A war has this peculiar thing about it. It’s a social practice that publicly violates the most universally acknowledged ethical restriction - the commandment against killing - and yet is a common vocation. Albeit one that is unquestionably controversial. From a global perspective, only a minor share of countries do not have a functioning military. As a result, a country's overall competency is generally equated with its capacity to wage war in the 21st century. And whether you like it or not, we are all involved: as taxpayers, we fund the war artillery, and as citizens, we recognize and support the troops who put their lives on the line for us during a war. Why? because it requires them to get their hands dirty for us, so we can continue living our convenient modern lives, in our expensive homes. Also, because no one seems to be genuinely disputing this. Whatever perspective we take, war entails death, which makes it problematic, even if it appears to be appropriate and even necessary at times. However, civilian deaths are not inescapable. The military does usually decide on an acceptable number ahead of any planned attack. The resulting civilian deaths may appear to be unavoidable tragedies, yet they are not. Casualties among civilians are not inevitable. They are an option. The assumption that civilians are entitled to distinct protection in times of war is generally presumed rather than established. When in reality, the population inside a projected explosion radius is generally surveilled and estimated by a national military to estimate how many people would die in its attacks. It also establishes a limit on how many innocent citizens each order is allowed to harm inadvertently. This non-combatant cutoff value (NCV), is likely the most stringent rule of war, and it differs by location for political reasons. But the problem is that the idea of civilian or non-combatant immunity is doubly difficult to apply. On one hand, it's impossible to see the difference between the two groups of individuals - combatant and non-combatant - so the issue of whether one should be protected over the other is faulty from the outset. On the other hand, the prioritization of a feature of action – intention – whose meaning and ramifications are far more problematic than most discussions of war ethics recognise. Despite this, the idea is still at the heart of a lot of debate globally. As a result, we must consider why it is so important and what role it plays in war debates. If war is humanity's curse, the massacre of the vulnerable is its most heinous incarnation. Thousands, if not millions, of young soldiers die, and their losses are grieved yet accepted. Conversely, the killings of a handful women, children, or the elderly at the hands of the military elicits outrage. Such killings have been condemned from the dawn of time as brutal, unethical, and atrocious. Ethical prescriptions and international law have both denounced the evil and attempted to limit it if not eradicate entirely. It is only natural to have more concern for our own countrymen as opposed to foreigners. Your love for your friends and family will not and cannot be equal to your love for a stranger hundreds of miles away in a foreign nation. But does this concern and love give you the permission to kill that stranger in order to attain your objectives? I’ll just leave you with this thought here: Although legally veracious, our utilitarian stance is neither courageous nor ethically ambitious for a superpower committed to the belief that all men are created equal.

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Civilian Casualties as Collateral Damage: Are they Justified?

The NFT market is booming and gradually transforming into a standalone sector within the blockchain industry. Countless new projects surface every day, exploring the boundless possibilities of the Metaverse, P2E gaming, and DeFi applications. Many of them succeed in generating wealth for developers and investors. However, not all of them are in it solely for the money. Some have taken the honorable mission of fighting for the greater good. This article highlights three charity-oriented NFT projects that look beyond profits. These initiatives help bring awareness to delicate causes and use blockchain technology to make an educational impact. Read on to discover how can disrupt the environmental and social status quo and inspire changes for a better world! NFTs 1. Blockchain 420 is a new initiative seeking to steer the world in a better direction through the power of blockchain. Its founders believe that people could overcome poverty and build generational wealth by using this technology for high-quality education and services. Blockchain 420 Several branches function and collaborate seamlessly under the Blockchain 420 Inc. umbrella, including a charity, an educational platform, and a creative agency. The project’s goal is to “change the world with Love and Care.” To this end, it created The Love Care Coin (TLCC), an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain. The token has its own wallet, free to use for everyone with internet access or through the Google and Apple stores. Its purpose is to disrupt the traditional banking system and empower people financially. The TLCC wallet enables people to participate in the emerging decentralized financial system and invest in cryptocurrencies. Also, it allows them to send and receive funds faster than bank or wire transfer services. This way, it makes remittance fast, affordable, reliable, and secure, thanks to blockchain technology. Lastly, the project offers unique affiliate links to help users earn an income by "sharing the LOVE with others." The Blockchain 420 NFT Marketplace In April 2022, Blockchain 420 will launch its NFT Marketplace, facilitating the creation, buying, and selling of NFT artworks. This platform will support artists in selling their creations without paying the traditional middlemen. Moreover, it will attend to the demands of all NFT enthusiasts, including artists, collectors, and art dealers. Furthermore, the project aims to develop into the Metaverse with the upcoming release of its . This collection will support a kart racing game and an extensive Metaverse gaming experience, both with yet unconfirmed release dates. This expansion into the virtual universe aligns with Blockchain 420's ambition to rival P2E gaming success stories like The Sandbox, , and Minecraft. Baby Blocks NFTs Axie Infinity The will launch on April 20, 2022. The collection will feature unique, super-rare NFTs with different personality traits. The Baby Blocks NFTs will appear in a Metaverse-based game, where they will get into all kinds of fun and engaging situations. Blockchain 420 Baby Blocks NFTs Lastly, Blockchain 420 also creates new technologies through its upcoming The Blockchain 420 Vision. This digital frame with speakers and LED lights will allow NFT holders to showcase their assets in a spectacular fashion. Its creators believe that, in the future, this type of installation will be common in most households worldwide. The Fight for a Better World Blockchain 420 looks beyond the profits, usually deriving from blockchain-based initiatives through . This charity-oriented initiative drives profits and donations towards current emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic and people in need. Its goals are to provide charity without borders, alleviate illnesses, and help save lives worldwide. The Higher Love Foundation (THLF) Unlike other charities, THLF sends the funds directly to those who need them the most. The foundation is not-for-profit, non-sectarian, non-governmental, transparent, and direct. It features a team of regulars and part-time volunteers and provides a platform for upward mobility for all. THLF donates 20% of the profits from The Love Care Coin and Blockchain Entertainment, including Blockchain Quantum, Baby Blocks NFTs, gaming, and other upcoming projects to help people worldwide. Lastly, it ensures that a minimum of 5% of these profits go directly towards the special needs of babies and pregnant women everywhere. 2. Dainty Dolphins is a unique collection of 1,836 super-rare and randomly-generated NFTs. The team developed them on the Ethereum blockchain under the ERC-721 standard and launched them on October 27, 2021. Dainty Dolphins Boasting goofy and quirky hand-drawings of cute dolphins, this collection is also an homage to the endangered mammal species. Most importantly, it is a charity-oriented project aiming to raise awareness about the ocean pollution affecting dolphins everywhere. Each Dainty Dolphin NFT doubles as an access token to community events, tournaments, and other initiatives. The Dainty Dolphins have more than 135 different traits available in unique combinations. This leads to one-of-a-kind characters with a mix of facial expressions, clothing, and other accessories. The Story of the Dainty Dolphins The world is facing unprecedented challenges that affect every being on Earth. In the 21st century, we see a paradox in human evolution. On the one hand, we develop once-unimaginable technologies, like the blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs. Meanwhile, our existence and that of other species are threatened by extermination due to pollution, climate changes, and human-triggered catastrophes. Dolphins are just one of the many endangered species living on the edge. For instance, they have to deal with two types of pollution, plastic, and noise. The first one affects their habitats while the latter disturbs their communication, which they achieve through geolocation. For instance, the loud noises from ship engines, military sonar, and oil drills force them to dive rapidly into the ocean depths. Unfortunately, this often causes fatal decompression sickness, drastically diminishing the species' numbers every year. These critical challenges have led to the creation of the Dainty Dolphins NFTs. The development team deeply admires dolphins and wishes to help their cause. Furthermore, the project seeks to make a change for every helpless animal hurting from pollution. The Fight for a Better World The launched at the end of October 2021 through presale and public sale events. The NFTs were available for 0.4 ETH + gas costs, and holders could see the purchases in their MetaMask wallets immediately after minting. Dainty Dolphins The project donates 100% of all proceeds from minting, 50% of all proceeds from the merchandise, and 25% of all proceeds from royalties to community-chosen charities. This way, they could support organizations fighting for supporting endangered dolphins worldwide. Furthermore, Dainty Dolphins announced that they will donate 15 ETH to charity following the minting of 50% of the NFTs. And, once 100% of the NFTs will mint, the project will donate another 50 ETH. The Dainty Dolphins community will choose the charity organizations receiving the donations in both cases. After the minting of all Dainty Dolphins NFTs, holders will be able to use their NFTs as access tokens to exclusive gaming events. The project will be hosting games like Rocket League, Valorant, Minecraft, SSBU, Brawlhala, and more. This way, NFT owners will have a chance of winning ETH prizes long after the entire collection is available. 3. Blazed Cats is a collection of Cat NFTs with numerous customizations making every character rare and unique. Each Blazed Cat is a quirky, hand-drawn, programmatically-generated feline with particular traits and accessories. Blazed Cats Behind the Blazed Cats project is a team of five developers who created an entire 10k avatar project in less than 24 hours in July 2021. The team wrote the smart contract behind the minting, designed the website, and produced hundreds of thousands of Blazed Cat combinations. Eventually, they settled on a 10,000 series of Cat JPEGs. One aspect that sets apart the Blazed Cats from other NFT projects is that they have charity purposes built within their codebase. This enabled the project to take a charity-oriented approach from the very start. For instance, within the first two weeks of inception, it donated over $215,000 to . This is a non-profit addressing the needs of those dealing with mental illnesses. Mental Health America How to Mint Blazed Cats The Blazed Cats’ charity initiative took off and gained industry support. In the beginning, interested collectors could mint NFTs directly on the Blazed Cats website. This was possible via the platform's smart contract and would transfer a BLAZED token to the buyer's wallet. However, this option is no longer available. Now, those who want to own a Blazed Cat can only purchase it from secondary markets and other collectors. It’s worth noting that each Blazed Cat is a dynamic avatar. This means that holders can update their NFTs through customizations, fixes, and enhancements. Also, the project team cannot directly or indirectly modify the minted Blazed Cats unless the owner specifically requests it. The Fight for a Better World The Blazed Cats team donates 25% of minting proceeds and 100% of secondary royalties (10% of the sale) as charity to Mental Health America. After posting a poll to NFT owners on the project's Discord account, they have selected this organization. Apparently, Mental Health America won by a large margin. Additionally, Blazed Cats donated over $150,000 via The Giving Block directly to the wallet of Mental Health America after selling all the mints. At the time of writing, over $300,000 has reached the non-profit organization thanks to the Blazed Cats royalty model. According to the development team, a good chunk of the profits goes towards charity even when they come from resales on secondary markets. The five developers received only 15% of the minting profits during the NFT presale in 2021. They estimate that each of them accrued around $85,000 for their work. The rest of the funds went towards the project’s Rarity Tools, smart contract fees, airdrops, and social media expenses. Lastly, Blazed Cats encourages willing benefactors to help the cause by donating to Mental Health America. Their only request is to message them before sending out the funds. These are just a few of the top NFT projects supporting charity initiatives for various causes worldwide. They are clear examples that a blockchain-based project does not have to be profit-oriented only. On the contrary, it can generate enough wealth and redirect it to those in need.

