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krakenartificer · 3 years ago

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When I got my ADHD diagnosis, I looked at the questions on the screening form and thought, "If this result comes back positive, then I'm definitely not the only person in my family who has it." Questions like

"Have difficulty finishing one activity before starting another one" and

"I finish others' sentences before they can finish it themselves" and

"have trouble staying on one topic when talking"

...I thought were just weird quirks of my family, but no. When I got my results, I contacted my cousin, and she contacted her sisters and mother, and .. .. yeah. Basically everyone in my dad's side of the family is ADHD.

Now there are some problems with that, obviously, (getting family reunions to stick to a schedule is lol no) but there are some really fantastic perks. For one thing, no one in that family minds if I interrupt them while they're talking ... everyone's happy to keep 3 conversations going at the same time .... and no one minds if you fidget constantly.

But the best perk -- at least that I've found so far -- is that all of our parents have coping mechanisms, and passed them on to us. When I found myself unable to handle tasks with more than one step, my father didn't say "WTF are you talking about? It's easy! Just do the thing! Stop being lazy!" No, he could relate completely, and he sat down and taught me how to handle that.

So today, I'm going to pass on to you the coping mechanism my dad taught me for handling the "cannot put tasks in order / cannot get started / forget what I'm doing" problem. You'll need to adjust it for your own needs and your own struggles, but hopefully it'll be helpful in setting up your own process.

I'm going to walk through it with a big project I'm doing at work, just to have a concrete example. That will make some of the discussion specific to computer programming and technical writing, but I do the same thing for all my projects, so hopefully it'll be generalizable.

So to set the stage:

I was supposed to modify this piece of code -- we'll call it "Rosetta" -- to make it handle call data as well as what it was already doing. I did that.... but we now need the code to be able to handle calls (if that's wanted) but also to be able to handle NOT having calls (if THAT'S wanted).

Which is just .... ugh. So much. SOOOOOOOO much.

So. Break it down.

Step one is to get some recording mechanism - pen and paper, whiteboard, blank computer document, whatever

(Technically, this is a different coping strategy, so we'll just take a quick detour: WRITE THINGS DOWN. Your brain is shit at remembering things, and anyway you've already got limits on your working memory; why would you choose to tie up some of that limited resource in something that could be accomplished with literal stone-age technology? Don't even try to remember things. WRITE THEM DOWN.)

I like sticky notes: they're readily available in all offices, they're pretty cheap, and (most importantly) they can be rearranged if it turns out that I forgot a step or put the steps in the wrong order (which, like, let's be honest, I am definitely going to do). But they kill trees and create unnecessary methane emissions, so I've recently switched over to using virtual sticky notes. That's the format I'm going to use for this example, but you can use anything that meets your purposes.

So, you've got something to write with, you're ready to start.

The first question is: what are you trying to accomplish here? What would "done" look like? What is our goal?

I need to end up with a version of Rosetta that will make the correct results if you don't want calls, and will also make the correct results if you do.

The goal here is that you end up with a statement that you can definitively say (a) Yes this is what I wanted or (b)No this is not right because _______

In this case, in order to do that, I'll need to define "correct results" for both call- and non-call versions. But if I have that nailed down, then this statement meets that criterion: I'll be able to say "Yes, this is what I wanted: see, it makes the correct result for calls, and it makes the correct result for not-calls". Or else I'll be able to say, "No, this is wrong: see, it makes the correct result for calls, but on not-calls it does X and we wanted Y."

I have a clear, definitive standard about what I need to do and whether or not I've done it.

But there was a prerequisite there: I need to define "correct results".

So that goes on a sticky note: Create test that will compare my results to existing call!Rosetta-results and to existing not-call!Rosetta-results.

[ID: Two blue boxes, one on top of the other. The top one says in white text "Create test to compare my results to call!results" The bottom one says "Create test to compare my results to not-call!results"] OK. So now we know what we want. The second question is: what do we need to do in order to get that? Here's where the sticky-note recording system really shines, because you don't have to answer this question sequentially. You just start writing down every single thing that is not the way you want it to end up.

I need it to remove commas in the python script, not the bash script

I need to delete the first part of the get_runs() function, which doesn't do anything

I need to delete the rest of the parameters passed to build_query_script() function, because runs encompasses all the others

while we're on that subject, runs doesn't even need the group_variable, so let's pull that out of the parameter document

we also have a dmf defined, which the bash script demands but doesn't use; let's change that demand

since we're changing the structure of the parameter document, we don't need to pull new metrics for each run, so let's move that outside of the runs() loop and only run once

right now the parameter document is ALMOST but not quite "one row per template". Make it so it's actually one row per template.

among other things, that's going to require making it possible for a template to be followed by nothing at all, since it's the assumption that a template will have a metrics block after it that makes it not quite one row per template. So make it possible to publish a template with a null block

the other thing that's weirdly hard-coded is the definition of what a block looks like. Would it make more sense to separate that out into an input file, like the parameters document? On the one hand, that would make it much more flexible; on the other hand, that's another piece that can break. Don't know. Put a question mark on it.

etc

Here's what it looks like at the end of this step:

[ID: A black and white background showing many boxes in two different shades of blue, all with white text. Some of the boxes are overlapping each other.]

As you can see, at this phase you don't need to worry about any of the following:

ordering the tasks. Just stick 'em right on top of each other for now

how you're going to do any of this. Right now we just need to know what, not how

sticking to only one project. As I was working on this, it occurred to me that this whole process would have been a heck of a lot easier if someone had just made a user manual for this, and since I have to go through all the code line-by-line anyway, I might as well write up the documentation while I'm at it. (To help out future-me, if nothing else.) So I put those tasks on another color of sticky note.

making notes that make any ***ing sense to anyone else. This process is for you, and only you need to understand what you're talking about it. Phrase it in ways that make sense to your brain, and to hell with anyone else.

on that topic, also don't worry about making steps that are "too small" or "too dumb" to write down. This is for you. If "save document" feels like a step to you, then write it down.

You also don't need to get every single step involved in the project right now. Get as many as you can, to be sure, but the process is designed on the assumption that you ARE going to forget important steps, and is designed to handle that.

When you can't think of any more steps, then the third question is: what order does it make sense to do these in? Are there any steps that would be easier if you did another step first? Are there any that literally cannot be done unless another step is complete?

This is also a good place to group steps if they fit together nicely. When I used physical sticky notes, I used two different sizes; digitally I can of course make them whatever size I want.

So I have several documentation steps that (a) do need to be written to make sense to other people and (b) I really need to know what's going on before I can do that. I could write them now, but if I did, I'd just end up re-writing them based on things that change as I'm coding. So we'll move those to the end:

[ID: Three dark blue boxes with white text. They read "Create step-by-step instructions for creating your own metric agg", "Create step-by-step instructions for modifying a metric", "Create step-by-step instructions for modifying a query."]

These parts, though -- if I had all the variable structures written down, I could look at them while I'm coding. Then I won't have to keep scrolling back and forth in the code, trying to remember if it's an array or a dictionary while also trying to remember what part of the code I was working on. Brilliant. Move that to the front.

[ID: Seven dark blue boxes with white text, three large, four small. The first one is large and says "Write up explanation of how Rosetta works." The second one is large and says "Document structure of all variables." Attached to that one are four smaller boxes that say "All_blocks", "Runs", "metric", "New_block". The third large one says "Document what qb_parameters.csv contains"]

Also, while I'm at it, I should get the list of variables I need to document -- then I won't have to keep scrolling to find them. Make those sub-steps.

I definitely keep needing to look up what's in the parameters document, so I should write that down, too. For the user manual I also should write down what's in the metric document, but I don't need that for myself, so I can send that to the end.

[ID: The same three dark blue boxes from two screenshots ago (create step-by-step instructions for metric agg, modifying a metric, and modifying a query), now with another dark blue box in front of them with white text that says "Document what granular_metrics.tsv contains."]

These five are all small steps, and are all related in that they don't actually (hopefully) change the functionality of the code; they're just stuff left over from prior versions of this code. So we can lump them all together.

[ID: Five light blue boxes with white text that say "Delete first part of get_runs()", "Have build_query_script only receive the "run" parameter" "Delete dmf" "Move metrics=get_metrics() outside build_all_blocks (all the way up to the top level?" "Delete group_variable from qp_parameters"]

My brain likes this better, so that I can keep track of fewer "main steps", but that's just a peculiarity of me -- you should lump and split however you prefer to make this process easier for you.

[ID: The same five boxes from the prior screenshot, now all made smaller and attached to a larger box that says "Remove Legacy Code"]

Keep going, step by step, sticky by sticky, until you've got them in order. If -- while you're doing this -- you remember another thing you need to do, write it on a sticky and slap it on the pile; you don't have to stop what you're doing to deal with it, because it's written down and it's on the pile and it will get processed; you can just keep working on the thing you're on right now.

[ID: All the same boxes from the first screenshot, now in a neat row. Some of the original boxes have been grouped together. The ones that were said to be at the beginning of the process are on the left and the ones that were said to be at the end are on the right.]

Step four: for the love of all that's holy, SAVE THIS LIST.

Write it on your cubicle whiteboard where it won't be erased

write it on a piece of paper and tape it to the office wall

send an email to yourself

take a picture with your phone

I don't care but save it.

When I used physical sticky notes, I kept them all on the hood of my cubicle's shelf. Now, as you can see, I use Powerpoint, which is irritating af but does allow me to keep everything in a single document, which I can write down the path of.

[ID: White text on a black background says "open ~/Documents/Rosetta\ Modifications\ and \Documentation.pptx" The next line says "Notes in Rocketbook pg 10-12, 16" The next line says "Turn that into documentation that can be used for making modifications."]

And now (finally) you can answer the question "How would I even get started on that?" You look at the first thing on the list, and you treat it as its own project. You can hyperfocus on this step and completely forget about everything else this project requires, because everything you need to remember for the rest of it is written down.

If, as you're working a step, you think of something else you need to do for the big project, write it on a sticky and slap it on the pile. Don't even worry about trying to order it or identify sub-steps; as long as it's not blocking the thing you need to work on right now, you don't have to care. Just stick that bugger anywhere at all on the list, and go back to what you were doing. When you un-hyperfocus and come back to look at your list, there'll be a big sticky note stuck sideways across all the rest of the steps, and you'll remember to file and order it then.

Other benefits of this system

1) The first question really helps with unclear directions from your boss. You can take whatever they told you to do, and translate it into a requirement that is clearly either met or not-met, and then run it back by the boss.

If they say, "No, no, we want ______" then phew! You just saved a huge miscommunication and weeks of wasted work! What a good employee you are! What an excellent team player with strong communication skills!

If they say "Yes, that's what I want," then you know -- for sure -- what it is you're trying to accomplish. Your anxiety is reduced, and your boss thinks you're super-conscientious.

(And if your boss is a jerk who likes to move the goalposts and blame it on their subordinates, then have this conversation over email, so you can show it to their boss or to HR should it become necessary.)

2) Having this project map means that when you spend an hour staring at the requirements and trying to figure out how to get started (which, let's be honest, you were definitely going to do anyway) ... When your boss/coworker comes by and says, "How's it going?" Instead of having to say "I haven't even started 😞" You can say, "Pretty well! I've got all the steps mapped out and am getting ready to start on implementation!" and show them your list, and they think you're very organized and meticulous. 3) Sometimes, especially in corporate jobs, you and your coworkers will run into a problem that's too big for even Neurotypicals to hold all in their heads. At that point, the NTs will be completely lost -- they've never had to develop a way to handle projects they can't just look at and know how to get started. So then you pipe up in the meeting and say, "OK, well, what exactly are we trying to accomplish?" and everybody at the conference table looks at you like you're a goddamned genius and you don't have to tell them that you use this exact same process to remember how to make a sandwich 😅

4) Having this project map makes it so much easier to stop work and then start it up again later, but this post is already really really really long, so I'm going to address that in a separate (really really long) post.

#adhd #adhd life #tips #semi-solicited advice #gpoy #your mileage may vary #long post #very long post #sorry I wish I wrote more concisely too

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rookie-ramsey · 4 years ago

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Across the Universe, Chapter Two

Description: All the medical training in the world couldn’t prepare Ethan for a terminal brain cancer diagnosis.

Preview: The confession rolled from her lips before she had a chance to think twice. “I… showed Harper your scans to get her opinion. She thinks it could be partially operable.”

Ethan’s expression faltered, his brow furrowing in anger. “You showed Harper my charts after I asked you not to?”

Warning: Terminal cancer and eventual major character death. Read with caution.

Previous Chapter

Olivia rapped her knuckles against Harper’s door. Her breathing shallowed with anxiety in the moment that passed before Harper called, “Come in!”

Taking a deep breath, Olivia gained some sense of composure and let herself into the office. “Dr. Emery… Harper, may I ask a favor?”

“Of course. What do you need?”

Olivia’s face heated with worry as she handed Harper the envelope. Even if she’d taken any trace of Ethan’s name off of them, she couldn’t suppress the guilt she felt for going behind his back. “These are some scans and test results. Glioblastoma multiforme, right frontal lobe.”

Harper’s smile faded as she took the charts and studied them. “I don’t remember a patient being admitted with this condition.”

“It’s… not one of our patients. It’s a friend of mine from school. He reached out to me but wants to keep it to himself until he knows anything. I promised I’d get him a second opinion as a John Doe,” Olivia lied, guilt gripping her heart.

Whether Harper suspected something or not, Olivia didn’t know. She watched nervously as Harper scrutinized the films.

“I’m sure you know that this is the most aggressive type of brain tumor. They grow quickly and new ones can develop in other regions of the brain.”

“I know. I just… I thought maybe you’d know more than I do. I know it’s probably inoperable, but…”

“GBMs are usually inoperable because of the way the cells develop in the brain tissue,” Harper confirmed. “Even if there’s a chance of removing a portion of it, it’s not possible to remove every trace. The tumor would inevitably return.”

“What would you do?”

“If this were my patient… I’d start with targeted radiation and chemo. If the tumor shrunk after a few weeks, I’d remove as much as possible and follow with another course of treatment.”

Olivia nodded. “And what prognosis would you normally give? I know the usual prognosis is five to seven months without treatment, twelve to eighteen with.”

“That’s right. The five-year survival rate is less than five percent. I think you were right to ask for another opinion, but… you know that with or without treatment, this cancer is brutal.”

Olivia inhaled sharply and managed another nod. “I know. I just… I guess it’s harder to think when it’s a friend. I know to watch for worsening pain, personality changes, cognitive and emotional problems…”

“Those are all to be expected. As the condition worsens, expect problems with balance and coordination, vision problems, emotional and cognitive problems… almost every function suffers.” Harper glanced at her curiously. “Whatever your friend needs… you know where to refer him.”

“Yeah.” Olivia’s heart stuttered as she hoped Harper didn��t see through her lie. She felt guilty enough for going behind Ethan’s back and lying to Harper, but she knew Ethan would be livid if anyone found out before he was ready. “I’ll let you know if we need anything. Thank you.”

“Any time, Olivia.”

Olivia turned and left Harper’s office. As she walked down the hall, Harper’s words rang in her mind.

Six to eight months without treatment, twelve to eighteen with treatment.

An involuntary shudder went through her. Whether to accept treatment or not would be Ethan’s decision, but she knew that Harper was right. Regardless of which decision Ethan made, whatever lay ahead would be excruciating.

In the hours that passed, she saw little of Ethan. Olivia tried to concentrate on her patients, pouring her focus onto her rounds and clinic duty. Still, nothing was enough to pull her attention away from Ethan’s diagnosis.

“Dr. Winchester? Did you hear me?”

Olivia startled, blinking and forcing an apologetic smile for their patient. “I’m sorry, Tyler. I didn’t. But you have my attention now.”

“Tyler was just telling us that the headache started suddenly in the past few days. He had a brief episode of blindness in one eye yesterday,” Tobias supplied, glancing at her curiously.

“Right.” Olivia nodded and flipped through the patient’s charts. “Your scans from Mass General all came back clear. “How long did the blindness last?”

“About six hours. I just said that.”

Olivia sighed. “I’m sorry. Migraines can cause pain localized to one side of the head and visual disturbances, but not total blindness. I think we should run another set of scans to make sure they didn’t miss anything at Mass General. If they come back clean, we’ll start with some labs.”

Their patient looked skeptical. “Is there really any point in doing more scans?”

“We have the best equipment on the market. It may catch something that they missed at the other hospital. Even if everything comes back normal, we don’t want to risk missing a tumor.”

“I guess so.”

Olivia nodded, relieved. “We’ll be back in a few minutes to get you prepped.” She closed the patient’s folder and quietly followed Tobias out of the room.

“You seemed a little distracted in there. Everything okay?”

“Yeah. I just have some stuff going on outside of work. I’ll be fine,” she lied, suspecting Tobias didn’t believe her even if he dropped the issue.

She didn’t see Ethan until the end of their shift. She found him in his office, his attention on his computer screen. “Hi.”

Ethan startled, looking up from the journal he’d been staring at until the words blurred. “Oh. There you are. Ready to go?”

“Yeah. What are you reading?” she asked as she shrugged out of her white coat and replaced it with her jacket.

Ethan hesitated for a long moment. “An article about the average prognosis for glioblastoma multiforme.”

“Oh.” The flat tone to his voice told her everything she needed to know about what he’d read. She fell silent, letting her gaze fall on him. “Ethan, I…”

“What is it?”

The confession rolled from her lips before she had a chance to think twice. “I… showed Harper your scans to get her opinion. She thinks it could be partially operable.”

Ethan’s expression faltered, his brow furrowing in anger. “You showed Harper my charts after I asked you not to?”

She didn’t know why, but Olivia felt her defenses go up. “I took your name off of them. As far as she knows, it’s one of my friends who reached out to me. I know I shouldn’t have gone behind your back, and I’m sorry. But I didn’t think we should just accept that there’s absolutely nothing we can do.”

Visibly frustrated, Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose. “I said that I would tell people myself when I was ready. Getting a second opinion won’t change a thing.”

“But maybe it would give us some ideas. And it did. Harper described a treatment plan that she’s seen some success with. It’s… it’s not much, but it’s something.”

Ethan shook his head and let out a sigh. “With any course of action, the five-year-survival rate is still in the low single digits. I need time to decide what to do. I’m not making a decision based on false hope.”

