data augmentation.
Using the Image data generator to create the train and validation set.
Keras ImageDataGenerator accepts a batch of input images, applies a series of random transformations to each image and then replaces the original batch with the recently transformed batch.
accepts a batch of input images, applies a series of random transformations to each image and then replaces the original batch with the recently transformed batch. After the data has been setup, I then create the LeNet Model:
It consists of two convolution layers with max pooling layers in between, followed by two fully connected layers.
I then use ‘Adam’ as my optimizer and since, there are 12 classes, I use, ‘Categorical_Crossentropy’, as my loss.
LeNet Model
I then train the model for 10 epochs with the training steps as 500 and validation as 300. I pass the train and validation sets to the model.
Model training with loss and accuracy
Based on the above image, we can confirm that our accuracy never goes beyond 73%.
After saving the model, I use it on my test set and I generate a sample_submission.csv file which contains the ID and the appropriate class.
Saving the Model to Disk and loading the model for predictions
Loading the model and using it for prediction
Based on the above image, I use the model to start making predictions on the test set.
I use the glob library to get a list of all the files and then iterate over them, I append the name of the images to an empty list called ‘IDs’.
I then load the image, convert it to an array and then use ‘expand_dims’ to flatten the array.
I then use my model to do the predictions, which comes in the form of an array. For ex: [[0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]]
I use the ‘If-Else’ conditions to get the various classes and append them to an empty list called ‘Preds’.
I now use the ‘Ids’ and ‘Preds’ to create my ‘sample_submission.csv’ file.
Saving the Predictions to a CSV file
You should always open the ‘sample_submission.csv’ file, which you get with the Kaggle data to get the names of the columns.
Columns of Sample_Submission file
Since, I know the columns now, I prepare the CSV using the same name and then upload it to Kaggle.
In order to do this, go to the Plant Seedlings Classification and click on ‘Late Submission’.
Late Submission tab
When you click on ‘Late Submission’, you will get an option to upload your file.
Uploading the file to get a score
Once the file is uploaded, click on ‘Make Submission’, to get the score.
Uploading the file and making the submissions
So, I got a score of around 29%, which means, I was only able to predict 29 images correctly out of a 100.
Classification Score for the predictions | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/implementing-different-cnn-architectures-on-plant-seedlings-dataset-to-get-a-good-score-part-1-a90c2d3f306f | [] | 2020-12-04 17:19:49.421000+00:00 | ['Beginners Guide', 'Lenet', 'Convolutional Network', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
Getting Started With Concurrency in Python: Part III — Multiprocessing | Communication Between Processes
As mentioned already, each process has its own memory space and this is a major reason why issues like race conditions are not encountered in multiprocessing as often as in multithreaded programs.
In the code snippet below, we create two processes that can access global data list — however, none of them actually alters the list in place. data is changed only in the processes’ own memory spaces, leaving the main program memory space untouched.
Unique Memory Space Demonstration
So, how do we share the data between processes then? That is, how do processes communicate with one another (and with the main program, which is also a process)?
There are several ways, as outlined below (the examples are largely based on this source, which you may refer to for more details).
1. Shared Memory
We can create special arrays and objects allocated from shared memory. For instance, the multiprocessing module allows us to create Array and Value objects that will be shared between processes. In the code below we are creating an Array object of size 3 and specifying that it should include integer data types only (denoted with ‘i’). We also create the Value object with the specification that it should be some value of integer type.
Shared Memory
The output of this program will be a printed data list ([27000, 64000, 125000]) and value (216000) which will be the same both in the main program and the process (p5).
2. Managers
Manager class allows us to control a server process, which holds objects and allows other processes to manipulate them through proxies. For example, we can create a list in the server’s memory space and pass it as an argument to the processes we’d like to run. All code under the with statement will be within the manager’s scope — the manager allows data to be shared between the processes.
Manager Example
3. Queues
Queues can be used to pass messages between processes. In the example below, there are two processes communicating via the queue — one process is adding cubes of numbers to the queue q , while the other one is reading the queue elements until q empties.
We call .put() to add a value to the queue, and .get() to pop the value from the queue.
Queue Example
4. Pipes
Python’s multiprocessing module has a Pipe() function that returns a pair of connection objects. A pipe has two endpoints — the sender and the receiver sides. Messages get sent from one end of the pipe to another using the .send() method and they are received by the other end with the .recv() method.
Pipe Example
Pipes are faster than Queues — however, if there are more than two endpoints of communication, queues are the choice to go with. One thing that makes pipes not as safe as queues is that if two processes attempt to read or write from/to the same endpoint at the same time, data can be corrupted. | https://medium.com/swlh/getting-started-with-concurrency-in-python-part-iii-multiprocessing-cab0d6b52e3 | ['Narmin Jamalova'] | 2020-11-20 18:34:57.304000+00:00 | ['Python3', 'Programming', 'Python', 'Multiprocessing', 'Concurrency'] |
Why digital influence is so messed up — and what really matters instead | Some time ago, I received a list that included the “Top Fake Artists” who had bought followers on Twitter. It included many well-known electronic music DJs, with their stage names and Twitter accounts.
Photo credit: el Colombiano.
Wait a minute! This is a very serious issue. You’re making information that could be very damaging, public. Is this damage really necessary? If this were actually true, don’t you think they’d be frustrated enough knowing that they’ve had to buy fans/followers, unable to get them through their own work and effort? When you’re prepared to make such a claim, you’d better be 100% sure of what you’re saying and make sure that your source is reliable enough to put your credibility, name and reputation at stake. Yes, that’s what you’re doing!
Otherwise, you’ll just be another “cheap talker”, someone who spends their time looking for a way to sabotage the work and dreams of others, simply because someone –even themselves– sabotaged their life. Please, don’t be that kind of person! Wouldn’t it be better to speak of things that can be changed or improved, things that should be empowered, trying to help or contribute.
Something Just Doesn’t Add Up
As a result of this, I started testing with brands, famous people, regular users and even my own clients, using a tool called Status People. This tool supposedly measures the level of “fake” fans that a user may have in Twitter. I was surprised that, according to this, many relevant, famous people with a large number of followers have many “fakes” in their accounts. For instance, Piqué had 30% “fakes”. 30% fakes of 4 million fans? (at that time…) Something just doesn’t add up.
Another part of the figures shows inactive followers which are also a high percentage of many accounts. OK, but my question is: What do they base their calculations on to say whether a user is active or inactive? And fake?
You Cannot Measure What’s Not In Your Reach
I contacted them to ask whether their service was 100% reliable. They told me that their tool follows every tweet made by a user in their timeline as they cannot access the Twitter database. Of course they can’t. What this means is that this type of tool follows every tweet and if a specific user publishes nothing in a few days, they configure their account to “protect tweets” or if it is based on location (the tool doesn’t use geo-location), they define their user as inactive. Does this add up? It doesn’t to me.
Ego-System Tools
I think this is a clear example of what is causing social media distruption, making the ego-system we live in bigger, distracting us and preventing us from doing the work that really matters, doing something. These tools, like many others: Klout, Peer Index and a few others (I’m afraid they matter so little to me that I can’t even be bothered to remember their names), simply try to get users to subscribe so they can store their information. And what’s more, some of them even try to get you to pay for the service!!! Their service is poor and unreliable. Some will probably close and, others, simply forgotten.
If They’re Fake, the Big Ones Will Know
Facebook started a process which deletes fake fans from pages, as well as blocking fake users (spam). Twitter has already started doing the same thing.
If we get carried along and work like these odd assessment systems do, we’ll see that their Facebook page has 933 fans and no one “likes” their posts. So, we could say that their fans are inactive; that is, they’re also fake.
Lady Gaga had 28 million followers: 34% “fake,” 38% inactive and 28% good. Will she have really paid for all those millions of fans? (Is there an emoticon for über-sceptic?)
The only ones who can actually say how many “fakes” there are, are Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. I think there’s no further discussion possible; not from me anyway.
Opportunity Isn’t in Accepting
Forget about scores, ranks, points, bonus points or any other classification methods. They’re just trying to fit you into a system. Once they have you, they’ll forget about you and try to find other sheep to get into the herd. Instead, stand upright, take a step forward, look ahead: we’re living amazing times, make the most of it!
As long as there are still people sabotaging, intimidating, frustrating and cheating, our job will be increasingly relevant.
Bonus: if you were wondering what the result of my “fake” analysis was, I did it while I wrote this; I wasn’t going to but I thought it would be fun. So, there you have it: 6% “fakes”, 25% inactive and 69% good. I can’t afford to buy as many followers as Lady Gaga! (another über-sceptic emoticon here) | https://medium.com/multiplier-magazine/why-digital-influence-is-so-messed-up-and-what-really-matters-5ac567d735c3 | ['Isra García'] | 2017-09-16 01:27:16.576000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Influencer Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'Social Media', 'Social Media Marketing'] |
Tutorial: How to Scale and Rotate Contours in OpenCV using Python | Learning by example
Throughout this short tutorial, I would be using a simple image to demonstrate my points, below is some code for imports and loading the image, and generating the contours. You know, that standard stuff!
import cv2
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# Reading the image
im = cv2.imread('sample_img.png')
# Converting image to grayscale
imgray = cv2.cvtColor(im, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
# Thresholding and getting contours from the image
ret, thresh = cv2.threshold(imgray, 127, 255, 0)
contours, hierarchy = cv2.findContours(thresh, cv2.RETR_TREE, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE) im_copy = im.copy() cv2.drawContours(im_copy, contours, 0, (255, 0, 0), 3) plt.imshow(im_copy)
plt.axis("off");
Sample image with detected contour
How to resize contours
Well, the idea is pretty simple, and if you have some understanding of high-school math, below steps would seem very sensible:
Step 1: Translate the contour to the origin
Step 2: Scale each point of the contour
Step 3: Translate back the contour to it’s original place.
Below I explain and show code equivalents of each step.
Translate the contour to the origin
To translate the contour to the origin, we just have to subtract the coordinates of the centroid of the contour with all the points. And the centroid of the contour can be found using the cv2.moments function.
Getting the centroid of the contour
M = cv2.moments(cnt)
cx = int(M['m10']/M['m00'])
cy = int(M['m01']/M['m00'])
Translating the contour by subtracting the center with all the points
cnt_norm = cnt - [cx, cy]
Scale each point of the contour
To scale each point of the contour, we just have to multiply the scale with the contour points.
cnt_scaled = cnt_norm * scale
Translate back the contour to it’s original place.
This step can be achieved by simply adding back the centroid co-ordinates to the contour points and that’s it!
cnt_scaled = cnt_scaled + [cx, cy]
cnt_scaled = cnt_scaled.astype(np.int32)
Combining all the steps into a function for scaling
Hence we can write a simple function based on the above steps as below:
def scale_contour(cnt, scale):
M = cv2.moments(cnt)
cx = int(M['m10']/M['m00'])
cy = int(M['m01']/M['m00'])
cnt_norm = cnt - [cx, cy]
cnt_scaled = cnt_norm * scale
cnt_scaled = cnt_scaled + [cx, cy]
cnt_scaled = cnt_scaled.astype(np.int32)
return cnt_scaled
And we can call this function to test that it works fine!
RED BOUNDRY : Original contour
: Original contour GREEN BOUNDRY: Scaled contour
cnt_scaled = scale_contour(contours[0], 0.3)
im_copy = im.copy()
cv2.drawContours(im_copy, contours, 0, (255, 0, 0), 3)
cv2.drawContours(im_copy, [cnt_scaled], 0, (0, 255, 0), 3)
plt.imshow(im_copy)
plt.axis("off");
Original and scaled contour
How to rotate contours
Rotating contours are also simple, and again would just take some high school math to understand the steps.
