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Convolutional Neural Networks using Numpy | Convolutional Neural Networks using Numpy
Part 1: Using a single layer convolutional filter and a single dense layer on a two class Fashion MNIST image classification task
Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash
There are many powerful tools like Keras and Tensorflow out there to make convolutional neural networks (CNNs). However, unless I have opened the hood and peeked inside, I am not really satisfied that I know something. If you are like me read on to see how to build CNNs from scratch using Numpy (and Scipy).
The code for this post is available in my repository.
I am making this post a multi part post. As of now I have planned two parts. In the first I will only do a two class classification problem on Fashion MNIST restricted to two classes. The images are monochromatic and the CNN will have only one convolutional filter followed by a dense layer. This simplicity will allow us to focus on the details of convolution without worrying about incidental complexity. In the second post I will tackle the full Fashion MNIST dataset (10 classes) and multiple convolution filters. I will also look at the CIFAR-10 dataset which has colored images in 10 classes. I might make a third post where I highlight some other facets about convolution.
This is going to a technical post and certain familiarity with algebra and calculus is assumed. While I know that one can do a lot with tensorflow without knowing advanced math, I do not see how it is possible to peek under the hood without the same. Algebra is essential in the forward pass and algebra and calculus are useful to compute the derivative of the loss function with respect to the weights of the network which I derive in closed form. These are used to update the weights, something commonly known as back propagation. Readers unwilling to go through the derivation but able to follow the final expressions can still benefit by understanding the final results and implementing (or following my implementation) in numpy.
Convolution
In this section we will discuss what exactly we mean by convolution in image processing and how it is related to the implementation in scipy. This is useful as scipy implementation is much faster than a naive numpy implementation. In the end we will consider an example where we compute the convolution by hand and by using scipy as a sanity check. For simplicity we will work in 1 dimension for this section but the arguments extend simply to any number of dimensions.
Mathematically a convolution of a function f by a function g is defined as
Convolution in physics
This definition is useful in physics and signal processing. For instance in electromagnetism g could be the charge density and f (called a Green’s function in that case) would help us compute the potential due to said charge distribution. (See books on electromagnetism like Jackson or particle physics like Peskin and Schroeder for more details).
In image processing this definition is a bit backwards in that for a convolution window g , of length 𝐾, we would want the convolution at 𝑥 to be the weighted average of 𝑓 such that the value at 𝑥−𝐾/2+𝑦 is weighted by 𝑔(𝑦). Thus, for image processing purposes the correct definition is
Convolution for image processing
Note that this will require value of f(x) for negative values of x and if this is put in as it is then numpy will interpret the negative numbers as indexing from the end of the array. Thus, while implementing this in numpy, we need to make sure that the original array is embedded in a bigger 0-padded one and negative indexes are understood appropriately.
In our implementation of CNNs, we will use scipy.convolve as it will be faster than a naive implementation in numpy. So it is useful to understand the way scipy.convolve is related to what we want. Scipy’s convolve is for signal processing so it resembles the conventional physics definition but because of numpy convention of starting an array location as 0, the center of the window of g is not at 0 but at K/2. So scipy.convolve uses the definition
scipy.convolve
Now, we if reverse the scipy convolution window we have y ->K-y and that makes the integral
Result of reversing the convolution filter array before giving it to scipy.convolve
Thus we will get the result we want by giving the reversed array of the convolution window to scipy.convolve.
As an example consider the signal and filter given below.
Signal and the Filter to convolve it with
We then implement the convolution by hand and using scipy in the following command
convolve(sig,win[::-1],'same')
The results are plotted below. The reader is advised to convince herself that the results are the same either by eyeballing the graphs or implementing the two methods herself.
Results of convolution by hand and by scipy.
We are now ready to implement CNNs using numpy.
Two-class classification
As our first example we implement a two class classification using numpy. I discuss this in full detail and for the other examples in latter posts I will expect that the reader has understood this example in detail and go a bit faster.
For the data we will used the Fashion MNIST. We get this from Keras as it is easily available but do note that this is the only use of Keras in this post.
(X_train_full, y_train_full), (X_test, y_test) = keras.datasets.fashion_mnist.load_data()
We then restrict our dataset to just the category 1and 3.
cond=np.any([y_train_full==1,y_train_full==3],0) X_train_full=X_train_full[cond]
y_train_full=y_train_full[cond]
X_test=X_test[np.any([y_test==1,y_test==3],0)]
y_test=y_test[np.any([y_test==1,y_test==3],0)] y_train_full=(y_train_full==3).astype(int)
y_test=(y_test==3).astype(int)
We then split our training set into a train and validation set
X_train, X_valid = X_train_full[:-1000], X_train_full[-1000:]
y_train, y_valid = y_train_full[:-1000], y_train_full[-1000:]
And we finally standardize the data as Neural Networks work best with data with vanishing mean and unit standard deviation.
X_mean = X_train.mean(axis=0, keepdims=True)
X_std = X_train.std(axis=0, keepdims=True) + 1e-7
X_train = (X_train - X_mean) / X_std
X_valid = (X_valid - X_mean) / X_std
X_test = (X_test - X_mean) / X_std
Our data are monochrome images that come as matrices of dimension L x L (here L=28). For simplicity we have only one convolution layer (we will relax this restriction in later posts) which is a matrix of size K x K (we will take K=3 in our examples) whose weights can be learnt. In addition we have a dense layer which is a matrix of size (L*L) x 1. Note that we have not kept bias terms and the reader can include them as an exercise once she has understood this example.
We now describe the forward pass, the error and the back propagation in some detail.
Forward Pass
We get the images and refer to it as the 0-th layer 𝑙0
We embed the image centered into one of size (𝐿+𝐾,𝐿+𝐾) with zero padding
Then we pass it through a convolutional layer and an activation function f1 (that we will take to be Relu). This is the first layer l1.
Finally we make a dense layer wrapped in a function f2 (which in this case we take to be a sigmoid function). This is the second layer l2.
Note that even though the weights W2 are for a dense layer we have written the indices here without flattening as it has an intuitive interpretation in that it takes each pixel of the convoluted image and makes a weighted sum. Nevertheless, flattening both and doing a numpy dot is more performant and that is what we do in the code below.
The Loss Function
For the loss function we take the usual log-loss
Loss function
where y is the true outcome.
Backpropagation
Backpropagation is just a fancy word for saying that all the learnable weights are corrected by the gradient of the loss function with respect to the weights that are being learned. It is straightforward to differentiate the loss function with respect to W1 and W2 using the chain rule.
The derivative of the loss function with respect to the layer 2 is
The derivative of the loss function with respect to the dense layer weights is
where we have used the fact that l2 is the output of the sigmoid function s(x) and that s’(x)=s(x)(1-s(x)).
Similarly, the derivative of the loss function with respect to layer 1 is
The derivative of the loss function with respect to the convolution filter is
Now we have closed form expressions for the derivative of the loss function with respect to the weights of the convolution filter as well as the final dense matrix so we can update the weights (with a hyperparameter the learning rate) as
That’s it.
That is all that is required to write the implementation of the CNN. Before doing that we first note the loss function and accuracy for initial random weights so as to have a benchmark.
Loss and accuracy before training
Before training starts, the loss on average can be obtained analytically from the expression for the loss and is 1. The accuracy is 0.5. We will run our code over five epochs and see the loss and accuracy on the test and validation set.
The code
First we write some custom functions for Relu, its derivative and the sigmoid function that we require for the main code and a function to just do the forward pass and compute loss and accuracy to do so on the validation set
def relu(x):
return np.where(x>0,x,0)
def relu_prime(x):
return np.where(x>0,1,0) def sigmoid(x):
return 1./(1.+np.exp(-x)) def forward_pass(W1,W2,X,y):
l0=X
l0_conv=convolve(l0,W1[::-1,::-1],'same','direct') l1=relu(l0_conv) l2=sigmoid(np.dot(l1.reshape(-1,),W2))
l2=l2.clip(10**-16,1-10**-16) loss=-(y*np.log(l2)+(1-y)*np.log(1-l2))
accuracy=int(y==np.where(l2>0.5,1,0)) return accuracy,loss
Now we write the main part of the code
# learning rate
eta=.001 for epoch in range(5): # custom code to keep track of quantities to
# keep a running average. it is not shown for clarity.
# the reader can implement her own or ask me in the comments. train_loss, train accuracy=averager(), averager()
for i in range(len(y_train)):
# Take a random sample from train set
k=np.random.randint(len(y_train))
X=X_train[k]
y=y_train[k]
##### FORWARD PASS ###### # First layer is just the input
l0=X
# Embed the image in a bigger image.
# It would be useful in computing corrections
# to the convolution filter lt0=np.zeros((l0.shape[0]+K-1,l0.shape[1]+K-1))
lt0[K//2:-K//2+1,K//2:-K//2+1]=l0
# convolve with the filter
# Layer one is Relu applied on the convolution l0_conv=convolve(l0,W1[::-1,::-1],'same','direct')
l1=relu(l0_conv) # Compute layer 2
l2=sigmoid(np.dot(l1.reshape(-1,),W2))
l2=l2.clip(10**-16,1-10**-16)
####### LOSS AND ACCURACY #######
loss=-(y*np.log(l2)+(1-y)*np.log(1-l2))
accuracy=int(y==np.where(l2>0.5,1,0))
# Save the loss and accuracy to a running averager
train_loss.send(loss)
train_accuracy.send(accuracy) ##### BACKPROPAGATION #######
# Derivative of loss wrt the dense layer
dW2=(((1-y)*l2-y*(1-l2))*l1).reshape(-1,)
# Derivative of loss wrt the output of the first layer
dl1=(((1-y)*l2-y*(1-l2))*W2).reshape(28,28)
# Derivative of the loss wrt the convolution filter f1p=relu_prime(l0_conv)
dl1_f1p=dl1*f1p
dW1=np.array([[
(lt0[alpha:+alpha+image_size,beta:beta+image_size]\
*dl1_f1p).sum() for beta in range(K)
]for alpha in range(K)]) W2+=-eta*dW2
W1+=-eta*dW1 loss_averager_valid=averager()
accuracy_averager_valid=averager()
for X,y in zip(X_valid,y_valid):
accuracy,loss=forward_pass(W1,W2,X,y)
loss_averager_valid.send(loss)
accuracy_averager_valid.send(accuracy)
train_loss,train_accuracy,valid_loss,valid_accuracy\
=map(extract_averager_value,[train_loss,train_accuracy,
loss_averager_valid,accuracy_averager_valid])
# code to print losses and accuracies suppressed for clarity
On my trial run I got the following results. Your’s should be similar
We can see that even this simple model reduces the loss from about 1 to 0.1 and increases the accuracy from 0.5 to about 0.96 (on the validation set).
We can visualize the convolution by plotting a few (standardized) images and their convolution with the original random filter and the final trained one. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/convolutional-neural-networks-using-numpy-part-1-f4f8ab26cccb | ['Borun Chowdhury Ph.D.'] | 2020-07-07 08:09:55.654000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Image Recognition', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Numpy'] |
Martha Gellhorn & Major General James Gavin: A Love Story of World War II | 1944–45 Holland -Berlin
Photo of Martha: Associated News
Martha Gellhorn first saw Major General James Gavin, the Commanding Officer of the 82nd Airborne Division, in September 1944, during the Market Garden operation in Holland, just outside the small town of Nijmegen. She was travelling with the British XXX Corps waiting to link up with the British airborne divisions, who’d dropped on Arnhem a couple of days earlier.
Operation Market Garden was a bold and audacious attempt to get behind German lines and capture the vital bridges across the Rhine, with the American airborne’s job that of creating a path over which the British armour and infantry could pass. It was a plan that nearly worked too. What the British, and the Americans for that matter, had not counted on was a German SS Panzer Division resting just outside Arnhem.
The lightly-armed British airborne (see Sir Richard Attenborough’s film, A Bridge Too Far, to get a feel of the operation) held out against fierce, highly trained and well equipped German troops for three days, with thousands of men killed and wounded.
Throughout it all Martha Gellhorn kept her head down in various ditches to the south of Arnhem, sharing rations and cigarettes with the men of the British XXX Corps, and those of the 82nd and 101st American Airborne Divisions, who’d risked their lives taking bridge after bridge in an attempt to get to the British troops under siege. Martha also spotted the commander of the 82nd, the 36 year old, and very handsome, General James Gavin, as he passed in his Jeep. Martha was smitten. It’s not known if Gavin spotted Martha or not, either way their lives were about to collide; although they didn’t meet again until the winter of 1944 just outside the village of Sissons, three miles from Reims.
Martha, in a not dissimilar fashion as Hemingway, always did her own thing and one night joined a couple of GIs out on patrol. Later she was found, notebook in hand, and without any form of accreditation, helplessly wandering around looking for somewhere to sleep. She was arrested, naturally under protest, and taken to Gavin’s tent.
When James Gavin and Martha came face to face there was an instant rapport, with Martha admitting straight away she didn’t have any paperwork that allowed her into that particular theatre of war; she went even further and told Gavin she didn’t care either. Gavin’s response was to laugh and tell Martha she obviously had a natural talent for living off the land, and would make a good guerrilla fighter. There was also an immediate physical attraction, and according to Caroline Moorehead, Martha’s biographer, there was something curious “…about the pupils of Gavin’s eyes, which seemed to grow larger while she was talking to him. It gave her a physical shock, as if he had touched her.” Gavin told Martha she was free to go, and that he would forget he’d ever seen her. Before leaving Martha gave Gavin her Paris address — the Hotel Lincoln.
James Maurice Gavin was born on March 22nd, 1907, in New York, and was the son of a newly arrived, unwed Irishwoman. Soon after his birth he was placed in a New York City orphanage. Within a year he was adopted by Mary and Martin Gavin, a Pennsylvania coal-mining couple. The young James Gavin soon learned the discipline, and hard work, of the Pennsylvanian coal fields; work and discipline that would pay real dividends throughout his long life. Gavin joined the US Army at the age of 17 and was soon selected for officer training at West Point. After graduating from the West Point Academy in 1929 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the infantry. He quickly progressed through the US Army, becoming an officer paratrooper in 1941, and then the Commanding Officer the 505th Parachute Infantry, which, in 1942 — after the US had declared war — became part of the newly instigated 82nd Airborne.
The 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army was founded originally as the 82nd Infantry Division in August 1917, and as its members came from all of the 48 States it was called the All American Division, and earned its now famous double A sleeve badge. The Division fought three major campaigns during the latter months of the First World War, but in the early 1920s the Division was disbanded and ceased to exist for the next 20 years. In March 1942, three months after America’s declaration of war, the 82nd Infantry Division was re-activated under the command of Omar Bradley who brought together three of the US Army’s best generals, Mathew Ridgway, Maxwell Taylor, and James Gavin, to lead the Division.
Gavin’s 505th Parachute Infantry soon began to turn the old 82nd Infantry Division into a fully fledged Parachute Division, and in August 1942 it was re-named the 82nd Airborne — the first Airborne Division in the US Army — under the overall leadership General Mathew Ridgway.
As World War II progressed Gavin led assaults on Sicily, and Salerno Bay, Italy, in 1943, reaching the rank of brigadier general. On the opening night of D-Day, 5th — 6th June, 1944, Gavin led the parachute assault section of his Division as they jumped into Normandy and took the town of Sainte-Mare-Eglise, at the same time guarding the river crossings on the flank of the Utah Beach landings. Gavin soon became known as the “Jumpin’ General”. By September 1944 Gavin had been made a major general — the youngest major general (36 years old) in the US Army since Armstrong Custer — and again jumped with his troops into battle in Holland where, landing hard against a brick wall fractured part of his spine. Gavin refused medical help and led his men into battle. It was just outside Arnhem that Martha first saw him.
James Gavin was a handsome man — portrayed in the film, The Longest Day, by Robert Ryan — who was too old for the part — and in Sir Richard Attenborough’s fine film, A Bridge Too Far, by Ryan O’ Neal, who was perfect.
In March 1945 Major General James Gavin, who was slowly becoming infatuated with Martha Gellhorn, finally — after three attempts — tracked her down at the Hotel Lincoln, where a tempestuous love affair began.
Well, a tempestuous love affair would have started at the Hotel Lincoln if Gavin had been able to get there, but the pressures of the continuing advance into Germany — and the 82nd always seemed to be in the front line — killed any hopes he might have had of such a delicious rendezvous. Instead, Gavin sent his private aircraft to Paris, with one of his executive officers, who, once he’d found Martha in the bar of the Lincoln, instructed her that he had an order from the CO of the 82nd Airborne demanding her immediate presence at his temporary HQ on the west bank of the Rhine.
As can be imagined Martha didn’t appreciate being summoned in such a cursory fashion, resenting the fact that she was no doubt expected to jump into bed with the glamorous young general and then be flown back to Orly to await his next command. Martha looked at the executive officer, a young, eager colonel.
“ Go tell your general to find himself a nice German girl who can tag along anytime he likes.”
The young colonel, a Methodist preacher back home, maintained his dignity, and continued with his assignment.
“ I can’t do that, ma’am. You see this piece of paper is an official order, in triplicate, requesting your presence, as a correspondent attached to the military, at Major General James M. Gavin’s headquarters so that you can be briefed on the next stage of the offensive. You are not really in a position to refuse unless of course you feel your work over here is complete, in which case I have orders to put you on the next plane, or boat, leaving for the States. Is that clear, ma’am?”
Martha nodded, and now realised, perhaps for the first time, that Gavin could, if he chose, make things very difficult for her future as a correspondent — she also realised the order was no more than a ruse, and that, in its own way was both rather charming, and an example of his obvious power, and tenacity — and Martha had to admit she was fascinated by the man, and, if she was completely honest with herself, the idea of sharing his bed was not such an unattractive proposition as all that.
“ Okay, Colonel, take me to your leader.”
“ Yes, ma’am.”
The meeting between Martha and James Gavin, just a couple of hours later, started off a bit scratchily, with Martha telling Gavin she had never much liked generals and resented being collected like a package to be pushed into bed. Gavin greeted this feisty opening statement with his customary laughter, which broke the thickening ice. The Major General from Dooleyville, not far from Mt Carmel, Pennsylvania, then poured one of the best journalists from St Louis, or anywhere else for that matter, a rather good dry martini, lit two cigarettes, and passing one to Martha, asked what she would like for dinner. The choice wasn’t brilliant, he told her, but he’d heard the steak was rather good, and the wine, a bottle of claret he’d been saving for a special occasion, even better. Martha gave in and enjoyed a superb meal served by a young black orderly with a smile full of gold teeth. After two glasses of wine Martha spilled out all her pent up emotions about Hemingway, and how very much she missed the Finca, the only home she had ever really had.
Gavin was a good listener, and only after Martha had told him virtually everything about herself did he briefly describe his background, and his life in the army, which, he said, had been his family for nearly twenty years. During the evening Gavin soon realised that Martha understood intimately what he called the “madness and the miracle of war.”
After dinner the two of them relaxed in front of an old iron stove, drank brandy, and listened to a scratchy old recording of Beethoven’s 1st Piano Concerto Gavin had found in a bombed out house in Holland. And as Gavin listened to the music he knew this opinionated and sensual woman sitting opposite him, with her eyes closed as she listened to the piano-playing genius of Edwin Fischer, could be a friend as well as a lover. And as Martha absorbed the Beethoven she knew she had found a man like no other in her life. She was captivated by his modesty and vast knowledge of military matters. She also liked the way he smelled. When the music finished they looked at each other, and then went to bed.
Thereafter Martha and James spent as much time as they could together, and when they were not together Gavin wrote Martha long, loving, letters. Martha responded with letters outlining everything, and everyone she met, including old mutual friends such as Bob Capa. Martha even sent Gavin books she thought he should read, including Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, and D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love; but no Hemingway. When they were together they read to each other, and played gin rummy in bed. Martha had at last found someone she could relate to, and a sexual partner who satisfied her. Gavin’s staff also noticed that his private quarters now had pictures on the walls, and the odd rug or two, plus vases containing grasses, or pieces of broken branches — all down to Martha.
One day toward the end of January, 1945, Martha was heading for the front line deep into Germany, when she unexpectedly came across Gavin and his 82nd dug in much further east than when she had last been with them. She was thrilled, and happily moved into Gavin’s HQ (inevitably an old farm house) for the night. The general explained to Martha that the 82nd had been ordered to act as decoys to draw away the main German opposition and allow the inexperienced American infantry to get behind the German lines and push forward, leaving the 82nd to clean up. He explained that it was a dangerous, and deadly, assignment — as all the recent assignments had been — and that many deaths could be expected if the German’s thought the 82nd where the main American force, which was the idea of course.
And the German’s did bump into the 82nd early the following morning resulting in a deadly fire fight that lasted for several hours. But with Gavin’s men calling in heavy artillery fire, and fighter bomber support, the two German divisions attacking them were effectively destroyed. But it came at the cost of many hundreds of casualties within the ranks of the 82nd. When Martha heard that many of the men she had come to know and admire had been killed she turned on Gavin and accused him of needlessly putting his men’s lives at risk. They argued fiercely until Gavin — who was himself deeply affected by the losses — stopped the argument by ordering Martha taken to her room where she was to be held under arrest until she calmed down.
Martha soon realised what a fool she had been and asked to be taken to Gavin to apologise, realising that her experiences — intimate, and wide as they were — of the madness, the miracle, and the realities of real warfare were, compared to Gavin’s, still extremely limited, especially when it meant deliberately putting the lives of your own men at risk for the greater strategic good. Gavin asked her never to speak of the episode again.
By early May the war at an end the precise status of Germany had to be determined, and even the Yalta conference had left things rather vague other than to say that the country would be governed by the Allies, and that Berlin itself would lie within the Soviet area of control. But things didn’t quite work out that way with Soviet, American, and British zones quickly set up.
Children Watch as Berlin Burns. Source: Berlinica
Although the heaps of dead had been cleared away, and anything of value looted, the city was little more than a huge heap of rubble as a result of the months of heavy shelling and bombing. The water mains were leaking in over three thousand places, and there was little or no food to be had, with prostitution — male and female — rife.
Major General James Gavin, who now controlled the American sector, was quickly given a tour of his domain, introduced to his Russian counterpart who saluted him and gave him vodka. Gavin saluted back, took another slug of vodka, and then went off to meet Bob Capa at one of the few bars still standing to drink Armagnac and take a look at some of the photographs Capa had been taking of the terrified Berliners.
In a letter to Martha, Gavin wrote:
“ I have been entrusted with the care of 887,000 very hungry, but rather docile Krauts, and have to find 600 tons of food every day to feed them. I’m wonderfully excited about the whole goddam thing. At last we, and hopefully the Russians too, are doing humanity some permanent good. But God how I love and miss you. Darling, I love you I love you I love you. It is a good love now. It is sturdy, dependable and solid. Something one can count on.”
In September Martha joined Gavin and was given a room in the staff quarters of the 82nd Airborne HQ. The official reason given for the preferential treatment was that she was writing a feature on Gavin’s leadership qualities for the Saturday Evening Post. Over more steaks and wine, served by the ever present, and ever helpful gold-toothed orderly, the two of them resumed their old routine of making love into the early hours then playing gin rummy, and reading to each other, and talking about the war. They laughed a great deal and criticised their political, and military leadership.
They also talked a lot about living together, even about getting married, about having a dog, and a cat, and children.
During the day Martha patrolled — as she called it — the streets of Berlin and watched as a gang of German women — with dyed blond hair — dug out dead bodies from a flooded underground railway. But Martha had, since Dauchau, lost interest in the dead, especially ordinary German dead. She visited hospitals and recorded that there were 30 cases of malnutrition out of 960 patients. She didn’t care. Martha ruminated on the idea that Germany should become an American colony because they could never become a democracy on their own. She also forecast a Russian-American war, remembering how willingly captured German troops had offered to join the American Army so they could fight the Russians. Martha also notes in her diary that she danced with Gavin for nine hours one night — remembering as she danced the time she danced with Hemingway, who was no dancer, at the Floridita — and then made love for another two hours with darling James (Martha now considered Hemingway to have been no great lover), and Martha was, by all accounts, very hard to please sexually. They were happy, desperate, insane times when everything felt right and wrong and then right again, with the smell of millions of dead still in the air, even if that was only in the mind.
One day Martha strolled into the Alexandraplatz, which was the centre of the Berlin black market — and somewhere Gavin had forbidden all Americans to go — to try and sell a dirty, creased old suit belonging to Bob Capa (who was being held captive at the Ritz Hotel in Paris because he couldn’t pay his hotel bill, and gambling debts) when she met her old friend Freddy Keller, who’d been in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War, who bought Capa’s suit for the exact amount of the photographer’s debts.
When Gavin’s Berlin command came to an end, early in 1946, he asked Martha to join him in America and become his wife. Martha thought about it but then decided she couldn’t face a life of living in army married quarters and politely refused Gavin’s offer, although she knew she loved him as she had loved no one else.
She also realised it was going to be hard to live without a war to go to, in the same way Hemingway had found it hard after 1918. Martha also knew she had to find another war, and another Gavin. It was a theme she returned to again and again in her conversations, her diary, and her published writings. I guess she also realised she would probably spend the rest of her life — with other Gavins coming and going — alone.
In November 1945 Martha travelled to Nuremberg to cover the war crimes trials.
After leaving Berlin James Gavin was appointed chief of staff of the US 5th Army, then chief of staff of all Allied forces in southern Europe, and then Commanding General of the US 7th Corps in West Germany. In the 1950s he headed the US Army’s research department and became a strong opponent of the defence policies of his old boss, President Eisenhower, that relied so heavily on nuclear weapons. Gavin retired from the army in 1958, serving as US Ambassador in France from 1961–63.
Gavin became a prominent critic of the US involvement in Vietnam, and wrote three books on warfare. He died in 1990, and in the forty five years since his love affair with Martha he seldom, if ever, mentioned her name.
Gavin was one of the finest soldiers America has ever produced.
James Gavin Source: ThoughtCo
Note: Although based on fact I have used a certain amount of creative licence
Bibliography: Martha Gellhorn — The Face of War (Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1959); Caroline Moorehead — Martha Gellhorn: A Life (Chatto & Windus, London, 2003); | https://stevenewmanwriter.medium.com/martha-gellhorn-major-general-james-gavin-a-love-story-of-world-war-ii-ba74e5439b57 | ['Steve Newman Writer'] | 2020-09-13 10:58:38.643000+00:00 | ['World War Two', 'Culture', 'Martha Gellhorn', 'History', 'Writing'] |
How to Deploy a Dockerised Application on AWS ECS With Terraform | Step 3. Push the Node App to AWS ECR
Now it is time we pushed our container to a container registry service — in this case, we will use AWS ECR:
Instead of using the AWS UI, we will use terraform to create our repository. In your directory create a file called main.tf . Populate your file with the following commented code:
Next, in your terminal, type:
terraform init
terraform apply
You will then be shown an execution plan with the changes terraform will make on AWS. Type yes:
We will be using the terraform apply command repeatedly throughout this tutorial to deploy our changes. If you then navigate to the AWS ECR service, you should see your newly created repository:
Now we can push our Node application image up to this repository. Click on the repository and click View push commands. A modal will appear with four commands you need to run locally in order to have your image pushed up to your repository:
Once you have run these commands, you should see your pushed image in your repository:
AWS ECS
Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) is a fully managed container orchestration service. AWS ECS is a fantastic service for running your containers. In this guide we will be using ECS Fargate, as this is a serverless compute service that allows you to run containers without provisioning servers.
ECS has three parts: clusters, services, and tasks.
Tasks are JSON files that describe how a container should be run. For example, you need to specify the ports and image location for your application. A service simply runs a specified number of tasks and restarts/kills them as needed. This has similarities to an auto-scaling group for EC2. A cluster is a logical grouping of services and tasks. This will become more clear as we build. | https://medium.com/avmconsulting-blog/how-to-deploy-a-dockerised-node-js-application-on-aws-ecs-with-terraform-3e6bceb48785 | ['Andrew Bestbier'] | 2020-05-21 09:42:19.355000+00:00 | ['Containers', 'AWS', 'Programming', 'Docker', 'JavaScript'] |
Dr. Guillotin— The Enlightened Executioner | Dr. Guillotin— The Enlightened Executioner
Head chopping machine named after man who hated corporal punishment
It was 25th April, 1792. A spring day. A crowd had gathered to marvel at the new executioner’s toy. A sharp blade that would swiftly descend in one motion severing a head from its owner’s torso.
Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier was to be the first recipient of the guillotine. He had been found guilty of killing a man during a highway robbery. Or he may have raped, robbed and assaulted. Nobody knew for sure, the Judge just knew he was guilty.
All around the Place de Grève the mob had grown restless. Nasty Nic, resplendent in a frilly red shirt for the occasion, matched the blood red color of the guillotine. Within seconds of positioning, Pelletier’s head was decapitated. Blood soaked the newly erected scaffold.
The crowd, unsure of what they had just witnessed, weren’t pleased. Boos began to ring out. The spectacle was too clinical and anticlimactic to satisfy the bloodlust of the crowd.
“Give me back my wooden gallows,” members of the mob chanted. This was no way to spend a Saturday afternoon at an execution.
Where was the drama? Where was the drawn-out death? Where was the suffering and cries of anguish? If any of the crowd had paid, they would’ve demanded their money back. Instead, they began to lob rotten fruit at the humane killing machine.
It wouldn’t be long before the mob realized just how good the guillotine was. They began to appreciate it’s swiftness and capacity for multiple deaths in a single day.
The following year in Lyon, December 1793, the guillotine recorded 209 victims. More blood than the crowd had ever seen before. | https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/dr-guillotin-the-enlightened-executioner-27417e8155b2 | ['Reuben Salsa'] | 2020-08-23 22:15:49.279000+00:00 | ['France', 'Death', 'Salsa', 'History', 'Writing'] |
Interview: Judith Flanders on the History of Alphabetical Order | Park & Recommendations: Ms. Flanders, thank you for your time in answering my questions. I am an AP World History teacher in my day job, so your book grabbed my attention and I have very much enjoyed reading it.
This book is the epitome of a micro-history, a genre I always enjoy because of how specific and even quirky they can be. What led you to decide to write about the history of alphabetical order?
Judith Flanders (historian, journalist, author): I came to this subject in a very sideways fashion. I read a review of a book on changes that had come with online reference works — it might have been a book about Wikipedia, but I don’t remember — and in passing, it mentioned that Wikipedia was the first encyclopaedia not to be in alphabetical order. (Spoiler alert: this is wrong by about a millennium.) I thought that was mildly interesting, but nothing more. Then a few months later, I went to see an exhibition of the artist Joseph Cornell, and I realized that his boxes were about classifying and sorting — in his case, putting things that *didn’t* belong together side by side. And I remembered that sentence from the book review and began to think about sorting and classifying. And from that, I ended up writing a book…
P&R: Was there a turning point where you realized you had made something important and interesting?
JF: I think I feel classifying my work as ‘important’ would be hubristic. On the other hand, ‘interesting’ is a word I’ll cling to. My feeling is, if I’m interested, so will other people be. My editor once joked (at least, I think it was a joke) that all my books could have the subtitle ‘Fun Stuff I Have Found Out’, and up to a point, that’s not untrue. I feel that historical movies, and television, and video games have made it all too easy for us to think that life in the past was exactly like ours, except with different clothes. And what I want to do is show how different it was, and because it was different, how people thought, and acted, differently. So the fact that in the Middle Ages, encyclopaedias were hierarchical rather than alphabetical wasn’t because, necessarily, the writers didn’t know about alphabetical order, but because they wanted to mirror the order of God’s creation — that was what mattered. And if we understand that, we understand something about the times they lived in.
P&R: Most of your work focuses on the Victorian era. Was it difficult to broaden your scope and write about almost five thousand years of history?
JF: Yes, it was really hard, and I still feel very hesitant, knowing full well that in every paragraph there are probably over-simplifications, or poor interpretations, or even outright errors that historians of the period would not have made. But at the same time, I do feel as a generalist, I sometimes see things that specialists overlook, because they’re so close to the subject. I’ve been amazed by the number of books, for example, on the history of lexicography that simply never mention, or gloss over, the choice of alphabetical order as an organizing principle — they assume that because that’s the way their dictionary or encyclopaedia is organized, that’s in some way ’natural’, and ‘had’ to happen that way.
P&R: I was especially interested in your book because in high school I had the recurring thought: “Why are the letters of the alphabet in the order that they are? Who decided the order?” Your book partially answered my question, because experts assume the letters were put in order to ease in memorization. Were you able to get any sense of who made the decision of how to order the alphabet, or what caused them to choose the order they did?
JF: Well, the answer is a) we don’t know why the letters of the alphabet are in the order they are; and b) almost certainly, no one decided the order. We do know that the order that has come down to us, that our English alphabet mostly follows, was set very early on. There is a carving — a graffito, really — in Lachish, from the late 9th or early 8th c. BCE, with the first five letters of the alphabet, in the order we know them. As you say, it was most likely in a set order to enable memorisation, but more than that we just don’t know.
P&R: Religion plays an important part in your book, but sometimes they facilitated the development of alphabetical order (like the early Hebrews, for memorization), but sometimes you mention that religions shunned alphabetical order because they believed real scholars should already know where things are. On the whole, do you think major religions facilitated the use of alphabetical order as an organization tool, or did they more often resist its use?
JF: Well, religion faces two ways when it comes to using alphabetic order. As I said, early encyclopaedias didn’t use alphabetic order, but instead a hierarchical order (God, then the saints, then angels, then man, then animals, then vegetation, minerals and so on). Using this order showed that you understood God’s plan for the universe, and not using it meant you were foolish and didn’t understand. Then, as you say, religions also relied hugely on memorisation — a scholar simply knew large tracts of the holy works by heart, and at most, what was written down was a prompt, not the, as it were, external memory of the scholar. But equally, it tended to be the religious institutions that provided education, and therefore the very core of alphabetic order — the alphabet — was taught by clerics. By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the west, these clerics were actively using alphabetic order in books in order to be able to look up — an entirely new concept — biblical references or scholarly commentary.
P&R: I was stunned by the depth of research in A Place For Everything. What does your research process look like? (Do you hole up in a library somewhere in Europe? An archive? Do you get lost in a rabbit trail of documents sometimes? How do you organize your notes and findings?)
JF: I do mostly hole up in a library for a year or so, and just read everything I can get my hands on. Mostly I use the British Library, which is wonderful — you can order ten books a day and they just arrive, no scrambling around in dusty stacks to find them. But of course in these COVID days, libraries are more or less a lost paradise, and so like everyone else, I’m working more with online materials.
P&R: Where do you think the future lies for alphabetical order? Do you believe it is here to stay, or are digitization and search engines going to make alphabetization obsolete?
JF: I suspect it will survive, at least for a while (I’m using ‘a while’ in a sweeping historical fashion, meaning another century or so). Even Wikipedia, which we don’t think of as needing alphabetical order, uses it. If I look up the surname ‘Park’ on Wikipedia, it offers me a choice of Alex, Arlo, Bert, Bobby, Chan Ho, Christopher, Craig, Dan…. And we continue to expect alphabetical order in everyday life: student registers are almost all certainly alphabetical by surname; in a bookshop, Jane Eyre is almost equally certainly not shelved next to War and Peace. But yes, libraries no longer need to worry about whether it’s Tchaikovsky, or Tchaikovskii, or Chaikovskii, and how many readers will use each of those to try and find a biography of the composer. I remember when I was a student using the (then) bound volumes of the Dictionary of National Biography, and being bewildered when I couldn’t find an entry for George Eliot, not realising that the Victorian editors had placed her under ‘C’, for Cross, her (briefly) married name. Now, as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, it doesn’t matter what she’s called: as George Eliot, or Mary Ann (or Marian or Mary Anne) Evans, or Cross, or Lewes, she’ll come up whatever you key in, and that’s a liberation.
Thanks to Judith Flanders for this wonderful interview. If you have additional or follow-up questions, respond below or read A Place For Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order. It releases everywhere on October 20th. | https://medium.com/park-recommendations/interview-judith-flanders-on-the-history-of-alphabetical-order-f6b2b5e3e391 | ['Jason Park'] | 2020-10-19 10:23:48.022000+00:00 | ['History Of Technology', 'Books', 'Reading', 'Interview', 'History'] |
How to spark deep behavioural change by considering your users the protagonists of their own stories | User-centred thinking and design is understood in many different ways. To some, it simply means putting yourself in the user’s shoes to make decisions, although this often inevitably means projecting your own opinions onto the idea of a ‘user’ and often ignoring data or research. To others more familiar with the process, it can mean using user research, data, and user testing, to form personas, journeys, and pull together a much broader picture of who the user is, how they behave, and what their pain points are.
The second approach is fairly standard in product design. You use insight available to form a better idea of what the user is struggling with, what they might want in terms of features, and which bits of your product, service, or website they find usable or frustrating.
This is a very conventional and iterative approach to product design, which focuses on the user, and puts their needs first.
Very often though, this approach, whilst great at identifying issues with specific or nuanced elements of your product at a user level, fails to provide us with any wider insight to deliver bigger impact changes or features.
So, how can we deliver bigger impact changes that more deeply affect user behaviour, beyond just fixing or addressing their frustrations. What fundamental and radical changes or features can we offer to our users, that will not only provide them with a much richer experience, but also create a fierce passion for your brand, or deep, habitual support, or connection with what you do?
To do this I believe that we need to take a different approach instead of simply prioritising a list of fixes and features using impact vs effort based on research, data, and analysis. We need to understand our users on a much deeper and more intimate level. We need to understand them as they see themselves, as we all see ourselves in our own lives. As the heroes of their own story.
To understand that though, we first need to understand how the characterisation of the protagonist works in storytelling.
The Characterisation of the Protagonist
In most stories that resonate with us, we will invariably identify on some level with the plight of the protagonist. We all see ourselves as the protagonists of our own lives. Our struggles and experiences form the stories that we tell to others through our conversations, messages and more.
Photo by Adrian Dascal on Unsplash
So how is the protagonist characterised in storytelling?
The first part of the protagonist’s characterisation comes by way of understanding the purpose of the story itself, or the Armature as defined by Brian McDonald in Invisible Ink. Most great stories have a purpose: a lesson or a message that the story is trying to convey.
Once we know the purpose of the story, the protagonist can then assume their role as the vehicle for that purpose.
Every aspect of the protagonist (and often other characters in the story), is designed to enhance the communication of that purpose to the audience. For example, if the purpose of the story is to teach us that ‘true happiness only comes from our relationships with others,’ then we might characterise the protagonist as someone who is self-centred, ego driven or longing for fame, all whilst shunning help from anyone else, and despising their friends and family. We would show them acting selfishly and failing, ignoring others and shunning relationships, ending up sad and alone. We might also show them as someone who has been hurt by a relationship in the past, or who even despite not trusting anyone, still keeps a memento of someone he secretly still cares for as a possession. This protagonist would then go on a journey through the narrative of the story, that challenges and eventually alters those behaviours, actions, and beliefs.
This example demonstrates how the journey of the protagonist could communicate the message of the story to the audience, in a way that allows them to come to the conclusion themselves.
Once the protagonist has been formed around the message of the story, we can then start to shape the journey that changes them, the narrative of the story. There are many different frameworks for this, including the hero’s journey as defined by Joseph Campbell, which I won’t cover here, but highly encourage reading.
Regardless of the framework however, the journey itself can be more simply viewed as a series of conflicts that either sets the protagonist back or pushes them forward, ending in them eventually returning home (literally or metaphorically), having changed. In our example, the story might be resolved when the protagonist realises that their selfish ways are actually hurting rather than helping them, as they come to realise that by building meaningful relationships happiness is truly achieved. They might then return to those they rejected at the beginning of the story to make amends, or rebuild their relationship entirely.
More importantly, the characterisation of the protagonist teaches us that deeper behavioural, and psychological change, doesn’t come from simply solving all the hero’s problems. It instead comes from us placing designed conflict in front of the hero in order for them to question their status quo, providing them with enough information to resolve the conflict themselves, and allowing them to overcome it in a way that is positive.
It also tells us that it is important for the audience participating in that story to be able to put themselves in the shoes of the protagonist, in order to experience some level of that psychological change in themselves.
The proof is in the pudding, I’m sure most of us have been affected on some level by a particularly moving character in a film, book, or TV show, teaching us a lesson that has stayed with us ever since.
Understanding Conflict in Storytelling
So now we have an outline of how the protagonist is characterised, and we know that instead of simply solving their problems we have to create the right conflict for them to truly change as a character. But how do we define that conflict? And what is the right conflict to use?
First, we need to understand the difference between the starting point of the protagonist, and the intended end of their journey. How do we want their behaviour, beliefs and outlook to change over the course of the story. Or in the case of the user, how do we want their behaviour or outlook to change over the course of the user journey.
Secondly, we need to understand the two types of conflict: conflict that sets the hero back, and conflict that pushes the hero forward. For our user, we want to focus on conflict that pushes them forward in their journey of change, but we need to understand how both differ in order to start creating the conflict. This is explained in more detail in Mary Robinette Kowal’s BYU 2020 lecture on short stories.
Photo by Sushil Nash on Unsplash
In the first instance, if the goal is to set the hero back, then the conflict either has to answer the protagonist’s actions with a ‘no, and’, or a ‘yes, but’.
For example, in Star Wars: A New Hope, onboard the Death Star, the conflict facing Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewbacca is being captured by stormtroopers before they escape. So when they see a trash chute as they are being followed, they jump down it. This conflict is a ‘yes, but’. YES, it solves the problem of being chased by stormtroopers, BUT it introduces another problem when the Dianoga attacks Luke, as well as the trash compactor beginning to close in on them.
In products, services, and websites, this type of conflict often causes the user to bounce, or become frustrated. This is the type of conflict we want to avoid, or solve if it exists.
The second type of conflict, the one we want to focus on for our users, pushes the hero forward and can be defined as answering the protagonist’s actions with a ‘no, but’, or a ‘yes, and’.
So for example, when the Rebels launch their attack on the death star, and Luke is taking aim for the exhaust vent, YES shooting the exhaust vent blows up the death star, AND it also teaches Luke to finally put his full trust in the force.
Using These Principles to Spark Deep Behavioural Change in Users
So how do we apply these principles, alongside research, data and testing, to affect deep and fundamental behavioural change in our users, in a way that both benefits us and them?
Photo by Niyas Khan on Unsplash
We know that first we need to define the message, the purpose of our story, the purpose of our product, brand or service.
Maybe it’s to ‘make people as passionate about running as we are,’ or perhaps ‘to help isolated and lonely people know that someone is always there for them.’
Whatever it is, this is the first building block to unlocking the change in our users we are looking for, beyond just fixing their pain points and frustrations.
The next step comes in using data and research to understand where our users are starting from. What are their behaviours, what are their opinions and beliefs, what do they do each day, where do they live, and what questions are they asking themselves. These are our characters, at the start of their stories.
Once those are defined, we have both our starting point: the definition of our heroes, the users who will be beginning their journey with our product, and we have our end point: the purpose of our product, the behaviour we want our users to exhibit by the end of their journey.
Next comes the tricky part: identifying the conflicts we are going to throw at our users in order for them to change, to develop the behaviour we are trying to get them to exhibit. Remember, these conflicts need to push them forwards rather than set them back, which means every conflict we create for the user should always be a ‘no, but’ or ‘yes, and’.
Finally, once we know what conflicts to throw at our user, we need to make sure we always give the user the right information at the point of conflict for them to resolve it themselves. The user needs to come to their own conclusion for behavioural change to happen.
For example, for an athletic-wear brand focused on running, trying to ‘make people as passionate about running as we are,’ if we know users often think ‘running is boring,’ then we should create a conflict for them that makes them question that assumption. This could take the form of a feature that gamifies the experience with badges and achievements, a new soundtrack for each run, or being able to see the most exciting or challenging routes nearby. Once this conflict is created, the user also needs to be provided with the information that proves to them why that feature makes it ‘not boring’. That could be in the form of user reviews, data about which of your friends have completed which achievements, exclusive tracks from artists on playlists, or leaderboards for each of the routes.
Combining Storytelling with User Research & Data to Create Deeper Behavioural Change
Hopefully I’ve managed to show here how by treating users like the protagonists of their own story, we can spark deeper, positive behavioural change in our users, in line with business objectives. This approach can help take products and websites beyond just functional services fulfilling user needs, to affect larger scale positive behaviour change for large groups of users. Behavioural change that not just benefits businesses and brands, but also benefits users on a deeper level, changing them for the better, allowing them to tell a more engaging and positive story, using the products and services we design as the foundation of those stories. | https://uxdesign.cc/how-to-spark-deep-behavioural-change-by-considering-your-users-the-protagonists-of-their-own-51f57c0e5ffc | ['Chris Ashby'] | 2020-12-28 21:24:13.225000+00:00 | ['Storytelling', 'User Experience', 'UI', 'UX', 'Product Design'] |
Why We Might Lose (Some) Sports | When talking about the detrimental impacts of climate change, we typically think of increased temperatures, lack of access to food and water, broad changes to the energy sector, and so on. We don’t think of how a rapidly changing environment impacts sports. But the costs to the industry from disruption are enormous, as are those to the health of athletes.
Implications of Disruption
2020 has seen major sporting events postponed due to the pandemic — Wimbledon, the Euros, the Tokyo Olympics, and many more. But cancellations and disruptions are increasingly common due to extreme weather. The 2019 Rugby World Cup saw several cancellations because of Typhoon Hagibis, long-distance running events were cancelled due to air quality concerns, and up to 27% of England’s home cricket games have been affected by rain since 2000.
While such points may seem trivial, or little more than a temporary lack of entertainment, to non-sports fans, the costs are significant. According to 2018 data, the global market for sports was $488.5 billion annually, and expected to grow to over $600 billion by 2022. The impacts of coronavirus, entirely halting in-person attendance in many countries and severely restricting numbers in others, may well be compounded by climate change in the coming years if significant action is not taken.
A 2020 report by the Rapid Transition Alliance studied the impacts of a changing climate on sports by 2050 and provided several serious conclusions, including:
25% of English league football grounds could be flooded every season
1 in 3 British Open golf courses will be damaged by rising sea levels
50% of previous Winter Olympic host cities will be unreliable to host winter sports
These are especially concerning estimates when we consider that the Premier League contributed £7.6 billion annually to GDP in the latest year, paid £3.3 billion in taxes, and provides 100,000 jobs (including at the 20 clubs). £4 billion is spent on UK golf each year and millions watch tournaments. Meanwhile, the winter sports industry in the US alone is worth $20 billion every year, but a decrease in snow levels of 41% since the 1980s has led to snow seasons shortening by 34 days. What were once solid industries making easy money and providing mass employment are now gravely threatened.
Challenges extend further. The world of sports sponsorships is wildly lucrative. Environmentally damaging companies, often including fossil fuel businesses, are entrenched in sports. It’s not easy for anyone, especially those involved in less popular sports that receive much less funding, to walk away from guaranteed money based solely on environmental commitments.
Health and Performance
The physical toll of high temperatures on the human body is well known, possibly causing dehydration, heatstroke, or worse. Understandably, these impacts degrade performance and health in athletes.
In January, the Australian Open activated its extreme heat policy when temperatures reached a blistering 43°C, forcing the temporary suspension of all matches except those on courts with roofs. Other matches were cancelled in the tournament due to smoke from the devastating bushfires at the turn of the year causing air pollution to reach an unplayable level. Bushfire pollution impacted Australian cricket matches as well as baseball.
Photo from a fast company article
Nike completed their own research on the impacts of climate change on various sports and their athletes. For example, football players — professional or not — face additional fatigue and strain on their health in higher temperatures. By 2050, the average player could experience 42% to 70% more extreme hot days. In Bangkok, 301 to 342 days each year could be above 32°C compared with 263 to 293 currently. Negative impacts are also visible in running performance. Nike tested elite-level and everyday athletes over the marathon distance at different temperatures. At 10°C, the optimal performance temperature, elite athletes completed the race in 2:29:33 and everyday athletes at 4:24:57. When the temperature rose to 24°C, times increased to 2:33:28 and 4:41:41 respectively, gaps of nearly 4 minutes and 17 minutes.
Decarbonisation
Unsurprisingly, motorsports rank pretty high up the polluting leader board. Formula 1, the motorsports posterchild, sees 21 races every season (excluding the shortened 2020 season due to COVID). These are almost all in different countries, and across 5 continents. Weekly flights for hundreds of personnel alongside transport of heavy freight by air, road, and sea propelled the total 2018 emissions to 256,551 tonnes. While the sport itself — driving very fast cars — may be seen as highly polluting, total car emissions account for just 0.7% of the total.
So, in 2019, F1 announced a hugely ambitious net-zero by 2030 goal that covers both on track racing and the incredibly complex off-track operations. The plan covers many areas, including running their offices, facilities and factories 100% on renewable energy, demanding that petrol in the cars has at least 10% biofuel, and moving to “ultra-efficient logistics”, all while engineering ways for carbon capture.
The racing world is already changing. Formula E (electric) is a championship that “actively promotes electric mobility and renewable energy solutions to contribute to reducing air pollution”. Equally, 2021 marks the first season of the Extreme E championship — a new off-road racing series using electric vehicles in some of the most challenging and remote landscapes on the planet (glaciers in Argentina, the Saudi Arabian desert, Greenland, etc) to raise awareness for climate change.
Decarbonisation is happening in other sports too. In football, smaller clubs have become trailblazers. Forest Green Rovers, in the fourth tier of English football, became the first carbon-neutral club in the world in 2018. Running on renewable energy and serving vegan food, the team received official certification from both FIFA and the UN, and, in doing so, received significant investment from footballers in the premier league. Initiatives like this show the power to implement change and the financial benefit in pursuing it. While larger clubs have much broader operations and supply chains, and therefore higher emissions, they also have access to much greater financial resources.
The global appeal of sports combined with the money they draw in annually could draw further attention to the need for climate action. Andrew Simms, an environmental researcher, says, “you have to talk about the things which matter to people…and, of course, the number one pastime globally is sport.” | https://medium.com/climate-conscious/why-we-might-lose-some-sports-5fd10198f1cb | ['Marcus Arcanjo'] | 2020-12-16 15:01:20.582000+00:00 | ['Sports', 'Climate Action', 'Business', 'Climate Change', 'Environment'] |
Follow | Follow
A one-line poem prompt
He left a trail of crumbs,
Knowing I’d follow
And despite the prison
I knew awaited
I still followed, addicted
Your Turn
Please share your own one-line poem on the word “Follow”. Either as a response to this post, or if you prefer to write it as a stand alone piece, just make sure to leave a link to it in the response section below.
FYI: Responding to a prompt adds you to the notification list. Join us — we are a creative group! | https://medium.com/chalkboard/follow-5303691364f7 | ['Indira Reddy'] | 2017-04-04 20:12:12.260000+00:00 | ['Chalkboard', 'Follow', 'One Line Poetry Prompt', 'Poetry', 'Writing'] |
2: The pitiless crowbar of events | 2: The pitiless crowbar of events
How will we remember the coronavirus? While we are ‘flattening the curve’, how can we think about the curves beyond?
Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets
This essay is a bookmark, a note pencilled in a margin, a knot in a handkerchief. A small quiet place to return to, I hope, amidst generalised chaos outside the window. I started writing it as the Australian bushfires were blazing at continental scale, during January 2020. I stopped, but then picked it up again in the early stages of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. It builds on pieces I wrote in Australia from 2007 to 2011, amidst fires, heatwaves, dust storms, and floods.
Each time I’ve written, or started writing, it is with the instinct that we must remember what it feels like at this point, such that, a few months later, when the disaster passes, we can return to the rawness of this moment, remember how many people responded, and build anew in that direction — rather than snapping back into business-as-usual, reaching back for a false memory of ‘before’ from the transformed ‘after’, pretending that the disaster was a one-off, a blip, an exception to the norm.
In fact, the disasters were designed by us. And so they were normal. Or perhaps, there is no normal. These events were bound to happen. Effectively, horribly, they were planned for, albeit accidentally. Whether conscious or not, they are the outcomes of the systems that we have designed, working precisely as they should. Recall the quote attributed to W. Edwards Deming:
“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets”
As Frank M. Snowden writes, “Epidemic diseases are not random events that afflict societies capriciously and without warning. Every society produces its own specific vulnerabilities. To study them is to understand that society’s structure, its standard of living, and its political priorities.” (From ‘Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present’, 2019)
These are systemic outcomes, and cannot be addressed otherwise. Unless we look at where and how our own crises originate, and then why they propagate so fiercely due to choices about our systems of living, our society’s structures and priorities, we must assume they will keep coming, more frequently, with each wave bigger than the last.
What we have to remember in a few months, perhaps years, is the rawness of this moment, the emotional shock we are in. But also, we must record in detail the way that people are responding, often quietly magnificently in everyday acts of solidarity, as well as through impressive governance and collective action. In doing so, we can better understand how these moments, and those to come, are an outcome of the way we have designed the world. For if we have designed it, we have a choice as to what we do differently, next.
But we have to notice this first. As Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing says, at the start of her book ‘The Mushroom at the End of the World’:
“More and more of us looked up one day and realized that the emperor had no clothes. It is in this dilemma that new tools for noticing seem so important.” — Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Later, Tsing describes how the matsutake mushroom grows amidst ecological ‘disturbances’—her book is somehow about mushrooms and everything else at the same time—and she writes “I make disturbance a beginning, that is, an opening for action. Disturbance realigns possibilities for transformative encounter.”
At some point, we must transform and stop snapping back to business-as-usual. We returned to that, almost completely, after the Australian floods and fires, as noted later, and there is every chance that the virus, though it feels like an unprecedented global event right now, with ever-mounting daily horror, will subsequently be seen as deeply unfortunate, once-in-a-century event, a bullet not exactly dodged, but if we’re lucky, just a flesh wound. And so we speak of recovery already, of getting back to normal.
Some will already be working hard to ensure that the business is as-usual. These are the last lines from a leaked Goldman Sachs briefing for investors I chanced across two weeks ago.
House view from GS. COVID-19 Analysis by Goldman Sachs
Date: March 15, 2020 at 9:42:49 AM EDT
<snip>
There is NO systemic risk. No one is even talking about that. Governments are intervening in the markets to stabilize them, and the private banking sector is very well capitalized. It feels more like 9/11 than it does like 2008.
</snip>
Isn’t it interesting how the global finance sector has an instinctive typology of crises to hand, with which to gauge an impact on the capital in the private banking sector: “Nah mate, this is not a 2008-er, it’s a straight-up 9/11, but perhaps with a hint of 1979, yeah?”
So at that point, a couple of weeks ago, Goldman Sachs were, like President Trump happily looking forward to an Easter egg hunt, already trying to hold the line about normality. Meanwhile, in Beijing, and apparently having flattened the initial curve of the virus, China is already attempting to reboot some version of business-as-usual.
Average daily coal consumption is rising daily and compared with an average of the past 3 years is 80.6%. It was 534,000 daily tons on March 13th.
And with the factories switching on, other engines ignite:
In another sign that normal life was starting to return in China, there were reports of traffic jams in Beijing on Monday morning.
(This, despite recent modelling in The Lancet which suggests that opening up the economy in Wuhan during March would only lead to a second peak in August. Slowly easing restrictions during April suggests a second peak in October, “affording health-care systems more time to expand and respond.”)
In weary Wuhan, it must feel like a starter motor tentatively firing, waiting the engine to catch. The New York Times states that “Stopping the Chinese industrial machine was painful for China and for the world — and restarting it may be even harder.”
Why is it a problem to just restart the engines as soon as possible? Because as well as the very real horror, the mass slowdown caused by the virus is giving us a glimpse of something else, aspects of another green world just within reach. In fact, “stopping the Chinese industrial machine” was not painful, in a sense. It improved the environment in China immediately, and markedly. The virus is painful. The clean air over Wuhan is not.
To be crystal clear: the virus must be dealt with immediately. All available energy, mental and otherwise, must be devoted to flattening its curves of infection, to preventing further deaths. Ed Yong wrote a great analysis of what to do a few weeks ago. At this point, it should almost be impossible to focus on anything else. So I choose not write in great depth about how we make things happen next, at least not right now.
