fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Bringing Colab to a Jupyter Notebook near you…
By: Robert Smith
Tags: Python, Jupyter Notebook, Google Colab, Jupyter, Productivity

Bringing Colab to a Jupyter Notebook near you…

Google has built some nice features in Colab. Now you can benefit from some of these in Jupyter Notebook.

It’s errors all the way down

When programming in Python, it can be quite overwhelming when you hit an error deep down in a stack of nested function calls. One of the advantages of Python is that it has an enormous amount of high quality libraries available and for which the source code is readily available. Sometimes, it is useful just to be able to dig in to it in order to be able to understand what is going on.

To help you do just this, Google Colab automatically displays clickable links to the source files in the stack trace, as well as a handy button that searches for the error in Stack Overflow. Wouldn’t it be nice if Jupyter Notebook could do the same? That’s what I thought, so I decided to create a Notebook Extension that does exactly that.

Goto Error Notebook extension

If you have not already installed Jupyter Notebook extensions, you can do this by typing

pip install jupyter_contrib_nbextensions

Download the Goto Error code from GitHub with

git clone git://github.com/teticio/nbextension-gotoerror

install it like so

jupyter nbextension install nbextension-gotoerror

and finally, enable it thusly

jupyter nbextension enable nbextension-gotoerror/main

If all goes to plan, you should be able to configure the Goto Error extension in the nbextensions tab of Jupyter Notebook.

As the Jupyter server is only able to access files in the directory in which it is run or a subdirectory, for the notebook to be able to open the source files it is necessary to provide a soft link to the source file directory. For example, if you don’t use virtual environments, make soft link in the Jupyter launch directory to the site-packages directory of your Python installation (e.g. ~/lib/python3.6/site-packages ) and call this site-packages . Then set the prefix parameter in the nbextension configuration to ~/lib/python3.6 .

If you do use virtual environments, then point the soft link to the envs directory and set the prefix parameter accordingly.

To make a soft link in Linux:

ln -s ~/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages site-packages

To make a soft link in Windows:

mklink -d envs C:\users\teticio\Anaconda\python\envs

It should now work just like the following example.

You want more?

Google Colab has some other great features (apart from free access to GPUs and TPUs!). For example, if you add a #@param comment to the end of a line, it will automatically create a form which allows the user to input a value. For example

fred = 123 #@param {type : 'number'}

pops up a form with ‘fred’ and the number 123. If you change the number in the form to 456, say, the code is changed to

fred = 456 #@param {type : 'number'}

I’d like to develop an extension for Jupyter Notebook that does the same thing and, while I’m at it, port both of these extensions to Jupyter Lab. Please let me know if this is something that you would use.
The 5 Best Ways to Write More Articles
By: Itxy Lopez
Tags: Creativity, Writing Tips, 5 Tips, Productivity, Writing

1. Become an idea-machine

Generating ideas is a common struggle amongst writers. The blank page is the enemy, and they don’t know how to make its blood spill. This holds them back from writing.

How is it that even though ideas come from everywhere you’re not receiving them at all? There’s only one reason why: you don’t have an open mind.

Though not on purpose, you’re regularly consuming the same type of content, and therefore, thinking the same thoughts.

How are you supposed to write about new topics when new ideas aren’t entering your head?

To become an idea-machine, you need to be open to everything — even if it’s random and unrelating to your niche.

Even though you write about productivity, don’t read another book about that subject. If, while you were browsing online, a history book about Kennedy piqued your interest, read that. Rather than watching another class on writing, watch the interior design course you’ve been eyeing.

You’re not digging for ideas about history or interior design. You’re putting yourself in a position to get a thought that leads to another thought that turns into an idea that transforms into an entire article.

Even looking up from your phone and staring at the sky and the trees and the ocean lets ideas bubble in your brain until they explode on the page.

If you find nothing out in the world, look inside yourself. Ask yourself what you feel, how you feel, about your dreams and hopes and fears. That’s when you’ll discover various stories, memories, and lessons.

By consuming and doing different things you start having different thoughts.

If you have ideas, especially ones that excite you, you’re going to want to sit and write. Nothing will stop you then — not until you’ve told the whole story.
Tell Me A Love Story As If I’ve Never Known Another
By: Laura Gulbranson
Tags: Poetry, Books, Writing, Love, Creativity

Tell me a love story

as if I’ve never known another.

Break my heart and make it whole again.

Sew up the pieces of my heart with every word.

Can you romance me with your words

that breathe and move in real live action?

Can you slow dance with me with every pause

and when the tempo begins to beat faster…

keep me on my toes.

Would you stop in the right places

and linger in all the wrong ones?

Yet, through it all,

work the magic of your pen

on the parchment of my heart.

Take my breath away with your words.

Let my tears blot your words

into a thousand more verses.

Unravel the parchment of my heart

so your pen can write some more.

