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Photo Credit, recovered from stomach illness. In original publication of this interview, “ ,” this photo was rejected in favor of . In the spirit of additional context when republishing, we added the original image above, about two dozen contextual links, and embedded a fun video at the end. David Smooke David Smooke Founder & CEO at HackerNoon — Digital Publishing Evolution, AI Impact, Content Management Innovation, Community Growth, Future Visions a kinder, more professional headshot from AI Time Journal: 1. David, can you share the origin story of HackerNoon and what motivated you to create a platform focused on technology storytelling? Flor Laorga Hey, ! Thanks for having me. I’m . I started and run We publish technology stories and build publishing software. Before HackerNoon, I was managing 400+ contributing writers on the , which is now a tech unicorn. Back then, it was cumbersome to manage the writer accounts, content, and editorial review process through existing systems. Building for the contributing writers opened doors. When I started this company, I built many sites, most failed, and HackerNoon found the right mix of community, customers, and - just a cool place to spend time on the internet. Millions visit us every month for free to read our 100k+ stories across . By offering editing and distribution, many technology practitioners, writers, and companies find value in . AI Time Journal David Smooke HackerNoon. blog for SmartRecruiters thousands of tech topics publishing their stories with us 2. With HackerNoon’s commitment to keeping its library free of paywalls and popups, how do you navigate the challenge of generating revenue while maintaining an open-access philosophy? It’s a battle! Historically, we’ve 2x-ed revenue most years of the company’s existence, and our yearly revenue is in the low millions. Media is a brutal industry, and tech’s an up-and-down world where layoffs and profits seem to coincide with each gen ai launch or full moon. Our top source of revenue right now is . Companies like Brave, NVIDIA and AWS buy monthly ads on all stories within a category, like or . Our second and third sources of revenue are and . Business blogging is about getting more readers for blog posts owned by technology companies like , , , and . We leverage our publishing system and owned media channels to improve and further distribute their content. Quality technology blog posts require a lot of effort from talented people. The labor that goes into each post on a tech company’s main blog is worth thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars - companies work with HackerNoon to get those technology blog posts more readers. In terms of writing contests, companies award the authors of the best stores on a tag ( ), pay HackerNoon to run the contest, and ultimately, more technology content enters our library to serve the readers. The intention is to create discussion about a niche technology topic. ad placements by content relevancy programming data science business blogging writing contests MinIO Ockam Blockchain Oracle Summit BrightData like how Aptible awarded $18k to best #DevOps stories 3. As AI continues to evolve, how do you see it transforming the landscape of digital publishing, especially in terms of content creation and distribution? AI’s a massive wrench into productivity and authenticity. Every current job relying on a keyboard or a phone has/will have an AI assistant, and an AI will be on deck with you in whatever UX replaces the keyboard or the phone next. On the positive side, small capable teams can have greater extensions of themselves and their work. AI and AI agents can move portions of projects forward. For example, we introduced , and had to assign every story in our 100k+ library to one category. 100k human decisions would have taken a while, but a chatgpt spreadsheet plugin was able to assign each story a technology category very easily. On the negative side, there is spamflation everywhere. Why must the builders of our generation rush to make AI tools to spam instead of AI tools to assist? In 2022, one contributing writer, , made the case that . There is just so, so much content being generated by AI. It’s human-like, but it’s not human. Which brings me to authenticity. Who authored the content will become more important in the future as it indicates trust in a uniquely human way. technology categories Jeremy Hillpot 99.99% of all content would be AI-created by 2025 4. In your experience, what are the most effective strategies for managing and growing a small team of editors, developers, and startup individuals to produce high-quality technology content? We’re still small enough that everyone’s an individual contributor first, even the C-suite and board, which are both just me and . When you’re under 20 people, everyone has to carry their own weight. When it comes to managing a small remote team, reducing meetings is a good start. Editorial, sales, and product, each only have one internal meeting a week. This provides time to do the actual work and makes the meetings we do have will carry more importance. We do highly encourage one-off, project-focused, short meetings. Weekly product meetings are the longest and loaded with demos, recaps, and debates. But it connects the group, and designers have a full view into what developers are doing and vice versa. Staff happiness and sense of purpose, or lack thereof, will show in the little actions with our community. I work to create a company where a small team of elite contributors can thrive. Linh Dao Smooke 5. Could you discuss the development process of HackerNoon’s content management system and what makes it uniquely suited for technology professionals? At , we’ve built a lot of systems to create, edit, and distribute content at scale. Technologists spend a lot of their day on the keyboard (like I am now) and understand that documenting their journey and professional expertise will lead to more long-term success. Our CMS helps you create content with help from , , and . The CMS also integrates with our email and social media distribution engines, and for good measure. We live between social media where anyone can post and traditional media where staff content production drives content creation and consumption. There is a vibrant community of millions of technologists on HackerNoon. Plus, our CMS is built to seamlessly port content around the web. For example, with the HackerNoon CMS, we’ll be launching AI-specific publications in 2024, such as , , and more. HackerNoon templates AI a human editorial review backups up all content on the blockchain FewShot.Tech TextModels.Tech 6. How has HackerNoon leveraged AI to enhance its platform? and what lessons have you learned about AI's role in spam creation and prevention? HackerNoon uses AI and machine learning to improve grammar, , , and . Maybe Clippy was ahead of its time? Writers have and will continue to have smart AI assistants. AI can not and should not replace the writer, but it should and can assist the writer and editor throughout the publishing process. We are documenting our approach to editorial at . With the rise of LLMs, we’ve seen an influx of AI story spam submissions. Other blogging platforms are hosting so much of these types of machine generated stories right now. We are actively taking steps to not become a wasteland of AI’s musings. Because every story is reviewed before publication (with about half being rejected), I think our average story quality is higher than other blogging platforms. Every story submission automatically enters into plagiarism and AI writing detection. We highlight what sections are likely, possibly, and unlikely to be written by AI. It’s all about confidence levels. Ultimately, human editors make the final call in interpreting the machines’ reports. translate stories generate featured images suggest possible headlines EditingProtocol.com 7. Given your expertise in product management and editing, how do you balance innovation with user experience when introducing new features or updates to your platform? The core has to work for any new feature to matter. Our core is the blog post. We work to publish better blog posts and build for what comes before and what comes after the blog post. New functionalities cannot come at the expense of a delightful reading experience and a smooth publishing experience. It’s got to load quickly and the relevant ads have to surface at the right place for customers. There’s always more projects that could be done to improve the core. We also have been using more API driven journalism in order to gain more traffic. What I mean by that is aggregating relevant data and business information so that we can build pages that cover , , and . By connecting stories around the web to relevant companies, technologies and currencies, we can make HackerNoon a stronger destination for technology education and discovery. In terms of what to build next, we’ve built a simple product management system within Notion, where we detail product cards, weighing which user it would benefit, the expected input/output of the project, and then generally contributors choose their own projects. tech companies technologies currencies 8. As a leader, how do you foster a culture of creativity and innovation within your team, and what practices have you found most effective in motivating and inspiring your staff? The simplest way is to lead by example. I’m contributing to projects more than managing projects. The people who make this business happen are good people. If I want people to blog with HackerNoon, I need to blog with HackerNoon. almost 300 technology stories and this year, my goal is a post a week. Our staff is remote and around the world, we have people in Munich, Goa, Florida, Hanoi, Buenos Aires, Bangkok, Michigan, Lahore, Lagos, and of course where I live in Colorado. It’s a lot of different cultures. And a lot of different ideas. Everyone on the team started by applying via our , so one thing that unites us is reading and using HackerNoon before joining HackerNoon. Everyone also has stock in the company, that helps with buy-in and enthusiasm. We agree on metrics we want to move, but we might not agree on how to get there. It generally works best when contributors choose their own paths. I’ve published careers page 9. With your insights into the future of work and career advice, what guidance would you offer to professionals aiming to break into the rapidly changing tech industry? Make things! Apps, models, prototypes, blueprints, communities, whatever - just start making. Your first technology thing probably won’t be your best or your future, but if you make more things in tech they become less like just technology things and more like just essential everyday things.  In terms of breaking in, it’s a tough market in technology/media right now with mass layoffs & unpredictable demands. Having your own functioning project, app, site, academic paper, or even just a blog can set you apart from other candidates. I recommend looking to apply at companies that make technologies or products that you use and respect. Write short and simple cold emails that explain why you’d like to work together.  Take a step back and look at our daily lives - and what you think our daily lives might be in ten years - technology isn’t going anywhere. It’s becoming more ingrained. Closer to our eyes. I’d also add that getting into tech doesn’t necessarily mean staying in tech forever, but better understanding technology will help however your career grows. 10. How do you envision the role of digital publishers like HackerNoon in shaping public discourse and understanding of complex topics like cryptocurrency, AI, and blockchain technology? We normalize it. I learned about Bitcoin from a HackerNoon story submission. . The technology’s finally caught up; let’s talk about it. I learn a lot by reading what contributors think could be next. As many people on HackerNoon are publishing about what they’re building, we usually learn about newer technologies before they reach more mainstream learning destinations. is a great blogging example for how the people making the next internet are documenting and teaching others along the way. That author, , kept writing that . Meanwhile, we kept integrating our tech stack with more Web3 technologies. Fun Easter egg, you can read . Publishing platforms are still learning how to detail where and how and when AI contributed. We add an “ on all stories where AI assisted the writer. At Meta, I see they’re implementing a , I’ll be monitoring how that goes. Publishers should provide transparency to the reader when it comes to AI content creation. Hopefully, the internet can reach reasonable standards for accrediting AI. Milton Friedman’s been talking about the need for ecash since 1999 Learn Blockchain by Building One Daniel van Flymen blog post into a book the entire HackerNoon library via blockchain signatures here AI Assisted” emoji credibility indicator watermark checking and display system for all AI generated images 11. Finally, can you share a personal story or moment from your journey with HackerNoon that has been particularly meaningful or impactful to you? Well, it’s been a long road! Hard to pick just one. Recently, meeting Pham Minh Chinh, the Prime Minister of Vietnam, stands out. He invited . Was cool to see up close how a head of state walks, talks and listens to pitches about how the country could become a bigger player in the technology industry. Another one that comes to mind is when we launched with our own CMS, it was janky, it was pixelated, and it mostly worked but didn’t work in all the right spots. It was ours and it was beautiful. HackerNoon! I’ll leave with you this : Linh to be a technology consultant as the country forms its semiconductor strategy HackerNoon.com previously unpublished video of the moment we went live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdoh8z0NXzU&embedable=true

“We are actively taking steps to not become a wasteland of AI’s musings” says HackerNoon Founder/CEO

হ্যাকারনুন প্রতিষ্ঠাতা/সিইও বলেছেন, "আমরা সক্রিয়ভাবে পদক্ষেপ নিচ্ছি যাতে AI এর মিউজিং এর বর্জ্যভূমিতে পরিণত না হয়"

„Wir unternehmen aktiv Schritte, um nicht zu einem Ödland der KI-Gedanken zu werden“, sagt HackerNoon-Gründer/CEO

"Estamos tomando medidas activamente para no convertirnos en un páramo de las reflexiones de la IA", dice el fundador y director ejecutivo de HackerNoon

"Nous prenons activement des mesures pour ne pas devenir un désert de réflexions sur l'IA", déclare le fondateur et PDG de HackerNoon.

