The family of Luka <strong>Huddle</strong>, 2, who drowned in a dam on a property near Geelong, have spoken of their anguish.

Lara boy drowning: Luka Huddle, 2, drowns after following puppy to neighbour’s property near Geelong

A toddler has been found dead in a dam at Lara, near Geelong. A search was conducted after the child was reported missing yesterday afternoon.

Family mourns 'cheeky' toddler Luka Huddle after dam drowning near Geelong

Huddle

huddle

TL;DR As a new remote team, we struggled to establish communication practices that matched the efficiency of in-person, impromptu exchanges, leading to inefficient information flow and stilted collaboration. During the lead-up to our launch on Product Hunt, we discovered Slack huddles. These are informal, open calls in a Channel or Workspace, with a focus on audio-only chat, and were released to mimic the environment of office collaboration. Embracing Slack huddles enabled us to work much more collaboratively, problem-solve together, and emulated a ‘desk by desk’ environment, which increased our productivity by 50%, positively affected our wellbeing, and led to a hugely successful launch on Product Hunt. We’re always looking for a productivity hack – we the fitness tracker for work, after all. Check out how the lead-up to our launch on Product Hunt helped us uncover our favourite hack below! are Adadot’s remote team Here at Adadot, we’ve worked with a fully remote model from the start. With no central office or time zone we have the freedom to work wherever we want in the world, which comes with a host of benefits both for wellbeing productivity. and Our team certainly has a Greek flavor – like all the best things in life – but we are an international company spread across several different countries, all working towards the same goal: making success sustainable, one developer at a time. At the time of our launch on Product Hunt, we had two fantastic engineers working in Greece, our CTO Jason working out of Paris, and CEO Alex was based in London. Not exactly down the hall, then… The challenges of remote working Although we completely believe in being a remote work company, and intend to stay that way, getting off the ground as a brand new, fully distributed team wasn’t easy. One problem, which became apparent during the run-up to our Product Hunt launch, was our struggle to establish communication and collaboration practices that replaced in-person chats. If you’re running as a fully remote team, you’re removing the opportunity to walk over to a colleague to ask for their opinion or expertise, the ability to shout across the desk when a problem arises, and the impulsive chats at the coffee machine that might springboard into a new idea. We took the decision to work fully remotely understanding the above compromises (and removing the opportunity for constant in-person interruptions can actually do wonders for developer productivity), but we hadn’t yet established a system to replicate the benefits of in-person communication. Working asynchronously and trying to organize meetings was leading to more back-and-forth than meeting time, information flow was stilted, and the team didn’t feel particularly engaged in collaborative working. We had our work cut out for us to have a successful launch! What does launching on Product Hunt mean? Product Hunt is an online platform celebrating the best new software releases. Each product has a planned launch date, and a competitive algorithm based on engagement ranks all the releases in a 24-hour cycle. Getting to the number one spot on your release day can be a huge boon for a new product, but it isn’t an easy task. We had a date planned for our launch, we’d started engaging the community to build buzz; all we needed to do next was…finish the product. It was time for an all-out sprint, and if we didn’t find a way to work more collaboratively and efficiently, it simply wasn’t going to happen. Time for a Slack hack. What is Slack? Slack is a widely-used communication and collaboration platform, particularly popular among developers for useful functions like third party integrations and automations including deployment. During the run up to our Product Hunt launch date, we were on Slack constantly as we raced towards the finish line, and when we uncovered Slack ‘huddles’, the game changed for us. What are Slack huddles? A huddle on Slack is an informal, open call in a Channel or Workspace, with a focus on audio-only chat. Anyone in the group can drop in and out as they please, and people can share screens and draw or annotate. Released in spring 2020, the function was designed to “ ”, and what do you know, that’s just what we needed! mimic the fast, informal discussions that took place when everyone worked from the office How did Slack huddles help us increase productivity? Being able to jump into informal, unscheduled group calls whenever the need arose, have ad-hoc brainstorming sessions and, most importantly, simply hang out and code together in real time, turned remote work into a strategic advantage rather than a problem to solve. It offered a communication and collaboration solution that aligned with remote work, with the efficiency of face-to-face interaction. Huddles helped to emulate a environment; when all of us were in a huddle together, it felt like working together, even when we were tinkering on separate projects. This helped us adjust into a more team oriented and big-picture mindset: more a part of a whole than a single developer turning in work. ‘desk by desk’ Problems were , as we either spoke up in the huddle we were in, or quickly sent a request to start a new one. It became much less of a ‘thing’ to flag an issue and encouraged collaborative – and therefore faster –  problem solving. addressed as soon as they arose If we working on the same part of the product, when talking through the work in a huddle. The team even compared it to co-op dungeon raiding in a video game (just with more deployment and less trolls…hopefully). were collaboration was a lot easier and more efficient The stats spoke for themselves; once we started working in huddles we used Adadot to track our productivity, and saw around a 50% increase in deployment speed, sprint on sprint. Perhaps most importantly, and central to the goal behind Adadot, we saw a real at work. Creating a more social environment and informal opportunity for collaboration helped us to grow our working relationships and our strength as a team. uplift in our team’s wellbeing The launch date So how did we do with our launch? Not badly at all! Huddles gave us the tool we needed to successfully finish our sprint, deliver a finished product on the day (as finished as a product ever is), and most importantly gave us a new, collaborative workspace to take us into the future of Adadot. And the best part? You can integrate Slack within your Adadot dashboard, so you can track unique communication metrics and get a big-picture view of how collaboration is tied to your performance. Maybe talk it over with the team in a huddle? This story was first published here.

