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Character is the sum of our qualities and traits. It is what makes us who we are and how we interact with the world around us. A strong character is essential for living a happy and successful life. Here are three essential keys to living a life of character: Be honest and trustworthy. Honesty and trustworthiness are two of the most important character traits. When people can trust you, they are more likely to respect you and want to be around you. Being honest also means being true to yourself and your values. Be kind and compassionate. Kindness and compassion are essential for building strong relationships and making a positive impact on the world. When you are kind and compassionate, you show others that you care about them and their well-being. Be responsible and accountable. Responsibility and accountability are important for living a successful life. When you are responsible, you take ownership of your actions and decisions. When you are accountable, you are willing to answer for your mistakes and learn from them. How living a life of character can make you happier and more successful Living a life of character can make you happier and more successful in many ways. For example: People will be more likely to trust and respect you.
This can lead to stronger relationships, better job opportunities, and more success in all areas of your life. You will be happier with yourself.
When you live a life that is true to your values and beliefs, you will be more fulfilled and content. You will make a positive impact on the world.
When you are kind, compassionate, and responsible, you inspire others to do the same. This can create a ripple effect of positivity and make the world a better place. How to develop a strong character Developing a strong character takes time and effort, but it is worth it. Here are a few tips: What is important to you in life? What do you believe in? Once you know your values, you can start to live your life in a way that is consistent with them. Identify your values. What do you want to achieve in life? Setting goals will give you something to strive for and help you stay on track. Set goals for yourself. The people you spend time with can have a big impact on your character. Make sure you are surrounded by people who support you, challenge you, and inspire you to be your best self. Surround yourself with positive people. No one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes and to keep striving to be a better person. Be willing to learn and grow. Living a life of character is not always easy, but it is the best way to live a happy and successful life. By following the tips above, you can start to develop a strong character and reap the many benefits that come with it.

3 Essential Keys to Living a Life of Character (That Will Make You Happier and More Successful)

My childhood was the happiest period of my life

The Nordic countries are known for the benefits they provide to their citizens for the sake of their happiness: from decent public services to the best education and healthcare they can find. However, seems like the rumors of the nordic nations being happier because of these factors aren't true. In this slogging thread, our random channel community discussed the hype around life quality in these countries and which factors can influence the happiness of the population. This Slogging thread by Sara Pinto, Jack Boreham and Mónica Freitas occurred in slogging's official #random channel, and has been edited for readability. Sara Pinto Mar 22, 2022, 11:26 PM Are Nordic nations happier than others? https://www.euronews.com/culture/2022/03/17/the-bearable-lightness-of-melancholy-are-nordic-nations-really-that-happy Sara Pinto Mar 22, 2022, 11:27 PM "Every year the news rings out that Nordic people are the happiest in the world." " , which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, has been ranking countries for a decade based on factors such as health, community and family connections, and freedom to make life choices." The World Happiness Report Sara Pinto Mar 22, 2022, 11:28 PM "Since 2012, Denmark, , Sweden, Norway and Iceland have all consistently ranked highly; but do Nordic people themselves believe the hype?" Finland Sara Pinto Mar 22, 2022, 11:29 PM “It’s a bit of a laugh here when we see these reports about the happiest people in the world because honestly, I don’t think that’s true,” says Juha Rouhikoski, artistic director of Lux Festival, in Helsinki." “People get really depressed here and it’s probably something to do with the long periods of darkness, and long periods of total daylight in the summertime can do harm to your mind as well,” says Rouhikoski. Sara Pinto Mar 22, 2022, 11:30 PM Personally, I've always heard that the nordic nations were indeed happier, so it's definitely a bit strange to see that's not quite the reality Sara Pinto Mar 22, 2022, 11:32 PM Jack Boreham Abeer Limarc Ambalina, what are your thoughts on this? Why do you think the happiness level is not accurate? Jack Boreham Mar 24, 2022, 11:54 AM Sara Pinto, correct me if I'm wrong but don't Scandinavian people have a high quality of living on average? Decent wages low inflation etc? Jack Boreham Mar 24, 2022, 11:55 AM Sure darkness is a factor, but I think these countries are a lot less tainted than our industrial lives Sara Pinto Mar 25, 2022, 8:53 PM Jack Boreham, that's what I thought as well! I thought that conditions were the way to make people satisfied. I guess it's not all that it takes Sara Pinto Mar 25, 2022, 8:58 PM I guess not everything is as great as it seems. I can see how sunlight might be a factor that influences our lives. However, they have many conditions that improve their life quality, so it seems odd how one factor can impact their happiness level Sara Pinto Mar 25, 2022, 8:59 PM Jack Boreham, would you move to one of the Nordic countries? Jack Boreham Mar 28, 2022, 11:16 AM Sara Pinto I would actually. I've always dreamed of becoming a Viking 😂 Sara Pinto Mar 29, 2022, 12:23 PM Jack Boreham, well, I'm not sure about the salary of a viking, but you'd have all the other benefits haha. Plus, vikings look pretty cool so I guess you hapiness level would be high haha Jack Boreham Mar 30, 2022, 11:21 AM Sara Pinto hahahah😂. Very high Sara Pinto Mar 31, 2022, 5:00 PM Abeer Limarc Ambalina, what about you guys? Would you go to a nordic country for the life conditions or for the chance of becoming a viking like Jack Boreham? Haha Mónica Freitas Apr 1, 2022, 12:58 PM Sara Pinto, I think they're financially happier 😂 Which is more than I can say for us. Maybe that's why we like sunsets, beaches and beer so much - to distract ourselves from our finances. Sara Pinto Apr 1, 2022, 7:20 PM Mónica Freitas, your opinion makes total sense, but I guess the grass is always greener on the other side haha. We definitely like the good weather, but we are always complaining about how we wish to have their living conditions. I suppose they envy us for the opposite haha Sara Pinto Apr 1, 2022, 7:21 PM Would you consider moving to enjoy their financial benefits? Mónica Freitas Mónica Freitas Apr 7, 2022, 12:29 PM Sara Pinto maybe for a few months or a year, sure. But I do love the sun way too much 😂 Would you? Sara Pinto Apr 7, 2022, 2:10 PM Mónica Freitas, I'd love to visit, but actually living there? Maybe only for a few months too. I'm starting to see why they're not as happy as we thought haha Mónica Freitas Apr 8, 2022, 9:41 AM Sara Pinto, maybe we can just work remotely with one of their companies, reap the benefits and still enjoy our sunshine 😂 Sara Pinto Apr 8, 2022, 12:06 PM Mónica Freitas, now, that's the dream 😂 Mónica Freitas Apr 11, 2022, 10:09 AM Sara Pinto updating my cv as we speak 😂

