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monocotyledons · 10 months ago

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Soobin's MBTI and what it actually means

So Soobin went live today and retook the MBTI test, and he's an ISFP-A! Since he took the test live we actually have a record of his MBTI trait percentages, his responses, and even his thoughts on some of his responses. I thought it would be fun to do a little breakdown of his results and what they really mean from a personality psychology perspective! (Full disclosure: I am a research psychologist-in-training so I'll be applying what I know from my irl experiences.)

DISCLAIMERS: I don't know Soobin personally so all of my analyses will be based on his answers to the test as well as how he presents himself in public, such as lives, interviews, variety show appearances, etc. Also I am not affiliated with 16Personalities so I can't say with 100% certainty which test items are linked to which traits, and I don't know how their scoring system works, but I can make informed guesses based on my experiences with other personality tests.

Let's begin!

Prologue: The 16Personalities Franken-MBTI

For this case it's important that we talk about the version of the MBTI that Soobin took and how it works. He took the 16Personalities test, which is not the official version of the MBTI; that would be run by the Myers-Briggs Company (whose website is down as of this writing). The model of personality used by 16Personalities, called the NERIS model, is actually Frankenstein-ed from two different personality models - something they admit themselves in the theory section of their website:

With our NERIS® model, we’ve combined the best of both worlds. We use the acronym format introduced by Myers-Briggs for its simplicity and convenience, with an extra letter to accommodate five rather than four scales. However, unlike Myers-Briggs or other theories based on the Jungian model, we have not incorporated Jungian concepts such as cognitive functions, or their prioritization. Jungian concepts are very difficult to measure and validate scientifically, so we’ve instead chosen to rework and rebalance the dimensions of personality called the Big Five personality traits, a model that dominates modern psychological and social research.

Let's break down the two models used here.

The first is, of course, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katharine Cook Briggs & Isabel Briggs Myers based on the work of Carl Jung. Classical MBTI is not based on personality traits but on cognitive functions, which are different ways of processing information around us: for example, the thinking function refers to the use of logical reasoning, while the feeling function refers to the use of value judgments. The goal of classical MBTI testing is to figure out which cognitive functions you use: which you default to, which helps your default, etc. This collection of cognitive functions is called a "stack," and your four-letter type tells you what the stack is made of.

The problem with cognitive functions is that they're virtually impossible to validate scientifically (even typologists can't agree on what a cognitive function is exactly), which is why they've fallen out of favor within mainstream research psychology. I don't know if the official MBTI test uses them (since their website is down I can't check), but plenty of unofficial MBTI tests don't, instead preferring the trait approach we're all familiar with. Are you introverted or extraverted? Are you a thinker or a feeler? etc.

This approach has its own issues (which I touch on a bit here), but it's the approach that 16Personalities also uses. Which brings me to the second model they use...

While the 16P test looks like MBTI, its content is actually based on the Five-Factor model, also known as the Big Five. The Big Five is actually a really good model with lots of scientific research to back it up, and (full disclosure!) it's my preferred model of personality. The premise behind the Big Five is that even though there are hundreds or even thousands of ways to describe human personality - just open a dictionary and look at how many words can be used to describe people - there are underlying patterns in our descriptions. For example, a person who is honest will most likely also be trustworthy. A person who is gregarious will most likely also be friendly. And so on.

By collecting real-world data from people in different cultures and using some special statistical techniques, researchers like Paul Costa & Robert McCrae were able to uncover these patterns as five personality traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. (More on those later.)

I want to emphasize here that none of these personality traits are inherently good or bad. They can be bad in extremes, but the vast majority of people don't fall on those extremes anyway, and being high or low in a certain trait has its advantages and disadvantages. Your score in a trait can be good for some things, but not for others.

In the 16P NERIS model, each letter in your type corresponds not to a classical MBTI function, but to a Big Five personality trait. To make up for the fact that the Big Five has (duh) five traits and MBTI only has four, a fifth letter in the type was added. The resulting test from this is what Soobin took today.

Soobin's results, a Big Five perspective

Here I'll be looking at Soobin's results for each of the 16P traits and discussing what they mean. I'll support this with his responses to the test items (credits to translatingTXT on twitter for saving all of them), as well as things he's done or said publicly in the past.

Introverted/Extraverted

In classical MBTI typology, introversion/extraversion actually refers to your orientation when processing information: an extraverted orientation uses the external world (such as real-world rules and norms) as a frame of reference, while an introverted orientation uses the internal world (such as your personal beliefs and interpretations). But in the modern sense - including in the Big Five - this trait refers to the kind of energy you seek in the environment. This includes sociability - the social environment that you seek - but it also includes how stimulating your environment is overall. Extraverts are generally energetic and like stimulating environments, and are also more prone to positive emotions like joy and excitement.

Soobin scored 74% Introverted, and he's an introvert through and through; he likes being by himself and doing his own thing, and he finds social situations exhausting. But I also think that he's a great example of personality traits being different from skills. Sure, Soobin's an introvert, but he's got really good social skills; his personality probably means that these skills don't come as naturally to him, but he's still capable of learning them. He probably learned a lot during his time as Music Bank MC, and he's not afraid to go up to people and talk to them for life advice. And even though leadership isn't something he prefers especially compared to an extravert (see his answer below), it's clear that the members respect him as a leader and seek him out for help.

Observant/Intuitive (Openness to Experience)

In classical MBTI, this aspect of personality is called Sensing vs. Intuition, and refers to your use of two different cognitive functions: sensing refers to reliance on the five senses for information, while intuition refers to reliance on inner meanings and hidden symbols. The NERIS model reworks this into Observant vs. Intuitive (neither of which start with S or N, I know) to better fit the Big Five trait that their version is based on: openness to experience.

The trait of openness reflects a person's attitude towards things that aren't necessarily grounded in day-to-day reality - the abstract, the unconventional, the creative. People high in openness enjoy abstract ideas and intellectual pursuits, are often creative and imaginative, and don't mind ambiguity. People low in openness prefer things that are conventional and concrete, want things to have straightforward utility and a clear message.

Soobin's score is 64% Observant ("observant" here meaning low openness) - generally he prefers conventional, but I think he's close enough to a 50% average to say that he isn't purely a practical guy. He is, after all, an idol - people high in openness are often drawn to artistic pursuits, which includes music and performance. He has mentioned being interested in artistic things, like wanting to play the electric guitar.

But while Soobin definitely has a level of artistic interest, he seems more content in enjoying what he knows rather than expanding, and he's pretty secure in what he likes and dislikes - and I think this is where his Observant score comes in. Like, this is a guy whose favorite song in his own discography was Our Summer for the longest time before it was dethroned by Skipping Stones. He's also mentioned that he only participates in songwriting when the topic interests him, but isn't necessarily invested in it as a craft:

"I participate in writing the lyrics if the theme interests me. The tracks in this album [Temptation] all have interesting themes, you'll see when you get the album and see the lyrics too. They all have topics that I personally think and imagine about my life, so I participated in the lyric writing this time." (The Name Chapter: Temptation Recording Behind the Scenes)

Thinking/Feeling (Agreeableness)

I struggle with interpreting this one because I'm not exactly sure what the NERIS version of this trait is trying to measure. In classical MBTI (as mentioned above), the thinking function is about processing the objective content of information (logic, truth value), while the feeling function is about processing its subjective content (e.g. how well it conforms to certain values). The version of T/F commonly seen in pop-psych is "head or heart" - do you make decisions based on just the facts or on your feelings? But psychological research shows that this is a false dichotomy - we rely on our emotions to help think through things, and they often provide us with useful information. Happiness tells us things are going well, fear and anxiety tell us something is threatening us, and so on.

Nevertheless, NERIS tries to incorporate elements of this together with the Big Five trait it's drawing from, agreeableness. While extraversion is about how well you fit into social situations, agreeableness is about how you treat people in them. People high in agreeableness try to live in social harmony by getting along with others and practicing virtues that make things easier for them. People low in agreeableness might come across as abrasive, but they're also less sensitive to hate from others and more willing to take actions that might be unpopular.

Soobin's score is a 54% Feeling ("feeling" here meaning high agreeableness), and here we see the limitations of trait-style MBTI. The dichotomous nature of a trait hides what's going on; Soobin uses Feeling on paper, but in reality he's in the middle. This should be more apparent when we look at his responses and how he acts around others.

His agreeable side seems to come out more often when it comes to his circle of loved ones: his friends and family, the members, and MOAs. He's not afraid to show kindness and gratitude towards them and is touched when they do the same for him. One of his motivations for being an idol is wanting to give love to fans and appreciate the love they give back, and he clearly treats the idol-fan relationship as a special one.

On the other hand, Soobin has no problem brushing off or even standing up to haters, and he's said that he has no intentions of trying to please people who dislike him. A person higher in agreeableness (or Feeling, in this case) would be a bit more concerned about trying to appease them.

This in-the-middle mix of agreeableness is, honestly, a pretty good thing to have in a leader or an idol. You need a healthy amount of it to express love for your members, your staff, and your fans. But you also need a thick skin to withstand unfounded criticism, as well as a tolerance for conflict even when it's socially unpleasant.

Judging/Prospecting (Conscientiousness)

In classical MBTI, this dimension is called Judging/Perceiving. It's not a pair of functions but instead a reference to help you figure out the functions in your stack: thinking and feeling are judging functions, sensing and intuition are perceiving functions. Like with S/N, NERIS renames this into Judging/Prospecting to better fit the Big Five trait it's drawing from, conscientiousness.

The trait of conscientiousness refers to one's ability to get things done and follow things through. People high in conscientiousness like to plan things in detail, are organized and goal-oriented, and generally finish what they start. People low in conscientiousness are more spontaneous and adaptable, dislike routine, and prefer to go with the flow.

Soobin's score is 86% Prospecting ("prospecting" here meaning low conscientiousness). I feel like this trait is harder to see for idols because they're always on company-mandated schedules of activities, but a really good example of this trait in action is his vacation in Japan vlog. Planning an itinerary doesn't come naturally to him, and he's okay with not following a strict sightseeing schedule so that he can relax more. For example, Soobin and his friend plan to go straight to an onsen on the second day of their trip, but they oversleep and have no problems changing their plans to just shopping and eating. They do get to the onsen eventually, but they're in no rush to. At one point in the video he even mentions his P trait as why planning is so hard for him (his score at the time was 96% P).

"This is my first time planning a trip abroad by myself. I boarded the plane myself, moved around, booked the hotel and planned everything myself. [...] Whenever I take an MBTI test I get like a 96% P, I didn't realize traveling was so hard." (15:47 - 16:39 of video)

This Weverse magazine quote also captures his spontaneous approach towards activities pretty well:

Assertive/Turbulent (Neuroticism)

This trait is exclusive to the NERIS model and was added to the four existing letters of MBTI to accommodate the additional trait of the Big Five. My biggest criticism of the NERIS model is that it treats A/T as an accessory to the other four traits instead of a trait of its own; ISFP-A and an ISFJ-A are treated as different types, but ISFP-A and ISFP-T are variations of the same type. It's not uncommon for people to leave out their A/T score when they talk about their 16Personalities results.

