#I can public speak I can network and negotiate just fine

[soliusss]

any autistic people have any tips or scripts for customer service interactions? I’m still trying to build mine and my job is now 200 percent more stressful because they dragged me out of the windowless dungeon (stockroom) to put me on the sales floor to shill product. Really hard for me to walk up and bother people, I have a mental block and while I don’t think they fire people for underperforming at Shilling, I REALLY want to keep this job because it PAYS. My nature is to not bother people and now it’s my job. And half the people in there don’t speak much English and it makes me feel worse 😭

[pynkhues]

In a previous ask I asked if you thought the writers dumbed the ladies down, thanks for answering by the way, but what about Rio. Do you think they dumb Rio down so Beth’s ideas look good? Like this episode wouldn’t Rio know that about the car wash? It seems easy enough to figure out?

You’re welcome, anon! And I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to get to this. The pandemic just sort of threw a grenade into my life in many respects, and I still feel like I’m scrambling to catch up on things – including my ask box – particularly for asks I have longer replies to like this one! 

As for your question – it’s a really interesting one! I don’t disagree with the sentiment at all, and can completely understand where you’re coming from. It is obvious, and seems a bit of a convenient pivot for a character who’s generally been depicted to us as very intelligent, a step ahead, a kingpin, etc. etc. 

Probably surprisingly, my answer as to whether or not they’ve dumbed Rio down in s3 to make Beth look good is actually no though. I mean - gosh - think of his re-introduction this season which was entirely about showcasing how well he was able to play Turner and ‘handle him’ in the way Beth had no capacity to. In fact, a lot of this season was about positioning Rio as competent, powerful, and aspirational overall for Beth, but actually in some ways Ruby and Annie too. He’s really their yardstick in how they measure themselves and their own success, and I think a lot of this season was trying to add dimension to that and him overall, both in the slightly softer ways (i.e. Rhea, Marcus, and even Mick) and the harder ways (Lucy, Turner and even Beth). 

Which brings me to something I’ve actually thought since 2.04 but never really elaborated on here beyond brief mentions, haha. 

I think the show is running a subtextual storyline with Rio. I think it’s been running that storyline actually since Turner’s introduction in 1.04, and that it’s been on-and-off successful on a textual narrative level – mostly because they don’t give us enough of it. I do think it’s there though, and pretty consistent if you’re keeping an eye on it, but it doesn’t really bleed through enough to sate audiences beyond that. (And hey look! I’m one of the people who doesn’t usually have too big of an issue about Rio’s lack of screen time!) 

But yes, haha. 

What I’m getting at is that I think there’s a parallel, very present storyline that is trying to tell us that Rio’s business and operation was already under the microscope by the feds before the show had even started, and that Beth and the girls getting him arrested in 1.10 has been a hurdle that’s had major ramifications.

So let’s break that down a bit. 

I feel heat on, I shutdown.

The seed for this storyline is, in many ways, planted with Beth’s monologue in 1.02 where she tells Rio that if he kills her, Ruby and Annie, he’s ultimately playing himself (there are hashtags and movements after all, haha). The set-up here is that Beth is an outlier for Rio in more ways than one, but there’s also an inference that Rio’s used to pulling the trigger first, and dealing with the fallout later – something that’s reiterated through his handling of Eddie in this very season, and then later Lucy in s3. 

But we’ll come back to that. 

The point here is that Beth calls him out on not being as subtle as he thinks he is, which is a fact that the story doubles down on with Turner’s introduction two episodes later in 1.04. Turner’s FBI, and he’s in town specifically investigating Rio. It’s immediately clear that there are a lot of gaps in that investigation, and in a lot of ways Beth bridges those gaps for Turner, but still. Turner was always onto Rio before Beth was ever in the picture.

In this sense, Rio’s seeming position in the crime world is already splintering – he has the feds on his tail already. Something happens – we never find out the details – in 1.04 which has one of his boys shot badly (Eddie), and Rio deliberately drops him off with somebody who’s very much on the perimeters of his operation (Beth). That same boy is later pinned by the feds and blackmailed by Turner (1.07) and something happens that quickly leads to Rio not only shutting down business, but seizing all of his assets from everyone, including Beth and the girls (1.08). 

He has Eddie killed, orchestrates a test in 1.09 to see how much information Eddie actually leaked to the feds – a test Beth took personally – before he tries to cut her out and Beth retaliated by having him arrested in 1.10. 

I’m out, I’m done, time for something new.

Which means starting s2, Rio’s business hasn’t actually been up and running since 1.07, and he’s now got a very public arrest on his record too. 

I don’t think it’s an accident that Rio’s shown as virtually alone in s2 outisde of Beth, Marcus and Gretchen, rather I think it’s a deliberate effort to show where his priorities have resettled – which is in business (which Beth is, which I’ll come back to shortly), his son, and his freedom respectively.

But yes. 

Let’s talk about work. 

Rio tries to get Beth to handle Boomer (2.01), the key witness in the case she’s just given a lot of weight to through the Fine & Frugal job in 1.10, but generally speaking, I think Rio’s still technically, professionally shutdown for the first half of the season. Not only that, but he seems to be trying to disentangle from fake cash generally to get into prescription pill distribution – a pretty distinct pivot for him. 

This could be a bit of a controversial opinion, but I don’t think he printed any new cash in s2. I think everything he left for Beth was stuff he had before she’d gotten him arrested, and I think that that’s demonstrated with him giving it to her in the first place (Beth says it herself in the same episode – if they can’t wash it, it’s just paper) and with him flipping his game overall. 

In other words, I think Rio was still shutdown and trying to figure out how to redistribute the work he could operate, while he handled the court case and no doubt tried to cover his losses. 

And in that incredibly stressful set of circumstances, I think Rio threw a line out to Beth as someone who owed him and was unencumbered by other networks in the crime world, and she bit, she delivered, and then Rio took advantage.

Something that was only ever made more complicated by their relationship, of course, haha, but even after that, I think he justified her presence in his life as a useful and unexpected card in his deck, and someone to keep his bed warm. In that capacity too though, I actually don’t think Rio ever intended for Beth to find out about the pills. I think he was already building that operation, saw an opportunity in Boland Motors, and worked it. 

The point is that things were fraying for Rio back in s1. I think that things were getting back on track for him at the start of s2, but then fell apart in a way that was bigger and worse towards the end of it. 

Beth successfully wrangled half his business, sure, and he not only let her, but he made a bad choice in investing too much in Boland Motors because he thought he had a better handle on her overall. Boland Motors ended up not just being the front for him to wash the cash he’d made via the girls, but was now the key stop-point for the drugs he was bringing across the border.

I’m sure he did have other operations at this point, but Boland Motors was BIG, and it blew up for him twice over.

First when Beth dumped him in 2.09.

Then with the FBI raid in 2.10, which ultimately rendered their cash useless in 2.12.

Something I imagine was only made worse by Ruby dumping the pills that would ordinarily be delivered through the car airbags in 2.10 too. 

So who made your money? 

Which brings us to where we are in season 3, where actually a lot of this seems to come to a head off-screen. I think this season actually really quickly established three things that work together and with the information of previous seasons pretty effectively, just that it was hindered by it being too subtextual, and not quite textual enough in certain parts. 

1. Rio’s operation is still kicking, albeit not without challenges. He’s able to set up other crews, while mobilising his own to assassinate Turner from what is essentially a lockdown situation. The first episode is devoted to telling us exactly how powerful Rio is, while also how much he isn’t. We get Rio playing puppeteer with Turner and the crime world, but we also get the disconnect from his child as symbolised through the model airplane, and the lack of connection he has to his family through Beth and Rhea’s relationship. It’s a really great character breakdown to parallel Rio’s control over his professional life, and lack of control over his personal one. 

2. Rio’s lost professional networks and is struggling to re-make them. This is actually the point I think we needed more of in the show, because I do think it’s there, but I don’t think it’s as textual as it should be. I’ve said it on here before, but we know from 1.03 that Rio’s never designed his own money – it’s what he sent Beth, Ruby and Annie to go collect from Canada after all, and that design was cooked by 2.12. 

We also know he was washing cash through a variety of local businesses prior to his arrest in 1.10 as per the news report in the same episode, and from the fallout in s2, it seemed like those networks had dried up, hence him giving Beth the money to wash in 2.04 and then jumping all in on Boland Motors. 

Beth also latches onto this concept in 3.04 when she tries to negotiate with Rio for her life, telling him “no cars, no pills, no cash, it’s gotta hurt”, and he responds, pretty simply with “You don’t know my interests.” 

Which she doesn’t, particularly as she latches onto the idea of Rio needing money, because I don’t think he does, and I think the introduction of the G Wagon this season was a significant symbol in teling us that as an audience.

I don’t think Rio needs money. I think he needs to be making other people money. 

I think he needs the business.

It seems to be something underlined in Rio’s confrontation with Gil in the bar later in the episode. He’s holding Gil to get the name of the person designing his money, because Rio knows the value of the product, and he needs to rebuild professionally after the arrest, raids and his own disappearance, and it’s only re-emphasised by Rio taking over Beth’s operation when he finds out. She owes him enough, is on the backfoot enough, that he can own all of it, knowing she’ll let him.  

3.  Lastly is that Rio is, and always has been, a dangerous person with a ready and willing trigger finger. He handles his rotten eggs – for better and for worse. 

Sophie, what are you going on about?? 

A good question, me, haha. I guess my point in all of this is the fact that I think Rio’s comfortable financially but is in deep in crime and as a result has a lot of people relying on him (both above him and below him) to build business. Since the shutdown in s1 and his arrest then disappearance, I think shit’s hit the fan, and a lot of his old professional avenues have been cut off, and that Beth presents to him as this sort of perfect in to a world he’s just been re-ostracised from. 

The carwash was obvious, of course it was, but I think that was sort of the point? I think it was a narrative signpost of how many steps backwards Rio’s operation has had to walk, and how far Rio’s been boxed into a corner (something I actually do think would have re-emerged on a textual level this season given we know we were supposed to be meeting Rio’s crime bosses).

I think he wanted another Boland Motors sort of operation, and forcing Beth’s hand created Boland Bubbles, and I think the prospect of that was a relief to him in more ways than not (hence his tone shift in 3.11). 

Beth is, after all, a logical person in many ways for Rio to invest in because she owes him, and because she has no other ties in the crime world. I’ve said this in multiple other posts, but I think Rio’s really deliberately kept it that way. I think he sees her potential, yes, and I actually do think a part of him wants to protect her (again, 2.07 being the clearest example of that), but I also think he sees her as an asset for himself. She’s quick on her feet, exists in a world he can’t – that world being middle class, white mama – and he can throw down a challenge to her, knows she’ll rise to meet it, and present a solution.

She did it unprompted in s1 with the secret shoppers, prompted when given the means in s2 with Boland Motors, and then prompted with a threat in s3 with Boland Bubbles. 

For all his talk of not knowing how to incentivise her in 3.10, he really does know, and more than that, he knows how to prompt her to level up in a way he can then take advantage of. 

Does this mean that Rio can’t or doesn’t come up with the ideas? Of course not! (Athough I do think he likes outsourcing them, haha) But I think he’s aware of where he stands and who he is and what he looks like, and I think that’s been compounded by a period of time that’s been dangerous for him both personally and professionally, and fuck - - exhausting too. I mean – he was shot! Three times! In the chest! 

But I do think Rio’s a kingpin too. It’s just been a hard year, y’know?

(Because I think it mostly has just been a year? There’s something to be said here after all given we know there was only eight months between early-s1 and 2.12 given the timestamp, and now only two months apparently between 2.09 and 3.03, so it very well could’ve been only little over a year in canon? That said, requesting any sort of logical timeline on this show feels like a trap, haha).

I don’t know though! This is just my theory. What do you guys think?

[itscalledbisexualcrisis]

Scrap Metal - Chapter 6

Summary: Hiro broke off her engagement to Kuvira three years ago and left Zaofu. All she wants is to live her quiet life in Republic City, away from her haunting past. Kuvira's catching up to her, but is she going to find what she's looking for? Or is she only going to reveal the secrets Hiro kept hidden from her all these years?

Read on AO3

“We have been informed that there are dissenters in the western city of Omashu. They are requesting assistance to take down the rebels,” relays the scout. Kuvira is leaning on the table, flipping through the detailed report in front of her. Omashu had been one of the later acquired cities. She found them to be quite irritating to negotiate with and spent many months going back and forth with the old king about their treaty. It was easy to assume that rebel groups would pop up within it.

“We can send Commander Guan, he’s the closest in proximity and has the troops to take care of any dissenters,” Baatar suggests. “It’s about time we reel in Omashu, once and for all. Who better than our Southern Commander?”

Kuvira continues reading the report, letting the rest of her inner circle pipe up with suggestions and requests. Even though it does make sense for Commander Guan to go, due to the location of Omashu, it was hard keeping a stronghold of the mountainous city. They needed a consistent leader for the mountainous region in general. Especially since their plan to take Republic City was fast approaching, Kuvira needed to be at headquarters focusing on the Spirit Canon and Colossal. Her eyes scan across the table, eyeing her inner circle carefully.

She limited the amount of people allowed in her highest ranks. Various men and women of the sergeant and commanding rank sat around the circular table, all capable and willing to fight for their country. She needed someone unrelenting and dominant to maintain balance in the mountains. Most of all someone who she trusted, and the list was few and far between.

“Well, from previous reports, Commander Guan is already struggling to hold together the South East and coastal regions. Do you think it’d be wise for him to take on a new battle when he’s in the middle of one?” Kuvira turns her attention to a voice with sharpness that cuts through the room’s ardent dialogue. Sergeant Anjij was one of Kuvira’s oldest friends from Zaofu who joined her when she first began uniting the nation. She was a talented water bender, a rarity for the Metal Clan, but nonetheless accepted for her talent. She was an expert in combat and one of the front line soldiers during the first siege on Ba Sing Se. Her thick dark hair was held back in a high ponytail and eyes a dark sea foam color. She was known for being a serious no-nonsense woman by her colleagues, a quality Kuvira admired. “We cannot possibly let him leave the Southern coast unguarded.”

“I agree,” Kuvira speaks up finally. Any conversation left was shut down immediately. She turns her head slightly to face the woman. “Commander Guan is occupied with the coastal regions. We need to maintain order within the entire empire. Which is why it is important we have trusted leaders to ensure that the empire is united. Sergeant Anjij, how would you like to be the new Commander for the Southern Mountainous region?” It was an on the spot decision by Kuvira, but seeing Anjij’s cocky smirk only reassured her of her choice.

“It would be an honor, Kuvira.”

“It’s settled then. We will head to Omashu tomorrow afternoon,” Kuvira instructs, standing from her seat to regard the rest of the room. She turns to Baatar sitting directly to her left. “Send word to Commander Guan to send a small battalion to meet us there. We will be taking a few rations with us for Omashu. Bringing in supplies will be better for negotiations and to reassure the people that we are not their enemy. Baatar, I want you to keep working on the Spirit Canon. I expect you to have it done by the time I come back.”

“Yes, Kuvira.”

“With that, this meeting is adjourned.”

---

“Oh thank Spirits!” Hiro threw her arms around Kuvira, not even getting a chance for the woman to take off her helmet. She inhaled the scent of metal and filth, taking in her lover for the first time in what felt like the longest week of her life. All week she’d been sitting near the control center, awaiting news on a mission from Suyin and the Metal Clan Guards to rescue the Air Nomads. This wasn’t something that happened often, but the few times Suyin took the special task force outside the domes was always a big mission. Especially ones that involve the Avatar. Kuvira usually went on these missions and even though Hiro should be used to it, she wasn’t. It didn’t make her feel any more reassured that they would be facing the Red Lotus again. She still gets shivers thinking about their attempt to kidnap Avatar Korra in Zaofu. 

Kuvira smiled and stroked Hiro’s back, hands gripping on to the material of the shirt. She exhaled and made sure to squeeze Hiro a little tighter. The smell of clean laundry and lavender shampoo filled her senses and she could rest easy now, taking in the heavenly scent of her fiance. 

“I’ve missed you too, darling,” Kuvira muttered with her face buried into Hiro’s hair. She could tell that Kuvira was exhausted. They had just stepped off the airship, most of the other guards visibly wounded. She spotted Anjij limping out of the ship with a fellow guard towards the infirmary. Hiro cupped Kuvira’s face and started to examine it for any noticeable damages. It made Kuvira chuckle at the silly face her fiance was making. “Are you broken? I don’t want to send this one back for a refund because of brain damage.”

Kuvira swats Hiro’s hands away, but it only seems to make Hiro even more clingy, draping her arms comfortably around her neck. The reassurance she got back were calloused hands caressing circles on to her hips.

“I’m fine, no brain damage,” she teased. Humor danced behind the irritation in her eyes. After hours of being stranded in the mountains, all Kuvira wanted was a bath and a long sleep with her lover.

“What happened out there?” Hiro’s eyes glaze across the rest of the injured team. “Everyone looks shaken.”

“The Red Lotus were difficult opponents, but the mission was a success: Avatar Korra and the Air Nomads are safe, and the Red Lotus has been apprehended,” Kuvira reported.

“No bruises or new scars for you?” Hiro asked. She wanted to try to keep the air light between them, but her concern showed through brightly. It made Kuvira feel proud, in a way. It was the way Hiro was so openly worried about her that made her want to tuck woman away in her arms, away from all of the dangers in the world. When she was in the mountains with no real indication of when Suyin would return for them, Hiro didn’t leave her thoughts. There was no doubt in Kuvira’s mind that Suyin would come back, but the slight possibility of losing to the Red Lotus also came up. She vowed that she would make it out and return to Hiro just as she promised. Even when she saw the flying bison coming over the tops of the snow capped mountains, she still wasn’t satisfied until she saw the Zaofu domes come up from the horizon. It was only when she had Hiro back in her arms, did Kuvira feel that her mission had been complete. 

“A couple of bruises, sore muscles,” she said offhandedly. “My shoulder in particular. I had to catch and heave a grown man from falling off the side of a cliff, but it’s nothing compared to the injuries everyone else sustained.” The thought of Kuvira carrying the weight of a man twice her size made Hiro blush and her jaw drop. Sometimes she forgot how strong Kuvira was and how intense those gentle green eyes could be.