Step 1: Translate the contour to the origin
Step 2: Rotate each point of the contour
Step 3: Translate back the contour to it’s original place.
Translate the contour to the origin
Getting the center
M = cv2.moments(cnt)
cx = int(M[‘m10’]/M[‘m00’])
cy = int(M[‘m01’]/M[‘m00’])
Translating the contour by subtracting the center with all the points
cnt_norm = cnt — [cx, cy]
Rotating each point of the contour
Once you have put the contour to the origin, we have to rotate each point. And for me understanding rotation is much easier in polar co-ordinates as compared to Cartesian co-ordinates (I hope for you too 😉). So, that’s what we’ll do! Convert the points to polar co-ordinates, add the rotation, and convert it back to Cartesian co-ordinates.
These are some helper functions which I borrowed from here to convert back and forth between Polar and Cartesian co-ordinates
def cart2pol(x, y):
theta = np.arctan2(y, x)
rho = np.hypot(x, y)
return theta, rho def pol2cart(theta, rho):
x = rho * np.cos(theta)
y = rho * np.sin(theta)
return x, y
Converting the x-y (cartesian) co-ordinates to theta-rho (polar)
coordinates = cnt_norm[:, 0, :]
xs, ys = coordinates[:, 0], coordinates[:, 1]
thetas, rhos = cart2pol(xs, ys)
Adding the angle to the thetas .
thetas_deg = np.rad2deg(thetas)
thetas_new_deg = (thetas_deg + angle) % 360
thetas_new = np.deg2rad(thetas_new_deg)
Note: I converted the radians to degrees because I chose to give angle in degrees form (and it makes modulo operation much cleaner). Then I again convert it back to radians.
Convert the new polar coordinates to cartesian co-ordinates:
xs, ys = pol2cart(thetas, rhos)
cnt_norm[:, 0, 0] = xs
cnt_norm[:, 0, 1] = ys
Translate back the contour to it’s original place.
Add center coordinates to the contours’ coordinates
cnt_rotated = cnt_norm + [cx, cy]
cnt_rotated = cnt_rotated.astype(np.int32)
Combining all the steps into a function for rotation
Hence we can write a simple function based on the above steps as below:
def cart2pol(x, y):
theta = np.arctan2(y, x)
rho = np.hypot(x, y)
return theta, rho
def pol2cart(theta, rho):
x = rho * np.cos(theta)
y = rho * np.sin(theta)
return x, y
def rotate_contour(cnt, angle):
M = cv2.moments(cnt)
cx = int(M['m10']/M['m00'])
cy = int(M['m01']/M['m00'])
cnt_norm = cnt - [cx, cy]
coordinates = cnt_norm[:, 0, :]
xs, ys = coordinates[:, 0], coordinates[:, 1]
thetas, rhos = cart2pol(xs, ys)
thetas = np.rad2deg(thetas)
thetas = (thetas + angle) % 360
thetas = np.deg2rad(thetas)
xs, ys = pol2cart(thetas, rhos)
cnt_norm[:, 0, 0] = xs
cnt_norm[:, 0, 1] = ys
cnt_rotated = cnt_norm + [cx, cy]
cnt_rotated = cnt_rotated.astype(np.int32)
return cnt_rotated
And we can call this function to test that it works fine!
RED BOUNDRY : Original contour
: Original contour GREEN BOUNDRY: Scaled contour
cnt_rotated = rotate_contour(contours[0], 60) im_copy = im.copy()
cv2.drawContours(im_copy, contours, 0, (255, 0, 0), 3)
cv2.drawContours(im_copy, [cnt_rotated], 0, (0, 255, 0), 3) plt.imshow(im_copy)
plt.axis("off");
Original (red) and rotated (green) contour
Having fun with random rotation, scale, and translation
Here is a simple code to generated random rotation, scaling and translation (not covered in the tutorial but it’s just a simple addition of co-ordinates).
im_copy = im.copy()
cv2.drawContours(im_copy, contours, 0, (255, 0, 0), 3)
for i in range(20):
cnt_rotated = rotate_contour(contours[0], np.random.random() * 90)
cnt_scaled = scale_contour(cnt_rotated, np.random.random() * 0.5)
cnt_translated = cnt_scaled + np.random.randint(low=-200, high=200, size=(2,))
r, g, b = [int(np.random.choice(range(255))) for _ in range(3)]
cv2.drawContours(im_copy, [cnt_translated], 0, (r, g, b), -1)
plt.imshow(im_copy)
plt.axis("off");
Random rotation + scaling + translation
In-case someone wants to dissect this code, these are the key things I did: | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/tutorial-how-to-scale-and-rotate-contours-in-opencv-using-python-f48be59c35a2 | ['Nvs Abhilash'] | 2019-08-17 06:18:18.961000+00:00 | ['Opencv', 'Opencv Python', 'Python'] |
How to Do Cocos-BCX MainNet Token Mapping? | Attention
Please identify the official designated mapping address of Cocos-BCX：0xAC1E002563E0945ad8F1c193171e3ce2617B269e
DO NOT send your ERC20 tokens from exchanges to the above address!
Please beware of fraudulent websites and impersonating social media accounts.
This mapping can be done in two ways currently: Bitpie Wallet for mobile users Mapping and MetaMask Extension Mapping for PC users . Exchange Mapping will be available soon.
It is highly recommended that you use a safe ERC20 address to swap.
The mapping ratio is 1:1, i.e. 1 ERC20 COCOS = 1 MainNet COCOS
Please beware that a transcation hash can only be mapped once. It takes some time to complete the entire mapping, so do not repeat the operation.
Please beware that all mapping applications on the day will be processed in batches at 6 pm every day.
Bitpie Wallet Mapping for Mobile Users
Transfer ERC20 COCOS to the official designated mapping address of Cocos-BCX（0xAC1E002563E0945ad8F1c193171e3ce2617B269e）
Please make sure to confirm the official mapping address multiple times.
2. When you submit the mapping, you need to enter transcation hash（ID）. So click on the transcations record to copy transcation Hash.
3. When you submit the mapping, you need to have a COCOS MainNet account. If you do not have a MainNet account, you can also register directly with Bitpie Wallet.
4. Bitpie Wallet registration process:
Select wallet system COCOS (Cocos-BCX) and create COCOS MainNet account following to rules.
5. After you get transcation hash and Go to the mapping DApp（ https://cocosmap.cocosbcx.net）, click “Submit Mapping”, fill in transaction hash and mainnet account and confirm signature.
6. After the transfer is successful and the 12 blocks are confirmed, the transcation hash and MainNet account information obtained by the above transcation are signed, and then wait for the same amount of MainNet COCOS to arrive.
7. Enter the MainNet account for query.
8. If your phone is iOS, please download bitpie pro version.
The above is a detailed guide on the MainNet COCOS mapping for mobile users, which has been released on the official website and official social channels. Users who hold ERC20 COCOS should arrange the time reasonably and choose to map the currently circulating ERC20 COCOS to the MainNet COCOS through official and third party tools. | https://medium.com/bitpie/how-to-do-cocos-bcx-mainnet-token-mapping-cc169cd40d30 | ['Bitpie Wallet'] | 2020-04-08 14:04:17.837000+00:00 | ['Blochchain', 'Bitpie', 'Games', 'Cocos Bcx', 'Mapping'] |
5 Design Secrets to Help Build Your Website | Design Tricks the Pros Use on DIY Websites
Make your website look like it was designed by a professional with these five tricks of the trade.
Building your own website opens up a whole world of possibilities. Suddenly your website isn’t a black box any more. You can control what it says and how it looks.
But if you’re like a lot of DIY’ers, you might notice a big difference at first between how you want your website to look and, well…how it actually looks. As with many DIY projects or #pinterestfails, it can be hard to match a professional designer right off the bat.
Fortunately there are some tricks of the trade that can take your website to the next level, and make it look just like those sample websites you love. Think of these as the secrets that web designers already know — and that you can now easily apply to your own website.
Continue reading… | https://medium.com/powrplugins/5-design-secrets-to-help-build-your-website-1e2424ea6722 | [] | 2018-05-09 19:49:54.919000+00:00 | ['Plugins', 'Design', 'Web Design', 'Website Design', 'Ecommerce'] |
Groundhog Day | Written by
Daily comic by Lisa Burdige and John Hazard about balancing life, love and kids in the gig economy. | https://backgroundnoisecomic.medium.com/groundhog-day-e4f7d97ecc1d | ['Background Noise Comics'] | 2019-02-04 01:37:44.827000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Humor', 'Health Insurance', 'Anxiety', 'Comics'] |
FacileJDBC | Examples
The following example show how to use FacileJDBC for different use cases.
Executing queries
SQL queries are defined via the Query class. Since the Query class is immutable, it is safe to use it in a multi-threaded environment or define it as static class member. The Query class is the main entry point of the FacileJDBC library. For executing a query, all what it needs is a JDBC Connection .
The execute method returns a boolean value as specified in the PreparedStatement.execute() method. The Javadoc documents the used methods of the PreparedStatement for every execute method.
Selecting objects
Usually, your selected rows will be stored in DTO objects. For the simple examples the following Person DTO will be used.
The following query will select all persons which matches a given name pattern.
Executing the select query is shown in the following code snippet. It also shows how query parameter are set and how the result rows are parsed.
The Query.on method is used for filling the query parameters. The variables uses the usual syntax for SQL bind variables. With the Param.value factory method it is possible to fill the defined variables. The Query.as method executes the query and returns the parsed result rows. For converting the query result to a DTO, a RowParser is needed. With the RowParser.list() method you will tell the query that you expect 0 to n result rows. If only one result is expected, you need to use the RowParser.single() or RowParser.singleOp() method.
The following code snippet shows the RowParser implementation for our Person DTO.
Since the RowParser is a functional interface it can be written as shown. The first function parameter represents the actual selected row and second parameter the JDBC Connection used for executing the query. In most cases the conn will not be used, but it is quite helpful for fetching dependent DTOs in a sub-query.
Inserting objects
For inserting one new Person into the DB an insert query have to be defined.
When all bind variable has been set, it can be inserted by calling the execute method.
Setting the bind variables this way is quite tedious, if you already have a filled Person DTO. Inserting the Person DTO directly you need to define the variable-field mapping. This is done via the Dctor (de-constructor) interface. The Dctor can be seen as the inverse function of the RowParser .
Once a de-constructor is defined for your DTO, you can easily insert single Person objects.
If you are interested in the automatically generated primary key of the insertion, you have to use the executeInsert method. This method returns an Optional in the case no primary key could be generated.
or
if you are need to control the parsing of the generated primary key.
Batch insertion
If you have a collection of Person s, you can insert it in one batch.
For simple insertions, you can also do some kind of ad-hoc batch insertions.
Selecting/inserting object graphs
The previous examples shows the basic usage of the library. It is possible to use this for all needed select and insert queries, as you will do it with plain JDBC. If you need to select or insert small object graphs, this becomes fast tedious as well. Let’s extend our initial example an convert the link of the Person into an object
and with a Link class, which will look like the following.
It is now possible to create one RowParser<Person> and one Dctor<Person> which automatically takes care about the linked Link object. The new parser will look like the following code snippet.
With the shown de-constructor.
The needed helper methods are responsible for selecting/inserting the Link object.
