Xembly

xembly

Welcome to HackerNoon’s interview series. This section is curated by our Editorial team to spotlight bold and disruptive startups across the globe. If you’ve been nominated, and answer these questions Startups-Of-The-Year create a brand profile here. Hey Hackers, Xembly has been nominated in HackerNoon's annual Startup of the Year awards in Seattle, USA. Please vote for us here: https://hackernoon.com/startups/north-america/north-america-seattle-wa-usa#lj5xjhwq/lj5xjhwq Read more about us below to understand why we deserve your vote. Meet Xembly Xembly is an AI-powered productivity platform, and our first product is an AI-powered executive assistant that does the work for you, like scheduling meetings, taking meeting notes, and optimizing and orchestrating your calendar. Xena saves you 8 hours every week, so you can spend more time on planning, deep thinking, getting sh*t done, or some well-deserved “me-time.” My Role I'm Andrew Mounier, head of Growth Marketing at Xembly. I have been in the marketing and SaaS world for almost 15 years and have found my home at Xembly. Here, we’ve created an AI Executive Assistant that's not just another tool, but a game-changer for high-performing teams. My days are filled with the exciting challenge of drawing in users to experience how Xembly can transform their work life with smarter scheduling, meeting summaries, and task management - all powered by AI. I also host "AI Unboxed," powered by Xembly. It's a podcast where we dive into the world of AI, uncovering its impact across various sectors and how it's revolutionizing the way we work. It's a fantastic journey, bringing together industry experts to share insights and discuss AI's practical, real-world applications. Between leading growth at Xembly and engaging with thought leaders on "AI Unboxed," I'm right at the heart of AI's exciting evolution, and I absolutely love it! How We're Disrupting/Improving the Productivity Tools Industry There are plenty of productivity tools out there, but all of them only make it slightly easier to do something. Xembly is the first solution that actually does the work for you. All you have to do is ask your AI executive assistant, Xena, to schedule a meeting, take notes, or reprioritize your calendar, and it’ll get done in an instant. The future of AI at work is agents that take work off your plate, things you didn’t love doing anyway, like scheduling, note-taking, and calendar management. That’s what Xembly and Xena do. Standing Out From The Crowd Plenty of startups are just an abstraction of ChatGPT, using the OpenAI API, and are not built with enterprise security and privacy needs in mind. Xembly is different. Our solution is built specifically for enterprises with the purpose of making you more productive at work and taking tedious tasks off your plate. Once you start peeling the onion that entails a lot of things, including recognizing attendees, calendar activities, who said what in meetings, and which action items came out of the meeting. All these capabilities are based on our proprietary technology and are a result of our founders’ background and experience building AI and intelligent, conversational assistants in the past. Our Predictions/Thoughts on the AI Industry in 2023/2024 We have been around since before the world truly realized the power of AI with the launch of ChatGPT, and the increased awareness has helped educate people and businesses on the possibilities of AI. A lot of current solutions are very broad in their application, and we don’t really see them being specialized enough to be entrusted with important, personal aspects of work life like scheduling, note-taking in company meetings, and your personal priorities. We are strong believers in the need for dedicated AI “agents” that serve a specific purpose and role and do everything within those boundaries to a T. That’s the direction we are going, and we think the market will get there too as it discovers the best applications for AI and the limitations and edge-cases that happen in real life. What word defines the state of AI in 2023? In 2023, the broader market woke up to the possibilities of AI, and many individuals, startups, and companies started dreaming big. However, we are already observing a market with eyes bigger than its stomach. Too many solutions are spreading themselves too thin and being too broad in their application — They do too many things, and few things well. Going forward, “Specialization” is the keyword for AI. As we move into 2024, we will see an increased specialization in the application of AI with clearer boundaries and more specific use cases that are more beneficial to specific industries, roles, or problems. The next wave of solutions will do fewer, specialized tasks extremely well. Why we decided to participate in HackerNoon's Startup of the Year awards HackerNoon’s Startup of the Year is like the Oscars for tech companies. It’s the place to be if you are in the biz. It has been an exciting journey for Xembly over the past year, and we’d like to invite other AI enthusiasts and productivity experts to join us on this AI productivity journey. Final Thoughts It’s undeniable that AI will become a greater part of work life. Xembly is here to make that happen in a productive, ethical, and transparent way that benefits everyone involved. We would love for you to be part of the journey and hope to earn your vote for Startup of the Year. Vote for us today! https://hackernoon.com/startups/north-america/north-america-seattle-wa-usa#lj5xjhwq/lj5xjhwq

