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Friend or legal guardian? | Logo of www.papa-bleiben.de
As a separated father, one often feels like an observer. At least that's how I feel when I have contact with my children or when I am with them. Unfortunately, I only experience my children sporadically, but with every encounter I recognize behaviors or patterns of thought in them that are new and perhaps even foreign to me.
I openly admit that every now and then I catch myself thinking: “Who did my son get this from? Not from me! ”. Or also: "If I had more influence on my daughter, she would be different now!".
Such thoughts are absolute nonsense, because with a child an independent person grows up. Of course, this person is shaped by his parents, but not exclusively. Other environmental factors also play a role, and scientists around the world have been researching and discussing the influence of these factors for decades. It is clear, however, that many personality traits are genetically created when the child is born. Neither mother nor father (nor the child itself) have any influence on this.
So it is very presumptuous when a father claims that the mother's upbringing alone made the child anxious or phlegmatic. And it is even more presumptuous when he says he would have done better and prevented the child from becoming anxious or phlegmatic. As I said, I know similar thoughts from myself, but they lack any scientific basis.
But what remains in any case is the strange feeling of being just an observer. Strange because as a father you would like to have an influence on the development of your child and as a legal guardian you should have it. But how much influence is possible when you only have direct contact with your own child on a few days a year? How is this little influence of the father to be evaluated when the great influence of the mother stands against it?
Even if you have legal guardianship rights as a separated father, the question still arises as to whether you can still bring up your own child or whether you should use the few hours spent together on tiresome parenting issues. As a separated father, are you also a tutor, or is it better to be a friend of your own child? Or none of that? Or both?
Parenting is not an option
Basically, a child needs both parents for healthy development, that means both mother and father. The roles between the parents are distributed differently, which is determined by culture, religion, education, social status and other aspects. But a mother can never replace a father, and a father cannot replace a mother. It is therefore not in the best interests of the child if a separated father withdraws from the upbringing because he thinks he has no more influence anyway.
As a separated father, I occasionally experience behavior in one of my two children that I cannot approve of. Let's say it's my son who's with me for the weekend. Then I ask myself the question: "Do I prefer to enjoy the weekend with him and ignore the topic, or do I talk to him about it and risk a problematic situation?".
In my experience, there is no general solution in such cases. On the one hand, it depends on the topic itself and how important it is in my eyes. On the other hand, it depends on the current situation, my mood and also the mood of my child.
Basically, however, I would say: Do not dodge the subject!
If it is a topic that, according to your experience and assessment, is important for the development and well-being of your child, then you have to seek the conversation. It is not just a question of fulfilling your role as a father or as an educator. It's also about your child having a legitimate right to be educated by you.
You may even be liable to prosecution if you do not protect your child from certain situations or prevent him or her from doing certain things. Young people in particular can come up with the most stupid thoughts when they are in the wrong circle of friends and thereby seriously endanger themselves or make themselves liable to prosecution. One of many examples is dealing with drugs. If you find out about it, it is your duty to act immediately.
How do I tell my child?
Such conversations can be really exhausting and nerve-wracking, because you will probably not always find your child open and understanding. I have already experienced that it took several hours for such a conversation. This is of course bitter in view of the short time available at our meetings. It would really be more convenient to forego the discussion and instead enjoy the short time.
A completely different risk arises for a separated father: It's not just about the current meeting, which may suffer from the difficult topic. It is also about future meetings that may be in danger because the child does not feel like having difficult conversations with the dad. Then papa won't be visited anymore if he's always annoying.
It becomes clear that a separated father needs a lot more diplomacy and empathy, but also courage and determination for a difficult conversation with his own child, than the mother of the child. The reason is that there is a lot more at stake, which cannot be cleaned up the next day. It is all the more important to carefully consider the need for such a conversation.
It may also help to have a chat with the mother before you talk to your child. You may find out things that will help you decide whether the conversation makes sense and what it is best not to talk to your child about. In any case, it is desirable to come to an agreement with the mother on important issues - if that is possible.
In an earlier article I already gave a few hints which rules I think can help to have difficult conversations with your own child. I repeat myself again here, but at this point it fits again:
“In my opinion, it is important that the conversation has a clear beginning and a clear end as soon as possible. And it is important that such a conversation - as far as possible and predictable - does not happen immediately at the beginning or at the end of the visit. Embedded in unproblematic, happy and easy phases, such a conversation can be easily digested by everyone involved".
Raising a child is certainly not an easy task. This is a major challenge even for intact families. This task does not get any easier for separated parents, because the separation brings additional challenges for parents and child. A separated father who rarely sees his child is, in my opinion, in the weakest starting position for several reasons. Nevertheless, it is also important for him to face this task and to accompany the child on its way lovingly, powerfully and with commitment. | https://medium.com/@christian-peter-niklis/friend-or-legal-guardian-21c99c5c66f0 | ['Christian Peter Niklis'] | 2020-12-08 15:03:10.837000+00:00 | ['Children', 'Responsibility', 'Parenting', 'Family', 'Fatherhood'] |
Leading a Data Science Team when you are not a Data Scientist | This was me when I took a position managing a data science team. My background is in social science and policy. I never coded before outside of some Stata for my masters degree (and the use of “coding” in Stata is arguable) and most of my math and statistics ware based on social science research. Honestly though, I usually leaned more on qualitative methods for my research and work.
Now I was sitting down with a team trying to understand how they were pulling together data and compiling it into dashboards. Not only did I need to understand this in quick order, I was expected to help them do their jobs better and add value for the organization. I wasn’t really certain where to begin.
Luckily, I had recently began a doctorate program and had been getting more interested in performance measurements, evidence-based policy, and the realm of data analysis. This had at least made me familiar with the term ”data science”.
Additionally, I had a good plan for myself coming into this position. I built this plan based on The First 90 Days by Micheal Watkins. One of the key takeaways is to set a learning schedule for yourself.
This does three important things. First, it ensures you are intentionally learning about the people, things, and relationships that you need to learn in your new job. Second, it allows your new team to see that you are coming in with an open mind to learn from them, rather than just thinking you know it all already. Lastly, it gives you time and space in your day to really dive into learning what you team is doing and how they are doing it.
Take advantage of this time, it will help you immensely later on. You will also be surprised by how much you will learn about the team and organization this way rather than just scheduling a march of one-on-one meetings. Really take advantage and get into the work, try to actually contribute rather than just going through the motions.
In my own case, this is how I became more familiar with the tools the team was using. SQL, R, Python and Tableau were all foreign to me previously. It also allowed me to understand how I might be able to add value to the team. More about that later. | https://towardsdatascience.com/leading-a-data-science-team-when-you-are-not-a-data-scientist-540db8fa9acf | ['Joel Nantais'] | 2019-11-15 19:17:19.547000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Leadership', 'Goal Setting', 'Leadership Development', 'Self Improvement'] |
Breastfeeding and Drinking | HOORAY NEW MAMA! You deserve a parade after giving birth. Seriously, a day should be named in your honor. Now the big question: can you treat yourself with a tasty alcoholic beverage while breastfeeding? After mucho researching the academic literature, here is the deal:
Well, the answer is yes, but one drink only. According to the American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC), you should wait at least two hours after one alcoholic drink before breastfeeding [1, 2]. That is the estimated time it will take your body to process the alcohol and get rid of it from your breast milk. The alcohol will be present in your milk if it is still in your bloodstream, which means that the more you drink, the longer you will have to wait to safely breastfeed. But how long the alcohol will be in your milk or your blood is not a simple calculation of the number of drinks multiplied by two. It depends on many factors that affect how fast your body can metabolize alcohol. The CDC recommends no more than one standard drink a day, which is about half a glass of wine (5 fl oz) or a can of beer (12 fl oz).
Breastfeeding and alcohol don’t mix well. According to the Mayo Clinic, no level of alcohol in breast milk is considered safe for the baby [3]. Research has shown that babies that are exposed to alcohol through breast milk may have impaired motor development and changes in sleep pattern, while the moms who drink may experience decreased Letdown reflex and milk production [3]. If you experience physical discomfort and would like to adhere to your milk expression schedule after you drink, you could choose to “pump and dump,” meaning to express milk and then discarding it. However, “pump and dump” doesn’t increase the elimination of alcohol from your body. If you’re worried about your baby getting hungry, you may also express milk prior to drinking and feed your baby later. Please remember that, if you choose to drink, plan carefully to avoid exposing your baby to any alcohol via breast milk.
How does alcohol move through my body?
Alcohol is categorized as a depressant because it slows down the central nervous system. It causes a decrease of coordination, reaction time, and intellectual performance. Once entered the body, alcohol is absorbed by tiny blood vessels called capillaries, with about 20% absorbed through the stomach and 80% through the small intestine. Alcohol in the bloodstream is delivered to all parts of the body, including your breast and breastmilk. It is gradually metabolized by enzymes in the liver. There are two pathways through which alcohol is processed. In the first pathway, alcohol is broken down by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) into acetaldehyde, which is then broken down into a smaller molecule, acetate by enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH). Acetate is further processed and eventually leaves the body as carbon dioxide and water. An alternative pathway, known as the microsomal ethanol-oxidizing system, is used when the blood alcohol level is very high [4].
That is why it takes time for the body to process and get rid of the mimosa you had. The time it takes varies from person to person and depends on many factors, including how fast someone drinks, how much he or she weighs, and how well the body metabolizes alcohol. For instance, genetic variations can lead to differences in the ADH and ALDH enzyme activity, resulting in different efficiency of alcohol breakdown.
References | https://medium.com/@simplifed/breastfeeding-and-drinking-7cb7c59c8645 | ['Claire Dowell'] | 2021-06-23 15:08:35.433000+00:00 | ['Breastfeeding', 'Alcohol', 'Lifestyle', 'Baby'] |
A Queer Reading of Wolfwalkers | A Queer Reading of Wolfwalkers
This contains spoilers for the entire film
“Wolfwalkers” Apple
Wolfwalkers is the fourth film by Irish studio Cartoon Saloon and their third to adapt Irish mythology. The story follows Robyn, a free spirited girl who bucks the stereotypes of women in the 17th century, as she discovers that there is more to wolves than the danger she thinks them to pose.
Nature is a heavy focus of the film, and it serves as the primary focus of the film. That said, linked into nature and the freedom it is shown to encapsulate, it is easy to draw parallels between the film and queerness.
Over the course of the film Robyn befriends Mebh, a wolfwalker. Wolfwalkers are mythological beings who are humans when awake and wolves when asleep. This duality flips Robyn’s perception of whether wolves deserve to be hunted as she so gleefully longs to do in the beginning of the story.
As the tale unfolds, and we are fed more and more information about Mebh and her tribe of wolves, we begin to understand the clear line drawn in the sand between nature and freedom and the town and rigidity.
Throughout the film we see more and more clearly the allegories drawn for coming out, realizing your identity, and the oppressiveness of the non-accepting world.
I. The Church
“Wolfwalkers” Apple
The town guard, helmed by the evil Lord Protector Cromwell, seek to annihilate the wolves, dubbing them as pagan and evil.
They cut down and later burn down the forest, destroying the wilderness.
Wolfwalkers does not try to portray the Church in a positive light: its people misinterpret their own desires for dominion as a mission from God. The Lord Protector sees himself appointed by his God to destroy the wolves and make the land acceptable to the Lord.
All of this, along with muted colors and stark buildings, serve to make the town feel oppressive to the viewer.
The forest, on the other hand, welcomes the viewer with open hands. In it, the animation becomes bouncier and less restrained, colors become vibrant, and Robyn can buck off the expectations of the town.
The Church is portrayed as suppressors of individuality. We only know what they think through third parties — there isn’t a priest in sight. What we do know is the effects of their teaching.
They stifle Robyn’s non-traditional expression of herself and try to, unknowingly, kill her once she becomes a wolfwalker. Even her father, believing in the Church, nearly kills her. Clearly, whatever the Church advocates for ought to be scrutinized.
Further, at the end of the film, it is a rejection of the Lord Protectors rigidity, presumably inherited from the Church, that allows Robyn and her father to be happy.
To the characters, the church is not beneficial; it is out to kill and destroy.
II. Identity
“Wolfwalkers” Apple
After being sentenced by the Lord Protector to work in the scullery, Robyn feels the weight of being a young woman in the 17th century. Her sense of boldness and desire for adventure are stifled as she is forced into a position that she doesn’t fit.
Once she goes into the woods, she finds kinship with Mebh. The two unite to save Mebh’s mother from captivity and death at the hands of the Lord Protector and Robyn’s father.
When Robyn is in the woods and with Mebh and the wolves, you can feel her guard go down. She no longer feels the restrictions of the town to be a subservient woman.
Wolfwalkers are stand-ins for societal outcasts. Specifically, I would argue, gay, bisexual, and lesbian people. The wolfwalkers are hated and scorned, the figures that supposedly espouse beliefs of the Church seek them out with vengeance, and they are misunderstood even by their own parents, all through no fault of their own.
They also are invisible. Where it is generally apparent whether two people are of the same race, sexuality is indecipherable. It is what is inside, not out. Likewise, Robyn is not known immediately to those around her as a wolfwalker, it is something she must tell them of.
Robyn quickly finds the company of Mebh and the wolves as freeing and a way to reclaim her independence and find who she is. As she falls into rhythm with the world of the wolves, she becomes more confident in herself and who she is. All of this culminates in her helping to protect them from the Lord Protector.
Throughout the film Robyn and Mebh get closer and closer. They spend time together, teach one another about their respective worlds, and feel a sense of connection to one another.
There is an undeniable tension between the pair. Though they are young, you suspect there is more between them than friendship. They experience the same tropes that, in any animated movie with a boy and girl protagonist, would be read as romantic.
Crucially, there is never a moment where the film says “no homo,” the closest it comes is when Robyn calls Mebh her friend, hardly a disqualification. Instead, the film allows viewers to insert themselves and their experiences just as any typical children’s film with protagonists of opposite genders.
III. Coming Out
“Wolfwalkers” Apple
It takes Robyn a long time to share her newfound identity with the world. The first time she turns into a wolf she debates telling her father but, before she can decide, he sees her, trying to attack.
She quickly learns that being a wolfwalker is something she must hide from her town; even her father.
When she stands in front of her father to protect Mebh’s mother in wolf form, Robyn’s father warns her that she could be put in a cage. Unmoved, Robyn retorts that she is already in a cage. She feels the constraints of a life in the town, the inability to be outside the mold.
It is not until the climax of the film that Robyn comes out as a wolfwalker to her father. When she does, he is confused but comes to understand and sides with her against Lord Protector Cromwell and, by extension, the Church.
Together, they save the rest of the wolves as well as Mebh and her mother. It is this that shouts the film’s thesis of acceptance: it is in uniting against hatred and fear that the Robyn’s father opens his mind and his heart.
Wolfwalkers is now in theaters and will be available via Apple TV starting December 11th. | https://aninjusticemag.com/a-queer-reading-of-wolfwalkers-80fec678a382 | ['Sam Duffy'] | 2020-11-19 03:11:21.321000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Queer', 'Apple TV', 'LGBT', 'Animation'] |
10 Questions From Seth Godin to Help You Do Work That Matters | 1. Is what you’re doing remarkable?
How do you define “remarkable?” Quite literally: Is what you’re doing worth mentioning to a friend — not for you but the person you’re doing it for.
Whenever I needed something from someone, I’d try to show up in person. I took countless five-minute walks down to the logistics center, and I had many friendly interactions with the workers there, who otherwise had a pretty boring job.
Maybe, some of them once made a remark to their family at dinner: “Nik came by today. Nice guy.” I won’t ever know if anyone did, but that’s not the point. The point is I did something that had a shot at deserving a remark.
2. Would you be missed?
It takes a while until new employees provide value. They must learn the ways of the company first.
After a few weeks on the job, however, I already handled a lot of “let’s not botch these” type of tasks. By the end of my internship, I handled most of the day-to-day work of one of the company’s senior slackers. I didn’t mind. He’d done his 30 years there already. He had a positive spirit. He let me do cool things and taught me the stuff you can only read between the lines. It was awesome — and I bet he cursed the day I left.
Often, we don’t know who “they” are, and we don’t know what “gone” means, but it always helps to ask: Would they miss you if you were gone?
3. If you didn’t show up, how many would ask: “Where are you?”
The year of my internship was the year I learned to make websites with Wordpress. In the summer, I often went to coffee shops in my spare time and designed basic landing pages for iconic BMW M cars. I was just dabbling, but those pastime activities later became the foundation of launching my blog and email newsletter.
