It takes a slightly better man
/Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error. – General Peyton March
The Key to happiness in our later years
/Each of us has something like a “Happiness 401(k)” that we invest in when we are young, and that we get to enjoy when we are old. And just as financial planners advise their clients to engage in specific behaviors—make your saving automatic; think twice before buying that boat—we can all teach ourselves to do some very specific things at any age to make our last decades much, much happier.
According to a Harvard study, the single most important trait of happy-well elders is healthy relationships. As Robert Waldinger, who directs the study, told me in an email, “Well-being can be built—and the best building blocks are good, warm relationships.”
Arthur C. Brooks, writing in The Atlantic
Who's Selling My Data?
/Pen America offers some help understanding how data brokers have so much personal information about you and how to get it removed.
the world is full of suffering
/Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. – Helen Keller
deDoxing Yourself
/If you have concerns about your privacy, what information is available about you online, here is a short video to explain how to find some of that info through Google “dorking”, reverse image search, and Google alerts.
He Dropped Out to Become a Poet. Now He’s Won the top award for Mathematics
/June Huh has been awarded the Fields Medal, the highest honor in mathematics, for his ability to wander through mathematical landscapes. One might say the same of his path into mathematics itself: that it was characterized by much wandering and a series of small miracles. When he was younger, Huh had no desire to be a mathematician. He was indifferent to the subject, and he dropped out of high school to become a poet. That poetic detour has since proved crucial to his mathematical breakthroughs. His artistry, according to his colleagues, is evident in the way he uncovers those just-right objects at the center of his work, and in the way he seeks a deeper significance in everything he does. “Mathematicians are a lot like artists in that really we’re looking for beauty,” said Federico Ardila-Mantilla, a mathematician at San Francisco State University and one of Huh’s collaborators. “But I think in his case, it’s really pronounced. And I just really like his taste. He makes beautiful things.”
Jordana Cepelewicz writing in Quanta Magazine
If God wants people to suffer
/If God wants people to suffer, he sends them too much understanding. -Yiddish Proverb
It Costs
/Anyone can hate. It costs to love- John Williamson
The Magical Rose Garden
/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
Knowing our Limits & Tolerating those who Disagree
/If we truely want to know, it sometimes means recognizing when we don't know. -David Dunning
You Need Two Things
/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
The value of video in news content has its limits
/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
/It is better to die well than to live badly. -Jan Hus (who was burned at the stake for heresy on July 6, 1415)
When to Pivot
/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
How We Approach Failure
/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
The Lonely Generation
/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 + Courage
/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
27 Data Science Articles from June 2022
/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
/Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving. -Dale Carnegie
The five different types of impostor syndrome
/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.