fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Our Year in Review
By: Open Cities Lab
Tags: Civictech, Looking Back, Mission, Impact, Year In Review

Our Year in Review

May is donor reporting month at Open Cities Lab and our Founder and CEO, Richard Gevers, took some time to reflect on our 20/21 year. Open Cities Lab Follow May 10 · 3 min read

“Open Cities Lab (OCL) had a year of remarkable growth in all areas, which is a strange sentence to write with the backdrop of the global pandemic.

We experienced being pushed to the limit by the instability and unpredictability of the year. Both personally and professionally, the team and our partners experienced significant difficulties and challenges. Despite that, we were well placed to intervene directly in supporting our communities in the pandemic across our impact pillars.

In terms of building government capacity, we were able to work intensively with eThekwini and Cape Town in many areas of COVID-19 planning and implementation. We directly supported informal settlement communities through our work in Check-IT with VPUU, and assisted IBP in digitisation and data analysis in the Asivikelane project in terms of empowering citizens. We also kicked off a critical trust and accountability initiative in the Africa Data Hub, which is OCL’s first continental-focussed project.

In addition to this, our normal work continued and the organisation resumed its role in the Future Cities South Africa project. The work with them allows for deep and extensive interventions in key areas in the eThekwini and Cape Town municipalities. This meant that OCL continued to experience substantial growth in terms of our impact and initiatives due to our budget growing over four times to around R19 million. As well as our focus and region of impact growing to be continental, our team and partners needed to grow substantially to meet the demand. Through this growth, our focus has been on strategy and ensuring our team is cared for, that our processes are able to handle this growth and translate into impact, and that we grow leaders and capabilities across our ecosystem. This is in keeping with our principle of building the kingdoms around us and letting them, in turn, build ours.

This year certainly took its toll on our team with serious personal and professional challenges across the board. Disrupted ways of working, general tensions in partners from the stress of the state of affairs, and so many video calls exerted immense pressure on everyone in many ways. A major focus for us has been team care, ensuring we have mechanisms for team members to access counselling, support for emotional, physical and mental health and wellness, and trying to encourage breaks and adapting our ways of working to reduce the load on everyone. We are blessed with an amazing team and are extremely grateful for the support we have received from all of our funders and supporters over the course of the year.
It’s being a year and I still can’t call BJ Bolaji
By: Aremu Oluwagbamila, Smog
Tags: Anniversary, Web Development, Jobs, Workplace, Year In Review

It’s being a year working at FourthCanvas and I still can’t call BJ Bolaji. After #4CShare, I learned to consciously call Victor instead of Vgold. Ogbemiro never really sounded quite dope in my ears so: Ope is Ope.

In my mind, I prefer TheMaryA but I somehow always end up saying: Mary. Aluko took a while for me to stop adding uncle or daddy especially in the middle of a project — respect tends to go out of the window when the client is pressing everybody’s neck😂.

Remember that thing I said about the middle of projects? saying Temi came with ease! Busuyi became oko puff puff then David, saying Demola wasn’t an issue except he wanted you to add marlian.

I haven’t had to say Dunsin or Oluremi that much. Same with Timi even when we need funds for domain and hosting.

While I like Mista Aj more, AJ is simple, sweet, and straight to the point.

Tunji was the hardest! I was personally hung on to Sigma. All I know is that Tunji has been dropping a lot during meetings these days.

Thanks a lot for the trust, the love, and the support😋 It’s being an amazing year working with you guys.

Aremu from Engineering Team

PS: This is probably the worst year in review you have ever and will ever read. You are welcome 🤗
Rarely do people lack facts or knowledge but THIS resource: PEOPLE
By: Arvell Craig
Tags: Growth, Leadership Coaching, Coach, Reflections, Year In Review

Does your continued growth require you get a person?

a.) a person could be someone bringing you leverage — i.e. an assistant, employee or independent contractor.

b.) a person in the form of a coach or advisor. — — aiding in leadership, strategy or accountability.

Rarely do I find people lacking facts or knowledge…

There’s nothing stopping you from access all the information in the world!

Google is free.

YouTube is free.

Wikipedia is free.

And often… this flood of information can make people more confused or overwhelmed not more powerful.

I heard recently this quote by Jim Rohn:

“Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. You’ll become a fool. Let your learning lead to action. You can become wealthy.”

Reflections…

I remember 2017 as a hallmark year.

It’ll go down as the year I invested the most money, outside of universities, on advanced training and skill acquisition.

Unfortunately, I can’t attribute a great ROI from it. ( Yet I’m hopeful it may come in later )

“Why is that?”

My assumption is, what I actually needed to get to my next level of growth was a person / not more knowledge.

I thought I just needed to up-level my learning.

So I put business profits into more expensive teachers and classes…

Yes, the training was good, however, my roadblocks remained…

My same old’ story rang true…

… and that which I scream out to others I still needed to triple down for myself!