Except. Except. We must also create some space to think about the next curves to come, and how flattening the curves on the coronavirus might enable us to squeeze the curves on the other, deeper crises we are facing at the same time.
So these papers are about two things: 1) remembering this moment by noting and writing such that we learn as much from it as possible, in order to motivate the systemic changes that can prevent it happening again, and 2) framing questions, at high-level, about how our tactical reactions to flattening the curve of the immediate threat could also be strategic responses that build a new world at the same time. How might we accelerate out of the curve with renewed energy and deeper insight with which to address the even greater challenges and opportunities that are still lying in wait once the virus is dealt with?
How we do that is by taking advantage of this momentary slowdown. Amidst the thicket of links below, and the memories they will subsequently trigger, there is, for me at least, a flickering image of the end of something and the beginning of something else, another green world suddenly within reach. | https://medium.com/slowdown-papers/2-the-pitiless-crowbar-of-events-575464d7502c | ['Dan Hill'] | 2020-04-13 05:53:57.867000+00:00 | ['Strategic Design', 'Politics', 'Policy', 'Covid-19', 'Coronavirus'] |
Moving to Finland: My SHAZAM moment? | You can’t beat a good story about transformations, and whether it’s because of a magic lightning bolt, or moving to a new country, change is a powerful motivator in life.
I’m a long-time comic book fan. My dad started me down that path when he bought me issues of ‘Justice League of America’ and ‘Green Lantern’ in the late seventies, and I’ve been steeped in the world of superheroes ever since. I’ve read and enjoyed books from Marvel and DC, but when it comes right down to the wire, I’m a DC guy first and foremost. I love the Marvel movies, but every time a new DC film comes out, I go into it with enthusiasm and hope. That hope has wobbled a bit with some of the DC movies we’ve had in recent years, but after the barnstorming ‘Wonder Woman’ and the bonkers fun of ‘Aquaman’, I have high hopes for ‘Shazam!’ Coming out this week.
About Shazam (Captain Marvel)
Billy Batson is a fourteen-year-old boy who can say the magic word “SHAZAM” and transform into the grown adult superhero known (originally) as Captain Marvel. Created by Fawcett comics in 1940 as a direct competitor to Superman, Captain Marvel was at one time the most popular comic book character in the world. He battled monsters, mad scientists and his evil counterpart Black Adam, but was eventually brought low by real world legal battles, as DC sued Fawcett over the character’s similarities to Superman. Captain Marvel and Fawcett comics faded away, until much later when DC acquired the rights to the character and brought him back as one of their own.
That wasn’t the end of the character’s legal woes, however. During the character’s absence, a new comic book company, Marvel, had risen and created their own character called Captain Marvel. Marvel felt they should have first rights to the name, what with being Marvel and all, and the courts agreed. Since then, they have given it to several different heroes over the years, most recently to Carol Danvers, whose movie you have just watched.
It led to a strange situation where DC were allowed to keep using the name Captain Marvel for its character but couldn’t call any of the books he appeared in “Captain Marvel”. Instead, we got titles like ‘The Power of Shazam’ and ‘The Trials of Shazam’. In more recent comics, DC made the decision to call simply call the character Shazam. To old school fans of the character, that name is still the name of the wizard who gave Billy Batson the ability to transform into Captain Marvel.
In fact, the magic word, the name, Shazam is an acronym, derived from the mythical figures said to grant Captain Marvel his powers:
The wisdom of Solomon
The strength of Hercules
The stamina of Atlas
The power of Zeus
The courage of Achilles
The speed of Mercury
And that gave me an idea.
The transformative power of Finland
Moving to a whole new country is a little more involved than shouting a magic word but is no less of an opportunity to change. I’ve certainly had to re-evaluate my skills and the direction of my career to reflect my new situation.
But what if I could have done it with a single word? What if I had been able to shout “Suomi!” (that’s the Finnish for Finland) and transform into Kapteeni Ihme (Captain Marvel, according to Google Translate). What powers would I get from that magic word?
Sampsa Pellervoinen
In Finnish mythology, Sampsa fulfils the role of a god of fertility and summer: he sows the lands allowing vegetation to grow and flourish. For my new hero Kapteeni Ihme, I think the power granted by Sampsa should be linked to regrowth, rebirth, perhaps optimism.
Ukko
Ukko is the god of the sky, bringer of thunder, indeed the Finnish word for thunder is ukkonen. He wields a hammer which he can use to summon lightning and would probably be played by Chris Hemsworth if there was a movie about him. He is the most significant god in Finnish mythology, and just like Zeus in “Shazam” I think this is where we derive a good part of Kapteeni Ihme’s power.
Osmotar
Finland has a goddess of beer, how awesome is that? I couldn’t find much more than that about her but including her in Kapteeni Ihme’s power set is irresistible. Perhaps the courage of one beer? But remember kids, don’t drink and fight crime! Ah, but better, she created the first ale with the help of foxes, squirrels and martens. She sent each out in turn to seek ingredients when the previous search failed. That’s tenacity, that is.
Mielikki
Goddess of forests and the hunt, Mielikki is also linked with healing and luck. But the thing which appeals to me most is that she is said to have created bears. Mielikki is Mother of Bears. So, I think she should grant the Kapteeni something like strength, endurance or ferocity.
Ilmarinen
Artificer, inventor and smith, Ilmarinen is one of the key figures in Finnish mythology and the Kalevala, so much so that even I’d heard of him (sidebar, I named a spaceship after him in one of my short stories). Like Ukko, he too is usually shown with a hammer, so I think we have a candidate for Kapteeni Ihme’s weapon of choice. More importantly I think his creativity would be a great help in the good Kapteeni’s adventures.
So, there we have it: when Kapteeni Ihme calls forth the magic snows by shouting, “SUOMI!” he is granted:
The optimism of Sampsa
The power of Ukko
The tenacity of Osmotar
The strength of Mielikki’s bears
bears The innovation of Ilmarinen.
You know what… I think Kapteeni Ihme would do well as an entrepreneur in a Finnish startup. | https://medium.com/the-shortcut/moving-to-finland-my-shazam-moment-7bacf4461542 | ['Rob Edwards'] | 2019-04-06 09:13:14.397000+00:00 | ['Shazam', 'Finland', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Comics'] |
I Want Peace from the Stress that Surrounds Me | All I want is peace. Peace in my mind. It seems that my heart is filled with breaking pieces. Falling down, falling in, falling out of place. I don’t know how to explain it.
My gut is also in turmoil. Is it from the stress that my insides are screwed and tightened till they want to pop? Or is it a real physical reaction taking place? I don’t know this either.
What Is Peace
All I want is peace. But what is peace? What does it mean to me? I asked my grandson who is in the hospital from an attempted suicide that went horribly wrong, or did it? I mean, he didn’t die.
Anyway, the people who saw it happen put out the flames, which left him howling in agony. The fire ate his ears, part of his face, and burned some places down to the bone.
When I asked my grandson what peace meant to him, he replied, “No voices screaming in my ears to burn myself.” So, his peace is the absence of auditory hallucinations.
I then asked my family for their definition of peace. My husband stated, “Peace is me time and quiet after a hard day’s work.” That’s going to be difficult because we are raising 3 grandchildren.
So I try to keep them quiet for him, which is another stressor for me. Debbie, the peace negotiator.
I called my daughter and asked for her definition of peace. She told me, “A place to escape the chaos of racism and the worry that my sons could die while driving black.”
Fear of systemic racism has seeped into her psyche, and she feels the anxiety of millions of mothers in our society and culture. The deep division that runs along racial lines is pervasive and ugly.
As we talked about these issues, it became apparent all she wants is unity. So peace for her is a unified state of heart and mind.
Is Peace a Place?
When I think of a peaceful place, I imagine myself in a mountain cabin surrounded by towering pine trees set back a piece from a turquoise glacier lake. Snow glitters like crushed diamonds in tiny pillows placed on tree boughs and pine cones.
Inside is a raging fire and a fat Christmas tree twinkling in all its glory. Oh how, picturesque! Not if you are broken and shattered, though.
Throughout man’s sojourn on this earth, humans have searched for peace in places. On mountain tops, in valleys, through deserts, or in a cabin among the pine trees.
However, I believe they are not seeking peace, but a confrontation. People wrestle with themselves to overcome bias, hate, pride, worry, anxiety, fear, etc. They struggle to break through to peace.
Just like Jacob in Genesis 32:22–32, who wrestled with an angel and won. But he emerged with an injured limb, a limp, and a new perspective. A testimony to his transformation.
Often, those who overcome adversity carry the scars of their battles. Be it on their bodies or in their hearts.
Is Peace the Absence of War?
It can be. This type of peace is fragile. It is won by defeating a nation and its people. The victors proclaim peace reigns supreme. The losers languish in bitterness.
This has been proven repeatedly in history. For instance, Mussolini gained a military peace by proclaiming martial law. Until other stronger forces rose up to defeat him.
Furthermore, leaders try to install systematic peace. Our Founding Fathers penned constitutional peace expressed by life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Sounds good to me! At least, the individual citizen has the freedom to seek peace.
Peace For Us
Which brings me back to the definition of peace for each of us.
Let’s look at the Hebrew and Greek meaning of peace. Both languages have nuanced shades of elucidation for peace. They can use more than one word depending on the context.
The Greek word for peace is eirene meaning to join or bind together that which is broken. In my mind, it is to take separated parts and set them right again.
To knit together the heart.
For example, for many years I was estranged from my family because they did not approve of my marriage. Later before my mother died, I asked her forgiveness and gave her mine. The frayed fringes of my heart were repaired. So forgiveness became part of my peace.
The more recognizable word for peace is the Hebrew word — shalom. It means wholeness, completeness, health, prosperity, etc. I’ve heard said, nothing missing, nothing broken.
I like the sound of that. My life put together, my heart intact, and my health sound. However, to have peace I cannot let my circumstances dictate my level of peace.
Internal Peace
My world can be falling apart, but if I have peace, none of that matters. I could undergo chemotherapy and if I have calm assurance everything is going to be alright, my body can respond and help the healing process.
I could be facing eviction, but if I have peace, I know whatever happens I can get through it. Even though my circumstances scream chaos and division, my peace shines a light on the matter.
However, in this life, we will have trouble. It is the fate of humanity to suffer. I know, I’ve had my share. So, what do I do to get peace? I simply let go and let God. That is my only answer.
We can’t control many of the things that happen to us. But we can control our response to them. We can make peace in the midst of the storm!
How do I get this peace? Mine comes from God because He is my peace. Isaiah wrote in the Old Testament:
In the New Testament, there are many more references to peace. One of my favorites is:
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7, ESV
However, you frame your reference for peace, the fact remains, we all want peace! The peace that passes all understanding is accessible to you.
Just open your heart and let the knitting begin. | https://medium.com/middle-pause/i-want-peace-from-the-stress-that-surrounds-me-ebb0fe080402 | ['Debbie Walker'] | 2020-12-11 19:57:34.211000+00:00 | ['Self', 'Peace', 'Mental Health', 'Life Lessons', 'Women'] |
UX & Product designer portfolios for inspiration | Stories from .dsgnrs. team, The place where designers become top designers www.dsgnrs.io
Follow | https://medium.com/dsgnrs/ux-product-designers-portfolio-inspiration-e8b61ce4c93f | ['.Dsgnrs. Team'] | 2017-02-03 20:29:10.928000+00:00 | ['Design', 'UX', 'Product Design', 'Portfolio', 'Web Design'] |
A Little Phil Spector Trivia | A Little Phil Spector Trivia
Watch out for the Hell’s Angels
Pixabay — Pexels
For almost anybody familiar with popular music, Phil Spector is an iconic figure worthy of admiration. And any backstory or gossip about Phil is of interest. Well, because I played behind a couple of acts he discovered and popularized — and my father worked with Phil back in the olden days when he was current — I have some good anecdotes.
Like daddy used to tell me: “Ya know…you hippies didn’t invent marijuana.” Milly Vanilli and company didn’t invent having one individual sing on the record — and another do the live gigs! Phil had his A-list singers for the records…and his B-listers to hit the road.
When I was with The Shirelles, I asked Beverly (one of the originals) how she became part of the group. I was curious — because really…she could barely sing at all. If talent had anything to do with becoming a teen idol, Beverly shouldn’t have been within 1000 miles of a hit record!
She responded that Phil Spector went to (I believe it was) Paramus High School to find girls to form a group. And at age 14 — with not very much talent and obviously no experience — Beverly became a recording star! Some 13 years after all their hits, I was hired to lead the backup band and came to discover that of the three originals still touring, only one could actually sing!
The situation was similar with The Crystals. Of the 4 girls fronting the act, only one (Dee Dee) was an original, and she did not sing lead for our shows! That job was handed to a ringer many years her junior! More than a decade later, Dee Dee still wasn’t ready for prime time, though I saw a video on You Tube today with her doing an excellent job on a recent version of Da Do Ron Ron — a much better job than she could have done 35 years ago.
Anyway…my old man had the best Phil Spector story. Back in the early 60’s, the rock and roll business was much smaller and more independent than it is today. Most of the hits came out of indy record labels with offices at 1619 and 1650 Broadway. And almost everybody in the biz knew everybody else. Given that my old man was writing arrangements for almost all those artists (including Phil’s), he knew Spector and related a story that the legend had confessed to my old man.
Phil’s first hit was “To Know Know Know Him,” and he himself went on the road as one of the singers for The Teddy Bears, the act who’d recorded the hit.
One night while they were touring — playing some dive or other — Phil went to the bathroom to take a leak. And while he was draining the lizard, a bunch of Hell’s Angels walked in and upon seeing the diminutive singer, whipped it out and pissed on him!
Now, how’s that for the downside of being a rock star? Popsicle had no attitude about Mr. Spector when he related the tale…so I assume it’s true.
I guess the moral of the story is thàt if you’re a little guy in a rough bar and you have to take a leak? Use the stall and pretend you’re taking a dump. Then you won’t get pissed off for getting pissed on! | https://medium.com/my-life-on-the-road/a-little-phil-spector-trivia-16ae8964d122 | ['William', 'Dollar Bill'] | 2020-12-14 14:20:52.957000+00:00 | ['Phil Spector', 'Music Business', 'Nonfiction', 'Memoir', 'Culture'] |
New family on the block: a novel group of glycosidic enzymes | New family on the block: a novel group of glycosidic enzymes
Scientists discover a candidate for a potential new “family” of enzymes that break down carbohydrates
A group of researchers from Japan has recently discovered a novel enzyme from a soil fungus. In their study, they speculate that this enzyme plays important roles in the soil ecosystem, and then describe its structure and action.
A group of researchers from Japan has recently discovered a novel enzyme from a soil fungus. In their study published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, they speculate that this enzyme plays important roles in the soil ecosystem, and then describe its structure and action. They also think that once the usefulness of the main product of this enzyme is better understood in the future, this enzyme could also be exploited for industrial purposes. The researchers state, “Our study sheds light on the fact that new enzymes are still being discovered. It possibly lays the foundation for further research to identify new enzymes that yield carbohydrates that were once thought to be extremely difficult to prepare.”
Carbohydrates are probably the most versatile organic molecules on the planet, as they play various roles in organisms. Accordingly, the functions and structures of enzymes related to carbohydrate are just as diverse. Glycoside hydrolases (GHs) are enzymes that break “glycosidic bonds” in carbohydrates or sugars. GHs are the largest known group of carbohydrate-related enzymes, and the group keeps expanding. A novel family, GH144, was identified by the same research group in the past from a soil bacterium Chitinophaga pinensis and called CpSGL.
The enzyme endo-β-1,2-glucanase (SGL), a member of the GH family, is involved in the metabolism of β-1,2-glucan, which is a polysaccharide (sugar chain) composed of β-1,2-linked glucose units. β-1,2-glucan serves as an extracellular carbohydrate that plays important roles in the symbiosis or infectivity of some bacteria. However, the role of SGLs in eukaryotic cells and their relationship with bacterial SGLs are not well understood.
This group of Japanese scientists from different universities and a research institute, working on a collaborative project led by Masahiro Nakajima, has discovered a novel SGL enzyme from a soil fungus, Talaromyces funiculosus. The enzyme, hereafter called TfSGL, showed no significant sequence similarity to other known GH families. However, it showed significant similarities to other eukaryotic proteins with unknown functions. The researchers thus propose that TfSGL and these related GH enzymes be classified into a new family, which they call GH162.
Usually when scientists find a novel protein — in this case, an enzyme — they further clone the gene containing the sequence that encodes it to better understand its functionality. This clone is called a “recombinant” sequence. The recombinant TfSGL protein (TfSGLr) was found to break down both linear and cyclic β-1,2-glucans to sophorose, a simpler and smaller carbohydrate. | https://tokyouniversityofscience.medium.com/new-family-on-the-block-a-novel-group-of-glycosidic-enzymes-582a5c0bed42 | ['Tokyo University Of Science'] | 2019-06-20 06:17:52.314000+00:00 | ['Eukaryotic Dna', 'Carbohydrates', 'Science', 'Enzyme'] |
How is Machine Learning used in industry? | Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) where computers independently learn to do something they were not programmed to do. They do this by learning from experience — leveraging algorithms and discovering patterns and insights from data. This means machines don’t need to be programmed to perform tasks on a repetitive basis.
As stated in the What is machine learning? article most common types of Machine Learning Algorithms are:
Supervised Learning — Supervised learning occurs when an algorithm learns from example data and associated target responses that can consist of numeric values or string labels, such as classes or tags, in order to later predict the correct response when posed with new examples.
— Supervised learning occurs when an algorithm learns from example data and associated target responses that can consist of numeric values or string labels, such as classes or tags, in order to later predict the correct response when posed with new examples. Unsupervised Learning — Unsupervised learning occurs when an algorithm learns from plain examples without any associated response, leaving the algorithm to determine the data patterns on its own.
— Unsupervised learning occurs when an algorithm learns from plain examples without any associated response, leaving the algorithm to determine the data patterns on its own. Reinforcement Learning — Using this algorithm, the machine is trained to make specific decisions. The machine is exposed to an environment where it trains itself continually using trial and error. This machine learns from past experience and tries to capture the best possible knowledge to make accurate business decisions.
Machine Learning is Widely Applicable
Most industries working with big data have recognized the value of Machine Learning technology. By collecting insights from this data, organizations and companies are able to work more efficiently or gain an advantage over competitors.
Which industries use machine learning?
Photo by veeterzy on Unsplash
1- Healthcare
Machine Learning (ML) is already lending a hand in diverse situations in healthcare. ML in healthcare helps to analyze thousands of different data points and suggest outcomes, provide timely risk scores, precise resource allocation, and has many other applications.
2- Retail
The retail field consists of supermarkets, department stores, chain stores, specialty stores, variety stores, franchise stores, mail-order houses, online merchants, and door-to-door sellers. Retail stores buy their goods from wholesalers, stock the goods, and resell them to individual consumers in small quantities.
3- Financial Services
Process automation is one of the most common applications of machine learning in finance. The technology allows to replace manual work, automate repetitive tasks, and increase productivity. As a result, machine learning enables companies to optimize costs, improve customer experiences, and scale up services.
4- Automotive
In the automotive industry, machine learning (ML) is most often associated with product innovations, such as self-driving cars, parking and lane-change assists, and smart energy systems.
5- Government Agencies
AI can be used to assist members of the public to interact with government and access government services, for example by: Answering questions using virtual assistants or chatbots (see below) Directing requests to the appropriate area within government. Filling out forms.
6- Transportation
AI has the potential to make traffic more efficient, ease traffic congestion, free driver’s time, make parking easier, and encourage car- and ridesharing. As AI helps to keep road traffic flowing, it can also reduce fuel consumption caused by vehicles idling when stationary and improve air quality and urban planning.
7- Oil & Gas
Machine Learning has become an integral part of the operations of most oil and gas companies, allowing them to gather large volumes of information in real-time and translate data sets into actionable insights. They now need to view data as an extremely valuable resource, with huge upside for companies with innovative, robust Machine Learning strategies. Saving time, reducing costs, boosting efficiencies, and improving safety are all crucial outcomes that can be realized from using Machine Learning in oil and gas operations. | https://rampco-software.medium.com/how-is-machine-learning-used-in-industry-9cb28cf08016 | ['Rampco Machine Learning Software'] | 2020-12-03 10:10:54.708000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Rampco', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Industry'] |
Computational Aesthetics: shall We Let Computers Measure Beauty? | As we all know, tastes differ and change over time. However, each epoch tried to define its own criteria for beauty and aesthetics. As science was developing, so was the urge to measure beauty quantitatively. Not surprisingly, the recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence pushed forward the question of whether intelligent models can overcome what seems to be human subjectivity.
A separate subfield of artificial intelligence (AI), called ‘computational aesthetics’, was created to assess beauty in domains of human creative expression such as music, visual art, poetry, and chess problems. Typically, it uses mathematical formulas that represent aesthetic features or principles in conjunction with specialized algorithms and statistical techniques to provide numerical aesthetic assessments. Computational aesthetics merges the study of art appreciation with analytic and synthetic properties to bring into view the computational thinking artistic outcome.
Brief History of Computational Aesthetics
Though we are used to thinking about Artificial Intelligence as a recent development, computational aesthetics can be traced back as far as 1933, when American mathematician George David Birkhoff in “Aesthetic Measure” proposed the formula M = O/C where M is the “aesthetic measure,” O is order, and C is complexity. This implies that orderly and simple objects appear to be more beautiful than chaotic and/or complex objects. Order and complexity are often regarded as two opposite aspects, thus, order plays a positive role in aesthetics while complexity often plays a negative role. Birkhoff applied that formula to polygons and artworks as different as vases and poetry, and is considered to be the forefather of modern computational aesthetics.
In the 1950s, German philosopher Max Bense and French engineer Abraham Moles independently combined Birkhoff’s work with Claude Shannon’s information theory to develop a scientific means of grasping aesthetics. These ideas found their niche in the first computer-generated art but did not feel close to human perception.
In the early 1990s, the International Society for Mathematical and Computational Aesthetics (IS-MCA) was founded. This organization is specialized in design with an emphasis on functionality and aesthetics and attempts to be a bridge between science and art.
In the 21st century, computational aesthetics is an established field with its own specialized conferences, workshops, and special issues of journals uniting researchers from diverse backgrounds, particularly AI and computer graphics.
Objectives of Computational Aesthetics
The ultimate goal of computational aesthetics is to develop fully independent systems that have or exceed the same aesthetic “sensitivity” and objectivity as human experts. Ideally, machine assessments should correlate with human experts’ assessment and even go beyond it, overcoming human biases and personal preferences.
Additionally, those systems should be able to explain their evaluations, inspire humans with new ideas, and generate new art that could lie beyond typical human imagination.
Finally, computing aesthetics can also provide a deeper understanding of our aesthetic perception.
In practical terms, computational aesthetics can be applied in various fields and for various purposes. To name a few, aesthetics can be used in the following applications:
as one of the ranking criteria for image retrieval systems;
in image enhancement systems;
managing image or music collections;
improving the quality of amateur art;
distinguishing between videos shot by professionals and by amateurs;
aiding human judges to avoid controversies, etc.
Features
The backbone of all classifiers is a robust selection of features that can be associated with the perception of a certain form of art. In the search for correlation with human perception, aesthetic systems apply specific sets of features for visual art and music that are developed by theorists in arts and domain experts.
Visual Art
Image aesthetic features could be categorized as low-level or high-level plus composition-based. However, some research is based on features related to saliency (Zhang and Sclaroff, 2013), object (Roy et al., 2018), and information theory (Rigau,1998). The selection of features largely depends on the type of art and the level of abstraction, as well as the algorithm applied. For instance, photography assessment relies heavily on the compositional aspects, while measurement of the beauty of abstract art requires another approach assessing color harmony or symmetry (Nishiyama et al.,2011).
Low-level features try to describe an image objectively and intuitively with relatively low time and space complexity. They include color, luminance and exposure, contrast, intensity, edges, and sharpness.
High-level features include regions and contents as aspects that make great contributions to overall human aesthetic judgment and try to establish the regions of an image that seem to be more important for human judgment and find the correlation between the content and human reaction.
Composition-based features differ for photography and artwork and may include depending on the form of art a range of features, such as Rules of Thirds, Golden Ratio (Visual Weight Balance), focus and focal length, ISO speed rating, geometric composition and shutter speed (Aber et al., 2010).
Music
Similarly to image analysis, music aesthetics assessments try to combine research in
human perception and cognition of basic dimensions of sound, such as loudness or pitch and in higher-level concepts related to music, including the perception of its emotive content (Juslin and Laukka, 2004), as well as performance specific traits (Palmer, 1997) to develop a comprehensive set of features that would be able to assess a piece of music.
In 2008, Gouyon et al. offered a hierarchy organized in three levels of abstraction starting from the most fundamental acoustic features, to be extracted directly from the signal, and progressively building on top of them to get to model more complex concepts derived from music theory and even from cognitive and social phenomena:
Low-level features are related to the physical aspect of the signal and include loudness, pitch, timbre, onsets, and rhythm (e.g., see Justus and Bharucha, 2002).
Mid-level features move to a higher level of abstraction within the music theory and cover tempo, tonality, modality, etc.
High-level features try to establish a correlation between abstract music descriptors like genre, mood, and instrumentation and human perception.
Methods and Algorithms
At its broadest, we can speak of computational aesthetics as a tool to assess aesthetics in visual art or music and as a means to generate new art.
For aesthetics assessment, various algorithms have been proposed over the past few years based either on classification or clusterization.
Classification approach
There are a number of algorithms that are extensively used to assess image aesthetics by means of classification. Among the most popular are AdaBoost, Naive Bayes, and Support Vector Machine, and substantial work is also conducted using Random Forests and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs).
AdaBoost in computational aesthetics is a widely used method that is believed to render the best results. It was first offered in 2008 by Luo and Tang who conducted a study on photo quality evaluation, with the unique characteristic of focusing on the subject. They utilized Gentle AdaBoost (Torralba et al., 2004), a variant of AdaBoost that uses a specific way of weighting its data, applying less weight to outliers. The success rate obtained was 96%. However, when Khan and Vogel (2012) utilized their proposed set of features for photographic portraiture aesthetic classification, the accuracy rate with the multiboosting variant (multi-class version) of AdaBoost fell to 59.14% (Benbouzid et al., 2012).
Naïve Bayes is another popular method that was used in the same study by Luo and Tang (2008). In 2009, Li and Chen utilized the Naïve Bayes classifier to aesthetically classify paintings in which the results were described as robust. The success rate achieved utilizing a Bayesian classifier was 94%.
Support Vector Machine is probably the most wide-spread algorithm for binary classification in computational aesthetics. It has been used since 2006 when Datta et al. studied the correlation between a defined set of features and their aesthetic value, by using a previously rated set of photographs and showed up to 76% of accuracy. Other studies that rested on the same classifier include Li and Chen (2009) who aesthetically classified paintings; Wong and Low (2009) who built a classification system of professional photos and snapshots, Nishiyama et al. (2011) who conducted a research on the aesthetic classification of photographs based on color harmony, and others, with an average accuracy rate of about 75% and higher.
Random Forest, though usually showing lower results as compared to Bayesian classifiers or AdaBoost, were used in a number of studies of photograph aesthetics. For instance, Ciesielski et al. (2013) achieved a 73% accuracy to assess photograph aesthetics. Khan and Vogel (2012) utilizing their proposed set of features for photographic portraiture aesthetic classification, achieved an accuracy of 59.79% by making use of random forests (Breiman, 2001).
Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) rendered extremely good results when used with compression-based features by Machado et al. (2007) and Romero et al. (2012). The former research aimed at the identification of the author of a set of paintings and reported a success rate from 90.9% to 96.7%. The latter work used an ANN classifier to predict the aesthetic merit of photographs at a success rate of 73.27%.
Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are state-of-the-art deep learning models for rating image aesthetics that have been extensively used in the past few years. CNNs learn a hierarchy of filters, which are applied to an input image in order to extract meaningful information from the input. For example, Denzler et al. (2016) applied the AlexNet model (Krizhevsky et al., 2012) on different datasets to experimentally evaluate how well pre-learned features of different layers are suited to distinguish art from non-art images using an SVM classifier. They report the highest discriminatory power with a Network trained on the ImageNet dataset, which outperforms a network solely trained on natural scenes.
Clustering
Image clustering is a very popular unsupervised learning technique. By grouping sets of image data in a particular way, it maximizes the similarity within a cluster, simultaneously minimizing the similarity between clusters. In computational aesthetics, researchers use K-Means, Fuzzy Clustering, and Spectral Clustering in image analysis.
K-Means Clustering is widely used to analyze the color scheme of an image. For instance, Datta et al. (2006) used k-means to compute two features to measure the number of distinct color blobs and disconnected large regions in a photograph. Lo et al. (2012) utilized this method to find dominant colors in an image.
Fuzzy Clustering is a form of clustering in which each data point can belong to more than one cluster, therefore it is used in multi-class classification (see, for example, Felci Rajam and Valli (2011)). Celia and Felci Rajam (2012) utilized FCM clustering for effective image categorization and retrieval.
Spectral Clustering is used to identify communities of nodes in a graph based on the edges connecting them. In computational aesthetics, a spectral clustering technique named normalized cuts (Ncut) was used to organize images with similar feature values (Zakariya et al., 2010).
Generative models
A separate task of computational aesthetics is to generate artwork independently from human experts. At present, the algorithm that is best known for directly learning the transformations between images from the training data is Generative Adversarial Network(GAN). GANs automatically learn the appropriate operations from the training data and, therefore, have been widely adopted for many image-enhancement applications, such as image super-resolution and image denoising. Machado et al. (2015) also used GANs for automatically enhancing image aesthetics by performing mainly tone adjustment.
Example that combines the content of a photo with a well-known artwork
Conclusion: Restrictions and Limitations
Aspiring to reach objectivity, research in computational aesthetics tries to reduce the focus to form, rather than to content and its associations to a person’s mind and memories. However, from a psychophysiological viewpoint, it is not clear whether we can have a dichotomy here or whether aesthetics is intrinsically subjective.
Besides, it is difficult to ascertain whether a system that performs on the same level as a human expert is actually using similar mechanisms as the human brain and, therefore, whether it reveals something about human intelligence.
It might be that in the future we will rely on machines in our artistic preferences, but for now, human experts will dictate their opinions and try to get machines simulate their choices. | https://medium.com/sciforce/computational-aesthetics-shall-we-let-computers-measure-beauty-db2205989fb | [] | 2020-06-12 11:06:01.143000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Deep Learning', 'Aesthetics', 'Data Science'] |
7 Ways to Improve Your Ability to Deliver Criticism | “The trouble with most of us, said Norman Vincent Peale, “is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” Yet while a certain percentage of the population is happy to reinforce the walls of their own echo chambers, Peale’s statement is a discredit to the vast majority of people.
While our initial reactions may too often be one of defensiveness, in my experience the most people do want to understand how they can get improve. And they recognize that feedback is a necessary part of that process.
Rarely do you meet someone who, upon realizing a mistake, wishes they could have stayed within their previous ignorance. And I have yet to find anyone who, once corrected, wishes they could have continued repeating that same mistake for years to come.
The problem, in fact, isn’t that people are unwilling to listen to criticism. The problem is that most criticism isn’t worth listening to.
People Do Actually Want Feedback
“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” — Winston Churchill
We often hear sound bites about people not wanting criticism or that employees aren’t open enough to feedback. But study after study shows this to be untrue.
People don’t have some genetic disease that keeps them from engaging in meaningful conversations. They want feedback. Because they want to improve.
In a recent study, 81% of employees who rated their manager poorly also noted that he or she did not provide sufficient feedback. In contrast, with employees that ranked their manager highly, the percentage that were dissatisfied with feedback dropped to 17%.
It’s this aspect — in the quality and quantity of corrective feedback — that often differentiates whether people consider their manage is effective or not. And just as top athletes look for the best coaches, top employees will always move into areas where they’ll receive the feedback they need to grow.
We can all remember times when we’ve been offered biting criticism that we took to heart. It may have knocked our ego down a couple pegs, but ultimately we were better for hearing it. And given the choice between getting corrective feedback and getting no feedback — the majority of us will choose the former.
So whenever you hear someone complaining about peoples’ general unwillingness to learn, the more likely case is that they’re using it to mask their own inability to offer worthwhile feedback.
The good news is, this is a much easier problem to solve.
Negative Feedback Isn’t Negative
We’re all very good at developing mental worst-case scenarios and then convincing ourselves that it’s an inevitability. So when most people consider giving corrective feedback, they often picture soap-opera style confrontations and relationship-destroying arguments.
And as a result they hesitate. They put it off until it becomes too late. And they never actually provide that feedback until the problem becomes too big to ignore.
It’s easy to see how this can become a vicious circle. People don’t say something initially, thereby normalizing a poor behavior. And they struggle to address it the next time since they’ve previously allowed it.
But performance rarely gets better on its own. Which brings us to the main idea behind all corrective feedback.
Rule 1: It’s much easier to correct a minor issue than a major one. So once you see something, say something.
We’re in a much better position to do this when we’re engaged in the work. And we’re more likely to have this confrontation early when we have regular conversations in place. Performance discussions become the norm instead of the exception.
Yet too often we still hold back for fear of offending people. We assume that negative feedback will guarantee a negative reaction.
This mentality has to change. We need to stop seeing corrective feedback as negative feedback. Because for most people, it’s anything but.
If you ask people whether they’d prefer to receive praise on their success or insight into their struggles, most will choose to better understanding what they’re doing wrong. So while we tend to categorize this as negative feedback, it’s actually the communication that people view most positively. Whilst disingenuous positive feedback — that cheap atta-boy that’s thrown around for the sake of checking a box — is as welcome as a factchecker at a conservative political rally.
Rule 2: The only negative feedback is feedback that doesn’t support future improvement.
And the accompanying…
Rule 3: If you cannot think of a way to give your criticism so that it supports future improvement, then keep it to yourself until you can.
Don’t Overcomplicate Things
I once knew a manager whose feedback method was to tell elaborate stories. They’d end with some convoluted moral that represented the feedback he wanted to give to his employees. Like some kind of deranged Aesop, the guy was constantly pontificating obtuse fables that no one understood.
Too often, people over complicate the process of giving corrective feedback. It doesn’t require elaborate stories or some pop psychology analysis. Just a straightforward discussion with a few key points.
Establish a Shared Purpose
“He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.” — Abraham Lincoln
No one like used car salesmen. Even used car salesmen don’t like them.
I don’t mean to generalize. I’m sure some of them are okay.
But in general they get a bad rap. Because no one ever trusts anything they say. And because no one looks good in checkered jackets.
The consummate used car salesman is out for himself and only himself. If we wind up with a lemon in the process, it’s no concern to him. His advice suits his purposes, but very rarely ours.
Too often, when people refuse to listen to feedback, it’s because they’re equating it with a similarly biased purpose.
Which isn’t very surprising. After all, no one wonders why you don’t take job advice from career academics.
So if we expect people to listen to our feedback, first we need to establish a sense of mutual purpose. We need to show people that our interests align with theirs.
When people realize we’re working towards a common goal, they understand that we care about their interests and values. And consequently they’re much more receptive to our input.
Unfortunately, this isn’t something that’s easy to fake. Simply telling someone that you have their best interest at heart and spouting off vague platitudes without backing it up with actions doesn’t establish trust. No matter what that example in 2016 may have shown us.
To establish mutual purpose and trust we need to engage with people, ask about their interests, and actively listen to their concerns.
In short, we need to show them that we care about them as well as the job. If we can’t do that, we shouldn’t expect people to trust our motives.
Rule 4: People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
So take an interest in people. Understand their values and how they influence their goals and aspirations. Ask questions and take the time to learn where they want to go. Not until then should we expect their trust.
Agree on the Facts, then discuss the Story
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts,” said Daniel Patrick Moynihan to the chagrin of climate change deniers everywhere.
Facts are often the linchpin behind the argument — they represent the foundation of belief. So until everyone can agree on the facts, there’s little hope of having a meaningful conversation.
And they’re the least controversial. So it’s always easier to start by establishing and agreeing on the facts. As John Adams described them,
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
State the expectation. Then state the facts of what happened. And let the other person explain why there’s a difference. It’s not complicated, but it’s surprising how many people fail to do it.
Yet facts alone are rarely enough to warrant corrective feedback. It’s the facts plus the impact that necessitates your intervention.
So once facts are agreed upon, explain the consequences of their behavior. The other person needs to understand the impact they had on you and the organization as a whole. It’s this knowledge that will encourage people to make changes going forward.
There’s no need to pile it on. While we often feel we need to repeat ourselves to make our point, we only succeed in coming across as a condescending jerk. Make your point and move on.
Rule 5: First agree on the facts. Then discuss the impacts.
Discuss Behaviors, Not People
“The secret killer of innovation is shame. You can’t measure it, but it is there. Every time someone holds back on a new idea, fails to give their manager much needed feedback, and is afraid to speak up in front of a client you can be sure shame played a part. That deep fear we all have of being wrong, of being belittled and of feeling less than, is what stops us taking the very risks required to move our companies forward.” — Peter Sheahan, CEO of ChangeLabs
The purpose of corrective feedback is never to shame someone into compliance. When someone feels ashamed, they’re more likely to disengage and withdraw from future situations. Or become defensive and blame others for their behaviors. Which is the exact opposite of what we’re trying to accomplish.
Brene Brown described it perfectly in Daring Greatly with “Guilt = I did something bad. Shame = I am bad.”
Guilt encourages us to compare our behavior against our own performance standards and recognize the difference. This cognitive dissonance is what motivates us to make meaningful change.
Shame, on the other hand, threatens our very identity. Which will often cause disengagement and defensiveness — neither of which are productive towards changing future behaviors.
You’re not a psychiatrist. Or at least the odds are likely that you’re not a psychiatrist. So you’re also likely not qualified to diagnose someone’s motives and analyze them on a personal level.
Rule 6: Focus on the behaviors and what someone did rather than what type of person you imagine him or her to be.
As Frank A. Clark put it, “Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots.”
Don’t Take Ownership
“Remember: When people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.” — Neil Gaiman
We’ve established a mutual purpose, discussed the facts, talked about the impacts, and highlighted problematic behaviors without insulting anyone’s identity. Yet the entire point was to elicit a behavior change going forward.
So it’s not over until you agree on what they’ll do differently next time.
Which often requires one of the most difficult activities for any of us — keeping our mouths shut.
We’ve all been in situations where someone prescribed our actions for us. And we likely nodded along, agreeing to their suggestions in theory. But as time went by, we weren’t committed to that solution. Because it was theirs, not ours.
The same principle applies when we want people to change behavior going forward. It’s their issue and it needs to be their solution. Otherwise we’re just setting ourselves up for a repeat discussion down the road.
Rule 7: People are much more committed to a solution if they own it.
So close your mouth and let them suggest a plan of action. Feel free to ask open-ended questions and help them develop ideas, but whenever possible let them come up with a solution that will work for them. As founder and start-up investor Mike Maples Jr. told Tim Ferriss,
“People who offer great advice understand that their goal is to help someone on their unique journey. People who offer bad advice are trying to relive their old glories.”
Feedback is Everyone’s Responsibility
“The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.” — Wole Soyinka
With regards to personnel development, there are only three types of companies.
Bad companies ignore poor performing employees. Management sticks them in a corner where they can do the least amount of damage. Or transfers them around like a bad penny, never addressing the issue.
In good companies, managers eventually take on these problems. They’re engaged with the work and hold regular discussions to recognize and correct issues as they see them.
But in great companies, this responsibility is shared by everyone in the organization. Everyone holds everyone else accountable. All employees, regardless of position or level, offer feedback to encourage growth and development from their coworkers.
Peer-provided feedback is both the most effective and most under-utilized performance improvement tool available to organizations. While management only sees a fraction of an employee’s actions, peers work more closely and more often with their coworkers. As a result, they’re in a much better position to provide immediate feedback and stimulate growth.
The only barrier is helping people feel comfortable in this role. And giving them a couple rules to keep in mind throughout the process.
It’s much easier to correct a minor issue than a major one. So once you see something, say something. The only negative feedback is feedback that doesn’t support future improvement. If you cannot think of a way to give your criticism so that it supports future improvement, then keep it to yourself until you can. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. First agree on the facts. Then discuss the impacts. Focus on the behaviors and what someone did rather than what type of person you imagine him or her to be. People are much more committed to a solution if they own it.
Top talent will always congregate around those who will make them better. People are looking for these opportunities to improve. Don’t hesitate to help them do it.
Thank you, as always, for reading. I suppose it would be hypocritical to end this without an invitation for any corrective criticism you may have, so please feel free to share your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you. | https://jswilder16.medium.com/7-ways-to-improve-your-ability-to-deliver-criticism-3f916043258e | ['Jake Wilder'] | 2019-01-09 03:11:13.093000+00:00 | ['Management', 'Leadership', 'Self Improvement', 'Productivity', 'Work'] |
7 Essential SEO Tips Everyone Should Know | Who doesn’t want more visitors on their website? You have a number of options to get people there. One of them is Search engine optimization — SEO. Web design and SEO go hand by hand in today’s world. Google develops their SEO to preference, good design, and frequent updates. You will not get away with only keywords and site description.
But what exactly is SEO? SEO helps bring you organic traffic to your website. In these tips, you can learn how to get the most of it.
Tip 1: Speed Matters
Page load time is very important part of search engine optimization (SEO). Every visitor expects your website to be loaded fast. If it takes more than 3 seconds, 50% of the visitors will go away. And that’s something you have to avoid.
How to improve
Make sure your images size isn’t too large. It makes a huge difference if a browser has to load 2MB file or just 100kB. If you’re saving your JPEGs, use 80% quality. You can find a number of services that are here to help you compress your files. Like TinyPNG where you can see exactly how much size you saved.
Another way to load your website faster is minimizing code. That way, website files are smaller. Again, there's plenty of websites where you can minify code online. One example is Minifier.org.
Lastly, be aware of where and when your Javascript is loaded. If it doesn't affect functionality put your libraries to the bottom of the HTML code right before the </body> tag.
Tip 2: SEO friendly URLs
This is one of the key tips and it really helps you to be higher in Google results. To achieve having SEO friendly URLs you have to make sure your website’s structure is clean, logical and straightforward to your topic.
You can also include topic keywords in the address. It’s important that keyword research is well-informed, especially if they’re used in your URL.
Bad URL: www.example.com/?p=78346738
Good URL: www.example.com/article-about-dogs
How to improve
Try to avoid relative and dynamic URLs where possible. Keep in mind, the easier a URL is to read for humans, the better it is for search engines.
Shorter URLs are always better. You don’t have to take this to the extreme. If you’re around 60 characters, you’re fine. But don’t try to create 150-characters addresses just to include all your keywords in it.
Use 1–2 folders per URL. More folders make it hard for Google to understand your topic.
And last but not least, try not to use these characters: “” < > # % ‘space’
Tip 3: Responsive design is important
Responsive design isn’t only necessary for your mobile visitors. The increase in mobile usage and Google’s mobile-friendly algorithm has even made mobile-friendly design the highest priority. 67% of internet users claim they’re more likely to purchase on a mobile device than the desktop version.
How to improve
You can use one of the responsive frameworks like Bootstrap. Using its HTML classes is the easiest way to make your website mobile-friendly.
If you don’t want to use a framework, use “@media” in your CSS code. Then you will be able to create a responsive design and bring it to your visitors/customers.
In case none of the options are fit to your capabilities or preferences and you are using one of the CMS, you can find responsive templates. Choose the one you like and the template will take care of the rest. Tons of templates for many CMS and e-commerce platforms are at TemplateMonster.com.
We can build a custom-made template or customize existing. See more at Web7master.com.
Tip 4: Social media integration
Social media integration has a huge impact on website's ranking. Add your social media icons on your site. The more visible, the better. Also, don't forget to enable social share buttons so your visitors can easily spread your content to other people.
But only buttons will not help you. You also have to have right og tags in your head so e.g. Facebook knows what are you sharing.
How to improve
You can find many social media icons as a part of FontAwesome.io. If you'd like to enable share buttons see AddThis. It has a number of types of displaying buttons almost anywhere on your page.
If you want to check your og tags for Facebook, debugger tool is available here.
Tip 5: Get rid of flash
Since it's 2017, you should avoid using flash on your site. Most search engines and browsers have decided not to be flash friendly because of its insecurity. So if you are not using HTML5 instead, it impacts your ratings.
How to improve
HTML5 can do the work for you. Invest some time and money and switch your flash content to the modern form of websites.
In case you aren't sure how to do it, read some tutorials.
Tip 6: Create sitemaps
An XML sitemap informs Google about the pages of your website that are available for crawling. So make sure you have some on your server.
How to improve
There are many sitemaps generator, you don't have to do it by yourself. I recommend Xml-Sitemaps.com.
Enter your URL, press start button, download the XML file with your sitemap and then upload it to Google Webmaster Account. It may take some time before Google process it, no need to worry about that. By the time it's done, you can see it in your website settings.
You can also upload the sitemap to the root of your website.
Tip 7: Take care about your content
Content on your site is important not only in terms of content but also freshness. The more up-to-date text you have, the better are the rankings. Don't be one of the guys who think it's ok to load the website with some kind of stuff and leave it like that for 10 years.
And by the way, if you refresh your texts often, people will go back to your site just because they are interested in what you put there.
How to improve
It depends on what type of website are you running. But in most scenarios, starting a blog fits great.
Make sure you add blog posts regarding the topic of the site. If you are an owner of a restaurant, add some recipes. Have you an online store? Great, write reviews of products you are selling. There's always a way to impress your visitors by great content. | https://medium.com/web7master/7-essential-seo-tips-everyone-should-know-26a10b58adbf | ['Martin Holý'] | 2017-10-11 09:36:59.208000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'Marketing', 'Web Development', 'Analytics'] |
Unpacking Bits Of Truth | When I made this, it was meant to be about ideal bodies. Now that I look at it, it’s about characters and how they should be. Bit and pieces of a whole lot of different people.
I swear to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth.
You might have noticed I left out the Whole Truth.
The whole truth is near impossible to tell. I could write at least twenty different versions of the story of my life so far, each one of them very different, each one true. If I were to try to get the whole truth into one essay, the narration would be all over the place. It would be chaotic and confusing and I imagine readers would simply give up at some point.
And so, when writing, talking and even thinking about my life, I focus on a single narrative. When I’m feeling complex, a single narrative with some subplots woven in. The whole truth not denied as much as edited for clarity. There’s no shame in curating a narrative. I’m sure everyone does that. We have to, in a way — to process events. It helps to have things in a neat succession; causes and effects, actions and reactions, a thrilling lift-hill leading up to the plummeting drops of the roller-coaster that used to be your life.
That narrative truth, the story I tell myself about myself, ends up being the person I think I am. I’ve reduced (although that word reads much harsher than I feel about it) myself to a character with an arc that’s going…somewhere, I hope? Friends, loved ones and even complete strangers have helped me curate my narrative truth, but mostly I did it myself by deciding which experiences, which actions and which reactions in my life have been the most important to me.
That leaves a lot of me on the cutting room floor. Things that felt like one-off anomalies, not consistent with the person I think I am. Or maybe just not important enough to impact my narrative — yes, that one meatless meal was delicious, but it hasn’t turned me into a vegan, so I remain the sort of person who orders steak medium rare, “every time” I go to a restaurant.
But what if it was? What if the things I cut out of me, were things I deemed really important? Alternate reality me could have started ordering vegan every time she went out. Phasing meat out of her diet…she’d probably weigh a whole lot less, and meat isn’t cheap so there’s more money for her to spend. I know me, I’m vain, I’d be buying clothing. Nice clothing, brand names. Follow, maybe not fashion, but certainly style.
I said I could write at least twenty different stories of my life. There’s at least twenty different versions of me. And more that I could see, had I just made a different choice at certain points. Just a slight shift of priority is all it needs.
Angel recently told me I couldn’t possibly draw on myself for every character I wrote. I’m sure that wasn’t intended as the part of our conversation my mind was supposed to fixate on…but I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
I won’t sit here and claim that I don’t mix in things from other people, because I do. But at the same time, every character I’ve written has been build from my discarded truths. That stylish vegan is me. Or rather, the me I have chosen not to be. I get a bit of a kick out of buying “exclusively” at garage sales and flea markets. But I know that feeling when, on the rare occasion I see that one dress in a store, and I have to have it, and I pay full price. I have experienced a bit of a kick when I’m wearing that full price dress and I notice people looking. That’s a true thing about me — not important enough to make it into my narrative truth, but still true.
“Write what you know” right? I know myself.
Here’s another bit of truth. I am stuck on what I think of as my serious writing projects. I am afraid to finish it. And that is because, before I started rambling in this blog post, I was vaguely aware of the discarded truth mechanic of character building I have. It is absolutely great for short stories, where I can get away with simply leaving the impression of a fully fleshed out character. But a whole novel? In the character driven style I’ve cultivated? I’m afraid that it is blatantly obvious half way through that they are, deep down, all the same person. I’m afraid I’m just not interesting enough to carry an ensemble cast. I’m afraid that if I start mixing in more of other people, the characters will end up reading less truthful; less real. I don’t know other people the way I know myself.
I really don’t want to start thinking of myself as a person who is afraid.
So. Now that I’ve identified and acknowledged these bits of truth, it’s time for me to cut that shit out, discard it as not important and finish a damned novel already. | https://medium.com/unsolicited-bloggings/unpacking-bits-of-truth-d18fb6515764 | ['Aura Wilming'] | 2020-01-27 18:15:15.881000+00:00 | ['Self Image', 'Character', 'Reflections', 'Blog', 'Writing'] |
I Love Silence | I Love Silence
Enjoy your reading, and we’ll see you next Sunday for the October recap.
Photo by Bruno Martins on Unsplash
Dear reader,
I hope you are well and in good health. I am writing to you, listening to the rain, and I am surprised by the silence outside. Not a car, not a voice, only the silent night and the whispers of the moon. The curfew between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. feels like a mindfulness meditation session to me. I love silence.
Well, I stop my nocturnal delirium. Deprivation of liberty has never been a good thing. I wonder at what time of the day you read this newsletter. As you know I am writing to you from France, and I try to imagine what you are doing and where you are when you discover the new edition of The Story Box. I’m really curious!
I don’t know if you know this, but Lana Del Rey has published a poetry book. I love her music, and I’m thinking about getting her book. Have you been able to read it? In any case, I liked discovering her writing process.
This week, Alicia Banaszewski was honored in the column. I hope you enjoyed reading the new poems she wrote! They’re all here: Attention vs Affection. Dizziness Cannot Be Remedied by Obsessively Drawing Circles. I am Roasting Root Vegetables.
Starting this Sunday, I am happy to give the pen to Michael Madill, a poet whom I like a lot and who is also a faithful reader of Scribe! Go to the home page of the publication to discover his latest pieces! Maybe you have read his last poem, Appreciation.
I added a new fiction to the fiction page. I escaped by reading it. The Dark Side of the Moon, by Sofia Isabel Kavlin.
As for me, I wrote two poems, Life, and Escape Route. And I told a story about grapefruit that made me want to tell you more stories like that.
Have a nice Sunday! ♥︎
Thomas
Editor-in-Chief
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Want to join Scribe as a writer and reach an audience of more than 23,500 engaged readers? Here is how to submit. Want to know more about the publication’s talented writers? They say hello. You may be interested in supporting the publication. Find out how to get involved in Scribe’s history. | https://medium.com/scribe/i-love-silence-b6bf67fa449f | ['Thomas Gaudex'] | 2020-10-25 09:30:16.792000+00:00 | ['Scribe', 'The Story Box', 'Reading', 'Poetry', 'Writing'] |
Scarcity in Sneaker Culture (UX) | Solutions
Adidas
Option #1 — Transition So Users Know they Can Pick a Size
I think that an excellent way to remedy the transition from queue to size selection would be a transition — a fade in, a fade out, anything to make it more apparent that you are transitioning from queue to size selection.
Option #2 — Break Uniformity
Mock up of what the new size selection screen can look like
Break the uniformity of the site and change the layout. Move the size selection to the centre of the screen so it’s obvious that this is a different stage of the purchasing process.
Changing the User Flow
Adidas’ current user flow is something like this
Queue -> Size Selection -> Checkout
I would suggest something like the Nike user flow
Size Selection -> Queue -> Checkout
Pros
Reduces user frustration, they don’t have to wait in line for hours to find out their size sold out
Reduces resellers purchasing whatever size is left over, they have to commit to a size
Cons
Could lead to more bots, add to cart bots could select the size and then enter into the queue for the bot user
Nike
Use a Captcha Before You Can Pick a Size
Make users enter a captcha before they can even select a size, add to cart bots will get stopped at the captcha and won’t be able to enter into the queue for the user/reseller.
Put Some Instructions at the Countdown Timer
I think this is pretty self explanatory, put some instructions on the product page if there’s a timer so users don’t have to look through the FAQ page for the waiting in line feature.
Pros
Reduce the number of bots and resellers purchasing
Make the procedure to purchase more streamlined and educate the user
Cons
The captcha before the size selection may break and not allow real users to select a size
Conclusion
Adidas has a high quality product and wants to make sure it gets to the consumer and not resellers. Their queue system is made to combat bots, but a large amount of shoes still get picked up by bots and the user is left frustrated. The adjustments I suggested should help with this and make the user experience much less confusing and frustrating.
Nike has a much more user friendly queue system, but it is much more prone to bots. They would benefit from stopping bots before they can select a size.
Scarcity in sneakers is a double edged sword as it benefits the consumer by allowing them to get a high quality low supply piece of merchandise and it allows the retailer to sell a high volume of product in a short amount of time. The downside is when resellers purchase all of the limited product and flip them at a premium leading to frustrated customers who may give up on buying the item.
Decided to take two things that I’m really interested in, sneakers and UX, and put them together. Constructive criticism is appreciated
-Kyle | https://uxdesign.cc/scarcity-in-sneaker-culture-ux-e68ea62bf9d5 | ['Kyle Osborne'] | 2017-03-01 06:39:24.211000+00:00 | ['Fashion', 'Sneakers', 'User Experience', 'Design', 'UX'] |
My Journey to Kaggle Competitions Grandmaster Status: A Look Into Feature Engineering (Titanic Dataset) | My Journey to Kaggle Competitions Grandmaster Status: A Look Into Feature Engineering (Titanic Dataset) Daniel Benson Follow Sep 30 · 5 min read
We are back at it again, this time seeing if we can get a closer look at some of the data and possibly engineer some features that will increase our accuracy score. For this installment I began by dropping the same 4 columns as before, “PassengerId”, “Name”, “Ticket”, “Embarked” as I still found little value in them. For a refresher, my dataframe looks like so:
A look at the first five rows of my dataframe
From the last exploration we determined that 75% of the values in the “Cabin” column contained NaN (empty) values. I wanted to get a closer look at why this might be, and if it perhaps might be inportant in some way yet unknown. I created a new feature called “cabin_listed” that returned a value of 0 if the passenger did not have a listed cabin number and 1 if the passenger did have a listed cabin number.
The code I used to engineer the “cabin_listed” feature (top) and the result of that compared to the “Cabin” feature (bottom)
From here I decided that dropping the Cabin column was still in my best interest. Also like the last installment I filled the “Age” column NaN values with the mean value, as I determined that this was still the best way to go.
With this newly engineered feature added I wanted to look closer at its possible correlations to the rest of the features in the dataset, especially our target feature “Survived”. I put together six graphs to visually represent those comparisons, seen below.
The code used to create the graphs (above) and the graphs themselves (below) comparing “cabin_listed” to all other features of the dataframe.