Her eyes stung with the threat of tears. Refusing to let them fall, Olivia hesitated before speaking again. “I know. But… just think about it. Please?”

Ethan didn’t react right away. After a moment, he nodded so faintly that she almost missed it. “I need some time to think.”

Olivia’s frown deepened when he handed her his car keys. “Where are you going?”

“For a walk. You can take my car home. I’ll be there later. Don’t be worried if I’m late.”

Her expression gave way to one of frustration. “How am I supposed to go home and not worry about you?”

“I don’t know,” Ethan sighed, refusing to meet her eyes. “But I’ll be home later. I need some time to myself.”

“Ethan, just-“ she stopped when he left the room without another word.

Tags, part 1

@princess-geek / @lapisreviewsstuff / @silverlitskies / @paulfwesley / @dr-brianna-casey-valentine / @choicesstanblog / @trappedinfandoms / @justanotherrookie / @bellcat2010 / @desmaranj / @lion-ess24 / @nooruleman / @caseyvalentineramsey / @xee-na / @edith-eggs1 /@oofchoices / @schnitzelbutterfingers / @tefigranger / @jlynn12273 / @laceandlula / @crazy-loca-blog / @somegdchoices / @forthebrokenheartedthings / @lilyvalentine / @parkerattano / @drramseysownsme / @misswhit12 / @drethanfreakingramsey / @juneiswriting / @macy-ray85 / @swimmingauthordreamerbonk / @myusualnerdyself / @siaramsey / @lucy-268 / @takemyopenheart / @queencarb

#open heart #ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey x mc #ethan x mc #tw: death #death tw #cancer tw #tw: cancer

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and-then-there-were-n0ne · 5 years ago

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In the economic sphere too, the ability to hold a hammer or press a button is becoming less valuable than before. In the past, there were many things only humans could do. But now robots and computers are catching up, and may soon outperform humans in most tasks. True, computers function very differently from humans, and it seems unlikely that computers will become humanlike any time soon. In particular, it doesn’t seem that computers are about to gain consciousness, and to start experiencing emotions and sensations. Over the last decades there has been an immense advance in computer intelligence, but there has been exactly zero advance in computer consciousness. As far as we know, computers in 2016 are no more conscious than their prototypes in the 1950s. However, we are on the brink of a momentous revolution. Humans are in danger of losing their value, because intelligence is decoupling from consciousness.

Until today, high intelligence always went hand in hand with a developed consciousness. Only conscious beings could perform tasks that required a lot of intelligence, such as playing chess, driving cars, diagnosing diseases or identifying terrorists. However, we are now developing new types of non-conscious intelligence that can perform such tasks far better than humans. For all these tasks are based on pattern recognition, and non-conscious algorithms may soon excel human consciousness in recognising patterns. This raises a novel question: which of the two is really important, intelligence or consciousness? As long as they went hand in hand, debating their relative value was just a pastime for philosophers. But in the twenty-first century, this is becoming an urgent political and economic issue. And it is sobering to realise that, at least for armies and corporations, the answer is straightforward: intelligence is mandatory but consciousness is optional.

Armies and corporations cannot function without intelligent agents, but they don’t need consciousness and subjective experiences. The conscious experiences of a flesh-and-blood taxi driver are infinitely richer than those of a self-driving car, which feels absolutely nothing. The taxi driver can enjoy music while navigating the busy streets of Seoul. His mind may expand in awe as he looks up at the stars and contemplates the mysteries of the universe. His eyes may fill with tears of joy when he sees his baby girl taking her very first step. But the system doesn’t need all that from a taxi driver. All it really wants is to bring passengers from point A to point B as quickly, safely and cheaply as possible. And the autonomous car will soon be able to do that far better than a human driver, even though it cannot enjoy music or be awestruck by the magic of existence.

Indeed, if we forbid humans to drive taxis and cars altogether, and give computer algorithms monopoly over traffic, we can then connect all vehicles to a single network, and thereby make car accidents virtually impossible. In August 2015, one of Google’s experimental self-driving cars had an accident. As it approached a crossing and detected pedestrians wishing to cross, it applied its brakes. A moment later it was hit from behind by a sedan whose careless human driver was perhaps contemplating the mysteries of the universe instead of watching the road. This could not have happened if both vehicles were steered by interlinked computers. The controlling algorithm would have known the position and intentions of every vehicle on the road, and would not have allowed two of its marionettes to collide. Such a system will save lots of time, money and human lives – but it will also do away with the human experience of driving a car and with tens of millions of human jobs.

Some economists predict that sooner or later, unenhanced humans will be completely useless. While robots and 3D printers replace workers in manual jobs such as manufacturing shirts, highly intelligent algorithms will do the same to white-collar occupations. Bank clerks and travel agents, who a short time ago were completely secure from automation, have become endangered species. How many travel agents do we need when we can use our smartphones to buy plane tickets from an algorithm?

Stock-exchange traders are also in danger. Most trade today is already being managed by computer algorithms, which can process in a second more data than a human can in a year, and that can react to the data much faster than a human can blink. On 23 April 2013, Syrian hackers broke into Associated Press’s official Twitter account. At 13:07 they tweeted that the White House had been attacked and President Obama was hurt. Trade algorithms that constantly monitor newsfeeds reacted in no time, and began selling stocks like mad. The Dow Jones went into free fall, and within sixty seconds lost 150 points, equivalent to a loss of $136 billion! At 13:10 Associated Press clarified that the tweet was a hoax. The algorithms reversed gear, and by 13:13 the Dow Jones had recuperated almost all the losses.

Three years previously, on 6 May 2010, the New York stock exchange underwent an even sharper shock. Within five minutes – from 14:42 to 14:47 – the Dow Jones dropped by 1,000 points, wiping out $1 trillion. It then bounced back, returning to its pre-crash level in a little over three minutes. That’s what happens when super-fast computer programs are in charge of our money. Experts have been trying ever since to understand what happened in this so-called ‘Flash Crash’. We know algorithms were to blame, but we are still not sure exactly what went wrong. Some traders in the USA have already filed lawsuits against algorithmic trading, arguing that it unfairly discriminates against human beings, who simply cannot react fast enough to compete. Quibbling whether this really constitutes a violation of rights might provide lots of work and lots of fees for lawyers.

And these lawyers won’t necessarily be human. Movies and TV series give the impression that lawyers spend their days in court shouting ‘Objection!’ and making impassioned speeches. Yet most run-of-the-mill lawyers spend their time going over endless files, looking for precedents, loopholes and tiny pieces of potentially relevant evidence. Some are busy trying to figure out what happened on the night John Doe got killed, or formulating a gargantuan business contract that will protect their client against every conceivable eventuality. What will be the fate of all these lawyers once sophisticated search algorithms can locate more precedents in a day than a human can in a lifetime, and once brain scans can reveal lies and deceptions at the press of a button? Even highly experienced lawyers and detectives cannot easily spot deceptions merely by observing people’s facial expressions and tone of voice. However, lying involves different brain areas to those used when we tell the truth. We’re not there yet, but it is conceivable that in the not too distant future fMRI scanners could function as almost infallible truth machines. Where will that leave millions of lawyers, judges, cops and detectives? They might need to go back to school and learn a new profession.

When they get in the classroom, however, they may well discover that the algorithms have got there first. Companies such as Mindojo are developing interactive algorithms that not only teach me maths, physics and history, but also simultaneously study me and get to know exactly who I am. Digital teachers will closely monitor every answer I give, and how long it took me to give it. Over time, they will discern my unique weaknesses as well as my strengths. They will identify what gets me excited, and what makes my eyelids droop. They could teach me thermodynamics or geometry in a way that suits my personality type, even if that particular way doesn’t suit 99 per cent of the other pupils. And these digital teachers will never lose their patience, never shout at me, and never go on strike. It is unclear, however, why on earth I would need to know thermodynamics or geometry in a world containing such intelligent computer programs.

Even doctors are fair game for the algorithms. The first and foremost task of most doctors is to diagnose diseases correctly, and then suggest the best available treatment. If I arrive at the clinic complaining about fever and diarrhoea, I might be suffering from food poisoning. Then again, the same symptoms might result from a stomach virus, cholera, dysentery, malaria, cancer or some unknown new disease. My doctor has only five minutes to make a correct diagnosis, because this is what my health insurance pays for. This allows for no more than a few questions and perhaps a quick medical examination. The doctor then cross-references this meagre information with my medical history, and with the vast world of human maladies. Alas, not even the most diligent doctor can remember all my previous ailments and check-ups. Similarly, no doctor can be familiar with every illness and drug, or read every new article published in every medical journal. To top it all, the doctor is sometimes tired or hungry or perhaps even sick, which affects her judgement. No wonder that doctors often err in their diagnoses, or recommend a less-than-optimal treatment.

Now consider IBM’s famous Watson – an artificial intelligence system that won the Jeopardy! television game show in 2011, beating human former champions. Watson is currently groomed to do more serious work, particularly in diagnosing diseases. An AI such as Watson has enormous potential advantages over human doctors. Firstly, an AI can hold in its databanks information about every known illness and medicine in history. It can then update these databanks every day, not only with the findings of new researches, but also with medical statistics gathered from every clinic and hospital in the world.

Secondly, Watson can be intimately familiar not only with my entire genome and my day-to-day medical history, but also with the genomes and medical histories of my parents, siblings, cousins, neighbours and friends. Watson will know instantly whether I visited a tropical country recently, whether I have recurring stomach infections, whether there have been cases of intestinal cancer in my family or whether people all over town are complaining this morning about diarrhoea.

Thirdly, Watson will never be tired, hungry or sick, and will have all the time in the world for me. I could sit comfortably on my sofa at home and answer hundreds of questions, telling Watson exactly how I feel. This is good news for most patients (except perhaps hypochondriacs). But if you enter medical school today in the expectation of still being a family doctor in twenty years, maybe you should think again. With such a Watson around, there is not much need for Sherlocks.

This threat hovers over the heads not only of general practitioners, but also of experts. Indeed, it might prove easier to replace doctors specialising in a relatively narrow field such as cancer diagnosis. For example, in a recent experiment a computer algorithm diagnosed correctly 90 per cent of lung cancer cases presented to it, while human doctors had a success rate of only 50 per cent. In fact, the future is already here. CT scans and mammography tests are routinely checked by specialised algorithms, which provide doctors with a second opinion, and sometimes detect tumours that the doctors missed.

A host of tough technical problems still prevent Watson and its ilk from replacing most doctors tomorrow morning. Yet these technical problems – however difficult – need only be solved once. The training of a human doctor is a complicated and expensive process that lasts years. When the process is complete, after ten years of studies and internships, all you get is one doctor. If you want two doctors, you have to repeat the entire process from scratch. In contrast, if and when you solve the technical problems hampering Watson, you will get not one, but an infinite number of doctors, available 24/7 in every corner of the world. So even if it costs $100 billion to make it work, in the long run it would be much cheaper than training human doctors.

And what’s true of doctors is doubly true of pharmacists. In 2011 a pharmacy opened in San Francisco manned by a single robot. When a human comes to the pharmacy, within seconds the robot receives all of the customer’s prescriptions, as well as detailed information about other medicines taken by them, and their suspected allergies. The robot makes sure the new prescriptions don’t combine adversely with any other medicine or allergy, and then provides the customer with the required drug. In its first year of operation the robotic pharmacist provided 2 million prescriptions, without making a single mistake. On average, flesh-and-blood pharmacists get wrong 1.7 per cent of prescriptions. In the United States alone this amounts to more than 50 million prescription errors every year!

Some people argue that even if an algorithm could outperform doctors and pharmacists in the technical aspects of their professions, it could never replace their human touch. If your CT indicates you have cancer, would you like to receive the news from a caring and empathetic human doctor, or from a machine? Well, how about receiving the news from a caring and empathetic machine that tailors its words to your personality type? Remember that organisms are algorithms, and Watson could detect your emotional state with the same accuracy that it detects your tumours.

This idea has already been implemented by some customer-services departments, such as those pioneered by the Chicago-based Mattersight Corporation. Mattersight publishes its wares with the following advert: ‘Have you ever spoken with someone and felt as though you just clicked? The magical feeling you get is the result of a personality connection. Mattersight creates that feeling every day, in call centers around the world.’ When you call customer services with a request or complaint, it usually takes a few seconds to route your call to a representative. In Mattersight systems, your call is routed by a clever algorithm. You first state the reason for your call. The algorithm listens to your request, analyses the words you have chosen and your tone of voice, and deduces not only your present emotional state but also your personality type – whether you are introverted, extroverted, rebellious or dependent. Based on this information, the algorithm links you to the representative that best matches your mood and personality. The algorithm knows whether you need an empathetic person to patiently listen to your complaints, or you prefer a no-nonsense rational type who will give you the quickest technical solution. A good match means both happier customers and less time and money wasted by the customer-services department.

The most important question in twenty-first-century economics may well be what to do with all the superfluous people. What will conscious humans do, once we have highly intelligent non-conscious algorithms that can do almost everything better?

Throughout history the job market was divided into three main sectors: agriculture, industry and services. Until about 1800, the vast majority of people worked in agriculture, and only a small minority worked in industry and services. During the Industrial Revolution people in developed countries left the fields and herds. Most began working in industry, but growing numbers also took up jobs in the services sector. In recent decades developed countries underwent another revolution, as industrial jobs vanished, whereas the services sector expanded. In 2010 only 2 per cent of Americans worked in agriculture, 20 per cent worked in industry, 78 per cent worked as teachers, doctors, webpage designers and so forth. When mindless algorithms are able to teach, diagnose and design better than humans, what will we do?

This is not an entirely new question. Ever since the Industrial Revolution erupted, people feared that mechanisation might cause mass unemployment. This never happened, because as old professions became obsolete, new professions evolved, and there was always something humans could do better than machines. Yet this is not a law of nature, and nothing guarantees it will continue to be like that in the future. Humans have two basic types of abilities: physical abilities and cognitive abilities. As long as machines competed with us merely in physical abilities, you could always find cognitive tasks that humans do better. So machines took over purely manual jobs, while humans focused on jobs requiring at least some cognitive skills. Yet what will happen once algorithms outperform us in remembering, analysing and recognising patterns?

The idea that humans will always have a unique ability beyond the reach of non-conscious algorithms is just wishful thinking. True, at present there are numerous things that organic algorithms do better than non-organic ones, and experts have repeatedly declared that something will ‘for ever’ remain beyond the reach of non-organic algorithms. But it turns out that ‘for ever’ often means no more than a decade or two. Until a short time ago, facial recognition was a favourite example of something which even babies accomplish easily but which escaped even the most powerful computers on earth. Today facial-recognition programs are able to recognise people far more efficiently and quickly than humans can. Police forces and intelligence services now use such programs to scan countless hours of video footage from surveillance cameras, tracking down suspects and criminals.

In the 1980s when people discussed the unique nature of humanity, they habitually used chess as primary proof of human superiority. They believed that computers would never beat humans at chess. On 10 February 1996, IBM’s Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov, laying to rest that particular claim for human pre-eminence.

Deep Blue was given a head start by its creators, who preprogrammed it not only with the basic rules of chess, but also with detailed instructions regarding chess strategies. A new generation of AI uses machine learning to do even more remarkable and elegant things. In February 2015 a program developed by Google DeepMind learned by itself how to play forty-nine classic Atari games. One of the developers, Dr Demis Hassabis, explained that ‘the only information we gave the system was the raw pixels on the screen and the idea that it had to get a high score. And everything else it had to figure out by itself.’ The program managed to learn the rules of all the games it was presented with, from Pac-Man and Space Invaders to car racing and tennis games. It then played most of them as well as or better than humans, sometimes coming up with strategies that never occur to human players.

Computer algorithms have recently proven their worth in ball games, too. For many decades, baseball teams used the wisdom, experience and gut instincts of professional scouts and managers to pick players. The best players fetched millions of dollars, and naturally enough the rich teams got the cream of the market, whereas poorer teams had to settle for the scraps. In 2002 Billy Beane, the manager of the low-budget Oakland Athletics, decided to beat the system. He relied on an arcane computer algorithm developed by economists and computer geeks to create a winning team from players that human scouts overlooked or undervalued. The old-timers were incensed by Beane’s algorithm transgressing into the hallowed halls of baseball. They said that picking baseball players is an art, and that only humans with an intimate and long-standing experience of the game can master it. A computer program could never do it, because it could never decipher the secrets and the spirit of baseball.

They soon had to eat their baseball caps. Beane’s shoestring-budget algorithmic team ($44 million) not only held its own against baseball giants such as the New York Yankees ($125 million), but became the first team ever in American League baseball to win twenty consecutive games. Not that Beane and Oakland could enjoy their success for long. Soon enough, many other baseball teams adopted the same algorithmic approach, and since the Yankees and Red Sox could pay far more for both baseball players and computer software, low-budget teams such as the Oakland Athletics now had an even smaller chance of beating the system than before.

In 2004 Professor Frank Levy from MIT and Professor Richard Murnane from Harvard published a thorough research of the job market, listing those professions most likely to undergo automation. Truck drivers were given as an example of a job that could not possibly be automated in the foreseeable future. It is hard to imagine, they wrote, that algorithms could safely drive trucks on a busy road. A mere ten years later, Google and Tesla not only imagine this, but are actually making it happen.

In fact, as time goes by, it becomes easier and easier to replace humans with computer algorithms, not merely because the algorithms are getting smarter, but also because humans are professionalising. Ancient hunter-gatherers mastered a very wide variety of skills in order to survive, which is why it would be immensely difficult to design a robotic hunter-gatherer. Such a robot would have to know how to prepare spear points from flint stones, how to find edible mushrooms in a forest, how to use medicinal herbs to bandage a wound, how to track down a mammoth and how to coordinate a charge with a dozen other hunters. However, over the last few thousand years we humans have been specialising. A taxi driver or a cardiologist specialises in a much narrower niche than a hunter-gatherer, which makes it easier to replace them with AI.

Even the managers in charge of all these activities can be replaced. Thanks to its powerful algorithms, Uber can manage millions of taxi drivers with only a handful of humans. Most of the commands are given by the algorithms without any need of human supervision. In May 2014 Deep Knowledge Ventures – a Hong Kong venture-capital firm specialising in regenerative medicine – broke new ground by appointing an algorithm called VITAL to its board. VITAL makes investment recommendations by analysing huge amounts of data on the financial situation, clinical trials and intellectual property of prospective companies. Like the other five board members, the algorithm gets to vote on whether the firm makes an investment in a specific company or not.

