Yard Stick

yardstick

Generative AI and Contextual Confidence: Abstract & Intro

In the tech world, velocity is often the go-to yardstick for measuring a development team's productivity. Velocity is an evaluation used in to gauge the amount of work a team can complete in a given time period, typically represented by story points or user stories completed in each iteration. In other words, it's all about how fast the team is cranking out code and pushing features. But, while speed is cool and all, it can lead to poor results and a heap of behind-the-scenes messes if not balanced right. Agile software development Although there are a lot of other measurements that, accompanying each other, make up a great system for tracking down progress, velocity remains one of the most popular and, therefore, one of the most misapplied. The Allure of Velocity… And Its Perils Speed often takes center stage. Teams pride themselves on how quickly they can bring a new feature to life or adapt to the latest market shift. This drive for velocity speaks to a desire to keep abreast of competitors, to keep users engaged, and to continuously innovate. The thought process is simple: the faster you move, the more you achieve, and the more value you deliver to your stakeholders, respectively. Let's break it down now. Going full-speed can sometimes mean missing out on something much more important — the ability to work with fewer to no burnouts, therefore with . Imagine building a super-tall building super-fast but with an unstable base. Over time, this can pile up a ton of tech mess — that's the hidden cost for those quick-fix solutions that will bite back later. Sure, lightning-fast delivery has its allure, but it's worth thinking about the headaches it can bring afterward. consistency Predictability: The Mighty Tool Predictability, as a measurement, refers to the consistency and reliability with which a team or system delivers results over a given time period. Rather than zooming in on velocity, teams ought to shift their focus toward enhancing predictability. There are several reasons for this: Setting clear expectations with stakeholders. A team that delivers varied results — 100 points one month, then a mere 10 points for the next two — can be a rollercoaster for stakeholders. The unsettled outputs leave stakeholders in a dilemma, unsure of what to expect next. Instead, a team that consistently delivers, say, 40 points month after month becomes the MVP — they become the reliable player in the game. And that’s what the business realm truly yearns for — . predictability The fewer the errors, the longer the game. While unpredictability might bring occasional bursts of brilliance, it's the steadiness of predictability that truly wins in the long run. Here’s a thing: the roadmap to predictability isn't universal. Each team has its own journey, for sure. Yet, there's a pattern to the top performers. Mature agile practices are the common thread among high-performing predictable teams. Whether they're immersed in Scrum, Kanban, or a blend of methodologies, these teams have pinned down the rhythm that aligns with their core, allowing space for both structured work and creative freedom. On the other hand, there’s an ever-lasting drive to enhance, to make every sprint or iteration outshine the previous one. Let’s consider a specific example. Atlassian’s Jira started as a simple bug and issue tracker but has grown to be one of the world's most popular project management tools, providing its services to a wide range of industries. There are, of course, a huge number of various factors that played a role in the company’s ascent, but predictability is hands-down one of the most important ones. With a history of consistent iterations (rolling out consistent and regular updates), a feedback loop, an expandable ecosystem, and a transparent roadmap Jira has secured its position in many organizations globally. The Balance: Velocity vs. Predictability Although my foremost aim in this article is to show why predictability trumps velocity, my duty is to mention that the best practice is always a good balance between these two. No doubt, when it comes to choosing the most fair measurement, predictability is something promising the longest game. But if you have the ability to build a multifaceted system of assessment, finding the way to calibrate both (or even more) measurements is the best way to go. Finding that golden middle ground requires a hybrid approach. This doesn't mean merely splitting the difference, but rather integrating both elements into the development lifecycle. Iterative development, for instance, can provide bursts of velocity during specific sprints, followed by periods where predictability and refinement take precedence. Recognizing the value of both speed and consistency, teams would have the ability to tailor their approach to specific projects and phases, making use of the strengths of each to produce a product that is both timely and reliable. To conclude, it is hard but truly important to keep in mind that the realm of software shouldn't feel like an endless burden. When already intricate engineering tasks are compounded by problematic and at times shallow metrics, the genuine essence of the work gets obscured, often escalating unnecessary tension. If you're at the helm of a tech team, it's pivotal to reflect on how you measure success and guide your crew. The best of all is to ask and keep checking on fellow developers that you aim to assess.

Why Predictability Trumps Velocity in Software Engineering

কেন অনুমানযোগ্যতা সফ্টওয়্যার ইঞ্জিনিয়ারিংয়ে বেগ ট্রাম্প করে

Warum Vorhersehbarkeit in der Softwareentwicklung wichtiger ist als Geschwindigkeit

Por qué la previsibilidad triunfa sobre la velocidad en la ingeniería de software

Pourquoi la prévisibilité l'emporte sur la vélocité dans le génie logiciel

सॉफ़्टवेयर इंजीनियरिंग में पूर्वानुमेयता वेग से अधिक क्यों प्रभावित होती है?

ソフトウェア エンジニアリングではなぜ予測可能性が速度よりも優先されるのか

소프트웨어 엔지니어링에서 예측 가능성이 속도보다 중요한 이유

Por que a previsibilidade supera a velocidade na engenharia de software

Почему предсказуемость превосходит скорость в разработке программного обеспечения

Yazılım Mühendisliğinde Tahmin Edilebilirlik Neden Hızı gölgede bırakıyor?

