fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Should We Really Eliminate the Phrase, “I Think,” From Our Vocabulary?
Tags: Thinking, Discussion, Echo Chamber Effect, Confidence, Writing

Photo by Rob Schreckhise on Unsplash

The book, On Writing Well, by William Zinsser provides tips not only on grammar but also on how to craft a warm and confident voice. One such confidence hack is to eliminate phrases like “I think,” and “I feel.” While I blindly adopted this authoritative tone after seeing it virtually everywhere, discussing this strategy with a book club got me thinking.

Think about the last time you took bad advice from a boss, teacher, parent, significant other, friend, coworker, internet guru, or anyone else in your life. Don’t you wish they would’ve distinguished their opinions from facts? Our busy lives don’t leave us time to fact-check everything we hear, so we internalize plenty of opinions portrayed as facts. While independent thinking is a vital life skill, our worldviews are only as holistic as our influences. Admitting uncertainty can inspire our audience to break out of their echo chambers and explore.

Sadly, these thought provokers rarely stand a chance against those who tell others how to think. In a culture where productivity is measured by how much someone gets done rather than how thoroughly they think things through, people are eager to outsource thinking to influencers with the same biased motives or productivity and power. Knowledge is distributed by chains of people each seeking to do as little thinking as they can get away with.

Claiming to know should not exempt us from thinking. Confidence should not be conflated with knowledge and admitting the limits of our knowledge should not be conflated with a lack of confidence. Imagine a world where your boss, teacher, parent, significant other, friend, coworker, internet guru, etc. could confidently tell you “I think so” or “I don’t know” without losing your trust and vice versa.

P.S. Notice how the title of this blog post and many of my others are questions.

Call to action: How can you keep or build trust through your interactions without claiming to know more than you do?
Deferred vs Forward Thinking
By: Benjamin Jordan
Tags: Thinking, Programming

As anyone that has checked a checkbox in a game engine can tell you (forgive the slurping sound — sarcasm is dripping from my chin), there are two main approaches to 3D lighting: forward and deferred. I’m a man of many, many (man, so many) useless metaphors and today’s Metaphor of the Day is no exception: let me introduce forward vs deferred thinking.

Forward lighting is brilliantly self-descriptive: you charge forward into every calculation and hope you have carried with you everything you may need. What color is this teensy little bit of chair? “Why it’s simply [MASSIVE EQUATION INVOLVING ALL STATE IN THE UNIVERSE], my dear.” Forward lighting is conceptually simple, following the mathematician’s nonsense extremely rational line of thinking: start by simply taking measurements from all light sources in the Universe simultaneously. Next, put those values in a giant matrix (hopefully there is room in the Universe to store it — not my problem), then push it through a single, complicated function to get the result. Mathematicians don’t generally worry about implementation details and neither should you!

Deferred lighting is also brilliantly named, though for reasons we’ll get to later. Here we can ask the same color-based question of this little bit of chair and deferred lighting will eventually get to an answer after it goes off and consults some pictures it took awhile ago. You see, the teenage deferred lighting enthusiast had a photographic plate sitting out, collecting light from the aether for AGES now. “I’LL DO IT LATER!” yells the deferred teenager, stewing upstairs in their room, probably playing hacky sack. Rather than bother talking about all the stars at all, this dank teen just uses a photograph! Throw away that forward function needing 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 parameters… we just need the one picture. This might be simpler to your puny minds, and maybe to a puny finite computer, unfortunately, it’s imprecise, which the mathematicians have a special word for: wrong.

Doubly unfortunately: in stupid finite-time scales (anything less than literally any of the infinities (_rolls eyes)) and due to freaking spacetime or whatever, both approaches have their uses.

A combination of several showers per day, sleeping, not thinking, and background bayesian analysis — these are the tools of deferred thinking. Forward thinkers need look no further than pen and paper: tools of the trade for aspiring forward thinkers. “Modern problems require modern solutions”, as they say — and nothing is more modern than a combination of thinking through problems and also not thinking through them.
What is Outside the Box Thinking?
By: Benjamin Landry
Tags: Divergent Thinking, Thinking, Creative Thinking, Lateral Thinking, Outside The Box

TL; DR:

Outside the box = make non-obvious connections and generate wild ideas

Inside the box =

be provided with a well-defined problem and its constraints

Be able to generate and follow a flow chart

“Outside the box” thinking, Definition

Outside the box thinking, also referred to as lateral thinking, is thinking with a new perspective (which may be unconventional). To use your thoughts to generate wild ideas, make non-obvious connections, and use non immediately obvious reasoning. The ideas that vertical thinking will produce are creative and multidirectional and can be an open, honest, and direct evaluation of a situation, oneself, or an organization. Outside the box thinking is primarily used in problem-solving.

