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womenofcolorincomedy · 5 years

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The Rise of Nicole Byer

Nicole Byer is an actor, writer, and comedian originally from New Jersey. She is perhaps best known to audiences for her work on Nailed It! (Netflix), MTV’s Girl Code, and Loosely Exactly Nicole (Facebook). While I am no biographer I am a huge Nicole Byer fan and look to her as a source of inspiration. The following is pieced together based off of what I’ve learned about Nicole from her podcast Why Won’t You Date Me? If any of the following sounds inaccurate please let me know in the comments.

Nicole first trained at AMDA, which she lovingly refers to as SCAMDA (lol lol lol) in acting. She then moved to New York City and studied and performed at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade (UCB) before moving to Los Angeles, where you can watch her perform Tuesdays at UCB Franklin in Search History.

As a student at the UCB in LA I always looked up to Nicole. She’s not only a dynamic powerhouse of a performer, she’s kind and thoughtful. And a hustler. Nothing stopped her from going for her goals and as a result of her hard work she’s a homeowner in LA (um, yeah, props to that) and makes a very good living doing comedy. Let’s take a closer look to learn how she got to where she is.

Nicole’s journey to where she is now is an untraditional one for stand up comics. Most stand up comics believe the only way to get noticed in the entertainment industry is through the open mic route. Now don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of benefit to doing open mics, but let’s be honest ladies: open mic settings can be daunting because you will be outnumbered by the men. It’s even more isolating when you’re a woman of color because of the lack of diversity, inclusion, and support.

What I love about Nicole’s story is that she found a way to bypass the open mic route and go straight to becoming a PAID stand up comic who regularly travels to perform. And the way she did this was by being willing to learn a new skillset. Her improv and acting training, along with her hard work, is what helped Nicole get her first big break on MTV’s Girl Code. This exposure to new audiences is what got her in the door as a comic and it’s because she won audiences over on Girl Code. Up until this point she was just an improvisor and never considered herself a stand up comic. At her agent’s request, she taught herself how to write and tell jokes so that her agent could get her more work, thus bypassing the open mic route that many people think is the only one available to them. Her web series Loosely Exactly Nicole, which can be viewed on Facebook, also helped her reach new audiences. What this means is that regular ol’ folks got to know her first through her work on TV, and because she did such a great job of winning audiences over she created a demand for her own live shows. In this day and age, and thanks to the awful reputation of many male comics (have you read the New York Times lately?), it is more difficult to convince regular audience members to go see a live stand up show these days when the comics performing are people they’ve never heard of. But a recognizable face that has already proven to make you laugh in the comfort of your own home is a powerful way to motivate real fans to buy a ticket to see you live.

There is so much we can all take away from Nicole’s story. For one, all comedy training is valuable but it’s what you as an individual put into it that will get you ahead. To be a working comic you have to approach this as a business. No one is gonna come pluck you up from an open mic, give you your own show, and make you a star. YOU make yourself a star. YOU put the work into yourself in developing the product you are trying to sell (your comedic self). At the end of the day, this is a business. An agent’s job is to get you work because that’s how they make their livelihoods, and you should want an agent that works for you like their rent depends on it because that’s the kind of ally you need in this business. Nicole admits to being hesitant about starting stand up comedy because she never considered herself a stand up comic. I think a lot of us, myself included, think of stand up comedy as its own thing and maybe this stems from the fact that women of color simply don’t see themselves in mainstream stand up comedy. The ones we do see only made it because they are the exception. But when you have an agent who wants to get you more work, you need to do what Nicole did: learn a new skill set. A lot of people give up on learning after they graduate high school and/or college, but the reality is you need to be a life long learner NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR LIFE. But especially so in comedy, you need to be willing to learn so that you can grow. Comedians are artists, too, and artists evolve.

The other significant take away from Nicole’s story is the role of social media and the internet in her success. If we didn’t have the internet we’d probably have no idea who Nicole even is. The reality is online streaming platforms and podcasting are providing opportunities to under represented voices in a way that traditional television and comedy clubs are incapable of doing unless there is a radical overhaul in leadership. Internet platforms are more inclusive, diverse, and accessible to both content creators and audiences. Who doesn’t have a smartphone these days? And who doesn’t consume a great deal of content on these tiny little computers?

What I’m urging anyone to do, but especially women of color pursuing comedy, is to create your own content. Don’t wait for someone to choose you, choose yourself. Make a web series where you star in it and involve the people you want to work with. Start a podcast. Start a blog. Find creative and inventive ways to share your comedic point of view. But most importantly, invest in your product. Be willing to invest in yourself by taking classes, by outworking everyone around you, by taking care of yourself. If you approach this as a business and you think of yourself as a product (but not in an objectifying way) you will attract like-minded people to help you sell your product because everyone stands to make some money that way. We live in a capitalist society and everything revolves around the Benjamin’s, so be a business woman/person. That’s what will set you apart from the rest who merely spend their time day dreaming about the glamour and fame but never take meaningful action to manifest the life of their dreams. Be bold, be different, be you.

In closing, I’d like to quote the wise words of Jerry Springer, the talk show host: take care of yourself and each other.

To learn more about Nicole Byer and her work visit her website:

https://www.nicolebyerwastaken.com

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frederator-studios · 7 years

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Meet D.R. Beitzel, Creator of “The Bagheads”

DR Beitzel is a cartoonist, creative producer, and Pennsylvania fellow living a NYC dream. His day job is playing video games in a Times Square skyscraper; his evenings are occupied writing funnies and drawing comics for the likes of MAD Magazine, McSweeneys, and his own Phatypus Comics. And like several of his idols before him - Matt Groening, anyone? - he’s now making the petite leap from comics to cartoons. His GO! Cartoon “The Bagheads” is a historically accurate depiction of trash take-out travails with former roommates and his competitive clashes with his older brother. He maintains that the Goat (”Goooat”) is its sole foray into the cartoonish make-believe. He studied politics, so you know that he has 0 capacity to - dare I even suggest it!? - fib.

Sooo, where’d you study animation?

I didn’t! I first went to a community college in central Pennsylvania. It was full of a bunch of cool people - unfortunately not Donald Glover or Alison Brie, but fortunately also not Chevy Chase. Then I went to University of Pittsburgh and studied communications and political science.

Poli- what now?

Yeah... it was the Obama era. I thought “It’s all uphill from here! We’re just riding this political train into the Promised Land!” Reality hit hard. Back then, Jon Favreau was writing Obama’s ‘Yes We Can’ speeches, and I was all riled up. I wanted to be a speechwriter.

