fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
The Women That Protected Their Abusers Instead of Each Other
By: Carrie Wynn
Tags: Relationships, This Happened To Me, Mental Health, Women, Self

It has been almost a decade since I became so enthralled with that group of women.

My view of them is no longer the same. The glitter quickly faded and when I saw what was really happening I couldn’t pretend like everything was okay

T hat group of women, including myself were all being abused by our significant others.

We were being abused by the very men who told us we were beautiful and that they wanted to spend their lives with us. On the outside, they preached soulmates and treating others with love and respect. Behind closed doors, it was physical and psychological abuse.

The first time that my boyfriend at the time laid hands on me, I truly thought that I had gone insane. There wasn’t a single part of me that could comprehend how this person that had claimed to love me could do such a thing.

It wasn’t until months later when one of the girls, Anna burst into tears during a girl’s trip and revealed that her partner had choked her and thrown her body across the floor.

Immediately I was horrified. I looked at Kryshia and Lynn, expecting the same horror to be on their faces. Instead of horror, I saw that they were uncomfortable and awkward. I realized that this was not something that was supposed to be discussed. Since they remained silent I decided to say something.

I told Anna that she wasn’t alone. I told her that I had been abused as well. I held her as she cried while Kryshia and Lynn were silent, and I knew that I had broken some sort of unspoken code.

Now keep in mind, Kryshia and Lynn were also enduring abuse. Kryshia's partner was verbally abusive and Lynn had a controlling partner that monitored her every move. Yet none of that seemed to matter as their stone-cold silence hung in the air.
Here’s the Morning Routine That Has Brought Me the Most Success
By: Alyssa Atkinson
Tags: Productivity, Work, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Life

Here’s the Morning Routine That Has Brought Me the Most Success

5 key habits you can adopt as well.

Photo by Julian Hochgesang on Unsplash

For most of my life, my morning routine has been all over the place. In high school, I didn’t even have one. I rolled out of bed about 10 minutes before I had to leave for school, packed up my backpack, ate a quick breakfast of sugar cereal or a pre-packaged granola bar, and headed out the door.

It was a terrible routine that set me up for failure. I constantly forgot things I needed for the day at home, like my calculator or gym clothes, I had to rush to my first class, and I felt exhausted by third period because my sugary breakfast always caused that inevitable energy dip.

However, by the time I got to college, I quickly developed a more rigid morning routine. The routine ultimately helped me successfully juggle two very time consuming obligations — running cross-country and track at the division one level and keeping up with a tough engineering course load.

Then, after I graduated in December of 2019, I had to adjust my morning routine slightly to fit my new work from home schedule, boost productivity, and help me build my brand. Through a little bit of trial and error, I did exactly that. The following routine is the one I have used for almost a year now, and it helps me stay productive throughout the entire morning day after day.

Plus, it contains five key strategies that you can apply to your own morning routine for a productivity boost during those crucial first four hours of the work day. Let’s take a look at the entire routine from start to finish.
The Psychology Principles Every UI/UX Designer Needs to Know
By: Thanasis Rigopoulos
Tags: UX, UI, User Experience, Design, User Interface

Psychology plays a big part in a user’s experience with an application. By understanding how our designs are perceived, we can make adjustments so that the apps we create are more effective in achieving the goals of the user.

To help you understand the perception of the user, I will introduce some design principles which I think are the most important, and also provide common examples of these principles in practice. Let’s start with the Von Restorff effect:

Von Restorff effect

The Von Restorff effect (also known as the isolation effect) predicts that when multiple similar objects are present, the one that differs from the rest is most likely to be remembered!

Does this ring any bells?

This is the main reason why all call-to-actions (CTAs) look different from the rest of the action buttons on a site or application!

Von Restorff Effect Example

We want users to be able to differentiate between a simple action button and a CTA, in order for them to have a clear understanding what the CTA does, whilst also remembering it throughout their use of the application or site.
What Will It Take
By: Robin Harwick
Tags: Life Lessons, Sustainability, Equality, Poetry, Freedom

Photo by Robin Harwick, 2016

What will it take for you to see

it is more than just a tree

What will it take for you to know

the knowledge you gain depends on what you sow

What will it take for you to see

I’m sure you won’t listen to me

For who am I? I have no degree

what I learn doesn’t come from a university

but from all that I see

Although your schools will give you status

Now is the time to Let US

…teach you

Let us teach you of things you don’t know

and the seed we plant will surely grow

What will it take for you to see

the hurt in my eyes is NOT for me

What will it take for you to know

each one you push down will not grow

What will it take for you to see

he is YOUR god and not for me

Stop fighting and hating then you will see

that there is more than one way to truly be free

©Robin Harwick

Note: Originally written in the 1990s, before I had any degrees. The sentiments are still valid.
Stop Talking About Yourself
By: Sudipto Chanda
Tags: Communication, Listening, Relationships, Engagement, Storytelling

There are only two steps to engage in a great conversation with anyone — ask questions and listen to the answers with full attention.

The only time you can break this rule is during a job interview, where you need to sell your skills and talents. For every other interaction, have the confidence to refrain from talking about yourself altogether.