These graphs lead me to a few interesting observations. A hidden correlation can be found when comparing “cabin_listed” with our target feature “Survived” indicating the possibility that a passenger’s cabin being listed is correlated to a passenger’s higher survivability. Using the other comparisons we can begin to see a story unfolding. For those passengers in which the cabin was listed, the greatest portion were 1st class passengers, whereas most of the 2nd and 3rd class passengers had no cabin listed. We know from the last installment that a passenger’s class was directly correlated with a passenger’s survivability, so this makes sense. After doing some research (https://www.ultimatetitanic.com/interior-fittings) I was able to determine that 2nd and 3rd class passengers (especially 3rd class) generally held more people to a room than 1st class, which helps to explain the above observation. This can also explain the correlation we see between “cabin_listed” and “Fare”, as a strong correlation is seen between upper class passengers and amount paid for their passage. Finally, we also see a correlation between “cabin_listed” and number of family members on the ship, with more family members correlating to a higher chance of having an unlisted cabin.
I made one final feature engineering decision, which was to combine the “SibSp” and “Parch” columns into one feature, “family_aboard”, storing a number representing the total number of family members (sibling+spouse+parent+child) traveling on the ship with them. This decision was made based on the fact that both the original features show correlations important to our model, but neither one appears more important than the other; in fact, they show very similar correlations across the board.
The code used to feature engineer “family_aboard” (above) and its resulting comparison with “SibSp” and “Parch” features
I then looked at the comparison between “family_aboard” and “Survived” using a scatter plot and a bar chart to determine any visual form of correlation.
The code used for creating the scatter plot shown (top) and a scatter plot comparing “family_aboard” with “Survived”
The code for the bar chart shown (top) and a bar chart comparing “Survived” with “Family Aboard”
I finished up my second go at cleaning and feature engineering by dropping the “SibSp” and “Parch” features and taking a closer look at the “Fare” feature to ensure there weren’t any other correlations hiding from sight. I created six graphs to compare “Fare” with all remaining features.
Code used to create a canvas of six graphs (top) and those six graphs comparing the “Fare” column with all other remaining columns in the dataframe
Having determined, now, that “Fare” had no significant visual correlation I dropped it from the final dataframe, giving me the following dataframe for use in my model:
Final features that will be used for the model and their first five rows of data
Finally, I followed the same steps as I did previously for preprocessing, splitting the data into train and validation subsets (80% and 20% respectively) and using a LabelEncoder to convert the “Sex” feature values to numeric binary values. Running the same RandomForestClassification as before, with the same default parameters, I achieved a new accuracy score of…
…
Drum roll.
…
Very little change. In fact we saw a minor decrease in our validation accuracy score, from 82.7% down to 79.9% and our test accuracy results decreasing from 72.248% to 72.009%. This minimal change is actually understandable considering the overall minor changes we actually made in the features and the fact that we were dealing with a significantly skewed feature in “cabin_listed”.
The baseline model’s validation accuracy score after some feature engineering (top) and the test prediction accuracy score (bottom)
Stay tuned for next time when we go over some hyper-parameter tuning in the hopes of increasing our accuracy score! As usual, brave reader, thank you for following on my journey. Rep it up and happy coding. | https://medium.com/swlh/my-journey-to-kaggle-competitions-grandmaster-status-a-look-into-feature-engineering-titanic-99a0db7f25dd | ['Daniel Benson'] | 2020-10-02 18:05:40.247000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'My Journey', 'Awesomeness', 'Kaggle'] |
Build a ML Web App for Stock Market Prediction From Daily News With Streamlit and Python | Build a ML Web App for Stock Market Prediction From Daily News With Streamlit and Python Gakki Cheng Follow Dec 25 · 7 min read
Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash
This project is originally for my Udacity Machine Learning Engineer Nanodegree capstone project.
I found the dataset on Kaggle linked as:
Project Overview
I am very proud to complete this project because it challenged my skills not only in Machine Learning Engineering but also in domains such as Data Engineering and Software Engineering. I managed to learn how to use the Streamlit library in Python to build my whole ML Web app. On the web interface, you can simply start from choosing your ML model type, then adjusting hyperparameters of the model and finally selecting your evaluation metrics.
Interface of the Web App
Below as an overview:
Machine Learning Models: Random Forest Classifier (RF) & Logistic Regression Classifier (LR).
Hyperparameters: n_estimators for RF and C for LR.
Evaluation Metrics: Confusion Matrix; Classification Report; Accuracy Score.
Problem Statement
As for this post, I will try my best to guide you through my project as a very practical example of using Streamlit to build a web application.
According to the information of this dataset on Kaggle, there are some particular facts that we need to be aware of at the beginning.
First, we only need the combined dataset for our project. The publisher has kindly combined the other two datasets for us. Combined_News_DJIA.csv is the one we will be working on. ;)
is the one we will be working on. ;) Second, when we work on the train_test_split step, there is a special requirement from the publisher. I copied as below:
For task evaluation, please use data from 2008–08–08 to 2014–12–31 as Training Set, and Test Set is then the following two years data (from 2015–01–02 to 2016–07–01). This is roughly a 80%/20% split.
Data Exploration
Overview of the Dataset
The dataset contains 27 columns (25 columns are top 25 headlines crawled from Reddit World News Channel). The label column represents whether the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose or stayed as the same (1) or decreased (0). Each row contains information for a specific date. In total, there are 1989 rows in this dataset.
Rose or Stayed the Same VS Decreased
Plotting out the distribution of labels, we can see the data is only slightly uneven.
Data Preprocessing
Data preprocessing steps involved:
Fill NaN values with medians.
Clean texts in each news column.
Combine news columns into one column named as ‘headlines’.
The last two steps can be achieved by writing a data preprocessing function as below:
def create_df(dataset):
dataset = dataset.drop(columns=['Date', 'Label'])
dataset.replace("[^a-zA-Z]", " ", regex=True, inplace=True)
for col in dataset.columns:
dataset[col] = dataset[col].str.lower()
headlines = []
for row in range(0, len(dataset.index)):
headlines.append(' '.join(str(x) for x in dataset.iloc[row, 0:25]))
df = pd.DataFrame(headlines, columns=['headlines']) # data is the dataset after filling NaNs defined out of the function scope
df['label'] = data.Label
df['date'] = data.Date
return df
Preprocessed Dataset Overview
Implementation
Implementation steps involved:
Tokenize the texts.
Build a Machine Learning Pipeline.
Perform train_test_split.
Fit the data pipeline.
Evaluate the Results.
To tokenize the text of headlines in first column, we need to create another function to complete this task.
def tokenize(text): text = re.sub(r'[^\w\s]','',text)
tokens = word_tokenize(text)
lemmatizer = WordNetLemmatizer() clean_tokens = [] for token in tokens:
clean_token = lemmatizer.lemmatize(token).lower().strip()
clean_tokens.append(clean_token) return clean_tokens
This function takes a paragraph of text as input and returns a tokenized list of words as output.
Example of Tokenization
After tokenization, we can start to build our ML pipeline for this project.
For me, I started from Random Forest Classifier as a benchmark model.
from sklearn.pipeline import Pipeline
from sklearn.feature_extraction.text import CountVectorizer, TfidfTransformer pipeline = Pipeline([
('vect', CountVectorizer(tokenizer=tokenize, stop_words = 'english')),
('tfidf', TfidfTransformer()),
('clf', RandomForestClassifier())
])
Since the train_test_split method is already defined by the publisher, we can simply code as below:
# seperating the data into train and test by date following the instruction by the data creator
train = df[df['date'] < '20150101']
test = df[df['date'] > '20141231'] # selecting features and targets
x_train = train.headlines
y_train = train.label
x_test = test.headlines
y_test = test.label
Fit the data pipeline and evaluate the results using the classification report.
# fit on the pipeline
pipeline.fit(x_train, y_train) # predicting the results
y_pred = pipeline.predict(x_test) print(classification_report(y_test, y_pred))
Classification Report of RF
Our benchmark ML model (RF) achieved an accuracy of 81%.
Alternatively, we can use Logistic Regression model as our benchmark.
Classification Report of LR
Logistic Regression achieved an accuracy of 82% which outperformed the Random Forest by 1%.
Refinement
To further improve our model performance, I choose GridSearch CV to loop over the parameter space and returns with the best parameters. Since the Logistic Regression somehow doesn’t perform very well after hyperparameters tuning, I will only show how to build a simple GridSearch CV for Random Forest Model.
from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV
# method using GridSearchCV parameters = {
'vect__ngram_range': ((1, 1), (2, 2)),
'clf__n_estimators': [50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300]
} Grid = GridSearchCV(pipeline, param_grid=parameters, cv= 3, verbose=10) Grid.fit(x_train, y_train)
When the fitting is done, you can simply return the best parameters by one line of coding.
Grid.best_params_
After refinement, we can re-evaluate our tuned model’s performance with the classification report.
Tuned RF Model Performance
The tuned Random Forest model achieved an accuracy of 84% which has a 3% increment than the benchmark version.
As we finished the workflow in Jupyter Notebook, we are now moving to the Visual Studio to build the ML Web app with Streamlit!
Model Evaluation & Validation with Streamlit
We are going to use Streamlit library in Python to validate our ML model.
If you haven’t heard of Streamlit before, I recommend the guided project tutorial on Coursera as an introduction.
My Web app has an interface like below:
ML Web App Interface
It’s a little complicated to explain code without showing it. So I would like to summarize the coding steps as detailed as possible.
To make it more efficient, I break the steps into followings so it won’t be confusing too much. ;)
Import all Python libraries you need to complete the Web app.
Decompose your workflow into separate functions. For example, load_data() helps you load the dataset/ create_df() helps you clean and combine news columns into one headlines column/ tokenize() helps you convert text into list of words etc.
helps you load the dataset/ helps you clean and combine news columns into one headlines column/ helps you convert text into list of words etc. Build your Web App interface in Streamlit language. It sounds difficult but actually it’s extremely easy to understand!
Finally, you can actually write your code like you are in a Python environment.
Try Streamlit commands to build your interface:
st.sidebar.title(“NLP News Sentimental Analysis”) helps you create a title on sidebar.
st.subheader(‘Confusion Matrix’) display title on main page.
st.write(“Confusion Matrix “, matrix) display the confusion matrix results.
If you are interested in how I create my Web app, you are welcome to check the code logic below:
Libraries:
from nltk.tokenize import word_tokenize
from nltk.stem import WordNetLemmatizer
import streamlit as st
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import warnings
from sklearn.pipeline import Pipeline
from sklearn.feature_extraction.text import CountVectorizer, TfidfTransformer
from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestClassifier
from sklearn.linear_model import LogisticRegression
from sklearn.metrics import classification_report, confusion_matrix, accuracy_score
import nltk
import re
nltk.download(['punkt', 'wordnet'])
Functions:
load_data() returns loaded dataset from your local file path.
create_df(dataset) inputs original dataset & outputs dataset of combined headlines column.
tokenize(text) inputs text & outputs list of words.
split(df) inputs dataframe & outputs x_train, x_test, y_train, y_test.
Vectorize() implemented as a pipeline of CountVectorizer and TfidfTransformer.
Other function for Web app interface:
def plot_metrics(metrics_list): if 'Confusion Matrix' in metrics_list: st.subheader('Confusion Matrix') predictions = model.predict(x_test) matrix = confusion_matrix(y_test, predictions) st.write("Confusion Matrix ", matrix) if 'Classification_Report' in metrics_list: st.subheader('Classification_Report') predictions = model.predict(x_test) report = classification_report(y_test, predictions) st.write("Classification_Report ", report) if 'Accuracy_Score' in metrics_list: st.subheader('Accuracy_Score') predictions = model.predict(x_test) score = accuracy_score(y_test, predictions) st.write("Accuracy_Score: ", score.round(2))
Justification
As for the conclusion, we started from going through the whole workflow of building a ML project in Jupyter Notebook to finally implement the model as a ML Web app by using Streamlit library.
Random Forest Model & Logistic Regression Model are tested as benchmark models first and only Random Forest Model is used for further refinement steps.
Before refinement, RF model is evaluated by the classification report method and achieves an accuracy of 81%. However, after using refinement method including GridSearch CV, the RF model successfully improves its accuracy by an increment of 3% to 84%.
Finally, as a challenge, we tried to deploy the ML model into a Web app. By using Streamlit, we only need to decompose our workflow into functions. And most of the functions can be copied from the workspace in Jupyter Notebook.
As a conclusion, I sincerely hope this article can be useful to learners in the domain of Data Science & Machine Learning.
Thank you for your time reading this article!
See you next time.
Github Link to the Project Repo:
https://github.com/TanjirouNezuko/Machine-Learning-Engineer-Nanodegree/tree/main/Capstone%20Project | https://medium.com/swlh/build-a-ml-web-app-for-stock-market-prediction-from-daily-news-with-streamlit-and-python-7c4cf918d9b4 | ['Gakki Cheng'] | 2020-12-25 22:57:39.485000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Finance', 'NLP', 'Towards Data Science', 'Startup'] |
Jakarta Artificial Intelligence Research Projects | Photo by Abby Chung from Pexels
Jakarta Research is a research community based in Jakarta that focuses on Artificial Intelligence. Our aim is to improve people’s life through artificial intelligence. We see a lot of AI applications that solved real-world problem, and we want to be a part of it. We started with natural language processing applications which all of our researchers were familiar with. We also make such a rule for the project, it has to be do-able and can be finished within two months. Below are the projects and events that we have been successfully finished and on-going project. Moreover, we also add incoming project that remains discussed to be the next our to-do list.
Quora Question Pairs
In this project, we were trying to identify a pair question is a paraphrase or not. It is similar with text similarity text but it takes a different approach. The task is largely known as sentence-pair classification. This task usually use in forum websites such as Quora which the user may create a question that has been already posted and answered. We experimented with several machine learning algorithms and built neural network architecture based on long short-term memory. But, it turned out BERT perform better from the rests. You can read the details in paper pre-print.
TorchSenti
TorchSenti is a natural language library that focuses on sentiment analysis tasks which aims to provide sentiment analysis dataset and pre-trained models. The library build on top of PyTorch, we want to support research community to expand the knowledge and contributors to solve current problems. Those features and resources helps NLP researchers to benchmark and evaluate their proposed method. However, this library may be a starting point for everyone that want to learn sentiment analysis in depth. Find the details on the repository.
Maleo
Data Scientists spend more than a half of their time for data cleansing including for text. With that problem, in Jakarta Research, we are building a tools that make data scientists job easier to clean the text data such as removing hyperlinks, punctuations, mistyping, etc. You can find more on Github.
Twitter User Behavior
Social media is one of the main resource to analyze text data. In this project, we are trying to find a pattern of people that has the same behavior as in a scripted account. Twitter data is largely open with some limitations, and in this project we are focusing on politic and social issues such as sexual harassments, social fraud, general election, etc.
Deep Learning Discussion
Deep learning discussion is a weekly meeting which each researcher should present that they think interesting or people should know about. The discussion started to discuss information extraction from a book, but as time goes by, it covers a board topics from general to specific one.
Research Program for Students
This program aims to help students in a senior year that want to release research paper or being involve in research project. We create this program because we found some students are struggle for computing resources, datasets, and guidance in order to start their research. Therefore, if you are a student and interested with this problem, visit this link.
In coming events and projects
More workshops and research projects. Absolutely! these are often discussed on on several meetings. We have a lot of things to do but we have no much time to do that, we proposed a lot on incoming projects such as language model, text summarization, dialogue system, semantic segmentation on image, object detection, speech recognition, speech enhancement, network analysis. But, we are open if anyone wants to do research in Jakarta Research, maybe there is an available resources that you can use.
Besides that, we also plan to build homepage on github.io, utilizing Discord API, setup CI/CD for our Github, and many more. If you are interested to contribute to our research community, just comment below your email.
Cheers!
If you think this article is helpful, please share and give this article 50 claps :D | https://medium.com/data-folks-indonesia/jakarta-artificial-intelligence-research-projects-66735f41111d | ['Andreas Chandra'] | 2020-09-25 12:20:43.942000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Research', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Jakarta Research', 'Data Folks Indonesia'] |
How to Write for the Apeiron Blog | 2. Submissions Guidelines
The Apeiron Blog began because we recognized the value that Philosophy carries, but noticed most academic Philosophy is inaccessible to the everyday reader.
Because of that, all the articles we publish should have one main focus — to teach the value of Philosophy in a way the general public can understand.
Most people have an attention span shorter than that of a goldfish (according to Microsoft Canada, anyway). So we are looking for articles that are short, to the point and insightful— without watering anything down, or losing the value of your Philosophical message.
You should remain conversational, yet remain authoritative, trustworthy, and avoid being overly chatty. Stay focused and, so as to not confuse readers, avoid unnecessary tangents that don’t relate to the point at hand. Instead, tie everything back, and make it clear why you’re saying what you are.
Whether you’re writing about your favorite Philosopher, its value, or how to use the subject to improve your day to day life — the point of your article should be clear, and the underlying message should be easy to understand.
Avoid waffle, be economical with your wording, and stick to a style that everyone can understand.
To keep things accessible, we exclusively publish articles with a reading time of 10 minutes or less. For tips and tricks, and to identify common mistakes when submitting to us, check out this article by our editor.
a) Topics We Accept
Philosophy is an incredibly broad topic. But it’s predicated on one thing — pursuing wisdom and getting us to think. Be that about morality, our lives, space and time, politics, or something else.
Consequently, we choose not to limit the topics we accept. All we ask is that articles sent for review contain critical thought, deep analysis (such as logically assessing arguments), or offer insightful viewpoints.
Your work should get the reader thinking and questioning what they know.
To name a few of the topics we accept, we publish articles on:
Philosophy.
Politics.
Psychology.
The Natural Sciences.
Life Lessons.
Self — Improvement.
b) Keeping Your Writing Accessible
Academic Philosophy is incredibly alienating and scares away most people. It terrified me, to begin with, but it was by starting with the basics that I came to love the subject.
As our target audience is those who are new to Philosophy, it’s really important that your writing style is right on the money. Otherwise, you risk scaring aware readers for good. Here are some tips:
Avoid unnecessary jargon, or words that the average reader wouldn’t understand. They don’t make you sound clever, but they do confuse us all. If you can’t avoid using jargon, define it in its first instance.
Avoid big blocks of text. These have a home in academic texts, but not for people who are new to Philosophy who are starting out. Keep paragraphs to around 2–4 lines.
Portray your message as simply as possible. Philosophers (stereotypically) complicate things for the sake of it. Here, we want to keep things as simple as possible. If you can communicate the same message in a clearer, shorter, or simpler way — then do so.
In doing so, you are allowing those with a fascination for Philosophy to explore that in a stimulating and informative, yet accessible environment.
c) Evidence & Research
Philosophy has a bad reputation for being all about “opinions.” That’s a myth that needs debunking because, in reality, its deeply rooted in Logic, Science, and Empirical Research.
The Apeiron Blog is a space for credible, factual and reliable information that readers can trust. Because of that, all articles must contain research and evidence to back up and support their points.
Without it, your articles will slip into empty and meaningless speculation — and that rarely holds up to scrutiny.
The Apeiron is a factual and informative publication, rather than a place for empty speculation without theory to back it up.
Research and evidence can come in many different forms:
From scholars, Philosophers, key thinkers.
From your own rationality/reasoning (grounded in propositional or modal logic).
From your own personal experiences.
All articles must have references from reliable sources. To keep things simple, we ask that this evidence is linked and embedded into relevant sections of the text, rather than referencing it like academic work.
Please note that we don’t accept articles that:
Are arrogant in tone.
Are written with an agenda or aim to promote something.
Where you have “invented” a new philosophy, without the evidence or theories to back it up.
d) Formatting
Philosophers are smart, but from experience, some of them can be lazy when it comes to formalities. Unfortunately, formatting your article is an important step in making your article attractive to the everyday reader.
If your article isn’t well formatted, we might reject it or send it back to you. We expect every piece to: | https://medium.com/the-apeiron-blog/writing-for-the-apeiron-blog-53771d79fcc7 | ['Jon Hawkins'] | 2020-12-24 23:39:38+00:00 | ['Blog', 'Philosophy', 'Education', 'Psychology', 'Work'] |
Design Your Perfect UX Internship | How can a junior designer with limited work experience have the UX internship of their dreams? That was the biggest question on my mind before I started as a design intern at Workday. I figured out the answer over the course of the summer: Design your perfect UX internship using as many tools as you can put your hands on.
Approaching the Unknown
When I accepted my internship offer, I knew that I’d be coming in as a designer with very little hands-on experience in the industry.
In fact, I had more background in user research than I did in design. Up until that point, I’d only worked at startups where I was the only designer, cultivating unhealthy work habits in an environment where I had no creative mentor.
Most of all, I realized I had no idea what to expect out of my design internship.
As I sped on the highway from my university to Workday, I had to ask myself, “What did I want out of these next three months?”
Why Design Internships are Important
To start things off, I needed to understand my motivation for pursuing a design internship. To do this, I revisited the insights I had heard months earlier when talking with real designers in the community about building their careers.
Working as an intern is the best way to gain hands-on experience and prepare yourself up for a full time job. UX Internships provide you with the structure and foundation you need for your future career, by giving you opportunities for mentorship, networking, and resume-building.
In fact, companies also use internships as a test drive for future hires in their pipeline. While an interview can add to what an employer knows about a person, an internship will also help that employer evaluate how they would fare in the actual workplace.
Internships are also an opportunity to learn more about yourself. In fact, an internship should be a test run for you, just as much as it is for the company. It’s an opportunity for you, as a junior designer, to decide whether this is what you want to pursue for the rest of your life. It’s the chance to learn about potential strengths and weaknesses in the workplace that can either propel you into rapid growth, or impede it.
There are many different types of internships, but in a product design internship, you are a technologist. A scientist. An artist. A creator.
And only you have the power to make the most out of your experience.
In fact, by harnessing the creative tools and frameworks you might normally use, you can craft your best UX internship and control exactly what you get out of it.
The Double-Diamond Approach
Everyone’s experience as a designer is different. In your design education, are there tools you’ve used that you might see yourself using in your internship?
In my design classes at UC San Diego, I utilized a wide variety of tools in user research, information architecture, and interaction design to complete my assignments. A lot of these same methodologies, specifically interviewing, user testing, and wireframing, were extremely useful in how I tackled my projects during my internship at Workday.
One of the most important concepts I put into use was the Double Diamond Approach, where I used convergent and divergent thinking to tackle design challenges. I was excited to use this as a framework for designing my best UX internship experience, especially after finding out that Workday also uses the double diamond to guide its innovation process.
The Double Diamond is founded on the four phases of discovering, defining, developing, and delivering. This framework, developed by the British Design Council, allows designers to map where insights diverge and converge along the journey of the design process. It’s a flexible way of thinking that can be used in product design, service design, or in this case — to design your own career!
In fact, this is one of several tools that can be used throughout each of the four phases to help you to design your perfect UX internship. In this article, I’ll explore when and why to use some of these:
In the discovery phase, you can use personality tests and rapid ideation to do research on yourself and identify objectives that are important to you before your internship. In the defining phase, you can narrow down on the goals that mean the most to you. In the development phase, you can find opportunities and take action during your internship to make your goals a reality. In the delivery phase, you can reflect back on work done over the past months and understand your next steps after the internship has ended.
Take Time to Get to Know Yourself
“What kind of personality do you have? How do you work with others?” Ask yourself these questions before you enter the workforce and before your start your internship.
In my case, I had no experience working in a big enterprise company; I mostly had a background in design classes where I was working solely with designers. As a result, I was nervous about working at a real company and building real products, where I would need the help of more than just my fellow design students. How was I going to communicate to developers the importance of specific features in my designs? How would I reach out for help from product managers who knew the enterprise domain better than I did? Maybe I needed to know myself better.
After researching different personality tests, exercises, and worksheets I used to hone in on my strengths and weaknesses, I discovered there were many different personality tests out there, such as Myers-Briggs, the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, and the Big Five personality traits test.
One great way to get to know what kind of UX employee you’ll be is by taking the True Colors test (Image content via: Don Lowry, 1978)
Ultimately, I chose to take the True Colors test, an exercise that would help me understand how my strengths, personality, and characteristics build how I react to planned and unexpected situations.
In my case, as a person who was Blue, I realized I had a much more relationship-oriented work style. Described as enthusiastic and idealistic, I have a strong desire to motivate, interact with, and influence others. Though I had experience working with other people in school projects, this test helped me come to the realization that I was an emotionally driven individual who valued collaboration and creativity.
In fact, it’s important for any budding designer embarking on an internship to take one of these personality tests. Collaborating with people is essential for success at any workplace, especially at Workday, where we value close relationships between our product managers, designers, and software engineers.
While we design and advocate for the user experience, the developers build the technical foundation for our creations and the product managers keep us all consistently aligned with our company’s business goals. At the same time, we have diverse backgrounds and working styles. Getting to know ourselves better is the first step in helping us understand how others are different, how we can collaborate together with these differences in mind, and how we can leverage our complementary strengths for seamless teamwork.
Let Your Strengths Define Your Goals
By letting your strengths define your goals, you can use what you already do well to empower yourself, and continue working toward how you see yourself in the future.
Who is it that you want to be in 3 years? In 5 years? And what are some of the qualities you already have now that can push you towards realizing your aspirations?
Setting goals for myself before the internship helped me think strategically about how I wanted to design my perfect experience from the very beginning. That way, I could hit the ground running on my first day at the office, and be on the constant lookout for learning opportunities that would bring me closer to meeting my expectations.
Sticky notes are a tool you’ll use everywhere in design ideation — why not use it to design your internship, too?
I brainstormed possible goals in true designer fashion: with sticky notes.
In my own sticky notes, I put down goals, such as making new friends, honing my visual design chops, and delivering a ready-to-ship feature by the end of my internship.
Even though it can be hard for you to consider your own strong suits, an easy way to get yourself thinking is to lay it all out, rapidly and without pause. Using sticky notes can help you generate potential goals and ambitions without internal judgment, and your result is much more substantial.
As an incoming hire, some of the objectives you might prepare for yourself during the course of your internship can include learning a new tool, refining a skill you already know, or attending a special event or conference.
Stay Focused by Narrowing and Articulating Your Goals
Once you’ve identified all the possible goals you could achieve over your three months as an intern, you need to narrow. What is it that you really want to prioritize? Is there something high on your bucket list that you could probably finish within these three months?
The defining can feel like a bullseye: What is at the center of everything that is important in your UX internship?
Designers have multiple tools to narrow. These might include narrowing your sticky notes with a 2x2 matrix, asking a How Might We question, or defining key business goals or metrics for success.
I chose a bullseye exercise to prioritize, ranking my goals by importance. In fact, the sticky notes I placed in the middle were what I saw as the biggest opportunity for my own growth.
Although I wanted to use this internship to meet new people and improve my skills in visual design, I also knew I had to focus on one goal. Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to work toward shipping my designs by the end of the summer, making a lasting impact on the product even after I left the company.
However, it was really important to articulate my goal clearly, in order for me to reach success that would be meaningful and attainable. By digging deeper into my needs as a junior designer, I was able to use a Point of View statement to focus on my motivation for wanting to ship products, and the main challenges in doing so.
Point of View statements are a great way to focus on motivations and what fuels you.
I knew my biggest strength was my enthusiasm for solving problems through design. I valued turning design-thinking into design-doing, and because of my extensive background in human-computer interaction, I’ve always been interested in pushing for experiences that would create value in people’s lives.
As a result, when it came to defining my main goal for the summer, I came up with the following statement:
I need a way to effectively communicate my design decisions to stakeholders, because I want to make sure the designs I ship are impactful and purposeful.
Grab the Chance to Build Up Your Areas of Development
One of the best ways to explore potential learning opportunities during your internship is to revisit what you identified as your problem statement, and rapidly generate ways you could tackle any challenges that might block you from reaching your goal. As an intern, you’ll be able to find learning opportunities everywhere you go, even if they’re outside of work.
Up until my internship, I only had previous experience working with designers. I had grown comfortable with just listening as other people talked around me. I had trouble speaking up and voicing my opinions. I became complacent with letting things happen without fighting for the best user experience.
So, I met with my manager at the beginning of the summer to talk about what I wanted to work on. I treated this weakness as an area for potential improvement, and as a result, my manager mainly put me on projects where I was the only designer — projects where I had to push for the best user experience.
In fact, my biggest weakness became my greatest learning opportunity.
Although my weakness was properly justifying my design decisions to product managers and engineers, I knew that my main strengths were my enthusiasm for solving real-world problems and my willingness to collaborate with others. As a relationship-oriented individual, I knew that building rapport with stakeholders through design-thinking exercises and reviews would be one of the best ways I could get my point across.
To take advantage of spending my summer in a bustling tech hub, I took the effort to make as many connections as I could. In addition to working closely with my team on my intern projects, I bought tickets for events held by Designers + Geeks, attended tech talks given by Salesforce, and even played games with Facebook employees in Dolores Park. Developing a network and talking with other professionals enabled me to feel more confident about expressing myself and putting my ideas out there in my internship.
Reflect Proudly on the Work You Deliver
Revisit your strengths every time you feel far away from your goals, and you will continue to be motivated.
At the end of your internship, look back on the areas for improvement you identified earlier in the summer, and see how far you’ve come in the past three months.
Journey Maps are a great way to reflect on your UX internship to track the progress you’ve accomplished.
In fact, a great way to reflect on your experiences is to chart your own journey map. Doing this will allow you to reflect on your three months from the perspective of things that went well, and things that went not-so-well.
At the end of your internship, it’s important to recognize your achievements.
For me, my weaknesses were being able to defend my own design decisions to stakeholders who were busy looking out for other aspects of the product development process, like technical constraints and a customer’s immediate needs.
At the beginning of my journey as an intern, I could see more pain points centered around establishing myself as a designer on my projects. However, as time went on, these lows became less and less prevalent, and there were more highs when I met with success and overcame obstacles.
At the end of the summer, I had a share-out to the whole UX team with the other interns, and it was an amazing experience. By looking back on a summer’s worth of happy and sad moments, I could not only acknowledge my strengths and accomplishments in the workplace, but also identify opportunities that needed future improvement. The previous three months became an experience that helped me form goals and learning opportunities for my next role as a designer.
But All Good Things Come to an End…Or Do They?
Three months will pass, and hopefully you’ll have fulfilled many, if not all, of the expectations you set for yourself. But what comes after the internship?
A lot of great projects came out of my time as an intern, but my best project was the experience itself — the 3 months I spent learning how design works in the real world.
By tuning into my existing strengths, I used my knack for solving problems through design to understand where my confidence lacked. By tackling my weaknesses head-on, I spent my summer working directly with engineers and product managers, acting as the main advocate for meaningful user experiences in all my projects.
Having made a great impression on my manager with my goals and growth, I was able to come back to Workday the summer after my internship. It’s been over a year since I started working full-time as a member of the Generation Workday program, and I can confidently say that my designs for the perfect internship were a smashing success. | https://medium.com/workday-design/design-your-perfect-ux-internship-b0c21c47c50d | ['Workday Design'] | 2020-10-12 22:16:33.056000+00:00 | ['Ux Internship Advice', 'Design Internship', 'Ux Intern', 'Design', 'Career Advice'] |
How to fall in love with reading | 1. Read what you enjoy, not what you think you should be reading.
Read anything that interests you.
Fiction, crime, young adult, comics, Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey.
I don’t care.
Read whatever captures your attention and curiosity.
Through social pressure, many people feel they need to read books on the top 10 bestsellers. Don’t feel the pressure to read what society says you should read.
Everyone has different music preferences and food taste.
Books should be treated no differently. | https://medium.com/the-open-bookshelf/how-to-fall-in-love-with-reading-6e948c07b447 | ['Michael Lim'] | 2020-07-11 19:38:52.936000+00:00 | ['Self Development', 'Books', 'Habits', 'Reading', 'Self Improvement'] |
Who or What is the “Cliff” in Cliffs Notes? | Cliffs Notes are the yellow and black study guide that helped us understand wondrous and complicated pieces of world literature. Want to know what the heck Shakespeare was talking about in Othello? Then Cliffs Notes was the thing you turned to if you wanted a chance at passing that test. But who or what is the “Cliff” in Cliffs Notes?
There really is a person behind the start of Cliffs Notes, even though on some versions of the book there was a mountain on the cover. The man behind the study guides was from Nebraska, and his name was Cliff Hillegass. After graduating from college, he worked at Long’s College Bookstore, and he made some contacts while employed there.
One of his new contacts gave him the idea to publish Cliffs Notes. His name was Jack Cole, a man who ran a business called Coles, The Book People. Coles made study guides that were published in Canada called Cole’s Notes. Cole suggested that Hillegass should make book study guides specifically for U.S. students.
Cliff Hillegass took the idea and ran with it in August of 1958. He made study guides for sixteen of Shakespeare’s works from his home in Lincoln, Nebraska, and started the new business with $4,000. He sold each new guide for one dollar.
From there, things just grew and grew. Most likely, many of us have used the guides to get the background on any number of works at one point in our lives. And since there have been hundreds of titles published by Cliffs Notes, it’s safe to say that a majority of the classics (and not so classic) have been covered. Today their guides include everything from test preps to books on math, science, and writing skills, as well as the classic guides on different, almost incomprehensible, works of literature.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt purchased Cliffs Notes in 2012 and continues to expand the line of products. Cliff Hillegass passed away at the age of 83 in 2001.
More Fun Facts About Cliffs Notes:
Cliffs Notes published a series of books called the “Bluffer’s Guides.” Topics included things other than literature such as wine and baseball, as well as bluffing. It was a way to sound like an expert without actually being one.
Cliffs Notes has been known as Cliffs Notes, Cliff’s Notes, and currently CliffsNotes, but erroneously as Cliff Notes. How many times have you called it that?
When the 1960s got into full swing, Cliffs Notes found their sales plummeting. Students didn’t need titles such as War and Peace, and the Divine Comedy by Dante, as required reading for their classes. Cliffs Notes had to keep up with the changing times and quickly released new titles, such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
In 1989 a judge sided with Cliffs Notes, Inc. when they sued a parody of their books called Spy Notes that was to be published by Spy Magazine. The reason for the suit was that the Spy Notes book used Cliffs Notes iconic yellow and black cover.
In 1997, Villanova University in Pennsylvania ordered its bookstores to stop stocking Cliffs Notes. The decision was made after 90 faculty members signed a petition to do so.
IDG Books Worldwide purchased Cliffs Notes Inc. in 1998. They’re the ones that make the “for dummies” books.
Sources: Cliffs Notes, The Tuscaloosa News, Park City Daily News, Toledo Blade, Eugene Register-Guard, Lakeland Register, Moscow-Pullman Daily News
Want to delve into more facts? Try The Wonderful World of Completely Random Facts series, here on Medium.
Find even more interesting facts in the four volumes of Knowledge Stew: The Guide to the Most Interesting Facts in the World.
More great stories are waiting for you at Knowledge Stew. | https://medium.com/knowledge-stew/who-or-what-is-the-cliff-in-cliffs-notes-2699fc1ab715 | ['Daniel Ganninger'] | 2020-08-30 13:01:02.756000+00:00 | ['Classics', 'History', 'Education', 'Books', 'Literature'] |
I’m Doing Better As a Writer on Medium Than The Local Newspaper Who Turned Down Hiring Me Five Years Ago | Though I’ve always written, in one form another from the time I was twelve or so — I never had any plans on applying to write for a major publication.
It just wasn’t who I saw myself as, maybe I didn’t take myself seriously enough and for good reason probably. Sure I could write an essay deserving of an A but I preferred to write rap lyrics in a notebook and not tell anyone. So that’s basically what I did. However, every so often, something I had to write for school would stand out above that of my peers and a fuss would be made of it by teachers and such. Still, writing wasn’t something I saw myself doing professionally. I guess I just didn’t think it was possible.
However, five years ago, a family member of mine who had nothing but the best intentions and just wanted to be of help to me, suggested I apply as a writer to my local newspaper. A friend of hers is an editor there and she offered to reach out. Though, I knew it wouldn’t have been the kind of writing I actually enjoy, I figured I had nothing to lose and applied.
Not to my surprise, the writing samples I sent in “weren’t what they were looking for” and I was let down lightly — most likely as a courtesy to my family member — by her friend. I’m almost positive I would have been otherwise ignored. The truth is, I wasn’t upset because I didn’t want to work there in the first place. My history with the publication has mainly comprised of seeing people I grew up with listed in the “Northeast’s Most Wanted” section. Though, I once read a letter to the editor they published in 2005, by some old miserable soul who wrote in to question the character of my deceased friend, who had been tragically killed saving her infant daughter, weeks earlier.
Besides, it’s a paper they distribute for free every week in my neighborhood, what would they have possibly paid me to write for them? | https://medium.com/discourse/im-doing-better-as-a-writer-on-medium-than-the-local-newspaper-who-turned-down-hiring-me-five-f829c2a901f7 | ['Brian Brewington'] | 2018-09-14 03:00:07.528000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Creative Writing', 'Publishing', 'Life Lessons', 'Life'] |
How to generate lat and long coordinates of city without using APIS in Python. | How to generate lat and long coordinates of city without using APIS in Python. Prabhat Pathak Follow May 17 · 3 min read
Easy codes to understand
Photo by João Silas on Unsplash
if anyone would like to plot map graphs using geographical coordinates (The latitude and longitude which define the position of a point on the surface of the Earth .A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude.
Photo by oxana v on Unsplash
Latitude lines run east-west and are parallel to each other. If you go north, latitude values increase. Finally, latitude values (Y-values) range between -90 and +90 degrees
But longitude lines run north-south. They converge at the poles. And its X-coordinates are between -180 and +180 degrees.
Cartographers write spherical coordinates (latitudes and longitudes) in degrees-minutes-seconds (DMS) and decimal degrees. For degrees-minutes-seconds, minutes range from 0 to 60. For example, the geographic coordinate expressed in degrees-minutes-seconds for New York City is:
Latitude: 40 degrees, 42 minutes, 51 seconds N
Longitude: 74 degrees, 0 minutes, 21 seconds W
We can also express geographic coordinates in decimal degrees. It’s just another way to represent that same location in a different format. For example, here is New York City in decimal degrees:
Latitude: 40.714
Longitude: -74.006
Read more here if you like to understand more deeper.
Let’s get started
I am using Jupyter notebook to run the script in this Article.
First, we will be installing Libraries like Nominatim and geopy using PIP.
pip install geopy
pip install Nominatim
now the code is really easy we just need to run this
Case 1: Where only City name is mention
from geopy.geocoders import Nominatim address='Nagpur'
geolocator = Nominatim(user_agent="Your_Name")
location = geolocator.geocode(address)
print(location.address)
print((location.latitude, location.longitude))
after running above code this is the output we will get.
Nagpur, Nagpur District, Maharashtra, 440001, India
(21.1498134, 79.0820556)
Case 2: Where both Country and City name is mentioned.
We can run another code as well if we have Country name and city name .
from geopy.geocoders import Nominatim
geolocator = Nominatim() city ="Agra"
country ="India"
loc = geolocator.geocode(city+','+ country)
print("latitude is :-" ,loc.latitude,"
longtitude is:-" ,loc.longitude)
output is :
latitude is :- 27.1752554
longtitude is:- 78.0098161
Photo by Alex Perez on Unsplash
Conclusion
we can generate lat and long using googlemaps APIs as well, but for APIs you have to pay some charges.
I hope this article will help you and save a good amount of time. Let me know if you have any suggestions.
HAPPY CODING.
Sources :
https://gisgeography.com/latitude-longitude-coordinates/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_coordinate_system/ | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/how-to-generate-lat-and-long-coordinates-of-city-without-using-apis-25ebabcaf1d5 | ['Prabhat Pathak'] | 2020-05-18 22:22:06.242000+00:00 | ['Maps', 'Pandas', 'Google', 'Data Science', 'Data Visualization'] |
5 (Un)Conventional Interview Tips For Data Scientists And ML Engineers | Have A Conversation
Machine Learning topics are highly technical and straight forward when discussed. What I mean is that when questions are asked, there tends to be little to no ambiguity to answers that could be given.
You either know what you are talking about or you don’t.
In some interview scenarios, there’s little to no room to have an extended discussion around ML topics, especially when an interview feels like an interrogation with the several “What is” and “How Do I” type questions.
There’s nothing wrong with having direct answers when asked questions such as “What is a neural network” or “How do you prevent a network from overfitting”.
Although, direct answers can showcase your knowledge and in some cases, expertise; they fail to showcase your personality, experience and creativity.
Well prepared interviewers have other questions or methods of gauging your personality and other social factors.
But for those who don’t, you might come across as typical or nothing out of the ordinary.
One approach that has worked for me is having a conversation around a topic that’s asked within questions.
To give an example of how you can initiate conversations around interview questions, take a look at the two scenarios described.
Scenario 1
Interviewer: Could you explain what overfitting is and how you would prevent it?
Candidate 1: Overfitting occurs when the machine learning model does not generalise accurately to unseen data. This usually happens when the model learns predominantly patterns, including noise, that are present within the training data. Overfitting is fixed by reducing the number of features in the training data or reducing the complexity of the network through various regularisation techniques.
Scenario 2
Interviewer: Could you explain what overfitting is and how you would prevent it?
Candidate 2: Overfitting occurs when the machine learning model does not generalise accurately to unseen data. This usually happens when the model learns predominantly patterns, including noise, that are present within the training data. Overfitting is fixed by reducing the number of features in the training data or reducing the complexity of the network through various regularisation techniques.
Could I ask, What methods to prevent overfitting do data scientists within your team leverage?
Scenario Analysis
The two scenarios described above are very similar, and if you read to quickly, you might have missed the difference between both answers from the candidates.
Candidate 1 answered the question well, and the answer given was relatively detailed.
But, the majority of candidates(not all) taking an interview are very prepared to answer typical ML/DS science such as the one asked above.
My point is, there is nothing that differentiates candidate 1 from the other candidates that could have answered the question as well.
Candidate 2, on the other hand, has posed a question back to the interviewer on the same subject matter, creating an opportunity for a conversation around the topic.
This allows the interviewer to go off-script and ask the more exciting and non-scripted question.
More importantly, ending answers to a question asked by the interviewer with a related question portrays to the interviewer that you are curious and interested in the operations of the team/company already.
I use this technique to break out of an interrogation style interview and move more to a natural feeling conversational interview, where both parties are comfortable.
Remember that interviewers hire people they like.
Having a conversational style interview enables your personality to come across in a more likeable manner. | https://towardsdatascience.com/5-un-conventional-interview-tips-for-data-scientists-and-ml-engineers-c42f8da0d400 | ['Richmond Alake'] | 2020-12-15 21:35:08.845000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Office Hours', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Advice'] |
Five Days Among Death And Misery | Five Days Among Death And Misery
I know natural disasters leave marks but I did not know those marks will be so deep
Image by Dawn
If you were old enough in 2005 then you might remember that there was a horrible earthquake in Pakistan on 8th October 2005, that killed thousands of people.
The Pakistani government’s official death toll as of November 2005 stood at 87,350 although it is estimated that the death toll could reach over 100,000. Approximately 138,000 were injured and over 3.5 million rendered homeless.
Kashmir was almost 90% ruined. I was coming back from my granny’s village to my home in the city. I was on the bus with my grandpa. The road we were traveling on is on the riverside of Jhelum river. I was on the window side and saw the river tearing from the center and red muddy water erupted. The houses on the other side of the river were falling in the river. Just like cups would fall if you tilt a tray.
The road got blocked in front of us so we walked to my home on foot fearing what we might find there. almost all the buildings on the way were destroyed. Reaching home we found a big pile of stones instead of the house. But before we would freak out my mother saw us and told us that everyone was safe and all the people from the neighborhood were in a nearby graveyard because houses were not safe.
We spent the day in the graveyard. It was not the first earthquake for us and we were used to earthquakes but this time it was so strong and different. It was not feeling like it was over. The earth beneath us was behaving like a living creature as if it was breathing under us. There were many aftershocks all day long.
All-day long people kept bringing their dead ones to the graveyard. It was Ramzan and we were all fasting. In the evening my mother sent me to bring water from some house that was still standing. But all the houses were open and none had anyone inside. It was like those post-apocalyptic movies where suddenly there are no humans left. I went to a house and filled the water bottle. Everything in the house was left as it was. There was food in the fridge. Unwashed dishes in the sink and beds unmade.
Some neighbors who had grocery shops somehow recovered food items from the remains of their shops and cooked food for everyone. We were all asked to move to a school ground to eat. It was dusk by then. We had just sat to eat when a man came in with a dead baby in his arms. He was crying and said, “Would anyone say my daughter’s funeral prayers with me.” It was so heartbreaking.
At night heavy rain started. There Was an under-construction shop nearby. We went in to avoid the rain. Some people had tents and they were full of people too. In our shop, there was a woman whose leg was broken. Her cries of pain I can never forget. There were many aftershocks during the night too.
In the morning the rain stopped and we moved to the playground of my old school. The school building was also collapsed and there were still girls alive inside and their families were outside unable to do anything. After some hours another aftershock and there were no more sounds from inside the building.
There was no help from the outside world because roads were blocked and there were no telephone or cell phone signals. No electricity or even radio signals. We had no idea if the world even knew about our condition or not.
In the afternoon army helicopters started coming in and the rescue operation started in the city. Muzaffarabad (my hometown) has a great number of the Pakistani army in it.
The school ground was filling with people coming from nearby villages in the hopes of food and shelter. There were families with their dead ones without finding enough people to dig the graves and bury them. People were digging graves all day long that day too so people had to wait for tools or places to bury.
The army guys came to the school but confirming that no one was alive under it, they decided to delay the digging there because they had to rescue the living people from under many other buildings.
There was a young man who was alone trying to break the concrete roof of the collapsed building like a crazy man. He kept doing that till the army finally came to dig the dead from the building after a few days. I later found out that his fiancee was a teacher in the school. When finally her dead body was recovered, she was unrecognizable, but he recognized her by her yellow clothes that she was wearing that day.
That night we slept in the playground under the sky along with hundreds of others. The next day more soldiers came and even UN forces came to take part in the rescue missions. They gave people food, tents, and blankets. By the third day, there was a smell spreading in the city. The smell of dead bodies. It rained again that day. Some relatives walked for 50 Km to reach the city from my granny’s village and we got to know that the family in the village was safe but homes were destroyed there too.
All the death and pain around me had numbed my mind by then and I don’t clearly remember the last two days. But by the 5th day, the army had cleared the roads and we were able to take a bus and go to some relatives in the safe areas. The road going towards the collapsed city was jam-packed with trucks of supplies and ambulances. There were many doctors who had filled their own vehicles with as many medical supplies as possible. There were busses full of volunteers. The vehicles were so many that in all 130 kilometers they were going bumper to bumper.
When we reached Islamabad, life was going on as if nothing has changed. It was so odd. They were even playing music on buses and vans. In those five days, I could not cry even once because I was in shock. I would wake up screaming many times in the night. After reaching my cousin’s house they took me to a therapist and after almost one month I started crying and then I cried for hours.
I know natural disasters leave marks but I did not know those marks will be so deep. It’s been 15 years, the city was built again but I have no memories left there. My school, college, home, everything got destroyed and right after the earthquake I was married and moved to Lahore. I feel like a stranger in my hometown now. | https://medium.com/social-jogi/five-days-among-death-and-misery-fe096152f2ec | ['Sukhi Ch.'] | 2020-12-25 20:52:14.939000+00:00 | ['Earthquake', 'Pakistan', 'Kashmir', 'Life', 'Death'] |
AirPods Are Apple’s Next Big Brand | AirPods Are Apple’s Next Big Brand
The new AirPods Max are more than new headphones—they’re a coronation of a core brand
Apple’s AirPods Max. Photo: Apple
Never underestimate the value of a good brand. With the all-new AirPods Max, Apple has christened AirPods as a core brand on almost equal footing with its iconic Mac line.
Think about it. While AirPods Max Bluetooth headphones may have the same H1 audio beating heart as AirPods Pro (and, not coincidentally, Apple’s Beats Solo Pro), they look nothing like a pair of AirPods. Sure, AirPods Max are an audio product, but these are not pods. In fact, in the industry, we traditionally refer to over-the-ear headphones as “cans.”
There’s nothing wrong with Apple slapping the AirPods brand name on its newest audio product. It makes perfect sense for the company to officially position “AirPods” as a crucial brand—one that, like the Mac before it, is more of an idea than a fixed thing or concrete look and feel. Macs, after all, range from a tiny boxlike device (the Mac Mini) to all-in-one devices like the iMac to the hulking art deco Mac Pro. Like the AirPods line, Macs feature the same core technology: macOS and, until very recently, Intel CPUs.
As they say on The Mandalorian, “This is the way.” It’s how Apple builds on an idea whose success may have caught even the company by surprise. When I wrote a few years ago that AirPods are now one of Apple’s most important products, I wasn’t kidding. After initially being derided for their oddball looks, the in-ear Bluetooth buds caught the buying public’s imagination in an almost original iPhone–like way.
The brand is so important that AirPods Max got Apple’s most interesting and forward-learning design in a generation, pulling in some of the company’s favorite materials—anodized aluminum, stainless steel, and Apple-designed stitched fabric—and combining it with new materials like memory foam and flexible mesh. It’s even a place for Apple to crossbreed design and functionality concepts: AirPods Max feature a digital crown based on the same one you have on your Apple Watch.
The most oddball feature might be the Smart Case, which turns your headphones into a sort of tiny handbag in which the headphones are only thing you carry.
I was a bit surprised that Apple made the leap from in-ear buds to headphones, basically skipping the wraparound hybrid design favored by the company’s Beats by Dre brand (see Powerbeats Pro). Now, though, I realize that Apple didn’t want to mix the brands or aesthetic.
Even though the design is different, AirPods Max do extend the original AirPods concept in a big way. The larger device makes room for more powerful audio components, like a 40-millimeter dynamic driver and dual neodymium ring magnets, which should lead to better, louder, and deeper (read “bass”) sound.
From left to right: Apple AirPods Max, top view of right ear controls, left-side stitching inside earphone. Composite photo: Apple
They take active noise cancellation (ANC) to the next level with eight microphones devoted to countering ambient noise and the natural seal from the memory foam ear cups, which are held on by magnets and therefore removable, probably for easy cleanup. Like AirPods, a one-button control enables “transparency mode,” which lets in outside noise that actually comes through the headphone speakers.
The dual H1 chips, one in each ear, will help enable fast pairing with iOS devices, as well as computational and spatial audio. AirPods Max headphones also include gyroscopes and accelerometers for positional audio. How that all plays out in the real world, I have no idea yet.
Apple didn’t make the AirPods Max foldable, but they do have nifty telescoping stems and a sort of flexible tent of fabric in the headband, which should help with fit and reduce the dreaded headphone “head dent.”
In some ways, these are more traditional headphones. There’s no wireless charging, they’re not rated for water or sweat resistance, and when using a bidirectional cable, they work as wired headphones.
The most oddball feature might be the Smart Case, which turns your headphones into a sort of tiny handbag in which the headphones are only thing you carry. It automatically puts the AirPods Max into a low-power state and leaves an opening to charge via a Lightning cable, but there’s no auxiliary power in the case. You should get 20 hours of playback, supposedly even with ANC turned on, and you can get another 1.5 hours of playback with a five-minute charge.
Even with the eye-popping price ($549) and the fact that Beats Solo Pro headphones, with 22 hours of battery life, ANC, and the H1 chip, sell for $150 less, Apple’s canny decision to expand the AirPods brand with an ultrapremium product is a smart one. People love their AirPods and embraced the higher-end, noise-canceling AirPods Pro. But that design can never be immersive. Now you have an immersive AirPods choice.
I’m certain of two things: Early AirPods Max inventory has probably already sold out, and growth of the AirPods brand has only just begun. | https://debugger.medium.com/airpods-are-apples-next-big-brand-cbcad64981dd | ['Lance Ulanoff'] | 2020-12-09 19:30:57.204000+00:00 | ['Branding', 'Gadgets', 'Technology', 'Airpods', 'Apple'] |
Happy helming at Docplanner | Round 1: Pulumi (https://www.pulumi.com/)
When we heard about it for the first time, we were very excited — in the end, it worked just like Terraform. We wanted to test it immediately. An undoubted advantage was the ability to use programming languages as we wanted. We could choose TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, or .NET core. Importantly, Pulumi lets you manage not only applications in Kubernetes but also the entire infrastructure, e.g., EKS. Look for yourself how easy and straightforward it is.
example from pulumi.com
Our infatuation ended right after the conference when we calmly analyzed the materials from the lecture and explored the documentation. It turned out that the support for the Go language, which we trusted most, is only in the preview version and will not become stable soon. Nevertheless, we started testing.
We were able to run a simple application, although it was not easy. We encountered various types of errors that we began to seek help for. The documentation turned out to have many gaps, and all issues were related to the primary language — TypeScript. We began to wonder if anyone is using this software at all. It was challenging for us to find community support and get some real use cases.
Round 2: Kustomize (https://kustomize.io/)
We chose Kustomize for testing because it was a native Kubernetes solution for configuration management implemented in kubectl. Nice, we would not have to convert our CD pipelines significantly. We launched the application very efficiently.
Unfortunately, Kustomize did not meet most of our assumptions. The tool lacked the space from where we could download our basic YAML definitions. There was also no management of the deployment lifecycle — we perform migrations before updating the application or other key functionalities. It is a simple template tool.
Round 3: Helm (https://helm.sh/)
And finally, we looked at the tool known to everyone — Helm. We were aware of the upcoming revolutionary version 3; however, when we were creating PoC, we were relying on the alpha version that was not yet usable. We were able to describe the application and launch it with the use of a simple chart utilizing both the stable version as well as the working one. We were pleased with the effects despite a rather long time required to create it. We even ventured to check the Helm for Helm, i.e., helmfile, but it was not very interesting for us.
Decision and assumptions
The result did not surprise us — Helm was the tool for us. We had to develop an implementation plan and get started. We started by establishing detailed assumptions:
ultimately we need to use version 3
no tiller server
we want to create one generic chart that would allow us to launch our applications easily
a migration job should be done before the new application release
we need to determine the place where we keep all charts
charts should build automatically
sensitive values must be encrypted and kept in the repository and CD should decrypt them during the release
in our flow, we can skip the full build of the application and run only the upgrade release.
Implementation
Helm was close to the release of stable version 3, so it was understandable that we had to use it. As I mentioned earlier, due to the lack of stability of the alpha version, we had to choose v2 for our project. We did some research and gathered that migrating from v2 to v3 shouldn’t be a problem. Immediately after the release of the final version, the official 2to3 plugin was created, and thanks to that plugin, transferring configuration or states was effortless.
The plugin even allows you to migrate states without a working tiller, which was also important to us because we used the next plugin — tillerless. We did not want to install the tiller server on the cluster for security reasons. The tool mentioned above allows you to run the tiller locally when installing, updating charts, etc., and then turn it off. Tiller is not required to run all the time. All states are kept in the form of encrypted objects in one namespace. Also helpful was creating a simple alias:
helmtiller=’helm tiller run helm — helm’
To maximize the automation of our work and allow developers to decide for themselves on the appearance and operation of the application, we decided to create a generic chart. We called it docplannerlib. By adding it to the dependency of the application chart, we are able to create all Kubernetes objects needed for the application operation (deployment, service, secret, configmap, job, cronjob, hpa, rbac). We’ve also created other charts that we can use conditionally, e.g., redis, varnish, etc.
Here’s the set of values for the sample application:
In most of our applications, we perform various tasks before releasing a version. We run the job with a helm hook that creates databases for us, configures external services, runs migrations, checks whether the application works, etc. If this process fails, the release stops with the status failed. We are sure that it will not enter production.
As storage for charts, we chose s3. We thought it would be a universal place to do it. To have protocol support, we used a plugin. Charts are tested and then built each time their version changes. Due to the fact that we keep the charts together with the project, we have created a simple, readable structure:
All secret files are also stored in repositories and encrypted with git-crypt, not available to developers.
