Two months later, he bought a Tesla Model X on finance for the sole purpose of renting it out on Turo.

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Nag-open up si Michelle Dee tungkol sa turo at suporta sa kanya ng kanyang mga magulang. Si Michelle ay anak ni Miss International 1979 at aktres na si Melanie Marquez at dating action star na si Derek Dee. Pero sa murang edad ni Michelle ay naghiwalay ang kanyang mga magulang na naging kontrobersiyal noon.

Michelle Dee reveals one great thing taught by dad, former action star Derek Dee

CPA.com, in light of the technology's sudden popularity, has released a set of resources for accountants to educate themselves on artificial intelligence and assess its risks and opportunities. George Botic succeeds the commission's longest-serving member, Duane DesParte, whose second term ended Tuesday.

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Airbnb announced it is deploying an “AI-driven anti-party system” across North America in hopes of shuttering Halloween parties before they start. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Try refreshing your browser,

Airbnb says it's using AI to police Halloween parties

Airbnb announced it is deploying an “AI-driven anti-party system” across North America in hopes of shuttering Halloween parties before they start.

Turo

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নিম্ন-তাপমাত্রা পুনঃউষ্ণকরণের পরিস্থিতিতে ডার্ক ম্যাটারে ঐক্যবদ্ধতা: স্বীকৃতি এবং রেফারেন্স

Unitaritätsgrenze für Dunkle Materie in Niedertemperatur-Wiedererwärmungsszenarien: Danksagungen und Referenz

Unitaridad unida a la materia oscura en escenarios de recalentamiento a baja temperatura: reconocimientos y referencias

Unitarité liée à la matière noire dans les scénarios de réchauffage à basse température : remerciements et référence

निम्न-तापमान पुनःतापन परिदृश्यों में डार्क मैटर पर यूनिटैरिटी बाउंड: आभार और संदर्भ

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Think about the time before existed and ask yourself, "Where would my car be if I wasn't driving it?" Probably in the parking lot, right? Similarly, before , your guest room would just remain unused until your friend came over to crash and left beer bottles behind. These are just a couple of examples of the business model. Uber Airbnb Trash to Cash How exactly does the “Trash to Cash” model work? The “ business model is a concept where companies turn waste and unused items into valuable commodities that can generate revenue. In other words, they are taking what would otherwise be considered trash and transforming it into a source of income. This model is based on the principle that , and it has been applied in a variety of industries with great success. Trash to Cash” one person’s waste can be another person’s treasure one person’s waste can be another person’s treasure So how did Airbnbs and the Ubers of the world pioneer this model? Let’s start with Airbnb, a platform that connects travelers with homeowners who have extra rooms to rent. This business model takes advantage of unused space in people’s homes and turns it into a source of income for homeowners. Airbnb has upended the traditional hotel industry and grown to become one of the world's largest accommodation providers, demonstrating the potential of the trash to cash model. Similarly, Uber has transformed the transportation industry by connecting people who have unused cars with those who need rides. The company’s innovative business model has created a new source of income for individuals, who can now earn money by using their personal vehicles as taxis. This has not only improved the lives of people who were previously unable to find work, but it has also reduced the number of cars on the road, which is better for the environment. The model is also extensible. For example, you may have a car idling in the garage, but you don’t have time to chauffeur others—you can put the car on . Or if you don’t have an unused room with a private bathroom, you can still rent out your RV at Turo . RVShare While Uber and Airbnb are great examples of monetizing underutilized resources, ? I present to you: and . can you think of a way of monetizing an absolutely unusable and usually thrown-away item Misfits Market Imperfect Foods They are both grocery delivery services that specialize in selling produce that would have otherwise gone to waste due to its aesthetic imperfections. They provide a solution for farmers who are unable to sell their misshapen or overstocked produce to grocery stores, and in turn, they offer consumers affordable and sustainable food options. This business model not only reduces food waste but also generates a profit for the companies and benefits the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with food waste. Interestingly, last year but are keeping the business separate for now. Misfits Market acquired Imperfect Foods The trash-to-cash model can also be applied to the fashion industry. One example is , a company that takes discarded clothing from large brands and gives it a second life through repairs and upcycling. This business model not only diverts waste from landfills but also provides consumers with affordable and sustainable clothing options. The Renewal Workshop We already covered some great examples, but how about we push the idea to the extreme and talk about how literal trash can be converted to $$$? Lo and behold, there is , a company that repurposes hard-to-recycle materials such as plastic, metal, and paper into new products. Another successful example is , which is a company that repurposes discarded materials into luxury furniture. The company is able to turn waste into high-end furniture and generate income from it. Finally, is another example of a successful trash to cash business model. The company takes discarded materials and recycles them into new products that can be sold. TerraCycle Upcycle 1–800-GOT-JUNK Another area where the trash to cash model can be applied is in the waste management industry. Companies like have created innovative solutions that help businesses reduce waste and increase recycling, while also generating revenue. Rubicon Global collects waste from businesses, sorts it, and sells the recyclable materials to manufacturers who can use them to create new products. This not only helps businesses reduce waste but also provides them with a new source of income. Rubicon Global In conclusion, the “trash to cash” business model has proven to be a successful and sustainable way to turn waste into a source of income. By taking advantage of unused or discarded items, companies are not only reducing waste but also generating revenue and creating a more sustainable future. This model has the potential to transform various industries and provide individuals with new sources of income. So next time you see something that would normally be considered waste, think about how it could be transformed into a source of income for someone else. You can follow me on / to get updates on stories like this. You can also support my coffee drinking habit ;) Twitter LinkedIn here