Now, that doesn’t mean you would refuse to answer questions the other person asks. The key here is to make the other person the protagonist of the conversation with you acting as the supporting cast. Listen with as much attention as you would to your childhood hero when you finally meet him.

Don’t worry that others will consider you stupid. Trust me — they won’t. Instead, they will remember the time with you as an interesting conversation and respect you more.

Stop the Story War

Often, instead of engaging in a conversation, we engage in a story war.

If the other person talks about that accident he had on a bicycle, we are ready with a significantly more interesting story to beat that. The incident could have happened to one of our friends or us. Sometimes, we don’t even let the other person finish their story, and we barge in with our own.

While we are busy formulating our story, we aren’t listening anyway. That’s a pretty poor quality of engagement to have in a conversation.

Decide not to participate in the battle of stories and let the other person win, while you wave a white flag.

Stop Pre-Listening

With people close to us, we hear what they are going to say even before they say it. We get into the ‘already, always listening’ situation.

We almost know what they are going to say based on past conditioning, and we get impatient. We complete their sentences or cut them mid-sentence.

What’s the point of life, if we are in such a hurry that we can’t even give this little time to listen to our loved ones?

Take a deep breath and let your loved ones get the time they deserve from you. Let them complete their sentences. Let them feel listened to.

There is one more benefit of following this advice — people reciprocate. The day you have something important to say, they will listen more attentively. When you drop the competition, they will do the same. Just remember to drop it forever.

Finally, Take the Time to Listen to Yourself

Go, take a walk in a park. Or wake up early and have tea with yourself. Give time to your internal dialog — remember not to let this become a worrying time.

If you do this on a regular basis, the urge to tell your story to others will be much reduced because you will have your own genius self to listen to all your amazing ideas.
Conceptualising the Modes of Work
By: Joshua Hay
Tags: Self-awareness, Personal Growth, Leadership, Mental Models, Mentorship

I purposefully used the word “modes” rather than “levels” in order to avoid any assertion that these are some sort of ranking. There’s nothing wrong with operating in any of these modes so long as it works for you and aligns with the expectations of those who have expectations of you.

Personally, I’m most interested in working with people that operate in mode four and above. As much as I enjoy teaching, I find it more enriching to learn together. However, my current thinking is that building a company — at least one with any significant footprint — of only mode four and above is a rare and difficult feat. There are, however, many examples of this, and books like “An Everyone Culture” by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey offer an inspiring and insightful read containing case studies on some of these companies.

It would be a mistake to view these modes as having concrete boundaries. It is quite possible to operate in a transitional space between two modes and arguably that’s a great state to be in a lot of the time — it indicates you are evolving.

Everybody can (and does) evolve. Our experiences, environment and filters through which we interpret the world all play a role in how we grow and change over time. By using the modes of work as a conceptual guide, it is my hope that those interested in helping people to grow may have another tool at their disposal when it comes to taking the right action at the right time with the right people.

How exactly do we shift people from one mode to another is complicated to write about, and definitely too long for this piece. I do however have a theory that simply sharing the modes with others in a non-confronting or accusatory way, and discussing their own thoughts on what mode they think they are operating in, can serve as a spark for change. Awareness of the modes, even as an idea, can create an anchor point against which people can compare their own approach to work and decide whether or not they are satisfied or would prefer to switch modes. Someone that wants to evolve, and seeks help in doing so, is going to be a lot easier to assist than anyone you are “trying to help for their own good”.

Working with a passion to grow people can at times feel quite dejecting. When assessing your positive impact it can seem a lot easier to identify your failures than successes. I am grateful to Julian for sparking the idea to plot these modes out even for use as a personal retrospective tool. I have witnessed many people evolve through several modes while working with them — and that evolution is totally theirs to own and be proud of. Reflecting back on having been around to experience those evolutions are some of the fondest and most meaningful memories of my career.
3 More Mental Errors That Mess With Your Decision-Making
By: Yannick Bikker
Tags: Life Lessons, Self Improvement, Life, Psychology, Decision Making

Survivorship Bias: The Forgotten Failures

“Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates all dropped out of school and became billionaires! You don’t need school to succeed. Startup founders just need to stop wasting time in class, drop out, and get started.”

It’s entirely possible that Steve Jobs succeeded despite his path and not because of it. For every Jobs, Gates, and Zuckerberg, there are thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs with failed products, debt-heavy bank accounts, and half-finished degrees.

When we remember the winners and forget the losers, it becomes very complicated to say if a particular strategy leads to success.

This leads to survivorship bias: our tendency to focus on the winners in a particular area and try to learn from them while completely forgetting about the losers who are using the same strategy.

Almost every online news platform is filled with survivorship bias these days. Each time you read stories like “The Best Startup Advice Mark Zuckerberg Ever Received” or “10 Things Successful People Do Every Day” or “How Lionel Messi Trains in the Off-Season”, you’re seeing survivorship bias in action.

There might be thousands of soccer players who train in a very similar way to Lionel Messi but never made it to FC Barcelona. Nobody hears about the thousands of athletes who never make it to the top.