Those core elements for growth are the foundation of my coaching philosophy:

1. Focus on your strengths / your genius / your one degree…

2. Build daily routines around your strengths

3. Get a coach for mind/behavior accountability to stick with #1 and #2.

4. Get an assistant to re purpose or multiply my efforts, and/or play defense to block distractions.

Yep… those four elements how I’m looking to grow now.

Trusting and collaborating… routines and key relationships…

More on that later another time.

Create a Great Day!

Arvell Craig
Year In Review — 2018. The Big Move
By: Kirk Kohler
Tags: 2018, Year In Review, Product Management, Bjj

I finished my 2018 year in review. This isn’t an April fool’s joke. Better late than never, am I right?

My family moved away from home, back to our ‘home.’ Traveling over 800 miles from Seattle, WA back to the San Francisco Bay Area. The weather has been amazing and the sun has been super energizing. Despite the insane smoke of the forest fires during the summer.

I didn’t launch any projects but did get a gym routine going. Also, the year ended with an unexpected twice, a new job!

In tech news. 2018 saw the media and everyday citizens questioning the amount of power we hand over to the big tech companies. In addition, more questions of the addictive behavior propagated by the tech giants. Despite my 2017 predictions, 2018 was not a year for emerging tech. e.g. crypto, machine learning, VR/AR, 5G. I’m guessing 2020 will be a more productive year for emerging tech. In some ways 2018 was a step back in tech, in a good way, to protect us and make creators conscious of their impact of innovation, speed and “failing fast.”

Three months into 2019, it is the next wave of IPO millionaires with no bubble bursting in sight. Looks like another year of bigger rents, more disparity and incremental technology. Let’s just hope that the weather is good to us this year too.

What went well 😀

Day Job

I started a new job as an Outbound User Interface Product Manager. The role compliments my engineering career by allowing me to work directly with external customers and new cross-functional teams such as marketing and sales. Also, the role is very design heavy which I’ve always had a passion.

I’m really excited, this role meets one of my 2018 goals of working on a consumer facing product with a passionate team.

Visit to China

I got the opportunity to visit Shenzhen, China. The two week visit in August was amazing. The city is a bustling technology mecca with new buildings going up all around. My coworkers were very gracious hosts, taking me to great restaurants, bars and teaching me about local customs.

Specifically, the daily “after lunch nap” while at work. It was amazing to see coworkers, some with cots, others with neck pillows, all taking a siesta after lunch. When in Rome…I had to try taking a nap with them. I have to say, napping mid-day is definitely a custom we need to adopt in America.
June is for Journaling
By: Jenna Miller
Tags: Challenge, June, Journaling, Journal, Year In Review

Back at it again with the monthly challenges. When the previous month knocks you down, it doesn’t mean you give up. It just means you move on and try again this month. So May was tough for us in terms of hitting our goals, but we are getting back on the horse and trying to achieve our goals this month.

This month’s theme is Journaling which means writing down our feelings and thoughts in a journal daily in order to map everything out and understand why we feel the way we do. It’s also a month to set goals that we can achieve and not get overwhelmed by.

As a reminder, we will pick a book to read throughout the month and for every challenge we fall short on, we will have to add a dollar to the Fancy Fund and add $2 for each repeat offense.

Let me break down the rules for this month:

For our book choice this month, we’re reading a book my mom sent me because she also wanted to read it, so she bought two copies. We are reading Untamed by Glennon Doyle. The purpose of this book is to get us out of our heads and stop having us strive for perfection but rather take in each day for what it is and what it can offer us.

Daily Challenges:

Journal everyday.

Weekly Challenges:

Go over goals every week and workout five times a week (we just got a new gym membership, so we have to take advantage of that!)

Monthly Challenges:

— Have someone over for dinner

— For me: finish six books, For Casey: read 400 pages

— Draw an activity from the pot at least once a week

We have gotten into our groove, so now it’s time to start moving. I’m excited to see what this month holds for us. It may be good and it may not go so well, but it’s all about the journey to get there.
Monthly Recap: May Miles
By: Jenna Miller
Tags: Challenge, Year In Review, May, Monthly Challenge

I am not going to lie, this month was rough. Casey and I were stressed with how much we had to do, we got a new puppy which changed up our entire schedules and we got our COVID shots which hit us a lot harder than expected. But with all of that being said, we made it through and are looking forward to the next month to get us back on track.

Honestly, we did not keep track of our goals or our money owed, so what we ended up doing was put $20/each in the Fancy Fund to make up for the $5/week, but let the others slide because it was a crazy month and we just needed a break.

So at the end of May, our Fancy Fund total is at $256.

Let me break down the rules for this month:

In terms of books, we settled on just finishing up I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Second Edition: No Guilt. No Excuses. No BS. Just a 6-Week Program That Works by Sethi, Ramit. And it was a great book with really helpful insight on finances. I also tried to read the Freelancer’s Bible, but struggled with it since it was a bit outdated and seemed to address the needs of a freelancer starting out in 2012 instead of 2021. So safe to say, I did not finish that book.

Daily Challenges:

Run everyday (though I changed it to walk everyday, because I want to give myself a realistic goal to achieve and this seems the most realistic).

