fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
The Meaning of the Song CAROLINE by Amine
By: Aleks Burtsev
Tags: Lyrics, Meaning, Music, Amine, Caroline

The song “Caroline” is the debut single of the American Hip Hop recording artist Amine. But many people want to know the profound meaning of the said song. Many of them listen to this song, but they don’t know its real meaning. They would feel the song more if they know its true sense because they will feel what the song tells them. So if you are one of those people who search for the real meaning of this song, then you’ve come to the right place. Here, you will read about the true purpose and sense of the song Caroline by Amine.

What is the meaning of the song Caroline by Amine?

Aminé Caroline lyrics meaning

In an interview with Genius, Aminé said that he first heard Caroline’s name in OutKast’s “Roses.” It was his primary or general influence for the title of his song. But his pure intention in writing the music is to hopefully create or make the modern-day version of “Billie Jean.” The song Caroline represents the handful of women Aminé met to put genuine effort into his life. We all have that someone to who we surely want to be genuine. That someone is indeed remarkable for us. We want to do everything for that person to make her happy.

That’s probably what Aminé was thinking while writing the song or while planning to write the music. The song deserves its recognition because of its vibe and fantastic melody that everyone can vibe with. How Aminé wrote the song with purpose is why every people in the world almost know this song. The way he wrote it with a vision in mind was such a great idea. Because of that, he was able to set his goals for the song. Those goals that he has developed are already near success.

The real meaning of the song Caroline by Aminé intrigued a lot of people. Now that you already know what the song’s purpose is, you can now feel what you are listening to. You can somehow relate to the words of the song. The music will be so relatable for you because of the meaning within. This meaning is the genuine act you want a special someone to feel. That is why music always needs meaning. It is for the listeners to relate the song to their current situation. Writing a song isn’t that easy. Writing a piece of beautiful and meaningful music is art.
Man, Meaning and Civilization: A multi-paragraphed journey through time. 4th August, 2021
By: David Idibe
Tags: Meaning, Man, Civilization, God, Truth

Another way to say that man lost the meaning of God in him is that, he lost the image of God in him, the image by which he was made. Sadly he couldn’t see God correctly any more. Hence, what he demonstrated to the world being the governor of earth was complete brokenness and darkness in opposition to the true image of God.

Man was in dire need of a restoration to God’s true meaning, to the very image of God by which he was originally made and for which he was to enjoy and reveal to all creation. But God in His eternal mercy had sworn to restore man back into sonship (for sonship is to share/bear the image of one greater, the creator, the father).

Man’s loss of God’s meaning, can also be said as man’s loss of God’s vision. Man at best now saw God as an angry judge, who sought to give man some good in reward for good deeds and evil as punishment for evil deeds. He started to see God just the way he saw himself, he knew that was how he too would deal with man if he were in God’s shoes.

But God in his loving kindness, even before man’s fall had ordained salvation from death for man, by revealing to man God’s perfect nature and in hope that man would choose to be restored to God as a son. God had spoken to man at so many times and in so many ways, seeking to help man’s infirmities and to give him understanding. But because of man’s blindness of vision he couldn’t truly see.

God in his wisdom and greatness chose to reveal himself to man in the language that man could finally relate with, and hopefully understand. This language was the vessel called man. And so God came as flesh and blood in the likeness of men to show and explain His meaning at last to man. To show man the perfectness of His nature. He did so by being and doing to men all that God had sought to show man but had been limited with, because of man’s hard heartedness owing to his fallen vision of God.

God’s express image had become incarnated in flesh to bring God’s eternal agenda and make it clear for men. His name Yehoshua in Hebrew means YHWH (God) is Salvation. Revealing that God’s agenda has always been to save humanity and restore them to his original design.

Jesus Christ came as both the son of God and the son of Man. He is the embodiment of God’s idea in flesh and blood, he revealed that God’s only agenda for man was salvation from everything that represented death by healing the sick, cleansing lepers, raising the dead, and preaching the Gospel of God’s kingdom to men that they may be reconciled to God as sons and share in the beauty of his majesty as God had originally intended from the beginning.

Jesus Christ lived out the mind of God for man, so man could see and be invited to a new Way, the original and True way which man had lost when they left the garden of God’s pleasure (Eden). God’s agenda for man had always been to be in perpetual bliss and unending enjoyment of all the pleasures that flow from God’s life.
Finding Myself in ‘Anna Karenina’
By: J.P. Williams
Tags: Arts And Culture, Books, Reading, Personality, Self Discovery

The Personalities

I’m definitely not Anna. Of her many admirable traits, she’s often considerate, tactful and composed — the very incarnation of social graces even as she paradoxically flaunts society’s rules — and I’m just not. She’s also a beautiful woman, and while a beautiful woman would be something to be, in this life I’ve never wanted to be anything other than the man I am. The only time I identify with Anna is toward the end as she grows more misanthropic and nihilistic. So I have some, but not much, of Anna in me.