From Trash to Treasure: Unlocking the Potential of Trash to Cash Business Models

Of the ten Kingdoms represented by the ten horns of the fourth Beast

In February 2022, I finally moved to the US on O1 work visa. This was preceded by 2.5 years of work on strengthening the case, waiting for approval. 1.5 years before this date, I started preparing for an interview for a Front End position. Currently working as a Senior Front-End Engineer at Roku. This post and the creation of the were motivated by the lack of detailed information about interviews for Front-End engineers in the USA. telegram channel What I did before Before relocation, I worked for 7 years in outsourcing companies in Belarus. This allowed me to use different technologies, approaches and work on various projects. Prior to relocating, I already held a position as Engineering Manager with 26 JavaScript engineers (this strengthened my CV, especially for a Staff position). Over the past year, I have conducted about 50 technical interviews in the department. But in the USA, I realized that my experience is not entirely relevant, and I need to start from a Senior position in order to figure out how the processes are built here, the culture, and how to conduct interviews, which are completely different here. I started preparing for the technical interview 1.5 years in advance while I was waiting for my visa. Every morning of my working week was spent for preparing. It became a habit over time and did not cause any discomfort. After a while, I was promoted to the Engineering Manager position as I was growing at a rapid rate. Preparation 1. Leetcode I solved 245 problems on leetcode. I mostly focused on arrays, matrix, trees, linked lists, strings, hash tables, sorts, and two pointers. In my , you can see the topics that I solved. profile are all the tasks that I solved. Here To familiarize and refresh data structures and algorithms in JS, I used the resource. javascript-algorithms To quickly identify a Leetcode problems patterns, read this article — . It helps identify the problem. 14 Leetcode problems patterns To determine the complexity of the code, there is a on Big O notation. cheat sheet For examples of ​​what an interview looks like, I used the resource. interviewing 2. Big Front End ( ) https://bigfrontend.dev/ I solved 50% of BFE problems (easy and medium). I published all these solutions on my t . This resource is most useful for interviews at Meta, but other companies are more or less likely to ask similar questions. elegram channel 3. System design To prepare for system design, I used videos. He covered most aspects of systems design that I encountered in real interviews. Evgenii Ray’s A very useful resource for system design and for real work (Web Performance) — 3perf All about accessibility 4. Behavioral interview for preparation and examples of answers. List of questions For the mock interview, I used the telegram channel and . FAANG Pramp I also used this and and resolved everything from there, reading it all the way through. telegram channel Evgenii Ray’s Notion On glassdoor, you can find some examples of questions and tasks that companies ask. And finally, I’m in the USA… Upon arrival, I had a 2-week jet lag, there was no way of passing the interview, I could not sleep normally. But after I adapted, I began to actively set up calls with recruiters, writing on LinkedIn. There were 20–30 messages with opportunities per day, but most of them are no-name companies or startups. Before replying to the message, I analyzed the company, investments, it is a public or private company, what they do and what technologies they work with (I basically focused on React.js, JS / TS stack, as well, the Front End position). This was the original filter. During the day I had 3–4 phone calls with recruiters, then 2 technical interviews. In total, I participated in about 20 mocks to understand how to behave in an interview and what my weaknesses are, but this does not compare with real interviews. In real interviews, I already had a noticeable growth, already after 1–1.5 months, I began to solve problems more efficiently, find out requirements, sell myself and answer behavioral questions, because after each interview I did work on mistakes, and corrected stories. I started with small startups and companies and I was ready for rejection (this is important!). Every day for 2 months I had phone calls with recruiters, technical screenings, on-site interviews. It is very convenient that now everything is online. After almost a month of technical screenings, I even said that I liked the interview process, there are so many interesting problems and people, but then the onsite time came … after the first 5-hour interview, my opinion changed in a completely different direction, it’s sooo hard! In the beginning, I had rejections and it was frustrating of course. But as soon as I received the first offer, my motivation immediately grows .. until the next rejection. I was ready for rejection, but it’s still unpleasant to hear, especially when you spent 5–6 hours and they send you a standard reply that we decided to move with another candidate without any feedback. This motivated me to reflect and analyze what went wrong. I took notes, and tried to find answers on how to solve the problem or what needed to be clarified and how to design something. This helped in future interviews to combine different solutions into one and produce a high-quality solution. Also, communication with recruiters helped me improve my English, at the beginning I might not even understand half of what they were saying to me, but then I got used to it and it was much easier. In the end, I had really good interviews, but I kept getting rejected for some of them. And the worst thing is, you don’t understand what went wrong. The interview process My interview stats: : Meta, Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Lyft, Uber, LinkedIn, Roku, Salesforce, PayPal, DoorDash, Robinhood, Roblox, Intuit, Zoom, Grammarly, Imply, Disco, Square, SigmaComputing, LiveRamp, Zoox, Palo