At one point a local city councilman asked me to write some remarks for him to use on Martin Luther King Day. I was idealistic and had a head full of steam, so I wrote this fiery, passionate stemwinder that drew on self-sacrifice and righteousness. I even referenced "Letter from Birmingham Jail”. The thing was, it was for a pancake breakfast at a rural Pennsylvania fire hall. So, I'm pretty sure he went out and said something like, "Thanks for coming. Go Eagles”. I was young and naive, and didn't realize that every speech didn't have to be "Ask not what your country can do for you ..."

When did you decide to NOT work in politics?

When I met a real life politician. (I laugh) No, really! He was a hometown representative - I’m from the Pennsylvania boonies. And he was a Republican, which was fine; I was just looking for a foot in the door. But when he found out I wasn’t, he asked me if I was a double agent. Like he actually suspected me of being in cahoots with the Dems to get dirt on him! So weird. And then finally, it came down to either an unpaid internship with a politician or a paid gig without a politician, so I chose to get paid.

Chasing that dollar. What was the paid gig?

I started out as a freelance editor for fashion and fitness blogs. The biggest perk - and irony - was that I was working in sweatpants from my couch. I got jobs at some TV and radio stations. At the end of college, I did do one unpaid internship, which was the best free work I ever did. It was at WQED, the PBS affiliate in Pittsburgh where Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was filmed back in the day. They still had a bunch of the sets just hanging around the hallways - and I even got to meet Mr. McFeely, who was exactly as nice as you’d hope. Eventually, I decided to leave Pennsylvania and move to New York, probably for the cheap rent. And I’ve been here ever since, working with mobile games. I even got to visit the old MAD Magazine office when I did a comic with them. It was covered in original art from some of the all-time greats.

What kinda stuff have you done for MAD Mag and others?

For MAD, I did a comic parody called “Captain Red America”. He’s like Captain America but only represents conservative states, so a lot of his enemies are things he doesn’t actually believe in. So, when he fights the super villain Climate Change, Cap can’t fight back because he doesn’t believe in climate change, so it just beats him up. I also did some writing for McSweeneys. They have some of the funniest stuff published anywhere, and I always wanted to write for them. I love doing comics, too, because if I have an idea, I can just put it out there—there aren’t really stakeholders involved. Recently, I just finished a Valentines comic for Bushwick Daily, a local Brooklyn blog, about the types of people you meet on Tinder.

How was transplanting to NYC - did you always want to move there?

Ehhh… I’m one of those unwilling New Yorkers who loves to hate it. The city has its upsides; it’s the best comedy scene. When I first arrived I joined UCB, which I think is mandatory when you move to New York - they just issue you a membership with your MetroCard. I always brag that I got to see Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson perform their Broad City stage show before it became a TV show. I love that community, and part of me wishes I’d have stuck with it longer, but I was getting pulled in a bunch of different directions, including a new job.

Oh yeah? Where at?

At Nickelodeon! I got the opportunity very randomly, about a month after I arrived. My (soon-to-be) boss called two people in for interviews, and I guess all that theatrical training from UCB paid off, because I was able to fake being a functional person long enough for her to hire me. It’s a really fun place to work: talented artists, toys everywhere, and sometimes wide-eyed kids are touring the office or testing games for us and you remember what we’re all doing there. The downside is that we’re in Times Square, so when I venture into the street I’m guaranteed to get a face-full of armpit. But playing video games is part of my job - I produce apps and games related to Nick shows.

That is the Dream. What’s your favorite game you’ve worked on?

Probably TMNT: Legends. We had a tremendous team of real fans, and the game looks great. Plus, I got to go visit Montreal where the team is based. I highly recommend that everyone spend years developing a game with a blockbuster studio, so you can visit, too.

Did you choose the cartoon life, or did the cartoon life choose you?

Wow, I really need to get “Cartoon Life” tattooed across my stomach. It was mutual selection. As a kid, I’d go to my grandma’s house and draw through all the paper she had. I looked up to Sergio Aragones of MAD. I was always drawing in the margins of the handouts at church - that’s the only way I’d sit still. But in high school, I stopped drawing for a bit - I guess I was partying too much, or maybe I just lost all my pencils in one of my oversized neon Tommy Hilfiger jackets. Then, I got back into it in college, drawing editorial comics at my school newspapers. I get inspired by people like Matt Groening. He was grinding out “Life in Hell” for like 40 years - well after he became a TV tycoon with The Simpsons and Futurama - just for the love of it.

How did you come to pitch for GO! Cartoons?

Just a random Google search, looking for places to send some stuff. I only barely met the deadline. I put together a thumbnail pitch and sent it on in.

Did “The Bagheads” change much from pitch through production?

The core story was always a brother and sister arguing over trash take-out. But it fluctuated in length quite a bit. There were a lot parts I added and then we condensed or cut out. There were intros, flashbacks - at some point, probably dragons and ice zombies - a lot did have to be trimmed down. Which was tough, because as you can probably tell, I’m a pretty big blowhard.

Who inspired the Bagheads, and were they always, you know… bag headed?

The Bagheads were always bagheads. As a little kid, I used to doodle baghead people with my brother, who inspired me to start drawing at all. We’d draw the guys from Guns ‘N Roses, but with bags over their heads—I have no idea why, but probably because I was kid who was crappy at drawing and couldn’t draw faces. Anyway, it became a running gag between us, we called them Guns ‘N Baggies. And over the years since, I’d draw those types every now and then -- a muscle baggie, an old baggie, whatever. So when I was getting ready to submit to Frederator, I knew the character’s personalities, but I didn’t know their appearances. So I reached into my childhood and pulled out the Bagheads.

What do you enjoy the most about Elbow and Artemis?

Well, what I enjoyed most about the short in general was working with so many talented people to bring it to life. I gotta give a big shout out to Eric, Kelsey, Michelle, JoJo, Sylvia, Paul, Bill, Kevin, Stephen, our cast and everyone else at Frederator and Salami Studios who made this happen. I did not do this alone - nowhere near it.

As for Artemis and Elbow, I’ve always liked duos with friendly antagonism, like Ren and Stimpy, Bugs and Daffy. Those good-natured conflicts where you’re kinda buddies, but you’re also kinda at each other’s throat. I like that Artemis and Elbow’s personalities create conflict: she’s hyper-competitive, he’s lazy. And then there’s their poor clueless dad, who’s working too much and constantly worried about the safety of his kids but doesn’t realize the biggest danger to them is each other. Those relationships can serve up a lot of fun, simple stories.

What inspired Nuke Man Jones, who’s still pulling off the eternal dunk as we speak?

Harlem Globe Trotters, for sure. They basically have superpowers. I was really looking for things that Elbow might see at a high altitude and I wanted something silly. Nuke Man is stuck up there in Earth’s orbit now, cursed to never complete that dunk like some Sisyphean baller fate.

The billion dollar question: do the Bagheads have bags for heads, or are they wearing bags over regular people heads?

Ya know, I’m gonna opt not to answer that one. The question of the bags can remain an unanswered mystery if it gets a series. It’ll be like The Leftovers for kids.