Are Nordic Nations Happier than Others?

¿Son las naciones nórdicas más felices que otras?

Les nations nordiques sont-elles plus heureuses que les autres ?

क्या नॉर्डिक राष्ट्र दूसरों की तुलना में अधिक खुश हैं?

北欧諸国は他国よりも幸福ですか?

As nações nórdicas são mais felizes do que outras?

Các quốc gia Bắc Âu có hạnh phúc hơn các quốc gia khác không?

北欧国家比其他国家更幸福吗？

A few weeks ago, published its yearly global survey results about how people from more than 150 countries worldwide evaluated their lives. The full report can be found (page 22). the World Happiness Report here What is the methodology for ranking countries based on their happiness? The polling company Gallup conducts interviews with hundreds of thousands of people across the nations included in the report. People assess their own happiness using a scale from 1 to 10, responding to questions such as if they smiled, laughed or experienced enjoyment the previous day. (either 0 or 1): “If you were in trouble, do you have relatives or friends you can count on to help you whenever you need them, or not?”, “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?” or “Have you donated money to a charity in the past month?” Other questions are binary To measure trustworthiness, the survey also includes the so-called “wallet question” (if you lose your wallet containing $200, how likely a neighbor, a police officer, or a stranger would return your wallet). To quote from : the report To return a wallet requires a level of benevolence extending far beyond basic trustworthiness, since the finder has to go out of their way, often at considerable effort, to do a good turn for someone else. It is no surprise that people are happier if they live in a community where others stand ready to help. Knowing that others are acting in such a way has been shown in experimental studies to encourage others to do good turns, making them even happier. Then, the World Happiness Report processes survey data, as well as economic and social data. Six main criteria determine the happiness index of a country: gross domestic product per capita (data available from ), healthy life expectancy (data available from ), social support, freedom to make one’s life choices, generosity of the general population, and perceptions of corruption levels (data from Gallup surveys). Some variables such as unemployment or inequality are not considered because the World Bank the World Health Organisation there is no available data for the entire sample of countries. Each country from the survey is compared to a hypothetical country, Dystopia, used as a regression benchmark, which scores the lowest national averages for each of the six key variables. These reports are not without , as they are based on subjective assessments from people, but they prove helpful if we compare the happiness index for the same country over the years, as in this case, all the variable factors stay the same. critics And this brings us to Finland, a country experiencing harsh climatic conditions, caught for centuries between the rule of Sweden and Russia, enduring between Whites, the conservative-based senate and Reds, the socialists, in 1918 (its first months of independence), and against the Soviet Union in 1939 and 1941, respectively. The Finns invented , a reference to Vyacheslav Molotov, one of the principal architects of the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact. During the Winter War, in response to the Soviet propaganda that the bombing missions over Finland were humanitarian food deliveries for starving people, the Finns developed a firebomb to attack the Soviet tanks (the Molotov cocktail), “a drink to go with his [Molotov’s] food parcels”. a civil war the Winter War the Continuation War the Molotov cocktail Yet, in 2022, Finland was crowned the world’s happiest country for the fifth year in a row. Jukka Lindstrom, a writer and standup comedian, declared in 2021: to New York Times “Four times [imagine what he would say about five times in a row] is too much… The weather is like the worst day in London, every day,” he said. “There’s definitely something in our history that makes us have this kind of low self-esteem as a nation, always feeling like an underdog.” And so, how did Finns build a happy country? Looking back over their history, we learn about , one of the most significant figures of the twentieth century. He also led the Whites in successfully suppressing the Reds in the Finnish Civil War. Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Mannerheim regarded child welfare as a sterling investment in Finland’s future, not only in the creation of a healthy population, but in the healing of old wounds between the Reds and Whites. Jonathan Clements, Mannerheim: President, Soldier, Spy In 1920, two years after the Finnish Civil war, the was established (Mannerheim initially opposed that the league be given his name, but he conceded to the unanimous wish of the other participants). Mannerheim League for Child Welfare The goal of the work should be that every single child in Finland, from birth and throughout his or her growth period, receives a rightful share of the affection and care that alone can lay the foundation for the development of young people into good and useful citizens. C.G.E. Mannerheim To prevent infant mortality, in 1937, the league started distributing a basket with baby supplies (blankets, crib sheets, diapers, etc.) to low-income mothers. To get the basket, the mothers had to apply for healthcare during pregnancy. In 1949, the maternity allowance became available to all mothers. And nowadays, the Finnish maternity package is an iconic social innovation. of the maternity package contains 43 different products, ranging from a snowsuit, booties, mittens, sleeping bag, blanket, clothes in gender-neutral colours, the first book, toys, to personal care items (usual stuff for babies such as thermometer, hairbrush, toothbrush, nail scissors). The package also includes nipple cream, bra pads, sanity towels, and condoms. All items are included in a box that can be used as the baby’s first crib. No bottles, formula, nappies, or soothers are included. The 2022 edition Implementing such a system (giving a maternity box to all mothers, not only low-income families) benefits the whole society. Otherwise, higher-income households would believe that the maternity package is just another welfare form coming out of their taxes. Lower-income families that would barely cross the income line and not get the box might become frustrated. Allowing all families to have access to the same maternity package creates the narrative that all children should start from the same