Lionel Messi. Source

We only hear from those who survive. As a result, we mistakenly overvalue their strategies and advice while ignoring the fact that the same strategies didn’t work for most people.

Survivorship bias isn’t just saying that a strategy may not work well for you, it’s also saying that we don’t actually know if the strategy works well at all.

People like Gates, Messi, and Zuckerberg are anomalies at one end of a distribution curve. While there is much to learn from them, it would be a mistake to expect the same results from doing the same things.
4 Things Every Programmer Should Aspire to Be
By: Piero Borrelli
Tags: Work, Programming, Software Engineering, Web Development, Technology

What makes your career as a developer a great one.

Do you still ask yourself what you want to be when you grow up? Even if you’ve already grown into a full adult?

I do that daily. And as a junior developer, most of my answers are related to what type of programmer I aspire to be one day.

Every coder has different inspirations for the future, but I believe that the secret ingredient for a career made of gratification is made of just 4 principles.

Let’s see them in details.

Be Very Skilled On A Niche Of Technologies

You can’t master every discipline in the coding world. You probably won’t be the next master of self-driving cars, lunar module software engineer and top JavaScript developer all at once. Yet, you can still find something you’re truly passionate about and become a master of that, whether the discipline is mobile-development or writing code for the missions on Mars.

Mastering a set of skills is a beautiful thing, which can bring you a lot of satisfaction in the world of developers, from becoming a CTO or tech lead, to getting recognized as an authority in your field.

In going deep into something you are passionate about in this world, I’m sure you will find a renewed passion every day and a lot of career achievements along the way.

Speaking about coding for space programs:
Microsoft Patent Describes Tracking Brain Activity to Mine Cryptocurrency
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Microsoft, Future Technology, Biotechnology, Technology

The patent suggests using body heat, fluids, or brainwaves to validate blockchain transactions and award users with digital currency such as Bitcoin.

By Adam Smith

A new patent application by Microsoft details a way to use bodily functions such as brain activity to mine cryptocurrency.

The application, entitled “Cryptocurrency System Using Body Activity Data,” explains how a “brain wave or body heat emitted from the user when the user performs the task provided by an information service provider, such as viewing an advertisement or using certain internet services, can be used in the mining process.”

By tracking brainwaves when someone watches an advert, Microsoft hopes to use the data generated as a “proof-of-work.” This is the validation of a transaction, or the completion of a task, in a blockchain system, and the way in which creation of currency is validated in a cryptocurrency model.

“Instead of massive computation work required by some conventional cryptocurrency systems, data generated based on the body activity of the user can be proof-of-work, and therefore, a user can solve the computationally difficult problem unconsciously,” the patent continues. In order to access this validation data, the human user would need to have a sensor attached to, or installed in, their body. Microsoft envisages users being rewarded for allowing their bodies to be monitored in this way by paying them in cryptocurrency for performing specific tasks.

As well as brain waves and heat, the patent also suggests using “body fluid flow” and “organ activity and movement” to track a range of tasks including using social media, search engines, email, visiting websites, or using chatbots. It remains to be seen what will happen with this patent; although it was published a month ago, it’s still to be granted. Even then, as The Register notes, large tech companies predominantly use patents as a means to defend against future copyright infringement, rather than directly turning them into products, so it is possible this will not see the light of day in the consumer space.
Hello World Program in Python
By: Japneet Singh Chawla
Tags: Python Tutorials, Python Programming, Python

What is Python?

Python is a very powerful programming language and can be used to write any piece of software. But you can also use it to do data science. Model your sales data, text mining on your latest Twitter feeds, or build the next movie recommendation engine. It’s all possible with Python. Python is open source, and there’s a bunch of programmers across the world that have written amazing extensions to Python, to help you achieve great things.

Python can be used in cases where the legacy analytical tools fail.

Before we start to learn the python program following is a list of some commands which can we will be mostly using while working with python:

For Linux / Mac

pwd: prints present working directory (folder) of the terminal

cd: It is used to change the directory (folder) from the terminal

cd… : used to go one directory back

cd<directory name >: used to go to child directory from the parent directory

ls: to print all the folders in the current folder

mkdir: to create a folder in the current directory

Terminal commands for windows

cd: prints present working directory (folder) of the terminal

cd: It is used to change the directory (folder) from the terminal

cd… : used to go one directory back

cd<directory name >: used to go to child directory from the parent directory

Is: to print all the folders in the current folder

dir: to create a folder in the current directory

Python Commands

To run a python file:

Go to terminal and navigate to the directory

Run python filename.py

To run jupyter notebook

Go to terminal and navigate to the directory

Run jupyter notebook

To install a package

Go to terminal and run

Pip install package-name OR

Conda install –c channel-name package-name

Writing a Hello World Program in Python

Hello World program in python so simple that it takes just one line of code to run this program using the commands explained above:

print(“Hello World”)

Yes, that’s it this is how a simple hello world program in python looks like.

the “print” is a function (For now consider. a function as a helper which helps you to accomplish some task without writing any code) which helps us to print anything on the screen, in our code, we are print “Hello World”

