Below are a number of steps examining the in-depth processes of STARK. Step1 - Build Trace（fib2-example) The numbers marked in ‘red’ are public info. Some assertion:
Form: [register, step, value]
examples: [0,0,1], [1,0,1], [1,7,987] Step2 - Prover for Trace Selection of the protocol parameter: pub struct ProofOptions {
    num_queries: u8, // number of queries to increase reliability
    blowup_factor: u8, // domain extension factor
    grinding_factor: u8, // ？nonce security parameter, for the security selection of query position
    hash_fn: HashFunction, // Hash Function blake3-259/192, sha3-256
    field_extension: FieldExtension, // Whether the field extension is conducted
    fri_folding_factor: u8, // The folding factor of Fri protocol 4-8-16
    fri_max_remainder_size: u8, // The max remainder of Fri protocol
} 1. AIR Instantiation FibAir {
            context: AirContext::new(trace_info, degrees, options),
            result: pub_inputs,
        }

        AirContext {
            options, // protocol parameters
            trace_info, // trace parameters: row number and col number
            transition_constraint_degrees, // transition the constraint degree, and if the multiplication of two registers is involved, then degree = 2; similarly, if the multiplication of three registers is involved, then degree = 3; if periodic column exists, then degree = base + period.length – 1
            ce_blowup_factor, // constraint computational domain extension factor   trace_domain < ce_domain < lde_domain
            trace_domain_generator: B::get_root_of_unity(log2(trace_length)),
            lde_domain_generator: B::get_root_of_unity(log2(lde_domain_size)),
        } 2. Verify the Consistency of AIR and Trace (Debug module) 2.1 Verify Basic Parameters Trace.width = air.trace_width 2.2 Verify the Validity of Assertion (Boundary cs) Trace[assertion_i.register][assertion_i.step] = assertion_i.value 2.2 Verify if Trace Holds Transition cs (Debug Module) Loop:
For every two adjacent rows:
pub struct EvaluationFrame<E: FieldElement> {
    current: Vec<E>,
    next: Vec<E>,
}
Holds:
next[0] == cur[0] + cur[1]
next[1] == next[0] + cur[1]

The number of times of Loop: Trace.length - 1 Transcript write.into(air, public info) 3. Commit for Trace Domain parameter selection: StarkDomain {
            trace_twiddles, /ntt twiddle factor
            ce_domain_size: air.ce_domain_size(), //constraint computational domain
            ce_to_lde_blowup: air.lde_domain_size() / air.ce_domain_size(), // LDE domain
            domain_offset: air.domain_offset(), //domain offset
} 3.1 Interpolate -> LDE -> evaluate over LDE-domain 3.2 Commitment Transcript write.into(cm_to_trace) 4.Evaluate CS 4.1 Obtain Linear Composition Coefficients Ok(ConstraintCompositionCoefficients {
            transition: t_coefficients,
            boundary: b_coefficients,
}) The number of coefficients is consistent with that of constraints In this example (fib2-example), there are 2 transition cs and 3 boundary cs. 4.2 Establish the Evaluator for t-cs and b-cs 4.2.1 t-cs 1. Obtain the degree of t-cs (In this example, the degree is [1,1], refer to Chapter 2.3)

2. Establish the t-cs group (record the parameters needed for reaching the object of degree -> compose degree（ce_domain_size - 1）
    Loop:
Calculate the evaluate-degree = base * （trace.length - 1） + tracce.length / period.cycle *(period.length - 1) of every t-cs
Establish the t-cs group according to the degree: 
    TransitionConstraintGroup {
            degree, // the degree of t-cs
            degree_adjustment, // The space to reach the object degree, target_degree = composition_degree + trace_poly_degree(vanish poly-degree), degree_adjustment = (target_degree - evaluation_degree)
            indexes: vec![],
            coefficients: vec![],
        }
Record index and distribution coefficient “coef”

Cycle each t-cs (In fib2-example, cycle twice)

3. Establish the period value table
4. Set the divisor for t-cs, with all t-cs having the same form
    z(x) = x^n-1 / x - g^{n-1} // The last value does not satisfy the condition 4.2.2 b-cs 1. The divisor of each b-cs is not necessarily the same

2. Judge that if the number of assertions is the same as the number of coefficients to be distributed
    assertion.len() == coefficients.len()
3. Establish the b-cs group
    Loop:
Obtain the type and initial step of the assertion
Establish the b-cs group
    BoundaryConstraintGroup {
            constraints: Vec::new(),
            divisor, //  The divisor corresponding to the boundary
            degree_adjustment, target//The space to reach the object degree, target_degree = composition_degree + divisor.degree()，degree_adjustment = (target_degree - trace_poly_degree)  
    }
Add b-cs forms
    air::BoundaryConstraint {
            register: assertion.register, // Corresponding register index
            poly, // assertion value polynomial, interpolation is required for multiple values; otherwise, it is a single value
            poly_offset, //offset information. If the assert is in the first step, it is [0,1], otherwise it is [1, T]
            cc, // Coefficient distributed to this b-cs
    }
    prover::BoundaryConstraintGroup {
            degree_adjustment: group.degree_adjustment(),
            single_value_constraints: Vec::new(),// corresponding Sigle value assertion
            small_poly_constraints: Vec::new(),//assertion whose assertion value num is smaller than 63
            large_poly_constraints: Vec::new(),//assertion whose assertion value num is larger than 63, the values in ce_domain are needed to conduct Pre_compute
    }; 4.3 Evaluate t/s-cs Over ce_domain 4.3.1 Define Evaluator Table ConstraintEvaluationTable<B: StarkField, E: FieldElement<BaseField = B>> {
evaluations: Vec<Vec<E>>, //[ce_domain_size][t_cs_merge_value (0): b_cs_values(1...)]
divisors: Vec<ConstraintDivisor<B>>, // [t-cs divisor, b-cs divisor]
domain_offset: B,
trace_length: usize,
#[cfg(debug_assertions)]
t_evaluations: Vec<Vec<B>>,
#[cfg(debug_assertions)]
t_expected_degrees: Vec<usize>,
}

evaluations[step_i][0]  += sum_{j}(evaluation[j] * (coefficients.0 + coefficients.1 * xp) // The divisor is identical.
evaluations[step_i][j]  += (evframe.cur().state[register] - value) * (coefficients.0 + coefficients.1 * xp) // for single assertion
evaluations[step_i][j]  += (evframe.cur().state[register] - polynom::eval(&self.poly, x * self.x_offset)) * (coefficients.0 + coefficients.1 * xp) // for multiassertion // for multi-assertion
evaluations[step_i][j]  += (evframe.cur().state[register] - self.values[values_index]) * (coefficients.0 + coefficients.1 * xp) // for multiassertion // for multi-assertion large poly 5. Commitment to Evaluate CS 5.1 Establish Constraints Composition Polynomial 5.2 Commitment to Composition Poly Example: Compose_poly = a * x^3 + b * x^2 + c * x + d = (a * x^2 + c) * x^ + (b * x^2 + d) (a * x^2 + c) and (b *x^2 +d) correspond to two columns, respectively. 6. Establish DEEP Composition Polynomial The general formal: f(x) = q(x)* t(x) Need check at random z f(z) = q(z) * t(z) f(x),q(x),t(x) indeed equal respectively f(z), q(z), t(z) calculate Deep_composition = (q(x) - q(z)) / (x - z) Check LDT for q_q(x) 6.1 Select z which out of Domain(ood) Draw an out-of-domain point z. Depending on the type of E, the point is drawn either from the base field or from an extension field defined by E. The purpose of sampling from the extension field here (instead of the base field) is to increase security 6.2 Evaluate Trace and Constraint Polynomials at the OOD Point z 6.2.1 trace_poly at z & z * g ood_frame = {cur: [trace_poly_0(z), trace_poly_1(z)], next: [trace_poly_0(z * g), trace_poly_1(z * g)]} 6.2.2 Composition Poly at z iter!(self.columns).map(|p| polynom::eval(p, z^m)).collect() // m is the column num of the composition poly 6.3 Establish Deep Composition Polynomial 6.3.1 Generate Random Numbers pub struct DeepCompositionCoefficients<E: FieldElement> {
    /// Trace polynomial composition coefficients $\alpha_i$, $\beta_i$, and $\gamma_i$.
    pub trace: Vec<(E, E, E)>,
    /// Constraint column polynomial composition coefficients $\delta_j$.
    pub constraints: Vec<E>,
    /// Degree adjustment composition coefficients $\lambda$ and $\mu$.
    pub degree: (E, E),
} 6.3.2 Cal Quotient Poly => for trace polynomial

T`(x) = alpha * (T(x) - T(z)) // degree = trace.length - 1
T``(x) = beta * (T(x) - T(z * g))
T```(x) = gamma * (T(x) - T(z_conjugate))

merge_trace_composition_poly = T(x) / (x - z) + T``(x) / (x - z * g) + T```(x) / (x - z_conjugate)

Degree = trace.lengh - 2

=> for composition polynomial

compute H'_i(x) = (H_i(x) - H_i(z^m)) / (x - z^m)
sum(H`_i(x) * cc_i)

Deep_composition_polynomial = merge_trace_composition_poly  + sum(H`_i(x) * cc_i)
Degree = trace.length - 2

=> Deep_composition_polynomial degree adjustment

Deep_composition_polynomial = Deep_composition_polynomial * (cc_0 + x * cc_1)
Degree = trace.length – 1 6.4 Evaluate Deep over LDE deep_evaluations<lde_domain_size> = deep_composition_poly.evaluate(&domain); 7. Calculate the FRI Layer num of Deep trace.length() =  fold_factor ^ Layer_num + remainder_size;
fold_factor = {4, 8, 16}
remainder_size < remainder_max_size == 256 8. Determine Positions of the Query Select multiple positions of the query from lde_domain. fold_position = source_position % (fold_domain)
fold_domain = source_domain / fold_factor 9. Establish Proof Objects 9.1 Generate FRI proof pub struct FriProof {
    layers: Vec<FriProofLayer>,
    remainder: Vec<u8>, // last poly <all coefficients>
    num_partitions: u8, // stored as power of 2
}
pub struct FriProofLayer {
    values: Vec<u8>,
    paths: Vec<u8>,
} 9.2 Query Trace Poly at Above Positions Similar to the above Queries::new(trace_proof, trace_states) 9.3 Query Constraint Poly at Above Positions Similar to the above Queries::new(merkle_proof, evaluations) 9.4 Establish the STARK Proof StarkProof {
            context: self.context,
            commitments: self.commitments,
            ood_frame: self.ood_frame,
            trace_queries,
            constraint_queries,
            fri_proof,
            pow_nonce: self.pow_nonce,
} Step3 - Verify the Proof Read pub-info from the transcript to obtain relevant data, and then to execute the verification process. 1. Ood Consistency Check Verify the consistency of the mathematical relationship described in Chapter 5.2 => for Boundary

    b(z) = q_b(x) * b_divisor(z)

=> for composition poly

    t(z) = q_z(x) * t_divisor(z) 2. Instantiate the FRI-Verifier Object pub struct FriVerifier<B, E, C, H>
where
    B: StarkField,
    E: FieldElement<BaseField = B>,
    C: VerifierChannel<E, Hasher = H>,
    H: ElementHasher<BaseField = B>,
{
    max_poly_degree: usize,
    domain_size: usize,
    domain_generator: B,
    layer_commitments: Vec<H::Digest>, //flod_poly commitment
    layer_alphas: Vec<E>, // random numbers
    options: FriOptions,
    num_partitions: usize,
    _channel: PhantomData<C>,
} 3. Calculate Deep Poly on Query Positions The calculating method is the same as that in Chapter 6.4 4. Execute the FRI VERIFY process