How about some favorite cartoons?

I mean, my Top 10 would just be The Simpsons, Seasons 1 through 10: that’s my all-time favorite TV, right there. South Park can’t get enough love—those guys have turned out classic after classic, and they’re the smartest gross-out humor in history. Looney Tunes, Ren & Stimpy, Beavis and Butthead - Mike Judge is a genius. Jim Henson and The Muppets, even though it’s not a cartoon; puppets count, right? MAD Magazine stuff like Sergio Aragones features or “Spy vs. Spy,” which was an inspiration for this Bagheads short.

I’m also really inspired by old school newspaper comics. It breaks my heart that they’re disappearing. Calvin and Hobbes is gorgeous and the most inspiring thing to me. I just read the entire series again, and it’s as good as ever. I appreciate that Bill Watterson refused all the licensing and merch deals people wanted to make for it. I read once that he left something like $400 million on the table.

That’s amazing.

Yeah. Once, I made a parody album cover for a local comic shop’s art show, and I made one based off of Notorious BIG’s “Ready to Die” cover: Notorious HOB’s “Ready to Live”. People wanted prints so I started selling them, and then it dawned on me that I was breaking the spirit of Watterson’s anti-commercial stance. So I stopped selling them, and just told people, “Sorry, they’re gone!”

What do you like to do outside of your work*? (*everybody else’s play)

I like to connect with my inner hillbilly - errr, inner hippie - whatever it is. I go to the beach and state parks pretty often. And I love stand-up: I just saw Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Jeff Ross and Kevin Hart at Radio City Music Hall. It was insane.

What are you working on now?

At the moment, I’m investing all my resources in trying to score “Black Panther” tickets. Otherwise, I'm working on a musical animated series idea with two musician friends, Jeff and Matt. It's really cool and is somewhere between Hamilton and Freaks & Geeks. I'm also working on a comic strip about animals in a post-human world. It's really cartoony, except the president is a photo-realistic opossum whose speeches are just incoherent, ear-piercing screeches. I'm not sure where that falls on the fiction/non-fiction spectrum. So much for giving up politics!

youtube

Great talking with you D.R., thanks for the interview! Looking forward to all of your future endeavors. And I’ll be sure to vote for you if you ever return to politics / being a spy for those wily Pennsylvania Dems.

Everybody: keep up with Phatypus Comics on Facebook and Instagram, @phatypus! And here on Tumblr: @phatypuscomics

- Cooper

#The Frederator Interview #frederator #frederator studios #go! cartoons #interview #cartoon #comic #animation #comics #cartoons #new cartoon #The Bagheads #phatypus #phatypus comics #DR Beitzel

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siva3155 · 5 years

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300+ TOP PostgreSQL Interview Questions and Answers

PostgreSQL Interview Questions for freshers experienced :-

1.What is postgresql? PostgreSQL is a most advance open source database system. PostgreSQL is an object Oriented Relational Database Management System (ORDBMS). PostgreSQL source code is available free of charge and it is not controlled by any corporation. 2.What are different advantages of Postgresql? Following are the advantages of postgresql : Reliable Stable Open source Extensible Easy to learn Cross Platform Designed for High Volume Environments Flexible Better Support 3.What are different features of Postgresql? Following are some features of Postgresql : Object relational database Extensibility and support for SQL Database validation and flexible API Procedural languages and MVCC Client server and WAL. 4.What is maximum size of table in postgresql? The postgresql has maximum size of table is 32TB. 5.What is the option that can be used in PostgreSQL to make transactions see rows affected in previous parts of the transaction? The SQL standard defines four levels of transaction isolation in terms of three phenomena that must be prevented between concurrent transactions. These undesirable phenomena are: Dirty read : A transaction reads data written by a concurrent uncommitted transaction. Nonrepeatable read : A transaction re-reads data it has previously read and finds that data has been modified by another transaction (that committed since the initial read). Phantom read : A transaction re-executes a query returning a set of rows that satisfy a search condition and finds that the set of rows satisfying the condition has changed due to another recently-committed transaction. 6.Explain Multi Version concurrency control. Multi version concurrency control or MVCC is used to avoid unnecessary locking of the database. This removes the time lag for the user to log into his database. This feature or time lag occurs when some one else is on the content. All the transactions are kept as a record. 7.How the stats updated in Postgresql? To update statistics in PostgreSQL explicit ‘vacuum’ call is made. Hope you know the method of doing this. If not let us know and we would help you.Vacuum with the option Analyze is used to update statistics in Postgresql VACUUM ANALYZE ; is the syntax. 8.What is write ahead logging in Postgresql? This feature increases the reliability of the database by logging changes before any changes or updations to the data base. This provides log of database incase of a database crash. This helps to start the work from the point it was discontinued. 9.How to start database server in postgresql? /usr/local/etc/rc.d/010.pgsql.sh start /usr/local/etc/rc.d/postgresql start 10.How to stop database server in postgresql? /usr/local/etc/rc.d/010.pgsql.sh stop /usr/local/etc/rc.d/postgresql stop