My heart wants your love —

like Nature’s thirst for nectar

and a hungry pen for paper.

Tell me a love story

like I’ve never loved another.

Show me that it’s real.

Devour me with your words.

With love. ❤
Why It’s Important To Write About Your Unoriginal Ideas
By: Nathan Burriston
Tags: Writing, Learning, Creativity, Education, Self-awareness

Context is everything

Why is it when someone gives a great speech, even if everyone in the audience agrees, very few take action?

Context is everything. When you read or listen to something, your context needs to be right for it to sink into your soul and take effect.

Let’s break down a person’s context.

Ability to understand

You don’t teach 5-year-olds about quantum mechanics. They don’t have the capacity to understand it. That doesn’t mean they never will. Their brains just aren’t there yet.

In the same way, just because something is true doesn’t mean everyone is able to understand and apply it. That’s why life advice from parents often goes over the child’s head. Their mentality isn’t there yet.

Timing

Based on what’s going on in your life, you react to things differently. Someone who just graduated college is more likely to absorb career advice than someone still in high school. Both are able to understand it, it’s just more applicable to the former.

That’s why you can hear the same thing for years but never take it in. Adele’s music only started speaking to me when I went through a breakup. It’s all timing.

How it’s presented

People react differently to the way information is presented.

Some people are heavy readers. Others are better listeners. Some people like to be pushed. Others like to be lovingly encouraged.

I used to be more of the ‘Jay Shetty’ kind of listener. I appreciated the calm, gentle advice he gave. But at some point, I realized it didn’t really push me to make changes. I agreed with everything but didn’t really internalize it.

Then I switched to Gary Vee. He had a more direct, no-nonsense, ‘kick up the backside’ approach which really got me out of my comfort bubble.

Delivery is also important. Nobody wants to listen to an arrogant, selfish know-it-all. You are more inclined to listen when someone talks with care, humility, and a genuine interest to help you.

We evolve

Your context affects how you receive information, but you also grow as a person. You won’t be the same person in 5 years. You shouldn’t be, anyway.

Life gives you challenges and victories that teach and define you.

You learn more.

Your circumstances change.

You meet new people.

You move on to the next stage in life

Your perspective changes.

So every encounter with knowledge should be looked at with new eyes.

I’ve read some of the same books again and again throughout my life and each time I read them I find something new. I’m able to make connections I didn’t make before. The beauty of timeless wisdom is each time you encounter it, your understanding deepens.

Even watching some of my favorite cartoons years later, I now spot the adult jokes that flew over my head as a kid. That’s why I don’t mind revisiting some of my favorite talks, articles, books, and movies. It’s not about excitement. It’s the added insight and appreciation I get each time.
Foxing’s ‘Nearer My God’ is the Best Song of 2018
By: Thomas Jenkins
Tags: Design, Writing, Songs, Music, Culture

The Song

Putting the strengths of the album aside, its title track easily the best song I’ve heard in 2018, and one of my favorites of all time. This is the kind of song that I have to force myself to stop listening to, lest I get sick of it; the kind of song that I want to put on every playlist; the kind of song that reminds me why I love music. “Nearer My God” is hauntingly beautiful, and I’ll do my best to describe why in the next few paragraphs.

As best I can tell, the lyrics are a self-reflection on the band’s existence and their careers. Murphy opens the track by yelling “I want it all,” continuing, just a few lines later, with “Cause I’d sell my soul/To be America’s pool boy/The crown centerfold/My few good years left, a tribute/To anyone who wants me at all/Does anybody want me at all?/Oh, do you want me at all?” Set against a piercing backdrop of music that I can only describe as haunting, Murphy’s desperation and anxiety are almost palpable.

What must it feel like to dedicate one’s life to learning a craft (in this case music) only to question these decisions a few years in? What kind of anguish must rise out of years devoted writing and singing, followed by this kind of uncertainty? I’m not musically inclined, but I can only imagine that this feeling must be crippling. After hearing this song a few times, I admire the honestly and openness that led to its creation.

Lyrical brilliance aside, the specific ways that the music’s climactic moments fit with the lyrics is the final ingredient to this song. After Murphy asks “Do you want me at all?” multiple times, the background music swells into a piercing crescendo that divides the first half of the song from the second and is one of the most impressive musical moments I have ever experienced. When Murphy’s voice enters the track again a few measures later, the lyrics flip from wanting musical fame to poking holes in the very vision that he longed after moments before. “I’ve got it all,” he sings, sounding no happier than before.

At just a few minutes long, this song still feels emotionally exhausting. It’s clear that it took a tremendous amount of courage and work to put these lyrics and notes together, and the end result — when listened to closely — conveys these elements well. It may not be the most accessible song, or the easiest to listen to, but the value and beauty here can’t be missed.
What Are The Benefits Of Cloud Data Warehousing?
Tags: Data Science, AWS, Programming, Cloud Computing, Big Data

What Are The Benefits Of Cloud Data Warehousing?