I wish I were more like Anna’s brother Stepan. As a civil servant, his job isn’t that attractive, but he’s almost always at ease, whereas I’m always out of joint. He’s good-humored and sociable, he enjoys a good drink and a smoke, and he never hesitates to make the most of feminine company. In director Joe Wright’s 2012 film adaptation, he’s affably portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen, who was none other than Mr. Darcy in Wright’s 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen. Being a rich heartthrob wouldn’t be so bad . . . not so bad at all!

Alas, I’m more like Stepan’s wife Dolly. She has one personality trait I know all too well: She’s a worrier. She worries about her husband, she worries about losing her looks, she worries about the family’s finances, she worries about her children’s well-being. The converse of this, however, is that she’s a responsible member of society — which isn’t to be discounted. It may not be sexy to be Dolly, but Tolstoy suggests that a normal life with all its common travails is on some deeper level the happy life.

More flatteringly, I’m also like Levin, the character through whom Tolstoy most reveals himself. Levin certainly has his mood swings, often to comic effect, but he’s also conscientious, earnest, studious and philosophical. A freethinker, his emotional and intellectual journey is unceasing and continues after the book ends. In Wright’s adaptation, he’s even portrayed by fellow redhead Domhnall Gleeson, who has appeared in film versions of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005) and Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn (2009).

There are, however, many more characters to consider, characters that movie adaptations downplay or omit. Anna’s husband has a bigger presence and a profounder conscience in the book. Countess Ivanovna is a busybody and religious fanatic. Marya is a devoted mate. Other characters include an obsessive painter and a charlatan spiritualist, and even one passage is told from the perspective of a loyal hunting dog! None of these characters, except maybe the dog, are simple, and they’re given to change just like we are. There we are in the pages of Tolstoy’s fiction in all our complexity — a bit of us in this character over here, a bit in that character over there.
Waking up early is a Reachable Dream
Tags: Happiness, Personality, Lifestyle, Mindfulness, Life

Sleep, Huh! We just love it, right?

It always gives short-term pleasure, snoozing the alarm even if it rings so high that awakes up others but not us, it’s hard, right?

For me also it was way too difficult but I triumphed it. How?

It’s said that sleep is one of the blessings, happiness is very important but our mind takes disadvantage of that happiness by overdoing it.

The mind used to tell me that why not sleep a little more, what will happen, just will wake in some time but I remained unaware of the fact that it ruins my whole day.

I had experienced it that as and when I push the snooze button, my whole day becomes the worst day for me and I become unwilling to complete my tasks.

But I figured out something. The way is “ If you don’t do the task yourself, take help”. It worked for me.

I was unable to wake up early and always criticized at home about the same but something changed by first implanting a thought of determination that I have to do it and then taking the help.

I realized that it’s better to keep the “I am always right” attitude aside and think about how can it be changed. Being confident and willing that yes, I can.

What are your thoughts on this?

Is there anything you want to tell on how you won over it?
The in-depth understandings of myself
Tags: Personality, Surveys, Different

At the beginning of such an archetype survey, I was a bit suspicious. Can such a small test offer me the big results of telling me who I am? After these 28 questions constituting all different features about understanding my own personality, I started to realize the trueness of this survey. This survey was not only telling me the significant results but also showing me the direction based on my own advantages and disadvantages of personality.

The result of my own archetype was The Rockstar, which is the overlap of my first advantage — innovation, and the second advantage — passion. Really?! Am I innovative and passionate about life? I didn’t even always feel myself being like that!

Based on that, I am seen as an enthusiastic person of making new ideas. Also, I am a person living under the spotlight since I will be the one getting noticed by the public with a high possibility. Also, I am kind of a funny person who likes to make some interesting jokes with people even though sometimes these jokes are very common or even boring. Lastly, I love to take risks on different things based on the current project or business. To be different from others, I like to break the rules and make something radically new instead of following the old rules. These are my archetypes.

From my own perspective, I feel the result was still honest enough to tell me something solid about me. In my daily life, I also sometimes feel the strong impressions people have about me to my lifestyle and working style. Once upon a time when I was having a group project with another 2 students during my postgraduate study, my work was always distant and different from my classmates and even be seen as irrelevant to the project topic. I was scolded and despised by them many times, and this even caused me to get depression. After this survey results, I feel empathy from the result because it tells me exactly the same thing about how I feel about myself.

In the future, I will be more confident in myself and my personal differences from others. I’m unorthodox, sometimes crazy but this is who I am!! No one should judge me at all because of my unregularity. The world is beautiful because of the difference! In my career, I will also keep being innovative and independent of my own creative inspirations instead of highly reliant on others’ viewpoints about me. Likewise, I believe my passion and hearty feelings in my future life can impress other people and acquire their assistance if necessary.

Hi! Thanks for reading! This is Zeyun! An unusual and even a crazy girl!