Now, to run this code go to the directory where you have saved the file (check the commands above)

and type

python <your file name>

You will see Hello World on the terminal screen.
二分搜尋法（Binary Search）完整教學（三）有相同值的情境
By: Ding-Chi Lin
Tags: Python, Binary Search, Programming, Software Development, Algorithms

二分搜尋法（Binary Search）完整教學（三）

含有重複值的情境

在上一篇中我們留下了一個重大問題，是時候來討論了。

問題

如果 array 裡面有重複值，要尋找的 target 就可能有多個答案，那我們該回傳哪一個？可以看以下例子

跟以前一樣，解決問題的第一步，是給問題一個明確的定義。其實我們通常在意的，會是最前面一個，或是最後面一個，中間的通常不是那麼在意，或說，只要能找到最前與最後，中間也就不困難了。因此，我們定義出以下兩個新需求，並且要想辦法達成。

在 array 中，找到 >= target 的元素裡面，最小的那個的 index 在 array 中，找到 > target 的元素裡面，最小的那個的 index

仔細想想這兩個新定義的需求，第一個情境，當找到多個等於 target 的元素時，會取到最左邊的那個，而第二個情境，則會取到最右邊的下一個，如果想要最右邊就 -1 即可，為什麼要這樣定義，下面會解釋。至於找不到的狀況，則跟前篇文章做一樣的事，這裡不再贅述。參考以下圖解。

至於如何實作，答案其實與之前非常類似，想挑戰的朋友可以先不要往下看，試著自己動手調整看看，提示是：想清楚當 nums[mid] == target 時該做什麼即可。

解答

在 array 中，找到 >= target 的元素裡面，最小的那個的 index

int binary_search_left(vector<int> &nums, int target) {

int left = 0;

int right = nums.size() - 1;

while (left <= right) {

int mid = (left + right) / 2;

if (nums[mid] >= target) {

right = mid - 1;

} else if (nums[mid] < target) {

left = mid + 1;

}

}

return left;

} int main() {

vector<int> nums = {1,3,4,4,4,7,8}; cout << binary_search_left(nums, 3) << endl; // 1 <- 找到，回傳 index cout << binary_search_left(nums, 4) << endl; // 2 <- 找到，回傳最左邊的 index cout << binary_search_left(nums, 5) << endl; // 5 <- 找不到，但回傳 >= 他的裡面，最小的元素 index cout << binary_search_left(nums, 11) << endl; // 7 <- 同上，雖超出最大 index 範圍，卻是合理的

}

註：由於只剩兩種情境，第二個判斷式可以直接簡化成 else {…}，但在此為了方便閱讀理解，把詳細條件寫出來了。

有沒有發現，幾乎就只是拿掉 nums[mid] == target 時 return mid 的情境而已，因為關鍵就在於我們不要一找到就 return 結果，不然我們很可能就會 return 了中間某個點，而找不到最左邊的那一個。所以問題就剩下：

當 value 等於 target 的時候我們到底該做什麼 ?

答案也很簡單，因為我們現在要找最左邊，所以很自然的，當找到 nums[mid] == target 的時候，由於我們還不確定是否為最左，於是我們繼續把 right 的位置減小，讓 right = mid-1，最終，和之前一樣我們會走到 left == right 的那一刻，此時有兩種可能

left 與 right 都停留在我們要的，等於 target 的所有位置中，最左邊的那個 index，如下圖情境。

2. 再更左邊一格，如下圖情境。（假如一開始 nums 就只有 6 個元素）

但不論哪種情況，最終下一步 left 都會停在我們的答案上面（跟上篇一樣的道理，試著想清楚這點很重要），結束整個 binary search 並回傳答案。至於 left 與 right 都在右邊？不會有這個情境出現的，讀者們也可以自行想想為何如此。

現在來看看，另一個非常像的問題該怎麼辦

在 array 中，找到 > target 的元素裡面，最小的那個的 index

int binary_search_right(vector<int> &nums, int target) {

int left = 0;

int right = nums.size() - 1;

while (left <= right) {

int mid = (left + right) / 2;

if (nums[mid] > target) {

right = mid - 1;

} else if (nums[mid] <= target) {

left = mid + 1;

}

}

return left;

} int main() {

vector<int> nums = {1,3,4,4,4,7,8}; cout << binary_search_right(nums, 3) << endl; // 2 <- 找到，回傳最右邊的 index + 1 cout << binary_search_right(nums, 4) << endl; // 5 <- 找到，回傳最右邊的 index + 1 cout << binary_search_right(nums, 5) << endl; // 5 <- 找不到，但回傳 > 他的裡面，最小的元素 index cout << binary_search_right(nums, 11) << endl; // 7 <- 同上，雖超出最大 index 範圍，卻是合理的

}

非常小的改動即可完成，只是把第一個判斷情境的 >= 改成 > 而已。注意，因為他回傳的是最右邊的 index+1，所以即使元素只有一個，他回傳的 index 仍然是該位置 +1，實際使用時可以看狀況自行 -1 調整回原位，因為這樣程式碼寫起來比較方便，跟前面的問題可以清楚的對照比較，細節的證明也幾乎一樣，有興趣的可以自己想想看。另外，如果想做到直接輸出最右邊的位置（而不是最右邊 +1）也是做得到的，有興趣的也可以試試看當思考練習。
Life
By: Vivienne Teh
Tags: Self-awareness, Poem, Life, Haiku, Poetry

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Find Yourself, But Don’t Lose Others In The Process
By: Christopher P Jones
Tags: Self-awareness, Authenticity, Love, Human Prompt, Self

Find Yourself, But Don’t Lose Others In The Process

Your own private journey could be leaving others behind

‘Interior with an Easel’ (1912) by Vilhelm Hammershøi. Source Wikimedia Commons

You know what you prefer, don’t you? You like to retreat into your private cocoon for the comfort it gives, where it is calm, where life simplifies and your blood flows well, tiredness abating.