“Inside the box” thinking, Definition

Inside the box thinking, also referred to as vertical thinking, is thinking within well-defined constraints. It could involve being provided with a cardboard box and turning it into a tunnel, a storage unit, an airplane, etc. The thinking surrounds solving a problem within defined constraints.

To perform inside the box thinking, it is important to accurately parse and execute a variety of tasks (such as making decisions, analyzing data, and managing the progress of standard operating procedures). To be selective, analytic, and sequential. To rely on data and facts. To make rational assessments in order to take in information or make decisions.

Value of Outside the Box Thinking

Being an outside the box thinker has a lot of value. You think of things no one has ever thought of, you make connections between abstract concepts, you make observations that were unseen by others who see inside the box. These values allow you to focus on non-obvious things, be critical of a situation, oneself, and an organization, make visible the assumptions of the masses, and solve a problem without knowing precisely the problem you are solving while meeting the expectations of others. And you will embody your inner child mind.

Value of Inside the Box Thinking

Once you are provided with the constraints, needs, and expectations of a problem. You will be able to use your inside the box thinking and gain its values. Such as, allowing yourself to be open, creative, and flexible within a set of parameters, follow a process to accomplish a task, and be able to produce a result to meet the expectations of others.

Role Employees with Out-of-the-Box thinking are in?

Scanning Indeed to obtain a general view. The majority of job postings that look for Out-of-the-Box thinkers are:

Sales, Marketing, and Consulting.

Resources
Why don’t schools train students to become entrepreneurs?
By: Nikunj Savaliya
Tags: Thinking, Ford, Schools, Henry Ford, Entrepreneur

In 1909, Ford’s factory-made 10,666 cars.

By 1923, his factory had made 2,011,125 cars!

That’s nearly 200 X MORE in 14 years … that’s the power of the assembly line!

Now, can you imagine the nightmare Mr. Ford had finding qualified engineers to assemble quality cars?

Think about it … Ford assembled up to 9,000 to 10,000 cars a day in 1925, all while reducing the price of each car from 825 to 265 dollars.

How can you find the people to do that?

Mr. Ford had to internally train people to qualify them for the job, which was a very expensive and risky process because once people got trained they could be worth more for the competitors.

A huge problem, isn’t it?

Solution?

The Industrial Age geniuses invested heavily in a new business: Universities.

Not only was this a great business, but it would also “feed” their other business needs, as people got “pre-qualified” for the job.

This is how these entrepreneurs created the “curriculum” which would meet THEIR needs, NOT the students’ needs … You guessed it. That’s now called a DEGREE!

Result?

Schools are a “factory” of people on their way to becoming qualified workers.

Tough truth, isn’t it?

Our OUTDATED educational system trains people to become Workers … to “find a job,” and to sell their time in exchange for a paycheck.

Now, to answer your question, why don’t schools train students to become entrepreneurs?

Why would they?

People keep paying more and more, competing to become the best “WORKERS!”

Until you stop paying them tens of thousands of dollars to “qualify” you as a good worker … they won’t change!

If you want to learn entrepreneurship, you need to step OUT of the worker’s mindset that surrounds you and step into a new culture, a new way of thinking.
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
By: Lukasz Laniecki
Tags: Thinking, Art, Artist, Rules, Writing

Woke up 3:30 am

Can you write a letter backwards? like this Я, or this ⅃?

Yes you can.

There is a rule for that but what is the consequence for breaking it? What will happen if you’ll write a letter backwards?

People will probably understand it anyway, if it’s only one letter in each word. If you’ll write more letters backwards in each word, then some people might have a problem.

If you’ll write most or all letters backwards in each word then most people will have a problem.

But that’s the only consequence.

Most people will figure out that the letters are written backwards and if they’ll be curious what the message is, they’ll make the effort to read it. They’ll decipher it. They might even consider it a challange and be excited about it. After they’ll have deciphered it they’ll rejoice.

If you want to write it backwards, then write it backwards.
The truth
By: Luis Couto
Tags: Fight Against Corruption, Thinking, Politics

Photo by Brian Wertheim on Unsplash

I’m in front of the mirror, looking at myself, imagining and thinking — who am I going to be today? What mask should I wear? What role will I play for the people around me? In an unconscious defense movement to escape these questions, I just close my eyes, I take a deep breath, it seems like a movie starts to play in my mind, pictures, memories from my entire life come and go quickly. A lot of feelings are running through my body. They are trying to say something special to me, I know, but I cannot understand. I slowly open my eyes, someone knocked on the door and said: “ Sir, the place is crowded and they are waiting for you. Please, just stick to your speech, politics is a war and the words are our bullets.”
Do you find yourself doing things automatically — without thinking? Get off auto-pilot and be more deliberate. Think about and recognize what you are doing. Are you mindlessly droning away at goals…
By: Mike Marolla
Tags: Life, Thinking, Goals, Motivation, Living With Purpose

Do you find yourself doing things automatically — without thinking? Get off auto-pilot and be more deliberate. Think about and recognize what you are doing.