@sallyhogshead @howtofascinate @joannetombrakos
Cosmic Perspectives
Tags: Personality, Perspective, Self

“I hate weekends. I am tired of socializing. All I want to do is snuggle up on my couch on a Friday night and watch something on the screen. I don’t care.”

I once lamented to a close friend who is dreary, reserved, focused, and tough.

Listening to my peeve patiently for an hour, she said in despair;

“You are highly dormant. You do not have any problems in life. Do you want to hear practical problems? I am worried about paying salary to my staff on the first of next month, do you have any idea how many families are dependent on me? Now stop complaining like a baby and count on your privileges.”

Admittedly, I put an end to my whining though I held on to the couch snuggling.

This person is highly opinionated, always on her feet and rigid. She follows her heart and does what is true to her belief thus cleansing herself on a regular basis. One cannot expect an emotional embrace from her even when needed. Her frankness often prevents me from confiding especially when I prefer to stay away from the reality. She is right most of the times.

People are quite apprehensive to be in her company. Her close bunch would just be a handful who would inarguably remain with her forever.
Now it’s time to stay at home for Creativity
By: Ekrem Teki̇n
Tags: Covid 19, Creativity, Home, Imagination

Today is a great time to start a story.

It’s new normal and staying at home is not the worst thing you faced up, even it can change your life.

In the book ‘IMAGINE, (J.Lehrer)’ it is discussed that all the creative works come with a break, after an intensive work period.

I highly recommend that book these days.

In the last 20 years it clear that Apple’s was the biggest success. And Steve Jobs, who said ’stay hungry, stay foolish’, the one behind Apple’s success.

I feel that today some of the young brains are working with great ideas. So many people live a mindset shift. We all realized that the digital transformation of the world is accelerated.

Unfortunately or fortunately it is because of a Virus. Besides the deaths and many sick people, Virus inspired many people. The virus broke many Tabu’s.

We are staying at home. Too much time to think. All the conditions are fits to ‘Creativity’ progress.

Look, Even Me, I always knew writing inspirational blogs is good for me I’m posting a blog after 4 years. Why, because of Corona!

We’ll see that some of you would make the speech of your life and maybe you’ll end your speech by ‘stay at home!’.

It’s time to step backward and let the creative power work for you.

It’s time to listen to yourself and wait for some inspiration for new beginnings.
Heroes For Sale
By: Diansambo Masembo
Tags: Youth, Film, Imagination, Heroism, Heroes

Heroes For Sale

The films have painted our heroes as very improbable characters for the reality, in their common sense of facing and confronting bravely the futility and the folly in the surroundings that fill the world with an existential emptiness.

Heroes are insensitive to the point of not appreciating the ungrateful and terribly devastating beauty of the tears, wandering aimlessly in the four corners of the human eyes, before falling to the ground without any prior notice. Heroes never feel the depth of the fantasies of a kiss sharpened with the flavour of a farewell in the resonant rhythm of an airport with the background song of "Adeus à Hora da Largada".

There is no heroism in those characters who paint the seven days of the week with the seven colours of the rainbow, turning vulnerable minds captives to their vertiginous and illogic patterns, where the relativity of the natural human visibility is crushed to the ground level by the boxes of their minds limited to produce thoughts collinear to their limited perceptions.
Poor me. Poor you.
By: Ayo Okikiolu
Tags: Poetry, Poem, Imagination, Storytelling, Emotions

Hills of the Heart.

Poor me. Poor you.

What sadness befalls us so?

Stupid me. Dull you.

As such are the hills of the heart,

…

never happy,

never free.

…

Coasting through a bitter life,

Never sure of anything but strife,

And as we strive and strive, and strive

For a life, one of jealousy and rage, fully rife.

…

There is wonder beyond the edge of earthly gaze

Awaiting men unfazed by many-a-shame.

There is the horse rider on a foray, patiently reaching

For the flower of beautiful love, and she is his fate.

…

The hills command bloodshed after bloodshed,

Time and time again, the rush of a stream

Mixes with all the red, tainting the clear peace

Of a gentle lake.

…

Yet, the peaceful lake was once by a castle.

In this castle lived fine rulers, kind and good.

The lake was theirs to own, to consume, to ‘exploit’,

Still, they shared it with the creatures and people of the land.

They knew it would not last forever,

But they hoped the castle would,

Suffering long into the years, it would reflect their hearts.

O how they loved their people! If only they could heal their scars.

…

A drought came upon the land.

The people of the tower took the brunt,

They starved and thirsted,

Protecting the lake at all costs from the monster, a destroyer.

…

It sucked up all of the water, leaving sand in its wake,

It counted not for the love of the King of the heartland,

He and his men carried many buckets

And fetched much water from hidden wells, storing it within the castle’s walls

…

A place where no evil could reach it.

…

The people grew far too impatient,

Setting fire to their hearts.

They burned all their self-control,

And lost all the faith they once had.

…

They attacked.

…

The horse rider was slain.