How Slack's Huddles Gave Us The Boost We Needed To Launch

The Challenge A few years back I had the opportunity to join two strong, small teams who were working on a couple of important products that already had a big audience and a few years of development behind them. I spent my first month discussing with teammates, product managers, technical leaders and major stakeholders of the products. We’d discussed challenges, ideas, and plans for the future. This allowed me to learn a lot about the products and the people who worked on or were impacted by them. During those discussions, I’d observed some struggles. We had an impressive collection of tools used for monitoring the products, but the knowledge of how to use those tools was mainly concentrated in one or two individuals per team and they were usually used in a reactive rather than proactive way. For example, some tools were only used when production went down and rarely or never otherwise... Another challenge was that the products had quite significant technical debt and there were technical improvements that engineers wanted to prioritize while product managers wanted to continue adding new features (a common tension when building products). This led to frustration for everybody. The team felt that technical improvements were not understood or considered important, while product managers felt that the team was not realizing the importance of making progress on critical features and commitments made to users and stakeholders. : Challenges we were facing could be summarized in the following way Prioritizing technical improvements is hard when they are not articulated in a way the business can understand and prioritize against revenue-impacting feature requests or improvements. Product managers and teams were not speaking the same “language”. They needed a way to connect the product, business, and technical improvements. Monitoring of products was usually done ad-hoc and only a few team members had enough knowledge of the entire suite of tools available for monitoring. The use of these tools usually happened in a reactive way, when the team was facing a problem. The Idea These challenges were great opportunities to create something which would improve the collaboration and which would bring higher quality and efficiency in building products going forward. I proposed that by bringing data and visualization the teams and product managers would find it easier to discuss and make decisions. In order to convince the teams, I felt that I should probably build a proof of concept which we could use as a starting point for discussions. I’d analyzed all the tools we had available, their functionality then looked for open-source tools that we could use given our tech stack. I was lucky that we were using NewRelic which has a powerful functionality: , which - much to my surprise - we weren’t using at that time. With Insights features I was able to easily create dashboards with nice graphs and most importantly, valuable information. Insights I presented those to the teams and we started brainstorming on how we could use them, what data is useful for us and what other data we could get with other tools. There were many great ideas that came out of those discussions and we also had some volunteers who took some of those ideas and implemented them. A few examples: we improved the dashboards on NewRelic Insights, another colleague built a tool that was integrating open-source static code analyzers and generated an Atlassian Confluence page with that data, and we integrated Google Analytics data and Amazon AWS cost data. These allowed us to correlate web traffic data with system load/health data and infrastructure costs. The Execution Our initial dashboards looked at the following data: (Web Transactions) Transactions : look at the data and identify which are the busiest days and hours and define the rules for scaling of machines to cover that. Look at the slowest and average transactions in order to identify if we have a performance problem and if we need to look at it in more detail. Most viewed and slowest pages will allow us to identify which pages might cause performance problems. Ideas on how to use it : will help to improve the scaling of the machines and reduce costs in some situations. Easier to see which requests are causing performance problems. It can help us to identify which pages cause performance problems and might make users unhappy. Possible benefits Database Queries : identify which are the busiest days and hours and define rules for scaling the Database on machines to cover that. Look at the slowest Database queries and transactions with the highest number of Calls to identify performance problems. Ideas on how to use it will help to improve scaling and reduce costs in some situations. Easier to identify the Database queries and transactions which cause performance problems. Possible benefits: Code Quality Attributes being able to identify modules that generated bugs and build failures could be a good indicator that those modules are fragile and need our attention. Tests that are frequently failing could be a good indicator that those tests are fragile and should be refactored, removed or the code they cover should be updated. The static code analyzer score on the ascending trend is a good indicator of increased code quality. Ideas on how to use it: improved overall quality of the code and project. Cleaner code. Modules that are more stable and less error-prone. A more reliable suite of automation tests. Possible benefits: Responses & Errors responses status codes show us if we mainly provide successful responses to our users or if we have a huge number of failed responses. Frequent errors help us to identify the ones on which we need to focus our investigations. Ideas on how to use it: easier to spot if we have unhappy users and to identify if we need to investigate failures. Easier to prioritize bugs based on the frequency. Possible benefits: Browser, Operating System, Device Usage this will help identify what kind of browsers, operating systems, and devices our app should support. Ideas on how to use it: can reduce the time of development and testing and can help us be proactive in terms of what new browsers, operating systems, and devices we should support. Possible benefits: : With dashboards available we put in place a ceremony which looked like this Every Monday we met and we looked at the dashboards.The output of that session was a list of actions and Atlassian Jira tickets.We then presented those tickets to product managers, showed them the data and how it was impacting or could impact the users/customers. In the hope that this would make prioritization easier and more efficient. After implementing some of the tickets and after each new release, we were measuring the impact compared to previous release data. We weren’t strict on numbers, rather we preferred to look more at trends. We called this ceremony: The Technical Huddle After a few sessions, some of my colleagues came up with great ideas on how to improve the dashboards and make the sessions more efficient. A colleague developed a Continuous Integration plan which collected and saved all the data we were using in dashboards and, based on that, generated an Atlassian Confluence page that displayed the data in a more structured and efficient way which allowed us to quickly understand it. He added colors with different shades to show progress or regress based on the difference in percentage between data from one release to another. Another colleague found a new open-source tool that we could use for static code analysis. Initially, we weren’t focused on frontend code so one of our colleagues found a tool that gave us data on that area. Initially, these meetings lasted for almost one hour, but soon we managed to reduce them to 15-30 minutes. We were surprised to see that even our product managers started to join our technical huddles once they started to see user benefits that they could “sell” to their stakeholders - page load time improvements, reduced error rates… things that users value and therefore are commercially valuable. It was amazing to see team involvement, and team members’ passion to improve and make it more efficient. The Benefits Having regular Technical Huddles where we looked at and analyzed data which showed how we were doing in terms of quality and efficiency on the products we were building, gave us a lot of benefits and some of them we initially didn’t even anticipate: You could say . It was so rewarding to see teams’ happiness when we were finally prioritizing more of the technical improvements they were making and how enthusiastic the product managers were that they could show stakeholders why they prioritized a technical improvement and how that improved the product and business. When product managers can articulate why technical improvements matter and when the engineers can articulate why features matter you have a strong indicator of a high performing team. we built a “translator” between technical improvements, product, and business which allowed teams and product managers to communicate more easily and prioritize better work to be done We were and looking at them from a <ility>(performance, scalability, reliability, maintainability, etc) point of view. proactively monitoring the products We were able to connect these quality attributes to user value and business which allowed product managers to prioritize work better. This allowed us to prevent future problems and identify trends in the product. We were able to build products that had better stability and performance. by improving performance, stability and improving infrastructure management (e.g: better auto-scaling). Reduce costs We . Team members were also looking at the product as a whole, not only on the parts in which they were working. increased the overall view and knowledge of the product We found these sessions were a great way to . When we observed there were questions about a tool or data in the dashboard we took action to either organize a presentation on that part or to have somebody explain how to use it. spread the knowledge inside the team because we reduced bugs and errors and improved performance. Users of the products were happier An interesting side benefit of these sessions was that it was . a great way to connect team members and build the team Having regular sessions together with your team where you are looking at dashboards with data related to quality, efficiency and impact of the product you are building is a powerful ceremony I would recommend everybody to adopt. I’ve seen the benefits it can bring to teams, product managers, stakeholders, and users. To me, this is the missing ceremony from Agile frameworks. Previously published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/technical-huddle-missing-ceremony-from-agile-ovidiu-silaghi/

Technical Huddle: An Easy Way To Turn Challenges Into Success

A source of employee dissatisfaction is ALWAYS a lack of communication. It’s in the top three complaints your team has. I guarantee it. Your team wants more info than you give. Inevitably you’ve tried a weekly team meeting. You put it on the calendar. The first one was a resounding success. You had so much to say that the meeting ran into overtime. The second meeting wasn’t bad, but the content dropped. By the third meeting, you struggled to scrape together enough to fill the time. You shifted to monthly as a compromise. Within four months the meeting was gone from everyone’s calendar. Or worse yet, it has continued as a painful time waster spent reviewing long to-do lists. Think about this. For a team of 25, a one hour meeting is costing you at least $1k. That’s $50k a year! A shoddy company-wide meeting reflects directly on you. It damages your leadership cred. On the flip side, if you’re not bringing the team together and keeping them up-to-date, you’re wearing that too. Looking for a solution that works? Here’s a PROVEN RECIPE FOR SUCCESS. One of my clients has been using this exact formula religiously, every week, for five years. Their employee satisfaction is off the charts positive. — You can achieve a ton in 25 minutes with a solid schedule. Use the time to maximum benefit Here’s a sample to get you started. Host starts the meeting at the scheduled time Good news stories (4 mins) — An opportunity for anyone in the company to share quick personal or professional good news. A new client. A pregnancy. The launch of a long awaited marketing tool. A promotion. Before the first meeting, prompt a few people to share. It will help get the ball rolling. Industry news (2 mins) — The host shares one or two bits of news from your industry. Something that’s new, exciting and worthy of sharing. Department updates (10 mins) — Each week, on a rotating schedule, one or two departments present an update. This is the time to share successes, learnings and upcoming plans, keeping everyone in the loop. Metrics (2 mins) — Report on the top two or three metrics that your company is tracking. Volume of new orders. Percentage up time. Number of new customers. Open Floor (4 mins) — An opportunity for anyone else to speak if they have valuable information to share. Often this is where other departments, committees, and you provide urgent updates. Recognition (1 min) — The host recognizes someone on the team. If you have company values defined, the recognition gets tied to a value. It needs to be a specific person for a specific action or achievement. A general appreciation for the awesomeness of a department or individual doesn’t cut it. Select the next host (1 min) — The current host chooses someone to be next week’s host. They also announce the departments presenting the following week. Embrace these four philosophies to rock your weekly meetings. Weekly without fail — Pick a time that works and NEVER move it. Steer clear of Mondays and Fridays to avoid public holidays and personal vacation days. The meeting goes, whether you are there or not (You should be there at least 75% of the time). Set the expectation that everyone needs to schedule around this meeting. Keep it tight — Irrespective of the size of your team, this meeting should run less than 25 minutes. If you can’t keep it on schedule, something’s not working. You will start losing the support of your busy team. Depend on rhythm — This meeting works or fails based on rhythm. Create a template, make sure everyone knows it, and stick to it. Keep it fun — If there isn’t a good dose of laughter every week, be concerned. These meetings should be fun. It’s a time for the team to connect. Keep it light. That’s the time tested recipe and here are the critical ingredients. — Someone needs to own this meeting. Often it’s an EA, receptionist or office manager. This person has a few critical responsibilities. Two days before the huddle, they send a reminder email to the host and presenting departments. Before the meeting they collect presentations and compile them into one document. On the day of the meeting, they make sure the space is ready, IT equipment is working, and music is playing. During the meeting they take notes of what’s said. Within 60 minutes they send those notes and the presentation to the entire company. Anyone who missed the meeting is back in the loop within an hour. Define a meeting owner — Set a standard start time for your meeting and be specific. My client starts their meeting at 1:07 SHARP every Wednesday and ends by 1:30. Why 1:07? Meetings scheduled for the top of the hour will start late. Period. Midday is good for spanning time zones. Early morning meetings infringe on your team’s work-life-balance. Late afternoon meetings will be lower in energy. Choose a time that works and stick to it. Start time — About 3 minutes before the start time, pump music through the office. It builds energy and provides a friendly reminder. The meeting host picks the music for the week. Pump the music — Any team member capable must stand. This is a quick huddle not a lingering social event. It’s a standing meeting — There are so many benefits to having someone different host each week. Here are four. The host gets to practice their public speaking and gets some visibility. No two meetings are the same. As the team grows, everyone gets to know everyone else. Most important, the meeting can always run even if you are away. Rotate the meeting host — Everything I’ve shared is perfect when your team is in one place. This is often not the case. Technology is the answer. Buy a portable video camera and microphone and broadcast the meeting using [insert your favourite tool here]. Have someone watch the computer so remote team members can type in questions. Remote employees — If your team is small (under 10), find ways to have everyone take part in every meeting. Keep it short. Have everyone share one good news story or their single biggest priority for the next 5 days. For larger teams, impromptu is better. Everyone has an opportunity to speak but doesn’t need to. Large vs small teams — Some companies use short (<10 min) daily meetings rather than longer weekly ones. Everything here still applies with two changes. Use the same host for an entire week and break the larger agenda down into smaller, shorter pieces. Daily vs weekly meetings Give it a try. I’d love to hear your success stories. If you hit some bumps, contact me and I’ll share more tips to get things on track. Thanks for reading :-) If you found this info helpful, please hit that ❤️ button below. It would mean a lot to me and helps other people discover the story. I blog to help Founder CEOs on their journey from kitchen table to 200 employees. 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Founders: How to rock your company huddle without it becoming an awkward time waster

