Ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Stephen Goforth
One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today. -Dale Carnegie
If we truely want to know, it sometimes means recognizing when we don't know. -David Dunning
Building a genuine relationship with another person depends on at least two abilities. The first is seeing the world from another person's perspective. The second ability is being able to think about how you can collaborate with and help the other person rather than thinking about what you can get.
We're not suggesting that you be so saintly that a self-interested thought never crosses your mind. What we're saying is that your first move should always be to help. A study on negotiation found that a key difference between skilled and average negotiators was the time spent searching for shared interests and asking questions of the other person.
Follow that model. Start with a friendly gesture and genuinely mean it. Dale Carnegie's classic book on relationships, despite all its wisdom, has the unfortunate title How to Win Friends and Influence People. This makes Carnegie widely misunderstood. You don't "win" a friend. A friend is not an asset you own; a friend is an ally, a collaborator. When you can tell that someone is attempting sincerity, it leaves you cold. It is like the feeling you have when someone calls you by your first name repeatedly in conversation.
Reid Hoffman, The Start-Up of You
Starting in 2015, many online media companies started “pivoting to video,” gutting their traditional newsrooms and spending large amounts of money to build video journalism operations from scratch. Part of the impetus for that pivot was metrics showing that audiences preferred video to text—metrics provided, in large part, by Facebook. In 2014, Facebook claimed that “Facebook has averaged more than 1 billion video views every day.” Those metrics turned out to be grossly inflated, by as much as 60 to 80 percent. Facebook and the like want more video to run ads in because it allows them to make more money. And by claiming that this is what "readers want," news media could be manipulated into creating more video.
Katharine Trendcosta & Mitch Stoltz writing for EFF
It is better to die well than to live badly. -Jan Hus (who was burned at the stake for heresy on July 6, 1415)
The common presumption is that you shift to Plan B when something isn’t working. That’s frequently the case but not always. What you’re doing now doesn’t have to be failing for it to make sense to shift.
Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha, The Startup of You
What are your values, goals, weaknesses?
What don't you like to do?
What work environment do you NOT like?
What's your passion for life and career?
Describe yourself.
Take deep breaths
Remember they want to find the right person, they want you to do well
Listen, eye contact, sit up straight, enthusiasm, confidence (sound authoritative)
-Behavior-specific skills (ex: tell me about the time..)
-Case-specific problems (ex: here a business case for you to work through..)
-Stress (more than one interviewer firing questions, i.e. let's see how you do under stress)
Where do you see the co in the next 5 years?
How would you describe the atmosphere here? (formal or informal, etc)
How does the company support work-life balance?
Are things handled differently for in-office and hybrid workers?
How does the company determine salary levels?
Reason last person left? How long was she in that position?
What did you like about the last person in this position?
How many times has it turned over in the last 5 years? (if a lot, ask why)
Who do I report to? Who would work under me?
What are my responsibilities?
Describe a typical day.
Do you have a written job description (get a copy)
What is the potential for promotion?
What is the greatest challenge I will face?
What problems might I face in the job?
How would you describe your management style?
How soon do you hope to make a decision?
Can I take a tour of the facilities?
Why is this position available?
Do you have any hesitancy in hiring me?
Health benefits booklet?
holidays and vacations?
Do you have any “employee resource groups” (erg)?
"Thank you for meeting with me."
Current research suggests that we can approach failure with different mindsets, specifically a “growth mindset” or “fixed mindset”:
· A fixed mindset holds the belief that we all possess specific skills and talents, and that no matter how much effort we apply, we can’t change that potential. Possession of a fixed mindset means any struggle or failure is attributed to one’s incapacity for growth.
· A growth mindset holds the belief that we all have unbounded potential for growth and evolution. It makes the simple act of trying enough to move things forward. Failure is simply a pitstop where you refuel your journey and redirect your approach.
The way you interpret failure determines whether or not you keep showing up and doing the work, or whether you shut down and give up.
It also impacts the risks and opportunities that we might take to achieve success. If you believe that there are not enough opportunities or resources out there for you, then taking a risk or making a mistake can feel like a big disappointment.
Jenny Wang writing in CNBC
Millennials are the loneliest generation. That’s the finding of a YouGov survey. Nearly a third of Millennials say they always or often feel lonely. More Millennials say they have no friends than any other generation, according to the survey (no best friends 30%, no close friends 27%, no friends 22%, and no acquaintances 25%).
Excessive social media use may be just one of the reasons some Americans are feeling isolated. The survey suggests shyness and a lack of hobbies contributes to the lack of friends.
Happiness is not enough to insure a fulfilling life. It is imperative to have courage, not merely happiness. To be fulfilling, happiness must derive from the courage that leads one to face stressful circumstances and to do the necessary hard work of transforming them from potential disasters into growth opportunities.
One particularly relevant study by my research team and me showed that hardiness was more effective than optimism (happiness) in helping people cope with stresses by growing through them, rather than stagnating. This showed how happiness, devoid of courage, can be laced with naive complacency.
Salvatore R. Maddi
Google Cloud expands Earth Engine to help businesses and governments
Comparing C++ to Python (with examples)
Can synthetic data help AI get quicker results —and be less discriminatory? Here comes the fake data
OpenAI says its latest AI has learned to play Minecraft
Overcoming overfitting a model in machine learning
How space debris threatens modern life
Ranking Pandas for Python, Dask & Datatable based on their performance
The basic process of handling satellite image data for geospatial deep learning
6 Types of “feature importance” — a useful (and yet slippery) machine learning concept
The remarkable story of deploying the satellite communication system Starlink in Ukraine
Creating a simple, interactive dashboard with Panel & Python
Wanted: artificial intelligence & machine autonomy algorithms for military command and control
A visual breakdown of threats to space-based services such as Starlink & GPS
Top YouTube channels for learning data science
Some basic data cleaning issues and possible solutions
Daily Data Science stories here.