Target

Trace

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Algorithms

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Architecture

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Blockchain

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Optimization

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Privacy

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Optimization

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Algorithms

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Privacy

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Architecture

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Blockchain

Oh Just a Stark Technical Analysis

The Essays of Adam Smith, by Adam Smith is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Part I, SEC. II, Chapter I: Of the Passions which take their Origin from the Body. Chapter  I. Of the Passions which take their Origin from the Body. 1. IT is indecent to express any strong degree of those passions which arise from a certain situation or disposition of the body; because the company, not being in the same disposition, cannot be expected to sympathize with them. Violent hunger, for example, though upon many occasions not only natural, but unavoidable, is always indecent, and to eat voraciously is universally regarded as a piece of ill manners. There is, however, some degree of sympathy, even with hunger. It is agreeable to see our companions eat with a good appetite, and all expressions of loathing are offensive. The disposition of body which is habitual to a man in health, makes his stomach easily keep time, if I may be allowed so coarse an expression, with the one, and not with the other. We can sympathize with the distress which excessive hunger occasions when we read the description of it in the journal of a siege, or of a sea voyage. We imagine ourselves in the situation of the sufferers, and thence readily conceive the grief, the fear, and consternation, which must necessarily distract them. We feel, ourselves, some degree of those passions, and therefore sympathize with them: but as we do not grow hungry by reading the description, we cannot properly, even in this case, be said to sympathize with their hunger. It is the same case with the passion by which Nature unites the two sexes. Though naturally the most furious of all the passions, all strong expressions of it are upon every occasion indecent, even between persons in whom its most complete indulgence is acknowledged by all laws, both human and divine, to be perfectly innocent. There seems, however, to be some degree of sympathy even with this passion. To talk to a woman as we should to a man is improper: it is expected that their company should inspire us with more gaiety, more pleasantry, and more attention; and an entire insensibility to the fair sex, renders a man contemptible in some measure even to the men. Such is our aversion for all the appetites which take their origin from the body; all strong expressions of them are loathsome and disagreeable. According to some ancient philosophers, these are the passions which we share in common with the brutes, and which, having no connexion with the characteristical qualities of human nature, are upon that account beneath its dignity. But there are many other passions which we share in common with the brutes, such as resentment, natural affection, even gratitude, which do not, upon that account, appear to be so brutal. The true cause of the peculiar disgust which we conceive for the appetites of the body when we see them in other men, is that we cannot enter into them. To the person himself who feels them, as soon as they are gratified, the object that excited them ceases to be agreeable: even its presence often becomes offensive to him; he looks round to no purpose for the charm which transported him the moment before, and he can now as little enter into his own passion as another person. When we have dined, we order the covers to be removed; and we should treat in the same manner the objects of the most ardent and passionate desires, if they were the objects of no other passions but those which take their origin from the body. In the command of those appetites of the body consists that virtue which is properly called temperance. To restrain them within those bounds which regard to health and fortune prescribes, is the part of prudence. But to confine them within those limits which grace, which propriety, which delicacy, and which modesty, require, is the office of temperance. 2. It is for the same reason that to cry out with bodily pain, how intolerable soever, appears always unmanly and unbecoming. There is, however, a good deal of sympathy even with bodily pain. If, as has already been observed, I see a stroke aimed, and just ready to fall upon the leg, or arm, of another person, I naturally shrink and draw back my own leg, or my own arm: and when it does fall, I feel it in some measure, and am hurt by it as well as the sufferer. My hurt, however, is, no doubt, excessively slight, and, upon that account, if he makes any violent outcry, as I cannot go along with him, I never fail to despise him. And this is the case of all the passions which take their origin from the body: they excite either no sympathy at all, or such a degree of it, as is altogether disproportioned to the violence of what is felt by the sufferer. It is quite otherwise with those passions which take their origin from the imagination. The frame of my body can be but little affected by the alterations which are brought about upon that of my companion: but my imagination is more ductile, and more readily assumes, if I may say so, the shape and configuration of the imaginations of those with whom I am familiar. A disappointment in love, or ambition, will, upon this account, call forth more sympathy than the greatest bodily evil. Those passions arise altogether from the imagination. The person who has lost his whole fortune, if he is in health, feels nothing in his body. What he suffers is from the imagination only, which represents to him the loss of his dignity, neglect from his friends, contempt from his enemies, dependence, want, and misery, coming fast upon him; and we sympathize with him the more strongly upon this account, because our imaginations can the more readily mould themselves upon his imagination, than our bodies can mould themselves upon his body. The loss of a leg may generally be regarded as a more real calamity than the loss of a mistress. It would be a ridiculous tragedy, however, of which the catastrophe was to turn upon a loss of that kind. A misfortune of the other kind, how frivolous soever it may appear to be, has given occasion to many a fine one. Nothing is so soon forgot as pain. The moment it is gone the whole agony of it is over, and the thought of it can no longer give us any sort of disturbance. We ourselves cannot then enter into the anxiety and anguish which we had before conceived. An unguarded word from a friend will occasion a more durable uneasiness. The agony which this creates is by no means over with the word. What at first disturbs us is not the object of the senses, but the idea of the imagination. As it is an idea, therefore, which occasions our uneasiness, till time and other accidents have in some measure effaced it from our memory, the imagination continues to fret and rankle within, from the thought of it. Pain never calls forth any very lively sympathy unless it is accompanied with danger. We sympathize with the fear, though not with the agony of the sufferer. Fear, however, is a passion derived altogether from the imagination, which represents, with an uncertainty and fluctuation that increases our anxiety, not what we really feel, but what we may hereafter possibly suffer. The gout or the tooth-ache, though exquisitely painful, excite very little sympathy; more dangerous diseases, though accompanied with very little pain, excite the highest. Some people faint and grow sick at the sight of a chirurgical operation, and that bodily pain which is occasioned by tearing the flesh, seems, in them, to excite the most excessive sympathy. We conceive in a much more lively and distinct manner the pain which proceeds from an external cause, than we do that which arises from an internal disorder. I can scarce form an idea of the agonies of my neighbour when he is tortured with the gout, or the stone; but I have the clearest conception of what he must suffer from an incision, a wound, or a fracture. The chief cause, however, why such objects produce such violent effects upon us, is their novelty. One who has been witness to a dozen dissections, and as many amputations, sees, ever after, all operations of this kind with great indifference, and often with perfect insensibility. Though we have read or seen represented more than five hundred tragedies, we shall seldom feel so entire an abatement of our sensibility to the objects which they represent to us. In some of the Greek tragedies there is an attempt to excite compassion, by the representation of the agonies of bodily pain. Philoctetes cries out and faints from the extremity of his sufferings. Hippolytus and Hercules are both introduced as expiring under the severest tortures, which, it seems, even the fortitude of Hercules was incapable of supporting. In all these cases, however, it is not the pain which interests us, but some other circumstance. It is not the sore foot, but the solitude, of Philoctetes which affects us, and diffuses over that charming tragedy, that romantic wildness, which is so agreeable to the imagination. The agonies of Hercules and Hippolytus are interesting only because we foresee that death is to be the consequence. If those heroes were to recover, we should think the representation of their sufferings perfectly ridiculous. What a tragedy would that be of which the distress consisted in a colic! Yet no pain is more exquisite. These attempts to excite compassion by the representation of bodily pain, may be regarded as among the greatest breaches of decorum of which the Greek theatre has set the example. The little sympathy which we feel with bodily pain, is the foundation of the propriety of constancy and patience in enduring it. The man, who under the severest tortures allows no weakness to escape him, vents no groan, gives way to no passion which we do not entirely enter into, commands our highest admiration. His firmness enables him to keep time with our indifference and insensibility. We admire and entirely go along with the magnanimous effort which he makes for this purpose. We approve of his behaviour, and from our experience of the common weakness of human nature, we are surprised, and wonder how he should be able to act so as to deserve approbation. Approbation, mixed and animated by wonder and surprise, constitutes the sentiment which is properly called admiration, of which, applause is the natural expression, as has already been observed. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Smith, Adam. 2018. The Essays of Adam Smith. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved May 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/58559/58559-h/58559-h.htm#page26 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

Read My Stories

The Essays of Adam Smith: Part I, SEC. II, Chapter I

A Tract on Monetary Reform, by John Maynard Keynes is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Chapter 1:  No. 2: The Business Class. 2. The Business Class It has long been recognised, by the business world and by economists alike, that a period of rising prices acts as a stimulus to enterprise and is beneficial to business men. In the first place there is the advantage which is the counterpart of the loss to the investing class which we have just examined. When the value of money falls, it is evident that those persons who have engaged to pay fixed sums of money yearly out of the profits of active business must benefit, since their fixed money outgoings will bear a smaller proportion than formerly to their money turnover. This benefit persists not only during the transitional period of change, but also, so far as old loans are concerned, when prices have settled down at their new and higher level. For example, the farmers throughout Europe, who had raised by mortgage the funds to purchase the land they farmed, now find themselves almost freed from the burden at the expense of the mortgagees. But during the period of change, while prices are rising month by month, the business man has a further and greater source of windfall. Whether he is a merchant or a manufacturer, he will generally buy before he sells, and on at least a part of his stock he will run the risk of price changes. If, therefore, month after month his stock appreciates on his hands, he is always selling at a better price than he expected and securing a windfall profit upon which he had not calculated. In such a period the business of trade becomes unduly easy. Any one who can borrow money and is not exceptionally unlucky must make a profit, which he may have done little to deserve. The continuous enjoyment of such profits engenders an expectation of their renewal. The practice of borrowing from banks is extended beyond what is normal. If the market expects prices to rise still further, it is natural that stocks of commodities should be held speculatively for the rise, and for a time the mere expectation of a rise is sufficient, by inducing speculative purchases, to produce one. Take, for example, the Statist index number for raw materials month by month from April, 1919, to March, 1920: It follows from this table that a man, who borrowed money from his banker and used the proceeds to purchase raw materials selected at random, stood to make a profit in every single month of this period with the exception of the last, and would have cleared 46 per cent on the average of the year. Yet bankers were not charging at this time above 7 per cent for their advances, leaving a clear profit of between20 30 and 40 per cent per annum, without the exercise of any particular skill, to any person lucky enough to have embarked on these courses. How much more were the opportunities of persons whose business position and expert knowledge enabled them to exercise intelligent anticipation as to the probable course of prices of particular commodities! Yet any dealer in or user of raw materials on a large scale who knew his trade was thus situated. The profits of certain kinds of business to the man who has a little skill or some luck are certain in such a period to be inordinate. Great fortunes may be made in a few months. But apart from all such, the steady-going business man, who would be pained and insulted at the thought of being designated speculator or profiteer, may find windfall profits dropping into his lap which he has neither sought nor desired. Economists draw an instructive distinction between what are termed the “money” rate of interest and the “real” rate of interest. If a sum of money worth 100 in terms of commodities at the time when the loan is made is lent for a year at 5 per cent interest, and is only worth 90 in terms of commodities at the end of the year, the lender receives back, including his interest, what is only worth 94½. This is expressed by saying that while the rate of interest was 5 per cent, the rate of interest had actually been negative and equal to 5½ per cent. In the same way, if at the end of the period the value of money had risen and the capital sum lent had come to be worth 110 in terms of commodities, while the rate of interest would still be 5 per cent the rate of interest would have been 15½ per cent. money real minus money real Such considerations, even though they are not explicitly present to the minds of the business world, are far from being academic. The business world may speak, and even think, as though the money rate of interest could be considered by itself, without reference to the real rate. But it does not act so. The merchant or manufacturer, who is calculating whether a 7 per cent bank rate is so onerous as to compel him to curtail his operations, is very much influenced by his anticipations about the prospective price of the commodity in which he is interested. Thus, when prices are rising, the business man who borrows money is able to repay the lender with what, in terms of real value, not only represents no interest, but is even less than the capital originally advanced; that is, the real rate of interest falls to a negative value, and the borrower reaps a corresponding benefit. It is true that, in so far as a rise of prices is foreseen, attempts to get advantage from this by increased borrowing force the money rates of interest to move upwards. It is for this reason, amongst others, that a high bank rate should be associated with a period of rising prices, and a low bank rate with a period of falling prices. The apparent abnormality of the money rate of interest at such times is merely the other side of the attempt of the real rate of interest to steady itself. Nevertheless in a period of rapidly changing prices, the money rate of interest seldom adjusts itself adequately or fast enough to prevent the real rate from becoming abnormal. For it is not the of a given rise of prices, but the of a rise compounded of the various possible price-movements and the estimated probability of each, which affects money rates; and in countries where the currency has not collapsed completely, there has seldom or never existed a sufficient general confidence in a further rise or fall of prices to cause the short-money rate of interest to rise above 10 per cent per annum, or to fall below 1 per cent. A fluctuation of this order is not sufficient to balance a movement of prices, up or down, of more than (say) 5 per cent per annum,—a rate which the actual price movement has frequently exceeded. fact expectation 6 The merchant, who borrows money in order to take advantage of a prospective high real rate of interest, has to act in advance of the rise in prices, and is calculating on a probability, not upon a certainty, with the result that he will be deterred by a movement in the money rate of interest of much less magnitude than the contrary movement in the real rate of interest, upon which indeed he is reckoning, yet is not reckoning with certainty. 6 Germany has recently provided an illustration of the extraordinary degree in which the money rate of interest can rise in its endeavour to keep up with the real rate, when prices have continued to rise for so long and with such violence that, rightly or wrongly, every one believes that they will continue to rise further. Yet even there the money rate of interest has never risen high enough to keep pace with the rise of prices. In the autumn of 1922, the full effects were just becoming visible of the long preceding period during which the real rate of interest in Germany had reached a high negative figure, that is to say during which any one who could borrow marks and turn them into assets would have found at the end of any given period that the appreciation in the mark-value of the assets was far greater than the interest he had to pay for borrowing them. By this means great fortunes were snatched out of general calamity; and those made most who had seen first, that the right game was to borrow and to borrow and to borrow, and thus secure the difference between the real rate of interest and the money rate. But after this had been good business for many months, every one began to take a hand, with belated results on the money rate of interest. At that time, with a nominal Reichsbank rate of 8 per cent, the effective gilt-edged rate for short loans had risen to 22 per cent per annum. During the first half of 1923, the rate of the Reichsbank itself rose to 24 per cent, and subsequently to 30, and finally 108 per cent, whilst the market rate fluctuated violently at preposterous figures, reaching at times 3 per cent for certain types of loan. With the final currency collapse of July-September 1923, the open market rate was altogether demoralised, and reached figures of 100 per cent per month. In face, however, of the rate of currency depreciation, even such figures were inadequate, and the bold borrower was still making money. per week In Hungary, Poland, and Russia—wherever prices were expected to collapse yet further—the same phenomenon was present, exhibiting as through a microscope what takes place everywhere when prices are expected to rise. On the other hand, when prices are falling 30 to 40 per cent between the average of one year and that of the next, as they were in Great Britain and in the United States during 1921, even a bank rate of 1 per cent would have been oppressive to business, since it would have corresponded to a very high rate of real interest. Any one who could have foreseen the movement even partially would have done well for himself by selling out his assets and staying out of business for the time being. But if the depreciation of money is a source of gain to the business man, it is also the occasion of opprobrium. To the consumer the business man’s exceptional profits appear as the cause (instead of the consequence) of the hated rise of prices. Amidst the rapid fluctuations of his fortunes he himself loses his conservative instincts, and begins to think more of the large gains of the moment than of the lesser, but permanent, profits of normal business. The welfare of his enterprise in the relatively distant future weighs less with him than before, and thoughts are excited of a quick fortune and clearing out. His excessive gains have come to him unsought and without fault or design on his part, but once acquired he does not lightly surrender them, and will struggle to retain his booty. With such impulses and so placed, the business man is himself not free from a suppressed uneasiness. In his heart he loses his former self-confidence in his relation to society, in his utility and necessity in the economic scheme. He fears the future of his business and his class, and the less secure he feels his fortune to be the tighter he clings to it. The business man, the prop of society and the builder of the future, to whose activities and rewards there had been accorded, not long ago, an almost religious sanction, he of all men and classes most respectable, praiseworthy and necessary, with whom interference was not only disastrous but almost impious, was now to suffer sidelong glances, to feel himself suspected and attacked, the victim of unjust and injurious laws,—to become, and know himself half-guilty, a profiteer. No man of spirit will consent to remain poor if he believes his betters to have gained their goods by lucky gambling. To convert the business man into the profiteer is to strike a blow at capitalism, because it destroys the psychological equilibrium which permits the perpetuance of unequal rewards. The economic doctrine of normal profits, vaguely apprehended by every one, is a necessary condition for the justification of capitalism. The business man is only tolerable so long as his gains can be held to bear some relation to what, roughly and in some sense, his activities have contributed to society. This, then, is the second disturbance to the existing economic order for which the depreciation of money is responsible. If the fall in the value of money discourages investment, it also discredits enterprise. Not that the business man was allowed, even during the period of boom, to retain the whole of his exceptional profits. A host of popular remedies vainly attempted to cure the evils of the day; which remedies themselves—subsidies, price and rent fixing, profiteer hunting, and excess profits duties—eventually became not the least part of the evils. In due course came the depression, with falling prices, which operate on those who hold stocks in a manner exactly opposite to rising prices. Excessive losses, bearing no relation to the efficiency of the business, took the place of windfall gains; and the effort of every one to hold as small stocks as possible brought industry to a standstill, just as previously their efforts to accumulate stocks had over-stimulated it. Unemployment succeeded Profiteering as the problem of the hour. But whilst the cyclical movement of trade and credit has, in the good-currency countries, partly reversed, for the time being at least, the great rise of 1920, it has, in the countries of continuing inflation, made no more than a ripple on the rapids of depreciation. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Keynes, John Maynard. 2021. A Tract on Monetary Reform. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved May 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/65278/65278-h/65278-h.htm#sec_3 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