And Should You Switch

Data warehousing was introduced in 1988 by IBM researchers Barry Devlin and Paul Murphy.

Since then the concept has evolved and taken on a life of its own. Increasing challenges and complexities of business have forced data warehousing to become a distinct discipline. Over the years this has led to best business practices, improved technologies, and hundreds of books being published on the topic.

Image Source: Seattle Data Guy

But we don’t want to focus on the past.

Instead, this article will discuss the future of data warehousing and how it has been impacted by the cloud. Over the past decade, we have seen multiple new cloud data warehousing technologies pop up and be responsible for the largest software IPOs in history.

All because of a data warehouse.

A technology and discipline that is rarely even discussed in most computer science or IT degrees in college. Yet almost every large and medium organization has some form of the data warehouse.

It’s estimated by the year 2025 that the data warehouse market will near double from its current 18 billion USD market cap to 30 billion USD.

In this article, we will not only discuss why so many businesses are willing to invest in a data warehouse but we will also discuss how the cloud has improved data warehouses as well as leveled the playing field for businesses of all sizes.

So whether you want to learn more about data warehousing or you are a director, small business owner, or CEO this article will help you understand the vast world of data warehousing.
Immigrant, Harvard Dad, NYC Cab Driver: A Son’s Tribute to a Father Lost to Covid-19
By: Katie Couric
Tags: Victims, Health, Wellness, Coronavirus, Culture

Whenever one of his kids accomplished something, Mohammed Jafor broke out in a grin. “He would light up,” his son Mahtab Shihab said. “One thing that stood out to me was his pride in everything that me and my siblings did.”

Jafor immigrated to New York City from Bangladesh in 1991. He lived in Jackson Heights, Queens, delivered food, and worked at McDonald’s. He later brought his wife and oldest son to the U.S. from Bangladesh. And in 2000, Mahtab was born.

Mahtab told us: “He was a very devout man…He was very involved in the Bengali community in New York.” When immigrants came over from Bangladesh, Jafor would give them a place to stay for a few weeks, helping them get acclimated.

Jafor became a cab driver in the early 2000s. He worked six-days per week — often 12-hour shifts, to give his family “the best opportunities they could possibly have.”

Heartbreakingly, Jafor’s wife passed away a few years ago from colon cancer, leaving him as a single parent to three children.

“He was someone who always put his family first,” Mahtab said. “He worked hard to make sure that his family back in Bangladesh, and here in America, were taken care of.”

He also believed in the power of education: Mahtab is a sophomore studying history and economics at Harvard University, while his younger sister goes to the Trinity School in New York City.

By early March, the Covid-19 outbreak began taking hold of the region. Jafor took precautions, such as wearing a mask inside his cab. Soon after, when his son came home from school around March 14th, he stopped driving and socially isolated with his children.

But a week later, he began to develop mild Covid-19 symptoms: a fever, cough and more. He eventually began experiencing extreme shortness of breath. On March 26th, his family called him an ambulance.

He was sent to Montefiore Medical Center, where he was put on a ventilator soon after his arrival. Since his condition accelerated so quickly, his family wasn’t able to speak to him. The doctors tried to save him with everything they could: hydroxychloroquine, and a few other medications. None of the treatments worked, and Jafor died on April 1st at the age of 56.

“It was a lot to take in,” Mahtab said. “It happened all of a sudden, and it was very unexpected. It’s like: ‘What happens from here? This wasn’t supposed to happen.’”

“My dad worked really hard for everything,” he added. “It’s sad… he won’t be able to see the fruits of his hard work through the paths of me, my brother and my sister.”
Thought Plagiarism and How It Threatens Creative Platforms
By: Aphinya Dechalert
Tags: Social Media, Business, Creativity, Startup, Writing

Thought Plagiarism and How It Threatens Creative Platforms

When does copying end and the destruction of ideas begin?

Photo by Vinicius Amano on Unsplash

Every platform has its self-seekers — that is, those who try to game the system by milking the creativity of others and doing as little as possible on their end. Money and fame are usually the motivating factors for this.

They are the mimickers, the copiers, the type that ‘steal’ an idea and rework it in a way that rides on the coattails of the originator. They don’t care about attribution. They don’t wait and give the content distance in time. They’ll cash in as quickly and as frequently as possible. This is because to them, the internet is all about free speech.

Sometimes, they’ll go as far as calling it working smarter and not harder — except, the reality is that it’s leaning toward a black hat attempt to get as much money and attention as possible without adding value to the platform that’s paying them.

We’re not talking about those moments of mind-melding experiences where two creators happen to have the exact same idea or thought wave around the same time. It happens. Those moments are often done in isolation and innocence, making the similarities forgivable.