A/T is based on the Big Five trait of neuroticism, which is just as important as the other four - it predicts depression and anxiety disorders, for example. This trait reflects how we handle negative and stress-inducing events; people high in neuroticism feel stress easily, are prone to negative emotions like sadness and anxiety, and are more likely to self-criticize. People low in neuroticism might feel stress less, but might have a harder time registering risks and threats.

Soobin's score here is 65% assertive ("assertive" here meaning low neuroticism), again close to the average but with a leaning towards the low side. Again, this isn't an easy trait to observe in idols because a lot of the processes and actions associated with it are private and internal. But it does crop up from time to time, usually in per-performance nerves and jitters, but Soobin has mentioned that he's not the type who gets nervous easily. His answer here on how he handles stress also reflects this trait:

"I'm optimistic if you put it nicely, or some could say I'm shallow. So even if I get mad, I forget it quickly and easily. I believe that time will solve everything. So it's either the case gets resolved or my emotions die out, making me struggle less. I just think like that." (11:44 - 12:04 in video)

He's also not too critical of himself, which is pretty valuable in a profession where you're subjected to constant criticism as early are your trainee period. Not that Soobin is blind to his flaws; rather, he's not the type to get too worked up about them.

Final Thoughts

The major flaw of personality systems based on type (like classical MBTI and NERIS) is that the nuances of one's behavior are often lost in an easy-to-remember acronym that puts people into strict categories. The Big Five in its original form refers to the traits as continuums - you can be low, average, or high in a trait, often reflected as a percentile ranking based on how you compare to other test-takers - but even then, you don't see things like context or learned skills that may or may not match up with one's personality.

I've tried to untangle Soobin's personality here not just based on a catchy acronym type, but based on what those traits actually mean, how high or low they actually are, and on how they appear in context. I hope this little analysis will give a bit more insight not just on Soobin himself but also on how personality works!

—

tags for those interested: @goldennika @starburstfloat @mazeinthemoon @huenation

#soobin #txt soobin #tubatu #also sorry for any typos or incoherent bits i did not proofread this lol #feel free to ask questions and i can explain!

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princevontwix · 8 months ago

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(warning, LOONGG late night rambling post)

ok, so you know about Yume Nikki Online? that really good online multiplayer hub hosting both the original game and a collection of fangames? i feel like that idea could apply really well to OFF and its fangames too! and i got the perfect name for it, OFFline.

i imagine it can go with a similar premise of YNO but just allow people to talk and gather around in OFF-related games. but i see a lot of potential for OFFline to include some kind of PvP-dedicated fangame, which I'll call Engage. which, with how many ideas i have for it, might be best to not make in EasyRPG.

the basic idea i have in mind is that there's a central hub where people can just chat and hang out which has three divisions:

Versus

Team Battle

Arcade, subdivided into Campaign and Endless.

what all of these modes have in common is a shopkeeper. it'll probably be better to make them an original character, but basically, for Versus and Team Battle, at the beginning of a match, you're given a set amount of credits to purchase from a list of items, weapons, and armor. for consistency's sake, i think its best that certain items are locked for certain characters only (say, no one else can use weapons and armor for Home characters), but healing and damage items are fair play for all.

whoever hosts a room will be able to dictate which select fangame they'd wish to fight in (as in, which cast of characters both users must use), OR decide that anything goes and both users are free to make the party of their dreams (its also here that they'd be free to select which battle theme plays).

Versus mode is between two players, who have full control of their own parties. while Team Battle is a 4v4, where each player will have control over their selected party member.

as for Arcade, its basically just singleplayer fun; the intent is that with the large amount of enemies and bosses from the multitude of fangames present, it will bring something different each time via randomizer. Campaign i would describe as being similar to Smash 3DS's Classic Mode, where you're given 3 branching paths with varying difficulties. the more difficult ones you beat, the more credits you earn, where you can make a pitstop before each boss to stack up (with zodiac orbs being pricier). referring to the sketch above, yellow cubes are enemy encounters, red cubes are bosses, and purple is for the end-game boss (the final boss from the og game/fangame, if applicable). i figured that every 3rd or 4th encounter being a boss will help prevent the gameplay from being monotonous beatdowns of regular enemies. you'll get choices for enemies and bosses, but there's only one endgame boss and that's random each time.

and lastly, Endless mode is just that. this time, you're given a larger supply of credits to use and once you enter the first round, there's no going back. each round will supply a minute amount of health or energy items to use, but will progressively get more difficult. my hope here is that it isn't just more enemies each round, but for it to sometimes bring fewer but beefier enemies, and maybe even a miniboss. you progress through each round by clicking on the individual cube labeled with the appropriate number. i figured like this it'd be more reasonable to fit within RPG2k3's limits but at this point it would be bloated so oh well. and of course, once you die, it ends. a public leaderboard will be on display to show the top 10 players and their scores.

now to get the obvious out of the way, online functionality with this many features would be difficult, if not impossible, to implement. as such, i would not be opposed to taking an approach similar to the UT fangame Don't Forget, where OFFline will be developed on an engine like Gamemaker and attempt to re-create RPG2k3's vibe and the individual games being hosted, along with Engage. the problem with the latter is that i think its more realistic to just let EasyRPG do all the work in porting the fangames like YNO, rather than recreate each one in a more modern engine. but at the same time, that would be the only feasible way of having any of these planned features to work without any fuckups. of course, i suppose a workaround to having multiplayer work in RPG2k3 would be to have a Parsec session or something similar, but that'd only be a solution for Versus mode at best. it would definitely not work for Team mode and might conflict with general offline.

in fact, the idea of OFFline might take some mad wizardry to even make it work, and i wouldn't be surprised if it barely works. making it in EasyRPG and using 2k3 as the basis vs. making it in a modern engine is the double-edged sword of this whole hypothetical. i'd love for something like this to happen, but i imagine it would be too much work to not only develop, but to keep the servers online for an otherwise niche fanbase. still, i cant shake away how much potential and fun this could be.

with that said, rambling is now over!

#off #off the game #off game #off mortis ghost #game idea #ramblings #thx for coming to my tedtalk :]

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hockey-fics · 2 years ago

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Not Overstepping~ Brock Boeser

Summary: Being friends with Brock shouldn’t be difficult, but when you have feelings for somebody being just friends with them can be a bit of a challenge.

Word Count: ~2.7k

Warnings: Smut, drinking.

Author’s Note: In retrospect this whole fic feels a little rushed, the six month break in writing did not do me well. My New Year’s Resolution should be to not rush relationship development.

“Thank you for coming,” you say to Abigail while pulling her into a quick hug on her way out your front door. It was just past midnight, your guests had decided that it was time to call it a night after your dinner party. You had already said goodbye to almost everyone, just a few stragglers left by the front door.

Turning around you see Brock hovering by the island in the kitchen, the last guest left. “I’ll help you clean up,” Brock offers.

Slowly closing the door you lean against it, hazy wine drunk eyes focusing on him for a few minutes. Brock had been your friend for awhile, but you couldn’t deny that you had feeling for him. He made your stomach fill with butterflies. He was on you mind more than you cared to admit. But he was unbelievably handsome and rich and so far out of what you believed your league could ever attain. And tonight he looked especially attractive, under the warm yellow lights in your kitchen, eyes focused only on you.

“You really don’t have to,” you tell him, walking closer to him and picking up your wine glass, bringing it to your lips and finishing what was left in it.

Brock picks up the bottle of wine you had been pouring from, popping the cork that was jammed back into it and pouring more into your empty glass. “I want to.”

You watch his large hands on bottle of wine, trying to keep your mind from venturing to thoughts too R rated. “Thanks,” you whisper, taking the wine from him and bringing it to your lips. “I think you need another drink too.”

Brock’s eyes glance to the clock on the stove. “Probably shouldn’t if I’m driving home.”

Nodding you let out a quiet sigh, walking away from Brock towards the sink. “Unless,” you chime, glancing back at him. “You could spend the night…I do have a guest room.”

Brock is quiet for a moment before walking to the fridge and pulling out a bottle of beer. “Sounds like a great offer.”

You keep your eyes focused on the sink that was filling with hot water, trying to hide the smile that was forming on your face. You didn’t want him to know how excited you were that he was going to be spending the night. Once the sink was full you begin to work through the stack of dishes beside it, Brock stepping beside you to rinse the dishes you had washed and stack them on the drying rack.

“You’re still coming to the game on Thursday?” Brock asks, rinsing a serving platter.

Glancing up at him you nod before verbally answering, “yeah…of course,” you reply.

“I just know you know you don’t really like hockey or…sports, in general,” Brock quips.

Giggling you playfully roll your eyes. “I never once said that.”

“Not directly,” Brock laughs, watching as you dry your hands after the last of the dishes were done. “But you’re not hard to read.”

“Oh, really?” You enquire, taking another drink of your wine, realizing just how tipsy you really were. “Does that mean you know all my secrets, then?”

“Each and every one of them,” Brock says, stepping closer to you as he does so.

You inhale sharply, your lips parted slightly as you stare up at him in bewilderment. Was he insinuating what you thought he was insinuating? Was it all a joke you were reading too far into? “Maybe that’s not a bad thing,” you whisper, your eyes glancing down to his lips before you had the chance to think it through.

“I don’t want to overstep but-,” Brock begins before you step closer, your fingers reaching over and gently grasping at his hand. He quickly folds his hand over yours, fingers locking with his.

“You’re not overstepping,” you whisper, bringing his hand to your waist and leaving it there as you slide your hand up his arm.

Brock leans downs, his lips pressing to yours slowly, gently. The kiss sends tingles through your body, the sensation so much better than anything you could have ever imagined. It’s soft and sweet, his lips were warm against yours and you could taste the beer lingering on his tongue as he runs it along yours. His fingers are laced in your hair, holding the back of your head as you grasp at his biceps. A few moments later you both pull back, enough for both of you to catch your breath but not so far away that you can’t feel his warm breath on your lips with every exhale. You’re not sure how long you two stand there like that, lips brushing against each other, both of you knowing something needed to be said or done but neither knowing exactly what that should be.

“You don’t have to stay in the guest room,” you finally whisper, running your fingers further up Brock’s arm till it’s resting on the back of his neck.

Brock’s lips curl into a smile as he leans down, grabbing the backs of your thighs and lifting you up. You let out a gasp, grasping onto his shoulders for support. “What if I want to?” Brock jokes.

“Then be my guest,” you say as Brock slides you onto the counter, your legs spreading apart as he steps between them. “I guess I’ll just sleep all alone then,” you whisper.

Brock slides his hands along your thighs as you lean down, your lips pressing against his. “Not used to sleeping alone?” Brock whispers against your lips.

You can feel both of you smiling as you kiss, stifling a giggle at his comment. “A little too used to it,” you whisper.