Keep

A Tract on Monetary Reform: Chapter I - No. 2 The Business Class

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Book I, Chapter IV: OF THE ORIGIN AND USE OF MONEY. CHAPTER IV. OF THE ORIGIN AND USE OF MONEY. When the division of labour has been once thoroughly established, it is but a very small part of a man’s wants which the produce of his own labour can supply. He supplies the far greater part of them by exchanging that surplus part of the produce of his own labour, which is over and above his own consumption, for such parts of the produce of other men’s labour as he has occasion for. Every man thus lives by exchanging, or becomes, in some measure, a merchant, and the society itself grows to be what is properly a commercial society. But when the division of labour first began to take place, this power of exchanging must frequently have been very much clogged and embarrassed in its operations. One man, we shall suppose, has more of a certain commodity than he himself has occasion for, while another has less. The former, consequently, would be glad to dispose of; and the latter to purchase, a part of this superfluity. But if this latter should chance to have nothing that the former stands in need of, no exchange can be made between them. The butcher has more meat in his shop than he himself can consume, and the brewer and the baker would each of them be willing to purchase a part of it. But they have nothing to offer in exchange, except the different productions of their respective trades, and the butcher is already provided with all the bread and beer which he has immediate occasion for. No exchange can, in this case, be made between them. He cannot be their merchant, nor they his customers; and they are all of them thus mutually less serviceable to one another. In order to avoid the inconveniency of such situations, every prudent man in every period of society, after the first establishment of the division of labour, must naturally have endeavoured to manage his affairs in such a manner, as to have at all times by him, besides the peculiar produce of his own industry, a certain quantity of some one commodity or other, such as he imagined few people would be likely to refuse in exchange for the produce of their industry. Many different commodities, it is probable, were successively both thought of and employed for this purpose. In the rude ages of society, cattle are said to have been the common instrument of commerce; and, though they must have been a most inconvenient one, yet, in old times, we find things were frequently valued according to the number of cattle which had been given in exchange for them. The armour of Diomede, says Homer, cost only nine oxen; but that of Glaucus cost a hundred oxen. Salt is said to be the common instrument of commerce and exchanges in Abyssinia; a species of shells in some parts of the coast of India; dried cod at Newfoundland; tobacco in Virginia; sugar in some of our West India colonies; hides or dressed leather in some other countries; and there is at this day a village in Scotland, where it is not uncommon, I am told, for a workman to carry nails instead of money to the baker’s shop or the ale-house. In all countries, however, men seem at last to have been determined by irresistible reasons to give the preference, for this employment, to metals above every other commodity. Metals can not only be kept with as little loss as any other commodity, scarce any thing being less perishable than they are, but they can likewise, without any loss, be divided into any number of parts, as by fusion those parts can easily be re-united again; a quality which no other equally durable commodities possess, and which, more than any other quality, renders them fit to be the instruments of commerce and circulation. The man who wanted to buy salt, for example, and had nothing but cattle to give in exchange for it, must have been obliged to buy salt to the value of a whole ox, or a whole sheep, at a time. He could seldom buy less than this, because what he was to give for it could seldom be divided without loss; and if he had a mind to buy more, he must, for the same reasons, have been obliged to buy double or triple the quantity, the value, to wit, of two or three oxen, or of two or three sheep. If, on the contrary, instead of sheep or oxen, he had metals to give in exchange for it, he could easily proportion the quantity of the metal to the precise quantity of the commodity which he had immediate occasion for. Different metals have been made use of by different nations for this purpose. Iron was the common instrument of commerce among the ancient Spartans, copper among the ancient Romans, and gold and silver among all rich and commercial nations. Those metals seem originally to have been made use of for this purpose in rude bars, without any stamp or coinage. Thus we are told by Pliny (Plin. Hist Nat. lib. 33, cap. 3), upon the authority of Timaeus, an ancient historian, that, till the time of Servius Tullius, the Romans had no coined money, but made use of unstamped bars of copper, to purchase whatever they had occasion for. These rude bars, therefore, performed at this time the function of money. The use of metals in this rude state was attended with two very considerable inconveniences; first, with the trouble of weighing, and secondly, with that of assaying them. In the precious metals, where a small difference in the quantity makes a great difference in the value, even the business of weighing, with proper exactness, requires at least very accurate weights and scales. The weighing of gold, in particular, is an operation of some nicety in the coarser metals, indeed, where a small error would be of little consequence, less accuracy would, no doubt, be necessary. Yet we should find it excessively troublesome if every time a poor man had occasion either to buy or sell a farthing’s worth of goods, he was obliged to weigh the farthing. The operation of assaying is still more difficult, still more tedious; and, unless a part of the metal is fairly melted in the crucible, with proper dissolvents, any conclusion that can be drawn from it is extremely uncertain. Before the institution of coined money, however, unless they went through this tedious and difficult operation, people must always have been liable to the grossest frauds and impositions; and instead of a pound weight of pure silver, or pure copper, might receive, in exchange for their goods, an adulterated composition of the coarsest and cheapest materials, which had, however, in their outward appearance, been made to resemble those metals. To prevent such abuses, to facilitate exchanges, and thereby to encourage all sorts of industry and commerce, it has been found necessary, in all countries that have made any considerable advances towards improvement, to affix a public stamp upon certain quantities of such particular metals, as were in those countries commonly made use of to purchase goods. Hence the origin of coined money, and of those public offices called mints; institutions exactly of the same nature with those of the aulnagers and stamp-masters of woollen and linen cloth. All of them are equally meant to ascertain, by means of a public stamp, the quantity and uniform goodness of those different commodities when brought to market. The first public stamps of this kind that were affixed to the current metals, seem in many cases to have been intended to ascertain, what it was both most difficult and most important to ascertain, the goodness or fineness of the metal, and to have resembled the sterling mark which is at present affixed to plate and bars of silver, or the Spanish mark which is sometimes affixed to ingots of gold, and which, being struck only upon one side of the piece, and not covering the whole surface, ascertains the fineness, but not the weight of the metal. Abraham weighs to Ephron the four hundred shekels of silver which he had agreed to pay for the field of Machpelah. They are said, however, to be the current money of the merchant, and yet are received by weight, and not by tale, in the same manner as ingots of gold and bars of silver are at present. The revenues of the ancient Saxon kings of England are said to have been paid, not in money, but in kind, that is, in victuals and provisions of all sorts. William the Conqueror introduced the custom of paying them in money. This money, however, was for a long time, received at the exchequer, by weight, and not by tale. The inconveniency and difficulty of weighing those metals with exactness, gave occasion to the institution of coins, of which the stamp, covering entirely both sides of the piece, and sometimes the edges too, was supposed to ascertain not only the fineness, but the weight of the metal. Such coins, therefore, were received by tale, as at present, without the trouble of weighing. The denominations of those coins seem originally to have expressed the weight or quantity of metal contained in them. In the time of Servius Tullius, who first coined money at Rome, the Roman as or pondo contained a Roman pound of good copper. It was divided, in the same manner as our Troyes pound, into twelve ounces, each of which contained a real ounce of good copper. The English pound sterling, in the time of Edward I. contained a pound, Tower weight, of silver of a known fineness. The Tower pound seems to have been something more than the Roman pound, and something less than the Troyes pound. This last was not introduced into the mint of England till the 18th of Henry the VIII. The French livre contained, in the time of Charlemagne, a pound, Troyes weight, of silver of a known fineness. The fair of Troyes in Champaign was at that time frequented by all the nations of Europe, and the weights and measures of so famous a market were generally known and esteemed. The Scots money pound contained, from the time of Alexander the First to that of Robert Bruce, a pound of silver of the same weight and fineness with the English pound sterling. English, French, and Scots pennies, too, contained all of them originally a real penny-weight of silver, the twentieth part of an ounce, and the two hundred-and-fortieth part of a pound. The shilling, too, seems originally to have been the denomination of a weight. “When wheat is at twelve shillings the quarter,” says an ancient statute of Henry III. “then wastel bread of a farthing shall weigh eleven shillings and fourpence”. The proportion, however, between the shilling, and either the penny on the one hand, or the pound on the other, seems not to have been so constant and uniform as that between the penny and the pound. During the first race of the kings of France, the French sou or shilling appears upon different occasions to have contained five, twelve, twenty, and forty pennies. Among the ancient Saxons, a shilling appears at one time to have contained only five pennies, and it is not improbable that it may have been as variable among them as among their neighbours, the ancient Franks. From the time of Charlemagne among the French, and from that of William the Conqueror among the English, the proportion between the pound, the shilling, and the penny, seems to have been uniformly the same as at present, though the value of each has been very different; for in every country of the world, I believe, the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states, abusing the confidence of their subjects, have by degrees diminished the real quantity of metal, which had been originally contained in their coins. The Roman as, in the latter ages of the republic, was reduced to the twenty-fourth part of its original value, and, instead of weighing a pound, came to weigh only half an ounce. The English pound and penny contain at present about a third only; the Scots pound and penny about a thirty-sixth; and the French pound and penny about a sixty-sixth part of their original value. By means of those operations, the princes and sovereign states which performed them were enabled, in appearance, to pay their debts and fulfil their engagements with a smaller quantity of silver than would otherwise have been requisite. It was indeed in appearance only; for their creditors were really defrauded of a part of what was due to them. All other debtors in the state were allowed the same privilege, and might pay with the same nominal sum of the new and debased coin whatever they had borrowed in the old. Such operations, therefore, have always proved favourable to the debtor, and ruinous to the creditor, and have sometimes produced a greater and more universal revolution in the fortunes of private persons, than could have been occasioned by a very great public calamity. It is in this manner that money has become, in all civilized nations, the universal instrument of commerce, by the intervention of which goods of all kinds are bought and sold, or exchanged for one another. What are the rules which men naturally observe, in exchanging them either for money, or for one another, I shall now proceed to examine. These rules determine what may be called the relative or exchangeable value of goods. The word VALUE, it is to be observed, has two different meanings, and sometimes expresses the utility of some particular object, and sometimes the power of purchasing other goods which the possession of that object conveys. The one may be called ‘value in use;’ the other, ‘value in exchange.’ The things which have the greatest value in use have frequently little or no value in exchange; and, on the contrary, those which have the greatest value in exchange have frequently little or no value in use. Nothing is more useful than water; but it will purchase scarce any thing; scarce any thing can be had in exchange for it. A diamond, on the contrary, has scarce any value in use; but a very great quantity of other goods may frequently be had in exchange for it. In order to investigate the principles which regulate the exchangeable value of commodities, I shall endeavour to shew, First, what is the real measure of this exchangeable value; or wherein consists the real price of all commodities. Secondly, what are the different parts of which this real price is composed or made up. And, lastly, what are the different circumstances which sometimes raise some or all of these different parts of price above, and sometimes sink them below, their natural or ordinary rate; or, what are the causes which sometimes hinder the market price, that is, the actual price of commodities, from coinciding exactly with what may be called their natural price. I shall endeavour to explain, as fully and distinctly as I can, those three subjects in the three following chapters, for which I must very earnestly entreat both the patience and attention of the reader: his patience, in order to examine a detail which may, perhaps, in some places, appear unnecessarily tedious; and his attention, in order to understand what may perhaps, after the fullest explication which I am capable of giving it, appear still in some degree obscure. I am always willing to run some hazard of being tedious, in order to be sure that I am perspicuous; and, after taking the utmost pains that I can to be perspicuous, some obscurity may still appear to remain upon a subject, in its own nature extremely abstracted. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Smith, Adam. 2001. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved May 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3300/3300-h/3300-h.htm#chap06 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: Book I, Chapter IV

Flow

Abroad

Slack

Indian Currency and Finance: CHAPTER III - Paper Currency

At times, I wonder what life would be like if we knew everything beforehand. Every decision we made turned out in line with our expectations. Every outcome was guaranteed. No unknowns. No unexpected conditions. No unwarranted circumstances. Pretty boring, right? After all, as a species, we are designed to thrive in uncertainty. We don’t find joy in the knowns. It’s the thrill of navigating the unknowns that keep us inspired and motivated. What gives us pleasure is not the successful outcome, but getting past the obstacles and challenges we faced which led to that outcome. Without the ability to deal with ambiguity, we wouldn’t have survived as a species. All the technology that’s now a big part of our life wouldn’t even exist. If you think about all the innovation of the last 200 years, it wasn’t born out of our comfort zone. Every new advancement came with someone who was willing to step outside their comfort zone. Someone who made decisions without accurate information. Someone who stepped up and embraced unpredictability. Someone who navigated through change. Someone who led with a vision even without complete information. Organizations that thrive are run by leaders who see opportunity in uncertainty, who cut through ambiguity, and who lead with the mindset to gain clarity. Remember most of the future is unforeseeable. Learn to coexist with chaos. Factor it into your plans. Accept that failure is always a possibility, even if you are one of the good guys; those who believe failure is not an option never plan for it. Some things are predictable and manageable, but the farther away in time an event occurs, the less power you have over it - David McRaney Done right, ambiguity can be exhilarating, rewarding, and mentally stimulating. Done wrong, it can be exhausting, emotionally consuming, and even downright demotivating. When faced with complex challenges and uncertain outcomes, many leaders rely on their brilliance or hard work to find the right answers. However, they fail to realize that navigating the unknown isn’t about smartness, and putting in more effort won’t solve increasingly complex business problems. It’s only by considering different perspectives, asking better questions, and learning from their own systems, leaders can build the curiosity and flexibility required to purposefully cut through ambiguity. Great Leaders deal with ambiguity using these 7 practices They Zoom Out and Zoom In Great leaders cut through ambiguity using the zoom-out and zoom-in techniques. By zooming out, they map existing information to the demands of tomorrow, visualize how the various factors will play out, and try to understand the consequence of their decision way into the future. While zooming in, they try to face the current realities of their organization to determine what needs to change in the present to make that future possible. By combining the opportunities in the future with the challenges of the present, they are able to realistically carve out a plan, set deterministic goals, and take small steps to turn them into success stories for their organization. Ambiguity can often cause leaders to zoom out and zoom in on the wrong problems. To avoid sidelining the problems that often plague their organization, great leaders create a culture where people feel safe to speak up, actively encourage disagreements and lead with the mindset to get to the right information even if it misaligns with their current beliefs and expectations. They Separate Knowns From Unknowns Uncertainty can be overwhelming if leaders don’t realize that even amidst unknowns, there are always some knowns. Great leaders know this. To make the best use of their time and energy, they separate what’s absolutely clear from what’s up for debate. Things they can rely on from the ones that can’t be trusted. Information that’s trivial from the one that’s crucial. Investments that are risky from the ones that are safe. For example, every new product launch often comes with a certain degree of risk. How customers will react to the new product is always unknown. However, believing in your team and knowing that you can count on them to pull through any challenge and setback at work can be known to you. This knowledge can serve as a great source of energy to navigate uncertain times. When deciding on two equally good opportunities, you might understand the value addition they both bring to your ecosystem but feel challenged when it comes to understanding their limitations. Knowing this can help you double click on their limitations to make a more informed decision. They Build Cross- Disciplinary Thinking No doubt some problems are complex, but even others that aren’t may seem so if leaders don’t invest in building cross-disciplinary thinking. Cross-disciplinary thinking is the ability to gather knowledge and ideas from other domains outside your primary domain and involves identifying creative solutions to problems by combining various types of information in your head in new and novel ways. Increasing specialization has created a system of parallel trenches in the quest for innovation. Everyone is digging deeper into their own trench and rarely standing up to look in the next trench over, even though the solution to their problem happens to reside there - David Epstein He adds “Modern work demands knowledge transfer: the ability to apply knowledge to new situations and different domains. Our most fundamental thought processes have changed to accommodate increasing complexity and the need to derive new patterns rather than rely only on familiar ones. Our conceptual classification schemes provide a scaffolding for connecting knowledge, making it accessible and flexible.” Great leaders learn to deal with ambiguity by looking beyond all the complexity and uncertainty through diverse experience and cross-disciplinary thinking. They Apply Their Intuition Amazon Prime Membership and Fulfillment by Amazon, now highly successful programs had a high probability of failure during the ideation phase. Jeff Bezos called them radical ideas and talked about the importance of intuition in decision-making. He said “We invested in both of these ideas with a significant financial risk and after much internal debate. We had to continue investing significantly over time as we experimented with different ideas and iterations. We could not foresee with certainty what those programs would eventually look like, let alone whether they would succeed, but they were pushed forward with intuition and heart, and nourished with optimism.” He also said “All of my best decisions in business and in life have been made with heart, intuition, guts... not analysis. If you can make a decision with analysis, you should do so. But it turns out in life that your most important decisions are always made with instinct and intuition, taste, heart.” It’s important to make decisions rationally and factoring data into decision-making is crucial as well, but not every situation at work is black and white and comes with a straightforward answer that can be resolved with data. Great leaders know that in times of uncertainty, they sometimes need to rely on their expert intuition to make the right decision. This expert intuition formed based on years of learning and experience helps them navigate otherwise difficult and uncertain situations. Superior leadership is often a matter of superb instinct. When faced with a tough decision, use the time available to gather information that will inform your instinct. Learn all you can about the situation, your opponent, your assets and liabilities, your strengths and weaknesses, the threats and risks. Select several possible courses of action, then test the information you have gathered against them and analyze one against the other. Often, the factual analysis alone will indicate the right choice. More often, your judgment will be needed to select from the best courses of action. This is the moment when you apply your instinct to smell the right answer. This is where you apply your education, experience, and knowledge of external considerations unfamiliar to your staff. This is when you look deep into your own fears, anxiety, and self-confidence. This is where you earn your pay and position. Your instinct at this point is not a wild guess or a hunch. It is an informed instinct that knows from long experience which facts are the most important and which adverse facts, however adverse, can be set aside - Colin Powell They are Willing to Take Risks Don’t be in the business of playing it safe. Be in the business of creating possibilities for greatness. People sometimes shy away from big swings because they build a case against trying something before they even step up to the plate. Long shots aren’t usually as long as they seem. With enough thoughtfulness and commitment, the boldest ideas can be executed - Robert Iger Great leaders don’t wait for perfect conditions to make a move. They know that every decision they make will not be perfect. But for a growing organization, the cost of inaction while waiting for a perfect opportunity is more than the cost of taking a less optimal action. They understand that taking risks does not mean flying blind. It involves the willingness to do experimentation, making calculated investments, checkpointing, learning, and making corrections along the way. It’s this willingness to step into the unknown that makes them stand out from many others who feel paralyzed with ambiguity, overthinking, and indecision. They are Open to Changing Direction It’s one thing to be invested in a decision and it’s another to be delusional. Uncertainty may cause leaders to invest in sunk costs - invested time, money, and effort that is now irrecoverable impacts their thinking and makes them put in more resources on an already failed cause without realizing the opportunity cost of making those investments. Our narrative of being a knowledgeable, educated, intelligent person who holds quality opinions isn’t compromised when we use new information to calibrate our beliefs…There is no sin in finding out there is evidence that contradicts what we believe. The only sin is in not using that evidence as objectively as possible to refine that belief going forward - Annie Duke Great leaders embrace ambiguity with agility. They ensure that their team understands their intention, supports them in their vision, and doesn’t hesitate to switch gears when the outcomes do not match what they originally envisioned. Instead of sticking to an already failed course of action, they are quick to reevaluate circumstances, shift direction, and switch to a different plan of action. Flexibility to adapt, either as a response to a wrong strategy or unexpected conditions keeps their organizations strong and thriving. They Take Responsibility Uncertainty can create a sense of loss of control where you start believing something beyond you as the reason for your experience. “It didn’t work out because my client backed out at the last minute.” “If only my boss was more caring, I could have conveyed bad news sooner.” “We didn’t do it because of lack of resources.” Abdicating responsibility and blaming outside forces (other people, situations, circumstances) for how something turned out only leads to avoidance and inaction. When leaders engage with a victim mindset, instead of putting effort into seeking clarity, they pull back. Instead of investing time in finding a solution, they spend more time complaining and feeding their frustration which leads to a toxic spiral of negativity and inaction. Great leaders aren’t trapped by negativity as they feel more in control of their experience. They know that they can’t control the circumstances, but they can certainly control how they respond to those circumstances. With an inner sense of control over their own behaviors, decisions, and actions, they lead with constructive action as opposed to blaming someone or something else for their situation. Summary Leaders who learn to deal with ambiguity thrive while those who don't, barely survive. Instead of trying to avoid uncertainty, great leaders embrace it by considering different perspectives, asking better questions, and learning from their own systems. With their ability to zoom in and zoom out, great leaders are able to carve out a path from the present realities of their organizations to the expectations of tomorrow. Separating the knowns from the unknowns helps them direct their time and energy in identifying relevant and missing information. Great leaders are able to look beyond the complexity and ambiguity by practicing cross-disciplinary thinking and using creative problem-solving. Instead of only relying on data to make decisions, they make ambiguous decisions by factoring in their intuition. Willingness to step outside their comfort zone makes them embrace risks and uncertainty with courage and action. Instead of sticking with a wrong decision, they don’t hesitate to change direction. Most importantly, taking responsibility puts them in control thereby enabling them to take constructive action and influence a positive change in their circumstances and conditions. Previously published . here