“You’re incredible, you know that?” Hiro wanted to laugh, but could only muster a smile. This week had been very difficult and upon seeing everyone else’s current roughed up state, she didn’t let her guard down when Kuvira said she wasn’t injured. She definitely will be looking into that shoulder later.

Hiro held her face, this time gentler. Kuvira let a quiet moan escape her lips as she let her head be cradled. Hiro thought the tired pout on her lips and scrunch of skin between her eyebrows made Kuvira look unusually vulnerable. It must’ve taken a lot out of her for her to be sharing such a tender look with her in such a public area. It wasn’t easy for Kuvira to communicate her emotions, and Hiro never pushed her to do more than what she was comfortable with. At most, Hiro could get a short squeeze of her hand letting her know that she was okay or a hug that meant she just needed something to ground her. But it seemed that at the end of the day, her strong Captain was still a human who craved affection. And she was so honored to have the privilege to take care of such a powerful and beautiful woman.

She left a careful kiss on her lips before pulling her to go home, promising to draw a hot bath and warm spicy curry for dinner. 

---

Hiro tapped the pencil on the table as she looked over her notes again. Zhu Li gently set the cup next to her. 

The two of them had been pretty silent this morning, going about an easy routine with an ease they’ve created. Hiro spreads out the notes on the table to be examined. Truly she was getting down to having nothing left to share. She had drawn up an updated map of the city. Due to the renovations, some streets were shut off and new buildings erected in previous vacant lots. Most of it was resource centers for impoverished citizens amongst other government buildings. There was a network of phone wires that had been cleaned up to maximize contact for the police force radio communications. A more linear pipeline system replaced old lines that appeared to not have been changed since their existence. It was all in actuality mostly maintenance stuff, and if any of it could be of use to the Empire, she had no idea what for.

“You ever thought about working in urban development Zhu Li?” Hiro asked offhandedly. She was seated at the table with her feet kicked up on the metal surface and leaning on the back two legs of her chair. Zhu Li set down the teapot and quietly examined the new documents handed to her.

“No ma'am.”

Zhu Li was a quiet woman. She limited most of what she said to short questions and nods. Hiro didn’t mind her, but she noticed with the addition of Zhu Li that Kuvira wasn’t coming around anymore. It definitely made things harder for her because how could she take down the Great Uniter if she can’t even see her. As much as Hiro wanted to ask Zhu Li, she kept the small woman at arms length. It was too soon to let down her guard and start asking her questions about Kuvira. She needed to feel out the situation before making her next move.

Hiro realized soon after Zhu Li’s appearance as her ‘assistant’, that the air changed around the maglev. The guards watching over her were more lax, probably because they realized the Great Uniter wouldn’t be paying them as frequent visits. Occasionally Zhu Li would leave and deliver the completed workbooks to an unknown receiver.

This was disadvantageous. She needed to get Kuvira’s attention. She was running out of time before they deemed her as unusable and sent her off to a reeducation camp. I mean, she used to know what would get Kuvira’s attention back at Zaofu. The thought was quickly erased from Hiro’s mind and she let out a small cough. Zhu Li glanced up briefly in suspicion.

Honestly, the thought did cross her mind to potentially seduce the Great Uniter, but even she had to laugh at that idea. She hadn’t forgotten about the interaction she witnessed between Baatar and Kuvira the other night, but ever since then she hasn’t seen either of them. This isn’t working. She needed to think of something else. Hiro gnawed on the inside of her cheek, looking at the map of Republic City in front of her. I won’t run away again. But I can’t do this alone-

“This is quite the setup you have here.” Hiro turned her head to see a familiar dark haired woman coming down the steps. “It’s been a long time, stranger.”

“Anjij? I didn’t realize you were here.” Before all of the nonsense with the Earth Empire and Kuvira taking control, Anjij had been one of the few people Kuvira considered a friend. It wasn’t atypical for Hiro to find them engaged in a thoughtful conversation while waiting at the transport station or grabbing a casual lunch on their break together. When Hiro was stationed in Ba Sing Se, Anjij was occupied on the front lines and Hiro only saw her in quick glimpses and at meetings. Now it was clear that Anjij was doing very well for herself. Even after years apart, Hiro still remembered the higher pitch and smooth melody in the way she spoke.

Anjij definitely broke enough hearts in her life and will definitely break more. There was an intimidating aura to this woman and it certainly attracted people. This harsh demeanor was accentuated greatly with her crisp Earth Empire uniform and sly smile.

“Well not for much longer. Kuvira and I are headed to Omashu tomorrow,” Anjij explained. She looked around at all of the scattered maps and diagrams. “Looks like the same old Hiro. Tell me, are you still a pro Pai Sho player?” Hiro smiled slightly. Although it was comforting having someone so friendly and familiar, she still felt out of place. Afterall, the armbands indicated on Anjij’s armband had moved up to be a Commander now.

“I’m a little rusty,” she admitted. Zhu Li was silently setting up an additional teacup, but Hiro couldn’t help but feel that the other set of ears was taking in this interaction carefully.

Honestly Zhu Li was very hard to read. When she first started coming a few days ago, Hiro was very cautious. They talked minimally, only when Hiro showed her what she had written down or drawn up. If Zhu Li asked a question or implored Hiro to explain further, it felt like a business transaction. She gave no indication of her personal opinions or thoughts about what Hiro was sharing to aide in Kuvira’s empire. As someone quite reserved herself, Hiro knew better than to underestimate her. “You said you were headed to Omashu?”

“Correct. Have to whip those mountaineers into shape, you know?” Anjij chuckled at her own light heartedness and Hiro tried to match it. “Your name came up in today’s meeting. I wanted to see for myself, Hiro Zhao, returned in the flesh.”

Hiro tried to keep the surprise from her face.

“Well, in case you don’t know, this isn’t a willing return.” Anjij raised an eyebrow. “From the looks of it, you’re anything but a prisoner right now.” Anjij glanced over at Zhu Li placing the delicate teacup on Hiro’s desk. “But, regardless of the reason, I’m glad I got to see you.”

Hiro’s face faltered. Hiro wanted to reciprocate Anjij’s honest admission, but she couldn’t let their current standings overcome that. In the end, Anjij was a Commander for her enemy that kept her prisoner. And the reality was also that they were no longer young women in Zaofu inviting one another over for dinner or sparring together. 

“You too, Anjij.” Anjij’s gaze shifted as she carefully took in Hiro’s tense expression. She lifted a hand to gently rest it on her shoulder, and Hiro had to resist wincing. She had been touch starved this past week, mainly keeping to herself and shying away from guards when they escort her to her room. She would be lying to herself if the little human contact didn’t comfort her. If Anjij noticed any of this, she didn’t show it.

“Let me know if you need anything. I’m your friend, Hiro, prisoner or not, and I mean that.”

Hiro wanted to believe her. She wanted to believe Anjij when she shot her a determined look of comfort. She wanted to trust Zhu Li as a possible ally to her mission. She wanted to believe that she had someone on this damned maglev to help her. But no matter what Anjij said, she had no one.

---

Most nights Kuvira ate alone. She always opted to eat alone in her office so she can work simultaneously. It was efficient and productive on her part. Sometimes Baatar would join her, but with his dedication to the Spirit Canon, he would be in the lab all night. So when she heard a knock on the door she was surprised.

“Kuvira, mind some company?” Anjij asked through the door. Kuvira called for her to enter. Anjij walked in confidently and shut the door behind her. “I don’t mean to intrude, but there are a few more things I want to go over before we leave tomorrow.”

Kuvira nodded, putting down her current work and giving Anjij her full attention. The taller woman took a seat at the chair facing her desk. 

“The dissenters seem to come from civilians, mostly destroying incoming Earth Empire rations and supply lines,” Anjij reported. “We should be safe passing through on our own as no one will be expecting our arrival. We have suspicions as to the exact perpetrators, but if you ask me, I think the previous king and his council are calling the shots.”

“As far as we know, they’ve been complicit in their surrender of Omashu,” Kuvira answered back. “But you’re correct, they’ve given us the most resistance since their acquisition. We must approach this with discipline. No one is above my mercy. Not even a former king and his court.”

They continued like this, exchanging knowledge and strategies to finding the dissenters to crush their uprising. It was easy to get people to do what you want, it was harder to keep them in line once you had them. If anyone were capable enough to be her commander, Anjij had shown her worth.

As they wrapped up their conversation, Anjij shifted as if weighing her next statement.

“Before I leave, I wanted to mention...I saw Hiro today. She seems off .”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing obvious! I know from today’s meeting she was regarded as a recaptured Earth Kingdom citizen seeking redemption, but don’t you think that’s a bit brash?” Anjij asked. She quickly followed up upon seeing Kuvira’s gaze harden. “With all due respect of course! I am not trying to question your course of action, but have you thought of a smoother way to transition her to the Empire?”

Kuvira eyed her commander carefully.

“Continue,” she demanded. She saw Anjij’s shoulders relax as she patiently waited.

“Well I was thinking, if you made her a corporal and gave her more leniency, she might be more willing to be of service to the Empire.”

Kuvira scoffed. “I didn’t take you to being so keen to Hiro before? What, an afternoon rekindling old memories made you soft?”

Anjij didn’t react.

“She doesn’t have to know that she’s still being closely watched,” Anjij calculated. A growing smirk danced on her lips. It was one Kuvira was familiar with. It brought her back to days in the Metal Clan. It mirrored the look of success and satisfaction every time Anjij would get the upper hand in sparring matches. Their subtle rivalry was what drove them to excel in their field. As time went, Kuvira turned out to be the stronger opponent, but she never forgot that when she saw that smirk appear, there was a deceptive move coming next. “The false comfort to do what she’s good at, will make her let down her guard. Meanwhile, we keep a close eye on her, make sure she doesn’t slip up. And when she inevitably does, we let her think she has the control-”

“When in reality, she’ll play right into our cards,” Kuvira finished. Her calculating gaze never wavered from Anjij. Her blue eyes were piercing with deceit and Kuvira could see how she was enjoying the idea of this. “What do you mean we?”

She shrugged.

“A first step could be bringing her with us to Omashu. Keep a close eye on her and away from the rest of the troops. The more you let her open up to you and see the work of the Earth Empire helping people, the more she’ll be inclined to help us,” Anjij said simply as if it was the easiest thing in the world. She leaned back comfortably in the chair across from Kuvira. “C’mon Ku, this is Hiro we’re talking about. She’s practically a genius with her technology and can learn any new skill like it’s nothing, but what she doesn’t have is a backbone or awareness.”

Kuvira clenched her fists on the table.

“Fine. You’ve made your points. She will be joining us on our mission to Omashu,” Kuvira concluded. Anjij nodded with the cocky smirk still on her face and got up to leave. “But Commander, I do need you to keep your guard up. Like you say, she’s a genius. We cannot let ourselves be underestimated by her.”

Kuvira didn’t like how her words came out like she was defending Hiro rather than warning Anjij.

“Of course, Kuvira.” The words were empty and it was clear Anjij didn’t see Hiro as a threat. She left Kuvira to eat her now cold meal.

“Commander,” Kuvira piped up, stopping Anjij as the door was halfway shut. “This was your idea. So if anything is to go wrong, I am holding you accountable.” Anjij studied Kuvira carefully once over before nodding once and leaving Kuvira with her thoughts.

The thought of manipulating Hiro into the guise of comfort had crossed Kuvira’s mind. And Anjij was right, Hiro isn’t aware enough of her surroundings to judge twice. But something in her gut told her it wasn’t a good idea to play this game. If she were to do this, Hiro would be moved up the ranks and would be working a lot closer with Kuvira, something she just told Baatar she would be doing the opposite of.

The more she thought about it though, she didn’t mind having Hiro around her. As annoying as she was, she was useful. And that’s what mattered. She was useful.

---

“Have you been to Omashu before?” Anjij asked.

“Never,” Hiro answered. She stole a glance from the Pai Sho game in front of her to look out the window of the maglev. A thick fog coated the outside as they traveled to a higher altitude and through the mountain range. She was never a fan of heights, but what made her more uncomfortable was sitting at the meeting table with Anjij across from her and Kuvira to her left, examining documents. Kuvira had been studying them as soon as she stepped in the room, not even acknowledging Hiro’s presence or the fact that they were playing a Pai Sho game in what was supposed to be the meeting room. Anjij called her in for a friendly game and a debrief of their current mission.

“We’re providing extra aid to the people of Omashu. Due to their location, it’s hard to get supplies out there so we try to deliver big bouches at a time,” Anjij explained, moving another piece of the game. “We’ll be here for about a day or so, but I’ll be staying behind to make sure the rations are properly distributed.”

Hiro anxiously glanced over at Kuvira for any reaction or addition, but the woman seemed very engrossed in the designs she was looking at. If Hiro had a better angle she could see what had all of Kuvira’s attention. Quickly she drew her eyes back forward and Anjij was giving her a kind smile that didn’t reach her eyes. Hiro moved a piece in the game, not thinking much of it.

“And that's the game,” Anjij boasted. With her final piece moved, Anjij had successfully completed her Pai Sho board. Hiro folded her hands on her lap, accepting her defeat.

“I told you I was rusty,” she shyly admitted. “It’s been a while since I’ve played an actual game.”

“No one in the big city plays Pai Sho?” Anjij questioned.

“Not really, not like how we played in Zaofu. Most people played fast Pai Sho,” she explained. Asami was the only people she knew in Republic City who still played the traditional form of Pai Sho with slow methodical moves. It had been a while since Hiro played against someone new.

Anjij stole a glance at Kuvira before getting up.

“I’m going to check on the conductor and the other guards. We should be arriving within the next hour. Zhu Li, if you will come with me please, I’d love for you to make more of that jasmine tea,” Anjij flirted. Kuvira resisted rolling her eyes and a clipped warning. Zhu Li simply nodded and followed. Anjij, a flirt as always , Hiro thought.

It left Hiro and Kuvira in an awkward train car alone with cold porridge and documents stacked on the table. Hiro started packing up the Pai Sho game, letting her thoughts take her away from this maglev. As this was only one of the few train cars taken for their mission, it was very quiet. This was the first time she’s seen Kuvira in almost a week. It was almost unnerving how stoic the woman was.

“Do you still play?” The question stuttered out hung in the air, but Hiro couldn’t back out now that the words were already spoken.

“Are you asking for a game?” Kuvira asked carefully. She glanced down at the neatly set up Pai Sho board in front of her. Hiro shifted uncomfortably under her gaze and took a big gulp of the scorching tea to calm her nerves. She was surprised when Kuvira set the papers down and moved to sit across from her in Anjij’s previous seat. Hiro noticed how she placed them face down so she wouldn’t be able to sneak a glance at what she was looking at. “I’ll go first.”

The first few moves were done in silence. Hiro tries to focus on the game and not how this game brought back nostalgia. They’ve played plenty of Pai Sho games in the past, and Hiro knew Kuvira's strategies. Even though it was just a game, something told her that she had to win this one. So she maneuvered her pieces with deft and purpose, different from how she played with Anjij.

“Why did you let Anjij win?” The question caught her off guard and Hiro hesitated while picking up her next piece.

“What do you mean?” She placed the tile down, realizing now that Kuvira was already going in for an attack strategy to win. 

“You had her cornered for most of the game. All of a sudden it was like you stopped playing,” Kuvira observed, moving her tile to another space. “So tell me, why would you let her have the upper hand? Most of all, why make her think she got it in the first place?”

Hiro wasn’t surprised by Kuvira’s observation. In fact she knew the whole time that even though the other woman was engrossed with paperwork, she was acutely aware of her surroundings. Nothing could get past Kuvira...which is exactly what Hiro wanted. Her lip quirked up in a half smile.

“Still being very attentive of me, I see. I’m flattered,” she taunted. Her eyes conveyed that she knew what kind of dangerous game she was playing alongside the Pai Sho game. She smoothly transitioned her next piece over by the one Kuvira just moved. “Anjij was always a challenging player. She moved her pieces seemingly sporadically without thought, when in reality she’s trying to out maneuver her opponent as quick as she can, that way she can finish her board. If you play against her the way she wants you to, she won’t even realize you’re the one winning. Pai Sho when played quickly can be fun and exciting and Anjij has found a way to mix the two.

But I’d argue that careful and thoughtful movements with purpose allows you to see your opponent clearly than going fast can. I could’ve slowed Anjij’s gameplay down and ended it sooner, but she’s the type of woman who likes the thrill of the game.

And once she’s won, she’ll utilize the same strategy until she realizes too late that she’s used up all of her cards and tricks… and you as her opponent have bested her at everything she can give.”

Hiro had been studying Kuvira’s body movements this whole time as the woman played with the piece in her hand, eyes drifting up to meet Hiro’s in what looked like surprise. Hiro bit the inside of her cheek as her face broke out in a smile and crossed her arms.

“I believe it is your move.”

While speaking, Kuvira didn’t even notice that Hiro had successfully cornered her, one move away from winning.

---

Kuvira narrowed her eyes. Her keen ears perked up and she turned her head from the game abruptly to the windows. She squints, no longer paying attention to Hiro. Somewhere within the fog, a shadow moved. It was swift and if anyone else had seen it they would’ve waved it off as a mirage. But Kuvira knew better. She knew to trust her own instincts.

Without another thought, she gets up and grabs on to Hiro’s arm, pulling the other woman up with her. Some of the Pai Sho pieces jerked across the table, messing up their almost completed game.

“H-Hey!” Hiro stuttered, surprised at the sudden jerking movement.

Kuvira shoved Hiro to the floor with her falling on top. Soon after, the window that was previously next to them exploded in a flurry of shards and the train car lurched. Hiro gasped, her next words choked in shock. Kuvira felt the rest of the metal churn and jerk as the rest of the windows blew out in the left side of the car. It’s when she feels the train rocking to the side that she feels panic bubble up. But Kuvira wasn’t paying attention to that; not the way her body was being thrown around or the ringing she felt in her ears. 

Kuvira closes her eyes and lets her senses take over on the metal around her. That’s her default, she centers on what feels familiar and how she can regain control. Her awareness focused on the metal lining of the train, the plates of metal on the floor, the armor attached to her body. It felt like time slowed down as the train tipped over the edge. Hiro’s screams were only vaguely in the background of the ringing of metal hitting metal and the creaking of the maglev as it tipped over the mountainside, completely detaching from the tracks.