— Casey did a great job at this and was running close to everyday, so good for him! I ran for a few days, but stuck to walking, which I feel like I did a good job getting out everyday, so a win in my book. At least my legs were moving!

Weekly Challenges:

Review our weekly goals and go through our plans on how to achieve them.

— This is an honest review and honestly, we didn’t do this. We got overwhelmed by our goals, put too much on our plates and failed to achieve a lot of what we set out to do. This is okay, but we decided we needed to change direction next month and focus on smaller, more attainable goals each week instead of trying to accomplish everything every week.

Monthly Challenges:

Finish the Pre-Dog checklist

— We got pretty close with this one, so we ended up getting a dog. I think we only had about two more things to do and one of them we tried which was to have people over, and the people had to reschedule, so it wasn’t really our fault.

Run/Walk 100 miles

— I got about 60 miles worth of running and walking in May, so not bad. It wasn’t 100, but like I’ve been saying, May was a hard month for us and we gave it the best shot we could. Onwards and upwards is what I always say!

Rake in 100 miles worth of achieved goals

— Ha. Nope, this did not happen. We drafted out all of our goals at the beginning of the month and like I said above, we set the bar way too high and ended up beating ourselves up because of it.

So, the moral of the story this month was if you try to accomplish too much, then you don’t accomplish anything. Smaller goals and not as many of them is the way to go and the way to make progress, even if it’s slow going.
2020: A Year of Great Revelation and Self-healing
By: Dr. Jikmik Rj
Tags: Inventing Herself, Self Healing, Year In Review, 2020

Well, what a year it was! Almost everyone in the world must have gone through this expression when 2020 ended. When I look back I can see myself going through a myriad of emotions and finally reaching a pinnacle.

It started beautifully….

I was on a high when 2020 started. Professionally I was doing well, I planned for further studies to enhance my career, so I resigned from my job to join that course. I was excited!

Then catastrophe…

Initially, when I saw the news of Covid in China I was a little apprehensive. But I didn’t give it much attention as I was busy planning my whole year! Then the most unimaginable happened and I got stuck in Muscat, Oman when lockdown started in India.

The descend…

I was in my house in Muscat for three months during the lockdown without a job and a valid visa. I can not possibly put in words what was going on inside that tiny brain of mine! The only relief I found was in that small view of the sky from my window.

View from my window

Plateau…

Finally, I could get a flight to India. The journey home was not easy. All of us were terrified, what if the virus catches us! The social distancing had made us also mentally distant. We would look away even if someone wanted to speak, we were acting like everyone else on this planet was untouchables!! After landing we were again scrutinized, tested, and sent to various hotels of our choice for quarantine. That seven days of solitude in one room can make you go crazy! Following that, I reached my hometown and the real lockdown began.

The ascend

There is something surreal about being inside a house all the time. Either you go lazy and crib about the situation or you try to make something productive out of it. I chose the latter. I started reading those books which were piling up in my cupboard. I took hold of pen & pencils and did Mandala art which was quite satisfying. I decided to take hold of my health with a proper diet and exercise. Though the diet has been difficult to continue, I’m sticking to the exercise part till now. I enrolled in a few courses online to enhance my career. And, I spent quality time with my family which was a rarity before! All in all, the year ended on a good note when I took a short vacation in the Maldives!

Heavenly Maldives

To sum up

2020 was a revelation itself. Though it pushed me back and held me down for a while I took charge and stood again. In a way it healed me from inside, I got to know myself, my limits, my shortcomings, and my strength. This has taught me one thing for sure, life can throw us anything at any time to make us fall, we need to take a deep breath, calm ourselves, smile wide and bounce back.
(Me)sses
By: Asma Abidin
Tags: Inspiration, Year In Review, Life Lessons

More than anything, this year has taught me to be strong. To find courage from the dark parts of who I am, and hold on to it.

I’ve learnt, to voice my opinions. Say what needs to be said and when it needs to be said. I’ve learnt not to cover myself up in layers of what I’m expected to be.

I’ve learnt, to accept myself. I’ve learnt to accept the fact that I’m emotional. That tears come more easily to me than to a baby.

And I’ve learnt most importantly, that it’s okay.

That it’s okay to have weaknesses. Because in the depth of it, comes your greatest strength. Your strength is what takes you far in life, but your weakness is what teaches you to stay put to the ground.

I’ve learnt that sometimes, being courageous and brave, all the strong things, yes they are good. But the nice things, the warmth, the genuine care, the selflessness is what really matters. These matter, not only because they make the people around you, feel comfortable but, they matter because they make you feel more at place. They give you, the edge.

I’ve learnt that love, it comes to you at the most unexpected time and from the most unexpected people. Sometimes (most of the times) your best friend is going to help you glue your pieces together. Sometimes your family is going to pat your back and help you stand tall. Sometimes, a random stranger will give you an advice, and it’ll teach you a lesson in life you’ll never forget.