When doing the release, we use a kind of transaction, which allows us to skip the docker image build when the changes do not strictly regard the application code. Examples can include increasing the resources assigned to a given deployment, increasing replicas, or adjusting health checks. This transaction considerably speeds up the whole process, and for this purpose, we use Buddy software. The CD tool does not have Helm support yet, but it gives us a lot of customization options. We created a docker image that contains all the dependencies needed to run an action. The simplified flow looks like this:
Does it work?
Until now, many people have spoken negatively about Helm. They complained about poor security, the need to write their own templates, a lot of logic inside them, problems with maintaining IaaC rules, etc. Some proposed using other tools, while others even using Kustomize with Helm’s artifacts. Despite these warnings, we decided and successfully implemented it. Everyone is happy with the effects of our work that took several months. We have been waiting a long time for version 3, but it is here now, and most of the problems mentioned above have been resolved. It should please skeptics. | https://medium.com/docplanner-tech/happy-helming-at-docplanner-cea6fce91c1f | ['Przemysław Robak'] | 2020-03-24 13:05:43.280000+00:00 | ['DevOps', 'Helm', 'Docker', 'Kubernetes', 'Continous Deployment'] |
What I’ve Learned Doing Data Science and Analytics at 8 Different Companies and 4 Jobs in 6 Years | Over the past 6 years, I’ve done Data Science and Analytics projects at companies like Adobe, USAA Bank, Nu Skin, Purple Mattress, Franklin Sports, and others. I’ve also held 4 different jobs in analytics, one with a mid-size IT consulting firm, one with a major corporation, one with a startup, and one with an e-commerce company.
I started my Data career right around the time ‘Data Scientist’ was named “The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century.” Over this time, I’ve learned how different companies structure, engage in and execute on data projects. I’ve also interviewed with 9 different companies for Data Scientist and other analytical roles and gained insight into how companies structure their data teams and how and who they hire to fill their positions. Additionally, I’ve gained analytical expertise entirely through mentorship, self-study, MOOC courses, or on-the-job experience.
If the above isn’t unique enough, my formal degrees are in Latin American (BA) and International Studies (MA), with little to no formal technical training.
Given my unique perspective, I’d like to share the most important things I’ve learned about Data Science and Analytics:
Corporate Data Science and Analytics teams only exist to solve business problems.
This seems like it should be self-explanatory, but somehow, it’s not. I can’t tell you how often I’ve seen data projects fail because somewhere along the way the data team lost sight of the rationale for its own existence. Like it or not, data teams are a support function designed to tackle legitimate business problems — i.e. problems that will either generate revenue for the company or save the company money, full stop.
I once had a Data Scientist tell me that he spent 3 full days working on a new feature for a predictive model, only to have the business he was supporting tell him that the feature he was working on was unnecessary and the predictive model in question was more than sufficient for their needs. Technical DS and DE types love to tinker and get heads down into code. It’s satisfying perfecting a predictive model and eeking out that last 2% or 5% accuracy. Unfortunately, the time it took you to go from an 80% AUC to 85% probably took as much time as it took you to get to 80%. Your value as a data professional is predicated on the dollars and cents that your models, pipelines, or data products are saving or generating and nothing more. How many dollars were lost so that the Data Scientist could spend 3 days tinkering with a new feature? Now, I’m not saying it’s not important for a Data Scientist to experiment — in fact, it’s crucial to what good Data Scientists do — however, keeping your eye focused on providing ROI is critical. Develop the ability to sacrifice complexity and unneeded optimization, for the sake of productivity and utility. You’ll find you get more done and provide more value.
There are several different kinds of ‘Data Scientists.’
Data Scientist is both the sexiest job of the 21st century and the most convoluted. Even though they think they do, no two companies want to hire the same Data Scientist. As I explained in an earlier article, Data Science is a broad field, not a job title — with a tri-dimensional set of skills. I’m tired of the argument over what is or isn’t a ‘real’ Data Scientist. This argument is an HR problem and doesn’t apply to what companies actually need. The combination of skillsets to execute against all dimensions of the Data Science continuum is not only incredibly rare but arguably unnecessary in a single person. The truth is what most organizations really need is someone who can pull together an array of data sources, create some simple models, and implement an automation. This set of skills doesn’t require a Ph.D. or an advanced technical degree, but can still provide incredible value to many companies. That being said, there’s certainly an important place for highly specialized, highly educated statisticians or researchers — but this need is created by the unique challenges of each company, not as a blanket requirement for the role of ‘Data Scientist.’
Data Engineering is more important than Data Science.
There’s a much greater need for the ability to stitch and organize disparate datasets from sources that aren’t designed to talk with each other than there is for the ability to develop and tune predictive models. Unless the company has incredibly well-defined challenges, with finite rulesets and business scenarios, the need for complex predictive models is going to be limited. Just starting out in Data Science and want to get a leg up on the competition? Learn the skills of a Data Engineer first, then figure out modeling and prediction. Not only will you be more valuable to almost any company who would hire you, but you’ll also create better models than your colleagues when/if you decide to go down the prediction path. Advanced SQL, web-scraping, API development, and Data cleaning skills will net you better gains than predictive modeling and tuning over the long haul.
Data Science leaders tend to hire people like themselves.
Many Data Science leaders (and leaders in general) hold fast to the idea that to solve complex challenges, they should hire the most specialized individuals they can (in many cases, the hires that have the experience as close to their own as possible, without being more accomplished). In the case of Data Science, the idea usually goes: the more highly credentialed Data Scientists I hire, the more complex data challenges I’ll be able to solve. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.
One iteration of this idea is called ‘Local Search,’ that is, using as many specialists as possible from a single domain and trying solutions that have worked before to solve your problem. While this idea feels correct, it’s missing critical ‘outside-in’ thinking — as in the ability to connect experiences and ideas far outside of focused training that can apply to the problem at hand. The book Range, by David Epstein provides several examples of ‘outside-in’ or ‘lateral’ thinking. In one example, VP of research at Eli Lilly, Alph Bingham argued to executives for posting twenty-one company research challenges that had stumped Eli Lilly scientists to the public. At first, executives declined the proposal, noting that “if the most highly educated, highly specialized, well-resourced chemists in the world we’re stuck on technical problems, why would anyone else be able to help?” (Epstien, Range, p.173). Eventually, they agreed on the basis that it couldn’t hurt. The results were astounding: More than 1/3 of the challenges were completely solved — including one by an attorney with absolutely no scientific experience, but whos’ knowledge came from working on chemical patents.
To build a team that solves truly complex, important problems, Data Science leaders need to hire an array of individuals from diverse backgrounds and expertise. They should resist the urge to build their teams from the same backgrounds or even the same technical abilities. The number of PhDs and credentials shouldn’t outweigh the diversity of experiences and accomplishments of your team. | https://towardsdatascience.com/what-ive-learned-doing-data-science-and-analytics-at-8-different-companies-and-4-jobs-in-6-years-f745a2c63976 | ['Cameron Warren'] | 2019-11-06 02:38:07.237000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Data Engineering', 'Business', 'Management'] |
Esteghlal (Taj) | When it comes to Football in Iran, two clubs have more fans than any other. The blues of Esteghlal — formerly named Taj — are one of them (Persepolis, covered in this series earlier, are the other). In addition to two Asian club championship trophies, Esteghlal have eight Iranian league championships and six cup wins to their name.
Taj in early 70s. Photo from http://takhtejamshidcup.com/
Initially founded as a cycling club in 1945 by an army general, the club was originally called The Cyclists. It soon changed its name to Taj. While the Persian word Taj literally translates to crown in English, the word is also used as a term of endearment and respect.
Despite this, the symbolic association of the crown with the Iranian monarchy meant that the club was forced to change its name after the 1979 revolution. Esteghlal — independence in English — was chosen as the new name. However, to this day many fans still use the Taj in their chants.
Logo
The club’s founding logo was a man on a bicycle, fitting for a cycling club. After the first name change to Taj, the club sported a new logo with 4 interconnected rings (presumably symbolizing their history as a cycling club) and a crown in the middle.
The next name change Esteghlal (independence) had its roots in popular revolutionary slogans, and with it came a new logo that broke with continuity and introduced new elements. This logo was used throughout the 80s, a decade that saw Iran fight a bloody war with Iraq. | https://medium.com/redesigning-iran/esteghlal-taj-18048d6d705 | ['Pendar Yousefi'] | 2018-12-11 00:08:52.426000+00:00 | ['Iran', 'Design', 'Graphic Design', 'Esteghlal', 'Soccer'] |
I’m Starting A Writing Retreat for Worn-Out Women, The Likes of Which You’ve Never Seen | I’m Starting A Writing Retreat for Worn-Out Women, The Likes of Which You’ve Never Seen Jennifer Barnett Follow Nov 18 · 3 min read
You are all invited.
Do you prefer turrets or gables?
I’m starting a writing retreat for worn-out women. There is no application process, and everyone is welcome. It will be modeled after Jenny’s shingled Fisher Island home in The World According to Garp but it will be a gothic estate with a hedge maze and a glass conservatory. It will be the Lilith Fair of writing groups.
The house will be worthy of haunting when you die, and you are welcome to take up permanent residence with the sister spirits who already reside within. Sylvia Plath enjoys sunning herself on the wrap around porch. We will conjure the spirits of your idols, who will serve as mentors for your great work. There will be a wood burning fireplace in every room as well as a bathtub with feet. Every room will have a view of the sea. Disparate design schemes will flow organically, from the tasseled curtains to the Queen’s Gambit patterned wallpaper. There will be an infinite supply of candles and they smell exactly the way you desire them to smell. There will be misty moors and a nearby forest. The weather will be sunny yet moody at exactly the same time.
I will serve you tea and magic pancakes and nourish your body and spirit. You will rest and come back to life. You will heal. We will be a collective force for good, however if it is revenge you seek, you will find collaboration in your endeavors and will be victorious as revenge is a maligned concept — an overlooked virtue. You may each bring a familiar or one will be provided for you. There will be dancing in the moonlight, there will be sleeping naked in the sun. You’ve never seen so many bespoke caftans in all manner of materials — the luxury is unsurpassed. Your body hair will cease to exist (unless you prefer to keep it, it’s entirely your choice), yet the hair on your head will burgeon like climbing vines, but thicker and impossibly lustrous.
You will begin to feel your creativity coursing through your veins, flowing from within, channeled through your fingers to the page. Your imagination will race, your ideas will be brilliant, you will remember every passing thought and bind it on paper, the words will come faster than you can type, but you will capture them all. Everyone in the house will inspire you and see the talent that you’ve always had, and bring out your best, challenging you to dig deeper. You will hone your craft. You’ll hear whispers. “Spellbinding.” You will create your best Dorothy Chandler Pavillion-level work and the Academy will receive your thanks.
Welcome, sister writers. Your room has been prepared, and we are awaiting your arrival. I can’t wait for you to get here.
Xox | https://medium.com/atta-girl/im-starting-a-writing-retreat-for-worn-out-women-the-likes-of-which-you-ve-never-seen-697c03ee6276 | ['Jennifer Barnett'] | 2020-11-18 16:38:00.050000+00:00 | ['Witchcraft', 'Feminism', 'Fantasy', 'Essay', 'Writing'] |
Some Thought On Agile, Scrum, And Design | Some Thought On Agile, Scrum, And Design
Saying Agile doesn’t work is like saying a pencil doesn’t work. Agile is a tool. And the goal of any tool is to enhance human capabilities. I have seen Agile fail. Failing to deliver. Failing to deliver quality. If the goal is to deliver the best possible product within the best possible budget, Agile is an excellent tool. But not a simple one. There are a couple of underlying concepts that need to be thoroughly grasped for it to work.
Value creation
One is value creation. Building stuff costs money. Ideally the returns are higher than the investments. At the core of any project is the business case. The goal of a project is to maximize business value.
There are two challenges with creating business value:
One is that business value is hard to determine.
The other is keeping it at the center of all decisions despite the fact that it’s hard to determine.
One thing that should be kept agile is the business case. Most Agile practitioners keep the investment fixed during a project. This is practical but unwise.
First of all, upfront investment decisions are made up out of guesswork and assumptions. So sticking with those decisions as the project advances and knowledge grows and assumptions get validated, is not a smart thing to do. Before you start, you have no clear picture of what your money buys.
Secondly, if the money axis is fixed, the business case, learning about the value that can be created with a project, is out of sight and out of mind. Less learning about the most important aspect of the project, value creation, occurs.
Business value is complex and made up out of many moving parts. There is direct revenue from the product or service you are creating and many different ripple effects that are harder to quantify. Products and services operate in complex systems of value creation. Soft things like learning, motivation, mental models, communication value etc that spawn from a project have effects on the system of the organization and its environment. One project leads to another. One project enhances another. Synergy effects occur. Measurable and immeasurable effects occur.
It’s good to keep reflecting on both and build the business case as you do a project. If it’s just about finishing a project on time and budget, you not only missing out on creating value and work under the assumptions that Agile wants to validate, you also frustrate the whole principle of Agile.
Assumptions
Assumptions are key to understanding Agile. The key to Agile is learning. Each project starts with a hypothesis and assumptions. You need test the hypothesis and validate the assumptions continuously. This sounds more like Lean Startup than Agile but I believe you cannot do one without the other. If you are not rigorous in learning, in testing your assumptions, why be Agile?
Business is about risk management and you need to learn as fast as possible to take bigger risks. If you don’t learn, the only way to minimize risking by sticking with known best practices and pray they work for you. If you are able to be truly Agile and learn, you can take much bigger risks because you know more. Risk is about unknowns. Agile is about learning. Risks are expensive. If you fail, you lose money. If you fail and learn, you create a better product or service and make more money. Key to understanding Agile is understanding the relationship between costs, risk and learning.
Transparency and trust
Agile works so well because it is transparent. This starts with admitting at the beginning of the project that you don’t have all the answers but have total faith in you and your teams ability to find them together. Pretending to know is the enemy of Agile. If you are open about what you know and what you don’t know, you can learn more and thus create more value.
Being transparent and open also means allowing other people to come up with good ideas and questions. A good Agile project is an environment of trust where everyone feels safe to speak their mind. It is also pretty democratic. Of course there is the PO but the best Agile teams are the ones where everybody is the PO, everybody feels responsible and the PO is only an emergency fail-safe system.
If everybody can see what the others are doing and how they deliver value, trust is created. In a system of trust, finances can become Agile as well because the budget holder can see more transparently what the investment will get him or her in terms of value. Admitting mistakes, being open to input and being honest are all parts of transparency that need to be honored. This is how co-creation can flourish. This is how high performing teams are built. This is what empowers people on a team.
User centeredness
One of the ways that Agile creates value is that it puts the user central to everything that is built. Agile works with user stories that are written from the perspective of a user. They are also tested from the perspective of a user.
Most people understand that being user centered is key to creating value but putting this to practice is hard. User centeredness is easily misunderstood and easily killed.
User centeredness is not simply asking what the user wants and building that.
User centeredness is no excuse to have no product vision of your own.
User centeredness is no excuse to let business and technological concerns fall off the table.
User centeredness exists at the tension between user needs and product vision, between user needs and business and technology needs.
A risk of user stories is that they are seen as a safe guard against building the wrong things. Just having user stories doesn’t guarantee that user will like and use your product, let alone that it will generate business value. Trusting user stories to make your product good is a common mistake.
User stories are also very unspecific. That is a strength and a weakness. The strength is that is allows room to move, to built things in different ways in order to react to progressive insight and budget decisions. The weakness is that they are so open to interpretation by the builders that they run the risk of missing the mark completely. User centeredness is something that must be monitored constantly by the entire team.
MVP thinking
User stories become powerful when you embrace MVP thinking. Minimal Viable Product thinking. MVP thinking is not about making the minimal product that just barely works. MVP thinking is about thinking what is most important and about smart ways to achieve goals with minimal investment.
Thinking big is good. But most people don’t think big enough when it comes to value creation and possibilities and think too big when it comes to user stories. User stories have in them the flexibility to build them in large and expensive ways and in small and smart ways. Thinking about how to built a user story is a constant creative endeavor in an Agile project.
It starts with thinking in terms of delivering working products per sprint. The question of what is the minimal functionality we need to have a working product is a question you need to ask every sprint. How small can you make each user story? How smart can you solve each story in relation to the other stories? It’s constantly redesigning the product based on progressive insight and progress in the project.
The whole idea that developers can built a product based on a design is totally not Agile. Designers needs to be on board constantly to redesign aspects, functions. If you do not incorporate progressive insight into redesigning your product, you are not leveraging the power of Agile.
Rules are for fools
The first principle of Agile is people over processes and tools. Everyone that is using Agile Scrum as a straight-jacket is transgressing against the first rule of Agile, the core, the fundament. Agile Scrum has rules, it’s a method. But blindly following the rules is not Agile. Using the rules to bend a project to your own will to stay on budget and deliver on time at the expense of quality is not Agile. Tools should always be in the service of people and the goal of projects: to deliver quality, business results. Following the rules of methods like Agile Scrum is easy. Using them as a tool to create high performing teams is hard and requires deep understanding of the underlying concepts and the ability to improvise and mix it up with other methods. I am also just scratching the surface here. | https://medium.com/design-leadership-notebook/some-thought-on-agile-scrum-and-design-7eadaf776858 | ['Dennis Hambeukers'] | 2020-04-22 14:43:42.190000+00:00 | ['Design Leadership', 'Scrum', 'Agile Methodology', 'Design', 'Agile'] |
The Wilderness Will Wait | And like the forest
I see myself lined up
and waiting for nobody.
My breath stops short in the air
Drop of light at the edge of the knife
It goes nowhere.
The void has settled over
the impaled trees
Guides of the dead.
They speak through me
with one another.
I am at loss
But I’m reassured
In the end,
wilderness will defeat time
and its incarnations. | https://medium.com/scuzzbucket/the-wilderness-will-wait-8d71f5cc60c8 | ['Ema Dumitru'] | 2020-12-28 18:00:07.245000+00:00 | ['Forest', 'Poetry', 'Poem', 'Scuzzbucket', 'Writing'] |
Power BI: How I Started Using Python To Automate Tasks | As many data enthousiasts, I use Power BI on a daily basis to build dashboards and visualize my data. However, while building and improving a complex dashboard, I constantly add and delete widgets using different fields and corresponding tables. After numerous iterations the data structure starts to look like a real mess, resulting a cluttered list of many tables and numerous columns or fields that I used at one point to build my dashboard. However, in the end it would be nice to get an overview of all the fields I am actually using in my final dashboard. Unfortunately, the only way to achieve it this in Power BI, is going trough every widget and manually take a look and write down the fields that have been used.
Manually finding the data behind widgets in Power BI.
As programmers, we try to avoid manual work by any means necessary, so I did some digging to see if some code could replace this repetitive work. Now ofcourse, I wouldn’t write this article if I didn’t come up with a solution. It turned out it was rather simple to accomplish this.
Deconstructing PBIX files
The first step in messing with Power BI without actually using the software is digging in the .PBIX file. Using free compression software like WinRAR you can unzip any .PBIX. file. This results in a structure of different files and directories offering a realm of possibilities for analysis and possibly manipulation.
When going trough the decompressed file you can find a folder ‘Report’ containing a ‘layout’ file. This file contains all the information concerning the visual structure of your dashboard:
X/Y coordinates and size of every widgets
Names of used fields
All settings and parameters
Titles
… and much more
The file consists of a string which is a sort of combination of JSON, lists and dictionaries. Using Python, I planned to generate a summary of the data fields and widgets actually used.
The layout file opened in a text editor.
Building a parser
I was hoping a simple JSON parser would to the trick, but unfortunately within the JSON other structures are nested, making the code a bit longer than I hoped for but overall still pretty short. After a little bit off puzzling and building in scenario’s for exceptions I got some pretty decent results returning a list of tables and corresponding fields for each widget.
Using Pandas I summarized this information to a dataframe, removing all duplicate information (for example, two widgets using the same data). The result is clean dataframe containing all the data I used in my dashboard looking like this:
Dataframe output in Jupyter Notebooks.
Online version
Ok, so now every works fine in a Jupyter Notebook by copy pasting the string from the layout file and letting my function do the work. Working fine, but not in a very user friendly way, so on the next step: converting the function into a useable tool.
Not wanting to abandon my loyal companion named Python, I chose Flask to build a web app. As a I am not a front end developper I went for a minimalistic approach not paying too much attention to the visual aspect.
Online version of the tool.
Basically, it’s just a form taking the string as input, running the function, returning the dataframe, converting the dataframe to an HTML table and finally showing it to the user. The tool is free and contains no adds. It might be a little slow from to time as it is hosted on a Heroku webserver.
The end result, a table showing all the unique data fields used for the dashboard.
What’s next?
Alhtough I am happy with automating this task, it still only feels like a start. Expanding the script and exploring other files within the decompressed .PBIX file could open many new doors. For example, I briefly experimented with minor manipulations in to the file, compressing again and reopening it through Power BI again, which seemed to work. This means it should be possible to use Python scripts to edit dashboards.
Not sure yet where I will go next from here, but some of the options could be:
tracking changes
auto-generating reports
creating more extensive reports
…?
If you have any other ideas or feedback, feel free to leave them in the comments.
For those who want to use the tool, you can find it here.
About the author: My name is Bruno and I work as a data scientist with Dashmote, an AI technology scale-up headquartered in The Netherlands. Our goal is bridging the gap between images and data thanks to AI-based solutions. | https://towardsdatascience.com/power-bi-how-i-started-using-python-to-automate-tasks-9f53e3e9ab47 | [] | 2019-07-28 15:09:05.492000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Data Science', 'Power Bi', 'Flask Framework', 'Data Analytics'] |
Extracting Speech from Video using Python | Getting Started
As you can understand from the title, we will need a video recording for this project. It can even be a recording of yourself speaking to the camera. Using a library called MoviePy, we will extract the audio from the video recording. And in the next step, we will convert that audio file into text using Google’s speech recognition library. If you are ready, let’s get started by installing the libraries!
Libraries
We are going to use two libraries for this project:
Speech Recognition
MoviePy
Before importing them to our project file, we have to install them. Installing a module library is very easy in python. You can even install a couple of libraries in one line of code. Write the following line in your terminal window:
pip install SpeechRecognition moviepy
Yes, that was it. SpeechRecognition module supports multiple recognition APIs, and Google Speech API is one of them. You can learn more about the module from here.
MoviePy is a library that can read and write all the most common audio and video formats, including GIF. If you are having issues when installing moviepy library, try by installing ffmpeg. Ffmpeg is a leading multimedia framework, able to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter and play pretty much anything that humans and machines have created.
Now, we should get to writing code in our code editor. We will start by importing the libraries. | https://towardsdatascience.com/extracting-speech-from-video-using-python-f0ec7e312d38 | ['Behic Guven'] | 2020-08-10 02:51:38.963000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Speech Recognition', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Programming'] |
Empyrean beats | Beating to the rhythm of gamma-ray beats
Bound to a black hole 15,000 light years away,
Mass’ violence — its unfathomable yen —
Saps stars…we grasp gamma music.
Beating stars take lifetimes to die;
Their swan songs are vast funeral pyres.
Their verb reverberates violently,
Sometimes hunted by singularities.
Gas clouds bigger than a solar system
Learn the stellar cries of decay;
They relay space cadences,
Spent starlight dances with our senses. | https://adroverlausell.medium.com/empyrean-beats-676d01e124a2 | ['Miguel Adrover'] | 2020-08-21 18:07:24.230000+00:00 | ['Astronomy', 'Black Holes', 'Science', 'Poetry', 'Stars'] |
What Constitutes a Perfect Data Team? | What Constitutes a Perfect Data Team?
A guide to comprehend who are the members of a Data Team and what are the key roles for each of them!
Data science is the most promising field in near future, with the advancement of technology and statistical models in recent times, a new data wave is knocking at our doors for a complete revolution. It relates to an interdisciplinary field of study that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract knowledge and insights from many structural and unstructured data. As diverse does this field sounds, its team also has to be diverse enough to carry out tasks efficiently! To understand this in a better way let’s follow the pipeline for a data science project.
The most important aspect of this job is to Understand the Business Problem at the beginning, in the meeting with clients, a data science professional asks relevant questions, understands and defines objectives for the problem that needs to be tackled. Asking various questions in order to understand the project. in a better way is one of the many traits of a good data scientist. Now they care up for Data Acquisition to gather and scrape data from multiple sources like web servers, logs, databases, APIs and online repositories and finding the right data takes both time and effort.
After data is gathered next comes Data Preparation which involves data cleaning and data transformation. Data Cleaning is the most time-consuming process as it involves handling many complex scenarios like dealing with inconsistent datatypes, misspelt attributes, missing and duplicate values and many more things. Then data is modified in the transformation step based on the mapping rule, in a project ETL tools are used to perform complex transformations that help the team to understand the data structure in a better way.
Then to understand what can be actually done with the data is very crucial and for the same Exploratory Data Analysis is being applied. With the help of EDA, defining and selection of feature variables that will be used in model development is done. Next is the core activity of a data science project which is Data Modelling. Various machine learning techniques are being applied here such as KNN, Naive Bayes, Decision Tree, Support Vector Machine, etc to the data. in order to identify the model that best fits the business model. Next, the model is trained on the training dataset and testing is done to select the best performing model. Various computer languages such as Python, R, SAS etc are used by the team to model the data.
Now come the trickiest part Visualisation and Communication in which the team meets the clients again to communicate the business findings in a simple and effective manner to convince the stakeholders, in which tools such as Tableau, Power BI, Qlik view, etc are used which can help to create powerful reports and dashboards. And finally, the model is being deployed and maintained. The selected model is tested in a pre-production environment before deploying it in a production environment and after successful deployment, the team uses dashboards and reports to get real-time analytics. Further, the team also monitors and maintains the project’s performance and this is how a data science project is completed!
Hence, Building and structuring of a good team here is very essential to meet the business need of an organisation. It is not very surprising to state that data science isn’t a single field. It is actually three different jobs with people working together to produce the final answers. These jobs can briefly be classified into three categories.
Data Engineer
Data Engineers control the flow of information as information architects, they help in building specialised data storage systems and the infrastructure to ensure that the data is easy to obtain and process which they do by maintaining the data access. Most data engineers are very familiar with SQL, which they use to store and manage big and large quantities of data. They also use some of the programming languages such as Java, Scala or Python for processing data and automating data-related tasks.
Data Analyst
Data Analysts describe the present view data, they do this by creating dashboards, Hypothesis Testing and data visualisation. They often have some background in statistics or computer science but tend to have less engineering experience than data engineers and have less math experience than machine learning scientist. Data Analysts use spreadsheets (Excel or google sheets) to perform simple analysis on small quantities of data (simple storage and analysis). They use SQL (the same language used by data engineers), for large scale analysis. While data engineers build and configure SQL storage solutions, data analysts use existing databases to consume and summarise data. Analysts also use Business Intelligence or BI Tools such as Tableau, Power BI or Looker for creating dashboards and sharing information and their analysis.
Machine Learning Scientist
Machine learning is perhaps the buzziest part of data science, it‟s used to predict and extrapolate what is likely to be true from what we already know. These scientists use training data to classify larger unrulier data, for example, machine learning can help us tell how much money stock may be worth in the next week, can help to predict which image contains a car by image processing or what sentiments are expressed using a tweet by automated text analysis or sentiment analysis. Machine learning scientist either use Python or R programming languages for creating predictive models. These both are great programming languages for data science and a candidate who knows one language can likely read code in the other language. This is to be noted that programming languages aren’t as difficult to learn as spoken languages. If someone knows how to speak Hindi, it might take them years to learn to speak Spanish. Programming languages are more similar to power tools. If we know how to use a power drill, we may not necessarily know how to use an electric saw, but we may probably learn with a little training or help.
Therefore to summarize;
Now after the roles are well defined for everyone inside the team, and once a business organisation hires some data professionals, there are three main ways a data team can be structured.
Isolated
An isolated type of data team can contain one or multiple kinds of data employees without any other team like engineer or product. This is a great structure for training new team members in quickly changing each project each member is working on.
Embedded
Alternatively, it can be helpful to use an embedded model. Where each data employee is part of a squad which also contains engineers and product managers. This model lets each data employee gain experience on a specific business project, making them a valuable expert.
Hybrid
Now the hybrid model seems similar to the embedded model, but with additional sync for all data employees across all squads. This additional layer of organisation allows, for uniform data processes and career development, regardless of which project an employee is assigned to. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/what-constitutes-a-perfect-data-team-fb5ceadfffff | ['Kartikay Laddha'] | 2020-09-15 12:55:59.212000+00:00 | ['Team Building', 'Data Analysis', 'Data Engineering', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning'] |
With data-driven models, every day of COVID-19 can tell us more about what happens next. | What can be good about a data-driven model?
A data-driven model like the one described can be useful when there is a lot of uncertainty about how the virus spreads. And with a new virus like COVID-19, there is definitely a lot of uncertainty in the air, especially early on.
Our simple data-driven model doesn’t have this requirement, it only needs to know the total number of current cases and how many cases occurred in the last day. This can be useful to estimate how quickly the disease might spread while scientists work to get more certain values for traditional disease spread models.
Also, if thorough data collection is taking place, data-driven models can be used at very fine-grained levels — counties, cities, and neighborhoods. This allows us to study how quickly the virus is spreading in different area that might otherwise appear to be similar. With this information, we might be able to tie the spread of a virus to other risk factors or comorbidities.
What can be bad about a data-driven model?
Data-driven models don’t have the same scientific insight as traditional models — they just crunch numbers. Because of this, data-driven models can easily make unrealistic predictions, especially early on in the spread of a disease.
Consider the following example:
‣ A county is has just reported its first case. The total cases is now equal to 1.
‣ The next day, the same county records a second case. The total cases is now equal to 2.
‣ With the total number of cases doubling from the first day to the second day, the growth factor is now 2.
‣ Using this growth factor, our model would predict the 3rd day to have twice as many cases as the second day, bringing the total predicted cases to 4.
From here, we could continue on, estimating 8, then 16, 32, 64, 128, and 256 cases — and so on! This sort of doubling (or exponential growth) is unsustainable, unrealistic, and not an accurate representation of how COVID-19 or most other diseases have played out. However, the beauty of the data-driven model is that it is self-correcting. Errors from one day will reduce the likelihood of error in following days (see the example below for Arlington County).
Table of forecasted and actual new COVID-19 cases in Arlington County, VA.
In this table, we see a mis-forecast on March 13th (2 cases vs. 5), which self-corrects over the following days. As time goes on, the scale of error in projections narrows and the model predicts actual cases across Arlington county much more accurately.
Additionally, a data-driven model is also at the mercy of data entry. For example, if the organization responsible for collecting and posting the data is not fully staffed on weekends (or not fully staffed at all) then the model that uses the data may show that the growth of the virus has stalled when in actuality there are simply less people available to gather the data the model uses as inputs.
Alternatively, results may be pushed into records all at once, indicating inaccurate, massive spikes in a specific county that appeared to be slowing — when in reality growth continued ahead of the bulk compiling of new figures in over-leveraged public health departments.
Again, the self-normalizing nature of this model can help to resolve this statistical aberrations and over time, the model will correct itself. | https://medium.com/modeling-innovation/with-data-driven-models-every-day-of-covid-19-can-tell-us-more-about-what-happens-next-3527a99549de | ['Vmasc Odu'] | 2020-04-30 15:32:11.679000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Modelling And Simulation', 'Virginia', 'Coronavirus', 'Data Driven Decisions'] |
How Instagram Queen Makes $1M In A Day With This 1 Ecommerce Hack | Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Gretta van Riel
15 Million+ Followers on Instagram & Counting, at the tender age of 25, she skyrocketted from zero dollars in revenue to $600,000 in under six months.
Gretta breaks down the different strategies to uncover your ecommerce brand — whether you choose to work with an agency or do it yourself.
She’ll cover The Four V’s (vision, values, voice, and visuals) as well as brand positioning and unique value propositions (UVPs).
If you want to know more about how to strategically position yourself and your business, and have customers flock to you instead of having to chase them, I have a FREE report of 8 ways you can do that.
Click here to get it for free before it gets taken down. | https://medium.com/tape-your-time/how-instagram-queen-makes-1m-in-a-day-with-this-1-ecommerce-hack-26b5c1087b49 | ['Joel Ong'] | 2019-11-06 04:01:02.146000+00:00 | ['Grettavanriel', 'Marketing', 'Busineß', 'Ecommerce', 'Instagram'] |
Reflections | What makes life feel complicated right now?
My schedule is out of whack. I’ve been up when I normally sleep and sleeping when I am normally awake. Part of this is because of the depression, but another factor is that my spouse changed work schedules. He was on an 11–7 shift and now he is on a 3–11 shift. Nighttime has always been my writing time. As a writer, I function best between 11 pm and 6 am. Then I will do cleaning, cooking, etc. until noon-ish and go to bed until 8 or 9 pm. All of this has changed now that my spouse is on a different schedule. He comes home around 11:30 pm and is chatty or noisy. He doesn’t settle down until around 5 or 6 am. Then I have to make sure he is awake by 1 pm. By the time he is finally out the door, I am exhausted and want to sleep, but I have things I must do before I can. So normally, I am not in bed until around 4 or 5 pm and sleep until he comes home. See my problem?
He says, “just close the door and I will know you are writing and won’t disturb you unless it is urgent.” And yet, he either disturbs me anyway or is so noisy I cannot write. So I get frustrated and snarky with him. Then he gets snarky back and we have an argument. My only solution is to take sleeping pills and make the world go away.
Another complication is our internet service. It is up and down at will. Sometimes it goes down for a few minutes and other times it is down for hours upon hours. We’ve replaced our box, had the techs out to check lines and add new cables, but still it goes up and down. For the most part, this is merely inconvenient. If I am in the mood to write (which I haven’t been), I can do it on Word or a notepad and transfer wherever when the ‘net is back up. Still it is annoying. And when I am annoyed, I sleep. So again, I’ve been sleeping a lot. | https://medium.com/know-thyself-heal-thyself/reflections-c14abc235180 | ['Ravyne Hawke'] | 2020-12-11 13:33:03.806000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Essay', 'Spirituality', 'Prompt', 'Self Reflection'] |
PHP: fix Faker image returns false | When generating fixtures on an open source project (Community Event Manager), I encountered an error while generating random images with Faker.
Turns out, Faker uses Lorempixel as a backend to generate image, probably to be able to fetch nice images and avoid having GD or similar extensions to generate an image. In my specific case, Lorempixel was down or very slow for a few days, which makes the code unusable.
According to https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/laravel/using-faker-to-fake-images-always-returns-false, you just need to edit the image provider and change it to another provider as you please. Problem is, this provider is part of your vendor… So you probably do not want to do that!
Lucky for us, Faker just loads providers on a last in first out basis, meaning the last image provider (i.e. class that extends base provider and has a image method) will be used. Therefore, we just need to override the existing provider with our own. This one is highly inspired from the existing one, and throws exception whenever the option is not available on the generation site.
Last step is to register this new provider. | https://medium.com/darkmirafr/php-fix-faker-image-returns-false-822aef06fc71 | ['Thomas Dutrion'] | 2020-02-26 08:32:31.722000+00:00 | ['Software Engineering', 'PHP', 'Faker', 'Symfony', 'Laravel'] |
My Recommendations to Learn Machine Learning in Production | My Recommendations to Learn Machine Learning in Production
Here is a compilation of books, courses, and repositories to get you started.
For the last couple of months, I have been doing some research on the topic of machine learning (ML) in production. I have shared a few resources about the topic on Twitter, ranging from courses to books.
In terms of the ML in production, I have found some of the best content in books, repositories, and a few courses. Here are my recommendations for learning machine learning in production.
This is not an exhaustive list but I have carefully curated it based on my research, experience, and observations. | https://medium.com/dair-ai/my-recommendations-to-learn-machine-learning-in-production-d3c5b8e42635 | [] | 2020-10-19 10:38:08.259000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Technology', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Programming'] |
My Journey from Writer to Editor and Podcaster | Once I discovered my purpose, my life took off. However, finding my purpose took decades. But when I stepped on the path, I hit the ground running, not with my feet but with my fingers.
I haven’t looked back!
My purpose manifested in three ways: I became a Ninja Writer, creator and editor of Middle-Pause publication, and the host of the podcast STOMP! (Stronger Together On Middle-Pause). You may be confused, so let me begin with the beginning.
Attention
I’ve known forever I had a purpose. But what, when, where, and how to fulfill my purpose escaped me. I searched for it but if you're like me; life got in the way.
You know, family, work, relationships, all the stuff that stood in my path. My time and talents were needed elsewhere. However, more often, I was getting in my own way.
The event that got my attention, though, was a health crisis that put me flat on my back. I was bedridden at fifty-five years old from an advanced case of crippling osteoarthritis and sciatica.
Chronic pain parked on my doorstep and gained entry more times than I care to remember.
The Voice
Here I was in bed, depressed, angry, and desperate. I absolutely did not want to vegetate in my sorrows. Then, one evening as I was meditating or feeling sorry for myself, I heard a still small voice, (the quiet kind you hear in your spirit) say, You have two hands and you can speak.
What the heck does that mean?
Suddenly, the thought occurred to me, I can write and I can talk! Okay. But what about? Inspiration was the first idea. I love to inspire people to do their best.
What’s next? This time I had to wait and trust the process of discovering what I wanted to write, and to whom I wanted to write. My niche and my audience.
Ninja Writers
During my waiting period, I did some soul searching. I took a deep dive into my psyche to discover the thing that causes me the most pain. Also, I looked at what drives me to act. The answer was obvious: other people’s pain. Deep pain can drive you to inspiration.
Inspiration gives you purpose. The desire to help others, lend a hand, march for social justice, etc. For me, the only action I can take is writing because disability prevents me from physical participation.
Therefore, I write.
However, I had no platform, resources, or grammatical writing ability. What did I do? I bought books, read articles, and viewed webinars about the craft of writing.
But I had no mentor. Before long, a series of newsletters about Ninjas appeared in my in-box. That is when it happened. Serendipity occurred! I opened my emails and in walked the woman who would change my life.
Shaunta Grimes, in her zeal and vision, taught me how to write and structure my posts through her workshops and one on one coaching. During one of our sessions, I implied I was frustrated because my writing had no focus.
Shaunta asked me who do you want to help? Instantly, I blurted out, “Women!” Then she fired back, why? I thought about that for a second and said, “To encourage, inspire, and empower women to lead fulfilled lives.”
She told me to take some time and figure out my niche since women was too broad of a category. That was on Friday. I came back Monday with the name of my publication and audience.
Middle-Pause was born!
Middle-Pause
Middle-Pause is a publication for the woman in the middle of her life, work, relationships, menopause, and mostly, of herself. I already had completed my vision statement, and now I had a mission statement as a vehicle to carry me toward my vision.
To help the woman in the middle of menopause, of life, and of Herself to showcase her articles through the publication of Middle-Pause.
It’s not complicated. I am part of the analog variety and needed to visualize my mission. Starting with a poster board I bought from the dollar store, I wrote my vision in the upper right-hand corner. Then I penciled in my mission statement.
To help you understand the difference, I’ll explain. A vision statement is static: it is something we aspire to. A mission statement is fluid: it is the place we work from. It changes as the focus, needs, and goals of your mission change.
Not long after, it became apparent that I needed help to manage and edit all the submissions I was receiving. I felt I did not have the technical ability to accomplish this, so I invited three other women to assist in the endeavor — Meg Stewart, Marilyn Flower, and Margie Pearl. Together, we built Middle-Pause what it is today!
However, I knew I wanted to do more, and Middle-Pause became the springboard from which our podcast, STOMP! (Stronger Together On Middle-Pause) arose.
STOMP!
I wanted to reach a wider audience — those who listened instead of reading. According to my findings, 50% of all homes are “podcast fans.” That’s over 60 million homes! Also, women are more likely to be multitasking while listening. I know because I have listened to podcasts while cooking, performing household chores, and taking care of grandkids.
I realized I needed to research why a woman listened to a podcast and what need I could fulfill. According to Edison Research, wellness/self-improvement tops the list for the content women want to hear.
My mission falls right into that category! Women in my audience are at the age where they are searching for meaning in their lives, having an identity crisis, experiencing menopause, etc. The list goes on and on.
I forged ahead and learned some things about podcasting, but I knew I needed help. I met with my team members and presented my mission to include a podcast. Margie jumped on board and took over that project.
Afterward, I created MiddlePauseMedia; the umbrella under which everything operates.
Today, we have a sisterhood of strong, committed women who celebrate, support, and empower one another to live fulfilled lives. Before I began this journey, I was lost. I had no clear vision and no mission upon which to act.
Now, we are a wave, a force! Like Shaunta says, our goal is world domination! To be a beacon for women who are searching for themselves.
Join us on our quest and walk into your future. | https://medium.com/middle-pause/my-journey-from-writer-to-editor-and-podcaster-59084c57ede6 | ['Debbie Walker'] | 2020-11-10 16:23:17.929000+00:00 | ['Middle Pause', 'Careers', 'Podcast', 'Life Lessons', 'Writing'] |
WAY TO SOUL… | I plucked my soul out of its secret place,
And held it to the mirror of my eye,
To see it like a star against the sky,
A twitching body quivering in space,
A spark of passion shining on my face.
And I explored it to determine why
This awful key to my infinity
Conspires to rob me of sweet joy and grace.
And if the sign may not be fully read,
If I can comprehend but not control,
I need not gloom my days with futile dread,
Because I see a part and not the whole.
Contemplating the strange, I’m comforted
By this narcotic thought: I know my soul.
Claude McKay
Ever you think about your inner? Ever you think about who you are? Ever you try to find out what is the purpose of life? Ever you try to find out your soul? Ever you try to listen to your inner voice? May be yes, or maybe not. We are born and then die. That’s the whole story. But the era between birth and death is what we earn.
We were born innocent but died, the devil. Do you ever think, why we don’t die virtuous?
We as a human, filled with lots of wishes, needs and dreams. We fight for them to accomplish our goals. We are ready to get our desires at any cost.
We fight to be superiors from others. We fight to be rich. We fight to let others down. When we get all, in the end, we don’t get peace and joy that we were expecting.
Do you know why this happens? It’s because we didn’t know that we actually want to know our inside. Everything else is just an illusion.
The purpose of our life to come on the earth was to find ourself, to find our soul, to listen to our inside voice. when we go far from purpose, achievement doesn’t make us happy.
Everyone has different priorities. Many people get comfortable with materials but the real one who has the curiosity of destiny can’t be ok having materialistic things. They are people who are following the voice of their soul.
About the voice of the soul, many Sufi told their point of view. From Sufism, we can find many things about the soul. Sufi people are not a different creature. They are human-like us but they are said to be Sufi on the basis of their way of thinking.
Yes, exactly way of thinking is a measure that makes a person different from others. What I think is, no one can be superior or inferior on the basis of material things but the way they think. Good thought leads towards good deeds and bad thinking make a human, demon.
Yes, this is the only tools to measure superiority or inferiority. Thinking is also a path to reach the soul. It’s also an ear podcast to listen to soul’s voice. It’s also a lesson to find out the purpose of our being. | https://medium.com/passive-asset/way-to-soul-e924ccca51b1 | ['Mahnoor Chaudhry'] | 2020-09-24 13:17:50.062000+00:00 | ['Soul Searching', 'Soul', 'Sufism', 'Articles', 'Writing'] |
Binary Numbers and Use in Computers + How to make a base conversion program in python | Binary Numbers and Use in Computers + How to make a base conversion program in python Arvin Seifipour Follow May 18 · 3 min read
Before the rise of microprocessors in the 1970’s, analog circuits were used to do complex computations. Analog signals have a continuously variable flow that makes their transmission accurate, but they lack noise immunity and are not desirable for long distance transmission. Analog Computers also required gigantic components.
Bombe, a general purpose computer made by Alan Turing to crack the german enigma code during World War II
Digital signals in contrast have finite possible values at any given point in time. Modern digital circuits use binary patterns for transmission that can only take a value of ‘1’(very high flow of electrons) or ‘0’(extremely low flow of electrons), which can represent data or logical functionality. Nano scale semiconductor devices used on modern central processing units, called transistors, are used to make logic gates that perform boolean logic on inputs by switching the signal to ‘ON’ or ‘OFF’ to represent a new output. Binary Numbers can represent any number, but unlike the traditional decimal system, they only use 2 digits, ‘0’ and ‘1’, to represent numbers.
Here’s a visual representation of decoding binary to decimal and encoding decimal to binary:
It can be a little confusing at first to do this by hand and not be sure if the converted value is right, especially when alphabet letters get involved when we run out of digits in bases higher than 10, but we can make a universal converter python app to check our answers. Open a blank python file on an online python playground or your local editor. We’re gonna start by defining a ‘decode’ function that takes a number in the base range(2,36) in string form and returns the equivalent number decoded to decimal:
import string def decode(digits, base): #check for valid input
assert 2 <= base <= 36, ‘base is out of range: {}’.format(base)
exponent = 0 #counter points to last digit in digits
counter = len(digits)-1
sum=0 #iterates over digits from right to left to add converted decimal
while counter>=0:
if digits[counter].isdigit():
sum+=int(digits[counter])*(base**exponent)
else:
sum+=int(digits[counter],base=base)*(base**exponent) counter-=1
exponent+=1
return sum
Now we can convert any number to decimal, but in order to make the universal base converter, we need to make an encoding functionality that converts base 10 numbers to any number in the (2,36) base range. After that, we can use base 10 as a key for other base conversions. So let’s make the encode function, that takes a number in base 10 and returns the equivalent number encoded to any base:
def encode(number, base):
assert 2 <= base <= 36, ‘base is out of range: {}’.format(base)
#empty string for encoded number
encodedValue = “”
#Another iteration to perform division to calculate remainder while number > 0:
number, remainder = divmod(number, base)
if remainder >= 10:
encodedValue += chr(remainder + 87)
else:
encodedValue += str(remainder) encodedValue = encodedValue[::-1] return encodedValue
And finally we can make our converter function that uses decode and encode as helper reusable functions to convert numbers from a given base(base1) to another(base2) :
def convert(digits, base1, base2):
return encode(decode(digits, base1), base2)
You can test your functions by running a test case like this:
print(convert("10000",2,36))
#console should print 'G' after running the file with "python3 filename.py" command
Sources:
“Binary Number System (Examples, Solutions).” Www.onlinemathlearning.com, www.onlinemathlearning.com/binary-number-system.html.
“Java Program for Decimal to Binary Conversion.” GeeksforGeeks, 13 Feb. 2018, www.geeksforgeeks.org/java-program-for-decimal-to-binary-conversion/.
The Turing Bombe in Bletchley Park, www.rutherfordjournal.org/article030108.html. | https://medium.com/swlh/binary-numbers-and-use-in-computers-how-to-make-a-base-conversion-program-in-python-7993234da382 | ['Arvin Seifipour'] | 2020-05-29 22:13:00.617000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Python Programming', 'Digital', 'Binary', 'Encoding'] |
Image Classification using Fastai v2 on Colab | Image Classification using Fastai v2 on Colab
Step by step guide to train and classify images in just a few lines of code
Photo by Ryan Carpenter on Unsplash
Introduction
Fastai is a library built on top of PyTorch for deep learning applications. Their mission is to make deep learning easier to use and getting more people from all backgrounds involved. They also provide free courses for Fastai.
Fastai v2 was released in August, I will use it to build and train a deep learning model to classify different sports fields on Colab in just a few lines of codes.
Data Collection
First, I need to collect images for the model to learn. I wish to have a model classifying different sports fields: baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, and American football. I searched and downloaded the images and saved them in separate folders and uploaded to Google Drive.
Folders contain sport field images. (image by author)
Setup Colab Environment
Once the dataset is ready, I can start the work on Colab.
First upgrade fastai,
!pip install fastai --upgrade -q
and import fastai.vision ,
from fastai.vision.all import *
then mount the Google Drive and setup the path
from google.colab import drive
drive.mount(‘/content/gdrive’, force_remount=True)
root_dir = ‘gdrive/My Drive/Colab Notebooks/’
base_dir = root_dir + ‘ball_class’
path=Path(base_dir)
Now we are ready to go.
DataBlock and DataLoader
Fastai provide a mid-level API: DataBlock to deal with data, it is quite easy to use.
fields = DataBlock(blocks=(ImageBlock, CategoryBlock),
get_items=get_image_files,
get_y=parent_label,
splitter=RandomSplitter(valid_pct=0.2, seed=42),
item_tfms=RandomResizedCrop(224, min_scale=0.5),
batch_tfms=aug_transforms())
Different blocks can be used, in this case, we used ImageBlock as the x and CategoryBlock as the label. It is also possible to use other blocks such as MultiCategoryBlock, MaskBlock, PointBlock, BBoxBlock, BBoxLblBlock for different applications.
I used get_image_files function in fastai to get the path of the images as the x and used parent_label method to find the folder names as the label. There are some built-in functions in fastai, you can also write your own function to do this.
Then I used RandomSplitter to split the training and validation dataset.
Then used RandomResizedCrop to resize the image to 224 and aug_transforms() for data augmentation.
This is kind of a template of Fastai DataBlock, it is quite flexible, you can change it based on your situation. You can find the detailed tutorial here.
Once we have the DataBlock ready, we can create dataloader:
and check the labels using vocab
and show some of the images with lables
Train
Now we are ready for training.
I created a CNN learner using resnet34:
learn = cnn_learner(dls, resnet34, metrics=error_rate)
and used lr_find() to find a suitable learning rate
then we can train the model using fit_one_cycle
Only after 5 epochs, we can achieve >90% accuracy.
Now we can unfreeze the network and train the whole network.
Let’s it, only after a few epochs, we achieve 95% accuracy.
Interpretation
We can also interpret the model. The confusion matrix can be plotted using this :
We can also use this to see the image with the highest loss. | https://towardsdatascience.com/image-classification-using-fastai-v2-on-colab-33f3ebe9b5a3 | ['C Kuan'] | 2020-09-24 14:18:01.001000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Deep Learning', 'Sports', 'Data Science'] |
I’m Afraid of the Deep South | Having a majority of friends who are white, there’s always been someone I’ve known who’s raved about their vacations going to one of the Southern States, such as South Carolina or Georgia or West Virginia.
They’ve either taken a family trip or went to a bachelorette party or just took a long weekend there. And I’ve heard so many good things about those trips.
But, it’s always from the perspective of a white person.
So, all I think about whenever I’ve heard about those trips is, “But, what would it be like for me?”
“Would people stare at me because I’m not white?”
“Would anyone down there make a racist comment?”
And as much as I’d love to take the leap of faith in testing out the waters for myself and finally paying the South a visit, I still can never shake the fear that it won’t as great of an experience as I’ve heard about from other people.
Instead of the fun trips, I fear of the other stories. The racist encounters. The discrimination. The lack of diversity. The fact that my sister told me about the time she went on a family trip with her friend as a teenager and her relatives couldn’t figure out what kind of Asian she was because they assumed that all Asian people were Chinese. | https://lindseyruns.medium.com/im-afraid-of-the-deep-south-e9d30006b3f7 | ['Lindsey', 'Lazarte'] | 2020-06-26 12:15:52.961000+00:00 | ['Self-awareness', 'Self', 'Diversity', 'Culture', 'America'] |
Binary Tree. Trees are data structure which are of… | Fig. A sample binary tree.
Trees are data structure which are of hierarchical order and every node, called a parent node, can have zero to many child node. A binary tree is a type of tree in which every parent node has at most two children.
Traversal of Binary Trees:
There are three ways to traverse a binary tree. We can also use them , with few modification, to traverse other type of trees. They are namely along with the parent-child configuration:
1) Inorder Traversing — — Left child/ Parent / Right child
IMPLEMENTATION — -
class Node: def __init__(self, value): self.left =None self.val = value self.right = None def inorder(root): if root: inorder(root.left) print(root.val) inorder(root.right)
2) Preorder Traversing — — Parent / Left child / Right child
IMPLEMENTATION — -
class Node: def __init__(self, value): self.left =None self.val = value self.right = None def preorder(root): if root: print(root.val) preorder(root.left) preorder(root.right)
3) Postorder Traversing — — Left child / Right child / Parent
IMPLEMENTATION — -
class Node: def __init__(self, value): self.left =None self.val = value self.right = None def postorder(root): if root: postorder(root.left) postorder(root.right) print(root.val)
Time complexity in traversing is O(n).
The total number of nodes in a tree:
Below is a given script to find the total no. of nodes in a binary tree:
class Node: def __init__(self, value): self.left = None self.value = value self.right = None def total_nodes(root): if(!root) : return 0 else : return 1+total_nodes(root.left)+total_nodes(root.right)
Total number of possible trees:
Formula to find total number of unlabelled binary trees when “n” nodes are given:
Fig. Formula for unlabelled
Formula to find total number of labelled binary trees when “n” nodes are given: | https://medium.com/quick-code/binary-tree-traversal-python-implementation-f69c405bb286 | ['Abhimanyu Dwivedi'] | 2019-08-28 17:45:28.053000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Binary Tree Traversal', 'Python3', 'Binary Tree', 'Programming'] |
Building a Personal Coding Portfolio Website | Why do I even need a site for my projects?
You don’t really need a personal site for your projects. You also don’t really need to make your resume look nice, or fill out your LinkedIn profile, but you do those things don’t you?
It’s common for employers to barely glance at a resume, and no way are they going to download your code from Github and run it. If they only spend on average less than 10 seconds on your actual resume, do you think they’re going to click through all your repositories to see your readme’s? Now if you had, say, a page with images or gifs showing off your projects’ functionality, a recruiter could glance at it in the milliseconds that they were going to give it anyway, but this time they’ll be able to see the results of your hard work, and the types of projects you like to work on.
Nowadays a lot of applications have an option for personal websites and other media links because these things help get a better sense of who an applicant is. Having a personal portfolio website is a great opportunity to bring life to the work you’ve done.
Where do I start?
So before you actually start making it, you need to know what you want it to look like. The average programmer doesn’t just have amazing design ideas to just throw around, so if you’re anything like me, you may need some inspiration. For this, you can go to places like behance, dribble, or really anywhere. I mostly took inspiration from a few websites I’d seen before.
I didn’t have a very detailed idea, but I knew I wanted to be somewhere in between the simplicity of riggraz.dev and the elegance of brittanychiang.com.
After that, I tried to draw it out on a piece of paper. Something like Figma is arguably better, but my site was going to be very simple, so pen and paper was convenient and good enough. Some people can manage it all in their mind, but I like to have at least a simple outline that I can reference along the way.
My general approach to the design
Personally, I just wanted a site that showed my work, with little to nothing else.
People like to have very fancy pages that look really cool, but I focused more on just making something that was concise, robust, and easy on the eyes.
Maybe my design itself won’t impress anybody, but the main focus is my work, and I think my design reflects that.
My first attempt at making it was actually kind of the opposite. Although I wanted to make the aesthetic of the design simple, I was going for a more fancy layout. After an hour or two of implementing that, I got sick of it and threw something together that was just meant to showcase my projects. I ended up liking it a lot better, and that’s the one I’ve stuck with.
Actual design advice
For the design, the more complex and fancy you want your site to be, the more difficult it will be to implement it. Animations aren’t too complex with just raw HTML/CSS, but I personally chose to just have everything be static.
For the actual aesthetics, I think getting just two things right can go a long way:
A nice font, or pair of fonts A simple color palette
If you have these things, I think the layout of your site can be mediocre and still look pretty good. I personally don’t think the layout of my website is anything special, but I think it looks clean because the fonts and colors go well together.
I kept it as basic as I could, so I went with Roboto as my primary font, and I chose Roboto Mono as a secondary font to give a bit of a typewriter-esque coder feel.
I think a good pair of two different font types (https://www.figma.com/font-types/) can go a long way in making something look good.
To get free fonts, and even find font pairings, it’s all on https://fonts.google.com/, and they have options for you to just import it directly into CSS, which is what I used.
For my colors, you can never go wrong with white, black, and gray. If you really want to have color, I would recommend choosing a single accent color and sticking to neutrals when in doubt.