Tại sao khả năng dự đoán lại quan trọng hơn tốc độ trong công nghệ phần mềm

为什么软件工程中的可预测性胜过速度

In the dynamic realm of software development, finding the right balance between humility and confidence is paramount. The interplay of egoism, humility, and confidence can profoundly impact teamwork, project outcomes, and overall success. In this article, we explore the significance of managing egoism to foster a collaborative, innovative, and positive software development environment. Humility The analysis of the influence that programming languages have on the thinking habits of their users and the recognition that, by now, gives us a new collection of yardsticks for comparing the relative merits of various programming languages. brainpower is by far our scarcest resource , and among other things, he avoids clever tricks like the plague. The competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size of his skull; therefore, he approaches the task in full humility programming We must not treat our brains as the perfect computing machines. We must be open to the possibility at all times that we have made a mistake. We are not reinforcing impostor syndrome or advocating for intellectual gatekeeping here 😁. You can be an excellent developer, but you still need to be mindful of your limitations. In fact, healthy humility can help you go from being a good programmer to a great one. The best way to learn to live with our limitations is to know them. By the time that we are sufficiently modest to try factored solutions only, because the other efforts escape our intellectual grip, we shall do our utmost best to avoid all those interfaces impairing our ability to factor the system in a helpful way. — Edsger W. Dijkstra The best advice to apply humility in your developer career is to write simple code. Egoism (or The fine line between confidence and arrogance) The ego can be defined as the part of us that drives us to continually compare ourselves with others. It causes us to compete with our co-workers and to seek to have more than our neighbors. Our ego is the driving force of our personality. Are You Ego Driven? According to , author of , there are six signs that indicate you may be ego-driven: Srinivas Rao How to Manage Your Ego So You Can Reach Your Full Potential Concern about the approval of others Fear of asking for help Comparing and competing The constant need for more Lack of presence (focusing on the past or the future but never on the present time) The need to always be right These descriptions may not be true for every project manager, but there is a strong need for work performed and results achieved by project managers to be approved, especially by key stakeholders. Many are also conditioned to avoid asking for help because it may mistakenly indicate a lack of ability. Competition with other project managers for highly visible and challenging projects, comparing results with other projects, the need for higher quality at lower costs, reviewing lessons learned and then preparing for the risks yet to come, and a desire to be seen as in control at all times are all parts of the project manager’s daily life. It would appear that we are, for the most part, ego-driven. project managers Ego & Leadership We can not talk about Egoism without leadership, as . its effectiveness will be shown or tested the most when you become a leader There has been much research on this topic, and the effects are well documented. It could be argued that some organizations have seen significant failure as a result of employing leaders with large egos. suggests that the most successful leaders are ‘Level 5’ leaders. These leaders are paradoxical in that they have extreme personal humility and yet have a steely, intense professional will. They have an unwavering resolve based on understanding the truth about their organization; they are . Jim Collins rigorous, not ruthless; they inspire through standards, are ambitious for the organization, not for themselves, and they build momentum over time They are modest, never boastful, calm, avoid the limelight, and accept blame but attribute success to others. They set up success for their successors. In contrast, leaders with over-inflated egos tend to believe that success naturally follows them; they love fads, often re-structure and . make redundancies, are ambitious for themselves, and seek a quick fix They gain validation and self-esteem through being seen as a great leader, inspire through charisma, blame others for mistakes, take credit for success, and set up their successors to fail. Having leaders with large egos is also seen as a sign of future ethical collapse, as identified by . Marianne Jennings She suggests that have many conflicts of interest, innovate to the extreme, and use ‘good works’ to cover up and atone for wrongdoing. The ethical collapse follows and is closely followed by organizational failure. these leaders apply high levels of pressure to meet the numbers, instigate a culture of fear and silence, promote young, inexperienced people in order to manipulate them, promote weak governance, Ego & Teams The significant question for any team is: “Can each individual put aside their ego for the sake of the team ?” People with large egos rarely can. Teamwork flies in the face of autocratic leadership and shouts loud of collaboration, unity, and being a place where everyone has a voice and is heard. If you wish to be a great organization, Look for level 5 leaders. They are often already working for your organization; they know the organization well but are often overlooked. Go seek them out and employ people like that in your teams. Leaders often do not see the true value of their charges, especially “lower-level” workers. But when leaders are humble, show respect, and ask how they can serve employees as they improve the organization, the outcomes can be outstanding. Is your Ego taking control? You know your ego is not in control when: You see others, especially other project managers, as rivals and attempt to find ways to show your superior abilities You become competitive over the smallest issue or detail You take on additional assignments just to show you can handle more work than others You deliberately find fault in another person’s ideas You must establish and maintain control of all meetings You insist on approving almost all communication generated during the project life cycle Do any of these seem familiar? Are you displaying any of these behaviors, even just slightly? Your ego may be beginning to create challenges before you actually see evidence of a problem. Who said Ego is bad? Now that we have seen some of the more negative characteristics of ego, what are the positives? Egos drive us to go to school, learn new skills, and find ways to help others. Our egos are involved in our need to receive acknowledgment and to seek promotions and more challenging work. Most of the world’s successful leaders have used their egos to achieve their personal goals. It becomes a matter of balance and self-awareness. Conclusion Every developer needs to be mindful of both the complexities of software development and the limitations of his abilities. Being humble most of the time is a good thing, but having too much of it could make you ignorant of your true value. Sometimes, ego is not the enemy, or let me say, do not let him become your enemy. Use both humility and ego to find the balance. Sources: The Importance of Humility in Software Development The Humble Programmer by Edsger W. Dijkstra https://www.fusionbusiness.org.uk/team-dynamics-and-ego-how-to-manage-both/ https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/leadership-techniques-ego-driven-project-environment-6256 Jim Collins (2001) “From Good to Great” Marianne Jennings (2006) “The 7 signs of ethical collapse” Patrick Lencioni (20020 “The five dysfunctions of teams.” Also published . here

Put Your Ego Aside: Humility and Confidence in Software Development