Startups of the Year 2023: Xembly - The AI Assistant That Does the Work for You 

If any of us in our businesses can be better than Apple at any specific thing, no matter how niche, I'm sure we would try to take advantage of this opportunity. It appears Steve Jobs had a preference for how meetings should be undertaken. And he believed this approach to meetings produced the best results, allowing people to engage more seriously and more carefully with the topics being discussed. However, there have been drawbacks to this approach of meetings, as we'll cover in the article. But the advent of new technologies has created an unexpected opening for the kind of meetings Steve Jobs envisioned while mitigating virtually all the downsides of this approach. AI note-taking This isn't really about how to take meetings now better than Apple. This is really about bringing Steve Jobs' vision of effective meetings to life. Let's dive in. How Steve Jobs Approached Meeting Notes A slight storm had been caused among tech Twitter and tech Threads the other week. The user, Darius, who claims to have worked directly with Steve Jobs, has made some bold statements about meetings, how we approach them, and what Steve Jobs thought. The offending tweet in question is detailed below. Darius positions himself as a sort of oracle of Jobs' knowledge, able to translate the great man's thoughts into business lessons for work and life in the modern age. The big claim here is that you shouldn't take notes in meetings. It's not just Steve Jobs who has peculiar approaches to meetings. Jeff Bezos recently appeared on where he talked about how he established a culture of meetings within Amazon. It was based around the memo format. In Jeff Bezos's ideal meeting, the memo for the meeting is written before the meeting. Lex Fridman’s podcast It is long, written in narrative form, not simply bullet points, and can take multiple pages. While attendees are free to read the memo before the meeting, there isn't an expectation to do so. Instead, the first part of the meeting is spent with everyone in a team silently reading the memo. According to Bezos, this can take up to half an hour of an hour-long meeting. He says doing it this way works best because it means that everyone has carved out time for the meeting and no one is pretending to know what the topic is. It means everyone can fully engage in the discussion the meeting was intended to stimulate. We can find Steve Jobs' approach in this context. If you have people together in a meeting, they are not being productive doing other things. So, you should be aiming to get maximum productivity out of them in that meeting. And what is the maximum productivity that can be brought out in a meeting? Is it communicating an idea? No, not really. You can do that with an email. It's about discussing ideas, engaging in discourse, analyzing each other's thoughts, with multiple people bringing things to the table, each interrogating and building upon the ideas presented. And in order to do that effectively, in order for everyone involved in the meeting to contribute to their fullest and engage intellectually to the maximum extent they can, they shouldn't be distracted by either a lack of knowledge or by having to take extensive meeting notes. Why We Shouldn’t Take Notes in Meetings So, why shouldn't we take notes in meetings? I'm very sympathetic to this view because taking notes in meetings is one of a litany of activities that can distract someone from what is being said, especially in the era of remote work. It's especially common for people to try to do other things while they're in the meeting, like completing other tasks, sending an email to somebody else, generally trying to be productive and get stuff done, feeling like it's not lost time. People think they're doing good things when they do this. They think they are setting a good example, but they're not. If they don't need to be in the meeting, then they shouldn't be in the meeting. If they should be in the meeting, then they should be present and engaged. And if everyone is taking notes, then it feels like everyone is slightly distracted. This produces a general distraction. But there's also value in noting that more junior employees are often tasked with the responsibility of keeping and updating valuable notes. While this can be a useful task to introduce someone to if they have no other context to the meeting, if they do have some engagement with the topics of the meeting, having to take notes stops them from being able to participate and present their ideas or make observations of their own. There is also a gendered side to this. I've been in meetings where the organized person in the meeting is a woman and because they are organized, they end up falling into the default role of minute taker, while one of the guys gets to take on the role of idea guy. As , a marketing operations leader and consultant, describes the gendered elements of this experience to me: Tracy Warner “There’s a known and well-documented gender bias with note taking. Many of the tasks that are getting captured by AI fall into these often mundane, typically female categories of work: coordinating the meetings, taking the notes, capturing action items, sharing those with the team.” Meeting notes are obstacles to engaging in the meeting. The ideal meeting would allow everyone to remain 100% focused on the discussion at hand with equal opportunity for all to participate and contribute as they see fit. This is what Jobs believed. And it's a very enticing view. How much more productive would we all be if we could maximize the benefit of the discussions we have in meetings so we don't need to have more meetings? We can get more done so that we don't have to do yet more work. What’s Wrong With This Policy? While the approach of not taking notes in meetings is intriguing, it isn't perfect. The very simple and obvious problem is that someone does need to take some notes. Otherwise, how are we going to remember what we thought, talked about, agreed on, or what action items were recorded? In any workplace, it's very common for people to find that they've attended a meeting where no one took notes, and as a result, things didn't get done and there's no shared concept of what occurred in the meeting. Beyond these obvious productivity considerations, there's the fact that everyone engages with and retains information differently. For some, like myself, having a long, free-form discussion is super valuable and a great way to learn and engage with ideas, still having a rough idea of things at the end to take action on. For others, when something is mentioned, it's very beneficial for them to quickly jot that down. It helps to reinforce that memory in their mind, not simply because it's written down, but because the process of writing it down helps them remember it better. People simply differ in how they absorb information. Add to that, there are more extreme versions of this need to write things down or to engage more carefully with things. This might be related to neurodivergence, slight memory issues, or simply being easily distracted, as many people with ADHD or similar can experience. The downsides to not recording any meeting notes seem painfully apparent. While many meetings do occur without the effective use of meeting notes, almost all important meetings will have someone taking those notes. It's not simply best practice; it's an obvious thing to do. In fact, in some circumstances, it can be legally required. How Can We Take Notes Better Than Apple? So, what's the synthesis here? Well, it's AI. You do not need to spend your time in the meeting taking notes if you know the AI has been taking notes for you. Either your AI has taken those notes, or the AI of the person who hosted the meeting has. The AI then automatically shares those notes at the end of the meeting with all the attendees. Then, everyone can have a copy of what was discussed, beyond simply a transcription of the meeting. Powerful AI executive assistant software like Xembly can give each attendee a summarized version of the meeting that doesn't include extraneous details like Gary's five-minute story at the beginning about his sister's wedding. It's also possible to collaboratively edit the meeting notes at the end of the meeting in case there's anything else someone wanted to add or specify. This creates a sense of shared truth within the organization, as everyone has copies of what was said and what was decided upon in the meeting, and each person was able to contribute without impacting their own productivity. Using an approach like this allows each person to remain 100% focused on the content of the meeting and to discuss each item freely without having to worry about their note-taking responsibilities. This can produce added efficiency gains for each and every meeting, resulting in a cumulative large gain in productivity. Companies can save eight hours a week per person by using Xembly, but it's not just about meeting notes. With modern tech, you can go beyond the notes themselves. Xembly's AI, Xena, can pull the action items from the meeting and then suggest attendees to whom those action items can be delegated, creating tasks for their task lists. This turns the into more of an AI project manager, again producing further efficiency gains for the team. AI executive assistant You can even integrate directly into Salesforce or HubSpot and have the AI update records for you. AI unlocks a whole new world of . meeting management If you combine all of this with other standard approaches that technology can enable now, like sharing a recording of the meeting for people to view (permission dependent), you can create a massive sense of transparency and shared knowledge in your team. You go from wanting to emulate Steve Jobs to actively emulating Ray Dalio and his principles of shared truth and radical transparency. By utilizing new technology you can make work better, organization more cohesive, and make the experience more inclusive - as we’ve seen across grounds of seniority, neurodivergence, and gender. It’s not the first technological step forward to automate elements of our lives, and it won’t be the last. With automation comes change and opportunity - as Tracy said to me: “I find administrative automation akin to the invention of the washing machine for women… as you take away the busy work of life, you free yourself for more important things. It’s no surprise that women began to enter the workforce as domestic work became increasingly automated.” is the only AI executive assistant designed from the ground up for , with a deep feature set and regulatory compliance built in, so give it a try and start taking your meeting notes better than Apple. Xembly enterprises

How to Take Meeting Notes Better Than Apple

অ্যাপলের চেয়ে মিটিং নোটগুলি কীভাবে নেওয়া যায়

So machen Sie Besprechungsnotizen besser als Apple

Cómo tomar notas de reuniones mejor que Apple

Comment prendre des notes de réunion mieux qu'Apple

ऐप्पल से बेहतर मीटिंग नोट्स कैसे लें

Apple よりも優れた会議メモの取り方

Apple보다 회의 메모를 더 잘 작성하는 방법

Como fazer anotações de reuniões melhor que a Apple

Как вести заметки совещаний лучше, чем Apple

Apple'dan Daha İyi Toplantı Notları Nasıl Alınır?