point in life, leading to a relatively egalitarian Finnish society. And then this package is a thread linking generations as all grandparents, parents, and children would have shared the same concept of sleeping in a box and getting their first baby items from the government. This social reform is low-hanging fruit, as the total maternity grant program costs for a country of roughly 5.5 million people, but with tremendous social benefits, pouring through all levels of society. around 10.3 million euros per year Maternity packages trials have been conducted in , most notably in Scotland, which . other countries hands maternity boxes to all mothers Another social reform is how Finland approaches maternity/paternity leave. , all parents will get the same parental leave to allow fathers to spend more time with their babies. , pregnant women would benefit from an extra month’s allowance, and single parents would use both allowances. Starting this year Each parent would receive 6.6 months’ leave Important to mention that prenatal and perinatal care is free, like all health services in Finland. And then we have the famous Finnish education system, which is , consistently scoring top results in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). among the best in the world Admittedly, there are some worries about the latest Finnish PISA results. has consistently been one of the highest in the participating countries (52 points in favour of girls versus boys, compared with an average of 30 points in ). The gender gap in reading and science literacy results OECD countries A major societal equalizer is that all Finnish pupils get a free hot lunch every day at school. This practice started in the ’40s, alongside the maternity package for all mothers. People in Finland are generally proud of the country’s long history of providing free school meals. A good lunch is more than nutrition. It is something that gives pleasure, relaxes, refreshes, maintains the ability to work and helps children grow healthy. A good school meal is seen as an investment in the future. The Finnish National Agency for Education Also, children from different backgrounds sharing the same meals strengthen equal opportunities, as nobody feels ashamed of their lunch package. When babies are dressed the same, then when they grow up, they eat the same meals and learn in the same schools ( ), it becomes easier to build a relatively egalitarian society. Finland has few private schools A fascinating article about Finnish education myths and facts can be read . here An insight into Finnish education and how heavily Finland relies on education and knowledge is made by Jonathan Clements: Speaking from first-hand experience, a lot of the success of the Finnish education system is down to the simple fact that it is chock full of Finns, gently cherished by a social security system that ensures square meals for all and a good home environment. Finnish education also happily calves off the more practically-minded into vocational training in their teens, creating a ready army of cooks, beauticians, hair-dressers, plumbers, carpenters and electricians. This generates massive demand for painters, decorators, builders, child-minders and cleaners, finding ample employment for many vocational school graduates, but also ensuring that their work is run through the system and taxed. Not only is Finland mercifully short on cowboy builders, but most homes are suitably ready to brave the next harsh winter. In one of many beautifully simple and palpably beneficial incentives in Finnish law, all households are eligible for an annual tax break for home improvement and domestic services, as long as the money is spent on accredited labourers. An Armchair Traveller’s History of Finland Or a thought about the Finnish railways that tells a whole story about the Finnish mindset to optimize and ensure equal resources for everyone: To hear some Finns talk about their railway system, you would be forgiven for thinking it was a third-world shambles, but they have clearly never been to Britain. Finnish trains are a paradise of comfort and efficiency, and distinguished by some neat touches like free travel for any children accompanied by an adult (including teenagers, hence reducing the numbers of unaccompanied louts), children’s carriages with their own play rooms, and free travel for any off-duty police who wear their uniforms, ensuring a little bit of bonus security. An Armchair Traveller’s History of Finland Other numerous aspects can be told about what makes Finland a happy country: impressive landscape and nature, which makes for outdoor activities, the general feeling of safety ( ), a general mindset of not trying to keep up with the Joneses (“ “, an old Finnish saying that means “only ugly people need to dress up” – a tidbit about the Finnish mentality and how they regarded fashion as non-essential. Also, remember the Finnish weather). many children go to school and back on their own Vain rumat ne vaatteilla koreilee Perhaps happiness is not about wishing for the moon but a sense of keeping to yourself and finding contentment in the essentials. Janne Berliini, 49, said he was happy enough. “I have work,” he said. “The basic things are in order.” New York Times article Communal saunas create another equalizing effect rippling through society, as everyone strips down not just of clothes but also any sign of high status. Maybe Finns consider themselves happy because of antidepressants, as Finland is . Perhaps. Or perhaps high antidepressant consumption is either related to a proficient health service around mental issues or to the long dark months with sparse sunlight. one of the top European countries regarding antidepressants In a future article, I will talk about or , another Finnish social innovation about inexpensive adult education centres. kansalaisopisto työväenopisto Of course, as with any country, . But for a country that has such as “ ” (the pessimist will never be disappointed) or “ ” (happiness will always end in tears), it is a magnificent feat to achieve the status of world’s happiest country by building a democratic, egalitarian, well-functioning, and highly-educated society with low levels of corruption. Finland surely has its problems proverbs pessimistic ei koskaan pety itku pitkästä ilosta After all, in the words of anthropologist Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure upon how our children grow up today. If you want to crack a few smiles about Finns, check the . Note: Finland related comics from Scandinavia and the World Previously published at https://www.roxanamurariu.com/what-makes-finland-a-happy-country/