हैकरनून के संस्थापक/सीईओ कहते हैं, "हम एआई के विचारों की बंजर भूमि न बनने के लिए सक्रिय रूप से कदम उठा रहे हैं।"

「私たちは、AI の思索の荒野にならないよう、積極的に対策を講じています」と HackerNoon 創設者兼 CEO は語る

해커눈 창업자/CEO “AI 사색의 황무지가 되지 않기 위해 적극 나서고 있다”

“Estamos tomando medidas ativamente para não nos tornarmos um terreno baldio de reflexões de IA”, diz o fundador/CEO da HackerNoon

«Мы активно предпринимаем шаги, чтобы не стать пустошью размышлений ИИ», — говорит основатель/генеральный директор HackerNoon.

HackerNoon Kurucusu/CEO'su şöyle diyor: "Yapay zekanın düşüncelerinden oluşan bir çorak araziye dönüşmemek için aktif olarak adımlar atıyoruz"

Người sáng lập/CEO của HackerNoon cho biết: “Chúng tôi đang tích cực thực hiện các bước để không trở thành vùng đất hoang của những suy ngẫm về AI”.

HackerNoon 创始人/首席执行官表示：“我们正在积极采取措施，以免成为人工智能思考的荒原”

The , although derived from axioms and ground-set rules, has a quite peculiar interplay that dances within itself. The quantum realm recently discovered has opened avenues not only for a new science branch but also for science itself. world of science As empires are built and crumble, we fail to see that not only the wideness of the wall secures them, but also the inside aspects such as economy and faith. And of course, there’s a lot more to take into account when going towards the central figures. But for the sake of science, we will assume that there is a specific pattern. A green line in which, if the central figures of a city are found, the city is growing. Just like the habitable zone that allows our planet to sustain life. Further, I would like to explain my view of faith as the 100% certainty that all odds are in favor. However, to transcend faith, we would require tangible proof which would let our reasoning take the steps from 100% possible to absolute truthfulness. A state in which, every time we stumble under the same starting conditions, we can fast-forward to the past result and instantly acknowledge it as true or false, or even in some cases, use the same reasoning or formulas for different starting conditions, but under the same conceptual background to skip some math. Maybe the world of quantum represents a world in which we are forced to either find the true statement or keep looking for it. Further, as I lack the studies of a university, I will use ChatGPT to help me formalize and bring those ideas to a whole new level of understanding. Therefore, please keep in mind that all that comes next (and what I write after all) is purely theoretical and no previous research or ground-based testing has been done. I strongly believe however that the new road of science is only in its infant state, despite the results we have so far achieved. And what I find so great about it, is that and rule. reason logic The most fundamental aspects of logic and reasoning which we have used with both algebra and geometry could be revived as insights into this domain. Now, however, they might be used only as starting arguments that allow for action/reaction/movement/dimensionality and many more to take shape in a new form. Remember that the magic of storytelling should not be in the words, but in the story itself and how we decide to visualize it. Part 1: Fuzzy Logic Try to envision mathematical concepts as a background set of rules. Arrangements in which this fuzzy logic makes sense. Quantum mechanics is the whole of this world. A world that has segments that are either ordered by those rules or not. When a rule is not followed, the truthfulness of information kind of transcends into the realm of possibilities where they fade until they will eventually reappear. Higher-dimensional aspects are those that show us insights into where the state of the probability is. More clouds suggest a higher chance of rain. The mathematical rule has not been achieved yet. It's at a point where it is in the process of being completed. The full background shows us that it is not raining yet, even if it’s close. Let us see how our little AI helper sums these up. (Of course, I will lend my understanding to each point with italicized text.) Mathematics provides a set of rules and structures that help us model and understand the world. These rules can range from simple arithmetic to complex algebraic equations and beyond. The consistency and universality of mathematical principles make them a powerful tool for describing various phenomena. Mathematical Concepts as Background Set Rules: Fuzzy logic deals with degrees of truth rather than absolute truth values. It's often employed in situations where information is imprecise or uncertain. Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, is a branch of physics that deals with the behavior of particles at the quantum level. The probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics introduces an element of uncertainty, and the concept of superposition allows particles to exist in multiple states simultaneously. Fuzzy Logic and Quantum Mechanics: Here, we could say that those clouds are seen by 2 cities. In one city it’s raining, while in the other, it’s not. Even if the clouds are the central figure of the statement, the space marks the difference between where this is true and where it isn’t. Just like 2 particles can influence each other despite the distance, but when change is made, how can we know who made the change if it wasn’t us? In mathematics, higher-dimensional spaces extend beyond our familiar three-dimensional space. These spaces are often used to model complex systems or describe relationships involving more than three variables. The idea of higher dimensions is also explored in physics and string theory. Higher-Dimensional Spaces: Higher dimensions could simply be the newly opened avenues in which the probability fluctuates. Maybe dimensions are created and destroyed just like cells. Cells may depend on both internal and external variables when it comes to their destruction. Whereas dimensions are created and destroyed only by rules that result from a greater whole, the whole of summed parts. We could see them as being only externally dependent. Simply representing the “external” concept. Something beyond. Quantum mechanics introduces the concept of probability into the description of physical systems. The behavior of particles is often described by wave functions that provide probabilities for different outcomes. Observations collapse these probabilities into definite states. Probability and Quantum States: By observing, you see the “present” which was “present” 0.001, no, 2 seconds, no, 5 seconds ago. I believe there is no known way yet that allows us to see the real slope of growth as it is dependent on multiple factors. Focusing on just some of them will never allow us to see the full picture of the past, but we can use it to gather information for the potential full picture of the future. Just like a pirate using his spyglass to view a castle. He can never be sure that the castle is 100% the same as when he spies at the door since he cannot see the whole castle. The notion that certain mathematical concepts are not yet complete suggests ongoing exploration and discovery. In fields like pure mathematics, researchers are continuously working on extending existing theories, proving new theorems, and exploring the boundaries of mathematical knowledge. Incomplete Mathematical Concepts: In the end, we might get to a new science, a new understanding which we will call “true science” and for those that come next will be just… science. Part 2: A State of Chaos There is so much information. So many weights and counterweights to take into consideration. What has to remain and what has to be scratched off? Oh God… I feel like my head is going to explode—theoretically, of course. The point of no return, when the force of rejection will simply become stronger than the pull, is too far ahead. But then… we wouldn’t wish for a blackhole to appear either. How can we balance this play? What does it MEAN to be in balance yet, not be dead? We know (or theorize) that life could resemble the turning gears of change. Without change, everything is static. No good, no bad could happen further. But then, if life is always pulling up the rope of change, balance is surely broken. If we were to counterweight life, we would arrive at death. What else could happen here so that we will ever grow? Could life be its own domain? Could life be so inextricably different from death that it never touches it? Could life and death, and their impossibility to touch each other, be both enveloped into a both-enveloping sphere? So many questions, so few answers. “But how? And why?” - and this just makes it worse. Let’s turn our glare towards the prime numbers and something interesting ChatGPT explained to me. ”The distribution of prime numbers is a fascinating topic in number theory. Primes are often considered the "building blocks" of natural numbers, and their distribution on the number line has been a subject of extensive study. While primes themselves may seem somewhat irregular (as they have no divisors other than 1 and themselves), the overall pattern of their distribution exhibits some regularities. There are well-known results and conjectures related to the distribution of primes, such as the Prime Number Theorem, which describes the asymptotic distribution of primes among the natural numbers.” - ChatGPT. Part 3: When will this stop? “The overall pattern… exhibits some regularities.” Down below, I would like to place some patterns I randomly found a while ago when playing with primes. Now if you are to ask me what is going on in those pictures, I will ask you in return for better equipment. I will check the patterns and think that I see something. After days, weeks, or months, I would simply take a break from all the patterning and turn back to rational thinking in the hope that this time, the patterns that come into my mind support my claims. And this is how I deal with primes in a nutshell. No fuzzy logic. No fuzzy math (only to the point where logic and reason seem to hold tight to the primes). Only admiring and thinking about what could this great picture of art mean. Could we have discovered order itself? If yes, then how would we explain it? How can we understand its meaning? How can we communicate with/using it? Sadly, my job is not a full-time researcher. No matter how much I involve myself in the field there will always be someone ahead of me. Someone who will say: The Riemann zeta function is a mathematical function that plays a crucial role in number theory and complex analysis. It is named after the German mathematician Bernhard Riemann, who first defined and studied it. The Riemann zeta function is defined for complex numbers �(kind of S and C combined symbol)s with real part greater than 1 by the infinite series: �(�)=1�+2−�+3−�+4−�+…ζ(s)=1s+2−s+3−s+4−s+… This series converges when the real part of �s is greater than 1. The series can be analytically continued to other values of �s (except for �=1s=1, where it has a simple pole), providing a way to define the zeta function in a larger domain. One of the most famous properties of the Riemann zeta function is its connection to the distribution of prime numbers. In particular, the zeta function is closely related to the Prime Number Theorem, which describes the asymptotic distribution of prime numbers. - ChatGPT You are telling me that you found a function that correctly jumps at each prime number occurrence, yet, you have no idea why it does that. Now you try looking into those domains and dimensions that you had no idea even existed. Exploring a land of the unknown where all your beliefs shatter, only to force you to connect them once again if you want it to make sense. And that is… MARVELOUS. We, as humankind, are insignificant. Yet, here we are. Closer and closer to the power of understanding dimensionality. This pursuit of knowledge seems like it must be our happiest years. When in the meantime, some place their ideas into new smart ways for crypto. Others pray that today will be our happy day. Others are simply lost due to psychological or physical warfare. If knowledge is what we say defines us, it sure seems we never met our parents. I hope you all stay safe and healthy. It is a very foggy world out there. And our lanterns seem to shine only ourselves. Take care of your loved ones, of yourself, and of course, of your knowledge. “If she is cherished, one is exalted; if she is embraced, one is honored. But if you refuse to listen to her when she calls, when you pay no attention when she stretches out her hand, so too, will she ignore you when you most need her, in times of distress and trouble. How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!” - Eternalised Lead image by Manuel on Unsplash