A few months after that, I tested the specific variant of Seth’s question I wrote down in my notebook: “If you didn’t send out an email this week, how many people would write to you and ask: ‘Where’s the email?’” Back then, the answer was zero. Today, I’m lucky to have people check on me every now and then whenever I’m quiet for too long.
It’s a long road to doing something that matters, and you’ll only ever matter to a small group of people, but if no one really cares whether you do your work or not, at least in the long run, it’s probably work that’s not all that important.
4. Are you changing people?
Change can be small. A smile is a change. So is a nod. People don’t have to shower you with likes or money to verify that you matter. They can do that in their living room without you ever realizing, which is why it’s so important to keep showing up.
Eventually, you will get more tangible feedback of the change you’re making. People will email you, comment on your work, or commend you in front of their friends. But until that day, be content with small changes happening in silence. You never know when they’ll add up.
5. Do you transform others?
Transformation is the big brother of change. It’s the kind of change you can see, and if you can’t, you can definitely feel it. Transformation is the kind of service you’ll remember a lifetime performing. You’ll never forget the person who thanked you for helping them lose 20 pounds.
Everyone can make change, but it rarely compounds into true transformation. Work hard, do your best, expect nothing. Maybe, you’ll get a testimonial that makes for a cool epitaph. Maybe, you won’t. Either way, you’ll be proud of what you did while you were here.
6. Are you helping people find respect?
One of the most profound transformations you can offer is to show a group of people respect that are usually being offered none.
During my time at M, I always went out of my way to thank two categories of employees: the secretaries in the office and the mechanics in the workshop. Both were crucial to our entire operation yet vastly under-appreciated. Without the secretaries, their bosses literally couldn’t function, and without the mechanics, neither could the cars. Nevertheless, both parties were often taken for granted, and so was their hard work.
I was only an intern, but I think my “Thank you,” to them still mattered — because every “Thank you” matters.
7. Can you be the best in the world at this?
The only way to be the best in the world is to make “best” subjective and to make “world” really small.
I wasn’t the world’s greatest intern. I wasn’t the most productive BMW employee. But the best intern for the European sales unit of M for six months? That seemed doable, and I worked hard to live up to that mission every day.
Look at all the circles in your life where you can add value. What is fun? What do you believe in? What are your unique talents? Intersect enough of these circles, and you’ll have an intersection at which only you can stand — and then hold the torch as high as you can.
8. Is this something that might not work?
Without risk, there can be no reward. I planned many events at M. I always scheduled them with high hopes. “Fingers crossed they’ll like this activity.” “I hope this exhibit will be a hit.” But I never knew for sure.
Often, you just have to take your best shot. It won’t always land, but if it’s a shot that can’t miss, it’s also one that won’t hit. As long as it’s an ambitious at doing work that matters, however, it’ll never be wrong to have gone for it — even if it doesn’t pan out.
9. Are you connecting people around a shared cause, goal, or purpose?
Fame is not a cause. Attention is not a purpose. What you try to rally people around must be bigger than yourself. We’re going for real emotions here. We don’t care about the fluff.
M has a long history of making people feel alive. It’s a unique connection between human and machine. It’s about performance, achievement, empowerment. It’s about respect, ingenuity, and creativity.
When the right person sits in an M car, they can feel it. I don’t need to explain it. You’ll either know or you won’t — but for the people who do, that feeling makes all the difference.
10. What is this for?
The answer better not be “My boss.” Why are you doing what you’re doing? That’s a hard question, but it deserves an honest answer — and not once but every day.
I always tried to connect the task in front of me to its place in the bigger picture. That’s an effort you’ll rarely make in vain. Even if a task sucks, as long as you can think of a good reason to complete it — a good person who depends on its success — you’ll never lack motivation. You’ll always know how and why what you’re doing matters, and that’s a priceless feeling. | https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/10-questions-from-seth-godin-to-help-you-do-work-that-matters-7f6c2f889471 | ['Niklas Göke'] | 2020-12-22 15:26:10.055000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Productivity', 'Purpose', 'Career Advice', 'Startup'] |
The Best Digital Marketing Agencies in Dubai | UBL International-UBL Digital World is the best digital marketing companies in Dubai . UBL’s Digital Marketing team is spread across Dubai and produces the best business ideas. They carry out the entire digital marketing strategy, from planning to final implementation. The SEO specialists will maximize your online potential, resulting in more consumers. They provide Digital Marketing and Web-related services to companies all around the world. As a leading SEO Service provider in Dubai, they deliver high-quality Digital Marketing and SEO services as well as prompt replies with no hidden fees. Relax while the SEO Experts work for you to increase your profits. McCollins Media- McCollins Media is a Dubai-based digital activation firm that has been providing high-quality digital marketing services since 2010. They employ a combination of strategy, consumer intelligence, and cutting-edge technology to solve customers’ challenges and help them achieve their goals. They design compelling online and mobile apps and generate leads through SEO and SEM methods. They also use tried-and-true social media marketing tactics to boost their clients’ social media presence, which is critical for thriving in a competitive industry.
3. Digital Marketing Sapiens-Sapiens Digital Marketing in Dubai provides a comprehensive and cutting-edge variety of digital marketing services. This digital marketing business assists its clients with online reputation management in addition to the normal site and app design and development, SEO, and SMS and email marketing. Their online reputation management services assist you in projecting a favorable image for your business across several platforms, putting you ahead of your competition. | https://medium.com/@bibuthomasz99/the-best-digital-marketing-agencies-in-dubai-759756dcdd79 | [] | 2021-12-29 08:58:38.181000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing Company', 'SEO', 'Digital Marketing', 'Seo Serivice', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
Understanding Authentication and Authorization in Dropwizard App (Kotlin) | How to Implement Authentication and Authorization in the Dropwizard App
I believe it is easier to understand how all of these things work through a real example, so let’s start implementing authentication and authorization from scratch in our Dropwizard app with Kotlin. I assume you know how to create a Dropwizard app, if not you can read my previous post “Create an app with Dropwizard, Maven and Kotlin”.
POM Dependency
In order to use the Dropwizard authentication, you should add the following dependency to POM file:
Defining User Roles
Define an enum which represents the user role:
Implementing the Principle Object
Once the user is authenticated, the application establishes the Principle. The Principle is an object which represents the currently-logged-in user in the context of the application. One user can have multiple IDs, for example, if the user has several Gmail accounts. However, there is usually just one logged-in user per request and this is going to be the Principle.
We will implement a java.security.Principal interface as follows:
Creating a Custom Authenticator
Now we can create our authenticator which implements Interface Authenticator<C,P extends Principal>. The authenticator gets the user basic credentials as input and should validate them. If the authentication succeeds, the authenticate function should return a Principle object (the user) in an Optional container. Otherwise, an empty Optional is returned, indicating that the credentials are invalid. Here is the implementation:
Please note: this is a simple authenticator implementation just for demonstration.
Creating a Custom Authorizer
Our authorizer should implement the Interface Authorizer< P extends Principal >, which has a single method “authorize” that gets a Principle (user) and role, and is responsible for deciding if access is granted to this principle.
Authenticator and Authorizer Registration
We are ready to register the custom authenticator and authorizer in our Dropwizard app.
AuthDynamicFeature enables HTTP basic authentication.
RolesAllowedDynamicFeature enables HTTP authorization.
AuthValueFactoryProvider allows you to use @Auth to inject a custom Principal type into your resource. In this example, we are using BasicCredentialAuthFilter which supplies us with an out-of-box authentication filter (implementation of AuthFilter ). It is possible to define a custom filter if needed. To do that you should use AuthDynamicFeature and implement the AuthFilter Dropwizard class.
Secure Our Resources
There are two options to secure your resource:
Use one of @RolesAllowed , @DenyAll , @PermitAll annotations. Each of these annotations will trigger the authenticator and the authentication filter to validate the credentials, and the authorizer, to check the permissions. Use @Auth annotation, in order to trigger the authenticator and the authentication filter.
An important note: Using @PermitAll and not setting any of these annotations is not the same! If you don’t set one of these annotations, the authenticator will not be triggered, so any user can access this API.
Testing our security
Let’s access our application in the browser through http://localhost:port/helloWorld . In the IntelliJ terminal, you can see that the server sent GET /helloWorld HTTP/1.1" 401 as described in the flow diagram (step 2). You should see a sign-in dialog box where you can enter a username and password to authenticate. Let’s try to enter different credentials to see what happened:
Try entering the wrong credentials. You should get another HTTP 401 Unauthorized error, which indicates an authentication failure.
Try entering guest credentials. You should get an HTTP 403 Forbbiden, as we defined @RolesAllowed("Admin") on our resource.
on our resource. Finally, we can enter the admin credentials. You should get 200 OK status code. Looking at the HTTP request header (click F12 in the browser), we can see the following Authorization header:
Authorization: Basic QWRtaW46c2VjcmV0
The Basic stands for the HTTP Basic schema, and the string QWRtaW46c2VjcmV0 represents the credentials in base64-encoding. We can use a base64 encoder, and we will get the credentials we entered: Admin:secret
Conclusion
So there you have it, how to perform authentication and authorization in Dropwizard! As mentioned earlier, this was something that I was unfamiliar with originally. I hope that this post is able to help you understand the concept I laid out. Thanks for reading. | https://codeburst.io/understanding-authentication-and-authorization-in-dropwizard-app-kotlin-e593d2052f33 | ['Ron Paz'] | 2020-11-22 06:00:45.472000+00:00 | ['Security', 'Web Development', 'Authentication', 'Backend', 'Kotlin'] |
ASP.NET Core 2.2 & 3 REST API #27 — Health Checks | A healthcheck is just a way to ensure our application (as a whole), or specific components work as expected. All of this information is going to be accessible through a health endpoint.
Apart from monitoring reasons, if let’s say, we had a scaled-out system that is positioned behind a traffic manager, we want our traffic manager/load balancer to know which of these services are health so it can redirect traffic to them, in order to achieve 0 downtime.
Let’s just create a new HealthCheckInstaller , in order to add services.AddHealthChecks() and also, on our Startup.cs/Configure method, add app.UseHealthChecks("/health") and that’s it.
If we just hit this health endpoint now, we just get a Health text message.
This does not actually do much, it just checks wether the API is up and running, like a test endpoint. What we need to integrate with this system is our SQL Server and our Redis cache.
We’re going to see 2 things:
How to use a pre-existing package to automatically inject configuration for the SQL Server database context
How to create our custom health checking component to integrate this with the Redis cache (there are packages that already do that, but this is a demonstration on what the framework allows us to do)
SQL Server
Add the Microsoft.Extensions.Diagnostics.HealthChecks.EntityFrameworkCore package through the NuGet interface.
ASP.NET Core has got lots of packages for different libraries you can use and you can typically find them under the Microsoft.Extensions.Diagnostics.HealthChecks namespace
You can now update the services.AddHealthChecks().AddDbContextCheck<DataContext>() . By simply doing that, the health checks are installed for the SQL Server, but there is one more thing needed in order to change the plain health message that the endpoint returns.
Let’s see how to customise this:
Create a HealthChecks directory under the contracts projects (not versioned)
directory under the contracts projects (not versioned) Under this, create a new HealthCheckResponse :
And a HealthCheck class as well :
The part where you plug these contracts in the framework is an overload of the .UseHealthChecks method. It has an extra HealthCheckOptions parameter, which contains a ResponseWriter , which is basically an async function that takes in the HttpContext and the other health check reports, composing the final response.
That’s the basic stuff set in place.
Redis
This is the custom part that .NET makes so easy to implement. Start by creating a HealthChecks/RedisHealthCheck : IHealthCheck . Override the missing methods and we are ready to write some code in order to return Health-Degrated-Unhealthy status, along with possible reasons.
The first thing we need is to add the ConnectionMultiplexer as a singleton, inside our Redis installer.
services.AddSingleton<IConnectionMultiplexer>(_ => ConnectionMultiplexer.Connect(redisCacheSettings.ConnectionString));
In the actual health check, we can inject that through the constructor.
There are many approaches to manual health checks, we are going to take the simplest (and effective) way.
Try to make a call to Redis
If you get a response without an error, return healthy
Else, something is wrong and you need to bubble up the error message to the health check endpoint response
Please do not pass the whole exception message to your production servers, without making sure that there are not sensitive information exposed first. | https://medium.com/@zarkopafilis/asp-net-core-2-2-3-rest-api-27-health-checks-112b3ccc9439 | ['Theodoros Ntakouris'] | 2019-09-24 10:34:19.921000+00:00 | ['Software Engineering', 'Microsoft', 'Csharp', 'Aspnetcore', 'Rest Api'] |
Nobody’s Army: Lessons from the Astroworld | by Gina Arnold
“The 20th century is the era of crowds.” — Gustav LeBon. Photo: Gold, by Sebastiao Salgado.
When I was young, I went to rock festivals…a lot of rock festivals. In fact, outside of the people who work rock festivals, such as promoters, bands, and stagehands, I might have been to more rock festivals than anyone you know. In the 1990s, I was a rock critic for all those big rock magazines that no longer exist, and festivals were my beat. My attendance at all the festivals adds up to having witnessed a lot of mayhem. One time for example I was at a rock festival in Ohio where a riot occurred during a set by the band Ministry. Crowds of young men rampaged through the arena and tore all the seats off their bearings, and when it was all over, the late Chris Cornell, whose band was up next, said: “You guys looked like some kind of an army out there. The question is, who’s army are you going to be?”
I thought of that question ruefully on the morning after Astroworld, the 2 day Festival that happened in Houston in November, at which 10 people were killed in a 40-plus minute melee that saw 50,00 people surging toward the stage, tripping, tramping, squeezing, stomping on, and putting almost 100 people in the hospital. Whose army was that, I wondered. And what were they fighting for?
That incident is why, in my book about festivals Half a Million Strong: Crowds and Power from Woodstock to Coachella I suggest that, by being uncomfortable, dirty, and destructive, attendance at rock festivals makes young people feel like they are participating emotionally in historic events. They are like battlefields for people who will never set foot on a real one.
a book about crowds by moi
My book was based on my Ph.D. dissertation, but in addition to research, many of the thoughts were informed by real life experiences. I’ve been lifted off my feet in the pit of Fugazi show, surfed across the top of a crowd at Nirvana, and seen boys jumping from balconies in Tijuana, upheld by a scrum of people so tight that there was no fear of them smashing to the ground, and yet, I was still profoundly disturbed and befuddled by the events that occurred at Astroworld. Clearly, there was a degree of mayhem at that looked completely unlike anything I ever experienced in front of a stage.
The first-hand reports of it were almost too terrifying to read. The pleas for help. The unconscious women being crowd surfed out. The ten year old in cardiac arrest. The tweets saying, “We were the floor.” The morning after, much blame was put on the performer and promoter Travis Scott and Live Nation, both of whom are now being sued for liability, the latter for their lax safety precautions and the former for promoting the show, maximizing profit, and encouraging mayhem.
Both of these entities are clearly culpable for much of what went down and yet, there may have been other factors at play. Was it Covid-related somehow? Was it due to the polarization of America which has made people angrier and more ‘me’ oriented? Have people literally lost their humanity?
I think the answer to all of those questions is yes. Sadly, we are living through times when life feels cheap, stupid behavior is often rewarded, and many young people are eager — even encouraged — to engage in risky behavior, such as joining maskless crowds in the middle of a pandemic. It seems as if recent events in America have plunged us into a more frightening reality which the events at Astroworld reflect.
Another thing that differs between this show and past ones has to do with new technology. Unlike previous concerts — Woodstock and Monterey Pop, say — this festival has been documented by the crowd itself, via social media, thus giving us access to what it was like in the trenches. I suspect that some of the concerts we now revere were quite horrid to be in the midst of — and not just at Altamont, where a man was murdered in full view of the stage as The Rolling Stones performed. (The murderer was acquitted, by the way.)
Moreover, although social media may bring some much-needed transparency to events in the pit, it has also played a darker role in fomenting the mayhem in the first place. Festivals like Astroworld are all about being seen at them on Instagram or TikTok — creating FOMO, recording yourself, “pictures or it didn’t happen.” Part of the appeal of these events is participating in something worth documenting, and ‘raging’ is how concert goers help to create something dangerous and edgy to brag about. This is why I don’t think that the brutal events at Astroworld will stop kids from wanting to attend festivals like it in the future.
