fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
How we build products at Everoad. Part tres: Cadence.
By: Benjamin Chino
Tags: Startup, Cadence, Product, Product Management, Execution

Part tres. We ship & support. Relentlessly.

Another former boss of mine — the great James Cox, now building the future of subscription-based mobility (check out Canoo) — nagged me for months to improve my ‘operating cadence’. I remember walking up and down Market street thinking “so what exactly does he mean there”. Was I supposed to attend more meetings? Was I not communicating enough? Or did I just need to toss in more stuff in my weekly schedule?

It took me a bit of time — and, true story, some dancing classes too — to understand what an operating cadence meant. Building a product, a company or the coolest restaurant in Europe (you’re welcome, The Barbary), requires groove. That’s right, groove. Having a plan is good. Translating that plan into a roadmap, even better. But operating a roadmap is what truly matters. In other words, it’s all about execution. So today, we’ll show you how we execute at Everoad, to ship products and support them, relentlessly.

Turning problems into projects.

If you remember from our previous chapter, we plan every quarter, narrowing our priorities to a list of around 30 items. These items are problems, meaning that we have a clear view of what’s not working but we have no idea — at this stage — of how we’ll solve them.

This is where we turn into project mode. There is a lot of literature on how Product Management is not Project Management (here, there and there). I tend to agree with them but I also believe that a good Product Manager is an amazing Project manager meaning that they can leverage a set of working methodologies to build products and features that address user needs while providing return on investment for the company (just to be clear, ROI is not just a financial metric).

The very first thing we do when kicking off work on one of our priorities is to create a Product Requirements Document. A PRD is a very common tool among Silicon Valley companies, but it hasn’t really made its way across the Atlantic yet. For us, PRDs are the very backbone of each project. They help us document and store information in a single spot, they foster collaboration for projects that are at least ten-hand-made, and most importantly they provide transparency to the entire organization about what we plan to build.

Breaking down projects into smaller ones.

Now, even with the help of a well-written PRD, the task would be immense for our team to execute alone. They wouldn’t know what to do or where to start given the number of things required for an idea to become live. To help drive clarity, we have chopped projects into 5 distinct phases. Just like breaking down problems into smaller ones help better address them, breaking projects into smaller phases help team-members focus on specific tasks, thus increasing their efficiency and our overall velocity.
Home
By: Luisito Gavara
Tags: Poetry, Pomprompt, Poetry On Medium, Storytelling, Home

Every sad song

All the best songs

Start with home

Walking away

Running towards

Or just missing home

But every song

That's ever been written

Is about home

It is true

And every piece I write

Every lyric, or poem

All the prose I compose

They all tip toe

Gently and ever so quietly

Around about home

Home I miss

Home I never had

Or the home I am making

When we first met

You had this kind of sparkle

A grumpy glow

It shimmered in the whites of your eyes

It left trails wherever you walked

You took coffee

And the piano music

And you made it a fairy tale

You grasped at stories

And wove them in your hair

In your clothes

And in your soul

Then you dared me

To follow the thread

Of copper blue magic

To wherever it led

I stayed up all night

Unraveling every tale

Until I was drunk in a basement

With a story and a headache

I didn’t stop till you told me

That in all the good tales

There is a home hidden away

I read the stories

Wrote the stories

Till your arms became

Home

Home

Home

Till your story and my story

Tangled and twisted

And your magic became my magic

And I became a blue bronze strand

Of the nest you wove from the world

And you became

Home

Home

My Home
The ugly face of Feminist Consumerism
By: Sylvian Patrick
Tags: Marketing, Feminism, Digital Marketing, Consumerism, Faux Feminism

Airtel, one of the leading telecom providers from India aired an advertisement that was supposed to break gender barriers at work, but the ad also reinstated another long standing gender stereotype in the Indian society.There were discussions on social media and it became a news hour debate on TV (probably sponsored by Airtel). I questioned but also defended the ad with few people.

Feminist ideas were used in advertising to make a false promise of empowerment and sell products based on that. Craven A was the first brand to use women’s empowerment message as a way to market their brand. Owing to these ads and the socio cultural norms it purported, women smokers in the US increased from 5 percent in 1923 to 18 percent in 1935 (Penny,2014). The most famous campaign was from Virginia Slims in the 1960s. The extremely disturbing aspect of these advertisements was the fact that they were selling a product that will potentially kill women in the name of women empowerment.

In the recent years, we especially see a surge in the ads targeting women in developing countries that show faux feministic ideologies to sell products that indeed reinstate the same stereotypes. A case in point is the Dove’s real beauty ads that camouflage women’s empowerment message to sell their skin care products.

Recently, FCKH8, an online retailer of clothes, made children from 6–13 speak out supporting gender, race and feminism. But, there were two major issues, one they were eschewing many F-words and the brand was trying to sell anti-sexism t-shirts. This was the same company that tried to sell Ferguson t-shirts when the case was widely publicised in the US.