Amazon

2022 - All About Teamwork

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Company Culture

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Leadership

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Management

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Management And Leadership

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Personal Development

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Self Improvement

2022 - Remote Work Warrior

Learn and be better everyday

Nominated for 2022 - All About Teamwork

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Leadership

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Self Improvement

Nominated for 2022 - Remote Work Warrior

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Management

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Management And Leadership

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Company Culture

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Personal Development

How Do I Handle Ambiguity as a Leader?

Do you ever meet those people who just ooze confidence? Their posture is perfect, their investment portfolio is on-point, and their business is already thriving after one year of operation. You can hardly help but be drawn in by their radiant energy. But when you ask them how they manage to live a superhuman life, they respond with, “I manifest my dreams!” and all of your respect for them quickly diminishes. There’s a lot of stigma around manifestation and the in our society. There are plenty of believers, too — don’t get me wrong. Most of the time, though, we scoff at this concept that seems to invoke ancient magic and invisible energy from the universe. Law of Attraction Recently, though, I spoke with a woman who I’m certain would change your mind in one simple conversation. I know I was convinced. See, manifestation doesn’t have to be this strange channeling of the powers of the universe (unless you want it to, of course). As my guest Natasha Graziano informed me, a lot of the mechanics actually come down to neuroscience. This is what we’ll be exploring in today’s newsletter — so let’s dive in. How manifestation is viewed in the business world Natasha Graziano was my last April guest on the Success Story Podcast, and I want to explore her incredible takes on manifestation in just a moment. First, though, let’s take a tour through the ways in which we view (and misinterpret) manifestation in the business world. The shortcut to success? We’ll start with one of the most common misinterpretations of manifestation in business: the get-rich-quick scheme. Too often, we view manifestation as a way to circumvent the natural order of things. Most business people know that, in reality, there’s no shortcut to financial success — and this is where many people grow skeptical of manifestation. In reality, manifestation was never supposed to be about taking shortcuts or magically bypassing the work that’s necessary for success. Rather, it’s about aligning your thoughts and actions with what you want to achieve and then allowing the natural way of things to run its course. The spiritual ‘woo-woo’ Another common turn-off for business people is the spiritual affiliations often associated with manifestation. In fact, some businesspeople view the very idea of manifestation as a “woo-woo” concept that has nothing to do with the real world. Now, I don’t want to speak for all businesspeople — but I know that the majority of them are logical, rational thinkers. In fact, if you look at the Myers-Briggs personality types of successful business people, they all include Thinking (rather than Feeling) and Judging (rather than Perceiving). four most common In other words, business people are typically more interested in actionable steps that will produce tangible results, rather than in concepts that can be difficult to measure or quantify. And there’s no denying that manifestation has spiritual links in its theoretical content, which can’t really be measured or quantified. The Problem of Inconsistency Finally, there is the glaring inconsistency problem — and this also tends to surface in religious criticism. If manifestation doesn’t work for everyone, why should it work for the minority? And, furthermore, if it does work for some people but not for others, what accounts for the difference? These are all valid points that deserve careful consideration. After all, manifestation is an incredibly powerful tool — and we should be wary of any technique that has the potential to produce such vast outcomes. But at the same time, I think this also stems from a misunderstanding that manifestation is somehow synonymous with miracle-working or prayer. As you’ll see in Natasha’s responses, though, manifestation relies more upon our own discipline and mindset than any outside force. In this way, it’s more like a than a miracle — and that’s a much more tangible concept for most of us. self-fulfilling prophecy So let’s get into Natasha’s thoughts on the matter. Natasha Graziano: One of the Greatest Motivators of our Time You’ve probably heard this name floating around in business and productivity circles — but if you haven’t, here’s a quick rundown of her outstanding achievements thus far. Natasha Graziano is the nation’s number one Mindset Coach. She was ranked ‘number 1 female motivational speaker under 40 in the world’ by , and the top female mindset coach by Business Insider. Forbes Magazine Natasha is also the host of The Law Of Attraction podcast, which has gained over 100 million views to date (wow!) and is ranked in the ‘Top 10 podcasts to download in 2021’ by Influencive Magazine. And if that wasn’t enough to blow your mind, Natasha is the creator of the renowned MBS Method (Meditational Behavioral Synchronicity) — your transformation to a greater life — which consists of ancient breathing techniques, meditation in altered states of consciousness, and strong roots in neuroscience. Her knowledge has helped over 1.5 million people transform their lives, making her one of the most respected names in her field online internationally. She has been seen in The New York Times, Wealth Insider, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, BBC, Business Insider, Vogue, Forbes & many more top-tier publications. Needless to say, you’ll want to hang on to your seats for this interview. Watch the full thing for even more insights into her vast knowledge of behavioral neuroscience. here What is Manifestation to You? This is one of the main questions I explored with Natasha in our interview, not just for the sake of my audience, but for myself as well. I’m no skeptic, — but I do get stumped when people begin straying from reality into the esoteric. per se To me, manifesting something means that you’re constantly thinking about it. You’re already assuming that you have the things you want so that all the actions you take in your day-to-day are subconsciously geared towards your goals. Natasha takes it a step further, however, integrating principles of neuroscience and the ancient patterns our brains have always followed. “I help people unlock their full human potential. I help people understand how to bring the ancient wisdom and the neuroscience together and where they meet. I knock out the skepticism, I knock out the woo-woo — I’m not interested in ‘Think positively, and it will all appear!’ No, forget it.” Right off the bat, I’m on board with this interpretation of things. I think taking a down-to-earth approach is what will help remove the stigma around these types of practices. “Our mind is this piece of hardware, two million years old. It’s the most incredible piece of hardware that we have in our body. It helps us to function, and it also helps us malfunction if we don’t use it correctly. Sometimes you’ve got to unlearn what you know to grow.” So, what are the mechanics behind manifestation? Natasha was kind enough to talk through some of the main points in her book, , which hasn’t even been released for wider purchase yet. She’s got an immense knowledge base when it comes to this stuff, and I was excited to dig in. Be It Until You Become It Neuroscience and the anatomy of our thoughts “Neuroscience is something I’ve researched for many, many, many years. We have a part of our brain called the reticular activating system. In the lower part of the brain, it filters two million bits of data every second — colors and sounds and things you see. And it shows you the things that you deem as important.” I’d heard of this concept before. If you notice a yellow car, suddenly you’re seeing them everywhere. If you believe in bad luck, you’ll begin focusing on all the bad things that happen to you. “Anything you focus your mind on is what you deem as important. So if you are thinking thoughts of imposter syndrome and negativity — “I’m not worthy of love”, “I’m not worthy of the pay rise”, “I’m not worthy of having a good podcast” — your reticular activating system is going to show you evidence to prove that that belief system that you apparently deem as important is real.” I actually did a quick bit of research on this, because it sounds a lot like confirmation bias. Dr Carol Dweck, one of the most influential researchers in the field of mindset, talks about something called the ; if you tell yourself that improvement is impossible and your goals are unachievable, you stop trying. All the evidence points to failure before you’ve even started. Fixed Mindset “But if you start thinking thoughts of worthiness, of abundance, of wealth, of something different,” Natasha explained, “Those new neural pathways, the synaptic connections, change. Your reticular activating system shows you new evidence around you. So it is up to you.” That last remark resonated with me — What turns a lot of people away from manifestation is the misconception that you give all responsibility over to the ‘powers that be’ — but as Natasha explains, it doesn’t work like that. Refusing to take control is turning down an active role in your own life. it is up to you. You can change your thoughts Not many people are aware of this, but our thoughts are totally within our control. They aren’t like stray hairs that refuse to be tamed on a humid day — we can change our entire mindset. The well-respected Dr. Caroline Leaf has spent much of her career through extensive research. But it takes action, and it takes work. proving this fact “The other day, I was feeling amazing,” Natasha said, “But I didn’t start my day like that. I started my day in a very bad way. So how do you change those thoughts? You shake it off. You go do yoga, you go for a run, you literally physically shake the body. Because when you shake up the body, the DNA physically moves. The cells move. The atoms move. We change.” This is totally based on science, by the way. It’s been proven time and time again that our physical state directly correlates with our mental state. Exercise sends more blood and oxygen to the brain, and it also stimulates the release of endorphins — aka the “happy hormone.” This is why so many people swear by things like yoga and meditation. They help to quiet the mind, and they allow us to focus on the present moment. This is key because our thoughts tend to wander towards the past or future. And no, I am not suggesting that physical movement is a cure-all. Conventional medicine has its place in mental health treatment, just as therapy does. However, sometimes you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and you need to be shaken up like a snow globe to get back to your right mindset. You are your habits Natasha had one last piece of advice to help with building a manifestation mindset: be aware of your habits, and pull out the weeds as soon as they germinate. She shared a great rule of thumb to remember — your thoughts become your feelings, your feelings become your habits, and your habits become you. “Your habits become you. Who we are by the age of 30 years old is just an amalgamation of our habits. What we do, what we do regularly, and what we believe — that’s who we are,” Natasha explained. It’s essentially a reworking of the infamous quote from Lao Tzu: Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny. You don’t need research to back this up (although I’m sure you could find it). Isn’t this simply reality for every single one of us? If you spend lots of time being inactive, you become unfit. If you spend most of your days reading, you become well-learned. And now I’m really beginning to understand what it is to manifest: it’s to take responsibility for your actions and to hold every thought captive. But how do you actually do it? After a quick surface Google search of “how to manifest your dream life”, it was made clear to me that half of the advice on the internet right now is airy-fairy nonsense. (The other half is completely bizarre). To be honest, I think knowing how to manifest simply comes from a deeper understanding of what we talked about in Natasha’s interview. If you understand that your thoughts can quickly become your actions and that your actions can create your reality, you are well on your way to attracting the things you want. I would take it a step further and say you’re already manifesting without even knowing it. Of course, you might be manifesting the wrong things — failure, a lack of confidence, friendship loss, etc. — but you’re still manifesting through every decision you make, every word you speak, and every emotion you feel. The key is to become more aware of your thoughts and feelings and learn how to direct them in the right way. In closing I’ll round out the newsletter with some practical advice Natasha gave on changing your habits and your mindset: “Write down every single thing that you’ve done from the morning until the evening. Before you go to bed, look back at every single thing you wrote down, and mark them out of 10. So you had your coffee? That was a nine out of 10. You had a negative call, so that’s a two out of 10. “Now, why am I asking you to rate them out of 10? Because anything that is under an eight out of 10 is something you want to dig out of your garden. You want to uproot and get it out of your garden — it’s a motherf*cking weed.” Does she need to say more? Get rid of those weeds, and get the life you want. I know you’re more than capable. If you want to hear more from the incredible Natasha Graziano, watch the full interview . Until next time! here