For these visual aspects, experimenting, inspiration, and copying will be your best friends. | https://medium.com/swlh/building-a-personal-coding-portfolio-website-60ccc6137f3 | ['Alec Chen'] | 2020-12-15 21:10:28.531000+00:00 | ['Software Engineering', 'Programming', 'Tech', 'Web Development', 'Web Design'] |
Responsible Innovation: The Next Wave of Design Thinking | Every profession experiences waves of evolution. Moments in time where processes emerge from changing socio-economic, technological, or environmental contexts. Within Design, we’ve ebbed and flowed between waterfall, Agile, iterative, and inclusive design thinking, among others.
As the leader of the Ethics & Society organization at Microsoft, I believe that responsible innovation is the next critical wave of design thinking. Traditional design schools don’t teach ethics, and people often don’t consider ethics a design problem. Today’s technologies are exciting and present tremendous opportunities to augment human abilities across a range of scenarios. At the same time, technologies without appropriate grounding in human-centered thinking, or appropriate mitigations and controls, present considerable challenges. These technologies have potential to injure people, undermine our democracies, and even erode human rights — and they’re growing in complexity, power, and ubiquity.
As a profession known for prioritizing human needs, design thinking is vital for building an ethical future. Expanding human-centered design to emphasize trust and responsibility is equally vital. As stewards of technology, we realize that today’s decisions may have irreversible and destructive impacts. This creates an urgent need to minimize disasters, conserve resources, and encourage responsible technological innovations.
The stakes are high, so we shouldn’t relegate design thinking solely to those with “design” in their title. As a noun, design is a profession, but as a verb, it’s the act of considered construction. Within Ethics & Society, we employ user researchers, designers, engineers, psychologists, ethicists, and more — all of whom design. We think of ethics as innovation material, and this diversity is critical to help our product teams innovate. Working with engineering teams, we also create holistic tools, frameworks, and processes to use in product development.
Learning to exercise your moral imagination to consider the socio-technical implications of what you create is a bedrock process of responsible innovation. Like any muscle, a moral imagination takes time to build. We’re launching a Responsible Innovation Practices Toolkit to help facilitate this, a set of practices based on our learnings from developing AI technologies within Microsoft. We’re launching the toolkit today with the Judgment Call card game, Harms Modeling, and Community Jury, and we’ll be regularly adding additional practices.
We’ll be the first to admit that we don’t have all the answers. Consider this toolkit a humble approach to sharing some of our learnings that might help all of us design technologies with more intention.
Judgment Call: A game to cultivate empathy
Avoiding conflict is a natural impulse for many, yet responsible innovation often rests on our ability to productively facilitate challenging conversations.
A round of Judgment Call and the writing of reviews.
Because games can help create safe spaces, we designed Judgment Call, an award-winning game and team-based activity that puts Microsoft AI principles of fairness, privacy and security, reliability and safety, transparency, inclusion, and accountability into action.
Judgment Call cultivates stakeholder empathy through role-playing and imagining scenarios. In the game, participants write product reviews from the perspective of a particular stakeholder, describing what impact and harms the technology could produce from that person’s point of view. Beyond creating empathy, Judgment Call gives technology creators a vocabulary and interactive tool to lead ethics discussions during product development.
This game is not intended to replace performing robust user research, but it can help tech builders learn to exercise their moral imagination.
Harms Modeling: An exercise to imagine real-world repercussions
Most product creators are keenly aware of technology’s ability to harm and earnestly aim to do the opposite. Still, technologies meant to increase public safety are often in tension with privacy, and mechanisms for democratizing information can also be used to manipulate and spread false information.
To identify and mitigate harmful effects, we need to learn how to look around corners and articulate what could go wrong. It’s easy to operate under a shared understanding, only to later learn that “harm” meant something very different to you than it did your coworkers. Or that your entire team wasn’t representative enough to fully imagine harmful consequences.
Because we can’t protect against something that we can’t clearly describe, a few years ago the team began exploring how we might create a shared taxonomy of harms to facilitate the important conversation of mitigations and controls. It’s more of an art than science, and it takes practice. The Harms Modeling exercise guides you in envisioning harms (like psychological distress, opportunity loss, environmental impact, etc.) that could stem from your technology along vectors such as severity, impact, frequency, and likelihood. It’s akin to threat modeling in security, which uses landscape assessments to understand the trust boundaries and surface areas of attack. | https://medium.com/microsoft-design/responsible-innovation-the-next-wave-of-design-thinking-86bc9e9a8ae8 | ['Mira Lane'] | 2020-05-19 16:56:00.809000+00:00 | ['User Experience', 'Microsoft', 'UX Design', 'Design', 'UX'] |
Elevation and Material symbols in Sketch | Sketch Tutorials
Elevation and Material symbols in Sketch
Setting up a multipurpose building block for UI kit components
Last week we added a small but exciting symbol to the component list we would like to share with you. Material — is a primary building block for design libraries in sketch app, that can store and share the same universal rules across the design system components.
Download freebie file — https://goo.gl/GxBZWr
Back when I started this run, the idea was to add a shadow overrides into every Frames DS component, so I can quickly swap between different shadow states.
Problem?
The only way to have a swappable shadow it’s to nest a shadow symbol instance within a symbol bottom. But, alongside with shadow, there could be much more different instances already nested within the symbol (shape, state, icons, etc.), this will lead to a messy = inconsistent symbol structure we probably don’t want to have and share.
“When you can’t come up with emoji for each override line. “
So what if we have a single basement for every component through the design system, which can contain an auto-updatable background and elevation properties? So we no need to look up for the right drop-down. Instead, we can have all the visuals options always in one place.
Elevation
To create this feels of depth within the interactions, shadow/box-shadow properties are commonly used, allowing to indicate the distance between UI objects and the surface visually. For a design system, such Frames is, it was advantageous to have a standard set of shadow properties alongside with brand colors, for a consistent approach to building interface states.
Material Design has done a great job in this direction, so we can take the best out of it guides and apply it to the practice of working with nested symbols. Making it possible for a designer to do quickly swap different z-index levels, customize color fill and contour shape, just like this:
A perfect basement for nested symbols (buttons, cards, forms, etc.)
Material
This symbol serves as a bottom layer for every UI element that will propagate the same rules through the documents and projects. Materials are built using 3 main override properties: Border, Fill, and Elevation, all available for various manipulations and combinations.
For each elevation option, we have a symbol with a shadow depth property from 0 to 6 DP (layer elevation is commonly measured in DP — Device-independent pixels) to indicate the pixel density of the shadow.
Note! Sketch have an issue on shadows & symbols, for some reason if you increase shadow distance up to 10–16 DP’s, the shadow visuals will get cut by an invisible mask. Which looks not that well — https://goo.gl/GupMEf. Hope we can get a fix for this in nearest time. 🤞
The Elevation property can appear on any UI object. Meaning we need the shadow appears in different forms to match the shape of the object in which it is included.
Note: that each layer type should be nested into its parent symbol.
Tip: All groups should have different artboard sizes to not overload the overrides menu.
Use 3 or more layer types, of same artboard size but different radius properties, such as, 00 pt, 04 pt, 100 pt to create various shape instances. We also put Border and Fill properties folders to stay nested above the elevation symbol, and form a background and a contour color.
Trick! 👀
To make this symbol neat, you can use a combined shape to form the Border (which will still have a Fill color override). And don’t forget to snap the inner container to pin to all edges on resizing.
This approach will not only grant a more consistent Color usage through the document but also will save your library from the unnecessary color symbol duplication. 👌
Scale the number of Fill styles to meet an infinite number of border/background combinations.
Summary
Using Materials for building and scaling design systems can grant you the following perks:
Provides a single set of overrides customization options, useful when working with teammates to set up a common design language.
All visual properties are automatically updated with your design system styles. (You can easily add Material to an existing style guide).
Saves time, making it possible to have only one symbol for both flat and raised surfaces, eliminating the need for constant “Background” layer creation.
Touch 👆 to Download
Here you can find a .sketch file containing Material symbol library, use it to implement universal elevation rules through your components/sketch libraries or experiment with shadows and style, the installation process is simple:
Copy all the contents of the symbol page Paste them into an existing library or add this file as a library Add Material into a component by nesting it on the bottom of the symbol container.
Have fun adding your styles and using this tiny library to come up with visual ideas for new design projects quickly. | https://medium.com/sketch-app-sources/elevation-and-shadow-symbols-in-sketch-492a956ca23a | [] | 2019-06-29 14:47:48.615000+00:00 | ['Design Systems', 'UI', 'Design', 'Sketch', 'UX'] |
India cannot fight Coronavirus without taking into account its class and caste divisions | How do you discuss self quarantine with a person sharing a tiny shanty with 10 people in a slum? How do you advise social distancing to a manual scavenger? How do you tell an Adivasi, who struggles for one meal a day, to prioritise hand sanitisers? How do you educate tuberculosis survivors about cough etiquette?
The epicentre for the global pandemic, Covid-19, recently shifted from China to Europe. China’s authoritarian regime controlled it by enforcing a lockdown, and Europe and the United States are putting all their resources to use.
The dominant narrative in India so far has been either about the state enforcing lockdowns or encouraging social distancing, self-quarantine, hand hygiene and cough etiquette. Driven by political optics, public perception and international pressure, these measures are important but coloured with class bias. India must rethink its strategy of epidemic management to be more inclusive of the marginalised sections of the society.
India needs to adopt global lessons into its local context — and ask its own questions. How does it impact a malnourished patient? What happens when it infects a tuberculosis survivor? In urban slums, what will be the average number of people who will catch a disease from an infected person? What public health measures could be applicable there? What could be an affordable alternative to hand sanitisers? How can accredited social health activists and auxiliary nurse midwives triage Covid-19 — or decide the order of treatment of patients — to prevent overwhelming health systems? How do we adapt to provide services for all other diseases while building capacity for Covid-19? How to engage the profit driven private health care partners to provide care in a people-centric manner?
Jan Swasthya Sahyog in Bilaspur. Photo by Rohit Pansare, 2016.
Socio-economic fallout
Economically, lockdowns, restricted travel, ban on public gatherings, and work from home will force the informal sector workforce to lose wages. Small shop owners and factory workers will suffer losses reminiscent of recession. Families of daily-wage earners have been forced into poverty, children into malnutrition and workers into unemployment. Moreover, it is a time when unemployment rates are at a 45-year high, India’s ranking in the global hunger index is 102, and and the economy is in slowdown. Unless planned for equity, this epidemic can turn into an economic catastrophe insidiously killing more people than Covid-19.
The national capital is still reeling from the violence that broke out in North East Delhi earlier this year. The Covid-19 outbreak has distracted the government from rehabilitation efforts, as is evidenced by accelerated attempts to disband camps set up for the internally displaced, delay in compensations, reduced media coverage, and the declining presence of volunteers on ground.
Furthermore, the pandemic is being cited as a reason to end the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. This kind of panic will shroud the solidarity of citizenry, but also allow authorities to enforce the agenda of the amendment act, National Register of Citizens and National Population Register, causing apprehension and distrust. This does not bode well for the epidemic management.
Mitigating the medical, economic and socio-political aspects of the epidemic will require colossal multi-disciplinary efforts. The marginalised and the vulnerable, both urban and rural, must be at the core of policy design. Learnings should be adopted from epidemic management in similar low-resource settings.
Public health solutions
Health systems capacity, including diagnostics, must be augmented to make it accessible for the last mile. Temporary “corona treatment units”, modelled along the lines of Ebola treatment units in West Africa, must be built at block levels. Accredited social health activists; practitioners of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy; and nurses should be trained in triaging or deciding the order of treatment for Covid-19, wearing and removing personal protective equipment, and emergency management of the disease.
Considering the ecology of urban India, municipal bodies, in coordination with concerned stakeholders, should be empowered to design hyperlocal strategies for overcrowded neighborhoods, homeless shelters and prison populations. Kerala has been an exemplar for all states in equity and inclusion. It demonstrated inclusive leadership by inviting religious leaders, panchayats and urban local bodies, members of civil society and non-governmental organisations to participate; established communication in languages preferred by migrants to educate and prevent stigmatisation of the disease; and engaged prisoners in producing masks.
Holistic answers
It took years of struggle by Dalit leaders like Jyotiba Phule, BR Ambedkar, Periyar, and Kanshi Ram, to unveil the atrocities of casteism. In this context, we must realise that language shapes cultures and societies, and leaves an imprint on history. Words and phrases for fighting Covid-19 should not leave a legacy whose reversal will require a similar struggle. “Social distancing” has a caste connotation. It must urgently be replaced by “physical distancing”.
On the economic front, funds should be allocated for unemployment allowance, at least until the crisis is over. All states should learn from Kerala and Chhattisgarh and suspend biometric authentication for public distribution system benefits, increase the amount of food ration, and ensure adequate supply of hand sanitisers and disinfectants.
Moreover, the government must defer the National Population Register — a humongous economic and political undertaking that will only take away attention from the Covid-19 crisis and increase person-to-person contact. Deferring it will not only quell anxieties, but also save resources required to fight the looming disaster.
Viruses and bacteria do not discriminate, but society does. Societal structures shaped by oppressive structural forces of casteism, classism, communalism, elitism, and patriarchy render a certain section vulnerable. HIV disproportionately afflicts the socially marginalised injection drug users, commercial sex workers and homosexual men. Similarly, malaria kills geographically marginalised Adivasis and forest dwellers, and tuberculosis excessively plagues the economically marginalised. The spread of Covid-19 will be no different, but we have an opportunity to change this. If we want to avoid this pattern with Covid-19, the time to act is now. | https://medium.com/voices-from-the-frontline/india-cannot-fight-coronavirus-without-taking-into-account-its-class-and-caste-divisions-a8de8b48ff6 | ['Heal Initiative'] | 2020-06-17 22:17:11.848000+00:00 | ['Global Health', 'India', 'Public Health', 'Coronavirus', 'Covid 19'] |
Swipe to Refresh .. not showing. Why? | This is a quiz for you (with Answer beneath).
I have the following codes for my Swipe-to-Refresh. But there’s one problem. Whenever I perform a network call that invoke showRefreshProgressBar(), the swipe-to-refresh icon didn’t show. Normal user swipe-to-refresh works.
Can you find out why? (Stackoverflow doesn’t have the answer for it).
// Initialize my Swipe-to-refresh to perform the Network Service
private void initSwipeToRefreshView() {
swipeRefreshLayout.setEnabled(shouldEnablePullToRefresh());
swipeRefreshLayout.setOnRefreshListener(
new SwipeRefreshLayout.OnRefreshListener() {
@Override
public void onRefresh() {
beginNetworkService();
}
}
);
} // Call when the a network service is invoke. We should disable
// further swipe-to-refresh since we don't want a double network
// call
public void showRefreshProgressBar() {
if (swipeRefreshLayout != null &&
!swipeRefreshLayout.isRefreshing()) {
swipeRefreshLayout.post(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
swipeRefreshLayout.setRefreshing(true);
swipeRefreshLayout.setEnabled(false);
}
});
}
} // Call when the a network service is done. We should re-enable
// swipe-to-refresh as now we allow user to refresh it.
public void hideRefreshProgressBar() {
if (swipeRefreshLayout != null &&
swipeRefreshLayout.isRefreshing()) {
swipeRefreshLayout.post(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
swipeRefreshLayout.setRefreshing(false);
swipeRefreshLayout.setEnabled(true);
}
});
}
}
The Answer
Apparently, swipeToRefresh.enable(false) will reset everything and clear the animation and it’s visibility. The code as below
@Override
public void setEnabled(boolean enabled) {
super.setEnabled(enabled);
if (!enabled) {
reset();
}
} void reset() {
mCircleView.clearAnimation();
mProgress.stop();
mCircleView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
setColorViewAlpha(MAX_ALPHA);
// .... More Codes
}
So, to fix my problem, just fix the second function by swapping the position of setEnable and setRefreshing. | https://medium.com/mobile-app-development-publication/swipe-to-refresh-not-showing-why-96b76c5c93e7 | [] | 2018-01-23 10:04:13.234000+00:00 | ['Android', 'AndroidDev', 'Android App Development', 'Mobile App Development', 'Android Development'] |
Everything You Need to Know About Apache Kafka | Talking about Big Data, we cannot fathom the amount of data that is amassed and put to use every minute of every day. Now considering this large volume of data, there are two major challenges that float around.
And, these are the two most primal challenges that anyone can face while working with Big Data. The first being how to collect large volumes of data and the second being, how to analyze this collected data.
This is where a messaging system comes in to overcome these challenges.
Let us understand messaging system first
As the name itself suggests, in our daily lives a messaging system is responsible for sending messages or data from one individual to another. We do not worry about how we will share a piece of information to the other person. We focus on the message, the content of the message.
Similarly, in Big Data, a Messaging System is responsible for transferring data from one application to another where the applications can focus on data, but not worry about how to share it.
Now coming to distributed messaging, it is based on the concept of reliable message queuing. In this system, the messages are queued asynchronously in between client applications and messaging system.
There are two types of messaging patterns we use today. i) Point-to-point and the other ii) Publish-subscribe or pub-sub messaging system. Majorly all messaging patterns follow pub-sub.
Point to Point Messaging System
Within a point-to-point system, the messages stay rested in a queue. One or more than one consumers have the ability where they can take in the messages in the queue, however a particular message can be consumed by a maximum of one consumer only.
After a consumer reads a message in the queue, it vanishes from that queue. One typical example of this system is an ‘Order Processing System’. In this system, each order will be processed by one Order Processor, but Multiple Order Processors can work as well at the same time.
Publish-Subscribe Messaging System
In the publish-subscribe or pub-sub system, the messages are contained in a topic. Contrary to the point-to-point system, the consumers in this system can subscribe to more than one topic and consume all the messages in that topic.
In the Pub-Sub system, the one who produces these messages are known as publishers and message consumers are called subscribers. One such example is of Dish TV or Satellite based channel subscription providers where they publish different channels like sports, movies, music, etc., and individuals can then subscribe to their own set of channels to view them whenever they want.
What is Kafka?
In this way, Apache Kafka is a distributed publish-subscribe messaging system and a sophisticated queue which has the ability to handle a high volume of data enabling users to send and receive messages from one end-point to another one.
It is highly suitable for both offline and online message consumption. Kafka messages are constrained on the disk and are replicated within the cluster preventing data loss. Apache Kafka has been built on top of the ZooKeeper synchronization service.
Kafka has proven to integrate well with Apache Storm and Spark for real-time streaming data analysis, thereby speeding up the Apache Kafka development process.
Conlusion
Kafka has been designed for distributed high throughput systems. One can easily replace it for a more traditional message broker. Compared to other messaging systems, Kafka has better throughput, built-in partitioning, replication and inherent fault-tolerance, making it a good fit for large-scale message processing applications. | https://web-and-mobile-development.medium.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-apache-kafka-8563b48b13d3 | ['A Smith'] | 2019-08-20 07:38:34.053000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Technology', 'Tech', 'Apache Kafka', 'Big Data'] |
5 Important Lessons To Improve Your Emotional Stability | 1. Accept that you can’t control everything
Not being in control is a scary thing. We love planning ahead and avoid surprises whenever possible. Because of that, we often try to control everything. The problem is, we can’t.
We set expectations of what might happen, but when the outcome differs from our expectations, we get frustrated, stressed, and anxious. Worst of all, we tend to blame ourselves for this problem, rather than accepting that it was out of our control.
You can urge a loved one to stop smoking. But you shouldn’t blame yourself if they don’t listen.
The moment you feel negative emotions coming up due to a failed plan or a missed goal, you need to grow indifferent to this situation. You can’t help it. Getting angry or sad about it won’t change the situation and will only cause you stress.
An urge to control often stems from underlying feelings of helplessness. Especially if you grew up in an environment where everything was out of control, the uncertainty can take a huge toll on your wellbeing.
It’s important to take a deep breath and accept the outcome. You can try again if you want, but you need to remind yourself of doing so without any unreasonable expectations.
Whatever happens because of other influences lies outside of your control. And that’s not your fault.
2. Don’t trust your feelings too much
Emotions don’t always make sense. Sometimes they are too strong. Sometimes they are irrational. But they always control our thoughts.
When you’re overcome with fear, anxiety, sadness, or depression, this will reflect in the thoughts that cross your mind. You will start imagining bad outcomes more than good ones and thus tell yourself that your chance of success is lower than it really is.
Not every thought you have is automatically true. They are just a small number of possibilities in an endless ocean.
You need to dissect your thoughts and separate important ones from those that only hinder your capabilities. Understand that these thoughts are not the cause of how you feel, but the opposite: Your feelings are dictating your thoughts.
You need to distance yourself from these emotions. Put them aside. Try to keep your thoughts strictly evidence-based. If a thought you have amplifies your emotions further but has no reasonable base to stand on, it’s likely caused by a strong emotion.
Don’t give in to anger, fear, or sadness as a direct response. Acknowledge the feelings, but don’t act upon them.
Fear means you may be in danger. But don’t blindly search for the emergency exit. Stay calm. Anger may arise when someone hurts your ego. But don’t give in to an impulse for revenge. Only a weak ego needs to protect itself.
Learn to keep your thoughts clear of your emotions.
3. Don’t base your decisions on emotions
If we’re upset, we tend to resort to personal attacks and insults. We blame the other party directly for whatever may have happened. And when we’re desperate, we often give in to any demand, even if it leaves us at a huge disadvantage.
Every time we base our decisions on our emotions, we are subconsciously aiming for short term goals. We might get what we want now, but in the long run, we put ourselves up for failure.
If we insult someone in an argument, we might win the fight, but we’re losing the war. And if we give the other side the upper hand out of desperation, then we’ll have to endure the consequences.
You should not let any personal insults or accusations get to you when having an argument. Don’t let the other party bait you into feeling attacked and angry. Try to imagine leaving your body and becoming a bystander who’s watching you two argue.
Just as with your thoughts, when making a decision, do not let your emotions take over. Instead of acting on your feelings, you can react with a clear mind and an objective stance.
This ensures that you make decisions without letting your emotions fog up your mind.
4. Don’t judge yourself for your emotions
Our feelings are highly conditioned. This means that they are based on our lifelong experiences, from early childhood on. They are the natural reactions we have learned throughout life, based on what happened to us.
Someone who suffered from a broken home, violence in school, or other forms of abuse, may naturally be more fearful, anxious, and cautious.
As such, our emotions are often not the result of our inherent personality, but the environment we grew up in. But too often, we tend to judge our own emotions too harshly.
For example, if a loved one goes through a tearful breakup, we understand their pain and sorrow, trying to comfort them to our best abilities. But when we ourselves go through the same thing, we tend to get angry at ourselves for showing weakness or crying.
We should not condemn our emotions. There is nothing wrong with having them. They are a natural reaction to what happened. And you need to learn to accept them as a natural and conditioned part of you.
By doing so, you can avoid spiraling into a void of sadness and hate that only hinders your functioning. Instead, you will be able to make peace with yourself, with who you are. And then you’ll gain more control over your emotions.
5. Not everything has a meaning
The uncertainty of life can be horrifying. We don’t know what lies behind the next curve, so we slow down. The same happens in every other aspect of our lives. People look for hidden meanings in everything.
They want to always have the right answer and feel smarter about themselves. But some things in life really are just meaningless noise. You don’t need to know everything.
By trying to put a label on everything and finding a hidden meaning or reason behind every event, you subconsciously put yourself into a position of anxiety and depression. Because now you try to find the reason why your spouse left you, or why your company laid you off and will most likely focus on yourself alone with a critical eye.
Your emotional stability depends on your ability to cope with these events without giving in to anxious thoughts, self-criticism, and contemplating more than is healthy.
Not everything has a meaning. Not everything happens for good reason. Sometimes it just happens.
Try to accept uncertainty as a part of your life. If you waste too much time thinking about tomorrow, you can’t focus enough on the here and now. | https://medium.com/evolve-you/5-important-lessons-to-improve-your-emotional-stability-6312ec0e775d | ['Kevin Buddaeus'] | 2020-11-11 09:45:35.721000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Psychology', 'Self Improvement', 'Advice', 'Life Lessons'] |
How One Book Changed My Life | How One Book Changed My Life
And How It Can Change Yours
Photo by Joe Ciciarelli on Unsplash
As a youngster, I read comics— Archie, Veronica and Jughead. In my teenage years when hormones were raging, Peyton Place and Valley of the Dolls titillated me with sordid details of a steamier side of life.
I deboned a whole chicken after reading Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child.
Self-help books like The Road Less Traveled and Women Who Love Too Much provided some comfort after my divorce, but I continued to flounder.
Things began to change when a good friend tossed me a life line and recommended this book:
My friend insisted this could be the most valuable book I’d ever read. She promised my life would improve. I was skeptical, but when I thought about her life, one I gladly would have exchanged for mine, I took her recommendation seriously. She didn’t call it a self-help book. She called it a change agent.
This book, The Path of Least Resistance, changed my life and it can help change yours.
When he wrote the book, Robert Fritz wasn’t a therapist or a life coach or a spiritual leader. Rather he was a musician and composer, who in the early 1980s saw the relationship between the structure of music and the structure within a person’s life. Through deep thought, study and analysis, he developed a framework called “structural tension,” which can be the creative force in a person’s life.
What is Structural Tension?
Structural tension is best described by explaining its two components. The first is to know the result you want, a component called vision. The second is to know what you now have, a component called reality. The discrepancy between the two — what you have (reality) and the result you want (vision) — is structural tension. It’s the creative energy that propels you forward, getting you to where you want to be. And getting to where you want to be simply means getting what you want.
In the beginning a common mistake some people make is focusing on what they don’t want, rather than what they do want.
This was the case with me. I only knew what I didn’t want. I don’t want to live in an apartment. I don’t want a roommate. I don’t want a job where I’m not respected.
Fritz says if you have trouble knowing what you want, make it up!
Let me share two examples from Fritz’s book:
“If you don’t want your car to keep breaking down, what you want is a car that consistently runs well.” “If you don’t want to fight constantly with your partner, what you want is a loving and supportive relationship.”
By seeing problems as opportunities, there’s a better chance for success.
It’s easy to get fixated on problems, but that usually produces a negative response. Fritz recommends formally choosing the results we want by visualizing them clearly, even saying the words to yourself. “I choose to have X, Y or Z.”
By making a formal choice, you unconsciously activate the seeds of germination. You initiate the first stage of the creative cycle using visualization, which sets energy into motion. This happens through your subconscious.
In the beginning focus on an objective that you know is achievable. Don’t start out like I did with “I want a new job.” Choose something safe, unambiguous and an objective you know you can make happen. Don’t just make a wish and keep your fingers crossed. Practice, practice, practice.
When I bought The Path of Least Resistance, I was 40, single, with no kids. Previously I’d counted on the financial and emotional support of a man for almost twenty years. Until my divorce, I considered myself as Number Two making Number One look good. When I became head of a household of one, my life was different.
I was so eager to improve my life that my initial list of wants were unrealistic. I was setting myself up for failure by choosing vague objectives.
I want a new job. I want to be thinner. I want a boyfriend. I want a house.
I was overwhelmed. Where do I start?
Begin with small things —take baby steps, which will begin to establish momentum.
The energy that comes from momentum is what propels you forward in order to create what you want.
Photo by Hayley Catherine on Unsplash
I started small and selected end results that were unambiguous and achievable.
Every night before bed, I made a short list of what I wanted to achieve the next day, not ones for the next week or month or “some day”, but for the very next day. Some times these things were based on personal values such as spend an hour of quiet time before work. Or perhaps ones that might advance my career like schedule one informational interview tomorrow.
The hour of quiet time started with an early cup of coffee while reading the paper. This eventually morphed into a daily meditation practice, which I found rewarding.
Each evening I would check off my daily achievements before developing another short list of what I wanted to achieve the next day. Then I would visualize where I was at that moment (reality)and where I wanted to be (vision). Over many months I noticed that opportunities seemed to appear that moved me forward.
Slowly my life started to turn around. I was happier and more fun to be with. Life improved, not overnight, but slowly because I stuck with baby steps. I chose achievables, which eventually motivated me to take bigger steps. I started practicing by writing in my journal a list of wants with more specificity.
I want a job that is stimulating, challenging and in an enviornment that is secure, interesting, structured and dynamic. I want a job that utilizes my intellect, my ability to focus, my outgoing personality, my dedication to work, and my past successes in achieving successful outcomes .
After a year of informational interviews, I decided fundraising was my professional niche. Once I knew what I wanted, mentally I became a fundraiser.
I visualized myself meeting with potential donors. I imagined raising millions of dollars. I saw myself in a rewarding environment professionally.
When someone asked me what my job was, I would answer something like “this is what I do now, but next year I’m going to be a fundraiser.” Happily my consistent visualization paid off. I received a job offer as a major gifts fundraiser at Stanford University. I successfully raised money for Stanford for almost twenty years. What a career!
Here’s how I addressed my vague desire to be thinner. Again, I took baby steps. My quiet time in the morning inspired me to alter my form of meditation. I focused on other ways to quiet my mind while exercising my body. Rather than concentrating on my breath, I began counting laps while swimming in the neighborhood pool every morning. Then I added weight training and rode my bicycle on the weekends. As I lost the weight, my body shape changed and voila, I went from a size 12 to an 8.
Photo by Anna Elfimova on Unsplash
These were not easy goals. I worked hard to focus on where I was at the moment (reality) and where I wanted to be (vision). This created the structural tension from which came the positive energy driving the determination to slim down to a size 8!
How did I deal with my vague desire to have a boyfriend? Becoming more focused, I realized I wasn’t just looking for a boyfriend. I wanted a loving partner. Again visualizing what I wanted prompted me to place a personal ad on the dating website Match.com. “Quality Woman Looking for Quality Man.” Taking baby steps meant kissing a lot of frogs before meeting my prince.
Many months later Bruce’s Match profile and picture popped up on my computer screen. Finally . . .
My vision became a new reality.
August 18th will always be our special day.
Fritz’s book is essential reading for someone who wants to make a positive change in his or her life. Even though this book was originally published in 1984, Fritz’s strong message is relevant today.
The Path of Least Resistance is a transformational read with theories and techniques. If you’ve had ideas and dreams but have never brought them to fruition, I encourage you to read Fritz’s book. Over time you will learn how to utilize the power that comes with fundamental choice, visualization, intention, momentum, and completion. These tools will never be outdated. Once you put into practice the steps Fritz describes, you will see how a powerful subconscious force energizes your creative process. You will begin to make positive changes that will bring happiness to your life.
You have the power to be the creative force in your life.
I first read this book in 1987 and have recommended it to others. I’ve reread the book many times, not because I’d forgotten Fritz’s philosophy or techniques. I reread it because it reenforced the positive energy for me to create intention and go boldly to places where I’d never gone before. | https://medium.com/narrative/how-one-book-changed-my-life-bd3b591a463e | ['Pam Perkins'] | 2020-08-24 01:01:59.431000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Inspiration', 'Life Lessons', 'Psychology', 'Self Improvement'] |
Kids & Disappointment: Can Disappointment Help Them? | Kids & Disappointment: Can Disappointment Help Them?
“They said ‘no,’ huh? It didn’t work out. So what’s next?” I was looking forward to hearing those words from my father; words that I’ve definitely heard many times before as a kid. This was his answer any time I didn’t get what I wanted from a situation. This last conversation with these words happened just a few months ago when he came over for coffee one Sunday morning. I updated him on my latest news that I didn’t land the job that I had I set my sights on. Even though I anxiously waited months to hear a reply, and even though I felt humiliated and frustrated that I didn’t get it, the words put my situation into perspective and made everything about my news feel a lot less enormous. When my father left my house that morning I was starting to feel like I could move on with my life. His reply signaled my brain to process the situation like this: They said no and that’s the end of it. It’s time to stop obsessing. What a relief for an overthinker like me. For me, this kind of reaction, or maybe it’s more precise to call it a non- reaction, always frames my disappointment in a healthy way by pivoting the situation from borderline tragic to surmountable. In short, it lessens my disappointment and makes me resilient.
It gets me thinking about how I don’t hear many parents, myself included, react to their children’s disappointment like this. What if every time our kids came to us with their disappointments, we said, “Oh well, it is what it is. What’s next?” How would our kids’ react and frame their situations? As a middle school and high school teacher, I don’t always hear parents accept their kids’ disappointment. I get it, trust me. The desire and worry to raise happy children is everything. I haven’t been able to give this reply to my kids. I’m hoping that in the future I can belt out a reply like this if necessary, but as of now, I overthink, strategize and try to solve any disappointment that disrupts their young lives. And because of that, I haven’t always helped them. I should know better because I’ve seen what can happen if we eliminate all disappointment from our kids’ lives.
For several years, I was my school’s English Department Chair which meant that one of my responsibilities was to place students in honors or AP level classes. After the students took a test that would assess their qualifications for these higher level classes, I braced myself for the onslaught of calls, emails, and conversations between parents and me. I could write the script for how these discussions would go even before talking to a parent. They were always the same: my kid works hard; they really want to go into a higher level class; the qualifying test wasn’t fair; they enjoy reading so why not put them in the class they want ? My typical response: their test scores and yearly performance don’t reflect the requirements of the higher level courses so we would best serve your child by placing them in a standard level class. But what if parents said to their kids, “Ok you’re placed in a non-honors course, what’s next?” Think of the pressure that is unloaded for that student who’s best suited for a non-honors class. How healthy for that kid to accept their appropriate class and move on to other things that can fulfill them.
One year, I gave a student named *Audrey a B for the year. A few days after I entered grades into the school’s reporting system, summer time was in full swing. I was absorbed with my 8 month old daughter when I checked my school email and found three messages from Audrey’s mom saying that it’s urgent I call her. I put my daughter to bed early that night so I could give this mother my undivided attention, thinking that her situation was dire. I immediately regretted the call when I realized it was about Audrey’s class placement. I will paraphrase the conversation: I needed to place Audrey in an honors English class because it’s what her daughter wanted. Audrey was so disappointed to discover that she didn’t qualify. So it was the same message that I predicted many times before. In the end, my school’s Administration had Audrey’s parents sign a document stating that she could take the honors level class despite the school’s recommendation. Audrey was placed where she wanted to be and resolved her disappointment.
But the problem didn’t go away for anyone. Audrey was disappointed every year thereafter that she wasn’t placed in an honors or advanced English class. And every year her mother went to bat for her to be moved into them. Her mom always won her class placement campaigns, so Audrey was placed in her desired classes throughout high school. You might be thinking that Audrey’s problem was solved each year, but by her senior year, she was so anxiety-ridden from the pressure of these challenging courses that her mother was calling our Administration monthly, describing how stretched her daughter felt and how lost and intimidated she felt in her classes. She claimed that Audrey’s teachers didn’t “get” her kid, and that made her child miserable in class. As a teacher, I think her mom should have let Audrey ride out her disappointment that summer after her freshman year, but as a parent, I think I want to “help” our kids navigate life.
Just yesterday I walked my kids along a rocky trail that leads to a pretty field and playground. We were not familiar with this trail so I told my 9 and 3 year old to look closely at the rocks and only climb on ones that weren’t too big or dangerous for them. Basically, they could only climb on ones that didn’t require my help. Many times during the walk, my 3 year old was frustrated and disappointed that he couldn’t climb the biggest rocks that came his way, that he had to stick to smaller ones. I resisted the urge to help him because I knew that holding him up on every rock he liked would shorten our time at the playground, which I knew he would love. We made it to the playground quickly and he was happy he “found” it. Later, he even proudly told his dad that he climbed rocks all by himself and found the playground all by himself. This had me thinking: if we help kids sprint from one inappropriate rock to another, there’s a good chance that they may not feel authentic success or reap the benefits of endurance. Their ultimate happiness, not their instant gratification, should guide our actions when we advocate for our kids. Perhaps the best thing to do is allow kids to sometimes feel disappointment so they can develop resilience, grit, and self -worth, -life-long traits that no amount of disappointment can erase.
*The name Audrey is purely fictional. | https://medium.com/swlh/kids-disappointment-can-disappointment-help-them-a1e91b52ad8a | ['Crosson Collins'] | 2019-09-24 05:59:22.139000+00:00 | ['Kids', 'Education', 'Parenting', 'Psychology', 'Teens'] |
An accidental purveyor of cut-price UX | An accidental purveyor of cut-price UX
You know it’s a good day when a casual trip to your local charity store delivers more user experience than you’d bargained for.
There’s nothing better than a second-hand store. Whenever one of these joints lures me in (which is often), there’s usually a nice little gem or two tucked away, among its musty wares, in some dark and dusty corner. I can always sniff them out through racks of moth-eaten Argyle pullovers and the dog-eared vinyl that vintage record shops haven’t snaffled to flog at puffed-up prices. And each time, I’m as pleased as punch.
When non-essential retail made its post-Covid comeback earlier this year, I took a stroll to see which stores had reopened their doors to customers and found myself at the entrance of my local British Heart Foundation.
In I went, bargain-hunter mode activated. After flicking through some of said vinyl, only to discover more Engelbert Humperdinck and Florence Foster Jenkins than a person should ever have to face, I came across a discarded Moleskine book. I love a Moleskine book, so that was definitely coming home with me. And at a normal price of over a tenner, it was £1.99 well spent.
With the slightly battered black Moleskine in my man-bag, alongside a copy of Isaac Asimov’s The Robots of Dawn (the third novel in the author’s Robot Series), I was hot to trot. The only snag? I got home to discover someone had used the notebook — it was cover-to-cover with near-illegible handwriting.
Ordinarily, I’d be peeved but wouldn’t return the item. At the end of the day, it had most likely been donated in error. And we’re talking about charity here — I’m not a total monster!
However, there was no need for any minor fury at all. Why? Because, by sheer happenstance, what at first glance appeared to be nonsensical scribbles turned out to be the detailed notes of a User Experience (UX) Designer. Given that I’ve been writing a lot about UX for a client recently, I think you’ll agree it was quite the coincidence.
If you’re unfamiliar with UX (which I was before beginning to work for my client), in a nutshell, it essentially relates to making people feel great when they’re interacting with digital systems — websites, apps, software, etc. Today, it’s normally signified by some form of Human-Computer Interaction, which is another field I’ve been writing on of late.
Tickled by the twist of fate, I leafed through the Moleskine and found all sorts. Notes reflecting the mundanity of everyday life were scattered everywhere. “I love you — can’t wait for you to come back,” the former owner writes on one page after telling their sweetheart: “Don’t forget your juice in the fridge.”
Cute, right?
Among these, all sorts about algorithms, website buttons, data, user bases, dashboards, notifications, and much more. And in various formats too: sketches and diagrams and tables and infographics.
Setting eyes on those personal and professional snippets felt the tiniest bit invasive, but I got over that fast. Technically, after paying the princely sum of £1.99, I did own those snippets. And ultimately, any guilt I experienced was reversed by some strange sense of honour at being privy to this person’s creative process.
As consumers, you see great UX design every day. For example, each time you hopped on Zoom over lockdown to chat with friends, family or colleagues, or each time you found yourself caught in a Netflix hole, wolfing down episode after episode of The Crown, you were able to move around those apps with ease — that’s no happy accident. It’s UX designers behind your pleasant user journey around Zoom or Netflix — or whatever digital location you choose to frequent.
So, as I say, yes, good UX design is ubiquitous. But how often do people get to witness the creative process a UX designer goes through to get from idea to user-centric final product. Unless you work in the field, my guess is never.
Although I write on this topic a lot these days, I only really cover the projects my client is involved in. For all other systems, I have to dig into my imagination to picture how a UX team moved from A-Z.
The stuff in my shabby used Moleskine, however, is an entirely different ball game — I wasn’t supposed to see this. It feels naughty, in a sense. I guess this is something close to creative voyeurism — like I’ve fortuitously stumbled into the mind of a talented designer when they’re in the zone.
But it makes sense because humans are innately curious beings on the whole, so why wouldn’t our sense of curiosity blow up when it comes to areas we’re interested in?
I may poke around UX, but I’m no expert by any stretch of the imagination. Even as I learn more about this fascinating world, no level of understanding will ever curb what Mario Livio refers to as “epistemic curiosity” in his 2017 book Why? What makes Us Curious? This is our hunger for knowledge, to learn new things. It makes us “infovores,” he says. In essence, then, as a starving infovore, this notebook is food for my epistemic curiosity.
I should make it clear that, while I do have an insatiable appetite for knowledge, I’d never pinch another person’s ideas — I mean, come on, I’m not a corporate spy in Chris Nolan’s sci-fi action thriller Inception. So none of the ideas in the Moleskine will ever find their way into my writing on the topic.
Speaking of sci-fi, before I head off to get stuck into my new Asimov robot whodunit, just a quick note: I’d considered posting pictures from the notebook, but I’d like to avoid trouble. The writer cites some of the world’s best-known organizations, and the last thing I want is a pack of hungry lawyers snapping at me.
Right, that’s enough for one day — time for some machines and murder, Asimov style! | https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/british-heart-foundation-accidental-purveyor-of-cut-price-ux-bb4711f7cffd | ['Steven Allison'] | 2020-11-03 04:55:17.883000+00:00 | ['User Experience Design', 'User Experience', 'UX Design', 'Design', 'UX'] |
Black Box (2020) • Amazon [Welcome to the Blumhouse] | Black Box (2020) • Amazon [Welcome to the Blumhouse]
After losing his wife and memory in a car accident, a father undergoes an agonising treatment that causes him to question his identity...
With so many great horror films out there we need a trustworthy curator, and our real-world Cryptkeeper today is Jason Blum, whose company Blumhouse Productions has brought us the likes of Paranormal Activity (2007), The Purge (2013), Get Out (2017), Happy Death Day (2017), and Fantasy Island (2020).
The Blumhouse brand has quickly become synonymous with successful horror movies, so they’ve gone all out in packaging their latest four films under the banner of ‘Welcome to the Blumhouse’, each exclusively streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Each of these offers something unique, from spirits and psychos to science fiction — in the case of Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr.’s Black Box. However, this film veers too heavily in the sci-fi direction and left me wondering if this Blumhouse offering is more Black Mirror than Tales From the Crypt.
Black Box opens with a man called Nolan Wright (Mamoudou Athie) struggling with amnesia after a tragic car crash. It was a life-changing event that left him without a wife, a career, and now unable to properly care for his daughter Ava (Amanda Christine). Athie sells his character’s uneasy drifting out of reality, while Christine plays the responsible adult cooking meals and putting her dad’s ties on for work. There’s a fun moment where Nolan reaches for a cigarette only to be reprimanded by Ava… but does he really not smoke or is his daughter just getting him to quit? Are those around him taking advantage of Nolan’s memory lapses? He broke his hand punching a wall but his friend Gary (Tosin Morohunfola) ensures him this aggression isn’t who he is, despite his own doubts.
Enter Dr Brooks (Phylicia Rashad) and her experimental Black Box, which promises to guide her patients through an immersive virtual reality trip into their subconscious. Nolan is threatened with losing Ava to child services so agrees to dives into his own mind to save them both, but a disturbing figure deep inside the virtual world won’t let him.
Cinematographer Hilda Mercado employs fantastic surrealism into these dream trips, using lo-fi techniques such as face blurring and claustrophobic lighting. But this is foremost a character-focused story using reality-bending ideas, much like The One I Love (2014), rather than a movie filled with action set-pieces like Inception (2010).
Unfortunately, this is what lets it down somewhat. While Osei-Kuffour Jr.’s story (co-written with Stephen Herman) is certainly interesting, only the acting made me engage with it despite so much expository dialogue. The deeper emotional elements from Nolan (losing his skill at photography, becoming estranged from Ava due to anger issues) are often too neatly surmised by the science explained by Dr Brooks.
David Lynch may polarise audiences with his own explorations of surrealism, but Black Box is much like Inception in removing too much ambiguity for audiences to ponder. Even the best recurring horror element of the Backwards Man (contortionist Troy James) is quickly explained away as Nolan’s brain trying to protect him from trauma. Get Out’s own high-concept aspects were accepted by audiences because they didn’t explain too much, but here I laughed out loud at a computer screen readout stating “loading HYPNOSIS-execute?”
That being said, the writers do throw enough curveballs and it kept me guessing. Nolan and Gary’s own investigations lead them toward several possible conclusions, with each answer raising new questions. The most astonishing point in this structure is during a revelation I assumed was the shocking conclusion… only to realise Black Box was only halfway through.
Once memories and personalities truly begin, Black Box becomes an entirely different story… which is a good and bad thing. I enjoyed seeing where this goes and it generates suspense, and yet I wish the film had got there sooner. Almost the entire first hour is set-up for the actual story.
But here’s the biggest underlying issue: is Black Box a horror film? While produced under the Blumhouse banner, it’s never scary. Sure, the philosophical conflicts are portrayed as unnerving or unsettling but this is not something that’s perfect for Halloween. The only blatant horror element is the Backwards Man. The involvement of experimental science could have delivered disturbing imagery, pulled directly from a man’s imagination, but that never appears to be the intent of the director. Black Box is happy to instead riff on genre tropes to tell an emotional family drama about remembering the responsibilities of being a father. | https://medium.com/framerated/black-box-2020-amazon-welcome-to-the-blumhouse-3f81c346d6a2 | ['Devon Elson'] | 2020-10-08 17:33:13.684000+00:00 | ['Review', 'Film', 'Movies', 'Amazon', 'Horror'] |
Use React Router Link with Bootstrap | Today we will see a simple tutorial on how to use react-router Link with bootstrap. This is a simple tutorial but still, it’s useful because if we replace the Nav.Link tag or Navbar.Brand of react-bootstrap with Link tag of react-router it will remove the CSS associated with that Nav.Link . So let us see how to use that.
This tutorial requires you to have knowledge of implementing react-router and react-bootstrap in your react project. If you don’t have any idea then you can read my previous tutorial on How to use React Router in your React js project and Integrate bootstrap to your React js application
Requirements
I have created a basic react setup with three components header, service, and about. After that created a route for home, service, and about.
3. Now open our header component and add the navbar from react-bootstrap. This is how it will look before any changes.
4. Now install the react-router-bootstrap.
yarn add react-router-bootstrap
5. Now import LinkContainer from react-router-bootstrap.
import {LinkContainer} from 'react-router-bootstrap'
6. Now wrap the react-bootstrap element you want to use with a Link tag like this.
<LinkContainer to="/service">
<Nav.Link>Service</Nav.Link>
</LinkContainer>
So basically <Nav.Link>Service</Nav.Link> now becomes <LinkContainer to="/service"> <Nav.Link>Service</Nav.Link> </LinkContainer> same for Brand <Navbar.Brand href="/">React Bootstrap</Navbar.Brand> now becomes <LinkContainer to="/"> <Navbar.Brand>React Bootstrap</Navbar.Brand> </LinkContainer>
7. Here how it will look after changes in your header component.
8. Refresh your browser to see changes.
Below are the Github repository and live code for reference. | https://medium.com/how-to-react/use-react-router-link-with-bootstrap-315a8b88e129 | ['Manish Mandal'] | 2020-11-06 13:17:57.886000+00:00 | ['React', 'Reactjs', 'Bootstrap'] |
The Practical Side Of Surrender | Photo by SAMANTA SANTY
I wonder if I am getting too happy.
I wonder if I am eating too much or too little.
I wonder what it would be like to just let these wonderings be.
Because sometimes I am too happy
And sometimes I am too sad
And too fearful
And too angry
Sometimes I eat too much
Sometimes I eat too little
Sometimes I self sabotage
Sometimes I show up for myself
Sometimes my heart breaks from pain
Sometimes my heart breaks from pleasure
It all ebbs and flows
Sometimes I have control
Sometimes I really don’t
“Let it be”
Whispers a still small voice inside
Let it be. | https://medium.com/blueinsight/the-practical-side-of-surrender-6a14cbc6bb7 | ['Jordin James'] | 2020-04-17 16:58:32.242000+00:00 | ['Inspiration', 'Life Lessons', 'Psychology', 'Poetry', 'Blue Insights'] |
How to Split a Large Excel File Into Multiple Smaller Files | Let’s Get Started!
The first thing you need is an Excel file with a .csv extension. If you don’t have one ready, feel free to use the one that I prepared for this tutorial with 10,000 rows.
The second thing you need is the shell script or file with an .sh extension that contains the logic used to split the Excel sheet. I’ve shared the shell script below, which you can either download or copy and paste into a text editor. If you choose the latter, be sure to save it as split_csv.sh .
There are two important things to note here:
Line 2 contains the FILENAME you can change to match your own.
you can change to match your own. Line 4 contains the number of rows you want to split. In this example, the shell script will split the Excel file into smaller ones containing 1,000 records each.
Great! Now that we finished preparing both the sample Excel file and the shell script, the next step is to execute. | https://medium.com/better-programming/how-to-split-a-large-excel-file-into-multiple-smaller-files-664f18f97900 | ['Songtham Tung'] | 2020-12-18 16:52:33.329000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Work', 'Data Science', 'Bash', 'Programming'] |
Prepare your list of 3 | Prepare your list of 3
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
Solve challenge here: https://www.bookcademy.com/home/show_daily_challenges/prepare-your-list-of-3
Pre-plan the 3 most important things you want to learn from any given type of person (e.g. customers, investors, industry experts, key hires, etc). Update the list as your questions change.
Pre-planning your big questions makes it a lot easier to ask questions which pass The Mom Test and aren’t biasing. It also makes it easier to face the questions that hurt. When we go through an unplanned conversation, we tend to focus on trivial stuff that keeps the conversation comfortable. Instead, decide on the tough questions in a calm environment with your team.
Your 3 questions will be different for each type of person you’re talking to. If you have multiple types of customers or partners, have a list of each.
Don’t stress too much about choosing the “right” important questions. They will change. Just choose whatever seems murkiest or most important right now. Answer those will give you firmer footing and a better sense of direction for your next 3.
Knowing your list allows you to take better advantage of serendipitous encounters. Instead of running into that dream customer and asking to exchange business cards so you can “grab a coffee” (exactly like everyone else), you can just pop off your most important question. And that goes a long way toward keeping it casual. | https://medium.com/bookcademy/the-mom-test-by-rob-fitzpatrick-prepare-your-list-of-3-725cd30a283e | ['Daniel Morales'] | 2019-10-23 13:05:54.144000+00:00 | ['The Mom Test', 'Challenge Of The Day', 'Bookcademy', 'Challenge Of The Week', 'Startup'] |
4 Types of Toxic People to Avoid Like the Plague | The Pampered Prince/Princess
I used to befriend a rich kid in my high school who couldn’t understand how people live on a budget. I don’t come from a wealthy family, but I live frugally; aware that I was spending my parents’ hard-earned money.
Our group hung out a lot at the rich kid’s insistence, but she liked to dine at expensive places, and no one dared to say “no”.
When I suggested that I was more comfortable having my meals somewhere cheaper, she pouted and insisted that I stay. So, I said I wouldn’t mind staying if she could foot the bill on my behalf, but she declined anyway.
I then went on to explain the financial concerns I had, hoping she’d get a clearer picture without misunderstanding my intention. Even though we went on to dine at a much affordable place, she continued to show discontent on her face and didn’t stop pouting.
The pampered prince/princess often appear confident and destined to wear a crown. They express the need to be taken care of and are masters at getting others to pamper them or appeal to their needs.
To explain why we might find ourselves doing a favour for them without really understanding why, Greene said, “As children, their parents indulged them in their slightest whim, and protected them from any kind of harsh intrusion from the outside world.”
Over time, the spoilt prince/princess remain lost in paradise. It can be quite maddening to always be on their terms.
A tip that Greene suggested was to spot for signs of guilt in ourselves — If we feel guilty for not helping them, it means we’re hooked to the addiction of playing a pampering role to their desires.
The Rebel
Have you ever met or work with someone who has every reason to complain about their superiors behind their backs, but when they’re around those who are in a higher social status, they sing praises?
Yep, the rebels love the underdog and dislike authority.
More often than not, this type of personality has a biting sense of humour, which is part of who they are, but they might turn on you because they need to deflate everyone.
It’s not that they want to be this way; it’s not some higher moral quality, it’s a compulsion to feel superior — to have the upper hand and feel loved.
Quoting from Greene, he explained, “In their childhood, a parent or father figure probably disappointed them. They came to mistrust and hated all those in power. In the end, they cannot accept any criticism from others because that reeks of authority. They cannot be told what to do. Everything must be on their terms.”
The rebels are famous for gaining attention with their vicious humour when you cross them in some way.
The Drama Mama
Have you ever met someone so cheerful, so optimistic, louder than most people, and have a wit to their humour that gets your laughing over the top?
They are fun to be around, and we often find ourselves drawn into their exciting presence until the drama turns ugly. A person who’s a drama magnet loves to embroil you in their drama to the extent you’ll feel guilty for disengaging.
“As children, they had learned that the only way to get love and attention that lasted was to enmesh their parents in their troubles and problems, which had to be large enough to engage the parents emotionally over time,” explained Greene.
The tale of the boy who cried wolf is a starring example that emphasised the principle behind a drama mama and their need to position themselves as the victim as a way of feeling alive and wanted.
A shepherd boy repeatedly tricks neighbouring villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking his town’s flock when in reality, there’s none. Yet time and again, the villagers still went to the boy’s aid.
The Perfectionist
These are the people who’re good at luring us into their circle by how hard they work and how dedicated they are to making the best of whatever it is they produce.
In reality, they’re wolves in sheep’s clothing, wizards with tricks up their sleeves masked as a normal person.
I once arrived late for a lesson where my professor was splitting the class up into groups of five. Being the latecomer, I was assigned to a group with only one space left to fill.
Among us, however, was a member who spoke with flair, dressed smartly, and knew the outline of our group project ahead of us.
She briefed us on deliverables that our professor had expected of us and even penned down a list of ideas we could go with for our project. Naturally, her leadership-like abilities gathered our trust to elect her as our team’s leader.
Despite our leader’s eye for details and quick-wittedness, she couldn't delegate tasks and had to oversee everything. Over time, I realised it was less about high standards and dedication to the group than about power and control.
Maybe it was because we weren’t as outspoken with our ideas as she was, but I felt like I was micro-managed continuously. It’s as if whatever ideas I’ve proposed were quick to be disregarded too.
Everyone in our group was also compelled to agree with whatever solution our leader thought was the best.
As Greene once said, “(Perfectionists) have patterns of initial success followed by burnout and spectacular failures.”
It’s best to recognise these patterns before getting ourselves enmeshed on any level. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/4-types-of-toxic-people-to-avoid-like-the-plague-7eacddb5f549 | ['Charlene Annabel'] | 2020-12-22 11:01:49.458000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Psychology', 'Personality Types', 'Life'] |
How to Get Out of Depression and Lessons I Learnt on This Dark Journey | I was in the middle of my kickboxing class when it happened.
One moment I was perfectly fine, albeit tired, and the next I was drowning in misery so deep I could not breathe without feeling claustrophobic. I had to get out of there, at once.
Fortunately or unfortunately, when I asked my teacher if I could go and buy an energy drink to recharge myself (which was both a lie and a truth), he would not let me go. But I could see the concern on his face as he asked me to stay (my face has always been an open book), so maybe he knew it was a better idea to hold me hostage at that moment.
That day when I finally got back home and shut the door of my apartment, I couldn’t even reach my bed before I broke down in tears.
And for hours after that I just lay there on the cold floor, still in my sweaty gym clothes, crying as if the world was ending around me.
That was not the first time I had broken down like that. After all, when depression strikes us, it tends to stay with us for months on end.
It was just the first time I knew what was happening to me.
The Case of the Forgotten Brain
In our society, we gasp in sympathy and offer condolences when we hear someone is suffering from a grave illness of the body, whether it is a life-threatening condition, like cancer, or a simple case of stomach flu.
Why then are we so nonchalant and dismissive when it comes to the health of the brain?
We don’t want to talk about it. We don’t want to hear about it. And we definitely don’t want to find out our family tree has been cursed by it.
That’s why when I realized I was depressed, I was too afraid to seek help from a trained psychiatrist. After all, I was raised in a family (and society) where discussing mental health issues was the most taboo subject of them all, and I did not want to be labelled a “mental case”.