Johnston and Taylor (2008) call this as ‘feminist consumerism’. The problem with campaigns like Dove’s “Real beauty” or Pantene’s “Sorry, but not sorry” or FCKH8’s campaign is that they expect women to buy a product to feel empowered. These products reestablish the same societal constructs that feminism is against. Grassroots feminist activists make more impact in bringing in change to the society, but the problem is they don’t have the same budgets as these multi-billion dollar companies.

When we voice against objectification of women in advertising, don’t you think even faux idealisms that promote consumerism are also equally dangerous?

List of references:
You Can’t Earn High Self Esteem
By: Jason Henry
Tags: Self Improvement, Personal Development, Self, Personal Growth, Psychology

We often make the mistake of thinking that we need to acquire certain things to be respected by others. This is a damaging thought because one assumes that one is valued only for what they can get.

A worse thought, however, is the thought that we need to acquire certain things so that we can respect ourselves.

The truth is, a healthy level of regard for yourself cannot and should not be dependent on what you do, what you acquire or what position you have. That’s conditional love and we can’t afford to only be loving to ourselves when we get something valuable.

You have to know that you are inherently valuable. Anything less and the things and people who you consider valuable will not be able to rendezvous with you. If you don’t think you’re appreciated just as you are, people will believe you.

“It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else’s eyes.” — Sally Fields

Think of the story of the wise man and his ring. When a man who had been criticized his whole life came to the wise man for help, the wise man gave him his ring and told him to sell it in the market, with the asking price being one gold coin.

When the man tried to sell the coin, no one would give him anything close to what he was asking. Most laughed him to scorn.

He returned to the wise man and explained the predicament, to which the wise man simply suggested that he go to a jeweller to appraise the ring.

At the jeweller, the man was offered 58 gold coins but if given more time, he could pay as much as 70 gold coins.

The point of the story is to highlight that not everyone is going to value you, because they simply value other things. That’s okay, but make sure you don’t make your worth dependent on the opinions of others who don’t understand you.

However, I advise you to take it one step further — value yourself. If you are someone who struggles with self-esteem, it’s because you’re waiting on people to validate you. But because you don’t value yourself, you avoid the people who could actually value you. You think to yourself that they couldn’t possibly like you and that certain opportunities are too good for you. This is the bedrock for a negative self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Self-worth comes from one thing — thinking that you are worthy.” — Wayne Dyer

If you decide to be valuable, regardless of what you have or don’t have, you’ll be amazed at the doors that open for you. They were there all along. You just had your back turned to them and instead faced all the dead ends.

Working ourselves to death to earn respect from others or to earn self-respect is putting the cart before the horse. Even if you achieve some great thing, people aren’t going to respect you. They’ll simply look at the person who almost killed themselves just to be liked.
What’s Next for Mobile Innovation in News? Spurring a New Wave of Collaboration and User-Centered Design.
By: Sarah Schmalbach
Tags: Innovation, User Experience, News, Mobile, Journalism

A big part of the Mobile Innovation Lab’s mission has been to be open about its processes and share what it has learned in the course of its experimentation. As we wrap up two years of work, we still have a lot to share about the results of our final experiments, about where we see big opportunities to better serve mobile audiences and the importance of user-centered design, effective measurement and multidisciplinary work in our innovation projects.

We shared much of what we’ve learned during a day of discussion in New York on March 26. Over the course of the day, members of the lab team and representatives from a broad cross-section of newsrooms discussed the many opportunities — often unknown or unexplored — that mobile offers to create highly relevant news experiences that encourage loyalty among users and open up new possibilities for growth. We also discussed the challenges often associated with innovation work and collaborating across disciplines.

We are now sharing slides and transcripts from the day, below, in the hopes they can be useful to a broader constituency of editors, reporters, product managers, technologists, designers, and others working to bring news into the future. But first…

Why do we think innovation on mobile is still important?

Relationships with readers are essential to the future of media, yet getting the news to them has never been more challenging. Platforms exert outsized influence, making it critical for news outlets to find innovative ways to engage audiences, without intermediaries.

The Lab has found that audiences are eager to consume news in new formats that speak to them in the language of mobile — with notifications, creative use of mobile signals like location data, alternative audio formats, new live coverage layouts and alternative formats for evolving stories. While we have done a lot of work in these areas, we’ve also barely scratched the surface. The opportunities for organizations to drive loyalty and even monetization with useful and relevant news experiences still feels under explored, and under discussed. We hope our event and these notes will help spur on those working within their organizations to take better advantage of these opportunities.
So Many People Think They Are Immune From Covid
By: Floyd Mori
Tags: Politics, Pandemic, Covid 19, Safety, Coronavirus

So Many People Think They Are Immune From Covid

But the virus can get them

Measures to stay safe have been given

Most people will probably not get affected with the coronavirus, and many do not know anyone personally who has gotten the virus. People are not careful if they think they are safe from the ravages of the pandemic. They fight against the use of masks and do not practice physical distancing. They protest against being told what to do to stay safe during the current health crisis.