Examining VITAL’s record so far, it seems that it has already picked up one managerial vice: nepotism. It has recommended investing in companies that grant algorithms more authority. With VITAL’s blessing, Deep Knowledge Ventures has recently invested in Silico Medicine, which develops computer-assisted methods for drug research, and in Pathway Pharmaceuticals, which employs a platform called OncoFinder to select and rate personalised cancer therapies.

As algorithms push humans out of the job market, wealth might become concentrated in the hands of the tiny elite that owns the all-powerful algorithms, creating unprecedented social inequality. Alternatively, the algorithms might not only manage businesses, but actually come to own them. At present, human law already recognises intersubjective entities like corporations and nations as ‘legal persons’. Though Toyota or Argentina has neither a body nor a mind, they are subject to international laws, they can own land and money, and they can sue and be sued in court. We might soon grant similar status to algorithms. An algorithm could then own a venture-capital fund without having to obey the wishes of any human master.

If the algorithm makes the right decisions, it could accumulate a fortune, which it could then invest as it sees fit, perhaps buying your house and becoming your landlord. If you infringe on the algorithm’s legal rights – say, by not paying rent – the algorithm could hire lawyers and sue you in court. If such algorithms consistently outperform human fund managers, we might end up with an algorithmic upper class owning most of our planet. This may sound impossible, but before dismissing the idea, remember that most of our planet is already legally owned by non-human inter-subjective entities, namely nations and corporations. Indeed, 5,000 years ago much of Sumer was owned by imaginary gods such as Enki and Inanna. If gods can possess land and employ people, why not algorithms?

So what will people do? Art is often said to provide us with our ultimate (and uniquely human) sanctuary. In a world where computers replace doctors, drivers, teachers and even landlords, everyone would become an artist. Yet it is hard to see why artistic creation will be safe from the algorithms. Why are we so sure computers will be unable to better us in the composition of music? According to the life sciences, art is not the product of some enchanted spirit or metaphysical soul, but rather of organic algorithms recognising mathematical patterns. If so, there is no reason why non-organic algorithms couldn’t master it.

David Cope is a musicology professor at the University of California in Santa Cruz. He is also one of the more controversial figures in the world of classical music. Cope has written programs that compose concertos, chorales, symphonies and operas. His first creation was named EMI (Experiments in Musical Intelligence), which specialised in imitating the style of Johann Sebastian Bach. It took seven years to create the program, but once the work was done, EMI composed 5,000 chorales à la Bach in a single day. Cope arranged a performance of a few select chorales in a music festival at Santa Cruz. Enthusiastic members of the audience praised the wonderful performance, and explained excitedly how the music touched their innermost being. They didn’t know it was composed by EMI rather than Bach, and when the truth was revealed, some reacted with glum silence, while others shouted in anger.

EMI continued to improve, and learned to imitate Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky. Cope got EMI a contract, and its first album – Classical Music Composed by Computer – sold surprisingly well. Publicity brought increasing hostility from classical-music buffs. Professor Steve Larson from the University of Oregon sent Cope a challenge for a musical showdown. Larson suggested that professional pianists play three pieces one after the other: one by Bach, one by EMI, and one by Larson himself. The audience would then be asked to vote who composed which piece. Larson was convinced people would easily tell the difference between soulful human compositions, and the lifeless artefact of a machine. Cope accepted the challenge. On the appointed date, hundreds of lecturers, students and music fans assembled in the University of Oregon’s concert hall. At the end of the performance, a vote was taken. The result? The audience thought that EMI’s piece was genuine Bach, that Bach’s piece was composed by Larson, and that Larson’s piece was produced by a computer.

Critics continued to argue that EMI’s music is technically excellent, but that it lacks something. It is too accurate. It has no depth. It has no soul. Yet when people heard EMI’s compositions without being informed of their provenance, they frequently praised them precisely for their soulfulness and emotional resonance.

Following EMI’s successes, Cope created newer and even more sophisticated programs. His crowning achievement was Annie. Whereas EMI composed music according to predetermined rules, Annie is based on machine learning. Its musical style constantly changes and develops in reaction to new inputs from the outside world. Cope has no idea what Annie is going to compose next. Indeed, Annie does not restrict itself to music composition but also explores other art forms such as haiku poetry. In 2011 Cope published Comes the Fiery Night: 2,000 Haiku by Man and Machine. Of the 2,000 haikus in the book, some are written by Annie, and the rest by organic poets. The book does not disclose which are which. If you think you can tell the difference between human creativity and machine output, you are welcome to test your claim.

In the nineteenth century the Industrial Revolution created a huge new class of urban proletariats, in the twenty-first century we might witness the creation of a new massive class: people devoid of any economic, political or even artistic value, who contribute nothing to the prosperity, power and glory of society.

In September 2013 two Oxford researchers, Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne, published ‘The Future of Employment’, in which they surveyed the likelihood of different professions being taken over by computer algorithms within the next twenty years. The algorithm developed by Frey and Osborne to do the calculations estimated that 47 per cent of US jobs are at high risk. For example, there is a 99 per cent probability that by 2033 human telemarketers and insurance underwriters will lose their jobs to algorithms. There is a 98 per cent probability that the same will happen to sports referees, 97 per cent that it will happen to cashiers and 96 per cent to chefs. Waiters – 94 per cent. Paralegal assistants – 94 per cent. Tour guides – 91 per cent. Bakers – 89 per cent. Bus drivers – 89 per cent. Construction labourers – 88 per cent. Veterinary assistants – 86 per cent. Security guards – 84 per cent. Sailors – 83 per cent. Bartenders – 77 per cent. Archivists – 76 per cent. Carpenters – 72 per cent. Lifeguards – 67 per cent. And so forth. There are of course some safe jobs. The likelihood that computer algorithms will displace archaeologists by 2033 is only 0.7 per cent, because their job requires highly sophisticated types of pattern recognition, and doesn’t produce huge profits. Hence it is improbable that corporations or government will make the necessary investment to automate archaeology within the next twenty years.

Of course, by 2033 many new professions are likely to appear, for example, virtual-world designers. But such professions will probably require much more creativity and flexibility than your run-of-the-mill job, and it is unclear whether forty-year-old cashiers or insurance agents will be able to reinvent themselves as virtual-world designers (just try to imagine a virtual world created by an insurance agent!). And even if they do so, the pace of progress is such that within another decade they might have to reinvent themselves yet again. After all, algorithms might well outperform humans in designing virtual worlds too. The crucial problem isn’t creating new jobs. The crucial problem is creating new jobs that humans perform better than algorithms.

- Yuval Noah Harari, The Great Decoupling in Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

#yuval noah harari #the great decoupling #homo deus: a brief history of tomorrow #homo deus

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giantpredatorymollusk · 6 years ago

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This is a story about farming. It is quite long. I think it may be worth reading anyway, but unfortunately I have no way to prove it. I’ve also tried my best but I still don’t know if it actually makes perfect sense in every way? But it did all actually happen; so it all kind of has to make at least a little bit of sense, even if doesn’t really seem like it.

The trouble all started in 1901, when my great great grandfather emigrated to the United States from the modern-day Czech Republic and later, in 1911, bought a 90-acre farm there. Many years later, most of that farm came to belong to my grandfather, and roughly 10 years back he retired from his job selling tires at the tire store and started making the 40 mile drive north to the farm to spend his summer days there and plant a garden (in the area that wasn’t already rented out to be planted with soybeans.) Not long after that, he had enough produce to start selling stuff at a nearby farmers’ market in an upscale town, physically not far from the farm, although psychogeographically immensely distant from that chunk of desolate, isolated, fairly representative rural Ohio.

I was dragged in in the summer of 2015, from the end of June to the beginning of July, mostly pounding stakes into the ground so that the roughly 1000-1500 tomato plants that my grandfather had planted that year (with occasional help from my grandmother and uncle) could be tied up between them and the fruit wouldn’t lay on the ground and rot easily. I hated it there (in fairness, I probably would’ve hated anything that involved leaving the house during that time in my life) and when my dad got me out of it (by hiring me to help him paint a house) I quickly divested myself of the money I’d received there to wash my hands of the place and resolved never to go back. My dad was never in favor of me going to the farm, knowing as he did that the work could be dangerous (operating old, large, and unreliable tractors and backhoe with minimal training or safety precautions; running large, dangerous power saws in creative ways without the proper guards, gear, or safety precautions, mostly to put points on stakes; operating saws in an unsafe manner while standing in the raised bucket of the old and unreliable backhoe in order to trim trees; etc) and probably also suspected that I personally (especially then) was fairly vulnerable to being psychologically manipulated into performing difficult tasks that I was unhappy doing over a long period of time while being underpaid under some circumstances. Hmm.

I returned to the farm for the entirety of the summer of 2016. After barely surviving/graduating my senior year of high school that year I had given up on life and settled pretty quickly back into the routine of the daily back-and-forth farm trips. It is true that I was getting paid; it was also true that I was being challenged and learning things, mostly the basics of planting vegetables, like which plants were cold-season crops and which were warm-season and how far apart to space the transplants, and how a PTO works on a tractor; and it’s certainly a fact that on a personal level, I was still completely taken in by my grandfather’s wit and farm wisdom and overpowering managerial confidence. I made myself completely subordinate to him, and blamed myself when his ideas for what we should be doing next were completely obvious to him but rather opaque to me; I remember it frequently happening that he would tell me what to do and I would reflexively go off to do it, and then realize I was unclear on what he meant and have to timidly re-approach him for further instructions. This kind of slowed down the learning process. Much later I would also realize how superficial his constant confidence could be, and how it was often less the natural attitude of someone who knew what they were doing and more a tool he used to impress people into doing things without thinking too much about any of the potential alternatives. Also, according to my admittedly fallible memories, I was getting paid $35 per day for what were generally between 7 and 8 hour days. I was, in fact, 18 years old that year and probably could have gotten a different job that for one thing paid a better hourly wage and for another left me less reliant on the caprices of my family; but this was neither a thing that happened nor a thing that was expected from me, least of all by me. My internal world hadn’t expanded as I’d grown older; my universe of possibilities was limited to the things that were already present in my somewhat simple life. This was probably symptomatic of some larger problem or problems with the functionality of my brain at that point in my life.

One can become trapped in many different ways. You can be trapped in a specific city, or a zip code, or in a geographic region sorely lacking in cities, or one which they are considered entirely strange and outlandish things; in a job, in a career, in a lifestyle, or in a set of lifestyles considered realistic given your high school grades, ability to connect with others, and standing in society and life; in a friend group, or in an identity, or in a lack thereof, or in any number of the various rules and regulations that govern how one is allowed to interact with the rest of the human race; in a comedy, a tragedy, a pastoral narrative, or in any combination of the above kinds of story that one no longer wishes to be part of. For all I know, thanks to the stereotypical farm benefits of character building, meaningful work experiencing, and nature connecting-with, working at the farm for that year may have actually been good for me; nevertheless, I wish that it had been my last full summer there. I had showed up, learned some stuff, earned a small amount of money, and, in retrospect experienced at least the majority of what this particular 90 acre area of the planet had had to offer. Alas.

2017! This year, we had a pretty consistent schedule that I can remember clearly to this day: we left at 9:30 AM, when my grandfather would pull into my driveway and blow his horn, and got back between 7 and 8 o’clock at night. Built into that schedule is a one hour commute each way (we both lived about 40 miles away from the farm, which was actually inhabited by my uncle, who was often around and occasionally helped with the work but frequently made fairly abrasive and critical comments (if often correct) comments about it (for example, about the fact that our work day started so late in the morning)) and a daily grocery store stop for drinks for the cooler. I was the driver (once my grandfather’s problems with what I suspect is undiagnosed narcolepsy had almost killed us a couple of times) which you would think give me control over the stereo, but I quickly learned that my grandfather had pretty specific taste in music (country from the 50s and 60s) and a temperament unsuited to most podcasts. Obviously, most of that time in the daily schedule was taken up by the work day (so generally either planting tomatoes (which gets a little less rewarding after about the 500th one, which that year only put us at about a quarter of the way through the tomato plants, not counting the hundreds of eggplant, cabbage, and zucchini plants or the miscellaneous corn, squash, and beans), pounding stakes and tying string for the tomatoes, or harvesting tomatoes) which lay at the end of the lonely highway on a lonely work site at which the same 2-4 people showed up every day. (It became four people once you counted my younger brother, who came up to the farm that year until the start of marching band season got him out of it, and who fortunately made it his main job to get everyone to pack up and leave promptly at the end of the day. Once he stopped showing up, and even though I persuaded my grandfather to move the schedule up an hour so that we could get home earlier, we never left as consistently as we did when he was there; I didn’t have the stamina to find my grandfather (who didn’t carry a phone or a watch) and tell him what time it was at the end of the day every single day so that he could start to think about leaving.) I was being paid $40 a day, with a $20 bonus for market days once they started, which with our theoretically 35-hour work week ends up being about $6.29 an hour? Huh. In addition to the extra $20, the market season was nice because picking stuff is less tiring and more rewarding than planting stuff, and because I got to see way more people every day in the form of our market customers, even if I was interacting with them mainly through the intermediary of my grandfather.

Another nice thing is that this is the first year I have a decent photo album for! I started experimenting with old 35mm film cameras in late June and by early July I had my first interchangeable-lens digital camera, which I relied upon to keep my brain alive for large parts of the summer. I have… a lot of pictures from this season.

Finally, at the end of the year, I ended up in college. Any criticisms of my grandfather that I might offer up here have to be tempered by the fact that he did in fact drive me to the local (relatively) cheap higher-education dispenser and basically registered me for me (technically, I applied but there’s a 100% acceptance rate.) This was something I desperately wanted to do but was unable to make happen by myself. I won’t say that my grandfather every really understood the problems I went through while experiencing formal education, but as perhaps the member of my family least comfortable himself with the concept and culture of higher education, he was the most willing to notice and accept that I needed help getting started with it.

However, I did do quite badly that semester (I started out enrolled in 4.5 classes and ended enrolled in 2, with a C average) and going to the farm to work 4 days a week still (after morning classes and also on Saturday) did not help that except in that it provided a convenient distraction from it; an opportunity for me to distract myself from my frustrations by wearing myself out.

Why did I come back to the farm for 2018? I wasn’t happy there in 2017, I have the journal entries to prove it. Reasons: it was the path of least resistance, it was something I was more already familiar with than any other job, and my grandfather remained a very difficult person for me to say no to. (Also, he asked me (and my brother) to commit in midwinter, when it still seemed non-threatening and pretty far away.) The schedule was pretty much the same as I described for last year except that for some reason we went up 6 days a week as often as 5 (weather permitting.) My brother went up with us for the same period of time as he had previously, but was even more ornery this year than he was the last, which was an accomplishment; this didn’t stop me from being grateful for his presence. Mostly, I recruited him to work on whatever I was working on during the day, whenever I had a specific project: like building a fence around the second patch, or digging drainage ditches on the lawn, or moving the rainwater collection tank trailer to water stuff before Grandpa could realize that something that he didn’t plan for us was happening. My uncle became extremely fond of complaining that we were getting less done working on the same thing together than we might have working on different things far apart; this may have been true, but I was unwilling to test the theory.

As I implied above, I had a lot more freedom this year to pick projects that I thought needed to be done instead of following instructions all day, as long as I could seem confident about it under scrutiny later. I responded in two ways: I started wearing earbuds and listened to music and occasionally podcasts for most of the day, which was great except that it ruined earbuds and made me feel slightly spacey like I wasn’t even physically there sometimes, given that it was the main input that was actually making it to my brain, and I gave myself three new jobs. The first was to pick, display, and sell produce at a roadside stand that I set up back home (ideally without attracting too much attention from my uncle, who was doing the same thing); the second was to start picking for and selling at a new weekday farmers’ market; and the third was to fix an old dump truck that had been sitting in the back barn for the better part of the decade with a broken brake line, with the help of my dad, who came up to the farm a few days to show me what to actually do. The stand was very successful but 20% went to my mom for stocking it during the day and another 20% went to my grandfather for owning the farm; the new farmers’ market only required me to pay off my grandfather but had too many vendors for the customer base and was generally very slow; and the truck project was a huge disaster that consumed countless hours and brain cells: one brake line burst after another, we ended up having to remove and replace the two brake cylinders in each of the back wheels (which necessitated jacking the 12.5 ton vehicle up and removing both rear wheels and axles), the wiring for the lights was fucked from a previous botched repair job by a person or persons unknown, the bed needed to be attacked with the farm’s one working boom truck to get it to even move, and even after it was going up and down smoothly the hydraulic pump was occasionally leaking fluid, which I was neither qualified for or willing to try to fix; then, during the first test drive with a potential buyer, the radiator apparently exploded, and he convinced my grandfather to sell it to him for $1000, which was split between him, me, and my dad and uncle for helping (more or less.) I eventually calculated that with those three extra projects in addition to my regular salary (up $5 a day but without the weekly bonus, resulting in a net raise of $5 a week) I nearly made minimum wage working there that summer. (Hey, if Quinn is going to read this, I should probably note that minimum wage in Ohio was $8.15 an hour, at least when I wrote this, it’s up to $8.55 an hour now.)

Also, after going on three years of the whole “pull into Mitch’s driveway and blow the horn for a while” routine, the horn on my grandfather’s F-150 finally gave out and he locked the keys in my car while climbing inside of it to use its. (He did admit to this but also told me that I should never have left the keys inside of a car with “automatic locks.”) I had a much better spring semester this year, but it still wasn’t made easier by my 28 hours a week at the farm (plus the commute) right up until October 25th, when I finally quit.

Performance review:

Another part of my feelings about the farm that I have to mention is that the whole time I was there, I was pretty well aware that it was not nearly as productive as it should have been. One large part of this was just flawed soil management practices; by the time I got there, my grandfather had been planting mostly the same plants in mostly exactly the same spots for nearly 10 years, which is absolutely not how any of that is ever supposed to work. He sent soil samples away for analysis, got back reports prescribing long lists of fertilizers to be applied in massive quantities to help production, and then went back to using what he was planning on putting down anyway (mostly starting fertilizer (which we dragged around in 5 gallon buckets for the entire planting season), calcium spray to try to prevent previous years’ blossom end rot epidemics, and some poorly labeled sacks of miscellaneous stuff that he had gotten at a farm auction and that had been taking up space in a barn for years.) My grandfather’s managerial attitude was that all ideas were suspect unless they occurred to him first, which meant it sometimes required some stamina to get certain things done; he would ride up on the lawn mower and stare at you suspiciously if he wasn’t sure of exactly what you were doing.