The difference between innocent creators and self-seekers is that the latter will exhibit an identifiable trend. They don’t just have one-offs — they have a history of content that seems too alike to be coincidental.

When enough people do this with money and fame as the main motivator, they drown out the original voices and contribute to the image of sameness on a platform.
How I Deal With Negative Thoughts When I Have to Code
By: Piero Borrelli
Tags: Mental Health, Programming, Software Development, Productivity, Psychology

How I Deal With Negative Thoughts When I Have to Code

How I stopped distractions from taking over and potentially ruining my career

Photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash.

“When there’s an elephant in the room, you can’t pretend it isn’t there and just discuss the ants.” — Ellen Wittlinger

This is my first ever article where I put the word “I” in evidence, as focus on readers is my main mission. But with the hard times we are all going through during this pandemic, I felt that giving a cookie-cutter solution to very personal problems wasn’t fair.

Today, I just want to draw attention to what has been my process over the last six months to dealing with negative emotions while I’m sitting in front of a computer trying to code.

Because you see, dealing with bad feelings and anxiety is different when you’re not working. You can find something to soothe you easily, like getting distracted by a movie or just laying down and letting your thoughts go.

But my boss doesn’t like that and doesn’t pay me to watch movies. They pay me to be productive, to make their problems my own for 40 hours a week. So I have to deal with that as a professional would.

Coding is not something that you can afford to do while being distracted. You must always have your next step in mind, thinking about a thousand different best practices to apply at the same time. It’s a very mind-egoistic practice because you can’t let your brain wander around anywhere else except the editor.

Here is a list of methods I used as my first-aid kit during these tough times. They helped me regain my productivity and possibly even keep my job.
There is Plastic in Your Fruits & Vegetables
By: Karolin Wanner
Tags: Pollution, Health, Environment, Plastic, Science

Microplastic Pollutes the Fruits and Vegetables We Eat

For the first time, microplastic was detected in fruits and vegetables by the scientist Margherita Ferrante and her team from the University of Catania in Italy. The existence of microplastic is evident in lettuce, carrots, broccoli, potatoes, apples, and pears.

The researchers found plastic participles are more concentrated in fruits than in vegetables. Fruits contain more microplastic due to their greater size and the age of the tree. Microplastic accumulates during the life of the tree. Another reason is the bigger root system of fruit trees compared to vegetables.

Apples show the highest amount of pollution for fruits and carrots for vegetables. The number of microplastic found in fruits and vegetables is still lower than in water from a plastic bottle.

A second peer-reviewed study, a joint project between the Leiden University in the Netherlands and the Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research in China, shows plastic is sucked up by the roots of food crops. Professor Peijnenburg from Leiden University explains that the roots of lettuce and wheat absorb plastic and transport it to the edible part of the plant.

Until now researchers didn’t believe that plastic can pass through the intact barriers of plant tissue. These findings raise serious concerns about the safety of the food we eat.

“For years we have known about plastic in crustaceans and fish, but this is the first time we have known about plastic getting into vegetables. “If it is getting into vegetables, it is getting into everything that eats vegetables as well which means it is in our meat and dairy as well. — Maria Westerbos, Founder of Plastic Soup Foundation

Researchers and environmental campaigners call for an urgent investigation. And we as consumers should too. Is the food we feed our children safe? Or have we destructed our planet so much that there is no safe food available anymore?
Traditional Media is Dead. Long Live Traditional Media.
By: Charles Baker
Tags: Advertising, Facebook, Startup, Marketing

Facebook’s Q2 2016 earning sent the stock soaring to new heights. With the stock up 30% year over year, it’s clear that this mobile advertising juggernaut is transforming the ad industry. At BBDO, we have embraced the rise of Facebook by launching Project Thumb Breaker — an initiative that is fueling BBDO’s ambition to become the most effective creator of Facebook ads in the world.

While Facebook has transformed the ad industry, legacy brands have been disrupted by upstarts. The direct-to-consumer model combined with excellent customer service and smart branding has enabled Casper, Harry’s and many others to generate billions of dollars in revenue in less than a few years. Unilever’s acquisition of Dollar Shave Club demonstrates how disruptive this model can be… Unilever clearly intends to challenge P&G’s dominant brand Gillette.

Facebook advertising is a strong driver for brand growth. However, it’s a channel that works best as part of a broader ecosystem. Research has proven that integrated campaigns that leverage a range of channels drive stronger business results.

It’s clear that Harry’s and Casper have embraced the value of integrated campaign development — they don’t rely on Facebook, Google or any one individual channel. I ride the New York subway to work everyday. More and more, the OOH subway ads I see are from startup brands like Talkspace, Casper and Harry’s. And you know what… the ads work. If I am stressed out from a long challenging week, the Talkspace ad telling me that their app can pair me with a therapist instantly for $32/week is pretty effective. If I am tired and don’t really want to cook or go out, the Seamless ad makes me far more likely to order in. If I just moved or am not sleeping well, the Casper ad definitely encourages me to buy a new mattress. And if I am on the way to work after just getting ready, the Harry’s ad definitely makes me feel that Harry’s great design and style could make the start to my day just a little bit smoother.