With so many people not willing to adhere to the recommendations from health experts, the COVID-19 pandemic is getting worse instead of better.

Donald Trump said back in the spring of 2020 that the virus would magically disappear when the warm weather came. The summer came and left. The warm weather has gone. Now the cold weather is returning with the pandemic still in full force. It has been almost a year since the pandemic began.

At the beginning of the coronavirus scare, people were told to wash their hands often, cough into their sleeve, and avoid crowds. There was advice to social distance, sanitize everything, and wear masks. Maybe people were not against wearing masks as much as they were against being told that they should. They did not want any mandates. They rebelled.

Now the pandemic has gotten worse instead of better. It is time for us to listen to the medical experts who are telling us what we need to do to curb the spread of the virus.

The White House events and the large political rallies have taken their course. Politics have been involved. Some people who thought they were safe and immune have been affected. The COVID-19 virus is not safe, and people should be careful to stop the spread.
甘特圖也可用！設計師在工作上可以如何使用 Notion 筆記軟體
By: 林育正 Riven
Tags: Notion, Product Hunt, Design, Evernote

Log into Facebook | Facebook

Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.
Kaggle Session (Machine Learning Intro)
By: Emily Zhao
Tags: Machine Learning, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence

The Data Science Student Society (DS3) is an interdisciplinary academic organization designed to immerse students in the diverse and growing facets of Data Science: Machine Learning, Statistics, Data Mining, Predictive Analytics and any emerging relevant fields and applications.

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5 Italian Bestsellers Unknown To the International Audience
Tags: Book Recommendations, Books, Reading, Book Review, Books And Authors

1. A Fortune-Teller Told Me — Tiziano Terzani

The real story of Tiziano Terzani, Italian journalist for Der Spiegel, one of the main German weekly news magazines. Terzani had a particular interest in East Asian affairs and travelled all his life through these regions. One day, during one of his travels, Terzani met a fortune teller who advised him to avoid all plane travels in 1993, as according to him, in that year he would die in a plane crash. Terzani decided to trust him and travelled for an entire year avoiding airplanes. Trips that used to take a few hours suddenly became week-long adventures. Thanks to this radical decision, Terzani will discover the real Asia, which only a few European have been able to witness. Among fortune-tellers, gurus and fakirs, he will slowly embrace his hidden spirituality without never fully abandoning his sceptical attitude. Not even when, in 1993, the colleague who replaced him survived a tragic airplane crash.

What did I learn?

A Fortune-Teller Told Me was my first approach to spirituality. If, like me, your education is grounded in science, this is the perfect book to approach the subject without suddenly starting to believe in everything paranormal. Terzani’s sceptical attitude will convince even the most convinced scientist that there are things that science cannot and should not explain.
What I Think When I Go to Bed Late
By: Murad Zamanov
Tags: Self-awareness, The Masterpiece, Consumerism, Brainstorming, Life

Later on, having learned the internet and its power, I’d spend my nights over PC to explore the e-world. Of course, by pretending beforehand that I fall asleep, so my parents feel relaxed and safe over my future.

There were no Lo-Fi playlists back then, well, there was no even YouTube, but the air was spiritual even without those chill beats. There was also no social network, no push notifications, nothing else besides websites and talk apps like MSN.

I don’t want to make it sound like paying tribute to the past that in stories are always associated with “earlier was better”, but what was missing in my childhood made my life better than what I’ve obtained when I grew up.

Sometime later, I found myself sitting at a school desk and realizing that my life split into two parts — at one, I pursued the best skills to keep doing classes to stay a good kid. At another one, I was browsing the internet late at night by writing blog posts and searching for breathing out my real passion.

Been raised as an obedient child, I had a disturbing feeling that I do something wrong. I’d spend school classes with glass eyes as my brain was not making a delicious mix of completely lost and uncertain thoughts.

I didn’t realize it back then, but now, at the age of 27, I realized — that was a turning point when I’ve started doing things I love to do — my hobbies, interests, passion, etc.

That was a contract with a “real life” headline that I’ve signed.
Breakfast Update Week 34
By: Morten Løwenstein
Tags: Augmented Reality, Digital Marketing, Amazon, Instagram, Social Media Marketing

A new friday update with tech and media news from the last week. Made for clients and colleagues, but everyone can read along. We talk about it at breakfast.
Java Tips — A homemade linked list
By: Marco Domenico Marino
Tags: Software Development, Data Structures, Java, Programming, Programming Languages

The node of the list

First of all we need to define the collection like a set of node and every node must have:

Value : the information content that every node carry;

: the information content that every node carry; Pointer: the pointer to the next element into the list; with this link every node knows the following node;

The structure of a Node is:

Node class

The Node class is provided of:

A class variable to maintain the value and one to maintain the pointer to the following Node

and one to maintain the to the following Node A default constructor that initializes to null the value and the pointer;

that initializes to null the value and the pointer; A value constructor that initializes the value of the node with the object received in input and the pointer to null;

that initializes the value of the node with the object received in input and the pointer to null; Getter and setter methods to manipulate the node.