Alto Networks, Snowflake, Aurora Tech Screens (26) : Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Roku, Salesforce, PayPal, DoorDash, Zoom, Grammarly, SigmaComputing, LiveRamp, Zoox, Aurora Onsite interviews (15) : Google, Roku, Microsoft, PayPal, SigmaComputing, LiveRamp Offers When applying for a Front End position, you will likely be asked only questions about the frontend, but at least 1 algo-problem of the easy-mid level will be asked, mainly about the data structure and its processing (there are not a lot in JS :)). But some like to ask algorithms the old-fashioned way. All of the preparation materials I mentioned above covered the interview questions. The process is pretty standard: Call with recruiter Technical screening Onsite (virtual) interview: Algorithms Tasks for coding a widget or a JS function System design, with a focus on Front-End Behavioral interview 4. Negotiation 1. Call with recruiter On a call with a recruiter, you discuss general questions, learn more about the company and the team you are interviewing. They ask about your work permit. In conversation, they ask about your experience and check your English. They find out what stage of your job search you are at and can build on this, for example, to speed up your interview process (In Aurora, I said that I completed all my interviews and if we can quickly go through all the stages, I agree. As a result, all the stages were done to me in 4 days, and onsite in just 3 rounds). Calls often happen before you have sent your CV. Only if everything went well and there is a match, you will be asked to send your CV. They may ask about your salary expectations, but I answered truthfully that I have no idea how much I am worth on the market since I just arrived. This was enough for them to pass over the question. You can ask for all the information you need in the same call, including the technical stack of the team. If you have questions that are important to you, this is the time to ask them. For me, it was the terms for the green card and the tech stack. Recruiters respect your time, so you coordinate each call according to the calendar, choosing from the recruiter’s one, or recruiter can choose from your calendar. Do not specify your salary expectations in any case, if they are very demanding (it has only happened once), specify a wide range. Turo’s recruiter repeatedly asked me what I expect, and when I gave him the range he said our compensation was 2 times less and we wouldn’t be able to match. 2. Technical screening So you have passed the first stage and you have been assigned a technical screening. Usually, it is 45 minutes. On it, again, you will tell a little about yourself, you will be asked questions about your experience and will be given to solve some small problem (in 90% it will either make a small widget in JS and a framework, or an easy problem for algorithms, or rather data structures that is in JS). Occasionally, there were problems on Hackerrank with HTML, CSS, and JS, 2–3. These are fairly simple to solve. Sometimes you can use any editor of your choice. But most of the time I send a link to my online editor (even with code highlighting). The most important thing is not to be silent, to think out loud so that the interviewer follows your thoughts. Related to code execution, it’s 50/50, sometimes you need to run the code when you want and as much as you want, sometimes I don’t even need to run the code (there’s not even such a possibility). There was one time when I was asked to design an elevator system at a technical screening (without code), it didn’t end well :) 3. Onsite(virtual) interview The most difficult stage of the interview, as it duration 3–6 hours. Many companies allow you to split it into 2 days, this is up to you. It consists of coding, system design, and behavioral interview. You can ask the recruiter about each round of onsite to understand what to expect from them. are similar to technical screening: find out the requirements, discuss the solution, code, and test it. Coding rounds System design Always focused on front-end issues, no need to talk about highly loaded systems, databases, etc. You just need to describe some functionality in the browser, ways to optimize, customize and expand, describe how to transfer data to the server, how to store it, where to store it, and why. Sometimes you need to design several endpoints with request and response structures. Don’t forget accessibility, it’s very important! Behavioral interview Here you can expect questions about your experience, projects, and teamwork. Basically, these questions are “Tell me a situation when you ..” In general, the questions asked about the most challenging project, the conflict in the team, what we did when deadlines were approaching and we didn’t have time, and what our biggest failure was. All stories should be told according to the STAR (situation — task — action — result) methodology. The story shouldn’t be very long. You will be asked clarifying questions if you didn’t explain something or the interviewer misunderstood you. In most cases, the hiring managers conduct the interviews. In the end, this is a great opportunity for you to ask all your questions about the team and the product. Negotiation There is no less stressful or important stage. It took me almost a month. With some companies, there were even several rounds, on average, I raised offers for 70–100k. Ask for feedback about you to better understand how good you were and use it as a negotiation tool. But nothing works better than a counteroffer. But it is important not to go too far, look at the compensations on the levels.fyi website beforehand in order to understand the range. Some conclusions about companies In all companies recruiters do a very good job and support you every step of the way, tell you what to expect in each round, how to prepare, and tell you what the interview process looks like in general. : I had the worst interview ever. At all rounds I had problems in understanding what the interviewer wanted from me, I clarified the