The king was betrayed.

The castle was destroyed,

And the water flooded the tower, streaming out from breaks in its walls.

…

The castle was no more.

The lake was tainted, now flowing with blood,

never knowing joy

never knowing peace

Love had been stripped

And all kindness vanished, just as dead grass

that may never regrow.

…

Then the people stood on the top of their hill,

Each alone,

crying as fools:

…

Poor me. Poor you.

What sadness befalls us so?

Stupid me. Dull you.

As such are the hills of the heart,

…

never happy,

never free.

…

Then, the ground swallowed up the hill,

As each person put on a brave face

And then the cycle began again and again,

each person killing every heartland

They touched.

…

Hills of the Heart

forever eroded into nothingness

by those it loved,

…

By every single one of us.
a car in the air
By: Ivan Perilli
Tags: Imagination, Dreams, Psychedelics, Stream Of Consciousness, Freedom

The car came down effectively way too fast, and the bump completed the execution of that last moment on Earth. Like a balloon, the entire vehicle went up, up, up in the air. An explosion of joy expanded on the seats, where Jan, Fool, Mar and Aid felt like time never existed, love never existed, isolation never existed. Their eyes, pale black, melted in the light.

“Saw a million of snakes, saw them in the hot Sun of California, all over that island of sand and bison skulls and spiders, exploding spiders in the sand.” Said Jan.

“I saw a child taking control of a nation. Young. Saw millions and millions of people chanting his name. A child of pure evil coated with sugar. But no one was worried, no need to feel any worry my friends. Spoke to the outgoing queen and she said to believe, to trust the planets, to lay down your own hands on your belly and eat, laugh and not to care about anything apart of yourself and your close friends.” Said Fool.

“I was washing my salad, my tomatoes and my face from the same pit of water, in the backyard of that big house I used to know the address. It was on the East Coast, not far from Boston. When I looked up in the air I saw a plane, with lights on. The sky was bright, it was noon, but the plane was flying in the dark — a circle of darkness was on it, but it got its lights on. My hands under the running water got cold, so I moved my arms under the water, and got a nice refreshing feeling” Said Mar.

“Pure regret! It was pure regret! But nobody’s fault. So I am fine, I swear.” said Aid.

Let’s get in the water now, running free on the beach. Constriction is over, life is somewhere else, we’re spirits, free spirits.
Stomps One Foot
By: Lavender Bixby
Tags: Ballet, Poetry, Children, Imagination

Photo by ALEXANDRE DINAUT on Unsplash

A child who dared to dream after sunrise

was a ballet dancer flitting around a ballroom

in a perfect petal-pink tutu, gliding

with arms spiralizing slender

tiny feet atop the ball, not the tippie

as is customary, except in her imagination

where the ties of matching slippers

lace up skinny kindergarten calves and

plain brown hair was arranged like

a bagel on her head so as not to

encumber her focus or hinder

the sophisticated battle cry in her mind…

then the turreted lift, a pleasant landing

back straight as a defiant plank unflexed,

and compact limbs which shear the air,

each entrusted with a muscle packet needing

no momentum whatsoever, just pockets

of pure energy, poised.

For this ante meridiem charade, a chorus

of dancers were twirling

she is but one part of the whole, swirling,

equidistant, until…

her mother in her oatmeal streaked

apron peeks

in to check

on her progress and shrieks

‘you’re supposed to be getting dressed!’ the girl

stunned, cries defiant

‘I am!’
A Capricious and Quixotic girl
By: Hot Money
Tags: Fiction, Suicide Awareness, Imagination, Mental Health Awareness, Depression

“…And I hurt myself to prove that I’m human

Where did I go wrong this time? ”

_________________________

What’s wrong with me?

What am I feeling now?

Empty?

Sad?

Depressed?

Anxious?

Confused?

Scared?

No…

No!!

I don’t know everything

I don’t know what’s wrong with me

I don’t know!!

What should I do next?

Why I want to disappear

even though there’s no reason for me to do that

.

.

.

Now it’s 4 am ,but my eyes are still open

Aaa…

Feel bad but I like it when I think that I’m leaving

I want to slit my wrist to dead

I’m sure it hurt a lot ,though

I want to make myself bleed but I can only get myself to scratch

Pathetic,huh?

I’m not that brave!!

I started to hate myself..

.

.

More

and more

Dejected

Depressed..

Despondent…

I think I’m starting to become addicted to suffering.

For me I’d rather be sad more than happy

Because I thought if I was more sad I will have the courage to do more.

.

.

.

‘I hate you’

Oh, really?

I hate me too.

‘You have no reason to be depressed’

How do you know?

Are you me?

‘If you want to die just jumping off a high building

Don’t tell me’

Sorry

I want to do that but I’m a coward!!

‘Why are you sad?’

quite so

Why am I sad?

‘Can’t you just stand it?’

‘Hang in there’

Shut the fuck up!!