“Hold on.” She felt two arms wrap around her shoulders tightly and bury her face into Kuvira’s collarbone. The car tipped on its side and the rest of the windows shattered underneath them. By now the once pristine meeting room was trashed as furniture, documents, and weapons were tousled to the side of the train. Hiro grunted as they tipped alongside with it, their bodies crashing into a nearby table as the train began sliding off the mountain. Kuvira opened her eyes and inspected the shattered window now above them. The train began skidding down the mountain and slowly building momentum, tumbling further into unknown depths.

I have one shot. One move. Only one split second to get this right.

Fluidly, her arm shot out and with it a thin metal cable attached to her belt. The end of it escaped into the white abyss of the train car empty window. It all depended on the angle, the speed and most of all, luck. Kuvira searched aimlessly for something sturdy to hold on to, but the panic was settling in her bones as they skid further and further down the mountain. Hiro clung to her crying helplessly. She clenched her teeth. C’mon. There has to be something-

There

The green in her eyes sparked to life and the tug from her cable told her to hold on tight. With a flick of her wrist, she latched on to whatever support she found. And the next, she was hoisting both her and Hiro out of the train car and into the white chasm. They flew through, suspended in the air at a fast speed. 

Kuvira twisted her body, feeling the ache in her arms and back as she was trying to control her momentum while carrying both of them through the air. Hiro gasped and Kuvira felt her grip loosen slightly. Kuvira was quick and with her free arm, and held Hiro tight to her. In response, Hiro wrapped her legs around Kuvira’s waist, holding on as tight as she could.

She couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of her, but the dark mass of rock was a breath of relief. It came a lot faster than she intended and her body harshly crashed against the side as they bounced off.

“Do not let go,” she grunted, seeing the mountain coming up again as they swung back towards it. With another grunt and contortion, she managed to get one foot settled firmly on the mountain. All it took was for her to feel the familiar rock underneath her feet, for her to finally let go of the breath she was holding. Her chest heaved and she heard a large thud from far below. She couldn’t completely relax yet, because she still had Hiro clung tightly to her chest. With her bending and pure physics on her side, her metal cable was holding on to something far above them, keeping them from tumbling with the fallen train car. The sweat poured from her forehead. “Hiro, I’m going to pull us up.”

Hiro blinked a couple times, her small body still shaking. Kuvira feels the woman nod against her chest and clench her body even closer. With the reassurance that Hiro wasn’t going to fly off, Kuvira’s attention settled on the metal and slowly they began moving up. Hiro unconsciously gnawed on her bottom lip as they ascended, careful not to make too many movements to disturb their rise. Meanwhile Kuvira focused on keeping supporting both of their weights as they ascended through the misty mountain air.

It was a gangly looking tree growing out of a shallow cave that saved them. It wasn’t very wide and  it sloped off to only hold enough room for both of them to lay down and catch their breaths. The cave was damp and cold, but all Kuvira could feel was the burning from her muscles ache. She moved on to her hands and knees, the adrenaline still pumping through her as her hair flew out in tangles against her face. Leaning down, she pressed her forehead against the damp ground, thankful to feel the comforting rock beneath her.

Kuvira cursed, letting herself settle and finally picking up to the frantic shouts coming through the radio attached to her hip. It was staticy and hard to hear, but she could just make out Commander Anjij’s shouts.

“Kuvira! Are you there!” She presses the button on the radio, trying to catch her voice. She sits up, letting her elbows fall on to her bent knees. Looking over at Hiro next to her, she sees the other woman has rolled on to her side with her back facing her. She didn’t seem to have any visual injuries, which was a relief. 

“Yes I’m here. Are you hurt? How are the others?” she asked.

“We’re all fine! What about you?” 

“I’m alright. Hiro and I are safe.”

“Thank Spirits you both survived!” Anjij sighs. “Where are you?” “In a cave on the side of the mountain. I can’t tell how far we traveled down.” “We’re coming right now! Hang tight!” With that the radio died on the other end. Kuvira gripped it tightly and resisted the urge to crush it or throw it off the ledge. It was her only contact with the rest of the world now. It was the only chance she had to escape this. She looked over at Hiro again, who seemed to finally quake her shaking body.

“Hiro, are you alright?”

“I think so.” The other woman sat up carefully, and despite definite bruises and scrapes, she was safe. The thick material of the Earth Empire uniforms definitely took on most of the impact. Her glasses are gone, and her weary brown eyes fixate on Kuvira. “Thank you.” Kuvira doesn’t respond, but lets out another sigh and leans back against the wall of the cave. Her eyes fall on the empty whiteness outside the cave.

“Don’t thank me. I should’ve taken more safety precautions,” she muttered bitterly to herself. It was a mistake to go into Omashu blind. At this point she knows it was the previous king of Omashu who attacked her. No one else had known that they were arriving. The thought of being crossed made her jaw clench. They would not be getting away with this blatant terrorist attack on her train.

“Kuvira? Are you okay?” the voice cut through her negative thoughts. It was the genuine concern in Hiro’s voice that made Kuvira look up. She didn’t even realize that her hands had balled into fists and the small sliver of earth beneath them was shaking. Looking over, Hiro sat on her knees with a tentative gaze. She kept her hands firmly on her thighs, but she wrestled back and forth reaching out and holding Kuvira’s hand.

One side broke over and Kuvira felt the warmth of Hiro’s hand settle atop her clenched ones.

“I’m alright,” she let out a long shaky breath through her nose, slowly easing her nerves. The feeling of Hiro’s hand touching hers all at once put her at ease and made her nervous. “They are coming to rescue us now.”

Hiro shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, taking away the contact between them. It was quite cold and the harsh wind that occasionally passed made it worse. The adrenaline was wearing off now and Kuvira realized just how much of a dangerous predicament they were in. It was still the morning so there was plenty of light out, but if they weren’t found before sunset, they wouldn’t survive the night. Kuvira stood up abruptly, trying to peer up through the fog at anything. Even if she could launch herself up there, there was no way she could carry both of them all the way back up by herself. And there was to guarantee that there’d be another ledge stable enough to hold them. Right now she could only hope to be found.

---

Hours passed. Even though dusk was still many hours away, their ledge had become freezing. This whole time they were silent and sitting apart with what little space they could find between them. Hiro tried to keep her shaking to a minimum, not wanting to set off the other woman in any way. Hiro’s mind had been racing. Ever since the attack, she couldn’t ease her mind. Did that happen often? Kuvira seemed to be fairly calm about it. It didn’t occur to her before how dangerous being a leader of an empire could be.

“You’re going to get sick.” Kuvira reached out and offered a hand, making Hiro flush. When she didn’t move, Kuvira rolled her eyes. “You either come here and we try to salvage body heat or we both lose a few toes.”

Hesitantly Hiro obliged and pressed her body next to Kuvira’s, making them shoulder to shoulder. She resisted the way her body wanted to sink into the other woman’s unusually warm body as they leaned against the cave wall together. Kuvira’s hair had been let out completely now, and she felt it tickle against her skin.

She felt a shaky breath brush across her neck and she shivered, but this time not from the cold. Kuvira instinctively tucked in closer, making Hiro tense up. If it wasn’t awkward before, it was now with Kuvira’s face practically buried in her neck. Despite the warmth admitted from her, Kuvira’s face was freezing against Hiro’s skin.

“Please,” the word whispered past her ear. “If we’re going to survive this, we’re going to need each other.”

She sounded so sure of herself that they were going to be okay. It was the confidence that made Hiro finally relax into Kuvira’s body and let herself rest. She felt Kuvira’s body slouch as the woman drifted off to sleep. It was clear that carrying them up the precarious mountain had taken a lot out of Kuvira, and Hiro had mixed feelings about the situation they were in now.

She took a risk and reached out to hold Kuvira’s hand in hers as she let the exhaustion take her.

[nitro-nova]

Radicalize Now

All of these factors are present in every country, every civilization. It is up to you and the people you meet to fight together, now.

Poison #1: A populace fighting itself can't fight back.

Antidote:

DISENGAGE. Do not bother digging heels in and arguing with MAGA Manfred or Neoliberal Becky or whoever the fuck on Twitter dot com. If you’re criticizing politicians and they show up, don’t bother arguing, block them.

Any nazi you see online, copy their handle and send it to a blocklist before reporting. Get them off of the platform. If they’re stupid enough to publish employment details, show their shit to their boss, get ‘em fired. Just. Don’t. Engage. Them. They want that.

The reason why younger generations hate corporate media is because they were shown all of the classist shit talking that happens to them. Do the same with this for other groups. Whenever they slip up, screencap it and call it out. It steals the profit *and* it pulls demographics away from these outlets.

Poison #2: An unstable populace cannot fight back

Antidote: Social safety nets and communal support are needed more than ever. Make groups of people that will try to do the following:

Join your strikes/protests to help push the numbers up.

Help with getting groceries, babysitting, anything that people need, even for just a few hours, offer it.

Assist each other with rent in the event of a job loss or shortage of hours.

Offer to be references for any new job applications.

Promote gofundme style fundraising efforts on social media.

Offer a place to stay in case anyone ends up in danger, fines, or bail (activists are often arrested for political activity).

Moral support/venting.

Poison #3: A desperate populace cannot fight back.

Antidote: Like above, shelter and food can be precarious.

Start researching a network of resources for community members and encourage the people in your group to use them.

Assist your group not just with shopping for groceries, but with finding affordable and nourishing recipes, to use again and again, as well.

If you’re within distance, once the pandemic is over, start eating together and socializing more. The more socialized you feel, the more secure you feel, the less desperate you feel.

Poison #4: A tired populace cannot fight back

Antidote: Exhaustion not only comes physically (malnourishment, poor sleep), but emotionally (performative labor, outrage fatigue, depression).

The group must understand that these are hard times, and people will often be suffering from mental illnesses they can’t afford to treat. If possible, pool together resources to give them the therapy care they need. A therapy session is typically $60 - $120 per hour. Sometimes, this is negotiable with the therapist.

Help each other with free time by offering to lend some of yours towards helping with their chores. Even planning a grocery trip and organizing their list is considered to be help. If you have programming skills, build tools to help make these tasks easier.

Once the pandemic is over, you can offer to help with cleaning, organizing, dusting, dishes, meal preparation, etc. The less personal work they have to do, the more time they have to decompress and rejuvenate.

Organize social events according to the preferences of the participants. Hang out in virtual calls together. Play games together. Try to make each other comfortable.

Take breaks/set bans on sharing outrageous news when the group is down for the count, if possible.

Poison #5: A witless populace cannot fight back

Antidote: This is a time where advocacy for information to be free.

For starters, build repositories of online information; masterposts are some of the best examples. I myself run StudyGameDev.com to collect resources for learning skills for an industry. Find as many free resources as you can and try to curate and arrange them.

Multilingual folk can contribute by offering translations and captions.

Fight to protect your libraries from privatization. Work with libraries and don’t underestimate what you can donate to them! I donated a microcontroller kit with an incomplete project.

Add to the strength of activists by including advice and insight that you know will help, and do your best to listen and parse good advice.

Antidote: While we’re in the midst of a pandemic that has crushed our health care system as well as lost the only candidate that supports medicare for all, we have moved a majority of the public to support this policy.

Promote fundraisers for members of your collective who need access to medical supplies and medicine.

Offer to share over-the-counter medications that may be used infrequently, like pain relievers.

Continue to promote policies like medicare for all, which would enable everyone access to health care.

Poison #7: A populace in fear cannot fight back.

Antidote: Probably the hardest point of all, that as the government continues to corrupt and militarize, people will fear the repercussions of speaking out.

All whistleblowers should be supported, in finance, moral support, petitions, and so forth. Support political prisoners. The more support they feel they have, the more resolved they can be to survive.

If a member of your collective may by some chance end up having to speak out, devise a plan not only to protect them, but to sustain them for the coming months and possible years.

Always practice online safety by concealing your identity as much as you can. Political action you engage in that is expressly antifascist should be done with anonymity to avoid targeted violence or assassination.

[qwertsypage]

Sometimes you do need Kubernetes! But how should you decide?

At RisingStack, we help companies to adopt cloud-native technologies, or if they have already done so, to get the most mileage out of them.

Recently, I've been invited to Google DevFest to deliver a presentation on our experiences working with Kubernetes.

Below I talk about an online learning and streaming platform where the decision to use Kubernetes has been contested both internally and externally since the beginning of its development.

The application and its underlying infrastructure were designed to meet the needs of the regulations of several countries:

The app should be able to run on-premises, so students’ data could never leave a given country. Also, the app had to be available as a SaaS product as well.

It can be deployed as a single-tenant system where a business customer only hosts one instance serving a handful of users, but some schools could have hundreds of users.

Or it can be deployed as a multi-tenant system where the client is e.g. a government and needs to serve thousands of schools and millions of users.

The application itself was developed by multiple, geographically scattered teams, thus a Microservices architecture was justified, but both the distributed system and the underlying infrastructure seemed to be an overkill when we considered the fact that during the product's initial entry, most of its customers needed small instances.

Was Kubernetes suited for the job, or was it an overkill? Did our client really need Kubernetes?

Let’s figure it out.

(Feel free to check out the video presentation, or the extended article version below!)

Let's talk a bit about Kubernetes itself!

Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration engine that has a vast ecosystem. If you run into any kind of problem, there's probably a library somewhere on the internet that already solves it.

But Kubernetes also has a daunting learning curve, and initially, it's pretty complex to manage. Cloud ops / infrastructure engineering is a complex and big topic in and of itself.

Kubernetes does not really mask away the complexity from you, but plunges you into deep water as it merely gives you a unified control plane to handle all those moving parts that you need to care about in the cloud.

So, if you're just starting out right now, then it's better to start with small things and not with the whole package straight away! First, deploy a VM in the cloud. Use some PaaS or FaaS solutions to play around with one of your apps. It will help you gradually build up the knowledge you need on the journey.

So you want to decide if Kubernetes is for you.

First and foremost, Kubernetes is for you if you work with containers! (It kinda speaks for itself for a container orchestration system). But you should also have more than one service or instance.

Kubernetes makes sense when you have a huge microservice architecture, or you have dedicated instances per tenant having a lot of tenants as well.

Also, your services should be stateless, and your state should be stored in databases outside of the cluster. Another selling point of Kubernetes is the fine gradient control over the network.

And, maybe the most common argument for using Kubernetes is that it provides easy scalability.

Okay, and now let's take a look at the flip side of it.

Kubernetes is not for you if you don't need scalability!

If your services rely heavily on disks, then you should think twice if you want to move to Kubernetes or not. Basically, one disk can only be attached to a single node, so all the services need to reside on that one node. Therefore you lose node auto-scaling, which is one of the biggest selling points of Kubernetes.

For similar reasons, you probably shouldn't use k8s if you don't host your infrastructure in the public cloud. When you run your app on-premises, you need to buy the hardware beforehand and you cannot just conjure machines out of thin air. So basically, you also lose node auto-scaling, unless you're willing to go hybrid cloud and bleed over some of your excess load by spinning up some machines in the public cloud.

If you have a monolithic application that serves all your customers and you need some scaling here and there, then cloud service providers can handle it for you with autoscaling groups.

There is really no need to bring in Kubernetes for that.

Let's see our Kubernetes case-study!

Maybe it's a little bit more tangible if we talk about an actual use case, where we had to go through the decision making process.

Online Learning Platform is an application that you could imagine as if you took your classroom and moved it to the internet.

You can have conference calls. You can share files as handouts, you can have a whiteboard, and you can track the progress of your students.

This project started during the first wave of the lockdowns around March, so one thing that we needed to keep in mind is that time to market was essential.

In other words: we had to do everything very, very quickly!

This product targets mostly schools around Europe, but it is now used by corporations as well.

So, we're talking about millions of users from the point we go to the market.

The product needed to run on-premise, because one of the main targets were governments.

Initially, we were provided with a proposed infrastructure where each school would have its own VM, and all the services and all the databases would reside in those VMs.

Handling that many virtual machines, properly handling rollouts to those, and monitoring all of them sounded like a nightmare to begin with. Especially if we consider the fact that we only had a couple of weeks to go live.

After studying the requirements and the proposal, it was time to call the client to..

Discuss the proposed infrastructure.

So the conversation was something like this:

"Hi guys, we would prefer to go with Kubernetes because to handle stuff at that scale, we would need a unified control plane that Kubernetes gives us."

"Yeah, sure, go for it."

And we were happy, but we still had a couple of questions:

"Could we, by any chance, host it on the public cloud?"

"Well, no, unfortunately. We are negotiating with European local governments and they tend to be squeamish about sending their data to the US. "

Okay, anyways, we can figure something out...

"But do the services need filesystem access?"

"Yes, they do."

Okay, crap! But we still needed to talk to the developers so all was not lost.

Let's call the developers!

It turned out that what we were dealing with was an usual microservice-based architecture, which consisted of a lot of services talking over HTTP and messaging queues.

Each service had its own database, and most of them stored some files in Minio.

In case you don't know it, Minio is an object storage system that implements the S3 API.

Now that we knew the fine-grained architectural layout, we gathered a few more questions:

"Okay guys, can we move all the files to Minio?"

"Yeah, sure, easy peasy."

So, we were happy again, but there was still another problem, so we had to call the hosting providers:

"Hi guys, do you provide hosted Kubernetes?"

"Oh well, at this scale, we can manage to do that!"

So, we were happy again, but..

Just to make sure, we wanted to run the numbers!

Our target was to be able to run 60 000 schools on the platform in the beginning, so we had to see if our plans lined up with our limitations!

We shouldn't have more than 150 000 total pods!

10 (pod/tenant) times 6000 tenants is 60 000 Pods. We're good!

We shouldn't have more than 300 000 total containers!

It's one container per pod, so we're still good.

We shouldn't have more than 100 pods per node and no more than 5 000 nodes.

Well, what we have is 60 000 pods over 100 pod per node. That's already 6 000 nodes, and that's just the initial rollout, so we're already over our 5 000 nodes limit.

Okay, well... Crap!

But, is there a solution to this?

Sure, it's federation!

We could federate our Kubernetes clusters..

..and overcome these limitations.

We have worked with federated systems before, so Kubernetes surely provides something for that, riiight? Well yeah, it does... kind of.

It's the stable Federation v1 API, which is sadly deprecated.

Then we saw that Kubernetes Federation v2 is on the way!