requirements most of the time and explained my solution because for some reason they couldn’t understand it. And when they started asking questions about JavaScript during the coding process, it turned out that they didn’t know it and had to spend more time explaining why I use it and how it works. As a result, there were 5–7 minutes left for coding, but this was enough to finish. In the last round, I got the hard problem with trees, that I didn’t fully solve. Amazon : Some of the interviewers again didn’t know JavaScript, only asked algorithmic problems and asked questions about how JavaScript works. It was more like an interview for a full-stack position. Microsoft : Only math problems and algorithms were asked. Zoox : Again, only algorithms were asked, although the position is pure Front-End. However, my friend’s interview focused only on front-end questions. Aurora : I didn’t expect so much attention from this company. I had a lot of calls with a recruiter, the duration of some was an hour, where he told everything in detail about the interview process, gave preparation materials, asked how the preparation was going and gave advice, including how to behave in an interview, what to ask, what better not to ask. The questions were on the frontend focus. After the onsite, the hiring freeze started right away… Meta : They have an Ember.js framework, so questions are only about pure JavaScript and the frontend. LinkedIn : Lost my feedback after the technical screening. Still searching. Apple : The interview process was with front-end focus. After getting approval from the Google Hairing Committee, your next step is team matching. I had mixed feedback between L5 and L4 levels. As a result, the committee gave me L4 without additional interview stages. Only after a successful team match, they will send you an offer with numbers, but how long this process can take depends on many factors. Google I had 2 team calls a week, although I could do every day. The process took 2 weeks. The criteria by which I compared the teams: Team size. Frontend, backend, infrastructure engineers. Tech stack (all Angular). Promotion to L5 (time and opportunity). Product. Responsibilities. Front end or full stack position. There was even a backend only. Development process. Who are the users of the product, how many. Perhaps this is an internal project or a large one for a large number of users. Evaluated how comfortable communicate with the manager or team leader for me. As a result, I matched with the Google Analytics team, which is responsible for the performance of this product. In this team, I saw many opportunities for growth and metrics for promotion. How do I accept the offer I compared offers and decided which one to accept according to the following criteria. It is very important that the product is of interest to you. I have many years of experience in developing streaming platforms and know the needs of users and developers. I can learn a lot and see many challenges for myself in such products. Roku gives me this opportunity. Product. I don't like Angular, I prefer React.js. This was one of the most important reasons why I chose Roku. Tech stack and tools. This is a very important thing. I don't want to burn out. During the interview process, you can ask questions about it and listen carefully to the answers. Work-life balance. Growth in technical terms and within the company to the lead position (Staff) Opportunities for growth. After the position of engineering manager, I was not ready for middle positions (yes, there were those too). Position level. Base and stock. Roku pays 85% in cash for senior positions, which is more profitable for me, as a beginner in this country, since at this stage money is needed here and now. Total compensation. Some companies start the green card process from the 1st working day, some after 3, 6, 12 months. I filtered companies based on 1 day and 3 months. But as it turned out, these terms can also be negotiated, I was able to negotiate from 3 months to 1 working day.
An important nuance, Meta does not issue green cards, I asked them about it at every call, at every stage of the interview, but I never received an answer, no one at all. But according to information on the Internet, everything is bad with them. Green Card Process. I don't like working in a team where you are one Front End engineer, or even 2. I want to grow and learn. The level of engineers in the team was also important for me. Team size and responsibilities. I prefer office work. Working from home is not comfortable for me. Some companies now offer to work 3 days in the office, 2 days remotely, and some offer full remote work. Remote work or office work. I live in San Jose and some companies have offices in San Francisco. It will take you at least 1.5 hours to drive here. Do you want to spend 3 hours a day on this? Office location. Tips Do not schedule more than 3 (but preferably 2) onsites per week. Last week I had 4 onsites in a week and it was hell! But I got 2 offers :) In an interview, your skills grow exponentially, so do not immediately pass the interview with the company of your dreams. After the interview you can talk to someone, it helps to relax. Do work on the mistakes after each interview to understand what could have gone wrong, look for answers to questions and tasks that were in the interview and try to figure it out. Prepare the text for your self-presentation for 1–1.5 minutes, you will tell it at each stage of the interview. For a behavioral interview, prepare and practice as many STAR stories as you can, I had about 20 that covered almost all questions. It took about a month to prepare them. Buy a paid subscription to Calendly (or a similar service) to make it easier to manage your interviews. Sending the dates in an email means they can respond within a week, and demand 5 dates (respectively), so these 5 days are blocked for you and you cannot schedule other interviews on them. If you have any questions or topics that I have not covered, ask in the comments here or on my ! telegram channel