Brock pulls back slightly with a quiet chuckle. “Let’s change that then.” Sliding you off the counter Brock grasps your hand, nodding for you to lead him to your bedroom. Despite being friends with Brock for years you could wholeheartedly say he had never once crossed the boundary into your bedroom before and suddenly it felt like once he did everything was bound to change. But you didn’t care anymore, things had already changed. So you guide him down the hallway to your door.

Inside your room you turn to face Brock as you grasp both his hands now, walking backwards till your legs hit the edge of your bed.

“So this is what your bedroom is like,” Brock comments, glancing around before placing his hands on your waist, leaning down with you as you sit down on your bed.

“Do you like it?” You ask, laying down as Brock places one knee next to you on the bed, hovering over you.

“It’s very…you,” Brock whispers, leaning down and pressing his lips to yours gently.

Wrapping your arms around the back of his neck you run your fingers through the hair on the nape of his nape. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I like everything about you…of course I like your room,” Brock whispers before pressing his lips to your neck, his hands running along your thigh as you wrap your leg around his body.

You let your fingers run along Brock’s jawline, eyes studying him like it was the last time you would ever see him, needing to memorize every little detail.

“You’re so beautiful,” Brock mumbles as your thumb brushes against his cheekbone.

You try to hide the way his comment makes your cheeks flush with warmth but the way he’s looking at you so intensely you know it’s not possible. “Come here,” you whisper, your hand sliding to the back of his neck as you pull him closer.

This time the kiss you two share is different, it’s eager and intense and full of longing for more. It’s not long till his hands are pushing the bottom of your sweater up and you’re sitting up to let him take it off you, the cool air in the room bringing goosebumps to your skin. Brock presses delicate kisses along the surface of your skin from your neck to your chest as his fingers unhook the clasp on your bra, sliding it down your arms.

“Oh fuck,” Brock groans, his eyes on your chest. His hands move down to your jeans, working on the button while your fingers slip up underneath the soft fabric of his t-shirt. You lift your hips as Brock slides your jeans off your body. Sitting up you wrap your fingers around the hem of his shirt, sliding onto your knees so you can slip the t-shirt off his body. His skin is warm as you run your fingers down his bare chest and torso, letting out a soft exhale.

“Are you sure about this?” Brock asks, wrapping his arm around your back as he lays you back down onto the bed.

“Yeah,” you breathe out, nodding as you stare up at him, watching him move further down your body. His lips press against your thighs first, soft and careful as he works his way around the only place you really wanted him. He continues teasing you till you’re squirming under his touch. “Please,” you whimper, fingers curling into his hair. You hear Brock groan, tiny vibrations against your skin as he does. “I really need you to stop teasing me,” you whine.

Brock glances up at you before sliding your underwear down your thighs and leaving them in a pile with the rest of your clothes. Before you know if you’re moaning loudly as Brock’s tongue is working against you. His hands wrapped around your thighs, holding you still as your body writhes with pleasure. “Holy fuck,” you moan, letting him work you through your orgasm. Before long you’re pulling away, your body jolting with sensitivity. “Okay, okay,” you breath out, pushing Brock away with a giggle.

Brock leaves a trail of kisses back up your body till his lips are on you and you’re kissing him deeply, hands grasping at his shoulder, desperately trying to bring him closer to you. “I need you inside of me,” you whisper against Brock’s lips.

“Fuck,” Brock groans, standing up and quickly taking off his jeans and boxers. As he does so you sit up, bringing yourself back onto your knees, fingers sliding down his torso till your hand was wrapped around his length, lips on his as he moans into your mouth. He brings his hands to your waist, gently pushing your back to the bed as he grabs the backs of your thighs, lifting them around his body while he slips between your legs. You can’t hold back the loud gasp that comes from your lips when he slides inside of you. “Okay?” Brock asks, his hips relatively still.

Nodding you lean closer, pressing your lips to his. “You feel so fucking good inside me,” you mumble, letting out a quiet moan as Brock begins to thrust in and out of you. It’s not long till he’s sped up, his hands on the back of your thighs, buried deep inside of you while eliciting a thread of loud moans from you. “Come here,” Brock mutters a few minutes later, fingers on your jaw as he kisses you sloppily, a mess of tongues and lips. “Fuck, I’m close. Where do you-?”

You wrap your arms around Brock, fingers in his hair, lips locked with his as he moans loudly into your mouth. “I’m on birth control, I want you to finish inside me.”

It’s barely a minute later before you can feel him finishing, his body slowing down, breathing heavy as he presses his forehead to yours. “Holy shit,” Brock whispers, kissing you gently. “You’re so hot.”

Giggling you kiss him back deeply. “That was…incredible,” you whisper. “But could you, um,” you begin, pulling away slowly. “Grab a towel from the bathroom?”

Brock chuckles, pressing his lips to your forehead before walking to the bathroom and returning a moment later with a damp facecloth. Pressing it against you he cleans up the mess while leaving a couple kisses on your lips. “Thank you,” you whisper, watching as he finishes cleaning you up. Standing up a couple minutes later you tug on a large t-shirt before pulling on a pair of underwear. “I’m going to grab some water,” you tell Brock, heading back into the kitchen, taking a moment to really process what had just happened. If you thought after the kiss in the kitchen things wouldn’t go back to normal they definitely weren’t going to now. While you didn’t regret what had happened in the slightest there was a gnawing anxiety deep inside of you that it was going to change everything and you weren’t entirely sure it was for the better.

The next morning you wake up nestled next to Brock, his arm wrapped around you. You can’t help but watch him for a couple moments, his chest rising and falling steadily, hair no longer perfectly tousled, a sense of ease evident on his face. Finally you slip out of his grasp, heading to the bathroom to begin getting ready for work. You shower, do your hair and makeup and get dressed while Brock sleeps peacefully in your bed. It felt so strangely natural and you were desperate to keep those thoughts out of your head. You didn’t want it to feel so natural, so comfortable. You two weren’t together, for all intents and purposes he was nothing more than a hookup and you didn’t want to get any ideas in your head.

In the kitchen you brew some coffee, staring at the coffee dripping into the pot in a slow, steady stream. Your mind was racing with thoughts but they all felt so far away, like you didn’t quite have access to them, just perfectly our of your grasp.

“Good morning.”

Brock’s voice makes you flinch, breaking you out of your trance. Spinning around you look over at him, standing in the doorway in nothing but his boxers. “Good morning,” you say quietly, uncertainly. “Coffee?”

“I’d love some,” Brock replies, walking towards you, almost hesitantly. “What, uh, what time do you have to leave for work? Do you want me to get going?”

“No, no, I don’t have to leave for like an hour,” you assure him, leaning up and grabbing a couple mugs from the cupboard.

Brock walks over, placing his hand on your waist, turning you to face him. “Is everything okay?”

Nodding you set the mugs down on the counter. “Yeah, yeah…I just, I, um,” you stammer before shaking your head. “Yeah, no, everything is fine.”

“Hey,” Brock says softly, fingers under your chin, tipping your head back to look at him. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s stupid,” you breathe out, shaking your head as your eyes dart around, looking anywhere but into his eyes.

“I’m sure it’s not.”

Taking a deep breath you nod, building yourself up to just say it. “I have feelings for you, Brock. Like, real feelings. Not just casual fuck buddy feelings and I just don’t know what to do now, I feel like I messed this up. I don’t know how to go back to being just friends after that and I also don’t know how I can handle being in this…like, liminal space with you.”

Brock nods slowly, a teasing smile forming on his lips. “Liminal space? Okay, Encyclopedia Brown, it’s a little too early for that.”

Shaking your head you push Brock’s arm playfully. “I’m not joking, Brock.”

“Come here.” Brock grabs both your hands, pulling you closer. Leaning down he presses his lips to yours gently. “Let’s be more than all of that then.”

“What are you saying?” You whisper, eyes fluttering open to look up at him through your eyelashes.

“I’m saying I have feelings for you too.”

“But…but what does that mean?”

“Are you free tonight?”

Nodding you run your fingers along Brock’s bare chest. “Yes.”

“I’ll pick you up at seven tonight for a date then,” Brock tells you, pressing his lips to your forehead.

Wrapping your arms around him you let Brock pull your body flush against his, feeling so comfortable in his embrace. “I’m looking forward to it.”

#nhl one shot #nhl fic #nhl fanfic #nhl fanfiction #nhl imagines #brock boeser imagine #brock boeser fanfic #Brock Boeser one shot #brock boeser fic

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honted · 3 months ago

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I hope it’s okay I send an ask asking more detail about what’s happening with your eyes and what kind of treatment your getting. I really hope things work out as your treatment goes on 🫂 I’m a visually impaired person and I also suffer from extreme light sensitivity; my eyes get worse every year, considerably so.

If you don’t mind bending my ear, I’d love to hear more about what you’re going through. Struggling with vision is extremely frightening.

(And if not that’s totally okay!!! I understand not wanting to talk to a stranger too deeply about something so personal!!!)

of course 💕 a mixture of genetics and chemotherapy have caused me to develop a limbal stem cell deficiency in my corneas. that means they're scarring faster than they're healing and those scars are stacking on top of each other, causing my corneas to be rough and irregular.

your corneas get little micro scratches just by virtue of having eyes in a world full of particulates. and having hands.

putting the rest under a read more because it turns out i had a lot to say ↓

your problem may be something similar. my suggestion would be to see a opthalmologist, stop wearing soft contacts if you can, and go hard on artificial tears. preservative free if you're using them more than 3 times a day.

i do not think you'll need to do everything i talk about below if yours is taking years. mine deteriorated like they did within a few months. i had 3 different glasses prescriptions from november to june and then my eyes stopped being able to focus with glasses at all. this isn't to say your experience isn't just completely awful to have to go through, moreso that you have hope 🤲

for the past month or so i've been using 2 different kinds of preservative free eye drops (Systane Ultra PF and Refresh Celluvisc gel, which require me to buy boxes of single use vials for both) 4 times a day each (8 times a day total), but in these last 2 weeks i've been on gel eye drops 3-4 times a day + antibiotic drops 4 times a day + antibiotic ointment at night.

my next steps are to move on to an eye drop brand called miebo, which can be bought OTC in Europe but only just got FDA-approved here in the US and requires a prescription. and is like $760 without insurance. after that, they want me to look into scleral hard contacts which will both improve my vision and create a pocket of fluid over my corneas. these require getting fitted and the soonest they could get me in was late january they also cost like $1000~ per lense and i have 2 eyes but whatevor 🙈

#cancer tag #ive proofread this like 10 times and im still not sure its comprehensible

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clickbliss · 1 year ago

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Astlibra Revison is an RPG of a tremendous scale

by Amr (@siegarettes)

Astlibra Revision

Developers - KEIZO

Publisher - Whisper Games

PC, Switch

As Astlibra opens, your character finds himself stranded in a cabin at the edge of a lake, with nothing but an endless forest in front of him. After years at the cabin, he finally resolves to escape, trekking for eight years without contact through the forest, with no idea of when he may finally reach the edge.