Quantum Realms, Fuzzy Logic, and the Enigma of Prime Patterns

The rise of e-commerce has been remarkable over recent years, and it shows no signs of plateauing. As this sector expands, the demand for streamlined delivery systems also grows significantly. Central to this demand is the idea of last-mile delivery, a term initially used in the telecom sector and then adopted by logistics and supply chain management. Last-mile delivery is the last step in the delivery process. It's the journey a product makes from a distribution center or facility to the final destination, usually a customer's home. Even though it's the concluding phase, last-mile delivery can be the most intricate and costly in the entire supply chain. Thus, it accounts for a substantial part of the total delivery cost. Factors such as traffic congestion, misaligned delivery timings, and increasing customer demands for speed and flexibility contribute to it vastly. Considering the influence of these obstacles on operational proficiency and customer contentment, companies are constantly exploring innovative strategies to make this process more efficient and cost-effective. With technologies ranging from artificial intelligence to self-driving vehicles, last-mile delivery is undergoing a transformative phase, becoming more streamlined and customer-focused. Challenges in last-mile delivery While last-mile delivery presents an opportunity for e-commerce businesses to distinguish themselves from competitors, it also has a unique set of its own troubles. One of them is meeting the growing customer expectations. Today's consumers demand not only speedy delivery but also the flexibility to alter delivery times and locations, which can complicate logistics planning. Plus, customers often expect real-time updates on their orders, which requires sophisticated tracking systems. Geographical issues also pose serious challenges. Goods delivery to outlying suburban and rural locations, where residences are widely dispersed, can be both time-intensive and costly. Meanwhile, deliveries in cities face their own unique challenges such as heavy traffic, scarce parking, and restricted access, which all can cause delays. Cost management is another big problem. With fuel, labor, and vehicle maintenance costs steadily rising, keeping last-mile delivery affordable without compromising on efficiency is a balancing act. Moreover, the environmental footprint of logistics has gained significant public attention, regarding emissions and sustainable practices. Safeguarding the delivered goods, especially when handling high-value or perishable items, is another aspect companies must handle. And finally, scaling last-mile delivery operations to accommodate increasing volumes of orders while maintaining the same level of service quality is a constant struggle for many companies. Handy tech solutions Innovative technologies have the potential to reshape last-mile delivery, helping to address the challenges we've outlined earlier. Today, there’s an array of technological options that a business can integrate into its day-to-day operations. Autonomous Vehicles Several companies are already deploying drones for delivery. In the US, Amazon, with its Prime Air service, plans to deliver packages up to five pounds in 30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles. Alphabet's Wing has also received regulatory approval to start drone delivery services in several regions of Australia, Finland, and the US. Ground robots are another nice development. For example, Starship Technologies has deployed its delivery robots in multiple cities worldwide, including the US, the UK, and the company’s homeland of Estonia. They operate autonomously 99% of the time and can carry items within a 4-mile radius. The company operates AI and Machine Learning Route optimization software, such as Routific or ORTEC, use AI and machine learning algorithms to calculate the most efficient delivery routes. These systems consider various factors, such as traffic, weather conditions, and package destinations, to reduce travel time and costs. These advanced systems evaluate a lot of factors when plotting routes. They take into account real-time traffic data, weather conditions, package destinations, and even the capacity of the delivery vehicle. Importantly, these systems are dynamic. They continuously learn and adjust to changing conditions, ensuring the most up-to-date information is used for decision-making. For instance, if there's a sudden traffic jam due to an accident, the system can quickly re-route the delivery vehicle to avoid delays. Internet of Things IoT technology is being used to create smart logistics networks. Companies like Roambee provide real-time visibility into the delivery process through sensor data. Their devices monitor location, temperature, humidity, and more, providing crucial information for deliveries, especially for sensitive goods. For example, pharmaceutical products or perishable foods need to be kept at specific temperatures, and real-time monitoring allows companies to ensure these conditions are maintained throughout the whole delivery journey. Moreover, IoT-enabled predictive maintenance can alert companies about potential issues with their delivery vehicles before they result in costly downtimes. This information, derived from continuous monitoring and data analysis, allows companies to manage their fleet, proactively. Blockchain Technology VeChain, a blockchain platform, is an excellent example of using blockchain in logistics management. This tech enhances transparency and security by offering a full view of the supply chain. So, consumers can use VeChain to verify product authenticity, and businesses can improve logistics processes with it. Visibility provided by such services helps companies identify any bottlenecks or inefficiencies in their logistics network, which leads to more streamlined operations and enhanced performance. Plus, the security of blockchain technology means that this data is less susceptible to tampering or fraud. Real-life examples Many companies have embraced innovative technologies to improve their last-mile delivery operations. Here are a few examples from worldwide leading businesses. FedEx This global delivery provider has been exploring autonomous delivery solutions for some time, and one result is Roxo, the SameDay Bot. It’s a delivery robot designed to transport smaller shipments, specifically in urban environments where traffic and parking can be tricky. Roxo can navigate pedestrian paths and even climb stairs, which makes it an efficient option for quick, local deliveries. DHL Another logistics giant has leveraged AI and machine learning to optimize their delivery routes. The company has reported reduced delivery times, fuel costs, and CO2 emissions. Furthermore, DHL uses IoT for predictive vehicle maintenance, which allows them to improve efficiency by reducing unexpected downtime. Domino's Pizza The major fast food chain has partnered with Nuro, a leading autonomous delivery company, to use their autonomous vehicles for pizza delivery in the US. By providing customers with a unique pin to retrieve their order from the vehicle, Domino's has streamlined its delivery process and enhanced customer experience. Zipline Zipline is a company that uses drones for last-mile delivery of medical supplies. It operates in hard-to-reach places like rural Rwanda and Ghana, where conventional delivery methods just don’t work. By deploying drones, Zipline ensures that hospitals and health centers receive necessary supplies promptly. Potential problems Despite all these advantages, there are potential challenges that businesses need to navigate while using new tech solutions for their last-mile delivery. Regulatory issues may be a significant roadblock, especially concerning autonomous vehicles and drones. Different regions have various rules regarding unmanned vehicle operation, and compliance is important here. Cybersecurity is another concern. With businesses growing increasingly dependent on digital solutions, the threat of cyberattacks grows high. It's crucial to have strong security protocols to protect sensitive data, like customer details and payment information. The initial cost of these technologies can be significant. Deploying state-of-the-art AI systems, autonomous vehicles, or blockchain solutions requires a sizable investment. Some businesses, especially smaller ones, might find these upfront costs too much. And while some customers appreciate the convenience and speed these technologies offer, others may have privacy or safety concerns, particularly around drone deliveries and data sharing. Lastly, technical issues and the need for skilled personnel to manage these new technologies can also present challenges. Companies need to ensure they have the necessary technical expertise on hand to implement and operate these solutions. What lies in the future Looking ahead, new technologies are set to continue transforming the last-mile delivery sector. Innovations such as hyper-local fulfillment centers and advanced predictive analytics could lead to even faster and more efficient deliveries. We might also see wider adoption of blockchain for logistics, enabling even greater transparency and security in transactions. As technologies mature, we will likely witness increased cooperation between regulatory bodies and businesses to create supportive frameworks for innovations like drone delivery. This could make last-mile delivery even more efficient. The evolution of e-commerce logistics depends on our willingness to adopt these innovative technologies. Given the clear benefits — enhanced efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and customer satisfaction — it appears that businesses should be keen to invest in these advancements and utilize them. However, embracing these solutions should also come with a degree of caution. It's essential to navigate potential challenges, such as regulatory hurdles and cybersecurity risks, with due diligence. The right balance will allow businesses to optimize their last-mile delivery services effectively while maintaining customer trust.