It is still necessary to implement the sub-inserts and sub-selects, but this can be reused in other queries, where inserting and selecting of Link s is needed. Note that this is not an automatic OR-mapping mechanism. The user is still in charge for the concrete implementation.
Note Although the described feature is quite expressive and may solve some selection/insertion task in an elegant way, does not mean you have to use it. Just treat it as additional possibility.
Transaction handling
FacileJDBC also contains two interfaces for simple transaction handling. The Transaction interface defines methods for executing one or more queries in a transactional context.
If you are not interested in the return value of the SQL execution, you can use the accept method instead. In the case of an error, the connection is rolled back. If everything works fine, the connection is committed.
The second interface is the Transactional interface, which represents the transactional capability, typically exposed by a database. In this sense, it can be seen as a minimal database interface, just by exposing a Connection factory method, Transactional::connection . Since Transactional is a functional interface, it can easily created by defining the Connection factory method.
The example above shows how to create a Transactional instance for a HSQLDB in-memory database, perfectly usable for testing purposes. Then it can be used for performing some SQL inserts. | https://medium.com/swlh/facilejdbc-e6e84c8fedab | [] | 2020-08-16 21:47:08.678000+00:00 | ['Java', 'Database', 'Jdbc', 'Functional', 'Java11'] |
The Immersive Environment Design of Captain Spirit | GAMES UX
The Immersive Environment Design of Captain Spirit
Creating immersion through meaningful environmental interaction
This article is available as a video: watch it here!
The environment of a game is what surrounds the player’s character and is a stage to the designed narrative and/or gameplay experiences that will emerge to the player. So a game’s environment should not just be about creating some physical space for the character to exist in; instead, it should be more about creating a believable environment that justifies and further empowers the narrative experience the game strives to convey.
And it doesn’t take a thorough game-analyzer to make out a merely playable environment from an immersive and lively one. Even a casual gamer can make out that difference; because an immersive environment is felt. And it feels real and meaningful.
So, how do you do this? How do you create an immersive environment and not just a lifeless backdrop?
(Left) Mortal Kombat 3 — Behind the Scenes. (Right) Sonya in Mortal Kombat 3. Source: NeoGamer.
Immersion through interaction
There may be a thousand ways to create an immersive environment; but in this article, I want to specifically point out how the prologue to Life is Strange 2: The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit managed to create an immersive experience that really made me feel like I was in the room with the characters.
And Captain Spirit achieved the experience through relevant instances of meaningful interaction with its environmental setting.
The whole game is based on this mechanic of nonlinear interactive exploration to also uncover the narrative backstory of the small family and learn about their sad and affecting history.
Now, I know that the whole Life is Strange series is based on this exploratory mechanic, but Captain Spirit just hits differently. And maybe it is that way because every choice of interaction is relevant, meaningful, and not overdone.
Developers want to enclose the player in a meaningfully interactive environment but not exhaust them with over-abundant instances of non-relevant interaction.
(Left) Relevant Interactions in Captain Spirit. (Right) Mimicking Excessive Choice of Interactions.
Excessive choice of interactions will only clutter the screen and quickly exhaust the player from the idea of interacting with the environment.
Environmental storytelling and interaction
Stories can also be told through the environment itself without any interaction between it and the player. Environmental storytelling is when you convey deeper stories through narratively designed environments and specific placement of its inhabiting objects and characters.
But I also think interaction takes it a step further. Not an interaction that merely states the obvious that the player has already figured out but one that further rewards the player’s attention to detail with additional relevant information.
Chris looking at the bottle of perfume in his Dad’s room.
For example, when you walk into the Dad’s room in Captain Spirit and notice the bottle of perfume, had there been no option to interact, there is only so much you can assume about it. Maybe you won’t even pay much attention.
But when you do interact with it, this is what Chris says:
“I am glad Dad kept Mom’s perfume…Smells just like her…”
You learn it is the character’s mother’s bottle of perfume that his dad has still kept after his mother’s passing. The dialogue also reminds us of the sensory feeling of having the perfume there, especially one that smells of someone you love but isn’t around anymore. The interaction makes the existence of the perfume bottle more personal and relatable.
Now, simply adding interaction to any environment and its objects will not do the trick. Interacting with the perfume bottle creates a personal feeling because it is meaningful to the narrative experience. And that is the key-word here — meaningful.
Meaningful environmental objects
The environment of Captain Spirit feels immersive because there is meaning to almost everything that exists in it. Most objects don’t exist only because they look cool or are expected to exist, but because they add to the narrative experience and are born out of it in the first place.
Photos and trophies from the Dad’s early life placed on the shelf in the living room.
Take, for example, the trophies and the photos on the shelf. They don’t exist only to fill up space and make it look like an occupied shelf, but they really exist as a memory of what the Dad’s life was like once; chasing his dreams and building up to bigger ones.
The meaning in these trophies and photos get deeper when you see what is left of this once-motivated man who was never able to achieve the biggest dreams. He is left defeated, watching a basketball game, chain-smoking and drinking heavily to battle the reality of having lost a wife he really loved.
Charles, the Dad, sitting by the sofa.
The design of Captain Spirit’s environment and the placement of the objects inhabiting it are already done meaningfully, and the touch of interaction only adds to the experience.
And you’d be wrong to believe only story-driven games might want to aim for an immersive environment because a genre as opposite as fighting games has evolved to embrace this trend. Developers of fighting games have found that a touch of interaction adds life to their environments and keeps them away from only feeling like backdrops behind the stage.
Environment interactions in Mortal Kombat 11.
Another thing that adds to the immersion of Captain Spirit’s environment is the minor choices of interaction. Like the option to shoot the dad with a toy gun, do the dishes, the laundry, play with the scattered toys, or even make instant pasta for the dad. You might choose to interact with a few of these choices and not with the others.
Minor interaction choices in The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit.
And while these minor choices don’t really affect the game much, they do create a sense of freedom and realism. They make the experience even more immersive when you choose to do something and another NPC acknowledges your act of choice. Just like the freedom you have to interact with most of the things in your surroundings, it’s there if you choose to utilize it.
Also, do not overlook the environment design of Captain Spirit that is very believable, to begin with. Finding car keys under the sofa, the indoor drying rack, or hanging beside the kitchen door, makes sense in the game world and adds a feeling of authenticity.
Captain Spirit’s believable object placement/environment set-up.
This only goes on to validate that the goal of object placement should not just be to merely fill up the environment, but also make sense within the context of the world. If the environment is not believable or convincing enough, the player will surely pick up on the awkwardness.
Chances are you might have not played this game and might think that the environment looks pretty ordinary and usual. But merely looking at a game’s environment is never enough to judge or understand it. It is only by playing and experiencing it that you get a feel for it, and learn how deep or shallow the environment really is.
Now, I understand that not every game can be, or should be, rendered interactively explorative, and I’m not saying that interaction is the only way for an immersive environment to be achieved. But Captain Spirit surely managed to create an immersive environment through interactive exploration, not to mention the good work of environment design that it builds upon.
It is worth pointing out that the feeling of immersion is not something that exists independently, and cannot be worked upon directly. It is just something that comes to be when many minor aspects of an overall good design work together to achieve it.
The feeling itself is invisible but is surely felt loud and clear when done correctly. | https://medium.com/super-jump/the-immersive-environment-design-of-captain-spirit-97caeb3b16f5 | ['Tushar Deb.'] | 2020-12-24 10:38:56.574000+00:00 | ['Game Design', 'Gaming', 'Videogames', 'Storytelling', 'Game Development'] |
A Day in the Mind of Health Anxiety | I have come to realize, over many years of struggling with Health Anxiety, that all the weight, ache, and pain I feel at the end of the day is magnetized by a belief system that I am not a healthy person. I cannot let go of the sensations of sickness because my brain has honed in on them and agreed to give them life — unconditional faith.
Becoming a Devout Health-Worrier
The journey is different for everyone, but this is an outline of the path I took:
Be born into a family whose members all have diagnosable anxiety.
Be raised primarily by an ill caretaker — mine was my grandmother. She used an oxygen tank, took many prescriptions, and complained daily of her ailments.
Watch ill caretaker deteriorate and eventually die of a heart attack. Have little context for the habits/circumstances that made her ill — your family believes you are too young to benefit from such information.
Grow up without health insurance, or with a parent who tries to put off taking you to the doctor. Fracture both bones in your arm at the age of 10, and wait to go to the doctor for several days because your parents think you are exaggerating your pain.
Overhear your adult brother scolding your parents for not taking you to the hospital sooner. Adopt the notion that all ailments must be immediately addressed by a doctor.
Step on a scale at the age of 22, in the wake of leaving your abusive husband — you have neglected yourself for far too long. Hear the term “morbidly obese” describe you. Be told that everyone in your family suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes and if you don’t get your diet under control, you’ll end up just like them. Decide this means you can have complete control over your health if you do the right things.
Have no idea how to break the habits you’ve had your whole life. Feel ashamed, powerless, guilty, foolish, scared.
Leave a career that made you constantly sick (stomach issues, bronchitis, influenza, colds) and notice that illness becomes just an occasional thing. Forget how to be sick. Forget that you have survived sickness dozens of times. Lose patience with any illness that lasts longer than a few days.
Stop trusting your body to take care of itself.
Watch your blood pressure begin to climb. See blood sugar rise. Hear your doctors telling you over and over again that you have to take better care of yourself. Obsess over diet, exercise, and most importantly, signs that you’ve missed your chance to get better.
Make health such a focus that without even realizing it, you develop rituals that allow you to check for illness before it even begins. Assume the worst, always. Ritualize.
The Daily Ritual of Health Anxiety
Wake up and immediately assess how you feel. Is your throat still sore? Are you dizzy? How about those chest pains?
Journal all symptoms, even normal bodily functions that look like symptoms every day. Take this journal with you to the doctor so that they can try to connect dots from constipation to a pimple behind the ear to dry mouth that went away after you drank more fluids for a day.
Read about illness. Study it in school.
Google symptoms and try to self-diagnose to save money and the shame of visiting the doctor again, who by this point has written you off as “wackadoo”.
Hear the symptoms of others. Ask about their illness. Look into rare illnesses. Ignore statistics. Assume the worst, always.
Become so familiar and in-tune with bodily sensations that self-diagnosis of terminal illnesses happens before you even have a chance to “think”. These are automatic thoughts. They control you.
Seek reassurance that doesn’t last. Talk about nothing but health and health anxiety with everyone you know. Become nothing but your illness and the impending illnesses that will surely end your life. Lose friends. Alienate yourself.
Cry yourself to sleep at night certain you won’t wake in the morning.
Pray to gods you’re not sure you believe in. Beg to get better from sickness that has yet to take you. Be greedy for life but miss out on it every single day. And be angry with yourself for that, too.
Your church becomes a prison.
Losing Religion
It is easy to draw conclusions from behavior to outcome if the outcome continues to land in your favor.
If the fear is death and the outcome is continuing to live, then the key must be the ritual! Even though it hurts, even though it is all you think of, you train yourself to believe it is worthy, necessary, required.
While I was busy avoiding death, I realized that I was living for the fear, not the hope. The focus of my actions was to negate something, not create something. It left me feeling empty and I began to forget what I was fighting for — this life didn’t feel worth all that trouble.
It was time to leave that church.
Identifying —
Before I could do anything else successfully I had to give the fear a clear definition. I wrote out the beliefs that lead to the fear.