And I was not the only one suffering because of this taboo.
One of my closest friends was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder a few years back. Her parents still think she is making it all up just to get attention.
Another acquaintance was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia while he was in medical school. And after a hiatus of a few years and many electroconvulsive therapies, when I spoke to him again, I realized that he is still in denial.
The list goes on.
Our generation has become the first generation where mental health issues, especially depression, has reached an almost epidemic level. And studies show that this meteoric rise, specifically among teenagers, has got a lot to do with the real-world isolation caused by virtual media and gadgets, the rising socioeconomic gap between the rich and the poor, and our increasingly sedentary, malnourished (but obese), and sleep-deprived lifestyle.
What do we do then when the world around us is threatening our very well-being?
How I Healed Myself (Sorta) Without Medical Help
As I mentioned earlier, I was too much of a chicken at that time to go seek medical help. But neither was I going to throw myself off a roof and end my life like many chronically depressed individuals do when the illness makes life seem pathetically meaningless.
So I did what I always do when I hit rock bottom — I bought a book.
Written by Dr. David D. Burns, M.D., the book, Feeling Good, caught my eye in the Kindle Store because it was a bestseller (still is) and had a catchy tagline — the clinically proven drug-free treatment for depression.
And though the book did not cure my depression (unsupervised forays fueled by your willpower will only get you so far before you stop reading), it taught me enough to understand the problem and gave me a tool that helped me climb out of my “pit of despair”.
That tool was journaling.
And the prompt was: find the flaws in your logic.
Depression: A Place Between Reality and Fiction
It is said that depressed people see reality more clearly than other people. And they despair because of it.
But that’s not entirely true.
Because while depression does allow you to see all the nastiness in the world more acutely, it also strips you of the ability to see the good. And this pessimistic outlook imprisons your mind just as strongly as it imprisons the mind of a dreamy escapist.
And the book helped free me by allowing me to see the flaws in my own logic.
For example, whenever I felt like nobody loved me (a thought that had the highest rate of recurrence), I would list out all the reasons why that statement was false. After all, my mother, sister, and friends loved me a great deal (and still do).
But it would still be another year before I could say I was mentally healthy once again.
And one of the biggest reasons why I managed to get out of it was because I was brave enough to speak out.
Breaking Taboos: How Speaking Out Can Help You Heal Your Mind
A working woman was a taboo not too long ago. And so was homosexuality and gay marriage. But we have managed to normalize these issues to a great extent now by speaking up and taking a stand for them.
The same is required for mental health issues. And we are living in the best century to make that happen.
Why?
Because the world is now more connected than ever before. So when an inconsequential person shares their story online (like me), they have as much opportunity to make an impact on the world as a world leader.
Plus, in my case, speaking out about my struggles with depression helped me in the following ways:-
1. It made me realize that the taboo around this topic was incredibly foolish and illogical.
All sheep-brained arguments are.
2. It made people comfortable enough to reveal to me their own struggles with mental health issues.
A conversation that was cathartic for both parties and which made us realize just how common this problem is.
3. It brought people and opportunities my way that supported me through my tough times.
Emotional support is important, especially from people who love you enough to honestly tell you when you are wrong.
4. It made me realize that my worth was not dependent on what people thought of me.
Because once I knew my own worth, narrow-minded comments about my mental health stopped fazing me, and instead, gave me a glimpse into the minds of the people passing those judgments.
5. It showed me that I was afraid of psychiatrists and therapists.
And once that fear became apparent, it was easier for me to uproot it because it was pretty illogical to begin with and had more to do with my inability to trust people than with their “supposed” level of incompetence.
Now it’s Your Turn to Speak Out
If you are suffering from depression, I strongly recommend you do not do what I did when I was depressed, which is buy a book instead of getting medical help.
But what you must do is speak out.
And speak out even more once your ordeal is over so you can help people who are still stranded at the bottom of the pit of meaningless despair.
**
If you found this article useful, please hit the clap icon below so it can reach more people and help break the taboo around discussing mental health problems.
And if you want to pitch in some more and help make this conversation perfectly normal, please share your experience with mental health (whether personal or witnessed) in the comments below.
I promise you, it will be the most freeing experience of your life. | https://medium.com/thrive-global/how-to-get-out-of-depression-ce6b6b6d98e6 | ['Valeria Black'] | 2018-01-29 22:00:43.968000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Weekly Prompts', 'Well Being', 'Depression', 'Taboo'] |
3 things my UI UX design career taught me that I wished I knew when I started | The last two years of my life have been remarkable. I started as a UI UX designer and have been in love with design ever since.
I got introduced to the avenue of UI and UX a few years back and, I finally came to terms with myself, realizing that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
Something about designing app interfaces and playing around with different colors and elements got me ticking.
I was awestruck by the possibility of designing app interfaces, and I still find it to be one of the best things I do on the job.
However, the journey from being a college graduate to a successful UI UX designer was not an easy one. It was a journey that had a lot of self-learning and a series of life lessons that I want to share with you.
I am here to share with you three things that I wished I had known when I started as a UI UX developer.
Some of them are not necessarily industry-specific and is applicable for any form of life.
1 — Not keeping it simple!
When I started in my first professional job, I wanted to make a strong statement to everyone at work.
It was only later I realized that my version of making a great first impression almost got me fired.
I wanted to show everyone that I knew every trick in the book. So for every single project that came my way, I used everything I knew and applied all the different traits.
So there was no filter to what I used. I even went to the extent of learning complicated approaches to keep the first impression intact.
That is when I realized that everything that I did was coming back.
It took me time to come to terms that the best designs are not the ones that have everything in them but the ones that are simple yet sophisticated.
The concept of simplicity got me questioning my skills a little bit, but it was then I realized it was all about painting a complex picture with the use of simple elements.
Also, think about the number of times that you navigated back from a website because you couldn’t find what you were looking for on the web page in a matter of seconds?
Today the attention span of the digital user is 8 seconds and is rapidly decreasing. So serving the user with what they need most straightforwardly was the way to go in design.
At first, the whole concept of simplicity looked infuriating to me. But It made me realize that the new challenge was to fit in and prioritize your design over everything else, and I found a new purpose in my design career.
2 — Not Understanding Priorities
I hate to admit this, but when I first started, every day was a misery.
Trust me when I say this, I hated every single bit of my time.
I had completed a certain level of studies, and I was in this bubble where I believed that I wanted to make a difference in changing how we see the world (yes, very ambitious).
So I tried to fix everything that came my way, the way I thought was correct. So applied all the design rules, corrected every one when something was wrong.
And I pissed people off.
But at that time, I did not see that I was overstepping my boundary, but I felt that it was my responsibility to speak out.
I used up everything I had learned, brought in the design jargon, and related my tale. This pissed people off even more.
It almost escalated to me getting fired, and I figured out that picking a fight every single time is not going to help me get any better.
For the next two months on my job, I switched my role from being a narcissistic UI UX developer to a vivid listener.
I think that was my turning point because it was during the time that I understood that there was more to design than what I thought.
The meetings where I voiced my design dictionary out had project managers, backend developers, and business managers who had insights that went way into what I did.
Until then, I had not realized that they were voicing concerns in terms of UI and UX. That is when I realized what was going wrong.
I opened myself to understand what the real needs were and what my role was to fulfill these requirements.
My priority was to help the client dig out his expectation and not park my design view on his requirement.
After three months, I got myself back in on voicing opinions in meetings, and I spoke after collecting valuable input from all the stakeholders that were working on making a project successful and not just from my perspective.
Now, everyone listened.
Understanding teamwork and keeping my design ego aside was a valuable lesson for me, and if you are starting, it is always advisable to think this way.
Yes, your views and their views will not match, but always think of whatever you do in a holistic aspect and not just by your point of view.
3 — Not Asking for Help
Nobody in this world has everything figured out.
During most of my first few months, I suffered alone, trying to figure out everything all by myself. I was scared to show that I needed help, assuming that it would bring out the weak side of me.
I was wrong.
Instead of asking someone else to help out on my assignment, I ended spending countless hours fixated on one thing, and most of the time ended up getting nowhere.
Sometimes, the more we think of a problem, the more we restrict ourselves into a box. The harder I tried to find a solution, the lesser it made sense.
Most of the time, we need someone outside to help out. Don’t be afraid to ask help from someone when you are stuck or hit a dead end.
This lesson I learned the hard way, and I wished I had come to terms with it way earlier. Seeking out help does not make you less of a person, nor does it put you down professionally.
And most people are glad to help you out. You need to ask!
Two years into the UI UX profession, I try to help out anyone who comes seeking help. Also, I have not stopped me from asking for help either.
There are still things that I need help with, and I am glad to have a support team that brings in more clarity when I get stuck.
Also, do not go about assuming that people cannot help you because they are not from your field. The best advice I’ve got in my two years have come from people outside the design field — they were the developers and project managers.
The beauty of it is that they see my problem from a completely different angle and, this helped me understand the missing pieces.
Everyone has something to offer. Your challenge is to get the best out of everyone and apply it to your life.
Don’t be shy. Be honest and seek help.
Even superheroes call out for help. What is stopping you?
Looking back, I am glad that I picked out this avenue. I was passionate about design, and something clicked when I was working with interfaces and elements.
But I am even more glad that the two forced me out of a shell to become a better individual. | https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/3-things-my-ui-ux-design-career-taught-me-that-i-wished-i-knew-when-i-started-865ab60cfd6f | ['Ananthakrishna S'] | 2020-12-18 00:55:31.821000+00:00 | ['Careers', 'UI Design', 'Startup', 'Ui Ux', 'Life Lessons'] |
Ode to the Playful Mind | A meditation on the pleasures of a playful mind
One not concerned with the where and the when
But seduced by the how and the why
A cat and mouse curiosity
Where fact begets finding
Where the rules and the points don’t matter
Your move, my move, your guess, my guess
A random thought with nothing to prove
A willful, wonderful mess
A finger-painted portrait of desire and delight
A dream of being yellow and round
and shiny and bright
To chose so quickly
That the moment was imperceptible
The green brick on the gray one
The wayward clump of clay
The pipe cleaner that connects time and space
Caught in the vortex of the toilet paper tube
The unfettered mind expands | https://medium.com/imperfect-words/ode-to-the-playful-mind-302d644e70d7 | ['Jac Gautreau'] | 2020-11-23 02:51:25.662000+00:00 | ['Play', 'Poetry', 'Youth', 'Art', 'Creativity'] |
Stocks Risks Analysis with Python | Python for Financial Analysis
Stocks Risks Analysis with Python
Understanding Stocks Volatilities
Image by Nicholas Capello available at Unsplash
Stock Market and Investments
There is one main fundamental principle to make a profit out of investments in the stock market: sell stocks at a higher price than what you paid for. In other words: buy low, sell high. As simple as it sounds, but not as simple as it is.
However, there is always a time lapse between the stock price at its acquisition and its price at its selling; either its price increases or drops. For some stocks, the time required to increase (or decrease) their price is shorter or longer than for others. This is due to a company’s recent activity and the market opinion/sentiment on it based on its results, growth, goals, change in management or strategic plans.
Risk, Volatility and Return
A stock’s risk is measured (along with other metrics) by its volatility; in other words: by its growth’s degree of steadiness.
The higher the stock risk (i.e. high volatility), the greater the probability of a higher return (or loss). On the other hand, the lower the stock risk (i.e. low volatility), the greater the probability of a smaller return (or loss). This is commonly known as the Risk Return Trade Off, which is encountered by every investor while considering investment decisions.
In these decisions, it all comes to two factors when determining which stocks to buy: the time an investor is willing to hold it and the desired return/profit (in term of percentage gains).
Consider the following scenarios:
If an investor would like to make a huge profit in a short period of time , he/she would have to invest in high volatile stocks and hope to catch positive streaks. Even though this represents the best scenario, it is also the one with the highest investment risk. Example: an increase of 20% in your portfolio value in 1 day.
in a , he/she would have to invest in high volatile stocks and hope to catch positive streaks. Even though this represents the best scenario, it is also the one with the highest investment risk. Example: an increase of 20% in your portfolio value in 1 day. If an investor would like to make a moderate profit in a short period of time , he/she would have to look for low volatile stocks and hope to catch a positive streak. This represents a short-term investment scenario with moderate investment risk. Example: an increase of 3% in your portfolio value in 1 day.
in a , he/she would have to look for low volatile stocks and hope to catch a positive streak. This represents a short-term investment scenario with moderate investment risk. Example: an increase of 3% in your portfolio value in 1 day. If an investor would like to make a moderate profit in a long period of time , he/she would have to look for low volatile stocks with positive trends. This represents the most conservative scenario with the lowest investment risk. Example: an increase of 3% in your portfolio value in 1 year.
in a , he/she would have to look for low volatile stocks with positive trends. This represents the most conservative scenario with the lowest investment risk. Example: an increase of 3% in your portfolio value in 1 year. If an investor would like to make a huge profit in a long period of time, he/she would have to look for low volatile stocks with positive trends and hold them for a more extended period of time. This represents a long-term investment scenario with low investment risk. Example: an increase of 20% in your portfolio value in 5 years.
Nowadays, investors are encouraged to leverage the applications and benefits of multiple programming languages and software to analyze stocks’ risks, trends and volatilities to build effective decision support systems and make optimum and trustworthy decisions. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/stocks-risks-analysis-with-python-d584bc08f938 | ['Roberto Salazar'] | 2020-12-12 12:50:28.353000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Finance', 'Data Science', 'Programming', 'Stock Market'] |
About Me — Stephanie Gibson. “I’m selfish, impatient and a little… | 1990–1995 | Singapore | C.H.I.J. Punggol
That stands for “Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus” — yes this little one went to an all-girls Catholic Convent during her primary school days… complete with a nun for a principal, the blue pinafore uniform with white Bata/canvas shoes, and prayer mornings every Friday.
I’m pretty sure it was also in those very impressionable young years that little Stephanie had an admiration towards her classmate, Genevieve, and one of her teacher whom she wanted to grow up to look and be like. Later that admiration became quite clear that she admired them in a not-so-platonic way. Let’s move on, this got weird fast.
1996–2000 | Singapore | Xin Min Secondary School
This was one of the more prestigious neighborhood schools back in the day. It was also a co-ed school which made my parents rather uncomfortable knowing I was in the presence of the male counterparts… little did they know…
But going to a good secondary school was all that mattered. Sure, I didn’t make the Raffles Girls School caliber but this was second best, I guess. I generally got good grades and I represented the school in sports so I’d say I was one of the girl-jocks.
There were different groups in the school… the popular kids were ranked by how well they did in sports. Volleyball and badminton were the two more popular sports that the school was known for. I was in badminton for a year, did really well but training 6 days a week took a toll on my grades so mommy dearest insisted I choose something less demanding. I became the vice-captain of the Netball team. Still good, just not crazy popular.
Of course there were the nerds, the gangsters, the drama club kids, and so on. I wished I went to drama club… I had always loved acting but sports was more important to me then.
At the end of secondary school and at the mercy of the Singaporean education system, my grades determined the possibilities of my career prospects. In fact, all throughout your primary and secondary school years, the education system categorizes you into predetermined career possibilities depending on your grades.
**Digression alert**
I was going to do a whole blog on this but let me explain here… what this means is that a nine year-old kid who happens to be a little slower in their intellectual development and doesn’t do well in the streaming examinations get put into an “EM3” bucket that inherently predetermines him/her to do more technical/practical careers (like carpentry, etc.). At the age of 12, if you happen to be a little lazy and/or have no motivation and you don’t do too well in the PSLE (primary school leaving examination), you get posted to secondary schools that aren’t too prestigious or don’t generally have top tier graduates.
Then when in secondary school you are divided into the following streams and the number of years to graduation (depending on your exam scores which determine your level of intellect): Normal Technical (5 years), Normal Academic (5 years), Express and Gifted (both 4 years). Normal Academic students have the opportunity to be promoted to the Express stream if you do well in years 1 and 2. The Express stream is also divided into 1–6 with Express1 taking subjects like higher math (A-Math), biology and higher sciences, while and Express6 students would take subjects like commerce, accounting, E-math, and general sciences. Arts was an elective.
I think you’re getting what I’m trying to say. You don’t really get second chances if you are an academic late bloomer or if you suddenly get motivated or see the importance of education when you’re 14! Yours truly was an EM2 primary student and a Express5&6 secondary student. No surprises that I’m not the doctor or lawyer like my parents wanted.
***
Guess what I’m about to say… you got it: depending on your O’level grades, you get to apply to Junior College for 2 years (which then allows you to have easier admission to the government Universities) or you apply to a 3-year polytechnic program in the career area of your choice (if you can get in!) to get a diploma. And thereafter decide if you want to apply to University for a Bachelor’s degree. Normal Technical graduates typically attend technical school.
I went to film school. | https://medium.com/about-me-stories/about-me-stephanie-gibson-cd0d51a6f1da | ['Steph Gibson', 'She Her'] | 2020-12-16 00:02:26.389000+00:00 | ['About Me', 'Writing', 'Biography', 'Autobiography', 'Life'] |
Centering the Earth | ENVIRONMENT
Centering the Earth
Something remarkable is happening in 2020
Something remarkable is happening in the US in 2020 in terms of public awareness of race.
The George Floyd uprising, two months in duration so far, has brought formerly fringe ideas into the mainstream, shifting the entire frame of discourse to the left. The breakthroughs we are experiencing this summer might feel sudden, but they follow decades of activism, with all its labor, learning and dedication. People have been pushing for awhile. The murder of George Floyd was a “last straw” event.
One notable change is that the street actions in Minneapolis and other cities have been made up of diverse crowds that are led by people of color, with whites taking the backseat. This change in centering has been very welcome.
In the last couple weeks, a new element was added to the mix when Trump sent federal law enforcement officers to Portland, Oregon, to attack protesters. Nightly demonstrations in that city, which–though continuous since May–had dwindled to a hundred or so participants, then exploded into the thousands when these officers began nabbing people off the street and packing them into unmarked vehicles. This is the stuff the fascist regimes are made of, and people have been rightly alarmed.
The Feds have had their hands full as new waves of protesters have faced off with them in defense of the George Floyd / Black Lives Matter protesters. The “Wall of Moms” gained national attention, as did the “Dad-archists” with their leaf blowers for repelling tear gas. A Wall of Vets is the newest addition. All these efforts have been explicitly in support of Black-led actions. For example, Wall of Moms members who are white defer from talking to the press, as I found out when seeking an interview for my podcast. All speak of “centering” POC.
I put the word “centering” in quotation marks not to disparage it, but to draw attention to the concept it denotes. The term wasn’t in circulation that I know of ten years ago but now it’s common currency. In part for being visual, it effectively captures the essence of the act of deliberately choosing to prioritize. Given that so much of our settler-colonial culture is about coasting along in ignorance, the emphasis on cultivating attention is desperately needed. One “centers” through an act of conscious will, purposely shifting one’s perspective, as a way to provide one’s support meaningfully and effectively.
“Centering”–and much else of what we’re seeing that’s positive–is being brought to the fore in large part by young people, and this too is very welcome. The leadership class of the US at the federal level is a bona fide gerontocracy at this point, like the last days of the Soviet Union. A major housecleaning is needed. (Or a new house. Or no house at all.) The young people definitely know this, and if we’re going to center people by age, we ought to be centering them. Alas, that we have more “olders” than “elders” in the US, to quote a teacher I once had.
Regardless, shifts are happening, with our without the acquiescence of those in charge. I am personally encouraged because it feels like some energy is moving in the right direction for the first time in a long while.
If we continue in this direction, further lessons will be learned, and more old baggage will get dropped. What we center will also develop; we will go deeper, and the circle of liberation will grow. What will it look like to center Native Americans in the US? How about when the world’s “developed” countries center the planet’s remaining indigenous cultures?
That last step leads to centering the earth. Centering humans, as too many of us have done for too long (since at least the agricultural revolution), has led to unmitigated disaster all around. The oceans are full of plastic and over-fished. The land is deforested, drained, ranched, farmed and mined. The air’s altered chemistry is changing the climate. Overall, domestication has been a real killer and we’re among the victims.
The George Floyd uprising was brought to us by cell phone culture. The original crime was recorded on a cell phone and then spread by social media, which is designed for the device. Millions viewed it and took to the streets. Thanks to the cell phone, and to years of work by activists, police brutality became a mainstream issue and POC are becoming centered as the leaders to follow.
The cell phone is an invention of a culture centered on humans, so the effects to the earth are written off as the cost of doing business by virtually everyone. Rare earth mining harms people of color in other countries, centering one class of humans over another. The mines destroy habitat for living creatures both on-site and off, centering humans above nature. If we were centering the earth, we would not have cell phones or cops or class, and we’d undoubtedly be better off.
Farmworkers have suffered especially bad living and working conditions during the COVID pandemic, which again is centering one class of humans over another. Agriculture is the leading cause of habitat destruction worldwide. Between crop-growing and animal-pasturing, half of the planet’s habitable land is used for farming. That’s all habitat that’s impacted or wiped out, centering humans above nature. If we were centering the earth, we would not be farming and we’d undoubtedly be better off.
There’s no jobs on a dead planet. And no justice or peace either. Yet our collective death cult continues.
The fact that the dominant culture is centering humans might seem impossible to change, but that seemingness is itself a feature of the culture, and what is presented as inevitable is actually aberrational. This is one of the lessons of 2020.
Change happens when’s there’s critical mass. One person filming the cops in Minneapolis ended up moving the ground under our feet as a nation. But such sparks are unpredictable and probably impossible to trigger on purpose. So, it’s all about being ready when the wave hits, with a willingness change ourselves most of all. | https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/centering-the-earth-f12f4263d2e7 | ['Kollibri Terre Sonnenblume'] | 2020-08-01 00:22:39.576000+00:00 | ['Consciousness', 'Environment', 'BlackLivesMatter'] |
Why Facial Features Matter in Your Dating and Professional Life | Why Facial Features Matter in Your Dating and Professional Life
Exploring the impact of featurism
Characteristics like your skin tone, hair texture, and facial features reflect unique qualities. Perhaps your wide nose looks like your fathers’, and your kinky, brown hair reminds family members of your mother. People inherit these traits from their parents, but each person is one of a kind. Each face has a story to tell, reflecting a lifetime of experiences and heritage.
Despite natural variances, many white people claim they do not see race. They insist they would never judge someone based on their physical characteristics. However, modern research contradicts their feature-blind declaration. The human brain is hardwired to recognize facial features with very few exceptions.
Some people suffer from prosopagnosia because of damage to their temporal lobe. Unfortunately, this disorder prevents people from identifying facial features, a condition called face-blindness. Unless someone has this disorder or a visual impairment, they can tell the difference between a wide nose and a thin one.
Humans are naturally visually-oriented. More than 50 percent of the cortex processes visual information. First, people see. Then, people think about what they saw. Their brain attempts to make sense of the external world, shaping their sense of reality.
When someone claims they do not see race-defining characteristics like skin color or facial features, their statement contradicts everything we know about the human brain. Modern physiology shows that most humans visually identify facial features. Thus, society should move on to explore the notion of bias in response to these natural variations.
The results showed that both skin tone and facial features independently affected how negatively, as opposed to positively, whites felt toward Blacks using both implicit and explicit measures (Hagiwara, Kashy, & Cesario, 2012).
White people recognize Afrocentric features. Research shows that seeing a Black person elicits negative rather than positive emotions. While many white people want to believe they do not judge based on race, modern research shows most white people feel animosity, instead of love, at first sight.
No matter who a white person marries or votes for, their implicit bias shapes their world view. Facial features matter in professional and interpersonal settings because people develop feelings and make snap decisions based on their first look. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/why-facial-features-matter-in-your-dating-and-professional-life-ead84ed7ecce | ['Allison Gaines'] | 2020-12-07 16:40:05.096000+00:00 | ['Equality', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Psychology', 'Race', 'Women'] |
Death Decisions: What’s the Responsible Thing to Do With Our Bodies? | Death Decisions: What’s the Responsible Thing to Do With Our Bodies?
With a growing population and limited space, it’s time to get serious about corpses.
I recently traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where as part of a guided walking tour of the city, I visited Recoleta Cemetery. Many of the country’s most notable figures are laid to rest at this cemetery, including Eva Peron (aka Evita). The cemetery is filled with ornate mausoleums, designed to impress and signify each family’s wealth and importance.
Wandering through the narrow lanes of mausoleums, I couldn’t resist peering into the crypts. Most featured a front gate of metal bars or glass, both of which made looking in easy. Inside, small altars were flanked by columns of neatly stacked coffins. While some were well-maintained with polished coffins and vases of fresh flowers on the altars, others were in serious disrepair. Inside the forgotten mausoleums, the columns had collapsed, leaving mildew-covered caskets strewn about dusty floors.
Neglected mausoleum at Recoleta Cemetery
It was the neglected mausoleums that got me thinking. As we plan our final resting places, who are they for? For the living, there’s no doubt ego plays a role. People spend small fortunes on their burials. For a mausoleum at Recoleta Cemetery, the price tag apparently runs as high as quarter of a million dollars. In the U.S., the median cost of an adult funeral with viewing and burial is $7,640, according to the National Funeral Directors Association.
In the face of the finality of death, I understand the impulse to want something to mark that you were here, lived, and are worth remembering. These final resting places also provide a spot for friends and family to visit and pay their respects. But after a few years have passed, I suspect most graves attract few if any visitors. And while the materials selected to construct gravestones are meant to stand the test of time, after a hundred years or so, even the nicest stones start to fade and crack.
If we’re looking at things objectively, and with a healthy dose of humility, isn’t it fair to ask whether cemeteries are an inefficient use of space? In the United States alone, 2.8 million people die each year; which is roughly same size as the population of Chicago. As our population continues to grow, land, especially in urban areas, is a precious resource needed for housing and recreation.
For urban planners, there are interesting solutions from abroad that are worth exploring. In Germany, cemeteries are being repurposed as parks and gardens. In Japan, facilities have been built to store thousands of urns underground. When family members visit these facilities, their loved ones’ ashes are mechanically summoned to a viewing room, and then safely returned underground after the visit has ended. And in London, graves are being reused, and after 75 years of burial if there are no objections, the original casket is lowered deeper into the ground for a new coffin to be placed on top. | https://medium.com/climate-conscious/death-decisions-whats-the-responsible-thing-to-do-with-our-bodies-eda36156fdcc | ['Jonathan Kuhl'] | 2020-02-27 15:05:19.465000+00:00 | ['Environment', 'Death', 'Green Living', 'Climate Action', 'Funerals'] |
A day in my life: Erik Nugroho in WFP Indonesia | A day in my life: Erik Nugroho in WFP Indonesia
Another day, another rewarding call
By Erik Nugroho, Programme Associate, with Nadya S Pryana, Reports & Information Management Officer
Programme Associate Erik Nugroho at his desk in Jakarta. Photo: WFP/Yogasta Maharani
It’s the loveliest time of the week — Monday 8 am. My body still aches a bit from 50 km weekend cycling yesterday, which honestly almost broke my muscles but very much lifted my spirits after a tiring week. For a few days now, on behalf of the Emergency and Response Unit in the World Food Programme (WFP) Indonesia office in Jakarta, I have been leading training sessions for community volunteers for disaster response, referred to as TAGANA in the Bahasa Indonesian language.
WFP conducts this training in partnership with the Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA), which is in charge of leading policies and programmes designed to protect people from shocks and stresses — including the ones induced by disasters. MOSA manages the TAGANA personnel, whose objective is to deliver first-response to disaster at the community level. TAGANA staff educate locals, minimize casualties and provide a rapid, extra layer of ‘protection’ in difficult times.
A long history of partnership
WFP, particularly its Emergency Preparedness and Response Unit, has a long history of supporting partners in leading, coordinating, and managing the response to complex emergencies, disasters and pandemics. In Indonesia, my team serves this mission by providing capacity building and technical assistance to government-led disaster management.
We aim to make effective government-led disaster response a reality for this country.
In the TAGANA training, we support MOSA in helping community volunteers respond to the COVID-19 outbreak — to know what to do in this pandemic, to have sufficient knowledge on pandemic risk reduction, coordination mechanism, personal safety, and security protocols while on duty. Those are the goals I’m striving for, amidst sleepless nights, busy days, and — you’d be surprised to find out how often this happens — technical problems.
As I wait for my screens (yes, plural — I need three screens for the training to go as smoothly as possible) to fire up, I think about how different this set of activities compares to before. This time, with every event needing to be conducted online because of COVID-19, it has been particularly demanding.
Erik conducts a training session online. Photo: WFP/Yogasta Maharani
Not sure how to get hundreds of non-tech savvy people familiar with Zoom? Check. Maintaining a high level of energy to keep participants active although I can’t see them in person? Check. And don’t make me start about fatigue due to excessive screen time.
All colleagues know I love my job but COVID-19 has been tough — and unique. It has been more than 15 years since I first joined WFP, and I have been involved in various disaster responses: tsunami, earthquake, even Ebola outbreak, but I have never seen anything like this. It is a massive global disaster where everything ‘looks’ normal — at least in Jakarta no roads collapsed, all infrastructures are intact — but things are damaged nevertheless in almost every part of the world. Restricted mobilization, halted logistics, economic and psychological burdens are rife. Not to mention the public health problem itself.
Like most people I cannot go to the office, and have not met my colleagues and government partners since March this year.
Ding! “Selamat pagi, Mas Erik.” (“Good morning, Erik.”).
That greeting pulls me out of my zoning-out bubble. “Pagi Pak” (“Morning Sir.”). I plug in my headphones. As I quickly scan the participant list, I sigh in relief seeing the other facilitators are already on the call. A total of eight agencies and organizations are onboard: UNICEF, WHO, IOM, IFRC, RedR Indonesia, Atma Jaya University, with of course WFP and MOSA. Topics shared in the training vary: initiating WASH [water, sanitation and hygiene] support, logistics, psychosocial support to the communities, health and so on.
I look at the clock. OK — 9 am, here we go. I start the training.
Many people join on their phones
The session usually takes place from 9am to 2pm. Combining all sessions in five weeks, we will be speaking to almost 800 TAGANA personnel coming from more than eight provinces in the country. I see people joining in on their phones — some are in an office, many are outdoors where the signal is better.
Hopefully there is no connection problem again today. I immediately think of Oggi, my colleague who is extremely helpful in navigating the technical arrangements. If anything does happen, Oggi must come to the rescue.
Quite literally after I finish that thought, a big chunk of TAGANA personnel from one area ‘leave’ the call.
…literally.
Technical problems may be something that most of us couldn’t care less about. What’s the worst that could happen — perhaps the signal’s not good and there is nothing we can do about it, is there? However, it is worth mentioning that in Indonesia there are thousands of areas where the connection is limited. If we don’t think about this, we might as well give up on the idea that every TAGANA in every area deserves to have its capacity strengthened, to learn something useful for its work.
As I grunt with slight helplessness and think what to do with the ‘exodus’, I notice that my phone is blinking. A text: “Listrik mati, pindah ke rumah Pak S di Karanganyar.” (“Power outage, we have to move to [and join the training from] Mr S’ house in Karanganyar.”).
Erik is passing on his experience to others. Photo: WFP/Yogasta Maharani
A smile on my face. Rest assured the safety protocols are intact. It is encouraging to see how the TAGANA personnel are thriving and excited to get going against all odds. I can worry about connectivity and the fact that they don’t have personal, stable internet connection — but in the end their willingness to go beyond the limitations matters the most.
Hours go by and the training has been going all right, when it’s time for me to close the session. Five minutes ago I received a message from one of the directors in MOSA asking for a discussion on policy immediately after this training, so I intend to finish the session on time. Sherry, my team member, is also ready to hop on the policy discussion call.
Sherry and I are very keen to have this kind of policy conversations with decision makers and key officials in MOSA. Policy advocacy, along with training and capacity strengthening activities in general, is the main focus of WFP’s Indonesia office.
Part of something bigger
I am thinking about this when a TAGANA staffer interrupts my thoughts, “Mas Erik, bisa saya berpendapat tentang kegiatan hari ini?” (“Erik, can I share my thoughts about today’s training?”).
Little do I know that what comes after will be a delight.
He goes on to explain how he thinks that the material shared today is “not on his level”. At first I think that is a negative sentiment and indicates irrelevance of the material. But apparently, after we discuss it a bit more, this training makes him realize that he is not only a person who moves boxes from truck to warehouses. He is part of something bigger — a system, a larger chain of distributions logistics, and disaster response in general. This sense of connection wasn’t there before — but it is now. Isn’t this what learning is all about — an illumination, a richer understanding?
When it’s 5 pm sharp, my day abruptly ends as I need to pick up my wife from her office. But the work that I do is not even close to the end line. I am not even sure whether there is ever a hard ‘finish’ line for my mission — improving disaster management is an ever-progressing target. It is a destination, so I have no other option but to keep moving towards it. One day at a time. One call at a time.
Through its Emergency Preparedness and Response Unit, WFP Indonesia plans to strengthen the Government of Indonesia’s preparedness and response capacity. Our main strategies include strengthening coordination, capacity development and policy advocacy. | https://medium.com/world-food-programme-insight/a-day-in-my-life-erik-nugroho-in-wfp-indonesia-bc565c9b1b04 | ['World Food Programme'] | 2020-08-21 08:38:31.409000+00:00 | ['Disaster', 'Indonesia', 'Disaster Response', 'Training', 'Coronavirus'] |
How I am learning Go and Julia Together | I will start a simple python problem and will see how we can design it in Julia and Go. If you are a beginner programmer and Do not know Object Oriented Programming you might want to read about OOP in Python before you go further.
Let’s say we have a database of article where each row represent a article and it has five columns (think as it is stored in a sql database) Content, Link, Title, Image (CDN link of image) so we want to read any article and hold it into memory and implement some operation on the attributes, How we design that in Python?
class Article:
def __init__(self, content, links, title, image):
self.content = content
self.links = links
self.title = title
self.image = image
I would create an object where I pass my data and implement some methods on it. So how we create an instance of an object:
# an instance of the the Article Object
go_n_julia = Article(
content="How I learn go and Julia Together",
link="https://asdasdasdasdf.com/go-julia....",
title="Modern Languages",
image="https://aws.amazon.com-us-west....."
)
Now Go and Julia does not have these principle. In Julia we have to define our own type and Create a value of that type.
# Julia Version of Implementation struct Article
content::String
link::String
title::String
image::String
end
"How I learn go and Julia Together",
"
"Modern Languages",
"
) go_n_julia = Article("How I learn go and Julia Together", https://asdasdasdasdf.com/go-julia ....","Modern Languages", https://aws.amazon.com-us-west ....."
So as in Go, It will be the same concept. Create your own type and create value of that types to hold custom data:
// Go Version of Implementation type Atricle struct {
content string
link string
title string
image string
} // Here we are using short deceleration variable signature :=
"How I learn go and Julia Together",
"
"Modern Languages",
"
} go_n_julia := Atricle{"How I learn go and Julia Together", https://asdasdasdasdf.com/go-julia ....","Modern Languages", https://aws.amazon.com-us-west .....",
So switching from Python to Go and Julia What have changed?
Object (changes to) →Type (struct signature)
Instance of Object →Value of Type
Moving from Julia to ( →) Go What have changed?
The signature definition: struct Article … end → type Atricle struct {} but they are both new defined type
→ but they are both new defined Primitive type deceleration inside of struct :: →nothing
→nothing Creating a value: Article() → := Atricle{}
But the design principle will be same in Go and Julia. If we want to switch from python to Julia and Go. We have to switch our thinking from Object Oriented to Type Oriented, I call it Data Oriented programming. Instead of defining methods for Object in Python, we have to define methods for types in Julia and Go. As both Julia and Go are not object oriented, object inheritance will be replace by type Inheritance and Polymorphism will be our primary interest.
Lets see another example How we can attach some method to some type in both language. Lets implement a show title method in python object which will print the name of the article when calling.
class Article:
def __init__(self, content, link, title, image):
self.content = content
self.link = link
self.title = title
self.image = image
def show_title(self):
print(self.title)
go_n_julia = Article(
content="How I learn go and Julia Together",
link="https://asdasdasdasdf.com/go-julia....",
title="Modern Languages",
image="https://aws.amazon.com-us-west....."
)
go_n_julia.show_title()
Here we have defined a function called show_title which print title of the article. Lets implement it Julia and Go.
# Implementation In Julia struct Article
content::String
link::String
title::String
image::String
end # a::Article ensure that the function can only except a value of
# type Article function showTitle(a::Article)
println(a.title)
end
"How I learn go and Julia Together",
"
"Modern Languages",
"
) goJulia = Article("How I learn go and Julia Together", https://asdasdasdasdf.com/go-julia ....","Modern Languages", https://aws.amazon.com-us-west ....." showTitle(goJulia)
To make a full functional call in go, we need to add few convention to the program for example adding package main , assigning variable and then declare it inside of main function. But still the concept is same, we can attach method to functions.
package main import "fmt" type Atricle struct {
content string
link string
title string
image string
} // define a variable goJulia of type Article var goJulia Atricle // the function name is showTitle() but the (a Article)
// ensure that it is attached to only value of type Article func (a Atricle) showTitle() {
fmt.Println(a.title)
}
goJulia = Atricle{
"How I learn go and Julia Together",
"
"Modern Languages",
"
} func main() {goJulia = Atricle{"How I learn go and Julia Together", https://asdasdasdasdf.com/go-julia ....","Modern Languages", https://aws.amazon.com-us-west .....", goJulia.showTitle()
}
So what is the difference in Go and Julia for defining Methods?
Function signature: function name(receiver::type) … end vs func (receiver type) name(){...}
vs Executing method: methodName(value) vs value.methodName()
There are so many differences exist in both language though, but here I was trying to find the common ground to make my learning smooth and easy.
When writing Julia code we always need to think about Multiple Dispatch which has a vital role in Julia on the other hand where in Go we have to think about Pointer and Interfaces. Julia offer mutable and abstract struct but go offers pointers and interfaces for struct (Julia has the concept of using interface but not used widely). Also there is major differences in how the code execute and compiled in both language. But here my point is,
Can you learn the both language together? and The answer is Yes. As both of them are not object oriented rather type oriented language and That common ground makes design thinking very similar in Go and Julia. If you know one Slavic language it’s easier to get another.
I usually use python for everything Data Processing, Analysis, Machine Learning and Web Application (Flask). But I am hoping end of the year, I will be able to move my Data Science stack to Julia (Analysis, Modeling, Visualization) and Data Processing, system programs, CLIs, Streaming, ML model deployment and Web application to Go successfully. | https://medium.com/swlh/how-i-am-learning-go-and-julia-together-40ef133c3b65 | [] | 2020-06-15 18:49:56.518000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Julialang', 'Programming Languages', 'Golang', 'Data Engineering'] |
Feature Encoding Made Simple With Spark 2.3.0 — Part 1 | “Every decoding is another encoding” ~ David Lodge
As mentioned in the previous blog, the next few blogs will focus on feature engineering. A lot of work in a machine learning project comes down to it. Whether we like it or not we spend 95% of our time on generating that feature vector that will bring out the best in our data.
Spark provides a lot of leeway on how we can optimize this process. I am going to briefly touch on the types of encoding I’ve found useful and then go more into detail on the problems you might face when using big data. For the purpose of this blog post I assume you have a basic awareness of spark functions and its data types. If not, for a reasonable background understanding, please refer to this documentation.
Pipelines:
I am going to start with pipelines because it makes streamlining your feature transformations easier. The main concept behind pipelines is to combine complex algorithms and transformations to create a workflow. Suppose you have to one hot encode some categorical features and run a xgboost model. You would take the following steps.
Index categorial features
Encode to one hot vectors
Assemble to a feature vector
Train model
These four steps can be run as a sequence of pipeline stages to form a workflow. The data pre processing part will be a bunch of transformers (like the one hot encoder) and estimators that will be fit to the input dataframe. A pipeline object can be created as follows:
Note: the uid here “myPipeline” is optional
Lets see how we can include stages and fit the pipeline model to the input dataframe. We can use one of the feature indexing methods called the string indexer in spark to understand both string indexer and pipelines.
String Indexer:
String Indexer encodes a column of string labels/categories to a column of indices. The ordering of the indices is done on the basis of popularity and the range is [0, numOfLabels). Lets take a toy example of a simple dataframe. | https://towardsdatascience.com/feature-encoding-with-spark-2-3-0-part-1-9ede45562740 | ['Roshini Johri'] | 2018-11-26 17:27:27.312000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Pipeline', 'Spark', 'Big Data', 'Feature Engineering'] |
Word Made Flesh | “I” am a hundred and fifty-odd pounds of warm brain, nerves and crimson blood and sensations running through every inch of me. I am a single pulsing system that is conscious of itself, and of the sunlight, and of the wind hushing and stirring my hair. My body has gut instincts; my emotions live in my lungs, my intestines. My fingertips are the distal ends of my mind.
For years I wanted to celebrate this self by marking my flesh with a tattoo. Its ink would be a declaration of self-possession: “Be warned, world, this body you see is also a mind.”
A tattoo, but of what? Could something as messy as my living, breathing identity have its essence captured in ink?
The question threaded and curled unseen at the back of my mind. Day by day I tried to reason my way through it. | https://kluidens.medium.com/word-made-flesh-5b47ec5ec2f1 | ['Karie Luidens'] | 2019-08-15 15:20:12.956000+00:00 | ['Expression', 'Identity', 'Tattoo', 'Illustration', 'Writing'] |
The power of empathy through user research | Conducting the research
There are many ways to conduct quantitative research and qualitative research, it just depends on what the project is and what you need to find out. To understand how both methods complement each other and play important roles, take a look here.
One of the popular uses of quantitative research is to test a hypothesis. It works by using larger samples and (often) statistical analysis to validate the hypothesis, and determine if something is true or not. The methods usually carried out in quantitative research are surveys, questionnaires or polls that gather numerical and objective data. On the other hand, qualitative research works with smaller samples, and often uses interviews, focus groups or case studies to look at how people behave, think and perceive something. The latter is more commonly used for discovery, where no current hypothesis and theory has been assumed. Qualitative research gives a bigger picture to identify the pain points and map out the requirements for the project. It also lets you see and understand the emotions and body language that adds more details to the research.
Photo by Felipe Furtado on Unsplash
My experience in conducting many user research sessions in my career has taught me the importance of empathising with users and truly wanting to solve the problems they have when using a product or service. Empathising helps me and UX designers actually think about the actual emotions they go through when trying to complete tasks in their everyday lives. Just imagine how much smoother and satisfying it is when a user is delighted when using a product? You know the feeling right?
Back in early 2017, I hired a lab to conduct user interviews and usability testing for a product I was working on. The qualitative method was chosen because of what we wanted to find out, but preparing for the lab session required a lot of work. For user interviews, the preparation involved writing a list of questions to identify the pain points and frustrations users had when interacting with a product in general. They also helped me discover what they expected to happen and to understand their experiences. This reflects on the bullet points in the previous section (Asking the right questions), by conducting the research to gain insights into the user problems.
For the preparation of usability testing, I wrote scenarios for users to complete, with follow up questions on each scenario. I was able to examine the user’s behaviour when performing each scenario, revealing opportunities to explore and identifying the problems users are having with the product or service in particular situations.
Photo by Adam Wilson on Unsplash
During the usability testing lab session, everything went as planned when finding the problems and seeing how users performed each task. Gathering a lot of data immediately is good as it gives you quite a lot to work with. On the next usability testing session, the participant was very engaged. She was passionate with every word and I knew I was onto something special in that session. As she was going through the tasks and thinking out loud, she was getting frustrated and confused. I felt an immediate connection, able to feel and see the emotions she was expressing whilst going through each scenario. Each task was making her life more difficult as she was going through them, the ‘affordance’ wasn’t there to guide her and that resulted in an angry and confused user.
Although the other participants were on the same boat, this particular participant was showing her passion, her emotions and desire for the product to work. I empathised with her, and it was this strong empathy that made me determined to get this right, to solve the problems and make the user’s life better. Although that’s the nature of a UXer, empathy gave me that extra strength and superpower that changed the way I solve problems. Putting myself in the user’s shoes through empathy, and seeing how frustrated and upset the user was, helped massively towards solving the problems. | https://medium.com/swlh/the-power-of-empathy-through-user-research-202502eb21d5 | ['Simon Hoang'] | 2020-06-26 09:42:59.311000+00:00 | ['Design Process', 'UX Design', 'Design', 'UX', 'UX Research'] |
The Barely Hidden Flaws in Jordan Peterson’s Scholarship | The Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University recently announced that, after further review, they had rescinded a fellowship previously offered to Canadian psychologist and self-help author Jordan Peterson. Other faculty members expressed doubt that an official offer was ever made in the first place. “It’s not clear to me that this ‘fellowship’ existed except as request by Peterson to affiliate to the Faculty,” English lecturer Priyamvada Gopal remarked on Twitter. “My guess: he asked a couple of professorial chums… in Divinity to give him a berth; he’d basically pay his way.”
Regardless of the actual circumstances, much of the media has run with the narrative that an offer was made and then rescinded. The Guardian cited a “backlash from faculty and students” as the cause for this decision, while Peterson’s own statement called those who blocked his appointment “conspiratorial, authoritarian and cowardly bureaucrats.” Right-wing outlet The National Review took this assessment a step further, characterizing the faculty who challenged Peterson as “petulant careerists” hell-bent on reviving the Inquisition.
Such criticism hinges on the notion that Peterson has controversial yet academically important ideas and that refusing to platform them is tantamount to intellectual dishonesty. But there is a far more compelling reason not to let Peterson’s assertions go uncontested: when it comes to his claims regarding ancient texts, Jordan Peterson is a dangerously sloppy scholar whose own sources contradict the very claims he uses them to make.
Last fall, in preparation for a paper I gave at a conference on Peterson and his influence, I read Maps of Meaning (1999), his 400-page magnum opus. In this volume, he lays out the philosophy he expounds upon in his newer book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, and his myriad YouTube lectures, with which I also spent perhaps a little too much time. (You can read my paper, with citations for everything in this post here, and you can watch my conference presentation here.)
While doing this research, I discovered an author who—despite his obvious passion for mythology and religion—does not study sacred texts in their historical contexts. In addition, he does not bother to investigate contemporary scholarship on any of the texts he cites. Instead, his understanding relies heavily on a handful of early- to mid-20th century authors like Carl Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell—three popularizers of myth who share, as religious scholar Robert Ellwood put it, “intellectual roots in the antimodern pessimism and romanticism that helped give rise to European fascism.” This is not to say that these authors have no value: I read them voraciously when I was younger, and I can tell you what I still think is useful about each. But serious scholars engage critically with primary sources and what has been said about those sources by experts in the field. Peterson, in contrast, mainly uses myths to suggest that his own personal worldview mirrors a natural, evolutionarily determined process. He does this by assuming that myths, too, are generally formed according to a similarly natural, evolutionarily determined process. But even ancient narratives have origin stories, and failing to understand a text in context is often a recipe for profoundly misunderstanding its significance.
The seven cuneiform tablets that comprise Enuma Elish, c. 7th century BCE. Image:
Much has been written on Peterson’s failure to support his arguments with relevant citations. My paper focuses on one particularly egregious instance which is foundational to the core thesis of Maps of Meaning: his handling of the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish, which he considers to be a “comprehensive exemplar” of archetypal narrative themes.
Recorded on seven tablets in Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform around the seventh century BCE—although composed several centuries earlier, possibly around the time of the reign of Hammurabi—Enuma Elish is one of the world’s oldest surviving examples of a (mostly) intact story. Its plot focuses on the exploits of Marduk, a fiery, heroic deity who slays Tiamat, the oceanic dragoness and mother of all life, and uses her flayed body to create the heavens and the earth.
Enuma Elish is a story written to justify a cosmic power grab that mirrors a real-life power grab.
Peterson talks a great deal about the adversarial relationship between order, which he reads as masculine, and chaos, which he reads as feminine. In a video called “Why Is Chaos Symbolized as Feminine” (a fan, rather than Peterson, provided the title), Peterson attributes this characterization to “fundamental social cognitive categories” that are integral to the human experience. He is careful to note that these tendencies do not correspond to male and female humans, but rather archetypal processes. Still, Peterson argues, consciousness is “always symbolically masculine,” and thus heroes tend to be male. The reason, we are told in this video, runs as deep as evolution itself:
And I think that’s because we evolved those categories as our fundamental representational archetypes and then we try to fit the world into those categories because that’s the categories that we evolved first, and we have to look at the world through those categories. We’re cognitively prisoners of our evolutionary history—or beneficiaries of it, that’s another way of thinking about it.
For Peterson, Marduk’s triumph over Tiamat not only exemplifies this dynamic, but also serves as evidence of its deep archetypal significance—after all, here it is playing out in this ancient story. He calls Enuma Elish one of the “archaic theories of creation” and devotes a significant portion of Maps of Meaning to mapping its characters and events onto his schema of the archetypal experience of the world.
But Peterson’s reading completely misses (and therefore misconstrues) the text’s historical purpose. This is no simple feat, given that Alexander Heidel points it out in the introduction to his 1951 translation of Enuma Elish, which Peterson cites as his source:
There can be no doubt that, in its present form, Enuma Elish is first and foremost a literary monument in honor of Marduk as the champion of the gods and the creator of heaven and earth. Its prime object is to offer cosmological justifications for Marduk’s advancement from the position as chief god of Babylon to that of head of the entire Babylonian pantheon.
All of the struggles portrayed in the epic, Heidel concludes, are placed there “to enhance the glory of Marduk and… justify his claim to sovereignty over all things visible and invisible.”
Subsequent translators have elaborated on Heidel’s assessment of Enuma Elish as politically motivated pastiche. W.G. Lambert, writing in 1965, proclaims the creation epic to be “not a norm of Babylonian or Sumerian cosmology,” but rather “a sectarian and aberrant combination of mythological threads” that cobbles together a narrative from various traditions “perverted to such an extent that conclusions based on this text alone are suspect.” Ola Wikander, a contemporary scholar who translated Enuma Elish into Swedish in 2005, believes a single writer authored the work, incorporating elements from earlier myths to fit an agenda that is likely concerned with justifying the transition from collective rule to monarchy.
The political context of this literary maneuver was an expansion of empire. During the reign of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE), famous for having his legal code inscribed in stone, the city-state of Babylon grew in regional power. With it grew the popularity of Marduk, whose power over humankind is invoked in the code’s prologue as a mirror to Hammurabi’s own power as “father to his subjects.” This political transformation, enacted with the aid of Hammurabi’s property laws—which included many new restrictions on the rights of women—was both symbolized and institutionalized by supplanting the old myths with new hierarchical pantheons led by male gods.
Enuma Elish is not a deeply ancient myth handed down generation to generation, nor a documentation of a revelation. It’s a story written to justify a cosmic power grab that mirrors a real-life power grab.
The epilogue of the Code of Hammurabi invokes Marduk as the head of the entire Babylonian pantheon. Image:
In Occidental Mythology—which Peterson also cites as a source for Maps of Meaning—Joseph Campbell draws a parallel between Zeus overthrowing the Titans of Greek mythology with the fate of Tiamat and her husband Apsu:
Such a mythology represents an actual historical substitution of cult: in both these instances, that of an intrusive patriarchal over an earlier matriarchal system. And in both cases, too, the main intention of the cosmic genealogy was to effect a refutation of the claims of the earlier theology in favor of the gods and moral order of the later.
The word “matriarchal” is a potential point of contention, as it might seem to imply that the conditions that preceded the new cults suffered from an opposite, and perhaps equally imbalanced, disparity of power. But it is precisely the imbalance of power that distinguishes the institution of patriarchal rule from its alternatives. For this reason, it can be useful to replace these gendered concepts with what Riane Eisler has termed “dominator” versus “partnership” cultures.
Any institutionalization of hierarchy tends to erase what came before it. In a passage not only cited but also quoted by Peterson, Jung protegé Erich Neumann explains how the “later development of patriarchal values,” and “male deities of the sun and light” had the effect of submerging aspects of the Great Mother, which can now be glimpsed only through the layers of history covering her image, but “cannot be viewed directly.” Interestingly, Peterson acknowledges the discrepancy between Neumann’s reading and his own in a footnote, but waves away any significance, declaring that for the purposes of his manuscript, “the precise temporal/historical relationship of the various deities to one another is of secondary importance, compared to the fact and meaning of their existence as eternal ‘categories’ of imagination.”
Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815–1887). Photo: Basel E. Ruf/Wikimedia Commons
In 12 Rules for Life, Peterson elaborates on this dismissive footnote, rather surprisingly conflating the idea that myths have contextual histories with the discredited notions of 19th-century Swiss anthropologist Johann Jakob Bachofen, who believed in a progression of societies, from the matriarchal Das Mutterrecht, to the hedonistic Dionysian, to the enlightened Apollonian. This oddly chosen straw man is swiftly knocked down and with it, apparently, the ideas that societies change over time and that myths reflect (and sometimes help institutionalize) political changes. What remains is Peterson’s firm antihistorical conviction that myths represent, first and foremost, the psychological struggle between consciousness—“always symbolically masculine” and the “Terrible Mother,” the “spirit of careless unconsciousness, tempting the ever-striving spirit of awareness and enlightenment down into the protective womb-like embrace of the underworld.”
The contradiction in that image of carelessness juxtaposed with protection is curious, as it seems to indicate a confusion over the nature of the underworld that hints at a lack of personal experience with what others mean by the term. Jung saw the journey to the underworld as “a descent into the cave of initiation and secret knowledge,” while Neumann compared the fear of the dragon to “the male’s fear of the female in general.” Rather than diving into the underworld himself, as Jung recommended his patients do, Peterson seems to guess at what’s down there, while attributing positive moral valence to the act of striving against it.
He’s wrong about mapping the universe of human experience onto this story for the same reason fundamentalist Christians often have incorrect notions about the Bible.
Even though the political function of Enuma Elish is obvious and important enough to have been mentioned by three of Peterson’s own sources—Heidel, Campbell, and Neumann—it figures into Maps of Meaning only as a dismissive footnote that misses the point of what it dismisses. In 12 Rules for Life, that dismissal resurfaces as a fatuous argument that utterly fails to engage with the history all three of his sources referenced. By Peterson’s own admission, his interest lies not in accurately grasping the historical context of myth, but in using myth to support preconceived notions about archetypes as “eternal ‘categories’ of imagination.” And yet his evidence for the primacy of those categories comes from the myths themselves, leaving us with a tail-biting bout of circular reasoning that calls to mind the illustration of the ouroboros that Peterson uses to illustrate the concept of chaos.
Image from ‘Maps of Meaning’ by Jordan Peterson (1999), p. 118, fig. 29
If Peterson effectively demonstrates anything with his reading of Enuma Elish, it’s that his personal philosophy regarding the entire nature of human consciousness maps neatly onto a patriarchal myth cobbled together from disparate sources in order to justify a power grab. He’s wrong about mapping the universe of human experience onto this story for the same reason fundamentalist Christians often have incorrect notions about the Bible: He completely ignores how the stories developed and imagines instead that they are simply evidence of some cosmic eternal truth that just so happens to line up with his politics.
Peterson is fond of opening his lectures by saying things like, “New Age people are very creative, but they can’t think critically. I can think critically.” An inspection of his handling of myth, however, reveals not only uncritical but also quasi-New Age tendencies. University of Amsterdam professor Wouter Hanegraaff defines New Age as “a complex of spiritualities which are no longer embedded in any religion… but directly in secular culture itself.” Like Peterson, New Age practitioners give individualistic twists to existing religious symbols, often ascribing them to secular domains like quantum mechanics or psychology. The popularity of New Age movements is, in part, a response to the pervasive Western idea that science and rationality will eventually render religious faith obsolete. Hanegraaff sees this idea as “wishful thinking on the part of convinced secularists.” Religion has not disappeared, but it has certainly been transformed.