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3 NFT Projects that Look Beyond Profits and Fight for a Better World

Kingsley Abrokwah is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for innovation, carved out of a need to excel and make an impact. Over the span of 10 years, he has started and exited 2 Tech startups in Ghana, each focused on developing software solutions solving problems peculiar to the African terrain, while at the same time offering a global appeal. Kingsley is also an Alumni of the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) and he won Startup Weekend Accra 2013. His current venture, Kudigo, is an integrated mobile-based retail point of sale application for micro-SME's in sub-Saharan Africa. In this video, Kingsley speaks to me about his journey to entrepreneurship, how Kudigo started, what prompted their expansion to Nigeria and lots more. Watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VIwLwHQ2Io Video timestamps 1:19 Who is Kingsley beyond Kudigo? 2:22 How did Kudigo start? 3:12 Kingsley shares back story and context to building the team 5:33 What has been the traction and successes so far? 7:18 How does Kudigo work? 10:00 How did your first two businesses go? 12:35 What lessons have you learnt from these businesses? 14:05 What other pivotal changes that Kudigo has experienced in the past years? 16:22 Has Kudigo raised funds? 16:59 Is Kudigo planning to move to the Nigerian market and what are the similarities and differences between the Nigerian and Ghanaian markets? 19:22 Are there any other market opportunities you are seeing in any other Country? 20:03 What are your tips for aspiring entrepreneurs? 22:15 Which people would you say have made the most impact in your life? 23:54 Asides from work, how would you describe yourself, and what’s your wildest dream?

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Google recently announced a new model for automatically generating summaries using machine learning, released in Google Docs that you can already use. The model will try to understand the whole document and generate a short summary of the piece—something some movie professionals clearly still can’t do. The model needs to achieve two things to achieve that, which you will learn in the video below! Watch the video References ►Read the full article: ►Google's blog post: ►GPT-3 video: ►Attention video: ►What are RNNs?: ►My Newsletter (A new AI application explained weekly to your emails!): https://www.louisbouchard.ai/google-docs-summary/ https://ai.googleblog.com/2022/03/auto-generated-summaries-in-google-docs.html https://youtu.be/gDDnTZchKec https://youtu.be/QcCJJOLCeJQ https://youtu.be/Z0pb3LjeIZg https://www.louisbouchard.ai/newsletter/ Video Transcript 0:00 do you find it hard to quickly summarize 0:02 a movie you just watched or a book you 0:04 read a few weeks ago sometimes you love 0:06 a book and if you can't manage to 0:09 remember its content which i often can't 0:11 you may end up boring your friend for 0:12 talking for an hour describing the many 0:15 chapters and important parts while your 0:17 friend just want to have a quick and 0:18 concise summary this is because doing a 0:21 great summary is challenging even for us 0:23 but necessary how useful it is to be 0:26 able to quickly know what the book is 0:28 about before buying it or simply to help 0:30 you go through all your emails and 0:32 documents in seconds taking the time to 0:34 recap and summarize your work is also 0:36 very important if you want to be taken 0:38 seriously at your job and weights and 0:41 biases the sponsor of this video will 0:43 help you with that with my favorite 0:45 feature weights and biases reports it 0:48 helps you create beautiful reports about 0:50 your previous runs with your hyper 0:51 parameters and any matrix tracked in 0:54 seconds it even allows you to create 0:56 clear and dynamic plots comparing the 0:58 runs your team members can leave 1:00 comments right on the report if this 1:02 doesn't make you the coolest ml engineer 1:05 on your team i don't know what will your 1:07 teammates will understand what you are 1:09 working on in a split second it will 1:11 allow them to help you out if they can 1:13 saving valuable time and possible 1:15 misunderstandings try out weights and 1:17 biases for free with the first link 1:19 below and profit from these benefits by 1:22 stepping up your engineering game 1:27 just like for creating clear reports you 1:29 need to have a great understanding of a 1:32 book movie or any content you are trying 1:34 to summarize to do it well omit all 1:36 unnecessary information while keeping 1:39 the essential making something as 1:41 concise as possible can be really 1:42 complicated or even impossible here i 1:46 try to explain research in a few minutes 1:48 and i often can't manage to make it 1:49 shorter than 5 minutes even if it's only 1:52 a summary of a 20 page piece it requires 1:55 hours of work and fine tuning and now i 1:57 may be replaced by an ai that does that 2:00 better in milliseconds indeed google 2:03 recently announced a new model for 2:05 automatically generating summaries using 2:07 machine learning released in google docs 2:09 that you can already use the model will 2:12 try to understand the whole document and 2:14 generate a short summary of the piece 2:16 something some movie professionals 2:18 clearly still can't do the model needs 2:21 to achieve two things understand the 2:23 text in the document called natural 2:25 language understanding and generate 2:28 coherent sentences using a natural 2:30 language or in other words perform 2:33 natural language generation but how can 2:36 you achieve that you guessed it with a 2:39 lot of data and compute power luckily 2:41 enough this is google research they 2:44 trained our model to replicate our 2:46 thought process for generating summaries 2:48 using way too many documents with 2:50 manually generated summaries seeing all 2:52 these examples the model does like any 2:55 good student and ends up being able to 2:57 generate relatively good summaries for 2:59 similar documents as it has seen during 3:02 its training phase you can see why we 3:04 need good quality data here the model 3:06 will learn from them it may only be as 3:09 good as the data that was used for 3:11 training it it will be like having a 3:13 really bad coach that doesn't know 3:15 anything about basketball trying to 3:17 teach a new player how could this new 3:19 player become any good if the coach 3:21 doesn't know anything about the sport 3:24 the newcomer's talent won't be optimized 3:26 and might be wasted only because of the 3:28 poor coaching the challenge comes with 3:31 generalizing to new documents 3:33 generalizing is something even difficult 3:35 for students that only learned how to 3:37 perform the given examples but did not 3:40 understand how to apply the formulas 3:42 it's the same thing here the model faces 3:45 difficulties as it cannot remember all 3:47 documents and summaries by heart it has 3:50 to understand them or at least know 3:52 which words to put its attention on in 3:55 order to produce a summary that reflects 3:57 the document well the latter will most 4:00 likely happen as the model doesn't 4:02 really understand the document it only 4:04 understands how to perform the task 4:06 which is unfortunately still far from 4:09 human level intelligence but well enough 4:11 for such a task i just mentioned 4:13 attention well this was not a 4:16 coincidence attention may be the most 4:18 important concept behind this model 4:21 indeed just like gpt3 this new model 4:24 also uses the transformer architecture 4:26 and attention mechanisms this is where 4:28 high computation is required as you know 4:31 transformers are big and powerful 4:34 networks but most time a bit too big for 4:36 fast and efficient tools that need to be 4:38 available online in seconds transformers 4:41 computation complexity also scales with 4:43 the input size which means that the 4:45 longer the input the heavier the 4:47 computation will be causing big issues 4:50 when we want to summarize a whole book 4:52 gpt3 works well for small inputs like 4:55 question and sharing tasks but the same 4:57 architecture won't be able to process 4:59 whole books efficiently instead they had 5:01 to use some tricks in order to have a 5:03 smaller and more efficient model while 5:06 keeping high quality results this 5:08 optimization was achieved by merging 5:10 transformers with rnns or recurrent 5:13 neural networks which are two concepts i 5:16 explained in previous videos that i 5:18 highly recommend watching for a better 5:19 understanding both videos are linked in 5:22 the description below in short it will 5:24 act similar to gpt3 which you should 5:26 understand by now from my video about it 5:29 but with a smaller version of the model 5:31 iterating over and over until the model 5:34 finishes the book the transformer part 5:37 of the architecture will be responsible 5:39 for understanding a small section of the 5:41 text and producing an encoded version of 5:44 it the rnn will be responsible for 5:46 stacking and keeping this knowledge in 5:48 memory iterating through the whole book 5:51 to end up with the most concise way of 5:53 summarizing its content working together 5:56 the attention mechanism added to the 5:58 recurrent architecture will be able to 6:00 go through long documents and find the 6:02 most important features to mention in 6:04 the summary as any human will do of 6:07 course the model is not perfect since 6:09 even professional writers aren't perfect 6:11 at summarizing their work but the 6:13 results are quite impressive and 6:15 produced extremely efficiently i'd 6:17 strongly recommend trying it for 6:19 yourself in google docs to make up your 6:21 mind about it 6:22 and voila this is how google docs 6:25 automatically summarize your documents 6:27 with their new machine learning based 6:29 model i hope you enjoyed this video if 6:32 so please take a second to leave a like 6:34 and comment your thoughts on the video 6:36 and on this new model will you use it 6:39 thank you for watching until the end and 6:41 i will see you next week with 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Google's New AI Creates Summaries of Your Documents in Google Docs