I’ve learnt that life can be tough, punch-you -in-the-gut-make-you-vomit kinda tough, but you have need to have the strength to pull your hair back, wash your face, put on a smile and pretend it didn’t hurt. Because you’ve to be strong for yourself. You’ve got to push strength in yourself because no one will do it for you (at least not all the time.) and tell yourself failing once, twice or thrice doesn’t matter, what matters is that you haven’t lived life 18 years strong to give up now, you haven’t worked 3 years for a goal, to stop working now. You’ve got to keep moving, (even if it’s slow) you have to keep going for you.

I keep learning the things that I learn over the years in different ways. And life’s mess has a funny way of bringing you to the ground only for you to feel like your head’s afloat a little later. Hey, but it’s all good if we keep learning together, innit?
A year of Flutter Community
Tags: Flutter Community, Open Source, Year In Review, Flutter

A year of Flutter Community

A look back at the first year of the Flutter Community by Nash Ramdial and Jay (Jeroen) Meijer Nash Follow Jun 20, 2019 · 5 min read

The idea for Flutter Community was simple; create a place that users can visit to find the latest packages and articles written by Flutter developers from around the world. With this goal in mind, we set out to make it a reality. First, our GitHub organization was created by Simon Lightfoot (The Flutter Whisperer) and Jeroen Meijer. This was quickly followed by the Flutter Community Medium Publication, maintained by Nash Ramdial and Scott Stoll.

From the very beginning, there was a lot of enthusiasm from the wider community about the idea. Articles and packages slowly began filling Flutter community from 3rd party developers all over the world. As the months progressed we slowly grew from an average of one article per week to two articles each day. Popular posts such as “Flutter on desktop, a real competitor to Electron” by Norbert, “Flutter Layout Cheat Sheet” by Tomek Polański, and “Parsing complex JSON in Flutter” by Pooja Bhaumik were all published on Flutter Community Medium.

On the GitHub side of things, packages such as “flutter_downloader” by Hung HD, Flutter Launcher Icons by Mark O’Sullivan and “responsive_scaffold” by Rody Davis all found their homes on our GitHub.

As Jay Meijer, the primary maintainer of Flutter Community GitHub said,

“I’m very happy with how the GitHub turned out. We’ve already had a load of packages submitted that are now hosted by Flutter Community. Multiple people have become maintainers of packages that would have otherwise died out, which is one of the most important things we wanted to achieve with the organization. Going forward, we’d like to be more clear to our users on how to submit their packages and what our guidelines are, so we can make Flutter Community’s packages easier to use and a better place for package maintainers and users alike. Thank you to all the contributors and maintainers. It’s awesome to see people work together.”

Today, there are 22 packages under the Flutter Community GitHub and over 360+ articles published under our publication. In addition to this, we have 17K+ followers on Medium, 4000+ on Twitter and, on any given day, there are at least 10K unique daily visitors and over 1 million minutes read per month on Medium.

Number of minutes read per month on Flutter Community
Best songs of 2018
By: Mike Post
Tags: Indie Music, Music, Chillwave, Best Of 2018, Year In Review

As an annual little hobby of mine, I try to compile a best songs list every year (here’s the 2017 playlist).

If anything, it’s been a good exercise to stay in touch with brilliant new artists who are moving music forward every year. As I find that it’s very easy to get into the nostalgia trap once you’re in your 30s and write off “music today” as being inferior to yesterday.

From what I’ve been seeing in recent years, this is just not true.

Commercial music, granted, hasn’t been that great since around 2010'ish. We seem to be in another commercial music rut similar to the 90s. What is interesting though is the direction of indie, and the chillwave genres that have evolved over the past decade.

2018’s list continues in that direction, with so many brilliant chillwave offerings. Listed below, and also as an playlist on Apple Music.

2. Sufjan Stevens — Mystery of Love

3. Lane 8 — Stir Me Up

4. Barrie — Michigan

5. Clairo — 4EVER

6. Sharon Van Etten — Comeback Kid

7. Shallou — Vignette

8. U.S. Girls — Rosebud

9. LP — When I’m Over You

10. Caroline Rose — Jeannie Becomes A Mom

11. Mitski — Nobody

12. Rhye — Song For You

13. Maggie Rogers — Light On

14. Beach House — Dive

15. Yuno — No Going Back

16. BOYO — Attics

17. Anna Calvi — Hunter

18. Sharon Van Etten — Jupiter 4

19. Blood Orange — Charcoal Baby

20. CHVRCHES — My Enemy

21. Let’s Eat Grandma — Falling Into Me

22. Dusted — Dead Eyes

23. Shakey Graves — Kids These Days

24. Mansionair — Technicolour

25. Kendrick Lamar, SZA — All The Stars

26. Soccer Mommy — Your Dog

27. Farao — Marry Me

28. Alina Baraz — I Don’t Even Know Why Though

29. Stealing Sheep — Joking Me

30. Charles Fauna — Something Human

31. Empress Of — I Don’t Even Smoke Weed

32. Amen Dunes — Believe

33. MorMor — Waiting on the Warmth

34. Hippo Campus — Bambi

35. Julia Jacklin — Body

36. Stars — Ship To Shore

37. Superorganism — Night Time

38. St Vincent — Fast Slow Disco

39. Kaytranada & Shay Lia — Chances

40. Billie Eilish — Come Out And Play
Things that made my 2018 happy. Jan27
Tags: Travel, Family, Photography, Year In Review, Happiness