It was still in alpha at the time when we were dealing with this issue, but the GitHub page said it was rapidly moving towards beta release. By taking a look at the releases page we realized that it had been overdue by half a year by then.

Since we only had a short period of time to pull this off, we really didn't want to live that much on the edge.

So what could we do? We could federate by hand! But what does that mean?

In other words: what could have been gained by using KubeFed?

Having a lot of services would have meant that we needed a federated Prometheus and Logging (be it Graylog or ELK) anyway. So the two remaining aspects of the system were rollout / tenant generation, and manual intervention.

Manual intervention is tricky. To make it easy, you need a unified control plane where you can eyeball and modify anything. We could have built a custom one that gathers all information from the clusters and proxies all requests to each of them. However, that would have meant a lot of work, which we just did not have the time for. And even if we had the time to do it, we would have needed to conduct a cost/benefit analysis on it.

The main factor in the decision if you need a unified control plane for everything is scale, or in other words, the number of different control planes to handle.

The original approach would have meant 6000 different planes. That’s just way too much to handle for a small team. But if we could bring it down to 20 or so, that could be bearable. In that case, all we need is an easy mind map that leads from services to their underlying clusters. The actual route would be something like:

Service -> Tenant (K8s Namespace) -> Cluster.

The Service -> Namespace mapping is provided by Kubernetes, so we needed to figure out the Namespace -> Cluster mapping.

This mapping is also necessary to reduce the cognitive overhead and time of digging around when an outage may happen, so it needs to be easy to remember, while having to provide a more or less uniform distribution of tenants across Clusters. The most straightforward way seemed to be to base it on Geography. I’m the most familiar with Poland’s and Hungary’s Geography, so let’s take them as an example.

Poland comprises 16 voivodeships, while Hungary comprises 19 counties as main administrative divisions. Each country’s capital stands out in population, so they have enough schools to get a cluster on their own. Thus it only makes sense to create clusters for each division plus the capital. That gives us 17 or 20 clusters.

So if we get back to our original 60 000 pods, and 100 pod / tenant limitation, we can see that 2 clusters are enough to host them all, but that leaves us no room for either scaling or later expansions. If we spread them across 17 clusters - in the case of Poland for example - that means we have around 3.500 pods / cluster and 350 nodes, which is still manageable.

This could be done in a similar fashion for any European country, but still needs some architecting when setting up the actual infrastructure. And when KubeFed becomes available (and somewhat battle tested) we can easily join these clusters into one single federated cluster.

Great, we have solved the problem of control planes for manual intervention. The only thing left was handling rollouts..

As I mentioned before, several developer teams had been working on the services themselves, and each of them already had their own Gitlab repos and CIs. They already built their own Docker images, so we simply needed a place to gather them all, and roll them out to Kubernetes. So we created a GitOps repo where we stored the helm charts and set up a GitLab CI to build the actual releases, then deploy them.

From here on, it takes a simple loop over the clusters to update the services when necessary.

The other thing we needed to solve was tenant generation.

It was easy as well, because we just needed to create a CLI tool which could be set up by providing the school's name, and its county or state.

That's going to designate its target cluster, and then push it to our Gitops repo, and that basically triggers the same rollout as new versions.

We were almost good to go, but there was still one problem: on-premises.

Although our hosting providers turned into some kind of public cloud (or something we can think of as public clouds), we were also targeting companies who want to educate their employees.

Huge corporations - like a Bank - are just as squeamish about sending their data out to the public internet as governments, if not more..

So we needed to figure out a way to host this on servers within vaults completely separated from the public internet.

In this case, we had two main modes of operation.

One is when a company just wanted a boxed product and they didn't really care about scaling it.

And the other one was where they expected it to be scaled, but they were prepared to handle this.

In the second case, it was kind of a bring your own database scenario, so you could set up the system in a way that we were going to connect to your database.

And in the other case, what we could do is to package everything — including databases — in one VM, in one Kubernetes cluster. But! I just wrote above that you probably shouldn't use disks and shouldn't have databases within your cluster, right?

However, in that case, we already had a working infrastructure.

Kubernetes provided us with infrastructure as code already, so it only made sense to use that as a packaging tool as well, and use Kubespray to just spray it to our target servers.

It wasn't a problem to have disks and DBs within our cluster because the target were companies that didn't want to scale it anyway.

So it's not about scaling. It is mostly about packaging!

Previously I told you, that you probably don't want to do this on-premises, and this is still right! If that's your main target, then you probably shouldn't go with Kubernetes.

However, as our main target was somewhat of a public cloud, it wouldn't have made sense to just recreate the whole thing - basically create a new product in a sense - for these kinds of servers.

So as it is kind of a spin-off, it made sense here as well as a packaging solution.

Basically, I've just given you a bullet point list to help you determine whether Kubernetes is for you or not, and then I just tore it apart and threw it into a basket.

And the reason for this is - as I also mentioned:

Cloud ops is difficult!

There aren't really one-size-fits-all solutions, so basing your decision on checklists you see on the internet is definitely not a good idea.

We've seen that a lot of times where companies adopt Kubernetes because it seems to fit, but when they actually start working with it, it turns out to be an overkill.

If you want to save yourself about a year or two of headache, it's a lot better to first ask an expert, and just spend a couple of hours or days going through your use cases, discussing those and save yourself that year of headache.

In case you're thinking about adopting Kubernetes, or getting the most out of it, don't hesitate to reach out to us at info@risingstack.com, or by using the contact form below!

Sometimes you do need Kubernetes! But how should you decide? published first on https://koresolpage.tumblr.com/

[seatsbythepit]

Hey Anna :) I just listened to Monday's Arsecast and they continued to talk about the silence of the board and the possible search for a sporting director and I was just wondering if in other EPL clubs the higher ups are really more present?

Because in Germany the sporting directors and comparable people are very present in the media. Like they get interviewed after games and are regularly on matchday shows and all. 

And I just got the impression that not only at Arsenal but in the EPL in general they are a lot less present. Or is that really just Arsenal?

Hey Sabrina, thanks for your question(s)! I’d like to start off by saying I am probably not the most educated on this topic, nor am I the worst - so I’ll try my best to give you a satisfying response!

Sporting Directors are very…fluid characters, they can often be referred to as technical directors, can be seen as the all-knowing all-seeing eye of a club’s footballing activities, they can be a guide/guardian for the manager as well as a buffer between fans and manager.

As you mentioned, in Germany they have a strong media presence, including post-match interviews - I would say that based on that information alone it’s definitely not the same for the Premier League as a whole, I cannot recall many times I have seen a sporting director for a club speak regularly and so presently. They tend to pop up at times of importance or interest for a club, maybe during a changing over of managers or during transfer season, but not in the day to day life, they work in the shadows so to speak.

In fact previously it was not at all a common thing for PL clubs to have sporting directors, at least not in that official role.

I know this next bit is probably very extra info, but I took the liberty of checking the bigger clubs (I was initially going to do all of them, but that would make this post even longer than it already is.) in the PL, whether they have such a figure and also how they are described on the club websites and here is what I found:

Chelsea | Michael Emanalo - Technical Director

He has been an important part of the first team management structure since his arrival in October 2007, and now supports the work of the first team manager, leading the club’s international and domestic scouting network, and assists in driving the technical programmes of our Academy and international youth network.

Tottenham | Rebecca Caplehorn - Director of Football Operations

Graduated from Loughborough University with a Joint Honours Degree in Physical Education, Sport Science and Mathematics.  She subsequently qualified as a Chartered Accountant via the NHS Graduate Management Scheme and has worked in senior finance roles within both tennis and football. Rebecca joined the Club in March 2015, after spending over five years at Queens Park Rangers FC.

Manchester City | Txiki Begiristain? Director of Football

Txiki is not listed on Manchester City’s corporate page, but in 2012 he was announced as Manchester City’s Director of Football. And there are recent articles about him, including Pep Guardiola speaking of him. So I presume he does still hold that role.

Liverpool | Michael Edwards - Sporting Director

From Nov 2016: Michael Edwards has today been appointed as Liverpool Football Club’s sporting director.

The 37-year-old is being promoted into a newly-created role as part of a restructuring of the football operations. Edwards will now lead the club’s overall football development, including player identification, acquisitions, sales and retention, as well as taking primary responsibility for reviewing and implementing improvements to the training ground environment and infrastructure.

Manchester United | Not applicable. (Make note of Edward Woodward.)

United do not have an official sporting director, but Edward Woodward, their executive vice-chairman, is probably the closest to it. However, he has been criticised in the past about how he has handled their transfers, and thus it was once thought United would eventually opt to bring someone experienced to take on the Sports Director role - but this was later denied, and it did not happen.

Arsenal | Not applicable.

Of course, we know the answer to this one. Ivan Gazidis has been proud in the past that we currently have no such figure at the club, trying to play the angle of “team effort” among the board, rather than a hierarchy. (Check out this episode of Arsecast Extra that Sabrina referred to hear of previous attitudes towards the club corporate setup.)

We once had David Dein, who came close to being a sporting director before such a title was really given. “Dein built up his shares until he owned 42% of the club in 1991. During his time at the club, he was responsible for football matters taking an active role in the transfer of players and contract negotiations where he was able to use his extensive network of football contacts. Dein was behind the appointment of the then little known Arsène Wenger to the manager’s job in 1996; under Wenger Arsenal have won the Premier League three times and the FA Cup six times, and Dein strongly backed him and his transfer wishes throughout.[3]”

However, as previously mentioned, we may now be seeking an official sporting director after Arsene Wenger leaves, due to the fact that Dick Law may also think about departing with him. The Telegraph wrote recently:

Dick Law has liaised closely with manager Arsene Wenger on player negotiations and contracts since 2009 and, while he would initially work with any appointment, it is understood that he is ready to step away from his current position in the longer-term.

The idea would also be to create a wider football operations role, with possible responsibilities stretching to shaping and fine-tuning the structures around sports science, medicine, scouting and recruitment, the academy and logistics.

Losing the two closest figureheads we have to a sporting director would likely be cause for a serious re-organisation of the club’s higher positions.

Wenger has largely become a one man band, he covers a lot of what a sporting director should. For example, he was the figurehead in the club moving to a bigger stadium, the club was outgrowing its beloved home, and a move was necessary to follow the growth, he was also key to assuring the banks we would pay them back in order to receive more loans. [x] He was also responsible for the state of the art training ground we currently have, he ensured that we invested in health and science to better our players to such a high standard, his success as our manager is proof of how crucial that was.

So remarkable is his influence that our club is actually viewed as a financial anomaly, here is a quote from a financial report I posted about in 2016:

“*Due to the structural issues identified below, our view is Arsenal is not investable for the general public, the fact its ISDX quotation has survived is anomalous.*

In my opinion, the growth of our club since the 90s and early 2000s has meant that this one-man role is even less feasible than it was back then, nor should it even try to be feasible now.

An interesting correlation I make between Arsenal and United is that the two big clubs without a sporting director are the two clubs who have had/still have (in our case) a recent long time serving manager. I feel that the greatness of both Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex allowed the figureheads behind their respective clubs to take a back seat and allow the two managers to be absolutely everything to their clubs - which whilst so very admirable on AF and AW’s behalves proves to be a problem when their tenures come to an end. You only have to look at United and see that there wasn’t really a backup plan for the departure of such a legend, and if there was it hasn’t really worked, and I can only hope that our farewell with AW happens when we have planned meticulously for everything that comes thereafter.

Not to mention the growth of the Premier League, the gap between clubs and their quality is getting smaller, therefore it is not ideal to rely on one person who already has a high position/highly stressful role at the club - I mean he’s the manager for goodness sake. Arsene is our manager, and manage is what he should be expected to do. He should not be under fire for the inner workings of our club, despite the fact that he often is. It is not wholly his responsibility and even if our directors are not sports directors, they still have a duty to manage this club effectively, both in the football we produce and otherwise.

A sporting director is supposed to be the go-between, the adviser, the helper, we need structure and strategy behind Arsene, or whoever is in charge of the team.  Which is why there has been a certain amount of annoyance/anger with the board, because they use that “one man band” role to let Arsene take a lot of the flack for the club’s stagnation, and have not committed to any real responsibility on their part.

Something I particularly find scandalous is when our CEO, Ivan Gazidis, charges such an extortionate amount for his services…none of which we actually get to see with any real transparency. It only aggravates the discontent among fans, and he does no good to act like everything is amazing at things like the AGM meetings and such.

Something else that Arseblog touched on in a regular Arsecast podcast is that he actually out-rightly said the fans would decide AW’s future, the fans. It displays a terrible amount of irresponsibility to place such an important decision on the fans, a lack of judgement and ultimately it has played part in the current situation we have with the protests etc, because through not taking charge, the directors have essentially shown the fans that they are not leading, they are not being clear in their goals and intentions as a board, BUT at the same time they are not listening to fans either, they are not listening to the fans as Gazidis had alluded they would. It’s this inaction that is painful to see, and to see AW take the brunt of the repercussions outside of the football elements is saddening.

And although he is majority shareholder first a foremost, then a director, Stan Kroenke charging for “advisory services” is bizarre. There is no confidence in the man who basically said he didn’t care about trophies, and it’s even more laughable that he should charge for so-called advice. I realise these are more likely to be business orientated services, not football ones, but that’s just it - we don’t all wear our Arsenal shirts seeking to cheer on a well run business, we want our team to thrive and succeed. I am proud of what we do outside of playing football, but we have to aspire to more than what we’ve already achieved, we are already very good but we could be even better. Which is why, after all I have written, I really do hope we get a sporting director.

I am SO sorry for basically answering your question in the first few paragraphs and then going on to write a novel, but I hope this has been useful in some way, it give me clarity to write in detail. I also recognise that I may be talking nonsense, and that I don’t know the ins and outs of other clubs as well as I know my own, so apologies for that, haha.

Thank you again for your question, Sabrina!

[ncmagroup]

Kathy David

Have you ever wondered why some people are just more successful than others? Have you ever seen someone who can go from one field to another, yet achieve tremendous success?

One of the common factors seen in most successful people is their ability to sell. Not just to sell products, mind you, but also to sell themselves and their ideas wherever they go. Because they have the ability to do this, they easily find themselves in positions that other people are left aspiring to one day achieve.

  Acquiring and developing selling skills is one of the most important investments a person can ever make. Selling is a life skill that, once developed, can help an individual attain their goals, reach their aspirations, and achieve success. Acquiring selling skills is learnable.

  No one person started out as a professional. At one point, all sales professionals started at the bottom as rookies. If you’re a professional who really wants to excel in your field, regardless of what it is, then keep on reading. My goal is to give you a jump-start and to show you what it looks like to be a sales superstar.

FACTOR 1: RECEIVE FORMAL SALES TRAINING

Getting a focused education and proper training is a key success factor that sales superstars do right every single time. Why is it important for an individual to receive the “formal” knowledge in addition to the “street” experience?

  Well, the answer to that comes down to something called the Confidence-Competence Cycle. The theory behind the Confidence-Competence Cycle states that the more you educate yourself about a focused topic and gain real-world experience, the more your confidence and competence will increase.

Really, all of this boils down to your learning cycle. There’s certainly nothing worse than ignorance. Whether you’re a start-up small business owner, brand-new to the field, or someone who has spent a few years as a business professional, neglecting to receive formal training is really a rookie move.

  A sales expert thrives because they understand that in order to sharpen their skills, it is imperative that they invest in ongoing education and that they read books in focused subjects as a part of their continual personal development. Sales superstars always stay focused on sharpening their skills.

FACTOR 2: DEVELOP YOURSELF AS AN EXPERT IN YOUR FIELD

Professionals don’t just act as if they’re experts—they are experts. Customers will quickly sense if you’re comfortable in your field or are a beginner. So, to become an expert, you have to become excellent at what you do; but in order to be excellent, you have to practice.

  It is essential that you master the fundamentals of whatever it is that you’re doing. That way it becomes second nature to you, and you can be totally confident when you’re engaging with your clients and prospects. To become an expert, you need to discover your passion. It’s exponentially easier to become an expert when you’re passionate about:

What you’re doing

The company that you’re working for

The products and services that your company offers.

When these stars align, you’ve found your passion, and you can use that passion as fuel towards becoming an expert in your field. Educate yourself on the value that your company has to offer to your clients, as well as the possible problems that you may have to solve for your clients.

  At my information technology company IT Tech Pros, Inc., we’re in the field of technology; however, at the end of the day, we really hope to give our clients a peaceful state of mind. Because of these services that IT Tech Pros provide, we’ve been able to earn our client’s confidence and trust. With our expertise, our valued clients don’t have to worry about anything when it comes to the field of technology.

Sales superstars are on top of their industry; they’re always looking ahead and monitoring trends. They aren’t just looking at immediate goals for their company, either— they’re mastering the short and long-term goals for their clients. Furthermore, sales superstars know about their competitors. They know the competing products and services that are out there, how they’re sold, whom they’re sold to, and what the potential gaps that they can identify and potentially fill.

FACTOR 3: KNOW THE SALES PROCESS

To become a sales superstar, it’s imperative that you dedicate a great deal of your time and energy to studying the sales process.

Here are four major areas of the sales process:

  Understanding and learning the sales process. If you go out of order at any point in time in the sales process, you’ve killed the sale and lost your opportunity. Take this analogy for example, the sales process is like courting someone new; you wouldn’t want to propose marriage on the first date. Get to know your prospects first, build rapport with them, and understand their needs, before you sell them anything.

  Make effective and persuasive presentations. The most important factor in determining how much and how quickly you sell is based upon how effective your presentation is. This determines whether or not your customer will buy from you, how quickly they’ll buy, how they’ll negotiate, and how likely he or she will be to recommend you to friends and colleagues. If your presentation isn’t on point, that’s inevitably going to take away from your ability to make your sale.

Overcome objections. There are many different types of objections, the most common are:

I need to think about it…

I need to talk about it with my partner/spouse…

It’s too expensive…

Rather than think of the possible negative outcomes, think of the advantages. Oftentimes, beginners will meet with their prospects unprepared, not learn how to overcome common objections, and eliminate any sense of urgency from their closing pitch. Learn to instill confidence and determination in all of your presentations. Unfortunately, if you fail to overcome these oppositions, you will not make the sale.

  Closing your sale. Sales superstars plan their closes in advance. They are excellent at bringing their sales conversation to a close. The key is to practice your close! Learning how to close a sale is a skill that you can master once you are confident that you’ve got the other 4 major areas in sales down.