Brilliant OOH ad from Talkspace. Note the social norming strategy that makes the app look popular and effective.

So, we should listen when Time Warner says that 95% of video consumption happens on TV and that Facebook video on its own would rank as the #158th most watched show. And we should listen when Facebook says it has 1.03B daily active mobile users. No individual media channel can become the golden bullet for a campaign. Marketers who want to create the most effective work need to leverage communications planning to integrate all of their advertising across all channels. Strong communications planning generates a multiplier effect on the impact of advertising. All channels, from print to OOH to TV to Facebook, are pillars of strong campaign ecosystems.
Empower a Lightweight Python Data Structure: From Tuples to Namedtuples
By: Yong Cui
Tags: Programming, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Python, Technology

Tuple

When it comes to dealing with related data elements, one of the most commonly used data types is the tuple. As an immutable data type, tuples are sequences of data with a fixed size. They’re useful to group related data with different data types. Consider the following trivial example.

>>> employee0 = ('John Smith', 45, 'M', 160083)

In the above code snippet, we define a tuple called employee0 , which stores an employee’s personal data, including name, age, gender, and employee ID number. If we need to use some elements of the tuple, we can unpack it or use subscript, and their usages are shown below.

>>> # Use unpacking

>>> name, age, gender, employee_id = employee0

>>> print(f"Employee Name: {name}")

Employee Name: John Smith

>>>

>>> # Use subscript

>>> print(f"Employee Age: {employee0[1]}")

Employee Age: 45

>>> print(f"Employee ID #: {employee0[-1]}")

Employee ID #: 160083

How about we need to deal with another employee in the same module? We’ll have to do something like below.

>>> # Create a tuple for storing another employee data

>>> employee1 = ('Jennifer Brown', 38, 'F', 150384)

>>>

>>> # Access data

>>> name1, age1, gender1, employee_id1 = employee1

>>> print(f"Employee Name: {employee1[0]}")

Employee Name: Jennifer Brown

>>> print(f"Employee Age: {age1}")

Employee Age: 38

>>> print(f"Employee ID #: {employee_id1}")

Employee ID #: 150384

In essence, we have to repeat the above steps, and access individual elements using either unpacking or subscripts, which certainly is not the most pleasant thing to do. Actually, it can be error-prone because you have to remember the exact order of these data.
The second mover advantage
By: Kunal Anand
Tags: Product, Brand Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Marketing

You must have heard start-up founders talking about first mover advantage, which is a real thing. If you enter a market which has the opportunity with a product/service which can cater to a need, the chances are you will build a business out of it. There are challenges, creating awareness, capturing customers, getting them hooked to your product, or just getting people to adopt the product/service. This can be gained via building a technology leadership or building a barrier to entry. You have to be careful of competition, cause competition will come.

The firms which try and capture the first mover advantage will always have to be vary of competition to enter the market and beat them to building a sustained-viable business. The fight to being the ‘First Mover Champion’ is real and scary.

Not only that, the second mover advantage in the truest sense is capturing the majority of the market after the first mover has created it.

Rarely do first movers create a monopoly, cause there will always be an entrant who will follow them closely but never try and overtake the first mover. That is a second mover. A copy business or service or product. A firm which will learn from the mistakes of the first mover, and replicate all the successful strategies and add it’s own strategies to it. The second mover gains market share by utilizing the disadvantages of the first mover.

The Disadvantages of the First Mover

AKA Advantages for the Second Mover

Apple taking IBM head-on and declaring themselves as a viable alternative

Effort of Awareness

When we discuss the successful start-ups, we never realize the effort that they put in order to make the audience aware of their existence. The first movers need to make the latent need crystal clear to the market, only then will they get some early adopters, who hopefully will spread the word.

As a first mover, the onus is on them to make the market aware of the product’s existence so that people start using them.

The second mover uses this awareness and just informs the same user that they exist in the market and are a viable alternative to the first mover.

IBM created an awareness of what computers could do in the industry. They created awareness, a market and customers. Apple entered the market and captured it and how. Apple targeted IBM directly with the now famous, “Big Brother” ad campaign during the Superbowl and swept the ground beneath IBM in the Personal Computer market.
Simplifying Covid-19 Into One Mechanism: The Epithelial-endothelial Crosstalk
By: Shin Jie Yong
Tags: Innovation, Health, Coronavirus, Life, Science

The Epithelial-Endothelial Crosstalk

In a May research letter to Intensive Care Medicine, Amit Jain and D. John Doyle, professors of anesthesiology at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, proposed the “epithelial–endothelial crosstalk” hypothesis. And thorough autopsy findings later confirms it.