Are you mindlessly droning away at goals, only to reach them and set new goals?

OR

Are you setting goals and not reaching them — stressing yourself out?

Be more deliberate. Think in systems:

“Goals serve a purpose, right? You want a sense of direction. Well, you can get that same outcome by having systems instead of goals.” — Darius Foroux

Don’t drive yourself nuts. Stop and take a look around once in a while.

Create good systems that work for you. Live your life.
Your biggest ally or enemy is your mind
By: Coach, Yogi
Tags: NLP, Thinking, Mindfulness, Mindset Shift, Coach

In that process, unknowingly for most us (especially those who are living alone), we have to face our greatest fear and that is yourself.

This mind that speaks to US, does so with so many different ways and in stories, suddenly the US comes right in the middle of this dialogue.

Our internal dialogue is now going back and forth associating and dissociating with those /these thoughts.

This very same mind, that has been our best friend for so many years, suddenly decides to play games with us.

Games which we didn't ever prepare for, mind games.

This is why, most find it difficult to sit with themselves and meditate beyond what they are normally used to. This is also why, practises such as Vipassana meditation which requires one to meditate for 10 hours and 10 days continuous with strict rules enforced during this time, becomes such an ominous task.

This reminds me of the Zen buddhist story :-

“ where every 100 years a room of 1000 demons was opened to monks to walk across. If they cross successfully, they become enlightened. However, since this is a room of 1000 demons, it means ones greatest fears will come up when they try to cross the path from one end of the building and exit to the other side of the building, most don’t because they have not learnt to face their demons. With this fear, most buddhists decide to not even try despite all their wilted efforts to be enlightened. When asked to do the impossible, most decide to not to ”

Actually their greatest fears is what we need to actually conquer, a projection of our and one's OWN IMAGINATION.

Whatever you think is going on, keep your feet moving and to know this and that, at the end of this journey, we will find what we are looking for. That is the power of faith and trust in ourselves.

Stay in that game and once there, our true mastery will start.

Because once you master that which is YOU,

you will realize nothing else in life will deter YOU.
The Powerful Secrets Of A FEW WORDS.
By: Aldric Chen
Tags: Thinking, Life Lessons, Appreciation, Communication, Reflections

The Powerful Secrets Of A FEW WORDS.

Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash

Communication is one odd skillset. It punishes the abundant and rewards the minimal. The lesson is simple. We get rewarded when we use fewer words to achieve the same communication intent.

It has an uncanny parallel with investment in terms of investing less principal squeezing for higher yield. It is mind-boggling.

As if that isn’t fascinating enough.

I have learned over the years that using fewer words to convey the same meaning is a matter of effectiveness. Using a few words to achieve the same intent is POWERFUL.

Take, for instance, “Thank You.”.

Saying “Thank You” can mean a lot to the other person. He/She might have a terrible day, and they couldn’t suppress it when they serve us.

We can feel it when they don’t want to engage. We never know how a simple “Thank You” can help them turn their emotions around. Yes, it is that powerful.

And, there is “Please.”

That is another interesting word that puts people in a light-hearted mode. It is about giving way to the other person.

I was in a lift with one more person this morning. We are heading to the same level. When the doors opened, I offered to let her go first by saying, “Please go ahead.”. For some reason, she held back and pushed the open button instead.

“No, you go first.”.

I smiled in kind.

Then, there is “But.”.

My ears perk up when I hear this word. I was in an executive meeting last week, and we were tabling a new initiative to be pushed through for 2021. As we were soliciting opinions and support around the table, hearing a string of “buts” tells me there is more work to be done.

It tells me there are obstacles to overcome.

As I mentioned, power comes from a few words.

Power Comes From A FEW WORDS.

Aldric
4 Books I Read In 2020 That Changed The Way I Think
By: Shreya Badonia
Tags: Think Different, Readinglist, Thinking, Book Recommendations, Books

1. Educated by Tara Westover

The first book on this list is Educated by Tara Westover. This is a memoir based on Tara’s bizarre life — living with Mormon parents. Her father believed that the govt was spying on them, and believed that doomsday was coming.

Courtesy: Goodreads

He didn’t send any of his children to school and they were mostly treated at home by their mother, no matter how serious the injuries were.

Tara was unaware of the outside world. Her idea about the world and people were limited and she had to teach herself everything.

She was gaslighted by her family and faced severe physical abuse from her brother.

The way Tara gets out of her traditional and controversial upbringing and gets herself admitted to Cambridge shows her struggle and strength.

This is the book you’d have seen Bill Gates carrying around in his Netflix documentary, Inside Bill’s Brain. He calls himself a lifelong learner, which is why he was moved by Tara’s story of learning and evolving after been brainwashed by her parents.