What do you know about me??

Umm…

Nothing!!

‘It’s gonna be ok ’

How long..

.

.

.

I don’t want to stay any longer but

I can’t disappear now

It’s not my time yet

I’m worried for the people I’ll leave behind.

.

.

I can laugh when I’m with my friends.

But when I’m alone I can’t laugh at all.

Why?

What’s wrong with me???

.

.

Empty..

When I imagine the future ahead.

Why can’t I imagine it?

Why can’t I imagine the future when I’m happy?

I don’t understand

I really don’t understand

.

.

So bad

I feel like sleeping all day.

I don’t want to do anything.

So boring

Aaa..

What’s the time?

It’s nearly 13 o’clock.

I’m not hungry

I don’t want to get out of bed at all.

Fuck it, I’m gonna sleep

.

.

I’m not happy now but not sad

Now I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to live.

When I thought I was going to die, I felt hollow

But if I disappear , that would be fine.

I used to be afraid to die

But now I feel indifferent about it.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Now I have more courage

.

Now I can disappear

.

I never wanted to die

I just want to disappear

just want to disappeared from everyone’s memory

disappear from here

Impossible..

I know it’s not possible.

But now it’s possible.

I have nothing to worry about anymore…

.

.

.

When I look into my reflection in the mirror

I found only emptiness in my eyes

No one knows what i will do

including me
Humans as political point scorers
By: Christine Mcdougall
Tags: Imagination, Syntropic World, Syntropic Enterprise, Politics, Syntropy

The end justifies the means?

If we want to stop refugee’s from paying profiteers stupid sums of money that they do not have to risk their lives to cross an ocean to arrive in a new land seeking simple dignity and opportunity, we incarcerate people for years and years. We treat them all as criminals. We remove any form of dignity.

To make a point.

And the people who do this to refugees and perhaps the occasional opportunist go to a Church on Sunday, pretending to be of the Christian faith. A faith built on love, especially love of the downtrodden. (I am writing specifically about Australian politics here.)

The end justifies the means? Of yeh of heartless, cruel faith, how lacking is your imagination?

Surely if you applied a little more imagination you, we, us, might come up with a better solution?

The end justifies the means is a failure of human ingenuity.

It lives in a world where we must put up strong walls to prevent the have-nots from accessing our treasures. Where, if we really tell the truth, the haves (that would be you and I) have agreed to a global economic system that keeps the have-nots in the have-not class. Where short term wickedness to grab all the spoils keeps the majority broken.

They are humans too…

Too long have we made the innocent political point scorers. Like some Mad Max game of rugby, where the ball is humans, and the kicking is as cavalier as if the ball was a ball.

Such a lack of imagination, a lack of truth, a lack of all-human-Christ-like compassion. Clinging like those refugees caught in a storm to a broken boat, our politicians and their media and corporate enablers hunker down, the sunk cost, forgiveness and human decency, too much for them to stomach.

As if dignifying humanity is a form of capitulation, failure?

How did we get to this? The cruelty. The winner takes all. The hypocrisy.

We must look long and hard in the mirror.

We the people might remember that citizenship is a right AND a responsibility. To sit back and point, to throw rocks…this is not to be an active citizen.

We must write, speak, protest, name, call out, call, shout, participate, vote…

If we want a more beautiful world.

Call your local MP. Call the Department of Home Affairs. Speak. Write Shout. Do it every day.

And consider next time you hear, “The end justifies the means?” if this is indeed true or a convenient truism that enables people to do terrible things.

Humanity can do better. I, me, you, we, are humanity.

Photo taken June 9th 2021

#worldwithafuture #businessreimagined #syntropicworld #syntropicenterprise #syntropy
Our creative lives in quarantine
Tags: Creativity, Personal Growth, Imagination

During the pandemic, you may not have even realized it, but you likely exercised your creativity in ways both big and small. As you look back, when did you feel curious and imaginative? Was it a new hobby you picked up? A virtual birthday party you planned? A new way you saw your neighborhood after taking the 50th walk around the block? Maybe how you reorganized your living room so it could double as an office and movie theater.

Creativity is a muscle — and boy, did we stretch it during the pandemic as we were forced to work with many limitations. My guess is that feeling of creation and generating, of problem-solving and imagination, actually felt good. And that’s because that’s who you are! We expressed so much of who we really are and who we want to be with these quarantine actions and behaviors.

As we all take the time to consider what our post-pandemic lives will look like, I encourage you to commit to making your creativity part of this next stage of life. Protect an hour each week to stick to that craft that gives you joy. Or set a reminder on your calendar to continue to see the world through lenses you discovered during Covid. Let us know what you commit to and how your creativity powers up your life.