Like this.

(Of course, the farm was not really run with the purpose of maximizing production, anyway. My grandfather kept it going year after year initially because he was retired, and wanted something to take up his time, and because he wanted to turn himself into a farmer; later, he got the idea that he was going to turn me into one.)

The other main obstacle to growth was the fact that we were surrounded by 80 acres of soybean fields that were at a slightly higher elevation than our plants, which meant that 2 inches of rainfall was more than enough to flood the place. This is not actually a good thing for any plant’s growth (except for cucumbers, and I guess sometimes zucchini.) I ended up (with my brother) digging hundreds of feet of drainage ditches in 2018 to try to combat this. Like, with a shovel. We had a trencher, but its hydraulic pump leaked fluid like a sieve, which had prevented it from being used for years, kind of like that dump truck I mentioned fixing earlier. Other broken down equipment included two boom trucks (one of which was specifically designed just to lay railroad ties), two full-size tractors (an Oliver and a Farm-All), a handful of mechanical tractor attachments that lay scattered throughout the barn-adjacent grass, a smallish red Troy-Bilt riding lawn mower, and a 1963 Buick Riviera.

On a personal level, going to the farm every day felt like dying? It was long hours of difficult, tedious, low-paid work in a desolate and isolated location. It was sort of like a sensory deprivation chamber, but for thoughts and feelings instead of for senses. On one hand, I regret every single miserable second of it, and hope to never see the place again for as long as I somehow manage to live (sadly unlikely); on the other hand, I do think it made me more appreciative of the moments when I do feel like I’m alive in the world, even when they’re not exactly easy ones. I have more enthusiasm for certain types of fear now, like driving to a strange and distant city to see a band play by myself, actually talking to the host in the AirBNB there, and descending into a strange subway system without really knowing how I’m going to get anywhere I’m trying to go from there; or signing up for classes for next semester without knowing exactly what they’ll be like, and talking to the strange person sitting next to me, or even just emailing the professor to ask for an explanation of an assignment that I don’t understand. It reminds me that I’m not as trapped anymore.

This contradicts what I want to be true, which is that the farm was just a background event in my life, instead of something that defined it for all of those years. The things that I was doing in the background of this, the story about farming, were the things I now realize were actually important to me at the time: taking those pictures, going back to school, the music I was listening to while I was out in the field, pounding in tomato stakes… I was also re-learning the piano in the evenings when I still had the energy. Unfortunately, the farm did define that part of my life to a large extent because of the way it served as an obstacle to me pursuing those things. The thing is, I wasn’t really trapped there, in any real physical or consequential sense; the farm took over my life because I was unable to recognize and act on the fact that I did have access to real sources of happiness.

Also, I guess the whole time I was technically committing tax evasion?

Anyway, whenever I see one of those posts about how nice it would be just to leave society and go live on a farm or something, this is what I’m thinking of.

#yes. long. maybe save this for when you already know that you're going to be bored #if anyone actually makes it to the end please interact

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donnywhy · 3 years ago

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Lately I've been thinking of getting a motorcycle. I've got my license, I just need to stroll into the dealership, pick my bike, and throw down a few g's. Part of my renewed want in a motorcycle is for practical purposes. The van that I live in is large and cumbersome and sometimes when I want to make a short run to the store or to pick up a bottle of wine I feel guilty that I have to pilot this massive, fuel hungry, moving structure for a simple errand. The other part that attracts me to the idea of purchasing another bike is that I miss the memories of bombing down hills on a comically small displacement motorcycle.

I've ridden bigger bikes but small displacement is more fun. They are slower but they are more dangerous. You don't have that big engine with all that power to zoom out of trouble. With a smaller engine you pay more for mistakes and the knowledge of this keeps your mind more connected with your surroundings. As you cut through the wind the mind builds this image of your environment and fills in blind spots with intuition. The brain maps trajectories of cars, registers sounds of engines that are out of sight, evaluates the contour of the road, takes in the road signs, understands where the bike is in its power band, and it creates a perfect orchestra of environment and ability to weave through it.

Another reason I prefer small engines is because they are simpler and rely on older easy to understand technologies. This isn't to say that I'm an old technology buff. I just like when I can fit ideas inside of my head and newer bikes with big engines have gotten terribly complicated. Its hard to imagine how the bike functions with all the electronic systems getting in the way and worst of all, if something broke I wouldn't know how to fix it. Fuel, engine, spark, compression. The more the function deviates from these simple principles the less manageable and less attractive it becomes.

As a short aside, I do maintain that I'm not an old technology buff. I realized this recently when I went to a sake bar that was playing Japanese funk on a single 12-inch audiophile quality turntable. A friend had asked if I liked the sound of vinyl and the question was confusing at first but eventually my mind snapped to and I realized the question was meant to be, do I like the romantic notion of antiquated technology. The answer is no. Or to be precise, vinyl is just the medium and I don't attach any value statement to it. In the case of music, there are two over-arching ways in which I categorize listening to it. The first is the aesthetic way of listening to music. Does it sound pleasant? The second is the technical way of viewing music. Is it being reproduced as faithfully as possible to the live playing? Of the two, I care about the latter. I want to hear the musicians and the imperfections of the performance. I want to hear the finger brush against the guitar string or the cough in the background.

This seems opposite of my like of old technology on bikes but the difference is that I can hold sound reproduction in my mind. There is no mystery in the digitization of analog acoustic waves and reproduction on analog speakers. Furthermore I'm acutely aware of the imperfections of vinyl pressings. The dust in the grooves that will interfere with the sound. The eventual wearing down of the peaks and valleys that give the sound 'warmth' is just loss of fidelity. The fact that the outer parts of a 12-inch record has less information density than the inner parts by virtue of its larger circumference and the need to maintain the same rotational speed.

I guess what I am trying to say and what I am coming to understand is that I think function is beautiful and that traditional aesthetic is secondary to me. For motorcycles I care about the parameters that a small bike impresses on the rider. The speed restriction. The maintainability. In playing music I care about the reproduction. If I close my eyes how close does it get to having the artist in front of me. The age of the technology that brings these qualities doesn't matter. I don't know if you can attach a rightness or wrongness to viewing the world like this but this is how I see the world. I love the function and think deeply about the qualities of the function.

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yogaadvise · 4 years ago

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YogaHub Teacher Spotlight: Chris Flack

All people at YogaHub are really excited to reveal the brand-new YogaHub Instructor Limelights on our blog site. Every 3-4 weeks, we'll tell the story of one of our gorgeous trainers. Enjoy!

Chris Flack informs us regarding his yoga journey by breaking down his experience with reflection, as well as uses helpful meditation tips!

www.UnPlug.ie

I meditate 24×7. I, am a legend.

... I do not as well as, I'm not. When I started meditating I'm quite certain that was my goal.

On a yoga resort ten years ago we did a walking reflection as well as, I won. I 'd absorbed the environments, considered what I was mosting likely to have for supper and also what yoga exercise pose I could photograph to look awesome on my new Facebook account. I was the fastest to the midway point and also was pleased with myself. At that factor the trainer discreetly informed the group that the idea was to be your slowest self. Heading back I remained in last area the entire means. I remember believing to myself, " I am a tale".

Five years later, pressing myself as difficult as I might for success in the company globe I wound up burnt-out as well as was identified with depression.

Today I practice meditation two times daily. Am I worry totally free? No. Yet I have an extremely active life and also this is an essential component to maintain me solid. My emphasis is extra acute, my rest deeper, and also I do everything slower. That does not indicate I do not get points done, yet I observe initially then respond. An easy instance would be being reduced up on my bike when cycling to work (generally other bikers with earphones). Previously I might have right away screamed '**** off you ****** **** arsehole", whereas currently, I 'd stop as well as possibly silently mumble "arsehole" (nobody is perfect). The advantages, however, just really came when I began doing it frequently, and also yet among the obstacles to meditation for a lot of is locating time. this post will hopefully bring some light to how to remove such barriers.

Why is this relevant to you? Being stressed out is currently normal. The pace of contemporary life indicates the majority of us are conditioned to be on vehicle pilot and in a haze of ideas 24×7. It's as if we get on a continuous adrenaline drip as well as whilst that aids us endure challenges, being ' constantly on' is not sustainable. As mindfulness expert Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn explains: " We have Stone Age minds in a digital globe,".

If we assume of this continuous sound creating a practice of interruption, meditation is one option to bring us back to the here and now moment. Each time we do it we are exercising a mental workout to strengthen the routine of focus.

Meditation is usually marketed as bells and smells which does not interest everyone. Thankfully this is changing (although I personally enjoy the scents and bells!) and also right here's why:

1) The evolution of mindfulness means meditation is currently clinically proven.

Just to get the definitions out the method here's mine (some individuals might not agree with these however they're how I separate both):

Meditation is a formal method (there are many strategies which I'll go on to in my next message "I'm a meditation flirt"), to focus on today minute without reasoning ie. the image of the individual sitting with their eyes closed. Transcendental Meditation (emphasis on a specific concept in an official practice).

Mindfulness is an informal practice to focus on today minute with no judgement. ie. something we can do in whatever we do. Jon Kabat-Zinn took this mainstream when he established MBSR (Mindfulness Based Tension Reduction) taking this ancient word for recognition, constructing a clinical situation for huge well-being benefits and making it something any person can do by providing it in a secular way. For instance, mindful strolling (ie. practising a normal task however simply doing that point (single tasking), no listening to music or inspecting your snapstreak).

2) Science (neuroplasticity) has confirmed we can improve our brain physical fitness at any type of age.

And why is this important? Workout just truly removed when scientists started to show the advantages. The large difference there was that it gives more pleasure principle towards goals such as limited buns and a six pack.

Celebrity endorsement as well as glossy products like Headspace as well as Buddhify go some way to make it attractive but unlike physical health and wellness, you can disappoint off your mind health and wellness in a bikini so it will certainly be a slow-moving revolution

3) Being 'always on' produces a habit of interruption as well as mediation does the contrary. Most of us struggle in the present interest economic climate and also yet those diversions are only going to obtain stronger. I'm a little prejudice right here as I run UnPlug, a individuals advancement company that runs business programmes to assist individuals develop focus in a distracted world. Disconnect programmes provide behavior change as well as conscious practice is a tiny element of what we do yet a very essential part.

I am confident that (3) will imply meditation and mindfulness become mainstream as it will certainly not simply be a method to aid us with enhanced well-being however an exercise to make use of to maintain focus in an ever disruptive world.

So here are my meditation tips (note: I am not a professional. I'm somebody experienced fatigue, was identified with depression and also researched reflection as one of the approaches to preserve good brain wellness as well as it's functioned):

- Reflection is not a magic pill, it does not treat anxiety, turn you into a hippy or make Trump disappear. If you have a trouble you require to handle, reflection will, however, assistance as a coping device. As the ABC anchorman Dan Harris created it makes him " 10% Happier". For me, I see more concentrate on favorable and also much less on unfavorable in my life. Absolutely nothing remarkable yet gradually that shift is fundamental.

- Reflection is simple however difficult to practice. When starting arbitration, we wind up in a ferocious circle. We try to block out ideas and all of a sudden create anxiety that we can not practice meditation. If we really did not have thoughts it would be like doing bicep swirls without weights. Assume of it rather than not giving the thoughts your interest. When we sleep, we usually have a mind full of ideas and also the much less focus we offer to those thoughts the more unwinded we become. The difference is that we practice meditation with a straight spinal column (so our nerve system is energetic and, preferably (!) we don't fall asleep).

- With the ' constantly on' society this is becoming harder. Nonetheless, what we have to remember is that the very best things we have actually found out have actually come with practice.

- You possibly do not have time to practice meditation. When you practice meditation for some time you'll really have more time as your life will have even more focus. Also if it's simply 2 minutes a day, do it regularly as opposed to binging. Practice is hard yet fool your system by beginning small.

- Meditation can set you back nothing to countless bucks. However, it's worth considering this is your mind wellness. We invest thousands on our exterior appearance and rarely consider our brain health, commonly getting to for tablets when we are worried. One of the most typical anti anxiety medication on the market supplies males the beautiful side result of erectile dysfunction. If being dispirited wasn't bad enough.

- It is necessary to find what jobs for you. Behaviors just develop when we such as something. If tibetan bells or silent retreats make you wince take into consideration a non-traditional reflection such as colouring in books or calligraphy (the trick is to do something you take pleasure in and also single job). Or if your mind is really busy try a more energetic meditation such as strolling or dancing. It's everything about discovering an anchor for your thoughts that functions for you and your present circumstance. I made use of to contemplate the way to work when I resided in Delhi, my emphasis was on the material stream of noise. My mom reviews her prayers every early morning. She's simply doing that a person thing (there's no Sweet Crush in one hand whilst listening to Radio 2 as well as reviewing her prayers). Consider the words utilized. If you're ill of seeing ' Mindfulness' or ' Meditation' in your newsfeed after that take a leaf out of worldwide firm Mondelez's publication. Julia Freeman created a program that never uses those words, instead it utilizes the adhering to words as well as it's been a big success.

Meditation is one point you can do to boost your mind health/fitness. Sleep, nutrition, relationships as well as workout are equally as crucial as well as I'll discuss how I preserve total brain fitness in a future post.

Even if its' just 2 minutes. Do it daily. Change is a procedure not an occasion so try to make it a habit but see to it you start small.

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this short article I would certainly value a share. 🙏

Chris is Chief Executive Officer and Creator of UnPlug. Reflection is just one of his individual passions. UnPlug aids people handle digital interruptions resulting in boosted focus. The UnPlug team includes psychologists, technology and neuroscience professionals. Conscious method is a little part of UnPlug's behavioural modification programmes.

#bikram yoga #hot yoga #meditating #meditation #meditation tips #pilates #yoga

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chanel-christine-blog · 8 years ago

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Hey! Okay. First things first. You have to calm down yourself. You can't do anything if you're stressed out. Here we go. It's something I recommend a lot around here. Find a quiet spot somewhere. Doesn't have to be your study place. Could be outside if the weather is fair. But it should be quiet and you don't get disturbed. Shut down all digital devices. No laptops. No cellphones. Nothing. You ready? Okay. Sit yourself down. Back straight. Don't slouch. Now, close your eyes. Shift your attention to your breathing. Try to focus on the air passing through your chest. You feel that? Don't change your breathing though. Just try to notice it without changing it. Keep it up. Keep doing that. Okay. Now, you're mind is going to go bonkers. You won't be able to keep this up. After a minute or two, you're going to be thinking about all the other stuff in your life. But here's the thing. This is a game. Try to be aware of what is happening. Of the thoughts and feelings passing through your head. Instead of engaging with them, just notice that they pass through your brain and then shift your attention back to your breathing. Don't judge, don't feed your fear, don't feed your anxiety. Just notice and shift back to your breathing. Don't get frustrated if you feel you can't keep up. That's normal. Just keep trying. Now, do this for the next 15 to 30 minutes. Congratulations. You just learned to meditate. You should practice that each and every day. Like, each evening before you go to bed. Or each morning before you get coffee. Your brain is like a muscle. Try to get from 15 minutes to 1 hour. That's a challenge. Why is this important? Well, we all live in our own minds. We are easily distracted and then we start to ruminate and worry. If you indulge yourself into negative thinking, you're going to foster anxieties and fears and depression. The idea is to not feed those. Through meditation, you learn to become mindful, to become aware of what happens in your head. Of how you feel. And instead of focussing on a single narrative - like you flunking massively, and then going into depression and then going to die - you're going to take a distance of those negative thoughts and you're going to question them. Seriously. So. You flunk your exams. Your parents are angry with you. And now you are clueless about your life. And from there, it seems like a short step to death. Doesn't that sound... a bit over the top? Let's break it down. Will you automagically die if you fail? Nah. Not really. You'll still be alive. Probably your going have to redo those exams or those courses. Will your parents stay angry? Hmm... they've been angry before, do they stay angry? Nope. They might be disappointed, but that's to be expected. But being angry and disappointed, that's wasted energy. Your parents still love you to bits, they are just worried about you and your future. Summer is coming? Sweet! You had nothing to do? Hm... Why would that be? Did you plan in advance? Did you sit yourself down for an hour and think "what's the top 3 stuff I really want to do in the next few months"? Or were you just idling your time away only to notice afterwards "Fuck, I didn't do anything worthwhile and now I'm here" Also, exams are like a tennis match. You play several sets. The outcome is determined by how many games and sets you win. Guess what. Tennis is a mental game. If you start losing games, you start to become anxious because you think "can't afford to lose more games, but dammit I've lost already, I'm not doing well, how am I going to win this? Never going to happen! Argh!!" See what I did there? Serena Williams wins because she doesn't think like that. Serena Williams wins because she goes "Lost that last game. Damn. Okay. Nothing I can do about that. But hey, I'm still good. I love doing this. I love my life. Let's see if I can win the next game." Totally different way of thinking. This is POSITIVE thinking compared to NEGATIVE thinking. And that's what makes all the difference in ANYTHING you do in life. So, you probably fucked up at those last exams. You can't change anything about that. It happened. Don't beat yourself up. You still have work to do. Don't dwell on the past. Use meditative techniques to shift your focus to the present moment. You NEED to study for the next exam. You can DO this. Don't spend energy on whatever is distracting you. Stop worrying. Don't use digital devices. Don't watch television. Don't game. It's you and the book in front of you. Take care of yourself!! Get in bed on time. Don't stay up late. Get 8 hours of solid shut-eye. You can't function if you don't sleep enough. Stay off the sugared soda's. Drink water. Hydrate regularly. Try to eat healthy stuff. Stay off sugared candy if you can. Sugar messes with your brain. Sugar addiction is a thing and makes you feel miserable. Make sure you get out! Get a 5 minute break after an hour of studying. Go for a walk. Don't stay inside on your chair. Move!! Try to get a routine in your day. Wake up at the same hour, study at the same hours. Be economic with your time! Try to work out twice a week. Go to the gym. Go running. Break a sweat in a sport you find fun and engaging. Exercise takes your mind of difficult stuff for a few hours. You NEED this if you want to keep going. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. You can't keep sprinting ALL the time. You need to pace. Don't try to cling onto your parents expectations of your studies if you feel you can't meet them. Own up to it and tell them you're in trouble if you feel like your working towards something unattainable. Don't keep pursuing a degree if you feel that this is not something within your own possibilities. Then you'd be only wasting your own precious time. Do the work instead of thinking about off'ing yourself. That's all it is. Best of luck! EDIT This is a bit overwhelming. I know mental health is a huge issue but I'm still surprised to see how much of an impact my comment has made. I would like to thank all of you profoundly for the upvotes, the kind replies and messages. I skimmed through the discussions here and in /r/bestof and I would like to add a few things. Mindfulness is not a magic bullet. It won't 'cure' you magicallly after a few sessions of doing this. Think of it like brushing and flossing your teeth. You'll still have your feelings and emotions, but regular practice helps to keep away from spiralling off in unhealthy thinking patterns. If you are diagnosed with a clinical condition - depression, BPD, ADHD,... - meditation won't cure you either. It could be a helpful tool, yes, but you'll still need to follow the medical treatment your therapist prescribed you. I'm not a therapist. I'm someone pretty average. I reply to posts on /r/offmychest when they resonate with me. At one point or another, I too have struggled with similar issues (school, girls, job, health,...). I have an awesome therapist who taught me how to meditate without all the big theories. He organises a weekly sangha which I attend regularly. I still find myself ruminating at times, because just like you, life has handed me my own set of problems and worries to deal with. I've learned to recognise that this is part of who I am as a human being. Approaching myself as a whole human being with kindness and compassion has been a huge step up for me. It's still not always easy, but then again, nobody ever said life would be easy. I found that working out is a very extremely helpful. As a rockclimber, I have to be mindful if I attempt to send a route. Instead of losing myself in all the stuff that can go wrong or worrying about taking a 20 feet fall, I live in the present moment. I mentally reduce my world to myself, the rockface and the next move I'm about to make while I accept whatever will come in the next few seconds. I don't beat myself up if I don't get there at first. Sometimes, it takes multiple days or even weeks to tackle a hard route. I've been born and raised into the christian belief system, but I'm not a relgious person. I found out that I do identify myself broadly with some of the tenets of Buddhism as I approach my own human experience.