TL;DR This isn’t another blog full of pie-in-the-sky theories or frameworks that make you feel like you’re getting a crash course in advanced calculus from Jackson Pollock. No, this is real talk from someone who’s been in the trenches—often clueless, occasionally brilliant. So, strap in. As of writing this, I’ve only been a “real” product manager for about a year and three months, and somehow, at 31, I’m Head of Product at a gamification platform serving Fortune 500 retail customers. And while I swear I have no idea what I’m doing most of the time, I’m also somehow looked up to as the most experienced member of the product team. Welcome to the startup life. Here’s how I survive (and sometimes even thrive) in this sadistic world of startup product management. The Myth of the Average Day Let’s start with a reality check: If you’re still searching for what an “average day” looks like in product management, just… stop. PMs tell a lot of stories—almost half of which are true—so believe me when I say, no two days are alike. I’m either deep into financial forecasting (seriously, why am I the one doing this?) or whiteboarding design ideas that probably won’t make it past launch lunch. It’s chaos, but hey, it keeps me on my toes. Action Item: Embrace the madness. If you’re waiting for a routine, you’re going to be waiting for your way into getting RIF’d. Learn to jump from task to task like you’re on an obstacle course and get comfy with being uncomfy. Communication: It’s Not Mind-Reading When I first started, I thought I was so good at communicating. Turns out, You can’t be good at communicating on day one, month one, or even year one. Every company has its own culture and nuances. It’s like assuming that just because you’re an English-speaking American from Idaho that you’re basically also a Londoner (The answer is a big fat “no” by the way, speaking from experience). Making sure all parts of the org—devs, designers, QA, and external business units—are on the same page is basically your full-time job as a PM. You have to know how your teams best absorb information and influence that into your company’s culture. Since we’re a gamification company, we communicate visually so I explain and facilitate communications visually and interactively. I practically live on Miro, where my team’s litter flows and wireframes with sticky notes and comments in real-time like a caffeinated ant colony. Action Item: Talk. Like, actually talk to your team. Use tools like Miro, but remember, you’re the one responsible for making sure everyone gets heard. Think of yourself as the ambassador to each department, minus the diplomatic immunity (brace yourself). Design, Iterate, Break It, Fix It, Repeat “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” — Not Albert Einstein Design something, test it, break it, fix it, and do it all again next week. I’m constantly tinkering with designs and ideas, but here’s the thing: As a PM, it’s my job to pump the brakes when people start getting too excited. Not every idea deserves a sprint, even if it sounds like the next big thing. Action Item: Keep iterating, but don’t let your team jump off the deep end without checking if there’s water in the pool first. You’ve got to validate, or you’ll end up building a beautiful feature nobody wants. RICE: How to Cook It and Then Break It Down Look, I like the RICE priority matrix framework as much as the next PM, but let’s be real—it’s too vague sometimes. Quick Tip: When you see the word “framework,” think of it as a mound of clay in pottery class. It’s there for you to shape into something useful to your specific case. Please, please—for the love of Marty Cagan—do NOT use a vanilla PM framework without tailoring it to your product team’s nuanced needs. For example: What exactly is Impact? For my company, it makes sense to break it down into four things: strategic, objective, financial, and market demand. And when it comes to Effort? Oh, you bet I’ve got that sliced up into four things as well: dev, QA, UX, and business. Tailor RICE (or any framework) to your company. Action Item: Don’t worship at the PM framework altar. Make them work for you by getting specific. Break things down into chunks that actually reflect your team’s reality. You’re the one who has to explain this to your Founder/CEO, after all. Stakeholder Alignment: Like Herding Minotaurs in a Labyrinth Aligning stakeholders is like trying to get eight territorial bull-human hybrids to play nice in the yard without destroying the hedges—good luck. The business team wants everything done yesterday, while devs are (rightly) freaking out about timelines and burnout. I try to make the roadmap and all documents as visible as possible and involve stakeholders in Slack huddles, but everyone is busy, and not everyone will see the product as the number one priority. You just have to smile, nod, and then do whatever actually needs to be done. Action Item: Involve stakeholders early and often, but don’t let them run wild. You’re the ringmaster of this circus, so keep the roadmap from turning into a chaotic free-for-all. You might feel like you’ll get fired for saying “no” to senior stakeholders, but the alternative is getting fired for building a bloated, buggy, unusable heap of garbage (always keep your PM resume up-to-date 😉). AI: The Admin Hack You Didn’t Know You Needed Confession time: AI has saved my life. Well, okay, maybe not literally, but it’s definitely saved my sanity. I’m not building AI into my product (yet), but I am using it to make my work life a whole lot easier. From automating Jira tickets to handling bug reports, AI has freed me from hours of admin work. Quick Tip: Whatever it is you’re trying to automate, someone has already done it. Find a YouTube video, follow along, and then use ChatGPT to refine and fill in the gaps. Now, I actually have time to do product-y things, like thinking about big-picture strategy. Weird, right? Action Item: Let AI handle the boring stuff. Automate the grunt work so you can put on the black turtleneck and sound smart and inspiring in meetings (or at least pretend to). Relationships Matter More Than Any Framework Sure, frameworks are great, but guess what? People are more important. Some devs just want to code in peace, while others want to be part of the product discussion. My job is to make sure the ones who want to hide in their cave are left alone, while the ones who want to collaborate have a seat at the table. Action Item: Get to know your team. Understand their quirks, and manage them accordingly. Build trust, or be prepared to have your grand plans completely ignored. Bottom Line Product management isn’t about memorizing frameworks or pretending you’ve got it all figured out—don’t be that person. Play dumb. Play curious. Play caring. But don’t play smart(er) than anyone else. Embrace the mess, keep your team on track, and figure it out as you go. Make peace with the fact that you’ll always be a noob—I have. So, if you’ve learned anything from this, take this advice as a high-level guide, twist it, tweak it, and tailor it to your specific product situation. Because product “management” isn’t about theory—it’s about strategy and execution. And if all else fails, just let AI handle your Jira tickets and Confluence PRDs. K Bye! © James Effarah You've reached the end. TL;DR This isn’t another blog full of pie-in-the-sky theories or frameworks that make you feel like you’re getting a crash course in advanced calculus from Jackson Pollock. No, this is real talk from someone who’s been in the trenches—often clueless, occasionally brilliant. So, strap in. As of writing this, I’ve only been a “real” product manager for about a year and three months, and somehow, at 31, I’m Head of Product at a gamification platform serving Fortune 500 retail customers. And while I swear I have no idea what I’m doing most of the time, I’m also somehow looked up to as the most experienced member of the product team. swear Welcome to the startup life. Welcome to the startup life. Here’s how I survive (and sometimes even thrive) in this sadistic world of startup product management. The Myth of the Average Day The Myth of the Average Day Let’s start with a reality check: If you’re still searching for what an “average day” looks like in product management, just… stop. PMs tell a lot of stories—almost half of which are true—so believe me when I say, no two days are alike. I’m either deep into financial forecasting (seriously, why am I the one doing this?) or whiteboarding design ideas that probably won’t make it past launch lunch. whiteboarding design ideas launch It’s chaos, but hey, it keeps me on my toes. Action Item: Embrace the madness. If you’re waiting for a routine, you’re going to be waiting for your way into getting RIF’d . Learn to jump from task to task like you’re on an obstacle course and get comfy with being uncomfy. RIF’d Communication: It’s Not Mind-Reading Communication: It’s Not Mind-Reading When I first started, I thought I was so good at communicating. Turns out, You can’t be good at communicating on day one, month one, or even year one. Every company has its own culture and nuances. It’s like assuming that just because you’re an English-speaking American from Idaho that you’re basically also a Londoner (The answer is a big fat “no” by the way, speaking from experience). “no” “no” Making sure all parts of the org—devs, designers, QA, and external business units—are on the same page is basically your full-time job as a PM. You have to know how your teams best absorb information and influence that into your company’s culture. Since we’re a gamification company, we communicate visually so I explain and facilitate communications visually and interactively. I practically live on Miro , where my team’s litter flows and wireframes with sticky notes and comments in real-time like a caffeinated ant colony. Miro Action Item: Talk. Like, actually talk to your team. Use tools like Miro, but remember, you’re the one responsible for making sure everyone gets heard. Think of yourself as the ambassador to each department, minus the diplomatic immunity (brace yourself). Design, Iterate, Break It, Fix It, Repeat Design, Iterate, Break It, Fix It, Repeat “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” — Not Albert Einstein Not Albert Einstein Design something, test it, break it, fix it, and do it all again next week. I’m constantly tinkering with designs and ideas, but here’s the thing: As a PM, it’s my job to pump the brakes when people start getting too excited. Not every idea deserves a sprint, even if it sounds like the next big thing. Action Item: Keep iterating, but don’t let your team jump off the deep end without checking if there’s water in the pool first. You’ve got to validate, or you’ll end up building a beautiful feature nobody wants. RICE: How to Cook It and Then Break It Down RICE: How to Cook It and Then Break It Down Look, I like the RICE priority matrix framework as much as the next PM, but let’s be real—it’s too vague sometimes. RICE priority matrix Quick Tip: When you see the word “framework,” think of it as a mound of clay in pottery class. It’s there for you to shape into something useful to your specific case. Quick Tip: Please, please—for the love of Marty Cagan —do NOT use a vanilla PM framework without tailoring it to your product team’s nuanced needs. Marty Cagan For example: What exactly is Impact ? is Impact For my company, it makes sense to break it down into four things: strategic, objective, financial, and market demand. And when it comes to Effort ? Effort Oh, you bet I’ve got that sliced up into four things as well: dev, QA, UX, and business. Tailor RICE (or any framework) to your company. Action Item: Don’t worship at the PM framework altar. Make them work for you by getting specific. Break things down into chunks that actually reflect your team’s reality. You’re the one who has to explain this to your Founder/CEO, after all. PM framework Stakeholder Alignment: Like Herding Minotaurs in a Labyrinth Stakeholder Alignment: Like Herding Minotaurs in a Labyrinth Aligning stakeholders is like trying to get eight territorial bull-human hybrids to play nice in the yard without destroying the hedges—good luck. The business team wants everything done yesterday, while devs are (rightly) freaking out about timelines and burnout. I try to make the roadmap and all documents as visible as possible and involve stakeholders in Slack huddles, but everyone is busy, and not everyone will see the product as the number one priority. You just have to smile, nod, and then do whatever actually needs to be done. Action Item: Involve stakeholders early and often, but don’t let them run wild. You’re the ringmaster of this circus, so keep the roadmap from turning into a chaotic free-for-all. You might feel like you’ll get fired for saying “no” to senior stakeholders, but the alternative is getting fired for building a bloated, buggy, unusable heap of garbage ( always keep your PM resume up-to-date 😉). always keep your PM resume up-to-date AI: The Admin Hack You Didn’t Know You Needed AI: The Admin Hack You Didn’t Know You Needed Confession time: AI has saved my life. Well, okay, maybe not literally, but it’s definitely saved my sanity. I’m not building AI into my product (yet), but I am using it to make my work life a whole lot easier. From automating Jira tickets to handling bug reports, AI has freed me from hours of admin work. automating Jira tickets Quick Tip: Whatever it is you’re trying to automate, someone has already done it. Quick Tip: Find a YouTube video, follow along, and then use ChatGPT to refine and fill in the gaps. Now, I actually have time to do product-y things, like thinking about big-picture strategy. Weird, right? Action Item: Let AI handle the boring stuff. Automate the grunt work so you can put on the black turtleneck and sound smart and inspiring in meetings (or at least pretend to). Relationships Matter More Than Any Framework Relationships Matter More Than Any Framework Sure, frameworks are great, but guess what? People are more important. Some devs just want to code in peace, while others want to be part of the product discussion. My job is to make sure the ones who want to hide in their cave are left alone, while the ones who want to collaborate have a seat at the table. Action Item: Get to know your team. Understand their quirks, and manage them accordingly. Build trust, or be prepared to have your grand plans completely ignored. Bottom Line Product management isn’t about memorizing frameworks or pretending you’ve got it all figured out—don’t be that person. Play dumb. Play curious. Play caring. But don’t play smart(er) than anyone else. Embrace the mess, keep your team on track, and figure it out as you go. Make peace with the fact that you’ll always be a noob—I have. So, if you’ve learned anything from this, take this advice as a high-level guide, twist it, tweak it, and tailor it to your specific product situation. Because product “management” isn’t about theory—it’s about strategy and execution. “management” “management” And if all else fails, just let AI handle your Jira tickets and Confluence PRDs. K Bye! © James Effarah You've reached the end.