PostgreSQL Interview Questions 11.Which different languages are supported by postgresql? Some of the languages which PostgreSQL supports are as follows: It supports a language of its own known as PL/pgSQL and it supports internal procedural languages. Pl/pgSQL can be compared to oracle, PL/SQL, etc. Languages such as Perl, Python, TCL can be used as embedded languages. 12.What is purpose of overlay function in Postgresql? Overlay functions purpose is to replace substring from a specified position to a specified position. Example: Select Overlay(‘www.complexpql.com’ Placing ‘sql’ From 12 For 3) “Overlay Example” /* Result */ Overlay Example ————— www.complexsql.com 12.What is String_to_array function in postgresql? This function used to convert the specified string in to array.This functions splits a string to an array provided the delimeter is supplied. It returns an array. Syntax: String_To_Array(String,delimeter) e.g. Select String_To_Array(‘Postgresql is cool language’,’ ‘) /* Result */ string_to_array —————- {Postgresql,is,cool,language} 13.Explain about command Enable debug. This command is used for enabling compilation of all libraries and applications. This process generally slows down the system and it also increases the binary file size. Debugging symbols are present which can assist developers in noticing bugs and problems associated with their script. 14.Explain about functions in Postgresql. Functions are important because they help the code to be executed on the server. Some of the languages which can program functions for efficient use are PL/pgSQL which is the native language of PostgreSQL. Scripting languages are supported by many languages such as PHP, Perl, Python, etc. PL/R a statistical language can also be used. 15.How to find version of postgresql? To find out the version in postgresql use following command : select version(); 16.Which are different type of indexes in postgresql? There are built in functions such as B-tree, hash table, and GIST indices can be used or users can define their own indices. PostgreSQL can scan the index backwards. Expression index could be created with the result of an expression. Partial index created with addition of WHERE clause. 17.How to select first 10 records in postgresql? User needs to use the limit clause to select first n records in postgresql. Select * from tablename limit 10; 18.How to calculate cube root in postgresql? To calculate the Cuberoot use ||/ operator. Example: e.g. Select ||/ 16 “CubeRoot of 16” Result: CubeRoot of 16 —————- 2.5 19.What are Triggers in postgresql? By SQL query you can trigger an event. Triggers can be activated with the help of INSERT and UPDATE queries. These can be attached to tables. Triggers more than one can be triggered alphabetically. These triggers have the capability to invoke functions from other languages. 20.Which are different datatypes of Postgresql? There are different new datatypes supported by postgresql.Following are those datatypes : Arbitrary precision numeric’s Geometric primitives Arrays XML etc Users can create their own indexes and make them indexed. 21.Which are different database administration tools used in Postgresql? There are various data administration tools they are Psql Pgadmin Phppgadmin Most of these tools are front end administration tools and web based interfaces. Out of these phppgadmin is the most popular one. 22.What is pgadmin?Explain.(100% asked Postgresql Interview Questions ) Pgadmin forms a graphical front end administration tool. This feature is available under free software released under Artistic License. Pgadmin iii is the new database administration tool released under artistic license. 23.How to create database in postgresql? Creating a database is the primary step in creating a database. A command $createdb newdatabasedb. CREATE DATABASE This creates a new database and a message displays CREATE DATABASE which indicates that the creation of the database was successful. 24.What is Write ahead log in postgresql? write-ahead log (WAL), means it always writes the transactions to the log following with writing the modified pages to the disk to maintain the transaction ACID properties. 25.Explain about tokens in postgresql? Tokens are also known to contain several special character symbols. It can be considered as keyword, constant, identifier and quoted identifier. Keywords include pre defined SQL meanings and SQL commands. Variable names such as tables, columns, etc are represented by identifiers. These are some bery important postgresql interview questions.Hope you like this article of Postgresql Interview Questions and dont forget to comment in comment section.These postgresql interview questions are really helpful to users. 26. Explain history of postgresql. Here In this article we will discuss History Of Postgresql in detail.In MAC OS Postgresql is default database.Michel Stonebraker is Father of Postgresql who has started Post Ingres project for supporting Contemporary Database systems.PostgreSQL’s developers pronounce PostgreSQL as It is abbreviated as Postgres because of ubiquitous support for the SQL Standard among most relational databases.PostgreSQL, originally called Postgres, was created at UCB by a computer science professor named Michael Stonebraker, who went on to become the CTO of Informix Corporation. Stonebraker started Postgres in 1986 as a followup project to its predecessor, Ingres, now owned by Computer Associates. The name Postgres thus plays off of its predecessor (as in “after Ingres”). Ingres, developed from 1977 to 1985, had been an exercise in creating a database system according to classic RDBMS theory. Postgres, developed between 1986-1994, was a project meant to break new ground in database concepts such as exploration of “object relational” technologies.An enterprise class database, PostgreSQL boasts sophisticated features such as Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC), point in time recovery, tablespaces, asynchronous replication, nested transactions (savepoints), online/hot backups, a sophisticated query planner/optimizer, and write ahead logging for fault tolerance. PostgreSQL Questions and Answers Pdf Download Read the full article

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un-ness-essary · 6 years

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Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction (2nd Edition) - eBook

Check out https://duranbooks.net/shop/reinforcement-learning-an-introduction-2nd-edition-ebook/

Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction (2nd Edition) - eBook

The significantly expanded and updated new 2nd edition of a widely used textbook on reinforcement learning, one of the most active research areas in artificial intelligence. Reinforcement learning, one of the most active research areas in artificial intelligence, is a computational approach to learning whereby an agent tries to maximize the total amount of reward it receives while interacting with a complex, uncertain environment. In Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction 2nd edition PDF, Richard Sutton and Andrew Barto provide a simple and clear simple account of the field’s key ideas and algorithms. This 2nd edition has been significantly updated and expanded, presenting new topics and updating coverage of other topics.

– Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction (2nd Edition) PDF – Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning series

Like the 1st edition, this 2nd edition focuses on core online learning algorithms, with the more math material set off in shaded boxes.

Part 1 covers as much of reinforcement learning as possible without going beyond the tabular case for which exact solutions can be found. Many algorithms presented in this part are new to the 2nd edition, including Expected Sarsa, UCB, and Double Learning.

Part 2 extends these ideas to function approximation, with new sections on such topics as artificial neural networks and the Fourier basis, and offers expanded treatment of off-policy learning and policy-gradient methods.

Part 3 has new chapters on reinforcement learning’s relationships to neuroscience and psychology, as well as an updated case-studies chapter including AlphaGo and AlphaGo Zero, Atari game playing, and IBM Watson’s wagering strategy. The final chapter discusses the future societal impacts of reinforcement learning.

Reviews

“Still the seminal textbook on reinforcement learning – the increasingly important technique that underlies many of the most advanced AI systems today. Required reading for anyone seriously interested in the science of AI!” ― Demis Hassabis, Cofounder and CEO, DeepMind

“This is a groundbreaking work, dealing with a subject that you would have expected to have been sorted out right at the start of AI… This isn’t a simple theory but many of the ideas and methods are practically useful and if you have an interest in neural networks or learning systems then you need to study this ebook for the 6 months it deserves!” ― Mike James, Computer Shopper, November 1998

“This ebook is the bible of reinforcement learning, and the new 2nd edition is particularly timely given the burgeoning activity in the field. No one with an interest in the problem of learning to act – researcher, practitioner, student, or curious nonspecialist – should be without it.” ― Professor of Computer Science, University of Washington, and author of The Master Algorithm

“I recommend Sutton and Barto’s new edition of Reinforcement Learning to anybody who wants to learn about this increasingly important family of machine learning methods. This second edition expands on the popular first edition, covering today’s key algorithms and theory, illustrating these concepts using real-world applications that range from learning to control robots, to learning to defeat the human world-champion Go player, and discussing fundamental connections between these computer algorithms and research on human learning from psychology and neuroscience.” ― Tom Mitchell, Professor of Computer Science, Carnegie-Mellon University

“The Reinforcement Learning 2nd edition (PDF) by Sutton and Barto comes at just the right time. The appetite for reinforcement learning among machine learning researchers has never been stronger, as the field has been moving tremendously in the last 20 years. If you want to fully understand the fundamentals of learning agents, this is the textbook to go to and get started with. It has been extended with modern developments in deep reinforcement learning while extending the scholarly history of the field to modern days. I will certainly recommend it to all my college students and the many other graduate students and researchers who want to get the appropriate context behind the current excitement for RL.” ― Yoshua Bengio, Professor of Computer Science and Operations Research, University of Montreal

“Generations of reinforcement learning researchers grew up and were inspired by the 1st edition of Sutton and Barto’s ebook. The 2nd edition is guaranteed to please previous and new readers: while the new edition significantly expands the range of topics covered (new topics covered include artificial neural networks, Monte-Carlo tree search, average reward maximization, and a chapter on classic and new applications), thus increasing breadth, the authors also managed to increase the depth of the presentation by using cleaner notation and disentangling various aspects of this immense topic. At the same time, the new edition retains the simplicity and directness of explanations, thus retaining the great accessibility of the book to readers of all kinds of backgrounds. A fantastic ebook that I wholeheartedly recommend those interested in using, developing, or understanding reinforcement learning.” ― Csaba Szepesvari, Research Scientist at DeepMind and Professor of Computer Science, University of Alberta

NOTE: THIS PRODUCT ONLY INCLUDES THE REINFORCEMENT LEARNING: AN INTRODUCTION 2ND EDITION PDF. NO ONLINE ACCESS OR CODES ARE INCLUDED IN THIS.