#reddit

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i-never-need-sleep · 8 years ago

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“Dont know anymore”

The reason behind the comment below was them giving advice to someone dealing with anxiety and depression. I am sharing this here because I know there are people in similar situations that could benefit from some of the points they made. This is not my writing, this was obligatorily stolen from r/offmychest by u/ captLights.

“Hey!

Okay. First things first. You have to calm down yourself. You can't do anything if you're stressed out. Here we go. It's something I recommend a lot around here. Find a quiet spot somewhere. Doesn't have to be your study place. Could be outside if the weather is fair. But it should be quiet and you don't get disturbed. Shut down all digital devices. No laptops. No cellphones. Nothing. You ready? Okay. Sit yourself down. Back straight. Don't slouch. Now, close your eyes. Shift your attention to your breathing. Try to focus on the air passing through your chest. You feel that? Don't change your breathing though. Just try to notice it without changing it. Keep it up. Keep doing that.

Okay. Now, you're mind is going to go bonkers. You won't be able to keep this up. After a minute or two, you're going to be thinking about all the other stuff in your life. But here's the thing. This is a game. Try to be aware of what is happening. Of the thoughts and feelings passing through your head. Instead of engaging with them, just notice that they pass through your brain and then shift your attention back to your breathing. Don't judge, don't feed your fear, don't feed your anxiety. Just notice and shift back to your breathing. Don't get frustrated if you feel you can't keep up. That's normal. Just keep trying.

Now, do this for the next 15 to 30 minutes. Congratulations. You just learned to meditate. You should practice that each and every day. Like, each evening before you go to bed. Or each morning before you get coffee. Your brain is like a muscle. Try to get from 15 minutes to 1 hour. That's a challenge.

Why is this important? Well, we all live in our own minds. We are easily distracted and then we start to ruminate and worry. If you indulge yourself into negative thinking, you're going to foster anxieties and fears and depression. The idea is to not feed those. Through meditation, you learn to become mindful, to become aware of what happens in your head. Of how you feel. And instead of focusing on a single narrative - like you flunking massively, and then going into depression and then going to die - you're going to take a distance of those negative thoughts and you're going to question them.

Seriously.

So. You flunk your exams. Your parents are angry with you. And now you are clueless about your life. And from there, it seems like a short step to death.

Doesn't that sound... a bit over the top? Let's break it down.

Will you automagically die if you fail? Nah. Not really. You'll still be alive. Probably your going have to redo those exams or those courses. Will your parents stay angry? Hmm... they've been angry before, do they stay angry? Nope. They might be disappointed, but that's to be expected. But being angry and disappointed, that's wasted energy. Your parents still love you to bits, they are just worried about you and your future. Summer is coming? Sweet! You had nothing to do? Hm... Why would that be? Did you plan in advance? Did you sit yourself down for an hour and think "what's the top 3 stuff I really want to do in the next few months"? Or were you just idling your time away only to notice afterwards "Fuck, I didn't do anything worthwhile and now I'm here"

Also, exams are like a tennis match. You play several sets. The outcome is determined by how many games and sets you win. Guess what. Tennis is a mental game. If you start losing games, you start to become anxious because you think "can't afford to lose more games, but dammit I've lost already, I'm not doing well, how am I going to win this? Never going to happen! Argh!!" See what I did there? Serena Williams wins because she doesn't think like that. Serena Williams wins because she goes "Lost that last game. Damn. Okay. Nothing I can do about that. But hey, I'm still good. I love doing this. I love my life. Let's see if I can win the next game." Totally different way of thinking. This is POSITIVE thinking compared to NEGATIVE thinking. And that's what makes all the difference in ANYTHING you do in life.

So, you probably fucked up at those last exams. You can't change anything about that. It happened. Don't beat yourself up. You still have work to do. Don't dwell on the past. Use meditative techniques to shift your focus to the present moment. You NEED to study for the next exam. You can DO this. Don't spend energy on whatever is distracting you. Stop worrying. Don't use digital devices. Don't watch television. Don't game. It's you and the book in front of you.

Take care of yourself!! Get in bed on time. Don't stay up late. Get 8 hours of solid shut-eye. You can't function if you don't sleep enough. Stay off the sugared soda's. Drink water. Hydrate regularly. Try to eat healthy stuff. Stay off sugared candy if you can. Sugar messes with your brain. Sugar addiction is a thing and makes you feel miserable. Make sure you get out! Get a 5 minute break after an hour of studying. Go for a walk. Don't stay inside on your chair. Move!! Try to get a routine in your day. Wake up at the same hour, study at the same hours. Be economic with your time! Try to work out twice a week. Go to the gym. Go running. Break a sweat in a sport you find fun and engaging. Exercise takes your mind of difficult stuff for a few hours. You NEED this if you want to keep going.

Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. You can't keep sprinting ALL the time. You need to pace. Don't try to cling onto your parents expectations of your studies if you feel you can't meet them. Own up to it and tell them you're in trouble if you feel like your working towards something unattainable. Don't keep pursuing a degree if you feel that this is not something within your own possibilities. Then you'd be only wasting your own precious time.

Do the work instead of thinking about off'ing yourself. That's all it is.

Best of luck!”

This’ll probably go nowhere but hey, never know.

#anxiety #depression #advice #meditation #suicidal mention #in the op that is #just in case #kinda long

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conversationswithhank · 8 years ago

Photo

(Side Note: I knew this day was coming, but it crept up on me all the same. This is our 1000th conversation over on our main blog (www.conversationswithhank.com) and it is so fitting. This post wasn’t planned it simply worked out as it should. Thank you so much, all of our readers, for peeking into our daily lives one conversation at a time, for embracing the analog nature of our format in a hyper digital world and for getting to know Hank and Molly without ever seeing their faces. A lot of you have questioned if these conversations are real over the last four years and I will always stand by the fact that they have to be! I could not make these up if I tried. I am a writer, but I am not capable of inventing this kind of magic. I am merely the scribe who is blessed with a remarkable family, with my very best family. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, ~ Joy (aka Me)

****************************************************************************************************

Hank: Mama?

Me: (exhausted, icing my hands, end of the day sofa slump before dinner) Hum?

Hank: Are you still working on your book?

Me: Everyday.

Hank: And writing your blog?

Me: Monday-Friday.

Hank: And working at the Casa de Memoria (The House of Memory) doing pottery?

Me: When there is a tour group.

Hank: (looking at my hands holding frozen gel packs) But you aren’t drawing and painting anymore.

Me: Oh, I am in my imagination.

Hank: Oh! You’re so smart, Mama. I like that you are an artist and a writer and you do so much all the time. It is like you have two jobs.

Me: It is like I have multiple jobs. Let’s count: I am a mom.

Hank: Is that really a job?

Me: An often thankless 24 hour a day 7 days a week for 18 years but really for the rest of your life kind of job.

Hank: Oh.

Me: I write the blog and I promote the blog, rather poorly I am afraid to admit.

Hank: Right.

Me: I do freelance writing.

Hank: That is when people ask you to write stuff for their blogs or magazines and stuff.

Me: Yup. Then I also work freelance doing wheel thrown pottery instruction and present the Cantarinhas dos Namorados keeping the local tradition alive. You know there are only three potters left who know how to make them the specific way we do in Guimarães?

Hank: And you are one of them.

Me: Isn’t that sublime. I’m just a little girl from Indiana carrying on traditions that date back to the 16thcentury.

Hank: Annnnnnnnd you are writing your book.

Me: I have written many, many books. Mostly short stories, fairytales, gothic macabre fairy tales, children’s books and now a longer book that takes up most of my day, but hardly feels like work it is so much fun getting this story out of my brain and on to paper.

Hank: The book made you cry today. You were crying when we left your computer.

Me: That happened, yup. (whispers) That is a sign things are going well.

Hank: And you are going to publish this book.

Me: Publishing is the longest and hardest and last part to writing a book. I am going to finish this long book, then I am going to edit it, I am going to ask a couple trusted friends to read it and give their opinions, then I will start shopping around the first chapter to literary agents. There are other ways to publish if I catch no one’s interest, but what is important is the work. What is most important to me, with all my jobs, is that I do and make good work. Without question good work always is the best reward.

Hank: You do so much.

Me: And I am blessed to be able to work just enough to support my family and enjoy my life. My grandpa Hof taught me that.

Hank: He’s the one you called Bubb?

Me: And he called me Bubb right back. He taught me to work just enough to be stable so you have plenty of time to be happy and to really live. He was like me. He worked at Mullins Mills as the overtime night foreman making bathtubs and kitchen cabinets, but he also had a greenhouse where he grew chrysanthemums and he had standard bred horses and he was the papa to four kids and he had chickens and ducks and rabbits and a half acer farm and a big old house. He had many little jobs all giving him the freedom for happiness. He didn’t love working at the mill, but it helped pay the bills and my grandmother was a music teacher in the public schools and she was also a choir director at the Presbyterian Church and all those little and big jobs brought in money and kept the lights on, sometimes it was a stretch, sometimes it was stressful, but they were happy and made happiness a priority. There are some people who believe that you should have one career. One important job that lifts you up, gives you status, affords you more than what is needed. Don’t get me wrong, Hank, money makes things easier but money does not buy you happiness. Sometimes the best way to live your best life is to live contrary to how other people think you should and focus on your best life and live it creatively. Your papa and I are very creative.

Hank: Because science is the same as art. You have to imagine and invent and make your ideas real and work hard and prove stuff.

Me: That is right. I wouldn’t want to live any other life than a creative life. I have tried and it made me very sick from unhappiness.

Hank: That’s possible?

Me: It is very easy to fall into that trap, but because your papa and I are both creatives we support each other, really listen when we’re in crisis or at an impasse, we can adjust our schedules, help brainstorm possible solutions and as a team we make this wonderful life work. It wouldn’t be everyone’s best life, but it is our best life.

Hank: But papa is always stressed.

Me: Do not take that personally, not one day, mister. That is just how your papa is and it has nothing to do with you or I or his job that is just how he functions. That is his way of being, but this is why we are both so balanced him and me.

Hank: You’re never stressed.

Me: Rarely. Your papa is serious and I am silly. I bring the fun, although your papa is the funniest person I have ever met and clearly the funniest person in this house although Molly is giving him a run for his money.

Hank: (giggling) I love our life. I don’t know what my life will be like when I am an adult, but I am happy now and I want to be happy then, too.

Me: Your happiness is paramount. Happiness makes you rich, not money and certainly not fame. Cultivate it like a garden: tend it, nurture it, feed it and make sure it never withers and dies.

Hank: That is the saddest thing I have ever imagined.

Me: I am gonna be real with you. (holding up my swollen arthritic hands) I got a lot stacked against me, but I am the richest woman in the world. I love my life, I love my family and I am so very incredibly blessed. I would not change a single thing and I wouldn’t trade our life for anything in the world.

Hank: Me, neither.

Me:

Hank:

Me:

Hank: Mama, when will you be done writing?

Me: Never.

Hank:

Me:

Hank: That wasn’t the answer I wanted, but I like that answer.

Me: (grinning)

#1000 #1000 blog post (on main blog)#1000th #1000 conversations #conversations with hank #good work #happiness #do good work #writer #writers life #spoonie #chronically ill #rheumatoid arthritis #the hustle #my best life #our best life #blog milestone

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datastician · 5 years ago

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MIT’s SDSCon 2018

Today, I am going to give you a fairly detailed rundown of the day’s events at MIT’s Statistics and Data Science Conference, or SDSCon2018, which took place this past Friday at MIT's campus in Cambridge, MA. The intimate track of thought leaders, from both industry and academia, was sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton, Google, TalkingData, WorldQuant, facebook research, QuantPort (formerly Jeffries) and Thomson Reuters. It was a single track so I will do my best to exhaustively recount the day. I will state that the level of detail that I have given to each talk is biased entirely by my own personal interest in the speaker and their content.

Devavrat Shah and Michael Sipser, MIT

This was just the opening remarks. Pretty boilerplate. Lots of thank yous.

Leonid Mirny - MIT: http://mirnylab.mit.edu/

In my opinion, this was a tough one to open things up with for the day. Imagine if you will a single strand of DNA. A ten-meter strand of it all folded over itself to fit inside a space smaller than a cubic micrometer. Prof. Mirny’s research is on the problem of modeling how this is folded over, based on adjacencies and proximity mappings. And how they model it is with this notion of loops in the DNA that they refer to as “motor proteins” that run up a segment of the DNA such that a bight of the strand is passed through (example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FW6gOx5lPI). When this happens enough, this functions as a compression to the DNA. Now, I have no idea how on earth they will ever be able to confirm that this is in fact happening. I understand that they do not need to observe it visually, but this is one of those aspects of the physical sciences at the extremes in size (ie., particle or astronomical) that I feel like I will never fully grok until I have a sound understanding of the capabilities of the observational instrumentation that allows scientists that operate in these extremes to make observations. So it goes.

Joshua Tenenbaum - MIT: http://web.mit.edu/cocosci/josh.html

I’ve seen Prof. Tenenbaum speak before, perhaps at this event in a previous year or incarnation, but he is great and I highly recommend anything recent from him (a quick search reveals several records on YouTube: https://www.google.com/search?q=joshua+tenenbaum&source=lnms&tbm=vid). His talk was primarily addressing the circumstance in data science that more closely models an actual human learning moment: seeing something once and being able to distinguish it from other similar but still different items going forward. This is called “one-shot learning”, and he addresses this problem with the employment of Bayesian models to generate data in support of one-shot learning applications, such as image recognition.

Everybody in this space is familiar with the MNIST data set for handwritten digit recognition. Well, rather than training a model with thousands of examples, his research starts with a single example; and instead of building a representation of all the conceivable ways in which the digit appears in a training set, he attempts to model how one would write this digit using Bayesian modeling that introduce noise to auto-generated digits in order to simulate training examples. Not fully recalling the punchline, but I’m assuming from here, you can compute similarities? I will have to look this one up again. The idea was compelling, though, since when we humans are introduced to numerals and characters, we are usually trying to recreate them in the context of handwriting. It almost reminded me of a convolution in neural network image processing, only rather than breaking an image into smaller patches, the character “3”, for example, is broken into two incomplete clockwise circles stacked vertically.

Something that cannot be easily taught to robots is assistance with unannounced tasks. With respect to this point, there were several interesting examples illustrated. In the first, a man walks into a closed cabinet twice with his hands full of books then steps out of the way for a 1.5-year old child to determine that the man needs help and that by opening the cabinet, he would help the man, and so he opens the cabinet. Similarly, a 3-year old child begins playing with blocks that he has never seen before and quickly determines the optimal stacking strategy. These are both things that robots cannot do without explicit guidance. There is an interesting body of work here that can certainly contribute to the end of humanity. But that probably won’t happen for at least 5 years.

Piotr Indyk - MIT: https://people.csail.mit.edu/indyk/

This talk put me completely and utterly out of my depth. Very much an algorithm design computer science subject matter expert, but one that totally eludes my interest. There was a lot of NP complete/big O notation type content that really doesn’t concern me in my day to day work, perhaps to my detriment. So, I politely absented myself and took a call.

Sendhil Mullainathan - Harvard: https://scholar.harvard.edu/sendhil

Prof. Mullainathan (Prof M) from Harvard looked familiar but I can’t place from where. Nevertheless, his talk involved a use case around the prediction of which patients presenting complaints or symptoms associated with heart attack should be stress tested/catheterized for intervention. This reminded me a lot of my System Dynamics course in grad school in Boston (well, not Boston specifically, more outside of Boston…no, not Tufts), when we discussed the rapid adoption of pacemakers in the 1970s and 1980s despite the presence of effective and less invasive interventions. I recall my 28-year old self raising my hand and asking the professor, “Well, shucks, don’t the doctors get handsomely paid for routine surgeries, and therefore, they have an incentive to install as many pacemakers as they possibly can?” to which my professor warned, “Careful, son, you are making an ethical assumption there which would be the subject of a different class altogether”. After all, we all know not a single person has ever entered the medical profession for financial gain.