This thread with David and myself occurred in HackerNoon's official #techsupport channel.  Today I learned: David Apr 21, 2022, 2:15 PM One of these fonts is not like the other - that's a new one (chrome/desktop ) http://hackernoon.com :smiling_face_with_tear: 1 ✅ 1 🎈 1 richard-kubina Apr 21, 2022, 2:19 PM there are a bunch of errors in vercel functions over the last couple days, looking into that now richard-kubina Apr 21, 2022, 2:52 PM ok that looks to be fixed but I see what you mean.. so that wasn't related richard-kubina Apr 21, 2022, 2:52 PM oh! richard-kubina Apr 21, 2022, 2:52 PM that's funny richard-kubina Apr 21, 2022, 2:52 PM 𝐈𝐬 𝐂𝐫𝐲𝐩𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐏𝐨𝐧𝐳𝐢 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞? (https://hackernoon.com/is-crypto-a-ponzi-scheme) is the text, it's special unicode characters that looks like that richard-kubina Apr 21, 2022, 2:52 PM richard-kubina Apr 21, 2022, 2:53 PM hm clicking the story refreshes the page richard-kubina Apr 21, 2022, 2:54 PM since they are funky characters the slugifier made the slug empty richard-kubina Apr 21, 2022, 3:23 PM the missing slug was causing errors that prevented the front page from updating..wonder what a good solution here would be.  emojis are still fun to have in titles richard-kubina Apr 21, 2022, 3:25 PM https://www.npmjs.com/package/convert-unicode-fonts richard-kubina Apr 21, 2022, 3:26 PM but can it go the other way.. looks like revertTransform ✅ 1 richard-kubina Apr 21, 2022, 3:32 PM ... that was fun, thank you 🎈 "title":"𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐎 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 🅗🅔🅛🅛🅞", gets slug: hello-world-hello"}

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Work won’t be fun if it’s just a straight line to where we need to go. It’s the bumpy ride, ups and downs, twists and turns that make the entire experience more rewarding and fulfilling. If we never make a mistake, how would we ever learn to separate right from wrong? If we never fail, how would we ever feel the high that comes with achieving success? If we never face a challenge, how would we learn to get past setbacks? Disappointments, screw ups, unexpected outcomes, and bad news may create a sense of low for a while, but they are what push us to achieve the highs. They inspire us to do better. They create the thrill that comes with overcoming obstacles and turning them into opportunities. Trying to avoid the bad news or pushing it under the rug with the hope that it will disappear on its own will only make it worse. The issue isn’t going to resolve itself. The delay will only add fuel to fire and make those who are impacted by it furious. And they will be right in feeling so. After all, by avoiding the very thing that demands all your attention at the critical moment, you convey that you can’t be trusted. While announcing the bad news at the right time would have strengthened your relationship with people in the organization and given you an opportunity to show your leadership skills, avoiding it has quite the opposite effect. People start doubting your abilities. Some might even consider you incompetent. Others may show deep dissatisfaction with your immaturity. Hiding the bad news from your boss will get you a lot of attention, exactly the kind of attention you were trying to avoid in the first place by not being forthright about the issues. Your boss and many others in the organization will eventually find out. So next time, you have to deliver bad news to your boss and are tempted to delay, remember this: it’s in your own best interest and the interest of the organization that you step up, get over your fears and do the right thing. When it comes to risky, controversial, and emotional conversations, skilled people find a way to get all relevant information (from themselves and others) out into the open - Kerry Patterson I understand that delivering bad news to your boss is not exactly fun. Imagining how they would react, what they would say, and how they would judge you can be terrifying and reason enough to try to cover it up. But knowing that with the right strategies you can turn things around and even win their trust and respect, you can get over your fears and take the necessary steps. A better way to deliver bad news Here are some of the strategies that have worked for me over the years and they will help you too once you shift your focus from “avoiding the bad news” to “start delivering results.” Understand what qualifies as bad news and demands their attention One big mistake we all make is this: not having enough understanding of what our bosses need to know, by when and how. What if your definition of urgent and bad does not match what they consider urgent and bad? You may end up bothering them with information they don’t care about or miss telling them the things that exactly need to be told. Imagine pulling your boss from a meeting to convey your side of the bad story only to realize that your boss really doesn’t care about the issue as much and it definitely didn’t deserve an interruption during her meeting. The attitude to leave everything to our managers and expect them to pull information without proactively pushing data is a source of a lot of miscommunication and bad decisions at work. Start with taking a peek into your manager’s life. Ask them questions to understand what demands their attention, how much delay is acceptable in conveying bad news, and what’s the best mode to reach out to them. An email would be best for a small issue (when it’s more like an FYI). Something with a medium or high severity might require a call or a face-to-face discussion. Setting up these expectations upfront with your manager will help you put your time and energy into solving issues when a bad situation presents itself as opposed to wondering if your boss needs to know about it. Don’t blame or push someone else under the bus Failing to admit your own part and blaming others for how something turned out are natural defense tactics, but they only shift your focus from attending to the bad news to playing a blame game. When you don’t accept your fault, your mind looks up solutions with the intent to cover up the problem or prove your innocence as opposed to identifying creative ways to address the real issue. Blame is a prominent issue in many difficult conversations. Whether on the surface or below, the conversation revolves around the question of who is to blame. Who is the bad person in this relationship? Who made the mistake? Who should apologize? Who gets to be righteously indignant? Focusing on blame is a bad idea because it inhibits our ability to learn what’s really causing the problem and to do anything meaningful to correct it - Douglas Stone Don’t justify. Don’t give an excuse. State facts, not your assumptions or your opinions. Keep emotions in check When bad news strikes, feeling emotional is natural, but letting those emotions consume you can take away your power to think rationally. Staying calm and composed during a difficult situation reflects on your leadership skills and will make your boss trust you more with whatever you wish to convey. It’s also important to watch out for your tone of voice - do you sound panicky, anxious, stressed out, or charged with rage? Observe your body language - is it negative conveying to your boss that you don’t feel in control? Speaking too fast, moving front and back, sweaty forehead, and fidgeting convey a lack of confidence, making the other person feel anxious and turning a bad situation into an even worse one. Amy Cuddy provides this powerful idea in Presence that you must keep in mind while conveying bad news to your boss - When our body language is confident and open, other people respond in kind, unconsciously reinforcing not only their perception of us but also our perception of ourselves Get their attention No small talk. No roundabout ways. Say it straight and say it right “there’s bad news about …” When you use those words, you immediately get your boss's attention. You leave no chance for interpretation or the possibility that they might miss the information. Once you have their attention, they will be interested in what you have to say. Don’t assume they have the context Some managers are not involved in day-to-day operations and may not have all the context to understand the gravity of the situation when you have bad news to share. Think about: Have they been in touch with the work you are doing recently? What kind of questions have they asked related to this particular line of work in the past? Instead of jumping straight to the problem or dumping them with too much information, try to determine how much information they need to establish the necessary context and understand the severity of the problem. Once the context is established, then state your understanding of why the bad thing happened. Clarity and brevity is the key here. Make them feel in control Your boss definitely wants to know the problem, but they would want to hear some solutions too. So, be prepared to offer a few solutions with just enough data to help them understand why one solution might be better than the other. The most important thing when providing solutions is to ask for their opinion. Solve the problem together. Make sure they feel in control. Once you have their buy-in, it will be easier for both of you to focus on the next steps than wasting time scrutinizing the bad news. You can do that later once the situation is under control and you have more time at your hands to understand how such situations can be mitigated in the future. Practice delivering the bad news Practice exactly what you are going to say. It’s critical that you do that even if for a few mins because when you don’t practice, chances are you would end up saying things you didn’t intend. The words that you use to convey the message play a crucial role in determining how your boss perceives the bad news. For example instead of saying “I have no idea how this happened. We tried our best to keep the client happy with our services. But today they decided to end the contract and choose another partner,” say “I have bad news. One of our clients [client name] decided to end our contract today. I have spent some time trying to understand what could have gone wrong. I think the reason they don’t want to continue is [some reason]. I am planning to have another call with them to see if we can still turn this around and change their decision. I have 3 strategies that I wanted to discuss with you - strategy A, strategy B, and strategy C. I think strategy B is more promising because...What do you suggest?” By carefully planning what you intend to say, you won’t have to regret your poor choice of words later. For example, you won’t end up blaming someone else for the bad news or sharing information that doesn’t add up. You can also think about some of the follow-up questions they might ask and spend time rehearsing them as well. Doing this whole activity won’t take more than a few minutes and it will be worth your time. Being well prepared to deliver bad news to your boss in this manner will showcase your ability to handle difficult situations and build further trust with your manager. Summary Delaying or avoiding bad news hurts your credibility. When you don’t own up to difficult situations and take steps to set things right, others don’t trust you and without trust, you cannot succeed at work. By reframing bad news from a “thing to be avoided” to an “opportunity to reach for your potential,” you can take constructive action to set things right thereby building new skills and establishing your competence. The first step starts even before you encounter the bad news. Take time to understand what qualifies as bad news and demands your manager’s time and attention. Also, establish the best mode (email, phone, face-to-face) to reach out to them. Keep away from anything that leads to finger-pointing and blame games. Take responsibility and show them that you have what it takes to set things right. Take control of your emotions by staying calm and composed so that your manager can focus on the problem and the solution and not have to deal with your emotion. Being too emotional will also prevent you from thinking rationally. Start with being upfront by conveying that you have bad news to share. Once you have their attention, you can be more effective in putting your message across. Clarity of communication and brevity is the key to conveying bad news. Establish necessary context and then present a view of why the bad situation happened. Don’t just provide solutions, ask for their opinion. Make them feel in control. A feeling of control will enable them to creatively problem-solve this with you. Finally, don’t just rush to deliver bad news. Take a moment to practice the words you are going to speak. Without practicing, you may end up saying things you will regret later. Previously published . here