How To Product Manage (Startup Edition) 😈 7 Steps To Sanity

This is a no-fluff list of the tools we're using at the startup I work at (making $100k/mo). At this stage, it’s tempting to subscribe to every premium tool, but we stick to a guiding principle: keep it simple, maximize value, and avoid overcomplication. Here’s what works for us: Version Control System - GitHub We use GitHub for version control because it’s an industry standard with excellent integrations. It helps us manage our repositories and work collaboratively with a familiar interface. Team Communication - Slack Slack is our go-to communication tool. It allows us to create channels, communicate asynchronously, and quickly solve blockers. The integrations with other tools, like GitHub and Google Calendar, help us centralize notifications and keep conversations organized. Code Review Tool - PullNotifier PullNotifier increases visibility for code reviews, which is crucial for our team. It sends real-time notifications to Slack whenever a pull request is opened, helping us streamline the review process and ensure faster iterations. Project Management - Jira Jira keeps our project management on track. It's flexible, allows us to manage sprints, and track the progress of tasks easily. The integration with GitHub makes it easy to sync code progress with project management. CI/CD - GitHub Actions GitHub Actions powers our continuous integration and deployment. Since it's built into GitHub, it’s easy to set up, automate tests, and deploy code without switching platforms. It simplifies the process and saves time. Documentation and Internal Notes - Confluence Confluence is our go-to for internal documentation. It’s perfect for keeping all our notes, wikis, and processes in one place. Plus, its integration with Jira makes referencing project updates smooth. Accounting, Payments & Employee Management - Xero Xero handles our accounting and payroll. It’s simple, effective, and automates much of the tedious financial work. The real-time financial reporting is invaluable for managing cash flow. Infrastructure Platform - AWS AWS gives us the scalability and reliability we need for hosting our apps. With services like ECS and RDS, we can easily manage our infrastructure while controlling costs. Error Reporting, Logging, and Internal Dashboards - NewRelic NewRelic helps us monitor application performance and log errors in real-time. It provides detailed insights, which allows us to troubleshoot issues quickly and keep our platform stable. Email Provider - Google Google Workspace handles our email needs, and its reliability and integration with other tools, like Google Calendar, make it an easy choice for seamless communication. Meetings - Google Calendar and Slack Huddles We rely on Google Calendar for scheduling meetings and Slack Huddles for quick, impromptu discussions. These tools keep our meetings short and efficient. Code Quality - SonarCloud SonarCloud provides automatic code analysis and ensures that we maintain a high standard for code quality. It helps us detect bugs and security vulnerabilities before they become issues. Server Uptime Monitoring - Healthchecks.io Healthchecks.io keeps track of our cron jobs and scheduled tasks. It sends alerts if something goes wrong, ensuring we’re always on top of potential downtime issues. These tools have been chosen because they offer the best value for our needs, helping us stay lean and focused as we continue to grow. Do you have anything to add to this list? This is a no-fluff list of the tools we're using at the startup I work at (making $100k/mo). At this stage, it’s tempting to subscribe to every premium tool, but we stick to a guiding principle: keep it simple, maximize value, and avoid overcomplication . keep it simple, maximize value, and avoid overcomplication Here’s what works for us: Version Control System - GitHub GitHub GitHub We use GitHub for version control because it’s an industry standard with excellent integrations. It helps us manage our repositories and work collaboratively with a familiar interface. Team Communication - Slack Slack Slack Slack is our go-to communication tool. It allows us to create channels, communicate asynchronously, and quickly solve blockers. The integrations with other tools, like GitHub and Google Calendar, help us centralize notifications and keep conversations organized. Code Review Tool - PullNotifier PullNotifier PullNotifier PullNotifier increases visibility for code reviews, which is crucial for our team. It sends real-time notifications to Slack whenever a pull request is opened, helping us streamline the review process and ensure faster iterations. Project Management - Jira Jira Jira Jira keeps our project management on track. It's flexible, allows us to manage sprints, and track the progress of tasks easily. The integration with GitHub makes it easy to sync code progress with project management. CI/CD - GitHub Actions GitHub Actions GitHub Actions GitHub Actions powers our continuous integration and deployment. Since it's built into GitHub, it’s easy to set up, automate tests, and deploy code without switching platforms. It simplifies the process and saves time. Documentation and Internal Notes - Confluence Confluence Confluence Confluence is our go-to for internal documentation. It’s perfect for keeping all our notes, wikis, and processes in one place. Plus, its integration with Jira makes referencing project updates smooth. Accounting, Payments & Employee Management - Xero Xero Xero Xero handles our accounting and payroll. It’s simple, effective, and automates much of the tedious financial work. The real-time financial reporting is invaluable for managing cash flow. Infrastructure Platform - AWS AWS AWS AWS gives us the scalability and reliability we need for hosting our apps. With services like ECS and RDS, we can easily manage our infrastructure while controlling costs. Error Reporting, Logging, and Internal Dashboards - NewRelic NewRelic NewRelic NewRelic helps us monitor application performance and log errors in real-time. It provides detailed insights, which allows us to troubleshoot issues quickly and keep our platform stable. Email Provider - Google Google Google Google Workspace handles our email needs, and its reliability and integration with other tools, like Google Calendar, make it an easy choice for seamless communication. Meetings - Google Calendar and Slack Huddles Google Calendar and Slack Huddles We rely on Google Calendar for scheduling meetings and Slack Huddles for quick, impromptu discussions. These tools keep our meetings short and efficient. Code Quality - SonarCloud SonarCloud SonarCloud SonarCloud provides automatic code analysis and ensures that we maintain a high standard for code quality. It helps us detect bugs and security vulnerabilities before they become issues. Server Uptime Monitoring - Healthchecks.io Healthchecks.io Healthchecks.io Healthchecks.io keeps track of our cron jobs and scheduled tasks. It sends alerts if something goes wrong, ensuring we’re always on top of potential downtime issues. These tools have been chosen because they offer the best value for our needs, helping us stay lean and focused as we continue to grow. Do you have anything to add to this list?