Innovative Technologies for Last-Mile Delivery in E-commerce Logistics Scaling

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Of the Suppression of the Chromatic Sedition here Of the Suppression of the Chromatic Sedition The agitation for the Universal Colour Bill continued for three years; and up to the last moment of that period it seemed as though Anarchy were destined to triumph. A whole army of Polygons, who turned out to fight as private soldiers, was utterly annihilated by a superior force of Isosceles Triangles—the Squares and Pentagons meanwhile remaining neutral. Worse than all, some of the ablest Circles fell a prey to conjugal fury. Infuriated by political animosity, the wives in many a noble household wearied their lords with prayers to give up their opposition to the Colour Bill; and some, finding their entreaties fruitless, fell on and slaughtered their innocent children and husband, perishing themselves in the act of carnage. It is recorded that during that triennial agitation no less than twenty-three Circles perished in domestic discord. Great indeed was the peril. It seemed as though the Priests had no choice between submission and extermination; when suddenly the course of events was completely changed by one of those picturesque incidents which Statesmen ought never to neglect, often to anticipate, and sometimes perhaps to originate, because of the absurdly disproportionate power with which they appeal to the sympathies of the populace. It happened that an Isosceles of a low type, with a brain little if at all above four degrees—accidentally dabbling in the colours of some Tradesman whose shop he had plundered—painted himself, or caused himself to be painted (for the story varies) with the twelve colours of a Dodecagon. Going into the Market Place he accosted in a feigned voice a maiden, the orphan daughter of a noble Polygon, whose affection in former days he had sought in vain; and by a series of deceptions—aided, on the one side, by a string of lucky accidents too long to relate, and on the other, by an almost inconceivable fatuity and neglect of ordinary precautions on the part of the relations of the bride—he succeeded in consummating the marriage. The unhappy girl committed suicide on discovering the fraud to which she had been subjected. When the news of this catastrophe spread from State to State the minds of the Women were violently agitated. Sympathy with the miserable victim and anticipations of similar deceptions for themselves, their sisters, and their daughters, made them now regard the Colour Bill in an entirely new aspect. Not a few openly avowed themselves converted to antagonism; the rest needed only a slight stimulus to make a similar avowal. Seizing this favourable opportunity, the Circles hastily convened an extraordinary Assembly of the States; and besides the usual guard of Convicts, they secured the attendance of a large number of reactionary Women. Amidst an unprecedented concourse, the Chief Circle of those days—by name Pantocyclus—arose to find himself hissed and hooted by a hundred and twenty thousand Isosceles. But he secured silence by declaring that henceforth the Circles would enter on a policy of Concession; yielding to the wishes of the majority, they would accept the Colour Bill. The uproar being at once converted to applause, he invited Chromatistes, the leader of the Sedition, into the centre of the hall, to receive in the name of his followers the submission of the Hierarchy. Then followed a speech, a masterpiece of rhetoric, which occupied nearly a day in the delivery, and to which no summary can do justice. With a grave appearance of impartiality he declared that as they were now finally committing themselves to Reform or Innovation, it was desirable that they should take one last view of the perimeter of the whole subject, its defects as well as its advantages. Gradually introducing the mention of the dangers to the Tradesmen, the Professional Classes and the Gentlemen, he silenced the rising murmurs of the Isosceles by reminding them that, in spite of all these defects, he was willing to accept the Bill if it was approved by the majority. But it was manifest that all, except the Isosceles, were moved by his words and were either neutral or averse to the Bill. Turning now to the Workmen he asserted that their interests must not be neglected, and that, if they intended to accept the Colour Bill, they ought at least to do so with full view of the consequences. Many of them, he said, were on the point of being admitted to the class of the Regular Triangles; others anticipated for their children a distinction they could not hope for themselves. That honourable ambition would now have to be sacrificed. With the universal adoption of Colour, all distinctions would cease; Regularity would be confused with Irregularity; development would give place to retrogression; the Workman would in a few generations be degraded to the level of the Military, or even the Convict Class; political power would be in the hands of the greatest number, that is to say the Criminal Classes, who were already more numerous than the Workmen, and would soon out-number all the other Classes put together when the usual Compensative Laws of Nature were violated. A subdued murmur of assent ran through the ranks of the Artisans, and Chromatistes, in alarm, attempted to step forward and address them. But he found himself encompassed with guards and forced to remain silent while the Chief Circle in a few impassioned words made a final appeal to the Women, exclaiming that, if the Colour Bill passed, no marriage would henceforth be safe, no woman's honour secure; fraud, deception, hypocrisy would pervade every household; domestic bliss would share the fate of the Constitution and pass to speedy perdition. "Sooner than this," he cried, "Come death." At these words, which were the preconcerted signal for action, the Isosceles Convicts fell on and transfixed the wretched Chromatistes; the Regular Classes, opening their ranks, made way for a band of Women who, under direction of the Circles, moved, back foremost, invisibly and unerringly upon the unconscious soldiers; the Artisans, imitating the example of their betters, also opened their ranks. Meantime bands of Convicts occupied every entrance with an impenetrable phalanx. The battle, or rather carnage, was of short duration. Under the skillful generalship of the Circles almost every Woman's charge was fatal and very many extracted their sting uninjured, ready for a second slaughter. But no second blow was needed; the rabble of the Isosceles did the rest of the business for themselves. Surprised, leader-less, attacked in front by invisible foes, and finding egress cut off by the Convicts behind them, they at once—after their manner—lost all presence of mind, and raised the cry of "treachery". This sealed their fate. Every Isosceles now saw and felt a foe in every other. In half an hour not one of that vast multitude was living; and the fragments of seven score thousand of the Criminal Class slain by one another's angles attested the triumph of Order. The Circles delayed not to push their victory to the uttermost. The Working Men they spared but decimated. The Militia of the Equilaterals was at once called out; and every Triangle suspected of Irregularity on reasonable grounds, was destroyed by Court Martial, without the formality of exact measurement by the Social Board. The homes of the Military and Artisan classes were inspected in a course of visitations extending through upwards of a year; and during that period every town, village, and hamlet was systematically purged of that excess of the lower orders which had been brought about by the neglect to pay the tribute of Criminals to the Schools and University, and by the violation of the other natural Laws of the Constitution of Flatland. Thus the balance of classes was again restored. Needless to say that henceforth the use of Colour was abolished, and its possession prohibited. Even the utterance of any word denoting Colour, except by the Circles or by qualified scientific teachers, was punished by a severe penalty. Only at our University in some of the very highest and most esoteric classes—which I myself have never been privileged to attend—it is understood that the sparing use of Colour is still sanctioned for the purpose of illustrating some of the deeper problems of mathematics. But of this I can only speak from hearsay. Elsewhere in Flatland, Colour is now non-existent. The art of making it is known to only one living person, the Chief Circle for the time being; and by him it is handed down on his death-bed to none but his Successor. One manufactory alone produces it; and, lest the secret should be betrayed, the Workmen are annually consumed, and fresh ones introduced. So great is the terror with which even now our Aristocracy looks back to the far-distant days of the agitation for the Universal Colour Bill. 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. Edwin Abbott Abbott (1995). Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/201/pg201-images.html 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 , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

Of the Suppression of the Chromatic Sedition

The night passed without incident

WINTER DREAMS

In December, the Suliots, decimated by battle