Why is Finland the Happiest Country in the World?

¿Por qué Finlandia es el país más feliz del mundo?

Pourquoi la Finlande est-elle le pays le plus heureux du monde ?

फिनलैंड दुनिया का सबसे खुशहाल देश क्यों है?

Tại sao Phần Lan là Quốc gia Hạnh phúc nhất Thế giới?

为什么芬兰是世界上最幸福的国家？

Disney is transforming its theme parks from a physical experience into a theme park Metaverse, a union of in-person and practical entertainment with data-driven virtual experiences. Metaverse provides an experience that is physical and digital converged, perennial, personalized and social, in-park and beyond-the-berm, and fresh and evolving. Whether we’re experiencing the Metaverse in the parks or at home. The Technological Evolution of Disney Theme Parks When Disneyland opened in 1955, it combined the elements of circuses and carnivals with Walt's unique storytelling technique, resulting in rides, cruises, carousels, and shows. Over the years, the television and film industry changed how we entertain ourselves. During the period of the Disney Renaissance, which lasted from 1989 to 1999, Disney theme parks incorporated film-based attractions and more technically advanced ride systems and show effects. Going into the 21st century, the theme park audience coming to the parks had a very different relationship with entertainment media than visitors to Disneyland had in the middle of the 20th century. People rely on technology products for their pastimes, such as watching movies or playing games on the Internet. To remain relevant to modern audiences, Disney needed new ideas and elements to attract customers in the new era, so Disney launched interactive rides, such as Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters themed after Pixar's . Toy Story Nowadays, as technology evolved, the ways we can access new technologies are significantly diversified. Disney has looked for ways to keep up by making interactivity more immersive inside the parks. And thus, the desire to create the Metaverse — the union of practical and virtual experiences that would keep a generation raised on mobile interactivity wanting to come to the parks. Disney‘s Metaverse Theme Park In this new chapter, Disneyland uses virtual technology combined with physical theme park attractions to allow generation Z to experience the magical magic as much as their parents and grandparents did. In 2018, Disney launched the Play Disney Parks app which allows park visitors to interact with the different areas of the park with trivia, music, and mini-games while actually exploring the park. This app is only the beginning of the Metaverse. In 2019, Disney opened Star Wars: Galaxy Edge, the most innovative and immersive land inspired by the Star Wars franchise. Star Wars: Galaxy Edge makes park visitors feel like they are part of that universe. You become a participant and it’s all systemically integrated to create a personalized and synergized experience. The immersive experience allows you to choose your role and have a unique memory. When you leave Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, you can still watch the shows on Disney+ and play related video games. Disney even further implemented ’s helmet in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge before the show premiered on Disney+. That makes Disney’s films very valuable. When you are hooked to , it means that you won't want to miss walking around the immersive universe in Star Wars: Edge of the Galaxy. This can also be applied to the Marvel Universe. not only brought Disney a whopping $3 billion but also served as a 3-hour commercial for the newly released Avengers Campus land in 2021. The Mandalorian The Mandalorian Avengers: Endgame When you think about how tightly knit these synergies are becoming — and they’re only going further, wait until we can stay in the Star Wars universe on Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. The upcoming Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser at Walt Disney World will be the world's first immersive theme hotel, which will provide a whole new personalized entertainment experience, Guests will turn themselves into “Star Wars” avatars in a cruise-like experience. Disney’s Metaverse Plan Started Before the Term ‘Metaverse’ Went Viral In 2013, Disney and launched MagicBand in Walt Disney World. It allows parks visitors to use the band to enter hotel rooms, charge their accounts for food and services, and serve as tickets to enter various theme parks. combined wearable device technology and cloud technology In September 2021, Disney announced the next generation of MagicBand called MagicBand+, set for release in 2022. It will provide the wearer with . haptic feedback, gesture recognition, and LED indicator lights The Magicband+ further combines Disney’s virtual and physical worlds, making the real-world environments in the theme parks seem more immersive. In a Walt Disney World Resort , Disney says the MagicBand+ will allow its wearers to play a “bounty hunter in a galaxy far, far away and find virtual bounties throughout Black Spire Outpost in : Galaxy’s Edge,” amongst other interactive experiences. press release Star Wars Disney always has the magic power to make the jaw drop. Through the Metaverse and its advanced technology, we may one day find ourselves interacting with AI characters in the park. These may all sound like illusions, but if you think about it, we can now fight the First Order with the Resistance, or team up with the Avengers to save the world. In the future, there may be more personalized story experiences, such as princess stories or pirate stories, that we thought could not happen in the past. At this moment, Disney has proved to the world that these are not just a dream. Disney's ingenious and magical efforts have created the mysterious and infinite Metaverse world that people dream of.

