Wanna be creative? Get some sleep!

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One of the most interesting discoveries of neuroscience of the last 20 years is that when you acquire memories, they’re stored in temporary, fragile form, like cement. When you pour it, initially it’s soft, but when it dries and hardens, it becomes strong and durable. Memories are like that. They become hardened through a process of consolidation, which happens largely during sleep.

Memory consolidation actually transforms the memory, as well. It brings out details, hidden relationships. That can be the stuff of creativity and insight.

That’s why there are so many stories of people waking up in the middle of the night with a new idea or solution to a problem. Like Paul McCartney. He was awakened one morning with this melody in his head. It was the song, “Yesterday.” It just appeared to him. Sleep supercharges creativity.

Brigid Schulte writing in The Washington Post

The boy with the bread sandwich

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Norman Garmezy, a developmental psychologist and clinician at the University of Minnesota, met thousands of children in his four decades of research. But one boy in particular stuck with him. He was nine years old, with an alcoholic mother and an absent father. Each day, he would arrive at school with the exact same sandwich: two slices of bread with nothing in between. At home, there was no other food available, and no one to make any. Even so, Garmezy would later recall, the boy wanted to make sure that “no one would feel pity for him and no one would know the ineptitude of his mother.” Each day, without fail, he would walk in with a smile on his face and a “bread sandwich” tucked into his bag.

The boy with the bread sandwich was part of a special group of children. He belonged to a cohort of kids—the first of many—whom Garmezy would go on to identify as succeeding, even excelling, despite incredibly difficult circumstances. These were the children who exhibited a trait Garmezy would later identify as “resilience.”

If you are lucky enough to never experience any sort of adversity, we won’t know how resilient you are. It’s only when you’re faced with obstacles, stress, and other environmental threats that resilience, or the lack of it, emerges: Do you succumb or do you surmount?

Resilient children (have) what psychologists call an “internal locus of control”: they believed that they, and not their circumstances, affected their achievements. The resilient children saw themselves as the orchestrators of their own fates. In fact, on a scale that measured locus of control, they scored more than two standard deviations away from the standardization group. 

One of the central elements of resilience is perception: Do you conceptualize an event as traumatic, or as an opportunity to learn and grow?

Maria Konnikova writing in The New Yorker

Building on Sand

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When questioned about their religious creed, people who circle the wagons are usually afraid that what they profess might not be true. Seldom (if ever?) will you run across a 100% false belief system. There are scattered nuggets of truth in each one.

There are people in every religious, political, and philosophical system who simply accept the group’s views at face value. They grew up in it, gave in to social pressure, and joined. Perhaps they are unwilling to come to terms with the fact they have been walking on the wrong road. Admitting that you’ve invested yourself in something that’s been a waste of your time is not easy. Going back and starting over again is not very appealing.

Ultimately, it’s a choice about maintaining a comfort level or pursuing truth. If you surround yourself only with things and people who reinforce your belief system, you don't have to worry about your worldview being knocked out from under you (although circumstances have a way of eventually doing it). The choice ultimately becomes denying reality or reassessing cherished ideas on which we’ve built our lives. 

Stephen Goforth

99 photography tools

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Below are 22 tools I’ve had recommended. For the complete list of 99 photography tools click here.

Camera+
Photo app with lots of filters and strong HDR mode. Sets the standard when it comes to third party iPhone cameras.  $2.99.

Canva
Graphic design tools. Create social media graphics, headers, slides, flyers, photo collages, posters, and infographics using drag-and-drop. 60k templates. Clip-art library available or upload your own images. Share to social media from the app or download a jpg, PDF, etc. for posting. Free. $12 a month for more options.

Compressor
Compress image files less than 10 MB so they will download quicker. A slider allows you to compare the look of the original and the optimized version side by side. Free.

Creative Cloud Express
A single template-focused app (replacing Adobe Spark) that combines some of the best features from the Creative Cloud Suite for mobile and web. Quickly create everything from social media posts to promotional posters and videos with the easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. Drag all sorts of elements into your composition, from text, icons, shapes, free photos and fonts, music and other design elements. Assets from Photoshop and Illustrator can be utilized. Convert videos to GIFs and documents to PDFs. Great for non-professionals with little video editing experience, but not if you’re a pro looking for a full-featured video editor. Free version, three-month trial or $9.99 a month ($99.99 a year) for more templates, photos and fonts. Included in many Creative Cloud subscriptions. More info on plans here.