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Sur des machines qui jouent : l'histoire de l'IA et des jeux

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There are two types of people at work - those who like to make commitments and others who like to keep them. People who like to make commitments feel good about saying “yes” to many things without paying much attention to how those things fit into their schedule, the value they add, or the time and energy they need to actually fulfill their commitments. They hardly realize that their casual attitude without thoughtful consideration causes a lot of inconvenience and annoyance to those who depend on them. On the other hand, people who like to keep commitments are careful about their choices. They understand that doing something always comes at the cost of not doing something else. So, they carefully evaluate their priorities and say “yes” to only a few things. Identifying what adds value to them and to others and taking time to actually fulfill their commitments builds trust, creates strong relationships, and makes the other person feel valued and respected. It’s what Art Turock says is the difference between interest and commitment - When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results. Think for a moment. Who would you much rather work with: A person who says yes to you every time, but hardly keeps up their promises or who doesn’t hesitate to say no, giving you an option to evaluate other alternatives. Someone who makes you follow up multiple times to get something done or the one who pays attention and gets things done. A person who takes so much of your time and energy that you repent asking them or the one who makes you trust your decision. As more and more work is geared towards active collaboration and meaningful contribution, people who stand out at work are the ones who take their commitments seriously. You won’t find these people complaining about too much work or doing too many things and still not getting the outcomes they expect. You won’t find them struggling to focus or being distracted by the overwhelming demands and expectations others have from them. Not because they have less work to do or they commit too little. Rather, they get more done. With their priorities straightened out, their time and energy go into doing great work and making things happen. They focus on fulfilling their commitments as opposed to spending time finding excuses or justifying their outcomes. In the process, they not only create value but feel valued too. They have better relationships because others trust them more. They are able to achieve their goals. They feel more in control of their decisions. Every contribution adds a deposit to their personal account. With every value addition, more and more trust, respect, and appreciation are earned. The positive energy from such collaborations creates a culture of excellence. What about you? Do you take your commitments seriously? Think about your past month’s commitments - how many did you commit, and how many did you actually fulfill? Why did you not fulfill some of these commitments: They weren’t important. You said “yes” to inconsequential activities. They were difficult. You feared the outcome. You worked on other tasks. Were they more important than your original commitments or you simply didn’t prioritize them right? You committed more than you could handle. Whatever the reason, I can guarantee that making promises and not keeping them would have led to frustration, feelings of inefficacy, and even damaged your reputation. We have in our power the ability to perform the slow but necessary work of turning visions into projects, values into practices, and strangers into neighbors. But only if we commit - Pete Davis By incorporating simple practices in your decision-making process, you can not only make commitments that add value to you, your career, and your organization, but you can keep them too. Steps to make commitments and keep them too Step 1: What’s this about? The first question helps you clarify the nature of work - what is it exactly asking you to do? Without asking this question, we tend to make assumptions or delay asking for details. Either way, not understanding fairly well what we are committing to do, we tend to underestimate the effort it will actually take to complete it. Consider this. A colleague asks you for help at work. But all they tell you is *“Can you please help me with this really small task?”*and you promptly say “yes” only to learn later that the task is not really small and you can’t really put in the effort it takes to do it due to other commitments. Irrespective of your intentions when you said a yes, reverting on your decision later will lead to hurt feelings, loss of trust, and some very bad feelings. By asking the question upfront, you can save yourself the embarrassment and the pain that may come from turning on it later. Step 2: Who is it for? This question helps you consciously put the person at the front of your decision. Believe it or not, some people will try to manipulate you into doing things for them or try to take advantage when you have a reputation for getting things done. You need to be wary of such people and their requests. Take a moment to think about their intentions. Do you trust them? How has been your experience with them in the past? Have they ever tried to take credit for your efforts? Thinking about the person who’s making the request helps you consciously prioritize work where you not only get an opportunity to add value but trust that others appreciate your efforts too. Not paying attention