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capsunm · 7 years

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Online Resources for Latin and Ancient Greek

by Nina Raby, CAPS Latin & Greek Tutor

Here are some free online resources to help you with grammar concepts, find works to read in Latin and Ancient Greek, and pursue independent interests. Remember that all of these resources are tools that have proper uses (always make sure you can parse or find a word before letting a word study tool do it for you!). If you are having trouble figuring out how best to use one of these resources we would love to work together with you here at CAPS to get the most out of these really awesome aids. Also, the world of Digital Humanities in Classics is growing rapidly, so if you find a particular aspect of one of these interesting it might be something you could pursue further!

Greek

Source

Ancient Lives Project: Help transcribe fragments from the Oxyrinchus Papyri online!

Online Athenaze Exercises: vocab, grammar, and reading help, and graffiti puzzle.

UCB Classics Ancient Greek Help: from a reputable source (Berkeley and Mastronarde), has study tools, tutorials, flashcards and more.

Nifty Greek: Super awesome Greek Grammar handouts made by Helma Dik, associate professor of Classics at the University of Chicago.

Latin

Source

The Latin Library: A collection of works by Latin authors, also sometimes has grammar resources.

Numen-The Latin Lexicon: Has Lewis Grammar and Lewis and Short dictionary, study tools, flashcards, a word study tool (more comprehensive than Perseus), and an English to Latin Dictionary.

Quasilium: this is an online Latin study group where you can interact with other Latin student users on a forum to ask questions, or have discussions.

Both

Perseus: A digitized collection of Ancient Greek and Latin texts and translations, as well as other tools, like word search capabilities, and word study tools. See also Perseus under PhiloLogic by the University of Chicago if Perseus doesn’t have what you’re looking for. Also be careful to use the vocabulary tool ethically and by clicking on the Middle-Liddell or LSJ link to be sure the entry is correct.

Logeion: Online dictionary. For Greek words you need to update your settings on your computer so that you have a Greek polytonic keyboard. To learn to use the keyboard, come to CAPS or Google a picture of one and print it out. Also useful because it will give you the entries from multiple dictionaries, sometimes in different languages than English (e.g. the DGE, a Spanish-Ancient Greek Dictionary), but also includes online versions of reputable dictionaries (LSJ, Middle-Liddell, Lewis and Short, etc.).

Williams Classics Online Resources: a resource list with websites for online dictionaries, information on textual transmission, bibliographies, history, archaeology, grammar, and more.

Textkit: Online top 10 Greek and Latin grammar books, readers, and answer keys.

Buzzfeed and Pinterest: These two maybe aren’t the first places to go but they often have fun classics related quizzes, articles, resources for art projects (like templates for Roman and Greek paper dolls, and making black figure amphorae), and graphic aids for learning prepositions or aspect, etc. Check them out and let us know what cool things you find!

I hope you find these useful or that they lead you to other helpful resources. Again feel free to use this as a working list; print it out, bookmark it, highlight the resources you like, add new ones you find, and let us know at CAPS if there are any changes you would make to the list! Also always make sure to double-check any information you get from these, and, again, use them ethically and mindfully, so that these can help you be an independent and efficient reader of Latin and Greek texts!

Nina Raby is a senior Classics and History major, and has been the Latin and Greek tutor at CAPS for four semesters. Nina loves to read Ovid’s work, and she wrote her senior thesis on Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Vergil’s Aeneid. She will enter into a PhD program in 2017 at the University of Virginia, with a plan to work on Latin epic poetry.

#latin #ancient greek #greek #classics #classical studies #language #UNM #CAPS

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risingpakistan · 12 years

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Kahuta

Kahuta is a census-designated town and tehsil in the Rawalpindi District of Punjab Province, Pakistan. The population of the Kahuta Tehsil is approximately 160,000 at the 2008 census. Kahuta is the home to the Kahuta Research Laboratories (KRL) which was founded to undertake the Kahuta Project as part of the atomic bomb project. Before the Kahuta Project, the site was occupied by retired officers of Pakistan Armed Forces and contained a small public community, including a private high school. History The Punjab region became predominantly Muslim due to missionary Sufi saints whose dargahs dot the landscape of Punjab region. The predominantly Muslim population supported Muslim League and Pakistan Movement. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, Muslim refugees settled in the area. Kahuta was a small incorporated village until the 1970s when KRL was constructed by the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers under Engineering officer Major-General Zahid Ali Akbar, Director of Project-706. During 1960s and 1970s, Kahuta was inhabited by retired officers of the Pakistan Armed Forces. In 1970s, the Ministry of Defence was tasked by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to search for a remote location for carrying out atomic and weapon-testing experiments for the integrated atomic bomb project in 1976. The residents of Kahuta were paid handsomely and were re-located in populated cities of Pakistan. The Uranium Coordination Board (UCB) headed by Ghulam Ishaq Khan financed the reconstruction of the site. Major-General Zahid Ali Akbar and later completed the drawings, surveying and measured the area aerially. Within the week, the whole site was acquired by the Ministry of Defence, and the army truckloads, heavy engineering vehicles arrived the next day to re-built the site. All incoming materials and research equipment were labeled as common items and engineering tools to conceal the true nature of their purpose. Scientists and engineers working and living in Kahuta were censored by the senior military officials. Soon, the site was classified and abandoned for public with only few allowed to resides. The Engineering Research Laboratories (now KRL) was established by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as a research government national facility under the Ministry of Defence. Geography Kahuta is situated in the Himalayan foothills in Rawalpindi District of Pakistan's Punjab Province, approximately 30 km southeast of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. There are many picnic spots like Narar (Narh), Azad Pattan, Tlaitar and Beyore. The area is noted for its wildlife and hunting. Pahari-Potwari is spoken in this region. Kahuta in science Both nationally and internationally, Kahuta is famous for home to the Khan Research Laboratories, one of the largest government national research facility and laboratories. Since 1970s, Kahuta hosted an apex scientific research where atomic experiments were performed under guidance and supervision of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan who served as the chief scientist. In 1984, Abdul Qadeer Khan and the scientists of the Kahuta Research Laboratories allegedly claimed to have conducted a putative nuclear cold-test of an atomic weapon, independently designed by KRL under codename Kahuta Test. However, the Pakistan Atomic Scientists Federation and the Government of Pakistan dismissed the claims made by KRL.