Darkroom
Iphone app with filters (or create your own filters), a curves tool for RGB channels, and an infinite history remembers all your edits so undo is easy. Edit photos without having to import them. Link your account to your Instagram account for easy upload. Free. $3 upgrade for curves.

Filmic pro
Powerful app for videography and photography. Lots of bells and whistles such as in-app stabilization. Possibly too much for the average person. Video explanation here. $14.99.

FilterStorm
Advanced mobile photo editing that can be sent by email, FTP, Dropbox, SFTP or export into social media. $3.99.

Getty Images
The most prestigious and the highest quality stock photography agency, Getty also offers video, music, and multimedia elements. Some of its images can be expensive to use and known to be protective of its property.

Google Reverse Image Search
Drag and drop or upload an image into this search engine to find where images originated from. Video explains it here.

Hipstamatic
Fact-checking photo editor. Can pick films, lenses, and flashes before taking your photos. Set shutter speed, shoot multi-exposed photos. $2.99 for the app but HipstaPacks for up to $4.99.

Hyperlapse
Instagram’s timelapse video. No audio option.

Instagram
Photo and video sharing app owned by Facebook.

Mojo
A great easy-to-use app for making professional vertical social stories to go on Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and Snapchat. Templates and fonts. More info here. Free. Pro version $9.99 a month.

Moment
Cases, lens, batteries, lights, gimbals, etc. to enhance photos and videos taken with a phone.

Pexels
Vast and well-organized, it is one of the best free stock images and video sites. High-quality images under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.

Pixlr
Browser-based and mobile photo editing. Pixlr Express is an option for making small changes when Photoshop is overkill. Pixlr Editor and Pixlr Pro is a step up for professional use. Free for basic tools, $5/month Pixlr Pro.

ProCamera
A great iPhone app for capturing, editing, and sharing high quality photos. Control over focus, exposure, white balance, and lighting. Compose shots or shoot HD and SD video. Tools can clutter the screen. The website offers a user manual and video tutorials. $14.99.

Shorthand
A visual storytelling tool used by major news outlets that allows users to combine text, images, and video. See exactly how a story will look as it is built. See examples created by the BBC here and here. Free trial then pricing starts at $150 a month.

Shutterstock
Royalty-free stock photos. With reverse image search, you can use drag a photo or illustration into search in order to find other images with a similar look and feel.

Snapseed
Google's Snapseed is a powerful mobile photo tool. Both auto edit and editing controls. Lots of filters and effects including text for adding captions. Both IOS and Android. Tips for using it are here. Free.

Unfold
App for iOS or Android for creating vertical montages of videos and photos. 25 free templates, dozens more as in-app purchases. A product of SquareSpace. More info here.

VSCO
Great start-to-finish photo/video app. Easy to use filters and helpful tutorials. Manual controls like focus lock, exposure lock, and white balance. Edit images and share them on social media. IOS. Here is a tutorial. Free version or $19.99 a year for 170 presets.

For the complete list of 99 photography tools click here

Why are religious people happier?

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There’s a lot of evidence that religious people, for example, are happier in a sense of life satisfaction and positive emotion in the moment. But is it the Christian who really believes in Jesus and reads the Bible? Or is it the Christian who goes to church, goes to the spaghetti suppers, donates to charity, participates in the volunteer stuff? Turns out, to the extent that you can disentangle those two, it seems to not be our beliefs but our actions that are driving the fact that religious people are happier. That’s critical because what it tells us is, if you can get yourself to do it — to meditate, to volunteer, to engage with social connection — you will be happier. It’s just much easier if you have a cultural apparatus around you. 

Yale cognitive scientist Laurie Santos, quoted in the New York Times

4 Free June Webinars: Nonprofit Journalism, Job Hunting, Fake News & Faith in Journalism

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Wed., June 8 – The Importance of Nonprofit Journalism in Today’s Democracy

What: Distinguished editors from several independent news outlets will talk about the future of nonprofit journalism, offer examples of its impact in reporting critical issues, and its importance to our sometimes fragile democracy particularly as it relates to the area along the I-10 corridor.

Who: Susan Goldberg, Arizona State professor and former Editor and Chief of National Geographic

Hannah Brown, Co-Founder & Editorial Director, The Marjorie

Robert Moore, Founder and CEO, El Paso Matters

Dianna M. Náñez, Executive Editor, Arizona Luminaria

Sara Solovitch, Editor, Searchlight

When: 10 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Ten Across (originating from ASU)

More info

 

Fri., June 10 - Facts in a Time of Fiction: Reporting the truth amid lies and disinformation

What: How misinformation and lies spread after the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, along with insights on how conspiracy theories grow.