Epithelial cells refer to the lining or membrane that covers a specific tissue, such as alveoli (i.e., air sacs). In contrast, endothelial cells are a specialized type of epithelial cell that covers blood vessels.

In this crosstalk, the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 first binds to the ACE2 receptor present on alveolar epithelial cells. Following virus replication inside alveolar sacs, the membrane breaks to release new virions that infect the pulmonary capillaries (i.e., small blood vessels surrounding the air sacs) via the ACE2 receptor. As virus replication continues, SARS-CoV-2 then latches on the ACE2 receptor on the pulmonary endothelium (i.e., cells lining the pulmonary veins or arteries, which are large blood vessels).

In sum, SARS-CoV-2 infects the air sacs (or alveoli). Then it goes to the small blood vessels (capillaries or capillary beds) surrounding the air sacs and subsequently to large blood vessels (pulmonary arteries or veins). Bracketed terms are illustrated:

As the professors explained: “Following alveolar-capillary membrane disruption, SARS-CoV-2 enters the pulmonary capillaries and directly infects the pulmonary endothelial cells via ACE-2 protein on the luminal surfaces.”

In a one-liner, SARS-CoV-2 goes from the alveolar epithelial cells to pulmonary endothelial cells — the “epithelial-endothelial crosstalk”.

“As a result, endothelial cells assume a ‘pro-inflammatory’/‘procoagulant’ phenotype,” Professors Jain and Doyle continued. “This accelerates Fas-induced apoptosis of alveolar epithelial and endothelial cells and orchestrates the cytokine storm and the progression of COVID-19 to ARDS.”

From hereon, as blood vessels connect all organs, SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to damage multiple organs, as the autopsies have shown.
How Pets Can Make You a Better Programmer — Yes, Your Pet Can Do That
By: Mahdhi Rezvi
Tags: Mental Health, Health, Software Engineering, Programming, Lifestyle

Creative Thinking Skills

Creative thinking is an essential skill when it comes to programming and the software industry. You are required to think outside-the-box to tackle unsolved problems.

Here are a few ways of how your pets increase your creative thinking skills.

Keeps your mind active and sharp

Pets give us a sense of purpose and obligation. They depend on us for food, shelter, and security. Caring for your pet needs not only physical effort but also mental effort. You need to be able to communicate with your pet and stay tuned to the needs of your pet.

You may not know this, but really, your pet helps keep your mind more active and sharp. From meeting your pet’s basic needs to playing and enjoying time with your pet, they help to stimulate your mind and keep your brain in shape.

The mind is your most complicated and powerful resource, and the more you use it, the more creative and sharp it becomes. Having your mind active helps you produce creative output because the creative process is also cyclical — the more creative thinking you use, the more motivated you become.

Start thinking about caring for your pet as a creative tool and you’re sure to enjoy those walks and playtimes even more.

Provides a childlike sense of joy and freedom

Pets often bring out some of the best characteristics in ourselves. They will help us explore and reconnect with that more carefree and childlike existence.

You will find that when you’re with your pet, you’re more happy and relaxed. You might even find yourself doing dumb, out-of-the-box things while you play and spend time with your cat.

It’s that very sense of joy and freedom that our pets can provide that can also help to boost our creativity. When you were younger and more carefree, you were less logical and judgmental; you believed in infinite possibilities.

A more youthful outlook, filled with wonder and curiosity, is a great approach to the creative process. Let yourself be shrewd and dumb next time you play with your dog, and see how your creative juices can sparkle.
10 Easy Fixes for Common Headline Mistakes
By: Cynthia Marinakos
Tags: Creativity, Business, Headline Hacks, Productivity, Writing

10 Easy Fixes for Common Headline Mistakes

Examples and tips to attract readers to your valuable content

Illustration by Cynthia Marinakos.

Headlines aren’t an exact science. What may get one reader clicking may be ignored by another. What may work in one industry may not work in another. However, there are simple, classic ways to improve headlines so they’re more likely to entice your reader.

Over the past decade as a communications professional and a writer, I’ve made a crapload of mistakes with headlines. But when you write to sell — ideas, products, services, event tickets, and more — you get feedback. That’s how you quickly learn what headlines sell — and which flop.

Today I want to show you ten headlines from real articles. I’ll take you through how to improve them — and share alternative headline ideas. Are the alternative headlines better than the originals? I’ll let you decide.
Selling Your New Sales Deck to Sales
By: Andy Raskin
Tags: Sales, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Marketing, Strategy

Bellies full of beignets, my parents and I were exiting San Francisco’s Just for You Cafe when when a middle-aged man called my name.

“Andy, it’s Christoph!” he shouted. “Do you have time for a quick question about messaging?”