to toxic coworkers can lead to feelings of cynicism, despair, and other negative emotions that can hurt your ability to focus and make active contributions. Step 3: Is it important? We rarely ask this question. Just because someone else thinks the work is important does not automatically make it so. Whether it’s your boss or a colleague, asking this question helps you clarify how the work fits within the goals of your team and your organization. It helps you position it mentally and evaluate the scope in the context of your other priorities. Knowing the importance also allows you to make adjustments, ask better questions and take your decision seriously. You wouldn’t want to say no to something that’s critical for your organization even if it means shifting other priorities. Step 4: What’s the cost of doing it? We all have the same 24 hours in a day. Saying yes to something unconsciously deprioritizes something else. You may not realize it at the moment, but there’s always an opportunity cost involved. Planning to take on an additional interview every week? Thinking about mentoring for an hour each day? Kicking off a side project to learn a new coding language? Whatever it is, being conscious about what you are bringing to your schedule and what you are leaving behind can enable you to make the right decision for yourself and others. It can help you put all your energy into fulfilling your commitments as opposed to doing them half-heartedly or skipping them because you don’t feel invested in those decisions. Step 5: What’s the cost of not doing it? Thinking about the cost of not doing something is as important as thinking about the cost of doing it. What will be the impact of saying no to your boss or someone higher up in the organization? How will saying no impact your relationship with your team members? How much time will it save another person? This form of inverse thinking will challenge you to explore your priorities from a different angle. Choosing to make the right commitments isn’t always about optimizing every minute of your time. It’s about doing work that generates more value in the ecosystem. It involves mentoring and coaching. It involves learning from each other. It involves taking time to forge a bond and build better relationships. It involves building trust in your own abilities and trusting others with theirs too. Step 6: How does it align with my current plans? There will be some commitments you would have already made and others that will show up as opportunities later. Since you can’t predict the future, it’s difficult to know whether a better opportunity will come along. The best you can do at any moment is to evaluate the new opportunity or request in the context of your current commitments and your future goals. Does the request align with your goals? How does it fit into the plans you have already made? What changes would you have to make if you decide to incorporate it? Is it worth making adjustments to your current plan? By asking these questions proactively, you can evaluate the benefits of accepting the request against the cost of letting it go. Step 7: What could be my reason for saying no? This question is another inversion tactic to delay saying yes as a default response to whatever shows up. Thinking about your reasons for saying a no makes you embrace discomfort. It helps you ask questions that you would otherwise be unwilling to ask. It creates a defense against your natural response system that fears saying a no and is tempted to accept everything that comes up. A solid reason for saying a no should be a strong indicator that it might not be a good idea to make this commitment. Step 8: After taking everything into account, what’s my final decision? Putting all the questions together and weighing in on the responses, what’s your final decision? Your final decision may not be the best one. However, in the larger scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter. What matters more is that you fulfill what you prioritized. Commitment means that when you do (inevitably) stumble or get off track, you pick yourself up, find your bearings, and carry on in the direction you want to go - Russ Harris Consciously making a choice helps you feel in control. It gives you the power to overcome the challenges and obstacles that may show up later. And most importantly, it enables you to keep your commitment. Summary People who succeed at work are the ones who make commitments and keep them too. To get good at the art of identifying which requests to accept and which ones to deny, you need to get good at asking yourself the right questions. Question 1: What’s this about? Take time to understand the effort involved and other details before making a commitment. Question 2: Who is it for? Prioritize working with people where you can add value and feel valued too. Question 3: Is it important? Ensure the work fits within the goals of your team and your organization. Question 4: What’s the cost of doing it? What would you need to give up to make space for this commitment? Question 5: What’s the cost of not doing it? Evaluate the impact of denying the request and ensure you are willing to live with it. Question 6: How does it align with my current plans? Be aware of the changes you would need to make if you decide to fulfill this commitment. Question 7: What could be my reason for saying no? Think about any strong reasons you might have for not taking it up. Question 8: After taking everything into account, what’s my final decision? Consciously opt-in or opt-out after weighing in the pros and cons of your decision. Previously published . here