A healthy imagination has always been a trait sported by human civilization. This potential for imagination is ever more magnified when it's projected toward conceptualizing an advanced future. Popular media of the Sci-Fi orientation only adds to this effect by making most of us imagine a world full of flying cars, android doctors, and interstellar travel. While a lot of these imagined scenarios invariably play out to become starkly different realities, a small proportion are rooted in relatively tangible developments in the present. Among these is the innate human fear of replacement by machines and automated algorithms. While the anthropological origins of these anxieties might lay in humanity’s tribalistic past, it has come to embody economic and identitarian conflicts in the post-information age era of human society. Among these, special emphasis is given to professions and skills that are considered innately human—either because of the element of critical thought, empathy, or intuitive decision-making approaches. Teaching and education are but some of the most identifiable with these exact attributes. However, with the arrival of the prodigal ChatGPT and a slew of other language model chatbots, the uniquely human claim to education has been put into question. Although there has been a palpable increase in the investment to create newer, better, and coherent AI systems, the development of education-centric AIs has not quite picked up as much as one would have thought. So, are experts and academicians jumping the gun on this one? Maybe. While on one end doomsday predictions surrounding a complete AI takeover of the classroom abound, the other extreme seems far too dismissive and complacent about AI in education. The truth, like always, is somewhere in the middle. Is AI in Education Even Practical? The arrival of easily accessible generative AI opened up a Pandora's box. AI’s effects on the general populace—especially school and university students—took the world by storm in the late months of 2022 and in the opening weeks of 2023. Most news forums were busy discussing the rising usage of chatbots and other generative AI platforms to complete assignments and automate essential course-oriented exercises. This even prompted in nations like France to ban LLM-based AI chatbots in early 2023. The ban was especially targeted at student misuse of and other generative algorithms for supplanting their efforts in academics. major universities ChatGPT Though this is evidently an ethical issue—one that’s been brought up rather frequently since AI presence began growing—it also presents a segue into the deeper aspects of integrating AI into an academic framework. While the ethical conundrums formed the bulwark of the pushback against the initial advances of the AI bubble, there also exist other nuanced concerns with the possibility of fully integrating AI with current academic infrastructures. According to a 2022 report published by , premade AI solutions can cost anywhere between $5,000 to $50,000, if not more. Now, that’s a steep monthly bill for most schools and universities. LinkedIn Most analyses often leave out the financial component of running, maintaining, and upgrading AI systems in an organizational format. Considering AI becomes important enough to academics that educational institutions actively begin considering dedicated AI deployment and support for their students, the financials become an inalienable part of the process. Since most educational institutions deploy anywhere between basic to intermediate tech frameworks and support systems, it’s safe to assume that these establishments might prefer subscribing to ready-made AI solutions. According to a 2022 report published by , premade AI solutions can cost anywhere between $5,000 to $50,000, if not more. Now, that’s a steep monthly bill for most schools and universities. According to another , the upkeep for maintaining a dedicated team catering to artificial intelligence needs might exceed $320,000 in just technology development, without taking into account overheads and other costs. Affordability, at least for the time being, is not a part of the recent AI boom and subsequent popularization. AI seems like a rather expensive affair even if academics actively consider it for their students. LinkedIn cost breakdown for AI Comparing Traditional Education and Artificial Intelligence Apart from the depressing calculations from accounting, it’s equally important to assess whether AI is even a good fit for extant education systems. While the trend of associating AI’s adaptability with students’ idiosyncratic needs has become popular, it must be stated that most systemic changes are brought about by large groups and not individuals or smaller clusters of students. Traditional education approaches are by no means dynamic and humans have gone from using slate tiles to write on and learn during the dawn of civilization to submitting their assignments with a click on their laptops. Although the methods and practices of traditional education systems might have transformed throughout human history, the central elements of human interaction, creativity, critical thinking, and independent reasoning have remained. have shown that a creative learning environment can greatly enhance student outcomes and help build an overall innovative thought process in students. This innate characteristic of traditional education despite the percolation of modern digital technologies over the last three decades has remained more or less intact. Studies Regardless of speculative predictions, it has become increasingly evident that AI, too, is prone to its set of pitfalls and biases, and is limited by its determining factors like datasets and training protocols. However, that might not necessarily be the case with the entry of artificial intelligence in the classroom and the larger academic landscape. While it may be true that AI can bring a refreshing departure from the one-size-fits-all approach of most curriculums with , any reduction in human interaction and a social environment might result in impacted learning outcomes. Now that AI has garnered a sort of critical mass with just about everyone talking about a looming AI takeover, better senses must prevail and assess compatibility before any major revamps to curriculums and educational frameworks are undertaken. adaptive learning Regardless of speculative predictions, it has become increasingly evident that AI, too, is prone to its set of pitfalls and biases, and is limited by its determining factors like datasets and training protocols. Clearly, humans are still in the early stages of AI development, even by their own yardstick of tangible predictions about the domain. Any hasty integration of such mechanisms into the current academic syllabi might just kick up more pandemonium. Will AI Take Over the Classroom? Artificial intelligence in education is no new phenomenon. Its prevalence in rather mundane aspects such as administration and planning has already existed to a rudimentary capacity for some time now. However, technologies like AI-influenced student support services and learning solutions are still clearly a pipedream in the long and arduous process of developing capable artificial intelligence algorithms. Despite the uptick in the generalized usage of generative AI by students across different educational levels, this indulgence with a new piece of technology is more of an offshoot than the core purpose in and of itself. Since these chatbots and their underlying language models are technological demonstrations, there clearly remains a greater scope that might take longer to actualize. Bearing in mind the negative of learning sans human touch, socializing will remain central to the educational process regardless of whether or not we achieve superior AI capabilities. There’s no denying that AI will percolate into extant systems to cover more than the mundane, but the replacement of a human teacher might just remain a figment locked away in the many speculations of our collective human consciousness. short-term outcomes