Sep 27

Workout

I had been riding a bicycle to school and back home for a few days. It was SO tiring and I had to take several breaks in the middle of those uphills. It took me about an hour in the mornings and about half an hour back home because of the hills. It seems like an endeavour that few people are willing to make, especially during such busy school days; but honestly, it felt so good to me. Not only because of the early mornings’ fresh air, cool breezes and beautiful surroundings(there were parts of the route that I took which dug into quiet neighbourhoods and the woods), but also of the satisfaction I got when I rode over a hill without taking any break for the first time, the feeling of accomplishment every time I arrived at school, the readiness and energy I felt before classes began and those downhills that I was able to enjoy at the end of the days.

Nowadays, people tend to sit behind a laptop and work all day. Exercises are something a lot of us, including me, lack when they “[offer] incredible benefits that can improve nearly every aspect of [our] health from the inside out”.(Semeco) I’ve experienced those benefits from riding a bicycle to school every day and I’m sure there are lots of other easy options such as doing light workouts at home, running or going to the gym…

In a word: let’s get exercised, shall we?😁
Podcast: Season Finale!
By: Devin Stewart
Tags: Wku Football, Wku Hilltoppers, Wku Basketball, Podcast, Year In Review

The RedOUT Podcast crew have joined The Towel Rack writing staff, which means from now on, when a new episode is released, you’ll be able to find it on the site!

In the latest episode Devin is joined by TTR resident writer and contributor, Ross Shircliffe, to talk winners and losers of the previous sports week, Ross updates us on Baseball, we update you on Bassey watch ’19, Big news with NFL Network and CUSA, reviewing our favorite memories of the past season and some of our worst, our predictions for the summer, and we cover our boredom busters.

This will be our final episode before football season starts, so we want to you, our listeners for your support this year. Thanks to the Towel Rack for partnering with us and coming on the show to discuss WKU Athletics.

We hope you enjoyed our commentary and will continue to listen for the years to come.

Youtube:

Podbean:

https://redout.podbean.com/e/episode-40-season-finale/

iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/redout-podcast/id1434781195?mt=2
GoFundMe Announces Its Community Has Made More Than 120 Million Donations, Raising Over $9 Billion for People and Causes
Tags: Year In Review, Gofundme Announcements, Gofundme, Gofundme Community

Redwood City, California | December 10, 2019 — Today, GoFundMe released its annual Year in Giving report unveiling 2019 global data and the biggest moments and trends from the year. As part of the report, GoFundMe announced its community has donated more than 120 million times, raising over $9 billion for people, causes, and organizations since the company’s founding in 2010.

In a letter to the GoFundMe community, CEO Rob Solomon emphasizes how GoFundMe witnesses not only the good in people worldwide, but their generosity and their action every day.

“As we enter a new decade, GoFundMe is committed to spreading compassion and empathy through our platform,” says Solomon in the letter. “Together, we can bring more good into the world and unlock the power of global giving.”

The GoFundMe giving community continues to grow with both repeat donors and new donors. In fact, nearly 60% of donors were new this year. After someone makes a donation, they continue to engage with the community and give to multiple causes. In fact, one passionate individual donated 293 times to 234 different fundraisers in this past year alone. Donations are made every second, ranging from $5 to $50,000. This year, more than 40% of donations were under $50.

GoFundMe continues to be a mirror of current events across the globe. This year, young changemakers started the Fridays for Future movement to fight climate change, which led to a 60% increase in fundraiser descriptions mentioning ‘climate change.’ Additionally, the community rallied together to support one another during natural disasters like Hurricane Dorian and the California wildfires, where thousands of fundraisers were started to help those in need.

The report includes a snapshot of giving trends from the year based on global GoFundMe data. It also includes company milestones from 2019, such as launching the company’s non-profit and advocacy arm, GoFundMe.org, and introducing GoFundMe Charity, which provides enterprise software with no subscription fees or contracts to charities of every size.

Highlights from GoFundMe’s 2019 Year in Giving report include:

Global giving trends and data

Top 10 most generous countries

Top 10 most generous U.S. states and cities

Biggest moments in 2019

To view the entire report, visit: www.gofundme.com/2019

About GoFundMe

Launched in 2010, GoFundMe is the world’s largest free social fundraising platform. The GoFundMe community has raised over $9 billion from more than 120 million donations for people, causes, and organizations. GoFundMe is changing the way the world gives. Find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
30 Realistic Resolutions
By: Clemens Wan
Tags: Microresolutions, Productivity, Resolutions, List Of 30, Year In Review

Random Observation/Comment #492: Don’t set low expectations to not get disappointed — set realistic ones and stick to a plan.