Flash forward to this talk, Prof M actually acknowledged right at the outset the presence of a significant incentive for doctors to test everyone, not for the risk reduction of negative patient outcomes but for the self-serving, pocket-lining interest of the physician. Nevertheless, his research is geared toward the alignment of incentives of the doctor with those of the payer, which is good in my opinion.

There was a pretty obvious stakeholder absence in his talk, which an audience member called out during the question and answer phase, and that was the insurers. Another issue with this subject is the selective nature of the labels in the data. For example, doctors have a tendency to diagnose one condition despite the potential presence of multiple. Why this is - prioritization based on severity of the conditions, ease of treatment, pure oversight - who knows. Another selective labeling problem is the patient who may or may not accept/execute the treatment suggestions of the physician. What is the best way to measure a successful doctor? Right now, from the doctor’s perspective, it is more about treating the most people with the most expensive treatments that you can, which can translate to an optimization problem of revenue per minute maximization. This, however, does not align with public health objectives. Prof M referenced a recent study concluded that 1/3 of expenditures in health care do not have any impact on patient outcomes. What they have found is that machine learning algorithms can actually reduce the unnecessary testing of patients that are not in need of intervention. Lastly, there is a general access issue in play here as well which biases the data (hospitals in affluent communities generally test more frequently).

Kathleen McKeown - Columbia: http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~kathy/

Prof McKeown’s talk was relevant to my work in that it falls squarely in our sweet spot of text analytics and event detection. But her research interests are more about identifying salient sentences that can effectively summarize the news of the day. Most techniques referenced were very much at the intro-to-NLP level involving the more traditional methods of analyzing text such as parse trees, POS tagging, stemming and frequency based methods. Although, toward the end of the talk, she did get involved in more sophisticated neural network based language models. The talk was structured around three different forms of non-fiction communication, specifically journalism, personal narrative (such as The Autobiography of Malcolm X), and tweets. The notion of personal narrative seemed the least interesting as, from what I could tell, it was merely a change of voice and lexicon, and so there would require a marginally different classifier for the detection of events(?).

The tweeting component of the talk featured nothing particularly ground breaking. During question and answer, it was interesting to hear that one of the quant traders from QuantPort in the audience had deduced that emojis alone were all that mattered in some of the classification work that they’ve done with twitter data for generating trade signals. Prof McKeown had not had a similar experience with emojis.

The talk concluded with a segment on gang violence in Chicago and the tweeting behavior that surrounded it. The methods that they employed involved some language translation for dealing with the slang/emojis in gang speak, and as a result, specific language parsers that were able to determine atypical parts of speech for words and phrases had to be created in close collaboration with former and current gang members close to the evolving vernacular.

Been Kim - Google Brain: http://people.csail.mit.edu/beenkim/

This was a really interesting, albeit short, talk focusing on the interpretability of models specifically in the context of image classification tasks. For example, when measuring the “doctor-ness” of a photograph, people might be interested in seeing what the gender influence was on the model. She cited two methods for dealing with this, the first and focus of the talk was called TCAV, testing with concept activation vectors. These are based on the directional derivative of the concept space of random images which may or may not present specific concepts, such as a human male. If the vectors have a positive value, then it has positive influence on the model. In the case of the doctor example, there was a lot of influence on the model. There is ample publicly available research on this subject so this is probably worthy of closer investigation. What makes it particularly compelling is that you can point these activation vectors at a pre-trained model to measure the influence of individual factors. More on this specific work here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.11279

Carlos Gomez Uribe - Facebook Research: https://sdsc2018.mit.edu/speaker/carlos-gomez-uribe/

This guy’s team is all about the Gaussian Process. His talk covered a few use cases including a more woke approach to AB testing with a Bayesian bent and some fancy pants math. There was also examples drawn from the most recent hurricane system where the 15% location service enabled users on mobile devices were able to share help facebook provide recommendations to disaster relief agencies. In the case of Harvey, there were in fact more people that had migrated to Dallas from the less inland cities. By the time ARC got the data, it was too late. They were again too late to act on the data provided in response to Irma. It was Maria where they finally got their shit together and were able to more effectively respond, both respect to locations as well as numbers. The resulting connectivity maps were instrumental in getting the appropriate resources allocated. This talk was significantly more technical than I am representing here. I think his team probably has some pretty interesting things to read on arxiv.

Panel discussion: Frontiers of Data Visualization

This panel featured 4 speakers:

Arvind Satyanarayan - Google Brain: http://arvindsatya.com/

Arvind introduced a few tools that Google has developed to democratize visualization, specifically Vega, Vega-Lite, Lyra and Voyager. These include “declarative specification”, describing what the viz should look like. These tools allow users to focus on design issues by more thoroughly exploring design alternatives, increasing accessibility, reusability and portability. This was the most vendorish of the day’s talks.

github.io/vega and derivative projects:

https://vega.github.io/vega-lite/

http://idl.cs.washington.edu/papers/voyager2/

http://idl.cs.washington.edu/projects/lyra/

Michelle Borkin – Northeastern: http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~borkin/

Michelle spoke of her background as an astrophysicist, building 3D projections of supernovae, specifically the Cassiopeia supernova, using CTScan software. This gave her a taste of visualization and she never really looked back. She now works exlusively on visualization, in applications spanning all industries, including health care and the natural sciences. She is also a contributor to GlueViz.org, an exploration tool for multi-dimensional linked data, allowing easy manipulations across multiple visualization panels via techniques like such as brushing and linking. It is the official visualization tool of some big telescope somewhere…

Matthew Kay – Michigan: http://www.mjskay.com/

Classic hipster tech dude, Prof Kay was Kramer-esque in stature and deliberate disarray. His focus was on the problem of visualizing uncertainty, specifically how doing it and doing it effectively is a moral imperative. Examples include hurricane path errors, that grows in width as forecast horizon increases, indicating to the viewer that the hurricane is projected to engulf massive expanses of terrain. Perhaps the most entertaining example – the presidential election of 2016 - was handled in a few ways. A pretty typical representation was 538’s estimate that Donald Trump had 28% chance of winning the election; however, this made it easy for a layperson to interpret that estimate as completely inaccurate given the outcome, when in fact it was pretty accurate. There was also CNN’s needle visualization that dynamically represented the election results, giving most of the twittersphere an anxiety attack, which brought Kay’s talk’s thesis: uncertainty cannot be ignored, and if a visualization of high uncertainty gives you anxiety, then it is effectively doing its job.

Martin Wattenberg - Google Brain: http://www.bewitched.com/

This speaker reminded me a lot of TRLabs’ own Brian Romer, not just for personal style, but also in the way he speaks about visualization and design concepts so accessibly. He was involved in the TensorFlow playground project, which demonstrated the inner workings of deep learning architectures and got a ton of press and accolades. This particular application was introduced to a MOOC on deep learning, which dramatically increased uptake in module’s curriculum. Another project that he contributed to was the 3D projection of the MNIST data, which received a fair bit of press as well in the last year.

In the short time that all four panelists were on stage together, they covered a dizzying array of topics, not limited to:

appropriate visualizations for severity: e.g., the life or death consequences of misinterpretation of a visualization in health care (vs the not-so-life-and-death consequences of ad selection)

embedding visualization in societal systems; we must be comfortable with less quantifiability than engineers require, with a parallel made to the level of rigor in urban planning rather than bridge building

the importance of storytelling in communication of results

the increasing quality bar of visualization in journalism

the importance of open sourcing tools

perception, cognition, saliency algorithms as a measurement of visualization quality

a mediocre visualization can be very communicative, ergo effective

Choosing between what your audience wants and what the expert opinion is on the appropriate visualization (i.e., pie charts or dual y-axis charts)

Stephen Boyd - Stanford: http://web.stanford.edu/~boyd/index.html

The last talk of the day was worth the wait. Stephen Boyd is an ace. The guy that introduced him commented that this particular speaker always has sellout crowds when he visits MIT, often forcing nobel prize-winning economists to sit on the floor to watch him speak. To back it up, he pulled a photo from Boyd’s previous speaking engagement at MIT, with an unmistakable Bengt Holström indeed sitting on the ground before the first pew at the Church of Optimization.

Boyd is a general thought leader in the convex optimization space, and periodically gets tapped on the shoulder to consult companies with specific problems. This is one of those instances, where the client was a firm you may have heard of named BlackRock (I hear they’re big in finance). His team of collaborators - half from Stanford and half from Blackrock - were tasked with building a convex optimization system that handled multi-period trading. The basic premise of the talk was that you have a fixed amount of investable capital, a universe of financial instruments available to trade and a set forecasts of the value of those assets. Your job is (not surprisingly) to allocate your capital across these assets over multiple periods given a set of constraints, such as trading costs, holding costs, allocation thresholds, and the like. The talk detailed literally everything on how one would build such a system.

The only component absent from the talk were the forecast methodologies (which is really where the proprietary secret sauce is) and considerations for taxes, which Boyd admitted was “HUGE pain in the ass” because of the accounting system required for tracking lots, ergo not worth the effort. The forecasts are updated each period, and the system allows for varying general trading strategies, such as statistical arbitrage, buy-and-hold, long/short, momentum, and reversion strategies. A lot of this work was done on the shoulders of Harry Markowitz’s seminal work from the 1950s, which introduced the notion of trading policy shaped by terms and hyperparameters.

For anyone interested in exploring this, I would high recommend any content from Stephen Boyd.

All in all, SDSCon2018 was a really great event. Kudos to MIT, IDSS, Elizabeth Sikorovsky and Devavrat Shah for organizing, hosting and producing the event. I will certainly endeavor to attend in ensuing years.

#data science #mit #event #visualization

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jacewilliams1 · 5 years ago

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Learning Morse code in the 21st century

I first saw Morse code as a nine-year old child. The dots and dashes which could represent letters were printed on the front of a set of walkie-talkies we were given as a present. I played around with it a bit, but thought sending jokes and the latest observations of our neighbors from a distance to my brother was more fun by voice. A bit later, I learned the sequences for SOS as a distress signal, but that was about all that stuck in my mind.

As a teenager, I would often listen to my father’s Hallicrafters short-wave radio to pick up foreign language broadcasts. Mostly I was trying to receive news from Paris and improve my accent for a French course, but occasionally would run across a frequency with the dits and dahs. It seemed like it would be neat to be able to understand it, but at that age girls had started to take precedence.

Later, as a young adult, I worked as an engineering trainee for a local TV station. I was definitely interested in the workings of radio and television. Ham radio seemed quite fun, but studies for college consumed nearly all my time outside of that part-time job.

Do you know your dit from your dah?

Thus my interest in Morse code lay dormant for several decades. Until 2015. In July 2015, I started my primary flight training to fulfill a lifelong dream. When I was nine, a business associate of my mother took my brother and me up for a flight in a small four-seat plane (I cannot remember if it was high or low wing). My seven-year old brother sat on my mother’s lap in the front seat and I sat in the back. This was really exciting and look at how small our house was! I knew then I wanted to learn how to fly and at 13 even investigated the costs of flight training. Also, how would I possibly get to the local field without a driver’s license? Alas, costs were prohibitive.

I am often asked why I took up flying later in life. I say that when I was a young adult, I never had the money and later with a career and family I never had the time (a common explanation I believe.)

Finally, in 2015, I was able to free some time from a neuroscience research career and had the needed funds. I started my training in a Cessna 172N but soon purchased my own 1969 Cessna Cardinal. While studying the charts and listening to VORs (my plane has dual VORs, a DME, and an actual functioning ADF for navigational equipment), once again I heard the dits and dahs.

I tried a few times to just memorize the Morse code visually but resorted to what most pilots do and would just listen and compare to the annotations on the chart. Usually I could work it out after a few repetitions. It is of course good to identify the navigational aids, but can be tricky when juggling other concerns as a pilot. This is particularly true when flying single-pilot IFR in a Cardinal without an autopilot.

By November 2018, I had completed my commercial pilot certificate and instrument rating and had learned to fly gliders as well. After these, I had a bit more free time so decided to at last do something about learning Morse code. I started researching how to go about learning Morse code and found the website by David Finley (N11RZ), which advocated learning using the Koch method. This method was invented by a German, Ludwig Koch, back in the 1930s. It works by having you learn the letters at low full speed – about 13 words per minute – so that your brain memorizes the patterns of sound of each letter. Finley argued that this is more efficient than memorizing the patterns visually and learning to copy from the sounds at a low speed and then trying to speed up. Reportedly that produces a plateau in learning full speed that many find very frustrating and they then give up.

Morse code speed is measured in words per minute (WPM), where the standard used is the word “paris,” so five letters per word. In this day of 60 megabits per second internet connections into our homes, it is interesting to think of this in terms of the equivalent number of bits per second. The international telegraphic union alphabet contains 46 symbols—26 letters, 10 digits, and 10 control symbols and punctuation marks. The 46 symbols require 5.5 bits to encode. So each letter sent in Morse represents 5.5 bits of information. Thus a low full speed of 13 WPM corresponds to ~6 bits per second. That is 10 million times slower than the connections we routinely use today.

I didn’t really need to be able to copy Morse code at full speed to recognize the two or three letters used to identify aviation navigational aids because those are sent at approximately seven words per minute, about half full speed. Nonetheless I thought I would give the Koch method a try and learn at low full speed. None of the web articles I found actually said how long this would take, just that it would vary for each person and that a key item was consistent practice every day. At the time I thought, “What could it take—a few weeks of working on it in the evening?”

Since I was learning in the 21st century, I also thought “there must be an app for this.” A search on the Apple App Store turns up quite a few Morse code training programs. The Morse-It app had a mode that uses the Koch method of training, so I started training with that. Each session in this mode is four minutes long. You copy the letters using a keyboard and at the end it will perform a comparison and give you the percentage correct.

One starts with just the letters k -.- and m — , so the task is to learn to distinguish the dot sound in the midst of the dashes. At first this seemed quite difficult at 13 WPM and it was hard to keep up. I practiced for three blocks of two four-minute sessions every day—about 24 minutes per day. I was able to achieve over 90% accuracy on these two letters in two days, which was somewhat encouraging. At this point, the usual recommendation is to add the next letter but I thought I would try to master it to a higher level so continued another two days until I had 95% accuracy.

Can you decode that VOR without reading the chart?

I continued with this higher accuracy goal for about seven weeks, progressing through u, a, t, l, o, w, i, n and j, but it was sometimes taking only one day to add a new letter, like o —, but then nine days to add i .. . I was getting rather frustrated at this pace and started thinking maybe this was not a very good thing to try when in one’s 50s. Being a researcher, I decided to see if there was any published literature on how long it takes to learn Morse code and to check if I was spending way longer than normal on this.

It turns out the question of efficiently training recruits to use Morse code was a question of national importance during World War II. The armed forces were attempting to train 10,000 people per month to use Morse code. Any improvement in screening eligible servicemen or in the efficiency of training could yield serious benefits at that scale. The issue was studied by several psychologists including Taylor at Harvard University. He studied Harvard undergraduates who were learning Morse code in anticipation of military service. They met for five one-hour sessions each week over for a total of 40 hours.

The students were divided into groups who used different letter orderings and techniques. One group initially used high speed transmission of letters, similar to the Koch method, whereas the other group initially used low speed transmission (about 4-6 words per minute), subsequently progressing to higher speeds. Contrary to the stated justification for using the Koch method, near the end of training, when at a similar number of hours with roughly equal speeds of transmission by both groups, the group starting with slow transmission actually had a slightly higher accuracy (though this difference was not statistically significant).

Most importantly from my perspective, the average undergraduate student in this study was able to receive 40 symbols (26 letters, 10 numerals, 4 punctuation marks) at more than 13 WPM at the end of 40 hours of training. Taylor also reported that students at the commercial schools of the time would typically take 80 hours of practice to reach this speed. Per Taylor, Tullos had reported in 1918 that Navy recruits who were trained on Morse code for four hours per day required 160 hours of practice to receive at 13 WPM.

Since I was just trying to learn the 26 letters, it seemed reasonable that this would require about 52 hours. I had only invested 28 hours at this point, so decided to press on despite my frustration. Given Taylor’s results, though, I decided to add letters after only 90% accuracy was achieved and to only practice six days a week to give my mind a chance to consolidate the week’s learning.

Progress continued at an average of seven days per letter but with variations between one and ten days. I used the Koch method ordering suggested by the Morse-It app, adding e, f, y, v, g, q, z, h, b, c, and then d. I finally achieved 90% accuracy on all 26 letters including the last, x -..-, on May 4, 2019.

I followed up with some work to consolidate this new skill, practicing a few times per week over the next two months. I toyed with the idea of adding the ten numerals and some punctuation and even perhaps getting a radio and starting some ham transmissions. Ultimately though, I decided to just stick with my original goal for Morse code and concentrate instead on training for my flight instructor certificate.

I can now rapidly and easily decode VOR and ADF Morse code identifiers while flying. It is a fun skill to have acquired after all these years and a good exercise for one’s brain. But with most NAV radios now automatically decoding the identifiers, I am not sure that use alone would make me recommend learning Morse code to other pilots. I heard that my flight instructor was recently asked by a younger student whether she would have to learn Morse code to become a pilot. Evidently she was not amused by his texted response, -. —, after she finally decoded it.

The post Learning Morse code in the 21st century appeared first on Air Facts Journal.

from Engineering Blog https://airfactsjournal.com/2019/12/learning-morse-code-in-the-21st-century/

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channelnewswire-blog · 6 years ago

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Another year on earth - Hard News - Public Address

Sometimes-- often, even-- grief is an ambush. You do not know what's in there up until you lose something, or someone. You do not know how the experience of loss will make you feel about yourself, or what to do about it.

It was chance that brought me back into the ambit of my old buddy Grant Fell and his wife Rachael at the end of 2017. Formally, Grant was clear of the brain tumours that had been the central reality of his life for three years, and I wanted to do a follow-up on an interview I 'd done with him for a prepared Audioculture post-- which itself had actually taken 2 or 3 efforts to carry out, as he shuttled in and out of healthcare facility. He wasn't addressing his phone or returning messages.

Eventually, I acquired Rachael, who informed me that problems from treatment had actually made Grant really ill, really rapidly. He was back in hospital and it wasn't great. I went and visited him, but we never did the follow-up interview. My old good friend was passing away.

I don't mean to pretend I was among the group of people, led by Rachael herself, who took care of Grant for every single day of those 3 years. I 'd just seen him sometimes. I think I did sense quite rapidly that it was time for me now to step up. One of the very first things I did was break the law.