#Zulfikar Ali Bhutto #Punjab Pakistan #Punjab #Project-706 #Pakistan Armed Forces #Pakistan #Kahuta #Ghulam Ishaq Khan

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nezoid · 7 months

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youtube

February 2024 recap:

- "Fitting In" screening/Q&A with Maddie Ziegler & Molly Mcglynn

- The George Lucas Talk Show with Tatiana Maslany, Brendan Hines Rich Sommer and Earl

- Jenny Lewis on Jimmy Kimmel Live

- The Last Improv Show with guest monologist David Cross and Nicole Byer, Bobby Moynihan, Dan Black, Carl Tart, Paul Scheer

- Comedy Pole Show with Morgan Jay, Riki Lindhome, Zainab Johnson Christina Calph, Dane Cook, Tia Jax, Teresa William, Adriana Santos, Aqvadiva

- #searchhistoryucb & Spanish Aqui Presents with Marcy Jarreau, Madeline Walter, Dan Lippert, Jon Mackey, Pam Murphy, Raiza Licea, Oscar Montoya, Carlos Santos, Lou Gonzalez Jr.

- The Last Improv Show with guest monologist Andy Richter and Sasheer Zamata, Dan Black, Jon Gabrus, Sarah Claspell, Paul Welsh, John Gemberling

- The People's Choice Awards - Red Carpet with Adam Sandler, Billie Eilish, Sydney Sweeny, Rachel Ziegler, Tom Hiddleston, America Ferrera, Kylie Minogue, The Cast of Grey's Anatomy, Simu Liu, Natasha Bedingfield, Laverne Cox, Ariana Greenblatt, Heidi Klum, Xochitl Gomez, Whitney Cummings, and more!

-@nightlight_k bday celebration

-Stamptown

-Lots of Tallula and Wednesday (including Tallula’s 16th birthday and Valentines day [Wednesday’s first])

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tvguidancecounselor · 1 year

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TV Guidance Counselor Episode 589: Jason Klamm

May 14-20, 1994

This week Ken welcomes comedian, podcaster and author of the upcoming new book about 90s US Sketch Comedy (which you can and SHOULD purchase at sketchcomedybook.com), Jason Klamm.

Ken and Jason discuss podcasting, not making money with your art, The Vacant Lot, Exit 57, Amy Sedaris, getting turned down by a person's "people", Almost Live, The Bert Fershners, the nicest millionaire you know, Adam McKay, 9 Lives, UCB, Phil Hartman, Newsradio, history being written by the victors, sending flowers, FTD, Mrs. Doubtfire, weird places you got VHS tapes from, Star Trek The Next Generation, Laugh-In, Ruth Buzzi, Nixon, Nick at Nite, shows canceled after one episode, character vs plot, Ken's mean prank phone calls to Joe Piscapoe as a kid, MTV and Nickelodeon interstitials, Jimmy the Cab Driver, Toby Huss' Sinatra covers of 90s alt rock, Baby Jessica, Bob Hope, MacGuyver's Lost Treasure of Atlantis, COPS and the LA riots, terrible people on good shows, SNL, Heather Locklear and Janet Jackson, musical guests, Hee Haw, realizing T2 is the greatest movie ever way too late in life, not being allowed to watch violence as a kid, My Breast, Made for TV Movies, Lexi Alexander, growing up in Germany as a military kid, German kids toys, the final episode ever of In Living Color, Evening Shade, Burt Reynolds, hypernesia, Marylou Henner, Lori Laughlin in a brutal made for TV movie "One of Her Own", Reginald Veljohnson, Bob Newhart, loving Phil Silvers, being a young old man, Rescue 9-11, Clinton's favorite SNL sketches, Billy West, Searching for Grace, Sesame St's 25th Anniversary, Dr. Seus and Jim Henson, thinking you'd be an animator and a puppeteer, Don Blueth, Robert Townsend, Ann-Marie Johnson, Hollywood Shuffle, Rod Serling, the carousel in Bimington NY, TGIF, Sasha Mitchell, Hangin with Mr. Cooper, Todd Oldham, Ken's love of TV pagent shows growing up, the Adventures of Briscoe Country Jr., USA World Premier movies, Ken insulting Judd Nelson, Where on Earth is Carmen San Diego?, complaining about Charles Barkley and Nixon's death.

Check out this episode!

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ethelbertpaul444-blog · 6 years

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How To Separate Good Internet Outrage From The Evil Kind