—

Looking for a way to reflect on your creativity and create a lasting creativity ritual? Join us for a one-hour workshop in the Creativity Spa to gain a sense of purpose and vitality in your creative life.
The Imagination Machine
By: Bcg Henderson Institute
Tags: Strategy, Harvard Business Review, Imagination, Book Recommendations, Boston Consulting Group

The Imagination Machine

By Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller

We need imagination now more than ever — to find opportunities in adversity, rethink our businesses, and discover new paths to growth. Yet too many companies have lost their ability to imagine. What is this mysterious capacity? How does imagination work? And how can organizations keep it alive and harness it systematically?

The Imagination Machine, published by Harvard Business Review Press, answers these questions and more. Drawing on the experience and insights of CEOs across several industries, as well as lessons from neuroscience, computer science, psychology, and philosophy, BCG’s Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller provide a fascinating look into the mechanics of imagination and lay out a six-step process for creating ideas and bringing them to life.

Imagination is one of the least understood but most crucial ingredients of business success. It’s what makes the difference between an incremental change and the kinds of pivots and paradigm shifts that are essential to success — especially during a crisis.

The Imagination Machine is the guide you need to demystify and operationalize this powerful human capacity, to inject new life into your company, and to head into unknown territory with the right tools by your side.

You can order the book on the below-linked platforms:

If you are interested in bulk purchase please get in touch by filling the contact form.
#158: I Am Who You Want Me To Be.
By: Roman Eggenberger
Tags: Imagination, Storytelling, Lookseebefly, Identity, Experience

Am I Swiss or actually from Liechtenstein? The answer is simple and straight forward.

«I am who you want me to be.»

What difference does it make anyway?

When given the choice between the familiar and anything new, we tend to go with the familiar. It gives us that cozy and warm feeling of knowing what to expect. Not that we really knew, but we can tell ourselves that we believe to know.

Familiarity is a story well told.

Why not change that narrative?

«There’s a common belief among anthropologists that you must immerse yourself in an unfamiliar world in order to truly understand your own.» By Annie Braddock in The Nanny Diaries

What if you were in someone else’s shoes?

What if you were a grain of sand?

What if your assistant actually owned the company?

What if I just imagined…

I like the idea of not knowing. It opens up a world of possibility. Interestingly, imagination isn’t limitless. What holds us back is our experience. There is ample evidence that we struggle to imagine anything we have never experienced.

The formula is simple. In order expand your imagination, you just have to experience something new. Oh, so that is what it takes!

There is nothing wrong with pretending to be someone else, to come from another country, to have another profession, thus trying to experience what it would be like.

When asked whether I am Swiss or Liechtensteiner, I normally reply that I am Swiss when it serves me well. On all other occasions, I feel and behave like and therefore am a proper Liechtensteiner… whatever that means to someone else?
The stare
By: Kim Taennie
Tags: Life Lessons, Stare, Storyofmylife, Imagination

“ I even don’t want to see your face anymore. You are good for nothing.” Have you ever experienced this situation? In my case, I would like to say I have and for countless times. I really don’t know how to interpret this but it really hurts and the way they look at you is the most heartbreaking part. I still remember the stare or the anger in my mother’s eyes when she looked at me when I was wrong and sometimes literally for no reason.

Being a teenager, I always felt like I was just a burden to my mother and she never loved me and will never love me. The anger and frustration in her eyes while looking at me could tell it all. I might be wrong but I always wanted what my younger sister has now. The love and care in my mother’s eyes while looking towards her is just so pure and innocent. To be honest, right now I am in search of that in her eyes.

The stare you get even if you are right is what I am complaining about right now. The stare you get when you are not even involved in the situation is what I am talking about right now. The stare that breaks my heart into thousand pieces is what I am sharing about right now.

The stare where there is love and care is all that I am asking about right now.
Imagination by Design
Tags: Government, Innovation, Strategy, Imagination, Places

At the recent “Imagination by Design” event, Cassie Robinson.presented how we can develop imagination infrastructure and we explored various challenges:

Imagination is essential to generate the ridiculous ideas that are the most useful in futures work.

1. Conditions for imagination​

What are some of the best examples you’ve seen of projects creating the psychological safety needed to allow people to be imaginative?

What is the relationship between imagination and stress? How do we ensure the space to imagine is fairly shared?

2. Imagination and other fields

What is the place of serendipity within imagination and how can you design this possibility, within the infrastructure?

How do you distinguish between imagination and general problem-solving?

What are the things you look for in understanding ideas that transcend solving immediate problems or needs?

3. Engaging people on imagination

How do you get people to move past the “it’s never going to change” mindset?

How do you reach beyond the “usual suspects” in this work?

Where does the mobilising come in? How do you prevent taking people on a redundant journey? Or is the activity sufficient to be transformative?

How can we support groups to imagine together?

4. ​From imagination to infrastructure

What’s your thinking about scale? Is this really about replacing existing systems or ‘infecting’ them with new ideas?