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE HOUSE IN SOHO CHAPTER VII. THE HOUSE IN SOHO Whittington and his companion were walking at a good pace. Tommy started in pursuit at once, and was in time to see them turn the corner of the street. His vigorous strides soon enabled him to gain upon them, and by the time he, in his turn, reached the corner the distance between them was sensibly lessened. The small Mayfair streets were comparatively deserted, and he judged it wise to content himself with keeping them in sight. The sport was a new one to him. Though familiar with the technicalities from a course of novel reading, he had never before attempted to “follow” anyone, and it appeared to him at once that, in actual practice, the proceeding was fraught with difficulties. Supposing, for instance, that they should suddenly hail a taxi? In books, you simply leapt into another, promised the driver a sovereign—or its modern equivalent—and there you were. In actual fact, Tommy foresaw that it was extremely likely there would be no second taxi. Therefore he would have to run. What happened in actual fact to a young man who ran incessantly and persistently through the London streets? In a main road he might hope to create the illusion that he was merely running for a bus. But in these obscure aristocratic byways he could not but feel that an officious policeman might stop him to explain matters. At this juncture in his thoughts a taxi with flag erect turned the corner of the street ahead. Tommy held his breath. Would they hail it? He drew a sigh of relief as they allowed it to pass unchallenged. Their course was a zigzag one designed to bring them as quickly as possible to Oxford Street. When at length they turned into it, proceeding in an easterly direction, Tommy slightly increased his pace. Little by little he gained upon them. On the crowded pavement there was little chance of his attracting their notice, and he was anxious if possible to catch a word or two of their conversation. In this he was completely foiled; they spoke low and the din of the traffic drowned their voices effectually. Just before the Bond Street Tube station they crossed the road, Tommy, unperceived, faithfully at their heels, and entered the big Lyons’. There they went up to the first floor, and sat at a small table in the window. It was late, and the place was thinning out. Tommy took a seat at the table next to them, sitting directly behind Whittington in case of recognition. On the other hand, he had a full view of the second man and studied him attentively. He was fair, with a weak, unpleasant face, and Tommy put him down as being either a Russian or a Pole. He was probably about fifty years of age, his shoulders cringed a little as he talked, and his eyes, small and crafty, shifted unceasingly. Having already lunched heartily, Tommy contented himself with ordering a Welsh rarebit and a cup of coffee. Whittington ordered a substantial lunch for himself and his companion; then, as the waitress withdrew, he moved his chair a little closer to the table and began to talk earnestly in a low voice. The other man joined in. Listen as he would, Tommy could only catch a word here and there; but the gist of it seemed to be some directions or orders which the big man was impressing on his companion, and with which the latter seemed from time to time to disagree. Whittington addressed the other as Boris. Tommy caught the word “Ireland” several times, also “propaganda,” but of Jane Finn there was no mention. Suddenly, in a lull in the clatter of the room, he got one phrase entire. Whittington was speaking. “Ah, but you don’t know Flossie. She’s a marvel. An archbishop would swear she was his own mother. She gets the voice right every time, and that’s really the principal thing.” Tommy did not hear Boris’s reply, but in response to it Whittington said something that sounded like: “Of course—only in an emergency....” Then he lost the thread again. But presently the phrases became distinct again whether because the other two had insensibly raised their voices, or because Tommy’s ears were getting more attuned, he could not tell. But two words certainly had a most stimulating effect upon the listener. They were uttered by Boris and they were: “Mr. Brown.” Whittington seemed to remonstrate with him, but he merely laughed. “Why not, my friend? It is a name most respectable—most common. Did he not choose it for that reason? Ah, I should like to meet him—Mr. Brown.” There was a steely ring in Whittington’s voice as he replied: “Who knows? You may have met him already.” “Bah!” retorted the other. “That is children’s talk—a fable for the police. Do you know what I say to myself sometimes? That he is a fable invented by the Inner Ring, a bogy to frighten us with. It might be so.” “And it might not.” “I wonder ... or is it indeed true that he is with us and amongst us, unknown to all but a chosen few? If so, he keeps his secret well. And the idea is a good one, yes. We never know. We look at each other— one of us is Mr. Brown—which? He commands—but also he serves. Among us—in the midst of us. And no one knows which he is....” With an effort the Russian shook off the vagary of his fancy. He looked at his watch. “Yes,” said Whittington. “We might as well go.” He called the waitress and asked for his bill. Tommy did likewise, and a few moments later was following the two men down the stairs. Outside, Whittington hailed a taxi, and directed the driver to go to Waterloo. Taxis were plentiful here, and before Whittington’s had driven off another was drawing up to the curb in obedience to Tommy’s peremptory hand. “Follow that other taxi,” directed the young man. “Don’t lose it.” The elderly chauffeur showed no interest. He merely grunted and jerked down his flag. The drive was uneventful. Tommy’s taxi came to rest at the departure platform just after Whittington’s. Tommy was behind him at the booking-office. He took a first-class single ticket to Bournemouth, Tommy did the same. As he emerged, Boris remarked, glancing up at the clock: “You are early. You have nearly half an hour.” Boris’s words had aroused a new train of thought in Tommy’s mind. Clearly Whittington was making the journey alone, while the other remained in London. Therefore he was left with a choice as to which he would follow. Obviously, he could not follow both of them unless—— Like Boris, he glanced up at the clock, and then to the announcement board of the trains. The Bournemouth train left at 3.30. It was now ten past. Whittington and Boris were walking up and down by the bookstall. He gave one doubtful look at them, then hurried into an adjacent telephone box. He dared not waste time in trying to get hold of Tuppence. In all probability she was still in the neighbourhood of South Audley Mansions. But there remained another ally. He rang up the Ritz and asked for Julius Hersheimmer. There was a click and a buzz. Oh, if only the young American was in his room! There was another click, and then “Hello” in unmistakable accents came over the wire. “That you, Hersheimmer? Beresford speaking. I’m at Waterloo. I’ve followed Whittington and another man here. No time to explain. Whittington’s off to Bournemouth by the 3.30. Can you get there by then?” The reply was reassuring. “Sure. I’ll hustle.” The telephone rang off. Tommy put back the receiver with a sigh of relief. His opinion of Julius’s power of hustling was high. He felt instinctively that the American would arrive in time. Whittington and Boris were still where he had left them. If Boris remained to see his friend off, all was well. Then Tommy fingered his pocket thoughtfully. In spite of the carte blanche assured to him, he had not yet acquired the habit of going about with any considerable sum of money on him. The taking of the first-class ticket to Bournemouth had left him with only a few shillings in his pocket. It was to be hoped that Julius would arrive better provided. In the meantime, the minutes were creeping by: 3.15, 3.20, 3.25, 3.27. Supposing Julius did not get there in time. 3.29.... Doors were banging. Tommy felt cold waves of despair pass over him. Then a hand fell on his shoulder. “Here I am, son. Your British traffic beats description! Put me wise to the crooks right away.” “That’s Whittington—there, getting in now, that big dark man. The other is the foreign chap he’s talking to.” “I’m on to them. Which of the two is my bird?” Tommy had thought out this question. “Got any money with you?” Julius shook his head, and Tommy’s face fell. “I guess I haven’t more than three or four hundred dollars with me at the moment,” explained the American. Tommy gave a faint whoop of relief. “Oh, Lord, you millionaires! You don’t talk the same language! Climb aboard the lugger. Here’s your ticket. Whittington’s your man.” “Me for Whittington!” said Julius darkly. The train was just starting as he swung himself aboard. “So long, Tommy.” The train slid out of the station. Tommy drew a deep breath. The man Boris was coming along the platform towards him. Tommy allowed him to pass and then took up the chase once more. From Waterloo Boris took the tube as far as Piccadilly Circus. Then he walked up Shaftesbury Avenue, finally turning off into the maze of mean streets round Soho. Tommy followed him at a judicious distance. They reached at length a small dilapidated square. The houses there had a sinister air in the midst of their dirt and decay. Boris looked round, and Tommy drew back into the shelter of a friendly porch. The place was almost deserted. It was a cul-de-sac, and consequently no traffic passed that way. The stealthy way the other had looked round stimulated Tommy’s imagination. From the shelter of the doorway he watched him go up the steps of a particularly evil-looking house and rap sharply, with a peculiar rhythm, on the door. It was opened promptly, he said a word or two to the doorkeeper, then passed inside. The door was shut to again. It was at this juncture that Tommy lost his head. What he ought to have done, what any sane man would have done, was to remain patiently where he was and wait for his man to come out again. What he did do was entirely foreign to the sober common sense which was, as a rule, his leading characteristic. Something, as he expressed it, seemed to snap in his brain. Without a moment’s pause for reflection he, too, went up the steps, and reproduced as far as he was able the peculiar knock. The door swung open with the same promptness as before. A villainous-faced man with close-cropped hair stood in the doorway. “Well?” he grunted. It was at that moment that the full realization of his folly began to come home to Tommy. But he dared not hesitate. He seized at the first words that came into his mind. “Mr. Brown?” he said. To his surprise the man stood aside. “Upstairs,” he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder, “second door on your left.” 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. Agatha Christie (1998). The Secret Adversary. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1155/pg1155-images.html 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 HOUSE IN SOHO