In his Nobel prize-winning book Crowds and Power, published in 1960, Elias Canetti grappled obliquely with the unaccountable facts that led to crowd-behavior in Nazi Germany. In the book, Canetti accounts for the desire to join large, angry crowds by saying it is a way that individuals seek psychological safety from a world they perceive as being hostile — that is, they form informal armies as a way of ensuring their own survival. Canetti couldn’t have imagined an Astroworld, but I bet he would have understood it. | https://medium.com/fools-rush-in-again/nobodys-army-lessons-from-the-astroworld-f12d4c71dc09 | ['Gina Arnold'] | 2021-11-23 19:38:48.419000+00:00 | ['Rock And Roll', 'Festivals', 'Travis Scott', 'Music', 'Astroworld'] |
BEST 5 KETO RECIPES FOR FAT LOSS | BEST 5 KETO RECIPES FOR FAT LOSS
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#1 Keto 3-Ingredient Pasta Noodles — From my second print cookbook, this is one of my favorite recipes… and it’s hard to tell they’re keto! These chewy noodles are simple to wrap around a fork, mix well with a variety of sauces, and only require three ingredients!
Photo by Lisa from Pexels
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#2. Roasted Red Peppers — Sure, you can buy these in a jar… but once you realize how simple it is to create these peppers at home, you’ll have them on hand all the time!
Photos by wholesome yum
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#3 Braised Lamb Shanks — With a rich tomato red wine sauce and fall-off-the-bone meat, this meal appears to have taken hours to prepare… yet it only requires 15 minutes of hands-on time!
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#4 Keto Queso Dip — You can make the best creamy dip for game days and parties with just three ingredients and no fillers, artificial cheese, or carbs. In the slow cooker, it’s all hands off!
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#5. Keto Peanut Butter Fudge — The ideal present for anyone who is trying to avoid sugar, including yourself. There are only four ingredients and a plethora of topping options!
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Follow me on medium for more health & fitness tips | https://medium.com/@ashantiglee/best-5-keto-recipes-for-fat-loss-2e4aefa5b1a0 | [] | 2021-12-23 18:15:38.922000+00:00 | ['Ketogenic Diet', 'Weight Loss', 'Keto', 'Fat Burning Foods', 'Keto Diet'] |
The Evolution of Music — Part 1: Chicago House Music | House music is one of the most popular genres worldwide in the modern era, but the emergence of the genre and other accompanying subgenres was birthed out of major civil unrest. The genre, much like how it still is today, was driven through the underground scene and ultimately exploded into mainstream culture. However, it is the story of how house music emerged in Chicago, much to the disdain of major corporations, that is simply fascinating.
House music’s roots originate deep in Chicago’s Southside, the city that birthed the popular genre, but it was through the fall of one genre, disco, that saw the genre of house music rise to the top.
During the late 70s, radio heavily impacted society and its culture, and its formatting influenced music. In an era where Rock n Roll reigned supreme, many grew angered at the fact that disco was pushing out the classic hegemonic genre, and incoming was a genre that promoted the ‘outcasts’ of society. So frightened by change in society, DJs of mainstream radio stations would smash disco records live on air, and run vinyl pins right across them so that they would become inaudible. In a last ditch attempt to destory the emerging genre, and with knowledge that the Chicago White Sox attendance levels were dropping at an alarming rate, rock station WLUP approached the White Sox with a lucrative offer they could not refuse. On July 12th, 1979, 50,000 people attended Comiskey Park, home to the Chicago White Sox to observe “Disco Demolition”. The promotional stunt, arranged by Major League Baseball saw fans permitted entry for nothing more than 98 cents provided they brought a disco vinyl along with them.
To issue some context on the “Disco Demolition Night”, you must take into account how commercially dominant disco had become in the US at the time. Of the 16 singles that made the top of the US chart in the first half of 1979, only three were not disco tracks. Alice Echols, cultural historian, academic and author of Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture explained: “It had pushed AOR (Album Orientated-Rock) not to the margins precisely, but classic rock didn’t have the dominance on radio that it once had. Live music venues were increasingly switching over to disco. There were people who thought it threatened their livelihoods, there were people who thought it sounded plastic and synthetic, and there were people who were just nakedly racist and homophobic.” The ugly event involved predominantly white men, storming the field and publicly destroying music made by black artists, dominated by female stars and with a core audience that was, at least initially, largely gay.
Fear of disco was simply the fear that the American identity was no longer synonymous with whiteness, and once the mainstream executives had turned their back on the culture, disco had to find a way to reinvent itself. However, there was a new form of music emerging in the depths of Chicago in the form of house music. House music attained its name from the Warehouse, a members-only gay club for black men, hosted by the legendary DJ Frankie Knuckles. Other young black men such as Jesse Saunders, Marshall Jefferson, Larry Heard were beginning to catch wind of the underground that revolution Knuckles had started, and through the technical innovation of drum machines, they began producing music of their own in the early 80s. It was the culmination of Frankie Knuckles and the other aforementioned House legends’ incredible hard work that allowed for the formation of what we know today as house music.
House music was, and very much still is, a genre based solely around inclusivity. It welcomed young, old, gay, straight, black, and other ethnic minorities because it didn’t matter, house music wasn’t about segregation. The Warehouse was the first major club to open its doors, but others soon followed suit, suddenly Chicago was thriving with clubs that minority communities would be welcomed into. There was The Music Box, The glass House, and 178. There was no glitz, no glammer, no alcohol, the people came simply for one thing: the music. Meanwhile, much to the disgust of leading executives at the time, female vocals often dominated house music. Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)” and “100% Pure Love” remain classics to this day, whilst Robin S’ “Show Me Love” transcended house music, becoming a classic in both the dance and R&B scene.
The house genre is constantly changing with various sub genres stemming from the initial variant such as Acid House, Deep House, Italo House to name a few, but there are many artists who are still paying homage to its legacy. The likes of The Black Madonna, Honey Dijon (two of the biggest female DJs in the world), and Mark Farina all hailing originally from Chicago still waving the banner for ethnic minorities, and representing Chicago House music across the world still to this day. Meanwhile, the city of Chicago annually pay their respects to the genre of music that has seen the city stand out on the musical front, and displayed their devotion to inclusivity and equality. Every year the outdoor West Fest gives Chicago residents and visitors a weekend full of house music, food, and historical lessons on how house music became so important to the incredible city.
The evolution of disco to house music is such an interesting story. By no means did house music dethrone disco, it was more like a phoenix rising from the ashes of major corporations that wanted to sustain the white hegemonic dominance. Thankfully, they failed. The historic drum machines, samplers, and synths still live strong to this day, but it is the inclusivity of house music, in that any one was welcomed (and still is) that makes it so important, and probably a huge reason as to why it still resonates with so many people. Let there be house. | https://medium.com/@benswrite/the-evolution-of-music-part-1-chicago-house-music-c873f52624de | ['Ben Broyd'] | 2021-03-22 11:00:32.260000+00:00 | ['House Music', 'Inclusion', 'Chicago', 'Equality', 'Social'] |
How Do Quantum Computers Work? | “The purpose of quantum computing based compassionate artificial intelligence is to develop integrated systems that can preserve and enhance human values of peace, love, happiness and freedom.”
― Amit Ray
What is a quantum computer?
All computers rely on bits, the smallest unit of information encoded as an “on” “off” state, more commonly referred to as 1 or 0 by some physical medium or other means. Quantum computing is a new generation computer based on quantum mechanics, a branch of physics that studies atomic and subatomic particles. So, these supercomputers perform speeds and calculations that the average computer can’t handle. A quantum computer uses something called qubits. Quantum partners can perform multiple operations at once. These machines store more than one state per unit of data and operate on more efficient algorithms.
And the incredible processing power enables quantum computers to solve complex tasks and search through unsorted data.
Traditional computers perform logical operations using the exact location of a physical state. These are usually binary, and their functionality is based on one of the two locations. Quantum computers perform calculations before measuring the position of an object. Such a “quantum bit” provides greater flexibility than the binary system. This concept is heavily being used in the field of cryptography. To build a working quantum computer, you need to keep an object in a high position. Unfortunately, once a superposition meets with materials that are part of a measured system, it loses its quantum state and becomes a boring old classical bit. Devices must be able to protect quantum conditions aesthetically and should be easy to read. Quantum dominance describes the ability of quantum computers to surpass their classical counterparts.
What is a qubit ?
Qubit is a quantum bit, which is the binary number of quantum computers. Just like the basic unit of information in classical computers, quantum computers use qubits.
Qubit is a two level quantum mechanics system, the simplest quantum system that exemplifies the uniqueness of quantum mechanics. Elemental particles such as electrons or photons, can be used in a quantum computer, and their charge or polarization acts as a 0 or 1 representation. The basis of quantum computing is the nature and behavior of these particles.
The two most relevant areas of quantum physics that are also used in Quantum Computing are the principles of Superposition and Entanglement.
Superposition in quantum computing
Consider the qubit as an electron in a magnetic field. The rotation of an electron is either aligned with the field or opposite to the field and is known as the rotating state. Changing the rotation of electrons from one state to another can be achieved by using a laser-like energy pulse. Let’s say we use 1 unit of laser energy, but what if we use only half of the laser energy and completely isolate the particle from all external influences? According to the quantum law, the particle would enter a superstructure of states, behaving as if it’s in both states at the same time. Every qubit used can take a super position in both 0s and 1s.
The number of computations that a quantum computer could undertake is 2^n, where n is the number of qubits used.
According to that point, this amazing number, 2¹⁰⁰⁰ is atomically and infinitely larger than the number of atoms in the known universe.
Quantum entanglement describes how these particles interact with each other.
Entanglement in quantum computing
The interacted particles retain a type of connection and become entangled with each other in pairs, in a process known as correlation. If two qubits are in conflict, the measurement of one qubit will immediately “break” the value of the other. Not only that, but if we measure a qubit in an entangled state, we can get the value of the other qubit. There is no need to measure a second qubit as the same effect occurs even if the two entangled qubits are far apart. Knowing the rotational position of one entangled particle (up or down) allows one to know that one’s partner is rotating in the opposite direction.
Even more astonishing is that due to the superposition phenomenon, it is measured that the particle rotates in both directions simultaneously. This is the same even if the particular particle does not have a single rotational direction before being measured.
The rotational position of the measured particle is determined during the measurement and is communicated to the correlated particle, thereby assuming the opposite direction of rotation to the simultaneously measured particle.
Quantum entanglement allows qubits that are separated at incredible distances to instantly interact with each other.
Applicable use cases in quantum computing
Quantum computers already exist to perform certain functions, all of which require very rigorous calculations that classical computers cannot handle. There are four main applications which are mentioned in the following figure.
Conclusion
You would have understood that quantum computers can be faster than classical computers. And this can be done, by activating a number of online quantum amplifiers at the same time. Unfortunately, so far, only specific algorithms exist. On the other hand, quantum cryptography is available with controllable quantum bits. It is a secure cryptographic proposition that can be proved in some sense.
References | https://medium.com/ucsc-isaca-student-group/how-do-quantum-computers-work-ff76b3d66564 | ['Piyumi Rathnayaka'] | 2021-09-05 11:05:44.170000+00:00 | ['Quantum Superposition', 'Quantum Computer', 'Qubit', 'Quantum Computing', 'Quantum Entanglement'] |
Swift: Beyond Switching on a Result | Swift: Beyond Switching on a Result
Swift.Result’s potential goes beyond just getting the value/error using a switch clause. Let’s look at a few things you can do
Photo by Hitesh Choudhary on Unsplash
Get the Success Value as an Optional
In some cases, you just need the success value of a Result . With func get() throws -> Success , you don’t need to use a switch clause. | https://medium.com/better-programming/beyond-switch-swift-result-6e4a91cda6b6 | ['Alberto Salas'] | 2019-08-05 12:30:32.351000+00:00 | ['Mobile', 'Programming', 'Swift', 'Software Development', 'iOS'] |
It’s Time For Me To Tackle Something New | Cue the sappy music. About six years ago, I pitched my idea for Tested to the folks at Whiskey Media. My pitch was simple, let’s make a technology site that’s about having fun with technology instead of showing people how snarky and cool we could be.
I never could have predicted the way that one conversation would change my life. Since Norm and I launched Tested in 2010, I’ve been privileged to go places and see things that I never thought I’d see in person. I stood on top of a nuclear reactor (while it was running!), I was the kitchen assistant to a couple of world-class chefs who were developing recipes for astronauts, I helped test different ways to waterproof cameras, I hosted a bunch of 24-hour charity shows, I tested talk time on six phones simultaneously, I 3D printed LOTS of goofy stuff, I learned to race quadcopters, I made a bunch of goofy faces, I saw the future of robotics, I helped turn a San Diego bar into the carbon freezing chamber from Empire Strikes Back, and I had the opportunity to work with and learn directly from Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman on a daily basis.
Put another way, I’ve spent the last five and a half years meeting thousands of amazing people and helping to tell their stories every day. The places I’ve been and things I’ve seen are nothing compared to the amazing makers, scientists, nerds, students, and entrepreneurs I’ve gotten to meet while making the 2512 videos (as of 9/10/2015) that we’ve posted on Tested since 2010.
But, now it’s time for me to step away from Tested and take on a new challenge.
One of the things I’ve realized about myself over the last five years is that I’m happiest when I’m testing the tech on the bleeding edge — the technology so new that the creator’s original intent is still visible and the long-term potential is murky. The decisions made in these early moments of a new technology are the ones that change the world. By the time designers are worrying about incremental updates and chamfered edges, I’m bored.
Enter VR. I may have accidentally become the face of VR thanks to a couple of excellent photographs that Norm shot (Thanks Norm!) , but I find VR captivating nonetheless. From my perspective, VR is the next rough-edged technology with the potential to change the world.
After sharing a virtual world with another person during the Oculus Touch demo at E3 this year, I became a believer. I can’t stop thinking about the potential of VR as a communication medium. To that end, I’m starting a company to test out some different ways to communicate in VR. I’ve put together what I think is a pretty solid plan, but need to start doing all the scary business stuff I’ve never done before — raising money from investors, building a development team, hiring a lawyer, figuring out how to do payroll, and a bunch of other stuff I’ve probably never considered. As I ramp up my new company over the next few months, I’ll be gradually stepping back from my day-to-day duties on Tested.
Don’t worry, I’m leaving Tested in good hands. Norm and I have always run Tested as a team. Both of our business cards have always said “Editor”. We’ve always done what we wanted on small stuff and consulted each other on big projects. The results show on the site. I have the greatest confidence that Norm will continue making Tested the most interesting site on the Internet.
And I’m not going to disappear from Tested. I’ll continue on Still Untitled as a regular, a guest on This Is Only a Test, and probably even pop up in videos from time to time. And Norm, I’m available as a guest for LEGO With Friends! And yes, I’ll be at the live show in San Francisco next month.
So what’s next for me? I won’t be ready to give the full details for a while, but you can sign up for my TinyLetter to get 100% spam-free email updates about how things are going, follow me on Twitter for company updates (and other nonsense), sub to my YouTube channel, or subscribe to posts here.
Thank you all for your support over the years. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the everyone from Whiskey Media (including our former partners-in-crime at Giant Bomb, ComicVine, Screened, and AnimeVice) and Whalerock Industries who have made it possible for me to do everything that we’ve done at Tested so far.
More than anyone else, Norman Chan has been an amazing creative partner over the last 8 years, both at Tested and Maximum PC. Thanks Norm.
Edit: Like the biggest asshole ever, I didn’t post the right version. Joey Fameli has been behind the camera on the vast majority of videos we’ve posted over the last five years. He is the reason we look good in our videos. He shot the very first videos we put on the site, dealt with my amateur behavior while we were learning how to do video, and gently nudges us in the right direction. Thanks Joey.
It’s been an amazing ride and I can’t wait to show you what’s next! | https://medium.com/will-smith/it-s-time-for-me-to-tackle-something-new-1f592b6022c7 | ['Will Smith'] | 2015-09-10 20:18:25.432000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Virtual Reality'] |
Well I think because I loved music since i was so young i am very familiar with it. Sometimes i think it takes time to recognize and organize songs by ear and it can take quite a bit of thinking. Real | Well I think because I loved music since i was so young i am very familiar with it. Sometimes i think it takes time to recognize and organize songs by ear and it can take quite a bit of thinking. Really i think it’s how you really use your brain. Sometimes i compare sight reading to maths because though you have to look at certain qualities in the piece of music Shami Sep 1, 2019·13 min read
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http://affordableinsurancefinder.xyz/INSURANCE7107.html | https://medium.com/@6shami/well-i-think-because-i-loved-music-since-i-was-so-young-i-am-very-familiar-with-it-83463c4a6139 | [] | 2019-09-01 12:27:11.147000+00:00 | ['Startup'] |
Real Estate | Investors Chasing Housing Target Massive Pools of Airbnb Rentals
Investors hunting for returns in the frenzied U.S. real estate market are tapping a new strategy: building massive portfolios of houses to rent out on Airbnb.