Disney's Happiest Place on Earth Is in the Metaverse

Operating a multi-tenant serverless cloud platform comes with a unique set of challenges. There are many articles out there that deal with standard optimization techniques like SSR, PWA, tree shaking and similar. This article is similar, but also different as it focuses on things unique to serverless environments, in this case, AWS Lambda specifically. My name is Sven, and I’m one of the founders of Webiny. Don’t know Webiny? — It’s a serverless CMS powered by React, GraphQL, and Node. Prep work To get out measurements, and help us identify the problem(s) we will be using to run our requests, gather timings data and get a better understanding what a user is seeing, and experiencing, on their end. webpagetest.org What we will be looking at is the “first view”, meaning how do the load times look for a user that has never visited the page before. This is important, as the browser cache can hide many of the bottlenecks. Load timings — Identify the problem(s) From the chart at the top of the page, the most meaningful metric for us was the “ ”. If you look closely, you’ll see that it took almost 2 seconds just to start the render of the page 😱. This is due to the nature of a single page app (SPA). Basically, you first need to download a massive JS bundle (1), which then the main thread needs to process (2) before the page can display some content. Time to Start Render (1) Download JS bundle. (2) Wait until the main thread processes the JS bundle. However, that’s just part of the story. Once the main thread processes the JavaScript bundle, it actually fires off several API calls to the API Gateway. At this stage, the user sees the notorious spinner, and he doesn’t actually see any content so far. Here is a filmstrip of the visual events: What we see here is a poor user experience. The user sees an empty page for about 2 seconds, and then a spinner for another second. That additional second of viewing the spinner is caused by the API requests that follow once the JS bundle is loaded. The API requests are needed to retrieve the content and actually render the content. If this was a normal VPS, the time cost of these API calls would mostly be predictable, but when dealing with serverless, you have the infamous “cold start”, and to make matters even worse, in case of Webiny Cloud Platform, the Lambdas are part of a VPC, which means we need to initiate an ENI for each new Lambda instance, this increases the cold start time drastically. Here are some timing metrics for booting a Lambda inside a VPC and outside a VPC: Image is taken from https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/lambda-vpc-cold-starts-a-latency-killer-5408323278dd/ Conclusion, there is a 10x increase in the cold start time when Lambda is inside a VPC (ouch! 🤕). There is also another cost that’s bundled inside the API timings, that’s the latency. Since it’s my browser (the client), that’s executing the API requests, the browser needs to transverse from my computer, over the Internet, all the way to the origin, and back. That is repeated for each API request. Challenges Based on the above we identified a few challenges that we need to tackle: Improve the speed of API requests, or reduce the number of API requests that block rendering Reduce the size of the JS bundle, or make the bundle not a requirement for rendering the page Unblock the main thread Potential approaches: Optimize code to run faster — high effort, high cost, questionable gain Increase lambda RAM size — low effort, medium to high cost, low gain Something else? We actually opted in for the third option. What if we don’t need the API requests at all, and what if we don’t need the JS bundle at all? This would eliminate all our pain points. Our first idea was to generate a static HTML snapshot of the rendered page and serve that to the user. A failed attempt Webiny Cloud, which is the serverless infrastructure, based on AWS Lambda, that hosts Webiny websites, it had the ability to detect bots and then instead of serving a JS version of the page, it would reroute the request to a instance which would render the page using headless Chrome, and then serve back the HTML to the bot. The main reason for that was SEO, as many bots don’t read JavaScript. So we had the idea of actually using that functionality and serve back the same output to regular users. Puppeteer This usually works well for a non-JS environment, but when you try serving a pre-rendered content to a client with a real JS enabled browser, the page renders, but then once the JS files load, the React components don’t know where to mount. This causes a big pile of errors in the console, therefore this solution wasn’t really helpful in our case. Introducing SSR The benefit of SSR is that all the API requests stay within a local network, as they are handled on a machine, or a function, running inside a VPC, there is no latency when communicating with a Lambda, like the one between the client and the origin server, unless there is a cold start in question. An additional benefit is that we get back an HTML snapshot, to which React components know how to mount, once the JS files are loaded. And finally, we don’t need that big JS bundle and the API calls to display the page. It can be loaded asynchronously, and it won’t block the main thread. Basically, SSR solves most of our challenges…well, kind of. At this point we got to here: No more API calls, and we actually get to see our page before that big JS bundle is downloaded. But if you look closely at the first request, it took almost 2 seconds to return a response, for the document, from the server. Let’s take a deeper look into this. Time to First Byte problem What’s happening here is that we are starting a node server, doing the SSR, with all the API requests and JS processing and then returning the final output. However, the problem is that on average this takes around 1-2s. Our SSR server needed to do all