Tools That Keep Our $100k/mo Startup Running

There’s something magical about vintage video games. They transport us back to simpler times when the thrill of a new game could keep us glued to the screen for hours. I remember saving up my money for what felt like an eternity to buy my first Sega. I was so jealous of my best friend who had one at his home and how he would practice to beat most of us in Street Fighter matches (he knew how to create fireballs via Yoga Flame). He would always initially win, and I felt like if I just got a little more time with his Sega, I would become a “champion” too. Finally, when I got my hands on my own Nintendo and later Sega, I was unstoppable. I became one of the highest-scoring players on all my friends' game boards. More importantly, it wasn’t just the thrill of winning; these games fueled my imagination. I later took to coding just to create some fun ones of my own. Here are my top vintage video games that are still worth playing today, not just for nostalgia, but because they are timeless classics that transport you to more light, fun, and creative times. 1. Super Mario Bros. (1985) The first time I played Super Mario Bros., I was at my cousin Benjamin’s house, and he had just gotten a Nintendo Entertainment. We sat cross-legged on the floor far too close to the TV, controllers in hand, staring in awe. The excitement of guiding Mario through the Mushroom Kingdom, dodging Goombas, and jumping on platforms was amazing. When Super Mario Bros. came out in 1985, it felt like a revolution. The level design was genius and the music was instantly iconic. Even today, Super Mario Bros. holds up because of its perfect blend of challenge and fun. The simplicity of the game design is its strength, and playing it now feels just as rewarding as it did back then. 2. Street Fighter II (1991) Street Fighter II was a game-changer and my all-time favorite (I think it was probably THE favorite game of all my friends as well). We would gather at the local arcade, pockets full of quarters, ready to duke it out (my choice was always Chun-Li because, with her kicks, I could beat almost any challenger). The competitive aspect of the game was intense and thrilling. I spent countless hours learning combos and later perfecting my Hadouken, trying to be the best. Today, Street Fighter II still shines because of its deep mechanics and balanced gameplay. The graphics and character animations were ahead of their time and still look great, and to this day, I appreciate the skill and the strategy involved. 3. The Legend of Zelda (1986) The Legend of Zelda was my first real taste of adventure gaming. I remember the thrill of unwrapping it on my birthday and rushing to plug it into the console. Released in 1986, it was a groundbreaking game that offered a sense of exploration and discovery like no other; I can still recall the excitement of finding hidden caves and mastering the dungeons. The non-linear gameplay and intricate puzzles were what made it so great. From this (adult) perspective, the game feels so great because the design encourages curiosity and problem-solving, which are timeless aspects of great gameplay. 4. Pac-Man (1980) Pac-Man was a staple at every birthday party (probably for all the kids across the US and even the world at this time). I remember standing on a step stool to reach the controls, as I was too small when it first came out. The game's iconic sound effects and colorful graphics were mesmerizing for us, and what’s amazing is how well Pac-Man has aged! The gameplay is easy to pick up but hard to master, making it addictive for even my own kids today. It’s a perfect example of how a straightforward concept can provide endless entertainment. 5. Tetris (1984) The first time I played Tetris was when my older brother had brought home a Game Boy, and we huddled together, taking turns to see who could last the longest. Released in 1984, its concept of fitting falling blocks into rows was instantly great, and even to this day, it is so widely imitated. The music, especially the Russian folk tune, became iconic and got stuck in our heads for days. What makes Tetris timeless is its perfect balance of simplicity but also its complexity. The game continually challenges you to beat your previous high score, making it great as the first gaming competition amongst friends. Today, Tetris is just as engaging, showing us that the simplest ideas are the best. So, dust off that old console or find an emulator, and relive the classics— if you are anything like me, you won't be disappointed! For me, these games are such a cherished part of my past and a reminder of why the world of gaming is so wonderfully immersive and timeless! There’s something magical about vintage video games. They transport us back to simpler times when the thrill of a new game could keep us glued to the screen for hours. I remember saving up my money for what felt like an eternity to buy my first Sega. I was so jealous of my best friend who had one at his home and how he would practice to beat most of us in Street Fighter matches (he knew how to create fireballs via Yoga Flame). He would always initially win, and I felt like if I just got a little more time with his Sega, I would become a “champion” too. Finally, when I got my hands on my own Nintendo and later Sega, I was unstoppable. I became one of the highest-scoring players on all my friends' game boards. More importantly, it wasn’t just the thrill of winning; these games fueled my imagination. I later took to coding just to create some fun ones of my own. Here are my top vintage video games that are still worth playing today, not just for nostalgia, but because they are timeless classics that transport you to more light, fun, and creative times. 1. Super Mario Bros. (1985) Super Mario Bros. (1985) The first time I played Super Mario Bros. , I was at my cousin Benjamin’s house, and he had just gotten a Nintendo Entertainment. We sat cross-legged on the floor far too close to the TV, controllers in hand, staring in awe. The excitement of guiding Mario through the Mushroom Kingdom, dodging Goombas, and jumping on platforms was amazing. When Super Mario Bros. came out in 1985, it felt like a revolution. Super Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros. The level design was genius and the music was instantly iconic. Even today, Super Mario Bros. holds up because of its perfect blend of challenge and fun. The simplicity of the game design is its strength, and playing it now feels just as rewarding as it did back then. Super Mario Bros. 2. Street Fighter II (1991) Street Fighter II (1991) Street Fighter II was a game-changer and my all-time favorite (I think it was probably THE favorite game of all my friends as well). We would gather at the local arcade, pockets full of quarters, ready to duke it out (my choice was always Chun-Li because, with her kicks, I could beat almost any challenger). The competitive aspect of the game was intense and thrilling. I spent countless hours learning combos and later perfecting my Hadouken, trying to be the best. Street Fighter II Today, Street Fighter II still shines because of its deep mechanics and balanced gameplay. The graphics and character animations were ahead of their time and still look great, and to this day, I appreciate the skill and the strategy involved. Street Fighter II 3. The Legend of Zelda (1986) The Legend of Zelda (1986) The Legend of Zelda was my first real taste of adventure gaming. I remember the thrill of unwrapping it on my birthday and rushing to plug it into the console. Released in 1986, it was a groundbreaking game that offered a sense of exploration and discovery like no other; I can still recall the excitement of finding hidden caves and mastering the dungeons. The Legend of Zelda The non-linear gameplay and intricate puzzles were what made it so great. From this (adult) perspective, the game feels so great because the design encourages curiosity and problem-solving, which are timeless aspects of great gameplay. 