Developed over the course of 15 years, by solo developer Keizo, you can feel the creator’s preoccupation with time and scale throughout Astlibra. The story’s themes are obsessed with time, with how our actions reverberate through it, and what we would do if given the opportunity to go back and change them. The scale of the game itself is tremendous, with system after system stacked upon each other in a way that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Tri-Ace title. Every system has been reexamined, throwing off the general assumptions of the genre.

Simple interactions such as buying an item from a shop have been complicated, requiring you to have the appropriate materials on hand to purchase them, keeping you on the lookout for new drops from enemies, or experimenting with the crafting system to see if you can work out the recipe. Grinding these materials will naturally push you into the multiple growth systems, with both a traditional skill point system, but also a sprawling map of character bonuses that can be purchased with gems dropped from enemies. This cartographic journey will unlock more abilities, and ability slots, getting you excited to head right back into combat and keep the loop going.

Combat has the vibes of a later Ys title, if the series had continued following a sidescrolling format. The basic moveset isn't too complicated, with a ground combo, a launcher and spike, and a shield. Early on you'll also get an invincible back dash and magic spells, which enable some strong hit and run tactics. There's a varied arsenal to collect, and while they generally don't have significant moveset changes, considerations like range, attack speed and the unique skills you gain from mastering them keep weapons in rotation even as you progress.

Positioning plays a huge part in combat, and the small cooldowns when your shield breaks, or your backdash ends can end with fatal damage if you're caught in the wrong group of enemies. Magic becomes essential here, providing crowd control and the ability to reposition yourself, with invincibility during the duration of the move. Mana builds through combat, empties outside of it, so you're also incentivized to use spells as soon as you're able, since you'll never be able to stockpile it for future battles.

Despite the myriad ways to prevent damage, you'll rarely come out of a battle unscathed, so spending and refreshing resources becomes essential to surviving even basic encounters. Astlibra is unafraid to push you to take advantage of every system, to the point where the very first boss appears nearly unbeatable until you learn every system. It's an ambitious and gutsy choice, one of many that go against conventional wisdom in modern RPG design. Astlibra is full of these, and it’s a true feat that it manages to remain coherent throughout.

A similar sentiment could be said about Astlibra’s aesthetics. Collaged almost entirely from a number of royalty free images and sound sources, Astlibra has a distinct look to it that calls to mind early Playstation games, where digitized imagery began to become popular. Stitching these images into a single world is a feat of its own, and it manages to stay coherent enough that it never draws attention to itself. Part of this is thanks to a group of professional artists, including Vanillaware veteran Shigatake, who provided the character portraits and sprites, and Haku Tatsufuchi, who created the art for the dragon bosses. The music is equally well selected, with a variety of musical styles, but all feeling as appropriate as if they were composed for the game. The most surprising were the tracks for the many emotional moments of Astlibra, which did a fantastic job selling the drama, something hard to do even in games with bespoke soundtracks.

It’s those big character moments that form the core of Astlibra for me. Even as I enjoyed playing with the various systems of the game, all of it remained motivated by my desire to unravel the next mystery, and my impatience for the next plot beat. Astlibra is full of heart, and it was impossible for me not to be charmed by it.

When you spend so many years working on a single thing, it’s hard not to lose faith in what you’re making, and harder to keep a coherent vision as you and the world around you continue to change. Despite the odds, Astlibra manages to hit on every aspect it tries for. It’s a triumph that kept me astounded at what a single person could accomplish.

#astlibra revision #astlibra #jrpg #ys #keizo #switch #pc

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archivyrep · 2 years ago

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Archivists are not librarians: Understanding the differences [Part 3]

Continued from part 2

On the left, a trading card of Nu from the Star Wars Trading Game. On the right, Nu calls herself an archivist in the comic Star Wars: Darth Vader no. 9.

There are many important duties of an archivist, including preserving and providing access to original materials, involvement with records life cycle phases, records selection (i.e. archival appraisal), and arranging (then describing) collections of records. Archivists also work to protect records from theft and physical damage and work to ensure that digital records will be available when needed in the future. Of these duties, librarians also select their materials, try to protect them from physical damage and theft, and describe the materials. [4] However, the records that librarians work with on a day to day basis is nothing like those which archivists work with, and there are different systems of organization and arrangement. This is why it is always a problem when a librarian has control of an archives and claims they have the "right" way of organizing the records, inevitable messing it up for all those to follow, resulting in an archivist having to fix it later.

Reprinted from my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks WordPress blog. Originally published on Dec. 9, 2021.

These are not, of course, the only duties of an archivist. In fact, there are efforts by archivists to identify essential evidence of society, ensuring its availability for use, plan and direct publications, exhibitions, and outreach programs, make records accessible for use and assist patrons in locating information. Archivists are also concerned with records which have been deemed important enough to be kept for an extended period of time and sometimes are in charge of the archive itself. Managing records, along with transparency, ensuring the survival of provenance, keeping original order, and creating a coherent collection through well-informed and pro-active selection and collecting, are a vital part of being an archivist too. [5]

Librarians, on the other hand, can represent the library, providing patrons help with audiovisual and technology matters, engaging in reference services, assists other staff, develops grants, and selects (and maintains) audiovisual collections. Such librarians may also have strong computer, communication, and organizational skills, and enjoys learning. [6]

While some of these skills, like maintaining collections, organization, assisting staff, and various skills, would be helpful in an archival environment, there are other important skills which can't be gained by working in a library, where you are shelving and organizing books, DVDs, and CDs, for instance.

Continued in part 4

Notes

[4] For these two sentences, see "What's an Archivist?" on the NARA website, "What are archives?" page from the SAA, and "What Are Archives and How Do They Differ from Libraries?" page from the SAA.

[5] See "What are archives?" page from the SAA, "What are archives" from the University of Nottingham, and "What are Archives?" page from the National Museum of American History, Bob Clark saying that "our job as archivists is to be transparent & to make information accessible to the public. NARA is dedicated to the proposition of govt transparency through record-keeping & historical inquiry. There should be no archival issue that is too arcane for the public to understand," and the ICA page entitled "Who is an archivist?"

[6] This is pulling from some of the job description for the "Head of Technology and Patron Services (Full-time Librarian)" position on the ALA website.

#jocasta nu #star wars #star wars the clone wars #swtcw #comics #comic books #librarians #archivists #archival science #archival studies #archives #libraries #pop culture #reviews #definitions

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mernfulstack · 18 days ago

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Mern Stack Full Course | Mern Stack Training

How to Build a Full-Stack Web Application Using the MERN Stack Full Course?

Mern Stack Training Building a full-stack web application has become increasingly accessible, thanks to powerful technologies like the MERN stack. If you're interested in MERN Stack Online Training, you've chosen a versatile and efficient stack for developing dynamic, single-page applications. The MERN stack—comprising MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js—offers a robust, full-stack solution that supports both the frontend and backend of your application. In this article, we'll explore the essential steps to build a complete web application with the MERN stack and discuss why the MERN Stack Full Course can be an invaluable resource for mastering each component.

Understanding the MERN Stack Structure

The MERN stack is widely used by developers for its seamless Java Script integration across both the client and server sides, which enhances the speed and simplicity of development. A MERN Stack Full Course typically begins by explaining the individual components of the stack. MongoDB serves as the database layer, storing data in a flexible, JSON-like format. Express.js acts as the backend framework that simplifies routing and server logic. React is a powerful JavaScript library for building user interfaces, enabling fast, responsive frontends. Finally, Node.js provides the runtime environment, allowing JavaScript to execute on the server side. Together, these technologies create a unified stack that’s perfect for full-stack development.

To start, setting up your development environment is critical. You'll need Node.js installed on your computer to manage dependencies and run your application. Afterward, you can initialize a new Node.js project with `npm init`, setting up package management and configuration files. Each aspect of the MERN Stack Training process plays an important role in the application’s overall architecture. For example, while React components render data on the frontend, MongoDB handles the data storage. Meanwhile, Express and Node.js facilitate API calls between the client and database, creating a seamless flow of information. Mern Stack Online Course

Building the Backend with MongoDB, Express, and Node.js

Once the environment is set up, the backend is the first logical step in building a full-stack MERN application. Begin by structuring your Express application, defining routes that correspond to different functions your app will support, such as creating, reading, updating, and deleting data (CRUD operations). This functionality is often covered in-depth in a MERN Stack Full Course, providing hands-on exercises that demonstrate best practices. For instance, routes for a to-do app might include endpoints like `/todos` to retrieve a list of tasks, or `/todos/:id` to retrieve a specific task by its ID.

Next, connect your application to MongoDB, which stores your app’s data. MongoDB is known for its scalability and flexibility, making it an ideal choice for applications that handle large or complex data. Using Mongoose, a popular MongoDB library for Node.js, you can define schemas that outline the structure of your data, making it easier to maintain and query. The MERN Stack Training often includes detailed tutorials on setting up MongoDB collections, connecting to the database, and managing data. With express handling the server logic and MongoDB as your database, your backend can now respond to API requests with JSON data, making it ready to connect with the frontend. Mern Stack Training In Hyderabad

Developing the Frontend with React

The next step is building the frontend with React, where the visual aspects of your application come to life. React’s component-based architecture allows you to break down your UI into reusable pieces, making it easier to manage and scale. To start, set up your frontend directory and install the necessary React dependencies using `create-react-app`. React hooks, such as `useState` and `use Effect`, are essential tools covered in MERN Stack Online Training programs, as they help manage state and handle side effects like fetching data from the backend.

In a Mern Stack Online Training, you'll likely find step-by-step guidance on creating a responsive UI that communicates with the backend through API calls. For example, if you’re building a to-do list app, you can create components such as `TodoList`, `TodoItem`, and `TodoForm`. These components can interact with each other and make HTTP requests to the backend to add, update, or delete tasks. The data flow between React and the backend, facilitated by asynchronous calls, is crucial for delivering a seamless user experience. This aspect of MERN Stack Training will help you understand how React's state management and component lifecycle work in harmony to deliver a responsive, real-time interface.

Conclusion

Building a full-stack web application with the MERN stack is an engaging, hands-on process that offers practical insights into the world of modern web development. A MERN Stack Full Course provides structured learning on how MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js come together to form a powerful development stack, with each part contributing to a unified solution. Through MERN Stack Training, developers not only learn the technical skills required but also gain the confidence to design, build, and deploy applications in real-world scenarios. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer, diving into a MERN Stack Full Course can deepen your understanding and open doors to exciting opportunities in web development. Embrace the learning journey, and soon you'll be equipped to build dynamic, scalable applications with the MERN stack!

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xploreitcorp · 1 month ago

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How Do Java Certifications Impact Your Career Prospects?

Today, in a competitive job market, a good understanding of Java is quite good to enhance your career prospects. Java is one of the most popular programming languages currently in use around the globe. It is designed with flexibility and robustness. In this context, if you want to enhance your skills or be a winner in front of the potential employers, then enrolling into a Java training in Coimbatore would prove to be an excellent move. There is an enormous call for professionals who can work with Java. Proper training will teach you how to master the language and provide the requisite skills. Java training in Coimbatore not only prepares you for different job roles but also makes it possible for you to pursue invaluable Java certifications that will create some incredible career paths for you.