The linked list will be a sequence of nodes and every node will point by reference to the following node like the next picture:

Linked list structure

The LinkedList class is provided of:

A class variable to maintain the reference to the first node of the list and one to maintain the reference to the last node;

node of the list and one to maintain the reference to the node; A default constructor that initializes to null the value and the pointer;

that initializes to null the value and the pointer; Getter methods to retrieve the first and the last node of the list;

methods to retrieve the first and the last node of the list; Business method useful to manipulate the list.

The structure of the LinkedList class is:

Extract of LinkedList class

The core of the Linked List has two class variables: one to maintain the reference of the head of the list (first) and one to maintain the tail of the list (last). When the list is created both are null and need to be updated for every manipulation of the list.

Moreover the Linked List core class needs to implements the Iterable interfaces to be iterate.
Weekly Machine Learning Research Paper Reading List — #8
By: Durgesh Samariya
Tags: Machine Learning, Science, Research

Weekly Machine Learning Research Paper Reading List — #8

Authors: Ye Zhu, Kai Ming Ting and Mark J.Carman

Venue: Pattern Recognition

Paper: URL

Abstract:

Density-based clustering algorithms are able to identify clusters of arbitrary shapes and sizes in a dataset which contains noise. It is well-known that most of these algorithms, which use a global density threshold, have difficulty identifying all clusters in a dataset having clusters of greatly varying densities. This paper identifies and analyses the condition under which density-based clustering algorithms fail in this scenario. It proposes a density-ratio based method to overcome this weakness, and reveals that it can be implemented in two approaches. One approach is to modify a density-based clustering algorithm to do density-ratio based clustering by using its density estimator to compute density-ratio. The other approach involves rescaling the given dataset only. An existing density-based clustering algorithm, which is applied to the rescaled dataset, can find all clusters with varying densities that would otherwise impossible had the same algorithm been applied to the unscaled dataset. We provide an empirical evaluation using DBSCAN, OPTICS and SNN to show the effectiveness of these two approaches.
The Icon Kaleidoscope
By: Jon Friedman
Tags: User Experience, Technology, Icons, Microsoft, Design

People spend most of their working time using Microsoft Edge and Office to get things done, and the teams were excited to experiment with the new materials on these popular products. We know how important these experiences are to our customers, so the icons needed to fit in and stand out at the same time. Based on extensive testing and customer feedback, we introduced rich gradients, broadened our spectrum of colors, and implemented a dynamic motion with ribbon-like qualities.

Our customers are also beginning to use mixed reality to accomplish goals in a completely new way. Blending the physical and digital worlds in our icons helped us think beyond traditional manifestations of colors, finishes, and materials. We needed to consider the third dimension, so we chose new materials that reflected light and depth and felt more tactile.

Whether our customers use their phone, PC, or VR headset to get work done, we wanted to reach people in every environment. The newest design guidelines helped us unify icon construction across the company and within each product family.

Designing our future together

Our community has been on this journey with us from the beginning, and the path to this icon redesign was no different. We conducted countless rounds of research for every icon. From mild to wild, we explored a multitude of design directions and listened to customers around the world. We learned what didn’t resonate with people (flat design and muted colors) and what did (depth, gradations, vibrant colors, and motion), all of which drove our decisions.
Misty, Guilty, Self-Centered, Lonesome, Bored
By: Rolli, Https, Ko-Fi.Com Rolliwrites
Tags: Human Parts, Cities, Nonfiction, Humor, Life

We travelled via a dilapidated Volkswagen van. (Illustration by Rolli)

The best thing for a hangover, fortunately, is coffee.

On my way back from Perks, I bought a newspaper. I hadn’t read a newspaper since 1998.

As I skimmed the day-old news, an all-caps advert caught my eye.

SAVE THE EARTH!

It was a punchy title. I kept reading.

ONLY TWO HOURS PER WEEK COMMITMENT!

That seemed manageable. I circled the phone number. Hoping that, when it came to Warm Fuzzies, Mother Nature wouldn’t be half as stingy as humanity.

A few days later, I was the fifth member of Earth Patrol, a group of citizens who convened once a week to gather plastic waste from the shores of our polluted urban lake. We travelled via a dilapidated Volkswagen van owned by Bethany, the founder of the group. She never left the driver’s seat herself, and when our allotted clean-up time expired, honked the horn until we piled back into the van.

On my first day, I found about fifty water bottles and as many straws.

I found twice as many of each the second day, and twice as many again the third.

“This feels futile to me,” I admitted to one of the teenage volunteers, as I picked up the umpteenth water bottle. “Does it feel futile to you?”

The young woman grimaced at a condom.

“This work is so, so important,” she said. “For our resumes.”