5. Recommendations

Here are some recommendations from people at the session on what to read:

6. Suggestions

Commission research as resistance held by lived experience, towards the powers of oppression, with an over-arching kindness and ethics of care

Concentrate on one place with investments in *many* different and *slightly competing* infrastructures

Using dialogues as a powerful opportunity to engage meaningfully, explore collectively and emerge resiliently for sustainable food systems

If you want to get involved in thinking and imagining resourcing, growing and nurturing the conditions for collective and public imagination checks this event out!​

How do/have you stimulated your imagination?

Who’s imagination do you find needs stimulating?
In A World Of Our Own Making
By: Nitya Muralidharan
Tags: Creativity, Imagination, Rationality, Short Story, Know Thyself Heal Thyself

Our imagination is a strong force, it is unique to us and we can never expect someone else to understand it completely. As a child, I had a recurring dream. I had just learned to float on water with my hands and legs absolutely still, in my dreams I could do the same thing in the air, for a very long time this was a very convincing dream, I was always floating on my ceiling and it felt like the most natural thing to do. But I did not share it with anyone else. In my world, it was absolutely possible, but I knew the moment I voiced it out I might never float in my dreams.

Photo by Fuu J on Unsplash

We guard our imagination, the stuff of our dreams, and those bits about us that make us unique. And slowly we guard it so much that one day it might cease to exist unless we have written them down as a child or codified it in some way that has a presence even when we become adults.

Not all of us have to have to do something with our imagination, but we need to be able to get in touch with our imagination from time to time. The world is not patient enough for our imagination unless we learn to tap into it for a living, it's a rare a complex friend, appearing occasionally, and at times in the most bizarre ways.

In India we are rarely encouraged to run wild with our imagination, it does not fit into the plan of making a decent living when millions of others are trying to do the same thing. Having an imagination is hazardous if you are trying to crack an entrance exam where millions are focused.

So we toss it out, convince ourselves we did not have any creative gifts, to begin with, and are lucky to be a part of an analytical and rational education that might yield a decent job in the future. And we land that decent job and have that decent life, but then something seems missing.

But given how rusty our imagination has become it is not easy to coerce it out under all those rational and logical thoughts.

It's a firefly trapped in a world of worker bees.

And then we coax and plead in our own way, listen to songs which moved us, go to those places that transformed us and meet those people who did not ridicule our imagination.

And one day it slowly emerges from the debris of dead thought, but careful because it has been neglected for a long time, this time it needs care, protection, and nurturance.

Rational thought is high and mighty and tries to push back our imagination, but now this is no longer a child’s imagination, but an adult’s, it has grown a pair of wings.

It is strong enough to stand up to rational thought and see eye to eye if you let it. And so when that imagination firefly comes out nurture and protects it fiercely, for it can lead us to a world of our own making.
VS Code extension to analyze 12+ languages using Code Inspector
By: Julien Delange
Tags: Vscode, Vscode Extension, Technical Debt, Code Quality

Setting up code analyzers is painful, cumbersome, and confusing. You need to set up one static analyzer per language in each editor you use. Static analyzers you love may not be available in your co-worker editors, making code verification in your projects inconsistent. In addition, code quality rules checked in your CI/CD pipelines might be different from the rules in your editor.

Until now!

Introducing Code Inspector IDE plugins

We are introducing Code Inspector IDE plugins, bringing the power of Code Inspector analysis engine anywhere you write code. We recently released the first plugin that surfaces errors in IntelliJ and this time and now, we are releasing a plugin for VS Code that inspects all languages supported by Code Inspector in IntelliJ at no cost.

No need to install multiple static analyzers: just one plugin to support all languages. We support the most popular IDEs so the very same rules are being detected on all platforms, making your code verification consistent across all development environments. Finally, the same rules are being used in your CI/CD pipeline so that no error in your IDE = no error in your CI/CD pipeline.

Code Inspector can check your code from anywhere.

If your favorite tool is not supported by Code Inspector, you can develop the integration yourself using our API or contact us to get support!

Code Inspector VS Code extension

The Code Inspector VS Code extension is available on the Visual Studio marketplace. You can install it in the plugin section of VS Code as well.

Once you install the plugin, add your Code Inspector API keys in VS Code settings, as shown below.

Add your Code Inspector API keys in the VS Code plugin

Automatic feedback

Code Inspector will then analyze every file as you write code. Analysis results are surfaced directly in your editor within less than three seconds, as shown below. For each violation, you have a quick action where you can learn more about the problem.

Wrapping up

Code Inspector engine can be used within VS Code and check 12+ languages automatically within seconds. Verification is consistent across all IDE and CI/CD pipeline.
How To Use Path Aliases with React Native and VS Code
By: Mta Team
Tags: JavaScript, Babel, React, Vscode, React Native

We all have seen some import statement like this at least once in our life

import SomeOtherComponent from '../../../SomeOtherPath/index.js

The more complex your project gets the more “../../../” you will need to use in your paths. In order to solve this issue, we can use path aliases. Path aliases allow us to assign an alias name for paths and use the alias name wherever we want to. After you set up your alias name, you won’t need to check how many directory you need to go up and down while importing files.