4. Pac-Man (1980) Pac-Man was a staple at every birthday party (probably for all the kids across the US and even the world at this time). I remember standing on a step stool to reach the controls, as I was too small when it first came out. The game's iconic sound effects and colorful graphics were mesmerizing for us, and what’s amazing is how well Pac-Man has aged! Pac-Man Pac-Man The gameplay is easy to pick up but hard to master, making it addictive for even my own kids today. It’s a perfect example of how a straightforward concept can provide endless entertainment. 5. Tetris (1984) Tetris (1984) The first time I played Tetris was when my older brother had brought home a Game Boy, and we huddled together, taking turns to see who could last the longest. Released in 1984, its concept of fitting falling blocks into rows was instantly great, and even to this day, it is so widely imitated. The music, especially the Russian folk tune, became iconic and got stuck in our heads for days. What makes Tetris timeless is its perfect balance of simplicity but also its complexity. The game continually challenges you to beat your previous high score, making it great as the first gaming competition amongst friends. Today, Tetris is just as engaging, showing us that the simplest ideas are the best. Tetris Tetris So, dust off that old console or find an emulator, and relive the classics— if you are anything like me, you won't be disappointed! For me, these games are such a cherished part of my past and a reminder of why the world of gaming is so wonderfully immersive and timeless!

Most Popular Vintage Video Games and Why They Are Still Worth Playing Today

A biography generated by an AI? Indeed. So I decided I’d write my biography, or a sort of an edited autobiography of some particular episodes. Then while on a break from scribing away I ran up on this article about an AI that generates “artificial” web sites based upon a verbal prompt. This page is the intro to the site and you can use it to create your own web pages. A final link is this more or less explanatory page about the synthesizer. So I decided I’d ask it to write a biographical piece for me. Here then is the AI generated biography: Adventures in Nerdspace: A Geek's Synthetic Biography Greetings, fellow traveler of the cybersphere! Welcome to a glimpse into the life and times of a proud geek, synthesized for your digital delectation. Strap on your VR headset, plug in your neurolink, and jack into this thrilling tale of nerdly exploits across the meatspace/cyberspace divide. Chapter 1: Birth of a Nerd Born with a keyboard in one hand and a polyhedral die in the other, it was clear from an early age that I was destined for geekdom. While other babies were content chewing on rattles and blowing raspberries, I could be found attempting to dismantle my crib to build a rudimentary 8-bit computer from the parts. My first word was "404" and my first crush was on Ada Lovelace. Chapter 2: Nerd School Daze Ah, school - that venerable institution of standardized mediocrity. While my peers were busy trying to climb the social hierarchy, I was more interested in climbing the high score tables of classic arcade games. Lunch breaks were spent huddled around a Game Boy, trading Pokémon and debating Kirk vs Picard. Prom night? More like Lan party night! Chapter 3: Code, Hack, Sleep, Repeat University was where I truly blossomed into a world-class nerd. Fueled by ramen and Jolt cola, I spent countless caffeine-soaked nights lost in the glorious world of code, hacking everything from toasters to the campus mainframe. My dorm room became a sanctuary of geekiness, where soldering irons outnumbered textbooks and arguments over Linux distros raged into the wee hours. Chapter 4: The Geek Inherits the Earth In the real world, it turns out that being an unbridled nerd is actually a superpower. Armed with my elite tech skills and utterly un-self-conscious enthusiasm, I set out to disrupt industry after industry with my quirky yet brilliant innovations. Did I take over the world? Not quite. But I did amass a sizable collection of Funko Pops and a dedicated following on Github! Chapter 5: To Infinity and Beyond! And so the adventure continues, one line of code and obscure pop-culture reference at a time. From the depths of the darknet to the halls of Comic-Con, this geek's synthetic life story is still being written. Will I eventually transcend meatspace to become a digital demigod living in the cloud? Will I find love with a cyborg soulmate? Will I finally get a high score on Donkey Kong? Tune in next time to find out! Same nerd-time, same nerd-channel. The End...? Here is the biography presented as screen captures. Return to the Geek-Space Continuum link shown in the page above. Hopefully you found this entertaining and informative. As always Comments, Criticisms, and Suggestions are welcome. God bless all. A biography generated by an AI? Indeed. So I decided I’d write my biography, or a sort of an edited autobiography of some particular episodes. Then while on a break from scribing away I ran up on this article about an AI that generates “artificial” web sites based upon a verbal prompt. This page is the intro to the site and you can use it to create your own web pages. A final link is this more or less explanatory page about the synthesizer. So I decided I’d ask it to write a biographical piece for me. article article page page explanatory page explanatory page Here then is the AI generated biography: Adventures in Nerdspace: A Geek's Synthetic Biography Greetings, fellow traveler of the cybersphere! Welcome to a glimpse into the life and times of a proud geek, synthesized for your digital delectation. Strap on your VR headset, plug in your neurolink, and jack into this thrilling tale of nerdly exploits across the meatspace/cyberspace divide. Chapter 1: Birth of a Nerd Born with a keyboard in one hand and a polyhedral die in the other, it was clear from an early age that I was destined for geekdom. While other babies were content chewing on rattles and blowing raspberries, I could be found attempting to dismantle my crib to build a rudimentary 8-bit computer from the parts. My first word was "404" and my first crush was on Ada Lovelace. Chapter 2: Nerd School Daze Ah, school - that venerable institution of standardized mediocrity. While my peers were busy trying to climb the social hierarchy, I was more interested in climbing the high score tables of classic arcade games. Lunch breaks were spent huddled around a Game Boy, trading Pokémon and debating Kirk vs Picard. Prom night? More like Lan party night! Chapter 3: Code, Hack, Sleep, Repeat University was where I truly blossomed into a world-class nerd. Fueled by ramen and Jolt cola, I spent countless caffeine-soaked nights lost in the glorious world of code, hacking everything from toasters to the campus mainframe. My dorm room became a sanctuary of geekiness, where soldering irons outnumbered textbooks and arguments over Linux distros raged into the wee hours. Chapter 4: The Geek Inherits the Earth In the real world, it turns out that being an unbridled nerd is actually a superpower. Armed with my elite tech skills and utterly un-self-conscious enthusiasm, I set out to disrupt industry after industry with my quirky yet brilliant innovations. Did I take over the world? Not quite. But I did amass a sizable collection of Funko Pops and a dedicated following on Github! Chapter 5: To Infinity and Beyond! And so the adventure continues, one line of code and obscure pop-culture reference at a time. From the depths of the darknet to the halls of Comic-Con, this geek's synthetic life story is still being written. Will I eventually transcend meatspace to become a digital demigod living in the cloud? Will I find love with a cyborg soulmate? Will I finally get a high score on Donkey Kong? Tune in next time to find out! Same nerd-time, same nerd-channel. The End...? Here is the biography presented as screen captures. Return to the Geek-Space Continuum link shown in the page above. Return to the Geek-Space Continuum Hopefully you found this entertaining and informative. As always Comments, Criticisms, and Suggestions are welcome. God bless all.