Google

Yellow

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Business

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Business Strategy

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Entrepreneurship

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Sales

2022 - Most Valuable Marketer

2022 - Startup Blogger of the Year

Connect With Scott

Portfolio

Newsletter

Nominated for 2022 - Most Valuable Marketer

Nominated for 2022 - Startup Blogger of the Year

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Entrepreneurship

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Business

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Business Strategy

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Sales

You Are Doing Manifestation Wrong 

Open API specifications are increasingly becoming a popular way to describe and document APIs. The benefits of using an Open API specification include the ability to generate documentation and specifications from the client code, and the fact that many API management support the Open API specification. tools In this article, we'll take a look at what an Open API specification is, and how you can use it to document your APIs. Introduction to OpenAPI Specification OpenAPI Specification (formerly Swagger Specification) is an API description format for REST APIs. An OpenAPI file allows you to describe your entire API, including: • The available endpoints (URLs) and methods (e.g. GET, POST, etc.) • The input and output for each endpoint • The authentication methods In addition to documenting the API, an Open API specification can also be used to generate documentation and client code. Many API management tools support the Open API specification, which makes it easy to create and maintain APIs. Some of the main components of OAS are path, parameters, responses, and security. Each of them is a JSON object that holds properties and an array. The field contains high-level information about the API, version of the document, license, contact, and description. info The server field describes the root endpoint for the API, later used to construct the entire URL from the path. "info": {
        "description": "This is a sample server Petstore server.  You can find out more about Swagger at [http://swagger.io](http://swagger.io) or on [irc.freenode.net, #swagger](http://swagger.io/irc/).  For this sample, you can use the api key `special-key` to test the authorization filters.",
        "version": "1.0.6",
        "title": "Swagger Petstore",
        "termsOfService": "http://swagger.io/terms/",
        "contact": {
            "email": "apiteam@swagger.io"
        },
        "license": {
            "name": "Apache 2.0",
            "url": "http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html"
        }
    } objects hold individual endpoints and their operations. Then the path is appended to the URL from the Server Object in order to reconstruct the full URL. Path For example, here is the POST request for path. /pet "/pet": {
            "post": {
                "tags": ["pet"],
                "summary": "Add a new pet to the store",
                "description": "",
                "operationId": "addPet",
                "consumes": ["application/json", "application/xml"],
                "produces": ["application/json", "application/xml"],
                "parameters": [{
                    "in": "body",
                    "name": "body",
                    "description": "Pet object that needs to be added to the store",
                    "required": true,
                    "schema": {
                        "$ref": "#/definitions/Pet"
                    }
                }],
                "responses": {
                    "405": {
                        "description": "Invalid input"
                    }
                },
                "security": [{
                    "petstore_auth": ["write:pets", "read:pets"]
                }]
            }, The OAS can be written in JSON format or YAML. Explain this JSON code from the official website. swagger is the endpoint /pets POST is the method Parameters list the parameters for the specific endpoint schema is a reference to another part of the specification that adds additional information about the POST request $ref 405 is the status code security is a list of permissions for the endpoint Many more pathways, as well as extra HTTP method operations for the same path, would most likely be defined in an OpenAPI specification. Next, the OpenAPI file describes the object. Components Object allows for the definition of metadata in the API. The metadata can then be reused across the API, making the API definition more concise. components Components Object acts as a container for all the schemas, responses, parameters, examples, and security schemes that your API uses. "components": {
    "schemas": {
      "overviewSegment": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "success": {
            "type": "boolean",
            "example": true
          },
          "message": {
            "type": "string",
            "example": "Success View Segment"
          },
          "code": {
            "type": "string",
            "example": "200"
          },
          "data": {
            "$ref": "#/components/schemas/overviewSegment_data"
          }
        }
      } OpenAPI vs. Swagger OpenAPI and Swagger are two popular frameworks for defining and documenting APIs. Both are open-source projects and are widely used in the API community. Swagger started as an open-source project in 2011. It was acquired by SmartBear in 2015 and renamed OpenAPI Specification. OpenAPI Specification is now managed by the OpenAPI Initiative, which is hosted by the Linux Foundation. OpenAPI Specification (formerly Swagger Specification) is an API description format for REST APIs. An OpenAPI file allows you to describe your entire API, including: Available endpoint(s) and methods (e.g. GET, POST, etc.) The inputs and outputs for each endpoint The data types used Authentication methods Swagger is a set of open-source ton this environment the response differs from our website, maybe because we use the 12.1.5 version ( I also notice a new commit on the , maybe this is the reason). image.tsx During the new POC, you can see that the "d” parameter does not appear but I added it manually (URL encoded). Check out the new environment . here You can also view the new POC . here ols to use OpenAPI Specification to help you develop, document, and consume REST APIs. Swagger tools include: A web-based editor where you can write OpenAPI specs. Swagger Editor: A library that generates code (e.g. client SDKs, server stubs) from OpenAPI specs. Swagger Codegen: A web-based user interface that shows the documentation for an OpenAPI-defined API. Swagger UI: If you're just getting started with API development, we recommend using OpenAPI Specification. It's a great way to define and document your APIs. Once you're comfortable with OpenAPI Specification, you can start using Swagger tools to speed up your development process. OpenAPI Tools The ability to use the vast tool ecosystem that surrounds OpenAPI is a significant advantage. Many open-source and commercial tools assist API developers in developing, testing, documenting, and generating support code for their API. I've selected some of the most popular OpenAPI tools in a few key areas below. Since the rise of cloud computing about a decade ago, there has been an explosion of accessible technology. Developers are working hard to make things better, cooler, or slicker. It's difficult to keep track of tools as they change and others arise. In addition, because adopting new tools takes time, it becomes important to vet new tools for usage. It is no different in the API design environment. 🧪 Testing:Postman, Citrus, APIFortress, Postwoman, Everest. ** 🐞**Validation: OpenAPILint, Spectral, . CherryBomb 🧰 Editors:SwaggerHub, Visual Studio Code extension, KaiZen OpenAPI Editor, Stoplight, Insomnia Designer, Optic, and Curio. ** 📄**Documentation: Swagger UI, Widdershins, and openapi-viewer. ** ♾️**Code Generation: OpenAPI-generator, swagger-node-codegenGoogle Gnostic, and Gen. Furthermore, because adopting new tools takes time, evaluating new technologies for application is crucial. Consider an all-in-one  online tool that validates, tests your specs, develops a thorough real-time endpoint map, and walks you through the process using a params table. Wouldn't it be cool? I want to introduce  BLST’s solution for API development which is very much a game-changer. We just released it today for the first time! Visit , upload your OpenAPI file, and check out the results. blstsecurity.com Give us a star on . Also published . GitHub here

Apache

Fetch

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Rest Api

0xaa9c87c6849287f8e39bea2b62f4419017c66f72

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Rest Api

A Comprehensive Guide to OpenAPI Specification

20 stories with 5 code smells each are 100 code smells, right? Previous Code Smells Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part VII Part VIII Part IX Part X Part XI Part XII Part XIII Part XIV Part XV Part XVI Part XVII Part XVIII Part XIX Let's continue... Code Smell 96 - My Objects You don't own objects. TL;DR: don't use as a name prefix. my Problems Lack of context Bijection Fault Solutions Remove prefix. my Change to a role suggesting name. Context Several old tutorials use the word 'my' as a lazy name.
This is vague and lead to context mistakes. Sample Code Wrong MainWindow myWindow = Application.Current.MainWindow as MainWindow; Right MainWindow salesWindow = Application.Current.MainWindow as MainWindow;

/*

Since window is instanciated, we are currently working
with a specialized window playing a special role

*/ Detection Automatic [x] We can tell our linters and static checkers to search for this prefix and warn us. Tags Naming Conclusion Avoid using . Objects change according to the usage context. my More Info What exactly is a name — Part II Rehab Credits Photo by on Michał Bożek Unsplash Thinking about my experience of modifying code, I see that I spend much more time reading the existing code than I do writing new code. If I want to make my code cheap, therefore, I should make it easy to read. Kent Beck Software Engineering Great Quotes Code Smell 97 - Error Messages Without Empathy We should take special care with error descriptions for the users (and ourselves). TL;DR: Use meaningful descriptions and suggest corrective actions. Problems The Least Surprise Principle Solutions Use declarative error messages Show clear exit actions Context Programmers are seldom UX experts. We also underestimate the fact we can be on both sides of the counter. Sample Code Wrong alert("Cancel the appointment?", "Yes", "No");

// No consequences
// Options not clear Right alert("Cancel the appointment? \n" +
      "You will lose all the history", 
      "Cancel Appointment", 
      "Keep Editing");

// Consequences are clear
// Choice options have context Detection Manual [x] We need to read all exception messages in code reviews. Tags Exceptions UX Conclusion We need to think in our end users when raising exception or showing messages. Credits Photo by on visuals Unsplash While it is a known fact that programmers never make mistakes, it is still a good idea to humor the users by checking for errors at critical points in your program. Robert D. Schneider Code Smell 98 - Speling Mistakes Spelling and readability are very important for humans and not important for machines. TL;DR: Take care of your names. Problems Readability Harder to search terms in code. Solutions Spellcheck your code. Use an IDE with spellchecking Context Many of us don't speak English as our first language. We need to have extra care for our texts and names. 😀 This article has a typo in its title as proof of context and also a clickbait Sample Code Wrong comboFeededBySupplyer = supplyer.providers(); Right comboFedBySupplier = supplier.providers(); Detection Tags Readability Naming Code Styling Conclusion Pay close attention to your names. You will probably be the person reading the code in a few months. Relations Code Smell 48 - Code Without Standards More Info What exactly is a name — Part I The Quest What exactly is a name — Part II Rehab Credits Photo by on Brett Jordan Unsplash Inside every well-written large program is a well-written small program. C.A.R. Hoare Code Smell 99 - First Second How many times do we see lazy argument names? TL;DR: Name your arguments according to the role and not the accidental position Problems Readability Intention Revealing Names Solutions Use meaningful names Context When writing methods, we usually don't stop to find decent names. We never refactor the obvious, neither. Sample Code Wrong class Calculator:
  def subtract(self, first, second):
    return first - second

class CalculatorTest  
  def test_multiply():
    assert equals(first, second) Right class Calculator:
  def subtract(self, minuend, subtrahend):
    return minuend - subtrahend

class CalculatorTest  
  def test_multiply():
    assert equals(expectedValue, realValue) Detection Manual [x] We can warn for forbidden words like 'first' and 'second' as argument names. Tags Readability Conclusion Always follow rule suggesting parameter. Name your collaborators according to the role. Relations Code Smell 65 - Variables Named after Types More Info What exactly is a name — Part II Rehab Credits Photo by on Priscilla Du Preez Unsplash Final source code is the real software design. Jack Reeves Code Smell 100 - GoTo GOTO was considered harmful 50 years ago TL;DR: Don't ever use GoTo. Problems Readability Hard to follow code Solutions Replace with structured code GOTO Use exceptions Context I started programming in Basic. GOTO was heavily abused there. I had to learn structured programming from scratch in Rehab mode. Sample Code Wrong for x < 0 {
    if x > -1e-09 {
      goto small
    }
    z = z / x
    x = x + 1
  }
  for x < 2 {
    if x < 1e-09 {
      goto small
    }
    z = z / x
    x = x + 1
  }

  if x == 2 {
    return z
  }

  x = x - 2
  p = (((((x*_gamP[0]+_gamP[1])*x+_gamP[2])*x+_gamP[3])*x+_gamP[4])*x+_gamP[5])*x + _gamP[6]
  q = ((((((x*_gamQ[0]+_gamQ[1])*x+_gamQ[2])*x+_gamQ[3])*x+_gamQ[4])*x+_gamQ[5])*x+_gamQ[6])*x + _gamQ[7]
  return z * p / q

small:
  if x == 0 {
    return Inf(1)
  }
  return z / ((1 + Euler*x) * x)
} Right for x < 0 {
    if x > -1e-09 {
      return small(x, z)
    }
    z = z / x
    x = x + 1
  }
  for x < 2 {
    if x < 1e-09 {
      return small(x, z)
    }
    z = z / x
    x = x + 1
  }

  if x == 2 {
    return z
  }

  x = x - 2
  p = (((((x*_gamP[0]+_gamP[1])*x+_gamP[2])*x+_gamP[3])*x+_gamP[4])*x+_gamP[5])*x + _gamP[6]
  q = ((((((x*_gamQ[0]+_gamQ[1])*x+_gamQ[2])*x+_gamQ[3])*x+_gamQ[4])*x+_gamQ[5])*x+_gamQ[6])*x + _gamQ[7]
  return z * p / q

small(x, z) {
  if x == 0 {
     return Inf(1)
   }
   return z / ((1 + Euler*x) * x)
 }
} Detection Automatic [x] In languages supporting , our linters can warn us against its usage. GOTO Tags Readability Conclusion We acknowledged GOTO problems a few decades ago. The problem is still present in like GoLang, PHP, Perl etc. modern languages Most programmers luckily avoid GOTO sentence. Next goal will be to consider harmful . null usage Courtesy XKCD Relations Code Smell 12 - Null More Info Goto Statement considered harmful Wikipedia Credits Photo by on Jens Johnsson Unsplash It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. Edsger Dijkstra Software Engineering Great Quotes And that’s all for now, We have hit 100 milestone. The next article will explain 5 more code smells!

Alphabet

Winner of Noonies 2020 for the award Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - REFACTORING.

2020 - Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year in REFACTORING

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Clean Code

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Debugging

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Github

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Machine Learning

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Quality Assurance

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Refactoring

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Software Architecture

2022 - the Greatest Storyteller

Share your ideas with me!

Buy Me a Coffee

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Refactoring

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Quality Assurance

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Github

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Machine Learning

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Clean Code

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Software Architecture

Nominated for 2022 - the Greatest Storyteller

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Debugging

Software Engineer

How to Find the Stinky Parts of Your Code [Part XX]: We have Reached 100!