At the end of the month, Bethany “treated” us to a meal of juice and salad at Freshly. Both came in plastic containers. The cutlery was plastic, too, and the straws.

“When you think about it,” I said, laughing as I poked at my salad, “we’re creating as much plastic waste as we’re picking up.”

No good can come of thinking. Absolutely none.

Bethany dropped her plastic fork. She pushed back her plastic salad container. She stood up — and slammed her water bottle on the table top.

“YOU JUST DON’T GET IT, DO YOU!” she said.

I waited. It seemed she’d have more to say.

She didn’t.

Bethany stormed out the door, into her van — and started honking.

One by one, the volunteers abandoned their salads, and ran after her.

“I really need this for my resume,” the last volunteer said to me, apologetically, on his way out the door.

Tires squealed. The Volkswagen van vanished.

I finished my salad. Then gathered up everyone’s plastic containers and threw them in the trash.

The second I stepped outside, of course, it started to rain. I could’ve called a cab. But decided to walk home. Though it ruined my fedora, it was the best thing I’d done for the environment in weeks. If my selfless act attracted any Warm Fuzzies, I was too damp and cold and hungry to notice or care.
Words Are Hard, Okay?
By: Veronica Georgieva
Tags: Poetry, Anxiety, Poem, Mental Health, Conversations

I’m so sorry if I seemed like

I didn’t want to talk.

It was only because, like…

I didn’t want to talk.

Wait, no.

I mean, I have this thing…

It’s pretty dumb actually,

but I think too much, I think,

and I think too… anxiously.

I mean… how do you say?

Remember that thing you did?

I’m just too nervous to do it.

What? No, it doesn't matter what you did,

cause whatever it is, I’m scared of it.

Oof, did I say it… okay?

I just mean everything you do

in your, you know, life

is so scary for me to go through

and sometimes it doesn’t even feel like real life.

So you should maybe know,

I mean if you would like to,

of course, you don't have to though…

I’m just the type to…

deep breath

…worry I might seem mean

and ruin your mood,

just know that’s never what I mean,

I don’t wanna be rude.

I’m sorry if I’m being too annoying,

and then I’m sorry for when…

I inevitably apologize for being too annoying.

I’m sorry once again.

It’s funny I’m so bad at words

and yet sometimes I call myself a writer

when I’m all fear or at least two-thirds.

So maybe not a writer, just a liar.

So… if I seemed like I didn’t wanna talk,

it was because I was too nervous,

and sometimes I can’t say when I talk…

so I end up wordless.

Did that make sense?

Well, the curse of… you know what

has now affected my poems also,

so I’m sorry for making you read all of that,

and I’m also sorry for rhyming “also” with “also”.

Back to not talking about not talking.
Three Different Things: March 19, 2020
By: Sean O'Brien
Tags: Programming, Data Science, Economics, Coronavirus

Three Different Things: March 19, 2020

Side Effects of Social Distancing, Social Distancing Simulation, and Managing Your (Newly) Remote Workers

(Coronavirus)

BLOOM: I think another thing that’s going to be damaged in the long run, actually, is: if everyone’s working from home, there’s not going to be that kind of workplace discussions, coffee-table discussions, lunchtime talk. And most of that, it turns out, is important for long-run innovation. So day-to-day, we can get along with, you know, if you’re dealing with the same current customers or same ideas. But when you examine businesses or scientists or even the way I do my own research, a lot of that creativity comes from idle time and relaxed discussion with colleagues, and that’s all gone. So I also worry that five, 10 years out from now, we will see this as another lowering in long-run growth rate because we’ve taken a big hit to innovation.

I have a few teenage kids and they often do homework in group hangouts. They’re reading a book or doing a report while a device is nearby, maybe on the table or floor, with a few of their friends doing the same thing. It’s like a virtual office cubicle… they mutter things to themselves, a friend hears it and chimes in… I think crisises like this will end up highlighting the behavior differences between generations. We don’t have to be in the same space to have watercooler talk, we just need new norms created by different generations.

2. How to Flatten the Curve, a Social Distancing Simulation

If you want to follow along with the code, I use R, a free language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. You’ll want to install it first if you haven’t already. Installation is usually straightforward.

Flatten the curve, with code! This is a pretty cool write up that’ll get you into R if you haven’t tried it before.

3. A Guide to Managing Your (Newly) Remote Workers

Establish structured daily check ins: Many successful remote managers establish a daily call with their remote employees.

A daily check-in is the single most vital thing to do in a virtual environment. Doesn’t have to be 1-on–1, but it does have to be daily…. without daily standups, I find work just slips because people lose focus on the work and the rest of the team.
VC Corner Q&A: SC Moatti of Mighty Capital
By: The Startup Grind Team
Tags: Vc Corner, Fundraising, Startup, Venture Capital, VC

SC Moatti is the managing partner of Mighty Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and Products That Count, one of the largest and undoubtedly the most influential network of product managers in the world.