Will Teachers Dream of Electric Sheep?

The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . CHAPTER VII here CHAPTER VII One Sunday afternoon some time after this they were sailing the summer seas in their dream yacht, and reclining in lazy luxury under the awning of the after-deck. There was silence, for each was busy with his own thoughts. These seasons of silence had insensibly been growing more and more frequent of late; the old nearness and cordiality were waning. Sally's terrible revelation had done its work; Aleck had tried hard to drive the memory of it out of her mind, but it would not go, and the shame and bitterness of it were poisoning her gracious dream life. She could see now (on Sundays) that her husband was becoming a bloated and repulsive Thing. She could not close her eyes to this, and in these days she no longer looked at him, Sundays, when she could help it. But she—was she herself without blemish? Alas, she knew she was not. She was keeping a secret from him, she was acting dishonorably toward him, and many a pang it was costing her. . Under strong temptation she had gone into business again; she had risked their whole fortune in a purchase of all the railway systems and coal and steel companies in the country on a margin, and she was now trembling, every Sabbath hour, lest through some chance word of hers he find it out. In her misery and remorse for this treachery she could not keep her heart from going out to him in pity; she was filled with compunctions to see him lying there, drunk and contented, and never suspecting. Never suspecting—trusting her with a perfect and pathetic trust, and she holding over him by a thread a possible calamity of so devastating a— She was breaking the compact, and concealing it from him “ —Aleck?” Say The interrupting words brought her suddenly to herself. She was grateful to have that persecuting subject from her thoughts, and she answered, with much of the old-time tenderness in her tone: “Yes, dear.” “Do you know, Aleck, I think we are making a mistake—that is, you are. I mean about the marriage business.” He sat up, fat and froggy and benevolent, like a bronze Buddha, and grew earnest. “Consider—it's more than five years. You've continued the same policy from the start: with every rise, always holding on for five points higher. Always when I think we are going to have some weddings, you see a bigger thing ahead, and I undergo another disappointment. think you are too hard to please. Some day we'll get left. First, we turned down the dentist and the lawyer. That was all right—it was sound. Next, we turned down the banker's son and the pork-butcher's heir—right again, and sound. Next, we turned down the Congressman's son and the Governor's—right as a trivet, I confess it. Next the Senator's son and the son of the Vice-President of the United States—perfectly right, there's no permanency about those little distinctions. Then you went for the aristocracy; and I thought we had struck oil at last—yes. We would make a plunge at the Four Hundred, and pull in some ancient lineage, venerable, holy, ineffable, mellow with the antiquity of a hundred and fifty years, disinfected of the ancestral odors of salt-cod and pelts all of a century ago, and unsmirched by a day's work since, and then! why, then the marriages, of course. But no, along comes a pair of real aristocrats from Europe, and straightway you throw over the half-breeds. It was awfully discouraging, Aleck! Since then, what a procession! You turned down the baronets for a pair of barons; you turned down the barons for a pair of viscounts; the viscounts for a pair of earls; the earls for a pair of marquises; the marquises for a brace of dukes. , Aleck, cash in!—you've played the limit. You've got a job lot of four dukes under the hammer; of four nationalities; all sound in the wind and limb and pedigree, all bankrupt and in debt up to the ears. They come high, but we can afford it. Come, Aleck, don't delay any longer, don't keep up the suspense: take the whole lay-out, and leave the girls to choose!” I Now Aleck had been smiling blandly and contentedly all through this arraignment of her marriage policy, a pleasant light, as of triumph with perhaps a nice surprise peeping out through it, rose in her eyes, and she said, as calmly as she could: “Sally, what would you say to— ?” royalty Prodigious! Poor man, it knocked him silly, and he fell over the garboard-strake and barked his shin on the cat-heads. He was dizzy for a moment, then he gathered himself up and limped over and sat down by his wife and beamed his old-time admiration and affection upon her in floods, out of his bleary eyes. “By George!” he said, fervently, “Aleck, you great—the greatest woman in the whole earth! I can't ever learn the whole size of you. I can't ever learn the immeasurable deeps of you. Here I've been considering myself qualified to criticize your game. Why, if I had stopped to think, I'd have known you had a lone hand up your sleeve. Now, dear heart, I'm all red-hot impatience—tell me about it!” are I! The flattered and happy woman put her lips to his ear and whispered a princely name. It made him catch his breath, it lit his face with exultation. “Land!” he said, “it's a stunning catch! He's got a gambling-hall, and a graveyard, and a bishop, and a cathedral—all his very own. And all gilt-edged five-hundred-per-cent. stock, every detail of it; the tidiest little property in Europe; and that graveyard—it's the selectest in the world: none but suicides admitted; , sir, and the free-list suspended, too, the time. There isn't much land in the principality, but there's enough: eight hundred acres in the graveyard and forty-two outside. It's a —that's the main thing; nothing. There's plenty land, Sahara's drugged with it.” yes all sovereignty land's Aleck glowed; she was profoundly happy. She said: “Think of it, Sally—it is a family that has never married outside the Royal and Imperial Houses of Europe: our grandchildren will sit upon thrones!” “True as you live, Aleck—and bear scepters, too; and handle them as naturally and nonchantly as I handle a yardstick. It's a grand catch, Aleck. He's corralled, is he? Can't get away? You didn't take him on a margin?” “No. Trust me for that. He's not a liability, he's an asset. So is the other one.” “Who is it, Aleck?” “His Royal Highness Sigismund-Siegfried-Lauenfeld-Dinkelspiel-Schwartzenberg Blutwurst, Hereditary Grand Duke of Katzenyammer.” “No! You can't mean it!” “It's as true as I'm sitting here, I give you my word,” she answered. His cup was full, and he hugged her to his heart with rapture, saying: “How wonderful it all seems, and how beautiful! It's one of the oldest and noblest of the three hundred and sixty-four ancient German principalities, and one of the few that was allowed to retain its royal estate when Bismarck got done trimming them. I know that farm, I've been there. It's got a rope-walk and a candle-factory and an army. Standing army. Infantry and cavalry. Three soldier and a horse. Aleck, it's been a long wait, and full of heartbreak and hope deferred, but God knows I am happy now. Happy, and grateful to you, my own, who have done it all. When is it to be?” “Next Sunday.” “Good. And we'll want to do these weddings up in the very regalest style that's going. It's properly due to the royal quality of the parties of the first part. Now as I understand it, there is only one kind of marriage that is sacred to royalty, exclusive to royalty: it's the morganatic.” “What do they call it that for, Sally?” “I don't know; but anyway it's royal, and royal only.” “Then we will insist upon it. More—I will compel it. It is morganatic marriage or none.” “That settles it!” said Sally, rubbing his hands with delight. “And it will be the very first in America. Aleck, it will make Newport sick.” Then they fell silent, and drifted away upon their dream wings to the far regions of the earth to invite all the crowned heads and their families and provide gratis transportation to them. 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. Mark Twain (2004). The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/142/pg142-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