Cách ghi chú cuộc họp tốt hơn Apple

如何比苹果更好地做会议笔记

The world of AI software is advancing at breakneck speed. AI has begun to augment workers in the tech industry, providing massive productivity gains. According to the , it's impacting earnings in the freelancing industry, with more sectors to come. Financial Times These productivity gains and the automation of various tasks will continue; AI is here to stay. But if AI is here to stay, what should we expect from it as it continues to evolve, mature, and develop in the context of our workplaces? In this article, we'll look at the next step beyond individualized AI applications, moving toward broader workplace integration. We'll explore how simple AI systems will become an AI Chief of Staff. The AI Assistant Ecosystem Today The ecosystem today for AI assistants is broad and varied. There are existing tools that help with organization, reminders, or to-do lists that have chosen to append AI onto their services. However, they have kept their core offering at the center. These non-native AI companies may have a difficult road ahead of them in holding on to their market share. Of course, this is a whole different situation for the behemoths of Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants. These companies are embedded in complex enterprise contracts and existing workflows and are tightly tied to workers' existing competencies. For Google and Microsoft, in particular, AI offers an opportunity to outcompete others. Both of these tech giants have large supporting developer ecosystems that produce third-party tools that connect and plug into the giants' platforms. These tools typically fall into a few categories: one, providing small and low-demand additional functionalities; two, connecting those tools to other large software suites; and three, reprocessing data from those tools to generate value and feedback. With the advent of AI, many of these companies will be challenged. Productivity improvements in development could mean developing small features natively, and companies that process and repurpose data from big tech workspaces are left vulnerable and will survive based on the complexity of their reprocessing. Microsoft has already launched very exciting-looking videos to promote its new AI capabilities and assistance across its platform with . Google will no doubt do the same, beyond its recent product demo of . Copilot Gemini AI Note-Takers and Smart Calendars So, what areas are we expecting to see AI help with most? Well, the initial features where AI has managed to provide significant assistance are in the world of and . AI note-taking smart calendar technology Yet, the jury is still somewhat out on generative AI for producing content, both internal and external. It seems to be able to produce productivity gains and efficiencies, but it isn't yet at the point where it can successfully replace high-level content creation. However, many low-level content creators, such as those in content mills or producing spam SEO content, will find that their gig is up. AI note-taking, however, has advanced by leaps and bounds. It is now possible to host a meeting and receive accurate notes from an AI, labeled to the person who is speaking. Beyond this, the AI can interpret those notes and provide summaries of important content, or omit unnecessary or unimportant content such as introductions or greetings. In terms of smart calendar technology, much of it is currently the augmentation of previously existing systems, but some smart calendars natively using AI are beginning to emerge. , for example, allows users to chat with an AI to manage their calendar. This AI acts as a personal assistant, giving them reminders and keeping them on track. Xembly AI Assistant to AI Chief of Staff Centralizing the data of a team from the basis of its calendars creates a series of potential benefits. One, the AI knows what everyone is doing at any given moment. This is very useful, and simple immediate benefits include the ability for an AI to instantly book group meetings without difficulty, overcoming the struggles that existing software and booking links currently have with multi-person meetings. A unified AI removes all difficulty from that task. Two, the AI can attend all meetings, producing notes and actionable summaries. By having this centralized AI working from everyone's calendars, it knows who is in what meeting and what they have contributed. Everyone can access shared notes and provide commentary, edits, or contributions. This begins the process of turning the AI into a knowledge base for the company, provided access permissions are in place. Someone can ask the AI a question, and it can provide answers from the knowledge it has been documenting, working within people's meetings, tasks, and reading existing wikis. This centralized knowledge overcomes the problems that knowledge bases and wikis have long tried and struggled to solve. Three, as the AI is present in meetings, and understands the content and the context of the organization, along with each individual's availability on their calendars, it will be able to pull tasks and to-dos from meetings. It can suggest who they should be assigned or delegated to. At the end of the meeting, the AI can schedule space on those individuals' calendars for when they should complete those tasks, providing the basic task management needed. In the context of task management, the AI is no longer simply an assistant but perhaps a project manager. But with the addition of knowledge base technology and shared smart calendar capability, the AI system isn't just an AI project manager, but now, a complete AI Chief of Staff. The Future Arrives Faster Than You Expect This vision of the future presents a new way of working and a new way of thinking about the workplace. But this sci-fi future is closer than it appears. Xembly does not provide an omniscient AI that can give a complete overview of every action in the company, but it's halfway there. Xembly allows you to manage your calendar and your team's calendars while automating meeting notes, pulling action items, and then managing those tasks all through a conversational AI interface. The future of work now looks more like people being free to focus on their core activities while AI steps in to knit it all together. Xembly reports users saving 17% of their time each week by using AI executive assistants. Maybe the future is already here?

Beyond AI Assistants: How AI Will Reshape Your Whole Organization

এআই সহকারীর বাইরে: কীভাবে এআই আপনার পুরো সংস্থাকে নতুন আকার দেবে

Jenseits von KI-Assistenten: Wie KI Ihr gesamtes Unternehmen umgestalten wird

Más allá de los asistentes de IA: cómo la IA remodelará toda su organización

Au-delà des assistants IA : comment l’IA va remodeler l’ensemble de votre organisation

एआई सहायकों से परे: एआई आपके पूरे संगठन को कैसे नया आकार देगा

AI アシスタントを超えて: AI が組織全体をどのように再構築するか

AI 보조자를 넘어서: AI가 전체 조직을 어떻게 변화시킬 것인가

Além dos assistentes de IA: como a IA remodelará toda a sua organização

Помимо ИИ-помощников: как ИИ изменит всю вашу организацию

Yapay Zeka Asistanlarının Ötesinde: Yapay Zeka Tüm Organizasyonunuzu Nasıl Yeniden Şekillendirecek?