The memoir was an eye-opener for me. We believe everything we hear from our parents and close ones. We never question, we don’t have our reasons and virtues. We get accustomed to our things that have been happening in our homes that we stop asking questions and carry on the same beliefs in our lives. After reading the book, I have started questioning myself — am I questioning anything or blindly believing everything I am told?
What are you thinking right now?
By: Charlotte Allison
Tags: Thinking, Spiritual Growth, Personal Growth, Reality, Personal Development

What are you thinking right now?

It is always in your best interest to be aware of what you are thinking in the present moment. Because what you are thinking about is creating your reality.

That is why you want to be sure you are only thinking positive thoughts about yourself and your life. This does not mean ignoring feelings that are not positive. You should always honor your feelings, no matter what they are. It is just that whatever you focus on the most often, is what you will create in your life.

Everything is working out for your higher good. Even if you can’t see it right now. Keep focusing you your blessings and more good things will come into your life.
Key’s to Explore the unexplored……
By: Prajnesh Jain
Tags: Spontaneous, Travel, Thinking, Writing

Thank you for reading feel free to comment if you agree or disagree with any of above points. Let’s explore the unexplored.
Power of Thoughts
By: Sakthi Gnanam
Tags: Running, Thoughts, Thinking, Mental Health

I often would wonder how Thoughts could possibly change the way we behave, and how powerful it would be.

Post this lockdown acquired fatigueness and fat, I had decided to go back to doing yoga. Not so surprisingly I was out of breath doing just one surya namaskar.

I then decided to run and improve my lung capacity.

I would run for a few minutes before I found myself out of breath, at which point I would walk. And then continue running again.

I was so worried how come I was out of breath so quick. I happened to notice that I sprinted rather than running, which was the reason all along for the out of breath.

But why did I sprint?

The reason I found was shocking. Apparently I had developed too much thoughts lately, as to what people would think of me.

I realised that I was sprinting whenever I crossed people. I was too worried that how people would think of my posture, my way of slow running. And hence, whenever I had to encounter people, I would either stop running or start sprinting and that lead to me losing breath.

It’s phenomenal, how a simple change in your thought could bring about drastic changes in efficiency in what you do. After I learned to not worry about what others would think, I was no more losing my breath at such a very short time.

Thoughts shapes actions.
Hi
By: Limin Yan
Tags: Self, Thinking

in In Bitcoin We Trust
Seth Godin is one of my favourite bloggers.
By: Shadows Pub
Tags: Thinking, Business Intelligence, Seth Godin, Marketing, Creative

Seth Godin is one of my favourite bloggers. I have subscribed to his blog for years and rarely miss a day of reading the email I receive. His posts are short, concise and share a brilliant mind who has carved his own trail in the world with insightful thinking. He shares his thinking in ways the average person can absorb and engage with if they just open their mind to possibilities.

This morning’s edition of his blog contained what I consider a golden nugget. He shared a list of books he’s considered to be influential during his life journey. I love getting hold of treasures like this. I thought I’d take a minute and share the link with you. If you’re already a fan of Seth or are curious how Seeing Differently could impact your life, go have a read.
To live a good life, we need sleep and exercise.
By: Aldric Chen
Tags: Thinking, Life Lessons, Reflections, Personal Development, Wellbeing

To live a good life, we need sleep and exercise.

We never get enough sleep and exercise. The former has to do with de-prioritization and the latter is lack of motivation. Aldric Chen Follow Dec 11, 2020 · 1 min read

Photo by SHAYAN rti on Unsplash

We need them for our well-being. Having less of them is the same as none of them. We will feel something is missing in our lives.

They are like vegetables. Unpalatable and absolutely necessary.
How Negative thinking and emotions tear your Mind apart over time.
Tags: Thinking, Personal Growth, Personal Development, Mental Health, Psychology

Where do these Negative feelings Originate From?

Do you ever get up at 3:00 am and remember something dumb that happened at a house party 5 years ago? Blame it on your brain.

Our brains have a bias, and it’s called negative bias, this is our tendency to register and then dwell on negative thoughts.

We remember insults quicker than we remember to praise. We have stronger reactions to negative thinking and remember traumatic experiences better than happy ones.

Where does this come from?

When we were fighting Sabre Tooth tigers, we had to have a certain amount of fear and anxiety that came before the fight. If we didn’t have this sense of dread, then we couldn’t differentiate right from wrong, which could have lead to death.

This sense of dread developed because we saw our friends from way back get killed by sabre tooth tigers, they must have innocently approached the predator and then been mauled to death.

Over the years this was passed on genetically as it served critical evolutionary adaptive functions. In simple terms, we wouldn’t have evolved if we didn’t have these emotions.