Why this List?

Based on no facts and research: the top new years resolutions usually involve getting more healthy, spending more time with family, meeting true love, or taking more awesome vacations. It’s what we all put as the top generic things we need to maintain in order to reach happiness.

Makes sense, but let’s be real. We’re going to buy those gym memberships, yoga class coupons, and new running shoes, and only use them for 3 weeks before giving up and spiraling into an eating depression. How do you avoid this? Set smaller incremental changes to make the bigger difference:

Call your parents twice a week Eat a salad for lunch twice a week Cook dinner twice a week Be sober twice a week (this is hard for frequent happy hour goers) Do 50 jumping jacks and 30 push-ups before jumping into the shower Work out at least once every 3 or 4 days (Don’t forget to stretch!) Go to sleep before 11pm 4 times a week Tell a new joke you’ve heard once a week Have a #coffeechat with someone new once a week Send a message to a friend you haven’t spoken to in 3+ months once a week (maybe someone who liked one of your posts or has an upcoming birthday?) Read a new #getabstract summary once a week (takes 10 min max) Re-evaluate the status of your main responsibilities and deliverables once a week Re-evaluate your 3–5 month goals once a month Talk to your boss about your goals once every 3 months Attend a networking event twice a month (even if it’s just for 45 min) Don’t drink more than 2 cups of coffee a day Tell your significant other or best friend you love them once a week Eat less sweets during the week (maybe give yourself a treat if you worked out that day) Learn a new word in a language you know or want to learn twice a week Try an “offline day” once a month (put your phone on airplane mode for 18 hours) Fold a piece of origami once a month (could be a paper airplane or a little crane. It’s soothing, plus you probably got origami paper for Christmas/Chanukah) Do a crossword or some type of mental puzzle once a week Draw something (a doodle, stick figure, or whatever you want) once a month Make a list once a month Subscribe to fewer mailing lists! Plan a vacation once every 3 to 4 months Plan an activity (other than dinner or movies) with your significant other once a month Watch a TED talk once a week Write a blogpost or journal or reflection piece (published or private) once every 2 weeks Receive/give a hug at least once every 3 or 4 days

I more or less do this already, but this is a nice and easy start if you’re lacking in any of these categories. If you’re doing all of these already then, Good job! I think you’re relatively healthy and productive. Stretch yourself and aim higher!

~See Lemons Resolved
2019: Year In Review
By: Joakim Jansson
Tags: Movies, Concerts, Music, Culture, Year In Review

Movies

Numbers

In 2019 I watched 117 movies (218 hours) compared to 144 movies in 2018. Averaging 9.8 movies per month or 2.2 movies per week. I went to the movies 38 times. I saw 13 of my top 20 at the movies.

2019: Favorite Movies

A split between Uncut Gems and Portrait of a Lady on Fire for best movie (both snubbed at the Oscars). Despite SO many snubs, I’m so happy for Bong Joon-Ho, who’s Parasite is the first “international” movie ever to win best picture at the Oscars. So many good movies go unnoticed at the Oscars when they have one category to compete in. To paraphrase Joon-Ho: “If you can only get over the 1” barrier of subtitles, a whole new world of great movies will be available to you.” Both French movies Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Les Misérables deserved to be nominated, but now it could only be Les Misérables, which is sad because Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a masterpiece. I can’t recommend it enough.

1. Uncut Gems (Directed by Josh & Benny Safdie)

2. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma)

3. Parasite (Bong Joon-Ho)

4. Midsommar (Ari Aster)

5. Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach)

6. Little Women (Greta Gerwig)

7. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)

8. Dragged Across Concrete (S. Craig Zahler)

9. Climax (Gaspar Noé)

10. Booksmart (Olivia Wilde)
KO_OP 2019 Year in Review
By: Saleem Dabbous
Tags: Indie Game, Year In Review, Gaming

Hey everyone! I’m Saleem Dabbous — studio director over at KO_OP. I’m in charge of production, business, communications, and generally making sure we’re able to make the games we want to make. I also write up our yearly reviews, you can check out last year’s over here: 2018 KO_OP Year in Review.

Welcome to our 2019 Year in Review, a super interesting and exciting year for us. 2019 had goodbyes and hellos as our team changed and grew, we announced a new game as part of Apple Arcade, and we’ve taken the steps to change the legal foundation of our studio. In a lot of ways, 2019 felt like the year we Grew Up™️ as a studio.

Before we dig into it, if this is your first time hearing about us — KO_OP is a game studio made up of 11 people + friends and collaborators. Essentially KO_OP is structured as a worker’s cooperative, which means that the full time employees are also the owners of the studio. While we’ve been operating as owners, in the legal sense this hasn’t been the case in our current structure, so we’re legally transitioning so it can be true!