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Delivering Bad News to Your Boss? Here's 7 Strategies to Build Your Credibility and Still Look Good

Traditionally in white-box monitoring, error reporting has been achieved with third-party libraries, that catch and communicate failures to external services and notify developers whenever a problem occurs. I'm here to argue that for managed services this can be achieved with less effort, no agents, and without performance overhead. In fact, there are a lot of reasons why you use classical error-reporting tools in AWS Lambda. Most critical of them is that error-handling libraries in the code are blind to Lambda-specific failures, such as timeouts, wrongly configured packages, and out-of-memory failures. In addition, there is an issue with coverage -- implementing error reporting for each function is a lot of work. Whenever you add a service to your infrastructure, you must go through setting up error tracking and monitoring for it, and forgetting to do it can result in blind spots in your system. shouldn't Luckily, those problems can be solved quite easily and in most cases, it's just a matter of adopting new tooling and development practices. About "Observability" Before getting into details it's important to understand the idea behind observability. It doesn't mean that you'll have visibility or that you can even monitor your service right of the bat. It means that the system makes itself understandable by outputting data that enables the developer to ask any kind of arbitrary questions about the current or past state of the system. Fortunately, the information emitting aspect is well implemented in AWS and serverless users for example have an opportunity to get visibility without specifically implementing extra stuff in their code. Apart from CloudWatch logs, we could leverage AWS APIs for resource discovery and X-ray and CloudTrail for tracing and connecting execution flows. Make Failure Detection Better The ability to detect failures across all functions and connect them with specific invocations, view logs and pull X-ray traces for them significantly reduces the meantime to resolution in failure scenarios. Let’s Break it Down The only prerequisite for log-based error detection and visibility, in general, is that logs are pushed to CloudWatch (in most cases that is the default). From there on, we can do some smart pattern matching and deduction to detect failure scenarios. On top of that, logs contain a lot of other data that indicate latency and memory usage and allow us to connect requests with AWS X-ray and search for a trace report for a specific request. All this allows us to gather a lot of context in order to understand what went wrong in a particular case. Here's what an X-ray trace contains when you search for it for a specific Lambda request. This enables you to catch errors in services your Lambda function touches. Conclusion With the emergence of managed and distributed services, the monitoring landscape will have to go through a significant change to keep up with modern cloud applications. Currently, DevOps overhead is one of the biggest obstacles for companies looking to use serverless in production and rely on it for mission-critical applications. Our team at is hoping to solve that one problem at a time. Dashbird takes about 5 minutes to set up, after which you will get full visibility into your serverless applications. Give it a try by signing up or see a . Dashbird here demo

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Fintech is the umbrella term for various financial innovations and technologies. In this modern and increasingly digital world, are emerging rapidly. This transformation is due to the internet revolution and is being driven by the development of blockchain, an innovative new technology that has the potential to transform finance. Businesses are leveraging fintech innovation to develop products, services, and platforms that can be used by customers who want access to financial services in a digitized and convenient manner. This article aims to brief about fintech and further explores the top 20 fintech startups shaping the future of finance. fintech startups Fintech Startups Fintech startups are companies that are using software and network technologies to improve the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and reach of financial services. Fintech companies are disrupting the of traditional financial institutions while providing new services and tools to consumers. Read on to know more about the fintech industry. business models What is Fintech? The term Fintech is a combination of the words "financial" and "technology". Fintech involves the use of network technology, digitalization, and innovation that provides electronic payment systems, payment processing, and financial services. Fintech startups are applying the latest technology to create a more efficient and innovative financial system. Digitization results in the emergence of fintech startups that provide products and services to consumers at a lower cost than traditional financial institutions. Therefore, the use of technology is making the financial system faster, cheaper, and more efficient. How does the fintech industry work? The financial sector is undergoing a transformation as products and services are becoming much more accessible and efficient. This shift is being driven by the use of new technologies such as the internet, digital payments, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and blockchain. The integration of technology with finance is helping to develop products and services tailored to the needs of users and businesses. The industry works in an automated and streamlined manner by using algorithms and machine learning to improve and evolve constantly. Thus, the fintech industry is transforming the face of financial services. Fintech trends in 2022 With the positive growth of the financial industry and increased investment by companies, fintech will continue to be a strong driving force in the financial sector. The acceleration of fintech innovation has been largely driven by the development of blockchain, artificial intelligence, and digital banking. In the year 2022, fintech will continue to be a driving force in the financial sector as the industry evolves, and many industries will be significantly impacted. Therefore, it is important that business leaders remain up-to-date with the latest fintech trends. Blockchain Blockchain is a type of technology that is revolutionizing finance. It has the potential to transform many industries such as healthcare, insurance, retail, manufacturing, and others. The blockchain allows decentralized networks and distributed ledgers to keep track of data and transactions in a transparent manner that protects information from being edited or deleted. This decentralized method ensures trustworthiness for all parties involved in the transaction, including businesses, customers, governments, regulators, investors, and others. You may have heard of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin that run on blockchain technology. Blockchain-based currencies may become a widespread means of exchange in the near future. Eventually, blockchain will reach a stage of maturity where it will help to facilitate payments in business transactions and daily life. Thus, blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the financial world and several other sectors as well. AI and ML Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the use of software algorithms and machines that act in a way that mimics human behavior. Artificial intelligence is widely used in the fintech industry by providing recommendations, detecting fraud and criminal activities, providing customer service, advising, etc. On the other hand, Machine learning (ML) refers to utilizing algorithms to analyze large data sets and learn patterns. With machine learning, computers are able to make decisions more quickly with less involvement from humans. AI and ML are key components of several fintech technologies. Therefore, the continued development of AI and ML will result in the further advancement of fintech and the emergence of a new generation of products and services. Digital Banking The digital banking industry is a sector where fintech is making significant progress. The digital banking sector is undergoing various technological changes, and this trend will result in the further development of new services, platforms, and products. As consumers become more comfortable with using digital services and improved tech companies such as Apple Pay are entering the space, banks will be forced to adopt digital banking. In this highly automated and digitized world, digital banking creates a fully transparent system for customers to access their finances in real-time from anywhere. It also helps businesses to streamline processes by providing a unified view of financial information. These benefits allow the digital banking industry to create an exceptional user experience and transform the way people interact with their finances. Thus, the digital banking industry will continue to grow and familiarize people with technology that improves their experience. Top 20 fintech startups We have compiled a list of the top 20 fintech startups that are shaping the future of finance and transforming financial services. These top fintech startups have developed and implemented innovative solutions that are helping to improve the financial industry. 1. Eqvista is a fintech company that provides solutions to help manage your company cap table and shareholders. The company is founded on the values of transparency, security, and control. They focus on bringing the best service to their customers. Eqvista uses proven business models and proprietary technology to help every client with their equity management and valuation needs. Eqvista also focuses on offering a comprehensive service for all clients in all industries. Eqvista 2. Revolut is a fintech company that offers innovative, cutting-edge financial products and services. The company is founded on a philosophy of eliminating confusion and providing easy, transparent, and personalized financial solutions. Revolut has built the infrastructure to rapidly scale, transact, and manage billions of dollars worth of financial services. This company has built its core technology with a focus on global expansion and mobile usability. Revolut 3. M1 Finance is a fintech company that provides investment platforms and digital wealth management. You can invest, borrow, and spend in multiple currencies via their innovative platform. The company is focused on creating a better financial future for people worldwide and also helps to empower them to take control of their money. M1 Finance aims to be the best wealth management solution in the world where you can invest and manage your money at the same place together with all major investment instruments. M1 Finance 4. Paidy is a Japanese fintech company that offers online payment solutions for your everyday needs. The company aims to provide a reliable and secure platform for online payment that offers convenient and easy service. Paidy is fully integrated with a wide range of products and services from various businesses. This fintech company is committed to making online payment processes easier and faster for customers by providing a secure platform that enables them to pay from one place. Paidy 5. Rapyd Another largest local payment platform in London. is backed by some big players and has a good team of advisors. The company aims to make the payment experience simpler and more affordable. This fintech company has developed a platform based on AI that predicts the beneficiary of your payments before you've finished making them. It properly manages and executes your payment in a quick and efficient manner. Rapyd 6. FUNDSaiQ is powered by AI and Ml to offer their users financial advisory services and products. They offer a simple user interface, a world-class security system, and an innovative algorithm that allows them to provide excellent financial advisory services. Their team of advisors works with clients on an individual basis to select the right account for them. This fintech company is focused on making the experience of managing and securing your finances easier so that you can focus more on what really matters in your life. Fundsaiq 7. Bella is a new type of digital bank that focuses on offering financial services for everyone in the world. The company offers a full range of financial services that are customized for each person and based on the needs and goals of each individual. The company aims to provide the most efficient and simple platform for everyone to use so they can easily manage all aspects of their finances in one convenient place. Bella 8. Mollie is a startup that aims to create payment solutions that are integrated with innovative technologies to offer an efficient and fast payment system. The company is based in the Netherlands and has created a global payment platform that makes online payment fast and hassle-free for you. This fintech company provides fast and secure payment services for anyone to use. Mollie 9. Wise is a fintech company that offers instant money transfers and money transfers with one click. The company provides its clients with a secure online service that is easy to use, which makes moving money between two parties easier than ever. This fintech company has created a system where transferring money from one bank to another is as easy as sending a message. Wise 10. Baselane is an innovative fintech company based in North America that offers clients landlord banking and rental finance solutions. The company is founded on the principles of transparency, security, and the highest standards of service, which they implement by establishing strict compliance with the regulations and laws set. This fintech company aims to improve all aspects of housing finance. Baselane 11. NeoDove provides a telecalling CRM and sales engagement solution for banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). The company has expanded its business and has developed an innovative solution that makes it easy for financial institutions to sell their products. This fintech company provides these banks with a simple, secure, and efficient solution that streamlines their sales process by making it easier for them to convert leads into clients. NeoDove 12. Fenergo is a financial software company that offers solutions to help companies manage the entire financial process. The company focuses on developing a comprehensive suite of software solutions designed to improve the management of companies from all over the world. Fenergo offers innovative and cutting-edge technologies in order to provide efficiency, transparency, and speed for their clients. Fenergo 13. Figure is a fintech company that offers mortgages, home equity, and personal loans for individuals. The company aims to make the process of acquiring a home or a personal loan straightforward, simple, and convenient for its customers. Figure's solutions are created to help customers achieve their financial goals by making the home purchase process seamless, thereby making it easier to own a home. Figure 14. BharatPe The largest mobile-first financial institution in India. The company is focused on providing innovative, efficient, and high-quality app-based payments and card acceptance services to merchants. is committed to improving people's banking experience in India by providing consumers with a state-of-the-art technology platform and services. This aims to serve the needs of merchants, businesses, and customers alike. Bharatpe fintech company in India 15. BlockFi is a US-based fintech company that offers competitive interest rates to its clients on the cryptocurrency loan market. The company aims to help people and businesses own and transact cryptocurrency by increasing the liquidity in the market. BlockFi provides their clients with low-interest rates on their loans and a secure platform where they can store their coins. BlockFi 16. Trade Republic is a Germany-based exchange that offers crypto and publicly listed securities trading capabilities. The company provides investors with a secure, reliable, and easy-to-use platform where they can buy and sell securities in a wide range of assets such as shares, commodities, indexes, and crypto. This fintech company is dedicated to advancing the mission of financial freedom and providing investors with smooth, fast, and reliable access to a wide range of assets that help them grow their investments. Trade Republic 17. Chime is a digital banking platform that provides zero-fee mobile banking solutions for consumers. The company combines the convenience of mobile banking and online banking with a personal approach, which makes its solutions more efficient and secure. Chime is a new type of bank that aims to give customers simple solutions that offer security, transparency, and excellent customer service. Chime 18. Robinhood is a stock brokerage company that has quickly become the largest and fastest-growing online brokerage in the US. The company offers its customers a simple and versatile platform where they can invest in stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies all from one place. Robinhood 19. Stripe is a fintech company that offers e-commerce and payments services that are easy to use and provide simple integration with major systems. The company's goal is to help its clients grow their businesses by reducing the friction of financial transactions. This fintech company is at the forefront of creating innovation in the payments industry by offering a more secure, faster, and easier way to spend, save, invest, and grow their wealth. Stripe 20. Klarna is a global fintech company that offers an online payment service that is fast and convenient to use. The company's solution streamlines the payment process and makes it easier for its clients to pay, receive, and refund money. This fintech company aims to create simple and innovative ways to help their customers make informed decisions while shopping online, making transactions easier than ever. Klarna Conclusion Summing up, the recent developments in the world of fintech are a result of the increasing interest in innovation and technology. This article discussed all the top 20 fintech companies of 2022. It presented more than a dozen innovative startups that offer compelling solutions to help their clients solve their financial needs, meet their financial goals, and achieve greater financial freedom. The continuous development of fintech solutions is expected to bring new opportunities to a wide range of entrepreneurs, investors, and commercial stakeholders. Therefore, the fastest-growing fintech companies are expected to emerge as the market continues to grow and flourish.