The second place where they come from is our parents. As children, we’re prone to do some stupid activities. Parenting could be described as trying to stop another human from killing itself. Infants display a negative bias, they’re more likely to be influenced by a negative experience than a positive one.

So if our mother calls us a good boy who won’t touch the fire, we’ll touch the fire, only to find out that fire can hurt us. These negative experiences lead to faster learning than positive experiences.
Checknote 5: The Whirlwind Cup
By: Everything Cj
Tags: Thoughts, Thinking, Read, Notes, Writing

Let’s Discover Together. I write on all manner of things that come to mind. World is full of life still. https://evvyword.com/ Be your best self.
Checknote 4: Four Walls
By: Everything Cj
Tags: Thoughts, Thinking, Housing, Notes, Writing

Let’s Discover Together. I write on all manner of things that come to mind. World is full of life still. https://evvyword.com/ Be your best self.
Propel Forward by Pulling the Arrow Backwards
By: Harrison Wendland
Tags: Successful, Thinking, Success Mindset, Mindset, Destination

Propel Forward by Pulling the Arrow Backwards

What is your driving goal?

You know, that one thing that pushes you more than everything else?

Maybe it’s getting married, being a good mother, creating an impact, donating $1 million to charity, spending time abroad with impoverished communities, lowering the rate of crime in your neighborhood, introducing curriculum at your university.

Whatever it is, why do you want it and how do you get there?

We can’t just be like Dorothy and follow the yellow brick road… that won’t get us to where we want to go, only where that road leads.

Let’s dive deep for a moment.

Think about the following four questions and recognize how long it takes you to answer each one:

— Where do you want to be 1 year from now?

— Where do you want to be 5 years from now?

— Where do you want to be 10 years from now?

— Where do you want to be 25 years from now?

Which questions did you answer quicker? Which ones took a little more time? Did you have definitive answers for each of those questions?

You absolutely should. Each question should have an answer on the tip of your tongue.

God created us for a purpose, what is that purpose? Keep your vision and your goals on the tip of your tongue. Each action that you undertake should not only give God glory but should move you closer to your goals and your ultimate God-inspired vision.
Гүзээлзгэнэтэй сүү
By: Гүзээлзгэнэтэй Сүү
Tags: Feelings, Thinking, Feeling Lost

in In Bitcoin We Trust
Checknote 3: Is this Destiny?
By: Everything Cj
Tags: Thoughts, Life, Thinking, Storytelling, Notes

Let’s Discover Together. I write on all manner of things that come to mind. World is full of life still. https://evvyword.com/ Be your best self.
In the time of technology and development of medical science there are still a lot problem that do…
By: Dhairya Gupta
Tags: Doctors, Thinking, Medical Science, Seizures, Medical

In the time of technology and development of medical science there are still a lot problem that do not having a cure.

Seizure “generalized” and there are other types though do not have any reason why this happened and present in a human. Many articles and theory states only in logical reason regarding this cause. Since this disorder is very old still do not have proper theory and cause also do not have a cure. Researchers must do reasearch on this as many of people in the future are facing this that gives a bad impact psychologically also affect their normal day to day life.
I Miss My Insomnia for One Reason
By: Auriane Alix
Tags: Thinking, Life Lessons, Self, Self Improvement, Self-awareness

I Miss My Insomnia for One Reason

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

As soon as I crawled under the covers, my mind took off. Once freed, it got carried away into an endless stream of thoughts and worked to digest all the information I received daily. This was both the cause and consequence of my inability to sleep.

So much so that bedtime had become a stressful time. I wanted to sleep so badly. So I took matters into my own hands. I identified what was causing my insomnia (over-thinking), and learned how to turn off my brain.

I became very good at it. I can now fall asleep in less than 5 minutes most of the time. But this is not without consequences: those long hours of unleashed brain activity now have nowhere to go.

They are crucial for all human beings. But this should not be taken lightly. Daydreaming can be very powerful. Both positively and negatively.
Essay: On journaling
By: Klára Kőszeghyová
Tags: Thinking, Productivity, Self Improvement, Journal, Journaling

I’ve kept my journal for couple of years in different forms. I had a journal in my phone and computer, then on a random paper straps that I’ve found when an idea struck me, or something happened and lastly, I’ve bought a journal that suits my needs the best.

The process of finding what is the best for me wasn’t easy. For someone it is best to use the bulletin journal, or they set a certain amount of words or sheets they will write. For me? Well, I just like to write about my day, my ideas during the day and then do a to-do for the next day.

But there is one thing that I’ve noticed that can happen if you use a method that doesn’t suit your needs the best. For example, many people find it difficult to actually write 1–3 or even more sheets of papers regarding their days and all the things that more experienced people would write into their journals. So, in order to complete the “exercise” they tend to start to overthink everything. They start to read way too much in the small things that simply wouldn’t matter for them under different conditions.