FACTOR 4: BECOME AN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATOR

I recently watched a Season of Food Network Star. On this show, it’s quite obvious that some of the contestants stand out as great performers while others are clearly great chefs. In my observations, the contestants who produced average food but effectively communicated their passion, point of view, and concepts practically outshined the chefs that produced extraordinary food.

  Even if you have the best-selling products out in the market, you won’t experience success if you’re unable to convey your ideas to your audience. We want to provide excellent service. Even with a mediocre product, it is possible to find success if you’re able to effectively communicate and win your audience over.

Sales superstars are competent communicators, both verbally and in writing. If you need help becoming a more effective communicator, here are tips to get you moving in the right directions:

  Enroll in a public speaking course. Almost every community college in the country offers a basic public speaking course or join Toastmasters. Seek out a course in your community and you’ll be building your verbal communication skills in no time.

Practice writing by starting a blog. Make it a habit to write 1-2 blog posts a month until you feel that you’ve really honed your writing skills. Over time, it will become easier, and you will be able to craft written sales letters to your prospects.

Look into technical assistance/training programs for small business owners. These programs are available locally, and they can help you to create your 30-and-60-second elevator pitches. I recommend looking at workshops through SCORE, a support organization for entrepreneurs and small business owners nationwide. You can find more information on their course offerings at http://www.SCORE.org.

  Request feedback. Receiving thorough feedback on how you’re communicating is critical. It will help you fine-tune your message until you’re 100% on point every time you’re delivering it. The more often you practice communicating, the more confident you’ll become.

FACTOR 5: HAVE A CEO MENTALITY

If you’re a sales associate or business development professional who works for a large corporation, your level of investment in your company will dictate the level of success that you reach. Even when I worked for a large corporation, I ran my position as if it was my own individual business. Every day, I wrote down my revenue goals. I made sure that all of my activities were in line and that they supported these goals.

  As a result, I was able to deliver great service. I was able to set a standard where all of the customers that I interacted with knew that they were going to receive excellent service. Your time is valuable, so focus on scheduling your activities to give you the highest rate of impact in exchange for your time.

  The best way for a sales professional or small business owner to find out what they’re spending there on a daily basis is to start taking notice of what you are focusing on. Throughout the day/week, keep track of what you’re doing on paper.

Periodically, try asking yourself, “What activity am I spending my time on?” “Is this activity really helping me meet my sales objectives, or is this activity just a waste of my time?” Jotting your activities down and looking at a comprehensive overview of your week can be extremely insightful. You may realize that you’re wasting 90% of your time avoiding high-impact, revenue-generating activities.

  When people create to-do lists, they often brag about having 50-60 things to do on their calendar. In reality, a vast majority of those tasks are usually time-wasters with little or no real value attached. Steve Jobs put this concept beautifully when he said that he only worked on about 3 high-impact activities on any given day. For each activity, he would ask himself, “Is this activity going to make me the most money for today?”

  As for me, I ask myself this question often, “Is what I am putting my focus on right now, creating the highest level of impact for my business?” When you look at what you do on a daily basis from that perspective, you can’t help but be directed to perform the most impact activities on any given day.

  Unsuccessful salespeople always look for things to do other than selling. They make excuses to justify why they need to focus on non-essential and non-sales activities. This type of thinking is the number one contributing factor to a business’s failure. A sales superstar will have their day mapped out, determined to invest their time in what they believe will be most beneficial to them and their company.

FACTOR 6: BECOME AN EXPERT LISTENER

If you’ve never heard of the 80/20 Rule, it should be of your best interest to learn and apply this concept. This notion states that 20% of your efforts account for 80% of your results. The 80/20 Rule is one of the most useful principles to have in your arsenal when it comes to a wide variety of tasks, including interacting with clients as well as potential ones so that you may perform your selling and operational activities on a daily basis.

  With this rule, I encourage that you really listen and understand your clients within your sales process. When talking to a client or a potential client, they should do 80% of the talking. You should spend the remaining 20% of the time asking focused questions and providing your expert analysis or feedback to your clients.

  There are dual benefits to focusing on listening. First, allowing your client to do the majority of the talking will make them feel irrevocably involved. On top of that, spending most of your time listening will allow you to formulate solutions tailored to their unique lifestyle and preferences.

  Note that sales superstars also observe, take notes, and create possible solutions for their clients before they ask. When beginners talk to clients, they often tend to ramble, selling relentlessly from the very beginning of their pitch. While engaging in rapid conversation may seem valuable, in actuality, they are killing the opportunity before they even gave themselves a real chance. Experts listen more and talk less.

  When you listen to your clients effectively, it helps you identify client needs in a concise and effective manner. Sales Superstars prepare and plan ahead of time. They put together a client questionnaire, a needs analysis, a worksheet or some other mechanism that allows them to ask their prospective clients the key, high-impact questions to help figure out what’s most important to the client.

  Selling is a science as well as an art. Sales superstars have a learnable set of skills that allow them to establish a higher level of rapport. They achieve trust by working with their client towards a common goal, but that simply wouldn’t be possible if they hadn’t listened and identified the needs of their clients. Always remember the 80/20 rule when meeting with your clients.

FACTOR 7: BE MOTIVATED AND EMBODY SUCCESS

When you’re successful, you develop your own inner drive, and you are able to become self-motivated towards excellence. If you want to be physically fit, you engage in exercise every day. If you want to improve your mental fitness, you engage in certain mental exercises each day as well.

  Here’s the secret; the reason why most people never achieve the “expert” status is that they simply never commit to becoming an expert in their field. Your attitude determines your altitude more than your aptitude. You have to master the points that are identified in this article; they’ll help get you to the point where you’re performing at your best all day, every day.

  Excellence isn’t an accident. You have to make the conscious decision that you’re going to become excellent in your field. If you want to get better in selling and achieve sales superstar status, you have to commit to continuing your education.

  Constantly reflect on your strengths and weaknesses and ask yourself, “What one skill could I develop or improve that would make the most increase in my knowledge, skill set, and income? Develop a plan, and achieve that goal. Write down your plan, commit to it, and take steps toward achieving it every single day. You’ll find that the more work you put into achieving your goals, the more you’ll be motivated to continue working.

  For sales superstars, this is true not only for individual goals but for all of the successes that they achieve. To embody success, you also need to associate yourself with like-minded, successful people. Zig Ziglar had the saying, “You can’t fly with the eagles if you continue to scratch with the turkeys.” To be a sales expert, you need to be in a network of other experts.

  Those who embody success also believe in themselves. Do your best to have a positive mental attitude and a sense of control over your self-talk. This will not only help you to improve yourself from a knowledge standpoint, but it will also help you when it comes to your mind, heart, soul, and body.

  Go to our website:   www.ncmalliance.com

    THE 7 SUCCESS FACTORS OF BECOMING A SALES SUPERSTAR Kathy David Have you ever wondered why some people are just more successful than others? Have you ever seen someone who can go from one field to another, yet achieve tremendous success?

[componentplanet]

Intel Is Still Fighting the EU Over Its Anti-Competitive Actions Against AMD

In 2009, the European Commission found that Intel had abused its market position with respect to AMD and slapped the company with a ���1.06B ($1.45B at 2009 exchange rates) fine. In 2014, the General Court of the European Union upheld the judgment. In 2017, however, Intel won relief from the European Court of Justice, which ordered a new trial. That’s where we are today.

Intel is once again making the case that its exclusivity rebates had no impact on AMD, despite the fact that they placed steep restrictions on how many AMD systems could be sold. Intel’s counter-argument is that these deals were ones the OEMs could walk away from, that they only covered a fraction of the market, that AMD was supply limited, and that nothing in EU law states that exclusivity rebates are automatically anti-competitive.

What Happened in 2017?

When evaluating whether a company has illegally restricted competition, the EU applies what’s known as AEC (As Efficient Competitor) test. Loosely speaking — because I am not an expert in EU law — the AEC test is intended to measure whether an “as-efficient competitor” that would otherwise be competing effectively with the dominant company is being shoved out of the market by anti-competitive practices.

Back in 2009, the EC found that Intel’s behavior was so self-evidently abusive, and its practices so filled with “naked restrictions” on AMD, it did not need to perform a full AEC test but provided one anyway.

When Intel appealed the case to the General Court in 2014, it raised specific problems with the EC’s AEC analysis and argued that the analysis had been performed incorrectly. In essence, Intel took the position that other factors, including AMD’s factually constrained CPU production, were the reason for the company’s low market share.

The General Court, however, “attached no importance” to the EC AEC report, precisely because the document was not a formal finding of fact. Because the General Court chose not to consider the AEC analysis as evidence, it also chose not to consider Intel’s arguments about the specific problems with the AEC as evidence.

This was not a breach of protocol or legal precedent. Prior to the Intel ruling in 2017, there was no requirement that a General Court perform an analysis of company-provided data regarding whether it had breached antitrust law. The EC had provided the document voluntarily.

Prior to 2017, the use of exclusivity rebates to retain customer loyalty was apparently treated as prima facie evidence of anti-competitive behavior. The EC also argued that Intel’s criticisms of its AEC report amounted to an attempt to contest the findings of fact already established in the original case and rejected them accordingly.

The text below is from the 2017 decision. In all cases, the Commission is the European Commission that handled the initial investigation, the General Court is the body Intel appealed to.

In this case, while the Commission emphasised, in the decision at issue, that the rebates at issue were by their very nature capable of restricting competition such that an analysis of all the circumstances of the case and, in particular, an AEC test were not necessary in order to find an abuse of a dominant position… it nevertheless carried out an in-depth examination of those circumstances, setting out, a very detailed analysis of the AEC test, which led it to conclude… that an as efficient competitor would have had to offer prices which would not have been viable and that, accordingly, the rebate scheme at issue was capable of having foreclosure effects on such a competitor.

The ellipses above reflect where I removed paragraph reference numbers to make the text easier to read.

In 2017, all of this changed. The ECJ ruling found that the General Court had erred in failing to consider Intel’s arguments regarding the AEC report that the court had chosen not to treat as evidence and sent the case back to the lower court for a re-hearing on Intel’s arguments.

The decision was seen as significant. Norton Rose Fullbright writes:

Although the Commission did in fact make an effects-based assessment, the General Court had not assessed Intel’s arguments that the Commission’s analysis was defective. This is the first time that the CJEU has required an effects-based analysis in an exclusivity rebate case.

Present Day: Intel May Not Want to Win This Case

Back here in 2020, Intel is arguing essentially the same point it raised in 2017, that the AEC test was badly performed and that it wasn’t actually harming AMD. As evidence, Intel points to the fact that Dell adopted AMD CPUs when rebates were at an all-time high. They aren’t wrong. Dell was fined a great deal of money for failing to report its finances properly with respect to Intel’s rebate payments.

If Intel wins this case, it will likely weaken EU antitrust law. The old standard of analysis emphasized the structure and nature of illegal agreements and did not require a demonstration of competitive harm, though the companies still had to be genuine competitors to one another. The EJC ruling did not exonerate Intel on the matter of its rebates, even though it ordered a retrial.

This may be a good time to note that this investigation is 18 years old. If it were a human, it’d be old enough to vote.

Here’s the problem. Forcing the EC to perform a full economic analysis of whatever data a huge tech company provides is going to make it significantly harder to investigate these companies at all. Substantially raising the burden of proof on the EC means its efforts to rein in Google and Qualcomm are more likely to fail.

Intel may have won its Qualcomm case in the US, but the EU investigation of Qualcomm is still ongoing. What Qualcomm did to Intel is conceptually very similar to the way the EU found Intel had harmed AMD. Intel might be shooting itself in the foot with regards to its own Qualcomm case.

As for whether the EJC made the right call? I genuinely don’t feel as though I know enough about how the EU’s justice system works to have an opinion. I typically favor giving companies and individuals the right to challenge a judgment and to have that challenge heard, but I don’t want to see that right turned into a cudgel that companies can wield to slow or overwhelm lawful investigations. Any change in the law that substantially increases the burden of proof on the EC should be matched by additional hiring and a larger budget.

Did Intel Actually Harm AMD?

AMD’s original lawsuit against Intel in the United States is, quite frankly, a damning portrayal of market abuse. While the 2005 filing focused on the US market rather than Europe, Intel’s programs to restrict AMD operated in multiple markets. Here’s one example of how much control Intel allegedly wielded:

Following two years of negotiation, Supermicro finally agreed last year to begin developing an Opteron-powered server, however, it so feared Intel retaliation that it secretly moved the AMD development to quarters behind Supermicro’s main manufacturing facility. Further, it forbade AMD from publicizing the product or beginning any marketing prior to its actual release. When, in April 2005, Supermicro finally broke away from years of exclusivity, it restricted distribution of its newly-released Opteron products to only sixty of its customers and promoted them with a glossy, upscale brochure devoid of its name and labeled “secret and confidential.”

I can partially confirm this story. When I heard the first AMD Supermicro motherboard was being released, I searched Supermicro’s website and couldn’t find it. If you punched the model number into Supermicro’s own search engine, it would return no results. The only way to find a link to the motherboard was to use Google to search the site. The box and motherboard were unbranded.

Image by Wikipedia

I called the company to ask about the board and was told Supermicro focused on Intel products. It wasn’t until I mentioned the specific model number that the company representative suddenly knew what I was talking about. Even then, she was cagey, and only barely willing to confirm the motherboard existed.

There’s also the alleged HP chip debacle. To make a long story short, AMD once offered to give HP with one million free processors in order to break Intel’s hold on AMD. Here’s the 2005 filing:

On the eve of the launch, HP disclosed its plan to Intel, which told HP it considered AMD’s entry into HP’s commercial line a “Richter 10” event. It immediately pressured HP into (1) withdrawing the AMD offering from its premier “Evo” brand and 2). withholding the AMD-powered computer from HP’s network of independent value-added resellers, the HP’s principal point of access to small business users for whom the computer was designed in the first place. Intel went so far as to pressure HP’s senior management to consider firing the HP executive who spearheaded the AMD commercial proposal. As a result of Intel’s coercion, the HP-AMD desktop offering was dead on arrival.

This paragraph, ultimately, was at the core of the Intel / AMD antitrust case. Intel’s response to these issues was often to argue that AMD capacity-constrained and therefore incapable of providing the entire market with enough CPUs (which was and is factually true).

But AMD had a potent counter to that argument. Intel’s exclusive rebate system didn’t just restrict AMD’s market share, it restricted the markets AMD was able to sell parts into and the prices it could charge. A million free processors are a lot of chips — but HP couldn’t afford to lose Intel’s rebates. Even if Intel adjusted its rebate policies to specifically account for AMD’s total manufacturing capacity, it was still allegedly impacting AMD’s revenue by mostly confining its CPUs to the desktop market. In AMD’s telling, Opteron took major market share in servers in spite of Intel’s active opposition.

AMD and Intel eventually settled their case, with Intel paying AMD $1.25B and renegotiating the x86 license terms. The allegations in AMD’s filings against Intel were never adjudicated, but the EJC affirmed that Intel’s exclusivity rebates were an intrinsic abuse of power in 2017:

In that regard, the Court has already held that an undertaking which is in a dominant position on a market and ties purchasers — even if it does so at their request — by an obligation or promise on their part to obtain all or most of their requirements exclusively from that undertaking abuses its dominant position within the meaning of Article 102 TFEU, whether the obligation is stipulated without further qualification or whether it is undertaken in consideration of the grant of a rebate.

Allow me to translate: Offering exclusivity rebates is an abuse of power within the meaning of EU law. Period. Nevertheless, the EC is now required to fully examine Intel’s line of reasoning and consider whether it has merit.

Do I think some of Intel’s actions harmed AMD? Yes. Do I know if they would have been found guilty of antitrust violations in a court of law, especially in the United States, which has different and steeper requirements for these kinds of cases? No. Do I think AMD was also responsible for some of its own problems during this time period? Yes. Where does that leave us? Debating an investigation that’s old enough to vote.

Image by Sh4rp_i/flickr

The funny thing is, I’m not sure AMD actually got the short end of the stick. I’m sure the $1.25B was nice, but the renegotiated x86 licensing terms are what allowed AMD to spin off its foundries, something it was contractually forbidden to do before.

Historically, AMD had trouble with new nodes. After beating Intel to 180nm, AMD lagged on 130nm and 90nm. By 45nm, it was a year behind Intel. It’s not clear that AMD could have made the jump to FinFETs within a reasonable period of time if it had retained its own fabs. One of the reasons AMD’s fab transitions lagged Intel is because AMD had to balance capacity constraints and bringing up a new node, much as Intel is doing now.

I’ve taken the time to unpack both the court case findings and AMD’s original allegations is because I think it’s worth understanding the subtleties of the case. The EJC didn’t give Intel a clean bill of health in 2017 and it didn’t examine all of Intel’s legal claims. Intel will now have a chance to present its own data asserting that AMD was not harmed by its rebate practices. I’m in favor of that in principle but wary of the impact in practice — the 737 MAX debacle can be traced, in part, to the FAA’s decision to allow manufacturers to self-certify their own planes. The FAA took that step because it didn’t have the resources or manpower to continue its previous level of oversight.

Intel’s past treatment of AMD tends to be a pretty hot topic, and certain issues, like compiler optimizations, still come up in the present day. I am curious to see how the ruling goes and what evidence Intel will present, but I’m also pretty ready to move on from the battles of 2005. It’s a new era. If you look at the list of executives at Intel in 2005 and compare it with 2020, it’s pretty different. The same people aren’t running the company. While AMD has performed exceptionally well since 2017, there’s no denying that Intel has also substantially improved its prices and overall performance.

Chances are good that this case isn’t over, no matter how the EC rules. It’ll make its way back up the food chain to the ECJ one way or another. Might be time to start planning its 21st birthday party.

Now Read:

AMD Analyst Day 2020: Zen 3, Infinity Fabric 3, and 3D Packaging

AMD Announces CDNA, RDNA2 Architectures, Significant Leap in Performance-per-Watt

From 4.3GHz All-Core Overclocking to SMT Scaling: A Comprehensive Review of the AMD Threadripper 3990X

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/computing/307409-intel-is-still-fighting-the-eu-over-its-anti-competitive-actions-against-amd from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/03/intel-is-still-fighting-eu-over-its.html

[csrgood]

(Part 4) Surviving Climate Change: Can Democracy Save Us?