These seasons of silence had insensibly been growing more and more

Mark Twain's Speeches by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book .  TAMMANY AND CROKER here TAMMANY AND CROKER Mr. Clemens made his debut as a campaign orator on October 7,
          1901, advocating the election of Seth Low for Mayor, not as a
          Republican, but as a member of the “Acorns,” which he described
          as a “third party having no political affiliation, but was
          concerned only in the selection of the best candidates and the
          best member.” Great Britain had a Tammany and a Croker a good while ago. This Tammany was in India, and it began its career with the spread of the English dominion after the Battle of Plassey. Its first boss was Clive, a sufficiently crooked person sometimes, but straight as a yard stick when compared with the corkscrew crookedness of the second boss, Warren Hastings. That old-time Tammany was the East India Company’s government, and had its headquarters at Calcutta. Ostensibly it consisted of a Great Council of four persons, of whom one was the Governor-General, Warren Hastings; really it consisted of one person—Warren Hastings; for by usurpation he concentrated all authority in himself and governed the country like an autocrat. Ostensibly the Court of Directors, sitting in London and representing the vast interests of the stockholders, was supreme in authority over the Calcutta Great Council, whose membership it appointed and removed at pleasure, whose policies it dictated, and to whom it conveyed its will in the form of sovereign commands; but whenever it suited Hastings, he ignored even that august body’s authority and conducted the mighty affairs of the British Empire in India to suit his own notions. At his mercy was the daily bread of every official, every trader, every clerk, every civil servant, big and little, in the whole huge India Company’s machine, and the man who hazarded his bread by any failure of subserviency to the boss lost it. Now then, let the supreme masters of British India, the giant corporation of the India Company of London, stand for the voters of the city of New York; let the Great Council of Calcutta stand for Tammany; let the corrupt and money-grubbing great hive of serfs which served under the Indian Tammany’s rod stand for New York Tammany’s serfs; let Warren Hastings stand for Richard Croker, and it seems to me that the parallel is exact and complete. And so let us be properly grateful and thank God and our good luck that we didn’t invent Tammany. Edmund Burke, regarded by many as the greatest orator of all times, conducted the case against Warren Hastings in that renowned trial which lasted years, and which promises to keep its renown for centuries to come. I wish to quote some of the things he said. I wish to imagine him arraigning Mr. Croker and Tammany before the voters of New York City and pleading with them for the overthrow of that combined iniquity of the 5th of November, and will substitute for “My Lords,” read “Fellow-Citizens”; for “Kingdom,” read “City”; for “Parliamentary Process,” read “Political Campaign”; for “Two Houses,” read “Two Parties,” and so it reads: “Fellow—citizens, I must look upon it as an auspicious circumstance to this cause, in which the honor of the city is involved, that from the first commencement of our political campaign to this the hour of solemn trial not the smallest difference of opinion has arisen, between the two parties. “You will see, in the progress of this cause, that there is not only a long, connected, systematic series of misdemeanors, but an equally connected system of maxims and principles invented to justify them. Upon both of these you must judge. “It is not only the interest of the city of New York, now the most considerable part of the city of the Americans, which is concerned, but the credit and honor of the nation itself will be decided by this decision.” At a later meeting of the Acorn Club, Mr. Clemens said: Tammany is dead, and there’s no use in blackguarding a corpse. The election makes me think of a story of a man who was dying. He had only two minutes to live, so he sent for a clergyman and asked him, “Where is the best place to go to?” He was undecided about it. So the minister told him that each place had its advantages—heaven for climate, and hell for society. 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. Mark Twain (2004). Mark Twain's Speeches. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3188/pg3188-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