BILLY CRACKS A SAFE

The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Chapter XVI The Outlaw of Torn Chapter XVI While Norman of Torn and his thousand fighting men marched slowly south on the road toward Dover, the army of Simon de Montfort was preparing for its advance upon Lewes, where King Henry, with his son Prince Edward, and his brother, Prince Richard, King of the Romans, together with the latter’s son, were entrenched with their forces, sixty thousand strong. Before sunrise on a May morning in the year 1264, the barons’ army set out from its camp at Fletching, nine miles from Lewes and, marching through dense forests, reached a point two miles from the city, unobserved. From here, they ascended the great ridge of the hills up the valley Combe, the projecting shoulder of the Downs covering their march from the town. The King’s party, however, had no suspicion that an attack was imminent and, in direct contrast to the methods of the baronial troops, had spent the preceding night in drunken revelry, so that they were quite taken by surprise. It is true that Henry had stationed an outpost upon the summit of the hill in advance of Lewes, but so lax was discipline in his army that the soldiers, growing tired of the duty, had abandoned the post toward morning, and returned to town, leaving but a single man on watch. He, left alone, had promptly fallen asleep, and thus De Montfort’s men found and captured him within sight of the bell-tower of the Priory of Lewes, where the King and his royal allies lay peacefully asleep, after their night of wine and dancing and song. Had it not been for an incident which now befell, the baronial army would doubtless have reached the city without being detected, but it happened that, the evening before, Henry had ordered a foraging party to ride forth at daybreak, as provisions for both men and beasts were low. This party had scarcely left the city behind them ere they fell into the hands of the baronial troops. Though some few were killed or captured, those who escaped were sufficient to arouse the sleeping army of the royalists to the close proximity and gravity of their danger. By this time, the four divisions of De Montfort’s army were in full view of the town. On the left were the Londoners under Nicholas de Segrave; in the center rode De Clare, with John Fitz-John and William de Monchensy, at the head of a large division which occupied that branch of the hill which descended a gentle, unbroken slope to the town. The right wing was commanded by Henry de Montfort, the oldest son of Simon de Montfort, and with him was the third son, Guy, as well as John de Burgh and Humphrey de Bohun. The reserves were under Simon de Montfort himself. Thus was the flower of English chivalry pitted against the King and his party, which included many nobles whose kinsmen were with De Montfort; so that brother faced brother, and father fought against son, on that bloody Wednesday, before the old town of Lewes. Prince Edward was the first of the royal party to take the field and, as he issued from the castle with his gallant company, banners and pennons streaming in the breeze and burnished armor and flashing blade scintillating in the morning sunlight, he made a gorgeous and impressive spectacle as he hurled himself upon the Londoners, whom he had selected for attack because of the affront they had put upon his mother that day at London on the preceding July. So vicious was his onslaught that the poorly armed and unprotected burghers, unused to the stern game of war, fell like sheep before the iron men on their iron shod horses. The long lances, the heavy maces, the six-bladed battle axes, and the well-tempered swords of the knights played havoc among them, so that the rout was complete; but, not content with victory, Prince Edward must glut his vengeance, and so he pursued the citizens for miles, butchering great numbers of them, while many more were drowned in attempting to escape across the Ouse. The left wing of the royalist army, under the King of the Romans and his gallant son, was not so fortunate, for they met a determined resistance at the hands of Henry de Montfort. The central divisions of the two armies seemed well matched also, and thus the battle continued throughout the day, the greatest advantage appearing to lie with the King’s troops. Had Edward not gone so far afield in pursuit of the Londoners, the victory might easily have been on the side of the royalists early in the day, but by thus eliminating his division after defeating a part of De Montfort’s army, it was as though neither of these two forces had been engaged. The wily Simon de Montfort had attempted a little ruse which centered the fighting for a time upon the crest of one of the hills. He had caused his car to be placed there, with the tents and luggage of many of his leaders, under a small guard, so that the banners there displayed, together with the car, led the King of the Romans to believe that the Earl himself lay there, for Simon de Montfort had but a month or so before suffered an injury to his hip when his horse fell with him, and the royalists were not aware that he had recovered sufficiently to again mount a horse. And so it was that the forces under the King of the Romans pushed back the men of Henry de Montfort, and ever and ever closer to the car came the royalists until they were able to fall upon it, crying out insults against the old Earl and commanding him to come forth. And when they had killed the occupants of the car, they found that Simon de Montfort was not among them, but instead he had fastened there three important citizens of London, old men and influential, who had opposed him, and aided and abetted the King. So great was the wrath of Prince Richard, King of the Romans, that he fell upon the baronial troops with renewed vigor, and slowly but steadily beat them back from the town. This sight, together with the routing of the enemy’s left wing by Prince Edward, so cheered and inspired the royalists that the two remaining divisions took up the attack with refreshed spirits so that, what a moment before had hung in the balance, now seemed an assured victory for King Henry. Both De Montfort and the King had thrown themselves into the melee with all their reserves. No longer was there semblance of organization. Division was inextricably bemingled with division; friend and foe formed a jumbled confusion of fighting, cursing chaos, over which whipped the angry pennons and banners of England’s noblest houses. That the mass seemed moving ever away from Lewes indicated that the King’s arms were winning toward victory, and so it might have been had not a new element been infused into the battle; for now upon the brow of the hill to the north of them appeared a great horde of armored knights, and as they came into position where they could view the battle, the leader raised his sword on high, and, as one man, the thousand broke into a mad charge. Both De Montfort and the King ceased fighting as they gazed upon this body of fresh, well armored, well mounted reinforcements. Who might they be? To which side owned they allegiance? And, then, as the black falcon wing on the banners of the advancing horsemen became distinguishable, they saw that it was the Outlaw of Torn. Now he was close upon them, and had there been any doubt before, the wild battle cry which rang from a thousand fierce throats turned the hopes of the royalists cold within their breasts. “For De Montfort! For De Montfort!” and “Down with Henry!” rang loud and clear above the din of battle. Instantly the tide turned, and it was by only the barest chance that the King himself escaped capture, and regained the temporary safety of Lewes. The King of the Romans took refuge within an old mill, and here it was that Norman of Torn found him barricaded. When the door was broken down, the outlaw entered and dragged the monarch forth with his own hand to the feet of De Montfort, and would have put him to death had not the Earl intervened. “I have yet to see my mark upon the forehead of a King,” said Norman of Torn, “and the temptation be great; but, an you ask it, My Lord Earl, his life shall be yours to do with as you see fit.” “You have fought well this day, Norman of Torn,” replied De Montfort. “Verily do I believe we owe our victory to you alone; so do not mar the record of a noble deed by wanton acts of atrocity.” “It is but what they had done to me, were I the prisoner instead,” retorted the outlaw. And Simon de Montfort could not answer that, for it was but the simple truth. “How comes it, Norman of Torn,” asked De Montfort as they rode together toward Lewes, “that you threw the weight of your sword upon the side of the barons? Be it because you hate the King more?” “I do not know that I hate either, My Lord Earl,” replied the outlaw. “I have been taught since birth to hate you all, but why I should hate was never told me. Possibly it be but a bad habit that will yield to my maturer years. “As for why I fought as I did today,” he continued, “it be because the heart of Lady Bertrade, your daughter, be upon your side. Had it been with the King, her uncle, Norman of Torn had fought otherwise than he has this day. So you see, My Lord Earl, you owe me no gratitude. Tomorrow I may be pillaging your friends as of yore.” Simon de Montfort turned to look at him, but the blank wall of his lowered visor gave no sign of the thoughts that passed beneath. “You do much for a mere friendship, Norman of Torn,” said the Earl coldly, “and I doubt me not but that my daughter has already forgot you. An English noblewoman, preparing to become a princess of France, does not have much thought to waste upon highwaymen.” His tone, as well as his words were studiously arrogant and insulting, for it had stung the pride of this haughty noble to think that a low-born knave boasted the friendship of his daughter. Norman of Torn made no reply, and could the Earl of Leicester have seen his face, he had been surprised to note that instead of grim hatred and resentment, the features of the Outlaw of Torn were drawn in lines of pain and sorrow; for he read in the attitude of the father what he might expect to receive at the hands of the daughter. 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. Edgar Rice Burroughs (1995). The Outlaw of Torn. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/369/pg369-images.html 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 .