Understanding the Importance of Java Certifications

Certifications in Java are more than paper proof; they demonstrate your mastery and want to acquire excellence in the language. Available from recognized organizations like Oracle, certifications range from the most basic level for beginners to advanced ones for professional developers. Qualifying in a Java certification mainly requires deep study and, most of all, practical implementation to ensure that the person understands the basics of Java. It means that you have a solid base in Java and are committed to continuing learning whenever a certification is mentioned on your resume from potential employers.

Boost to Employability through Java Training in Coimbatore

The primary motivation to undertake a Java training course in Coimbatore is to gain an improvement in your employability. Conversely, you would be filled with adequate knowledge and skills needed to succeed in Java development, and your proficiency is testified through your certification. From many employers' preferences, certified professionals are generally preferred to the non-certified individuals, since it gives a sense of their professional training and assessment. Therefore, the chances of being selected for jobs such as Java Developer, Software Engineer, and Full Stack Developer increase.

In fact, Coimbatore's Java training is getting its trainees ready to receive some of the most prestigious certificates issued directly by Oracle - OCA and OCP. In the recent boom of the technology sector in Coimbatore, there has already been a great interest in recruiting competent professionals in this field. Certification is a surety of your skills; it can easily place you above the rest.

Why Select the Best Software Training Institute in Coimbatore with Placement?

A reputed training center is essential to attain the appropriate skills and industry know-how. The Best Software Training Institute in Coimbatore with Placement can help a student secure the right job immediately after his or her course completion. Such institutions, rather than serving theoretical education, give a lot of importance to hands-on practice through practical projects and assignments. This is an extremely practical experience during the processes of getting certified in Java, as it helps you have knowledge applicable to real applications.

Likewise, premier training institutes offer tie-ups with the industry's top companies to help students through placement assistance. This may be a huge savior for freshers who could have procured jobs through the tie-up with the training institute. With a reputation-based institute, you are availing of expert trainers, an industry-oriented curriculum, and professionals for helping you with career growth in every respect.

How Java Certifications Can Act as a Catalyst to Career Growth

Java certifications have as many effects on the career ladder in as many ways as follows:

Jobs with Higher Salaries: Certified candidates are paid higher than the non-certified ones. Java certification proves that one is skilled advanced in the field, enabling them to take better pay packages as employers are willing to invest in certified candidates who will contribute to the organization's success with their expertise.

Better Job Opportunities: A certification in Java opens doors to a more numerous number of job opportunities. Organizations which rely immensely on Java-based applications prefer developers with certifications over hired candidates for positions within their network for critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Certification puts one in a queue to take up such roles like Java Developer, Senior Software Engineer, Java Consultant, and much more.

Professional Reputation: A Java certification brings an advancement in professional reputation. You demonstrate dedication and commitment to continuous improvement and mastering the language, making you better positioned for job roles or opportunities within your company. The perception of certification as evidence of professionalism sets up a good name with people you work with as a knowledgeable, reliable developer and might more easily find yourself better positioned for additional responsibilities and career advancement.

Due to the dynamics of Java, you'll be constantly updated on the latest technologies, as they are constantly being developed with new features and updates being added. Java certifications enable you to remain updated with the latest trends, frameworks, and tools within the Java ecosystem. This would make you very relevant to any company in the face of a rapidly changing industry.

Popular Java Certifications and Their Benefits

There are Java certifications of several types and different levels that can help one align with one's level of skills. Some of the most popular ones are mentioned below:

Oracle Certified Associate (OCA) Java Programmer: This is perfect for those coming into this for the first time. It teaches ground concepts in Java programming such as Java syntax, data types, loops, and object-oriented programming. The OCA Java Programmer is often the first step to becoming an expert Java developer.

Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) Java Programmer: The OCP is designed for experienced developers who want to get deeper knowledge in Java programming, covering multicore, concurrency, JDBC, and much more. By earning an OCP certification, you show that you really understand Java inside out, able to tackle complex development work.

Oracle Certified Master (OCM) Java Developer: This is one of the most premium Java certifications that can be attempted by senior developers and architects. It involves a pretty aggressive examination process for your ability to design and develop complex Java applications. The OCM certification generally brings a great deal of respect from the industry, and having this certification has led to several individuals taking up leadership positions and their salaries at a much higher level.

Java SE 11 Developer Certification: The latest certifications linked with Java were Java SE 11 Developer Certifications. This deals with features of Java SE 11, which is beneficial for developers to keep them within the latest Java version.

How to prepare for Java Certifications

Java certifications can be prepared systematically along with proper dedication. Here are the preparation tips to obtain success in exams.

Proper training program: Participate in a comprehensive Java course at Coimbatore that covers all topics required to sit for the certification exam. A good coaching institute will give you a study material, practice tests and proper guides by experienced trainers.

Practice Coding frequently: Practice coding frequently is also one of the requirements often asked while offering Java certifications. By practicing coding regularly, you can succeed in practical coding tests presented during Java certification tests. To improve your skills, solve coding challenges, work on small projects, and participate in online coding contests.

Use Official Study Guides : Oracle and other certification bodies also provide official study guides and practice exams. These are specifically made to help you prepare for the exam format and types of questions that could be thrown at you. Make sure you get these resources integrated into your preparation.

The preparation of certification can be accompanied and aided significantly by participation in online forums and study groups. One can get in touch with fellow learners, share tips on study material, and clarify doubts. How about Stack Overflow and Reddit? I'm sure each and every one of those communities will help you discover the right persons to ask if you're facing a problem when writing Java code.

Real-Life Cases of Success for Certified Java Experts

Many certified professionals have shared how their career progression changed after they acquired a Java certification. Fresh graduates who followed the route of certifications generally found it easier to get jobs in reputed firms. Similarly, the professionals who acquired advanced certifications, in most instances, were able to get Senior Developer or Technical Lead positions within a short period of time.

These success stories give readers an idea of some realistic Java certification benefits and involvement in career development. They become inspirational tools for people who intend to be Java developers by investing in their certification programs and continuously upgrading their skills.

Role of Java Certifications in Career Transition

Another significant role Java certifications can also play is for transitioners who are making a move from non-technical to technical positions. For instance, for an IT support guy who wants to become a Java developer, they may be able to use the certification as proof of their technical skills in order to make the transition easier and more credible to employers.

By obtaining certification, individuals can demonstrate the fact of having the required skills for employment in a technical role notwithstanding no degree in computer science. This openness adds appeal to Java certifications for career change-seekers.

Detailed Explanation of How Java Certification Impacts Each Level of Career

Java certifications impact professionals, either novice or professionally experienced, at different levels of their careers. Be you a beginner stepping into the world of programming or on a quest to rise up the corporate ladder, the said certifications can be very helpful to you. Let's now dive into the details of how Java certifications will be able to benefit beginner, mid-level, and senior-level experts.

Advantages for Beginners

For students fresh from school or those who newly joined the software development field, a Java certification is simply fantastic to start with. Here's how:

Building a Good Foundation: The training by Java certifications is systematic and deals thoroughly with the basis. For freshmen, it becomes a guarantee for them to strengthen their understanding of Java syntax, object-oriented programming, data structures, and algorithms. With this good foundation, they can then confidently apply for junior developer roles.

Competitive Advantage in the Job Market: Flashes of newness tend to be challenging as it is difficult to stand out with employers when there are so many choices. Java certification offers fresh hire evidence of an interest in learning and a pro-active attitude toward skills acquisition of any relevance to industry. That can do it for many hiring managers when it comes to entry-level developers.

Training and Placement: In order to provide students with Java certification, most the training institutes combine internships along with the curriculum. Internships would provide hands-on experience for working on actual projects, hence making it easier to move from a student to a professional. In addition, an employer stamps the certified person as job ready, which makes them more likely to land their first job.

Benefits to Mid-Level Professionals

For mid-level developers, who, as a general approximation, have experience of around a few years in Java, the certifications will take them to the next level. Here's how it helps:

Specializing in Advanced Java Concepts. As a career advances, professionals may need to specialize in areas of specialization: web development, microservices, or enterprise applications. Advanced Java certifications like Oracle Certified Professional, which tends to focus more on these topics, make it easier for developers to pivot into a new role or new projects.

Faster Career Advancement: A mid-career professional seeks promotions to positions like Senior Developer, Team Lead, or even architect. The process would be less time consuming due to Java certifications in proving expertise in areas like multithreading, Java EE, or microservices architecture-in short, in-depth technical knowledge for any position of leadership.

More Job Security: The nature of the high-tech industry means that it never stands still. People within this sector cannot take job security as a given. Java certifications demonstrate that they are an asset for organizations. At every slight change in the emergence of new technology, certified professionals are better prepared to adjust thus making them relevant to work and less susceptible to layoff at the slightest sign of economic downturn.

Advantages to Senior-Level Experts

For those at the top of their game, certification can be a much more useful tool. Senior developers, architects, and consultants stand to gain in the following ways:

Becoming a SME. Only senior-level professionals with high Java certification, such as Oracle Certified Master, can become subject matter experts in their respective organizations. This ability enables them to take on consultancy roles, mentor junior developers, and lead big projects.

Greater Pay Scale and Consulting: With such advanced knowledge, a senior professional can command greater pay scales than at lower levels. Furthermore, she can look out for consulting opportunities wherein clients pay a premium for the expert advice they get about Java-based solutions. It is an outcome of expertise quite relevant in the freelance and consultancy markets.

Maintaining a person updated about the latest trends in emerging technologies: For veterans as well, updating knowledge from time to time is required. Now, with an increasing number of clouds and cloud-based business applications, there is a profile now emerging in seeking professionals who are knowledgeable regarding Java integration with the platform on either AWS or Google Cloud. The certifications regarding such integration help the elderly keep up with the demands of their profession and become leaders rather than being a development expert.

Industry Demand for Java Certifications:

A Closer Look The demand for Java certifications is well connected to the industry's need for skilled Java developers. Java is still a strong leader in the tech world as it continues to power enterprise applications, Android development, web services, and many more. Here's how the concepts link to industry needs in some of the sectors, such as:

Java in Enterprise Development

Large companies mostly have legacy systems and other backend services developed in Java since it is reliable, scalable, and secure. Companies belonging to various sectors like banking, insurance, and healthcare continue using Java for their backend services. In most of these organizations, certification in Java is the preferred qualification because:

Compliance and Security. The best practices of certified professionals include writing secure code, especially in industries which keep vital data. Java certification ensures that a developer knows how to implement security measures, handles transactions, and maintains data integrity.

Scalability and Performance: Enterprise level applications require a huge number of transactions. Java is always the preference for building scalable solutions. A certified Java developer is thus required to optimize the code and improve the performance of the enterprise application, making him valuable to major organizations.

Java for Mobile Development

Java provides the foundation under which Android development has powered billions of devices on this earth. This has led to constant demand for Java developers in the mobile development space. Following are some of the ways with which Java certifications may be able to benefit mobile app developers:

Master core java concepts: Core concepts of Java can be mastered pretty well by every Android developer. Now, for mastering those concepts, certification is one thing that really helps out the developers to write bug-free and efficient mobile application code.