Ngoài trợ lý AI: AI sẽ định hình lại toàn bộ tổ chức của bạn như thế nào

超越人工智能助理：人工智能将如何重塑整个组织

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The Country of the Blind, And Other Stories, by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE OBLITERATED MAN THE OBLITERATED MAN I was—you shall hear immediately why I am not now—Egbert Craddock Cummins. The name remains. I am still (Heaven help me!) Dramatic Critic to the Fiery Cross. What I shall be in a little while I do not know. I write in great trouble and confusion of mind. I will do what I can to make myself clear in the face of terrible difficulties. You must bear with me a little. When a man is rapidly losing his own identity, he naturally finds a difficulty in expressing himself. I will make it perfectly plain in a minute, when once I get my grip upon the story. Let me see—where am I? I wish I knew. Ah, I have it! Dead self! Egbert Craddock Cummins! In the past I should have disliked writing anything quite so full of "I" as this story must be. It is full of "I's" before and behind, like the beast in Revelation—the one with a head like a calf, I am afraid. But my tastes have changed since I became a Dramatic Critic and studied the masters—G.A.S., G.B.S., G.R.S., and the others. Everything has changed since then. At least the story is about myself—so that there is some excuse for me. And it is really not egotism, because, as I say, since those days my identity has undergone an entire alteration. That past!... I was—in those days—rather a nice fellow, rather shy— taste for grey in my clothes, weedy little moustache, face "interesting," slight stutter which I had caught in my early life from a schoolfellow. Engaged to a very nice girl, named Delia. Fairly new, she was— cigarettes—liked me because I was human and original. Considered I was like Lamb—on the strength of the stutter, I believe. Father, an eminent authority on postage stamps. She read a great deal in the British Museum. (A perfect pairing ground for literary people, that British Museum—you should read George Egerton and Justin Huntly M'Carthy and Gissing and the rest of them.) We loved in our intellectual way, and shared the brightest hopes. (All gone now.) And her father liked me because I seemed honestly eager to hear about stamps. She had no mother. Indeed, I had the happiest prospects a young man could have. I never went to theatres in those days. My Aunt Charlotte before she died had told me not to. Then Barnaby, the editor of the Fiery Cross, made me—in spite of my spasmodic efforts to escape—Dramatic Critic. He is a fine, healthy man, Barnaby, with an enormous head of frizzy black hair and a convincing manner, and he caught me on the staircase going to see Wembly. He had been dining, and was more than usually buoyant. "Hullo, Cummins!" he said. "The very man I want!" He caught me by the shoulder or the collar or something, ran me up the little passage, and flung me over the waste-paper basket into the arm-chair in his office. "Pray be seated," he said, as he did so. Then he ran across the room and came back with some pink and yellow tickets and pushed them into my hand. "Opera Comique," he said, "Thursday; Friday, the Surrey; Saturday, the Frivolity. That's all, I think." "But—" I began. "Glad you're free," he said, snatching some proofs off the desk and beginning to read. "I don't quite understand," I said. "Eigh?" he said, at the top of his voice, as though he thought I had gone and was startled at my remark. "Do you want me to criticise these plays?" "Do something with 'em... Did you think it was a treat?" "But I can't." "Did you call me a fool?" "Well, I've never been to a theatre in my life." "Virgin soil." "But I don't know anything about it, you know." "That's just it. New view. No habits. No clichis in stock. Ours is a live paper, not a bag of tricks. None of your clockwork professional journalism in this office. And I can rely on your integrity——" "But I've conscientious scruples——" He caught me up suddenly and put me outside his door. "Go and talk to Wembly about that," he said. "He'll explain." As I stood perplexed, he opened the door again, said, "I forgot this," thrust a fourth ticket into my hand (it was for that night—in twenty minutes' time) and slammed the door upon me. His expression was quite calm, but I caught his eye. I hate arguments. I decided that I would take his hint and become (to my own destruction) a Dramatic Critic. I walked slowly down the passage to Wembly. That Barnaby has a remarkable persuasive way. He has made few suggestions during our very pleasant intercourse of four years that he has not ultimately won me round to adopting. It may be, of course, that I am of a yielding disposition; certainly I am too apt to take my colour from my circumstances. It is, indeed, to my unfortunate susceptibility to vivid impressions that all my misfortunes are due. I have already alluded to the slight stammer I had acquired from a schoolfellow in my youth. However, this is a digression... I went home in a cab to dress. I will not trouble the reader with my thoughts about the first-night audience, strange assembly as it is,—those I reserve for my Memoirs,—nor the humiliating story of how I got lost during the entr'acte in a lot of red plush passages, and saw the third act from the gallery. The only point upon which I wish to lay stress was the remarkable effect of the acting upon me. You must remember I had lived a quiet and retired life, and had never been to the theatre before, and that I am extremely sensitive to vivid impressions. At the risk of repetition I must insist upon these points. The first effect was a profound amazement, not untinctured by alarm. The phenomenal unnaturalness of acting is a thing discounted in the minds of most people by early visits to the theatre. They get used to the fantastic gestures, the flamboyant emotions, the weird mouthings, melodious snortings, agonising yelps, lip-gnawings, glaring horrors, and other emotional symbolism of the stage. It becomes at last a mere deaf-and-dumb language to them, which they read intelligently pari passu with the hearing of the dialogue. But all this was new to me. The thing was called a modern comedy, the people were supposed to be English and were dressed like fashionable Americans of the current epoch, and I fell into the natural error of supposing that the actors were trying to represent human beings. I looked round on my first-night audience with a kind of wonder, discovered—as all new Dramatic Critics do—that it rested with me to reform the Drama, and, after a supper choked with emotion, went off to the office to write a column, piebald with "new paragraphs" (as all my stuff is—it fills out so) and purple with indignation. Barnaby was delighted. But I could not sleep that night. I dreamt of actors—actors glaring, actors smiting their chests, actors flinging out a handful of extended fingers, actors smiling bitterly, laughing despairingly, falling hopelessly, dying idiotically. I got up at eleven with a slight headache, read my notice in the Fiery Cross, breakfasted, and went back to my room to shave, (It's my habit to do so.) Then an odd thing happened. I could not find my razor. Suddenly it occurred to me that I had not unpacked it the day before. "Ah!" said I, in front of the looking-glass. Then "Hullo!" Quite involuntarily, when I had thought of my portmanteau, I had flung up the left arm (fingers fully extended) and clutched at my diaphragm with my right hand. I am an acutely self-conscious man at all times. The gesture struck me as absolutely novel for me. I repeated it, for my own satisfaction. "Odd!" Then (rather puzzled) I turned to my portmanteau. After shaving, my mind reverted to the acting I had seen, and I entertained myself before the cheval glass with some imitations of Jafferay's more exaggerated gestures. "Really, one might think it a disease," I said—"Stage-Walkitis!" (There's many a truth spoken in jest.) Then, if I remember rightly, I went off to see Wembly, and afterwards lunched at the British Museum with Delia. We actually spoke about our prospects, in the light of my new appointment. But that appointment was the beginning of my downfall. From that day I necessarily became a persistent theatre-goer, and almost insensibly I began to change. The next thing I noticed after the gesture about the razor was to catch myself bowing ineffably when I met Delia, and stooping in an old-fashioned, courtly way over her hand. Directly I caught myself, I straightened myself up and became very uncomfortable. I remember she looked at me curiously. Then, in the office, I found myself doing "nervous business," fingers on teeth, when Barnaby asked me a question I could not very well answer. Then, in some trifling difference with Delia, I clasped my hand to my brow. And I pranced through my social transactions at times singularly like an actor! I tried not to—no one could be more keenly alive to the arrant absurdity of the histrionic bearing. And I did! It began to dawn on me what it all meant. The acting, I saw, was too much for my delicately-strung nervous system. I have always, I know, been too amenable to the suggestions of my circumstances. Night after night of concentrated attention to the conventional attitudes and intonation of the English stage was gradually affecting my speech and carriage. I was giving way to the infection of sympathetic imitation. Night after night my plastic nervous system took the print of some new amazing gesture, some new emotional exaggeration—and retained it. A kind of theatrical veneer threatened to plate over and obliterate my private individuality altogether. I saw myself in a kind of vision. Sitting by myself one night, my new self seemed to me to glide, posing and gesticulating, across the room. He clutched his throat, he opened his fingers, he opened his legs in walking like a high-class marionette. He went from attitude to attitude. He might have been clockwork. Directly after this I made an ineffectual attempt to resign my theatrical work. But Barnaby persisted in talking about the Polywhiddle Divorce all the time I was with him, and I could get no opportunity of saying what I wished. And then Delia's manner began to change towards me. The ease of our intercourse vanished. I felt she was learning to dislike me. I grinned, and capered, and scowled, and posed at her in a thousand ways, and knew—with what a voiceless agony!—that I did it all the time. I tried to resign again, and Barnaby talked about "X" and "Z" and "Y" in the New Review, and gave me a strong cigar to smoke, and so routed me. And then I walked up the Assyrian Gallery in the manner of Irving to meet Delia, and so precipitated the crisis. "Ah!—Dear!" I said, with more sprightliness and emotion in my voice than had ever been in all my life before I became (to my own undoing) a Dramatic Critic. She held out her hand rather coldly, scrutinising my face as she did so. I prepared, with a new-won grace, to walk by her side. "Egbert," she said, standing still, and thought. Then she looked at me. I said nothing. I felt what was coming. I tried to be the old Egbert Craddock Cummins of shambling gait and stammering sincerity, whom she loved, but I felt even as I did so that I was a new thing, a thing of surging emotions and mysterious fixity—like no human being that ever lived, except upon the stage. "Egbert," she said, "you are not yourself." "Ah!" Involuntarily I clutched my diaphragm and averted my head (as is the way with them). "There!" she said. "What do you mean?" I said, whispering in vocal italics—you know how they do it—turning on her, perplexity on face, right hand down, left on brow. I knew quite well what she meant. I knew quite well the dramatic unreality of my behaviour. But I struggled against it in vain. "What do you mean?" I said, and, in a kind of hoarse whisper, "I don't understand!" She really looked as though she disliked me. "What do you keep on posing for?" she said. "I don't like it. You didn't use to." "Didn't use to!" I said slowly, repeating this twice. I glared up and down the gallery with short, sharp glances. "We are alone," I said swiftly. "Listen!" I poked my forefinger towards her, and glared at her. "I am under a curse." I saw her hand tighten upon her sunshade. "You are under some bad influence or other," said Delia. "You should give it up. I never knew anyone change as you have done." "Delia!" I said, lapsing into the pathetic. "Pity me, Augh! Delia! Pit—y me!" She eyed me critically. "Why you keep playing the fool like this I don't know," she said. "Anyhow, I really cannot go about with a man who behaves as you do. You made us both ridiculous on Wednesday. Frankly, I dislike you, as you are now. I met you here to tell you so—as it's about the only place where we can be sure of being alone together——" "Delia!" said I, with intensity, knuckles of clenched hands white. "You don't mean——" "I do," said Delia. "A woman's lot is sad enough at the best of times. But with you——" I clapped my hand on my brow. "So, good-bye," said Delia, without emotion. "Oh, Delia!" I said. "Not this?" "Good-bye, Mr. Cummins," she said. By a violent effort I controlled myself and touched her hand. I tried to say some word of explanation to her. She looked into my working face and winced. "I must do it," she said hopelessly. Then she turned from me and began walking rapidly down the gallery. Heavens! How the human agony cried within me! I loved Delia. But nothing found expression—I was already too deeply crusted with my acquired self. "Good-baye!" I said at last, watching her retreating figure. How I hated myself for doing it! After she had vanished, I repeated in a dreamy way, "Good-baye!" looking hopelessly round me. Then, with a kind of heart-broken cry, I shook my clenched fists in the air, staggered to the pedestal of a winged figure, buried my face in my arms, and made my shoulders heave. Something within me said "Ass!" as I did so. (I had the greatest difficulty in persuading the Museum policeman, who was attracted by my cry of agony, that I was not intoxicated, but merely suffering from a transient indisposition.) But even this great sorrow has not availed to save me from my fate. I see it; everyone sees it: I grow more "theatrical" every day. And no one could be more painfully aware of the pungent silliness of theatrical ways. The quiet, nervous, but pleasing E.C. Cummins vanishes. I cannot save him. I am driven like a dead leaf before the winds of March. My tailor even enters into the spirit of my disorder. He has a peculiar sense of what is fitting. I tried to get a dull grey suit from him this spring, and he foisted a brilliant blue upon me, and I see he has put braid down the sides of my new dress trousers. My hairdresser insists upon giving me a "wave." I am beginning to associate with actors. I detest them, but it is only in their company that I can feel I am not glaringly conspicuous. Their talk infects me. I notice a growing tendency to dramatic brevity, to dashes and pauses in my style, to a punctuation of bows and attitudes. Barnaby has remarked it too. I offended Wembly by calling him "Dear Boy" yesterday. I dread the end, but I cannot escape from it. The fact is, I am being obliterated. Living a grey, retired life all my youth, I came to the theatre a delicate sketch of a man, a thing of tints and faint lines. Their gorgeous colouring has effaced me altogether. People forget how much mode of expression, method of movement, are a matter of contagion. I have heard of stage-struck people before, and thought it a figure of speech. I spoke of it jestingly, as a disease. It is no jest. It is a disease. And I have got it badly! Deep down within me I protest against the wrong done to my personality—unavailingly. For three hours or more a week I have to go and concentrate my attention on some fresh play, and the suggestions of the drama strengthen their awful hold upon me. My manners grow so flamboyant, my passions so professional, that I doubt, as I said at the outset, whether it is really myself that behaves in such a manner. I feel merely the core to this dramatic casing, that grows thicker and presses upon me—me and mine. I feel like King John's abbot in his cope of lead. I doubt, indeed, whether I should not abandon the struggle altogether— leave this sad world of ordinary life for which I am so ill fitted, abandon the name of Cummins for some professional pseudonym, complete my self-effacement, and—a thing of tricks and tatters, of posing and pretence—go upon the stage. It seems my only resort—"to hold the mirror up to Nature." For in the ordinary life, I will confess, no one now seems to regard me as both sane and sober. Only upon the stage, I feel convinced, will people take me seriously. That will be the end of it. I know that will be the end of it. And yet ... I will frankly confess ... all that marks off your actor from your common man ... I detest. I am still largely of my Aunt Charlotte's opinion, that play-acting is unworthy of a pure-minded man's attention, much more participation. Even now I would resign my dramatic criticism and try a rest. Only I can't get hold of Barnaby. Letters of resignation he never notices. He says it is against the etiquette of journalism to write to your Editor. And when I go to see him, he gives me another big cigar and some strong whisky and soda, and then something always turns up to prevent my explanation. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. H. G. Wells (2004). The Country of the Blind, And Other Stories. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11870/11870-h/11870-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at . https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