Who: New York Times writer and author Elizabeth Williamson, whose critically-acclaimed book “Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth” offered on-the-ground reporting to trace a line from conspiracy theories around Sandy Hook to Jan. 6, 2021.

When: 11:30 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: National Press Club Journalism Institute

More info

Sat., June 11 - Refreshing Your Resume & Cover Letter for a Job Hunt

What: If you haven’t updated your resume lately, or if you aren’t getting the results you hope for, maybe your resume needs attention. We will provide useful tips on how to present your information and what to avoid.

Who: Elena Cabral, Assistant Dean, Academic Programs & Communications, Columbia Journalism School

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: National Association of Hispanic Journalists

More info

 

Fri., June 24 - Faith in Journalism: How news organizations can build trust with religious Americans

What: Topics include how journalists of faith navigate challenges from inside their newsrooms and from inside their faith communities; Whose faith is centered in coverage and whose is marginalized, mischaracterized, or misunderstood; Which best practices can help extend our community’s understanding of itself.

Who: Moderated by Julie Moos, the Institute’s Executive Director, Panelists include:

Dawn Araujo-Hawkins, vice president at Religion News Association

Alison Bethel, vice president of corps excellence at Report for America

Sarah Breger, editor at Moment Magazine

McKay Coppins, staff writer at The Atlantic

Aysha Khan, journalist and Harvard Divinity School student

Holly Meyer, religion news editor at The Associated Press

Bill Mitchell, publisher, CEO, and president at the National Catholic Reporter

Paul O’Donnell, editor-in-chief at Religion News Service

When: 11:30 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: National Press Club Journalism Institute

More info & Registration

When Work is like a Family

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When a business is presented as a family, its workers may feel pressure to pledge an unreasonable degree of loyalty to their employer, putting up with long hours, mistreatment, and the erosion of work-life boundaries, all in the spirit of harmony and a shared purpose. In other words, when a workplace resembles a family, it’s frequently for reasons that would make you want a different job.

Joe Pinsker, writing in The Atlantic

18 Articles about Writing Cover Letters

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Betting on Those We Love

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The year is 1995. Jeff Bezos launches an online bookstore out of his garage in his Bellevue, Washington. His parents sink a substantial portion of their life savings into the effort. "We weren't betting on the Internet," his mother would later say. "We were betting on Jeff." By the end of the decade, Jeff's parents were billionaires.

It doesn't always work out this way, but is betting on those we love ever a misplaced wager? There are many ways besides money that we can show them through our action we are on their side and are rooting for them.

24 Data Science Articles from May 2022

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Spark or Hadoop? Both Apache products can be used by data scientists but which is the better analytics tool? Here’s a comparison—along with which one will fit better based on your project focus

Fixing data lake errors can be time-consuming, and costly—here are some thoughts on standardized an autonomous validation approach to avoid the lake becoming a swamp

Interpol: in a couple of years expect state-developed cyber weapons to be available on the dark net  

Do you think Python is slow? Here’s a fast way to loop in Python

Looking for patterns in satellite image time series with python? Here’s a quick guide for handling time-varying imagery with open python libraries 

Can the new-and-improved Large Hadron Collider save particle physics?   

Want to run Python code in a browser? Soon you might be able to 

The AI Engineering Process: A guide to solving an AI problem

The challenges of organizing geospatial intelligence efficiently 

Making predictions outperforms smart teams of data scientists working on large data sets. Some examples of machine learning mistakes thanks to the narrow thinking of the humans that created them.

Some researchers claim we’re on the cusp of GoPro physics—where a camera can point at an event and an algorithm can identify the underlying physics equation

An in-depth look at Neural architecture search—the AutoML subfield aiming to replace manual designs

In an effort to enhance artificial intelligence & machine learning technologies military researchers are letting it be known they want more accurate processing of covariance information related to environmental variations and noise

Intelligence agencies are starting to coalesce around a set of common standards and data for using open source intelligence

A detailed explanation of handling satellite imagery in the format of .tiff files using Python.

A way to better understand road networks by measuring their spatial homogeneity using machine-learning tools like graph neural networks

The place where machine learning shines

A new deep learning technique shows promise to make robotics systems more stable in handling deformable objects

Small satellites: The implications for national security 

Ukraine may be a tipping point for developing intelligent weapons

Two main types of adversarial attacks in neural networks

It’s not just about gathering data—it’s telling compelling stories 

NGA to Leverage AI, ML for GEOINT Analysis at Scale 

From data scientist to … comedian?