Here are just a few:
_ all illness is terrible illness
_ terrible illnesses lead to death
_ death is painful
_ death is endless
Countering Beliefs —
I had to provide counter-statements to each belief that had led to prisonous fear. Many illnesses are minor. The body knows how to fight off illness-it has done it so many times before. You don’t know what death is like-it seems peaceful for many. You don’t know what happens afterward, it’s arrogant to think you do.
Rebuilding in the Emptiness —
Children respond best to instructions that tell them what to do, rather than what NOT to do. So does an anxious, ruminating brain. You can’t say “stop worrying, Brain” and expect it to enter stillness. Instead, we have to find other things to think about = Distraction. And then give it other things to enjoy = Living.
I honestly believe that writing was a huge part of my recovery. The more I tap these keys, the more I write about anxiety or any other negative thing, the less power it has over me. And the less time I have to think about it in a way that brings it back to life.
I also had to watch shows and read more, not just as a distraction, but to give myself something to talk about with other people rather than always talking about sickness or the anxiety itself.
One of the best tactics I found was exercise. Exercise wipes my brain clean. The more focus my brain gives to keeping me cool, keeping me from falling down, etc, the less time it can give to anxiety. And it’s a two-for-one deal — exercising is good for both the brain (mental health) and the body (physical health). Exercise pushes out the thoughts in the moment, and improves my health to reduce those fears in the future. All your doctors keep telling you to do it — they aren’t wrong about this. | https://medium.com/write-well-be-well/a-day-in-the-mind-of-health-anxiety-f08df1ebdc29 | [] | 2019-05-19 23:51:44.003000+00:00 | ['This Happened To Me', 'Mental Health', 'Anxiety', 'Mental Health Awareness', 'Self'] |
What Is Holocron? | What if I told you that you could deploy parts of your Server Side Rendered React applications without restarting the server?
Discover Holocron: The backbone of One App, a new modular take on web application development.
Independent modules, independent deployments
You probably have heard about Micro Frontends, the new buzz word in the Frontend Community. Its premise is to allow you to split your monolithic frontend applications into small, tested, and individually deployed modules.
Holocron modules allow you to code split your application by default; setting the scope of your micro frontend as well as enabling reusability achieved by module composition.
Let’s create your first Holocron
Head over to your terminal with NodeJS installed and paste the following:
export NODE_ENV=development
npx -p yo -p @americanexpress/generator-one-app-module -- yo @americanexpress/one-app-module
When prompted, choose root module . This will be the entry point of your application where the routing and composition of other Holocron modules will happen.
Once the generator is done, go to your shiny new module and run the default command npm start . This will download the latest version of One App from Docker hub (Docker required).
Go to localhost:3000 and you should see the default welcome message.
Congratulations, you have successfully created your first Holocron module!
How does it work?
Holocron maintains an in-memory registry of Modules that can be updated dynamically without requiring a server restart. The idea is that an application can update Holocron’s module registry whenever a new Holocron Module is to be added to the application’s runtime. The result is an application that can have React components updated/added to it at runtime.
One App is the NodeJS server that acts as the orchestrator and stitches all your modules together as well as Server-Side Render your application.
In Production
Holocron modules are bundled and their static assets deployed to a CDN. The One App Server instance polls the module map periodically for updates to the module versions as well as new modules recently deployed.
The module map is a simple JSON file that contains the list of Holocron modules, their versions, and a link to their CDN location. Think of this file as your package.json , but instead of a list of dependencies, we have a list of modules.
Modules can be deployed to any location and they don’t even have to be on the same CDN.
In Development
Modules are served locally by adding them to the modules array in our package.json .
The npm start command uses Docker to download and start the One App Server locally; It will also start a CDN server that will host and serve our development module map and local modules.
By Passing the moduleMapUrl option in the runner section, the One App Server can download remote modules and serve them alongside the ones you are currently developing on your machine.
Conclusion
One App and Holocron can help you build dynamic quality user experiences, allowing for reusability and reducing bugs by helping you update only what you need.
The video version of this tutorial can be found here:
Now, let’s see how you put assemble multiple modules on a page by using the powerful Holocron Module Composition. | https://infoxicator.medium.com/what-is-holocron-224255625241 | ['Ruben Casas'] | 2020-09-07 22:53:52.849000+00:00 | ['Microui', 'React', 'Holocron', 'Server Side Rendering', 'Micro Frontends'] |
How to build a micro-frontends architecture, with Angular and Webpack Module Federation | In 2020, “micro-apps” or “micro-frontends” became a big trending topic. Micro-frontends extends the microservice idea to frontend development and help to scale medium to large organizations. Many companies, such as Spotify to Ikea and Microsoft, are actively using it. However, the current state of client-side composition and the best practices to implement « MFEs » (Micro-FrontEnds) with most popular frameworks (React, Angular, Vue.js) is still in its infancy.
That fact might change with the launch of Webpack 5 and the support of Module Federation: a game changer in Javascript architecture.
Before we dive into the technical details, let’s start by checking the technical architecture evolution of Agorapulse from 2011 to 2020, to get some context about why and how we plan to implement « MFEs » in 2021.
Evolution of software architecture: from spaghetti, to lasagna and then to ravioli — Photo by Sara Scarpa
Splitting our initial « majestic monolith »
We initially launched Agorapulse v1.0 in 2011 with a good old « majestic monolith » architecture, running on AWS Cloud since day one.
With the release of AngularJS 1.0 in 2012, we quickly splitted our platform into two monoliths : an AngularJS-based single page application coupled to Grails-based server APIs and workers.
Then around 2014, we started to split our backend monolith into smaller « macro » services, to get more flexibility in deployments and scaling. We also started to experiment with serverless functions with the launch of Java support for AWS Lambda.
I summarized this initial backend journey in 2015 in this article: A startup journey on AWS: from bare metal monolith to serverless microservices.
Typical web app architecture evolution from 2010 to 2020
On the frontend, not much really changed after the initial split. In 2016, we validated a mono-repo approach based on our Angular ecosystem stack for all our apps, web or mobile: sharing (ngrx-based) logic between Angular2 and Ionic2 apps and later on in 2018 with an upgraded POC with Angular8 and Ionic4.
Today, we are still using this mono-repo approach, which allows us to work with a single tech ecosystem and a single fullstack engineering team. At our current stage and team size, the benefits are huge in terms of development velocity, without the needs for native experts on iOS or Android and separate codebases.
But we are slowed down by the main web app which is still a big Angular monolith, that has become very fat over the years… It seriously impacts our velocity for frontend development, with long build/run/test times and the experience of our end users, with long initial load/run times.
End to End micro-architecture and « empowered » autonomous feature teams
Our product and engineering team has grown from 15 to 26 people in 2019 and is around 40 in 2020, still expanding. To support this growth and keep our agility, we started to move from “Tech Feature Teams” to “Empowered Product Teams”.
“ Product Teams are cross-functional (product, design and engineering); they are focused on and measured by outcomes (rather than output); and they are empowered to figure out the best way to solve the problems they’ve been asked to solve. ”
Marty Cagan
Following Conway’s law, our architecture ideally should mimic our Product Teams organization and get all the benefits from this approach:
End-to-end full-stack ownership : from back end to front end (code and infrastructure)
: from back end to front end (code and infrastructure) Reduced cognitive load for teams with clear business domain decoupling and boundaries
for teams with clear business domain decoupling and boundaries Release cycle autonomy: from design, specs, to release and maintenance
To achieve this, we have to split up our big fat frontend monolith.
A micro-frontends architecture is the natural next step in the evolution of our platform architecture.
Next logical web app architecture evolution: micro-frontends
Adopting a micro-frontend approach will allow us to achieve a pure End-to-End Feature architecture. Each single feature can be run and developed locally within its own micro-app, which dramatically increases developer productivity by avoiding the build/rebuild times required by the whole fat monolith. It can then be tested and deployed independently.
Micro-frontends removes the last blocker allowing us to move from “single threaded” to “multi-threaded” development and delivery processes.
Moreover, micro-frontends offer an overall better end user experience with smaller optimized bundle sizes because of shared modules and dependencies, lazy-loaded on demand.
A micro-frontends approach is a win/win situation for the developer and the end-user.
Note: An additional benefit with micro-frontends is that they can be created using different technologies. That is not a use case for us because we aim to keep a unified tech stack around the Angular ecosystem.
Proof of Concept with Angular 11 and Webpack 5 Federated Modules
With the release of Angular 11 and the experimental support of Module Federation in Webpack 5, it was a good time to build a POC and validate the MFE concept on our stack:
The requirement was also to be able to mix lazy-loading of local and remote modules through routes.
If you’re note familiar with Module Federation, please check the official site. Then for Angular 11, follow Manfred Steyer’s fantastic articles series on this topic, which details the use of @angular-architects/module-federation package.
This advanced demo POC is based on two apps that can run separately:
Counter-mfe is a standalone micro-app that encapsulates a single feature / domain, with its own ngrx store and actions (and supposed corresponding microservice backend). It exposes a remote CounterRouteModule to be lazy-loaded as a remote route.
counter-mfe micro-app running on http://localhost:4300
Shell is the main simple host app in charge of bootstrapping the main app and navigation, which will lazy load local modules (AuthRouteModule) or remote modules (CounterRouteModule).
shell main app running on http://localhost:4200/counter, loading the CounterRouteModule from http://localhost:4300/counterRemoteEntry.js
Module Federation Under the Hood
All the magic is happening in the route loadChildren() syntax declaration and some Webpack 5 custom configuration.
export const APP_ROUTES: Routes = [
{
path: '',
component: HomeComponent,
pathMatch: 'full',
},
{
path: 'login',
// Lazy loaded local module
loadChildren: () => import('./login/login-route.module').then(m => m.LoginRouteModule)
},
{
path: 'counter',
// Lazy loaded remote module
loadChildren: () => import('counter-remote/counter-route.module').then((m) => m.CounterRouteModule),
canActivate: [AuthGuard],
},
];
To benefit from the Webpack 5 Module Federation experimental support in Angular, Manfred Steyer provides a custom builder ngx-build-plus to extend the default Webpack behavior by providing a partial custom config (so that you can use ModuleFederationPlugin).
On the host side, here is the Webpack ModuleFederationPlugin configuration of the shell main app. It consumes counter-remote exposed modules.
plugins: [
new ModuleFederationPlugin({
remotes: {
"counter-remote": "counter@http://localhost:4300/counterRemoteEntry.js",
},
On the remote side, here is the Webpack ModuleFederationPlugin configuration of the counter-mfe micro-app. It exposes a single counter-route.module.
plugins: [
new ModuleFederationPlugin({
name: "counter",
filename: "counterRemoteEntry.js",
exposes: {
'./counter-route.module': './apps/counter-mfe/src/app/counter/counter-route.module.ts'
},
...
To deep further, you can find the POC source code and run the apps by yourself: https://github.com/benorama/mfe-advanced-demo
What’s Next ?
Completing the migration of our main web app to micro-frontends is our objective for 2021.
This “End-to-End Feature” architecture will help us to achieve our product and engineering multi-threaded organization goal (fully autonomous and “Empowered Product Teams”). More importantly, it will enable the continuous delivery of business value to our customers, helping them to manage their social media profiles with even more delight and efficiency! | https://medium.com/agorapulse-stories/building-a-micro-frontends-architecture-in-2021-with-angular-and-webpack-module-federation-50d073617645 | ['Benoit Hediard'] | 2020-12-17 12:10:59.854000+00:00 | ['Microservices', 'Webpack', 'Angular', 'Web Development', 'Tech'] |
Seth Godin’s Rerouted Flight Changed My Outlook on Marketing | There’s a lot of ways to help a business grow. You’ve got operations, product, service, financing, business development, and, oh yeah, marketing. Can you guess which one I love the most? Yeah marketing.