Building Multifaceted Applications. Java certified developers, through object-oriented programming, data structures, and algorithms, are fully equipped to build flexible and robust Android applications. This makes them a little more competitive than others in the job market and more likely to be in demand by other app development companies.

Java and Cloud Computing and Microservices

Cloud computing has given new opportunities to Java developers along with microservices architecture. Thus, the certifications in Java are directed toward these areas so that it enables the developer to work with applications native to a cloud and scalable microservices. It is precisely where certifications fit into this trend:

Cloud Integration Skills: The concepts of Oracle Certified Professional Java SE 11 Developer make the holder better suitable for deployment of Java applications on cloud-based services, such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.

Microservices Architecture: Java's Spring Boot framework is greatly used while developing the application as a microservice, because of its light nature and modularity. Training on frameworks such as Spring Boot in Java certifications will help a developer in the designing and implementing microservices-based architectures, which is very crucial for modern applications at scale.

Financial Benefits of Java Certifications

Much of the time and money spent would go into Java certifications, and that could eventually lead to a pretty handsome amount of financial gains in terms of better offers for jobs, promotions, or even hikes in salaries. The following are some insights into how certified Java professionals tend to do better financially:

Certified Freshers can Draw Better Beginning Salaries: Newly hired Java certified employee has more respectable starting salary as compared to his non-certified counterpart. From the viewpoint of the employer, the certificate is really a sign that the candidate is job ready and there to get things started from day one as well. It saves some of the extratraining and productivity cost at the same time.

Salary Incentive Tool for Mid-Level and Senior Software Developers: Java certifications are a negotiating chip in a salary increase by experienced developers. The certification puts professionals in an excellent position to appeal for a salary increase supported by a host of arguments that include complex project management, training the next generation of developers, and "best practices.".

More global job opportunities and remote work: Due to remote jobs on the increase, Java-certified professionals are not confined to the job markets of localities in which they live anymore. Instead, they can apply for remote jobs in another city or country where there is a greater demand for certified Java developers. Thus, they have the opportunity to receive remuneration in foreign currency, which may be much higher than the prevailing remunerations in the country.

Why Java Certifications Are an Long-Term Investment

Unlike other technologies that continually become outdated, Java is timeless; it has been for over two decades. With this, Java certifications would be an investment in your career for a long time. Here's why:

Java Longevity as a Language Java is widely used in web, mobile application development, enterprise systems, and even new areas like IoT (Internet of Things). Therefore, investing in certification implies investment in the long term of a linguistic platform.

Adaptability to New Frameworks: Certification in Java does not simply focus on the language itself, rather it allows a person to work with several frameworks and libraries built on Java. This helps him adapt to new technologies and frameworks once they are in place, and thus, keeps his skills current.

Continuous Learning Opportunities: The Java certifications have an upward staircase wherein you constantly have something more challenging to target at all times. Completion of the OCA will bring you to OCP, then to OCM, and so on. This structured learning path encourages continuous improvement, making you more adaptable to changes in the tech landscape.

Conclusion

The Justification for Java Certifications Any person would do right to choose invitation "Investment in Java Certifications". Not only it gives an edge in a competitive job market, but it also validates your skills and keeps you abreast with the developments happening in Java. Be it a fresher or an experienced professional, certifications eventually open new doors and lead to more earning. It is at xplore it corp that one would find the right training program to set a difference in being on the path of success. Xplore It Corp brings industry-related training, expert mentoring, and placement assistance to ensure one is fully armed to reach their career goals. And so if you are really looking to give a boost to your career with an excellent certification, now's just the right time to begin your journey in Java.

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ariyath · 1 month ago

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How to Build a Successful Career in Software Development: A Practical Guide for Aspiring Developers

If you’re considering a career in software development, you’re stepping into one of the most dynamic and rewarding industries out there. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to climb the ranks, having the right strategy is key to building a successful career in software development.

I’ve put together some key insights to help you navigate the world of coding, certifications, and best practices.

1. Master the Basics

The first step is simple: get really good at the basics of programming. Languages like Python (great for beginners and widely used), JavaScript (essential for web development), and Java (used in big business and Android apps) are foundational. Master these, and you’ll be off to a great start.

You don’t need to learn everything at once. Pick one or two languages, build some small projects, and get comfortable writing code.

2. Learn the Right Tools

In software development, knowing your way around the right tools is just as important as coding itself. Tools like Git (for version control) and Docker (for setting up consistent environments) will make your life easier and your work smoother. They’re essential whether you’re working alone or as part of a team.

Also, get used to working in IDEs like Visual Studio Code or IntelliJ—they’ll help you write and debug code much faster.

3. Practice Problem-Solving

At the end of the day, software development is all about solving problems. You can become a better problem solver by regularly practicing coding challenges on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank. Try to break down problems into smaller parts, and tackle them step by step.

Get involved in open-source projects—you’ll learn from others, contribute to something bigger, and apply your skills in a practical way.

4. Certifications Matter

Certifications can help you stand out. While a degree in computer science is a plus, earning specific certifications in areas like AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Android Development will give you an edge.

Focus on certifications that match the path you want to take. If cloud development excites you, go for AWS or Azure. If mobile development is your thing, the Google Android Developer certification is a good bet.

5. Decide on Front-End, Back-End, or Both (Full-Stack)

You’ll need to decide whether you want to specialize in front-end (what users see) or back-end (the server-side) development—or even do both, which is called full-stack development.

Front-end developers: You’ll focus on creating the user interface with languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript frameworks like React or Vue.js.

Back-end developers: You’ll handle the server, databases, and business logic using languages like Node.js, Python, or Java.

Full-stack developers: You’ll be involved in both areas, which makes you very versatile.

6. Follow Best Practices

Great developers don’t just write code—they write clean, efficient, and maintainable code. Learn best practices like using version control (always use Git!), writing unit tests, and participating in code reviews. Also, make sure your code is well-documented so others (and future-you) can understand it easily.

7. Learn Agile and DevOps

More and more companies are working in Agile teams and using DevOps practices. This means faster development cycles and continuous integration. Learning how these methodologies work will give you an advantage, especially if you plan to work in teams.

Consider certifications like Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) or AWS Certified DevOps Engineer to deepen your knowledge in these areas.

8. Build a Strong Portfolio

Your portfolio is your personal marketing tool. Make sure to include personal projects, contributions to open-source, and any freelance work you’ve done. A good portfolio should demonstrate a range of skills—so show off your versatility.

You don’t need a huge number of projects. A few solid, well-documented projects that solve real-world problems will go a long way in impressing potential employers.

9. Stay Updated

Technology moves fast. To stay competitive, make sure you’re always learning. Follow tech blogs, subscribe to newsletters, and participate in webinars. Joining online communities (like Reddit or Stack Overflow) is also a great way to stay in the loop.

10. Network and Connect

The more people you know in the industry, the more opportunities will come your way. Attend coding meetups, hackathons, and online events. Join platforms like LinkedIn and GitHub to build connections and showcase your work. Networking opens doors to internships, job offers, and even mentorship.

Final Thoughts

Building a successful career in software development takes time, but with persistence and the right mindset, you can achieve your goals. Focus on building a strong foundation, staying updated with industry trends, and practicing problem-solving skills.

At Ariyath Academy, we offer specialized courses designed to equip you with the skills you need to succeed. Whether you're just starting or looking to take your career to the next level, we’ve got you covered!

Let’s code your future together!

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saas22inc · 2 months ago

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The Road to Reliable AI with Hamming CEO, Sumanyu Sharma

TL;DR: Sumanyu Sharma is the Founder & CEO of AI startup, Hamming. He’s been obsessed with AI forever—from academic research to production systems at Tesla—and he has an uncommonly well-rounded view of what it takes to make AI actually work. In this wide-ranging interview, Sumanyu shares how Hamming is tackling the key challenges of AI reliability through prompt tuning, evaluation, and observability. He also dives into the thorny questions around governing AI's risks and societal impacts. Read Sumanyu's interview for a nuanced take on what responsible AI development looks like and why reliability is the key to unlocking the technology's full potential.

Sumanyu, thanks for making the time to do this. Let's kick things off with how you first got hooked on AI - was there a lightbulb moment that set you on this path or was it a gradual build up?

I've always been fascinated by systems that learn and improve with more data or repetition, whether it's human or AI systems. As a kid, I used spaced repetition techniques to retain information better and optimize my own learning. This early interest in self-optimization set the stage for my passion for AI. During my undergrad at the University of Waterloo, I got my first taste of real-world AI—back then it was called machine learning.

“My "aha" moment came when I took Andrew Ng's class on Coursera and built a hand digit classifier that actually worked. It was incredible to see that machines can learn and improve with more data, just like humans.”

The realization that I could build systems capable of learning and adapting on their own was a game-changer for me. Since then, I've been hooked on systems that get better with more data. I took courses to learn the fundamentals of AI, pursued internships to gain practical experience, and worked with research groups at my university to dive into academic research.

I was fortunate to drive massive business outcomes using AI at Tesla and later at Citizen, sometimes with simple models, sometimes with complex ones.

When ChatGPT launched, I became obsessed with how LLMs work and what they can do, quickly becoming a daily active user and a power user. The pace of improvement in the AI space since then has been breathtaking.

At places like Tesla, Citizen, or even back in college - what were some of the key experiences that made you recognize the need for more reliable AI systems?

“Lack of reliability has always been the #1 issue limiting the widespread use of machine learning across various fields. Generative AI is just a new flavour of an old problem.”

During my time at the University of Waterloo, I aimed to help radiologists diagnose patients more accurately and quickly by leveraging past records of similar X-rays. This idea seemed obviously useful, but achieving reliable results was challenging. We developed a feature extraction technique by stacking auto-encoders into binary vectors to semantically search for similar medical images. While we got results good enough to post an arXiv paper, they weren't reliable enough for clinical settings, where a misdiagnosis could harm real patients. This experience highlighted the gap between academic success and real-world reliability, underscoring the need for more robust AI systems.

At Tesla, I encountered a similar issue but on a larger scale. Humans are terrible drivers—94% of motor vehicle accidents are caused by driver error. Building Level 5 autonomy could save thousands of lives each year. It took Waymo eight years to develop a system reliable enough for production. Tesla's approach is different but still not reliable enough for use without human supervision. Working on these projects made it clear how crucial reliability is for AI applications that impact human lives. The stakes are incredibly high, and any system that isn't 100% reliable can't be trusted to operate autonomously in critical situations.

I believe current multi-modal models face similar reliability challenges as early autonomous systems. While foundational models continue to improve, there remains a significant gap between their raw capabilities and the ability to translate these capabilities into reliable AI products and services.

“Businesses need AI systems that can consistently deliver accurate results in real-world conditions, not just in controlled environments or simulations.”