7 Steps to Keep Commitments at Work and Induce Growth

This story is a part of Hacker Noon's series of interviews. The series is intended for tech professionals contributing the most insightful Hacker Noon stories to share more about their writing habits, ideas, and professional background (and maybe a hobby or two). If you too would like to start contributing to Hacker Noon, . Meet the Writer you can do so here So let’s start! Tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests. My name is Kadeem Clarke, Head of Labs at Momentum 6 and Founder of Clarke Global. I am based in NYC and LA, and I am a car enthusiast, cryptocurrency investor, and foodie. At Momentum 6, I am an early-stage investor and provide incubation services including, but not limited to, marketing, fundraising, tokenomic strategy, tech development, and growth strategy. My firm, Clarke Global, provides digital consulting and marketing services to tech startups and creatives interested in entering the Web 3 space (NFTs and social tokens). Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about? My latest Hackernoon Top story is a . The guide includes everything from defining product-market fit to sales. guide to help startups find their product-market fit Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about? I usually write about three core topics: blockchain trends, advice for founders, and cryptocurrency investment tips. Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?) I typically write three articles per week, depending on how much research I’m able to get done. Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing? I have trouble making sure that my research on the blockchain space is up to date. The blockchain space changes very quickly, so information learned even last week could become outdated so quickly. What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career? I hope to invest in and incubate many more blockchain startups, help more creators enter the Web 3 space by leveraging blockchain to monetize their content and publish more content to educate people about cryptocurrency and entrepreneurship. Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice? I love cars, so I love renting a car on Turo and taking it out for a long drive. Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it? My non-tech-related hobbies include trying new restaurants (I have a list of 100 restaurants in NYC and LA that I want to eat at) and driving cars. What can the Hacker Noon community expect to read from you next? The Hacker Noon community can expect more articles about Web 3, DeFi, blockchain topics, and entrepreneurship. Thanks for taking time to join our “Meet the writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words? Feel free to follow me on Instagram (car_deem), Twitter (crypto_clarke), TikTok (car_deem), and LinkedIn.