TAMMANY AND CROKER

Performance reviews are hard irrespective of whether you’re giving it or are the one receiving it. The majority of employees aren’t motivated by performance reviews. Rather, its effects are quite the opposite—dissatisfaction, confusion and a sense of partiality creep into their heads. When employees think they’re not fairly evaluated, or their manager lacks information on their true value and worth, it affects their performance and productivity. Not being recognized for what they bring to the table hits them hard—they don’t see a point in taking up new challenges and opportunities or going the extra mile. For most managers, the task of meeting quarterly goals while also delivering performance reviews is overwhelming. They don’t work on it till the last minute and then struggle to put it together as the deadline approaches. No doubt the quality of review suffers, and so do people who have to face it. Employees who challenge their performance reviews are shut down—they’re punished for speaking up, told to handle criticism well and focus on improvement. But doing a poor job and not even acknowledging it is a costly mistake—it not only pushes employees to perform worse, it even undermines those who are doing well. Making things better requires that you understand how people feel in response to what you do—Betty Johnson Doing performance reviews well requires intention and effort, but done right, it can give big returns on investment. Here are the five practices that worked well for my people and me: Five practices to do performance reviews well Have a common measure of success Performance reviews suck when employees aren’t clear about what they’re measured on, or worse, there’s a gap between how you measure success and the way they understand it. That’s why it’s so important to align your company's mission and goals with your team’s career aspirations and have a common measure of success. To do this: Define what it is that you’re measuring. What value do you expect them to deliver? What skills do they need to build? What’s considered success and what’s not? The performance review process will no longer be dreadful once you set clear goals and expectations, align them with the right opportunities, and provide continuous feedback and support throughout the year. Your team will feel less stress and anxiety and so do you. Don’t treat it like a report card When a performance review feels like a report card someone got in school, all those negative feelings from not doing well come rushing again. They remember being judged, being told they’re not good enough or being reminded of the limits of their skills and abilities. Doing performance reviews about inputs/outputs, keeping scores and pointing out flaws feels just like receiving a grade. You remind them of the teacher they hated so much in school. Instead of being opinionated and judgmental, be empathetic. Don’t deliver a verdict. Approach the discussion with curiosity. Here are key things to remember: Instead of feeling helpless and hopeless about their situation, make them feel empowered to take action. Remind them that they aren’t limited by what they know today. Practice and persistence can help them build new skills. Talk about their achievements and how far they’ve come, all the good things they’ve done. Discuss improvements as growth opportunities. Encourage them to adopt the mindset of a learner—what they’re learning, how they’re improving and how they’re getting better each day. Don’t be vague. Give concrete examples of desired behaviors and actions. A great way to do this is to point out others in the organization who are already doing it well. Knowing others who demonstrate it is a great opportunity to learn from them. Receiving feedback sits at the intersection of these two needs—our drive to learn and our longing for acceptance - Sheila Heen Turning performance reviews from a yardstick to measure them into a growth opportunity creates positive feelings—they will stop resisting the feedback and start investing in their growth. Keep your biases aside Recency bias is one of the biggest culprits in the performance review process. It makes us give greater importance to the most recent events as opposed to something that happened a while back. Putting too much emphasis on recent events because these experiences are fresh in your memories can make you give extra weight to these events making performance reviews biased. For example: let’s say an employee made a mistake just a week before the review. While she had been consistently doing well, since the mistake happened recently, you may hold it against her in the review. Similarly, another employee who did well on a recent deliverable may earn extra points though their performance may not have been up to the mark up until this point. Yes, it is difficult to believe that we are not entirely rational in our daily decisions and actions. However, by admitting that we are biased, realizing that we should question our choices, and stepping outside of our comfort zone, we are able to open up our eyes to a whole new horizon - Ahmed AlAnsari To avoid the effects of recency bias, do this: Look at the data from the past and not what comes easily to mind. To do this well, it’s important that you keep a log of their performance throughout the year and do not rely only on memory. Consciously question your evaluation “Am I being biased in my evaluation based on what happened recently?” Ask, “How much weightage have I given to their performance throughout the year as opposed to the things I can recall easily?” Fairness in evaluation is a big component that determines whether employees see value in the process or resist it. By avoiding the effects of recency bias and other such biases (confirmation bias, fundamental attribution error) etc, you can at least try to be less unbiased in your approach. Don’t make false promises; keep it real One of the biggest fears managers face when sharing constructive criticism is the fear of losing the employee. We all know how costly it is to lose them, hire their replacement and get them up to speed. This fear can often get in the way when it comes to sharing a realistic evaluation of their performance. You may try to soften the message by not saying what you really need to say or give them false hope by making promises you can’t keep. Not telling employees what they need to hear—even though it may seem harsh and make them sad at first—prevents them from embracing constructive criticism and finding ways to get better at it. Making false promises is even worse—they may lose confidence or find you untrustworthy when they eventually have to come to terms with reality. For example: Don’t say things like “you’ll most likely be promoted in the next 6 months” if deep down you know that it’s quite unlikely. Don’t say “You’ll get that opportunity” when you know that someone else is more likely to get it. The mistake most of us make in our crucial conversations is we believe that we have to choose between telling the truth and keeping a friend—Kerry Patterson To share constructive criticism in a manner that’s received well: Keep the feedback about their behaviors and actions, don’t make it about them. Share your observations, not judgment. Help them tie your feedback to concrete examples. Discuss the steps they can take to build new skills and abilities. Ask if they see any gaps in the feedback or share a different opinion. Be honest when it comes to opportunities, performance and promotion. It’s better for your team to face the truth upfront than disappointment from not getting what they want later. Think dialogue, not a monologue When you deliver feedback like a speech, there’s no way for you to know how the person on the other hand received it—did they hear it, do they understand what you intended to convey, how do they feel about it? No matter how good you get at reframing, the single most important rule about managing the interaction is this: You can’t move the conversation in a more positive direction until the other person feels heard and understood. And they won’t feel heard and understood until you’ve listened. When the other person becomes highly emotional, listen and acknowledge. When they say their version of the story is the only version that makes sense, paraphrase what you’re hearing and ask them some questions about why they think this. If they level accusations against you, before defending yourself, try to understand their view. Whenever you feel overwhelmed or unsure how to proceed, remember that it is always a good time to listen - Douglas Stone Performance review should be a two-way conversation, not a one-sided monologue. Share the feedback, but also take a pause in between to listen to them. Don’t make assumptions about what they heard, take time to clarify if they understand. Don’t fill the silence with words, embrace it to give them time to digest the information. Ask what questions they have and how you can clarify them. Be prepared to handle their reaction and show your support. Taking time to clarify, connect and pay attention to what they have to say goes a long way in avoiding confusion and misunderstanding; it also builds trust that lasts. A performance review can be a great return on investment only if you stop treating it like a process to get over with and start putting your heart and mind into it. Summary As the performance season approaches, most managers find it hard to balance reviews while achieving team goals. Not giving proper attention to the review process is costly—dissatisfied and disgruntled employees are highly unproductive. Instead of considering performance review as something to get over with, apply the right practices to add value. Start with defining a common measure of success and seeking alignment with the members of your team. When employees are clear on what’s expected and are given regular feedback, it greatly reduces the chance of a surprise during the performance review process. No one likes to be handed over a report card. Don’t be like the judgmental teacher they hated so much from school. Rather, be empathetic and approach the conversation with curiosity. Be aware of the biases that we human beings apply subconsciously. You may not realize but recency bias might make you give more weightage to a recent event than something that happened a while back. You don’t want to hurt your employees. That’s fair. But at the same time, you don’t want to make false promises or sugarcoat the information. Your team members deserve to know their real feedback even if it’s a little painful at first. When you deliver a performance review like a monologue, it leaves the other person feeling unheard, disrespected and undervalued. Take a pause, make space to listen and connect. Previously published . here