KO_OP is:

Samuel Boucher

Omar Dabbous

Saleem Dabbous (that’s me)

Kate Gray

GP Lackey

Kyle McKernan

Hope Erin Phillips

Nick Rudzicz

Lucie Viatge

Hazel Fraticelli

Graeme Lennon

Q1 2019 — A Fresh Year

At the start of the year our co-founder Bronson Zgeb let us know that he’d be leaving the studio in a few months. We were of course incredibly sad to lose Bronson, but it made sense for what he wanted to do and the next chapter for his career and family. I’m really really really proud of the work Bronson and I have been able to do together in the 7 years we collaborated, and all of the work we’ve been able to support others in creating.

This year we welcome Hazel and Graeme to our team, bringing some much needed programming and game design experience respectively. You’ll see their work on our next release, which brings us to…

Winding Worlds and Apple Arcade

In March, Apple announced Apple Arcade, and hey — would you look at that? Our logo is right up there at an Apple keynote!
10 Books That Swept Me Off My Feet in 2019
By: Ernesta Orlovaitė
Tags: Reading, Literature, 2019, Books, Year In Review

10 Books That Swept Me Off My Feet in 2019

This year I read 62 books. That’s a book a week, and a tiny bit more. My reading choices are often weirdly eclectic (from Astro Boy to the Quran), but maybe that’s alright. There’s no way you can read only critically acclaimed, time-tested classics for a year and remain sane. There’s also no way life-changing wisdom is limited to these critically acclaimed, time-tested classics.

So here are my ten eclectic favourites of 2019. The ten books that opened my eyes, blew my mind and swept me off my feet. In alphabetical order, because all of them are the best.

There are three things you should know before picking up Atlas Shrugged:

Stephen King called Rand’s prose “wooden”¹. That was kind of him. The most popular paperback edition of Atlas Shrugged is 1,168 pages long. Or, if you are an audiobook person, 63 hours, comprised mostly of immaterial stuff not happening. You have to really want to finish it. If you do finish it, it will change your life.

This is how Rand describes Objectivism, the philosophy behind Atlas Shrugged:

“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”

Atlas Shrugged is a fascinating, insightful, thought-provoking book. Rand even has what to say about sex:

“Tell me what a man finds sexually attractive and I will tell you his entire philosophy of life.”

My values are very different from Rand’s, yet her worldview enriched mine beyond anything else I read in 2019.
📆 Reflections on 2018 — My Year In Review
By: Wajahat Karim
Tags: Wajahat Karim, Reflections, Open Source, Year In Review, Android

🏠 New House = New Lifestyle

The starting of the my 2018 year wasn’t an ideal one. It was rather exhausting one. We recently (November 2017) moved to a new house, so it was a tough time to adjust to the new neighborhood, make new friends, memorize new travel plans and routes etc. On top of it, we had these huge loans and debts to repay to all the people who helped us in our tough time with purchasing our dream house. (We love you all ❤️ and will always be grateful to you 😊️).

We were on track of clearing debts month by month and sacrificing almost everything such as the pizzas, movies, shopping etc. Told you this was exhausting time. And then January passed and come 1st February. This exhausting starting became a “disaster starting”.

I got fired from my newly joined job out of blue.

Why? Because my employer was crazy. Or because I was stupid enough to join that company in the first place. Or because I was tired of fighting negative energy and dirty politics at my previous job. Or because I wanted to switch the job faster. The employer couldn’t achieve the projects they bid for and I was hired early. Way too early. And now I was a useless resource on payroll for them. So, they asked me nicely to go home and cleared all my dues. So, does asking nicely to go home without any prior notice counts as nice? I don’t think so.

To That Employer: It was not nice. It wasn’t even close to the nice. You shattered my life in an already tough time. I won’t be able to forget that horrible day and that humiliation you caused. At least you could have asked for an apology. Maybe that could have given me some relief.

I spent two months in that toxic workplace and it made me a lot depressed already. I was living like a dead man walking. I had already started looking for new job, but I wasn’t ready to leave before I get any new job to keep the income steady.

In order to appreciate the life and good things, you must experience the bad or even worse things first.

The only good thing in that company was a very good friend who gave me hope, positive energy, made my day laughable, spent good time, and gave best memories.
Flolab: Year in review 2018
By: Ritika Bhagya
Tags: UX, 2018, Design, Startup, Year In Review

Year of FinTech

In the last year, we saw a rise in the number of FinTech startups in Indonesia. More than 50% of our partnerships were with startups in the FinTech space. While they were all trying to solve different problems for their users, there were definitely some overlaps we noticed across the different apps we designed.

Omahdana:

An app for investing money into small businesses looking to raise funds from individual investors. The product serves both sides — investors as well as the business owners.

Ayopop:

An app that helps users pay their utility bills, buy digital vouchers, mobile credits, and data packs. We’ve been working with Ayopop for over 2 years, continuously evolving the product’s design. Last year we worked on a major design overhaul for the app (you can read about it here).

Pinduit:

A product that helps users to apply for an education loan. We briefly engaged with Pinduit to give the product an uplift from their basic MVP which was using a Typeform in its early days for the loan application.