Follow for a daily Data Science article

Plan to Adapt

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The primary message of (many career) books and countless others is to listen to your heart and follow your passion. Find your true north by filling out worksheets or engaging in deep, thoughtful introspection. Once you’ve got a mission in mind, these books urge, you’re supposed to develop a long-term plan for fulfilling it. You’re supposed to craft detailed, specific goals. You’re urged to figure out who you are and where you want to be in ten years, and then work backward to develop a roadmap for getting there.  

This philosophy has some serious strengths. It’s important to have worthy aspirations. If you are passionate about something, you’ll have fun, stay committed, and achieve more. It’s also right to invest for the long term: to find out whether you’re good at something and whether you like it, you need to stick with it for a meaningful amount of time.  

But it presumes a static world. You will change. The environment around you will change. Your allies and competitors will change. It’s unwise, no matter your stage of life, to try to pinpoint a single dream around which your existence revolves.  

Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha from The Startup of You

What you'll be like a decade from now

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Why do people get ill-advised tattoos, marry questionable partners, or make financial-planning decisions they come to regret? A new study suggests that part of the reason is that we aren’t very good at predicting how much we’re going to change in the future. We are prone to believe whatever we think and value now will hold true. Psychologist Daniel Gilbert led the study and says, “People really aren’t very good at knowing who they’re going to be and hence what they’re going to want a decade from now.” Gilbert tells LiveScience.com, “At every age we think we’re having the last laugh, and at every age we’re wrong.”

The Harvard University study survey of more than 19,000 people between the ages of 18 and 68. People act as if history shaped them and then ended, leaving them in their final form. The researchers call the effect “the end of history” illusion.

Younger people in the survey did not expect to change as much as their the elders changed within the same time frame. The researchers made an effort to make sure that the people in the survey were not just overestimating past change but rather underestimating future change by comparing the results to predictions made on another survey a decade ago.

Although we aren’t very good at predicting our future selves, most of us are able to see that our values, preferences and personalities are different from a decade ago. We just can’t predict how much change will come looking forward the same length of time.

We may be motivated by the desire to comfort ourselves. We tell ourselves that future change won’t be very dramatic. We know ourselves and the future is predictable. Our present selves are permanent, so this thinking goes.

Other studies show you are less likely to change the older you get, but you will still change more than you expect.

Gilbert offers this advice: Take care when making long-term decisions to include a “margin for escape”. If you are buying a ticket to see your favorite band in ten years, you might want to pause before buying a ticket.

But there is another side of the coin to consider before including a 10 year opt-out clause in your wedding vows: Research shows that when people feel they have the ability to change their minds, they're less happy with the choices they've made.

You can read more about the study in the journal Science.

Stephen Goforth

15 Career Advice Articles

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Frankl’s Decision: Meaning or Happiness?

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By 1941, Viktor Frankl’s theories had received international attention and he was working as the chief of neurology at Vienna's Rothschild Hospital, where he risked his life and career by making false diagnoses of mentally ill patients so that they would not, per Nazi orders, be euthanized.

That was the same year when he had a decision to make, a decision that would change his life. With his career on the rise and the threat of the Nazis looming over him, Frankl had applied for a visa to America, which he was granted in 1941. By then, the Nazis had already started rounding up the Jews and taking them away to concentration camps, focusing on the elderly first. Frankl knew that it would only be time before the Nazis came to take his parents away. He also knew that once they did, he had a responsibility to be there with his parents to help them through the trauma of adjusting to camp life. On the other hand, as a newly married man with his visa in hand, he was tempted to leave for America and flee to safety, where he could distinguish himself even further in his field.

As Anna S. Redsand recounts in her biography of Frankl, he was at a loss for what to do, so he set out for St. Stephan's Cathedral in Vienna to clear his head. Listening to the organ music, he repeatedly asked himself, "Should I leave my parents behind?... Should I say goodbye and leave them to their fate?" Where did his responsibility lie? He was looking for a "hint from heaven."

When he returned home, he found it. A piece of marble was lying on the table. His father explained that it was from the rubble of one of the nearby synagogues that the Nazis had destroyed. The marble contained the fragment of one of the Ten Commandments -- the one about honoring your father and your mother. With that, Frankl decided to stay in Vienna and forgo whatever opportunities for safety and career advancement awaited him in the United States. He decided to put aside his individual pursuits to serve his family and, later, other inmates in the camps.

The wisdom that Frankl derived from his experiences there, in the middle of unimaginable human suffering, is just as relevant now as it was then: “Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself — be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself — by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love — the more human he is.” 

Emily Esfahani Smith writing in The Atlantic