Empty rooms, simple spaces. Here the air is elegant, light-filled.

Your private territory is where others cannot follow; this is why it’s so reassuring, of course. It is also how your isolation grows.

It is true: nothing else quite compares to the gentle landscape of that pure-land, your wildgrass kingdom. Where else has such privacy, where else has such fertile plains?

But this is how the outside world is pushed into the distance. The love and affection you feel for others is a curtailed, kept hidden, secret, over-wintered.

Your authenticity is at stake, you say. Such thoughts seem to offer an antidote to the overall fragmentation. You have a propensity to leap between so many ideas of yourself and how you ought to fulfill them. Your mind is often diffused by the interruption of so many obligations. This is why you retreat.

The protean self — from the Greek sea-god Proteus: a constantly changing form, encouraged to fragment into new combinations as new possibilities arise. Mother-tongues are multiplied, futures are floated. Airline tickets, a smartphone buzzing, Time Out, Twitter, a suitcase on wheels, coffee cup, laptop, multiple income streams, unique selling point, opportunities strewn wherever there are words. Psychologists talk of a multiplicity of selves, of plural personas, of a polyphony of voices.

Your hunt for authenticity can be all-consuming. You worry that to be inauthentic is to be deceptive, apocryphal or feigned. You worry about this a lot, how inauthenticity disfigures the truth for other advantages.

Yet, when you retreat you also hide away, and so you are in danger of becoming exactly what you don’t want.

Then you feel injured by your isolation. Loved-ones wonder where you have been. You have betrayed yourself.

Consider this: You don’t need to abandon life to be who you are.

Take your time. Again. Take your time. When you are open, and when you love and love well, you are a fuller person. Give yourself the time to show it. Find yourself but be careful to not lose others in the process.

Take some time away from your work, remember your old heroes but don’t revere them too strongly. Dust off some buried memories and recall your original commitments. Look up from your books occasionally. You have the time, so there’s no need to rush.

This approach may make all the difference.
Ten things I learned from resigning from my 11 year job (with no job to go to)
Tags: Work, Work Life Balance, Entrepreneurship, Self Improvement, Self

Ten things I learned from resigning from my 11 year job (with no job to go to) JoJoBonetto Follow Nov 12, 2018 · 3 min read

It was 27 April 2017, and I took that train home from central London feeling overwhelmed but excited. The buck stopped with me now.

I had been working in Westminster when I decided I could not face another minute in the world of work. I needed time out but I was flat broke. It had become about survival, and the shocking realisation that there are fates worse than death. In the end, I had resigned with no financial buffer and a plan to freelance, temp and do anything else I could find to scratch a living.

Here is what I learned.

1. Never resign without savings as a safety net.

As soon as I quit my job I crashed, had virus after virus and no sick pay to fall back on. It was truly miserable.

2. Network, network, network.

Not just online, but in person. There is an entire world outside of the internet. Yes, I know this is hard to believe.

3. Invest in some merchandise.

I left postcards with eye catching images and slogans everywhere for my business, Virtual Confidential. People loved them.

4. Taking on salaried work is not failure.

I returned to salaried work on 20 August 2018. Prior to that I temped for three months. I realised I needed a stable income after my time out and there was no shame in that.

5. Keep regular hours.

I was good once I started, but the problem was starting in the first place. Be strict about your start time, lunchbreak and end time.

6. Keep a log of your earnings.

It can be motivating and demotivating but keep a record and every now and then, calculate your hourly rate. You need to know what you are actually earning.

7. Outsource.

I had a video done for my website wildbareraw.com on Fiverr. I loved it. It was short but made it look professional and showed investment.

8. Never stop learning.

While self employed I took on Counselling Training. I continued to keep my brain active and my knowledge fresh.

9. Never stop listening.

When customers give you feedback, listen. When potential customers message you, reply as quickly as you can with a considered response. Pay attention.

10. Take care of yourself.

Sleep, rest, relax and eat well. Being self employed is hard. Job hunting is stressful. Any life change will take its toll and all stress will affect you, good and bad. Take time for you.
Songs Of The Sea
By: Babar Mir
Tags: Love, Writing, Feelings, Poetry, Emotions

Songs Of The Sea

Image Source-Google Images

The sea sings me melodies,

While I sit and watch it churn,

Churning every thought and dream,

Of every dreamer on the shore!

It sang me a symphony of love,

While crashing waves against the rocks,

As love is like the waves which crash,

Not knowing if they’ll ever make it to the shore!