A recent filing reveals that Dublin, Ohio-based ReAlpha is seeking to spend as much as $1.5 billion, including debt, to buy short-term rentals at an unprecedented scale. The money would be enough to purchase roughly 5,000 homes, Chief Executive Officer Giri Devanur said in an interview.
Fast Decisions
Devanur, who took enterprise-software company Ameri100 public in 2017, said he wants to open up access to real estate investing by letting regular people buy fractional ownership of short-term rentals on his company’s app.
ReAlpha plans to use artificial intelligence software to evaluate home listings and make fast decisions on how much it’s willing to pay. The company will target markets including Austin, Dallas and Miami, where it can acquire 100 to 500 homes. And it’s exploring ways to buy discounted homes when a federal foreclosure moratorium ends.
“We have spoken to a bunch of banks where we can buy hundreds of properties at a time,” Devanur said. “We can analyze thousands of properties in a minute. For us, everything is through technology.”
Rental Rise
Airbnb’s rise over the last decade inspired a generation of entrepreneurs who buy, furnish and manage vacation rentals on a small scale. Larger companies also sprung up, often focusing on managing properties as opposed to owning them. In some cases, they branded their offerings, creating lodging businesses akin to Courtyard by Marriott or Hampton Inn.
Venture capitalists, meanwhile, backed companies that leased apartments from building owners and converted them into a new category of hotel. One such firm, Sonder, is slated to go public through a merger with a blank-check company later this year.
Lodging Firm Sonder Agrees to $2.2 Billion Gores SPAC Merger
Still, owning short-term rental homes in far-flung locations is challenging. It requires owners to route house cleaners and maintenance people across large areas. While long-term leases protect owners of offices, apartments and warehouses from economic shocks, the hospitality industry enjoys no such buffer.
Read more… | https://medium.com/@realpha/real-estate-739bab5737b7 | [] | 2021-07-15 07:31:10.789000+00:00 | ['Real Estate', 'Passive Income', 'Rental Property', 'Property Investment'] |
Turing Test vs Chinese Room Argument | Albert Einstein once famously remarked that “ The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
Since the past two centuries, there has been a constant effort to define AI both in Medical and AI community. Two of the most famous attempt to tackle this are Turing Test and The Chinese room argument.
Turing test is a method of measuring AI on whether they are capable of thinking like humans.
The Turing Test is a deceptively simple method of determining whether a machine can demonstrate human intelligence: If a machine can engage in a conversation with a human without being detected as a machine, it has demonstrated human intelligence.
In simple words even if you are not a human but act like one you are human.
On the other hand, according to American philosopher John Searle said that the Turing test was inadequate. The argument and thought-experiment are now generally known as the Chinese Room Argument.
Imagine youself in a closed room. Now suppose a girl passed a chinese letter to you. You don’t know anything about chinese but you have chinese to english(and vice-versa) computer program. With the help of that you decode and converse with the girl. The narrow conclusion of the argument is that programming a digital computer may make it appear to understand language but could not produce real understanding.
Searle argues that the thought experiment underscores the fact that computers merely use syntactic rules to manipulate symbol strings, but have no understanding of meaning or semantics. Computers at best can simulate what we can understand.
Which one is more appealing to you? I think most people will go will Searle because that just makes us think that we are much more interesting and complex to decode.😯
Photo by kazuend on Unsplash
Well, both theory might intrigue you on giving you thought on which is better I would also like to put a few cons of each theory.
Turing did not explicitly state that the Turing test could be used as a measure of intelligence or any other human quality. He wanted to provide a clear and understandable alternative to the word “think”, which he could then use to reply to criticisms of the possibility of “thinking machines” and to suggest ways that research might move forward.
One of the most commonly raised objection is that even though the person in the Chinese Room does not understand Chinese, the system as a whole does — the room with all its constituents, including the person.
So here I conclude my thoughts on this. What's your take on both? Do you think anyone can be standalone used as metric of measuring intelligence?
Here are a few of my other blogs. | https://medium.com/ai-in-plain-english/turing-test-vs-chinese-room-argument-4e7592c3277 | ['Parth Chokhra'] | 2020-10-22 16:27:57.540000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Philosophy', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'AI', 'Data Science'] |
ARE WE REANIMATING THE ‘SOCIALLY DEAD’ IN BRAMPTON? | A primer to thinking about the people living without a home in your city.
Note: This was written in part of a project to analyse the spread of COVID-19 in Brampton. Seeing our community being blamed for the spread of COVID-19 when Brampton is chronically unserved, underrepresented, and underfunded was hurtful and we decided to do something about it. We came together to produce eight different accounts of what must be improved in Brampton for all communities to live equitably — and this is my contribution. (I will provide link to the full publication when it comes available because everyone else’s is awesome!)
INTRODUCTION
The healthcare crisis in Brampton compounded with COVID-19 places residents in great need of diversified community care to ensure each person is able to adapt and survive. Prior to the pandemic, Brampton has been facing an onslaught of complex existential threats requiring multi-faceted solutions based on the understanding of individual, community and regional experiences. People who have little to no value are not seen as a priority and are otherwise known as the ‘social dead’ (Cacho, 2012). This primer is a step into challenging how we value people in capitalistic measures of worth.
Not every person who lives in Brampton has a home to safely rest and live in. On April 24, 2018, 922 people were recorded to be experiencing homelessness in the Region of Peel (Caledon, Brampton, Mississauga). (Peel, 2019)
Is our city built to expect people to not have a home?
It is likely more than 922 people are living without a home in Peel in November 2020 and are in an ever-increasingly precarious situation. This is based on the combination of the impacts of the pandemic exacerbating the issues of unaffordable housing, unemployment, and lack of healthcare support (Brown, 2020). In the past year, Peel has seen nearly 2,000 new listed households waiting for affordable housing units compared to 13,000 already waiting since 2019. This shows a greater demand for affordable housing which is already in short supply. In March 2020, unemployment rates for youth and adults doubled, showing that people would have greater difficulty in paying for their basic needs, let alone a home. Brampton declared a healthcare emergency in January 2020, pre-COVID, recognising that there is a lack of support for health and social services (Singh, 2020). Without access to adequate health care, how are people expected to sustain a working lifestyle?
Homelessness is the result of an accumulation of structural and systemic failures shaping individual circumstances. Pathways into and out of homelessness are neither linear nor uniform (The Homeless Hub, 2013).
Nevertheless, experiencing either chronic (people living in homelessness for a year or more) and episodic homelessness (people living in and out of homelessness) leaves one extremely vulnerable (The Homeless Hub, 2014).
While there is no single cause for homelessness, out of the five suggested solution-focuses: more affordable housing, community support, funding, home search assistance and employment, the majority of respondents to The Homeless Hub’s Point in Time Count survey selected that the existence of more affordable housing would help them have a home (Peel & PAEH, 2019).
Do we need more affordable housing units or do we need housing to be affordable?
AFFORDABLE HOUSING CRISIS
The Region of Peel offers 7,100 affordable units to households. But as of this past June, 14,997 households are on the wait-list for subsidised units. Last year, the list was just over 13,000 households and the average wait time is an astonishing 6–7 years. People look to shelters for alternatives, but Brampton has an accounted 261 beds across 6 shelters; 3 of which only houses males, 1 for youth, 1 for any household, and 1 for women with only 4 beds. In January, there was some confirmed planning for opening a shelter for women by Brampton city councillor Martin Medeiros but there have been no further updates (Ricci, 2020). With these abysmal numbers of high demand but low supply, how is the city currently serving all of its constituents?
Peel Region’s response to social-distancing was the mobilisation of programs to ensure people experiencing homelessness are able to self-isolate and recover while preventing the spread of COVID-19. Beginning in March, Dr. Naheed Dosani, Medical Director of the COVID-19 Homeless Response for the Region of Peel, made a team of medical, health and social service experts, to move people living outdoors and overcrowded shelters into hotels and other temporary commercial sites across the three cities (Peel, 2020). They provided screening, testing and transportation for people suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19 (Peel 2020). If tested positive for COVID-19, the team places the individual into their isolation and recovery program where the patient would be separated in temporary accommodation for Peel Paramedics daily monitoring, and Salvation Army supporting them with plans for long-term accommodations.
About 11,887 households are known to be receiving a housing subsidy while living outside of transitional housing (Brown, 2020). There were plans to increase the supply of affordable housing, but the Region of Peel failed to follow through and has effectively abandoned their 2018–2028 Home for All Strategy in constructing 7,500 affordable units annually over the 10 years. The region’s current funding strategy allows for only 2,240 new affordable housing units by 2028. It’s ridiculously far from the original goal despite already invested $700 million from the original plan over the last two years with the additional $276 million as of August (Peel, 2020) and another $9.7 million was announced earlier this month to be disbursed to help social services support our vulnerable population (Marychuk, 2020).
Which will cost the city more: investing in zero poverty now, later or never?
As the region continues to mobilise the stop-gap solution to people living experiencing homelessness and COVID-19, they assess each case based on need, allowing the Region of Peel to administer housing allowances proportionately and not by application date (Peel, 2020).
Who benefits from the displacement of homeless people?
ACCESSIBILITY & HEALTHCARE CRISIS
Ted Brown, CEO of Regeneration Outreach Community in Brampton, underlined that while hotels were able to house 51% of Peel region’s emergency shelter seekers, it could displace the person from accessing mental health and community support they had prior to moving into a hotel, thus forcing them to weigh their need for shelter against need for social connection and current or potential job location (Brown, 2020).
Figure 1 (rendered by Purvangi Patel)
Map of Supports in Brampton for people living in homelessness & Total Incidence of COVID-19 Cases in Brampton
Brampton is a city that requires vehicles to get around. Most of these support services are situated in the downtown core along Highway 410 and Queen St. East. While homelessness is typically more visible to the public, suburban and rural homelessness is often hidden but very much exists (Taylor, 2018). This misconception can make it harder to secure funding and development.
For a homeless youth working a minimum or student wage in Brampton, they are earning $13.40 per hour compared to the general minimum hourly wage of $14.25 across Ontario. It would be practically impossible for someone earning minimum wage to rent an apartment in Brampton’s outskirts or downtown. They would need to work 90–100 hours a week to cover the $1,260 monthly rent. To secure a liveable wage, who are homeless people competing for jobs with?
When nation-wide preventative measures took place, work-from-home transitions, temporary and permanent layoffs forced average unemployment rates in Peel to double. Closures preventing access to our already limited digital access to computers, Internet and other tools to develop and market oneself pose a hurdle to securing an income. While there is a steady decline of the unemployment rate, the people who have access to digital tools can transition into an online workspace more easily than those who do not, leaving behind the people without the chance to adapt and forcing them to fill jobs that would put them at greater health risk.
For those without a home and relocated temporarily in a hotel without an income to take transit to acquire their usual services at soup kitchens or mutual aid centres, this isolation would deny a key component in attaining job stability, mental health and social connection (Brown, 2020).
OUR SOCIAL DEAD
Entangled in a nexus of stigma, vulnerability, isolation, denied humanity, discrimination and exclusion based on one’s housing status are reflected in general interactions with the public, city legislation, law enforcement and the health care system (IGH, 2017). It spawns fear and makes asking for help within and outside one’s networks even harder because it furthers the risk of harassment, negative subjection and marginalisation for a population trying to meet the basic human needs of food, clothing, and shelter.
Who are your community supports?
In neoliberal ways of knowing, the value of life is subjected to economic analysis and assessment of one’s contributions, accomplishments, or investments to their economy and society (Cacho, 2012). It’s the question of “Are they worth the resources?”
Our councillors have not pushed for more funding for support despite having known and hearing the concerns consistently since at least 2018. Based on the 2020 budget passed in January, there was no proposal for any major investment in new housing projects. The only requests to support people living in homelessness were on increasing anti-human trafficking work and maintenance of current service levels; a total of $2 million, which is 0.05% of the total budget (VanOfwegen, 2019). Since COVID-19, our region has taken a concrete step by purchasing a building in Mississauga intending to convert it into a shelter space and opening additional proposed social services throughout the region.
But what is troubling is that this session of acquisition and planning was closed and it is unclear why it was not a public conversation (Wittnebel, 2020). Are the impacted communities part of the development and design of our multi-faceted solutions?
The current response of providing temporary housing and healthcare with the intention to secure permanent affordable housing seems like a plan to reanimate our socially dead and reintegrate them into our capitalist society. But as these efforts contradict social connection and mental support, we are reanimating our socially dead into a space of social limbo because we have yet to change the way people understand homelessness and the idea of measuring a person’s life value. If we begin to conscientiously work against the logic of survivability, perhaps we might find ways to fully revitalise our community (Cacho, 2012).
“Rather than ‘breathe life’ into the spaces of social death (gentrification, privatization, and democratization), we might conscientiously work against the logic of survivability.” — Lisa Marie Cacho (2012)
REFERENCES
Brown, T. (2020, November 13). COVID-19 & Its Effects on the Homeless. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
Cacho. L. M. (2012). Introduction: The Violence of Value. In Social death: racialized rightlessness and the criminalization of the unprotected (pp. 32–33). introduction, New York University Press.
The Homeless Hub. (2014). Addressing Chronic Homelessness. The Homeless Hub. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
The Homeless Hub. (2013). Causes Of Homelessness. The Homeless Hub. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
Institute of Global Homelessness. (2017). Stigma & Social Isolation. Institute of Global Homelessness Hub. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
Marychuk, M. (2020, November 4). Province gives Peel $9.7 million to help vulnerable people in Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga. Caledon Enterprise. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
Region of Peel. (2020, July 10). The Region of Peel’s COVID-19 Homeless Report; The Region of Peel. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
Region of Peel. (2020, May 7). Peel’s COVID-19 response helping to flatten the curve of spread in homeless shelters. Region of Peel. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
Region of Peel. Peel Living Tenants. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
Region of Peel. (2020, August 7). Region of Peel receives over $276 million in federal funding to support Affordable Housing Master Plan. Region of Peel. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
Region of Peel. Unemployment Rate. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
Region of Peel & Peel Alliance to End Homelessness. (2019, March). Everyone Counts Peel. Region of Peel; The Homeless Hub. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
Ricci, T. (2020, January 25). 3 Women living on the street explain why Brampton needs a women’s shelter. CBC News. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
Singh, H. (2020, January 22). Brampton City Council declares a Health Care Emergency. City of Brampton. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
Taylor, M. (2018, July 26). How is Rural Homelessness Different from Urban Homelessness? The Homeless Hub. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
VanOfwegen, S. (2019, November 7). 2020 Budget; The Region of Peel. Retrieved on December 1, 2020.
Wittnebel, J. (2020, September 29). Brampton’s downtown is being overwhelmed by homelessness and drug use; Region promises help. The Pointer. Retrieved on December 1, 2020. | https://medium.com/@jntrn/are-we-reanimating-the-socially-dead-in-brampton-de19f22dd3bf | [] | 2020-12-08 15:55:46.609000+00:00 | ['Brampton', 'Healthcare Crisis', 'Homeless', 'Urban Life', 'Housing Crisis'] |
The Direct-to-Consumer aesthetic: how minimalism obscures our identities | The Instagram ads you are mysteriously compelled to click on are slowly molding your style preferences. You know the ad with the perfect looking french bulldog wearing the sleek pink harness for purchase. The dog is walking toward their monochromatic-outfitted-owner standing against a bold orange studio backdrop. You can’t forget about the expected Sans Serif typeface with a pre-destined personality.
I’m in a candy store filled with digital brands like Warby Parker, AllBirds, Outdoor Voices, Everlane, Casper, Wild One, Glossier, By Humankind, and BarkBox products, to name a few. Or am I? I’m beginning to lose my taste. Is the flavor losing its punch or is it me?