Previously, SC built products that billions of people use at Facebook, Nokia and Electronic Arts. Andrew Chen, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, called SC “a genius at making mobile products people love.”

— What is Mighty Capital’s mission?

Mighty Capital is an early-growth Silicon Valley venture capital firm. We deliver outstanding returns by investing in great products that are also great businesses, like Airbnb, DigitalOcean and Amplitude. Amplitude calls us the “best value for the dollar invested.”

Our moat is exclusive access to a global business acceleration platform which helps our portfolio companies drive sales, hire talent, validate ideas, and exit via corporate M&A: Products That Count, one of the largest and undoubtedly the most influential networks of product managers. That’s why top-tier venture firms like USVP, Mayfield and Aligned Partners have invited us to co-invest with them, and why Business Insider says we’ve come up with “a new way of doing venture capital.”

— What is one thing you’re excited about right now?

Times of hardship are when the best companies are founded because that’s when the most brilliant entrepreneurs come up with their most creative and resilient ideas.

— Who is one founder we should watch?

Charlie Silver, founding CEO of MissionBio, and Spenser Skate, founding CEO of Amplitude.

— What are the 3 top qualities of every great leader?

Integrity, humility, tenacity.

— What is one question you ask yourself before investing in a company?

If I’m only able to make one investment this year, is this the one?

— What is one thing every founder should ask themselves before walking into a meeting with a potential investor?

Spend as little time as possible telling your story so you can spend as much time as possible build a relationship with your investor.

— What do you think should be in a CEO’s top 3 company priorities?

Sales, hiring and fundraising.

— Favorite business book, blog or podcast?

Crossing the Chasm is a classic. I also often read Stratechery. And with the risk of sounding self-promoting, I love the resources we produce at Products That Count (www.productsthatcount.com) -they are meant to help all of us build better products.

— Who is one leader you admire?

Jeff Bezos. I admire his strategic mind and vision, his ability to execute, and his boldness/courage.

— What is one interesting thing most people won’t know about you?

I sing in a rock band.

— What is one piece of advice you’d give every founder?

You are ready.

Ready to make a pitch? Startups looking for an opportunity to pitch Mighty Capital can apply here!
Data Preprocessing in Python
By: Tarun Gupta
Tags: Machine Learning, Data Mining, Python, Data Science, Programming

Handling of Missing Data

I talk in detail about handling of missing data in the following post.

Well the first idea is to remove the lines in the observations where there is some missing data. But that can be quite dangerous because imagine this data set contains crucial information. It would be quite dangerous to remove an observation. So we need to figure out a better idea to handle this problem. And another idea that’s actually the most common idea to handle missing data is to take the mean of the columns.

If you noticed in our dataset, we have two values missing, one for age column in 7th data row and for Income column in 5th data row. Missing values should be handled during the data analysis. So, we do that as follows.

# handling the missing data and replace missing values with nan from numpy and replace with mean of all the other values

imputer = SimpleImputer(missing_values=np.nan, strategy='mean') imputer = imputer.fit(X[:, 1:])

X[:, 1:] = imputer.transform(X[:, 1:])

After execution of this code, the independent variable X will transform into the following.
Is Amazons Logo a Phallus Symbol?
By: Michelle Monet
Tags: Design, Fun, Advertising, Humor, Comedy

AFTER ALL THE YEARS of getting packages delivered by Amazon or watching Amazon Prime movies or going to the Amazon website I just noticed something.

The yellow squiggly thing under the Amazon word is most definitely shaped like an upward sloping penis!

Isn’t it?

I thought it was just a smile until my boyfriend Bob pointed said this while drinking his morning coffee:

“Have you noticed that the Amazon logo looks like a dick?”

HMMM. yeaaaaaaaaa. OMG. I never noticed.
AI, Sensor-Based Analytics, and a Generational Shift: Three Trends to be Aware of in 2017
By: Opex Analytics
Tags: Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Supply Chain, Logistics, Analytics

AI, Sensor-Based Analytics, and a Generational Shift: Three Trends to be Aware of in 2017

by Daniel Kimmel

Opex’s Mike Watson recently appeared on the Supply Chain Television Channel to discuss three defining trends that he has watched develop in the world of Supply Chain Analytics so far in 2017. Dan Gilmore, editor of Supply Chain Digest, facilitated the interview.

To give you an idea of what you will learn when you view the video:

He discusses what business leaders need to be aware of now that “Artificial Intelligence” has developed into a general umbrella term for “anything that uses data,” and explains the difference between the general buzzword and what AI means among the technical community, as well as a few of AI’s more sophisticated applications. (For example, quality control, which he previously wrote about on our blog here using one of his favorite examples, the Lay’s potato chip). He notes the growing use of Sensor-Based Analytics to track inventory across the global supply chain, as well as addresses the complicated question concerning the massive amounts of data provided by sensors and determining what data is worth saving and what is not worth saving. And finally, he discusses the implications of the “generational gap” that is growing between younger data scientists, who increasingly prefer to use open-source tools such as Python and R, and supply chain planners who are accustomed to more traditional modes of operation working with Excel or other off-the-shelf packages.