It sang to me in its loneliness,

Accompanied by the soothing sound of the waves,

As solitude is like a balm,

It keeps numbing away all the pain!

-Babar Mir
For everyone who survived the election season, here’s a special treat.
By: Nancy Peckenham
Tags: Healthy Lifestyle, Aging, Seniors, Wellness

For everyone who survived the election season, here’s a special treat. We had too many great stories about embracing life as we age to fit in our last newsletter, so you’re getting two batches of Crow’s Feet stories in one week.

This is 40. 42 to be exact by Jen Kleinknecht

The True Secret to Happiness. Ask an ancient person by Julia E Hubbel

Was it Dementia? Or Just Stress. Adventures in Aging by Roz Warren

The Day I Realized I Was Turning Into My Mother. It happens to all of us — despite our best efforts by Rose Bak

Twenty Years. A high school reunion and retirement story by Dennett

Unfinished Embroidery. Poignant Reminders by Thewriteyard

For My Granddaughters.“You can be anything you want to be.” By Ann Litts

Now Is The Time To Do What You Really Want To Do. Because today is yesterday’s tomorrow by Bev Potter

The Analogy. A pandemic story by Dennett

A Seventyish Woman Has a Dream for America. I think the strongest feeling I have about the results of the election is disappointment in almost half of my fellow Americans by Jean Anne Feldeisen

Thankfully the Election is Over. Now it’s time to be good citizens by Jean Anne Feldeisen

November Coming. Moody light toys with autumn colors by Jean Anne Feldeisen

Two Chances to Get New Ideas About Aging. Now that it’s snowing, I need stimulation inside my house by Nancy Peckenham

The Gift of Temporary Blindness. How badminton changed the way I see by Max K. Erkiletian

The Freedom of Age. Getting More Colorful Over Time by Max K. Erkiletian

Tiny Love Stories. Big feelings in a few well-chosen words by Cindy Shore Smith

STRESS! What it does to your mind and body and how to stop it! By Jo Ann Harris

You’re Not Funny, You Old Fart. Cautions for Hoary Humorists by Randy Fredlund

Give a gift filled with ideas about to get the most out of later life, Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age, now in paperback and ebook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop, where sales benefit your local independent bookseller.
Increase Your Article Views 25% By Writing For a 6th Grade Reading Level
By: J.J. Pryor
Tags: Writing, Reading, Advice, Inspiration, Culture

Reading Level Is the Key

Have you ever checked what reading level your writing is suitable for?

In this day and age of short attention spans (did you just see that blue car drive by?!), it’s getting harder and harder for people to focus.

This extends to the complexity of reading levels as well — more and more, people are unwilling to sift through advanced prose to get to the information they’re after.

If you’re writing on a blog or other platform, that means you might be writing at a non-optimal level for your potential readers.

Ryan McCready did an in-depth analysis of popular stories and found that writing for a sixth-grade reading level increased recommendations by a whopping 25%.

That’s a big increase for just changing a few words here and there.

The NN Group ran an interesting study comparing language complexity on a pharmaceutical website. They found huge increases in understanding by changing the text to be easier to understand.

Their reasoning? They geared the text towards simpler levels (grades five through six) to cater to lower literacy individuals — apparently 40% of the US population.

This chart from Shane Snow at Contently further amplifies the point.

Image by Shane Snow at Contently

If you’re writing at an eighth or ninth grade level as I have been, you’re missing out on potentially half of your readers! Still not convinced? Even Google apparently uses the ease of reading as one of the factors in its ranking engine. You could see significant gains by adjusting your writing to a fifth or sixth-grade level.
The Future of Data Science, Data Engineering, and Tech
Tags: Machine Learning, Python, Python3, Data Science, Programming

The Future of Data Science, Data Engineering, and Tech

6 experts’ views on tech in 2021

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.

As 2020 comes to a close, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on all the changes in technology as well as look to see where things are going.

Whether you are looking at startups and their IPOs, improvements in technology, or you paid attention to Amazon re:Invent, we saw a year filled with companies continuing to try to push boundaries.

A personal favorite announcement from 2020 was AWS’s SageMaker Data Wrangler that is designed to speed up data preparation for machine learning and AI applications. This seems like a great move towards having more fluid machine learning pipelines that will hopefully further make machine learning more accessible to companies not focused on tech.

But 2020 is ending, so we asked people from various parts of the tech world to provide their insights into what they were looking forward to in 2021 — whether that be new startups, technologies, or best practices.

Let’s see what they had to say.
Oddments Of You
By: Mary Jones
Tags: Depression, Poetry, Reflections, Anxiety, Mental Health

I’m getting back in the race

At an adequate pace

Where time is my only space.

Grounding, pounding in my face,

In my head.

It never lets up,

Hasten the coursework until I’m dead.