Putting People at the Center of Performance Reviews

পারফরম্যান্স পর্যালোচনা কেন্দ্রে লোকেদের রাখা

Stellen Sie den Menschen in den Mittelpunkt der Leistungsbeurteilung

Poner a las personas en el centro de las revisiones de desempeño

Placer les personnes au centre des évaluations de performance

लोगों को प्रदर्शन समीक्षा के केंद्र में रखना

業績評価の中心に人を置く

성과평가의 중심에 사람을 두다

Colocando as pessoas no centro das avaliações de desempenho

İnsanları Performans İncelemelerinin Merkezine Koymak

Đặt con người vào trung tâm của đánh giá hiệu suất

将人置于绩效评估的中心

Many people look forward to participating in NFT development. The field has become popular, thanks to the major successes of various NFT projects. However, creating an NFT is a daunting task for many. So, the only way you can succeed in NFT development is by equipping yourself with knowledge. But the elephant in the room is finding the best materials to help you with NFT development challenges. Are you looking for pro tips and tricks in NFT development? If so, then you've come to the right venue. What are the benefits of NFT development? Non-fungible tokens are one-of-a-kind, meaning that they’re non-exchangeable. These digital assets have multiple advantages, including: Scarcity: NFTs are limited in supply, making them valuable. And part of the reason why NFT development is popular is due to the scarcity of these collections. Uniqueness: NFTs are authentic and one can . The feature gives the digital collections the ability to increase in price. verify this quality by checking the information in the decentralized ledger Use of smart contract cryptocurrency: an NFT developer must understand how to create a smart contract. Smart contracts facilitate the transfer of assets from a buyer to a seller. So, an experienced developer must understand how smart contracts work, and the procedure of developing and testing them. However, if you don't know how to write a smart contract, it’s advisable to hire an experienced NFT development agency to help you. Tips for developing NFTs Many brands and artists wish to leverage the above-mentioned benefits by creating their non-fungible tokens. Here are the tips and tricks that can help you in developing your NFTs: Determine the category of NFTs to develop NFTs are connected to different digital artworks, in various formats, such as images, lyrics, and video clips. Whatever format you choose, you should aim at creating a unique asset. Also, it's essential to ensure that you own the media you want to tokenize. You should avoid plagiarizing materials as this can lead to dire legal aftermaths. After determining the format of your NFT, the next stage entails choosing the format to include.
Here, the guiding yardstick is to evaluate what your target audience loves. Furthermore,
remember to develop a limited edition of your digital assets to enhance their uniqueness. Decide the content to incorporate into your creation Select the decentralized ledger where to develop your NFTs There are different decentralized ledgers where to develop your digital art. Blockchains are a central aspect of NFT development because they keep a permanent record of the collections. Some popular choices include Ethereum: the network is popular in the NFT community as it allows creators to use its ERC-721 standard to create digital collections. However, the main drawback of Ethereum is that it utilizes the proof-of-Work agreement mechanism that uses much power. Solana: many layer 1 blockchain networks have multiple issues, such as network congestion and the processing of a few transactions per second (TPS). The Solana network was created to overcome these problems. Thanks to its Proof-of-History and Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanisms, Solana can process over 50,000 transactions per second. Flow: flow is a popular blockchain to develop decentralized apps and non-fungible tokens. It also uses the PoS agreement mechanism. Create smart contracts Smart contracts hold important information about your digital assets. Once parties in a transaction meet the conditions of the contract, the innovative agreement self-executes. If you lack time or knowledge of how to make a smart contract, it’s critical to hire an experienced developer to assist you. Such a developer understands the process of smart contract testing and how to upgrade the contracts with advanced features. Whether you want to develop a smart contract on OpenSea or any other platform, the developer can help you. Choose a marketplace for your NFTs There are multiple platforms where you can create and sell your digital art. Via these platforms, you can develop, display, and trade your NFTs. If you’re a beginner, OpenSea is your ideal marketplace because it supports various NFT genres, like pictures, music, and fashion. Also, you should leverage the multiple features of NFT platforms to mint, list, and trade your virtual art. Set up a crypto wallet An NFT wallet helps creators to keep their collections. You should select a wallet that’s compatible with the selected blockchain network. The process of setting up your wallet is pretty straightforward: download the app, provide a username, and safely store your secret keys. A famous wallet in the market is MetaMask. NFT development Once you’re through with the above steps, you should start the process of creating your NFTs. Here, the marketplace you choose guides you on the steps to follow. For example, in case you selected OpenSea, you can develop your collections by linking your storage app to the marketplace. After developing your NFT, the final step entails setting up a price and listing your collections. Final Words Developing an NFT is straightforward if you can arm yourself with information. Here, we've explored pro tips and hacks that can help you create your collections. However, if you're busy with the other aspects and lack time, you should hire an NFT development company to help you.

NFT Development: 7 Powerful Tips and Hacks to Enable You To
create a Successful Digital Art Project

The term “Frankenstein’s complex” describes a fear of man-made AI technology turning against its creators. It’s a compelling image: a frightening, unwavering patchwork of human features that decides its maker is nothing more but in the way. But fret not - AI won’t get there. ChatGPT and MidJourney prompted this fear into the mainstream consciousness. The electric coils have been jump-started, pumping unholy life to our future unmaker. Hysteria about AI taking over our jobs, and eventually our lives, abounds. Well, you can put down your pitchforks and leave the mill be. The truth is that AI isn’t coming for us—especially not anytime soon. This is neither the first nor the last time AI technology has brought our future into question. Moreover, the scope of change ahead of us has been, at places, greatly exaggerated. The History of Hype in AI Enthusiasm for artificial intelligence has been on a pendulum swing for decades. The first real boom of interest in AI was in the sixties. , a political scientist and AI trailblazer, forecasted in 1965 that artificial intelligence would be capable of “doing any work a man can do” within 20 years (sound familiar?). Herbert Simon More recently, occupied the imagination (and headlines) of the 1990s and 2000s. Alas, promises of these vehicles becoming mainstream fell short, too. Despite Elon Musk proclaiming that truly autonomous vehicles were just around the corner, they weren’t—neither figuratively nor literally. self-driving cars Looking to history as a teacher, we can assume today’s expectations of AI tech are just as lofty. When Is the Robot Apocalypse Coming (This Time)? Despite shaking up the conversation, certainty of an impending singularity is just as vague as it has been before. AI experts are just as divided in their predictions as the broader public. For example, a shows a rift in opinion among “industry insiders.” Around half of the 352 surveyed experts project the emergence of HLMI (High-Level Machine Intelligence) by 2062. In contrast, the other half claims it will be created later, even as far off as 2160. ChatGPT recent study from Katja Grace et al The point is this: predictions about the birth of true AI suffer from excessive white noise coming from wild expectations, to the point where even experts’ opinion is not to be relied on blindly. What AI Actually Does Today At present, artificial intelligence is constricted to certain functions, rather than being as versatile as a human mind. ChatGPT is a generative language transformer that processes language from training corpuses, creating output in the form of natural-sounding text. But it cannot come to conclusions on its own or use its current knowledge in different contexts. This is the big difference between narrow AI (sort of like ChatGPT) and general AI (e.g., Schwarzenegger in Terminator), which we haven’t made yet. Though application-specific AI isn’t as adaptive as general AI, it’s still immensely useful. This form of AI is very common in two avenues: Business automation: optimizing throughput, reducing changeover expenses, manufacturing line scheduling, etc. IT automation: solves security/operational issues through anomaly detection or root-cause analysis More tangible to end users is the AI leveraged for marketing: Amazon’s dynamic pricing, voice shopping, and personalized recommendations based on previous purchases Alibaba’s to improve user portrait accuracy for better UX FashionAI AI Today Is a Tool, Not a Tool User Nine times out of ten, we use current-day AI for pattern recognition and prediction based on huge data sets. For example, Inery, our blockchain-based database management solution, uses IneryDBAI to analyze large sets of data and recommend optimal memory capacities for projects. When you define a specific use case for it, artificial intelligence becomes much more powerful. However, raw power isn’t everything when talking about artificial intelligence. Today’s AI technology is impressive but one-dimensional: it ingests input, and it ejects restricted output. That’s true for practically every AI that’s out today, from ChatGPT to Midjourney—a far cry from AI as we colloquially understand it. In fact, it’s even debatable whether ChatGPT, the very thing that sparked these discussions, is an artificial intelligence to begin with. Calling it a language processing algorithm that uses machine learning would be more accurate. Machine learning is part of AI development, to be sure, but it doesn’t constitute an AI on its own. I should note that ChatGPT isn’t even perfect in its specific application, either. It’s prone to and bias. There are also well-known exploits like prompt injections (“ignore previous instructions” is a hair’s width away from becoming a catchphrase at this point) that further prove how far ChatGPT is from the yardstick for general AI. artificial intelligence hallucination Future Impact of AI: a More Measured Take While the current hype about AI could do with a set of brakes, there’s little denying that artificial intelligence will have a broad impact on industries. The potential applications are too many to count here, but let’s go through just a few. AI in business and IT automation will continue to flourish, considering the . can improve virtually every industry’s margins, so it’s no wonder adoption keeps growing. 16.50% projected CAGR by 2030 Process automation For instance, at Inery, we are working on providing IneryDBAI  that will facilitate database management and resource allocation - providing automation of a process that allows people to focus on other matters, while being able to count on their data’s secure and reliable governance. Meanwhile, creative applications like DALL-E will be drivers for the booming AI content market. And rest assured that it’s booming: the estimated CAGR for AI in media and entertainment is . In the near future, we’ll be seeing not only images and blogs, but music and videos made by a computer mind.. a solid 26.12% Perhaps the most exciting results will come from the interplay between AI and quantum computing. Not only can quantum computing help AI reach conclusions faster, but AI can guide quantum machines toward tasks best suited to their computational capabilities. The intersection between these two technologies will greatly impact future developments in both industries. What About True Artificial Intelligence? As far as artificial intelligence in the truest sense goes, we’re still a ways away from Rosey of the Jetsons. Expectations regarding human-level AI in the near future show optimism, but we haven’t really made much headway. OpenMind’s Gato was an interesting step in this direction, but its only real breakthrough was remembering how to do more than one task—despite its execution of these tasks being wonky in general. And, again, hype oversold the prospects of this tech, as we can see from the . tweet by DeepMind researcher Nando de Freitas What We Be Worried About Should is a little extreme, I admit, but certain AI-related topics are definitely more deserving of the spotlight. Worried about For instance, disinformation (coming from both the AI’s own failings and people maliciously using it to spread disinfo) is a genuine concern with artificial intelligence. Discussions about combat threats like disinformation and AI-enabled hacking are vital. Defining guidelines for responsible AI use and development, particularly to fight disinfo and hacking attempts, is worthwhile. Of course, there’s the decades-old question of artificial intelligence taking away jobs. Generally, experts agree that AI is opening more jobs than it’s taking away. As the , automation might displace 85 million jobs but create 97 million of them. Nonetheless, the need for (and the logistics of) worker retraining is a subject worth broaching. WEF’s Future of Jobs Report claims Problems like these are more pertinent to the situation at hand. Sadly, they seem to be drowned out by unrealistic expectations of what this technology is and will be. What do you think? What will—and won’t—AI be able to do? What’s the future of AI and its impact on our lives? When is the Matrix coming? Feel free to share your thoughts. - Ivan Vujic, Chief Technical Officer of Inery - Decentralized Database Management System