View the interview as a stand-alone video here.

Also, check out Mike’s follow-up article in the SC Digest, “Supply Chain by Design: Three Things That Supply Chain Managers Should Know about Artificial Intelligence.”

If you liked this blog post, check out more of our work, follow us on social media or join us for our free monthly Academy webinars.
I'm Drowning Beneath The Weight Of My Family's Mental Illness
By: Shannon Ashley
Tags: Relationships, Mental Health, Love, Family, Life

I’ve written a lot about my mother’s mental illness over the past year. Lately, I write about it less because I don’t know what else to say.

This is the woman who raised me. A woman whom I love and appreciate. Yet she is also a woman who has abused and wounded me, sometimes it seems her damage has gone too far beyond any hope of healing.

Over this past month, she has been much harder to live with. She hasn't been to the doctor once since moving to Tennessee. Isn't trying to manage her diabetes. And now she's even let her cellulitis go.

My mom's calves look awful. Purple and red skin, bruised, blistered, and seeping. She sits all day in the kitchen, watching sermons on YouTube and supposedly prophetic videos about the end times.

We can't talk about the reason she won't go to the doctor. She believes she has lymphedema from radiation torture, and that the torture follows her wherever she goes.

It supposedly started in the Twin Cities, where we're from. And then it followed her to California. Now here in Tennessee.

You can't argue with anything she believes. Jesus is coming. Jesus is always coming. Any day now. Jared Kushner could be the antichrist. Oh, how she hates AOC.

Since my mom believes her body is being heated up by radiation torture, she uses ice packs on her body every waking hour. She's got about 20 different ice packs in my freezer.

And I don't dare explain to her that ice packs are a terrible idea for long-term use. Well, I've tried to show her the facts but it's always ended in her tears and accusations.
Badassery
By: Ann Litts
Tags: Life, Self-awareness, Courage, Living In The Present, Life Lessons

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

I’m not sure how many of you may have noticed this, but it’s very simple to be a badass when you have nothing to lose. Think about it. When you don’t love anyone, when you have no home or no sense of security, when you have no assets to fret about, when you are at the bottom looking up — it’s the easiest thing to look Life square in the face, with a smirk, and say “Make my day”.

Because being attached to nothing makes you fearless. Oh, the courage you have when you are empty. Invincible behind the shields, nothing and no one can reach you.

Life is about change though. Nothing remains as it is. Eventually, prosperity may find you. Love seeps in behind the best of armor. Even a nomad may find shelter and settle in. The creak in our joints and bones reminds us time is passing.

And the having of The Good changes you. Because now you have Somethings — important Somethings in your life — which can be lost. Painful things to lose and if you are not vigilant — Fear starts to walk with you. A gentle hand on your shoulder, He keeps time with your stride.

He creeps in slowly. A story about something horrible happening to someone else’s loved one — and you feel His icy hand squeeze your heart. You think about the dow, identity theft, social security’s solvency. You ponder mortgage rates, crime rates, property tax rates. Soon you are an anxious mess, worried, and robbed of the Joy of the present moment. And Fear chuckles quietly at His handiwork.

But this is when Real Courage happens. Real Courage is staying open to The Grace in our lives without clutching and anxiety. It’s sending blessings out to our children and grandchildren when we would fret over their safety. It’s trusting in the here and now of the eyes who love us and not listening to the ghosts of our past. It’s knowing anyone who would take our worldly possessions is in charge of their own karma and it’s on them, not us. It’s taking the steps on our path with sure-footedness and Courage.

It’s looking Fear square in the face, with a smirk, and saying, “Make my day”. Because being a badass when Life is generous to you is tough as hell.

Namaste.
The Sins of Your Father
By: Joseph Coco
Tags: Poem, Poetry, Mental Health

Photo by frankie cordoba on Unsplash

I’m sure you know

This point in time

You don’t have to carry them

That weight

Those crimes

Draped over your shoulders

Like jet black hair

The fist of your father

His soulless stare

What happened that night

After that cloudy day

Was not your fault

Or so they would say

Held close to your chest

The darkness you saw

It froze up your heart

Refusing to thaw

Hardened to affection

To love and be kind

Now like your father

Watch time rewind

You carry this anger

Casted in gold

Across your knuckles

The world you’ll show

What it’s like to feel hurt

Strangle others with pain

Only the strong will stand

No one else remains.
Trump, anyone?
Tags: Humor, Trump, Politics, Comics, Psychology

Written by

Almost famous cartoonist who laughs at her own jokes and hopes you will, too.
Back to Basics: Household vs. Housing Unit
Tags: Smart Cities, Community Development, Data 101, Urban Planning, Big Data

Today, cities of all shapes and sizes are using data to make decisions. They are hiring experts, purchasing new tools, and are now, more than ever, focused on understanding information — anchoring the decisions they make to people and places in their communities. While paths to insight discovery may vary, the desired outcome is the same: Everyone, everywhere, wants to make better decisions — and data can help us all do that.