27 You need to appendage yourself against weaponized old tweets. Not your own tweets, hopefully( though who is familiar with ). We’re talking about how every time you open social media, someone’s outrageous terms are being used against them. Maybe the frequency of that fears you; after all, every one of us is luck certain things we’ve said weren’t timestamped for heaven. Or maybe that pile of resentment excites you; justice relies on testify, so maybe the more attest there is the better the world will get. But take a search past all these maybes and semicolons( we know we expended a lot; we feel fancy today, dealing with this problem ). Look at what’s actually going on with Internet outrage right now. Is all that handwringing the same across the board? Or is some of it intended to break lives only to earn a political sport? On this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Amy Nicholson ( Unspooled) and Andrew Ti ( Yo, Is This Racist ?) for an always-timely look at how you can tell profitable online activism apart from digital hassle. They’ll examine recent disputes from James Gunn to Sarah Jeong to Roseanne Barr. They’ll lay out basic rules of digit enabling you to manage the next hashtag that comes along. And they’ll find a fuller provide answers to all this than Twitter users often can, thanks to the trickery of being human toward one another in more than 280 characters. Footnotes : u> Unspooled( Earwolf ) Yo, Is This Prejudiced?( Earwolf ) Catch a LIVE episode of Yo, Is This Racist ? i> at The Chicago Podcast Festival on November 29 th ! b> tar and feather stage from John Adams ( HBO ) The Reign Of Terror( Wikipedia ) Whataboutery and whataboutism – what’s it all about?( Oxford Dictionaries ) How YouTube and Internet Journalism Destroyed Tom Cruise, Our Last Real Movie Star( LA Weekly ) 8 Famous Political Scandals You Won’t Believe Are Total Lies( Cracked ) Sarah Jeong account on Twitter Sarah Jeong And The Question Of “Context”( The New Yorker ) Andrew Sullivan Can Fuck Right Off( Splinter ) Director James Gunn Apologizes for ‘Offensive’ Old Tweets Joking About Rape, Pedophilia( The Wrap ) Mike Cernovich, Who Got James Gunn Fired Over Rape Tweets, Has History of Rape Tweets( The Wrap ) Guardians of the Galaxy shed obligates support for James Gunn( Polygon ) Disney Stands Firm on James Gunn Not Returning to ‘Guardians of the Galaxy'( Variety ) FACT CHECK: Pizzagate( Snopes.com ) Ted Cruz dumb tweet and double-down Ted Cruz Defends Roy Moore And Criticizes Al Franken In The Same Breath( Huffington Post ) Wendy Molyneux thread on Gunn/ Cernovich Dan Harmon removes Twitter account, apologizes for resurfaced comedy cartoon( Consequence Of Sound ) Michael Ian Black thread on Cernovich Anthony Jeselnik gab response Roseanne Revival Joke Blasted as ‘Belittling’ to Diverse Shows( ScreenRant ) “The New Roseanne Takes Place in Another Dimension, Seriously” by JM McNab( Cracked ) Disney Should Know the Difference Between James Gunn and Roseanne( Vulture ) The Conservative War on Comedy Is Full of Shit( Vice ) The Value Of Public Shaming( Deadspin ) Giving A Guy Who Was Racist Online A Standing Ovation To Own The Libs( Deadspin ) Racism Has Long Surrounded Baseball In Boston( Newsweek ) Disneyland Resort contacts a tentative contract settlement with employees, putting an end to the hot combat that lasted months( LA Times ) In Her Shoes: Spotting Feminism, Cynicism, And Geena Davis At A Walmart Soda Counter In Arkansas( MTV News ) The Time Coca-Cola Got White Elite In Atlanta To Honor Martin Luther King, Jr.( NPR Code Switch ) When Arizona lost the Super Bowl because the state didn’t recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day( The Undefeated ) The Assault on Minority Voting Rights Is Loud and Proud in Georgia( Esquire ) Bari Weiss calling Mark Duplass regret a “struggle session” Bari Weiss calling Lena Dunham justification a “struggle session” Wikipedia article for “struggle session”( a flesh of public humiliation and subjected to torture in Maoist China ) Join us for our next LIVE Cracked Podcast ! It’s happening Saturday, September 15 th at 7pm at the UCB Sunset Theatre in Los Angeles. Alex Schmidt is joined by columnists/ jesters/ fictions Demi Adejuyigbe, Haley Mancini, and Dana Gould for an night of Emmy Awards We Wish Existed. Tickets on sale soon ! i> Subscribe on iTunes li > ul > div > Read more: http :// www.cracked.com/ podcast/ how-to-separate-good-internet-outrage-from-evil-kind http://dailybuzznetwork.com/index.php/2018/08/26/how-to-separate-good-internet-outrage-from-the-evil-kind/

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dainiaolivahm · 7 years

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How Storytelling Turned Dollar Shave Club Into a Billion Dollar-Brand

In July 2016, Unilever shocked the business world. They were purchasing Dollar Shave Club—a startup dreamed up just five years earlier by an improv comedian named Michael Dubin— for $1 billion.

Reporters were baffled. Similar e-commerce subscription startups like Birchbox, Trunk Club, and Stitch Fix had failed to attract anywhere near the same interest. Plus, Dollar Shave Club sold blades that paled in comparison to the high-tech razors that brands Gillette and Schick were famous for. Heck, it didn’t even make its own razors! It just bought them wholesale from manufacturers in China and resold them. The billion-dollar price tag was also five times Dollar Shave Club’s expected 2016 revenue—a near-unprecedented multiple for a retail startup.

So why did Unilever pay such an unprecedented price tag? As forward-thinking analysts began to explain, it wasn’t about revenue. It was about the company’s relationships—with customers, and consumers at large. Relationships that began with possibly the greatest startup launch video of all time.

Dollar Shave Club’s Origin Story

In 1990, a group of comedians that included Amy Poehler, Adam McKay, Ian Roberts, and Horatio Sanz had created an improv group called The Upright Citizen’s Brigade (UCB). Before long, the UCB had its own Comedy Central TV show and served as a talent pipeline to Saturday Night Live. As class offerings expanded, it became the destination for the thousands of young creatives who stumbled out of their college acting classes and into the bright lights of New York City each year.

In the early 2000s, Dollar Shave Club founder Michael Dubin was one of those young creatives. For eight years, he honed his craft at UCB while working in various television and marketing jobs. In December 2010, he found himself at a Christmas party talking to one of his father’s friends. The conversation took an unexpected turn, and before long, the family friend was asking him for help selling 250,000 razors he had acquired from Asia. (We’ve all been there, right?) The conversation would have weirded a lot of people out, but it gave Dubin an idea. What if he started a service that would eliminate the expense and hassle of selling razor blades? What if they just showed up at your door each month for $1 each?

Faced with the challenge of getting the startup off the ground and attracting investors, Dubin knew that he had to speak to men like him. Men who were fed up with a razor monopoly that forced them to pay more than $20 for just a few blades. And so he bet big on what he does best. He created a hilarious video to connect with his target audience and cast himself as the protagonist in the Hero’s Journey of his own brand.

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“Are our blades any good?” Dubin asks in the beginning of the video. “No, our blades are fucking great.”

What follows is 90 seconds of absolute absurdity that nonetheless touts all of the features of Dollar Shave Club’s razors. There’s a toddler shaving a man’s head, polio jokes, a machete, a clumsy bear, a giant American flag, and perhaps the best “make it rain” scene of all time.

The rough cut of the video convinced former Myspace CEO Michael Jones to sign on as Dubin’s partner. When the video was released on March 6, 2012, it went viral. The startup got more than 12,000 orders in the first 48 hours.

What Dollar Shave Club Got Right About Content Creation

Dollar Shave Club’s origin story highlights something powerful: The economics of marketing are changing quickly, with great content as the ultimate currency. As a result, brands that embrace great storytelling can achieve an incredible advantage over their competition.

The principles behind Dubin’s success aren’t new. Companies have always told stories to drive sales. From the very first barters made to the present day, that hasn’t changed. But everything else has. The sheer pace of technological change in how we are able to communicate our stories to each other—from the birth of radio a century ago to the hurricane of social media apps that mark the 2010s—can be daunting for brands.

On one hand, it presents a huge opportunity. Content is being published everywhere, and consumers are now immersed in stories everywhere they go. Per comScore, time spent with digital media tripled between 2010 and 2016. At last count, 65 percent of all time spent with digital media occurred on mobile devices, consumed primarily via social networks. As a result, companies that excel at storytelling can reach their target customers more effectively and at greater scale than traditional advertising ever offered—all at a fraction of the cost.