This article was originally published on Medium. To read the full 5-Part Series please click here. 

By Brad Zarnett

Democracy is Struggling

Liberal Democracy doesn't appear to be able to address climate change or the underlying economic system that’s causing it. Yes, when things are good Democracy works just fine and there’s plenty of time to explore different options but during an emergency, when time is short, and countries need to make hard decisions quickly, the system falters. 

Like an army during wartime, the window for discussion has closed. The time has come to execute the plan that will give us the best chance of keeping us within our carbon budget. Compromise which may work in normal times is a luxury that we can no longer afford. Just like on the battlefield - the time for debate is over.

A Perfect Storm of Inaction

The Democratic approach to addressing climate change has always been a juggling act. Politicians are torn between their own selfish desires to keep their jobs and doing what’s best for the country. This requires that the politician holds space for two policy ideas that are incompatible - support for a growing fossil fuel industry and promises to tackle climate change. 

Yet somehow on election night this absurd narrative is bought by enough citizens and the politician wins. Now it’s time to pay back the financial support from business interests in the form of regulatory changes or tax reductions - this is to ensure that funding continues to flow for the next election. Simultaneously, politicians must appear to be doing what’s best for the country in terms of climate change which has become a key issue for the majority of voters. 

  “These two ideas can only co-exist in a world where logic is suspended and unicorns run free.”

  The problem is that climate change is an all encompassing energy and systems challenge, and to address it effectively requires shrinking the fossil fuel sector. This is problematic for poll-watching politicians for two reasons. It interferes with their future election funding needs and it would also likely cause major disruptions in how we source and use energy, and that means job disruptions and inconvenience - not exactly a winner on voting day. 

The wiggle room for politicians is that because climate change is relatively slow moving, they can pretend that they’re doing something when in fact nothing of consequence is happening. In this way, system disruption is minimal, jobs are protected and politicians can have money spending “photo ops” to further the mirage that they’re making progressive climate investments for the future. This is how you win elections in the era of liberal democracy and climate change. 

To watch this dance in action, just watch my Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, explain how he plans to expand pipelines while continuing to make promises about tackling climate change. These two ideas can only co-exist in a world where logic is suspended and unicorns run free. 

The Battle Lines

If it’s not clear by now, (see Parts 1-3) corporations and the super rich control most of our liberal democracies and they've been interfering with progressive climate legislation for decades. The time for talk has passed and the battle lines are clear. On one hand we have a majority of people who are supported by science and who are deeply concerned about the future, and on the other hand we have the corporate elite and billionaires who are ignoring science and fighting for the status quo.

A Simple Ask

A successful citizen climate strategy must be simple, it must speak with one voice and it must have a clear message. The effort might seem like it’s directed at politicians but it’s actually the voting public that’s the primary audience - they need to be won over. If the public connects with the message then government will respond - if they don’t, then government will feel justified in ignoring the movement or using force to shut it down.

The Demands

Stop stonewalling on progressive climate legislation at the behest of the corporate elite and billionaires. We demand three things from our politicians:

Do your job! Use the power that we’ve granted you to prevent climate chaos. Lower emissions now - not by 2050 when runaway climate change will already be wreaking havoc on our society.

Provide a financial safety net for those who face the immediate impacts of progressive legislation and a climate breakdown. That would include protection and compensation for anyone in the fossil fuel sector who may lose their job or for those who may experience housing loss due to climate induced, floods, fires or hurricanes. 

Stop telling us that there’s no money. If there’s money for endless wars, trillion dollar bailouts for Wall St., and trillions more in the form of subsidies for fossil fuel companies, then there’s money to pay for the transition to a post carbon economy. 

Shake the System

1. Voting

I think we all want to believe that our vote makes a difference but I’m not so sure anymore. I think we can elect good people like AOC, Elizabeth May (Canadian Green Party Leader) and Jacinda Arden (Prime Minister of New Zealand) who can raise good ideas in parliament/congress and the media, and sometimes when given the chance, they can even legislate progessive policy. But without a massive shift in voter behaviour, these individuals are often just a lone voice or part of a tenuous coalition in a sea of corporate backed legislation. 

I don’t suggest that we give up on voting for candidates who will protect the climate, in fact, to the contrary, I think we need to fight harder than ever but I also think we also have to be realistic about the democratic process these days. I’m not hopeful that it will deliver the necessary political changes to protect our biosphere but I do think that it’s an important ingredient in the quest for change.

2. Civil Disobedience

Something changed when Greta Thunberg entered the world stage. She was able to call out the lies and hypocrisy of our leaders like only a child could. It felt good to have someone in the room telling the so called leaders, what we’ve been thinking for so long, but as Greta would admit, it hasn’t changed policy in a meaningful way. 

Global governments continue to subsidize the oil industry by trillions every year, and since the 2015 Paris agreement, 33 major global banks have collectively poured $1.9tn into fossil fuels, according to Rainforest Action’s report. Apparently corporate and political promises mean nothing.

Next came Extinction Rebellion. They tried to shock people to get their attention while also testing different ideas of how to interfere with the capitalist system. There was arguably some success but the demonstrations also caused many busy people to be inconvenienced and this was a serious misstep. As I stated earlier, the voting public is an essential ally that needs to be won over for any changes to occur. But none of it mattered to the government - their response was the same as with Greta - nothing. What did change however, was that the government pulled a new tool out of their toolbox by using the police to arrest demonstrators .

Real Time Civil Disobedience in Canada 

Justin Trudeau’s government, (that campaigned as champions of indiginous reconciliation) is currently in a heated dispute over the expansion route of the Trans Mountain Pipeline through Wet'suwet'en First Nation territory. (There are a lot of details to this story but I’m going to just try and hit the highlights -  if you’d like to read more about the dispute, please click here)

After the project was approved in 2019, the Wet’suwet’en First Nation put up a road blockade that stopped vehicles from entering the pipeline construction work site. What followed were a series of chess moves that continue to this day.

Next came an eviction notice by the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, telling the pipeline company that workers were “trespassing” on their unceded territory. This was followed by a Government issued court order calling for the removal of any Wet'suwet'en camps or obstructions blocking the road. 

Next British Columbia’s RCMP was mobilized and sent to the site, where they awaited further orders to use force. And with that action, in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en First nation, other indiginous groups across the country established rail blockades. This caused CN Rail to shut down its eastern network, which effectively stopped all cross-country freight trains. This has been going on for approximately 3 weeks and in that time the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police have also been mobilized, often within view of the blockades as a show of force, as they await Justin Trudeau’s order to move in.

The inevitable economy and jobs spin

The government claims that the blockades are hurting Canadians. There are disruptions to supply chains and now both CN and Via Rail have announced 450 and “nearly 1000” temporary layoffs. Nice timing for the narrative that will allow the government to say that it’s fighting for Canadian jobs. 

Trudeau gives the order.

Clearly the indiginous action got the attention of the government and that’s a good thing but  Trudueau is being attacked for being weak and for allowing the economy to be hijacked and finally 5 days ago the pressure reached a boiling point. At a press conference Justin Trudeau said that patience has run out and that “the barricades must come down.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZAXQlzzvcQ

So far it has been peaceful but his challenge isn’t going away. Some barricades have been voluntarily disbanded, others have been disbanded peacefully through arrests but some are still standing and others are still popping up. How far will this go? How much force will the government use? Only time will tell.

Negotiate at the barrel of a gun.

It’s important to note that during the standoff the government said that they want to solve this through dialogue, and there has been some, but the Hereditary Chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation said that they won’t negotiate at the barrel of a gun. And that brings up the question as to whether this is really a negotiation or is the Government just looking to strong arm the Wet'suwet'en First Nation into allowing the construction to continue. It’s not like the government will take no for an answer. So what kind of negotiation is it if the outcome is already predetermined?  

And incidentally, have you ever noticed that those with the power cling to the rule of law as a reason to force their might onto the less powerful? Laws don’t magically mean that something is right. After all, slavery was legal in the United States until 1865 and women weren’t allowed to vote in Canada until 1922 and not until 1940 in Quebec. 

Can Civil Disobedience Work for Climate Change?

Is civil disobedience that interferes with the capitalist system a viable way to drive change in climate policy? We’re watching a real time example unfold here in Canada. Here are some points to consider.

While this action may have some commonality with the climate movement regarding pipelines, it is first and foremost, an indiginous issue about control of their land and the government is very weary of using too much force. It is very difficult to draw conclusions as to how the government would respond if hundreds or even thousands of climate activists clogged our railway system with barricades.

There are some brilliant aspects to this approach that are worth noting.

It’s decentralized. There’s no need for a large organizational team. 

It’s quick and easy to set up a barricade and it can be done within hours 

It’s very difficult for the government to defend against it. 

It doesn’t provoke and alienate the public - at least not directly. Jane and Joe Public are allies that need to be won over, not inconvenienced while trying to pick up their kids at daycare.

There needs to be a support system for the protestors. Blockades can go on for months and even years. 

Protesters will need a supply line for food, water and a heat source in the winter

There needs to be a system in place to supplement the income of people who choose to be out there for months at a time sacrificing their chance to earn a living. 

Risks 

The disruption of business can be used by populist leaders to target the protestors as radicals who are destroying the economy. This would give the government cover to get overly aggressive while hiding behind the rule of law.

The Government can call a state of emergency and can arrest and hold people without charges - take away their civil rights.

The Government has access to the police and the army and they can shut down the blockades with force at any time they want. 

This style of battle will be fought in the media.

It will need good public speakers

It will need marketing professionals

It will need video and graphics specialists - a meme can be worth a thousand words

It will need social media specialists

Conclusion

Can Democracy, with all of its flaws, be used to address the climate crisis? Is civil disobedience the best chance we have? It seems like a wild card at best - no government wants to look weak or foolish.

In many ways it’s a game of chicken - who will blink first? How far will the government go in its use of force? How hard will the resistance fight? How many people have to be arrested or lives lost for the government to feel pressure and reverse its policy? 

The corporate elite and billionaires will never give up their power without a fight - and they fight dirty. The government has access to the police, the military and the corporate media who they can call on anytime to pitch their narrative and/or to shut down the demonstrations with force. It’s happening right now to our indiginous people - stay tuned because we're about to learn a valuable lesson about the viability of civil disobedience.

In the final part of this series (Part 5) I will look at what our choices are if government doesn’t respond. What other options do we have?

To read the full series, “Surviving Climate Change: Where Should We Place Our Hope? Business, Government or Ourselves.” Please click here for Part 1

source: https://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/43768--Part-4-Surviving-Climate-Change-Can-Democracy-Save-Us-?tracking_source=rss

[maritzaerwin]

10 Reasons to Start a Career in Public Speaking

When people hear someone say “I make a living as a speaker”, they automatically assume that he or she is a ‘motivational’ speaker – someone like Tony Robbins or Oprah Winfrey. Both Robbins and Winfrey aim to boost people’s morale and energy.  But the truth is, there are other types of speakers.  

You can be an educational speaker, a business speaker, a health and wellness speaker, a celebrity speaker – the list is endless. Speaking is a rewarding career, especially because speakers educate their audience and motivate them to take action.

While a lot of people find it hard to be in front of hundreds – if not thousands of people – there are those who treat the stage as a natural place where they can share their ideas, connect with audience members and exchange knowledge. And the best thing about becoming a public speaker is that it can be learned!

So, if you ever find yourself asking the question “Why would I start a speaking career?”, here are some of the reasons why you must:

1) Help People

We all have a deep need to help people and enable them to be better versions of themselves. Many speakers prefer to facilitate a small, intimate training session for 2-days than speak to 300 people over an hour at a conference because intimate sessions help the audience really get into the content and learn, practice, learn. But the truth is that not everyone can afford the time or the money to attend a long, intensive training.

And a bigger truth is that many people don’t want to learn everything you know, they just want a taste of that! Through keynote speaking, you can help people who in some cases, don’t even know they need your help with their personal and professional life!

2) Be the Expert

When you are in a position to speak about your area of interest, you establish yourself as a credible authority on that topic. If you haven’t worked out the best way to deliver your expertise in a simple, interesting, and memorable way, you’ll crash and burn. Speaking forces you to research, understand and fine-tune your message. Speaking actually results in you becoming the expert you’ve always wanted to be!

Not only that, public speaking allows you to create the change that you’d like to see happen. When numerous people are dealing with the same problem, they normally feel stuck and frustrated. As a public speaker, you can influence them to take actions or strategies that worked for you when you were facing the same problem. You actually become the expert that helps people avoid the same mistakes others committed. You become the problem-solver.

3) Lead Generation

When people see you are the expert in your field they are more likely to buy what you sell or book you for further consulting or advice. When people see you up on the stage as a subject matter expert, looking confident, sounding interesting, laughing and having a great time, they will want more of what you’ve got. They’d want to buy your books, download your podcasts and catch up one on one.

You can immediately set yourself apart from competitors through public speaking! You’re not just speaking to your audience through social media or through your website, but you’re actually engaging them and building their trust in you and your business as you get onto the stage and begin your speech. Public speaking allows you to put yourself and your brand into the world, and that helps you get more leads and clients.

4) Spread Your Unique Message

 Speaking to large audiences is a fabulous way to spread your unique ‘take’ on your subject of choice to the world. And if you want to be good and booked often, you’ll find a special way to package and structure content (that often people have heard before) and spin it in your own special way so it’s memorable and helpful all at once.

A lot of public speakers speak not just for their business or career benefits, but they do so because they want to spread their unique message and fix something. Sometimes, social change happens because someone (in this case, a speaker) had the passion to speak about the problem and inspired people to take action.  

5) Make Some Extra Money

If you’re already helping others for a fee, or maybe you’re helping people and you don’t yet charge a fee, a speaking career might enable you to help groups for a fee. For example, people would often ask, “How do you design memorable slides to accompany your presentations?”

As a speaker, you will spend a lot of your spare time answering this question and helping people even though they’re not paying you to do so. There’s a lot of opportunities for you to charge for your expertise instead of giving them away for free.

In this case, you can package up a speech on how to design great visuals and now speak about it for a fee. When you have a valuable asset that could help people in their business, career, or life in general, they would be willing to pay to learn it. After all, most people would not give value to what they’re getting for free. When they pay for something, this means they are holding themselves accountable and they are willing to actually apply what you’re teaching them.

Source – DepositPhotos.com

6) Increase Your Client List and Contacts

A by-product of speaking is the fascinating people you get to speak with. You can meet famous celebrities, sporting champions and business people who have made millions. People would often come up to you at the end of your speech and they want to give you their business card and shake your hand or hug you. They want to subscribe to your newsletter. They want to stay in touch because of your powerful speech. Isn’t it that meaningful connection is what successful business is all about?

There’s a saying that entrepreneurs and public speaking go together like peanut butter and jelly. This means, when you’re an entrepreneur, you will need to develop your negotiation, persuasion, and public speaking skills in order to build your network and get more clients.

Public speaking opens doors for you to become more confident in approaching investors and delivering sales pitches.

7) Maximize Your Time

There is a lot of sense in speaking one time to 100 people instead of having one hundred individual meetings. If you’re trying to grow your own community, it could be time-consuming to speak to people within your community one at a time.

Public speaking also allows you to filter clients that are more likely to see your worth and the value that you bring.

 As a business owner or professional, this means you no longer have to do cold calls!

8) Contribute to the Body of Knowledge

Speaking allows you to help take your profession further. When you assert your perspective from the stage it creates meaningful debate and stimulates conversations that might otherwise not have happened.

Speaking requires you to care deeply about your subject because when you truly care about something, you will be confident to share what you know and deliver effective speeches.

9) Get Out of Your Comfort Zone – It’s Fun!  

We all know that public speaking is a top fear for many. Deciding to become a speaker means you’ll have to face this fear head-on and jump right out of your comfort zone and love it! You’ll need to learn how to manage your fear, articulate your point of view, deliver your message with the right body movement and voice projection.

You’ll need to create beautiful visual aids and tell remarkable stories that help your audience remember your key messages. If you want to be really good you’ll also have to learn how to influence your feet, facilitate activity and discussion and add humor into your speech. Imagine the satisfaction of adding all these extra strings to your bow! Making up your mind to jump right out of your comfort zone and master the craft of speaking is actually fun!

Not only this, but you would also be forced to stay up to date with your chosen field and hone your skills. Remember, the key to surviving and thriving in the speaking world is making sure you know what’s happening around you.

10) Make a Difference

There are not many roles in life where you really impact someone the way you do as a speaker. Let me tell you a personal story. I was coming down in the lift at the Langham Hotel in Melbourne some months ago. In the lift was a gentleman who was, like me, going out for dinner. We chatted about where we were going and our hopes for a nice evening.

 As we reached the ground floor, and the doors opened, I stepped out of the lift and I turned to him and said, “enjoy your dinner”. He replied, “Thank you, It’s Michelle isn’t it?” I said, ‘yes that’s my name, do I know you?’ He replied, “Yes, I’m xx. I did your training course 15 years ago when I was at Compuware and I still use the lessons you taught me.” I metaphorically ‘flew’ all the way to the restaurant! When you are remembered 15 years later it’s a unique and fabulous compliment.

Good luck with your journey. Happy presenting!

The post 10 Reasons to Start a Career in Public Speaking appeared first on CareerMetis.com.

10 Reasons to Start a Career in Public Speaking published first on https://skillsireweb.tumblr.com/

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What is the average yearly cost of landlord insurance?

What is the average yearly cost of landlord insurance?

Let s say the place is a newer (built after 2000) duplex in Texas and has a $1,000,000 liability policy as well. Can someone give me a ballpark estimate?

BEST ANSWER: Try this site where you can compare free quotes :cheap-insure.info

SOURCES:

Let s say the place is a newer (built after 2000) duplex in Texas and has a $1,000,000 liability policy as well. Can someone give me a ballpark estimate?

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Let s say the place is a newer (built after 2000) duplex in Texas and has a $1,000,000 liability policy as well. Can someone give me a ballpark estimate?

[rjhamster]

The Dude's Guide to Marriage: Listening to Your Wife

Women want to be heard, not fixed. They are open to encouragement, challenge, and even rebuke, but usually only after they have been listened to. — Darrin & Amie Patrick

Listening to Your Wife

Darren & Amie Patrick, The Dude's Guide to Marriage: Ten Skills Every Husband Must Develop to Love His Wife Well 

Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way.