And even though we all know how hard it is to actually develop a habit, some habits can develop faster, especially when we are not even trying to develop the habit. This is the same case. We are more often than not unaware that we are developing this as a habit and then, when it is already too late, we simply overthink more and more things.

Of course, that we do not do this consciously, but it can be seen in some situations, such as overthinking just a simple compliment or an advice into something that it is not. Sure, this does not happen always, but there is a certain tendency.

Now, I am not saying it is bad and that once you are overthinking stuff you should change. Not at all. Overthinking in certain situations can be called and some people like to call it thinking through. I’m just saying that keeping a journal may not be as beneficial for us as we think.

Because overthinking is a complex process, you are basically looking at a certain event or phenomena from multiple angles. In some situations, such as emergencies, this is not something we like to do. We want to keep our thinking simple, because more often than not it can actually do more good than bad.
What is the meaning of life?
By: Jeffery Liu
Tags: Life, Meaning Of Life, Thinking

What is the meaning of life?

To me, beside enjoying life, it’s about contribution to the society and create a better world if we have the ability . Otherwise we are only consuming the resource of world and will leave nothing meaningful.
8 Best Moments of OutSystems Engineering in 2020
By: Marina Calado
Tags: 2020, Life, Company Culture, Productivity, Inspiration

As a UX researcher, I feel that 2020 was the year in which teamwork changed radically!

When I started working at OutSystems, people used to proudly say that one day here is the equivalent to one month elsewhere, and now I get it and feel the same way because I’ve learned so much about so many things in such a short time.

As UX researchers, connecting in person and using writable walls was essential to get the full picture, correlate matters, and reason with team members. However, with the fully remote scenario in 2020, the way we work with the teams changed radically. Now, we collaborate online using digital boards and video calls. Throughout the year, we became experts in remote collaboration tools, and we improved our long-distance research skills by connecting with users using solely digital methods.

As I am a “people person” so not being able to connect in person with teammates and users was quite challenging, but looking back, I see that I have learned so much! Our team quickly and thoroughly adapted to this new way of doing user research while almost doubling our team size. A lot more people joined the Engineering team, and I’m so grateful to work with such a variety of colleagues who come from incredibly different backgrounds.

This year, I worked for more extended periods with different teams. The best moment of 2020 was realizing that no matter the research initiative or the number of groups I work with, there is always something new to learn and astonishing discoveries while performing research at OutSystems.
🗓 Today we are 4 years old.
Tags: Company Culture, News, Happy Birthday

🗓 Today we are 4 years old.

During this time, we have done a huge amount of work, which has allowed us to turn from an ordinary company with matrix marketing into a🇨🇭Swiss investment holding company Tirus LTD WITH many directions.

📈 From year to year, we become stronger, more confident, and, as a result, there are more and more partners who trust us.

Time changes the company, in 2019 we managed to do a lot, 2020 will give us new events and interesting business solutions that you appreciated, and next year will be a year of success and new discoveries for all of us 🔥

Tirus owes its success to all its partners. You were the one who entered the first business circles, closed the housing program, invited newcomers to Fast and Turbo, etc.

💪 Therefore, this day belongs to all of us!

Let’s celebrate this landmark event together on social networks so that the whole world will know about us!
Virtuell von Berlin nach Düsseldorf – Weihnachtsfeier mal anders
By: Laura Weiss
Tags: Team Spirit, Virtual Events, Startup, Company Culture

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Persistence & Grit
By: Snp Communications
Tags: Leadership, Company Culture, Communication, Startup, Business

Persistence & Grit

By: Renn Vara

My wife and SNP’s CEO, Mo, taught me how to run marathons before marriage and kids. She said the key is to hold back energy for the long miles and dig deep for the tough ones. A mix of persistence and grit.

But there was one lesson she failed to teach me. It happened at the twentieth mile, the wall, during my first marathon, her fourth or fifth. The weather had gone from hot to cold. I was shivering. I was struggling. I was convinced I was dying. I dropped out.

Mo stood over me in the medical tent with that bewildered look I’ve come to know since. Without saying it, she realized she had taken for granted her number one rule, don’t quit. She went on to finish it without me.

That following year, grieving, I committed to making it right. When the NYC marathon came back around, we ran it again. This time I ran past that 20th mile remembering the emotion from the previous year with tears in my eyes. Quitting wasn’t an option. A lesson learned.

Since then, we’ve worked through a number of walls. Normal life challenges along with more than a few business setbacks. The lesson from that first marathon repeated again and again.

It comes down to grit. Angela Duckworth defines grit as a passion and persistence for long-term achievement with no particular concern for reward or recognition. But how do you do it? I think of it in three stages, attitude, accountability, and action.

Attitude

It’s knowing that life isn’t a cakewalk. There will be those moments that challenge the soul. But if you pre-think them and determine your response in advance, your rules, you can push through.