On the other hand, there’s more content now than ever. At a conference in 2010, Google CEO Eric Schmidt revealed that we create as much information every two days as we did in human history up until 2003, a figure that’s only increased since.

As a result, brands can’t create mediocre content and expect to stand out. Half-baked content simply has little chance of breaking through on social or search.

“There’s not a whole lot of value in writing a decent blog post anymore. [There’s not a lot of value] unless you can be pretty extraordinary,” SEO and content analyst Rand Fishkin, who also founded Moz, told us. “Ask: If they’re searching for an answer to a question, would they rather reach your piece of content than anything else on the internet right now? Unless the answer is a slam dunk, ‘Yes, this is 10 times better than anything else out there,’ I’m not necessarily sure it’s worth publishing.”

But when you do create something amazing that stands out? The results are staggering.

Especially when you keep doing it over time.

Brands can’t create mediocre content and expect to stand out. Click To Tweet How Dollar Shave Club Scaled Its Storytelling

Dubin and Dollar Shave Club continued to crank out hilarious videos that their target audience watched millions of times and shared enthusiastically. One of the best follow-ups, “Let’s Talk about #2,” introduced their new butt wipes product and made more jokes about bears pooping than you ever thought you’d see in a brand video.

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It also started shipping The Bathroom Minutes, a small comic newspaper, with every order. And in late 2015, it launched MEL, one of the most ambitious editorial sites ever launched by a brand.

As Contently managing editor Jordan Teicher wrote in The Content Strategist: “MEL is a great example of how ambitious storytelling can stand out if brands stop trying to play it safe. It’s the only place you can read articles like ‘I Went Shark Fishing and Accidentally Caught a Kilo of Coke’ or watch short documentaries about subjects like former Harvard graduates who become medieval fighters.”

In total, these videos helped build an incredibly strong brand and lasting relationships with consumers. Moreover, they helped Dollar Shave Club achieve a financial exit that seemed impossible just a few years before.

As David Pakman, a partner at Venrock and an early investor in Dollar Shave Club, explained: “There are two things that drive multiples: the financial metrics and the story.”

As Dollar Shave Club proved, the right story can make those financial metrics look five times as good.

This is an excerpt from the Amazon #1 New Release, The Storytelling Edge: How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming Into the Void, and Make People Love You by Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow. Order it today to take advantage of some awesome bonuses, and sign up for the free storytelling course based off the book.

This post is part of a paid sponsorship between Contently and Convince & Convert.

http://ift.tt/2o2R3Io

#How Storytelling Turned Dollar Shave Club Into a Billion Dollar-Brand

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byronheeutgm · 7 years

Text

How Storytelling Turned Dollar Shave Club Into a Billion Dollar-Brand

In July 2016, Unilever shocked the business world. They were purchasing Dollar Shave Club—a startup dreamed up just five years earlier by an improv comedian named Michael Dubin— for $1 billion.

Dollar Shave Club’s Origin Story

youtube

“Are our blades any good?” Dubin asks in the beginning of the video. “No, our blades are fucking great.”

What Dollar Shave Club Got Right About Content Creation

As a result, brands can’t create mediocre content and expect to stand out. Half-baked content simply has little chance of breaking through on social or search.

But when you do create something amazing that stands out? The results are staggering.

Especially when you keep doing it over time.

Brands can’t create mediocre content and expect to stand out. Click To Tweet How Dollar Shave Club Scaled Its Storytelling

youtube

It also started shipping The Bathroom Minutes, a small comic newspaper, with every order. And in late 2015, it launched MEL, one of the most ambitious editorial sites ever launched by a brand.

As David Pakman, a partner at Venrock and an early investor in Dollar Shave Club, explained: “There are two things that drive multiples: the financial metrics and the story.”

As Dollar Shave Club proved, the right story can make those financial metrics look five times as good.

This post is part of a paid sponsorship between Contently and Convince & Convert.

http://ift.tt/2o2R3Io

#How Storytelling Turned Dollar Shave Club Into a Billion Dollar-Brand

0 notes

conniecogeie · 7 years

Text

How Storytelling Turned Dollar Shave Club Into a Billion Dollar-Brand

In July 2016, Unilever shocked the business world. They were purchasing Dollar Shave Club—a startup dreamed up just five years earlier by an improv comedian named Michael Dubin— for $1 billion.

Dollar Shave Club’s Origin Story

youtube

“Are our blades any good?” Dubin asks in the beginning of the video. “No, our blades are fucking great.”

What Dollar Shave Club Got Right About Content Creation

As a result, brands can’t create mediocre content and expect to stand out. Half-baked content simply has little chance of breaking through on social or search.

But when you do create something amazing that stands out? The results are staggering.

Especially when you keep doing it over time.

Brands can’t create mediocre content and expect to stand out. Click To Tweet How Dollar Shave Club Scaled Its Storytelling

youtube

It also started shipping The Bathroom Minutes, a small comic newspaper, with every order. And in late 2015, it launched MEL, one of the most ambitious editorial sites ever launched by a brand.

As David Pakman, a partner at Venrock and an early investor in Dollar Shave Club, explained: “There are two things that drive multiples: the financial metrics and the story.”

As Dollar Shave Club proved, the right story can make those financial metrics look five times as good.

This post is part of a paid sponsorship between Contently and Convince & Convert.

http://ift.tt/2o2R3Io

#How Storytelling Turned Dollar Shave Club Into a Billion Dollar-Brand

0 notes

fairchildlingpo1 · 7 years

Text

How Storytelling Turned Dollar Shave Club Into a Billion Dollar-Brand

In July 2016, Unilever shocked the business world. They were purchasing Dollar Shave Club—a startup dreamed up just five years earlier by an improv comedian named Michael Dubin— for $1 billion.

Dollar Shave Club’s Origin Story

youtube

“Are our blades any good?” Dubin asks in the beginning of the video. “No, our blades are fucking great.”

What Dollar Shave Club Got Right About Content Creation

As a result, brands can’t create mediocre content and expect to stand out. Half-baked content simply has little chance of breaking through on social or search.

But when you do create something amazing that stands out? The results are staggering.

Especially when you keep doing it over time.

Brands can’t create mediocre content and expect to stand out. Click To Tweet How Dollar Shave Club Scaled Its Storytelling

youtube

It also started shipping The Bathroom Minutes, a small comic newspaper, with every order. And in late 2015, it launched MEL, one of the most ambitious editorial sites ever launched by a brand.

As David Pakman, a partner at Venrock and an early investor in Dollar Shave Club, explained: “There are two things that drive multiples: the financial metrics and the story.”

As Dollar Shave Club proved, the right story can make those financial metrics look five times as good.

This post is part of a paid sponsorship between Contently and Convince & Convert.

http://ift.tt/2o2R3Io

#How Storytelling Turned Dollar Shave Club Into a Billion Dollar-Brand

0 notes