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Though relatively new for many business owners, AI is slowly turning out to be a welcome innovation for businesses that want to gain a competitive edge in the rapidly changing business world. But, what is making artificial intelligence so important for businesses? Well, it is the ability to take data analysis to the next level. AI applications can analyze so much data about system functionality, production, customers, market and more accurately and in a fraction of the time that the human brain can. This helps identify loopholes and problems, and aids in finding solutions and decision-making. In addition, AI can be used to automate complex business processes, reducing work hours and allowing the human capital to be utilized in other business aspects such as innovation and creativity. Here are some of the ways AI is, and will continue to transform businesses. Customer experience Besides outstanding products and prices, the modern customer is keen to determine which businesses to stick with. If businesses are to stay competitive, investing in customer experience is paramount. Moreover, AI is proving a valuable tool in enhancing customer experience through innovations such as chatbots. Chatbots are playing an important role in answering common customers’ questions and offering advice and tips when the customers visit a website. AI is also valuable in generating data-driven insights about customers such as previous purchase behaviors, customer communications, referral sources, website interactions and more. These insights come in handy in providing a more customized experience and delivering personalized content to the customers. on brand experience Cybersecurity Cyberattacks have been a menace for businesses for a long time. However, this can be a problem of the past with the help of artificial intelligence. Businesses can use AI to automate threat detection to spot new threats before they attack. Using sophisticated algorithms, artificial intelligence systems can deliver valuable insights on industry-specific and even global potential threats. This way, business owners can be proactive in formulating protective measures for their systems. Another area in that AI can help protect systems is by identifying the type of bots comprising website traffic. Bots can be used by malicious people to steal credentials and take over accounts or create bogus accounts and more, which pose a threat to customer sensitive data. AI can be used to identify bad bots from good bots and human traffic. With AI, businesses can stay a step ahead of bad bots. Recruitment Building teams that are committed to the company goals and objectives remains a dream that many organizations harbor. It is more challenging than most HR professionals give credit for. Recruiting isn’t just finding people who can do the job, but also people who can fit into the company culture. This can be even more challenging when . It becomes harder to find the best talents and the right fits when recruiting internationally or want to fill positions quickly. However, AI can come in handy to make the work easier. Businesses can use artificial intelligence to automate high-volume tasks such as resume screening, shortlisting candidates and scheduling interviews to speed up the recruitment process. AI can also be used to assess candidates beyond their resumes such as online presence to provide insights of possible right fits for the company. recruiting for market expansion Marketing Finding and attracting customers has become more challenging in the rapidly evolving digital marketing arena. Marketers have a task of coming up with innovative and creative ways to appeal to their audiences and remain competitive. With artificial intelligence, marketers can use insights from data analysis to create marketing tactics that can drive results. Through customer data analysis on preferences, website interactions and more, companies can create more targeted emails to enhance their email marketing efforts. AI can also be used to anticipate the customers’ next moves, helping marketers to be proactive in improving the customer journey. In addition, artificial intelligence can help identify the most effective social marketing approaches and influencers to help take digital marketing to the next level. Website designing In this digital era, having a website is paramount. However, just having a website in place isn’t enough, businesses have to ensure enhanced user experience if they are to see results. Thankfully, web designers are using AI interventions to create websites that are highly responsive, engaging and human. In addition, artificial intelligence is helping developers design websites that are highly functional and aesthetically pleasing. This is possible through the ability to predict the most effective layout variations, font styles and more, based on the target audience. Conclusion Artificial intelligence has so far had a huge impact on how businesses are being run. Moreover, looking at the trends, it is clear that businesses are yet to see the best that AI can do. There is a possibility of even better AI inventions that are going to transform businesses even further. If you are yet to open up to AI in your business, it is about time that you consider it for marketing, recruiting, cybersecurity, web designing and customer experience and possibly other aspects of your business. ** **