that work, before returning the first byte of the response to the user. This causes a very long wait time for the first byte. It’s almost the same amount of work, just that work is not happening on the client side, but on the server side inside the SSR workflow. Wait. You said server ? Isn’t this supposed to be serverless? We sure did try doing SSR in a Lambda function but it turned out to be a very intensive process (you need to drastically increase the allocated memory size to get more CPU resources), plus the cold starts we talked about before... So for now, the ideal setup is using the node server to download the site’s SSR bundle and render it. Back to the SSR results: looking at the film strip, the timing is not much different than what we had when we were doing client-side rendering. Blank screen for 2.5 seconds 😡 Although it might not look like we’ve achieved any progress, we actually have! We got an HTML snapshot with all the content, which is ready to be hydrated by React, and there is no need to do any API calls since all the required data is already injected into the HTML. The only problem is that generating this HTML snapshot takes too long. At this point, we could either invest more time into optimizing SSR or simply cache the output and serve the snapshot from something like Redis cache — which is exactly what we did. SSR Caching Once a user visits a Webiny website, we first check a centralized Redis cache to see if we have an existing HTML snapshot, and serve it from the cache. On average this brought down the “time to first byte” to a range of 200–400ms. This is where we actually started seeing massive improvements in speed. Right from the first view, the user gets to see the page content under a second. Let’s have a deeper look at the waterfall chart now: The red line shows the 800ms mark, which is when the page content is fully loaded. You can also see that the JS bundles were loaded at around 1.3s mark, but that didn’t affect the time in which the user got his content. The same applies to the API calls and the main thread processing, both are no longer required to display the page content. Note that the timings on the JS bundle, API calls, and main thread still matter, as that is the time by which page becomes “interactive”, but for crawlers and user’s perception of “speed” — it doesn’t matter. In case this was a “dynamic” page, say it was displaying a signed-in user in the header. The SSR would load a generic page, meaning the one where the user is not signed in, and only after the page, JS bundle, and API calls are processed ( ), the header would change and display the signed-in user. time to interactive A few weeks later we discovered that our proxy wasn’t closing the client connection at in right place when it was triggering the SSR as a background process. A single-line fix brought down the TTFB to 50–90ms mark and visual complete to ~600ms. However, there is another problem … There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things. — Phil Karlton The cache invalidation is definitely true. Either you have a very short TTL and refresh the cache often, introducing infrequent long page load times, or have a mechanism to invalidate the cache based on certain events. In our case to get around this problem we actually introduced a short TTL or 30s, but also we added the option to serve stale cache, and at the same time refresh the content in the background. This way we offset any latency and cold-start issues that Lambdas might introduce. This works as follows: a user visits a Webiny website, we check the HTML cache, and if there is an existing snapshot, we will serve that. The snapshot can even be several days old. What we do is we serve that old snapshot to the visitor in those few 100ms, and in parallel, we trigger a job to generate a new snapshot and replace the old cache. That job usually takes just a few seconds, as we also introduced a mechanism to always have a bucket of pre-warmed lambdas, so we don’t pay the big cold-start cost when generating new snapshots. This way we always serve from the cache and the content is refreshed on subsequent visits, in case the cache is older than 30 seconds. This is definitely an area where we will introduce additional improvements, for example, we are looking at adding the option to automatically refresh the cache every time a user publishes a page. However, this is not a silver bullet. For example, say you have a homepage that displays the last 3 blog posts, and you create and publish a new post, technically the cache will be generated for that new post only, but the homepage will still be stale. We are still investigating the best approach, but so far the focus was on sorting out the performance challenges. At this point, we believe we did quite a good job. Summary Our starting point was a client-side rendering, where, on average, the visual complete metric was 3.3s. Now the visual complete is ~600ms. And what’s also important, there is no more spinner. SSR is the key player here, but without proper caching, you are just moving timing metrics from the client to the server, so the end time to “visually complete” won’t change much. SSR has the additional benefit of offsetting the CPU bottleneck on older mobile devices, which is something we have not measured in this test, but the current implementation we have should get around that problem as well. Overall, doing SSR is hard, and with serverless on top, it makes it even harder. The solution requires code changes, additional infrastructure, as well as an intelligent caching mechanism; but the benefits are great, and most importantly, your users will appreciate them. Let me know if you decide to give a spin. You can host your custom apps on the Webiny managed platform, and you’ll get all these amazing performance improvements out of the box. In case you have any questions or feedback to share, drop me a message on twitter , or use the comment form below. Webiny @SvenAlHamad