— 1 Peter 3:7

Women like it when you listen to them. They are funny that way. My wife often asks if I hear what she says: “Are you really listening to me?” Many times I’m not. I mean, I am, but I’m not. I hear words coming from her cute, perky lips, but I often fail to listen to the heart behind those words. The truth is I wish my wife wouldn’t talk so much. She could say what she is trying to say with way fewer adjectives and superlatives. She knows how to get to the point. She is aware that I have a short attention span. She has studied my thoughts, actions, and words for twenty years. Yet she keeps talking.1

I’d rather be the one talking. I literally talk for a living. I traffic in words. There is nothing quite like standing up in front of fifty or five thousand people and uttering a profound, life changing statement. To be able to hold the attention of people with my words is one of the greatest gifts I have been given. But there is a dark side to this gift. When I talk, I’m in control. I like being in control. I like giving directives. I like solving problems. Not every man has a job that requires public speaking, but every man uses words. We like to give our opinions, state our case, and instill our wisdom. We use words, and when we do, we feel like we are in control.

Proverbs 18:21 tells us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Words are quite spiritual. We learn from the Bible that in the beginning God created the whole universe with a word. God reveals who he is through the created world generally, but through his words (the Bible) specifically. God has given us words to build a relationship with him. That’s called prayer. Words aren’t just organized noise coming out of our mouths. They are a spiritual force that has power.

Men and women use this controlling force in distinct ways. Men tend to view themselves as individuals in a hierarchical social order in which they are “either one-up or one-down.”2 Women usually view the world as a network of connections in which conversations are negotiations for closeness and consensus. Men talk with a focus on achieving social status and avoiding failure, while women focus on achieving personal connection and avoiding social isolation.

These different ways of conversing are known as report-talk (men) and rapport-talk (women). Report-talk is information oriented, focused on objectivity and practicality. Rapport-talk is relationship oriented, emotionally expressive, and engaging. When you come home from work, and your wife asks, “How was your day?” she is attempting to engage in rapport-talk. When you respond, “Fine,” you assume she was looking for a report.

Why Do Wives Stop Talking?

Many husbands think their wives talking less is a good thing. Not so much. When your wife gives in to report-talk and stops trying to gain rapport, it doesn’t mean you’ve won. It means she’s no longer pursuing connection. If you think having a wife who talks too much is the worst thing possible, wait until she stops.

They Don’t Feel Safe

The other day I noticed Amie was especially silent. Later in the day that silence morphed into coldness. I could tell she had been hurt by something I had done. I racked my brain, trying to figure out how I had offended her. What had I done that morning? It turned out the offense had occurred earlier in the week. My wife was trying to express her feelings about an upcoming family event. I was preoccupied and said, “Amie, just figure it out. I’ll do whatever you want.” She interpreted this to mean, “Darrin doesn’t care and is unwilling to engage with me about our family.” Guilty as charged. She was right.

Because of her experiences with her husband and with counseling other women, Amie has some wisdom here.

A wife stops talking to her husband when she’s given up hope that he will be a safe place for her to share her heart. She’s probably resorted to having her need to be listened to met by someone else—girlfriends, Mom, coworkers, or even another man. The good news is that it’s never too late to change course. A great place to start would be to tell your wife, “I know I’m a terrible listener and I’ve hurt you. I want to change. Will you help me?” She may not come around immediately, but genuine humility and vulnerability go a long way in healing broken places.

They Are Tired of Excuses

Many wives have set the right environment, have tried to approach their husbands in the right spirit and at the right time, and have been given the Heisman (stiff-arm) multiple times. Husband, when conflict arises, you are far more likely to stonewall (shut down and become unresponsive). Faced with intense, troubling emotions, you will just sit there silently, trying not to react, just idling in neutral. You may not intend harm, but it is hard for your wife not to view it as disapproval and rejection.3 Her knee-jerk response is to perceive your silence as hostility. A wife gets tired of pushing through her husband’s walls.

They Are Tired of Being Fixed

Women want to be heard, not fixed. They are open to encouragement, challenge, and even rebuke, but usually only after they have been listened to. Research from Dr. John Gottman tells us, “Women are more sensitive to advice-giving than are men.” A wife will usually react “very negatively” if you try to problem solve her troubles without trying to empathize.4

Amie has found it very helpful when I ask, “Do you want me to help solve the problem, or do you just want me to listen?” Ninety-eight percent of the time she just wants me to listen and understand her perspective. She is more open to proposed solutions if I have spent several minutes patiently listening to her.

Their Husbands Are Distracted

Women do not want to engage in a conversation with a husband who is not focused. Your posture communicates attentiveness or inattentiveness. Eye contact communicates engagement. Most of the time when Amie asks me if I am listening to her, I’m not, though I often fudge and say I am. But sometimes I am listening. The problem is not that I’m listening and my wife doesn’t recognize it. The problem is that I am not communicating that I am listening.

What Can Husbands Do to Communicate Listening?

I have learned to love listening to my wife. Over the years I have grown in how to show Amie that I am interested in understanding her heart through her words. I am learning to express affection for her and validate her emotions with my mouth closed and my ears open. The other day after Amie attended two of our kids’ parent-teacher conferences, I asked her what the teachers said and what she felt about the interaction. Now, this was a huge step in that I actually engaged her heart (what she felt) and not just her head (what the teachers said). When she was talking, I made sure I was listening with my body. You can actually listen with your eyes, your face, and your words.

Make Eye Contact

This is the big E on the eye chart. Look at your wife. Focus on her eyes, which are windows into her soul. Her eyes will communicate even more than her words. Don’t look through her, but look to her. Don’t be afraid of her. Engage her face. My friend Dave Gibbons says, “If we paid as much attention to our wife as we do our phones, we would probably have a great marriage.”

Watch Your Face and Body

As a public speaker, I am hyperaware of nonverbal communication. I try to zone in on a few individuals to see if my message is connecting. Are they engaged, or are they bored? Do I need to pause and be more descriptive? Do I need to omit a point that isn’t relevant? How does the crowd give these cues? Nonverbals. When their arms are folded, faces frowned, eyes intent on their phones, they signal that they aren’t engaged or don’t know how to show that they are engaged. If I show my wife that I am interested in what she is saying with good nonverbals, I actually become more interested in what she is saying.5 When your wife talks, nod, smile, lean forward, do whatever is appropriate to tell her you are interested in her perspective.

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

My wife and I went to college together. She was summa cum laude and the star of her class. Me? I squeezed four years into five. We had only a couple of classes together. But one of those was an intensive weekend class for intro psychology. I don’t remember much about the class because I was staring at my wife during most lectures, but I do remember this helpful piece of advice from the prof: when someone says something to you, it is a good idea to repeat what the person said before you answer.

Act as if you are at a drive-through.6 One person speaks, and the other repeats what he or she heard.

1-6. Footnotes published on the blog.

Excerpted with permission from The Dude’s Guide to Marriage: Ten Skills Every Husband Must Develop to Love His Wife Well by Darrin & Amie Patrick.

***

Your Turn

How can you engage more through active listening in your marriage, or in your other relationships? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

[biofunmy]

Meet the Man Quietly Building the Tesla of Trucks, With Jeff Bezos Aboard

NORMAL, Ill. — By definition, the time of the world’s richest man is pretty valuable. But early last fall, Jeff Bezos sought out a 36-year old entrepreneur named R.J. Scaringe and spent the better part of a day in Plymouth, Mich., at the company he founded, Rivian.

Mr. Bezos got a preview of Rivian’s electric pickup truck and sport-utility vehicle and liked what he saw. Not long after his visit, Amazon led a $700 million investment in Rivian. Two months later, in April, Ford Motor invested $500 million. All told, Rivian has raised $1.7 billion without selling a single truck or S.U.V.

If you have not heard of Rivian before, well, that was intentional. Until recently, it was in stealth mode, operating out of unmarked buildings and making few public announcements. But no longer. By the end of 2020, Rivian intends to begin producing premium electric vehicles, with a greater range than anything on the road today.

Rivian is promising to do for trucks what Tesla did for luxury cars.

That’s where the similarities between the two electric automobile makers end. Even as Tesla and its brash chief executive, Elon Musk, made headlines by setting and falling short of some audacious goals, Mr. Scaringe and Rivian has spent a decade fine-tuning their designs.

Walking around a former Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Ill., Mr. Scaringe points to where stamping presses will churn out car parts like fenders and doors. But he is hoping to do more than sell cars. Mr. Scaringe wants to dispel myths he thinks still surround electric vehicles.

“We have a number of untruths — a truck can’t be electric, an electric car can’t go off road, it can’t get dirty, it can’t tow and truck buyers don’t want something that’s environmentally friendly,” he said. “These things are fundamentally wrong. Electrification and technology can create a truck that’s incredibly capable and fun to drive.”

In addition to developing advanced battery systems, Rivian has also designed a skateboard-like chassis that it plans to sell to other carmakers. For Ford, investing in Rivian is a way to leapfrog the competition and get new ideas from a start-up as it and other automakers race to prepare for an electrified future.

Amazon has been mum about its interest in the company, but Rivian’s vehicles could help the retail giant reduce its carbon footprint as it builds its own distribution network.

The automobile business has fearsome barriers to entry, and aspiring players have to ante up billions of dollars just to be dealt into a game where profit margins tend to be slim.

Mr. Scaringe is likely to need billions more to get as far as Tesla, which itself struggled to expand production in 2017 and 2018. But the demand for electric vehicles is there — Tesla built more than 250,000 cars in 2018.

Mr. Scaringe founded Mainstream Motors, the business that would later become Rivian, in 2009 after completing a doctorate in mechanical engineering at M.I.T.

His timing was odd to say the least — the financial crisis had made investors skittish, and the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler did not bode well for an automotive start-up.

Family and friends provided the initial funding, and Mr. Scaringe and his father both took out second mortgages to raise money. Rivian takes its name from Florida’s Indian River, close to where Mr. Scaringe grew up in Melbourne, Fla.

Mr. Scaringe and a small team worked for two-and-a-half years to create a fuel-efficient sports car, but he ultimately pulled the plug in 2011. “In my heart and soul, I knew I wasn’t answering the fundamental question of why the world needs this company to be successful,” he said.

It was a painful moment. At one point, the team had worked through four nights in a row, said Roman Mistiuk, now a senior interior designer at Rivian. “When the vehicle was done, R.J. said we’re switching.”

The small band of employees stuck with him, and when Mr. Scaringe moved the company to Michigan, they followed him north. At one point, Mr. Scaringe, his girlfriend (now wife) and several Rivian staff members lived together in a house in the Detroit suburbs.

Except for sleeping, they talked cars day and night. “It was breakfast, lunch and dinner, 24/7,” Mr. Scaringe said.

Early backing from Saudi and Japanese investors provided the runway for Rivian to develop its electric vehicle designs.

“Fortunately, my personality is one that I never lost confidence I could do it,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I always knew how I was going to do it.”

Much like what he is building, Mr. Scaringe is in constant motion, splitting his time between the company’s engineering headquarters in Plymouth, the factory in Normal and two other offices in Irvine and San Jose in California.

That leaves little time for him to spend with his wife and three sons, the oldest of whom is 3. “Rivian is 100 percent minus family,” Mr. Scaringe said, estimating that his wife and children get about 5 percent of his time.

Rivian is the culmination of a lifelong dream. Mr. Scaringe grew up rebuilding vintage Porsches under the tutelage of a neighbor and he knew he wanted to start a car company when he was 18.

“It became the plan when I started college,” he said. “Then I started putting the pieces together.”

At M.I.T., Mr. Scaringe made his ambitions clear, recalls Dan Roos, a retired engineering professor who served as the director of the university’s Center for Transportation Studies.

“He said, ‘I’m going to start an auto company’,” Mr. Roos said. “When you hear a student say that, it’s like saying I’m going to change the world. It’s nice but highly unlikely. But he was very determined about what he was going to do.”

As much as he loved cars, Mr. Scaringe said he was deeply troubled by their role as a cause of climate change, air pollution and other ills. “I wanted to have an impact and the highest impact approach was to build the company myself,” he said.

Mr. Scaringe, an outdoorsy type who enjoys mountain biking, wants his cars to be able to go off road. Rivian trucks and S.U.V.s can operate in three feet of standing water. A ballistic liner protects the battery pack so drivers can take the vehicle into rugged terrain without worrying that rocks and other objects could penetrate the undercarriage.

Rivian’s R1S S.U.V. bears a resemblance to a Range Rover, while the flatbed in its R1T pickup is shorter than the best-selling Ford F-150. “Rivian’s products are not really meant to be work trucks,” said Stephanie Brinley, principal automotive analyst with IHS. “They aim to be lifestyle products, capable but meant for recreational use.”

The R1S will directly challenge Tesla’s S.U.V., the Model X, and although Mr. Musk has said he will introduce a pickup, Tesla has yet to unveil one

The R1S and the R1T will start at around $70,000 and cost more than $90,000 for fully loaded models that can travel up to 400 miles on a full charge. Rivian has received tens of thousands of reservations from buyers who have made deposits of $1,000 each.

“Targeting the premium pickup and S.U.V. market in the U.S. was smart,” said Sam Abuelsamid, principal auto analyst at Navigant Research. “Those are the kind of vehicles Americans want to buy, as opposed to a compact car or midsized sedan.” Profit margins are higher too, especially for luxury models.

As different as Mr. Scaringe is from Mr. Musk, the two share some qualities. Mr. Scaringe is a control freak who weighs in on everything from the color of bathroom tiles to the lighting in the assembly plant.

Rivian employees describe Mr. Scaringe in worshipful, almost mystical tones, echoing the kind of adoration that Mr. Musk inspires. Designers laud his sophisticated design sensibilities. Brand experts cite his marketing know-how.

“I’ve spent years trying to decode R.J. and predict what he wants,” said Larry Parker, creative director at Rivian. “He’s moving so fast. Sometimes we don’t know where he is going. To keep up with R.J. is not easy.”

Jeff Hammoud, Rivian’s head of design said Mr. Scaringe was the reason he was willing to leave his job as the top designer at Jeep. “It’s amazing how much he is able to absorb,” Mr. Hammoud said.

But there are idiosyncrasies beneath the surface. Mr. Scaringe usually dresses in blue (“Blue is my favorite color!”), occasionally flannel. On his birthday, many employees wear flannel on what’s known as “Dress Like R.J. Day.”

To provide fresh food for his employees, Mr. Scaringe wants to turn the grassy areas that surround the plant in Normal into a farm. “The goal is let’s make this the best place to eat in town,” he said.

Asked about Rivian’s rivalry with Tesla, Mr. Scaringe would not disparage the competition. He credits Tesla for changing the perception of electric cars as “boring and slow, or glorified golf carts.”

While Tesla has failed to reach its own lofty production targets in recent years, Mr. Scaringe is only promising about 20,000 to 40,000 vehicles in 2021, the first full year of production.

Before that happens, Rivian will have to create assembly lines for its vehicles and batteries, which Tesla’s problems have shown is very difficult. The company will also have to establish a retail operation to get its vehicles to buyers.

“Manufacturing is the biggest challenge,” said Mike Ramsey, an analyst with Gartner. “The capital requirements are enormous and ceaseless.”

Even as Rivian has grown and new investors have come aboard, Mr. Scaringe has made clear he wants to hold the reins tight. General Motors discussed investing in the company this year, according to two people familiar with the negotiations who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. But the automaker and Mr. Scaringe could not agree on terms. G.M. was demanding more control and exclusivity than he was comfortable with.

For inspiration, Mr. Scaringe looks to Alex Honnold, a rock climber who scaled Yosemite’s El Capitan without equipment. A poster for a documentary about the climb, “Free Solo,” is on the wall of Mr. Scaringe’s office in Plymouth.

“Hindsight has a lot of advantages, one of which is that everything looks crisper and cleaner, but at the time you don’t know the path forward,” he said. “So you’re going up this infinitely steep climb.”

Sahred From Source link Technology

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2Jj3z14 via IFTTT

[deniscollins]

Facebook Expects to Be Fined Up to $5 Billion by F.T.C. Over Privacy Issues

Regulatory investigators have found that Facebook’s handling of data has harmed millions of consumers through privacy breaches. If you were determining penalties, would you: (1) fine Facebook $5 billion fine, the largest fine ever but still an amount that is just a fraction of its $56 billion in annual revenue, or (2) in addition to $5 billion fine also require far reaching reforms in management, privacy practices and culture? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

Facebook said on Wednesday that it expected to be fined up to $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission for privacy violations. The penalty would be a record by the agency against a technology company and a sign that the United States was willing to punish big tech companies.

The social network disclosed the amount in its quarterly financial results, saying it estimated a one-time charge of $3 billion to $5 billion in connection with an “ongoing inquiry” by the F.T.C. Facebook added that “the matter remains unresolved, and there can be no assurance as to the timing or the terms of any final outcome.”

Facebook has been in negotiations with the regulator for months over a financial penalty for claims that the company violated a 2011 privacy consent decree. That year, the social network promised a series of measures to protect its users’ privacy after an investigation found that its handling of data had harmed consumers.

The F.T.C. opened a new investigation last year after Facebook came under fire again. This time, the company was accused of not protecting its users’ data from being harvested without their consent by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm that was building voter profiles for the Trump campaign. Facebook also suffered a  data breach that exposed the personal information of nearly 50 million users.

Levying a sizable fine on Facebook would go against the reputation of the United States of not restraining the power of big tech companies. For years, American regulators have faced criticism that they allowed Silicon Valley firms to grow unchecked, even as their European counterparts aggressively brought actions against tech companies — including fining Google a record $5.1 billion last year for abusing its power in the mobile phone market.

For the Trump administration, penalizing Facebook would be a defining action. Although President Trump has rolled back scores of business regulations, he and others in Washington — including Democrats — have coalesced around calling for greater scrutiny and enforcement of tech companies. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts and presidential candidate, has called for the breakup of Amazon, Google and Facebook. And Mr. Trump has sounded alarms over the dominance of the firms and their control over speech and the distribution of information.

It would also be a milestone for the F.T.C., whose biggest fine for a tech company was $22 million against Google in 2012 for misrepresenting how it used some online tracking tools. The agency, which is charged with overseeing deceptive and unfair business practices, is riding a wave of anti-tech sentiment as questions about how tech companies have contributed to misinformation, election meddling and data privacy problems have stacked up.