Peterson has, to his credit, recognized the pervasiveness of this flawed narrative. He assumes his audience has no use for mythology and spends a significant portion of Maps of Meaning convincing readers of its value. “We have lost the mythic universe of the pre-experimental mind or have at least ceased to further its development,” he declares in one of the book’s more insightful passages. “That loss has left our increased technological power ever more dangerously at the mercy of our still unconscious systems of valuation.”
There is value in standing up straight with your shoulders back; it just can’t necessarily be read as a primal decree from ancient Mesopotamia.
It is no doubt partly because of a general ignorance of myth and religious symbolism that Peterson’s ideas seem brilliant to people who have never encountered his source material. But unfortunately his cosmology—in which militaristic hierarchies are justified and divinely decreed (even when we can trace their political origins)—not only fails to address the concrete problems caused by our “unconscious systems of valuation” but also perpetuates and reinforces those systems.
Long before Marduk seated himself at the head of the pantheon, the gods and goddesses of ancient Mesopotamia engaged in ecological dramas that ebbed and flowed with the forces of nature. In one annual celebration, the gender-fluid goddess Inanna rescued her consort Tammuz from the underworld, marking the return of rains and fertility to the soil. In this society, the legitimacy of the monarch was justified not by military might, but by becoming “beloved” by Inanna, earning the right to be “fit for her holy lap.” Ecofeminist readings of this myth point to the erotic as an order-bringing aesthetic, acknowledging the role that sexuality and the rhythms of natural processes bring to the creation and maintenance of life. A certain acknowledgment of this dynamic is implicit when Peterson notes that “women are nature for men because they are the force that selects for reproduction.” But rather than grappling with the moral implications of that force, he sells stories of subjugating it through hierarchical dominance—a transgression against the reality of nature with devastating real-world consequences.
It is not chaos, but our fear and visceral disgust toward the idea of chaos undermining civilization—often stemming from a lack of familiarity with what we fear—that drives us to build prisons, wage wars, and develop weapons that are the embodiment of all-consuming fire. Because we do not conceptualize the earth and its natural cycles as sacred, we disregard treaties made with the Indigenous peoples whose lands we have colonized and arrest those who designate themselves “water protectors.” Peterson’s philosophy, while it may inspire motivation at the individual level, is a deadly engine of status quo maintenance and self-justification at the cultural level. It is an ideology that denies it is ideology, hissing insults and flinging lawsuits at those who challenge its god-like powers of complacency.
All that said, I do not believe that everyone who has been helped by Peterson’s fatherly counsel is totally deluded—at least not insurmountably. There is value in standing up straight with your shoulders back; it just can’t necessarily be read as a primal decree from ancient Mesopotamia. The cult of capitalism dictates that competitiveness is hardwired into us to the exclusion of all other virtues, but there is also evidence that our ability to share and cooperate has played a formative role in our evolutionary development. One of Peterson’s strengths is that he understands how confirmation bias and unconscious motivations structure our belief systems, at least in theory. When he fails, it’s because he has forgotten to turn this wisdom on himself.
It is possible, however, to get something of value from Jordan Peterson’s self-help advice before moving on. Despite his flawed conclusions, Peterson has captured a rapt audience of young people who are now interested in the possibilities that religion and mythology have to offer, making staunch atheists like Sam Harris look dull and unimaginative by comparison.
But I don’t necessarily think that means that he belongs in a university religious studies department. Unless, of course, he plans to enroll as a student. | https://medium.com/s/story/jordan-peterson-is-a-very-poor-researcher-whose-own-sources-contradict-his-claims-464633558b75 | ['Emily Pothast'] | 2020-11-25 00:39:55.594000+00:00 | ['History', 'Religion', 'Jordan Peterson', 'Psychology', 'Mythology'] |
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Not all pieces will be accepted, but if yours doesn’t, try again. I’m trying to build a valuable resource for vocational, commercial writers. | https://medium.com/the-book-mechanic/submit-your-original-writing-story-to-the-book-mechanic-6d061634c095 | ['August Birch'] | 2020-11-23 15:30:10.037000+00:00 | ['Writing'] |
Trump Justice Department’s Prosecution Of Julian Assange Relies On Contrived Conspiracy Theory | Courthouse in Alexandria in the Eastern District Of Virginia, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was charged with violating the Espionage Act (Photo by Tim Evanson)
The superseding indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, which included a staggering 17 charges of violating the Espionage Act, was met with loud condemnation from news editors and press freedom groups.
But given the general reluctance to come off as supporters of Assange, very few of the statements engaged with the specifics alleged by prosecutors for the United States Justice Department.
In order to defend the First Amendment and investigative journalism itself, it is crucial to understand the timeline of events for Chelsea Manning’s disclosures to WikiLeaks and their publication in 2010.
I was one of the few reporters to travel to Fort Meade in Washington, D.C., and cover nearly every day of proceedings in Manning’s court-martial. Prosecutors pushed a contrived theory during her trial, which suggested Manning worked for Assange, as if she was an insider or spy that WikiLeaks turned against the U.S. government and recruited to steal documents for the media organization.
This theory is fundamental to the allegations in the superseding indictment against Assange, yet one massive dilemma for prosecutors exists — Chelsea Manning’s statement during her court-martial.
On February 28, 2013, Manning outlined in great detail her role in disclosing over a half million documents to WikiLeaks. She meticulously described each set of information, why she was drawn to releasing the documents to the public, and how she downloaded, prepared, and electronically transferred the documents to WikiLeaks.
Manning’s statement conflicts with the government’s theory so they are abusing the grand jury process. They are punishing her so she bends to their will and testifies in front of the grand jury, where they hope they will be able to discredit her statement.
The “Most Wanted Leaks” List From 2009
Central to the government’s conspiracy theory is the “Most Wanted Leaks List” from 2009.
The superseding indictment filed on May 23 argues WikiLeaks posted this list “organized by country and stated that documents or materials nominated to the list must ‘be likely to have political, diplomatic, ethical, or historical impact on release…and be plausibly obtainable to a well-motivated insider or outsider.’”
On May 14, 2009, WikiLeaks requested nominations from human rights groups, lawyers, historians, journalists, and activists for documents as well as databases from around the world that the media organization would work to expose.
“It was WikiLeaks saying, look, tell us, humanitarians, activists, NGOs, fellow reporters, what do you want to know in your country? What in your country is being hidden from the public that you believe the public should know? Give us a list,” David Coombs, Manning’s defense attorney, said during closing argument for her trial.
Coombs added, “We are going to compile that list, and we are going to work to obtain that list. What does this sound like? Any journalistic organization that has like a hotline or anything else says, call us. You got a story. Call us. We’ll investigate.”
Manning deployed to Forward Operating Base Hammer in October 2009, which was about 35 miles east of Baghdad. Just weeks after, military prosecutors suggested she started “working for WikiLeaks.”
But out of 78 items on the list, Coombs noted the military prosecutors were only able to “remotely” tie her to “four of the things on the list.”
On June 8, 2013, the defense heavily disputed whether Manning had ever seen a draft of the “Most Wanted Leaks” list. Manning did not mention the list at all in her statement to the court.
“Pfc. Manning had access to a lot of information — certainly on the other countries. And had [she] wanted to, and this was [her] list, you would see a lot of searches on Intelink that match up verbatim or very closely to the items requested on the list,” Coombs contended. [Intelink is a U.S. intelligence network of top secret, secret, and unclassified databases.]
Manning Never Disclosed Any Of The ‘Bulk Databases’ WikiLeaks Requested
In the superseding indictment, prosecutors emphasize the fact that the list requested “bulk databases,” including Intellipedia, a classified Wikipedia for U.S. intelligence analysts. Yet, Manning never released this database to WikiLeaks nor did she release the complete CIA Open Source Center database or PACER database containing U.S. federal court records, which were listed as “important bulk databases.”
Alleged chat logs show Manning brought up the CIA Open Source Center on March 8, 2010, and Assange informed her, “That’s something we want to mine entirely.” But Manning never engaged in any efforts whatsoever to release this information that Assange allegedly sought to obtain.
Only three “bulk databases” were specifically requested through the list. WikiLeaks never requested the databases of military significant activity reports from Afghanistan and Iraq that were available on the Combined Information Data Network Exchange system.
WikiLeaks did not request the State Department’s Net-Centric Diplomacy database containing embassy cables and published to the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRnet), which was utilized for the dissemination of information between the State Department and the Defense Department.
Prosecutors allege Assange caused U.S. cables and military incident reports to be published without removing the names of human sources. Except under the government’s theory, it is not plausible that the publication allegedly happened as part of a conspiracy because the “Most Wanted Leaks” list never urged anyone to release these files to the organization.
The “Most Wanted Leaks” list included the “Camp Delta (Guantanamo) Standard Operating Procedure 2005–2009” and the “Camp Delta (Guantanamo) Interrogation Standard Operating Procedure 2003–2009.” It never included a request for the entire database of detainee assessment briefs on individuals captured and transferred to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
The Garani Airstrike Video: An Inconvenient Acquittal
Chelsea Manning (Photo by #MCB19)
Military prosecutors charged Manning with “aiding the enemy,” which covered conduct that allegedly started on November 1, 2009. They also charged her with releasing video of the Garani airstrike in the Farah province of Afghanistan and alleged that started on November 1.
Manning was acquitted of both offenses.
The unauthorized disclosure of the Garani airstrike video was the only Espionage Act offense, which Manning pled not guilty. She would have pled guilty to disclosure if prosecutors accused her of releasing the video on April 11, 2010, but the prosecutors insisted the alleged offense occurred in the first weeks of Manning’s deployment.
Journalist Alexa O’Brien, who was also one of the few reporters to cover Manning’s court-martial extensively, extensively documented how prosecutors relied on the alleged disclosure of the Garani airstrike video to create a foundation for their criminal conspiracy claims. Prosecutors even changed the date for Manning’s earliest offenses in the initial charge sheet from November 19 to November 1.
Examining this part of the case against Manning is crucial to unraveling the government’s conspiracy theory.
Jason Katz, an employee at Brookhaven National Laboratory from February 2009 to March 2010, tried to help WikiLeaks and downloaded an encrypted file with the airstrike video on to his work computer on December 15, 2009. Katz was unable to use a password-cracking tool to open the file.
From O’Brien’s reporting:
“The Garani video allegedly placed on Jason Katz’s work computer on December 15, 2009, however, did not forensically match the Garani video allegedly found on Manning’s workstation. “Was this the same video or a similar video to that seen on the .22 computer?,” Coombs asked Special Agent David Shaver (CCIU) on cross examination. “No, sir,” replied the agent. “Different video?” asked Coombs. “Different video, sir,” said the agent.
WikiLeaks apparently had an encrypted video file of the bomb attack, which killed dozens of civilians. The media organization indicated on Twitter on January 8, 2010, “We need super computer time.”
According to Shaver, Manning pulled video from a shared drive in Iraq that was in a folder labeled “Farah,” but military prosecutors still insisted Manning must have passed the video on to Katz because he had access to a supercomputer that could potentially crack the file.
The Garani airstrike video was not one of WikiLeaks’ “Most Wanted Leaks,” however, if the government’s theory is to be believed, it was the first file Manning disclosed to WikiLeaks.
Coombs pointedly addressed the implausibility of this allegation during closing argument:
Let’s go along with the government and its logic. Pfc. Manning hits the ground in Iraq in mid-November. For whatever reason, his motive, I’m now going to use the 2009 “Most Wanted [Leaks]” List as my guiding light. And I’m going to give something to WikiLeaks. I’m going to do it because I’m now a traitor. I’m now an activist. So what is the first thing I’m going to choose? What is the very first thing I’m going to give to WikiLeaks and say look, WikiLeaks, I’m for you? Well, I’m going to give you an encrypted video I can’t see, you can’t see, guess what, we don’t have a password for it. By the way you never asked for it. That’s not on your 2009 “Most Wanted [Leaks]” list. This is kind of like someone showing up to a wedding and giving you something that’s not on the list that you registered for. What do you think Pfc. Manning is doing at this point? According to the government, [she] is like, hey, you know what, I can go to the 78 things that you want, but I don’t want to give you that stuff.
There was one specific search for Farah on March 22, but the searches that the government used to argue Manning released a video in November were general searches for CENTCOM on Intelink.
Captain Joshua Tooman, a defense attorney for Manning, noted Iraq fell under CENTCOM. Any number of reasons would cover why Manning searched for CENTCOM.
Like Coombs said, all of the above is inconvenient for prosecutors because they need Manning to be working for WikiLeaks within weeks after she was deployed to Iraq. They need her to be an agent of WikiLeaks, not the naive but good-intentioned she comes off as in her statement.
Obscuring Manning’s Disclosure Of ‘Collateral Murder’ Video To Argue Conspiracy
Prosecutors contend Manning’s searches on November 28 for “retention+of+interrogation+videos” and “detainee+abuse” were consistent with the “Most Wanted Leaks” list. Because WikiLeaks was apparently interested in copies of any of the 92 CIA torture tapes that were destroyed and “detainee abuse photos withheld by the Obama administration.”
What prosecutors overlook is the fact that Manning never disclosed any detainee abuse photos or torture videos to WikiLeaks for publication. If she really was looking for these items because she saw them on the list, why didn’t she download and transfer copies of any files connected to these search terms over the next few months?
Additionally, prosecutors attempt to link Manning’s disclosure of rules of engagement for U.S. military forces in Iraq to the “Most Wanted Leaks” list. It included “Iraq and Afghanistan U.S. army Rules of Engagement 2007–2009.” They suggest Manning provided the files to WikiLeaks in late March after Assange allegedly said “curious eyes never run dry” during a chat.
Yet, according to Manning, the rules of engagement documents were disclosed in connection to video of an aerial weapons team engaged in an attack in Baghdad in July 2007, which violated the rules of engagement. She provided rules of engagement documents (from only Iraq) and a copy of the video to WikiLeaks on February 21, 2010.
WikiLeaks called the video, “Collateral Murder.”
Screen shot from the “Collateral Murder” video published by WikiLeaks
Manning became familiar with the video because it was discussed among targeting analysts within her division. She learned Reuters requested a copy of the video, which showed two Reuters employees who were killed.
The military would not voluntarily release the video under the Freedom of Information Act. That, along with the contents of the video, troubled Manning. So, the release of rules of engagement documents had nothing to do with the “Most Wanted Leaks” list on the WikiLeaks website.
Abuse By Iraqi Federal Police Led To Disclosure Of Guantanamo Files, Not Assange
Manning said in her statement she came across the Guantanamo detainee assessment briefs in 2009 “but did not think much of them.”
On February 27, 2010, Manning learned the Iraqi federal police detained “15 individuals for printing anti-Iraqi literature.” She investigated the incident and learned none of the individuals were tied to “anti-Iraqi actions or suspected terrorist militia groups.” She received some evidence that included a “scholarly critique” of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which apparently led to the individuals’ detention.
Manning alerted a commanding officer, but this officer insisted she “drop it” and help the Iraqi federal police find the print shops putting out “anti-Iraqi literature.”
“I knew that if I continued to assist the Baghdad Federal Police in identifying the political opponents of Prime Minister al-Maliki, those people would be arrested and in the custody of the Special Unit of the Baghdad Federal Police and very likely tortured and not seen again for a very long time — if ever,” Manning told a military court in February 2013.
Manning hoped WikiLeaks would publish documents related to the Iraqi federal police’s crackdown on political opponents of al-Maliki. However, WikiLeaks chose not to publish the information and partly because Manning was concerned U.S. military officers would identify her if the media organization published copies of the documents she disclosed
It was during this time period in early March that Manning thought the federal police might turn over political opponents of al-Maliki to the U.S. for transfer to Joint Task Force Guantanamo. She decided to look over the detainee assessment briefs again and realized the U.S. military held “an increasing number of individuals indefinitely,” who they believed were innocent, “low-level foot soldiers that did not have useful intelligence and would be released if they were still held in theater.”
Contrary to Manning’s version of events, prosecutors insist it was Assange, who convinced Manning to find the detainee assessment briefs and release them in alleged chats on March 7, 2010.
FBI Special Agent Megan Brown, who was assigned to the “counterespionage squad” at the Washington Field Office in the District of Columbia, recounted:
…Manning asked Assange, “how valuable are JTF GTMO detention memos containing summaries, background info, capture info, etc?” Assange replied, “time period?” Manning answered, “2007–2008.” Assange responded, “Quite valuable to the lawyers of these guys who are trying to get them out, where those memos suggest their innocence/bad procedure…also valuable to merge into the general history. Politically Gitmo is mostly over though.”…
But in the chat messages referenced, Assange never specifically asks Manning to provide the reports to WikiLeaks nor does he indicate WikiLeaks would publish the documents. All Assange allegedly did was confirm to Manning that they were in the public interest.
***
Most of the Espionage Act charges involve the disclosure and publication of military incident reports and diplomatic cables. However, as far as the government’s theory of conspiracy is concerned, Manning did not upload the military incident reports until February 3, when she was at her aunt’s house in Potomac, Maryland during mid-tour leave.
Later in March, she downloaded hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and uploaded them to WikiLeaks on April 10.
Once one recognizes the timeline is depends upon fabrication, the theory for criminal conspiracy crumbles.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2009 (Photo by New Media Days / Peter Erichsen)
All that is left is the Justice Department’s clear contempt for a publisher who should be protected by the First Amendment and not expected to adhere to U.S. secrecy laws or guidelines.
“At the time he entered into this agreement, Assange knew, understood, and fully anticipated that Manning was taking and illegally providing WikiLeaks with classified records containing national defense information of the United States that she was obtaining from classified databases,” the indictment proclaims.
“Assange was knowingly receiving such classified records from Manning for the purpose of publicly disclosing them on the WikiLeaks website.”
Indeed, Assange, who was WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, allegedly established a relationship with Manning, a source, via encrypted chat. She submitted materials that were reviewed. They engaged in discussions of the materials, and she asked for help from WikiLeaks to protect her identity. They employed privacy tools to try and avoid detection by military or government authorities.
What Assange did with Manning is fairly standard in journalism. Perhaps that is why media organizations and press freedom groups unanimously opposed the decision to charge Assange with Espionage Act offenses.
John Demers, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, asserted, “Julian Assange is no journalist. This is made plain by the totality of his conduct as alleged in the indictment.”
Yet, Matthew Miller, former director of the Justice Department’s public affairs office between 2009 and 2011, labeled the indictment “dangerous and probably unconstitutional.”
“DOJ doesn’t get to decide who is deserving of First Amendment protections and who isn’t. There’s a reason we wouldn’t charge this in the Obama administration,” Miller added.
Miller correctly pointed out the legal theories in the indictment could easily be used to prosecute a reporter for the New York Times. “Despite DOJ’s assurance, the Espionage Act doesn’t make any distinction between reporters and other actors.”
Unfortunately, while Miller disagrees, the legacy of President Barack Obama’s administration looms over the prosecution against Assange.
The Obama administration prosecuted more current and former government employees under the Espionage Act than all previous presidential administrations combined. They launched the grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks and never recognized they were wrong to empanel a grand jury in the first place.
Although the administration never charged a reporter, it treated journalists like co-conspirators. Officials pursued a subpoena against journalist James Risen in an effort to force him to testify against his alleged source.
Deputy Attorney General James Cole approved a request in February 2013 to subpoena the phone records for 30 different telephone numbers associated with the Associated Press’ offices. Officials targeted seven reporters and editors over a six-week span from April to May in 2012. Officials briefly considered targeting the records of The Washington Post, The New York Times, and ABC News.
The subpoenas were obtained during a leak investigation and also were aimed at the “trunk lines of major AP offices — lines which could [have] potentially reveal[ed] confidential sources across all of the AP’s newsgathering activities,” according to the Columbia Journalism Review.
Now, citizens are faced with a presidential administration that has an even greater zeal for investigating leaks than the Obama administration, and the harsh reality is the Trump administration largely picked up where the Obama administration left off.
Trump officials have carried the war on whistleblowers to its logical extension: finding a test case that may force journalists to think twice about publishing classified information in an age when technology for accepting leaks has proliferated.
Evidence showing Assange recruited Manning to act as an insider for WikiLeaks does not exist. Yet, that is exactly why the government will not withdraw the subpoena against her.
The government knows it is unlikely to succeed in prosecuting Assange unless they undercut the truth Manning asserted in a military court. They must abuse the grand jury process and use confinement and steep financial penalties to force her testimony. She has to be tripped up or baited into making statements useful against Assange or else all they have is a preposterous conspiracy theory that not even the anti-leaks Obama administration was willing to pursue. | https://kevingosztola.medium.com/trump-justice-departments-prosecution-of-julian-assange-relies-on-contrived-conspiracy-theory-86aae70f131c | ['Kevin Gosztola'] | 2019-05-28 03:38:01.131000+00:00 | ['Press Freedom', 'Chelsea Manning', 'Journalism', 'Julian Assange', 'Politics'] |
From an engineer to a self-taught UI/UX designer | In this blog post, I want to share my perspective on the UI/UX designing field. I feel there is a lack of awareness regarding the UI/UX field among normal people.
But change is coming, now I see a lot of Tech-Industries, colleges, Design Communities, are organizing design meetups, workshops, or say including design talks in tech events which inspire students to incorporate design aesthetics & create the best product experience.
People think this is only a design-oriented job that is not related to tech and if someone wants to pursue this job they have to take a degree from a designing institute yes, that is a Bonus! But, that is not a compulsory rule for this field there is no particular defined way. Nowadays a lot of designers in the UI/UX community who are working in the biggest firms did engineering degrees, some are self-taught designers and some are from different backgrounds and now they are awesome UI/UX Designer.
Please keep in mind there are many different ways to get into this field — there is no one/simple path that everybody takes! This is how I started and your journey of becoming UI/UX would be probably totally different.
I am an IT Engineer and so I get asked all the time what I did and how I become a UI/UX Designer. So, here goes. Hope it helps some of the people.
First, some background about me
My love for design began in my childhood with sketching, and Painting. I was self-taught how to draw, paint on paper, glass. I wanted to become a designer but like every third Indian, I became an Engineer.
I knew I was not good at programming. That realization had struck me during the college days and since then I have tried to find a good balance of Technology and Design. I wondered how I was going to be able to completely change my career! Back in my college days, I started exploring career opportunities in the design field and came to know about UI/UX Design.
I had no idea that someone called a UI/UX/Product/Interaction designer existed. All I knew was that I wanted to do designing.
Then, One and a half years back I decided that I wanted to get into the design field and become a UX/UI Designer. Since then I have pursued it with my utmost love. When I started I did not know how to proceed with it. But, somehow I have managed to find a way to where I am right now.
Recognizing your interest and taking a Risk
It is really important to find out if you actually want to be a designer and if it interests you. I always wanted to be a Designer but was oblivious to it. Once I decided I wanted to pursue a career in the design field, I went for it!
1. Research what UX and UI Design are and see if it’s what you really want to do
I personally think that being a UX or UI Designer is a great career, but, some people don’t know anything about this field, and the ones who know have so many misconceptions about it. So, before you spend hours of effort and maybe some money, spend some time researching what UX and UI Designers do, what the differences between them are, etc. to see if it’s what you are interested in committing to.
2. Figure out what skills/strengths you already have and how that can play into UX and UI Design
Even if you come from a completely different background (like me), you probably already have some skills that will translate into UX/UI Design. For example, do you love to think about how things around you could be improved? Do you love drawing or taking photos? Do you love technology? Are you a data and analysis genius?
All of these skills or hobbies can bring something that will help you out as a UX/UI Designer so don’t ignore your past experiences and education just because it’s not directly related! (In this field whatever your past experience is it is always going to help you and a major bonus for you.)
Don’t ever think it is too late. It is never too late if that’s what you want to do.
One of my seniors who is an awesome developer and a great designer too told me about the UI/UX field. I enrolled in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator course for learning the basics. I learned so much from Awesome YouTube creators. I then created some digital art using both the tools over a span of 6 months (It is okay if the content looks really bad at first). Then I applied for some Internships in my 6th semester (Internships are really important if you are fresher in any field) to understand the work in real industries. In my final year of campus selection, I joined a company as a UI/UX designer. And meanwhile started doing freelancing also.
Figuring out what you are good at
This is the hardest part. I’m still exploring myself in this field.
I was the youngest intern in the company with no design background and not much work experience whatsoever. It was terrifying and intimidating, but I managed to survive.
I learned so much from my mentors and colleagues about designing and tech-based things. As I’m an IT engineer here’s a bonus point for me that I understand Tech- development team requirements easily.
The most fruitful months of my life
June 2020 to October 2020 is when my perspective of UI and UX design changed. I started understanding design and finally realized where I am and what I need to do to get where I want to be.
In my college, there was no dedicated Human-Computer Interaction program and there were no UI/UX design programs. So, I was doing everything on my own and it never struck me to contact people outside my college. Biggest mistake ever!
Talk to people in the field you want to be. And I can’t stress this enough.
I met a hard-working and talented designer during my Internship. He inspired me and motivated me. I learned about wireframing and prototyping tools. Made my design at least 10 times better. I learned from another friend about Medium and that I need to contact other designers and follow tech news to be able to make it. I started contacting designers on LinkedIn, Instagram, and following tech news. I make it a point to do this every morning. You are lucky enough to find a Mentor. They can guide and help you improve so much. They give us an excellent insight into UI, UX, and Product design (It is really important to understand the difference as early as possible and what you want to do). So, find such a wonderful person! Then through other designers, I came across Designernews, Behance, and dribbble. These 3 resources really inspire you and give you ideas on design. I started designing, designing, and designing. Creating wireframes, sketching, prototyping, designing layouts, logos, and Illustrations for apps and websites. Always show your work to people and ask for feedback. I joined many Instagram, Linked In, and slack communities to learn what people are doing and also to get feedback.
Some Personal Tips
If you are in the early stage of your career and want to make a career in UI/UX. So I’d like to share with you a few lessons and tips.
Pursue an Undergraduate degree in design. Pursue a Master’s in Human-Computer Interaction or Interaction design. Enroll in online courses such as Human-centered design, UI, UX Designing, and Interaction design in Interaction design.com Coursera.com, and Careerfoundary. They are very helpful! Surround yourself with people who have similar interests as yours. Talk about design ideas to people and always ask for feedback. Keep yourself updated with Design and Tech news. Follow Medium, Dribbble, Behance, land book, Muzli, and Awwwards for taking inspiration from great designers.
I am just starting out as a professional UI/UX Designer and I need to achieve all the goals I have set ahead for myself, but I will be sure to help you with whatever I know and learn. I have a lot more to learn. My next plans are to work more with other designers and build on the experiences I have learned so far.
Keep learning, Keep designing, and Keep trying!
The main message I want to convey here is that you can take many routes and end up at the same destination.
There is no one size fits all approach, and there is no blueprint for success in such a diverse industry like the design.
If you’re at the beginning of your journey and seeking the optimal path, then know that attending college for design is one option, but it isn’t essential to becoming a UI/UX designer.
I’d urge you to evaluate your options and find the path that works for you to get into this field.
If you’re willing to be an autodidact and push your creative limits daily, then you’ll fit in just fine, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Conclusion
Dare! Do not stand still — move towards your goal! Only those who do not do anything do not make mistakes.
As you’ve probably already noticed there are many skills required to become a UI/UX designer — unfortunately, there are no short-cuts, magic recipes — it’s all about dedication, hard work, a lot of patience, and practice.— you need to keep learning and working hard every single day as that’s the only way you can improve. As I’ve mentioned — everybody is different and will have a different journey to becoming a UI/UX designer. I hope you’ve learned something from this article and found it useful. Wish you all of the best and good luck in your new profession!
If you liked the article, please do not forget to clap 👏. You can clap up to 50 times 😍, it does not cost you anything, but makes me happy! | https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/from-an-engineer-to-a-self-taught-ui-ux-designer-6a0d64b7cfd | ['Shreena Yadav'] | 2020-12-18 00:55:03.889000+00:00 | ['UI', 'Technology', 'Design', 'UX', 'Careers'] |
Stomping Ground | Photo by Tara Robinson on Unsplash
When I jog, I metabolize my grief. It comes out in staccato burps from my heavy chest. “It’s not comfortable, but you can do it.” That’s the eternal message from the cardio gods.
When I was a kid, I left my body during dance recitals and experienced my performance with the audience. I couldn’t take all those eyes. Now it’s part of my daily dance with grief.
The phrase grief-stricken doesn’t really cut it for me. I feel grief-inundated. Grief-blanketed and enclosed. It’s bigger than my body. And it takes up home in my chest.
I’m meeting unknown parts of myself. Mounds of buried humanity. Digging up the soul. It’s an actual gold mine. She is (I am) (We are) entering this world again, foot firmly planted in the soil.
The grass almost glows, it’s so green. Wet earth consumes the heartache. We digest it together; we’re divine female partners. She holds me and I breathe her in. | https://medium.com/assemblage/stomping-ground-fa585e063fa1 | ['Blithe Anderson'] | 2020-12-24 01:18:49.023000+00:00 | ['PTSD', 'Mental Health', 'Nature', 'Poetry', 'Poem'] |
Hands | Hands
A short story
Photo by Matheus Viana from Pexels
1.
What struck her most about him were his hands. They were long and lanky, like his body. Even more remarkable than their shape was the way he used them. When they first met, he shook her hands boldly and directly, as if it were a perfectly normal thing to do and not a violation of the law in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Taken aback, she forgot to respond. Her hand hung limply in his palm, until he dislodged it.
Just the day prior, she had read about a poet who, after returning from abroad, had been arrested for shaking a woman’s hand. She wanted to warn him: You shouldn’t do that. You might end up in jail. But he must have known what he was doing, she reasoned, and who was she to tell him how to behave in his own country?
His hands didn’t fit anywhere, not in his pockets, or at his sides. They dangled oddly from his arms, like an expert swimmer more at home in a lake than on dry land. The lines on his palms were long, stretching from his wrist to his index fingers. If a fortune-teller — like the one she had consulted in Hafez’s tomb while visiting Shiraz — had been asked to read his palms she would have predicted for him a long life, a fulfilling marriage and many children. His hands were like an autonomous body. She imagined them keeping her warm at night, soothing the aches in her back, providing a resting ground for her lips, caressing her hips.
Before they said goodbye that magical night in Tehran in front of the Golestan Palace, she asked him why he decided to shake her hand. Without answer he waxed lyrical, in a different direction. “I dream of working wonders with my hands,” he said, “I want to make magic potions and aphrodisiacs based on ancient Iranian traditions.” Although it was not an answer, his words opened a new mysterious horizon onto his soul. She wanted to know more.
She touched his hands again in Tbilisi, a city they had arranged to rendezvous in order to get to know each other better. Across the border, where it was safe. Christian Iranians and Bahais walked the streets of Tbilisi openly, freely proclaiming their faith. The walls of certain homes were covered with signs in Farsi. There in the Georgian Republic, they could say things — about each other, to each other, about their lives — that could not be said so long as the morality police of the Islamic Republic was watching them. Closed circuit cameras and bugs in hotels. They could hold hands publicly, without breaking the law.
Funny, she thought, how law interacts with morality, indeed with honesty: what is licit in one country suddenly becomes an offense when the jurisdiction shifts. As if there were no universal or transcendent ethics. As if, even in the Islamic Republic, everything were just a game of power and politics. Strange how acts of affection, expressions of love, can made into crimes.
Her hands pressed hard on his body. Certain parts of him yielded in certain ways, though not every crevice and not in every way. He was nervous and gently, tenderly, resistant. Her hands traced a continual arc on his back while they worked together to etch each other’s body in their memory, to stimulate the words that flowed between them like a fresh shower on a hot summer day, summoning and cementing memory, not just for that instant, but for eternity.
She saw his hands again in Abu Dhabi, but this time it was different. This time it was she who was cautious. She wanted to see what his hands would do with her body — how he would touch her and when and why — when unprompted. Nearly all of their contact had been initiated by her hands in Tbilisi. This time, she decided, she would let his fingers determine their movements, would wait for his nails to dig into her skin, and his thumbs to press into the small of her back. She imagined her spine curve, bending into his hands. As she waited for him to touch her, the hours passing relentlessly with him making no movements, giving no sign of the love growing between them, she remembered when he shook her hands unbidden in full public view in violation of the law, in Tehran. Looking back on that moment, she wondered whether she had misread the target of his apparent defiance. Was it perhaps a performance, not for her sake, but for the state, an act of civil disobedience that dared the government to punish him?
Hospitality demands that we shake the hands of every guest, his handshake seemed to say in retrospect, as he failed to touch her. We must show our respect to every visitor! Or was she demeaning that miraculous moment? What force of gravity had caused him to extend his hand to her then, only to withdraw it when they were finally alone?
She had never seen his hands so reticent as they were in Abu Dhabi. Neither in Tehran nor Tbilisi were they like that: tentative, passive, even cold. It was as if they belonged in another place, on another body, or in another galaxy. She decided she would wait until they said goodbye to question why his hands appeared to be tied down by a psychic force she could not fathom, why they were so hesitant to touch her body. And then, in the airport, there was a crush of people, as there always is. They were late. The lines extended out into the arrivals hall as the boarding time approached. 5:30. 5:35. 5:40. The day was just beginning, yet it felt like the end of time.
All passengers for Tehran please approach gate 6D, the intercom blared. The moment to speak had passed — she had to touch his hands. She reached out to find them, but they were tucked deep inside his pockets, too deep for her to reach.
The deferral of discussion, along with his unreachable hands that could have brought words to his lips, prevented her from asking the question that was burning on her lips: when would their hands meet again? He asked her to watch his luggage while he went to the bathroom. When he returned, he had to rush to catch his flight. There was no time to say goodbye, no time to repeat the gestures that brought them together in Tehran and Tbilisi, no time for her to take the measure of his hands, to press his knuckles on her cheek, to lift his fingertips to her lips and to tell him how much she wanted his hands — but actually the entirety of his body and of his soul — in her life. Perhaps, she decided, the crush of people was the best way of deferring this impossible speech. Maybe silence was the preferred option. Not knowing what to say in the little time remaining to them, she closed her eyes and imagined his fingers stroking her hair. When she opened her eyes, he was gone. | https://medium.com/scrittura/hands-fc6f0180aa4c | ['Rebecca Ruth Gould'] | 2020-12-26 21:29:34.357000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Short Story', 'Love', 'Fiction', 'Writing'] |
Total Health: Mike Shoreman On How We Can Optimize Our Mental, Physical, Emotional, & Spiritual Wellbeing | Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Thanks so much for having me. I had a happy childhood. I am very fortunate- not all do. My parents divorced when I was quite young, and I don’t have any recollection of that, but I do remember having two of everything. Two birthday parties, two Christmases, two homes to go to and two parents who loved me. I was lucky. I grew up having very intimate relationships with both of them as a result. When I was young, my parents put me in swimming lessons and my dad would take me every Thursday night. It was our thing. Thursday nights were special: watching the latest episode of the Simpsons, ordering pizza and swimming.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
I began paddle boarding as a hobby when it began to really take off. There was this kind of boom where everyone was trying it. A few years later after following a bad break up and being inspired by several things including Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat Pray Love” I took a solo trip to India to find myself. While I was there, I spent some time in Varanasi which is one of the holiest cities in the world. One night when I was down by the water, I saw hundreds of lotus flowers on the Ganges River with lit candles in them flickering. It was one of those moments where the lightbulb just goes off. I knew then and there that I wanted to create experiences where people would light up the water like those lotus flowers. I knew then I wanted to give people an experience and by teaching them I would give them power and confidence and then they would shine bright. I have carried that with my transition into consulting and speaking. Give them the tools they need to go out and let them light up the water or light up the world.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?
In late 2018 after several years of running my own business and being a coach with the national organization I developed a sudden neurological condition. A reactivation of my chicken pox virus attacking my facial nerve and ear. One of the biggest challenges and heartbreak was that I lost my sense of balance. Overnight I went from being this vibrant athletic entrepreneur to being unable to walk a few feet. I have had a lot of help in the last few years physically and emotionally recovering and pivoting into a new career. A friend of mine encouraged me to challenge myself with writing and public speaking leading me to do my first talk at Canada’s largest inspirational speaking competition on my story back to the paddleboard when doctors said it wasn’t possible. She saw something in me that day standing in front of her wearing an eye patch and using a cane. She believed in me when I was still struggling after taking a huge life knock. She gently nudged me down a new path I never thought of before. What I learned from this is that we do not always believe in ourselves and sometimes we need to trust others belief in us until we regain the confidence in our own abilities.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
Too many to count! But mistakes are good, if we learn from them. I became the media guy for the Canadian Safe Boating Council, and I would do water safety demonstrations every May for the media to keep the public safe ahead of boating season. A role I loved doing. A few weeks later I was with some clients and we were going out for a sunset yoga paddle board session and one showed up with a twisted ankle. While we were out there the wind switched and what would normally take us twenty minutes became an hour and a half with hurricane like winds. It was like the movie “Twister” out there. I had to attach her board to my board for safety, it was not ideal! I was having visions of the marine police pulling up and asking me if I was the safety guy. Big changes were made following that incident but looking back on it now I can laugh. I hope the girl with the twisted ankle would say the same!
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
When I was travelling through India, mostly by train I picked up “Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts. The story of a convicted bank robber and addict who flees Australia to India. When I picked it up, I was following the recommendation of several travelers who were also reading it and loving it but as I went through my own adventure in a foreign country where the book was set in I started seeing parts of myself in the characters. It helped me adjust to India and taught me a lot about the country and left me feeling more familiar with the culture. I highly recommend when travelling we read literature set in that culture. It left me feeling more confident while being there and gave me a gentle pushes and curiosity to go out and explore.
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?
“Make your mess your message” by Erin Roberts is the quote that resonates with me most on many levels. We all have journeys in life, we all have stories. When my world fell apart, when my face fell apart- it was devastating and by sharing my story in a speech it was cathartic and healing for me and it was healing and empowering for others because it was told in a universal way that others saw themselves in it. Our stories have the power to help others and be transformative for them if it’s crafted in a way that brings the audience in and to be a survivor guide if you will for a journey, they find themselves on that can be totally unrelated.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
I became an advocate for a national health organization about a year and a half ago. With losing my independence, my social life all in one go- my mental health took a huge hit. I sunk into a huge depression, experienced anxiety and thought about taking my life. I eventually sought mental health treatment and saw several mental health professionals which helped me process the grief, anger, and sadness I was going through. I have had a few independent events for them following my ordeal and right now my fun personal project is a national fundraiser and awareness campaign where I will be the first paddleboarder to cross from the USA to Canada next summer. Between working with them and training on and off the water, that is where most of my free time is going these days. But it is rewarding and I hope it shows people that we are all capable of doing big things to make our communities stronger.
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. In this interview series we’d like to discuss cultivating wellness habits in four areas of our lives, mental wellness, Physical wellness, Emotional wellness, & Spiritual wellness. Let’s dive deeper into these together. Based on your research or experience, can you share with our readers three good habits that can lead to optimum mental wellness? Please share a story or example for each.
When I lost my sense of balance, literally from a neurological condition I went from being this super athletic professional paddle boarding coach, a vibrant fun guy to not being able to walk from the living room to the kitchen of my parent’s home. I was bathing in a swimsuit in case I would spin out in the tub from vertigo that would hit me and need to be rescued. When we would go for short trips to appointments or just to get me out of the house, I would move really slowly. I literally traded in my paddle for a walking cane. I found that I would get really frustrated with my appearance, how I looked and acted, and I was hard on myself. Compassion is a thing we often give to others but for many of us find that it is hard to give to ourselves. Especially when things are tough. I found that writing down things I was proud of or happy with even if they were small wins would leave me feeling better about myself and helped shifted my attitude and my perception of what I was experiencing.
I think for many when they are suddenly facing a diagnosis and their health declines out of nowhere people do not initially think of the mental health journey they are about to go on. There is grief, anger, rage, sadness- all the emotions. There is a lot to process. For me, I felt extremely isolated with what I was experiencing. I felt very alone and that I was the only one going through it. To help normalize a condition that is so not normal I found support by joining groups on social media. I also looked for familiar faces- people I would recognize. I googled famous people, my condition. A few names popped up on the screen, mostly politicians. Right at the top was celebrity fitness guru and founder of P90X, Tony Horton who had gone through what I had just one year earlier. I contacted Tony hoping he might see my message and eventually it became a friendship and mentorship. I believe that when we surround ourselves with like- minded individuals it elevates everyone. Surrounding ourselves with people and communities where others have similar goals. It can be motivating and help us achieve things at an accelerated rate. It holds us accountable to follow through on tasks and projects when we are working towards similar goals.
One of favorite quotes is “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.”- Steve Jobs.
After a friend suggested I share my story she sent me some information for competing at Canada’s largest inspirational speaking competition. I had given one talk before and it had not gone well but I had a lot of time on my hands with my recovery and I could write and rewrite and practice. That night when I gave my talk to a room of 300 people on the power of saying yes to ourselves and how every yes sets us up for our next yes, our next win, I won. For me the experience was healing and cathartic. A huge release of pain and healing at the same time through the art of storytelling. But that win that night was not the most significant part. The talk went viral online on several platforms and garnered millions of views with thousands of comments from people around the world. I heard from people with all kinds of conditions telling me how they saw themselves in that talk and how it helped shift their mindset with what they were going through. Our stories are meant to be told and shared. There is power that comes in releasing them and there is power that comes from someone telling you that you helped them with their journeys. Think about how we do show and tell when we are in school and we bring an item to class and share it with others. By sharing parts of ourselves it lets others feel connected to us. We can share our stories by journaling, with trusted friends and loved ones or in community groups. Telling stories is one of the most powerful tools that leaders use to influence, inspire, and teach. It helps build instant connections with people and it bridges concepts and ideas between people.
Do you have a specific type of meditation practice or Yoga practice that you have found helpful? We’d love to hear about it.
It is amazing what is out there if we choose to go look for it. The simple act of research. I am a firm believer that we are own greatest advocates, we are the ones who will fight for ourselves the most. When I was sitting at home not doing much aside from my physiotherapy appointments while I was recovering physically, a few friends with yoga practices invited me to come join them. At first, I was very hesitant with still using a walking cane, but they were encouraging and told me it would be a sit down/lay down sort of class and it would bring me a lot of peace. For people who have disabilities or mobility issues like I do there are so many options out there. I personally enjoy Hatha Yoga poses that can be done while sitting down. It is calming, peaceful and brings me into a state of relaxation.
A great tool is the “Insight timer app.” It has a variety of beginner meditation practices, sights and sounds with a timer. They also programs for improving your sleep. over two hundred talks to listen to and have a guide for beginners who are new to meditation. There are a lot of free features on this app for people who are wanting to dip their toes in the meditation ring without committing to the full membership right away.
Thank you for that. Can you share three good habits that can lead to optimum physical wellness? Please share a story or example for each.
Practicing the art of mindfulness can be extremely difficult at first but can be really rewarding, combatting stress and anxiety. When I first starting using mindfulness activities it was through a workbook that had me doing an exercise where I would focus on breathing with deep breaths and taking in my surroundings. For someone who is go, go, go, this can be a huge challenge but slowing down and becoming more aware of yourself and your surroundings has huge health advantages. I remember doing this activity where I would hold my hand under a running stream of water and the point of the exercise is to take in the sensations of the water on the skin. The temperature, the feeling of the water, how it makes you feel. For me in the state I was in it was entirely frustrating but if we consistently take action and stick with what we are practicing we will get there in the end.
Re shifting our thoughts on sleep and how much sleep we need is something we all need to be doing. When I was running my paddle board business in the beginning it was just me on my own. I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders with bookings, marketing, teaching, driving- everything and there were always things that needed to get done. I was averaging 5 to 6 hours of sleep every night well below what is recommended by health professionals. What I know now to be true is that the most valuable hours for sleep are the ones taken before midnight. I aim for 7 to 9 hours now which keeps me rested, keeps me sharp emotionally and physically. I was in bed by 9:30 p.m. last night and it was the best thing. It felt like I was doing my body and my mind a favor.
We focus a lot on what we consume. We count calories, we try to make smart healthy food choices-mostly but many of us are not taking in enough hydration. As a person who spent all day every day, in the sun surrounded with water, I was more focused on the water going in me than the water around me. I would drink liters and liters far surpassing the daily recommendations. If we think about it every cell, every organ requires water to function at its fullest capacity. It helps our kidneys function. It helps us maintain a proper body temperature and helps cool us down in the summer and warms us up in the winter with circulation. Proper water consumption also helps with stress relief, digestion, and bone health leading us to being healthier not just today but also in the future. So, if you are not doing it for the you today, do it for the you tomorrow. That version of you will be grateful you did.
Do you have any particular thoughts about healthy eating? We all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s often difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?
A lot of people think that eating healthy means they need to give up all the food they love. Bye hamburgers, pizza and fries, chocolate. But our body gets this thing called cravings and when we don’t give into those cravings, the frequency of those cravings change. I still eat pizza and hamburgers. Do not tell Tony Horton that! But everything in moderation.
I used to say to myself I was “too busy.” I think that is one we all use. “I don’t have time in the morning” is one each of us is or has been guilty of at some point. I will raise my hand here and keep it permanently up. But the truth is we do have the time. People who eat a nutritional breakfast have been shown to work more effectively and make fewer mistakes than the ones who are running on low fuel until lunch time.
There is time for the things we really want to do. Whether it is cutting up fruit the night before during commercials of our fave tv show or waking up 15 minutes earlier to scramble some eggs or setting aside two or three hours for meal prep. I suggest Sunday afternoons while listening to Tracy Chapman singing in the background. Make food prep an experience that is enjoyable, so you look forward to it every week and it does not seem like a chore on a list of things to do. Put on a show if you can or listen to music, call a friend and have a nice catch up on while on speaker phone, and multi-task.
Can you share three good habits that can lead to optimum emotional wellness? Please share a story or example for each.
Asking for help can be one of the most challenging things we can. We put blocks up in our minds as to all the reasons why someone might not help which makes the process even more exhausting when it should be really easy. People love helping others. It makes them feel good to know that they have made a difference and helped someone. When my book was published, the publishing house asked me to make a list of influencers that I knew who I would contact to write a review of the book. Initially I thought they would all say no. Guess what? Fourteen out of fifteen people said yes. People I thought were too busy. Athletes, Actors, Authors, Community Leaders. They all wanted me to succeed and they all wanted to be a part of the success of it. I just had to change my mindset that they were too busy to help me. I had to get out of my own head and trust the process.
Every month I write down a gratitude list of all that I am grateful for in my life. Being grateful for all the things that we do have makes the bonuses that life brings to us seem even more special while it strengthens relationships with colleagues, friends, and family. A friend of mine calls me on the phone once a month and we do a gratitude writing session together. Sometimes we do not even talk, we just write for 15 minutes on the phone together, making sure the other is being accountable for gratitude journaling. We write down all the things and people we are grateful for and appreciative of and then on a separate piece of paper we write down a manifestation list of all the things we want to work towards.
Staying positive all the time especially this past year has been trying for many. But the emotional benefits of staying positive are amazing. People who generally stay positive have lower rates of depression, have a better physical and psychological wellbeing, and keep themselves in better overall health by staying upbeat. The first six months following my diagnosis, I was not in a good place emotionally. It looked bleak. Every appointment I would go to I would get bad new followed by more bad news and I went deeper and deeper into my depression until my business collapsed in front of me. I was being sent to have MRI’s to rule out brain damage and I was defeated. I remember thinking that Christmas that it would be the last. I was in a bad way emotionally. Eventually after months and months of rehab and mental health treatment I began to feel better and I started looking at the world kindly again and when I did that, the wins then started happening. I got on a paddleboard when doctors said it was not possible. I won Canada’s largest inspirational speaking competition. I got on an airplane when doctors said I could not do that. Positive things started happening because I allowed them to happen and created space for them in my life when the confidence started building again.
Do you have any particular thoughts about the power of smiling to improve emotional wellness? We’d love to hear it.
“I smile a lot in January.” A friend told me this once and I thought she was talking crazy talk until she explained to me why. She told me she smiles a lot in the winter because it helps her feel happy and it contributes to personal war with the winter blues. When my face collapsed with 5th, 7th and 8th cranial nerve damage on the right side of my face I felt like I looked like a monster with how I looked. I avoided looking in mirrors, I avoided people and I avoided going out and being seen. But even though my face was paralyzed on the one side and I was a shell of my former self virtually unrecognizable to people, when I smiled or laughed on rare occasion, I could really feel it on the left side of my face. It made me feel good inside even though I was embarrassed to be seen. It felt good to smile and laugh and it led me to feeling happier at a consistent level faster.
Finally, can you share three good habits that can lead to optimum spiritual wellness? Please share a story or example for each.
There are massive health benefits associated to volunteering. People have reported they feel that it makes them happier, healthier, less stressed, and they even get a better night’s sleep. There are reasons why many law firms and several businesses do corporate team building activities with organizations looking for volunteers. Studies have indicated that people work more efficiently when they are happy and feel fulfilled. When I started an annual fundraising and awareness initiative for a national mental health organization, a few years ago I felt like I really accomplished something and made a difference. I felt like I contributed to society and I made a difference. That has also shown people in my networks that they are also capable of getting involved in their communities.
Travelling is another version of spiritual wellness. Going off on an adventure and discovering new lands, new languages, new foods is something everyone should experience. Immersing yourself into different cultures gives us perspective and clarity on what is important to us. It teaches us things we did not know about ourselves and shows us what we are capable of. It helps us grow as individuals.
As a rule, I try to support one friend in a big way once a month. Also, of note I have a lot of creative friends. People who are artists, musicians, actors. I may not be able to support all of them all the time, but I do try to support them if they have an exhibit or a show. I show up for them but showing up for them is also showing up for myself because appreciating music and the arts also adds to our spiritual wellness.
Do you have any particular thoughts about how being “in nature” can help us to cultivate spiritual wellness?
Our ancestral roots are in nature and the average American spends over 90% of our time indoors. When I worked on the water as a professional paddle boarding coach, I would spend 12 to 15 hours on the beach, on the water, in the water. I would explore bird sanctuaries I would paddle through, rivers and breathtaking skylines. I felt alive every day I went to work because I was going on an adventure and I was going to see and share amazing sights with others which built a connection with clients who were also sharing the experience. Not everyone is going to be a paddle boarding coach, not everyone likes the beach but being in nature whether it’s hiking on a trail or cross-country skiing in the winter has huge health benefits. Get outside, turn off the phone. Calls and clients will still be there two hours from now.
Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if everyone could inspire a movement and the world became a better place because of all the amazing things people set off in motion? When my speech was released and went viral over a year ago it triggered a wave of support for mental health from the international paddle boarding community. Thousands of paddleboarders from all around the world took pictures of themselves holding their paddles up in the air for people who could not. For people struggling mentally and physically. Hundreds of people in the United States alone. I think something crazy like 26 posts from Texas. Posting it on social media with hashtags. It was and continues to be one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. It has been amazing to be centered in a movement showing me and others in the process what community does for their own when they fall.
There are so many causes that leaders need to be focusing on. Build movements to eradicate homelessness, food hunger, poverty and it just takes one person to make that first decision that they are going to make this their work.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)
I would love to sit down with Amal Clooney. I find her fascinating. Full time mom, busines woman, advocate, she is a wonder woman. So impressive. I would love to sit down and talk about her humanitarian work and the causes she advocates for. I would love to find out what lights her fire, what gets her up in the morning, what motivates her. I find her work and the way she lives her life to be incredibly inspiring.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Readers can find out more if they look up The Unbalanced Paddleboarder.
Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.
Thanks so much for having me. I really enjoyed my time. Wishing you the same! | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/total-health-mike-shoreman-on-how-we-can-optimize-our-mental-physical-emotional-spiritual-2f68f4d755ac | ['Authority Magazine'] | 2020-12-29 20:36:54.509000+00:00 | ['Wellness'] |
Conduct Usability and User Testing for Mobile Apps Like a Pro | This means that user testing apps has become absolutely crucial for optimizing the UX and discoverability of digital products and services. Given the importance of mobile, you should include a mobile usability test in your research, which can provide you with invaluable data of how people actually use your app in the real world.
To get you started, we quizzed four leading experts on mobile app usability about the essential factors in planning and conducting a mobile user test. Read on and discover the techniques that, in their experience, lead to better digital products.
Test your apps early and often
Chris How, principal UX consultant at strategic design and innovation agency Clearleft, has found that the maxim of ‘test early and often’ really holds true.
While How recommends involving your intended audience at every stage of the process (from initial concepts, through lo-fi prototypes, and to the production-ready product), lead UX/UI designer and mobile expert Stéphanie Walter also suggests pre-testing before inviting real users.
“There’s nothing more frustrating than gathering the wrong data of false positives or negatives because there was an issue with the test protocol, the prototype didn’t send the user to the right page, or the vocabulary you used in your task description biased the user,” she explains. “You can avoid all that with pre-tests, which are really quick and simple to set up.”
A pre-test conducted with colleagues before testing the mobile prototype with real users.
A pre-test conducted with colleagues before testing the mobile prototype with real users.
Just grab some colleagues and ask them to play the role of the user. The rest should be pretty much the same as it would be for official participants.
“If the test is supposed to happen in a particular room with a particular device, use the same environment and setting for the pre-test,” Walter advises. “Go through the welcome speech, the tasks, and the mobile prototype, like you would do for the real test. If there’s an issue in the prototype, such as a typo, or a loop in your protocol, you should be able to detect it during these ‘dry run’ sessions. If there’s some language that might bias users, or the way you ask questions isn’t quite clear, you can detect this upfront, too.”
According to Walter, pre-tests are a little bit like a wedding rehearsal: they help you make sure that everything runs smoothly for the big usability testing day.
Reduce bias and consider context
Femke van Schoonhoven, a product designer at Uber, points out that, to ensure a successful user test, it’s important to reduce bias and consider context when creating your prototype.
“It’s good to remember that you are not your user, and whoever you’re testing with will be seeing your designs for the first time, without any of the context you have.”
Before you run your next test, van Schoonhoven therefore recommends making sure you’ve done the following:
Hide your hotspots to encourage organic discovery
Use real content instead of stock imagery and Lorem Ipsum
Tweak the prototype to cater to the specific user (for example, use a female profile in the design if the tester is female
Localize your content if necessary
Encourage realness by testing on the intended device
Always link one level deeper than the test to allow the user to explore (for example, let Help go to Help even though it’s not part of your test)
Considering the above will help validate your test and help your participant view your prototype through a realistic lens, which will avoid distractions and keep the test organic.
Recreate a natural environment
For Andy Vitale, strategic design and innovation leader and member of Adobe’s Design Circle, the key to usability testing mobile apps is to try to recreate the natural mobile environment as closely as possible throughout the various fidelities of the designs being evaluated.
“I have seen the greatest successes in mobile testing sessions when people are allowed to test directly on mobile devices, so that they can be observed using native mobile gestures and behaviors,” Vitale explains. “From a research perspective, it’s not about asking people what they would like from the design but more about observing them and the way they interact with the design and learning how to better help them achieve their desired results. It’s about testing a hypothesis.”
Vitale recommends understanding and aligning as a team on which success metrics you are trying to measure with the designs. If there is also a way to capture quantitative data throughout testing, it will help you set baselines and show improvements throughout various iterations of the designs you will be testing.
Meanwhile, Ida Aalen, chief product officer and co-founder of video conferencing startup Confrere and proponent of easy and affordable user testing techniques, has learned that it’s never about the equipment.
“The main thing is to make sure you’re not asking leading questions, in addition to encouraging users to think out loud as they try using your app,” she advises.
As your view of the screen will often be obscured by a participant’s hands, Clearleft’s principal UX consultant Chris How also views it as vital to actively listen and watch users for small clues indicating delight or frustration. He therefore recommends really getting to know the flow of your own app before conducting a mobile usability test.
Test your app in the wild
If you can, you should also get out of the lab and test the app where it’ll be used.
“Usage and behavior are linked to context and environment,” How explains. “When testing a mobile app for a museum, I shadowed participants. Seeing how often their phone went in and out of their pocket helped focus the design on supporting short bursts of repeated use. Likewise, testing a travel app in the wild highlighted the need for a design that could be seen in bright sunlight and used whilst wearing gloves on freezing days.”