Accountability

It’s taking responsibility for the outcome. It’s the “watch this” approach versus “why me” when tough moments happen.

Action

Then do something. Keep moving forward. Live your values in how you act, respond, and work.

I’m currently reading The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow. It’s about randomness and probabilities. He says the number one hedge against the randomness of life is persistence. Keep showing up. Keep pushing. Keep at it. Grit.

Anyone who runs the NYC marathon dreads the 59th Street Bridge crossing the East River from Queens to Manhattan. It comes around the sixteenth mile. It’s a mountain at the worst moment. Most people walk it. A few years ago, I ran maybe my fifth or sixth NYC marathon with a friend who runs ultra marathons. We had committed to never walk this one as training for a coming ultra. As we approached the bridge, we began to say out loud, “f*ck this bridge.” Others began to echo us. A group had formed supporting each other grinding out the bridge, repeating “f*ck this bridge” as the almost mile-long climb got tougher and tougher. We made it over the top together. Destroyed but victorious.

A few weeks later, I had that phrase tattooed (yes, even the first word) on my right calf to remind me of the importance of grit. I know, a bit over the top, pun intended.
Companies Should Pay Partially in Stock
By: Cody Collins
Tags: Work Life Balance, Company Culture, Stocks, Illumination Curated, Business

It’s 2020 for Pete’s Sake

Image from Canva

Ajay Banga, CEO of Mastercard, in a recent interview with Fortune, said,

…the first of those guide rails is to take care of your employees. One way we do that at Mastercard is through stock plans. About 70% of our employees get some kind of stock incentive award. When I first joined 11 years ago…it was in the single-digit percentage of employees.

Since Banga has taken over as CEO a decade ago all he’s done is propel Mastercard to success. They went from the 256th most valuable company in the world to the 21st, delivered a cumulative total return of over 1,500% to shareholders, and increased profits 18.7% a year.

His success is attributed to him redefining Mastercard. Instead of looking at his competitors as Visa or American Express, he looked at cash as his main competitor, which at the time was 85% of all retail transactions. Why not go after that 85% as well, by using technology to make a difference in people’s lives.

Mutually Beneficial

The idea of offering stock incentives to employees is not new. But offering it to 70% of employees is not as common.

And if you think about how it works, it’s mutually beneficial for both the company and employees.

The number one stakeholders in a company are the employees. Without employees, a company would not be able to operate. In recent years companies have put more value on taking care of their employees. Offering stock incentives to lower-level employees can not only help retain employees but can attract top talent as well.

The reason this is a mutually beneficial agreement is that it incentives employees to perform better. You can give me $10 to do a task. Or you can give me between $5 and $15 to do the task, depending on how well I perform the task. I am going to take the offer of the $5 to $15. I will bet on myself that I can perform the task above satisfactory. And I will also be more motivated to do a better job than if I was given the $10 no matter how well I did the task.

Since an employee's pay is partially related to the companies performance, they will want the company to do the best it can. They will go out of their way to help other employees and other departments. It creates more of a team atmosphere, where everyone has a common goal.

And as a company, if you're employees are doing better and working harder, the whole company will do better.
Three common challenges of managing remote workers
By: Zubayer Islam Rezoan
Tags: Company Culture, Employee Monitoring Tool, Managing Remote Workers, Remote Team Productivity, Remoteemployeemonitoring

Having the opportunity of managing remote workers is a unique event for team leaders, as it is still adapting to the mainstream job market. In fact, a SoapBox report found remote managers facing 6 times higher retention challenges than onsite managers. People are finding themselves in this position without major relevant experience or no experience at all. That being said, the benefits that come with managing remote workers can not be found in any other environment.

The good thing is that you are not the first one facing these problems, and many people working as remote managers have dealt with them. Below are some of the common challenges that you are most likely to encounter. Read them to make sure you can tackle them at ease.

Tracking remote team productivity

We are very used to the behavior of managers hovering around the office. With sheer knowledge and experience, they can easily track your progress on the tasks just by a glance. This is not the same case when your employees are working from home.

The solution to this challenge is the CloudDesk® remote employee monitoring software. This affordable solution allows you to track employee work hours and lets you analyze performance by checking productive and idle times. The software also sends periodic pop-ups to keep employees engaged in tasks during work hours.

With CloudDesk®, you can detect malpractice and performance degradation, as it keeps tabs on running apps and web usage. Employees, on the other hand, get the chance to work flexible hours with this tool by pausing the time clock on demand. Try the demo of this app to get all these features and ensure the productivity of your remote team.

Establishing a good company culture

Most company CEOs have a general idea or concept in mind about how things within the business operate, how the company carries value and its general ethos. As an employer, you probably have mentioned this multiple times in the interview meetings and onboarding processes. When employees are surrounded by the company culture, they try their best to fit in by taking mandatory steps. But when your employees are spread across the globe, giving the same message becomes difficult.