(Later, my mom asked, “People stalk you for messaging advice?”)

It was fun having my parents think I was some kind of messaging celebrity, but I recognized Christoph as the CEO of an early-stage tech company who had recently attended one of my workshops. He was waiting for a table, but didn’t wait to tell me what was going on.

“Listen,” he said, “I restructured our sales pitch using your Greatest Sales Deck framework and the results have been awesome. I’ve used it with a few prospects, and they engage at a deeper level, they get what we’re about faster, and they’re all moving to next steps.”

“That’s great,” I said. “What’s the question?”

“Well, it’s my VP of sales. He won’t even look at the new deck. Says he already has a deck, and that buyers don’t have time for a story, they just want to know how we solve their problem.” Christoph was digging his heels into the pavement, one after the other, as a metaphor for his VP’s resistance. “How do I bring him on board?”

With so many B2B teams gearing up for next year’s sales kickoff events, I’m guessing Christoph isn’t the only one worried about his sales team embracing a new version of the pitch. So I’ll share an expanded version of my response to him here:

(These 5 points are particularly relevant to the Greatest Sales Deck framework, but should apply to any kind of sales pitch.)

#1. Make sure your new deck facilitates discovery

Christoph’s VP’s complaint echoes the most common pushback I hear from salespeople about flashy new sales decks in general—they encourage salespeople to blabber on instead of listening to prospects. In other words, they inhibit what salespeople call discovery.

One of my biggest “aha” moments was when several sales teams I worked with began using their “change in the world” slides to get prospects talking and opening up. For example, Switzerland-based SpotMe, which delivers custom apps for events and training, begins pitches by sharing a change that we heard about from SpotMe’s customers—namely that they now see events not as self-contained shindigs, but as episodes in some greater journey:
An Open Letter to Anyone Struggling to Get Healthier
By: Corey Wilks
Tags: Self, Mental Health, Health, Psychology, Life

It’d be easy for me to blame being out of shape on external circumstances. I was a fat kid because I grew up in a poor rural area where health literacy is low, and obesity rates are high. I stayed fat as an adult because I was too busy to exercise regularly — college and work took up too much time.

Sometimes your reasons are valid, but they’re still bullshit excuses.

The reality is I didn’t prioritize my health. Resources are everywhere, but we have to put in the work to find them. Google, Youtube, your local library, teachers, mentors — the list goes on.

You don’t need a gym membership or fancy equipment. There are plenty of exercises you can do with your body weight or with objects you already have lying around. If you want to spice it up, look up prison workouts — people who are incarcerated have to improvise to stay in shape, and they come up with some ingenious ways to do it.

Healthy food doesn’t have to be expensive. Look at the canned and frozen food sections if the fresh stuff is pricey. When produce is out of season, it’s usually better to buy the canned or frozen version because they’re picked during peak season then preserved — so the quality is higher versus the “fresh” stuff that’s more expensive (because it’s out of season) and has a longer shelf life.
3 ways of using storytelling in design
By: Jenny Shirey
Tags: Storytelling, UX Research, Design, UX, Marketing

3 ways of using storytelling in design

How I rediscovered my favorite childhood activities.

Me as a 5-year-old making stories

As a child, I loved creating stories. From the time I could hold a pencil, I would write little books and illustrate them. I continued doing this until my teenage years.

But when it came time to start looking at universities and choose a major, I decided to go for something related to art that would allow me to earn a steady income: I chose to work as a graphic designer. Unfortunately, I ended up in a role doing routine work and production design. While some people enjoy this type of work, I did not; I felt bored and stifled.

In an effort to move out of print production design, I went back to get a master’s degree and ended up in the field of user experience design, stumbling into it mostly by accident. I loved that UX allowed me to talk with people, understand their needs, and help figure out what to create for them. I loved the impact that I could have on millions of people’s lives and work experiences by designing better software products.

What I didn’t expect was that so much of my work would involve a return back to what I loved as a child: using images and words to tell stories.

Pages from a story I wrote and illustrated when I was young

When I think about how I’ve used storytelling in my role as a designer, it generally falls into three distinct categories:

Using storytelling to

Understand and advocate for users Create lovable, user-friendly products Present a design vision

In this post I’ll share examples with you of each of these. I hope it helps inspire you to tell more stories at work and possibly even reuse some of your favorite childhood skills.

Using stories to understand and advocate for our users

One of the ways that we understand our users is through talking with them — doing interviews or contextual inquiry. And one of the best ways I’ve found to discover people’s needs is to ask them to tell you a story. It’s useful because it allows the participant to share what actually has happened in the past, rather than imagine what might happen in the future. It also allows you to follow up with questions about their emotions, goals, and beliefs behind their actions.