Would I dare to purchase that random plant pot misplaced at the local garden store rather than from The Sill, the epitome of DTC brands? This distinct style of these brands is rapidly finding its way into all sorts of areas in this digital consumer era. The designs are becoming predictable. Equally as predictable: the backstory, the mission.
Photo from Wild One.
DTC Aesthetic: Addressing the Elephant in the Room
Now more than ever, consumers want a story and cause to rally behind. The idea of “putting your money where one’s mouth is” is the fruition of new generations leveraging their collective online presence. During the heated 2016 Presidential Election, we witnessed brands come under the limelight for their endorsements, specifically from upper leadership, and laid out bare for criticism, resistance, and bad press. Vogue? Couture? Flagship Only? Who cares. Tell me about your social, environmental, and political impact. Only radical transparency, please.
The first time I walked into Warby Parker to purchase a pair of glasses I was embraced warmly by their seemingly sensible product, story, and mission. This could be a case for successful branding and marketing efforts. What we’re seeing more is the DTC brand aesthetic infiltrating media and other industries beyond lifestyle products. This minimal and distinct Sans-Serif, hand-drawn illustrations, suave color schemes, and brand woke-ness is a formula reaching all corners of the internet. No doubt, these once small digital brands are shaking up larger, older brands to compete in this new social media enriched era.
Minimalism is embraced in the DTC world. I’m thinking of the minimal effort placed on the consumer to get what they want. Who are these new products really serving though? There’s always the forefront of inclusivity, sustainable practices, and ally-ship with many brands through social media features, collaborations, and representations. It’s all becoming formulated to serve the ideal consumer who fits this ideal streamlined lifestyle. The personality of the product is dismantled into a distinct profile and leaves little for the imagination.
How Minimalism Obscures Culture and Stories
This reminded me of a recent Scratching the Surface podcast featuring Kyle Chayka and host Jarret Fuller. In this episode, Jarrett and Kyle discuss how minimalism often obscures complex systems. Kyle described an example where magazines sold were sorted by their level of minimalism. The copies that were more minimal in design were sold at a higher price point than those with a less minimal composition. Industries hold certain aesthetics as more valuable and more worthy than others. This might be rooted in our Western cultural values and the oppression of other cultures.
Photo source from Vox by Bon Appétit.
One avenue of influence from strict minimalistic aesthetic guidelines is found in the food entertainment industry. More specifically, the growing popularity of the Bon Appétit YouTube Channel has created a cult following of what would appear to be a wholesome fandom. “Burnt the bread? No problem, it happens. We’ll work it through together.” Every test kitchen editor oozes the New York cadence and carries a home-cook’s approach to cooking.
This past summer, Bon Appétit dismantled their iconic staff due to pay discrepancy between their white staffers and those who are Black or of color. From their editorial side, a conversation started to spark around how often BIPOC create recipes rooted deeply in their culture that must be decontextualized and trimmed away to mold into the minimal and accessible-yet-exclusive framework that many mainstream food media abide by.
Effective inclusive practices in the digital age are not a watered-down more chewable version of a piece of content. Instead, it contains a long-term embodiment of culturally diverse stories and content that go beyond becoming culture props.
A Case for Successful Branding But Loosen Up A Little
I want to remind us of the magical experience of connecting with an object or service where a story is continued over time. Also where the design and aesthetic possibilities aren’t so formulated. It doesn’t have to be a one and done story.
Photo from Adobe blog post featuring COLLINS redesign of Twitch.
In an interview with Adobe, Brian Collins, chief creative officer of COLLINS, shared insights around their design decisions and approach for the recent rebranding of the global digital platform Twitch. COLLINS embraced the radical idea of “mess is more.” Collins discusses the reasoning behind this decision, “One look at the history of Twitch told us that to reduce this winning formula it to a bland, minimalist design language would be ridiculous. For Twitch, less is not more. Mess is more.”
“A good brand delivers a product or service consistently. A great brand is about meeting — and then exceeding — the expectations of the present, while building equity for the future.”
Design is THE things right now. These trendy DTC brands have typically put human needs to the forefront of their products and identity. This might explain why a desk lamp from an online DTC brand is far better than the one off the Staples shelf. It’s now a matter of keeping these brands accountable and preventing one’s identity to be swept away by aggressive online aesthetics. | https://uxdesign.cc/the-rapid-wildfire-of-the-direct-to-consumer-aesthetic-a-formula-lacking-flavor-4b3bc75f5b07 | ['Yuna Shin'] | 2020-12-02 00:04:10.657000+00:00 | ['UI', 'Design', 'Ts', 'Marketing', 'Visual Design'] |
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一个中学音乐老师，一心想成为真正的音乐家。好不容易在一次公开表演中被爵士音乐家看中，却因为跌入下水道丧生。他的灵魂开始了一段奇妙的旅程…
发布日期: 2020–12–25
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类型: 家庭, 动画, 喜剧, 冒险, 音乐, 奇幻
明星: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Ahmir-Khalib Thompson, Phylicia Rashād, Daveed Diggs
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In 1889, on November 1 in Gotha, Germany Anna Therese Johanne Hoch, who later would be known as Hannah Hoch was born. Being the eldest of five children, the girl was brought up in a comfortable and quiet environment of the small town. Her parents, a supervisor in an insurance company and an amateur painter sent her to Girl’s High school. However, at the age of 15 Hannah had to quit studying for the long six years to take care of her newborn sister. Only in 1912 she continued her education with Harold Bengen in School of Applied Arts, mastering glass design. As the World War I broke up Hannah returned to the native town to work in the Red Cross.
The first years after war the young woman recommenced her studying, getting to know graphic arts. 1915 was highlighted by an acquaintance with an Austrian artist Raoul Hausmann, which grew into the long-lasting romantic relationship and involvement in Berlin Dada movement. For ten years till 1926 Hoch worked in Berlin’s major publisher of newspapers and magazines. Her task was to design embroidering, knitting and crocheting patterns for the booklets.
Being on vacation with her beloved in 1918, Hannah discovered ‘the principle of photomontage in cut-and-paste images that soldiers sent to their families’ (National gallery of Art). This find affected greatly on her artistic production, and she created mass-media photographs comprising the elements of photomontage and handwork patterns, thus combining traditional and modern culture. Her prior preoccupation was to represent the ‘new woman’ of the Weimar Republic with new social role and given freedoms.
Hoch was the only woman in Berlin Dada, who took part in all kinds of events and exhibitions showcasing her socially critical works of art. Till 1931 she participated in exhibitions but with the rise of National Social regime was forbidden to present her creative work. Till her last breath in 1978 Hannah Hoch lived and worked in the outskirts of Berlin-Heiligensee.
The piece of art which is going to be analyzed in this research is ‘The beautiful girl’ designed in 1919–1920. It combines the elements of technology and females. In the middle of the picture one can clearly see a woman dressed in a modern bathing suit with a light bulb on her head which probably serves as a sun umbrella. In the background a large advertisement with a woman’s hair-do on top is presented. Maud Lavin describes strange human as ‘she is part human, part machine, part commodity’ (Lavin). The woman is surrounded by the images of industrialization as tires, gears, signals and BMW logos. A woman’s profile with the cat eyes, untrusting and skeptical, in the upper right corner is eye-catching as well. This unusually large eye symbolizes DADA movement — a monocle, which is present in almost every Hoch’s work. The colour scheme does not offer rich palette of tints, including mostly black, white, orange and red pieces. The photo is surrounded by the BMW circles which add the spots of blue.
An apt description of the piece is given in the book ‘Cut with the Kitchen Knife’ and states that it is ‘a portrait of a modern woman defined by signs of femininity, technology, media and advertising’ (Lavin). In other words Hannah Hoch focused on the woman of the new age, free and keeping up with the fast-moving world. The artist promoted feministic ideas and from her point of view urbanization and modern technologies were meant to give hope to woman to gain equality of genders. With this photomontage she commented on how the woman was expected to combine the role of a wife and mother with the role of a worker in the industrialized world. The light bulb instead of a face shows that women were perceived as unthinking machines which do not question their position and can be turned on or off at any time at man’s will. But at the same time they were to remain attractive to satisfy men’s needs. The watch is viewed as the representation of how quickly women are to adapt to the changes.
In a nutshell, Hoch concentrated on two opposite visions of the modern woman: the one from the television screens — smoking, working, wearing sexy clothes, voting and the real one who remained being a housewife.
The beautiful girl’ is an example of the art within the DADA movement. An artistic and literal current began in 1916 as the reaction to World War I and spread throughout Northern America and Europe. Every single convention was challenged and bourgeois society was scandalized. The Dadaists stated that over-valuing conformity, classism and nationalism among modern cultures led to horrors of the World War I. In other words, they rejected logic and reason and turned to irrationality, chaos and nonsense. The first DADA international Fair was organized in Berlin in 1920 exposing a shocking discontentment with military and German nationalism (Dada. A five minute history).
Hannah Hoch was introduced to the world of DADA by Raoul Hausman who together with Kurt Schwitters, Piet Mondrian and Hans Richter was one of the influential artists in the movement. Hoch became the only German woman who referred to DADA. She managed to follow the general Dadaist aesthetic, but at the same time she surely and steadily incorporated a feminist philosophy. Her aim was to submit female equality within the canvass of other DADA’s conceptions.
Though Hannah Hoch officially was a member of the movement, she never became the true one, because men saw her only as ‘a charming and gifted amateur artist’ (Lavin). Hans Richter, an unofficial spokesperson shared his opinion about the only woman in their community in the following words: ‘the girl who produced sandwiches, beer and coffee on a limited budget’ forgetting that she was among the few members with stable income.
In spite of the gender oppressions, Hannah’s desire to convey her idea was never weakened. Difficulties only strengthened her and made her an outstanding artist. A note with these return words was found among her possessions: ‘None of these men were satisfied with just an ordinary woman. But neither were they included to abandon the (conventional) male/masculine morality toward the woman. Enlightened by Freud, in protest against the older generation. . . they all desired this ‘New Woman’ and her groundbreaking will to freedom. But — they more or less brutally rejected the notion that they, too, had to adopt new attitudes. . . This led to these truly Strinbergian dramas that typified the private lives of these men’ (Maloney).
Hoch’s technique was characterized by fusing male and female parts of the body or bodies of females from different epochs — a ‘traditional’ woman and ‘modern’, liberated and free of sexual stereotypes one. What’s more, combining male and female parts, the female ones were always more distinctive and vibrant, while the male ones took their place in the background. Hannah created unique works of art experimenting with paintings, collages, graphic and photography. Her women were made from bits and pieces from dolls, mannequins of brides or children as these members of the society were not considered as valuable.
Today Hannah Hoch is most associated with her famous photomontage ‘Cut with the kitchen knife DADA through the last Weimer Beer-Belly Cultural epoch of Germany’ (1919–1920). This piece of art highlights social confusion during the era of Weimar Republic, oppositionists and government radicals (Grabner). In spite of never being truly accepted by the rest of her society, this woman with a quiet voice managed to speak out loud her feministic message.
Looking at Hannah Hoch’s art for the first time I found it confusing, because couldn’t comprehend the meaning. It was quite obvious that every single piece and structure is a symbol of the era, its ideas and beliefs. However, after having learned about her life and constant endeavors to declare about female’s right, little by little I started to realize what’s what. As an object for research I chose ‘The beautiful girl’ as, to my mind, its theme and message intersects with the modern tendency: a successful, clever, beautiful and free woman has to become one in no time, cause the world is moving faster and faster. I enjoyed working with this artist as her example is inspiring and is worth following | https://medium.com/@pendalbelut/zh-en-%E5%BF%83%E7%81%B5%E5%A5%87%E6%97%85-%E5%AE%8C%E6%95%B4%E7%89%88-2020%E5%9C%A8%E7%BA%BF%E5%85%8D%E8%B4%B9-hd-1080p-4k-b2f7b89b5d27 | ['Pendal Belut'] | 2020-12-21 15:03:07.697000+00:00 | ['Anmation', '2020', 'Soul', 'China', 'Full Version'] |
Writing a Good Speech | We are aware that writing a speech might not be as easy as everyone thinks. Actually, even copywriters think too much when it comes to writing a speech because it isn’t something that you are going to put up on social media or on a website. It’s a completely different situation because you are going to deliver that speech to an audience.
The thing about speeches is that they usually have a time limit. You don’t want to tell a story that isn’t going anywhere or teach about something so quickly that most of your audience is not going to be able to understand.
That is why speeches need to be structured, and usually, you work through a presentation with all the bullets that you need to remember. This tool is amazing because it allows you to go through every point of your speech in a specific way.
First of all, pick your main ideas, the structure of your speech should have concrete points that you are going to be discussing. You can write them down or create a presentation with that structure. It is a good way to keep your ideas in order and together at the same place.
Then, make sure to use examples — people understand better when you are explaining things with examples since they are easier to visualize. If you are explaining how to run your own blog, then go to your personal blog and show the process, from picking the topics to writing everything down and post it. You will see how you will engage with the audience in a much better way.
Also, make sure to simplify your ideas. If you go round and round in circles around the same topic you will lose your audience’s attention. And you don’t want that to happen. A good piece of advice is to look at your first draft of your speech, go back and look for words or ideas that you can edit out.
And last but not least, make sure that in your speech you are able to connect with your audience. Use experiences to explain what you are talking about to make them feel relatable to you.
We decided to discuss this topic with the expert Elizabeth Fournier (@elizfournier) from The Green Reaper who gave us this valuable advice: “The audience knows if you are not speaking from your heart. The audience also knows if you are giving a speech versus speaking with passion. Create the speech by talking out loud in the video recorder on your phone or a recording device. The message truly needs to be in your own words, with your own voice.”
Make sure that others understand your passions, the reason why you are deciding to jump into a big audience, and let them know what you are thinking about. Following Elizabeth’s ideas, SJ (@SBSLEducSoltns) a Creative Educational Disruptor pointed out the importance of being equal, letting your audience know that you are one of them: “Speak to them as an edifier and NOT an expert. Americans are not historically fond of aristocratic/elitists — we fought two wars with Britain over our independence. When you write a speech, you clearly have something to say, impart, and share/inform them on/for: come across as edifying and not as a ‘know it all’ expert that talks down to them.
Lastly, Great Speech Writing (@Gr8SpeechWriter) said, “Put your audience first. Imagine you are listening. Be relevant. Be clear. Be empathetic. Don’t fall into the same trap as everyone else and list what you want to say — translate it into something that your audience will actually want to hear and remember.”
All these pieces of advice have something in common: empathize with your audience. We all have been on the other side of the story where we have to listen to long speeches, make sure yours stands out by putting your audience first. | https://medium.com/writers-blokke/writing-a-good-speech-7e6069a34a16 | ["Dr. Rissy'S Writing"] | 2020-11-07 09:47:19.742000+00:00 | ['Writing Tips From Writers', 'Writing Tips', 'Great Speeches', 'Speechwriting', 'Copywriting Tips'] |
Daily Planner: Page a Day to Do List Planning Journal Notebook — Get Organized Today! | Daily Planner: Page a Day to Do List Planning Journal Notebook — Get Organized Today! Naoma Fludd Apr 1·2 min read
Book Review
Merely no words to describe. I have got study and i am confident that i am going to planning to go through yet again once again in the foreseeable future. You will like just how the writer compose this publication. (Devante Schmitt)
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Our web service was introduced by using a wish to function as a full online digital library which offers entry to many PDF file guide collection. You will probably find many different types of e-publication and other literatures from our documents data base. Specific popular subjects that distribute on our catalog are famous books, solution key, test test questions and answer, guide paper, skill manual, quiz trial, consumer handbook, consumer guide, service instructions, restoration handbook, and many others.
All e-book all rights stay with the experts, and downloads come ASIS. We’ve e-books for each subject readily available for download. We also provide a great collection of pdfs for individuals for example instructional universities textbooks, kids books, college books that may enable your youngster for a college degree or during school courses. Feel free to sign up to own access to among the greatest collection of free e books. Join today! | https://medium.com/@engeneering-esteem/daily-planner-page-a-day-to-do-list-planning-journal-notebook-get-organized-today-c1c0622a8d96 | ['Naoma Fludd'] | 2021-04-01 05:40:42.779000+00:00 | ['Help', 'Books', 'Self'] |
Mob Mentality: When will Mewat be developed? | Mob Mentality: When will Mewat be developed?
Aasif is a learner in our Development Leaders for India program
People turn to the same shop during rush hour, and do not think it is necessary to consider other accompanying shops, even if there are better goods available. When there are three people standing together outside the shop, then a fourth will stop by, thinking that there must be something of value there.