THE OBLITERATED MAN

The Plattner Story, by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE SAD STORY OF A DRAMATIC CRITIC THE SAD STORY OF A DRAMATIC CRITIC I was—you shall hear immediately why I am not now—Egbert Craddock Cummins. The name remains. I am still (Heaven help me!) Dramatic Critic to the Fiery Cross. What I shall be in a little while I do not know. I write in great trouble and confusion of mind. I will do what I can to make myself clear in the face of terrible difficulties. You must bear with me a little. When a man is rapidly losing his own identity, he naturally finds a difficulty in expressing himself. I will make it perfectly plain in a minute, when once I get my grip upon the story. Let me see—where I? I wish I knew. Ah, I have it! Dead self! Egbert Craddock Cummins! am In the past I should have disliked writing anything quite so full of “I” as this story must be. It is full of “I’s” before and behind, like the beast in Revelation—the one with a head like a calf, I am afraid. But my tastes have changed since I became a Dramatic Critic and studied the masters—G.R.S., G.B.S., G.A.S., and the others. Everything has changed since then. At least the story is about myself—so that there is some excuse for me. And it is really not egotism, because, as I say, since those days my identity has undergone an entire alteration. That past!... I was—in those days—rather a nice fellow, rather shy—taste for grey in my clothes, weedy little moustache, face “interesting,” slight stutter which I had caught in early life from a schoolfellow. Engaged to a very nice girl, named Delia. Fairly new, she was—cigarettes—liked me because I was human and original. Considered I was like Lamb—on the strength of the stutter, I believe. Father, an eminent authority on postage stamps. She read a great deal in the British Museum. (A perfect pairing ground for literary people, that British Museum—you should read George Egerton and Justin Huntly M’Carthy and Gissing and the rest of them.) We loved in our intellectual way, and shared the brightest hopes. (All gone now.) And her father liked me because I seemed honestly eager to hear about stamps. She had no mother. Indeed, I had the happiest prospects a young man could have. I never went to theatres in those days. My Aunt Charlotte before she died had told me not to. Then Barnaby, the editor of the Fiery Cross, made me—in spite of my spasmodic efforts to escape—Dramatic Critic. He is a fine, healthy man, Barnaby, with an enormous head of frizzy black hair and a convincing manner, and he caught me on the staircase going to see Wembly. He had been dining, and was more than usually buoyant. “Hullo, Cummins!” he said. “The very man I want!” He caught me by the shoulder or the collar or something, ran me up the little passage, and flung me over the waste-paper basket into the arm-chair in his office. “Pray be seated,” he said, as he did so. Then he ran across the room and came back with some pink and yellow tickets and pushed them into my hand. “Opera Comique,” he said, “Thursday; Friday, the Surrey; Saturday, the Frivolity. That’s all, I think.” “But”—I began. “Glad you’re free,” he said, snatching some proofs off the desk and beginning to read. “I don’t quite understand,” I said. “ ” he said, at the top of his voice, as though he thought I had gone, and was startled at my remark. Eigh? “Do you want me to criticise these plays?” “Do something with ’em.... Did you think it was a treat?” “But I can’t.” “Did you call me a fool?” “Well, I’ve never been to a theatre in my life.” “Virgin soil.” “But I don’t know anything about it, you know.” “That’s just it. New view. No habits. No clichés in stock. Ours is a live paper, not a bag of tricks. None of your clockwork professional journalism in this office. And I can rely on your integrity”— “But I’ve conscientious scruples”— He caught me up suddenly and put me outside his door. “Go and talk to Wembly about that,” he said. “He’ll explain.” As I stood perplexed, he opened the door again, said, “I forgot this,” thrust a fourth ticket into my hand (it was for that night—in twenty minutes’ time), and slammed the door upon me. His expression was quite calm, but I caught his eye. I hate arguments. I decided that I would take his hint and become (to my own destruction) a Dramatic Critic. I walked slowly down the passage to Wembly. That Barnaby has a remarkably persuasive way. He has made few suggestions during our very pleasant intercourse of four years that he has not ultimately won me round to adopting. It may be, of course, that I am of a yielding disposition; certainly I am too apt to take my colour from my circumstances. It is, indeed, to my unfortunate susceptibility to vivid impressions that all my misfortunes are due. I have already alluded to the slight stammer I had acquired from a schoolfellow in my youth. However, this is a digression.... I went home in a cab to dress. I will not trouble the reader with my thoughts about the first-night audience, strange assembly as it is,—those I reserve for my Memoirs,—nor the humiliating story of how I got lost during the entr’acte in a lot of red plush passages, and saw the third act from the gallery. The only point upon which I wish to lay stress was the remarkable effect of the acting upon me. You must remember I had lived a quiet and retired life, and had never been to the theatre before, and that I am extremely sensitive to vivid impressions. At the risk of repetition I must insist upon these points. The first effect was a profound amazement, not untinctured by alarm. The phenomenal unnaturalness of acting is a thing discounted in the minds of most people by early visits to the theatre. They get used to the fantastic gestures, the flamboyant emotions, the weird mouthings, melodious snortings, agonising yelps, lip-gnawings, glaring horrors, and other emotional symbolism of the stage. It becomes at last a mere deaf-and-dumb language to them, which they read intelligently pari passu with the hearing of the dialogue. But all this was new to me. The thing was called a modern comedy, the people were supposed to be English and were dressed like fashionable Americans of the current epoch, and I fell into the natural error of supposing that the actors were trying to represent human beings. I looked round on my first-night audience with a kind of wonder, discovered—as all new Dramatic Critics do—that it rested with me to reform the Drama, and, after a supper choked with emotion, went off to the office to write a column, piebald with “new paragraphs” (as all my stuff is—it fills out so) and purple with indignation. Barnaby was delighted. But I could not sleep that night. I dreamt of actors—actors glaring, actors smiting their chests, actors flinging out a handful of extended fingers, actors smiling bitterly, laughing despairingly, falling hopelessly, dying idiotically. I got up at eleven with a slight headache, read my notice in the Fiery Cross, breakfasted, and went back to my room to shave. (It’s my habit to do so.) Then an odd thing happened. I could not find my razor. Suddenly it occurred to me that I had not unpacked it the day before. “Ah!” said I, in front of the looking-glass. Then “Hullo!” Quite involuntarily, when I had thought of my portmanteau, I had flung up the left arm (fingers fully extended) and clutched at my diaphragm with my right hand. I am an acutely self-conscious man at all times. The gesture struck me as absolutely novel for me. I repeated it, for my own satisfaction. “Odd!” Then (rather puzzled) I turned to my portmanteau. After shaving, my mind reverted to the acting I had seen, and I entertained myself before the cheval glass with some imitations of Jafferay’s more exaggerated gestures. “Really, one might think it a disease,” I said—“Stage-Walkitis!” (There’s many a truth spoken in jest.) Then, if I remember rightly, I went off to see Wembly, and afterwards lunched at the British Museum with Delia. We actually spoke about our prospects, in the light of my new appointment. But that appointment was the beginning of my downfall. From that day I necessarily became a persistent theatre-goer, and almost insensibly I began to change. The next thing I noticed after the gesture about the razor, was to catch myself bowing ineffably when I met Delia, and stooping in an old-fashioned, courtly way over her hand. Directly I caught myself, I straightened myself up and became very uncomfortable. I remember she looked at me curiously. Then, in the office, I found myself doing “nervous business,” fingers on teeth, when Barnaby asked me a question I could not very well answer. Then, in some trifling difference with Delia, I clasped my hand to my brow. And I pranced through my social transactions at times singularly like an actor! I