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Identity capital is the accumulation of our personal assets, in other words, a culmination of things that make us who we are. A book called , from Meg Jay, is one of our most recommended books for people in their 20s. The Defining Decade The book coined the term identity capital, describing it as “the currency we use to metaphorically purchase jobs and relationships.” Identity capital is the accumulation of our personal assets. In other words, a culmination of things that make us who we are. It is what we do to invest in ourselves to create the collection of skills, relationships, and professional resources we build up over our lives. It’s about owning up to your choices and becoming the person you want to be. Forget about having an identity crisis and get some identity capital. Do something that adds value to who you are. Do something that’s an investment in whom you might want to be next. There are some parts of identity capital that are ‘tangible and intangible’ so to speak. The tangible items are what you can say you’ve accomplished: degrees, schools, grades, clubs and jobs. The intangible items are your innate personality traits: how you solve problems, your empathy, introversion or extroversion to name a few. Every single book you read, is part of your identity capital! Whether you are identifying new goals to accomplish or shifting careers, it is imperative you consistently work to accumulate your identity capital. By building your identity capital, you are leading yourself down a path of personal development. The author of The Defining Decade has put it simply, “You cannot think yourself through life. You must simply do.” Where are you in your work? Are you happy with it? If not, you might want to chart a new career plan and start taking steps in that direction. You may need to review your resume, find out what the requirements are in a new field, or even go back to school. Keep in mind that education doesn’t have to be a four-year university degree. Sometimes you can get a certificate that will give you the focused knowledge you need while saving you a significant amount of money. When you can find the through-line between the personal and professional development choices that you’ve made, you can clearly see your why. Our society ask us for instant gratification with everything being delivered faster and faster. However, developing your identity capital is not an immediate process. It’s a marathon not a sprint, but it’s so worth it! Thank you for reading another article here! I hope you enjoyed! Originally published . here

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Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Psychology

Our Careers and Our Identity Capital

While most businesses focus on customer satisfaction, they often overlook employee satisfaction. Studies show that highly engaged teams outperform unengaged ones by 21%. What's more, happier employees offer better service to customers. That means happier customers. Let's look at some ways to increase employee satisfaction in your business. Here are some tips to improve customer experience: Create a FUN work environment Fun doesn't just mean a party. It also refers to a positive work environment, which can be created in any company - no matter how rigidly structured it is. Essentially, fun stands for fulfillment, uniqueness, and the next. To engage employees fully, they need to feel fulfilled by their employment, unique, and excited about what's to come. Listed below are some ideas for creating a fun work environment. The most successful companies foster a fun working environment for their employees. By encouraging employees to enjoy their jobs, they can achieve remarkable things, both for the company and for themselves. Employees who are happy at work can spread the happiness throughout the business and become role models for their peers. To attract and keep happy employees, use a strong top-down approach, creativity, and presence of mind. It also helps to set clear expectations. Educate employees on the importance of customer experience Educate employees on the importance of customer service and experience. While customer experience isn't a singular concept, it has direct impacts on retention, renewal, and service costs. CX success statement workbooks can help your organization define the role of each employee in the customer journey. By understanding how employees develop this mindset, you can create an education cadence that benefits the entire company. Listed below are some ideas for customer-focused employee education. . Employees who interact most often with customers should be trained to delight customers by knowing and understanding their needs and goals. Customer loyalty is something every business aspires to achieve. Focusing on the customer's needs will help you nurture these relationships. Employees should learn about your customer's pain points and anticipate what they will need in the future. If you're able to meet these needs, customers will be more likely to remain loyal to your brand. Educate employees on customer service Encourage honest feedback Keeping your employees in the dark about the way you run your business can discourage them from offering honest feedback. Not only will they feel uninvolved, but they will also be less likely to offer recommendations that could improve the business. Motivating your employees to give honest feedback can be difficult, but following these four tips can help you get the most out of this valuable resource. Encourage honest feedback from employees to lead to happy customers! First of all, employees are usually reluctant to share negative feedback with their immediate supervisors or managers. Similarly, they may be uncomfortable discussing negative issues with their peers. If you can build a culture where employees feel free to express themselves, they will be more likely to share negative feedback with you. You can also encourage employee collaboration by adding an open discussion item to your staff meetings. The key to promoting transparency is to encourage collaboration. Consider using a flow chart, which enables employees to submit ideas and sign off on them. This will foster a culture of honest feedback and will likely help you to implement some ideas. Give more than you take Surprise customers with a free gift or discount to show that you care. By exceeding their expectations, you can build a strong business reputation and attract more customers. As an added bonus, you'll be able to provide better service and increase sales! Read on to find out some ways to surprise your customers and increase customer satisfaction. Listed below are a few tips to help you surprise your customers and increase sales. Charity is another way to create happy customers. Businesses should always give back to the community and society at large. Not only does this benefit society, but happy customers will also be more likely to return. They may even seek out similar businesses in the future. If your company is doing good, it will help your customers. Don't neglect the community, either. Performing charitable acts not only makes you feel good about yourself, but it will also make them happier as well.

Flow

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Mental Health

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Mental Health

How Happy Employees Lead to Happy Customers

The spotlight effect is the phenomenon in which people tend to believe they are being noticed more than they really are, being that one is constantly in the center of one’s own world. So, you are in the end of another work day. Your colleagues invite you for a 30 minutes happy hour, just to relax a little and enjoy some time together. In the end of this happy hour, you were talking about a project idea, and you make a comment that was incorrect. You try to fix it but suddenly your mind start to think things like “now everybody must be thinking about how I’m stupid, and they will go home talking about me”. In 2000, American psychologists and published a paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, with a study of a group of students asked to complete an unrelated task in the same room, and randomly assigned one of the students to put on an embarrassing T-shirt. Tom Gilovich Kenneth Savitsky The students wearing the T-Shirt were asked to estimate how many people in the room noticed what they were wearing. The students wearing the shirt estimated that about 50% of the room noticed. In reality, only 25% of the people in the room were able to identify the embarrassing T-shirt. Interestingly enough, when different students were asked to watch these groups’ recordings and estimate how many people they thought would notice the T-shirt, they had a similar estimate to about 25%. This means that actually wearing the T-Shirt and being in the situation caused people to overestimate how many people would notice drastically. So while we’re out here worrying about what others are noticing about us, in reality, most of them aren’t. This is because most people are too preoccupied thinking about themselves or something that they are doing. If we’re in the same calculus class, there is a very small chance that I’m going to notice what shirt you’re wearing. The Spotlight Effect is a term used by social psychologists to refer to the tendency we have to overestimate how much other people notice about us. In other words, it is like when you feel the spotlight is always shining on you, that for whatever reason people are paying attention to what you are doing. “… The spotlight effect refers to a feeling most of us can relate to. It’s the feeling that when we’re doing something that other people are really attending to what we’re doing, that the social spotlight is on us. And it turns out that other people are paying much less attention to us than we think…” — , at Freakonomics Radio Podcast #280. Tom Gilovich In an article at Very Will Mind, says that for people with social anxiety, the spotlight effect can be much worse, to the point that it has an effect on your ability to work or feel comfortable around other people. It is not uncommon to find yourself feeling embarrassed. However, for people with social anxiety, this feeling can be even worst. Arlin Cuncic People tend to believe that they are the center of attention of others around them. Such belief can cause people to subject themselves to undue social pressure as they think that all their actions are being closely scrutinized. In fact, the spotlight effect is a major reason why people experience unnecessary anxiety when they are in public places. “… There’s this thing called the spotlight effect. You tend to think that you’re in the spotlight and everyone’s looking at you. Applying that to Christmas, it’s like you think that everyone’s looking at the gift you’re about to give, and it’s super important. And so you put a lot more weight on it, and maybe you spend a little bit too much. The truth is you’re not that interesting. The person who’s about to get the present is going to get dozens of others, and they’ll probably forget what you’re going to give them…” — , at Freakonomics Radio Podcast #105. Justin Wolfers Essentially, whenever we think about what other people think about us, we tend to overestimate how likely they are to notice things that we do, as well as how likely they are to care about those things. have a fascinating comment related to our Bias, where in an article to Psychology Today, he says that Nathan A Heflick “… for instance, people typically do not perceive themselves as biased. They tend to assume that what they are focusing on is accurate and objective. In turn, they believe that most other people should notice what they are focusing on. It is — in the mind of the person — objective and accurate, after all.” The spotlight effect causes us to have an exaggerated view of our own significance to the people around us, leading us to misjudge situations and make decisions based on our overly inflated feelings of visibility. “… As the main characters of our own story, much of our world revolves around awareness of our actions and appearance. Consequently, it may be difficult to realize that others are not as focused on us and our behaviors as we think they are. We expect others to notice both negative and positive things about us, including mistakes during a presentation, a stained shirt, new shoes, or a sports team cap. This egocentric bias may lead an unprepared student to believe they were called on by a clairvoyant teacher, or cause a person who enters a room of laughing peers to assume they are the subject of ridicule…” — Allison S. Bernique , cognitive scientist and former professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, wrote in The Financial Times, advising: “ ” Sian Beilock We live in an imperfect world. We will inevitably make mistakes at work or embarrass ourselves among colleagues. Thankfully, most people are self-absorbed and not paying much attention to us. When we accept that, we’ll be able to shake anything off. When in doubt, assume that you are probably overestimating how much people care about this, and try to relax. Remember that, even if someone does notice whatever you are worried about, they probably won’t care about it nearly as much as you think, and they probably won’t remember it in the long run. Originally published . here