Norman of Torn and his thousand fighting men

Tarzan Again Leads the Mangani

It was during the morning of July 6, 2137

I came to the summit without overtaking them

STRAIT OF MAGELLAN.—CLIMATE OF THE SOUTHERN COASTS

Love and Mr. Lewisham by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE SCANDALOUS RAMBLE CHAPTER VI. — THE SCANDALOUS RAMBLE. As soon as school was dismissed Lewisham made a gaol-delivery of his outstanding impositions, and hurried back to his lodgings, to spend the time until his dinner was ready—Well?... It seems hardly fair, perhaps, to Lewisham to tell this; it is doubtful, indeed, whether a male novelist’s duty to his sex should not restrain him, but, as the wall in the shadow by the diamond-framed window insisted, “Magna est veritas et prevalebit.” Mr. Lewisham brushed his hair with elaboration, and ruffled it picturesquely, tried the effect of all his ties and selected a white one, dusted his boots with an old pocket-handkerchief, changed his trousers because the week-day pair was minutely frayed at the heels, and inked the elbows of his coat where the stitches were a little white. And, to be still more intimate, he studied his callow appearance in the glass from various points of view, and decided that his nose might have been a little smaller with advantage.... Directly after dinner he went out, and by the shortest path to the allotment lane, telling himself he did not care if he met Bonover forthwith in the street. He did not know precisely what he intended to do, but he was quite clear that he meant to see the girl he had met in the avenue. He knew he should see her. A sense of obstacles merely braced him and was pleasurable. He went up the stone steps out of the lane to the stile that overlooked the Frobishers, the stile from which he had watched the Frobisher bedroom. There he seated himself with his arms, folded, in full view of the house. That was at ten minutes to two. At twenty minutes to three he was still sitting there, but his hands were deep in his jacket pockets, and he was scowling and kicking his foot against the step with an impatient monotony. His needless glasses had been thrust into his waistcoat pocket—where they remained throughout the afternoon—and his cap was tilted a little back from his forehead and exposed a wisp of hair. One or two people had gone down the lane, and he had pretended not to see them, and a couple of hedge-sparrows chasing each other along the side of the sunlit, wind-rippled field had been his chief entertainment. It is unaccountable, no doubt, but he felt angry with her as the time crept on. His expression lowered. He heard someone going by in the lane behind him. He would not look round—it annoyed him to think of people seeing him in this position. His once eminent discretion, though overthrown, still made muffled protests at the afternoon’s enterprise. The feet down the lane stopped close at hand. “Stare away,” said Lewisham between his teeth. And then began mysterious noises, a violent rustle of hedge twigs, a something like a very light foot-tapping. Curiosity boarded Lewisham and carried him after the briefest struggle. He looked round, and there she was, her back to him, reaching after the spiky blossoming blackthorn that crested the opposite hedge. Remarkable accident! She had not seen him! In a moment Lewisham’s legs were flying over the stile. He went down the steps in the bank with such impetus that it carried him up into the prickly bushes beside her. “Allow me,” he said, too excited to see she was not astonished. “Mr. Lewisham!” she said in feigned surprise, and stood away to give him room at the blackthorn. “Which spike will you have?” he cried, overjoyed. “The whitest? The highest? Any!” “That piece,” she chose haphazard, “with the black spike sticking out from it.” A mass of snowy blossom it was against the April sky, and Lewisham, straggling for it—it was by no means the most accessible—saw with fantastic satisfaction a lengthy scratch flash white on his hand, and turn to red. “Higher up the lane,” he said, descending triumphant and breathless, “there is blackthorn.... This cannot compare for a moment....” She laughed and looked at him as he stood there flushed, his eyes triumphant, with an unpremeditated approval. In church, in the gallery, with his face foreshortened, he had been effective in a way, but this was different. “Show me,” she said, though she knew this was the only place for blackthorn for a mile in either direction. “I knew I should see you,” he said, by way of answer, “I felt sure I should see you to-day.” “It was our last chance almost,” she answered with as frank a quality of avowal. “I’m going home to London on Monday.” “I knew,” he cried in triumph. “To Clapham?” he asked. “Yes. I have got a situation. You did not know that I was a shorthand clerk and typewriter, did you? I am. I have just left the school, the Grogram School. And now there is an old gentleman who wants an amanuensis.” “So you know shorthand?” said he. “That accounts for the stylographic pen. Those lines were written.... I have them still.” She smiled and raised her eyebrows. “Here,” said Mr. Lewisham, tapping his breast-pocket. “This lane,” he said—their talk was curiously inconsecutive—“some way along this lane, over the hill and down, there is a gate, and that goes—I mean, it opens into the path that runs along the river bank. Have you been?” “No,” she said. “It’s the best walk about Whortley. It brings you out upon Immering Common. You must—before you go.” “Now?” she said with her eyes dancing. “Why not?” “I told Mrs. Frobisher I should be back by four,” she said. “It’s a walk not to be lost.” “Very well,” said she. “The trees are all budding,” said Mr. Lewisham, “the rushes are shooting, and all along the edge of the river there are millions of little white flowers floating on the water, I don’t know the names of them, but they’re fine.... May I carry that branch of blossom?” As he took it their hands touched momentarily ... and there came another of those significant gaps. “Look at those clouds,” said Lewisham abruptly, remembering the remark he had been about to make and waving the white froth of blackthorn, “And look at the blue between them.” “It’s perfectly splendid. Of all the fine weather the best has been kept for now. My last day. My very last day.” And off these two young people went together in a highly electrical state—to the infinite astonishment of Mrs. Frobisher, who was looking out of the attic window—stepping out manfully and finding the whole world lit and splendid for their entertainment. The things they discovered and told each other that afternoon down by the river!—that spring was wonderful, young leaves beautiful, bud scales astonishing things, and clouds dazzling and stately!—with an air of supreme originality! And their naove astonishment to find one another in agreement upon these novel delights! It seemed to them quite outside the play of accident that they should have met each other. They went by the path that runs among the trees along the river bank, and she must needs repent and wish to take the lower one, the towing path, before they had gone three hundred yards. So Lewisham had to find a place fit for her descent, where a friendly tree proffered its protruding roots as a convenient balustrade, and down she clambered with her hand in his. Then a water-vole washing his whiskers gave occasion for a sudden touching of hands and the intimate confidence of whispers and silence together. After which Lewisham essayed to gather her a marsh mallow at the peril, as it was judged, of his life, and gained it together with a bootful of water. And at the gate by the black and shiny lock, where the path breaks away from the river, she overcame him by an unexpected feat, climbing gleefully to the top rail with the support of his hand, and leaping down, a figure of light and grace, to the ground. They struck boldly across the meadows, which were gay with lady’s smock, and he walked, by special request, between her and three matronly cows—feeling as Perseus might have done when he fended off the sea-monster. And so by the mill, and up a steep path to Immering Common. Across the meadows Lewisham had broached the subject of her occupation. “And are you really going away from here to be an amanuensis?” he said, and started her upon the theme of herself, a theme she treated with a specialist’s enthusiasm. They dealt with it by the comparative methods and neither noticed the light was out of the sky until the soft feet of the advancing shower had stolen right upon them. “Look!” said he. “Yonder! A shed,” and they ran together. She ran laughing, and yet swiftly and lightly. He pulled her through the hedge by both hands, and released her skirt from an amorous bramble, and so they came into a little black shed in which a rusty harrow of gigantic proportions sheltered. He noted how she still kept her breath after that run. She sat down on the harrow and hesitated. “I must take off my hat,” she said, “that rain will spot it,” and so he had a chance of admiring the sincerity of her curls—not that he had ever doubted them. She stooped over her hat, pocket-handkerchief in hand, daintily wiping off the silvery drops. He stood up at the opening of the shed and looked at the country outside through the veil of the soft vehemence of the April shower. “There’s room for two on this harrow,” she said. He made inarticulate sounds of refusal, and then came and sat down beside her, close beside her, so that he was almost touching her. He felt a fantastic desire to take her in his arms and kiss her, and overcame the madness by an effort. “I don’t even know your name,” he said, taking refuge from his whirling thoughts in conversation. “Henderson,” she said. “Miss Henderson?” She smiled in his face—hesitated. “Yes—Miss Henderson.” Her eyes, her atmosphere were wonderful. He had never felt quite the same sensation before, a strange excitement, almost like a faint echo of tears. He was for demanding her Christian name. For calling her “dear” and seeing what she would say. He plunged headlong into a rambling description of Bonover and how he had told a lie about her and called her Miss Smith, and so escaped this unaccountable emotional crisis.... The whispering of the rain about them sank and died, and the sunlight struck vividly across the distant woods beyond Immering. Just then they had fallen on a silence again that was full of daring thoughts for Mr. Lewisham. He moved his arm suddenly and placed it so that it was behind her on the frame of the harrow. “Let us go on now,” she said abruptly. “The rain has stopped.” “That little path goes straight to Immering,” said Mr. Lewisham. “But, four o’clock?” He drew out his watch, and his eyebrows went up. It was already nearly a quarter past four. “Is it past four?” she asked, and abruptly they were face to face with parting. That Lewisham had to take “duty” at half-past five seemed a thing utterly trivial. “Surely,” he said, only slowly realising what this parting meant. “But must you? I—I want to talk to you.” “Haven’t you been talking to me?” “It isn’t that. Besides—no.” She stood looking at him. “I promised to be home by four,” she said. “Mrs. Frobisher has tea....” “We may never have a chance to see one another again.” “Well?” Lewisham suddenly turned very white. “Don’t leave me,” he said, breaking a tense silence and with a sudden stress in his voice. “Don’t leave me. Stop with me yet—for a little while.... You ... You can lose your way.” “You seem to think,” she said, forcing a laugh, “that I live without eating and drinking.” “I have wanted to talk to you so much. The first time I saw you.... At first I dared not.... I did not know you would let me talk.... And now, just as I am—happy, you are going.” He stopped abruptly. Her eyes were downcast. “No,” she said, tracing a curve with the point of her shoe. “No. I am not going.” Lewisham restrained an impulse to shout. “You will come to Immering?” he cried, and as they went along the narrow path through the wet grass, he began to tell her with simple frankness how he cared for her company, “I would not change this,” he said, casting about for an offer to reject, “for—anything in the world.... I shall not be back for duty. I don’t care. I don’t care what happens so long as we have this afternoon.” “Nor I,” she said. “Thank you for coming,” he said in an outburst of gratitude.—“Oh, thank you for coming,” and held out his hand. She took it and pressed it, and so they went on hand in hand until the village street was reached. Their high resolve to play truant at all costs had begotten a wonderful sense of fellowship. “I can’t call you Miss Henderson,” he said. “You know I can’t. You know ... I must have your Christian name.” “Ethel,” she told him. “Ethel,” he said and looked at her, gathering courage as he did so. “Ethel,” he repeated. “It is a pretty name. But no name is quite pretty enough for you, Ethel ... dear.”... The little shop in Immering lay back behind a garden full of wallflowers, and was kept by a very fat and very cheerful little woman, who insisted on regarding them as brother and sister, and calling them both “dearie.” These points conceded she gave them an admirable tea of astonishing cheapness. Lewisham did not like the second condition very much, because it seemed to touch a little on his latest enterprise. But the tea and the bread and butter and the whort jam were like no food on earth. There were wallflowers, heavy scented, in a jug upon the table, and Ethel admired them, and when they set out again the little old lady insisted on her taking a bunch with her. It was after they left Immering that this ramble, properly speaking, became scandalous. The sun was already a golden ball above the blue hills in the west—it turned our two young people into little figures of flame—and yet, instead of going homeward, they took the Wentworth road that plunges into the Forshaw woods. Behind them the moon, almost full, hung in the blue sky above the tree-tops, ghostly and indistinct, and slowly gathered to itself such light as the setting sun left for it in the sky. Going out of Immering they began to talk of the future. And for the very young lover there is no future but the immediate future. “You must write to me,” he said, and she told him she wrote such silly letters. “But I shall have reams to write to you,” he told her. “How are you to write to me?” she asked, and they discussed a new obstacle between them. It would never do to write home—never. She was sure of that with an absolute assurance. “My mother—” she said and stopped. That prohibition cut him, for at that time he had the makings of a voluminous letter-writer. Yet it was only what one might expect. The whole world was unpropitious—obdurate indeed.... A splendid isolation ` deux. Perhaps she might find some place where letters might be sent to her? Yet that seemed to her deceitful. So these two young people wandered on, full of their discovery of love, and yet so full too of the shyness of adolescence that the word “Love” never passed their lips that day. Yet as they talked on, and the kindly dusk gathered about them, their speech and their hearts came very close together. But their speech would seem so threadbare, written down in cold blood, that I must not put it here. To them it was not threadbare. When at last they came down the long road into Whortley, the silent trees were black as ink and the moonlight made her face pallid and wonderful, and her eyes shone like stars. She still carried the blackthorn from which most of the blossoms had fallen. The fragrant wallflowers were fragrant still. And far away, softened by the distance, the Whortley band, performing publicly outside the vicarage for the first time that year, was playing with unctuous slowness a sentimental air. I don’t know if the reader remembers it that, favourite melody of the early eighties:— “Sweet dreamland faces, passing to and fro, (pum, pum) Bring back to Mem’ry days of long ago-o-o-oh,” was the essence of it, very slow and tender and with an accompaniment of pum, pum. Pathetically cheerful that pum, pum, hopelessly cheerful indeed against the dirge of the air, a dirge accentuated by sporadic vocalisation. But to young people things come differently. “I love music,” she said. “So do I,” said he. They came on down the steepness of West Street. They walked athwart the metallic and leathery tumult of sound into the light cast by the little circle of yellow lamps. Several people saw them and wondered what the boys and girls were coming to nowadays, and one eye-witness even subsequently described their carriage as “brazen.” Mr. Lewisham was wearing his mortarboard cap of office—there was no mistaking him. They passed the Proprietary School and saw a yellow picture framed and glazed, of Mr. Bonover taking duty for his aberrant assistant master. And outside the Frobisher house at last they parted perforce. “Good-bye,” he said for the third time. “Good-bye, Ethel.” She hesitated. Then suddenly she darted towards him. He felt her hands upon his shoulders, her lips soft and warm upon his cheek, and before he could take hold of her she had eluded him, and had flitted into the shadow of the house. “Good-bye,” came her sweet, clear voice out of the shadow, and while he yet hesitated an answer, the door opened. He saw her, black in the doorway, heard some indistinct words, and then the door closed and he was alone in the moonlight, his cheek still glowing from her lips.... So ended Mr. Lewisham’s first day with Love. 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. H. G. Wells (2006). Love and Mr. Lewisham. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11640/11640-h/11640-h.htm 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 SCANDALOUS RAMBLE