We first need to install metro-react-native-babel-preset package.

For npm:

npm i metro-react-native-babel-preset

For yarn:

yarn add -D metro-react-native-babel-preset

For android, make sure you build it again. For iOS you should pod install.

Now we are ready to declare our path aliases.

Create .babelrc file in root directory of your project. ( You can rename your .babelrc.js to .babelrc if you already have one )

Let’s create three different path aliases with structure given below.

ALIAS NAME ALIAS PATH

@navigation ./src/navigation

@components ./src/components

@assets ./assets

Paste the below code to your .babelrc file. (If you have different configurations make sure you don’t lose them. Just add the additional parts.)

{ "presets": ["module:metro-react-native-babel-preset"], "plugins": [ [ "module-resolver", { "root": ["./src"], "extensions": [ ".ios.ts", ".android.ts", ".ts", ".ios.tsx", ".android.tsx", ".tsx", ".jsx", ".js", ".json" ], "alias": { "@navigation": "./src/navigation", "@components": "./src/components", "@assets": "./assets", } } ] ] }

Now we can start using our alias name’s for importing files.

For example you can import ./src/components/SomeComponent.js like this

import SomeComponent from '@components/SomeComponent.js';

It doesn’t matter where you are importing it from. You can import it like this anywhere on your project.
Sass: CSS with SuperPower
By: Parag Saxena
Tags: Web Development, Sass, CSS, Vscode, Website

Photo by Nick Karvounis on Unsplash

In Programming, nowadays every language comes with its framework which allows writing less code and more stuff with great efficiency and flexibility. Like JavaScript has Angular, React, and Vue like frameworks which further convert into JavaScript in order to run.

For CSS there is also multiple Framework or Plugins which supports functional programming and stuff, frameworks like Less, Styles

So, Sass is a Syntactically Awesome Stylesheet which is a CSS Preprocessor or Extension which allows you to go beyond the natural capabilities of CSS, with Sass we can write more conditional, functional styling like programming language

So as Browser only understands CSS file, it later compiled to regular CSS files with Sass Compiler

For Sass Files, we will use extension .scss

Sass Compiler

To Compile the Sass into regular CSS, we have to way which watch our changes and converts scss file into CSS

node-sass: Node-sass is an npm package that installs globally in your system and converts the sass file to CSS file into desired location.

Official Package Link: Click Here

Live Sass Compiler: If you are using VSCode, then there is an extension that compiles your Sass into CSS files on the go

→ For Live Sass Compiler, to define the desired directory, need to add configuration in settings.json of vs code.

Live Sass compiler Config

Official Link: Click Here

Features of Sass

Variables in CSS

With Sass, we can write variables in Sass
Difference between CI/CD, Agile and DevOps
By: Jash Unadkat
Tags: Cicd, DevOps, Agile Methodology

CI/CD, Agile and DevOps are very commonly used terms in software development and testing. To understand the difference between them, start with what these terms mean.

CI/CD

CI/CD refers to practices for software engineering and deployment.

CI or Continuous Integration is an engineering practice in which members of a development team integrate their code at a very high frequency. Teams implementing CI aim to integrate code daily or, in some cases, even hourly. CI creates a software-defined lifecycle that decreases the effort required for build and integration.

CD or Continuous Delivery means that all changes to code — new features, bug fixes, experiments, configuration changes — are always ready for deployment to a production environment. CD makes deployments routine events that can occur at any moment on demand.

CD can also mean

Agile

In software development, agile refers to a set of frameworks and practices that follow the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. It seeks to facilitate faster delivery times through collaboration, iterative feedback cycles that focus on specific processes and tools. Agile development focuses on collaboration and self-organization. Teams create solutions together and are cross-functional. There is no watertight division between teams.

DevOps

DevOps primarily refers to a mindset that focuses on communication and collaboration between developers and testers. This was necessary because, in non-DevOps setups, devs are often unaware of QA and Ops roadblocks ( “It works fine on my machine”). Moreover, QAs and Ops personnel often lack context on the business requirement of any software since they work across multiple projects. The point of DevOps is to ensure that developers and QAs are on the same page at all stages of a project.

Differences between CI/CD, Agile and DevOps

Agile encompasses the other two practices. It is a philosophy of software development implemented in various methodologies.

DevOps is an agile development practice that uses agile principles (collaboration, communication to streamline software building, testing, and release.

CI/CD is a DevOps tactic, using automated testing tools to implement agile development.

All three practices create better software in lesser time. There is no watertight difference between them since these practices overlap almost all the time. Any developer/QA/Ops who uses one practice will inevitably use the others.

To build a CI/CD and DevOps empowered testing pipeline, use a real device cloud for testing. Ensure that it enables test automation on real browsers and devices. Additionally, BrowserStack check that it integrations with major CI/CD tools, simplifying testing protocols for QAs and developers.