Parents might think “If Hassan Saheb’s son has studied and become a doctor, then why must my son stay behind, even though he is a singer from within?” Or they might think “Three boys from the neighborhood have gone abroad to become engineers, so why not get our son admitted in engineering, whether he has the want or the courage to become an engineer or not?” We have fallen prey to this mentality, and become sheep, to such an extent that we are blinded on our path. This blinding continues, from one generation to the next. We should not think that all minds are meant to become doctors or engineers. Some children have a knack for becoming good teachers, while other children might be cut out for having a career in business. And, some children can become scientists, if they are guided in the right direction, depending on their talents and intelligence.
An innocent child who, under parental pressure, becomes a chartered accountant one day, places his degree in front of his parents one day and says, “You succeeded. Like the son of ‘Ram-Mohan’, you, now, also have a chartered accountant at home. But this chartered accountant killed an artist, who loved the camera. This artist wanted to play with colours, and now he will just play with notes…”
Who knows what people are going through? A bus driver in a khaki uniform who collects tickets and faces the dust on the roadside all day, might be sobbing on the inside. And who knows what people are capable of? Someone who might have made a model of a car that would have surprised the world, is making round loaves of bread, and keeping clothes in the cupboard. For instance, a girl who might have a talented Urdu writer hidden within, could be pursuing a professional degree and not even be aware of the “alif” of Urdu literature.
If someone asks me, “When will Mewat develop further? When will it progress?” I will have but one answer, “The day everyone follows their own understanding of things in life, where education is not chosen by relatives or neighbours, but by children themselves who are encouraged by society, that is the day that no one can stop us from progressing.”
Think positive. | https://medium.com/@kayantar/mob-mentality-when-will-mewat-be-developed-b311fe195be4 | ['Kayantar Foundation'] | 2020-12-21 16:16:09.576000+00:00 | ['Learning And Development', 'Rural', 'Development', 'Social Change', 'India'] |
Attrition Prediction Using Machine Learning in WEKA | Data Processing
Data processing is a technique in which we make the data useful by data cleaning, data transformation, and data reduction. The data used for this analysis is already cleaned, i.e., it does not have any missing values, but it is very noisy contains attributes like ‘EmployeeCount,’ ‘Over18’, and ‘StandardHours.’ These attributes have the same value for all the instances and do not contain any relevant information, so I decided to drop them for the analysis. The class variable in this dataset is highly imbalanced (84% majority class (‘no’) and 16% minority class (‘yes’)), so to oversample the minority class, I used SMOTE balancer in WEKA.
For this analysis, I will be using a k-fold cross-validation technique to build the model. After all, it is one of the most common techniques to build a predictive model, and it also helps to overcome over fitting in the model.
Feature Selection
For feature selection and analysis, I used the filtering method Information Gain attribute evaluation with the full training set. Information gain correlates all the attributes with the class variable and assign a value depending on their weight. It also helps us to evaluate the essential attributes, and with the help of this feature selection method, we can build our model with high accuracy and precision.
There are 35 attributes in this dataset from them; I dropped ‘Age,’ ‘Over18’, ‘EmployeeCount,’ and ‘StandardHours.’ Because they contain the same values for all the instance and does not contain any relevant information, we evaluated the top 20 attributes ( Below Figure) and applied our machine learning algorithms.
InfoGain Ranked Attributes
Classification Techniques
1. Bayes Net
Bayesian Network is the classification algorithm based on the Bayes’ theorem. We can call it an ‘independent feature model’ because it assumes that there is no relationship between the features (Datalab, 2018).
2. J48 — Decision Tree
The decision tree is a supervised machine learning algorithm that is used for classification as well as regression. It is the tree-like structure, which includes nodes (attributes), branch (rule), and leaf (outcome). The decision tree evaluates the best feature and then split the data into small samples and repeats this process until there is no attribute remaining and no more instances remaining.
3. K- Nearest Neighbor (K-NN)
K-NN is the machine learning algorithm that is widely used for classification and regression. It is a supervised machine learning algorithm. It is one of the most basic and essential algorithms used in different organizations. K-NN is lazy and non — parametric. By lazy, it means that it uses all the given data for the training purpose, and by non-parametric, it means that it does not make any assumption about the given data. This algorithm identifies the k-nearest neighbor using the distance proximity function to evaluate the unidentified data point. We are going to use it in our analysis because it builds the most accurate model and predictions. For this analysis, I will be using k=1 for our model.
4. Random Forest
Random forest is the machine learning algorithm that is used for classification and regression. It is a supervised machine learning algorithm. It creates many decision trees on a data sample and create a prediction for each of them and build the best solution through voting. It is one of the best algorithms to overcome overfitting in the model. Random forest is better than the decision tree because it can also work on the large dataset, and it also creates a model with high accuracy. Its total processing is based on ‘wisdom of crowds’ (Yiu, 2019).
Result Analysis
To evaluate the model, I will try to understand the confusion matrix of that particular algorithms. With the help of the confusion matrix, we can evaluate the performance of any model. It is a matrix which includes the following values:
True Positives — where the actual class is ‘yes’ and predicted as ‘yes’ by the model, that is, the model has correctly predicted these instances.
True Negative — where the actual class is ‘no’ and also predicted as ‘no’ by the model; that is, the model correctly predicted these instances.
False Positives — where the actual class is ‘no’ and predicted as ‘yes’ by the model; that is, the model wrongly predicted these instances.
False Negatives — where the actual is ‘yes’ and predicted as ‘no’ by the model; that is, the model wrongly predicted these instances. (Rawat, 2019)
Sensitivity — It is the proportion (probability) of the attired employees who were predicted as attired.
Specificity — It is the proportion (probability) of non-attired employees who were predicted as not attired.
I will be using these values for the evaluation of our model. The section below is the evaluation after feature selection.
1. Bayes Net
In this algorithm, the correctly classified instances are 1954, and the accuracy rate is 89.6%. This algorithm took 0.12 sec to build. Below figure shows the confusion matrix of this algorithm.
True positives — 721 instances
True negatives — 1233 instances
False positives — 0 instances
False Negative — 227 instances
Sensitivity — 76.1%
Specificity — 100%
Bayes Net — Confusion Matrix
2. J48 — Decision Tree
1. In this algorithm, the correctly classified instances are 1836, and the accuracy rate is 84.2%. This algorithm took 0.19 sec to build and created the pruned tree. The size of the tree is 213. While the number of leaves is 124. Below figure shows the confusion matrix generated by this algorithm.
True positives — 734 instances
True negatives — 1102 instances
False positives — 131 instances
False Negative — 214 instances
Sensitivity — 77.4%
Specificity — 89%
J48 — Confusion Matrix
3. K-Nearest Neighbor
In this algorithm, the correctly classified instances are 1776, and the accuracy rate is 81.4%. In this model, we selected ‘1’ nearest neighbor that is k=1. This model took 0 sec to build. Below figure shows the confusion matrix generated by this algorithm.
True positives — 787 instances
True negatives — 989 instances
False positives — 244 instances
False Negative — 161 instances
Sensitivity — 83%
Specificity — 80.2%
K-NN — Confusion Matrix
4. Random Forest
In this algorithm, the correctly classifies instances are 1966, and the accuracy rate is 90.14%. This model took 0.83 sec to build, and it performed 100 iterations. Below figure shows the confusion matrix generated by the random forest classifier.
True positives — 786 instances
True negatives — 1180 instances
False positives — 53 instances
False Negative — 162 instances
Sensitivity — 82.9%
Specificity — 95%
Random Forest — Confusion Matrix
Comparison — Graphical Representation
Comparison between different measures
Above figure represents the comparison between the different measures of four different machine learning algorithms. As we can see from the graph, the Random forest shows the highest accuracy rate than the others. On the other hand, K-nearest neighbor shows the lowest accuracy rate. Bayes net shows the highest precision value ‘1’ while the k-nearest neighbor shows the lowest precision value. If we compare in terms of accuracy, the random forest is performing better in predicting the class variable that is attrition of the employee. However, in terms of precision, the Bayes net is performing better with the value ‘1’.
Comparison of accuracy after feature selection
As seen in above figure, after applying feature selection, there is a significant change in the accuracy of our models. There is 8.2%, 1.7%, 1.6%, and 4.4% increment in the accuracy of the models Bayes Net, J48, K-NN, and Random Forest, respectively. The highest increment in the accuracy is in the Bayes Net, while the lowest increment is in the K-NN.
Conclusion
In this analysis, we tried to predict employee attrition using machine learning. To come up with the best model is quite challenging because these data and databases are entirely redundant. We found out that the random forest is performing better than the other algorithms with 90.1% accuracy. So random forest is recommended to all the companies who are trying to predict their employee attrition.
Thank you for reading.
References
Datalab, A. (2018, December 4). What is Bayesian Network Classifier? Retrieved from Medium: https://medium.com/@analyttica/what-is-bayesiannetwork-classifier-4d2771f91f63
Rawat, S. (2019, October 3). Is accuracy EVERYTHING? — Various metrics to evaluate the classification model. Retrieved from Medium: https://towardsdatascience.com/is-accuracyeverything-96da9afd540d
Yiu, T. (2019, june 13). Understanding Random Forest — How the Algorithm Works and Why it Is So Effective. Retrieved from Towards data science website: https://towardsdatascience.com/understandingrandom-forest-58381e0602d2 | https://towardsdatascience.com/attrition-prediction-using-machine-learning-in-weka-146fa33247b4 | ['Akshay Gautam'] | 2020-06-15 13:43:58.566000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Employee Attrition', 'Weka', 'Towards Data Science', 'Data Science'] |
Technology is the new luxury | Technology is not how we understood it to be. Luxury is not how we defined it to be. Our definitions of technology and luxury have changed and they are rapidly converging. This is not about the increasing role of technology in the luxury industry, but about how technology in itself has increasingly started wearing the luxury cloak.
In Q4' 2017, HSBC analysts strengthened their ‘Buy’ ratings for Apple shares. They had an interesting reason behind that Buy rating:
“Recently, with an offensive retail strategy and in some cases comparable price points, Apple has competed with the likes of Louis Vuitton, Cartier or Prada which made us raise the question: is Apple actually a luxury stock? Yes.”
One of the surprising (but not unexpected) findings of the 2018 Hurun Report (which surveys HNWIs in China) is Apple topping the ranks of brands given as gifts by HNWIs). Who did it beat to get up there? The likes of Louis Vuitton, Bvlgari and Chanel.
In 2017, for the first time, Tesla sold more units of its premium Model S than the Mercedes Benz S-Class and the BMW 7-series. They had already achieved this feat long back in the US, where the Model S has been the leading car model in the luxury segment for quite a few years now. This is not even a technology brand entering a previously non-technology domains. This is about a new car brand upstaging the leaders in the premium segment.
You can argue as to what the role of technology is in cars, which are by nature one of the greatest technological inventions? Yes there is as Tesla redefined and repositioned luxury car ownership through environmentally-friendly, sustainability focused and efficiency-driven products. There was no heritage or legacy in automobile manufacturing, but a strong intent to redefine the codes of luxury in car ownership.
These are just the bigger and more talked about examples (Apple, Samsung, Tesla etc.). Our definitions of luxury are being changed at the core, and most of the time through small, deliberate and impactful changes. Another interesting aspect is that the evolution of technology into luxury is a gradual shift that moves across the world. A change that has already happened in Europe may take a while before it gains an acceptance in Asia. Take the example of Starbucks — in the UK we don’t skip a beat when we walk into a Starbucks store, while it is still a high form of luxury in Asia.
The world’s largest Starbucks store was opened in Shanghai towards the end of 2017. It is the epitome of luxury shopping (forget coffee drinking) — can cater to around 7000 customers a day, the longest coffee bar in the world also has a ‘Pairing Bar’ (spewing out advice on pairing coffee with food), symphony pipes, more than 1000 traditional Chinese seals (chops) that showcase the Starbucks story etc. At almost the same time, Starbucks opened its biggest store in Bangkok (Thailand) with the usual luxury connotations (two floors, hybrid espresso machines, Starbucks Reserve Experience Bar etc.)
I am sure, although qualitatively, that Starbucks either hasn’t opened in any new stores in London lately, and even if they have, their stores are getting smaller and dirtier. The fact is simple — Londoners do not equate Starbucks with luxury. Will Starbucks ever open a takeaway store in Shanghai? Probably not.
These winds of change are not unbeknownst to the traditional luxury manufacturer. Many of them are willing to risk their equity and hundreds of years of legacy to launch technology products. The Apple Watch didn’t take off but it did rattle cages. In Q1' 2017, the veritable Montblanc entered the smartwatch segment with the launch of the Montblanc Summit. The summary of the reactions and analysis were “nothing in the product to justify the Montblanc name and price tag”.
Traditional luxury depended on exclusivity as the key factor for appeal and for justifying high prices. Coupled with it was craftsmanship, legacy, history and deep tradition. The new definition of ‘luxury’ is slowly shifting away from these codes, and is driven by the need to have a high-quality life, more obsession with the self, new set of hygiene needs, wide and continuous access to knowledge, shrinking of the world in terms of distance and higher levels of cultural intermingling.
The word ‘innovative’ has pushed its way into the luxury lexicon rapidly in the last few years. This single word, which defines the evolution of new luxury, has led luxury houses to start engaging, investing, acquiring and rewarding startups who are building technology-driven products and services for their industries.
Although it may sound overtly simplistic to credit a single word, but it is this very need for innovation that technology satisfies more than anything else. The list of the 30 startups selected for the 2018 LVMH Innovation Awards make an interesting reading. The key points highlight why technology is forever going to continue redefining luxury:
A mobile and universally connected olfactory sensor that can identify and classify odours
A new category of materials that combine copper and glass or gold and glass into a single material
A solution that combines fashion and technology by designing accessories and clothing that can be customised immediately
In sum we have technology that has the potential to create new fragrances, new materials for luxury manufacturing and new lines of customisable clothing and accessories. 5 years ago this would have been unthinkable.
The new definition of luxury has now also moved into subscription channels or on-demand as a business model. In the past, sampling luxury was akin to sniffing perfume strips, getting hold of a sample while attending a launch or simply getting access to limited edition products before they hit stores. But now you can get them via monthly subscription boxes to your home. This again exemplifies the trend of making luxury more convenient and personalised.
How has technology become so synonymous and harmonised with luxury? This is because of quite a few influential factors, and all of them are related to our altered definitions of luxury:
We don’t view luxury as a mode of celebrating disparate, fragmented, once-in-a-while occasions in our lives (e.g. birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, weddings, arrival of a child) anymore. Luxury is now increasingly a state of being (and in our own unique ways)
Lack of money does not inhibit us from experiencing the luxurious and the expensive — the availability of cheap credit (aka debt) has made access to luxury much easier
Exclusivity is a very poor differentiator of luxury now — in the true sense of the word, exclusivity does not matter anymore. Yes we do still queue up overnight to buy the next generation iPhone and add our names to the never moving Birkin bag waitlist, but it is not the end of the world
Luxury now comes in smaller, ‘mini’ versions for us — In Shanghai, an overpriced Starbucks coffee is a mini luxury, in London it would ordering an Uber Exec to arrive in style at a luxury club or house party, in Delhi it would be hanging out in the latest Mexican restaurant that has opened in the luxury mall next door
Luxury is increasingly not seen only as a gift anymore. It is for our self consumption. Luxury is increasingly not for collectors or connoisseurs. It can be for anyone who has the money, interest or curiosity (or has the connections to break into super exclusive clubs)
Luxury is not about owning inanimate objects anymore. It is about buying something that you can continuously use, which in turn enhances the quality of one dimension of your life (for example the iPhone, the AirPods, underfloor heating in your bathrooms, Bose or Blaupunkt speaker systems, an annual multi-brand airline lounge pass etc.)
Technology enables this transformation of the definition of luxury.
It has made luxury ubiquitous, shareable, able to be experienced without ownership, bite-sized, flexible, customised, convenient and more accessible.
All of this traditional luxury was not, but new luxury is. | https://sandeepdas9179.medium.com/technology-is-the-new-luxury-f4ca2359f6fa | ['Sandeep Das'] | 2018-06-30 17:09:57.945000+00:00 | ['Brands', 'Branding', 'Technology', 'Luxury', 'Strategy'] |
Submission Guidelines For ‘R.E.M.’s Friday, June 23, 1995 Concert At Madison Square Garden’ Magazine | Submission Guidelines For ‘R.E.M.’s Friday, June 23, 1995 Concert At Madison Square Garden’ Magazine
Submissions must be unique and well organized, just like the band’s setlist on June 23, 1995 at Madison Square Garden.