Marketing, in my humble opinion, is the most direct way to grow a business. You have many levers you can pull, but marketing — demand — grows the business faster than any of these.
So yeah, marketing makes companies grow. More growth, means more commerce, and hopefully we all do better in that kind of world.
But you know what’s even better than growth and commerce?
Giving people what they want.
At 97th Floor’s 2019 Mastermind conference, I heard Seth Godin verbalize this perfectly.
I may get some details wrong, so if someone who was there remembers the story better, please correct me.
I remember Seth saying that he was flying in to Boston sometime in the winter. He had been traveling a while and was eager to get back home (who wouldn’t be?). The only zinger was that the Boston airport was having some rough weather, too rough for a plane to land. So they were forced to land elsewhere. I wanna say Norwood…? I could be wrong.
As they are landing, the pilot is explaining the situation to the passengers on the plane, saying that they will get back on another plane when the weather dies down. They were thinking that’d be in about four hours or so. Which in airport language really means six or more hours. So as they are landing Seth is faced with the prospect of a six hour wait to get in the air for less than an hour to get less than 50 miles away.
We’ve all had our airport hell story, and the more you travel, the bigger your story is right? Well with how much Seth is traveling, I would bet his story can top yours or mine. BUT he knows who to get around them.
So before they all get off the plane, Seth has booked a rental car from his phone and is going to drive home and beat his entire flight back to Boston. Ha! As he’s grabbing his bags, heading out of the airport it hits him, “Oh yeah, there’s a whole plane of people in my same shoes. I’ve got 3 extra seats (4 if we squish). I know where everyone is trying to go, I’ll get some company for the trip.”
Seth books it back to the waiting room. And starts pacing the rows of seats outside the gate and starts advertising the 3 seats open in his car.
You guessed it.
No takers.
NONE!
Here was a a plane full of people all needing to go to the same place, and all severely delayed, and all of them DENYING a free car ride into the city.
And as good a marketer as Seth Godin is, he got no takers.
So he drove home alone in a warm car and beat the rest of his flight into Boston by many many hours.
That’s marketing! (In this case, failed marketing, but you get the picture.)
We’ve all heard the expression that everyone is looking to buy, but no one wants to be sold, right? Well here it is baby!
Marketing isn’t pushing crap into people’s hands. It’s reminding them what they always wanted in the first place.
There’s nothing slimy or dishonest about convincing the right people that they are looking for a product or service. In fact, I’d argue that there’s a lot of honor in that.
So thank you to Seth Godin and all the marketers out there that take the time to care enough to market with passion. | https://medium.com/swlh/what-seth-godins-rerouted-flight-taught-me-about-marketing-d48d1f407ae3 | ['Pj Howland'] | 2019-10-09 05:58:52.524000+00:00 | ['Happiness', 'Industry', 'Airports', 'Marketing', 'Seth Godin'] |
PySpark process Multi char Delimiter Dataset | The objective of this article is to process multiple delimited files using Apache spark with Python Programming language. This is a real-time scenario where an application can share multiple delimited file,s and the Dev Team has to process the same. We will learn how we can handle the challenge.
The input Data set is as below:
Name@@#Age <--Header
vivek, chaudhary@@#30 <--row1
john, morgan@@#28 <--row2
Approach1: Let’s try to read the file using read.csv() and see the output:
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
spark= SparkSession.builder.appName(‘multiple_delimiter’).getOrCreate() test_df=spark.read.csv(‘D:\python_coding\pyspark_tutorial\multiple_delimiter.csv’)
test_df.show()
Output
#Note: Output is not the desired one and so the processing will not yield the desired results
Approach2: Next, read the file using read.csv() with option() parameter and pass the delimiter as an argument having the value ‘@@#’ and see the output:
test_df=spark.read.option(‘delimiter’,’@@#’).csv(‘D:\python_coding\pyspark_tutorial\multiple_delimiter.csv’) test_df.show(truncate=0)
error
#Note: spark throws error when we try to pass delimiter of more than one character.
Approach3: Next way is to use read.text() method of spark.
mult_df=spark.read.text(‘D:\python_coding\pyspark_tutorial\multiple_delimiter.csv’)
mult_df.show(truncate=0)
spark.read.text
#Note: spark.read.text returns a DataFrame.
Each line in a text file represents a record in DataFrame with just one column “value”. To convert into multiple columns, we will use map transformation and split method to transform and split the column values.
#first() returns the first record of dataset
header=mult_df.first()[0]
print(header)
Output:
Name@@#Age #split('delimiter') the string on basis of the delimiter
#define the schema of the Dataframe to be created schema=header.split(‘@@#’)
print(schema) Output:
['Name', 'Age']
The next step is to split the row and create separate columns:
#filter operation is removing the header
#map operation is splitting each record as per delimiter
#.rdd converts DF to rdd and toDF converts the rdd back to DF mult_df.filter(mult_df[‘value’]!=header).rdd.map(lambda x:x[0].split(‘@@#’)).toDF(schema).show()
Final Output
Hurray!! We are able to split the data on the basis of multiple delimiter ‘@@#’.
Summary:
· Read Multiple Delimited Dataset using spark.read.text() method
· use of map(), filter() transformations
Thanks to all for reading my blog, and If you like my content and explanation, please follow me on medium and share your feedback, which will always help all of us to enhance our knowledge. | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/pyspark-process-multiple-delimited-data-ef99fa05c6f7 | ['Vivek Chaudhary'] | 2020-09-17 06:08:52.798000+00:00 | ['Python Programming', 'Python3', 'Big Data', 'Programming', 'Apache Spark'] |
How To Change A Habit | Have you ever realized that your life is nothing more than a culmination of your habits?
The people that you admire and are highly successful simply have the habits of success. People who are broke and struggling have habits that led them there.
But most people make two significant errors when trying to change habits. The first error is that we try to use willpower to quit a habit altogether.
For example, most people who try to quit smoking use as much willpower as they can to stop instead of replacing the habit. Until they have a terrible day at work, and they get an urge for a cigarette and the feeling they get from inhaling.
This urge leads to problem number two. Most people don’t understand how habits work. We tend to personalize practices by saying things like “I’m just a weak person” or “I’ll always be a smoker.”
If this sounds like you, please know that you can change any habit that you don’t like in your life. But you need to do it correctly because willpower doesn’t last. Keep reading to learn how to change a habit once and for all.
How to Change A Habit
Before you get worried that your habits will continue to control your life and sabotage your success, know that you can change any of your behaviors. Step one is understanding that you do have the ability to change any pattern that you don’t like or is no longer serving you. Finding success comes down to understanding the process and staying consistent. Here’s how you can do it now.
Step 1: Figure Out Your Bad Habits
The first step is to figure out the habits that you consider bad. Maybe you already know what they are or perhaps you need some time to think about them. A few everyday habits include:
Overeating
Smoking cigarettes
Watching too much TV
Checking your phone too often
Playing too many video games
Spending too much time on social media
Again, these are just a few habits that kill dreams for most people. The goal is to identify the top three patterns that you want to change.
Check out the habits of highly successful people here.
Step 2: Replace Your Bad Habits
Here’s the thing, you don’t want to try to stop bad habits. Instead, you need to replace one pattern with another. Your current behaviors, good and bad, are in your life for a reason.
Your bad habits have benefited you in some way(ex. Smoking cigarettes). Sometimes the reward is emotional, while other times, it’s biological like smoking.
Instead of quitting cold turkey and trying to use willpower (which won’t last long), try to find a way to replace the bad habit and experience a similar benefit. For example, if you smoke cigarettes when you get stressed out after work, seek to find a new way to relieve your stress other than smoking. Don’t just eliminate the stress-relieving activity. For example, after work, go straight to the gym to get rid of any anger or frustration until it becomes habitual.
All of our behaviors address specific needs. So it’s up to you to replace patterns that aren’t serving you with healthier ones that address the same need.
Remember, willpower doesn’t last!
Step 3: Remove Triggers
One thing that I’ll discuss in the coming weeks is the importance of your environment and the cues it has on your mind and body. For example, some rooms in your house might make you want to watch TV while others might make you want to read a book.
If the first thing you do when you sit on the couch is pick up the TV remote to watch Netflix mindlessly, then hide the remote in a drawer. You want to make it easier for yourself to break bad habits by avoiding the things that cause them.
Another example is smoking. Maybe you’re the type of person that doesn’t smoke daily, but after a few alcoholic drinks, you get the urge to smoke. If this happens, quit drinking.
Or, if you want to stop eating a particular food (like candy or carbs), don’t keep me in the house! Your environment makes your bad habits easier, and healthful practices harder. Change your environment and change your life.
Step 4: Get Help
Sometimes you can’t do it all alone. There is no shame in getting help when replacing unhealthy habits with better ones. Whether it’s getting a workout buddy, going to meetings, or something else, find people to hold you accountable.
Surround yourself with people who want to live as you do. Ditch the people and places in your life that are no longer serving you.
Step 5: Repeat the New Habit For 21–100 Days
The final step to changing bad habits, stay consistent! Change isn’t going to happen overnight.
So how long does it take to change a habit?
Most people think of 21 days as it’s been a widespread message for years in the personal development world.
Unfortunately, a lot of self-help “gurus’ are peddling the story that it only takes 21 days to replace your habits. But that’s just not true; some habits take two to three times as long.
A study from 2009 found that it takes up to 254 days for a person to create a new habit.
And often, it requires 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic.
The 21-day myth came from Dr. Maxwell Maltz, who wrote the best-selling book, Psycho-Cybernetics (which has sold 30 million copies worldwide).
When Dr. Maltz would operate on a patient, he found that it took them 21 days to get used to the results. He based this on cosmetic procedures and major surgeries like amputations. And after doing a test in his own life, Dr. Maltz found that new behaviors took about the same length of time for him as well.
As Maxwell said in the book, “These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.”
His work has influenced some of the biggest names in the personal development space from Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy and more. But somewhere along the line, about 21 days got changed to “21 days to change a habit.”
So remember, when changing your habits, it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days, depending on the habit itself.
Bonus Steps to Change Habits
Change One Habit at a Time
Looking back, step one is all about identifying the habits that are holding you back from success. The goal here is to pick the biggest or worst habit and start there. One of the worst things you can do is try to tackle three or more habits all at once.
Taking on too much at once will likely lead to disappointment and quitting entirely. Instead, choose one habit, stay consistent, and once it becomes automatic, move on to the next habit that you want to replace.
Track Your Habits
Another way to increase the odds of replacing your bad habits is to use a habit tracker.
A habit tracker is a powerful tool that allows you to quantify your behaviors and track how consistent you are in starting new habits.
Habit trackers can take many forms, such as a simple pen-and-paper checklist, a journal (a good one is the “Bullet Journal,” an app on your phone, or a wall calendar. Each time you complete your new habit, log the habit or write it down. The visual representation can help you stay consistent and keep going as you won’t want to break your streak.
Tracking your behaviors is a great way to manage them and give yourself a shot at changing them for the better. Start tracking with a method that is convenient and motivating for you!
Start Habit Stacking
While the steps above are highly effective in training new habits, a newer trend that has become more popular is known as habit stacking. One of the best ways to create a new behavior is to identify a current behavior you already do every day and then stack your new habit on top of it.