A Synthetic Biography for a Geek

একটি গীকের জন্য একটি সিন্থেটিক জীবনী

Eine synthetische Biografie für einen Geek

Una biografía sintética para un friki

Une biographie synthétique pour un geek

एक गीक के लिए एक संश्लेषित जीवनी

オタクのための合成伝記

괴짜를 위한 종합 전기

Uma biografia sintética para um geek

Синтетическая биография для компьютерщика

Bir İneğin Sentetik Biyografisi

Tiểu sử tổng hợp cho một người đam mê

极客的合成传记

Trump v. United States Court Filing, retrieved on July 1, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 16 of 21. VI Not content simply to invent an expansive criminal immunity for former Presidents, the majority goes a dramatic and unprecedented step further. It says that acts for which the President is immune must be redacted from the narrative of even wholly private crimes committed while in office. They must play no role in proceedings regarding private criminal acts. See ante, at 30–32. Even though the majority’s immunity analysis purports to leave unofficial acts open to prosecution, its draconian approach to official-acts evidence deprives these prosecutions of any teeth. If the former President cannot be held criminally liable for his official acts, those acts should still be admissible to prove knowledge or intent in criminal prosecutions of unofficial acts. For instance, the majority struggles with classifying whether a President’s speech is in his capacity as President (official act) or as a candidate (unofficial act). Imagine a President states in an official speech that he intends to stop a political rival from passing legislation that he opposes, no matter what it takes to do so (official act). He then hires a private hitman to murder that political rival (unofficial act). Under the majority’s rule, the murder indictment could include no allegation of the President’s public admission of premeditated intent to support the mens rea of murder. That is a strange result, to say the least.[5] The majority’s extraordinary rule has no basis in law. Consider the First Amendment context. Although the First Amendment prohibits criminalizing most speech, it “does not prohibit the evidentiary use of speech,” including its use “to prove motive or intent.” Wisconsin v. Mitchell, 508 U. S. 476, 489 (1993). Evidentiary rulings and limiting instructions can ensure that evidence concerning official acts is “considered only for the proper purpose for which it was admitted.” Huddleston v. United States, 485 U. S. 681, 691– 692 (1988). The majority has no coherent explanation as to why these protections that are sufficient in every other context would be insufficient here. It simply asserts that it would be “untenable” and would deprive immunity of its “‘intended effect.’” Ante, at 31 (quoting Fitzgerald, 457 U. S., at 756). The majority hazards an explanation that the use of official-acts evidence will “raise a unique risk that the jurors’ deliberations will be prejudiced by their views of the President’s policies and performance while in office.” Ante, at 31. That “unique risk,” however, is not a product of introducing official-acts evidence. It is simply the risk involved in any suit against a former President, including the private-acts prosecutions the majority says it would allow. Continue Reading Here. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings.
This court case retrieved on July 1, 2024, supremecourt.gov is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. [5] The majority suggests, in a footnote, that a “prosecutor may point to the public record to show the fact that the President performed the official act,” so long as the prosecutor does not “invite the jury to inspect” the act in any way. Ante, at 32, n. 3. Whatever that suggestion is supposed to accomplish, it does not salvage the majority’s nonsensical evidentiary rule. Trump v. United States Court Filing, retrieved on July 1, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 16 of 21. Trump v. United States Court Filing, retrieved on July 1, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series . You can jump to any part in this filing here . This part is 16 of 21. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here VI Not content simply to invent an expansive criminal immunity for former Presidents, the majority goes a dramatic and unprecedented step further. It says that acts for which the President is immune must be redacted from the narrative of even wholly private crimes committed while in office. They must play no role in proceedings regarding private criminal acts. See ante, at 30–32. Even though the majority’s immunity analysis purports to leave unofficial acts open to prosecution, its draconian approach to official-acts evidence deprives these prosecutions of any teeth. If the former President cannot be held criminally liable for his official acts, those acts should still be admissible to prove knowledge or intent in criminal prosecutions of unofficial acts. For instance, the majority struggles with classifying whether a President’s speech is in his capacity as President (official act) or as a candidate (unofficial act). Imagine a President states in an official speech that he intends to stop a political rival from passing legislation that he opposes, no matter what it takes to do so (official act). He then hires a private hitman to murder that political rival (unofficial act). Under the majority’s rule, the murder indictment could include no allegation of the President’s public admission of premeditated intent to support the mens rea of murder. That is a strange result, to say the least.[5] The majority’s extraordinary rule has no basis in law. Consider the First Amendment context. Although the First Amendment prohibits criminalizing most speech, it “does not prohibit the evidentiary use of speech,” including its use “to prove motive or intent.” Wisconsin v. Mitchell, 508 U. S. 476, 489 (1993). Evidentiary rulings and limiting instructions can ensure that evidence concerning official acts is “considered only for the proper purpose for which it was admitted.” Huddleston v. United States, 485 U. S. 681, 691– 692 (1988). The majority has no coherent explanation as to why these protections that are sufficient in every other context would be insufficient here. It simply asserts that it would be “untenable” and would deprive immunity of its “‘intended effect.’” Ante, at 31 (quoting Fitzgerald, 457 U. S., at 756). The majority hazards an explanation that the use of official-acts evidence will “raise a unique risk that the jurors’ deliberations will be prejudiced by their views of the President’s policies and performance while in office.” Ante, at 31. That “unique risk,” however, is not a product of introducing official-acts evidence. It is simply the risk involved in any suit against a former President, including the private-acts prosecutions the majority says it would allow. Continue Reading Here. Continue Reading Here . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on July 1, 2024, supremecourt.gov is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on July 1, 2024, supremecourt.gov is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. supremecourt.gov [5] The majority suggests, in a footnote, that a “prosecutor may point to the public record to show the fact that the President performed the official act,” so long as the prosecutor does not “invite the jury to inspect” the act in any way. Ante, at 32, n. 3. Whatever that suggestion is supposed to accomplish, it does not salvage the majority’s nonsensical evidentiary rule.