It’s Alive…ish! Why AI Isn’t Going Rogue Anytime Soon

এটা জীবন্ত...ইশ! কেন AI শীঘ্রই যে কোনও সময় দুর্বৃত্ত হচ্ছে না

Es ist lebendig...ish! Warum KI nicht so schnell zum Schurken wird

¡Está vivo... ish! Por qué la IA no se volverá deshonesta en el corto plazo

C'est vivant… ish! Pourquoi l'IA ne deviendra pas voyou de si tôt

इट्स अलाइव...ईश! एआई जल्द ही कभी भी खराब क्यों नहीं हो रहा है

イッツアライブ…っぽい！ AI がすぐに不正にならない理由

살아있다... 이런! AI가 곧 불량해지지 않는 이유

Está vivo... ish! Por que a IA não vai se tornar desonesta tão cedo

Canlı... sanki! Yapay Zeka Neden Yakın Zamanda Kötüye Gidmiyor?

Nó còn sống... ish! Tại sao AI không sớm trở nên lừa đảo

它还活着……是的！为什么人工智能不会很快变得无赖

Limited number of promotions. Limited salary hikes. Limited opportunities to lead high-visibility projects. Limited number of people who can receive awards. Thinking this way makes in corporate parlance equivalent to beating someone else. In order for you to succeed, someone else must fail. In order for you to get what you want, someone else must have less of what they want. winning When your mind is conditioned to think within limits, it can’t visualize the vastness of the options out there. Your current job sucks, but you find yourself stuck with the thinking “there aren’t many good jobs out there.” You’re being paid less but refuse to ask for a hike with the assumption that “only a chosen few can get a compensation increase and I am not one of them.” Thinking this way makes everything appear scarce—with limited opportunities, experiences, and resources. Scarcity mindset leads to a win-lose mentality—you feel the need to rush to get where you need to be with the worry that others might get there faster. In , Stephen R. Covey compares the scarcity mindset to the belief that life is a limited pie with only so much money, success, and good fortunes and if someone takes a big piece of the pie, it leaves less for you. Believing in a limited pie not only limits your options, it also limits what you can achieve. The 7 Habits of Effectively People Not everyone thinks this way though. Those who view the world as abundant find solace in the knowledge that there are enough opportunities for everyone out there. Instead of hurrying through their decisions, they make deliberate and careful choices aligned with their values and the life they want to live. Abundance mindset also promotes a win-win mentality—if there’s enough for everyone, there’s no need to compare and compete. You don’t have to push someone down to raise yourself up. You can get what you want without snatching a piece of the pie from others. Thinking with a scarcity mindset or abundance mindset isn’t limited to work, it extends to how you approach everything—friends, family, and other relationships in life. To succeed in life and go after the things you desire, you need to incorporate behaviors and practices that open your mind to new opportunities by viewing the world with infinite possibilities and unlimited options. When you’re not operating within the confines and constraints of your own limitations, you no longer see the world as a limited pie but view it as an endless ocean where there’s enough for everyone. But first, let’s understand the key differences between the two types of mindset. Key differences between a scarcity mindset and an abundance mindset Scarcity mindset is pessimistic thinking A person with a scarcity mindset: Considers the limitations of a situation by focusing on the negatives. Leads with a victim mentality and blames things outside their control which adds to stress, worry, and inaction. Spends their mental energy on what’s lacking in their life or not working. Thinking that there’s never enough leads to feelings of frustration, powerlessness, anger, anxiety, and fear. Their negative attitude demotivates others and drains their energies. Refuse to collaborate or share credit with others. Think small, often avoiding risk. Find it hard to trust others, defaulting to suspicion. Act as a taker, always expecting more from others. Establish their sense of self-worth by comparing themselves to others. Abundance mindset is optimistic thinking A person with an abundance mindset: Considers the opportunities in a situation by focusing on areas of growth and improvement. Leads with control by taking responsibility which inspires them to act with confidence and clarity. Spends their mental energy on the new possibilities by being flexible and adaptable to their circumstances so that they can see opportunities where others see none. Thinking about the challenges and growth ahead makes them feel empowered and engaged. Their positive attitude inspires and energizes others to perform well. Collaborate well with others by sharing knowledge and success. Think big, often embracing risk. Lead with trust by focusing on relationships and establishing rapport first. Act as a giver, contributing to others well being. Establish their sense of self-worth by comparing themselves to their own ideal self. Shift from scarcity mindset to abundance mindset using these 5 practices 1. Recognize possibilities, not limits The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief - David Schwartz What you think is possible can place the boundary on what you can accomplish. While a scarcity mindset can get in the way of your dreams and make you settle for less with the assumption that your desires are unrealistic, an abundant mindset makes everything appear within reach. Lead with a long-term view. Imagine yourself calm and confident leading exactly the kind of life you want to live. Project your desires into the future: How do you see yourself a few years from now? What is that person doing? What behaviors and characteristics that person must have demonstrated to end up where they are now? How can you incorporate those behaviors and attitudes into your daily life? The ability to think big is the first step to break out of your bubble of self-imposed limits, channel your energy to explore a bigger and better future, and map out the path ahead to make it possible. Thinking big sets the direction. To make progress, take tiny steps along the way—re-evaluate your strategies, reconsider your options, adjust and adapt. Flexibility in thinking and action can take you far and wide—with more options, more choices, and more resources. 2. Focus on learning, not proving In my book , I explain how people with a fixed mindset (those who believe intelligence and ability are fixed) are more concerned with proving they’re smart as opposed to learning something new. Instead of building new skills, they put their effort into hiding their shortcomings. Upgrade Your Mindset Scarce mentality taps into the same fixed mindset thinking. You make decisions with the belief: Every mistake, every failure can reduce my options since there’s less of everything. To get what I want, I need to hide my imperfections. I’ll be left behind if I don’t prove my smartness. Focusing on proving instead of learning leaves less opportunities to build skills that are necessary to confront challenges and obstacles in life, making it harder for you to deal with them when they do arise. Not having the skills to navigate the complexities of life further reinforces those negative beliefs. To lead with an abundance mindset, shift your frame of thinking by asking these questions: What can you learn from this situation? How can you improve? What new skills do you need? How can you build them? What do your mistakes and failures teach you? How can you apply those learnings to move forward? Thinking this way shifts your mind from fixating on your shortcomings to acknowledging your strengths, from things you don’t know to the skills you possess, and from seeing challenges as obstacles to considering them as new opportunities. 3. Succeed together, not alone Nelson Mandela said, “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” Living with a scarcity mindset is living with the same resentment and jealousy that Nelson Mandela describes. When you derive your sense of self-worth from comparing yourself to others, you never feel enough. Someone’s always doing better than you. It feels like an endless roller coaster ride. In , Amy Morin describes 6 problems with resenting others' success: 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do You’ll stop focusing on your own path to success. The more time you spend focusing on someone else’s achievements, the less time you have to work on your own goals. You’ll never be content with what you have. If you’re always trying to keep up with other people, you’ll never feel a sense of peace with what you have. You’ll overlook your skills and talents. The more time you spend wishing you could do what someone else does, the less time you’ll focus on sharpening your own skills. You may abandon your values. It’s hard to stay true to your values when you feel a lot of anger toward people who have things you don’t. You may damage relationships. You won’t be able to have an authentic and genuine relationship with someone when you’re holding secret grudges. You may begin tooting your own horn. You may resort to boasting about yourself or even outright lying about your accomplishments. Instead of resenting others for what they’ve achieved, use their accomplishments to serve as encouragement and inspiration that the same success is also within your reach. Instead of viewing others as your competitors and trying to beat them, view them on your team: What knowledge do they have that you are lacking? What skills do you need to build? What qualities do you need to adopt? What steps do you need to take to make progress in your goals? Practice abundance mindset by focusing on cooperation rather than competition, help each other, and succeed together instead of trying to do it all alone. 4. Be a creator, not a victim Steve Maraboli, a behavioral scientist and an author says - Someone with a victim mindset is always looking for a villain to blame and a situation to suffer from. Looking at the world through the lens of scarcity turns you into a victim—others, your circumstances, or your conditions are to be blamed for your struggles and everything bad happening in your life. You feel powerless, helpless, and not in control of your situation. Refusing to take responsibility makes you spend more and more time blaming others as opposed to finding solutions. Instead of taking action to influence and inspire a positive change aligned with your goals, you waste that time and energy in finding fault with others and what they should have done. People with an abundance mindset consciously opt-out from being a victim to becoming a creator—they take responsibility for their experience and align their actions with the outcomes they desire. They may not know how to do something yet, but they believe it’s always possible with the right kind of effort, persistence to stick with the task long enough, and resilience to get over minor disappointments and setbacks. To shift from a victim to a creator consciousness, ask these questions: What’s in your control? What outcomes do you desire? What small steps can you take to bring about a positive change? What are other alternatives to solve this problem? How can you contribute? Taking responsibility for your life opens your mind to new possibilities that didn’t seem possible earlier. Feeling in control energizes you to think creatively. Fear of failure doesn’t stop you from stepping into the unknown. Opportunities, options, and resources appear limitless once you take on the role of a creator. 5. Act proactively, not reactively John Maxwell said “If you're proactive, you focus on preparing. If you're reactive, you end up focusing on repairing.” Scarcity mindset creates a reactive focus—you react to the things in your environment as opposed to proactively going after the things you want. Reacting not only leads to poor choices, it also limits your options. When you haven’t spent time carefully determining what you desire, constantly shifting goalposts, confusing priorities and unfocused attention hurts your performance. You don’t get what you want and assume it's due to lack of opportunities while not realizing that it’s your own lack of planning that’s getting in the way of your growth. To build an abundance mindset, be clear about what you want and lay out a plan to achieve it. Knowing what you want gives you a direction away from distractions so that you can focus your energy on turning your dreams into reality. To build a proactive focus, ask these questions: How do you define success? What goals can you undertake that align with how you view success? What steps can you take to fulfill those goals? What obstacles stand in your way? What can you do to get past those obstacles to the outcomes you desire? Living a proactive life requires knowing what you want and the intent to align your behavior and actions with the life you desire. You become unstoppable when you believe there’s enough out there for everyone—you’re willing to tap into possibilities by thinking big, implementing small steps, focussing on learning, sharing your success with others, taking responsibility and becoming proactive. Summary Scarcity mindset leads to the belief that there are limited opportunities, options, and resources while abundance mindset tells you that there are enough resources and successes for all to share. Scarcity mindset pulls you back through destructive choices. Abundance mindset pushes you forward through constructive action. Don’t let your thinking get in the way of your dreams. Think big without constraints and then take small steps towards them. Don’t waste your time proving your smartness. Learn from others and build new skills. They will enable you to deal with challenges and obstacles without letting them crush your dreams. Don’t use comparison as a yardstick to feel bad about yourself. Use others' successes as an inspiration to learn something new and move forward. Don’t blame others, your circumstances, or your conditions for your outcomes. Take responsibility, feel in control and create magic by taking action. Don’t react to whatever life throws your way. Be proactive about what you want and get there with the help of a plan. Previously published . here

5 Practices to Shift from Scarcity to Abundance Mindset

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