Illustration by Louis Sobol
Here at ‘R.E.M.’s Friday, June 23, 1995 Concert At Madison Square Garden’ Magazine, we publish articles about R.E.M.’s Friday, June 23, 1995 concert at Madison Square Garden.
Non-Fiction Only
Please keep your submissions light and family-friendly, no vulgarity, no advertising, no lists, no fiction. We accept only real, non-fiction, first-hand recounting of your life experiences as they pertain to R.E.M.’s Friday, June 23, 1995 concert at Madison Square Garden.
Desired Topics
We are interested in any and all minutiae about the concert itself, from the first chords of ‘I Took Your Name’ to the final frenzy of ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’.
We want to know:
How you felt the moment you woke up alone the morning of June 23, 1995 and thought, ‘I’m going to an R.E.M. concert tonight. At Madison Square Garden.’
Whether you carried your ticket in your wallet, your pocket, or a money belt hidden under your tour shirt.
Which tour shirt you wore to the concert and which one you bought at the concert.
When your concert neighbor asked you not to sing along so loudly during ‘Losing My Religion,’ if you punched him in the face and kept singing along as loudly as you goddamned pleased, like I did.
If you studied Michael Stipe’s dance moves so you could replicate them at the next wedding you attended.
When the concert ended, whether you cried or sobbed.
Among the many guests at the after-party was MTV News personality and pixie goddess Tabitha Soren: if you had summoned up the courage to talk to her at the party, do you think she would have married you instead of Moneyball author Michael Lewis?
If you shook Mike Mills’ hand at the after-party like I did, how would you describe the rush of validity? Was it like a thousand cosmic endorphins sliding into your wrist, or like a million megawatts of most heavenly-blessed karma flooding into your palm? Has your life never been the same since? Did it give you the confidence to begin a magazine all about the Friday, June 23, 1995 R.E.M. concert at Madison Square Garden?
When Michael Stipe didn’t show up at the after-party, did the sour disappointment of missed opportunity poison your world view until you found the right medication?
Have you had kids since the concert? Have your kids seen a recording of R.E.M.’s Friday, June 23, 1995 concert at Madison Square Garden?
I swear I’ve moved on, but If I had had a son with Tabitha Soren, should we have named him Michael, Mike, Bill, or Peter? Same question if it was a daughter.
We LOVE think-pieces inspired by specific songs R.E.M. performed live in concert on Friday, June 23, 1995 at Madison Square Garden. Past pieces explored questions as diverse as:
Do you know anybody who never hurts?
Will we ever have a woman on the moon?
Have you ever attacked Dan Rather?
Less Desired Topics
Topics inspired by R.E.M.’s Thursday, June 22, 1995 concert at Madison Square Garden or R.E.M.’s Saturday, June 24, 1995 concert at Madison Square Garden, while potentially fascinating, are not suitable for this magazine. For those topics, please consider our other magazines which pertain directly to those two concerts.
Word Count
Ideally, your piece will be 40 words to 9,000 words long, which would be 1.6 to 360 words for each song R.E.M. performed on Friday, June 23, 1995 at Madison Square Garden.
Grammar
Please proof your work. I am the entire single-and-looking editorial staff.
Artwork
We accept artistic and photographic work if your name is Michael Stipe.
Love, Not Hate
The purpose of your piece cannot be to spread hate, disparage, elicit outrage, or otherwise cause harm. We spread love — specifically, love inspired by the Friday, June 23, 1995 R.E.M. concert at Madison Square Garden.
We’re looking for pieces that make a cogent point about the Friday, June 23 R.E.M. concert at Madison Square Garden, whether you are writing about Mike Mills’ country-glam suit, how many times Peter Buck spun to his left, the weight of Bill Berry’s eyebrows, or how many times Michael Stipe stood on top of a monitor speaker so he could see me better.
Send all submissions via email to [email protected]. Put the word ‘Submission’ in the subject line. We try to get back to people within three days, the number of days R.E.M. played Madison Square Garden in June of 1995.
Submissions must be unique and well organized, like the band’s setlist and Tabitha Soren’s outfit at the after-party on Friday, June 23, 1995 at Madison Square Garden!
Good luck! We look forward to reading your submission. | https://medium.com/slackjaw/submission-guidelines-for-r-e-m-s-friday-june-23-1995-concert-at-madison-square-garden-magazine-1e4a18a888ad | ['Christopher Shelley'] | 2020-08-24 14:01:02.416000+00:00 | ['Satire', 'Humor', 'Concerts', 'Submission Guidelines', 'Music'] |
Dan Pfeiffer on Humility and Meeting People (and Voters) Where They Are | Dan Pfeiffer on Humility and Meeting People (and Voters) Where They Are
Dan Pfeiffer served President Obama for eight years as his Communications Director on his 2008 campaign and then in the White House as Senior Advisor to the President for Strategy and Communications. He is a noted political and digital strategist, Pod Save America co-host, CNN contributor, a very regular newsletter publisher on messaging and political strategy, and best selling author (with a new book coming out in February).
Here are excerpts from this Mixing Board Studio Session between Dan and Mixing Board founder Sean Garrett. They talk about the differences and increasing similarities between the tech and political worlds; how to manage the divide at work between too much political speak and zero political speak; and, how President Biden might adjust his comms strategy as we head into another high-stakes election season.
SG: Is it weird to be known more as a podcaster and author than a close confidant to one of the greatest presidents of all time?
DP: Life has been one really weird turn of events since about midway through election night in 2016. The whole thing is very weird and strange, but I guess life has been very weird and strange for a lot of people over these last few years.
SG: I don’t know how much you were talking about podcasts in 2014, but now you are helping run one and it’s a very big one. How is that front row seat to the media landscape? How do you even articulate the change between 2008 and now?
DP: I often describe this period as the greatest change in how people consume and distribute information since the invention of the printing press. Some very pedantic historians will sometimes push back and say that I am erasing the importance of the telegram… but either way it’s been a tremendous transformation. When I started working for President Obama in 2007, Facebook was primarily for college kids. It had not yet taken on its democracy destroying future.
Twitter was a platform that was mostly ignored for politics and news. It was largely an internal communications platform for people in the tech industry. YouTube was the place where you put up videos that you wanted other people to see. The smartphone was not invented yet, people were using Blackberries. If you flash forward to when you and I first met in 2014, how much had changed even then, and then you go to now.
It’s been this dramatic change in every single way — in what matters in communication, how people get information, how people think about sharing information. All of it has changed so dramatically. Back in 2008, even podcasts were this very niche thing, but they did exist. We actually tried to put President Obama on Bill Simmons’ podcast back then but the higher-ups in ESPN nixed it. They were years ahead of their “stick to sports” approach to programming. We ended up doing Simmons’ podcast a couple of times during the White House. And he did Mark Maron’s podcast in 2015, I believe.
It’s this fundamental change from this broadcast communications model, where people get the information that higher-ups in a handful of media places choose to give them at the time and place of those media executives’ choosing, to people having this endless menu of information that they can choose to get whenever they want. It’s fundamentally altered every bit of communication strategy and thinking. The way most people, particularly in my old industry, think about communications is still well behind the times of how much change has happened.
SG: If you’re starting off in comms in 2005 versus starting off in 2021, it’s an entirely different job. Even executives in the tech world still are probably not completely in tune with this moment today and just how much the job has changed. How do you manage this change when you’re a comms leader? You’re leading executives, you’re leading politicians, you’re leading policymakers on how to effectively navigate this environment, when it dramatically changes every six months. How do you maintain that tact?
DP: You have to break down all the old ways of thinking about it. When I started doing campaigns, at the very turn of the century, communications was press management. That’s what it was. It was either handling incoming press, to be responsive to this very important constituency who can influence how people viewed your company or your politician or your campaign. Or it was having a proactive strategy to communicate with your audience — voters, the market, potential customers. You were doing that through the press. There was this hard wall between earned media and paid advertising. They were completely separate things thought about completely differently. Within organizations there was almost always this wall where these people rarely even talked to each other.
None of that exists anymore. Press management is one tiny fraction of how you message in 2021, yet we still continue to have all the old structures — there’s the communications department, and then there’s the marketing department. Some of this is breaking down both in politics and on the corporate side, but for the most part, people are still adhering to that model. You have to back completely off of it. You can get caught on this hamster wheel of mediums, where it’s just, “Oh, it’s TikTok today. Why don’t we have a TikTok strategy?” Then we go hire every 22-year-old we can possibly find and say, “Give us a TikTok strategy.” And then you end up with brands, or politicians, doing incredibly tone deaf stuff, just to say you’re doing TikTok.
People evaluating that, whether it’s the CEO, the older head of comms, the CCO, have no metric for it. It’s just engagement — look at all the views you got, the shares you got, the likes you got, or whatever it is. You end up not actually doing anything. The better way to think about communications in this day and age is to identify audiences and then work backwards from there. Who are the people we are trying to influence and how are we trying to influence them?
That is somewhat easier in a non-political sense because you can have these more distinct audiences. You have potential customers or an existing customer base. You have potential investors, you have the market, you have these elite stakeholders — particularly if you’re a tech company and you’re still in private mode and you’re gearing up to fundraise. Whether they’re going to write you a check or not, there’s a set of important people that think you are doing something good. If you are a larger consumer company, how are you communicating with the people who are either using your product or you want to use your product?
In politics, that’s much more complicated because you can’t segment audiences as distinctly. You have to figure out all the different methods in which you’re going to reach people and sometimes that’s going to involve adopting new platforms or looking at it in new ways. If you have a platform or medium forward approach, you’re going to end up either not speaking the language or missing whole segments of people.
SG: The political strategy structure that still exists now is all around planks (it’s just a question whether it works or not). These are my three big planks and this is why we’re going to do infrastructure week in October. We’re going to do these planks– education, immigration or infrastructure. Then we’re going to adhere to that very disciplined messaging, going around the country to talk about those three big things all the time. Is that doable anymore?
DP: There are questions about the efficacy of it, for sure. That entire model is based around the traditional version of a news cycle. We’re going to give this big speech and there’s going to be coverage of that speech the day before, the day of, and maybe in some markets in the days after, and we’re going to maximize this moment. It’s not clear whether or not that still works. When the nation’s attention gets focused on something, for whatever reason, you can still maximize those moments, but dictating that attention is much harder than it used to be. And certainly the timeframe in which you can hold that attention is much shorter.
You have to think about the tail of various things. We know that this group of people — it can be young men ages 18 to 40, or Latina moms, a certain geographic area — you can segment it any way you want. But you know that you need to persuade them in some way. Persuade them to support you or just to choose to get involved in politics. You’re going to do that over time. You have some sense of what information is relevant to them, because you’re doing a bunch of research on it, but you have to communicate with them on the time and place of their choosing, not the time and place of your choosing.
Adhering to, “This is when the State of the Union is covered,” is just not how it works anymore. Particularly with the less politically engaged people, who are always the hardest audience to reach, and the audience everyone needs to reach the most. But that’s just not how they think about time anymore. And it’s not like, “Oh, it’s State of the Union week,” or, “Oh, it’s infrastructure week.” They don’t have those things on their calendar. You’re going to have to be a little bit more opportunistic and think, I have one year, two years, six months or three weeks to tell people these things. What are the ways I’m going to do it? Some of it is going to be through earned media that may be geographic or generational or interest based. Some of it may be paid communication.
One element that more and more people need to engage in, is mobilizing your existing supporters to communicate with the people in their networks. How are we giving them the tools to carry that message? The Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and frankly all politicians, treat all of their supporters as ATMs and phone bankers and not as messengers. But as long as everyone has a phone in their pocket, they have the capacity to reach hundreds of people where their opinion matters more than the New York Times.
SG: The way I break out successful versus unsuccessful communications strategy is that unsuccessful is typically reactive, successful is typically proactive. It becomes about being opportunistic. This happens on social media all the time, a meme that pops up is the most opportunistic moment to ride a wave. It’s the theme of the day, the theme of the week or whatever it is. I know that the next State of the Union it won’t be about whatever Biden said, it’ll be about a meme about someone’s reaction. Someone fell asleep, there was a fly in someone’s hair or someone clapped in a weird way. That’s what I remember from State of the Unions now. It’s that meme-ography of communications, riding these moments whatever they are. They could be deep and substantive or they could be completely silly, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s what people are talking about.
DP: How do you leverage those moments? Creating those moments is very hard. You can try but you’re going to have a very low success rate. And people should try, but it’s really about when those moments happen, how do you use them to tell the story you want told? Not just engagement for engagement’s sake.
From the position of my old stomping grounds in the White House, being that nimble is incredibly hard. It’s a similar argument on a different scale for a large company, but that is a very challenging thing. You have a comms plan, you have a to-do list, you have an agenda, you’ve got a whole bunch of other things that are happening on any given day that could stand in the way. The hardest decisions are about when do you walk away from your communications plan and take the advantage of this specific moment? Because it could be a risk. There is some risk that it’ll do damage to you or it’ll be just a waste of time, something you can never get back. Those are really hard decisions to make in this day and age.
SG: Let’s just pretend you actually don’t have a plan. You actually have zero compass, you just react to shit every single day, like the Trump White House. What’s more effective?
DP: This is one of those things that’s very hard to reverse engineer. You can look at that and say, well, Donald Trump is historically the least popular president in history. To an extent that you can, on days other than election days, provide some metric of success for a political figure, approval rating is the closest proxy for that. You could say, well, he is the least popular president in American history. So clearly his messaging strategy was not awesome.
Then you can look at it and say, he came within 40,000 or so votes across four states from getting reelected in the middle of a pandemic in a historic recession. So maybe it was successful. It’s hard because electoral outcomes are such complex, dynamic things. How do you factor into that voter suppression or larger bits of disinformation? It’s just hard to say whether his communication strategy worked or it didn’t work.
There were probably some dos and don’ts you could take away from how Trump did things. He certainly was not disciplined in any way, shape or form in using those moments to tell a consistent story about himself. There were times where he did and he used them very well to communicate with his base. But his communication strategy was more instinctual than intellectual. Whatever grievance he had that day, he would react to. That could be picking a fight with Jemele Hill or Steph Curry. It’s hard for me to find electoral strategy in picking a Twitter fight with Debra Messing on a daily basis. That stuff doesn’t really work.
But the one thing that you can take from it is he held the nation’s attention almost nonstop for four years. That blotted out the sun for other people, and made it harder to make other arguments. It’s certainly why he won the Republican primary. He started out with 100% name ID, in the lead, and he consumed all the oxygen in the room. No one else could ever get enough attention to pose a real threat to him. That doesn’t work as well in a campaign against a former sitting vice president who also has 100% name ID. Is dominating the conversation nonstop at whatever cost a good political communication strategy? It may be one of things that’s not even available to anyone other than Donald Trump. It’s not a thing Joe Biden could do if he wanted to.
SG: Joe Biden is clearly not dominating the conversation. He’s playing very much by his own rules, which is certainly not what he promised when he was elected. He’s not doing anything different than what he was doing in the campaign. If you were currently sitting in Washington, D.C. working in the White House, what conversation would you be having around how to evolve the strategy?
DP: What they are going through right now is very reminiscent of what we went through. A very different media environment, obviously, but similar calculus to when we were trying to pass the Affordable Care Act in 2009. No margin of error. We had to get every senator, all 60 senators. We know that failing to pass it is an epic disaster that could cost us reelection and deny millions of Americans life saving healthcare. The most important thing was to get it passed. You are forced to choose between this terribly messy legislative process — where you have to take a backseat because of the egos of people in the Senate and the fact that you have limited sway. They had Joe Manchin, we had Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson, a conservative senator from Nebraska, who were holding our efforts to pass healthcare hostage. Like Manchin and Sinema are doing to Biden now.
You have to take water in the short term in order to get this thing passed because if you don’t get it passed, you are screwed. And this could be your last chance of doing anything significant. Going forward, communications wise for Biden as they are still trying to pass this bill, there are limits on what they can do to improve their standing or to put in place really new, clever communications up until that moment. They are held hostage by this process and by people with whom they have limited sway. Traveling to West Virginia and giving a barn burner speech attacking Joe Manchin for standing in the way of his agenda is not going to get him there. It’s quiet diplomacy and hoping for the best.