Tanamduit:

An app that helps users buy mutual funds and bonds in Indonesia. We started working on this product in mid-2017 when it offered only Mutual Funds, and slowly started offering government bonds as it entered into 2018. We’ve seen the product grow over a span of one year, and it was an absolute pleasure to work with their product team.

Other Products

TroveSkin:

TroveSkin helps users scan their face for skin issues like spots, pigmentation, acne and skin texture. We’ve been working with the team at TroveSkin over a year and have seen the product grow exponentially in a short span of time. We started with a design overhaul of their MVP and continued to iterate on our designs regularly based on user feedback and user behavior on the apps.

Mojoreads:

We released a brand new mobile experience for Mojoreads mobile apps that gave the app a fresh new look. When we started with mojoreads it was a social reading platform with just a reader and a timeline, over time, there were multiple features added that would help users explore a lot of content on the product. In order to make discovery a primary focus in the product, we re-worked the information architecture of the product in a way that it would be more user-friendly.

Jualo:

A marketplace for people to buy and sell their cars, motorbikes and other items. We’ve been helping Jualo with their web product, revamping some of the existing features, improving their usability as well as working on some new features.
2020 Wrapped for Podcasters: Your Year on Spotify
Tags: Spotify, Year In Review, 2020, Podcast, Listening

2020 Wrapped for Podcasters: Your Year on Spotify

See how your unique stories kept us company and brought people together during a challenging year. Anchor Dec 2, 2020·2 min read

While 2020 certainly hasn’t been easy, creators around the world have continued to do what they do best: share their voices and help listeners feel more connected through their stories. We’re excited to help podcasters celebrate what they’ve been able to achieve amid a difficult year–it’s time for your 2020 Spotify Wrapped for Podcasters.

This year, for the first time, Anchor creators can access their Podcaster Wrapped directly through Anchor. Once you’re logged in, just click the banner at the top of your dashboard and you’ll be directed straight to your Wrapped experience. You can also tap the modal in your Anchor mobile app. From there, discover the gains you’ve made in the past year and look back on the work you’ve put into your show.

As long as you have at least three listeners before October 31st, a Wrapped experience is waiting for you (full details for eligibility here).

Your 2020 Wrapped highlights all the ways your voice has connected with fans–be sure to share your story with listeners (and friends, and family, and whoever else!) to thank them for being part of your podcasting journey this year with #2020PodcasterWrapped. And don’t forget to tag Anchor when sharing on Twitter and Instagram.

Get your Wrapped by heading to your Anchor dashboard now.
It’s three now
By: Gor Zhamharyan
Tags: Traveling, Copenhagen, Diary, Year In Review, Life

Damn, the time flies fast.

Whether you believe it or not, but I am in Copenhagen already for three years. It is a bit weird feeling, because for the last few years I just did not feel how the time goes forward. It feels like just yesterday I was 22, I got off from an airplane with one piece of luggage, and took the metro to the new life in Copenhagen. And every year, somewhere around August, I write a small article of how my year went on in Copenhagen to make a sort-of a sum-up.

But this time, I honestly don’t know what to write about. The work is in place, the place where I live is in place, my friends and family are in place and life continues further. I’ve travelled a lot — Moscow, Beirut, Madrid, Sicily, and, of course, my homeland, Lithuania, but all of it also feels like it happened yesterday and there is nothing much to say about.

Of course, I could write that I’ve seen the greatness of Moscow, its clean streets, quantity of cars, chique atmosphere, very long distances and interesting people. I could write that the streets of Beirut are hustling with cars and people, and that it is a very European place in the Middle East. I could write that Madrid is an amazing city for partying, lots of friendly people and so much of interesting history. And Sicily… Well it is Sicily, you can find anything you want there, from small towns with tasty food to the mix of greek-arabic-norman-roman styled cities on one island. And… Lithuania stays Lithuania :) Vilnius is as wonderful as always, super green, super cozy and super warm.

I could write much more than just that, but these moments where just small sparks in the eternity of time that surrounds us. I guess this time I’ll use the saying “one picture can tell more than thousand words” and input some photos from those places.
Delhi. It has been a year.
By: Pratik Sinha
Tags: College, Delhi, Year In Review, Noida

Almost an year since I moved to Delhi for College.

Winter evenings and sunsets, Noida.

Almost an year since Delhi happened and over eight months since I left home. So much has happened since then, while the days go slow- the months seem to go so fast.

Delhi never felt new and different. I’ve friends back home often asking me how has Delhi been? I never got to thinking about it.

But now that I look at it, for me, Delhi has been fast and happening. Delhi has been people and life. Delhi has been hopes and smiles. I never knew winters until Delhi. Delhi has been new music and lip-smacking food. Delhi has been pure culture, and festivals that I didn’t know back home. Delhi has been a beginning and yet a journey. Delhi has been home and adventure.

And at times when Delhi is chaos and confusion, the metro rides have been therapy and mountains by the side, peace.

So what next after all this is done? I honestly have no idea. But for now, as long as my mornings aren’t sad and the sky is pink, I guess I’m doing something right, for a friend once said,

you can’t get lost if you don’t know where you’re going.