Accessibility in particular should now be considered central to creating products that are fit for purpose in a mobile-first world. Whether you’re using your smartphone while you’re walking along, possibly one-handed, a coffee in the other hand, are distracted or in a rush — you’re temporarily impaired and in need of inclusive design. Conducting a mobile user test while you’re out and about will throw up exactly these issues and help you understand the unique UX requirements you need to consider for your app.
You will need to carefully adapt and plan just how you carry out your tests to meet the needs of your particular project. There’s no denying, however, that user testing apps — early and often, with colleagues as well as real users, on a variety of devices, in the lab and in the wild — is the key to the success of your app. Get it right, and users will come back to it again and again. | https://medium.com/thinking-design/conduct-usability-and-user-testing-for-mobile-apps-like-a-pro-d566339ffe1 | ['Oliver Lindberg'] | 2020-03-11 21:19:39.333000+00:00 | ['Usability', 'User Testing', 'Mobile App Development', 'Design Best Practices', 'Usability Testing'] |
Exclusive: Washington Post editors on their new travel initiative, By The Way | We spoke with Amanda Finnegan and Emilio Garcia-Ruiz from The Washington Post about By The Way, a new travel product the Post is launching on June 18. Finnegan is By The Way’s editor, and Garcia-Ruiz is the Post’s managing editor of digital.
Finnegan and Garcia-Ruiz told us how the Post developed By The Way with users in mind to support its subscription-based business model. The Post hopes By The Way will help attract new, younger audiences and retain current subscribers by diversifying its content offerings.
Courtesy of The Washington Post
The Idea: Can you tell us about the new travel initiative?
Amanda Finnegan: It’s called By the Way, and it’s a digital destination that will live within Washingtonpost.com. We created it as a place for travelers who really want an immersive experience and to feel like a local in some of the most popular destinations. So we tapped journalists in 50 cities around the world to write guides on their cities that will include their favorite neighborhoods for people to stay in, places to eat, and things to do.
We also have two full time staff writers who will be writing on travel news and trends, and then also a reporter who will be writing general travel advice, including how-tos and tips that we think readers could use on any journey.
The Idea: Can you tell us about the business opportunity that the Post saw with this new travel initiative?
Emilio Garcia-Ruiz: We have an emerging news product team whose job it is to scout out opportunities, and they look for areas of coverage where we see a combination of audience opportunity and monetization. About this time last year, they began looking at potential products.
We looked at about a dozen things, including Amanda’s idea that travel was changing and that some of the things that she was hearing from her friends were different from what they were getting from traditional travel content — this notion that most of the popular tourist places were really, really crowded, and they really wanted more of an authentic experience.
It was one of a bunch of things we studied, and it tested off the charts — it was the strongest, most successful test we’ve ever run for a new content idea.
Our business model now has shifted a bit. We are very lucky that we have a strong subscriber base to serve, and as you’re looking at serving a subscriber base, your goal shifts to both serving those subscribers, but also continuing to get scale, and we test everything on that principle.
When we tested this, it did well in both categories. So what we thought was a coverage area that would do really well with younger people actually tested really well with older folks, many of whom were subscribers.
We realized we have to diversify our offerings to our readers, the news cycle right now has been very dependent on one or two subjects, but that is not always going to be the case, and we have to prepare for the time when either the audience loses interest in those really popular coverage areas or the moment changes, and those areas are no longer in the news.
Travel is a really crowded space, and we have to be really careful that we’re distinct and bring value to it, and we think that comes through the Post’s journalism. When you search on a travel destination, there are literally dozens and dozens of different publishers you can go to get different information. We want people to come to us because we offer something really unique and special.
The Idea: Where is this initiative going to live?
Finnegan: It’ll live within WashingtonPost.com, but we also will have ByTheWay.com, which will feature all of this. It will be a destination similar to Voraciously [the Post’s food brand that launched last year]; it’ll have a different look and feel than our traditional news stories. It will be highly visual, heavily designed, we will have a weekly newsletter that will come out on Thursday afternoons, and then we will also have Instagram [@ByTheWay] because travel is just a natural fit on Instagram.
Garcia-Ruiz: Since Jeff [Bezos] purchased us, we have been a multi-platform news operation — that wasn’t the case before he bought us, by the way — but after he bought us, we really were putting our journalism in front of readers, where the reader is looking for information.
Because of that philosophy, we look at all the different platforms that are out there, and we try to figure out what of our content fits best where. So in the case of travel, it was kind of a no-brainer that Instagram would be the place to go, because you want something that is very visual and appealing to the eye.
But we want to do [Instagram] differently — we don’t want it to be about all the different ways you could take a picture around the Eiffel Tower, we wanted to give people an opportunity to take pictures of places that are different from what others are putting on their feeds. So if you follow By the Way, you should go to places where you might not find, you know, 10,000 other people taking selfies.
Courtesy of The Washington Post // Photo by @peterhersey, card by @keegansanford
The Idea: Can you tell us a bit more about the development process behind the initiative? For example, how you decided on certain approaches?
Finnegan: This is an idea that I started pitching to the Post in March 2018, and the concept developed from there. We really looked at how people are traveling today — especially younger travelers, like millennial travelers — but we think this concept really resonates with all sorts of travelers.
We knew that people are really looking to feel connected to a place and its people and want to feel like they’re immersed in a city or a culture. That’s why we really wanted to tap locals to create guides on their cities, because we think locals are the people who know their hometowns best.
We wanted to feel connected to these people personally, so that’s why we decided to give some details and information about who this person is that’s showing you around their city.
We also really wanted to focus on off-the-beaten-path places in these guides. We think that people know how to find the major sites, like the Louvre or the Washington Monument, and we really wanted to focus on places that locals would bring their friends to, places that they really love.
The Idea: Why travel? What did your team see as the editorial opportunity?
Finnegan: Travel feels like something we all do, and is a connection between us all, so it felt like a good fit for the Post, and also what our readers are looking for.
We really see this as an expansion of our existing travel coverage, but when we started to develop this concept and do some research and some polling with our readers, it was a concept that polled incredibly high with our readers. It polled the highest of any new concept they’ve ever polled readers on before. So it just really felt like a no brainer for us to do.
I think By The Way is really going to fill a hole in the travel space right now. Travel content in a lot of places has gotten really aspirational — we definitely see that on Instagram with influencers and photos of over-water bungalows — and we really wanted to give people something that felt accessible. In these guides, there’s a range of options in every category, as we really wanted to do something that people will actually use.
The Idea: Did it ever concern your team that readers would only view the Post as covering politics and Washington, rather than more lifestyle-type coverage?
Garcia-Ruiz: Yeah of course, that’s why broadening our offerings is so important. We did a really smart expansion of our food section last year, with Voraciously. A year before that we did The Lily, which is a platform aimed at millennial women, so yes it’s very important that we continue to let people see us, for everything we do, not just our great coverage of Washington.
The Idea: What’s the most interesting thing in media you’ve seen from an organization other than your own?
Finnegan: This is a general trend in media. People are looking for advice in their life and are really looking for news they can use and apply in their life, more than just reading stories. I think that we are seeing this trend in a lot of news organizations, people really want to know how the news affects them personally and want tangible things. I think that we’ve seen that with the steps that we’ve done, the Times with their new parenting product, and you know at Vox with explainers. I feel like people are wanting to know what’s going on that’s actually impacting them and what they can do with that, and I feel like they’re turning to the media more than ever to do that.
Garcia-Ruiz: Well it isn’t really from another news organization, but for someone who has been completely wrong about virtual reality for the last half dozen years, the arrival of the Oculus Quest is really exciting. This might be the device that actually gets a little bit more mainstream attention, and allows us to put our stories on it in a way that will overcome some of the obstacles of the previous virtual reality devices. But that’s what I’m most excited about. It’s no wires, you’re not tethered to a giant computer anymore, it’s really different. | https://medium.com/the-idea/washington-post-editors-on-their-new-travel-initiative-by-the-way-6934cce0dcac | ['Mollie Leavitt'] | 2019-06-10 21:12:11.205000+00:00 | ['Journalism', 'Washington Post', 'Travel', 'News', 'Media'] |
Why You Shouldn’t Get The Conventional iPad Pro Setup | I decided to give Logitech Slim Folio a chance.
It was cheaper than the magic keyboard (about half the price) and it could fold the keyboard away when not in use. I did not take the trackpad version because the whole point of an iPad is the touch screen.
I wanted to love the slim folio but it was hard.
The issues with the Logitech Slim Folio
Image by Author
The case is heavy and bulky, a type of uncomfortable bulky. I understand that the cover is meant to protect the iPad but it is so thick and rough that looks like a binder from the ’90s. The typing experience felt great. However, the keywords were still in between. Even though I could fold the keyboard back when I was not using it, the keyboards would still touch with the back surface. Making it very uncomfortable. There the magnetic flap was always floating around in front of your screen. Ugly and distracting. Again — bad design.
So I returned the Logitech Folio. If you want good protection, good keyboard and do not mind the extra grams. Then I think Logitech Slim Folio is still a good alternative compared to the Magic Keyboard.
Logitech slim folio | Image by Author
My current set up
I went back to the classic foldable case (18€ or $25) and paired it up with a Logitech Multi Device Keyboard K280 for Mac ($39). So far I am very happy with my choice. I spent less than 60€ and have a light, flexible set up.
ESR Rebound Case for iPad Pro 11inch | Image by Author
The foldable case has a standard three-panel folding design which allows me to stand my iPad at multiple angles including reading and writing mode. The cover has a magnetic flap that wraps around my Apple Pencil. The flap attaches to the back when not in used.
The cover I got is very minimal and attached magnetically to the back of my iPad if you are looking for something that gives your iPad more protection but has similar functionality I heard the OtterBox 360 is quite good too.
Logitech Multi Device Keyboard K280 | Image by Author
My keyboard is small and light enough to carry around. The multi-device function allows me to use the keyboard for both my computer and my iPad.
If you do not need the multi-device function and want something lighter I recommend the Logitech Keys-To-Go (only 180g or 6.35oz) which I also have, it is very light and is rechargeable. | https://medium.com/macoclock/why-you-shouldnt-get-the-conventional-ipad-pro-setup-4b1dabd4a0e8 | ['Eva L.'] | 2020-12-22 07:34:46.761000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Setup', 'iPad Pro', 'Apple', 'iPad'] |
How to Run Engaging, Useful Meetings when Suddenly Becoming a Fully Remote Workforce | Remote meetings have become an essential part of a workflow for many enterprises over the past decade. But for some large traditional ones, although they have started to support and leverage remote meetings, there is still a strong onsite contingent.
Over the next few weeks to months, we will all be thrust into remote meetings as opposed to in person ones. Given the traditionally high volume of meetings that run big organizations and the possible network congestion they could result when going full remote, I wanted to offer some practices to consider for running the effective remote meetings.
The Anatomy of a Meeting
The best online meetings include three essential principles: connection, collaboration and feedback. By maintaining them you will make participants feel more engaged, keep the meeting productive, and move the initiative forward — which is the reason for the meeting to begin with.
However, in order to get this outcome, you need to remember that there are three parts to running successful meetings—before, during, and after—and each phase has a set of best practices that should be considered to get the most out of the event.
Part 1: Before the remote meeting
Anticipate and empathize with your audience. Help them help you.
1. Understand your online meeting tools
Most companies use collaborative software (Skype for Business, Zoom, Google Hangouts, Slack, Confluence, etc.) that ensures everyone can see the same thing at the same time, provides tools to manage the conversation, and record comments on whiteboards to help participants follow the conversation.
2. Prepare a shared space
In addition to the meeting tools themselves, documentation and ongoing collaboration tools are also needed to effectively manage meetings. Most companies have made investments in video conferencing but other information capture and multi-person collaborative editing tools like mural, confluence/jira, google docs/g suite or slack may be additional tools to consider to enable collaborative ideation at a distance.
These tools create a shared space to allow for timely documentation and sharing of meeting outcomes. They also help reduce the number of meetings needed by making the work, tasks, and objectives visible in shared artifacts and lists with accountable people identified.Be sure to consider and discuss information security risks with your InfoSec team as you define and work to set up these alternatives.
3. Plan the agenda carefully and share it in advance
Gathering together for a remote meeting takes effort, so do not waste time during the meeting on things that could be shared ahead or are not core to the reason for the meeting. Have a plan with specific items to cover and stick to that plan. Share the agenda ahead of time to those you invite, so that everyone can prepare and be ready to participate. Seek to give people time back if the issues are resolved more quickly than planned.
Especially in peak network times throughout the day, consider whether the meeting is needed at all. If the agenda can be converted to another means to collect information and feedback like a shared digital collaboration space, consider that alternative and avoid the meeting altogether.
4. Invite the right people — and limit the number to the most essential
It’s difficult to hold a remote meeting with a large number of participants. Due to the capabilities of the technology, the ability for everyone to contribute to the conversation can be challenging.
Amazon recommends “two pizza meetings”, or the number of people that could eat two pizzas, as a good guideline of how many folks can be productive in a working group. Keeping under 8 people is good because there is a higher expectation for the participants to engage in the conversation. If the meeting purpose is to get feedback and the right people are in attendance, you will expect to hear from those participants to make progress towards the goal.
5. Develop “the rules of engagement”
Uncontrolled or uneventful meetings create a number of issues in organizations from trust erosion to unnecessary work. To manage to the best outcome, it is important to clearly define what type of meeting you are having, make sure attendees know which one they are attending, and have clearly understood rules of engagement.
Status Update Meetings. These meetings are often called “standups” in agile organizations. They should be short and each participant should seek to succinctly articulate (a) completed items, (b) items in progress, and (c) blockers in the way of progress. Information Sharing Meetings. These are more fluid but should be focused by the meeting goal. Each person should know what information is needed or to be shared and know their role in the meeting. Decision-making Meetings. These meetings should contain pre-read materials with clear points where decisions are needed. The meeting host should be sure to include the decision makers and ensure they are attending to hold the meeting. This person should also consider whether any other attendees are needed beyond the decision maker. Problem Solving Meetings. These may be fluid and use more design thinking methods to help problem frame or solution. This meeting may require more visual aids and collaborative work tools (described in #2 above) beyond the typical enterprise set up. Plan ahead and make sure you can access these extra tools. Innovation Meetings. These may be fluid and use more design thinking methods to help problem frame or solution. This meeting may require more visual aids and collaborative work tools beyond the typical enterprise set up. Plan ahead and make sure you can access these extra tools. Team Building Meetings. These meetings are intended to keep teams connected at a distance. The content may be shared ahead or presented in real-time depending on the objective of the team building.
Whether it is a brainstorming, a project update, approval session or any kind of recurring meeting, set up the rules and circulate it to participants before the meeting, or set it up for a longer time period.
6. Know your tools and have a plan B
When you are the host of a meeting, make it a habit to dial or go online at least 5 minutes early, so you can set up the meeting in advance or fall back to a plan B. In a time of heavy network congestion, you may need to shift to a back up tool. For instance, if you’re Skype for business connection is hung up, consider spinning up a Google Hangout, WebEx, or Zoom meeting or make the activity completely virtual in a collaborative editing tool with instructions by email.
Also make sure that you have planned the agenda to address the potential for technical hiccups that may arise as you get familiar with the tooling or have issues with connection.
Part 2: During the remote meeting
Focus the participants, make personal connections, and collect inputs.
7. Introduce everyone
The video camera doesn’t show every speaker throughout the meeting. Some software shows an icon or picture of who is involved in the meeting, but it is good practice to introduce everyone attending.
Also, in high use times, you may experience delays and hiccups in the call. Consider turning off any video during that time. Although video calls may be preferred for certain meetings to maintain a personal connection, they add significant data to the transmission. Turning the video portion off may increase the quality of the call.
8. Consider small talk before to start
Don’t miss a chance to connect with remote colleagues and help them make their presence felt in the room. Having small talk helps to feel people connected. Don’t underestimate the need to feel connected in an increasingly remote work environment. Try to plan time in to bring the personal connection through.
In times of high stress or uncertainty, even the little things like favorite shows and recent binge watch updates can help people feel more connected socially.
9. Remind of the meeting goal
Remind participants of the meeting goal once starting a meeting. If you use an online collaboration whiteboard or managing the meeting with a PowerPoint, you can easily put a sticker or initial PowerPoint page with a meeting goal and what needs to be achieved at the end, so that all the participants are clear with it at all times during the meeting.
10. Recruit support from the participants
The meeting host has the responsibility to manage the meeting. As the facilitator, each meeting host should recruit for two roles between attendees: a timekeeper and a scribe to write down action points and decisions made. This helps involve participants in the meeting. For a recurring meeting, you can change the roles between participants from meeting to meeting by running a kind of lottery, so nobody knows who will be lucky to be the timekeeper or scribe, writing down the meeting minutes.
11: Have people identify themselves and make sure everyone recognizes each other
This is especially important if some participants aren’t visible to everyone else. A quick, “Hi, Mark here,” before Mark speaks, for example, lets others identify the voice (and the face if on video) of each speaker. Keep note of who has spoken, as well to ask nonparticipants to join in.
12. Be considerate
Avoid side conversations and background distractions. Just like in high school when you didn’t like someone whispering behind your back, side conversations can be confusing and leave people out. Stay on the topic and keep the idea mentioned in rule #9 in focus.
13. Ask for contribution
Asking directly for input really helps team members feel engaged. And remember, listeners can only hear one person at a time clearly, so take turns sharing with each other. It is vital to make every person feel like they have the ability to contribute to the project. Reaching out to everyone in the meeting individually or asking specifically for their contributions is a good way to get people involved. Here are few examples of such engaging hooks.
Are you happy with [the progress, the result, the comment, etc.]? What interests you the most about [this solution] and why? What is your favorite/least favorite part of [this solution]? If you could change anything, what would it be? Why? What’s one thing that could increase your satisfaction with this project, and why?
14. Be captivating and collaborative
Boring meetings are tough to sit through. Since you put the work into organizing a great meeting, make it interesting with lively interaction, good visuals, or set up your own meeting traditions. Plan time to break the ice and make some fun asking ice breaker questions. If planning for better meetings means hosting fewer meetings, it will be worth it.
Part 3: What to do after the remote meeting
15. Send a follow up—quickly
Remind those who participated the main points of the meeting and the direction post meeting. This both increases the effectiveness of the meeting and reinforces the importance of remote meetings to your team members.
However, it’s only effective when it’s read, so make the follow up as useful as possible. Consider the TL;DR format. Make it a habit, so the meeting participants will be waiting for your email each time after the meeting.
16. Check out action items are in progress
It’s vital in remote working relationships that you get very clear and outcome-oriented. Each task or item that emerges from a meeting should be aligned to performance/business objectives and come with expectations for individuals and teams like due dates and level of fidelity. Discuss them as a result of the meeting, send via follow-up email, and don’t forget to control them when the meeting is done.
Conclusion
The biggest challenge of remote meetings is to keep people engaged, interested, and contributing to the goal. For organizations that are newer to fully remote collaboration, there will be a number of hurdles to overcome. Be patient, be reflective, and continuously look for ways to improve meeting best practices.
Teams want to be teams. People want to collaborate. They just need to feel comfortable and familiar in the approach and with the tooling. Like most things, it gets better with practice.
Anything we’re missing? Feel free to let me know. | https://medium.com/nyc-design/how-to-run-engaging-and-useful-remote-meetings-c06069874043 | ['Paul Burke'] | 2020-03-19 21:10:43.288000+00:00 | ['Teamwork', 'Remote Working', 'Remote', 'New York', 'Team Collaboration'] |
F#*K Churn Models — get to the heart of why customers are leaving you | F#*K Churn Models — get to the heart of why customers are leaving you Conor Curley Follow Sep 18 · 12 min read
Traditional churn analysis isn’t effective, data science teams need to embrace design thinking.
Customers are switching products and services faster than ever before. Why? Because they feel empowered to do so. They are highly informed, they have soaring expectations and the global marketplace has given rise to an abundance of choice. This flow of customers leaving a product or business is known as customer churn. And for business leaders, stopping the flow, or at the very least reducing it, has never been more critical.
Identifying the issues, the levers to pull, and the metrics to track improvements is no longer a nice to have, it’s a necessity. And yet, there are still many companies that don’t do it well, or that have a very narrow approach to churn analysis.
Modest gains in improving customer churn can add significant additional revenue. Yes, there are costs associated with incentivising customers to stay (discounts, R&D, new product development, management costs etc.), however, we can quickly calculate the high potential return of keeping existing customers.
The value potential of reducing customer churn
Let’s take a B2C Company with 100,000 customers with an average monthly bill of $50. This company has an existing churn rate of 12%. See how to calculate below:
Churn Rate Calculation
If we can reduce the Churn rate to 10% we will retain 2,000 more customers. These 2,000 customers pay an average of $50 per month.
2,000 x $50 per month x 12 months (only estimating 1 additional year)
This delivers $1.2million in additional revenue in the first year.
In addition, these gains are not once-off. As your business grows, the benefit of lower churn rates grows exponentially. Year on year, 2,000 additional customers kept with many staying longer than 1 year will lead to millions in additional revenue.
Many of these customers will leave on their own, so we need to encourage them to stay with incentives or by improving the areas that prompted them to leave. This requires a customer churn analysis to understand why.
Why traditional Churn Analysis doesn’t work
Predicting customer churn has been a staple of many B2C companies with large customer datasets — mainly in the telecommunications, insurance, banking and utility sectors. Within these organisations, Churn analysis projects have become a core task for their Data / Analytics teams. From these corporate b2C industries, a traditional approach has emerged that has become the default Churn Analysis template.
Using their customer databases, data teams build predictive churn models (A customer churn risk score attached to a customer number, based on who are most likely to leave) and then present insights back to stakeholders. These models then approved and implemented into CRM databases. They are primarily used for monitoring and for optimising direct marketing efforts. This traditional Churn Analysis approach can be split into the following six steps:
Define your business questions from stakeholders Data collection — using internal databases Exploratory data analysis Build predictive models Present insights and model(s) to stakeholders (possibly with a Business Intelligence dashboard) Add to CRM infrastructure — models get used sparingly for below-the-line marketing
This approach has become out of date for a number of reasons:
It only treats the symptoms
These predictive models use a variety of data (account info, demographics, product holdings and behavioural) to assess a customer’s likelihood to leave. But that is kind of the only thing they do, they measure the symptoms. For example, the volume of calls by a customer to a service centre in the past 3 months is a strong predictor that a customer will leave, but it fails to identify the underlying problem.
Even with additional information such as type of call, duration, outcome, etc are included, we can start to identify the key issues. But acting on these insights falls outside the remit of the project — an additional project would be required. This creates inefficiencies, multiple projects disconnected to solve an issue that may not be the most important issue to solve first. Data analytics can unearth great insights but limited scope to solve the right problems renders many projects ineffective.
A lack of qualitative insights
As the definition goes, quantitative data answers the “what” and “how”, qualitative data answers the “why”. The traditional approach was established at a time when collecting customer feedback directly (through interviews, surveys, customer testing) was relatively expensive and combining this qualitative data with other sources was difficult and messy. But without exploring the “why” perspective you are missing at least half the pieces in your churn puzzle.
It is not news to marketers that customers don’t behave rationally. There is a subjective and emotional aspect to their decision making, and this rings true when they are deciding whether or not to leave your business. Yes, quantitative data is growing exponentially and perhaps soon we will have the technology to quantify this subjective element. But for now, qualitative data needs to be embraced to create a truly holistic understanding of why valuable customers are leaving.
Data Analytics advancements
We now all live in the data age. The abundance of data that can now be applied for problem-solving is seemingly endless. Coupled with new technologies available to us like cloud analytics platforms and data visualisation tools, we can now provide insight into customer behaviour faster and easier than ever before.
These opportunities were not available when the traditional approach was established. We can now leverage both customer and product databases (structured data) and embrace the new wave of video, voice and text data (unstructured data) to help direct effective churn solutions.
Example: Creative Analytics for customer service improvements
Companies with larger customer care needs such as Health Insurers are now deploying topic clustering (a natural language processing machine learning technique, also known as NLP) to quickly identify key topics discussed within calls that are classified for low customer satisfaction. These insights can then help streamline service to more digital resources or to adjust service offerings to avoid any churn inducing pain points. These improvements in customer experience directly impact churn and also reduce service call cost in one move.
Each of these areas highlights the need to create a new approach to analysing customers leaving your business. Churn is a customer-centric problem, so it’s in an organisation’s best interest to approach it this way. Pursuing solutions needs a robust approach, one that aims to not only predict, but prevent.
Expanding our Thinking: Churn Analysis 2.0
Our approach to churn centres on two things, understanding the why customers are leaving and in turn, creating validated solutions to address the root cause(s) of churn. We’re not removing data analytics, rather expanding its role into an enabling toolkit to find and refine the most effective solution.
There will be three stages to our approach; Discovery, Develop & Test an MVP and Embed Solution. We will put qualitative and quantitative data at the heart of our analysis and will strive to solve the most pressing driver for why customers are leaving.
Hybrid Process for Churn Analytics
This is designed to be an overview with key elements of each stage identified. There is much more detail used in practice that would stray too far into the weeds for this article. Details on different data science techniques, designing objective customer scripting to avoid bias, defining robust control groups, vanity metrics, etc may be addressed in future articles for more in-depth perspectives.
STAGE 1: DISCOVERY
To ensure the right problem is being solved, this approach requires a Discovery Analysis, that borrows some key principles from Design Thinking.
A Discovery Analysis is a short (often two week) sprint that aims to seek out the root cause of an issue — Why customers are leaving your business — and then identifies which areas to pursue based on value return and the difficulty/cost of implementing the solution.
Placing a value on opportunities
What techniques should be used? A combination. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are used to create a holistic view of customer churn. In each approach, we keep top of mind that we need to find the root cause behind customers leaving your business.
Discovery Tools & Techniques
Qualitative:
Business stakeholders meeting — key business context questions
— key business context questions Customer interviews — deeper qualitative insight on retention
— deeper qualitative insight on retention Creating customer personas — identify key customer groups and their needs
— identify key customer groups and their needs Create customer journey maps — to see possible service gaps and pain points
Quantitative:
Customer segmentation (customer database) — compartmentalising your customer base eg. demographics, behavioural, revenue-generating, tenure.
— compartmentalising your customer base eg. demographics, behavioural, revenue-generating, tenure. Digital reference points analysis — Utilising online reference points such as customer reviews, comparison websites, eCommerce sites with web scraping and natural language processing to identify key customer insights for drivers of churn/pain points
— Utilising online reference points such as customer reviews, comparison websites, eCommerce sites with web scraping and natural language processing to identify key customer insights for drivers of churn/pain points Churn cohort exploratory analysis — splitting Churn rates with cohort analysis- understanding if there are key differentiators
Your discovery analysis may uncover a series of associated issues or maybe a single underlying cause. While you might consider them all to be important, your discovery should identify the most promising problem area where you can make the most impact.
Below is a list of example causes that appear general, but each requires bespoke solutions to fit organisational and industry context:
Customer service quality — poor service through call centre, digital, retail, etc
— poor service through call centre, digital, retail, etc Product features — other companies simply offer more wanted features
— other companies simply offer more wanted features Onboarding process — customer teething issues creating short tenures
— customer teething issues creating short tenures Re-contracting issues at 12 month s — churn after introductory contract
s — churn after introductory contract Lack of loyalty benefits — longer tenure customers don’t feel appreciated
— longer tenure customers don’t feel appreciated Pricing cliffs -sharp increases in price creates customer dissatisfaction
STAGE 2: MVP — MOVE FAST AND MEASURE
Following the discovery process you should have identified one key area to pursue. This is where the approach pivots from identifying to tackling the underlying causes/drivers of customer churn.
Before a solution can be implemented, it must be tested and refined. Without testing possible solutions, you run the risk of investing time and money into ideas that when implemented, are ineffective.
This is where a Minimal Viable Product/prototyping comes in. A proposed solution is deployed (a new process, a mock-up of an improved product, a new pricing model, a revamped loyalty program) to a subset of customers who’ve been identified as likely to give feedback. Remember that no solution is optimal in a project plan, because effective solutions need testing and refinement to determine what is working and what is not working.
Example: Tackling early life churn for Broadband Provider (200k Customers)
Discovery: Two cohorts that drive customer churn were identified: early life churners who have a tenure of 0–3 months, and re-contracting customers at 12-month tenure. Through a business engagement, separate plans for changing the re-contracting process were discovered. The team pivoted to improving early-life churners.
MVP: The team chose to prototype an improved onboarding experience. They created a simplified process that makes the web portal and app easier to use for new customers. It was hypothesised that the new onboarding process will lead to faster installations and less service centre enquiries.
Impact measured: By resolving these customer problems, early-life churn was reduced by 80% in the testing environment with the unseen benefit of reducing the percentage of new customers who miss first bill payments from 15% to 3%. It is understood that these results may not be replicated when fully implemented, however, even a reduction of 40% would return significant value.
Selecting the most impactful solution, rapidly prototyping and testing an MVP is not a novel concept. However, within analytics and especially for churn analysis these concepts have yet to become the norm. The traditional approach is applied and solutions are implemented without testing, leaving many churn analysis projects with underwhelming results.
Measuring your MVP Solution
Effective measurement will help to refine your solution’s impact. What is working? What is not working? Will this change customer behaviour? Many of the MVP metrics need to be specific to your solution and its development stage. All good metrics share key some attributes, here are some below:
They are action-focused — How do my decisions change when this metric changes? Is there a design decision for the MVP that we need to choose between?
They are comparative — Does this tell me which is better A or B? What is the difference? Splitting testers into two groups is not robust enough — You need to understand if the groups have an equal mixture of customer needs. Effective comparison needs to overcome some subjective bias for the best option to be selected.
They are behavioural — Is this metric this tracking actual behaviour or reported behaviour? The difference between what we report we do and what we actually do can vary enormously and these differences may hold the insight to refining your churn solution. Example of observing customers trailing a new process vs asking them their experiences.
They are understandable — the metrics you use need to be explainable to everyone. As you move into implementation, eventually your testing results will need to be explained to a wider non-technical audience. Complex metrics can often be broken down to easier to understand a subset of metrics.
STAGE 3: EMBED YOUR SOLUTION
If the MVP solution tests successfully, the solution should be adopted across the wider organisation. Every organisation’s attitude towards change differs, so prior to MVP testing it is important to consider any foreseeable implementation problems. There will always be some challenges to overcome in implementing your solution, but these are some essential components to consider:
Automate for scale — Many MVPs can potentially fail to scale if they need manual inputs. Avoid this by automating all processes — especially reporting — to remove unnecessary waste. This may not be always achievable at the beginning of implementation but should be a goal as you refine your churn solution.
Create alignment — Stakeholder engagement and alignment is key to successful implementation. However, it’s likely you will encounter some form of cultural resistance, and overcoming these issues can often be overlooked. However, a combined approach of inclusivity, workshops, demos and training can help a smooth implementation.
Continuous solution measurement and refinement — Implementing your solution is a massive milestone, but as with the MVP stage, you need to continuously measure your solution’s impact. What is working? What needs refinement? How can you measure the value return? Compare results with control groups and ensure any results have statistical significance.
Capture customer feedback — When collecting customer feedback, it is important to measure both what they do and what they say they do. Eg. measuring how a customer interacts through a new UX of a website with Google Analytics may differ significantly from how they respond in a survey.
A summary of our new approach
Okay so we’ve covered a lot of ground — Time to recap on our approach:
Discovery Analysis: Identify the root cause of churn with a combined qualitative and quantitative approach. MVP Development: Create working prototypes to refine solutions to maximise effectiveness for addressing customers churn drivers. Embedding your Solution: For successful rollout: Align, Automate, Measure and collect Customer Feedback.
This approach is broad but can be tailored more to the bespoke industry context, customer dynamic and business model. It looks beyond data analytics as a siloed approach data as an enabler for effective problem-solving.
We now have easy access to customer’s perception of our products from digital touch-points and can collect quality customer feedback at a much lower cost. These changing dynamics are fuelled by better machine learning technologies, altogether contributing to an enormous opportunity to change our approach to customer churn analysis. So now, we can reap the benefits and the significant value potential of keeping customers around for a little longer.
Conor is a Data Strategist at IE, an innovation company bringing transformative ideas to market. Conor turns the most complex analysis into actionable business outcomes through data storytelling.
If you’re interested in IE’s data capabilities, you can contact us here. This post originally appeared on the IE blog. | https://medium.com/ie-company/f-k-churn-models-get-to-the-heart-of-the-problem-and-understand-why-customers-are-leaving-you-1fb04d13106a | ['Conor Curley'] | 2020-09-18 01:12:31.178000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Churn Rate', 'Marketing', 'Design Thinking', 'Customer Analytics'] |
You Need to Stop Making it Harder For People to Agree With You | You Need to Stop Making it Harder For People to Agree With You Sam Young Follow Dec 10 · 6 min read
Recently, I came across an article here on Medium talking about slang terms white people need to stop using. Normally, this sort of stuff wouldn’t bother me, but every time I look at my medium digest some article pops up belonging to a genre I can only really describe as “let’s get upset at shit white people do”. Let me start out by pointing out the pachyderm. I am white. I am so white, I offend mayonnaise. I’m so white, snow blindness was originally called Sam blindness. I cannot leave the house without instantly getting four types of skin cancer. I invented Tay-Sachs disease. I am so white, my skin tone is used competitively to color business cards like that scene from American Psycho. When I try to dance, it becomes a personal tragedy and my reputation is destroyed like Elaine from Seinfeld. When summer arrives, socks with sandals grow onto my feet like the alien symbiote from Spiderman.
Maybe we should ease up on the whole it’s cool to be sexist if they’re white deal? I’ve seen some real jaundiced reactionary yahoo bruiser types yelling about “white girls” and it’s pretty uncomfortable.
I am not your ally. My support for BLM and other such movements is unconditional. Alliances are conditional and subject to change, especially with shifting interests. Supporting human rights for all people has nothing to do with my interests, and there is nothing anyone can do to change my position on such issues. That being said, it took work and time for me to get to this point. I would not have been able to develop an understanding of these issues if it weren’t for exposure I had gotten through various relationships and life experiences. Not everyone has gotten the opportunities that I have, and many are ignorant for this reason and do not understand the issues that people of color and other minorities face. In a democratic society such as ours, it is necessary that we reach out to these people and bring them to a place where they understand social justice and actively support it.
The focus of much of my political work has been on reaching out to people who share my values regarding life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and explaining to them why social justice is the critical component of actualizing that dream in the modern world. Every time I see one of these stupid articles, I feel like I am being shot in the foot. Nobody wants to join a movement that explicitly hates them and requires them to compromise the things they love to join. These articles actively feed into right-wing propaganda that the left is a puritanical and pessimistic movement based on a dreary group of boors who hate the white working class.
The right understands intuitively that people base their politics on social identity just as much if not more than they base it on their moral values or even their material interests. This is why they constantly push the narrative that the right is an accepting and fun-loving community while the left is chronically spiteful and morose. Anyone with ears and a conscience can see that Donald Trump is morally repugnant, but the religious right accepted this adulterous brute regardless because they understand the symbolic meaning behind accepting an outsider and seeing past their sinful exterior to embrace the humanity within. I have often heard black Republicans talk about how they experienced more “discrimination” for being conservative than they ever did for being black. Clearly, this position comes from a place of privilege, but I don’t think these people are being disingenuous. There are a number of people of all backgrounds who feel compelled to abandon the left because they feel stifled by its more dogmatic cohorts.
I have to question what the people writing these articles even hope to achieve. I can only imagine that these articles push people sitting on the fence further away from the social justice movement. The black community has an immense amount of soft power, so much so that the United States government still uses black cultural inventions like jazz to proliferate our political influence overseas. As a linguist I hate the term “slang” being used as a way to differentiate features of African American English from other varieties, but either way AAE language features are continuing to define the evolution of mainstream English and it’s ridiculous to me that this is seen as a negative. No, “fuckboy” doesn’t mean the same thing in Spokane as it does in Atlanta, but neither does “baikingu” in Tokyo mean the same thing as “Viking” nor “Handi” in Berlin the same as “handy”.
I imagine someone who has been growing up their whole life being taught that the Confederacy was a group of freedom fighters and that blacks just need to stop complaining and work harder encountering elements of black culture and falling in love. This is someone who may be on the precipice of beginning to understand systemic racism in the United States and deconstructing the problematic aspects of the culture they grew up with. Then, they come across an article telling them that they need to walk like this talk like this if they want to be a good ally, telling them that they’re not allowed to enjoy certain things or feel good about themselves for who they are. Is this supposed to make them more likely to support the movement? Is this how we get people to abandon the communities and ways of thinking they’ve held onto their entire lives and throw themselves into a movement their culture has trained them to resist through centuries of propaganda?
BLM rally in Japan
I want to be careful in emphasizing what I do not mean by this. People of color should not be obligated to explain anything they don’t want to, pander to white people, sugarcoat their struggles, hide how they really feel, or otherwise handle racism with kid gloves. The situation black people are going through right now in the United States is nothing short of horrifying and we do not have time to be nice about it. White people have an obligation to work within our own communities and translate what black people have been saying about their own struggles for centuries into language that is suitable for reaching white audiences. All human beings have an obligation to help each other, and considering the great power white people have extracted from other communities over the centuries, the obligation is especially heavy upon us to utilize our privilege and genius to move equality forward.
That being said, the seriousness of the struggle we face necessitates pragmatism and I feel the need to criticize the almost suicidal sort of idealism the left continues to embody. The left sucks at marketing, and this has severe real-world consequences for the most vulnerable. We must not fall into the trap of appropriating unethical tactics our opposition uses or mindlessly adopting methods that are antithetical to our goals. At the same time, we need to pay attention to why these methodologies are so effective and figure out what our movement needs to be maximally constructive. When the stakes are this high, we don’t have the privilege of losing. We certainly don’t benefit from making it more difficult for people to agree with us. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/you-need-to-stop-making-it-harder-for-people-to-agree-with-you-65f561dcfd75 | ['Sam Young'] | 2020-12-15 16:53:08.860000+00:00 | ['Social Justice', 'Politics', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Racism', 'Writing'] |
Linear regression with TensorFlow | Linear regression with TensorFlow
Using the Matrix Inverse Method
Linear regression may be one of the most important algorithms in statistics, machine learning, and science in general. It’s one of the most used algorithms and it is very important to understand how to implement it and its various flavours. One of the advantages that linear regression has over many other algorithms is that it is very interpretable.
Using the Matrix Inverse Method
we will use TensorFlow to solve two-dimensional linear regressions with the
matrix inverse method.
Getting ready
Linear regression can be represented as a set of matrix equations, say Ax =B. Here we are interested in solving the coefficients in matrix x. We have to be careful if our observation matrix (design matrix) A is not square. The solution to solving x can be expressed as
To show this is indeed the case, we will generate two-dimensional data,
solve it in TensorFlow, and plot the result.
How to do it…
First, we load the necessary libraries, initialize the graph, and create the data, as follows:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import tensorflow as tf
sess = tf.Session()
x_vals = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
y_vals = x_vals + np.random.normal(0, 1, 100)
2. Next we create the matrices to use in the inverse method. We create the A matrix first, which will be a column of x-data and a column of 1s. Then we create the b matrix from the y-data. Use the following code:
x_vals_column = np.transpose(np.matrix(x_vals))
ones_column = np.transpose(np.matrix(np.repeat(1, 100)))
A = np.column_stack((x_vals_column, ones_column))
b = np.transpose(np.matrix(y_vals))
3. We then turn our A and b matrices into tensors, as follows:
A_tensor = tf.constant(A)
b_tensor = tf.constant(b)
4. Now that we have our matrices set up , we can use TensorFlow to solve this via the matrix inverse method, as follows
tA_A = tf.matmul(tf.transpose(A_tensor), A_tensor)
tA_A_inv = tf.matrix_inverse(tA_A)
product = tf.matmul(tA_A_inv, tf.transpose(A_tensor))
solution = tf.matmul(product, b_tensor)
solution_eval = sess.run(solution)
5. We now extract the coefficients from the solution, the slope and the y-intercept, as follows:
slope = solution_eval[0][0]
y_intercept = solution_eval[1][0] print('slope: ' + str(slope))
print('y'_intercept: ' + str(y_intercept)) #slope: 0.955707151739
#y_intercept: 0.174366829314 best_fit = []
for i in x_vals:
best_fit.append(slope*i+y_intercept) plt.plot(x_vals, y_vals, 'o', label='Data')
plt.plot(x_vals, best_fit, 'r-', label='Best' fit line',linewidth=3)
plt.legend(loc='upper left')
plt.show()
SUMMARY
The solution here is found exactly through matrix operations. Most TensorFlow algorithms that we will use are implemented via a training loop and take advantage of automatic backpropagation to update model variables. | https://medium.com/ai-in-plain-english/linear-regression-tensorflow-699593ee9967 | ['Bhanu Soni'] | 2020-11-01 14:02:32.128000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Neural Networks', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Linear Regression'] |
“Slowing down”; storytelling in set design for theatre — 5 questions for Theun Mosk | Walking (foto: Anne Zorgdrager)
“Slowing down”; storytelling in set design for theatre — 5 questions for Theun Mosk
@Interactive Storytelling Meetup #7 –14 July 2016
Interview by Klasien van de Zandschulp
Presentation Theun Mosk at the Interactive Storytelling Meetup
Theun Mosk is an internationally acclaimed theater designer and creates settings that optimally engage audiences. At Interactive Storytelling Meetup #7 he shared with us how to stage fiction in a way it enables the immersive experiences we all crave for.
1. We were very inspired by the start of your presentation where you showed us how powerful movement (or motion) in theatre can be for the perception and experience of the visitor. Can you explain how you use movement or (slow)motion in your work to enhance the visitors experience?
“By slowing down you get more time to watch and digest, and also, you can use slowing down to create a tension. A theatre experience gives the possiblity to do that because it is always in the here and now, it is an appointment between vistor and creators for a certain amount of time. For instance in a 2 hour play you can’t say everything has the same tempo, as a theatre maker you can play with these tensions that influence the story and experience.”
>> Article in the Guardian about the piece ‘Walking’
“Set design is the frame where the story or experience exists. Primarily it connects the author with the director and the actors, and gives a frame to the audience on how to watch the performance.”
2. What is your vision on how set design in theatre can drive a story forward?
“Set design is the frame where the story or experience exists. Primarily it connects the author (if it is a text based performance like Hamlet) with the director and the actors, and gives a frame to the audience on how to watch the performance.
Walking, by Robert Wilsonin collaboration with Theun Mosk and Boukje Schweigman
Secondly it gives you the opportunity to start from the space or from a material, and that is what I work with in my work with Boukje Schweigman [Walking]. The space (site-specific) or spatial concept is the starting point of our work. So there are different approaches, but I always have in mind that there is no set needed. The set can also be a decision of the designer, if it will help to initial story or concept to tell.”
3. How can light influence a story in theatre?
“With light you help the dramaturgy of the perfomance. It can be day, it can be night, you can make transitions in a play sensible on an unconscious level. Or just make a quick and clear change of scene. It helps you to travel through the piece as an audience. The lighting needs to be in the right relation to all the other disiplines like sound, set, costume and actors / dancers, to be effective. Also lighting helps to give the audience a focus. If there is no light on stage and you whisper, the audience won’t hear it; if you put little light on the person who whispers, you will hear him.”
“A theatre experience gives the possiblity to create a tension because it is always in the here and now, it is an appointment between vistor and creators for a certain amount of time.”
4. You always work in a team of theatre makers, actors, designers, etc. How does this process of collaboration work to tell a story?
“Once in a while you create a performance in a team which is 100% right. It starts for sure with a good concept and pivot of a project, for instance, the director really want to tell or research something. I experienced the power of team work with the work Angels in America which we staged 1,5 year ago, directed by Marcus Azzini at Toneelgroep Oostpool. Azzini wanted to stage this story already since he started his career like 20 years ago and the urge to do it was so presence, that everybody was really diving into it. That is a very special atmosphere, everything staples an grows to something you almost can not have questions about. If the work becomes bigger than everybody’s individual ideas, than it becomes theatre. Of course it is a matter of taste, but in general you can always feel when it when a piece is produced good, the team works great together and the puzzle comes together.”
5. Do you have a dream project that you’ve always wanted to work on in your field?
“In my field there are still a lot of things to discover. I would love to design for a large scale opera, for example for the Dutch National Opera. But what I would love to do the most = designing a building! I would love to be an architect, because theatre is always temporary. It doesn’t remain forever but it is an experience with a beginning and an ending. I would love to make something that physically stays forever.” | https://medium.com/interactive-innovative-storytelling/slowing-down-stories-in-theatre-5-questions-for-theun-mosk-bf5edab938dd | ['Interactive Storytelling'] | 2016-11-13 10:28:55.246000+00:00 | ['Storytelling', 'Theatre', 'Slowing Down', 'Storytelling Meetup'] |
How to Stay Motivated as a Developer | How to Stay Motivated as a Developer
#1 Rule — Avoid burnout at all cost, it could mean chaos.
Photo by Anthony Da Cruz on Unsplash
“You’re not going to master the rest of your life in one day, relax, master the day, then keep doing it every day.”
I’m never gonna tired of saying this, programming is as hard as f***, anyone who says otherwise, bless you.
But for 99% of us developers, programming is a pain, so get over it because there is nothing we can do about it, we might as well learn to deal with it.
But working hard every single day just to keep up with the pace, isn’t sustainable at all, we just can’t work hard, we have to work smart because I don’t know if you are aware of this but being a developer isn’t a sprint in which you can give 100% of yourself every day and expect to win in the end, nope, its not a smart move at all.
This is a marathon, learn how to pace or else you’d end up not just exhausted but a quitter — don't be a quitter.
And these simple other things will literally change your life. | https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-stay-motivated-as-a-developer-b18259ac84f6 | ['Ann Adaya'] | 2020-12-10 08:55:25.288000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'JavaScript', 'Work', 'Software Development', 'Software Engineering'] |
Doomscrolling is not activism. | Doomscrolling is not activism.
We seem to think that we need to voraciously consume bad news to be engaged. The opposite is true.
Some time in the early-1990s, I remember reading a bumper sticker out loud to my mother and asking her what it meant.
IF YOU’RE NOT MAD, YOU’RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION
The sticker was fairly worn and we were in Eugene, Oregon, so I assume the owner of the vehicle had probably purchased and placed it in reaction to the decisions and actions of the first President Bush, though I can’t be certain. There were plenty of things to be mad about at that time — which is exactly what my mother told me. That there were lots of reasons to be mad and, if you weren’t, it was because, as the sticker chided, you weren’t paying attention.
One of my mom’s op-eds. She was 25.
My mother was not a politically-active person in the conventional sense; she didn’t go to rallies or work in campaign offices in rented storefronts. But she was, in her own way (and in the way of a lot of 90s moms, I think) ruthlessly engaged, tithing what she could to Planned Parenthood and writing scathing op-eds about abortion and taxes to our local paper.
She explained that, while it’s easy to ignore the scary, frustrating, or dangerous actions of politicians and corporations, it was our responsibility to vote and engage and remain vigilant.
Pay attention, basically. Stay mad. Do something about it.
I think a lot of us have internalized this idea — that just remaining involved is, in and of itself, the work. That in order to be Good People, we must pay absolutely unflinching attention to the plights of the world.
Where we have gotten off-track, though, is that we’ve carried this sentiment to its logical conclusion, which is that if paying attention is good, then paying attention to a lot of things must be better. Not only do we need to pay attention and stay mad, we need to pay attention to every single maddening thing and stay at a baseline of angry and upset literally all of the time.
The result is a toxic breed of awareness, and one which does much more harm than good. By inhaling a constant stream of second-hand tragedy — humanitarian crises, the devastation of our climate, rampant racism within the systems which yield the most power, take your pick—I am concerned that we won’t just be mad. I’m afraid we’ll be so mad that we no longer have the wherewithal to do anything about the things that made us mad in the first place.
This is not sustainable. Attention and the ability to care are not infinite resources that regenerate on their own. We can’t be mad all of the time because if we are, it gets really difficult to pay attention.
Attention in the Age of Instagram Activism
Divided attention is not a new issue; before the age of industrialization, people were juggling all kinds of things that were demanded their attention as a matter of survival. In fact, a lot of people are still trying to strike this balance, which is why neuroscientists posit that people who are living in poverty display greater signs of impatience. They literally have to use more of their brain on survival skills, as opposed to, say, quibbling in neighborhood Facebook groups over other people’s problems, which creates undue stress.
What is new, though, is the kind of exposure we have to the oppressions, degradation, and mistreatment of other people, groups, or resources. Our social media feeds are full of complaints, petitions, requests for financial assistance, or general pleas for attention.
This is not an objectively bad thing. The movements which have formed as a direct result of organizing online are actively changing policies and forcing transparency from government agencies and organizations. The pressure that comes from digital organizing is real — lawmakers really do hate it when their mentions are full of people pointing out where they’ve harmed someone—and this is not at all meant to diminish that work.
However.
For all of the folks who are doing this incredible hard work, there are thousands — maybe hundreds of thousands—more who will never write a letter, never give $5, never attend a march, never phone bank, never attend a Zoom City Council meeting. They are simply absorbing the weight of the world’s problems and feeling held down by them. And this, I think, is the crux of the problem with doomscrolling, as the kids call it. We can very easily be mentally exhausted just by bearing witness and be left with no energy to take the necessary next steps.
Laying in bed with one eye open on Saturday morning watching another Black person brutalized by police in a city across the country and then going back to sleep isn’t actually work.
This is not intended to shame anyone. There is no right way to be an activist and there is no right way to be engaged. But the key is actually being engaged.
Activism is exactly what it sounds live — it’s active. Which means to be engaging in activism, one must take action. And simply internalizing the feelings of uselessness and discomfort that social media has put right in our hands, in our faces, in our beds is not active. It is, by definition, passive.
And passive upset is one of the most training feelings a human being can experience.
As Dan Green writes in Think On Purpose, these feelings of passive sadness or helpless anger often create a cycle. We seek out things that make us feel bad because feeling bad kind of feels good, or it feels like what we’re supposed to do.
Inner Passivity often manifests itself in a concept referred to as “selected sadness.” Researchers have investigated how depressed people regulate their emotions and have found that many who are depressed often engage in maladaptive strategies that reinforce their depression, rather than seeking ways to diminish it.
In previous generations there were just as many things to mad about as there are today and probably more. Every generation has its challenges and, as human beings, we do a pretty terrible job of taking care of one another. Staying mad has fueled the battles for basic human rights, for equitable access to institutions, and for changes in policy and practice. But when that (probable) Subaru driver put that bumper sticker on their car, “paying attention” looked massively different than it does today.
But when my mom was writing scathing op-eds from her kitchen table in the early 1990s, her only exposure to other people’s problems were the daily newspaper and the 6 o’clock news. The rest of the time, she could read a book or file her nails without being constantly bombarded with more and different kinds of human misery.
Of course, just because our parents couldn’t see the real-time suffering of others didn’t mean others weren’t suffering. Imagine the ways that the narrative around the Civil Rights movement might have been changed if we had livestreams of the Freedom Riders being attacked. Imagine if more white people had seen, as it happened, just how grotesque they looked bullying literal children who were trying to go to school.
Then again, maybe it wouldn’t have changed anything at all. Maybe a lot of guilty white folks would have been glued to their screens, feeling upset and afraid, but unable to move from their couches to go do something about it.
The fact is that we are in a revolutionary era of media; the ability for marginalized people to capture and disseminate their own experiences has democratized storytelling. Protesters no longer need to wait for shellac-haired newscasters to wade into the mix followed by a camera and a boom mic to ensure that the abuses by cops get noticed.
By which I mean to say: You should absolutely not look away from the events of our lifetime. You should not ignore the corruption oozing from the White House, nor should you turn your eyes from your local and municipal elections.
But if you want to be one of the people who is helping to set some of these wrongs right, you have to know when you’re scrolling for good —and when you’re stuck in a cycle of scrolling as self-flagellation.
A Finite Resource
Doomscrolling is not a surprising reaction to the devices and media that we consume every day. With every story about a serial abuser or potential treason or too-cozy relationship between the President and an oligarch, we are reminded that there is always more. There are always more children being separated from their parents and held in cages at the border. There are always more rights that the Supreme Court seems poised to roll back. Flint still doesn’t have clean water. Indigenous people are being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and reservation residents are not getting the help they need, but what else is new?
Maybe if you keep scrolling you’ll find the end. But if you stop, you might miss something really big. Really bad. Something that you really should have known about.
There is a kind of dark currency to knowing every single awful thing that happened today and ensuring that other people know it. If you don’t re-share an Instagram post about a rally, or an event, or a horrendous miscarriage of justice, how will people know that you are paying attention, that you are mad?
Ultimately, though, performing awareness is not anything. It doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t shift policy. Maybe it will expose someone in your feed to a new issue or problem, but, thanks to The Algorithm and the way that most of us self-select, the majority of our digital friend groups already hold similar values and thus, will not be swayed.
In a previous sentence, I referred to doomscrolling as a kind of self-flagellation. I think this is especially true for white people with means, or those with any kind of privilege. We feel like it’s our duty to fully internalize the struggles of those who have been silenced and marginalized for so long. This is accurate; we do need to spend a lot of time and energy listening and learning in order to be the kind of accomplices that we should. And often, donning the hair shirt of everything terrible on Twitter feels like that’s exactly what we should be doing — enduring discomfort for the purpose of learning a lesson.
This becomes a problem when we are no longer capable of actually doing the second part of that process, which is showing up for equity and justice. Using our privileges, whatever those may be, to push forth changes in the legislature, in our organizations, or in our communities.
If you scroll yourself into a depressive heap, you have not done the important thing.
You may think that you’re immune to this—that all of your late-night reading about Russian hacking doesn’t impact you that badly—but you would be incorrect. There is a litany of research on the impacts of constantly being upset by new information.
We respond more quickly to bad news than we do to good news, and with more of a physical response. That means for every one bad tweet you see, you’d need to see and linger on a handful of videos of men rescuing baby ducks. The release of the stress hormone cortisol can turn a virtual experience into a very present, bodily one. This kind of anxiety reaction may take minutes or even hours to wind down, meaning just a little bit of pre-bed scrolling can ensure crummy sleep. And we make it worse by visiting a plethora of sites. In a 2017 article published by the American Psychiatric Association, researchers proposed that using numerous platforms could increase that stress because each one has different rules and, in a lot of ways, slightly different audiences. The more you hop from Instagram to Twitter and back to TikTok, the worse you may find yourself feeling.
Or, to make a quick point of it: Doomscrolling makes you feel bad. And when you feel bad, you have a harder time doing good.
I believe that this is the most critical issue with doomscrolling as a method of feeling engaged. The practice of constantly being immersed in things that not only make us feel shitty but make us feel helpless and impotent saps the resources that you have to go out and do good work because, regretfully, you are not a bottomless fount of energy and empathy.
It’s a new facet of a problem that has haunted the species since we crawled from the bog. We are limited. And we have to appreciate those limitations if we want to get any damn thing done.
Some righteous indignation is positive — even necessary, especially for those of us with any privileges. We should be feeling uncomfortable and we should be learning as much as we can about they ways we’ve been complicit within structures of oppression. We do need to wear the hair shirt for a little bit.
But if the ultimate goal is to be an active participant for change —to do good work and be useful to the movements that you, personally, care most about—we have to also treat ourselves and our attention and empathy as resources that need to be nurtured and tended to.
You don’t have to scroll through every awful thing that happened today. Merely laying your eyes upon another gutting piece of bad news will not effect change—just because you are aware doesn’t mean you’re doing the work.
Pay attention. Be mad. But know that sometimes you have to take a break. | https://hannabrooksolsen.medium.com/doomscrolling-is-not-activism-12c34ed0fad7 | ['Hanna Brooks Olsen'] | 2020-07-18 02:31:58.581000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'Personal Development', 'Mental Health', 'Self Improvement'] |
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