Moreover, this reliability gap isn't just a technical issue but also a matter of trust. Users need to trust that AI systems will perform as expected without causing unintended harm. This trust is built through rigorous testing, transparent operations, and continuous improvement. As AI systems become more integrated into our daily lives, ensuring their reliability will be paramount.

Your background spans publishing AI research, product leadership, leading data science teams, and driving strategic initiatives. How did wearing all those hats shape your approach and priorities at Hamming?

Well, I've been fortunate to have a diverse background.

Having done research in medical image search and deep learning, I have some intuition for fruitful research-oriented work streams. For example, we recently benchmarked major LLMs—GPT-4, Opus, Gemini 1.5 Pro, and Llama 3 70B—on codegen tasks by partnering with the University of Waterloo. This study was pretty popular on Reddit and within the YC community, and we plan to do more work like this.

My background in growth and data also provides a sixth sense of the growth rates we need to hit, what's realistic for fundraising and internal planning, as well as how to properly impact size and prioritize new features as Hamming scales.

And having been an engineer, I have a decent grasp of the engineering talent required at each stage, making collaboration with our technical team that much smoother without heavily relying on external judgement.

“I would be a significantly worse CEO without the critical skills I learned along the way before co-founding Hamming.”

Because I have a deep understanding of the entire product, engineering, research, and go-to-market landscape, I can make decisions quickly and decisively.

Can you walk us through the early days of founding Hamming? What were the biggest challenges in going from an innovative idea to an actual product and business?

The core idea for Hamming started from an evals script I wrote to solve a customer's pain point when building their RAG pipeline. The goal was to make changes to any part of the retrieval pipeline and get quantitative feedback on metrics like accuracy, hallucinations, and latency in minutes—unlike the typical vibe-checking outputs on a handful of examples in a prompt playground.

I found myself spending more time fixing the script, which was supposed to accelerate my feedback loop, than doing the actual work. This felt unusually hard, and I realized others must be experiencing the same problem.

So, I teamed up with Marius, my co-founder and CTO, to build a platform to solve this problem more comprehensively. This was definitely a "scratch your own itch" founding story.

Going from zero to one is brutal. Everything is manual, and there are no A/B tests because you don't have enough users. You have to do things that don't scale to get a handful of paying customers and do everything possible to make them love your product.

“My conviction in the problem space grows with every user I speak to. Most teams tell me that reliability is the #1 concern stopping them from shipping AI products to their customers.”

We've shipped prompt tuning, evaluation, and observability, but there's a lot more to do. We're releasing a new product every month, each tackling a different aspect of reliability.

It seems your platform components—prompt tuning, evaluation, and observability—form a cohesive solution. Can you give us an overview of how they work together to increase AI reliability for enterprises?

That's right. Prompt tuning, evaluation, and observability work together to drive reliability in a piecewise fashion.

Most teams start by writing basic prompts to quickly prototype a solution to their problem. It's easy to get 60% of the results with 20% of the effort.

“Improving prompts from 60% to 95% is extremely painful. Our prompt tuner samples the prompt solution space, tries hundreds of new prompts, and quickly returns the optimal prompt with its quantitative performance on a dataset.”

This prompt tuning heavily relies on evaluation to find the best prompts. As you move beyond prompts, you'll find it's challenging to improve the retrieval performance of RAG-based systems. RAG systems can fail during retrieval (failing to fetch the correct documents) or reasoning (failing to reason with the correct documents passed to the LLM).

We've built RAG-specific model-based evaluators that help teams differentiate between these error types. This allows teams to focus on improving their retrieval pipeline if retrieval is the bottleneck or their prompts if hallucinations are the primary issue.

Similarly, tool use is often unreliable when building AI agents. Common failure modes include improper arguments returned, wrong functions called, or hallucinated functions/parameters. We've built a function definition optimizer that tests different function call definitions to get the best results.

The combination of prompt tuning, RAG evaluations, and function definition optimization saves teams hundreds of hours per week during development. As you launch your AI products into production, you need to deeply understand how users are interacting with them beyond just token usage, latency, and other basic metrics.

Our observability tools provide this insight, helping you ensure ongoing reliability and user satisfaction.

One of your key value propositions is "reliable AI in weeks" vs months. What core innovations allow for such a rapid development cycle?

“The biggest bottleneck in building reliable AI systems comes from having humans in the loop. Without LLMs to speed up iteration velocity, making changes to your prompt, retrieval pipeline, or function definition, requires a human to check if the change improved accuracy or increased hallucinations. But humans are slow, expensive, and unreliable.”

It's impossible for a human to check every single edge case by hand. As a result, you can run a maximum of 2-3 experiments per week with this human-in-the-loop approach. This is why most AI products take months or even years to become reliable enough for teams to feel comfortable shipping. Even after shipping something to production, teams are nervous about making changes that could cause regressions for end customers.

LLMs, however, are great at reasoning and can measure accuracy, tone, hallucinations, and other quality metrics 20 times cheaper and 10 times faster than humans. LLMs will only continue to get smarter, making iteration feedback cycles even faster.

“By using LLMs as judges and leveraging them to generate optimized prompts and function definitions, teams can run 10 experiments per day.”

We spend a lot of time fine-tuning LLM evaluators to model human preferences because an LLM's definition of good may not be the same as a human's. We work closely with each customer to build their own custom evaluators to ensure the highest accuracy and relevance.

This ability to rapidly iterate and improve using LLMs is what allows us to deliver reliable AI in weeks rather than months. By automating the evaluation process and optimizing every step of the development cycle, we significantly cut down the time required to achieve robust, reliable AI systems.

I'm interested in hearing more about Hamming's prompt tuning capabilities. How does auto-generating optimized prompts improve performance vs manual approaches?

Writing high-quality and performant prompts by hand requires enormous trial and error. Here's the usual workflow:

Write an initial prompt.

Measure how well it performs on a few examples in a prompt playground.

Tweak the prompt by hand to handle cases where it's failing.

Repeat steps 2 & 3 until you get tired of wordsmithing.

What's worse, new model versions often break previously working prompts. Or, say you want to switch from OpenAI GPT3.5 Turbo to Llama 3. You need to re-optimize your prompts by hand.

Our take: use LLMs to write optimized prompts for other LLMs.

Describe the task you want to accomplish.

Add examples of input/output pairs that best describe the task.

Start optimizing.

Behind the scenes, we use LLMs to generate different prompt variants. We use an LLM judge to measure how well a particular prompt solves the task by measuring performance on the input/output pairs you described. We capture outlier examples and use them to improve the few-shot examples in the prompt. We run several "trials" to refine the prompts iteratively.

This is very similar to how metaheuristic optimization algorithms like genetic algorithms and simulated annealing find global optimal solutions by intelligently sampling the search space. The benefits are obvious.

“No more tedious wordsmith-ing. No more scoring outputs by hand. No need to remember to tip your LLM or ask it to think carefully step-by-step. Using LLMs to auto-generate optimized prompts drastically improves performance compared to manual approaches, saving you time and effort while ensuring consistent, high-quality results.”

Shifting gears to a more tactical question - as a founder, I'm sure you've leveraged many SaaS tools to power Hamming's growth and operations. Across customer experience, employee engagement, sales intelligence, productivity, and security - what have been some of your favorite tools that you consider indispensable in your stack? Any hidden gems more founders should know about?

We love supporting other YC companies, and we use a variety of SaaS tools to power Hamming's growth and operations. Here are some of our favorites across different areas:

Customer Support: We use Atlas (YC) for customer support. It's been a game-changer for managing customer interactions.

Sales Intelligence: For sales, we use a combination of Apollo (YC), LinkedIn, and Dripify. This mix helps us talk to people who care about what we're building.

Productivity: I'm a huge fan of Superhuman for emails—it makes managing my inbox a breeze. Superwhisper is great for speech-to-text, Warp (an AI-first terminal) saves me time from having to remember bash commands, and Cursor (an AI-first VSCode fork) makes our eng team at least 3x faster. For task management, I rely on Sunsama for personal tasks and Linear for managing engineering tasks.

Code Management: We use Greptile (YC) for semantically searching across our entire codebase and automating PR reviews, and Ellipsis (YC) for additional PR review support.

Documentation: Mintlify (YC) is our go-to for documentation. It makes creating and maintaining high-quality docs easy and efficient.

These tools are indispensable in our stack, and I highly recommend them to other founders. They help us stay productive, organized, and focused on what matters most - talking to customers and making something people want.

Talent capable of building robust AI products is liquid gold—expensive and in high-demand. How has Hamming been able to attract and retain a high caliber team despite this challenge?

You're totally right. At Hamming, we've been fortunate to attract and retain a talented team so far by emphasizing our mission and creating a culture of complete freedom and ownership.

Our team is passionate about making AI reliable for all enterprises. There's no silver bullet to reliability—we need to solve many problems along the way to achieve this goal. Our internal success criteria is for every enterprise to use Hamming to build AI products. The team won't stop until we get there.

Many organizations are extremely top-down, with CEOs pushing half-baked ideas down the product and engineering teams' throats. At Hamming, we believe the best ideas come from within the organization and from insights gained by talking to customers. This is especially true in our space, where the market is changing rapidly.

“Anyone in our org can propose an idea, show why it's a good idea, how many customers it can impact, and then execute on it without needing top-down buy-in from me or anyone else.”

This inclusive and empowering culture drives our success and keeps our team motivated and engaged.

And with great freedom comes total ownership. When someone executes an idea and it doesn't work, they take complete ownership of the outcome, and propose a plan to either wind it down or present new adjacent ideas based on what they learned.

The combination of having a compelling mission and a culture that treats people like adults that keeps our team grinding every single day, seven days a week.

Unreliable AI systems can lead to serious issues like the Air Canada chatbot incident. What processes or guardrails does Hamming have to prevent such brand risks or violations of business policies?

Absolutely. That was a huge wake-up call for enterprises using the "move fast and break things" mentality to ship unreliable AI products. Another instance was New York City's "MyCity" AI chatbot, which ended up hallucinating and accidentally telling users to break the law.

For example, when asked if an employer can take a portion of their employees' tips, the bot responded affirmatively, despite the law stating that bosses are not allowed to take employee tips.

Preventing brand risks and violations of business policies requires a comprehensive, multi-pronged approach. Here's how we tackle it at Hamming:

Prompt Reliability: Every prompt in your system needs to be reliable, version-controlled, and audited for robustness against prompt injection attacks. Our prompt tuning product helps businesses create prompts that are more reliable and less susceptible to such attacks.

Evaluation for RAG & AI Agents: Our evaluation solution helps teams measure and minimize hallucinations during development. Every time a team makes a change to the prompt or retrieval pipeline, they can rely on Hamming to detect regressions and identify areas for improvement.

Proactive Red-Teaming: We conduct proactive red-teaming on existing AI systems to test their resilience against known prompt injection attacks or malicious inputs. This adds an extra layer of safety before teams deploy their products to production.

Guardrails: We're currently building AI guardrails that act as an internal firewall, preventing unwanted, harmful, or inaccurate statements from ever reaching your end users.