Grant appeared to have actually benefited earlier in his cancer fight from the modest use of cannabis oil. It can be found in a syringe, handed down from another cancer patient who had passed away, but Rachael's mother had actually mistakenly thrown away the last of it when she cleaned up the fridge. Rachael and I discussed it and I stated I figured I could source some more.

The experience of doing so, and briefly going into the neighborhood where these things are shared, was humbling and interesting. As I composed later in a submission on the federal government's medicinal marijuana expense, it seemed to make a crucial difference to Grant

's final, valuable days. When Grant left us, we were fortunate to have Hilary Ord, a brilliant and knowledgeable celebrant, to lead the small group of pals entrusted with putting together a funeral service. She described to us what a funeral for somebody like Grant indicated-- it would not be a little affair. I was charged with rapidly raising some money. We didn't reveal the names of individuals who helped financially at the time, but I think it's appropriate to tape them here. The New Zealand Music Foundation, Tim Wood, Phantom Billstickers, the Music Managers Federation and Flying Nun Records, thank you.

At Rachael's demand, I likewise delivered the eulogy. That was a deep dig. I believe it was the very first time I've spoken some words of te reo Māori and not been simultaneously conscious that I was doing it: it was as if the words at the end merely streamed up through me. I nearly wasn't sure what had actually happened.

It wasn't practically Grant, however about everybody; the kids who satisfied all those years back, matured and did things. About how typically we did things since Grant decided they might be done and beckoned all of us in to the doing. I discussed it in interviews and in the Audioculture article-- and every time it made me assess the method he 'd altered my life.

It likewise made me think a lot about tribe and identity, about who all of us were and what was important to us. In specific, about my function in our tribe. Outside of the bonds of family, it seemed the most enduring duty I had.

Something it wasn't was a job. After 9 years of a minimum of 20 weeks annually of TELEVISION loan, I was obliged in 2018 to transform the whole thing. It wasn't simple and sometimes I questioned whether it was even possible. I have actually long been comfortable with the dangers of freelance life, but it was getting a lot harder. Each time editors are ordered to cut editorial budgets, the very first and simplest place to do that is self-employed costs. It was hard to get commissions and when I did, the word rate was barely better than it had remained in the 1990s.

We're house owners, so we are not bad. But with 2 adult handicapped children still in your home, we're not an inexpensive home to run. It's not an enjoyable feeling, burning through long-time cost savings just to keep things going. I wasn't depressed, however there was the odd despondent day. You simply keep pitching.

And all the time, things circled around back to Grant. I discussed him at the Taite Music Prize event, then did a little crisis PR the next day. I wrote the medicinal marijuana submission about him, then took a trip to Wellington to make an oral submission to the committee. I do not think I was launched up until the Headless Chickens played that big, psychological set in his name at The Other's Method festival.

There was also Public Address. I've been thinking about how much I utilized to do here and I genuinely don't understand how I had the bandwidth. Writing blog posts most days, moderating the sprawling discussions in the most intensive, in some cases mentally taxing, way. Trying to have brand-new concepts. And due to the fact that it typically wasn't a living, making a living somewhere else.

This is a quieter place than it utilized to be, for a range of factors. A new, more professional generation of digital publishers has emerged. The most immediate argument now occurs on social networks, and Twitter in particular. Likewise, I could not actually do it any more.

I've constantly been great at drawing a crowd; at tossing a celebration. A community had formed around Public Address and it brought me terrific new buddies. However when you're the host, you're accountable when the visitors-- some of whom had actually literally been together under my roofing system at different times-- begin fighting, it's not enjoyable. It feels like there has actually been a new, sharper, more polarised sort of argument abroad in the last few years that the site is ill-equipped to handle. That I am ill-equipped to handle. Perhaps it fits locations where nobody is actually accountable; where there is no host cleaning up the empties. In that sense, this being a quieter location has actually been an option.

I also feel less likely to basic commentary these days. I 'd rather compose about the things I have experience with and insight on. You primarily get drug policy, music, bike-riding, the occasional fact-check. Often this year, I've been too hectic worrying about not having writing work to simply write, and all at once aware that that's a dumb position to be in.

The entry of Press Client and its voluntary subscription platform has come a little late for any big strategies on my part, but I want to reveal my deepest appreciation to those of you who have actually contributed. It's a substantial motivation to keep going with this. I have actually started to treat it as not just support for the website, but support for what I perform in general. The majority of months, the $700 to $800 it generates has actually been an essential part of our household managing.

Happily, things enhanced in the latter part of the year and I'm fairly optimistic that I'll remain in a position to ask CactusLab to do some modest deal with the website. I'm not actually hiring new blog writers, however I want to clean the cruft of years, retire all our inactive individual bloggers to an emeritus section and maybe open a number of new topic blog sites for periodic contributors. I believe Access has been of worth because sense and I'm grateful to Hilary Stace in specific for her care and commitment to impairment concerns.

It hasn't been all bad. I've leared new skills and written some things I'm really pleased with. It was great to be totally vindicated on the "meth contamination" ordeal I blogged about two years earlier. I've really taken pleasure in working a couple of days lately at RNZ and it looks like that will continue in the new year. I'm hugely happy that my older ASD kid is working once again, with excellent people who like and appreciate him, at the excellent Cotto restaurant.

I have actually also been cheered and enriched more than ever by the music made by individuals around me. Blair Parkes, Tom Scott, Julia Deans, Tom Scott, Julian Dyne, Marlon Williams, Sandy Mill, Anthonie Tonnon and others, thank you. You make a distinction to us-- to me. And The Beths: guys, you would not think how lots of dishes and kitchen clean-ups your brilliant, bouyant album has helped with. I'm also personally pleased to have provided on what I composed this year after Golden Dawn closed-- about making your own areas. On Friday night, our final DJ night for the year at Point Chev's Cupid bar was great. It really seemed like we 'd done something. We'll be back there next year. Come see us.

I was happy that you all voted "compassion" as the Public Address Word of the Year. Do respect each other, and believe what kindness means in action. Have a great summertime and take pleasure in people and locations. Swim, ride, stroll. Request for aid if you require it, use assistance when it's needed. Be kind.

And next month, Grant's anniversary will occur, and that will be difficult for Rachael more than anybody else. I'll weep, yet once again, when I think of him. We'll all believe once again about who we are, where we have actually come from and what matters to us. We'll be another year in the world.

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gus-the-icreamman · 6 years ago

Text

The Ultimate Guide to SEO

In using and applying SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (Search Engine Optimization ) in order to get more visitors any internet site, I am always testing fresh ideas and tools which are usually provided to help you obtain the work done faster. So far, SEOs possess considered mobile search to end up being one of the many areas of expertise of SEO, on the exact same level as local search or even international SEO. Michael Klein, Senior Content Marketing and advertising Strategist at Be Found On the internet shares why valuable content increases off-page SEO in the lengthy run. People may use search engines to research for something which they're searching for, and they'll be capable to think it is by the natural results (SEO) or by the particular paid results (SEM). Plus the goal is not really to learn the trends, but rather to develop a reliable SEO process that will will bring organic traffic in order to your particular website. If you want to obtain a better idea of tips on how to create SEO type pages, We encourage you to review content articles that cover search engine search engine optimization. In 2018, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is content and content will be SEO, content is digital plus digital is content. Each one of these types of steps are taken by the particular company to supply the best lookup engine optimization services to the clients in Thailand, under the particular Thailand SEO concept. The growth associated with Google's featured snippet, voice research, Local SEO, and PPC provides better result in diverting visitors to your site as in comparison to the organic listing. Although, it is definitely bit time consuming to generate a quality video, it is usually more than worth it. Perfect for traffic and SEO as properly. In this write-up, we will be listing five technical SEO tricks to enhance organic traffic, rankings and profits. Backlinks performs important aspect of offsite SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Precisely why is seo (SEO) so essential? There are lots of methods to find keywords for SEO. Three major SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION intelligence platforms - SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Serpstat - help recognize keywords with less competition simply by including a keyword difficulty metric. SEO in 2018 won't be greater than any kind of other year, but new tendencies are happening for sure. Plus that's one of the 1st images that cross my brain each time I see sites getting penalized by Google owing to faulty SEO. We will cover technical SEO in very much more depth in future articles, but in short, it offers things like site speed, get errors, redirects, duplicate content, canonicalization, mobile optimization, sitemaps, markups, organised data, and various HTML labels, like rel=nofollow, that might end up being needed sometimes. Traditional SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques are still effective, yet a number of trends are usually in the works that can significantly alter the practice of enhancing for search. Whatever you do, be sure you don't fall in the trap and begin doing some black-hat SEO techniques like cloaking or spammy backlink building, it may get you seriously penalized by Google. Unless you upgrade your own SEO strategy and just stay to traditional methods, you may find hard to push your own website pages in top ten results, and even worst, obtain penalized by Google for carrying on aggressive and forceful SEO methods to gain ranking. The blog post of interest in order to SEOs from is this 1: 4 Search Trends That Produced Waves in 2017” This write-up begins having a paragraph that might resonate with those who have got searched on Google (or some other search engines like google, intended for that matter) for many yrs: For the past 2 decades, the particular pinnacle of search sophistication has been talking to a search motor like you're Tarzan. While normally you try in order to only go after high specialist sites and prevent links through low quality domains for concern of Penguin, when it arrives to local SEO, local relevance has much more weight compared to authority. Users don't want to watch for a web page so in the event that your webpage is slow within 2018, overlook SEO and your own bounce rate will down. A sensible strategy intended for SEO would still appear in order to be to reduce Googlebot get expectations and consolidate ranking collateral & potential in high-quality canonical pages and you do that will by minimising duplicate or near-duplicate content. Winning SEO in 2018 will require marketers to moving forward honing their concentrate on consumer intent and topical authority. Ensure redirected domains redirect by way of a canonical redirect and this too offers any chains minimised, although BECOME SURE to audit the backlink user profile for any redirects you stage at a page as along with reward comes punishment if these backlinks are toxic (another illustration of Google opening up the particular war that is technical search engine optimization on a front that isn't very, and fact is converse, in order to building backlinks to your site). Away from page SEO refers to strategies that can be used in order to increase the positioning of the website in the search motor results page (SERPs). Long gone are the times when keyword placement and back links guaranteed success in SEO. I think the particular #1 trend for 2018 within SEO is going to end up being Google Voice. Links and technical SEO are usually the largest items of the cake, but multimedia efforts such because video, photos, and podcasts may be the game changer plus differentiator in many competitive marketplaces. Back in the wild-west times of SEO, Google wasn't therefore great at identifying the romantic relationship SEO 2019 Slide between semantic keywords. Changes searching algorithms and within people's search habits and the particular preferences of mobile over desktop computer are changing the world associated with SEO. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (Search Engine Optimization) has turn out to be the driving force behind effective web-based companies. Lookup engine optimization strategies and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION best practices that were as soon as effective this past year may not become useful today. Regardless of the fact that SEO provides the highest ROI of any kind of ecommerce marketing campaign, most on-line shops are put together along with little to no consideration associated with search engines like google. Consider these points while developing SEO strategy to get higher ranking in search results. The particular term SEO in relation in order to seo is also used with times to make reference in order to search engine optimizers, who are usually consultants that mange and assist in the development and completion associated with search engine optimization projects for his or her clients. The faster you realize why Google is definitely sending you less traffic compared to it did last year, the particular sooner you can clean upward and focus on proactive SEO that will begins to impact your ranks in a positive way. Obviously, keyword ranks is another very important metric to track if you are usually analyzing your SEO efforts. Tone of voice search is one of the particular latest SEO trends in 2018. UX is now being focused simply by many among the core SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies, and it definitely performs an important part in maintaining your articles in top position because lesser bounce rate offers a very positive impact upon SEO of the website. The first keywords in order to Google are guide to SEO with regard to 2018” or SEO guide 2018”. Where I instruct you about content marketing, long-tail keywords, and Shopify SEO technique. Among the particular misconception about SEO is that will it will depend on creating the number of keywords a specific time. Your SEO web page title is the title that will is displayed on the internet search outcomes. For the local SEO content strategy in order to be successful focusing on your own local audience and providing true value towards the people within your local area is crucial not just to local brand name recognition, prominence, and relevance yet also higher pagerank, increased reliability and overall improved user knowledge and conversions. Google, much to the shock of every SEO pro, will be not obsessed with making the lives harder, but rather, will be obsessed with providing their customers with the best user knowledge possible. Unfortunately, SEO - plus search in general - is definitely typically soloed into focusing upon The Google” and not actually considered for other tactics. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is all about providing proprietors with a positive content expertise in the right moment in their own user journey across different systems and devices. Whichever SEO trends plus techniques you choose to make use of, it's important to keep within mind that whatever your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION approach is the underlying objective is definitely an informative plus enjoyable user experience. For this to take place a variety of local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies, have to be applied to get the site rated on search engines like Search engines, business directories such as Yelp, Superpages, Google My Business list etc. But before we speak more about how they function, here's what SEOs mean whenever talking about links. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and SEM will continue in order to shift as major search motors like google are continually transforming their parameters for rankings. Without a doubt, a single of the biggest trends that will has already begun to consider place and will continue nicely into 2018 is the loan consolidation of niche MarTech players simply by larger content cloud vendors, along with the role and importance associated with SEO increasing significantly throughout this particular transformation. The essential to successful SEO is focusing on long-tail keywords you desire to be along with these search results because even when you have thousands even large numbers of social media following, this still won't be as eective as ranking high on the particular SERPs for your target key phrases. While obtaining as many pages indexed on the internet was historically a priority regarding an SEO, Google is today rating the quality of web pages on your site and the particular type of pages it is usually indexing. As mentioned earlier around 95% of general population will certainly not move beyond the 1st page SEO search results, therefore as a business you require an in-depth knowledge of the particular latest SEO techniques and begin incorporating them in your company today. Many electronic natives and marketers alike are usually using SEO to its benefit by incorporating every keyword you can possibly imagine into the content they compose. Now that a person understand tips on how to please your customers, how to satisfy search intention, and how to create content material, it's time to move on to Pillar #3 in this SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategy. As mentioned previously, businesses could not make the bigger mistake than thinking that will best SEO techniques only rely on content, because the most recent SEO techniques you need in order to adapt depend on more than simply content. Today that you're on top associated with these 6 SEO trends plus have an arsenal of ideas to manage your strategy, a person are well positioned for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and digital marketing in 2018. In order to obtain a featured snippet, content internet marketers must structure their articles in order to a number of factors, getting SEO well beyond the present competition to reach the number a single spot on Google. People love to gain access to the internet while they are usually on the go, meaning regional SEO is going to turn out to be much more popular. SEO means search engine optimization. Google, the world's most utilized internet search engine, is every single eager to keep webmasters, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION experts and businesses on their feet. By giving you an SEO tool that will give you a unique regarding just how much your organic traffic will be worth, along with keeping track of external links and monitoring competitors. The results also emphasize the value of creating brand-new at ease with your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION marketing strategy. Fortunately, for SEO-focused keyword study, these two tools are good enough to generate thousands of possible keywords. Local SEO will carry on as a popular SEO plus digital marketing trend in 2018 for local businesses. With the passing associated with time, search engines such since Google, Yahoo keep on altering their algorithms for SEO. Interpersonal SEO is not a individual branch of SEO plus it is not going to soon be replacing traditional SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, but social signals have turn out to be increasingly integrated into search motor algorithms. SEO a lot more usually discuss domain trust plus domain authority based on the particular number, type and quality associated with incoming links to a web site. As electronic assistance gets more accurate generally there is a great opportunity each for SEO and content, gaining from a growing market that develops the brand with a consumer in a unique but nevertheless relevant and useful way. Not simply search engine algorithm changes yet also the way in which usually people search keeps changing, therefore, considering the above 10 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trends- digital marketers and company owners could make their web site ready for ranking high within 2018. Whenever you look at huge manufacturers like Amazon and Walmart, a person see how powerful SEO may be. When you search intended for just about any consumer product on Search engines, Amazon and Walmart are even more than likely to appear upon top. In the similar vein, you can't check out an SEO blog at the particular moment without seeing a function on Voice Search. This totally changes black head wear SEO tactics to gain relevance for various searches by making pages that are individually designed for different keywords. G. S Please note that SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques works on the vast majority of websites. SEO agencies offer solutions that differ from writing next text messages to giving advice on the particular subject of the website, plus choosing the best directories which usually the website can be authorized at. A few unethical SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION agencies have given the sector a bad name through intense marketing strategies and attempts upon gaining ranks in unfair methods. These 8 On-Page SEO strategies are simply some of the particular ways to increase organic research traffic. Off page SEO signifies search engine that how the particular particular website is being recognized by other website and customers. Most associated with respondents gave thumbs up in order to Mobile SEO and AMP adopted by featured snippets and lengthy tail keywords. Not just is it a great method to get different viewpoints in to your article and find away new things, it also assists grow your SEO rankings plus traffic. Use LSI keywords in body (use Seo pressor plugin to get related keywords). All these consequences also lead to better SEO and higher search engine rankings. On-page SEO is the exercise of optimizing individual web web pages to be able to position higher and earn more appropriate traffic in search engines. In the event that you are a local company and want to build upon your local SEO, do that simply by looking for websites that are usually associated with the area a person operate in. You can request your local magazine whether they will wish to work together upon online articles and mention your own business in them or enjoy the role of mentioned upon local websites like your local community page. To predict tips on how to surface a business's results within a voice search, SEO specialists now need to concentrate upon ranking for the common NL queries around target keywords. Fairly recently, I've seen the resurgence of on-page SEO aspects making a difference in research engine rankings. A person can also see the off-page SEO power of free equipment through backlinks. If you need to keep thriving in lookup rankings, you need to become aware of all of the particular latest Google algorithm updates plus SEO best practices. Although the fundamentals associated with SEO will stay important (links, onsite SEO, page speed, content material etc. ), how one increases for certain queries will modify. A lot of thanks for your awesome In-depth Guide, I have learnt a few new SEO Strategies, I can begin with improving my website's Dwell Time Beside Creating Visible Content, I am going in order to really appreciate If you can Write an In-depth Guide regarding Creating Embeddable Images”, I require to understand it better. On-page SEO could be the process of enhancing websites or blogs in purchase to increase a site's rank in search results. In 2018, your SEO achievement won't depend on how properly you optimize your website with regard to Google. The use associated with specific, purposefully chosen keywords is usually also important in the procedure as the strategy of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION depends on the ways individuals use search engines like search engines. In this post, coming from separated the top SEO techniques in order to help you skyrocket your search positions and boost your number associated with monthly visitors. Hence, it's time for mobile marketing for better SEO result. These 2 updates have compelled the SEOs to keep the mentioned chores in check and work in the direction of Google's mission statement of offering authentic search engine results in order to the visitors. Search engines has emphasized links as the ranking factor since the 1990s, according to Moz, and these people continue to be an important aspect of every great SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategy. The ability of web SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION lies in understanding how individuals search for things and knowing which kind of results Google wants in order to (or will) display to the users. Google, much towards the shock of every SEO pro, is just not obsessed with making our life more difficult, but instead, is definitely obsessed with providing their customers with the best user knowledge possible. Organized data on websites are positively used by search engines in order to provide more details to users, plus they will continue to achieve this. Using schema markup to supply data about events, payment strategies and also review ratings to lookup engines will push local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION rankings higher in 2018. As much as SEO, he offers this particular post from 2017: 18 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Tactics that Take Only thirty Minutes Each” Tactics here vary from getting set up on Search engines My Business to checking your own site speed (with speed becoming even more important now compared to when Patel first wrote their post), and from enhancing your own site's URL structures to incorporating internal linking to your marketing and advertising mix and much more. Our in-depth guide provides the latest SEO most readily useful practices so you can improve how your content appears in search results, and get more traffic, leads, and sales. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, while still search engine marketing, encompasses so much more professions in 2018. Consumer experience has never been even more important to SEO. In this blog page post, I am going in order to share a few On-Page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques with you, that may be done completely through Light Hat method. Meta descriptions have simply no impact on your WordPress SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION when it comes to search positions. But if a person engage in genuine conversation plus your site is helpful in order to users, you're on the correct track to boosting off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. With social videos producing 1200% more shares than textual content and images combined, according in order to WordStream, look for video spreading to be a big SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trend in 2018. Really exciting, but my mind-set regarding SEO has changed… I utilized to over-think it, trying in order to develop the right” variety associated with periods to utilize key keywords. I've been doing SEO for the last 5 years, and throughout those years, I've attempted to consume all the information about SEO which i could get my hands on. This blog post is all that information plus new ranking techniques that work in 2018, condensed. SEO stands for lookup engine optimization. ” It is usually the procedure for getting visitors from the free, ” natural, ” editorial” or natural” lookup engine results on search motors. This typically involves using advanced SEO tags (e. g., tags) that search motors like google reference when the more visual search engine outcomes page is displayed. Focal points for SEO in 2018 functions suggestions on what to prioritise in 2018, including on-site research, topical, local and mobile SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and where SEO capabilities ought to sit within organisations. We might construct a blog post that will has the SEO related key phrases in it and we might put the link of the particular website that people are trying in order to build the back link in order to within text of that blog page post. My SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION guide will break search motor optimization down for you. Meta description is not a immediate SEO ranking factor but this helps in ranking indirectly. Once such an interview gets published, it nearly always gets a lot of backlinks and SEO value.