I dread the week,

I dread my pay,

I dread the weary light of day

Most of all

I hate how my heart is made up

of oddments of you
Oracle ADF BC Reusing SQL from Statement Cache
By: Andrej Baranovskij
Tags: Oracle Adf, Jdbc, Jdeveloper, Java, Programming

Oracle ADF BC by default is trying to reuse prepared SQL query from statement cache. It works this way when ADF BC runs with DB pooling off (jbo.doconnectionpooling=false). Normally we tune ADF application to run with DB pooling on (jbo.doconnectionpooling=true), this allows to release unused DB connection back to the pool when a request is completed (and in this case, statement cache will not be used anyway). If View Object is re-executed multiple times during the same request — in this situation, it will use statement cache too.

However, there are cases when for specific View Object you would want to turn off statement cache usage. There could be multiple reasons for this — for example, you are getting Closed Statement error after it tries to execute SQL for statement obtained from statement cache. Normally you would be fine using statement cache, but as I said — there are those special cases.

We are lucky because there is a way to override statement cache usage behavior. This can be done in View Object implementation class either for particular View Object or in the generic class.

After View Object was executed, check the log. If this is not the first execution, you will see log message — “reusing defined prepared statement”. This means SQL will be reused from statement cache:

To control this behavior, override getPreparedStatement method:

We create new prepared statement in this method, instead of reusing one from the cache.

As a result — each time View Object is executed, there is no statement cache usage:

Download sample application from GitHub repo.
The 1 Dumb Mistake 99% Of Content Marketers Make
By: Nicolas Cole
Tags: Marketing, Content Marketing, Content Writing, Content, Content Strategy

Content creation isn’t about coming up with one brilliant idea.

This is what very few people understand about winning the content creation game.

You’re a designer. You’re a photographer.

You’re a writer. You’re a columnist.

You’re a creative agency. You’re creating content for your clients.

Guess what — you’re all doing it wrong.

The question isn’t, “What should we make? What is going to go viral? What is going to grab people’s attention?”

The right question, the question you should be asking yourselves, as a team is,

“What process can we come up with so we are creating something new, every single day?”

Content creation is about Volume. Plain and simple.

Smart companies don’t get the most exposure on their content marketing.

CONSISTENT companies get the most exposure on their content marketing.

Highly intelligent, highly prolific, highly talented individuals don’t get the most viewership on their content.

Highly CONSISTENT, highly DISCIPLINED, highly COMMITED individuals get the most viewership on their content.

This is the 1 dumb mistake so many content creators make.

If you’re not putting out something new, something valuable, and something worth paying attention to, every single day, then you’re losing.

Because the truth is, nobody cares about what you made yesterday.

They care about what hits them right now.

They care about what they want to share, right now.

The Internet has created this sense of urgency within people, and unless you are catering to that sense of urgency, you’re not only falling behind — but you’re invisible. You’re forgotten. Nobody knows who you are anymore.

Which is why I find it insane when people spend weeks upon weeks on a single piece of content. If that’s your masterpiece, go for it. I spent five years writing my first book. That was my golden egg, and I wanted it to be a certain way. But all throughout that journey, I also was writing every single day online.

Why?

Because I wanted to keep people paying attention. I wanted to make sure my audience was still there for the day my book was done.

Your business is no different.

If you are playing the content creation game, and you aren’t operating with a sense of urgency and prioritizing volume, you’re doing it wrong.

Want to build your Instagram? Post something stunning, every single day.

Want to build your blog? Write something new, every single day.

Does that sound like hard work?

That’s because it is.

And that’s precisely why only a handful of people become “influential”.

This is a marathon.

I’ve been writing 2–3 pieces of content, every single day, for almost five years straight. Big-time YouTubers do the same. So do Instagram stars.

That’s who you’re competing with.

It’s not just about being creative. It’s about being creative, every single day.

Volume wins.
How Long are Meetings?
By: Daniel Morales
Tags: Bookcademy, Summary, Books, The Mom Test, Daily Challenges

How Long are Meetings?

The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick

Solve challenge here: https://www.bookcademy.com/home/show_daily_challenges/how-long-are-meetings

Early conversations are very fast. The chats grow longer as you move from the early broad questions (“Is this a real problem?”) toward more specific product and industry issues (“Which other software do we have to integrate with to close the sale?”)

For example, it only takes 5 minutes (maximum) to learn whether a problem exists and is important.

A bit further along, you’ll find yourself asking questions which are answered with long stories explaining their workflow, how they spend their time, and what else they’ve tried. You can usually get what you came for in 10–15 minutes, but people love telling stories about themselves, so you can keep this conversation going indefinitely if it’s valuable for you and fun for them.

At the extreme end, learning the details of an industry takes an hour or more. Thankfully, those are easier conversations to facilitate since the other person (usually some sort of industry expert) can go into a monologue once you point them in the right direction.
Revitalized
By: J.D. Harms
Tags: Poetry, Pain, Writing, Musing, Image