The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. Chapter 5: Three Broken Threads Sherlock Holmes had, in a very remarkable degree, the power of detaching his mind at will. For two hours the strange business in which we had been involved appeared to be forgotten, and he was entirely absorbed in the pictures of the modern Belgian masters. He would talk of nothing but art, of which he had the crudest ideas, from our leaving the gallery until we found ourselves at the Northumberland Hotel. “Sir Henry Baskerville is upstairs expecting you,” said the clerk. “He asked me to show you up at once when you came.” “Have you any objection to my looking at your register?” said Holmes. “Not in the least.” The book showed that two names had been added after that of Baskerville. One was Theophilus Johnson and family, of Newcastle; the other Mrs. Oldmore and maid, of High Lodge, Alton. “Surely that must be the same Johnson whom I used to know,” said Holmes to the porter. “A lawyer, is he not, grey-headed, and walks with a limp?” “No, sir, this is Mr. Johnson, the coal-owner, a very active gentleman, not older than yourself.” “Surely you are mistaken about his trade?” “No, sir! he has used this hotel for many years, and he is very well known to us.” “Ah, that settles it. Mrs. Oldmore, too; I seem to remember the name. Excuse my curiosity, but often in calling upon one friend one finds another.” “She is an invalid lady, sir. Her husband was once mayor of Gloucester. She always comes to us when she is in town.” “Thank you; I am afraid I cannot claim her acquaintance. We have established a most important fact by these questions, Watson,” he continued in a low voice as we went upstairs together. “We know now that the people who are so interested in our friend have not settled down in his own hotel. That means that while they are, as we have seen, very anxious to watch him, they are equally anxious that he should not see them. Now, this is a most suggestive fact.” “What does it suggest?” “It suggests—halloa, my dear fellow, what on earth is the matter?” As we came round the top of the stairs we had run up against Sir Henry Baskerville himself. His face was flushed with anger, and he held an old and dusty boot in one of his hands. So furious was he that he was hardly articulate, and when he did speak it was in a much broader and more Western dialect than any which we had heard from him in the morning. “Seems to me they are playing me for a sucker in this hotel,” he cried. “They’ll find they’ve started in to monkey with the wrong man unless they are careful. By thunder, if that chap can’t find my missing boot there will be trouble. I can take a joke with the best, Mr. Holmes, but they’ve got a bit over the mark this time.” “Still looking for your boot?” “Yes, sir, and mean to find it.” “But, surely, you said that it was a new brown boot?” “So it was, sir. And now it’s an old black one.” “What! you don’t mean to say—?” “That’s just what I do mean to say. I only had three pairs in the world—the new brown, the old black, and the patent leathers, which I am wearing. Last night they took one of my brown ones, and today they have sneaked one of the black. Well, have you got it? Speak out, man, and don’t stand staring!” An agitated German waiter had appeared upon the scene. “No, sir; I have made inquiry all over the hotel, but I can hear no word of it.” “Well, either that boot comes back before sundown or I’ll see the manager and tell him that I go right straight out of this hotel.” “It shall be found, sir—I promise you that if you will have a little patience it will be found.” “Mind it is, for it’s the last thing of mine that I’ll lose in this den of thieves. Well, well, Mr. Holmes, you’ll excuse my troubling you about such a trifle—” “I think it’s well worth troubling about.” “Why, you look very serious over it.” “How do you explain it?” “I just don’t attempt to explain it. It seems the very maddest, queerest thing that ever happened to me.” “The queerest perhaps—” said Holmes thoughtfully. “What do you make of it yourself?” “Well, I don’t profess to understand it yet. This case of yours is very complex, Sir Henry. When taken in conjunction with your uncle’s death I am not sure that of all the five hundred cases of capital importance which I have handled there is one which cuts so deep. But we hold several threads in our hands, and the odds are that one or other of them guides us to the truth. We may waste time in following the wrong one, but sooner or later we must come upon the right.” We had a pleasant luncheon in which little was said of the business which had brought us together. It was in the private sitting-room to which we afterwards repaired that Holmes asked Baskerville what were his intentions. “To go to Baskerville Hall.” “And when?” “At the end of the week.” “On the whole,” said Holmes, “I think that your decision is a wise one. I have ample evidence that you are being dogged in London, and amid the millions of this great city it is difficult to discover who these people are or what their object can be. If their intentions are evil they might do you a mischief, and we should be powerless to prevent it. You did not know, Dr. Mortimer, that you were followed this morning from my house?” Dr. Mortimer started violently. “Followed! By whom?” “That, unfortunately, is what I cannot tell you. Have you among your neighbours or acquaintances on Dartmoor any man with a black, full beard?” “No—or, let me see—why, yes. Barrymore, Sir Charles’s butler, is a man with a full, black beard.” “Ha! Where is Barrymore?” “He is in charge of the Hall.” “We had best ascertain if he is really there, or if by any possibility he might be in London.” “How can you do that?” “Give me a telegraph form. ‘Is all ready for Sir Henry?’ That will do. Address to Mr. Barrymore, Baskerville Hall. What is the nearest telegraph-office? Grimpen. Very good, we will send a second wire to the postmaster, Grimpen: ‘Telegram to Mr. Barrymore to be delivered into his own hand. If absent, please return wire to Sir Henry Baskerville, Northumberland Hotel.’ That should let us know before evening whether Barrymore is at his post in Devonshire or not.” “That’s so,” said Baskerville. “By the way, Dr. Mortimer, who is this Barrymore, anyhow?” “He is the son of the old caretaker, who is dead. They have looked after the Hall for four generations now. So far as I know, he and his wife are as respectable a couple as any in the county.” “At the same time,” said Baskerville, “it’s clear enough that so long as there are none of the family at the Hall these people have a mighty fine home and nothing to do.” “That is true.” “Did Barrymore profit at all by Sir Charles’s will?” asked Holmes. “He and his wife had five hundred pounds each.” “Ha! Did they know that they would receive this?” “Yes; Sir Charles was very fond of talking about the provisions of his will.” “That is very interesting.” “I hope,” said Dr. Mortimer, “that you do not look with suspicious eyes upon everyone who received a legacy from Sir Charles, for I also had a thousand pounds left to me.” “Indeed! And anyone else?” “There were many insignificant sums to individuals, and a large number of public charities. The residue all went to Sir Henry.” “And how much was the residue?” “Seven hundred and forty thousand pounds.” Holmes raised his eyebrows in surprise. “I had no idea that so gigantic a sum was involved,” said he. “Sir Charles had the reputation of being rich, but we did not know how very rich he was until we came to examine his securities. The total value of the estate was close on to a million.” “Dear me! It is a stake for which a man might well play a desperate game. And one more question, Dr. Mortimer. Supposing that anything happened to our young friend here—you will forgive the unpleasant hypothesis!—who would inherit the estate?” “Since Rodger Baskerville, Sir Charles’s younger brother died unmarried, the estate would descend to the Desmonds, who are distant cousins. James Desmond is an elderly clergyman in Westmoreland.” “Thank you. These details are all of great interest. Have you met Mr. James Desmond?” “Yes; he once came down to visit Sir Charles. He is a man of venerable appearance and of saintly life. I remember that he refused to accept any settlement from Sir Charles, though he pressed it upon him.” “And this man of simple tastes would be the heir to Sir Charles’s thousands.” “He would be the heir to the estate because that is entailed. He would also be the heir to the money unless it were willed otherwise by the present owner, who can, of course, do what he likes with it.” “And have you made your will, Sir Henry?” “No, Mr. Holmes, I have not. I’ve had no time, for it was only yesterday that I learned how matters stood. But in any case I feel that the money should go with the title and estate. That was my poor uncle’s idea. How is the owner going to restore the glories of the Baskervilles if he has not money enough to keep up the property? House, land, and dollars must go together.” “Quite so. Well, Sir Henry, I am of one mind with you as to the advisability of your going down to Devonshire without delay. There is only one provision which I must make. You certainly must not go alone.” “Dr. Mortimer returns with me.” “But Dr. Mortimer has his practice to attend to, and his house is miles away from yours. With all the goodwill in the world he may be unable to help you. No, Sir Henry, you must take with you someone, a trusty man, who will be always by your side.” “Is it possible that you could come yourself, Mr. Holmes?” “If matters came to a crisis I should endeavour to be present in person; but you can understand that, with my extensive consulting practice and with the constant appeals which reach me from many quarters, it is impossible for me to be absent from London for an indefinite time. At the present instant one of the most revered names in England is being besmirched by a blackmailer, and only I can stop a disastrous scandal. You will see how impossible it is for me to go to Dartmoor.” “Whom would you recommend, then?” Holmes laid his hand upon my arm. “If my friend would undertake it there is no man who is better worth having at your side when you are in a tight place. No one can say so more confidently than I.” The proposition took me completely by surprise, but before I had time to answer, Baskerville seized me by the hand and wrung it heartily. “Well, now, that is real kind of you, Dr. Watson,” said he. “You see how it is with me, and you know just as much about the matter as I do. If you will come down to Baskerville Hall and see me through I’ll never forget it.” The promise of adventure had always a fascination for me, and I was complimented by the words of Holmes and by the eagerness with which the baronet hailed me as a companion. “I will come, with pleasure,” said I. “I do not know how I could employ my time better.” “And you will report very carefully to me,” said Holmes. “When a crisis comes, as it will do, I will direct how you shall act. I suppose that by Saturday all might be ready?” “Would that suit Dr. Watson?” “Perfectly.” “Then on Saturday, unless you hear to the contrary, we shall meet at the ten-thirty train from Paddington.” We had risen to depart when Baskerville gave a cry of triumph, and diving into one of the corners of the room he drew a brown boot from under a cabinet. “My missing boot!” he cried. “May all our difficulties vanish as easily!” said Sherlock Holmes. “But it is a very singular thing,” Dr. Mortimer remarked. “I searched this room carefully before lunch.” “And so did I,” said Baskerville. “Every inch of it.” “There was certainly no boot in it then.” “In that case the waiter must have placed it there while we were lunching.” The German was sent for but professed to know nothing of the matter, nor could any inquiry clear it up. Another item had been added to that constant and apparently purposeless series of small mysteries which had succeeded each other so rapidly. Setting aside the whole grim story of Sir Charles’s death, we had a line of inexplicable incidents all within the limits of two days, which included the receipt of the printed letter, the black-bearded spy in the hansom, the loss of the new brown boot, the loss of the old black boot, and now the return of the new brown boot. Holmes sat in silence in the cab as we drove back to Baker Street, and I knew from his drawn brows and keen face that his mind, like my own, was busy in endeavouring to frame some scheme into which all these strange and apparently disconnected episodes could be fitted. All afternoon and late into the evening he sat lost in tobacco and thought. Just before dinner two telegrams were handed in. The first ran: Have just heard that Barrymore is at the Hall. BASKERVILLE. The second: Visited twenty-three hotels as directed, but sorry to report unable to trace cut sheet of Times. CARTWRIGHT. “There go two of my threads, Watson. There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you. We must cast round for another scent.” “We have still the cabman who drove the spy.” “Exactly. I have wired to get his name and address from the Official Registry. I should not be surprised if this were an answer to my question.” The ring at the bell proved to be something even more satisfactory than an answer, however, for the door opened and a rough-looking fellow entered who was evidently the man himself. “I got a message from the head office that a gent at this address had been inquiring for No. 2704,” said he. “I’ve driven my cab this seven years and never a word of complaint. I came here straight from the Yard to ask you to your face what you had against me.” “I have nothing in the world against you, my good man,” said Holmes. “On the contrary, I have half a sovereign for you if you will give me a clear answer to my questions.” “Well, I’ve had a good day and no mistake,” said the cabman with a grin. “What was it you wanted to ask, sir?” “First of all your name and address, in case I want you again.” “John Clayton, 3 Turpey Street, the Borough. My cab is out of Shipley’s Yard, near Waterloo Station.” Sherlock Holmes made a note of it. “Now, Clayton, tell me all about the fare who came and watched this house at ten o’clock this morning and afterwards followed the two gentlemen down Regent Street.” The man looked surprised and a little embarrassed. “Why, there’s no good my telling you things, for you seem to know as much as I do already,” said he. “The truth is that the gentleman told me that he was a detective and that I was to say nothing about him to anyone.” “My good fellow; this is a very serious business, and you may find yourself in a pretty bad position if you try to hide anything from me. You say that your fare told you that he was a detective?” “Yes, he did.” “When did he say this?” “When he left me.” “Did he say anything more?” “He mentioned his name.” Holmes cast a swift glance of triumph at me. “Oh, he mentioned his name, did he? That was imprudent. What was the name that he mentioned?” “His name,” said the cabman, “was Mr. Sherlock Holmes.” Never have I seen my friend more completely taken aback than by the cabman’s reply. For an instant he sat in silent amazement. Then he burst into a hearty laugh. “A touch, Watson—an undeniable touch!” said he. “I feel a foil as quick and supple as my own. He got home upon me very prettily that time. So his name was Sherlock Holmes, was it?” “Yes, sir, that was the gentleman’s name.” “Excellent! Tell me where you picked him up and all that occurred.” “He hailed me at half-past nine in Trafalgar Square. He said that he was a detective, and he offered me two guineas if I would do exactly what he wanted all day and ask no questions. I was glad enough to agree. First we drove down to the Northumberland Hotel and waited there until two gentlemen came out and took a cab from the rank. We followed their cab until it pulled up somewhere near here.” “This very door,” said Holmes. “Well, I couldn’t be sure of that, but I dare say my fare knew all about it. We pulled up halfway down the street and waited an hour and a half. Then the two gentlemen passed us, walking, and we followed down Baker Street and along—” “I know,” said Holmes. “Until we got three-quarters down Regent Street. Then my gentleman threw up the trap, and he cried that I should drive right away to Waterloo Station as hard as I could go. I whipped up the mare and we were there under the ten minutes. Then he paid up his two guineas, like a good one, and away he went into the station. Only just as he was leaving he turned round and he said: ‘It might interest you to know that you have been driving Mr. Sherlock Holmes.’ That’s how I come to know the name.” “I see. And you saw no more of him?” “Not after he went into the station.” “And how would you describe Mr. Sherlock Holmes?” The cabman scratched his head. “Well, he wasn’t altogether such an easy gentleman to describe. I’d put him at forty years of age, and he was of a middle height, two or three inches shorter than you, sir. He was dressed like a toff, and he had a black beard, cut square at the end, and a pale face. I don’t know as I could say more than that.” “Colour of his eyes?” “No, I can’t say that.” “Nothing more that you can remember?” “No, sir; nothing.” “Well, then, here is your half-sovereign. There’s another one waiting for you if you can bring any more information. Good-night!” “Good-night, sir, and thank you!” John Clayton departed chuckling, and Holmes turned to me with a shrug of his shoulders and a rueful smile. “Snap goes our third thread, and we end where we began,” said he. “The cunning rascal! He knew our number, knew that Sir Henry Baskerville had consulted me, spotted who I was in Regent Street, conjectured that I had got the number of the cab and would lay my hands on the driver, and so sent back this audacious message. I tell you, Watson, this time we have got a foeman who is worthy of our steel. I’ve been checkmated in London. I can only wish you better luck in Devonshire. But I’m not easy in my mind about it.” “About what?” “About sending you. It’s an ugly business, Watson, an ugly dangerous business, and the more I see of it the less I like it. Yes, my dear fellow, you may laugh, but I give you my word that I shall be very glad to have you back safe and sound in Baker Street once more.” About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Doyle, Arthur Conan, 2001. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved April 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2852/2852-h/2852-h.htm#chap05 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