Exploring The Spotlight Effect and Its Role in Social Anxiety

The Great Resignation is a phenomenon that describes record numbers of people leaving their jobs after the COVID-19 pandemic ends. The last several months have been a hard moment for a lot of companies around the around. The Great Resignation is an economic trend in which employees voluntarily resign from their jobs en masse, beginning in early 2021. The Great Resignation is an idea proposed by Professor of Texas A&M University that predicts numerous people leaving their jobs after the COVID pandemic ends and life returns to “normal.” Managers are now navigating the ripple effects from the pandemic, as employees re-evaluate their careers and leave their jobs in record numbers. Anthony Klotz “ ,” says Anthony Klotz. He spotted many trends, including an accumulation of resignations from 2020 and burnout among white-collar workers, that could signal a wave of departures. “ ” People are taking higher wages in front-line jobs Despite everyone wanting to rename it, it hangs on. This is more than a pleasant reshuffling of jobs. According to an article from at Harvard Business Review, resignation rates are highest among mid-career employees, where employees between 30 and 45 years old have had the greatest increase in resignation rates, with an average increase of more than 20% between 2020 and 2021. Ian Cook ”, Ian says, “ .” “There are a few factors that can help to explain why the increase in resignations has been largely driven by these mid-level employees first, it’s possible that the shift to remote work has led employers to feel that hiring people with little experience would be riskier than usual, since new employees won’t have the benefit of in-person training and guidance. This would create greater demand for mid-career employees, thus giving them greater leverage in securing new positions According to another article from at The Atlantic, the Great Resignation isn’t really about burnout. And it’s not really about what most people think of as resignations. To put it as concisely as possible: The Great Resignation is mostly a dynamic “free agency” period for low-income workers switching jobs to make more money, plus a moderate surge of early retirements in a pandemic. Derek Thompson But rather than merely being a ‘Great Resignation’ in which people simply quit and walk away, the current disruption is seeing a large swath of employees moves around the job market. Some workers are simply upset about the possibility of losing their “work from home” and schedule flexibility. There is a consensus that during the pandemic people quit their jobs to find something more meaningful, connected with the working from anywhere culture and that make sense for a new way of work-life balance. A recent global survey by EY goes some way in uncovering the answer. It found that over half of surveyed employees worldwide would consider leaving their job post Covid-19 if they were not afforded some form of flexibility in where and when they work, and more than never, job retention differ by age, with millennials twice as likely as baby boomers to quit. Many young professionals state that the desire to continue working remotely is a big factor in the search for a new job. , the CEO of Slack, has a point in asking: “ ” We already know from surveys before the pandemic started that an overwhelming majority of knowledge workers would like to work from home and would even be willing to quit a job to work remotely. This is one of the major reasons for The Great Resignation. Stewart Butterfield If we say that everyone must return to the office, or we expect people to, and one of our competitors says you can work remotely, who wouldn’t take the second option there? Okay, what is The Great Resignation in one paragraph? The Great Resignation is a phenomenon that describes record numbers of people leaving their jobs to find something more meaningful, connected with the working from anywhere culture and that make sense for a new way of work-life balance. Originally published here.

Slack

 The Great Resignation at a Glance 

Languishing is apathy, a sense of annoyance or feeling floating or an overall lack of interest in life or the things that typically bring you joy and happiness. Sociologist Corey Keyes first coined the term languishing in a , as the antithesis of flourishing, a pervasive ‘meh’ feeling that dulls our motivation. paper Languishing is apathy, a sense of restlessness or feeling unsettled or an overall lack of interest in life or the things that typically bring you joy, says Shemiah Derrick, a licensed professional counselor. Unlike a panic disorder or depression, languishing is a series of emotions, not a mental illness. Languishing encompasses distressing feelings of stagnation, monotony, and emptiness, says Leela R. Magavi, MD, a Johns Hopkins-trained adult, adolescent, and child psychiatrist and regional medical director for Community Psychiatry, California’s largest outpatient mental health organization. Organizational psychologist Dr. Adam Grant has explained languishing as a sense of feeling “stuck” and empty about your life. “It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield,” Grant said in a 2021 . New York Times article When you are languishing, you might even say that you’re just feeling kind of “blah.” Languishing is a state of not being at your best version, despite the lack of an acute stressor. While nothing is wrong, exactly, nothing’s right either. Languishers tend to feel aimless. They scroll social media, stare at the television, or watch the clock instead of actively engaging in life. Those suffering from languish may want to do something but lack the energy or the conviction that it’s worth the effort. In fact, lack of energy is one of the biggest side-effects of languishing. Queensland Mental Health Commission According to Oliver Burkeman, all of our efforts to be more productive backfire, and only make us feel even busier and more stressed. Most of us have experienced this creeping sense of being overwhelmed: the feeling not merely that our lives are full of activity — that can be exhilarating — but that time is slipping out of our control, says Burkeman. Even the concept of Inbox Zero and “digital productivity” created by Merlin Mann has maybe caused more mental issues than real solutions, something that Mann agrees when he says in an interview to Oliver Burkeman that his career as a productivity guru had begun an inner conflict. “I started making pretty good money from it” — from speaking and consulting about productivity — “but I also started to feel terrible, this topic of productivity induces the worst kind of procrastination, because it feels like you’re doing work, but I was producing stuff that had the express purpose of saying to people, ‘Look, come and see how to do your work, rather than doing your work!’” Taylorism first crossed the threshold into personal productivity when Charles Schwab, the president of Bethlehem Steel, asked another consultant, a businessman named Ivy Lee, to improve his executives’ efficiency as well. Lee advised those white-collar workers to make nightly to-do lists, arranging tomorrow’s six most important tasks by priority, then to start at the top of the list next morning, working down. It’s a stretch to imagine that nobody had thought of this before. But the story goes that when Lee told Schwab to test it for three months, then pay him what he thought it was worth, the steel magnate wrote him a cheque worth more than $400,000 in today’s money — and the time management industry was up and running. If you are suffering from languish, the normal stressors of work and life may feel like they hit harder. Languish depletes your energy and your ability to resile back from challenges. Languishing includes: Feeling disconnected from your colleaguesInability to get excited about your projectsDifficulty focusing or rememberingCynicism about your careerProcrastination or lack of motivationAn absence of well-being even though you’re not sickFeeling as if there’s nothing to look forward toFeeling as if you’re just going through the motions According to an article at BetterUp, languishing, depression, and burnout share many symptoms, they differ in cause and severity. Many symptoms overlap between the three, such as a lack of energy, difficulty focusing, and not feeling hopeful about the future: Burnout is specifically a work-related phenomenon. It arises from a poor work-life balance or doing work that isn’t a good match for one’s values and skills. Languish, on the other hand, is an overall state that affects every area of life. People who are languishing don’t meet the criteria for a mental health disorder. However, they lack a certain degree of vitality and optimism associated with true well-being. Languishing may be such a common feeling now because of its unpredictability. People move in and out of a state of languishing over a period of days or weeks. Languishing is most concerning when people get “stuck” in the feeling and don’t have the tools to get themselves out. Depression, by contrast, is a clinical condition that is more severe than languishing. Depression extends into all aspects of life, and it doesn’t come and go. Depression must last at least six months to be diagnosed and requires professional help to treat it. However, those experiencing languish or burnout are at higher risk of becoming depressed. In fact, the feelings that come with languish and burnout are a predictor for anxiety disorders and depression later. But what we can do? According to Adam Grant again, a concept called flow may be an antidote to languishing. Flow is that elusive state of absorption in a meaningful challenge or a momentary bond, where your sense of time, place and self melts away. According to Dr. Martin Seligman’s research on flourishing, the best way to move from languishing to flourishing is the PERMA model. Seligman developed PERMA as a short-hand to explain the components of what leads to flourishing. It stands for: ositive emotions ngagement elationships eaning ccomplishments P E R M A People who became more immersed in their projects managed to avoid languishing. To transcend languishing, try starting with small wins in your day. Languishing has been common during these critical pandemic times, but you can start to discover strategies to start flourishing and live your best version. Originally published . here

Charles Schwab

The Mood of the Year: Languishing

Why are some leaders more influential, inspiring and innovative than others? Why do some organizations command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Simon Sinek maybe have one of the most popular TED talks of all time. The Golden Circle theory explains how leaders can inspire cooperation, trust and change in a business based on his research into how the most successful organizations think, act and communicate if they start with why. The Golden Circle can be used as a guide to vastly improve leadership, corporate culture, hiring, product development, sales and marketing. It explains loyalty and how to create enough momentum to turn an idea into a social movement. The neuroscience behind the Golden Circle theory is that humans respond best when messages communicate with those parts of their brain that control emotions, behavior, and decision-making. Something that Sinek explains even more in the book Start With Why. Here it goes an important lesson from the TED talk: “… Why? How? What? This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others aren’t. Let me define the terms really quickly. Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do, 100 percent. Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiated value proposition or your proprietary process or your USP. But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by “why” I don’t mean “to make a profit.” That’s a result. It’s always a result. By “why,” I mean: What’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care? Well, as a result, the way we think, the way we act, the way we communicate is from the outside in. It’s obvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. But the inspired leaders and the inspired organizations — regardless of their size, regardless of their industry — all think, act and communicate from the inside out. Image: Smart Insights Let me give you an example. I use Apple because they’re easy to understand and everybody gets it. If Apple were like everyone else, a marketing message from them might sound like this: “We make great computers. They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. Want to buy one?” “Meh.” And that’s how most of us communicate. That’s how most marketing is done, that’s how most sales is done and that’s how most of us communicate interpersonally. We say what we do, we say how we’re different or how we’re better, and we expect some sort of behavior, a purchase, a vote, something like that. Here’s our new law firm: We have the best lawyers with the biggest clients, we always perform for our clients who do business with us. Here’s our new car: It gets great gas mileage, it has leather seats, buy our car. But it’s uninspiring. Here’s how Apple actually communicates. “Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?” Totally different right? …” You’re ready to buy a computer from me. All I did was reverse the order of the information. What it proves to us is that people don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it. People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it Imagem: Smart Insights Sinek uses Apple as an example during his Ted talk, demonstrating their Golden Circle as such: in everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. Why: the way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user-friendly. How: we just happen to make great computers. What: Originally published here.