For those without GIS or technical backgrounds, the barriers to simply getting started are real. In the mySidewalk Back to Basics blog series, we’ll “start at the start,” focusing on the fundamentals and making it easier for everyone to talk about and do more with data.

The Decennial Census and American Community Survey (ACS) are two of the most trusted and detailed sources of information for describing neighborhoods, cities, and counties. However, when misinterpreted (an easy mistake given the format in which most data is presented), that information can be misleading. It’s important to be able to determine what data you need, where you can find it, and how to confidently interpret what you discover.

Let’s start with some simple terminology. Below you’ll find the difference between the term “Household” and “Housing Unit,” two common classifications that can be easy to confuse with one another.

The Difference Between Household & Housing Unit

A “Household” is referring to the people who are living in a housing structure and a “Housing Unit” is describing the actual structure in which residents live.

It is important to note that a household can be made up of family householders or non-family householders. The term “Family Householders” is referencing householders who are related to one another in birth, marriage, or adoption. A “Non-Family Householder” refers to someone who lives alone or is living with people who are not related to them.

“Household” data is useful when you want to learn more about the people living in a place. The following are examples of household data collected by the census:

Use “Housing Unit” datasets when you want to learn more about attributes of structures or the types of places where people are living. The following are examples of housing unit data collected by the census:

The Magic of Merging

Datasets, when combined with other datasets and visualized, can yield especially powerful, deep insight. For instance, here is an example of two housing datasets being used together to learn more about where large families (5 or more relatives) are living without complete plumbing in Chicago, Illinois. (This map is interactive — be sure to use your mouse to zoom in and utilize the data available in the toolbar.)
So, What I Have Learned So Far
By: Rajesh Kumar
Tags: Life, Startup, Love, Education, Life Lessons

🔬 Stop Comparing Yourself With Others

Photo by Coffee Geek on Unsplash

Whenever we compare ourselves with others, then two things can happen. The first one is, if you have less knowledge or opportunities, then we started feeling less worthy. The second one is if we have more opportunities than that person, then we lost a small part of ourselves, who always want to learn something.

One thing I learned is if you want to compare yourselves with others, then compare one thing, the efforts given by that person.

As I said, my programming journey started two years ago, and there was a guy in my college who began it from 8th standard. I try to compare myself with him, but last I find out that all I have to do is work on my skills instead of comparing myself with others. By doing this, all I have done is insulted myself.

Everyone is unique by their thoughts, their process of learning, by their imagination power.

So, stop comparing yourself and start working on yourself. Just think about what you have learned and achieved in recent times. Failure is not going to last, but your knowledge will be.
An “AWS” for Blockchain, part 1/3
By: Hogne Titlestad, Co-Ceo, Founder, Friend Software
Tags: Distributed Systems, Cloud Computing, Infrastructure, Blockchain

Decentralized Infrastructure

Friend consists of a network of servers and clients (most of the time running in a web browser). The server side of things provide you with storage space, computing power, redundancy and services — which is “consumed” by the clients. Whilst FriendUP gives you a virtual Cloud Computer, the Friend Network of servers also gives you a virtual data center with nearly unlimited resources at your fingertips.

This virtual data center can be used for anything. For example, to run a web site. Or to offer a server backed API. Or to boost your own multiplayer game server network.

In the conventional world, Amazon Web Services(AWS) may not fully equate with the Friend Network(FN) in every aspect. It is utterly huge, well established, and we are just getting started. Still, the comparison makes sense for a number of reasons. FN has generic infrastructure on offer — decentralized and implemented using Blockchain technologies — but the infrastructure is analogous to AWS. It can be used to achieve the same things.

Amazon offers flexible infrastructure based on configurable virtual machines. You spin up your environment, install and configure any kind of software and then scale once an instance maxes out due to heavy load. The services are relatively cheap, and the costs increase fairly as you need more horsepower.

AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and others are all wonderful feats of engineering. Problem is, they are centralized. They are owned by a giants growing ever larger, and as we have seen with several other Silicon Valley companies, these become politicized over time. You are never sure about where they will go after the next quarter. They may start sharing data with national intelligence agencies. They may suddenly start censoring, as a result of a law suit. They are far from neutral players. And by the end of the day, their decision making process are far removed from the people who those policies may concern. The users. And in these time of rapid disruptions, not only in technology, but in policy, users who just want to deploy and utilize tech may have their concerns.

The Friend Network will be able to offer much of what AWS do, but in a decentralized way. As a hub for other Blockchain projects, you will be able to find all the technologies in one place; databases, storage space, data services, compute power, monitoring and administration. The services will be based on shared resources and technology that is owned by the users. This is what people want. The faith in the global hegemonic technology powerhouses is failing. And we are offering an agnostic — non political infrastructure, albeit on philosophical foundations (see our five pillars).