Kadeem Clarke On Love of Cars & Keeping Up With the Blockchain World

Dozens of advertisers instructed the company to not show their ads to people of “unknown” gender, meaning people who had not identified themselves as male or female By Jeremy B. Merrill Google’s advertising system allowed employers or landlords to discriminate against nonbinary and some transgender people, The Markup found. Companies trying to run ads on YouTube or elsewhere on the web could direct Google not to show those ads to people of “unknown gender”—meaning people who have not identified themselves to Google as “male” or “female.” After being alerted to this by The Markup, Google pledged to crack down on the practice. “We will be implementing an update to our policy and enforcement in the coming weeks to restrict advertisers from targeting or excluding users on the basis of the ‘gender unknown’ category,” Elijah Lawal, a spokesperson for Google said. Google’s forbid ads targeting or excluding male or female people from jobs, housing, or financial products, in order to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws. But until The Markup alerted Google, the company gave advertisers the option of keeping their ads from being shown to people of “unknown gender”—effectively allowing employers and landlords to either inadvertently or purposefully discriminate against people who identify as nonbinary, transgender, or anything other than male or female. policies The Markup found two such job ads on YouTube, which is owned by Google—one for jobs at FedEx and the other for Dewey Pest Control, a California-based chain. In both cases, Google’s ad targeting explanations, collected by New York University’s Ad Observer, indicated that the employer had targeted the ad based on gender but that the data did not specify which gender was targeted. In those cases, Lawal said, the advertiser had chosen to exclude people of unknown gender from seeing the ads. Upon further review, Lawal said, the company “identified approximately 100 advertisers out of many thousands” who had done the same for housing, credit, or job ads. advertisers, “out of many thousands,” that Google identified as having chosen to exclude people of unknown gender from housing, credit, or job ads. ~100 A FedEx spokesperson, Shannon Davis, said FedEx declined to comment “on our specific marketing or recruiting processes.” Dewey Pest Control didn’t respond to a request for comment. It’s not clear if the advertisers meant to prevent nonbinary people or those identifying as transgender from finding out about job openings. That would be “completely unethical and I think dangerous to society as a whole,” said Joseph Turow, a professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Lawal said that Google’s existing written policies forbid excluding people on the basis of transgender or gender nonconforming identity, for any ad. But he acknowledged that the “unknown gender” checkbox had effectively allowed advertisers to discriminate by gender despite Google’s policies against that. “This is why we are working swiftly to implement a change,” he said. While federal law prohibits discrimination by gender or race in advertising for employment and housing, there’s little in the way of case law about whether restrictive online ad targeting qualifies as discrimination. Nor is there any case law about excluding trans or nonbinary people from such ads, said Pauline Kim, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis. If a company’s intention was to exclude nonbinary or gender nonconforming people, Kim said, “you could possibly argue … that it is a form of sex discrimination” under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which, according to a , covers discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation as well. recent Supreme Court decision The of employment discrimination against nonbinary and transgender people is grim. What makes advertising discrimination different is that, “you don’t even know what you don’t see,” said Kendra Albert, a technology law instructor at Harvard Law School who studies technology, law, and gender. prevalence Beyond gender, the primary categories Google offers for targeting ads to some people and not others—what it calls “personalized advertising”—are age, household income, and parental status. For ads for job opportunities, housing, and credit, Google’s rules say advertisers shouldn’t use these categories. The boxes start prechecked, meaning that in the default mode, gender isn’t taken into account in determining who will be shown the ad, but advertisers can uncheck them, effectively excluding certain categories of people from seeing their ads. That’s allowed for most ads, but Google uses other mechanisms—”internal processes” that Lawal declined to explain—to block job, housing, and credit ads that exclude people by gender, age, household income, and parental status. Meanwhile, someone signing up for Google or editing their account settings has four options for reporting their gender: “male,” “female,” “rather not say,” and an option to set a custom gender in a text box. Lawal said that the “unknown category is intended to refer to individuals where we have been unable to determine or infer the user’s gender and is not intended to allow for targeting or exclusion of users based on gender identity,” but said that people who choose not to identify their gender or write in a “custom” gender also fall into this category. Google does offer a way for users to see how they’re categorized for ads, on an ads preferences page. Google’s options for users amount to putting “a rainbow-colored Band-Aid” on “systems that were not really designed to include nonbinary people,” said Albert. “Really the question they should be asking is which gender are you, and which of these gender categories would you like us to serve you ads for,” and explaining how the ads system uses gender, Albert said. Allegations of race and sex discrimination have d Several years ago, civil rights groups sued Facebook for allowing discrimination in ads for jobs, housing, and credit; Facebook settled the suit and agreed to take those options away. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) filed a lawsuit against Facebook too. Last year, HUD that it had “worked with Google to improve Google’s online advertising policies to better align them with requirements of the Fair Housing Act.” After those interactions with HUD, Google job, housing, and credit advertisers from excluding either men or women from their ads, along with similar rules for age and other protected groups. ogged online ad platforms for years. announced banned While ads for jobs, housing, and financial products fall under special protections, it’s perfectly legal—and very common—to target other kinds of ads to one segment of the population, by age, gender, or other categories. Those categories are what digital advertisers want, Turow said, so they’re built into the heart of online ads systems. “The nirvana of advertising in 1994 has turned out to be a big mess in 2021,” he said. Originally published as " " with the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license Google Has Been Allowing Advertisers to Exclude Nonbinary People from Seeing Job Ads

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