Revisiting The Golden Circle by Simon Sinek

Ikigai (生き甲斐) is a Japanese concept that means your reason for being. ‘Iki’ in Japanese means ‘life,’ and ‘gai’ describes value or worth. The Oxford English Dictionary defines Ikigai as “a motivating force; something or someone that gives a person a sense of purpose or a reason for living”. More generally it may refer to something that brings pleasure or fulfillment. According to the Japanese, everyone has an Ikigai (a reason for living). And according to the residents of the Japanese village with the world’s longest-living people, finding it is the key to a happier and longer life. It’s important to mention that while traditional Japanese philosophy focuses on finding your bliss, western interpretation has used ikigai as a method of finding your dream career. Having a strong sense of ikigai means that each day is infused with meaning. It’s the reason we get up in the morning. It’s also the reason many Japanese never really retire (in fact there’s no word in Japanese that means retire in the sense it does in English): they remain active and work at what they enjoy, because they’ve found a real purpose in life, with the happiness of always being busy. The Japanese philosophy of ikigai dates back to the Heian period, between 794 and 1185. Okinawa is a Japanese island south of the mainland. The island has the highest proportion of people over 100 years old in the world and Ikigai plays a major role in Okinawan culture. But this Japanese secret isn’t just linked to the elderly. It’s becoming popular with younger generations both in and out of Japan who are interested in having meaningful work lives. Japan is ranked second in the world for life expectancy, with women expected to live 88.09 years and men expected to live 81.91 years. While it’s true that diet plays a role, many Japanese people believe ikigai has a lot to do with their longevity and living a happy life. Ikigai may reveal the secrets to their longevity and happiness: how they eat, how they move, how they work, how they foster collaboration and community, and how they find the ikigai that brings satisfaction to their lives. And it provides practical tools to help you discover your own ikigai. Because who doesn’t want to find happiness in every day? Thank you for reading another article here! Originally published here.

Ikigai: The Japanese Philosophy To Find Purpose

Organizing a brainstorming session doesn’t have to be a complete disconcerting event in your agenda. Many of us are no longer working together in the same rooms, but we still need to generate ideas collaboratively. Brainstorming is a group technique, in a creative way, by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members. In controlled conditions and a free-thinking environment, teams approach an issue and produce a vast array of ideas and draw links between them to find potential solutions. Brainstorming supports collaborative planning, teamwork and teaching classes. It can be implemented at workplaces, schools, universities and even used for planning personal projects. It’s a creative problem-solving solution that enables you to structure writing, make storyboards and create marketing or UX personas. Furthermore, it’s useful for developing insights and finding connections. According to from 2018, led by David Henningsen at Northern Illinois university, brainstorming sessions help to facilitate lateral thinking in winning cultures. Creative discussions held by those teams identified four features of such meetings that help with solving concerns and gathering useful ideas: this study The researchers specifically teased out participants’ perceptions of group cohesiveness, and the relationship between those perceptions and four common features of brainstorming: Focusing on quantity — prioritizing the gathering of as many ideas as possible.Piggybacking — building on the ideas of others.Freewheeling — the willingness to share even impractical ideas.Non-evaluation — avoidance of providing positive or negative feedback to others’ ideas. “Groups that focus on both the quantity of ideas and building on the ideas of others significantly increase their cohesiveness,” David Henningsen said. The researchers said those findings have important implications for organizations. “Brainstorming can be used to help a team buy into and implement a plan of action,” Henningsen said. “Or it can be used to simply build cohesiveness, which in turn can lessen employee turnover and increase employee commitment.” It is very significant that you ask critical questions before you are inviting others for the brainstorming session. Make sure that you spend enough time thinking it through, and here are some of the questions you might want to consider: Do we really need a brainstorming session? Who is critical for the outcome? What is the best time of the day? Will we require repeated brainstorming sessions? What agenda do we have? In an article at Harvard Business Review, Art Markman share that one advantage of working remotely is that it’s now easier to bring in a broader group of participants. You have to do this carefully, though. Don’t start with a list of people you want involved in your brainstorming session. Instead, identify the roles and expertise you want, and then find people who fit that description. But in the same article, there’s an important reminder about brainstorming itself: When people are working remotely, it can be difficult to get everyone scheduled for meetings at the same time, particularly if people are spread across time zones. For brainstorming, though, this can be a blessing. Because you actually don’t need the group to be together to come up with the best ideas. The groupthink theory shows that, during idea generation, individuals think differently about a problem if they work alone. But when you bring the group together to generate ideas, they tend to think alike, converging on a common solution. So start your brainstorming process by having each person generate potential solutions on their own, or perhaps have them work in small groups to think about possibilities. What you want to avoid is having the entire group start throwing out ideas at one another — which isn’t ideal in a remote environment anyway. Make sure everyone has had a chance to engage and work on the problem first. One way to do that is to have small groups capture their ideas in a document. A second is to have group members send their initial thoughts to you and to compile them before anyone starts to discuss them. It’s hard to handle a brainstorming session remotely without the right tool to work with. A virtual session should be facilitated by new technologies that allow participants to seamlessly share their ideas. Workflow is determined mostly by the features offered by the chosen software, so picking the right tool is key. It should allow the sharing of materials on whiteboards, creating notes in real-time, and arranging everything in the right order. I always use as a tool for these sessions. Miro Running A Remote Brainstorming In 7 Steps Why — Be clear on the problem Who — Prepare who will be there participating What — Send the agenda in a way that everyone can be prepared Where — Use good online collaboration tools How — Select the best meeting game or play Motivation — Ensure that your meeting in engaging The gift — Don’t leave before everyone has a chance to speak Recently, I took the online course, which helped me to learn a lot about tools and techniques for approaching different types of concerns in an interactive course with a huge toolkit that provides detailed processes and examples (using Miro) on how to effectively solve problems. Wicked Problem Solver The interesting thing about brainstorming is that the lessons we learn from brainstorming in the virtual setting will very likely serve us well when we’re face-to-face again. In other words, if you’re able to run good brainstorming sessions remotely with your team, your team will bring important lessons to all type of meetings after that. Originally published . here

Zones

How  to Make Brainstorming as a Remote Team Work

On one side of the board game, we have influencers that practically allow brands and users to control their lives and the pace of their creativity for money. On the other side, brands and companies that are capable of everything to ensure that their products and services reach the right consumers and flourish their euphoric desire to buy a new thing. Ok but… Marketing and advertising business hasn’t worked that way since, let’s see, always? I was surprised to read the latest issue of Fortune magazine (October/November 2021) and see that the cover story was just titled “Welcome to the TikTok Economy”, by Jeffrey M. O’Brien. Let’s be honest, it makes sense when we look at the recent report by Neo Ranch and Influencer Marketing Hub which shows that the creator economy is a $104 billion market. In 2019, Rebecca Fannin was talking about the strategy behind TikTok’s global rise, considering that few tech startups have taken off as quickly as Beijing-based ByteDance, the creator of the highly popular 15-second video app, TikTok. In just two years, TikTok has emerged to rival companies like Netflix, YouTube, Snapchat, and Facebook with more than 1 billion downloads in 150 markets worldwide and 75 languages. On the app, homemade videos showcase everything from comedy to lip syncs to dog grooming tips that users create and share on their phones. The Fortune’s article discuss with the executive Blake Chandlee, who believes the underlying business model of Facebook and its ilk — harnessing vast amounts of user data to deliver personalized ads — is falling out of favor, driven in part by the movement to allow consumers to control their data and manifested in, for instance, Apple’s security settings and the EU’s GDPR policies. By contrast, Chandlee calls TikTok a “content graph” company whose primary goal is not to connect, but rather to entertain. The TikTok algorithm’s proficiency makes Facebook and Instagram seem like social media 1.0 in comparison. TikTok’s “For You” feed tends to be more explosive. It’s an auto-discovery engine, serving up a dopamine hit with every swipe. So TikTok is an awesome place for marketers if they’re brave enough to hand over their brand and let the audience run with it. A lot of brands are afraid to do that. Top creators can earn tens of thousands of dollars for a single sponsored post. For brands, it’s even more lucrative. “ ” says Seth Kean, CEO of ROI Influencer, a New York City company that measures engagement and sell-through across social media platforms, according to Fortune’s article. For every million dollars that brands spend on influencer marketing on TikTok, they’re seeing $7.2 million in sales over the first 90 days, But Rebecca Jennings, in another article for Vox, remember that this new way of making dollars changes everything. Basically, what’s happening is that tech people are finally realizing that no one is going to use a new app unless there is a possibility of getting rich and/or famous off of it (an exaggeration, but also not), and so a slate of platforms are emerging to leverage that demand. As Li Jin argued in the Harvard Business Review in December 2020, the gap between creators making a living off of their content and those barely making anything is widening. At this point, pretty much all the wealth is sprinkled among the very top tier of influencers. “The Charlis and Addisons will always emerge and exist, but it’s vital for creator platforms to provide paths for upward mobility and democratize opportunities to succeed,” Jin writes. According to the article, there’s a lot more money in the Creator Economy than just the money going into it: “Last year, TikTok launched a Creator Fund to pay its users directly for popular content. Snapchat launched a similar program called Spotlight, which offers creators millions of dollars of compensation a month. This past week, Facebook, which owns Instagram, announced that it would pay out more than a billion dollars to users across its platforms by 2022.” I’m curious to know when TikTok’s plateau moment and the creation of short videos will happen, as well as the microblog also reached its moment. But it doesn’t look like we’re close to this in the near future. What do you think? Originally published here.

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The Arrival of The TikTok Economy 

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