The Hound of the Baskervilles: Chapter 5 - Three Broken Threads

Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. Chapter IX. When I reached home, my sister was very curious to know all about Miss Havisham’s, and asked a number of questions. And I soon found myself getting heavily bumped from behind in the nape of the neck and the small of the back, and having my face ignominiously shoved against the kitchen wall, because I did not answer those questions at sufficient length. If a dread of not being understood be hidden in the breasts of other young people to anything like the extent to which it used to be hidden in mine,—which I consider probable, as I have no particular reason to suspect myself of having been a monstrosity,—it is the key to many reservations. I felt convinced that if I described Miss Havisham’s as my eyes had seen it, I should not be understood. Not only that, but I felt convinced that Miss Havisham too would not be understood; and although she was perfectly incomprehensible to me, I entertained an impression that there would be something coarse and treacherous in my dragging her as she really was (to say nothing of Miss Estella) before the contemplation of Mrs. Joe. Consequently, I said as little as I could, and had my face shoved against the kitchen wall. The worst of it was that that bullying old Pumblechook, preyed upon by a devouring curiosity to be informed of all I had seen and heard, came gaping over in his chaise-cart at tea-time, to have the details divulged to him. And the mere sight of the torment, with his fishy eyes and mouth open, his sandy hair inquisitively on end, and his waistcoat heaving with windy arithmetic, made me vicious in my reticence. “Well, boy,” Uncle Pumblechook began, as soon as he was seated in the chair of honour by the fire. “How did you get on up town?” I answered, “Pretty well, sir,” and my sister shook her fist at me. “Pretty well?” Mr. Pumblechook repeated. “Pretty well is no answer. Tell us what you mean by pretty well, boy?” Whitewash on the forehead hardens the brain into a state of obstinacy perhaps. Anyhow, with whitewash from the wall on my forehead, my obstinacy was adamantine. I reflected for some time, and then answered as if I had discovered a new idea, “I mean pretty well.” My sister with an exclamation of impatience was going to fly at me,—I had no shadow of defence, for Joe was busy in the forge,—when Mr. Pumblechook interposed with “No! Don’t lose your temper. Leave this lad to me, ma’am; leave this lad to me.” Mr. Pumblechook then turned me towards him, as if he were going to cut my hair, and said,— “First (to get our thoughts in order): Forty-three pence?” I calculated the consequences of replying “Four Hundred Pound,” and finding them against me, went as near the answer as I could—which was somewhere about eightpence off. Mr. Pumblechook then put me through my pence-table from “twelve pence make one shilling,” up to “forty pence make three and fourpence,” and then triumphantly demanded, as if he had done for me, “Now! How much is forty-three pence?” To which I replied, after a long interval of reflection, “I don’t know.” And I was so aggravated that I almost doubt if I did know. Mr. Pumblechook worked his head like a screw to screw it out of me, and said, “Is forty-three pence seven and sixpence three fardens, for instance?” “Yes!” said I. And although my sister instantly boxed my ears, it was highly gratifying to me to see that the answer spoilt his joke, and brought him to a dead stop. “Boy! What like is Miss Havisham?” Mr. Pumblechook began again when he had recovered; folding his arms tight on his chest and applying the screw. “Very tall and dark,” I told him. “Is she, uncle?” asked my sister. Mr. Pumblechook winked assent; from which I at once inferred that he had never seen Miss Havisham, for she was nothing of the kind. “Good!” said Mr. Pumblechook conceitedly. (“This is the way to have him! We are beginning to hold our own, I think, Mum?”) “I am sure, uncle,” returned Mrs. Joe, “I wish you had him always; you know so well how to deal with him.” “Now, boy! What was she a-doing of, when you went in today?” asked Mr. Pumblechook. “She was sitting,” I answered, “in a black velvet coach.” Mr. Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe stared at one another—as they well might—and both repeated, “In a black velvet coach?” “Yes,” said I. “And Miss Estella—that’s her niece, I think—handed her in cake and wine at the coach-window, on a gold plate. And we all had cake and wine on gold plates. And I got up behind the coach to eat mine, because she told me to.” “Was anybody else there?” asked Mr. Pumblechook. “Four dogs,” said I. “Large or small?” “Immense,” said I. “And they fought for veal-cutlets out of a silver basket.” Mr. Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe stared at one another again, in utter amazement. I was perfectly frantic,—a reckless witness under the torture,—and would have told them anything. “Where was this coach, in the name of gracious?” asked my sister. “In Miss Havisham’s room.” They stared again. “But there weren’t any horses to it.” I added this saving clause, in the moment of rejecting four richly caparisoned coursers which I had had wild thoughts of harnessing. “Can this be possible, uncle?” asked Mrs. Joe. “What can the boy mean?” “I’ll tell you, Mum,” said Mr. Pumblechook. “My opinion is, it’s a sedan-chair. She’s flighty, you know,—very flighty,—quite flighty enough to pass her days in a sedan-chair.” “Did you ever see her in it, uncle?” asked Mrs. Joe. “How could I,” he returned, forced to the admission, “when I never see her in my life? Never clapped eyes upon her!” “Goodness, uncle! And yet you have spoken to her?” “Why, don’t you know,” said Mr. Pumblechook, testily, “that when I have been there, I have been took up to the outside of her door, and the door has stood ajar, and she has spoke to me that way. Don’t say you don’t know that, Mum. Howsever, the boy went there to play. What did you play at, boy?” “We played with flags,” I said. (I beg to observe that I think of myself with amazement, when I recall the lies I told on this occasion.) “Flags!” echoed my sister. “Yes,” said I. “Estella waved a blue flag, and I waved a red one, and Miss Havisham waved one sprinkled all over with little gold stars, out at the coach-window. And then we all waved our swords and hurrahed.” “Swords!” repeated my sister. “Where did you get swords from?” “Out of a cupboard,” said I. “And I saw pistols in it,—and jam,—and pills. And there was no daylight in the room, but it was all lighted up with candles.” “That’s true, Mum,” said Mr. Pumblechook, with a grave nod. “That’s the state of the case, for that much I’ve seen myself.” And then they both stared at me, and I, with an obtrusive show of artlessness on my countenance, stared at them, and plaited the right leg of my trousers with my right hand. If they had asked me any more questions, I should undoubtedly have betrayed myself, for I was even then on the point of mentioning that there was a balloon in the yard, and should have hazarded the statement but for my invention being divided between that phenomenon and a bear in the brewery. They were so much occupied, however, in discussing the marvels I had already presented for their consideration, that I escaped. The subject still held them when Joe came in from his work to have a cup of tea. To whom my sister, more for the relief of her own mind than for the gratification of his, related my pretended experiences. Now, when I saw Joe open his blue eyes and roll them all round the kitchen in helpless amazement, I was overtaken by penitence; but only as regarded him,—not in the least as regarded the other two. Towards Joe, and Joe only, I considered myself a young monster, while they sat debating what results would come to me from Miss Havisham’s acquaintance and favour. They had no doubt that Miss Havisham would “do something” for me; their doubts related to the form that something would take. My sister stood out for “property.” Mr. Pumblechook was in favour of a handsome premium for binding me apprentice to some genteel trade,—say, the corn and seed trade, for instance. Joe fell into the deepest disgrace with both, for offering the bright suggestion that I might only be presented with one of the dogs who had fought for the veal-cutlets. “If a fool’s head can’t express better opinions than that,” said my sister, “and you have got any work to do, you had better go and do it.” So he went. After Mr. Pumblechook had driven off, and when my sister was washing up, I stole into the forge to Joe, and remained by him until he had done for the night. Then I said, “Before the fire goes out, Joe, I should like to tell you something.” “Should you, Pip?” said Joe, drawing his shoeing-stool near the forge. “Then tell us. What is it, Pip?” “Joe,” said I, taking hold of his rolled-up shirt sleeve, and twisting it between my finger and thumb, “you remember all that about Miss Havisham’s?” “Remember?” said Joe. “I believe you! Wonderful!” “It’s a terrible thing, Joe; it ain’t true.” “What are you telling of, Pip?” cried Joe, falling back in the greatest amazement. “You don’t mean to say it’s—” “Yes I do; it’s lies, Joe.” “But not all of it? Why sure you don’t mean to say, Pip, that there was no black welwet co—eh?” For, I stood shaking my head. “But at least there was dogs, Pip? Come, Pip,” said Joe, persuasively, “if there warn’t no weal-cutlets, at least there was dogs?” “No, Joe.” “A dog?” said Joe. “A puppy? Come?” “No, Joe, there was nothing at all of the kind.” As I fixed my eyes hopelessly on Joe, Joe contemplated me in dismay. “Pip, old chap! This won’t do, old fellow! I say! Where do you expect to go to?” “It’s terrible, Joe; ain’t it?” “Terrible?” cried Joe. “Awful! What possessed you?” “I don’t know what possessed me, Joe,” I replied, letting his shirt sleeve go, and sitting down in the ashes at his feet, hanging my head; “but I wish you hadn’t taught me to call Knaves at cards Jacks; and I wish my boots weren’t so thick nor my hands so coarse.” And then I told Joe that I felt very miserable, and that I hadn’t been able to explain myself to Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook, who were so rude to me, and that there had been a beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham’s who was dreadfully proud, and that she had said I was common, and that I knew I was common, and that I wished I was not common, and that the lies had come of it somehow, though I didn’t know how. This was a case of metaphysics, at least as difficult for Joe to deal with as for me. But Joe took the case altogether out of the region of metaphysics, and by that means vanquished it. “There’s one thing you may be sure of, Pip,” said Joe, after some rumination, “namely, that lies is lies. Howsever they come, they didn’t ought to come, and they come from the father of lies, and work round to the same. Don’t you tell no more of ’em, Pip. That ain’t the way to get out of being common, old chap. And as to being common, I don’t make it out at all clear. You are oncommon in some things. You’re oncommon small. Likewise you’re a oncommon scholar.” “No, I am ignorant and backward, Joe.” “Why, see what a letter you wrote last night! Wrote in print even! I’ve seen letters—Ah! and from gentlefolks!—that I’ll swear weren’t wrote in print,” said Joe. “I have learnt next to nothing, Joe. You think much of me. It’s only that.” “Well, Pip,” said Joe, “be it so or be it son’t, you must be a common scholar afore you can be a oncommon one, I should hope! The king upon his throne, with his crown upon his ed, can’t sit and write his acts of Parliament in print, without having begun, when he were a unpromoted Prince, with the alphabet.—Ah!” added Joe, with a shake of the head that was full of meaning, “and begun at A too, and worked his way to Z. And I know what that is to do, though I can’t say I’ve exactly done it.” There was some hope in this piece of wisdom, and it rather encouraged me. “Whether common ones as to callings and earnings,” pursued Joe, reflectively, “mightn’t be the better of continuing for to keep company with common ones, instead of going out to play with oncommon ones,—which reminds me to hope that there were a flag, perhaps?” “No, Joe.” “(I’m sorry there weren’t a flag, Pip). Whether that might be or mightn’t be, is a thing as can’t be looked into now, without putting your sister on the Rampage; and that’s a thing not to be thought of as being done intentional. Lookee here, Pip, at what is said to you by a true friend. Which this to you the true friend say. If you can’t get to be oncommon through going straight, you’ll never get to do it through going crooked. So don’t tell no more on ’em, Pip, and live well and die happy.” “You are not angry with me, Joe?” “No, old chap. But bearing in mind that them were which I meantersay of a stunning and outdacious sort,—alluding to them which bordered on weal-cutlets and dog-fighting,—a sincere well-wisher would adwise, Pip, their being dropped into your meditations, when you go upstairs to bed. That’s all, old chap, and don’t never do it no more.” When I got up to my little room and said my prayers, I did not forget Joe’s recommendation, and yet my young mind was in that disturbed and unthankful state, that I thought long after I laid me down, how common Estella would consider Joe, a mere blacksmith; how thick his boots, and how coarse his hands. I thought how Joe and my sister were then sitting in the kitchen, and how I had come up to bed from the kitchen, and how Miss Havisham and Estella never sat in a kitchen, but were far above the level of such common doings. I fell asleep recalling what I “used to do” when I was at Miss Havisham’s; as though I had been there weeks or months, instead of hours; and as though it were quite an old subject of remembrance, instead of one that had arisen only that day. That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Dickens, Charles, 1998. Great Expectations. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved April 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1400/1400-h/1400-h.htm#chap09 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

Chain

Be Informed

Instantly

Great Expectations: Chapter IX

The Publishers Association, a UK organization supporting members producing digital and print books, research journals, and educational resources, obtained its first pirate site blocking injunction in 2015. Six years later the group has now been granted an expansion in an effort to restrict access to domains that helped to circumvent the aims of the High Court order. For more than a decade copyright holders of all kinds have approached the UK High Court with applications for website blocking injunctions. Applicants have included entities such as the BPI (representing the major music labels) and the MPA (movies and TV shows). Over time, these groups have expanded to include organizations such as the Premier League and similar live sports broadcasters, who in the main seek to have pirate IPTV-type operations blocked by the countries leading ISPs. In 2015, The Publishers Association, a UK organization supporting members producing digital and print books, research journals and educational resources, broke new ground by becoming the first entity in the UK to use Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to obtain blocking measures. The successful High Court application requiring BT, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk and EE to block domains associated with several ebook-related platforms including LibGen, Ebookee, Freshwap, AvaxHome, Bookfi, Bookre and Freebookspot. resulted in an injunction The Publishers Association Seeks to Limit Workarounds In November 2015, the blocking list was , many of which were deployed by proxy-type services designed to limit the effects of the High Court injunction. Until recently, there had been no public sign to suggest that The Publishers Association intended to take things further. expanded to another 16 domains That position changed in August when TalkTalk, one of the ISPs affected by the original injunction and subsequent update, reported that it had been ordered to block a new domain, libgen.unblockit.uno, a subdomain of the unblocking platform Unblockit, that grants access to Libgen (Library Genesis). Then this week, TalkTalk published another update which suggests that from this Friday (September 10) it will be blocking yet more domains that at least in part seek to provide access to both Libgen and Ebookee when their main domains are blocked by ISPs. They read as follows: ebookee.unblockit.ch, ebookee.nocensor.work, ebookee.123unblock.me, ebookee.mrunblock.casa, ebookee.unbl4you.club, ebookee.unbl0ck.cyou, ebookee.unblockproject.monster, ebookee.proxybit.me, libgen.unblockit.ch, libgen.nocensor.work, libgen.123unblock.me, libgen.mrunblock.casa, libgen.unbl4you.club, libgen.unbl0ck.cyou, libgen.unblockproject.monster, libgen.proxybit.me, libgen.unblockit.uno Domain Blocks Risk Becoming Outdated Since the original Publishers Association injunction is six years old already, it’s unclear what type of anticipatory measures were built in from the start. More recent injunctions include options to dynamically adapt to superficial domain and IP address changes that seek to mitigate their effects but if these are not present in the Publishers Association case, they may already be drifting out of date. Unblockit.uno and unblockit.ch, for example, appear to have switched to unblockit.ws, a domain that isn’t listed in the TalkTalk blocking list. The problem is only compounded when visitors to that domain find a list to a whole range of other ebook download sites including Sci-Hub, DownloadBooks, Ebook777, BookSC, ZLibrary and Ebook3000, among others. Publishing Anti-Piracy Groups Remain Active While The Publishers Association has yet to publicly chase down ebook pirates themselves, there is no shortage of action by similar groups elsewhere. Late last week, Danish anti-piracy group Rights Alliance that a 28-year-old former student had been charged with distributing illegal copies of textbooks via several online platforms over a two-year period. reported In addition, huge pressure is being applied to Alexandra Elbakyan, the now-infamous operator of Sci-Hub. The site this week by uploading an additional 2.3m papers to its archives but is also facing legal problems on multiple fronts, including what is already . celebrated its 10th anniversary an important case in India

Subscribe to our RSS feed

What is a Website Blocking Injunction?