How to SSR in a serverless environment and make your visitors 400% happier! 

In a mutating world, the has a predominant role in people’s life. We are completely surrounded by phones, computers, and apps. In this article, I really want to talk about the latter, the apps, and how a live chat can help your customers support to make your users happier. technology Until recently, email was the most used medium for telematic communications. It has not lost its importance today, still representing one of the most strategic means of communication for many types of communication, however, in recent years it has suffered a decline. How it was and how it is now For a few years now, the , thanks to the spread of instant messaging apps. Today the fruits of this revolution can be attributed to mobile that, we remember, continue to grow at a rate eight times higher than the evolution of the Internet. use of email has decreased dramatically The smartphone and other mobile devices have forever changed the way people communicate, connect and buy products and services. This allows users to have immediate and complete access to the business or to get in touch with others at the touch of a screen and through the most disparate media, social media, chat app, email etc. Around these three methods of communication, , especially in relation to the number of users and the engagement rates. chat apps recorded the greatest surge Looking at these numbers, . we can see that for users communicating via a chat is now the NEW standard All this to say that even the dynamics of the relationship between company and user have changed. People want to be heard and seek direct dialogue with the brand, no coincidence that more and more users now contact the company directly via chat when needed, replacing the classic habits such as the call to customer service or the queues at the service center. One of the reasons for this choice could lie in the free service, but the real strong point is the rapid response and quality, a personalized and definitive answer that should take place, in fact, in real time, without superfluous references or passages. and allow them to be distracted while they need help. People now expect immediate assistance with the app At we have studied these dynamics for a long time, and we know that those . Your users will be happier and will be happy to recommend your app to their friends too. Customerly who integrate a live chat within their websites and apps get much better results than those who still have a customer service based solely on phone and email Not only that, using a live chat it is possible to profile the user, and give the customer care the opportunity to know everything they need on the user, without stressing the customer by asking who is he. It is in a sense an additional for diagnosing the problem. tool Messaging for customer service is asynchronous The customer sends a message in chat and continues the other activities on your app. When the customer service responds, a notification arrives within the app or via email if the user has logged off. so that they do not have to interrupt their jobs and waste less time. 9 people out of 10 would prefer to contact a company by live chat The traditional customer support channels such as telephone and email load the weight of the communication on the customer who must then call or send an e-mail and often are . With messaging, customers are informed of your response and can respond accordingly. forced to wait for help Live Chat is expressive GIFs, emojis, images, and videos can be exploited in messages, this makes it an entirely more expressive means of phone or email. Many experts say that text-based formats remove the human element from conversations while messaging has been built to allow people to share emotions and express themselves in radically new ways. The Emojis, in particular, is normal way companies and people express humor 😝, happiness 😀, and even anger 🤬. Likewise, GIFs can be shared to express sarcasm and humor in a way that is often lacking in phone-based customer support. Customer service on messaging applications works because it is a fundamentally familiar form of communication for most of the world’s population. The time to start is now: Provide a Live Chat experience To start with, I recommend starting with the construction of a process and a workflow to support communication on a live chat. It is easy to start, even for those who are alone and do not have a dedicated customer care. In Customerly, for example, we provide mobile applications with which you can respond to your users even on the move, and it is very useful if you are a startup or a small business owner. If you are a big company, there are very few things to explain to your customer care to be immediately operational. Remember, . Do not delay, you could immediately make your users happier and start increasing your leads. Start now to use a on your websites and apps. the keys to success in a live chat are empathy and speed of response free live chat Originally published at blog.customerly.io on September 10, 2018.