tried not to—no one could be more keenly alive to the arrant absurdity of the histrionic bearing. And I did! It began to dawn on me what it all meant. The acting, I saw, was too much for my delicately-strung nervous system. I have always, I know, been too amenable to the suggestions of my circumstances. Night after night of concentrated attention to the conventional attitudes and intonation of the English stage was gradually affecting my speech and carriage. I was giving way to the infection of sympathetic imitation. Night after night my plastic nervous system took the print of some new amazing gesture, some new emotional exaggeration—and retained it. A kind of theatrical veneer threatened to plate over and obliterate my private individuality altogether. I saw myself in a kind of vision. Sitting by myself one night, my new self seemed to me to glide, posing and gesticulating, across the room. He clutched his throat, he opened his fingers, he opened his legs in walking like a high-class marionette. He went from attitude to attitude. He might have been clockwork. Directly after this I made an ineffectual attempt to resign my theatrical work. But Barnaby persisted in talking about the Polywhiddle Divorce all the time I was with him, and I could get no opportunity of saying what I wished. And then Delia’s manner began to change towards me. The ease of our intercourse vanished. I felt she was learning to dislike me. I grinned, and capered, and scowled, and posed at her in a thousand ways, and knew—with what a voiceless agony!—that I did it all the time. I tried to resign again, and Barnaby talked about “X” and “Z” and “Y” in the New Review, and gave me a strong cigar to smoke, and so routed me. And then I walked up the Assyrian Gallery in the manner of Irving to meet Delia, and so precipitated the crisis. “Ah!— ” I said, with more sprightliness and emotion in my voice than had ever been in all my life before I became (to my own undoing) a Dramatic Critic. Dear! She held out her hand rather coldly, scrutinising my face as she did so. I prepared, with a new-won grace, to walk by her side. “Egbert,” she said, standing still, and thought. Then she looked at me. I said nothing. I felt what was coming. I tried to be the old Egbert Craddock Cummins of shambling gait and stammering sincerity, whom she loved, but I felt even as I did so that I was a new thing, a thing of surging emotions and mysterious fixity—like no human being that ever lived, except upon the stage. “Egbert,” she said, “you are not yourself.” “Ah!” Involuntarily I clutched my diaphragm and averted my head (as is the way with them). “There!” she said. “ ” I said, whispering in vocal italics—you know how they do it—turning on her, perplexity on face, right hand down, left on brow. I knew quite well what she meant. I knew quite well the dramatic unreality of my behaviour. But I struggled against it in vain. “What do you mean?” I said, and, in a kind of hoarse whisper, “I don’t understand!” What do you mean? She really looked as though she disliked me. “What do you keep on posing for?” she said. “I don’t like it. You didn’t use to.” “Didn’t use to!” I said slowly, repeating this twice. I glared up and down the gallery, with short, sharp glances. “We are alone,” I said swiftly. “ ” I poked my forefinger towards her, and glared at her. “I am under a curse.” Listen! I saw her hand tighten upon her sunshade. “You are under some bad influence or other,” said Delia. “You should give it up. I never knew anyone change as you have done.” “Delia!” I said, lapsing into the pathetic. “Pity me. Augh! Delia! —y me!” Pit She eyed me critically. “ you keep playing the fool like this I don’t know,” she said. “Anyhow, I really cannot go about with a man who behaves as you do. You made us both ridiculous on Wednesday. Frankly, I dislike you, as you are now. I met you here to tell you so—as it’s about the only place where we can be sure of being alone together”— Why “Delia!” said I, with intensity, knuckles of clenched hands white. “You don’t mean”— “I do,” said Delia. “A woman’s lot is sad enough at the best of times. But with you”— I clapped my hand on my brow. “So, good-bye,” said Delia, without emotion. “Oh, Delia!” I said. “Not ?” this “Good-bye, Mr. Cummins,” she said. By a violent effort I controlled myself and touched her hand. I tried to say some word of explanation to her. She looked into my working face and winced. “I do it,” she said hopelessly. Then she turned from me and began walking rapidly down the gallery. must Heavens! How the human agony cried within me! I loved Delia. But nothing found expression—I was already too deeply crusted with my acquired self. “Good-baye!” I said at last, watching her retreating figure. How I hated myself for doing it! After she had vanished, I repeated in a dreamy way, “Good-baye!” looking hopelessly round me. Then, with a kind of heart-broken cry, I shook my clenched fists in the air, staggered to the pedestal of a winged figure, buried my face in my arms, and made my shoulders heave. Something within me said “Ass!” as I did so. (I had the greatest difficulty in persuading the Museum policeman, who was attracted by my cry of agony, that I was not intoxicated, but merely suffering from a transient indisposition.) But even this great sorrow has not availed to save me from my fate. I see it, everyone sees it; I grow more “theatrical” every day. And no one could be more painfully aware of the pungent silliness of theatrical ways. The quiet, nervous, but pleasing E. C. Cummins vanishes. I cannot save him. I am driven like a dead leaf before the winds of March. My tailor even enters into the spirit of my disorder. He has a peculiar sense of what is fitting. I tried to get a dull grey suit from him this spring, and he foisted a brilliant blue upon me, and I see he has put braid down the sides of my new dress trousers. My hairdresser insists upon giving me a “wave.” I am beginning to associate with actors. I detest them, but it is only in their company that I can feel I am not glaringly conspicuous. Their talk infects me. I notice a growing tendency to dramatic brevity, to dashes and pauses in my style, to a punctuation of bows and attitudes. Barnaby has remarked it too. I offended Wembly by calling him “Dear Boy” yesterday. I dread the end, but I cannot escape from it. The fact is, I am being obliterated. Living a grey, retired life all my youth, I came to the theatre a delicate sketch of a man, a thing of tints and faint lines. Their gorgeous colouring has effaced me altogether. People forget how much mode of expression, method of movement, are a matter of contagion. I have heard of stage-struck people before, and thought it a figure of speech. I spoke of it jestingly, as a disease. It is no jest. It a disease. And I have got it bad! Deep down within me I protest against the wrong done to my personality—unavailingly. For three hours or more a week I have to go and concentrate my attention on some fresh play, and the suggestions of the drama strengthen their awful hold upon me. My manners grow so flamboyant, my passions so professional, that I doubt, as I said at the outset, whether it is really myself that behaves in such a manner. I feel merely the core to this dramatic casing, that grows thicker and presses upon me—me and mine. I feel like King John’s abbot in his cope of lead. is I doubt, indeed, whether I should not abandon the struggle altogether—leave this sad world of ordinary life for which I am so ill-fitted, abandon the name of Cummins for some professional pseudonym, complete my self-effacement, and—a thing of tricks and tatters, of posing and pretence—go upon the stage. It seems my only resort—“to hold the mirror up to Nature.” For in the ordinary life, I will confess, no one now seems to regard me as both sane and sober. Only upon the stage, I feel convinced, will people take me seriously. That will be the end of it. I that will be the end of it. And yet ... I will frankly confess ... all that marks off your actor from your common man ... I . I am still largely of my Aunt Charlotte’s opinion, that playacting is unworthy of a pure-minded man’s attention, much more participation. Even now I would resign my dramatic criticism and try a rest. Only I can’t get hold of Barnaby. Letters of resignation he never notices. He says it is against the etiquette of journalism to write to your Editor. And when I go to see him, he gives me another big cigar and some strong whisky and soda, and then something always turns up to prevent my explanation. know detest About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. H. G. Wells (2013). The Plattner Story. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42989/42989-h/42989-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