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royal-red-asks · 6 years ago

Text

Here's a Quick Way to Solve Low Ranking

In using and applying SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (Search Engine Optimization ) in order to get more visitors any internet site, I am always testing brand-new ideas and tools which are usually provided to help you obtain the work done faster. So far, SEOs possess considered mobile search to become one of the many areas of expertise of SEO, on the exact same level as local search or even international SEO. Michael Klein, Senior Content Advertising Strategist at Be Found On the web shares why valuable content increases off-page SEO in the lengthy run. People will certainly use search engines to research for something which they're searching for, and they'll be capable to believe it is by the natural results (SEO) or by the particular paid results (SEM). Plus the goal is not really to learn the trends, but rather to develop a reliable SEO process that will will bring organic traffic in order to your particular website. If you want to obtain a better idea of how you can create SEO type pages, We encourage you to review posts that cover search engine search engine optimization. In 2018, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is content and content is definitely SEO, content is digital plus digital is content. Each one of these types of steps are taken by the particular company to deliver the best research engine optimization services to the clients in Thailand, under the particular Thailand SEO concept. The growth associated with Google's featured snippet, voice lookup, Local SEO, and PPC provides better result in diverting visitors to your site as in comparison to the organic listing. Although, it is usually bit time consuming to make a quality video, it is usually more than worth it. Ideal for traffic and SEO as properly. In this post, we will be listing five technical SEO tricks to enhance organic traffic, rankings and income. Backlinks performs important aspect of offsite SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Exactly why is seo (SEO) so essential? There are lots of methods to find keywords for SEO. Three major SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION intelligence platforms - SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Serpstat - help recognize keywords with less competition simply by including a keyword difficulty metric. SEO in 2018 won't be greater than any kind of other year, but new tendencies are happening for sure. Plus that's one of the 1st images that cross my brain each time I see internet sites getting penalized by Google owing to faulty SEO. Most of us cover technical SEO in very much more depth in future articles, but in short, it offers things like site speed, examine errors, redirects, duplicate content, canonicalization, mobile optimization, sitemaps, markups, organized data, and various HTML labels, for example rel=nofollow, that might become needed sometimes. Traditional SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques are still effective, yet a number of trends are usually in the works that can significantly alter the practice of customization for search. Whatever you do, be sure you don't fall in the trap and begin doing some black-hat SEO techniques like cloaking or spammy backlink building, it may get you seriously penalized by Google. Should you not upgrade your own SEO strategy and just stay to traditional methods, you may find hard to push your own website pages in top ten results, and even worst, obtain penalized by Google for carrying on with aggressive and forceful SEO strategies to gain ranking. The blog post of interest in order to SEOs from is this a single: 4 Search Trends That Produced Waves in 2017” This write-up begins having a paragraph that would certainly resonate with those who have got searched on Google (or additional search engines like google, intended for that matter) for many many years: For the past 20 years, the particular pinnacle of search sophistication had been talking to a search motor like you're Tarzan. As mentioned over, speed will be paramount with regard to SEO in 2018, that leads all of us on to Accelerated Mobile Webpages (AMP). Therefore, on top of content marketing and advertising, SEO now should be significantly aligned with your company's PAGE RANK efforts. For these reasons it offers each a huge SEO value (it's one of the most essential ranking factors), and also a clickability” worth (it serves as a inspiration for people to click). The particular SEO trends and technique in order to rank websites higher changes quick because of the emergence associated with new technologies and changing client behavior. It is often used simply by mobile users on a huge scale which made it the powerful SEO trend for this particular year. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trends in 2018 considers the particular important issues SEO practitioners require to think about in 2018 as well as the path taken by travel search motors and SEO in general. In case you know you have EXTREMELY low-quality doorway pages on your own site, you need to eliminate them or rethink your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategy if you want in order to rank high in Google with regard to the long term. Away page SEO refers to methods that can be used in order to increase the positioning of the website in the search motor results page (SERPs). Long gone are the times when keyword placement and inbound links guaranteed success in SEO. I think the particular #1 trend for 2018 within SEO is going to become Google Voice. Links and technical SEO are usually the largest bits of the curry, but multimedia efforts such because video, photos, and podcasts can be the game changer plus differentiator in many competitive marketplaces. Back in the wild-west times of SEO, Google wasn't therefore great at identifying the partnership SEO 2019 Slide between semantic keywords. Changes searching algorithms and within people's search habits and the particular preferences of mobile over desktop computer are changing the world associated with SEO. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (Search Engine Optimization) has turn out to be the driving force behind productive web-based companies. Research engine optimization strategies and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION best practices that were as soon as effective a year ago may not become useful today. one. As search engines nowadays would certainly be the most popular on the web tools among web surfers in order to look for specific information, the particular scope of SEO is very enormous. SEO will promptly include almost everything from content, link acquisition, UX and endpoint delivery like quick loading pages through AMP Search engines Accelerated Mobile Pages. If you decide to function with them, they can display you how to take your own SEO strategy well beyond key phrases and provide you a strategy that is well-suited for that twenty first century. Instead, research through good online articles plus learn the ability of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION or search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is all about quality articles and quality links. Apart from this particular, keywords, too, play an essential function in SEO. First, realize that schema markup is a single of the most powerful, minimum used parts of SEO nowadays Schema are basically brief clips of data that can provide extra information to look users plus search engines. UX is now being focused simply by many among the core SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies, and it definitely performs an important part in maintaining your articles in top rank because lesser bounce rate provides a very positive impact upon SEO of the website. The first keywords in order to Google are guide to SEO intended for 2018” or SEO guide 2018”. Where I instruct you about content marketing, long-tail keywords, and Shopify SEO technique. Among the particular misconception about SEO is that will it will depend on composing the number of keywords a specific time. Your SEO web page title is the title that will is displayed online search outcomes. For the local SEO content strategy in order to be successful focusing on your own local audience and providing true value towards the people within your local area is crucial not just to local brand name recognition, prominence, and relevance yet also higher pagerank, increased reliability and overall improved user expertise and conversions. Google, much to the shock of every SEO pro, is usually not obsessed with making our own lives more challenging, but rather, is definitely obsessed with providing their customers with the best user expertise possible. So, I would certainly declare 2018 is a problem for Google, just as very much as it might be regarding SEOs. We have a few good rankings, but we are usually always planning to improve and observe what the future holds with regard to SEO. In 2018, the user experience is the particular center of development as properly as the key point regarding the SEO strategies. SEO continues to be king of the Internet, plus businesses will continue to require valuable, and unique content that will will meet the need associated with their company in the many years ahead. Backlinks are one of the most significant SEO factors. In order to give you a head begin, here are the SEO developments and techniques we expect in order to dominate in 2018. Debbie A. Everson is the particular CEO of, experienced SEO Specialists and Search Engine Optimization Company to 2, 000 small companies. Off-Page SEO refers in order to all the things that may be done directly OFF your own website to help you much better search engine positions, such since social networking, article submission, discussion board & blog marketing, etc. Without a doubt, 1 of the biggest trends that will has already begun to consider place and will continue properly into 2018 is the combination of niche MarTech players simply by larger content cloud vendors, along with the role and importance associated with SEO increasing significantly throughout this particular transformation. The essential to successful SEO is focusing on long-tail keywords you would like to be along with all those search results because even in the event that you have thousands even large numbers of social media following, this still won't be as eective as ranking high on the particular SERPs for your target key phrases. While obtaining as many pages indexed on the internet was historically a priority with regard to an SEO, Google is at this point rating the quality of web pages on your site and the particular type of pages it will be indexing. As mentioned earlier around 95% of general population may not move beyond the very first page SEO search results, therefore as a business you require an in-depth knowledge of the particular latest SEO techniques and begin incorporating them in your company today. Many electronic natives and marketers alike are usually using SEO to its benefit by incorporating every keyword you can possibly imagine into the content they create. Now that a person understand the way to please your customers, how to satisfy search objective, and how to create content material, it's time to move on to Pillar #3 in this SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategy. As mentioned previously, businesses could not make the bigger mistake than thinking that will best SEO techniques only rely on content, because the most recent SEO techniques you need in order to adapt depend on greater than simply content. Today that you're on top associated with these 6 SEO trends plus have an arsenal of guidelines to manage your strategy, a person are well positioned for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and digital marketing in 2018. In order to obtain a featured snippet, content entrepreneurs must structure their articles in order to a number of factors, using SEO well beyond the existing competition to reach the number 1 spot on Google. A good SEO strategy in 2018 requirements to consider the way we all consume visual content and exactly how search engines now go further than text to explore the transforming habits of search. As a matter of truth, the ability of any website is situated in the DA. Domain Power is SEOmozs calculated metric intended for how well a given website is likely to rank looking results. An SEO expert can tell you this single modification may not improve your web page rankings or authority very significantly, however it will get even more clicks. Off-page SEO very efficiently in advertising your business where social press, bookmarking sites, forums, blog index, Q&A, articles, videos, image plus infographic sharing, and document revealing play well. Even though AMP is not so very much a ranking signal for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, you can imagine that AMP's, when properly utilised, provide the broader visibility. The white hat SEO strategies are good for future-proof SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION results Meanwhile, black hat ought to be avoided at all expenses as they strategies are the particular ones that Google and some other search engines are determined in order to root out. Which exercise reflects in SEO ranking. -2 - We ought to have realized Search engines will use engagement data intended for rankings, but they're not going to talk about it. They have got nothing to gain from getting open, and a reasonable level of risk if they request spammers and manipulators to imitate searchers and click for ratings (a practice that, sadly, offers popped up within the grey hat SEO world, will not really sometimes, unfortunately, work). Marketing and SEO experts like as Bill Slawski, Eric Enge, and Marcus Miller believe the particular chase for a featured little can become the focal point within 2018. SEO basically stands forSearch Engine Optimisation. He is passionate regarding online marketing technology and like to spend the valuable period to research and operate SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION operations Team. Carrying out there technical SEO for local research engines is a similar procedure. Technical SEO involves producing sure everything behind the moments is set up for optimum rankings. RankBrain is more associated with a ranking signal than a good SEO masterpiece, nevertheless, it will have some effects on SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, and can be especially helpful if users don't know totally what they're looking for, or even simply can't find the correct words to use. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION - Seo: the process associated with making your site better regarding search engines. Google announced last season that RankBrain had become their own 3rd most important ranking element, and our SEO predictions recommend it will grow in significance for 2018. Creating and promoting linkable resources is an excellent way in order to increase your SEO through the buy of backlinks. You can get SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION results by executing Pillar #1 and Pillar #2 well, yet backlinks are fuel on the particular fire. This way, a person and your SEO can make sure that your site is developed to be search engine-friendly in the bottom up. However, a great SEO can also help enhance an existing site. Not just is it a great method to get different viewpoints in to your article and find out there new things, it also assists grow your SEO rankings plus traffic. Use LSI keywords in body (use Seo pressor plugin to get related keywords). All these consequences also lead to better SEO and higher search engine rankings. On-page SEO is the exercise of optimizing individual web webpages to be able to position higher and earn more related traffic in search engines. In case you are a local company and want to build upon your local SEO, do that simply by looking for websites that are usually associated with the area a person operate in. You can inquire your local magazine whether they will wish to work together upon online articles and mention your own business in them or enjoy the role of mentioned upon local websites like your neighborhood page. To predict tips on how to surface a business's results within a voice search, SEO experts now need to concentrate upon ranking for the common NL queries around target keywords. While every single client has a different goal, the SEO ranking principles are the identical. In 2018, it's going in order to be increasingly important for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION builders to incorporate longer-tailed key phrases into queries. On-page SEO is the marketing of the elements that can be found on your own website, which includes content, the code behind every single page, visual elements and consumer experience. Only continuous updation of your website with the particular latest SEO techniques will support to raise it to the particular top most positions within the particular ranking. No matter how many improvements Google gets released for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION but without having a correct content for a website most these updated will be exhausted. That makes SEO an perfect free lead generation tool, because when people follow links back to your own site, you have the possibility to convert them to network marketing leads, and later make sales. There's simply no question that focusing on your own business' SEO is critical intended for a successful marketing strategy. In the same time, SEOs will certainly need to pay more interest to Long Tail Keywords. SEO Smart links enables you to specify a term, like 'SEO' then link this to a post in your web site. SEO web design for your client's site is also the big influence in the position of the site as nicely as the popularity of the particular site to human browsers. Together with this new accepted company reality, there are many declaring they have the "secrets" in order to achieving Search Engine Optimization (SEO), when in reality it most comes down to making certain your web site is properly built, preserved and promoted. In that will post, I broke down most the steps to do the full SEO website audit plus included a template for customers to download. Whenever these two are fully used, one will generate a much better user experience and improve the particular effectiveness of their SEO technique. Rank today has more related to significant and useful content than SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION voodoo link crazy linking methods and spending your time upon keyword density and other specialized items. Their particular product categories often rank very first in search under keywords such as ‘weightlifting shoes. ' They concentrate primarily on on-site SEO. Some search engines have furthermore provided to the SEO sector, and are frequent sponsors plus guests at SEO conferences, webchats, and seminars. Seems ranking video clips last few weeks for key phrase like SEO Outsourcing” and Wp training London” and some SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION agency terms here. Since an SEO person, you should be actually fast at learning and presenting innovative tactics to stay forward in the competition, and making sure that your company appears upon the first page from the particular search engines is not since easy a job as it could appear. With all the particular talk in the SEO globe today about content and sociable signals it's easy to forget about just a little thing that will happens to be the basis of SEO: keyword research. Now i'm along with you 100%, I think #0, AMP, video and all RankBrain stuff it's gonna make the particular main subjects in SEO (and marketing) for 2. 017. In today's rapidly moving world, SEO techniques can alter on the dime—and the most severe part is that you just might not even know this. Hacks which could have earned you a front-page result simply because recently as 2016 are outdated now, but they may actually hurt your website's rankings. It's a really good and knowledgeable blog to enhance your SEO ranking. Take some time plus find out about your Meta titles, description, URL readability plus how to earn featured clips and site links SEO's about the globe are taking click through rate seriously claiming it in order to be one of the best ranking signals. Bing has confirmed that will they track unlinked brand plugs and use them as the ranking signal — and the patent by Google (along along with observations from many SEO experts) indicates that Google may become doing this as well. I've seen success with producing videos lately and am searching forward to utilizing your SEO ideas to help my videos position on page 1. Plus SEO professionals are absolutely thrilled about this new opportunity due to the fact featured snippets provide a possibility for low-ranking pages to access the particular top of search results along with almost zero effort. With more than 200 ranking factors in Google's search algorithm, SEO is right now a highly complex process. A SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION process may involve a web site's coding and structure, content plus copywriting, site presentation, as nicely as fixing other issues that will will prevent search engines through indexing your company website. Just because Google and other search motors are using personalization more regularly in order to get more accurate search outcomes for their users, user customization has become more prevalent within SEO. The particular need to learn about fresh entrants like Siri, Alexa, Fb, Linkedin, and specialist search motors (like, for example) will maintain SEOs on their toes regarding years to come. It took me plenty associated with time to get ready for it, in order to conduct the research and therefore forth. It is very helpful to have the information upon how the very best specialists use SEO at hand. Affected sites along with poor onpage and offpage SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, and has a massive impact on location related search.

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