Rather than pairing a new habit with a particular time and location, you pair it with a current habit to increase your chances of success.
The habit stacking formula is: After/Before (Insert Current Habit), I will (Insert New Habit).
Here are a few examples to better understand habit stacking:
After I pour a cup of coffee, I read for 10 minutes.
After I brush my teeth, I write in my journal for five minutes.
After I take off my work clothes, I immediately change into my workout clothes.
After I sit down to eat dinner, I express gratitude out loud or text someone.
Before I get into bed at night, I will tell my partner how much I love them.
Habit stacking works so well because it works with your current brain patterns. Your behaviors have become so automatic that you don’t have to think about them! So, when you link a pattern you want to create with an existing habit, it makes it easier to be successful.
Once you start to master this basic structure, you can begin to create larger stacks by chaining several small habits together as well. Through this, you take advantage of the natural momentum that comes from one behavior leading into the next.
Here’s an example of how habit stacking could work for your morning routine:
After I brush my teeth, I write in a journal for five minutes.
After I write in my journal for five minutes, I meditate for three minutes.
After I meditate for three minutes, then I write out intentions for the day.
After I write out my intentions for the day, then I go to the gym for daily exercise.
Habit stacking can also work great in the evenings. Check out this example of stacking habits after eating dinner.
After I finish eating dinner, I brain dump in a journal what happened today for five minutes.
After I write in a journal for five minutes, I will plan my day tomorrow for five minutes.
After I plan the next day, I will prepare for tomorrow by laying out gym clothes and meal prepping my food.
Bonus Steps: Best Changing Habits Book
So what is the best book to help you learn how to change a bad habit? There’s quite a few out there but here are some of my top picks:
Atomic Habits by James Clear
This New York Times best-seller is a recent book that will give you a more in-depth look at a proven framework for improving every day. James delivers a simple, easy to follow system to help you create remarkable results.
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Joe Dispenza
Joe Dispenza is a thought leader when it comes to quantum physics, brain chemistry, and biology. Not only is an expert, speaker, researcher, and author, but he’s also used all of his knowledge to change his own life. At one point, Joe was in a near-tragic accident but used the power of the mind to heal himself from the inside out.
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
The Power of Habit is another NYT best-seller that mixes science with real-world applications to help you create lasting habits for success. Charles Duhigg explains how we form habits, how to keep the good ones, and how to replace the bad ones with ease.
30 Days — Change Your Habits, Change Your Life by Marc Reklau
This short ebook can help you create the life you want by giving simple steps to develop new habits. Not only does it inform you how to change habits, but it also gives you exercises to transform your life.
Mini Habits by Stephen Guise
Sometimes mini-habits can help you create massive change. Mini habits are a very small, positive behavior that you force yourself to do every day.
Essentially, a mini habit is “too small to fail,” which makes it feel easy, yet deceptively powerful, and a superior habit-building strategy.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, now you can see that habits require a little more attention than you might have thought. Remember, habits are nothing more than behaviors you do over and over again until your mind thinks you need them for your survival. Don’t forget, the number one priority of your mind is to help you survive above all else.
When you want to change a habit, start with choosing the biggest one that you want to replace. Don’t try to change two or more habits at once; otherwise, you are likely setting yourself up for failure. Instead, pick one new habit and see it through until it becomes automatic.
Don’t forget, habits can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to replace. So if it feels like it’s taking a while to replace it, just remember to have patience.
Use the steps provided and one of the books to learn more about habits so you can begin to replace the ones holding you back. Remember, life is nothing more than the habits you live every single day.
What’s the biggest habit that you want to replace in 2020?
Let me know in the comments! | https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-change-a-habit-bfa03383afa4 | ['Geoff Hughes'] | 2020-04-10 09:03:35.513000+00:00 | ['Mindset', 'Motivation'] |
Open, but not for free: perspectives for non-profit newsrooms | “When I said that we were getting rid of the rules of the business, I didn’t mean that we were getting rid of the business.”
This sentence summarises a key finding of the debate at the Journalism Funders Forum’s Expert Circle in Düsseldorf, Germany, on September 1st, 2018. The meeting took place as part of the Campfire Festival, a public journalism outreach event organised by non-profit investigative newsroom Correctiv.
A great part of the current debate about future business models for journalism implies that news organisations need a strategy to remain commercially successful — or to become profitable in the first place, for that matter. Striking a different tone, the 25 Düsseldorf participants discussed under the Chatham House Rule what it takes to run a non-profit newsroom. The reasons to go non-profit are plenty:
Refusing the market logic
Perhaps most importantly, you are able to escape the market logic, which dictates that you focus on growing your audience, covering the most popular topics, producing contents non-stop, and cosying up to advertisers.
With all that out of the way, you can effectively shed the limitations of for-profit operations, which often cannot or will not afford extensive journalistic research and long-form stories. Instead, you may find yourself in a position to develop a story on its own merit, and you can do whatever it takes to report it, no matter whether there is a predictable (and marketable) demand for it.
As one participant noted, working for a non-profit news organisation actually allows journalists to stick with the world-changing idealism that made them choose this job to begin with.
But the question also has a political dimension. There are many cases where it is advised to set up a private company — albeit a non-profit one –, rather than, say, a foundation or association. This holds true in particular in countries where press freedom is under pressure: their governments (think, for instance, Hungary and Poland) find it much easier to regulate and rein in civil society organisations than private companies.
Operating under the rules of commerce, instead, may shield you from too much political oversight. At the same time, you remain entirely flexible with a view of the future: While foundations are pretty much set in stone once established, and NGOs can easily be prohibited, you can move a company to another country without too much difficulty, give it away to new owners who can guarantee its independence and integrity, or change its constitution and mission at any time necessary.
Finding the money
Assuming that, as one participant quipped, “at the end of the day, journalism is always losing money”, the key quandary, however, remains: Where to find the cash to run the non-profit newsroom?
The Düsseldorf group discussed a spectrum of ideas. An obvious one is foundation funding, and indeed are foundations playing a major role in rearing innovative journalism initiatives and propping up flailing incumbents.
In fact, it is difficult to imagine our current innovative and independent news ecosystem without them, and their most coveted role is to provide core operational support. A news organisation that has its rent, accounting, administration, and development costs covered by a foundation finds itself much more empowered to produce quality journalism from the get-go. Other foundations sponsor particularly ambitious reporting projects or training.
Participants pointed out, though, that foundations are by no means a panacea for journalism. Operational support is excessively difficult to come by, and foundations tend to think in terms of limited, finite projects rather than long-term commitment.
One foundation representative said that they even had a dedicated programme to wean beneficiaries from their funding, and required them to think entrepreneurially. Moreover, audiences may be wary of such sponsors and their real or perceived influence on journalistic production — relying too much on donors may thus undermine public trust in a newsroom and, accordingly, its future.
The Matryoshka effect
Membership is one way to address this. The Düsseldorf group debated several examples where members contribute money and in exchange get some sort of stake in the news organisation.
This ranges from supporting membership without a say in day-to-day operations or the organisation’s mission, to legal co-ownership with voting rights. In contrast to a for-profit company, any dividends are out of the question as a matter of course — members are expected to support the cause without expecting a financial return. One participant explained: “A non-profit organisation is about a different kind of profit, that is, a profit for society.”
But as yet there are few, if any, examples where membership alone has managed to sustain a vibrant non-profit newsroom. So, some do not rule out advertising but allow it under standards compatible with their overall mission. Others engage in all kinds of compatible commercial and fundraising side-activities in order to cross-subsidize their journalistic work.
One speaker compared this to a Matryoshka doll, which has multiple nested layers that protect and sustain the inner core. Such self-earned revenue, even if it is of a commercial nature, helps ensure the freedom and independence of a non-profit news organisation.
And as a beneficial side effect, many fundraising activities — such as publishing books or organising conferences and festivals — help forge a community of supporters and increase the audience’s media literacy and capacity of discernment. Hence, as one participant observed, money-making activities may even create a positive feedback loop with the public.
So, even as non-profit journalism is perhaps not a business model in the strict sense, it still requires all kinds of business expertise to create a sustainable funding model. This chimes with a statement by a member of the Expert Circle, that “our work is open, but not for free”.
All participants were adamant that non-profit journalism must be openly accessible without subscriptions or paywalls, but nonetheless, it costs substantial money to produce. That’s a difficult balancing act to manage. And it is particularly difficult for newcomers who need a critical mass to attract foundation funding, members, or commercial sidelines.
Several participants complained that their efforts to start non-profit news organisations forced them into utter self-exploitation — often so badly that they eventually had to abandon their high-flying plans.
Gaming the system?
The workshop concluded with a simulation game, which challenged participants to select a limited choice of staff and other resources they would prioritize as founders of a non-profit newsroom.
The game yielded two major insights: First, it became immediately clear that any such organisation vitally depends on people who can fill multiple roles simultaneously; if you are “only” an investigative journalist, or “only” a website developer, financial manager, or lawyer, chances are that your endeavour will fail.
That’s a tall order — even in case you are proficient in two or more professions (which many journalists are out of sheer necessity), you will probably need to identify wholeheartedly with all of them in order to be successful in such a challenging environment.
The second major observation was that out of five game teams, only one mentioned impact measurement. Impact, of course, is a concept championed in particular by foundations and public donors, who need to explain and justify their spending. As a result, they also demand impact reporting from their grantees.
A non-profit newsroom, however, liberated from market logic, might just know its impact implicitly: It can’t help but notice the ripple effects of the latest scoop, the rise and fall of membership, or the level of ownership it inspires across a community. Or perhaps none of this might be the actual goal; perhaps sometimes, quality journalism is also an end in itself.
Originally published at wordpress.karstens.eu. | https://medium.com/we-are-the-european-journalism-centre/open-but-not-for-free-perspectives-for-non-profit-newsrooms-e859be38f88f | ['Eric Karstens'] | 2018-09-06 09:01:43.915000+00:00 | ['Journalism', 'Non Profit Journalism', 'Philanthropy', 'Journalism Funding', 'Insights'] |
New Clickbait Titles for Christmas Stories | Classic Christmas stories used to be told every year around a fire. Yet with all the content available now, it’s harder to get an old-fashioned story chosen over something more fun. So in order to keep the holiday classics alive, I have some suggestions for improving the titles of the season’s most iconic stories.
Frosty the Snowman becomes…
Images from Adobe Stock, mockups by author
Children are magic. But they can make impulsive decisions. If you could bring life to inanimate playthings, would you? Because it’s all fun and games, until someone starts to melt.
A Christmas Carol becomes…
A tale that’s been told a thousand times, now when people hear the title, they turn the channel. Unless it features muppets. They know the drill. So bring them back by making them see it in a new light. A story that proves that if you are wealthy enough you can buy your way out of damnation by purchasing everyone’s forgiveness.
The Elves and the Shoemaker becomes…
A heartwarming tale where you teach children that to stay in business, they need to deny their workers the most basic rights.
Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer becomes…
Follow Rudolf as he grows from a little reindeer into a confident young stag at the head of the sleigh. Then keep following him as he seeks revenge against inferior reindeer and humans without supernatural abilities.
The Birth of Jesus becomes…
Once designation baby showers become more popular, that might be a regular occurrence. But what do you give the child who has nothing? Check out the hottest gifts here.