Interchain Accounts have the power to elevate the Cosmos ecosystem to a whole new level, ramping up interoperability between IBC-enabled chains and bringing composability to Interchain transactions. And they are here! In this article, we’ll take a look at the latest iteration of the protocol (IBC), and what this new feature means to you. Inter-Blockchain Communication DeFi is Moving Increasingly Cross-Chain With the explosion of DeFi from its initial experiments to the burgeoning sector it is today, never before has the need for interoperability been so clearly underscored. An alternative financial system reimagined from the ground up without gatekeeping intermediaries quickly became dominated by whale traders. Gas fees on Ethereum soared through the roof reaching per average transaction, and the hundreds of DeFi dApps built on-chain struggled for throughput and scalability. over $200 Faced with such roadblocks, DeFi began to spread its wings, seeing a plethora of solutions from alternative layer 1s to layer 2 scaling solutions and side chains. Yet all this innovation to offer cheaper, faster, improved usability comes with significant tradeoffs in terms of decentralization and security. An equitable financial system cannot be held together with duct tape, VC capital, or conglomerates controlling a handful of nodes. As the cornerstone of the original Cosmos whitepaper, IBC has been designed around the enduring vision of a multi-chain future. Held to the highest development standards as a sustainable solution with interoperability as a first principle, the initial version of IBC allows independent Cosmos chains to connect and transact while retaining their autonomy. In the 10 months since its launch, 38 chains have already joined the #IBCGang, conducting more than in a 30-day period. Now, the next iteration of IBC, Interchain Accounts, is ready to take Cosmos interoperability to the next level. 9.3 million IBC transactions Interchain Accounts Let Blockchains Control Accounts on Other Chains Developed by Interchain GmbH, Chainapsis, Informal Systems, and Confio, with Interchain Accounts, IBC-enabled blockchains can do a lot more than connect and transfer tokens. Entire blockchains can control accounts on separate chains. So, rather than users simply transferring tokens and following them across different chains, Interchain Accounts provide access to all IBC-enabled Cosmos chains straight from one Cosmos Hub account. Why is this such a big deal? Well, it means that Cosmos ecosystem blockchains can access the application features of another chain and carry out any action native to that chain. So, for example, Sommelier chain could execute transactions on Osmosis (such as stake, vote, swap tokens, etc.) and vice versa. This creates a dramatically improved user experience and brings much-needed composability to the Cosmos ecosystem. Interchain Accounts Bring Composability to Cosmos Ethereum DeFi has sprung up so quickly, securing of total value locked (TVL) across its many protocols thanks to native composability. In a composable system, various different components can be removed, reshuffled, or reintegrated, rather like Lego blocks that can be easily added or taken away. billions of dollars Every single piece of Lego can be optimized, allowing for ultra-fast iteration, innovation, and communication between protocols. This means that highly complex financial instruments can be traded permissionlessly over different smart contracts, with each smart contract handling a part of an overall business process. In Cosmos, with the exception of CosmWasm smart contracts, applications don’t have immediate access to each other because each application is essentially a blockchain itself. Even so, thanks to IBC, Cosmos has already become the number behind Ethereum. 2 blockchain ecosystem by TVL Interchain Accounts provide the composability and interoperability of smart contracts across different blockchains. This will create a DeFi explosion for application-specific blockchains in the Cosmos ecosystem. With composability in IBC, innovation in distinct applications can be deployed easily, without significant upgrades. Better still, unlike in Ethereum or similar ecosystems where applications have to relinquish their sovereignty and are subject to the constraints and governance of the layer 1 they are built on, using IBC as the protocol, blockchains remain entirely sovereign, while achieving interoperability. In other words, the composability that Interchain Accounts introduce doesn’t take away the benefits of application-specific blockchains. IBC Product Lead at Interchain Gmbh, Charly Fei, explained, “Enabling composability in IBC allows innovation in distinct applications to be deployed without needing to upgrade the entire Interchain, providing a more scalable innovation model that preserves compatibility… Interchain Accounts will enable all the best bits of composable application and system design critical to the explosive growth in DeFi natively across the interchain. Growing the Cosmos Ecosystem The Cosmos Hub, Sommelier, and Osmosis will be among the first to implement the Interchain Accounts module onto their chains, taking it forward and pioneering the next phase of Cosmos interoperability. Cosmos Hub in particular has the Interchain Accounts module upgrade scheduled to be implemented as part of the by Q1 2022, pending governance approval. Theta Upgrade Of course, all applications and protocols that succeed with IBC will draw more users to Cosmos, benefit the entire ecosystem, and make DeFi a more engaging and rewarding experience for all, taking Cosmos closer to mass adoption. For more information about Interchain Accounts, see the detailed report on the . Interchain Foundation blog here

Ethereum

Cosmos

Osmosis

fees

Twitter

Visit us

DeFi is Becoming Increasingly Cross-Chain

Howdy Hackers!! I see all of the great work that you consistently publish on HackerNoon.com and it gets me all sorts of excited. What's more is our tech-savvy audience appreciates your perspectives! I know because, well, #millionsOfReaders. In the spirit of creating more opportunities, the HackerNoon team has secured three new contests, with three new topics, and more cash prizes! All of which you can enter! All for one, and one for all, hackers! Three (3) NEW Writing Contests! The Cybersecurity Writing Contest Sponsored by Twingate humans, this is a contest that you can win by writing a story about hacking!  I don't know about you, but to me it feels like a romantic cosmic pairing. Yeah it does! HackerNoon You have the opportunity to win from a $1000 monthly prize pool when you write about any and all #cybersecurity things. You can share your expertise, personal stories, discuss trends and even explore philosophical questions related to cybersecurity. “Be kind, aim for my heart.” As it were. This contest will go on for six months, from the 1st of June 2022 to the 30th of November 2022, with a $1000 pool shared by 4 winners each month - the top 3 stories and the most read story.  At the end of the contest, 24 winners would have emerged. That’s like a gazillion winners. Right? Read more about this contest and its guidelines . here Thank you to our sponsor: ! Twingate T he Future of Finance Writing Contest Sponsored by Bricktrade What will be the future of finance as the world glides toward a decentralized reality? Your answers and speculations can put you in the running for a sweet $2000 prize pool. This contest will run for 3 months, from the 1st of June 2022 up until August 31, 2022. At the end of every month, the $2000 prize pool is spread across 4 categories - The top 3 stories and the most read story. This means that at the end of the contest, 12 winners will have emerged. Some topics to consider for the contest are: Economics. Decentralized finance. Investing. Crypto investments. Crowdfunding. Virtual real estate. Real estate. Smart contracts. Read more about this contest, its sponsors, and guidelines . here Thank you to our sponsor: ! Bricktrade Linux Sponsored by Linode This is a contest for all Linux lovers, users, enthusiasts, and everything in-between. The contest spans 3 months, starting on the 1st of June 2022 and ending on August 31, 2022. At the end of every month, a 3000 USD prize pool is divvied up amongst the top 3 stories for that month. This means that at the end of the writing contest, 9 winners would have emerged. Now for the really sweet part, even if you’re a winner at the end of the first month, you are free to enter the contest again and again. Basic Guidelines For This Contest Must be 18+ Story can be anything on the #linux operating system. Must create a HackerNoon account, as winners are contacted via mail. Read more about this contest here. Having explored the rules and guidelines, the rest is up to you. Stimulate that beautiful mind of yours and get to drafting your next masterpiece. We can’t wait to read it! Thank you to our sponsor: ! Linode Check out more contests here. Written by Asher Umerie and Ellen Stevens.

Learn More About HackerNoon Writing Contests

Decentralized Intenet Writing Contest's Stories

Gaming Metaverse Stories

Sponsor Your Own Writing Contest

Enter the Cybersecurity, Finance, and Linux Writing Contests: NOW OPEN.

It's no secret that online courses and e-learning web apps are in high demand. The pandemic accelerated the need for virtual classes and it has swiftly become the preferred mode of education for students seeking high-quality development opportunities. The greatest advantage of e-learning is that there are no geographical boundaries. The global , which is thrice the  $107 billion in 2015. e-learning market is expected to grow to $325 billion by 2025 The rapid development in technology has altered the face of education in emerging countries. If you have expertise in a niche skill that might be a highly rewarding area for you to mine. Revenue from your online courses can be a fantastic way to supplement your income. The best part is that you get the joy of sharing your expertise and experience with people across the globe who are willing to learn from you. Furthermore, you are establishing yourself as an industry expert by offering a course. Why You Should Create Your Own e-Learning App Today, mobile is the preferred method of content consumption. This is why a mobile app is the best way to share your knowledge with the rest of the world. Of course, there are many platforms like Udemy and Coursera that let you host your course, but you will have to . share a good portion of your revenue with the hosting site Downsides of using a third-party course platform You do not have complete ownership of your course - you share it with the hosting platform. The platform may micromanage your course by setting guidelines for minimum and maximum lesson duration, fee structure, and monitor your interaction with students. The platform has complete access to student information. They can use this to market their own courses or sell products. They act as a middleman between you and your students. They take a large cut of your fee. You will always be one of the many tutors on the platform. Most of the third-party platforms work on a TVOD basis. With your own platform, you can have the flexibility to design your own monetization plan. Having your own app also adds to your brand value. It gives you complete control over how you monetize your course, certify your students, or sell digital or other merchandise to your students. It also helps you foster a better relationship with your students. Deciding the Course Topic Coming up with the right course topic is the very first and also the most important step of creating your online course. You definitely do not want to waste your time creating a course that nobody is looking for. You may have a clear picture of what you want to teach, but don't worry if you haven't decided yet. Think about: Topics on which others call you for advice Industries you are passionate about Skills you have developed over your work experience These could turn out to be golden opportunities. You would have come up with a broad range of ideas. Now let’s niche it down. You may think that keeping it broad and reaching a larger audience is a good idea, but doing so makes the course appealing to no one. To make your course more appealing, you may add in details like: Who this course is for (eg: Yoga for new mothers) What will they learn from you (eg: Learn e-commerce content marketing) Expertise level (eg: Baking lessons for beginners) For example, let’s say you are a professional photographer. Your broad topic could be - Learn Photography. This addresses a wide range of audiences but there would be tons of such courses and your title would hardly appeal to anyone. By niching it down to Food Photography or maybe Smartphone Food Photography, you instantly appeal to someone looking for it. Deciding the Course Content Your course content must be worthy of the time, money, and effort your students are investing in improving their skills. You do not need to stuff your course with everything about the topic. In fact, your students may find it overwhelming. Instead, narrow down the topics to the outcome expected from your course. Picture yourself as the person you were before gaining the skill. Now think about the topics you would want a course to cover. Make a note of it. Once done, group them logically. If there is something missing, address it. See if you could add value by covering more topics. You can also share a guide (a pdf or document) on resources or tools that will help your students. For example, a guide on brush sizes and stroke type will be a great add-on to a watercolor course for beginners. Filming and Editing Your Videos Now that you have your content planned, it’s time to get into action. Start recording your videos one at a time. Once recorded, play them to see if you have conveyed your ideas clearly, with simplicity, and covered all the planned details. To express your ideas with clarity, you may want to add presentation slides with voiceover or share your screen with a camera. Students tend to learn more effectively when they are actively involved in the process. Incorporating games and other such interactive elements is an engaging method of teaching complex concepts. Shoot and edit your lessons. See if it makes a complete course. Now you are ready to present it to the world. Uploading Your Videos Once your course is ready, you need a platform to host them. Choosing a SaaS platform would let you establish your apps quickly without breaking the bank. Make sure to add subtitles, if possible, in multiple languages to make your courses truly global. You need a that lets you schedule your videos and also organize them. powerful video CMS Watermarking your videos with your logo not only boosts your brand value but also shields your videos from piracy. Make sure your platform provider supports auto and manual bit rate switching for seamless content delivery. Marketing Your Course You can create a course that's worth every penny. You can do all the research to make it better than the other courses out there. Yet without marketing, no one would know your course exists. Of course, you can promote your course with paid ads - but it will only bring in a spike to your sale. So how do you keep the traffic constant? Social media is your best when it comes to marketing. Create promotional videos for your courses that would grab attention. Don’t forget to add a compelling CTA. Using a professional template to create a promo ensures you have a high conversion rate. Ensure that your platform provider has the ability to integrate with your social profiles. Answer topics related to your courses on platforms like Quora and Linkedin to let people know that you are a subject matter expert. Also, look for guest blogging opportunities where you can bring in traffic to your course. Tag your videos and posts with appropriate keywords. This enables you to rank better on search engines. Most importantly, communicate with your past students regularly. This way you can promote relevant new courses to them. They would also be an effective word-of-mouth marketing medium for your courses. Understanding Your Audience You need to understand how each of your video lessons is performing to create better courses in the future. An ideal platform provider will give meaningful insights on which videos were watched completely and which were passed over. Insights about devices, geography, age, and interaction with other videos/courses will enable you to target your audience and make better decisions. Managing Courses You need a lot of technical skills to manage your courses. Myth: There are tons of tools available online – that makes managing your courses a cakewalk. Fact: A good SaaS platform will take care of launching and scaling your online school with its simple and intuitive user interface. Live Classrooms A live classroom is the most important aspect of your online academy. It enables the trainer to interact with the students in real-time. This also enables the student and teacher to have a connection with each other. This method could be great for conducting quizzes and whiteboard sessions. Live streaming is a must-have feature that your hosting platform should have. Live chats and recording the sessions are great value ads. Takeaway An online course can help you establish your personal brand, spread your message, and connect with people. Moreover, an online course is a lifelong asset that will keep supplementing your income. All you need to do is keep updating it with the latest and relevant content. With little effort, you can convert students into business leads. Your courses are powerful lead magnets that can add great value to your business. Above all, it gives you the happiness of sharing your knowledge with the world and making a positive impact on your students.

HackerNoon Tech Stories Archive June 11th, 2022

Oh Just a Stark Technical Analysis

@sin7y
Sin7Y

The Essays of Adam Smith: Part I, SEC. II, Chapter I

@smithadam
Adam Smith

A Tract on Monetary Reform: Chapter I - No. 2 The Business Class

@jmkeynes
John Maynard Keynes

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: Book I, Chapter IV

@smitha
Adam Smith

Indian Currency and Finance: CHAPTER III - Paper Currency

@johnmaynardkeynes
John Maynard Keynes

How Do I Handle Ambiguity as a Leader?

@vinitabansal
Vinita Bansal

You Are Doing Manifestation Wrong

@scottdclary
Scott D. Clary

A Comprehensive Guide to OpenAPI Specification

@deliciousbounty
blstsecurity

How to Find the Stinky Parts of Your Code [Part XX]: We have Reached 100!

@mcsee
Maximiliano Contieri

The Hound of the Baskervilles: Chapter 5 - Three Broken Threads

@arthurconandoyle
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Great Expectations: Chapter IX

@cdickens
Charles Dickens

What is a Website Blocking Injunction?

@torrentfreak
TorrentFreak

DeFi is Becoming Increasingly Cross-Chain

@cosmosnetwork
Cosmos - Internet of Blockchains

Enter the Cybersecurity, Finance, and Linux Writing Contests: NOW OPEN.

@hackernooncontests
HackerNoon Writing Contests Announcements

Create an e-Learning App Without Knowing How to Code

@anjana
Anjana

HackerNoon Tech Stories Archive June 11th, 2022

@sin7ySin7Y

@smithadamAdam Smith

@jmkeynesJohn Maynard Keynes

@smithaAdam Smith

@johnmaynardkeynesJohn Maynard Keynes

@vinitabansalVinita Bansal

@scottdclaryScott D. Clary

@deliciousbountyblstsecurity

@mcseeMaximiliano Contieri

@arthurconandoyleSir Arthur Conan Doyle

@cdickensCharles Dickens

@torrentfreakTorrentFreak

@cosmosnetworkCosmos - Internet of Blockchains

@hackernooncontestsHackerNoon Writing Contests Announcements

@anjanaAnjana