THE SAD STORY OF A DRAMATIC CRITIC

We all are shocked by the terrible war Russia started, and we care for Ukraine and its citizens. While working as a developer, I used to work with many talented Ukrainians (the world knows how great Ukrainian programmers are!) and have made a lot of friends among them. I deeply empathize with them now, especially when I hear stories of my friends. One of them has to sleep in the subway with his family because it’s the closest shelter to his home. The other lost the house he built in Irpin, a small cozy town near Kyiv. He and his family put so much effort and spent so many years creating the home of their dreams, and now it’s gone, ruined by Russian troops. His kids are devastated, but he says: “at least we’re alive.” When I hear it, my heart breaks. Since the beginning of the war, I’ve been helping Ukraine, for example, by donating money. But it still feels like it’s not enough. I think the world doesn’t pay enough attention to Ukraine’s and Ukrainians’ problems. Probably because we can’t imagine what they are going through. I believe we aren’t helping them enough, and we could do more. So, I decided to collect different ways of supporting this great people struggling for freedom and share them with you. If you’ve already donated money or offered your help to refugees from Ukraine but still feel you could do more (like I do), this list is for you. As for me, I decided to teach and tutor Ukrainians for free. Giving them a fresh start in a new field (because many of them have lost their previous positions, maybe forever) is my way of helping Ukraine. 1. Hire a Ukrainian Unfortunately, many people have already lost their jobs after the beginning of the Russian invasion. It’s hard to estimate the number of Ukrainian developers who lost their jobs precisely, but in general, 53% of Ukrainians became unemployed after the war started (according to the survey conducted by Rating Group in March). And many more to go. Ukrainian developers, who have been highly appreciated on the global market, face a huge problem now. Due to the martial law declared by President Zelenskyy, men from 18 to 60 years old can’t leave the country, which makes it impossible for developers to relocate. But they can and are willing to work. Also, Ukrainian women who fled the country can and want to work. And working for these people nowadays means supporting not only themselves but the Ukrainian economy as well. Many of them are top-notch specialists. Many companies have considered Ukraine a high-risk territory and started to shut down some outsource projects involving Ukrainians. Also, Ukrainians on a startup’s team mean potential problems with investment attraction. If the company can’t guarantee the safety of its employees, it’s an additional risk for investors. I think it’s unfair, and I urge you to help if you can. For example, consider hiring a Ukrainian developer or other IT specialist (in marketing, design, management, etc.) if you have a job opening. There are several websites you can use to find the person you need: — there are over 2,000 active profiles of Ukrainian professionals on this website Hire for Ukraine — you can send the information about a job opening to them or become a volunteer if you have HR-related experience Hire The Ukrainian — you can post a job description and it won’t cost you a penny. Currently, there are 7,000+ candidates and 2,500+ jobs here. Employ Ukraine 2. Learn with Ukrainian apps Remember I told you that Ukrainian developers are outstanding? So, you can trust me when I say they can develop a quality app for studying. For example: — if you’ve been reading me for some time, you’ve probably heard about this service. I think it offers an extremely practical way to learn Java, and I’m happy to mention that it’s a Ukrainian project. It helps you become a Java developer even if you’ve never tried coding before. Practical tasks, a minimal amount of theory, plus an option to study with a mentor. Also, this company recently started a project aiming to provide Ukrainians who lost their jobs with a new career in IT. When you buy a subscription, two subscriptions go to the Ukrainians who need them to start a new profession (details — ). CodeGym.cc here — this service can be useful for those developers who work in multinational teams and want to learn a new language (or several languages). It offers help in finding a language tutor, a convenient platform for studying, and a virtual classroom. Also, you can track your progress and see how your speaking and vocabulary improve. Preply — helps to learn more efficiently by training your brain. With this app, you can start reading much faster, improve your memory, and become more focused and concentrated on what you’re doing at the moment. ReadLax Sure, this isn’t a complete list of Ukrainian companies worth your support. If you know others, feel free to write about them in the comments. And here is one more way to help Ukrainians to which I’m currently devoting almost all my spare time: 3. Use Ukrainian software and services As the world gets more and more interested in the war updates, the awareness of Ukrainian businesses and products grows. Here are some of them you probably have never heard about (although you should, in my humble opinion): — a DevOps platform that helps companies maximize the overall return on software development. It enables a team to perform all the project tasks: from planning to deployment. GitLab — this company’s productivity applications work on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Some of them were named Editors’ Choice and Apps of the Year by Apple. Readdle — Ukrainian service for finding developers for startups. This company suggests a match for the opening in 24 hours and calls itself “the exclusive community of startup sidekicks.” Lemon.io — this service makes meetings work by recording, transcribing, and creating summaries by AI. It is compatible with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Webex. Sembly.ai — this data management platform helps scale your company’s data operations. As the company says, using its product may lead to an 80% reduction in time and money. Datuum.ai 4. Use your professional skills to help Ukrainians For instance, if you’re an IT consultant, offer your services to people in need. If you’re a high-skilled professional, become a mentor for an aspiring Ukrainian building a career in your field. If you’re an educator, launch a free online course. If you have a site — you could add on it. this widget We have so much to give, and we can’t be stingy now. Ukraine didn’t start this war, but it must win it for all of us. The world needs Ukraine’s victory to continue believing that freedom still means something, and people have the right to be themselves without the fear of getting killed for it. The war will end eventually, and Ukraine will face the next challenge: recovering. Ukrainians will have to rebuild the country, so their economy needs a lot of support. If we can do it, we should. And the final note. Also Published Here