To solve this issue and deliver the right tone, implement a top-down approach: start from the executive level. Before pushing people, turn yourself into a living example of it. When an employer becomes the real ambassador of company culture, finding unique ways to implement them becomes easy.

Strong team communication for managing remote workers

There are so many virtual tools for team communication that it is rather hard to choose the right one. While some people love to communicate through email for setting tasks, others prefer phone calls over everything. You will find valuable recommendations on what to use for what types of tasks. But at the end of the day, consistency and good understanding are the keys to the success of managing remote workers.
MicroStrategy Buys The Dip. — Robert & Gabby Amazing Deals
By: Robert, Gabamazing Deals
Tags: Company Culture, Bitcoin Mining, Cryptocurrency, Money Management, Microstrategy

Michael Saylor proclaims every other $650 million purchase of as its rate dips from weekend highs. Enterprise intelligence corporation MicroStrategy has brought to its () stash. According to the purchase of 29,646 for a complete of $650 million, a mean of around $21,925.

Ceo Michael Saylor tweeted the information at once following a pullback in price to $22,247 even though it is uncertain whether the acquisition coincided with this event.

Microstrategy announced its intention to buy greater. Earlier this month, with a $400 million debt protection sale to raise the acquisition budget. The bond sale at the end delivered $650 million, which has now been used to shop for as promised.

The corporation is now holding 70,470, offered at a median price consistent with $15,964. This makes it the 5th-largest individual holder. One vicinity ahead of the United States authorities, which reportedly owns sixty-nine,420.

The Journey of MicroStrategy With Bitcoin.

Microstrategy started its journey in august with a buy of 21,000 for $250 million. The organization stated it intended to adopt its primary reserve currency as a hedge towards U.S. Greenback inflation.

This turned into observed by using further purchases along with a $425 million acquisition in September. Executed via coinbase’s over the counter desk.

Saylor recently endorsed fellow billionaire Elon Musk to comply with his lead and use BTC to update the U.S. Dollar as Tesla’s number one reserve foreign money. This will encourage different S&P 500 firms to follow healthily, argued Saylor, compounding its advantages.

It is creating a cheap solution for the whole World to Participate-a in a massive movement. And there are already thousands and thousands that have joined. We have a whole support team leading the expansion, training, and deployment of this into reality. To End Poverty and Increase the standard of Life for all we touch. We do that through a fantastic process.
Les start-up viennent de Mars, les grandes entreprises viennent de Venus
By: Roald Sieberath
Tags: Company Culture, Corporate Venturing, Corporate, Startup, Innovation

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How Skystra is Structured as a Remote Company
By: Skystra Cloud
Tags: Remote Working, Company Culture, Customer Centricity, Small Business, Remote Work

Disclosure : I am the founder of Skystra.com. Everything detailed here happens, exactly as described. The only edits are to names or places, protecting the privacy of those involved.

The customer is the boss.

That’s the saying, or something close to it. Pretty cliche isn’t it? But it’s absolutely true. As a medium sized business, we rely heavily on customers, both new and especially renewing customers.

So what does the customer being the boss really mean though? A lot of companies say it, and then proceed to stomp all over their customers with unfriendly processes and rigid policies. At Skystra, we take a very fluid view on this.

In the first part of this series, I’ll go over how the customer is positioned within our company, how it affects the organization chart, decision making and the general influence of being positioned where they are.

Normally, most organizational charts are top down. And I truly have nothing against that model. Human psychology being what it is, a form of hierarchy is always needed, even in the most holistic organizational structures. There has to be someone, or a group, ultimately calling the shots. But it’s where this group is in relation to the customer and their experience that matters the most.

In a top-down structure, the management team may have a good understanding of how their company works, and how it provides services to them. In my opinion, the biggest fundamental problem with top-down structures is every time a new level is added, it is extremely hard for the leadership team to stay in touch with the lifeblood of their company : customers.

And of course, every new layer in the organizational chart adds additional challenges, like more managers, training programs, QA programs and more.

At Skystra, I won’t tell you our organizational chart is perfect, not even for us. However, it comes after a lot of revisions and iterations to our actual structure over the years, from completely bootstrapped startup to a solid medium sized business that finally has everything running in the same direction.

The key : The customer is in the middle of every decision we make.

Secondary key : All teams are led by experts, not by managers. We firmly believe we can create and run systems that help with the overall process management, but we can’t build experts.

The chart makes it obvious : Our customers are in the middle of everything. Without customers, we would not be around.

Our leadership team are all experts in their own fields. Each of their departments and the team within them are led by those with expertise in each field. There are no managers for the sake of being managers.

This structure allows us to have honest, and sometimes hard, discussions about the direction of the company. However, it is always in service of the customer. There are always going to be various considerations about how to approach a decision, but in the end, the customer matters most.