Giving Assent

If you are still manually optimizing campaigns the same way it was done half a decade ago, you may be a quickly disappearing breed in the user acquisition space. Remember that machine learning is artificial intelligence that allows computer systems to progressively improve performance on a task by “learning” through statistical approaches. Put another way; machine learning is the development of algorithms that allow for more accurate predictions with incremental data collection. That is why Facebook, Google, and all the major media platforms are perfectly ripe for automation—the bigger your paid customer acquisition budget, the more data you can deliver into these machines to enable them to train and learn faster to help you hit your desired success goals. The critical question is: why are you looking to automate something? Remember that the two biggest challenges for startups are hiring people and acquiring new customers. The best way to tackle these challenges is to figure out how to run a Lean growth team without compromising on driving results. The stage has now been set for the following transformation: to move digital media and marketing beyond the purely tactical into a world that’s more intuitive, highly automated, and more strategic than ever before. Given all the promise and possibilities, what can automation and artificial intelligence accomplish when applied to digital marketing efforts? There are several areas ripe for innovation. Automated Media Buying Machine learning is particularly well suited to making predictions when given a large amount of data. Major marketing platform providers like Google and Facebook use machine learning to deliver more relevant ad experiences to consumers and improve the performance of their offerings to get advertisers to spend more. Advances in machine learning have given rise to independent software providers building out packaged solutions to save time for media buyers on everyday gruntwork and free you up to work on strategy, creatives, segmentation, and more. Cross-Channel Marketing Orchestration The next step up from automated media buying involves more complex systems that can work across multiple digital marketing platforms. Each major marketing platform (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc.) offers different capabilities, APIs, and relative strengths and weaknesses, given your specific marketing objectives. Orchestration is a critical concept in this class of autonomous marketing solutions. It goes beyond automated bid management to consider your marketing funnel, customer journey, or life cycle. Systems that orchestrate marketing efforts with a full view of the customer journey encompass a host of benefits driven by AI and automation, particularly in the following areas: Segmenting and targeting customers Predicting behaviors across various channels with a unified view of the customer journey Fine-tuning and perfecting cross-sell and upsell opportunities. Identifying the right channel to drive engagement based on reach and frequency modeling Improving attribution accuracy Fraud detection and protection Virtual Marketing Assistants Voice-based interfaces to intelligent assistants like Amazon Alexa represent an area of growth and exploration in the marketing world. While most “assistants” are designed for consumer use or customer service applications, these intuitive voice interfaces hold promise in helping marketers better understand what’s happening in their digital media efforts, uncover trends, make adjustments, and take advantage of opportunities in new ways that would have been too laborious or complex using traditional user interfaces (UIs) or reporting dashboards. Content Curation The amount of digital content available today is staggering. So what kind of content do your customers like? What resonates with your prospective customers? Artificial intelligence can help marketers sift through vast amounts of content to help them find out what their customers spend their time consuming or engaging with. This can lead to ideas about what media outlets might be fruitful places to advertise. These insights can also fuel your content development, content marketing, and advertising efforts from a creative perspective. Customer Support and Service Today, chatbots are the first line of contact for routine customer support requests. According to Gartner research, 85% of all customer interactions will be handled without a human agent. The increased adoption of chat-based interfaces for customer service, marketing, shopping, and more serves both business and consumer interests. The volume, structure, and repetitive nature of routine service requests make automation highly approachable with off-the-shelf solutions that plug into standard chat interfaces ranging from text messaging to Facebook Messenger. AI-powered customer service has many incredible benefits for businesses and consumers alike. For consumers, chat-based interfaces are accessible, feel familiar, and provide immediate responses to the most common queries. It saves consumers time compared to wading through support lines, phone trees, support queues, or waiting for customer support emails to get addressed and answered by a support agent. Businesses can improve customer experience by integrating chat-based customer service and support channels with their CRM systems and data management platforms. This type of integration allows a company to escalate its most valuable customers to the top of the service queue, for example, to present retention-based offers to customers on the verge of lapsing or poised for an upgrade or new purchase based on their behavioral patterns. Segmentation Development and Management The amount of data coursing through the global internet at any given moment is nearly unfathomable. The big four alone—Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook—store 1.2 petabytes of data. That’s 1.2 million terabytes (a terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes). Trillions upon trillions of customer data points exist within this primordial data soup, ready to be accessed and pumped into the modern digital customer experience—personalized ads, offers, content, services, and more based on the newfound ability to anticipate customers’ needs and desires. Marketers can tap their vast data stores to create unlimited customer segmentation models powered by artificial intelligence. Companies can already tap third-party data sources to enhance customer records with thousands of attributes, like household income, zip code, behaviors, and more. AI allows companies to take this to the next level by combining these conventional data attributes to a live stream of customer interactions, transaction data, product usage data, support and service data, and beyond. Segmentation vendors use AI to generate and update dynamic customer segments to feed into their execution systems to run targeted campaigns across the customer’s user journey. Insight Generation Artificial intelligence can look through a mountain of behavioral data on a hyper-granular level to accurately predict what a consumer will do next, based on their past behaviors and actions. This is how ad platforms create lookalike audiences. Leveraging vast amounts of data and machine learning, these systems can easily cluster people based on behavioral attributes (or other factors) to anticipate their next move, motivations, and desires. Suppose everyone in Cluster 1 takes actions A, B, and C. In that case, we can predict that customers who take steps A and B will likely follow that with action C. AI systems discover the interests, context, and hedonistic activities around users and products by looking at audience behavior. And the system automatically adapts to evolving consumer behaviors and interests. This can lead to new insights that inform your strategy, creative approaches, offers, and more. Creative Generation Perhaps one of the fascinating aspects of artificial intelligence today intersects with marketing technology in potentially problematic (even dangerous) ways. Natural language generation—coding computers to write or generate written or spoken words in a way that can pass as human—has been a field of academic study for decades. Advances in recent years, notably around recurring neural networks and their offshoots, have led to rapid improvements in natural language generation. Regarding marketing, applications around natural language generation could be used to analyze your marketing copy and create variations using your brand’s “voice.” This requires some training but is well within the realm of possibility these days. Natural language generation models have become so powerful that Open AI, a research company working on artificial general intelligence or AGI, refused to release the code related to its large-scale language model known as GPT2. The company cited concerns over misuse and abuse related to the “fake news” problem. This brings us to “deepfakes”—AI-generated video content nearly indistinguishable from the original content. The technique uses human image synthesis to combine and superimpose existing images and videos onto source images or videos using machine learning. Technology marketing applications revolve around creative generation, personalization, and more. Still, fears of misuse related to fake news and even “revenge porn” make deepfake technology concerning its ability to be weaponized by rogue actors and nation-states. Given the breadth of applications for artificial intelligence in growth marketing, it’s important to assess the ability of each to impact your most important outcomes. For example, training a neural network to generate copy variations based on a catalog of ads and customer service interactions might be interesting, but the cost, complexity, and time involved may outweigh any lift you might achieve with some fancy new AI-generated ad creatives. Given the breadth of applications for artificial intelligence in growth marketing, it’s essential to assess the ability of each to impact your most important outcomes. When it comes to immediate impact with the AI-powered marketing technology just outlined, the following are your best bet: Segmentation development and management Automated media buying Cross-channel marketing orchestration Insight generation These four interrelated disciplines all play a role in how you approach optimization today—with or without AI. They also fit nicely into a broader customer life cycle framework. And for any of the four disciplines just listed, AI offers a high enough “risk to reward” ratio to make the potential benefits of time and resources involved worth the cost and distraction factor. Building a Business Case for Automation Most startups are resource-constrained and therefore need to develop a business case to determine which projects to prioritize based on their cost/benefit analysis compared to the success goals of the business. It’s essential to clearly articulate the problems that leveraging AI and Machine Learning to automation would help solve. For example, figure out the ROI of how much money you would save based on lowering the cost of acquiring new customers and hiring fewer people to manage these campaigns. It is highly recommended to determine longer-term ROI projections over three to five years. The goal should be achieving an ROI that remains positive over time and compounds that value by continuing to enrich growth team efficiencies and results. To turbocharge your performance, embrace marketing automation to help you achieve data-driven results far beyond manual capabilities. About the Author is a forward-thinking leader with 20 years of experience helping startups grow into successful businesses. Lomit has played a critical role in scaling growth at startups, including Roku (IPO), TrustedID (acquired by Equifax), Texture (acquired. by Apple), and IMVU (#2 top-grossing gaming app). Lomit is a public speaker, author, and advisor, with numerous accolades and awards throughout his career, including being recognized as a Mobile Hero by Liftoff. Lomit's book is part of Eric Ries' best-selling "The Lean Startup" series. Lomit Patel Lean AI

The Benefits of Marketing Automation

Hackathon is a great opportunity to get out of your comfort zone, challenge yourself, try and learn something new, share experiences and meet interesting people. And last but not least, to get an adrenaline rush since every Hackathon is a competition anyway. Undoubtedly, every team that comes to a Hackathon wants to win. However, some of them make harmful mistakes that may prevent them from getting well-deserved laurels. Now let's take a closer look at the most common mistakes. 1. Neglecting Your Homework The preparation stage is of huge importance! Don’t be lazy, invest your time so you do not spend precious minutes at the event on what you could have done in advance. First, set up communication with organizers: ask questions and find out all the nuances. Find out if they will provide you with servers or repositories, what tools and approaches are allowed and which ones are unacceptable. Will there be access to mentors, support teams, representatives of business, or end users, whose problems you are going to solve during the competition? Any information might be useful. Do not neglect to talk with the organizers during the event as well; their answers may guide you in the right direction. Second, think about what tasks will be assigned to you. There are Hackathons where the participants are narrowed by a general direction only. The other format – is when teams are solving real tasks and problems. Get ready for both! Give special attention to the domain you're going to work in and try to clearly understand it. This way you can have several ideas in mind about what concept to build. Read about the organizers and their business verticals. Imagine what hot spots they may want to solve, and write down a list of ideas of how these problem areas could be resolved. 2. Using Random People Without the right people, you’re going to be driven back and may not be able to get a working prototype. A strong team is a team where all members are cross-functional, ready to cope with new and unusual tasks and quick learners that have no fear of trying new approaches on the go. In good teams, people complement each other. It’s quite a rare case when you need two specialists with the same competencies. Think over all the stages of product creation and what expertise is needed to cover them and select your team based on those needs. People who are close-minded and not ready to compromise or are too sensitive to criticism are usually not efficient team players. Therefore, take a close look at soft skills when choosing your teammates. Without motivated people that want to make a difference and are ready to go the extra mile, winning is impossible. 3. Unreasonable Expectations When you already have a clear picture of your future product, it’s quite difficult to refrain from topping it up with a bunch of extra features. It’s dangerous to try to handle everything at once because you could come to the final with a completely unfinished product. Think big, but start small. Determine the main business model and focus on it from the very beginning. Do your best to split up your project into smaller features. If you don't have enough time to finish, you'll at least have something. If you have some free time, you will be able to implement the rest of your ideas, just try to sensibly evaluate and prioritize them. In lean startup terminology, this is called an MVP. 4. Avoid a Slow Start It’s quite a common story. When starting on a task, many teams, especially newbies, waste a lot of time taking their first step. They draw concepts, go through every little detail, make long lists of possible features, set up workspaces, run brainstorms, and assign roles in a team – they do everything except actually work. The longer your ramp-up period takes the lower the chances of getting to the finish line with good results. Do some of these preparations beforehand. Define the roles in the team in advance so that everyone knows which part of the work they are responsible for so they can get started on them at once. Make sure there are no situations when two or more people are working on the same task. You don’t want people stepping on each other’s toes while other tasks are being ignored. 5. Working With No Breaks Remember to take regular breaks and have a drink, stretch your body, and blow the cobwebs away. Sometimes walking away from your task and getting a short change of pace can help you solve your problems and break through tricky issues. 6. Forgetting The Balance It may happen that in the middle of a Hackathon you realize you won’t be able to show something to the jury. Many things can happen based on a lack of expertise, some unforeseen circumstances, or way over-complicated solutions. In any case, always remember to strike a balance between a working application and a UI. Hey, this is just a Hackathon, Ok? No one expects you to have the most polished interface. You'd be surprised how easy it is to fall into the trap of spending hours on a logo design or wasting precious time because your columns are misaligned. Go easy on that. After all, your main task is to demo your product. 7. Getting Frustrated By Open Space For most people, working in a crowded and noisy open space is a true challenge. You have to be in full view during the whole event. It means that everyone will see your successes and failures. On the other hand, you are going to know about all the issues and achievements of your neighbors too. The mood of people around you influences your own spirit more than you think. It may take a lot of time to acclimate your team, and during this, your efficiency will be far from perfect. Try to focus on your tasks and spend as little time eyeing other participants as possible. 8. Leave Pitching To Chance This is the most important thing if you want to actually do well at the Hackathon. Plan your pitch right. You should spend enough time on the product demo because this is the most important part and the actual reason you are there. If you have the opportunity to choose the order of your speech, always ask to be the first or the last – these teams are remembered the most. A huge mistake that almost everyone makes is that they don't spend enough time preparing for the pitch. About half an hour before hacking ends, stop everything you're working on, even if you're "almost done" implementing a feature. Take out everything that doesn't work and talk about how you're going to present it. If you have some really awesome things going on behind the scenes, figure out a way to display them. A wow-effect will help the jury single you out from the dozens of other participating teams. to find and build tech solutions relating to war issues! The event will take place on October 21-23 in five countries — Ukraine, the UK, Sweden, Poland, and Portugal. Don’t miss your chance to change the world for the better! Join the ‘Hack for Peace’ cross-European hackathon Author: Tetyana Osetrova, former Account and Project Manager at Sigma Software Group Also published . here

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