Certain experiences will stand out more vividly in people’s minds which makes them a good area of focus for stories. I will never forget this helpful (and rhyming) phrase that Jeff Patton shared in a workshop which he led a few years ago:

“People remember the last time, the first time, the best time, and the worst time.”

For example, you can ask about the first time someone logged into your product, the last time they had to contact customer support, the best or worst experience they’ve had with online shopping, etc.

After people have told us their stories, we then can use storytelling to engage our teams back in the office and advocate for our users. Stories with a conflict, an emotional arc, and a resolution will get your audience’s attention and help them remember the main idea later.
23 Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs
By: Chris Craft
Tags: Marketing, Learning, Business, Entrepreneurship, Productivity

Execute

All the dreaming and planning in the world won’t mean anything if you never put the rubber to the pavement. Within EXECUTE, successful entrepreneurs:

Do

Successful entrepreneurs don’t overplan to the point of paralysis. Sometimes a little uncertainty can leave some good room for creativity. But despite all of the doing, you have to remember that your most important customer is your current paying customer! Take good care of the customers who already support you.

Keep a Calendar

You have better chances for productivity and efficiency if you organize your day before the day begins. Of course, there will be interruptions, but it’s better to have a course designed as opposed to “freestyling” it all day.

Keep a Checklist

This is the next progression from keeping a calendar. Turn your tasks on your calendar into smaller attainable action items and mark them off upon completion. This is one of those things that separate successful entrepreneurs from the pack. Your checklist can be on paper or in digital form. The point is to have a way to track your productivity.

Delegate

You can’t do it all. Find some people around you to execute the tasks that you can’t do or get to in a timely fashion. Also, you’re not great at all things. Try to only delegate tasks to people who can do the task better (or at about the same level) and faster than you can.

Measure

Successful entrepreneurs always know where they stand with their key performance metrics/indicators. KPIs include things like phone calls made or emails sent, meetings secured, deals closed, product returns (the lower the better), or homes shown (for my real estate agent friends).

Pivot

Failing fast and moving on isn’t always a good idea. Sometimes it takes a few tries in order to successfully execute on a business idea. With that said, successful entrepreneurs know how to make the proper tweaks to their marketing plan, business model, and/or product or service offering in order to get their business on the right track.

Persevere

Successful entrepreneurs are in it to win it and they won’t let a few bumps in the road deter them from their goal(s). Some failure is temporary and success sometimes comes down to how well and how often you get up after getting knocked down.
Steady as a Rock
By: David Cenicola
Tags: Mental Health, Productivity, Facebook, Family, Social Media

Steady as a Rock

That time is now at Hand

Photo by Nuno Silva on Unsplash

We are fools who believe You are there,

if You are not there;

Otherwise, if You are there, we must wait confidently and patiently. . .

to see what it is that You will do.

Who is right and who is wrong

only time will tell.

You must be happy to look down and watch

as we sniff to investigate the terrain,

trying to discern the territory

as our senses, emotions, instincts and intelligence

try to sway our thinking,

battling amongst themselves and then against

each other, in our hopeless pursuit to discover

who will come out on top.

Those who believe or those who do not.

Much is invested in this age-old question,

and each side is certain it is right.

Photo by Japheth Mast on Unsplash

How long will we wait …

the further time goes forth,

the more unbelievers become victorious,

and those of us who believe wait and wonder,

unperturbed.

For You have called it long ago,

that we must remain steadfast, for nobody is to know …

That the time is now at hand.

Our leaders have sold us out to a world

of Your non-existence.
Make A Plan for When You Want to Give Up Writing
By: Mason Sabre
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Writing, Self Care, Pandemic, Productivity

Find the Time to Write

I am an advocate for anyone being able to find the time to write. I even wrote a book on writing that included how to do this, and I have various articles talking about it, but wow, life seems to have got me this time. All my usual tricks aren’t working. I feel like I’m ready to give up and that maybe I’m just not cut out to be a working writer.

I’ve tried getting up at 5 am to write or working in the evening to get some words done. I’ve even taken up using dictation in hope to be able to get words on the go, but the more I do to enable myself a good amount of writing time, the harder life seems to make it for me actually to get to my desk.

If it isn’t dealing with ill-health of elderly family members and new babies being born into my family, it’s my children needing help with things in their life. I joke, to my friends who say they can’t wait for their children to grow up, that it gets worse. But it isn’t really a joke. Bigger kids means bigger problems.

I’m not complaining about these things. I care for my father’s mother. I cared for my father before he died. I have four children, they have their own children, and being a big family means we all muck in together to help each other out. It’s fantastic we have that family support, but it can’t half take my time up.

And let’s not forget that pandemic. I know my wife and I aren’t alone in how the pandemic has affected us. My wife runs a wedding business, and so with all weddings being cancelled, she’s had to find other work, and I’ve been needed to help with that.

As a consequence, finding time to write or do anything has been near impossible. But I’m trying.