Revitalized

A Poem

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

After about twenty seconds

of solid rubbing, twisting

my hands are warm enough

to be brought to work again

But it’s hard to revitalize

the eyes, they want so much

in the way of the same

but with subtler alterations

Yeah, they’d like to be featured

but they don’t want to burn

at the sight of the sun

or any one thing

Another twenty seconds

go by, and I didn’t write

anything, don’t even know

which doors to knock on right now

I feel unleashed, but not

in the good way; just hanging

just drifting and calling

out names of random beers

I can’t even drink this away

not that I was gonna…

Well, I might have thought

that way, once or twice

But I had to leave your grip

get on with the marching towards

another stale camp site

full of yesterday’s weeds

Ambushed by a sensitivity

that makes a wilderness

out of this pseudo-civilazation

and all the curses got let out

Another interval, 20 seconds

fingers somewhat warmer now

but lacking ideas for what

to put down next

An absent crack from the basement

and I recoiled in the gaze

from the mirror, hoping for

direction, a plateful to take me up

After all, I won’t be able

to leave anything as it stands

but the change has to come with

and that’s a burden too
In pictures: putting soldiers to the test in Liverpool
By: Ministry Of Defence
Tags: Liverpool, Covid 19, Coronavirus, Military, Photo Essay

Step 3: open the doors for everyone wanting to and volunteering to get a COVID-19 test.

Testing will be carried out in new and existing test sites, using home kits, in hospitals and care home settings, and schools, universities and workplaces. There is even a test site in Anfield Stadium, home to Liverpool Football Club. Liverpool residents can book online, walk-up, or by invitation from the local authority.
Applying design to supply chain data.
By: Camellia Williams
Tags: Design, Data, Supply Chain, Data Visualization, UX

Supply chain data are complex, multilayered, and sometimes hard to untangle. When it comes to using data to make decisions, design has a crucial role in ensuring data are efficiently understood. With the right presentation and interpretation, supply chain data can be transformed into actionable insights that lead to more sustainable, more secure, and more robust supply chains.

For three years now we’ve been collaborating with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and Global Canopy Programme (GCP) to visualise supply chain data on Trase.Earth. The platform currently provides data and insights on 13 commodities from eight countries. As the number of platform users increased, the experience and needs of those people diversified too. From journalists revealing the links between burgers and deforestation to companies wanting to understand the environmental impact of their supply chains, people across the world are using Trase to understand the links between forests and the food on our plates.

So, after a careful review of the google analytics and research by the Engagement Team at Global Canopy that includes interviews with people who use the platform, we embarked on a redesign that provides more guidance to first time users and offers faster access for all users. In this blog we’ll review some of the goals we wanted to achieve with the redesign, and explain how they make complex data easier to understand.

Goal 1. First-time users feel comfortable with the tool.

When Trase.Earth was first created, the teams at SEI and Global Canopy often gave presentations or one-on-one introductions to those who were interested in using it. While this was an amazing opportunity to get an expert’s insight into the intelligence within the dataset, it’s not a scalable approach. To make the data more accessible to those who don’t have a trade data expert on hand, our designers reimagined the entry points to Trase’s data tools.

The goal our designers wanted to achieve was making first-time visitors feel welcome and spark their curiosity. To leave them feeling like they’ve been shown what they can do with the data, and what insights they can extract from it. By reducing the friction that comes with learning how to use a new tool, we are able to draw people deeper into the data while giving them context and interesting numbers to sink their teeth into.

Goal 2. Navigation that’s easy as 1,2,3.

Easy, fluid navigation is crucial for both first-time and returning users. For Trase, our designers created a step-by-step approach that introduces the different data options while showing users how the tool works.

Upon arrival on the data tool page, the first step is to select a commodity.
A Guide to Deep Learning and Neural Networks
Tags: Machine Learning, Neural Networks, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Programming

Components of Neural Networks

Every neural network consists of neurons, synapses, weights, biases, and functions.

Neurons

A neuron or a node of a neural network is a computing unit that receives information, performs simple calculations with it, and passes it further.

All neurons in a net are divided into three groups:

Input neurons that receive information from the outside world

Hidden neurons that process that information

Output neurons that produce a conclusion

In a large neural network with many neurons and connections between them, neurons are organized in layers. An input layer receives information, n hidden layers (at least three or more) process it, and an output layer provides some result.

Each of the neurons inputs and outputs some data. If this is the first layer, input = output. In other cases, the information that the neurons have received from the previous layer is passed to input. Then it uses an activation function to get a new output, which is passed to the next layer of neurons in the system.

Neurons only operate numbers in the range [0,1] or [-1,1]. In order to turn data into something that a neuron can work with, we need normalization. We talked about what it is in the post about regression analysis.

Wait, but how do neurons communicate? Through synapses.

Synapses and weights

If we didn’t have synapses, we would be stuck with a bunch of inactive, useless neurons. A synapse is a connection between two neurons. Every synapse has a weight. It is the weight that changes the input information while it is transmitted from one neuron to another. The neuron with the greater weight will be dominant in the next neuron. One can say that the matrix of weights is the brain of the whole neural system.

It is thanks to these weights that the input information is processed and converted into a result. During the initialization (first launch of the NN), the weights are randomly assigned. Later on, they are optimized.

Bias

A bias neuron allows for more variations of weights to be stored. Biases add a richer representation of the input space to the model’s weights.

In the case of neural networks, a bias neuron is added to every layer. It plays a vital role by making it possible to move the activation function to the left or right on the graph.

It is true that ANNs can work without bias neurons. However, they are almost always added and counted as an indispensable part of the overall model.