How a live chat customer support can make your users happier

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards” — Steve Jobs It was May 2007. I was pursuing the Master of Business Administration and got placed with one of the leading banks of India. Everything was going as per the plan which includes studying from a reputed college, then do an MBA, and land a high-paying job. What’s strange was that I couldn’t detect a tinge of happiness or even a sense of accomplishment even after this feat. Something didn’t feel right and in the hearts of hearts, I knew I wasn’t happy. Having no one to talk to, one fine day, I sat down and started contemplating and jotting down my thoughts in my journal. The day was no less than an epiphany for me. It was quite a realization as I learned about the key to a happier and successful — life self-reflection. What is self-reflection? Simply put, self-reflection is an act or a process where you disconnect from the world and introspect your actions, thoughts, priorities, and aspirations to become a better human being. To some, it might seem like a regular day-dreaming session but in my opinion, it is one of the best ways to learn about yourself. If performed correctly and regularly, self-reflection can help you grow — both professionally and personally and enrich your life by leaps and bounds. Why is self-reflection important? Throughout our daily lives, we are always thinking about something or the otherㅡ relationships, a mysterious co-worker, the latest gadget that launched recently, how to be a better son, how to get a promotion and….. what not? It’s ironic that we put so much thought and energy on things and forget to apply this concept to ourselves. Our personal growth would only elevate if we take out some time regularly to examine our thoughts, feelings, and actions. other There are many wildly successful businessmen, sportspersons, world-class leaders that delve into the process of reviewing their thoughts and actions to maximize their potential. Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, triathlete and World Champion Craig (Crowie) Alexander are a few to name. I’m sure the following points would clear the air regarding the importance of self-reflection: Provides a different point of view Oftentimes, things don’t go as per the plan. It’s life — things won’t always happen as per your convenience. There’s no point of beating yourself or wasting your time cribbing about it. Let’s assume that a project or campaign didn’t go well at work. How would you handle the situation? You, along with your team members would arrange a meeting to analyze what went wrong and what could be done differently the next time. Likewise, when something unlikely happens in life, take a moment to reflect in silence. I’m sure a new perspective and understanding would answer your questions and lessen your worries. Keeps you focused on the bigger picture Sometimes, we get so stuck in the minute details and intricacies that we lose focus on the bigger picture. And, the whole purpose of introspection is to see if what you’re doing right now is in sync with your vision and long-term goals or not. When you self-reflect, you are directing your brain to prioritize tasks that would actually add value and provide a solid outcome. As a result, you focus on the essentials and eliminate the non-essential things from your life. Improves self-awareness Too many people don’t achieve success because they don’t know what success means to them. Success, being an ambiguous term, is related to self-awareness. The more self-aware you would be, the more you know about your priorities. And, the more you know, the easier it would be to chase them. American businessman, keynote speaker and the author of ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, Stephen Covey said, “ Self-awareness is our capacity to stand apart from ourselves and examine our thinking, motives, history, scripts, actions, habits and tendencies.” Prepares you to face your fears Too many people are not living their dreams because they are living their fears. This stops them from being successful and becoming a better version of themselves. Whether it’s the fear of being judged, failure, or something else, self-reflection helps you acknowledge it and eventually come up with the best way to handle it. Allows you to make well-thought decisions Most of us, at least once, would have said or done something that we would like to take back. It’s human to let anger take over in the heat of the moment without foreseeing its repercussions. However, when you take time to reflect or introspect a situation, you intend to act more thoughtfully in the future. When you self-reflect, you see it all — good or bad, and that’s the beauty of it. If you have to take an important decision or something demands your reaction, wait for at least 24 hours. This time would allow you to reflect and approach the situation with better perspective. Challenges your assumptions Oftentimes, we believe and endorse version of the truth — which might or might not be the actual truth. In reality, these are our assumptions and preconceived notions about that particular thing. It’s not wrong to have opinions or notions but it’s necessary to know the real truth. our When you self-reflect on such thoughts, you view things without any bias or facade and ponder over the validity of such beliefs. To become successful or happier in life, it’s important to challenge your assumptions and see things the way they are. A step-by-step guide to self-reflect By now, you might have an idea of what actually self-reflection is and why is it required to live a happier life. It means we should discuss how to practice this art and become a better human being. The way I self-reflect is quite simple and straightforward. It’s a four-step process where I: Find a quiet place and sit Close my eyes and picture a major event that happened Silently visualize the event as a third-person Analyze my actions — right or wrong, and good or bad You can think about anything that happened at home or office and start reflecting and identifying changes that you might need to make. Here are some questions that you can ponder to make increase its effectiveness; What do I stand for? What are my core values, goals, and expectations of myself and life? Am I doing things that are adding value to my life — personal and professional? Am I making the most of my talents, skills, and strengths? What are the key areas I need to work on? What could I have done better today? Are there any beliefs or thoughts that are limiting me? Where do I see myself a few years down the line? Am I at my best right now? What are the three things or skills that I need to learn to be my best version? Last few thoughts Self-reflection is a powerful and liberating experience that helps you expand your horizons, get a better understanding, and reach your full potential. If it is something that doesn’t come naturally to you, then with little practice and persistence, you can become more happy. Keep reflecting and keep growing! Author Bio: Vartika Kashyap is the Marketing Manager at ProofHub and has been one of the LinkedIn Top Voices in 2017. Her articles are inspired by office situations and work-related events. She likes to write about productivity , team building, work culture, leadership, entrepreneurship among others and contributing to a better workplace is what makes her click.

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