“The F.T.C. is really limited in what they can actually do in enforcing a consent decree, but in the case of Facebook, they had public pressure on their side,” said Justin Brookman, a former official for the regulator who is now a director of privacy at Consumers Union, nonprofit consumer advocacy group.

But some lawmakers said a fine would not suffice in punishing Facebook. Representative David Cicilline, Democrat of Rhode Island, said that “a fine in the low billions of dollars would amount to a slap on the wrist for Facebook” and that Congress needed to act.

“Facebook must be held accountable — not just by fines — but also far reaching reforms in management, privacy practices and culture,” Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, added in a tweet.

The F.T.C. declined to comment.

Officials at the agency have not reached a final decision on Facebook, said two people with knowledge of the situation, who were not authorized to speak publicly. In recent weeks, the agency’s chairman, Joseph Simons, sent strict orders to all commission offices and staff in the consumer protection, enforcement and privacy bureaus to not discuss the Facebook case, two people said.

But Facebook’s estimate of a fine signaled that a settlement with the F.T.C. was near. The Securities and Exchange Commission typically requires that a company notify investors of any significant financial hits.

For Facebook, a $5 billion fine would amount to a fraction of its $56 billion in annual revenue. Any resolution would also alleviate some of the regulatory pressure that has been intensifying against the company over the past two and a half years.

“This would be a joke of a fine — a two-weeks-of-revenue, parking-ticket-level penalty for destroying democracy,” said Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Open Markets Institute, a think tank that is a vocal critic of the power of tech companies.

More meaningful to Facebook would be any regulatory mandates that curbed its ability to share data with business partners or required it to take more measures to inform consumers when and how it collected data.

“Those will have the most lasting impact on consumers’ privacy,” said Ashkan Soltani, a former chief technology officer for the trade commission.

Even as the negotiations continue, Facebook’s business remains robust. The company said Wednesday that its revenue increased 26 percent in the first quarter to $15 billion from a year earlier. Net income dropped 51 percent from a year ago to $2.4 billion because of the expected one-time charge related to the F.T.C. investigation. The company has more than $40 billion in cash reserves.

New users continue flocking to Facebook. More than 2.7 billion people use one of the company’s so-called family of apps — Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp — each month. The company said about 1.56 billion people use Facebook every day, up 8 percent from a year ago.

Last month, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, said he planned to start shifting people toward private conversations and away from public broadcasting on social media, which is likely to help the company manage issues of toxic content and misinformation. On Wednesday in a conference call, Mr. Zuckerberg repeated that vision.

“People want a platform that is as strong on privacy as possible,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. He added that “we just don’t know” how the change would affect the company’s business.

Mr. Zuckerberg also said he welcomed regulations, an idea that he has increasingly been vocal about this year.

“I think it’s necessary,” he said. “Getting these issues right is more important than our interests. And I believe that regulation will help establish trust when people know that the right systems of governance and accountability are in place.”

[theinvinciblenoob]

After holding a series of hearings in the wake of the Facebook -Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal this summer, and attending a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg himself in May, the European Union parliament’s civil liberties committee has called for an update to competition rules to reflect what it dubs “the digital reality”, urging EU institutions to look into the “possible monopoly” of big tech social media platforms.

Top level EU competition law has not touched on the social media axis of big tech yet, with the Commission concentrating recent attention on mobile chips (Qualcomm); and mobile and ecommerce platforms (mostly Google; but Amazon’s use of merchant data is in its sights too); as well as probing Apple’s tax structure in Ireland.

But last week Europe’s data protection supervisor, Giovanni Buttarelli, told us that closer working between privacy regulators and the EU’s Competition Commission is on the cards, as regional lawmakers look to evolve their oversight frameworks to respond to growing ethical concerns about use and abuse of big data, and indeed to be better positioned to respond to fast-paced technology-fuelled change.

Local EU antitrust regulators, including in Germany and France, have also been investigating the Google, Facebook adtech duopoly on several fronts in recent years.

The Libe committee’s call is the latest political call to spin up and scale up antitrust effort and attention around social media. 

The committee also says it wants to see much greater accountability and transparency on “algorithmic-processed data by any actor, be it private or public” — signalling a belief that GDPR does not go far enough on that front.

Libe committee chair and rapporteur, MEP Claude Moraes, has previously suggested the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal could help inform and shape an update to Europe’s ePrivacy rules, which remain at the negotiation stage with disagreements over scope and proportionality.

But every big tech data breach and security scandal lends weight to the argument that stronger privacy rules are indeed required.

In yesterday’s resolution, the Libe committee also called for an audit of the advertising industry on social media — echoing a call made by the UK’s data protection watchdog, the ICO, this summer for an ‘ethical pause‘ on the use of online ads for political purposes.

The ICO made that call right after announcing it planned to issue Facebook with the maximum fine possible under UK data protection law — again for the Cambridge Analytica breach.

While the Cambridge Analytica scandal — in which the personal information of as many as 87 million Facebook users was extracted from the platform without the knowledge or consent of every person, and passed to the now defunct political consultancy (which used it to create psychographic profiles of US voters for election campaigning purposes) — has triggered this latest round of political scrutiny of the social media behemoth, last month Facebook revealed another major data breach, affecting at least 50M users — underlining the ongoing challenge it has to live up to claims of having ‘locked the platform down’.

In light of both breaches, the Libe committee has now called for EU bodies to be allowed to fully audit Facebook — to independently assess its data protection and security practices.

Buttarelli also told us last week that it’s his belief none of the tech giants are directing adequate resource at keeping user data safe.

And with Facebook having already revealed a second breach that’s potentially even larger than Cambridge Analytica fresh focus and political attention is falling on the substance of its security practices, not just its claims.

While the Libe committee’s MEPs say they have taken note of steps Facebook made in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal to try to improve user privacy, they point out it has still not yet carried out the promised full internal audit.

Facebook has never said how long this historical app audit will take. Though it has given some progress reports, such as detailing additional suspicious activity it has found to date, with 400 apps suspended at the last count. (One app, called myPersonality, also got banned for improper data controls.)

The Libe committee is now urging Facebook to allow the EU Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) and the European Data Protection Board, which plays a key role in applying the region’s data protection rules, to carry out “a full and independent audit” — and present the findings to the European Commission and Parliament and national parliaments.

It has also recommended that Facebook makes “substantial modifications to its platform” to comply with EU data protection law.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment on the recommendations — including specifically asking the company whether it’s open to an external audit of its platform.

At the time of writing Facebook had not responded to our question but we’ll update this report with any response.

Commenting in a statement, Libe chair Moraes said: “This resolution makes clear that we expect measures to be taken to protect citizens’ right to private life, data protection and freedom of expression. Improvements have been made since the scandal, but, as the Facebook data breach of 50 million accounts showed just last month, these do not go far enough.”

The committee has also made a series of proposals for reducing the risk of social media being used as an attack vector for election interference — including:

applying conventional “off-line” electoral safeguards, such as rules on transparency and limits to spending, respect for silence periods and equal treatment of candidates;

making it easy to recognize online political paid advertisements and the organisation behind them;

banning profiling for electoral purposes, including use of online behaviour that may reveal political preferences;

social media platforms should label content shared by bots and speed up the process of removing fake accounts;

compulsory post-campaign audits to ensure personal data are deleted;

investigations by member states with the support of Eurojust if necessary, into alleged misuse of the online political space by foreign forces.

A couple of weeks ago, the Commission outted a voluntary industry Code of Practice aimed at tackling online disinformation which several tech platforms and adtech companies had agreed to sign up to, and which also presses for action in some of the same areas — including fake accounts and bots.

However the code is not only voluntary but does not bind signatories to any specific policy steps or processes so it looks like its effectiveness will be as difficult to quantify as its accountability will lack bite.

A UK parliamentary committee which has also been probing political disinformation this year also put out a report this summer with a package of proposed measures — with some similar ideas but also suggesting a levy on social media to ‘defend democracy’.

Meanwhile Facebook itself has been working on increasing transparency around advertisers on its platform, and putting in place some authorization requirements for political advertisers (though starting in the US first).

But few politicians appear ready to trust that the steps Facebook is taking will be enough to avoid a repeat of, for example, the mass Kremlin propaganda smear campaign that targeted the 2016 US presidential election.

The Libe committee has also urged all EU institutions, agencies and bodies to verify that their social media pages, and any analytical and marketing tools they use, “should not by any means put at risk the personal data of citizens”.

And it goes as far as suggesting that EU bodies could even “consider closing their Facebook accounts” — as a measure to protect the personal data of every individual contacting them.

The committee’s full resolution was passed by 41 votes to 10 and 1 abstention. And will be put to a vote by the full EU Parliament during the next plenary session later this month.

In it, the Libe also renews its call for the suspension of the EU-US Privacy Shield.

The data transfer arrangement, which is used by thousands of businesses to authorize transfers of EU users’ personal data across the Atlantic, is under growing pressure ahead of an annual review this month, as the Trump administration has failed entirely to respond as EU lawmakers had hoped their US counterparts would at the time of the agreement being inked in the Obama era, back in 2016.

The EU parliament also called for Privacy Shield to be suspended this summer. And while the Commission did not act on those calls, pressure has continued to mount from MEPs and EU consumer and digital and civil rights bodies.

@EP_Justice supports my amendment and calls for suspension of #PrivacyShield as long as the US do not comply. Strong message to @EU_Commission @VeraJourova

— Sophie in 't Veld (@SophieintVeld) October 10, 2018

I had a good talk with @accessnow and @edri on #PrivacyShield ahead of the upcoming annual review. pic.twitter.com/1IQvgQRAaA

— Věra Jourová (@VeraJourova) October 9, 2018

The 1 September deadline has long passed, but US are no closer to full compliance with #PrivacyShield. Will the @EU_Commission finally speak up and put the rights of European citizens and businesses first? @BirgitSippelMEP @ErnstCornelia pic.twitter.com/H38qxXQb8Z

— Sophie in 't Veld (@SophieintVeld) October 10, 2018

During the Privacy Shield review process this month the Commission will be pressuring US counterparts to try to gain concessions that it can sell back home as ‘compliance’.

But without very major concessions — and who would bank on that, given the priorities of the current US administration — the future of the precariously placed mechanism looks increasingly uncertain.

Even as more oversight coming down the pipe to rule social media platforms looks all but inevitable in Europe.

via TechCrunch

[samuelfields]

What If You Take A Leap Of Faith And Your Dreams Don’t Come True

Leaving a boring job to do your own thing is scary. There’s nowhere to hide when you’re responsible for everything. At the same time, there’s nothing more rewarding than creating something from nothing. No promotion or raise comes close.

Recently, a reader asked, ��What do you think you’d be doing now if FS hadn’t worked out so well for you? Back to the IB grind, real estate tycoon, build a tennis school…other? Might be an interesting article unto itself, I know you’d get at least one interested reader.”

I haven’t thought about this situation since 2012, when I first left my day job. Further, I know that after writing, “Career Or Family: You Only Need To Sacrifice At Most 5 Years Of Your Life,” I definitely won’t be going back to work until 2022, at the earliest.

But this is a good thought experiment to ponder because I’m sure many of you might be wondering what if you took the leap of faith and things don’t work out either. 

A Time Limit On Your Crazy Idea

You’ve got about three years to gain traction in your business before society writes you off. Nobody will bat an eye if you disappear for one or two years because plenty of eager beavers go off to business school for two years and re-enter the workforce with no problem.

But after three years, people will start wondering what you were doing with all that time. They’ll start questioning your judgement. They’ll wonder whether you were too delusional or too stubborn to realize that your endeavor wasn’t working out. Once they think all these things, your chances of getting hired at a comparable job you left for comparable pay diminishes precipitously.

Two or three years is also a perfect amount of time for a rational entrepreneur to decide whether his or her product can generate a minimum livable income stream. During this time period, you can probably pivot one or two times as well.

If you aren’t generating a livable income stream after 36 months, or you haven’t raised capital from outside investors, then you should probably get a job.

My Entrepreneurial Time Limit Was Two Years

According to FINRA regulations, the Series 7 license expires after an employment lapse of two years. The test is six hours long and contains 260 questions and there was no way I was taking that puppy again if I decided to rejoin the financial services industry!

Therefore, I gave myself two years to see if I could generate momentum on Financial Samurai. I published three times a week and saw progress. During this two year period I hedged my bets by going on interviews with several financial firms, but I just didn’t feel the same excitement as I did in my 20s. Instead, my excitement was 100% targeted towards my online business.

It was a scary moment to let my Series 7 license expire in June 2014, but it also allowed me to burn my boat and never look back.

If you plan to take a leap of faith, check any license expirations and set a three year time limit, whichever comes first before you go back to work. To help your cause, consider freelancing in your old industry to stay relevant just in case.

Scenarios If Financial Samurai Failed

It’s pretty easy to see a scenario where Financial Samurai would have stayed stagnant or disappeared. I could have lost my motivation to publish consistently each week. Search engines like Google may have never decided to rank my content. And larger media publications may have never decided to highlight my work.

If I couldn’t gain momentum after two years, I would have done the following in order of likelihood:

1) Return to investment banking at age 37 (2014). Instead of working at a bulge bracket firm, I would have elected to work at a boutique bank with better hours and less stress. I would keep Financial Samurai as a secret side hustle and experiment with new content and partnerships.

There is also no chance I would have sold my Marina rental home in 2017 because I wouldn’t have bought another home in 2014. With a sluggish business and a new job, I wouldn’t have the confidence to get further into debt.

After three years of aggressively saving most of my salary and bonuses, I would reassess life and likely try to leave the business again at 40 (2017). With three more years of content, I’m confident Financial Samurai would have been able to generate a livable income stream by then.

2) Move to Honolulu and say to hell with it by age 38 (2015). My wife and I meticulously planned a simple lifestyle of living off ~$100,000 in Hawaii based on our passive income and online income at the time. We would have probably moved in with my parents for several months and then rented a decent two bedroom for $2,000 a month close by.

I would continue to write on Financial Samurai and probably focus more on lifestyle, travel, entrepreneurship and minimalism. We’d probably also do some online freelance work as well.

The amazing thing about Hawaii is that our favorite activities, going to the beach and hiking, are both free. It doesn’t cost much to live there once your housing costs are taken care of.

With no job and a lackluster lifestyle business, I would be highly tempted to sell my primary residence before moving to Hawaii. If I did, I probably would have given up $400,000 – $500,000 in gains.

3) Get a job at a financial technology company. The fintech space has gained tremendous momentum since 2012. I ended up consulting part-time with firms like Personal Capital and Motif Investing for two years. It was a lot of fun understanding the industry, meeting new people, and learning/advising a lot about online marketing. The only downside with fintech is its much lower base pay. We’re talking 40% less in salary than I used to make.

After at most four years of working in fintech, I’d want to leave and move to Hawaii. Four years is how long it takes for shares to vest at most startups. One of my goals at the fintech startup would be to learn about digital marketing to help build Financial Samurai further.

Finding Constant Themes

Going through this thought exercise, I realize that I would still publish on Financial Samurai no matter what. I’ve always used this site as a creative outlet. It’s the perfect thing to do for an early retiree who loves to travel or someone bored with his or her dayjob. Money is a byproduct of doing what I enjoy.

I’m pretty sure I would try and negotiate a severance at whatever job I was working at by the end of 2017 because I’ve always had a goal to leave work by 40. After all, I strongly believe it’s much better to retire by a certain age than by a certain financial figure. As a 40 year old now, I feel more strongly that the older you get, the more you cherish the remaining time you have left.

Trading time for money in your 20s and 30s is easy. But after 40, it starts feeling like a waste since you realize there are plenty of people who pass away in their 40s and 50s. Steve Jobs died at 56 for goodness sake, and he was the healthiest eater with the best healthcare money could by.

Maybe this whole exercise is pointless though, because I’ve always had confidence Financial Samurai would not fail. It costs less than $5,000 a year to keep the lights on. I knew if I could speak forever, I could write forever. The greatest thing about running an online business is that the harder you try, the better you’ll do. I’m not sure if that’s the case with other businesses.

If You Plan To Go Out On Your Own

There is no doubt that being an entrepreneur is stressful, especially if you have a family to raise. Here are some suggestions I have before you go out on your own:

1) Work on your business after hours while you still have a job. Unless you have a major amount of funding, please don’t leave your job to work on your business full-time without testing it out for at least a year. We all know that most businesses fail. Working from 5am – 7am or 9pm – midnight is plenty of time to see if your business can gain traction.

2) Refinance or get a mortgage before you leave your day job. Once you lose your W2 income, you are deemed too risky for banks. Only after you have at least two years worth of 1099 (freelance) income will banks consider you a creditworthy candidate. Despite having a significant amount of assets, one of my refinance attempts got rejected in my early years post work.

3) Leave your day job after you see hockey stick growth or operating profits. If you plan to run a lifestyle business, then it’s best your lifestyle business generates at least a minimal livable income stream before leaving. If you plan to grow a non-lifestyle business, then wait until you see explosive growth and a visible path to profitability before leaving.

4) Negotiate a severance. A severance will buy you months, if not years of runway to grow your business without overly worrying about profits. Once a business focuses too much on profits, the product or user experience generally declines, and so does the overall business. If you can’t negotiate a severance, then have at least one year’s worth of living expenses in the bank, preferably two.

5) Learn the pitfalls and build a network. Speak to as many people in your field of business as possible and learn how they got off the ground and thrived. Learn about their mistakes and figure out ways to help them so that they might one day help you. Listen to as many podcasts and read as many articles as possible about existing entrepreneurs.

6) If you have a spouse, talk things out thoroughly. If you have a spouse, discuss your entire entrepreneurial plan with him or her. Having a spouse work a stable job with benefits while you go off and do your crazy thing is an excellent combination. Just make sure you have some revenue and time guidelines in order to not burn each other out.

The leap will be scary, but the regret of never leaping will eat you up inside if you have a good business idea. Limit your entrepreneurial endeavors to three years and you’ll likely be fine. After three years, all bets are off.

Related:

The 10 Best Reasons To Start An Online Business

Why Blogging Is The Best Business In The World

Readers, any of you thinking about leaving your day jobs to do something entrepreneurial? Existing entrepreneurs, what are some things you wish you did before working on your business full-time?

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