Presidential Immunity: What's an Official Act vs an Unofficial One?

Life in 2050 According to Gemini 1.5 Pro

Norwegian startup Factiverse, a self-proclaimed antidote to the ongoing battle against fake news, and the growing epidemic of "AI hallucinations," announced today it has secured €1 million in funding to expand its AI-powered fact-checking platform. The investment comes as the world grapples with the double-edged sword of artificial intelligence – immense potential marred by the occasional tendency to fabricate information with the casual confidence of a seasoned con artist. Unlike many AI startups riding the ChatGPT wave, Factiverse has been quietly refining its patented technology since 2016. Its platform isn't just another chatbot; it's designed to be a discerning judge, scrutinizing everything from news headlines, verbal claims, articles, and AI-generated content for accuracy, with the latter going through its API and other integrations, sniffing out those pesky "hallucinations" before they cause too much trouble. AI hallucinations and errors have already shown themselves to be costly. During a promotional video, Google Bard (now Gemini) made a factual error about the James Webb Space Telescope, leading to a significant drop in Alphabet's (Google's parent company) stock value. CNET faced scrutiny for publishing articles written by an AI tool that plagiarised content en mass and contained multiple factual errors, raising questions about AI-generated content's reliability and ethical implications. And ChatGPT keeps landing in hot water with the EU due to its inaccurate responses. The company claims its technology outperforms even the latest AI models like ChatGPT and Mistral-7b in detecting factual errors and sourcing reliable information, and it does it in 100 languages. While these models have captured the public's imagination with their impressive language capabilities, Factiverse argues that accuracy and trustworthiness should be paramount, especially in a world where misinformation can have dire consequences. The company's peer-reviewed research paper, penned by cofounder and CTO Vinay Setty, boldly asserts its superiority in both claim detection and sourcing credible information across multiple languages. The funding round attracted a diverse group of investors, including Murshid Ali, founder of Huddlestock and Skyfri, Johann Olav Koss, investor and four-time Olympic gold medalist, Yasmin Namini, former C-level executive at the New York Times, Herfo, a privately owned investment firm in Norway and China, and Valide Invest, a Norwegian pre-seed investment house, as well as other angel investors from the USA and UK. The funding comes after Factiverse’s early traction and impressive results, which include winning both the Best AI Startup award by Nora AI and the Digital Trust Challenge by KI Park Germany in 2023. Both the funding and the awards underscore the growing urgency to address AI's credibility problem. "We are thrilled to announce this new round of funding," exclaimed Maria Amelie, CEO and co-founder at Factiverse. "This investment will allow us to accelerate the development of our now crucial fact-checking solutions and empower even more businesses to leverage the power of AI with confidence." Amelie herself is no stranger to accolades. She was recently named one of the "50 Women in Tech" by the prestigious network Abelia and Oda. Selected from 700 nominees, and following a rigorous award process, the honor is a clear testament to her leadership in the AI field. With fresh funding in hand, Factiverse plans to add new features to its platform, including a political bias filter for sources and an "explainable AI" function that will break down the fact-checking process in plain language. It's a move aimed at transparency and empowering users to make informed decisions in an increasingly AI-saturated world. As the AI arms race heats up, Factiverse positions itself as the much-needed referee, ensuring that the quest for artificial intelligence doesn't sacrifice accuracy on the altar of innovation. In the words of Espen Egil Hansen, Chairman at Factiverse, "instances of companies facing legal repercussions for factual errors in their chatbots are already a reality. As AI becomes more deeply ingrained in our daily lives, ensuring the accuracy of AI models isn't just about good business; it's the bedrock upon which democratic values are built." Factiverse's mission, it seems, is nothing short of upholding the truth in the age of AI. This article was originally published at Dataconomy and is reproduced with permission. Norwegian startup Factiverse , a self-proclaimed antidote to the ongoing battle against fake news, and the growing epidemic of " AI hallucinations ," announced today it has secured €1 million in funding to expand its AI-powered fact-checking platform. The investment comes as the world grapples with the double-edged sword of artificial intelligence – immense potential marred by the occasional tendency to fabricate information with the casual confidence of a seasoned con artist. Factiverse AI hallucinations Unlike many AI startups riding the ChatGPT wave, Factiverse has been quietly refining its patented technology since 2016. Its platform isn't just another chatbot; it's designed to be a discerning judge, scrutinizing everything from news headlines, verbal claims, articles, and AI-generated content for accuracy, with the latter going through its API and other integrations, sniffing out those pesky "hallucinations" before they cause too much trouble. AI hallucinations and errors have already shown themselves to be costly. During a promotional video, Google Bard (now Gemini) made a factual error about the James Webb Space Telescope , leading to a significant drop in Alphabet's (Google's parent company) stock value. CNET faced scrutiny for publishing articles written by an AI tool that plagiarised content en mass and contained multiple factual errors, raising questions about AI-generated content's reliability and ethical implications. And ChatGPT keeps landing in hot water with the EU due to its inaccurate responses. factual error about the James Webb Space Telescope CNET faced scrutiny ChatGPT keeps landing in hot water with the EU The company claims its technology outperforms even the latest AI models like ChatGPT and Mistral-7b in detecting factual errors and sourcing reliable information, and it does it in 100 languages. While these models have captured the public's imagination with their impressive language capabilities, Factiverse argues that accuracy and trustworthiness should be paramount, especially in a world where misinformation can have dire consequences. The company's peer-reviewed research paper , penned by cofounder and CTO Vinay Setty, boldly asserts its superiority in both claim detection and sourcing credible information across multiple languages. peer-reviewed research paper The funding round attracted a diverse group of investors, including Murshid Ali, founder of Huddlestock and Skyfri, Johann Olav Koss, investor and four-time Olympic gold medalist, Yasmin Namini, former C-level executive at the New York Times, Herfo, a privately owned investment firm in Norway and China, and Valide Invest, a Norwegian pre-seed investment house, as well as other angel investors from the USA and UK. The funding comes after Factiverse’s early traction and impressive results, which include winning both the Best AI Startup award by Nora AI and the Digital Trust Challenge by KI Park Germany in 2023. Both the funding and the awards underscore the growing urgency to address AI's credibility problem. "We are thrilled to announce this new round of funding," exclaimed Maria Amelie, CEO and co-founder at Factiverse. "This investment will allow us to accelerate the development of our now crucial fact-checking solutions and empower even more businesses to leverage the power of AI with confidence." Amelie herself is no stranger to accolades. She was recently named one of the " 50 Women in Tech " by the prestigious network Abelia and Oda. Selected from 700 nominees, and following a rigorous award process, the honor is a clear testament to her leadership in the AI field. 50 Women in Tech With fresh funding in hand, Factiverse plans to add new features to its platform, including a political bias filter for sources and an "explainable AI" function that will break down the fact-checking process in plain language. It's a move aimed at transparency and empowering users to make informed decisions in an increasingly AI-saturated world. As the AI arms race heats up, Factiverse positions itself as the much-needed referee, ensuring that the quest for artificial intelligence doesn't sacrifice accuracy on the altar of innovation. In the words of Espen Egil Hansen, Chairman at Factiverse, "instances of companies facing legal repercussions for factual errors in their chatbots are already a reality. As AI becomes more deeply ingrained in our daily lives, ensuring the accuracy of AI models isn't just about good business; it's the bedrock upon which democratic values are built." Factiverse's mission, it seems, is nothing short of upholding the truth in the age of AI. This article was originally published at Dataconomy and is reproduced with permission. This article was originally published at Dataconomy and is reproduced with permission. Dataconomy

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