So let’s presume this thing gets passed. How do you adjust your strategy? There are a couple of things to look at. First, they are doing what worked for them in a campaign, but the circumstances are very different. When I worked with him in the White House, Biden always used to say, what you want in politics is for someone to compare you to the alternative, not the almighty. During the campaign, he could sit back because there was this very clear domineering alternative.
Biden’s campaign strategy was clever to use Trump’s greatest strength against him. He took a step back and said, “Yeah, sure, you want to dominate the conversation? Well, why don’t you damage yourself repeatedly? Wake up every morning and punch yourself in the face on Twitter, and I will reap the rewards of that.” Trump is off Twitter. For everyone, other than the most politically obsessed people in the world, Donald Trump is completely absent in the public conversation. So there was no alternative, Joe Biden was just being judged against himself.
Second, his strategy of being quiet and less omnipresent than Trump was based on the promise that we were going to get the pandemic under control and return to normal. Through reasons that are completely not Joe Biden’s fault, we have not had that. We are still in crisis mode. So a president that seems somewhat absent and a continuing crisis can make some voters see weakness, et cetera.
The third question for them as they round the corner the next year is how much more aggressive can they be with Republicans — to raise up the specter of the alternative, whether that’s Trump, some set of completely insane Republicans in the house, Mitch McConnell or someone else. How do they have a contrast message that seems authentic to who Joe Biden is and is consistent with his pledges to unity? That is a pretty tricky needle to thread, and they have to get there. I have 100% confidence they will, because we’re about to hit election season. When he’s out there campaigning for a lot of Democrats, what’s the message he’s going to offer in these pretty tough midterm elections?
SG: In the spectrum of years that we talked about, from 2008 to 2021, in terms of where we are in the media environment — if you are a company or a politician and you’re leveraging it right, what year is Biden operating in now?
DP: Probably 2009, 2010. I think that’s his mentality. He has a very smart digital staff who have spent lots of time with our old friends who pioneered this in my White House days. They do some really clever stuff with the very limited tools available to a White House digital staff. His go-to place right now is a town hall on CNN. When he wants to fill a void, that’s where he goes. I’m sympathetic — they are a limited number of really cool media options. Particularly in a pandemic where the visuals you can have are limited, the number of people you can be around is limited and the logistics are impossible. Obama would go barnstorm a bunch of factories in a bunch of battleground states. It’s just exponentially harder in this environment than it would be if we were not dealing with the pandemic.
Ultimately, the real test of how this will look for him, is not just what happens in the White House, it’s what the larger Biden political operation and the Democratic Party apparatus looks like outside of the White House. There are just limited tools in the White House of what you can do. You can’t merge paid communications or media. You have this group of pretty ordinary reporters who travel everywhere with you and dominate the conversation. There’s limits to what you can do about that.
There has been less (for reasons I’m pretty sympathetic to) experimentation with newer platforms and things like that. I’m not saying Joe Biden should do a bunch of TikTok, that’s not what I mean. Just getting out into different venues and meeting voters where they are. Particularly if you look at where there’s been a decline in his approval rating. It’s among four groups of voters — black voters, latino voters, younger voters of all stripes, and independents. And independents is a pretty broad term that fits lots of people. If you want to get your approval ratings going back up, which you would obviously want, the lowest hanging fruit are Democrats. What’s the communication strategy to directly reach out to Black voters, Latino voters and young voters who have become dissatisfied?
SG: It’s probably not going to be a CNN Town Hall.
DP: What are the specific outlets where you’re going to find those people? It could be media outlets, it could be something with influencers who have real power in those communities, it could be organic digital stuff that is really targeted. There are lots of different ways to do it. Once they get this legislative process behind them, I’d be curious to see how they approach that.
I always used to say in the White House, the only interview that is worth doing on its own, is 60 Minutes after a big football game. That’s it. Everything else, given how fragmented audiences are, is barely worth the president’s time. What you care about is not how many people are going to tune into the Today Show or your CNN town hall, which if you’re lucky, is going to be a million people. It’s how those clips going to be used? Are you going to make news that ends up on all the morning shows the next day? Even more important, is it going to be widely shared?
The most viral clip that Joe Biden did throughout the entire campaign was the conversation with the woman in the elevator. Ironically enough, going up to The New York Times editorial board. The second one was the conversation with the kid who had the stutter in New Hampshire. How are you finding those things and then propelling them? How are you thinking about other ways to do that? Those are hard moments to manufacture. Neither of those were ideas on a whiteboard in the campaign headquarters. They were things that happened that they then did a very good job of turning them into moments that lasted.
SG: I have to imagine there’s lots of smart people who are coming up with moments that are getting killed because they’re worried about some D.C. thing and or some other machination. Personally, I can’t even remember a Joe Biden tweet. I read them all the time, but I can’t tell you what one ever said. They’re literally intentionally boring. They’re made not to share, because they’re so vanilla. That’s his personality in some ways and that’s being authentic. I get it. But there’s got to be some creativity and some inspiration that comes from that. Whether it’s the White House or the Democratic infrastructure — that’s going to be the thing that’s going to change those audiences that you talked about.
DP: Biden is great in unscripted moments. And look, it comes with risk. Every once in a while as VP, he would say something that would cause a flare up that would distract from the message. But Joe Biden being Joe Biden is great. We learned this from President Obama who was a historically talented, natural communicator. Finding those unscripted moments within the confines of the White House, behind the big presidential podium or the East Room is really, really hard. And it’s really hard if you can’t leave the White house.
One of the reasons why Obama loved leaving the White House to travel was he would have conversations with people at the ice cream parlor or a factory floor in Ohio. Those things could be the moments that took off, because it was without the formality of the White House where everyone acts so serious and everyone has on a coat and a tie.
Hopefully the world gets easier and they can get out and interact with people. I remember talking to some folks who worked on the Biden campaign, that it was so hard during the campaign. He got his energy from the rope line, from just talking to people and meeting with them. He couldn’t do any of that because of the pandemic. You can do more of that now than you could in the worst days in 2020, but it’s still really, really hard. And it’s hard for any president.
SG: You’ve been in the Valley since 2015. Obviously you’re on Twitter, you worked at GoFundMe, you’re connected into our industry out here. There’ve been a lot of people doing communications who’ve come from the political world into the technology world. What’s been the impact of that?
DP: The technology sector has become much more enmeshed in politics. Whether it’s debates over content moderation or consolidation, or you’re a company like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb and are bumping into the regulatory structure at the state, local, and federal level. 10–15 years ago when people moved from politics to tech, you were bringing your political skills to a non-political environment. That could be somewhat useful at times, even though there’d be a lot to learn in that transition. But there was a tempo, there was aggressiveness, there was a rapid response, crisis comms muscle memory in politics that could be very useful in those settings. But it was really apolitical. A lot of tech was separate from politics. That has changed slowly over time, and then dramatically in the last few years.
Facebook has basically been in a crisis communications mode nonstop for five years. The impact is both good and bad. I have a lot of very smart friends who have gone into some of these companies and been very helpful in navigating them through crises that people without their set of experiences would not have handled as well. Some of the bigger companies are now chock-full of former political operatives from both parties.
Sometimes, because that’s the mentality in politics, they’re naturally hammers and treat everything like a nail. It’s overly aggressive, overly ridiculous. It’s harder for political people to have a longer time horizon for how to win battles. In politics you’re going to be unemployed in six months, two years, four years or six years, depending on where you work. If you’re an established company that’s going to be around for a long time, you have to play the long game about how you approach these things and how you try to solve them. You don’t have to try to win every battle as if it were life or death.
SG: The political folks bring a lot of skills, but there’s an element of this nihilistic, it’s just a game mentality — I’m on this team, I’m here to win. Then if I come to a company, it’s the same thing. I’m just here to win. Maybe it’s just this conversation, this debate or whatever around this one thing that we’re doing instead of actually trying to build this longer term relationship because this thing’s going to be around for 30+ years.
DP: When I was starting to look for my post White House employment, I certainly didn’t expect it’d be a combination of book writing, podcasting and newsletter writing. I thought I would eventually work at a company. I was talking to a friend of mine who I’d worked with in the White House who was doing the rounds with a bunch of tech companies. They were excited about this one company because it was cool and exciting, and in an interview they were asked, “Are you passionate about products?” My friend was like, “What the fuck are you talking about? I like products. I use them, but I have no passion for products — how they’re shaped or how users use them.”
That was this moment where I was like, oh, what motivates people to work on these things is very different from what motivated me in my previous life. The magic of the mechanics of how you make something easy to use, that’s an entirely different world. Whether it’s people coming from the private sector to politics and vice versa, or standard media to politics and politics to media — in any of those situations there can be some level of humility. You have something to offer, but there’s so much to learn. It’s a different world and you have to get used to being in that world. What has made the people that you are working for and working with successful is different than what made you successful in your other business. They have a different world view and you can learn from that.
And you can certainly learn it. You and I have many friends who have made that transition incredibly successfully in a wide array of places. But you can only make that successful if you are willing to listen. Sometimes people in politics, because of the nature of that business, are less willing to listen in those scenarios. In politics you think, what could be more exciting or important or impactful or pressure filled? And then you’re seated in a boardroom and people are like, “We have this crisis.” And they think, “Well, fuck your crisis. Were you there when we had this terror threat or the global economy was going to collapse because we were going to default?” There are times when people think your crisis is less than my crisis, but that doesn’t mean that they are the same types of crises. Having humility is incredibly important for that transition.
SG: Another big change that intersects the technology world and politics, is the fact that politics is everywhere now. We hit an era, in the last five years, where the political conversation became part of the daily employee conversation. Further enabled by things like Slack and other ways that employees can communicate. And employees gained a lot of power based on their beliefs of how companies should operate on these different political issues. What are your thoughts on this divide between too much internal political speech to zero political speech? What is the right balance and how should companies be handling this?
DP: The transition was so stark after Trump’s election. I started at GoFundMe in December of 2015. While I was there, there were a handful of people who were mildly interested in politics, some of the communications people had come from politics or had been in politics and were pretty interested. But the engineering team did not care. I’m sure many of them probably voted in the primary but it was not a conversation. I remember we scheduled our company retreat on the night of Obama’s last State of the Union. In D.C., no one would ever schedule something in the State of the Union, but no one at GoFundMe ever thought of it.
Flash forward to February in 2017. Our office back then was a giant open space. I walked past the section where all the engineers sat and they were huddled around the TV watching Betsy DeVos’ confirmation hearing. I was like, oh, things have very much changed. I promise, none of them could have named Arne Duncan or John King Jr . — Barack Obama’s education secretaries.
Look, this is a hard choice for companies to make. Particularly at the companies who were at the forefront competing for engineering talent, the employees have all the power. And that’s great — workers should recognize their own power in these situations. The fact that Google and Facebook were in a bidding war over how much dry cleaning to give. People realize, oh, that means I can go ask for more stuff, and stuff that’s much more consequential than free meals. They realize, “I have the power to influence this place that so desperately needs me.” This becomes increasingly problematic for companies where there’s a real divergence between their stated values and their actual values. Where it’s, “Join us. We’re going to change the world. Connecting people is great.” And then you realize, “Oh, we’re going to censor our stuff in China.”
If you sell your employees and your customers, or your consumers, on one set of values, but there’s a difference between that and your actual set of values, then you’re going to have a huge problem. That’s why so many people at some of these companies were so upset at some of the decisions made in recent years. They’ll ask, “Isn’t that what you promised me? I’m not going to Exxon. I’m not going to Goldman Sachs. I’m coming here to change the world.” You think this is one of those rare places where you can do good and do well at the same time, but now, oh wait, we’re not doing so much good and you care more about doing well than doing good.
So I think a couple of things. One, companies have to be much more realistic in the stories they tell about themselves to their employees. In some ways, Amazon, which has a whole host of problems and is at the forefront with a whole bunch of issues, but you hear less about internal dissent there. I remember doing an exercise with a company helping to come up with their mission statement. We looked at all the big and audacious goals for all this company — explain the world, connect the world. Amazon’s was something like, “Be the world’s largest retailer”. This is what we want to do. We are going to make a ton of money. That’s why we’re here, that’s why you’re here. There’s no mystery. And if you’re on board with that, cool. I’m not saying that everyone should develop nihilistic approaches to the world, but don’t lie to yourself and to your employees about who you are.
Second, people have to be more upfront about where things stand — there is somewhere between anyone can say anything they want on Slack, and we are going to take our global content moderation problem and apply it to our own employees. Being very transparent about what is okay, what is not, what are the forums in which we would encourage you to do these things? A lot of organizations have a Black employee association or a women’s leadership group. You set up forums where people can have conversations about topics that could be contentious in the workplace, but they’re not happening on a company-wide Slack.
Setting up some ground rules that acknowledge that people are going to talk about these things, they’re going to care about these things and they need a forum to listen — that doesn’t get in the way of why everyone is there and what their primary reason is for being there. It’s not easy. It’s always going to be a little bit messy, which is probably good. But a little more transparency about what the rules are, would be very helpful.
SG: Another similarity between D.C. and Silicon Valley is the constant back and forth between the press and the organizations (here it’s companies, there it’s politicians). They sound very similar all the time, but I don’t know if people in the technology world actually know how similar it is. What’s your take on how we should be treating the press? How should the press be contextualized in this moment now, given their relative significance, whether that’s shrinking or not (and certainly is). You stated up front that the role of media relations for comms people is maybe 10% of the job. But if you talk to the press, they think it’s 95%. There’s this clear disconnect, both from executives and from the press about what we actually do. What is your take, having seen both worlds, and where do you think this is headed?
DP: The tech world is rapidly going through a transition that happened in the political world a long time ago. If you look at the political era of the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, there was this very close relationship between reporters and politicians. Obviously you would get hard coverage, but there were certain secrets that were held and they were in it together. I’m not saying that ever happened in the tech world–
SG: It did a bit.
DP: Some of it certainly has come out about some leaders. There were secrets that everyone knew that no one said, or no one ever reported to a wider audience. But it was much more friendly and personality driven. We love the origin story in a dorm room, in a garage, credulous coverage of tech. That shifted very quickly, really in the last few years. Obviously what happened in the 2016 election played a big role. Theranos played a huge role.
As companies got bigger and more powerful and started to impact other people’s lives and the entire economy, whether it’s Uber and Lyft and Airbnb, all these huge companies had this huge impact. So the tech industries are being covered in a way that feels more like politics, which was probably more commensurate with their influence in the world and the size of the companies than it would have been before.
It’s been a very, very bumpy road. There’s been a lot of frustration on both sides. There’s a sense that coverage is now inherently and always negative. There’s a presumption of guilt in all situations. And that’s how it is in politics. The press decided around the Vietnam War and Watergate era (which has been good in a lot of ways), that our job, in part, maybe in whole, is to hold the powerful accountable. You lied to get us into a war, committed crimes in office and no one would know that, were it not for our dogged reporting. So we’re going to do that, we’re going to hold your feet to the fire in all scenarios. That is certainly the approach in the tech industry right now. You have to separate aggressive PR tactics and tough statements and responses with the actual bullying of reporters, that’s happened to reporters that we know. That is obviously terrible and bad under all scenarios.
In a weird way, the press, whether that is the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal or it’s tech specific publications or the growing number of well regarded tech writers who are independent, like Casey Newton — they are more influential to the success and failure of tech companies than the political press is to the success and failure of major political figures. Because micro audiences matter a ton to particularly companies who have not yet reached complete viability. Look at what happened to Theranos. The Wall Street Journal took down the hottest startup. If a series of stories convinces the small handful of people who control the venture capital dollars — that’s the end of companies. Doesn’t excuse doing anything dishonest or bullying or anything like that, but I understand where that tension comes from.
The political press has influence in politics, but it’s pretty limited and pretty fragmented. To truly take down a politician, you have to convince millions and millions of people. And millions and millions of people don’t follow these things anymore. But you only need to convince a couple thousand people, those people of importance, to have a dramatic impact on the fate of a company.
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Previous Mixing Board Studio Sessions are here.
Mixing Board’s community of comms and marketing experts are helping organizations with their 2022 planning. For more, see this post. | https://medium.com/@mixingboard/dan-pfeiffer-on-humility-and-meeting-people-and-voters-where-they-are-bdae27690e0e | ['Mixing Board'] | 2021-12-16 19:40:47.781000+00:00 | ['Communications', 'Leadership', 'Public Relations', 'Messaging', 'Politics'] |
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