The Gift of the Magi becomes…
“I didn’t buy my partner something off their list and you won’t believe what happened”
It’s not as funny tis you think to end up in an ironic situation in which neither you or your partner can enjoy their gift because of poverty. So just buy something on their list. Particularly if you are thinking about cutting off your hair to get them that smartphone. | https://medium.com/jane-austens-wastebasket/new-clickbait-titles-for-christmas-stories-6d509e0c0ff4 | ['Kyrie Gray'] | 2020-12-03 06:08:37.179000+00:00 | ['Satire', 'Humor', 'Holidays', 'Christmas', 'Books'] |
How to Strategically Allocate Time and Your Other 6 Resources | How to Strategically Allocate Time and Your Other 6 Resources
It would be great if students had enough time to prepare for class, go to class, work, and pursue passion projects with abandon… but most don’t.
That said, students can still make the best of the time they have if they think strategically. My goal here is to show students (or anyone, really) how to do that.
The first thing to realize is that time is only one of the resources we need to manage. When schools offer personal productivity seminars to students, it’s usually about “time management.” Although time is the most obvious of our resources and its effective management is crucial, it’s not sufficient. There are six other resources at our disposal.
The second thing to know is that resource allocation must be planned out. You can just read this article if you want — you’ll learn a few things — but maximizing your resource efficacy requires thoughtfulness. Sit down with a cup of coffee and take it seriously.
The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is ‘look under foot.’ You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think. –John Burroughs
Basic Strategy
The basic strategy is to allocate a large amount of resources (time plus the other six resources, discussed below) to focus sessions. A focus session is when you cut yourself off from the outside world (to the extent possible) and get the truly important stuff done. During these sessions, you take the actions most aligned with your goals. Not the low-hanging fruit. Instead, you’re climbing the tree for the good stuff.The remaining resources are allocated for less important actions.
Resources
The seven resources are:
T ime
ime E nergy
nergy F ocus
ocus L ength of session (the more, the better) and Lapse between sessions (the less, the better)
ength of session (the more, the better) and Lapse between sessions (the less, the better) O rganizational efficacy
rganizational efficacy N imbleness (being able to pursue long term objectives even when the short term world rears itself)
imbleness (being able to pursue long term objectives even when the short term world rears itself) Grit
The easiest way to remember these resources is to think TEFLON. (Look at the emboldened letters above — they spell it out.) The seventh resource, grit, is represented by the word ‘Teflon’ itself.
Below I describe each of these resources and how to most effectively allocate them.
Time
Action Step: Time is the easiest resource to calculate. Sketch out your typical weekly and daily schedule. Include all obligations, school, work and otherwise: sleeping, eating, driving, time with family and/or friends, etc. Like most people, your day-to-day and week-to-week changes, but this exercise is primarily to illustrate these concepts, so define “typical” broadly as needed. As the most obvious personal resource, time provides a perfect starting point, as well as a ‘backdrop’ for the rest of this exercise.
Energy
Some tasks require more or less energy than others, and our energy levels ebb and flow in reasonably predictable ways (e.g., “morning people” versus “night owls.”) It thus makes sense to proactively match the high-energy tasks for when our energy is high, and lower-energy tasks for when our energy is low.
The short term world loves to distract us when we are at our best. It also loves to trick us into sacrificing energy and making more time through skipping sleep or other bad habits. Good energy management is critical.
Action Step: On your schedule, mark when your energy levels are particularly high and particularly low. Another way of thinking about this is to ask questions such as:
When am I best able to focus and do your best work?
When do I struggle the most?
Do I feel best after a certain activity (e.g. exercise or watching a clip from Rocky)?
Do I feel worst on Mondays?
There is no need to draw the entire pattern of your ebbs and flows, just the most obvious will do. Also, begin thinking about these energy phases in the context of your time resources. Is your energy highest during the available time slots, or is it highest when you’re mindlessly commuting to work?
Focus
We can have infinite time and infinite energy, but if we aren’t focused on a particular task, we will accomplish nothing.
Focus is not off/on, all or nothing. The more focus we have, the more effective we are. Focus, like muscles, can be trained. There are many steps we can take to increase our level of focus. We can squirrel away and turn our phones off, reducing the chance of disruption. We can keep our workspace clear of clutter so our mind doesn’t wander. Instead of doing work at the kitchen table, we can do it at the library.
At a higher-level, we can also keep the peace with our family members and friends so emotional drama remains low. We can drink coffee, eat nutritious foods, or do any one of a number of things. In addition to these ‘top-down’ approaches, we can also improve our focus ‘bottom-up’ by precisely defining what our objective is before we begin a work session. If we fence in our mind, we give it less space to wander.
Action Step: Mark in your schedule those times when you are best and least able to focus. This may or may not overlap with your energy states. If there are no set times, then consider what the set circumstances are. Maybe it’s after you’ve exercised, or when you are in a particular room, listening to a particular type of music, etc.
Length/Lapse
Every time you switch tasks, you pay a cost. Inevitably, when you switch tasks, your brain must process what you just did and where you left off in Task A, and then must become reoriented to Task B. This is why multi-tasking is usually a bad idea. You are actually just switching back and forth from task to task, paying costs without proportional benefits. Over time, the costs go from paltry to substantial.
The longer your sessions are (particularly on the most challenging tasks), and the shorter the lapse between sessions is, the less time spent in these in-between moments. Thus, time is saved.
Let me provide an example: Compare spending 5 minutes on a task on 12 consecutive days (1 hour) to spending 30 minutes on a task on two consecutive days (1 hour.) Which is better? I would argue the latter is far better. In the former, you will spend most of the 5 minutes figuring out what to do, and little time actually doing it. In two 30-minute sessions, you will be able to think deeply about your task and make progress.
If I change the example and make the two 30-minute sessions several days apart, then the comparison becomes more complicated. It is probably still better to spend the 2 longer sessions, but you will no doubt have to spend time during the second session remembering back to the first. You will inevitably cover the same ground twice. The shorter the lapse between sessions, the better off we are.
The greater the focus required of a project, the more challenging it is, the more important it is to have large blocks of uninterrupted time. In such sessions, with the requisite energy and focus, you can enter a “flow state.” In such a state — which is rare, at least for me — you can become like Michael Jordan shooting hoops, knocking down your tasks and making progress on your goals with unprecedented amounts of efficiency and effectiveness. It’s pretty awesome when it happens, so give it an opportunity to do so.
Action Step: Looking at your schedule, mark the places you can schedule longer work sessions of 30 or more minutes and where you can schedule them so that lapses are minimized. Ideally, you will have (or can make) some sessions that are 90 minutes or longer.
Organizational Efficacy
Trying to remember where you left off, looking for papers from a pile stacked on your desk, or a file somewhere on your computer, all of these waste resources. If we spend just 10 minutes a day shuffling the same papers around to clear our desk, that’s 3,650 minutes a year, or about 60 hours, or about 1.5 work weeks. Don’t waste your resources. Get organized. It is difficult in a world where spam crowds our inboxes and possessions accumulate like dust in an attic. And organization does not come naturally to some people — myself included — but a thoughtful organizational system is really helpful. And if I can do it, so can you. Trust me.
You need not reach the organizational zenith, but small changes reap disproportionally large benefits. For example, spending just a few minutes to write down where you left off (“breadcrumbs”) will save you significant amounts of resources in the long term and stress in the short term.
Keep in mind that organization is about more than your workspace, incoming e-mail, and your messy closet. It’s about task management; it’s about staying on top of your stuff generally.
Action Step: Assess your current organizational structure. Is it a mess? Do you have no idea what “task management” is? Do you use a serious app like OmniFocus to track your tasks, or maybe a series of post-it reminders and checklists? Maybe just your memory or occasional scrap of paper? Make note of your current system, obvious ways you could improve it, and mark any times that are routinely involved (for example, if you sometimes write a to-do list in the mornings.)
Nimbleness
Ten or fifteen minutes here, ten or fifteen minutes there. It happens throughout the day. On the train, when a coworker is late for a meeting, when you are waiting for class to begin. You can either check Facebook or Twitter on your phone, or you can do something productive. Added up over time (see the math above), that’s a nice chunk. If we aren’t prepared to do something in those in-between moments, then we’ll spend 4 of the 5 minutes deciding what to do.
If we are nimble, then we are prepared to take advantage of these opportunities.
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. — Marcus Aurelius
Maybe there’s a decision you need to think through, and a few minutes of silence will give you the chance to get the wheels moving. (I return to this idea in a later chapter; it can be a really easy way to get something done and save resources.) Maybe there is a list of e-mails you can quickly reply to. A bag you can organize. A few thoughts you should jot down. Maybe you can edit a single page of something you’re writing. Just be prepared for when the opportunities come.
Nimbleness is not just about seizing opportunities; it is about making the best of situations as they develop. Even if you’re squirreled away, and your phone is off, interruptions will occur. You cannot predict when they occur, but you can predict that they will occur. They are predictably unpredictable, so be prepared to end your tasks abruptly but effectively. Keep a pad of paper nearby so you can quickly jot down where you left off in a given task. Then nimbly continue being productive.
If, at the beginning of every day, you have a plan for how to use any “free” time, and if, at the beginning of every work session, you have a plan for what you will do if interrupted, you will accrue hours upon hours of productivity. All for the price of not knowing what your second cousin’s ex — girlfriend’s new Facebook status says. What benefit does checking Facebook five times a day provide that once a day doesn’t?
Action Step: Consider where in your life you can be nimble and what you can do during those little opportunities.
Grit
Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be. –Clementine Paddleford
The other resources exist, in one form or another, before they are called upon. Grit is made at the moment before it is used. When we sit down to complete a task, we feel varying amounts of motivation and resistance, usually in inverse proportion to each other. Motivation is the desire and willingness to get something done. Resistance has many forms — procrastination, indecisiveness, anxiety, fear, among others. These two wage war in our minds — the proverbial angel and devil on our shoulders.
Neither motivation nor resistance force our hand. We choose the actions we take, and thus we determine whether the Resistance will win, or whether we’ll show the “grit” necessary to power through. The more we call upon our grit, the easier it becomes to call upon in the future. If we choose again and again to move forward despite the devil on our shoulder, we weaken it.
Action Step: Think about the contexts in which you feel high motivation and low resistance, and vice versa. Maybe it is when your energy is highest (“I can do this and do it well”) or maybe when it is lowest (“Oh, who cares, I’ll just do it and get it over with.”) Maybe it’s when you can really focus on something. There are countless possibilities.
Also think through how you deal with these default states of motivation and resistance:
Can you see any common threads?
Does this provide any insight into your general productivity?
Do you have more grit early in the week, but when it wanes?
Maybe you show grit in the face of certain challenges but not others?
Maybe you have more grit after you see a powerful movie or read an inspiring book?
See what tentative conclusions you can draw, and how this fits in your larger long term picture.
Now what?
Hopefully you’ve learned more about yourself and your tendencies. With this knowledge, you can more effectively allocate your resources. Can you get everything done? Probably not. But you can certainly get more done. And, more importantly, you can do it secure in the knowledge that you’re truly doing the best you can.
That’s all that matters. | https://medium.com/the-mission/how-to-strategically-allocate-time-and-your-other-6-resources-117caae125eb | ['Michael J. Motta'] | 2018-02-09 14:00:30.073000+00:00 | ['College', 'Life', 'Learning', 'Education', 'Productivity'] |
My Embarrassing Lifelong Obsession with Blondness | My Embarrassing Lifelong Obsession with Blondness
I judged myself and everyone I knew based on our hair colors
Photo by Daniel Bernard on Unsplash
For the first decade of my adult life, I’ve lived with reduced anxiety and relative freedom from the major depression that overshadowed my teenage years. I attribute my improved mental health fortune to a transformative year of therapy (or technically, the Lefkoe Method) that I underwent during my first semester of college.