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving. -Dale Carnegie
Impostor Syndrome Archetypes
According to Dr. Valerie Young, a leading expert on the subject of impostor syndrome, these feelings of self doubt are not one-size-fits-all. Here are the five different types of impostor syndrome:
#1 Expert - You expect to know everything and feel ashamed when you don't.
#2 Soloist - You believe work must be accomplished alone and refuse to take any credit if you received any kind of assistance.
#3 Natural Genius - You tell yourself that everything must be handled with ease, otherwise it's not "natural talent".
#4 Superperson - You feel you should be able to excel at every role you take on in your life.
#5 Perfectionist - You set impossibly high standards for yourself and beat yourself up when you don't reach them.
Understanding the different types of impostor syndrome is an important first step, as each manifestation requires a unique toolkit of solutions to help overcome this common psychological trap experienced by professionals.
Read about the strategies to combat each type here.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. -Helen Keller
Covid-19 hasn’t been just a viral pandemic, but also a pandemic of disinformation—what the World Health Organization calls an “infodemic.” Many scientists blame social media for the proliferation of Covid-related falsehoods, from the suggestion that Covid could be treated by drinking disinfectants to the insistence that masks don’t help prevent transmission. Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and other platforms have indeed propagated dangerous misinformation. However, social media is a symptom of the problem more than the cause. Misinformation and disinformation often start with scientists themselves.
Joelle Renstrom writing in OpenMind
Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display qualities which he does not possess, and to gain applause which he cannot keep. -Samuel Johnson
The ancient wisdom from Ecclesiastes that tells us that there is a time for living and dying. East and West have traditionally taken opposite positions in relation to this cycle. Eastern religions have traditionally embraced the letting-go that characterizes the ending aspect of the cycle. Western thought, on the other hand, has tried to get the most out of the other aspect of the cycle—the identifications, the embodiments, the actualizations that are associated with the transition phase of beginning again in a new cycle. This approach makes an ending into a breakdown and even a failure. To be fair, the East has its own one-sidedness too. It identifies with letting go and ending, and all the things that are produced by beginnings are dismissed as illusion. The letting go is no longer a dynamic process but a state of detachment.
William Bridges, The Way of Transition
Takeaways from The Radio Television Digital News Association’s annual survey of local TV and radio:
Programming
A new record of 1,116 TV stations aired local news—up 18 from last year’s all-time high.
Budgets
Just 16.3% of TV stations report budget increases while 29.3% report experiencing budget cuts.
Among TV news directors who do know their department’s profitability, 75.9% report a profit.
The percentage of radio news managers reporting their budgets decreased doubled to 18.2% over the previous year.
Salaries
Despite pandemic-related pay cuts, local television news salaries, on average, increased by 3.5%, or 2.1% after accounting for inflation.
TV salaries in markets 101-150 faired the best, with salaries for most positions increasing while in the top 25 markets, salaries for most positions fell.
Average and median starting TV news salaries both rose during 2021 to the highest staring salaries in the survey’s history.
Staffing
Full-time newsroom staffing fell 6.3% in 2021.
Digital staffing, on average, was up slightly, along with the roles of photographer, producer, editor and social media producer/editor.
Three times as many commercial radio news departments cut staff as added. Public radio stations, on the other hand, were four times more likely than commercial stations to grow.
Solo Journalists
The average newsroom has fewer solo journalists than last year while smaller markets overwhelmingly rely on MMJs, and mid-markets increasingly do, but few stations large market stations send reporters out alone.
MMJs and producers remain most in demand, representing about three-quarters of new TV news hires.
Innovations
More local TV newsrooms report producing virtual town halls, specials and longer-form or digital-exclusive content.
Social Media
Facebook is the most popular social media platform for local TV and radio news, with 94% of radio newsrooms and 100% of TV newsrooms reporting they used it.
Instagram is used by nearly every TV station and a third of radio newsrooms.
Twitter use among local news has been declining for several years, with most TV newsrooms using the platform, but less frequently.
Podcasts
The typical station, measured by median, has no podcasts and the average per station is less than one half.
The typical radio news department reporting zero podcasts.
Danger
1 in 5 television news directors reported attacks on employees.
More than half of attacks occurred during coverage of civil unrest, protests, marches/rallies or riots
Allow others to act out of dignity rather than forcing them to act from humiliation.
Here are some takeaways from the annual PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Global Entertainment & Media report:
U.S. digital newspaper ad revenue expected to surpass print by 2026.
Online TV’s ad growth (10%) will come at the expense of terrestrial TV’s ad growth, which will decrease from 66.6% in 2021 to 63.1% in 2026.
Print still dominates the book market, accounting for 77.4% of total revenue in 2021, with electronic books contributing 22.6%.
Virtual reality continues to be the fastest-growing segment of media, albeit from a relatively small base.
Global internet advertising revenue will expand at an impressive 9.1% CAGR in the next five years to reach $723.6 billion in 2026, at which point 74% of internet ad revenue will be mobile.
Teenagers are now spending more time in immersive virtual worlds like Roblox and Fortnite than they are on TikTok.
Read more here
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