“By making prompts resilient, using evaluations to measure and minimize hallucinations, proactively red-teaming to ensure robustness against prompt injection attacks, and using guardrails as a final firewall, enterprises can safely deploy their AI products to production and keep them secure.”

You've described 2023 as the "year of demos" and 2024 as the "year of reliability". Looking ahead, what do you see as the next frontier or major challenge facing widespread enterprise AI adoption in 2025 and beyond?

I think reliability will continue to be a challenge in 2025 and beyond. The shape of 'reliability' will evolve—what's hard today may be easier tomorrow, but new attack vectors will emerge. For example, most LLMs are trained on publicly available data, often scraped from websites. A rogue actor, possibly a government, could create poisoned datasets to corrupt the pre-training process and subtly bias model outputs. I recently learned about a front-running poisoning technique targeting web-scale datasets that periodically snapshot crowdsourced content—such as Wikipedia—where an attacker only needs a time-limited window to inject malicious examples. We'll need new solutions to check the integrity of the datasets used to train LLMs.

Governance will also be a significant challenge. As AI models become more powerful and ubiquitous, enterprises will face increased scrutiny to ensure their AI systems are used safely, ethically, and without bias.

“Regulatory frameworks will likely become more stringent, requiring companies to demonstrate compliance with new standards. And this regulatory burden‌ could introduce significant friction, making it harder to innovate rapidly.”

Organizations will need robust governance frameworks to manage compliance while still fostering innovation. Ensuring AI operates ethically and without bias will be paramount. As AI systems influence more aspects of society, the demand for transparency and accountability will grow.

Enterprises will need to implement comprehensive bias detection and mitigation strategies, ensuring their AI models do not perpetuate existing inequalities or introduce new biases. Developing explainable AI (XAI) will be crucial to provide insights into how models make decisions, thereby building trust with users and regulators.

Security and privacy concerns will also be more pronounced. Protecting sensitive data from breaches and ensuring individual privacy will be critical. AI systems must be robust against adversarial attacks, where malicious actors attempt to deceive or manipulate AI behavior. Strong security measures and maintaining data privacy will be essential to safeguard both the technology and its users.

Finally, the environmental impact of large-scale AI deployments, particularly the energy consumption of training and running complex models, will become a significant concern. Enterprises will need to adopt more sustainable practices, such as optimizing algorithms for efficiency and leveraging green computing resources. Balancing the benefits of AI with its environmental footprint will be a key consideration for future AI strategies.

As Hamming deploys AI systems at scale there's power - but also responsibility. What's your take on governing the ethical risks and societal impacts of such powerful technologies?

Deploying AI systems at scale comes with significant responsibility. AI has the potential to revolutionize industries and improve lives, but it may also displace millions of jobs. As research teams advance foundational models, everyone is learning and adapting to this new reality. While I don't have deep expertise in risk mitigation, I can offer a few ideas.

Firstly, transparency is crucial. Our AI systems must be explainable, providing clear insights into how decisions are made. This builds trust with users and regulators, ensuring our technology isn't a black box but a tool that can be understood and scrutinized. I admire the work Anthropic has done in making their models more explainable and easier to trust.

Secondly, we need robust frameworks to detect and mitigate bias. AI systems should not perpetuate existing inequalities or introduce new biases. Continuous monitoring helps detect and address biases as they emerge. Beyond technical solutions, fostering a diverse team with contrarian opinions is essential in managing these risks.

Thirdly, privacy and security are non-negotiable. Protecting sensitive data from breaches and ensuring individual privacy will become even more important.

Fourth, on the regulation side, we need to create robust frameworks that balance the need for innovation with the imperatives of safety and ethics.

In essence, governing the ethical risks and societal impacts of AI requires a multi-faceted approach. At Hamming, we are committed to building not just powerful AI systems, but responsible ones.

What responsibilities do you believe AI companies should have in terms of pressure-testing for biases, discrimination, or potential harms before releasing systems?

Both foundational AI companies and application-focused AI companies have an enormous responsibility to ensure their systems are thoroughly pressure-tested for biases, discrimination, and potential harms before release.

At Hamming, our evaluation, continuous monitoring, and red-teaming services rigorously evaluate models and AI systems for any signs of bias or discrimination. We use diverse datasets that reflect the real-world scenarios our customers' systems will encounter. By simulating various edge cases and stress-testing the models in controlled environments, we can identify and mitigate risks early on.

Secondly, transparency and alignment are key. The more we understand about how these AI systems work, the better we can align them to reflect human preferences, confidently eliminating bias, discrimination, and other potential harms.

Moreover, continuous monitoring post-deployment is essential. Implementing feedback loops to measure real-world performance ensures that the systems remain fair and effective over time.

At Hamming, we take pressure-testing for biases, discrimination, and potential harms seriously. By doing so, we can ensure that our AI systems are not only powerful but also just and beneficial to all.

Looking 5-10 years out, what types of guardrails—whether regulation, compliance, dynamic monitoring, or other safeguards—do you believe will be critical for responsible AI development?

Looking 5-10 years out, the most exciting AI use cases are in regulated industries like healthcare, financial services, and law. All four areas you mentioned—regulation, compliance, dynamic monitoring, and guardrails—are crucial for using AI safely, fairly, and without systemic bias.

Firstly, we need a sensible regulation framework. As AI systems become more integrated into critical sectors, clear and enforceable regulations will help ensure these technologies are developed and deployed responsibly. Regulations should focus on transparency, accountability, and fairness, setting standards that are logical and don't slow down innovation too much.

Compliance is equally important. AI companies must develop and maintain comprehensive compliance programs that align with regulatory requirements. This includes regular audits, documentation, and adherence to best practices to ensure ongoing compliance.

Dynamic monitoring will be crucial for maintaining the integrity and reliability of AI systems. We continuously monitor, detect, and mitigate potential biases, errors, or malicious activities on behalf of our customers before they cause harm.

Guardrails, including ethical guidelines and operational safeguards, are necessary to guide AI development. These guardrails should be embedded throughout the AI lifecycle, from design to deployment.

Additionally, fostering a culture of responsibility within AI companies is pretty vital. Education and training programs that emphasize ethical AI development, coupled with a commitment to transparency and accountability, will help build a foundation for responsible innovation. Encouraging collaboration with external stakeholders, including policymakers, ethicists, and the public, will further strengthen the guardrails around AI development.

We've covered a lot of ground today. Before we wrap up, is there anything else you'd like to add or emphasize in terms of Hamming's mission and the future you envision? What final thoughts can you leave us with?

Our mission is making AI reliable.

“We believe every company is already an AI company or will become an AI company in the future.”

We imagine a world where we can help every enterprise build self-improving and reliable systems that unlock trillions in economic value and significantly speed up innovation in all areas - especially science and technology.

#AI consultancy #SaaS #AI Agents

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ozma914 · 3 months ago

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Medicine Mishap Makes Mischief

Note: This was written before our dog Beowulf passed away last July.

Most people over the age of fifty can testify that growing old sucks. I mean, older. Growing older sucks.

One of the things that sucks is medication. Now, a person can avoid going on a lot of medicine by staying fit, eating right, exercising, meditation, yoga ... you know, all that stuff you didn't want to do, even before you could predict the weather with your knees.

Of all those things, the only one I came close to doing regularly was exercise, if by exercise you mean walking. I always loved to take hikes, and walks, the main difference being how far from civilization you are. I was going to say you could define hiking as walking on very uneven ground, but I've been on some sidewalks that made me think I was returning the One True Ring to Mount Doom.

(Why would someone name a mountain Doom, anyway? Is that where they met their future ex?)

You can see some neat things on hikes, though.

The walking by itself wasn't very helpful. First I had to take medicine for my cholesterol, which is a reaction to the human desire to intake things that are bad for you. Apparently there's a thin line between cream-filled donuts and ingesting high-test gasoline. My drug of choice is chocolate, which is the cocaine of foods. I never tried sniffing it through a straw, though.

Maybe next vacation.

Then they put me on a stress pill because of my job, which I couldn't quit because I had to pay for the stress pill.

Then, I discovered I had high blood pressure--while waiting to have a colonoscopy.

Well, duh. Of course I did--a whole room full of people were about to send a sewer router into a place where stuff's only suppose to come out. Just the same, I ended up on a pill to keep my blood pressure numbers below the height of the Empire State building. (In meters. Look it up, I'm not your accountant.)

Then my prostate blew up like a Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon.

Eventually an entire shelf in the medicine cabinet was filled with drugs, and not one of them a fun drug. This doesn't include pain relievers ... we have another shelf for them. It seemed a good time for some kind of organization. Luckily, like many men who own homes, I had several stacks of empty cardboard boxes laying around.

No, I don't know why, but apparently it's a thing.

So I liberated a small cardboard box and put it on my desk, where I could spend half an hour every morning taking my meds without disturbing my wife. Well, she's disturbed by all the empty boxes, but never mind.

At about the same time, our dog fell over. Then he continued to fall over. He had developed a nerve related condition called ... well, I can't pronounce it, but we had to rush him to the doggie hospital. He got better, or possibly I got lopsided and he only looked straight. The vet also prescribed Beowulf medication for joint pain because--well, we grew old together, and it was his time. Emily left his bottle of meds where she could easily find it.

On my desk.

"Since you started feeding me those strange hot dogs I've been seeing ... strange things."

When I get home from work I race around in a half-unconscious state, trying to get all my 6 a.m. stuff done so I can go to bed and pretend it's night. (See above about stressful jobs.) The meds are an important thing, of course, although unlike Beowulf I don't get mine inside a hot dog. Lucky dog. I mean the dog, not the dog. The meat one. The other meat one. Never mind.

Trying to do three or four things at once, I got one of his pills, filled a cup with water for my pills, walked into the kitchen for a hot dog, then back to the desk where I discovered, of course, that I had swallowed the dog's pill.

The dog's pill is a narcotic.

Now, I should have done what Emily later said I should have done: Called the vet. "Hi, I took our dog's medication ... well, yes, I am a dumbass, but that's not why I called."

But I didn't want a bunch of people laughing at my dumbassery. At least, not until I could get a blog out of it.

Instead, I stayed up to gauge what kind of reaction it had on me. Let me assure you--it did have a reaction. It was, in fact, the same reaction I used to have to drinking alcohol, and illustrates the reason why I don't bother with illegal drugs.

I felt weird. I got drowsy. Then I fell asleep. Then I slept for a long, long time.

"So, listen ... since you got to try mine, do I get to try yours?"

It's the same thing that happens when I take melatonin, and that's perfectly legal. It just happened faster, and I didn't have the nightmares. I get half my best stories from nightmares.

So, now I can say I know how the dog feels, except that I can't lick my private parts--and my back is too stiff for that, anyway. Maybe, someday, some doctor will put me on a pill like that for some age-related discomfort I haven't even though of yet. If that happens, hey--the side effects from the other pills will no longer bother me.

I'll sleep through them.

Another note: Ironically, my doctor did, indeed, respond to my increasing chronic pain by putting me on the exact same med Beowulf was on.

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