However, one neurosis that did not end was my embarrassing obsession with hair color. I still catch myself fixating in the mirror for far too long, and it’s prolonged the shadow of my former mental suffering.
One factor that inhibits healing, I’ve realized, is shame and secrecy. While confessing to my general insecurities has been easier, I’ve felt mortified to admit the full extent of my blond hair obsession and, especially, its racist underpinnings.
Writing this story is part of my recovery, and I hope it helps anyone else out there who’s suffered over comparing your natural features to others. May we all get to experience ourselves and each other as uniquely beautiful.
Having blond hair became my self-esteem strategy.
One of the concepts I learned from the Lefkoe Method was “survival strategies.” As young children, we tend to internalize criticism or disappointment from others by feeling like we’re not good enough. The survival strategies are how we reassure ourselves that we’re actually okay!
During my upbringing, the strategies I leaned on to salvage my self-esteem included:
being seemingly smart, talented, unique, or perfect
having people think highly of me
being blond and having good hair (conforming to beauty standards)
I’m embarrassed by the superiority/inferiority complex I developed around blondness.
Understanding why I’d been obsessed with smarts and approval was easy. My displays of intelligence were praised early on and I clung to the validation. Tracing back my obsession with hair was more elusive. I felt disturbed by my participation in racism and didn’t want to face it.
As blond children, my sisters and I were complimented on our flaxen heads. Elders who had once been blond probably saw it as a fleeting, enviable trait, like seeing a flowering plant in a rare stage of bloom.
Lots of stories seemed to be about blond princesses. Meanwhile, our history textbooks made whites the protagonists. Other colors were portrayed as the unlucky ones or supporting cast.
I don’t know just how it happened, but in my mind, blond people were the prettiest. It insinuated racism against whites with darker features and especially against people of color.
This made me feel superior — but eventually, inferior, as I grew up and my hair darkened.
I bleached my hair, yet hypocritically judged others’ hair-dyeing as “fake.”
I remember the day someone told me my hair would later turn brown. I was horrified. Surely my body would not betray me so!
And the day my hair was first referred to as “dirty blond.”
By halfway through seventh grade, I had had enough of my increasingly matte, ashy shade of ex-golden. I complained to my mom, divulging my infatuation with the impeccable long blond tresses of some of my classmates.
Mom helped brush this magical potion called Sun-In through my hair. Thus began my first, furtive attempt at at-home highlights.
Of course, it’s not like I was going to give away that genetics had rudely revoked my natural blond card. When schoolmates enquired, I acted as if nothing had changed. What, suddenly three shades lighter? Since when?
Other ways of explaining away one’s sudden increase in hair brightness:
I’ve been spending so much time in the sun!
My roots are darker because my hair is darkening over time.
In exchange for being good, the hair fairy hath blessed me with +2 blondness points!
The whole thing seems silly now. Why should it matter whether one’s hair color is “real?” Hair looks how it looks. You can be content to keep it or decide to change it. A naturally blond person is not more beautiful, pure, or blessed by the gods.
Yet, I judged other people who dyed their hair, as if natural beauty were best and any form of enhancement was dishonest.
Watch out for racism on the internet.
As my internet browsing increased, I found a possibly racist site that glamorized being “born blond.” The site suggested blonds were victims of stereotypes and appropriation. It didn’t acknowledge the real racism against non-white people.
Fortunately, besides the “Born Blond” site I don’t remember any overtly racist webpages that fed my prejudice. Although I did spam-visit the Wikipedia pages on different hair colors to keep my obsession fresh. This led me to become interested in the countries where blond hair was the most prevalent, irrationally wishing I had ancestry from them.
Even though I gave up my racism-fueled web browsing, the fact that I was once allured by those bad ideas never stopped feeling unsettling.
Growing long (blond) hair was how I expressed my trans girlhood as a teen.
Another reason I got “stuck” on hair is that it was one of the few means by which I could express my femininity and my gender identity.
I passionately loathed having to wear boys’ clothes. I tried to end up with the least baggy, shortest shorts possible or just opted for neutral-looking jeans with a T-shirt. Though I couldn’t wear girl clothes and kept my private thoughts about gender to myself, having long hair was one way I got away with expressing my femininity for others to see.
My hair had completely grown out to its natural dishwater color, but in senior year I snuck a bottle of lemon juice into the bathroom and brushed it through. It actually came out looking quite good, except for the frizz and tangles.
Having my hair issues be wrapped up with gender dysphoria made it more complicated to let go of. These days, I find other ways to feel feminine and affirm who I am so I know that I’m more than the strands on my head.
Watching movies made my obsession with blond hair worse.
Around that time, I grew attached to a beautiful movie star with doll-like features whose long blond hair always looked “perfect” and “so natural.” Now I could stand in front of the mirror for 30 minutes after watching one of her films and try to convince my lemony locks looked somewhat like hers.
In reality, my favorite movie star’s fluctuating roots revealed that she too had naturally dull blond or mousy brown hair. Her hair either got lightened on purpose or by accident, which I’ve learned can easily happen because so many regular hair products contain limonene from lemons, we swim in the salty ocean, et cetera.
But when I saw those movies scenes of the actress singing in the sun, every nuanced shimmer in her styled, wavy blond hair rippling in the wind like a nature-made strand of art, I became obsessed. I felt like all I wanted was to look like her and sing like her. I felt like a hypnotized fan at a magic show who can’t see past the illusion of the stage tricks.
As I neared my twenties, my hairline showed its first signs of recession. My blondness obsession thereby got transferred to an anti-baldness campaign.
This other dimension of my hair neuroticism brought up additional ugly prejudices. I fell for the ageism of airbrushed media, where the young and the full heads of hair are glamorized. Plus, I was sexistly thinking that women were better than men due to lacking male pattern baldness, while at the same time objectifying women and thinking their self-worth = their beauty.
To this day, I’m on-and-off in my hair neuroticism.
Since my first highlights at age 12, the pattern has mostly looked like this:
Let my roots grow out. Forget about blondness for a while. Have peace of mind, but also feel less sexy.
My hair becomes too brown to bear, and I start idolizing others’ blondness again. I guiltily shower with a bottle of blond shampoo.
At first, the change is exciting. Then, I stare at my highlights a lot and freak out because I decide they’re too streaky and unnatural-looking. I’ve once again “ruined” my hair. I keep obsessing and vacillating between pride and humiliation.
Until finally, it all gets to be too much. I stop staring at my hair and begin avoiding the mirror. I go back to feeling perpetually peripherally dissatisfied with the way I look, resigned to my perceived incurable ugliness as a person having imperfect, thinning, not-naturally-blond-anymore hair.
How am I healing from my obsession with blondness?
I know it’s natural to want to look as appealing as possible, and maybe there is something eye-catching about blond hair. But my obsession with having a perfect blond mane has been over-the-top. It’s defeated my attempts to be beautiful because I’ve been too distracted over one detail to take better care of my holistic health, overall style, and inner beauty.
Here are a few things I have been doing to heal my relationship with hair:
Listening to other people’s hair struggles. Especially those of non-white or people of color, as I can hear a different side of the story that is often more difficult than mine and which puts my petty issues into perspective.
The Duolingo Spanish podcast had on Cirle Tatis Arzuza, a black Colombian woman who grew up being taught her curly hair was bad. She suffered through harsh chemical treatments that led to major hair loss, before finally embracing her natural hair beauty. She became a hairstylist who spreads awareness with her YouTube channel “Pelo Bueno.”
Here are a few more stories I loved:
2. I meditated on that favorite blond actress I used to watch. I apologized for equating her with her looks, and I told her the nonphysical things I appreciated about her. Visualizing healing conversations with people I can’t reach in person is nice. Then when old negative thoughts come, it loops back into the soothing memory of the conversation and I feel better automatically.
3. I do exercises where I talk to my body as if it were its own separate being. I wouldn’t want to reduce anyone’s worth to a single attribute, so I can’t objectify my body either. I compliment each body part on its beauty and the amazing functions it fulfills. I communicate with my hair as if it were a child whom I’ve mistreated and am learning to truly love.
4. I forgive myself. Everyone is vulnerable to developing insecurities that they feed with prejudiced ideas. I try to be self-compassionate and understanding as I would be with a friend.
5. I’m unlearning the perception of beauty as a prize we each hoard for ourselves. Instead, beauty is a gift that we give to each other. Being beautiful in my own way is about being an enjoyable person for others, rather than maximizing my own satisfaction with how I look in the mirror.
6. Sharing this story helps relieve the pressures I’ve felt around my obsession. I hope reading this has been to your benefit as well. Whatever body image struggles you have may experienced, you are more than good enough, hair or no hair, and you a beautiful person. | https://medium.com/invisible-illness/my-embarrassing-lifelong-obsession-with-blondness-4c6512b7297c | ['Phoenix Huber'] | 2020-08-07 16:03:42.677000+00:00 | ['Beauty', 'Mental Health', 'Equality', 'Self Love', 'Hair'] |
Fruit and vegetable stall veg box scheme | Coronavirus pandemic driving innovation.
Fruit and vegetable stall in Lincoln Central Market offering home deliveries with possibility of veg box scheme in the future.
One of the few businesses still open in the town centre.
The last time I was in Lincoln I jokingly asked the fruit and vegetable stall in Lincoln Central Market were they opening a second stall when I saw fruit and vegetable boxes piled nearby? No, offering a delivery service.
Saturday fewer boxes ready to go out.
For deliveries visit their facebook page S Sharpe & Daughter Fruit and Veg.
An example of how small businesses are innovating to remain in business.
I suggested they continue with a veg box scheme. Currently they pack as per customer order. It may continue as a mix of the two.
If the stall chooses, they know what is in season, what offers best value, and they grow their own produce. For example if cauliflowers are cheap, they may pack two.
The possibility of further expansion. Where there was once an excellent wholefood stall, offer loose muesli, nuts, dried fruits, grains and other dried goods, customers bring in their own containers. Another possibility, freshly made fruit juices and smoothies.
Coronavirus pandemic only three food shops remain open in the town centre, fruit and vegetable stall within the Central Market, a butcher within the side alley, and Pepperdine’s a butcher in Sincil Street. The excellent fishmonger closed a couple of weeks ago as could no longer source fresh fish.
At a loss why anyone wasting their time in a queue like lemmings at a supermarket. Even more so why wait an hour or more when can shop locally?
Support local indie shops, they have what you want, and no queue.
Lincoln City Council who own and mismanage Lincoln Central Market need to take a good hard look at Trinity Market in Hull Old Town, then take measures to improve the market. Why, for example, does the Central Market close its doors at four every afternoon? It should be open until at least five, to give people the opportunity to pop in on their way home from work. Individual traders to close earlier if they wish.
Lincoln City Council needs to do more to support local indie businesses. It cannot return to business as usual. Town centres were already dying. The local council together with the local Co-Op have done their best to trash Sincil Street, a once thriving street of local indie businesses, driving out local businesses, bringing in the same rubbish corporate chains as find anywhere and everywhere.
If we are to rebuild our town centres, it will be through all of us supporting local indie businesses. | https://medium.com/dark-mountain/fruit-and-vegetable-stall-veg-box-scheme-f67187fa51f9 | ['Keith Parkins'] | 2020-07-07 02:04:03.963000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Lincoln', 'Vegetables', 'Lincoln Central Market', 'Coronavirus'] |
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