Supporting Ukraine as a Programmer

Five ways to improve your team meetings through the use of AI meeting assistants Let's say there was a person who experienced every online meeting cliche. Well… that’s me. Multi-hour calls to discuss complicated subjects – all on dial-in, no visuals Getting distracted by poor Internet connection, cats, food deliveries, or funny memes, right in the middle of the meeting Having zero recollection of something your boss mentioned in a two-hour meeting, and having no way to retrieve the information when they ask for it Even before the pandemic, I wondered if AI assistants could fundamentally change how we do meetings. When the world entered the era of remote work, it was a much needed switch. But I was skeptical. It can’t be easy to replace a human, right? that The median estimate among leading computer scientists reported a 50% chance that high-level machine intelligence systems technology would arrive within 45 years. This is a fairly long-term forecast, but where are we now? The fact is, is already — it's just unevenly distributed. Boom, "under the hood" everywhere AI/ML – determining post range into our social networks, automatic selection of photos in our iPhone galleries or Google Photo app, improved graphics in games, separate ML chips for calculations in processors, intelligent ads trackers, etc. the future here These tools are not science fiction. It sounds a bit "Rick and Morty" like, but AI assistants are already here too and they’re working for many companies and individuals, helping them get the most out of their meetings. The peak of voice assistant popularity happened even before the transition to hybrid/remote work. Remember when Siri hopelessly a difficult question from a reporter at a briefing at the White House? Personal assistants have come since then. The first step to using them is pretty simple. tried to answer a long way 1. Send your AI assistant in your place 🚀 A colleague of mine once took a trip and missed a week of marathon meetings. It took him another week to go through all the messages and emails he’d received. Then, we had to have more meetings to tell him what he missed, after which we could move ahead, three weeks behind schedule. finally We a way to avoid these delays, while also giving our teammates time to relax, and that’s why we started using AI assistants. They record all the meetings we miss and create a summary of everything that happened. needed Now, my colleague just needs one quick call to sync up with the team, and the workflow continues, uninterrupted. This is an entirely different experience for him — it saves time, energy, and a blistering headache from too many Zoom calls. But sometimes, a mere transcription is not enough. AI assistants can also analyze my meetings for me, and actually the time I spend attending them. reduce 2. Have your AI assistant summarize the conversation 🚀 The very first time an AI assistant was on the call, I didn’t notice much difference until the meeting, when I received a follow-up email with a link to our meeting details. after That was a personal 'wow-moment'. I could see a summary of everything we discussed, a transcription of the whole conversation, with all the important points highlighted. If a particular topic or outcome interested me, I could simply dive in and read what was said or re-listen to that part of the conversation. As someone who has attended an uncountable number of meetings, it was like looking at a cheat sheet. Your time is and an AI assistant that can efficiently analyze your meetings can it. I use because of its smart topic summary "Glance View". Other platforms also offer meeting transcription, but the Sembly layout is suited to my preferences and takes me to the interesting bits more quickly. valuable save Sembly Professional I was impressed with my first few uses of an AI assistant and I used Sembly consistently with my team. That is how I discovered another one of its ultimate powers. 3. Get the AI assistant to call out important actions, issues, and risks 🚀 Regardless of the communication platform, the purpose of a team meeting is not just to share information, but also to make decisions. The Actions automatic detection (on Sembly) allows me to easily delegate tasks after my meetings. The forms in which these entities can be stored differ markedly from platform to platform. For example, if you use Zoom, then thanks to you can add an assistant or tool as an add-on, directly to your call. For Microsoft Teams, this could be as a bridge between Teams and Office 365. Zoom Apps MIPA As always, the tool that is most convenient is the one that does everything automatically for you. And that brings us to another perk of using AI assistants — note taking. 4. Have your AI assistant take notes, using simple voice commands 🚀 Sometimes, the topic of a meeting is so gnarly, that not even a summary or reading the transcript will do it justice. Supplementing it with screenshots is time consuming and annoying. AI Assistants free you from being distracted personally during a call, by doing your note taking for you. And triggering it is easy — you simply have to speak. Just say the desired command or instruction out loud to the assistant in your meeting and watch it obey you at lighting speed. If your colleague demonstrated something during a video call, then you can share the right moment using products like to share a video segment of the desired meeting. tl;dv for Google Meet But, what if, like me, you have to navigate uncountable meetings and your browser is overloaded with tabs? 5. Search across all the meetings that your AI assistant has attended 🚀 This one is my personal favorite. AI assistants allow you to text-search for past meetings from almost ANY platform, all in one place! You can simply search for any term used in the meeting you’re looking for, and recover the EXACT data you want to find, with just a few clicks. I cannot recall the last time I asked my boss, “Do you remember the idea I had in that meeting one month ago?” I cannot remember hurricane catch-ups on Slack and attending meetings when I’m too ill to follow. By using AI assistants to lighten my load, I feel more incharge of my work and my time. In fact, we saw a reduction in meeting duration and increased engagement from attendees across my entire team. And everyone is happy to have some freedom and send their assistants in their stead. Try inviting an AI assistant the next time you’re double booked, or just really, don't want to attend a meeting. They might surprise you. really

5 Ways AI Can Improve Your Next Meeting

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